Sweet treats

Still going strong on my Whole 10, other than a few 'modifications' I've allowed myself. I'm allowing honey when it's an ingredient in an otherwise-approved recipe. And I made myself a pudding with unsweetened cocoa powder, which is technically against the rules because it's a dessert, but doesn't violate any food restrictions.  I'm having fun with it this time, because 10 days feels so much more attainable to me.

This afternoon I made another sweet treat that I think my boys will like and it gives me a little indulgence without breaking too many rules. It reminded me that I should share a couple of these easy, quick and reasonably healthy "cookie" recipes that I've been making regularly for my food-allergy-no-cookies-allowed boys.

The first is not Paleo, but it is allergy friendly. We call these "special Tucker cookies" because they're the only cookies he can have.  So very simple and perfect for a little one who wants to help in the kitchen.

http://www.ambitiouskitchen.com/2013/09/2-ingredient-healthy-banana-bread-breakfast-cookies-with-delicious-add-ins/

Two ingredients! Could not be simpler. I usually add in cinnamon, vanilla and chocolate chips. Love that she gives lots of ideas for mix-ins.

The other is Paleo and vegan, which is a must for our milk and egg allergies. I will tell ya - that is the hardest thing about our diet. We don't fit into a nice box. We're Paleo, but we can't have nuts. We're vegan, but we eat meat. Sheesh!

http://empoweredsustenance.com/banana-bread-macaroons/

Anyway, cheers to another day of whole foods with a few rules bent for good measure!

Doing a "Whole 10"

I need to get back on track with my eating. And I want to. But the summer is just so full of events and visits and parties and fun. And I just don't think I'm going to be successful at a Whole 30 right now. So I've decided to do a "Whole 10" and just hope that it is enough to get me back on track - eliminating those sugar cravings, losing a little weight, getting my energy back up. Why 10? Because Rachel is coming in 11 days and there will be wine. And chocolate. 

Day 1 is off to a good start. Pumpkin muffins and homemade sausage for breakfast. Tuck and I will share a green smoothie before heading off to the Y for his first day of summer camp and a good workout for me. Hope I can keep this momentum going!

Bread for my boy

My 3 year old, Tucker, loves to cook with me. Bless his heart, despite all his food allergies, he finds much joy in creating sweet treats (and sampling the ingredients). Finding recipes that will entice him as well as work with our allergy restrictions is always a challenge. (My family will remember the nearly inedible chocolate cupcakes and gummy icing that I created for his first birthday party.) 

Lately, he has been watching a show that must have mentioned eating or baking bread, because he's been asking for it incessantly. "Can we make bread, mama? But not wheat bread. Another kind of bread that I can have." My heart just breaks a little for my munchkin who's never had a slice of bread.

But, man! Bread without wheat, eggs, and (in order to be Sawyer-friendly) dairy and soy? That's a tall order! Then someone reminded me of banana bread. That seemed to be an acceptable option for Tuck. So I searched for a vegan, gluten-free banana bread that wouldn't taste like cardboard. And I found one (here)! And it's actually really yummy!

Love making my little man smile. And I love teaching him that his food allergies don't have to limit him all the time.

Little leaps of faith

It’s been awhile, y’all! And that’s because we made a fairly quick decision to pursue a job opportunity (for John) and relocate to Charlotte, NC. We’ve been here just 3 weeks now, and we’re loving it. The weather is incredible and our boys just love being outside every day. It seems to be a really good fit for our family.

Moving with children is such a different experience. There are so many supports you need to put into place when you arrive, and quickly. Pediatrician, allergist (in our case), childcare, school and/or activities, etc. It has involved meeting a lot of new people and making quick decisions about our kids’ care. As one who has issues with control (and loves to do thorough research), this has been a bit scary for me.

The hardest thing for any allergy parent, I imagine, is leaving their children in someone else’s care. We expend so much energy on a daily basis keeping our children safe, that it is with great trepidation that we hand them over to a “stranger,” no matter how capable. Last summer, when Tucker first started preschool, my anxiety was so great that I had to start taking anti-anxiety medication. Now, instead of panic attacks, I just get run-of-the-mill worry when I leave them.

That’s where I’m at right now. We’re trying out a drop-in childcare center today so that it will be an option when we need it. I am across the parking lot in Starbucks, trying to stay busy. Not thinking about where the nearest emergency room is, in case they happen to pick up another kid’s animal crackers.

It is faith – little leaps of faith – that I must take to live this life. There is no guarantee. In fact, there is the truth that, of the 3 times my children have needed the EpiPen, 2 of them were when they were in childcare. And yet I still must leave them. I must still take a deep breath, and believe that most of the time, everything will be fine. And when it’s not, we all will survive it.

I’ve done this three times this week. I know that it is worth it to have good help, especially now that we are far from home and family. And I also recognize that my boys are making these little leaps with me. I keep leaving them, and they keep trusting that I am choosing good people to leave them with. And that I will return to care for them in that important way that only I can. But I will be relieved when all this is behind us, and I can breathe a little easier.

NFR: Not Food Related

Today's post is not about little bellies - it's about little people. Particularly 3 year old people. "Threenagers" some people call them. Yeah, they can be that bad.

This past week and a half has been one of the toughest stints of my parenting career thus far. Both of my kids and I came down with a truly miserable illness - sore throats, fevers, lots of goop and hacking coughs. As such, Tucker was out of school ALL week last week. I didn't get anything accomplished. We hardly left the house. And, John was traveling most of the week. By the weekend, we had all had about enough of each other. 

I could feel my patience wearing thin. Tucker was crying and whining at the drop of a hat. He was asking for things he knew I would say 'no' to just so he could explode at me. He was pushing every one of my buttons, for days on end, and there was nothing either of us could do about it. We were trapped, sick of being sick, and sick of each other.

Today - mercifully - he went back to school. Two hours of peace for me, except that Sawyer is still a goopy, whiny mess. But when Tucker came back home, he started acting up again. By now I have no patience left. I was on the verge of screaming at him, but I didn't. I thought to myself, "he can be so sweet and wonderful. I know he's capable of being a joy. So, why doesn't he just do that instead?"

And then I remembered something I read recently in one of the parenting books piled up next to my bed. A parenting mistake is to have unreasonable expectations of your preschooler. For example, to witness their best behavior and then expect (or demand) it all the time. I stood in the kitchen, took a couple deep breaths, and really thought about this. Thought: what if I turned this logic around on myself?

"You can be the best mom -  you're capable of it, I know it. So why don't you just be the best mom all the time? You can be so fun and happy and playful and attentive. Can't you just be like that every minute of every day?"

Well of course not. I would like to be - sure. But that's just not realistic. And it's equally unrealistic to expect a 3 year old to be their best self all the time. It's exhausting being our best. And there's a lot of good excuses - like being sick, tired and worn out - when we're not. Let's try to give our "threenagers" the same grace we expect for ourselves.

Sneaky Sawyer

Little Bellies has been on a bit of a hiatus because, well, I'm exhausted. After the stomach flu knocked us down like dominoes and we surrendered our Whole30 attempt, we have been fighting things off left and right. Tucker came down with another stomach bug a week later, and then this week he has been home from school all week because of a nasty, nasty cold. Did you get that? All. week. And little dude had a fever today so that means no school tomorrow either. So, not a lot of down time for me.

However, I've been composing this post in my head for the last week, so I thought I'd try to get it down. The other day, I was talking to another mom about Sawyer's food allergies and about halfway through my spiel about what he can't have, I noticed she was looking at me like I had two heads. It seems as though avoiding all food containing milk or soy (in addition to his other allergens) was just ... beyond her. It kind of surprised me in an odd way. I thought - hey wait, what if Sawyer is my trickier kid?

