Whole30ish: Day 27

For real, 30 days is hella long...and today I ate maple syrup. Now I know this hasn't been an incredibly squeaky clean, by the book Whole30 so I don't feel too bad about eating a delicious dinner with a smidgen of maple syrup in it. So let's do dinner first today. One of my favorite summer time meals is maple-mustard chicken from Health-Bent. I know I've said this before, but they are one of my favorite sites. All their food is amazing and like always, this didn't disappoint! Today I bought some ground rosemary, freeze dried shallots, and freeze dried ginger at Penzy's. I used the ground rosemary in this dish and it was EVEN BETTER THAN BEFORE. Since it's not exactly grilling weather outside I decided to try cooking them a little different way this time. So, this afternoon I diced the chicken thighs, put them and the marinade in a bag and let it sit in the fridge for a while. When I was ready to fix dinner I just heated a cast iron skillet and put all of it in once it was hot. I let it sit for quite a while to get a good crispy outside on the chicken then stirred it around a few times until it was cooked through. The maple/mustard/rosemary sauce got really thick and was so incredibly flavorful. Because I am "technically" still on Whole30 I only used 1T instead of 3T of the maple syrup and it still had incredible flavor. I made some of our favorite brussel sprouts too. I used some of the freeze dried shallots and they were so tasty, way easier than fresh and still the same incredible flavor.

Just to review how I make them:

1/4 pound of bacon, diced
1 bag shredded brussel sprouts (from Trader Joe's)
2 T freeze dried shallots (or one small diced)
1/4 cup sliced almonds
1/2 lemon
1/4 tsp garlic powder
Salt
Pepper

1.) Fry bacon in cast iron skillet until crispy, remove and set to the side
2.) Dump bag of brussel sprouts in hot grease, add shallots, salt/pepper, garlic powder. Stir to coat with grease then leave them alone to crisp on the bottom layer.
3.) Once done to your liking (we like ours still slightly crunchy), scoot all to the side and move your pan off the fire a bit so the exposed pan is over the flame and add your sliced almonds to toast them. Stir often and watch as to not burn them.
4.) Stir to incorporate toasted almonds and brussel sprouts, squeeze juice of half lime over entire pan and stir again. Taste often to adjust spices.

Now to go backward: Lunch was a quick one between the girl's gymnastics and the boy's basketball. I ate some tune straight from the can, reheated leftover peas, and some sweet potato chips.

Breakfast: When I heard something making noise at 4:34 I thought it was my alarm going off since I wake up around that time most days of the week, but it was actually a call from work. After taking it I realized there was no way my body was going back to sleep. I tried for about 30 minutes finally giving up. I knew the kids were having a pretty physical day so I decided I'd whip up some sweet potato pancakes (another FABULOUS recipe from Health-Bent) and it turns out when you're up way before the sun you have time to bake the potatoes, cool them off, and then make the pancakes with plenty of time to spare. I didn't make the maple, pecan coconut but I'm sure it's amazing. Also, I don't buy carton coconut milk which is the kind the recipe calls for, but have always used the can version and these have turned out fine. After reading the reviews I did want to say that I've never had problems flipping them, I do use a ton of butter on a non-stick griddle though :-)

Enjoy!