This was an interesting food month — I did a Whole30, which meant no dairy, soy, wheat, legumes, sugar, alcohol, or grains for thirty days. Whew! It was a bit of a challenge, but wasn’t as difficult as I initially thought it would be. Dairy was probably the easiest thing to eliminate, though I missed the convenience of having yogurt for breakfast and snacks. Sugar and alcohol were the most difficult — so many recipes that I gravitate towards use bits of both, and I especially like cooking with a little wine to make sauces and deglaze pans. I also missed the convenience of using beans and grains to bulk up a meal, but I quickly grew used to using veggies instead.
Takeaways:
1. Doing a Whole30 is supposed to help with sugar cravings — but I didn’t notice many serious sugar cravings this past month. I mean… I sure wouldn’t have minded eating a cookie, but I wasn’t aching from not being able to eat one. I did eat both fresh and dried fruit, though I tried to limit the amount of dried fruit because I didn’t want to substitute my desire for desserts by eating a whole package of dried dates (which I can easily do!). When I did crave sugar, it was that I wanted to eat a meal of fruit instead of a square meal of veggie + protein + carb. For example, on day 9 I *really* didn’t feel like eating a proper dinner and wanted to eat a bag of frozen cherries with coconut cream instead.
2. Relatedly: many people report having bizarre food dreams while on the Whole30. I only had one — and it wasn’t that strange of a dream. People say they dream they’re eating non-compliant foods that they ordinarily wouldn’t want to eat, like McDonald’s hamburgers or Diet Cokes and twinkies. I just had one dream, where I was eating a chocolate and caramel drizzled pretzel stick… and a chocolate covered pretzel is definitely not unusual for me to crave. 😉
3. One thing that I started doing this month (that I’d like to keep up with) is I would batch cook 2-3 different things on the weekends so that I would have plenty of food to eat during the week. This is really great because I now always have lunch to bring to work, and if I get home late (especially if I’ve been working out), I can quickly reheat and eat. It’s pretty frustrating when you’re starving, feeling physically spent, and yet you still have to prep and cook food for yourself!
4. I discovered that I really, really, really love cabbage. It’s so perfect in so many ways: it stays fresh for a long time in the fridge, it’s inexpensive, and it’s delicious both raw and cooked.
5. I knew I loved sweet potatoes before this month, but I’ve now really discovered my love for them! I loved roasting up sweet potatoes on weekends and having them on hand to eat as snacks during the week. Also, roasted sweet potatoes are the perfect hiking snack!
6. I think that one advantage that I had going into Whole30 was that I don’t believe in certain foods being “breakfast foods.” Maybe a little bit of it has to do with my upbringing/background? It seemed like a lot of people online just didn’t really know what to do with themselves for breakfast once they got sick of eating eggs/sausage/bacon. I’m perfectly content eating things like soup or meatballs for breakfast, so I never had that problem.
7. I was interested in seeing if my stomach would feel any better after cutting out so many potential allergens and without getting into too much detail, my digestive system is very happy right now! I still don’t know *what* exactly is making my stomach feel better, though. Which brings me to my next point…
8. The first half of next month will be my reintroduction phase. I’m planning to reintroduce the “problem foods” one category at a time, then back off for two days while resuming Whole30 guidelines to see how my stomach reacts — this will probably take about two weeks in total. I’m just putting a caveat out there that next month might be a slow month when it comes to documenting food… we’ll see how many special/cool/fun things I manage to whip up.
west african chicken stew with roasted cabbage
recipe: Well Fed 2
notes/modifications: The cabbage was really, really great! Better than the chicken, I think. The chicken was also good, but not nearly as delicious as I was hoping it to be. Maybe it’s just that I’m not a huge fan of sunflower butter and I prefer almond/cashew butters? I don’t think I’d make the chicken again, but I would totally remake the cabbage.
enchilada stuffed peppers with chile verde sauce
recipe: http://againstallgrain.com/2013/05/23/stuffed-peppers-with-chile-verde-sauce/
notes/modifications: This is a photo of Chris’s plate — I added some cheddar cheese and a dollop of greek yogurt for him. (My plate was much less photogenic without those accoutrements, and I didn’t even take a picture of mine, which is why I’m sharing his.) This was surprisingly satisfying — the meat stuffing contained shredded carrot, diced sweet potato, and spinach, which I had some reservations about, but they didn’t distract from the flavors of the dish. My only issue with the recipe is the name — it’s not an “enchilada”… it’s just a meat stuffed pepper.
