January Whole30 – Week 3

This week is by far the hardest week. Staying motivated is SO much harder. The best thing I can recommend for this week is to try to make the meals EASY because at this point you’ll be sick of eggs, and sick of cooking. Lots of easily accessible burgers, tuna salad, chicken salad, salad-salad, etc.

Thursday, Jan 16
Breakfast: Hard boiled eggs and berries
Lunch: Mini Meat Loaf and Mashed Potatoes
Dinner: Instant Pot Creamy Gnocchi Soup

Friday, Jan 17
Breakfast: Bacon and eggs for Steph/Fruit for Sam
Lunch: Leftover Soup/ Leftover mini meat loafs
Dinner: We went through the leftovers and had a random picnic basically.

Saturday, Jan 18
Breakfast: Fruit and a Chomp for Sam/ Smoothie for Steph
Lunch: Chipotle Whole30 bowl (we both get barbacoa)
Dinner: Hamburgers and Fries (Pro tip, get the sleeve of burgers from Sam’s club!)

Sunday, Jan 19
Breakfast: Smoothies
Lunch: Tuna Salad
Dinner: Actual salad with apple, almonds, pumpkin seeds, and Balsamic Dressing

Monday, Jan 20
Breakfast: Fruit (cantaloupe!) & chomps
Lunch: Mini meat loaf (We made a double batch and froze some for us to take to work!)
Dinner: Burgers and Fries with Bacon

Tuesday, Jan 21
Breakfast: Chomps and hard boiled eggs
Lunch: Leftover Burgers and fries
Dinner: Baked Chicken (rubbed with bbq seasoning from Sam’s) with green beans

Wednesday, Jan 22
Breakfast: Chomps and hard boiled eggs
Lunch: Leftover Chicken
Dinner: Chicken and Veggies (We get the Broccoli Normandy from Sam’s Club)

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January Whole30 – Week 2

We survived another week down on Whole30! This week was filled with some amazing food. I’ve been taking full advantage of snack packs of nuts since I have class super early in the mornings, then eating my eggs once I get to work. Chomps have also saved me a few times. I had planned on taking some photos of our meals, but I always accidentally eat them first. LOL. Oops. We found some almond coconut milk that I’m excited to try in my coffee too so hopefully I remember to add that next week!

Thursday, Jan 9
Breakfast: leftover Sloppy Jane + eggs (wouldn’t recommend mixing..)
Lunch: Leftover Chicken Sausage and green beans/Buffalo Chicken
Dinner: (banana, almond butter, blueberry, protein powder) Smoothies
Neither of us was super hungry for dinner this day, so we decided to make smoothies!

Friday, Jan 10
Breakfast: Smoothies
Lunch: Leftovers for Sam, Eggs and Guac for Steph
Dinner: Egg Roll Bowls

Saturday, Jan 11
Breakfast: We slept through breakfast…
Lunch: Leftover Egg Roll Bowls
Dinner: Chipotle (Now serving Whole30 Bowls!)

Sunday, Jan 12
Breakfast: Eggs and Oven-Baked no-sugar Bacon
Lunch: We skipped lunch since we had such a huge breakfast/brunch
Dinner: Beef Tips and Cauliflower Mash <<< we used immersion blender for texture

Monday, Jan 13
Breakfast: Hard boiled eggs and berries (ras, straw, blu, black)
Lunch: Leftover Beef Tips and Cauli mash
Dinner: Chicken Salad Wraps (wrapped in lettuce) – SEE BELOW

Tuesday, Jan 14
Breakfast: Hard boiled eggs and berries
Lunch: Leftover Chicken Salad
Dinner: [compliant] Turkey BLT Lettuce Wraps w/ bacon from ALDI

Wednesday, Jan 15
Breakfast: Hard boiled eggs and berries
Lunch: Turkey BLT Lettuce Wraps
Dinner: Mini Meat Loafs and Mashed Potatoes

For the Chicken Salad, we started with a whole chicken (We got it from Sams. They sell whole chickens in packs of 2 for ~ $10) and actually used a recipe for this because when dealing with the instant pot, we still get a little nervous with times, etc. It turns out THIS WAS THE BEST RECIPE EVER (Click here). It only took 28 minutes to cook and the meat FELL off the bones. If you don’t have an instant pot, I’m sure you can do it in the oven, it may just take a bit longer!

Pro-tip: we used avocado oil instead of canola and also added half an onion to the inside of the chicken. Once cooled, we shredded the chicken and put it in the fridge overnight. With our chicken salad, we add in homemade mayo, 1 green apple, chopped almonds, Trader Joe’s onion salt, tarragon, red pepper flakes, pepper, garlic, and a few squirts of dijon mustard. The overall rule is to add a fruit and a nut. We usually add cranberries but we didn’t have any. I prefer walnuts but the almonds (from trader joes!) were AMAZING. We’ve also used red apples, but we really like the tartness of the green ones. Feel free to add some peppers too! Sam usually scoops her chicken salad with the mini sweet peppers for extra flavor.

