Norm and Donna's Whole30 log - started June 1, 2015

[DonnaB]

Day 2 of our Whole30 that we started yesterday. We have been working toward eating "clean" and moving in the direction of consuming more organic than not, so the change isn't quite as drastic for us as it might otherwise be. We do both have some relatively minor health issues that we hope to resolve by doing this. For me, the hot flashes of menopause are sometimes unbearable, so hoping those dissipate. I also think I have some mild food sensitivities, and I'm hoping to clearly identify what they are. Norm has been a life-long GERD sufferer, and developed asthma and allergies at the age of 40, and also seems to have some food sensitivities. He had stomach surgery to address the GERD, and the asthma has resolved itself since we moved to a more organic diet, but the allergies and food sensitivities are something that we would like to identify. I did a bunch of cooking on Sunday and Monday to help get ready - grilled several chicken breasts ahead so we would have them to add to salads, stocked fresh veggies from the Farmers Market and cans of sardines, tuna, and salmon for protein salads, made clarified butter and home-made mayo (which I've been doing for quite awhile - not new to me). I'm in my 50's and Norm is in his 60's, and we want to be healthy old people. :-)

[DonnaB]

Meals: June 1

Breakfast: Frittata with spinach and mushrooms (5 eggs - I have small hands so 2 eggs is what I can hold - Norm could probably hold 4, but due to stomach surgery, he can't eat as much at one time, so he only at the equivalent of 1 egg. I'm a certified member of the clean-plate club, so had no trouble eating mine), 1/2 avocado, 1/2 banana (Norm has a whole banana, and forgot to eat his avocado). Norm had black coffee and I had peppermint tea.

Lunch: Salad of mixed greens with cauliflower, cucumber, and olives, palm-sized amount of grilled chicken, and olive oil and vinegar dressing with my own blend of seasonings.

Dinner: Spaghetti sauce with (mostly) home-made sauce and 1 lb of ground beef, onions, and mushrooms over spaghetti squash (will probably have this again later in the week, as it made 2 meals worth for the 2 of us), kolhrabi greens fried in bacon grease, and fresh kohlrabi dipped in home-made ranch dressing (used the recipe from Whole30 - wasn't too sure about including the coconut cream, but it turned out delicious!)

[DonnaB]

Day 2 is on the books. 

Meals: June 2

Breakfast: Kohlrabi greens and mushrooms fried in bacon grease (from approved, sugar-free bacon), with sunny-side up eggs on top, 1/2 banana. Black coffee for Norm, peppermint tea for Donna

Lunch: Donna - salmon salad with home-made mayo on a bed of greens. Norm - leftovers from previous days lunch - he struggles with eating big meals, both due to stomach surgery and because he doesn't enjoy eating alone. However, he was full, and made it until supper to eat again.

Supper: Grilled pork chops, roasted sweet potatoes and asparagus, black olives. (should have taken a pic - in looked beautiful on the plate - a feast for the eyes as well as the stomach.  )

 

Norm made a conscious decision to avoid snacking before bedtime - something that has been an occasional habit, and did fine with it.

 

We are both doing okay mentally. Up until this week we have not made it a practice to eat breakfast together, but with the change in the morning menu (he used to eat Grape Nuts with whole milk everyday, and I had gluten-free oatmeal with home-made yogurt, honey, blueberries, and ground flax seeds) we are sitting down together to eat. Since, after 36 years of marriage we still like each other, we are enjoying the few extra minutes of time together before heading off to work in the morning. We're both still pretty excited about seeing the benefits of doing w30.

[DonnaB]

It's day 3, and since I had to wrack my brain to remember all that we ate yesterday, I'm starting this log now.

 

Breakfast: strip steak, roasted white potatoes basted with clarified butter and seasoned, 1/2 C cucumber with ranch dressing. Black coffee for Norm, peppermint tea for Donna

Lunch: Salad of mixed greens, radishes, cauliflower, 1/2 avocado, and grilled chicken breast with ranch dressing. Grapes.

