This week’s review is very special to us here at Paleo Parents. We’ve been big fans of Danielle of Against All Grain for quite a while now. She’s been on The Paleo View countless times and always has something interesting to add to the conversation. Not only that, but her site is full of inspiring recipes full of deliciousness. To read the guest post she did for us with her special autoimmune friendly breakfast cookies, click here. What a talent! So when we heard that she was writing a cookbook, we were immediately on board! Stay tuned to the end of the post for details on a GIVEAWAY!
I believe I’ve found the opposite of Beyond Bacon and it’s called Against All Grain.
No! Not like that! I don’t mean that it’s a raw vegan book!
But what I was struck by when I read through Against All Grain was how many of the design and aesthetic and recipe choices were the opposite of what we chose to do with Beyond Bacon. We chose a dark color palette and Danielle has a very light color palette. Where we spent a lot of time with heavy meat dishes with an emphasis on autumnal dishes, Danielle has a lot of light spring and summer dishes. For obvious reasons, there’s not a lot of baking recipes in our book, while Danielle is actually most especially known for her baked goods and included quite a number of them.
So the result is that I’m keeping them next to each other on the book shelf, the white book and the black book, and perfectly complement each other!
Against All Grain is a wonderfully photographed and expertly assembled cookbook that you will be pleased to own. From the beginning chapters on how to stock and cook in a grain-free kitchen to the amazing visual index in the back, you’ll be amazed at the thoughtfulness which Danielle used to craft this book for you. She even included a metric conversion table for all of you Europeans who always ask for it!
We couldn’t wait to dig in to all these recipes!
First, we made Danielle’s special Real Deal Chocolate Chip Cookies.
They are aptly named.
You know that golden brown Toll House style cookie you want that’s just soft enough not to feel stiff and dry but not so soft that it falls apart? I don’t know how she did it, but Danielle made it happen! We were completely wowed by them and made them our movie snack one night. We left with 10 and returned with one. They were that good!
But while Danielle is known for her cookies and cakes, she also has a vast repertoire of entrees and sides as well! And we chose to make a good one.
Everyone knows that I’m a huge fan of Thai food. In fact, it’s one of the reasons I learned to cook! So when I turned the page and saw that Danielle had included a recipe for Thai Pad See Ew, I knew that this is what I would be making.
This really exemplifies some of the astounding creativity in this book. Instead of wide rice noodles, Danielle slices carrots very thin and uses them as the noodle base. At first, I admit, I was extremely skeptical that this would impart the flavor I would want out of my Thai food. But I was absolutely blown away at how authentic it ended up tasting! Not to mention the colors turn out extremely vibrant, making a very impressive and appealing dish. And despite it being so vegetable-rich, the kids DEVOURED it. Wesley was asking for more long after we ran out and Cole (our toughest critic) remarked how the texture was just like noodles!
As you can tell from both photos the kids enjoyed helping make them too. I love how family-friendly AAG is, even having a dedicated chapter to “childhood favorites” like fruit roll-ups!
My only warning when cooking from AAG is to take note of the serving size vs. quantity your family eats. The 4-6 servings the dish we made purported to make are not McCarry-boy sized portions, to be sure. One pound of chicken breast does not meet the needs of my Strong(wo)Man and three bottomless pits! I think we could have tripled this batch and still not have had left overs – that’s how much we loved it.
Overall, I’m quite excited to add Against All Grain to my library of cookbook and I feel I’ll be referring back to it frequently. Gyro Pasta is calling my name, I know I’ll be making it next!
Note: we purposely chose recipes that we could link to and share with you all, but the majority of AAG’s content is new! If you’re on the bubble about buying the book, we recommend trying one of these recipes to help you decide, YES!
But that’s not all! We’d like to give you a copy as well! We’re sending you Danielle’s book so that you can join in the fun!
To enter leave a comment for EACH of the items you complete:
- Leave a comment for liking the Against All Grain Facebook page
- Leave a comment with what social media you follow us on (Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, Pinterest, etc.)
- Leave a comment if you place a review for our podcast, The Paleo View, in iTunes
- Leave a comment if you leave a review for Beyond Bacon on Amazon, B&N.com and Goodreads
Remember Matt’s rules of giveaways:
- Please use a valid email address when entering. I cannot use my dowsing rods to attempt to find which bytes form your contact address!
- Please follow all the rules so I don’t get frustrated by invalid entries. Nothing makes more of a sad panda than picking a winner who I have to disqualify.
- Please respond within 48 hours or I will have to pick a new winner! I have a certain set of skills that make me a nightmare to people who don’t respond: the ability to randomly draw again.
- Please be a US resident. My mana is too low to cast a Teleportation Spell!
Giveaway will end on Monday, August 6th at midnight!
