Whole30 Round 2, days 3-7

Just meal plans for a bit! I am thrilled to be getting back to working out soon!

Day 3: 

Breakfast: turkey sausage, sweet potato, egg bake. Coffee w/coconut milk. Blackberries. 

Mid am: random fruit at a bday party. 

Lunch: 2 hb eggs. Carrots. olives. Banana. 

Dinner: hamburger party. Side salad. Side of fruit.

Day 4: 

Breakfast: Sausage, sweet potato & egg bake. Apple. Avocado.

Lunch: HUGE salad - romaine, chicken breast, olives, cucumbers, carrots. 1/3 baked potato with salsa. 

Dinner: Steak, curried cauliflower, baked potato, sauteed mushrooms, salad with Tessamae's balsamic dressing.

Day 5: 

Breakfast: 3 eggs, 1/3 avocado, greens, banana. 

PWO: egg white

Lunch: steak, 1/2 avocado, carrots, sweet potato (about 1/2). 

PM snack: banana, handful almonds

Dinner: spaghetti squash & meatballs. Salad.

Day 6:

Breakfast: 2 slices of bacon, 1/2 an avocado, 3 scrambled eggs, banana. Coffee with coconut cream.

Lunch: most of a chicken breast with Frank's, romaine with a splash of tessamae's balsamic, carrots, 1/2 of a pear, 3 meatballs. 

Dinner: Almond crusted chicken strips, pineapple, sweet potato "fries" (they were really mushy!) and roasted broccoli.

Day 7: 

Breakfast: 3 eggs scrambled, 2 slices of bacon, 1/4 avocado, banana. 

Lunch: 4 meatballs, spaghetti squash (not much, probably 1/4-1/2 cup), 6 olives, apple.

Midafternoon: banana

Dinner: 1 1/2 buffalo chicken stuffed peppers and a side salad.

Whole30 #2 Prep

I realize this is really Whole30 #1.3 at this point, since I've tried 2 additional times and have only completed a few weeks at a time. But we're calling this Whole30 #2 because I know I will be successful this time. I am not the only one counting on it! (Growing a person is hard work!) 

I started making some general meal plans and realized that most of these foods we have been eating ever since our FIRST Whole30 - they have become some of the most requested and favorite meals. This is encouraging that it won't be such a hard transition for my family (mostly the kids*). 

This week's menu will loosely look like this: 

• Plantain nachos
• Buffalo chicken lettuce wraps 
• Balsamic chicken thighs, zucchini & sweet potatoes
• Grilled chicken, roasted red potatoes & roasted garlic broccoli
• Stir fry over cauli-rice

I am going to sit down tomorrow and make a grocery list, pulling from some of our favorites. After almost two solid weeks of eating in restaurants and fast food, my body is DYING to have some real nutrition!!  Nothing will taste better than a huge chicken salad with veggies and olives! 

Also can't wait? To get back to the gym!!  Now that my morning sickness has ended, I am excited to get back to running (goal: Run a 5K this fall and another half marathon Spring 2016). 

While I didn't "succeed" with my goals for this year, I am so happy with the way this year has gone. I have changed my health, my body chemistry and I am a better person moving forward. Thankful for all of the people who have helped me along the way and excited to see what the coming year holds for us!

*As a sidenote, since my kids have done the full Whole30 successfully and we established that they didn't have any severe food allergies, I will not keep them strictly on it this time. We haven't ever really transitioned back to cow milk for them to drink but I will not restrict them from cheese and grains, primarily at lunch time. Dinners will be compliant with no additions. 

A few of my favorite things ...

I've been looking back through my blog, trying to remember what we ate last time we did this.  It seemed like a good idea to put ALL of the recipes that I loved in ONE place for me this time, for anyone else doing a Whole30 who needs inspiration.

My FAVORITE recipe recommendation when someone talks about getting sick of eggs: Sweet Potato Hash !!!  Do NOT skip the paleo bacon! (I link to what I use later in this post)  I am making it for breakfast for the week and it's the one thing I look forward to the most!  Add avocado and a fried egg on top for sheer delicious!


