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!

Lost Count

There were some days this week where I had a lot of repeat meals or left overs, so I didn't take any pictures or document. Now I don't remember what day I ate certain meals. I believe Day 9 the only thing new was a Crock pot chicken and veggies. 

 I totally forgot to take a picture. This is another super easy meal. 

1 whole chicken (got mine from Costco)

4 or 5 potatoes quartered (I used sweet potatoes)

 2 cups Baby Carrots

Italian seasoning 

Put chicken in first, then top with potatoes and carrots in crock pot. Shake a good amount of Italian seasoning all over chicken and veggies. Cook on low for 6 to 8 hours. 

The best part about this dinner is if you have left over chicken. You can only guess what I had for lunch the next day.  

Chicken Salad

Sorry the salad doesn't look that appetizing. Some days I am feeling lazy and don't want to chop up all the veggies by hand. So I put it in the Ninja chopper. So This has bell pepper, carrots, tomatoes, avocados and chicken with spinach. 

For the dressing:

Mayo (homemade. See previous post on how to make it.)

avocado oil (or any kind of good oil)

Garlic powder 

Onion powder 

dried parsley flakes. 

Sorry I didn't measure how much of each thing I put it. I kinda taste it as I go. I have used both avocado oil and light olive oil for the dressing. I personally think that the light olive oil tastes better. 

Snacks

I have been meaning to take more pictures of the snacks I have been eating during whole30. I know they discourage you from eating snacks, but I am breastfeeding. So if you are pregnant or breastfeeding and need some ideas of what to snack on here is my small list. I will add more ideas as they come along.

I eat everything with almond butter:
Sliced apples or bananas.

How about these guys?

Ants on a log. 

I am such a huge fruit eater. I just really struggle with eating veggies. So, when it comes to snacking so I don't overload on fruit, I try and alternate my fruits and veggies. For example, if I had a Fruit snack, then the next snack would need to be a veggie one. I switch back and forth between the two. At least I try too. 

Lara bars. I just tried these for the first time this weekend. (only whole30 compliant ones). So Far the Cashew Cookie one is my favorite. I will probably buy some of those only for emergencies though. My least favorite is the coconut cream pie. In general I don't care for Lara bars much. I actually think they are kinda gross, but in emergencies where you need something quick. They will have to do.

   

Made it through the first week! (Day 8)

Breakfast:

Omelette (broccoli, orange bell pepper and tomatoes), Aidell's chicken-apple sausage, grape fruit.

Confession. I don't know how to make an actual omelette. I just chop and cook veggies and then add in the scrambled egg. So mine end up looking like that. If anyone can tell me a trick or two on how to make an omelette. That would be appreciated. I cant tell you how much I feel like my mother having grape fruit in the morning. My mom seriously has one for breakfast almost every single morning. I have to cut myself half of the grape fruit too because my 2 year old always eats half of it.

Lunch:

Tuna fish lettuce wrap

Dinner:

Spaghetti squash spaghetti

I had 3 helpings of this! There are two ways to cook Spaghetti squash. Just put the whole thing in the crock pot. I don't remember if I put a little water at the bottom of the crock pot or not. If you decide to add water. It doesn't hurt, Add about a cup of water. You also can cook it in the oven. Slice the squash in half and scoop out seeds. Get out a cooking sheet and cover with foil. Rub all of the inside to the edges of the squash with a cooking oil. (I used olive oil). Put the squash face down on the cooking sheet, so that the inside is touching the foil. Pierce the outside of it with a fork a good couple of times. This helps it cook all the way through. Turn on oven to 400 degrees Fahrenheit height. How long you cook it in the oven depends on how big your squash is. Mine was a good medium sized one and I cooked it for 1 hour and 30 min. You know when your squash is done when you can pierce the outside of it easily with a fork.

For the sauce I added ground beef, salt and pepper to taste, and a little bit of garlic salt. 

I went to the store to try and find a marinara. It took a while to find one that didn't have sugar in it. Even in the healthy living food isle. I finally found one at Smiths grocery. It really was the only one there without sugar and no weird additives.

 

If you see this one. Get it. the flavor of it was quite good and wasn't bland. 

Day 7

Breakfast:

Over easy egg with avocado, Aidell's chicken-apple sausage, sweet potato hashbrowns mixed with zucchini and yellow squash

I tried the sweet potato hashbrowns again. They were much better this time. I think it may be the added zucchini and yellow squash that helped the flavor a bit. 

