Whole30, days 16-19: Salmon two ways, and Paleo Minestrone

We're in the Whole30 groove now. (Tiger blood? Yeah, that!) Very few cravings, though it would be nice to have a beer on Saturday afternoons. We're eating great stuff, sleeping well, and have good energy. After stopping almonds a week ago, my acne is slowly clearing up. We'll continue that experiment. I managed to put together a consistent week of running, though due to the stupid cold weather, it was disproportionately indoors. Still, good long trail runs last weekend and tomorrow should keep me on track for Zumbro and Superior.

This week, we did a couple of our standard, every week-or-two dishes, roasted salmon and minestrone. They're both awesome, come together quickly, and our kids love the salmon. (They're very dubious of soup, but maybe we'll get there someday).

Monday (day 15) continued:
Dinner: Salmon roasted in coconut oil, sauteed cauliflower, roasted parsnips, carrots and golden beets with cumin and cinnamon. 1/3 c blueberries with coconut milk.

Salmon, coming out of the oven

The root veggies were still cooking...

Golden beets, heading in to roast

Roasted root veggies. Wow, these were pretty great.

This is one of our two go-to salmon recipes, and it's dead simple and delicious. Like many of our favorite recipes, it's adapted from Mark Bittman's How to Cook Everything. His version uses butter, which is even better, and ghee is good too.

As long as you've got a hot oven, you might as well roast some vegetables before or afterward -- we like to finish baked sweet potatoes this way (and white potatoes when not Whole30-ing) for a browned, blistery, crispy skin. Oven roasted broccoli, cauliflower, sliced winter squash, or root veggies are other logical choices.

Oven Roasted Salmon (serves 3-4):

3 Tbsp coconut oil, ghee, or butter
1 lb salmon fillets, preferably with skin (it gets deliciously crisp)
salt and pepper

Heat oven to 450. Make sure it's fully preheated before you use it. In a large ovenproof pan, melt the cooking fat over medium-high heat until it's quite hot but not smoking. (If you're using butter, heat it till it foams and then stops foaming).

Sprinkle the fish with generous salt and pepper and place skin side down in the pan. Immediately place the pan, uncovered, in the oven, and roast for 5 minutes. Flip the fish over and roast another 5 minutes, or until the center flesh is opaque.

What's that? You want the other go-to salmon recipe too? Oh, all right. This salmon poached in salsa verde is my kids' absolute favorite. They would eat it 3 times a week if we let them. It's a simplified version of a recipe in Rick Bayless's Mexican Everyday. It goes together pretty fast; you can even use frozen salmon straight out of the freezer if it's been that kind of a day. Lately, we have been omitting the tahini/nut butter, since we are suspicious one of the boys is sensitive to nuts. The sauce is fine without it, but richer with it. When doing Whole30, we substitute green beans, broccoli, or cauliflower for the peas it calls for.

Bayless calls this recipe "Salmon in Luxurious Green Sesame Pipian." We call our version "Fish and Peas."

Fish and Peas (serves 3-4):

1 12-ounce jar tomatillo salsa (we use Trader Joe's Salsa Verde)
1/2 c water or chicken stock
[optional] 2 Tbsp almond butter, other nut butter, or sesame tahini
1-1.2 lb salmon fillets, thawed or frozen
1 lb frozen peas, or green beans, broccoli or cauliflower florets

Pour the salsa into a medium-sized saucepan and heat it over medium heat until it's simmering. Simmer for about 15 min, or until it has thickened to the consistency of tomato paste. (You can do this up to an hour in advance.)

Add the water/stock and nut butter, if using, and bring back to a simmer. Add in the salmon and cover with the sauce (it may not totally cover the fish; that's okay). Simmer uncovered over low-medium heat for about 15 minutes, or 25-30 if previously frozen, turning the fish once or twice and stirring occasionally, until the flesh is opaque. Meanwhile, cook the peas or other vegetable.

To serve, place fish and vegetables on the plate and spoon sauce over them.

