Abigail's Whole30 in detail

Mostly for myself ( because I rarely used an actual recipe. Ever) but also for those who have asked...here is my reference on how I ate Whole30. Of course, it should be noted that I am NOT the expert and CLEARLY there are better ways to do Whole30 ( see: Abigail's grocery bill. ouch.)  But, I'm going to edit this to tell you what I WISH I had done. Ok, let's do this.


Shopping Lists: 

Whole Foods: 
( these foods are NOT essentials. They were mostly just helpful the first two weeks when I was much more "snacky" and had periodic cravings. Wish I hadn't had to buy these things because they were pricey... But I also made it because of these things...so? 

Sugar free bacon. It will cost you a fortune. So, if you're like us you'll buy four packages of bacon and ration it to once a week. I know this seems like we shouldn't spend $7.99 on a package of bacon. But you're not me. I looooove bacon.

The Bulk Bins.... I found these Almonds that are seasoned with sea salt and Apple cider vinegar. It sounds gross but Oh. My. Word. They were amazing.

Tessemae Sauces: I'm sure this is another thing one could do without. But I love sauces. And this made life so much easier to have these on hand without having to make my own. I really liked the Whole30 approved BBQ sauce as a marinade and their Whole30 Ketchup for potato dipping.
 ( Remember: Abigail had a 2 month old so I wasn't about making my own sauces this time. )

Freeze dried veggies. Not sure what these are called actually, but they're made by Whole Foods and they have the consistency of chips and are the perfect snack food.

Trader Joes: 
Trader Joes Mayonnaise is Whole30 compliant. I bought this stuff in bulk ( you'll see why later) because I did not have the time to make my own Mayo. Once again. 2 month old.

Coconut oil- they have the best.

Salsa ( no preservatives or added sugar!) 

Salsa verde ( so good)

Costco: 

Veggies and Fruit- we went through SO MUCH romaine lettuce, spinach and apples.
Lara Bars ( they were the cheapest here)
Eggs-by the case
Meat ( particularly the Chicken Apple Sausages and the Pork Butt Roast)
GIANT bucket of Dates to last a life time

other Store of your choice: 

Coconut Milk
La Croix ( this is at many different stores but they all seem to carry different flavors-go figure)



Meal Plan: 

Breakfast: 
Brett ate ALL THE EGGS. I only ate eggs the last two weeks because my doctors hadn't approved it for Justice's diet till then. But honestly I'm glad, because I don't really like eggs that much and two weeks of eggs every day was MORE than enough.

SO, Abigail's breakfast's were either leftovers from previous meals or:

Sweet potato plus either ground turkey or ground beef. Avocado. Seasonings. Any veggies I had in the fridge. All in a bowl. 

Baked Apples with cinnamon . ( I hear Apples in Almond butter is awesome but I don't keep Almond butter around because of Tabitha's tree but allergy...) 

*ps whole30 is not the friend of those with a tree nut allergy. They should work on that. 

COFFEE: 

*whole30 specifically says to NOT DO what I'm about to tell you. But I'm a rebel and they don't own me. Plus life is too short. 

Full fat coconut milk in the can is actually quite amazing. Keep it in a Tupperware in your fridge. Put it in your coffee and feel instantly better about life.

Make date syrup by boiling dates in water and then straining out leftover date bits, put some in your coffee as well. It will not make your coffee "sweet" but it WILL take the bitter edge off. This was VITAL to my sanity. You can't take that away from me, Whole30!!! 

Lunch: 

I kept grilled chicken pieces in my freezer. When I was inevitably starving and needed food fast ( read: every. day.)  I would microwave some grilled chicken which I would eat in a salad with avocado  and pumpkin seeds ( any time you read pumpkin seed you can feel free to substitute some other nut because you probably don't live with a toddler with a tree allergy) and dried cranberries or some other dried fruit. 

I also would make chicken salad with my trader joes mayo plus pumpkin seeds and raisins, throw in some paprika, some curry powder and some cinnamon and whoa. Tasty. Eat on a crunchy crunchy lettuce leaf . I am STILL eating this for lunch AFTER whole30. Sometimes I mix up the seasonings or change up the fruit (apples are good too). So good. 

Dinner: 

Throw things in the crockpot.

Seriously! Do it!

Pork shoulder with my whole30 approved BBQ sauce. Amaze.

Chicken pieces, olives, dates, dried apricots, garlic, dried plums. Awesome.

Chicken legs, onion, bell pepper, Mexican seasoning (check label for sneaky sugar!) 

Chicken, can of tomatoes, trader joes salsa, raisins, cumin, cinnamon, garlic, bell pepper. 

Then eat these meals with my standby sides of: baked sweet potato

roasted potatoes ( cut up, shake in a bag of olive oil and salt, put on foiled baking sheet on 400) 

Cauliflower "rice": ( I found after making this several ways,that to insure a nonsoggy caulflower (ew) the best thing to do was to take flutes of cauliflower chop up into rice size pieces in my vitamix ( or food processor), spread on oiled oven sheet and bake till it starts to brown a little on top.
EDIT: several weeks after finishing up my Whole30 I was in Trader Joes and I found that they sell bags of "Cauliflower rice" in the produce department! AND it was cheaper than buying a whole cauliflower! IT WAS THE BEST DAY EVER. It was a major nerd-alert at how excited I got about this product...because HONESTLY I did not enjoy the chopping up cauliflower and putting into my vitamix business....


We also ate a lot of sautéed spinach, steamed broccoli, asparagus and salads. 

Snacks:

Other than the stuff I picked up at Whole Foods for tons of money I also had the following as snacks...

La croix water.  (I know, carbonated water as a snack?! Yes. This is whole30) 

Get the coconut flavor it's amazing.

Lara bars ( cashew cookie was my favorite)

Dates, coconut milk, banana in a blender (yes, I'm told you shouldn't do smoothies while on whole30, but I was also breastfeeding, so several times when felt like my milk supply was going down this is what I made myself. It was amazing. I also made it for brett that one time he wanted to quit and eat ice cream) 

Dates wrapped in bacon. This is the best thing I've ever tasted both on or off of a diet. DO THIS. 

So there you have it!!! Now hand over $900 because that's how much all of that costs apparently. Sigh. Here's to every meal being beans and rice in February ;-)