Starting Feb 19

[RainbowLisa]

Hi Folks,

I am new starting my first Whole30 on Monday 2/19.  I'm going to be on vacation starting Thursday till Friday 2/16, that's why the delay.  I'm taking advantage of the time to research and prepare.  I'm reading "It Starts with Food" cover to cover.  I switched from my (artificially sweetened) flavored water to water with lemon slices in it and dropped the Stevia from my tea.  And I am reading the ingredients on everything I use (a shocker!).

Last night I made burgers for dinner.  Since we don't eat bread, and I buy a side of local, organic, grass fed beef every year, I thought this was a pretty good Whole30 meal.  I'll have to drop the cheese, sadly.  But I figured the rest was OK.  Till I read the labels: the ketchup, mayo, pickles and "Lite" Balsamic dressing for the salad ALL had sugar on the ingredients list.  And I thought we were low-carb eaters!  So here is my concern: doing the Whole30 is going to be costly in terms of time, money or both.  I either have to make my own versions of things like these, or buy expensive specialty brands without added sugar (or soybean oil).

Thoughts on this?  How do you keep the costs down without it taking up too much of your time?  Like most people I never have enough of either.

Thanks,

Lisa

[SugarcubeOD]

21 minutes ago, RainbowLisa said:

Hi Folks,

  I either have to make my own versions of things like these, or buy expensive specialty brands without added sugar (or soybean oil).

Thoughts on this?  How do you keep the costs down without it taking up too much of your time?  Like most people I never have enough of either.

Thanks,

Lisa

Making your own mayo and vinaigrette isn't terribly time intensive or expensive.  I made compliant ketchup once but as a Heinz type girl, it wasn't even close so I just gave up on ketchup.  Check out the Whole30 approved section at the top of the page for brands that you might be interested in.  You can also google things like 'whole30 on a budget' 'whole30 cheap' etc... and get threads of previous participants who have done the program on a budget.  Here's a google search I got started for you: https://www.google.ca/search?q=whole30+on+a+budget&rlz=1C1GGRV_enCA753CA754&oq=whole30+on+a+budget&aqs=chrome.0.0l6.2378j0j7&sourceid=chrome&ie=UTF-8

 

[kirbz]

Many people here would likely disagree with me but I completely agree with you. LOL, did that make sense?  For me, Whole30 is either super costly or super time intensive. Though many others here seem to have figured out how to make it work without being either so take that for what it's worth... 

I opted to buy. And it was very expensive. But, to me, worth it. 

I do make my own mayo because it is actually ridiculously easy. But that's about it. I buy my other sauces and condiments because I don't have time to make them. Specifically, here are my go-to, purchased condiments and sauces (I buy almost all of it online on Thrive Market, except Tessemae's which they don't sell): 

• Primal Kitchen Caesar dressing (I prefer Primal Kitchen dressings over Tessemae's because they use olive oil rather than sunflower oil, which I try to limit, per the recommendations)
• Primal Kitchen Green Goddess dressing
• Tessemae's Organic BBQ sauce
• Tessemae's Buffalo sauce 
• Tessemae's Ketchup 
• The New Primal Classic marinade (they have a spicy one too but it's really spicy and I can't handle it!) 
• The New Primal Citrus Herb marinade 

Like I said, I think you can do this better than me but this is the route I took and the store-bought products I really love. 

[RainbowLisa]

Thanks for the ideas.  Giving up ketchup will be hard.  I live in the boonies, no Whole Foods or Trader Joe's within an hour's drive.  We do have an ALDI which is great.  And because it's farm country I can do things like buy a side of local beef or a dozen chickens and save money.  And eggs are very cheap.  A few weeks ago they were 19 cents a dozen.  There up to around 50 cents now, still pretty cheap.  We go through 3-4 dozen a week.

[ladyshanny]

Oh, 100% agree w/ you, @kirbz. It's either "cost of convenience foods" or "spending more time in kitchen". It doesn't have to be super oppressive though for the time one.....I honestly can't be bothered making sauces so unless it's mayo based or a dressing made in a mason jar and shaken, I just skip it. 

@RainbowLisa - if this way of eating/cooking is very new to you, yes, you are going to spend more time in the kitchen. It ends up coming down to priorities though. When we prioritize feeding ourselves this way and so well, it takes time that throwing a pizza into the oven didn't take. Most of us that have been here a while had to chip time away from other things in the beginning. Less scrolling social media, less tv, earlier bedtimes etc. It does get easier though, it just takes practice. 

[RainbowLisa]

I did see Amazon has a "starter kit" with a bunch of condiments and sauces.  I will probably try that.  I can afford it, I'm just cheap, LOL.

[SugarcubeOD]

5 minutes ago, RainbowLisa said:

Thanks for the ideas.  Giving up ketchup will be hard.  I live in the boonies, no Whole Foods or Trader Joe's within an hour's drive.  We do have an ALDI which is great.  And because it's farm country I can do things like buy a side of local beef or a dozen chickens and save money.  And eggs are very cheap.  A few weeks ago they were 19 cents a dozen.  There up to around 50 cents now, still pretty cheap.  We go through 3-4 dozen a week.

**cough** **gasp** you get eggs for 19-50 cents a dozen?  I've died.  Like... ded.  Even when we go and buy eggs from farms around here they're $3-5/doz.

I agree with @kirbz that it can be time intensive or expensive depending on what you want to eat - I think because I started this journey 5 years ago in Canada and we had NOTHING that was compliant, I just grew into making everything I ever wanted to eat myself and honestly if you do that for long enough, you get VERY good at it and it becomes neither time intensive or expensive... This conversation just on its own outlines just how different everyone's experience is going to be... I love discussions like this!

I also agree with @ladyshanny - if the sauce takes more than 20 min to make or more than around 8 ingredients and does NOT keep indefinitely in the fridge then I'm out... as a single person I can only eat so much 'sauce' and if it's going to be labor intensive and just end up going bad before I can eat it, then I find something different to make.

[AnitaC]

First, I love your hats.

For salads, olive oil and a compliant vinegar (or lemon juice) is a great dressing. Tahini is delicious with meats when you just need an extra something. I haven't tried making mayo because I don't have the right blender but I'm getting by (completed by first whole30 this past Friday). I want my food to have as little ingredients as possible so I don't want store bought dressings anymore.

As for time, you are going to have to invest that. For the past two weeks, I've batch cooked on either Saturday or Sunday. I made a bolognese sauce, a chicken coconut curry and a turkey sausage, sweet potato and apple hash. Plus I boil 9 eggs (that's as many as can fit in my pot) and keep them in the fridge. This means I can throw together a very quick breakfast, lunch or dinner. The curry and bolognese go over cauliflower rice and I actually don't miss pasta. The bolognese sauce is just ground beef, garlic and onion, a compliant tomato sauce (just tomatoes and salt) plus vegetables that I like. It's not expensive. And I always keep avocado in the house. They can be a little expensive but they're a great fat source. All these prepared items make it so much easier to stay on the whole30.

[RainbowLisa]

@ladyshanny don't get me wrong, I LOVE to cook.  We rarely eat out, I cook almost every night usually from scratch (no frozen or packaged foods) so that won't be too different.  But I do use sauces and condiments from a jar or bottle and I was a little shocked last night that I would have to replace so many of the basics.  But I'll bite the bullet and do that to be healthier.

[kirbz]

Gah, wow, that price for eggs! LOL, I've died too! I may or may not pay $7.49 for a dozen... I weep!

Except, no, I don't. Because I love California with all my heart and the high prices are worth it! LOL. 

But geez!! Wow!! 

[RainbowLisa]

@AnitaC I cook lots at a time, too.  We have teenage boys so my Instant Pot is full pretty much every night, and lunches are usually a salad with whatever is left over from the night before.  We also boil eggs weekly they are a go-to snack.  We eat at least 4 avocados a week, they are my favorite I eat them breakfast, lunch or dinner.  We're actually trying to grow one of the seeds right now a fun little project.

You are right, simple vinaigrettes are easy.  I can do this!

Thanks on the hats, my partner made them.

 

[kirbz]

I actually really came to love olive oil, lemon, and ground pepper as a nice little salad dressing! It was surprisingly delicious and super, super simple! 

