Three weeks in

Three weeks in and I love this diet. I'm not a proselytizer...so I'll just tell you what I love about it for me.
#1 I never feel deprived. I think if I was more stringent about fats, I'd be losing weight more quickly, but it is way way easier for me to stick to an eating plan where I'm always full.
#2 I really do have more energy. I thought that was a bullshit claim, but it's true.
#3 I feel lighter. Not in a scale way, in a buoyancy way. Though I'm also down between 8 and 10 pounds (I don't remember exactly where I started because I'd simply gotten above my "Danger, Will Robinson!!" number).

Things that surprised me:
#1 How quickly sweet things became too sweet. I don't think it was even a full week before I snuck a bite of cookie and didn't like it because it was just too much.
#2 How gross I feel after misbehaving. I feel bloated and icky. And what's really surprising is that for the first time in my life, I remember that feeling from instance to instance so it actually *stops* me from indulging.
#3 How much easier it is to stick to a diet with a fully thought out meal plan, even if I deviate from it often.

My staples so far:
Banana/almond butter/bacon sammies
Cauliflower "rice"
Kai jong with something green (eggs, fish sauce, and tapioca flour)
Clothes Make the Girl Pad Thai
Chicken nuggets: brined in salt water, dredged in tapioca flour, fried in coconut oil a la Nom Nom Paleo.

48 hours

Sooooo...it's hard to start a paleo diet when somebody offers to make you waffles on New Year's Day. Ooops!! So I started with lunch.
1/1/14 Lunch: Subway salad with veggies, ham, vinegar and salt and pepper.
Dinner: steaks, mashed cauliflower with ghee, roasted broccoli.

1/2/14 I started 6 chicken legs in Fiona's green marinade (Nom Nom) for lunch and dinner.
Breakfast: banana, bacon and almond butter sandwiches...these were insane. Ugly as sin, but a taste sensation.
Lunch: I roasted two of the marinated legs, and chopped them up with apple, avocado, red pepper, leftover bacon from breakfast, a little balsamic over chopped romaine topped with hard boiled eggs.
Dinner: Roasted the other legs, and made Nom Nom's curried cream of broccoli soup. Both were amazing.

1/3/14
Breakfast: scrambled eggs with fish sauce, sautéed red peppers, and left over mashed cauliflower.

Lessons so far: if you put enough good tasting things together they taste amazing. I don't feel satisfied after most meals without the carbs, but if I wait 10-15 minutes for my body to recognize that I'm full then I feel quite fat and sassy.

Recipes for the Whole 30 Calendar

Recipes

"Nom" = Nom Nom Paleo: Food for Humans by Michelle Tam

"Well" = Well Fed by Melissa Joulwan

Breakfast

Smoothies

Eggs

Banana,almond butter, bacon sandwich

Fritatas with mushrooms and peppers

Furikake, asparagus and eggs (Nom p. 126)

Kai Jiao (thai omelet, Nom p. 131)

Maple Sausage patties (Nom p. 240)

Lunch:

            Chicken-Avocado Salad Lettuce Wraps

            Avocado, Egg and Spinach Salad

            Hardboiled egg, red pepper, tuna, apple

            Summer sausage, tomatoes, pickles, hardboiled egg

            Cucumber sandwich (meat in hallowed out cucumber)

            Guacamole deviled eggs

            Hardboiled egg and coleslaw (Nom Nom p. 99)

Snacks:

            Snap peas

            Cashews

            Almonds

            Dried fruit

            Apples w/almond butter

            Kale chips (Nom Nom p. 73)

            Just Apples chips

            Bars

            Ranch (nom)

           

Sides:

-Broccoli/cauliflower

-mixed frozen vegetables

            -sweet potato fries

            -roasted root vegetables

            -Green beans

            -mashed cauliflower

            -sweet potato hash (Nom p.152)

            -cauliflower rice (Nom p. 156)

            -plantain fritters (Nom p. 166)

            -cumin carrots (Well p. 115)

            -Lemony spinach

            -cauliflower rice pilaf (Well p. 121)

Dinners:

            -zucchini lasagna

            -fajita salad/quesadillas

            -roasted chicken

            -steak/chops w/ketchup

            -BBQ chicken sandwiches and coleslaw

            -tomato soup and grilled cheese

            -Crockpot Italian Chicken soup and roll ups (use cooked chicken from soup for rollups)

            -homemade pizza/cauliflower crustpizza

            -Carrot coconut soup

            -Slow cooker greek chicken w/pita orsalad

            -Crockpot coconut roast

            -Egg muffins with sweetpotato hasbrowns

            -Salmon cakes

            -Meatloaf

            -Cream of broccoli soup (Nom p.113) and grilled green chicken (Nom p. 193)

            -Chicken nuggets (Nom p. 195)

            -Yankee pot roast (Nom p. 218)

Whole 30!

