Valentine’s Day – Paleo Treat and Giveaway

Valentine’s Day is a celebration of love: self-love, love for another, or a world-peace kind of love. It’s THE day to celebrate passion and romance with sweet treats and gushy love notes. Perhaps, it’s also the day you take a chance and tell an unsuspecting someone that you care about him or her. Or reiterate to that ball-and-chain you’ve had for 15 years, that he’s the one who still drives you crazy (in a good way of course)!

Typically for my family, there is a combination of all of the above – sweet treats, gushy notes, and talks about insanity. This Valentine’s Day I’m going out on a limb, forgoing my usual store-bought treats, and testing my baking skills. I admit I love to measure! According to my sister that makes me the perfect candidate for baking. However, I tend to be too impatient to carefully combine or accurately align the baking stars for maximum dessert goodness. Generally, my cakes are course or my icing is too runny or I burn the cookies. My trepidation for baking is unnatural and frankly, I’m ready to face the hand-mixer and a carton of eggs head-on, all in the name of Valentine’s Day.

What possibly could have turned my fear of baking on its head, you ask? Well, this fantastic grain-free cookbook by Carol Lovett of the blog Ditch the Wheat. Now generally, I’m not a make-your-own Paleo treats gal, but this book has a ton of recipes for everything from cake to pies, cookies and bars and even ice cream! I just had to try it!

You see, after a candid talk with her doctor about ditching the wheat, Carol went looking for a healthier way of life . She says she’s “relearned how to cook and bake and that the focus of Indulge is to bring you recipes made with natural ingredients that cater to individuals on a grain free diet.” That’s not just talk! All of her ingredients are chosen to support a Paleo diet and are natural, dairy-free, low inflammation, and grain-free. She has a tremendous grasp on texture (which has been my major down fall with Paleo baking) and understands that no one wants to eat a grainy cookie!

I made Carol’s Mom’s Chocolate Chip Cookies, and for the first time since going Paleo, I actually wanted to eat the raw batter out of the mixing bowl. It smelled like honest-to-goodness cookie dough, like the smell of holiday baking when you were a kid – sweet, chocolately and doughy, just completely tantalizing.

Here’s the low down on Indulge:

Take a look at the Table of Contents. There are 162 pages of gorgeous photos and recipes.

• I love food photography and Carol scores major points for mouth-watering shots of each grain-free treat!
• She also gives non-bakers a leg up with her substitutions cheat sheet. What, you forgot the coconut palm sugar? Have no fear. Indulge gives you a conversions list. You can use these substitutions in any sweet or savory grain-free recipe. Also, Carol wins points for avoiding the situation where you have to beg your spouse to run to the grocery store for one more ingredient! HUGE score! Honestly, I think the cheat sheet is worth the price of admission!
• The recipes are easy to follow. The instructions are clear and concise. No nonsense.
• The book is so easy and clear that it did leave me wishing for just a little more creative flare with the design of the recipe pages themselves. But Carol tells me she has a master to plan to spice up the interior soon. However, this is truly minor, as the text is legible, accurate, and concise. And the food is amazing! 
• Overall, this is an outstanding ebook to add to your collection or share with a loved one on Valentine’s Day or WIN in our Indulge giveaway!

The Giveaway

UPDATE 2/20/13: We have a winner and she has been notified. But you can get a copy at Ditch the Wheat right now!

Carol and I have teamed up to give 1 lucky winner a copy of Indulge: 70 Grain Free Desserts.

To Enter:

• Follow @DitchtheWheat and @PaleoSavvy on Twitter, then copy and paste following into a tweet: “I want to win a free copy of Indulge @DitchtheWheat on @PaleoSavvy http://bit.ly/VUoA6C ” or LIKE Ditch the Wheat and PaleoSavvy on Facebook
• Post to comments to let me know you followed Carol and me, and sent the tweet. Then you’re all set! That’s it!

Deadline to Enter: 11:59 p.m. Eastern, Tuesday, February 19, 2013; winner will be announced Wednesday.

And an added bonus! Head over to Carol’s blog Ditch the Wheat to download a copy of Indulge for the reduced price of $19.98 (that’s 20% off the cover price) – just use the code PALEOSAVVY20 at checkout. Hurry offer expires February 23rd.