Food • Photography • Life
Breakfast
DH’s green smoothie, no banana
Lunch
Repeat sautéed peach & chicken salad with cherry tomatoes and sriracha lime vinaigrette from yesterday + mint, basil, scallion and pecans
Dinner
A ragu of zucchini, leek, burst cherry tomatoes, tomato paste, fish sauce, roast pork and butter. Delicious.
Today wasn’t bad. Lunch was delectable, dinner’s aroma was heavenly, and I had some really great chicken. Not much to complain about – or miss – here.
Breakfast
DH’s green smoothie, minus banana
Lunch
Was fantastic. Pre-cooked cheater roast chicken breast from Trader Joe’s (ingredients: chicken, water, sea salt, olive oil, black pepper) sauteed in a splash of pork fat with a chopped peach until golden with a generous amount of cherry tomatoes and Whole30 sriracha/lime/grapeseed oil dressing. So delicious I inhaled it. And I might have to repeat for tomorrow. Is it lunch time yet?
Dinner
Has been making me insane all day. This is a long-cook (either crock pot or in the oven for 3 hours) and I’ve been smelling it all day during work. Needless to say, the anticipation was heavy for this dish.
I served the pork over a bowl of broccoli slaw & mango with more sriracha/lime/grapeseed vinaigrette.
Today was pretty easy. I had leftovers that needed photographing for a recipe post so lunch was a no-brainer. Even though I feel vegetable-light for today’s meals, I know they really weren’t – breakfast had loads of green leafies, lunch had nutrient-dense sweet potato, and dinner had a whopping huge serving of cauliflower. I guess it’s the brown-ness of lunch and the lack of green in dinner causing the mental deficit.
On a side note, I’m in love with the Whole30 sriracha from Nom Nom Paleo. This stuff is awesome – a nice heat, good fresh bright taste from the jalapenos – and just a bit something extra. Chicken sauce is good and all, but this stuff is also pretty awesome.
Breakfast
DH’s green smoothie, minus banana
Lunch
Leftovers from last night – sweet potato, zucchini & onion hash with spiced ground pork & fried egg
Dinner
Grass fed steak with roasted garlic cauliflower mashed ‘potatoes’
Today was good. Food was easy and no real cravings for anything other than avocado.
Breakfast
DH’s green smoothie, minus banana. Tasty. Photo: recycled.
Lunch
I made a summer salad of watermelon, basil, grape tomato, roasted beet and avocado with balsamic vinegar drizzle & a sprinkle of citrus salt. Yum.
Snack
I was hoping the avocado would fill me up in place of protein, but it did not. Had 1 ounce plain almonds to snack on at about 2:30.
Dinner
Dinner was a bowl of deeply flavored pork sautéed until crispy with a hash of sweet potato, onion and zucchini topped with fried egg. And Whole30 compliant sriracha, which was awesome. Good and hearty and perfect for after a workout that left my arms and shoulders screaming. Recipe to come.
Today was a good day, food-wise. And I learned a bit about being in the wide world.
Breakfast
I wasn’t hungry when I woke up this morning, and then I worked out. Luckily my DH pushed for me to eat before we left the house for the NY Aquarium.
I made a quick and semi-joyless bowl of 1 cup leftover steamed broccoli from last night, 1/2 cup balsamic grilled eggplant, and 2 eggs sautéed in coconut oil.
At the aquarium there were exactly zero things I could eat. Only about a third of the aquarium is open (the rest is recovering from Hurricane Sandy), and all they had was the bare minimum in snacks.
We then walked the Coney Island Boardwalk. Surprisingly, there were four places I could eat – a grill near Nathan’s had a steak on offer (just can’t eat the fries), two places had salads and somewhere else (enclosed! With AC!) had steak and possibly chicken. Nathan’s had a grilled chicken sandwich – which I could do, minus the bread. So … options.
Something to keep in mind for such excursions: slip a little sealable snack container with a nice vinaigrette in my bag, that way I won’t end up eating a joyless dry salad if I’m out and that’s the only option.
Lunch
1 cup mixed fruit + 1 ounce almonds when we got home.
Dinner
My favorite fallback plan: burgers. Grilled up some grass fed patties, and served with balsamic drizzled caramelized shallots and baked sweet potato fries.
I feel like today was full of sweet. Fruit and coconut water made for a sugary day.
Breakfast
In an effort to be even more Whole30 compliant, today’s smoothie had no banana. I liked it – tasted more green.
Whole30 lists smoothies as a ‘we rather you didn’t’ food, instead of banning them outright. While I wholeheartedly agree with that assessment for smoothies from a store and fruity smoothies, I would argue that my breakfast smoothie is just fine. My breakfast smoothie contains loads of green veggies and good fats, and keeps me satisfied until lunch much better than a couple of hardboiled eggs does. And I’ve been drinking this smoothie for over 7 months, so my body gets pissy without its morning fatty vitamin shot.
