Emily Dionne - The Everything Paleolithic Diet Slow Cooker Cookbook: Includes Pumpkin Bisque, Herb-Stuffed Tomatoes, Chicken and Sweet Potato Stew, Shrimp Creole, Island-Inspired Fruit Crisp and hundreds more!

PALEOLITHIC DIET
SLOW COOKER COOKBOOK

Dear Reader,

This book will help you overcome the barriers of adhering to the very popular and healthy, but sometimes not-so-easy-to-follow, Paleolithic diet. Many people find it difficult to fully immerse themselves in this fairly strict lifestyle. However, by incorporating the use of a slow cooker into your daily routine (for far more than just dinner entres), you will find the Paleo way of eating simpler, more palatable, and more enjoyable than you ever thought possible!

The Paleolithic diet, often referred to as the Caveman diet, consists solely of foods consumed during the Paleolithic era, which concluded roughly 10,000 years ago. Obviously there was no technology back then, and therefore no packaged, processed, or genetically enhanced foods. No wonder there was no evidence of any unhealthy, overweight, disease-stricken cavemen! Leading a Paleolithic lifestyleconsuming only natural, preservative-free, fresh foods (or even modified versions of them)can help you obtain positive health benefits, hence its popularity. Some of these benefits include: an improved health and wellness profile, a decreased risk of chronic disease due to the diets high antioxidant content, and more energy to live, work, and play!

Cheers,

Welcome to the Series!

These handy, accessible books give you all you need to tackle a difficult project, gain a new hobby, comprehend a fascinating topic, prepare for an exam, or even brush up on something you learned back in school but have since forgotten.

You can choose to read an Everything book from cover to cover or just pick out the information you want from our four useful boxes: e-questions, e-facts, e-alerts, and e-ssentials. We give you everything you need to know on the subject, but throw in a lot of fun stuff along the way, too.

We now have more than 400 Everything books in print, spanning such wide-ranging categories as weddings, pregnancy, cooking, music instruction, foreign language, crafts, pets, New Age, and so much more. When youre done reading them all, you can finally say you know Everything!

PUBLISHER Karen Cooper

MANAGING EDITOR, EVERYTHING SERIES Lisa Laing

COPY CHIEF Casey Ebert

ASSOCIATE PRODUCTION EDITOR Mary Beth Dolan

ACQUISITIONS EDITOR Lisa Laing

SENIOR DEVELOPMENT EDITOR Brett Palana-Shanahan

EVERYTHING SERIES COVER DESIGNER Erin Alexander

Visit the entire Everything series at www.everything.com

PALEOLITH DIET
SLOW COOKER
COOKBOOK

Emily Dionne, MS, RD, LDN, CSSD, ACSM-HFS

This book is dedicated to Brian. Thank you for so many very special memories that I will cherish forever, and for reminding us all that life is far too short. I love you.

I would like to thank all of my clients, family, friends, and coworkers who provided their inspiration and support, all of which is represented in this book by the hundreds of delicious recipesnone of which could have been created without their help. A special thank-you to my clients at MBX Training, for their specialized input into the performance nutrition recipes, tailored toward athletes like themselves. Another special thank-you to my parents, who graciously took care of Buddy on those many late nights spent slow cooking. I truly appreciate everyones suggestions, insight, and patience.

IT IS NO SECRET that the Paleolithic diet has been pegged as one of the most difficult diets to follow. Although many recipes call for just a few ingredients, the challenges revolve around the amount of planning ahead required to bring these recipes to fruition. Cue the slow cooker! Slow cooking introduces New Age cooking methods to Stone Age sustenance. It incorporates a diverse range of fresh produce, herbs, and spices in each and every scrumptious concoction, while encouraging creativity, patience, and an open mind. The cavemen of the Paleolithic era did not have the privilege of utilizing this modern-day appliance. However, they did have their own way of slow cooking, by the only source of heat that was availablefire.

Slow cooking helps simplify the entire recipe process, both the cooking as well as the preparation. Fortunately, for the fairly simplistic, three-food-group-limited Paleo diet, slow cookers add both versatility and flair. This book is comprised of an extensive array of delicious and nutritious Paleo cuisine, including breakfast, lunch, dinner, and dessert dishes, ethnic cuisine, kid-friendly entres, appetizers, and much more. The sizes of slow cookers used in these recipes range from 2-quart to 6-quart, and cooking times vary from less than 1 hour, to greater than 10 hours.

The increasing popularity of the Paleo diet has led to the need for guidance in making it easier to follow, more convenient, and more conducive to our fast-paced, modern-day lifestyle. The Paleo way, sometimes referred to as eating clean, can lead to a number of favorable health benefits for people of all ages and backgrounds, and as a result of some of these benefits, can also lead to improved sports performance in athletes. The diet is loaded with antioxidants, vitamins, minerals, and heart healthy fats, all of which provide anti-inflammatory benefits, which can decrease ones risk of developing chronic diseases, including diabetes, cancer, cardiovascular disease, and osteoporosis. Following the diet can improve disease markers in those already suffering, and speed an athletes recovery from training and competition, therefore improving strength gains, and ultimately, enhancing performance. The Paleo diet is also rich in fiber, which aids in regulating and improving digestion as well as maintaining more consistent energy levels, a key factor for both competitive athletes and avid exercisers. Some research also supports that this diet can improve an individuals weight management, overall body composition (i.e., decreased body fat percentage), and result in improvements in ones ability to control appetite.

There are some important modifications to the Paleo diet necessary to meet the specialized performance needs of athletes. Therefore, many of the recipes incorporate some non-Paleo foods such as starchy vegetables, sports drinks, and other liquid carbohydrates, in order to meet these needs. Two hours prior to competition, during competition, and up until ninety minutes following competition, specific non-Paleo foods should be consumed in order to prevent hindrance to performance, and to promote optimal recovery. Calcium and vitamin D supplements are sometimes recommended, depending on whether the athlete is willing to consume dairy or not and the amount of sunlight exposure he or she typically obtains. Consulting with a health care provider, team physician, or sports dietitian is important for athletes who follow the Paleolithic diet, especially for those just beginning the diet.