Day 28: 2 days to go and my hardest days are still ahead of me!

Family is now in town. It would serve as the best challenge of my Whole30 to have both a holiday (that typically revolves around junk food like chocolate bunnies, jelly beans, and sugar covered marshmallow chicks) AND family in town (remember that whole “psychological/emotional” connection to food the Whole30 talks about – well, a lot of that stems from what we do with family – and on both sides of mine – we eat. It’s what we do to bond, to connect. If we aren’t at a table eating together, we are off our separate ways). The point is – the biggest challenge of my Whole30 begins now… 2 days from the end!

And so far, it’s been a piece of cake (figurative, not literal. Cause that would be bad).

Here is what I ate today:

Breakfast: Scrambled eggs with mushrooms and left-over cauliflower

Lunch: Left-over chili with Paleo Sour Cream and cucumber salad with red wine vinegar, sea salt and pepper

Dinner: Slow-cooker Roast with mushrooms and onions, mashed cauliflower and broccoli.

28 days down. 2, let me say that again, TWO days to go!

Day 26 & 27

To be honest, at this point I am running out of things to say – I can’t wait to tell you all the BIG things that have changed since Day 1 – but I am hoping to reveal all those big things in my AFTER post.

So for now, I will just tell you what was on my menu for days 26 & 27 and also let you know that I worked out on Day 26! With company in town starting Day 28 I am sure it will be hard to find the time for my workouts, but I am going to try… stay tuned to hear how that went!

Day 26:

Breakfast: Scrambled eggs and left-over asparagus

Lunch: Tuna on celery, raw carrots, a handful of pecans and curry sweet potato chips

Dinner: Slow Cooker Curry Ribs with onions, carrots, celery and a side of steamed cauliflower.

 

Day 27:

Breakfast: Scrambled eggs, half a banana and left-over cauliflower

Lunch: Tuna on celery, raw carrots and left-over onions from the slow-cooker ribs on Day 26

Dinner: Slow-Cooker Turkey Chili with red & green bell peppers, onions and jalepeno (it was SO GOOD), topped with Paleo Sour Cream! YUMMMM!

 

3 days to go people. THREE.

Lunch: Then & Now (How the Whole30 changed our lunch habits!)

Before my Whole30, my daughter and I had lunches that were often a Happy Meal and Big Mac Meal (respectively) or hot dogs and chips or Chick-Fil-A nuggets with fries & apple sauce. Needless to say, they were not the healthiest of options to eat day in and day out (or ever).

Now… here is what our lunches look like:

Raw spinach (in case she didn’t eat the celery or carrots), celery & carrot sticks, tuna (no Paleo mayo – because typically she doesn’t like mayo – but as of today, she does – the Paleo kind anyway), some pecans and baked sweet potato rings with curry and sea salt.

Tuna with Paleo mayo spread into celery sticks, sweet potato rings with curry and sea salt, carrot sticks (not shown: pecans).

And they don’t just LOOK good – they taste good too! Check out my toddler scarfing down MY tuna on celery!! Both plates were totally cleared off by the end of today’s lunch time. Now THAT is not just progress… THAT, my dears, is success!

Curry Foil Fish (Paleo Edition)

Pre-Whole30/Paleo lifestyle the spices we used around here were limited to salt, garlic salt, pepper and occasionally a Montreal Steak Seasoning or Red Pepper Flakes. We occasionally used dried herbs too (oregano, basil, etc.) but other than that our chock full spice drawer was more of an insurance policy (just in case we ever need it) than something we actually used.

So seldom was it used, that I have two of many kinds of spices in there because I didn’t know we had it to begin with and bought another one when a recipe called for it. (That happened more often than I care to admit).

The point is – the spice drawer gets used now. A lot.

Because you can only eat bland veggies and meats so often and so much without getting bored and turning to something less healthy to make up the difference.

For dinner last night I made Foil Fish.

