Karl's Whole30 log

[khops]

Well, here we go!  I've wanted to try the Whole30 for about 6-8 weeks now, but the busy-ness of summer (travels, etc.) wouldn't allow it until now.  I am now able to squeeze it in between returning from vacation and business meetings I'll be participating in later in September.  Here's a link to my commitment post.

Day 0:  I wanted to get started and thought it easiest just to use the suggested starting meal plan in the Whole30 book.  Of course, they start on a Monday which gives Sunday for food prep.  That was me late into the evening last night, but I prepared clarified butter, my first batch of mayo, Tomato Sauce, Spinach Frittata, Seared Chicken for my Protein salad (which I also put together), and Roasted Spaghetti Squash.  Good news: I am well prepared for today and can relax tonight.  Bad news: I wasn't able to watch our Olympic women gymnastics team crush it last night in the all-around.

I will also say this: I do not think I have ever tried or had spaghetti squash.  After roasting it last night, I cannot figure out how I let that happen (or how those around me let that happen).  It looks and smells amazing.  I grew up on acorn squash and have never been a fan.  Butternut is OK.  I like zucchini.  But this...  Well, I'll find out tonight.

Day 1:  I'm only halfway through the day.  And I'm hungry.

Breakfast: I ate half the Spinach Frittata, about 6-7 strawberries, and a whole avocado.  I had a cup of coffee once I got to work.

Lunch: Protein salad on baby spinach leaves plus an apple on the side.  It was not a small salad, but still feel like I could eat.  

Well, water it is until I get home and load up on the seasoned ground beef/tomato sauce/spaghetti squash meal tonight.  I am looking forward to it!  Since tomorrow is Saturday I figure I can lay off on the food prep tonight and take my time with it tomorrow.  I have groceries bought through Sunday and have meals planned out through Thursday, so some time this weekend needs to be devoted to planning out another couple of days.

Question to anyone that happens to read this: what sort of planning schedule do you use?  I am thinking I will probably plan meals on Saturday or Sunday to get me all the way through the following Monday (so basically planning 8-9 days in advance).  Grocery shopping on the weekend isn't all that convenient for me, so that allows me to pick up groceries Thursday or Friday for the weekend through Monday, then on Saturday I can play the next Tuesday through Monday...  Just curious what other people do.

[khops]

So I've found that it's not as easy as I'd thought to find beef brisket (that isn't seasoned as corned beef) which is what I was going to do for tomorrow's dinner.  However, I bought an extra spaghetti squash and have lots of leftover beef and tomato sauce so we'll probably do that for supper tomorrow night for anyone that's hungry.  We have pot luck tomorrow afternoon, and I think I'm going to bring the Mexican Tuna Boats for that.  I'll just have a couple of those (hopefully there will be some left when I get through the line), otherwise I'll just do the spaghetti squash/beef/tomato sauce leftovers.  

The spaghetti squash was better than I could have imagined.  I think I liked last night's dinner better than normal pasta spaghetti!

I also haven't had a chance to source soup bones yet, so I think I'm going to switch things up with a whole roasted chicken for supper tonight and then make a bone broth with the carcass overnight.

[khops]

So I made it through my first weekend.  Sort of.

 

To finish what I started above:

Day 1

Dinner: Spaghetti squash with seasoned ground beef and the tomato sauce - might be my new favorite meal.  And better yet, my boys loved it!

Day 2 (Saturday)

Breakfast: Finished off the Spinach Frittata from yesterday along with some strawberries.

Lunch: Protein salad stuffed in a green pepper along with a handful of additional grapes and carrots.

First of all, I was able to source some soup bones from my parents - they had some in the freezer from the last time they had one of their grass fed beef processed (they raise them).  So I did make a bone broth, but let it simmer overnight and I only got about 2.5 cups of broth out of it.  I made the assumption that it fairly concentrated so I added back some water to make 4 cups total and froze 3 of the cups, drinking one on Sunday afternoon.  I had the temperature just about as low as I could have it.  I'm going to try the crock pot next time.

