Scattered Sundays and Meal Plan
We need to settle a debate right now.
Right darn now.
The word coupon. Do you pronounce it “cue-pon” or “coo-pon”? There is only one real answer. Hopefully, you pick it because I’d hate to stop being friends.
We’re almost done with week one of the Whole30. You guys won’t even believe what happened! My acne scars completely disappeared, I have been sleeping like a baby, and I lifted a freaking van off of an injured baby goat. And my hair is luscious and thick.
In actuality, nooooothing has changed. I’ve been more creative with cooking lately and I’m adding more veggies to our meals. And that’s about it.
But I would still save a baby goat.
This is the first time in recent memory where I gave up sugar and wasn’t stabby with everyone. I have no idea why the change, but hey, that works best for everyone in arm’s distance of me. I will miss our Sunday morning tradition of getting a latte on the way to church later this morning, but #firstworldproblems.
Something I’m super annoyed about with limiting certain foods is that I am finding myself recreating dishes with out of season ingredients. If you saw on my Instagram stories I made zucchini noodles with homemade chicken sausage, bacon bits (aka bacon fairy dust, aka bacon glitter) and chimichurri sauce. And it was amazing! But pre-Whole30 you would never find me buying zucchini in May. Zucchini is a summer veg and buying it out of season is pure silliness.
But holy hell you guys that dish was soooo good and something I would happily eat once a week in the summer even without Whole30. I can’t wait to share the recipe with you all. My peeps! My possee. My tribe. My um, er…friends.
And another thing is it is way too much meat for protein. I like meat but prefer it in smaller quantities than I am eating right now to get enough protein.
Too Much Meat is the name of my Menudo cover band.
On the bright side, I have been having a renewed love affair with avocados. Fun nerdy fact – year round avocados are a side effect of NAFTA. Before that, it was hard to find avocados when they weren’t ripe in the US. This useless fact is brought to you by NPR and all my solo Saturday nights in high school.
I’ve been finding/pinning lots of fun Whole30 recipes on Pinterest so hopefully, we’re already matched up over there. Once we officially get past week one I’m going to make Mexican Hot Chocolate Lara Bars.
Are you doing this challenge along with us? How is it going?
Jack had an out of town baseball game this week and pitched for a few innings. In one of those innings, he pitched 10 pitches and nine of them were strikes! So proud of that guy. Still fully support his choice to not play baseball again next year.
I finally finished reading American War which I started a few weeks ago. I love to read but have found it at the bottom of my priority list lately which makes me so sad. The book was great but nothing happy happened in it. It was post-apocalyptic AF. The writing was amazing and the environmental implications were pretty bold and interesting.
I stumbled onto an awesome drink recipe this week. This Healthy Pink Drink from 40 Aprons is pretty delicious and we’re all enjoying it. I have never had the Starbucks drink it is based on so I’m not sure how close the actual flavor is, but I like it! I didn’t use the strawberry sparkling water it called for since we have a Soda Stream and therefore a steady supply of plain sparkly water. Still delicious!
It was a real honor and so much fun to be interviewed by Cheapism this week in their article “Is Raising Chickens Cheaper Than Buying Eggs“. Give it a read if you have a chance.
On Sustainable Cooks This Week
Air Fryer French Fries With Roasted Garlic and Parmesan – Homemade fries are a real treat with these Air Fryer French Fries With Roasted Garlic and Parmesan Cheese. Air fryer french fries give you the crispiest fries with little to no oil. Learn the secrets for the best fries you’ll ever make!
Homemade Mayo – Keto & Whole30/Paleo Options – Make the creamiest homemade mayo in under two minutes! Skip the sketchy ingredients in store-bought mayonnaise and whip up a batch today. Conventional, Keto and Whole30/Paleo options are included in the recipe.
The Five Most Popular Posts This Week
- Three Ingredient Lotion Bars – There is a reason that this post has been pinned over 214k times. They are EASY and they work! This post tends to get popular a few times a year (holidays and mother’s day!), and I’m so thrilled that some of your moms are getting some lotion bars wrapped up next Sunday.
- Air Fryer French Fries – crispy and covered in roasted garlic. ‘Nough said.
- Three Ingredient Lotion Bars
- Homemade Mayo – Keto & Whole30/Paleo Options
- The Oil Cleansing Method
Meal Plan
Monday:: New Instant Pot recipe I am trying out for you all. And just like all my IP recipes, there will be instructions for how to make it without the Instant Pot. Let’s do this!
Tuesday:: Bahi Mi “sandwich” bowls. So the meat portion of this recipe over salad and shredded cabbage. Made Whole30 friendly with the sugar removed, soy sauce subbed for coconut aminos, and the sweet chili sauce will be left off. Sigh.
Wednesday:: Real food Instant Pot Orange Chicken over cauliflower fried rice with stir fry veggies mixed in.
Thursday:: Turkey burgers (no buns) with salad and Air Fryer French Fries.
Friday:: Movie and leftovers night.
Saturday:: Jack has an evening baseball game so honestly I’m not sure what we’ll have.
Sunday:: Family dinner
What We Bought This Week
What is a budget? Cause we stomped on ours and took a pee right over the top of it. Oh mylanta, our grocery bills came here to chew bubble gum and kick ass. And they’re all out of bubble gum.
Why the huge bills this week? It’s not really Whole30 related but that did contribute to some of it. I had to stock up on some new replacement staples like coconut aminos (instead of soy sauce), almond flour, sulfite-free balsamic vinegar (give me a break. Giant eye roll here) and a few other things.
Additionally, I am doing some research for an upcoming blog post on ordering grass-fed/pasture raised meat online. I wouldn’t recommend something I myself didn’t try, so I ordered from two separate companies this week. Farewell budget! Hello, meat for months though.
Meat for Months is the name of my ska band. We’re terrible.
Butcher Box: $114.00
US Wellness Meats: $100.45
Trader Joes: $88.26. I was shocked this wasn’t more expensive because my cart was full! Side note, I hate buying produce at Trader Joes. So much freaking packaging.
Costco: $88.68
What are you having this week?
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I say it coo-pon. Or better yet, coups.
Lol at your Menudo cover band name 😛
Saving this article for those french fries – they look delish!!
Ha at coups!!!
Dear Sarah,
I have to say I’m more than impressed with your baby goat feat. I adore adore adore goats.. I had the honor and pleasure of spending time with goats at a friends Goat “farm” in Mendocino a number of years ago. Nothing like watching baby goats running at a tilt in circles?
Another friend of mine in Gold country CA let her sweet goat sleep on her couch in the living room when sh was recovering from a surgery.
Alas, I must adore them from afar, being the urban fan that I am.
Celebrate the hunk you have become with your detox plan!
Warmly,
Bonnie
Oh my how I love baby goats! I would love to have one if we had the property. Was your friend’s goat potty trained?
I love the “They Live” reference!
I’m glad someone got it!
It’s an obscure movie but a great one. I think it should be required cinematic viewing for everyone! Haha
Agreed!!
It’s coo-pon but if you believe that’s wrong, I’m pulling the English card and pointing out that US-English is it’s own thing but mostly wrong! Now how do you scone? To rhyme with stone or gone?
Food this week is going to be big of food prep because I really need to get back into properly menu planning. I’ve been winging it a bit and it’s showing! So an egg sandwich with extra veg for breakfast, frittata and salad for lunches, rhubarb and lemon cake and fruit for snacks and if the heat continues, dinners will probably be easy to eat and cold so salads, braised lentils (cold) and a protein of some description but trying to get the recommended fruit and veggies per day, which is officially 5 but 8 to 10 is recommended!
Well considering Americans can’t agree on how certain words are pronounced I doubt whole other countries can as well! I say cue-pon and scone rhymes with stone. Or gnome. Gnome scones!
