Whole30 Week One Finished

We made it. We made it SEVEN days so far eating a paleo diet based off this challenged called Whole30. Here are my previous blog post about us doing this here and here. 

I'm at a spot where I'm not really CRAVING bad food often. Teddy is mostly struggling with the want to snack throughout the day, but he has resisted. We have not had any headaches return once we got through day 2. I think we are through the harder days at this point. We even survived our Easter lunch with our staff team today. We brought our own lunch (Squash Chili-see below) and fruit for everyone. I just had to ignore that there were cupcakes, fruit dip, chip/dip to snack on. I can't say it was that difficult. Teddy wanted dessert...but not in a overwhelming since. He has always been more of a dessert person than me.

Oh and we aren't suppose to weigh our self through this process. But we did today...whoops. :) I could tell I have lost something..inches or something so we wanted to see what the scale would say...so we just did it. Results: Teddy has lost 5lbs & I have lost 6lbs. WHATTTTTT?!?! How crazy. This is definitely motivating to keep going & shows us just how much junk we have been eating. 6lbs...really?!? In 7 days. I know on any other diet plan that would be unhealthy, but we are eating plenty. I'm full and feeling good. How amazing!

Since Wednesday we have eaten a lot of left overs & just plain jane meals. It has made the adjustment less stressful. We spent a lot of money this first week. We are scaling back this week to see how it goes by spending less on gourmet meals. We went through 30 eggs this last week, plus 18 for the eggloaf (2 1/2 more servings left)..so 48 in total.


Here are some random pictures of what we ate the past three days. Again, our first post had TONS of different recipe. But we were stressed out. So you will see less as we move forward.

Steak & asparagus--grilled

 This steak is amazing. We are only using pepper, garlic powder, and salt as the rub on it. SO good. We will never buy a steak seasoning. Plus, we grilled the asparagus which helped the flavor out. We need all the help we can get for Teddy to eat all these vegetables. That man does NOT like veggies. :)

Squash Chili

 This is our meal that we took with us to our Easter lunch today. It was good and we are going to make it again this coming week because we have enough ingredients left over to make another batch. I was already asked for the recipe for this...
Time: 15 min prep, approx 2 hr cookngs, serves 2-4 (more like 2...)

Need:
-1 lb ground beef, turkey, or chicken (we used turkey)
-1 T cooking fat of your choice (we use extra virgin olive oil)
-1 C diced acorn squash (these are pretty big, which is why we only used half and have plenty to make another batch laster)
-1/2 C sliced mushrooms
-1/2 C chopped onion (we used sweet)
1 clove chopped garlic
-1 T chili powder
1/4 tsp cumin

Directions:
In a medium to large pot, brown the meat in the cooking fat. Break the meat up as your stir. Add all the remaining ingredients and stir well. Reduce the heat, and simmer for 2hours or more (we covered it too). Continue to stir periodically. You may need to add water occasionally as the chili simmers, but keep in mind that you want it to be somewhat thick. (We added a little each time we stirred, just to make sure it wasn't sticking to the bottom of the pot). This is a great recipe to double or quadruple and have a batch of leftovers on hand.

Eggloaf

 We made this in a 9x13 dish. It was A LOT of food. But we have been eating on it for breakfast since Wednesday. We don't LOVE it, but we are going to finish it. Having salsa made will probably help this dish out. You can find this recipe here. I think it would have worked better for us in smaller quantities. Not to have to eat it EVERY day. But you get lots of protein and vegetables with it.

 Ghee is our butter we can have with this whole30 business. We could only find this at Marketstreet. It taste WONDERFUL. Just like butter, but apparently A LOT healthier for you. That little jar comes with a steep price tag though. But when you are not supposed to have normal butter, this is a lifesaver. I would tell everyone to buy it. We use a tablespoon here and there with it. You don't even refrigerate this. Weird, I know!

A couple new things our on grocery list for tomorrow: eggplant, paprika, & lunch meat (all natural organic stuff that only marketstreet sales). We will be making homemade salsa this coming week to have on our salads, eggs in the morning, and a recipe called Mexican Meatza (instead of pizza). I'm excited to continue making new things and trying things out. I think by the 4th week we will hit our stride and feel like we have a better grip on things. I'm feeling more comfortable in the kitchen each day, especially handling knifes.

Anyone else thinking about joining in with us? It's been a great challenge for us! Again, if you want any of these recipes just say so and I will get them to you.
-Kelli