Dinner: 2 1/4 lb hamburgers fried in ghee, cauli-rice with onions and garlic, kale chips, home-made pico made with tomato, cucumber, celery, garlic, avocado, cilantro and seasonings. Norm commented that supper was really good! 

 

Small victory today - this is the first day in weeks when I haven't started the day with a hot flash. Only had two mini tropical vacations while fixing breakfast, and sweat was not involved. Hurray!

 

I didn't drink as much water yesterday as I usually do, and noticed it last night when I went for a run because I was extremely thirsty, and again this morning when I woke up I felt dehydrated. Have to work on that today. Why does doing good stuff for our health take so much effort??!!

[DonnaB]

June 4th, and day four.

 

Breakfast: Scrambled eggs fried with kohlrabi greens, garlic, and potatoes fried in bacon grease. Got a little carried away with the amount of greens I put in. Doesn't bother me because I like them, but Norm isn't so crazy about them, so it was a bit to much. Realized I hadn't planned enough fat, so slathered them with clarified butter. They were quite tasty to me, but have to make a conscious effort not to think about calories.

Lunch: Salad of mixed greens, radishes, cauliflower, cucumber, grilled chicken breast, and mango with vinegar and olive oil dressing

Dinner: Leftovers. Spaghetti squash, spaghetti sauce with hamburger meat, cauli-rice, kalamata olives.

 

I'm beginning to figure out already how some foods/seasonings affect me. I mentioned yesterday that the hot flashes have minimized - especially on waking up. Well, being a person who enjoys spicy food, I seasoned last nights burgers with a sprinkle of red pepper, and put a couple of drops of Franks Hot sauce in the pico. It wasn't much, but this morning I experienced the weird feeling that usually precedes a hot flash. It didn't actually end up being much, but I now know that spicy food does have an affect on that. 

[DonnaB]

Day 5

 

Breakfast: Donna - 2 hard-boiiled eggs, 1/2 avocado, raspberries, Norm - 4 hard-boiled eggs, raspberries (he's not overly foond of  straight avocado)

Lunch: Donna - salmon salad w/ home-made mayo on a bed of greens. Norm - green salad w/ veggies, chicken breast and ranch dressing

Dinner: Kalua pork, sauer kraut, fried potatoes w/ bacon, 

 

One thing that I'm finding interesting about this eating plan is that it seems easier to identify the source of problems when they occur. For instance, yesterday I had the same lunch I've had to other days this week. The only thing that was different was that I had 1/2 a mango rather than grapes. Typically I really enjoy mango, but this time it isn't going so well. [TMI alert - don't read if  you don't want to know]. It started when I stopped for groceries after work. Up to yesterday I have not had a problem going 5-6 hours between meals, but yesterday the hunger pangs started as soon as I walked into the store. I suspect they were caused by the sweetness of the mango, but it took some willpower to walk past the free samples of watermelon and not grab one! Arghhh! But - the story doesn't end there. By the time I was ready to go to bed, my stomach was rolling. It didn't keep me from sleeping, but felt worse this morning when I woke up. I finally had one loose stool, but still feeling crappy and fatigued. Breakfast seemed to settle things down for a bit, but stomach is rolling, again. I'm drinking chamomile tea and water with cider vinegar to try and shake this. Hope it settles down soon. I've been looking forward to this weekend camping trip for awhile!

[DonnaB]

Since we were gone over the weekend, this is a food digest for the past few days:

 

Day 6

M1: Turkey blueberry "muffins" - I made a couple of dozen to take on our camping trip, and they were great for filling up on. I also wanted to have something extra on hand for snacking if it was needed, but it wasn't. Fresh strawberries, Black coffee for both of us (Donna only drinks coffee on the weekends)

M2: Leftover Kalua pork (it was a huge roast!) wrapped in leaf lettuce with avocado tomato pico. Grapes

M3: Grilled hamburgers with more tomato avocado pico, fried white and sweet potatoes, raw sauerkraut (Our friends that we camped with really came through with food we could eat for this meal  !)

 

Day 7

M1: Bacon, fried eggs, leftover fried white and sweet potatoes - great breakfast to fill the hole! Strawberries. Black coffee for both of us.

