30 days and done.

I finished Whole30. I did it! To be honest, It went by pretty fast for me. People ask me if I noticed a difference while I was on it. I have heard a lot of other people say that they had  a lot more energy while they were on it. To be honest I didn't notice. It's probably because it was bad timing in a sense for me. I have been super sleep deprived trying to sleep train a toddler that would wake up at least once a night and would wake up super early in the morning. I also am feeding an infant in the middle of the night. So I am not the best person to ask that question. Sometimes I wonder if I wasn't on whole30 during this time, if I would be even more tired than I was. So it's possible that it did give me more energy, it's just hard to tell.

Another common question I got. "Once you finish Whole30, then what?" Well I am going to reintroduce the foods I have cut out and bring them back into my diet just like Whole30 suggests. I am interested to see if certain foods I have cut out really effect my body with out me even realizing. I was a little confused on how to go about this. Then someone told me that you can google post whole30 and they give you a guide on how to reintroduce those foods back into your diet. http://whole30.com/step-two-finished/  Which was really helpful for me. So here goes 10 more days of doing whole30 and reintroducing some foods.

Tonight I did try doing peanut butter and beans. So far I haven't noticed anything going on with my body, but we will see how the next two days pan out.

One Last time.

Breakfast:

Eggs, Adell's chicken apple sausage, left over Zoodles.

Dinner:

Hamburger sliders on sweet potato "buns" with guacamole and chili mayo sauce

This one I ended up making multiple times. 

 

Sweet Potato "Buns":

Directions:

1. Preheat the oven to 400°F.
2. Wash the sweet potato and cut into ½ inch slices.
3. Line two baking sheets with foil. lightly coat one with olive oil or fat of choice and lay out the sweet potato slices. You will need 12 slices.
4. Bake for 20−25 minutes. Flip the sweet potatoes halfway through. While the sweet potatoes cook prepare the burgers.

 

Burgers:

Directions:

1 lb ground beef 

2 garlic cloves minced.

1. In a medium bowl combine the ground beef, minced garlic, salt and pepper and form into six patties.

I bought my guacamole but you can make your own.

Chili Mayo sauce:

1/2 Cup homemade Mayo

1/2t chili powder 

1/4 t onion powder

1/4 t garlic powder 

1/4 t paprika 

a squirt of lime 

Salt and pepper 

The Good and The Bad

Lets start out with the Good!

Dinner:

Chicken, Zoodles with avocado sauce

This was a simple recipe, but really good. I just cooked the chicken with salt and pepper. Now the sauce that goes on the Zoodles. I actually used to make this all the time to put on regular pasta. I also got way excited to make it because I got to use some fresh basil from my garden. 

Avocado Sauce:

1 Med sized ripe avocado

1/2 lemon, juiced 

2-3 garlic cloves

1/2 tsp kosher salt

1/4 cup fresh basil (optional) 

2 T extra virgin olive oil 

Fresh ground black pepper to taste 

Directions:

Make sauce by placing the garlic cloves, lemon juice, and olive oil into a food processor. Process until smooth. Now add the pitted avocado, basil, and salt. Process until smooth and creamy.

Trust me you will want to add the basil. I have used give or take about a tablespoon (sorry I have never actually measured) of dried basil with this and it tasted just fine. 

Also, a little of this goes a long way, so you really don't need to make a lot. If you do decide to double the recipe. Don't double the lemon juice. It will make it taste to lemony. 

The Bad:

Dinner:

Cilantro Lime Chicken, Cauliflower rice, Avocado cream sauce, and broccoli

Whenever I make Cilantro lime stuff. It never turns out good. Maybe I just don't care for cilantro lime flavored stuff. I did this in the crock pot. I guess I didn't save the link to the recipe. There is bound to be one online somewhere if you like this kinda stuff. This is a different avocado cream sauce that I found. It wasn't that great wither. This meal was for sure my least favorite. 

Birthday Meals

Yes I did Whole30 over my birthday. Did it suck? No not really... Did my husband have a hard time trying to figure out what to do for me? Yes! I felt bad for him, because really, you don't realize how much you celebrate with food for certain occasions until you can't or are extremely restricted with what you can eat.

Breakfast:

Nothing new for breakfast. The same old sweet potato, zucchini, Adell's chicken apple sausage and a dang good egg.

