Whole30 Day 4

I am in the middle of my work week, and I am noticing how easy I get out of bed when my alarm goes off. Before I would snooze 2 or 3 times, or get up at the last possible moment. Now my alarm goes off and I lay in bed, check a few things on my phone and go about my day. It has been one of my favorite changes so far, it used to take me literally hours to fully wake up and feel like the fog has lifted. Now about mid-shower I'm feeling alert and ready. It is awesome!

Whole30 Day3

Not a whole lot of content today, no major cravings or issues. I saw a recipe for coconut creamer a fews back so I thought I'd give it a try. Came out pretty good, its no half and half, but what is? I think next time I am going to add cocoa.

1T coconut oil
1 can full fat coconut milk
1 egg
Splash of vanilla extract

Add all ingredients to a blender and whip into a frenzy. Keep cold, shake before each use. Good for about a week, being that it has raw egg in it.

Whole30 Day 2

Day 2 was weird, I didn't get a very good nights sleep, and was not sure how that would effect my day. About half way through the day I completely crashed and just laid on the couch half awake wanting junk food. But I prevailed! I took a nap, had a cup of coffee and made an amazing dinner. I had no recipe to follow or modify, so I created something with what I had. Ended up with pork chops and mushroom gravy.

Ingredients:
2 pork chops, about 1" thick
Whatever spices you like, I used thyme, salt, garlic powder, and pepper

Gravy:
2T coconut oil
2 heaping spoonfuls of almond meal
Handful of mushrooms (I used 3), chopped
Slice of onion, diced
3T or so of broth (I had chicken on hand so I used that)

Heat skillet on medium low, add coconut oil
Season pork chops as you see fit, place in oil and cover
Cook about 8-9 minutes a side
Remove chops from skillet and tent with foil
Keep skillet over heat and add broth, once it comes back up to temp add onions and mushrooms
Let simmer a few minutes until mushrooms are cooked through and add almond meal, whisking mixture until thickens slightly and almond meal breaks up a bi
Remove from heat and top pork chops

Sorry about the purple cauliflower! The store did not have regular, and I felt like I was eating play dough. Any-who, I steamed the cauliflower, and blended it with garlic, salt, and chicken broth. For the brussel sprouts I tossed in olive oil, salt and pepper, and cooked for 35 minutes at 400 degrees, making sure to shake the cookie sheet every five or so to roast evenly.

Whole30 Day 1

First day! Feeling pretty good, and excited to try this whole thing out. I won't be going too crazy with the words here, just a few thoughts and feelings or changes I encounter along my journey. I won't have recipes everyday as I work 12 hour shifts and will be on left overs, but on my days off I try my best to post what I'm trying. I cut out all sugar a week ago, and already had a mild withdrawal from it, so I am hoping this wont be too difficult. Just bothersome difficult, then awesome! Heres to healthy eating! Original recipe:

Whole30 version: Here

4 chicken thighs, or whatever chicken you prefer, the total weight was just under 2lbs


In the bowl:
Juice from half a lemon
3 garlic cloves
1T Coconut oil, warm slightly to melt if needed
1t salt
1t fresh thyme, off the stems finely chopped

In the crockpot:
Juice from other half of lemon, plus rinds, quartered
4 or 5 garlic cloves, whole. Skin on or off, your choice
1 cube veggie bouillon
2 sprigs fresh thyme
2T coconut aminos
1/4c chicken stock

2 sprigs rosemary, left out until last 30minutes of cooking

Rinse chicken off with cool water and run pieces through the herbs and oil that were placed in the bowl, if skin is on be sure to get some of the mixture between skin and meat.
If using a whole chicken place the lemon quarters, a few garlic cloves and some sprigs in the cavity before placing in crockpot.
Cook on high for 4 hours or until done. Mine took about two hours, 165 internal temp.
Let chicken rest for 15-20 minutes before eating. If you wish to make gravy do this now but substitute the 1/4C flour with almond meal or anything Whole30 friendly.


Notes:
The original recipe called for a whole chicken but I chose chicken thighs.
I also used veggie bouillon because I could not find a chicken version that did not contain sugar. Be careful when buying chicken stock as well, hidden sugar!
I did not with hold rosemary until last 30 minutes of cooking, mainly because I forgot, but I don't feel it took away from over all flavor.
Once chicken hit temp I put them under the broiler for a few minutes to crisp skin up, then rested for twenty minutes.

I accompanied the chicken with roasted broccoli and sweet potatoes. Both lightly tossed with olive oil and salt.

First Sourdough loaf

Yesterday evening I took the starter out of the fridge and after about two hours I fed it, without discarding any because I knew I needed 2C for my recipe. So I fed it 3oz of water, 1oz rye, and 2oz flour and left it sit overnight. Here is what it looked like about noon when I started measuring out my 2C.

