When the non-paleo eating husband proposes a Whole30, you say YES! To be honest, as familiar as I am with the Whole30, I've never actually done one myself. I've done a 21 Day Sugar Detox and pretty much every therapeutic diet known to man in my journey to heal my gut, but never a "by the book" Whole 30! In full disclosure, this one won't be a full 30 days; we'll be just a few days short when we take a trip up to central CA for one of Craig's best friend's weddings, but we're not going to sweat it. I think it will be 26 days total, which is still a great accomplishment!
If you're not familiar with the Whole30, you can find the rules here. In short, it's a paleo diet that also eliminates all added sugar, alcohol, and "paleofied" treats and snacks. All the real foods, all the time! One other thing that I really appreciate about the Whole30 concept is that it really has you evaluate why you choose to eat certain foods. It's also a great platform for teasing out food sensitivities as you reintroduce foods back into your diet on the tail end.
Conveniently (for him), the husband was out of town this weekend, which meant that my time in the kitchen basically quadrupled from previous weeks since we had to cut out some of our time saving strategies for more Whole30 compliant options (my favorite protein powder has stevia and I usually bake an out based breakfast bread for him each week). I actually had to go buy more glass Pyrex dishes because I used them all up!! I also think I used and washed every pot/pan/bowl/appliance that we have at least twice. At the end of the day though, I love seeing all of this delicious and nutrient dense food ready for both of us to eat all week long. (Plus more on the counter that wouldn't even fit in the picture!)
Breakfast for me: US Wellness Meats Pork Sausage + Veggies // The veggies include sweet potatoes roasted in coconut oil, spinach sautéed in Kasandrinos olive oil, and asparagus crisped up in Primal Kitchens avocado oil.
Breakfast for him: Frittata + Banana // To make the frittata, I sautéed up one diced onion with two chopped bell peppers until soft. In another skillet, I sautéed 12 oz of sliced mushrooms until toasty and brown. In yet another skillet (oy, the dishes!) I cooked up 8 oz of Whole30 compliant bacon (also from US Wellness Meats). And lastly, while all of that was going on, I roasted up about 1/2 pound of fingerling potatoes in the oven. I layered all of those things in a large pyrex dish, then whisked up a dozen Vital Farms eggs and poured them over the top. I baked that at 350 for about 25 minutes until the eggs were set.
Lunch for me: Tom Kha Soup with Chicken // This recipe can be found in my e-book, here! It's a staple that I make all the time, and includes zucchini, mushrooms, and chicken in a bone broth and coconut milk base. (I use Golden Star coconut milk. It is additive free and has the smoothest consistency of any that I've found!)
Lunch for him: Chicken + Veggies, Grapes, and Nuts // I heavily seasoned the chicken with Paleo Powder all purpose seasoning blend, then baked at 400 until cooked through, about 25 minutes. The veggies and grapes are in my favorite reusable bags by Stasher.
Dinner for me: Green Flatbread + Veggies + Braunschweiger + Apple // My green flatbread has evolved over the years from the original recipe. Currently I love adding in some Guiltless Goodies Superseed flour, Almond Pro almond flour, Ancient Nutrition Pure Bone Broth Protein, and Sari Foods Nutritional Yeast.
Dinner for him: Chili // Another recipe from my cookbook, and always a crowd pleaser! It includes ground beef, onion, bell pepper, tomato, and lots of spices!
Snacks: Rx Bars
My weekly meal prep usually takes me 1-2 hours, but this week it took closer to 4-5. Even so, 4-5 hours of cooking for a week's worth of food isn't a bad trade off at all!
Have you done a Whole30? What was your experience like?
Have a great week!
-Tracey