Lunch:

Tuna lettuce wrap. (see previous post)

Dinner:

Chicken Kabobs

The beauty about these is you can mix them up with different meat and veggies! I did chicken, yellow squash, green and orange bell peppers, and red onions, On the side: sweet potato and grapes.

For the Kabobs, I brushed coconut oil over them, added a little bit of Italian seasoning and little bit of garlic powder over them. Cooked them in the oven at 400 degrees for 15 minutes on one side. Took them out of the oven, then flipped them and put them in for another 15 minutes. If you use wooden skewers don't forget to soak them in water for at least an hour before hand, this way they don't catch on fire.  

Day 6

At our household. We have had a rough weekend. Me, my 2 year old and my 3 month old all have sinus infections. We have been sleep training my toddler as well. She has been doing ok in the bed, but she keeps getting up at 6 or 6:30 and one other time in the middle of the night. I am exhausted. So I did a lot of repeats of meals. Nothing too new sorry.

Breakfast:

I tried to do shredded sweet potato hashbrowns. I tried cooking the sweet potato a little bit before so it wouldn't be so hard to grate them. They turned out ok. I cooked them a little too long, but I froze a bag of them. This was my first shot at it. Note to self:  Do not burn them whatsoever when recooking. I did a little and they were not good! 

Lunch:

Tuna lettuce wrap (see previous post)

Dinner:

Turkey Burger (in previous post)

Day 5

YOU GUYS! It never ceases to amaze me how many different food products have added sugar! Especially when it comes to spices. I never bothered to look at the ingredients on spices cause I assumed that they were pretty straight forward. I also went to the store to get pickles. Again, thought the ingredients would be pretty straight forward. Think again! There is a ton of added crap that they put in pickles! I was soo bummed, because they go prefect with tuna fish!

Here are my meals for Day 5:

Breakfast:

Keeping it simple.

Broccoli, Aidell's Chicken-Apple Sausage, Scrambled eggs and Grape Fruit

Lunch:

Tuna Lettuce Wrap

Homemade Mayo, Chopped up Celery and Avocado

I used Chicken of the sea brand of Tuna. I have been having tuna with celery since who knows when. I think it's a must!

Dinner:

Chicken, zucchini, yellow squash, and sweet potato.

Can you tell I was excited to eat this meal? I started digging in and forgot to take a picture before hand! If you need a quick meal. This chicken is it! Check out the recipe http://everclevermom.com/2014/05/easy-weeknight-paleo-chicken-best-drumstick-recipe-ever/

I also put the sweet potatoes in the crock pot which made this meal even easier. I am not a big sweet potato fan. Never really have been. This meal I think converted me a little. Maybe its because I haven't had any sugar in the last 5 days or the spices on the chicken really helped compliment the sweet potato. I dunno, but either way, it was good! I will be making this again.  

Day 4

So I did notice that the first few days were rough and I felt like I was starving half the time, but I guess I get a free pass for being able to snack, because I am breast feeding. I keep forgetting to take pictures of the snacks I make. I will try and be better. Also forgive my picture taking. I am not a pro or trying to make my food look glamorous. I snap a quick picture and it is what it is. In truth, its probably how yours is going to end up looking like anyways. Just trying to keep it real people. 

Breakfast:

Broccoli, Aidell's chicken-apple sausage, over easy egg, and avocado.

I can't even begin to tell you how glad I am that I got fresh local chicken eggs! They taste so much better in every way! The yoke is a lot brighter than store bought ones too. It's amazing! It makes eating eggs all the time bearable.

Lunch:

I had left over tacos even though they weren't that great. 

Dinner:

Turkey Burgers

 

Turkey patty (Costco), Mayo (that I made), tomatoes, mustard, avocados, small slices of red onion, and 2 butter lettuce leafs to hold it all together.

Guys! These. Where. So. Good! I had two! These really hit the spot! So dang good!

Meal time.

I don't have my first few days of meals documented. I will tell you that I pretty much had eggs, avocado, Left over cooked veggies from dinner the previous night, and a couple of slices of grapefruit. Lunch, I made myself a Salmon Salad. I put spinach, orange bell pepper, tomatoes, avocado, and wild caught salmon I got from Costco. For the dressing I drizzled olive oil and squoze fresh lemon juice on top. I had the same salmon salad for dinner as well. These are my meals that I had the first two days.