M2: Leftover Kalua pork (it was a really huge roast!) wrapped in leaf lettuce with avocado tomato pico..

Afternoon - We both took 3 hr naps! Day 7-8 timeline was right where we were at!

M3: Grilled chicken/apple sausages, grilled chicken drums (didn't have an abundance of either so put them together for this meal), roasted potato wedges dipped in ranch, roasted asparagus, grapes.

 

Day 8

Norm was back to himself today, but I still felt exhausted - didn't make it to work. Laid low all day to try and recoup some energy to get through the rest of the week.

M1: Finished off the turkey blueberry muffins.  Had a few veggies w/ homemade ranch dip. Coffee for Norm. Peppermint tea for Donna.

M2: Leftover Kalua pork (it was a really, really huge roast!) wrapped in leaf lettuce with avocado tomato pico.

M3: Salmon patties fried in avocado oil with home-made shrimp sauce, sweet potato oven fries basted w/ avocado oil and sprinkled w/ garlic powder, onion powder and pink himalayan salt, and home made dill pickles (sans sugar). This was a super easy meal to put together - took less than a 1/2 hr to make supper. I'm good with that!

 

Day 9

I'm feeling better today and am back at work. 

M1: Boiled eggs, 1/2 can sardines. Coffee for Norm. Peppermint tea for Donna.

M2: Leftover Kalua pork (it was a really, really, really huge roast!) wrapped in leaf lettuce with avocado tomato pico, kalamata olives

M3: Zoodles cooked in tomato sauce with MORE Kalua pork (any that is left tonight is going in the freezer. I like leftovers, but enough is enough  ) Still a have to add in the fat. Will figure something out. Edited to add: 3 cloves garlic, 1/2 chopped onion, 1/4 lb crimini mushrooms, seasoned w/ oregano, garlic powder, sage, and pink himalayan salt, and cooked in avocado oil - was quite tasty! Also had some fresh pineapple.

 

The weekend camping with friends was mostly enjoyable, but the occasional stomach cramps that I experienced were not fun. They also contributed to feeling yucky yesterday, but today things are better. Yay!

 

This morning I had a meeting at work, and frequently I struggle to stay awake during these meetings, but today for the first time in a long time I didn't have nearly the struggle. It's interesting to consider that diet could be playing into it. Of course, maybe the meeting just wasn't as boring as usual - hehe!

[DonnaB]

Day 10

M1: Scrambled eggs w/ chopped onion, crimini mushrooms and spinach. Two 2 oz sausage patties. Black coffee for Norm. Peppermint tea for Donna.

M2: Green salad w/ cauliflower, kohlrabi, cucumber, kalamata olives w/ vinegar and olive oil salad dressing. Can of sardines. 1/2 C fresh pineapple.

M3: Shrimp something - not sure what, yet. Edit: had NNP's shrimp salad, only made garlic shrimp to top it and my own salad dressing. We were both still hungry when the salad was gone, so had some frozen blueberries topped with coconut cream, as I suspected more healthy fat was needed. The blueberries made a good delivery device - lol!

 

Norm is struggling to finish his breakfast most days. While he has never been excessively overweight, I have observed that over the past two years the same thing is happening to him that happened to his mother in her mid-sixties - he is trimming down (he's back to his college weight!!!!), and having a hard time finishing his breakfast most days (he never has been a huge breakfast eater - just wants something to get him started. Both of his brothers were obese, so he has been conscious of the toll that being overweight can take on a body). He has never been one who could eat breakfast the first hour after waking, and he gets up many days more than an hour before me, so it's taking some adjusting of his thinking on how to do this. I'm not trying to pressure him - that would probably be about all it would take for him to give up. He's staying compliant with the foods he's eating, and sometimes finishing his breakfast as a mini-meal later. Those are both wins in my book, so I will take them where I can get them.

[DonnaB]

Day 11

M1: 3 boiled eggs, fresh cucumber and kohlrabi dipped in ranch dressing. Donna: peppermint tea, Norm: black coffee - and he only had 2 eggs. [sigh!]

