Whole 30

Cooking the Books: Paleo Comfort Foods

Chuck Grimmett1 Comment

I had an idea a few weeks ago: Let’s use our cookbooks more by picking one to cook a meal from each week. Here is my original Facebook post:

Ground rules for the challenge:

  1. It has to be a recipe you haven’t cooked before.
  2. It has to be something out of the norm for you. It can’t be just another roasted squash recipe if you make roasted squash all the time.
  3. Aim for full meals: If it isn’t a one-pot meal, pick an entree and a side from the same book.
  4. I’m calling it Cooking the Books

The first book I grabbed was Paleo Comfort Foods by Julie and Charles Mayfield. We’re in the middle of the Whole30 right now, so it made sense to use that book now. We’ve definitely cooked from it before. I use their Paleo Mayonnaise as my regular go-to homemade mayo recipe. In fact, I think this might be the first cookbook I bought for myself back in 2010.

According to Ground Rule #1, I have to pick a recipe I haven’t tried. I chose Country Captain Chicken. It looked great, we had most of the ingredients on-hand, and it was a one-pot meal. Perfect for a busy week and easy to reheat for lunches.

Ingredients

In this series I’m not going to publish the recipe unless the authors have posted it elsewhere online. That isn’t fair to the authors. I will, however, post the ingredients without measurements or instructions, because I think this strikes a good balance of seeing what is in it and getting a sense of the tastes while still being fair to the authors and their work. Hopefully these posts will drive a small number of sales their way, too.

  • green peppers
  • chicken
  • curry powder
  • onions
  • tomatoes
  • almond flour
  • currants
  • toasted almonds
  • thyme

Results

The recipe turned out great! The black currants gave it a bit of a sweet tanginess that I enjoyed. Though it would have been better had I remembered to put the curry powder in with the vegetables 🤦‍♂️. The breading was surprisingly good for being almond meal. Almost made me forget it wasn’t real breading. We made it with 6 chicken breasts, so we had plenty of leftovers.

I’d definitely make this again.

Join me!

If you want to join me in the Cooking the Books challenge, send your posts to cagrimmett@gmail.com! I’ll guest post them here on Cook Like Chuck. Here are some guidelines:

  • Send me a decent photo of the book to use as the featured image
  • Send me photos of the meal you cooked
  • Write a little bit about the book, why you chose it, and how the meal turned out
  • Send me a photo of the recipe

Let’s dust off those cookbooks and put them to use this year.

Tips for Traveling While on a Whole30

Chuck GrimmettLeave a comment

We are now three weeks in to our 2019 Whole30. Amanda and I have been traveling a lot for work this month. It is definitely tough, so for our weeks 2 and 3 update we wanted to share some of our tips for staying Whole30 compliant while traveling.

