Pork Fried Rice

For the month of May I am attempting to do a 30 day juice cleanse.

I've been working my way to it for the last three weeks by slowly replacing one meal a week with juice.

I'm two days in and so far so good but I know it is still early. I plan to do a full post on the juice cleanse at the end of each week.

Meanwhile, The Carnivore still needs lunch and dinner.

The juice cleanse might actually work in his favor because while I'm juicing I'm really going to try to cook meals that I think he will love.

I've promised at least one dish with bacon and not collards.

Lunch for the first week of May is Pork Fried Rice.

The Carnivore loves Chinese food. Like, seriously loves it.

This dish allowed me to use the last bag of frozen pork loin and put a dent in the 25 lb bag of rice that we thought was a good idea at the time. I'm convinced we'll never need to buy rice again!

The fried rice was fairly simple: cooked white rice, soy sauce, rice vinegar, egg, salt, and some Sriracha for heat. Then I added the mustard rubbed pork loin along with some steamed broccoli and snow peas.

I hadn't cooked with Sriracha before and went easy on it because I knew how dangerous it could be but both of us love heat. However, since I'm not tasting anything The Carnivore ended up adding quite a bit after the fact without trying it the sauce first. His words "It'll definitely clear out your sinuses!"

Viola, lunch is done!

Steak Sunday!

For the month of April we had "Steak Sunday" as our treat/cheat day.

If I had it my way I wouldn't eat any meat but I have a B-12 deficiency and my body won't processes synthetic forms of the vitamin.

For me, beef is the easiest source of B-12 to include in my diet. And, it makes The Carnivore happy.

Recently I've tried experimenting with supplements again to see if there's a way to completely eliminate meat from my diet. No solution yet, but I'm still working on it.

On to the steak...

Steak Sunday #1:

We seasoned the steak with olive oil, salt, pepper, and garlic. The steak was then grilled and cut in to cubes. I covered it with left over fontina sauce from the Amazing Mac and Cheese and served it with steamed broccoli seasoned with salt and garlic.

broccoli...yum!

Steak Sunday #2:

Again, we grilled the steak. We love that table top grill! We season the steak with olive oil, salt, and pepper. (notice a trend?) Then, it was served with the homemade pesto pasta.

grill marks!

Steak Sunday #3:

I seared the steak on the grill and the finished it in the oven. After I let the meat rest I sliced it and topped it with cheddar cheese and roasted jalapenos. I roasted the jalapenos in an aluminum foil bag on the grill while the steak was in the oven. I seared the steak on ciabatta with spicy brown mustard. As a side, I roasted some potatoes with onions and garlic.

so unhealthy...so good!

Gnocchi with White Beans, Tomatoes, Spinach and Mozzarella

Lunch this week was almost a one skillet meal, except for the gnocchi, which we discovered while in Venice last summer. I've heard Gnocchi described as a potato pasta but it reminds me more of a dumpling due to its density.

After attempting my own pasta earlier this week I took the easy way out on the gnocchi and bought them off the shelf at, of all places, Target.

We'd had them once before a few months ago and discovered last week that Target had started carrying several new varieties: mushroom and pumpkin! Yum!

I found the inspiration for this dish here but changed it a bit to suit our tastes.

This dish was very easy and took about 20 minutes to cook. Of course I soaked and cooked the beans the night before but you could always use canned to make it quicker.

The most complicated step here was chopping the onion and garlic. Onions must be out to get me. Every single onion I've chopped in the last two weeks has attacked my eyes without mercy.

Step 1: Boil the gnocchi and then crisp in a pan. They cook in about 2-3 minutes and float when they are ready.

Step 2: Saute the garlic and onions in olive oil. Add the tomatoes. Simmer. Add salt, beans, and can wilt and mix in spinach or serve on the side.

Step 3: Add mozzarella. I also added in a decent amount of pesto both in the sauce and on the mozzarella since I had some left over from the pasta experiment earlier in the week. I love pesto! The basil was nice addition to the dish.

Step 4: Plate and serve! So easy!

I love meals that cook together in one pan. The Carnivore hasn't complained but he doesn't like one skillet meals as much as I do.

I found this dish very filling due to the beans which is good since I'm juicing breakfast and dinner this week.

Each time I've made it this week I've added the ingredients in a different order but I've found it very important to simmer the mix for a good 5-10 minutes since it uses canned tomatoes. And I've also learned to put the beans in as late as possible since they are already cooked to avoid them turning in to a mushy mess.

Somewhat Homemade FroYo

I have an ice cream addiction. Seriously, it's like a sickness. A sickness that I'm trying to break.

When I get stressed I don't crave comfort food, I crave sugar. A nothing makes me feel better faster than a sundae, milkshake, blizzard, or pint of Ben and Jerry's until the regret sets in for consuming that high calorie, fat loaded treat.

If I had a favorite ice cream it might not be so bad. But I haven't met an ice cream, frozen custard, or gelato that I didn't like. Especially if it contains chocolate. Not ever.

There have been times when prying the ice cream and spoon from my hands wouldn't be enough to stop me from eating the dessert. Seriously. Sometimes the cravings get real bad ya'll.

But, with this lifestyle change foods like this are something that I only want to have occasionaly and only if I make them.

Enter again another selling feature of our juicer. It will turn frozen fruit in to a sorbet. We've tried this twice with varying results since purchasing the machine.

Attempt #1: Frozen Banana and Strawberries

We simply ran a sliced frozen banana and about 1/2 a cup of strawberries through the juicer with the blank screen in.

The Carnivore found the banana slimy. I thought the texture reminded me of half melted ice cream, which I didn't mind. The strawberries were a bit tougher for me to deal with due to the ice like texture. The Carnivore preferred the strawberry texture. Overall, in a pinch a frozen banana might satisfy me but I was a little let down.

Attempt #2: Greek Yogurt, Strawberry, Banana, and Honey Mix

I wanted to improve the texture and consistency of the frozen treat. I tried this by mixing some Greek yogurt with the ingredients listed above. Then I froze the mixture in to "logs" using sandwich bags. Once frozen I cut the "logs" in to pieces that would fit in the juicer.


The Carnivore liked the result this produced but I'm still not entirely satisfied. I'm going to keep working on it. It was still a bit too crunchy for me. I would eat this again but I'm still looking for a replacement for the creamy texture of ice cream.

Homemade Pasta and Pesto

The Carnivore and I took a once-in-a-lifetime type of trip to Europe last summer. Over four weeks we went on a 7 day Mediterranean cruise and spent time in Paris, Nice, Rome, Venice, and most importantly London, where he proposed.

Best. Proposal. Ever.

Quick Recap: I'm obsessed with London, Tower of London, Crown Jewels, "Are you jealous of the diamonds?," and the I got my own sparkly, amazingly perfect engagement ring. And, back to the food...

Our time in Italy sort of made us pasta snobs. I've only had one really decent bowl of pasta since in a French inspired cafe in Memphis. Random. I've wanted  to learn to make my own pasta since.

Enter another incredible feature of the juicer we recently bought. It will extrude 2 sizes of spaghetti, linguine, and fettuccine. Huge selling point due to the cost of the juicer.

And, since the last week of the month is "leftover week" I didn't have any fancy dinner to make and freeze so I decide to tackle making my own pasta for part of our special Sunday meal. Our favorite Italian dish was a pesto dish so that's where I decided to start.

Making the pasta took some trial and error to get the dough consistency right but was way easier than I thought it would be. I can't wait to try adding different juices and seasonings!

egg well in the flour

The Pasta

Ingredients: 2 cups flour, 2 eggs, 2 tbs olive oil, 2 tsp salt, and 8 tbs water

balls of pasta!

The Process: maybe 20 minutes to make 2 balls of pasta (6 servings). Then I let the dough balls rest for about 45 minutes. Feeding the dough through the juicer was very easy but took some coordination to pull the noddles, cut them, and get them in the boiling water all in one fluid motion.

The Pesto

the basil smelled SO GOOD!