pad thai
recipe: Well Fed
notes/modifications: This dish had many different components and in the end, I don’t know if it was worth the hassle of getting so many different things prepped. There was the sunshine sauce (a peanut-y Thai sauce that was actually made with sunflower butter), diced roasted chicken thighs, roasted spaghetti squash, sliced vegetables (onions and snow peas), and fried egg bits. It was fine, but I just wasn’t crazy about the dish. I will definitely make the sunshine sauce again though (but probably with almond or cashew butter instead of sunflower).
silky gingered zucchini soup
recipe: http://theclothesmakethegirl.com/2012/11/05/silky-gingered-zucchini-soup/
notes/modifications: I added about a tablespoon each of coconut aminos and fish sauce to amp things up a bit, and used a full onion instead of just half, because more onion never hurt anyone. Other than that… no changes. I love this soup! It’s so creamy and satisfying and good! I garnished this bowl with a poached egg and some cilantro, though it doesn’t really need the egg. Definitely plan to make this soup again.
chocolate chili
recipe: http://theclothesmakethegirl.com/2009/02/22/my-favorite-chili-recipe/
notes/modifications: Added an extra tablespoon of fish sauce (because I like adding a little bit of fish sauce to my chilis for extra oomph) and an additional teaspoon of salt. Otherwise, I followed to recipe exactly. It’s not the best chili I’ve ever had, but it’s pretty solid. (Then again, I’m not sure if I can really pinpoint a “best” chili I’ve ever had — every chili is decently good to me!)
oven-braised chicken stew, hungarian style
recipe: http://food52.com/recipes/25921-oven-braised-chicken-stew-hungarian-style
notes/modifications: Subbed more chicken broth for the wine and more smoked paprika (with a touch of cayenne) for the hot paprika. Used crushed up dried porcini mushrooms in lieu of mushroom powder, though next time I might try microplaning the mushrooms to turn them to powder. I also used skinless boneless chicken thighs (instead of ones with skin and bone on) for convenience. I served mine over shredded green cabbage with a side of cauliflower puree. This was really wonderful to eat, but I have to admit that I rather swiftly got tired of eating it for multiple days in a row.
bacon, sweet potato, and cabbage slaw
recipe: none — the cabbage slaw I made up on my own, which was about 2 cups of shredded cabbage, cilantro, juice from half a lime, salt, garlic powder, and half an avocado (diced).
notes/modifications: This is pretty representative of what I would eat when I wasn’t eating leftovers from actual recipes. I love eating raw cabbage, and it was nice to dress it up a bit with cilantro and avocado. I ate a lot of sweet potatoes this month — I discovered that they’re the perfect pre/post-workout snack. And bacon is very easy to bake up in the oven. 🙂
poached eggs with sesame roasted snap peas
recipe: http://www.thekitchn.com/recipe-sesame-roasted-snap-pea-117556
notes/modifications: None on the snap peas. I was pleasantly surprised with how well they came out — I typically eat snap peas either raw or stir-fried, and I think I prefer them roasted.
char siu pork with cauliflower rice
recipe: Well Fed
notes/modifications: I barely contributed in the making of this dish — I prepped the marinade for the char siu pork, but Megan actually cooked it (and the cauliflower rice too). The char siu was tasty but only vaguely char siu-like — it really needed to be a lot sweeter (the sweetness came from one pureed date instead of the usual honey or sugar), and the exterior should have had a sticky red crust. Still, it was probably as close as I was going to get while sugar-free! The cauliflower was great and I see a lot more cauliflower rice in my future. 🙂
zucchini noodles aglio et olio
recipe: http://www.popsugar.com/fitness/Paleo-Zucchini-Pasta-Recipe-30533896
notes/modifications: I only used half the amount of zucchini, but the full amount for the other ingredients… I wanted to make sure I had plenty of almond flour breadcrumbs. 🙂 I added a poached egg on top to make it a more complete meal. This was pretty good, but took more effort/prepwork/dirtied more dishes than I’d expected. This was my first time using my spiralizer — I got it as a present from Helena this year. Looking forward to more inspiralized adventures. 🙂
bone broth
recipe: adapted from many recipes online
notes/modifications: I used 3.2 pounds of beef bones from Sprouts. Added carrots, celery, garlic, bay leaves, and apple cider vinegar. Simmered for 24 hours. There was sooo much fat that came off of this broth — so much so that it looked like frosting, yuck. My broth didn’t gel at room temperature, but it totally did after I put it in the fridge! It was SO awesome! 🙂 The picture shows Jack with my portioned out containers of broth, less 4 cups worth of broth (which I used right away to make the cauliflower soup below).
