Week Eight

After a few weeks (okay probably about 8 or so...) of slowly increasing the number of both Paleo and non-Paleo treats to almost one thing a day I've realized that the sneaky little devil sugar has again found it's way into my mainstream diet (anytime I use the word "diet" I'm not referring to any calorie reduction/weight loss plan but rather what I eat on a daily basis). This means only one thing...another Whole30.

If you are not familiar with this term it's a 30 day period of time where you follow a fairly strict plan of what you can and can't eat. The website whole9life.com is full of great information and a great resource if anyone is interested in ever doing it. The way I feel is amazing after one and it is a great way to restore your body to optimal gut health...which really effects every other organ system. That is after you get through the first week "Paleo flu" from your body adjusting to fat metabolism from carb metabolism...that's where I am now, I know the benefits outweigh this time of exhaustion and headaches and it just proves even further to me how far off I had been!!!!

The main thing you guys are going to see with the recipes I am posting is that they won't have any Paleo "approved" sweeteners like honey or any Paleo "treats" made with almond flour. The main reason for both of these is that those foods while still "whole" in the sense they don't have any processed/fake ingredients they will still be taking the place of dessertish items. One of the amazing results of the Whole30 program is the reduction in sugar cravings and this can only be achieved if all added sugars/sweeter items are removed. Fruit is still okay on the Whole30, but I do reduce my fruit intake to one per day if I'm feeling a little bleh.

So now for 30 days of Whole30 Approved menu items!!!!

Saturday: 

• Bun-less Burgers with Lots 'o Toppings. The options really are endless. For this meal I just topped a burger with some sliced avocado, tomato, mustard, and cilantro and went to town. We had fresh chopped veggies dipped in my homemade ranch to round out the meal

Sunday: 

• Pan Fried Rib eye and Green Beans. I literally just melted some clarified butter in a cast iron skillet and fried the rib eyes in them. I seasoned them with some salt and pepper. I was really shocked at how good they were!

Monday:

• Blackened Grilled Chicken and Grilled Zucchini. Nothing fancy...again, see I told you last week! This time I used a spice mix that I always have on hand. It's really tasty on chicken and fish. I grilled my chicken this time, but have baked fish chunks in this to use for fish tacos. I use less for the kids pieces

Tuesday: 

• Chicken Salad.  I made double the recipe for the blackened chicken from last night and used it to have chicken salads tonight. I'm lucky, my kids like salad. I blended some avocado with my homemade ranch to make an avocado ranch dressing. I added a touch of lime juice and cilantro too...yummy!

Wednesday: 

• Asian Ground Beef. You guys have seen this several times already and that's because it's so quick and easy. I also love that it makes enough for several days of leftovers! And that you can eat your meat and veggies all together!

Thursday: 

• Grilled Chicken Zucchini Noodle Alfredo and Salad. ***Substitute note: I used coconut milk in place of the "milk." Because of this I had to add more cooking liquid to get it the consistency I wanted*** This was really tasty, we all loved it and while the sauce didn't EXACTLY taste like alfredo, it was very very tasty. 

Friday: 

• Greek Lamb Burgers, Grilled Asparagus, and Tomato/Cucumber/Kalamata Olive Salad. This has to be one of my most favorite summer meals of all time. I LOVE LOVE LOVE these burgers. Be prepared, they do smoke/catch fire easily because of the high fat content in the lamb, but these guys are really amazing. Oh and I do make them into burgers instead of meatballs like the recipe says...I tried that and I have a very temperamental smoke detector and baking these guys just caused that to go off the whole time!!! I double the recipe also, this is reflected in the ingredients below. For the salad I just halve baby tomatoes and kalamata olives, then chunk some cucumber up...toss it in olive oil, oregano, salt and pepper...so delish

Staples:

• Homemade Ranch (see link above)
• Paprika
• Chili Powder
• Cayenne Pepper
• Coriander
• Salt
• Pepper
• Oregano
• Garlic Powder
• Coconut Oil
• Coconut Aminos
• Garlic
• Coconut Milk
• Clarified Butter
• Chives
• Parsley (fresh)
• Eggs
• Dried Mint
• Cumin
• Cinnamon
• Olive Oil

