Lovely little sliders

I had my first homemade mayonnaise fail yesterday. It made me sad because it uses a whole cup of olive oil, and I don't want to waste it. So, I put the runny mess in a container in the fridge and figured I'd figure out what to do with it later. 

Then, today, I was trying to think of what to have for lunch and just had this vision of adorable little sliders drizzled with my garlicky mayo fail. 

I just happened to have a pound of grass-fed ground beef in the fridge, and remembered that I had some leftover Penzey's Arizona Dreaming spice mix from Cinco de Mayo, when I made short rib tacos (which were devoured). Southwest sliders? Sounds good to me!

Here's the thing about sliders: they're fun. Even low-carb folks, like me, eat a lot of burgers, we just forgo the bun. And it's easy to get tired of burgers, but sliders make it seem like it's a whole different meal.  

I plopped the meat into a bowl. Added an egg, some chopped onions, fresh parsley, Arizona Dreaming spice (about 1/2 tablespoon), garlic and mixed it all together. While I was forming them into meatballs, I preheated a griddle on a burner of my stove on medium. When it was hot, I melted a bit of coconut oil on the griddle. When it was hot, I flattened the meatballs and plopped them on the hot skillet. 

This is what that step looked like: 

I cooked them for about 7 total minutes, and drizzled them with my mayo fail. For a side, I had fresh veggies I got from the farm store (broccoli, kohlrabi and carrots) with my homemade ranch dressing for dipping. And here's the finger-licking good lunch I ended up with:

I say finger-licking good because you can eat these cute little sliders with your hands, they're that small and perfectly-shaped. Now that's a happy meal. 

Whole30, Day 1: I read the rules

Today is the first official day of Whole30. Everything's easy the first day. And maybe the second, so I'm not getting too excited about it all. 

I did spend some time noodling around the Whole30 forums today, and I have to say those moderators are patient because there are some dumb questions being asked -- mostly about bacon and booze. 

About every other post is someone asking, "Can I eat bacon?" And the answer is always, "No," because bacon has sugar and even if it says it doesn't have sugar, it probably does, and because bacon is about 100 percent fat and is just, in general, not a food that is good for you and this program is about eating only foods that are good for you. 

Then, two posts later, the question is: "Can I eat bacon?"

Same with booze. Interestingly, wine seems to be the one thing people most long for. I can dig it. However, the Whole30 "rules" fit neatly on a single PDF page, and about the second line in the "no" column is alcohol -- not even in cooking. And yet every other forum post that does not ask about bacon asks if they can cook with alcohol. 

Sheesh, people, read the instructions. They're simple, straightforward, and free. 

Here's what I ate today:

Eggs are something I eat all the time anyway. This morning I sauteed some fresh shiitake mushrooms and spinach in light olive oil and then topped it with a couple of fried eggs. It was delicious. 

Lunch was leftover veal piccata from last night. The veal recipe was my own, I make it all the time and long ago adapted it for low-carb. The mashed cauliflower was a new recipe I tried from Well Fed. I did not care for it. The coconut oil/milk gave it an odd flavor. I make a bomb-ish mashed cauliflower but it has dairy, so is a no-no on Whole30. I am definitely going to come up with a Whole30 compliant version of mine. I also had a bit of leftover butternut squash (not pictured). 

Here's the piccata: 

Hm. Wish I could figure out how to flip these photos so they're not lengthwise, but I can't. 

Anyway, I was going to grill some chicken thighs for dinner, but my propane ran out and I can't change it out by myself, so baked the chicken, some turnips (cut into chunks), and had salad with homemade ranch dressing made with homemade mayo, both recipes courtesy of Well Fed.  

Here's how that all turned out:  

It was kind of "meh." It would have been better grilled. Also, I wish I'd thought to toss some onions in to bake with the turnips. The ranch dressing was amazing, though.