We CAN eat all meats, eggs, seafood, veggies, fruits, and nuts. We can NOT eat grains, pseudo grains (like corn or quinoa), soy, dairy, legumes, alcohol, or sugar (no honey, agave, or other 'natural' sweetners and obviously no artificial sweetners). It also emphasizes pastured and organic animals and the health that this kind of meat brings over factory farmed meat. (granted it's 3-4x more expensive to eat this way...so I'm not sure if it's sustainable for our budget-especially with a generous portion of meat/protein at EVERY meal).
I plan to post here occasionally with what we ate, how we are feeling, and struggles we are having. This is mostly for us to document and for the few curious Facebookers who care to follow along. Maybe I'll turn into a famous rich blogger out of this, doubtful. I'm happy to link to recipes and give credit when I can, if you can't find a recipe, just ask!
Brief history of our eating habits: We think we eat "healthy". Lots of home cooking, whole grains, legumes, veggies, lean meats, whole fat dairy (we switched about two years ago after reading In Defense of Food). Not a lot of processed stuff (although we do like crackers), and almost nightly 'something sweet' before bed. Usually ice cream or cookies or whatever leftover yumminess is in the house. (This is our vice). We also drink BLACK coffee which (thank God) IS whole30 approved.
Added sugar (of any kind) is a no-no on Whole30 and so I began reading labels of "healthy" foods that we eat and soon discovered that EVERYTHING has sugar! You've heard of the common ones-spaghetti sauce, (any sauce actually), salad dressing, crackers, most juices/canned fruit, obviously cereal and granola bars...but did you know there is almost definitely sugar in your lunch meat. Yes! The kind you have freshly sliced at your supermarket deli! And sausage, bacon, all cold cuts. All lower fat dairy has sugar (one of the reasons we switched to whole fat). Pretty much everything not on the perimeter of the grocery store has added sugar (and the majority of the things on the perimeter too). It's crazy. Hence the blog title. (Also, there is soy in almost everything...) bleh.
We started today-January 31, 2015. (Rob is hungry).
Breakfast: Sweet potato, potato, onion, kale 'hash' with eggs and sugar-free bacon. Yum. Good start.
Lunch: Chicken 'tortilla' soup which Rob has pointed out has no tortillas so it can't be called that. Super simple-chicken stock (homemade), tomatillo salsa (homemade from our garden!), shredded chicken (leftover from our farm share whole chicken), and I topped mine with avacado because yum.
(Forgot the lunch pic-I'll post when I have the leftovers...)
Dinner: Chicken sausage (I found a 'compliant' kind at hannaford-spinach and garlic) with sauteed onions, peppers, and zucchini. And a blood orange.
Tomorrow is the Super Bowl and we are having our fellow Whole30ers over (Matt, Laura, Megan, Steph) for a party of our own making. Can't wait to share the yummy food!
Here are a few of my "practice" meals from the last week too:
Baked chicken leg with roasted broccoli and avacado.
Sausage with sauteed swiss chard and roasted potatoes and carrots.
Snack: Apple chunks with almond butter, unsweetened coconut flakes, and cinnamon!
Salmon with roasted brussels sprouts, butternut squash, carrots, and prosciutto.
Homemade sauce and italian meatballs (half beef half buffalo) over spaghetti squash.
Salad with spinach, peppers, carrots, avacado, hard boiled eggs, toasted almonds and walnuts with homemade balsamic vinaigrette.
Breakfast-sweet potato/potato hash with onions and kale, scrambled eggs, bacon, and a grapefruit (although I only got one bite of grapefruit because my 4-year-old ate the rest).
Future posts won't be so long!
