Nomnompaleo's green chicken whole30

So the easiest organic protein for me to get is Costco chicken. They do have thighs but I never think to get them. Therefore ... another chicken recipe!

Looking around, I found nomnompaleo's Green Chicken.

It's a sauce / marinade made with a ton of green herbs:

1 medium sweet onion, peeled and coarsely chopped (about 1 cup)

1 cup packed cilantro leaves and stems

1 1/4 cups packed basil leaves

1/4 cup packed mint leaves

4 tablespoons of  Red Boat fish sauce

3 peeled garlic cloves

zest of 1 lime

plenty ground black pepper

1 teaspoon of Aleppo pepper

2 tablespoons of apple juice (or 1 teaspoon of maple syrup if you’re not on a Whole30)

 Kosher salt

This is for 4-6 people, so I halved it and it was still a lot. 

I used pineapple juice vs apple. This was my error. 

I didn't realize how acidic this the juice was and I marinaded the chicken for a while. Sad. 

1. Onions and Garlic on the bottom (just like the nomnom's). This was also an error. I thought it was too oniony. I should have added them at the or halved this amount and then added to taste. 

This is half a medium sweet onion ... it was too much. 

2. All my greens! Washed and dried. So good!

I got the basil and mint from my garden! 

3. Zest, zest, zest.

Lemon was from my aunt's garden!

4. Not as pretty as nomnom's but hey it worked.

It was green but not as green as nomnom's. :( 

5. Into the oven.

I added a bit of extra on top

6. The end result. It was OK. Again, too much acid and it turned out a bit mushy. Perhaps this is meant for dark meat only.

It was yummy, a little extra minty for my taste. 

Roasted butternut squash goodness whole30

I'm pretty obsessed with nomnompaleo's recipes. I even bought her app to support such greatness.

This was a big winner: Roasted Butternut Squash. I read a lot of reviews and it seems like a lot of people enjoyed the results but were not very happy about peeling and cutting up a squash.

Enter Costco:

Go costco!

That's right, they sell this stuff precut AND organic! I love costco. 

I didn't have lard so I used ghee (I purchased it off of amazon since I couldn't find it at any grocery store, even whole foods). 

Looks weird but it's very easy to use - and delicious!

I threw the squash cubes in a bowl, added three big spoons of ghee on top and toss the two together. The ghee kind of sticks to the squash so you can tell what pieces have butter and which do not. I laid it on the baking sheet and then sprinkled the salt, pepper and hot paprika. Stuck it in the 400 degree oven. Pushed it around at the half way point and then took them out at 45 minutes. 

Hmm...looks just like taters.

The ghee doesn't burn like butter does!

Brown crispies were the BEST!

At first I was a little sad since some were really brown and I was worried they were burnt. Those were the best ones! They came out like chips and I couldn't stop eating them! Delicious. The rest were also good but  not as good as those brown suckers. 

FYI: these were not as good the day after. I think I need to roast them again to get that goodness to return. 

So far, I've used them as a hash - pan fried up some sausage, added the leftover squash and waited for it to crisp up a little. Added a fried egg on top. That was a good meal (add some spinach to make it a better whole30 meal). 

Nishime or Asian chicken soup crockpot whole30

I love nishime but traditionally it is made with tofu and with a lot of soy sauce. Since whole30 doesn't allow these things, I omitted them but added a lot of the other items that I love. So extra chicken and extra daikon!

Kombu is used to make the base of the soup (as well as some home made chicken stock). Kombu is seaweed that is eaten a lot on Japanese food. My mom made her dashi (stock) with bonito as well - but I'm too lazy for that.

Here is a group of all the ingredients:

Dried shitake mushrooms, kombu, bamboo shoots, daikon (the white root) and canned mushrooms as well. Also added is the fresh organic chicken (two pounds) and the chicken stock as well as the flavorings (red boat fish sauce and coconut aminos).

