Whole 30 – Week 1

Josh and I started Whole 30 this week. Basically, you cut out foods that can be sensitive to the stomach for 1 month and then reintroduce them one by one and note your reactions. It’s an interesting little experiment and cleans up your eating habits. We’re currently eating lots of fruit, vegetables, and meat! I’ve been searching for dinners that are a little more fun and filling. (Breakfast this week has mostly been eggs with salsa, and lunch has been variations of salad with chicken.) If you have any good whole 30 recipes, please share!

Two of our meals this week were very good and flavorful, so I thought I’d write about them.

Wednesday night’s dinner menu consisted of lettuce wrapped hamburgers, topped with homemade guacamole and pico salsa.  We had baked sweet potato fries on the side, along with some berries. I had always done burgers on the grill, but I tried them in the pan for the first time, and it worked great! I used 1 lb hamburger, mixed with 1 tsp each of paprika and cumin, and ½ tsp each of salt and pepper. I formed them into 6 patties and cooked them in a little bit of olive oil over medium-high heat. It took about 12 minutes, and I flipped them halfway through. The sweet potato fries were cooked in the oven at 425 degrees for 30 minutes, flipped halfway through as well. I used 2 potatoes, skinned and cut into “sticks,” and tossed with 4 tsp olive oil, ¼ tsp salt, and ½ tsp each of garlic powder and chipotle chile pepper.

Tonight we tried a variation on Olive Garden’s Zuppa Toscana, and it was amazing. I found a recipe on Farmstead Chic’s blog, and I adapted it to work for some of our ingredients we already had on hand. For instance, I had 4 cups of vegetable broth in my pantry, so I started with that and then added 2 cups of water and 1 chicken bouillon cube. I also cut the amount of Italian seasoning and red pepper flakes in half because my Italian sausage looked like it had some red pepper in it already. (I bought ground Italian sausage). We also found that it didn’t need any salt or pepper added at the end; the flavors were great! It has a slight coconut taste from the coconut milk, but other than that, it’s very similar to Olive Garden’s soup. This one is still just as hearty, but a little healthier!

Tomorrow’s plan is zoodles (zucchini noodles) with pesto and shrimp! I’ll let you know how our whole 30 adventure progresses!