You know, you put some fish and veggies on a piece of foil, wrap it up in a nice “pocket” and then pop it in the oven where it basically steams itself inside the foil and cooks beautifully moist and tasty.

Typically I do a white fish, veggies and a squirt of lemon with salt and pepper. But I needed and wanted something a tad more exciting. So I took a chance that it could go VERY wrong and threw in some spices that I thought might blend well together. And boy, did they ever!

I have officially decided after last night’s Foil Fish experiment that I am CRAZY for CURRY! Here’s what I did:

Curry Foil Fish: Paleo Edition

- Large piece of foil (lay it out flat)

- 1-2 pieces of fish (I used Tilapia – but any white fish will do).

- Chopped up veggies (your choice) I used squash, zucchini and tomatoes

- Olive oil

- Sea Salt & pepper

- 1/8-1/4 Garlic powder

-  1/2 tsp of curry

-1/2 tsp dry yellow mustard

- 1/4-1/2 tsp of red pepper flakes

1. Place fish and chopped veggies in your foil

2. Drizzle olive oil on top of fish & veggies

3. Sprinkle with salt & pepper

4. Sprinkle the rest of the spices on top of the fish & veggies

5. Fold foil in and over the fish & veggies to create a steam pocket (see photo)

6. Place in oven at 400 for 20-25 minutes – fish should flake and read 130 F on a meat thermometer at the thickest place.

This dish was spicy and delicious. Let’s put it this way – there were NO LEFT-OVERS to be had! I will definitely be making this again!

Did you try this? What did you think??

Day 25

Today was a Monday.

Monday’s are not my favorite days of the week.

With that being said, today wasn’t too bad. We ran a couple of errands and then came home for lunch (which I must say was the most creative job I have done scraping together what leftovers we had and adding in some veggies on hand to complete the meal).

But like I have been saying, the longer you do this, the easier “throwing things together” gets.

I also experimented with some spices that aren’t typically used around here for dinner tonight and I was VERY pleased (see my “Foil Fish” post coming soon for the details!)

I did not work out today – although I had planned to start running this week – I think I may hold off until the weather warms up a bit more. I hate running in the cold. I can do it if my training requires it, but I would much rather run in hot, humid weather (it’s how I grew up and what I am used to) (call me weird, I know) but the point is – it is still very cold and very dry and I would rather not set myself up to fail from the start. So I will give it a week to warm up (and pray that it actually does).

Of course, please don’t hold this post against me in two months when I am missing and begging for the cold to come back. It’s Florida… we have two temperatures: COLD and HOT – there is no in between!

On to the important stuff – today’s Menu:

Breakfast: Turkey breakfast sausage, pineapple, blackberries, cucumbers with salt & pepper (I am so glad that the turkey sausage is FINALLY gone – I was getting sick of it, but it is a really easy thing to just scoop out and heat up – and with two babies, easy beats yummy sometimes).

Lunch: Half of a grilled steak, pecans, grilled asparagus, raw carrots and blackberries

Dinner: Foil Fish (tilapia, tomatoes, squash & zucchini) plus half a banana with almond butter.

25 days down… 5 to go!

Paleo/Whole30 Taco Shells/Almond-Flour “Tortillas” Revisited

 

At the beginning of this Whole30 journey I tried out a recipe from Once A Month Mom’s Paleo Menu and wrote a little bit about my experience with the recipe here. They really aren’t anything like tortillas and were actually more like Mini Taco Salad shells.

Either way, they didn’t come out how I had hoped the first time around. They sort of crumbled and made our tacos/taco salad more of a taco COBBLER. (Not the desired effect I was hoping for).

So I decided to try it out again and see what I could do to make these “shells” stick together better.

So without further adieu, here is my own recipe and directions to make yourself a yummy Whole30/Paleo Taco Salad Shell:

(Note: the thicker you make the “shell” the less crispy it will be!)

