Alright you guys…we are THREE WEEKS down and less than one to go at this point. PRAISE THE LAWD, because this has been quite the challenge! So – week three…
WHAT WE ATE
Breakfasts:
- I ditched the creative breakfasts that I enjoyed so much last week and literally had the exact same thing every single day. Why? Mainly because I was lazy and wasn’t feeling creative in the breakfast arena this week. Surprisingly, that didn’t bug me one bit, which is odd because repetitive breakfasts were driving me crazy before. SO – the same breakfast that I had every day = 3 soft scrambled eggs, 1 slice of bacon, a banana sprinkled with cinnamon with a dollop of almond butter to “dip” the banana slices in. Plus coffee, obvi.
Lunches:
- Leftovers…anyone surprised? Always leftovers. Which one day ended up just being a decent sized Tupperware of steamed cabbage with spicy citrus butter because that was all that was leftover from dinner the night before. Surprisingly satisfying!
Dinners:
- Night fifteen: Instant pot short ribs + sweet potato and coconut milk mash with caramelized onions. The short ribs were a blog recipe, and they were SO good (coming soon!). I have never had short ribs before doing Whole 30, but since starting, I’ve had them two or three times. I absolutely LOVE the flavor, but dannnng, girl, they are heavy and fatty. It doesn’t leave you feeling light and bouncy after eating them, even though they aren’t bad for you. I’ll definitely still be eating them in the future, but if you make these, be ready for a heavy, comfort food dinner versus something light and healthy tasting. The sweet potato mash is something I’ve been making for years, and it is like CRACK sweet potatoes, yo. Three things…cooked sweet potatoes, canned coconut milk, caramelized onions…BAE.
- Night sixteen: Pizza stuffed potato skins. These were created from the result of the most powerful pizza craving the world has ever known. HOLY thick crust with extra pepperoni, I was dying. Guess how much these tasted like pizza? Zero percent. Not even a little. They were still super freakin good, though.
- Night seventeen: Tomato soup. I was sick today, so I was craving soup, and I had all the stuff in my fridge and pantry to make this. And Ima be straight up with you, this was the best tomato soup I’ve ever had, and I’m attributing that to one slight change that this recipe has from my usual tomato soup: emulsifying olive oil at the end. So usually my tomato soup is finished off with a
smallhearty splash of heavy cream, but since dairy isn’t allowed, I blended in some olive oil at the end along with a big splash of almond milk. The olive oil emulsifies as you blend it, and it brings such a rich, thick, creaminess to the soup. I don’t think I’ll ever add cream to my tomato soup again! Such a delicious little discovery. - Night eighteen: Grilled pork chops with roasted potatoes and sauteed broccoli. Seth made dinner tonight, and I’m not lying when I say it was the best pork chop I’ve ever had. I…was…DYING. There was something satisfying about the comforting simplicity of this dinner, and everything tasted awesome. Also…I didn’t have to cook it, so that was nice. Even when you love cooking, it’s fun to have other people cook you dinner!
- Night nineteen: Date night to Chipotle! I hope Chipotle isn’t ruined for me after this…
- Night twenty: Cauliflower and pork green curry. Okay…so the flavor of this was delicious (it was a recipe from the Whole 30 cookbook)…but OHHHH my gosh it was spicy. The recipe called for an “optional” Thai chili, which we decided to add. That along with two entire tablespoons of green curry paste? It was miserable. I could barely finish my bowl. I’d definitely make this again, but I would for sure not include that Thai chili.
- Night twenty-one: Steak + steamed cabbage wedges with spicy citrus butter. This was another one from the Whole 30 cookbook (the cabbage, not the steak). Okay…so…do they just have an obsession with ultra spicy food? I halved the pepper flakes in this because I thought an entire teaspoon was an absurd amount, and it was STILL super spicy! Not too spicy this time, though…but it was walkin’ the line. Overall, I really liked this dinner! I’d make a few changes if I made it again in the future, though – i.e. less pepper flakes, and slice the cabbage and steam/saute it so it’s not so hard to eat in the massive wedges.
Here is a little collage of our dinners this week from my Instagram stories (@thegarlicdiaries):
WHAT WE LOVED
A lot of what I loved this week revolves around snacks. Two snacks in particular. One: sliced bananas sprinkled with cinnamon with a spoon full of almond butter on the side. Instructions…take a small fork-full of almond butter and then spear a cinnamon covered banana slice. Devour. You guys…THIS HAS BEEN LIFE. It makes me feel like I am eating a treat, and it always satisfies me so much, but it’s all clean, whole food! I eat this at least once a day…I love it. Two: Larabars. I know they don’t want you to eat a bunch of these. And I don’t eat them like crazy, but I do eat probably one every day. Target has a BILLION flavors, and you have to check the ingredients to make sure you get compliant ones (basically all are compliant except the ones that have chocolate or peanut butter in the title). I might have gone a litttttttttttle bit insane at Target yesterday and bought out the entire store. Let me see if I can remember all the ones I got…coconut cream pie, key lime pie, apple pie, cinnamon roll, carrot cake…I think that’s it. They are all AMAZING. Except the key lime pie one – that one’s just dece. Even though I’m not exactly following the Whole 30 guidelines to an absolute T by eating these on the reg, ionevencur. They are too good, and they are made with whole ingredients, so whatevs…I AM OBSESSED.
This kind of ties into the first one, but I love how much my brain has started to love healthier versions of “sweet things.” For example, before Whole 30, there’s no way I would be losing my mind over the deliciousness of cinnamon bananas dipped in almond butter or a Larabar. My body has gotten so used to not eating anything traditionally “sweet” like candy or chocolate that now it feels like I’m eating a treat equivalent to a legit dessert when I eat those bananas or a Larabar. And that definitely would not have been the case before Whole 30. So I am pumped about that!
WHAT WE STRUGGLED WITH
Honestly…we are both just ready to be done, and that has been a struggle. Whole 30 is HARD, man! If anyone tells you differently, they are either in denial or just have an overwhelming love of ONLY healthy food with zero cheats. It is hard. I am so, so, SO ready to be lazy and order a pizza one night, or go out to dinner together and not be limited to like two restaurants, to have some variety with food during the day. I am not even craving junk food that much (except for pizza) – what I am more craving is just variety, but still with healthy foods. Things like whole wheat toast, whole wheat pasta, quinoa, healthier paleo desserts (<< most excited about that). I just want some change…I’m a little sick of Whole 30 at this point, to be honest. So that’s been our struggle this week!
THE CONSENSUS AFTER WEEK THREE
Even with how challenging this whole experience has been and how we’ve been a bit “over it” this week, I still am glad we did this! It has totally retrained our brains when it comes to sweets and junk food, it’s made me love things I didn’t love before, and it has kicked a lot of my unhealthy food habits and created new healthy ones. Things like drinking unsweetened coffee, eating “healthy” sweets like the bananas and Larabars, and just realizing that I don’t need a splash of heavy cream, cheese, etc… in a recipe for it to be delicious! The forced learning of healthier substitutions has been a great part of this, probably my favorite part. SO – overall…VERY ready to be done, but still glad we did it!
ONE WEEK LEFT, PEOPLE!
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