No Rest for the Weary

Saturday's are for sleeping in right? Weekends are for fun and relaxing things. It's how you rest and rejuvenate from the long work week, right?
Well, I definitely missed out on that today :/

Breakfast was eaten in bed, but not leisurely in the slightest. But very early, and very quickly, as I got ready to head out the door and to work :( only for three hours, but still work. It also definitely put me a little behind scheduled overall.

I came home and ate some leftovers for lunch quickly, while relishing in the glorious fact that we are almost halfway through this journey, and revising my grocery list. I had to take out on of our meals next week because we'll be venturing to a RESTAURANT instead eeeeee!!!!! I'm actually really excited! It's going to be so nice to eat something that I didn't prepare myself, and even though I can imagine all my special requests will be a nuisance, it will be a nice change of pace.

So with my tummy full (because if my mom taught me anything it was that you don't go to the grocery store on an empty stomach!), I headed out to stock up for the week.

This is what it looks like after a trip to H-Mart. So so so many fruits and veggies :)

Then it was home for MEAL PREP!!

First on the list was finally making some clarified butter! I give up finding it in a store and I found a recipe that was super easy! I put the butter in a casserole dish and popped it in the oven at 250degrees for an hour. I took it out, separated out the milk solids, and poured it in a mason jar where it will solidify and we can eat glorious "buttery" things haha

Then I had to make more mayo!

For chicken salad

And ranch!

I also made up a pumpkin custard for breakfasts. Maybe it'll get me out of my egg slump :/

Then time to make dinner. We had a Mediterranean chicken skillet, and it was so yummy! Even Boyfriend requested we make it again even after the Whole30.

Chicken, sundried tomatoes, artichoke hearts, balsamic vinegar, and kalamata olives. Boyfriend got to have some feta cheese on his, and maybe after Whole30, if it's not a bad food for us we could add in some couscous.

Then off to a sold out show! It's always nice to have such a full and responsive audience.
After the show were going out to karaoke to celebrate a dear friend's birthday. It'll be our first karaoke since Whole30. For some reason I think it's going to be so much easier to not drink than it is to sit in a restaurant with people and not eat!

I wish I could say tomorrow would be one where I could sleep in, and relax. But not so much. Church in the morning, show in the afternoon, maybe I can go to bed early ;)

<3 ME

Opening Night

Today's the day, opening night for Fiddler on the Roof. It's gonna be a long and exhausting night. Opening nights are always harder than other show nights I think because it's so much more nerve wracking the first time you're on stage in front of an audience of people judging you, and there's been a huge build up all week until this final moment.

Even though I had to work for an hour, I made sure to take a little time before I left to relish in the moment of a rainy, cold morning. A soft scrambled egg, a big glass of orange juice, and a few more moments in bed :)

I then was off to get my hair done, which was nice to be pampered for a little bit after the ridiculous long hours and endless work that this week has been.
I finished off the last of the leftovers of our chili from last weekend for lunch, but then after a few errands...             I JUST WANTED SOME SNACK FOOD!
Real, semi-junk food, snack food. And a soda. And a nap...

So I went on a hunt. I know Whole 30 recommends that you not buy commercially produced chips, but you know what, too bad! I found some that are cooked in sunflower oil, and have nothing but completely Whole30 compliant ingredients. And I wanted them!!!

And they were amazing! Along with some LaCroix, it was close enough to chips and soda to fill that craving. I think we need to allow ourselves some pleasures even amidst striving to be better and healthier. Is the craving for chips and soda bad, and should I be trying to break that comfort habit? Yeah probably, but you know what, did it keep me from cheating today or being miserable? It sure did! So I won't buy them all the time, I won't make them a staple of my snacking. But on days like this, where I'm already so exhausted, and know that the night ahead of me is going to be so long, I'm going to allow it.

Dinner tonight was supposed to be a crockpot meal, but I adapted it to just cooking in the skillet because I had time today to cook it, and mostly because I didn't want to take time last night to prep it haha (I'm telling you guys, I'm beyond exhausted!) It turned out super yummy, and I substituted carrots in the recipe for zucchini that we had leftover. We don't eat a lot of beef in our house, but this was pretty good.

