For the past week we’ve been trying very hard to stick to our New Year’s Resolutions. One of those resolutions was to make the Weekly Cookup, from the Well Fed cookbook, part of our routine. We’ve done the Cookup twice so far, and this has really changed the way we feel about cooking. It seems so much less of a chore now.

Some of the exciting results are: we’re eating at home more, eating healthier, sticking to our Whole30 with ease, and saving money!

The point of the Weekly Cookup is to devote 1 hour to prepping most of the ingredients that you will need for your weeks worth of meals and snacks. When it’s time to make dinner it only takes 10-15 mins instead of 30-60 mins. It’s a brilliant idea and it works.

We started our Weekly Cookup by chopping up lots of veggies: bell peppers, celery, carrots, cucumbers, broccoli, cauliflower.  We cooked up a package of bacon, a pound each of ground beef and ground pork, then blanched the broccoli and cauliflower and steam sautéed kale and cabbage.

Earlier in the day, I put a chicken in the crockpot, and by the time we started the Cookup, the chicken was ready to come out and have the meat removed. We then put the carcass back into the crockpot and added all of our vegetable scraps to make Perpetual Bone Broth. I have it on pretty good authority that a certain Omaha chef puts egg shells in his broth – to add more calcium, so I’ve been doing the same. Every time I chop vegetables during the week, the ends and bits get thrown in the pot.  Now we have delicious bone broth to drink alone or standing by as a quick soup base!

Coconut chips were the special treat from this Weekly Cookup. They could easily be the most delicious snack in the entire universe! I’m a big fan of popcorn, and miss it quite a bit, but these coconut flakes are the best thing since salty, buttery popcorn, I promise (of course the recipe came from Well Fed).  Here it is, but be careful.  If you love it, you won’t be able to stop yourself from buying the book.

Caramelized Coconut Chips

1/4 tsp. cinnamon
1/4 tsp. salt
1 c. unsweetened coconut flakes

In a very small bowl mix spices and put them aside.

Heat a skillet over med-high heat. Pour coconut flakes into the skillet and arrange them so that they are in a single layer. Stir frequently until the flakes begin to get crispy and brown. This only takes a couple of minutes so be careful to not let them burn. When they have reached your desired level of toastiness, sprinkle the cinnamon and salt mixture over them and mix well.
Pour into a bowl and let cool. Try not to eat them all in one sitting!

We also whipped up a batch of homemade Paleo/Whole30-approved mayo! So much better than the soybean oil-laden, store-bought stuff! Truly.

During the Cookup, we also started dinner:  Cinnamon Beef Stew from, you guessed it, Well Fed. (Have I told you about it?)

I made Scotch Eggs the next day, (from Well Fed. Did you buy it yet?) using the ground pork that I had prepped with spices and eggs that had been hard boiled during the the Cookup.  These Scotch eggs are delicious portable meal. For lunch today, I made one into a Deviled (Scotch) Egg. Nom!

Throughout our first week of the Whole30 Challenge, we have been documenting some of our meals.

None of these egg dishes have dairy in them. The first is a fritatta with spinach, bacon, red bell peppers and scallions. Then, grilled (leftover) salmon with poached eggs and a Hollandaise sauce made with ghee instead of butter. Lastly, an omelette with pork sausage, mexican spices, salsa and guac.

Here are a couple of our dinners from this week:  Chicken Satay Stir-Fry (chicken, broccoli, onion stir-fry with Sunshine Sauce from Well Fed, garnished with coconut chips and chopped cashews), Salmon L’afrique du Nord (from Well Fed) with roasted carrot chips and sautéed kale. The kale was previously chopped, washed and steam sautéed during the Weekly Cookup so all I had to do for dinner was heat it up in a skillet with coconut oil, red chili flakes and a splash of lemon juice. Super easy!  As I hope you can tell, we’ve been trying out a ton of new recipes from my new favorite cookbook: Well Fed. If you’re trying to get a grip on cooking more at home to save money and eat healthier,  this book will seriously improve how you operate in the kitchen.

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