Tag: meals

Meal planning, the Whole 30 and more…

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Anyone else here identify with a little thing I call “winter eating?”

The hearty stews, soups, wine to warm you to your toes, the eating out with friends and walking out into the bracing winter air – cooling your rosy cheeks, red from wine and laughing and cozy restaurants. All part of what I love about winter.

And now we’re in April.

It’s starting to get warm, and I won’t lie – I’m also gearing up for dress fitting and all that comes with it. So Z and I are going Whole30 (or at least most of the time – Whole30ish?) – getting a handle on what we’re eating again.

The first time we did Whole30 – meal planning is what saved my life. I do most of the cooking, and Whole30 is a cycle of cooking, prep and more cooking (or at least for me!).  Getting to the grocery store early on Sunday, before all the crowds is key.

Sunday I made this recipe of Whole30 Carnitas – which is absolutely amazing. I got a 3 pound pork butt and was going to 1.5 the recipe, but ended up forgetting until I went to add the spices to the onion/garlic mixture. It still turned out amazing. I used the slow cooker for 8-10 hours instead of on the stove.

We’ve been eating it on lettuce with salsa and an avocado for lunches – tomorrow, fried eggs for breakfast with pork!

Other meals on the docket this week: chicken cacciatore, curried beef with green beans and a sausage tomato chard soup!

If you’ve done the Whole30 – comment with your favorite recipe – I’d love to see some more options!

Monday night dinner inspiration

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Last fall, we did an adventure with Whole 30 – which was not nearly as difficult as I thought it was going to be. And I LOVE cheese. And wine. It definitely took some adjusting, but we’ll be doing it again – we felt great.

One of the things that came out of it was my renewed obsession with roasting veggies and sheet pan meals in general. SO EASY. Easy to make, easy to clean up!

I thought I’d share one of our favorites for easy Monday night meal inspiration:

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Ready to roast!

Toss sliced zucchini (I used three small zucchini), potatoes (I used two large baking potatoes, but sweet potatoes or squash work well too) and small tomatoes (one lb of mixed size tomatoes) in olive oil, salt and pepper and then throw them on a pan (I use parchment paper to line the pans) with some sausage (pictured are not Whole 30 compliant, but definitely paleo compliant and I got them at our local meat counter).  Roast at about 430 degrees until they look done.

I usually check at about 20 minutes, flip/toss them around a bit, (make sure to switch the pans from top to bottom if you have more than one) and then finish it up for another 15-20 minutes.

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Yum.

The first time I made this – I was in awe of the flavor of the tomatoes. Roasted tomatoes are seriously tasty. This would also be good with garlic/onions, just about anything you can think of to roast!

A great meal for late farmer’s market season because you can get just about everything local. Prep work is super fast, and you can work, work out, read, watch the news or whatever you want while it’s roasting.

We usually have leftovers – perfect for lunches the next day and it reheats perfectly. OR, you can throw a fried egg on it and have it for breakfast!

Good comfort food for a rainy (!) February evening in Minnesota.