GuestBlogger: Grilled Flank Steak With Whole30 Sides

Congratulations! We're half-way though the Whole30. To celebrate our continued success, another amazing woman has agreed to GuestBlog about her experience with the protocol.

DrLindsey and I go waaaaayyyyy back (back before I met CaveBoy). It would be an understatement to say that we grew up together. Even though we were technically adults when we met, we developed into the women that we are today in each others' company. Sometimes pushing each other (and letting ourselves be pushed by the other) to overcome our self-doubt and youthful selfishness.

And we're still growing-up together! Supporting each other though the multi-year-gut-punch of higher education, the stress-filled-joy of our weddings, the pleasure of building our little families, and the hard-work of opening a medical practice (DrLindsey-obviously) and climbing out of a basement cubicle (me).

Throughout the (many) years, we've also supported each others' health and fitness goals. And you have Dr.Lindsey to thank for inspiring this month's Whole30.

Now, here's DrLindsey...
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Hi folks! 

I’m Lindsey Mansueto DC, a chiropractor who usually focuses on hands on techniques to treat people with musculoskeletal pain. However, taking many hours of nutrition classes has taught me that if people are eating the wrong foods it will lead to aches and pains regardless of structural integrity. So when CaveGirl asked me to do a guest blog, I was thrilled to oblige.

The first thing you need to know about me is that I love food. I mean LOVE food. Growing up with a father who is a chef, it was standard to have five courses at dinnertime. Now that I am a mom, I want to instill a love of food to my daughter but also ensure that she loves the right foods: a ripe pear, sweet cantaloupe, freshly scrambled eggs, and of course green veggies.

CaveGirl asked me to do the Whole30 with her almost a year ago and my initial reaction was pure terror. You mean no creamer in my coffee? No dark chocolate before bed? No bagels with butter in the morning? But as the year went by and I did more research, I felt more comfortable with eliminating dairy, grains, beans, and processed foods from my diet. 

So I started the Whole30 on September 1^st and it took 4 days for me to get used to my new eating style. The amazing thing is that during that transition I started to sleep better, poop better, think clearly, and have more fun during the day. 

Don’t get me wrong, it does take a great deal of planning. But when you are planning ahead for your meals, it gives you more time to think about the important things: playing with your kids, getting more done at work, and of course showing your spouse a little affection (hubba hubba).

So today I want to share with you one of my favorite meals from my first week of the Whole30:

Grilled Flank Steak With Whole30 Sides

CaveGirl: You can tell that cooking is in here genes!

Ingredients

For the Flank Steak

Grass fed local flank steak

Shallots

Ginger

Garlic

Onion Powder

Coconut Aminos

Pink Himalayan Salt

Pepper

For the Whole30 Sides

Green beans

Sweet potato

Arugula
Olive oil
White balsamic vinegar

Tomato

Red onion

Cilantro

Carrots

Salt and Pepper

Instructions

Combine all the ingredients* in a shallow dish or Ziploc bag. Allow the steak to marinate overnight for intense flavor.

Start the baked potato.. I usually do 350 degrees for 1 hour depending on the size (you can do this in advance and just reheat the day of). Because these sweet potatoes were big, I just used two and gave family members slices. 

Preheat the grill to get it nice and hot. Wash and steam the green beans. Put the marinated steak on the grill. Cook for 7-10 minutes per side (I had a huge flank steak). While the steak is cooking, go throw the arugula salad together. Once the steak is done, allow it to rest so it soaks up all the juices and you have time to finish up the rest of the meal. 

It is a healthy Whole30-approved meal that the whole family can enjoy!

*Note: CaveGirl: DrLindsey is creative in the kitchen and doesn't often measure. Use this recipe as inspiration and just make enough marinade to cover the flank steak. Judge your portions for the other ingredients based on how many people you plan to feed.

Chicken "Tortilla" Soup

The weather has turned cool(er), Starbucks brought back the PSL (not paleo), and the most anticipated college football game of the season is only 5 hours away.... it must be Fall!

And with Fall comes soups and stews. Foods that are easy to make, taste great, and feed a crowd of athletic-enthusiasts without requiring a whole lot of time slaving over the stove. Chili is a natural choice. It's basically a three step dish (brown beef, put all ingredients in a pot, simmer). Everyone loves it. It scoops up great with a chip (if you're in to that sort of thing). Heck, it's practically expected at a football-watch party.

But what if you want something a little different? What if you're looking for a Chili that tastes like a taco? What if all you really want is a vehicle for avocado? I've got your back! You probably have all the makings for this recipe in your kitchen right now. And if you don't you can easily get them purchased, prep'd, and prepared before kick-off.

Have fun! Let me know what your guests think about the soup. And Gig 'em Aggies!


Chicken "Tortilla" Soup

Mmmmm. Avocado!