◄ Dec 2013	~ January 2014 ~					Feb 2014 ►
Sun	Mon	Tue	Wed	Thu	Fri	Sat
			1  B- eggs and fruit L- McD Salad, no dressing D- roasted broccoli, mashed cauliflower, steaks	2  B-banana, bacon, almond butter sandwiches L-Chicken avocado lettuce wraps, red pepper strips D- cream of broccoli soup and green chicken	3 B-Kai Jiao L-hardboiled egg, apple, red pepper D- salmon cakes, roasted broccoli, sweet potato fries	4 B-Green smoothie L-Avocado/egg/spinach salad D- chicken nuggets and mixed veggies, cumin roasted  carrots
5 B- Asparagus and eggs L- cucumber sandwich D- zucchini noodle lasagna	6  B-bacon and eggs L- cucumber sandwich D-Well fed PadThai (p.63) and Well Fed cucumbers (p.135)	7 B- Banana, Almond butter, bacon L-Sommer sausage, tomatoes, pickles, HB egg D-Fajita salad/quesadillas	8 B-Frittata L- Sommer sausage, coleslaw D-Pizza and lemony spinach	9 B- Green Smoothie L-Chicken Avocado Lettuce Wraps, apple D- Crockpot coconut roast, green beans	10  B- Kai Jiao L-Chx avocado, tomatoes, cucumber D- BBQ chx, sweet potato fries, coleslaw	11  B-bacon and eggs L-out/snacks D-Roasted chx w/root veggies
12 B-Asparagus and eggs L- plantain fritters D-Tomato soup and grilled cheese, cauliflower rice pilaf	13 B- banan/ almond butter smoothie L-HB Egg, coleslaw, apple D-Whole foods salad bar	14 B-maple sausage, fruit L-tuna, cuties, red pepper D-slow cooker greek chicken	15 B-kai jiao L-guacamole deviled eggs D- Meatloaf and mixed veg, lemony spinach	16 B- Green smoothie L- snap peas, carrots, cucumbers, ranch dip, tuna D- Carrot coconut soup, roasted cauliflower and broccoli	17 NM	18 NM
19 NM	20 NM	21 B-Green Smoothie L-Snap peas, tuna, cucumbers, ranch D-Crockpot Italian chx soup, salad	22 B-Banana almond butter bacon sandwich L-Salad with lunch meat D-tomato soup and grilled cheese, cauliflower pilaf	23 B-Green smootie L-chx avocado, cucumber D-MT	24 MT	25 MT
26 MT	27 B-Green smoothie L- restaurant salad w/protein D- out	28 B-kai jiao L-sommer sausage, tomatoes, pickles D-Yankee roast and mixed veg, mashed cauliflower	29 B-mango smoothie, maple sausage patties L-Plantain fritters and salad D-chx nuggets and sweet potato fries, Well Fed cucumbers (p. 135)	30 B-frittatas L-avocado, egg and spinach D-BBQ chx, coleslaw, green beans	31 B- egg muffins with sweet potato hashbrowns L-chx avocado, tomatoes, left over coleslaw D-Cream of Broccoli soup and green chx, salad

Rocking Your World

This is not my idea, but it is revolutionary. This idea comes from the Lovely Susan's hippie sister who seriously lives in a commune and possibly a yurt, but the yurt part might be extrapolation on my part. Here is the amazing idea:

There. Are you sufficiently amazed and awed?

I thought so. 

For those of you not cool enough to understand what that is, it is all my veggie scraps that I saved in the freezer for a couple weeks. There are onion skins, dried out ginger root, wilted celery stalks, potato and carrot peelings, cauliflower butts, chard trimmings, bell pepper cores....you name it. Here it is boiling in a bunch of water for awhile. I know you like super precise instructions. You're welcome. I filled the pot and boiled it til it looked like broth - is that better? 

Then I poured the cooled broth into mason jars, frozen them, put lids on them, and now I don't ever need to buy broth again! But don't forget the cooling part, otherwise you'll end up with a bunch of broken mason jars. Not that I know that from experience. Ahem. Happy brothing!!

 

Two Small Things

Thing the First:
I'm sure I've shared this before. The almost-five-year-old won't eat what I make for dinner. In fact she has even taken "tasting bites," declared it "yummy," and  promptly refused to eat anymore. She will state, "I don't like what's for dinner" before I even know what's for dinner. So imagine my shock when I turned around the other night and she had hoovered up the half portion of these corn bites before I had even sat down, and was politely asking for more. She ate two and a half. The rest of us enjoyed them too. I made them in my popover pan. They are not what one would call "healthy," but if it gets a vegetable into my child at dinner with no screaming, I'll make them every damn week.

Thing the Second:
Just an update on the quinoa burgers that we already loved. I made them last night substituted half a red pepper and a handful of spinach, both minced, for the shredded carrot. Even better than before. I am now envisioning shoving all kinds of random veg in these. I also omitted the sugar (which I used instead of Splenda) and saw no difference.

Mushroom Bourguinon

I love this recipe from Deb at Smitten Kitchen. It's been awhile since I made it, but it will make your house smell divine. Two things I want to share about this time around......

Thing #1: I love these new-to-me frozen herb cubes. They are called Dorot and I got them at Trader Joe's yesterday. I bought garlic (used in this recipe), basil and cilantro. I, of course, forgot I had them, and pulled out my garlic cloves to mince...I was dreading the mincing. I have an irrational hatred of mincing. THEN! I remembered! I had cubes! Pop! Pop! Done. Love it.

Thing #2: While we're on the frozen topic. I really, really hate that recipes usually only call for a tablespoon or so of tomato paste. Hate. What I hate more is that I regularly store the extra tomato paste in my fridge. And forget about it until it's fuzzy. But because I was using frozen herb cubes, I had a brainstorm! I could freeze the rest of the paste in tablespoony portions. And so I did:

Oh, wow. That's not pretty. Form over function, I guess. I put them on wax paper. Froze them (they've been in there for two days now, because I'm thorough. Not lazy, thorough), then put them (well, I will put them) in a freezer bag, and TA-DA! Stop the hate.

 I'm sure I'm not the  first person to do this. Some of your are probably shaking your head thinking, "Um....doesn't everyone do this already?" But I'm going to ignore you and have a celebratory glass of wine for being such a culinary-effing-genius. Yo.