9 Cups a Day

Blog

  • Trout Almondine

    Trout Almondine

    As someone who grew up hating all seafood, I was pleasant surprised when I first tasted trout a few years ago and found it had no fishy taste to it. It honestly tastes just like chicken, and it’s easy to pan fry in just a few minutes. If you have no idea how to cook fish, trout fillets are the best way to start because they cook so quick and easy.


    This is my gluten free take on the French classic trout almondine. This has become one of my go to fish meals because it’s very fast and tasty. I buy the trout already filleted, and I can consistently find trout fillets at my local Sprouts grocery store. 


    This recipe is cooked with ghee to replace the traditional butter sauce. If you want to avoid the dairy, I would suggest toasting the sliced almonds in your pan before cooking the fish and then sprinkling on top after with a good drizzle of olive oil. I like to eat this over a large pile of spinach as it turns out to be half spinach salad and half warm wilted spinach from the ghee. When eaten this way, It’s a good 2 cups of green between the spinach and parsley and 1/2 cup sulfur. The trout also falls under the omega – 3 fish category required on levels 2 & 3.

    Ingredients

    • Trout fillets (as many as you want to cook – 1 per person)

    Amounts per fillet:

    • 3 Tb almond flour
    • 1/8 cup ghee
    • 1/4 cup almonds
    • 1 shallot (chopped)
    • 1/2 cup curly leaf parsley
    1. Heat your pan on medium – high heat. Add a small amount of your preferred cooking oil.
    2. Put the almond flour, with some dashes of salt and pepper on a plate. Dredge the fish in the flour until both sides are complete covered.
    3. Once your pan is full heated (and not sooner!), add the fish skin side down first. Cover and cook for 3 minutes. Flip and cook 3 minutes on the other side. It’s important that your pan is very hot so that the fish cooks quickly as this will give it a good flaky texture.
    4. Remove the fish and set aside. Wipe out the excess flour. Return to heat
    5. Add to the pan the ghee, shallots, and almonds. Cook until the almonds are toasted. 
    6. Once toasted, sprinkle the parsley over the fish and pour the almond and ghee mixture over the top.
  • French Cream of Carrot Soup

    French Cream of Carrot Soup

    This cream of carrot soup has been the savior of my coronavirus lockdown diet. Prior to the coronavirus, I would always grocery shop once a week to get fresh veggies. When the lockdown first started, I thought hard about how I can grocery shop for several weeks in one go. This invariably ended up that the third week after shopping heavily featured carrots and sweet potatoes since they last the longest. This carrot soup has been a monthly staple now as a way to make something that tastes very fresh towards the last of the meals before shopping again. 


    Cream of carrot soup is a french soup recipe. I was inspired to make this by watching the French cooking academy video. I recommend watching the video to learn some background on how to make any cream of X soup, called veloute soups. The French cooking academy videos are great for learning the technique behind traditional french dishes and also for Stephane’s delectable French accent 😉

    French Cream of Carrot Soup

    • 2 pounds of carrots
    • 1 large onion
    • 1 clove garlic
    • 32 oz of chicken bone broth (ideally homemade)
    • 1 tsp dried thyme
    • 1 bay leaf
    • 1/3 cup white rice (this is to make it creamier, but can be left out if avoiding grains on levels 2 & 3)
    1. Chop the onion and slice the carrots. I cut much thicker than the video because I’m lazy… 
    2. Heat the soup pot with a small amount of your preferred cooking oil like olive oil or avocado oil.
    3. Saute the onions for 5 minutes until translucent. 
    4. Add in the carrots and garlic to saute another 4 minutes.
    5. Add in the chicken broth so that the carrots are fully submerged. Add in the thyme, bay leaf and rice.
    6. Simmer soup until carrots are fully cooked. 
    7. Remove the bay leaf.
    8. Add the soup into a blender and purify until no more lumps. It’s best to let the soup cool down a bit before doing this step.
    9. Pour the soup back into your soup pot and reheat. Add any additional water to get the soup to your preferred consistency. Salt and pepper to taste.

