Paleo Fettuccine

I have baked spaghetti squash and used that as a pasta substitute many times. A while ago my husband made this Indonesian vegetable dish with zucchini ribbons that was so delicious and reminded me of fettuccine. Tonight instead of baking a spaghetti squash for our "pasta" dinner I peeled yellow and green zucchini for some fettuccine with meat sauce.

Ingredients:

5 zucchinis, yellow and green for color variation. Pick skinny ones
1 pound ground meat of your choice
1 jar of Paleo spaghetti sauce or your own homemade
oil

Cook the meat. While the meat is cooking use a vegetable peeler to peel off ribbons of the squash. Try to get them the whole length of the squash so you can slurp them up like real fettuccine. I found this was easiest by laying the squash on the cutting board and holding it steady on the sides, constantly turning to make sure the ribbons weren't too wide. Peel until you expose the seeds, then stop. (The seedy part it too wet to make good fettuccine but is good roasted. Chop these up and save them for tomorrow night's dinner of roasted veggies and protein.)

By now your meat should be done so pour in the sauce. Doctor it up however you would like adding spices or more veggies. (Honestly my straight-from-a-jar sauce was pretty lame, it needed some flavor added but I was lacking inspiration.)

Place meat sauce in a serving bowl. Add a little oil to the pan if needed then throw in the squash ribbons/fettuccine. Toss to get the oil distributed, add a dash of water, like maybe 1/4 cup, cover and steam for a few minutes. When they are tender, but not mushy, put in a serving bowl and you are ready to eat!

The texture of the zucchini was good, kind of chewy in the same way a mushroom is that has been grilled or sauteed. It's a great way to eat a whopping bowl of zucchini and this will be a fabulous way to eat the piles of zucchini that appear around August.


Toddler report: 3 year old preferred meat. Direct quote for dinner tonight "yum, yum, yum, more meat!" The almost 2 year old ate it all, dangling ribbons of zucchini over his head and swallowing them whole. Makes a mom proud!

Chicken curry

Growing up my mom made this once a year when my uncle visited for Christmas. As a kid it was the best treat and was reserved for only that one time a year. When I got to college I asked my mom for the recipe and was shocked and horrified at how incredible easy it was. Why did we only eat this once a year?? Maybe it was to off set the creamed spinach souffle we were also forced to chock down when my uncle visited.

Well, this has become nearly a staple in our household as it is so easy to make a large batch of, great as leftovers and is so delicious.

Chicken curry (serves 5 adults with minimal leftovers)

Ingredients:

ghee or oil of your choice
1 onion, sliced
1 head cauliflower, chopped (optional, but dang good)
2 pounds cubed chicken or other meat
yellow curry powder (in bulk spice section of your grocery store)
1 can coconut milk
around 2 cups chicken broth
water

Toppings:

banana slices
shredded coconut
chutney
green onion
salty cashews or peanuts

Heat ghee in a large pot. Saute onions until soft, throw in cauliflower to saute a couple minutes. Remove onions and cauliflower from pot (unless it's a really huge pot and there is room) and add chicken. Pour in a couple tablespoons of yellow curry powder. The more curry, the spicier. Stir to coat the chicken with curry and cook until nearly done. Add onions and cauliflower back in, tossing to spread the curry flavor around. Pour in a can of coconut milk and about 2 cups of chickn stock. Rinse out the coconut milk can with water and add that as well. Cover and simmer until the cauliflower is done to your liking.

Serve in a bowl and top with bananas, chutney, green onions, coconut and cashews or peanuts.

Here's the recipe my mom sent me in college:

Basically you brown some onions in butter, add chicken and sprinkle with curry powder. Cover with chicken stock and simmer until done.

And we only had it once a year!!! A recipe that takes 2 lines and is so delicious! I'm incredulous.

Give it a try and I hope you enjoy it as much as I do!

Back on the wagon

After a few days off and a few days of cheats here and there I am back on the wagon except for milk in my coffee and sugar in my bacon (does bacon free sugar exist? I like my Cheryl the Pig Lady bacon, sugar and all)...and the occasional adult beverage.

Breakfast today was a quick 2 egg scramble and chicken apple sausage. Not glamorous or fancy, but it got the job done as a post WOD meal and breakfast.

Lunch was a leftover pork chop along with some baby carrots. I was feeling quite primal as I gripped the chop and tore at the meat with my teeth.

Dinner:

Roasted chicken with parsnips, carrots and beets

Usually I follow a simple recipe for roasting chicken, just salting and roasting the bird. I wanted more flavor tonight so I found a recipe for herb rubbed chicken.

Herb roasted chicken:

1 whole chicken, patted dry inside and out
1 lemon
1/2 an onion
2-3 cloves garlic
fresh rosemary, sage and thyme
salt and pepper
olive oil
ghee

Chop the lemon and onion into chunks. Mince the garlic. Salt the inside of the bird and stuff with the lemon, onion and garlic. Chop all the herbs, add some salt and pepper then enough olive oil and melted ghee to make a slightly liquidy paste. Rub this all over the bird. Roast for about 1+ hours or until the juices run clear when pricked at 4oo degrees.


After I got the bird in the oven I peeled the parsnips and carrots and threw them in the bottom of the roasting pan where they caramelized in the juices of the bird. The beets I had were tiny and too much trouble to peel so I boiled them until fork tender then easily slipped the skin off with my hands. I threw them in the bottom of the pan along with the carrots and parsnips to roast a bit and get some of the chicken juice flavor. The carrots and beets made for a colorful tye-dyed looking dish.

Feb. 5

It seems I had created a habit of recording my meals everyday because I miss updating the blog. So, how have I fared after 31 days of cleaning eating? It hasn't been pretty, but most things have been reasonably delicious.

First big post-clean eating go-crazy consumption was caramel macchiato cheesecake. It was freaking delicious, although I had to take a break about half way through because my body was in a little shock.

Sushi. A massive plate of sashimi with some rice and some rolls filled with a little bit of everything. So good.

Most over the top meal was a bacon cheese burger with a brioche bun, homemade ketchup and two sliced pickles. Again, freaking delicious. This amazing burger with a glass of pinot noir was the essentially like getting drunk on food because I woke up with a food hangover-gross feeling stomach, little slow to get moving.

Then the Super Bowl. Pizza, goat cheese stuffed dates wrapped in prosciutto (totally recommend, are good without cheese, are good wrapped in bacon and then baked), two kinds of cake, a reasonable beer. All in all, it was mostly bad, but a little good-there were some veggies and salmon in there.

So, where do I go from here? Back on the clean eating wagon. With the progress towards my goal half way complete there is no reason to stop. The last 5 days sure haven't helped me move towards that goal, but I am also not just quitting because eating crap food is that good. I have found my clean eating habits are ingrained in my lifestyle and when I stray my whole routine is a little out of whack. It makes it easier to go out to restaurants when not limited but I think it is realistic to eat clean 90% of the time and still be able to go out and enjoy all the delicious things there are to eat, clean or not.

