I really don't understand meal plans. I mean, conceptually, I get it. When you're starting a new eating plan, an expert tells you exactly what...
Read MoreWhole30 Meal Plan: Week Two
If you’re beginning Week 2 of your Whole30®, congratulations to you!
I hope you’re feeling awesome and eating lots of great food. If you missed it, here’s my Week 1 Food Plan — and if you followed the Week 1 Plan, you’ll see some similarities in the Week 2 Plan below. This is how I cook to keep us on track, so I’m sharing my tricks. For Week 2, you’ll find recipes, directions, and a shopping list.
Before we get into the specifics, here’s my rant and intro so you know just what you’re getting yourself into.
I really don’t understand meal plans. I mean, conceptually, I get it. When you’re starting a new eating plan, an expert tells you exactly what to eat and when to make it a little easier. But practically speaking, it makes no sense to me.
What if I don’t want to eat salmon on Monday?
However, I understand the desire to have a more concrete plan than “eat clean food,” especially for someone new to paleo or tackling a Whole30® for the first time. So this post is a description of what I’d do if I was going to do a Whole30 right now.
A few things to keep in mind:
1. This is a Whole30 Meal Plan… and it’s not. It’s more of a food and cooking plan. I’m not going to tell you what to eat when, but I have made recommendations for foods you’ll want to make sure you have in your kitchen and recipes I think make the Whole30 easy and delicious.
2. I haven’t specified things like breakfast, lunch, dinner, or snacks. As I explained in Well Fed and Well Fed 2, I eat the same kinds of foods at all of my meals. If I want breakfast food at dinner time, I break out the eggs. And my breakfast is usually chicken, sautéed with sweet potatoes and collard greens, with a side of zucchini soup. I’m not suggesting that the Whole30 means you have to eat zucchini soup for breakfast. I’m just saying you’ll probably have more fun if you stop thinking of foods as appropriate for a particular meal. Eat what you want when you want it. (As long as it’s from the Whole30-approved list, of course.)
3. I created a complete shopping list. I went through the recipes and made a list of everything you’ll need to make the food below, and it’s in a PDF so you can print it out, cross out the things you don’t need, and add whatever else you think you might want to nosh. You’ll definitely want some stuff in your kitchen that’s not included in this blog post or shopping list. I’m talking about lovely nibbles like coconut chips or black olives, or luscious in-season citrus fruit, or a vegetable that catches your eye at the farmer’s market. Download the Week 2 Shopping List.
4. You’ll probably need more food than you think. The Whole30 may limit how often you eat in restaurants, not because you can’t, but because eating at home is usually less stressful and more delicious. Below are some rough guidelines for how much protein and veggies you need to feed yourself each day; for more on this food math, you might want to check out my cookbook Well Fed or this post called “Stocking Up.”
Per person, per day, you need approximately:
3/4 pound to 1 1/2 pounds of protein
6-8 cups of vegetables
Think about the people you need to feed and adjust your shopping and cooking accordingly. I guarantee you that you’d rather have more food than you need (you can always pop it in the freezer until you’re ready for it) than to run out mid-week when you’re tired and hungry. If you’re cooking for ripped-to-the-max CrossFitters, they eat more of everything than a “regular” person. If you’re cooking for just yourself, you might want to cut quantities in half, or freeze half of the larger recipes below.
This might seem complicated and overwhelming now, but after a week or two, you’ll be a pro. Relax! You really can’t do it wrong. I promise.
5. Keep it simple. You don’t need to follow a bunch of complicated recipes to eat well, and I recommend that during your first week, especially, you make it as easy on yourself as possible. That’s why I encourage you to make Hot Plates (see details below) and a few simple recipes that yield large quantities so you have lots of useful, yummy leftovers. (Want more ideas for keeping it simple? This post has tons of meal ideas that don’t require a recipe.)
This Food Plan is based on two components: (1) Hot Plates, which are essentially meat+veg sautés you can make on-the-fly, and (2) Bulk Recipes that make scrumptious dishes in larger quantities so you have leftovers throughout the week. The combination of both means you can fight boredom and have your own personal menu of choices to choose from every day. Your fridge is about to become your favorite restaurant.
The info below lists the recipes I recommend you make for a week’s worth of meals, plus a step-by-step plan for getting it all done in about two hours. 3-2-1… GO!
