A Calculated Whisk

Creative paleo and gluten-free recipes

Paleo Planet Press Page

Thank you SO much for helping me spread the word about Paleo Planet! I really appreciate your help and am so thrilled you’re taking the time to check the book out.

Here is some information that should help make your review easy to put together. Below you’ll find a photo of the cover and digital postcards that you’re welcome to download and share on your site or on social media, pre-written tweets featuring tidbits from the book that can be shared with one click, a list of approved recipes if you’d like to include a full recipe as part of your review, and a Q&A with me that you’re welcome to share with your readers. If you have any questions about the process, feel free to email me (becky[at]acalculatedwhisk[dot]com).

Paleo Planet by Becky Winkler

Digital postcards to share on Pinterest, Facebook, & anywhere else you’d like:

Tips from the book–just click to tweet instantly:

1) #Paleo Tip: Cashew Cream is the perfect dairy- and gluten-free alternative to yogurt or sour cream.

2) Kitchen tip from @calculatedwhisk: Save chicken bones to make your own chicken broth.

3) All it takes to make homemade almond milk is almonds, water, and patience. More #paleo tips here:

4) Tip: Homemade spice blends like Garam Masala add a kick to any #paleo dish. Find the recipe here:

5) Cauliflower rice is the perfect #glutenfree side dish to accompany your main meal (via @calculatedwhisk)

6) Homemade almond butter + fresh apples = one fabulous snack:

7) Ghee: the #1 most indispensable ingredient in the #paleo chef’s kitchen.

8) Almond flour-based desserts mean less carbohydrates and a rich, satisfying taste:

9) Kitchen Tip: Save the seeds from pumpkin and winter squash to make a delicious toasted snack.

10) #Paleo stuffed poblano chiles pack in more flavor without the oil-heavy deep-frying. Get the recipe:

11) Spice up #paleo brownies with cinnamon and cayenne pepper for a Mexican-inspired treat. Get the recipe:

Press Recipe List:

Below is a list of recipes that we’d like you to choose from if you’re sharing a full recipe on your blog as part of the review. This is just to limit the total percentage of the book that’s available for free online. Feel free to reach out to Emily Fanning (egeaman(at)harvardcommonpress(dot)com) if you’d like the recipe text emailed to you.

Including a direct link to the Amazon page (http://www.amazon.com/Paleo-Planet-Primal-Kitchen-Recipes/dp/155832853X/ or a link created with your affiliate account pointing to the same URL) on your blog and/or social media is especially helpful if you’re comfortable doing so. If you also decide to share on Instagram, please consider including a short link to the Amazon page. You can use  (not associated with any affiliate account) or create one pointing to the same page with your Amazon affiliate account. And, on any social media, feel free to use the hashtag #paleoplanet!

If you have the time and interest, candid reviews on the Amazon page itself are also highly appreciated :).

Garlicky Shrimp (Gambas al Ajillo) (pg. 48)

Butternut Squash Soup with Fried Garlic & Chile Oil (pg. 60)

Indochinese Chile Chicken (pg. 82)

Pineapple Fried Cauliflower Rice (pg. 84)

Spiced Turkey Drumsticks & Gravy (pg. 118)

Marinated Skirt Steak with Cilantro Lime Ghee (pg. 128)

Korean Beef with Cucumber & Shiitake Mushrooms (pg. 135)

Kaddo Bourani (pg. 148)

Slow-Cooker Carnitas Lettuce Wraps with Pineapple-Avocado Salsa (pg. 160)

Curried Roasted Squash & Brussels Sprouts (pg. 221)

Spinach and Bacon Souffle (pg. 234)

Squash Noodles with Everything Pesto & Fried Eggs (pg. 246)

Gingerbread Blondies (pg. 266)

Thank you SO much for taking the time to check out Paleo Planet!

Author Q&As:

1. How did you become interested in paleo cooking?

After I launched my blog A Calculated Whisk in early 2013, I started cooking and baking even more than I had before, and I was making a ton of desserts. In the first three months of my blog’s life, I gained about twenty pounds! I was looking for a way to keep working on what I was passionate about (cooking and baking delicious things at home) but improve my well-being and maintain a healthy weight. It seemed like quite a conundrum until I read about paleo eating online. I thought going paleo might really help me, and it did! It’s much easier now for me to keep my weight in check. I also have more energy and feel even more inspired in the kitchen because I’m working with gorgeous vegetables and fruits, pasture-raised meats, healthy fats, a little bit of grass-fed dairy, and a variety of nuts and seeds. It’s just better food!

2. What made you start a food blog?

I’ve always loved cookbooks–I’ve been reading Ina Garten’s cover to cover for years! When I taught pre-K in 2012 I was looking for fun things to skim online during my kids’ naptime, and I discovered the amazing food blog What’s Gaby Cooking, which I still love. I would visit everyday and get frustrated if there wasn’t a new post, and before long I realized it wasn’t the only food blog out there and that there were plenty of others to read, too. About a year later it occurred to me on a whim to start my own blog so I could share my love for lemon curd, and that’s how it all began.