January 31

The last day! Wohoo!

Breakfast:

1 soft boiled egg
1/2 spinach pepper sausage
1/2 grapefruit
walnuts and pecans

Lunch:

leftover spaghetti squash with a canned salmon, caper and tomato sauce

I had a lot of squash leftover from last night but no more meat sauce. Luckily the emergency can of salmon was an easy way to add protein. I mixed about a can of salmon with some tomato sauce, added capers, black pepper and a bit of olive oil. A few minutes in the microwave made for a quick, flavorful, and easy lunch.
I definitely had a few handfuls of almonds and a couple sections of satsuma while hosting a playdate with 7 kids under four.

Snack:

Way too many nuts. I think I have eaten enough to be sick of them which is a good thing.

Dinner:

Pork chops with fig balsamic reduction

Dino kale

Baked parsnip chips

Due to my compute having serious problems (*problem solved-clearly) I can't upload the photo of my restaurant quality dinner tonight. Imagine an pile of slow cooked kale topped with a perfectly cooked pork chop and a side of basically parsnip chips. It was pretty dang good. Except that I don't know how to make a balsamic reduction, so this had a caramel quality to it which isn't quite complimentary to cooked meat.

The kale was cooked with ghee, onion and a little chicken stock. It was great after cooking about 20 minutes. The parsnips were just sliced and baked at 425 degrees until beginning to crisp on the outside.

Progress and final reflection:

I am down one more pound, so averaging 1 pound a week which is a reasonable and healthy rate. Plus there is more muscle on my body than when I started, so that factors in.

I posted every day!

My hip is messed up and I will see a doctor this week to open that can of worms.

No muscle up yet, but I have made plenty of progress on my pull-ups and dips. I can now do chest to bar pull-ups. Next I have to master the transition with false grip. Once I have that I just need to put it all together.

It is note worthy that I got two personal records this month especially with the lengthy rest periods. I have hit most of my PRs when eating super stricit and super clean, so there is a correlation there.

What will I eat tomorrow? Probably mostly the same stuff I have been eating this whole month, maybe with some milk in my coffee for starters. There is a visit to my favorite bakery for more than coffee in my future.

Happy eating to my 5-10 readers :) Go do your own Whole30 or 30 day challenge and be excited about the benefits. Be strict and remember you are doing this for YOU!

January 30

Breakfast:

Leftover porterhouse with amazing roasted red pepper sauce
leftover brussel sprouts
1/2 scrambled egg (my littlest one took the rest from me, he's a growing boy)
pecans and walnuts

This morning was another PR at the gym. After another week off, this time for recovery after having my hip manhandled by the best massage therapist, I PR'd my press. 80 pounds straight over my head. My previous PR was 75, so that is a respectable increase. My lifting partner today beat her PR by 9 pounds. There is something to be said about eating protein, sleeping 8-9 hours and getting the rest your body needs. I usually feel like rest days are lazy days, but clearly rest days are important to getting to the next level.

Lunch:

Another day of running around meant not a real lunch.

some nuts-pecans, walnuts, almonds and macadamias-but really not too many overall
celery and cucumbers with baba ganoush
green olives
coconut flakes
real Americano

The coffee was like speed. I got so much done today and I think it had to do with the shock of caffeine to my system. Plus I had the motivation of getting stuff done while kid free. Talk about efficient.

Dinner:

Paleo spaghetti

Yesterday my husband said we should get some spaghetti squash. I had taken some ground beef out of the freezer, so a pot of meaty spaghetti sauce was in order. Tonight I was feeling lazy so the sauce was very basic with few additions. Usually I throw in a ton of veggies but tonight it was meat, sauce, kale and some seasonings including basil, oregano and garlic powder. I didn't even chop an onion or garlic. I recommend cooking two pounds of meat so you have leftovers. With one pound of meat we had only one serving.

I made this earlier in the month and here is the recipe. Tonight was pretty much the same thing. A very easy weeknight meal when you remember to bake the squash an hour before you want to eat. It can be as fancy or simple as you want and makes great leftovers. The kids both love it and eat mostly the squash, but we sneak some protein into them when they aren't looking.

January 29

Breakfast:

cucumbers and baba ganoush
1 soft boiled egg
1/2 grapefruit
green olives
celery with pecan butter
a few macadamias

I never really ate lunch, just snacked throughout the afternoon. This included:

celery and pecan butter
carrots and macadamia butter
more cucumber and baba ganoush
a few slices of chicken apple sausage
mixed nuts
some green olives
defac Americano

More veggies and any protein would have been better, but as is usually the case, the convenient food isn't the best choice.

Dinner:

Porterhouse steaks with roasted pepper sauce
Brussel sprouts

My husband made the steaks and roasted the peppers. The pepper sauce was amazing. I was actually eating spoonfuls of the sauce straight because it was so good. Basically it was roasted peppers, a tiny bit of oil, red wine vinegar, s & p and some chili flakes. It could have been served as soup, it was so good.

Porterhouse steaks are T-bones. These are HUGE steaks. Basically 2-3 servings per steak and massive bones leftover. He cooked them in a hot oven (500 degrees), but that's all I know.

The brussel sprouts were going to be cooked with proscuitto, but we had none. Then they were going to be roasted, but the peppers and steak trumped the sprouts for oven time. They were finally boiled and seasoned with some ghee, salt and pepper. Boring but good. I really like brussel sprouts, so I ate a lot of them, especially when they were smothered in the roasted pepper sauce.

My apologies for not getting recipes. Just pictures of the colorful dinner.

Two days left until I am free to eat what I want. I think I miss cream in my coffee. But then I was thinking about guacamole with tortilla chips. I also miss the occasional baked good, but I have also done this enough to know how disappointing "bad" foods can be after these challenges. Scones taste like mealy blah unless they are covered in sugar, plus the gut bomb isn't fun. Cheap chocolate has a funny feeling and the processed foods containing sweeteners leave a metallic taste in my mouth (thankfully. I think this might have something to do with my giving up soda sometime in high school). I'm not saying it's hard to eat crap food, but I know I have an awareness of how crappy it really is...a blessing and a curse.

January 28

Breakfast:

3/4 a blood orange
1 fried egg
roasted sweet potatoes, parsnips and maybe a carrot slice
small handful of walnuts
tea

I warmed up my leftover roasted veggies in a skillet, added a little olive oil to keep my egg from sticking, then I fried it up. The runny yolk went so well with the sweetness of the parsnips and sweet potatoes. My youngest got a few bites because that was all I would give him.

Lunch:

green olives
celery and pecan butter, some walnut butter and cashew to round things out
a bite of a banana
leftover baked salmon

As you can see I love nut butter. At this moment we have pecan, walnut, cashew, almond, sunflower seed, macadamia and peanut butters in the refrigerator. One day I would like to make some pistachio butter. Make your own if you haven't yet, it's so easy and so good!