Beef and Broccoli! I'm really liking cooking Asian food because it doesn't typically have cheese on it, so the flavor profile feels complete without it. And thus, I miss it less haha

I think at this point (day 12) it's all about managing the cravings that we're obviously having, and finding something to allow us to hold on and feel satisfied and happy. Hopefully as we near more towards day 15 the cravings will subside a little more.

Can't wait for some more rest this WEEKEND!!

<3 ME

The Hardest Days

So the Whole 30 book describes days 10 and 11 as the hardest days... Not very encouraging :/
And I can tell you I have craved more forbidden foods these two days than I have the others. From cocktails to peanut butter to pizza. It all sounds amazingly delicious.... and I can't have any of it. If I had ever toyed around with the idea of not reintroducing any of the foods, I definitely disagree with that today. I definitely want to add them all back in, like yesterday haha

But, I'm really trying to solider through. Stick to my guns. It was my idea afterall, so I can't back out right? According to the Whole 30 book, days 12-15 are supposed to be amazing.. so fingers crossed for that!!

Today, I ate the last of the egg muffins for breakfast.

 

 

I've got to decide if I want to try for more egg muffins this weekend. I would DEFINITELY have to switch up the ingredients and seasonings if I do. Also: in the crock pot is pork for some carnitas tonight :) yum yum

 

So another busy day today. I had some more of the chicken salad from earlier this week, and I also had some broccoli with some of the ranch I made this weekend. It was nice to crave some vegetables again haha



Last dinner eaten in Tupperware outside of the theater!! I can't wait to just sit down in my own house and eat dinner. Or just cook a dinner and then eat it, at home, with real dishes and silverware. The carnitas salad I made tasted pretty good, but I can imagine it would taste better at home haha

So definitely a tough couple of days. Definitely craving all the foods I can't have right now. But I'm hopeful that tomorrow will be better :)

<3 ME

Delayed Tiredness

Last night I completely passed out from the sheer tiredness that was the day, and I guess I fell asleep so quickly I didn't have time to feel tired because my first thought when I woke up this morning was..
I NEED A COCKTAIL!
I luckily had a later morning today, so I got to veg for just a little bit before I really had to be ready to get my day started. Instead of a cocktail, I settled for breakfast in bed with some orange juice, and I tried a bit more of the decaf (it was alright... but I might try some different flavor combinations this weekend to see if it helps anything)

It's almost the end of the egg muffins!!! Poor egg muffins, I was so excited about them, and they are still an amazing thing to have. But I've just got to make them a little better ;)

Despite my quiet morning my day at work was super busy. I love having a student because eventually they make my work load a TON less, but the first few weeks it's definitely more work for me. Having to explain things that I'm doing out loud is a bit exhausting.

Today, I also had the luxury of getting to go home and eat dinner before running to the theatre for rehearsal.

 

We had Shrimp Fra Diavolo, which is just a fancy way of saying shrimp in a spicy tomato sauce. It was pretty tasty, and really spicy. I definitely wish I had a little more time to make something to serve it over because it needed something to break up the spice. Also, as far as crock pot meals goes it wasn't the greatest. The recipe required you to sauté onions and garlic before you put them in the crock pot, but then it only wanted you to cook the tomato sauce for 1-2 hours in the crock pot before you put the shrimp in for 15-20 minutes. So it's not really a friendly recipe for putting on before you go to work and coming home to dinner ready. It might be nice if you were already in your home but doing other things besides cooking, but I also feel like you could just make this in under 30 minutes in a skillet.... So tasted good but not one that I'll be repeating in the future I think.

 

 

So another long day comes to a close and if you can believe it, we're now a third of the way done with Whole30!!!!



