Punkin donut

[punkin56]

Just curious, would shaping half of a soft sweet potato into a donut shape and frosting it with a mixture of  pumpkin, coconut, and almond butter  (a very small amount of each) and coconut "sprinkles" and calling it a PUMPKIN DONUT  be against the rules? Because it was delicious and I sent a picture to someone of it dubbing it a donut.

Disclaimer: Donuts are definitely NOT one of my weaknesses, and I rarely eat them when non whole 30ing it!

I am on day 5 and don't want to start over. I did not want eggs this morning and my husband got in from a business trip at 1 AM and ate my planned breakfast of sausage bites then:)

Oh and this was for breakfast not a snack!

[GFChris]

Yes, such a concoction is not compliant.  Refer specifically to this paragraph in the program rules:

"Do not try to re-create baked goods, junk foods, or treats* with “approved” ingredients. Continuing to eat your old, unhealthy foods made with Whole30 ingredients is totally missing the point, and will tank your results faster than you can say “Paleo Pop-Tarts.” Remember, these are the same foods that got you into health-trouble in the first place—and a pancake is still a pancake, regardless of the ingredients."  - See more at: http://whole30.com/whole30-program-rules/#sthash.5zAywzt1.dpuf

 

A restart is not required in this case. Just don't have any more of these treats until after you finish your Whole30.

 

Review the recommended meal template. For best results, have every single meal consist of 1-2 palms of protein, 1-3 cups of veggies and the appropriate amount of compliant fat. There are countless choices for non-egg breakfasts that fit the meal template that don't include donuts. (Google Whole30 non-egg breakfast to get links to many past threads with ideas.) For snacks, the recommendation is a mini-meal consisting of protein, veg and fat.  This "donut" wouldn't meet the breakfast or snack recommendation because there's no protein.

[Deb.]

Yes, such a concoction is not compliant.  Refer specifically to this paragraph in the program rules:

"Do not try to re-create baked goods, junk foods, or treats* with “approved” ingredients. Continuing to eat your old, unhealthy foods made with Whole30 ingredients is totally missing the point, and will tank your results faster than you can say “Paleo Pop-Tarts.” Remember, these are the same foods that got you into health-trouble in the first place—and a pancake is still a pancake, regardless of the ingredients."  - See more at: http://whole30.com/whole30-program-rules/#sthash.5zAywzt1.dpuf

 

A restart is not required in this case. Just don't have any more of these treats until after you finish your Whole30.

 

Review the recommended meal template. For best results, have every single meal consist of 1-2 palms of protein, 1-3 cups of veggies and the appropriate amount of compliant fat. There are countless choices for non-egg breakfasts that fit the meal template that don't include donuts. (Google Whole30 non-egg breakfast to get links to many past threads with ideas.) For snacks, the recommendation is a mini-meal consisting of protein, veg and fat.  This "donut" wouldn't meet the breakfast or snack recommendation because there's no protein.

 

GF Chris I find this confusing. 

She didn't bake a donut using pumpkin and arrowroot flour or whatever. 

She simply shaped half of a soft sweet potato into a donut shape and added pumpkin coconut and almond butter. 

 

You guys have a fruit pizza posted on your Whole 30 Instagram account. 

http://instagram.com/p/tZOwyXKV-u/?modal=true

 

If shaping my evening sweet potato into a donut shape for fun is not ok, then why is fruit pizza ok? 

If she made the shape and added the toppings and didn't call it a donut, seems like it would be ok.

So that's about semantics not compliance. 

 

She specifically said she doesn't eat donuts IRL. 

 

I think its important to be super clear about this. Can you clarify the difference between a sweet potato "donut" and a fruit "pizza"? 

 

Thanks. 

[ladyshanny]

I have to say I'm with Deb on this one.  I saw it this morning and haven't been able to stop thinking about it.  If she hadn't made the shape (which I thought was for the hilarity of the text message factor not for brain/emotional recognition factor) but simply topped a half a baked sweet potato with coconut flakes and almond butter (which people do All The Time), it would be different, no?

 

If she had said "I made a sweet potato and topped it with a small amount of almond butter, pumpkin and coconut" would we feel differently about it?  Because she said "I shaped my potato into a donut and then frosted it with almond, pumpkin and put coconut sprinkles on it", it's now SWYPO?

 

Not trying to be inflammatory, just truly curious about how these decisions get made.  In a previous thread about cauliflower muffins (I think) Tom said that anything you are doing with a vegetable basically isn't wrong.

[kirkor]

I see her calling this a donut similar to my light-hearted meat cereal or my comments here. (yes, I'm link-whoring )

Although @Deb, it's not about the physical act of "baking", it's about the _recreating_ of a 'baked good'.