Recipe:
2C starter
4t sugar
2t salt
3C more or less of flour

I only got about two cups of flour in before it started to get angry at me, so I stopped there, rounded it out, through it in a bowl and started to play the waiting game. Around 4pm I decided it had doubled in size and shaped it. Threw it in a slightly warm oven with a bowl of hot water and waited another hour and half. Removed the bowl of water and plastic wrap. Gave it a very light coat of olive oil and turned the oven on 350. Kept an eye on it, turned it at about 15 minutes or so. Let the other side brown up and foiled the top and turned the oven down to 325 and cooked it another 15-20 or so. Overall the bread is rather dense, and I should have used less flour and/or had more moisture. Flavor wise it is good, tons of flavor.

Sourdough Starter!

Day 4

Or bread monster as I like to call it. In culinary school we created a SD starter, but being too busy and foolish I discarded it in the garbage and went about my merry way. So I decided to try my hand at it again. Started on January 15th with 3oz of water, and 3oz of organic flour, and left it sit for 24 hours. After 24 hours I would discard 3oz, and add 3 more ounces of water and flour. I did this for several days, and on day four I noticed it starting to work. Bubbles!

Day 6

On day four I stopped measuring    how much I was discarding and discarded all but about 2T to 1/4cup and started adding 6oz of water and 6oz flour. On day five I was reading about starters and most people had used organic flour and rye flour. I had rye flour lying around so I started putting it in the mix. Here is what day 6 looked like. I discarded most, and added 6oz of water, 5oz of flour and 1oz of rye flour.











Continuing with the 6, 5, and 1oz, on the 8th day I fed it one last time and put it in the fridge.

Flax Seed Wheat Bread

Tried another recipe from The Fresh Loaf, a wheat bread with flax seeds. I only had flax meal, not whole seeds so I cut down the amount from 100g to about 25g. I also used 2t of honey instead of malt powder. Mixed for about 3 minutes on speed 1 and about 5 minutes on speed 2. Did not bake nearly as long as the recipe indicated. Baked about 25 minutes total. It made one small boule. My crumb does not look like theirs, but I'm guessing its because I used the flax meal, and honey. They did not indicate mixing times, so I was just winging it off of previous bread I have made and checking for window pane. I love the crust ring in the second photo. Pretty flavorful bread, would go well with a soup or stew, it is just begging to be dunked in something yummy.

Ciabatta Bread

I got this recipe from the fresh loaf, I frequent this website a ton, lots of recipes, tutorials, and help. The community is really helpful there, and seems to always be able to answer any bread questions anyone has. My dough never tried to climb out of the mixer and the directions indicated, even after 30 minutes of mixing, and I am not sure if that was because I was using such a jumbo bowl for a not so jumbo batch,  or if I made an error in scaling. My crumb came out with a lot of tiny air bubbles, not the huge ones associated with ciabatta but over all it tasted great. My next ciabatta will be a sour dough variety, once my starter matures and is ready for me to play with it.

Whole-Wheat Cinnamon Bread

I saw this recipe in the Food Network magazine (January/February 2011) and had to try it. Very easy, and very tasty. The original recipe has raisins, but I left them out because I don't like raisins in my bread. I also turned this bread into french toast a few days later, amazing.

2 cups bread flour, plus more for dusting
2 cups whole-wheat flour
1/4 cup nonfat dry milk
1 large egg
2 T canola oil, plus more for brushing
3 T honey
2 tsp salt
1 1/2 tsp instant dry yeast
cooking spray
1 T plus 1 tsp ground cinnamon
1/3 c packed brown sugar

1. Check your yeast's directions on water temp, the recipe says 120-130 degrees but my yeast said 100-110, so I followed the yeast packet and heated 1 1/4 cups water to about 110 and added my yeast. While I let that sit, I sifted my two flours and dry milk and set aside. In a separate bowl I combined the honey, egg, oil, and salt, and lightly mixed.
2. After 5-10 minutes the yeast should start floating to the top and look foamy. Once this happens put your sifted flours into your mixing bowl, add all the wet ingredients and the water yeast mixture. With dough hook mix on slowest speed for 3 minutes. Turn up to second speed for 5 minutes.
3. Transfer dough to large bowl sprayed with cooking spray and cover with plastic wrap. Let rise at room temperature for about one and half to two hours. If your house is on the colder or warmer side your bread will take longer/faster. Mine is on the colder side so I turn on the oven for about 15 seconds just to get a little heat in there, and put my bread in there to rise.
4. Transfer the dough to a floured surface, pat gently to a loose square shape. Lift up one side of the dough and fold about one-third of it across toward the center; press down on the dough to remove air bubbles. Repeat with the remaining three sides. Divide the dough in half.
5. Lightly spray two 9x5 loaf pans. Roll out each half into an 8 inch square. Brush with canola oil, then sprinkle with cinnamon, then brown sugar. Roll up each square into a tight cylinder and place seam side down in loaf pans. Cover again with plastic wrap and let rise another hour and half or so, when touched the dough should spring back.
6. Heat oven to 375, brush loaves with canola oil and bake until golden brown, about 20-25minutes. Let sit a few minutes then remove from pans to cooling rack to cool completely.

pumpkin pie cookies

Was pleasantly surprised at how good these tasted. I am not a huge pumpkin pie person, but these are very light and just enough pumpkin. I got the recipes off cooks.com. I made a browned butter icing to go on top.