1. Firs put the kombu and the dried mushrooms in a bowl of luke warm water. It will instantly get slimy. Thats normal. Do not discard the water. This is a flavor bomb that's going right into the crockpot!

2. While the dried stuff is become hydrated, cut the chicken into chunks and quickly fry them. I do this for all my meat before going into the crockpot. It seems to help the meat stay together vs get too soft and disintegrate into the soup.

3. Cut up the dikon into eatable pieces. I like big pieces. You can also add carrots to the soup but I find they really sweeten it. And since the coconut aminos are sweet as well, I omitted them.

4. The seaweed should be workable by now. Cut the large rectangles into strips. If you plan to eat them (like I do) then tie them up into knots. It makes it easier to grab from the soup. This actually makes a lot of seaweed, so you will not eat them all. Don't feel obligated to tie all the seaweed.

5. Dump it all into the crockpot including the water the seaweed and mushrooms hydrated in. Then add the chicken stock (3 cups-ish). About three table spoons of coconut amino and fish sauce. A good amount of salt and pepper and then let it go for 8 hours on low.

6. I add kelp noodles (two bags) from whole foods two hours before I'm going to serve the soup. For leftovers, I throw spinach into the bowl and nuke it. So good! This made a huge amount of soup. I calculated it to about 200 calories a serving but don't get me wrong, I eat two servings of this sometimes (especially when I was on whole30). I know it's bad to open the crockpot, but you're going to have to taste this soup a lot. I added aminos, fish sauce and more salt and pepper at various stages. If you are doing this non-whole30, reduce the amount of daikon and chicken. Add a block of tofu and use soy sauce and sugar vs aminos. 

Right out of the crockpot!

Leftovers with spinach. So good!

Whole30 Day 5

Exercise: 

Running: 2.74 mi
Walking: .48 mi

Food:

Breakfast / lunch:

I made nomnompaaeo's butternut squash recipe. I used ghee instead of lard and it was so good! I highly suggest the ghee. The buttery taste was delicious. 

I had it with my typical salad with salmon again as my protein. This time I added half an avocado as well to increase the fat content of the meal. So good! 

Lunch / snack:

I was hungry. I was actually having a ton of cravings and a really stressful day at work. After reading a lot if the whole9 forums, I decided to eat more. I made a hash with the butternut squash and a Costco sausage. And added a fried egg on top. And an orange. It was so good. 

Dinner:

So I'm finish my lunch and I'm still upset and not happy. I watch some tv. Tried to nap (I've been so tired these days - I almost fell asleep during a meeting). Went for a walk. Nothing helped. 

Dinner was nomnompaleo's chicken wings with some changes. They weren't that great. I did a second set with frank's hot sauce. They were just ok as well. We should have cooked them longer but my husband was hungry so we took them out right at 160 degrees. 

Thoughts on Day 5: 

Exercise: I only really ran on Monday and today, so that is a long stretch of "rest days". For the first mile, all I could think about was turning around after finishing the mile. But I kept going and thought, at the half I'll start walking. Instead I just kept going and surprised myself. I was happy to stop but to if I were being honest with myself, I could have continued to run.

Other thoughts: I'm kind of waking up ... when the alarm goes off, I could easily get up but I could (and do) snooze again and I truly do sleep and get waken again by the snooze.

Also, I cheated a little ... I weighed myself. I have so far lost 2 pounds. meh. I guess that's fine. But it does make me keep going since it has made a difference in five days. again, meh.

I had a stressful day at work and feel quite unappreciated. I just want to hang out and have a glass of wine tonight.

The more I read about this diet, the more I'm thinking I'm an 80/20 paleo person vs a whole 30. At least for now, I'm going to do 80/20 with the weekends off for a "normal" lifestyle. I'll continue to post my weekday paleo days. Hopefully this goes on for more than just a month!

So I really cheated last night. After "discussing" my day with my husband, I got even more stressed. The food wasn't helping. Napping wasn't helping. Walking wasn't helping. So I decided to enjoy some chocolate and drinks after dinner. Here's to off / bad weekends and on / good weekdays! (Perhaps this is why they discourage weighing yourself)

Whole30 Day 4

Exercise:

None. boo again.