golden cauliflower soup
recipe: http://theclothesmakethegirl.com/2012/10/24/golden-cauliflower-soup/
notes/modifications: I probably had about 1.5 cups worth of carrots instead of the 1 cup called for. I used 3 cups of beef broth instead of 2 cups broth + 1 cup water. I also added a full cup of coconut milk instead of just 1/2 cup. Garnished with chopped bacon and dates. Really delicious and would make again!
bora bora fireballs
recipe: http://theclothesmakethegirl.com/2013/03/05/bora-bora-fireballs/
notes/modification: I didn’t actually like the meatballs very much, but I loooooved the coconut that the meatballs got rolled in! You toast shredded unsweetened coconut until it is golden brown, and then stir in some salt and cayenne. So salty, buttery, and slightly spicy. 🙂 This photo unfortunately has the edge of my baking sheet showing; for some reason I wasn’t able to edit this photo in Camera+ without the app crashing. The green beans were tossed in some ghee and sprinkled with kosher salt and sesame seeds. (The meatballs did eventually get better the longer they sat in my fridge, but I still won’t be making these again.)
sweet potato soup with bacon and scallions
recipe: http://theclothesmakethegirl.com/2013/01/02/paleo-sweet-potato-soup/
notes/modifications: I’ve really enjoyed having soup on hand almost every week during this month. It’s so easy to eat, is warming during the cold weather, and is great as a leftover. I recently mixed together several spice blends: ras el hanout, lebanese seven-spice, and “sunrise spice.” The soup recipe calls for ras el hanout but says you can also use the sunrise spice — which I really wanted to try, because I loved the flavor of the blend when I dipped my finger in to taste it. (It’s supposed to be Eastern European-esque, and is inspired by Penzey’s “Tsardust Memories” blend.) Next time I’d like to add some natural smoke to the soup — I did have some natural smoke on hand, but it had molasses in it and was therefore non-Whole30 compliant. :-\ The soup was good, though! Would make again.
roasted chicken thighs with creamy spice market kale
recipe: both from Well Fed
notes/modifications: The chicken thighs were just roasted up with some paprika, salt, and garlic powder — I didn’t have the stamina to do anything fancier. The kale cooked down soo much! I usually only eat kale in salads but I really wanted to try out a cooked greens dish. I’d bought a massive 1 lb bag and it ended up yielding enough kale for 2, maybe 3 servings tops. The kale came out surprisingly well, though — I really liked the spicy flavor from the ras el hanout spice blend, and it was very speedy to put together. (Way faster than the amount of prep work to put together a kale salad!)
oven-fried tuna cakes with olive oil mayonnaise (and broccoli)
salmon cakes recipe: http://theclothesmakethegirl.com/2014/11/10/oven-fried-salmon-cakes/
notes/modifications: I made these with canned tuna instead of salmon and instead of Old Bay Seasoning used the Lebanese Seven Spice that I’d mixed up. These were so good! I was unsure of how these would turn out — I didn’t like Melissa’s meatball recipe that I’d made, and tuna cakes are sort of like… fishy meatballs. They were perfect, though — other than subbing the tuna and the seven spice, I also used a diced small red onion in place of the scallions and red pepper flakes in lieu of hot sauce. I doubled the recipe and it produced 15 cakes total. I actually liked these cakes so much, I didn’t even think they really needed mayo.
mayonnaise recipe: http://theclothesmakethegirl.com/2010/06/03/the-secret-to-homemade-mayo-patience/
notes/modifications: I used the recipe above but combined it with Kenji’s recipe on Serious Eats because Kenji is the awesomest and I trust in everything that he makes. I wanted to use a whole egg (like Melissa does) but I didn’t feel like buying dry mustard so I used a teaspoon of wet mustard (like Kenji does). I used 1/4 cup canola oil and 1 cup of extra virgin olive oil. Both Melissa and Kenji caution against using extra virgin because you supposedly end up with a mayonnaise that has a markedly bitter taste… but I didn’t find that to be the case with mine.
Of all the things I made this month, I think this is what I am most proud of — mayo is probably my favorite condiment, and I’ve wanted to make my own mayo (or aioli) for a long, long time but always found excuses not to do it. I’m so glad that I’ve now discovered how easy it is to make my own mayo. 🙂
baobei in boulder 