I'm Baaaacccckkkk ;)

Ok then - So, the day after the Whole 30, we decided we would have ONE 'cheat' meal and ONE Guinness - lol - and we did....

Yes, that was it - My hubby LOVES our local burger place, 25 Burgers - well, to be more accurate, he loves their Royal Burger - the one I've sort of replicated him with the fried egg and bacon :)

I chose to just have the bacon cheeseburger and no sides with an unsweetened iced tea - It was perfect, had I gotten fries, I wouldn't have been able to finish it. I'm not gonna lie, it was absolutely delicious!

And later I had my ONE Guinness - and it was GOOD! :P

We were a bit trepidatious about ordering something with so many ingredients we had been avoiding for a month, but there were really no ill effects to speak of - thankfully - That is not to say that I'm ready to just let it all go.

That was dinner - Breakfast was still 2 fried eggs and Lunch was my leftover Guacamole Chicken Salad  :)

Yesterday was right back on Paleo, there are a few things I'll be adding back in from the Whole 30, but I plan to stick to Paleo for a while and see how I do :)

Breakfast was 2 fried eggs again...

Lunch was myWild Planet Pole Caught Skipjack Tuna, homemade paleo mayo, organic tomato (chopped the end pieces and threw it in), organic dill relish, onion, chopped capers and fresh dill over sliced organic tomato

 

Paleo chili for dinner

2 Pkgs 93% lean grass fed organic ground beef, 1 1/2 onions, 1 organic red bell pepper, 1 can Muir Glen Organic Diced Tomatoes, 1 can diced green chilis,garlic, spices (chili powder, smoked paprika, cumin, celery salt, pepper, a little cinnamon, a little cocoa powder, cayenne, dried cilantro....) and a carton of organic vegetable stock - topped with avocado and cilantro :)

Today I again had 2 fried eggs for breakfast - it's just so easy to fry them up real quick :) Also had coffee with coconut milk...

Lunch was leftover Chili :)

And dinner - Mmmm dinner!

Paleo crab cakes and Paleo 'Bang Bang' Shrimp

The crab cakes were based on this recipe, but I also added smoked paprika and bay seasoning and chives instead of green onions and I used cashew meal instead of almond flour - after the first batch that was coming apart a bit, I added a bit more cashew meal and didn't bother with trying to dust them with it, they were much better the second batch. I also used a combo of bacon grease, ghee and garlic olive oil for frying

http://www.paleocupboard.com/crab-cakes.html

For the shrimp, I based it on this recipe, I wanted to use chili garlic sauce (after checking the label), but to my surprise, we were out. I think it would have been better with chili garlic sauce, but it was pretty good - I did the shrimp on the griddle coated with avocado oil and tossed with the mayo mixture:

http://paleokitchensync.com/2013/01/23/paleo-bang-bang-shrimp/

It was a delicious Friday night dinner - And I only had 2 bites of the second crab cake and didn;t want any more, so it can be part of my lunch/brunch tomorrow! :D

Now for a drink or three! ;)

Day 30!

Last day! Sure, there may have been a time or 2 in there I technically should have started over, but frankly, I wasn't really looking at this as a 30-day thing, but a 30-day start and now I'll just be making adjustments :)

I was considering one meal tomorrow of anything we want, but we are a little trepidatious about the affects that might have on us. Hubby would likely want to order pizza, that might be too much...

I'd love to go out for Mexican! lol

Breakfast today was just 2 fried eggs - no pic of that.

Lunch was a quickly thrown together Guacamole Chicken Salad

Hubby's business trip was canceled and he hadn't eaten all day with dealing with the airport flight cancelations etc, etc and didn't bother to find something to eat, he didn't want the gumbo I had planned to try making AND the grocery store didn't have the shrimp (they said it's coming tomorrow - grrr), so to make him happy, steaks it was....

As Anne Burrell says, brown food tastes good! It's just not very photogenic ;P

Doing 4 steaks that barely fit on my griddle caused me to lose my nice char as they started to steam instead :( But, they were nice and rare like I like it :)  Free range, grass fed of course :)

We also had crab stuffed mushrooms again and roasted asparagus - yum! :)

Day 30 Success! :)

Day 29!

