Cran-Cherry Sauce (Whole 30)

People always assume because I am a fairly good cook, I am very picky about my food. I really am only picky about two things, my eggs and my cranberry sauce. I like my eggs over easy and by over easy I mean the white is completely cooked and the yolk is completely runny. The tiniest speck of hard yolk and the eggs are over medium. Since I can only cook my eggs the way I like them only about 40 percent of the time myself, I don’t usually make a big deal about this when I can’t get them exactly right other places. With Cranberry sauce, well, it’s a fine line between sweet enough not to be bitter and so sweet your teeth hurt.

When I decided I was going to start my second round of Whole 30 in November, I started looking for compliant cranberry sauce recipes. I really didn’t want to give up my cranberry sauce for Thanksgiving. I tried recipes that were sweetened with apple sauce, apple juice, dates, and half a dozen other things and , unfortunately, all the recipes resulted in exttremely bitter cranberry sauce. I was starting to think a good, compliant cranberry sauce was beyond my reach. Fortunately, I found a recipe in Nom Nom Paleo Ready or Not that is compliant if you leave out the honey. The best part is that the recipe doesn’t need honey to give you a really tasty  just sweet enough cranberry sauce. I made a double batch. I ate a good portion of it with a spoon standing in front of the fridge. The rest I used to make a cranberry chicken recipe in my pressure cooker. This recipe will become my go to cranberry sauce recipe whether or not, I am doing a round of Whole 30.

• Difficulty: Easy
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From Nom Nom Paleo Ready or Not

6 oz frozen cranberries

6 oz frozen sweet cherries

¾ cup apple juice

2 TBS honey (omit if Whole 30)

Place all the ingredients in a medium sauce pan.  Bring to a boil over medium heat.  Reduce heat and simmer until the cranberries start to burst and the mixture starts to thicken.

Thanksgiving Round Up 2017

 

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Thanksgiving is only 18 days away.  Since I was planning on doing a Whole 30 in November, I planned a Whole 30 Thanksgiving feast.  I still plan on posting those recipes this month even though I am not doing a Whole 30.   For those of you not interested in Whole 30 Thanksgiving recipes, I am posting a round up of all the Thanksgiving recipes I have posted since the beginning of A Solitary Feast so you can plan your holiday meal.  I hope you can find things to enjoy.

Brown Sugar Rubbed Turkey Breast

Wildrice Stuffing With Cranberries And Walnuts

Balsamic Honey Brussels Sprouts

Scoop And Bake Dinner Rolls

Cranberry Pie

Spiced Cornish Game Hens

Homemade Stuffing

Mashed Potatoes and Gravy

Classic Green Bean Casserole

Cranberry Sauce

Pumpkin Pie

 

Teryaki Chicken (Whole 30)

Hey Guys, if you have time, check out the Facebook page for Gallery 4 and see two of my feathered friends, Squeak and Beau, being extra cute and feathery.

So I can hear all you guys thinking, do I normally bring my bring my birds to art galleries? The answer is no but I was actually invited to bring my boys. A few weeks ago, my friend, Steph and I, were wondering around downtown after lunch. We ended up a Gallery 4 just looking around. There was an exhibit called For The Birds, which really spoke to me, of course.

I got to talking with the lady sitting at the front desk and discovered she was the artist who did all the bird pictures. I showed her pictures of Squeak and Beau. The artist said she always wanted to draw Cockatiels. I jokingly said if she needed live models, I would gladly bring them to the gallery.  I didn’t expect to get so excited about it and say sure bring them.

So this morning, I loaded Squeak and Beau into their carry box and headed for the bus.  I always love watching people’s reactions to seeing my birds.  People are always are always so surprised and delighted to see them.  Like there aren’t  birds flying around everyday.  I’ll admit my birds are exceptionally cute and feathery but not all that unusual.

I was a little worried about how they would behave in a strange environment around so many strange people after an unusual, for them, bus ride.  Squeak and Beau amazed me, as usual.  Once my friend, Steph, arrived and they got out of their travel box, they were exemplary gentlemen.  Squeak even let Marcy, the artist, take pictures and he hate cameras and phones with a mad passion.

Squeak and Beau enjoyed waddling around the gallery and looking at the pictures with me and Steph.  They enjoyed the attention, not only from Marcy, but from every person we came across who realized I had birds in that box.  It was quite the enjoyable way to spend the afternoon.

