The Real Food Diet Cookbook GIVEAWAY

Now I can officially say that I DO own a healthy cookbook!

Katy, who works for Dr. Axe actually contacted me and asked if I would be willing to review the The Real Food Diet Cookbook by Dr. Josh Axe. Well of course I was more than happy to!

When I received it in the mail, I immediately got nice and comfy and started reading. The first half of the book is all about nutrition and the rest is all recipes!

full color, vivid photos on every page is a major PLUS

the writing is very fun and super easy to understand, not boring and dry like some books!

but most of all, the book has great facts, helpful tips and fabulous recipes!

*Here are some things that really hit home for me after reading the cookbook cover-to-cover:

– it is more important to count NUTRIENTS than calories, fats and carbs

– instead of centering our meals around grains, we need to focus on eating more vegetables and fruits than anything else

– organic butter is a whole food and is one of the healthiest foods you can include in your diet! …say what?! I have to admit, I have been avoiding butter lately, due to it’s bad rep, but apparently it is packed with HEALTHY saturated fat and lots of minerals and vitamins, like coconut oil. But it’s important to buy QUALITY butter, get raw and cultured or at least organic!

– here’s a big one that I wasn’t too educated on: pasteurized dairy (a.k.a scary dairy) is super bad for us, they basically boil away all the nutrients. My family actually buys pasteurized dairy and I use/drink it often, now I’m hoping my mom will conform and agree to buying almond milk!

– olive oil is a healthy oil, but when you are cooking with it and it reaches 200-250°F and over, it turns into, basically, black and toxic fumes and it burns the nutrients. you’d be better off cooking with coconut, grapeseed and sesame oils. I always roast and cook my veggies in olive oil, but I think I’ll start using these other oils, at least more often!

– Dr. Axe also mentions that refined sugar is PURE POISON  and “is lethal when ingested by humans” which I thought was kind of harsh, if ya know what I mean! He suggests we all switch to Stevia and use honey/maple syrup/agave extremely moderately.

– He also mentions that while grains are good, most of our carbs should be coming from veggies and fruit. He doesn’t go into detail about why he doesn’t like using whole wheat flour or other “healthy” grains. He recommends quinoa, brown and wild rice and sprouted gluten-free grains (spelt, millet…).

Well! Now that I’ve given you a major run down of the book, it’s onto the recipes!

There are sooo many recipes in here that I can not WAIT to try, but first I made pancakes.

I made the Pumpkin Blueberry Pancakes.

The recipe called for gluten-free pancake mix but I used this gluten-free Ancient Grains Flour Blend I received from King Arthur plus some baking powder.

I have not had any experience with gluten-free flours (especially flours made with amaranth, millet, sorghum and quinoa!!) and didn’t know exactly how the pancakes would taste or if they would turn out.

They were not bad tasting at all! They did have a “quinoa-y” flavor and it wasn’t anything like whole wheat flour pancakes, but still tasty! Of course they were a million times better doused in maple syrup!

I don’t know why I always make pancakes. I hate making pancakes. Hovering over the stove, waiting for the pan to heat up, constantly re-greasing the pan, waiting to flip the pancakes, spreading the batter on the hot pan… and the clean up is always a major pain!

So please, remind me never to make pancakes again. They are a piece of work. No matter how awesome a recipe looks. In the future I’ll just make French toast!

Things that would make The Real Food Diet Cookbook even better:

– Serving size with the recipes! I guess it’s easy to come up with the serving size on your own, but it is something I certainly missed from this cookbook

– To make finding what you’re looking for much easier, an index would be incredibly helpful!

Other than those two things, I love this cookbook and it is definitely nice to have around! There are lots and lots of fabulous breakfast, beverage, main dish, side dish and dessert recipes that I can’t wait to make!

Guess what guys? (like you haven’t been waiting for me to mention the giveaway…)

They actually sent me TWO cookbooks! One for me and one for one of you! Isn’t that so exciting?!

Little Miss Healthify’s Very FIRST Giveaway!

To enter to win the other copy of The Real Food Diet Cookbook, thanks to Dr. Axe AND some other assorted goodies (bars and such!) from me all you have to do is:

1. Leave a comment on this post about anything you’d like!

2. Post about the giveaway on your blog with a link back here!

3. Follow me on Twitter!

4. Tweet about the giveaway like this: “@kaylahealthify is giving away “The Real Food Diet Cookbook”: http://tinyurl.com/473q8tn!”

Remember to leave a separate comment for each entry. Only open to U.S residents, I’m so sorry! The giveaway will end when I pick the winner randomly on Monday, February 28 at noon EST.

Oh, and just so you know, the recipes are all gluten-free. They are not all vegan, but you could easily switch them up just a little (leave out the meat) to have them fit your dietary needs.

Good luck to you all! I can’t wait to see who wins! Thanks for reading, I seriously am in love with you all. 🙂