Whole30 – Day 27

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I traveled from the US to the Eastern Bloc with my meals today.

Breakfast

My favorite green smoothie, minus the banana.

Lunch

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More heirloom tomatoes, this time with leftover Mexican Beef from last week + Saturn peaches + scallions + citrus salt. Simple, summery and very, very yum.

Dinner

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Eastern Bloc night. I made the ćevapčići (beef & lamb skinless sausages) from The Clothes Make The Girl, along with her recipe for Ajvar (red pepper relish) and a side of sauteed green beans. Dinner was pretty good, but a bit bland.

Snack

1 ounce sea salt dusted almonds.

The

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Whole30 – Day 26

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No chicken in sight today.

Breakfast

My favorite green smoothie, minus the banana.

Lunch

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I wasn’t very hungry, but had some tomatoes that needed to be eaten. Made a salad of sliced heirloom tomatoes with a nectarine and citrus salt. Delicious.

Snack

Hungry happened at about 4 today, so I had some sea salt dusted almonds.

Dinner

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Snack 2

Dried mixed prunes, apple, peach and pear.

Rogan Josh (from The Clothes Make The Girl) over sautéed kale with fresh cucumber. *beefy drool*

The

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Whole30 – Day 25

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I ate a lot of chicken and chicken-related products today.

Breakfast

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Grabbed a naked breakfast sandwich (chicken, egg & cheese – minus the roll and cheese) from the deli down the road.

Post Breakfast Snack

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2 hard boiled eggs from a pharmacy snack center.

Linner

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1/2 rotisserie chicken with steamed garlic spinach from a delivery place.

The

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Whole30 – Day 24

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Snacks, mini meals and a movie.

Breakfast

My favorite green smoothie, minus the banana.

Lunch

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You could call it a weekend lunch rut, or a healthy obsession: Hu Kitchen grass fed/grass finished meatballs again (hey, I limited myself to 4 this time – I’m counting this as progress) and a bigass coffee with coconut milk.

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I also got some crazy good looking raw beet/carrot/kohlrabi/kale/parsley/lemon salad.

For future reference: the meatballs contain beef, tomato sauce, shallot, eggs, garlic, celery, carrot, onion, basil, parsley, almond, sea salt, crushed red pepper & black pepper.

Dinner

Dinner happened in snack stations. Luckily, I happen to live in a city where eating food from the deli counter is a “thing.”

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Before the movie (World’s End, which was hilarious) – cold ratatouille with grilled chicken from a gourmet market.

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After the movie (where I sat sipping my smuggled bottle of water while crunchings and munchings happened all around me) – Aloo Mattar (cauliflower & peas) with roast chicken thighs from Whole Foods. And a kombucha.

The

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Spicy Crab Cakes with Sriracha Aioli & Pineapple Kiwi Salsa (paleo, Whole30)

This not your momma’s polite little garden party crab cake. This crab cakes sits legs splayed in a skirt, puts its cigarette out in your sweet tea, and gives you a snarl.

A note here on making aioli. For the love of all things holy, follow the instructions. Your instructions using a whisk? Break that bad boy out. Found instructions for a Vitamix? Use that. I am aioli-retarded and can’t seem to make it – ever – to save my life. Why? Because I don’t listen. I started out this meal’s mayo sojurn with an immersion blender using a recipe written for a whisk-using over-achiever – and made a runny, kinda broken mess. I then Googled ways to fix the mess – and ended up wasting another 2 eggs in the process. I threw the whole batch out, grabbed my Vitamix, Googled Vitamix-specific instructions, and went to town. I waited until the noise of the aioli whipping around the blender changed – until it sounded like slaps instead of whirring madness – and I still thought I’d screwed something up – until I let the mayo sit and it firmed up on its own. So, take it from me: calm the crap down. Calm down and follow directions and your aioli will turn out just fine. No need to use half a bottle of grapeseed oil & over half a dozen eggs in the process.

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Spicy Crab Cakes with Sriracha Aioli & Pineapple Kiwi Salsa (paleo, Whole30)

8 ounces crab (lump or claw, canned is perfect here)
2 tsp. brown mustard (I use Gulden’s spicy)
1/4 c. paleo aioli
2 Tbsp. coconut flour
1.5 tsp. chipotle powder
1 scallion
1 tsp. sea salt
1/4 tsp. white pepper

Drain the crab and pick through for errant shells. Drop into a large bowl. Slice the scallions thinly and add to the bowl. Add the rest of the ingredients and stir to combine.

Form into patties and place on a parchment-lined plate. Chill 30 minutes to let firm up a bit.

While your patties are chilling, make the salsa.

1 kiwi
1/4 pineapple
1 shallot
2 Tbsp. cilantro
1/2 jalapeno, seeded

Scoop the kiwi out of its fuzzy jacket and chop finely. Chop the pineapple finely. Dice the shallot. Chop the cilantro. Dice the jalapeno. Combine all in a small bowl and store in the fridge until dinner is ready – you want this to sit about half an hour, so the flavors have a chance to mingle.

While everything else is chilling, take about a 1/4 of a cup aioli and add a teaspoon or two of Whole30 sriracha to make your sauce. Set aside in a small dish.

When it’s time to cook the patties, heat 1-2 Tbsp. coconut oil over medium heat. Add the patties and cook about 4 minutes per side, or until nicely browned.

Serve topped with the salsa and aioli.

Serves 2 for dinner.