Snack:

Some nuts, some carrots, a bit of tapenade

Dinner:

Due to some lack of communication I ate an omelet by myself instead of the porterhouse steaks that I took out of the freezer. Looks like I know what to make for dinner tomorrow night.

Tonight's omelet was purple cabbage, onions, kale and apples. I really like the sweetness of the apples in the omelet. Sausage would have been a great addition.

After my breakfast for dinner I went to a bar and partook in some delicious Port Townsend stout. It was on nitrous (or whatever the correct preposition is for that) and it was so smooth. Lucky to live in an area with so many great breweries! Obviously I am weaning myself off clean eating as this draws to a close. I don't feel bad about a pint of quality beer enjoyed over an evening with friends.

From my statistical analysis there are about 10 people reading this (or maybe 5 people reading it twice daily...or my mom). So, what do you think? Cook anything similar to what I have written about? Come up with some great recipes of your own? Comment and let me know where you're from and what you think.

January 27

Breakfast:

2 eggs scrambled with onions and leftover salmon from dinner last night. A little pepper and a few slices rounded out a delicious breakfast.

Lunch:

More leftovers: cauliflower and salmon. I also had a big bag of coconut flakes and a handful of pecans and walnuts.

Snack:

It was a working snack as today was a day of meetings. This meeting was at a wine bar that serves small plates, so I had steak bits and a glass of red wine. OMG, not Whole30. But it was good and the world didn't stop.

Dinner:

A sad collection of leftovers. Actually it was quite good, just not attractive. Salmon, avocado, cucumbers and baba ganoush.

I definitely had too many macadamia nuts today but feel I did well considering I was away from my house most of the day. Planning ahead is really important when clean eating, so having a tupperware of salmon and cauliflower and a bag of coconut flakes was great to have along while I was on the road.

January 26

Breakfast:

1 chicken apple sausage
1 hard boiled egg
1 grapefruit
tea

I love grapefruit and found this recipe for candied grapefruit peels (not anywhere close to Paleo) that I will try with my leftover peels. I like the idea of using the whole fruit and not having any waste.

Lunch:

leftover beef stew
carrots and tapenade
a few pecans
an apple slice

Snack:

coconut flakes
carrots and tapenade
celery and baba ganoush
carrots and macadamia nut butter
macadamia nuts
decaf coffee

Dinner:

baked sockeye salmon
roasted cauliflower

I told my husband to get some fish on the way home from work and he brought home 2.5 lbs of salmon. We have leftovers! Here's what I did to the salmon

Baked sockeye:

big ole piece of salmon
garlic powder
1 T. ghee
1-2 T. stone ground mustard
handful diced onions

Pre-heat oven to 400 degrees. Place salmon on a sheet of foil, shake garlic powder over it. Melt ghee and stir in mustard. Smear over salmon, sprinkle with diced onions then wrap well in foil. Place in oven for about 30 minutes or until done.

Roasted cauliflower:

1 head cauliflower
3-4 cloves of garlic, minced
lemon juice (half a lemon worth)
olive oil

Clean and chop cauliflower into florets. Toss in garlic, drizzle lemon juice and olive oil over cauliflower. Add some salt and pepper. Back for about 30-40 minutes. Cover with foil if getting too brown (around 20 minutes in).

The cauliflower was delicious and really easy. I let the salmon go too long so it was a little dry, so be careful to over do it!

January 25

Breakfast:

1 hard boiled egg
chunk of baked yam
handful of kalamata olives
carrots

Lunch:

A massive salad with hard boiled egg and avocado. Unfortunately it came with cheese which I didn't know about because it was hidden under a pile of sprouts (gross). I think I picked the cheese out and had a Paleo lunch.

Snack:

carrots and baba ganoush
mixed nuts-a reasonable amount, just a normal handful, not handful after handful

Dinner:

Mustard Rosemary Petit Poulet
roasted root vegetables

There were two petit poulets (game hens) in the freezer that were so cute and looked like they needed eating.

Recipe:

2 petit poulets
a bit less than 1/4 C. stone ground mustard
fresh rosemary, chopped
3-4 cloves garlic
a bit less than 1/4 C. olive oil
2 sprigs of rosemary

Pre heat over to 375degrees. Combine mustard, rosemary and garlic. Slowly whisk in olive oil. Dry birds and rub with mustard mixture, inside and out. Put one rosemary sprig inside each bird. Place in roasting pan and cook 1 hour 15 minutes or until done. Cover with foil it they begin to brown too quickly (I did about 30 minutes in).

Roasted veggies:

sweet potato
parsnips
carrots

Chop, toss in olive oil and pepper. Roast while bird cooks, about 40-60 minutes. Give a shake about half way through and look out for burning.

These little birds were delicious. I recommend making 3 if you have toddlers because they will devour the tiny chicken legs. Tiny birds make for tiny wishbones.

I have realized I have not been having enough vegetables. At the beginning of the month I was operating on my previous leaning out technique of super low carb, relatively high protein. I was also about 10 pounds lighter when trying to achieve a leaned out physique. I was also breastfeeding back then so results came incredibly quickly (breastfeeding was best weight loss technique I know, but it comes with strings attached). Now that I am not breastfeeding or near that weight I am thinking it is more important to eat more veggies, regardless of carbohydrate but staying within a healthy level, than eating tons of protein and trying to stay very low carb. If I am trying to stay low carb I tend to eat higher calorie snacks-nut, more meat than usual-and I think input vs. output is more important that macro nutrient analysis. Once I have lost about 10 pounds than I can start tinkering with carbs to regain my prior six pack. Yes, there was a six pack there for a brief while. If you don't know much about macro nutrients, don't listen to anything I have said and don't go trying to follow anything I have rambled about. Learn first, then apply what you have learned to your personal situation.

Resources:

Robb Wolf
Whole9
Everyday Paleo
Mark's Daily Apple

January 24

Breakfast:

2 egg scramble with cabbage, carrots and shaved chicken apple sausage with avocado slices
coconut tea

I ran out of apples so added the sausage to provide some sweetness and grease. Onions would have been a good addition for flavor and moisture but I was too lazy to dice one up.

Lunch:

leftover flank steak and cumin roasted carrots

Snack:

macadamia nuts
coconut flakes
carrots and baba ganoush (I made another batch this rainy afternoon)
carrots and tapenade
1 small grapefruit (I love grapefruit and this guy had been sitting in my fruit bowl way too long. It was delicious)

At my meeting I had three deviled eggs, so 1.5 eggs total.

Dinner:

Beef stew. Since I had meetings all evening I made stew in the afternoon so there would be a big pot of dinner for my husband and kids (aren't I great! Usually I leave them to make quesadillas). The house smells so delicious. Now, I used wine, so this isn't Whole30 approved but it is so tasty I didn't want to make a wine free stew. This is loosely based on the classic Julia Child beef bourguignon.

