This post may contain affiliate links. Please read my disclosure policy.
In this post: In my opinion, these are the best AIP cookbooks as of 2019 and I also share what I ate on my last round of the Autoimmune Paleo Protocol (AIP Diet) for Days 26-29. If you need an autoimmune paleo cookbook, then check this list out!
One of the most important things about the AIP diet is having delicious food to eat. If you’re struggling to get food on the table that you can eat, you are more likely to give up on the diet and giving up doesn't help you!
Want to see my favorite Paleo cookbooks instead?
Why I Use AIP Cookbooks
One thing I did differently this last time around on the AIP Diet is that I’ve used a lot more cookbooks. I don’t always use cookbooks, simply because I have plenty of ideas for food in my head or because there are a million ideas online.
This time though, I’ve enjoyed using several AIP cookbooks. The reason I’m using them is that it’s been easier for me this time to flip through these AIP cookbooks and look at the photos to decide what to make.
I can also easily show my family the photos from the cookbooks and get a sense of what they’ll also eat. (Are families the hardest part of following the AIP diet or is that just me?? Gah!!)
I’ve been using the cookbooks to meal plan and that has also been easier for me this time, just to flip through the books and get together a plan for the week.
See also: the ULTIMATE Guide to the AIP Diet: everything you need to know to be successful
The BEST AIP Cookbooks (2019)
I have several Autoimmune Paleo cookbooks I love. These are by no means the only great AIP cookbooks available; they’re just the ones I’ve made use of quite a bit and that have served me (and my family) well during my last round of the diet – and even in the year since when I've been on regular Paleo.
I am a participant in the Amazon Services LLC Associates Program, an affiliate advertising program designed to provide a means for us to earn fees by linking to Amazon.com and affiliated sites.
- The Autoimmune Paleo Cookbook – this cookbook actually came out before I did the AIP protocol in 2014. This book is meant more for someone doing AIP alone or with a partner. I don’t think it’s great for a family with young kids. I take many of my batch cooking recipes from this book.
- The Paleo Healing Cookbook – this is one of the cookbooks I would recommend for families. It’s still great for anyone doing the AIP diet alone but it does contain more meals that I would call family-friendly.
- The Autoimmune Wellness Handbook – if you’ve recently been diagnosed with an autoimmune disease or you’re interested in using diet and lifestyle as an approach to better health, this is the book for you. Part handbook on how to use diet and lifestyle to achieve better health and part cookbook, this has meal plans in the back along with recipes. One of my favorite recipes is in this book; Lemon Pie Date Balls.
- Simple French Paleo – this on by Sophie Van Tiggelen is another one that is family-friendly as well as perfect if you’re doing this on your own. This book contains the recipe I use for crepes, the crepes that I use to wrap everything. The price of the book is worth it for that crepe recipe alone.
- The Healing Kitchen – This is my FAVORITE book. If you’ve been following along on my AIP journey this time, you know that I’ve been using this cookbook a lot! First of all, this one has tons of kid-friendly food in it which makes it great for families. Secondly, it has more comfort food recipes than some of the others. This cookbook wasn’t out the last time I did AIP so I’ve been very excited to dive in and use it this time. I have not been disappointed. If you’re doing AIP for the first time, this is the book I recommend you start with.
My AIP Journey Update
My Symptoms
This is from when I did my second round of AIP in 2018 after experiencing a major Hashimoto's flare
The day of this video is day 29 of the AIP protocol for me and I’m feeling a little bit better every day.
Keep in mind that I did complete a Whole 30 before I started the AIP diet this time so I had experienced the biggest sense of overall feeling better while on that diet. I literally went from blah to feeling great during those 30 days.
I’ll admit, these 29 days have flown by as compared to the Whole 30 but I began them feeling better so there hasn’t been as much change over these few weeks.
I plan to stay on the AIP protocol for a few more weeks as I am still experiencing some symptoms like gas and bloating, some brain fog, and random tiredness in the morning or afternoon.
This is such a personal journey so don’t feel like you need to do exactly what I do as far as the number of weeks on the strictest portion of the diet. I know that it usually takes me right around 6 weeks to hit the point where I feel absolutely great.
I expect to start reintroducing foods starting around the 6-week mark but you’ll need to measure your own progress and start your reintroductions when it feels right for you.
What I Ate VLOG for Days 26-29
In this vlog, I share with you what I ate on days 26-29 on the AIP diet to give you a peek into the kinds of food I eat and the recipes I use.
But before I tell you what I ate, I wanted to mention something that I keep forgetting to tell you.
Every evening before bed, I drink a cup of warm chicken stock. I keep it in the fridge and heat it up to drink. I add a splash of lemon juice and a dash of pink Himalayan pink salt to it and I enjoy it like a cup of coffee.
AIP Diet Day 25 –
Dinner – If you watched my last video, I told you I wasn’t sure what I was having for dinner that night. I ended up making the Rosemary Proscuitto Stromboli from The Healing Kitchen cookbook. I had this with roasted broccoli with garlic.
