Looking for more allergy friendly and healthy snack recipes? Check out my Get Lean Gluten Free Review and this recipe for SunButter Energy Bites!
Hey healthy friends! It has been a little while since I have done a cookbook review, or any book review for that matter! I am a slow reader so that has always posed a problem for me when I want to do any book reviews. So I just haven’t done that many!
If you have been waiting for me to review a cookbook, then you’re in luck today 😉 I’m reviewing the Get Lean Gluten Free Cookbook written by Jeremy Scott and Kim Maes, CNC, AADP. I’m not a big e-book reader so I had them send me the print version of the book. So while I’m reviewing the paperback version there is an e-book version out there if you like to read electronically.
The beginning of the book goes through a 10-day carbohydrate cycling meal plan for fat loss. The carb cycling guidelines are 3-day cycles that are fairly easy to follow: instead of listing calorie counts for each day, the menu lists meal combinations. No calorie counting = good news for busy people! If you are looking for a carb cycling routine for fat loss, then this has some great ideas in it.
There are also some great tips in the beginning about how to eat gluten-free while avoiding the poor eating traps that gluten free diets often lead to. Instead of simply replacing traditional foods with packaged gluten-free ones, food choices should be centered around whole foods. They encourage readers to eat simple meals and keep their ingredients simple when making recipes.
The recipes start on page 12 and the cookbook includes 40+ recipes to choose from. Most of them are super simple and quick to make. The recipes in the cookbook are organized by which day in the carb cycle the recipe would fit so you have lots of different meal and snack combinations for each day.
The cookbook has some great recipes in it, mostly very simple and easy to put together. Most of the breakfast recipes have a lot of eggs in them, so I couldn’t make some of the breakfast recipes (I have an egg intolerance) which was a bummer.
But the majority of the other recipes are allergy-friendly. Some of the recipes call for almond flour and almond butter, so if you have tree nut allergies, you could sub in SunButter and ground sunflower seeds instead.
The cookbook is a nice resource if you are looking for simple and allergy-friendly recipes! I am a visual person so bigger photos would be nice, but overall the layout was well put together and easy to read. The only thing I noticed in the book that I would recommend adding is disclosures with the affiliate codes in the book. As a blogger I am stickler for that sort of thing, so it would be great to see affiliate disclosures added before the codes/links or a blanket disclosure added to the beginning of the book.
Recipe shared and re-printed with permission from the author
Now for the recipes! Here’s one of the recipes I made from the book. I didn’t end up following the recipe exactly, I had to make some changes based on what I had on hand and our allergies and food intolerances. Above is the original recipe for the No-Bake High Protein Energy Bites for days 3, 6, and 9 on the carb rotation (which are moderate carb and moderate fat days), and below is the recipe I made with all the changes.
The Triple Omega Seed Mix has chia, hemp hearts, and flax seeds – perfect for this recipe!
Here’s the final recipe I ended up making with the changes. I halved the recipe and made some swaps: sunbutter for almond butter, no cacao (chocolate doesn’t like me anymore), Triple Seed, and hemp protein in place of the vanilla protein powder. Using maple syrup instead of honey also makes these low FODMAP if you’re on a low FODMAP diet.
SunButter Energy Bites
Ingredients
- ½ cup gluten-free oats
- 3 Tablespoons NOW Foods Triple Seed Mix
- 2 Tablespoons plain Hemp Pro 70 protein powder
- ½ teaspoon cinnamon
- ⅛ teaspoon sea salt omit if your nut butter is salted
- ⅓ cup sunbutter
- 2 Tablespoons maple syrup
- 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
Instructions
- Stir together the dry ingredients: oats, seed mix, protein powder, cinnamon, and sea salt if using
- Add in the sunbutter, maple syrup, and vanilla extract and mix thoroughly
- Roll mixture into balls and chill
- Enjoy!
Nutrition
Sarah Jane Parker is the founder, recipe creator, and photographer behind The Fit Cookie. She’s a food allergy mom and healthy living blogger based in Wyoming. Sarah is also an ACSM Certified Personal Trainer, ACE Certified Health Coach, Revolution Running certified running coach, and an ACE Certified Fitness Nutrition Specialist