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 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.

Simple cole slaw

I love cabbage in every form. I love it even more when it comes from my garden. This year I had two lovely heads of cabbage and one of them became this simple coleslaw. Coleslaw is very forgiving, so play with the amounts and ingredients; try different color cabbages, red onion, white onion, diakon, yellow raisins, currents, sunflower seeds. Really, whatever you have that is fresh and crunchy will work. It will last a couple days so make a big batch and enjoy it for days.

Ingredients:

1 head of green cabbage, thinly sliced (about 4 cups)
2 carrots
6 radishes
1 Granny Smith apple
lemon juice (optional)

Dressing:
1/2 C mayonnaise
2 T white wine or champagne vinegar
2 t celery seed
1 t Kosher salt (optional)
couple of twists of fresh ground black pepper

Using a food processor shred the carrots and radishes. Peel and cube the apple. (If you cube the apple first toss it with some lemon juice to keep it from turning brown. I just cubed the apples and tossed them straight in with the other veggies and had no troubles with discoloration. Why dirty another bowl if you don't have to?) Combine sliced cabbage, carrots, radishes, apples in your serving bowl.

To make the dressing combine all the ingredients (to save another dish measure the 1/2 cup of mayonnaise into a 1 cup measuring cup and then just add the remaining ingredients using your measuring spoons and mix directly in measuring cup.) Pour the dressing over the veggies, toss well to coat and serve right away or chill until ready to serve. The dressing has a strong vinegar flavor on its own but the sweetness of the apples and carrots makes it a great slaw dressing.