Week 1 (2021)

Since I started this week a little late and did not really meal plan, I tried to use items I already had and made my meals Whole30 compliant with the exception of day 1 breakfast.

I’m also doing Lauren Gleisburg’s 30 min weight training program 5 days/week. You can check it out here. It’s only $23!!

Meals prepared for the week:

Sweet potato breakfast casserole recipe here
Deconstructed egg roll
Butternut squash soup
Pesto zoodles with shrimp
Salisbury steak & mashed potatoes

Monday, January 4th

Breakfast

In the morning, I started off with a bottle of celery juice. My fave is from Suja and I purchased them from Trader Joe’s. For my meal, I had Avocado toast with grain free bread, sunny side up eggs with everything but bagel seasoning. The “bread” is a BIG NO NO, but I didn’t want to throw it away. I really hate wasting food! With that being said… I will have to add an extra day to the program 😬However, if you do want an avocado “toast” you can substitute the bread with these sweet potato slices!

Lunch

I had air fryer chicken I cooked the night before over mixed field greens and Primal Kitchen Greek Goddess dressing ⬅️ Click left for my fave Whole30 approved dressings!

How to cook chicken: brine 3 chicken breast in water with 1 tsp himalayan salt & 1/2 tsp garlic for 1 hr and cook in air fryer at 360 degrees for 15 - 20 mins depending on how big your chicken breasts are

Dinner

I had purchased butternut squash from Trader Joe’s the week before and did not want to waste it so I made a butternut squash & chicken soup. I also made a deconstructed chicken egg roll in a bowl dish for the week.

Soup recipe: Boil 12 oz bag of TJ cubed butternut squash in 1 pint of chicken bone broth and 1 cup of water for about 12-15 minutes until soft. Add 1 tbsp of TJ mushroom seasoning, 1/2 tbsp himalayan salt, 1 tsp garlic powder, 1 tsp onion powder and a pinch of pepper — note that I started off with these measurements and added more of each if it lacked any flavor. Once the squash was done, I took leftover chicken and broke them up into smaller pieces and combined it with the soup. Turn off the stove so it slightly warms the chicken and it is ready to be served.

Deconstructed chicken egg roll recipe: On medium high heat, melt 1tbsp of coconut oil in a wok or large skillet & sauté 2 bags of TJ shredded cabbage & carrots until soft. Then add 1/3 cup of coconut aminos & 1 tbps of sesame oil. Cook until soft and the sauce is absorbed. Add 2 tsp of minced garlic & leftover chicken breast. Mix until chicken is warm and fully coated with sauce.

**note these recipes were last minute creations, but I plan on posting the recipes separately once I cook them again**

Tue & Wed, Jan 5th - 6th

Breakfast

The night before I made my most favorite breakfast — you can find the sweet potato breakfast casserole recipe here. Each casserole has about 8 servings so I packed 6 slices into these BPA free microwaveable containers and freezed two slices for emergency breakfast.

Lunch

I had a cup of the butternut squash soup and deconstructed egg roll bowl. (I didn’t take any pics of the egg roll bowl before I devoured it — sorry!) Here’s the soup… I like to sprinkle a little more of the mushroom seasoning after I heat it up!

I ate the same thing for breakfast, lunch and dinner on Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday morning. If I was hungry and needed a snack, I grabbed a Chomp beef jerky stick I purchased from Amazon.

Dinner

On Thursday I whipped up a spicy shrimp and pesto zucchini noodle dish. IT WAS SO GOOD!

Shrimp & zoodles recipe: Spiralized 4 zucchinis using this multi-functional chopping device. Defrosted and dried 12 raw jumbo shrimp and season with 1 tsp of salt and chili powder. On medium high heat, melt 1 tbsp of ghee and cook shrimp until they are no longer translucent (make sure you flip them over). Remove shrimp and set aside and take a hand full of zucchini noodles (only heat enough to eat immediately) and place in pan used to cook shrimp. Combine zucchini with Trader Joe’s Vegan Pesto until fully coated and place on plate and serve with shrimp. **Note**: Zucchinis release water when heated so if you plan to have leftovers, store them raw in a separate container and heat them up and combine with pesto when you’re ready to eat.

Friday, January 8th

Breakfast

For breakfast, I had the sweet potato breakfast casserole again! —— I can eat this all the time. It has so much flavor and keeps me full!

Lunch

I had leftover shrimp & pesto zoodles — super easy and delicious meal

Dinner

I had a few friends pop on over and I made them salisbury steak & gravy over garlic mashed potatoes. I DID NOT TAKE ANY PICTURES — I am so sorry. I will work on the full recipe when I get a chance. You can check it out on my Instagram story highlights here though!

Mash potatoes recipe: Boil 1.5 lbs of small gold yukon potatoes for 45 minutes. Drain and add back to pot and mash potatoes with 2 tsp of garlic, 1/2 cup of chicken broth, 1 tbsp of olive oil, 1/2 tsp salt and 1/4 tsp of black pepper

Salisbury steak recipe: Combine 1 lb of ground beef with 1/4 cup of finely chopped yellow onion, 2 tsp of minced garlic, 1 tbsp of yellow mustard, 1 tbsp of coconut aminos, 1 tsp Himalayan salt, 1/2 tsp black pepper, 1/4 tsp onion powder and 1/4 tsp of garlic powder. Mix with your hands, but make sure you don’t over work it. Heat 1 tbsp of avocado oil on medium high heat and use an ice cream scooper to create balls of beef and cook on both sides until brown (I like to smoosh the patties down a little so it creates a small thick burger patty). Once fully cooked remove beef and keep liquids for the gravy

Gravy recipe: In the same pan, reduce heat to medium and melt 1 tbsp ghee and add 8 oz of sliced mushrooms and 1/2 cup of finely chopped yellow onions until softened. Add 1 tsp of minced garlic, stir until combined, and add 1 cup of beef broth, 1 tbsp of balsamic vinegar and 1 tbsp of coconut aminos. To thicken up the liquid, in a small bowl combine 1 cup of room temperature water with 1 tbsp of arrow root. Mix until it becomes a white paste and then add it to the gravy with 1/2 tsp of salt and pepper. Bring to boil and add back meatballs and reduce heat to simmer for 10 minutes until meat is fully cooked and gravy has thicken.

Saturday

Breakfast

I took the leftover raw salisbury steak and made mini burger patties and served with sunny side up egg, 3 pieces of Whole30 approved bacon (this is my fave bacon) (cooked on 400 degrees for 10 mins in the air fryer) with half of a small avocado and a small mandarin orange

Lunch

I had leftover salisbury steak and gravy over cauliflower rice. I ran out of mashed potatoes, but I keep a good stock of riced cauliflower in my freezer.

Dinner

I went out to eat with some girlfriends at Georgie by Curtis Stone in Dallas.. here’s how/what I ordered

For the appetizers we had caviar, but I did not eat the bellini or toast that came with it. To avoid eating the carbs, I spooned a spoon full of caviar and place it on the toast and licked the caviar from the toast. (I’m not sure if that’s cheating, but I did not have any bread. I honestly didn’t crave it!!)

I also told the server that I cannot have dairy, butter, sugar or grains so they made me a nice salad with a basil & olive oil vinaigrette with sliced apples, cucumbers, mustard seeds, and sliced radishes. It was SOOO GOOD!

For the entree, they had a waygu new york strip special that was not marinated in butter or oils and cooked on a grill. So I shared a 5oz steak with a side of boiled green beans.

For drinks, I asked the bartender to make me a virgin non dairy no sugar drink and so she made me a cucumber water infused drink! It was so good!

I did not take any pictures of the food or drinks. I am so bad about that, but I did these two! I’ve had this dress since maybe 2015/2016 and have not been able to fit into it. I decided to try it on and was able to zip it up!! YAY! It’s still a little snug, but it still worked for dinner!
You can click on the 1st photo to shop the look 🤗

Sunday, January 10th

Breakfast
This day was a bit weird because I got caught up with work so I had a late breakfast. Luckily still had leftover sweet potato casserole which was still good!

Lunch/Dinner

I had leftover salisbury steak and gravy with cauliflower rice.

Thoughts from Week 1

Below are pics from my first day and morning of the 8th day. I’m sure you can’t really tell the difference, but I felt different. After 7 days of eating clean, I felt great waking up Monday morning. My energy level at the beginning of the week was a little low, but it progressively got better by the 7th day. My stomach feels flatter and I don’t feel bloated.