Day 15: Super Bowl Sunday (Go Pats!)

Day 15:

Breakfast	Lunch	Dinner
Sweet potato hash w/peppers and onions and sausage	Pork w/ sauerkraut, veggies	Taco salad w/ guac, sweet potato chips, buffalot chix dip, avocado

Buffalo Chicken Dip! :)

 

Thoughts:

Tried sweet potatoes again this morning, and was pleasantly surprised that I can tolerate them again.  Not so sick of them anymore after the week long break.

Also still not sick of my pulled pork and sauerkraut deliciousness – had it for lunch again!  The pork is now all gone thought.  My mom used to have sauerkraut at every thanksgiving, and I would never try it, because it smelled so bad.  It is a potent taste for sure, but its not bad at all!

Went to a party at Tristan’s school today – food I can’t eat everywhere.  Cake, Cheese, Crackers, cookies, donuts, meatballs, pizza!  Ugh!  I picked out a few veggies and fruit that I could eat, watched Tristan eat a whole piece of cake – debating having one small lick of frosting, but again held strong, and I’m proud of myself for it!

Dinner was a super-bowl extravaganza with a deluxe taco salad, and home-made Whole 30 approved buffalo chicken dip!  It was SO good!  It was great to be at a Whole30 dominant super bowl party too – only the kids and one adult are not doing the whole 30 so all the adult food was approved. 

I’m really not that excited about the super bowl, but went to he party just to have some Whole 30 approved super bowl snacks and delicious food!  It was awesome.  Today was a great day to be my ½ way point on my Whole 30 – its all downhill from here right?

Day 14: Temptation abounding

Day 14:

Breakfast	Lunch	Dinner
Bacon, home-made pork sausage and cabbage stir-fry	Pulled pork with Sauerkraut, raw peppers and bacon	Sausage, peppers and onions, with bananas, almond butter and raisins.

Thoughts:

Home-made pork sausage takes a long time to make.  It turned out good, probably could have used a few more spices, last time I did too many, this time not enough.  I’ll get it down eventually.  The bacon was delicious (duh) and because I needed veggies, and just bought some shredded cabbage, I stir fried the cabbage in bacon grease – yum!

For lunch I had more pork and sauerkraut – I still can’t believe I’m eating sauerkraut.  Pinch me!

Tristan had French fries and chicken at the mall today – I really wanted a fry – but I held strong.  He also wanted Red Mango (frozen yogurt) and I let him get some – they had my favorite flavor (white peach) which they haven’t had in a long time.  I was SO tempted, but I ended up compromising with a all fruit smoothie instead.  Hopefully white peach will still be there in 2 weeks!

Dinner was a last minute idea stolen from my sister who just started her Whole 30 with her husband today.  I used the home-made sausage from this morning and some onion and pepper I had that needed to be used and it was delicious.  The onions were perfect – I need to use more onions, I forgot how much I love them.

I’ve learned a lot about cooking, although its not so much attributed to this Whole30 as it is to getting new pans for Christmas.  I read the instructions (shocking I know)  of the pans (who knew pans came with instructions?) and in the process learned how to cook on lower heat.  I’ve always been a high heat cooker – because it cooks faster right?  Turns out low heat cooking makes more delicious food – takes longer but the payoff is tremendous.  Who knew?  (I know, everyone else in the developed world….)

Day 13: Yummy Day!

Day 13:

Breakfast	Lunch	Dinner
Berry ‘cobbler’ (bluberries, raspberries, blackberries, ghee, granola, almond butter – baked and mushed)  YUM!	Pulled pork and sauerkraut and apple (not as pictured)	Burger with lettuce bun, salad with oil and vinegar, potato-leek soup(@Gather)

                          

 

Thoughts:

Breakfast was SOOOO good – a bit potent (without the ‘normal’ sugar to cut it down) but I loved it.  It was kind of a thrown together last minute deal. 

I’m surprised at how much I enjoy the sauerkraut with the pork.  I’ve never touched sauerkraut before (despite being Irish) because it just smelled potent and yucky.  It goes SO well with the pork, for lunch today I had them both warm (dinner last night was cold kraut) and it was delicious.  The kraut adds just the right touch to the pork that is dried a bit from heating in the microwave.  Yum!

