Nourishment Lately – Beginning of Whole 30

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Hello dreaming foodie friends!

I wanted to pop on here today to share a bit about my first ever Whole 30 experience. I never thought that I would do anything like this, mainly because I am not big on following rules, especially when it comes to setting rules around food, but after hearing and learning more and more about the Whole 30 program, here I am, eleven days into my first Whole 30!

Day one for me was Thursday, Feb. 14, and day thirty will come on Saturday, March 16. I don’t have a lot of concrete reasons as to why I decided to give this a try, other than maybe just as a way to change things up, to try something new and different. I’m feeling like winter is getting a bit old and boring, and this seemed like as good a way as any to bring something different to the table. I was also drawn to it because of its lack of extreme rules or time period. It’s honestly not that different than how we normally eat, so I knew that the changes wouldn’t be overly extreme and it’s only a 30 day experiment and experience (although I do plan to do a reintroduction portion following that).

Here’s a summary of the things that I cannot have during my Whole 30 experience: alcohol, grains, legumes (beans, peanuts, etc.), natural or artificial added sugar, dairy. 

And here is what I have been eating:

Protein: eggs, beef, poultry, pork, fish

Veggies: spinach, kale, sweet potatoes, beets, butternut squash, Brussels sprouts, garlic, onions cauliflower, broccoli, carrots, celery, mushrooms, spaghetti squash

Fruit: blueberries, bananas, cherries, apples, oranges, dates

Fats: olive oil, avocado oil, coconut oil, ghee (clarified butter)

Extras: walnuts, almond butter, coconut milk, collagen protein powder

What you see above has basically been the extent of my ingredient list over the last eleven days. Breakfast has been either eggs and some combination of veggies, or a smoothie. Lunch and dinner have been a protein and a ton of veggies. For snacks, I have been having apples and almond butter, a date with almond butter, or an orange. One thing for sure that I am loving – how many veggies we are eating! We have always been big veggie eaters, but with lack of grains and legumes, we have been going super heavy on the veggies and I love it. 

As far as how I feel, I honestly don’t have much to say at this point other than that I just feel good. I just feel good. And I am enjoying what I am eating every day. I do want to say that I feel like I have slightly more energy overall, but I still think it’s too early to tell if that is true. So far, I am loving my Whole 30 and I plan to keep the blog updated with the rest! Let me know what questions you have in the comments below!

Pork Meatballs with Apples, Onions + Toasted Walnuts

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If you would have told me a year ago that I would now be cooking and eating meatballs, I may have thought you were crazy. But, here we are and that is exactly what I am doing. I have been buying local ground pork almost weekly and these meatballs are one of my favorite creations using it. They are a combination of ground pork, onions, apples, toasted walnuts, dried thyme, nutmeg, salt, pepper and eggs. That’s it.

So, they’re definitely different than a traditional meatball. There are no breadcrumbs in these. I did a bit of research and found several recipes that didn’t use breadcrumbs successfully, so I decided to leave them out. Out of everything in these meatballs, not one ingredient or flavor stands out in particular to me – it all just sort of comes together very well. They taste like warming fall nourishment. As far as how to serve them, we have done them several different ways – with spaghetti squash and a healthy serving of pecorino Romano cheese, with a lemon tahini sauce and plain with a side of roasted cauliflower. When I was testing these, there were so many days when I packed a few of these meatballs with a bunch of roasted veggies for my lunch – no sauce, no cheese and they were just amazing. Flavor-wise, I don’t know how they would be with a red sauce, but I think that they would taste amazing with a garlicky alfredo-ish sauce. That’ll be next on my list.

One other note on this recipe – I only tested this with ground pork, so I’m not sure how these would be with another type of ground meat. I do feel like the pork lends itself very well with the other flavors going on in this recipe.

Enjoy this fall nourishment!







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Pork Meatballs with Apples, Onions + Toasted Walnuts

Ingredients

  • 1 cup walnuts,
  • 2 tablespoons butter
  • 1 onion
  • 2 small apples
  • 4 garlic cloves, minced
  • 2 pounds ground pork
  • 2 eggs
  • 2 teaspoons salt
  • 2 teaspoons thyme
  • 2 teaspoons nutmeg
  • 1 teaspoon black pepper
  • Juice from one lemon

Instructions

  1. Preheat oven to 400 degrees. Line a large baking sheet with parchment paper.

  2. Roughly chop onion and apple. Heat 2 tablespoons butter in a pan over medium high heat and add onion, apple and minced garlic. Cook until slightly softened and slightly caramelized.

