Hi friends! At the beginning of April, my husband and I decided to do a little post-vacation detox and settled on trying Whole 30 (and when I say settled, I mean I begged him to try it with me because I knew I couldn't be successful alone). For those of you who haven't heard of Whole 30, it is a thirty day nutrition "reset" that is designed to reboot your metabolism, curb cravings, and eliminate foods that your body could be negatively reacting to (more on the program here). Spark notes version: no sugar (of any type, including honey), no grains (of any type, including quinoa), no dairy, no legumes, no corn, no soy, no alcohol, and no MSG/sulfites/carrageenan. We are currently on day 20, and I thought I'd drop in and share some insight from our experience so far!
Since the list felt pretty overwhelming at first, I started by thinking about what we had been eating for breakfast, lunch, dinner, and snacks pre-Whole 30. I realized that almost all the dinners we already made did not include any of those ingredients, which the exception of quinoa and sugar (sugar is in EVERYTHING- our biggest takeaway so far-- think: marinara sauce, asian marinades, ketchup, BBQ sauce, worchester sauce, etc.) I focused on finding "cleaner" marinade recipes that I could quickly make myself, and I found that was pretty do-able. Most of our dinners consisted of fish (shrimp, salmon, scallops, mahi-mahi and cod), ground beef, or chicken (more on how I stocked up on wild caught, organic versions of these on a budget later on!), a vegetable (asparagus, brussel sprouts, green beans, zucchini, butternut squash, mushrooms, or peppers), and often times roasted red potatoes with herbs (potatoes = a lifesaver when you eliminate carbs from your life). With our busy schedules, I also made sure everything we ate for dinner could be prepared in 30 minutes or less.
For breakfast, I had been eating oatmeal, which I needed to find a substitute for, and my husband had been eating nothing (face palm), and we found that we had most success with egg-based breakfasts because we could make ahead of time for the entire week. We ate a breakfast casserole packed with veggies, sausage, and egg or had hard boiled eggs with fruit or a pumpkin apple breakfast bake.
For lunch, I am a part of a salad club at my work (we've had it for a year and a half and still going strong!), so I was able to eat all of the veggies, lettuce, and fruit that were provided, and I brought a backup protein in case the one provided had a marinade that wasn't Whole 30 approved. My husband had the most success with making a big salad that lasted him the whole week or doing a chicken and veggie stir fry with riced cauliflower instead of rice.
Though Whole 30 doesn't really recommend much snacking, both of us are hungry pretty much every two hours regardless of how big our meals are, so we had to implement snacks to prevent us from becoming hangry humans/completely failing. Our snacks consisted of nuts (cashews, almonds, pistachios, walnuts), fruit (berries, clementines, apples, bananas), celery and almond butter, and avocado. All of these don't require any preparation, which was key for us so we wouldn't be consumed with food prepping constantly.
The day before we started, we made a big Costco run to stock up on pretty much all of the meat, fish, and chicken we would be eating for the next 30 days. This significantly reduced the cost of eating all organic/wild caught protein and also meant we didn't have to make any other huge grocery trips during the course of the month. We froze pretty much all of the protein we bought, and thawed it the day before we planned to use it. We also stocked up here on nuts and dried fruit. Their almonds and pistachios are around $10-$12 for a giant bag (a small bag at the grocery stores near us charge a similar amount), and they had a Whole 30 approved dried fruit that came in clutch when we needed a sweet fix (organic figs, no sugar or other ingredients added). We also bought our eggs at Costco. Their 24 pack of organic brown eggs is $5.99, and we were going through eggs quickly and loved this larger pack. While we were there, I also went ahead and bought our fruits, veggies, and potatoes for the first week and a half- much which lasted even longer (clementines, avocado, green beans, broccoli, kale, canned diced tomatoes, canned tomato paste, peppers, small red potatoes, bone broth). That Costco trip was around $380, which was actually a pretty good price considering it covered almost all our meat for the month and lots of staples we'd use even after Whole 30 was over. The remaining weeks, we went to Trader Joe's and pretty much just had to stock up on fruits and veggies (and ingredients for marinades or other recipes that we didn't already keep on hand, such as coconut milk).
Below I have some of our favorite recipes. My focus is always to make simple, quick meals that don't sacrifice flavor. If you are doing/have done Whole 30, I'd love to hear what your favorite recipes have been!
