NoMoreCrunchyCravings

What do you all do with your meatloaf drippings? Funny as it sounds, I think the meatloaf that I made today is only the second one I've ever made. I didn't have a special pan for it, so I just baked it in a glass baking dish. But on taking it out of the oven, I find that it's swimming in grease, and not just the clear stuff... something I'm not sure what to do with, as strange as that may be. With my roast chicken drippings I make gravy, or cook with the fat. Same for turkey and roast beef and hamburgers. I don't like the taste of the pork loin or roast drippings, and the smell bothers me, so I tend to discard those, but I save other types of pork drippings (bacon, pancetta, etc.) to use with cooking other stuff, like eggs or potatoes. But those meatloaf drippings - not the clear oil part (which I will definitely be saving to use as pan lubricant for something else) but the gelatinous fluffy looking part. Can I even use that for something else?

It's as a result of an amazing little chemical called polyphenol oxidase, and is totally normal. Your potatoes are turning brown for the same reason raw white potatoes turn brown/gray, and why apples turn brown. They're still fine to eat, just don't look as pretty. For more information, look here: http://www.recipetips.com/kitchen-tips/t--945/why-fruits-and-vegetables-turn-brown.asp

I'm baaaaaack! I've been gone for almost six months, but have decided to refresh my w30 sensibilities to get better on track. Yesterday I made a huge pot of hearty veggie and meat sauce (with onions, garlic, broccoli, garden tomatoes, bacon and bacon grease, garden eggplants, and turkey meatballs) to eat over baked potatoes (will have olives on the side). I'm really looking forward to eating better, feeling better, and posting lots of photos along the way!

clapping 1 by NoMore CrunchyCravings, on Flickr clapping 2 by NoMore CrunchyCravings, on Flickr

Oh gosh, there are so many people on these forums who have done multiple Whole 30s or long Whole-120s or whatever. We all do it for different reasons, and recognize for ourselves when it's time for a restart. For me, I realize it's time for a restart when I can't stop thinking about diving head-first into a swimming pool filled with pasta products and paddling around with my mouth open for lap after glorious lap, consuming the noodles much like a baleen whale consumes volumes and volumes of tiny prey organisms from the ocean. It sounds extreme, but that's really how I feel sometimes... and it's a really easy way for me to know when I need to reign in my game a bit more.

This is a good reminder. I usually just use my mayo plain as a dip for proteins and veggies because the flavor is so amazing with the fresh lemon juice, cracked black pepper and sea salt. I recently bought a ton of spices online though, so thank you for the reminder to add them to my mayo to kick up the flavors of my dips!

Wow! It's been a long time since I posted. I'm planning on doing a big cook-up on Wednesday, and hopefully will have lots of beautiful foods to post photographs of what I make.

Not very much or it can be overpowering! Did you try it??

This is a beautiful thread.

I use less expensive oil -- Bertoli or Filipo Berio light tasting olive oil mostly, sometimes cut with some avocado oil if I have it on hand, all cost between $8-$16 per quart depending on sales, which fits solidly into my budget-- none are nearly as expensive as your sunflower or MCT oils. But despite the lower cost, I still balked the first time my mayo failed. I use my immersion blender which had worked as my trusty little mayomachine churning (immersing?) out batch after batch perfectly for six months before I failed a mayo. When the first batch (a double as I usually make) failed I wondered what I had forgotten or done wrong... but saved the liquid in the fridge for cooking with, cleaned off the blender, mentally reviewed the proscess and prepared to have another go at it. Which also failed. All two cups of it... GAH! So I stashed that batch in the fridge to use later on as well. After four cups of ruined mayo I decided not to make any more attempts until I'd used up the four cups of liquid in the fridge (they make a lovely marinade for poultry and fish and cooking fat for everything I cooked as it turns out) and thought to myself that it must have been the barometric pressure that ruined my mayo, it had been quite cold and dry after all. And then, after three very sad mayoless weeks when I finally had the courage to try my hand at mayomaking again (only one cup this time!), it came out perfectly. And just like that I was back in business. Same package of eggs (I buy them 7-dozen at a time), same containers of oil, same bag of lemons, more trepidation for sure. I'm just glad it worked.

Such a good thread.

https://smile.amazon.com/Living-Nutritionals-All-Natural-Liquid-Smoke/dp/B00R3SUZDO/ref=sr_1_3?s=grocery&ie=UTF8&qid=1491839730&sr=1-3&keywords=liquid+smoke#customerReviews I just bought this - ingredients list only liquid smoke, making it Whole 30 compliant (please advise if I'm wrong, moderators!)... I can't wait to try this recipe!

I've had quite a few off-the-rails weeks (months?) but have continued to enjoy cooking Whole 30 foods and starting each day as if it's going to be another w30 day, regardless of whether or not it ends that way. Here's what I ate for breakfast today: Two little hamburgers, one fried egg (I broke the yolk-- the horror!), a pile of sautéed broccoli and asparagus, and one and a half crash potatoes, all topped with some mayo. IMG_5106[1] by NoMore CrunchyCravings, on Flickr

What about rosemary roasted potatoes, roast whole chicken, steamed asparagus, sautéed Brussels sprouts, grilled onions. My normal foods all seem like they might be good for a family meal, holiday or not.

Olive oil always does it for me. Lots and lots of olive oil. Cauliflower and carrots roasted in lots of it (I mean poured onto the pan quite freely, not measured by the tablespoonful) and eaten generously, potatoes sautéed in it and eaten liberally, salads drizzled in it and eaten gluttonously. Oils help things slide right on through the system. Good luck!