- Hey guys and welcome back.
I'm happy to be kicking off the new year
with a new what I eat in a day video
and this one is all Whole30 recipes.
While I'm not a fan of rigid diets, I am a fan of Whole30
and that's because it's really not a diet.
You're not restricting calories
and you're not prioritizing weight loss.
It's essentially a 30 day food challenge
where you eliminate certain foods
that may cause digestive or other health issues,
and you learn how your individual body
responds to those foods.
I'll talk more about this throughout the video
but first, I think we need to start
with a little drone footage again don't you think?
And let me tell you, it was a foggy
and chilly morning along the coast.
(uplifting music)
♪ I've been up ♪
♪ I've been down ♪
♪ I've been taking chances that I never took before ♪
♪ All the way up ♪
♪ On the highest mountain ♪
♪ I found the place where I can drop the old key ♪
♪ And when you look in the horizon ♪
♪ What you see is what you get ♪
♪ A sparkle and a diamond ♪
♪ And the sudden sunset ♪
♪ Oh, oh ♪
♪ I didn't know what I was doing wrong ♪
♪ All the things are going on ♪
♪ Oh, oh ♪
♪ I didn't know it could be this plan ♪
♪ Just let it go and carry on ♪
- I did my first-ever Whole30 a couple of years ago
and it was really educational on how my body
responded to certain ingredients.
For instance, dairy definitely causes acne for me.
Now, today, I do eat some dairy
but I'm also aware of what may happen if I go overboard
and that's the beauty of Whole30,
just learning how foods may trigger your energy,
mental clarity, hormones, cravings,
and for me, certain autoimmune symptoms.
I eat pretty clean most of the time
but I'm also human and have a tendency
to let too much sugar creep back into my diet.
So doing a Whole30 is a great way to get back on track
and remember how much better I feel
when I'm not eating loads of sugar.
For breakfast this morning,
I'm whipping up an easy breakfast scramble.
I show these all the time on Instagram Stories
and just toss in whatever's in my fridge.
If this is your first Whole30,
I can't stress enough how important
meal prep is to making your life easier.
This morning, I just need a couple tablespoons
of diced red onion but I'm dicing up the whole red onion
so I can easily use it in other recipes throughout the week.
I have several meal prep videos on my channel
and while they're not all Whole30,
you can still get heaps of ideas from them.
After saving a little bit of the red onion
for my egg scramble, I'll also slice up some cherry tomatoes
and whisk two to three eggs, depending on how hungry I am.
I'll drizzle a little olive oil into a saute pan
on medium heat and add some minced garlic.
Then, toss in my veggies
and a couple handfuls of baby spinach.
Now, I get asked all the time how I cook scrambles
in a stainless steel pan because yes, the eggs do stick,
but I don't own any nonstick pans.
Old-school nonstick was quite toxic with PFOAs and PTFEs,
which essentially is Teflon.
And while today's nonstick is better,
I've had my All-Clad set for over 20 years
and it's enormously durable.
So I'll show you how I clean it in a second.
After a minute or two, your spinach
will wilt down and then you can add your eggs.
Let them cook for a couple of minutes,
then add them to your plate.
Normally, I'd add some sliced avocado to the side
but since I'm having avocado with lunch today,
I'll just add a sprinkle of microgreens
because you can never have too many greens.
And that's my easy and healthy breakfast recipe.
But before I enjoy this, I'll place my pan in the sink,
squirt a little dish soap, and add hot water to let it soak.
(uplifting music)
All right, to wash the stainless steel pan,
I just use hot water and a scrubber sponge.
Now, most websites will say to not use a scrubber sponge
as it can dull the surface but I'm not concerned
with maintaining the mirror finish.
I'd rather my cookware be well used and clean
and this is how most restaurants do it as well.
And see, so easy.
For a mid-morning snack, I'm enjoying some celery
with almond butter and it's made even easier,
as I've already meal prepped my celery stalks
and made my almond butter.
If you're new to my channel, I do have a separate video
on how to make almond butter in your Vitamix
and I'll link that here.
My tip when it comes to snacks on Whole30
is to portion out what you'll eat
because if I were to just dip the celery
straight into the jar of almond butter,
I can guarantee I'd probably eat far too much.
To give this snack a little boost,
I'm adding a sprinkle of chia seeds on top,
though you could also add raisins
or dried cranberries as well.
(uplifting music)
If this is your first Whole30 and you feel cravings
strike throughout the day, the first thing
I'd recommend is to make sure you're hydrated.
