I survived! The Whole30 wrapped up on Tuesday this week and I congratulated myself with some red wine and chocolate. Oh, how I had missed them! They made my business trip all the way to Florida almost bearable this week. I am very glad to be home!
In terms of results, I did not repeat the amazingness of my first Whole30 last year, but still lost 6 lbs, and an inch or more pretty much everywhere (waist, bust, hips, thighs). The only thing that didn’t really budge were my arms, but I blame that on my burly biceps. Beyond the hard metrics, I also felt (and still feel) great for the majority of the 30 days, although I did seem to come down with a bit of a cold in the last few days, but it passed relatively quickly.
I plan to stick to most of the Whole30 parameters (wine and chocolate aside) though April 5th, when our engagement photos are scheduled. Yes, my Whole30 almost perfectly corresponds to lent, but I promise it was not planned that way. Not raised very religious, I didn’t learn what lent was until my late teens. I was confused when my much older sister, who converted to catholicism as an adult, gave up soda for lent. I asked my mom how/why she would be consuming lint… yep, that’s right, I thought she planned to start replacing her Diet Coke with dryer lint. Anyway, I digress. Here is to looking super awesome in our photos!
Okay, now onto the main event. This week’s recipe is pretty awesome if I don’t say so myself. It has a lot of components, but each one is really easy to whip up, and when you put it all together it is a beautiful creation. Your friends, love ones (and even dogs) will be really impressed. Oh, and it is really delicious to boot. So try it!
Harrison is super pumped about Bibimbap Bowls!
I will note that this recipe is Whole30 compliant, but only “paleoish” as it uses sesame oil. I think sesame oil might be the only ingredient that is okay for Whole30 (proof!), but not considered Paleo. Use it in moderation, and only in non-cooked components of your dishes (used in the spinach and sauce in this one). One of these days I will write a blog about oils, if for no other reason than that I do my homework and make sure I truly understand (and can articulate) what is okay and what is not okay… shit is confusing.
Paleoish Korean Bibimbap Bowls
Ingredients
| 1 lb ground beef | $4.49 |
| 1 tbs coconut animos | $1.28 |
| 2 cloves garlic |
$0.10 |
| salt and pepper |
neg |
| 1 head cauliflower | $1.79 |
| 3 tbsp coconut oil |
$1.08 |
| 6 cups spinach |
$1.49 |
| 1 green onion |
$0.06 |
| 2 tbsp sesame oil |
$0.54 |
| 1 tsp toasted sesame seeds |
$0.44 |
| 1 8 oz package cremini mushrooms |
$1.79 |
| 3 carrots |
$0.48 |
| 2 tbsp chili garlic sauce |
$0.36 |
| 1 tbsp apple cider vinegar |
neg |
| 1 tbsp water |
neg |
| 4 eggs | $1.24 |
| Meal Total | $ 15.14 |
| Total Per Serving (4) | $ 3.79 |
Directions
1. Preheat oven to 450 degrees.
2. Place the ground beef in a bowl, add the soy sauce, 1 of the garlic cloves, minced (other will be used in step 6) and salt and pepper. Let marinade while you complete steps 3 – 7.
3. For the rice, chop the cauliflower into small florets and pulse in a food processor to “rice”. It you have never done this before you might want to check out this Everyday Maven page for the play by play.
4. Place riced cauliflower on a sheet pan, lined with tinfoil. Melt 1 tbsp of the coconut oil (rest will be used in step 11) and mix it into the rice along with salt to taste. Place in the oven and cook for approximately 25 minutes, or until cauliflower begins to toast (lightly browned).
5. Boil 6 cups of water in a medium-large pan, once boiling, add the spinach and let cook for approximately 30 seconds. Remove from the heat, drain and rinse with cold water to stop the cooking. Drain thoroughly and place in a medium bowl.
6. Finely chop the green onion and the remaining garlic clove and add to the bowl with spinach. Also add 1 tbsp of the sesame oil (other will be used in step 10), the sesame seeds and a few shakes of salt. Stir and and set aside.
7. Heat a medium-large pan (I used the same one that I used for the spinach) over medium-high heat. Add the marinated beef and cook until browned. Remove from the pan (leave the fat in the pan to cook the mushrooms and carrots) and set aside.
8. Thinly slice the mushrooms, and add to the pan and cook until soft (approximately 5 minutes). Remove from the heat and set aside.
9. Cut the carrots in half and julienne. Add carrots to the pan and cook until soft (approximately 5-7 minutes). Remove from the heat and set aside.
10. If you are up for multitasking, while you are completing steps 7-9 you can mix up the sauce by stirring together the chili garlic sauce, remaining sesame oil, vinegar and garlic in a small bowl. I use this sauce, it is not perfectly paleo, so if you are being strict, you will want to make your own… here is a recipe that could work.
11. Again, if you are up for multitasking, while you are completing steps 7-9 you can add the remaining coconut oil to a small pan over medium-high heat to fry the eggs, sunny-side up. If you aren’t great at frying eggs, check out this video for some tips.
12. Once all the components are complete (rice, meat, spinach, mushrooms, carrots, sauce and eggs), it is finally time to assemble! Spoon a bed of cauliflower rice into the bottom of each bowl, on top of the rice add the meat, spinach, mushrooms and carrots (don’t mix them together yet, place each component next to each other in the bowl). Add the egg on top and serve the sauce on the side.
13. The best way to enjoy this is to poke the egg (should be runny), add the desired amount of sauce and mix everything together.
a Skinny Rich Girl 
I love that you titled this ‘paleoish’ …we should make that a thing- many of my recipes would fall in that category! I’d love for you to share a post at my link up tomorrow, if you’re interested!
Xoxo K
http://peeledwellness.com
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