I have been watching Downshiftology on YouTube for a few years, and the cookbook is a welcome continuation of that. The recipes are gluten-free and emphasize whole foods, rather than processed foods. Lisa is a proponent of meal prepping in batches and then combining the prepped components into different combinations throughout the week to keep it interesting. She includes information about how to select the best food from the grocery store (what to look for), different ways to prep and cook it, and different ways to use it in different dishes, as well as storage tips, so she offers a lot of versatility, in addition to traditional recipes.
Although the recipes are gluten-free, they are not low carb. For example, rice, potatoes, and legumes are all naturally gluten-free but high in carbs. I follow a low-carb diet, so I simply use substitutions like riced cauliflower instead of actual rice or zucchini instead of potatoes. The recipes are all simple and easy to customize to your liking. She’s a proponent of prepping from whole foods (e.g., spiralizing her own zucchini noodles or making her own hummus), but I don’t have the time, equipment, or energy for that, and that’s Okay too. You can buy pre-spiralized zucchini noodles at many grocery stores, for example. It’s more important to remove any potential barriers to healthy eating than to try to follow everything verbatim.
The pictures are beautiful and inspiring. My husband was really struck by the cover picture of a shrimp dish, so I bought the ingredients and he made it that night, which has never happened before from a cookbook. Something random is that many of the pictures have the food on a white marble counter, and I kept mistaking the spots in the marble for stains on the pages of the book, but that’s not really a critique, just something I noticed.
Whether you are a beginner or an experienced cook, I think you’ll like this cookbook. Give it a try, and see how much better you feel when you eat healthy, delicious food.