Crockpot Balsamic Chicken - I was chicken-thigh-a-phobic before we tried this recipe.  But this recipe - I ALWAYS use thighs!  I despise taking skin off chicken, but I will do it for this recipe. :-)   My kids love this recipe - as in, seconds, thirds, as much as I will let them eat!



Plantain Nachos - Whole30 or not, I will always use this recipe for my taco meat.  The plantain chips are so good they are almost SWYPO.... but it's approved, so I will go with it!



Old School Italian Meat Sauce - I make this, but without the "meat sauce" part. It's my go-to marinara for spaghetti squash, chicken and meatballs.


Good old burger - we splurged on grass fed beef, which we don't normally do. We grilled the burgers and added the Pederson's  bacon (PALEO - no sugar added!!) *

Prosciutto Wrapped Egg Muffins - Perfect for breakfast! Last time I made them, I blended spinach with the eggs and called it "Green eggs and ham" - my daughter had asked for them.  She, of course, hated them (green, ya know) but I loved them! This time I am going to try to put in peppers, onion and more spinach!


And my FAVORITE: Ginger Lime Shrimp. Mostly my favorite because we had them for dinner and my SHRIMP HATING daughter decided she loves shrimp!  It has a great flavor and I am definitely including it in my meal plan in the coming week!





Hubby's favorite - Buffalo Chicken wraps - I cooked ground chicken in ghee and Frank's hot sauce. I loaded that up in a lettuce wrap with celery, avocado and tomato.










*If this is your first Whole30, make SURE you are reading ingredients, NOT just sugar content!  Often times, lunch meats, bacon, ham etc will have a 0g sugar content but there is still sugar used in the preparation, often a rub or brine. THIS COUNTS!! 

Week 4.... The Home Stretch

Week Four, almost done.  I can't believe we've almost finished the entire Whole30 we set out to complete! 

This post won't be our complete eating for the last week - I'm breaking it up since we went camping (CAMPING! During Whole30!! What about beer?! What about s'mores?!?) and I want to pull that out separately! 

I don't know if I ever actually explained why I am posting our meals. I have had so many people compare this to the Atkins diet - to "low carb" diets - wondering if we're hungry all the time (no snacking, remember??).  The answer is NO!! And this is NOTHING like the "low carb" fads that have been around.  We snacked a bit over the weekend while camping (just some fruit/nuts in the afternoon) and I give my kids an afternoon snack everyday, but hubby and I have not snacked for the most part of the 30 days.  We ate, and ate well! The food has been delicious. I've found a new way to spice taco meat (WITHOUT a packet!) and flavor combinations (PLEASE try sweet potato and bacon!! OMG and if you're daring, add PINEAPPLE.)

Day 22, Easter:

Breakfast: Scrambled eggs with green pepper & onion, 2 strips of bacon, sweet potato hash. Coffee with coconut milk.

Lunch: Applegate hot dogs, apple with almond butter, avocado and sugar snap peas.

Dinner: Steak (missing from the picture, I hadn't plated it yet!), ginger-lime shrimp, whipped sweet potatoes, curried cauliflower. For "dessert"** I made coconut milk whipped with cocoa powder and strawberries.  FAR cry from what Easter used to be in this house!

 ** Dessert breaks the Whole30 rules because it's considered SWYPO, but it was Easter and considering the things we ate last year (and every year before that) and the fact that my kids did not complain ONCE that there was no candy - we had us some dessert! 

Workout: Rest 

Total Time: 0

Total Calories Burned: 0

Day 23:

Breakfast: Scrambled eggs with homemade breakfast sausage, 2 cups super greens, 1/3 avocado. Coffee with coconut milk.

Lunch: Super greens, chicken breast, handful of green olives, 1/2 sweet potato with cinnamon, 8 strawberries. 

Dinner: Meatballs with homemade marinara, spaghetti squash and peas. 

Decaf coffee with coconut milk after dinner

Workout: Sick kiddo  

Total Time: 0

Total Calories Burned: 0

Day 24:

Breakfast: Scrambled eggs, 1/2 avocado, whipped sweet potatoes with cinnamon. Coffee with coconut milk.