I drink a ton of plain water
but then will also have an herbal tea here and there.
Some of my favorites are chamomile with lavender,
peppermint, and lemon-ginger.
Tea time is also usually a work break for me,
though today I spent it answering a bunch
of your comments on my website and YouTube channel
and relaxing on my sofa rather than at my desk.
Of course, I'd rather be on my patio
but it was just too darn cold outside for that today.
For lunch, I'm keeping things really easy
and whipping up some tuna-stuffed avocados.
I make a lot of meals from scratch
but I think it's important to remember
that you can definitely use Whole30-compliant canned goods
to make your life easier, like canned tuna.
Two brands I frequently grab for tuna
include Safe Catch and Wild Planet.
Both of these are high-quality tunas
and I also wanna point out that the albacore tuna
I'm eating today isn't in water or oil,
it's just straight-up tuna,
so you don't need to drain the jar.
The liquid in the jar is from the tuna steak
and as you can see here, it's a solid,
fresh piece of tuna and not mushy, cheap tuna,
which does make it a bit more difficult
to get out of the cans sometimes.
Once both jars are emptied into my bowl,
I'll use a fork to break up the tuna
and stir it together with the liquid
to add the moisture back to the tuna.
Next, I'll add a 1/4 cup of mayonnaise
and I'm using my homemade mayonnaise.
If you've never made mayo at home,
watch my separate video for it because it's incredibly easy
and once you make it yourself,
you'll never buy it from the store again.
Then I'll add a half a tablespoon of Dijon mustard
and this brand is Whole30 compliant,
a couple tablespoons of red onion,
and one stalk of celery.
This comes together really fast because my red onion
is already diced for the week
and my celery is already washed.
So I just have to slice and dice one stalk of celery,
which is two halves that I have in my jar.
I receive a lot of questions on the storage containers
and jars that I use, so as a reminder,
I do have a separate video on that and you can always find
all of the products I use on the shop page on my website.
Lastly, I'll chop up one to two tablespoons of fresh herbs
and today I'm using parsley and chives
but dill also pairs really well with the tuna,
so feel free to use an assortment.
This is a great tuna salad recipe to eat on its own
but today I'm enjoying it stuffed in an avocado.
The healthy fats keep me full and the creaminess
of the avocado paired with the savory tuna
is absolutely delicious.
So all I have to do is slice an avocado in half
and hope that it's a perfectly green avocado,
which this one is, remove the pit
and pile on some of the tuna salad.
I'll also sprinkle a little black pepper on top.
(uplifting music)
Because I'm one person, I've also got leftover
tuna salad for a couple of days now,
so I'll store that in the fridge and then go enjoy my lunch.
Most of you know that I work from home and while I love it,
I've found that my posture and flexibility
has been getting quite bad because I'm hunched
over my laptop all day long.
So I've been making more of a concerted effort
to take stretching breaks in the afternoon
and already, I'm feeling so much better.
There are some wonderful channels on YouTube
for yoga and stretching but I found this one
from Yoga With Adriene that has stretches
for text-neck, which is exactly what I need.
I've realized that much of this what I eat in a day video
is also meal prep for the week
but that's just because that's how I truly eat.
I tend to cook in bulk so I can enjoy leftovers
all week long and to be honest, to do less dishes.
You guys know I love hummus and today,
for an afternoon snack, I'm making a new hummus recipe
and this one is low carb, paleo, and Whole30-compliant
and that's because it's cauliflower hummus.
So I'll preheat my oven to 400 degrees Fahrenheit
and slice my head of cauliflower in half,
then quarters, and remove the florets from the stalk.
Once all of the florets are removed,
I'll add them to a sheet pan, drizzle a little olive oil
or avocado oil on top, and give them a toss
to make sure everything is coated.
Then I'll roast these for about 20 minutes
or until they're just starting to get a little color.
While the cauliflower is cooking,
I'll add all of the other ingredients to my Vitamix
and that includes two tablespoons of olive oil,
two tablespoons of water, and a 1/4 cup of tahini.
And since I didn't have any of my homemade tahini
already made, I just grabbed this one from the store.
I'll also add the juice of one lemon, one clove of garlic,
a 1/4 teaspoon salt, a 1/4 teaspoon ground cumin,
and a pinch of ground coriander.
When the cauliflower is done,
I'll scoop that into my Vitamix as well,
then blend everything together until it's nice and creamy.
