Last night I made some roasted turnips and shallots from my local harvest box and they were delish!  I had never had turnips before, so I had no idea what to expect.  Very easy to prepare, just like peeling a potato. Here is the recipe

Roasted Turnips and Shallots with Rosemary
Ingredients:
2 turnips, peeled and cubed
1 shallot end sliced off and sliced
1 tbspn clarified butter
fresh rosemary
salt and pepper

Mix together and lay out in one layer on baking sheet.  Roast at 375 for 20-25 min.

Some other great recipes - Gnat sent me a beautiful looking burrito that she and Herb made the other night with their collard greens. They experimented a little and Gnat had salmon and Herb feasted on pork. Here is a the recipe and a picture:

 

http://houseofskip.blogspot.com/2012/01/paleo-burritos-aka-stuff-collard-greens.html

Tomorrow I am off to Lisa M's house to have a food prep party.  We have stuffed mushrooms, Creamy Tarragon Chicken, and Mustard Tarragon Unpotato and tomato salad that all sound interesting. I will post pics of our creations soon.

Picked up my first box of localish food from Local Harvest and am hit with some vegi's that I have never cooked before.  So, I gladly accept the challenge!  Here is a picture and a full list of what was in this week's paleo box in case you are interested. 
Contents:
pumpkin (yes, a whole pumpkin)
turnips
shitake mushrooms
shallots
ground pork
duck eggs
avacado
pecans
cider
carrots
onion
collard greens
rosemary

For dinner I decided to use the collard greens, shitake mushrooms, onion, and rosemary. My dinner for one since the rest of my family is having a cheesy lasagna and garlic bread (no, of course Im not bitter!!) was a Bacon Wrapped Stuffed Chicken Breast and Sauteed Collard Greens. The chicken was outstanding and the collard greens were a nice switch from sauteed spinach.  If anyone else gets the basket this week I would love to hear what you do with everything!

Bacon Wrapped Chicken Breasts with Apple, Figs, and Rosemary
Ingredients:
2 chicken breasts
1 apple
4 dried figs
4 slices bacon
fresh rosemary
salt and pepper

Pound breasts thin and line with rosemary, sliced apple and sliced fig. roll up and wrap each breast with two slices of bacon.  Bake at 350 for 30-40 min .

Collard Greens
Ingredients:
1 bunch of collard green leaves torn
1/4 onion chopped
1 slice bacon
4 shitake mushrooms
6 cherry tomatoes
1 tbspn olive oil
salt and pepper

Cut up bacon in bite size pieces and cook in pan. Add onions and saute, add mushrooms tomatoes and collard greens and continue to saute for 5 min Covered. Turn off heat and stir with olive oil. Leave covered 5 addl minutes.

Heavenly Hash

Nicki posted a mouthwatering pic of a recipe for Sunny Side Up Egg and Sweet Potato Hash that she got from amazingpaleo.com. This recipe is followed by a great article on storing extras and food prep for the week.  Take the time on one of your least busy days (Sunday perhaps?) and cook up your meat for the week, prep vegis, and fill your fridge with ziploc bags and containers of easy to grab foods that will last you through the craziness of your week.

So, I started to make it this morning, but the thought of shredding the potato with my grater (because I have yet to buy a food processor) made me start thinking of creative alternatives. I ended up creating my own little heavenly hash and its super easy - see recipe below, it was OUTSTANDING! I'm going to hide this one so my familly doesn't find it!

Steph's Heavenly Hash
Ingredients:
1 lb italian sausage
2 sweet potatos (pierce and microwave for 6 min )
1 apple chopped
1/4 cup golden raisins
1 tsp apple pie spice
salt and pepper

brown sausage and drain in paper towel. Add chopped apple to pan with apple pie spice and saute for 3-5 min. Spoon sweet potato out of skin and add to pan along with sausage and mix well.

Website of the day - nomnompaleo.com.  This site is posting recipes everyday for the whole30 challenge and has some great info.  Check it out!