PALEO/Whole30 TACO SHELLS:

Paper cupcake liners

3 cups almond flour

3 eggs

1/4 cup of ghee (melted)

1/4 cup of olive oil (extra light)

1 tsp sea salt

(for tacos, you can add cumin or chili powder to kick these up a bit)

1. Mix all ingredients together in a bowl until thoroughly incorporated and close to a “dough” texture

2. Flatten out your paper cupcake liner

3. scoop out some “dough” and press flat onto cupcake liner (the thinner the layer, the crispier your result – although, unless fried, these will not be the same type of “crispy” a normal taco shell is)

4. Once your cupcake liner is covered, drop the liner into a muffin tin (it will look sort of like a tart shell) OR you can simply place it flat on a cookie sheet and have a Taco Shell “Plate” or “Hard tortilla”.

5. Place in oven at 350 for 20-25 minutes (until edges brown).

6. Take out of oven – let sit for 10-15 minutes (until cool and hardened).

7. Pull shell out of muffin tin and carefully pull cupcake paper off shell.

I served these with chopped spinach, tomatoes, avocado and ground beef with home-made “taco” seasoning, topped with my Paleo Sour Cream.

Feeding Non-Paleo/Whole30 Visitors

Easter is this Sunday. We will be having company.

Our daughter’s 2nd Birthday is the following week. We will have more company.

So… how do you go about preparing and planning meals for guests who are not subscribing to a Paleo lifestyle or on the Whole30 plan?

First things first, practice it, don’t preach it. How our guests choose to eat and live is their choice. I don’t judge it or try to change it. If any friends or family are ever interested in this new diet/lifestyle I am happy to share it and how I did it, but otherwise, I will simply continue to stay on my path and do what I can to incorporate their personal diets/food desires.

As I planned for the upcoming weekend (4 days) I decided that the most difficult meals would be lunches. Breakfasts really don’t differ much from the norm, so long as I don’t ask them to eat veggies that they don’t want and have bread/toast available for them. Dinner will be exactly the same, except I will offer a starch at a couple of those as well. Lunches… well, they are a tad different. But can still be arranged to feel normal, yet be healthy and satisfying at the same time.

I also want to show my family/guests that healthy food IS GOOD! I don’t necessarily need them to know beforehand how I made something or which ingredients are in it. I will let them taste (and hopefully like) it first and then tell them how I made it and with what! I think getting over the IDEA of “healthy food” and the stigma that it has gained helps people to enjoy it and then realize that healthy can also be delicious!

So… what do I plan on serving this weekend? Here are the lunches & dinners I have prepared for (breakfast will be about the same each day and muffins will also be available):

Day 1: (Dinner only)

Slow Cooker Roast with onions and mushrooms served with mashed cauliflower, steamed green beans and mashed potatoes

Day 2:

Lunch: Left-over roast (bread available for sandwiches for those who want it), small side-salad with tomatoes, olives, slivered almonds and avocado

Dinner: Chicken Cutlets, roasted brussels sprouts and carrots, a loaf of bread will also be served for those who want some.

Day 3:

Lunch: Picnic: Chicken Salad, Raw veggie skewers with dip (I will have Roasted eggplant dip and ranch dressing for whoever wants some), fruit salad, deviled eggs, nuts

Dinner: Grilled hamburgers, baked sweet potato fries, sauteed onions & mushrooms and a side salad

Day 4:

Lunch: Slow-Cooker Roast Chicken & Gravy with left-over veggies from previous days

Easter Dinner: Prime rib, steamed broccoli & carrots, and sweet potatoes

DESSERTS:

As you know, in my family dessert is a special thing. So there will be some non-Paleo/Non-Whole30 desserts in the house. I will not be partaking in those, but I am also hoping to have a few healthy dessert options available (for example, Paleo Strawberry Shortcake – stay tuned for THAT recipe later this week!)

How do you prepare food for your visitors who aren’t Paleo/Whole30 participants??