{RRR} Whole30 Week 1: Recipe Roundup & Review!

So, leave it to me to set a goal to post everyday and totally skip the next day.

 

Totes classic Neely.  My apologies (get used to it).

 

Ahem, anywho.

 

It's time for my first edition of what I'm calling {RRR}, which stands for Recipe Roundup & Review.  It's my goal to crank out one of these for each week I'm on Whole30 (I'll tack those extra two days onto the last week), and then do one maybe monthly from then. 

 

Sound fun?  Wait - it gets better! 

 

I want you to join in on this, peeps!  Share your favorite new recipes, or maybe warn us of one that's not so bueno.  Whatever the case, I want to hear from ya!  If you have a blog, you can write something up and link it in the comments (feel free to use the graphic below, just link it all back up to this post so everyone knows where to go for more!).  No blog?  No problemo!  Just leave a comment telling us what you ate, what you liked... you get the gist. 

 

SO.  Who's ready for Week 1?  Let's do dis thang.

 

 

 



 

WHOLE 30 WEEK ONE



Dinner:

Monday: SC Steak Taco Lettuce Wraps w/Guacamole

Tuesday: Lemon Rosemary Chicken w/Roasted Carrots & Potatoes

Wednesday: Bacon, Eggs, Potatoes

Thursday: Tomato Dijon Turkey Meatballs w/Roasted Broccoli

Friday: SC Creamy Chicken, Lemon & Kale Soup

 

Breakfast:

Eggs (any prep)

Bacon

Breakfast Sausage

 

Lunch:

Roast Beef Lettuce & Veggie Wraps, Tuna Salad w/Mustard &/or Homemade Mayo, Chipotle Steak w/Guacamole

Snacks:

Fresh Fruit & Veggies, Almonds, Boiled Eggs, Almond Butter, Raisins, Unsweetened Applesauce w/Cinnamon, Smoothies

 

Links:

Steak Taco Lettuce Wraps: http://www.gimmesomeoven.com/slow-cooker-shredded-beef-tacos/#_a5y_p=2052590

Lemon Rosemary Chicken: http://www.food.com/recipe/rachael-rays-garlic-roasted-chicken-with-rosemary-and-lemon-132925

Tomato Dijon Turkey Meatballs: http://peaceloveandlowcarb.com/2013/08/tomato-dijon-turkey-meatballs.html

Creamy Lemon Chicken & Kale Soup: http://aiplifestyle.com/creamy-crockpot-lemon-chicken-kale-soup/

Homemade Mayo (this site has TONS of good recipes for paleo sauces that I'm excited to try!): http://planksloveandguacamole.blogspot.com/2014/08/i-am-all-about-flavor-when-i-prepare.html?m=1

Breakfast Sausage: http://allrecipes.com/recipe/homemade-paleo-style-breakfast-sausage/

Thoughts:

There wasn't really anything we made that first week that was a flop.  Really.  These are all REALLY good recipes!  A few of our favorites were definitely the steak taco wraps (made for great lunch leftovers!), the lemon rosemary chicken (Daniel could've eaten the whole pan... and might've), the turkey meatballs (made them again tonight!), and even the pipsqueaks got down on the soup - kale and all!  Anything else you see on the list was something I just made up as I went along.  Want some pics?  Okay, me too.

 

Lemon Rosemary Chicken w/roasted rainbow carrots and red potatoes.  This was Daniel's favorite, by far.

Chicken salad made with the leftover chicken I could wrangle from Daniel.
 Homemade mayo made this insanely good!



Bake an egg in an avocado half for 20 minutes at 450 degrees.  Add crispy pancetta, chives, and hot sauce. 
Eat.  Then call me and thank me.  (You're welcome, btw.)

 

This was a Neely Original.  I decided to shred up some potatoes and get them nice in crisp in a pan with ghee. 
Then, I sautéed some onion, garlic, orange pepper, spinach, and added them to some scrambled eggs seasoned with
 chili powder and cumin.  Threw that on top of the hashbrowns and topped with avocado and tomato - voila!
 I call them Southwest Scrambles. 'Cause CREATIVITY.

 

This is my all-time favorite breakfast.  Ever.  For all time.  Skillet eggs, ya'll! Basically, you want to sauté
some shallot, garlic, pancetta, and spinach.  Then make two (or one - this was actually Daniel's breakfast.  I can
 only eat one!) wells in the spinach and crack your eggs into them.  Then turn the heat down, cover, and poach
your eggs until your desired doneness.  Don't forget salt & pepper!

