Whole30 Day 28

This morning got us up nice and early; I've got a string of early shifts since one of our chefs is on maternity leave and with graduations and communions, it is getting busy very quickly.  For breakfast, Caveman Medic started a beautiful fluffy omelet filled with arugula, pastured local eggs, and green onion from the Westside Market located in Cleveland.  We make it a point to purchase the bulk of our produce/proteins from there and also the North Union Farmer's Market located in Crocker Park, Westlake. Today at the North Union market, while I was working, the hubs picked up some organic japanese mustard greens, organic swiss chard, pastured ground pork and beef, Tea Hills Farm chicken patties, and as a surprise, some yummy grassfed skirt steak! YUM. That steak is just calling for a juicy marinade and some grill marks.


While I was running around the kitchen at work, I snacked on some leftover Sheppard's Pie we had made the previous night.  We purchased these delightful glass leak proof containers from Marshalls, but you can find them here if you'd rather not sift through the aisles. Our Marshalls does tend to get a bit distracting with the abundance of deals and someone like me, who has ADD does tend to have difficulty keeping track of what she's looking for.....


When we got home, we snacked on some hard boiled eggs I had cooked up earlier this week, and with a dash of salt and fresh cracked pepper, they were in our mouths and soon our tummies felt happy.  I have found the best way to cook eggs (I know I know, everyone has their own PERFECT way.)  I outfit my colander over an inch of water in my "then" pasta pot, put the lid on top of the colander, and steam the little eggs for 13 minutes. Then I plunge them in a bowl of salted ice water until they are cool enough to handle.  The salt brings the temperature of the water even further down, and adds a teensy bit more flavor to the white.  After Whole30 is finished, I will slather these with chipotle tabasco sauce. YUM!


Caveman medic was sweet enough to cook dinner for us tonight, and we *he* did a simple dish of sauteed mustard greens and spinach, with shallots, garlic, and a sprinkle of balsamic vinegar.  

He seasoned some wild salmon with smoked paprika, salt and pepper and seared them in some coconut oil

Here is what we ate for dinner:

I also made some zesty lemon mayonnaise to go on top of it.  Here is the recipe I use:

1 pastured large egg, room temp

1 whole lemon, juiced

2 tsp. ground mustard

a sprinkle of salt

a dash of garlic powder

fresh ground black pepper

1 cup of olive oil OR avocado oil, OR macadamia nut oil.

In a food processor, mix the egg along with the mustard, lemon juice and seasoning til the mixture looks light and frothy.  Then SLOWLY drizzle in the oil of your choosing until a beautiful thick emulsion forms.  Next time I make mayonnaise, I shall take pictures for your enjoyment.  If you don't have time to let your eggs come to room temp, you can safely warm the egg in a bowl of warm water, for about 10 minutes.  I also don't like using EVOO for mayonnaise, as this sometimes is too strong for what I'd like to put it with.  Regular or light olive oil works very well for a clean, undisturbed palate.  You can dress it up any way you'd like, but I love lemony mayonnaise on so many things!

Two more days until the Whole30 is up! Then it's time for BACON. nom nom nom.

Whole30 Day 27 Time flies when you're eating Sheppard's pie

Well, next Whole30 I will blog daily with tons of super cute pictures and quippy phrases that will just draw you all in.  This one, albeit sporatic and stretched in length is still going strong, I haven't broken any of the Whole9 commandments and the cravings haven't been too bad.  I was bored today for a little bit on my day off; thus craving some snacks and secretly wishing I could just chomp on some pringles or doritos, blissfully unaware that I was embalming my organs under the sneaky delicious pseudo pizza pringle flavor. WOW. But, I toasted some walnuts/almonds and sunflowers in the oven and the hubs and I walked to our local coffee bar where I sipped on iced mint tea, and he nursed some decaf coffee.  We have both decided to forgo the caffeine after noon, so as to help with our sleeping habits.  I attempted to stay up last night for the draft (being the supportive wife) and made it a whole THREE rounds picks. I was given credit for trying, so it's ok ;)


We came back home for some leftover paleo sheppard's pie and just enjoying being home, with nothing to do. Of course, there are things to do; dishes, laundry, vacuum, etc... But today is our day to just BE. It feels pretty good.


Exercise wise, I'm at a new PR: squats 175# x 8 x 3 and 300 jump ropes 6 x 50. My calves feel so tight but I'm excited for May 1st to weigh and measure myself.  I will also enjoy not cooking every single meal and the occasional artisan ice cream treat that is just minutes away from our apartment.  It feels so nice being in such an accessible area. Hopefully we can always find places like this to call home. 


More cutesy foodie pics coming tomorrow :) meanwhile, check out fastpaleo for all kinds of yummy user-created recipes, also where we got our "gourmet sheppard's pie". 


Does anyone have their "go to" paleo recipes? Any that you need to have at least once a week? Let me know!

Whole30 Day 11

Happy Wednesday everyone!!


