Sunday Funday Fooday

Yep, that's what Sundays around here are, these days.

While Cliff spends his day on his last 12-hour shift of ambulance ride-alongs (for his EMR certification), I have been having myself a little party in the kitchen. And by party, I mean an all out "don't tell mom & dad, but this one's a rager" kind of deal. The kind you're certain you're never going to fully recover from, as its wake is one experienced rarely in one's life. I'm pretty certain I've torn through every remaining bit of cabinet space getting this week's delicious goods together, and I'm praying every bit of my laboring (nay, partying) is worth it.

So what has today's party included?

• Homemade almond meal (for muffins & pancakes later this week)
• Homemade clarified butter (to make it Whole30 approved)
• Roasted Red Pepper Cashew Hummus (to pair with fresh red pepper strips for snacks!)
• Canadian Bacon & Egg Cups (breakfast to-go!)
• Roasted Butternut Squash & Chicken Sausage (for Cliff's post-workout meals)
• Apple Muffins (a fun new snack for the week!)
• Pioneer Woman's Perfect Pot Roast (which is presently in the oven for dinner tonight and leftovers this week!)

with only Mashed Sweet Potatoes left on the docket (to pair with the pot roast, mmmmm.)

The time and effort this will save me later this week is invaluable. Besides prepping a few snacks (like apple slices & sunflower butter and plantain chips & fresh guacamole) the night before they'll be eaten, I'll only have two dinners and a batch of pancakes to mix up and fix when they're needed. With only two meals planned to be eaten out this week, I'd say that's pretty good!

Needless to say, it's so far so good on the Whole30 plan - both Cliff's strict version and my modified-for-my-preggo-self version. From my perspective, even maintaining my consumption of dairy (typically in the form of 1-2 glasses of milk a day and/or a slice of cheese), but cutting out sugar and only having grain-products occasionally (I think my tally was two for the week!)... plus the inevitable decrease in eating out that has come with eating like this... has been good for my overall well-being - the pregnancy heartburn that's been ever-present for the last few weeks is totally gone (even when I've eaten spicy foods!). We're looking forward to seeing how another week of eating this way will affect how we feel... this week may have just been mental but we both saw marked differences in our days as the week progressed - particularly in the major decrease in that ugly by-product of unhealthy eating known as Mr. Bloat.

Here's to clean eating!