Dinner was out at a restaurant, one that serves local grass fed beef and was very accommodating.  I was a bit miffed when my ‘dairy and gluten free’ potato leek soup came with a scoop of sour-cream on top (what happened to dairy free?) but I just scooped it out and ate the soup.  I may have gotten a few milk proteins, but it couldn’t be helped. 

Still taking the pro-biotics(14 billion organisms/pill) and enzymes but they don’t seem to be helping 

Day 12: I ate sauerkraut?

Day 12:

Breakfast	Lunch	Dinner
Fried Eggs w/bacon	Beef Stew, Banana, almond butter and raisins.  Apple	Pulled Pork, sourkraut, cashews and prunes

Thoughts:

I couldn’t eat the eggs this morning.  I thought I had taken enough of an egg break, but they just didn’t taste right and I was gagging.   The bacon was delicious.

I also didn’t eat most of the beef stew at lunch.  A few pieces of beef and some broth, but I ate all the bananas and almond butter and raisins. 

I really haven’t been too hungry lately, I think its my stomach issues, I bought some pro-biotics and enzymes today to try to help.  So far they aren’t helping, but we shall see. I also got some sourkraut because fermented foods are supposed to help.

For dinner the sauerkraut was actually pretty good with the delicious pulled pork from the crock pot.  Its crock pot week. :)

The cashews were nice and buttery, and the prunes added a dash of color and sweetness.  Good dinner overall, probably could have used more veggies, but I’m running out of veggie ideas.... 

Day 11: Crock pot expirements

Day 11:

Breakfast	Lunch	Dinner
YUM granola (no sausage), Larabar	Stir Fry from Hanafords – no sauce, veggies and beef	Apple chicken, steamed brocolli and cauliflower, applesauce

      

Thoughts:

I was kind of rushed this morning, meaning I didn’t really get to eat breakfast.  I had a few bites of granola before work, and some coffee – and then I had part of a larabar when I got to work, but I’m still not a fan of them, so I only ate part of it.

I LOVE that there is a Hanafords across the street from work, and they have a grill, where you can get fajitas, breakfast sandwiches, other sandwiches and make your own stir fry.  I’ve always opted for the no-rice stir-fry so this wasn’t much different, I just had to opt for no sauce either, because they all had either sugar or soy in them.  It was still yummy, I added pineapple which gave it the juice it needed.  I also added 2 eggs for extra protein.  

Dinner was okay.  Frozen chicken breast in the crockpot all day with cut up apples.  The chicken dried out a little bit, but I smooshed the apples into applesauce and added a bit more from a jar and it was okay.  I had to force down the veggies.  :(

Day 10 - SNOW DAY (#1)

Day 10:

Breakfast	Lunch	Dinner
Nut ‘porridge’(cashews, almonds, sunflower, pepitas, coconut, blended w/hot water) w/ berries and banana, coffee	Prosciutto wrapped cucumber, carrots, Clementine, pecans	Beef Stew – grass fed beef, carrots, onions, potatoes

 

Thoughts:  SNOW DAY!  Winter Storm Juno dropped TONS of snow on us today – so it was a day at home.

Breakfast was awesome – the nut porriage was delicious.  I wasn’t as impressed with lunch, my plan was to have meatballs, but because I’ve been having heartburn, and think it may be connected to the tomato sauce, I opted not to.  The proscuito wrapped cucumber sounded awesome, but in reality was a bit weird.  The texture of the proscuito almost made me gag.

A bunch of foods have been doing that lately, I don’t know if its my mind fighting back and asking for ‘bad’ foods, but there are a bunch of foods that even thinking about makes me gag, and it’s the good ones (avocado, eggs, sweet potato…)

Day 9 - Meatballs in the Crockpot

Day 9:

Breakfast	Lunch	Dinner
Whole 30 YUM granola, berries, applesauce, sausage scramble	Quiche – Broccoli, proccuito, eggs	Crock pot meatballs. Made with carrots, onions, tomatoes and grass fed beef

  

Thoughts:

I was so excited for my granola this morning.  The berries actually made it a bit harder to eat, I ended up adding some applesauce to give it some moisture, but I think it would be good without the berries by itself – or berries on the side too. 

