Whole30 :: Day 13

After quite a productive morning and early afternoon, I am hitting a wall of pooped.  Good thing I have some slow cooker goodness in the making and some Sunday night tv to catch up on.

Sag has been craving slow braised meat.  Our farmer's market meat connection, Anthony, doesn't, as it turned out, carry much in the way of stew meats during the summer.  He offered up lamb shoulder chops, so that's what went into the slow cooker this morning with onion, garlic, vegetable broth, rosemary, thyme and some grinds of black pepper.  It's my first time making this recipe and I dug how simple it was to put together...especially, not having to brown anything before putting it in the cooker.

Once the lamb got going and the kids and I breakfasted, I began "processing" veg and fruit.  A lovely organic watermelon (from Whole Paycheck) was cut up, strawberries were washed (also from the store, Gem loves strawberries), and I sauté-steamed a head of cabbage from the farm (with shallot and a half a pepper from the farm).  

I then plucked the bowl of peaches from the fridge.  They had been ripening and ripening and hit that point of just before no return yesterday.  I was too tired to cook, though, so I stuck them in the fridge and hoped for the best.  After some google research, I decided to brush these with coconut oil and grilled them using our cast iron grill pan (an outlet find).  I waited till the pan was very hot and then cooked them on medium-high heat for about three to four minutes on each side, with a lid on the pan.  They looked so pretty, but I was not hungry, so I stuck them back in the fridge.  I am going to serve them with the lamb tonight.  Should be tasty!

This just made me sigh and smile.  Gem came it at some point while I was cooking and spotted half a peach that wasn't going to fit into the pan.  He asked for it and I handed it right over, delighted, because he doesn't often eat peaches.  We chatted and he wandered back to his work and I kept going.  Later, I noticed the pit he'd left right in the middle of the table.  Gem definitely has "absent minded professor" in him.  Some very seemingly simple and practical things just don't click in his brain.  He's also the one who consistently leaves his clothes right where they were stepped out of.

Here is my lunch plate.  Dinner leftovers and the braised cabbage.  I adore the flavor of cabbage, so naturally sweet and earthy.  The flavors are heightened and deepened when the cabbage comes from a local organic farm.  No seasoning necessary, just Spanish olive oil, cabbage, shallot and a bit of green pepper (and a splash of water for the steaming).

Peace and love.

P.S.  My internet awesome of the day.  A fan-made mashup of Breaking Bad and Weird Al: