Whole30: Day21 - Cruising Right Along

Wake Up: 9:00am Oh yea baby, 10 hours of sleep last night. Massive off season sleeping action happening here. I love it!

Breakfast: 9:30am

Mmmm, leftover pork tenderloin with apple salsa and some Spaghetti Squash with ghee. I'm back to having ripe avocados in the house, thank goodness, because it's my fat of choice! When I have a breakfast that looks like this I am totally set for the morning. It's so perfect and balanced for me.

Lunch: 12:20pm

Okay, tell me this isn't the most BEAUTIFUL purple sweet potato you have ever seen. I think this gets the prize for the most vibrant colorful meal of my entire Whole30. I had some left over bison that was cooked with apple and nutmeg and cinnamon that I needed to eat. And some Apple/Avocado Oil vinaigrette in the avocado. Yum!

Run: 1:00pm

Went for a jog with my athlete Katie today. She brought me some Whole30 compliant soup today too! Sweet Potato Butternut, and it is kinda spicy and total yum! No watches on for either of us, we just went running! It was fun!

Dinner: 5:00pm

Oh lordy! Page 160 of Well Fed 2 houses the recipe for East African Chicken Stew. It seemed like pretty basic tomato based soup with chicken stewed in it and some nice African spices. BUT THEN, at the end you are supposed to add sunflower butter, I went with Almond butter (no sugar added, just almonds) and vanilla extract. Now, vanilla extract is technically a no-no on Whole30 due to the alcohol, but we are talking 1/2 teaspoon in a huge pot of stew....I'm not gonna sweat it here... Let me just say, this was a huge success with the whole family. I thought it would be too spicy for Annie but she snarfed it down. I had it over spaghetti squash, and Troy had it over rice, and Annie just had it plain. Good amount of leftovers too.

Meal #4: 7:30pm

I was hungry tonight, and Katie's soup kept calling to me. So I had some soup, with some bison on top, along with some organic frozen cherries and blueberries on the side. I hadn't had any fruit all day and had a bowl. The soup was great! A bit spicy but I liked it, I don't usually make spicy food so it was refreshing! Thanks Katie!!

My Favorite Kitchen Tool:

I was chatting with someone on Facebook today about Chef Knifes and thought I would share with you my favorite kitchen tool. Early on in Troy and I's marriage I took a lot of cooking classes. I was actually in the middle of a once a week 20 week Home Cook class when I found out I was pregnant. I was about to head into class when I hopped over to the Safeway next door and bought a pregnancy test and took it (used it? took it? I don't know) in the Safeway bathroom. Anyways, I learned over those 20 weeks and many more about the basics of french cooking, all the while my belly got bigger and bigger. It's was an amazing education and the fundamentals and techniques I learned pay off all the time. So, besides a great Chef Knife, my most used kitchen tool is a Dough Scraper. I've only used it for it's intended purpose a handful of times.

It's a non sharp flat piece of metal that I use to pick up everything. Most people think they can just use the side of their knife for the same purpose but that will dull your chef knife quicker and is less efficient. Get a dough scraper and save the wear and tear on your knife. Another trick I learned in cooking school is that when you finish chopping anything you place your knife at either the top or the side of your cutting board (I do both depending on the situation - always blade away from you). Get in the habit of cutting, placing at the top/side and using the dough scraper to pick up and move food. Seems dumb, but it's really efficient.

Homework:

The email blast today talked about habits. Oooh, dirty habits. I have a lot of them.

---Eating in bed

---Staying up too late and sleeping in too late

---being on my computer in bed

---waking up and grabbing my phone first thing in the morning

---forgetting to brush my teeth

---leaving little piles of dirty laundry all over the house

I could go on here. The email said that the "21 days makes a habit" is bull-crap. It's actually 66 days. So now I'm thinking I need to do Whole66. Which honestly...I REALLY like the idea of.

I have a lot of flaws, but honestly, I like my flaws, they are mine, and I can work on them at my leisure. I wouldn't trade them for anyone else's flaws. I'm happy with mine. hahah!