Day 4 - Thursday January 8

I was really excited to share some new recipes with this post, but this particular day was a little derailed by a 24-hour flu complete with fever high of 103!  I did manage to make something new though, I used collard green leaves as the wraps for...well...wraps!  I filled my wraps with a chickpea and avocado smash.

Smashed Chickpea and Avocado Salad
This couldn't be easier.

Combine one can of chickpeas, rinsed, with one sliced avocado and smash with a potato masher. Add chopped green onions, and cilantro (I used parsley, because that's what I had), and lime juice, and some salt and pepper.

I put this on the collard green leaves, topped with some tomato and yellow pepper, and wrapped them up.  I was able to eat one for dinner and it was mighty tasty.  The collard leaves were huge, and good for rolling, and tasted refreshing and light - not at all heavy or bitter as I feared.  I will definitely be using collard leaves more!

Here's what today looked like....
Breakfast - yucky shake
Second Breakfast - apples and peanut butter, eaten slowly between the hours of 11 and 4pm
Snack - clementine and a banana
Dinner - one smashed chickpea and avocado salad wrap

Water - some, unmeasured
Other Notes - the day was overcome with mostly sleeping and taking my temperature, eating was a distant secondary chore.

Day 3 - Wednesday January 7

I think I've got this breakfast thing figured out a little better.

I tried a new recipe for dinner, a baked sweet potato with black bean salsa and avocado.  It was really simple, and pretty tasty.  It turns out though, while I love sweet potato wedges (which are simply cut up sweet potatoes baked until a bit crispy) I don't love baked sweet potato.  I think I need it more crunchy and less mushy.  I may cook the potato differently the next time I try this.

Sweet Potato with Black Bean Salsa
I used this recipe for the inspiration, although I left out the lime cream in favor of the "dairy-free" aspect of my whole30.

Heat oven to 400, poke a lot of holes into the sweet potato and bake for 55 minutes or so - mine was a big potato, so it required a few more minutes to be cooked through.

Combine canned black beans, rinsed, and store bought pico de gallo (because, why chop tomatoes, onions, peppers, cilantro, etc when someone else can do it for you) in a pan on the stove top.  I added cajun seasoning, 2 tsp of lime juice, and some other spices, and heated it until it was warm and combined.

Slice the baked potato, top with black bean salsa and a sliced avocado.  Garnish with cilantro or parsley as desired.  A healthy delicious dinner!

Here's what today looked like....

Breakfast - Yucky shake
Second Breakfast - apple, banana and peanut butter
Lunch - Leftover risotto and asparagus
Snack - clementine, extra yucky shake
Dinner - Baked Sweet Potato with black bean salsa and avocado
Water - 70 oz

Salad doesn't have to be punishment

Here's my new-ish favorite salad recipe that was inspired by my friend Lisa. We made it when I was at her house one day for lunch. It's really simple yet oh-so good. Of course it starred two of my favorite things in the world (tomatoes and avocados) so it was an instant hit. Scott would call it one of my "crazy Armenian salads without lettuce" -- but there isn't much Armenian about it so I beg to differ. I added a few things to kick it up a notch, and no, one of those things wasn't mint. . . though that's not a bad idea.

Mix the following together in a bowl and enjoy! You might want to chill it a little first, but it IS best eaten the same day that you make it:

-1 package of cherry or grape tomatoes (because I'm a little OCD I definitely cut these guys in half)
-2 ripe avocados, cubed/chopped
-finely diced red onion (scallions would be good too, not too much though, maybe 2-3 tablespoons)
-14.5 oz can black beans or chickpeas or kidney beans, whatever you like
-juice of 1/2 a lemon
-drizzle of EVOO
-a few healthy dashes of garlic salt
-freshly ground black pepper
-several dashes of dried dill weed