day 12

of course delicious baby girl slept till 8 on the morning my husband was getting up with her

(she never sleeps that late!)

i still managed to sleep till about 10. love sundays.

woke up and threw some pork in the crockpot. i followed this recipe and it came out really good. can't wait to eat it for leftovers tomorrow morning.

breakfast: 3 scrambled eggs with crispy pancetta and spinach, a few olives, sliced apple with a little sun butter

lunch: tuna salad with salsa and avocado, sliced pickle, a few pistachios

snack: kale chips, freeze dried fruit

dinner: crock pot pulled pork over mashed plantains (yum and yum) with avocado slices and roasted green beans

after dinner: frozen mango, cherries, and blueberries with a little lite coconut milk over it.

pic of dinner:

day 11

woke up early with delicious baby girl and gave her a bottle. then i made my breakfast and hers and we ate together.

tutored in the afternoon and then went to yeah! burger with family. my husband and i got the local grass fed beef burger (protein plate= no bun) with cucumbers, tomatoes, pickle, avocado, grilled onions, and a sunflower pesto dipping sauce (it was yum!)

came home and we all sliced up some apples and heated up a skillet.  added ghee and then all the apples with vanilla and cinnamon. sautéed till soft and added crushed almonds to the top. tasted like apple pie filling!

breakfast: 3 eggs scrambled with sautéed pastrami and spinach. sliced strawberries

lunch: leftover pulled pork with salsa and mustard. and finished off left over roasted veggies

snack: almonds. a few dried apricots.

dinner: yeah!burger (description above)

dessert: sautéed apples with crushed almonds on top

pic of my breakfast (and delicious baby girl's breakfast)

and one of delicious baby girl for good measure.

day 10

freezing outside.

had to leave the house early and quickly made some scrambled eggs with left over rotisserie chicken, a few olives, and sliced strawberries.  ate it in the car on my way to drop off delicious baby girl for a few hours.

knocked out an appointment and then quickly went to whole foods and got a few things.  found some uncured pastrami. it is so good and so. expensive. boo. also bought some pickles, salsa, a small thing of pulled pork, and some other misc. stuff.

roasted a spaghetti squash for dinner. sauteed onions and ground turkey and then added tomato sauce that i pureed with an avocado. served that over spaghetti squash for dinner. it was delish.

breakfast: scrambled eggs with left over rotisserie chicken, a few olives, sliced strawberries, water, and a coconut water for the road

lunch: way too many pieces of tasty, expensive pastrami. a pickle. pulled pork with salsa and mustard and left over roasted brussel sprouts, onions and zucchini.

dinner: ground turkey with tomato/avocado sauce over roasted spaghetti squash. frozen blueberries with coconut milk.

pic from dinner:

day 8 and 9

back tracking.  ahh. wed and thursday are a blur. started teaching online at night on wednesday night and life became even busier.

wed. marked one week of the whole30 food project!

can't even remember what i ate for all of these meals but i do know it involved some of the following:

pre-made rotisserie chicken from whole foods
frozen tilapia that i overcooked (whoops)
roasted onions, brussel sprouts, and broccoli
tuna mixed with salsa and avocado
a few lara bars, dried fruit, frozen fruit with coconut milk (whoops, whoops, and whoops) (but all of it CAN be eaten...i just probably ate too much)
green tea
almonds
pistachios

nothing crazy or really great on days 8 and 9. but here is a pic of my tuna salad that i ate with sliced cucumbers.

day 7

knocked out day 7.

ate leftovers for breakfast and lunch.

threw some chicken in the crockpot with bbq spice rubbed on it and a jar of all natural salsa. cooked on high for about 3 1/2 hours and shredded it in the sauce when it was done. it turned out delish.

roasted green beans, portobello mushrooms, and onions too.  also threw some frozen organic burgers on the skillet to make for lunch for tomorrow.

its 9:19 pm and i am exhausted. but otherwise feel good.

breakfast: leftover egg bake, small cup of berries, green tea

lunch: left over crockpot pork roast, olives, 1/4 of an avocado

snack: finished off the smoked salmon on some sliced cucumbers, a few pistachios, a few frozen berries

dinner: crockpot salsa chicken, roasted green beans/mushroom/onion, frozen berries with coconut milk

pic from dinner:

day 6

day 6 went by fast and i felt good.  headache gone and not starving. win and win.

husband let me sleep in and i slept till 9 am. could have slept longer i think.

ate leftovers for breakfast, lunch and dinner!

took delicious baby girl to the aquarium this afternoon for the first time.

we saw a dolphin show and she actually sat and watched the whole thing...for 30 minutes! i think she wants to be a dolphin trainer when she grows up.

came home and made an egg bake for easy breakfast this week.

that is all i cooked today. yay.

breakfast: leftover crockpot pork roast, small cup of blueberries, green tea

lunch: left over roasted shrimp, broccoli, asian meatballs, 1/2 of a baked sweet potato, and a few olives

snack: apple and pistachios (on car ride home from aquarium)

dinner: left over crockpot pork roast, strawberries and a few blueberries with coconut milk poured on top

pic of some strawberries i just sliced up:

day 5

woke up early with delicious baby girl. was starving from not really eating dinner last night so i ate a lara bar while i fed her a bottle (my husband later found the last one and called me out on it...i'm going to try to not buy anymore. tempting!)

i prepped all the ingredients for this crockpot pork stew and threw it all in the crockpot to cook all day (9 1/2 hours to be exact).

then i roasted broccoli. and shrimp.  i tried to make zucchini noodles with the food processor but they came out as short strands.  i also found a recipe for tomato sauce made with avocado blended in so i threw that in the food processor with some fresh cilantro.  the sauce came out delicious.

