Whole30 -Week 5

Today marks day #30 of our Whole30 but we will be continuing….. There is another 8 days to go before adding anything back in and we will be complete as of April 20th – PASCHA!!

We thought this past weekend was going to be challenging with us away for 3 nights and 4 days but it actually went rather smoothly.  We took along soups and lots of snacks( Primal Packs, RXbars, fruit, nuts, hard-boiled eggs and lunch meats).  The chef at the conference graciously made us up our own plates of humongous roasted sweet potatoes and steamed vegetables and heated up our soups so that he could put them into thermoses for us to take back to our rooms for in between meals (we didn’t eat the soups at mealtime because they did consist of meat and we needed to be considerate of the rest of our Orthodox friends who are observing the typical Orthodox fast consisting of abstaining from all animal products).  The chef totally understood what we are doing and was very accommodating – even kept our homemade salad dressings in a refrigerator in the cafeteria so we could have those available to us during meal time as well.  He fed us well and we actually came home with lots of snacks left over! We noticed the chef himself had lost an incredible amount of weight over the last year and apparently had done something very similar to what we were doing.

My husband has expressed high interest in continuing what we are doing.  He can see and feel the difference it is making.  My son is in support— as long as I make exceptions for him 😉   I will.  The plan right now is to go back to allowing him one processed snack a week…. and I might occasionally make him a favorite dish that is primarily for him to have as lunch throughout the week— you know – his old favorites.  I think that is fine.  It still provides my husband what he needs and maintains the rest of us on a much healthier eating plan.

So here is the plan for Week 5:

Monday:

Breakfast:  scrambled eggs with ham, guacamole

Lunch:  For me and my youngest son, it was an Rx bar, some nuts and mashed cauliflower when I got home and was making dinner…. lots of running around to do after our long weekend.  My older son made eggs.  My husband was sleeping due to his work schedule.

Dinner:  Italian Cottage Pie (A variation of Shepherd’s Pie), salad, chicken broth

Tuesday:

Breakfast:  Mixed Vegetables with Red Pepper Sausage, guacamole, chicken broth

Lunch:  Leftovers (the rest of the week will be leftovers)

Dinner:  Meatloaf, Mashed Cauliflower, Mixed Vegetables, Salad

Wednesday:

Breakfast:  Scrambled Eggs, Mushroom Sausage, Steamed Kale, guacamole

Dinner:  Shrimp Thai Soup,  Salad

Thursday:

Breakfast:  Scrambled Eggs, Sweet Potato Hash, guacamole, chicken broth

Dinner:  Paleo Chili with Mashed Cauliflower, Salad

Friday:

Breakfast:  Frittata with tomatoes and spinach, guacamole, chicken broth

Dinner:  Salmon, Butternut Squash Bites, Asparagus, Salad

Saturday:

Breakfast:Scrambled Eggs, Ham, Steamed Kale

Dinner:  Minute Steaks with fried mushrooms and onions served over a bed of greens with tomatoes

Sunday:

Breakfast:  An Rx bar for myself and a small something for my younger son – My DH and older son will do a total fast before Liturgy.

Lunch:  Wraps with lettuce and compliant lunchmeat, guacamole, chicken broth

Dinner:  Whole Chicken with carrots, celery, onions, and turnips,  Salad

Now I will leave you with another recipe of the week – this isn’t in the plans for this week but I may just throw it in as a replacement of scrambled eggs sometime this week – I made two  batches of it last week and just reheated it the second day and it was fabulous.  I even took the leftovers with us on the weekend and ate some cold the next day – still good! The original recipe, titled Sausage Quiche with Sweet Potato Crust (without my tweaking as written below) is from Against All Grain by Danielle Walker!

 

Sweet Potato Sausage Quiche

• Servings: 5-8
• Time: 1 hour
• Print

Ingredients:

• coconut oil for greasing pan
• 1 medium sweet potato (or 2 small), shredded in food processor
• 1/2 pound breakfast sausage (I add my own seasonings to  organic ground pork)
• 1/2 tsp. dried rosemary
• 10 eggs
• 3 tbsps. coconut milk
• 1/2 tsp. salt
• 1/8 tsp. black pepper

Directions:

1.  Preheat Oven to 350° and lightly coat pie plate or square pan.

2.  Spread shredded sweet potatoes on bottom of pan.  (Danielle Walker directs slicing the potato thin with a mandolin or knife to layer on bottom as a crust)

3.  Mix rosemary in with sausage and spread sausage over the potatoes.

4.  Place eggs, coconut milk, salt and pepper in a bowl and scramble together.

5.  Pour the egg mixture into the dish over the sausage and potatoes.

6.  Bake 25 to 30 minutes or until the center is set and the eggs have puffed up nicely.

7.  ENJOY!!!!

Tune in next week to see us begin to add things back in… we will probably start with legumes on the 8th!  When adding something in, we will select ONE food item (i.e. legumes) and have a serving with each meal for ONE day… we will not add anything else in for three days.  So each item is tested for one day only, every three days.  My son is looking forward to our day of dairy…. I have a feeling as much as I miss it that won’t be a good day for me!  Wish us luck!