Day 3:

I had Aidell's chicken-apple sausage, avocado, scrambled eggs, cauliflower, zucchini, and an orange for breakfast.

Lunch I had the salmon salad again.

And for dinner I had tacos!

To be honest. These were not that great tasting to me. I did lack some ingredients. So that is probably why, but mine turned out bland. Here is the link http://www.multiplydelicious.com/thefood/2012/02/taco-veggie-lettuce-cups/ for the recipe. If you end up liking how yours turned out. Comment below!

Epic Fail!

I playing catch up of what I have done over the past few days! So bare with me! The other day I decided to try making Mayo. Well the first time I did it was a disaster. I followed the directions and ended up with a runny mess and wasted ingredients. I found another blog http://theclothesmakethegirl.blogspot.com/2010/06/secret-to-homemade-mayo-patience.html?m=1 with tips and tricks to making a "No Fail" Mayo. Wanna know her secret? Majority of the ingredients need to be at room temp. Here is my end product.

I actually doubled this recipe, because I wanted to make sure I had a lot. I do have an additional jar besides the one that is pictured.

This recipe was easy peasy. Click on the link and give it a try.  

It's Official.

Its 7:30 pm on a Friday night and what am I doing? Enjoying the peace and quiet. My two girls are in bed and so is my husband. This way I can actually relax. Well a few things are official. My two in a half year old is now sleeping in a "big girl" bed for the first time. Keep your fingers crossed that this whole sleep training thing will go smoothly for us. Also, I officially started Whole30. I am Technically on day 4. I was currently trying to prep myself for Whole30. It got to the point where I was pretty much doing it. I started looking at the things I was eating and asking myself: "Is this Whole30 approved?" Then I started only eating things that were, but it got really stressful especially around dinner time. Around dinner time I didn't have a meal plan, but I didn't want to eat anything what wasn't Whole30 approved. So I said forget this! So I went and dropped some money at Costco so I could have better meal plans to carry this thing out.

The last four days I have been super grumpy and feeling like crap. Didn't know if you guys knew this, but it is totally normal to feel that way. Your body is trying to work out all that crap you have been eating over the years. If you feel this way. Don't stop! Keep going! It gets better! So they say.. Tonight I am actually feeling a bit better. So hopefully I am on the up and up. 

So I promised I would post some recipes! Well remember how I made my own Almond Milk? 

It's Super Easy. Things to do before you make it. Buy some Raw or Roasted Almonds. (I got mine a Costco). Soak them over night with a little bit of sea salt in them. Drain and rinse the Almonds in the morning. Make sure you go an buy some Cheese Cloth before as well, I bought mine at Walmart, A package of 6 yards for 5 bucks. So its really not that expensive. I believe there is a smaller option of cheese cloth you can buy as well if you don't want that much. After you have done all these things. Pull your blender out and add:

1 Cup Almonds 

4 Cups Water

After you blend it the best you can, put some Cheese Cloth in a strainer over a bowl and start poring your  mixture into the strainer and Voila! There is your Almond Milk. 

Here is where I got my recipe from: http://wellnessmama.com/366/organic-almond-milk-recipe/ 

In the recipe it gives different options of things you can put in your Almond milk
(Vanilla Bean) and also talks about why its important that you soak your almonds before hand. 

My husband was reading a blog about how this lady heated up her almond milk and brought it to a boil. She thought that this made it thicker and helped with the separation of the milk as well. We tested this out. Sometimes I think it makes it thicker and other times I don't. If you try this. Let me know what you think! I have noticed though that it does help with the separation. If you also try adding in the optional ingredients in this recipe. Let me know how it turns out! I am curious to know how it tastes. Let's be honest though. If you are the type of person that likes to drink Almond Milk straight. This may not be the almond milk for you. To me, it doesn't taste that great by its self. I do think it tastes fine when it is paired or mixed with other things (i.e smoothies).  

Another tip. Some people wonder if they can somehow utilize the pulp that is left over from doing almond milk. Just to give you an idea, I read somewhere that a lady dries hers out and uses it as almond flour. 

If you try any of this let me know how it turned out! 

Getting things Started

Well life has been a little busy for me the last week. I watched a friends 5 kids plus 2 of my own. After that was over I was so tired and lazy to do anything, but now I am back to trying to get this Whole30 diet it order.