STUFFED PEPPERS:
Servings: 4 (we eat them over the course of 2 nights)
Ingredients:
-4 large bell peppers (any color)
-1 lb ground beef
-1 onion, diced
-1 small can of green chilis
-half a jar of Trader Joe's Salsa Autentica- or any other approved W30 salsas
-chili powder to taste- Trader Joe's chili powder has no sugar added
-cumin to taste - Trader Joe's cumin has no sugar added
-garlic to taste - Trader Joe's garlic powder/salt has no sugar added
-sliced hass avocado
Directions:
1. Preheat oven/toaster oven to 350 degrees
2. Chop of the top of the peppers and remove seeds from interior. Set aside and place in oven when ready.
3. Chop onion and add to large sauté pan with garlic. Cook until translucent.
4. Add ground beef, chili powder, cumin, garlic and cook until brown
5. Add green chili and salsa, stir to combine
6. When peppers are soft, remove from oven and stuff with beef mixture.
7. Top with additional salsa and sliced avocado and enjoy!
*for the second day we are enjoying this meal, we just cut a new pepper, stuff it, and place in oven until softened/warm
EGG, TOMATO, SPINACH, BASIL, AND SAUSAGE BREAKFAST BAKE:
I found this recipe from 40 Aprons blog, and did some modification! Check it out here for more great Whole 30 ideas: http://40aprons.com/whole30-breakfast-bake-sausage-eggs/
Servings: 9
Ingredients:
-12 eggs
-2 large handfuls of spinach, chopped
-2 1/2 cups of cherry tomatoes, cut in half
-8-10 basil leaves, chopped
-4 Aidells pre-cooked chicken and apple sausage links (found at Costco), sliced into circles
-olive oil
-seasonings to taste (garlic, pepper)
Directions:
-Preheat oven to 350 degrees
-Chop cherry tomatoes, spinach, basil leaves, and sausage
-Cook sausage on skillet until browned, then add tomatoes, spinach, and basil
-Crack 12 eggs into bowl, whisk with seasonings
-Grease 9 x13 pan with olive oil to prevent sticking
-Add sausage and veggies and spread evenly, then add egg mixture
-Bake for 30 minutes (or until center is cooked) and enjoy!
SEARED LEMON SCALLOPS AND ASPARAGUS
Servings: 2
Ingredients:
-10 scallops (thawed and blotted dry if purchased frozen)
-2 lemon
-cracked pepper
-garlic powder
-everyday seasoning from Trader Joe's
-bushel of asparagus
-olive oil
-crushed red pepper
Directions:
-Preheat oven to 400 degrees
-When ready, add asparagus to pan and drizzle with olive oil, crushed red pepper, and everyday seasoning and cook for 15 minutes, or until crispy
-Heat skillet on medium
-When skillet is hot, add scallops and top with cracked pepper, everyday seasoning, garlic, lemon juice, and lemon zest (zest is key-- don't leave this out!)
-After searing one side for 3-4 minutes, flip scallop and sear for additional 3 minutes
-Place scallops and asparagus on plate and add additional lemon juice and lemon zest and enjoy!
CHICKEN AND VEGGIE STIR FRY
Servings: 5 - great for a make-ahead lunch!
Ingredients:
-1 lb of thin cut chicken breast
-1 bag of fresh riced cauliflower from Trader Joe's
-2 cups of sliced mushrooms
-1 sliced red pepper
-1 sliced onion
-1 small bag of snow peas (this is an approved legume)
-olive oil
-2 tablespoons of coconut aminos (or enough to lightly coat cauliflower, veggies, and chicken)- this has a similar taste to soy sauce
-everyday seasoning from Trader Joe's to taste
-garlic to taste
-any other veggies you enjoy in stir fry!
Directions:
1. Heat skillet to medium and add riced cauliflower, seasonings, and coconut aminos. Cook for 5 minutes and set aside.
2. Dice chicken and veggies
3. Add chicken, veggies, olive oil, coconut aminos, garlic, and everyday seasoning to skillet and cook until done
4. Combine riced cauliflower, chicken, and veggies and enjoy! (Add additional coconut aminos if desired)
APPLE, PUMPKIN, AND CINNAMON BREAKFAST BAKE
I found this recipe from Wholesomelicious. The only adjustment I made was I used low fat coconut milk instead of full fat! So good- check it out here: http://www.wholesomelicious.com/pumpkin-apple-breakfast-bake-paleo-whole30/
Below is a picture of how mine turned out. I ate this for breakfast with a hard boiled egg on the side.
GRILLED FILET MIGNON WITH BRUSSEL SPROUTS AND ROSEMARY AND HERB POTATOES
Servings: 2
Ingredients:
-2 fresh filet mignons (great options at Trader Joe's)
-3 cups of sliced red potatoes
-everyday seasoning
-garlic salt
-rainbow peppercorns
-Herbs de Provence from Trader Joes (thyme, marjoram, savory, rosemary, basil, sage, lavender blend)
-sliced brussel sprouts
-olive oil
-dash of coconut aminos
Directions:
1. Preheat oven or toaster oven to 400 degrees
2. Marinate filets with everyday seasoning, garlic, rainbow peppercorns, and a dash of coconut aminos and let sit for 1+ hours
3. Slice potatoes and toss with olive oil and herbs de provence
4. Slice brussel sprout and toss with olive oil, garlic, and everyday seasoning
5. Heat grill and cook steaks to desired temperature
6. Place brussel sprouts in grill basket and cook for approximately 10-15 minutes (or until desired crispiness)
7. While steaks and brussel sprouts are cooking, place potatoes in oven and roast for about 20 minutes or until browned
8. Serve steaks, brussel sprouts, and potatoes together and enjoy!
LB
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