Whole 30 - 19, 20, 21, 22, 23, 24

My computer is down, so daily posts just aren't happening :( Whole 30 is going really well. Today is day 25 - in the home stretch now! Last night I went out to eat with some girlfriends. Good times were had by all and I was able to stick to whole 30. As I start looking and feeling better and better... my desire for junk becomes less and less. Funny how that works ;) My birthday is also one week from today. Originally I intended to just eat whatever I want on that day, but as it gets closer I'm starting to reconsider that decision. I just don't want to set myself back with that crap. It just doesn't seem worth it. I can easily eat some paleo treats that day and be just as satisfied (coconut flour pancakes and paleo cupcakes... yum).

For lunch this day I was on the go (imagine that) and threw together this salad with some available ingredients. Spinach, egg, tomato and all beef, grass fed hot dog.

My sweet husband (who I'm convinced is the only person reading this) kicked my butt out the door to lifting class Thursday night, kept the boys alive, loaded the dishwasher AND prepared this awesome dinner for me! Mexican Meatloaf (I altered a weight watchers recipe slightly to make it paleo) and some cauli rice. Love him!

We went to the lake this weekend also and managed to stay whole 30 compliant. Ate eggs and bacon for breakfast, tuna salad for lunch and cooked out burgers, chili, hot dogs for dinner. This was a quick pic of my snackage on the drive home. Black coffee, water and a fruit cup (which was surprisingly legit coming from a gas station).

Lunch when we got home from the lake, this was AWESOME. "Fried" chicken with a little broccoli and honeydew melon.

 

Oh, why, hello size 29 jeans. Thank you for fitting on my body, you really pepped up my evening and desire to continue eating this way... especially since I haven't fit into you since 2010! 

Whole 30 - Day 18

I had a headache today, which reminded me... I haven't had a headache in a LONG time. I can't even remember the last time I had one. I used to have them daily or every other day. While it sucked having a headache yesterday (and it was a mild one) it reminded me to be thankful I very VERY rarely have them anymore.

Also, I started reading Dallas and Melissa Hartwig's new book "It starts with food." I'm really enjoying it. The chapter's I have read so far have talked about the psychology of why we eat what we do and the addictive qualities of food. It's very interesting and it's forcing me to take a hard look at my relationship with food.

Now to the food:

Eggs with sausage (applewood brand), red peppers, onions, avocado and some strawberries. Perfection. 

 Lunch: Tuna salad (tuna, apples, zucchini, eggs, mustard) with romaine lettuce and topped with avocado. I really enjoyed this, but honestly it was a LOT of food. I tried to eat it all, but ended up only eating about half.

Dinner: Steamed lobster tail (on sale this week), broccoli, strawberries and a little of a peach. My husband made this for me while I was at O lifting class! 

It was tough to eat enough again today. I just lose track of time and/or I'm not hungry!

Whole 30 - 11,12,13,14,15,16 & 17.

Wow, I suck. I have been doing really great with whole30, and not so great keeping up blogging daily! I have, however, been taking pictures of my food. So here are some highlights from the last several days.

I found this recipe on pinterest. It's chicken, avocado, cilantro and some lime juice. The recipe called for paleo mayo - but I didn't have time to make any that morning. It really was not good. It was super bland. It looks yummy in the picture though!

 

Typical breakfast, eggs, zucchini, onion and avocado.

I wanted to make my sweet potato fries more fry-ish. They always ended up being sweet potato mush. I cut them thicker this time, I tossed them in olive oil and about 1T of almond flour (not technically whole30) but they were really good and VERY fried french fry-ish.

Yum. I love it when we mix up the eggs. Added some sausage here!

 We were weak on the veggies for lunch one day so I decided to try some zucchini chips. They were SO insanely yummy. Sliced with the mandolin, baked at 250 for about 90 minutes.

Omelet with zucchini and eggs. And coffee!

Yummy wraps made from leftover orange chicken with some peach slices. 

FUDGE BABIES! My favorite whole30 indulgence. Made from dates, cocoa powder, vanilla and walnuts. They taste like brownie batter. 

Little C wanted to share his breakfast one morning :) blended raspberries, blueberries and banana.

And his lunch, steamed broccoli and carrots.

Quick and easy spaghetti with GF beef, marinara sauce and zucchini/yellow squash noodles.

