Whole30 Squash-titchio

WHAT!?  LOL!

I know, you're saying, WHAT THE HECK!?  This recipe is meant to represent the greek wonder-food called Pastitchio.  Pastitchio (or pastitsio) is basically Greek Lasagna.  It is a pasta, mixed with meat sauce, covered in a béchamel sauce, baked to perfection and served along side pita and a greek salad. I had a Greek friend whose mom made the  most amazing pastichio.  I would dream about it.  Literally.

Years ago, I made a version of it myself using spaghetti, cream cheese, and meat sauce.  I made it more "upside-down" and called it Spaghetti Pie.  You'd mix the hot pasta with the cream cheese, half and half and spread it on the bottom of the pan, then top with meat sauce and cheese.

I really thought my days of enjoying this dish were behind me.  BOY WAS I WRONG!

Squash-tichio
1 lb Ground Chicken/Beef or Turkey
1 28 oz jar Compliant Spaghetti Sauce (I used Aldi Simply Nature Organic - my regions is compliant)
4 cups cooked Spaghetti Squash threads, DRAINED (I used some leftovers I had from a previous recipe - see note)
4 oz Kite Hill Chive Almond Cream Cheese
1/4 Cup Original Nutpods Creamer

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

In a large saute pan, brown ground meat and add spaghetti sauce mix well, and turn off the heat.

In a separate bowl, combine cooked, drained spaghetti squash threads, KiteHill Chive Almond Cream Cheese and Nutpods.  Mix until squash is covered well.

Spread squash mixture in the bottom of the deep dish pie pan, or other 2 quart baking dish.  Top with the meat mixture.

Bake for 35-40 minutes, until the sauce is bubbly on the top.

Serve.

Enjoy.

Whole30 Turkey Lunchmeat

One of my most difficult things while trying to continue to follow the Whole30 lifestyle closely when not on round is finding affordable lunchmeat that has no added sugar (or crazy preservatives that make them taste yucky!).  Note, I said affordable.  There are some compliant options out there, but they are expensive, and for a family that used to daily subsist of the convenience of lunchmeat constantly in the fridge, difficult is putting it mildly.

Yes, I know that you can't have sandwiches.  But even just a few slices with your salad, or when no on round a SWYPO bread-like substance, a lunchmeat is key.

I experimented the other day with a boneless turkey breast I purchased at our local grocery store.

It turned out pretty darned good!  And I was able to slice it really thin!  Thanks to my husband who bought us a really cool electric sharpener! :)

Whole30 Turkey Lunchmeat

2 lb Boneless/Skinless Turkey Breast
EVOO - about a Tbs.
Trader Joes 21-Seasoning Salute (Or your favorite compliant seasonings!)

Preheat oven to 450 degrees.

Place turkey breast in a shallow baking dish that allows air to flow around it.

Spread the olive oil over the surface of the turkey breast and sprinkle liberally with your seasonings.

Sear for 15 minutes in the preheated oven.

After 15 minutes, reduce the temperature to 350 degrees.  Cook 18 minutes per pound - or until a thermometer inserted in the thickest part reads at least 165 degrees.

Remove from oven and cover with aluminum foil (or lid, if you placed in a roasting pan that has a lid).

Allow to cool completely before attempting to slice thin.

ENJOY! :)

Whole30 Cauliflower Chowder

It's fall, yawl. Up here in the North, it's dipping to freezing overnight, and we stubborn ones are refusing to turn on the heat until November 1st.  This means warming soup and comfort foods are necessary for heating up from the inside out.

I've been seeing a lot of recipes lately for cauliflower soups...creamy ones, chunky ones, brothy ones. Cauliflower is something we have come to love over the years in our house.  Even my kids love it.  My youngest prefers mashed cauliflower over mashed potatoes.  I'm never one to just follow a recipe as written, I always try to come up with my own flare and my own twist to make it mine.  So, this recipe is a conglomerate of about 9 recipes that I found while doing a deep-dive into Pinterest.

