Whole30 -- Day 21

Happy St. Paddy's Day Eve!

Tomorrow's going to be a real bender for me, let me tell you: Irish soda bread and green beer sweet potatoes and La Croix galore!

But let's start with today, shall we?

I woke up bright and early this morning, courtesy of a little girl kitty who, for whatever reason, thinks that 7 a.m. is the optimal time to do jumping jacks on my stomach and scream in my ear. At least she holds off until 7:00 now -- she used to get this daily workout in around 5:00 a.m.

After crawling out of bed and snoozing for a bit longer on the couch (where she leaves me alone for whatever reason), I whipped up some breakfast and chatted with my sister-in-law. (Her blog is looking awesome, y'all! Check it out!)

Then, I worked a bit on my blog. I have a lengthy list (shocking) of things I want to write about, so each day, I try to cross one of those out. Now would be a good time for me to ask you for input: What would you like to see on this blog? Is there a topic you would like me to cover that I have not yet broached? What would you like to see more of or not at all?

Around noon, not only did I have to cook lunch, but I also had to prep dinner, as it was a crock-pot recipe (get ready: it was awesome). I did that, planned my menu for the week, and headed to the grocery store.

Interestingly, while I ate breakfast, finished some writing, cooked lunch, started dinner, returned from Hy-Vee, and did pretty much everything else I had to get done today, both cats looked like this:

Why they can't look like this at 7 a.m. is a wonderful question.

Breakfast:

What a wonderful photographer I am.

Although it looks like a pile of puke, this is my usual "sweet" breakfast: eggs with blueberries. I added a dollop of almond butter today, as I felt like I needed some good, healthy fat (and, okay, I just wanted a bite).

Lunch:

I should just stop posting pictures of lunch and instead put a link to last night's post.

Again, I had leftovers: chili-garlic shrimp. I sauteed some brand-new asparagus, though, and it was tasty. About two hours after lunch, I ate an apple to tide me over until dinner.

Dinner:

Okay, y'all: here's another favorite Whole30 recipe. This time, it's courtesy of Popular Paleo: Crock Pot Carnitas. I had to amend the recipe a bit (add in a bunch of random spices instead of adobo, add coriander instead of cumin since I ran out, use chicken broth instead of stock since I couldn't find any Whole30-compliant stock, etc.).

But holy wow: it turned out awesomely.

The roast hung out in the crock pot for five hours, and I could barely remove it from the crock pot because it was so tender and juicy and falling apart in the tongs. It was so good.

I served it (to myself) with a wedge of lime, a scoop of Graddy's salsa, and half an avocado. I also sided the meal with spicy green beans (aka green beans sauteed in olive oil and crushed red pepper).

I'm looking forward to eating leftover carnitas as a substitute for chicken sausage in my usual breakfast. Nom nom nom.

I hope you all had a wonderful weekend and, if you're not a teacher (insert evil cackling here), you have a wonderful start to your work week. I'll be chillaxin' on spring break over here. :)