The Paleo Approach Cookbook: A Detailed Guide to Heal Your Body and Nourish Your Soul

When I opened up The Paleo Approach Cookbook, it made me cry-in a thank god, relieved kind of way! After reading through and trying out some of Sarah Ballantyne's delicious recipes, I will tell you that The Paleo Approach Cookbook tops the list of all the excellent resources available today to reverse and halt autoimmune disease once and for all. The photography in this cookbook is both stunning and beautiful while the layout makes it really easy to read the recipes as the book stays open on your countertop. As a clinician treating many patients with autoimmune and chronic inflammatory disorders, I recommend The Paleo Approach Cookbook for guidance and cooking with all things autoimmune protocol. I currently witness the great relief that so many of my patients feel once they explore this template and find that they absolutely have the power to halt their autoimmune reactions with a Paleo Approach. I am truly grateful to have such an excellent resource to recommend not only for more than 150 delicious (including 2 weeks of FODMAP Free) recipes but also for food guides and reference lists that no other cookbook to date can match. Dr. Ballantyne's Paleo Approach Cookbook follows her phenomenal NY Times Best Selling "The Paleo Apporoach" which reveals an in-depth understanding and solutions for correcting the root causes of autoimmune disease. After reviewing The Paleo Approach Food Pyramid and the autoimmune protocol, Dr. Ballantyne explains why quality and variety matter and where to source foods even on a budget. Besides 6 weeks of meal plans, Dr. Ballantyne also includes tons of information of making substitutions when necessary. I appreciate that Dr. Ballantyne addresses many "gray area" foods and includes information graphics and pages that answer many curiosities such as smoke points, alcohol cook off times, measurement conversions, info on salt, the dirty dozen, the clean fifteen and which vegetables and meats to prioritize. In the extensive resources area, there are also many other handy guides including how to read labels and catch hidden sources of the major foods allergens e.g. corn, soy, gluten etc.. Dr. Ballantyne also includes a first of it's kind list of the top 10 nutrient dense food recipes! I also love the Recipe Index with the photographed dishes and page numbers which help to decide on what you'd like to make next! The recipes that I have tried include the super easy to prepare Lemon and Thyme Broiled Pork Chops, Steamed Vegetables, Hidden Liver Meatloaf, The super satisfying Burgers with Caramelized Onions and Portobello "Buns" with avocado on top as well as the elegant and tasty Vietnamese Spring Rolls. Next up, I am going to try the "Wonton" Soup-I mean who knew that this was even possible? The bottom line is that it is a great feeling to know about and receive the health benefits of this delicious approach autoimmune disease. Don't miss out. This is a must have resource for anyone considering a path to reverse autoimmune disease one bite at time. Highly recommended!

I let all the bad reviews of this cookbook stop me from buying it at first. I read The Paleo Approach and started the protocol a few weeks ago. It was easy enough to make stews and have salads for most meals, but I needed more ideas. Because this cookbook had so many bad reviews and complaints about specialty ingredients, I ended up buying The Healing Kitchen: 175+ Quick & Easy Paleo Recipes to Help You Thrive instead. That one had the "easy" recipes that looked good, and I spent a week or two making a bunch of the recipes. Then I realized that The Healing Kitchen was really lacking in ideas for offal and seafood. We were eating mostly sweet potatoes and chicken... and chicken is supposed to be limited on AIP. So I went back and bought this book. And I was surprised by how wonderfully it's laid out! Each recipe has nutritional information, modification ideas, and FODMAP adjustments. Since we are also avoiding fodmaps right now, that was incredibly helpful. My husband had trouble getting through the entire Paleo Approach book. It can be way too overwhelming for someone who hasn't cooked much before. But he really wanted to be on board and be able to make a few meals. This book has a thorough introduction that reviews the major points of the AIP, includes definitions of cooking terms for new cooks, and gives lots of tips and ideas for people who might be new to cooking from scratch. You could easily read ONLY this book, and still have all the major points of AIP and the meal plans and recipes. I regret that I didn't just buy this one first! But I'm also happy to have both books on my shelves, as they both have a lot of excellent recipes and ideas.

