The holidays are here! To help make your holiday shopping a little bit easier, I have put together this quick guide to must-have gifts for the 2016 season. I'm sure you will also find some things you want to add to your list to Santa, too ;-) This list is short and sweet, but if you want more than 50+ gift ideas please check out The Ultimate Paleo Holiday Gift Guide (which has been updated for 2016).
Pre-Order Latin American Paleo Cooking
Lock in the lowest price on MY PRINT COOKBOOK which is releasing in 2017!! It features traditional Latin American dishes made Paleo and with AIP substitutions for nearly every recipe. My Puerto Rican mother-in-law helped me by sharing her generations-old family recipes, and I've also included my favorite dishes from Venezuela, Peru, Colombia, Cuba, Argentina, and more! Some highlights include arepas, alcapurrias, pupusas, and the most amazing AIP stretchy meltable cheese anyone has created!! Take a peek on Instagram to see my teaser shots and check back for more details on my blog soon. I JUST turned in the manuscript a few days ago so I have been really behind with the blog, but I am going to catch up soon :-)
Instant Pot Pressure Cooker & Slow Cooker
The Instant Pot is an electric pressure cooker with a stainless steel interior that is an absolute game-changer in the kitchen. You can make gallons of rich, gelled broth in a day (see how here), whip up dinner from frozen meats in an hour or two, and cook up sides and desserts in a jiffy. It also functions as a slow cooker, so you can free up some space in your cupboards by having one appliance! There are 3 models you can choose from, depending on your budget and needs:
- 7-in-1 6 quart capacity (most popular; I own this one) - full price $120 - BLACK FRIDAY $55
- 6-in-1 6 quart capacity (no yogurt button) - full price $100
- 7-in-1 8 quart capacity (trending - for large roasts and huge batches of bone broth!) - full price $160
If you plan to use it as a slow cooker (aren't multi-functional appliances the BEST?!) then you can pick up one of the glass lids if you like.
Black Friday grab the 7-in-1 6 qt for just $55!!!
The Paleo AIP Instant Pot Cookbook (eBook)
While you are at it with snagging your Instant Pot pressure cooker, pick up a copy of the huge cookbook I helped create with the best AIP bloggers out there! Inside you will find 6 of my own recipes (the most we were allowed to contribute!) Click here to download! You will LOVE having 140+ recipes that are both Paleo and AIP specially curated for this cookbook in one convenient eBook :-)
For a sneak peek inside, check out this chocolate cake recipe (yes, CAKE!) Inside this e-cookbook is a chapter for broths, sauces, condiments, vegetables, all the animal proteins, offal, dessert, and extras. PLUS there are modifications for low-FODMAPs, too. It is an incredibly resource!
Beautycounter Makeup and Skincare
The Paleo and AIP lifestyles encourage us to not only be mindful of the ingredients in the foods we eat, but also of potential carcinogenic and endocrine disrupting chemicals in our environments, hidden in cleaning products, personal care products, and makeup. If you are fighting a chronic illness it is especially important to clean up your household and personal products.
I have been using Beautycounter products for the last several months and have really fallen in love with how well they perform. I cleaned up my skincare routine years and years ago but had basically stopped wearing makeup because everything either performed poorly or irritated my skin. Beautycounter has an obsession with safety and best of all their products just WORK. I'm talking high end department store quality but made without harmful chemicals. Learn a whole lot more about why I use them in this blog post. I'll be doing a post soon with my impressions after several months of use, but I can say that this is hands down the best makeup I've ever used since ditching the endocrine disruptors from my routine. The charcoal products (see below), Cleansing Balm, Face Oil, and Baby Soothing Oil are my favorite products for my ultra-sensitive and rosacea-prone skin.
They have some incredible gift sets for the holidays that I recommend you check out (pictured above):
- Naughty to Nice - Charcoal Cleansing Bar + Purifying Charcoal Mask
- Winter Dream and Winter Warmth Palettes (featuring 6 shades of eyeshadow, a bronzer, a highlighter, and a blush each)
- Luminous Nudes - with a Lip Sheer and a Lip Gloss
See the entire holiday collection here:
For Black Friday thru Cyber Monday get a free Lip Sheer ($30 value) with $125 purchase and a free Citrus Rosemary Body Oil ($73 value) with $250 purchase!
Shun Santoku Knife
Any serious home cook needs to have at least one high-quality, versatile knife for chopping, mincing, dicing, and slicing. Using dull blades is dangerous and can make meal prep feel like a chore. Earlier this year I replaced my old Wusthof chef's knives with the incredible, beautiful Shun Premier Santoku knife. It is absolutely worth every single penny I paid for it. I smile every time I get to use it! Also a great option is the Classic Santoku which you can grab for right at $100.