  1. Pack Snacks. This is a big one. Pack more than you think you need. Airport food sucks even when you aren’t restricting what you eat. Trying to find something without sugar, fried, or wrapped in bread is even worse. When you are on a roadtrip, gas station and rest area fare is about the same. We both stocked up on Larabars, That’s It bars, Thunderbird bars, plantain chips, sweet potato chips, and carrots.
  2. Mexican places are your friend. I ate Mexican food three times last week. It is so easy to get beef, chicken, or pork with whatever vegetables that have on-hand, some lettuce, guacamole, and salsa that you eat with your pre-packed plantain chips.
  3. Most restaurants have a meat + veggie option. Sometimes you have to ask very nicely for substitutions, but your server can usually make it work. Make sure to tip because it was probably a hassle.
  4. Book a hotel with continental breakfast. I stay at Hyatt Places a lot (there always seems to be one where I need to go), and they have a hot continental breakfast included with the stay. I ate roughly four eggs and a bunch of potatoes for breakfast every morning before I left, which held me over until about noon. I avoided the bacon because it probably had sugar in it, but I ate the sausage when they had it, which I’m pretty sure didn’t have sugar in it.
  5. If you aren’t 100% compliant, that is okay. Look, aim for compliance. Try your best. Don’t cheat just because you craved mac and cheese. But if the Mexican restaurant happens to throw cheese overtop what you ordered, scrape off what you can and eat your meal. That little bit of cheese won’t tank your progress, but skipping a meal and eating pizza three hours later because your willpower is gone will. What if you find out after your meal arrives that there is milk in the mashed potatoes? Whatever. Eat them without guilt. It will be okay.
  6. Make conscious choices. There are times when staying compliant isn’t worth it. But you have to set those boundaries for yourself and know what they are. I have one main conscious boundary: I’ll break compliance for high quality, unique, local cuisine. I only broke once for a small thing. My coworker Dave and I went to a seafood restaurant in Charleston. One of their specialties is roasted local oysters with breadcrumbs and pimento cheese on top. I had a few. They were delicious. One other situation that sadly didn’t occur but I would have chosen to break for if it did is if someone got us reservations at Husk. Amanda is at a conference in the mountains this week and they have a dinner planned at an incredible Alpine-style restaurant. That is totally worth breaking for. This goal of this Whole30 is to break our over reliance on sugar and carbs, not to turn us into British monks.
  7. Good bartenders will make you alcohol-and-sugar-free drinks. Being the only one in a social situation not drinking sucks, and you are very likely to be in a situation like that if you are traveling. If it is at a good bar, ask the bartender if they can make you something without alcohol or sugar. At the oyster place I mentioned above, the bartender made me a drink with cucumber water, muddled basil, lemon juice, ginger, and lemon peel. It was delicious. Some places even have something like Seedlip available for people who don’t want alcohol.
  8. Drink plenty of water. First, you are more likely to get dehydrated when traveling because of the break in your normal routines and schedule, plus all of the dry air on airplanes. Second, drinking water can help stave off hunger for a bit.
  9. When all else fails: Salads with extra protein. I ate so many salads last week because they were the only compliant option some days. When possible, I opted for field greens, spinach, or kale as the base and always doubled up on the protein, usually grilled chicken. I got whatever veggies I could thrown on top. Olive oil, lemon juice, and black pepper as the dressing. Burger places are usually pretty cool with putting two burger patties on a salad for you. I did that twice last week.

What are some of your favorite Whole30 travel tips? Throw them in the comments!

Whole30 Week 1: Preparation and Snacks!

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Amanda and I decided to do another Whole30 this January. We like to “reset” after eating and drinking too much over the holidays to cut some weight, feel better, have more energy, and prevent the usual winter sickness from a weakened immune system.

The TL;DR of Whole30 is to only consume meat, vegetables, seeds, and fruit for 30 days. No dairy, added sugar of any kind, legumes, grains, or alcohol.

This isn’t our first rodeo. We knew that we both have a jam-packed work schedule, so the only way we’d make it through is by prepping. We decided to start on January 2 this year so that we could get back from the New Year’s party, go grocery shopping, and prep as much as we could before we start.

We uncharacteristically planned out our breakfast and dinner menus for the entire week in advance. I made frittatas in advance for breakfast and Amanda chopped up vegetables so they’d be easy for me to roast.

Snacks!

Snacks are always our downfall. We can’t seem to eat enough at main meals to hold us until the next one and need to fall back to snacks. That is probably because we aren’t big breakfast people and we tend to eat dinner pretty late, usually around 8pm. Snacks hold us over.

If we don’t have Whole30 compliant snacks on-hand, it is not good. We planned ahead this year.

Here are the Whole30 compliant snacks that saved us this week:

  1. Carrot hummus
  2. Magic green sauce (h/t to Hannah Wegmann) We couldn’t find pistachios without shells, so Amanda and I cracked a ton of pistachio shells while watching Netflix one night…
  3. Carrot sticks, celery sticks, pepper sticks, and cucumber sticks. We prep these all at once and keep them in the fridge. Perfect to pack for work in tupperware.
  4. Plantain chips of all varieties. I think we’ve had 3 different brands this week.
  5. Trader Joe’s Root vegetable chips
  6. Trader Joe’s fruit wraps
  7. Satsuma oranges
  8. Almond butter
  9. Almonds
  10. Cherry Pie Larabars

What are your favorite Whole30 snacks? Let us know in the comments!