OK, so I've mentioned that Thursdays are my busiest work day each week - that is, with the exception of the first workday of the month... 

I didn't eat breakfast - I know, I know - bad girl!

Hubby worked from home today and was nice enough to make us lunch so I could keep working and not stress over making lunch - I didn't even ask :)

He made us Paleo quiche

He didn't use a recipe, but it has a shredded sweet potato crust and I know he used coconut milk, his homemade Paleo sausage, broccoli, red onion and tomato - it was pretty good, but he was wishing we'd had almond flour or something as it did have a little too much coconut flavor - he did also use coconut oil, I told him he should have used the bacon grease I have in the fridge - next time! :)

Dinner was the same thing, but 1 smaller wedge and a good sized salad with kalamata olives, artichoke hearts and organic grape tomatoes - I did my same olive oil, red wine vinegar and Spike seasoning, but also with a splash of black cherry balsamic - yum! :)

Then this happened tonight ;)

Is it wrong to have a Bloody Mary in a Smithwicks glass? ;)  lol

And in case you're wondering just how nutty we are....

This is a tattoo I did on hubby this past weekend :P

And no, we are not tattoo artists - we're not artists - we're just a bit, umm, nutty ;)

Not bad for a total amateur, right? lol

(Of course we use stencils!)

OK, so Day 29 Success!

One more day to go!

Day 28! 

What a day - we slept in and watched TV in bed for a bit as we usually do on Sundays. Hubby got up to check on his flight and discovered it was canceled - ugh!

Not only was it canceled, but they had rescheduled him to fly out Tuesday - Not ONLY did they schedule him 2 days later, but they had him on a flight that would be landing in Detroit AFTER his still booked flight home! Umm, yeah, not really gonna work!

The weather wasn't even due to hit here until after his flight, so we have no idea why they canceled it.

He calls the airline to get it straightened out and their system tells him that they're very busy due to the storm in the Northeast and can't help him now, please call back later!!  He finally got through and is now traveling out Tues and coming back Wed - at least it's now only one night away, so silver lining there...

As usual, being the weekend, there were just the 2 meals today :)

Brunch was pretty quick and easy

Leftover sweet potato hash hubby made yesterday, scrambled eggs w/ salsa and 2 slices bacon 

I made 5 eggs total and gave hubby a little more than myself :)

Dinner was organic chicken breast roulade stuffed with duck sausage and a salad w/ dressed with olive oil, red wine vinegar and spike seasoning

I found the sausage at Wegmans and was happy to see the ingredients seemed to be all good :)

I wish I'd sliced the chicken and taken a picture of it sliced with the sausage running down the middle - silly me - Oh well, next time...

Only my younger daughter and I had this, hubby didn't think it sounded like something he wanted, so I just did his chicken as blackened chicken using Cajun seasoning and my older daughter's was just seasoned with salt, pepper and a garlic pepper grinder mix 

I also had a small handful of macadamia nuts sometime between brunch and dinner :)

Day 28 Success!

Day 27!

Today was easy - I didn't have to cook a thing :)

'Brunch' was leftover spaghetti squash from yesterday :)

Hubby made dinner!

Breakfast for dinner! :)

Grilled tomato w/ sautéed mushrooms, 2 fried eggs, his homemade paleo sausage, sweet potato hash browns and banana slices -- the sweet potato turned out to be a white flesh sweet potato that was quite good for this :)

The hash browns were delicious - he used this recipe, but used cashew meal for the gluten free flour - the patties were falling apart, which is fine with me, more crispy bits!

:)

Day 27 Success! :)

Days 25 & 26!

A couple busy workdays - Day 25 was a success, but was mostly leftovers, so no pics.

I had scrambled eggs with leftover steak and half a banana for breakfast

Leftover Thai Green Curry for lunch

Leftover Pork Tenderloin w/ Balsamic Thyme Cherries for dinner

It was nice not to have to cook on a Thursday, my busiest work day usually...

