I was off from work on Monday and stayed home with the kids. This was one of the hardest days so far for me because I had an unrelenting migraine and two kids to watch. The urge to dive into everything I shouldn't was strong and my willpower was not but, I did not give in. For breakfast I grabbed a hard boiled egg between making delicious oatmeal for the kids, refilling their sippy cups, picking up their messes and carrying my smallest while doing it all. 

For lunch I had leftover Easy Thai Chicken from our Sunday dinner. The recipe can be found in my free week one recipe download.

Dinner was plantain nachos (also in week one's meal plan) and it was really delicious. We made the taco seasoning ourselves to keep it compliant. One word of warning, when the recipe says, "green plantains", it means it. We burnt quite a few because we used a yellow plantain and the sugar content caused it to get a bit too crispy in the oven. But, we didn't end up with any leftovers which threw me off for Tuesday.

Breakfast was the pumpkin custard. It is ok. I actually decided that I have no desire for a sweet breakfast and don't plan on making that a breakfast option again unless it comes with something savory. Again, it's ok. Not my favorite but not bad.

Lunch was difficult. I had no idea what I was going to do. We decided to go out but I can only go from 10:30 - 11:20. Not much is open at 10:30. We actually discovered a new hole-in-the-wall Mexican restaurant that opens at 9 and headed there for some fajita meat and lettuce. It was really good and will definitely be somewhere I return.

Dinner was egg roll in a bowl. It was ok but not that great. I mean it is basically cabbage, carrot and chicken stir fried so it was good for what it was but, kinda boring.

I had leftover custard for this morning but just couldn't bear to eat it. So, I had tea and then got so busy working I forgot to eat anything before it was lunchtime. Oops.

Lunch was leftover egg roll in a bowl. So, this is not the greatest day for eating. But, I didn't really feel hungry. I don't know what that's about. I did eat a larabar for a snack.

My parents were in town for a visit and we pulled out all the stops for dinner. We made the knock-off chikfila nuggets AND the tandoori chicken with pineapple rice. We already knew the nuggets would be good. But man, that tandoori chicken and pineapple rice was amazing! My parents even asked for the recipe!

 I had leftover knock-off nuggets for breakfast. I keep forgetting to make the other breakfast casserole. :( But, the nuggets were good and definitely a better option for me than the custard.

Lunch was leftover tandoori chicken and pineapple rice. It was just as good as last night. Yum. I also had an apple for a snack.

My husband took our daughter on a Daddy date so I was left to fend for myself while wrangling our two year old. But, I did manage to whip up a steak and a few eggs in coconut oil with a side of fruit and a glass of OJ for my dinner. Unfortunately, my eggs weren't as great as I would have liked and I made a bit of a mess. I cracked an egg all over the hot stove. Have you ever had to clean up raw egg? It's a nightmare. And, the part that got on the glass stovetop burned and made a horrible smell. Oops.

For breakfast I made the paleo egg cups from my Galentine's Day post. So, yummy! I also made a quick fruit salad and had a glass of juice.

Lunch, this is where I messed up. I ate a pretty big and filling breakfast so when I had time for lunch I wasn't hungry. Then, I was so busy getting the party ready that I didn't have time to eat. Then, when the party came, I made decisions that definitely were not whole30. But, in the grand scheme of food were not bad choices. I had a turkey and cheese sandwich (it was dinosaur shaped), a few honey sriracha wings (they were paleo at least) and a piece of paleo coconut cake. So, I failed but, I'm ok with that. I did survive two weeks and that included Valentine's day!

Breakfast was a whole30 compliant meal consisting of a steak and egg dish that was delish!

Lunch was another fail, I guess I really lost my way after Saturday. But, not a bad lunch. I had an onion soup that contained rice noodles and a sparkling water.

Dinner was my greatest fail. I had a cheeseburger. It was five guys and it was super delicious. I will say that I didn't really care for the bun or the fries but the cheese was glorious!

Like I said, I plan on still cooking my meals for the week and will try to stay as whole 30 as possible with my weakened state of willpower. :(

These slimy fellas will entertain your kids and won't leave them with a sugar high! Find the recipe and directions at TwoDaloo! 

A great twist on the idea of pudding! Add some colored ice cubes and let the mess begin! Find the how-to at Learn Play Imagine!

Here's another great recipe that doesn't involve sweets! Whip up some mashed potatoes and grab the parmesan for this clever recipe! Head over to True Aim Education for the spud-tactic directions!

My kids loved this and created some pretty darn realistic looking treats! You can find the recipe and directions at Smart School House!

 This is a quick and colorful recipe that kids will love! Plus, it only has TWO ingredients! Visit 123 Homeschool 4 Me for more info!

You only need a few ingredients for this quick and vibrant paint recipe! You can find the specifics and some truly adorable photos at Must Have Mom!