3. This is your first cookbook– how is writing a book different from writing a blog?

It’s much harder, but also even more fun! When you blog you get used to the instant gratification of sharing recipes with everyone as soon as they’re done, but with a cookbook you have to hang on to a bunch of them and it feels kind of like you’re keeping an unfair secret. In the end, though, the recipes in a cookbook form an arc together with the photos and headnotes, and the finished product is so much more valuable and cohesive than a blog.

4. What are some of your favorite recipes in Paleo Planet?

Here are my top 5 at the moment–I go through phases of being especially obsessed with certain recipes, and these are ones I particularly love for fall: dukkah (page 25), pollo al horno porteño (page 88), lega tibs (page 138), smoky sweet potato latkes (page 222), and millionaire’s shortbread (page 262). And ghee (page 27) is my perennial, all-time favorite; nitter kibbeh (page 29) is the dressed-up, extra savory version of ghee and is also amazing.

5. What kitchen appliances can you not live without?

Lately it’s been my salad spinner, since I joined a CSA and have been eating a ton of lettuce. I also love my food processor, spiralizer, and spice grinder. A blender is handy, but ours fell off the car several months ago (don’t ask, but I CAN let you know the car was parked) and I haven’t replaced it–the food processor can do pretty much everything I did in there. Oh, and I love my ice cream maker!

6. Was it tough cutting gluten and dairy out of your diet?

It was definitely tough cutting out gluten! I didn’t mind giving up bread but was always a huge pasta person. Having ready to eat healthy carbs (mainly fruits and vegetables) on hand at all times really helps. As for dairy, I currently eat some grassfed, full-fat dairy, although I gave up dairy entirely for a while when I first transitioned to paleo. I have lactose intolerance that waxes and wanes, but I’m fine with butter and a little cream and don’t have much trouble avoiding the dairy products that actually make me feel bad.

7. The book’s recipes are all inspired by global flavors and dishes–why did you choose this approach to your recipe creating?

I love languages (I’m fluent in Spanish and I speak a little Italian and German) and I love to travel. Of course I also love to eat, so global cuisine combines a lot of my main interests. It’s also just more exciting and delicious to cook food from a wide variety of cultures!

8. What would you say to anyone who is considering trying out the paleo diet but hasn’t taken that leap yet?

If you’re the kind of person who needs a big challenge and wants to start with a bang, recruit a few friends or family members and try a Whole30 together. If you’re the kind of person who likes to ease into things, try one or more of these ideas: make 3 paleo dinners per week at home, try having all your breakfasts be paleo for a week (it’s the most important meal!), or decide that for a month you’ll only cook paleo food at home but will continue to eat as you did previously when you’re eating out or someone else is preparing the meal. Those small changes should make a difference in your energy levels and will likely inspire you to do even more!

9. You’ve travelled extensively–where are some of your favorite places that you’ve visited?

My first trip out of North America was my high school German exchange. We went to Munich and Berlin, and I was still a picky eater. I subsisted mainly on chocolate, käsebrot, yogurt, and beer, but all those things were so much more delicious than in the U.S! It sparked my interest in food and ingredients from other places. The two most beautiful places I’ve been so far are Iguazú Falls in Argentina and Glacier National Park in Montana.

10. What’s the best meal you’ve had while travelling?

I got to spend New Year’s in Cuba three times as a teen, and the family I stayed with always raised a whole pig to roast for the celebration. Instead of farm to table, it was yard to table. It was a little sad and my arms got sore from taking my turn rotating the pig by hand over the fire in the backyard, but the meat was amazing. We had it with rice, beans, and plantains. I think the whole experience made it taste better. In Cuba at the time you couldn’t have beef unless you got it on the black market, but you’d go to the beach and just see pigs roaming everywhere–it was very surreal.

11. What paleo staples do you keep in your pantry?

So many things! They’re almost all in the paleo pantry section of the book (page 11-17). To get started, though, I recommend some ghee, a good olive oil, one or two good vinegars, sea salt, a pepper grinder, a few spices or spice blends you love, and a few different kinds of nuts and seeds. It’s always handy to have tapioca flour, too! I also get upset if I don’t have garlic, shallots, and lemons or limes pretty much at all times.

12. You took all of the book’s photos yourself– what are your best tips for food photography?
Use natural light, experiment with angles, ask for feedback, and practice! I also highly recommend reading the e-book Tasty Food Photography by Lindsay Ostrom and Plate to Pixel by Helene Dujardin. Classes and workshops are great, too. (After shooting all the photos for this book, I went to an amazing photography retreat with Eva and Carey from First We Eat. I’m going to have to write another cookbook so I can put into practice all the things I learned there!) Lastly, take things on bit by bit so you don’t feel overwhelmed. I’m still working on my photography all the time, but I focus on different aspects of it and try to prioritize my goals. For example, I began with a point-and-shoot camera and later eased into working with a DSLR. First I used it on automatic, then I started playing around with just the shutter speed, next I began adjusting both shutter speed and aperture, and finally I got around to also thinking about the ISO. One more thing: take more photos than you think you need! Sometimes at the end of a shoot I decide to take just a few more without thinking about them as much as the others and despite the fact that I’m exhausted, and sometimes they’re some of the best shots.

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All text and photographs (c) Rebecca Winkler 2013-2020 unless otherwise noted.