  3. Remove onion, apple and garlic mixture to a bowl and let cool slightly.

  4. Add walnuts to the pan, and cook over medium high heat until toasted. Remove from pan and place walnuts in a food processor. Process until crumb like in texture. Remove and set aside.

  5. Add onion, apple and garlic mixture to the food processor and process until slightly pureed, but with chunks remaining.

  6. In a large bowl, mix together ground pork, eggs, salt, thyme, nutmeg, black pepper, lemon juice, walnuts and onion, apple and garlic mixture. Mix until well combined.

  7. Form meatballs and place on prepared baking sheet. Bake for 15 minutes at 400 degrees, or until internal temperature is almost at 160 degrees. Broil for 5 minutes to brown the top of the meatballs and to finish cooking.

 

Grain Free Apple Cobbler Cake

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I wasn’t sure what to call this dessert. My intent was to make a healthified apple cobbler. It came out more like a cake – but yet not really like a cake. So it’s an apple dessert. A grain free, maple sweetened apple dessert. This recipe uses minimal, whole ingredients. It uses: almond flour, eggs, pure maple syrup, coconut oil, some salt, vanilla extract, lemon juice, baking powder, and apples. That’s it. It’s simple to put together and we have been loving it as a weeknight dessert or snack.

This apple cobbler cake has an incredibly moist and dense crumb. It is perfectly sweetened and the touch of lemon juice comes through pleasantly. The apples soften just right – they’re soft and pillowy yet still hold some crunch. You can eat this while it’s still warm, but I wouldn’t recommend it – it falls apart a bit when it’s still warm. It’s texture becomes amazing once completely cooled and that is how we’ve preferred to enjoy it.

Something to note. I absolutely love this dessert. It’s delicious and it makes you feel good + nourished after eating it. That being said, if you’re looking for a decadent, indulgent fall dessert, this is not what you’re looking for. This is for anyone who wants a dessert that’s grain free and naturally sweetened. We haven’t always eaten grain free and I don’t know that we always will, but right now that’s what we’re going with. As far as sugar, I’m doing all of my baking these days with either pure maple syrup, honey or dates. I love classic homemade desserts using all out sugar and flour, but this just isn’t that. This is whole food nourishment that tastes like dessert and I am loving it :).




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Grain Free Apple Cobbler Cake

Ingredients

  • 2 medium apples, sliced
  • 2 cups almond flour
  • 1 teaspoon baking powder
  • 1/2 teaspoon salt
  • 1/2 cup coconut oil, melted and cooled
  • 1/2 cup pure maple syrup
  • 2 eggs
  • 2 teaspoons vanilla extract
  • 2 tablespoons fresh lemon juice

Instructions

  1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Prepare an 8 or 9 inch baking dish by rubbing it with a bit of coconut oil.

  2. Layer most of the sliced apples on the bottom of the baking dish, saving a few apple slices for the top, if desired. Set aside.

  3. In a small bowl, mix together almond flour, baking powder and salt. Set aside.

  4. In a medium bowl, whisk together the coconut oil and maple syrup. Add the eggs, vanilla extract and lemon juice and whisk until well combined.

  5. Add the dry ingredients to the wet and mix until just combined. Pour batter into baking dish, covering the sliced apples. Top with remaining sliced apples.

  6. Bake for about 35 minutes, or until an inserted toothpick comes out clean. Let cool completely before cutting and eating.

 

Five Recipes For Fall

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Fall officially kicked off in my kitchen this year with this clam chowder, which was the most wonderful start, and I’m now looking forward to every bit of the warming and comforting food that goes along with this season. Here are five recipes that are on my fall cooking bucket list! 

Peanut Butter + Jam Baked Oatmeal. Fall=oatmeal time. This peanut butter + jam baked oatmeal is the definition of comforting. This healthy and nourishing recipe will feel so right on cool, fall mornings.

