Whole(ish)30 - Two Weeks In.

This past week has been super crazy - helping Nathan and Rebekah move, painting, moving furniture and cleaning here, and then a four day trip to Idaho for Joe's funeral.  I haven't had a lot of time for posting.

I am happy to report that even though Steve and I went on a 4 day road trip, I was still able to stick with healthy eating.  Here's a few pictures from this past week:

Mexican salad.
So yummy.
I put cooked some chicken tenders in a frying pan, covered with Jack's Salsa, then put them on a bed of mixed greens, and added a dollop of guacamole.
So good.

Road trip food.
Sliced cucumbers, celery sticks in almond butter, olives, jicama sticks, guacamole, macadamia nuts and raw almonds, fresh peach slices and mixed heirloom tomatoes.
I admit, we ate too many macadamia nuts, but overall, it was a pretty good selection.  There are a couple of cans of tuna pictured, but we didn't end up using them.

I got half a box of peaches this week.  

Breakfast hash: Jimmy Dean Natural Sausage, sweet potatoes, jicama, onions, green peppers and baby portobello mushrooms.
It was excellent.

Ribs.
Ribs.
Ribs.
Oh, and some sauteed peas and mushrooms.
I made a new whole30 compliant rub - it was awesome.  I thought I would miss the brown sugar, but nope, not really.
(it was based on this recipe - but without the Old Bay Seasoning and with more onion and thyme)

Roadside Salmon Salad.
Picked up some mixed greens and some cold salmon fillets at Safeway in Pendleton, then added some of the road trip food I already had.
Delicious! (And very very pretty)

W30 - Day 5

Five days without sugar! (or gluten or dairy)...

I won't lie, today I had a little temptation.  I made a batch of brownies this morning, then frosted them with MINT FROSTING.  Lucky for me, Alex was around to lick the brownie bowl, and Steve was around to take care of the frosting overspill. Whew!

I was out of the house for quite a while today, so this time I thought ahead and threw a small handful of almonds and cashews in a baggie, along with a clementine.  That helped. Especially when I hit the Taco Bell drive thru for Alex.  I think I may have to figure out some Mexican food soon.

Very soon.

As pretty as this looks, breakfast was kind of a disaster.
I thought I would try some sweet potato hash browns.
Um. No. Not this time.
I added some shredded onion and garlic in a vain attempt to make these savory. My plan backfired - they tasted moderately gross.  I'll try again another time.
Maybe next year.

As promised, mashed sweet potatoes with toasted (okay, slightly scorched) pecans and toasted (barely - I didn't want to scorch again) coconut.  The unsweetened coconut was only so-so, but I loved the scorched pecans with it.  I may have to make that a thing.
Scorching things, I mean.

W30 - Day 4

Maybe my schedule will settle down a little next week - at least enough so that I can have meals at regular times. Oh, well...at least I managed to get 3 meals today.

Here goes:

Basically the same omelette/frittata as yesterday - but more kale.
It was good, but I don't think I can do eggs again for a little while.

I didn't have lunch until after 4pm - so I didn't want to fill up too much that close to dinner.
I reheated the last bit of spaghetti sauce from Sunday and fried up some mashed sweet potatoes.

I know, I know, pretty bland looking...but still yummy.
Salmon with lemon pepper and cilantro-lime-green-bean-shrimp.

W30 - Day 3

Another challenging day - I had to drive to Everett for an 8am dentist appointment...then again for Danny's noon appointment...then to the airport to pick up Alex (whose plane was an hour late!!!).  The boys and I were starving by the time we headed home, so Danny called Steve and had him order Papa Johns.

Yes, you heard me.

Papa Johns.

I hope inhaling is allowed on Whole30, because there was a lot of that going on during the 15 minute ride home from Papa Johns.

Breakfast was sort of an omelet...or frittata...or something.  I sauteed some leftover chicken sausage with baby kale, baby portobello mushrooms and diced onions, then poured two eggs (seasoned with salt) over the whole shebang...

...resulting in this.  It was pretty dang awesome, I just wished I'd thrown in more kale.
Next time.

This is what I DIDN'T eat for dinner.  I promise, I only inhaled.

This was my dinner that I threw together in less than 10 minutes.  The golden loveliness at the top of the plate is mashed sweet potatoes.  They were super easy, since I had cooked 3 large sweet potatoes this morning.  I just cut one in half, peeled it and poured a splash of coconut milk and about a teaspoon of butter, then I hit it with my immersion blender and presto chango! Mashed sweet potatoes.  I was surprised at how sweet they were - it was nice to have the sausage along with it.  I could see making these sweet potatoes for Thanksgiving - adding some roasted chopped pecans and some toasted coconut.  I may have to give that a trial run.

Maybe tomorrow.

Whole(ish) 30 Day 2

So...day 2.

I can tell that I need to work on having some snacks on hand - not that I've been nibbling, just, well, there were times today that I was quite hungry, and I know that it's because I haven't been eating enough.

Without further ado, here's what I ate today:

Breakfast: sausage, leftover spaghetti squash, sauteed mushrooms and green beans. Isn't it pretty?

Lunch: basically the same as breakfast, just scrambled together.  I was going to do a frittata, but I ran out of time.

Dinner: salad (spring greens, tomato, avocado and clementine slices) and grilled chicken sausage.

(purchased at Costco)

Whole(ish) 30 Day 1

Started the Whole30 challenge yesterday - no sugar, grains or dairy for a month.  Can I do it?

I do love a challenge.

Since it was Sunday, I only ended up having 2 meals and a couple of snacks.

Breakfast: sausage, green bean, onion and mushroom scramble. (I had just cooked up 3 of those ingredients to throw in the crockpot for spaghetti sauce...so they were out and convenient).

A hit and a miss. The cucumber cilantro lime salad was nasty - the cukes would have tasted better just left alone, or with a splash of apple cider vinegar. The spaghetti squash spaghetti was pretty dang good - the sauce was amazing.

Here's a link to the basic Whole30 program.  I'm not going to be quite as obsessive as they are...frankly, I don't want to spend a fortune on several different kinds of oil...that kind of thing.  I'll make do with EVOO and coconut oil and butter (until I run out, then I'll explore other options). It's going to be a 'work in progress' sort of thing.