Saturday, January 31, 2015

Smells like heaven



Made our second batch.  Smells so good in the house, it should be wrong to have these...  sadly they'll be gone by tonight.  I used just over 3 lbs of sweet potatoes to make 2 full trays.

Friday, January 30, 2015

I'm eating a ton!

First not enjoyable meal was a slow cooker cheater pork stew in the crockpot for Wednesday night.  I liked it better as leftovers and did realize today (Friday) that I forgot the balsamic vinegar in the recipe.  So I poured balsamic over it today and it was much better.  I'm not a fan of cooked cabbage however so that probably has a lot to do with how I feel about it.  The boys and Mike and really liked the pork.

I woke up Weds morning with a headache, possibly from dehydration.  I don't think I drank enough water yesterday between my cross-training and MTB ride.

I realized I've also been craving simpler foods.  Thursday night I went back to an old standby, steak and potatoes (see pic above).  This is a typical dinner for us.  And Whole30 before we even started this whole thing.

So meals...

Day11-Weds
Breakfast-fritatta?, 2 oranges
snack before riding-almonds, dried cherries
Lunch-leftover butternut squash lasagna, salad
Dinner-sweet potato, hardboiled egg

Day12-Thurs
Breakfast-3 scrambled eggs, sweet potato, smoothie
Lunch-chipotle
Dinner-steak, oven roasted herbed, garlic potatoes, large salad, dried cherries (I was sooooo hungry)
After dinner eats-cauliflower pilaf (because Mike made it)

Day13-Fri
Breakfast-mushroom, garlic, onion egg cups, orange, bowl of cauliflower pilaf
Snack (before riding lesson)-smoothie with kale and spinach, avocado
Lunch-pork and cauliflower pilaf
Dinner-more steak, mushrooms sauteed in ghee, garlic, thyme with coconut aminos and a spritz of balsamic at the end, and salad (the usual)

more salt!


Steak, potato, mushrooms and SALT.  I had some dizziness on the 10th night; the whole30 wisdom on the inter webs points at 'carb flu' or lack of carbs and electrolytes.  So the potato got a couple extra spindles of salt tonight.

Wednesday, January 28, 2015

Squash and crockpots



Snow days have me yearning for comfort food (not to mention hot chocolate or a soy chai latte).  The Rogan Josh somewhat falls into that category, a sensory delight, hot and delicious-but the lamb left both Mike and I a little queasy and foggy.  We are wondering if it was the fat content in the lamb.  I found some crockpot recipes for this week knowing I would be tired of cooking and that I had busy days (I cooked early last week to get through those days).  I needed marinara sauce for one so I made that Monday to put on spaghetti squash for us/noodles for the boys.  Great recipe!  I did use proscuitto (still getting through that big pack I bought at BJ's) instead of saltpork and left it in the marinara.  Leave it out for vegetarians.

The butternut squash lasagna was heavenly!  My definition of a comfort food.  I couldn't find Whole30 hot Italian sausage so I used 90% lean ground beef, red pepper flakes and fennel to simulate it.  And I added about 5 cloves of garlic to the tomato sauce in the blender.  I'm a garlic freak, what can I say?

Day8-Monday
Bfast-fritatta/onion, mushroom,garlic with guac + 1 strawberry
Lunch-leftover rogan josh
Dinner-marinara over spaghetti squash, mesclun salad with tomatoes and cucumbers and olive oil/ raspberry balsamic, mustard vinaigrette

Day9-Tuesday
Bfast-fritatta crammed with onions, mushrooms, garlic and tons of spinach, 3 strawberries
Hardboiled egg after MTB
Lunch-chipotle
Dinner-Butternut squash lasagna casserole, chicken "wings" (see below), and mesclun salad. A small handful of dried cherries for dessert

Kaveh made these awesome chicken wings with wing drummettes and legs at Deep Creek.  I throw in thighs too to feed hungry boys (and meateaters like me).  This time I just used the legs and thighs.

Chicken "Wings"
(preheat oven to 375, I did 400 last time and it worked well)

legs and thighs, with skin removed (about 3 lbs)
6 cloves garlic, minced
avocado or olive oil
red pepper flakes
salt/pepper

sauce

8 oz Frank's Red Hot sauce
2+ TBSP ghee
2 TBSP apple cider vinegar

Put wing in large bowl.  Toss with oil, garlic, a couple of dashes of red pepper flakes and salt and pepper, seasoned to your liking.  Put in 13x9 pan or cookie sheet covered by foil (for easy clean-up) and place in oven for 25 mins.
Mix sauce by melting ghee in large pyrex or the like in microwave.  Add hot sauce and vinegar and whisk together.  Preheat grill to med/med-high heat, depending on how closely you will watch it.
Take chicken out of the oven, and completely douse in sauce.  Place on grill and baste with leftover sauce, making sure to do this only 2x as you need to thoroughly cook the sauce if the chicken was in it.
I typically leave the chicken on the grill for 2 mins per side and do each side 3 times.

YUM!


Sunday, January 25, 2015

We had Josh Brogen for dinner



For the main dish, we made Paleo Rogan Josh.  It smelled amazing while cooking, so I decided to add a side of faux rice pilaf.  

Saturday, January 24, 2015

Day 6 Whole30

Day6-Saturday

Mike gave me a break and made breakfast this morning, as I've been cooking all week (and chopping, and shopping, and reading-how does a person with a full-time job outside the home do this??).  So, without further ado...

Breakfast-fritatta with mushrooms, onions, garlic and proscuitto topped with homemade guac (avacado, onions, tomatoes, jalopenos, and lime), banana
Lunch-raw pad thai (I made a ton knowing we'd all be tired of thinking about what to eat today)
Snack-sweet potato with ghee and cinnamon, a few almonds and 2 dried cherries
Dinner-Fuddruckers elk burger, just the patty, with avocado, sandwiched in lettuce leaves, tomato and pico de gallo.

We read what Fuddrucker's seasons their burgers with and we believe it may have had a little brown sugar in the seasoning.  We both are feeling foggy for lack of a better word with a slight headache, but boy did the burger taste good.

Earlier today, I was noticing how clear-headed I felt and it's been easier for me to remember things, like passwords that I normally forget. And my energy levels are very good.  Interesting...


Whole30 for the record, first blog attempt, yada yada

We started Whole30 on Monday Jan 19 at noon.  For now, this a record of the meals we've eaten and hopefully a link to some recipes, for posterity, or maybe to help someone else. The first post is going to be a spew as it's been 5 days. 1/6 done!!

Day1-Monday
Lunch-Chipotle-for Mike and I, this will always be a salad, carnitas, all 3 salsas and we split the guacamole.
Dinner-chili with ground beef and veggies for us.  Casey can have beans, no meat in hers.  Lots of chili.

Day2-Tuesday
Breakfast-Frittata with onion, garlic, spinach and broccoli.
Lunch-out to lunch at Great Sage, roast potatoes with 2 sauces, buffalo broccoli salad with lime dill vinagrette, shared a smoothie with Casey-banana, peach, mango and spirulina.
Dinner-roast chicken/an orange (so I didn't get too full before going back to class then I bonked at cycling class as I didn't have enough fuel after cross-training)
After class snack-microwaved sweet potato with ghee and cinnamon and something else, lots of water

Day3-Wednesday
Breakfast-Proscuitto cups, strawberries, banana
Lunch-Potato soup, roast chicken  ( I basically use this recipe, use leeks instead of onions and and a whole30 approved oil, don't use escarole, use whole30 veggie broth or chicken broth and add chopped green chilis as the pototoes are cooking, can also add carrots)
Dinner-More potato soup, chicken, fruit, salad

Day4-Thursday
Breakfast-Frittata with onion, mushroom, garlic, spinach and broccoli topped with salsa.  orange, strawberries
Lunch-potato soup with crispy proscuitto
Dinner-Raw Pad Thai, modified dressing for whole30 (use almond butter and coconut aminos instead of soy sauce and don't put in maple syrup) with chicken (cubed, sauteed in coconut oil, salt and pepper, ginger and garlic)

Day5-Friday
Breakfast-Scrambled eggs with mushroom, onion and proscuitto, banana
Snack-small potato soup, almonds
Lunch-sweet potato mash with ghee and cinnamon, orange
Dinner-Raw Pad Thai (so yummy and I need more veggies), oven cooked chicken wings, drums, thighs

After dinner snack- another bowl of pad thai veggies with dressing

Snacks have been small amounts of dried fruit, a handful of almonds, an apple here and there, oranges and strawberries.  And I made sweet potato chews, roasted then sliced and roasted again sweet potatos coconut oil and cinnamon.  YUM!


Lots of water, and 2 cups of black coffee every day.  I love my coffee.  Oh, and when I say eggs in the morning, it's always 2 or 3 for one of us.

I had a headache Tuesday morning from overdoing it on the weekend, too much wine and sugar, probably knowing we were going into this.  But I have felt mostly good ever since, except for the lack of energy Tuesday when I sorely miscalculated the fuel needed for my 2 workouts.

We feel like we've been eating more decadently than ever, the fat makes up for the usual fillers.  Bread, pasta, beans, chickpeas, cheese etc. are replaced with avacados, proscuitto, eggs (with yolks), ghee and sweet potatoes.  What's not to like?

We've seemed to avoid the normal timeline of headaches and wanting to kill all the things.  We think it's because we eat fairly healthy normally, we don't rely on grains and sugars.  But I've also had lots of energy to cook and shop this week. Talk to me in a week or 2.  Speaking of shopping, this is really hard on the budget.  Very expensive to buy organic foods and the oils needed to do this.  Not for the budget-conscious in our opinion, but most likely very worth it for 30 days.  TBD.

the boring room

My other blog, 'the boring room'