Hot Plates
The basis of cooking in our house is Hot Plates. Basically, I cook a pile of protein and bushels of vegetables to store in the fridge until it’s time to eat. Then I quickly sauté whatever I’m in the mood for and top it with spices and sauces to jazz it up. Easy! It’s like this:
Protein + Veggies + Fat + Spices + Sauce = Meal
Here’s my recommendation for what you’ll cook for Hot Plates during Week 1. The detailed instructions are below, but this gives you an idea of the quantity and ingredients.
Protein
Ground Beef: 2-3 pounds, browned in a skillet with lots of salt, ground black pepper, and garlic powder.
Boneless, Skinless Chicken Thighs : 2-3 pounds, roasted with lots of salt, ground black pepper, garlic powder, and paprika.
Tuna, Sardines, Shrimp: Stock up on cans of tuna (my favorite is Genova Tonno, packed olive oil, no extra ingredients), sardines (my fave are Crown Prince, skinless and boneless), and shrimp (I defrost frozen, wild-caught in the fridge for last-minute meals).
Veggies
Cooked Vegetables: Cook a bunch of veggies and store in the fridge. All of these (except the spaghetti squash and sweet potatoes), get a basic Steam-Sauté treatment:
Spaghetti Squash (how-to video for cutting spaghetti squash)
Broccoli
Green beans
Cabbage
Bell Peppers
Brussels sprouts
Greens: kale, collards, spinach, or chard
Raw Vegetables: These are great for salad plates, snacks, and as add-ons alongside a Hot Plate:
Carrots
Cucumbers
Bell Peppers
Scallions
Snap Peas
Jicama
Sauces
A drizzle of something luscious turns meat and vegetables into something you really want to eat. These three are very versatile and quick to make:
Sunshine Sauce: like Asian peanut sauce, without the annoying (anti-nutritious) peanuts
Olive Oil Mayo: so much better than store-bought, and perfect for salad dressings, tuna/chicken salad, or dolloping on top of grilled meat
Moroccan Dipping Sauce: fresh, a little spicy, and fast to make; excellent drizzled over Hot Plates and doubles as salad dressing
Alert! If you make roasted chicken thighs and roasted spaghetti squash and Sunshine Sauce and stock up on snap peas, you have everything you need for Pad Thai.
Another option for your cooked chicken and a can of coconut milk? Taj Mahal Chicken!
More Ideas for “No Recipe Required” Meals
You can find lots more detail and tons of ideas for Hot Plates in my cookbook Well Fed. The links below provide ideas, inspiration, and how-to advice:
Stocking Up: some advice on how much food you need to buy
The Method Behind My Madness: more details on how to cook meal components in advance
How to Steam-Sauté Veggies: the never-run-out method
10 Burger Toppers
10 Ways to Dress Up Your Broccoli
Stuff to Put on Eggs
10 Paleo Flavor Boosters
Recommended Recipes
In addition to Hot Plates, I think it nourishes the soul to have some home-cooked, comfort foods in the fridge. The great thing about all the recipes I’ve listed below is that they taste better the longer they sit, so you’re guaranteed delicious meals all week long.
5-Spice Slow-Cooker Pork Ribs: This recipe yields tender, flavorful pork that’s great on its own and works well in Hot Plates or soups, too.
Cinnamon Beef Stew: This is very easy to make, is super delicious, and makes a huge pot of stew you can enjoy all week. I love it for breakfast!
Golden Cauliflower Soup: Soups are one of my favorite ways to get extra vegetables without even really thinking about it. This is a favorite of mine for breakfast, but if that’s too weird for you, just eat a small bowl before lunch or dinner, or as a snack.
Shopping
I made a shopping list that includes all the ingredients for these recipes. Be sure to give it a once over to add additional stuff—like veggies and fruit to supplement these recipes—and to remove stuff you already have in your pantry. Download the Week 2 Shopping List.
Cookup: The Plan
If you want to cook all of the stuff listed above and want to spend the minimum amount of time in the kitchen, there’s a plan below for how you can do it. This should serve 2-4 people for the better part of a week, give or take a meal or two. The recommendations included here are the way I cook for my husband (6′ 5″) and myself (5′ 4″) to keep us going through work days, strength training, walks, and yoga.
NOTE: This is pro-level cooking organization. It requires you to fire up the stove, the oven, and the slow cooker all at the same time. Put on some favorite tunes, get yourself a big glass of water, take a deep breath, and start chopping and stirring. You can do it!