Recipe:

Bacon fat
Stew meat, about 2 pounds
2 onions
3-4 carrots
3-4 stalks celery
3-4 cloves garlic
1 T. cognac
3-4 fresh thyme sprigs
1 T. tomato paste
1-2 bay leaves
1 (or half) bottle red wine
1-2 C. broth (beef preferred but I used chicken since that is what we had)

Coarsly chop the onions and carrots, dice the celery. Mince garlic. Pad stew meat dry. Heat bacon fat in a Dutch over medium high heat. Brown the stew meat and remove it from Dutch oven. Add onions, carrots and celery, cook a few minutes. Add tomato paste, stir again. Add cognac and scrap the bottom of the pan. Add bay leaves, thyme sprigs, wine and stock. Return beef, along with juices, to Dutch over. Cover and keep at a slight simmer for at least 2 hours.

If you want fresher carrots add some more chopped an hour before you serve the stew. Mushrooms are a great addition and traditional in beef bourguignon. Enjoy with a great red wine, like a Cabernet. Oh, wait...yeah, whatever. Cheers!

More snacking: lots of pecans...pecans with coconut flakes are great...pecans with salty cashews are great too! And I had two prunes. I wanted something sweet to get the garlic flavor of the garlicky baba ganoush out of my mouth.

January 23

Breakfast:

1/3 sweet potato
1 hard boiled egg
kalamata olives

I was on the go today so breakfast was out of a Tupperware in the gym after my workout. I am pleased that after a week of doing nothing I hit a personal record on clean and jerk. (That is lifting a bar off the ground to your shoulders-the clean-and then pushing it over head-the jerk). I have been unable to get past 95 pounds for so long, so hitting 100 was an exciting way to start the day.

In a meeting this afternoon there was a little bowl of mixed nuts so I had a few spoonfuls of those and a couple more macadamias when I got home. I also ate a bag of coconut flakes to try to avoid the nut binge. It helped a little, but the nuts were still tasty.

Lunch:

Leftover pork chop with apples and onions and the dino kale with apple cider vinegar. The kale and pork plus apples and vinegar are the best winter flavor combination. Perfect lunch.

Snack:

Mixed nuts-too many
Coconut flakes

Dinner:

Lime-soaked, cumin crusted flank steak
Cumin roasted carrots

My husband was in charge of the flank steak and this is the recipe he used. Totally worth a click. The only notes we have is way less pepper than they suggest for the relish and be careful on the pepper flakes. We seem to have some super spicy pepper flakes and that made the relish quite hot. Warming it would also be a plus and we figured it probably gets better with age, so if you're lucky enough to have leftovers you can let me know.

Cumin roasted carrots:

baby carrots
olive oil
cumin seeds
salt and pepper

Heat over to 425 degrees. Throw carrots in a dish, coat with oil, shake in some cumin seeds-quite a few-and some salt and pepper. Toss to coat. Roast 40+ minutes until tender and delicious.

Bon appetit!

January 22

Breakfast:

I have been perfecting my cabbage/veggie omelet/scramble. This morning I included cabbage, carrots, onion, broccoli and apple slivers. Two eggs and some cracked pepper. Serve with avocado and, BAM, perfect breakfast. The flavor of the cabbage and apple along with the carrots and onion make for a really great scramble. So delicious.

Lunch:

Ants on a log (seriously)
Carrots and tapenade
1 hard boiled egg
3 macadamias

Ants on a log are great. Embrace your inner preschooler and make some! I used pecan butter because it goes so well with celery. Raisins were my ants. My 3 year old licked all the butter out and my one year old used the celery as a spoon to scoop up raisins.

Dinner:

Pork chops with apples and onions
Dino kale with apple cider vinegar

Pork chops:

Sliced onion
Sliced apple (I used fuji, skin on)
4 pork chops
salt and pepper
1 bunch dino kale, chopped
3-4 T. apple cider vinegar
ghee

Heat ghee in skillet, saute onions and apples until slightly brown. Add pork chops and sear a couple minutes on each side, then lower heat and cook until done. Cover to keep steam in.
Remove all of it from the pan and throw in the kale. Add some apple cider vinegar and scrape any bits from the pork off the bottom of the pan. Add some water if needed and cover to steam/saute until done, about 10 minutes. Watch liquid level so it doesn't burn.

All of these flavors went so well together. A bite with every ingredient was just perfect.

Dessert:

Handful of almonds and macadamia nuts.

Week three progress:
No more weight loss. To some extend I am blaming the past week of being nearly totally home bound due to weather and being about as inactive as possible. I'm still looking cut, so it's not all bad.
Muscle up work is coming along. I have chest to bar pull-ups and ring dips are improving. Now to work on a false grip pull-up. It's gonna happen!
I haven't missed a day of blogging yet!

January 21

Breakfast:

Based on my omelet success yesterday I did something similar today. I sauteed diced onions, purple cabbage, carrots and a few slivers of apple in ghee. Instead of removing the veggies from the pan I threw in two beaten eggs and treated it as I did the omelet yesterday. It came out perfectly. The sweetness of the apple and carrots went well with flavor of the cabbage. Great combo!

Lunch:

Today was book club and I am fortunate to have clean eating aware book club mates. The hostess today made build your own pita sandwiches with grilled chicken, kalamata olives and a salad of cucumbers, radishes, tomatoes and onions. I had no pita, couscous, feta or tzatziki and still had a dang good lunch.

After a marathon book club (six hours-we did actually talk about the book for some of that time) I had many carrots and tapenade and a few pecans, almonds and macadamias.

Dinner:

Sausage
Sauerkraut
Chard with balsamic

There was some bratwurst and chorizo in the freezer from out pig farmer, so they were quickly defrosted for dinner. The bratwurst had sugar so I enjoyed the chorizo. Sauerkraut and chorizo do actually go well together.

The chard was boiled and then drizzled with a little balsamic vinegar. Simple, quick, easy dinner that everyone enjoyed.

January 20

The thaw has slowly set in and now the big concern is flooding. I'm grateful we live up on a hill so the water will be flowing down the hill, not settling in our basement.

Breakfast:

Veggie omelet
Chicken apple sausage

There is a great cafe in my hometown that makes a veggie scramble that I tried to emulate this morning. It was pretty dang good and I somehow made the perfect omelet, if a little brown on the outside. Fluffy, thin edges. I think the trick was ghee and not playing with it too much.