To say that Sawyer is an easy baby is a complete understatement. Sawyer was (surprisingly) easy to conceive, easy to birth, and has been a happy, smiley, easy baby since we brought him home from the hospital. In terms of feeding, I thought nothing could be harder than Tucker. I thought I had seen it all and it would all be downhill from there. And I certainly never imagined that Sawyer would be harder than Tucker in any way.

But he is, in one way. His restrictions are very limiting, especially when it comes to toddler food. (Mac and cheese? Nope! P, B & J? Forget it! Fishy crackers? Never heard of them!) And, on top of that, he is a pickier eater than Tucker was. He's a voracious eater, when he's eating what he likes (bananas). But he's much more prone to sit in his highchair and cry and sign "more" while there is a whole tray of food in front of him (beef and veggie stew).

I started feeling frustrated and guilty that I was not getting enough variety into my already very limited child. But then I decided that, for now, I'm still smarter than him. So I chopped up kale very finely. And I put it in everything I made for dinner - meatballs and mashed sweet potatoes. Kid gobbled them up. Victory!

You win some, you lose some

We've had our share of what I would call #fail around here. We've also had a couple #wins. Looking back on this month and our Whole30 attempt, I would say that I thought I was well prepared, but I wasn't. I only planned 3 meals a day. Seems like that would be enough, right? But the thing is....sometimes those meals were not very appetizing (especially to 3 year olds). Sometimes we didn't have the ability to pull dinner together before little people were demanding to be fed. Sometimes I was worried it was neglectful to feed your children SO many bananas in one day. The truth? Hot dogs became my crutch. The boys ate more hot dogs this month than they have in their entire lives. Granted, they were organic, grass-fed, nitrate-free, humanely raised, all-beef hot dogs. But still, man cannot live on bananas and hot dogs alone.

I was feeling kind of guilty about this, and then I put this "snack" on the table for Tucker:

And I'll be darned if that kid didn't eat the whole dang plate of asparagus. As a snack!

Later, after a lackluster chicken dish, I made this:

Tater tots. I made my own tater tots! And now I feel like a badass again...

Eat More Veg!

Now that I'm done with the Whole30, I'm looking for ways to stay motivated and excited about clean/paleo eating. I decided that I'd start with and focus on my first goal: eating more veggies. To make it fun, I started a facebook group for anyone that would like to join me in a fun and easy challenge to get more veggies in my diet. Starting next week, I am going to cook one new vegetable for my family every week for 10 weeks. For me, "new" will mean something that we haven't made/served at home before. Excited to get inspiration from others and hopefully find some new favorites. Please join us if you're so inclined!

Transition

This week, we have started bringing in some non-paleo foods. John and I agreed that it would make life easier if we could incorporate those grains and legumes to which our children are not allergic. So, oats, corn, rice and beans are back in, but in moderation (hopefully). We also are going to try to keep allergens out of our diet as much as possible, but will enjoy the occasional pizza or ice cream. However, it's important to me that we keep our "forbidden foods" away from the children so as not to confuse them. Family meals will still be allergen free and primarily paleo. Natural sweeteners occasionally, but no sugar for the most part. It is hard for me to do this "moderation" thing. I've always been an all or nothing kind of person - I need a set of strict rules to follow if I'm going to challenge myself. So, this will be interesting. I'm hoping that I can create a new way of cooking/eating that comes naturally instead of requiring willpower.

Today's lunch is a good example, I think:

 

Those are tacos on corn tortillas (ingredients in those are simply corn, water and lime) with organic refried beans, ground beef with my own seasoning and chopped avocado. It's so crazy but I don't even miss the cheese and sour cream that I used to NEED for tacos. That's how I know that my cravings really have been broken. I just hope I can keep them at bay.

