If a recipe has more than five ingredients or three steps, I am probably not going to make it. Before Whole30, my idea of cooking was to throw some Tyson bread chicken strips and tator tots in the oven. Maybe microwave some green beans out of a can or from one of those steamer bags. If I wanted a fancy meal, I would put Salmon with olive oil, lemon juice, dill and garlic into the oven, and rice into the rice cooker. Still steamed the vegetables in the steamer bag.
With Whole30, my cooking “style” has not changed very much. But I have tried a couple of new things and techniques.
Roasting vegetables: My roasted cabbage was awful. I couldn’t even rescue it by cooking it in chicken broth later. I ended up throwing it away. But I did roast some beets this week and they turned out fantastic. I sliced some leftover beets and cooked them in oil and apple cider vinegar. Even better. They tasted like pickled beets. Next time, though, I’ll roast them one at a time, instead of three at once. No one in my house eats beets except me.
Paleo chicken nuggets: It’s a good thing I sauteed half the chicken in a pan with my usual spices thrown in. My family wouldn’t eat the nuggets. But I packed my pound of chicken nuggets into meal size protein portions and I will eat them over the next several days. Maybe they will taste better sauteed in olive oil!
Beef bone broth: It just didn’t turn out good. I am going to throw it out. Maybe I need to follow the recipe better. Or my crockpot wasn’t big enough. Or something. I did make good chicken broth with bone-in chicken thighs, the usual vegetables and spices.
Avocados: I don’t like these yet. I don’t know how to pick good/ripe ones. And sliced unripe ones don’t taste that good. I give up, for now.
Black coffee: Bleck. I was in the habit of putting a double dose of those creamers in my coffee. I had started to wonder if I put the creamers in a cup of hot water whether I would miss the coffee. I have been trying some new things with my coffee. First, I now make it weaker. (Saves money, my friends). Then I have thrown various things on top of the grounds before brewing. Cinnamon: Good. Cloves and Cinnamon: the cloves overwhelmed the cinnamon. Cinnamon and cocoa: I couldn’t taste either one, but the coffee had “depth.” Whatever that is. I wouldn’t waste the cocoa on it. Pumpkin pie spice: Good. I’ll let you know how experiments go with this in the future. My daughter, Mary, has suggested I throw some fresh mint leaves in the coffee.
That’s all for now. I am enjoying the food on Whole30. I cook simply with few ingredients. I don’t bother with crushing garlic. I have large containers of ground spices from either Costco or Gordon foods. And I throw them on the food till it looks good to me. I could not tell you how much I use. My mother cooks like that.
Well, here is yesterday’s breakfast. Egg, taco meat, and veggie scramble with “pickled” beets on the side.
I am not giving up on roasting vegetables, but I’ll have to get some more advice from my foodie friend.
Eat. Good. Food.
annkilter2 