Ingredients: 2 cups of living basil leaves, 5 cloves of raw garlic, nearly 2 ounces of raw pine nuts, and 1/2 cup of olive oil

The Process: washed and dried the basil, peeled the garlic, and emptied the pine nuts in to the food processor. added olive oil. I did this while the dough was resting. took about 15 minutes.

  

The Results

makes me want to lick the screen

2 Week Update

Wow, the last two weeks have flown by!

The Good

I feel amazing. I have so much energy. I used to be the queen of naps. I always felt like I need at least an hour nap each afternoon. However, this last week especially I haven't felt like I needed to nap.

I've really enjoyed preparing healthier and more wholesome meals for myself and The Carnivore. I've learned how to make several new items and have drastically increase our fruit and vegetable consumption while drastically cutting back on meat and dairy products. And the only food that ended up in the trash was one lonely banana! Way better than normal!

The Carnivore has been largely happy with what I've cooked. (Side note: He willing picked out Kale as a juice ingredient!) Neither of use have felt like we were starving or deprived of any particular food. And, for me, I haven't had intense cravings for sweets or carbs like I thought I would. 

Finally, we have lost weight. Losing weight was not the reason for the change in our diets but it is a welcome side effect.

To date, I have lost 4 pounds in the last 2 weeks and The Carnivore has dropped an amazing 12 pounds!!

The Not So Good

We did go over our food budget for the month by about $100 dollars. So, instead of spending $80 a week, we've spent about $105. But, if we'd been eating out like normal we would have spent way more than that.

Researching recipes and then actually cooking them has taken up a large amount of time. If I was working a full-time job and had kids I'm not sure I'd have time to do all that I'm doing. However, I think if I didn't have a lot of free time right now I'd find a way to manage because I'm very invested in the lifestyle change.

Things to Work On

We did eat out twice. The first week we went out for Thai food on Saturday. This week we had sushi. The meals we chose were healthy options but I want to learn how to make these dishes as well, especially a vegetable roll that The Carnivore picked out on his own. It actually turned out to be my favorite roll that day!

I am still relying on some prepared food. I am going to attempt making my own pasta this week. And I want to make homemade granola bars and fruit leather in the future to have healthy snacks on hand.

Cheese is hard to give up. I am used to relying on it to help replace meat in dishes. I want to use less, possibly, no cheese in the future.

Pork 2 Ways with Brocolli

After spending half the day making the lasagna I wanted something simple to do for lunch each day.

So, on a trip to Sam's club for veggies to juice we picked up a massive pork loin for lunch this week.

The Carnivore cut the loin in to two inch medallions and we seasoned the loin cuts in freezer bags in 2 day portions.The bags contained 6 pieces of loin each-one portion a day for me and two a day for The Carnivore. Must be nice to have a male metabolism.

To avoid getting bored with pork each day I made two different rubs for the pork.

We both love broccoli so the side for this meal was an easy decision. I seasoned it with some garlic powder and salt. Not fancy but yummy all the same.

I did want to make some collard greens because I think they go well with pork but it takes some convincing to get the Carnivore to agree to collards. Maybe next week. Or the week after. I've thought about them and now I'm on a mission to bring collards to the table.

Savory Rub
1 tablespoon olive oil

I love those grill marks!

2 teaspoons sugar
2 teaspoons paprika
2 teaspoons garlic powder
1/2 teaspoon chipotle powder
1/2 teaspoon cumin
1/2 teaspoon coriander

Salt and Pepper to taste

Mustard Rub
 2 tablespoons spicy brown mustard
1 teaspoon paprika
1/2 teaspoon dried rosemary
1/2 teaspoon garlic powder
1 tablespoon olive oil
a few squeezes from my honey bear
Salt and pepper

We both liked the savory rub better. I'd never made pork with mustard before but I think we could like it paired with a sweet element like a grilled green apple chutney.

This meal was surprisingly filling and I actually looked forward to eating a piece of pork each day. Probably has something to do with childhood. I have very fond memories of my mom's Shake and Bake pork chops growing up. Man, I loved those things!

