What We Ate Wednesday

I’m holding fast to my New Year’s Resolution to publish a weekly What We Ate post…for the first week anyway! I hope you can find some inspiration below. Please notice that most of our meals are very simple. I only go to great lengths to create something new or fancy once a week – at most. And also please notice, I have not styled these photos. This is straight up dinner. It is healthy, nutritious and delicious…not necessarily beautiful.

First up: Instant Pot Whole Roasted Chicken served with the veggies cooked along with the chicken, roasted potatoes and squash. For the potatoes and squash, I heated a large, rimmed baking sheet with about 2 Tablespoons of bacon fat in a 425 degree oven. Once the oil melted, I added the potatoes and the squash, tossed them in the oil and sprinkled with an herb blend containing dill, shallots, salt and pepper. I roasted the whole lot for about 25 minutes, flipping a couple times so all sides were browned. **Roasting brings out the best in vegetables. If you haven’t tried it, try it. With any vegetable!**

Meal #2 consisted of Gyro meat (recipe coming soon) with Tzatziki sauce, spanakopita (in my book) and stir fried peppers and squash. 

My birthday dinner! We went out to a nice, local place that has a pretty large gluten free menu. I chose the London Broil with mushroom sauce, french fries and cole slaw. I know french fries aren’t very fancy, but whenever I can get fries made out of real potatoes, fried in a dedicated gluten free frier, I’m there! And it was my birthday. I ate every single one. 

Dinner Number Three: Cod, simply pan fried in cast iron with a little avocado oil, salt and pepper, pan fried okra, same as the cod, but with bacon fat instead of avocado oil and oven roasted sweet potatoes. The method for the potatoes is exactly the same as linked in the sweet potato fry recipe, but the potatoes are cut into chunks rather than sticks.

Dinner Four: Carnitas in the Instant Pot, Cole Slaw (this recipe, but with no sweetener and extra pepper) and Fried Plantains. It’s no secret this is one of my favorite meals. The fact that it is Whole 30 compliant is all the better. We ate this meal on Day 2 of my Whole 30 when I was craving something really delicious and comforting. This totally filled the bill!

Extra meals from the week that I did not photograph:

  • Pizza made simply with a gluten free crust mix served with a big salad, birthday cake
  • Tomato soup and grilled cheese on gluten free bread, birthday cake
  • More birthday cake…are you noticing a theme?

Nobody’s perfect. 🙂

I overdid it a little leading up to this Whole 30, but it was my birthday. That’s my story and I’m sticking to it.

I hope all your meals this week are delicious! (And maybe contain a little less cake than mine.)