Customer Reviews

Well Fed: Paleo Recipes for People Who Love to Eat

5 star:		(78)
4 star:		(9)
3 star:		(6)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

I have been moving toward a full paleo eating style for the past year and a half and I literally own every "paleo" cookbook available on Amazon. I wish I had this cookbook when I was just getting started. It is the very best of my whole collection -- and that is saying something because I really enjoy a couple of the others. Well Fed is absolutely chock full of deliciousness. Every recipe WORKS. It turns out as described and wows my family. I am doing a "cookup" right now to stock my fridge and pantry for a week of healthy eating -- something I originally learned from John Berardi over at [...] -- and the ideas in this book are going to take my weekend cooking ritual to an even higher level of healthiness and diversity.

I have never before cooked every recipe in a cookbook. I am committing that I will be making every single recipe in this book before the end of 2012. Yes - it is that good. In fact, I have never reviewed any of the many books I have purchased from Amazon, but this author deserves a shout out. Her writing style is authentic and engaging, and the information she shares is fresh and useful (did I mention fun and edgy as well?). I will be buying multiple copies today so I can gift them to some very lucky people. Thank you for your hard work in putting this lovely book together, Melissa Joulwan. You are a kitchen goddess.

When we look back on the year 2011, it will remembered by those of us who closely follow nutrition and health as the year of the Paleo cookbooks. Here is just a small sampling of the most amazing and best recipe books that have released this year highlighting the virtues of healthy low-carb, Paleo-friendly dishes for you to nourish the bodies of your health-conscious family:

- The Paleo Diet Cookbook: More than 150 recipes for Paleo Breakfasts, Lunches, Dinners, Snacks, and Beverages by Dr. Loren Cordain
- Paleo Comfort Foods: Homestyle Cooking for a Gluten-Free Kitchen by Charles and Julie Mayfield
- Make it Paleo: Over 200 Grain Free Recipes For Any Occasion by Bill Staley and Hayley Mason
- Primal Blueprint Quick and Easy Meals: Delicious, Primal-approved meals you can make in under 30 minutes (Primal Blueprint Series)

It's an impressive assortment of books that absolutely must be on the bookshelf of anyone and everyone who makes this way of eating their preferred plan of choice. And the good news is there are MANY more to come in 2012 and beyond as people start becoming more and more familiar with the benefits of going grain-free, sugar-free, legume-free, and dairy-free to attain optimal health. Whether you are new to the Paleo, primal, ancestral or low-carb lifestyle or if you're a long-time seasoned veteran at it, we all need help sometimes sprucing up our diet and keeping it from becoming the drab, boring and undesirable lifestyle that it is stereotyped as being.

That's why I'm happy to share with you one more truly amazing cookbook gem that released in 2011 that I'm sure will become a go-to resource in health-focused kitchens across the United States and around the world. It's called Well Fed: Paleo Recipes for People Who Love to Eat by Melissa Joulwan from "The Clothes Make The Girl" blog (NOTE: There's also an e-book version of the book and special sneak peek of the book available at Melissa's web site).

For those of you who are unfamiliar with Melissa's blog and story about how she came to the Paleo diet, I highly encourage you to check out her blog and learn more about the woman behind this book. Of course, she divulges much of her life's story at the beginning of Well Fed which will give you an appreciation for who she is now and why a cookbook was a logical choice for her to write. The "Dina-Chow" that's sprinkled throughout this book is simply awesome and there's no other way to describe it. The photos of the food accompanying each recipe is the actual finished recipe right before it was devoured by the Joulwan clan. Your mouth can't help but become a waterfall in anticipation of what is sure to be some of the most interesting food you've ever eaten. Where else can you get Paleo low-carb versions of a wide variety of ethnic-based foods like "Chocolate Chili," "BBQ Fork Fried Rice" (made without rice), "Shepherd's Pie," and so much more in these 174 pages of absolute decadence? Flipping through the pages of this book, I honestly wanted to try EVERY SINGLE RECIPE-it's THAT good!

I could appreciate that Melissa made a convenient one-page called "The `No' List" on page 3 followed immediately by another quickie one-page called "The `Yes' List." I HIGHLY encourage you newbies to this way of eating to photocopy these pages and post them on your refrigerator door, kitchen cabinets, bathroom mirrors...wherever you'll look at them on a daily basis! Absorb what is shared on these pages and you will quickly become smarter on nutrition than about 99% of the population, including most doctors, dietitians and those who pretend to know what the heck they're talking about regarding nutritional health on television (*cough* Dr. Oz *cough*). These really are the bare knuckles basics to Paleo eating spelled out more succinctly than anything else I've ever seen. And that's saying a lot because I've seen it all. The bottom line: just eat real food! This is a MAJOR theme of what it actually means to be "well fed."