On The Menu
Here’s the comprehensive list of what you’re making in this Cookup:
Roasted Chicken Thighs
Olive Oil Mayo
Roasted Spaghetti Squash
Roasted Sweet Potatoes
5-Spice Slow-Cooker Pork Ribs
Cinnamon Beef Stew
Sunshine Sauce
Browned Ground Beef
Brussels Sprouts
Cauliflower
Moroccan Dipping Sauce
Golden Cauliflower Soup
Get Prepped
1. Sharpen your knife. Get out your cutting board, some baking sheets, and a non-stick skillet. Drag your slow cooker out of the cabinet. Dust off your blender. Fill your water bottle. Turn on your tunes.
2. Take an egg out of the fridge to come to room temperature for the Olive Oil Mayo.
3. Preheat the oven to 400F for the chicken thighs, roasted spaghetti squash, and sweet potatoes.
4. Wash and cut the brussels sprouts and cauliflower you are going to steam-sauté.
5. Collect an array of storage containers and jars for the finished food.
Let’s Get Cookin’
Here are the step-by-step instructions you need to make all of this food. Have fun!
1. Get the 5-Spice Slow-Cooker Pork Ribs going. This takes almost no hands-on time and yields a pile of luscious protein. Season the ribs and pop them into the slow cooker. [5-Spice Slow-Cooker Pork Ribs Recipe]
3. Start the Cinnamon Beef Stew. Make the stew all the way through to the end of the recipe so it can simmer on the back of the stove while you do the rest of the kitchen work. [Cinnamon Beef Stew Recipe]
4. Get the chicken and veggies in the oven. Place the chicken thighs on a large baking sheet, sprinkle generously with salt, pepper, and garlic powder. On another baking sheet, place the cut spaghetti squash and a few whole, unpeeled sweet potatoes. Drizzle 3 tablespoons of water around the squash. Slide both baking sheets into the oven and set a timer for 30 minutes.
5. Make some sauces. Homemade mayo takes about 5 minutes to make. How amazingly great is that?! Ditto for the Sunshine Sauce. [Olive Oil Mayo Recipe | Sunshine Sauce Recipe]
6. Brown the ground beef. Crumble the ground beef into a very large skillet — I like non-stick; you do what makes you feel comfortable. Season it generously with salt, pepper, and garlic powder. Cook, breaking up clumps with a wooden spoon, until it’s no longer pink. Remove the meat to a storage container, but keep the pan where it is. Time to steam-sauté those veggies.
Did your 30-minute timer go off yet? Check the chicken and veggies in the oven. The chicken should be golden brown and sizzling. The squash should be tender to the touch. If yes, remove the chicken and squash from the oven, but slide the potatoes back in for another 20 minutes. If no, set the timer for 5-10 minutes and keep the chicken and squash in the oven.
7. Steam-sauté your veggies. Put 1/2 cup water in the hot pan, bring it to a boil, and add the brussels sprouts. Let them steam-sauté for 5-7 minutes, then remove. (While they’re cooking, you can take a quick meditation break. Close your eyes, and do 10 rounds of slow breathing: in for 4 beats, out for 4 beats, completely filling and emptying your lungs.) When the brussels sprouts are tender, remove them to a storage container, add another 1/2 cup water to the pan, and cook the cauliflower. While the veggies are cooking, make the Moroccan Dipping Sauce. [Complete Steam-Sauté Instructions]
Time to check the chicken, squash, and sweet potatoes again. How are they doing?
8. Make the Moroccan Dipping Sauce. While the green beans are steaming, whip up a batch of this sauce that doubles as salad dressing. [Moroccan Dipping Sauce Recipe]
9. Make the Golden Cauliflower Soup. This is last because by now you might be sick of cooking. If you are, give yourself permission to skip the soup. But if you’ve still got gas in the tank, make the soup and let it simmer while you start to restore order in your kitchen. [Golden Cauliflower Soup Recipe]
Are your sweet potatoes out of the oven? They should be finished by now.
Pack It Up
As your simmered and roasted dishes finish up, place them in BPA-free storage containers (like these) and pop them into the fridge. Remember: Despite what your grandma might have told you, it’s better to put freshly-cooked food in the fridge while it’s warm; let it cool slightly on the countertop then get it into the fridge. Your homemade food is safe to eat for about a week; for more on food storage safety, visit TheKitchn and TheDailyMeal.