Fruits:

• Avocado
• Tomato

Veggies:

• Baby Carrots
• Broccoli
• (2) Cauliflower
• Celery
• Green Beans
• Salad
• Bag of Broccoli Slaw
• Onion
• Shallot
• Mushrooms
• Spinach
• Zucchini (1 per person is what I use)
• Asparagus
• Grape Tomatoes
• Cucumber

Meats:

• 5lb Ground Beef  (Burgers and Asian Slaw and Lamb Burgers)
• Rib Eye (or whatever cut is on sale)
• 3lb Chicken Breast
• 2lb Ground Lamb

Etc:

• Cilantro
• Vegetable Broth 
• Dried Apricots
• Kalamata Olives

Week Seven

Time is moving along rather quickly. Here in St. Louis, Mother Nature isn't sure what the heck she is doing and can't make up her mind whether we're going to move onto the glorious time of lush greenness of spring and the golden glow of summer or stay in grey/dreary winter. I know she hasn't asked my opinion, but it needs to stop. It's the middle of April and yesterday I saw snow flurries...that has to stop...I need Vitamin D!!!!

Before I move onto food I just want to say I hope you guys have a wonderful week filled with whatever is refreshing after such an emotionally draining time for our country. As a runner, and more importantly a human being, I was horrified to hear such a cowardly act had been committed against innocent people at Boston. I have never once felt unsafe in any race that I have participated in and as a pseudo member of EMS I cannot begin to thank the countless first responders, both official and unofficial, that helped save so many lives in Boston and at the explosions in West TX. Despite the capture of one of the accused bombers we may never fully know his motives and there may never be an answer to "why." I hope that we all can now appreciate and focus on how much good there is around us. Don't let the selfish and evil acts of a few individuals cast doubt on the whole. Just reading all the stories of those helping during such an awful time proves otherwise...there is good out there. So, hug those you love tighter and cherish every breath you take...happy eating...


Saturday:

• New York Strip, Roasted Prosciutto Wrapped Asparagus, and Field Green Salad. I love food and this meal in all it's simplicity just makes me love it even more. We went to a friends house for dinner so I can't take real credit for this meal, but they know our food preferences and we know they truly love us because we ate a "Paleo" dinner!!! The best part of this dinner was that even though it looked fancy, it was a quick meal that was easily prepped before we got there and was pretty much hands off until it was time to eat...the guys manned the grill and the girls manned the red wine...someones got make sure the wine feels loved!!! (The best part was the flour-less chocolate cake and raspberry sorbet for dessert...I'm going to need that recipe!)

Sunday: 

• Pork Tenderloin and Steamed Broccoli. I was short on time this week too (becoming a trend...) so I just rubbed the pork tenderloin with some coconut oil and sprinkled it with salt/pepper/Italian seasoning in the morning before I went to work and then just sliced it in medallions and quickly fried them up in some more coconut oil. Steamed broccoli and clarified butter..yum..this is one of the reasons I chop ALL my veggies on grocery day. They all get placed in bags in the fridge so I don't have to wasted extra time when I'm running late and need a quick veggie. I also do it so when I'm having my 2pm hungry episode I can just grab a handful of them and some homemade ranch and move on with my day (which might be happening as I type!) 

Monday: 

• Cilantro Chicken and Roasted Veggies. Shockingly...I forgot to set out my chicken last night so instead of it being just the perfect firmness for chopping into cubes (this was supposed to be a kabob type recipe) it was hard as concrete so I just decided I'd change it up. I pulsed the ingredients in my blender and then dumped it all in a bag and decided I would just grill these guys up whole with as much marinade as possible. And they turned out AMAZING. The hubs doesn't eat with us on Monday nights and on Tuesday when he reheated them up for lunch I got a text that said "how did you cook these they're so delicious" For the roasted veggies I just dumped brussel sprouts, chopped zucchini and some mushrooms on a baking sheet, tossed them with coconut oil (always my oil of choice for roasting due to it's ability to maintain stability at higher temps than olive oil...)

