Whole30: Day 4

Pictures, that's what I need more of for these 30 days..I'm a horrible photographer, but some things I make are pretty so I'm going to try to take more pics of what I eat!

Yesterday I hinted about what I had made for breakfast this morning and now I'll tell you. It was a chia seed pudding made with coconut milk, eggs and a green tipped banana. First off I have to admit I am really bad at tempering eggs so it didn't start out the greatest but it turned out tasty. I do have to give a warning that if you have texture issues this isn't for you. It tasted very similar to banana pudding and had the texture of tapioca. It made four servings and one jar with a couple eggs and a Clementine this morning kept me full until lunch time. The kids both liked it enough to try a couple bites but left about half of one jar which I used as my afternoon snack. I did reheat it and liked it better warm.

Lunch was leftover soup with guacamole from a couple nights ago, some fresh veggies and ranch. Nothing exciting, but tasty anyway.

Dinner was not all I had hoped it would be, I had forgotten how rushed we are during the week with the kids activities after school and had planned on cooking damn fine chicken which is one of our top ten recipes of all time!! But baking chicken for an hour didn't work out. So the kids had their favorite grass fed hot dogs and I waited patiently for the chicken to cook and just ate more veggies and ranch while I waited. It really is the best chicken I had ever made the combo of shallots, vinegar and coconut oil is incredible. I always double the recipe so we have any leftovers because the four of us can eat all 10 drumsticks that the original recipe makes!

Starting to feel the mental clarity and energy return...that's what makes it all worth it!!!

Whole30: Day 3

Will Christmas break ever end??? That horror has completely taken over all my thoughts which has been a nice distraction from missing treats, but I'm hoping it's coming to an end soon! Yesterday was the hubs regular day off but today I had to stay home for the snow day and let me tell you we are all ready for a break from each other!!! Don't get me wrong, I love my kids but it's gone on too long!!! Today we ended up going to the mall to run some errands and made our way to Starbucks for some afternoon treats (hot tea for me) then headed across the hall to the Disney store. They happened to have a sale going on so the kids got some treats to entertain them and now, thanks to a new princess dress, my house is completely covered in glitter...and I don't even care because after they go back to school I'm going to deep clean (aka through away all accumulated junk)!

For breakfast we had eggs, some bacon (some say "no" on whole30, but one piece is fine for me since I feel that the minute amount used for curing is washed off), half an avocado and some bulletproof coffee. I did make some special breakfast for tomorrow so I'm hoping it works out...more to come then!

We were still out for lunch so we stopped by Bread Co. I get the Fuji apple salad with extra chicken, no cheese, no dressing and add olive oil. I haven't ever checked the lemon pepper chicken ingredients and can't find it on the website so it may have bad stuff in it...

I had an apple for an afternoon snack. I do have to say I seem to not be as hungry in the afternoons as I have previously but I have also been eating lunch later too.

Dinner was butternut squash lasagna from Health Bent, my family has grown to love this recipe and pretty much everything else from their site! Tonight was the first time without cheese added. Previously I had used some really tasty high quality mozzarella and I am a little sad it's missing, but it was still very delicious. For the Italian sausage I just used pork and Italian seasoning since its hard to find sausage without any sugars or oils in them. I do double the meat and tonight used ground venison because we have a ton in the freezer. The brand of pizza sauce I use is yummy and legit from Whole Foods. I always remember as I'm packing up the one remaining serving that I should double the recipe...so I will sacrifice for my hubs and let him have it tomorrow!

If you're doing a whole30 too I hope it's going well! I'm dreading days 4-6 (my least favorite!)

Whole30...Day Two

The dreaming about food...I had forgotten about that, but it's real. Last night I dreamt about eating truffles. I don't particularly love truffles, but when I woke up I had a moment of panic about not making it even one day before succumbing to my desire to eat sugar!! Then I remembered that I do this, I dream about eating sweets when I'm starting a whole30. I'm happy to know that I'm not the only one this happens to, but it's still crazy that they are so vivid it takes me a while to realize whether or not I really ate sugar!

Day two started out the same as day one...eggs, chicken, and sauerkraut...I'm pretty happy with consistency when it comes to breakfast.

