I was definitely not about to head into week three without a solid meal planning strategy! I learned my lesson in week two, whining got me nowhere, and I was coming for those fish tacos!
Uh, I'm also not about to continue detailing each and every meal for you. I think you got the gist after week one and do you really need to know every single thing I eat? I kind of bore myself when I type all of it out. If you're interested in doing a Whole30 for yourself, I'll help you along with a few dinner recipes below that worked perfectly for me during week three, but all you really need to know is that I am craving chocolate as I type this.
So by now, you all know I love Trader Joe's, but Costco is one of my other favorite places to grocery shop! I generally stock up on produce, fruit, pre-made rotisserie chickens, avocado oil, and milk. Remember that Craig is not doing the Whole30, so my list didn't stray too far from those staple items, but all of my Whole30 meal planning for week three had me adding a 2-pack of spaghetti squash, a 2-pack of organic fryers (they finally had some in stock!), organic eggs, and organic chicken stock.
We discovered that our stove was working properly after all so I made hard-boiled eggs as soon as I got home from Costco! I love fried eggs, but hard-boiled eggs are such an easy snack to have on hand! I love to eat them warm, just after they've finished boiling and have had a chance to sit for a few minutes! My week of snacks (and to be honest, breakfast too) consisted of those yummy eggs, plain guacamole (with Tabasco, of course), plantains, pineapple, and kiwi. Sorry vegetables, you took a backseat again, but I wasn't mad when you showed up at every dinner!
Onto the magic!
The dinner recipes below saved me in week three and I was so happy with how they all turned out!
(Let's be real--I was happy because they were actually good!)
Coconut Chicken Tenders with Pineapple and Mango Puree and
Green Beans
I bought a 2lb package of chicken tenders, dipped each one in egg whites, and then coated them in Bob's Red Mill unsweetened and unsulfured coconut flakes sprinkled with salt and pepper. The flakes are bigger than shredded coconut and just plain amazing (here they are)! I used coconut oil to grease the cooking racks (placed within cookie sheets to keep the chicken elevated) and baked the chicken tenders at 400 degrees for 25 minutes!
The puree is super simple! I threw a handful of pineapple chunks and an entire sliced mango into my Ninja, blended until smooth, and poured the mixture into a skillet to warm it up. Easy, sweet, and healthy dipping sauce! It would also work well paired with coconut shrimp!
The green beans were canned, so nothing fancy, I promise, but we did open a few cans instead of just one. I dressed them up with a little bit of salt and ghee (clarified butter) and placed heaping piles of green on our plates.
Beef Stew
My beef stew is usually pretty simple. I normally throw a the items together in a crock pot and leave it on low for several hours! It all consists of a package of stew meat, a huge amount of cut and diced vegetables (carrots, celery, and sweet potatoes), a smidge of tomato paste, and a couple cartons of beef and vegetable broth. Again, I don't care about grass fed beef, but I did not realize how hard it was to find compliant beef broth! Wow. It's kind of ridiculous. I couldn't find a readily available beef broth which caused a Google search to see if beef stew would even be good with chicken broth! See, these are the moments during the Whole30 where I get extremely frustrated (especially when I have a box of beef broth in my cabinet that I can't use). Surprisingly, I found that there are a few people that use chicken broth when making beef stew! Weird. That's when I discovered that Costco carries organic chicken broth that was Whole30 compliant and it was immediately added to my grocery list! The only other ingredient I needed to worry about was the tomato paste. Clearly Organic carries a compliant paste and I found mine in the health food section at Price Chopper!
And you know, after all that
Crock-Pot Rotisserie Chicken
Yay! Thanks to those fryers, I could finally make my own rotisserie chicken! I knew I would use the meat for snacks and a dinner recipe later on in the week. First, I layered my crock-pot with balls of foil to keep the chicken elevated instead of sitting in its juices. I then removed the innards of the chicken and rinsed it well. After patting the skin dry, I lathered the chicken with avocado oil and sprinkled generous amounts of salt, pepper, paprika, oregano, rosemary, and sage over top! I love my spices if you couldn't tell! I placed a few bay leaves over top the chicken and cooked on low for 8 hours!