Paleo orange chicken!

Salmon patties with broccoli and strawberries. This was delicious and filling.

Whole 30 Day 8, 9 & 10

The weekend got away from me! We did stay whole 30 compliant all weekend. Here are some highlights :)

Quick snack on Friday 

 

 Bora Bora Fireballs with cauli-rice (WellFed cookbook, theclothesmakethegirl.com)

 

5k on Saturday morning! 34:10 on a hilly course (which is a PR). Still hoping to get under 30 minutes someday.

 

 Leftovers for lunch on Sunday - meatballs, green beans and brisket

  

Silly kid.

 Chocolate chili with mashed cauliflower for dinner Sunday night!

Whole 30 Day 7

I'm beginning to see a theme with my "breakfast was consumed in a hurry" speech. Once again, breakfast was eaten in the car on the way to work. I snapped a quick picture as I was heading out to the car.

I didn't have any meat in the house today. I went to the grocery store to buy some meat, but at lunch time it was all still frozen. I was starving with not a lot of time, so I just threw this little lunch together:

Applewoods black forest ham (uncured, nitrate free), spinach, carrots, avocado & mustard.

This afternoon I threw some frozen chicken into the crockpot. When I got home my H got creative and had started making chicken skewers for the grill. I remembered reading about a skewer glaze on some paleo blog, so I blended up some pineapple & orange on a whim. It was really good! H also made some delicious guacamole.

Whole 30 Day 6

I'm serious when I say that breakfast this morning tasted like french toast. Maybe it's just been too long since I've had REAL french toast, but holy cow this was delicious. H mixed some of yesterday's sausage hash with 2 eggs into an omelet. AMAZING. Can't wait to eat this again in the morning. He cooked it in coconut oil so there was a bit of a "crust" on the outside once it cooled a little and the sweet potatoes made the filling taste sweet. Add a list cinnamon and BAM, seriously fantastic "french toast."

H came home for lunch and we threw together some burgers.

Sharing an instagram pic of me and big C :)

idk why this is sideways and I'm too lazy to fix it :) The only meat we had in the house tonight was tuna... so I searched pinterest for some ideas. I found this recipe for paleo tuna cakes and my friend suggested we try theclothesmakethegirl's Cocoa Toasted Cauliflower. We loved the tuna cakes! The cauli... eh, not so much. But she LOVED it, so I guess it just depends on your tastes :)

And one more pic. Me and little C.

Also, I'm on My Fitness Pal logging all this food. If you're interested about the fat/protein/carbs (or calories) of everything then please find me and follow me! My username is blinkinglight.

Whole 30 Day 5

Breakfast was this delicious masterpiece. Karina's Sausage Hash (recipe is in "Everyday Paleo"). Basically just pork sausage and sweet potatoes. Good thing H doesn't like sweet potatoes, more for me :) It was really, really filling and delicious.

Typical work day lunch, tuna salad! Tuna, apples, celery & mashed avocado

After CrossFit we came home and threw a grass fed T-Bone steak on the grill with some veggies. This was my portion. The three of us shared the steak. I was still kind of full from breakfast and lunch! 

I did much better today by eating PLENTY of food. 

Whole 30 Day 4

Breakfast was eggs and coffee. No pic because they looked the same as always :)


Lunch was leftover Shepherd's pie. Here is big C's lunch, red bell peppers, avocado & nitrate free (applewood) black forest ham.

Dinner was paleo orange chicken. Yummmmm.

Today, after inputting everything, I only ate about 1000 calories. Yikes!! Definitely not enough, but I just didn't have a lot of food in the house to eat. I'm eating much more Day 5. I was able to control my carbs and sugar today. I snacked on a few berries, but that was about it.

Probably my favorite recipe ever.

I have mentioned this recipe in my blog previously, but I love it so much I thought it was worth mentioning again. I never get tired of eating it!


Mexican Meatloaf

1 spray(s) cooking spray
1/2 pound(s) raw extra lean ground beef
1/2 pound(s) lean ground turkey, breast
2 large egg white(s)
2 oz cornbread stuffing dry mix, (about 1 cup)
1 medium onion(s), chopped
1/2 tsp chili powder
1/4 tsp ground cumin
4 oz canned green chili peppers, diced
8 oz canned enchilada sauce

Preheat oven to 375°F. Coat a broiler pan with cooking spray.


