Not-So-Spicy Cottage Pie (Whole 30 Recipe) + Our Top Five Whole30 Recipes

During our first two weeks of Whole 30, we hit the jackpot with a few meals. We ended up repeated them at leat once (some even more). Now that we've been adapting a close but not quite Paleo diet for an indefinite amount of time, we've been rotating these through as we plan meals out each week.

A lot of people have commented on Whole 30 food and have told me that all they see "Looks gross." Well, we had fantastic results from Whole 30 and we enjoyed  most of our meals very much--we ate fried chicken, comfort foods, ribeye steak, hamburger sliders, and more. We ate real food. It was that simple. Find some of our favorite recipes below.

Not-So-Spicy-Cottage-Pie
Recipe adapted from @Whole30Recipes

Because JaiseAnn eats what we eat, we wanted to tone down the spice a little on the recipe we found. We ended up making quite a few changes to the original recipe and we love the result. This is a favorite and is easy to heat up for leftovers the next day. (We don't have a microwave and so sometimes leftovers can be a challenge, but not with this recipe!)

Ingredients:

2 tbsp avocado oil
1 lb ground beef
4 carrots--washed and peeled
1 medium sized sweet potato
1 medium sized russet or red potato 
1 tsp ground cumin
2 tsp ground corriander
1 tbsp tomato puree
1 can compliant diced tomatoes
3 C beef stock (compliant)
salt and pepper to flavor 
2 cups frozen peas

Instructions:
Preheat oven to 400 degrees.

Boil 6 cups of water on stove top

Wash and cut 1 of the carrots and the potatoes and place in boiling water. Cook until tender and then remove

Cut the remaining three carrots into coin sized slices

Add oil to frying pan and heat

Add beef and cook through

Add spices and tomato puree (while that cooks, separate the rest of the puree (from your can) into freezer bags, label them, and place them in the freezer.)

Add carrots and diced tomatoes

Add beef stock and cook until liquid reduces and thickens

While the "gravy" is setting, place the remaining carrots and potatoes in a medium mixing bowl. Add a little beef stock, salt, and pepper (and ghee if you have some on hand). Mix with a hand mixer until well combined. This is your root mash topping. 

Once the gravy has reduced and thickened, add two cups of frozen peas and cook for about one minute. 

Add the gravy mixture to a pie pan (or separate into 6-8 ramekins) and top with root mash. 

Bake for forty minutes.

Chicken "Noodle" Soup
This chicken soup is made with zoodles in place of noodles and I can honestly say that this is how I will make chicken soup for the rest of my life. It is just so good and filling. This soup is a JaiseAnn favorite--she wants seconds, thirds, and fourths of this meal...not even kidding.

Hamburgers with Sweet Potato Buns
I wasn't too sure about substituting a bun with a sweet potato and I was really doubtful that my sweet potato-hating husband would find anything redeeming about this meal. We were blown away. Salting the sliders is a flavorful combination and it's a a big win. We top our burgers with a little mustard and lettuce and the flavor/texture combinations are amazing. We have honestly had this about every week for the past two months. It's just that good.

Cracklin' Chicken
This is one of the meals I discvered, but I made Zach make. Fried food is just not a comfortable thing for me and I don't do it right. This stuff is amazing. It's so yummy. We served it to my whole family for Sunday dinner after we completed our Whole 30. My dad hates chicken unless it's fried chicken, but even then he usually complains. He went for seconds.


Slow Cooker Beef Stew
We love beef stew. It's a perfect meal. It's all in one pot (the slow cooker, no less!), it's packed with filling flavor, and you can tailor it with any vegetables you want. Making this beef stew and adding the vegetables we had on hand made for some very filling and healthy meals. 

I'm always on the lookout for new recipes (always!) what's your favorite healthy recipe?