Whole30: Day Zero

Okay. I'm back from Maine, and though I frequently get hyped up about an idea but never follow through, I'm still starting Whole30 tomorrow. I decided to do it post-vacation because of all the delicious food I planned to eat while in Boston and Maine (clam chowder, lobster rolls, cannoli, blueberry pie, ice cream--it was a gustatory wonderland), but there was another reason that this ended up being a good time to start: when I'm going to be gone for a while, I like to clean out the fridge before I go, so I came home to a fairly blank canvas.


So, first order of business was grocery shopping. Well, planning, then grocery shopping. I'm a meal planner anyway, so this was pretty easy. The only complicating factor is that I'm not just planning meals for myself; I've got my husband and ten-year-old daughter to consider as well. We typically do our own thing for breakfast and lunch, so
dinner was the only meal I had to tailor to them. Here's the plan I devised for the first few days:

Breakfast

• Sweet Potato Breakfast Bowl

Lunch

• Tuna or egg salad with vegetables on the side (carrot and celery sticks, probably, for a contrast of textures)
• Taco salad with carnitas left over from dinner

Snacks

• Apple slices with almond butter
• Carrot sticks with guacamole

Dinner

• Carnitas with sweet potatoes (tortillas for M&C)
• Grilled chicken, roasted broccoli, sauteed squash (rice pilaf for M&C)
• Hamburger patties, roasted potatoes, braised and glazed Brussels sprouts

With a plan made, I could write a grocery list and go shopping. I got the majority of what I needed at Aldi, which was nice. Then I had some prep to do: making almond butter and mayonnaise, boiling eggs, baking sweet potatoes. I originally had making ghee on the list, but I decided to buy it instead, just to make life easier.

Now all that's left to do is enjoy an awesome dinner at my mom's tonight. My main concern right now is starting the day without coffee tomorrow. (Coffee is allowed on Whole30, but sugar and half and half aren't.) I've decided to try Harney and Sons Hot Cinnamon Sunset Tea, but I'll probably try coffee with coconut milk at some point. I brought some delicious coffee home from Maine, and I'd hate to let it go to waste.

Okay. Deep breath. Here goes.