SIFT
2c flour
1/2tsp salt
1tsp baking soda
1tsp baking powder
1tsp pumpkin pie spice

Mix
1/2c butter
1/2c shortening
Add and mix until fluffy
1c sugar
Add
1c pumpkin
1egg
1tsp vanilla

Add dry ingredients and drop onto non stick cookie sheet. 350 degrees for ten minutes.

PIE!

Thanksgiving pie number one. It has slight battle damage because I foiled the edge so it would not burn but I am loving how rustic it looks. Hopefully it tastes as good as it looks.

So Many Pigs!

This was back in August, but Fallon and I made piggy cupcakes for her birthday. Idea was taking out of Martha Stewart's cupcake book.

I knitted....finally!

Taken from fellow blogger :http://neekaknits.blogspot.com/ I made a quick headband. Super quick and easy knit. I think I am going to try another, but with smaller needles and yarn. I used size 9 needles. Took a couple hours.

Cornmeal Thyme Cookies

The recipe called for currants, which I did not have so I left them out. These cookies are really good! The thyme is very subtle and the cornmeal gives the cookie bulk and texture.

Recipe:
1 3/4C flour
1C cornmeal
1t baking soda
1T + 1/2t thyme, finely chopped

1C butter
1 1/4C sugar
2 eggs

350 degrees, 10-12 minutes

I love cookies

I know cupcakes are my "thing" but I really enjoy a good cookie. I bought Martha Stewart's cookie book and it is amazing. I have been slowly working my way through it, and made a promise that if its a cookie I have made before (chocolate chip, oatmeal, sugar, etc) that I would alter the recipe some way to try to improve it or to introduce new flavors to an old classic. Today I made oatmeal cookies. It was a pretty standard recipe, oatmeal, raisins, and cinnamon. I changed the butter, added toasted pecans, and added a whole banana to the recipe. I also used Splenda for the white sugar, and Splenda Blend for the brown sugar.  Not SUPER original changes but by browning the butter, toasting pecans, and adding a banana  it definitely gave the cookies a little more personality. Here is the recipe:


3C rolled oats
1C flour
1t baking soda
1t baking powder
1/2t cinnamon
1/2t salt

1C butter (browned and cooled)
1C sugar
1C brown sugar
2 eggs
1t vanilla

1C toasted pecans
1 mashed banana

Mix butter and sugars until pale and fluffy (took about five minutes)
Add egg and vanilla
Add banana

Add all dry ingredients
Bake it at 350.

Photos

Just a couple photos I've taken this week.

I love homemade bread

I love making bread. Okay, I love eating homemade bread but have not mastered the science of it yet and all the different types of flour so I get super excited when a loaf comes out and is edible. I tried a recipe online, and it came out wonderful. I suggest visiting her website and not only trying this recipe but browsing all her other ones and her blog. Its great. This bread is perfect for sandwiches. Great option instead of buying store bought. I used a bread machine on dough setting and baked in oven 30 minutes. The recipe can be found here. http://www.tammysrecipes.com/homemade_wheat_bread

Garden!

Just a little garden update. Its been in the ground just about two months now, need to start a second box for all the leafy veggies I started. I didn't think the cucumbers were going to make it, but with my watering and love they have sprung to action and currently trying to take over one side of the garden. We have got to eat a handful of cherry tomatoes, two bell peppers, and a couple jalepenos (wow they were hot!) so far. Very excited for all the melons.

First job.

Had my first paying cake job! Granted I only made $12 after supplies were taken out, but hey its a start! It was for an old friend, so I can't complain too much. I had a lot of fun making it, and of course eating it. Chocolate cake with chocolate butter cream icing. Three layers. Not too shabby considering I had no decorating supplies, a ziplock bag and a spatula.

Cheesy garlic muffins

I made some cheesy garlic muffins tonight to go with dinner. Very tasty!







1.5 cups flour
1 tablespoon baking powder
1.5 tablespoon sugar
.5 teaspoon salt
.5 stick melted butter
1 teaspoon garlic powder
1 cup milk
1 egg
2 cups cheese
375 oven
mix all dry ingredients together, add cheese. Mix butter, egg, and milk together then add to dry ingredients and stir. Place in muffin pan and bake 20 minutes. Mine were done at 18minutes so watch them. I melted some butter and added garlic powder and garlic salt and brushed tops of muffins after I took them out of the oven. Makes 12.