Whole 30 Day 2

I was so glad I had leftovers to take for lunch because I was running late as usual this morning. I'm never really late, I just have no extra time for dilly dallying. And by dilly dallying, I mean eating breakfast and packing my lunch.

Breakfast- banana, black coffee

Lunch- leftover spicy sausage "pasta" from last night

Dinner- sweet potato hash (recipe follows)


                               Sweet Potato Hash

Ingredients:

1 large sweet potato, peeled and diced
1 lb ground beef (I used some grass fed 90% lean ground beef I got from Publix)
2 green onion stalks, chopped
1 tsp salt
1/2 tsp pepper
1/4 tsp ground red pepper flakes
1/2 tsp garlic powder


Now this is nothing fancy, by no means. This is simply, "I'm hungry and I don't want to cook something that's going to take forever to get in my belly" dinner. Satisfying nonetheless.

1) Melt about 2 tbsp of coconut oil in a large skillet. You want enough oil to coat the bottom of the skillet. The point is to basically pan fry then to get a little crunch. Add the diced sweet potatoes and stir to coat them in the oil. Season with salt and pepper to taste. Turn heat to medium and continue to fry, stirring occasionally, until potatoes are tender, about 15 minutes.

This smells amazing, btw

2) Once potatoes are tender, remove from skillet with a slotted spoon. Now, my ground beef was extremely lean so I left the remaining oil in the skillet to cook it in. If you are using a fattier cut, I'd drain off all but a tablespoon of oil. You gotta have some fat! Add ground beef and seasonings to skillet.Cook ground beef over medium heat, until no longer pink, about 10 minutes. Drain. 

3) Add potatoes back to skillet and cook, stirring occasionally until thoroughly heated, 5 minutes.

Heatin' on up

4) Top with the green onions and serve!

Voila! 30 minute dinner

This was definitely a starter recipe. I didn't have much on hand to add to this, but a Mexican version would be good with jalapenos, cumin, cilantro, chorizo! The possibilities are endless! Ahh that will be a post here soon, me thinks. Welp, that about wraps it up! Day three meals and recipes coming up soon..

Whole 30 Day 1

I started the year off by doing a whole 30 for the month of January. I dropped 15 pounds, my sinuses cleared up noticeably,  and it really wasn't that difficult.  Well, if you're into cooking, meal planning, and food prep, it wasn't difficult! That's about the only con to this "cleanse", "diet" whatever you want to call it. You have to get creative unless you like eating salads and chicken everyday. Anyway, I didn't document the first go around mostly because I wasn't sure I was going to last the 30 days. I started another one because I felt I needed a spring cleaning, so to speak.
            In preparation for my work week I went ahead and made some "emergency" meals. Something I could grab when I was short on time, or didn't have anything planned. I had slow roasted a mojo seasoned pork shoulder in the crockpot earlier in the week, so I mixed that with some roasted sweet potatoes and onions and froze individual portions. The pork shoulder I found at my local Publix already pre seasoned. Now, I'm sure it's probably not totally whole 30 approved, but that's all I had on hand and I wanted to start the following day regardless. So here is my complete Whole30 meal plan, day by day.


                                 Day 1
Breakfast- banana, black coffee

Snack- roasted cauliflower "hummus" with carrots

Lunch- roasted sweet potatoes and pork

Dinner- spicy sausage "pasta"(recipe following), salad



Spicy Sausage Pasta

Ingredients:

Aidells chicken and apple sausage (2 links)
2 medium zucchini
1/4 c coconut milk, full fat. ( just the creamy part)
1 can of tomatoes
1 can of green chiles, chopped
Salt and pepper, to taste
1/2 tsp crushed red pepper flakes
1 tsp garlic powder
sliced green onions (optional, for garnish)
2 small tomatoes, chopped (optional, for garnish)


1) Preheat your skillet to medium heat, add a good swirl of extra virgin olive oil. Add your sausage and sauté until nicely browned, about 5 minutes.

Nothing wrong with this..

 2) Slice zucchini into thin slices. I like to use my vegetable peeler for this, perfect zucchini strips.

No fancy equipment needed!

3) Add the cans of tomatoes and green chiles to the skillet with the sausage. Give it a good stir.

The making of yumminess..

4) Go ahead and add the zucchini strips in. Stir and saute' for a few minutes until the zucchini softens slightly.

Nice color

5) Stir in the coconut milk. I used closer to a 1/2 cup just because I wanted it really creamy :) Go ahead and add any spices you are using.

Coconut milk really makes this

6) Cover and reduce heat to low. Simmer for about 10 minutes to let flavors meld and sauce reduce.

Cover it up!

7) Add whatever optional garnishes you prefer and serve! I highly recommend the chopped tomatoes though. It really added some brightness.

You won't even miss the cheese!

Oh my yum this was good. Super satisfying. Really didn't feel like I was eating "diet" food. I was inspired by this dish from this awesome recipe I was making the hubs for dinner. Now I want you to know I resisted this cheesy goodness and strictly ate my version. Pretty proud moment for me considering cheese is one of my biggest weaknesses...

Seriously. Try this recipe.

And that wraps up day one for me! Stay tuned for day two recipes.