AIP Diet Day 26 –
Breakfast – AIP Cassava flour pancakes with fresh strawberries and blueberries, topped with maple syrup. I added an apple sage sausage patty I had made in that batch cooking session.
Lunch – Leftover stromboli.
Dinner – We had tostones (also known as patacones). In case you aren’t familiar with these, they are fried green plantains. My husband grilled shrimp, and we added some grilled red onion and grilled pineapple.
AIP Diet Day 27 –
Breakfast – Leftover carrot cake “oatmeal” (from the Healing Kitchen) with a leftover pancake.
Lunch – A last-minute decision to go fishing/hiking left me scrambling to throw together a lunch I could take along. I didn’t have time to make crepes for wraps so I took some leftover chicken and sweet potato, diced them up, and mixed them with radishes, fresh blueberries, and cilantro tossed with a quick avocado “mayo”. (See how I made it in this video: Last Minute AIP Lunch option. I also packed one of my favorite cookies, the AIP Carob Chip cookies, and I brought along a bag of cassava chips.
Snack – We had the most amazing trout that my husband caught on our little excursion, (4 miles so not that little) and we grilled it with some olive oil and fresh thyme and oregano. I also had some trail mix on the way home because that 4-mile hike had me starving.
Dinner – My family stopped for burgers and fries on the way home but I had my trail mix to keep me full until I got home where I made one of my Paleo on the Go frozen meals. This one was a Beef Taco kit.
*Note- I was eating dinner at 9:30 pm and while that’s not ideal, since I am no longer dependent on sugar to fuel me, I wasn’t a complete basket case by the time I got home and could eat dinner. Yay!!! I love having that freedom.
AIP Diet Day 28 –
Breakfast – more leftover pancakes and a sausage patty, with dandelion and chicory root “coffee”.
Lunch – More beef tacos from the Paleo on the Go taco kit. This is meant to serve 2 so I had the rest of it for my lunch. I added some arugula this time as well as some diced radishes. I heated up some leftover patacones in my toaster oven to have with the tacos.
Dinner – This day was Memorial Day so my husband smoked ribs. He smoked mine with only salt added to them and once they were done, I added the cherry barbecue sauce I made in my AIP batch cooking session. I made coleslaw with shredded cabbage, raisins, and some of the avocado mayo. We also roasted Brussels sprouts (just sliced brussels tossed with bacon fat and salt and roasted at 425 F for 25 min).
AIP Diet Day 29-
Breakfast – Leftover white sweet potato mixed with a banana, collagen powder, and coconut milk. I mixed all of that with an immersion blender and topped it with fresh strawberries and blueberries, shredded coconut, and a topping of crumbled banana chips. I also had an apple sage sausage patty.
Lunch – Leftover ribs and Brussels sprouts.
Dinner – Roast chicken and mashed cauliflower.
Other AIP Posts in this series:
Next in the series:
Coming soon
Previous in the series:
What I ate on AIP on Day 1 here (plus I explain what AIP is)
What I ate on AIP for Days 2-4 here (plus why I'm doing AIP this time)
Starting AIP- You Need a Why + What I ate on AIP for Days 5-7 here
Simply AIP Subscription Box Review + What I ate on AIP Days 10-11
How to Start AIP Plus What I ate on AIP Days 8-9
What is Autoimmune Disease + What I ate on AIP Days 12-15
How to Treat Autoimmune Disease – What I ate on AIP Days 16-18
I keep trying to access your free library and to no avail. I type in my first name and email address and hit the “get the password” button but it will only load to 50%.
Am I doing something wrong?
Hmm, I’m not sure what’s going on. Lots of people sign up every day with no issues so hmmm. Is this email you’re using to leave the comment (the gmail) the correct one? I can manually add you if so.
Hi Michele! Thanks for the book recs! I have a few of them and use them often. I’ve had my eye on the Healing Kitchen and I have a few questions.
I’m dealing with MCAS, mold toxicity, oxalates and recently been diagnosed with Hashimoto’s. I have followed a Paleo diet for over 10 years, however some of the foods in my diet that were staples (sweet potatoes, spinach, nuts, etc due to high oxalates), I can no longer tolerate. Throw in MCAS and that eliminates a lot of the high histamine foods (citrus, fish, broth, plantains, berries, etc). Do you think there would be enough recipes in the Healing Kitchen cookbook for me…or would they be hard to modify?
Glad to hear you are feeling better! I know how hard it is to try and feed yourself…let alone a family! I pray you continue to heal…
Hmm, yeah, it might be difficult to find a lot of recipes in that book that account for all of those restrictions. I mean, you’ll definitely find some, but not sure how many it would be to make it worth it.
Thanks, Michele! I’m having to tweak all my paleo/aip recipes. The simpler the recipe the easier it is to modify. I have had some success replacing spinach with arugula, sweet potatoes with butternut squash or rutabega, carrots with turnips, etc. Baking is harder, since ingredients like arrowroot, almond flour and cassava/tapioca are out. I do a bit of baking with coconut flour. Tigernut is a medium oxalate so I sometimes can use small amounts with coconut flour. High sugar fruits/veg like bananas and plantains are also out until I can curb the mold toxicity. ☹ Thanks again for your response!