This recipe is benefitted by mis en place - prep all your veggies, etc. before starting.  Once that is done, the recipe itself comes together very quickly.


Whole30 Cauliflower Chowder

8 oz, No Sugar Added Bacon, sliced in small pieces
2 12 oz bags frozen cauliflower, defrosted (avoid ones with added sauce, looking for ONLY cauliflower here!)
2 large stalks celery, one a fine dice, one sliced
1 Medium white onion, half a fine dice, half roughly chopped
3 Cups Chicken Broth (make sure it is compliant!)
2 large carrots, 1/4" dice
2 cloves garlic, minced fine
2 large white or red potatoes, 1/2" dice (see note)
1 Cup Nut Pods original creamer (see note)
Sliced green onions
Salt & Pepper to taste

In one medium saucepan, heat 1 1/2 Cups chicken broth with 1 full package of cauliflower, roughly chopped half onion, and the one sliced celery stalk.  Cover and bring to a boil, reduce heat and cook until the veggies are soft.  Once soft, puree in batches in a blender, OR puree using an immersion blender and set aside.

Meanwhile in a large soup pot (5 quart), place bacon and cook until crispy.  Drain and set aside.  Reserve about 2 TBS of the bacon fat for sauteing the vegetables.

In the same soup pot, after removing bacon and all but 2 Tbs of the bacon fat, sauté the finely diced onion, celery, carrots and garlic over medium low heat.  When the onions are just about translucent, add the potatoes.  Take the cauliflower from the 2nd package and dice into bite-sized pieces.  Add to the soup pot and cook for about 5 minutes.  Add the remaining broth and cover pot.  Bring to a boil and cook until the veggies are softer, but not mushy.

Once the veggies in the soup pot are soft, add the pureed cauliflower/onion/celery to the pot.  Stir well and allow to mix together.  Reduce heat to low and slowly add the 1 Cup Nut Pods.  Stir until combined, and slightly thickened.  Salt & Pepper to taste.

Serve with the reserved bacon and sliced green onions (not pictured, I forgot them! EEEK!)

NOTES:

1.  If you are not following Whole30 - you can use Half & Half or Cream in place of the NutPods.
2.  You may use white sweet potato instead of a white potato in place of the potato.

A Day in the Whole30 Life

We have started another round of Whole30.  We started on Wednesday, and are now on Day 3.  I confess, I was not as prepared heading into this round as I was in our first! I think I was a wee bit overconfident.  We started on NO groceries on Wednesday, and I didn't get to do a full shopping trip until Thursday.  But, today, our fridge, freezer and pantry are STOCKED.  And I'm working on my prep.

I'm often asked what a day looks like in Whole30. If you haven't visited their website, yet, PLEASE DO SO.  ALSO, consider buying the book, cookbooks, and Day By Day guide.  Melissa & Dallas have outlined EVERYTHING you need to know.  I found them so helpful prior to starting our first round.  And going into this second round, it's been nice to reread everything and be fully versed on all the "rules".

The tennents of Whole30 are three meals a day, no snacking, and the template for meals should be very balanced.  A balanced plate is mostly vegetables, a little bit of fruit (not necessary at every meal), a plated fat (GOOD Fats!), and a protein.  IT IS NOT KETO or PALEO, no matter what someone's told you...it is neither of those things.

So, heres a day in my Whole30 Life.