Ingredients

3 lbs chicken (breast or thighs)

2 heads cauliflower, cut into florets

2 yellow onions, diced

1 head celery, diced

1 28 oz can diced tomatoes

2 4 oz cans sliced black olives

6 cups chicken stock

4 tablespoons olive oil

2 envelopes taco seasoning*

1 tablespoon kosher salt

1 teaspoon poultry seasoning

1 teaspoon garlic powder

1/2 teaspoon paprika

Salt and pepper

Instructions

Preheat oven to 400 degrees. Place chicken in a baking dish and season with salt, poultry seasoning, garlic powder, paprika, and a few shakes of black pepper. Bake unit chicken is fully cooked. 20-30 minutes. Remove from oven and let cool enough to touch.

At the same time, grease a large baking sheet with 1 tablespoon olive oil. Arrange cauliflower florets in an even layer. Drizzle with an additional tablespoon of olive oil. Season with a few shakes of salt and pepper. Cook in 400 degree oven until cauliflower becomes tender and begins to brown. About 20 minutes. Remove from oven and let cool enough to touch.

While the cauliflower and chicken cook, heat 2 tablespoons olive oil in a large pot. Add onion and celery and cook until onion becomes translucent. Add tomatoes, olives, taco seasoning, and chicken stock and stir to combine. Cover and let simmer until the chicken is ready.

Once chicken is cool enough to touch, shred the meat (using two forks or your KitchenAid stand mixer) and add it to the simmering soup. Stir to combine. Continue simmering another 15 minutes.

Once the cauliflower is cool enough to touch, run a knife through it to chop it into rice-sized pieces. 

To serve, place a scoop of cauliflower rice in the bottom of a large bowl. Then ladle chicken soup overtop. Garnish with sliced avocado and a lime wedge (if desired). Makes 8 servings.

*Note: OK. You caught me. I admit this recipe isn't strictly Whole30 because I used McCormick taco seasoning, which contains whey (and sugar). Dairy is not Whole30-approved. But that's fine because A) The whey and sugar are so far down on the ingredients list I'm sure their super-diluted once the get into my soup, and B) If you're keeping it super-strict, you could always make your own taco seasoning mix. It might take you some time to perfect the right ratios but McCormick shares their secrets right on the website:

www.mccormick.com

Classic Pot Roast

This probably is the simplest recipe I've posted. But it's also a close contender for most comforting. There is something very wholesome about pot roast. And I am nostalgic for the meaty, peppery flavor. Besides spaghetti, it's probably the meal we ate the most throughout my childhood.

When I was a kid, my parents  both worked full-time, and neither one of them kept regular 8 hour days. My mother was in the medical field and my father worked and taught at the local university. So their workdays sometimes extended into the evenings. On top of that, my siblings and I played sports from a young age. So our evenings often were full, too. Needless to say, there wasn't much time in the evenings to cook (the need for simple nutritious food is like the theme of my life...).

Two or three times a month, my mother would put a large roast in a deep baking dish with a little water, cover it with foil, and bake it low-and-slow all day while we were at school and work. The first family member home was responsible for peeling potatoes (or on occasion we'd resort to potato buds) and warming up a frozen vegetable. Then when mom or dad got home, they'd use the pan drippings to make a peppery gravy. Dinner was on the table in no time. And it tasted like Sunday-after-church-cooked-all-day-for-the-family even though we didn't.

This recipe is just as simple and equally delicious, but doesn't require me to leave my gas oven on while I'm away (God bless my super-huge Crock-Pot!) and doesn't quite take all day. There is plenty of juice left after the roast is fully cooked to make a quick gravy and practically any vegetable will taste great as a side dish. I don't make this recipe quite as frequently as my parents did (mostly because I only cook once for the whole week, instead of making a different dinner each night) but it does come up in the rotation quite often. More frequently when I miss my family.

Classic Pot Roast

I served the roast with mashed squash and wilted spinach.

Ingredients

4 lbs beef chuck roast

2 yellow onions, sliced thin

1 head celery, chopped

1 head garlic, cloves pealed and smashed

2 cups water

1 tablespoon kosher salt

Pepper

Instructions

Place chuck roast in your Crock-Pot. Season with salt and pepper. Add veggies and water. Cover and turn on high heat. Let cook on high until meat is fork-tender. About 5 hours. 

Remove meat from liquid. Scoop out veggies with a slotted spoon. Reserve liquid.* Cut roast beef into portions. Spoon a few tablespoons of cooking liquid over each serving of beef. Serve veggies as a side.

*Note: If you choose not to make a gravy, the cooking liquid can be boiled and used as a flavorful blanching or braising liquid for diced sweet potatoes or butternut squash. Or use the liquid in place of stock to whip up a cauliflower mash. This will carry the meaty flavors over to the side dish and better unite the meal.

Nutrition and Exercise (CaveBoy Edition)

You've seen What the World Eats (and Part II) and I've shown you what I eat, but after a few weeks of watching the likes tic up on my Facebook page (thank you!), I'm willing to bet that at least 24% of you are more interested in seeing what I cook for CaveBoy.

Did I mention that I love data?

