whole30 round3

A Whole30 is a great intro to a paleo lifestyle and we did our first one a few years ago.  It was a great experience - lots of work, but worth it.  Then while pregnant with Anya I basically did a Whole70.  Also worth it.

I'm diving back into my whole30 round3.  I'm actually halfway through it!  I've had much less trouble with cravings and willpower this time.  My first pizza one hit today.  In fact, it's been tougher to get enough calories and foods in.  

I found this cool graphic on Mel Joulwan's site: http://meljoulwan.com/paleo-101/

It's a great list!  It's not hard to find something on there to eat.  I'm actually doing no nuts or fruit for the first 30 days, so it's been a little tougher, but not difficult.  It is hard to go out, but we haven't had much time for that lately anyway.  I went out with friends the other night, forgot when I scheduled it that I had a fasting blood test in the morning, and ended up just having water.  It's all worth it for health!  We'll see if I can keep it up.

W30 D13 - buffalo chicken

My health has been so problematic lately that I need to reset diet and gut health so that we can figure out if something more serious is happening.  It's been a crazy couple of weeks of detox!  I am feeling more energetic and positive overall - not quite as light and fresh as I'd like to feel, but I think it's all a step in the right direction.

I'm always so thankful for the food that I have available and the cooking resources out there for when I decide to eat well and really take care of myself.  This salad is shredded purple cabbage, topped with chicken (I batch poached a couple of pounds), a dollop of homemade lemon mayo, some avocado, and Tessemae's buffalo sauce on the chicken.  It was an amazing lunch!

Here's to good food, good health, and taking good care of the gifts that we're given.  With manna and beyond.  <3

Sun-dried Tomato & Pork with Balsamic Reduction Sauce

Dinner last night was fantastic!  A friend posted a link to www.thefoodee.com and I got lost in looking at all the beautiful, new Paleo recipes.  I Dream of Protein's site has some great looking meals.  Last night we tried this Sun-Dried Tomato & Pork with Balsamic Reduction Sauce and it did not disappoint.

The pork and sauce were great.  I made her Macadamia Basil Pesto to go with it, which was delicious on its own, and great combined with the pork and glaze.  A little spring mix, some pear slices, and broiled zucchini rounds on the side - it was lovely and so tasty.  For the zucchini, I laid them out on a foil covered cookie sheet, dotted with Kerrygold butter, added salt and pepper, and broiled on low for about 6 minutes.

Excellent meal!  We loved it.

Meals: 21-23 May

I've only planned this week through Thursday since we start our CSA pickup that day (two weeks early!!).  My thought is that I'll look at our CSA box and plan Friday through the following Thursday so that I can be sure to incorporate all of our fresh-from-the-farm produce.  The farm is doing home deliveries today and they posted some pictures - beautiful, lush produce in beautiful, hand-crafted cedar crates.  I noticed kale, turnips, strawberries, salad mix; I'm so excited!

Tuesday
Sun-dried Tomato and Pork with Balsamic Reduction Sauce from I Dream of Protein - I already made the macadamia pesto to go with it and it's delicious.  Sophie and I had it on eggs for lunch.  I think I'll serve it on a bed of lettuce and maybe saute some zuchinni rounds to go with it.

Wednesday
3lbs ground beef taco meat, 2 bags romaine lettuce - Community Group night.  Taco bar!

Thursday
spring mix with chicken sausage links - easy to have on the table quickly while I revel in our fresh farm bounty!

Spaghetti Squash with Meatballs

My aunt Stephanie and I are cooking together again!  She's still living a few states away, but we had another lovely visit recently (this time around the birth of baby Anya) and we chatted about nutrition and looked at recipes and meal plans and got to cook together; it was great!  We decided to keep it going by picking a recipe to make the same evening and compare notes, or in this case, we just decided on a common ingredient and made our own recipes.

Spaghetti squash.  So amazing.  When I'm not making this casserole I like to sub the squash in for pasta and then proceed with a spaghetti, meatball, and marinara dinner.  Steph and I decided to make our own dishes along these general lines and then compare notes.

Since these little sweeties are 2 years old and 2 months old I am a little out of practice at making meatballs from scratch.  I have been enjoying the ridiculously delicious Whole Foods pre-made meatballs.  

I had about 1.25 lbs of ground beef to use, so I didn't do half beef/half mild italian pork sausage (my usual flavor base and safety net).  These were straight beef.  I also had 2 red bell peppers to use ... sooner than later!  I mixed up the following, then worked the mixture through the ground beef using my hands.

-- 1/2 red bell pepper, minced
-- 1T onion powder
-- 1T chopped garlic
-- 1tsp dried basil
-- 1T dried parsley
-- 2tsp chili powder
-- salt and pepper
-- 1 egg
-- 2T almond meal

looks pretty yummy!

garlic and green onions sauteed in olive oil - ready for the meatballs

meatball

 I browned the meatballs for about 3 minutes per side before adding the sauce.  I bought a jar of tomato basil spaghetti sauce at Whole Foods - intentionally very simple so that I could add a bit to it.  I sauteed some green onions and garlic in olive oil, then added the meatballs.  Once they were browned, I added the jar of sauce, some salt and pepper, and about 1T each of dried parsley, dried basil, and onion powder.

meatballs simmering in sauce

 I used the rest of the bell pepper as a side dish, combined with some frozen leeks from Trader Joe's, and some spinach that I needed to use up.  I started with the leeks and peppers in some olive oil for about ten minutes, and then added the spinach and let it wilt.

The final dish.  Tim's was a pretty traditional serving of spaghetti squash with a few meatballs and some extra sauce.  I opted for the squash with pesto on it, and a few meatballs without extra sauce.  This was pesto from Trader Joe's, but I have a recipe for Paleo pesto that I'm hoping to try in the future.

Colorful and tasty.  The best kind of meal!!

Cooking for 3+2+1

Things have been a bit slow on the blog lately - partly because I've been too busy to post and partly because I've been too sick to cook or eat.  Baby #2 is expected to bless our family with his/her appearance February 2013!  It's so very exciting and we are all thrilled.  I'm just so sick!  It's a silly time to have a food blog.  I'm eating chicken broth, oyster crackers, gatorade, and all the Mexican food I can get my hands on.  Not a lot of photo ops coming out of that.

We've had some other changes in the household recently.  Tim, Sophie and I are the three; the two in the title refers to two of my sisters living with us for a while.  We are all having a great time together and I'm glad to have them around (they have been picking up some of my slack on cooking - which is so helpful!).  The +1 is little baby.  Not cooking specifically for the new one yet, but I'm already feeling the impact.  So, we are a household of 5, soon to be 6.  Hopefully cooking will be more interesting again soon and I'll get some more posts up.  I'm ready for better food and a healthier appetite, for sure.

Chicken Tricolore

I know I've made this before and probably even posted a picture, but this time it just turned out so beautiful! I used a medley of cherry and pear tomatoes (sunburst maybe) so it's more of multicolore than tricolore :)  It was delicious too!

This photo is taken right before it was popped into the oven.  I love the flavors and it's really simple to make.  It's chicken breasts - just cut into portion sizes and put in the pan, then topped with a mixture of olive oil, minced garlic, green olives, grape tomatoes (or cherry and the pear tomatoes like I have here), salt, pepper, dried parsley.  Bake at 350* for about 30 minutes (check the chicken to make sure it's cooked through).  The flavors are straightforward and they are present, but not overpowering.  If you like the flavor of green olives, I suggest dishing them up onto your plate with your portion.  Otherwise, if you leave them behind in the pan, you will just have a pleasant, mild flavor from them.