While this book will likely be placed in the "diet" or "health" section of bookstores or on places like Amazon, Melissa is quick to point out that she considers this book as neither. It could more accurately be called an "inspirational" book that will tickle your taste buds with recipes that will as she puts it "make you want to smash in your face with joy." Now that's an image I won't soon forget! It's part and parcel of the magic that Melissa Joulwan brings to the table as an ever-enthusiastic and unapologetic defender of her simple philosophy of "Just Eat" and everything else will fall into place and take care of itself.

Since much of the book includes recipes that you won't likely see anywhere else, I recommend that you pay close attention to the "About The Recipes" where you can get a lesson on the most common ingredients and cooking tools/methods you'll be using and how they work to produce these recipes. You'll save yourself a lot of headaches later if you heed this advice from someone who's been there, done that already. And Melissa also reminds you that the presentation of the food is an important element in being Well Fed as well. You'll rarely eat out in a restaurant again if you apply what she teaches on page 13.

The nitty gritty of how to make this book work well for you is on page 16 when she describes "The Weekly Cookup" that includes shopping lists, meal planning, and how to construct a meal that will knock the socks off of the people you are serving (yes, even your kids will think you're a culinary rock star after eating these meals!). Making sure you have the right amount and kind of foods on hand at all times that you can grab and start cooking with is the key. Then it's just a matter of opening up "Your Paleo Pantry" and pulling out your choice of some of the most remarkable spices and seasonings that will awaken the foods you are about to consume. Melissa also tells you what "Essential Kitchen Tools" to use to be the best darn cook in your neighborhood. Sound impossible? I guess you gotta get Well Fed to find out!

I'm always curious about how the recipes in cookbooks like this one are displayed. But Melissa made it a lot more fun than I've ever seen before. She gives you the title of the recipe, adds a cutesy yet descriptive subtitle (i.e. for the "Olive Oil Mayo" recipe, she included the subtitle "You'll Never Consider Store-Bought Again"), tells you the serving size, how long it takes to prepare and cook the recipe, a brief commentary on the recipe itself, the ingredients to use, the directions, an empty "Notes" section for you to add your own variations to the cookbook for your personal use, a "How You Could Do That" section for suggested variations, as well as "Tasty Ideas" about what you could make to complement this particular recipe. It's this kind of practical, real-world advice that sets this cookbook apart from the ones I've seen a million times before.

If you wanna know what being Well Fed is really all about, then all you gotta do is gaze your eyes at the photo used on the back cover: `Nuff said! Isn't it time you became Well Fed?

Look out Paleo eaters, the cookbook that I have been begging for is now available. Melissa Joulwan has just released Well Fed: Paleo Recipes for People Who Love to Eat - and it is beyond fantastic!

I'm sure that many of you already follow Melissa at her blog, The Clothes Make the Girl, but if you don't know her, Melissa is the author of Rollergirl, an avid CrossFitter who makes time to practice yoga, a rock star in the kitchen, and the most generous person I have encountered on the Internet.

Filled with over 115 original recipes and variations, Well Fed is the product of much blood, sweat, and tears, and most importantly love. Love in the sense this book is not only about preparing the best real food possible, but presenting and sharing it with family and friends.
And for Melissa, the production of Well Fed has involved the people closest to her (her husband Dave was responsible for the stunning photographs):

"All of the photos are of the real food that we cooked for the shoot, then ate for dinner. No fancy food photography tricks and no "cheating" on the recipes. What you see in the photo is exactly what you get when you use the Well Fed recipe."

In addition to the beautiful photographs and delicious recipes, this cookbook does something unique in the genre of food preparation - woven throughout the book is the theme of how to put fantastic meals on the table in the least amount of time. This is where Melissa shines. In the book, Melissa says:
"Run your kitchen like a restaurant. Most neighborhood restaurants don't cook every part of your meal to order. If they did, they'd never get the food to the table fast enough." and "I muster up about 30 meals and snacks each week: I eat a homemade breakfast every day except Saturday, and I pack my lunch and snacks for day job sustenance every weekday. To forage all the ingredients for that food, my husband does one giant shopping trip on Friday afternoons, and I spend about two hours on Sunday cooking for the week. With most of our food already cooked, meal prep on an average day takes about 30 minutes total: 10 minutes to pack my food for work and 20 minutes to throw together a delicious dinner."

I'll wager that this will be the cookbook in your kitchen that has pages folded down, will be stained, and will have notes written in the margin. Why? Because you will use it!

