whole 30/paleo shortcuts?

[ViolaMum]

To make veggie noodles, you can buy a spiralizer (kinda pricey), or a handheld vegetable peeler with a julienne blade, which can be had for under $10. I own a mandoline with a julienne blade that works fine as well. I think it's easier to just shred a head of cabbage with a chef's knife, though. (We haven't had zucchini noodles in a while.)

I hear you on the prep and clean up. We're not whole30, we eat more of a whole foods diet, but cooking from scratch every day means that I run my dishwasher 3 times a day and still have some handwashing to do. My best advice is to try and group your meals - do the prep work for two meals at a time, cook something that you know you can remake into an entirely different dish. For instance, I'll chop veggies, use some for a salad and use the rest for a stir-fry for dinner. With different seasonings, they taste entirely different. (Celery, peppers, radishes, cabbage, scallions, carrots, all work raw and cooked.)

[mamacat]

Can you use those zero carb Shirataki noodles long used in certain Asian dishes?

[esperanza]

No idea. I will have to see the ingredients. Wish it was helping sleep for ds but no dice. And I am not experiencing all the energy everyone promises on whole30 either!

[2sunshines]

We love zucchini noodles so much and I own multiple devices, from basic to fancy.

I own a spiralizer and mandolin. I do not ever use either of them for the zuke noodles. I find the set up and cleaning not worth it.

I own a julienne handheld peeler and this is my go to when I am doing raw zuke noodles. It's super quick and easy. I can peel several zukes in just a few minutes this way.

I also started with, and will still use, a regular chef knife to cut the zukes in to noddles. I prefer still doing it this way when I am going to sautee them -- I like them to be a bit thicker for this preparation.

[ECingMama]

Originally Posted by esperanza

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.

I'm crazy about Trim Healthy Mama because the recipes taste good. I've cooked 180 of their 350 recipes since January. The meals are simple (they have LOADS of children) but GOOD. Super easy to be DF/SF/Sugar Free/GF with their plan. Easy to ignore their plan advice if you want. But the recipes are good!

I made their loaded fotato soup yesterday. Super easy. Pureed cauliflower was the "potato" and it was VERY GOOD. (my homemade broth helps, I'm sure!)

[2sunshines]

back to the seafood for a minute. How recently have you had seafood? I only ask because I spent the first 35 years of my life as a very vocal and ardent seafood HATER. I have found that since I have eliminated a bunch of junk that I used to call food (aka the SAD) and moved to all real whole foods, my tastes have completely changed. Most of my absolutely favourite foods right now are things that I would have totally turned my nose up to in disgust a few years ago.

All that to say, maybe try some again? Or cook it in different ways. Be adventurous. You may be amazed.

[esperanza]

No go on the zero carb noodles.

I haven't eaten fish in a long time, but I think half of it is psychological. I remember being forced to stay at the table to eat it when it made me gag and was so disgusting as a kid. It is the one food I can remember just hating, and I remember how our parents made us stay at the table at eat it. My sister and I would sit there for a loooong time. The texture, the taste, no thanks.

Honestly we didn't eat badly before this. We ate probably 75% real food. Most of my recipes are from real food blogs/cookbooks. We are used to eating healthy. But I miss being able to make whole wheat waffles made with honey or a crock pot casserole with brown rice or DAIRY! How I miss yogurt and cheese! We don't buy boxed foods except maybe an occasional pizza or crackers. We are used to eating healthy foods, but I just miss the convenience of it. The recipes I have are fast, but they include grains or dairy.

Ds isn't a big meat eater, so that also makes it hard. I feel like he's actually eating worse, because I have to come up with something else to throw together for him since he doesn't want a big piece of meat for dinner either. He ate better when I made my other recipes.

I think this was just a tough season for me to pick to do this. It's been good, but I'm burned out on all the cooking and trying to find decent recipes, especially ones that aren't super meat heavy. I could make meat stretch farther with my other recipes. I'm going to look for the other recipe book mentioned though!

[2sunshines]

Originally Posted by esperanza

Honestly we didn't eat badly before this. We ate probably 75% real food. Most of my recipes are from real food blogs/cookbooks. We are used to eating healthy. But I miss being able to make whole wheat waffles made with honey or a crock pot casserole with brown rice or DAIRY! How I miss yogurt and cheese! We don't buy boxed foods except maybe an occasional pizza or crackers. We are used to eating healthy foods, but I just miss the convenience of it. The recipes I have are fast, but they include grains or dairy.

Yep this is/was totally us too. We ate very healthy compared to everyone else. but it's all in the progression. As I have learned more and made more and more tweaks I find that I fall in love with foods differently than I used to. Simple things like loving a lot of raw foods. Really enjoying their unique taste and texture without having to add sauces or dressings or smother them in cheese.... But yes convenient it is not. For me it's the most painful when traveling...