                            Marinade Ingredients:

                                   Juice of 1 lime

                                   1 bunch of cilantro (just cut most of the leaves off)

                                   6 cloves of garlic

                                   1/4 cup olive oil

Tuesday: 

• Lemon Garlic Shrimp over Cauliflower Mash. WARNING!!! This does have some Parmesan cheese in it!!!! BUT I won't put it in next time, not that I'm that hardcore, just that it didn't add enough flavor to the dish to make it worth it to me. If I'm going to deviate I want it to be the most amazing thing I could possibly think about eating...and 1/4 cup Parmesan cheese just doesn't fit that category.  This dish was so flavorful and full of depth I can't wait to make it again. I did double the sauce because that's what I do and am so glad I did!!

Wednesday: 

• Tilapia and Sauteed Carrots. I didn't use many recipes this week, sorry about that. I find myself doing that more and more because it's just easier for me to piece together our favorites. I think one of the best things about eating Paleo is that I have gained more of an understanding of herbs and spices. They add so much depth and flavor that I can't imagine not cooking without them. This is one example. I love my tilapia with dill and lemon now. It just blends so well with the lightness of the fish. So that's what I did, melted some clarified butter in a pan, threw in my tilapia, sprinkled it with dill/salt/pepper and then gave it a little squeeze of lemon juice to make a nice little sauce. For the carrots I just tossed them in a pan with some melted butter and let them cook up until they were tasty morsels of sweetness. 

If you don't want to spend time chopping veggies tomorrow night, do it all tonight

Thursday: 

• Rainbow Chicken. One pan cooking at it's finest!!! This was super easy, since I put it together the night before it was super easy when I walked in to start fixing dinner. I just uncovered it and threw it in the oven. I did add some extra sweet potatoes in place of the white potato, but if you like parsnips (not a fan over here) then that would work as a good sub too. This wasn't the most amazingly flavorful dish I've made, but it was super convenient and I'm sure it'll get called on again!

Make sure to read Friday's recipe ahead of time, it calls for the roast to get the rub placed the night before, wrapped in saran wrap and then put in the crock pot with the extra stuff the next day for cooking. I just prepped all my crockpot ingredients and put it in the fridge too so all I had to do was add my roast in the morning and it was ready at dinner time

Friday:

• Cuban Pulled Pork and Peas. This got rave reviews from the hubs and kids...I ate it only as leftovers and it was still marvelous. The mix of savory and sweet in this dish is perfect. It's got such a subtle smokiness that was not lost at all. I was incredibly pleased with this and will for sure keep it around as one of my meals to have prepped for the hubs to manage while I'm working. And peas...who can go wrong with some peas! 

Staples

• Salt
• Pepper
• Olive Oil
• Coconut Oil
• Italian Seasoning
• Garlic (I think I went through 3-4 heads this week....)
• Oregano
• Chicken broth (check the labels on these too...most have added sugar!!)
• Clarified butter
• Dill
• Paprika
• Cumin
• Red Wine Vinegar
• Onion
• Dijon Mustard
• Cayenne Pepper
• Allspice
• Chili Powder
• Cinnamon
• Honey

Fruits

• (6) Limes
• (2) Lemons
• (1) Orange

Veggies

• Asparagus
• Salad 
• Mushrooms
• Broccoli
• Brussel Sprouts
• Zucchini
• Cauliflower
• Carrots
• Sweet Potatoes
• (2) Bell Peppers
• Peas

Meat

• New York Strip (or whatever steak is on sale, my ultimate fave is the rib eye)
• Prosciutto (read the ingredients, look for one with the fewest and no sugar)
• Pork Tenderloin
• 1lb Chicken Breast
• 1lb Shrimp (raw, I did that once...bought cooked shrimp for a recipe)
• Bacon
• Tilapia
• 1 1/4lb Chicken Thighs
• 3lb Pork Shoulder Roast