What I’ve learned so far: lessons from attempting the Whole 30

We are officially off the Whole 30 and I can tell my family is relieved. I am a little disappointed, because I thrive on challenges. But the stomach flu did us in, and we have started to re-frame our plan for eating. I’m proud that I completed a “Whole 17” and I’m excited about the things I learned from that process. (I also lost about 6 lbs. which was a nice bonus!) Here’s my takeaway:

I can be creative in the kitchen. I learned this after we were stranded at home because of the cold with very little left in the pantry. It made me feel really proud and empowered.

It’s not hard to make your own ketchup, salad dressing, breakfast sausage, whipped cream, etc. It’s really not. That said, time is a factor. With two young children, it has to be. But I think going forward I will be more inclined to make my own products with real ingredients rather than buy packaged ones with a bunch of chemicals.

Sugar cravings really do go away. It’s not that I don’t look forward to eating a really decadent dessert, but I think I’ll only do it on occasions when it’s “worth it” and not several times a day because I need a ‘fix.’

Stomach flu is the enemy of clean eating. Being sick demands comfort foods - whether that’s because of our biology or culture, I’m not sure. That said, John went out the other night and bought ramen for him and mac & cheese for me. I was so excited to eat it and after a couple bites, I really didn’t like it. (Perhaps because it was prepared with coconut milk and no butter, but the jury is out.) Have I lost my taste for my favorite comfort food??

Eliminating allergens has had a noticeable effect on my stress level. It also made my job easier (which was balanced out by the fact that cooking every meal made my job harder). I’d like to continue eliminating allergens at home as much as possible.

We need to eat more vegetables, and it’s hard to do. If ever there was a time to eat veggies, this was it. And I still don’t think we ate enough. Finding new ways to cook and enjoy veggies is a top goal of mine.

So there you have it. The whole truth about our (first?) Whole 30. Stay tuned.

Surrender....sort of

Well I thought my stubbornness and determination would hold me through the 30 days. But then the stomach flu swept through our house, taking no prisoners. The paleo birthday party I had planned for yesterday was cancelled because I was unable to get out of bed. Sawyer had it a few days ago, but it was pretty mild so I didn't think much of it. But today it got Tucker bad and John is just waiting for the inevitable. Needless to say, meat is neither appealing nor beneficial when you have the stomach flu. So, in my weakened state, I agreed to John's pleas to be done with the Whole 30 and allow some comfort foods back in our life. 

It's going to be a slow transition (we are not ordering a big, steamy pizza like John suggested), and I still want to keep our house as allergen-free as possible. We're still working out the details of what's "allowed" and what's not. But I guess this is the purpose of the Whole 30 - to find a diet that's right for your family while being mindful of what you eat.

Go away, stomach flu!

Day 15: The art of compromise

We've made it half-way! Woo hoo! That said, my husband informed me last night that he was "over it." I am not over it, but maybe that's because I'm a bit more stubborn than him. Anyway, after some discussion and some thought, we've reached a compromise. We are going to complete the Whole30, but we are going to bring back alcohol. (Twist my arm, why don't you?) We are both missing our nightly wind-down drink, and at the end of a day of running around after two under three, who is going to blame us?

I also compromised a tiny bit with the kiddos. Tomorrow we are celebrating their birthdays - Tucker will be 3 next week and Sawyer just turned one. While I have planned a Whole30 compliant meal, the dessert will include one "cheat" ingredient. It's impossible to find a baked good that both my boys can eat (no wheat, eggs or dairy), so I decided to go with cups of fresh strawberries topped with paleo whipped cream (made with coconut milk). I whipped up the cream today to test it out, and added a little honey for sweetness. It was delicious! We all enjoyed a little sneak-preview taste of it. And, because every kid should have a memory like this, I let Tuck lick the whisk.

Aha!

We have wrapped up Day 12. Not necessarily still going strong, but still going. A few days ago, I found myself starting to think about what foods we will re-introduce after this month is over, and how. At first, I chided myself for thinking about the “after” when we were still very much at the beginning of this journey. But then I had an aha! moment.