Ingredients:

2 eggs
carrots, broccoli, diced onion, chard, purple cabbage
pepper
olive oil
ghee

Slice, dice and chop the veggies appropriately. Saute the veggies over medium high heat in a little olive oil, add some water to get a quick steam if needed. Add some pepper. Remove from pan and set aside. Add ghee to the pan and add two beaten eggs. Stir the bottom of the pan and after a few seconds, once the bottom of the eggs has set, lift them and turn the pan so the uncooked egg pours underneath. Do this on each side and then walk away. Don't touch for the next 20-30 seconds. Add your veggies back in, fold in half and done. Serve with avocado slices.
If you do dairy cheese would be a great addition. Any veggies would work, but I really like cabbage and broccoli, maybe because they are not a common omelet ingredient.

After being cooped up in the house the past couple days I ventured out to survey the damage. A large limb broke off our maple tree and into the road sometime between when we went to bed and when we got up. Someone had cut it so it wasn't blocking the road. It just might be the day to buy a chainsaw. I walked up to Starbucks and got a decaf Americano. It was underwhelming as I am discovering so many foods are once I have been away from them for a bit of time. If it had been Stumptown I might have felt differently since their coffee is some of the best I have had.

On the walk home I was pelted with ice falling off of trees and power lines and trudged through 8 inches of slush. In my own yard I shook the ice and snow off our 12 foot hedge that is now about 5 feet high because it is basically folded in half. I will be staying in for the rest of the day.

Lunch:

The last leftover drumstick
carrots and pecan butter
handful of pecans, almonds and walnuts
tapenade

I had two giant jars of Costco kalamata olives and finally got around to making tapenade. It is so easy and much more economical to make your own. This recipe was my base and here is what I made:

1/2 pound pitted kalamata olives, plus about 5 large green olives
2+ T. capers
3 cloves garlic
1 T. lemon juice
2 T. olive oil

Rinse the olives and then combine in a food processor. Process until smooth. Done. Enjoy with any veggies as a great snack.

Snack:

Too many nuts
Lots of freshly made tapenade with carrots

Dinner:

Braised Moroccan lamb shanks
Broccoletti

Since I had all day to cook I could make the lamb shank recipe that takes about 3 hours.

Braised Moroccan lamb shanks:

2 lamb shanks
2 T. oil
1 T. curry powder
2 t. cumin
2 t. cinnamon
1 t. caraway seeds, ground
2 bay leaves
1/4+ C. diced onion
1/4+ C. diced carrot
1/4+ C. diced celery
3-4 T. tomato paste
3-4 T. mustard
1/4 C. mashed sweet potato
2 C. water
salt and pepper

Pre-heat oven to 350 degrees. Combine all the spices and rub on the lamb. Sear the lamb in a Dutch oven or other over safe dish. Remove lamb once done and add veggies, tomato paste, mustard and sweet potato. Stir together. Add water to deglaze the pot. Throw in the bay leaves. Return shanks to pot, cover and place in 350 degree over for about 2.5 hours or until the shanks are fork tender. Once done, if there is liquid in the pot, remove shanks and simmer on stove top until liquid is reduced by half. Season to your taste with salt and pepper.

The recipe I based this on has brown sugar and molasses, so I replaced those with the sweet potato. I figured the potato would give a sweetness and thickness to the sauce. It was really very sweet considering the potato was the only sweetener. I imagine prunes would have been a good option as well. The rub had good flavor and this recipe actually made enough for leftovers that will work well on other meats.

I had a bag 'o broccoletti so that was boiled up and the kids chomped it down.

Today I went to town on nuts and snacking. I think cabin fever has set in and I am becoming lethargic. I need my normal routine back or I might become a slug. It looks like the ice is thawing and the flooding is beginning so hopefully this exciting winter weather will be over soon so life can return to the same ole, same ole.

January 19

Winter ice watch 2012 is on. This morning we woke up to everything encased in ice. It is beautiful but treacherous. Another day trapped in doors without the fun of sledding to look forward to.

Breakfast:

1 scrambled egg
1 chicken apple sausage

I fully expected my kids to eat most of the sausage but I lucked out and got to enjoy the whole link.

Lunch:

Coleslaw
1 hard boiled egg

As I have said before, I love cabbage in all forms. There is this head of purple cabbage in my fridge so I chopped some up for some slaw.

Coleslaw recipe:

cabbage
cucumber
onion
caraway seeds
cumin
pepper
olive oil
champagne vinegar

Slice up all the veggies (peppers, carrots, red onion, yellow onion, really anything that crunches will work). Combine and sprinkle with a generous amount of caraway seeds and a large pinch of cumin. Mix equal parts oil and vinegar. Toss all together and add a few twists of pepper. Done.

It keeps for days and tastes better the day after. A whole head of cabbage will make a huge bowl, so once you start just keep chopping and you will have coleslaw for days to come.

Snack:

Carrots and about a teaspoon of tapenade
Carrots and pecan butter
3 macadamia nuts

Dinner:

Because of ice hanging on power lines and some flickering lights and the question of whether my husband was going to Canada tonight or not, I decided to save the lamb shanks originally planned for dinner for another night. Instead it was a glamorous spread of scrambles eggs, sausage, avocado and salsa. For my non-Paleo family members there were corn tortillas and cheese.

After dinner I had a few almonds.

January 18

Breakfast:

1 soft boiled egg
finished off the roasted vegetables
carrots and tapenade
2 slices of jicama with fresh lime-the best veggie snack

I also made some hard boiled eggs when making my soft boiled egg this morning-multitasking!

It is a snow day here, more snow than I have ever seen. Since everyone is at home my husband is baking peanut butter cookies with the kids. Damn, that smells good. But I am fully satisfied with my delicious Paleo options!

Lunch:

Leftover chicken drumstick
Green olives
Jicama with lime juice

Post-sledding meal:

Finished off the chili with half an avocado
Carrots and tapenade

Dinner:

I wanted something to warm me up after a day in the snow (although sledding down and running back up hills will certainly keep you warm). I opted to make the ginger, lime, cayenne soup I made one day one of this 30 days. Tonight I used fresh ginger, a shockingly small piece, some ancient lemongrass, green peppers, portabella mushroom and some chard. I also mixed in some chicken broth. The only bad thing was I didn't make enough for leftovers. This is a great dish, very flavorful and easy to throw together if you have ginger, lime and cayenne on hand.

Dessert:

A few slices of walnut fig bread.

No pictures or recipes. Just a day to clean out the fridge and take it easy.

January 17

Breakfast was quick this morning.

2 hard boiled eggs
A bowl of roasted veggies
coconut chai tea that was pretty gross

Lunch:
Small handful of almonds and big handful of coconut flakes, a few pecans
Left over chili with 1/3 an avocado

A Costo trip led me to buy more macadamias...guess I will have to demonstrate more will power.

Dinner:

Spiced Grilled Chicken
Brussels Sprouts with Prosciutto

Inspired by my husbands cooking last night I actually looked up a recipe. Of course we didn't have the right ingredients or the 24 hours to marinate, so I altered it. From our Moroccan cook book I made Djej Mechoui, Spiced Grilled Chicken. Only mine was baked, not grilled.

