Catching Up

Whole 30 Day 7

Ok ok - I caved - there is no way I want to go 30 days without a weigh-in to monitor progress. I will do the rest but that's the one thing. 

So, week one: DOWN SIX POUNDS. M down THREE. Oh, I guess it isn't so terrible after all...perhaps will now work on complaining and bad attitude? 

SUNDAY DAY 7

BREAKFAST:

Two eggs, two pieces of nitrate-free bacon and two slices of avocado with coffee and coconut milk. 

LUNCH:

Leftover veggie salad with olive tapenade and lemon olive oil

DINNER:

OOOOHHHHMYYYYYGOOOOSHHHH. Make this. Make this now. Crock-pot Chicken Masaman Curry with cauliflower "rice."

Shut the front door it was awesome! 

#alittlebitbetter

Whole 30 Days 4-6

THURSDAY Day 4:

Tired. Grumpy. Hungry.

BREAKFAST: egg 'muffins' and a banana

LUNCH: 'no bun no fries' from our restaurant at work

DINNER:

Pork loin, roasted sweet potatoes, rainbow swiss chard with onions

FRIDAY DAY 5:

Woke up feeling HUNGOVER today. M did too. Terrible headache, exhausted, both slept through the alarm for the gym. Not nice. So odd. We both spent 15 minutes googling possibilities of a sweet potato hangover or half-joking that the cat fed us drinks while we were sleeping. What the $%^& good is not enjoying a cocktail for 30 days if we are going to wake up feeling like we got schmammered the night before? Almost all of the negatives without the fun. Great. Needless to say we were pretty pissed this morning and really missing some greasy food and sugar-bombed coffee. Yes. I get that this is missing the point. We didn't do it alright?! I'm just saying...

Breakfast: plum, mix of cashews and pecans with some salt

Lunch: salad from the restaurant Chicken Cobb without cheese with oil and vinegar

Dinner: bunless burger from FOUR BURGERS with fried egg on top and a side salad with oil and vinegar and dijon mustard. 

DYING for a treat, so at the movies instead of popcorn and a diet soda (my usual treat) I brought mixed nuts (no peanuts) with a vita-coco

SATURDAY DAY 6:

Breakfast: bowl of cashews, coconut shreds and a few strawberries mixed together

Lunch: green salad with shredded chicken, olives, cauliflower and shredded carrots, oil and vinegar

Dinner: Pot roast with bacon (slow-cooked), celery, carrots, onions. With a side of asparagus and artichoke hearts.

I have been struggling with beverages, missing the different flavors. I didn't realize how much I would miss that. I've been crushing as many different flavors of club soda as I can find. We have also been really craving foods that we normally wouldn't eat. Example, Saturday night we nearly caved when we both suddenly wanted chocolate chip cookie dough ice-cream (mint chocolate for M) AND ruffles chips with french onion dip. We were literally both GIDDY talking about it and I think both waiting for the other to just say 'screw it' and sprint to the corner store. This is crazy.

I am getting a little sick of all of the cooking. M is getting sick of doing so many dishes. We are spending all weekend in so we're avoiding temptation. Damn this Whole30.

I know it's good for us, enjoying some of the new recipes but tired. Tired of cooking. Tired of reading labels. Tired of no sauces on anything. Tired of being one of those obnoxious 'oooooh we don't eat that we are paleo, mmmmmmk?' people. I actually watched Ted talks yesterday debunking paleo as not being authentic to the cavemen at all. So mentally we are not doing well with this.  All this complaining and we're not quitting yet? Why you ask? I have no idea. Just that we said that we would do 30 days so #$%^& it we are going to do it. $%^&*^%$!!!! 

Arrrrrrrgh #alittlebitbetter

Whole30 Day 3

Day 2 Whole 30

WHOLE 30 DAY 2: Tuesday, October 1

BREAKFAST: Monday night I made egg mini-frittatas to make breakfast happen a bit faster. But dairy free? No cream and no milk in these (*sigh* missing lo-carb, but also realizing how many extra calories that is)?!

8 eggs, splash coconut milk (unsweetened), italian chicken sausage (comes pre-cooked and don't forget to read the labels of the different brands), swiss chard, onions, asparagus. Dropped all solid ingredients into the muffin tins, used the baster to get the egg/coconut milk mixture (with bit of salt, pepper, nutmeg, red pepper and parsley dashed in) into the muffin tin.  Baked for 35 minutes at 375 degrees. Could have gone maybe a few minutes less?  RESULT? Still delicious. Consistency was a little different without the dairy, and a little less filling, but the combo of the veggies and the chicken sausage was nice and they have held up well in the fridge. Strawberries (about 4 medium berries) as a fruit. Yummmmmm I have missed Strawberries. One cup of Mango black tea.