Breakfast.  You've heard the tag line "the most important meal of the day". I admit, I never used to eat breakfast.  I used to drink my iced tea (okay, until about 8 months ago, I'd start my day with a nice large glass of Coke Zero), and probably wouldn't eat any real food until about 2:00 p.m.  And then I would continue eating almost hourly until 10 p.m.  Gee, now that I look back, sure have no clue how I packed on so many pounds (note sarcasm). Forcing breakfast in my body when I first started my first round was neither easy, nor pleasant.  But, I noticed after a couple days in that I started waking up hungry and actually WANTED to eat!  Here's my breakfast today, and this is fairly typical.  My plated fat was ghee (aka clarified butter) that my eggs were cooked in, I do normally love an avocado half in the morning with lime juice and a little salt.  Since I just went shopping yesterday, my avocados were not ripe enough, yet.  YES, by the way, you CAN have bacon on Whole30.  Please make sure that it is bacon that has no sugar or ingredients you're not supposed to have on round, this bacon was Wellshire's No Sugar Bacon that I got on sale at Whole Foods (I might have taken all they had, thanks to Amazon Prime, I got the sale price PLUS another 10%).  I always have Unsweetened Iced Tea with Lemon as my caffeine-of-choice-in-the-morning.   As you can see, I'm pairing this round with my "Made to Crave 60 Day Devotional".  Being "whole" means dealing with the "whole" self, physically, emotionally and spiritually.

Breakfast: Eggs in Ghee, Tomatoes, Strawberries & Bacon

Lunch.  Lunch was a quickie today...thankfully, I had some leftover (compliant) pulled pork in the fridge along with some (also compliant) homemade barbeque sauce.  Added lots of mixed greens and homemade Ranch dressing.  I know that you see the word "homemade" and get scared, believe me, these are EASY recipes and I have learned them well enough I can toss them together whenever I need them. I took a few minutes this lunch time to look over some recipes and get some ideas for the upcoming week. 

Lunch: Pulled Pork BBQ w/ Mixed Greens and Ranch

Dinner.  After running out with my youngest to see a movie with a few of her friends, I came home to cook up some dinner.  I decided to go simple and easy as well as adding in some of my prep for the upcoming week.  Each week I grill 5 lbs of Boneless, Skinless Chicken Breast for quick grab lunches & dinners for the three of us who do Whole30 in the house.  Even though I'd be the only one eating dinner, I decided to have a good one.  I grilled the chicken, topped with Trader Joes Fresh Green Goddess Dressing, steamed broccoli with ghee and an amazing fried potato.  The potato was so easy, I had lots of bacon grease leftover from making bacon at breakfast, I steamed the potato in the microwave for 5 minutes while the grease was heating up in the pan.  When it was done steaming, I smashed it with a potato masher and placed in the hot grease and cooked it on both sides until crispy. It was amazing. I WILL be doing that again.  I also paired it with my daily kombucha.  I usually drink my home-brewed kombucha, but Aldi had the GT Synergy Watermelon Wonder on sale for super cheap, so I decided to give it a try.   I only drink about 8 oz of Kombucha a day, so I'm also having some flavored seltzer. 

Dinner: Grilled Chicken with Green Goddess, broccoli & fried potato

Yes.  This was enough food.  No.  I was not hungry in between.  I did pack a Larabar for the movie just in case I got hungry (this is truly only an emergency food during a round, and is discouraged, so I use only as an ABSOLUTE emergency food during a round).  I DID NOT EAT IT, I never got hungry!

This should hold me through the night, and yes, I will definitely be hungry for breakfast tomorrow...now to think about what I'm going to have tomorrow!

Eggplant "Parm"

When I was a child living with my grandparents and my great-grandmother, fried eggplant covered in  sauce, and cheese and gooey-ness.  Of course it was fried in a cast-iron pan, on a gas stove, and the added ingredient of love made them taste even better.

Fast forward too many years to even want to mention (so I won't!), I haven't made eggplant.  Ever.  In my life.  After starting Whole30 in June (we are currently not on a round, but practicing food freedom), we've been open to exploring new foods, new veggies.  Eggplant was one that is always a texture issue and has to be prepared just right for me to like it (let alone my kids or husband).

Hubby and I talked about it one day, and I was brave enough to grab an eggplant and give it a try, how hard could it be, REALLY?  The steps are really easy, just need to be followed.

Eggplant "Parm"

1 Large Egg plant, cut in to 1/2" slices (or thinner, if you like)
Salt

Coating:
In one container: 1 Cup Tapioca Starch/Flour
In another container: 2 Eggs & 2 Tbs Water
In a third container:  1 Cup Almond Flour, 1/4 Cup Nutritional Yeast, 1 tsp Onion Powder, 1 tsp Garlic Powder, 1/2 tsp Italian Seasoning, 1/2 tsp salt & pepper

Avocado Oil For Frying (If you are on a round you need to use a compliant oil)

Compliant Marinara Sauce for topping or dipping.


