WholeLent, Day 3.

[angledge]

Sleep: I got off-schedule yesterday - I ate an early lunch, then had a substantial snack around 4:00 PM, which then pushed dinner back to around 8:30 PM. I had a hard time winding down & didn't get to bed until after midnight. I woke up at 7:00 AM, as usual, so I'm a little short of sleep today. Lesson learned: stick to regular meal times & eat big enough meals to forgo snacks.

Breakfast: prosciutto muffin, slice of sweet potato quiche, small apple with almond butter, black Scottish breakfast tea.

Lunch: lunch was a mess today. I had to run work errands over the lunch hour & I got flustered when I was heading out the door, which caused me to forget to grab any food. So I didn't eat lunch until almost 1:30 PM. By then I was too hungry to actually prepare anything, so I got by on a turkey Epic bar, one coconut Larabar, & kombucha. This is NOT ideal.

Dinner: Dinner WAS ideal - I baked a spaghetti squash & served Mama's spaghetti sauce over top of it. One Italian sausage on the side. Nomnomnomnomnom. I could eat this every week.

Snack: slice of sweet potato quiche, herbal tea.

I went to Whole Foods today & spent a Whole Fortune on over 12 pounds of meat. Tomorrow is going to be a MASSIVE food prep day. I was supposed to be going to a food preparation class with a herbs/spices company called Wildtree, but this class has been cancelled because we have a huge snowstorm forecast. So I got the herbs & spices from the Wildtree rep today, along with the preparation instructions. When I finish, I should have 20 prepared meals, ready to go in the freezer. That will put me MILES ahead. Even better - all the spices mixes & recipes are Whole30-compliant!

I will be sending some of the prepared meals with hotpantsgalore when she leaves for Wyoming on Sunday.

Comments

[love2loveher.livejournal.com]

I feel so slack, then I read what you are doing to keep with this, and it sounds so overwhelming, so I know it isn't the right time for me.
That being said, I have beef knuckles in the crockpot releasing all their grass-fed health into a broth. And I actually bought some vegetables. We'll see where this goes.
Congrats to you getting this far! Ra Ra Go Ang Go!

(Beef knuckles were the cheapest I could find at market. $3/pound. You are right, bones are expensive!)

[angledge.livejournal.com]

$3/pound for grass-fed beef bones IS a great price. I'm not even certain that the bones I've been buying from Whole Foods are actually from grass-fed animals. I'm going to start buying bison bones - because who's ever heard of bison that AREN'T grass-fed?

What are you going to do with your broth? Drink it? Make a soup? Curious chefs want to know!

The Whole30 is a lot of prep, especially if you don't predominantly cook at home as a usual practice. I've been cooking at home a lot more since my last Whole30 try in November, so this hasn't been such a shock. Also, I've been religiously practicing my "cook once, eat twice" rule of ALWAYS putting a meal in the freezer for later when I make a recipe. It helps a LOT.

[love2loveher.livejournal.com]

I think I asked around about Bison once, and it's kind of impossible to keep them off of grass.

I have no idea what I'm doing with my broth. I thought I would drink some yesterday, but it turned out really greasy. I froze some, to cook a batch of greens in, later. But at the moment, I'm not sure what else I'm going to do.

[angledge.livejournal.com]

I have found that when I put my broth in the fridge, a layer of fat coagulates on the top. I just pick up that layer & throw it out, & the remaining broth is much less greasy.

Here's a way to use 3 cups of your broth: Slow Cooker Beef Stew (http://www.onelovelylife.com/slow-cooker-beef-stew/). YUM.

[love2loveher.livejournal.com]

But that layer on the top also includes your gelatin, the best nutrients of a long-simmered bone broth.
http://www.marksdailyapple.com/bone-broth-nutrients-and-alternatives-to-agriculture/#axzz3Sapmezs0

I think I'll pour some of it over my baked potatoes. Without cheese, they are a little dry.

But don't be throwing away your gelatin! That's important stuff!

[angledge.livejournal.com]

Huh, I didn't know that. But I really can't face drinking the broth with that much grease in it. Maybe I will remove part of it - or maybe I can reserve the fat layer for cooking?

I'll have to think on that. Thanks for the heads-up!