Review: Beyond Bacon

As Joel Salatin eloquently stated in the foreword to Beyond Bacon by Matthew McCarry and Stacy Toth, “a pig is more than bacon.” While bacon is typically considered to be the gateway meat that is able to convert even the staunchest vegetarian into an omnivore, there is so much more nutrition and culinary delight to be gained from the rest of the animal.

I believe pork is underrated in the Paleo world, with most consuming bacon as a garnish or side dish without a second thought to the rest of the animal. This is why I was excited to receive my copy of Beyond Bacon – I love cooking with pastured pork, lard, ribs, jowls, and even the trotters.

Beyond Bacon: A delicious ode to pork that respects the whole hog.

Beyond Bacon is not only a beautifully designed cookbook with loads of delicious recipes such as Asian Short Ribs, Apple and Bacon Stuffed Pork Chops, and even desserts like Yellow Lard Cake and Apple Fritters, but it also contains an incredibly informative foreword explaining how to find affordable pastured pork, the history of pig cultivation, the nutritional science of pork, and the best tools to use in the kitchen when cooking with the whole hog. You’ll even learn how to create your own pork stock and render your own lard.

McCarry and Toth also share their family’s story, which was first described on their website, Paleo Parents. They explain how eating a Paleo lifestyle has helped their family lose weight, gain energy, and eliminate countless health problems that were significantly reducing their overall quality of life for many years. Further, they share the overall goal of Beyond Bacon: to remove readers’ fear of organ meats, bone broth, and healthy fats, and to provide delicious ways of incorporating nourishing pastured pork products into the diet. They even explain how followers of the Paleo, Primal, and Weston A. Price-approved diets can rest assured that eating pork will not negatively affect their health, and can even improve it.

The photography is stunning, and showcases the local farms that McCarry and Toth source their pastured pork products from. They explain the importance of finding a reputable source of pastured pork, describing the environmental,  health, and even flavor benefits of choosing properly-raised hogs over their CAFO counterparts. Not to mention, it’s easy to see how happy these pigs are when flipping through this book – there are even photos where you’d swear the pig was smiling! While some may take this as an excuse not to eat pork, I see these images as confirming my dedication to finding properly-raised animals for moral, environmental, and personal health reasons.

For more information and even some recipe samples from Beyond Bacon, you can check out Stacy and Matt’s blog here, where they reveal a few of their recipes and special features, and share other reviews of the cookbook. If you’re ready to buy the book, you can click here to order it from Amazon. You won’t be disappointed in this remarkable addition to your Paleo bookshelf, and you just might discover a newfound love for headcheese, chitterlings, and organ-rich scrapple! This truly is a cookbook that respects the whole hog.

Tagged as: bacon, beyond bacon, cookbook, cooking, cuisine, health, lard, nutrition, paleo, pork, primal, weston price

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Review: Primal Cravings

One of the biggest challenges newbies face when switching to a primal or Paleo diet is the fear that they will never be able to enjoy their favorite foods again. After all, who doesn’t love some type of “junk” food like cheeseburgers, slices of pizza, chicken fingers, or chocolate chip cookies? While some may find dietary austerity appealing, there are many food lovers out there that are resistant to eat a healthy diet, as they believe they will be doomed to a life without their favorite foods that they’ve grown up with.

This is why Primal Cravings is the perfect cookbook for those new to the primal or Paleo lifestyle, as well as seasoned ancestral eaters who occasionally have a hankering for one of their favorite food items from their former life, whether that be a juicy burger or a slice of warm apple pie. We all have foods that we wish we could indulge in without derailing from our healthy diet, and the Keatley’s have made that wish possible with Primal Cravings.

I’ve been using recipes from the Keatley’s website, Health-Bent, for some time now. That’s why I was excited to learn that they were creating a cookbook with some of their best recipes, as well as new ones created specifically for the book. I knew the book would be full of fun recipes that could turn even the biggest junk-food lover into a primal convert. Not only are these dishes incredibly easy to make, but they’re delicious and made from high quality and easily found ingredients. You don’t have to be a gourmet chef to make great-tasting meals using these recipes – in fact, some of them even contain less than 5 ingredients, or require no cooking time.

An unexpected bonus of Primal Cravings is the extensive guide to ingredients, tools and equipment, how to stock a primal kitchen, and the Keatley’s philosophy on health and good eating, including the ever important 80/20 rule. These two food-loving Crossfit coaches have created a cookbook that could also double as a nutrition guide for those new to primal eating, or even just cooking in general.

This book is an ideal gift for friends and family members (even children!) who are resistant to eating healthily and complain that they love their favorite foods too much to ever give them up. This cookbook could be the catalyst for a junk food-loving friend to finally give healthy eating a try. You’ll be far more successful convincing someone that eating healthily can be pleasurable if they are able to easily cook and enjoy their favorite foods. And even if you don’t have friends or family on the fence, you’ll still enjoy the creative dishes that the Keatley’s have served up. While not all of the recipes are based on stereotypically unhealthy foods, you can bet that they’ll all pack tons of flavor while staying compliant with the general Primal nutritional recommendations that many of us subscribe to. You might even forget that you ever changed your diet!

To order Primal Cravings, click here.

Note: I earn a small commission if you use the links in this article to purchase the products I mentioned. I only recommend products I would use myself or that I use with patients in my practice. Your purchase helps support this site and my ongoing research.

Tagged as: cookbook, healthy, junk food, paleo, primal, primal cravings, review

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Review of Gather: The Art of Paleo Entertaining

Gather, the Art of Paleo Entertaining by Bill Staley and Hayley Mason, is a brand new Paleo cookbook designed to inspire year-round celebrations with family and friends. No gathering of loved ones is complete without a table full of delicious food, yet it can be difficult to prepare multi-course meals that can be enjoyed by those who are following a Paleo diet. Bill and Hayley’s book is proof that it’s possible to eat and entertain like a gourmet without gluten, grains, or other “non-Paleo” ingredients.

Gather is not only visually stunning, it also contains impressive multi-course meals perfectly designed for a variety of holidays and celebrations throughout the year. The index is divided by the four seasons, and each season has its own set of menus to guide and inspire you for your own gathering of friends and family.

If you’re on a Paleo diet and you love food, Gather is the cookbook for you.

With Gather, you’ll be able to organize a casual Sunday brunch in the spring, a Tuscany-inspired dinner party in the summer, a Paleo Thanksgiving feast in the fall, and lovely winter holiday meal. The menus cover a variety of cuisines, such as Chinese, Cuban, and Caribbean, and there are kid-friendly menus, including a Halloween spooky supper, and even a birthday party, complete with chicken nuggets and birthday cake – all grain-free of course!

The best part of serving food from Gather is that you can feel confident you’re serving your loved ones nourishing food while pleasing their palates. A lot of early Paleo cookbooks were long on health and short of flavor and creativity. Gather is the best of both worlds: the dishes are worthy of a 5-star restaurant, with nutrient-dense ingredients such as pastured meats, wild seafood, green and root vegetables, and healthy fats like coconut oil and grass-fed butter.

Gather would also make a wonderful gift for a friend or family member who is tempted to try Paleo but is concerned that the idea of a “diet” is restrictive, or insist that they can’t live without their favorite foods. This book will be more than enough to convince them that they can eat healthily without sacrificing flavor and enjoyment. (But you might try cooking them a recipe from the book first!)

If you’re a Paleo foodie like I am, Gather is a must on your kitchen shelf. The book releases today (April 30th, 2013), and can be ordered on Amazon.com.

Tagged as: bill staley, book review, gather, hayley mason, paleo, primal palate

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Nutrisystem success review

The 40 years experienced diet program Nutrisystem has introduced a new diet plan called nutrisystem success. This most comprehensive weight loss program has attracted too many users in the beginning itself. The specialities in the advanced diet plan meals are,

1.    Frequent

2.    Portion controlled

3.    Have balanced nutrition

4.    Low glycemic index eating

5.    Prepared by revolutionary and advanced steamer technology

6.    Helps the users to take the weight off and keep off

All the meals have the above features and help the users in losing weight successfully. The special features in Nutrisystem success are,

1.    Includes fresh frozen meals that are largest ever assortment of signature artisanal

2.    Includes new dinner entrees from Chef’s Table

3.    Included new chocolates, vanilla, strawberry and protein shakes

4.    New physical activity program My Daily 3

5.    More personalized transition and maintenance plans to the users.

The nutrisystem reviews give all these details. The fresh meals are prepared by the celebrity chef from Nutrisystem Culinary Council. The physical activity program that has been included in this diet plan is very much personalised to give maximum results to the users. With all these features there are transition and maintenance plans to help the users to lose weight and keep it off. As all the features in the diet plan are the maximum personalised any dieter gets a special program from them. This helps anybody to lose weight simpler and faster. Those who have lost weight successfully are able to maintain the weight too.

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