Whole30’s secondary issue with smoothies (that they are a sugar bomb is the primary issue), is that drinking your food sends different messages to the brain than chewing your food, which leads to a delayed ‘full’ reaction. I get this, I do. And thin fruit smoothies definitely fit this bill. My smoothie is thick – it takes some work to get through the straw – and my body is very conscious of what is going into it because of that. Also, the avocado is fatty – and fills me up until lunch at 12:30.
Tl;dr: While not expressly forbidden, Whole30 says smoothies set your body up for ‘cravings, hunger, and volatile energy levels throughout the day’. For most smoothies, I agree. I argue that my smoothie has enough fat & green leafies in it that it does satiate me until lunch – with no crash.
Lunch
We decided to call it an early day and ordered delivery for from somewhere called Tasty Chicken. The menu consists of chicken (fried, grilled and rotisserie), tons of sandwiches, wraps, ribs, a few salads, fried Mac & cheese, and lots of things smothered in BBQ sauce.
In this long, long menu was buried a few Whole30 approved items. I ordered half a rotisserie chicken with an order of steamed broccoli with garlic.
The chicken was so filling I didn’t even go near the broccoli, and I was so hungry I forgot to take a picture.
Dinner
1 cup of mixed ‘nod to the season’ fruit.
Drink
I wanted something with more taste than the 60+ ounces of water I drink daily, so had half a can of 100% coconut water, and man was it sweet.
Breakfast
DH’s green smoothie ftw – made with coconut oil today instead of avocado. Yum.
Lunch
Roasted balsamic eggplant with sauteed zucchini and shallots in coconut oil + 2 eggs fried in coconut oil
Dinner
Friday ‘date night’. Went out to Thistle Hill Tavern and had a 16 ounce pork chop with onions + half an order of deviled eggs, which I’m hoping were compliant. And unsweetened tea to drink.
Snack
1/2 cup mixed fresh fruit – pineapple, melon, grapes, strawberries
Day 1 of this Whole30 business was pretty easy. I’ve been prepping myself for this crazypants excursion for a solid month now (getting mentally ready by saying ‘goodbye for now’ to alcohol, non-dairy ice cream and rooster sauce) so today wasn’t too rough.
Breakfast
My DH’s green smoothie. Luckily, the brand of orange juice we use is 100% juice (not from concentrate with no additives) and the coconut water we use is 100% coconut (no additives).
Lunch
I made a salad of 1.5 cups shredded carrot, 1 sliced scallion, 1 sliced nectarine, 6 cherry tomatoes, 1 Tbsp. diced mint, 1 Tbsp. diced cilantro, 1 small breast leftover Baked Mustard Lime Chicken + a quick dressing made from some of the chicken sauce and 1 Tbsp. grapeseed oil.
Snack
Had a 100 calorie pack of plain almonds by Emerald.
Dinner
Made a simple sautee of sea beans in coconut oil, garlic & shallots and baked some boneless skinless chicken thighs with more coconut oil, garlic and shallots. A simple meal, but a good one.
I’ve decided to monkey with my food habits again. Apparently, I’m some sort of food masochist because I’ve agreed to partake in a Whole30 Challenge with one of my best friends: the lovely and talented mind behind Emery’s Attic and the not-updated-nearly-enough *insert side eye here* OneWomanManyHats (to be fair, she has updated twice in the last month). She’s a warrior, a mother, one crafty b*tch, and has been my go-to for food-related questions/discovery/commiseration since we were teens. In short, she rocks. Let’s see if I still like her after this sojourn into depravation during peak corn-on-the-cob/beer/ice cream season. I know she’s giving me ‘mom eye’ right now, so I’ll quit whining. For now. (but I want wine)
During this month of crazybananas, I’ll be updating the blog more frequently with snaps of, and mini-recipes for, the things I’m eating (for my Nerd Fitness guild/challenge mates, I’ll be posting metrics on my thread as well to help those of you still on the Whole30 fence to hop down and join the fun).
What Is Whole30?
Whole30 is a month-long hard reset for the body. Kind of like paleo on steriods. No sugar (even honey or stevia), grains, dairy or legumes. Just whole, natural foods – like meats, veggies and fruits. Nothing in a package. No soy (mental note: find coconut aminos; Braggs isn’t going to cut it this month). Amend fish sauce buying to conform.
This program is designed to break the back of sugar and carb cravings and give your body a balanced place from which to build healthy habits. It seeks to reset your metabolism, knock out systemic inflammation (that you may not even know you have) and zero out other gut health issues. Have random stomach pain like me? This may help balance that. Irregular? IBS? Feel like crap all the time? Can’t lose weight? Well .. this crazybananas plan might work.
My favorite part of the plan, aside from the reset, is the tough love. This is not hard – not like quitting heroin or beating cancer. Don’t even think about slipping – what you put into your mouth is always a choice. You don’t have to eat anything you don’t want to eat – learn to stick up for yourself, peer pressure is for elementary school students. This will take effort but you will be better for it – especially if you’re a first-timer to cutting out grains and legumes. But … you can do this.
You know what? They’re right. In the grand scheme of things, 30 days is a small amount of time to deal with a little inconvenience. Unless there are roving bands of rapist donuts in your neighborhood; then maybe stay inside and eat what you’re supposed to anyways.
Gastography 