I also recommend you make a list of all the food you just cooked and make a list to hang on your refrigerator door. It’s an excellent reminder of how completely badass you are — and it makes it easy to review your home menu of deliciousness.
So there you have it: Week 2. Here’s Week 1, Week 3, Week 4, and a list of Whole30-approved recipes.
More Resources
Just in case you need additional ideas, support, and motivation, here are a few more tidbits to help make your Whole30 as tasty and stress free as possible.
Well Fed Weeknights: Complete Paleo Meals in 45 Minutes or Less
Bursting with vibrant flavors and foolproof recipes, the third installment in the best-selling Well Fed cookbook series puts 128 complete paleo meals on your table in 45 minutes or less. The recipes were inspired by takeout classics, food trucks, and cuisines from around the world. Basically, it’s stuff I’ve eaten—or read about—and wanted to recreate at home. All of the recipes are free of grains, dairy, legumes, and soy.
Every complete meal—a healthy serving of protein with plenty of veggies and luscious fats—is thoroughly tested and easy to make, with affordable ingredients you’ll find at your regular grocery store. And all of the recipes include the popular “You Know How You Could Do That?” variations, as well as Cookup Tips to help shorten meal prep time.
I’ve included instructions for a Mini Cookup with step-by-step instructions for cooking six paleo kitchen staples in under an hour. Cook once, and fancy-up your meals all week long with cauliflower rice, zucchini noodles, homemade mayo, and more.
Debuting in Well Fed Weeknights are fun and flexible Food Court Recipes: blueprints of your favorite dinner themes, like Meat & Potatoes, Burger Night, Velvet Stir-Fry, The Ultimate Salad Bar, and more, all offering basic techniques and creative variations to satisfy your personal cravings.
Help yourself to a free 70-page preview of Well Fed Weeknights—or just go ahead and buy it now!
Well Fed: Paleo Recipes For People Who Love To Eat
My cookbook Well Fed is packed with recipes to make you want to smash in your face with joy and all but one of the recipes are Whole30 approved for use during your Whole30. In addition to recipes for dishes like Shepherd’s Pie, Scotch Eggs, Chocolate Chili, and Bora Bora Fireballs, Well Fed also includes lots of information for how to cook without a recipe — lots of ideas for ways to combine basic protein, veggies, and fats into something special that ensures you won’t get bored and you won’t spend all of your free time in the kitchen. (If you’re curious, the “offender” recipe is a fruit crisp that uses Whole30-friendly ingredients, but is too dessert-y to comply with the spirit of the Whole30. That recipe, however, is just fine for when your Whole30 is complete, and you want a sweet treat.) Help yourself to a free 30-page preview of Well Fed—or just go ahead and buy it now!
Well Fed 2: More Paleo Recipes For People Who Love To Eat
Well Fed 2 is packed with even more recipes and ideas to keep your taste buds happy and all but two of the recipes are Whole30 approved for use during your Whole30. In addition to recipes for dishes like Deconstructed Gyro, Buffalo Chicken Salad, Old School Italian Meat Sauce, and West African Chicken Stew, Well Fed 2 also includes tons more “no recipe required” meal ideas, 15 meatball recipes, 8 dressings and dips based on my homemade mayo recipe (the most popular recipe on my site!), and adaptations to make more than 100 of the recipes compliant with the autoimmune protocol (AIP) of paleo. Help yourself to a free 35-page preview of Well Fed 2—or just go ahead and buy it now!
Real Plans: A 100% kickass, totally customizable meal plan service that includes more than 200 of my Well Fed recipes. It’s an incredibly powerful, flexible meal planning tool that offers real food recipes served up with shopping lists and helpful how-to tips to make getting meals on the table faster and easier than you thought was possible. You can change every aspect of the system, including number of meals each week, specific ingredients, serving sizes, and more. It’s easy to swap recipes in and out of the plans, and the system provides a foolproof, step-by-step timeline for prepping ingredients and cooking throughout the week. Real Plans also provides nutrition information for all of the recipes.
Five Paleo Dinners To Cook Next Week: I post this collection of five paleo and Whole30 approved dinner recipes every week. It includes main dish recipes, a condiment to add zing to basic ingredients, a special snack, recommendations for complimentary side dishes, and advice for how to work the recipe into a Weekly Cookup. It’s not really a meal plan—it’s more like ideas for dishes you might like to cook.
Great Ingredients: No Recipe Required: a roundup of delicious meals you can make pretty quickly and without following a recipe
30 Reasons to Whole30: In case all this talk of cooking has stressed you out, here are 30 reminders why the Whole30 is worth it.
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Whole30 Meal Plan: Week Three
If you're heading into Week 3 of your Whole30®, congratulations to you! I hope you're feeling awesome and eating lots of great food. (And if...
Read More
I just have to take second to tell you how much I love your site. I have Hashimotos Disease and just decided to try Whole 30 for the first time. Your recipes and posts about prepping for a week at a time are just what I need. You have taken the guess work out of this process and I feel like this is totally doable. I am buying well fed next. You are so appreciated! Namaste
My friend Irene and I have purchased and have used both your cookbooks since the fall. My sister Erma purchased and is using book one. Irene has lost 14 pounds; Erma has lost 10-12 pounds; her son Ron has lost 14 pounds (his doctor wants him losing a total of 40); my husband has lost 25; and I have lost 15 pounds. But more than the weight is that we feel happy; we sleep better; and ppl tell us we look younger. We also love cooking now; your recipes don’t feel like a chore. The other good thing is that several of our friends have asked us for the book title and author.
What Michelle G. said! Having a game plan is such a huge help. Plus I love BOTH your fabulous cookbooks – you speak my language and I totally love the carefree, experimental, what-the-heck-have-some-fun approach to cooking. Plus your recipes rock. So there is that, too. SO happy for all you’ve done. Thank you thank you
I’d have to agree with the other ladies!! I love using your website to help prepare, plan and really stick with it! Thanks for all you do!
OMGosh! Seriously?!?! This is brilliant! I love kitchen time and I love prepping my snx for the week, but the fact that your give so much idiot-proof info to genius! The weekly meal plan AND a grocery list are so useful, but then you took it like 12 steps further w the step-by-step w the cook up. Awesome Melissa! This foodie is super appreciative and you’ve made it way easy for anyone new to kitchen time/cooking. Cheers (of water of course)!
Sigh. I was all set to use your week 1 recommendations to prep for the week after my ankle surgery. Now I have to decide which of these to do. And I’m thinking you’re probably going to do a week 3 and maybe a week 4, too, right? Gee, thanks for complicating my life!
😀
Hi Mel! I bought my husband and I the Well Fed 2 cookbook for Christmas in preparation of our January Whole 30. So far we love it, my husband has cooked out of it everyday! One question for you though, I was reading an article on the Whole30 site of most talked about “can I have” and vanilla extract was a no-no ingredient. We made your pina colada chicken for dinner yesterday, but left out the extract just in case. I was pretty sure all but two of the recipes were approved…what’s your take?
Melissa and Dallas approved all of the recipes in Well Fed 2, with the exclusion of the Sweet Potato “Waffle” and the Banana Pecan Ice Cream.
The exclusion of vanilla is new since our book manuscript was completed, I think. The issue with most vanilla extract is that it can include sugar and/or alcohol. You can easily omit the vanilla in savory recipes in Well Fed 2, and they’ll still taste good — then add ti back in when you’re done with your Whole30.
So Mel…one of my favorite foods is Butter Chicken, however all of the recipes I find contain cream or yogurt. Any chances you want to tackle a Whole30 Butter Chicken recipe? Because it’s so damn good and you have such a mastery of exotic spices!
I’ll see what I can do 🙂
Whole30 is starting out with a definite Island vibe for me – Bora Bora fireballs, then carrots and celery dunked in leftover Sunshine Sauce, and now Pina Colada Chicken (my first time making that recipe – OMG, YUM!).
Your recipes are so flavorful – thank you!
What an excellent, information-rich post, Melissa! Thank you for all you do to give paleo peeps a leg up.
We did this over the weekend. Thanks a million! I didn’t have the brain bits to put together a plan for the week. We’re not doing the Whole30, but we are cutting out sugar. I recently discovered you via your Well Fed 2 cookbook, and I’m completely in love. You cook a lot like I do, which means your cookbook is a dream come true–perfect for people who love to experiment in the kitchen.
Oh, and the mayonnaise? Worked like a charm (with an immersion blender). I definitely did a happy dance.
I’m so glad you’re all finding this post helpful! Forgive me for not responding to each of you individually – I just got back from a trip, and we’re heading out again tomorrow.
But I’m thinking of all of you and sending good Whole30 vibes!