I forgot to take a picture of my quiche before I ate most of it.  It was good – not sure I got it cooked all the way.  I made it last night and cooked it most of the way, and then just re-heated it at work, but I think it needed a little more cooking, but it was yummy!

The meatballs were yummy for dinner.  I felt a little bad about not having more veggies, but they were packed with carrots and onions, and smothered in tomatoes, sometimes I forget that all of that counts as veggies too!

Today was a good day. 

Day 8 - Prep for week 2! (Recipe included)

Day 8:

Breakfast	Lunch	Dinner
2 fried eggs, sausage scramble, carrot-cauli-cashew butter puree	b-fast was brunch	Poached chicken, roasted green beans, peaches

YUM granola! :)

Thoughts:  Today was so much better than Friday. 

I got a late start for breakfast, and it took awhile to make – but it was delicious!  I made a bit too much of the carrot/cauli puree, it was yummy, but I couldn’t eat it all!

I ate breakfast around 11 am so I didn’t do a separate lunch.

Dinner was thrown together quicky, and I’ve always loved poached chicken.  I think I overcooked it a little bit, but it was yummy, as were the green beans.  The peaches tasted VERY sweet – I’m sure due to my lack of sugar over the past week.  Who knew peaches were SOOO sweet!

I did some prep for the week, along with shopping today.  Spent WAY less than last week, which was good.  I have some yummy meals planned for the week and NO sweet potatoes!  I’m taking a break, I’m sick of them.  Lots of crock pot use this week – yum!

Today I made DELICIOUS granola – which I can’t wait to eat.  I kinda used a recipe, but made some of it up for things that I couldn’t use and it came out soooooo good.  Its going to be a new favorite of mine for sure! 

I also pre-made a quiche for lunch tomorrow – just need a little extra baking and it’ll be done! I’m feeling really good about this Whole30 now, much better than this weekend,

when I was tempted a TON of times.  But I resisted. 

Here is my recipe for the 
YUM Granola:

Ingredients:

·      1 cup raw cashews

·      1 cup sliced raw almonds

·      2 Tbsp pepitas

·      2 Tbsp sunflower seeds (without shell)

·      3 Tbsp Coconut oil

·      2 Tbsp Cashew Cream* (see recipe below)

·      2 Tbsp frozen apple juice

·      Generous sprinkle of cinnamon

·      6 prunes – diced

·      ¼ cup raisins

Method:

1.     Preheat over to 275

2.     Chop cashews (or use food processor) into smaller pieces

3.     Slightly chop the sliced almonds

4.     Combine all nuts into a large bowl and mix

5.     Combine coconut oil, cashew cream and apple juice in a microwaveable bowl – microwave until soft 30-60 seconds.

6.     Mix ‘sauce’ well

7.     Pour nuts onto baking sheet

8.     Pour ‘sauce’ over top of nuts and mix well.

9.     Add chopped prunes and mix (make sure they distribute well, they are sticky!)

1.  Sprinkle cinnamon over the whole mixture and again mix well

11. Spread mixture out evenly on baking sheet

12. Bake for 35-45 minutes – until there is no running liquid on the bottom of the pan and mixture has a nice browning

13. Add raisins, mix and then spread out evenly again

14. Continue baking for 5-10 minutes

15. Enjoy!

Suggestions:

Enjoy with:

·      Berries

·      Cinnamon roasted apples

·      Almond/coconut milk

·      Plain!

Cashew Cream recipe:

Ingredients:

1 cup cashews

¼ cup frozen apple juice

¼ cup water

Method:

1.     Soak cashews for at least 2 hours (or boil for 15 minutes) to soften

2.     Add cashews, apple juice and ½ water to blender

3.     Blend until smooth – adding more water in small amounts as needed.  Make sure to give it some time blending before adding more water – add too much water and you will have cashew milk…..