Whole 30 Meatloaf and Plantain Chips

Plantain Chips

Going through my first whole 30 I wanted to make some of my favorite foods! I'm totally obsessed with the Terra vegetable chips so I needed something new to feed my craving for them. I got some trader joe's plantain chips which were heavenly but I couldn't keep buying a ton of those. So…. I decided to make my own! First I tried them in the oven and well… almost all of them came out burnt or partly burnt. So I decided to try them in the dehydrator and it worked amazingly! 

First, I found a great sale on plantains at the store (5 for $2) 

What You'll Need: 
5 or more plantains
Mandolin or sharp knife 
Sea Salt 
Dehydrator

I cut of the ends of each plantain and placed a long slice down one side of the plantain skin and popped the plantain out of the skin! Next, I used my mandolin to evenly cut up the plantains. 

After they were all cut up I placed them in a single layer on the dehydrator plates. Sprinkled them all with salt and I turned the dehydrator on at 155 degrees. It took about 12hrs to completely dry them out.   

Now I have great on the go snacks for the rest of my whole 30! 5 plantains filled a quart size storage bag. It probably would have been more but I have a bad habit of tasting along the way while they dehydrate! oops! 

Whole 30 Meatloaf 

The Loaf: 

2lbs Grassfed Ground Beef

1 Small Sweet Onion 

1/2 Cup Gated Carrots

2 Large Eggs

1Tbsp Ghee 

1/2Tbsp Basil 

1/2Tbsp Thyme 

1/2Tbsp Rosemary 

1/2Tbsp Garlic

1/2Tbsp Pepper 

1tsp Salt 

The Sauce: 

1 Can of Muir Glen Tomato Sauce 

1 1/2Tbsp Apple Cider Vinegar 

1/2tsp dry mustard

1/8tsp cayenne pepper 

1/8tsp cinnamon 

I prepped by putting foil over a medium sized baking pan and spread the tablespoon of ghee on the foil then pre heated the oven to 375F. 

First I mixed up the ingredients for the 'ketchup' sauce. Then I took all the ingredients for the loaf and mixed them into a big bowl. Also I added half of the sauce recipe to the mixture. Next I mushed together everything into a log. 

Lastly I spread the rest of the sauce on top of the loaf and popped it into the oven for an hour! 

Before the Oven!

Fresh out of the Oven

I made cauliflower mashed potatoes and asparagus for sides. Can you say comfort food?!?! It was amazing!

Let me know how you guys like it!! 

Week 1 of my Whole 30

Whole 30 Day 1:

Breakfast:
Cube Steak, 2 eggs, sauerkraut, avocado, strawberries
Lunch:
Flank steak, Salad (spring mix, tomato, avocado, bell pepper, and carrot) Tessemae Balsamic Vinegar dressing.
Snack:
Trader joe's sardines, plantain chips, and blueberry larabar
Dinner:
Pork loin, brussels sprouts, and green beans with ghee and a handful of mixed dry roasted nuts.

Day 2:

Breakfast:
diced sweet potato, ground beef, kale, 1 egg cooked in coconut oil, 3 strawberries and a small handful of dry roasted nuts. Also, my morning cup of decaf coffee and bottle of water.

Lunch:

leftovers! Pork, brussels srouts topped with ghee, and baby belly peppers. 

Dinner:

Grilled chicken, cauliflower mashed 'potatoes' with ghee, and collard greens sautéed with onions and mushrooms garlic infused olive oil (seriously soooo delicious!!) 

Snacks: 

watermelon and a handful of dry roasted cashews. Oh and I had a few plantain chips while I was cooking dinner!

Day 3: 

Breakfast: 

(almost the same as yesterday!) cube steak, sautéed kale, sweet potato and mushrooms in coconut oil. 1 large egg, a side of watermelon and of course my cup of decaf coffee! 

Lunch: 

A big ole salad again bell pepper, grape tomato, cucumber, avocado, spring mix and romaine. I put Italian seasoned ground beef on top. 

Dinner: 

Cauliflower mashed potatoes, salmon steak and bagged mixed veggies. 

Snacks: 

banana and almond butter, a handful of carrots, a little bit of pork and leftover brussels sprouts. 

Day 4: 

Breakfast: 

Once again! Sweet potato, mushroom, kale  ground beef sautéed in lard with an egg on top! I had about a cup of watermelon with it as well. With my cup of decaf with some coconut milk in it. 

