whole 30/paleo shortcuts?
 

We're on day 20 something of whole 30 (the good thing is that I've lost track of what day we're on!). It's good for sure. But it's a lot of work. A lot of food prep and a lot of dish washing. I have to do 100% of it, as dh is taking classes and working. I'm overwhelmed and feeling stressed. I would love to keep up a similar eating lifestyle, but I can't keep up with this much work in the kitchen. Nothing is fast.

Tonight, while the chicken part of the dinner is fast, I had to grate cauliflower just to make "cauli-rice," which wasn't even good! I miss being able to just pull rice out of the pantry to make.

I know some of you have done this long term. What short cuts do you have? How to you make this more efficient?

Re: whole 30/paleo shortcuts?
 

I kept/keep food packs in the freezer. I cut a meal sized portion of protein, throw in some frozen veggies and onions etc and put in a ziplock. That way I could just toss it in the pan and cook quick. No cutting, chopping etc. I didn't do anything like cauli rice etc. too much work and it's just not worth it. It will never be the same.

Re: whole 30/paleo shortcuts?
 

But one of my main complaints, besides all the prep work and cleaning, is that the meals are so boring! I looked up new meal ideas, and most of them haven't been that great. But I'm so tired of cooking chicken and vegetables. I need something different!

Re: whole 30/paleo shortcuts?
 

Roast veggies in coconut oil or olive oil and lots of garlic. Especially cruciferous veggies. So good. Not boring. Very hands off. I use a big stone bar pan for mine and it takes almost no prep time and I just rinse and wipe the pan clean .
Saute your rice after you use a blender or food processor, or skip it and put the food over spinach instead.

And really, I find making salad quicker with less prep and clean up then most other meals.

Re: whole 30/paleo shortcuts?
 

Maybe my veggies are missing lots of garlic. I've been roasting them, but they don't always have a lot of flavor.
I did saute my cauliflower before cooking it, but it's just not rice, you know?
We've been doing salads for lunch. I just can't do it twice a day.
Sorry- I feel like I'm shooting down all the ideas. I do appreciate the input!!

Re: whole 30/paleo shortcuts?
 

I am not super up on Whole30 and what ways of cooking are allowed...but could you put meat and veggies in the crock pot? I'm not sure what spices are allowed but you can do some great dry rubs with some munched garlic on meat and throw in Brussels sprouts or other veggies (I get big bags of Brussels sprouts from Costco and even put them alone in crockpot with garlic and balsamic vinegar and cook on low for several hours and they are delicious). I just think a veggie, a meat (whole chickens are great in crockpot too) thrown in crockpot and cooked slow with some minced garlic is easy and the juices from the meat add flavor to the veggies

I am a huge fan of my crockpot and use it a LOT

Re: whole 30/paleo shortcuts?
 

I love my CP too! I need w30 CP recipes! I do have some meat recipes I could use, I think. I just am not a big fan of roast or other beef like that without rice or tortillas or buns or something else. I miss all my good now not permitted CP recipes!

Re: whole 30/paleo shortcuts?
 

Oh, I've seen those shredded cauliflower instead of rice recipes. Honestly, I've been far too lazy to try. :shifty

I don't really know anything about wholefoods 30 BUT I have been on a whole foods diet for 5 years of my own making, which sounds very similar to this diet. So ignore if any of my suggestions don't match up.

As a rice or pasta substitute, our hands down fave is julienne cut zucchini noodles. Only takes a few minutes to slice up. Either raw (my fave), or lightly sauteed with coconut oil (dh's fave). Our 2nd choice is spaghetti squash. Even easier. Cut in half, scoop out seeds and throw in the oven.

I also recently took a chicken and veggie stir fry and served it over a bed of raw spinach and it was DELICIOUS! The warm topping warming up the raw spinach just made for a melt in my mouth fireworks of deliciousness. :heart (Yes, I'm fairly in love with delicious food :P~).

