Sausage Meatballs and Sauteed Kale

I am going to apologize in advance for the complexity of the meatball part of this recipe. We intended to buy some Italian sausage from the store, but even the WF one had canola oil. Blech. It was worth the work, though! Kale was on sale at WF so we got a bunch of that. I plan on using some to make Kale Chips this week.

Faux-Sausage
1 lb ground pork
1/2 tsp salt
1 tsp black pepper
1 tsp dried parsley
1 tsp garlic powder
1 tsp onion powder
1/2 tsp paprika
1 tsp basil
pinch oregano
pinch thyme

Mix all ingredients together. If you want you can add fennel to the list, I just don't like it.

Meatballs
1 lb Faux-Sausage (see above)
1 lb ground grass fed beef
4 cloves garlic, minced
1 tsp parsley
2 tsp oregano
1-2 eggs
1/4-1/2 cup almond flour

Mix all the ingredients together.
(I used two eggs initially and found the mixture to be wayyy too moist, so I added some more almond flour. I think if I would've used one egg I would've only needed 1/4 cup almond flour.)
Once everything is mixed together, make meatballs and place on a coconut oil greased cookie sheet. Bake at 350 for about 40 minutes or so.

(You can also cook these on the stovetop, but I find it to be too time consuming.)

Sauteed Kale
2 bunches of organic kale, chopped/ripped into 1.5" pieces
3 tbsp olive oil
3 cloves garlic, minced
1/2 cup chicken stock (we make our own)

Heat oil in large pan on medium-low heat. Add garlic. Before garlic changes color too much, add the kale and stock and turn the heat to high.
(It's going to look like there's not enough liquid in there for all that kale, but there is!) 
Cover and cook for 5 minutes. Once the five minutes is up, take the lid off and continue cooking until all the liquid evaporates. Remove from heat and serve.


This meal was delicious! Gage (my son who turns 4 in April) even ate two meatballs! Alas, I couldn't get him to eat any kale. Maybe next time. :)

Yummm.

Whole 30 : Day 27

Okay, so. I haven't posted in a long time and I ought to be better at that. Here's the deal. I'm still working full time. I am in my second semester of nursing school - which is going very well. And, well, I haven't made time to post. *shrugs*

Kev (my fiancé) and I decided to do the Whole 30. We are on day 27 and I feel AWESOME. I'm sure I've lost a little bit of weight, but the best part of this whole thing is that I feel great. Truly the only thing we had to cut out of our diet was dairy, but we also had to slim down our 20% of cheat room with the Primal Blueprint to 0%.

The biggest change for me: my acne! I'm going to give you a series of before pictures so you can really understand what I've been combating.

This is a rather embarrassing picture of me from April 2009. This is wayyy before we even thought about eating reasonably. We regularly dined on fast food, carbs, pizza, etc. Look at how bad my acne is and how fat I was! Even my son's face is chubby! Ugh.

This is April of 2010. We had been primal for about 5 months at this point. We both look better than we did the year before - but I still have that nagging acne.

This is June 2010. Close to the same as above.

This is August 2010. A little better, but this is about as good as I could get it and I was using basically bleach on my skin (okay, it's benzoyle peroxide, but basically the same thing.) I was also using an antibiotic and this is about as clear as I thought I'd ever be.

Okay, so now that I've properly introduced you to my acne problem. Here is me now. Today.

WOWWW!

Seriously?! My face hasn't been this clear since I was maybe 11 years old! (That was over 15 years ago!) And, I'm proud to say I haven't used my antibiotic for my face once since I started my Whole 30. I do occasionally wash with an acne wash (either salicylic acid or the benzoyle peroxide) but I never have to use something every day.

Not only do I feel healthier, but I look healthier too!

So, in three days our Whole 30 will be officially over. But, honestly, how could I ever go back?