 

Our meals this week

Day Breakfast Lunch Dinner
Jan 2 Black coffee Western Omelets from the corner bodega Spaghetti squash cooked in the Instant Pot with a quick veal and pork bolognese made from home canned tomatoes
Jan 3 Black coffee, Frittata with breakfast sausage, potatoes, peppers, and onions Leftover spaghetti squash Whole Foods’ hot counter before we did our grocery shopping across the street at Stew Leonard’s. I had pork loin, broccoli, and cauliflower. Amanda had salmon, broccoli, and mashed potatoes
Jan 4 Black coffee, Frittata with breakfast sausage, potatoes, peppers, and onions Leftover spaghetti squash Chicken Enchilada Soup (h/t to Hannah Wegmann)
Jan 5 Black coffee, Frittata with breakfast sausage, potatoes, peppers, and onions Chuck: Leftover spaghetti squash, Amanda: leftover chicken enchilada soup Instant Pot pork and cabbage bowls with avocado, cilantro, and onions
Jan 6 None Black coffee, Veggie omelet with a side of bacon and winter vegetable hash at Sweet Grass in Tarrytown Flank steak and roasted vegetable bowls with pico de gallo and avocado
Jan 7 Black coffee, Frittata with Italian sausage, potatoes, and onions Chuck: Leftover pork and cabbage bowl, Amanda: Salmon and leftover roasted vegetables Curried cream of broccoli soup
Jan 8 Black coffee, Frittata with Italian sausage, potatoes, and onions Chuck: Roasted vegetables, Amanda: Curried cream of broccoli soup Chuck: Curried cream of broccoli soup, Amanda: Salmon and roasted vegetables

 

Here are a few photos from this week’s meals:

(The hot sauce you see is Crystal, which is compliant.)

Challenges

We are doing completely fine on sugar/carb cravings right now and our workouts are going fine. Our main challenge right now is that our work schedules are crazy. Planning is the only thing that kept us from eating Chipotle fajita salad bowls five days in a row.

See you next week!

What I’m Doing With My CSA Shares: Week 7

Chuck GrimmettLeave a comment

Here’s how I’m using this week’s share:

  • Green curly lettuce – We’ll turn this into salad.
  • Napa cabbage – I’ll probably combine this with the carrots, some chicken, cilantro, jalapeños, scallions, and some fresh mint to make a Goi Ga – a Vietnamese chicken salad.
  • Swiss Chard – I’ll combine this with some Lacinato kale from our garden and sauté it with some garlic, onions, and bacon to make a dinner side dish.
  • Carrots – See above.
  • Green beans – We’ll probably blanch these and sauté them in ghee with garlic, salt, and pepper.
  • Jalapeños – See above.
  • Zucchini – We’ll probably roast these. Half of last week’s ended up on beef kabobs for a picnic and the other half got roasted.
  • Cucumbers – These will probably be snacks, though I might make a spicy and vinegary cucumber salad for a dinner side.
  • Green peppers – These will end up in salads, most likely.

What I’m Doing With My CSA Shares: Week 5

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We are on the Whole 30 again this month, so we are limiting our use of these veggies a little bit. I added some non-Whole 30 options so that you don’t have to suffer with us.

  • Green Leaf Lettuce – Once again, this is getting turned into salad for lunches and a dinner side. 2 heads should last us all week.
  • Cucumbers – These will get chopped up for salads and turned into spears for snacks. If you are having dairy, I suggest slicing these and making a salad with sour cream, dill, and onions.
  • Carrots – We’ll shred a few for salads and then probably roast the rest. I might grab one for an afternoon snack. If we weren’t on the Whole 30, I’d use the tops to make some pesto and eat it with burrata cheese.
  • Zucchini – We turned a few of these into zucchini noodles with a spiral attachment for our Kitchenaid mixer and making a quick cherry tomato sauce with basil and chicken sausage. We’ll slice up the rest and roast it in the oven with some spices as a side dish. 
  • Basil – We cut half of this into a chiffonade and put it in the zucchini noodles with the cherry tomato sauce. We’ll use the rest for pesto or adding to a fresh vegetable salad. We are on the Whole 30 again this month, so we’re foregoing putting this on homemade pizza or caprese salad.
  • Scallions – We’ll include the scallions in salads, in breakfast bowls, or in carnitas bowls.

