Today’s post is Part Two of a two-part series to catch you up to “real-time” on our journey through The Whole30. Today is Day 16.
For real.
And I’ll be honest.
I feel like I’ve hit a wall.
It’s not that I have irresistible cravings that I can’t overcome.
It’s not that I feel bad.
And it’s not that I’m feeling deprived.
I feel quite good, actually.
But I’m bored. And nothing sounds good. Because I’ve completely lost my appetite these last few days.
And with dinner staring me in the face in two hours, I have no idea what we’ll eat. This, despite the fact that I meal planned for the whole week, have something very specific on the calendar to prepare, and have all the ingredients stocked to prepare it.
It’s just that we’re hosting small group at our house tonight.
I don’t want to eat what I planned.
And I don’t want to mess up my kitchen.
In the past, we would have run to Eatzis to solve this problem.
But we’re spending so much money on groceries these days, that I can’t bear the thought of paying to eat out tonight, even if there are perfectly healthy options for the taking at the Eatzis hot grill!
Ugh.
As I typed this last paragraph, though, our daughter came in saying she was already hungry for dinner, and she offered to cook eggs for herself and the boys. So their having scrambled eggs, peas, and fruit.
I have no idea what Kory and I will eat.
In other news, over the weekend we had to navigate a wedding reception.
It was the first of two that we will attend during our Whole30, which is funny, because we haven’t been to a wedding together in over a year!
The bride at this wedding was a vegetarian, so I was confident there would be food on the buffet that we could eat. And I was right!
The appetizers included some delicious roasted zucchini, portabella mushrooms, asparagus, and bell peppers. And this is what I managed to piece together from the main course buffet:
The salad dressings weren’t Whole30 compliant, though, so I grabbed two lemons from the beverage station, squeezed the juice over my salad, and sprinkled it with salt and pepper. This is a perfectly acceptable salad dressing in a pinch, and I can’t think of any establishment that won’t be able to offer these ingredients down the road. (I am shocked at the number of restaurants that do not offer vinegar and oil, something I never noticed before Whole30.)
We had a great time, and our food limitations did not spoil the fun!
As I shared in Part I of this series, over the weekend, we spent quite a bit of time with my sister and her family.
She taught me how to make another delicious sweet treat that reminds me of sorbet (If you missed the banana and walnut smoothie, check out yesterday’s post for the recipe!):
All we did was throw some frozen bananas, frozen strawberries, and a vanilla bean into the food processor and blend them with some coconut milk until smooth and served immediately. If you want the consistency to be more like a firm ice cream, just pop it into the freezer for a little while.
Delicious! So refreshing! And a really nice change of pace!
Having scored some Whole30 compliant bratwurst from Amana, Iowa when he was there to celebrate the life of his grandmother, Kory decided to reach back into his German roots and create a Whole30 compliant Kartoffelgemuse on Memorial Day.
This is the plate he ate while in Amana, and what we ate over the weekend looked very similar:
Here’s how he made it Whole30 compliant:
Ingredients:
4-6 bratwurst (read your labels!)
8-10 red potatoes, peeled and quartered
1 yellow onion, diced
2 Tablespoons clarified butter
Salt
Pepper
1 jar, Sauerkraut (read your labels!)
2 Tablespoons caraway seeds
Directions:
In a stock pot or dutch oven, saute onions in clarified butter until they begin to caramelize. Add potatoes and fill with water to an inch above the potatoes. Let potatoes boil down for about twenty minutes. Stir to break up some of the potatoes to thicken with the water into a sauce. Add a little clarified butter until desired creamy consistency is reached. Season with salt and pepper. Serve with bratwurst (boiled) and sauerkraut.
Note: Kory usually prepares his sauerkraut several days ahead of time, pouring it into a bowl, adding two tablespoons of caraway seeds, and putting it back into the jar to refrigerate for several days.
We also had this green bean salad with red onion and tomato.
This dish is absolutely delicious and is Whole30 compliant with no adjustments. This has been in our rotation for a long time, and I add fresh dill and avocado to make it extra yummy! (I also think you could add just about any vegetable in your refrigerator to this, and it would work.)
After our guests left yesterday, I settled in to watch Fed Up, a documentary about childhood obesity that is available on Netflix .
This movie was so well done and informative, but the data is shocking. If you’re “on the fence” about whether to take The Whole30 challenge, engage in some other clean eating regimen, or make some changes for your family, watch this documentary. It just might be your tipping point.
More tomorrow!
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