The Plan

Things have been a bit busier than usual over here the last week or two. I interviewed, started paperwork, and started training for a new job working with kids. So I've been running back and forth trying to get fingerprints and doctor signatures and all kinds of stuff for that. Also, we just got our puppy spayed. So I had to go drop her off one day and pick her up the next and we've been keeping a watchful eye on her to make sure she doesn't hurt herself. And then my mother-in-law came into town for the weekend so I was busy cleaning and doing everything to get ready for that. Last week was crazy. This week I officially started clocking hours at the new job, but today is my first long day.

I've spent the last 8 years working at home on a computer. This new job will have me up on my feet. I also won't be able to just sit and snack during the day. It is going to be kind of a big adjustment for me. I've had problems with my back for the last two years and I'm going to have to find a good chiropractor sooner rather than later. I've been seeing one, but I think I'm ready to try a new technique and just see if it helps. I'm excited about this change though, because it means I won't be sitting all day. I will be up and either playing with, taking care of, or guiding the kids; or I will be cleaning up after them. I'm excited to see if this helps my metabolism a bit. I haven't gotten a good reading yet, but so far I've already seen the numbers on the scale go down. I will see what happens when I weigh in on Friday. 

So my plan for this journey is to use this new job to my advantage. I am not going to pack junk food to snack on, I don't have the time to run to the store just because of a craving or whatever. So now I just need to get organized. I want to come up with a better meal plan that I can actually stick to. I have a crock pot and an InstantPot, so there's no reason I can't use those to make some healthy meals even if I'm short on time. I need to get more organized with breakfast. Typically, breakfast is a mess because I have so much to do in the morning to get the kids ready and get ready for job #1 and mostly I end up just eating coffee and toast, which isn't terribly nutritious, lol. And then I get hungry again and end up snacking. 

Another hard part of this routine is that I am going to have to struggle to fit in a workout. I still have job #1 in the morning and job #2 in the afternoon. And then kids' bedtime comes and by the end of that I am ready for bed too, lol. But I want to focus on the food for now and get some good momentum. The better I do with that, the more energy I will have and hopefully I will be able to start fitting in a workout then too. 

It's tough sometimes because I want to be able to jump in with food and exercise and everything all at once. But I need to be careful with my back, I don't want to burn out too quickly, and mostly I'm afraid if I try too much I will get stressed and stress eat, which is the exact opposite of what I'm trying to accomplish. But the first time I lost weight, I was able to spend 6 months just focusing on my diet and I lost 50 pounds... without working out at all. So that gives me hope that I can do it again. I'm not in a race, I'm on a long journey, one that I hope to be able to enjoy, and I've got to do the best I can do with what I've got to work with. One day at a time, one step at a time. I know I can do this!

Naked Burgers and A New Way to Prepare Sweet Potatoes!

For dinner last night I tried the Naked Turkey Burgers from Skinny Taste with their homemade Bruschetta. I also took the Cajun Seasoning from Eat Live Grow Paleo and sprinkled on the turkey burgers during the cooking process. With those, we had Easy Hasselback Sweet Potatoes from Oh Snap! Let's Eat! and then I steamed some fresh veggies to go along with it all.

I'll start with the burgers. 

I was kind of afraid of this recipe because I haven't had much luck in the past with burgers. We don't have the option to grill here and I haven't had much experience with burgers; every time I tried to make burgers, they would end up falling apart and there'd be a ton of liquid in the bottom of the pan. But I decided to give these turkey burgers a try. I was skeptical to see that there were no eggs involved, and I was thinking of adding them (just in case) but decided to go ahead with the original recipe and see how it turned out. So I threw it all together, which only took a couple of minutes, and then formed the patties. 

We ended up with about 10 patties since I used 2# of meat instead of the 1.25 in the recipe. I really didn't increase the quantity of the other ingredients much. I still used just one zucchini, but had a heaping 1/4 cup of coconut flour and added an extra tbsp. of onion. To my happy surprise, the burgers stuck together perfectly. They were so easy to flip over and didn't take long at all to cook all of them. I did decide to add a sprinkling of Cajun Seasoning from Eat Live Grow Paleo on one side of the burgers during the cooking process. It ended up being a wonderful impromptu decision because it had just the right flavor, with just enough heat, and I think really gave the burgers that extra oomph! 

The bruschetta for the burgers was super easy to make. 

It took just a couple of minutes to chop and throw everything together. I have to say that I am not a huge fan of tomatoes, but I gave it a try and I don't think the burgers would be as good if they didn't come with the bruschetta. The two together really are a perfect pairing. The coolness from the tomatoes helps with the heat of the seasoning and the basil in there is very nice. 

I decided to give the Hasselbeck Sweet Potatoes a try. 