    To count the cups, I cut my soup amount in half – so 1 cup soup = .5 cup color.

  • Cream of Pea Soup with Bacon Bits

    Cream of Pea Soup with Bacon Bits

    Shortly before the lockdown started, I picked up this book “The Soups of France” from a neighbor who was moving. The book is exactly what I hoped it would be – traditional rustic soups featuring seasonal ingredients. Although many of the recipes don’t cut it for the protocol (who knew there were so many different soups with a cheese base?!), the spring soup section has promise.  There are a few solid “cream of” french soups that can be staples to your diet with a few modifications to meet the protocol. The best part of these soups is that they are rich in flavor and nourishing if you use your homemade bone broth.

    Here is my adapted version of the soup, making it Level 2 Wahls approved and with ingredients you probably already have in your freezer (AKA week 3 after your last grocery shopping trip during coronavirus). The original recipe says you could use fresh peas, but frozen is much cheaper and easier to stock up. I was surprised that the soup has a sweet taste as I had never had pea soup before. If you find yours is too sweet, add a teaspoon or two of apple cider vinegar to tone it down.


    Green peas are legumes but they are allowed in Level 1 & 2 and count as a color vegetable. Since the soup ends as half liquid, I divide by the volume by 2 so 1 cup of soup = .5 cup color. I consider the onions to be bonus sulfur.

    Cream of Pea Soup with Bacon Toppings

    • 30 oz frozen peas
    • 1 large onion (diced)
    • 3 cups chicken bone broth
    • 1 bay leaf
    • 1 tsp dried thyme
    • 12 slices of bacon (diced)
    1. Saute 2 spoonfuls of bacon per bowl of soup you want to serve today. Saute directly in your soup pan. Remove bacon from fat and set aside. Refrigerate the extra diced bacon.
    2. In the bacon fat, cook the onions until translucent.
    3. Add the chicken broth, peas, bay leaf, and thyme into the soup pan.
    4. Simmer for 15 minutes or until the peas and onions are cooked. Turn stove off and let soup cool. Remove the bay leaf.
    5. In your blender, blend all the soup until well pureed. If you eat ghee, add a few dollops to blend in.
    6. Return the blended soup to the pan. Heat backup. Add additional water until it is the consistency you want. Salt to taste.
    7. To serve, ladle the soup into bowls and sprinkle the bacon on top.

    To reheat the leftovers, I start with putting the diced bacon into a small saucepan and saute. Again, I take the cooked bacon out of the fat and add the soup directly into the bacon fat to heat up. This way I don’t waste that tasty bacon fat and it adds a good flavor to the soup.

  • Coronavirus Lockdown: Day 87.

    Coronavirus 2020 sure is an awkward time to start a blog about the Wahl’s protocol. On the one hand, I finally have the free time to start writing, given I no longer have a work commute and, well, people or places to see on the weekend. On the other hand, going to the grocery store to buy fresh fruits and vegetables is a terrifying and stressful event.


    Prior to the coronavirus, I would grocery shop every weekend so I always had fresh vegetables. When we first went into lockdown, I’d only go to the grocery store every 3-4 weeks which means I’ve fallen pretty far off the Wahl’s wagon. I’ve been eating a lot of white potatoes and rice the last few weeks as it was easy to buy and store long between shopping trips

    Now that I’m entering my 3rd month stuck at home, I’ve been feeling much lower in energy lately. The last 3 months have been the longest my diet has slipped from a true Wahl’s or Paleo diet in the last 5 years. I’m feeling less terrified to go to the grocery store these days as everyone wears masks now, and I no longer fear I will get the virus by touching a can of tomato sauce. It’s time for me to re-commit to the Wahl’s protocol.


    For my first few posts, I’ll share a few healthy recipes I’ve been making from foods that keep long between grocery trips.