I have to work on not waiting until I'm actually hungry before I start making a meal, I'm not really feeling hungry until I start feeling a little lightheaded and shaky - That's not a good thing... 

Day 26 Breakfast was again scrambled eggs, with leftover steak, mushrooms and onions

I had the scrambled eggs with a small sliced organic vine tomato :)

Lunch was spaghetti squash with organic grass fed beef (mix of 93% and 85% I set aside the other day from our burgers), onion, organic orange bell pepper, baby bella mushrooms, a couple artichoke hearts and Wegmans organic pasta sauce

I love spaghetti squash prepared like this - I might try a pesto next time though to mix it up a bit :)

Dinner Taco Salad - I used 93% lean ground beef seasoned with chili powder, granulated garlic, paprika, cumin, celery salt, cayenne, salt and pepper and 1/2 a small onion diced

I made the avocado cilantro lime dressing again; an avocado, juice of a lime, handful cilantro, walnut oil, a little water, salt & pepper

I tossed the greens w/ some of the dressing, topped that w/ the meat, salsa, diced onion, organic tomato, black olives, salsa, a little more dressing and cilantro 

Tasty dinner and made the hubby happy :)

Days 25 and 26 Success! :)

Day 24!

Busy, busy work day - Breakfast was 2 (4 halves) deviled eggs - again :)

I'll switch it up more if/when I get tired of them :)

Lunch was Thai Green Curry

I didn't take a picture, I was shaky hungry by the time I got it made with work and my daughter cooking herself lunch before she had to leave for work

Lots of veggies, homemade chicken stock from the carcass of the chicken I roasted a couple days ago, 2 cans coconut milk, green curry paste, a sliced in half piece of lemongrass, a little lime juice and leftover roasted chicken.

Dinner was something I've made a few times previously and love :)

So glad it's Whole 30 friendly :)

Pork Tenderloin with balsamic thyme cherries - This time I used organic frozen cherries from Costco, so they are much darker, but the dish was still just as delicious - I just think this is a beautiful and elegant enough for company dish :) 

I was very happy with my perfectly cooked, not a bit dry, pork tenderloin :) I just mixed up coarse sea salt, pepper, granulated garlic, crushed garlic, dried rosemary and dried thyme with some avocado oil to make a paste and rubbed that over the tenderloins (2 in a pkg) and roasted at 400 for about 30 minutes, until it reached 150 at the thickest part. We had this with roasted asparagus

Based on this recipe - I've never added the honey and never thought it needed it, cherries are plenty sweet enough --- http://www.nlrockrecipes.com/2009/07/grilled-pork-loin-chops-with-balsamic.html

Happily, I have both leftover curry and the other pork loin tenderloin with the rest of the cherries for tomorrow, typically my busiest workday of the week, so I may not have to cook (though I may save the curry for Friday and have spaghetti squash instead since I set aside some of the ground beef from last night for that and it may need to be cooked up or frozen...)

Anyway, I'm calling it!

Day 24 Success! 

Day 23!

OK, so today was a sort of weird food day...

Breakfast was just 3 boiled eggs, I wasn't feeling great and didn't feel like making them into deviled eggs... 

I didn't even really have lunch, nothing sounded good, so I had a handful of nuts and some olives and a Larabar :o

I need to get some freezer meals prepared as soon as I have some freezer space!

Hubby wanted burgers for dinner - yes, AGAIN!

I didn't take a picture of his (same as before w/ the egg and bacon), just mine....

Back in the day in Michigan there was a cheap, drive thru only burger joint called Hot 'N Now - It's not there any more and hasn't been for many years. One of their burgers was a double olive burger and that was my favorite, so every so often, I decide to do olive and mayo on my burger - yum! 

One package of ground beef wasn't going to be enough for 4 burgers, so I used 2 pkgs, both organic grass fed, but one was 93% lean and the other was 85% lean - I didn't bother with weighing it this time and I set some aside to use in the next couple of days for Spaghetti squash and meat sauce or meatballs.

I also made chicken stock today - It'll most likely be used tomorrow for a Thai Curry for lunch :)

So, Day 23, Semi-Success!