It's definitely been a really trying week. So much preparation and ground work to make seamless days for everyone involved. It's stressful, but I feel pretty accomplished when I get to the end of the day. Luckily next week won't be quite so strenuous. Dare I say it might be nice to come home and cook and relax. Now if only we could do it with a glass of wine ;)

<3 ME

Be Gracious

Day 9, wow! Sometimes I feel like it's going quickly, but sometimes definitely not haha

My day started early yet again, this time with my clinical student! Except when all your morning patients cancel my morning looked eerily similar to my morning yesterday without a student haha

And when you have a lunch meeting, the view is a little like this.

I had some of the chicken salad that I prepped this weekend. It was pretty yummy. I might add some more vinegar to it because it still tasted a little bit too much like mayonnaise haha yes I know I made it with mayo but I really don't like it :/

So after our really boring morning with no patients, we hit the ground running in the afternoon with 4 kids back to back. So at the end of the day, I was really ready to just sit down and relax for a minute... Alas, straight to the theatre I went. It was also a bit stressful when I got there tonight, so I completely forgot to take a picture of dinner. But let me assure you it was super yummy, and even easier to make and prep last night! Green chicken curry, just chicken, green curry paste, and coconut milk in the crock pot.

I'm really loving all these crock pot meals I've found. They've all been super tasty. After Whole30, perhaps I'd add a bit more sides or something to serve with them, but other than that they're pretty good to go. Like today for instance, I couldn't think of what to serve curry over besides rice, so since we can't have that I just ate it with nothing. It was still tasty, but the rice might be my favorite part of currys. I guess I could add some more vegetables to it as well for a bit more substance than just chicken haha At least, I was fed and full as I entered a pretty stressful rehearsal. Only 2 days til the show opens, but it'll all come together ;)

I think the definite take away for today is: always be conscientious. Always be gracious, especially to those who are surrounding you trying to help you. Sometimes life is stressful, and we all handle that stress in different ways. But if we are ungrateful, rude, and mean to those people that are trying to help us, it's a sure thing that they will most likely be unwilling to help us in the future. We're all fighting a hard battle. Let's support and help each other along the way, not tear each other down. We'll all make it to the finish line that way, and we'll all look prettier when we get there.

<3 ME

Productivity

I can't even begin to tell you how efficient and productive I've been today guys. As I told you guys yesterday, this week is just absolutely crazy for me. However, when you show up for work an hour early because you thought you were supposed to be meeting your new clinical student, but then find out that she starts tomorrow instead, this is what your morning looks like.

Breakfast while catching up on some documentation. Definitely started my day off on a productive note.

Then I had a whirlwind of patients today. However, I did build a lunch break into my schedule because I'm a nice clinical instructor and I didn't want to kill her on her first day. So since I didn't have a student, I took my lunch break leisurely at home with the girls.

Some more leftover chili with a new find of the weekend: LaCroix. Some carbonated water that is naturally flavored and totally Whole30 compliant!!! It's a nice change of pace from just water.

Back to work and then straight to the theatre after work. Roomie graciously picked dinner up from the house that had been cooking in the crock pot all day (CASHEW CHICKEN, YUM!) and brought it for us at the theatre to eat really quickly before rehearsal.

 

I was really conscientious today to make sure I dictated all of my documentation so it was all done before rehearsal tonight! One less thing to do when I finally crawled back home. Meal prep for tomorrow's dinner plus packing breakfast and lunch already has to happen and it's a lot at 11:00 at night :/

But tonight thankfully was so seamless and quick. I can't hope that it will continue to go that smooth all week, but I will definitely try to make it so. It's so much better to not be stressed. I want to get to enjoy this a bit and not have it ruined by being stressed about how much I have to do. My perfectionism rears its ugly head in moments like this... But productivity like today helps! Also I have definitely noticed an increase in energy since this weekend. No afternoon slump, just a consistent energy level all day! It really helps ;)

So day 1 of this crazy busy week is finally over, only three more days til opening night. I can definitely make it!!

OH ALSO! I put together all the links to recipes I used for week 1 and updated it to my last post. Here's a link to them WEEK 1 RECIPES

<3 ME

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