Nevermind “Paleo cooking” – just COOK
My first “real” career was as a chef. I went to culinary school – not Paleo culinary school – and learned, of all things, Classical French Cooking mainly. The thing is, once you learn the basic techniques of cooking you can cook pretty much anything. And there is absolutely NO shortage of cooking resources in this country! There is an entire culinary WORLD out there that can help you learn to cook and keep things interesting. You don’t have to become a Chef or spend $1000 a week at Williams-Sonoma, but getting a little into food and cooking will go a long way toward making Paleo fun and keeping you Paleo long term.
Just get interested in cooking and keep your eyes and ears open. Sure, bread and pasta is out, but there are plenty of “regular” recipes, cookbooks and cooking shows that can give you some great ideas for Paleo dishes.
Don’t limit yourself to Paleo-only resources
Here are 5 non-Paleo resources to get you started:
- Recipes on WholeFoods.com – Sure, maybe half of these recipes aren’t Paleo, but A LOT of them can either be made Paleo with a few changes or are almost there already. If you spent some time on this site once in a while you’d definitely have a ton of ideas to work with. You can browse by categories like Beef, Dairy Free, Wheat Free, Portable, Poultry and Vegetables. Remember, a category like “Vegetables” or “Vegetarian” doesn’t need to be a main course. You can use a vegetarian “meal” as a side for your beef, chicken or fish. Yeah, the vegetarians might get mad, but they’re too skinny to do much about it 🙂
- Spend a day at the book store – If you spent some time in the cookbook section of a big book store like Borders or Barnes and Noble you’d find a ton of great cookbooks. Buy a couple and resolve to try one recipe a week. If you really like beef or chicken, get a book devoted to one of them. Out of an entire book devoted to meat or poultry, a lot of recipes will either be Paleo or can be made Paleo pretty easily.
- Recipe books on amazon.com – Same thing here. And you can get really niche on a site like amazon. There are over 2,785 cookbooks on amazon today for “meat, poultry and seafood.”
- Check out Food Network and foodtv.com – Again, there’s plenty of non-Paleo stuff here, but there’s also plenty that IS Paleo or can be made so. Guys like Bobby Flay do TONS of grilling and spicy stuff that is either straight-up Paleo or is Paleo when you drop the side dishes. Flay’s show “Boy Meets Grill” is a good one to check out.
- Don’t forget the Vegetarians – Believe it or not, I have a bunch of vegetarian cookbooks. Like I said above, a lot of vegetarian recipes make great side dishes for a big old hunk of meat 🙂
Paleo can actually be a pretty easy way to eat. Once you get a handle on what’s excluded from the diet you can use a HUGE variety of “regular” recipe resources to find Paleo recipes and ideas for Paleo dishes. If you make cooking and food a little “hobby” for yourself you might even find that you enjoy it!
ttys
Adam
Good tips! I used to have a raw food “uncook book” that had all kinds of recipes for “normal” food substitutes, like burritos, milkshakes, etc. It was vegan, so all you have to do is add some meat to the entrees. I gave it away a few years ago, but wish I had kept it now that we are living Paleo., Oh, well.
Thanks, Amy! Yeah, there are a lot of different places you can get great Paleo ideas from – even those wacky vegans 🙂
Adam
GREAT post, I completely agree. I think that people can get waaaay too caught up in almond flour pastries or whatever, and forget that meat and veggies should be the base of our diet! And you can find recipes for those anywhere.
Some “regular” cookbooks that I would recommend:
Mexican Everyday by Rick Bayless: http://amzn.to/9NJ4rj just serve everything over veggies instead of tortillas or rice
Any of the cookbooks put out by Cook’s Illustrated: http://amzn.to/5OXInx
How to Cook Without a Book: http://amzn.to/r0g53
Low Carb 1-2-3: http://amzn.to/b8FNri
Also, Passover cookbooks are great because they avoid grains and legumes (other than matzah/matzah meal), and since dairy and meat cannot be eaten together, a lot of recipes exclude dairy so that they can be served with a dinner that contains meat.
Great additions to the post, Erica! Thanks very much!
Adam