I saw them on Pinterest once and thought that they looked super cool! Cutting them was not my favorite task. I did try the chopstick method and that helped for the middle, but if any of the potato is not on the cutting board (it's elevated) then you have to just make sure the knife doesn't go all the way through. The potatoes ended up being delicious. How can you go wrong with sweet potatoes? However, my husband doesn't really like eating the skin, so he was constantly peeling it off. I do eat the skin and was doing so, but it just ended up being kind of difficult to eat. I think next time it'd just be easier to go ahead and cut all the way through and make chips instead. Just my preference though. 

So there's my review and our lovely Dinner #22 of our Whole30 program. Only 8 more to go!!

The recipes that I used to create this meal is listed below. Let me know what you think of them or any changes you made. I'll be saving this recipe and always look forward to learning new tips and tricks to spice up old recipes!!

Bruschetta from Skinny Taste
Bruschetta Ingredients:

credit: skinnytaste.com

• 1/4 cup chopped red onion
• 1 tbsp extra virgin olive oil
• 1 tbsp balsamic vinegar
• kosher salt and fresh cracked pepper to taste
• 3 medium vine ripe tomatoes
• 2 small cloves garlic, minced
• 2 tbsp fresh basil leaves, chopped
• 3 oz part skim mozzarella, diced (did not include this)
  

Bruschetta Directions:

Combine the red onion, olive oil, balsamic, salt and pepper in a large bowl. Set aside a few minutes while you chop the tomatoes, then place in the bowl. Add the garlic, basil and additional salt and pepper, to taste and mix well and set aside. Toss in the cheese when ready to serve.

Naked Turkey Burgers from Skinny Taste

Burger Ingredients:

• 1.25 lbs 93% lean ground turkey (I used 2# of turkey)
• 1 small zucchini, grated (1 cup, or 5 oz)
• 1/4 cup seasoned whole wheat breadcrumbs (I used coconut flour)
  
• 1 clove garlic, grated
• 1 tbsp red onion, grated
• salt and fresh pepper
• oil spray

Burger Directions:

1. Squeeze the excess moisture from the zucchini in a paper towel. 

2. In a large bowl, combine the ground turkey, shredded zucchini, breadcrumbs, garlic, onion, salt 

    and pepper. 

3. Form into 5 equal sized patties about 5 oz each, forming them as flat as possible.

4. Heat a large skillet on medium-high heat. When hot, lightly spray with oil. 

5. Add the burgers to the pan and reduce the heat to medium-low. 

6. Cook until browned, about 4 minutes, then flip and cook another 4 minutes, careful not to burn.

Cajun Seasoning from Eat Live Grow Paleo
Seasoning Ingredients:
-  2 1/2 tablespoons of salt
-  1 tablespoon of dried oregano
-  1 tablespoon of paprika
-  1 tablespoon of cayenne pepper
-  1 tablespoon of ground black pepper

Seasoning Directions:
Mix all the ingredients together and store in a small jar with the rest of your spice mixes until needed.

Easy Hasselback Sweet Potatoes from Oh Snap! Let's Eat!
Potato Ingredients:

credit: ohsnapletseat.com

• Sweet potatoes
• Olive oil
• Scallions, chopped
• Salt and pepper
• Butter (optional)

Potato Directions:

1. Preheat the oven to 425°F.

2. Carefully, slice the potato (but not ALL the 

    way through!) in to thin slices. A good trick 

    I’ve heard of is to use chopsticks or 

    something on the two sides of the potato so 

    that it stops you from 

    accidentally cutting it all the way through.

3. Rub the potatoes with olive oil. Make sure to get in between the slices so that the sweet potato 

    doesn’t dry out in the oven.

4. Line a baking pan or baking sheet with aluminum foil, and then place the potatoes on the baking 

    sheet or baking pan.  

5. Stick it in the oven until for about half an hour.

6. Remove the sweet potatoes from the oven. We are going to fan out the potato slices and make it 

    pretty! Use a butter knife/spreader or something else dull and thin separate the slices from one 

    another.

7. Stick it back in the oven for another half an hour.

8. Sprinkle with salt, pepper, and scallions as desired. If you want, I sometimes put small chunks of 

    butter between some of the slices to make it even tastier!

Almost Done!

We are on Day 22 today of our Whole30 challenge!!

The end is in sight! I would say that we've definitely started to feel better and aren't experiencing as many of the side effects  that were common with the first three weeks. We aren't completely home free yet, but the benefits that we've already been experiencing are definitely worth it and make the waiting much more tolerable.

