The best recipes from our Whole30ish experiment
All the things I want you to try - including (maybe?) a Whole30ish of your own!
We’ve been back from vacation for a little over a week, and I’m a little surprised to report that I’m feeling better and happier than I was a week ago. I love eating out, but there is just something about getting back to your own kitchen and your normal routine. In fact, after a few tentative bites of gluten (and even multiple slices of my homemade pizza), I didn’t see continued signs of gluten intolerance. Which makes me think maybe what was bugging my system was just more vacation-driven deep-fry (and less gut-healthy home cooking) than usual.
Lucky for you, this makes it more likely that a post about veggie mash / homemade yogurt / kefir smoothies is in your near future.
And in the meantime, I’ll make good on the promise to share the recipes we most enjoyed during Whole30ish. Our criteria for repeatable recipes: they must be restaurant-worthy, offer a reasonable ease-to-impact ratio, and yield craveable leftovers.
Here are our top picks (most are from NYT, but I’m including links that aren’t behind a paywall when I can):
New recipes that will become weekday staples:
Lemon and garlic chicken with cherry tomatoes – I think we made this four times in a six-week period, usually with a side of sauteed zucchini. The recipe calls for the chicken to be dredged in a little flour, but I don’t think you’d have a dramatically worse dish if you decided to skip that for the sake of compliance (we didn’t).
Spicy miso grilled shrimp – Jack was on his way out the door, claiming he wasn’t hungry for dinner, the night we made this. We asked him to just try a bite before he left. He sat down, begrudgingly, and tried one – then proceeded to eat approximately half of the entire batch. We accidentally made this with larger shrimp (and only half of the required shrimp) the first time; and agreed it was better that way than when made “correctly” with smaller shrimp and the requested two pounds. So, you won’t regret going with larger shrimp and doubling the marinade if you try this one. I also think grilling made a difference, but do not recommend doing it on an evening it is 20 degrees below zero, despite Per insisting that was a good idea.
Spicy creamy tomato beans and greens: in fairness, we made this after ending Whole30ish, so you’ll see both cream and Parmesan in the recipe, which I don’t regret. I used half-and-half instead of cream and two cups of halved grape tomatoes instead of sundried tomatoes, which I hate. I did cook up a batch of Rancho Gordo beans for this recipe, but I won’t bother next time. Pretty sure it will be just as good and a lot faster with canned beans.
Fudge babies: if there was one recipe that saved us across this month, it was this one. Our favorite version combines cashews and pecans to make them taste like turtle sundaes. We have a batch in our fridge at all times now, literally. And Delaney wants us to make some for her friends, which we will do, just as soon as we can get ahead of our own consumption.
New recipes that are worth a little more effort (i.e. weekend meals):
Spicy Thai pork tenderloin salad – I made the mistake of scheduling this recipe on a Tuesday, so we had dinner super late, but it was wow-good enough that nobody complained. Leftovers were just as good for lunch. This one has earned a spot on our weekend list.
Pork loin with grapes: this was a last-minute substitution when it turned out we had a pork loin in the freezer instead of pork tenderloins. Suzanne Goin is the chef at AOC, one of our favorite restaurants, so we knew this would be delicious, even if the kids expressed some skepticism about the grapes. Everyone loved it, and we all liked the leftovers as well. Ironically, we decided it would be even better if made with tenderloin; so, we’ll try that next time!
Reminded how good these are:
Sheet Pan Fish Tikka with Spinach: this is an old recipe I remember having made with cod once and liked; so, I dug it out again for Whole30ish. We doubled the marinade to have enough to also roast a chopped-up head of cauliflower on a second pan. Per and I had cauliflower as a side and neither of us missed the rice we would have normally served with this (which is saying something if you know Per). The whole family whiffed this down. And Jack loved the leftover cauliflower in a quesadilla.
Chicken shawarma with hummus bowls with salad greens and pickled red onion: in general, Delaney was opposed to Whole30ish (no pasta?!), but when we served this chicken over a smear of hummus and with greens and red onions topped with a little white sauce, she asked, “Why haven’t we had this before?” We’ve started to make three pounds of chicken at a time (the marinade is enough to accommodate this) so we have leftovers for the whole week. This would be an easy chicken to marinate and pop into the freezer, too.
Sheet pan harissa chicken with leeks, potatoes, and arugula: another recipe we haven’t made in a while but had just last night with some sauteed zucchini as a side. We were fantasizing about leftovers as we finished our last bites. Per doubled both the chicken and the marinade; and thanks to a forgotten pizza party the twins had Friday night, we marinated this for, like, 24 hours longer than the recipe directed. No issues and no complaints.
Girl and the Goat Green Beans – Per and I knew we loved this recipe, but we were surprised how excited all four kids were about vegetables prepared this way. Even Delaney asked for seconds!
Old foods in new ways:
Tacos, but over greens – I was unenthusiastic about our Copycat Chipotle Chicken rice bowls over cauliflower rice, but we ended up discovering that we loved it (and anything else that might go into a taco) over a bowl of greens. Even our staple turkey tacos with black beans and obsessively good cucumber avocado salad was really delicious this way. Maybe better even than actual tacos??
And, on vacation we ordered practically anything that came in a shell or with a side of rice this way, including birria tacos. Ten out of ten, no notes.
I’ll wrap up by saying that I really loved pulling this post together – during this experiment, I’ve realized that I am not a food writer; but I sure love sharing great food with the people I love, especially when recipes hit the sweet spot of delicious and healthy. Rediscovering this joy makes me extra glad that we decided to do a Whole30ish month. (Not to mention, it got me writing regularly again, which was a big part of the point.)
And while I’m certain we missed out on some of the benefits of approaching Whole30 in a strictly compliant manner, I am 100% confident that naming a few exceptions ahead of time made it a LOT easier and more pleasant – and thus maybe more likely to lead to longer term change. If you’ve been wondering whether you could do a Whole30ish – maybe this is your sign!
Damn, Girl. I’m in an NYC hotel room before a conference begins tomorrow. I just ate 3 red Twizzlers and a handful of peanut butter stuffed pretzels. You just inspired a dietary overhaul when I return home. Thank you for the awesome inspo.