The Paleo Approach Cookbook by Sarah Ballantyne, PhD

I was so excited to have received a review copy of Sarah Ballantyne's The Paleo Approach Cookbook.  This 400+ page cookbook very well may be the bible of AIP cooking.  

The first hundred pages are filled with information regarding what foods are included in autoimmune protocol cooking, cooking methods, food storage, tools, meal plans and shopping lists.  Amazing. Following that are hundreds of pages of recipes that are cataloged in the table of contents and a lovely pictorial recipe index.  The book also has very detailed written index.  Love.  

Apple Chicken Sausage from The Paleo Approach Cookbook

The last recipe I'm going to review from Sarah Ballantyne's The Paleo Approach Cookbook before doing my summary book review is her Apple Chicken Sausage.  Breakfast anyone?  The Paleo Approach has quite a selection of sausage recipes.  Sarah gives great instructions for not only making the sausage but also how to make links.  If anything, the book is worth purchasing to see the picture of Sarah making sausage links.  One day, when I have time and am feeling adventurous, I'll make links, but for this review, I decided to make patties.  

I gathered my ingredients and got to work. I decided to make a half batch as I am just one person even if I freeze them.  

Sweet Potato Linguine with Bolognese Sauce from The Paleo Approach Cookbook

Happy Thanksgiving, everyone!  While all the other food blogs in the world are treating you with ways to make your Thanksgiving dinner that much better, I will offer something entirely different! Rebel!  This week, I'll get back to the Paleo Approach Cookbook.  

I must admit that it was the pretty picture of this recipe for Sarah Ballantyne's Sweet Potato Linguine with Bolognese Sauce that made my decision to give it a try.  As I am just one person, I decided to make a half batch.  Well, I should have just made a whole batch as I made a huge measurement error when I made this the first time and for the sake of doing a fair review, I had to make it a second time. 

When I made it the second time, I made sure to write out the amounts so I wouldn't go on autopilot again.  

Paleo Argentinian Appetizers with Chef Carlos Crusco

In October, I had the opportunity to go to a wine tasting at The Austin Winery through the Austin Food Blogger Alliance.  As much as I wanted to sip some local wine, I was even more excited about the promise of Argentinian Tapas by Chef Carlos Crusco.  

Green Tea and Garlic Pickles from The Paleo Approach

While looking through Sarah Ballantyne's The Paleo Approach Cookbook, I decided it was high time to put my fears of fermenting aside.  Her Green Tea & Garlic Pickles seemed like a good fermenting gateway recipe.  Heck, if I can conquer kombucha, I can do this, and so can you.  

I gathered my ingredients and go to work.  

I started by preparing the brining liquid which is essentially salty tea.  My electric tea kettle has a green tea setting, so I filled it up and pushed the button.  I used pink Himalayan salt.   

The Paleo Mom Roasted Radishes

Sometimes, recipes in cookbooks don't have to be difficult or involved to bring a big flavor punch and new variety to your regular menu.  This week's recipe review from Sarah Ballantyne's The Paleo Approach Cookbook is just one of those recipes.  I've always limited radishes to salads and vegetable trays.  Roasting them never crossed my mind, until now.  Shame on me! 

"Spaghetti" from The Paleo Approach Cookbook

I was so happy to meet Sarah Ballantyne, Ph.D., a.k.a, The Paleo Mom, at Paleo FX this year.  We had emailed a bit when I was putting my meal cheat sheets together that included her Paleo Chicken Pad Thai, but it's always nice to get out from behind the keyboard and screen.  I was even more happy when her new cookbook, The Paleo Approach Cookbook, arrived in my mailbox.  This cookbook is jam packed with information about adopting an autoimmune paleo protocol and recipes. I was excited to pick out some recipes to review.  

My first review is her "Spaghetti" recipe.  I gathered my ingredients and started by preparing the spaghetti squash to cook.  

The Ancestral Table by Russ Crandall

Over the past few months, I've been cooking through Russ Crandall's The Ancestral Table.  If you've not heard of the book, you might know Russ better from his blog The Domestic Man.  I really admire Russ.  I often look at The Domestic Man and wonder how week in and week out he is able to publish a new post with a new recipe presented in such an elegant manner.  He reminds me what a hack I am at this blogging thing.  I was honored that he thought to send me a review copy and selected a few recipes to blog here to give you a feeling for what his lovely cookbook has to offer.  

Sukuma Wiki from The Ancestral Table

My last recipe review before I do my full cookbook summary review from Russ Crandall's The Ancestral Table is Sukuma Wiki.  There is a version of this recipe on his blog The Domestic Man, but it is slightly different from the cookbook version.  I chose this based upon what I had in my refrigerator ready to cook.  I had ground beef ready and all but one of the spices in my pantry.  