 

I LOVE these meatballs.  I could eat, like, a bajillion of them.  As for the veggies, anytime I say
"roasted whatever" it's usually the same drill.  Oven at 400 degrees, toss everything in olive oil, season with
salt and pepper (and whatever else - this night I used Cavender's Greek Seasoning) and then spread on a
sheet pan and roast about 20 minutes, tossing the veggies around every 8 minutes or so. 

 

 

So.  What did you eat last week?  Did you like it?  Hate it?  Want to chuck your casserole dish out the window (been there, yo).  Whatever the case, share it up down yonder in the comments!  Got questions for me?   Want more details about ingredients, preparation, whatever?  Ask away, my friends!

I'll be back tomorrow with a little update on how I'm feeling after one solid week of this business.  I've got some really exciting stuff to share with you, and some "not so fun" times to fess up to.  Yippee!

 

Hey, want to keep up with what I'm making in real-time?  Follow Paleo & Pipsqueaks on Facebook!  I'm also all up in Instagram's beeswax all day long, posting pics of dang near everything that goes in my mouth.  If that's your thang, follow me there!  Like posting imaginary pins to cyberspace corkboards that don't really exist?  Hey - ME TOO!  Let's totes be besties over on my Whole30 Pinterest Board.

 

 

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New Name, New Look, New Me!

Notice anything ... different around here?

After a long, hard struggle to get this blog thing going, I decided to call it quits.  I didn't know what to write about?  Faith?  Motherhood?  Frugal living?  Food?  

Too many questions, and nothing pointing me in any one certain direction.

So, I stopped trying.  Stopped writing.  (Not that I wrote much to begin with.)

Fast forward to about a week before Halloween.  It had been kind of a rough couple of weeks for me.  I just wasn't feeling good about myself.  I've gained some weight since moving here a little over a year ago and I just wasn't happy with the way I'd let my health and appearance decline.  My husband and kids deserved a better wife and mom.  Heck, I deserved a better ME!  I got online (like you do) and started digging around for some inspiration.  I remembered seeing some of my friends and bloggers I followed doing this thing called "Whole 30".  I was curious. What the heck did that mean and what all did it entail?  All I knew was you could eat bacon, which is alright in my book.  

So, to the Google I went.

And what I found sounded good.  It sounded REALLY good.  It actually reminded me of way back when, in the "Pre-baby Neely" days - back when I forsook all carbs and sugar, and was the thinnest, healthiest, and most energized I'd ever been.  *facepalm* Why hadn't I thought about this before?  It seemed such a simple answer to my problems, and yet I was scared.  No CARBS?  What about my beloved pasta?  No CHEESE?  What was I going to drown my pasta in, for heaven's sake?  NO WINE?  Okay... I don't know about this one, ya'll.  

But I did it.

Monday, November 3rd, I woke up and just ... did it.  I closed my eyes, told myself I was a pansy if I even thought this was hard, and just decided to do the dang thang.  I will admit that I am lucky enough to have an amazing husband who has agreed to go through this with me.  I can't stress enough how important a support system is - even if it's just one person that you can complain to about how much you want that slice of Gouda and would it really hurt if you had that mini snickers left-over from Halloween??  "Yes.  It will hurt.  Put it down, silly." (Said in the voice of my awesome hubster.)

Okay, so what does all this have to do with blogging, you ask?  WELL.  Lemme tell ya.  As I was posting my 1,359,496th food picture to Instagram/Facebook, I found myself thinking, "Wow.  I like to talk about healthy eating.  I like to take pictures of what I make for myself and my family.  I like to share my daily meals, struggles, thoughts, and worries with my internet community.  And I'm probably driving some people insane."  

So instead of just flooding my personal Facebook feed with Whole 30 food pics (some people are weird and don't like looking at bacon all day), conversations about how awesome coconut oil and avocados really are (they're magical, no?) I should come here.  This place that I already have set up to blabber about whatever I want.  And what do I want to blabber about?  

Food.  Good food.  Healthy food.  

So, here I am.  The end of Day 6, about to hit the sack and head into Day 7.  It's been a week and man, oh man ... do I already feel light-years away from where I was the day before I took this plunge!  My goal for the blog is to try and post every day, even if it's just a few food snaps pilfered from my IG account (totally go follow me: @neely_thompson) or a whiny blurb about how I really wish I could have a glass of pinot grigio.  'Cause I totally have those moments.

Come back tomorrow if you're a little wacky and want to see my whole meal plan from Week 1, along with some links and reviews of recipes I found on Pinterest and around the web!  Oh, and pictures!  And maybe some cute little kids!  

So fun. Much excite. Many foods. ;)

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