Whole 30, Week 1 – Menu

One of the most difficult challenges in changing a diet/lifestyle is the organisation and for a large family it may indeed seem overwhelming.  Reading blogs/websites is a wonderful help but many of the recipes/menus are for a family of four, and some food choices would make the costs for a family of eleven or a family on a tight budget incredible. My hope is by sharing the reality it may aid families transitioning or those wanting more ideas. Whilst I am striving to be Whole 30 (and not always succeeding) my family is not yet totally Paleo/Primal. Angela also has a large family and her menus for  Week 1 and Week 2 on Whole 30 are interesting and inspirational.

* The items on the menu which are not Whole 30 will be in italic.  Mostly they have been eaten by the non-whole 30ers, not me. Potatoes in particular still occur on our menu as we find them difficult for a large family budget to eliminate.

My apologies for an incomplete list as relying on memory rather than a food diary is not the most accurate.

Breakfasts

• Vegetable Juice; Carrot, Celery and Beetroot.
• Yoghurt and Fruit (Children)
• Fruit Smoothies; Orange Juice, Frozen Banana and Peaches.
• Omelette; topped with spring onion and tomato
• Bacon and Fried Eggs

Lunches
Variety and presentation are key elements in salads, each salad has a slightly different variation, we are also enjoying introducing new foods.  Salad choices in the past week include; lettuce, tomato, carrot, capsicum, cucumber, broccoli, green beans, mushroom, radish, baby spinach, red cabbage, white cabbage and red onion.
We never add dressing to our salads, but I did make a French dressing, no-one was keen preferring the unaltered taste of salad.

• Shipwreck Stew with Green Salad (Beans were not Whole 30) (A Favourite.)
• Bacon, Eggs and Fried Tomatoes.
• Tuna Salad and Garden Salad (Another success)
• Chicken and Salad (purchased at Healthy Habits when I met PC for lunch)
• Plenty of Salads (better recording next week)

Dinners

• Grilled Chicken Thighs with Potatoes in their Jackets and Green Salad. (Hit!)
• Homemade Rissoles with Mashed Pumpkin, Mashed Potato, Broccoli and Peas.
• BBQ;  Sausages and Lamb Chops with Mashed Potato, Mashed Pumpkin, and Green Beans 
• Leftover Shipwreck Stew with Roasted Bacon Brussel Sprouts and Zucchini and Mashed Potato and Pumpkin.  (A huge hit!  I just added sliced zucchini in with the brussel sprouts)
• Chips (fast food)
• BBQ; Sausages, Lamb Chops and Green Salad
• Baked Dinner; Roast Lamb with Baked Sweet Potatoes and Potatoes and Green Beans.
• * Bonus, previous week, Chicken Thigh in Tomato and Mango Sauce with Mashed Potato, Mashed Pumpkin and Broccoli. (Hit!)

* For four meals we had 5 extra teenage boys visiting, I was cooking for 11 boys in total, plus three adults (younger girls were visiting elsewhere.)

Snacks
We often buy a box or two of fruit per week, although with Whole 30 the emphasis is on vegetables rather than fruit.

• Bananas
• Nectarines