I can see clearly now, the rain is gone….

Friday April 15, 2016

Breakfast – Two eggs cracked, with peppers & onions and baked till done
Lunch – Final batch of left over chili
Dinner – The most amazing Spicy Thai Zoodle Salad

I absolutely adore Pad Thai! The flavors and umami involved tantalize my taste buds, so when I found this recipe from Nom Nom Paleo I was very eager to try it! Since I’m now half way thru I treated myself to… the Nom Nom Paleo cookbook written by Michelle Tam & Henry Fong!

 

Saturday April 16, 2016

Breakfast – Adele Sausage over some Kale, onions & salsa
Lunch – Trail Snacks
Dinner – Pan Seared Salmon

I’ve never really liked salmon, but a trip to Whole Foods to find dried porchini mushrooms had me passing by some yummy looking salmon so I decided to give it a final try! I’ve tried salmon on several occasions, but never really LOVED it. Today I found a yummy marinade involving balsamic vinegar, and rosemary. First I noticed the skin was still on the one side, so I decided to filet that off! I know some people cook with it on, but I was creeped out by it. My daughter wanted me to save the scales and sew her a mermaid costume, but I told her that wasn’t going to happen! HA. I pan seared it in some ghee to get a nice crust! I also whipped up a nice kale salad and some roasted tomatoes. It was fairly good, but I think my [short stayed] love affair with salmon has come to a close. There are so many other species of fish that I enjoy so much more!

 

Sunday April 17, 2016

Breakfast – Sweet Potato, Apple & Sausage skillet
Lunch – Salad
Dinner – Cracklin’ Chicken

After subscribing to the Nom Nom Paleo podcast (do you see a trend here folks?) and hearing that Lil’ O started out not wanting to eat paleo I needed to find a POW WOW dinner to get my daughter on board! (She is for sure a sugar addict and I’m trying to help her quit that!) So I made Lil’ O’s favorite Cracklin’ Chicken! It is now also Lil’ K’s favorite as well! My daughter exclaimed, “Mom, I want you to make this again soon! But not regular soon – VERY VERY soon!” She also demanded that I pack it for her lunch the next day! I call that a win.

I also was so excited to eat this – that I forgot to snap a photo until after my meal was over, but I found this hilarious e-card which has described my relationship with Whole30 so far!

 

Monday April 18, 2016

Breakfast – Left over Sweet Potato, Apple & Sausage skillet
Lunch – Left over Cracklin’ Chicken
Dinner – Egg Drop Soup

Tonight I had a meeting that would go from 6pm-8 or 9pm, so I threw a Lara Bar in my bag knowing I was going to make the ever so quick Egg Drop Soup. Last summer I was going through our freezer chest and found 5 chicken backs. For those of you who are new to my blog, our friends raise our chickens for us, and we help process them. They are humanely raised, and humanely processed, abx free {ranging} chickens! So what to do with chicken backs? They don’t really provide a lot of meat, so I took 5 days, my crockpot and lots of yummy herbs and veggies from my garden and made bone broth! Froze them into little batch bags, and forgot about them until today!

I ran down stairs, thawed a bag out real quick, whipped up some eggs, sliced a scallion, and jalapeno to crank up the heat, and topped with a little cilantro for a Thai tasting Egg Drop Soup! From start to finish I think it took me 10 minutes to whip this up. That’s what I call a week night or emergency dinner!

 

Tuesday April 19, 2016

Breakfast – Left over Sweet Potato, Apple & Sausage skillet
Lunch – Left over Egg Drop Soup
Dinner – Taco Tuesday of course on Romaine Boats

Wednesday April 20, 2016

Breakfast – Two Eggs baked with peppers and scallions
Lunch – Taco Salad
Dinner –  Tacos

Thursday April 21, 2016

Breakfast – Two Eggs baked with peppers and scallions
Lunch –  Two Eggs baked with peppers and scallions
Dinner – Cauliflower Pizza Bites & then Sausage in Marinara

How I feel!

Mind – My mind is pretty clear. Gone away is the brain fog that plagued me. I used to joke [shame on me] around pretty heavily that I probably had early onset Alzheimer’s because I could be in the middle of a conversation and completely forget what I was talking about. Or I would forget to do stuff that was pretty routine stuff.

 

Body – Do you know the muffin man? Well – for a long while (since my mid 20s at least) I’ve slowly been developing the dreaded “muffin top”! I’m noticing finally this week that ever so slowly that is trimming itself up! Its true what they say, “Abs are made in the kitchen”. Recent studies show that nutrition is nearly 90% important when it comes to maintaining a healthy weight vs. 10% exercise! While I don’t plan to be a strict “WholeLifer” I do plan (as of now) to maintain a fairly strict Paleo diet as my body seems to really like being treated this way. 

I’ve also been sleeping like a ROCK! Gone is my nighttime sugar rush rollercoaster which would ALWAYS wake me up nearly every night around 2-3 a.m. I now sleep soundly into the morning. I do still wake up tired, but that’s because I’m an infotainment addict, and love reading, and catching up on my social media outlets. I’m slowly getting better at that as well! My new bedtime is usually around 10:30pm!

 

Soul – My soul is refreshed right now! Nearly 10 days ago I attended Outcry a Christian Worship concert that renewed the Holy Spirit in me and refreshed any parts of me that were growing dull, or complacent. My annual trip into the BWCA is coming up soon, and I’m looking forward to attending that as well! Obviously I know that God exists outside of the BWCA but something about really getting out into the wilderness amps up His energy in my life. When I tune out the static I can actually hear from Him! Funny how that works!

 

Overall things are good. Life is good! Its now coming into the last week on Whole30! I will wait to post until the 30^th instead of next Thursday/Friday and close out this series. I will continue to post my journey, and I’m already thinking about how I want to carry these new healthy behaviors into my daily lifestyle. Towards the beginning I mentioned something to my husband about, “Well once this is over I can have xyz… “ and he says, “Wait a minute… after 30 days you’re just going to go back to what you used to do?…”

Even if I don’t have any yucky reactions to certain foods I think I’m going to carry most of this lifestyle on.  After all if I’m feeling this good on the program, why go back to unhealthy behaviors if I’m thriving without?

Until nextime.