So when I first read the rules to Whole30 it was a bit overwhelming, but I thought, I can do this. If  I research meals and make  meal plans it wont be too hard. That is exactly what I have been doing. I have created a few Pinterest boards and I also follow a couple people on Instagram to get my meal ideas. I will be featuring some of these people so you can check them out as well.

If you are unfamiliar with the rules of Whole30 check them out here http://whole30.com/whole30-program-rules/. If you read my previous post, you know that I am going to take this seriously in the terms of hoping it helps with my health. I have been looking at A LOT of different recipes. Some of these recipes claim to be "Whole30 approved", but be careful, because some aren't if you actually take time to look at the ingredients. It is a little challenging to find recipes that keep it simple. My goal is to find recipes that will be affordable and not require me to buy ingredients that I may not use very often.

Here are a few ideas that may help make things easier. It is stressful trying to find 30 different meals for Breakfast, lunch and dinner. So to start out, I am finding at least two weeks worth of meals then possibly doubling the recipe. This way I will have 4 weeks worth of a meal planning. Then having some back up recipes in case there are some I don't like. There is also making Whole30 freezer meals which could be a life saver for a busy day. I also am slowly stocking my kitchen with things now that I know I will be eating during this time. That way I am not spending a huge chunk of money all at once.

With summer right around the corner. There are plenty of opportunities to get fresh local food. I am all about supporting a local farmer! I recently got on my Facebook local Garage yard sale page and asked if anyone was selling their chicken eggs. I got over 10 different responses of people wanting to sell their eggs! I even bought Duck eggs to try for the first time just so I can switch things up if I want too. I also planted my own little garden. I currently live in a townhouse and don't have a back yard. So I constructed my own little garden out of planter boxes. I am way excited to see how it turns out and cant wait for the fresh yummy food I can eat while on Whole30.

Duck Eggs

My Garden. Plus two big pots of Tomatoes plants that aren't pictured

 
Hopefully in the next few weeks I can have everything prepared and ready to start try and posting recipes. :)

Intro

.LIFE.

I am a woman who has a lot of thoughts and feelings about life. I am a wife and a mother of 2. I tend to make life complicated at times. If you saw me off the street you might think that I am a pretty normal, healthy person. To tell you the truth, my body is a mess. It all started when I was diagnosed with cancer about 4 years ago. After being treated and pronounced cancer free. I thought I would be in the clear and not have to worry about my health that much. Reality check, once you have cancer you will forever be paranoid about your health. Since then I have had a few scares of cancer potentially coming back, surgeries, found out that I have an autoimmune disease (CVID) which I have to get infusions for once a month and might possibly have to deal with the rest of my life. When I was pregnant with my 2nd my platelets kept dropping super low (ITP). This made me a huge bleeding risk, to where I was in and out of the hospital. They put me on Prednisone to help manage it, I have blood draws almost every week. I am hoping that this next week I will be completely off of the Prednisone. Keep your fingers crossed for me! I also just found out that my immune system might be attacking my liver. So potentially I might have to see a liver specialist and have a bunch a tests done in the future to get that situation figured out. I am sure that that wont be the last health issue I deal with. It seems like there is always one thing after another with my health. Despite all these things. I am thankful to have my two daughters and a wonderful husband by my side. There is so much in my life to be happy about.

.HEALTHY.

I am a true believer that the food we eat has such a huge impact on our bodies. More than we realize. I have had my ups and downs with healthy eating. In general I feel that I am a pretty health conscious person, but there is always room to improve. Which brings me to my next healthy eating adventure. I have decided to take on the Whole30/Paleo diet. With all the health issues I have, I am hoping this will help improve my overall health.

.SIMPLE.

I don't know about all of you, but I need more simplicity in my life. Since I spend most of my time in the kitchen, I enjoy preparing food that is simple and easy. Since I am starting Whole30. I am going to be sharing what I am currently doing to prepare for Whole30. I also will be sharing simple meals and recipes while I am going through Whole30. Also, if people are interested and I get enough feed back, I am willing to share my work outs that I do to help me keep in shape. 

.HAPPY.

Everyone wants to be happy! I believe that part of your own happiness comes from being healthy. Everyone has their own struggles with health, but I hope I can help in some small way to encourage a more healthy living.