Teriyaki Chicken

• Difficulty: Easy
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adapted from I Heart Umami
1 1/2 lb chicken thighs with skin on

salt and pepper, taste

Toasted white sesame seeds, optional

Chopped scallions, optional

1 1/2 tsp ghee

Teriyaki sauce

3 1/2 TBS coconut aminos

1 TBS fish sauce

2 TBS apple cider vinegar

1 tsp fresh grated ginger

1 tsp grate fresh garlic

Pat and dry the  thighs and remove the bone.  Lightly season the chicken skin with salt.  Heat the 1 1/2   teaspoons  ghee over medium-high heat.  Add the chicken skin side down.  Fry until the skin is crispy about 10 minutes.  Flip the chicken thighs and fry until cooked through.  Set the chicken  aside and wipe out the pan .

To make the sauce, add the coconut aminos, fish sauce, apple cider vinegar, ginger and garlic to the pan.  Heat the sauce over medium to medium-low heat.  When the sauce starts to get thick, add the chicken back to the pan.  Coat the chicken with the sauce.

Wait 5 minutes before slicing  the chicken.  Sprinkle with sesame seeds and chopped scallions, if you want.

Whole30 Day 14 — No Sugar Added BBQ Spice Rub For Pork

Melissa Hartwig, the co-founder of the Whole30, says that the majority  of people who quit the program do so between days 9 and 10. I am on day 14.  Let me repeat that because I can’t believe it myself, I am on day 14.  Not only did I make did I make it through day 9 and 10 without quitting, I made it through 2 weeks of the program.   I am so proud of myself, I could just cry.

Have I seen any changes yet?  Yeah, I have.

1.  The dark circles under my eyes have almost disappeared.  I don’t know if this is because I am sleeping better or for some other reasons.
2. I can breathe through both of my nostrils.   I am always completely stuffed up, sneezing, dealing with runny nose, all the time.  I am not completely symptom free yet but as I can’t remember the last time I could breathe through my nose at all I count this as a win.
3.  My work pants went from fitting comfortably to almost being too loose.  I’ll never know how much I have lost because I didn’t weigh myself or take measurements before I started.  Weight loss was not my purpose for doing the Whole30. It is   just a bonus.
4. I definitely have more energy through out the day.  I don’t come home from work so exhausted I am ready for bed at 630 pm.
5. I am sleeping through the night.  It is too early to tell if this is totally because of the Whole30 because I go through cycles where I sleep just fine.  However, before I started I was in a particularly nasty cycle of sleeplessness, where I was up two or three times a night for hours at a time so, again, I am counting sleeping through the night a Whole30 win.

Last weekend I made some bbq sauce for pulled pork. I had a little sauce left over from that so I decided to make some ribs. I usually use a spice rub on my ribs before  I cook them but all my rub recipes have sugar in them so  I needed to find a new rib rub recipe.  I dare you to say that 10 times fast, ha!  I had the same problem finding a no added sugar rib rub recipe as I did finding a no sugar added bbq sauce recipe.  Every recipe said no sugar added then had honey, molasses, maple syrup or some kind of artifcial sweetner in it.  I did eventually find a couple to try.  I will post them as I try them.

No Sugar Added BBQ Spice Rub

• Difficulty: Easy
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2 TBS paprika

1 TBS garlic powder.

1 TBS onion powder

2 tsp kosher salt

2 tsp cinnamon

1 1/2 tsp black pepper

1 tsp cumin

1 tsp allspice

1 1/2 tsp oregano

In a small bowl, mix all the ingredients together.  Store in an airtight container in a cool, dark place.  

Marinated Pork Chops

Holy moley!!!!!   What was I thinking?!!!  I totally forgot I threw out my regular chili sauce when I did a condiment purge a few months ago but I was totally set on trying this pork chop recipe for dinner tonight.  So instead of 2 tablespoons of regular chili  sauce I used 2 tablespoons of Sriracha sauce. I repeat, WHAT WAS I THINKING?! I know that many of you don’t think 2 tablespoons of Sriracha  sounds like much.  You have got to remember one thing about me,  I am a total wimp when it comes to hot spices.  I use Sriracha a quarter teaspoon at a time.  Again, what was I thinking?  Fortunately, the honey and  baking mellowed the heat considerably.  The resulting heat level was at the upper level of my tolerance.  The next time I make this recipe I will make sure I have regular chili sauce.

• Difficulty: Easy
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1/4 cup soy sauce

2 TBS chili sauce

2 TBS honey

2 TBS canola oil

2 TBS finely chopped green onion

1/2 tsp curry powder

3/4 lbs  boneless pork chops

In a small bowl, mix the soy sauce, chili sauce, honey, canola oil, and curry powder. Mix well.  Lay pork chops in a pan with high sides and pour the marinade over with the top.  Turn the chops a couple of times to coat the chops with marinade.  Cover the pan with plastic wrap and marinate for 4-6 hours or overnight.  When you are ready to cook the chops, preheat your oven to 350 degrees.  Bake your chops for 30 -35 minutes.