150 TOTALLY COMPLIANT Whole30 prep-and-go recipes for your slow cooker
Since 2009, millions of people have transformed their lives with the Whole30. Now, co-creator Melissa Hartwig is making it even easier to achieve Whole30 success with delicious slow cooker recipes that turn ingredients into delicious, hearty meals with ease while you're out and about. This follow-up to the best-selling The Whole30 Cookbook is packed with 150 recipes designed to get you out of the kitchen fast, so you can enjoy all the benefits of your Whole30-inspired lifestyle. The Whole30 Slow Cooker features delicious, no-fuss dinners that cook while you work; roasts that transform into tacos, salads, and soups, for easy meals throughout the week; and satisfying one-pot meals that make prep and cleanup a breeze. These creative meals use whole-food ingredients found in any supermarket, and as an added bonus, feature recipes and directions for making your meals Instant Pot-friendly!
Melissa Urban is CEO of the Whole30 and an authority on helping people create lifelong healthy habits. She is a six-time New York Times bestselling author (including the #1 bestseller The Whole30); and has been featured by Dr. Oz, Good Morning America, The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, Forbes, and CNBC. She lives with her husband, son, and a poodle named Henry in Salt Lake City, Utah.
I wish you could try the food before you spent the money & time to replicate the recipes. Such a bummer when the meal is just blah and you have leftovers. Also, a lot of the meals started tasting same-ie. When you eat a meal with NO SUGAR (unless natural from fruit), no grains (ex. wheat, oats, barley, corn, rice, millet, buckwheat, quinoa, and etc), no peanuts & soy, no milk (ex. cheese yogurt,), no etc etc etc you start to get the same tastes and flavors over and over again.
This book literally says "do not recreate baked goods, treats, or junk food with approved ingredients. Your cravings and has its won't change if you keep eating these foods, even if they are made with Whole30 ingredients." What the fuck??????? No real diet is going to keep you from eating what you want, especially if you're doing it within the diet. I immediately dismissed this book after reading that bullshit, and the rest of you should too. Also you can't eat much on this diet anyways, so do literally anything else. Fuck this diet, fuck this book, and fuck this author.
Can’t wait to try some of these recipes! I really liked the way the book is laid out and that many of the recipes had pictures. My only complaint is that there is no nutritional information to know carbs, fat, fibre and calories per serving. I understand the Whole 30 is a food reset program but I’d still like to know the nutritional info.
DISCLAIMER: This is more of a note to myself for later than an actual review.
I felt like I would I really like this, especially since I’ve successfully completed Whole30 a few times; I’ve decided to nix grains and beans (the only non-Whole30 ingredients I regularly consume); and was just gifted an InstantPot. But hard as I tried, I still feel like the WellFed Weeknights cookbook I’m reading looks tastier and more manageable. One review I read of this book said they were surprised to see that, for a lot of these recipes, it’s only one ingredient that’s prep, dump, and walk away, and I think that’s my issue. Just seems like a lot of steps and moving parts to chop, use an appliance AND the stove, AND to make a sauce—AND be the mother of a two-year-old (I know, Melissa specifically said NOT to say it’s “too hard” 🙄).
But I haven’t tried to make anything yet. And not all the recipes fit that agonizing description. When I’m more comfortable with my InstantPot, I’ll check this book out from the library again.
Still rediscovering my slow cooker thanks to this recipe book. The meals aren’t quite as savory as the Nom Nom Paleo books, but they’re still delicious. It’s such a treat to see a slow cooker recipe book that doesn’t call for “cream of” soups. (Do they still sell those cans of glop?)
Got out of the library to do another round of Whole 30. Generally good, but not worth buying in my opinion. Good to have a new slug of recipes and I appreciated the Instant Pot recipes (because I have one, but don't use it much). But I am definitely a set it and forget it type of slow cooker person and adding different ingredients at different times or using the cooker for a 1-3 hour gig? Nope, not interested. Might as well cook it on the stove where I've got more control. There were still enough recipes for me to try and enjoy. The barbacoa instant pot recipe, for example, looked simple and wasn't terribly clever, yet it ended up delicious.
I discovered the Instant pot near the end of 2017. In January I embarked on the Whole30 program for 90 days. These two are a perfect match. Since the Whole30 program dramatically changes, how you eat, I was concerned about how hard it would be to keep with the program. Enter Instant Pot. I learned how easy it became to stick to the diet. The instant pot was a quick and easy way to prepare healthy and tasty meals. This book brings these two wonders together with recipes that bridge the simplicity of cooking with the benefits of the Whole30 program. I highly recommend the book as well as the program and cooking utensil.
Some good info at the beginning about the Whole 30 program and nutrition (but nothing new if you've read other Whole 30 books), but I found the recipes kind of overwhelming. I recommend checking out the mix and match food guide at the end of "It Starts with Food" as a starting place if you want to do Whole 30 or just eat more Whole 30ish, as the official Whole 30 cookbooks are a bit more intimidating.
This book was hard to find on Goodreads! Interesting.
Anyway, many of these recipes will probably work for my family, which is a nice change. A few we're going to try first: sweet potato and jalapeno pork stew Mexican pork stew Asian pork noodle bowls chicken thighs with parsnips and potatoes salmon with smoky vegetable hash
Only slow cooker portions of these recipes, otherwise they’re identical to other whole30 recipes where you make the meal w pots and pans. I expected this to be set it and forget it for all or a majority of the recipe when, in fact, it was the chicken set and forget, the rest make. Not for me.
There are many great recipes in here and I appreciate the Instant Pot section. The downfall of official Whole30 recipes is that you have to have so many items and spices in your pantry and you use them in very small quantities. I may eventually use maybe 2 recipes out of this whole book.
Really, this is the Whole30 recipe book I've had the most success with when it comes to liking the recipes and to family-friendly recipes. I recommend it if you want healthy slow-cooker recipes or are on Whole30.
As with most Whole 30 recipes, several of these had LOTS of ingredients which turns me off, but the ease of using the slow cooker is definitely helpful!
Only criticism: add a little extra salt for seasoning and a little more fat to prevent drying out. I've made many of these recipes multiple times over and I'm still trying others. Love this book!
It's a great book to reference. Whole 30 was not a good fit for my wellness lifestyle but I learned a lot and have gained some great recipes for clean eating.