In a large bowl, mix beef, turkey, egg whites, stuffing mix, onion, chili powder, cumin, chilies and half of enchilada sauce together. Shape into an oval with your hands and place on prepared broiler pan.


Cook for 1 hour, top with remaining enchilada sauce and bake for 5 minutes more. Slice into 6 pieces and serve. 3 points per serving (old WW points, not points plus)

And I just had to share this picture of CD eating broccoli. I was so happy with him! I didn't have to bribe him to eat it or anything ;)

New recipes!

For lunch yesterday I decided to make my own version of Johnnies new Strawberry Spinach Salad. It was just me for lunch, no way I could get the little guy to eat a salad!

Strawberry Spinach Salad
Spinach
1 cup-ish Strawberries
1T Feta Cheese
1T Pecans
10 sprays of salad spritzer raspberry balsamic dressing

WW PointsPlus = 5 points (check me on this, I'm still not 100% how this new program stuff works)

This was VERY easy to throw together and it was DELISH! I will definitely be making this again. 

For dinner I decided to try out WW's Vegetable Lasagna recipe. It was a little more complicated. (Well, not actually complicated, but chopping and roasting vegetables = complicated to this girl)

Vegetable Lasagna 

1 medium, raw eggplant (peeled and sliced 1/4-inch thick)

1 medium zucchini (sliced 1/4-inch thick)

1/4 tsp salt

1/8 tsp pepper

1 Tbsp Olive Oil

1 clove garlic

28 oz canned tomatoes, whole, chopped, in their own juice

10 oz mushrooms (bleh, we hate mushrooms so we omitted this)

1 large green pepper, chopped

1/2 cup parsley, flat leaf, chopped

5 pieces no cook lasagna noodles 

2 oz Parmesan cheese

Preheat the oven to 400ºF. Spray 2 baking sheets and an 8-inch-square baking dish with nonstick spray. Arrange the eggplant and zucchini slices on the baking sheets, overlapping a few slices, if necessary. Spray the tops with nonstick spray, sprinkle with the salt and pepper, and bake until tender, 15 minutes. Set aside (leave the oven on).

Heat a large nonstick skillet. Swirl in the oil, then add the garlic. Sauté until fragrant, about 30 seconds. Add the tomatoes, mushrooms, frying peppers, parsley, and another grinding of the pepper; cook over medium-low heat until the sauce is bubbling but not yet thickened. Remove from the heat. (The sauce can be made up to 3 days ahead at this point; just transfer to an airtight container and refrigerate.)

I've never purchased lasagna noodles in my adult life..... so this is what the kind I bought looked like :) You're supposed to get the "no bake" kind. 

Spread 1⁄2 cup of the sauce evenly over the bottom of the baking dish. Cover with 1 or 2 lasagna noodles (depending on the size you are using); top with one-fourth of the eggplant and zucchini slices, then top with another 1⁄2 cup of the sauce. Sprinkle with 1 tablespoon of the Parmesan cheese. Repeat the procedure to make 4 more layers, ending with a layer of noodles topped with sauce. If any sauce remains, pour it on the top and around the edges of the lasagna. Be sure to use all the sauce (it’s needed to cook the noodles). Press down gently on the lasagna with a spatula to help the noodles absorb the sauce; the lasagna will compact as it cooks.

Ok, 1/2 cup of sauce was NOTHING. I think next time I'll use an 8x8 pan instead of 9x13.

I used more noodles than it said because of the size of my pan

I will also likely make more eggplant and zucchini than it said for next time. There was almost nothing left and I only did 3 layers, not 4.

All done before going into the oven!

Cooked and ready to eat!

Even the little guy liked it! (Although it was messy, so we had to lose the shirt :-) )

This afternoon for lunch I decided carbs sounded good. Potatoes aren't the healthiest of all choices, but it was simple to make and very filling! 

Broccoli Cheddar Potatoes 

Pretty self explanatory.... 

Bake 2 potatoes at 400 degrees for an hour, slice open and put in cheddar cheese and steamed broccoli (I added a little garlic). Cook for another 5-10 minutes and serve! 

Me and the little guy CHOWED on these today for lunch. Very, very good!