Whole 30 Cauliflower Mash with Garlic and Rosemary

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One thing you need to learn to do when you embark on a Whole 30 is make all kinds of new sides so that you get enough vegetables in your diet. We’ve found that cauliflower is super versatile and takes on the flavor of things you add to it. This makes it a great candidate to turn into a mash.

This doesn’t mean you are trying to mimic mashed potatoes. These don’t taste like mashed potatoes, but this a great side dish that stands on its own.

Whole 30 Cauliflower Mash with Garlic and Rosemary

  • 1 head of cauliflower
  • 4 cloves of garlic
  • 1 teaspoon of rosemary (both dried and fresh work)
  • Salt and pepper to taste (I use about 1 teaspoon of each for a large head of cauliflower)
  • 1 tablespoon of ghee
  1. Get your vegetable steamer going in a large stock pot with water that comes just up to the bottom of the steamer. Turn the burner on high.
  2. While the water is heating up, quickly wash the cauliflower and cut it into florets. Chop up the stem, too.
  3. Peel the cloves of garlic.
  4. Put the cauliflower and garlic in the pot with the vegetable steamer. Steam for 10-15 minutes. They are done when tender enough to put a fork through with minimal effort.
  5. When fully steamed, move the cauliflower florets and garlic cloves into the food processor. Take 1/4 cup of the steaming liquid and put it in the food processor, too. Add in the rosemary, salt, pepper, and ghee.
  6. Process until it reaches the consistency you like. I leave it in until it is pureed (usually 2-3 minutes).
  7. Alternatively, if you don’t have a food processor, steps 5 and 6 can be done with a potato masher and a bowl or a hand blender.

If you aren’t on the Whole 30, you can add butter and sour cream to make these even creamier. For folks on the Whole 30, stick to the recipe above. Amanda and I eat it even when we aren’t on the Whole 30 because it is delicious.

cauliflower_mash - 5

Sickie Soup

Chuck GrimmettLeave a comment

Chuck’s note: This is a guest post by my wife, Amanda. She normally blogs at AmandaGrimmett.com, but today she is posting here! When I get sick, this is what she makes for me. It’ll have you back on your feet in no time.

I’m really lucky that Chuck likes to cook —and that he’s good at it—because I absolutely hate cooking. I much prefer the exactness of baking because I know what I’m going to get every single time. Sure, I could use a recipe to cook, but why bother? I’m married to #CookLikeChuck.

That said, Chuck isn’t infallible. On occasion, he does get sick and, because I love my husband more than I hate cooking, I whip out the one recipe I know by heart, the one recipe I know will turn out every single time: Sickie Soup.

  • Chop a medium-sized onion and 3 stalks of celery.
  • Place them in a pot with a little olive oil and 2 cloves of pressed garlic on medium-low heat.

  • Chop 3-4 carrots, 2-3 leeks, and 1 decently-sized potato.
  • Add them to the pot with 2 boxes of chicken stock, salt, and pepper.
  • Turn the heat up to medium.

I like to add these veggies first because they take the longest to cook.

 

  • Chop and add a small head of cabbage.
  • Add a large diced tomato, a handful of fresh green beans, and about a cup of corn.

Let everything simmer for 30-45 minutes, or until the veggies are no longer crunchy. Stir occasionally.

If you’re like Chuck, add a squirt of hot sauce to clear out your sinuses.

 

Whole 30 Breakfast Bowls

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During our Whole 30, one of our go-to breakfast options on weekends were bowls of delicious veggies, meat, and eggs. We usually only eat two big meals on weekend days, so this is larger and more filling than a breakfast we’d eat during the week. It fills us up and keeps us going until dinner.