Hi there!
Thank you so much for getting me through week 1 !! I swear not a meal went by were my husband and I weren’t repetitively moaning “omg this is the best thing ever made!!”
i have a question about week 2…what am I using the spaghetti squash with? I looked through the recipes and can’t seem to find what to do with it once cooked?
thanks and hope you enjoy Disney!
Glad to know Week 1 helped!
The spaghetti squash is for Hot Plates, to eat under other meats/stews, and for the “optional” pad thai listed earlier in the post.
good.. got a deep info about the food..
Okay I am new to Paleo/whole 30 I am on Day 8 so this is perfect!! I am going to do this on Sunday happy to keep it fresh and new!!! Love this thank you!! I will check back sunday night and let you know how my kitchen chops are LOL!!!! Thanks!
Thanks for the Mayo recipe. I no longer by store bought because of the oils they use and I have been wanting me some mayonnaise lately (:
Thanks Melissa! I’m really finding so much on your site to help with my first Whole 30! AND loving your non-food posts!
I absolutely love you, your cookbooks, and your blog. And I love you even more for a step-by-step cook up. It took me quite a bit longer to do because I had 2 children (plus 2 of their friends), a dog and a husband constantly interrupting me, but absolutely everything I made is delicious, even the mayo, even though it went sideways on me in a most heartbreaking way -I heard the shift in the blender sound, then it shifted again, and I just knew… But a little of the good stuff stuck to the side and I can’t wait to try again! Thanks again!
Thank you so much for this sweet comment. I’m really glad my recipes and cookup plans are helping you. And you’re not alone, sometimes my cooking mojo just isn’t working and the cookups take a little longer than I’d like… but having all that food in the fridge makes it worthwhile 😉 I have plans for a giant cookup tomorrow when we return home from our vacation.
Next time you make mayo, after you blend the 1/4 cup oil into the egg/lemon juice, instead of drizzling in 1 cup of oil, reduce it to 3/4. That will prevent the heartbreak at the end.
I stumbled onto your website on accident two weeks ago, and it was life changing! I can’t even think of the right words to express my thanks for all the you do. I am 39 yrs old and have always hated cooking. Your plan fits so well with my type A personality and I love how easy you make getting ready for the week. I look forward to pulling things out of the fridge and inventing a new plate of food each meal! The recipes are so easy (I’ve been a TERRIBLE cook until now!), the shopping list makes going to the store so easy, and after just one week I feel amazing!! Most of my kids love the food, the others (there are 5 and can be uber picky) are trying new things and warming up to the change, my husband loves it too. I feel so good knowing that I am making a positive contribution to my family’s health thanks to YOU! I recommend your website to all of my friends, you are a food genius!!!
I’m really glad you found me… YAY!
I’m delighted that this post gave you the ammo you need to feel like a cook. Congratulations to you!
Be sure to check out Week 3, too — because that one really takes off the training wheels and shows you how to make up your own cooking plans. You can do it!
I’m on Day 7 of my first Whole30 and about to prep my week 2 cook up. I didn’t quite “get” hot plates until about halfway through week 1 and when it finally clicked – they became a game changer! I like the mix of scrumptious “regular” recipes and the fact that when I come home tired after work, five minutes brings fresh, easy, deliciousness into my belly 😉 Your plan has also helped me to dive into the Whole30 pool and experiment. Just wanted to say thanks for helping this newb figure out a plan!!
Congratulations on Whole30-ing! I’m so glad that the Hot Plates make sense to you now. It does make keeping oneself fed a little bit easier. Have fun experimenting!
I’m 1 week into my 1st whole 30 and thanks to your awesome meal plans it is going really well! I’m making my grocery list for week 2 and I’m wondering why the sardines are on the list? I bought them last week but none of the recipes used them…am I missing something? Thank you so much for all your awesome recipes!
The sardines are for “emergency meals” — not for a specific recipe. I always like to have some on hand for when I don’t feel like cooking or if I’ve run out of the things I cooked in advance.
This blog is great and so are the books. I will say that I am planning my whole 30 for lent. I wanted to test drive the plan first and this blog has been most helpful. I did the first week cookup and it was great to food ready to go all week. The second week I just decided to wing it to see how that would work. It did not work well. So lesson learned for my whole 30. I will be doing all the prep cooking on the weekend for a smooth month. Thanks again for this great resource. Oh another lesson learned. I realized that I really overeat. The concept of slowing down and trying to enjoy the food is something I need to work on.
Congratulations on starting your new habits! I’m glad the food plan helped — and you’re so smart to do a test run!
This is amazing! Cooking for the week is a concept that overwhelms me, but this makes it seem totally doable! Plus, how nice would that make my weeknights?!?!? Thank you!
Thank you for helping my husband and me to get going on Whole30! It was very daunting, being new to it AND to the Paleo diet.
The only issue I have right now is I’m not sleeping and neither is my husband. Any suggestions?
Well, one other issue is that I woke up and just cooking breakfast or thinking about it has me feeling queasy. And no, I’m not pregnant,
I’m just not hungry but I know I should eat.
Ideas?
There are a handful of reasons your sleep might be disrupted: not enough carbs, not enough fat, not enough calories overall. Experiment a little. I used to eat some fat before bed, now I’ve learned if I eat 3/4 cup starchy carbs — sweet potato, potato, plantains — at dinner, I sleep great. You just need to play around a little bit.
You might also try a magenesium supplement. I take Pure Pharma magnesium before bed, and it helps me fall asleep fast and stay asleep. You could also try meditating before bed — just 5-20 minutes should help a lot.
Re: Breakfast. If you’re really not hungry in the morning, you could try waiting until you are hungry — a little bit of intermittent fasting. But before you try that, you might want to check out these two posts:
http://www.marksdailyapple.com/health-benefits-of-intermittent-fasting/#axzz3agqRJpM2
http://www.marksdailyapple.com/women-and-intermittent-fasting/#axzz3agqRJpM2
You could also try something really simple for breakfast, like 1/2 sweet potato with an egg. Sometimes just getting gentle food into your stomach will help with appetite and queasiness.
I am currently obsessed with your website, especially these cookups. It is extremely helpful to me as I begin navigating the adventure that is meal prep 😛 Also worth mentioning I am on day 19 of my first ever Whole30!
Your shopping list for this week does not include the orange that you need to zest for the Greek (Cinnamon) Beef Stew! I am going to need to run out and grab that while the stew is a-stewin’.
Congratulations on Whole30-ing! Hope you’re feeling awesome. Thanks for the heads-up about the orange!
I am OBSESSED with your website and your books. I am on day 5 of my first ever Whole30 and thanks to you it feels so manageable! Question about the chicken thighs…I cooked up a bunch to use this week but I haven’t touched them yet. besides the pad thai what else can i do with them? I don’t love chicken reheated so I think that’s my problem. They were beyond delicious straight from the oven, maybe I just stick with them that way? Printing off my shopping list for this Sundays cook up!
I’m so glad the books and recipes are helpful! If you don’t like reheated chicken, you’re kind of in trouble 🙂 I usually cut the cooked thighs into strips and toss them in a really hot non-stick skillet so they get crispy edges, then add a veggie or two to make a sauté. Top with a sauce — a dollop of mayo, Sunshine Sauce, marinara, Lizard Sauce (from Well Fed 2)… something like that. OR crisp up the chicken slices and throw into a bowl with hot broth, ginger, and sesame oil for instant Asian chicken soup. You can also reheat the chicken and either cook it with cubes of white/sweet potatoes to make a hash, or stuff them into a baked sweet/white potato… or stir-fry cut-up chicken with cauliflower rice. Add veggies and other goodies ot make it more interesting — or a few eggs. The trick, I think, is to cut up the chicken so it can get crisp again. Let me know if that works for you!
Thank you, thank you for this amazing meal plan! I love cooking and eating this way. I found your website since following Whole30 on Instagram. Do your cookbooks have the same type of meal plans?
The cookbooks don’t have meal plans — that’s why I added a few to my site — but the original Well Fed does have 40 ideas for Hot Plates. You can get samplers of both cookbooks so you can check them out:
http://bit.ly/wellfedsampler
http://bit.ly/wellfed2sampler
This has been super helpful! I’m really interested in more sauce ideas. I may need a little more variety for my eaters. I have 3 little kids so if something is spicy, I usually leave out the pepper.
Mel- this is STILL (two years later) of my favorite resources I have ever found for beginners on the whole30 (or your entire blog for the paleo lifestyle in general!). The amount of people I have directed to this link I can not count. Thank you for all of your hard work!
That’s so great! I’m really happy it’s been helpful to you — and thank you for sharing it. I appreciate the support!