I'll have to update after I've used the cookbook longer, but so far I love it. The lay out is extremely easy to use and the directions are extremely easy to follow. She gives great information other than just the recipe (i.e. how to modify the recipe to make it FODMAP friendly, when that's possible possible). Let me say, I am NOT a cook. I was nervous about starting the Paleo Approach and wanted to have good food to eat so I would want to keep this up long enough to see if it will help my issued. Going from minimal involvement cooking to cooking enough for 3 meals a day* added a little bit of stress but I'm enjoying it (*I make bigger meals and have leftovers for lunch and breakfast most days). The other thing I like is the download from her website called "The Paleo Approach Quick and Easy Meals". There is a 7 day SUPER easy meal plan that got me started on the right foot. This is not an easy endeavor (to radically change a way of eating), and this "diet" is more restrictive than your run of the mill Paleo "diet", but she has made some very delicious recipes to make it a little easier. UPDATE...I have had the cookbook for two weeks. About 90% of my meals have come from this book (most notable exception is "bacon and berries" for breakfast!). There are so many reason I LOVE this cookbook. First-Part One (88 pages) is devoted to people like me. Definitions of things most people who are at home in the kitchen take for granted...who knew "blanch" meant to "immerse in rapidly boiling water and allow to cook slightly"? There is an EXTENSIVE index in the back. I bought a giant bag of cauliflower and wanted to know the recipes that used that as the base-there they were. Also, the 7 day weekly meal plans are not only in tear out form in the back of the book, but they are in the front as well ((so I can tear out the one that was meant to be torn out AND still have it as part of the book)). The pages are thick and withstand bacon grease spattering out on them. There is a section reminding me not only of what foods I have taken out of my diet, but also listing out all the wonderful foods I CAN/SHOULD eat in order to repair my gut and reverse my autoimmune thyroid condition. There hasn't been one recipe that I read and didn't know what it meant (unlike most cookbooks I've owned in my life!). I can't say enough great things about this cookbook!!

I appreciate the tremendous effort that went into this book. There is a ton of information here as well as a ton of recipes, and the book is almost encyclopedic in nature. For reviews of individual recipes that we've tried, see the end of this review. I think what I'd like, though, is closer to a family-friendly quick start guide, with a chapter along the lines of: "Hungry Right Now? Here's What You Can Eat!" and "Quick(er) Recipes with Easy to Find Ingredients." I got a sinking feeling when one of the early recipes focused on how to make your own vegetable flours with a food dehydrator, and then some of the later recipes call for those vegetable flours. I work full-time, and I have to feed a family that is not always receptive to this approach. I'm hopeful that there will someday be a second edition with professional photography and a few chapters specifically for folks like me! That said, I'd still buy this book! There *are* quicker, easier recipes with more common ingredients in here--they're just not called out. So buy this, but buy it with a set of post-it notes. That way when you find the things that work for you or your family you can get back to them easily. If you get overwhelmed when you see some of the more daunting recipes in terms of time, ingredients or equipment required (I did!), just take a deep breath and then keep going. Also, consider picking up Mickey Trescott's "The Autoimmune Paleo Cookbook," which is more approachable, or Diane Sanfilippo's "Practical Paleo" which has a set of menus for folks who need to do AIP, though it's not solely oriented around AIP. Of the recipes I've tried so far: Breakfast Brew: This is great, and actually a cheap & viable replacement for decaf coffee since I can get the ingredients in bulk from my co-op. Plaintain cracker: these work great as long as the plantains are green. If the plantains are ripe, you'll make fruit leather instead. It's tasty, but it's not a cracker that way. Coconut yogurt: I was amazed at how well this turned out. I can't stand bought coconut yogurts-I find them disgusting. I let my incubate in my oven with the light on for 24 hours to get it quite tart. The probiotic I used was PB8. It's smoother if you use the kind of coconut milk with guar gum in it, but given the audience for this book, that may not be an option. Plantain & apple fritters: these were good, and well received by the spouse and son, though they ate them with maple syrup. New England Clam Chowder: we skipped the turnip and increased the bacon, then prepared it following the rest of the recipe. The soup was quite good. Nothing is like heavy cream, butter and flour, but this was a tasty substitute soup.