The Basic Formula

Vegetable and/or Starch Base + Meat + Eggs + Avocado + Toppings. This simple formula yields a lot of variation:

  • Vegetables: Brussels sprouts, broccoli, carrots, kale, cauliflower,  onions, peppers, and fresh beets all make great veggie bases for breakfast. We love buying some of each of these, chopping them up, and mixing them together. If you have a grating attachment for your food processor, that makes it easy. Also check if your grocery store sells these items pre-chopped. It might be just a little more expensive, but it makes healthy breakfasts a breeze. Sautee these items in your the skillet with a little olive oil for 5-10 minutes over medium high heat.
  • Starch: About half of our breakfast bowls have either sweet potatoes or regular potatoes in them. We either shred them with our mandolin, grate with the food processor attachment, or finely dice them before cooking them in the skillet with a little fat over medium high heat for 20 minutes. You can also roast them in the oven at 400F for 20 minutes if you prefer that.
  • Meat: Bacon or sausage. We chop it up finely, throw it in a skillet, and cook it until it is crispy. Make sure your bacon and sausage doesn’t have sugar if you want to stay Whole 30 compliant. Sometimes we use leftover carnitas, ham, or turkey. Use what you have!
  • Eggs: I like my eggs either soft-scrambled or fried. I use Gordon Ramsay’s scrambling method and J. Kenji Lopez-Alt’s frying method.
  • Avocado: We prefer Hass over Florida avocados.
  • Toppings: Toppings vary: Sprouts, homemade mayo, cheese (only if you aren’t doing a Whole 30!), radishes, cilantro, scallions, hot sauce, etc. Put on whatever you like!

Here are some examples of breakfast bowls we’ve consumed over the past month:


This is really just another variation on the weekend special, but it has been a go-to for us during and after our Whole 30. We even made it for dinner once.

Whole 30 Week 4 Recap

Chuck Grimmett2 Comments

We completed the Whole 30 on March 2. I’m writing this review a few weeks late because: 1) I was traveling that week and the following week. 2) I hit the ground running at my new job as CTO at Praxis.

Here is how the final week went:

Successes this week

  • The final week was fairly easy. We were in the groove from the previous three weeks and we stayed on track pretty easily, despite lots of temptations around us.
  • I visited my family in Ohio for a few days before my birthday and they were very flexible and helped me find things I could eat. One day they had people over to have burgers, so I ate mine on lettuce without a bun. My aunt brought over a plate of roasted veggies, which was delicious.
  • My grandma made me a “Whole 30 birthday cake” that was really an apple with a candle in it, garnished with blackberries and raspberries with almonds stuck in them.
  • I introduced my parents to cauliflower fried rice. It was a beautiful 70F day, so I cooked it in a wok out on their porch.
  • I made two dishes that I think will be regulars in our house now: Breakfast bowls and a veggie & protein bowl. Recipes forthcoming.
  • Amanda and I found another Paleo restaurant in NYC: Springbone. (The other one we already knew about is Hu Kitchen.)

whole_30_week_4 - 6

Difficulties this week

  • I traveled for most of the final week, which meant that I had to eat out A LOT. Staying compliant required a lot of extra work and planning ahead.
    • Amanda packed me some fruit and meat snacks for my road trip.
    • I drove out of my way on 80/90 in PA to find a Jimmy John’s and have a lettuce wrap.
    • I hit up Chipotle at least three times. No beans, no rice, double meat, fajita veggies, add guac.
    • I scouted out places at each airport where I could find compliant meals. Plum Market in the Detroit airport was the best: I got a huge plate of carnitas, roasted broccoli, and roasted cauliflower.
    • I kept cashews in my backpack. That saved me on a few long flights.
    • Restaurants will almost always sub any starch or bread with veggies if you ask nicely.
  • My birthday dinner was not what I had hoped, but I stuck it out for a few extra days to finish out the month before I got doughnuts and that burger from The Spotted Pig on day 31. It was delicious, but it made me feel like crap. Days 32 and 33 we were compliant again.

What I ate

Since I was traveling without Amanda for most of the week I didn’t keep detailed notes on what either of us ate. All I have to go off of are my photos, so here they are:

 

Overall

  • Amanda and I are both down 14lbs each and a few pants sizes. I had to cut a new hole in my favorite belt and Amanda had to go buy new smaller work clothes.
  • We learned a lot about what kind of food gives us energy and what makes us feel like crap. It is very difficult to figure this out unless you restrict your diet significantly for a period of time. If you do that and then reintroduce things like sugar and bread back into your diet, you’ll see how quickly your energy and mood changes.
  • We learned about how much prepared food has sugar in it. Avoiding it requires attention to detail, discipline, and planning.
  • For the first time in four years, we’ve gotten through the worst part of winter without getting sick. Not even a cold.