That is exactly the purpose of the Whole30.

The Whole30 isn’t a lifestyle. It’s not a way to eat everyday, all the time. What it is is a pause, a time for reflection. It’s like meditation – clearing away all the junk and clutter and taking a moment to rest before going forward. And spending time being thoughtful about what and how we should eat after this meditation is over is precisely the point of doing it at all.

I find myself thinking a lot about food these days. I feel as though I’m constantly cooking or planning for the next meal. But I think that’s one of the unexpected blessings of this challenge. I’m thinking about food, really thinking about it. About what I put in my body and my children’s bodies. Thinking about what things I crave and what things are good for me. Thinking about the foods I love and how maybe making them a rare treat will allow me to savor them even more than if I eat them daily.

I think this is what the writers of It Starts with Food (the book about the Whole30) meant when they said that it would change your life in unexpected ways.

Yum

We've had a 'blah' few days of eating. Yesterday, I told my boys that I was going to make a skillet meal called "deconstructed pizza." Well, I guess Tucker only absorbed the word "pizza" because when I handed him a bowl of seasoned ground beef, tomatoes and spinach, he burst into tears. "Where is the pizza??" he wailed. And then, when we were out running errands, he said to us, "can we please go to Target and buy a pizza?" Poor kid.

Today I finally made something that I loved and my kids liked pretty well (it has avocado, which John is allergic to, so he couldn't try it). It had enough protein and fat to fill me up but also had the grapes to give it sweetness. Yum - this is going to become a staple.

Avocado Sonoma Chicken Salad

Ingredients:
1 pound cooked chicken
a few bunches red seedless grapes, halved
3 celery stalks, sliced thin
2 ripe avocados
juice from one small lemon
salt and pepper to taste

Directions:
Cut the chicken into small, bite-sized pieces and place in a medium bowl. Add grapes and celery. Peel and pit the avocados and then mash them in a separate bowl. Add mashed avocado to the chicken, grapes, and celery. Stir to coat and squeeze lemon juice over everything. Salt and pepper to taste.

*Recipe adapted from wellsphere.com

 Okay, that's all for now. Off to plan a Paleo birthday party!

Day 9

Doing SO much cooking gives you a lot of time to think. And I’ve been surprised this week about how, as I’ve been chopping away, my thoughts have turned to my mom. My mother died suddenly and unexpectedly when I was 22. I’ve been thinking a lot about what she would say if she were here, what she’d think of this crazy diet.

The way we’re eating now is 100% opposite of how I grew up eating. Processed foods comprised much of my diet. I ate (flavored) instant oatmeal for breakfast, PB&J sandwiches for lunch, and cookies for an after-school snack. My mother was not a cook. She would prepare our dinners, but they would usually consist mostly of foods that came out of a box or a can. She did not experiment. She made what we would eat. She tried to sneak a vegetable in, but “the vegetable” was usually corn or potatoes. We never ate salad. Never.

I say this not in criticism of my mother, but in reflection. She knew so little about nutrition and I’m sure she never really considered that she was doing any harm with the way she fed us. I was watching a TED talk the other day, and the speaker said something along the lines of, “I was just a mom, feeding my kids from the grocery store. I always assumed that if it was on the grocery store shelves, it must be safe.” I am certain that my mother thought the same.

But, as Oprah says, when you know better, you do better. Or at least you try. This 30-day experiment we’re doing is a great crash course in nutrition, time management and kitchen skills. But it’s not sustainable. There has to be some sort of compromise between optimal health and convenience. Moms need convenience, too. So I’m already starting to think about what it’s going to look like next month. What do I want to continue, where do I want to make exceptions. I guess I have 21 days to figure that out.

For now I’m just going to keep at it, believing that my mother would be proud of me. Caring for her family was her priority, and it’s the greatest attribute she passed on to me.