I took a paid day off today (!!!) to spend more time with my Caveman Medic.  For breakfast, we snacked on some simple seared scallops (I was feeling lazy) and had an egg scrambler filled with southern greens, pastured eggs, green onion and shredded beef leftover from my bone broth.  We headed over to a fancy shmancy town to turn in Caveman Medic's firefighter application and scored some AMAZING deals at Goodwill.  Going to Goodwills in nicer towns lands you some really great merchandise and we purchased 6 articles of clothing for only $25.  It was later until we got home and we were FAMISHED so I threw together some "Princely Tuna Salad" with slices of Persian Cucumbers.  These cute little cukes are SUPER crunchy, sweet and seedless! 

While the hubs was busy snacking, I sliced some venison backstraps one of his co-workers sent over and salt/peppered it, and rubbed it with some dijon mustard. 

 I seared a piping hot skillet with ghee, and after a beautiful carmelization  was achieved, I let the meat rest on a plate while I added sliced shiitake mushrooms, Trader Joe's pre cut garlic, shallots and onion, and deglazed the pan with some red wine vinegar, beef bone broth, dijon mustard and MORE GHEE! I let it reduce a bit to thicken and ladled the delicious creamy goodness onto the rested meat. 

Folks, those of you who are already sheepish over cooking their meat rare or medium rare for fear of getting "mad deer disease" or something, take note that this meat is so lean that it will taste like sawdust and rubber that you find in the back of your minivan three months from now. DO NOT OVERCOOK.  115-120 degrees Fahrenheit is perfect, as there will be a carry-over temperature of about 8-10 degrees.  If you know where your meat comes from and is a reputable source, you have little to worry over contracting those rogue animalistic diseases that leave you wide eyed at night after a trip to Longhorn Steakhouse. 

Did I mention how AMAZING this dish tasted? I wish I could take the credit for these tasty morsels, but alas, I thumbed my way through "Paleo Comfort Foods" and am so happy with how delicious this is! You can substitute the venison for beef or bison or red meaty animal. It may even be good on chicken. (Everything goes good with chicken).

Yesterday, Caveman Medic and myself joined his sister at our local college rec center and grabbed fistfuls of iron and lifted heavy things.  I really like deadlifting with smaller metal plates rather than the larger bounce plates.  Plus, I figure for my short stature, I'm probably cheating a bit thinking that if I lift 175# with bounce plates, it isn't harder than lifting 145# with smaller metal plates. BELIEVE ME> It's definitely winding to lift the smaller metal plates, even if I didn't improve on my PR. After we owned our deadlifts, 8x3, we mosied over to the empty room and shoveled out some medicine ball slams.  I THINK I did 100 with a 15# but I took like 5 breaks and they were less than robust after I hit the last 10.  I was planning on doing some lunges but after the medicine ball slams, I was winded. I'm going to go solo tomorrow and though I'm not sure which workouts to do, I'm sure I'm going to feel it for the next couple of days. 

P.S- After reading today's post on Mark's Daily Apple, I feel better equipped to begin tackling the mighty pull up bar. RAWR! 

Whole30 Day 8

Happy Easter, all!


Today I hung out with my sister in law and we chowed down on some delish items.  I fell asleep last night around 9:30 (yes I know I'm old despite my spry 26 years on this earth) but woke up around 7:45, which gave me enough time to head to the early service at church.  The hubs works til 7pm tonight so I flew solo. Even though I should have had plenty of time to have a nice breakfast, I procrastinated and chowed down on some TJ's smoked sardines and sipped a cold french pressed coffee with coconut cream on my way to church.


When I got home, I threw the steaks on the counter to warm up, and per Nom Nom's instructions I liberally salted my steaks with himalayan pink salt and fresh cracked pepper and let them hang out for about an hour.
  

Does it look a tad dry to you? ME TOO! That's exactly how I want it.  The drier the surface of the steaks, the better sear and crust it will develop.  When my hubs gets home, he's going to throw these on the grill and we will have grilled brussels sprouts as a lovely side. Since I've been eating strawberries all day I'll forgo the dessert.  Maybe I'll have a spot of TJ's mint melange tea as a Whole30 approved appertif. 


Side note: I promise with more practice I'll become more adept at this charming blog. Stay with me, folks!

Whole30 Day 5

Clearly I'm not on board with the consistent blogging I was hoping for, but give me a break cus I'm new to this "I want everyone to read my innermost foodie thoughts" ...and I kinda hacked off my little pinky a couple of days ago and it is not easy typing the far right end of my keyboard with a bandaged finger.


For breakfast this morning, I drank up some yummy beefy bone broth in a mug,

For lunch, after I was done cooking lunch for everyone else, I had some kale and carrots sauteed in garlic, shallots, pastured ghee and sprinkled with some salt and pepper and poached dover sole with lemon juice and salt and white pepper. YUMMY and so simple!

For dinner, the hubs and I grilled up some grass fed rib eye steaks

Nuked some broccoli and sauteed up some shallots, garlic and portabello mushrooms in pastured ghee and balsamic vinegar

Swigged it down with some deliciously cold water and topped it off with some juicy sweet cantaloupe

I LOVE Whole30!! (and steak. yum yum yum)

Workout tomorrow with the hubs :)