Lunch: Chicken breast, sliced carrots, zucchini & yellow squash & onions from kabobs, Cara cara orange. 

Dinner: Balsamic chicken thighs, homemade marinara, spaghetti squash and green beans. 

Decaf coffee with coconut milk after dinner

 

Workout: Jamie Eason LiveFit training day 57 - Quads & Calves

Total Time: 1 hr 20 min

Total Calories Burned: 568 cals

Felt good today. A great workout certainly helped it along! I'm counting the days until we're done now! We're going camping this weekend and it will certainly be a challenge to camp without s'mores, sandwiches and alcohol, but we're working on it!

Day 25:

Breakfast: Scrambled eggs, pineapple, some green pepper. Coffee with coconut milk. <-- I have a head cold and everything tasted weird this am.

PWO: Small chicken breast

Lunch: One whole HB egg, one HB egg white, 1/2 avocado in 3 lettuce wraps. Banana. 

Dinner: BBQ rubbed pork tenderloin, 1/2 sweet potato with cinnamon, roasted broccoli. 

Decaf coffee with coconut milk in the afternoon.

Workout: Jamie Eason LiveFit training day 58 - Arms/Back/Abs and Sprints

Total Time: 1 hr 41 min

Total Calories Burned: 675 cals

Workout today really made me feel strong. I don't know if I'm inching towards tiger blood or what, but it was just a good workout. I surprised myself with how hard I was able to push myself.  

Day 26:

Breakfast: 1 scrambled egg, 1/2 chicken apple sausage, banana. Coconut milk in coffee.

Lunch: Chicken breast, handful of olives, super greens, red grapes. 

Dinner: Jerk spiced salmon, peas, a hash mixture of sweet potatoes, pineapple and bacon. 

Workout: Rest

Total Time: 

Total Calories Burned: 

Good day. Counting the days to be done (4). 

Whole30 Food Prep Day

I've gotten a TON TON of questions about the prep day I did this weekend.  So far (heck, it's only Tuesday!) I feel like it's helped a ton, but I will leave my final determination for this weekend!

I followed the prep day lists in Well Fed, but adjusted amounts for our family of 4. Here's what I completed:

Haven't worn my apron in a long time!
Had to document!

6 chicken breasts

2 lbs ground beef

1lb homemade breakfast sausage (to go in my egg muffins later)

Hard boiled 18 eggs

Steam sautéed: 

• broccoli
• cauliflower
• cabbage
• zucchini
• celery 

Baked sweet potatoes & spaghetti squash  

Roasted radishes

I made the "Best Chicken Ever" recipe from Well Fed. Fired up the grill and let those char.  I multi-tasked in the kitchen with a pot on every burner (below are eggs, ground beef and cabbage), chopping while the pans preheated and the oven was running too! 

I had three timers going almost the whole time, depending on what step I was on. One to remind me to flip the chicken on the grill outside, one to turn the eggs off when they started to boil, one to check the sweet potatoes in the oven. I started with the chicken and seasoned/grilled that. I started the water boiling for the eggs just after putting the chicken on the grill.  I browned 2lbs of ground beef, sautéed with onion and granulated garlic, until it was cooked through. 

I didn't take a picture of my fridge right now, but it's a glorious mess of produce and containers full of ready-to-be-eaten food. It's wonderful! 

  My egg muffins have chopped spinach from Trader Joe's (I throw it in frozen!), chopped tomatoes and homemade blended breakfast sausage. This time I used 12 eggs. 

I peeled, chopped and soaked jicama in my crockpot to be made into Jicama Home Fries on Monday evening for dinner.  I mixed those with apples, cabbage and the precooked chicken to make a yummy hash. 

My meals this week will revolve more around the Hot Plate plan than actual recipes like I did last week.  I'm excited to see if this planning day keeps me out of the kitchen for hours upon hours each day.  So far, so good, that's for sure. 

Whole30 Days 4-7 Review

Whew! ONE WEEK done.