A low point

I promised to share with you the successes AND the failures. So, lest you think I've turned into Martha Stewart overnight, I took a picture of my lunch today.

This was a low point.

In my defense, the temperature at the time I took this was 0 degrees, with a "feels like" temperature of -21 degrees. I have been stuck inside my house for 2 days with two antsy, hungry little boys. (John is conveniently -for him- out of town). This is a challenge that I didn't expect when embarking on the Whole30. The need to be creative and the ability to make something out of nothing. Can't wait to go to Whole Foods when John gets home later today! Until then, all-you-can-eat raisins and carrots!

Homebound - time to get creative

Tucker's school was closed today because it was bitterly cold. So, not only did I not get my usual (much-needed) 2.5 hour break, I also didn't get to go to the grocery store and restock my refrigerator. Instead, we stayed in our jammies all day and watched a lot of TV. I had leftovers planned for breakfast and lunch, but my meal plan just said "chicken salad" for dinner. 

A few months ago, we discovered that Tucker will eat salad. I put a few dried cranberries on some mixed greens, topped it with a super-sweet strawberry vinaigrette and he gobbled it up. That dressing contained plenty of sugar, of course, and was eliminated in the purge. So I was left thinking, how am I going to get this kid to eat a salad for dinner without a sweet dressing?  There was only one answer - look at my supplies and figure out how to make one. (By "figure out," I mean google). 

Like I said, my cupboards are pretty bare at this point. But I do have frozen blueberries. So - voila! - blueberry vinaigrette! Dude ate a huge plate of salad and asked for more. (Sawyer had his "deconstructed.") Success!

(Please ignore the fact that my children are naked in most of the pictures you see of them.)

Zoodles!

Today was Day 5 and we ate leftovers for breakfast and lunch. My boys were asking for food a lot today, and I'm trying to do a better job of giving them veggies rather than fruit for every snack. I made roasted sweet potato "bits" that they both gobbled up, and I stopped by Trader Joe's and picked up a package of their mini cucumbers. Here is Tucker eating one:

But he was still hungry. So he ate six. No joke. He likely would have eaten the whole package if I'd let him. But man cannot live on cucumber alone.

So, for dinner, I decided to try zoodles. I love just saying it. They are "noodles" made from zucchini using my handy-dandy new spiral vegetable slicer. You serve them with spaghetti sauce and meatballs and you have a dish that resembles the classic. 

I loved, it actually. It gave me my pasta fix while getting in my veggies! The boys were so-so on it, which surprised me. I thought they'd be into it, especially since I let Tucker help me make the meatballs and the zoodles. But I think they were a little weirded out by the green noodles. They both polished off a few meatballs, though. My little carnivores.

John and I decided that perhaps we did not do a good enough job of getting veggies in this week. We relied mostly on recipes that sounded yummy (bacon!) and lots of fruit. Time to meal plan for next week, dialing down the meat and fruit just a little and dialing up the veggies a lot. Onward!

Day 3 - it's getting real

We've made it through three days of the Whole30 and I am feeling mostly great. John, on the other hand, is not. He is feeling deprived and stressed. We are both missing our evening drink after the kiddos are in bed. (I mean, how does one survive parenting toddlers without a nightly drink?) I think the reason it is easier for me, though, is that I've been through the deprivation part before, and recently. I went without alcohol for nine months (twice) and without dairy for six months. So, I don't really feel as deprived. And whatever loss I am feeling is replaced by the "gain" of eating healthy, feeding my family healthy foods, and the confidence that everything I'm making is safe for everyone to eat. Those things are fueling my energy to keep going even though this is hard (and expensive!)

But for a brief moment today, I made my grumpy husband happy. I made him this:

That is a bacon mushroom burger with homemade ketchup and carmelized onions. And (surprisingly tasty) kale chips! If only for a moment, I think the feelings of deprivation faded.

