For my cooking session, I made Chou Vert (stir fried green cabbage with cilantro), Mock-A-Mole (a quick rendition of guacamole featuring avocado and salsa), Black Olive Tapenade (a tasty blend including olives and raw walnuts), and the Zucchini Latkes.
My favorite of this group of recipes was the tapenade. Since kalamata olives were the only glass-jarred no-preservative olives I had available during my grocery shopping trip, I subbed them for the black olives, and in my opinion the recipe was not negatively impacted at all by this switch. The flavor was ultra savory - and my girls enjoyed very much. The tapenade was quick to be thrown together in the food processor, and the lack of cooking made it a super efficient recipe. I will be making this one again and again as a contribution to parties !
I just so happened to have duck fat in our fridge, which is the recommended cooking fat for the Chou Vert. The al-dente slightly-brown-at-the-edges texture of the cabbage was just right and I loved the cilantro (I'm a cilantro fanatic!). When I make this recipe in the future I'll try out for the recommended substitution fat, or perhaps do another shelf-stable fat of my own choosing to try taking the flavor in a little bit of a different direction.
The Mock-A-Mole was pitch perfect - my husband loved it! I've long enjoyed throwing together avocado and salsa in this way, but the suggested addition of lime juice was something I hadn't done before. Unfortunately I had forgotten to pick up a lime, so I used an equivalent amount of an acidic liquid - Bragg's Raw Apple Cider Vinegar, which worked very well. Adding this acidic element is something I'm likely to repeat again in the future.
The zucchini latkes were very tasty, and other than the little bit of planning time required to "sweat" the zucchini with salt, they came together very quickly. The Paleo Parents' directions were very clear about removing as much moisture as possible from the salted shredded zucchini. When I make them again, I'll take even more care on the sweating-out part - I thought I'd done a good enough job of squeezing out the water from the shredded zucchini, but my latkes were still not as crispy as I'd have preferred.
I will definitely be giving these recipes a second (third, fourth...) go-around - after all, half the fun of the first go-through is recognizing where my methods and ingredients can improve! I can also work a little more at sourcing items for future tries, like finding black olives in a glass jar.
The Paleo Parents' Eat Like a Dinosaur is superbly well done. It is especially well suited to individuals or families who are just starting out on a classical paleo journey without grains, dairy, or sugar. Many basic recipes for household staples (applesauce, mayo, etc.) are included - but as with the olive tapenade, there are recipes with flavorful twists that will delight even the most longtime paleo enthusiast. Probably the biggest plus of the Paleo Parents' cookbook is that many, many of the recipes are five ingredients or less, and a good portion come together in less than 10 minutes. Some kid-friendly-sounding recipes include "Rat on a Stick" (a curried ground beef and/or lamb recipe), "Sweet Potato Fries", "Ten Tomato Ketchup", and "Graham Cookies".I also very much enjoyed the cartoonified forward featuring pictures of the Paleo Parents' family describing their transition to the paleo lifestyle. On a final note, my non-paleo mother - an elementary schoolteacher - told me that of the paleo cookbooks she's thumbed through, Eat Like a Dinosaur is her favorite.
Fast, simple, tasty, and kid-friendly - Eat Like a Dinosaur is the total package. I'd heartily recommend it to anybody!
~
This review contains only my opinions, which are honest and my own. I was not compensated for reviewing this book, other than receiving a free advance copy. This post contains Amazon affiliate links. Thank you for supporting Primal Kitchen at no additional cost to you!