Day 4:

Breakfast: 2 egg muffins, 1/2 avocado, coffee with full fat coconut milk from a can, 2 cups super greens

Lunch: Chicken breast, super greens (probably 3 cups), Tessamae's balsamic vinaigrette, 1/2 tomato, 1 hard boiled egg & 10 dried apricots. 

Dinner: Spaghetti squash with marinara (Well Fed - the meat sauce w/o meat), 6-1Tbsp Italian meatballs, sautéed mushrooms and onions (sautéed in ghee and garlic)

One cup of coffee in the afternoon, one cup of tea at bedtime.

Workout: Jamie Eason Livefit Training Day 38: Legs

Total Time: 42

Total Calories Burned: 245 cals

I was able to run my whole 5 min warmup at 7.0 on the treadmill!!  My leg workout was decent, but I was under a time crunch and cut a few of my very favorite moves. Boohoo! 

Day 5:

Breakfast: 4 eggs scrambled with 1 homemade sausage and 3/4 of a green pepper, 1/2 small sweet potato, 1 cup homemade apple/pear sauce, coffee with canned coconut milk. 

Lunch: 1/2 apple, almond butter, 5 small meatballs (leftover from last night's dinner), small handful of green olives, 2 cups of sugar snap peas, coffee with canned coconut milk

Dinner: Plantain Nachos from Well Fed (plantains baked, with a taco seasoned meat), topped with tomatoes and 1/4 avocado, cumin spiced baked carrots (Well Fed) and cilantro lime cauli-rice. 

One cup of tea at bedtime.

Workout: Jamie Eason Livefit Training Day 39: Arms/Abs/Cardio

Total Time: 32

Total Calories Burned: haven't checked my Garmin, but I think it was around 150.

I skipped my cardio because I ran out of time before my son's swimming lessons. 

Strayed from all the greens today a bit. I started getting bored and bored on day 5 doesn't bode well for me making it all the way through! I still tried to keep the meal plan template. Dinner was probably a little starch/carb heavy but it was soooo delicious. 

 Day 6:

Breakfast: 4 eggs scrambled, 2 cups of greens, 1/2 avocado, coffee with canned coconut milk. 

PostWO: 3/4 small sweet potato, 2 slices spiced pork tenderloin

Lunch: 2 1/2 cups super greens (Actually called "power greens" at Costco), 1 HB egg, pork tenderloin, sugar snap peas, broccoli, Tessamae's balsamic 

Dinner: Homemade Italian sausage in a portobello mushroom cap with homemade marinara (from Well Fed), 1 cup green beans, 1 1/2 cups broccoli

Licked the spoon after giving my kiddos an almond butter snack!

One cup of tea at bedtime.

Workout: Jamie Eason Livefit Training Day 40: Shoulders/Cardio

Total Time: 1:20

Total Calories Burned: 478

Soooooo bloated today. Could probably convince people I was 3 mos pg. 

Day 7:
 Breakfast: 1 medium cooked egg, sweet potato hash with bacon, pineapple, 1/2 avocado.

Lunch: Chicken breast, green olives, carrots, sugar snap peas, radishes, 1/2 apple, 2 Tbsp almond butter.

Dinner: 1/2lb burger, 1/2 tomato, 1/2 avocado, 1 cup green beans, 1 cup baked carrots, 1/2 cup butternut squash. 

One cup of decaf coffee at bedtime.

Workout: Rest day

Total Time:

Total Calories Burned:

I was sooooooooo crabby today. So extremely crabby!! Still feeling bloated today but not as bad. Trying to drink more water today.  

Week 1 Summary thoughts: I've been crabby but without real terrible physical side effects - no nausea, no headaches or stomach aches. The lightheadedness/dizziness has eased up and I've been able to get through my day without having any today.

I haven't been hungry between meals at all. I don't know if it's that I'm balancing correctly (fat/protein/carb) or if it's my weird psychosis about things I "can't eat" but it's wokring for me!  REALLY having to hold myself back from stepping on the scale, but I will continue to take weekly progress photos, so that kind of helps me in that respect.

In total, I call week 1 a success - with one MINOR issue. I feel like I have been spending THE WHOLE DAY in the kitchen!! Wake up, make a full breakfast for 4 people, send one to school, one to work. Unload dishwasher. Reload & run dishwasher. Clean the kitchen. Go to the gym. Come home, start a full LUNCH for 3 people. Have lunch. Clean up.  Start prepping dinner items around 3 depending on the recipe. Unload dishwasher, reload dishwasher. Start fully cooking around 4:15, cook until dinner at 5:30ish, eat. Clean up. Prep for tomorrow.

I had a HUGE prep day today - will post about that later this week, along with what my kids are eating! - and got a ton of stuff out of the way. I'm hoping to stay out of the kitchen more this week, especially with good weather coming our way!

Whole30 Eve

Tomorrow is the day.  We are starting Whole30 tomorrow morning. 

After church, we are heading to Costco to pick up a few last minute items - eggs, pork tenderloins, a few more veggies. 

Mentally, I'm ready.  I'm bracing myself for the detox this week. I plan to write down my thoughts as the weeks go on and will post them here as a check in. Tomorrow I will be taking measurements and pictures, weighing myself for the last time (my husband said he is throwing away my scale! Yikes!)  and generally mourning what I used to be.

And having a big ole celebration for what we will become! 

While I am excited to try recipes from Well Fed and Well Fed 2, I think this first week, we'll be doing a lot of the "hot plates" instead of full blown meals. Cooking up a lot of ground beef and chicken breasts, "steam sautéing" veggies then mixing and matching for the week. 

So while the list of things that I will miss is long --

• wine
• half and half
• cheese
• rice
• tortillas
• baked potatoes

-- the list of  benefits (health and beyond!!!)  FAR outweighs all of those things combined. 

I absolutely am excited for this.  I can't believe we're doing it  - all of us, even my kids!  Although I know my daughter has a birthday party next weekend. How do I control what she eats at a sleepover?  I mean, I can't. Part of the reason I want to do this is to see if getting her away from dairy to see if it helps her allergies - but going to a sleepover where I am about 90% certain they will serve pizza for dinner and cereal for breakfast?  How do I even influence this?   

This month will be a lot of navigation for us. Leading my son away from his breakfast cereals, my daughter away from cheese & crackers in her school lunch....  I just don't know how it's all going to go!!  Daily navigation. DAILY. 

For now, I will be having the rest of my wine tonight and starting fresh tomorrow. 

Whole30 here we come.

Phase 2: Jamie Eason LiveFit Training

Tomorrow I start Phase 2. Biggest awesome for me?

  CARDIO!! 

My beloved cardio is coming back! I can't wait!

So far, doing well.  Still haven't started Whole30 - still researching, prepping. I ran out of half and half yesterday so I've decided to muddle through black coffee (with the occasional Vietnamese coffee or Starbucks coffee to get me through) beginning now. I've had a bit more wine than usual :-) I've been tapering my grains a lot.

I haven't decided where I'll end up when this Whole30 is over. I don't know that I can sustain the "Whole30" guidelines for the long term. I saw this image:

From THIS I feel Primal is do-able. I'd even get some white potatoes occasionally?? I don't know - I don't know if I will want to go back to it. I'm hoping not.  I do think we'll do some hybrid of clean eating and primal. If my kiddos' allergies are gone at the end of this (during SPRING!!) we'll leave milk out.  They have already told me they prefer almond milk, which is awesome. I will be attempting homemade almond milk coming up soon! 

I do have a food porn blog post coming up - as I said, I've been easing out my carbs and dairy to focus more on full plates of meat and veggies.  I have a co-op order coming in on Tuesday that will bulk up our veggies!! My order includes: 

Bananas

Red pears

Citrus pack

Roma tomatoes

Cantaloupe

Asparagus

Kale

Carrots

Cucumbers

Green beans

Cabbage 

Avocadoes 6ct

Potatoes: Sweet

Red cabbage

Baby Portabella Mushrooms

Carrots Jumbo

Brussel Sprouts

Tomatoes vine ripe

Lemons and Limes

Excited to try including some "new" things in our routines - cabbage being a big one!  I am going to start making sure to have tons of sweet potatoes around to use after my cardio workouts and lifting sessions. 