Here is that recipe, from the book and blog Nom Nom Paleo:

Big-O Bacon Burgers

2 Tbsp. lard or fat of choice, divided
1/2 lb. cremini mushrooms, minced
4 oz. bacon, frozen and cross-cut into small pieces
1 lb. ground beef
1 1/2 tsp. kosher salt
Freshly ground black pepper

Heat 1 Tbsp. of the lard in a cast-iron skillet over medium heat, and sauté the cremini mushrooms until the liquid they release has cooked off. Set aside.

Pulse the frozen bacon pieces in a food processor to the consistency of ground meat. In a large bowl, combine the ground beef, bacon and cremini mushrooms, and season with salt and pepper. Using your hands, gently combine the ingredients. Be careful not to overwork the meat. Divide the mixture into four portions (or more, if you’re making sliders), and use your hands to flatten each into ¾-inch-thick patties.

Melt the remaining tablespoon of lard in a cast-iron skillet over medium heat, and fry up the patties in the hot fat, turning once. Regular-sized (6-oz.) burgers should take about 3 minutes per side; slider burgers should take about 2 minutes per side. The meat inside should be perfectly pink all the way through, and studded with pretty little pieces of smoky bacon and mushrooms.

Transfer the patties to a wire rack so that any excess cooking fat can drain off. Serve each patty with tomato slices in sturdy butter lettuce leaves or roasted portobello mushrooms. Makes 4 burgers.

— From “Nom Nom Paleo: Food for Humans” by Melissa Tam and Henry Fong

Day 1 of the Whole30

Whew! We made it! Day 1 was not so bad, other than a craving for my nightly glass of wine after the children are (mercifully) in bed. I had herbal tea instead and it was almost as good. The morning started off great with a delicious meal that all four of us gobbled up. I'm glad I made a double batch so that we'd have more for tomorrow.  And that leads to Lesson #1 for me - make a double batch! I learned this the hard way when we didn't have enough leftover chili for all of us for lunch today. We generously let the boys polish it off, and they did - with gusto! John roasted some chicken wings for his lunch and I made an uninspired salad. Lesson #2 is to always have some back-up meals that are ready or easy to prepare. I have a feeling I'm going to blow this week's grocery budget, as I have to go back to the store for more supplies tomorrow. Maybe that's Lesson #3 - prepare to blow your budget. Anyway, here is the winner from today:

Maple sage sausage with cinnamon apples 

1 lb. ground pork
1 tsp. fresh sage, chopped
2 tsp. maple syrup (we eliminated this for the Whole30 and it was still so good!)
1/4 tsp. coarse sea salt
1/4 tsp. black pepper
1/4 tsp. nutmeg
1/4 tsp. red pepper flakes
1/8 tsp. marjoram
2-4 apples, cored, peeled and sliced thin
1 tsp. cinnamon
  
1. Heat a skillet over medium-high heat.
2. Place the pork, sage, syrup, salt, pepper, nutmeg, red pepper flakes and marjoram in a bowl and combine well. Form the mixture into small, thin patties.
3. Fry the sausage patties in the skillet until cooked through, about 2-3 minutes per side. Remove the patties and drain on a plate lined with a paper towel.
4. Saute the apples and cinnamon in the same skillet for 8 minutes, or until tender. Return the sausage to the skillet and reheat for 2 minutes.

Recipe from Against All Grain

The Purge

So today was a day of preparation, as we officially start our Whole30 tomorrow. I spent the day purging our pantry and fridge and shopping for what seemed like mostly meat. It was actually more exciting than it sounds. It felt really good to get rid of stuff that I know is not making my family healthier. And it felt equally good to fill my shopping cart with good, whole foods. Better yet, I seem to have stayed within my budget for the week (though I won't know for sure until the week is over and we've tallied the emergency grocery store trips). I made a Paleo chili for dinner tonight, expecting that we could have the leftovers for lunch tomorrow. However, my two little cave-babies had three bowls each! Not sure we'll have leftovers...