Whole30 day 12 - Chili and Chicken Cacciatori
Well after looking at yesterday's weather I understand why I felt like I was having to work hard to run downhill on occasion, and why I was a bit tired this morning. Sustained winds of 32 mph with gusts to 51 mph make a long run interesting, even if the temperature is great! As opposed to Saturday and Sunday, I wasn't ready to jump out of bed right away, so I took the opportunity to get a few more minutes of sleep. We didn't have the chance to make a quiche over the weekend, so after we finally got up we made a quick breakfast from scratch.
Breakfast: a skillet with sweet potato shreds, rutabaga shreds, sliced mushrooms, and kale cooked in a skillet with coconut oil until the shreds started to brown. After the vegetables were done, we added 6 eggs that we had scrambled in a bowl to the mix and continued to cook until the eggs were done. Served with the usual half an avocado and a cup of coffee.
Lunch: Before we left on our long run yesterday, we got everything together in the crockpot for a chili. This is a recipe that I had actually put together during a time where we were not strictly on the Whole30, but is completely Whole30 compliant (and delicious!). Another plus was that the house smelled great when we got back from our run. This recipe requires a bit of work up front to get the vegetables chopped and the beef cooked, but after that the crockpot does the rest. My lunch was a bowl of chili, a bowl of vegetables, and an orange. I didn't bring an avocado with me to work, but this chili tastes really good garnished with diced avocado.
Ingredients
2 lbs. of grass-fed ground beef
1 large yellow onion, diced
2 T minced garlic (fresh or canned)
1 red and 1 green pepper, diced
1 T oil – olive or coconut
3 large carrots (~1.5 cups) carrots, diced
3 large celery stalks (~1.5 cups), diced
1 jalapeno, minced (we include the seeds, if you want the chili to be
more mild, remove them)
1 large sweet potato, diced (dice small if cooking for a shorter time,
or can cube if cooking for longer)
(1) 28-ounce can crushed tomatoes
(1) 14-ounce can diced tomatoes with green chilies
(1) 12-ounce can of tomato paste + water (just fill the can with water
and add to crockpot)
3.5 T chili powder
1 T oregano
1 T basil
2 tsp cumin
1 tsp salt
1 tsp pepper
1 tsp onion powder
½ tsp cayenne pepper
Instructions
1) Add tomatoes, tomato paste, and water to the crockpot and stir
together
2) Add carrots, celery, sweet potatoes, jalapeno and spices to the
crockpot and stir together
3) Sauté onions, peppers and garlic together in olive oil or coconut
oil in large saucepan
4) Place onions, pepper and garlic in the crockpot
5) Add ground beef to the saucepan and cook until brown
6) Place the ground beef in the crockpot
7) Set crockpot to low and cook for 4 – 6 hours
Dinner: For dinner, we had what I'll call a chicken cacciatore. We had some leftover spaghetti squash that needed to be used, so we got creative. The amount we made is enough to serve ~4 people, we had quite a bit leftover.
Ingredients
~2.5 - 3 cups spaghetti squash, cooked
1/2 of a yellow onion, diced
1 green pepper, diced
1/2 cup mushrooms, sliced
1 T oil - olive, coconut, or a mixture of the two
1 jar of tomato sauce (we used mushroom and onion - be sure the sauce you choose is Whole30 compliant)
1.5 grilled chicken breasts, cut into cubes (you can also cube raw chicken and cook it in a skillet first - we always cook chicken on the weekend for the week ahead to save time)
2 tsp sea salt
2 tsp garlic powder
1/2 avocado per serving
Instructions
1) Place oil in skillet and add spaghetti squash, onion, pepper, mushrooms, salt, and garlic powder. Cook until the peppers and onions begin to soften.
2) Add the chicken and tomato sauce and cook until both are warmed thoroughly.
3) Scoop into bowls and serve with avocado on top.
Summary of day 12: Energy level was a bit lower today, but a day of good food and a good night of sleep should be all it takes to be energized again. My sleep has still felt a bit more broken than normal, which should subside soon. I'm still waiting for the sleeping like a baby phase that happened about halfway through my first Whole30. Ended my day by reaping the benefits of all the money I spend on groceries :)
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