I am Abe Froman

Breakfast was a challenge. But that challenge has added creative fun. First I had to adjust my protein intake. I wasn't fueling enough to start the day. So now it's 4 or 5 eggs. I can back off that a little by adding meat, but most store bought sausage has Whole30 banned stuff in it. Even some of the Co-op and farmers market ground sausage had dextrose and sugar in the mix. So I checked some recipe books.

Enter home made Breakfast Balls. The first batch was with ground beef and spices. The most recent batch was half ground beef / half ground pork. The home made sausage is a welcome addition to Meal 1 that I can prepare before breakfast (because the cook so quick) and store any extra for for tomorrow. They are savory and meaty. Mixed into an egg and veggie scramble, or as a stand alone side.

Breakfast Balls

1 lbs Ground Pork
1 lbs Ground Beef
2 tsp Real Salt (Celtic Salt was suggested, which is a fine ground natural sea salt)
2 tsp Sage
2 tsp Thyme (I have used fresh from our garden and dried)
2 tsp Paprika
2 tsp Black Pepper
2 tsp Nutmeg

1-2 Tbsp Olive Oil

Combine the spices in a small bowl and whisk them together. Place the meat in a bowl large enough to mix and kneed the pork and beef together. Then add a small portion of the spice mix to the meat and kneed it in. Adding less is more. The spices get better incorporated into the meat a little at a time. Repeat the spice adding/kneeding until all the spice has been mixed in. Heat the olive oil in a pan. Total amount of oil used is up to you, and based on the amount of oils that cook out of the meat. Most of the meat we are getting is very lean, and you don't want the balls swimming in oil. Roll the meat into balls about 1 - 2 inches in diameter and fry them up in the oil.

Pulled Pork in BBQ Sauce - Day 13 Meal 3

Pork Butt. Yeah I said it. It's one of those food items I've never had a chance to cook before. But then Megan brings home a beautiful butt ;) and suggesting we should cook it up. Well some digging for a recipe turned up making pulled pork out of it. Another thing I have little experience with, roasting. This recipe seemed too easy. Rub it, store it (I did this the night before cooking), crock it with very little water, shred it, mix it with BBQ sauce, enjoy. And it worked!

An additional challenge came in the form of BBQ sauce. Most store bought or home made BBQ sauce contains sugar in one form or another. Molasses, honey, brown sugar, and so forth. Sugar in any form, aside from naturally occurring, is a Whole30 no-no, so to the book I went. Luckily "It Starts With Food" has a recipe for BBQ sauce.

Pulled Pork

3-4 lbs Pork Roast (ie shoulder, butt)

4 Tbsp Paprika

2 Tbsp Sea Salt

2 Tbsp Chili Powder (I used what I had on hand: Chipotle)

2 Tbsp Cumin

1 Tbsp Black Pepper

1 Tbsp Oregano

Unwrap the roast, they typically come tied or in a bakers web to keep them round. Combine all the spices in a bowl and rub them into every nook and cranny on the roast. I poured the rub into my hand from the bowl to avoid contamination. That way I can store and use any left over rub later. Wrap the roast in plastic wrap and refrigerate for at least 1 hour. I let our roast sit overnight but you can leave it like this for up to 3 days. The longer the better. Put the roast in a crock pot. Add a 1/4 cup of water. Set crock to low and let cook for 6-8 hours. Remove the roast to a rack to allow the drippings to run off. Avoid spilling the drippings all over the stove, the floor and what you are wearing. (That's for a different blog) Shred the meat, removing any fatty lumps. Mix with BBQ (or any savory sauce) and serve.

Whole30 BBQ Sauce (from It Starts With Food)

1 cup Tomato Sauce

1/3 cup unsweetened Apple Sauce

2 Tbsp Cider Vinegar

2 Tbsp Coconut Aminos (similar to soy sauce, not from a legume, another Whole30 no-no)

1 Tbsp Dijon Mustard (our dijon was non-compliant so I substituted dry mustard mixed into tomato paste)

1 tsp Hot-pepper sauce 

1 tsp Chili Powder (again with the chipotle)

1/4 tsp Black Pepper

1/2 tsp Paprika

1 clove Garlic

1/2 Tbsp clarified butter or coconut oil (I used the coconut oil and a small dab of ghee)

In a bowl whisk the tomato sauce, apple sauce, vinegar, coconut aminos, mustard, hot-chili sauce, and black pepper. Heat the butter/coconut oil in a large pan over medium high heat. Add the garlic and remaining spices to the pan stirring until fragrant (about 30 seconds only). Whisk in the tomato sauce mixture. Bring to a boil, then GENTLY simmer uncovered for 25-30 minutes until it is reduced and flavorful. Remove from heat and allow to cool.The outcome smelled very tomato paste like, and had a bit of spicy kick to it. We worried the kids wouldn't eat it. However, once mixed into the shredded pork it was very tasty. Use the BBQ sauce at room temp when mixing in, and store unused portions in the fridge.