Butternut Squash, Carmelized Onion, and Spinach Lasagna

This post should really be called "The Four Hour Lasagna" because that's how long it took me to make it!

As always, I looked through a few recipes online and then did my own thing but I made the mistake of following the directions on one particular recipe too closely instead of doing what made sense to me. I normally love Cooking Light and often peruse their recipes for inspiration but some of the directions here could be simplified or changed to save time.

Overall, I'm happy with the dish. It is the first meatless dinner that I've sent The Carnivore to work with and I was worried he'd feel hungry or less than satisfied with an entirely meat free meal. However, he really loves the butternut squash and wants me to cook more squashes in the future! SUCCESS!

Yum!

He also thinks that this shouldn't be called a lasagna. I agree. If you take the first bite of this expecting a lasagna taste, you'll be disappointed as it has a completely different flavor profile.

It smells like Thanksgiving and tastes sweet and savory at the same time.



Step 1: Peel, dice, season and roast the butternut squash. Also, roast the garlic with some olive oil.

Lesson Learned: Next time roast the squash first and then scrape it from the gourd. It ends up mashed anyways and it would save time and frustration. Butternut squash is a "B" to cut raw. Yes, I just cursed a squash.


 Step 2: Sauteed onions and then caramelize them. Wilt the spinach.

Lesson Learned:  Cooking is love. The Carnivore had to save the pan from burning as I stumbled in to the living room and ran in to a crate I was still unpacking because the onion fumes had waged an all out war on my eyes. I was blinded.

Recreation of The Carnivore saving the day!

 Step 3: Get ready to make the fontina cheese sauce. I made my own sauce here using what I learned making my own mac and cheese last week.

Adding flavor to the milk: bay leaves and thyme

Fontina!

Lesson Learned: Cheese takes way too long to grate. I gave up after about 3 seconds and did a rough chop on it. It still melted in the sauce just fine.

 Step 4: Make the sauce. Stir a lot. And then stir some more.

That's right, my sauce was thick enough to coat the back of a spoon.

Step 5: Make the lasagna. I used 9 no boil noddles. All the ingredients above. And I snuck in some feta to help balance the sweetness of the squash and onions.

sneaking in the feta

Step 6: Bake for 30 minutes. Let cool a bit before serving.

look at those layers!

*I think the time vortex struck again while I was making this dish. It should have taken two hours tops, not four. If I make it again I'll prep all my ingredients first. I wasted a lot of time cutting and mashing between steps.

Quick Weekend Salad with Arancini Rice Balls

I somehow forgot to plan food for this weekend. Opps!

Since grocery shopping was happening this Sunday I had to come up with a few meals with what I had on hand in the house, which wasn't much.

Luckily, there were a few treasures in the freezer. Last week I bought a package of frozen arancini rice balls from Traders Joe's. It was an impulse purchase that I'm glad I made. I used the rice balls (rice, bread crumbs, basil, fontina) to make the side salad we'd had all week a bit heartier and that served as lunch on Saturday.

On Sunday before heading to the store I made the same salad again and served it with a cup of chili that I made a few weeks ago. Thank goodness for making chili in bulk!

I wish I had taken a picture of it but if you've seen one bowl of chili you've pretty much seen them all. Mine might be a little different because I started using beef stock for my chili base instead of tomato juice. I made chili a lot in the winter and changing the base was a way to switch things up so we didn't get bored.

And, we did try a few different juices this weekend.

Carrot Apple Ginger

The carrot and apple make this a sweet juice but the ginger makes it amazing. The more ginger the better!

Watermelon Kale Mint

I think this juice tastes like Spring. It tastes fresh without any of the individual ingredients overpowering the blend. I did juice the watermelon rind but cut off the outer skin because it wasn't organic. The Carnivore felt the rind taste was overpowering but I didn't notice it after the first sip. He claims I have weird taste buds.

Juicing! Orange Pineapple and Mean Green

If you can have love for a physical object, then it is safe to say I LOVE my juicer!

So far we've made two juices. The machine is really easy to use, super quiet, and clean up take me about 90 seconds.

Juice #1: Orange Pineapple 

 I bought the juicer primarily to juice leafy greens and veggies but I wanted to start out with something sweet. Also, I wanted to see how the juicer handled citrus and soft fruits. I used 3 oranges and 1/2 of a pineapple.

Making the juice took about 15 minutes total including prep, juicing, and clean up. The yield was somewhere in the neighborhood of 4 cups.

Sooooo tasty and so easy to make! I'd drag myself out of the bed early to make this juice. But, it does have a lot of sugar so this is a juice that will be a treat, not a staple.

Juice #2: Mean Green

Since I was dying to try a more "hardcore" juice we made a green juice next. I was very worried about how this juice would actually taste. I love vegetables. Like I really love them. There's not a single vegetable I hate and I can spend hours just talking about them. But I read some very unflattering reviews about green juices online while researching juicers.

For this juice we followed a basic Mean Green recipe that I found online-kale, celery, lemon, cucumber, ginger, green apples.

so much Kale!

The Carnivore was surprised by the juice yield from one leaf of kale. And I was amazing by it's wonderful bright green color.

We also developed a good system where I prep the veggies while he juices them. It made the juicing marginally faster but made it a team activity. I was glad he wanted to help since I think he still has a bit of sticker shock over the price of the juicer.

I'll add more ginger next time and less lemon. Overall I was surprised how sweet this juice was and how little I tasted the kale. I might add more kale and take only use one apple because I really love the taste of kale and all things cabbage.

The final juice is a bit darker because the celery I bought turned out to be terrible so we replace it with a few carrots.

Honey Chipotle Salmon with Grilled Asparagus and Parmesan Rice with Cremini Mushrooms

Lunch #2: Honey Chipotle Salmon with Grilled Asparagus and Parmesan Rice with Cremini Mushrooms

The fish was bought frozen at Sam's Club a few weeks ago and was one of the ingredients I needed to use to get out of the house. We also thought it was a good idea to buy a 25lb bag of rice last year. Needless to say, we're going to be eating rice for a while more.


I made this meal in 35 minutes which was certainly a record for me. Normally when I have more than one dish that requires prep a time vortex somehow appears in my kitchen and in the blink of an eye its been an hour and nothing is done yet.

The Carnivore can attest that one Sunday I spent 3 hours in the kitchen and still ended up serving raw potatoes. Yes, wine was involved. But I still don't know how I managed to under cook a potato after 3 hours. Anyways...

The salmon went on a pan in the oven first because it takes 20 minutes to cook.

Then I chopped and sauteed the onions and garlic. I browned the rice in the same pan and then added a can of chicken stock and half a cup of water.

While that was cooking I cleaned and cut the asparagus. The asparagus was drizzled in olive oil, topped with salt, pepper, and crushed red pepper and tossed on our counter top grill for about 3 minutes.

Then the mushrooms were cleaned and chopped and tossed in the nearly cooked rice with a healthy dose of Parmesan cheese. And voila, lunch was done!

Avocado Chicken Salad Sandwiches with Baby Carrots, Honeycrisp Apples, and Grapes

Lunch #1: Avocado Chicken Salad Sandwiches with Baby Carrots, Honeycrisp Apples*, and Grapes

There's nothing better than a creamy avocado and I make mean guacamole. So, to replace mayo in the chicken salad I basically made guac and used it with the chicken. And, to put more whole fruits and veggies I'm trying to replace not so great sides (chips, fries, pasta salad) with crunchy, whole alternatives.

 The first day I made the sandwiches I assembled them as normal:

However, eating was messy since the avocado mix squeezed out when we took a bite of the sandwich. Not fun.

The next day I learned from my error and made more of a deconstructed plate which I found more appetizing because I love food I get to assemble as I eat.

yeah, I don't know how this pic turned out so well either!

*Honeycrisp Apples
In my opinion, honeycrisp apples are the holy grail of apples.  I'd take them over a good chocolate bar any day. And for me, that's saying a lot. I got bags of them at Sam's Club last year for a good price but I haven't seen an abundance of them this year. I read somewhere that honeycrisp would be scarce this season due to freeze damage and other weather related reasons in Michigan but I'm not sure if that's why.

lunch is our dinner and juicer info

Since The Carnivore works 2nd shift we eat lunch together every day instead of dinner.