Lunch was some exciting leftovers from last night with a salad made from the salad bar at work all because I'm too lazy to pack anything else fancy. I did forget my dressing at home and let me tell you it is amazing. My mother-in-law had all these different bottles of infused vinegar and oils when we stayed there last week and of course I had to go try the store out for myself! I ended up holding back a little bit only because I didn't want to take out a second mortgage just to buy all of the flavors, but what I did come home with is amazing. I got their basic 18 year aged balsamic vinegar and bought some Persian lime infused olive oil to mix with it and it is absolutely delicious, like for real...my daughter even drank it straight out of a glass it's so good...I'm sure other oil/vinegar places are delicious, but Heavenly Oils will be getting my business for sure!! I also got a honey ginger vinegar that I used on some tilapia last week that was incredible as well!! I'm waiting to mix my coconut vinegar with some Persian lime oil too...my mouth is watering just thinking about it...yum!!!!

Dinner was a Mexican chicken soup that I threw in the crockpot this morning for the hubs to start while he manned the children on the snow day. At 2:30 I got a text asking what time he was supposed to start it, with the answer being at 1...so when I got home the chicken wasn't quite done so I just dumped it all in a pot on the stove and finished  it there. I did use half the cayenne pepper since the kids were eating it too and it still had a good kick. We put some guacamole on top and it was perfect. Super excited to try the leftovers tomorrow and see how the flavors meld together!

Day two done, here's hoping to dream of ice cream!

Whole30...Again...Day One

Today is Day One of my third Whole30. These past few months have been met with eating Paleo about 70% of the time and I have consistently felt like poo..joint pain again, bloating, chronic exhaustion, and looking back I feel like I've generally been living in a haze. All things that are eliminated when I am eating 90-95% Paleo. I am thankful that I don't have some chronic medical condition that prevents me from occasionally enjoying a non-Paleo treat, but my definition of "occasionally" has gotten very lax. This time I am very excited to start but I have more trepidation than previous times, but I think that is do to a lack of preparation in general. I have bought extra protein and veggies, but they're all still sitting in my fridge. Even if not one person reads this blog, I am going to document everything I eat for the entire Whole30...I know I've tried before to use this as a tool to keep me on track and I'm hoping that a more consistent schedule between work and home will allow for me to stay active on the blog!

So here goes...Day One....

For breakfast I ate two farm fresh eggs fried in grass fed clarified butter with a side of leftover rotisserie chicken, sauerkraut and blackberries. I love love love Sunny Paris seasoning from Penzy's so I sprinkled some of that on my eggs and chicken. I also drank some coffee blended with grass fed clarified butter and coconut oil (called Bulletproof by some). I recently read an article about how much coconut oil to consume per day and after reading several other post from well known bloggers and several coconut oil sites it seems like a total of 3T per day will be where I settle.

Lunch (since we were all smushed together due to the blizzard outside) was chicken wings and carrots with homemade ranch. I love making wings at home, I boil them for 10 minutes before putting them in a 450 degree oven for 40ish. The come out super crispy and are delicious tossed with some hot sauce/butter mix. It was delicious, but I'm not going to lie...I wanted some of the amazing coconut gelato my husband brought home from his trip to the store in the 12 inches of snow!!

Dinner was meatloaf (http://www.lifemadefull.com/2013/11/10/paleo-meatloaf/) baked sweet potatoes and peas. It wasn't the most amazing meatloaf ever, but it did have a unique Mexican twist.

So, I made it...one down....

A Perfect Burger

The perfect Paleo burger...We are a grilling family, like a year round grilling family. We have graciously been given our last two grills by my parents for gifts, but we haven't always taken the best care of them and a few weeks ago our last one finally bit the dust. So, when I was at work the hubby was charged with the task of going to "look" at grills. Apparently in our man vs. woman communicating styles what I thought meant just looking at a grill actually meant buying one and putting it together before I got home. Now, he wasn't completely on his own...I did get multiple pictures of two adorable kids in front of various grills with varying price points at lots of different places. But when I did get home the next morning the grill was shining in all it's glory on our newly remodeled and stained deck and I have to admit I couldn't wait to fire it up!!! Even the kids wanted him to fix their eggs on the little side burner thing for breakfast!!