I completely messed up my meal planning this week, so I actually made this in the morning post workout before work.  I was glad to see the pictures I took weren't all shaky from the workout (lots of assisted pull ups were involved).  I quickly gathered my ingredients and started to prep them. 

Rogan Josh from The Ancestral Table

When I first got Melissa Joulwan's Well Fed, her Rogan Josh recipe intrigued me but I never made it.  I think it was a fear of lamb which I had not tried at the time.  While deciding what recipes to review from The Ancestral Table, I saw Russ had his own Rogan Josh recipe and as I now know I like lamb and Sprouts had a sale on lamb, there was no reason not to give this recipe a try.  He has a version of this recipe posted at The Domestic Man, but it is different from the book's.  

I gathered my ingredients and got to work.  

Lemongrass Pork Chops from The Ancestral Table

While looking through Russ Crandall's The Ancestral Table, his Lemongrass Pork Chops stood out to me.  He talks about lemongrass pork chops being one of the identifiable Vietnamese dishes, but I'd never had them before.  I had some close friends growing up that were Vietnamese and I had many a traditional Vietnamese meal with them and never had a pork chop with them, so I was curious.  He has a version of this recipe at The Domestic Man, but it is quite a bit different from the recipe in the cookbook that I will be reviewing.   I gathered my ingredients, and got to work.  

Salisbury Steak from The Ancestral Table

After trying the Japchae from Russ Crandall's The Ancestral Table, I was excited to give another recipe from the book a try.  I decided upon the Salisbury Steak.  He does have a version of this recipe on his blog, but it is a little different than the book version that I am reviewing.  It had actually been quite a few years, like 30, since I last had Salisbury Steak.  It's not a story for the blog, but I'll say my avoidance of the dish started with a T.V. dinner.  I was ready to see if Russ could bring this dish back in to my paleo life.  I gathered my ingredients, turned my oven on to pre-heat and got to work.  

Japchae from The Ancestral Table

This year at a conference, I had the pleasure of running into Russ Crandall of The Domestic Man in the cooking demonstration area.  We've met a few times and he was super nice as always.  He asked if I had a copy of his book, The Ancestral Table, yet and I did not.  He then says that he thought I was on the list to get one from his publisher.  A couple of Whoa! moments here: 1.  Russ Crandall actually remembers who I am.  2.  I was thought of to be on a list.  3.  I'm getting a new cookbook to try.  Whoa- indeed!  Well, within a few days, I found a lovely copy in my mailbox.  Thanks, Russ!

Those of you who have been readers of the blog know that Russ and I approach a paleo lifestyle a bit differently and well that's just fine.  Just as I can take a non-paleo recipe and make it fit my needs, which are more on the Whole30 side of the paleo lifestyle spectrum, I can make Russ's recipes work for me and they, hopefully, will be tasty.  

Egg Salad from Quick & Easy Paleo Comfort Foods

One thing that you can do to make eating a paleo template is to be prepared.  For me, preparedness can be a double edged sword.  I'll take the time to prepare snack foods to take to work in case I get hungry between meals, but then I'm simply not hungry between meals.  Of course, if I don't prepare, I get hungry or "hangry" as the case may be.  This happened to me recently and I found myself with 4 hard boiled eggs that needed to be eaten.  I happened to have some paleo mayo in the refrigerator and remembered that Quick & Easy Paleo Foods by Julie & Charles Mayfield had an Egg Salad recipe that looked quite tasty.   

Even though I hadn't planned to make this salad, I had all of the ingredients except for the pitted black olives.  This was sad as the introductory paragraph to the recipe says the olives bring something special to the salad.  

Imagine Apple Cider Vinegar in this picture as well. 

Alton Brown Pot Roast

I've been a big fan of Alton Brown since the first season of Good Eats.  If you've noticed in some of my pictures, I have one of his kosher salt containers and love it.  I had a beautiful Tendergrass Farms chuck roast to cook and I wanted to do something more special with it than just putting it in the slow cooker with some carrots.  I decided Alton's Pot Roast recipe could be that something special.  All of the ingredients were paleo except for the vegetable oil which was easily replaced with coconut oil.  

I gathered the ingredients and turned the oven on to preheat.  

Crispy Salmon by Gordon Ramsay

A while back, I was looking for a better way to make salmon and came across this video of Gordon Ramsey preparing his Crispy Salmon.  If you skip to about 2:07, that's when he starts making the salmon.  

I've since seen some paleo recipe bloggers copy Ramsay's technique which is so simple it's genius.  But will it work in my kitchen? Let's see.  

