Whole 30 - my current meal obsession

Shepherd's Pie - who doesn't just love it?  It's comfort food at its best... it's also economical, and if made ahead, it's super convenient, as it makes a huge amount and you can just dig into it anytime.

I have recently revamped my traditional shepherd's pie because I'm on the whole 30.  We've been eating a ton of roasted / baked / boiled potatoes with lemon, and I didn't want to make the "essential" top layer of mashed potatoes because I couldn't fill it with whatever milk / cream / butter / sour cream / cream cheese or any of that usual deliciousness.

Instead, I popped a whole acorn squash into the microwave... scooped it out, and now we have our topping on the side of our shepherd's pie.  And is it ever good!!!

I say that I am obsessed because I've been ever so sick with the flu and laryngitis this week.  I figured that the W30 would be taking a back seat to comfort foods like toast and tea with honey... but somehow I have managed to stay on track, since I had most of my meats prepped on Sunday.  I just stayed the course, and surprisingly, it worked!  This dish helped me through several small suppers this week with a minimum of fuss.

My appetite was definitely affected, so I ate much less, but I stuck to my three meals... they were just a little simpler and smaller than usual.  And who knew that raw, sliced garlic could be a condiment on the side of a plate of plain chicken or an egg or sausage with a few strawberries or a banana?

Try making shepherd's pie your usual way (leave out the dusting of flour to thicken your gravy) and cook an acorn squash (or other veg you like) with a little clarified butter and s+p on the side.  It's a twist that will surprise you in the most pleasant of ways.

Whole 30 Inspiration (an evolving post)

Ahhh... lovely fresh asparagus... soooooo delicious!!!

OK... so I am constantly taking pictures of my food.  This is a funny little thing I really started when I was visiting my sister in Germany... and then when I was traveling with my dad in Russia on a choir trip.  Oh, the adventures in food I had!

Anyway, the idea I had for this post is this.  I am constantly taking pics of my food, and since I am on the Whole 30 right now, and people I know keep asking me questions like, "what do you eat?" I thought I would simply document my meals and post them here as I go along.  If you think you could never make all this amazing food, you are wrong.  It's all about food prep and thinking ahead, having things cooked or cleaned and chopped, and then composing plates that are true to the W30 plan.

I am still finding my way around the kitchen, after all these years.  I like to do a big prep on Sunday mornings, as I am making our Sunday brunch and Sunday dinner.  Weekday lunches and dinners are that much easier to prepare and assemble because of this prep time.

So come back and visit, as there will be more pics on here as I make more Whole 30 meals... and as I figure out how to get the pics from my iPhone onto my Acer Chromebook.  It isn't the smoothest of processes, but I am figuring out how to do with the limitations of my equipment.  

I plan to bump down the older pics as I add new meal pics, so it will be easy for you to see my latest meals and then scroll down for older inspiration pics, as time goes by.

For now, here are my Whole 30 meal and preparation pictures.  I may have to separate them into prep and meals sometime, but for now, enjoy and be inspired!

Do you have a favourite W30 meal you turn to time and again?  Would you like me to share my recipes?  Please comment below!

Our Sunday night dinner:  BBQd steaks, baked potatoes, sauteed asparagus and garlic, and a green salad of romaine, orange peppers, zucchini with a ginger / garlic dressing

A simple weekend breakfast of a fried egg in clarified butter, and a little fruit (orange and banana)

Sunday night steak, roasted sweet potato, simple spinach salad

Breakfast bowl of leftover roasted chicken breast and sweet potato, and seasoned tomato chunks and spinach dressed with oil + white wine vinegar... and some super awesome strawberries.  A strange mix, but soo good!

Delectable Greek plate of chicken with oregano, garlic lemon potatoes, and a crunchy spinach salad with chopped peppers, zucchini, tomato, and green onion

Baked salmon with ginger, roasted potato wedges, homemade W30 mayo, sauteed mushrooms, and a lovely green broccoli salad

Simple green salad with romaine, zucchini, cucumber, and a garlic and fresh parsley dressing

Onion dyed Easter eggs... hard boiled, and perfect for on the go breakfasts and adding to salads

Making clarified butter, essential for sauteed veggies or adding to baked or grilled meats 

Another simple green salad, makes an excellent palate cleanser or part of an appetizing lunch

Cooking up some fresh W30 approved sausage.  DO check to make sure they are sugar free, and sodium citrite free.  I get mine at the St Jacob's Market from Finest Meats

 A delicious steak dinner with garlic mushrooms, a big green salad and some lightly sauteed green beans (which ARE allowed on the W30), fyi

It's not all pretty, but it's pretty good.  I snapped this casual pic at work... after eating one of two hard boiled eggs and a good chunk of zucchini... with some peppermint tea and coconut oil

This was a practice meal we had the weekend before our start date...it included some chicken breast, italian sausage, and a huge mixed salad of broccoli, red cabbage, zuchini and romaine

Chicken soup with plenty of green veggies

Parsley Garnish for soups, salads, grilled meats, etc

Oxtail Soup with Knockerl (homemade dumplings)

So, this has ALWAYS been my favourite soup.  

I was at the St Jacob's Farmers Market with my mom and dad one Saturday this winter.  The butcher from Charles Best Quality Meats had some oxtails for sale at his stand, and he held one up for us to see... just like another butcher did a long time ago... for my sister Carla, in Germany, many many years ago (now that's a really funny story).  But then it got me craving a bowl of hearty oxtail soup, and though I didn't purchase my bones from Charles Best that day, I did get some about a week later.  I was determined to document how one makes this incredibly rich tasting and deeply satisfying soup.

 I bought two packages of bones, one with two large, meaty bone joints, and one with three smaller ones for a cost of about $9.00, for both packages of oxtails.

