A Whole Family FINISHED with Whole30 - Meal Ideas

I can't believe that we are finished with our Whole30 process. Now we know what foods bother us and what foods don't. I have learned how my family reacts to certain things and I feel much better prepared to feed my family in the best way that I can. 

We also tried so many new things on our Whole30. Some that were great some that weren't so great. But I will admit that one of most difficult parts of the process was figuring out what to make for meals before we got started. There are a million and a half ideas out there on Pinterest but I thought I would share what we ate. 

Breakfasts:

Frittatas - We ate these ALL the time, I would make these little mini frittatas in muffin liners once a week and then freeze one day's worth. The were super easy to reheat and it was the easiest way I could find to get vegetables into the boys at breakfast. Here is a helpful hint: every muffin liner I have ever used has not worked well with mini frittatas or even gluten free muffins... until I came across these. They are fabulous and you can get them at Target. 

Fried Eggs and Sweet Potato Hash - I made this a few times: sweet potatoes, onions, spinach, kale, all cooked together and topped with a fried egg. This certainly wasn't a quick breakfast but it was good. 

Sauteed Spinach with Chicken Sausage and Scrambled Eggs.

Boiled eggs with avocado slices and veggie sticks. This wasn't our favorite breakfast but it was something we could eat on the run.

Green Eggs and Ham - For this I would run several cups of greens (spinach, kale, chard, etc...) through the food processor until it was in tiny little pieces (almost like chopped herbs. Then I would mix them with the raw eggs and scramble them all together. To this I would add cooked breakfast sausage since I had a hard time finding ham without sugar. 

Leftovers - Easiest breakfast ever.

Lunches:

Mexican Shrimp Cocktail - I only made this once, and while it was very good, I was the only one who ate it, so it just didn't seem worth the work.

Roll Ups - Who would have thought that a piece of lunch meat wrapped around some spinach, avocado, and/or zucchini would be so loved. We ate these all the time.

Chicken Salad - It is pretty easy to make Paleo mayonnaise. That plus some chopped cooked chicken and a few seasonings and veggies in there made it pretty quick and easy. Especially if it was all prepared ahead of time. 

Chicken Drumsticks - If you throw these in the crock pot at breakfast, and put them on high they will be ready by lunch. Plus, for whatever reason, meat on a bone is super exciting for little boys.

Chef Salad - If you have grilled chicken and cut up veggies in your fridge you can always have lunch in less than ten minutes.

Chili on Baked Sweet Potato - This turned out to be one of my favorite meals. I would make chili ahead of time and dump it on a sweet potato. Then I would top it with green onions, avocado, tomato, and whatever else I had in the fridge. So stinkin' good, every time!

Meatballs - This was another one of those meals that I could make ahead of time and just throw in a lunch box. Since it was summer when we did our Whole30 we ate a few lunches at the water park or on the way to Six Flags. I would actually throw them in our bag frozen at breakfast and they would be thawed by lunch. No one really had a problem eating them cold and since they were made with a LOT of vegetables mixed in and very lean meat they didn't get that awkward cold fatty texture or taste.

Turkey Burger - This was another quick lunch. I tried to keep cooked bacon in the fridge. I would throw a few turkey burgers in the oven, make a couple of fried eggs and then put the burger on a bed of spinach, then the bacon and egg on the burger. 

Chicken Cucumber Salad - Chopped chicken, cucumbers, tomatoes, and Italian dressing. Simple and quick. 

Leftovers - I used to dread leftovers but after cooking ALL THE TIME during the Whole30 I have come to cherish leftovers.

Dinners:

Steak - We had steak a few times. This always made my handsome husband happy and it was easy to just throw a couple of vegetable side dishes together and all my men were happy.

Tilapia - This takes about three minutes to cook and can be thawed in about 15 minutes. That means that we had this a few times!

Taco Salad - It is ridiculous how often we ate this but everyone loved it, even the non-eating littlest man. I always tried to keep some taco meat in the freezer so that in a pinch I could just pull it out and heat it up.

Spaghetti Squash with Marinara and Meatballs - The same meatballs that I used for lunch I would use here. You can make spaghetti squash in the oven, crock pot, or microwave. It is really great.

Grilled Chicken: Always keep it in the fridge!

Italian Chicken - Chicken, potatoes, sweet potatoes, asparagus, green beans, Italian dressing. Mix in a glass pan and bake for an hour or so. This takes about five minutes of prep work. 

Shish Kabobs - This is just one of those fun ones, why is it that anything even remotely stick shaped you put in a boy's hand becomes a sword?

Swordfish - We hadn't had this in forever and Whole Foods had it one sale one week. This is a much meatier fish. The hubs and I enjoyed it a lot more than the boys did.

Pot Roast - So easy to make Paleo friendly!

Sausage Cooked with Summer Squash - This dinner is super easy and the Pederson's German Smoked Sausage is pretty good. 

Ribs - We made our own dry rub and cooked these babies in the slow cooker. They were great and of course all my carnivores loved them.

Chili - This is another one of those I would make ahead. It made for a pretty easy dinner (after it was all cooked) which was good if we had been out all day.

Mahi Mahi - I made this with pineapple pico de gallo and loved it. The rest of the family not so much.

Zoodles - We made these with the Old Fashioned Italian Meat Sauce recipe from Well Fed 2. It was so good and all but the littlest learned to appreciate the zoodles, or zucchini noodles.

Salsa Chicken - If you put a jar of Paleo approved salsa and chicken breasts in the crock pot and leave it for a few hours it turns into this shredded, moist, almost creamy chicken that is great on top of a salad or with a few sides.

Chicken Soup - Homemade bone broth makes this great but boxed broth would work too. I just cooked carrots, onions, white potatoes, zucchini, and spinach in broth with shredded chicken. 

Hot Wings - Who knew that this could be Paleo friendly. I always think of hot wings as a junk food but they are really just hot sauce, wings, and butter. But they do have a LOT of calories so be careful.

And last but not least: LEFTOVERS.  :)