Posted at 07:40hin Whole30 Day-by-DaybyKristi Barnes0 Comments
Today is day three of my family’s Thirty Days of Whole30 Recipes Challenge, and I’m feeling better than I did yesterday. Less cranky, not as hungry, and just…happier. My acne, which I’ve been battling for years, is starting to clear up, and I’ve already lost three pounds! I’m excited about all the positive changes taking place so quickly, and I don’t feel deprived at all. Well, I do miss my heavily creamed-coffee, but that’s a small sacrifice to have a clear face, a trimmer waist, and an overall healthier lifestyle. SPOILER ALERT: I cheated and had some caramel creamer with my coffee on Day 8, and I was shocked at the result.
Our Whole30 Breakfast – Apples and Almond Butter with a Side of Scrambled Eggs
Today was another rushed morning, so I grabbed an apple and some Artisana Organics Raw Almond Nut Butterand ran out the door, leaving my poor husband to fend for himself. This particular brand is a bit pricey, but it tastes great, a little goes a long way, and the only ingredient is 100% organic raw almonds. Where I live, it’s so hard to find specialty organic foods, so I usually buy my Whole30-compliant convenience products from Amazon. Once I got to work, I ordered some scrambled eggs from the onsite cafeteria and hoped for the best.
Our Whole30 Lunch – Ground Chicken Lime Fajita Bowls
Because I didn’t have time to prepare anything for lunch and I live really close to my work, I ran home on my break and cooked up these ground chicken lime fajita bowls on a whim. They were surprisingly delicious for the very little amount of thought or work I put into them. To make them, I warmed 2-3 tablespoons of organic coconut oil over medium heat and then added a medium yellow onion, chopped, and a green and a red bell pepper, thinly sliced and then the sliced halved. After 4-5 minutes, when the edges of the chopped onion were just starting to turn translucent, I added the ground chicken. (I used my handy Pampered Chef Mix N Chop to chop the meat into small, even pieces so it cooked more quickly. I use this little tool almost every single day. It is one of my favorite kitchen gadgets I never knew I needed until I bought it.) As the meat was browning, I added a handful of chopped baby portobello mushrooms, a can of petite diced tomatoes, not drained, along with a tablespoon of chili powder, a teaspoon of cumin, and a teaspoon of garlic powder. And that’s it! I simmered everything over medium heat until about half of the tomato juice had cooked down.
After spooning it into the bowls, I squeezed half a lime over each bowl, and this was our Whole30 lunch.
Our Whole30 Dinner – Ground Beef Bowls with Potatoes, Carrots, and Onions
I must have been in a ground meat bowl mood today, because for dinner, we had ground beef bowls. I toned down the spice on this one since the kids would be eating it, but feel free to add a little kick to it!
For dinner, I browned a pound of ground beef in 3 tablespoons of grass fed beef tallow. We really loved the complex flavor that the beef tallow added to this meal, as opposed to just using olive oil or coconut oil. As the meat was browning, I added 1/2 of a large finely chopped onion, 3 cloves of minced garlic, and 2 tablespoons of Italian seasoning. After the meat was browned and the onions began to turn translucent, 2 cups of finely shredded carrots and 2 large potatoes, shredded. If you’re thinking, “There’s no way I’m chopping and shredding all of those veggies,” I’m with ya. I hate chopping vegetables, HATE. IT. I used my can’t-live-without-itKitchenAid Food Processor, and everything was perfectly pulverized within minutes with virtually no cleanup. I added 1 cup organic beef broth and then gradually more until I reached my desired consistency and simmered everything on medium heat until the vegetables were heated through and most of the broth had cooked down.
This dinner was a huge hit with the family even though it didn’t look very pretty. The veggies were chopped so finely that the kids didn’t whine about them, and they even requested seconds! I’ll definitely add this one to the list to make again and tweak with different flavors.
Here is my little enjoying his own ground beef bowl, sans bowl.
Our Whole 30 Dessert
For dessert, I whipped up another smoothie. This time I took a pint of blueberries that I had put in the freezer a couple hours earlier and added 1/2 can coconut milk (with no additives), 1 teaspoon of vanilla bean powder (because we learned yesterday that vanilla extract is a no-no on the Whole30), a handful of ice, and 1 tablespoon of coconut butter, otherwise known as coconut manna. It was delish! By Whole30 standards anyway. 🙂