Going forward

  • We are sticking with 80% of the Whole 30. We are eating legumes again, but primarily still staying away from grains, dairy, and sugar.
  • We are picking our indulgences instead of indulging in everything. Instead of copious mediocre candy bars, we’ll pick the best cookie we can find and just have one. Saying compliant instead of having fast food so that we can have the best pizza in the area the next day.
  • We are drinking alcohol again, but less frequently. We are following the principle above: Instead of drinking a few bottles of beer, we’ll have a cocktail or a few fingers of good whiskey.
  • Despite not being strict now that the dedicated month is over, we are still losing weight because we changed our approach to food.
  • As I write this, we are at a coffee shop that has some of the best cookies in the area. We each got one, only ate half, and were done because they are so rich. Before the Whole 30, we would have devoured the whole thing within a few minutes.
  • Staying strict on the Whole 30 long-term is probably unrealistic for our lifestyle right now, but staying 80-90% compliant is doable. Continued weight loss and having more energy is a definite driver for us.
  • You’ll probably see meals posted here with a heavier vegetable influence, reflecting our change in food consumption.

Whole 30 Week 3 Recap

Chuck GrimmettLeave a comment

Another week down! Things are getting easier.

Successes this week

  • Amanda is down 9 lbs and Chuck is down 7 lbs since the beginning of February. More since the beginning of January.
  • We pushed through multiple days where we wanted to order out, but instead dug deeper and cooked at home.
  • I’m still waking up better than usual.
  • I consciously ate more this week. That was a problem for me last week.
  • We ate out multiple times this week because we were shopping for cars and negotiating with salesmen. We successfully found Whole 30 options, no matter where we were.
  • Our cravings have subsided!
  • We got creative this week with multiple meals to change up the monotony. Recipes coming soon.
  • We used leftovers effectively this week and didn’t waste anything.

Difficulties this week

  • Both of us had tough weeks at work and then we had to go car shopping over the weekend. It made cooking much more of a chore. Weeks like this are when we would have ordered pizza or sandwiches from down the street. Thankfully we pushed through, but it was tough.
  • We really miss going out to get burgers and drinks after tough days. Especially since the weather was beautiful this week and our neighborhood brewery has outdoor seating.
  • We both burned the midnight oil multiple days this week. Working late when you stopped eating at sundown is brutal. Fasting is much easier when you are sleeping through most of it.

What we ate this week

Day Breakfast Lunch Dinner
15 Chuck: Black coffee. Amanda: Smoothie. Chuck: Scrambled eggs, apple, pear, and almond butter. Amanda: Salmon and salad. Steak, sautéed broccolini, and roasted rainbow carrots
16 Chuck: Black coffee. Amanda: Smoothie Chuck: Bibimbap over lettuce. Amanda: Leftover steak, carrots, and broccolini Carnitas tacos in lettuce wraps
17 Chuck: Black coffee. Amanda: Smoothie. Chuck: Leftover carnitas Zucchini a la esquites with carnitas and avocado (recipe coming soon)
18 None Omelets and potatoes Chuck: Zoodles, chicken, broccoli, and carrots. Amanda: Grilled shrimp salad
19 None Brunch: Roasted sweet potatoes, bacon, and scrambled eggs (recipe coming soon) Roasted chicken, salad, tostones, and avocados at Pio Pio
20 None Scrambled eggs, carnitas, and brussels sprouts Cauliflower fried rice made with the chicken leftover from Pio Pio
21 Chuck: Black coffee. Amanda: Smoothie. Chuck: Leftover carnitas. Amanda: Leftover cauliflower rice Sous vide pork loin, roasted brussels sprouts, and roasted asparagus

 

Photos

 

I’m a little concerned about next week because I’m traveling for most of it. If you have any tips for staying compliant while traveling, please leave me a comment!