Day 13 Whole30

Today is that female time of the month so I didn't feel great. It hasn't been long enough to notice if dropping dairy will affect it, hopefully next month i'll have a better idea. Suffice to say I had some pretty rampant sugar cravings, in particular...you guessed it CHOCOLATE!!! boy I really really wanted to cave today but I didn't.  Dallas and Melissa warn that this part of the program can get really intense, I'm looking forward to day 16 when hopefully the cravings will be gone.

On the bright side I am really loving trying lots of new things because I'm not having any dairy, I really do have to think outside the square! 

My new Well Fed cookbook is just awesome!!! I highly recommend this book, for anyone from beginners to those of us that have been at this a long time, like myself! Great ideas and lots of new flavours, herbs and spices that I wouldn't have thought of.  

The introduction is awesome, a very basic yet well thought out way of explaining Paleo and how to transition to a Paleo diet.  Plenty of advice for meal planning and preparation tips.

It would be a perfect gift for that person in your life that keeps questioning about your "crazy diet" but isn't ready to change their eating habits because they don't understand how to do it. I would say if you read this book and didn't like the recipes and suggestions then there is no saving you ;)

Hubby was blown away by tonights  meal and kept raving about the chicken and sunshine sauce.  You must try this!!!!(links below)

8 hours sleep

8am: 2 egg omelet filled with leftovers from yesterday's lunch (pizza inspired mince & veggies)

2pm: Almond and smoked lemon coated chicken fried in coconut oil, on top of asparagus "noodles", drizzled with lemon olive oil. Blueberries with cinnamon toasted almonds and coconut

8pm: The Best Chicken You Will Ever Eat. Ever. with Sunshine Sauce and chopped up carrots, cucumber and yellow peppers with coriander and Buttercrunch lettuce (this meal was AMAZING!!!!!) 

Zucchini Carbonara

This is one of my favourite dishes:

Ingredients:

Serves 2:

• 1 large breast of chicken chopped up into bite sized pieces 
• 4 strips of streaky bacon chopped up 
• 5-6 large sundried tomatoes chopped up 
• 75gms Creamy feta (more or less depending on your taste preference) 
• Handful of Toasted Pinenuts 
• 100-200mls Heavy Cream 
• 2 Egg Yolks 
• 2-3 zucchinis julienned 
• 1 Tbsp Basil Pesto 
• Knob of butter 
• Garnish: Freshly Grated Parmesan Cheese and Salt & Pepper

Instructions:

First toast your pinenuts!
Then fry your bacon, once browned put aside, fry the chicken using the bacon drippings. Once the chicken is almost cooked throw back in the bacon, sundried tomatoes and pesto.

In a bowl add your egg yolks, cream salt and pepper. Add the wet mixture and let simmer on a very low heat, you don't want the egg to curdle. Only cook for about 2 minutes. Add your feta and take off the heat.

In a separate non stick frying pan melt a knob of butter and flash fry the zucchini, you don't want to do it for long otherwise your zucchini will go mushy, add the zucchini noodles to the creamy chicken and serve immediately, grate some fresh parmesan on top and some freshly cracked pepper and salt.

Warning: Super rich!!!

Mexican Salad Primal Style

I have a favourite Mexican salad but unfortunately it has a Taco Shell so I've tried to improve on a homemade one I made a while back and this one is truly aweome!  Follow the steps below:

Ingredients:

2 Chicken Breasts (2-3 servings)

Taco Seasoning

Mayo or Sour Cream or Both

Salsa

Yellow Capsicum

Cherry Tomatoes

Spring Onions

Salad Greens or Cos Lettuce

Avocado, lemon juice, s&p

Cheese (Colby, Egmont, Tasty)

Slice chicken and toss taco seasoning through and coat with a little olive oil, fry chicken until nicely seared and cooked through then top the chicken while hot with grated cheese.  Chop up all vegies (see above) and a great tip for making guacomole is to mash it on a breadboard, works a treat and no sliding around in a bowl.  To make dressing mix equal parts of Salsa, Mayo and SourCream then viola arrange your salad greens and top everything as below!

So simple and delicious, 10-15minute meal, I may even do video on this one in the near future, it will be much better than my sushi one, I promise ;)

Sweet and Salty Chocolate, Almond Crackers and Chicken Wings!

So I have some recipes that I've been meaning to post for quite sometime and one of my loyal readers has kindly asked me to post so here they are:
Marinated chicken wings/nibbles, almond crackers and sweet and salty chocolate!

The almond crackers are from Elana's Pantry, the marinated chicken is just a basic marinade that I found on a recipe site and just tweaked and the sweet and salty chocolate is another tweaked recipe from Nigella!

Hope you all enjoy and just have to say with the Final Rugby World Cup game tonight GO THE ALLBLACKS!!!!

Sweet and Salty Chocolate (primal version)

3 x 100gm blocks of 85% Green and Blacks
125gms Butter
1 Tbsp Maple Syrup / Honey or Golden Syrup
200gms of Cashews or any other nut

I use a rectangle tin or square tin, Nigella suggests disposable foil tins as an option too.

Get the butter and the syrup melting on a low heat in a heavy based pan and break up the chocolates and add that to the golden sludge.

Chop the nuts or leave them whole and add into a medium mixing bowl.

When the chocolate mixture has just melted, pour it over the nuts and stir together.

Pour into prepared tin, and spread out and flatten as much as you can, using a silicon spatula.

Cover and refrigerate for a few hours before cutting into chunks or wedges - depending on your tin of choice.

Makes about 20 pieces

http://www.foodnetwork.com/recipes/nigella-lawson/sweet-and-salty-crunchy-nut-bars-recipe/index.html


Almond Rosemary Crackers

1 ¾ cups blanched almond flour
½ teaspoon celtic sea salt
2 tablespoons fresh rosemary finely chopped or Tuscan Seasoning
1 tablespoon olive oil
1 egg

In a large bowl, combine almond flour, salt and rosemary

In a medium bowl, whisk together olive oil and egg

Stir wet ingredients into almond flour mixture until thoroughly combined

Roll the dough into a ball and press between 2 sheets of parchment paper to ⅛ inch thickness

Remove top piece of parchment paper

Transfer the bottom piece with rolled out dough onto baking sheet

Cut dough into 2-inch squares with a knife or pizza cutter

Bake at 350° for 12-15 minutes, until lightly golden

Let crackers cool on baking sheet for 30 minutes, then serve Yield 24 cracker cookies

http://www.elanaspantry.com/rosemary-crackers/


Grilled Chicken Wings

1-1.5kgs chicken wings or nibbles
1/2 cup Dijon mustard
2 teaspoons olive oil
4 garlic cloves, minced
1/4 cup soy sauce (I use Tamari)
1/2 teaspoon ground ginger
(my tweak is approx 1/4 -1/2 cup of cream)

Mix ingredients into a bowl.

Add wings and stir.

Cover and marinate for 45 minutes.

Place pieces on the grill and brush with remaining mixture.

Grill over medium-hot coals about 15-20 minutes, turning once.

http://www.food.com/recipe/grilled-chicken-wings-31266


I seem to have lost any pictures I had of these recipes so as soon as I get some more I will put them up but for now you can see what they should look like through the links :)