I like lunch to be a bigger meal than dinner. I don't like going to sleep stuffed. Also, since I have the time I'm going to try to get creative and maybe a little complicated with lunch.

My goal is to have two lunch options each week to keep grocery expenses low and to spend 30 minutes or less cooking each day so we can spend our time at the gym, exploring Omaha, etc. Also, Sons of Anarchy won't watch itself-we are only on season 4, no spoilers please!

I am also impatiently awaiting the delivery of a juicer. I did a lot of research and decided to purchase the Omega 8006. The link takes you to the only place I could find that actually had the juicer in stock. I tried almost every other seller on Amazon and even though they had this particular juicer listed "in stock" I then received emails about cancelled orders and significant shipping delays.

isn't she gorgeous?!

This machine also processes pasta, makes nut butter, turns frozen fruit in to sorbet, makes baby food (not necessary yet!), and minces meat. I'm already imagining all the ways this machin3 is going to make us healthier. I cannot wait to make my own pasta!

Also, the additional features help lessen the blow of the price. It's a expensive piece of kitchen gadgetry.

I think I'm about 2 weeks away from trying a 10 day juice fast . I want to clean up my diet quite a bit to hopefully lesson the detox side effects. I am going to incorporate two juices a day with our meals to get used to the machine and what we like and don't like. Then I'll probably slowly start replacing meals entirely until I'm ready to go 100% juice for the fast.

*On a side note, I did email discountjuicers.com to see if they actually had the juicer. An actual person, John, answered my email in less than 24 hours. John also has lots of YouTube videos related to juicers and healthy living. I watched several of them when trying to decide on a juicer and they were very helpful. I love how excited John is about juicing.

A Roux, A Bechamel, A Mornay-Oh My an Amazing Mac and Cheese Dish!

I try to make one dish on Sundays that I can freeze and use all week for dinner. The Carnivore works 2nd shift right now and it makes packing his dinner easier.

Since this is the first week of transitioning our diet I tried to use up some things we had on hand (chicken breasts, broccoli, boxed pasta, flour, butter) with some amazing, real Sharp Cheddar and Gouda I from the store.

The plan was to make a homemade mac and cheese casserole that included chicken and broccoli to take it from a side dish to an entree. I served it with a spinach salad that I dressed up with chopped prunes, orange baby bell peppers, rosemary flavored Marcona almonds and a homemade balsamic vinaigrette.

For those of you that need motivation to stick with this post and proof something good happened, here's  the final plate:

Marcona almonds are the BEST almonds in the world and it has taken all my will power this week not to demolish the entire bag. I bet I could do it in 3 minutes flat.

Proof that both are still in the pantry on Wednesday

And, yes, I put prunes in a salad. I'm really 80 on the inside. I eat them as snacks and put them in meals whenever I can. Judge if you want but prunes are where it's at.

I've never made a cheese sauce from scratch and had no idea what I was getting in to. I looked up a few recipes online and took ideas from different sources- which is how I pretty much figure out how to cook anything these days.

From start to finish the sauce took about 30 minutes and went from a roux (butter and flour) to a bechamel (add warm milk) to a mornay (plus cheese, salt, spices).

Let's just say my whisk got a good work out.

I ended up with an unbelievably rich and creamy cheddar sauce that was thick enough to stay on the back of a spoon. It tasted amazing. I could have eaten the entire pan of sauce with a spoon and been happy with life.

I looked the process up after the dish was complete because I couldn't believe a mac and cheese sauce really needed all that work. Somehow I went in to it thinking that I could dump shredded cheese in to milk and magic would happen.

I covered the other ingredients, including the diced gouda because I wanted the cheese flavors to stay separate, with the sauce, topped with panko bread crumbs, and baked it in the oven. The final result:

The Carnivore went back for seconds. And I'll never by boxed or frozen mac and cheese again.