So, I am posting my food journal again on the food log tab above for anyone who is curious as to what I am eating throughout this venture.  I have found that if I have a set of go-to meals that I can whip up pretty easily then I do not get too freaked out when I am hungry.  One of my favorite lunch options is what I am going to call "Steph's ColeSlaw Dump Salad". I eat this probably three lunches a week and it fills me up and is easy to whip together.

Ingredients:

Tri-color bagged coleslaw (shredded cabbage)
1/2 avacado
chicken breast, pork chop, steak - whatever meat I have left over
sliced mushrooms
cherry tomatoes
walnuts
kalamata olives if I have them
olive oil and balsamic vinegar

Play around with this and dump what you want.  I will frequently throw in any leftover roasted butternut squash or vegis that I have had from the night before.  Leftovers are so important!  Make plenty of everything and get friendly with the tupperware containers!!

Looking for a super easy way to meal plan and create your shopping list?  Visit http://www.thefoodee.com/

They have a section of specific Whole 30 recipes and you simply register for the site for free to use all of its features.  You can save recipes to your favorites, create shopping lists, and it even tells your portions and serving sizes. Coming Soon.... Daily recipe from thefoodee.com on our blog!!

Getting some great recipes from you guys - keep em coming!  Here is a Braised Brisket from Primal Palate that I put in the crockpot yesterday - super easy and delish!!

Quick Video on how to make Clarified Butter, because YES it is Whole 30 approved as an acceptable fat, and who doesn't love butter!!



Here is the written recipe:
To make ghee or toop: use unsalted butter. heat it on LOW heat for  a while, generally 10 mins or longer, till it starts smelling good and looking slightly light yellow or at times amber colored (if overdone), it also starts showing some solid particulates in the liquid. While it is hot/warm, filter it into a bottle using fine mesh small strainer or a cheese cloth and save for use. It can stay on shelf for 2 weeks or one can refrigerate it longer. 

Happy New Year!!  If you have been waffling back and forth on whether to jump into this Whole 30 adventure, stop and think about how you feel right now at this very moment and then ask yourself "could I feel better?" If the answer is no - congratulations! If you answered yes, then what do you have to lose?  Its 30 days.. 30 days to make some positive changes, Cmon!

Ok, enough of my soap box.  For those of you that are in, I am going to review some of things that need to happen during the next week and how we are going to keep the information flow moving through this challenge.

1.  Read up on all the Whole 30 links listed in the last post and get your head wrapped around what this diet is all about.
2. Clean out your pantry and fridge and figure out what you want to eat for first 3 or 4 days.  Make a shopping list
3. Figure out your goals S.M.A.R.T. - specific, measurable, attainable, relevent, timely. Here is a list of one of our members (she posted it on facebook so I hope its ok to share)

Here are my top 10 fitness goals for 2013.

1. Deadlift my body weight by 3.1.2013
2. Complete an unassisted pull-up by 5.1.2013
3. Run a sub-4 marathon by 12.31.2013
4. Back squat my body weight by 3.1.2013
5. Improve tightness in hips, upper body and ankles via MobilityWod daily.
6. Navigate to 115 lbs while following the Paleo diet by 6.1.2013
7. Get my double-unders by 4.1.2013
8. Improve core strength to support muscle-ups by 12.31.2013
9. Perform workouts at the prescribed weight by 6.1.2013
10. Perform in a CrossFit competition by 12.31.2013

They are Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Realistic and Timely!

4. Come in to CFVP to get weighed, measured and baseline performance numbers.  Wear something that shows your figure (sports bra ladies, we dont have to show the pics to anyone) - you will appreciate seeing the difference when you have awesome results.

5. Pick a start date, a buddy, and GO!

I will be subscribing to the whole 30 daily newsletter and forwarding it on to all participants that join the challenge. Along with this I will shoot out any recipes, tips, etc that you all want to share, so email me recipe links, pictures, questions, and tips and I will make sure the info gets out. 

Here is breaksfast for me Day 1 - Crockpot Breakfast Casserole from Paleomg.com

I cooked it on low for 5 hours and it was amazing! Will try this again with other meats and adding more vegis. Definitely an easy way to have breaksfast ready for the family in the morning - especially if you all are eating at different times.