Ohhh that rhubarb and lemon cake sounds amazing. Is the rhubarb from the allotment?
Word disagreements, scone and controversy are the only two I notice but I have a serious dislike of people saying ‘should of’ instead of ‘should have’ drives me insane. Funny what triggers our inner grammar dictator! And all rhubarb is from the allotment! I have three rhubarb plants and am eying up a fourth, there is no such thing as too much rhubarb, do you grow it? I’m still working on the cake, it’s good but I need to do it again to perfect it!
Troy and I say the British (English?) version of controversy all the time in jest. Years ago I worked for a woman from Argentina who also lived in England for a bit and it took me a MONTH to realize she was asking me to put stuff on her schedule. It came out “skeddle” to my ears.
We don’t have rhubarb but did for years. My sister gave me some that had been through hell and back and somehow survived. It flourished here and then one day I came home during the house remodel and the workers had put a driveway over it. I still assume at some point in the next few years that I’ll see part of that zombie plant growing through my dad’s part of the driveway.
Do you ever mix yours with strawberries?
I just saw your instagram story about carrots not being nutella and I’ve found another word! Nut-ella not Nu-tella. Language is funny! I say controversy and schedule both ways! Rhubarb is hard to kill but putting a driveway on it would probably do it! I’ve never tried it with strawberries, this year is obviously my year to start maybe with a pie! Any suggestions for recipes to start me off?
Nutella is Swiss? We should get a Swiss person to weigh in on this discussion!
I’ve never made anything with rhubarb but my dad used to make one strawberry rhubarb pie every year at my sis’ request. It involved I’m sure an insane amount of sugar. I’ll see if I can find his recipe.
Nah it’s Italian, but apparently it’s a thing . https://www.buzzfeed.com/patricksmith/heres-a-clue-it-doesnt-have-newts-in-it?utm_term=.ihXzKxKan#.epAL161xO
Every day is a learning day!
It’s fun to be a meme
Oh, and I say coo-pon, but I’m from the east coast where we say a lot of things wicked different ?
I do love the “wicked different” aspect of east coast talk! My friend got me a “wicked good magnet” magnet on Cape Code.
I’m still in! I kinda kicked the kiddo out because she joined the womanhood Friday morning and has been have such AWFUL cramps that when she takes meds at 3 a.m. I make her have a piece of toast with it so her tummy isn’t empty. Poor kid, I don’t remember ever having cramps like she’s having ?
I failed to meal plan well enough so we’ve been scrounging a bit, but last night I made fish straight from the freezer, tossed some frozen broccoli in the microwave, and made smashed potatoes with lots of turmeric (for Emma and Jared) and a sweet potato for me.
I have yet to figure out what this week will bring. Except for the hungry man casserole (which we call cowgirl cassarole). I hope to get that cooked up today.
And that pink drink recipe. It looks yummy!
Poor Emma! Nothing says welcome to womanhood like a total kick in the teeth like that. Poor kid. Is she doing any better today?
And per our DMs on IG, white potatoes are totally ok girl. Get it!
She had a rough three days, but is doing much better now. Thanks for asking! I need to look into stocking up on some different (more holistic) ways to manage the pain before her next cycle. Poor kid.
I say coo-pon. Do you still like me? Are we still friends????
We can still be friends. Sigh.
It’s ‘cu-pon’… no extended ‘ooo’.. but I’m Scots so what do I know.
Also with you on ‘American War’… I disliked the ‘heroine ‘ intensely, but enjoyed the book overall. I smell a tv series coming.
We’ve aligned on so many things today Maria! Oh my that would be an amazing TV show.
As usual, you make me laugh so much I’m snorting. Love the band names.
Sorry – I’m not joining you on the food wagon this month. But I am enjoying hearing about your month trial.
Have a great week!
Thanks for reading Jan and I’ll come up with some more band names soon!
My dad says “coo-pin” but I am almost certain that he is just trolling me. ?
He must be. There is no way he isn’t.