Adapting for the long term

One of the challenges we've had to overcome is the lack of butter. Whole30 requires butter to be "clarified" or you can use ghee. Having to clarify our butter would add a step we don't have time for. So it was ghee for us, but that took some adjustment in preparation. And our early experiments with ghee made it seem finicky, tough to use, and easy to burn or scald.

Trial and error over the first week has brought us to this. Now, rather that adding a pad of butter to a breakfast saute, we use a little olive oil to saute any veggies on a medium high head, then add some ghee to coat the pan and drop the temperature to low. Then adjust the temperature up if necessary to finish off.

Today's Meal 1 was a good example of this. I took a clove of minced garlic, green onions (from our garden), and a sweet red Melrose pepper (also from our garden) sauteed them in a half tablespoon of olive oil. When the garlic was well browned (think of the coating on a garlic bagel) and the onion and pepper softened I added a teaspoon of ghee. Spread it around the pan, then added 3 eggs and dropped the temperature to about 3/4 of the way to LOW. Broke the yolks, added sea salt and fresh cracked pepper on top, and waited for the eggs to set up. Turned the whole thing as one, finished off cooking and garnished with some avocado and hot sauce.

Whole Info

It's come to my mind, through a week of doing Whole30 and discussion with my wife, that the calling Whole30 a "diet" does not do Whole30 justice. We are not undertaking this to loose weight (though that appears to be a side effect). We are not doing this for 30 days and going back to the way we ate last month. We are hoping to have major paradigm shifts in our lives.

By eating closer to the ancestral diet from our human past we hope to escape many of the pitfalls of modern life. My cholesterol numbers are considered high by modern medical standards. Whole30 should moderate that. Megan has digestive sensitivity issues. Whole30 removes the trouble makers. Whole30 eliminates all the grain, refined sugar, beans, dairy, and alcohol from our kitchen for 30 days. This allows the body to start using food properly, stops the insulin roller coster, balance your metabolism, reduce chronic inflammation, allow better sleep, and the list goes on.

Another side effect of doing Whole30? Because of the seeming drastic reduction of available ingredients we are forced to experiment and expand what comes out of our kitchen. The dinner rotation was getting kind of stale. This has introduced a new batch of recipes.

After 30 days, we get to start adding the eliminated items back into the mix. Any issues that arise with be easily tracked down, and reduced or removed from our long term eating. Any food item we choose not to continue eating has been removed. We get to make long term changes to our lives, and how we relate to food.

We LOVE to cook and bake and eat. Don't worry Mom, Megan will continue to bake! Leading up to Whole30 we ate organic and natural as much as possible. We cooked and ate together as a family 6 or more days a week. Yet we still had health issues that food choices could effect.

The elimination changes made in our diet are similar to what we had done with the Specific Carbohydrate Diet. They are similar to the Paleo or Caveman diet which we had been experimenting with just prior to starting Whole30. Discovering the book It Starts With Food which spells out Whole30 in simple language allowed us to take the bull by the horns.

And with that, I'm off to BBQ some skewered Asian Sesame Beef!

Want to eat well, and why.

Whole30 seems like an undertaking but it is doable. I am generally healthy and active. I am currently training for the start of Cyclocross season. My doctor put me on a cholesterol maintenance drug a few year back. I hope to regulate it through diet and exercise rather than drugs. I've never been on a diet before. My wife, Megan, has digestive issues so I've been in a diet support mode since she started SCD about 6 years ago, though she doesn't always follow the diet strictly. 


So ask yourself the following questions: How much cooking do you do for yourself now? Do you have access to organic meat and veggies? Are there specific health concerns you hope to address? How much physical activity does your diet need to support?

Welcome to Fudie-Lalu

My wife and I love food. We revel in choosing organic ingredients. We grow what we can in our garden. We cook healthy.
Now we are embarking on the Whole30 diet for the month of August. I hope to post all the new recipes we try.

Lalu's Whole30 Smothered Pork Chops

Lalu's Whole30 Smothered Pork Chops

Ingredients:

4 pork chops (or enough for your family)
2 large sweet onions, thinly sliced
2 cups sliced carrots
1/2 cup almond flour
4 tablespoons coconut oil or olive oil (I used 50/50 of each)
1 egg
1/2 cup coconut milk
spices to taste: I used salt, pepper, garlic, basil, thyme (from my garden), rosemary (also from the garden), paprika, and a tiny bit of turmeric

How to Make:

Heat the oil and some garlic in a large pan over medium heat.
Beat the egg with about a teaspoon of water until smooth.
Put the almond flour on a plate and add a mix of the spices.
Rinse and dry each pork chop.
Dip each chop into the egg mixture and then in the almond flour.
Put each pork chop into the pre-heated pan with the oil and cook about 5 minutes per side (depending on thickness of chop) until starting to brown.
Remove the pork chops from the pan.
Add more garlic, onions, and carrots to pan and sprinkle with spices.
Stir until caramelized and browned.
Return the pork chops to the pan. Spread the onions on top of and between the pork chops.
Add the coconut milk and any additional spices and cook over low/medium heat until the gravy starts to thicken and the chops are tender and at the desired doneness.

Enjoy and let me know how it comes out!