1.  Prepare your eggplant slices by laying on paper towels or a clean tea towel in a single layer.  Salt.  Let sit for 15 minutes or more.  Flip slices over and salt again and let sit for at least 15 minutes.  Pat VERY dry before starting the coating process!!!

2.  Dip slices of eggplant first in the tapioca starch and cover completely.  Shake or rub off excess.  Dip into Egg and again cover both sides completely.  Put into almond flour mixture.  Coat well.  Set aside to "set" before frying.

3.  Heat oil on medium heat to about 375.

4.  Place 3 or 4 slices into the hot oil.  Cook about 3-4 minutes a side, watching carefully not to burn.

5.  When golden brown and crispy, remove to a paper towel lined plate or cooling rack and salt immediately.

6.  Top with your favorite, compliant, marinara sauce.  YUM!

New Blog, New Me

This is not my first blog.

This is not my first attempt at being a New Me.

There is nothing wrong with the Old Me. Well.  That may not be true.

Shortly after the birth of my youngest child, I was diagnosed with Fibromyalgia.  It was a lengthly process to get to that diagnosis, and I had been suffering for years before that child, that I had basically attributed to the stresses of motherhood to young children.

I've tried many diets, many fads (oh, Weight Watchers, Raw, Vegan, Trim Healthy Mama, you name it, I've tried it).  What many of these failed to address was my mindset around food, my need for food and the downward spiral of constant pain, overwhelming exhaustion, feeling inadequate, constant depression, eating because I was depressed, and then, getting overweight.  Clinically obese.  But not really obese in the standard sense.  No medical issues attributed to weight, normally.

A little over two months ago, I embarked on a journey that I thought FOR SURE, I would fail.  Because I always fail.  I always get too tired, too grumpy, too much pain, or a migraine hits.  I fail because I feel alone and don't think I'm worth the effort.  Which is, of course, at it's core, VERY FALSE!

Two years ago, someone mentioned Whole30 to me.  She and her family were going to attempt it, and they did it.  Then another friend did it.  Then another, and soon I was surrounded by friends who did Whole30 and touted it's amazingness.  I bought the book.  I read the book.  I put it on the shelf an totally forgot about it.  NO CHEESE?  NO WAY!  I was not going to set myself up for failure like that.  Life without Cheese.  I knew I could not do it.  I scoffed every time someone mentioned it to me.

Fast forward to this year.  I just was at my wit's end.  Almost the heaviest as I'd been for most of my adult life (except for Pregnant Me), in constant pain, severely exhausted, mentally and physically drained of everything.  I picked up the book again.  I decided that maybe I COULD do it.  For just 30 days, or just 15 days, or just 1 day.  I started talking about it with my husband, and my youngest daughter (now 13) chimes in "I'll do it, too!".  Everyone in the house did it except for the teenage boy who just can't fathom life without pizza (I hear ya, kid!  I hear ya!).

I planned, and planned.  We set a start date.  It started the day after our 23rd wedding anniversary, and ended before the 4th of July.  My youngest said that July 4th was our FREEDOM DAY!  We all laughed at the thought.  I didn't think I could do it.  But I did.

30 Days flew by.  I lost 14 lbs. Who knows how many inches.  And I gained some energy.  I'm not trying to tell you I'm healed.  But what I learned, I have applied.  And I'm still losing eight (though, even as I'm overweight, that is NOT my goal.  My goal is health, and the best life I can live in this body which does not like me very much.

On August 1st, I'll be starting another round.  Round 2.  I'm starting this blog for a couple reasons.  First, to keep me motivated, I've heard that Round 2 is actually even harder than Round 1.  And Second, to share with you that if I can do it, YOU can do it.

It's only 30 Days.