Visions of Sugar Plums Danced in Their Heads: Whole30: Day 10

Last night I tossed and turned and dreamed about pudding. Lots and lots of pudding. I don't even like pudding. The word tastes gross coming out of my mouth, but in my dreams I was pudding queen. Every time I woke up, it took me a few seconds of guilt and depression before I realized I hadn't really blown the Whole30. I don't really have to start over. Whew! I've read from other testimonials that week two becomes a psychedelic food fest at night. That's just our tricky bodies trying to get us to return to our old habits. The good news? The magic is right aroung the corner. That "jump out of bed, throw a few Rocky punches to the left and right, 'I'm gonna conquer the world'" feeling is close.

Oh...you thought I meant the other Rocky?

Oh, my. I just discovered Chowstalker.com. Are you kidding me? My mouth is watering over all the yummy-ness. They have a specific section for Whole30 recipes, and most of the others can be easily tweaked to comply. You will never run out of ideas from this site. They pull from blogs and other sites around the web and present it to you in one easy to navigate place. Hmmm.. I think I'll try the Zucchini Fritters this weekend. My taste buds are ecstatic.

Speaking of recipes, I wanted to hook you up with the steps to make a couple of the essential items you want to have in your kitchen. This homemade mayo from The Clothes Make The Girl can be mixed into just about anything. I toss it with sliced cucumbers and onions, a dash or two of apple cider vinegar, and salt and pepper for a delish cucumber salad. Add a few spices to the mayo and some lemon juice or vinegar, and you'll make all kinds of mouthwatering dressings. Experiment! I like to drizzle the left over mayo juice (way more delicious than it sounds!) from the cucumber salad onto ground beef or spaghetti squash. It's just the thing to soothe a creamy craving.

You also must have ghee. Ghee is clarified butter, and I could eat a spoonful at a time. The aftertaste is reminiscent of caramel. Momma sprinkles salt on a small dollop to mimic a salted caramel. I use ghee (and coconut oil) for all my cooking. These fats are better for medium to high heat cooking because they have a higher smoking point. Olive oil is definitely good for you, but it has a lower smoking point, and when heated too high, it can create free radicals which cause damage to the body's cells and can increase the chance of chronic diseases. Eek!

Making ghee is ridiculously easy. Grass fed, organic butter is best, but as long as it's real butter, not imitation spread, you're good to go. (Salted or unsalted doesn't really matter, but Mom and I use unsalted.)

Here's a recipe I stole from veggiebelly.com.

How to Make Ghee

Ingredients
2 sticks (1 cup) unsalted butter

Method
Use a medium sized, heavy bottom sauce pan. Make sure it is dry and clean. Place the butter in the pan, and cook uncovered on medium heat till all the butter melts.

Continue cooking while stirring occasionally till the butter starts to foam and boil. You will hear crackling, this means the butter is boiling.

Reduce heat to low, and continue to simmer the butter till it clarifies – when you part the foam on top, you should see the melted butter getting clear.

Continue to simmer the butter till the crackling subsides, about 10 minutes. How soon the ghee is done will vary depending on the quantity of butter you are using. So use the indicators below.

The ghee is done when
- The crackling subsides. This means most the moisture has been cooked away
- The ghee becomes a clear golden yellow liquid (part the foam with a spoon to see the ghee). This means the butter is clarified
- The milk solids separate and settle in the bottom of the pan, and are light brown in color

Be careful not to over cook the ghee and burn the solids. If the milk solids are dark brown, or if the liquid ghee turns dark brown, you’ve over cooked it.

Let the ghee cool for about 20 minutes. Then strain it though a very fine strainer or 2 layers of muslin cloth. Make sure all the milk solids are strained out; strain the ghee twice if needed.

Store ghee is a clean, dry bottle. But don’t put the lid on till the ghee is fully cooled.
Ghee can be kept at room temperature for 2 months. Refrigerating it wont hurt either....

So get in the kitchen, lovies, and make some good, yummy stuff! Until next time...
Christan