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.

Chicken Caesar Salad

I started with our classic romaine and added some mixed greens - just to give some added flavor.  I think this mix had baby red chard in it.  Delicious and beautiful!  Gluten-free croutons and Cardini's Caesar finished it up. We topped it with onion-garlic-basil-parsley-lemon-pepper chicken.  It was wonderful.

Meals: 29 April-5 May

I can tell that I've been having too much sugar lately, because I am craving it ALL the time.  I wake up and my first thought is, "What can I munch?"  I think some of this might come from the leftover cake pops from baby Sophie's first birthday.  They were the best cake I've ever had in my whole life!!  We are down to just a couple remaining leftovers and I will be sad to see them go, but I put together a solid meal plan for next week to help distract me.  It has just enough sugar in it to let me down easily.

Sunday
Mongolian Grill - we were planning to do this last week and it's been stuck in my brain ever since.  We have a lot of work planned for Sunday, so I'm sure I'll want a break by dinner time.

Monday
chicken caesar salad - love the standbys

Tuesday
Gussied up Viking Hash from Best Paleo Recipes.  Aunt Steph is making it too.  We'll see if I can stick to the meal plan and actually co-cook this week!  I'm planning to cut up some apples and steam some zucchini spears to go with the hash.  I might pick up rice pudding for dessert.  Just a tiny bit of sugar :)

Wednesday
Community Group - I'm not sure yet what the theme will be, but I'm looking forward to seeing our group.  It's been a long time!

Thursday
hamburger patty, stuffed zucchini boats

Friday
Crock Pot Chicken Curry with Peppers and Cabbage from PaleoPot.

Saturday
lemon rosemary chicken on a salad (bell peppers, cucumbers, carrots, probably romaine lettuce) and probably some of the crispy onion salad topping.  I am crazy for that stuff right now.

At this point I've planned to make a caramelized onion tart with apples for a snack/lunch on Saturday.  We'll see if I talk my self out of it before then since I'm pretty sure puff pastry is not the best idea.  But if the weather is the pleasant, gray, chilly battle of Winter hoping to hold Spring off forever that today is - I am making an apple onion tart!  End of story!!

Slow-Cooker Chipotle Beef on Radish Slaw (again!)

I made this meal again and took some photos of prep and final result.  It's easily one of my favorites and it's pretty easy to make.  The original write-up has the link to the recipe and details on prep.  I used kale this time instead of bok choy.  I think this gets better every time I make it.

I love these vibrant radishes that I picked up at Whole Foods.  Purple radish, white radish.  Love it!

Slaw - a little extra lime juice this time, and it was delicious.

I tossed some red peppers in the slow-cooker.  They paled a bit in color, but they had great flavor.

delicious

Paleo Chilaquiles with Tostones

Check this out!!  Tostones - plantains fried in coconut oil and dusted in Adobo seasoning (recipe from paleoeffect.com) topped with lettuce, shredded chicken (also from Paleo Effect), then guacamole (Whole Foods - delicious) and an over-medium egg.  The whole recipe was from Paleo Effect - Paleo Chilaquiles).

I used plantains that were a little riper than recommended, but I thought they tasted great.  The sweetness of the plantains pairs well with the Adobo seasoning, and the spicy chicken in enchilada sauce is perfect.  I love eggs and I love Mexican food.  I thought this meal was great!  I made this along with my Aunt Steph (the long-distance cooking project) and even when I have to delay for a day or things don't turn out perfectly, it's wonderful to be cooking together.

We actually had this a couple of weeks ago and I think it's time to put it on the meal plan again soon.

Meals: 23-28 April

Monday
tilapia, steamed carrots, salad

Tuesday
hamburger patty, pickles, apples, mozzarella

Wednesday
Burgerville

Thursday
chicken caesar salad

Friday
apple and pork stir-fry with ginger

Saturday
taco salad

Meals: 9-15 April

Meal planning lately has been very last minute, which has kind of a fun, go with the moment feeling - but I'm ready for more stability.  Normally I prefer to plan the Wednesday before, but today will work.  We're finishing the plan and then Sophie and I are headed to the grocery store!

Monday
I was planning to do hamburger patties, but Tim called and suggested we go out for Indian food.  I'm all for that!!

Tuesday
Paleo Chilaquiles - new recipe!  I pulled this down from Paleo Effect and we are going to pair it with their Paleo Tostones.  Aunt Steph and I are still cooking "together" on Tuesdays (we make the same meal the same night - even though she is in MN and I am in OR) so I'm looking forward to comparing notes with her on how this comes out.

Wednesday
Our hockey team is in the playoffs and Community Group meets on Wednesdays, so we are either doing something quick and easy while we watch the game, or quick and easy to take to Community Group.

Thursday
Rosemary Chicken on Salad - we had this for dinner last night and I might even have it for lunch today.  It's super simple: romaine lettuce, dried cranberries, maybe some feta, bell pepper, Annie's Shitake Sesame dressing - all topped with chicken cooked in lemon juice and rosemary.  So good.

Friday
Crock Peppered Beef - new recipe! I got this from one of the people sharing recipes through Plan to Eat.  I think I'll do steamed sweet potatoes with butter and cinnamon on the side.  And maybe some broccoli too.

Saturday
Bacon-Feta stuffed Chicken, side of Stuffed Zucchini Boats - we have a busy morning/afternoon on Saturday, but I'm hoping to make it back in time to put all of this together.

