I don’t know about you, but even given Sarah’s amazing manner, I still finished up the last book feeling more than a little overwhelmed – and this coming from someone who has already been off of gluten for more than 3 years and grains for several months.  I kind was left feeling like, “Great; I can have a bunch of dry, bare meat every day.”  There’s a nice, long list of foods that are allowed, but what the heck does one do with them?  It seems like every recipe I come across takes something off-limits: tomatoes, or eggs, or something.

And that’s where The Paleo Approach Cookbook comes in.  Every recipe in it is fully “legal.” Yay!

Now, I’ll be honest; I think you have to be something of a “foodie” to really derive the full benefit from this book.  There’s a lot of stuff in here that I just think of as “weird” – and I’m already been-eating-a-whole-foods-diet-for-fifteen-plus-years-and-frequent-the-international-grocery weird.  Most people – you know, those of you who don’t have the taste buds of a four-year-old – probably will appreciate a lot more of them.  But even if you skipped every main dish recipe, there’s still a lot here.

There’s a bit of introductory material that’s just foundational – the food lists, some substitutions and essential basic cooking information, etc.  And there are six weeks of complete menus (including breakfast, lunch, and dinner) with shopping lists.  (They’re designed for about 2 people, so if you have a larger family, you’ll need to multiply.)

And then the recipes begin.  Of course there are dozens of main dish options – using a wide variety of base proteins.  There’s also a whole section of basics (what I call “building blocks” – the things you make to use as pieces of other things, like broth or seasoning mixes).  This is invaluable.  Really.  All by itself it would be worth buying if you’re just getting started with this.

And there are a handful of desserts – ‘though I’m sorry; nothing holds a candle to chocolate – and lots of side dish options.  I found it particularly helpful to have a variety of options for cooking vegetables we’re not accustomed to.  We have a whole family of vegetable-haters.  It’s sad, but true.  We have our favorites: broccoli, carrots, and green beans top the list, and mama loves the versatility of cauliflower.  But we all hate greens.  No one cares for squash – of any variety.  Brussels sprouts get the thumbs-down.  You get the idea.  I would like to like vegetables; I just don’t.  And neither do my husband or kids.  But I know that a lot of the reason for that is that we haven’t found the “right” way to cook some of them yet, so I keep experimenting.

One thing I appreciate about the veggies here is the green vegetables aren’t cooked into greyish mush.  I mean, really, there is little that’s less appetizing than a pile of spinach cooked into what looks like a puddle of pond scum.  But the veggies in these pictures are all vibrantly green – and crisp!  They’re not cooked into oblivion.  So I decided to start out by trying the Bacon-Braised Brussels Sprouts.  Because bacon makes everything better, right?

Now, I should preface this by saying that I am not all-out on this diet yet.  I haven’t had a chance to do my “big grocery shop” since getting the book, so I’m just doing my best right now to avoid the things I already know do not go well with me, and to begin to chip away at building up a whole new repertoire of recipes.  (Hint: Go looking for sauces.  A couple of decent sauces should go a long way toward making a seemingly endless stream of bunless burgers more bearable.  At least they won’t be naked burgers.)  That means I kind of cheated here, in terms of diet, but kept the spirit of the recipe, so we should be able to get a feel for whether it works for us.

I used turkey bacon (I use turkey bacon because I don’t eat pork, not because of calorie count), and it has less fat, so I added about a tablespoon of butter. Which is also taboo, but it’s the one bit of dairy my nutritionist said to not cut out unless I absolutely have to, because it has gut-healing properties, and it doesn’t seem to bother me, so it’s the one cheat I honestly expect to keep.  And I used broth powder.  I know, awful.  But I can never seem to keep us in broth.  It only takes on meal to wipe it out. Anyway, those were my tweaks – which, yeah, totally blow it as far as the diet it concerned, but at this point I only cared about finding out whether the recipe should stay on our menu.

Fresh brussels sprouts were rinsed well, soaked for a few minutes in apple cider vinegar splashed into a bowl of water (to help get out any dirt hiding between the leaves, etc.) and rinsed again. Then, because they vary so much in size:

…I cut the little ones in half and the really big ones into quarters.

And into the pan with the bacon they went.

Unfortunately, I kinda stink at stovetop cooking, and a recipe that specifies to cook something until it starts to stick and then do something with it is probably not the best match for me.  So I got the outsides a bit overdone and they were still pretty underdone in the middles.  But definitely edible, flavor-wise.   Next time I just need to cook them better – but they were good enough to try for a next time, and that’s saying something.

The nutrition information on these recipes is extensive.  I mean, not just your typical calories and sugars, but how much of which vitamins, and even a breakdown of which amino acids are in each one.  Real nutrition information.

At the very end of the book are some amazing pull-outs that repeat some of the information that’s handy to have – well, on hand.  The menus are all there, as well as the label-reading “cheat sheets” for helping identify hidden gluten, corn, soy, etc.

There’s even a visual recipe index – as in, with thumbnail images of each recipe.

It’s a pretty amazing book!

Unlike many of my favorite cookbooks, I wouldn’t recommend this one for everyone – simply because not everyone needs it.  But if you do, if you’re trying to tackle the paleo immune protocol, I don’t believe you’ll be disappointed.