Easy Sweet Potato Hash with Prosciutto: Paleo and Whole30 compliant

On Day 1 of my Whole 30 journey, I decided to try to make hash with sweet potatoes to go with my morning eggs. You can check out my entire first day in this blog post.

sorry for the blurry picture - I'm no food blogger

Now I actually could just eat a sweet potato on it's own with a little ghee but my husband is not a big sweet potato fan so I knew to sell him on it I would have to get a little creative. But with limited time, it couldn't be too much to do.

I came up with this concoction and it was pretty yum-o and even got my husband to enjoy sweet potatoes!

6 minute sweet potato hash

1 medium or large sweet potato
1/2 of a small onion chopped
1 piece of whole30 compliant prosciutto or bacon. (I used prosciutto the ingredients were pork and sea salt)
1 tablespoon of ghee (or olive oil/coconut oil - I have to say the ghee made it soooo yummy)
salt and pepper to taste

Soften sweet potato in the microwave 3 - 4 minutes. Meanwhile heat ghee up in a pan, when hot, tear (or slice) the prosciutto into small pieces and add it to the hot pan of ghee stir in onions and turn down heat. Split the sweet potato open (it'll be hot!) scoop the sweet potato out of the skin and cube. I used a clean dish towel to help handle the super hot potato. Add the potato to the pan and season with salt and pepper. Stir it with the onions, ghee and prosciutto for a minute or two and serve.

I split this between my husband and I but I could probably eat the whole thing by myself if I was really hungry.

VARIATION:

This morning I added about a cup of baby spinach to the mix right before adding the potatoes - I let the spinach wilt (about a minute or two) and I also sprinkled about a half of tsp of dry sage on top with the salt and pepper. I really liked it this way.

With baby spinach

This morning I avoided having to play "hot potato" and stuck the potato in the microwave as soon as I woke up. It then had about 10 minutes to cool and it was much easier to handle.

Enjoy!

XO
Jen

Happy New Year! A Healthy Kick off and getting Whole30 ready

This morning I decided to kick off the New Year right by running with Moms In Motion. I usually wouldn't drag myself out in 23-feels-like-15-degree weather but I have missed the group and I figured that doing a bad-assed cold weather run was exactly what I needed to get moving in the right direction.

The group had a great turn-out and we were chilly but happy to be there.

Can't miss me with my bright pink gloves bottom left

Funny thing about running in the cold. I always build it up in my mind to be this horrible thing but the truth is, is that by the end of the run it could be 50 degrees out. I get so warmed up! I was actually sweating.  Another thing that did help a lot are these amazing cold-weather fleece-lined tights that my hubby got me for Christmas from Athleta. I have to say that Athleta is expensive but worth every penny. I don't have a lot from them but everything I do have rocks. Here are the pants I got in case you are interested.

After the run I came home and decided to get some more food prepped for the Whole30 challenge. I hard-boiled some eggs and then cooked up some chicken. I got a bag of peeled garlic from BJs so I dumped about 20 cloves into a crock pot along with a sliced onion and a little chicken stock and topped that with four big bone-in (with skin) organic chicken thighs. I seasoned those with some salt, pepper and tyme and let them cook all day. They smell heavenly. 

crock pot chicken

While that was cooking I went to the grocery store and stocked up on a bunch of veggies and stuff. I'm super excited to get started.

Then, I made some homemade mayonnaise for the first time! Holy crap I'm so proud of my mayo. I feel like Julia fricken Childs and it's delicious.  Here's the mayo recipe I used. (I wound up squeezing a lemon and measuring it out - all the bottled lemon juices I saw had sulfites in it to preserve.)

Look at that pretty mayo! 

Tonight I will have my final dirty martini until the program is complete. You will be missed.

For those of you who like dirty martinis and not saying goodbye - Dirty Sue is the best martini mix ever.

Hope you had a healthy kick off to your New Year!

Do anything special last night or today? How did you prep for some of your resolutions?

XO

Jen

Whole30 Butternut Squash Soup Recipe

I've been making this soup all winter and let me tell you it's delicious. Warm, hearty and comforting.

If you are vegan*, Paleo or doing the Whole30 plan this is a great soup for you. (Vegans swap the ghee for coconut oil or coconut spread).

Jen's Butternut Squash Soup
2 medium-large butternut squash (pre-heat oven to 425 and roast at that temp)
1 medium onion (chop)
1 apple (preferably granny smith but I've used whatever apple on hand) (peel and chop)
1 thumb-sized piece of ginger (peeled and diced)
3 cups of stock of choice (I make my own homemade chicken stock)
2 cups of water
1/2 cup of coconut milk from can (or nut milk of choice)
1 + 1 tablespoon of ghee (or olive oil or coconut oil) - (might want to use a little more or less)
salt
pepper
dried sage

That's my homemade stock - it looks funky because it's still defrosting

Cut open, spread one tablespoon (or so) of the ghee over the squash - sprinkle with salt/pepper and roast butternut squash face side up until tender. About an hour to an hour and a half.

YUM

Let the squash cool a bit. Meanwhile, in a large pot, sautee up the apple, onion and ginger until soft in the ghee or coconut oil. Sprinkle the apple/onion/ginger with salt, pepper and sage. (Season to taste I use about 2 - 3tsps. of sage.

Once cool enough to handle scoop the squash flesh away from the skin and add it to the apple/onion/ginger mixture along with the stock and water.

Stir and simmer to meld flavors about 10 - 15 minutes. Add the coconut milk.

Then use a hand immersion blender (or do in batches in a regular blender) and puree the soup until smooth and creamy.

This recipe makes a lot of soup. At least 8 decent sized bowls I would say. Maybe more.

Enjoy!

XO
Jen

PS: After taking the picture of the ingredients I read that the canned coconut milk in the picture (Goya brand) has Potassium metabisulfite in it. I couldn't find out if that was Whole30 compliant so I used another brand I had on hand that I know is compliant.

PSS: Turns out that the Goya coconut milk is definitely NOT Whole 30 compliant so I'm bringing it back to the store!