Best advice, tips, or tricks

[Laurasattem]

So I'm going to be starting my first whole 30 soon and am looking for any cooking advice. What new ingredient did you love? What the heck are coconut aminos? Any tips for what I need to stock in my pantry?

[DKLynn]

Coconut aminos taste just like soy sauce...just no soy/gluten.  It's great for any Asian inspired dishes you might make, or even a different way to prepare or flavor what I call "emergency protein" where I just cook up some ground turkey or beef and just kind of eat it with whatever veggies I have on hand.

 

I finish my Whole30 on Friday and some things that are perpetually on my grocery list are:

 

coconut oil

olive oil

apple cider and balsamic vinegars

sweet potatoes

avocado

eggs

 

I have found that I LOVE to make my own mayo; there's a great instructional video on theclothesmakethegirl.com, and mix it with dijon mustard.  Also, cooking with ghee has given things a different flavor after cooking with olive and coconut oils for so long!

[Beets]

I love coconut aminos for cooking (nom nom paleo's Korean BBQ short ribs, mmm) but not on sushi. Blergh.

Fave fave thing I've learned from whole-ing (also nom nom): keep a knob of ginger in the freezer, microplane or grate onto food. I do this many times a week onto finely sliced and sautéed cabbage. But the easiest way to get ginger into your food.

Sweet tip I am using now: when it's too hot to turn on tcan roast sweet pots and beets in the slow cooker. Google beets slow cooker for recipe.

Stock cans of fish (tuna, mackerel, boneless skinless sardines--or whole for the non-wimpy), olives, coconut oil. No pantry: ground beef for quick easy meals, grass-fed sugar-free hot dogs, avocados. And ditto on homemade mmmmmmayo.

[Clarabelle]

Plan a cooking day! I did a huge Boston butt in the crock pot for pulled pork, cooked a bunch of chicken breasts, an egg bake, some turkey breakfast sausages, grilled some burgers, and then individually wrapped them all for my freezer - in meal sized portions. I've found if I have my protein cooked, the rest of a meal is easy. You can use these proteins for meal 1, 2, or 3. Make sure you have plenty of sweet potatoes, and roast a couple of pans of your favorite vegetables. Cut up peppers, hard boil some eggs. Grab some bags of frozen veggies too...I also made my own fajita seasoning mix. Always yummy to spice up some veggies and meat and top with some chopped avocado. I bought coconut aminos just to make something called sunshine sauce for a pad thai dish.....

If you have a Costco....lots of great products there....avocado oil (great for making mayo and cooking), wholly guacamole (organic) individual packs (freeze really well, and get popped in my lunch for dip for my vegies), almond butter, big bags of cut broccoli, peppers, and sometimes you can find some compliant sausages....the ones I bought were really spicy, but great in a sweet potato hash with peppers and an over easy egg on top!

I'm on day 20 and still coming up with different things to eat and feel great! Make sure you have plenty of good fat to keep you full between meals! Good luck...but being prepared is such a help!

[BecFreeby]

Make a meal calendar and shop off that.  It saves you time and money, and then you avoid throwing things away.  Also, try to build meals that utilize the same main ingredients over the course of a few days, and have things like mayo, mustard, pickles, and spices on hand to change things up.

 

Ex:

Start of week:

Hard boil eggs

Make mayo

Crock pot and shred chicken

Chop onions, carrots, turnips, peppers, mushrooms, etc. to have pre-cut veggies on hand

 

DAY 1: Breakfast: batch of egg muffins with some pre-chopped veggies, spinach, and prosciutto

Lunch: Chicken salad (with grapes, almonds, onions, olives and spinach)

Dinner: Chocolate chili with shredded chicken, avocado, olives and seared zucchini

 

DAY 2: Breakfast: Egg muffin, banana

Lunch: Egg salad cabbage roll

Dinner: Shredded chicken taco salads

 

DAY 3: Breakfast: Fajita omelet

Lunch: Salad with leftover chili

Dinner: Chicken salad cabbage roll-up

 

DAY4: Breakfast: Egg salad

Lunch: Fajita salad with guac

Dinner: Pork chop with applesauce and broccoli

 

DAY 5: Breakfast: Egg muffin, applesauce

Lunch: Pork cabbage roll with veggies (whatever is left, throw it in there)

Dinner: Any leftover chili

 

See what I'm getting at there?  You can do more than one kind of meat, like crock pot shredded chicken, ground beef, and a pork loin and then mix them up.  

[saraherushton]

Do you have a recipe for the egg muffins?? Also how do you make the omelet without the milk??

[BecFreeby]

Sure thing!  

 

About 9-12 eggs (depends on how many you want to make), beaten

6 pieces of cooked prosciutto, cut up.  (I take scissors to it before I cook it, makes it easier at the end)

5 chopped mushrooms

1/2 medium onion

1 bell pepper

1 handful green onions

2 cloves garlic

salt and pepper to taste

1 tsp. ground mustard

1 tsp. oregano 

 

Whip the eggs.  Saute all the veggies with ghee or clarified butter (I don't like coconut oil with eggs, but that's just me).  Add to egg mixture along with cooked prosciutto.  Grease the muffin tin with ghee, or use paper cups.  Fill the cups about halfway to 3/4, bake at 375 for about 15-20 minutes or until the eggs are set.  I usually eat them with fresh salsa or avocado.  Great for on the go!

 

And as far as omelets go, I don't use milk in them and they seem to come out fine.  You could use almond milk, if it makes a big difference to you, but it will set up and cook fine without it. 

 

Good luck!