Wednesday- Day 7 !!!!

 Here are the little girls eating apples with almond butter.  Something they would never eat before.

 Lunch Day 7:  Chicken salad mixture (chicken, grapes, paleo mayo, pickles, walnuts, and celery)  Seven of us really loved this.  We put it in the lettuce leaves.  V didn't even try it.

This was dinner last night.  I was making stew, but it wasn't done, so I did hard boiled eggs very fast and the butternut squash we grew in our garden.  I called the butternut squash, "butter nuts" to make it more appealing.  The kids loved it.

Day Six

Egg, Sweet potato Frittata for breakfast.  All loved.

Ham and Egg cups, peppers, carrots and cucumbers and homemade ranch for lunch.  Kids are getting sick of eggs.

Homemade spaghetti sauce over spaghetti squash, salad and beans.  We also tried sweet tater noodles under the sauce and the kids liked that a lot.

Some bullet point happenings during Whole30

These are just random thoughts tumbling from my brain.

-We found compliant dishes at certain restaurants right away.  Chipotle, Texas Road House, Panera, and Hu Hots all have things we can eat on the menu.

-Costco has several meats like meatballs, chicken sausages, tuna, we can eat and a paleo spaghetti sauce that is so good.

-The Whole30 research says the first two weeks are super hard and you crave things all the time.  Day four is supposed to be the hardest day.  We had a super hard first four days.

-We wondered what to do with Vienna in nursery with the goldfish.  We decided she's TWO, she can eat the goldfish.

-I have a shiny new mandolin slicer I got for Christmas.  I use my food processor, chopper, apple corer all the time.   I just got a new Lodge cast iron skillet today because I needed something you could cook on the stove top and then put in the oven.

-C has dreamed about Hu Hots and not the healthy stuff he can order for Whole30.  He craves carbs and doesn't feel full yet.

-C has to travel this month and is worried about the food on the trip.  He's checked the airports to see what restaurants have whole30 foods.  I bought him some snack things to take in his carry on.

-If you have a good chunk of time over the weekend, you can : Roast a whole chicken in the crock pot to have meat to freeze and make tons of chicken broth from it, make your mayo, ranch, ketchup, any salad dressings you will use, dice onions and freeze them, chops all kinds of veggies for snacks, boil a ton of eggs, fry up some chicken and freeze for salads, put a couple of cans of coconut milk in the fridge so you get the separation and can use the fat of the coconut, bake sweet taters in tin foil to have on hand, make cauliflower rice ahead of time and put in fridge, cook up some bacon, crumble and freeze.

-This whole30 cooking takes a ton of time.  Good thing I love to cook!

-C has started to look on blogs about whole30 things.  He looked to see what a good date movie night treat was.  Since he voted cauliflower popcorn out, we went with pistachios.

-Found a good pure almond butter for apples.  Soooo good.

-Found Applegate meats that are nitrate free, sugar free, and uncured.  Expensive.

-K, SH, L, and E are doing great.  KE and V, not so great.

-K and V super onry right now and constantly hungry.  We may have to allow some wheat bread for them.

-Found Penola Granola at Target and Bare Apple Chips

-We've had birthday woes with SH.  She turns 11 this month and can't seem to find joy in what we can eat on her birthday this month.

-Vitacost is a great website to order some cheaper items from

-Today, most of us were super happy and felt great!  Day 5!

Day 5

Homemade Ranch that the kids and Chris love except E.

Breakfast Day 5:  This was a keeper.  It's turkey sausage with Italian seasonings and potato cubes, spinach, and mushrooms.  These are just oranges with the red flesh.  

Lunch Day 5:  Kids go back to school after a long break.  -35 wind chill by the way.  They took a salad with chicken and ranch, apples, and trail mix.

The kids have loved being in the kitchen helping me.  Everyone of them has wanted to help.  Here, K and V are helping to make the ham and egg cups for Day six.

Dinner Day 5:  Our dinner tonight was the best one yet for everyone.  It's chicken massaman curry.  It was so easy to make and soooooo good!

Day Three and Day Four

Broccoli Salad with the best dressing ever and hash browns.  I had to come up with something that didn't involve eggs.  Most liked this!

I made my own mayo.  It was fun to make and yum!

Lunch Day 3:  We had egg salad sandwiches in lettuce wraps.  A hit for all!

Dinner Day Three:  Orange Chicken in the crock pot with green and red peppers and orange juice, etc.  Most liked it.

Dinner Day Four:  Roast with veggies, salad, and creamy fruit salad.  The favorite meal so far.  I didn't take pictures of the hard boiled egg I made in the morning or the lettuce wrap with turkey and veggies for lunch.

Day one and Day Two Meals

Scrambled Eggs with sweet potatoes and apple rings- a hit with all!

Applegate turkey wraps with veggies inside and trail mix- ok with some of the kids

Coconut flour chicken nuggets, spinach salda, and broccoli- kids didn't like the taste of coconut.  I think I'll leave the breading off next time.

Breakfast Day Two:  Sweet potato patties with fried egg and bacon in-between.  I think this was a stretch for the kiddos.  They couldn't imagine a sweet potato as an English Muffin.

Lunch Day Two:  Ham and Egg cups.  The easiest thing to make in the world and everyone loves them.

Dinner Day Three:  Beef Stroganoff.  We loved this.  The recipe calls for coconut heavy cream instead of sour cream.  You put it over cauliflower rice.  The Brussels Sprouts were a big hit with everyone too.

Some snacks you're not technically supposed to eat on Whole30 even though they are paleo.  Bought them for emergencies and Chris's travel.

Coconut is a wonderful thing!  I never knew it!  You mimic flour,  oil, butter, milk, heavy cream, and soy sauce with it.

Nuts!

Canned stuff to make life easier.

Start of Whole30/Paleo Eating

Our last night before whole30 so of course we had to get pizza!

First we had to throw out all the junk in the house.  So hard to do!

Then we had to buy all new healthy stuff for the recipes for the first ten days.

Then restock time.

Shopped at Vitacost.com, Sams, Walmart, The Free Market, Target,  and will do Costco

Park Day at Lion's

We felt so blessed to be able to to go and be with S and A and M and the cute kids.  A made us all kinds of great food and made us feel so comfortable.  We had some fun movie nights and for Christmas M watched all 8 kids so the couples could go out on a date to a movie theatre that serves you dinner.  I don't think we've ever been on a double date, so that was very fun to do.  M planned a fun night with the kids, nanner splits, dance party, and movie!  I really liked the area there.  It's beautiful!

 Libby and I had fun doing our nails with stuff she got for Christmas.

Lion's Park in Indiana

More pics of Carmel and Lion's Park there