The key to making this soup taste amazing, is to brown the bones until they are a deep brown colour.  Dredge the bones in flour and season them generously with salt and pepper.  Heat a little oil in a pan.  Brown and turn, brown and turn, and then brown and turn them some more.  The deeper the colour, the deeper the flavour.  I chopped an equal amount of onions as bones as they were browning.  Browning the onions until they are a nice caramel brown means great onion flavour as well.  Just remember, you cannot hurry this part of the process, it takes TIME to do the browning properly, for the best tasting results. 

You see in this picture, I added the onions to the pan as the oxtail bones continued to brown, as they take almost as much time to brown as the bones.

THIS is the deep dark brown colour I was waiting for!

Now, this next step is something my mother never did.  I use my crock pot to cook this beautiful dish to tender perfection.  I added the oxtail bones to the onions, a couple stalks of chopped celery, and enough water to cover it all.  

I tossed in two chopped carrots, and then let it all simmer overnight and for a full day of work.

This is what it looked like after about 12 hours of cooking on low.  I put it in the fridge to chill, and to possibly scoop any excess oil off the top when it congealed... but it was actually very lean, so I didn't have to do that.

I (easily) pulled and shredded the meat off those now super tender bones...

... and then I reheated the whole crockpot of love on the stovetop, adding some freshly chopped parsley for a most special dinner.

But I simply had to complete the dish with some  homemade dumplings, or Knockerl, as we call them.  Put a pot of water on to boil, and sprinkle a generous amount of salt into the water.

Make the Knockerl simply by stirring 3/4 cup flour with 2 eggs, a generous dash of salt, and just enough milk to bring it together into a fairly thick batter.

Scoop half a spoonful and drop or scrape each little dumpling into the boiling water.  Don't worry about perfection... once they puff up, they turn into homemade noodle / dumplings of utter YUMMINESS!!!

You'll see them start to pop up to the surface of the water as they cook.

It only takes a minute or two.

When they're floating and cooked through (be sure to taste them), scoop them out of the water and combine them with the savoury oxtail soup.

Oh man, look at that rich colour!  THIS amazingly silky wonder is why oxtail soup is my favourite soup of all time, even since I was a little kid.

Is it a soup or is it a stew?  No matter what you call it, it simply doesn't get any better than this.  

That is the truth.

What is your favourite soup?  Do you have any recipe requests?  Feel free to comment!

Kranzkuchen... Oma's Easter Bread recipe

There's nothing in the world like homemade bread... the mere touch and smell of this dough brings me back to my childhood and learning to make Kranzkuchen with my Oma.  It's something I remember so vividly once I get my hands on the yeasty, sticky wonderfulness.

Truth be told, for many years, I was afraid to try making it.  I just didn't want to get it wrong. You see, the recipe we have is simply a list of the few ingredients involved, and there are absolutely no instructions or tips on the scrap of paper the "recipe" was written on.  

After a few years of missing it / wanting to make it and eat it... and wanting to honour our dear late Oma and Opa and Onkel Joe who are inextricably wrapped up with the tradition of this bread, I just HAD TO attempt making it, as it means EASTER to everyone in our family.

And guess what?  It turned out more than just OK, it was perfect... the touch, the smell, the texture... it was EASTER in a simple braided loaf.

This is how to make it.  

1) In a two cup measuring cup, proof 4 1/2 tsp yeast with 2/3 tsp sugar in 1/2 cup warm water until it gets foamy and yeasty smelling.  Notice how mine was a bit overflowing?  My one cup measure overflowed!

2) Measure 7 cups flour and 1 generous tsp salt into a very big bowl and stir to combine

3) Melt 2 tsp butter in a large measuring cup, add    2 3/4 cups of milk and 2 eggs

4) Combine everything in the big bowl.  When it comes together roughly, turn it out onto the counter and knead using a dough scraper and an additional 1/4 cup of flour or so, as needed.  This is a sticky dough so don't go crazy with the flour, as it will still be sticky.  Pop it back into the big bowl when the texture is nice and smooth, after about 7 minutes of kneading.  Let it rise for an hour, covered, in a warm draft-free place.   

5) Dump onto a floured surface to shape into desired loaf shapes.  I split the dough in two... made a simple three braid with tucked under ends... and a round loaf by forming 6 strips and weaving a simple 3 x 3 lattice with the ends rolled under.    

The simple braided loaf is my Opa's favourite shape (and mine).  The round loaf was Oma's favourite, and I think it's my mom's, too.  These are the two simple shapes I made with this year's batch of dough.  I might experiment with a four or five strand braid next year.

I will have to watch how vlogger Titli Nihaan @ The Bread Kitchen shows how to do it... she can braid anything from 3 to 9 strands of bread.  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RP6j7esQyjk 

Be sure to check the link out!

6) After letting the braided loaves rise about 45 minutes, brush them with a whole egg and pop them into a preheated 400 degree F oven for about 20 to 30 minutes. 

I rotated and turned these loaves from top to bottom and front to back so they browned evenly.  I knew they were done when they turned a deep golden colour, and they made a nice hollow thumping sound when knocked on the bottom.

These braided beauties make me smile.

Happy Easter!  He is Risen!  He is Risen, indeed!

I think Oma and Onkel Joe (the former bakers of this bread) would be proud this traditional Kranzkuchen is still being enjoyed in our family this Easter.

Please comment if you have tried this recipe, or if you have a family recipe that you simply must have every year on Easter or other special days.   

If you have any questions about my recipe or process, please ask and I will respond in kind.

Edited to add:

Good luck to my dear friend Suzanne, who will be trying this recipe during the Pandemic / Bread Explosion of 2020!

And kudos to my brother John, who made for Easter Sunday this year.