Whole30: Week 1 Day 2

Breakfast

Berries, nuts and coconuts shreds

 1/2 cup raw cashews, 1/2 cup fresh berries, 1/4 cup coconut shreds

Be sure to choose RAW nuts since cooking them takes away a lot of the micronutrients that we benefit from with these nuts. Dallas and Melissa Hartwig, authors of It's Starts With Food suggest that cashews, hazelnuts, and macadamias are the best Whole30 choices for nuts. Today I went with these yummy cashews I found at Whole foods because they were already in my pantry.

I like to toast the coconut shreds with a couple shakes of cinnamon.               

You can choose to pour some coconut milk on top and eat it sort of like a cereal. I'm talking canned coconut milk, not the refrigerated stuff that has all the added junk in it.
Be sure to read the ingredients list of whatever kind you decide to buy. Shake it up good before using it. You can also do a refrigerated version and it make the coconut milk more like a whipped cream. Just throw the can of (full fat) coconut milk in the fridge and leave there overnight. When you take it out, DON'T shake it up. The coconut milk separates. The top layer is the cream. Just scoop it out and whip it a little with a whisk. Or simply scoop it and drop the thick cream-like coconut milk right on top of your bowl of goodness.
 

This meal sort of mimics cereal and on the Whole30, I know you're not supposed to make things that are like copycat recipes. I'm giving myself just a snag of leniency JUST because it is day 2 and I already had all of the ingredients on hand, but don't expect that out of me anymore.

 Mmm. Perfection. I was worried that this wouldn't fill me up, but I'm stuffed and ready to kill some TurboFire. 

Lunch

Scotch Eggs and Salad

I got this delicious recipe from the Well Fed by Melissa Joulwan. I've never thought of making anything quite like this before. When I first saw this recipe, I had two thoughts. I thought it looked awful and tasty at the same time. So, I just HAD to give it a try. After all, I have always thought that pork and eggs are a great pair! 

2 pounds ground pork, 2 tsp. salt, 1 tsp. ground pepper, 1/2 tsp. nutmeg, pinch cinnamon, pinch cloves, 1 tsp. dried tarragon leaves, 1/4 c. fresh parsley leaves, 1 tbsp. dried chives, 2 cloves garlic; minced, 8 large hard boiled eggs; peeled. It also calls for a 2oz. bag of pork rinds and raw eggs for coating, but I skipped them.

Preheat over to 325 F. Put the pork, salt, pepper, cinnamon, cloves, tarragon, parsley, chives, and garlic in a mixing bowl. I like to use my wonderful KitchenAid, (really it's my sisters and she couldn't take it to Japan with her. YAY ME!) but you can also mix it by hand. Mix until well blended. Divide the pork stuff up into 8 portions. Roll each portion up like a meatball, then flatten it. Wrap each portion around it's own boiled egg until it's completely covered and as smooth as much as you can get the darn thing. Bake these babies for 25 minutes, then increase the temp. to 400 degrees and \bake for 5-10 minutes longer. 

Grab a copy of this awesome cookbook if you can. There are FIVE other variations of this recipe, including Italian, Asian, Indian, Moroccan, and Tex-mex. Wow! 

I ate this with some yummy salad topped with 

Sarah Fragoso's Balsamic Vinaigrette

 The trick to wrapping the raw meat around the boiled egg really is in how wet you can keep your hands. This was so simple. The hardest part was peeling those farm fresh eggs.

  I thought the pork layer was a bit bland. Next time, I'll add quite a bit more seasoning/herbs. I ended up dipping this in the pesto that I made (while the scotch eggs cooked) for tonight's dinner. That made it fabulous! These will be one the list for make-agains for sure.

 Balsamic Vinaigrette
3 tbsp. olive oil (or other Whole30 approved oil), 2 tbsp. balsamic vinegar, 1 tbsp. brown mustard, 1 tbsp fresh dill (I actually used a couple shakes of dried dill here), and salt and pepper to taste. Whisk it all together and drizzle some on your salad. So easy and amazingly tasty! 

Dinner

Turkey Pesto Meatballs with Zucchini Noodles

Ok, so I was a tad hesitant about cooking two meatball-like meals in one day since my wonderful, hard-working hubs is quite picky about eating leftovers. Of course with the Whole30, we end up eating a lot of leftovers anyway so I reckon he better just try to get over it...hehe. I like this recipe because it's SO stinkin easy! I got the Paleo pesto recipe from Adeventure of E.

   

Paleo Pesto

1c macadamia nuts, 1oz of basil, 3/4c olive oil, 2-3 cloves of garlic (more if you like garlic, less if you don't), Salt and pepper to taste.

Add everything to the food processor,and blend for about 30 seconds.

This stuff will seriously make you wanna slap your grandma! And through this little recipe I have learned that pesto+eggs=stupid good. Can ya tell I have a thing for pesto?
 

  For the meatballs 

Use two pounds of ground turkey and the pesto. You throw them together in that handy ole Kitchen Aid (thanks again sis!) mixer and run that bad boy until everything is married. Roll em up into small meatballs (you can do them any size you want, but be sure to adjust the cooking time) and throw em on a cookie sheet or lovely Pampered Chef stone and let them hangout in the oven for about 20 minutes, or until they are no longer pink in the middle. 

Zucchini Noodles

 4 zucchini, 1/2 tsp. coconut oil, 1 tbsp almond flour, 2 tbsp oilive oil, 2 cloves of garlic; minced, 1/4 tsp. crushed red pepper flakes, 1/4 fresh parsley; minced, salt and pepper to taste.

Use a julienne slicer to cut zucchini if you want them to resemble noodles. If not, do whatever you want with em. Place the raw zucchini in a strainer  and sprinkle with salt, generously. You want to leave them in the strainer in the sink so they can get rid of their water. After about 20-30 minutes, run under water and rinse the salt off the zucchini. Drain and then pat dry with a paper towel. If you don't do this, your "noodles" will be very soggy. Yuck! While the zucchini is sweating heat the coconut oil in a pan over medium-0high heat. Once it's melted, add the almond flour and a pinch of salt. Saute'. stirring often until it's toasty brown, about two minutes. Remove crumbs from the pan and save for garnish. Return the pan to the stove and throw those zucchini noodles in there. Saute' in a dry pan until tender, about 1-2 minutes. Push the noodles to the side of the pan and turn the stove down to low heat. Add the olive oil, garlic, and red pepper flakes. Shove the zucchini noodle into the oil and mix everything together. turn off the heat and stir in the salt, pepper, and parsley. Sprinkle the noodles with the almond meal yumminess before serving.