Make it Paleo: The Experience – Final Sha-bang!

As I write this post I am torn with a mixture of emotions (I know what you’re thinking…it’s just a damn post about making food from a cookbook, how much emotion can there be?!) Let me explain, when I first had the idea of starting a website/blog I went into the the experience quite blind. I had been doing Crossfit for about 5 months and experimenting with Paleo for about 3 of those 5 months. I really had no idea what I was going to write/post about but I knew that I had something to offer (I just didn’t know what the hell it was)!  I wrote a few articles here in there, trying to make that English & journalism degree my parents paid for worth their while, but I wanted something more constant and relatable.

This being said, on my journey of transitioning to Paleo I was cooking WAY more than I ever did in my life. I could not do even the simplest of tasks, i.e. boil pasta (when I ate it), make eggs or fry bacon. Having seen the movie Julie & Julia, I always thought that was such a cool idea to cook recipes from a cookbook and document your experience with them, the good, the bad and the ugly!  About a month into blogging I finally gathered up the cohones to e-mail Bill & Hayley to see what they thought of the idea of me using their cookbook and embarking on a cooking experience with it and blogging about it! Much to my surprise not only did they e-mail me back, but they liked the idea! I received the book a few weeks later and the rest has been cooked up for you every Thursday since!

So why the emotion? This series is really what began to give this site some structure and got the ball rolling. I couldn’t imagine all that would come from a simple series about cooking recipes from someone’s cookbook. The amount of support that has been given to me not only by the community, but by Bill & Hayley themselves still blows my mind everyday. I am incredibly gracious for everything that they have done & to everyone who landed on this page somehow or another. Not only did this series begin to define the structure of my site, but in a way, my life. As my passion and drive for this site began to mold so did my passions and drive outside of the interwebs. In the past year my life has changed completely from what I would have imagined last spring.

All this being said, all good things must come to an end. With the release of Bill & Hayley’s new book, Gather: The Art of Paleo Entertaining (out next Tuesday) I thought there is no better time to lay this baby down to bed than today. As one chapter ends another one begins… next week as part of out HUGE week-long launch party for Gather we’ll begin a whole new chapter, Gather: The Experience!!!

Colorful Cauliflower Salad

Ingredients:

• 1/2 head cauliflower
• 1/2 red bell pepper
• 1/2 yellow bell pepper
• 1 cup carrot
• 1 cup cucumber
• 1 cup cherry tomatoes
• 3 radishes
• 2 green onions
• 2 tbsp parsley
• 1 tsbp extra virgin olive oil
• Juice of 1 lime

Instructions:

1. Grate cauliflower. Place in a bowl, and microwave fir 45 seconds on high.
2. Rinse all vegetables, and cut into 1/2-inch chunks.
3. Add chopped vegetables to grated cauliflower.
4. Add in parsley, and stir.
5. Drizzle 1 tablespoon of olive oil, and squeeze the juice of 1 lime over salad.
6. Toss to mix and serve.

Asian Broccoli Slaw

Ingredients:

• 1/2 small red cabbage, thinly sliced
• 4 cups broccoli, grated
• 2 green onions
• Sesame ginger dressing (see below)

Instructions:

1. Thinly slice 1/2 of a red cabbage using a mandolin or sharp knife.
2. Using a grater or food processor, grate broccoli to uniform small chunks.
3. Chop green onions into 1/4- inch pieces.
4. Toss everything together with the sesame ginger dressing.

Sesame Ginger Dressing

Ingredients:

• 1/2 tbsp garlic, minced
• 1/2 tbsp ginger, minced
• 2 tbsp toasted sesame oil
• 2 tbsp coconut aminos
• 2 tsp sesame seeds
• 1/2 tsp each: salt, pepper, red pepper flakes

Instructions:

1. Mince garlic and ginger.
2. Combine sesame oil, coconut aminos, garlic, ginger, sesame seeds, salt, pepper and red pepper flakes in a small bowl.
3. Whisk all ingredients together.

Check us out next week for our week-long celebration of the release of Gather: The Art of Paleo Entertaining. Monday we’ll have my official review of the book. Tuesday we’ve got a brand new CaveTalk featuring the author’s themselves, Bill & Hayley and then Thursday we kick off our brand new series Gather: The Experience!!! 

The post Make it Paleo: The Experience – Final Sha-bang! appeared first on LIVEtheFIT.