HOLY MACKEREL BATMAN!! This is an AMAZING cookbook. I haven't even looked at all the recipes yet, but just the first two chapters is almost worth the price alone. The first two chapters are the introduction to the diet and kind of the "kitchen basics" section. This kitchen basics section alone is worth its weight in gold. It has tables and charts and lists, things like about how long to cook X pounds of meat, ingredients to replace non-AIP ingredients (an actual flow chart, most revolutionary idea? Need a tortilla and can't have the gluten? Use NORI! I mean seriously, how on EARTH did I not think of that? brilliant brilliant BRILLIANT!!! I can have tacos and sandwiches again...), the smoke points of different oils, how to season your cast iron cookware, just .... its like the old Betty Crocker cookbook that my grandmother had. It has all the how-tos in it PLUS all the recipes, except this cookbook is all AIP food so it is better and healthier for you. I am allergic to eggs, milk, and gluten, and my eczema is still acting up so I know something else is bugging me too. If you're looking at this book I'm betting you are in a similar boat. Its hard to think of new ways to cook things when you've been brought up and been eating and cooking the same way your whole life, and suddenly have to change EVERYTHING. This book is a life saver. I haven't read the first book, don't own it, but I'm so glad I found this. If I ever decide to have kids, THIS will be the cookbook I teach them to cook from. If nothing else it will be a great quick reference when cooking, plus my brief look at the recipes look amazing. I can't wait to try some of the recipes (and a nori taco! Still need to figure out how to get around the nightshade/spicey thing... any suggestions?).

I've been waiting to write a review on The Paleo Approach Cookbook until I'd really used it. By that, I don't mean just made a few recipes, or even a lot of recipes. I mean, USED all of it and fully understood and felt the awesomeness of this book, even beyond the deliciousness it contains. Beyond? Yeah that's right, beyond. This book offers so much way, way, way beyond a cookbook. It's still difficult to fully grasp what a gem this book is and how it's going to change my life! You might think that's a high expectation or dream for a cookbook. Well it is a very high expectation and this book far exceeds that expectation and exceeds even what I could possibly dream of. Eating the way both The Paleo Approach and The Paleo Approach cookbook outlines has changed my life, and possibly saved my life. I can say the same for family members and friends of mine. I have a brutal autoimmune disease, and eating this way has given me a quality of life and remission I didn't know was possible. So, back to the book! Should you buy it? YES! Should you buy it because you have an autoimmune disease? YES! It's not even a question you should be asking yourself unless you have no desire at all to feel well again, and heal your body. Should you buy this book if you don't have an autoimmune disease? YES! The recipes are delicious and you'll love them, and as a nice little bonus you'll feel great. Also, there's definitely someone in your life with an autoimmune disease you can cook for, and introduce this book and it's predecessor to, and help them heal. What's so great? Here's my take: RECIPES: Well duh. That's why we all buy a cookbook, the recipes. I've made many of them and none have disappointed at all. In fact the were outstanding! My husband, who is as meat and potatoes and has no desire to try anything new as they come, also loved them! That's no small miracle. For those people fussing over the inclusion of recipes that have organ meat I ask you if you've actually tried just one recipe? How can you judge without actually trying them? If you are too squeamish to try, and I do get that, the percentage of recipes that have organ meat is so small, it would be silly to qualify that as a reason to not buy the book for the incredible amount of other recipes AND the huge volume of other information it includes. THE BASICS: The Paleo Approach is the book you really want to get if you fully want to understand the why's of foods and their correlation to autoimmune disease and healing. The cookbook does indeed include the basics of eating paleo, and if that's all you really want or can store in your brain, then you get that in the cookbook too. It's laid out beautifully with charts, pictures and easy checklists. It's very, very handy! I've come across foods that I'd like to try but are less common and have wondered if they are ok for me, and the charts have included such a huge variety of what's out there to try. So for those people who think the autoimmune protocol is very limiting, check out the very long lists of what we CAN eat! There's also a nice simple page of what to avoid. Great information on food quality and variety and why it matters, how to source foods and what to do if you can't find them, how to eat on a budget, and even a list in order or priority for what meats and produce are good/better/best. I found that really handy! FODMAP: What? Now I'm exceptionally happy about this part because in addition to the autoimmune protocol, I've discovered I also feel much better following a low-fodmap diet. Don't know what that is? Get the book. :) This is something that I would have dreamed about having included in this cookbook, but didn't know it would be! I thought that would be too much to hope for. This makes my life SO MUCH easier! There's a great list, and every single recipe has a FODMAP warning included!! There are substitutions if possible or just a straight up "don't eat this". Excellent. I love this!! PANTRY/KITCHEN TIPS: There