Whole30 – Day 23

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Tonight’s dinner could have been a disaster, but by deciding I wasn’t going to let it be, it wasn’t.

Breakfast

My favorite green smoothie, minus the banana.

Lunch

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Chicken breast with nectarine, heirloom tomatoes and scallion. Tasty.

Snack

1 ounce sea salt almonds.

Dinner

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Went out for BBQ, and the only thing on the menu that was Whole30 compliant is the coriander pork shoulder. So, half a pound of pork it was. And it was good.

Staying Up Way Too Late Watching Torchwood Snack

1 cup cherries, 1/2 cup pineapple.

The

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Whole30 – Day 22

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Mmmmmmm……. beeeffff.

Breakfast

My favorite green smoothie, minus the banana.

Lunch

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Leftover lamb samosa filling and green beans from Tuesday’s dinner. Still delicious.

3 PM Slump Snack

1 ounce sea salt almonds.

Dinner

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Slow Cooked Mexican Beef from Nom Nom Paleo with sautéed broccolini and cauliflower “tortillas”. So much yum.

The

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Whole30 – Day 21

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Another successful, easy day.

Breakfast

My favorite green smoothie, minus the banana.

Lunch

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4 ounces leftover roast pork from Whole Foods with 1/2 cup eggplant (1.5 c. raw) sauteed in a Tablespoon or two coconut oil – finished off with a squeeze fresh lemon juice and a good helping of salt. Good, but a little oil-logged and not quite as crispy as I had envisioned. More lemon would have helped.

Dinner

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Grass fed top round (which is a bit tough when eaten like a steak), half a container of heirloom tomatoes sprinkled with salt & Japanese 7-spice, and a sautéed orange bell pepper. Satisfying, albeit a touch chewy. But those tomatoes … those tomatoes were the proverbial bomb.

The

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Caramelized Peach, Chicken & Tomato Salad with Sriracha Lime Vinaigrette (paleo, Whole30)

Yum. Yuuuuummmmmmmm. Y-U-M. This salad is frickin delicious. On a random Tuesday, I was craving grilled peaches but was too lazy to bust out the grill for a quick lunch, so tossed some peaches along with some cheater roasted chicken from Trader Joe’s and this dish was born. Peaches + heat is a match made in heaven. Why have I been eating them straight all these years?! (oh yeah, because peach juice running down your chin is one of summer’s great touchstones)

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Caramelized Peach, Chicken & Tomato Salad with Sriracha Lime Vinaigrette (paleo, Whole30)

1 breast roasted chicken (or about a fourth of a package pre-roasted olive oil & black pepper sliced roasted chicken from Trader Joe’s)
1 peach
1 tsp. fat of choice (I’ve used both pork fat and coconut oil, and I must say the pork fat was a touch better here. big shocker)
1 c. (or about a third of a pint) grape or cherry tomatoes
A hand full dry toasted pecans
1 scallion
A few leaves fresh mint
A few leaves fresh basil
Juice of half a lime
1 Tbsp. grapeseed oil
2 tsp. Whole30 sriracha (aka: food of the gods)
Big fat finishing salt

Cut your peaches and chicken into bite-sized pieces while you’re waiting for a medium pan over medium high to reach temperature. Add a teaspoon fat of choice to the pan and follow with the peaches. Sautee, stirring a minute or two and add the chicken. Continue cooking, stirring every minute or two to prevent too much burning until the peaches are caramelized and everything smells heavenly.

While your peaches + chicken are doing their thing, slice the scallions and herbs thin and add to a large bowl with the pecans. Slice the tomatoes in half and add to the bowl.

In a separate small bowl, whisk together the sriracha, grapeseed oil and lime juice.

When the chicken & peaches are done, add to the large bowl. Toss with the dressing and finish with a sprinkle of big fat salt.

Serves 1 for lunch – there may be growling.

Summer On A Plate – Bacon, Tomato & Peach Salad (paleo, Whole30*)

I read something enchanting a few weeks ago: grilled bacon. I saw it somewhere, in some recipe header, and the concept lodged in my brain; unwilling to let go.

Grilled bacon, brain said, in the middle of the night. GrilledBacon, it said, in the afternoon. GRILLED BACON, it screamed, while trying to think of what to have for dinner. So I tried grilling bacon. And … ???? It was just like pan-fried bacon, only more burnt. Still fantabulous, mind you, since I happen to *like* bacon that’s been on fire – but not the best use of my bacony buck. Maybe I should have read the recipe afterall.

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Summer On A Plate – Bacon, Tomato & Peach Salad (paleo, Whole30*)

2 strips bacon (check your source for Whole30!)
1/2 pint cherry tomatoes
1 Saturn peach (or any variety, I just so happen to be addicted to the Saturn variety from Trader Joe’s)
3 leaves basil
Citrus salt
Balsamic vinegar (the best quality, thickest you can find)

Crisp your bacon however you see fit, drain on paper towels and chop. Chiffonade the basil, slice the cherry tomatoes in half, and the peaches in thin slices. Combine all and drizzle with balsamic. Finish off with some nice citrus salt.

Serves 1 as a side for dinner or lunch. Easily scaleable to feed more.

*This recipe can be made Whole30 compliant. Bacon isn’t completely verboten, just mostly. According to the Whole30 edict, bacon that is made with no added sugar is clear, which you’re most likely not going to find in the regular grocery store. US Wellness Meats sells Whole30 approved bacon, and your local natural food store, butcher or farmers would be a good place to look as well.