Whole 30: Melissa's Chicken Hash

Melissa's Chicken Hash:  From my new cookbook called "Whole30"

I bought this new cookbook rather impulsively at Sam's Club just before Christmas. I was looking for a cookbook called "Fixate" by Autumn Calabrese, but could not find it.  We were rushing through Sam's Club to stock up on a few things, so I grabbed "Whole 30" and decided to treat myself to a new book.  Before purchasing this book, I'd heard a bit about diet trends such as Paleo and Whole 30, but I really never investigated them well. 

I bought the "Whole 30" cookbook just thinking it was a collection of "clean eating" recipes.  Well, let me tell you, the Whole 30 plan is way more involved.  My take on the Whole 30 diet is that you commit to a very restrictive diet for 30 days to "reset" your body.  The diet excludes gluten, dairy, legumes (no peanut butter!), and other foods.  Going through this process will help one "slay the sugar dragon" (addiction and dependence on sugar) and is said to help folks with a variety of health ailments.  I think part of the process is that you follow a restrictive diet for 30 days and, when the 30 days is over, you can start to see how you feel when you slowly reintroduce foods into your diet.  If you re-introduce gluten, for example,  and you feel poorly, then it helps you identify a food sensitivity.    

I read this article about the experience of a writer who tried the Whole 30 plan for 30 days.  You can read that article HERE.  Of course, you can read even more about Whole 30 on their website which can be found HERE.  This particular page on the Whole 30 website summarizes "the rules" of the plan (see page HERE).  So after reading more about this diet or plan, I have no immediate plans to try out the Whole 30 plan myself... although many folks might be starting this plan tomorrow on New Year's Day!  As for me, I plan to cook my way through this cookbook.  Many of the recipes look great!

Last night for dinner, I made "Melissa's Chicken Hash" out of the cookbook.  I have a terrible head cold right now so I was a bit groggy when I glanced at the recipe and shopped for ingredients and I missed a few things.  I missed the apple cider and substituted chicken broth.  I also failed to notice the recipe called for chicken thighs and not chicken breasts.  Finally, I substituted pecans for walnuts since it was what I had on hand.  Since I made so many substitutions to the recipe and because I can't taste anything due to my head cold, I can't tell you much about this recipe's taste. What I can tell you is that the ingredients were easy to find ingredients, the recipe was easy to prepare, and I felt good eating this knowing that it contains so many wholesome ingredients.

• lean boneless/skinless chicken (breasts or thighs)
• granny smith apple
• sweet potato
• pecans (or walnuts)
• arugula
• apple cider vinegar and crushed red pepper flakes (yum!)

Quite a bit of chopping involved but I don't mind that one bit!

Here's a photo of the cookbook (above) and (below) here's a snapshot of the recipe:

I love that the entire recipe was made in one big skillet.