is an excellent chapter on what to include in your pantry. For so many people starting out on this journey, they look in their pantry and all they see is everything they can no longer include, which leaves the pantry empty. Having this included in the book is awesome! Fill your pantry up and get cooking! You won't have that "ugh I don't have that" moment when you want to start cooking. She even included how to store foods, a glossary of cooking terms (mind blown) which is so great for beginners in the kitchen. Again, she thought of everyone and everything! The cooking tools is also great. You can literally be the most beginner cook/chef and have everything you need to learn to get started. I think it would also save time and money for those that have a tendency to randomly buy utensils and find later you actually didn't need that really pretty doodad. TIME MANAGEMENT: Many people have criticized the time it takes to cook these recipes, or cooking in general. The beauty is that if you learn how to plan well, it really doesn't take long. Sarah also included these tips! Batch cooking is everything! Stock your pantry, get the tools, plan, batch cook, use leftover, learn to store and DONE! It's really there from A-Z. Take the time to read the beginning chapters as it's worth the read to really get the most from the book. GUIDES: I love that Sarah includes useful guides for cooking temps. Now when I say guides, in true Sarah fashion, she's gone above and beyond. There isn't just standard beef, chicken, pork etc. Nope. She included all the cuts of meat, the size of the portion, cooking method, time and temperature. A whole page on grilling! She also included measurement conversions which is really handy! No more Googling needed. I really love the list of cooking fats and oil and the smoke point. Again, this is something I used to need to google. SUBSTITUTIONS: So many people say things like "what do you eat instead of bread" or perhaps insert snacks, sandwich wraps, grains, spices etc. Yup, she did that too. MEAL PLANS: Hello?!!! These are amazing! So great!! The hard work of planning is just DONE! And again, in true Sarah fashion, she included meal plans for low FODMAP folks, like me. I think she actually wrote this book for me. I was NOT expecting this chapter, but oh so sweet! And there are also tear out guides for you! RECIPES: Ya ok, you thought I'd already done this highlight, and I did, but I just want to point out it's at this point in the book the recipes start. By this time you've been given a TON of information that is not given in most cookbooks. It's really mind blowing. Buy the book already. NUTRITIONAL INFO: So ya, some books are going to include calories, and the basic fat, protein, carbs and sugar. Maybe sodium. If you haven't figured it out yet, Sarah does it all, everything you could possibly hope for and more. Her attention to detail blows my mind. The nutiritonal information given for the recipes is not just the basics but every single dang vitamin, mineral, amino acid you could possibly think of. I just got some blood tests that said I'm low in sodium, iodine, and potassium. Hmmm, I ask myself. What do I need to include in my diet now to resolve this? Not only can I look at each recipe and see what the profile of it is, she ALSO has a reference in the back! Again, mind blown. I don't need to go through each recipe to see what has the higher amounts I need, she has the list of recipes included. So handy. Really Sarah? How do you think of this?! MINI's: So many of the recipes include variations that are actually like another recipe! The volume of recipes blows my mind. This includes spice blends! READING LABELS: I thought I could read labels like a rock star already. Apparently not. She has an incredible resource to spot gluten, corn, soy, dairy and sugar. Some of this you may know already, like I thought I did. What I didn't know is possible sources of contamination, cross reactors, foods derived from corn (huge huge list I had no idea). And again, tear out guides?!! YES/NO/MAY: Aside from the recipes this could be my favourite section. You want to know if a food is safe for you? Huge alphabetical list. Find it, and your good to go. Easy peasy. You think you already know them all? You're wrong. Huge, HUGE list. Get the book. INDEX: Seems basic. Nope. If you haven't figured it out by now, Sarah goes above and beyond in everything! The index starts with little squares of gorgeous photos of the recipes! It's quite a pretty sight to behold! And THEN is the usual text index, which still isn't basic. I wouldn't think to look in the recipe index for "wok" cause that's not a recipe, but there it is anyway! SHOPPING LIST: Ya that's done for you too. The meal plans come with the shopping lists AND they have tear out guides. Of course. DOWNLOADS: If you go to Sarah's website she has now made downloads, for free, that have increased the value even more. So may pages you'll think that you wish you could take with you when your shopping, and then she does a tear out guide. Maybe you think they are too pretty to scrunch up and put in the bottom of your purse (they are actually very pretty). Well, boom, download and print. Print as many as you need. The BEST download of all, and it's brilliant really, it the easy "quick and easy meals" download. Maybe you don't have time to go through and figure out which recipes you can make in less than 30 minutes. Now you have a list. Seriously? Do the bonuses ever stop? This was a long review. I'll keep my summary short. Get the book. Get more for your friends who want yummy food, get more for your friends with autoimmune, and get a few more if you have autoimmune and want your friends and family to be able to cook for you!

