Danielle Walker - Against all grain: delectable paleo recipes to eat well & feel great

delectable paleo recipes to eat well & feel great

more than 150 gluten-free,
grain-free, and dairy-free
recipes for daily life

written & photographed by

Danielle Walker

www.againstallgrain.com

VICTORY BELT PUBLISHING INC.

Las Vegas

front cover photography and design by Jennifer Skog

First Published in 2013 by Victory Belt Publishing Inc.

Copyright Danielle Walker

All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced or distributed in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, or stored in a database or retrieval system, without prior written permission from the publisher.

ISBN 13: 978-1-936608-36-2

This book is for entertainment purposes. The publisher and author of this cookbook are not responsible in any manner whatsoever for any adverse effects arising directly or indirectly as a result of the information provided in this book.

RRD 0113

Lifestyle and cover photo team:

PhotographyJennifer Skog

Hair & MakeupLindsay Skog

Set StylingPJ Rude of Milkglass Vintage Rentals

AccessoriesAshley Morgan Designs

I can trace my passion for cooking back to a failure in the kitchen when I was in college. It was my first time attempting a meal totally on my own, and I vividly remember proudly serving a platter of Chicken Parmigiana to a houseful of college boys. After anticipating a delicious, home-cooked meal, they cut into their chicken only to find that it was grossly undercooked. I later learned that the chicken breasts needed to be pounded into cutlets to ensure even and quick cooking.

That was the first of many culinary failures, but it sparked a hunger in me. The Food Network became the background to my studies, and cooking magazines smothered my textbooks. I had a newfound interest in how and why dishes worked or didnt, but out of fear of poisoning everyone around me, I spent the remainder of my college years cooking what was familiar and comfortable.

It wasnt until I graduated that I started to actually experiment with new foods. But not by choice. After a few months of experiencing gastrointestinal upset, fatigue, and unexplainable anemia, I received a diagnosis of ulcerative colitisan autoimmune disease that attacks the intestines. I was prescribed a myriad of harsh medications to be taken multiple times a day but still experienced terrible symptoms. My various doctors refused to speak to me about dietary changes and assured me that food could not cure the disease. Through my own research and reaching out to others in online communities, I discovered that I could, in fact, drastically change my approach to eating to alleviate my symptoms.

To my dismay, I learned that I needed to remove grains, lactose, and refined sugars. Gone were the days of convenience when a meal could come from a jar of spaghetti sauce, a package of pasta, and frozen hamburger meat. All-purpose flour and white sugar, which had been staples for me, were no longer options. Whatever I knew about cooking would no longer serve me. It was back to square one.

After trying a few recipes I found on the Internet and tossing them in the trash because they were inedible, I came up with a mission: to never again miss the food I once loved. I set forth to create grain-free, dairy-free dishes that were reminiscent of the standard American diet, but were wholesome and made from fresh ingredientsthings that would leave a person feeling satisfied rather than deprived.

But let me backtrack a bit, because it is important to comprehend the gravity of my pain and suffering to understand why this mission became my passion.

In 2007, a mere two months after graduating from college and marrying my high-school sweetheart, I found myself in the emergency room suffering from unbearable pain in my abdomen and a slew of digestive complications. Until then, I had been a perfectly healthy young woman, with no family history of digestive disorders and only the occasional stomach upset as a child. The hospital discharged me without a diagnosis and gave me prescriptions for medication that ultimately intensified my symptoms.

A few agonizing weeks, three specialists, and one lengthy hospital admittance later, I was finally given a diagnosis of ulcerative colitisa disease similar to Crohns disease. I was again discharged with a handful of prescriptions and the promise that, while there was no cure for the disease, I could ultimately live a very normal life. The doctors didnt discuss the symptoms I might experience or even the side effects the drugs might cause.

About six months later, I found myself in a hospital room in Kampala, Uganda, pleading for my life as I lay precariously near death. My husband and I had been planning for a year to partake in a humanitarian trip to work in the refugee camps in northern Uganda. While I had experienced minor discomfort and symptoms before we left the States, I was in no way aware of the severity of this disease, and so we had decided to follow through with our plans.

In Uganda, I was racked with debilitating pain that forced me into a wheel chair, became severely anemic, and dropped twenty pounds in ten days. I was administered a vast dose of 100mg of intravenous steroids daily, which provoked more side effects than the initial symptoms they were intended to mitigate. After a weeklong stay in the two-room hospital in Kampala, the doctors concluded that the thirty-six-hour journey back to the US for a blood transfusion was imperative: doing so in a country rampant with disease was simply too risky.

That episode was the first of many that landed me in hospitals over and over again and launched me into a world of harsh drug therapies that only exacerbated my condition. It also led to a grave frustration with the lack of awareness the traditional medical establishment had regarding diet and alternative therapies. A mere twenty-five years old, I couldnt fathom the thought of taking immunosuppressant medications and being subjected to frequent flare-ups for the rest of my life. It was at that point that I realized I would need to resort to my own research and acquired the tenacity to heal myself through food.

Two years after my initial diagnosis, I was introduced to the Specific Carbohydrate Diet (SCD), which has been used for decades to manage the symptoms of Crohns disease, ulcerative colitis, celiac disease, and autism. Rather than resigning myself to a life sentence of pain and suffering, I went on the offensive. I implemented the SCD and began to feel minor relief almost immediately. It took a lot of time, and even more discipline, to see drastic changes, but the first inklings of improvement gave me hope. I knew I would have to start over entirely in the kitchen, but it was a small price to pay for my health.