Almost finished...

 

It's day 28 of 30. Two more days after today, and Jared and I will have successfully completed our Whole30. Sounds crazy, doesn't it? I'll be back later this week with a recap (successes, challenges, pros and cons, etc) so today is just a quick "what we eat" post, since I know a lot of you reading this (well, all three of you, LOL!) might be interested in the recipes.

 

Although I did re-discover something this morning. I am a much happier person when I run. I know that sounds silly, but I really miss it (subconsciously) when I don't run and I'm just not as happy.  The last few days have been tough. Adi was sick on Friday and still wasn't feeling great yesterday. That meant lots of changed plans. On Friday, Emma came to help me with Adi in the morning, so I could get a little bit of work done. It was SUPER helpful, and I was actually pretty productive working in the office while Adi and Emma snuggled and read books on the couch in the living room. (PS - we have the greatest summer nanny. She's fabulous. Adi loves her, and thus, so do we.) Friday afternoon was spent snuggling my feverish baby and taking her to the doctor (virus, presumably). Saturday was a day of constantly changing plans. I wanted to run, but wasn't able to, although Jared, Adi and I did go for a short walk around Horsebarn Hill to see the animals at UConn. I was pretty cranky yesterday (sorry, Jared!) and did not deal well with the feeling that EVERYTHING was changing every time I thought I had something figured out. At least dinner (which I made) wasn't a complete bust. But this morning, even though Adi woke up at an ungodly 5:15am, I went for a run (thank you, Jared, for dealing with this morning's melt down so mama didn't melt down, too). And what I discovered (remembered?) is that when I run, I deal with things better. I'm calmer, I'm happier, I feel better about life in general. I can deal with Adi when she doesn't nap. I can calm her down when she's upset, or frustrated. But when I don't run, I get frustrated. I get angry. And then we're both in for epic meltdowns.

 

So the moral of this really long story is that mama needs to run. So I'm going to make a serious effort in the next two weeks (before vacation to PA!) to do more of it. How, you ask? Well, I do have a treadmill. But I have serious motivation issues running on a treadmill when it is just this beautiful outside. So my plan is a few times a week, to come home and change into my running clothes, and take Adi down to a park where there's a flat, paved trail. I'm pretty sure I can push her stroller while I run (eek!). I'll get a good workout, she'll get some additional outside time, and we both win. 

 

I'm also signing up for another 5K. I'm thinking about the Coventry Harvest 5K, which is being organized by some friends.  I usually run intervals, but want to be able to run the whole thing, so I may pick up somewhere around week 4 of Couch to 5K and work on that as well.  

 

Okay, so on to some new recipes and remixes of left overs!

Today's lunch: left over veggies from the veggie mix I made earlier, over riced cauliflower (I used Emeril's Essence, not the seasoning mix she mentions), with cantaloupe (I'm realizing that I really do like melon - Adi does, too, she ate nearly half of the melon I cut for myself!) and an egg, because I didn't have any other protein with this.

 

Jared and I made Baked Eggs in Portobello Mushroom Caps for breakfast yesterday. The prosciutto was amazing and baked, was similar to bacon (Jared really misses bacon!).  I've never had eggs baked like this before. It was yummy, but the texture was a little different. Not bad, just different.

Crockpot Brazilian Curry Chicken over Riced Cauliflower. This was okay. Chicken was a little dry, but I'm pretty sure it's because I over cooked it. I'm realizing I'm not a huge fan of curry. It's okay, but not my favorite.

Moroccan meatballs again! Side was cumin roasted carrots that I cheated and steamed in the microwave rather than roasting.

And this is my fruit eater, picking strawberries from our garden. That's mint behind her, and the winter squash in front of her that's overtaking our garden (I'm SO excited!!). We planted a few more lettuce plants today so hopefully we'll have some fall lettuce in a few weeks. I also planted some cilantro, parsley, and oregano seeds indoors to grow our own little herb garden. Seems silly to buy so much of those things that we use on a regular basis!