Since I last described our opposite fitness goals (more than a year ago), things haven't changed very much. I'm no longer looking to lose 10 lbs (done and done) but I'm still looking to keep my body-fat low. CaveBoy would love nothing more than to continue adding lean mass (and strength) everyday. To infinity. But even though our goals haven't changed, our nutrition and exercise routine has been a moving target.  

CaveBoy hit a wall a few months back, and although he looked amazing, he wasn't consistently posting strength gains. He started to become (understandably) frustrated when he considered how much work he was putting in to achieve such little result. He re-read all the strength training books and spent many late nights on the computer looking for answers.

When he finally selected a high(er) intensity workout routine, we learned quickly that his nutrition would have to change just as dramatically. The first week on his new schedule, he was zapped. He wasn't eating nearly enough (or enough of the right things).

When you change one, you have to change the other.

So we sat down to discuss what he was eating, when in the day he felt the best and worst, and how we could add the right type of calories to promote muscle growth and recovery (and keep him alert and focused while on duty). It wasn't an easy task, and it took a few weeks of trial-and-error to get it right.

One Day of CaveFeeding

And this is just what goes into his lunchbox.

On a normal day, CaveBoy wakes up and makes a cup of coffee, then fries five eggs to eat with a (pre-cooked) baked sweet potato. On the days he coaches (at zero-dark-thirty) he'll take a cup of Bulletproof Coffee with him to the gym, and then eat a real breakfast after his stomach wakes up.

At this point, I can't be sure of the order of operations. And I'm fairly certain that it changes from day-to-day depending on what time he works out, his appetite after the workout, what's going on at shift-change, and how many bad guys he has to deter, dissuade, or arrest.

In any case, at some point during his shift he'll consume 8 oz of Curry Chicken Salad with apple slices and almond butter, his lunch (in this example: 8 oz of Buffalo-Chicken Meatloaf with Sweet Potato Mash), one serving of Crustless Sweet Potato Quiche, and 4 oz of polish sausage in BBQ sauce with veggies.

When he gets home, he'll eat dinner (for example: paleo reuben bowls, with about 8 oz of meat). Then depending on how hungry he gets while winding down for the evening, he'll snack on plantain chips with salsa or nut butter.

CaveBoy eats 3600 - 4000 calories every day.

Our recently-developed combination of nutrition and exercise seems to be working. CaveBoy is PR-ing again! And he's much more energetic when he gets home from a long shift. We plan to keep this routine until he hits another plateau (it's inevitable!) and we have to re-adjust. 

Crustless Sweet Potato Quiche

I've been on a brunch kick lately (if you haven't noticed). But I don't see anyone complaining! And why would they? Brunch is like brinner with day-drinking.

One of my favorite brunch recipes is crustless quiche. It's simple. It tastes amazing. And it feeds a whole crew without you having to slave over the stove for hours. It's also super-versatile. Once you have the base recipe down, the possibilities are endless.

I'd been making the original version of this recipe for months - changing up the toppings week-to-week - to rave reviews from CaveBoy. But when he asked me to make the meal heartier, so it would stick around longer while he worked a long shift, I had to go back to the drawing board. After a few iterations, I developed this new sweet potato version. He loves it! And I know you will too.

Crustless Sweet Potato Quiche

This week I added chorizo and spinach.

Ingredients

3 medium sweet potatoes

2 dozen eggs

1 1/2 cans coconut milk

1/2 teaspoon garlic powder

1/2 teaspoon paprika

Salt and pepper

Toppings

Instructions

Preheat oven to 400 degrees. Place sweet potatoes on a baking sheet and bake until potato pulls away from the skin (they should be self-mashing as my aunt would say). 35 to 45 minutes. Remove from oven and let cool enough to touch.

Remove skin and place potato in the bowl of your stand mixer (or use a large bowl and a hand mixer). Using the whisk attachment, mash the sweet potato. Add coconut milk and continue mixing until it makes a creamy sweet potato slurry. Crack your eggs into a separate bowl (to avoid dropping shucks into the batter) and add to the mixer. Mix on progressively higher settings until the batter is fully whipped and airy. Season with garlic powder, paprika, salt and pepper right at the end. 

Grease a large baking dish with coconut oil spray. Pour batter into the baking dish. Bake at 400 degrees for 20 minutes, until a layer of cooked quiche forms on the bottom.

While the batter bakes, cook your toppings. I like to cook diced bacon or breakfast sausage in a large skillet until the fat starts to render out, add veggies like onion, green pepper, spinach, or tomato (basically anything I'm in the mood for that day), and then continue cooking until the meat is fully cooked.

Once the batter has baked for 20 minutes, you're no longer in danger of all your toppings sinking to the bottom and burning. Remove (carefully!!) from the oven. Spoon the toppings on and evenly distribute. Return to oven and bake until fully cooked (the quiche will puff up like a giant muffin - don't worry it will sink back down as it cools - and should pass the knife test). 25 to 35 minutes. Makes 6 servings.