Paleo/Whole30 dinner: Herb-crusted salmon and pumpkin soup

I try to serve salmon at least once a week -- gotta get those omega-3's! I love that it cooks quickly, and there are so many ways to top it, encrust it, or otherwise embellish it. I've found, though, that it's not as satisfying as red meat. We usually find ourselves hungry a couple hours later.

When I started making bone broth several month ago, I found that it is super satisfying. My theory is that it sticks with you because it's providing a lot of minerals, gelatin, and other good, healing things your body is craving. So my strategy now is to always serve a bone broth-based soup on the nights I serve salmon.

A few nights ago, I made my herb-crusted salmon along with cream of pumpkin soup, using homemade chicken bone broth. My husband said, "I like this soup. It's comforting, kinda like coffee." (He is sorely missing his coffee with cream and sugar in the morning!)

Cream of pumpkin soup is easy to make Whole30 compliant by making it dairy-free: just swap out the cream for full-fat coconut milk. This recipe from AllRecipes is the one I use (minus the croutons): Cream of Pumpkin Soup.

This dinner is easy enough for a weeknight (especially if you make the pumpkin soup the night before, up until adding the cream), but special enough for a Fall or Winter dinner party, I think. 

This pairing will go in our regular Whole30 rotation! I'm working toward publishing a four-week meal plan. Hopefully coming soon!

Study shows that eating breakfast every day lowers your risk of Type 2 Diabetes

This is an excerpt from the article The surprising danger of skipping breakfast, from Women's Health.

You know that breakfast has plenty of benefits: It boosts your energy, curbs your midday cravings, and helps keep you at a healthy weight. But if you’re still skipping the first meal of the day, there’s another perk you’re passing up: Missing even one breakfast each week increases your risk of type 2 diabetes by 20 percent, according to a recent study published in the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition.

Researchers from the Harvard University School of Public Health analyzed the eating habits and health outcomes of 46,289 women over the course of six years. At the end of the study, they found that women who skipped breakfast here and there had a 20 percent higher risk of being diagnosed with type 2 diabetes than those who ate it on a daily basis. The risk is even higher for full-time working women who missed their morning meal sometimes: 54 percent. The importance of a daily breakfast held up after the researchers adjusted the results to account for the effects of age, BMI, carbohydrate consumption, cigarette smoking, alcohol intake, physical activity, and working status.

Want a healthy breakfast option that you can eat on the run -- but that also tastes good? The photo above is from my low carb, sugar-free Pumpkin Pecan Muffins recipe. (Which is also gluten-free if you leave out the minimal flour.) Make them ahead of time, then pop one or two in the microwave in the morning.

Read the full article.

Pumpkin pecan muffins - low carb!

Crumbly muffins, hot out of the oven, fragrant with cinnamon... These are so good, my kids gobbled them up, even when they were at their pickiest stage. Probably because I never mentioned to the munchkins that these muffins are low carb!

This recipe is adapted from a recipe in Eating Stella Style -- Low Carb Recipes for Healthy Living. 

Pumpkin Pecan Muffins

Makes 12 muffins

3 cups almond flour

1 can canned pumpkin (NOT pie filling)
2 T. wheat bran (or ground flaxseed, to make it gluten free)
1 T. pumpkin pie spice*

2 t. baking powder

2 t. baking soda

6 large eggs (corrected 5/17/13; previously listed as 3)

1 1/2 c. Splenda (or sweetener of your choice)

2 t. vanilla extract

1/4 t. salt

1 cup chopped pecans

Preheat oven to 350 F. Line a 12-muffin tin with paper liners, and spray the inside of the liners with no-stick spray.

Stir all the ingredients until well blended. Fill the prepared muffin cups about 2/3 full. Bake for 20 to 25 minutes, until a toothpick inserted in the middle comes out pretty much clean.

Let muffins cool for 5-10 minutes. Serve warm or at room temp. (Warm with butter - YUM!) Refrigerate any leftovers.

If there are any. Which there won't be!  :)

* If you don't have pumpkin pie spice mix on hand, you can use this recipe. But you'll need to make a little more than the recipe calls for. 

Nutrition info, from myfitnesspal.com; great carb-to-protein ratio!...

Nutrition Facts
Servings 12.0
Amount Per Serving
Calories 295
% Daily Value *
Total Fat 24 g	36 %
Saturated Fat 2 g	12 %
Monounsaturated Fat 5 g
Polyunsaturated Fat 2 g
Trans Fat 0 g
Cholesterol 123 mg	41 %
Sodium 375 mg	16 %
Potassium 80 mg	2 %
Total Carbohydrate 14 g	5 %
Dietary Fiber 6 g	23 %
Sugars 3 g
Protein 11 g	22 %
Vitamin A	90 %
Vitamin C	1 %
Calcium	15 %
Iron	12 %