One week in! Woot! I’m still feeling good. Had a light breakfast on day 7 as we were both busy, just some fruit and a hard boiled egg. Wanted to prep my dinner before I had to leave, so kept it simple.

And I was out well past lunchtime — side note — picked up an Epic bar while I was out, and, yuck! Those are gross — so when I got home I was hungry. I had some leftover spiralized zucchini, so I whipped up a quick Whole 30 friendly pesto using what I had on hand.

Ingredients:

• 1/2 cup pine nuts
• 1/2 cup olive oil
• 2 cups cilantro
• 3 tbls. thyme
• sea salt
• 2 cloves of garlic

Preparation:

1. Toast pine nuts in a dry skillet until golden brown. Transfer to a blender
2. Add herbs, sea salt, garlic, and 2 tbsp. of olive oil
3. Pulse to combine
4. With blender running slowly, add remaining olive oil until completely combined
5. Add to zucchini noodles and fold in to mix.

I totally did not miss the cheese in this at all. It tasted the same as any other pesto!!Dinner had to be prepped in advance but was worth it. I made hake fish cakes, my Whole 30 friendly version of Melissa Clark’s recipe.

Ingredients:

• 2 tablespoons olive oil
• 2 garlic cloves, smashed and peeled
• 1 pound firm white fish fillets
• 1 ½ teaspoons kosher salt, more as needed
• ¼ teaspoon black pepper
• 1 pound russet potatoes, peeled and thinly sliced (2 cups)
• 2 eggs
• 3 tablespoons roughly chopped mint
• 3 tablespoons roughly chopped thyme
• 1 scallion, white and green parts, finely chopped
• 1 serrano chile, seeded and minced
• Pinch cayenne
• Finely grated zest of 1 small lime
• ⅓ cup  and ½ cup almond flour, divided
• ghee or clarified butter
• ½ cup Whole 30 mayonnaise

Preparation:

1. In a large skillet over medium heat, heat olive oil. Add garlic and cook until golden brown at the edges, about 2 minutes.
2. Season fish with 1 teaspoon salt and the pepper, add to pan and let cook for 1 minute. 4 tablespoons water. Turn heat to low, cover and cook until fish is just barely cooked through, 8 to 10 minutes. Move fish to a plate, keeping any liquid and garlic in skillet.
3. In the same skillet over high heat, add potatoes, remaining 1/2 teaspoon salt and water to just cover. Bring to a boil, reduce to simmer, cover and cook until tender, about 15 minutes.
4. Flake fish. Drain potatoes and garlic, and place in a large bowl. Roughly mash potatoes and garlic, then add flaked fish, eggs, cilantro, basil, scallion, chile, cayenne, lime zest and 1/3 cup almond flour, and combine. Season with salt if needed. Cover and chill for at least 3 hours, longer if possible.
5. Place remaining flour on a plate. Form generous 1/4 cup fish patties about 1/2 inch thick. Dip patties into flour to lightly coat each side.
6. In a large, preferably nonstick skillet, heat 2 – 3 tablespoons of ghee or clarified butter over medium heat. Cook fish cakes until golden brown, about 5 to 8 minutes each side, adding more cooking fats as needed. Move to a paper-towel-lined plate.
7. Serve fish cakes with dollops of mayonnaise.

These are really good. We ate a bunch of them, and then froze the rest for easy quick meals in the coming week.