Whole 30 Breakfast

There's nothing worse than trying to follow a lifestyle change like Whole 30 when you're moving house! I did not think things through when I packed up the entire kitchen last week...so making meals isn't the easiest, but I am pushing through! Here's my Whole 30 breakfast this morning: scrambled eggs with lox, and a delicious coffee (in my awesome Kate Spade initial mug I got from my bridal shower). 

This is really not going to be easy, so I'm going to follow a Paleo/Whole 30ish meals throughout our move. Once back in California I will go back totally onto Whole 30.

Easter Brunch - Whole 30 Style

Andrew doesn't like mornings very much, but lucky for him I'm typically a very early riser! Since I had an extra few hours on my hands, I wanted to make something new for Easter brunch. Andrew doesn't like sweet things for breakfast (no pancakes, muffins, or anything delicious) and Whole 30 doesn't allow for any of those things, so instead I got creative (and went to Pinterest for inspiration). I found this delicious recipe for a Sweet Potato Quiche from Grok Grub and decided to give it a go.

First up was to peel 3lbs of sweet potatoes! This meant peeling the entire bag from Trader Joe's! I thought it seemed a little excessive to peel that many potatoes, but I'm a rule follower and that's what the recipe called for! 

All my sweet potatoes peeled and cubed. This shot isn't very good at showing depth, but trust me this pile of sweet potato goes on for a while!

Here they are all lined up on the world's largest baking sheet. But I didn't care, I love sweet potato so how could you go wrong with 3lbs!?

While the sweet potato is in the oven becoming delicious, cook up some bacon and try not to burn the house down (seriously does anyone else's kitchen get smoked out from cooking bacon!? Ridiculous).

Next add eggs from a hoard of chickens. It's always amazing to me how many eggs are called for in Paleo/Whole 30 recipes. Don't get me wrong, I like eating the unfertilized fetus of another animal, but 10 eggs is quite excessive. Wouldn't you agree?

Well here it all is in my square pyrex. It turns out I don't actually own a pie dish. It's quite remarkable, but true. So I used the next best thing I could find, and good thing too because all those sweet potatoes barely fit in the pyrex!

And three hours later I finally got to eat this delicious quiche. Even Andrew liked it, but did give a few notes:

• Why are there so many sweet potatoes?
• This would actually be amazing if there wasn't an entire farmers market worth of sweet potatoes in here.
• Next time add more bacon. And sausage. Just more meat in general.
• Really this is quite good.
• Less sweet potatoes though.

So there you have it: more meat, less sweet potatoes. Overall pretty good for Easter brunch. I don't think I would make this every weekend because it was quite time consuming, but definitely once a month or so!

Lactose-free Yogurt

Andrew is lactose intolerant and as such I'm constantly trying to make the same foods he's used to but in lactose-free form.  This is much harder than either of us anticipated and it also doesn't help that he's an extremely picky eater!

A few months ago I became obsessed with making my own yogurt after reading the incredible book, "French Women Don't Get Fat" by Mireille Guiliano (you can buy the book here).

I immediately went out and bought myself a yogurt maker because...why not!?  (For those of you interested, I own this one.)  I found out that Andrew loves yogurt, or at least loved it when he was able to eat it without feeling awful.  So, I did a quick online search and found a few non-dairy yogurt recipes.

They all sucked.  Mainly it was the consistency...most were almost Jello like, gross!  But some just didn't even taste right.  I must have gone through 4 different recipes until I just told Andrew to bite dirt, I would only make real yogurt.

And real it was.  It was a perfect consistency and flavor - everything you want out of homemade yogurt.  And it was so much simpler...literally you heat a quart of milk to 180 degree, let it cool to 110 and then pop it in the yogurt maker for 8-10 hours (depending on your patience and whether or not you like your yogurt thicker).

So then I though...well, what if I just try using Lactaid milk and a non-dairy yogurt starter?  It worked!  And I'm very pleased to announce it's delish!

Here's the recipe:

1 quart / 4 cups / 1 L of Lactaid Milk
1/16 tsp Yogurt Starter - I used GI ProHealth

Measure it out

1. Warm Lactaid to almost boiling - 180 degrees F

Our super sexy oven from the 70s...literally. 

Get that milk hot

Take it off the heat when it says 180 degrees fahrenheit

2. Take off burner and let cool to 110 degrees F - I would suggest pouring the milk into a container and placing that container in a cool water, such as in the sink.  It will cool down faster (like 10-20 mins) compared to just leaving it (like almost an hour).

3. Once Lactaid is at 110, pour 1 cup into another container and whisk very well with yogurt starter.

This turns milk (or in my situation, Lactaid) into yogurt.

4. Pour the cup of yogurt starter and Lactaid back into the main container and mix all the Lactaid very well.

5. Pour into your yogurt containers and set the timer - I set mine at 9 hours.

The cutest containers ever - you can always put the yogurt into 1 big container, which I do from time to time.

6. Wait an excruciatingly long time.....

7. Timer is done - you now have yogurt.

Note: The yogurt will still be warm, so I suggest you leave in your fridge for 8 hours before consuming.  If you must eat it, you can try it after 3 hours.