Paleo Cooking from Elana's Pantry: Gluten-Free, Grain-Free, Dairy-Free Recipes [A Cookbook]

Before I purchased this book, I read all the other reviews about it. I learned to do this after being unhappy with several purchases and finding out gee, other people warned me right there in the reviews! I'm also one of those reviewers who is not afraid to say what's wrong with a book (exaggerated number of recipes) or to say that it's really best for beginners to a lifestyle (or not). I understand how frustrating it is to leave a less than positive review and to then feel like 'fans and friends' are voting your review not helpful just because they don't like that you didn't fawn....having said that, I think just the fact that this book is so simple and uncomplicated is why it is perfect for newbies. I've been a follower of Elana's blog for awhile now, and I purchased another of her low carb books (savory) last year. Another reviewer stated they felt this book was best for beginners to Paleo because it has a lot of simple recipes, and I would definitely recommend this as a book for a newbie to have. Everything in it is pretty straightforward and there isn't anything complicated; but on that same note I found the delicious simplicity of the recipes to be worth it. Chicken Marbella (p. 68) is worth the whole price of the book alone; it was the first recipe I made (never touched a green olive before!) and my husband almost *moaned* when he took a bite of it. Sure, 'mustard and salmon' is almost cringingly basic for more advanced cooks but I think the book strives to make something for everyone. The recipes are unfailingly comprised of fresh ingredients, minimal prep time and cooking effort, for a big flavor payoff. For the experience of the color photos, and the feel of the book, I found the price to be very worth it. I honestly would not have enjoyed this book as much had it been an e-book. If you are far into the Paleo/low carb style journey you might find most of it to be rather like 'recipe review', but really I think this is a good book with tasty, simple recipes that don't require much thought or effort. The flavor profiles are very balanced, and I haven't had to tweak any seasonings or spices at all. THIS is almost unheard of in my kitchen! I prefer big brassy flavor in my food (rather than salt) so that it's an experience; these recipes are truly tasty just as written. Note on the Chicken Marbella : I used a 10 lb. bag of chicken quarters, doubled the marinade recipe, and baked it in a giant cake sheet for 1:20 at 350. We had several meals' worth of food with just a 'dump and bake' effort, and it tastes like something you'd get at a restaurant. I could have served this whole beautifully-browned pan of goodness to company and they would have felt as though they were getting high-dollar fare! The entire 10 lb. chicken meal was under $10.00, too.

I ventured into the Paleo lifestyle through Dr. Alejandro Junger's book "Clean Gut" (it is essentially the same diet as Paleo with two exceptions - allows Stevia and xylitol, whereas Paleo does not). My energy surged on this 21-day program and for the first time since I was a teenager, I didn't feel tired and run down (and I've had blood work and my thyroid checked, to no avail). I also lost 9 pounds and my husband lost 15 in those 21 days - mostly on my abdomen - my hardest-to-reduce area. The Clean Gut recipes, however, were HORIFFIC and I soon realized that many paleo recipes worked for the diet and were so much tastier, allowing me to stay on the program without miserably wading through each meal. Enter Elana Amsterdam. Granted, many of her recipes won't work for the Clean Gut program due to additions of honey or citrus, but many of her recipes do work, and all of her recipes continually delight my family. All of them, ranging in age from 3-38, consume with gusto. Her recipes are simple, easy, and unfailingly "dialed in" delicious. There are many great paleo books on the market (I've tried a dozen or so), but I continue to return to this book for her specific versions of pie crust or mayo or salad dressing. These are the recipes that most fit my family's relatively traditional American palate and busy lifestyle (we do slurp down thick green smoothies with things like fennel, celery, cilantro, and hemp in them and love spicy Thai food and tend to tolerate foods that many around us consider "weird" but "Well Fed" was waaaaay to adventurous for our palates, as we found. Just don't like sweet flavors mixed into every savory meal). Her mayo is simple yet amazing, her pie crust (listed as the bacon shallot tart crust, but simply omitting the shallot turns it into a great plain, flaky crust for a savory pie, reducing the salt and omitting the shallot makes it a buttery, flaky, and unbelievably easy crust for sweet pie fillings), her veggie sides and desserts are amazing. I enjoy Against All Grain, Frugal Paleo, some of the Well Fed recipes, and Practical Paleo, but for a great marriage of health-focused, simple, time- efficient, and delicious recipes, I continue to return to Paleo Cooking from Elana's Pantry. I also recommend her blog, which has tons of free recipes on it as well.

