How to Plan your Whole30 with a Meal Rotation + Free Planning PDF!
Now about a year after my first Whole30, I have never shared about our Whole30 experience on the blog! I have no excuse, but a recent conversation with a friend reminded me how overwhelming it can be to get started when you've never done one before. There are so many resources and books written by the Whole30 team that address all sorts of questions I wont address here (like why certain foods are restricted/allowed, how to cook real food, and reintroduction), but I do hope that my system for mapping out a stress-free Whole30 will serve you if you do one in the future!
If you are planning a Whole30, or have been wanting to but just need someone to do the meal planning for you, I've got you covered. I'm listing the meals that we ate for our Whole30 here with links to recipes, and have a free PDF planning guide for you to create your own Whole30 meal rotation at the end of the post.
I found implementing a meal rotation to be the simplest way to go about our Whole30. It took the stress out because I did the planning up front, before we even started. I didn't have to scour blogs for Whole30 compliant recipes, or constantly waste energy throughout the week wondering if what I wanted to eat was compliant. I just followed our plan and rotated throughout the month. I have to say that our Whole30 was a wonderful experience! Whole30 can already be pretty emotional (we are dealing with food restriction here and all the junk that can be brought up in our hearts/bodies because of it), so doing our meal planning this way saved me from giving up or wasting energy on the parts of the program that don't need to be stressed about.
BREAKFAST
Two options for me:
- Egg, veggie and sausage scrambles: Prep sweet potatoes (you can do this with any veggie). Chop sweet potato into one inch pieces, cover with olive oil, salt, pepper, cinnamon, garlic powder and chili powder. Roast at 425 F for 25 minutes. Store in an airtight container and keep in the refrigerator. Slice up some compliant chicken apple sausage (Aidell's brand or Aldi might have a compliant version, I haven't checked yet!) In the morning scramble some eggs and mix in the pan with sweet potatoes and sausage. Serve with half an avocado. Eat the other half at lunch.
- Breakfast salad: Butter lettuce mixed with a dollop of homemade or store bought compliant mayo, lemon, salt and pepper. Served with poached or scrambled eggs and half an avocado.
Something quick for Jordan, since he usually was rushing out the door to work:
- Hearty egg bake: Sauté kale, sausage and whatever veggies you want in coconut oil. Whisk 6 eggs with compliant mustard, salt and pepper. Lightly grease a glass baking dish with coconut oil and pour sautéed veggies and sausage in, followed by eggs and sliced tomatoes on top. Bake for 20-25 minutes and slice for grabbing before work.
LUNCH
Jordan
- Lettuce/swiss chard wraps with tomatoes, avocado, compliant deli meat, tuna salad, chicken salad, etc.
- Aidells chicken apple sausage, raw veggies, fruit, soft boiled eggs, apples with almond butter
- Stuffed Peppers
Natasha
- Pesto Chicken Salad
- Cold plates
- slow cooker cool ranch taco meat or shredded rotisserie chicken with mayo and lemon
- side of raw veggies and homemade ranch (recipe linked below)
- side of berries
- half an avocado
- nuts and seeds
- Tuna salad with romaine or butter lettuce, hard boiled eggs, sunflower seeds
DINNER
12 dinners repeated 2x || 2 slow cooker dinners to be repeated 2x
Dinner Rotation
- Turkey Meatballs and Spaghetti Squash
- Veggie Packed Meat Sauce
- Greek Lamb Meatballs with Tzatziki sauce
- Skillet Chicken Picatta with roasted veggies
- Taco Bowl
- Almond Crusted Salmon with Caesar salad (whole30 Caesar dressing in the post)
- Chorizo Con Papas
- Spaghetti Squash Pad Thai
- Chicken “Parm”
- Coconut Lime Chicken
- Bunless Lamb Burgers with Mint Sauce
- Jerk Chicken with Mango Salsa, roasted veggies
Slow Cooker Rotation
- Mexican Picadillo
- Cool Ranch Chicken Tacos (in bowls with lettuce, radish, cauliflower rice, etc.)
snacks
- Apple and almond butter (I love Barney Butter in pure smooth)
- Veggies/radishes and Whole Sisters dump ranch or guacamole
- Monkey salad
- Epic bar
- RXbar (my favorite compliant flavors: Coconut Chocolate, Chocolate Sea Salt, Mint Chocolate, Coffee Chocolate. Their Mixed Berry, Apple Cinnamon and Blueberry flavors are also compliant for you non-chocolate people.)
- Fried plantains with smashed avocado and compliant ranch
- Nuts, dried fruit, seeds
- Coconut cream with nuts and berries
- Hard or soft boiled egg
Condiments to make or buy
- Dump ranch -- my actual obsession. Eat this on everything.
- Mustard
- Mayo -- homemade & store bought
- Guacamole -- these little packs are handy, or you could make your own!
- Dressing options
OTHER NOTES
A lot of the snack and condiment items can actually be found a whole lot cheaper than the grocery store at Thrive Market. (I've linked their Whole30 section here). I stressed out and went to about 5 stores and that was 100% unnecessary. You could get everything you need from either Walmart, Kroger or Aldi + Thrive Market.
For SMP owners — keep your weekly meal planning pages and just repeat every other week. So easy!
Watch my Whole30 Facebook Lives
Have you done a Whole30? What was your overall experience like?
