2014 Whole 20 - Week of 1/20

[essnce629]

On to the third week! Hope everyone is enjoying this Monday off for MLK Day!

Last night I made chicken vegetable soup since DS1 is a little sick with a cough AND cashew lime chicken from my Make Ahead Paleo cookbook. I put a ton of veggies in my soup-- carrots, celery, spinach, green beans, and zucchini. It was mostly for DS1, but the rest of us all had a small bowl as well and I still have a bunch for leftovers. DH and I really liked the cashew chicken, DS2 didn't like it at all (too limey maybe?), and DS1 didn't try it since he was just eating soup. The recipe didn't call for any veggies in it, but I threw in an entire bag of frozen broccoli.

For a snack later I had a ton of cucumber slices with my roasted red pepper dip and cinnamon apples. My two favorite snacks!!!

I bought some whole almonds today and I like to put them in the microwave with some ghee for a minute, then I toss them with some garlic salt and nutritional yeast. Sooo good!

Oh, and for whoever it was who didn't think they were losing weight, you can still be losing inches without losing weight. That's why I really encouraged everyone to take their body measurements on day 1.

We'll have leftovers tonight probably, but I think I'll go ahead and make the chocolate chili recipe from Well Fed for tomorrow. Mondays are the one night DS1 doesn't have swimming so I have extra time to cook.
http://www.theclothesmakethegirl.com...-chili-recipe/

[Meatball Mommie]

I made a carrot soup in the crockpot last week and it was so delicious and easy. The kids were ok with it and ate about half their serving. DH and I loved it though, so I will definitely make it again. I made cornbread for the kids to go with it and I greased the mini loaf pans with coconut oil - amazing! I'll never use cooking spray again for doing that.

I made chili last night from the "Against All Grain" book. I loved it, but DH did not. I though the combination of spices was amazing, so I'm surprised that DH didn't care for it. Oh well, more for me!

Eating a spinach salad with roasted beets, parsnips and eggplant plus leftover chicken breast. I need to make some kind of salad dressing though. Vinegar alone (which is all I had here at the office) just isn't cutting it. Roasted beets and parsnips in a salad are delicious! I think I prefer the eggplant warm though.

I did well over the weekend. Made ghee too! I kind of thought it would stay liquid, but it solidified after a couple of hours on my countertop. Is that normal? It's a beautiful golden color though...

[bcafe]

For breakfast/snack I had a spinach salad with a chopped up sausage patty, hard boiled egg, tomatoes, and mushrooms. I didn't need anything but salt as the hot sausage wilted the greens a bit. Really good. Does anyone eat macadamia nuts? I am wondering where the cheapest source would be. Costco had them for $17.50/1.5#. I used my brother's vitamix on Saturday and made sunbutter. Turned out good, especially for a lot less than I get TJ's for and that contains sugar.

[essnce629]

I made a carrot soup in the crockpot last week and it was so delicious and easy. The kids were ok with it and ate about half their serving. DH and I loved it though, so I will definitely make it again.

I did well over the weekend. Made ghee too! I kind of thought it would stay liquid, but it solidified after a couple of hours on my countertop. Is that normal? It's a beautiful golden color though...

Yum, do you have the recipe for the carrot soup?

And yes, the ghee will turn solid in the fridge and at room temp. I think it's kind of like coconut oil in that it has to be really warm for it to stay liquid. Both my ghee and coconut oil are solid right now.

[Meatball Mommie]

Oh good thing about the ghee! I was worried I did something wrong! I'll post the carrot soup recipe tomorrow when I'm sitting at a computer and not typing on my phone. It was really easy and delicious.

I'm making a beef and cabbage soup now from "Slow Cooker Revolution 2" that uses sauerkraut. Ds1 insisted he wanted hot dogs and sauerkraut yesterday so I bought it. He then announced that he "was wrong about the sauerkraut"!! Nice. So I was trying to find a way to use it up.

[hellokitty]

I have my typical staples foods. However, I love nom nom's, "garbage stir fry." I made it for the first time last wk, with just ground beef and cabbage and it was a huge hit with the family. We love the flavor of curry, but of course, are used to eating it with rice, so this is a great way to have curry w/o the rice, kwim? Anyway, made it again last night, but added in some yellow pepper and shredded zucchini to it and once again, it went over well. It's such a versatile recipe, I can forsee using it once a wk, but changing it up with veggies I add in (other than the cabbage). I actually have to make a double batch, b/c dh always has two servings and I want to have some leftovers. Here is a link...

http://nomnompaleo.com/post/41781593...urried-cabbage

So, I am curious, how many of you are doing whole30 with exercise and how many are just focusing on the eating part and not doing the exercise part? If you are excercising, I'm curious as to what kind of exercises you've been doing and how often.

Last time I did whole30, I still had a very fresh knee injury and pretty much wasn't able to do much. In fact, that was one reason why I wanted to do whole30, to try to tweak my diet, since I wasn't able to exercise as much as I'd like (for wt loss). This time, I thought I'd do the same thing, but I've started doing some aqua aerobics. I know, it sounds totally old lady. However, I had friends (who are YOUNGER than me, lol), who wanted to go, and I've always wanted to try it, AND my knee is better, BUT I am so afraid to screw it all up again, I want to avoid anything with high impact (which is what I'm normally used to). So, aqua aerobics is it and it's been nice going with friends too. I've gone 3x in the past wk and really like it and am impressed with how great the resistance training is (with the foam weights), and that it doesn't bother my knee like other higher impact exercise. It's so much more fun, than working out on land. I'm also trying to get back into pilates, although I want to avoid any exercises where I am on my knees, so that rules out several moves.

[essnce629]

I have my typical staples foods. However, I love nom nom's, "garbage stir fry." I made it for the first time last wk, with just ground beef and cabbage and it was a huge hit with the family. We love the flavor of curry, but of course, are used to eating it with rice, so this is a great way to have curry w/o the rice, kwim? Anyway, made it again last night, but added in some yellow pepper and shredded zucchini to it and once again, it went over well. It's such a versatile recipe, I can forsee using it once a wk, but changing it up with veggies I add in (other than the cabbage). I actually have to make a double batch, b/c dh always has two servings and I want to have some leftovers. Here is a link...

http://nomnompaleo.com/post/41781593...urried-cabbage

So, I am curious, how many of you are doing whole30 with exercise and how many are just focusing on the eating part and not doing the exercise part? If you are excercising, I'm curious as to what kind of exercises you've been doing and how often.

Yum, I'm going to have to try that garbage stir fry! Looks good!

Sadly I don't really exercise at all! I LOVE yoga and have an unused 30 class pass to the studio within walking distance to my house but I haven't gone in over a year after I had a bad experience with a mean teacher! Once I miss something a few times I end up not going back. I also have a gym membership to a new gym that opened up near me and have only gone 3 times since joining several months ago, and that was only to go relax in the jacuzzi and sauna!!! I'm so lame!!!!

I did take a hula hooping class with one of my best friend's over the summer and we both liked it so much we ordered weighted hoola hoops when we got home. You're supposed to do it for 10 minutes a day so I have been trying to do that the last few days since it helps with lower back pain. I can handle 10 minutes a day and not having to leave my house to do it!

[jgenie]

Are there any sweeteners that are approved? Starting today and would love a cup of tea. I know sugar and milk are out. What about honey? TIA

[hellokitty]

A little bit of natural fruit juice s all that is basically allowed. I don't think that it would cut it for tea. What kind of tea do you drink? I usually drink mine w/o any sweetner. The only time I add honey is if I have a cough.

[jgenie]

A little bit of natural fruit juice s all that is basically allowed. I don't think that it would cut it for tea. What kind of tea do you drink? I usually drink mine w/o any sweetner. The only time I add honey is if I have a cough.

I like Chai. I may try it with coconut milk to see if that will work.