You will find your groove. A lot of it is just figuring out what works for your family. What was exhausting and overwhelming earlier on for me has just become second nature and easy. Not "easy as convenience food" but easy enough that it's not burdensome and actually enjoyable. It takes time and has a big learning curve. You will master it.

[RealLifeMama]

I don't know what your motivation was for doing the Whole 30, but I wonder if you are sort of experiencing what I did when I tried a whole 30 a while back. I know I did not experience the energy like I was supposed to, and I think it was because I was focusing on what I couldn't eat rather than what I could eat.
I don't mean that in a bad way, just that I remember when I first started thinking about Paleo or doing a whole 30 because I felt so cruddy, I thought of it as only meat and veggies, with a little fruit. I was not successful, nor did I feel better. At all. I have one of those Well Fed cookbooks and I absolutely agree with you. That food does/did not appeal to me, and the recipes were boring and not worth the prep/clean up to me.
Last year, I did a vegan cleanse that had three weeks of recipes provided. It really changed the way I thought about meals. (I am not vegan, and I do love to add things like feta to my salad, or eat a plain greek yogurt with fruit and a tbs of gluten free granola added) Before I followed that plan, I had no idea how to use nutrient dense foods in my diet. It did allow legumes for the first week, and grains the third week, but no eggs or dairy/gluten/sugar. The grains allowed the third week were quinoa and gluten free oats.
Lots of fun salads, different varieties of smoothies, actually yummy and interesting things to do with the cauliflower (like cauliflower curries, popcorn, and couscous. So much better than that "rice". ) Lots of seeds, tons of fresh cilantro and parsley, brilliant mixes of vegetables for salads and main dishes, avocados on top of a lot of the meals, snacks that were fun and easy that I would have never thought to eat before. I remember that when I was looking into paleo before, I knew sweet potatoes were allowed, so I would just bake them and put coconut oil on them, or make "fries". Boring. Then, with the other plan, I discovered things like putting a yummy kale slaw on them, and topping with avocado and seeds. So good, colorful, fun, satisfying. I knew all those things were "allowed" , but I never really knew how to put them together in a non-boring way, if that makes sense.

For easier prep, salads in a jar, making soups ahead and freezing in jars, and making bags of smoothie ingredients were most helpful.

[2sunshines]

Originally Posted by RealLifeMama

, but I never really knew how to put them together in a non-boring way, if that makes sense.

This exactly. Mastering this has been instrumental and that has just taken time and trying new things (including lots of failures)

[melissa5317]

Originally Posted by 2sunshines

This exactly. Mastering this has been instrumental and that has just taken time and trying new things (including lots of failures)

Seconding (thirding?) this! Also, it's absolutely worth giving things that you haven't had in a long time a try. Is there a day a week you can try something new, even if it's just a vegetable you're unfamiliar with? Or maybe a day you can make chicken for yourself, fish for your DH and give his fish a try? A lot of white fish is different from salmon is different from tuna is different from shark. And a good quality fish will make a huge difference too! And garlic. You just can't go wrong with garlic.

One thing I like to do is eat a portion of protein (usually salmon but sometimes a nice steak, just salted and peppered and cooked medium rare) and then just sautée some green veggies - broccoli, green beans & spinach usually - in some butter (or clarified butter), salt, pepper, garlic and lemon juice. I like a significant amount of lemon juice to give the veg a good kick. Easy, quick, not a lot of clean-up.


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[2sunshines]

Originally Posted by melissa5317

A lot of white fish is different from salmon is different from tuna is different from shark. And a good quality fish will make a huge difference too!

And wild caught fish makes an incredible world of difference too.

We used to eat farm raised salmon. Loved it. Then got educated a bit more on all things fish and moved solely to wild caught fish, and for salmon, I will only do wild caught sockeye salmon. The other day someone gave me a package of the exact farm raised salmon we used to eat and love because they weren't going to use it. Why not... It's free. So I prepared it the same as I always do, and it was good, sure, BUT I was ASTOUNDED at the difference in quality and taste and deliciousness. Just not comparable. So in hindsight I can see that it would be a devastating travesty to, for example, make a judgement on salmon based on a trial of farm raised salmon vs. wild caught sockeye salmon. Same can be said for other varieties of fish.

Also the method of cooking makes a huge difference in taste and texture. Try some different things. Even if you're just making it for your husband then you try a bite... You never know what you may end up loving.

As for other recipes, there have been MULTIPLE times I've tried a recipe and while putting some of the ingredients together, or adding some of the spices it calls for I've been totally double checking that it was right because they are ingredients or spices I would never imagine go together. But it's often those exact things that produce different and amazingly delicious tastes that I could have never created on my own.