Week 1 COMPLETE!!

Happy Sunday!!! We've made it a whole week!!!
Just for a week 1 review, here are all the links to the recipes I used this week :)
Breakfast Casserole
Lettuce Wraps
Pumpkin Chili
Mojo Pork
Egg Muffins


Okay enough celebration, time for some leftover breakfast casserole and then out the door for

GROCERY STORE DAY!!!!
Roomie came with me today, and it was so fun!

We found some super fun things around H-Mart today, like this crazy pepper!

It takes foooorrrrreeeeevvvvveeeerrrr to make it through the grocery store, but we also go to like three different places, because I'm trying really hard to make sure this thing isn't breaking the bank haha but this is what our fridge looks like these days

Full of food and leftovers and more food!

Now it's time for week prep before guess what, yep rehearsal tonight.
But first I grabbed some lunch, leftover chili. Yum yum :)

Food prep #1: make mayonnaise. So if you know anything about me, it's that I really don't like mayonnaise. So why in the world am I making it?! Because I want to use it for some chicken salad for lunches next week. I normally make it with Greek yogurt, but I can't use that right now :/ It was surprisingly not so hard! I dumped 1/4c olive oil, 1 egg, 1/2 teaspoon salt, and 1/2 teaspoon mustard powder into my food processor.

I turned it on and let it process until the mixture looked opaque and slightly thickened and then I drizzled in 1 more cup of olive oil and voila!

 

I added lemon juice until it tasted like, well, mayonnaise haha I also scooped some out and made some compliant ranch by adding some more spices.

 

 

This way we can dip some veggies this week, and I planned on using it some for dinner tonight, BUFFALO CHICKEN!!!!

 

So supposedly if you take hot sauce and add some ghee (clarified butter) it makes basically buffalo sauce. Well try as I might several times today and all last week, have not been able to find any ghee anywhere... I haven't given up, but I didn't have it for tonight's dinner. So I mixed the hot sauce with some of the ranch instead, and it turned out pretty good.

Just so you know, this is what it looks like when you have to cook dinner for your Whole30 self and your non-compliant boyfriend ;)

I made some ranch flavored potatoes and a small salad and dinner was served!

Just in time to scarf it down and run out the door on the way to, you guessed it, the theater...

In fact we have rehearsal every night this week because we open the show on FRIDAY!! So I have a week full of crock pot meals planned for dinners all week.

WEEK 2 JANUARY 11-17

	Monday	Tuesday	Wednesday	Thursday	Friday	Saturday	Sunday
Breakfast	casserole	egg muffins	casserole	egg muffins	casserole	turkey sausage apple scramble	turkey sausage apple scramble
Snack	banana	banana	banana	banana	banana	banana	banana
Lunch	chili	chicken salad	chili	chicken salad	chicken salad	leftovers	leftovers
Snack	nuts apple	nuts apple	nuts apple	nuts apple	nuts apple	nuts apple	nuts apple
Dinner	cashew chicken	chicken curry	shrimp fra diavolo	pork carnitas	beef and broccoli	mediterranean chicken skillet	mediterranean chicken skillet

 
When we finally got home from rehearsal tonight I prepped for tomorrow's meal so it's ready to go in the crock pot in the morning and ready to eat for rehearsal time.



 

So this week is going to be pretty crazy, but we'll see how it goes. Hopefully lots of planning will get me through! Also, I'm planning on adding a list of all my recipes I used for week 1, hopefully with tomorrow's post.
Week #2 here we go!
<3 ME

Anti-Social

How in the world do we juggle all the different things in our lives?! I feel like Whole30 is making me a little antisocial... This program would be perfect if all I ever did was sit in my house waiting to cook and eat or at the grocery store buying appropriate things for me to eat, but alas that is not how my life works...
Before I tell you about that though, let's pause for a moment to celebrate the fact that we've almost made it all the way through week 1!!!!!!!

It's gone by pretty fast, I'm sure because it's been amazingly busy, but nothing like what I'm going to face next week :/ I'll get to that tomorrow though.
So I started my day throwing together (Hahahaha) a breakfast casserole of sorts. Eggs, potatoes, onion, bell pepper, and the sausage I made. It was actually pretty good, I can eat this for a few days haha

Then I ran out the door with some leftover pork from last night and several snacks packed for a day of rehearsals at the theatre. Because of course on top of the craziness of Whole30 we're opening our show next Friday. So I spent the day running around, singing, and of course make-uping which is pretty fun. And at least I get to spend time with Roomie and Boyfriend :) and no I didn't take a picture of my lunch, I'm sorry, I told you it was busy!! You'll have to settle for one of me and Roomie instead...

