Monday, January 9, 2012

Forgot to marinate the steaks and hit a homerun

MMMMM.... Dinner, or as Mr. put it "you really hit a home run with that one." Seriously, a complement on a meal that didn't contain any starches or grains? I. am. floored. I do have to take some credit where credit is deserved. Initially dinner was going to be some eye of round steaks but I forgot to marinate them, so they will have to wait. Instead I made this...



Meatballs with a vegetable medley over spinach and spaghetti squash.

First the meatballs,

 Preheat oven to 325

Mix
2lbs Grass fed beef
1tsp oregano
1tsp sweet basil leaf
1tsp salt

Mold into 1 1/2 diameter balls ( about 1 oz a piece)

I have a very hard time not eating this raw, so good.


Veggie Medley

Time to clean out the veggie drawer!!!



I used...

1 zuchinni
1/2 onion
4 oz of mushroom
1/2 red pepper
2 cloves of garlic
Broccoli
4 tbsp coconut oil
salt and sweet basil to taste

Saute onions first then set aside and do the rest of the veggies ('cept broccoli and garlic).  Set that with the onions and do the broccoli. When ready to serve throw it all together and add garlic. Make sure not to over do the garlic.

Don't forget the spaghetti squash and raw spinach. If you put the raw spinach on the bottom and layer the rest on top it will cook the spinach just a bit making it the perfect texture.


Not to make you crave pasta or anything but this is what the kids had...



Gluten free ravioli

My 15 year old and I have been gluten free for about 10 years and this is the first time she has been able to have ravioli. She was beyond excited and managed to eat 90% of the package herself. @nd daughter got the other 10%. They also had a blueberry treat. The company is called Maninis and their ingredients are impressive. No nasty oils like canola, only ancient grains. We don't eat a bunch of grains in our house but if we did I wouldn't feel bad about serving this stuff. Check out their website and see for yourself, good stuff.

Enjoy!!!

Sunday, January 8, 2012

Today was filled with those pesky Saturday chores. You know the ones that just don't or can't be done during the week. That's one difficult part of owning your own business, you don't every really get time off. Weekends are just extra time to get work done. Still worth it.

So today, among other things, we went shopping.

Whole paycheck was quite busy which the Mr. hates but I made him come anyway. He keeps saying he doesn't know what to eat so I wanted to show him. Basically, it's nothing from the isles and all from the perimeter. We don't have to worry much about meat because I bought 1/4 of a cow from Olsen Farms in Seattle. There is nothing like buying your beef directly from the owner.

Here was our Whole Foods haul.

The Mr. tried his first kombucha today and will be trying baba ganoush later. I will let you know how that goes. FYI, I think kombucha is whole 30 if there is no sugar and only sweetened with a bit of juice. The sugar in the juice is consumed by the beneficial bacteria, therefore it is almost negligible. But don't get all litigious on my ass. There is no black and white here peeps.

So here is dinner...



Here is what you need...

A big fracking chuck roast (grass fed, grass finished)- I think mine was 1.5 lbs but I wish I would have done a bigger one for more leftovers
4-5 large organic diced carrots
1 large diced onion
3-4 diced celery stalks
3-4 large Portabella mushrooms, whole caps, diced stems
2-4 tablespoon of tomato paste
2 bay leaves
1 rosemary sprig
2 diced garlic cloves
Enough beef bone broth or chicken broth to almost cover the meat, keeping the top exposed.
Grass fed ghee

Preheat oven to 325
First brown the meat, using ghee, in a dutch oven, cast iron skillet or pan. I prefer the dutch oven for the one pot meal effect. Less clean up=happier mama.  Then place the meat aside and in the same pot saute the carrots, onions and celery. When the onions begin to brown add the tomato paste making a mirepoix. Turn off heat. Now you can add the mushroom stems, garlic, meat, stock and bay leaves. Adding the garlic now avoids over cooking the delicate flavor of the garlic. Then place the mushroom caps on top of the meat and the rosemary on top of everything. The rosemary flavor will infuse into the whole dish without being overwhelming.

Bake covered for 2-4 hours depending on the amount of meat. I suggest you check after 2 hours. If it is done the meat will fall apart  when you twist a fork in it. As little kids we used to call this "string meat."

The butternut squash pictured above was tosses in,

4 tbsp coconut oil
2 tsp thyme
sea salt and white pepper

Roast on convection at 375 until browned slightly. If you don't have convention, bake at 350. This can be done after the meat is finished. Usually takes about 20-25 min but keep an eye on it becuase it can go faster depending on the size of the cubes.
You can also use acorn squash or pretty much any squash you like. 'cept spaghetti squash...probably not a good idea.

Enjoy!







Saturday, January 7, 2012

Whole 30 day 6

Feeling pretty good today. Breakfast was awesome. I didn't mention this before but I am on the leptin reset. It works really well with the Whole 30 so I just incorporated the two. I probably should have been this strict on the leptin reset starting from the begining, I would probably be onto phase II already. Oh well, whats done is done so moving on...

Breakfast. Favorite meal of the day. Today was leftover chuck roast from dinner, a piece of bacon and 2 eggs. AND tumeric, I love tumeric.

Mr. has been sick since the beginning of the month so he is a bit bummed that he doesn't feel any better even though his diet has been flawless. I feel like my head is clearer and I have a bit more energy than usual. I still have the remnants of New Years around my waist (baily's, if it's in the house I have to have it and boy did I).

I am making chuck roast again tonight so I will post the recipe later with a pick. Spoiler alert....

My, not so, secret ingredient is portabella mushrooms.


Friday, January 6, 2012

Whole 30ying

So on January 2nd, I started the whole 30. Why not January 1st you ask? I have a hard time being a "joiner". It just rubs me the wrong way. Also, I had no intention of doing this until the Mr. gluten free NP decided he need to make some changes. He has been an avid carb eater/beer drinker forever so I had to grab this opportunity for change.

So what I am going to do is post both the glorious and not so glorious from the whole 30 extravaganza.


Here is the first breakfast, taken on the 2nd.

Okay, just kidding but I did make a lot of bacon.



Now, bacon is supposed to be eaten in moderation on the whole 30. I can respect that. In fact, I agree with it. That being said, I eat 1-2 slices of bacon a day. Clearly not moderate when you take in that it's 14 pieces a week or maybe it is moderate. I dunno, it's all semantics. The truth is that I don't over fry it and I buy quality bacon. Sometimes from the farmers market, sometimes from whole foods and soon from U.S. Wellness meats.

That's what I have to say about bacon and my new venture in the Whole 30. Stay tuned for further updates.