Hey culinary cavewomen! D and I are on Day 5 of our Whole 30, and so far so good! We're both noticing some sleep issues and other things (he had a headache yesterday, I had some stomach issues and overall fatigue), but according to the
forum, we're in line with what's expected, so I'm looking forward to starting to feel better and sleep better soon! We spent too much at the grocery store today, but are looking forward to the meals we've planned out, because they sound delicious!
I've been tweeting pics of some of our meals this week, but I wanted to post some of them here, along with recipes, in case anyone needs ideas or wants to copy some of ours!
First up: butternut squash soup, simple salad, and steaks!
Gingery Butternut Squash Soup
1 butternut squash
1 onion (yellow or white)
1 bunch of leeks
ginger root
nutmeg
5 cups chicken broth
Cut a butternut squash in half, lengthwise, and use a spoon to scoop out the seeds (like you do with a pumpkin), then peel the skin off the outside and chop into as close to 1" cubes as you can. Chop the onion and the leeks (white and green parts both). Cut off and peel about a Tablespoon's worth of the ginger root.
Put your pot on the stove with a Tablespoon of extra virgin olive oil in it, and heat the oil. Add in the onions, ginger, and leeks:
Onions, ginger, and leeks in olive oil
Add in the broth and squash:
Mmmm... soupy
Cook on medium heat (simmer) until the squash is tender (use your spoon to test the tenderness):
Looking good!
While the soup is simmering, season and begin to grill your steak:
Salt and pepper steak
I use a panini grill pan, because that's what I have :)
Once the squash is tender, pour as much of the chicken stock off as you can, but save it. Then (carefully) pour the veggie mixture into a food processor or blender and blend until smooth:
Blending!
Once everything is pureed, pour it back into your pot, and, over low heat, add the chicken stock back in until the consistency is how you want it:
Then add two teaspoons of nutmeg:
At this point, I chopped up some leftover Romaine and tossed it with olive oil and balsamic vinegar while the steak finished cooking. And voila!
Dinner!
It was a really good meal, actually. Next time I make it, I'm going to grill more meat, and I'm going to cut back on the ginger and nutmeg, because I felt they overwhelmed the other flavors. But it was still really good. The soup recipe is from
Paleo Comfort Foods, which is a cookbook D bought with the Barnes & Noble gift card he got for Christmas. We like everything we've made out of it so far!
Next up is
Chicken Non-Parmesan (my own recipe)!
Preheat your oven to 350.
Homemade Tomato Sauce
1 onion, diced
2 cloves garlic, minced
1 28-oz can crushed tomatoes
1 14-oz can diced tomatoes
Ingredient roll call!
Pour two Tablespoons of extra virgin olive oil into a saucepan or wide pot and heat, then add the garlic and onions and saute until fragrant.
Pour in both cans of tomatoes, and simmer over low heat, stirring occasionally. I like to cover the pot with a splatter guard to minimize clean-up later. This can pretty much simmer as long as you need it to.
That's the whole tomato sauce recipe - you can add basil and oregano, I sometimes do, to taste.
Our discovery this week: spaghetti squash!
To prepare, poke some holes in the squash, then microwave it for 5 minutes.
That's D's finger. Do not microwave fingers.
After you take the squash out of the microwave, very carefully cut it in half, lengthwise (it's hot). Remove the seeds. Then, take a fork and scrape it along the insides of the squash - it comes out looking kind of like angel hair pasta! Set aside the squash once you've scraped all you can out of it.
I find this truly amazing.
The true way to make Chicken Parm involves pounding the chicken breasts, so you can totally do that. I didn't do it this time. Dredge the chicken through a slightly beaten egg, then through coconut flour (we're using Bob's Red Mill - ingredient: coconut):
"breaded" chicken!
Heat some ghee (or clarified butter, or oil of your choice - I'll post the ghee procedure next time we make some - it is super easy) and brown both sides of your chicken (usually just a couple of minutes on each side).
Put the chicken on a baking sheet and stick it in the oven to finish (time will vary, depending on how thick the chicken is).
Toss the spaghetti squash in a saute pan with a little oil for a few minutes. I think I did it for about 3 minutes, it turned out fine, but could have gone longer, maybe.
It looks so much like pasta!
Layer squash and chicken, then top with tomato sauce.
Yum!
Dinner!
You could add another veggie to this dinner, if you were so inclined, but it was filling and delicious! I'll definitely be making that again.
For Friday nights, I like to keep things really simple, so we had my only-famous-in-my-house porkchops, smashed white yams, and steamed broccoli:
I season the pork chops with garlic powder, salt and pepper. And, yes, that's the panini grill pan again. Mashed yams are made the same way as mashed potatoes, and I added a Tablespoon of ghee during the mashing process. Broccoli is steaming in the back. :)
Simple, easy, and oh so good!
The ghee really added a great dimension to the mashed yams, which we've made before without adding it. It cut the sweetness a little (which is already less in white yams than in the orange ones, which is why I buy them more often than I buy the orange kind), and just really enhanced the other flavors.
Now, I don't know if a traditional Whole 30-er would frown upon the fact that these last two recipes are similar to what we'd eat in our prior habits, since I'm basically just replacing pasta and white potatoes, but the way I look at it, if clean eating is going to be a sustainable lifestyle, I have to be able to eat things I find comforting and delicious, and I want to be able to use recipes I already know how to make. The more I can incorporate my previous eating habits into paleo / Whole 30 versions, the more likely I am to continue eating this way... which I know is actually the opposite of what it says in It Starts With Food, but as they also say in there, I know myself best, and this is how it will work for me.
*steps off soapbox*
This coming week, I'll be making some chicken with mushroom sauce,
meatballs with sauce and green beans, cashew chicken with cauliflower "rice," steak salad, and burgers (without buns).
So how's it going for the rest of you who are doing the Whole 30? What have you been eating and enjoying? Happy cooking! Mwah!!
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