Elana Amsterdam delivers another excellent and helpful cookbook for those who suffer from different allergies. In the past, I have tried her recipes offered from her website, and from her fantastic book she published in 2009, 'The Gluten-Free Almond Flour Cookbook.' My daughter and I suffer from different allergies, and found her delicious recipes to help enhance better health. There are approximately 100 mouth-watering recipes in this amazing cookbook that are family favorites, passed down from one generation to another. Every recipe is simple, easy-to-prepare with directions included, followed by colorful, stunning illustrations of prepared dishes. The author includes recipes for breakfast, lunch, dinners, sides and desserts. In addition, the sweet treats are a bonus, and there are plenty to choose from. The Paleo Diet is safe, gluten-free, dairy-free, and grain free. My daughter can tolerate dairy products, but I can't, so this cookbook is perfect for my health issues. The Paleo Diet highlights seafood, meat, vegetables, fruits and more. This cookbook also gives the number of servings per recipe, and her classic old-time favorites are incredible in taste. Each recipe also contains only a few ingredients to make life easy for the busy cook. We have made the Breakfast Sausage, which we both love as breakfast is my favorite meal. Her desserts are a sensation, including the Nut-Free Brownies, but there is so much more this book has to offer. An Update: I made the BLUEBERRY COFFEE CAKE twice, and it is indeed delicious. Also, I made the BANANA BREAD, very tasty. Tomorrow, we are going to make the CHICKEN SALAD as this sounds delightful and refreshing, and it's perfect for us in this AZ summer heat, which we appreciate dishes that are not to heavy. In conclusion thus far, the more we choose these recipes, the more we realize how fascinating this cookbook is. We thank the author for this wonderful addition to my collection of cookbooks, and I will leave updates with new recipes we try. Extremely useful, inspiring, and very helpful for those who suffer from allergies. Highly recommended!

I like the book, it has good recipes and I have always like Elana's cooking. I am happy with the content. My only issue is with the publisher. I love cookbooks and always get them in a hard copy form and latter I type the recipes that I like in my computer to save them in my recipe software. This time I decided to get them on my kindle, open them on Kindle for Mac and copy and paste the recipes and make it easier on myself. However, I was unaware that the publisher limits the amount of information that you can copy and paste. I am not even half way through the book and I will have to type the recipes anyway. I kind of get why they limit the amount of copy and paste, but I find it plainly annoying, I payed for the book and I would like to copy as many recipes as I want as many times as I want for personal use. I am not happy about it. Now I know better, dont ever get a recipe book on Kindle format.

This is a solid, fundamental and lovely cookbook. Really, whether you are Paleo or not. Elana is a talented foodsmith and creatrix, and would likely make sumptuous, delicious, healthy food no matter what her health philosophy. Full disclosure, I'm someone who is experimenting with Paleo inspired eating, although I am dubious of the science behind it, and particularly skeptical of certain Paleo gurus. I'm waiting for more confirmation from clinical, peer review studies, and not just popular lay experts. I've been around the block a few times with other wonder diets, and the religious enthusiasm of many Paleo advocates really sends up red flags. But I'm a curious sort, and have experienced some benefit so far from eating grain-free. I'm attracted to Elana because although she is a happy adherent of a Paleo diet, she does not come off as 'Paleo' religious. That comes as a relief after looking at many Paleo cookbooks which read like fervent devotees of doctrine. This cookbook is also attractive to people turned off by the 'bacon, bacon, bacon' repetitiveness of many Paleo cookbooks, and all the unpleasant macho posturing. Many people just can't tolerate eating all that meat and fat. It makes them nauseous and gives them diarrhea. And some people don't find the "caveman" thing cute and romantic. Instead in Elana's elegant book you'll find lots of tasty vegetable recipes, and some daintier meat entrees that don't make you feel like you have to chew a raw buffalo to be Paleo. A few of the negative reviews of this book have complained that it is too basic, that there are other more glitzy Paleo cookbooks out there. That's quite true. But for some of the reasons I mentioned above, I'm more attracted to this book for its more subdued, and not hysterical tone (Elana's website is similarly low key), and if the recipes are 'basic' they also look like something I'd actually make week in and week out. A cookbook which provides a solid foundation like this for my everyday eating is worth twice the cover price of this book, at least! My shelves are littered with 'hardcore' cookbooks I rarely use. I've looked at many Paleo books so far in my 'Paleo experiment', but this is one of the few I would recommend without reservation.

This is the second of Elana's books that I have purchased. I use her books and/or her blog almost daily. If you are looking for grain free, dairy free, low sugar, or even low carb recipes hers are always great. Her recipes are consistently accurate and turn out every time if you follow her directions. I used to try to use other "gluten free" recipes, but most are full of nasty processed starches and sugar and sometimes dairy too. Elana's recipes cover everything from main meal items to delights like Chocolate chip cookies, crackers, biscotti and scones(these last two are from her "Gluten Free Almond Flour Cookbook"). My non-paleo friends have even asked for the cracker recipes after tasting them, and they loved the cookies. I do reduce even Elana's recommended amounts of sweeteners because I am very sensitive to them. I just add a little water and/or stevia and have been very happy with the results. By cutting the honey in half and using 88% cacao dark chocolate, I can eat her chocolate chip cookies with no problems. The comments on her blog also give you good ideas for modifying or adding to her recipes. I love her blog because not only can I find great recipes, but she recommends other blogs or sources for additional recipes (for instance slow cooker recipes). Thank you again Elana for all your work creating recipes that that are truly paleo and delicious!