@punkin56's disclaimer is the best argument for making this item 'ok', and @GFChris's point of the lack of protein is the best argument for making it 'not ok' since it doesn't follow the template.

The Instagram has often been mentioned as unreliable in terms of containing 100% approved stuff, so it can't really be held up as any sort of evidence either way. Kinda like citing wikipedia on a school paper.

[Deb.]

Yes Kirkor and if I take watermelon and top it with banana and coconut, call it a pizza, and eat with no protein, that's the same thing 

 

Yet fruit pizza was posted on Whole30's Instagram feed as an approved recipe. http://instagram.com...V-u/?modal=true

 

I would think moderators and Whole 30 management would be horrified to know that Whole 30's Instagram feed was "considered unreliable in terms of containing 100% approved stuff" (I am quoting Kirkor, this is not a quote from me). It is very different to quoting Wiki on your term paper as it is not crowd sourced, as is Wiki, it's created and run by Whole 30 with guest posters and recipes that have been approved and endorsed by Whole 30. A very different thing.   

  

If Whole 30's recipe Instagram feed is unreliable, as Kirkor says, then that would seem to be a HUGE problem and would mean that 72,969 people are getting the wrong message about what is approved on Whole 30.  HELLO!

 

And yes, Lady Shanny, Tom did tell someone they could make cauliflower muffins or cauliflower crust here. 

A cauliflower muffin, a fruit pizza, a sweet potato donut, I'm just wondering what the difference is. 

http://forum.whole9life.com/topic/22480-cauliflower-crust/?hl=%2Bcauliflower+%2Bcrust

 

My point is that I think we're getting mixed messages left and right.  People are struggling, and there definitely needs to be consistency and clarification. Otherwise the Whole 30 folk are just the authors of confusion. I am just trying to set the record straight here, for the people. 

Pursuing truth and clarity, for everyone's benefit. 

[ladyshanny]

Regarding the W30Recipes insta feed, I don't think they require that all the recipes fit the template exactly.  Often they are just showing you parts of a meal. For example, one of the recent ones on right now is rainbow carrots. Not template....but certainly not non-compliant by any stretch.

 

The discussion of the sweet potato "dish" from the start of this post cannot be called non-compliant based on the fact that it doesn't meet the template.  The template is a suggestion...a really well thought out and effective one...but just because someone misses a macro in their meal doesn't make it automatically non compliant....ie the hard boiled egg and mayo that is frequently suggested as a mini-meal instead of just snacking on nuts.

 

I think the confusion we're seeing in this post is down to how she shaped a mashed potato (round with a hole vs in a mound or spread across the plate) and how she used the word "frosted" instead of "topped with" and therefore causing it to be called non-compliant.

[punkin56]

Thank ya'll. In case it helps the discussion, my whole reason in making my little donut was "PRESENTATION"...so I guess if I think our brains think a donut looking thing is better than a glob of the same stuff, maybe that is wrong (in our brain)? I am really enjoying realizing how tasty things can be with a little effort, even though I am only on day 5. And yes to me, it was more enjoyable to eat it like that, not because it looked like a donut, just because it didn't look like a glob! 

Next week, I think I will make a "flower" instead of a donut! 

It was fun and my daughter (who eats this way) got a kick out of it when I texted it to her! She said she was really proud of me:)

I believe that in the same fashion that most of us need to change our thinking about food that it is a positive to take something I probably never would have eaten for breakfast and had fun with it and really enjoyed it, in part due to presentation.

I wanted to post the picture here but felt uncertain, and now I realize I better not,  ha!

 

[Deb.]

LadyShanny your point is well taken, and as I said to Melissa herself in this post, that should probably be made clearer when posting the recipes. 

 

http://forum.whole9life.com/topic/22206-w30-approved-desserts-fruit-snacks-from-w30-recipes-on-instagram/?p=234753

 

And if all these things (fruit pizza, cauli muffin)  are ok, then @punkin56 should simply be reminded about the template, not told she is making SWYPO food because she named her sweet potato a donut. 

 

Again, I think consistency and clarity across the board in this regard is all we can hope for.   

[missmary]

I love how passionate everyone is on these boards!

 

I'll be curious to see Chris's comment when she checks this thread again, but here's my thought: I had to read the original post twice before I realized this was simply cooked sweet potato cut into a donut shape, not some sort of baked creation with pureed sweet potato and almond butter and coconut flakes and whatever. I wonder if she thought this was more elaborate than it really was?

 

IMHO, cutting vegetables into shapes (donut, torus, rhomboid, whatever) is not SWYPO, although, yes: eating them at meals and accompanied by protein is the best path. enjoy.

