whole 30 | hello, day 10!

Hooray!! 

We are already on day 10 of Whole 30. It's been an amazing experience so far. It's definitely a lot of work prepping meals - but we feel great and are loving it! It's been surprisingly easy to stick with our restrictions -- besides the random cravings for sweet iced vanilla lattes and ice cream, my cravings have been relatively under control. Eugene has been craving frostbites like crazy - so random! 

The best part about this so far has been that we're learning that we can live without eating certain things everyday. I can drink my tea without honey. I can function without coffee (!!!) I can eat pho without noodles. I can eat at a sushi restaurant without rice! I'm also slowly getting used to black coffee (sorta, maybe, only iced though!!) 

It's definitely providing us with a lot of perspective and helping us to think more about the food we put in our mouths. 

Even though meal prepping is a lot of work, it's been a lot of fun! I'm slowly learning how to cluster certain dishes to minimize dishes/groceries but still keep the recipes versatile and interesting. The slowcooker and my oven have been my best friends. 

Roasting veggies is probably the easiest (and yummiest) way to maximize your meal prep. I usually stick these trays in while cooking other things. Optimal temperature for our oven has been 400 degrees for 15 minutes. We're trying eat all the colors of the rainbow but also lots and lots of green! 

I've been trying find interesting breakfast ideas. (We can only eat scrambled eggs and chicken sausage for so long...) I found a great idea to do Mini Frittatas in Prosciutto Cups and and Omelet Pie on Sweet Potato "crust" using the same egg + veggie mix. The two recipes cook at the same time and provided breakfast for both of us for 3-4 days! We packed it with a lot of different veggies so it was really flavorful and filling - and cooking it in two different ways kept it versatile enough for us to stay happy. Yay, totally scored with that one! 

I also made homemade mayo using Whole30-compliant ingredients! It took a few tries to get the technique just right. Thankfully I found the perfect recipe and will post a video (!!) sometime soon! 

Of course I mixed some of the mayo with my homemade Sriracha and made spicy mayo. hehe :)

The spicy mayo paired perfectly with our sweet potato fries on our burger night. you guys -- this burger was amazing. we made our own beef patties with grass fed ground beef, and served it with roasted eggplant slices, whole grilled onions, roasted bell peppers, guacamole and arugula on top of a portobello "bun". Eugene is already requesting for another burger night so we are obv gonna do it weekly. :) no complaints there! 

The hardest part of doing whole30 is not being able to eat out. When I meet with people throughout the week, I have to be pretty careful about choosing a place that has something that we can actually eat. I had brunch twice last week and I ended up coming to Panini Cafe both times because this was so good! 

This is my favorite breakfast item on any given day, but thankfully it was easy to make it whole30 too! it was a veggie omelet without eggs, roasted potatoes and cucumber slices instead of bread. This place uses farm fresh eggs so it's perfect! 

I also met with my cousins for sushi because we had family visiting from Colorado (Hi, Sylvia!) and I was so excited to eat sushi but was wondering how I would do without my beloved rice. It was actually not too bad! I also brought my coconut aminos since soy sauce is not allowed. it was a worthy substitute and it definitely fulfilled my sushi craving. :) 

To commemorate our first 10 days, Eugene let me buy a new set of tupperware. I was so excited so of course we had to take a picture!! 

Yay! 

Cheers to our next 20 days!! 

xoxo