Sophie Van Tiggelen

It feels so good when non-fiction books can tell you exactly what they’re all about by just paying attention to their cover. This is one of them. I requested an eArc last year, before I knew how handy it would be to plan meals for a week and avoid extra trips to the grocery store.

This is a great book for our current times, for those on the autoimmune protocol diet (AIP) or simply craving for yummy recipes that avoid carbs, dairy and other inflammatory ingredients, while embracing fruits, vegetables, meats, healthy fats, etc.

For those who don’t know what AIP is, the first chapter explains how it works, its benefits and methodology. It’s actually very simple. A couple of chapters are dedicated to guide your through your new journey of meal batch making: containers, ingredients, how to store, reheat or even defrost your meals successfully (not necessary but possible!).

There are 10 different meal plans in this book, each one designed to feed an adult for 5 days (breakfast, lunch, dinner and snack). They also have themes like “comfort food meal plan”, “one-pot meal plan”, “flavors of the world meal plan”, etc. Each plan will give you a full shopping list, instructions for batch cooking and, of course, delicious recipes. I only wish it had even more recipes to choose from and perhaps a 7-day meal plan version.

I really like the idea of cooking all meals needed for a week in one go and then forget about it for the rest of the week. Also, the possibility of freezing them could mean you can create batches for 10, 15 or more days!. This is specially appealing when you have an autoimmune disease that can leave you out of energy all of a sudden. Having your meals ready can give you one less thing to worry about, while making sure you are still eating healthy.… (altro)

This is not just a dietary cookbook, it is a book that shall help you to follow the Autoimmune Protocol (AIP) to increase your health on a longterm basis. The AIP and autoimmune diseases are explained in easy to understand language. The benefits of the AIP are explained but also the caveats, which foods to eat and which to avoid, and which foods, when and how to re-introduce them into your diet.

Let me stress here, following the AIP is not easy, but this book is supposed to help make the transition more easy for you with weekly meal plans, including shopping lists, and yummy looking recipes.

To be honest, I was browsing through the book before I read the introduction. A lot of the recipes looked so good, I wanted to try them at once. Then, I started reading and read the words: fish, seafood and organ meat. Ugh! Those have put me off potential AIP diets before, though mainly because I had no idea how to incorporate them into my life. This book offers intersting recipes that I can see myself trying, like the Liver Paté recipe.… (altro)