Thursday 6 December 2012

Whole30: Day 6

Chugging along in week one battling through a particularly windy and cold spell here. I want to fast forward to March. I was wearing flipflops last March...*sigh*

I promised peeps I would post the homemade mayo recipe yesterday and I promptly forgot. It's not my recipe this is just the one that I have used with success. Click HERE for mayo goodness. I have seen different recipes using lemon juice but apparently the acidity in lemons can very making it a mayo crap shoot so I always just use the raw ACV in mine and I make mine in the food processor. AC makes hers in her blender. If you are mega hardcore you can hand whisk it. FYI...the first time I made it I was freaking out because I didn't know if it was working and I was getting grouchy that I was potentially wasting my eggs and oil but after about the first cup of oil the noise in the FP changes from liquidy to like a wet plops kinda noise...wet plops means it's becoming mayo goodness. Using the FP makes it so so so thick, just like creepy store bought mayo minus the creepy!

Wednesday is meat day in our house because my local amazing meat store has customer appreciation day on Wednesdays 10% off! Also it's just outside of the city and I live smack in the middle of the urban center so it's an adventure on it's own to go to the "special meat store" as we call it. I am sure the lovely ladies there are sick of me asking when they will have elk in (soon she said, but their hunter has to have the brain shipped off to another part of the country to have it tested...this is the law...before they can sell the meat). If anyone knows any hunters, hook me up. I am even willing to help butcher the animal...in exchange for bones and organ meat of course!


I bought something at the meat store that my precious did NOT want me to buy and was gagging as I was putting it in our basket. Bison heart! I am all over the offal (organ meat). I don't think it's freaky or gross. It's lean, cheap and full of nutrients that can't be found elsewheres. Plus I love the strange looks I get when I ask for all the "garbage" parts of meat like oxtail, liver, bones and heart like I am not one of the usual suspects that asks for that kinda stuff. I found a great slow cooker recipe for the heart so watch for that soon but for now just the frozen heart. Living on the prairies has it's advantages...bison is not at all difficult to come across here (there is no such thing as buffalo, just misinformed people). I also don't care if you think my food is gross, I think your skim milk, cheese, rice, quinoa, diet soda and other packaged crap is gross too...agree to disagree or if you are interested in paleo...ask me!



Speaking of bones...bone broth round 3 is done. I have 3 batches under my belt and I have observations:

- tomato paste does indeed inhibit jelly formation in your broth
- blending the bones in a blender produces no extra special results for me
- 30 hours is about the perfect amount of time for my broth
- adding an extra onion gives it almost a french onion-y soup taste

BEST PART OF BONE BROTH because I always keep shit real with y'all...the cellulite on the back of my thighs under my ass IS GONE! I shit you not GONE! The way of the dodo. I was actually flabbergasted. I am no VS model but my hind quarters are looking pretty good. This is because of all the broken down collagen in the broth. Bone broth is high in glycine and proline, things that don't really come from anywhere else. Thank you bone broth!

This is the most recent batch that was made very similarly to the first batch and this is the method that I will stick to from now on. I like the taste, the jelly and I basically have it down to a science. I have pondered making craft bone broth in baby batches like craft microbrewed beer. I wonder if there is a market for that? I am thinking a rosemary infused one...IDEAS!


Check out this cool bone!


This is the cranberry pom tea. It tastes like candy, legit...some kind of penny nickle candy I can't quite put my finger on or even grape fruit roll ups maybe...I'm not sure but that is what my brain and tastebuds told me on my first sip. A bit tart but dangerously good and probably spectacular cold with a squeeze of lemon.


Husbie had to drop some stuff off at work so I braved the cold and took some pictures of his work truck because I was getting fidgety waiting...I am perpetually 5 years old. I barely understand what he does and the truck is so large and intimidating looking.


The sunniest days are always the coldest. It has to be overcast to snow and those days are warmer. Sun in the winter means freeze your ass off cold (and usually windy).




Since husbie has been home the test kitchen has been cranking out lots of good stuff, mostly because I love having a helper in the kitchen although we are totally different "chefs". He cleans up as he goes and I am clean it later kinda gal so the kitchen is always a wreck when I am in there which drives him squirrely. Last night we made our own spaghetti sauce from scratch from REAL TOMATOES! I told y'all I suck at following recipes so after reading a few and getting overwhelmed I said fuck it and just started to make it. Sauteed onions and garlic in evoo, added some oregano, sauteed more, added 5 chopped large tomatoes (I will pulse them in the FP before hand next time), added husbie's homemade Italian seasoning (he made it himself!), some celery, red peppers and 3 bay leaves and let it simmer for about 2 hours. Not too bad for an off the top of our heads first attempt. Homemade Italian seasoning. You can buy little spice jars at the dollar store.


We added a buttload of ground beef to the sauce and served in on top of oven roasted portabello mushrooms and shredded broccoli stems. No joke, we had like 2lbs of broccoli stems that I refuse to
throw out (plans for broccoli slaw!) We like broccoli stems in this house, just use a veggie peeler or a paring knife to take off the woody (heheheeeheehee woody) outer part. I shredded em easy sleazy in the FP. You can grate them with a grater for the same texture and size if you don't have a FP...you can also use a grater to make cauliflower rice if you don't have a FP.

Also as a note, we pulsed the sauce in the FP a few times after it was cooked before eating because it had massive chunks in it. If you like it chunky, leave it chunky. I hate tomatoes and will only eat them if I can barely recognize a tomato so it required some Cuisi-y luuuurve.


Delicious! So delicious in fact, our plans for leftovers were just that, plans. No leftovers to speak of. I guess it was a hit.





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