M2: Green salad w/ carrot, cucumber, and kalamata olives and vinegar/olive oil dressing. Can of sardines. Fresh pineapple. May have to back off on this - had a few minutes of "tropical heat" this morning, though I didn't break into a sweat, and just a little bit of achiness in my hands. I think it's related to the sweetness of the pineapple.

M3: DH is marinating chicken breasts for the grill. He has his own recipe for a marinade that we like, and we've discovered that the coconut aminos work just as well in it as the soy sauce that he previously used. Sweet potato oven fries. Veggie will depend on what's on sale at the co-op tonight. Additional veggie turned out to be roasted parsnips. Finished off the meal with fresh strawberries topped with coconut cream.

 

Afternoon Snack: Norm called me at work mid-afternoon because he was hungry. I had instructed him to do that if hunger hit. I suspect part of the cause was that he needed another egg at breakfast time, and since it was his day off from work, he took the dog out and did some field training early this morning, so burned off some energy. Anyway - I gave him some options for what he could have, and he decided on carrots with ranch dip. I didn't have a snack.

[DonnaB]

Day 12

M1: Sweet/white potato hash w/ bacon and onion, and 4 eggs broken on top (scrumptious). A small black plum. Donna: peppermint tea, Norm: black coffee

M2: Finishing off the kalua pig wrapped in a lettuce leaf and topped with simple guac. Grapes.

M3: Found some compliant sweet italian sausage at the coop last night, so having those with baked potatoes, ghee, and home-made cole-slaw w/ vinegar and oil dressing.  [Edit to add: didn't do regular baked potates. Cut them into wedges and roasted them along with some parsnips. Also had some fresh raspberries w/ coconut cream.]

 

DH works until 7 pm tonight, so supper will be late. It's a challenge, because we will be eating within two hours of our normal bedtime, but eating together has always been something we enjoy, so I'm reluctant to give that up.

[DonnaB]

Wasn't on the computer at all over the weekend, so here is a recap of  meals, etc:

Day 13

M1: Boiled eggs, strawberries w/ coconut cream. (I think there was something else, but can't remember what it was - I just know it was compliant. DH and I have done pretty well eating compliant, and as much as possible avoiding snacking. He still can't eat 3 boiled eggs for breakfast, but he does end up eating the third one a bit later)

M2: Salmon patties (not the WF recipe - just used the same recipe I have used for years subbing blanched almond flour for the oatmeal I used to use - this could end up being a permanent change) topped with avocado/tomato pico, kale chips, kohlrabi, small dish of sugar snap peas.

M3: Home-made spaghetti sauce over zoodles, cucumbers w/ viinegar and olive oil dill dressing, grapes

 

Day 14

M1: Scrambled eggs with bacon and kohlrabi greens. Strawberries w/coconut cream

M2: Green salad w/cucumber, radishes, sugar snap peas and vinegar and oil italian salad dressing. Can of sardines.

M3: Marinated beef pot roast (subbed coconut aminos for the soy sauce in the marinade - turned out pretty good!) with potatoes, carrots and parsnips. Cole slaw w/ home-made mayo dressing. 

 

Norm and I have both been dragging our tails this week. Norm had a few commitments on Saturday, but I just stayed home and cooked and rested. Read my book and took a nap. Norm had a graduation party for a co-workers daughter that I was invited to, but given being so tired, I declined and he went on his own. I'm glad I didn't go - the only thing they served that were compliant was the fresh veggies. Also - the hours of the party were not meal times, so it would just have been a "snack" - and truthfully I didn't want to face the temptation. Went to church yesterday, then got a few things done around the house - laundry, gave my dog a bath and haircut, cleaned the bathroom, so feeling a bit better about things at the start of this week.

[DonnaB]

Day 15 - Woke up feeling a little better today. I have had health struggles over the years, and fatigue is something that has accompanied nearly every episode - whatever the issue happens to be, so it's no surprise that it would happen again now with a major dietary change.

 

M1: Boiled eggs, cole slaw w/mayo dressing, frozen blueberries w/coconut cream

M2: Green salad (mixed greens and lambs quarters) w/ cucumber, radish, snap peas, and vinegar and oil italian dressing. Can of sardines. Grapes. (I know some of our lunches appear pretty repetitive, but I'm okay with that. It helps to keep things simple.

M3: Leftover pot roast and potatoes, carrots, and parsnips. Something else - but haven't decided what, yet. Need to add a healthy fat. [Edited to add: green salad w/mixed greens, lambs quarters, tomato, radishes, avocado, kalamata olives, and home-made vinegar and oil italian dressing.]

[MeGA"gardener"]

Hi Donna sounds like you and he are doing okay

If you need to add more fat

If your potatoes are cooked you could add hb eggs and celery with mayo and parsley like a potato salad and bacon too with your beef tonight

Sometimes I add olive oil with oregano parsley red pepper flakes Abd green beans to the potato

And I know you like Avacado

[DonnaB]

Thanks for the tips, MeGA "gardener". Yes - we like avocado's and I could eat them straight up, but that isn't DH's favorite way to eat them. The potatoes were cooked in the marinade, so probably wouldn't go to well in a salad, and bacon is gone until I go shopping again. I have a Farmers Market CSA where I pick which veggies I want when I go to the stand each week, so I have greens for a salad and could put some avocado with that and call it good. Thanks for the inspiration!

[DonnaB]

Day 16

M1: Sweet and white potato hash w/ kolhrabi greens and chicken apple sausage and a couple of eggs on top. Delish!

M2: Green salad (mixed greens and lambs quarters) w/ cucumber, radish, snap peas, and vinegar and oil italian dressing. Can of sardines. Grapes. (I know some of our lunches appear pretty repetitive, but I'm okay with that. It helps to keep things simple.)

M3: Leftover home-made spaghetti sauce made w/ ground turkey over zoodles, cucumbers w/ vinegar and olive oil dill dressing, frozen blueberries w/ coconut cream. Edit: change that to fresh strawberries. Found out this afternoon I could get them fresh picked from my CSA. Yay!

 

I cooked enough over the weekend so we would have a couple of meals of leftovers, and am thankful today not to have to think too hard about what's for dinner. I feel like I'm sssslllllllooooowwwwlllllyyyyy regaining some energy. Felt better last night when I got home from work, but didn't try to accomplish much - just spent some time reading, made the salad to go with dinner, and watched a show w/ DH before hitting the sack. Tonight I might try to run a load of wash and do some digging in the yard. We will see how that goes. 

 

I'm not really "trying" to do a perfect W30 - just want to do it the best I can, and see how it goes. One thing I did add to mine is that I have in the past couple of years taken an assortment of supplements every day, but when I was checking ingredient labels, about half of them have non-compliant ingredients, so I decided I'd try doing the 30 days without them. My purpose in taking the supplements was not, primarily, to prop up my energy levels, but now I'm wondering how much of that the supplements have been doing. Additionally, I'm coming off from a very busy time in my life with lots of commitments that have now ended, so am probably in somewhat of a recovery mode from that, too. It will be interesting to see how the next couple of weeks go.

[DonnaB]

Day 17

M1: Two fried eggs sunnyside up, fried chicken/apple sausage, kohlrabi, strawberries w/ coconut cream.

M2: Tuna salad on kohlrabi, cucumbers, and celery. Two small black plums

M3: Hamburger, baked sweet potato w/ clarified butter, salad w/ veggies, avocado and home-made ranch dressing, watermelon.

 

Nope - no digging in the yard or laundry last night, but I did go and pick-up a flat of strawberries and froze 4 quarts, and put the rest (that we didn't eat for supper last night) in the fridge for fresh eating. Also did some grocery shopping at Aldi's (found compliant spicy brown mustard - YAY! Also, their EVOO only contains EVOO - how cool is that?!) and made mayo and ranch dressing last night to take to my folks for supper tonight. I also tried my hand at kick-ass ketchup this morning, and I think it's going to be a winner. I will know when it passes the hubby test - he is particular about his ketchup. 