Food: 

Breakfast / Lunch: My awesome salad ... again. Not seeming so awesome. Since I had soup for dinner last night, I used smoked salmon for my protein source and hard boiled eggs (two whites and one full). I wanted to eat the soup again (so good) but I feel like I shouldn't let the salad go to waste. So I'll be eating a salad for tomorrow as well. bah.

I took a quick bite before the pic. I was hungry.

Dinner: yeah... No lunch / snack today. Just wasn't hungry. *shrug* Dinner was left over Asian soup. I added spinach to it and had two big bowls. So good! 

Thoughts on Day 4: 

I don't know when this energy is supposed to show up but I'm pretty tired still. I read a lot on the side effects of whole30 and it seems like your body is busy digesting and therefore is tired. But I've been eating mainly paleo for my main meals for awhile (I just have a snack of cheese and alcohol). Perhaps switching to all meals this way does make my body tired. maaaybe. I honestly feel like I'm just eating my normal meals (minus soy sauce and garnishes) without my typical cheese snacks and alcohol right now. And yes that is a calorie deficet and a change in habits but I'm also sadder. And since I can't weigh myself, I have no idea if this is working or not. And I know...it's only 30 days, but it'll be 30 days of cravings. I realize I'm someone who wants things that I cannot have so perhaps this just isn't the diet for me. We'll see. I bought so much food for this, I figure I'll stick with it. hmph.

I had to work from the Starbucks today. It was pretty hard to watch all the delicious coffee mixes being made and walk past all the pasteries and goodies before ordering my black tea. In another note, I noticed that their juices are all compliant and there's a gren juice that seems to be a lot of green veggies. But I know the rules are to use juices only on meal prep. 

And then there's Halloween. It was fun to watch all the kids come to the door but it was sad to watch my husband snacking himself. I took a couple and put them away for me to eat after the 30 days. :)

We decided to do full bars this year and be that family. Hmm...so sweet candy!

Whole30 Day 3

Exercise: 

None. :(

Food: 

Breakfast / Lunch: Left over "best chicken" and sausage from past dinners on a salad. Salad = chopped spring greens, olives, beets, pickles. This was my normal lunch before the Whole30 and I'm glad it's compliant. I normally have an egg if I have no leftovers. And feta cheese ... delicious feta cheese.

The Texas-Expat Lunch Salad!

Lunch / snack: an orange and an apple. 

Dinner: Japanese chicken soup...two bowls and an orange. Very good!

Daikon, kombu, kelp noodles, chicken, bamboo shoots, lots and lots of mushrooms!

Thoughts on Day 3: 

I'm tired but I also had to get up very early this morning for a meeting. Also, it's pouring outside. Hopefully it lets up after work and I can run. But I'm sooo tired. I hope I can at least walk the three miles...

Also, I hate the no weighing situation. I want to know if this is doing anything and I can't.

It stinks to be on this during Halloween. I of course knew Halloween would be apart of my whole30 but the commercials are the worst part of this. Everything looks so good and so ... happy? Makes me miss the candy and chocolate.

So my tummy is still gassy and I'm hopeful this will be done soon ... Still hoping.

Sweet Potato Fries Whole30 and Crispy!

I wanted sweet potato fries to go with our "best chicken" so I did some research. Turns out, it's difficult to make them crispy or at least not soggy.

That lead me to this chowhound discussion. Which lead me to this NYT article. Apparently the secret is to have the pan in the oven when it's preheating and you're cutting up the fries. The oven at 450 and to cut the fries kind of thick! So counter-intuitive, right? But it works!

I oiled and flavored (paprika and chili peppers) the fries in a bowl and then put it on the hot pan and stuck it in. Then took them out, turned them, and stuck it back in. It was so good!

Thick thick thick!

So good! I ate too many....