Ingredients:

Chicken wings and drumsticks

pinch of saffron threads
1 t. coarse sea salt
2 cloves garlic, chopped
1 1/2 t. paprika
2 t. cumin
1/4 t. cayenne
1/2 t. black pepper
1 T. lemon juice
1 T. olive oil
Lemon, cut into wedges

Set over to 375 degrees. Poke holes in the skin of the chicken, set aside. Place saffron and salt in a mortar and pound with pestle. Add garlic and make a paste. Add the spices, lemon juice and oil. Work it all together to form a runny paste. Rub the paste mixture all over the chicken. I even rubbed some underneath the skin since this didn't get a chance to marinade as the original recipe called for. Bake for 50 or so minutes at 375 degrees.

This was decent, not mind blowing, but a great week night dinner. The wings were better than the drums, perfect ratio of fat, skin and rub. We had no lemons which was a shame because the was screaming for a dash of lemon. It would have been perfect. I will definitely save this recipe for summer BBQ. Along with some grilled lemons and an adult beverage, this would be a great summer meal.
My one year old at about three drumsticks and my three year old had one.

I made brussels sprouts because they were in the refrigerator. I'd have to say brussels sprouts with prosciutto don't really go with Moroccan chicken, but they are so tasty.

Brussels sprouts with prosciutto recipe:

Halve brussels sprouts, boil until soft, 5 minutes or less. Cut thinly slices prosciutto into little pieces. When sprouts are done to your liking toss with prosciutto in a skillet. Super easy, super good. I like brussels sprouts the day after, the age well.

After dinner I had a couple pecans (I was reading in Bon Appetit about a New Orleans style party and they had pecan praline turtles. It got me craving.)

January 16

More snow on this holiday Monday!

Breakfast:

Leftover roasted vegetables
1 egg, sunny side up

I heated some olive oil in a pan and cooked up the veggies, getting the hot and a little crisp on the outside. Threw in an egg, viola! Comfort breakfast.

Lunch:
1/4 apple with walnut butter
leftover chicken scraps with mustard, 1/4 tomato and avocado
8 pecans
tea

Dinner:

I am a lucky lady. My husband has a knack for picking really good recipes, tweaking them and getting great results. Tonight was two winners.

Parcel of Minced Chicken with Macadamia (inspired from The Indonesian Kitchen)
Spicy Chard with Ginger (inspired from this recipe)


Ingredients:
Parcel of Minced Chicken

2 chicken breasts and 2 thighs, minced
1/2-1 C. coconut milk (or more)
1/2 C. shredded coconut milk
2 shallots, finely chopped
1 t. grated/finely chopped fresh ginger
2 oz. ground/finely chopped macadamia nuts (plus more for topping)
1/2 t. ground cloves AND freshly grated nutmeg
2 serrano chilies, seeded and thinly sliced (ours were very dry)
salt and pepper

Mince, chop, slice, grate everything per instructions above. Combine, mixing well. Fill about 6 ramekins with the mixture and top with crushed macadamia nuts. Place ramekins in a tray half filled with hot water and bake for 20-25 minutes. (Tonight my husband kicked it up to 400 for five minutes and then broiled for another 5 minutes to brown the tops.)

Ingredients:
Chard
1 bunch Swiss/rainbow chard
1 tablespoon olive oil
2 teaspoons minced peeled fresh ginger
2 sliced jalapenos (we used our extra old serranos)
Coarse salt and ground pepper
half a can of coconut milk (or whatever is left after making the parcel)

Separate stems and leaves from Swiss chard. Chop leaves and dice stems small. In a large skillet, heat olive oil over medium-high. Add chard stems, minced peeled fresh ginger, and jalapeno slices; cook until stems soften, 3 minutes. Season with salt and pepper. Add chard leaves, cover, and cook until wilted, 3 minutes. Add coconut milk. Uncover and cook until tender, 4 minutes.

Verdict:

Delicious. The chicken would be great to pack in a lunch. Would probably be good with ground meat so all that work of mincing chicken could be avoided.
The chard could have used a little more spice. The fresh ginger and creaminess of the coconut milk offset the bitterness of the chard stems. I was excited to see a use for chard stems since I usually chop them off and compost them.

I did eat some macadamias while the were being crushed but lucky for me my kids polished them off so I won't have to worry about eating too many. And both kids enjoyed both dishes tonight. Proud parent right here!

Awesome husband continues: since we chopped up two chickens this weekend he decided it was time to make stock. We store our chicken bones in the freezer and once we have enough we make stock. The time has come and he is cooking away. What a man!

January 15

Snow!!! A nice coating of the white stuff fell last night and is coming down still. I hope to enjoy it before it turns into a slushy mess.

Breakfast:

1 soft boiled egg
green pepper slices and tapenade
I was the one stealing chicken apple sausage from my youngest this morning-ha!
tea

Lunch:

Chili
Carrots and tapenade

After taking advantage of our 1 inch of snow (sledding, snowball fight, snowman building, shoveling and plowing with a plastic snowplow) I nuked a bowl of chili from last night. Chili is better the day after since the spices have had a chance to really co-mingle.

Snack:

Carrots and cucumber with tapenade
Coconut flakes and 5 pecans, chopped up
More chili
Half an apple with walnut butter
1 hard boiled egg

I ate breakfast and lunch pretty early so was quite hungry by mid-afternoon.

Dinner:

Whole roasted chicken
Roasted winter vegetables

This is my favorite recipe for roasting a chicken. It's simple, straight forward and hasn't failed me yet.

Recipe (paraphrased):

1 2-3 pound whole chicken
Kosher salt
pepper

Dry the bird, inside and out. Salt and pepper inside then truss bird. Rain salt over outside. It makes for a delicious, crispy skin once cooked. Place in roasting pan that is lined with sweet potato slices or carrot slices to keep drippings from smoking. Roast 50-60 minutes at 450 degrees. Let rest 15 minutes then carve up and serve. Goes well with butter and mustard. The potatoes at the bottom the pan were delicious, especially the ones around the edges that were gooey and crispy but soft in the center.

There are great videos on youtube for trussing and carving a chicken.

Roasted winter vegetables:

Tonight we chopped up one of each of the following:
yam
sweet potato
parsnip
rugabega
celery root
turnip
onion
beet (yes, just one baby beet. They were too hard to peel.)

Mix together with olive oil and some herbs if you have them. Cook along side chicken, giving a shake 1-2 times.

Two weeks in and I can say I have lost one more pound and am looking quite ripped. I am amazed at how quickly the visible changes occur. Hip is sore, but I think this is an injury that is far beyond just inflammation due to omega-6s. Muscle up is coming along and I have posted everyday. Half way there! I am beginning to really want a cup of coffee, just for the taste. But I can make it another two weeks, no problem.

