Day: January 14, 2015

Wednesdays are my quiet day around here. We usually eat at my mom and dad’s on Wednesdays, and this week my sweet mom made homemade ketchup! Because of our crazy Whole30 thing she fixed a whole Paleo meal: pork chops cooked with onions and ketchup, potatoes and green beans. It was really sweet.

Oh! I also made the salmon cakes that are in the It Starts With Food book. They were wonderful! A couple of the kids took them for lunches today. The others took the barbecue. No one took the slaw from yesterday.

But the big thing today was that I changed the rules on the kids. I started thinking about how I had basically given them absolutely no choice on their lunches, and they also didn’t have much of a choice when it comes to social outings. For example, Paige had a meeting at school today at lunch. They served pizza! Of course I let Paige eat lunch with her friends but it got me thinking.

I haven’t given the kids much of a choice about food. Even more, I certainly didn’t consult them before implementing Whole30. But events like this are going to happen, and I want to give the kids some feeling of control about what they do put in their bodies. I’ve been dealing with some grumpy kids lately (one in particular!) and so I decided to give them a small measure of control over what goes in their mouths.

So I decided to tell them that I will continue to be Whole30, and we will only have Whole30 foods at home. But if they have the opportunity to be out with friends, then they can make their own choices. It may only placate them for a week, but I certainly had some happier kids going to bed tonight.

I hope this was wise!

Bunco night! Usually a fun night for me, especially when I host. I love finding a fun theme and then pulling together an interesting menu complete with a couple of yummy desserts and a great mixed drink. Just typing that makes me sad.

Bunco is a simple little dice game–it’s really a good excuse to get together and chat with friends. My group has been meeting together for more than fourteen years! I really love these women. What a disappointment to realize that Bunco night was day six, and worse yet I was hosting!

I had two choices: I could just go to the store and buy all of my party food ready-made, and cook for the kids; or I could just cook Whole30 and let the kids eat the food I prepared for my friends. I went with the second choice, a bold move! I decided to make a slow-cooker pork roast and barbecue sauce and go with barbecue as a “theme.” I was inspired by Nom Nom Paleo’s Ginger Slaw, made from Brussels sprouts. I added a mixed fruit salad and roasted potato wedges and my kids were set. For my friends I had chips and made a dressing for the fruit salad from lime juice and maple syrup. It smelled yummy!

Of course I had desserts for my friends: an assortment of mini cupcakes and chocolate macaroons. And wine, of course!

So–I hated it. The food tasted okay but it wasn’t fun. The slaw is great, but has about a thousand ingredients. Really, would it kill someone to make a three-ingredient recipe?! The barbecue sauce is fine if you have never actually tasted barbecue sauce. (Recipe from Well-Fed.) That recipe was a disappointment because the ketchup was terrific.

I was really convinced that I did the right thing in cleaning out the cabinets when we started this. Just having the chips and sweets in the house was really hard on the kids. I don’t need to make this harder than it already is.

I think it would be good to talk about how they are doing and what I’m seeing so far, but it’s late and I’d really rather go to bed. If you wonder anything about Whole30 and our experience, please ask!