Day 11: sh!t day

I love P!nk’s latest album, The Truth About Love. I cannot get enough of it. And to quote one of my favorite songs “Blow Me (One Last Kiss),” let me just say:

I’ve had a sh!t day.

I’m not going to go into detail and relive the frustrations of work all over again. I am racing against a deadline at work and the software I am using is not the user-friendliest! I didn’t even have time to shower today.

I work from home on Thursdays, which means that the best thing about my day was snuggling with the kids this morning. That, and I get to make myself and them a hot breakfast. This morning Finn requested omelets. I can do that! I fried up six slices of my U.S. Wellness Meats sugar-free bacon. (You will never miss the sugar. Trust me on this. Not sure why it’s used.) This bacon cooks up quickly and goes from  raw to super-crisp in nothing flat.  And it renders lots of yummy fat for more cooking. I poured some of the fat off and then sautéed a diced red bell pepper. The kids each wanted a three-egg omelet. (It’s nice to have chickens.) Finn ordered a bacon, red bell pepper, provolone and avocado omelet. Mona wanted everything but the veggies.

Cooking the omelet

I had everything but the cheese. Y.U.M.

Day 11: Breakfast
Three-Egg Omelet with Sugar-Free Bacon, sautéed Red Bell Pepper & Avocado

I HAD A GOOD LUNCH! Finally.

You know how I posted a few days ago that I never make the same recipe twice? Well, I am a big, fat liar. I have another recipe that has become a “Do again,” as my kids would say: Barefoot Contessa’s Caesar Roasted Swordfish, except I use salmon because my freezer overfloweth. This is so good. The last two times I have made this, I served it on Romaine that I had tossed with the extra dressing I made, which is excellent, by the way. (I made Everyday Paleo Family Cookbook‘s Caesar dressing. Meh. Did I make that on “meh” day?) It is now my go-to Caesar salad dressing. Who knew the Barefoot Contessa was Paleo? I bet she doesn’t even know.

Anyway, I had a lot of salmon leftover, so I put it in the freezer, because we have a tendency to get “salmoned out.” That’s an Enginerd term. I pulled that from the freezer last night and voila! Lunch.

Day 11: Lunch
Baby Spinach Salad with Roasted Caesar Salmon and avocado with Balsamic Vinegar and EVOO dressing

Mona picked mussels for dinner this week, and Finn picked venison.

Finn went on his first hunting expedition this last October. Whether you are pro-hunting or not, you cannot deny that shooting your own deer guarantees free-range, grass-fed meat. And it turns out we all like venison. Mind you, I marinate the hell out of if, but it’s delicious. I pulled a couple of tenderloin out of the freezer, and had Finn mix up a marinade. I rarely use a “recipe” for marinade. Oil. Acid. Herbs. Garlic. Sweet. This is what we came up with this time:

Venison Marinade I

3/4 cup EVOO
1/4 cup coconut aminos
1/3 cup balsamic vinegar
1 Tbs Italian seasoning
1/2 Tbs onion powder
1/2 Tbs garlic powder
sea salt
black pepper

What to do:

Pour everything into a gallon-sized Ziploc bag.

Mix. Add meat. Refrigerate.

We marinated two tenderloin for two days. This afternoon, I baked up a butternut squash and roasted some garlic for The Clothes Make the Girl’s Velvety Butternut Squash, vacuum-sealed the tenderloin and plopped them into my Sous Vide Supreme Demi at 120° for a couple of hours, until I was ready to deal with it.

When I was ready to deal with dinner, I made the squash and put that into the oven. I heated some bacon fat to smoking and seared the tenderloin.  As the meat was resting, I used the same pan to fry up the leftover purple “superkraut” from last week’s sausage-kraut dinner.

Day 11: Dinner
Venison Tenderloin with Purple Kraut and Velvety Butternut Squash

The ramekins were 400°, so they got their own little bandannas to keep us all from burning our fingers.

Velvety Butternut Squash

Breakfast:        Three-egg omelet with bacon, red bell pepper and avocado

Lunch:               Spinach Caesar with Barefoot Contessa’s Caesar Roasted Salmon (leftover)

Dinner:              Venison tenderloin with Purple Sauerkraut and Velvety Butternut Squash

Today was one of those days where if I had not been following the Whole30 I would have had a bottle of wine…for dinner, along with a tub of chocolate chip cookie dough.

Hopefully tomorrow will be a less stressful day.