Day 6: NYE

Breakfast: omelette with bell peppers and mushrooms, grapes, coffee with coconut milk

Lunch: spinach salad with grilled chicken, hard boiled egg, sunflower seeds and balsamic vinaigrette, apple with almond butter

Snack: applesauce

Dinner: super yummy! Sarah and Tommy (my sister and her fiance) had dinner with us tonight for New Year's Eve. They are good sports and go along with our Whole30 food. Tonight we grilled hamburgers (seasoned with garlic, salt and pepper), served on a grilled portobello mushroom (marinated in lemon juice, balsamic vinegar, olive oil, salt and pepper), and topped with caramelized onions (seasoned with salt).

Sides were baked sweet potato chips with Sprouts' fire-roasted salsa (along the lines of Blue Mesa flavors) and roasted yellow squash and zucchini.

Observation from today:

While what we ate for dinner was surprisingly good (and we will definitely make it again), with today being New Year's Eve it was particularly tempting to want to have party food for dinner instead. But on the flip side, we have almost completed one week of our Whole30!

Day 5: Eating Out

Breakfast: omelet with spinach and mushrooms, applesauce, coffee with coconut milk
Lunch: yummy leftovers from last night (the Tex-Mex Chicken Burrito Bowl)
Snack: grapefruit

We decided we needed a family outing for dinner, so I did a little research to see what our options were. We landed on Texas Land and Cattle because it is somewhat close by and they had a gluten-free menu available online. I was kind of on guard while we were there, ordering and inspecting everything pretty carefully without looking like a freak.

Although we got a questioning look from our waiter when Russ and I ordered food with really specific restrictions, but ordered a cheeseburger for Luke. :)

Here is what we ended up with:
- mesquite grilled sirloin steak, ordered dry (which means no sauce, butter or seasoning)
- side house salad, ordered with no cheese, croutons or dressing (oil and vinegar served on the side)
- steamed broccoli, ordered with no garlic butter (Amy)
- steamed spinach, ordered with no sauce (Russ)

The restaurant had several options and gave me more confidence in being able to eat out with our family. I am sure there are many places we can go and order food in a similar way. Yay!

Day 4: Tex-Mex? Yes, Please.

Today's menu:
Breakfast - egg, chicken sausage and spinach casserole, banana, coffee with coconut milk
Lunch - Spinach salad with grilled chicken, hard-boiled egg and peppers, with homemade balsamic vinaigrette
Snack - apple with almond butter, cashews, black olives
Dinner - hold on to your hats...

Chicken, "Rice" and Avocado Tex-Mex bowls

This dinner was a double-whammy (in a good way) because 1) the chicken cooked in the crockpot all day. I heart crockpot recipes, and 2) I discovered that cauliflower can taste surprisingly like rice/risotto/couscous if prepared just right.

Here's the recipe:

Chicken (serves 4+)
4 chicken breasts
1 onion, chopped
1 green bell pepper, chopped
1 packet of taco seasoning (read the label to make sure all ingredients are "approved")
3/4 cup of water

Layer onions and pepper in the crockpot first, pour in the water, put the chicken on top and sprinkle 1/2 packet of taco seasoning. Cook on low for 6-8 hours. About 30 minutes before serving, remove chicken and shred, then put it back in the crockpot with the remaining seasoning. Stir it up and let it sit until ready to serve.

"Rice" (serves 4)
3 cups Cauliflower
For seasoned "tex-mex" rice, I used chili powder, cayenne, salt and fresh lime

Wash and chop cauliflower into large chunks. Use a food processor (or some websites say you can hand grate it) and chop it until it is the consistency of rice. Transfer it to a microwave-safe covered dish and microwave for a minute and a half. Season as desired.

It truly had the feel and taste of a burrito bowl from somewhere like Chipotle or Qdoba. The only topping we used was avocado, but there are lots of options. This will definitely be a repeat - next time may include homemade salsa.

Day 3 - Bring on the Chocolate!

Day 3 went really well. I even made some exciting food discoveries...

Breakfast: egg and spinach casserole, banana, coffee with coconut milk

Lunch: grilled chicken on spinach with peppers, hard-boiled egg, avocado and homemade dressing (balsamic vinegar, spicy brown mustard, salt, pepper, touch of olive oil). The dressing was a total experiment, but was really good and I'll definitely make it again.

Snacks: cashews, apple with almond butter

Dinner: mashed sweet potatoes (with coconut milk, garlic, cumin, salt, pepper and cayenne), steamed green beans and roasted pork loin coated with spicy brown mustard. All turned out well and will be repeats.

Dessert: chocolate pudding

...say what??

Yep, chocolate pudding. Of sorts. A mixture of frozen bananas, cocoa powder, a little coconut milk and a little almond butter (less than 1 T). Throw it in the blender. It looks just like pudding and is really good. Definitely scratches the chocolate/sweet/dessert itch. Change up the proportions, add a little ice, and you could probably have a pretty decent (and healthy!) chocolate shake.

Another AWESOME discovery today was unsweetened almond butter at Sprouts. The ingredients are literally almonds and salt. I was skeptical, but it is really good.

Part of the Whole30 (and Whole9) philosophy is not trying to "paleo-fy" recipes that aren't good for you in the first place (like, don't try to use approved ingredients to make a cupcake, because you shouldn't be relying on cupcakes for your nutrition anyway).