Dinner:

Zucchini noodles with Lemon- Garlic Spicy Shrimp

http://www.skinnytaste.com/zucchini-noodles-zoodles-with-lemon/#_a5y_p=1480298

Since it was tough to figure out where I could go out to eat for dinner I decided I was going to buy a more expensive meal and cook it. I was really wanting to try this recipe, but shrimp is not cheap. I went out a bought myself a veggie Spiralizer for my birthday and got all the other ingredients. How did it taste? Pretty good. I just wished I would have added more garlic than I did. When making this recipe be careful. The recipe given is for 1 serving. If you are making for more then one person you may want to double or triple this recipe! 

I will say that I did cheat a little on my Birthday. I made myself the Paleo ice cream. Frozen bananas, almond butter, coconut milk, and some unsweetened cocoa. It was delish. I was also recommended a muffin recipe that was a favorite that is technically whole30 approved. Gluten free Banana Almond Butter Muffins. It only has 5 ingredients! I must say I liked the batter a lot more then the actual muffins. It's on my sister-in-laws blog. http://todaysmama.com/2014/11/gluten-free-banana-almond-butter-muffins/ They also have a lot of other recipes on this blog. Go check them out. 

The muffins and the ice cream were how I cheated a little, but only with whole30 approved ingredients.  :) 

Food Food Food

Sorry I am so horrible at posting as I go. I don't want to show repeats of things I have ate. Good news though, I have some new recipes that I tried out!

Dinner:

So the chicken isn't new, but the artichoke is! They were on sale so I had to get some! I cooked my artichokes in the crock pot. Makes life easier for me. It's topped with yummy garlic. If you want to cook artichokes the easy way check out the link http://www.theproducemom.com/2012/03/11/crock-pot-artichokes/ to see how to make these. Now before going on this diet I would be dipping and eating the artichoke heart soaked in butter, but since I cant I believe I just used olive oil. It was alright. It's do-able. I bet dipping it in olive oil mixed with balsamic vinegar might be good with this. Even though this dinner is kinda the same. It was nice to mix it up a little with the artichoke.  

Want more ideas?

Today it has been raining all day. The best part is when all my kids are asleep and I can enjoy the the silence that comes along with listening and watching the rain falling for a moment. So relaxing.
Anyways, I have this amazing friend Jenna Morgan that has been doing whole30 for quite sometime now. I have gotten a few of my ideas from her on her Instagram account. She has tons of stuff! She is amazing. She also keeps her food and recipes pretty simple. Which is nice. So go and check her out @jennawholelife and follow her!

Breakfast:

This isn't anything new, but I am really digging the sweet potato hash-browns mixed with yellow squash. So yummy! Also learned something today. Did you know that you don't have to flip your eggs to cook them like this? All you have to do is add two drops of water to the pan and put a lid over it and it cooks your eggs just as good! so nifty! 

Lunch:

Left over Spaghetti 

Dinner:

Chicken Curry  over cauliflower rice

2 Large Chicken Breasts Diced 

1 large sweet potato diced

2 bell peppers chopped 

3 garlic cloves chopped

1 T Curry powder

1 t ginger powder 

s&p to taste

1 can coconut milk 

Throw everything in a ceramic dish, put on the lid and cook at 350 for 1 hour. We also seasoned the cauliflower rice with curry powder and garlic powder. 

This turned out pretty good. This was my first time trying the cauliflower rice and I don't know how I feel about it. If you are wanting to learn how to easily make cauliflower rice, check out this short video here http://www.bigredkitchen.com/2012/05/the-fastest-way-to-rice-cauliflower-video/  

Just another day of clean eating.

Breakfast:

I had to get a little creative today cause I ran out of eggs, but I will say it was nice to have a little bit of a switch up. 

In the bowl: 

Sliced strawberries and bananas 

Cashews

Coconut flakes 

Coconut milk 

I knew I need to throw in some veggies to try and balance it out so I threw in some carrots, avocado, and Jicama. 

Lunch:

Chicken wraps

I love chicken sandwiches. So these hit the spot for me! 

Dinner:

Stake Salad

On this salad I had tomatoes, sliced hard boiled egg and stake slices. I used the same garlic dressing I used in my previous post. 

I really needed a switch up from chicken.This was really good. I don't know why, but the last two times I have had stake it tasted really weird and not so good to me. I have had two different types of cuts of meat and both prepared the same way. I was super stoked too. Thinking, Oh ya! these will be so much better tasting, because they are grass fed. Nope! They still tasted kinda gross. I think my body is telling me it doesn't like stake anymore. I don't know. Has anyone else had a weird stake experience where it started tasting funny and not so good anymore? It's just so weird. Anyways, if you are a stake lover. You will love this salad!