[CScott]

HI there peeps!

Well, I just started on Mon, Feb 5. It's day 3 for me - I am shocked (and ecstatic) that I have not felt bad at all thus far, save for a few "hunger pangs" at odd or off-times of the day (like, into only an hour after dinner, or TOO early in the morning) -which could all be snack/sugar/food withdrawals, or lack of water etc,.. although I really have been trying to increase water intake all day... Idk..

Anyhoooo.... I know I still have 27-ish more days to go, but IF my whole30 really does continue like this, then I definitely Got this, and I just might be the luckiest girl on the planet. All that being said, I am with you all on the condiments and dressings. I am actually fortunate enough to be on a hiatus from work, so I've got that going for me in a BIG way. However, I have still been a slave to the kitchen - it seems I can never prep enough, and it's really just 2 of us! But I am The (only) Cook in our household -while I really do enjoy cooking and I am very capable at it -I am pretty used to whipping something up on the fly. But we also did become accustomed to eating out quite a lot or any old time we wanted to. So now, the pressure is On just that much more, and S&%# has gotten Real! Every meal, Every day, no exceptions - x2!! Lol...  ;))

Even with some prep before I actually started the whole30 (made my own ketchup and mayo -definitely impressed with MYmayo, but soooooo let down by MYketchup :'(((((( -oyy veyy, is it awful! OH well, #Heinzforeverbaby -but I will just have to concede without it for whole30, and just limit what I do have of it in the hereafter!)

But even with some food prep - I was still behind the 8-ball on day 1, and was a bit overwhelmed because I didn't actually make a plan for the week, or pre-cook some meals for the first few days, just to ease into it. I thought I could handle it since I am home, have plenty of time.. But That was definitely a mistake.  Perhaps I got in my own head and started over-thinking the meals, and just wanted "fancy pants" meals out of the gate since I am a pretty seasoned cook, instead of just keeping it simple, at least for the first week. I know I could have just used the 7-day template provided in the book, but I guess I had other ingredients already in my fridge, and none of the suggested meals in the template were thrilling me, so I thought I would be OK. But I still should have jotted down a template of my own to follow, just to avoid the undo stress of taxing my brain -despite warnings, I did fall into that trap nonetheless. But oh well, lesson learned there! I think I've recovered, there's definitely a few leftovers stacked up by now to give me a breather for a day or 2. Enough to regroup and plan out next week. So the moral of that story.... PLAN, PREP, PLAN... and Plan some more!

BTW -I really didn't mean to hijack the topic of "dressings & condiments" with my all-points bulletin of MYwhole30! ;))... Not sure where in the Forum this might be better served or more appropriate... but here we are!

In all honesty, my initial search or hop into the forum today was to ask for support and questions about methods for prepping dressings -because I have NOT been happy with any of my attempts or concoctions thus far. I have followed recipes for basic vinagrettes, but have found the oil to acidic ratios to be way off. Way too oily, flavor is bland no matter how much more salt or seasonings I may add, and I can't seem to get the emulsification process or method down to a success at all.                                                  The handstick seems to be too much, and the mason jar shakeup is not enough, and then whisking disjoints the whole right side of my body for a week!                             Iknow we are cutting out a whole lot of ingredients that make salad dressings the God-sents that they are. But I'm sorry -there has got to be a better, whole30, copycat way to achieve commercially-prepared dressings. I would LOVE to embrace the whole- "lemon, olive oil, salt and pepper is just The perfect, best dressing ever-bandwagon"... and while I do love the concept, I just end up disappointed and heart-broken that it is Not!

I honestly can't figure out if a lot of the shortcomings have more to do with the ingredients (or lack thereof), or the methods.. Anyone???           Since fruit and (no sugar added) fruit juices are technically allowed on the whole30, and for use in things like condiments where you're really not consuming a huge amount of these overall -unless you drink your dressings (eww), Then I would think that it's more than perfectly acceptable to use them as "additives" to dressings--- problem for me is: I just don't know How; ratios, flavor, methods.. would get them closer to a more acceptable copycat of commercially prepared. Any thoughts, experience or suggestions out there???

Thanks so much!