Our Favorites:

Samantha’s favorite is always the egg roll bowls.
When eating leftovers, add fresh cabbage to make it crunchy again!

My favorite was tied between he mini meat loafs and the turkey BLT! One is super heavy and the other is lighter, so I suppose it depends on if you’re in the mood for comfort food.

Tonight we’re having creamy Gnocchi soup and I am SO excited for that. See you next week! Let us know how you’re doing or if you’re trying any of the meals we’ve made!

Our quick trip to Birmingham, Alabama!

This year, we are attempting to take fewer vacations.
(insert huge eye roll here) If you know us, you know that this is next to impossible for us. We love anyyyyy excuse for an adventure. 

 

We need to save money, and we can’t do that if we keep traveling for concerts. HOWEVER, we bought Mumford & Son’s tickets back in November for their concert in March. So obviously we couldn’t NOT do that, which meant a trip to Birmingham for the weekend. It’s only an 8.5-hour drive for us, so… why not? Birmingham is one of our favorite cities!

We drove up on a Friday afternoon and made a pitstop in Valdosta, GA to surprise my little sister and her family. She had noooo clue we were coming, so it felt great to just spend a few hours with her. I painted my niece’s nails (and my niece painted Steph’s nails, which she proudly wore to the concert), played with her makeup and turned her into Harley Quinn, and had a tea party in her hot pink room. Then, I watched my nephew kick some Spider-Man video game ass. It was a great halfway-ish break! 

Our one full day in Birmingham we spent exploring. We started our day out at Urban Standard which is the BEST coffee/breakfast place that we found when we were there the first time a few years back (for a City and Colour concert). Steph still raves about their Balsamic jam to this day. (she’s a balsamic JUNKIE, to say the least). This time all Steph wanted was Avocado toast, and I got a coffee gravy biscuits and gravy. IT WAS TO DIE FOR!! I got a chai tea latte and Steph got a soy latte with vanilla – honestly, everything they make is incredible so you can’t lose. (And the presentation of their drinks are so perfect!!!)

We decided to spend the day exploring and seeing things we hadn’t seen the last time we were here. We went to check out a vintage Vinyl store, Seasick Records and next door there was a really neat antique mall called Urban Suburban. After wandering up and down every booth I scored 2 old fashioned makeup train cases that I have been obsessed with for years for just $10! (Steph’s mom has a blue one and I’ve needed one ever since I first saw it!)

 

We left the vintage mall and headed to this video game coffee shop called Saturn! We walked in and Steph was in heaven. There was a rocket hanging from the ceiling and all of the space gear decorating the whole place. Steph ordered an Iced latte and I ordered a  Kombucha because they told me that it didn’t taste like vinegar, and that is the ONE thing I despise about Kombucha. I fell in love and then found out that I cannot get said Kombucha in Orlando since it’s locally made and apparently Florida has something against good kombucha. (sorry to all of you Kombucha lovers, but I am NOT one of them). We sat down to play old school Mario Kart on their Nintendo 64. And Steph, of course, kicked my ass. (I wasn’t sour about it in the leasssst- insert eye roll here-) 

When we were leaving, we were going past the Sloss Furnaces, which we had read about before. Apparently, they are super haunted and a creepy place to be after the sun goes down. We had decided prior to this that we would NOT be stopping there.. but after seeing them up close (and it being the middle of the day), we decided what the “hell, why not!?” and we were sooooo glad that we decided to stop. Despite feeling lotsssss of cold chills and quite a few eerie heavy feelings, they were sooo gorgeous! They were full of all the history that we both love so much. They started operating in 1882 if that tells you anything at all. In typical “us” fashion, we turned it into a photo session and had a ton of fun. Not to mention ended up with some awesome photos!

While we were at Sloss, someone suggested a place where they serve edible cookie dough like ice cream called Cookie Dough Magic and Obviously, we had to check that out. We tried a ladyfinger cookie dough, birthday cake, and chocolate chip. Seriously, it was sinful and we probably should have been rolled out of there!

By this time, we were EXHAUSTED! And still had a concert that we had to stay awake all night for! We went back to the hotel and laid around for an hour or so. Luckily the venue was literally attached to the hotel. All we had to do was go down an elevator and walk down a hallway and TA-DA! And on our way to the concert, Steph was handed a Mumford & Son’s Delta Tour t-shirt! Scoooore!! We finally got to our ALMOST nose bleed seats and the concert started! They were INCREDIBLE. Mumford & Son’s are breathtaking Live. For their Encore performance, they brought out this husband and wife duo who blew us all away the second they opened their mouths! If you haven’t heard of The War and Treaty, YOU NEED TO LOOK THEM UP RIGHT NOW!!!

We had a GREAT weekend! Stopped at my sister’s again for an awesome dinner. I taught her how to roast asparagus! It’s the little things. By the time we got home, it was around midnight Sunday. And unfortunately, we had to get back to reality Monday morning. Totes worth it though!! 

Here are some gems from the Mumford and Sons concert: