Day 28

Day 28

Meal 1: Apple with almond butter. Wasn't very hungry this morning.

Meal 2: Random Veggie Chicken Bowl {cucumbers, red onion, peppers, avocado, tomato, chicken, s+p, balsamic vinegar}

Meal 3: Bake salmon over zoodles {spiralized yellow squash and zucchini, sauteed in olive oil with garlic, red onion, and Italian seasoning} with Kirkland marinara sauce.

I got THIS spiralizer off of Amazon. It looks like it is sold out but there are tons of vegetable spiralizers on there. 

Spiralized Zoodles

-1 zuchinni

-1 yellow squash

-olive oil

-diced red onion

-2 garlic cloves, minced

Spiral about half of the squash and half of the zuchinni (or all of them, just however much you want honestly). 

 Dice up your onion and garlic, however much you want of each. More or less depending on your tastes.

Heat olive oil in a pan, toss the onion and garlic in first. Let them saute a bit (about a minute), then toss in the zoodles. Season with salt, pepper, and Italian seasoning. These cook up quickly. They only take a few minutes. You still want them to be a bit crunchy so that it is a nice texture and you don't feel like you are eating a pile of mush.

I baked the salmon with just olive oil, salt, and pepper.

Thoughts on today: I LOVED my meal 3 tonight. It was bomb. I love zoodles. I am so glad that I am being pushed out of my normal food box and trying a lot of new things. I will definitely be making zoodles after Whole30 (which is so soon!). I am feel great. I am anxious for my reintroduction phase but am excited to move onto my next "health phase". I will explain more about it at the end of my Whole30!

Day 27

Day 27

Meal 1: Larabar and a waterbottle...was running out the door because we were super late for MJ's swimming lessons. I had also lost my appetite from cleaning up Bubb's puke. Let's just say it was not a good morning.

Meal 2: Leftover chicken topped with salsa, sweet potato "toast" from a fellow IGer (@thewhetappetite) topped with avocado and red pepper flakes.

Sweet Potato "Toast"
-Cut sweet potato in half, lengthwise, then cut those pieces in half lengthwise.
-oil and s+p the sweet potato pieces
-Place in baking pan in 400 F oven.
-Bake for 35-40 minutes, flip halfway through.
-Let cool for 5-10 minutes

These are yummy! I use avocado oil and white sweet potatoes because they are my fav.

Meal 3: Random concoction that was yummy. Sauteed some leftover sweet potato toast (diced), with chicken apple sausage and avocado oil. Tossed in a large handful of 7 Superfood Salad (minus dressing) from Costco.

 

Seasoned everything with a bit of onion powder, garlic powder, s+p. Then tossed in some Kirkland brand marinara sauce, fresh tomatoes, and avocado. And there you have it. It was good (but I really did wish I had spaghetti that the family was having because there was delicious cheese on it...oh cheese). 

Oh and I added a side of watermelon. 

My Thoughts:
I am getting good at looking in my fridge and seeing what protein I have thawed, and what veggies are about to go bad, and making something out of them. Also, this marinara sauce was SO good! I am excited to use it in a lot of other dishes. It tasted fresh and has no additives. I would highly recommend buying it if you have a Costco membership. It comes in a pack of 3 and is awesome to have on hand when you don't want to make it fresh.

Day 26

Day 26

Meal 1: Breakfast salad {lettuce, tomatoes, avocado, chicken apple sausage, egg over easy} I used the runny yolk of the egg as dressing and it was delicious. Runny yolk is the best yolk.

Meal 2: Turkey, avocado, cucumber, tomato, mayo, spicy mustard lettuce wraps.

Meal 3: Lemon Pepper Chicken with a side salad full of veggies.

 I made a big batch of chicken for the week to toss on salads or have for dinner. The right is lemon pepper (Mrs. Dash salt-free), the left is Costco's Organic No-Salt Seasoning. Both are delicious!

My Thoughts:

Everything is great. I really miss cheese though. A lot. :)

Day 25

Day 25

Today is Sunday and I actually fasted for the first 2 meals. Members of the LDS church (Mormons) fast the first Sunday of every month. This Sunday was not a Fast Sunday but my family decided to have a fast for my grandparents. We had a special family fast for my sweet Grandma who is not doing well and for my sweet Grandpa who is having a hard time with his sweetheart who is not improving. We believe that fasting combined with prayer and purpose increases our spiritual growth, draws us closer to God, and brings blessings. We skip 2 consecutive meals and break the fast with a prayer. Learn more about why we fast HERE. Some of my siblings and my family gathered together to break our fast this evening. We ended up having veggies, fruit, and steak, salmon, and chicken on the BBQ.