[DonnaB]

Day 18

M1: Sweet and white potato hash w/ kolhrabi greens and bacon and a couple of eggs on top.

M2: Donna: Salmon salad made w/ mayo, ketchup and horseradish on a green salad. Sweet cherries. Norm: Two hotdogs, a couple of tablespoons of salmon salad, cukes and celery w/ ranch dressing. Cherries 

M3: Chicken basil brats, roasted sweet potato fries and cauliflower in dip (made w/2 T mayo, 1 t kick-ass ketchup, and 4/5 drops Franks Hot Sauce - tasted like Thousand Island dressing - scrumptious!)

 

Dragging my butt today. Tuesday night was a late one due to some of Norm's commitments, and I haven't had a chance to catch up on my rest. Tonight it will be early to bed for this girl. So glad tomorrow is Friday! One NSV for Norm: he had to go to the grocery store for coffee yesterday, and he didn't buy anything else. YAY! In the past, at minimum he would come home with a bag of chips. And then when I got home from work, he would give ME a bowl of chips - so empty calories for both of us (of course I couldn't say "no" - remember - at that point I was ravenous when I got home - anything to fill the hole). That did NOT happen yesterday. Score!

[DonnaB]

Day 19

M1: Scrambled eggs w/ kolhrabi greens and scallions, 3 strips bacon, strawberries.

M2: Donna: Salmon salad made w/ mayo, ketchup and horseradish on kohlrabi and cukes. Strawberries. Norm: Two hotdogs, sweet/white potato hash with eggs, olives.

Mini-meal for Norm: tuna salad on cukes and kohlrabi. Strawberries 

M3: Green salad topped with grilled chicken, olive oil/vinegar italian dressing on top.

 

It is becoming apparent, due to circumstances including work schedule that Norm needs to include a fourth meal most days. On days he works, his schedule is often 11 or noon until 7 pm. Breakfast is between 6 and 6:30, so he eats lunch before he goes to work, and we eat dinner together when he gets home around 7:15, and that's really too long for him to go between meals, especially because the stomach surgery he had to address his GERD reduced the size of his stomach, so he can't usually eat a big meal with as much  protein/fat as he needs. I, on the other hand, have mostly not had trouble going 5 -6 hrs between meals. That makes me wonder if I'm actually eating TOO much, but since it works with our typical schedule, I'm just going with it for now. Trading in the rice crackers I used to have with my salad or soup at lunch time for a healthy dose of protein has made all the difference for me in getting through from lunch to supper without snacking. So much learning to do. So little time! 

[DonnaB]

Food digest for the past couple of days:

 

Day 20

M1: Boiled eggs, grapes. Donna: avocado, Norm: olives.

M2: Donna: Two compliant hot-dogs (from Whole Foods), ,  Norm: Fresh veggies w/ home-made ranch dressing (he was supposed to have tuna salad with his veggies, but grabbed the wrong dish from the fridge to take to work), cherries.

M3: Asian-style beef ribs w/ tapioca gravy, Boiled potatoes, cucumbers in vinegar. Didn't need added fat, and the grass-fed beef ribs had plenty of fat on them.

 

Day 21

M1: Eggs over-easy, Home-made pork sausage fried with the potatoes that were left over from previous evenings meal - yum!

M2: Creamy chicken soup (I did a slightly different take on this, as I used a bigger jar of diced tomatoes in glass, and omitted the other tomatoes, I also used pre-cooked chicken that I had frozen from the last time I cooked a whole chicken, home-made chicken broth, and a small can of coconut cream, as I didn't have coconut milk on hand - still turned out great!), fresh kohlrabi.

M3: Grilled grass-fed ribeye steak, grilled potatoes, grilled asparagus (DH used the new raft skewers I gave him as part of his Father's day gift for the asparagus - very convenient way to grill asparagus!)

 

Day 22

M1: Eggs over-easy, bacon, something else - don't remember what - gonna' need to start writing things down so I can remember them - lol!

M2: Donna: creamy chicken soup.  Norm: tuna salad w/home-made mayo on cucumbers and kohlrabi slices. Grapes for both of us.