These look SO FUN! I can't wait to try them with my kids! Jell-o is just so versatile! See the how-to over at The Mud Kitchen!

Water beads are super fun but not always edible. These mini water beads are made using basil seeds! Find the directions and amazing images at Fun at Home with Kids!

I've made cloud dough that was inedible before and my daughter played with it forever! I bet this recipe smells amazing and will be even more fun! Check it out at Sow Sprout Play!

This isn't a recipe per se but, kids love to play with just about anything if it feels interesting and is easy to manipulate. This idea is great for those days when you just don't have the energy to whip something up or you're in a rush. Just give them a bag of oats! See more ideas for your oats over at Fun A Day!

After eating, we did a foot bath and painted our nails. It was really nice to just relax and visit. We used my current favorite nail polish, Sally Hansen Miracle Gel, if you buff your nails and polish them well I've been able to get a full week with almost no chips out of one paint session. That includes doing dishes and actually functioning like a real person! (BTW, they aren't paying me to say this. I just really like it.) 

I also made this super cute shirt with my silhouette machine! Even though I didn't officially drink a mimosa, it had the right vibe. I bought the black shirt and sequin jacket at Forever21. (The "jacket" is actually a crop top with a zipper in the back. I just put it on backwards and voila! sequin jacket!) The "jacket" was on sale for less than $10! How could I turn that down?! You can download the free cut file for my shirt below!

It was a very fun, very girly time and left both of us feeling refreshed and slightly pampered before heading back to the real world of dirty diapers, screaming kids, dirty laundry and sticky kisses.

 Monday
For breakfast I had sausage, sweet potato and apple hash with an egg on top and coconut chai tea. (It was only one egg but had two yolks.)
My husband made it heart shaped. Isn't he sweet!

For lunch I had a mustardy kale and sweet potato salad with bacon and an apple with a la croix pineapple strawberry sparkling water. It was a delicious salad and the apple helped cope with the absence of sugar.

I had a coconut cream pie larabar for a snack. (I eat lunch at 10:55 so a snack is a necessity.)

For dinner we had paleo pad thai using spaghetti squash for the noodles. It was so freakin' good! ( You can tell Derek enjoyed it.) And, we had enough leftover for our lunch the next day!

I ended my day with a cup of chocolate hazelnut tea! It's caffeine free and a delicious treat that is whole 30 friendly and calorie free!

Wednesday
Breakfast was a repeat today of sausage sweet potato hash with an egg and a cup of tazo zen tea. It was just as good as Monday and took very little work after Sunday night since we cooked the hash and portioned it out that night. All we had to do this morning was cook some eggs.

Lunch was left over carnitas tacos. I enjoyed them just as much as last night. They are delicious!

For dinner we had creamy sausage and kale soup and went ahead and made the knock-off chikfila nuggets too. (We started marinating them on Sunday so they needed to be dealt with.) I was not a huge fan of the soup. It was a little too sweet for me but OMG those nuggets are the bomb! Soooooo yummy! Who'd of thought that pickle juice and paprika are the secret to fantastic and healthy nuggets!

Friday
Breakfast was the hash for the final time. Still delicious. 

Lunch was another repeat. We had the sweet potato and bacon kale salad with mustardy dressing. I also had an apple. 

Dinner was paleo alfredo. I was really excited about this but I shouldn't have been. It was so garlicy (is that a word?) that my mouth was burning and I felt a little high. I actually googled "Can you get high from too much garlic?" and the answer was kinda.  I found this post that discusses various scientific studies on garlic and they found that it can cause a feeling of euphoria in high amounts. Crazy right? Well, I guess if you did some major manipulation to this recipe you could make it palatable but, as is, not good. We did not keep the leftovers. I will say that the zucchini noodles would have been good in some other sauce so that is a win I guess. I also snapped a pretty sexy photo of Derek spiralizing the zucchini.

I was still hungry and couldn't get the taste of garlic out of my mouth so I ended up snacking on a larabar, macadamia nuts and root chips. The taste was still there.

Sunday

I planned a Galentine's day brunch for my friends and cooked some amazingly delicious stuff that was also really easy! I made bacon wrapped egg and asparagus cups, chocolate mousse and fruit salad (I just tossed some apple, strawberries, blackberries and raspberries in a bowl with little orange and lemon juice and a sprinkle of cinnamon) with the optional mimosa. (I used sparkling water instead of champagne.) Let me tell you, those egg cups were soooooooooo good! You need to make them like yesterday! They were ridiculously easy and very satisfying. 

Lunch was another difficult decision. We met Derek's parents for his Dad's birthday and to pick up the kids at a Mexican restaurant. Derek and I held strong and ordered mixed fajita minus everything but the side of lettuce and added guacamole. I also brought our leftover jicama "shells" from the pork carnitas. It worked really well and we both left satisfied. We were also able to turn down the birthday cake!