I have been cooking with this cookbook for a couple of weeks and can confidently say it is "best of breed" in the paleo world. With all the blogs and cookbooks out there you will encounter a lot of clutter, but if I were to recommend one paleo cookbook to a friend (based on content) it would be this one. Highlights include:

1. Each recipe includes a section with logical side pairings and variations. Possibly my favorite feature - I feel like improvisation in the kitchen can be a bit harder on the paleo diet and the variations presented in the book can be applied to other recipes, so I'm learning fundamentals I can use in the future.
2. Recipes are easy to understand and follow. Minimal prep time. This is a recurring theme throughout the book. The author clearly understands the value of a weeknight recipe.
3. The recipes are delicious and creative. The "best grilled chicken you will ever have" is exceptional. Loved the apples in butter dessert/side. I have tried six or seven other recipes and found them all to be tasty and relatively easy.
4. The book emphasizes meal planning and cooking ahead as a means to reduce time spent in the kitchen. This really resonated with me and in the two weeks since I started doing this I have wasted almost no vegetables (previously a problem for me) and have spend a lot less time in the kitchen on weeknights.

So the content here is easily five stars, however about four days after I started cooking with the book the binding started falling apart and about 20 pages throughout the book fell out. Not sure if anyone else had the problem or if I just got a defective cookbook. Therefore giving it three stars because I've never had a cookbook fall apart on me before.

The fabulous Melissa Joulwan, Whole9 Envoy Extraordinaire, author of The Clothes Make the Girl and Pop Candy trading card vixen, has ventured once again into the bright lights of stardom. Her new cookbook, Well Fed, features more than 115 mouth-watering recipes from every corner of the world. But Well Fed is more than just a cookbook - it's the definitive resource for every Paleo chef (and aspiring chef).

In Well Fed, you will find all the practical details you'll need to jump headfirst into a Good Food lifestyle, including a sample shopping list and step-by-step instructions for planning and cooking your meals. (And the foreword is practically Paleo-Pulitzer prize-worthy. Yes, it's worth the price of admission all by itself. No, we're not biased.) Finally, this book is gorgeous. Coffee-table-worthy, don't you dare spill chimmichurri on it, leave it out on the counter for all to see gorgeous.

Want some more details? We've been following the creation of Well Fed from Day One, so we can absolutely give you details.
Getting Down to Basics

Well Fed includes a comprehensive "No List" that quickly details which ingredients you'll not find inside - and why. But that list is quickly followed by an expansive "Yes List", which gives a great visual representation of all of the foods you will be eating during your healthy eating transformation. This simple, detailed "Yes List" quickly and effectively takes the focus off of what you won't be eating, and gets you excited about all of the new and delicious foods you'll soon be featuring on your plate.

But knowing what to eat is only the first step in the process. Knowing how to eat, in a way that fits your busy life, kitchen experience and culinary skills, is another matter altogether. But don't worry - Well Fed's got you covered! Thanks to Joulwan's expert kitchen management skills and the detail she's included in this cookbook/handbook, you'll no longer find yourself stuck in Good Food Jail, chained to your stove (and dishwasher) to ensure you're well fed. She shows you, step-by-step, exactly how to properly prepare enough food for the week - without turning your kitchen into the set of I Love Lucy.

And finally, this cookbook, and the delicious meals contained within its pages is food that you (or we, or anyone) can actually cook. No French, $3,000 kitchen appliance or dictionary of cooking terms required. (We know that's a standard line when it comes to cookbooks, but this it's true - we swear on Julia Childs.) The recipes in Well Fed will make you appear as a culinary genius to your Doubting Paleo family and friends - just remember to hide the cookbook-evidence. (You know, smoke and mirrors and such).
Around The World In Whole30 Days

Once you own a copy of Well Fed, you officially lose all right to complain about "boring" food. Joulwan's recipes will take you around the world without the cost of airfare or the smell of sweaty strangers on a bus. Sri Lankan curry sauce, Czech meatballs, Scotch eggs - oh the places you'll go! Cook your way from the Far East to the East Coast, stopping everywhere of culinary importance along the way, without compromising the standards you've worked hard to define in your diet.

And the best part - these recipes will take you all the way through your Whole30 - and back. Well Fed details enough 100% Whole30-approved recipe creations to provide you with enough breakfasts, lunches and dinners to last the duration of your program - with a few "repeats" thrown in for your favorite meals. (Seriously, there's only ONE recipe in Well Fed that's not Whole30 approved. Just one! And it's so amazingly delicious, we couldn't fault her for giving it to you.)
Family Ties

As if the great resources and Whole30-approved recipes weren't enough to sell you, here's what we love most about Well Fed: Joulwan's family stories. Scattered throughout the book, her tales of cooking with her parents, learning from her Dad and creating new dishes together shines a bright and poignant light on what food really means to us.

A common theme around here (the Whole9 community) is the social, familial and cultural value of food. For most of us, food is a connecting point, a medium through which our lives touch and overlap the lives of those around us. The smells and tastes of the foods around us are inexorably linked to the memories we've created and the traditions we've built. Joulwan beautifully and poignantly illustrates how you can take the rich heritage that food has given your family, the food that feeds your soul, and make it applicable to the new way you have chosen to feed your body.
Get Well Fed!

Thanks to the fabulous Melissa Joulwan, there is absolutely no reason for you to ever complain that Paleo food is boring again - and not to buy your own copy of Well Fed (and several to give away as gifts). This more-than-a-cookbook book has the potential to revolutionize your food-life, is Whole9/Whole30 endorsed and probably also has superpowers. (But we can't vouch for that...officially.)

Bon appétit, friends!

I was so excited to hear Melissa was writing a book! I have been following a paleo lifestyle for over 2 years and have watched her journey. My husband had ordered for me for Christmas, but then got word it was delayed til after! I received my copy last night and so excited to try everything! Melissa puts her personality into her book by giving you lots of options. Not only does she share a recipe-- she provides different takes and options on how to tweak and make totally different so you don't get bored. Not to mention her book is (I believe) Whole 9- Whole 30 approved!! She reminded me why I started paleo and re-ignited my passion to start eating more veggies and pack my own snacks (instead of turning to my staple paleo pacs and occasional Lara bars). I am excited to start the new year off "Well Fed"! Thanks Melissa!!!

I got this book at the same time I purchased Everyday Paleo by Fragoso, and shortly after I purchased Primal Blueprint, Quick and Easy by Sisson and Meier. I much prefer this book to the other two. Here's why: Paleo cooking is expensive. I need recipes that turn out well the first time. We cannot afford to throw food away, (or avoid it until it's time to throw it away). I've made 10 recipes from this book so far (with an 11th in the oven at the moment). We have really liked 9 of them--spaghetti squash just doesn't have a texture my family is ever going to enjoy. I thought the Sunshine sauce was a little tart, but that was easily remedied by adding a little honey (added sugar, I know, I know). I'd omit the rice vinegar next time. I'd recommend silicone baking cups for the "meat muffins" over the paper liners she suggests. That's about all I have to add. The recipes have great flavor, including interesting flavors I had never tried before--and I'm a very experienced cook. There are innovative recipes in here that have turned out wonderfully well and have become new go-to standards for us (the carmelized coconut flakes, the market kale--and we've not been big fans of kale before). She's also included reasonably quick to make sauces that make the usual protein + veggies interesting. Further, the recipes in here are actually useful. I don't need 30 pages of cooked egg recipes, which is a complaint I have with "Make it Paleo" by Staley and Masson (their treats and cheats section is helpful, though). I don't need 30 pages of weightlifting and general paleo information (though if you do, you may like Fragoso's book for that). This is primarily a book for people who are looking for main course and veggie side ideas that are wonderful. In addition, she has a fast prep section that offers a method to get week-night dinners on the table quickly. I'm a mom who works full-time, so I appreciated her attention to this. On top of the excellent content, the cookbook is well-organized, has a great index, is visually appealing and is fun to read. I'd give it 10 stars if I could.

I don't usually write reviews, but this cookbook deserves to be raved about! You think Paleo and you think hunks of meat and piles of veggies, how fun can that be?
Wow. Everything I have made from Well Fed has been beyond delicious. The ingredients are simple, the instruction is clear, the pages are visually appealing and, best of all, the dishes are divine.
I got Well Fed the week before Christmas and just 2 days before New Year's Eve and I have already made the Pad Thai, the Best Chicken You will Ever Eat, Moroccan Meatballs, Chocolate Chili and Citrus Canitas. Not a single one has disappointed. The Pad Thai was out of this world! Even my non-Paleo husband has had zero complaints about the lack of pasta and cheese in his dinners.
I love that the recipes are great as they are, but they also include suggestions of ways to modify it. So, no matter what you have in your fridge, you can make a healthy dinner!
Buy it! Buy many! One for yourself, one for you sister, one for you buddy at your gym. Do it!

I have had this book for less than two weeks. We have tried several of the recipes and they are very tasty. However, at this point the pages are starting to come out of the book. I wish I could rate this higher, but based on the poor quality of the cookbook, I am sad to say that I cannot. This may be better as an eBook, as you will not have to worry about pages coming out and getting lost somewhere.

In short, this is the best cookbook I have ever owned. The recipes are phenomenal to the point that my favorite restaurant meals have paled in comparison. On top of that, the recipes are clean, paleo and guilt-free. AND she not only tells you what to cook, but how to do it on a real-life, we all work-type schedule. I love her description of the weekly "cook-ups" and the "hot-plate ideas".