Sunday 9 December 2012

Whole30: Day 9 (Test Kitchen: pate!)

Yesterday's unfortunateness of our vehicle having a flat tire not only prevented me from going to the chiropractor like I so desperately needed to but it also meant I spent most of the day in the kitchen concocting  deliciousness. I also thought I should take pictures of all the food that ate since half the time I never remember to until I am mostly done my food. So here is Saturday's food

Morning bone broth. I always drink a cup when I get up in the morning before I have anything else. Bone broth is the new coffee haven't you heard?


Then I made a cranberry pom tea while I got the real food ready. I rescued this snowman mug from the trash...don't judge.


Breakfast prep, slicing zucchini for my scramble


My breakfast... 2 eggs with chives, wilted spinach, zucchini and mushrooms cooked in bone broth and tallow, leftover chili and sweet potatoes plus half a banana that I dip in that little dish of coconut oil. I always eat the banana first so I am following the food combining principle for fruit (food combining is NOT Whole30 but I totally get the science behind eating your fruit first....fruit is all sugar so it is rapidly digested so I eat it first. Whole30 people want you to basically not eat fruit by itself or to use fruit in place of sweets or dessert)


Big ol' plate of morning yum


Dipping the banana and yes I drew a smiley on my nail with a sharpie last night


Making dressing for lunch. Dressing is mega easy...some evoo, some acv and a big squeeze of the weird brown mustard all shaken up in a baby mason jar. I don't really ever measure anything...all eyeball.


Then I made fruit sauce for the beasts with the apples, cranberries and blueberries that were going to go bad. I do this about once a week with almost funky produce or I slice stuff up and freeze it for smoothies.



Baked some sweet potatoes. These are super easy to have on hand pre-cooked to throw into any meal that needs a starchy carb.


I whipped up some chicken burgers with the ground chicken that had been in the fridge and was begging to be used. Burgers are easy to make and store in the fridge for "fast food". I always add garlic powder, fresh chives and fresh rosemary to mine...and proscuitto if I have it.


LUNCH! This was husbie's salad I was prepping as he was out dealing with the flat tire.


I roasted a spaghetti squash but when I tried it, it was really bitter. I think it had gone off which is a shame but I just couldn't swallow the bite I took and had to spit it out then chuck it out. I HATE wasting food, hate it.


My lettuce bowl with burger topper. Notice all the meals are a mix of fat. protein and veggies. This salad had an avocado in it plus the oil in the dressing, burger for meat and lots of green things.


Now for something I didn't even want to share with y'all. I am really sensitive in the kitchen. When things don't turn out, I take it personally and get grouchy. I bought this butter specifically to make ghee (clarified butter)...husbie is prepping dinner in the bg.


Melting the butter slowly...ignore my dirty stove



That white scummy looking crap is all the milk solids or the "garbage" in the butter


The watched butter never clarifies husbie!


The butter doing its thing...I guess...this was the ghee crap shoot


The burnt finished product. I was under the assumption that ALL the shit floating on the top would sink to the bottom...IT WON'T!! Little crumb like things will sink to the bottom but you won't really be able to see that through the scum so please take care not to burn your ghee. Now I have no idea what I am going to do with this burnt ghee but no effing way I am throwing it out. Ideas?


No time to wallow over burnt ghee, dinner need to be made. I promise, it looks like all I did was eat all day but that's not the case. Sauteing veggies in tallow and bone broth gives the veggies such a nice flavour


LIVERS! I found a great easy recipe for chopped liver on the Whole30 forum from an active member who is a chef (credit to FenderBender). My frozen livers defrosting while I do other crap. I always have like a billion things on the go in the kitchen at the same time.


Shredded MORE broccoli stems...I swear those thing multiple in the fridge like rabbits. We *just* finished the previous batch and looky, another 3 cups.


DINNER! Sauteed veggies and shrimp over cauliflower "rice". This meal was lacking a larger fat component. The veggies were cooked in tallow but that's not enough. I will counter with the fact that I am not super hungry in the evenings but this meal should have had a better fat source.


This is picture is just to gross out everyone...big ol' plate of bloody livers. I will repeat the recipe as I used it. 2 lbs chicken livers...mine was  1.2 lbs....I'm not nitpicky.

Cooking the livers very well in either coconut oil or animal fat. I went with an onion infused tallow (tallow is rendered beef fat, lard is rendered pork fat, schmaltz (?) is rendered chicken fat) that I had leftover from the ground beef a couple days ago. Cook em until there is no more blood coming out. Set a side to cool and save what fat is left.


Then chop up 1 large onion or a few small ones. The recipe said you should have about 3/4 cup of onion. I added 2 cloves of garlic to mine. Caramelize onions and garlic well. she specified lots of dark carmelization. I used two small onions and honestly, I could have used double the amount without and crazy overly onion taste in the finished product.


Let the onions cool in the pan. Peel 2 hard boiled eggs. When onions are cool put everything plus sea salt and lots of ground pepper in the FP. I added 2 spoonfuls more of the onion tallow because there wasn't much fat left after cooking. All ready to take a ride on the Cuisinart express.


The finished pate. I tried some on a celery stick and it was delicious. I would add more tallow to the FP before making it moosh next time since mine came out a little "crumbly" but still a success. I think the extra fat would make it creamier and hold it together better. Pate poop logs!! But I am very impressed with my first attempt and I think it is delicious. Husbie was NOT a fan and only took one bite before handing the celery back to me to finish. So liver in burgers...check....pate....no dice.


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