Grassfed Ghee

The best ghee is made from pasture fed cow’s milk. It's really hard to find good quality ghee in my home town.  So I've decided to make my own. Ghee can be heated to higher temperatures without burning, it also doesn't contain dairy which can be problematic for a lot of people.  I'm doing a Whole30 at the moment and I just love butter so for me it just made sense to make myself ghee.  I would go so far to say is that I find it superior to butter for cooking, sautéing etc...

• Unsalted Butter - grassfed or pastured
• Thick bottom saucepan (I used copper bottom and stainless steel)
• Ladle
• Glass jar with airtight lid
• Tea Strainer

You do need a little patience when making Ghee.

Place your butter in your saucepan and gently heat so the butter melts very slowly - you do not want to burn the butter otherwise you will ruin it.

I used the Lewis Road Creamery Unsalted Butter from pasture-fed cows in New Zealand.

Once the butter has melted you can turn up the heat but not too high, you want it to be bubbling but not too rapidly.

As the butter boils the milk solids will begin to separate, start to skim off the milk solids as this happens.  This process takes about 20 minutes but do not walk away! Keep a close eye on it.

Once you have had it boiling for about 20 minutes, it's different for different amounts of butter, here I've done a batch of 750gms of butter.  Strain the ghee through a tea strainer so that any of pieces are left at the bottom don't end up in your finished product.

Ghee should be stored at room temperature, not refrigerated. Ghee will turn rancid if it is exposed to oxygen for too long.

You will be left with beautiful liquid gold! This stuff is really amazing and you will not regret the time it takes to do this!

Day 5 Whole 30

Wow today was worse than yesterday! At first I woke up feeling ok but as the day progressed I was super cranky and really did want to kill all the things! Geez this part I feel will be the worst of it, here's hoping!

I also had the worst hankering for cheese today which was weird, I don't think I've ever craved cheese in particular, I do love dairy but boy it was weird. Not really missing the chocolate at the minute which has surprised me although I'm not that cocky, I know it will come ;)

Food wise I did well, although I REALLY wanted to add cheese to this mornings omelet, I didn't :)

8.5 hours sleep
7am: 2 egg omelet filled with mushrooms, bacon, cherry tomatoes, basil and rainbow chard, sautéed in ghee. A few macadamias and 1 Tablespoon of Coconut Manna, decaf nespresso
12.30pm: Leftover Sheperds Pie from last night (made with Kumara and lamb mince), served with red cabbage sauteed in ghee and garlic
7pm: Pinenut and Rosemary crusted Lamb loin fillet with pureed parsnip and fresh green peas. Fresh Pineapple with Whipped coconut cream and toasted coconut flakes

Day 4 Whole 30

Today has been a bit tough,  I understand the "Kill All The Things!", see this timeline to understand what I'm talking about.

*It’s probably because your brain is never very happy when you tell it that it CAN’T have something, and take it out of it’s habitual and accustomed comfort zone. An unhappy brain is a stressed brain, an anxious brain, a fearful brain. No to mention your hormones are desperately trying to keep up with your new food choices, your gut is trying to heal, you’ve had a headache for the last three days, and you REALLY MISS YOUR DIET COKE. So yeah, maybe we do know why this is happening now…

In my case it's not diet coke it's dark chocolate and dairy!


Before I started this Whole30 I was very apprehensive, I didn't think I needed it but I'm realising very quickly why I really did need to do this.

So why go to the extreme and do a Whole30?
For me this is a reset, I needed to quit all the little primal/paleo treats I was having, I had lost my way.  I miss the me who could go out to a cafe and not even be tempted by cake, to see the hot chips being delivered to someones table and not even want them.  I used to be that girl and somehow along the way with all the little treats I started having it had turned into a common place in my eating template and it was leading me down a path of feeling unhealthy and all of my old health symptoms returning.

