Slow Cooker Turkey and Sweet Potato Chili / Curry (Tomato-less and Bean-less): Whole30 Approved

On the Whole30 diet, there are a few altered food lists for those of us with autoimmune issues, gut issues (the FODMAP list), and histamine issues. You can find the shopping lists here. I was going to combine all the foodlists, but it was so restrictive I knew I wouldn't be able to follow it, so I opted to start out with the autoimmune and low FODMAP lists. This means tomatoes are out for me, since they're an autoimmune no-no as a member of the nightshade family (as are bell peppers and white potatoes).

It's a nice chilly fall, and chili is a nice make-in-big-batches food, so I decided to try to make a chili without a tomato base. The results were delicious, but it might be more of a curry than a chili. Either way, see below for deliciousness:

Ingredients

48 oz ground turkey (I used 85% lean)

4 large sweet potatoes

1 can coconut milk (look for the stuff without sulfites and sulfates in it)

1/2 can pureed pumpkin

salt

pepper

garam masala

*Not in mine but you might add 2-3 tsp cayenne if you like spicy

Wash and peel the sweet potatoes, coarsely chop into cubes, toss into your 4-qt crockpot. Brown the turkey (at this stage, while browning, I add the salt and garam masala to the meat while it cooks to really bring out the flavor of the spices). Drain meat and add to crockpot. (I reserved a bit of the turkey fat juice and put about 1/4 cup into the crock.) Shake your can of coconut oil well, open it and pour into the crockpot. Ditto with the half can of pumpkin puree, which will help thicken things the same way tomato paste or pureed beans helps a sauce or chili. I added another 2 teaspoons garam masala, one teaspoon of salt (beware, I'm a very light salt user,you may want to double the salt), and a teaspon of pepper. Spices and peppers tend to work against my gut health, but here is where you might add your chili/cayenne pepper if you like it spicy. Stir it all up with a wooden spoon, cook on low 6-8 hours.

This was heavy on the meat, the way my husband and I like it; I made a second batch in my 6-qt slow cooker, and increased the sweet potatoes to about 6-7 and the balance was a bit better. You could also add cubed butternut squash; I'm going to try that when I make the next batch. We portioned it out into lunch-sized containers, labeled it with the date, and stuck it in the fridge. With the 4-qt and 6-qt crocks full, we portioned out 10 lunches plus two quarts for the freezer.

It looks a bit like cat food when you pull it out of the fridge and dump it into a bowl, but it's delicious. I was concerned the garam masala might be offputting since I am usually not a fan of Indian cuisine, but the combo of cumin, pepper, and cinnamon smells vaguely like autumn, and my husband and I both devoured the stuff. Bonus: it didn't offend my sensitive gut.

Coming Back: Doing the Whole 30 Autoimmune Diet

Since I've been struggling with gut health for the past few months, including a number of weeks in the hospital with ischemic colitis and C. Diff since the beginning of September, I have been seriously testing lifestyle changes. When I mentioned thinking about coming back to paleo habits, a friend of mine recommended the Whole30 regimen. I was impressed to see that the Whole30 site also offered an autoimmune food list as well as a low-histamine list and a FODMAP list (for those with IBS/IBD). It is very similar to paleo, so I decided to make the jump.

The other trouble with the gut issues is that when eating anything makes me so ill, I'm exhausted all the time and it makes it difficult to buckle down and cook. And so I return to the land of the slow cooker, where I can do the cooking on Sunday mornings and then rest while watching football.

Sunday I made my husband the Island Hash minus the onion and garlic, with lamb chops, while he was out grabbing groceries and running errands. After simmering for 12 hours, I strained the broth into a large pot, covered it in foil, ad refrigerated it. This time, I saved that top layer of fat (stuffed it in a container and put it in the fridge) that hardens at the top for frying veggies in, and portioned out the broth into small one-serving Rubbermaid containers.