Dinner was something we had skipped from an earlier night, easy Thai chicken and cauliflower rice. It was so good! After the alfredo debacle, Derek had declared that he was done with cauliflower for awhile (it was a cauliflower based sauce) but this changed his mind. It was really easy to make as all you do is "rice" the cauliflower with a grater and then fry it in coconut oil. It had a really nice nutty flavor and the texture was perfect. The Thai chicken also had a lovely flavor and all of the elements I love in Thai food. Two thumbs up!

Tuesday
Breakfast was a grain free banana nut muffin (I was so eager to eat it that I took a bite before my photo. Oops!) and two small hard boiled eggs with tazo zen tea. The entire time I as eating the muffin I was in awe that it contained NO grains or added sugars/sweeteners! It was so. darn. good.

Lunch was leftover paleo pad thai and a la croix pineapple strawberry soda. The pad thai was just as delicious as the night before!

For a snack I had an apple and a handful of whole 30 compliant root veggie chips and more sparkling water.

For dinner we had slow roasted carnitas with jicama taco shells topped with avocado and lime. They were divine! Seriously, I don't think I ever want to eat tacos with a tortilla ever again. The jicama added a nice crunch with a hint of spicy sweetness. So yummy!

​I ended my night with a cup of cocoa mint mate tea and another delicious banana nut muffin.

Thursday
Breakfast was another repeat of the banana nut muffin and boiled eggs with zen tea.

Lunch was leftover soup and nuggets. The nuggets were still amazing but I did have to force my way through the soup. Derek said he thought the soup was super good both times so, you might like it. To each his own.

Dinner was supposed to be nuggets (we jumped the gun on that one) so we had to substitute with something. I went with our Saturday breakfast plan (I knew we wouldn't have the kids on Saturday and thought they'd enjoy the pancakes.) The banana pancakes were almost too sweet for me but the kids did enjoy them. I decided I was too lazy to do anything special with the strawberries like the recipe stated so I just cut them up and placed them on top of the coconut cream. The coconut cream was pretty ok. The kids were not a fan and had real whipped cream. Obviously they enjoyed it.

Saturday

This is where things started to get difficult. It was Valentine's Day weekend so we sent the kids to Grandma's and planned our Valentine's for Saturday. Our go to breakfast is Starbucks. Their double smoked bacon and cheddar is amaze-balls. But, not only is that out of the question but so is my usual toffee nut latte. So, we chose to go to our other favorite spot, a local coffee house that we knew would be more cooperative with a picky order. Derek did depart from the whole 30 train a bit and ordered their special of the day, huevos rancheros. It included two tortillas, hash browns and sour cream. Although, he didn't eat the sour cream. However, he did end up ordering two! I stayed strong and had three over medium eggs, bacon and a bowl of fruit with a pot of mint tea. It was good but it was pretty difficult to skip out on their special and I felt a teensy bit hungry when we left as I was craving some toast.

Then we headed to our first movie of the day, Hail Caesar. But, we made a stop at starbucks for coffee. I ended up ordering a tall pike place with steamed coconut milk! I was really excited but leary of the flavor. It was delicious and I stayed on whole30! In fact, it was a little too delicious. So, I decided to do a little research on the contents of their so-called single origin coconut milk. Here is what I found. It contains sugar and all sorts of other fillers! Bummer! So, even though I tried I did not stay on the wagon like I intended but, it wasn't my fault!

After the movie we were ready for lunch and headed to our favorite sushi spot. But a 30 minute wait was not in our plans so we headed to another sushi place nearby. The traffic was terrible and we were both getting grumpy. When we finally pulled up to the second restaurant we found that they had just closed until 5. So, we ended up heading far from the busy mall and theater area and went to ANOTHER sushi place downtown in the hopes that all of the Valentine's day craziness would not be there as it is more of a nightlife spot. We were right! It was basically a ghost town and we managed to stay on whole30 with seaweed salad, onion soup and sashimi for two. 

Then we headed to our next movie, Deadpool. It was also really good! We left and went to the grocery store to buy our groceries for the next week as well as a quick trip to Target for a few necessities and I squeezed in a visit to Forever21. Hehe. By the time we got home it was 9:30 and we had to put the groceries away as well as clean up the mess that was paleo alfredo. (I was lazy and didn't clean it up Friday night.) So, by the time we were done it was 11pm. I ended up eating a few root chips and drank some water but skipped a real dinner. Not the best but I wasn't really hungry so it was what it was.

I hope this has inspired you to take the whole30 challenge or to at least try some of the amazing recipes! We are heading into week two now and have even more deliciousness in store as long as I can resist the desire for dairy! I'm definitely feeling the loss of my beloved cheese!