Whole30 Must Haves

Whole 30...you've either started or are gearing up for your next thirty days. The response we've received from friends and family who are joining us on Whole30 this month has been absolutely wonderful.  As we continue to place recipes online on The Ranch Kitchen site under our new Whole30 tab, we are blogging with a post as well to give you tips and tricks that helped us stay 'compliant' while on Whole30.

For today's blog post, we wanted to share with you our 'must haves' while on the program. The list below was the things that will now be staples in our kitchen as we continue to prepare healthier recipes that are Whole30 compliant.

So as you begin either your pre-planning stage or you've jumped right in and need a list to start your shopping with, see below.  This list of will help you with meal prepping for breakfast, lunch, dinner, and snacks and get you through the weeks ahead.

WHOLE30 MUST HAVES:

ALISE'S MUSH HAVE LIST:

Larabars:  These little bars are protein-rich and delicious. You will feel like you are cheating, but you are not.  Not all, however, are compliant on Whole30, so read, read the labels.  We absolutely loved the Pecan Pie, Cherry Pie, and Cashew Cookie Bars...delicious! We took a stab at the RX Bars that everyone raved over, but they were too chewy and dry for our taste.  Click here for a link to Amazon to purchase your own.  The neat thing is Amazon makes a Whole30 option on a couple of different products (Larabars, jerky, etc.) that make it easy to stay compliant.



Fresh Fruit: Bananas for a quick breakfast and for snacks I turned to grapes, tangerines, oranges and fresh pineapple that were huge for me while on Whole30.  I also realized halfway in that I could have the Dole Fruit Cups with natural juices that were downright amazing too.  Tangerines would give me that afternoon snack and natural sugar I needed around 4:30 - 5 each day and were great for a late night snack.  As I'd cook dinner, having grapes on hand were a sweet treat as well.



Earl Grey or Chai Tea - My morning or evening pick-me-up without sugar of course!  Love, love my Yeti cup that kept it hot or cold all day.  Being a Southern gal, we love our sweet tea...but I finally did learn to enjoy tea without sugar!  The added cinnamon in the Chai tea made me feel like I was having a treat and it also was a nice in the afternoons when my energy would sink.

       

Sweet Potatoes - We ate them with everything from the bottom layer of a breakfast casserole to the placing shredded chicken on top of it, or making a sweet potato hash with a fried egg that was really wonderful!

Sweet Potato Hash using Hereford Beef.
This was one of the first recipes we created and probably our very favorite.

Beef - For that matter Hereford Beef off our ranch.  As those who follow my blog know, we are ranchers.  We raise our own Hereford beef and proudly serve it to our family. Whole30 does not limit beef and the ability to continue the tradition of serving beef on our table was a must for me.  For recipes, check out Certified Hereford Beef for a multitude of ways you can create compliant recipes.

Picture compliments of Certified Hereford Beef

BETHANY'S MUST HAVE LIST: 

Avocado Oil - A new oil for our family.  After doing much research, Bethany saw that this was a great oil to use to cooking. You can find this at most grocery stores.

LaCroix - This was huge for my Bethany who loves her carbonation in her drinks. It would get her through her day and the carbonation - fizziness was a must for her.  Her favorite flavors are Pamplemousse, Lime and Lemon.  If you link to the LaCroix site, you'll see that they are a partner with Whole30 as well.

Kombucha - This fermented tea is compliant for Whole30 and made her feel like she was 'almost' having a glass of wine at night!  She would even pour it in a wine glass to give herself the thought that she was having a cocktail! Other benefits include stomach health with this increasingly popular tea.  We found ours at Natural Grocers in our neighboring town. ***Make sure that it is Whole30 compliant as some Kombucha Teas are not. Whole30 makes you read your labels.












Coconut Oil - Bethany cooked with it and used it to season pans as well.  She'd even use it for moisturizer on her hands.  You can buy it in bulk at food clubs like Sam's Club. This oil stores well and the multi-use capability of it really makes it a useful ingredient to add to your kitchen.










Unsweetened Almond Milk - This was used as a coffee creamer and substituted for milk in recipes as needed.  The shelf life on this is long and must be refrigerated after opening. Be sure to DOUBLE check that it is unsweetened. There are also great coconut milk option to look at as well. Bethany tried the NutPods for creamer, but they were inconvenient to have to order a small (we mean small) package from Amazon and the flavoring wasn't strong enough for her liking.







                                 **********************************

While on this program you will find just how much dairy and sugar you really consume on a daily basis.  In moderation neither of them is necessarily bad for you and especially not the dairy.  But, in order to see how these affect you, the thirty day process of elimination will help you figure that out.  Bethany realizes now that dairy can really mess with her system and I know now for a fact that sugar and flour really cause all the joint pain and stomach bloat I had been experiencing.

And if we had to have a #11 on the list it would be individual meal containers like the Gladware brand.  Prepping meals for the days in advance is a KEY to staying on the program and being successful.  One day's planning is worth a week of success!

As you begin your Whole30 journey, comment on our Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and The Ranch Kitchen site blog post to let us know how it is going.  If you create an amazing recipe or have found something that gets you through your days, let us know about it!  You can easily 'Share A Recipe' on my blog, or shoot me the recipe alise@theranchkitchen.com and I'll submit it for you!  Be sure to include a picture, even if you took it off your phone, please.

Together we will get healthier and feel so much better come February and the spring/summer seasons ahead...for that matter life!

Thanks for coming along with us on Whole30!

Alise & Bethany

Green Eggs and Ham Breakfast Casserole

Here's another easy breakfast casserole that a friend and I made the other day for our campus breakfasts!  Little did Buffy and I know we each had made almost the exact same recipe....she knows our motto! 

Click here for the link to Green Eggs and Ham Breakfast Casserole

I like to call it The Ranch Kitchen's Green Eggs and Ham Casserole because of the green chili's that bring such a great flavor to it.  I literally threw this together in ten minutes the night before.  I cooked it and reheated the next day in our cafeteria for ten mintues in one of their jumbo steamers and was able to serve our staff.  Someday I want commercial size appliances....hint...hint Scott.

Each year our secretaries Anita and her daughter Tori serve an assortment of sweets and their famous pumpkin roll.  It's a tradition we all enjoy.  The rest of our administrators help by pitching in and serving egg casseroles, doughnuts, muffins and croisants. 

Buffy made this casserole with sausage instead of ham and cooked it in her crock pot all night on a medium heat. I think her idea is better and especially for Christmas morning this year!

Hope you enjoy it.  Later this week I'll share my Principals 'Bobby's Egg Ring Casserole' that was a hit as well! 

Alise - The Ranch Kitchen

Milestones and Breafast Soft Tacos

                                                        

This week marked a milestone in our family when my youngest daughter Audrey turned 13!  What a blessing she has been to our family. The last of our three girls and our 'baby' is all to quickly growing up.

This weekend we celebrated with getting her ears pierced of which is a tradition with our girls when you turn 13.  We told her if Bethany her middle sister could do it she could...because she doesn't do anything that involves pain.  She did it all while holding a teddy bear provided by the Claire's assistant. 

Later on during the weekend, we continued the celebration with several of her closest friends, cousin Zoe, Nanny and had a slumber party with pizza on the grill, a chocolate fondue with sweets and fruits, cookie cake and hayride on the back porch by the fire. 

In the morning, we will have her request of her big sister Ilissa's Breakfast Soft Tacos.  Thankfully we get fresh farm raised eggs from Scott's brother Terry.  They are always put to good use, especially with my middle daugther Bethany's love for baking sweets. 

Tonight in the middle of the slumber party I am able to blog a little while watching these sweet girls put on performances for each other.  I don't know if I'd ever be able to handle boys....I guess they wouldn't be inside, but camping outdoors.  However, I couldn't imagine being any more lucky than to have been a mother of three girls. 

My mom told me tonight how lucky I was and I know she is right.  I'll gladly take a night watching these girls dance, share their junior high stories, and act like they are still not teenagers one more time...because as Scott said after the hayride, "you got this" and went to bed.  And I guess he's right.  I've got a 'passle' of girls and couldn't be more blessed! 

Soft tacos are an easy dish to put together. We love ours with scrambled eggs, sweet onions, crumbled sausage (or shredded beef or bacon), and Colby Jack cheese all rolled up in flour tortillas and topped with a tomato salsa.  This recipe is just that simple!

 

Click here for the recipe for Breakfast Soft Tacos.

Special thanks to our Bethany for taking this picture of Audrey!

Happy birthday Audrey!  We love you so much!  Enjoy your teenage years! 

Love, Mom



Audrey and her sweet cousin Zoe! Her and her mom Leslie always have the best gifts for our girls!



Audrey and her best friend Jaici and her sweet gift...who will be a blogger one day I'm sure!

Audrey with my husband Scott and I.

Audrey and her Nanny...my mom.

The Lost Art of Cooking Meatloaf!

Yes.  I think making meatloaf is considered one of those recipes that is dying out on American tables.  Too few people consider this an easy meal to make and with the misconceptions about beef and all the great lean cuts that are out there, meatloaf is a great protein packed meal to prepare!   Honestly it's suffered and it couldn't be anything but easy to make. Leftovers are even better and if you've never had a meatloaf sandwich then well, you're missing out!

So, last night, I prepared on of my husbands favorite, which is really my mom's rendition of her homemaking teacher's Mrs. Bonnie Rob's meatloaf back from 1960's. To me nothing says Sunday night at home than meatloaf, mashed potatoes, and purple hull peas we shelled from the summer before. 

You'll find the recipe below has most everything that you'll find in your refrigerator or pantry.  I get creative sometimes with my seasoning and God knows I love my Tony Chachere's Creole Seasoning, but I've discovered a new pepper seasoning called Jane's Kazu Original Mixed-Up Pepper Marinade and Seasoning.  It's so, so good!  You have to try it! Great on steaks and especially in this meatloaf!

I like to bake my meatloaf until well - well done.  So you'll see a slight burnt crust to mine from the combination of the extra cooking time and ketchup on top because sometimes it's how momma likes it that hits the table! 


Mom's Homemaking Class Meatloaf

4 lbs. ground hamburger meat, not totally lean
1  - 2 onions, chopped (we love onions so I use 2)
1 green bell pepper, chopped
4 eggs, beaten
2 tsp. steak seasoning or salt and pepper to taste
1 cup ketchup for inside meatloaf
1/2 cup for the top of meatloaf
1/4 cup Worcestershire Sauce
10 sliced of day old bread, crumbled up by hand or shredded by hand.

In a large bowl place hamburger meat, chopped onion, bell pepper, three beaten eggs, ketchup and Worcestershire Sauce. Blend well by hand (take off your rings or they'll get messy).  Once your meat mixture is together well, add the crumbled bread and seasonings continuing to blend together by hand.  You do not want to work with the meat too much as it can make it tough after it's cooked.  Blend until the meat and bread are together well. 

Place the meat loaf mixture in a 9 x 13 inch Pyrex dish that has non-stick foil or has been sprayed with cooking oil like Pam Cooking Spray.  You'll want to do this as the cleanup can be a complete mess if you don't! 

Bake at 375 degrees for 1 1/2 hours or until meatloaf has no remaining pink. You can use a meat thermometer and the recommended degrees for this is 145 - 164 degrees when it is stuck in the center.  Remember that the thicker your meatloaf is, the longer it will take to cook.  That is why I like to cook mine in a 9 x 13 inch Pyrex dish.

And one last note!  Certified Hereford Beef or CHB as we call it is the best beef to use with this recipe!  After a day at a cattle sale I thought it appropriate to make sure this recipe got on my site!  Enjoy!

Alise @ The Ranch Kitchen!