I bought some frozen beef soup bones and made a large 6-qt crock of beef bone broth but without all the veggies in it (I didnt have any heels handy). I also bought a bunch of marrow bones, and Sunday night we had roasted beef marrow bones for dinner (I added a bag of steamed veggies to my plate). Not only was it delicious, we then tossed our bones into a 6 quart crock, I added a splash of apple cider vinegar and filled it with water, and voila, more bone broth. Ditto to the above - this one ran for 18 hours, cooled it, strained it, refrigerated it, and then separated the bone from broth, portioned into containers, and refrigerated it.

The real first success for the Whole30 recipe thing, however, is my turkey and sweet potato curry (it's really a tomato-free chili). More on that, with pics, in the next post.

Back to Paleo (-ish)

I'm freshly back from an eight-day stay in beautiful Ireland, and was amazed at how I wasn't sick the whole time. Not even a smidge. I do believe my GI tract wants me to move to Limerick.

Until such time as I can make that happen, I am taking a lesson - fresh foods for the win. Before I left, my rheumatologist told me to go gluten-free, as he believes it will greatly help reduce inflammation. I'd fallen off the Paleo-wagon because I am lazy, and promised him I'd do it when I returned. In Ireland, great pride was taken by many restaurants in using all fresh ingredients, most locally grown (including the meats). Most meals were heavy on protein (quiche, lamb stew, mussels, shepherd's pie, bangers & mash, chicken) with the occasional pie crust or side of bread and potatoes. Fresh food, fresh air, lots of walking. and good sleep, and I felt fantastic. 

And so, I'm back home and gluten-free and semi-Paleo. (I say semi because I'm using beans for today's lunch.) I've decided to try for a gluten-free, HFCS-free, dairy-free, semi-Paleo existence. The kitchen has been cleared. My gym bag is packed. Let's do this thing. Again. But this time with inspiration provided by my best friend - more on that soon.

Today's lunch: half a can of black beans, half a baked shredded chicken breast with Penzey's "Forward!" spice, one chopped avocado. (Same as yesterday's lunch. Delicious.) For those not going dairy-free, some shredded cheese would be a great addition to this. Microwave for 2 minutes on high and you're good to go. (It's also easy to put together a few lunch batches of this at the beginning of the week, making life easy for the kitchen-lazy.)

It's Working...

Well, despite an on-again off-again relationship with Paleo during the holidays, I'm getting back into the swing of things. It's hit and miss, but more hit. I'll be sharing a recipe for a Phenomenal Awesome Salad of Doom - probably tomorrow, since I'm planning to make it again as soon as humanly possible.

In any case, Long-suffering Trainerman Alec weighed me this Thursday during our session to see how things are going. The scale (and my pants) say that to date I've lost about 15 pounds. I don't see much of that happening in my face or my waist, and for that I blame the steroids. But seeing the difference in my strength, my stamina in terms of the repetitions I can do and the weight I can work with, and watching my pants get longer because there is less booty to inflate them makes me feel very, very good. I am making good choices more often than not (though I'm probably only a B student, since I still occasionally indulge), and that is a major improvement.

And so, back to Paleo, back to the gym. The funny thing is, the more I eat well in terms of more salads and lean meats and fewer fast food/junk/carbload meals, the more the food I crave is of the good-for-me sort.

The Incredible Shrinking Booty?

2012 started out well, wonderful and rested after a week at home with mom and visiting family. Lots of sleep, lots of bonding time, and my sister and I trying to explain the phenomenon of hashtags to the Reilly clan. It was a great time.

I spent the first weekend of 2012 back in the hospital for tests, all seems okay for now. My slacks have been slipping off my waist a bit, looking a little droopy. (One of the first signs of weight loss for me is that my pantlegs suddenly get longer when my behind is not taking up as much room. Since I'm already short, this leads to me walking on the edges of my pants. Not fun.) Anyway, I thought I might have lost enough to try on some old pants, and so tonight after seeing Trainerman Alec for my workout, I came home, showered, and broke out The Pants The Preceded My Current Behind. (Also known as The Size Before, Minor Goal Pants, and The Pants of Hopeful Thinking.) Slacks one size down are just a little snug in the middle, but jeans one size down fit nicely. Hooray!