---------- Post added at 09:43 AM ---------- Previous post was at 09:30 AM ----------

As for meats, we add a good rotation of a variety of wild caught fish to our diet. That adds a plethora of options. :rockon

Wild caught sockeye salmon is our absolute favourite. Broiled or grilled. Super quick and easy. From the package to the dinner table in less than 30 minutes. We also have a variety of other fish in our rotation depending on what the local grocery stores have in stock/on sale that are wild caught. :yes

But back to the chicken... Since that tends to be our most regularly used meat too here for simplicity and price. Keeping variety... Do you try different cuts? I use a ton of boneless skinless breasts, however, I also add in other cuts depending on what I'm making. I find that the kids prefer the boneless skinless thighs because the higher fat content makes them juicier. I also use the thighs regularly in crock pot dishes that the meat cooks down and gets shredded. Of course chicken quarters are also a regular rotation here. Grilled is our fave but oven roasted is also delicious. A roasted whole chicken is a nice variety change too.

It looks like you can do coconut milk on the whole 30 -- have you ever made chicken curry? Totally delicious and something my dh could eat every day. :lol

Re: whole 30/paleo shortcuts?
 

see if your library has any of the Well Fed books. I own the 2nd one and use a recipe from it at least weekly even though we're not doing a whole30 right now. The salmon patties are a huge hit around here.

I've prepped zucchini noodles and cauli-rice several days at a time before. We like mashed potato cauliflower better than cauli-rice.

I've made a big batch of this http://smittenkitchen.com/blog/2016/...chicken-tikka/ (modified for whole 30, coconut milk instead of yogurt and whatever veggies you like). And done similar things with other flavor profiles to reheat for lunch.

Re: whole 30/paleo shortcuts?
 

We love cauliflower rice, but I use lots of coconut oil and salt, and it always has a sauce on it. Roasted veggies, again lots of olive or coconut oil and salt. Chicken over cauliflower rice with canned coconut milk on top is yummy

Chicken "breaded" in a mix of coconut flour and almond flour and fried over cauliflower rice with a sauce made from oj pineapple chunks and peppers and coconut aminos is good.

Spaghetti with meatballs over zucchini noodles.

Hamburgers with lettuce buns.

It's hard, i couldn't keep up after the 30 days.

Re: whole 30/paleo shortcuts?
 

Can you do a taco salad ? Make up a ground beef mixture and roast in pepper cups?

Re: whole 30/paleo shortcuts?
 

I bought some really good salmon at my Groshry store it was frozen and farmed in Norway. It was amazing and really cheap $11/3 servings as far as good fish goes.

I cooked it with capers and olive oil and served it with cauliflower rice or sauteed cabbage I don't rember which.

Re: whole 30/paleo shortcuts?
 

I often use frozen thawed green peas as a rice or rain alternative but dont like them steamed. If you bu the tiny cauliflower and or broccoli florets can use them as rice instead of ricing the cauli or are all the veggies supposed to be fresh? That way would be similar - prep time to making rice and they come in bags prechopped frozen or fresh.

Re: whole 30/paleo shortcuts?
 

Vegetables can be frozen- that's fine. Dh just didn't like the taste of cauliflower. I think he likes it fine fresh, but wasn't a fan of it prepared like that. We ate a good chicken dish with sauce over it, so it wasn't plan, but you could tell it was cauliflower.

Unfortunately I don't like seafood. Dh does and bought some tilapia to prepare. I wish I did, because it would give us more options! But no fish for me!

I actually have a chicken curry recipe for tonight, but I was going to serve it over cauli-rice, until I discovered last night that it wasn't a hit here. And I had planned fried rice for tomorrow with it. Argh. There went my meal plan!

I'm just not a super big fan of just eating a hunk of meat. I'd prefer to have it with something else. Besides the fact that it's expensive to do that every night.

I've read about the zucchini noodles. I don't have a mandolin or anything to slice it easily with. How time consuming are they to make without it? Again, it comes back to all the work instead of just getting out a box of pasta!

Heartofjoy, I'd be curious to hear how you ate after W30. I can see a lot of good things about it, but I'll be honest and say I still miss chocolate and sweets, especially with a lot of stress right now. I know I'd be eating way too much sugar, so it's good we're doing this, but it's also just a lot of work. I'm not sure how I'll be able to moderate this when we're done.

Re: whole 30/paleo shortcuts?
 

Your nursling may sleep better tho w/o the chocolate and sugar. ITU about it being so easy to just make pasta. I think you really need one of those gadgets to be able to make the vegie pasta quickly