Whole30 Compliant Meals: My Two Cent

Now that we’re less than a week out from the start of the “Your Health at the Crossroads” Whole30 challenge, I’ve been following up with people to see if they plan to join.  Even after providing a link to the Whole30 Program rules (found here) in my first Whole30 blog post and writing a post called “What can I eat?” I’ve still been getting the same response, “ok, so I’ve read the rules for the Whole30 program, but I still don’t know what I can eat.”  After linking back to the program rules and writing my previous posts to attempt to explain what can be eaten, I realize that if several people are asking the same question, then the information must still not be clear enough.  Those individuals are asking me to break the program down a little bit… to make it accessible for someone who may not be as used to preparing Whole30 complaint meals.  That said, I will attempt henceforth to give some specific ideas for Whole30 compliant meals that you can eat during the Whole30 challenge.  Remember, that Shawn’s and my philosophy during this challenge is to keep most meals simple and with very few ingredients, so most of the ideas that I provide will be along those lines.  Here goes…

Some Whole30 compliant meals that you can try

Breakfast Ideas

  • eggs scrambled with onion and/or bell pepper, topped with salsa and avocado
  • scrambled eggs on top of sauteed spinach – sprinkle on some hot sauce or salsa to increase the excitement factor
  • hard boiled eggs chopped up with avocado sprinkled with a dash of hot sauce
  • fruit salad (i.e. different kinds of fruit cut into bite-sized pieces and put into a bowl) – add chopped walnuts, pecans, cashews, or almonds to make it more exciting and nutritious
  • banana slices with white grapes and chopped walnuts (essentially a fruit salad, but we like this combination in particular)
  • monkey salad (compliments of www.goodcheapeats.com)
  • salmon and eggs (mash canned Atlantic salmon with a fork, stir in 5 eggs or so, add salt and pepper, pour in a skillet greased with coconut oil and scramble as you would eggs)
  • homemade breakfast sausage (recipe below)
  • baked sweet potato
  • any combination of the above

Lunch/Dinner Entree Ideas

  • Ground beef or turkey with special seasonings – brown ground beef with chopped onion and bell pepper,
    Curry beef with side of squash
    One meal you can eat during the Whole30 challenge: ground beef seasoned with curry powder and roasted summer squash

    season with salt, pepper, and a “special” seasoning of your choice.  We used curry powder one time and loved it.  Try ginger, chipotle chili powder, or Italian seasoning.

  • Grilled chicken seasoned with just salt and pepper.  Or jazz it up by squeezing on some lemon juice before cooking it
  • Baked chicken  – just put the chicken in an oven-safe pan; season with salt, pepper, and other seasonings of your choice; top with sliced onions and bell pepper; cover with foil and bake in a 350 degree oven for about 30 minutes or so.  Take the foil off and allow to brown for about 15 minutes.
  • Taco salad – use chicken, beef, turkey, or pork as the meat, or do it vegetarian style.  Make a bed of romaine lettuce, top with any combination of the following: choice of meat, tomatoes, onions, bell peppers, diced or mashed avocados, pickled jalapenos, or salsa (check those ingredients!) – TIP: if you have to eat out, you can get a variation of this from places like Moes, Barberitos, or Chipotle and be Whole30 compliant!
  • Pot roast
  • Steak topped with sauteed onions and smothered potatoes (try using coconut or olive oil to smother your potatoes or sautee your onions)
  • hamburger patties cooked on a George Foreman grill, in a skillet, or in the oven – you could even do bun-less

    hamburgers and top the patties with anything you’d put on a burger (no cheese of course!)

Serve any of the above lunch/dinner entrees with a plateful of sauteed, oven-roasted, steamed, or stir-fried vegetables of your choice.  I’m talking carrots, broccoli, sweet potatoes, potatoes, peppers, squash, asparagus, artichoke, etc.  You can even stew your vegetables down in “the old way,” as my husband’s grandmother would put it (i.e. you can slow cook your greens for hours or stew your okra and tomatoes – you just lose some of the nutrients).  Just leave out the sugar, butter, pork fat, and excess salt.  Fresh or frozen vegetables will work fine!

A Whole30 Complaint meal

A delicious Whole30 Compliant meal of baked chicken with curry seasoning, steamed broccoli, and stewed okra and tomatoes

Ok, so I think that I’ve done my part and given you a list of meals that you can eat during the Whole30 challenge.  You can make things easy on yourself and write out ten days worth of meals in advance that you can repeat 3 times during the challenge.  Or you can do 5 days of meals and repeat them 6 times.  Or you can eat the same three meals every day for 30 days – although you’d probably get bored pretty quickly and end up giving up on the challenge.

If the above list of meals doesn’t work for you, you could take a look at FishMama’s Whole30 Eating Log, which documents meal-by-meal everything she ate for her Whole 30 challenge.  I also ran across this list of 30 Whole 30 breakfast ideas when I did a Google search for Whole 30 meals.

If you really want to do this challenge, the Internet is overflowing with ideas to help you plan your meals.  Just Google “Whole 30 meal plan” or “Whole 30 recipes” and you’ll find thousands of ideas to help you along.  Now you’ve been equipped!  It’s time to get ready for the challenge!

What are some Whole30 compliant meals that you plan to eat?  If you have questions about your meal planning, let us know in the comments!

Shawn McClendon
Shawn McClendon is an author, podcast host, fitness entrepreneur and owner of Back to Basics Health and Wholeness LLC, an organization dedicated to empowering people to take responsibility for their own health.

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