Whole30 Recipes: Week 1

We've made it through a little over a week of Whole30! For this ice-cream loving, bread-eating, pasta-making, wine-enjoying mama, getting through week one is an accomplishment already.

The thing about Whole30 that we're learning is that it's not really a "diet." Sure you can lose weight if that's your goal, but we've come to think of it as more of a "reset" for our bodies. It's as much about what we are putting into our bodies as what we are leaving out. The goal is to retrain our minds to not eat certain foods simply out of habit or because they're tied to an emotional feeling, and to think about how certain foods that we do eat regularly make us feel after we've eaten them.

The other great thing that we're learning is how to read labels more carefully and be more aware of the ingredients that are in the foods that we regularly eat.

Simply put, Whole30 focuses on eating foods with as little ingredients as possible, or no ingredients at all because they're directly from the earth. And then your body re-learns how to create energy from natural sugars rather than the quick pick-me-ups like sugar and carbs that we tend to go to when we're tired or hungry.

The re-learning part is supposed to be what's tough about the week we're entering. 

There's a great timeline that the founders of the program created that explains what's going on in your body (and your mind) as you work through each week of the program. It is so interesting and also pretty hilarious. If you're interested, you can check out the timeline here.

Okay, enough of that. I know you came for the recipes. ;)

Here goes:

Grilled steak, zucchini bites, tri-colored carrots, sweet potato bites.

Steak and zucchini are marinated in olive oil and balsamic vinegar and sprinkled with salt and pepper prior to grilling/baking. 

Carrots and sweet potato bites are marinated in olive oil and sprinkled with salt.

Vegetables were roasted on 375 for 30 minutes (zucchini was probably less- 20 minutes-ish), scraping with a spatula half-way through the cook time to rotate on the baking sheet.

Day 2- Taco Bowls

Definitely a favorite from the week!

Recipe here

Spaghetti Squash and Roasted Broccoli

Bake spaghetti squash according to directions found here. (I also added minced garlic into the squash before baking.)

Sauce:

1lb ground turkey or beef

One can Trader Joe's Marinara Sauce (green can)

One can Hunt's Fire Roasted Tomatoes

One sweet onion, sliced or diced (your preference)

3 cloves garlic, minced

1/2tsp dried basil

1/2 tsp dried oregano

Salt

Olive oil

Optional: 1/3 cup diced peppers (I used red, green and yellow)

Directions:

Heat olive oil in pan. Saute onions (and peppers if using) on medium heat until onions are clear (5-7 minutes). While onions on cooking, heat oil in a separate pan for ground turkey. Cook turkey/beef until browned and remove from heat. 

Once onions are clear, add garlic. Saute for another minute. Add both can of tomatoes, salt, basil and oregano and meat. Allow to simmer for 5 minutes before serving.

Use all the power within you to not add freshly grated parmesan cheese that you could legitimately live off of if push came to shove.

Date and Shallot Rosemary Chicken

(Original recipe by PaleOMG- found here)

This is SO good! I am going to blog this recipe the way that I made it, but you would not be disappointed making it as found of the PaleOMG link found here.

The main changes I made were marinating the chicken overnight and using 1/4 cup each of olive oil, balsamic vinegar and apple cider vinegar. Before putting the chicken in the bag, I rubbed each piece with salt, pepper, fresh rosemary and garlic.

I am making this again when we have family over for Father's Day. It is so delicious!

Whole30 Beef Stir Fry

I will post this recipe this week! Yum.Yum.Yum.

This pork tenderloin in the crock pot dish was our let down for the week, so not worth sharing the recipe. I'm going to work on a better Whole30 marinade for it to bring out more flavor in the meat.

The riced cauliflower and green beans were great though. Riced cauliflower recipe found here and green beans were drizzled with olive oil and sea salt and roasted on 375 for 20-25 minutes.

Grilled Salmon with Avocado Salsa

(Recipe from The Cookie Rookie found here)

The only two changes I made was using the Costco guacamole on top which made it even easier. I also baked it in the oven instead of grilling it. 400 degress for 12-15 minutes (Salmon is cooked when it flakes when pierced with a fork.)

The garnish is cilantro and the potatoes are pre-made and Whole30 compliant from Costco (picture here)

Breakfast everyday has been some version of this: Eggs or egg whites, veggies, and Aidells Chicken Apple Sausage and salsa (I buy Trader Joes- picture here)

For lunch, we ate grilled chicken over salad with veggies and either a balsamic/olive oil/water dressing, or the Tessemae's Ranch or Caesar dressing.

I marinate the chicken overnight in 1/4 cup each of olive oil, balsamic vinegar and apple cidar vinegar (rubbing the chicken with salt, pepper and fresh rosemary first just like the recipe from day 4), or the Tessemae's Caesar dressing, and then I grill all of the chicken at once for us to have for the week.

Shrimp Lettuce Wrap

When we got tired of grilled chicken salad, I made a shrimp lettuce wrap:

Saute onions in olive oil until clear (5-7 minutes). Add garlic and saute for another minute. Add uncooked shrimp and cook for 2 minutes each side. (I also added leftover riced cauliflower at this point to warm it.) Garnish with chopped green onion and serve in a lettuce wrap.

This picture shows one of several servings to be clear. ;) We are not trying to lose weight on Whole30, so we are eating a TON!

That's what we ate week 1! If you have any questions about any of the recipes, feel free to leave a comment below, shoot me an email (notesftn@gmail.com) or message me on IG (@hmnelsen).

Have a great week!