We're still getting things straightened out with our digestive system, but that's much improved from the first week or so. We've still got some irritability going on too, but that could just be from daily stresses that we're still learning to better cope with. Overall, I'm still incredibly impressed with the results. I've never really thought of myself as someone who wake up ready to take on the world, and I still enjoy sleeping in when I can, but when I do get up I am ready to go within minutes. And that's pretty nice too! Along with the other benefits, we are still happy we signed up for this program.

This last weekend was the biggest challenge for us. We went camping. But we stuck to our Whole30 food guidelines and managed to make it through without any slip ups. We did miss our workouts on those days, but I think that is alright since we managed to keep our nutrition in check... and we were freezing the whole time, so that burns calories too, right? Right! ; )

Camping was fun, but we only had about a half hour of sunshine and then it got chilly, then it rained, then it was just cold, then it rained again. Finally, it got cold and stayed cold. We still had fun though, and we got to sleep in a tent on the ground, so that makes it all worth it! It's amazing how happy you can be to leave the comfort of your home and fridge and bed and pay money to sleep on a cold, hard ground with a hundred other people within throwing distance. Even so, we were happy to finally come home!

I was worried, though, that we'd not have enough time to meal plan and get groceries for this week, since we came back on Sunday and I usually get groceries and prep some food on Sundays. But since we came back early, due to the cold, I managed to get a meal plan out and bought groceries and now we're all set and ready to go for the week!

This week's cooking started out a little rough. I've already sliced my thumb open and I burned my other hand getting a breakfast casserole out of a 375* oven. Hopefully my clumsiness is done though. I'm not sure how much more my poor hands can handle, lol.

I'll get this week's meal plan posted tomorrow and also fill you in on what we're doing lately for workouts ... and maybe share some of the cool things I've been learning from the new podcasts I've been listening to. I also created my own breakfast casserole! I'll share that recipe soon, but need to work on it a little more.

Hope you all had a great weekend! And have a super week! : )

Week 2 Meal Plan!

BBQ Pork on Plantain "bun"

If you missed my previous post on how I make my meal plans, feel free to click HERE and check it out. 

Meal planning makes cooking so much easier, especially if you are still learning. We're in that position right now; we kind of have an idea of what we can eat, but still fine tuning. So for now it's been easier to just follow other peoples' recipes. Eventually I would like to get to where I can start creating my own recipes again. And I'd really like to take some decent pictures to post with the recipes too. Maybe in time. Until then, here's the Meal Plan for Week 2 on the Whole30 program based on recipes I've compiled from a few different blogs and sources.

Breakfast: Lagniappe Casserole (WFS)
Always a favorite in our household! This typically will get us through until Thursday and we just have leftovers for Friday morning, then I'll cook on Saturday and Sunday mornings.
 

Filler: Easy Chicken Salad (WFS)
I wasn't sure I would like this as I am not typically fond of the stuff you buy at the deli. The homemade version is MUCH better and it has become one of my favorites. I love the touch of pepper. Just the right amount!

Monday: Gluten-Free Crab Cakes (JSB) with Dill Sauce (WFS) , asparagus and sweet potato
I was a bit timid to try this one because of my issues with bones in fish and seafood, but the crab did not come with any so I gave it a try and was surprised at how delicious it was. The dill sauce was perfect with it. 

Tuesday: Sweet Potato-Coconut Soup (JSB) with chicken
As I had guess, my husband heard what we were having and asked if there was any meat in it. He doesn't consider it a full meal unless there is some kind of animal protein involved, lol. The original recipe does not include chicken, but the chicken really made it perfect for us. And the sweet potato-coconut flavor is out of this world!

Wednesday: Pulled Pork with homemade BBQ sauce (TFF) on a plantain "bun" (TR), sweet potato, 

                      and veggies
We ended up running short on time for this recipe, which actually kind of worked because the pork was already done in the crock pot. The BBQ sauce only cooked for about 30 minutes but was still great! We'd never tried plantains before either, but they soon became another family favorite! So good!

Thursday: Sausage and Cabbage (WFS) with Sweet Mashed Potatoes (POAB) and spinach salad
I've never been a huge fan of cabbage, but this recipe works for me. I still can't say that cabbage will be my first choice, but hubby loved it so I guess if you enjoy cabbage you should take his opinion over mine in this case. The sweet mashed potatoes were great also, but I can't say no to anything sweet potato! : ) 

Friday: Spi-Garlicy Chicken (WFS) with Cauliflower Rice (NNP) and mixed veggies

Saturday: Pork chops with sweet potato-veggie medley (EGR: recipe coming soon)

Sunday: Moroccan Zucchini Boats (WIG) with veggies and spinach salad

We haven't made it through all of the recipes yet. We've still got a couple of days to go but, so far, none of them have let us down! They are delicious and filling!  I hope you get a chance to try them out!