Butternut Squash, Pear + Curry Brown Butter Soup. I love using fruit in savory recipes like this one. Grab some local butternut squash and pears and enjoy a warming and comforting bowl of goodness.

New Sweet Potato + Black Bean Burgers. This remains one of my favorite plant-based burger recipes. These burgers hold together so well and are flavorful, hearty and nourishing. Use local sweet potatoes for these this fall!

Beet Gnocchi. Beet gnocchi may just be my favorite dish ever. And with local beets in the fall – it’s perfect. This recipe is from Food & Wine, and my post shares the process, plus a few minor tweaks I make to the recipe.

Apple Crisp. A favorite fall dessert of mine. This apple crisp is just slightly sweet and is made with almond flour instead of wheat flour.

Happy fall cooking and eating!

Clam Chowder

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This clam chowder was inspired by two things: my desire to make something that I normally don’t, and my parent’s recent trip exploring New England. While I would love to be tasting my way through New England and Canada like they are, I am not retired like they are, so clam chowder at home it was. We made this soup on a dreary, end-of-summer day at home, and everything about it was just so right. Let’s talk about it.

Clams
I was able to buy wild, USA caught cherrystone clams at my grocery store for this. You could use a variety of types of clams for this soup, but as I feel about all seafood – try to use wild, USA caught.

Veggies
If you are a fan of clam chowder, you know that this can really vary between versions. Some have very few or no veggies; some have potatoes and some don’t. This one is full of veggies – onions, carrots, garlic and celery – and lots of potatoes. This is my preference, but feel free to customize types and amounts of veggies in this to your liking.

Broth
The broth for this soup is made from boiling the clams. To prepare the broth, you add the clams to a pot, top them with water, bring to a boil and then boil until the clams open. You then remove the clams and strain the liquid – that’s your broth. I recommend straining several times because the broth can tend to be a bit sandy from the clams. I love that the broth for this soup is made from just water + clams. Also, this is a brothy clam chowder. There is no thickener in it, so it’s a thin and extremely flavorful broth – just how I like my clam chowder.

Flavors
This soup uses: clams, bacon, onions, carrots, celery, garlic, potatoes, fresh thyme, white wine, a touch of milk, fresh lemon juice, salt and pepper. That’s it. If those flavors sound amazing to you, make this soup ASAP! 

This recipe is the epitome of end of summer, beginning of fall cooking and eating for me. Clam chowder always reminds me of summer vacation days, but is warm and comforting like fall. Since I can’t be wandering around New England right now, this was my best attempt at bringing end of summer, beginning of fall New England vibes to my home, and it worked just perfectly :).






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Clam Chowder

Ingredients

  • 24 medium to large clams (I used cherrystone)
  • 1/2 pound bacon
  • 1 large onion, chopped
  • 6 carrots, chopped
  • 6 celery stalks, chopped
  • 4 garlic cloves, minced
  • 12 baby potatoes, quartered
  • 1 cup dry white wine
  • 1 bunch fresh thyme
  • 2 cups whole milk
  • Salt
  • Pepper

Instructions

  1. Scrub clams well and place in a large pot. Cover the clams with water. Place pot over high heat and bring to a boil. Boil 5-10 minutes, or until all clams have opened.

  2. Strain clam stock into a bowl and set aside (if the stock is sandy, you may want to re-strain). Remove clams from shells, roughly chop and set aside.

  3. Wipe out pot and add bacon, cooking over medium heat until done. Remove bacon from pot, crumble and set aside.

  4. Keeping pot over medium heat, add onions, carrots, celery, garlic, potatoes, wine and a few sprigs of fresh thyme to the bacon fat. Cook 5-10 minutes, until wine is almost evaporated.

  5. Add strained clam stock and a few more sprigs of fresh thyme to pot and simmer until vegetables are tender, 20-25 minutes.

  6. Turn off heat but keep pot on burner and add milk, bacon and clams to the pot and stir well. Remove thyme stems. Season with salt and pepper to taste. We used 1 1/2 teaspoons salt and 1 teaspoon pepper. 

  7. Serve in bowls garnished with fresh thyme if desired and a squeeze of fresh lemon juice.