January 14

Breakfast:

1 soft boiled egg
baby carrots and tapenade

Lunch:

Can of tuna fish with aioli, capers and fresh rosemary
Cucumber wedges
Carrots and tapenade

I am hoping the tapenade will get me off my nut habit.

Snack:
Tapenade and green pepper slices
1 macadamia nut :)

Dinner: Paleo Chili

With near snowing conditions it is the perfect night for a big bowl of chili. This is a good one to make in large amounts for leftovers or to put in the freezer for a night when you really don't want to do more than thaw dinner.

Recipe:

1 tablespoon coconut oil or fat of your choice
1 onion, diced
4 or so cloves garlic, chopped
1 bunch celery, chopped
2 lbs ground beef or other ground meat
2 t chili powder
1 1/3 t cinnamon
1/2 t pumpkin pie spice
1 1/2 t cumin
1/2 t mustard powder
1/2 t nutmeg
1/2 t paprika
salt and pepper
sausage (chorizo, andouille, Casual gourmet red pepper and spinach)
veggies (tonight I added red chard and green peppers)
1 jar salsa
2 cans diced tomatoes
water (2-4 cups)

Heat oil, saute onions a few minutes, add garlic, add celery. Add beef and pour in spices. Cook meat, breaking up large chunks. Add sausage and any extra veggies you want. Cook for a few minutes to get the veggies going. Add salsa and canned tomatoes. Add water, enough to cover everything. Cover, lower heat to simmer and cook 2-4 hours. Check on it to make sure the water hasn't all cooked down. Serve with onions and avocado, maybe cilantro.

There are so many variations on chili. Use different spices, different meats, different veggies. This was a good way to get some random veggies our of our fridge that were a little past due and wouldn't look so good on their own(celery, chard), but cooked in a pot with all the other ingredients was a good way to get the nutrients into our bellies.

I had 5 macadamia nuts all day! Success!

January (Friday the) 13

I'm not superstitious, but my Friday the 13th started about 4 hours early when some yahoo threw jumper cables clear through our front window. A rude awakening! We spent about 2 hours vacuuming, sweeping and searching form microscopic pieces of glass all over our front room and living room. It was sad to be vacuuming shards of glass of my kids train tracks. Hopefully just some jackhole wanting to vandalize $hit and not a regular occurrence from here on out. Nevertheless, a lame way to start the day.

Breakfast #1:

leftover pork tenderloin and broccoli that had been rejected in my son's lunch
a few pieces of spinach pepper sausage
maybe a few almonds? It was really early.

Breakfast #2:
soft boiled egg
black tea, potentially the first caffeine I have had since December
coconut flakes

Since I have not been seeing the weight loss I am going to pay a little more attention to quantity of food. My quality is there so hopefully with some more tinkering I can start seeing some fat disappear.

Lunch:

Egg salad
2 hard boiled eggs, about a table spoon of aioli, a few scoops of capers. A big bowl of fat and protein. Not too pretty-I wonder how a food photographer could make this look good.

And some more coconut flakes.

Snack:

Some green olives
A few carrots with sun butter and pecan butter
Lots of tea and coconut flakes

Dinner:

It has been an abnormal day and that led to an abnormal dinner. We had a babysitter tonight and had originally planned on going to a movie. Waking up so early made sitting in a dark room for over 2 hours seem like a waste of money so we decided to get some food and drink. This was decided after I had some roast beef and the sausage my youngest kid allowed me to have. (He is super Paleo baby-meat, meat and meat.) We settled on sitting in the bar of Asado, one of the top 5 restaurants in Tacoma. Argentine food is great for clean eating-lots and lots of grilled meat. I had the most tender chicken skewers and a gin and tonic. Yes, I totally cheated, but gin is Paleo. This goes in the "eat well, but you still have to live" category, I don't consider being a responsible person, acknowledging I don't want my diet choices to dictate my life cheating. A single drink in a month is no going to undo the progress I have made, it's not going to make me feel like crap tomorrow, and I get to enjoy an evening out with my man. (Didn't I say earlier I was going to work towards losing the fat, that I was going to tinker and fine tune? Hmm, sounding hypocritical now.)

Anyway, I am glad it is nearly the weekend, a holiday weekend at that! Hope you do something fun and adventurous! Remember that it is better to have a cheat meal than a cheat day. Those can get ugly fast.

January 12

Breakfast was more like lunch due to some unplanned fasting. I locked myself out of the house when leaving for the gym and by the time I was done at the gym and had picked up keys from my husband it had been nearly 18 hours since my last meal. I ate a normal breakfast and will just continue eating like usual throughout the day, probably minus a meal since breakfast happened at noon.

Breakfast/Lunch:

2 scrambled eggs
1 red peppers and spinach sausage
a few blueberries
a few green olives
almonds, pecans, walnuts
tea

Snack:
Baba ganoush
carrots
nuts
an emergency Larabar somewhere along the way

Dinner:

After a long day of driving and meetings we went out for Indian for dinner. Indian is a great clean eating option. I had gosh vindaloo, didn't eat the potatoes and had no rice. I did have a few bites of my husband's saag paneer so I know I got some dairy but it's not the end of the world.

Once home I pigged out on nuts I think because I didn't have adequate fat throughout the day. It's been a long day and I am ready for bed already.

January 11

Breakfast:

There was a tub of egg whites and maybe a whole egg in the fridge from our mayo making experiments, so I scrambled those up. My oldest also sneaked some blueberries into the grocery basket, so I have a few of those too.

Lunch:

I was on the road today so I packed a lunch of leftover pork tenderloin, brocollete and green olives.

Snack:

Mixed nuts
Pork tenderloin
Baba ganoush

Dinner:

I went to see West Side Story in the big city and went out to dinner with friends before the show. Luckily I was with a fellow clean eater (and blog founder) so finding an agreeable place was easy. Thai food it was! Us clean eaters had the ginger Thai special (fresh ginger, veggies, chicken, oyster sauce) and a red curry. I can't actually remember what kind of curry it was. No rice.

Sorry, no pictures or recipes today.

January 10

Breakfast:

From the gym I was going to a play date in one of Dante's lesser discussed circles of hell so I brought my traveling breakfast of two hard boiled eggs and about a third of a sweet potato.

Once home from the casino like play date (what are they conditioning kids to like?) I had the 1 oz of leftover cabbage from last night and a couple carrots with natural sun butter (natural sun butter is unsweetened, the others have cane syrup as an added sweetener).

Lunch:

Cute, little coconut bread roast beef sandwiches. Anything slathered with garlicky aioli is delicious. I had aioli, mustard, avocado and tomato on the little bites. My oldest ate his in one gigantic bite.

Snack:

6 macadamia nuts
carrots with macadamia butter and with pecan butter
a dozen olives
post-workout sweet potato

I have realized that although I am not counting calories/fat/carbs/protein I still need to be aware of levels of consumption. Eating 3000 calories of a "clean" food will not help me lose weight. Everything in moderation.