Tried black coffee from the Caf' at work. Now free coffee is nothing to complain about (wait for it...) but it's delicious with cream and a ton of splenda so it really tastes like a sugar bomb instead of coffee at all. I tried it black. It is not my thing. That's the nicest thing I can say. At work I am going to have to stick with tea..

LUNCH: takeout from Amhreins in Southie. Roasted turkey salad with no cheese and oil/vinegar. Missing the avocado we were hoping for, but the egg was nice. Romaine lettuce, O/V, an egg, carrot strips, onions, S/P, roasted red peppers.

We were out condo shopping during lunch and then ran back to work for a meeting so I didn't start to eat until nearly 3pm. I will admit, I was completely moody, grumpy and irrationally nearly in tears. I have no clue if I can blame this on the diet, house shopping, busy work day, halving the caffeine I normally have, or what...but I was pathetic. Eating helped a lot. 

DINNER: After snooping around Pinterest a bit looking for ideas, I came up with this one on Sunday. It was pretty easy to make, super flavorful, and the ONLY thing I would do differently next time is to find a sugar-free hot sauce I could add to it (or make one to add).

LETTUCE TACO WRAPS: 

Rediscovered my little Cuisinart processor. Beautiful for this!

• Brown chicken breast, one onion and garlic in a pan. Once it's browned, add chicken broth (watch the ingredients), juice of two limes, and a splash of coconut milk to cover the chicken. Simmer for 30 minutes or so until you can shred the chicken with a fork. *disclaimer: i meant to do this with the crock pot in the morning but forgot. That would have added to the juiciness of the chicken.
• Break 1 head iceburg lettuce into "shells"
• In the Cuisinart chop up shredded carrots (about 1 small carrot), handful cilantro, orange pepper, few stalks of celery (adds volume and nearly no calories) and set aside.
• In a separate bowl mix a small handful of cashews and unsweetened coconut flakes
• Slice an avocado into small pieces.
• Shred chicken and remove from the broth
• Mix it all up in your little shells and enjoy!

We also decided that the broth was so good (and with great nutrients/protein leeched from the chicken from what I've been reading) that we would add the leftover shredded veggies to it and have a cup of 'soup' to finish off the meal. Delicious!

Bon appétit!

Overall day 2: feeling pretty good. Discovered that great coffee we have at home with a touch of coconut milk does the trick and doesn't make you feel like you're completely missing out. Very nice. A little moody and headachey today which is strange, but feel like I'm less puffy in the middle today. 

#alittlebitbetter

Pesto and portobello stuffed/bacon wrapped chicken

Kudos to PaleoMomRx for this recipe. 

While we will probably never subscribe to the full hype that is crossfit or paleo - recipes like these are something to make you stop and appreciate it. 

Borrowed and modified from her blog, here's our version...

Served stuffed with portobello mushrooms, pesto, wrapped in nitrate-free bacon (thanks trader joe's). No instructions provided because it is EXACTLY as easy as it looks. 

350 til the juices run clear. Our oven (not convinced it gets to temp) took 50 min. A decent oven I would think 35-40. USDA says 165 deg internal temp. I cooked til 155 and it looked perfect (white all the way thru but still moist). Serve as you see fit. 

We choose to mandolin some yellow zucchini (so delicious and cheap this time of year) and salt. Served under as a little side dish. 

Bon appétit!

 http://www.paleomomrx.com/2012/08/08/pesto-stuffed-chicken/. For this

Stuffed Salmon & Zucchini Pasta

Stuffed salmon with artichoke hearts, feta and spinach (as inspired by this Whole Foods recipe: www.wholefoodsmar...) 

and easy zucchini "pasta" 
with pesto, mushrooms and tomatoes. So easy. So lo-carb. So gluten free. Soooooo delicious. We were pretty impressed with ourselves.

Our Zucchini Lasagna

Our Zucchini Lasagna 
#gluten-free #lo-carb 

1. Thinly slice zucchini length-wise. Paper towel & salt to pull out water. Let sit for @ least 10 mins. 

2. Sautée meat - Add onions & garlic. Add tomato sauce & balsamic. Simmer 30 mins+ 

3. Chop veggies. We chose kale, spinach, portobello mushrooms, green peppers & sun-dried tomatoes. 

4. Separately mix cottage cheese, 1 egg, shredded cheese. 

5. Layer it up. 

6. Cover w foil. Bake at 375/45 mins. Remove foil for next 15. Rest for 10. 

7. Bon appétit