M3: Grilled chicken breasts, roasted potato wedges dipped in home-made mayo and brown mustard dip, green salad w/ home-made vinegar and oil salad dressing.

 

Tough weekend emotionally, but at least the food was good. Just seems to take a lot of thinking to keep things compliant. Wanted to do some comfort eating, but managed to resist the temptation. Wasn't actually hungry, just dealing with stress.

[DonnaB]

Day 23

M1: Eggs over-easy, bacon, swiss chard and scallions wilted in bacon grease, kohlrabi.

M2: creamy chicken soup, grapes, kohlrabi.

Mini-meal for Norm: green salad with chicken breast and olive oil/vinegar dressing (this may end up being his supper because he has to go to a meeting right after work)

M3: Ground turkey burgers, simple pico w/ avocados, tomatoes, and seasonings, dish of fresh sugar snap peas. Edited to add: Norm snacked on his snap peas, but didn't eat a full meal, as he didn't get home until bedtime.

[DonnaB]

Day 24

M1: Scrambled eggs w/ kohlrabi greens and scallions, two home-made 2oz sausage patties.

M2: Donna: green salad w/ avocado and chicken breast, olive oil/vinegar dressing, fresh kohlrabi. Norm: 2 turkey burgers, kohlrabi, pico w/avocado and tomato and seasonings.

Mini-meal for Norm: none today - he will be home from work at a reasonable hour to eat supper.

M3: Baked salmon w/fresh lemon, fresh ground pepper, cilantro and clarified butter dipped in a dip of home-made mayo, horseradish and KA ketchup, served with roasted broccoli, and cucumbers in vinegar dressing.

[shenoa423]

Hi Donna, do you have the recipe for your turkey/blueberry muffins?  Thanks!

[DonnaB]

Sure. It's here. When I made them I used dried sage and thyme because that is what I had on hand. I also substituted blanched almond flour for the coconut flour, and it worked out fine. I doubled the recipe so I would have extra in case a snack was called for, as that has been known to happen when we are camping, but we ended up eating enough at meal times, which was more than we typically would at home (I think I ate 6 of them for one meal, when I would probably only do 3 or 4 if I was at home - but my muffins were smaller when cooked - the recipe said it would make 8 muffins for a single batch, but I ended up with 2 doz from a double batch. I put them in unbleached muffin liners, and making them smaller made them easier to handle when eating). We had a campsite with electric and I took my crockpot with, and that worked out well to reheat them when it was time to eat. Let me know if you have any questions. Enjoy!

[DonnaB]

Day 25

M1: Boiled eggs w/ simple guac. Fresh pineapple.

M2: Donna: Salmon salad on lettuce leaves. Fresh snap peas. Norm: Salmon filet w/ mayo dip. Fresh snap peas. 

Mini-meal for Norm: Green salad topped with turkey burger and vinegar/olive oil salad dressing.

M3: Liver and onions (generous on the onions and made a gravy to go with), over boiled potatoes. 3 dried figs - dried fruit is one of my weaknesses - had to put them away to they weren't within easy reach or the little sugar dragon that lives under my bed was going to wake up).

 

Feeling better, today. Got a few things done at home last night, and that helped mentally. Also, made plans to go and quilt with a friend tonight, and a weekend away to visit friends in July - both of which give me something to look forward to. 

[DonnaB]

Day 26

M1: Kedgeree - wayyyyyyyy to good! Have to be careful of this stuff - can only make in limited quantities. Half a banana.

M2: Donna: Greens topped with Salmon salad. Fresh pineapple. Norm: Green w/ fresh snap peas and grilled chicken breast and vinegar/oil salad dressing. Fresh pineapple. 

M3: Smoked catfish, asparagus. Something else - haven't decided what, yet. Kombucha flavored with fruit juice - served in wine glasses - makes a good date night drink.  [Edited to add: "something else" was a green salad with vinegar/oil dressing]  

 

**Black coffee to drink - one cup in the morning for Donna. 1 to 2 cups for Norm. This has been everyday since Tuesday this week - too many late nights!! (Have to get back to our earlier bedtimes!!!)