Now here comes the most stressful part. After being at the theatre from 11-6:30 I had on the agenda to make some chili. And here's also where my opinion that this program is perfect if you're planning no social events. Boyfriend and I had planned to go to a game night at our friends' house. We had said we could be there by 7, and if we could've left straight from rehearsal and grabbed something to eat on the way it would've been no problem. But I can't do that. Nor can I accept the loving offer to be provided food by anyone because it takes a while to explain to everyone all the things I can/can't have. Not to mention the list of unacceptable preservatives that are most likely in the ingredients they would be using, because I know they're in the ones that are just sitting in my fridge and cupboards while I can't use them for 30 days. So we had to be late... Significantly late. And I HATE being late...
Bright spot though? Our friends are gracious and wonderful and didn't mind that we were so late. And I got to shower and become human again after being a poor Jewish woman from Russia all day.
And we got to eat some DELICIOUS chili!! Like I mean really yummy guys!

And had a wonderful time with our friends. Because nothing makes you feel better than laughter :)

So, yes, Whole30 is definitely adding a little bit more stress to my life these days. Tons of planning, tons of work, tons of having to plan how to participate in social events because you have to spend so much time with your food haha but it's worth it. And I'll learn. And it'll get easier. When I was prepping to begin Whole30 a big piece of advice was to make sure you had a good social support system around you, and I can't begin to tell you how true that is. It's so wonderful to have Roomie keep me accountable and help me prep food and clean the millions of dishes that I dirty up constantly. And a wonderful boyfriend who is definitely my balance when I'm freaking out about how I'm going to get everything done. He reminds me to breathe, take it one step at a time, and assures me that we can get it all done. And as per our agreement, he tells me all the food is delicious haha

One day at a time :)

<3 ME

Lazy Days

When I was younger Thursday's used to be my favorite day of the week. I don't know why. Good things tended to happen to me on Thursday I guess, I just liked the feel of the word, something weird little me felt. But, I'll tell you, at this point in my life Friday's are pretty sweet. I don't work a lot ok Friday's so they're often days full of busy adult-like things that my crazy work schedule doesn't allow during the other days of the week. Like making it to the post office before they close, or getting my hair cut. Today I did work a little, but I still had plenty of time for some glorious laziness, which I definitely don't indulge enough in!
I started off by mixing my breakfast up just a little bit:

A scrambled egg, a bit of leftover sausage I made for the egg muffins, an apple, and just a smidge of delicious orange juice! I unfortunately then had to run to see a few kiddo's but then I was back for lunch and had some time to be a little creative :)

I threw some onions, bell pepper, and zucchini in a skillet to brown a little. Seasoned half a chicken breast with ginger, garlic, chili powder, salt and pepper and threw that in too. When it was all browned a bit I added some liquid aminos, red pepper flakes, more ginger, and just a tiny splash of orange juice. Let that simmer for a bit and voilà! Stir fry :) and it was delicious!!!
Made even better by my favorite lunch partner, dooleydog.

My afternoon off also gave me time to prep for tonight's dinner. I have a recipe for Cuban Mojo Pork that I've used before and is whole30 compliant and so yummy. Boyfriend really likes it too :) he's been a real champ so far dealing with this crazy thing we've embarked on and I want to get to make him yummy things that he enjoys along with making him eat whatever other "healthy" stuff I throw at him haha I served it with some roasted potatoes that I spiced with garlic, smoked paprika, chili powder, and salt and pepper. It was nice to have a quick family dinner before we ran out for a little fun at the movies (which really means we got there and the movie we were going to see was sold out, so we just saw Star Wars again haha)

I also got to be a little crafty today and made a little countdown sign for our house.

A little inspiration if you will! I'm not really feeling like the time is dragging by or really looking forward to the end so far. Would I like some ice cream? Absolutely! But I've also been pretty good without it so far.
Amazing how your body knows what it needs and what it doesn't sometimes ;)

<3 ME

Juice!

I can't begin to tell you how depressed I am about already not wanting to eat eggs for breakfast! I distinctly remember eating a scrambled egg every single morning for breakfast my senior year of high school, I don't know why I've become so high maintenance in my adulthood to require a different meal for breakfast now haha I literally convinced myself that I wasn't hungry until around 11 this morning because I just didn't want to eat these silly egg muffins. Of course I ate them anyway because I've already made them and wasted all the money on their ingredients. The true hero of breakfast though was this beauty:

Just a little 100% juice. It was a beautiful thing!

I got a little creative with my lunch today as well.

 

Sautéed a few onions and green bell peppers along with some chicken. Topped it with salsa and it's basically like fajitas.
I'm definitely not eating as many snacks this late in the week. My celery and mixed nuts were just not appealing so I didn't eat them. I had an apple with lunch and one with dinner and I didn't really feel hungry in between.

