Against all grain

So recently, my dear friend over at The White Whale gave me a little birthday present of the cookbook Against All Grain.

Isn't Danielle Walker just the cutest? She's like, hey y'all. I got some paleo goodness up in here. I don't know why I picture her as a southern belle. More likely she's from the Bronx or something (edit - she's from San Fransisco, which makes a lot of sense). But that hair! The red dress!

Check her out on her soon-to-be-published second book here:

 

Oh, you know, just washing my organic romaine and greeting my gorgeous husband with a smile as he walks through the door with two puppies and a dairy-free chai latte in hand. Alright, I think I might be extrapolating a bit here. Safe to say Danielle Walker is pretty great.

I digress. I love cookbooks, and I was super stoked to get this one. Yes, I know I'm off the strict paleo bandwagon, but I still want to be eating lots of healthy foods full of veggies and protein, and these recipes deliver.

First up: slow cooker beef chuck chili. I was psyched cause I got to use my roommate's slow cooker (thanks Jansky!) and basically just threw everything in there and let it stew in its own awesomeness. I made some adjustments, like using ground beef and bison (what I had on hand) and throwing in a boatload of spinach at the end.

Sort of close, right?! I don't even think I'm being sarcastic this time!

Next up is banana bread. I've got some bananas that are knocking on death's door and deserve a eulogy in the form of nomtastic baked goods.

My new goals are:

1. Cook more recipes from cookbooks. I've got Ellie Krieger's floating around somewhere from a while ago which has a lot of awesome healthy recipes, too.

2. Eat leftovers from said recipes before moving on to other recipes.

3. Make sure to not cook anything with shellfish. I had a horrid reaction last week where my entire body, head to toe, was on FIRE with hives. It was miserable. Got a prescription for some major anti-inflammatories and antihistamines and they slowly went away after about 5 days. The only thing I can think is that I ate shrimp right before it happened. Then ate calamari the next day (yeah, I'm dumb and didn't connect the dots) and that just threw it through the roof. I have an allergy appointment in July but until then I'm avoiding everything shrimpy. But I keep forgetting. I'm like, OH this SHRIMP RECIPE with SHRIMP PUREE and SHRIMP SAUCE SHRIMP WRAP sure sounds good! Shellfish smoothie on the side, yeah! Yum! And then I have to stop myself and be like, HIVES.

4. Get back into the workout swing. The hives threw me WAY off. I couldn't work out, let alone move without being utterly miserable. Itch itch itch. I went to bootcamp on Thursday, which was the first day I had no hives at all, but then still had trouble getting into workout mode this weekend. Today I ran 3ish miles though, so I'm getting back into the groove.

What recipe books do you own? Any recommendations?