Vegetable Find: Chinese Broccoli

A girl can only eat so much kale.  I don't know about y'all but I can easily fall into a vegetable rut.  I often go to the Asian grocery for broth making ingredients and have often admired the long vegetable aisle full of green leafy vegetables sometimes labeled in English and most of the time not but have never been brave enough to get anything.  I decided it was high time I got over that fear and bought a book about Asian vegetables by Sara Deseran. The book has nice pictures of various vegetables used in Asian cooking, the many names they go by at the store, general storage advice and basic preparation ideas.  It also has some really tasty looking recipes that I'm not certain I have the skill to make paleo, but maybe one day.   

I decided to start with Chinese Broccoli. Ms. Deseran says that this vegetable is mainly bought for the stems that she says are asparagus flavored.  The leaves are edible as well she notes.   

I decided to use this recipe as inspiration for preparing my Chinese Broccoli.   Now that I look at it again, I realize I didn't use much of the recipe as written, but it helped me get in the kitchen.  

Paleo Meatloaf by Amy Kubal

Sometimes it's nice to go back to basics.  As I get myself back into a swim schedule, I've had to become stricter with my meal planning and preparation.  This means no more leisurely mornings to make breakfasts and put lunch together.  I have to have breakfast and lunch for the next day ready to go before going to bed.   As I'm also having to go to bed much earlier, I really don't want to be in the kitchen every night of the week, even if it's making something quick, so I am preparing some main dishes that freeze well.  This brought me back to Amy Kubal, R.D.'s,  Paleo Meatloaf.  

When I first started working with Amy, she sent me a collection of easy paleo recipes.  Her meatloaf recipe was an instant favorite.  She has given me permission to share it with all of you. Thank you Amy!   

Almost all the ingredients for a single batch.

Here is the recipe: 

Szechuan Stir-Fry from Quick & Easy Paleo Comfort Foods

I bought a copy of Quick & Easy Paleo Comfort Foods from Julie and Charles Mayfield a few months ago and hadn't gotten around to cooking from it until recently.  This book is full of recipes that give you the taste of comfort food but in less time.  Most of the recipes have a stated total cooking time of around 30 minutes.  My first stop in this book was the Szechuan Stir-Fry.

I gathered my ingredients and got to work.

Hearty Spinach Beef Frittata by Stupid Easy Paleo

I've never actually made a frittata before making this Hearty Spinach Beef Frittata from Stupid Easy Paleo.  Why?  Probably fear of learning that my cast iron skillet's seasoning wasn't up to snuff.  For a long period of time, I made some egg muffins in silicone muffin cups, but never in metal pan.  I've read many articles and watched many videos about seasoning cast iron and have seasoned mine as best I can, but I still feel that it's deficient as the surface doesn't appear as smooth as those I see on other blogs. My confidence was further brought down after I had to start over with seasoning after I made a very acidic dish in it (Don't do that!)  This frittata would put my re-seasoned skillet to the test.  

After gathering my ingredients and turning the oven on to pre-heat, I started by slicing the mushrooms.   The recipe calls for 4 ounces of shiitake mushrooms.  For me this was 6 mushrooms.  I had already diced a bunch of onions for use over the week, so I only had to measure them.  The recipe calls for 1 small onion so I measured out 1/2 cup of my pre-diced.  

Fat Works Leaf Lard & Pure Tallow

A few months ago during my Autoimmune Paleo experiment, I was looking for safe alternative cooking fats.  As I read Mickey Trescott's Autoimmune Paleo Cookbook, she recommended lard and tallow as AIP friendly alternatives.  Having been around paleo a while, I know that the key with animal fat is that it come from pastured/grass fed animals.  So, after searching the internet a bit, I came across Fatworks.    They have three products,  Pure Tallow, Leaf Lard, and Duck Fat.  

Why Fatworks?  Well they use fats only from 100% grass fed or 100% free range pasture raised animals.  The animals are also hormone and antibiotic free.  When I asked for a little more info about the company, my contact, with the title Fatworker, said they best sum themselves up with this facebook post.  Fatworks does one thing- they produce high quality cooking fats using the highest quality ingredients. 

I reached out to them and they graciously sent me a jar of the Pure Tallow and Leaf Lard.  I'm continuing to cook with these but I think I've used them enough to share my experience here.  

Butter Garlic Wings from Food Lover's Kitchen

I'm always looking for a new chicken wing recipe.  This recipe for Butter Garlic Wings from Food Lover's Kitchen has been out for a while, but its new to me.  I was flipping through Make it Paleo and decided it was high time I try them.  

There weren't many ingredients for the wings.  

Paleo Pot Roast from Paleo Porn

You know how much I love my slow cooker.  I'm becoming increasingly confident in my ability to convert oven recipes to slow cooker recipes and decided to do so with this Paleo Pot Roast recipe from Paleo Porn.  What a blog title.  I wanted to try this as it used some interesting ingredients and I wanted something different form the usual pot roast.  