I think I agree with that, but I also know that dessert in our household is a reality. We can skip it for 30 days and bring it back at the end of the challenge, or we can try some different, healthier versions while in the midst of it and probably incorporate the new versions beyond the 30 days.

Besides, for this girl and her sweet tooth, 30 days is a long time to go without some form of dessert.

Day 2

Not too bad! I've decided that in addition to planning, I also want more variety. This week's meals are already planned out (and it's a lot of the same stuff in different forms), but I plan to do more research on recipes and come up with different ideas for next week.

Breakfast: same breakfast casserole as yesterday, a banana and coffee with coconut milk.

Lunch: similar salad to yesterday (spinach, avocado, bell peppers), and added grilled chicken and hard-boiled egg.

Dinner: grilled chicken marinated in balsamic vinegar, olive oil, orange juice, salt and pepper, steamed green beans, and roasted carrots. We also had fresh pineapple, which was super yummy with the chicken (since most marinades and sauces have some sort of sugar/sweetener, the pineapple was a good pop of flavor in place of that).

Snacks: black olives, cashews and an apple

Observations:
1) We both felt much hungrier today than yesterday
2) I'm most tempted to have a cookie or some sort of sugary snack after the kids go to bed. Need to figure out a good solution.
3) We need to figure out fun, creative things to do as a family in addition to eating out/going out for ice cream/Sonic runs. While those things are fun and fine in moderation, it seems like a lot of the fun stuff we do revolves around food (and not healthy food).
4) Also faced with the challenge of trying to figure out a good place to go to eat out as a family while on the Whole30. Any thoughts?

Day 1

For being the first day with a lot of our "normal" foods cut out, it really wasn't bad. I know we will have harder days, for sure.

I've decided that the secret to success with this challenge is planning. It takes the stress out of figuring out what we're going to eat for a meal that meets all the criteria if I plan, shop and prepare some foods ahead.

Here is what we ate today. I don't know that I will include pictures every day, because a lot of days we will eat the same things, but I thought it would be fun to do it today.

Breakfast Casserole - delish! This will last for 3-4 breakfasts for each of us, I think. We'll see. It's basically 10 eggs, a carton of mushrooms, a few handfuls of spinach and ground chicken apple sausage from Sprouts. I would eat this even if we weren't on a diet - the sausage added a ton of flavor. Next time I would layer a little different, putting the spinach on the bottom, but overall it was really good. Baked at 350 for about 30 minutes.

Also had half a banana and coffee with coconut milk (more on that below).

Lunch - I think just looking at this salad made me feel healthy. Spinach, carrots, bell peppers, avocado and a dressing of lime juice, salt, pepper and a touch of olive oil. The picture shows two portions.

We also had a version of Paleo Chili - ground beef, crushed tomatoes, onions, and bell peppers with approved taco seasoning. It was okay. For my taste, I would probably trade the crushed tomatoes for tomato juice and throw in mushrooms and black olives. It was really more like tomato sauce you would eat on pasta than chili because Russ has a slight aversion to chili (long story). It's a great idea for lunch, though, because we had a lot of leftovers and it will be super easy to reheat.

Dinner: grilled boneless pork chop (with salt and pepper), steamed broccoli and sweet potato "chips" made in the oven with olive oil, cayenne pepper and garlic salt.

Today's snack: cashews

Things I learned today:

1) Coffee with coconut milk looks like yummy coffee with fun creamer, but in reality tastes like a milder, watered-down black coffee. I'm okay with this for now. I think by the end I will either drink black coffee or may give it up altogether (for the 30 days).

2) Chopping vegetables or doing any other prep the night before is super helpful.

3) Read labels - it's amazing how many things have some form of sugar.

4) Have approved snacks ready so when you get hungry in between meals you don't have to think about it too hard.

It's Only 30 Days

Russ and I are getting a jumpstart on New Year's resolutions and changing the way we eat TOMORROW (as in, Monday, December 26th). Truth be told, since Halloween, and maybe even since the birth of our second child last March, we've had excuse after excuse to eat whatever we want, whenever we want it, with only a brief period of dieting during July and August. There is weight that needs to be lost and habits that need to be changed in our house, and the sooner the better.

A couple of months ago I stumbled upon the Whole 30, which is basically a 30-day diet where you cut out sugar/sweeteners, carbs, dairy, legumes, alcohol and pretty much all processed food.

So what does that leave, you ask? Good question: fruit, vegetables, meat and nuts (but not peanuts).

I have been pretty intimidated thinking about it, but we've decided to take on the challenge. I've used the last week to research what is allowed on the diet and to plan a week's worth of meals to get us started. This blog is basically for accountability and to record our meals, in case others want to try it and need ideas.

These are the things that will be hardest for me to give up for 30 days:
- Coke
- coffee with sweetened dairy creamer
- peanut butter
- black beans
- cheese

What I'm hoping to experience at the end of 30 days:
- higher energy level
- raised awareness of what I've been eating versus what I should be eating
- some weight loss/clothes fitting better

So, our mantra for the next 30 days: "It's only 30 days".

But the idea is that things we learn and habits we (hopefully) develop will last beyond that and bring about healthier eating in our family.