Whole30: Week 4

Four weeks of clean eating…wow! I’m slightly shocked that I completed this journey with out any major infractions. I’m so glad I did it, but so glad it is over. I’ll share more on all of my conflicting thoughts in a wrap up post, but for now…the food. This week I continued the trend of being a completely predictable, boring eater, but at least I mostly enjoyed eating this week.

 

This week started off with the kind of breakfast I could eat every day. I am madly in love with these simple breakfast potatoes (recipe from The Minimalist Baker). For lunch, I decided to add to the delicious salmon cakes (from the Whole30 book on page 346) by adding in some frozen spinach. I feel like this made it a nice complete meal. We had dinner out at our usual restaurant that is close to our house and I had my standard meal of a salad and baked potato with chicken. Food tastes so much better when you don’t have to cook it yourself!

Day 23 started with a veggie scramble and a green smoothie. I’ve had some people ask how I get my smoothies to me green and not gross shades of brown. My secret is that I don’t use a lot of berries, if any. For frozen fruit, I like to use pineapple, mango, peaches or other yellow or orange fruits. It makes the end product a lot more appetizing!

Lunch was a one-pan meal of sausage and veggies roasted in the oven while I defrosted the butternut squash soup from the freezer. I love freezing half-pint jars of soup for an extra serving of veggies whenever I need it. Dinner was salmon cakes and broccoli with a good helping of tarter sauce.

 

Day 24 started with the most used condiment during my Whole30. I use it daily, but realize I haven’t taken a picture of it so I poured some on for the photo. Seriously, Cholula hot sauce makes everything amazing. Before Whole30, I had a bottle in my fridge for about three years that barely had a dent in. During the past three weeks, I’ve gone through almost two bottles! Lunch and dinner were simple meals with a meat and veggies.

Day 25 was a special day because I participated in San Antonio’s first Listen to Your Mother show. It was a blast! I woke up extra nervous, but these scrambled eggs with turkey chorizo and avocado filled me enough to make it through the day. I admit I was so nervous that I only picked at my salad, but ate most of the turkey.

I was starving by dinnertime after the show and we went to our favorite hole-in-the-wall Mexican restaurant for dinner. I ordered a fajita platter for myself and my two kids and asked for extra veggies. It doesn’t look like much in the picture, but it was delicious and hit the spot!

Day 26 started with leftovers for breakfast and then my favorite one-pot meal for lunch. This beef chili is so simple and easy and I love that it gets in a bunch of veggies. We went for a hike and swim at a nearby state park and took this hearty Cobb salad with us to eat at the park.

I planned to make Melissa’s Chicken Hash (from the Whole30 book), but realized at the last minute that I didn’t have apple cider. I improvised with chicken stock and apple cider vinegar and the result was edible, but not my favorite. Lunch was leftovers and dinner was Brussels sprouts and a fried egg, which has become my favorite easy dinner during my Whole30.

 

Day 28 started with something I never would have eaten prior to Whole30. I am a cereal junkie and love a bowl of cereal at any time of the day. I read about doing monkey salad for breakfast on Kitchen Stewardship and thought it was a great idea. I decided to pour some coconut milk on my monkey salad to turn it into cereal. It was so satisfying and delicious! Lunch was a loaded baked potato and dinner was broccoli slaw spaghetti with ground turkey.

 

Day 29 started with a simple breakfast followed by a delicious lunch. I’ve been on the hunt for the elusive Whole30 compliant lunch meat (that doesn’t cost $8/package), but I remembered this delicious fresh roasted turkey from the deli section at my regular grocery store. It’s real turkey with just some spices on it and nothing added to it- yes! I used to eat it all the time, but forgot about it somehow. It’s back on the plate now though and that’s all that matters.

Dinner was an easy broccoli slaw spaghetti with salad and a treat- the first time I’ve had any kind of dessert on Whole30. Platoons are a Dominican staple and something my family loves. They were so sweet I actually only ate half of what is pictured before I realized I was satisfied and didn’t need any more. That is BIG for me.

 

Day 30. I just have to let that sink in for a minute. DAY 30!!! I thought this day would never come. And yet it seemed to go by so fast at the same time. Breakfast was a scramble with frozen stir fry veggies and leftovers and lunch was a simple tuna salad made with homemade mayo.

Dinner was out at a restaurant and was most definitely not Whole30 compliant, but I picked the best thing I could find off the menu. I didn’t realize that the fish would be breaded, but it was my last meal so I wasn’t about to send it back. I ate it and it was goooooooood. I guess you could say I completed a Whole29 and 2/3. Oh well.

Whew, that’s a lot of meals and photos. Be sure to check out photos from what I ate during Week 1, Week 2 and Week 3. And stay tuned for my final thoughts on whether my Whole30 was a success and my final weight loss total coming soon in a separate post!