Buffalo Chicken Spaghetti Squash Casserole
I randomly came across this recipe and was immediately excited to try it. The ingredients weren't too weird, plus, I am a fan of ANYTHING that calls for buffalo sauce! My Pinterest searches would agree. Honestly, I was really surprised with how good this casserole tasted!
Looking at the picture below, it kinda looks like it has cheese on top, right? You're not alone, it fooled me too.
The photo above and the recipe can be found at here (via www.PaleOMG.com), but I tweaked a few things here and there. I used a glass baking dish which was slightly smaller than a 13x9 and greased it with coconut oil. I nixed the yellow onion, the ground chicken, the avocado, and the scallions. I used minced garlic from a jar instead of garlic cloves, shredded chicken (from my crockpot fryer), shredded carrots instead of diced carrots, and my trusty mayo recipe (linked below in the following recipe). I followed the directions for the most part, but I decided to cook my vegetables in the skillet a little longer until they got a slight char to them. All in all, this recipe was very easy to prepare! I don't usually love working with spaghetti squash because it tends to be watery, but whisking the eggs into the mixture before baking was a perfect solution! I also may have added a lot more Frank's Red Hot sauce to this dish than called for...
Fish Tacos with Cilantro Lime Slaw
Whole30 Rebels, I have fish tacos for you this week! The weekend hit and even if I had to go through an entire carton of eggs, that homemade mayo was happening!
I think the most important component of fish tacos is the coleslaw. My coleslaw is always haphazardly put together meaning there are no exact measurements! Growing up, I never knew how to make coleslaw because it just wasn't something we ate. When I had fish tacos for my first time ever (2014 in Vegas), I wasn't sure I'd like them, but I immediately fell in love and couldn't wait to try and re-create them back home.
For my coleslaw, I use a hefty amount of shredded cabbage (bagged is fine) and throw in the same amount of broccoli slaw. I then add a few handfuls of chopped cilantro to the mix. I dump in about a 1/2 cup of mayonnaise, a generous splash of apple cider vinegar (more of both if need be), the juice of one whole lime, a few drops of Young Living Lime essential oil (I obviously love lime), and a sprinkling of salt! Mix everything together, but taste as you go in case you need to adjust it to your liking! Now, when I'm NOT doing the Whole30, the only thing I do differently is that I tend to use a half and half ratio of plain mayo from Hampton Creek and plain greek yogurt (Chobani is my favorite).
For the fish, you can use whatever you prefer! I like to use what we have on hand, which is usually tilapia or salmon. They come frozen and individually packaged so they're easy to thaw in cold water and be able to bake a half hour later! I usually bake four fillets, and once they are cooked, I either place them in a bowl and shred them or leave them in big, sliced chunks.
Like I mentioned in my last post, I had also found an alternative recipe to make my own Whole30 compliant tortillas (found here). They are surprisingly pretty simple to make! The link suggests using a tortilla press (which I'm very tempted to buy), but if you don't have one, I would suggest flattening the dough balls on a spatula (not too thin!) so you have a better handle on them when peeling them from the spatula and placing them into the skillet! Mine looked more like the size of discs and were not fold-able like a tortilla should be, but they were still very good!
Like I mentioned in my last post, I had also found an alternative recipe to make my own Whole30 compliant tortillas (found here). They are surprisingly pretty simple to make! The link suggests using a tortilla press (which I'm very tempted to buy), but if you don't have one, I would suggest flattening the dough balls on a spatula (not too thin!) so you have a better handle on them when peeling them from the spatula and placing them into the skillet! Mine looked more like the size of discs and were not fold-able like a tortilla should be, but they were still very good!
I assemble my tortillas (or discs) with a generous amount of slaw, shredded fish, and avocado. And, of course, everything is always doused in Tabasco. Whole30 Rebels, I recommend adding whatever salsa you like, a ton of shredded cheese, and sour cream (or in my pre-Whole30 memories, plain greek yogurt)! And might I suggest some lime chips to go with the tacos? The good old days.
So there you have it! My week of meal planning victory!
It's kind of weird having to rethink certain components of your favorite recipes! It can be frustrating, and yes, it takes more time, but the end result is usually very good. I've realized that I can go without all the extras and I can definitely be more aware of what I'm putting into my body. I have the power to say no--and the power to say yes.
And that's a win in my book.
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