Any vegetables that aren't "common" that I should try that are favorites in your household (particularly with kiddos!!) ??? 

Meal Planning and workouts

I'm going through another food overhaul. Remember how I mentioned I need to clean up my eating in my last post? Well, I was about mid-way through reading It Starts With Food. Since finishing the book, I have decided my family will be doing a Whole30, starting as soon as I can find the nerve. :-)

I'm trying not to say "I want to wait until..." because there is ALWAYS something else. I want to wait until - after my mom's next visit, after our cheese is gone, after Easter, after 4th of July, after school starts - before you know it, it's September!  So I know I just need to do it now. Hopefully, we can do the Whole30 and discover exactly what makes us tick.  I don't want to live a life of extremes, but I do know that we all need a good reset.  Lots of junk (sugar, alcohol, grains) is plaguing my family right now. My son would be THRILLED if he could eat cereal, toast and a scone every morning for breakfast. His little heart is going to be broken at the lack of O's for awhile. But ya know what? He'll adapt.  He luckily also loves "eggies" so I know there will be LOTS of those on our menu.  He's good with veggies too!  The tough cookie with veggies will be my lovely daughter.  She is very good about eating whatever protein we give her, but veggies can sometimes be a fight. Lately, she's been a rockstar, so I'm hoping that awesome rockstar-ness continues.

Obviously I know I can't control every morsel in their (or even my hubby's!) mouths.  I am just trying to give them the best foundation I can.

Yesterday's leg day stats.

I am still working through the Jamie Eason plan. Leg day yesterday was KILLER. I haven't felt this much (good) pain in awhile!  Today was back/bicep and I am not feeling the pain yet, but I feel STRONGER.  The weather yesterday and today is unbelievable, so we've been outside nonstop. Little Guy and I went to the zoo yesterday and enjoyed the sun. Then we played kickball as a family after dinner!   Today, he and I went to the lake on a walk after the Y, then played outside until lunch. We're hanging out inside for a little rest, but will head outside shortly to watch for big sis to come home on the bus.  Then it will be MORE playing outside. :-) I love this weather (curses on the SNOW that is predicted for tomorrow!!)

Hoping to get my body fat tested tomorrow. Last time I had it checked, I was at 28% - Yikes!! Hoping Whole30 will help that aspect too.

All in all, I am feeling good. I spent our outside time perusing  Well Fed and Well Fed 2 for recipes. Most of them - mouthwatering. Truly excited to revolutionize our eating for awhile!!

Let's Try Again - Jamie Eason Day 1 - Tri/Chest

I did Jamie Eason's LiveFit trainer, day 1, AGAIN today. 

My weights were drastically different. 

Doing flyes last week with 10lbs, 5 this week.  

Dumbbell bench presses with 15 last week, 7.5 this week.  

I feel like I could have pushed myself MORE but I also don't want to blow out my arm my first day back. 

And surprisingly, this afternoon, my arm feels BETTER.  

What kind of crazy business is this?! I haven't had the throbbing, dull, constant pain today that I've had for a week now. Who would have thought I NEEDED to lift to make it better?! 

So back to the grind. Day 2 tomorrow, Day 3 on Wednesday then I will have to sneak Day 4 in sometime either in the evening or this weekend, since my daughter is off school on Friday. 

So hurray for good news, finally! I'm working on getting my eating back in check after a desperately horrible food weekend.  

Tonight's dinner is my very favorite -  Tamari Honey Chicken with Broccoli & Almond Butter Sauce. 

Have you ever found that working out actually helped an injury for you?   Still so surprised at how today went!

Update: Freezer Meals

I haven't COOKED A MEAL in over a week. It's glorious! 

Of course last week was Thanksgiving and we were out of town.   

But Monday before Thanksgiving we had the BBQ chicken. We put the chicken (shredded thanks to cooking so long!) on top of baked potatoes with a little sour cream - delish! 

We spent Sunday getting out all of our Christmas things so I knew we needed a good crock pot meal so we didn't have to focus on dinner.  We had the Curry chicken with basmati rice and homemade naan (frozen last time we had tikka masala).  

