Paleo Comfort Foods: Homestyle Cooking for a Gluten-Free Kitchen

I'm just wrapping up the second week of going Paleo and I feel fantastic. Let me elaborate on that. I have lupus (SLE). Or maybe I should say "had" lupus, because by the third day of being on Paleo, I have had not one flare up or one symptom of it. No aches, no pains, no fogginess, no feverishness, no nothing. Which is amazing because I've been dealing with SLE for just over a decade, non-stop (never went into remission...just some days were better than others with my condition gradually worsening over time). And now, here I am. I've lost almost 10lbs after years of steadily gaining weight, never losing it, and I have so much energy and drive again. I've been exercising (moderately) and basically building up and repairing my body back to where it needs to be. Not because I "have" to but because, to my continued surprise, I want to. I feel driven to, like I could climb up the walls and run across the ceiling because I have so much energy in me again and I'm so pain-free. I just *have* to move, because I *can*.Which brings me to this book. I love food. Going Paleo can be tough, and in spite of it being much easier after seeing such amazing results within three days, I still yearned for some of my former favorites. This book gave many of those foods back to me. "Bread," tortillas, condiments, fried and "breaded" meats, soups, salads, and so many other wonderful recipes I'm eager to try out. And though I haven't had much opportunity to delve too deeply into trying all the recipes, those I have tried have been amazing. It helps so much for getting over those refined/processed carb and sugar withdrawals I still feel niggling at the back of my mind.For those like me who aren't looking to live a reenactment of an ancient paleo lifestyle, this book will be, and is, a godsend. Paleo-fying modern foods--comfort foods at that--helps me continue my love affair with food. So many flavors, so many recipes, so many options...and one recipe can spawn so many other experiments and variations. This cookbook is like my gateway drug into Paleo eating. It's changed how I view my food and its ingredients. I pay a lot more attention now to, not just the ingredients, but to the source of those ingredients. In the course of this, I've learned about all sorts of "miracle foods," from the incredible health benefits of Yerba Mate (I prefer the loose leaf Guayaki brand) to the unique properties of raw honey to the beneficial power of saturated fats. I can finally embrace my inner butter-lover and feel good about it. I'm always grinning, with relish, as I slather my food in heavenly grass-fed butter ( Kerrygold Pure Irish Butter Foil 8.0 oz (pack of 20)  is fantastic). My family shakes their heads at me, but I'll convert them one of these days, I tell you.And I tell a lot of people about this amazingly simple solution to helping heal so many ails. I'm a living testament to how modern miracles can be found in the simplest of places and solutions: diet change. Some would say "never would work," but no matter how hard they try I'll still be standing here in silent defiance of their denial. The reality is, this diet has not just changed my life, it's saved my life...and this cookbook is an indispensable tool in that. I carry it everywhere and plan on trying literally every recipe within its pages--they look and sound that good. Everything I've tried so far has become a permanent staple in my diet because they're that tasty, versatile, and indispensable. Many food possibilities have opened for me because of this book. So I will urge you, whether you feel you are "healthy enough" or you are suffering (be it from disease, depression, or what modern conventional "wisdom" terms, "signs of aging"), you owe it to yourself to at least try this diet and pick up this cookbook. It might be tough breaking the addictions at first, but the benefits far exceed the initial struggle and this cookbook definitely helps strike a killing blow against the "old ways."

I received this book in the mail just a few days before having guests for the week, and I thought it would be a great way to try out some of the recipes! I must say the book is gorgeous, and the photos make my mouth water. Not only that, but every recipe I've tried so far has been awesome! So why only three stars? Well because this book has absolutely the *worst* index I think I've ever seen in a cookbook.The day my guests were arriving after a long day's drive I decided to make some guacamole for their arrival, and I recalled seeing a beautiful guacamole in the cookbook. So I pulled it out and did looked up "guacamole". Nothing. Not there at all. So I went to Avocado, hoping maybe to see something like "avocado, guacamole" as I have in other cookbooks. But NO, I got there and saw: "Avocado 30, 46, 56, 66, 92, 96, 128, 156 ..." and on and on. Lots of page references with no hint as to what the references were. My time was short so I just gave up and made my own guacamole recipe from memory, which is tasty anyway.I also recalled seeing really excellent looking muffins in the cookbook and thought they would be great to make for breakfast one day, so again I turned to the index and looked for "muffins" and again under "muffins" there was Nothing, Zip, Nada. This time I was lucky however, as my eyes happened to fall on the entry "morning glory muffins" - right above where muffins SHOULD have been in the index. Yay, I made them and they were fabulous. But suppose they had been called "early rising muffins" or "great start muffins"? I sure never would have found them by searching the index.I later found the guacamole when I had more time by starting at page one and thumbing through, and finally found "chunky guacamole" on page 66. And sure enough, the index referenced "chunky guacamole".But is a person supposed to remember the NAME of every single recipe in order to find it in the index? I'm starting to write in by hand in the proper alphabetical location the recipes that look of interest to me. But why should I need to to?That said the recipes I have tried were really good: morning glory muffins, banana bread, basic biscuits. And the pecash butter is totally awesome. I love that one. :-)

Just arrived yesterday - and I can't wait to try these amazing recipes!I am not much of a cook, or (particularly) a cook-book fan; but this book is superb and I cannot recommend it highly enough!There is a great range of recipes covering all possible meal (and snack) occasions; including Christmas (which I had been a little anxious about coping with previously - having recently decided to 'go primal' in my diet and exercise.) No longer am I anxious - I can't wait to cook and to entertain with these recipes! My only problem now will be which to choose - they all look so good. (On that note - they genuinely do 'look' good too, as the accompanying photos are glossy and tempting).I checked out many different Primal/ Paleo/ Gluten-free cookbooks before going with this one. I bought two others. Off everything I checked out and bought, this is by far the best. Simple, varied and tempting. Don't worry about potentially U.S. expressed units of measurements (Cups etc) - you get weight and volume given also, so it really is simple.My advice would be - don't hesitate to buy it!

After purchasing the Primal Blueprint & various associated books, which are great as well as life changing, I was browsing for other paleo cookbooks to add more versatility to my cooking toolbox.I am very pleased to say that this cookbook does exactly what I wanted it to do and much more. It is well laid out, colourful, informative and has importantly the recipes I wanted, including & I know I shouldn't but I was looking for a recipe for bread, and this book included a recipe for bread... I know what other paleo people are going to say but sometimes I just need a bit of bread for toast and I wanted a paleo alternative.Anyway this book is great and that is why I have given it 5 stars because in my opinion it is worth it.

A great book. Definitely recommended whether or not you follow the Paleo Lifestyle or need gluten free food. I would definitely recommend Shrimp and Grits. The only downside with the book is that because it is written for the American Market as are most Paleo Cookbooks and recipes, you do need to use the internet to transcribe some ingredients. Dont let this put you off though because you will miss a great book otherwise. This is one that will definitely live in my kitchen.

I'm not fully paleo but i like to be as paleo as possible. This book makes it so much easier. I love american food, especially american comfort food. So this book actually makes paleo comforting! Brilliant!

Very disappointed with this book. As someone who cooks a lot, I felt the book lacked creativity to today's view of "comfort" food. I suppose it's all down to your own perspective of what comfort means to you.