Etc

• Salad Dressing (just whip up your own, you'll spend 10 hours looking for one in the store that isn't full of junk)
• Cilantro
• Parmesan cheese, if you dare :-)
• White wine
• Fresh oregano (didn't use it FYI)

Week Six

I am having some kitchen anxiety lately...you see we live in an old house. Not like the kind of old house that is super amazingly cool, the kind that has just enough "character" to mean that it isn't insulated well, the windows are drafty, and it's hard to heat and cool effectively....which means that as summer approaches I dread the switch from indoor cooking to outdoor cooking. Don't get me wrong, I LOVE me some grilled food, but I also really LOVE me some roasted veggies and the throw it in the oven and forget it until it's perfect aspect. As those of you that have read my previous posts have probably guessed I tend to forget things. It's not necessarily that I'm forgetful, I really think it's that I try to do so much that my mind is just overrun with things I "need" to remember. This usually results in me throwing stuff on the grill...and forgetting about it. I can't even tell you how many times I have ruined some delicious free range/grass fed/organic meat from forgetting about it!!!

This brings me to another point that is totally unrelated to food (see, right there...trailing of thoughts...). The pastor at the church we attend recently spoke about Sabbath and what that really means. This has been weighing heavily on me, because I don't do Sabbath well...okay, I don't even attempt to do Sabbath at ALL!! Every week I am constantly checking my calendar making sure I've got all the kid swaps organized with my husband and trying to get every ounce of productivity out of my day. My friend Paula calls me a "professional parent planner," which I told her just made me sound less crazy!! I need to rest, and not the kind of rest that I do every night before bed where I catch up on all my social media sites. I need to refresh myself, rest with my family, and not worry about my fifty mile long to do list. It's good to rest and that is my goal this summer, to spend more time resting. So, you may hear some more about that....now back to food! Have a great week and rest well!!


Saturday:

• Grilled Chicken and Veggies: This isn't rocket science, I marinated some chicken breast in olive oil, chopped garlic, salt, pepper, and some Sunny Paris seasoning from Penzy's and then threw it on the grill with some zucchini, onion, bell pepper tossed in olive oil in my trusty grill basket

Sunday:

• Guacamole Burgers with Grilled Mango and Asparagus: I have seen lots of recipes for these out there and I just threw some stuff together from my head, it turned out really fresh and delish.

                      Ingredients:

                          2lb Grass Fed Beef (or whatever you can buy)

                          2 eggs

                          Salt/Pepper

                          Some shakes of homemade Onion Soup Mix
                          2 mangos
                          Your favorite guacamole (we like the stuff from TJ)
                          Your favorite salsa verde (we like TJ too, it's got no added sugar!)
                      Directions:
                          1.) Mix your meat with the eggs, salt, pepper, and onion soup mix
                          2.) Preheat your grill
                          3.) Slice your mango and prep your asparagus
                          4.) Make 8 fairly thin hamburger patties
                          5.) Put approx 2 Tablespoons guac on top of four of the patties, leaving a clean edge
                          6.) Place the remaining patties onto the guac ones and pinch the sides together
                          7.) Grill it all up
                          8.) We topped our burgers with chopped mango and salsa verde, it was delicious!
Monday:

• Asian Drumsticks and Green Beans: Another day working, so throwing a super quick marinade on drumsticks for grilling after work and a quick steaming of veggies for this day!

                      Marinade Ingredients (for two pounds of drumsticks, have used this on thighs too):

                           Juice of one orange

                           Salt/Pepper

                           Ground Ginger

                           1/4 cup coconut aminos

                           Garlic powder

Tuesday: 

• Spicy Spaghetti Sauce with Spaghetti Squash: Don't let the title fool you, the sauce has a little kick, but nothing that I thought was too overwhelming. The kids ate it without a problem but if you are concerned about it being too spicy cut the cayenne pepper out. It'll still be delicious. A note about cooking the spaghetti squash: There's always the "microwave" debate about it's effects on our health and even my bestie and I just had this conversation the other day about this very veggie in the microwave so I did a little research and this post by nom nom paleo addresses this issue...with some other links to VERY credible sites about the safety of microwaving food. While I'm still trying to avoid reheating EVERYTHING in the microwave, this might be a good alternative for my aversion to turning the oven on in the summer!