• Consensus was that it was good. I felt it was lacking a little flavor - maybe a spicy kick? Or salt. I tried adding more salt but it didn't hit the flavor note I was missing. Next time will add a touch of cayenne and maybe only one can of coconut milk instead of two. 

Monday night we had the Beef Pepperoncini sandwiches with fries and salad. 

• The kids thought it was a little spicy, but when you had the meat with cheese and the bread I put it on, the spice was cut for sure. Note: buy the chopped pepperoncinis or cut the stems off beforehand. :-)  I didn't think that through and I wound up burning my fingers trying to pull the stems off right before I served the sandwiches!

Tuesday we had the taco meat (ground beef, taco seasoning - homemade - and a can of rinsed black beans). We added water to the crock pot and let it cook.  About 20 minutes before I served it, I added half a bag of frozen corn to the meat. 

• The kids had seconds AND THIRDS!  I added ground beef that I had frozen before to my meal bag. Next time I will be sure to use unfrozen meat and flatten it out. It cooked the entire day in a lump. Easily remedied by using my potato masher, but the flavor may have been more consistent if it had cooked "crumbled" all day. 

Wednesday we tried the Mongolian Beef.  I sautéed green beans and broccoli with the drippings from the crock pot (mixed with a slurry of 1Tbsp of corn starch with 2 Tbsp of cold water). I served with brown rice. I put everything together in a bowl. 

• Husband and I would have eaten seconds - if I hadn't run out of meat!! I will DEFINITELY double the size of the roast I use next time in each package!  There are NO leftovers of meat from this meal, but we have extra brown rice and veggies.  The kids thought it was "ok" but I don't think it was their favorite of the foods we've tried. For me and hubby, it may be our favorite meal that we've tried so far!

All in all, this has been an EXCELLENT experience. 

What makes it better - ??   

CROCK POT LINERS! 

I've had barely any dishes to do post-dinner and it's been LOVELY. 

I think tomorrow night we will try either the wine/herb chicken or the rosemary honey chicken!  If the rosemary honey chicken is awesome, I may get a beef tenderloin to try with that flavor profile too. 

AFA my fitness - nonexistent now. I lost a total of 4lbs in November. Not too shabby but it's not where I'd hoped to be by December 1st. 

But that will change.

I resigned from my job last week. My last day is December 19th. I am looking forward to being home with my babies again, helping out at my KINDERGARTENER'S school, homeschooling my little guy until he's old enough for official preschool....   It was a hard decision but something that my husband and I agree is best for our family. 

So come January - the fitness/health will be kicking into high gear again. I am looking forward to being healthy about it. There is no doubt, looking back, that I was being unhealthy last Jan/Feb. I was working out 10+ hours a week, being ridiculous with my choices and becoming borderline obsessed with it. I am hopeful that I can keep an awesome balance for me and my little guy. 

So I'm taking December and having fun, enjoying my family and my last few weeks working.  But January - with the rest of the "new years resolution" crowd - I'll be kicking ass and taking names!

Freezer "OAMC" Meals

There's a lot of buzz around freezer meals lately. Or maybe it's not lately and I'm just late to the game. 

Oh well, whatever it is, I had a friend who posted about doing this last month and it REALLY inspired me.  We've been eating VERY poorly since I started working. I simply have NO inspiration and by the time I figure it out, whatever I've decided won't be ready for another hour or two.  And we have two small-ish kids with early bedtimes (for mommy's sanity!) 

When I read her plan and how she went about prepping her meals, I thought "hey, I can do that. And if I do it NOW, it will take me through the Christmas holiday!"   So I started looking through Pinterest and lots of blog posts finding some good and diverse menu plans.  I knew from the start that I wanted "dump" meals - I didn't want to spend a ton of time pre-cooking things and I wanted the prep on the day I cook to be minimal to nothing. 

I will say, almost everything in my meals is clean! I honestly didn't check the Worcestershire sauce or the A-1. 

