We just completed week 2 of Whole30 and have never felt better.
Also, I cannot thank you all enough for the insane amount of emails I received with amazing recipes and tips. If you haven’t already, I highly suggest peeking at my Whole30 pin board as I’ve tried to collect all of the recipes that have been shared with me there.
Before I dive in to our week 3 meal plan I wanted to answer the number one question I received last week from many of you…
How do you have time to plan, shop and prep for such a complicated diet as a full time working mama?
Meal Planning: Planning our meals out usually takes me somewhere between 30 minutes to an hour depending on how focused I am on the task (ahem, Netflix binge). I typically meal plan during the kids’ naps on the weekends or in bed at night. My first step in the planning process is reviewing the weekly Harris Teeter grocery ad to see which meats, veggies, fruits, etc. are on sale. Once I know what type of meats I’m working with I’ll turn to my pin board to select my meals and start a grocery list. I always purchase enough of each meat to make one recipe last for at least two meals (dinner + leftovers for lunch).
Grocery Shopping: Since I don’t have time during the work week to grocery shop, we are limited to the weekends to tackle it — usually on Saturday mornings. Before Whole30 we could knock everything out at Harris Teeter and visit Trader Joes every few weekends. However, we must shop at both stores to get everything we need at the prices I’m willing to pay (sorry Harris Teeter, I can’t pay $19 for Almond flour or $3 per Larabar). This usually takes us about 2 hours as a family to tackle.
Meal Prepping: This definitely takes the longest time but is totally worth it. Let me explain. I usually use nap time on Sundays to prep everything. I make a breakfast casserole for the entire week of breakfasts, I boil tons of eggs, bake tons of bacon, prep all the snacks, prepare a few lunches and chop up as many ingredients as possible for the week. This takes me 3 hours. It’s a LOT of time. But you know what? It’s really not. On a normal night it takes me somewhere between 30 minutes and an hour to get dinner on the table. But with all the prep done, it takes me somewhere between 5 minutes and 20 minutes. I also try to ensure at least 1-2 meals are done in the crock pot. So meal prep is actually totally worth it to me.
What About the Kids? The kids are eating what we’re eating and are happy about it for the most part. Some recipes I have to hand pick every damn tomato out of for Caroline or every carrot out of for Thomas so they’ll eat it. But overall, they have really appreciated the break from frozen chicken nuggets and lunchables.
Biggest Challenge: This week presented challenges with planning meals around my several days of work travel as well as our trip home for the long weekend. Thankfully my mom was suuuuuper supportive and cooked compliant meals for us. As for travel, I ate a lot of RX bars and salads with balsamic vinegar.
On to the meal plans! Sorry for the redundancy but I think it’s helpful to see all the previous meals in one place so I’m including week 1 and week 2 meals…
WEEK 1
MONDAY
B/L: Sweet Potato Breakfast Stacks
D: Slow Cooker Sweet Potato
Chili
TUESDAY:
B: Scrambled eggs over roasted sweet
potatoes
L: Leftover Slow Cooker Sweet Potato
Chili
D: Baked Pesto Salmon with Kale
Chips
WEDNESDAY:
B: Scrambled eggs over roasted sweet
potatoes
L: Leftover Slow Cooker Sweet Potato
Chili
THURSDAY:
B: Scrambled eggs over roasted sweet
potatoes
L: Leftover Avocado Chicken
Salad
D: Ground Turkey Taco Bowls with Spanish
Cauliflower Rice
FRIDAY:
B: Scrambled eggs over roasted sweet
potatoes
L: Leftover Ground Turkey Taco Bowls with Spanish
Cauliflower Rice
SATURDAY:
L: Salad
D: Oven Baked Ribs w/ Roasted
Green Beans
SNACKS: celery or apples with almond
butter, plantain chips and hard boiled eggs
**Favorite recipe of the week: TIE between Sweet Potato Breakfast Stacks and
Ground Turkey Taco Bowls with Spanish
Cauliflower Rice
WEEK 2
SUNDAY
B: Banana Pancakes
L: Eggroll in a Bowl (this wasn’t
our favorite, but the kids ate it)
D: Slow Cooker White Chicken Chili
MONDAY
L: Leftover Slow Cooker White Chicken Chili
TUESDAY
L: Leftover Slow Cooker White Chicken Chili
D: Leftover Paleo Carnitas
WEDNESDAY
L: Leftover Slow Cooker White Chicken Chili
D: Ground Turkey Taco Bowls with Spanish
Cauliflower Rice
THURSDAY
L: Salads with leftover Paleo Carnitas
D: Leftover Ground Turkey Taco Bowls with Spanish
Cauliflower Rice
FRIDAY
L: Salad
D: Roasted chicken with green beans
SATURDAY
B: Scrambled eggs, bacon & fruit
L: Salad
D: Steak, sweet potato & salad
**Favorite recipe of the week: Breakfast Casserole!!!! Oh my goodness, it is SO good. Runner up was Paleo Carnitas
WEEK 3
MONDAY
D: Slow Cooker Buffalo Chicken Stuffed Sweet Potatoes
TUESDAY
L: Leftover Slow Cooker Buffalo Chicken Stuffed Sweet Potatoes
D: Rotisserie Chicken
WEDNESDAY
L: Salad with leftover rotisserie chicken
D: Ground Turkey Taco Bowls with Spanish
Cauliflower Rice
THURSDAY
L: Leftover Ground Turkey Taco Bowls with Spanish
Cauliflower Rice
D: Slow Cooker Chicken, Kale & Sweet Potato Stew
FRIDAY:
L: Leftover Slow Cooker Chicken, Kale & Sweet Potato Stew
D: Tilapia with Avocado Salsa
SATURDAY/SUNDAY: Vacation. Off diet, for sure.
kristin
Friday 19th of January 2018
That looks real good! I need to get my diet/lifestyle change together. Pretty Loved
Angela
Tuesday 16th of January 2018
The Breakfast Casserole looks amazing!
Lindsay
Tuesday 16th of January 2018
You continue to amaze me! You go girl! And the meal planning makes sense. I will have to try that because I know when you're trying to eat better that is absolutely key!
Anna Kurzanski
Monday 15th of January 2018
One thing I started using and LOVE is doing orders from Thrive Market. It's like Costco delivery but for healthy items!
Regine Karpel
Monday 15th of January 2018
Yum. www.rsrue.blogspot.com