I gathered my ingredients, and got to work.  

I followed the recipe instructions up until it calls for you to put it in the oven.  I browned the roast on all sides and then removed it from the pan.  

Tendergrass Farms Grass Fed Beef & Pastured Pork, Chicken and Turkey (T-Shirt Giveaway!)

Back in September, when I went to the Save Your Bacon event in Staunton, Virginia, I had the pleasure of being introduced to Tendergrass Farms and, founding farmers, David & Ann Maren.  

David and Ann Maren

At the breakfast on day two of the event, some of their pork sausage was served, and my life was changed.  This was the best breakfast port sausage I've ever had.

Sunday Sirloin Stew by Stir It Up

I really am trying to make an effort to cook through the meat I have in my freezer.  I had quite a bit of sirloin steak to cook and my internet searching brought me to this Sunday Sirloin Stew from Stir It Up Me.  I ignored all the talk of brownies at the top of the stew recipe post gathered my ingredients.  I had enough beef to make a double recipe.  

The weekend I made this I had found some awesome green beans at the farmers' market and decided to add them to the stew.  I know from adding them to Paleo Comfort Foods Beef Stew that I like the texture of green beans in stew.  Look at how pretty these beans were.  

The Paleo Review Quick & Easy Cheat Sheets : Side Dishes

I cannot tell you how excited I was to finally publish the The Paleo Review Quick & Easy Main Dish Cheat Sheet on Tuesday.  Did you miss it?  Check it out here!

If you saw it on Tuesday, go check it out again as it has already been updated to add Tammy Credicott's Sausage Stuffed Portobellos from Make Ahead Paleo!  She emailed me permission on Tuesday night and I got to work adding it to a well earned square.  Thank you Tammy!

And now, the wait is over for The Paleo Review Quick & Easy Side Dish Cheat Sheet.  I find that I often need the side dish cheat sheet more than the main dish one as it is really easy for me to focus on getting a main dish prepared and just not have a side.  Yes, it happens.  I admit it.

Now, I have no excuse.  Right on my refrigerator I have my cheat sheet there to remind me how some of my pantry/refrigerator staples can complete a paleo meal.

Paleo Ground Beef Curry inspired by Betty Crocker

You never know where you'll find a good recipe.  I found this recipe for Ground Beef Curry on Betty Crocker's website.  The only un-paleo thing in it was the rice which was easily substituted with cauliflower rice.  Omitting the rice also cut the cooking time significantly.  Paleo score!    

I've made this a few times and have tweaked the recipe a bit to give the dish a fuller flavor.  Here are the ingredients for the recipe as I make it now.  

My Sister's Phenomenal Green Chicken from Nom Nom Paleo

I actually made Nom Nom Paleo's "My Sister's Phenomenal Green Chicken" a few months ago and was side tracked from sharing it as I received a few cook books that needed attention.  I'm glad I was side tracked, as this recipe actually shows up in Michelle Tam and Henry Fong's new cook Nom Nom Paleo:  Food for Humans as Fiona's Green Chicken.

I decided to use chicken thighs.

Crock Pot Balsamic Roast with Sweet Onions from Paleo Table

We recently had another cold snap here in Austin.  For me, that means I'm in the mood for meals that will stick to my bones and make me feel warm.  I found some lovely well priced boneless chuck roasts and decided it was time to search the internet and get my slow cooker ready. 

I came across this recipe for Crock Pot Balsamic Roast with Sweet Onions at Paleo Table and decided to give it a try.  

Slow Cooker Smoked Salt Chuck Roast inspired by Delicious Paleo

I had a few boneless chuck roasts that I needed to cook and I was looking for something different and special.  I came across this recipe for Dutch Oven Beef Chuck Roast from Delicious Paleo.  

I've made 2 changes to this recipe.  The original recipe calls for you to oven roast the beef for 2-3 hours. Unless I'm off work or it's a weekend, I really don't have the time to let something oven roast for that long.  I decided to switch this to a slow cooker recipe.

The recipe also recommends McCormick's hickory smoked salt.   That was what intrigued me most about this recipe.  I'd not used smoked salt before.  I researched McCormick's brand and it was full of some very unpaleo things like MSG.   I researched smoke salt a bit more and found a clean version at Williams Sonoma.  

Asian Meatballs from Nom Nom Paleo

A few weeks ago, this recipe for Asian Meatballs from Nom Nom Paleo showed up in one of my social media feeds and I decided I needed to give it a try.  They seemed like they could be a great portable post workout option for me as they included sweet potato.

I gathered my ingredients, and got to work.  There's a lot of chopping to be done to make these meatballs happen.