If you're using frozen salmon for tomorrows dinner set it out, and go ahead and set out the pork tenderloin for Thursday while you're at it...

Wednesday: 

• Pan Seared Salmon and Curry Roasted Cauliflower: Another night needing a quick dinner...melt some coconut oil in a cast iron skillet, throw some salmon in there, sprinkle with salt/pepper/Sunny Paris (YES, I use this for EVERYTHING!!!) and cook until it's done to your liking. I did toss my cauliflower in melted coconut oil and then sprinkled it with some curry powder (a light dusting is fine, if you like more flavor add more) prior to roasting for a little twist. Cauliflower is the most amazingly versatile veggie ever, it really does pair well with sooo many flavors!

Thursday: 

• Garlic Herb Crusted Pork Tenderloin and Roasted Broccoli: I've posted this one before, and you'll see it again...because it's that good. Sometimes there are just those recipes that you crave and this is one of them for me. It's so tasty and so easy. The key (in my opinion) is to use fresh herbs and to make them into a paste prior to rubbing them on the pork, that way the most flavor covers the whole thing. 

Staples

• Olive Oil
• Garlic Cloves
• Salt/Pepper
• Sunny Paris Seasoning
• Onions Soup Mix (see recipe above, make your own. It's easy and the store stuff is filled with crap!)
• Ground Ginger
• Coconut Aminos
• Garlic Powder
• Onion Powder
• Cayenne Pepper
• Coconut Oil
• Curry Powder
• Olive Oil

Fruit

• Mango
• Oranges

Veggies

• Zucchini (3 total)
• Onion
• Bell Pepper
• Asparagus
• Green Beans
• 1.5 Cups Mushrooms, sliced
• Spaghetti Squash (I usually bake 2 at a time for a meal and then leftovers)
• Cauliflower
• Broccoli

Meat

• 1lb Chicken Breast
• 2lb Drumsticks
• 3lb Ground Beef
• Salmon
• Pork Tenderloin (I usually make two at a time so we can have leftovers b/c we eat one just for dinner!)

Etc

• Guacamole
• Salsas Verde
• 2 Cans Tomato Sauce
• 1 Can Diced Tomatoes
• 1 Can Sliced Black Olives
• Fresh Basil (must use fresh, it's the best for this!)
• Fresh Rosemary
• Fresh Sage
• Fresh Thyme

Week Five

Seriously...for real, life is crazy. The hubs and I just went over our schedule for the next week and we're becoming masters at trading off kids (we call that who's the PCG [primary care giver] for the day) and single parenting. We both work full time at places with abnormal hours and days of the week (me with call shifts, which is what happened on Friday...I got called in when I was supposed to be grocery shopping and posting this menu!!! Which ultimately meant I had to go on Saturday, with two kids...yes, that's also called Hell on Earth!!!). The hubs also in school so juggling our life requires a seriously colorful calendar!

Sorry again for the delay in getting this out...It won't happen again, at least not this week :-) I'm going to give you the whole week just to keep it consistent

Friday

• Rotisserie Chicken Salad: I just take my trusty plain rotisserie chicken from Whole Foods and tear it all up, dump it in a bowl with some homemade mayo, sliced almonds, halved grapes, a couple shakes of celery seed and a shake or two each of ground mustard and garlic powder.  Save the carcass to use for making broth later. I just have a bag in the freezer that all my bones go in until I need to make some. We ate this with lettuce leaves and it was super tasty!

Saturday

• Wings. We love wings and these are just amazing. The trick is in the parboiling of them at the beginning. I didn't believe it when I read this recipe the first time, but I'll never go back to just baking them. These wings crisp up so nicely in the oven and we just can't get enough of them. We pull some out before tossing them in the sauce for the kids and they LOVE them!!! I use my mayo to make this homemade ranch. It's scrumptious too!

• Carrot and Celery Sticks. Gotta stay with the bar food theme! We throw some almond butter on the kids plate  for them to dip their veggies in and usually eat a couple carrots for show, but we don't waste too much space that could be filled with the delicious wings!

Sunday

• Shrimp, Chicken and Chorizo Spanish Rice. This felt like it had a lot of steps involved..probably because it did, but it was super tasty. I love spicy food and this had just enough kick for me. The hubs added some hot sauce which was tasty too. It reheated as good as anything with shrimp does, I'll probably just eat all the shrimp first and then save the chorizo and chicken for the leftovers!!! I did double this recipe and the ingredients listed below is reflective of that.

Monday

• Stuffed Pork Tenderloin. Simply delicious...for real...and pretty. I'm going to fix this next time I have people over

• Green Beans. Toss them in some butter and throw some lemon zest on top and call it good.

Tuesday

• Buttery Caper Chicken. They had me at "buttery" and I was over the top when "caper" was thrown in the mix!!! This was light and fresh and perfect for a quick dinner on a busy night. I cheated and bought the "thin sliced" chicken breast but I think they could have still been pounded out for an even quicker finish. I doubled the sauce because, well I like sauces...I would suggest doing the same

• Roasted Broccoli. Love it, not sure how I'm going to handle the upcoming warmer months and the reduced oven time due to old house lack of insulation and effective heating and cooling :-(

Wednesday

• Pork Roast.  Not going to lie...this was a pre-marinated one from TJ that I threw in the crockpot for the hubs and kids to eat while I was working. 

• Peas...boiled, slathered with clarified butter... 

Thursday

• Pork Carnitas. Before going Paleo I wasn't a huge fan of pork, now I LOVE it and this is a prime example of a great recipe that makes a super versatile meat that can be used in any meal. This is the second time you've seen this in our menu. Having a large amount of leftover protein is always a good thing and this is perfect for leftovers for a busy weekend ahead! This time we used it as taco meat for giant taco salads (the grocery list has listed what I used to top them)

Staples

• Mayo
• Homemade Ranch
• Sliced Almonds
• Celery Seed
• Ground Mustard
• Garlic Powder
• Clarified Butter (made from Kerrygold)
• Onion
• Garlic
• Sweet Paprika
• Tomato Paste
• Chicken Stock
• Olive Oil
• Salt
• Pepper

Fruit

• Grapes
• Lemons
• Any other ones your family will eat

Veggies

• Romaine Lettuce (I think this works best as "bread")
• Carrots
• Celery
• Cauliflower
• (2) Red Pepper (one diced for carnita taco salad topping)
• Red Chili Pepper (the skinny kind)
• 8 oz Sliced Mushrooms
• 4 C Fresh Spinach
• Green Beans
• Peas
• Grape Tomatoes
• Salad
• Broccoli

Meat 

• Rotisserie Chicken
• Chicken Wings
• 1 lb Shrimp, tail on, deveined and peeled
• 1/2 lb Chicken Breast
• 1 lb Thin Sliced Chicken Breast
• 1/2 lb Chorizo
• 2 2lb Pork Tenderloin
• Bacon (save the grease)
• Pork Roast (a pre-marinated one is pretty quick)
• 4 lb Pork Shoulder Roast

Etc

• Saffron (I didn't use this)
• White Wine
• Fresh Rosemary
• Fresh Thyme
• Fresh Parsley (1 bunch is plenty for two recipes)
• Capers
• Guacamole
• Cilantro
• Black Olives

Too Busy

Unfortunately life is crazy...so just be patient, this weeks menu (although not helpful this late....) will be posted tomorrow night...work is crazy, home is crazy and I forgot my grocery list at home today (working again today) or it would've gotten posted right now instead of this lame excuse....