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.