Only some of the substitute dishes are parodies. The zucchini pasta and cauliflower crust are ehhhh, but I'm coocoo for coconut flour. Seriously. Pancakes, meatballs, custards, muffins, cakes, breads, buns, whatever. Coconut flour is part of what makes Paleo awesome and what makes my poop solid.

That said, most real Paleo dishes just can't be beaten. It's amazing how many different flavors you can squeeze out of a pound of ground beef and a rack of spices. McDonald's be damned -- becker's Mexican Meat-stravaganza can't be beaten. Ask my roommates.

I think it's all good. Do whatever you need to do to make this work for you. I don't care if cavemen didn't know how to make paleo pizza. I do and I love it. For some food is just fuel. For others,, like me, its much more. I never would have survived this for all the years I have had I not figured out how to turn cauliflower into mashed potatoes (don't eat potatoes) or make perfect paleo meatloaf or any of the other foods that I associate with comfort and love (because my mother made them for me...awwww) If I'm feeling I'm going to crash you damn well better believe I'll be in the kitchen mixing up some coconut oil fudge or coconut flour muffins or whatever it is I need at that moment in time. Sometimes you just get by by the skin of your teeth and some familiar foods that keep you from jumping off the bridge.

I think you should definitely focus on all the great NEW things you can make that you may never have tried but I fully support anyone, especially those new to this diet, to recreate whatever foods they need in their life. Maybe they will transition away and find new foods to love or maybe they won't. It can be overwhelming to give up everything you love and adore so I think if cauliflower pizza or coconut biscuits make you happy and keep you on the straight and narrow then that's just fine by me.

Personally, I am more interested in the excellent paleo dishes. To me, there is no such thing as substitutes for rice or mashed potatoes. I will admit that I haven't even tried many substitutes. (I'm not pure paleo or primal anyway. Like Harris and Jaminet, I do some potatoes and rice.)

In my life I always focus on what I can do and not on what I cant........that pretty axiomatic in how I think food or otherwise.

Not to start an argument but did paleolithic man really make pizza crust or muffins? And did he make them with coconut flour?

This is one of my biggest peeves about ANY diet, be it paleo, low carb, vegetarian, Weight Watchers - the need to make eratz versions of "unhealthy" dishes out of "healthy" ingredients. So, no - I don't make "paleo" pancakes or banana bread or crackers or anything like that - if I'm going to eat any of that stuff, I want to eat the "real thing" (the one possible exception to this is grated cauliflower that I use in place of rice for "saucy" dishes every once in a great while). Which pretty much means I've given up pancakes and bread and crackers, etc., and I don't really miss them.

I actually have another, more ulterior, motive for this. I appear to be one of the few paleo food bloggers that was a food blogger before they went paleo; a lot of my readers are from the "bad old days." I tend to shy away from "odd" or difficult-to-acquire ingredients and making imitations of dishes because I want to show these readers, and any others eating the Standard American Diet who might stumble across my little corner of the interwebz, that this diet is neither restrictive nor boring, or in anyway difficult. And I am meeting with success.

everyone can do what feels right to them! :) I for myself are purist when it comes to food. i don't like to cover its tasts up with sauces or such, but to each their own! :)

I steal and gather inspiration from everywhere.

French cookbooks, paleo blogs, one-offs of foods I think sound tasty.

Sometimes it had a resemblance to foods eaten nowadays, sometimes not.

Mostly, I cook for fun with the goal of pleasing and nurturing myself and my family. I think what form it takes is far less important than the ingredients and the good nutrition.