we had a few friends over to watch the falcons game.  at one point we were all drinking hot herbal tea together instead of alcohol.  it was funny (but also supportive).

successfully made it through the first weekend.

slight headache tonight and really tired the last two days.

cooked a lot and only ate out once for dinner friday night.

plenty of leftovers in the fridge for tomorrow. mama needs a day off from the cooking madness.

breakfast: 3 eggs scrambled with spinach, crispy prosciutto, and chives. small bowl of blueberries

lunch: roasted shrimp over zucchini noodles with a tomato/avocado sauce and some roasted broccoli

snack: apple with a little sun butter, olives, herbal tea

dinner: crockpot pork stew (thumbs up. came out awesome)

pic from lunch:

day 4

didn't have time to blog last night so i'm doing a recap of day 4 on day 5.

the dinner i prepared last night was an epic fail and i was so tired after it all that i went to bed. early.

raging saturday night.

my husband loves fried rice and i attempted to make cauliflower fried rice. i thought i would make a larger amount so we would have leftovers. ended up putting too much cauliflower in the food processor and over did it to the point it was mushy.

basically i made a gigantic skillet of mush with lots of herbs, veggies, and a thinly sliced egg.

i also made asian meatballs and mine came out just ok.  ended up not really eating the dinner (i have definitely realized food texture is important to me) and ate a bowl of berries with coconut milk instead.

breakfast: chicken and apple sausage sauteed with spinach and a small bowl of frozen berries.

snack: black coffee and an apple

lunch: 3 eggs scrambled with spinach, smoked salmon and chives.  my husband and i also took left over sweet potatoes and made them in patties.  we then dredged them in a little egg and almond flour and tried to crisp them up in the frying pan with a little coconut oil. they tasted good but not very crispy.

dinner: epic fail (detailed above)

pic from lunch:

day 3

made it through the day 3. went to the store again and bought lots of veggies and food to make some more meals. bought a few lara bars which i should not have gotten because they remind me of sweets but they are gooood. even more good when its the only thing you can eat that remotely reminds you of "bad food"...

went to a restaurant tonight and successfully ate out (well, it was a paleo place so it was easy). weekends are hard and we typically eat out or take out food so i'm hoping i can make some good stuff this weekend and we can stay on track?  or form some better habits?

this eating clean stuff is exhausting.

breakfast: leftover egg bake, left over cauliflower, carrot, and parsnip puree, apple sauce, hot tea

lunch: left over roaster shrimp, left over roasted asparagus, green olives, water

mid afternoon snack: sliced cucumbers with smoked salmon, sliced apple with a little sun butter, lara bar (whoops).

dinner: paleo burger (double burger with grilled onion with a tomato bun), mixed green salad, roasted sweet potatoes, and kale chips for the table as an app.

dessert: frozed berries with a little coconut milk on top.

i ate a lot today. whoops. tgif.

pic of the burger from dinner:

day 2

is this really only the second day? i feel like i have been cooking for weeks. and every time i think we will have a lot of left overs, we end up eating more than i thought!

felt fine today but was tired. took a small nap while delicious baby girl was napping and it was hard to wake up.

today over coffee (or tea for me since i still can't get used to black coffee) i told my close friend about the eating project. i had not told anyone else yet (but my husband told all of his work people to help him with accountability). it was good to talk about it and have support from another person. she often takes on different "life challenges/projects" so she was part of my inspiration for diving in and doing this...

breakfast: left over egg bake, left over carrot, cauliflower, and parsnip puree, avocado, green tea

lunch: black olives, left over ground beef and broccoli, left over roasted green beans, frozen berries

...and way too much shredded coconut

dinner: left over coconut chicken curry, roasted asparagus and portobello mushrooms, a few roasted shrimp, applesauce

today i thought about how i like food textures and go overboard with things like nuts and coconut to replace some of the "not healthy foods" i can't eat right now. so i'm going to need to be more aware of that these next few days/weeks and limit myself so i can try to stop mindlessly eating stuff and break that cycle.

two pics. one of breakfast. and one of delicious baby girl also participating in the whole30 by eating avocado. she loved it!

day 1

i had never cooked with coconut oil, coconut butter, coconut aminos, or ghee until last night. but these will be many of the staple fats over the next 30 days so i did a lot of research online and found some pretty cool sites. with some pretty tasty looking recipes. and i started cooking.

breakfast: piece of a spinach, mushroom, shallot, and pancetta egg bake, 1/2 a sweet potato and a few slices of avocado

lunch: ground beef and broccolli (slaw) stir fry and cauliflower, carrot and parsnip puree. also a few black olives, some coconut flakes, and frozen berries.

dinner: roasted green beans, cauliflower rice and slow cooker coconut curry chicken (minus the cornstarch...used a little almond four as a thickener) with a few slices of avocado. yum and yum.

pic from dinner:

Preface

i love cheese dip. and cupcakes. and ________ (insert lots of other unhealthy, but delicious foods here).

i also love talking about food, reading about food, watching shows about food, taking pictures of food and trying out new food establishments.

this is my 30 day challenge.  a food project. the whole30 (a program i am going to be following) to see if eating clean food can help me with my eating habits, my health, my body image 9 months post baby, and with my relationship with food.

i still want to love food and all said things about food above.

but, i want to challenge myself to take better care of my body.  i want to do this for me, for my equally food driven husband (who I somehow convinced to do this with me!!!), and for my delicious baby girl.

i'm mainly going to keep this blog to keep myself accountable. and to post pictures of the foods i will be cooking and eating every day.

again, i love taking pictures of food. now i will just try to love taking pictures of vegetables. and protein. and some healthy fats.

oh, and i'll probably also throw in some pictures of delicious baby girl. because she is too cute not to.