All of this new grill talk leads me to one of my most favoritest meals....a burger, that's right...grass fed beef with a little shake of homemade onion soup mix and grilled to medium-rare, juicy perfection! This night I decided to fancy things up a bit!! I cooked some bacon and then sauteed the mushrooms and onions in the left over bacon grease...whew, that was magical all by itself. I couldn't stop eating those little morsels of goodness!! I sliced up what was left of the fresh bright red tomatoes, dropped a glob of guacamole on top and then wrapped it all in lettuce. In all honesty, I think the lettuce is just and extra messy way to eat it. I don't think it's that amazing and I'll probably just cut it up and eat it with a fork next time. We threw on some adobo spiced sweet potato chips and called it good.

As a side note, I'm four days into my October Whole30 so I'll be throwing some Whole30 approved meals out there over the next few weeks too! 

Tasty Trail Mix

I'm a sucker for snacks. Before switching to a Paleo way of eating I was the queen of snacking. I bought into the whole "eat every two hours" mantra and didn't pass on eating a scrumptious snack to keep it up! It's common knowledge in the Paleo world that because of the higher fat/protein content of our meals that we are able to go much longer between meals than when eating the standard recommendations. If you've read some of my earlier posts, you know that this works for the whole day for me EXCEPT for the time between 2 and 3 in the afternoon...I can almost always tell you it's after 2 o'clock solely based on my hunger! When I was looking for snacks to pack in the kids lunches (and let's be honest, that looked amazing to me too) I came across this recipe for Chunky Monkey Trail Mix and I have become an addict...to the point I have to measure out my portion and hide the rest of the bag in the pantry because every time I walk by I want a handful!!!

Note: The only place I've found the unsweetened banana chips are in the bulk section at Whole Foods, but they are really reasonably priced.

All the yummy ingredients (I didn't have toasted nuts so I did them myself)

The finished product

Back In The Swing Of Things

So, it's confession time...for the millionth time...I suck at this blogging thing. I LOVE the idea, I LOVE being accountable to more than just my own body (despite it's VERY strong way of communicating about what is beneficial to my health and what isn't), and I LOVE spending the time researching and then cooking new things every week. But I can't seem to actually sit down and get it done. I have a ton of pics on my phone of things that I have wanted to blog and so now I'm going to get up to date. My goal is three-four posts per week, some with recipes, some with just pictures and some with nothing to do with food.

Today, we'll start with some new items I picked up at the store and how scrumptious they are...

Yummy Greek salad for lunch

For those of you that know me you know how much I adore the plain rotisserie chicken from Whole Foods..you know the one that has the ingredients as "chicken." I buy one almost every week just to have around and then save the bones for yummy broth. By the time grocery day rolls around I have generally depleted EVERYTHING out of my fridge (I should take a pre shopping and post shopping pic of my fridge some day) and once I get home I want something quick to eat!

I also really like pre-made salad, I know it's significantly more expensive, but you can't buy all these fun little blends separately. I have found (through many frustrating slimy lettuce discoveries) that the kind in the plastic boxes last longer than the bag kind. This new mix I got today had tons of "super greens" in it and was incredibly tasty (see ingredients below).

I had read people blogging about Tessemae's dressings on several Paleo sites but had never tried them and I am sooo glad I did!!! This Lemon Garlic one was so delicious and has all legit ingredients (there's even a "Paleo" label on the ones are compliant, some have soy in them so they're out). The only annoying thing about this type of dressing is that you have to let it warm a bit before the oil in them will actually blend. I found this out when making my own so I was prepared for it, but still.... I don't think it was any more expensive than if I bought the ingredients to make it myself and with all the ingredients being okay I'm not sure I'll make my own anymore!

The Greek Seasoning from Penzy's was already a staple in our house...I'm a little addicted to that store :-) I threw on some thinly sliced red onions, kalamata olives, and a teeny bit of goat cheese (the only cheese/dairy I've added back in on a fairly consistent basis. I haven't seen the problems I had previously when adding dairy from cows back in) and sat on the deck enjoying this beautiful weather. After picking 22# of Honey Crisp apples yesterday I ate one of those too, which I will every day until they're gone!!!!

Here's the ingredients: