Bring It!

My love for cookbooks is a tad obsessive. I love stacking them in my kitchen as decoration, and I love flipping through pages at night after the girls are in bed for inspiration. The beautiful thing about living a paleo lifestyle is that nearly (almost) everything can be "paleo-fied". And, when one of my "lifetime-ago" friends publishes a cookbook, you best believe I purchase her piece of work. 

Ali Rosen is the real deal. She's an all around gem. I can say this with confidence because I saw her nearly everyday for six months when I was an intern at NBC Nightly News in New York City. Her energy was contagious, and she always had a smile on her face. I think what I admired most about her was that she could do it all with a lot of grace. Literally. She could write a story, produce a story, and shoot a story in no time. Her drive was never ending. She also encouraged me, a lot. She lives in NYC with her husband and adorable son. She even founded and hosts Potluck with Ali Rosen, which airs on NYC Life. She was also named as one of Forbes Magazine's 30 Under 30 for Food & Drink. You get the gist for this amazing woman!

Her book is beautiful, and the pages smell wonderful (a plus for me). I love that she appreciates using fresh ingredients like eggs, herbs, garlic, and lemons for lemon juice. While flipping through the pages of Bring It! I was drawn to several recipes that will be perfect for this summer - or anytime for that matter. I'm going to share a few recipes that will be perfect for summer gatherings with family and friends.

It's strawberry season here in Michigan, and this simple but delicious recipe caught my eye right away! I not only have strawberries to pick down the road, but my backyard is drowning in mint. The ingredients in her strawberry and mint salad are nearly paleo, minus the sugar. Instead of two tablespoons of sugar, you could simply use honey or coconut sugar!

Salmon and cucumber are a perfect duo. She adds classic ingredients like shallots, mayo, and capers, but adds a little bit of zing with Frank's RedHot. I mean, come on. Yes! These will be perfect on hot summer days!

Give me all of the kale salads! The dressing for this salad has so many flavors that I love. She combines the carrots, ginger, shallots, vinegar, soy sauce (you can use coconut aminos!), olive oil, and Parmesan (you can omit, although it might not be as good ha), and blends these ingredients. She tosses the kale, pecans, apple, and salt with the blended dressing. It's a recipe that's just enough different from the usual kale salad that is bound to be a hit.

I kind of have a theme going on here, but these salads are perfect for the summer! Stone fruit and cucumbers. Stop it! Let's make a batch of stone fruit sangria while we're at it! Ali's plum and cucumber salad is paleo friendly, and has ripe plums, cucumbers, lime juice, olive oil, cilantro, and just enough chili flake for a spicy salad. I'm sure you could easily omit the chili flake if you're not a fan of spice. She also notes that peaches can be subbed for plums.

Another paleo friendly recipe! I agree with Ali that using a whole chicken, and cutting it up is the best way to go. Don't be afraid of bones - it adds all that extra flavor and goodness! In this recipe, she combines scallions, sunflower seeds, lemon juice, garlic, capers, and oil. She covers the chicken and simply bakes the chicken in the oven. I've never breaded a chicken in sunflower seeds, so I'm excited to try this!

Blueberry and lemon.. a classic, and one of my favorite combos ever. Add meringues, and you pretty much have my ideal dessert. Ali gets it. Remember my paleo meringues I made a few weeks back? I'm thinking about topping them with paleo lemon curd and fresh blueberries and mint from the backyard.

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Don't these recipes look amazing? Especially for summer - which is just a few days away? My garden is flooded with herbs, cucumbers, peppers, green beans, kale, and zucchini. Ali has a recipe for it all. I appreciate her thinking about the growing seasons, and using ingredients that compliment each other. I think it's so important to eat what's in season, and store what's left. Her tarts in this book are beautiful. The "real" tart crust can easily be replaced with a paleo friendly crust. Her meat dishes look amazing. Roasted watermelon pork ribs? I need to try asap. 

And most of all, I love Ali's realness. She's a fellow mom, so she gets it. I'm going to leave these words for you. 

I hope you consider purchasing this cookbook! Thanks for inspiring me, Ali. I hope to join you in the cookbook section someday! <3