We're officially a full week into the Whole 30 and feeling great! I don't have any sugar cravings at all, and I'm loving the food freedom to eat whatever and whenever I feel like I need to. In general I'm pretty good at eating intuitively, but the fact that the Whole 30 prohibits any kind of calculating your food macros/calories/etc is actually a lot more freeing than I expected, because it's been making me really pay attention to my own hunger and satiety.
The only downside of the W30 is that I'm definitely spending a lot more time in the kitchen than I usually do. Pre-W30 the mister and I would both have smoothies for breakfast, which required minimal prep, and his lunch was always no-cook. Now I'm preparing 6 full meals for the work week as opposed to the 3 that we were used to before. However, as with anything, it takes practice, and I'm sure that my time investment will go down as I get into more of a routine!
Here's the plan for this week!
Breakfast for me: Root Veggie Hash with Ground Venison // I started by shredding 1# of carrots and 1# of parsnips (with the bitter cores removed) in my food processor, then sautéed that with 2-3 tbsp of bacon fat in my Le Creuset pot. In a separate skillet I cooked 1# of ground venison with about 1.5 tsp salt, 1 tbsp garlic powder, 2 tsp ground sage, 2 tsp fennel seeds, and 1 tbsp Italian seasoning. After the meat was cooked through, I added it to the root veggies along with about 10 cups of chopped chard (from about 1.5 heads). When the chard wilted I portioned everything out!
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 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 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: Mustard Roasted Chicken with Butternut and Kale // This recipe can be found in my e-book, here! It's one of my favorites and it has been entirely too long since I've make it. In short, it's chicken, butternut, and kale all roasted with a mustard/sage/coconut sauce. Delicious and super easy to put together!
Lunch for him: Chicken, Veggies, Strawberries, Nuts + Dried Figs // I heavily seasoned the chicken with Paleo Powder all purpose seasoning blend, then baked at 400 until cooked through, about 25 minutes. The veggies are in my favorite reusable bags by Stasher. He had a similar meal last week and it wasn't quite enough to keep him full, so I added some extra chicken, nuts, and the dried figs this week!
Dinner for me: Curried Ground Meat with Veggies and Cauliflower Rice // This is another recipe from my cookbook, Weeknight Paleo. I didn't have any ground beef on hand so I used ground wild boar instead! I enjoy incorporating different and more unique proteins into my diet for the sake of variety in both flavor and nutrition. The other ingredients in this dish are jicama, onion, bell pepper, and of course, coconut milk and spices.
Dinner for him: Date Shallot Chicken + Broccoli + Potatoes // This Date Shallot Chicken recipe by PaleOMG is one that we come back to time and time again! I added garlic and rosemary to the potatoes too so they're a perfect complement to the chicken.
Snacks: W30 compliant LARABARs or Rx Bars for him and an apple with Artisana Coconut Butter for me!
I spent about $160 on groceries this week (a little higher than usual because we were out of some bulk items that I usually have on hand), did about 1 hour of veggie prep (both of us at the same time), and probably 4 hours of cooking. That's a lot of episodes of Gilmore Girls :)
Have a great week, and stay tuned for another giveaway this Thursday!!
-Tracey