Two Great Cook Books and one for the kids.

I have had some really great books come my way lately The Athlete's Cookbook, Cooking with Coconut Oil and The Rabbit Who Wished He Could Fly.  I was sent all of them for review purposes and for getting my opinion. 

1.  Cooking with Coconut Oil is a grain free, gluten free cookbook and is great for Paleo people.  I don't cook exclusively Paleo, but I trend towards it.  I have been cooking with coconut oil for the past year so I was excited about this book and getting more ideas on how to cook with it.

I made several meals out of it, my favorite was this one.

Curried cauliflower steaks, pork chops and apple compote and Hasselback sweet potatoes.  Don't let the small portion of cauliflower on my plate fool you, my husband and I ate nearly a whole head of cauliflower.   The whole dinner was a hit and the directions were easy to follow. You can find it on Amazon.

Highlights

• Lots of variety for breakfast, salads and dressings, sides, main entree, snacks and starters and desserts and baked goods.
• lots of Paleo alternatives to common comfort foods like cake, muffins, pancakes
• this book will be a regular in my lineup

2. The Athlete's Cookbook is not paleo or gluten free, which is fine with me.  My favorite recipe in here hands down was the Swoon Worthy Sweet potatoes and the Poulet Almondine.  YUM

It not only has lots of great recipes, but it gives menus for athlete's based on different things you may be looking for like fat loss, endurance, and strength.  For each it provides a 5 day meal plan and is broken down into what to eat if it is an exercise day or an off day.  Other basics like ideal meal timing, easy things to do to lose body fat, and how to make your food work for you and the goals that you have.

My biggest complaint is that some of the ingredient lists for the recipes are long.  They do give great detailed instructions for the recipes, but no pictures.  That makes me a little sad too I have to admit. You can find it on Amazon 

Sidenote:  I had never cooked with shallots before this and am hooked.  This book is now a regular in my kitchen.

3. A fellow blogger and runner Erik Ammon got injured and wrote a children's book.  

It passed the kid test.  My daughter requested it for her bedtime story three times last week.  It's about a rabbit who is wanting to be more like his friends and less like himself, but in the end learns it is better to just be yourself.   You can check it out on Amazon.  It is available in both paper and Kindle versions.