I really am not sure how many stars to give this cookbook, because there are many things I don't like about it, but there are some great things about it, too. So to be fair, I'll go with three stars which basically means I'm neutral. First the good: The tips of how to store fresh herbs and vegetables were extremely helpful for me. I've always had a problem with things going bad quickly and Sarah's tips have lengthened "shelf" life considerably. I've made seven recipes so far. All have been extremely delicious even though I don't consider myself a skillful cook. I feel like I'm eating in a high end restaurant at my own dining room table. I like that she has included sample menus with shopping lists for numerous weeks. The photos are gorgeous. Now the bad: I don't remember if I read this in the cookbook or in Sarah's first book, but she states that people in general need to re-prioritize how much money they spend on food. Back in the day, people spent about 24% of their income on food and that has dropped significantly over time. Before trying this cookbook, I already spent 27% of my income on food so I think my priorities are in the right place. However, two weeks with this cookbook and I've already spent my entire food budget for the month. And most of that was focusing on supper. This cookbook reminded me why I moved away from meat in my diet. It is just too expensive, especially when the only safe meat to eat is wild or grass fed / range free. The recipes are very time consuming. Even the ones that appear short usually include something that needed to be prepared ahead of time. Since starting this cookbook, I get home from work every night and basically work on the meal from about 5 p.m. until 10 p.m. between preparing the meal, eating the meal and then cleaning up after it. And this is just for ONE meal! I'm no novice to eating and preparing whole food recipes, but I was overwhelmed by the complexity of these meals between prep and ingredients. Fortunately, I live in an area with Wegmans grocery stores so everything I needed for the seven recipes I made could be found with ease. The only substitution I made was trading out ground pork for ground turkey for one meal - which happened to be a suggestion for alternative twists on the recipe anyway. The other big drawback to this cookbook is the amount of special equipment you need to have on hand. I spent much of the past year simplifying my life which included getting rid of some of the equipment this cookbook now calls for. But it also calls for much more than I've ever owned. Over all I think Sarah forgot who her target audience is - people who feel ill and run down from their autoimmune disease/s. This cookbook is great for people who have plenty of energy and time (and probably consider themselves foodies). I'm not exactly sure where I'll go with my newly found information from here. I now realize that using meat substitutes like legumes/beans, nuts and seeds are part of why I feel ill after eating. However, unless I become a single person household on just my income, there is just no way to afford this style of eating on what I make.

This is a wonderful cookbook for people that have an autoimmune disease and decide to try diet to help decrease their inflammation and help with their disease. I have Crohn's disease and had gastritis and esophagitis. I was on several medications that were not working. I thought there must be something better and found The Paleo Mom website about the Autoimmune Protocol (AIP) that is based on a Paleo diet. I soon purchased Dr. Ballantyne's first book, The Paleo Approach: Reverse Autoimmune Disease and Heal Your Body. I learned alot about how diet can heal my leaky gut. In April 2014, I started eating the AIP diet but it is so different from a normal American diet that is difficult to prepare AIP meals. I needed recipes. With the Paleo Approach Cookbook, I got my recipes. There are hundreds of recipes that are all AIP friendly. There are many main dishes, side dishes, soups, salads, salad dressings, snacks and desserts. The instructions are easy to follow and it is very clear about how long the recipes will take. I have had the book less than a week and I have made and enjoyed breakfast sausage, kale chips, plantain crackers,and simple baked whitefish. Tonight my husband and I will be having Greek Inspired Lamb Chops. The cookbook also includes weekly meal plans and grocery lists that can help someone new to the AIP diet. Since I have been on the AIP diet, I have done very well and I have no symptoms of the Crohn's disease. I highly recommend this diet for anyone will an autoimmune disease. This cookbook is a wonderful tool to follow the AIP diet.