Lunch: 

2 applegate farms beef hotdogs, sauerkraut, mixed veggies, and half an avocado. 

Dinner: 

Chicken from the whole chicken I made in the crockpot, sweet potato, and collard greens and mushrooms sautéed in garlic olive oil.

Snacks:

 trader joes sardines, some baby carrots, 3 strawberries and a handful of mixed dry roasted nuts. 

Day 5: 

Breakfast: 

cube steak and 1 egg cooked in lard, green beans, sweet potato with cinnamon, and a small gala apple. Also, as always, my cup of coffee with some coconut milk in it.

Lunch: 

(whole 30 fail... The tots I'm pretty sure had some ingredients I shouldn't have) we went out to lunch in Baltimore so I tired my best... A chicken sandwhich with no bun and extra lettuce. Had the chicken topped with old bay seasoning and then a side of sweet potato tots and lastly a side of avocado which isn't pictured.

Dinner: 

Another big salad! Avocado, tomato, bell pepper, spring mix, romaine, and tessemae balsamic vinegarette. A side of chicken with paprika, salt, and pepper. 

Snacks: 

Trader joes sardines, a handful of carrots, a handful of dry roasted cashews 

Day 6: 

Breakfast:

 Cube steak, one egg, sautéed sweet potato, kale, beets in lard. Also had a side of black grapes with my coffee and coconut milk.  

Lunch: 

Homemade salmon cakes, mixed stir fry vegetables cooked with ginger. Snacked on some carrots and a banana with cashews as I did meal prep. 

Dinner: 

Lamb steak, sweet potato with ghee, and roasted asparagus. 

Snacks: 

made some plantain chips and tried a few of those, 3 baby peppers and 3 strawberries and some macadamia nuts.

Day 7: 

Breakfast: 

2 eggs cooked in coconut oil, Italian seasoned ground beef, green beans, half an avocado and strawberries. Also my cup of coffee with coconut milk.

Lunch: 

shredded chicken, spaghetti squash with ghee, and beets roasted with coconut oil. 

Dinner: Beef pot roast, sweet potato, spaghetti squash, broccoli all covered with ghee. 

Snacks: 

Trader joes smoked sardines and a blueberry larabar. Also after my workout I had a handful of homemade plantain chips. 

There were a lot of ups and downs to this week. The first 3 days were for sure the worst. Even the night of day 3 I had dreams about eating dark chocolate and pizza and having wine. It was crazy for sure. I think I have now 'killed the sugar dragon' though which feels amazing. If you read It Starts With Food before you start your whole 30 journey it helps a lot. It helped me get more of an idea of the things I would go through mentally and all the recipes in the book are awesome too!  

I have been sleeping better and for sure have more energy. Also, Olivia no longer spits up at all and has so much less gas. Knowing this it gives me that much more motivation to keep this journey going as long as possible. 

The first 3 days I also felt so hungry and felt like I could never get enough food. At day 7 though I finally feel satisfied and I'm actually eating less. It's crazy how fast your hormones level out when you are eating the right things.

I did have a little bit of a cheat and had sweet potato tots which probably had some kind of starch in them and bad oils but I will make sure not to make that mistake again. You can't obsess about the mess up, just move on and that's just what I'm doing! 

Overall I'm really enjoying this experience and it's really helping me get back into the paleo mindset which I needed. I started my workout plan today as well so next week I will be able to write more about what I'm doing and how I'm feeling.

Troubleshooting Breastfeeding

To say the least breastfeeding has been by far the hardest thing I have EVER done. I thought it would come easy to me and after all the encouraging things my midwife told me I had some high hopes.

The first week was just miserable. We were figuring out her latch and also finding a feeding position that worked for both of us. Through this journey I got blistered nipples and a slight case of mastitis. On top of this we had a really sleepy baby on our hands and I would have to wake her and make her feed which was hard on both of us. Also, I had to pump multiple times a day because I was so engorged it wasn't even funny. With my nipples being so messed up pumping was so uncomfortable and I remember cringing every time I even thought about pumping. In the end we made it through the first week.

Week two was better. Olivia was still having problems with finding a good latch. She started gulping a lot during feedings and swallowing a lot of air. This is when our 'colic' problems started. She would eat, eat, eat like crazy and then cry so hard that her lips would start turning blue. We were blessed with a girl with some lungs on her. The first couple of nights we used gripe water to help her stomach. Within minutes after giving her the medicine she would be fast asleep. We still use the gripe water maybe once a day when she randomly gets a big bubble in her tummy...

Organic Gripe Water We Used

At the same time the gas was happening she started projectile vomiting 2-3 times a day. We both got wardrobe changes multiple times a day because of this. I ended up having to cut out dairy because we found that was part of the problem. We used Nat Phos 6x (a homeopathic remedy) after every other feeding, by day 2 she stopped vomiting and spitting up. Nat Phos was literally a God sent for us and I recommend it to anyone having acid reflux problems both child and adults. Within 6 days we went from giving her the medicine 5-8 times a day to giving it to her only once a day. Since then we haven't had any problems. The great thing about homeopathy is that is cures the problem not just the symptoms which makes it work so well. We bought it from Vitamin Shoppe but you can get it pretty much anywhere, Amazon, Iherb, Swanson, etc.

Nat Phos 6x By Hyland's

Week three I would say was the best/worst week of it all. My nipples were still trashed but not blistering which is sadly a positive. Also, my milk finally regulated so I don't feel engorged all day long. I'm still pumping 1-2 times a day to get a good stash of milk in the freezer though.
We started bottle feeding her the last feeding before we go to bed which has helped her sleep with no extra gas on her stomach. The last thing I wanted to do was introduce the bottle too early. I wanted to make sure she didn't have any nipple confusion problems but that went out the window when the pain of feeding her became pretty much unbearable.
 We went to her check up appointment and I told the doctor about how hard it has been to breastfeed and how I am still really sore all the time. He didn't really lend any advice just told me to call the lactation consultant and get an appointment. He said since she was gaining weight that I shouldn't be concerned and that I was just adjusting to breastfeeding. Him saying that really set me off so when I got home I started doing some research.

This is when I learned about lip ties. I looked at pictures and then checked out Olivia's upper lip. There was no doubt about it… She has a major lip tie. I found out that having one causes a bad latch which causes pain during breastfeeding. Also, this lip tie could cause a million other problems down the road for her. We went and saw the lactation consultant and she helped us so much. She fixed her latch as much as possible and did say that her upper lip for sure had a tie and within a couple months it will get tight and we will have to probably get it clipped.

After getting fixed up by the lactation consultant things got so much better! We were finally feeding without any pain and Olivia's gas problems went away which was awesome. Then around week five is when we once again had a problem. Thrush decided to show up and ruin our now great breastfeeding relationship. I couldn't figure out why my nipples started to hurt again but then I figured it out when Olivia's tongue started to turn white.

Thrush is a form of a yeast which can be passed back and forth between mom and baby. The best way to fix the problem is to treat the mom first. So this is what I did…
I doubled my probiotic intake, started taking more vitamin C and zinc, bought myself some grapefruit seed extract, and started swallowing 2 cloves of raw garlic a day. All of these things boost your immune system to help balance the yeast in your body. Also, I cut out all sugars even down to just one piece of fruit a day and cut out gluten and dairy (which I already did prior) altogether. Yeast feeds on sugar and gluten so cutting those out can help so much. Within 3 days the pain in my nipples was gone so I swear by the home remedies I used.
The doctor gave me Nystatin (the oral form) to give to Olivia 3 times a day after she eats. We used it once… She got horrible gas from it and did not like the taste at all of it. I hated seeing her in pain so I decided it wasn't worth it. It has now been about 2 weeks, I haven't had any problems since day 3 but she still has a small patch of white on her tongue. It doesn't bother her at all so I decided I'm just going to keep treating myself until it totally clears up. Fingers crossed it works!

In the end I have learned breastfeeding can be a crazy journey. I know most people don't have any problems at all and I hope that for all new moms. I was the opposite, whatever could happen did happen. I think it has been all worth it though. I love being able to provide for Olivia and give her what God intended her to get.

I know every mom is different and formula is a great option or the only option for some families. I don't see it as a bad thing to formula feed it all,  it's all personal preference. My personal preference is to breastfeed and I LOVE IT!! Between the bonding during feedings and knowing I'm the one that can provide all she needs just warms my heart!