[GFChris]

This seems to be one of those cases that is somewhat semantics on the SWYPO front. For my brain, making a conscious choice to go through the effort to cut a sweet potato into a donut shape, and using something that resembles "frosting" and "sprinkles" to top it off is walking very close to the SWYPO edge. For me, it's akin to why Paleo pancakes are against the rules.

 

If you take SWYPO out of the discussion, the bottom line is that this creation does not fit the recommended template. Add protein, as missmary said.

[Sleeve]

I must now go forth and recreate that scene in Close Encounters of the Third Kind with sweet potatoes and meat!

[punkin56]

I totally get the add protein part. In fact for the first day this week and since starting the program, I had a few hunger pains midmorning.

Call it poor planning if you wish as opposed to a busy week and close to being out of everything and the husband who was hungry after a long day of flights.

 

However, I can assure you my "donut" required very little effort. I spooned out the center of the glob and the "frosting" was something I had mixed up to put on the sweet potato (I probably should call them yams (Sweet)?) to turn it into a "recipe" kind of breakfast instead of not!

 

I explained before about "presentation" being somewhat important to me. Maybe it shouldn't be?

I guess all these awesome recipes are triggering the creativity in me.

 

Anyway, I really wish you would address what some posters brought up about fruit pizza, etc.!

[Melissa Urban]

Oh boy.

 

First, please remember that we made this program up, and the SWYPO rule isn't black and white. We specifically call out very specific foods, and then say, "It's up to you to determine whether foods not on this list are appropriate for your Whole30."

 

Also note the meal planning template has NOTHING to do with the rules of the Whole30. It's a recommendation, but if you don't follow the template, you're not "off-plan." 

 

This sweet potato topped with pumpkin, almond butter, and coconut is technically Whole30 compliant. It's also one of those things that I'd say, "Think twice, because it sounds like you're trying to treat yo'self with something as close to dessert-y as you can get with the Whole30."  But if you wanted to eat one of these for breakfast every day, you sure could, and you'd be technically Whole30 compliant. Just like if every meal consisted of a dried-fruit-and-almond-butter-bacon "sandwich." Not ideal, but not against the rules. Here's where some personal accountability comes into play.

 

Finally, please cut our moderators and Whole30 Instagram guest posters some slack. They do the best they can with the information they have, and they don't always get it "right" according to my personal definition of "right." But these folks volunteer their time to help you succeed, so if they accidentally post a sweet potato "waffle" or say something is off-plan when I say it's not (or vice-versa), patience, please. We'll do our best to get you the right info (according to Dallas and my rules), but you can also employ your own mantra of, "When in doubt, cut it out." After all, it's only 30 days, and if you can't live without sweet potato frosted with coconut butter for 30 days, I'd say there's something worth looking at there. (Not suggesting that is the OP's case, this is just an example.)

 

And for the record, every single post on the Whole30 IG feed is compliant, and if ever anything is posted that is not (and it's pointed out to us, or we happen to catch it on our own) it IS deleted.

 

Thanks, all.

 

Best,

Melissa

[punkin56]

Thanks Melissa! I totally agree that it would not be something to do often; my main reason being is I KNOW I need more protein at breakfast and not something like that! Even though it was cute and tasty it was definitely a one time thing!

I appreciate the post!

[kirkor]

Wooo! Hot topic when the boss drops by!

Shake it off like TSwift! B-)

[TinaH]

Also note the meal planning template has NOTHING to do with the rules of the Whole30. It's a recommendation, but if you don't follow the template, you're not "off-plan."

Oh - this part of Melissa's post confuses me! I thought the meal template is in itself one of the Whole30 rules. So does this mean if I don't have protein at a meal I am not off plan? My apologies if this is clarified in the book and I didn't get it the first time. I do want to re- read it now that I have a Whole30 under my belt. I enjoy following the meal template so I'm not wanting to eat differently. I just want to clear up my confusion.

[ShannonM816]

Oh - this part of Melissa's post confuses me! I thought the meal template is in itself one of the Whole30 rules. So does this mean if I don't have protein at a meal I am not off plan? My apologies if this is clarified in the book and I didn't get it the first time. I do want to re- read it now that I have a Whole30 under my belt. I enjoy following the meal template so I'm not wanting to eat differently. I just want to clear up my confusion.

 

These are the actual rules. If you follow all of them for 30 days, you've done a W30. The meal template is a recommendation -- you'll have the best results if you use the template as your guideline for your meals, but if you don't, that doesn't mean you've ruined your W30. So if you have a meal with no protein, but everything you do have is W30 compliant, you haven't gone off plan.

[TinaH]

Thanks!