Four pairs of jeans have been resurrected from the Drawer Of No Return, and I've decided to have Trainerman Alec level up to Necromance Trainerman for bringing the pants back from the dead. I'm still a large lady, but things are moving in the right direction, and that makes me terribly happy. It also helps fuel me to stay on track in terms of hitting the gym, eating properly, and resting well.

Now, hashtag practice:

Do your booty fill your jeans? #mybootydo
Do your booty bounce? #mybootydo
Do your booty shrink? I can happily say, #mybootydo

Egg White Omelets and Boxing

My newest favorite fast recipe: a spinach and mushroom egg white omelet. Essentially, I throw a handful (or two or three) of spinach, a drizzle of olive oil, and a fistful of sliced mushrooms into a frying pan and cover it until the spinach is wilted, pour egg whites (from a car4ton) over it, do a messy flip that really more resembles scrambled eggs, and voila. Dinner. Or lunch. Or breakfast. It's not pretty, but it's delicious. I'll try to get a recipe with pictures up soon.

In any case, I threw that together tonight and ate it about 45 minutes before workout time in the hopes that it would keep me from keeling over (or gnawing on Trainerman Alec). When he asked me if it was okay to try something new, I was afraid he'd want me to run sprints up and down the highway. Turns out, he wanted to teach me to box. I was game, so he wrapped me up, gloved me, and proceeded to make me sweat for an hour.

My reaction: so, I have a bit of trouble both moving my feet and swinging at the same time. I start feeling clumsy when he starts moving the pads around quickly, and I quickly lose whatever "right vs left" knowledge I may have had. But it was cathartic, it was fun, and I sweated my butt off. I have a mean right hook, but everything else could use work. In any case, Trainerman says it's not the worst start he's seen. I'm hoping we do more of that soon, and maybe I'll acquire wraps and gloves to hit the heavy bag on our off days. It was that much fun. And I like to hit things. But I also appreciate staying out of jail. This is the best of all worlds.

Magical Paleo Crockpot Chicken Soup

There's little as satisfying on a cold winter night than a good, hot, hearty soup. If it's made with chicken, even better. I will say that I've made this before not even thinking about Paleo-anything, and recommend it no matter what your diet.

Ingedients:
1 yellow onion, chopped into 1/2"-1" pieces
One 16-oz package regular whole white mushrooms, washed
4 stalks celery, washed and cut into 1/2"-1" pieces
4 carrots, washed and cut into 1/2"-1" pieces
2 chicken breasts, cubed in about 1" pieces
Penzey's Forward! spice

For liquid, I used 1 1/2 quarts homemade chicken stock (this recipe, but using chicken carcass and scraps instead of beef bones). You can also use water, or canned chicken broth, but this tasted much better!

I chopped all the vegetables, tossed them into tupperware and stuck them in the fridge, because I'm leery of refrigerating my crock overnight and then pulling it out to put in the element while it's cold in the morning. I had the broth already in the fridge from Sunday's crockpotting. In the morning, my only prep was to cut up the chicken breasts, coat them in the Penzey's spice mixture, throw everything into the crockpot, and pour the broth over it all. I turned the crockpot on low at 10am, and ate at about 6pm and everything was cooked through.


The cooked soup isn't as pretty and bright as the raw ingredients, but it is delicious. It did not need any salt, and I find that the full flavor cooking the ingredients in broth delivered is far more satisfying than when I do essentially the same recipe with water instead of broth. (You can do it, it is just less rich.) In terms of servings, I'd estimate 6-8 good sized servings, depending on the size of your bowl and your appetite.

Future changes: I'd love to find a way to thicken the broth a bit to make it more stew-like; I'll have to review some paleo blogs to see how they do that without using flour or cornstarch. Because I prefer my soups more like stews, I would add more vegetables - it's a lot of broth and could use more things to chew on. And it would have been delicious had I been able to sop up the dregs with bread, but drinking the broth kid-style from the bowl was also pretty satisfying. I'd also like to find a way to incorporate sweet potatoes without the potatoes getting mushy.