I found the following meals: 

Mongolian Beef x2

Pepper Steak x2

Mexican Spiced Pork Loin x2

Coconut Chicken Curry x2

Honey Rosemary Chicken x2

Beef Pepperoncini Sandwiches* x2

Herb Wine "Dump" Chicken x2

BBQ Chicken (using SkinnyTaste BBQ Sauce!) x4

Tacos (my own creation) x3

Pizza Dough (following this recipe and process for cooking, but freezing after first rise) x3

I started the day with shopping. Costco and Walmart.  Here's my shopping list: 

Costco

5 lbs beef chuck roast

4.5 lbs beef roast (to chop into stew meat) 

2-5lb bags of onions

2-10lb bags of boneless, skinless chicken breasts

shredded mozzarella cheese

gallon sized bags (although we didn't need these!)

Worcestershire sauce

Walmart

Turkey pepperoni (to freeze for the pizzas)

Whole wheat flour

Fresh rosemary

Green peppers

Soy sauce

Hoisen sauce

Balsamic vinegar

Liquid smoke flavoring

Fresh ginger

1 lemon

2 jars pepperoncini

I had planned to shop today and prep all the food tomorrow. However, I came home and was too anxious looking at everything just sitting there to leave it be! (And my fridge was WAY too full!)   So I started prepping right away, around 3pm. 

After a brief run to the grocery store one last time (Helpful Hint: Don't just say "yes, I have balsamic vinegar in the pantry" - Actually MEASURE that you have enough. I was 1/3 cup shy for the recipe!!) I got to work. First thing I did was make up my own Italian seasoning and taco seasoning mixes. Then I started my pizza dough, knowing it would need to rise before I could package it away.  While my pizza crust was rising, I got to work on my BBQ sauce. I've made this recipe a few times, so I know I like the blend of spices & flavors so I made it exactly as written. 

Once this was done, I labeled all of my bags. I made sure to put today's date, the name of the recipe (sounds obvious, but it wouldn't shock me if I saw a bag mislabeled and could never find the recipe I used ever again!), any additional ingredients to be added at the time of cooking and the actual cooking directions! 

While that simmered and my pizza rose, I started chopping. I PURPOSEFULLY picked recipes that were fairly easy this time around (you know, the first time I've done this!)  Most of them were a sauce or spice mix and meat.  I chose very few veggies. Thankfully, my work schedule gets me home by 3pm everyday, so throwing together sides isn't usually an issue.  I have no problem making veggies and a starch once I'm home.  

My chopping prep consisted of  onions, 1 finger of ginger, 4 green peppers, slicing 1 lemon and some fresh rosemary. I even used pre-minced garlic to make it easier on myself. 

Around this time, my pizza dough finished it's first rise. I pulled it out, separated it into 4 servings and covered three to put away in the freezer. One became dinner tonight!

I put all of my chopped goods in the bags and moved on to the actual recipe ingredients. Sauces, spices, vinegars and sweeteners, if necessary. I did this one recipe at a time until I came to the end. 

Mexican Spiced Pork, Herb Wine Chicken

The last step I did was to add all of the meat. I started with the beef that I had to portion and chop into "stew meat" pieces. I weighed it out and added it to the separate bags - for Mongolian beef and Pepper Steak.   Then I pulled out the bags of chicken. We had an open bag in the chicken in the freezer so I started with that one.  Added frozen chicken breasts to each of the required bags. It took the remainder of the partial bag and a full 10lb bag. 

I didn't have a formal recipe for my bbq chicken or my taco meat. For my bbq chicken, I just made up the BBQ sauce then threw in 4-5 chicken breasts and froze. 

For the tacos, I took already frozen ground beef and added 2Tbsp of my homemade taco seasoning and a can of rinsed black beans. I plan to add a cup of water to the crockpot and probably a bag of frozen corn just before serving.

Obviously I can't speak to whether or not these recipes are TASTY, as we haven't tried them! But I will be sure to update with reviews as we begin eating them!

Curry Chicken, Honey Rosemary Chicken

 Four and a half hours, 2 3 trips to the store - 24 meals ready to go into my crockpot!! Yay for no cooking or meal planning between now and Christmas!! 

BBQ Chicken

Mongolian Beef, Pepperoncini Beef, Pepper Steak