Cooking Up A New Year Storm!

I have made it to the end of day 2 of my first Whole30! Yay me! To be honest, it hasn't been that hard so far. The food has been yummy and filling, and fairly easy to make. In fact, the hardest thing about the past two days was sitting in Starbucks! I work really well there and having my usual sugar free hazelnut latte pretty much makes my day. Alas, this drink is definitely NOT Whole30 compliant...dairy and artificial sweeteners are a big no no. Today I had my first black coffee. And it was gross. My brother was with me and said that I just have to power through, that eventually I will love black coffee. Hmm, this may take a while. For the next 30 days I will just have to be content with trying the various fruit teas that they offer, with the occasional caffeine fix that the black, gross tasting gloop will provide.

So what have I eaten in the past two days? Yesterday I roasted some chicken thighs and some carrots rubbed with cumin. Yum. Today has been a big cook-a-thon where I roasted some more veggies, made a Shepherd's Pie, and made some Scotch Eggs! These recipes came from 'Well Fed', the recipe book that I have been raving about! As I am British, I wanted to try out the 'traditional' recipes first.
The Shepherd's Pie was made with ground lamb and topped with mashed cauliflower instead of potato. It came out really well; the taste was lovely and full of depth. The presentation of it leaved much to be desired though! A bit sploggy, if that is a word. I feel that it works as a description for it! Next time I will use a food processor to puree the cauliflower, as opposed to just using a fork. It will hopefully make it much smoother and easier to dish out.

Now for the main event...the Scotch Eggs! These are beasts. Literally, the size of Mr T's fist. Instead of using breadcrumbs on the outside the recipe asked for ground up pork rinds. While I was in the supermarket, I looked at bags of pork scratchings but found that they were jammed packed with names of preservatives and other ingredients that I had trouble pronouncing; those were going no where near my mouth. Instead, I bought some pork rind and made my own!

For my first attempt I feel pretty proud of myself. They definitely look like Scotch Eggs at the very least! Next time though I will add in some more herbs to the sausage meat (homemade I might add!) and put more of the pork rind crumbs around the outside.

I hope everyone has a brilliant New Year! Remember to make some resolutions for 2013, but they need to be achievable. All goals have to be SMART:

S- Specific
M- Meaningful
A- Attainable
R- Relevant
T-Timed

There is no point setting yourself up for a failure; find something that you can reach and go get it.