Tuesday (day 16):
Breakfast: Baked egg, sausage, and chard. Pumpkin. Black coffee.
Post-run: Seward Co-op salad bar: Chicken, olives, arichokes, marinated cucumbers, and sunflower seeds, with a little olive oil and vinegar. And a sweet potato. Black coffee. Awesome snack.
Lunch: Tuna salad with green beans and roasted yellow pepper. Salad with lettuce, 1/2 avocado, roasted yellow pepper, sprouts, olive oil, and balsamic vinegar. A few sunflower seeds.
Late afternoon: Half a sweet potato, pistachio nuts, a piece of dried pineapple.
Dinner: Roasted chicken, sweet potatoes with pan juices, broccoli. Should have gotten a picture, but the broccoli came out after everything else, and by then it was too late -- my plate looked like it had been attacked. (Which it had.)

Wednesday (day 17):
Breakfast: Baked egg, sausage, and chard. Pumpkin. Black coffee.

Midmorning: Apple, a few pistachios. Black coffee.

Lunch: Tuna salad with green beans and roasted yellow pepper. Salad with lettuce, 1/2 avocado, roasted yellow pepper, sprouts, roasted golden beets, olive oil, and balsamic vinegar. A few sunflower seeds.

Late afternoon: Half a sweet potato, sunflower seeds.
Dinner: Minestrone soup with a baked sweet potato.

Paleo Minestrone (serves 4):

1 lb Italian or Polish sausage
1 large onion, chopped
2-4 carrots, chopped
2 stalks of celery, chopped
3 large cloves of garlic, minced
1 28-ounce can of diced tomatoes, with juice
(optional) up to 2c chicken stock, if you have it on hand
3-6 cups of additional vegetables:
- broccoli or cauliflower florets (frozen = OK)
- green beans (frozen = OK)
- parsnip, rutabaga, golden beets, celery root
- sweet potatoes, or white potatoes if you're not doing Whole30
- winter squash or pumpkin
- zucchini or summer squash
- kale, spinach, or chard (frozen = OK)
1 tsp dried basil
2 tsp dried oregano
lots of black pepper
salt to taste

Cut up the sausage or remove the casings. In a large pot, saute the sausage over medium heat till it's in bite sized pieces and cooked all the way through. Add the onion, carrots, and celery and continue cooking till the onion is translucent, about 10 min. Add the garlic and cook another minute.

Add the tomatoes, chicken stock if you're using it, the additional vegetables EXCEPT for greens like kale/chard/spinach, and then enough water to just cover everything. Add the seasonings. Bring to a boil, then simmer for at least 30 min and up to 90 minutes. Taste and adjust the seasonings. Add more water if it's looking too thick.

10 min before serving, add the greens, if you're using them.

Thursday (day 18):
Breakfast: Baked egg, sausage, and chard. Pumpkin. Black coffee.

Post-run: Seward Cafe! 2 egg omelet with kalamata olives, mushrooms, and broccoli, with tahini and jalapeno salsa. Grilled carrots. Sprouts. Black coffee.

Lunch: Tuna salad with green beans and roasted yellow pepper. Salad with spinach, 1/2 avocado, roasted yellow pepper, radish sprouts, olive oil, and balsamic vinegar.
Dinner: Leftover minestrone with a fried egg and 1/2 a sweet potato. A few dried apricots. A bite of coconut butter I made while cleaning up the kitchen.

There's soup under there. Really.

Friday (day 19):
Breakfast: Back to the usual! 3 egg omelet with kale and jalapenos, cooked in ghee. The last of the pumpkin. Black coffee.
Post-workout: 1/2 a sweet potato, a little roasted chicken, 2 big olives, sprouts with a little olive oil and vinegar. Black coffee.
Lunch: Tuna salad with green beans and roasted yellow pepper. Salad with spinach, 1/2 avocado, roasted yellow pepper, roasted golden beets, radish sprouts, olive oil, and balsamic vinegar.