Far Infrared Heating Pad
The FDA is right about on thing: far infrared heat is incredibly soothing and can help alleviate pain. I'll be blogging more in detail about this, but back in September I was diagnosed with uterine fibroids, which at the time had completely hijacked my life and I was in constant pain ranging from moderate to excruciating. I'm working with my Chinese medicine doctor and taking herbs used in clinical trials to shrink fibroids plus getting electro-acupuncture twice a week, but another tool in my holistic toolkit is my far infrared heating pad. The infrared wavelengths penetrate deeply into tissue and I notice a huge difference when I use this heating pad over my abdomen. I feel much less inflamed and have less pain after I use it for at least 20-30 minutes. I also am using it to heat my castor oil packs (because I am open to ANYTHING to help me avoid surgery, and I use it as time to meditate....multi-tasking self-care, woot!) I did a ton of research on far infrared heating pads and decided on this brand and couldn't be happier. It is lined with jade which is traditionally believed to be a harmonizing and balancing stone. Take it or leave it, but I like the jade. Some reviewers don't like the sensation of the stones, but I don't mind them at all. If you or someone you love deals with chronic pain, this is an amazing gift!! Size linked to is medium, but it is available in a variety of sizes.
Cuisinart Food Processor (DFP-14BCNY 14-cup)
I know everyone goes on and on about their Vitamix or Blendtec high-powered blenders, but I just haven't found a need for a machine like that in my kitchen. (The only kind of "blender" I have is my trusty immersion blender, worth honorable mention here!) However, aside from my Instant Pot, the other workhorse in my kitchen is my food processor. After extensive research I bought this model earlier this year. It comes highly recommended by none other than Cook's Illustrated, and for good reason. It's extremely powerful, high capacity, easy to clean, and with a sleek design. If you are into homemade mayo, you can make it without any fear of failure here!
For The Book Lovers
After you pre-order your copy of my upcoming cookbook Latin American Paleo Cooking, you can check out some of these titles to keep you company in the meantime (click any cover to hop over to Amazon to purchase):
For Black Friday, use code HOLIDAYBOOK at checkout for $10 $25 or more!!! Expires Nov 28.
- Latin American Paleo Cooking is my book baby that will be released in August 2017. I knowwwww that is a crazy long time to wait BUT if you pre-order it now you are guaranteed to pay the LOWEST price that this book hits between now and launch date. I promise that the price is going to fall between now and then, and you aren't charged until launch day, either.
- Paleo Soups and Stews is perfect since winter is just around the corner. This is a gorgeous book by one of my favorite authors, Simone from Zenbelly. Keep your eyes peeled for a full review on the blog in December.
- The New Primal Blueprint is the updated edition of Mark Sisson's classic. You can thank him for my blog because if it weren't for his book and website I never would have gone paleo, lost 80 lbs in a year, and gotten off all medications (read my story here). It's the perfect gift for anyone looking to improve their health and who needs info more than recipes.
- Practical Paleo 2nd edition is also an updated edition of a classic. This book is packed with information and delicious recipes and great to gift to someone looking to improve their health who also wants a huge array of recipes paired with the information. Stay tuned for a full review on the blog in Dec!
- The Autoimmune Wellness Handbook is the book I wish I had written 2 years ago. It goes into everything else BESIDES food that you need to address in order to have a healthy and well balanced approach to chronic illness. Yes, food is an important component, but it is too easy to get tunnel vision focusing and obsessing over foods and specific intolerances so that you lose sight of the big picture and how to really take care of yourself. Full review coming in Dec on the blog!
- The Loving Diet is the #1 book I recommend to readers who wish to embark on an autoimmune paleo protocol (AIP). Jessica is herself a practitioner and I love that she has taken her clinical experience into account to offer recommendations that take it a step further than conventional AIP advice. takes a different approach and places the proper level of emphasis on the importance of working with a practitioner if you embark on a highly restricted food elimination protocol, as well a
- The Wahls Protocol is another fabulous approach to healing and managing autoimmunity or other chronic illness through diet. Dr. Wahls is a practicing MD who is actively engaged in human clinical trials to show effectiveness of her protocol in others.
- The Autoimmune Solution is written by a functional medicine MD and with a four-pronged approach to addressing recovery from autoimmune and other chronic illness. Do you notice a trend?? I really like referring people to books written by medical doctors and other practitioners :-)
- Mindfulness for Beginners is an excellent resource if you want to begin practicing mindfulness meditation but aren't sure where to start and don't want anything that's too obscure. Jon Kabat-Zinn, PhD is a scientist who has pioneered what is known as Mindfulness Based Stress Relief (MBSR) which he has researched and shown to help psoriasis, pain, anxiety, as well as both brain and immune function.
- Comfortable with Uncertainty is a wonderful book by Buddhist teacher Pema Chodron, broken up into 108 short (1-3 pages) teachings. This book has helped me through some of my darkest hours and helped me regain what I like to call cosmic perspective - that my struggles are not really so big as they may seem and I have so much to be grateful for every day.
- The Body Keeps the Score is a truly fascinating and enthralling look at how trauma affects our long-term health, while providing information about proven therapies you can pursue (some with a professional, some at home) to achieve real results and relief. I have long believed that early life trauma has been a big reason for the health problems I have faced throughout my lifetime and the science is beginning to strongly back that up. If you suffered trauma and now face illness, this book could give you some insights into how you got where you are and give you tools to address it in a radical new way. Written by the preeminent trauma doctor in the US who, interestingly, shunned medications when they first rose in popularity when he was beginning his medical career as a psychiatrist. Strongly recommend this one!
This gluten- and dairy-free green bean casserole is just as quick and easy to make as the original, but without the allergens and additives.