High Points: In a way things went smoother because we just kept to the same breakfast and lunches routine. The kids are eating more veggies now and we had a few good new good dinners. I've also started serving more side veggies at lunch and dinner - olives, pickles, fermented green beans, that sort of thing which I hope to keep doing next month.
Chicken Poppers - I used turkey and left out the optional cumin mostly because I forgot about it but it was a big hit with everyone. And they don't like zuchini but didn't mention it. We dipped them in guacamole. Guacamole has become the new hit of the month. I normally make my own if I can find good avocados but that's a pretty big IF so I've just been getting the Trader Joes/Aldi version and the kids seem to like a lot more than I remember. Maybe its the smoother texture of the store bought - or maybe they are just desperate for a creamy dip these days. I served them with Carrot/Raisin/Pineapple salad which was also a hit.
Orange Chicken - This was delicious. At least Craig, Norah and I thought so. Lucy and Jonah were not impressed which really surprised me. But Lucy had a tummy bug the day before and Jonah's been kinda whiny today and I'm suspicious. I'm really hoping they just didn't like the chicken and no more puking will be happening in this house this week. But either way, they were wrong, it was great. I used arrowroot instead of tapioca flour because I had it and am familiar with it and it worked just fine but don't add arrowroot into sauce until close to the end because it falls apart in too much heat. I also added snap peas to the mix. I served with brocolli for everyone, cauliflower for me and rice for everyone else. I've never been a fan of cauliflower before, it always just seemed like a bland form brocolli but I'm starting to enjoy it as a base instead of rice. But I'd still prefer rice. I miss rice. Rice is nice.
Steak Bites - No recipe for this. Just cut up steak into smallish pieces and marinated in a bit of olive oil, a bit of coconut aminos and some spices, fried up in my cast iron skillet. Kids probably ate as much ketchup with this as steak but ketchup is a vegetable, right? Served with roasted potatoes and a bunch of veggies. We buy our beef 1/4 cow at a time and funnily enough, I usually use up the ground beef and roasts first. I just don't think about serving steak until that's all I have left. But I really should. Steak is tasty!
Jonah and Norah are perfectly happy with what I give them. Norah isn't really dairy free since she's getting yogurt baby packets occasionally but since other stuff isn't in the house, she's not getting it in non-baby food ways. Jonah's always been my big carb guy so I'm really happy with how he's shifted to eating more meat. Normally dairy, eggs and bone broth are the main ways I've always gotten protein into him but a variety is certainly nice. He still eats his rice or potatoes first at dinner if they are there but will go on to the meat and veggies just fine. And he doesn't normally have any grain at lunch now with no complaints.
Low Points -
Lucy is annoyed with this all. And she was one I didn't think would mind much. But I underestimated how much she hates change. She likes the food I'm giving her but its different and she doesn't like different. I think I'll make some shrimp this week to appease her. It's one of her, and everyone's, favorite foods but they kids can eat like $10 worth of shrimp just between the three of them so it doesn't make it on the menu too much.
I had two slips. Neither intentionally though. One dinner was apricot chicken and I thought the jam we had was only fruit juice sweetened but I was wrong. Didn't realize until I was half way through recipe and I had no other plan to fall back on. Another time I thought I had a can of coconut milk but didn't so I used the kid's carton kind which had evaporated cane sugar in it. I remember seeing that when I checked label at store but got it anyway because it was supposed to be just for kids in their oatmeal or cereal which I'm not having (and because it was half off! A carton of coconut milk for $2!) If I don't make my own, I like the canned stuff for cooking, its thicker and more coco-nutty for things like curry but it slipped my mind. They actually ended up being on the same day too. In all its probably like 1 teaspoon of organic sugar so I hardly feel like a failure but my type A personality is annoyed. I am really happy neither was a case of my being tempted and giving in. That's big. I'm finding it surprisingly easy to just not eat things. At church seeing donuts - that's okay, I'm not eating those. Everyone else eating veggie straws this afternoon. Not me. That part is kinda empowering I will admit.
I'm getting bored. I like to cook and I really love to bake and I miss it. I feel like I'm spending a lot of time with the part of food I don't like - the meal planning and recipe finding part and not as much on the fun cooking and experimenting part. Plus its expensive. Now, that's only an issue because, I still don't feel any different!! I think I'd actually be more motivated if I had felt bad like they said I might. Because then maybe I'd be more likely to feel good now - or at least have the hope of a change in the future. No tiger blood here. I think we just ate so well before that it really isn't that big of a change. I took stuff out but my body was already used to handling all the foods I'm eating - lots of veggies and healthy fats so no crazy reactions - or big improvements. Which is good long term. If I felt a ton better I'd feel like I need to stick with it ;-) I'm actually contemplating adding stuff in again next week. I'll be adding things one by one with a few days in between so it will take a few weeks to a month to do that still so it seems silly to wait just because. But then again, I made a committment so maybe I should stick with it. As you can see, I'm torn.
I'm also hungry. Really only at night. I'm used to having a snack and there are things I can have but nothing is easy. So I normally just have a piece of fruit or last night I made this apple nut "cereal" which was tasty (and one of those two oops moments). I'm not snacking nearly as much on Whole30 as I usually do but I really do need an evening snack as Norah still nurses the most at night and when I wake up, I'm starving but can't eat for an hour because of my daily medicine. It's rough. I miss having a cup of milk, or a piece of cheese or some peanut butter (and no, I don't really like other butters, I'm trying them but so far, not a fan) right before bed.
Jonah's diet doesn't seem to be helping him at all either. We'll give him (and Lucy but she's really just a tag-along) gluten tomorrow and see how he does.
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