I eat Primal for my health, yes I have been extremely successful with weight loss.  Weight loss was initially my motivator.  What I've come to realise over these last 5 years is that essentially I want to be healthy.  I've been fat, I've been thin and I've been a normal size. I've been sick, miserable, unhealthy and I've been well, happy and healthy and I know I choose the latter.  Healthy to me means having healthy hormones and sleeping well, having consistent energy throughout the day, loving life, exercise that feels natural, eating the foods I love and stopping when I feel satiated.  Unhealthy to me means having whacked out hormones and not sleeping well, energy ups and downs, not enjoying life, exercising for the "calorie burn",  eating only to my "calorie count".  This is what I have discovered is healthy or unhealthy for ME!

8 hours sleep last night
6.45am: 3 hard boiled eggs mashed with ghee, bowl of blueberries with toasted coconut and almonds
1.15pm: 2 lamb chops marinated in tarragon, tomato paste, lemon juice and paprika, brussel sprouts and green beans, 1 tablespoon of Coconut Manna
3.30pm: A few macadamia nuts
7.30pm: Lamb Shepherds Pie with Mashed Kumara (sweet potato) on top, fresh green beans and peas, broccoli with ghee

Today was mentally quite draining and I definitely had a short fuse for parts of the day, there was a moment when I kinda yelled at my sewing machine but otherwise I was ok.  I had an hour thai massage tonight so that was helpful for easing any tension.  Hopefully tomorrow isn't as harsh and then it might just be two days of feeling like I wanna nap and then the detox part of this Whole30 will be dusted and I will be bouncing with Tiger Blood!

Day 3 Whole 30

I am already learning a lot about the relationship I have with food. Before this Whole30 I honestly didn't think I could quit the chocolate and dairy and it felt unnecessary.   I am surprising myself with the transition and I'm starting to realise why it is actually necessary for me to do this.

Today has been much better after yesterday's miserable headache I had for most the day.  It really illustrated how much caffeine and sugar I was actually getting from the chocolate :/ 

I am feeling excited for this journey and sharing my experience with you all.  It's bought my passion back.  I will say that I'm spending a lot of time in the kitchen, even more than I usually do so before you go jumping into a Whole30 you might need to prepare for the time you will spend making sure you are eating enough, especially veggies.  Also the money you will be spending on so much food!  I have just ordered the book Well Fed so I'm looking forward to it arriving so I wont run out of ideas.

One of the things about the whole30 is when you sit down for a meal you cannot be distracted, this means no TV, texting, internet or whatever could be distracting you.  I am being very conscious of this so the TV is off when I eat so I can be fully engaged in eating!

7am: 3 poached eggs, 2 strips free range sugar free bacon, 2 portobello mushrooms and 1 tomato cooked in ghee. A few macadamias, Decaf Nespresso

12pm: Lamb Curry and a few almonds.

6pm: Smoked Chicken (smoked my own) tossed with homemade mayo, sundried tomatoes, fresh basil and spring onions, on top of mesclun salad, cucumber, yellow peppers.  I also added a little diced kumara (sweet potato) fried in ghee. A few macadamias

Lamb and Cauliflower Curry

I was making lamb bone broth from a leftover lamb bone that I cooked on the weber over the weekend.  It smelt so incredible that on a whim I decided to make a curry with the lamb that was falling off the bone!

To make your bone broth please see my blog for directions and just use lamb instead of chicken. 

Serves 1

Once your broth and lamb is ready transfer it to a smaller pot, add in the following ingredients:

1 1/2 tsps Cumin

1 tsp Ground Coriander

1 tsp Tumeric

1/2 tsp Ground Ginger

1/4 tsp White Pepper 

Salt to taste, I use about 1 tsp.

1/2 cup Coconut cream

1/2 tin chopped tomatoes

1-2 cups Cauliflower florets, small pieces

Bring to the boil and then turn down the heat and simmer for 15-20 mins, the liquid should reduce.

Once ready serve with some fresh coriander! (I didn't have any for photo)

*This was made super fast and without much thought or preparation, I'm sure some additional spices would make it even better like bay leaves (remember you remove the leaves before eating ;)), garam masala, cardomon, curry leaves etc..