I know this review will most likely not be popular, but I am just not loving the newest cookbook from Elana.... it feels like she phoned this one in. The Paleo "Diet" has gained such popularity lately (which is awesome!) and as a result the bar for Paleo cookbooks has definitely been raised within the last year. This cookbook just isn't up to the same standard as some of the other books that have been published recently. Sure, the recipes look ok, but you aren't going to find a whole lot of new or exciting content here that you couldn't find on a short trip through Pinterest. The pictures in the book (there is one for every 4-5 recipes) are nice, but once again nothing jumps out at you. Maybe I am spoiled, but I want to look through a new cookbook and get so overcome by an urge to make recipes that I have to immediately dash off to the kitchen to whip something up. I am an avid collector of Paleo cookbooks. My whole family practices this lifestyle and I always look forward to adding new and exciting dishes to our collection of tried and true faves. This book just falls short of what I am looking for in a cookbook. At this point in the game I know how to make fritatas, I know how to make almond flour pancakes and I know 27 ways to roast a chicken. GIVE ME SOMETHING EXCITING!! I do think "Paleo Cooking from Elana's Pantry" would be a good introductory book to the lifestyle for someone just starting their journey, but as a "veteran" I doubt you will find much inspiration here. I also wanted to touch on one other aspect of the book that I found somewhat lacking: In the introduction Elana goes on and on about how so many of the recipes in this book contain coconut flour or flour other than almond flour and that is true. HOWEVER, almost all of the recipes that contain alternate flour also contain at least a cup of almond flour. You're not doing us any favors touting the use of coconut flour in recipes and then just throwing a Tbsp in here and there. I don't feel like these recipes are all that revolutionary or different than the (great) recipes you will find on her blog or in the other cookbooks. So to sum it up... this book just left me feeling, "meh". It's a book I would take for a spin from the library but not see the need to reference continually at home.

I was lucky enough to get an advanced copy of this book and made many of the recipes. My overall impression of these recipes were that they looked kind of like what all of the other Paleo recipes out there look like, but MAN, was there flavor! Not really sure how she does it, but every single thing we made was delicious and really made me take a second look at the recipe itself to try to figure out what she does differently from everyone else. You can tell a LOT of work has gone into testing and retesting and tasting of each recipe so that it is perfect. We weren't disappointed with a single one. My absolute favorite was the Blueberry Coffee Cake. It was so amazing that I would not hesitate to serve it to any guests I have that aren't grain-free. The Cinnamon French Toast was also delicious and is helping fill a void that we had with this favorite breakfast food since we started the Paleo diet. We also made the Olive Oil Thyme crackers which were wonderful with an olive tapenade, the Balsamic Beets, the Sauteed Turnips, and the Paleo Bread. I will make every single dish again, that is for sure. This book has a great variety and there is something for everyone, especially if you have to entertain and/or cook for people not on a grain-free diet. They will like everything just as much as the normal version.

Si estás adoptando la dieta paleo y no sabes que comer, aqui hay multiples recetas super ricas para experimentar.

This book is is especially fit for glutenfree cooks. Since it's not "strictly" Paleo by Loren Cordain's standards. But if you still crave the sweeter indulgences..Elana is the best in my opinion.

Mir wurde der Blog, der Amerikanerin Elana Amsterdam empfohlen, welchem ich folge. Sie hat dort unzählige Rezepte zusammengestellt, ich wollte mir diese näher anschauen und habe daher zudem das Buch bestellt. Alles was ich bisher nachgekocht habe, hat geklappt und war sehr schmackhaft. Bei einige (wenigen) Artikeln muss ich schauen, wie es sie in Deutschland gibt (oder was sie genau sind) aber spätestens das Internet (oder Reformhaus) hilft hier weiter. Überlege mir noch ihre weiteren Bücher zu bestellen. Wer unschlüssig ist, sollte einfach mal auf ihrem Blog schauen ob es einem zusagt.

Excellent, great Banana cake in Paleo cooking from Elana's Pantry,gluten ferr,dairy free and grain free. Highly recommend have 3 others about to cook

Elana es indispensable para mi. Descubrí su blog hace más de dos años, cuando me diagnosticaron espondilitis anquilosante y buscaba una dieta que evitase las intolerancias que tengo (gluten y la cota) y que además ayudase en la mejora de la enfermedad autoinmune. Tiene en ese blog infinidad de recetas antiinflamatorias, la mayoría sencillas de hacer. Gracias a ella descubrí que otro tipo de alimentación es posible, sana y Rica, y que se nota en el bienestar. Este libro, en formato muy manejable, es una recopilación de sus principales recetas.