Friday, August 29, 2014

No dairy is HARD

Oh cheese, I miss you so much.  You too, 18% table cream.  Sniff.


Aside from that, so far the Whole 30 is going well, 3 days in.  I have been a little cranky from the sugar withdrawl but my children are still alive and I haven't even kicked the dog, so it's not too bad. Tonight I made the Spicy Tuna Cakes off the Nom Nom Paleo site and they were a huge hit with everyone.  Yay!  They really were delicious. I left the jalapenos out of the kids' portions. I highly recommend this recipe as a pretty cheap and easy dinner for anyone, paleo or not.  They were accompanied by fresh (very fresh) bai chou (a Chinese vegetable similar to bok choy) from a friend's garden.  I stir-fried it and added bone broth, a splash of fish sauce (which unfortunately DOES have sugar in it - will read labels *before* adding, next time) and a squirt of lime juice for me, took my portion out, then I added some hoisin sauce and corn starch to make it more rice-friendly for the rest of the fam.  They had rice, I gave myself an extra fish cake.  Yum!


But one cannot live on tuna cakes alone (well, actually one probably could, but when one has to make the damn things, one would get awfully bored - it's not exactly a technically challenging recipe.)  So I have been eating a lot of raw vegetables, high-quality sausage & liverwurst & stuff (thanks, Whole Beast) and fruit.  These are all things I like to eat.  Oh and I roasted a whole bunch of vegetable things (a mix of tomato, cauliflower, eggplant, and peppers) and have been using it in dinner and omelettes and stuff.  Omelettes without cheese are okay.  I wish I could have cheese though.


Twenty-seven more days to go without cheese.  Soon, I will start writing bad poetry to havarti and brie.  I will not post it here.

Monday, August 25, 2014

Whole 30 - starting tomorrow

My sporadic attempts to improve my gut flora have done nothing but possibly make me less susceptible to the ill effects of far too much wheat in my diet, so the last few months have been not so good, and I am feeling not so good, and it is time to get serious about this because I just had a birthday and am heading into that age range at which things like heart attacks are not unheard of and would occasion only "well, she was a LITTLE young for it" comments if such were to occur.  So it is time to give up the popcorn and donuts and bread and gin and tonics (sniff) and have a nice little detoxy kind of time.


I think I've mentioned the Whole 30 thing before.  I haven't actually ever managed it - prior to this summer I've had access to really good raw milk and haven't been able to justify divorcing myself completely from dairy.  And there was that time that I was doing really well and then two weeks in found that I was pregnant... so anyway, this will be a first for me.  At least 30 days without grains, legumes, vegetable oil, sugar or dairy.  Good thing it's produce season!  I stocked up today with piles of greens, fruit, cauliflowers, etc.  The Whole 30 now says potatoes are okay (not chips or fries, of course) so that makes for fairly normal dinners around here and the kids and the husband often have different breakfasts and lunches from me anyway.


It'll also be an opportunity for me to resurrect this sadly neglected blog and post some recipes, thoughts, and reviews of the many internet recipes I will be attempting, as I try to avoid one too many boring meat + veg + other veg meals.


Tonight, though, we feast!  I have a brisket roast slow-cooking on the bbq with some alder chips providing a bit of smoke, a nectarine & molasses bbq sauce to go with it on the stove, coleslaw in the fridge and squishy white buns ready and waiting for delicious drippy meat.  And my slightly delayed birthday cheesecake with the sour cherry topping is standing by for dessert.  No recipes, sorry - I just winged it on everything but the cheesecake, and that was made following the instructions on the cream cheese box.