Meat Month: A salad queen is crowned

We’re halfway through Whole30 and just moving right along.

Some revelations:

– I do not miss cheese nearly as much as I would have thought, but I do miss certain meals that contain cheese and/or cheese by-products, like pizza (bread and cheese) and tacos (corn and cheese and sour cream.) It appears I also miss bread and corn, although again, not as much as I’d have thought. I’m not, like, weeping at the altar of bread every night. (I’m mostly just falling asleep on the couch at 8:30pm.)

– I am functioning fine without coffee, but I miss it. (I say I’m “functioning fine,” but the reality is I woke up at 7:15am the other morning. I slept for like 10 hours like some kind of toddler or something.)

– Breakfast is forever changed. I used to have a Greek yogurt and some berries and maybe some almonds if I was feeling wild and crazy, but for the past two weeks I’ve had a veggie fritatta and sweet potato* hash and have more or less been full until lunchtime. Since they’re so easy and filling, I cannot see myself going back to yogurt. Post-Whole30, though, I might slather some sour cream all over that fritatta.

– I have become a salad master. You know how moms make the best sandwiches out there? No, like, how it’s the universal standard that YOUR mom makes the best sandwiches? (Mine totally does, by the way.) Well, I make the best salads. There’s no arguing it. I can make the shit out of a salad. I fancy them up like nobody’s business.

Exhibit A: Whole30 caprese-style salad with roasted red pepper curls (ROASTED RED PEPPER CURLS!)

Exhibit B: Spinach salad with avocado, mushrooms, pomegranate seeds, toasted almonds, and a pomegranate vinaigrette.

You can pick your pomegranate up at the local grocery store or farmers’ market, OR you can steal it off someone’s tree when you’re out for a run. I recommend that. More gangsta that way. If pomegranates can be considered gangsta.

Speaking of running, the half-marathon training is coming right along, as well. Holly and I ran seven miles last Sunday, eight miles this past Saturday, and we plan to run 10 miles this weekend. Then it’s time for the actual half-marathon, for which we have still not officially registered, so basically all this running has been for “fun,” which seems kind of insane.

*I still believe sweet potatoes to be The Devil’s Tuber, but I cannot deny how filling they are. I mostly just drown mine hot sauce and shovel it in in under a minute so that I don’t have to taste its awfulness.