Now dinner... For all my beautiful planning a day like today was bound to happen. My meal plan dictated that I make some Mojo flavored pork tenderloin tonight. We have rehearsal tonight and that can cook in the crock pot while I'm at work. Except: I didn't get any pork at the store this weekend because it was more expensive than I wanted to pay and I wanted to see if Aldi had it cheaper... Only I forgot to run by there earlier this week. So I woke up this morning with no pork to start cooking. Well, lucky for me I had a TON of cancellations at work this afternoon so I thought, PERFECT! Ran to the store, sure enough the pork was cheaper, and ran home to throw it in the crock pot with hopefully long enough to cook. I pull out the ingredients mix up the sauce that goes over it only to realize I'm supposed to marinate it for at least several hours-overnight.... Well, there goes that plan. So survival mode! I've got to have a dinner that I can throw into containers, hot, in less than 15 minutes after I get home so that I can take dinner for me, Roomie, and Boyfriend to the theatre. And j have an hour to execute it before I have to be back at work. I feel like I'm on an episode of Iron Chef or something, just give me my secret ingredients! Well, we had some leftover pasta sauce from the zucchini noodles and I had leftover ground turkey that I was going to use for meatballs tomorrow night. That'll do! I throw together some meatballs with the ground turkey, an egg, garlic/Italian seasoning/salt/pepper and cook them off really quickly. I throw some potatoes in the oven to bake them and figure Roomie and I can eat the sauce and meatballs on top of the potatoes kind of like chili. Now, there's enough sauce and meatballs to share with Boyfriend and I have some leftover macaroni noodles from the Mac and cheese feast we had the day before Whole30 began. Guys, it turned out perfect! It was rushed and crazed and there's nothing like eating out of Tupperware outside, but it was so yummy and SUPER filling!! Crisis averted :)

So the pork is marinating for tomorrow and all in all its been a good day. I hate the idea of eggs still, but I'll come up with some solutions. Maybe just a better variety of flavors or better seasoning in general for the egg muffins. I have a different breakfast planned for the weekend which I'm looking forward to :) and I woke up without a headache today!!! I can make it through this guys ;)

<3 ME

10% and Loading

So day 3 equals 10% of the Whole 30 completed!!! a somewhat comforting thought

Not so comforting... I'm totally over eggs already, ugh! I woke up this morning knowing that I had my egg muffins waiting on me, and all I could think about is how much I'd rather have a big glass of juice. Of course we didn't have any compliant juice in the house because who would've been able to predict such a craving?! I mean, I sucked it up and ate the eggs because I made them already and I'm not going to let the precious only food that I can eat go to waste! The star of breakfast this morning was definitely my apple though!

 

I also reverted back to water this morning. The decaf yesterday just wasn't worth the effort for now, maybe next week I'll feel differently. My persistent nagging headache just laughs at the measly effort the decaf puts forth.

 

I don't know what it is about this week that means that everyone and their brother has to bring in sweet treats to work, but it's definitely making things tough. This plate sat in front of me for most of my meeting this afternoon:

I was pretty happy with my lunch today though, and even remembered to take a picture for you guys!!!

 

I just cooked a chicken breast with some spices on it in a pan and then roasted some potatoes in the oven with some grapeseed oil, garlic, salt, pepper, and dill. I just needed some potatoes in my life today and if I'm allowed them then I'm going to eat them!

 

Dinner wasn't my highlight of the day like it normally is, but I guess you can't win them all.

 

 

I roasted a few more potatoes which were sadly a little dry because I made them over at Boyfriend's house and I was unaware that they didn't have any oil that was compliant. (silly of me to assume obviously) so I topped them with a bit of salsa. Then I adapted a recipe that we love, Greek Turkey burgers, to be whole30 compliant. It's ground turkey with dill, salt, pepper, fresh garlic, and sundried tomatoes mixed together into patties. We usually add some feta cheese to the mix and make tzatziki sauce to top them with. Obviously I omitted the feta :( I made some tzatziki with an avocado instead of greek yogurt. It tasted okay, but I just couldn't get past the texture (as some of you know textures of food is a big struggle for me) so I just left it off. They were still juicy and flavorful so that's good :) I think Boyfriend really missed his feta and bun haha but as per our agreement of him being supportive, he just told me they tasted good ;) that man's a keeper I tell you!

 

Luckily despite all the temptations that surround me, I haven't slipped yet, or really even come close. The cravings that I'm having for food (such as sugar) I just feed with compliant foods like fruit or potatoes. I'm assuming as my body continues to let go of the need for some of those foods that I'll crave more of the salty/savory foods again and decrease the amount of fruit I'm needing. I'm not a big fruit person as it is, I've always much preferred vegetables, so it's a strange shift for me to be eating so much fruit. I definitely didn't prepare well enough for that this week. I bought more vegetables, so next week I'll definitely add a bit more variety to my fruits to give myself some better options and quantities and omit some of the other snacks.