Day 24

Day 24

Meal 1: Leftover Frittata (guys this tastes even better the next day, if you believe it!)

Meal 2: Turkey, homemade mayo, spicy brown mustard, tomato, avocado, lettuce wrap with a side of roasted sweet potatoes

This turkey is Applegate. It is debated whether it is compliant or not. I have discovered that the pre-packaged turkey is not because of all the added preservatives. BUT supposedly if you get it sliced from the deli it doesn't have the preservatives and is compliant. That being said, this is the CLOSEST deli meat I could find ANYWHERE that would work for me. Have you read the ingredients on all the deli meat at the grocery store? It is disgusting. Trust me, I have read pretty much every single one. I feel good about eating this brand. You can find it at Target. If you aren't worried about a few more additives, get the pre-packaged turkey. I believe it has less than 2% of sugar and so it isn't compliant but I most likely will buy it after whole30.

Meal 3: Buffalo Turkey Meatball salad with Whole30 Compliant ranch

Slow Cooker Buffalo Turkey Meatballs
-1-1.5 lbs ground turkey (or chicken or beef)

-2 celery sticks

-5 baby carrots

-1 egg

-1 tsp onion powder

-1 tsp garlic powder

-1/2 tsp salt

-3 Tbl arrowroot powder (this helps to bind the meat together since you can't have breadcrumbs)

-3/4 cup compliant buffalo hot sauce (I used Frank's Red Hot Sauce Original Flavor)

Rough chop the celery and baby carrots, toss into a blender or food processor (I used my Blendtech). Chop up until finely minced, almost like a mush. Toss everything into a bowl (Except the hot sauce), and mix together with a big wooden spoon or by hand (my preferred method).

I used a cookie scoop to form the balls (I got 18 out of this). Brown the meatballs on the stovetop (I used a bit of coconut oil for this). This doesn't take long. You don't want to cook them, just brown the outsides a bit. You will have to do this in batches.

Place the meatballs into a greased slow cooker (I just turned it on and let some coconut oil melt in the bottom while I browned the meatballs. Then I rubbed the oil around with a paper towel). Once all the meat is into the crockpot, top with the buffalo sauce. Let it cook on low for 5-6 hours.

I LOVE anything with buffalo sauce so these were great. I will be eating these all week on salads or in lettuce wraps. They freeze well also.

My Thoughts:
I am finally getting my energy back. Hallelujah! We spent the entire day shopping for furniture (poor MJ has been sleeping on a mattress on the floor ever since her brother kicked her out of the crib 18 months ago. So she finally got a bedroom set and is over-the-moon excited about it. Plus we got a king size bed and are excited to finally be real-life grownups). We hauled the kids around everywhere. They were miserable. And they both got colds. So yeah. It wasn't fun. But at least I had the meatballs ready to eat when I got home. I will be 100% real with you all though, I really miss cheese. Like badly. I cannot wait to reintroduce dairy and I hope I handle it well because I need cheese. This salad was really good but it would have been over-the-top good if I could have crumbled some bleu cheese on top. It is good to know I can survive without it though!

Day 22-23

Day 22

Meal 1: Scrambled eggs and a side of veggies

Meal 2: Hot dogs! And veggies.

These hot dogs are whole30 approved and they actually taste great. I recommend them. I know you can find them at Target, not sure where else. I want to buy this brand for my kids from now on, considering MJ can eat up to 3 hot dogs in 1 sitting. She is a tiny little thing but that girl can EAT. It is really impressive.

Meal 3: Roasted white and regular sweet potatoes, lemon pepper chicken, steamed broccoli, side of unsweetened applesauce with cinnamon (this was so yummy and it is now my "treat" at meals. Totally tastes like a dessert to me!)

Roasted White and Regular Sweet Potatoes
-1 white sweet potato
-1 regular sweet potato
-1 onion of your choice
-4-5 cloves of garlic, roughly chopped
-3 T. Avocado Oil
-2 teaspoons rosemary (or any herbs you like. Italian seasoning would be great and so would thyme, or even a mix of rosemary and thyme)
-Salt and pepper

Cut up your sweet potatoes in bite-size pieces, roughly cut up your onion (about the same size pieces as your sweet potatoes) and garlic. Toss it all into a ziplock bag. Then pour in the avocado oil, rosemary, and salt and pepper. Shake it all up, toss in a greased baking dish, bake at 400 for 25 minutes, stir, and bake for another 25 minutes.


For the Lemon-Pepper chicken, make sure you have a compliant lemon-pepper on hand! There are a lot out there that have additives that are not compliant (like SUGAR). I used Mrs. Dash Salt Free Lemon Pepper because all of its ingredients are compliant. THIS is what it looks like but you can find it cheaper at your local grocery store. I got mine from Target. I love lemon-pepper chicken and this seasoning is full of flavor. I will make this a lot and have a bunch of chicken on-hand to toss into salads throughout the week.

Day 23

Meal 1: Veggie and Sausage Frittatta. 

Yum! This recipe is from Planks, Love and Guacamole. It was posted on the Whole30recipes page on Instagram and as soon as I saw it I KNEW I had to make it. You guys, all of Alanna's recipes (the girl behind Planks, Love, and Guacamole) are amazing. She is so talented! Her recipes are simple, healthy, and FULL of flavor. So delicious! Go and check her out! This is my version of her recipe. Hers called for fresh herbs (which I was fresh out of...sorry I had to). So I ended up using dry herbs and adding leftover broccoli from yesterday to the mix. This recipe is perfect for using up leftover cooked veggies and is so versatile you can basically throw anything you want in there. This is her recipe with some of my notes added in!

Planks, Love and Guacamole Baked Frittata
-6 eggs

-1/2 cup full fat unsweetened coconut milk (blended, then measured)

-3/4 cup chopped protein of choice (I used chicken-apple sausage)

-1 cup chopped veggies (saute first if using a veggie that is best cooked, I used steamed broccoli from the night before, some sauteed red onion and fresh tomatoes)

-1/2 teaspoon sea salt

-1/2 teaspoon black pepper

-Fresh herbs (I used 1/2 teaspoon of dried Italian seasoning, this is such a versatile recipe that you can use any seasonings you would like that you feel would go best with your protein and veggie choices)

1. Preheat oven to 350, oil a pie dish (I rubbed mine with some avocado oil)

2. Lightly beat eggs with salt and pepper.

3. Add coconut milk to eggs, mix to combine.

4. Pour egg mixture into pie dish.

5. Top with meat, veggies, and herbs. Gently mix.

6. Bake at 350 for 30 mins. Let is cool before slicing.

Meal 2: Leftover sweet potatoes and chicken.

Meal 3: In N Out double hamburger, Protein Style, Animal Style, hold the sauce, add mustard.

My Thoughts:
We were on our way to a wedding reception where I wasn't sure there would be anything compliant. So I made sure I grabbed something on our way. Good thing because there was Coldstone Ice Cream being served. Holy moly. It looked good but I wasn't tempted. I even served both my kids and helped them out with their ice cream and wasn't jealous at all. Holla! Whole30 food craving victory!

Day 19-21

Day 19

Meal 1: Scrambled eggs, salsa, avocado, and a side of fruit

Meal 2: Roasted White Sweet Potatoes, avocado, cilantro, tomato, sweet mini peppers, fresh squeezed lime, salt and pepper.

Meal 3: Deconstructed burger salad turned into a massive plate of goodness. Topped with Cumin-Lime dressing that I could drink a vat of (I doubled the recipe and was so glad I did).

Sundried Tomato Burger
-1-1.5 lbs Ground Beef (or turkey or chicken)
-About 8 Sundried tomatoes, finely chopped
-salt and pepper
-onion powder
-3-4 cloves of garlic (minced)
-Chili Powder

Mix everything together, use as much or as little of the seasonings as you like (I don't measure for burgers. I just shake stuff in according to how I feel. Toss on the grill or in a skillet on the stovetop (which is what I did because we don't have a grill). Med-high over stovetop, in avocado oil, 3-4 minutes per side. I topped these with bacon, because duh, bacon.

This salad also has beets, avocado, broccoli, tomatoes, carrots, and cucumbers in it.

Day 20

Meal 1: Leftover roasted white sweet potato topped with an egg over easy, and avocado.

Meal 2: Leftover burger and veggies

Meal 3: Brussel Sprouts and Beets, Chicken-Apple Sausage

Day 21

Meal 1: bacon, spinach, sundried tomato omelette. Side of avocado.

Meal 2: Leftover sundried tomato burger with spicy brown mustard, lots of veggies and guac mixed with homemade mayo as a dip.

Meal 3: A big salad. Nothing fancy. Wasn't very hungry.

My Thoughts:
Everything is starting to become second nature. I don't have to try and figure out what I am going to cook. I just kind of start throwing stuff together and it ends up working. Its awesome. I will admit, I had a visit from Aunt Flow (TMI? Whatevs) and I have been super grumpy and my energy is starting to go away. So sad. I also have been wanting to eat candy every second of the day but I am blaming that on my hormones being crazy. I hope the cravings will go away and that my sugar cravings as well. The positive side? I used to have HORRIBLE cramps. Like, lay in bed all day long kind of cramps. I haven't had cramps really at all this time and I am contributing that to being sugar-free. So even though my energy is shot, at least I am not in pain.