Dinner:

Pork chops with sauteed apples and onions, sauerkraut, broccolette

My oldest requested pork chops with cranberries, so I made some thing close. I sauteed onions in ghee, then threw in skinned, sliced apples for a few minutes before putting the pork chops on the pan. The sauerkraut came from a jar and the broccolette was for the kids. Broccoli and sauerkraut...and we share one bathroom...

I had a few more macadamia nuts after dinner, I think I had about 10 today, better than the uncountable number in the past few days.

I have noticed I am leaning out and have a lot more muscle definition without the scale moving much. My time in the gym has increased so I am thinking I have gained a little muscle while losing some fat. We will see how I end up with my "lose 8 pounds" goal at the end of the month. I should add or change my goals to include get a muscle up.

January 9

Breakfast:
Soft boiled egg
1/2 chicken apple sausage
veggies with baba ganoush
5 macadamia nuts

My kid kept eating my sausage so I was left with half of one. I added some veggies and nuts to balance out the protein in the egg and sausage.

This morning I woke up feeling really rested. Finally, the quality sleep of clean eating is coming!

Lunch:

Hard to say...a pile of macadamia nuts and a slice of roast beef late in the afternoon. A lot of nut snacking going on today.

Dinner:

Pork Tenderloin with Braised Cabbage and Steamed Broccolette

Pork tenderloin is so easy it's a no-brainer for dinner. Tonight I used powdered mustard, fennel salt, celery seeds, fennel seeds and black pepper.

Since the broccolette was such a winner with the kids I steamed up a bowl and the two little ones ate the majority of it.

I love cabbage in all forms. We had some thing like this a few Christmases ago and it was great, so I am trying it again tonight.

Recipe:

1 head cabbage (purple is prettier)
onion
ghee or whatever flat
1 apple
1/2 C broth
1/3 C apple cider vinegar
salt and pepper

Chop up all the vegetables. Heat fat in a pot, saute onions, add apples until soft, add cabbage and broth until wilted. Add vinegar, salt and pepper. Cook for 20 minutes stirring every now and then. I was out of apple cider vinegar and used red wine vinegar and it was still good. A little more vinegar flavor, but nothing the cabbage couldn't stand up to.

I have been hitting the macadamias hard today. It's hard to kick the habit.

January 8

Breakfast:

Soft boiled egg (5:30 seems to be the right cooking time)
Slice of coconut bread with a little ghee
A few carrots to add some carbs

Lunch:

The fruits of my labor paid yesterday paid off this afternoon. I had a roastbeef sandwich on my coconut bread with Paleo aioli, lettuce, tomato and mustard. I made another one, not pictured, with avocado. Lots of aioli and mustard help with the graininess of the bread. Delicious (although I noticed a scratchy feeling in my throat afterwards...weird).


We were invited to a party this afternoon so I am bringing a plate of baba ganoush. If you haven't had baba ganoush, go get some or make your own. It's a dip made from roasted eggplant. Very easy and so tasty.

Recipe:

1 large egg plant
2 T lemon juice
2 T tahini
2 T olive oil
1-2 cloves of garlic
pinch of salt and cumin

Cut the eggplant in half, drizzle with olive oil, bake at 400 degrees for 40 minutes. Let cool completely. Scoop out insides, discard skin. Put in food processor with garlic, lemon juice, tahini and garlic. Process until smooth. Slowly add olive oil until incorporated. Taste and season with salt and cumin. Add more of whatever you think is missing-remember it is easier to add more garlic than try to cover the flavor.

Serve with veggies to dip-carrots, peppers, cucumbers, summer squash if it's summer.

I doubled the recipe so we would have a little stash to dip into over the next few days. While preparing all the veggies my kids ate about one pepper but declined the zucchini. I don't know if it's a Paleo thing or how we parent, but we have no problem with our kids and veggies.

The party went well, I ate the baba ganoush I broght along with some other veggies brought by others and some almonds and pecans. I reek of garlic and will probably smell like a garlic bulb for a few days.

After all the veggies at the party I was pretty full and was in need of some protein. Dinner tonight was a hard boiled egg and a couple macadamia nuts.

It has been a full week since beginning and I can report I am 2 pounds lighter and my hip is hurting less, although I am not going to say eating well will heal you. I have posted every day, so I am feeling good about my goals! Hope you are too if you made any goals for 2012 that started right away.

January 7

Breakfast:

Fried sweet potatoes and two fried eggs.
Handful of pecans, walnuts and almonds plus one macadamia nut.

It's the weekend so I slept in and had breakfast around 11:00. So nice to not have an alarm to wake up to!

Lunch:

It's hard to say. I basically snacked on nuts, carrots and had a chicken apple sausage over a many hour period. I suppose that counts as lunch.

While I was doing this snacking I was also making ghee (clarified butter), macadamia nut butter, coconut bread and baking sweet potatoes.

We finished our ghee on the collard greens and needed more. This was the first time I have ever made ghee. It is simple, basically simmering butter to separate the butter fats then strain it. It took about 25 minutes during which I whipped up a batch of macadamia nut better.

1 pound melting butter simmering butter browning ghee


Ghee:
1 pound butter

Heat the butter in a pan until is has a nice simmer. Simmer about 20 minutes or until it begins to brown and takes on a nice, caramel color. Take it off the heat and let cool completely before pouring straining through a cheese cloth or fine sieve into a storage container. It can be kept at room temperature but is better in the refrigerator. There are probably much better recipes out there on the web than this, but that's the simplest explanation of how to make ghee.


Macadamia Nut Butter:

Take nuts, put in food processor, turn on, wait
5 minutes, enjoy!
After my son and I enjoyed some nut butter and carrots I decided to make some coconut bread so I could eventually have a roast beef sandwich. I used this recipe or read below.

Coconut bread:

3/4 C. coconut flour
1/2 C. ghee or coconut oil or other fat
6 eggs
1/2 t sea salt
(1-2 T honey if you're doing sugar)

Combine ingredients, mix well. Grease a bread pan, back for 40 minutes at 350 degrees. This bread will not rise, so it will only be about 1.5 inches high. I made it once before with honey and thought it would be so good with butter and Black Forest ham. I have heard it makes a good French toast.

While I had the oven on I wrapped a couple sweet potatoes in foil and threw them in the over to get baked. No plans for them at the moment, but I know they will be eaten.

Once my coconut bread was cool enough to slice I made a few finger roast beef sandwiches. A little mustard and thinly sliced roast beef on the bread was delicious.


Dinner:

Hamburgers and Sweet Potato Chips

I had mine on a portabella mushroom bun, just a single mushroom because two wold be a whole lot a mushroom. My husband made some Whole30 compliant aioli to smear on and I also topped the burger with avocado, tomato, lettuce and mustard. Pretty good!