So far, I'm really proud of Roomie, Biffel and myself. I know it's only 10% completed and there are tons of more challenges to come (like eating out at restaurants :/ ) but we've set up a good foundation and a good support group of people. It's been a great way to force myself to think about food how I need to think about food, and to make my body give up those things it's stuck on that are so unhealthy for it.

Stay tuned for day 4, maybe my headache will finally be gone haha

 

<3 ME



Sugar Monkey

Day 2, what what! I mean let's be serious.. I woke up with a KILLER headache that persisted the whole day through (thank you very much caffeine addiction haha), I tried and was not super impressed with my black decaf coffee, and I was definitely craving some sugar today. BUT I survived, I did not eat any sugar haha, and I know that today I will be stronger because of it.

So first things first: BREAKFAST! I added a little salsa to my eggs today, just something a bit different right. I also tried my hat with some decaf coffee from Sprouts. It was alright, but I'm not super eager to try it again. I think mostly I was really craving it because my body thought the caffeine would make this headache go away, but when it didn't I was over it haha Maybe next week when I've completed these withdrawals it will be comforting again (fingers crossed!)

I also officially suck at taking lunch pictures, because I forgot again today haha I just had some leftover lettuce wraps from dinner last night. I also supplemented with a banana and some celery and cashew butter.
As my day progressed, my headache was definitely annoying, and my body was jonesing for some sugar. My afternoon nut mix snack was yummy, but not cutting it. I just wanted fruit!!

 

 

The real MVP of the day though, was my Peppermint oil! Nothing makes this headache go away like this stuff. Just a bit on the back of my neck and temples and I felt so much better.

 

 

Dinner time was a bit of an adventure. I went off without a recipe (which is my favorite way to cook) I love to have an inspiration and just make it happen how I want. So I started making some pasta sauce. I didn't change my normal sauce recipe, you just have to be careful with your canned tomato products that they don't contain any sugar or other preservatives that aren't Whole30 approved. I used some crushed tomatoes and tomato sauce with some garlic, onion, chili powder, salt and pepper, and Italian seasoning. I also added some ground turkey.

Then some zucchini noodles! They have some commercial products that will turn the zucchini into noodles for you, but I just ran mine through my mandolin and then sliced them into thinner slices with a knife. I put all the slices in a colander, salted them and let them sit for 15-30 minutes to let some water leech out of them, then dried them really well in some paper towels. I sautéed the zucchini and then topped with some sauce. It was pretty tasty :)

 





So I'm only 2 days into this thing. My patience is definitely a little thin thanks to the lack of caffeine and sugar haha but we'll press on. Only 28 more days to go right?! Here's hoping day 3 is sans headache and plus a little more patience haha
<3 ME

And So It Begins

So Day 1!
It started off a little tougher than I thought because Boyfriend isn't feeling well today, so that re-arranged a few things. And the lack of my habitual coffee making this morning was pretty sad...
I started with my egg muffins that I prepared yesterday. Here's the recipe I used  Paleo Egg Muffins. Lesson from this first batch: definitely use more spices/seasonings than I think I need! I put salt and pepper and garlic powder in them but they could use a TON more!

I had a banana somewhere during my morning haha and then I had a "taco" salad for lunch that was just a half a chicken breast that I sautéed and some salsa (I forgot to take a picture :/ maybe tomorrow I'll do better!) I also had some celery with some cashew butter.
I found an already made nut mix at the store with cashews, almonds, and pistachios that were dry roasted. I had a serving of those for an afternoon snack.

Now, tonight was a rehearsal night so I mixed together ingredients lettuce wraps in the crock pot last night and plugged it in before I left for work this morning. I came home to a yummy dinner that I scarfed down before I fled the house. I was able to pack a bit up and bring to Roomie at the theater which was really nice! And it turned out pretty yummy I think :)

I also had an apple with some leftover cashew butter from lunch as a snack during rehearsal.

So overall, thehe worst part of the day: definitely no caffeine haha I've walked past a few cookies and even gum was a bit tough, but for the most part I was full and fine. I'm a bit foggy with the slightest edge of a headache because I haven't had any caffeine yet today. I can tell tomorrow is going to be super rough on that front :/
I've also had a lot more questions today than I anticipated :) hopefully this journey will be good to bring light to healthy eating for the good of our bodies more than just for weight loss. I am optimistic today and excited about such great changes!


Tune in for day 2, hopefully it won't be a reverse attitude haha

<3 ME