This recipe is similar to my traditional hummus recipe
and really just swaps cauliflower for chickpeas
but I will say that even with only one clove of garlic,
the garlic flavor is quite a bit stronger in this version
and that's because cauliflower is so neutral in flavor
so if you're sensitive to garlic,
you could also saute the garlic
or use garlic powder for a more neutral flavor.
Now, I'm not going to eat this entire batch of hummus
but I thought I'd show you how I garnish it
if I'm serving it for a crowd.
I'll scoop it into a bowl,
drizzle a little olive oil on top,
and sprinkle some sunflower seeds.
Then I'll chop up a tablespoon or so of fresh parsley
and add that on top, along with some cracked black pepper.
And this cauliflower hummus is always a hit at parties.
Because I have my celery pre-sliced,
that makes for the perfect device to scoop up the hummus
but I'll frequently use carrots or sliced cucumber as well
and then of course, I'll put the leftovers
into one of my glass lock storage containers
to enjoy this hummus throughout the week.
(uplifting music)
For dinner, I'm gonna make a Whole30 creamy
chicken-broccoli casserole and this is so darn good.
It's got a cheesy-like flavor without any cheese
but we'll get to that in a second.
First, we need to make some shredded chicken,
so I'll add a couple tablespoons of olive oil to a pan
and about one and a half pounds of chicken breasts.
I'll sprinkle these with salt and pepper
and cook on one side for five minutes,
then flip them over, add a cup of chicken broth,
and add the lid and let them continue cooking
for about seven to ten minutes
or until they're cooked through.
I think shredded chicken made this way
has so much more flavor than straight poached chicken.
While the chicken is cooking,
I'll make my vegan alfredo sauce.
This is a reader favorite recipe on my website
and it's perfect for this casserole.
I've already soaked one cup of cashews overnight
so I'll rinse those and add them to my Vitamix,
along with 3/4 cup of water, two garlic cloves,
a 1/2 a tablespoon of lemon juice,
a 1/2 a cup of diced yellow onion,
and two tablespoons of nutritional yeast,
which is the secret ingredient
that gives it that cheesy flavor.
I'll also add one teaspoon of salt,
a 1/4 teaspoon dried rosemary,
and a 1/4 teaspoon black pepper, and then blend
it all together until it's nice and creamy.
Now, I know that cheese-like replacements,
like a vegan nacho dip are not something Whole30 supports,
but I did ask Melissa Hartwig Urban about this recipe
and she said it was fine in this context.
The chicken and broccoli are the star of this dish
and the vegan alfredo sauce just keeps it all together.
Now for the fun part, which is how I shred
four chicken breasts in about 15 seconds.
And when I shared this on Instagram Stories
a few weeks ago, you guys were amazed.
So all you have to do is add the chicken
to your stand mixer and use the paddle attachment.
Lock the tilt head on your mixer,
so it doesn't bounce up and turn it on low.
In 15 seconds, you'll have perfectly shredded chicken.
I need to add some veggies to this casserole
so I'll slice up ten cremini mushrooms
and dice about a 1/2 a cup of yellow onion
and I already had the onion diced in the fridge.
I'll add a couple tablespoons of olive oil to a pan
and saute the mushrooms and onions for about three minutes.
While the mushrooms are cooking down,
I'll remove the florets off two heads of broccoli,
though I'm using three today,
as one of mine was a bit smaller.
Then I'll add these to my pan and saute
for another three minutes or until the broccoli
is crisp, tender, and bright green.
After I've preheated my oven to 400 degrees Fahrenheit,
all I have left to do is assemble my casserole.
So I'll place the shredded chicken
on the bottom of a casserole dish
and layer the broccoli and mushrooms on top.
The vegan alfredo sauce is quite thick
so I'll thin that down with a cup of chicken broth
and then pour it on top of everything
and this will thicken back up while it's cooking.
I like to make sure everything is well-coated,
so I just smush it down a bit with the spatula
and then cook this for 20 to 25 minutes.
When the casserole comes out of the oven,
the sauce should be bubbling and slightly thickened.
I've made this recipe several times over the last two months
and I am still not tired of it.
It's creamy, filling, flavorful,
and it makes for the best leftovers,
as I think it has even more flavor the next day.
(uplifting music)
I hope you guys enjoyed seeing what I eat in a day
and maybe got a few new Whole30 recipe ideas.
I have more Whole30 recipes on my website,
along with a Whole30 shopping list
and a post with Whole30-compliant snacks,
so make sure to check all of that out as well.
If you'd like to see more what I eat in a day videos
in the future, make sure to give this video a thumbs up,
hit that subscribe button,
and let me know in the comments below.
And I will see you again, in next week's video.