Sunday
Chicken Sausage with Onions, Peppers, paired with Spiced Butternut Squash and Apple Soup - new recipe!) - this is SUCH a fall recipe, but I'm going to hope the weather holds for one last comfort-food fall meal.

food food food

Food has lately been a little in the background for me.  I have a couple of pictures that I can post about dinners, but nothing too exciting - for the most part I've been making some standard meals (hamburger patties and pickles, or chicken sausage with bell peppers, lots of caesar salads and taco salads.)  We're in a good spot with meal-planning where I'm usually two or three days ahead of the game, not quite the weekly planning that I like to do, but enough to keep us eating with some balance and usually (usually) at home.  It means I have to go to the grocery store more often than my ideal, but Sophie is a fun co-shopper, so it's not too much hassle.

House projects and visiting family have shifted some of my focus.  I'm also finding that the cost of ingredients is keeping me tied to the basics for the most part - just for a couple of budget cycles.  There are exceptions, like buffalo steaks the other night :)  I'm looking forward to building further on our foundation of meals and planning it out in the future, but I'm not in a rush.  It's nice sometimes not to be rushing!

Chicken Lettuce Wraps

I made lettuce wraps for dinner earlier in the week and they were a big hit.  I used this recipe from Everyday Paleo and I loved how they turned out.  I used romaine leaves instead of iceberg for a little more flavor.  

delicious chicken, zucchini, cabbage, red pepper, green onion filling

chicken filling wrapped in lettuce

I made a sauce to go with it, made from almond butter - flavored a lot like a Thai peanut sauce.  I used this recipe - and subbed coconut crystals in for coconut aminos.  It was such a great sauce!  Tim has the leftovers at work with him, or I would be munching a spoonful right now. 

I < 3 hamburgers

I do *heart* hamburgers, but that is not why there is a <3 in the post title.  The hamburger patty is in the shape of a heart!  It's a heart-shaped blue cheese and beef patty from Whole Foods in honor of Cupid Day tomorrow.  It was slightly pretty, but excessively delicious.

I grilled it on the George, along with the zucchini spears.  I steamed some apples in my stovetop steamer and then sprinkled them with cinnamon.  Avocado slices with the burger, fresh raspberries on the side.  

Side note: I got two burgers.  One for each adult in the house.  Sophie can have a few bites of mine, right?  She probably doesn't even like blue cheese, right?  Few bites - HA.  Try 60%.  We might have become a three-entree family when no one was looking. :)

Chipotle Chile Crockpot Chicken

Another creation from Chef Steph!  Grauntie Steph to the Little Miss :)  Tim had a gig at a coffee shop on Friday which made it the perfect night to have a crockpot meal that was filling, easy to eat before the show, but nothing that needed a lot of careful timing and planning for prep. 

We started with a splash of water in the bottom of the pot and then some semi-thawed chicken.  I seized the opportunity to use the boneless skinless chicken thighs that I have, since we don't like them plain, but they hold up great in casseroles and dishes like this.  Next we added sliced and de-seeded dried chipotles (five, where three might have done, but bravely we charged forth), tomatoes, green pepper, onion, garlic, and sprinkles of salt and pepper.

After cooking it on low for about 5 hours we pulled the chicken apart with forks and added leftover steamed carrots, as well as some fresh mushrooms.  It was the perfect time to add them so that they had time to warm up and blend with the flavor, but they weren't too mushy.

It was smoky, slightly spicy, but had an excellent overall flavor.  It did not have that unfortunate flat taste that so often comes from a crockpot that is overfilled with a starch and some sort of creamy soup.  It tasted like a fiesta (cha cha cha).  I had the leftovers for lunch a couple of days and it was even tastier.  It had that fully bonded flavor that a leftover lasagna has.  I need to load this into Plan to Eat and queue it up for the near future.

One-Eyed Marthas, Portobellos, Zucchini, Sirloin and Bacon

This is a Kiersten and Aunt Steph meal from last week.  There were a lot of things happening at once in the kitchen, but we handled it with our natural grace and talent and it turned out to be completely worth it.  We knew we wanted to grill portobello mushrooms, so we picked up one of those and marinated it in some red wine.  I also had some zucchini that I wanted to have with the meal.  From there, we got creative.  We browsed the meat counter at Whole Foods and came up with Bacon-Wrapped Sirloin skewers.  These got unskewered so that we could cook them in a pan with green onions, but the flavors still blended together well and they were delicious.

Now for the main attraction.  I grew up with an "egg in the hole" sometimes called a "one-eyed Jack."  It's basically a piece of bread with a whole cut out (I usually just pressed a glass into the center of the bread) and then fried in lots of butter with an egg in the center.  Bread is out, veggies are in these days, so I was thrilled to see this idea from the Novice Chef about making the same basic dish with a bell pepper instead of bread.

Here is a closeup of the egg.  It's an over-medium egg housed in a slice of red bell pepper that is being fried in coconut oil.  We omitted the asiago cheese, but kept the balsamic glaze.  I think next time I make them I would just skip the glaze since the egg alone doesn't really need the glaze and it doesn't have the cheese to balance out the vinegar.  Overall, it was very tasty.  And we had fun making them.  This is the showpiece One-Eyed Martha.  The rest of them were pretty comically spread out.  But still tasty.

Chicken on a Salad

It's simple, delicious, and quick.  Chicken on a salad.  Not to be confused with chicken salad.  Romaine lettuce, oven-roasted chicken, walnuts, dried cranberries, tomatoes, celery, bell pepper, balsamic and oil dressing.  No fuss. No muss.  Dinner.

Spinach Salad Palooza - with leftovers

I whipped this up for lunch the other day.  I put a bed of fresh spinach in a bowl and started tossing in ingredients.  Feta cheese, Dried Steak Strips (kind of like beef jerky, but thicker and a bit more tender), Steamed Asparagus, Blueberries - tasty.  No dressing needed, but I splashed a little lime juice on to give it some zip.  I totally love the colors in this salad.