WIAW - Final Week of the Whole30!

Hello, everyone! Hi from San Francisco! Despite last week’s unexpected travels, I’m not traveling this week and it’s great to spend the last week on the Whole30 in my own kitchen.

This past weekend on the Whole30 was full of what I’m calling wins and fails. For example, on Friday night Nate picked me up from the Embarcadero via the bay in a sailboat (yes you read that right!) and instead of bringing a pizza or something else easy to have dinner with on the boat, I picked up a roasted chicken and made a salad and potatoes. And it was delicious! So that was a win - realizing that on evenings that you normally would have gone out to eat or maybe chosen the unhealthier option, there is still an equally as easy and satisfying other way to do it. Going to El Techo de Lolinda and then Southern Pacific Brewery with a bunch of friends on Saturday night and drinking water with lemon felt like a fail. I miss wine. Another win was grabbing lunch with Hayley and enjoying all of the food samples at the Ferry Building Marketplace - a Whole30 friendly eating activity! Definitely a fail was combing the menu for a restaurant Nate was going to Sunday night with his co-workers, trying to figure out what he could/couldn’t eat. Huge win was all of the food prep I did for this week!

So I’m linking up for the final week of Whole30 eats. I’m sure next week’s eats won’t look too entirely different as we “re-introduce” foods again…

BREAKFAST

I woke up, and cut myself half a banana for some pre-workout fuel. It had a lot of brown parts which I ate around - ew. I then went for a 45-min jog around the city, trying to avoid as many hills as possible <— not possible. I’m still figuring out my favorite running routes in my new neighborhood. Today I somehow found myself in the financial district, then I ran up to Nob Hill and then through the Polk street area to get home. I truly felt like I ran through the Tenderloin on 5 separate occasions…not so scenic.

Came home and made myself breakfast! I reheated a vegetable and ham frittata with a sweet potato crust (recipe to come later this week!) and had some strawberries and coffee on the side. Then it was time for work…

LUNCH

Took myself away from my computer to bake a sweet potato, reheat some plain pulled pork, scoop out some sauerkraut, and assemble a kale salad with a tahini/lemon dressing. I don’t think I’ll ever get tired of these types of lunches, especially since I keep changing up my protein based on whatever is available!

Also had a Gingerberry GT’s kombucha - yum.

SNACK

I enjoyed a pear and some almond butter for a snack. I love pears! I’ll be sad when they are out of season again.

DINNER

Cassie and I had a date at 18 Reasons to see In Defense of Food. I LOVED the book, and couldn’t wait to see the documentary version. We met at the Bi-Rite in the Mission beforehand to pick up some provisions to eat during the viewing, and I grabbed a grilled chicken breast and some brussels sprouts, plus some plantain chips and guac to share (although I definitely hogged most of it!)

18 Reasons is a community cooking school in the Mission, and they host all sorts of events like food-related movie nights to the Intro to Fermentation class I took earlier this fall. It’s in a really cool space as well, and all of the cooking classes and events are really reasonably priced. For the movie, they had set up picnic-style tables and passed around popcorn and had drinks to purchase as well. I also snuck in one of these coconut almond date things I had taken from home from earlier for dessert.

The movie was fascinating, and it was wonderful to see the book come to life. Have you ever heard the phrase “Eat food. Not too much. Mostly plants”? Well the book “In Defense of Food” is where it stems from, where Michael Pollan tries to answer the complicated question “what should we be eating?” He goes into detail into how the processed food industry has changed the way Americans eat, and consequentially, our health. It’s enlightening, funny, informative, relevant, and I just found myself nodding my head the entire movie. We should be eating real food, and actively supporting the infrastructure and policy and culture and farms that makes sure that everyone has access to real food, has enough of it, and has the right education and role models for eating it. The movie is on PBS if you ever want to watch from home!

I came home and ended the night with some blogging and some tea. I’ve got a busy Wednesday ahead - early Core40 pilates class, working in the office all day including a team lunch at B Restaurant in the beautiful Yerba Buena center, and then I’m headed to Comal in Berkeley for dinner with my “big big” from my sorority who is in town! Keep up with me on Instagram if you don’t already!

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