Dinner: Since I didn't need the chicken carcass for bone broth yet I decided to go back to the original plan of seared chicken breast.  Didn't cook it very effectively and I dried it out.  My bad - I know what I did.  The boys liked the Roasted Red Pepper Mayonnaise that we ate with it.  Also made the Green Cabbage Slaw with Lemon Oil.  Surprisingly the boys loved that, too.  I'm batting 1.000 with everything I've made for the boys so far, which is exciting!  Note they are not on the Whole30, but I'm cooking so they're stuck eating what I cook.  They are continuing with their normal breakfasts, having milk to drink, etc...

Day 3 (Sunday)

Breakfast: 2 Eggs with roasted red pepper sauce and a banana before heading out the door to church.

Lunch: Still had some protein salad left, so ate that along with some strawberries.

Dinner: Leftover spaghetti squash/beef/tomato sauce.  Still enough left over for lunch on Monday!

Here's the tricky part.  We were having a pot luck at church on Sunday afternoon and my plan was to make Mexican Tuna Boats, along with possibly some cole slaw that I had from a meal earlier in the week.  I did online shopping (which gives ingredient information) when I bought the tuna, but it doesn't give allergy information.  So the ingredient list is says, "Tuna, water, vegetable broth, salt."  I was a little leery about the "vegetable broth" as it sounded vague.  Of course I didn't think to look at the actual can label before I mixed it with the avocado and lime juice.  I still needed green onion and cilantro, so I was going to put it in the fridge until I had the ingredients to finish it off, but of course I took one bite to see how it tasted at that point.  Then I went to the store to buy the green onion and cilantro, and when I went to replenish my tuna supply I realized that EVERY can of tuna (including the variety I used in the half-done mix) contained soy.

Argh.

So I took one bite of the Mexican Tuna Boat filling that contained tuna with soy.  I haven't had any more of it (nor will I), so I'm just going to let it be for now.  I have until September 26 to finish my Reintroduction, so I need to do some calculating and see what this means.  Anyway, that's been the only slip, but now I need to find tuna without soy, which seems amazingly more difficult than I would have thought.

[khops]

Day 4 (Monday)

Breakfast: Scrambled eggs, banana, steamed spinach, leftover chicken with Roasted Red Pepper Mayo

Lunch: Leftover spaghetti squash/beef/tomato sauce (still some left at home yet!)

Dinner: Oven baked salmon, roasted broccoli, mushroom, and yellow squash with Roasted Red Pepper Sauce

Day 5 (Tuesday)

Breakfast: Leftover chicken, 2 eggs, grapes, cup of beef broth

Lunch: Yet again - leftover spaghetti squash/beef/tomato sauce (and NOW it's gone).

Dinner: Mexican Tuna Boats, Fruit

Day 6 (Wednesday)

Breakfast: Pulled pork carnita meat, eggs, broccoli/mushroom/yellow squash with Roasted REd Pepper sauce

Lunch: Leftover Mexican Tuna Boat mix stuffed inside green pepper, cup of beef broth

Dinner: Pulled pork carnitas served in sweet potatoes

Day 7 (Thursday)

Breakfast: Leftover salmon, veggies with roasted red pepper sauce, butternut squash soup, blueberries, cup of beef bone broth

Lunch: Protein salad (egg, avocado, with kale, cilantro, mandarin oranges...) stuffed inside green pepper, butternut squash soup

Dinner: Leftover pulled pork carnitas w/ sweet potatoes

I can't believe week one is done.  It's going by fast, but it's been a lot of food prep every night.  I've spent a ton on groceries and hours in the kitchen, first with the cooking and then the dishes.  Last night (Thursday) the power was off due to a storm which delayed me further and made for the third straight night getting in bed after midnight... which would be fine if I wasn't driving kids to practices at 6:30 in the morning.  I think this will get better - I'm still figuring out the scheduling, and especially sizing...  I've gotten a lot more out of some of my dishes than I thought I have had leftovers start to build up.  I froze a bunch of the carnitas last night and have a huge beef brisket that I'll be braising over the weekend, which will also be something I eat for awhile.  All in all this is doable, but I need to get ahead of the cooking a little bit more.  Busy weekend, planned, but I'll be looking ahead to see what I can have ready for the beginning of next week so I can get some sleep!