Whole30, #2, Days 1-2

Oh the headache on day 1!!

I skipped my coffee because the baby just DOESN'T like it some mornings. BIG mistake. I had a headache so bad I could barely hold my head up most of the day. :(

Add to that my husband's superstition about eating chicken/eggs on NYD.... it was interesting finding food yesterday!

We hadn't made it to Whole Foods for bacon yet, so he threw together a hot dog/potato/red pepper scramble. It wasn't the worst concoction we've ever had but I don't think we'll be rushing to try it again. ;-)  I also had 1/4 of an avocado and half of a grapefruit.

Lunch: 4 baby cucumbers, handful of olives, hot dogs and whole grain mustard. 

Dinner: Crispy carnitas, roasted broccoli, baked potato with compliant salsa. 

Friday was better. I was able to get down about a half a cup of coffee with coconut cream - so far, no headache!

Breakfast: 3 over medium eggs, 1/2 avocado, one cup of blackberries.

Lunch: Baked chicken breast, 1/4 avocado, 2 clementines, about a cup of baby carrots.

Afternoon: 1oz almonds

Dinner: Cracklin' chicken, roasted carrots, roasted potatoes.  This was pretty big as I normally CANNOT STAND cooked carrots. These? They'll be made in my house 1-2 times a week going forward. Delicious!! 

I need to modify just slightly. I am only coming in around 1,000 calories and I JUST don't feel like that's enough while pregnant. Yes, I know the rules, but I am being overly cautious because of my pregnancy.  So I will watch my protein intake (keep it less than 20% of my total daily macros), calories and calcium. So I will be adding a fourth meal and possibly a snack after dinner just to make sure I'm hitting 1500+ calories. 

A few of my favorite things ...

I've been looking back through my blog, trying to remember what we ate last time we did this.  It seemed like a good idea to put ALL of the recipes that I loved in ONE place for me this time, for anyone else doing a Whole30 who needs inspiration.

My FAVORITE recipe recommendation when someone talks about getting sick of eggs: Sweet Potato Hash !!!  Do NOT skip the paleo bacon! (I link to what I use later in this post)  I am making it for breakfast for the week and it's the one thing I look forward to the most!  Add avocado and a fried egg on top for sheer delicious!


Crockpot Balsamic Chicken - I was chicken-thigh-a-phobic before we tried this recipe.  But this recipe - I ALWAYS use thighs!  I despise taking skin off chicken, but I will do it for this recipe. :-)   My kids love this recipe - as in, seconds, thirds, as much as I will let them eat!



Plantain Nachos - Whole30 or not, I will always use this recipe for my taco meat.  The plantain chips are so good they are almost SWYPO.... but it's approved, so I will go with it!



Old School Italian Meat Sauce - I make this, but without the "meat sauce" part. It's my go-to marinara for spaghetti squash, chicken and meatballs.


Good old burger - we splurged on grass fed beef, which we don't normally do. We grilled the burgers and added the Pederson's  bacon (PALEO - no sugar added!!) *

Prosciutto Wrapped Egg Muffins - Perfect for breakfast! Last time I made them, I blended spinach with the eggs and called it "Green eggs and ham" - my daughter had asked for them.  She, of course, hated them (green, ya know) but I loved them! This time I am going to try to put in peppers, onion and more spinach!


And my FAVORITE: Ginger Lime Shrimp. Mostly my favorite because we had them for dinner and my SHRIMP HATING daughter decided she loves shrimp!  It has a great flavor and I am definitely including it in my meal plan in the coming week!





Hubby's favorite - Buffalo Chicken wraps - I cooked ground chicken in ghee and Frank's hot sauce. I loaded that up in a lettuce wrap with celery, avocado and tomato.










*If this is your first Whole30, make SURE you are reading ingredients, NOT just sugar content!  Often times, lunch meats, bacon, ham etc will have a 0g sugar content but there is still sugar used in the preparation, often a rub or brine. THIS COUNTS!! 

Freezer "OAMC" Meals

There's a lot of buzz around freezer meals lately. Or maybe it's not lately and I'm just late to the game. 

Oh well, whatever it is, I had a friend who posted about doing this last month and it REALLY inspired me.  We've been eating VERY poorly since I started working. I simply have NO inspiration and by the time I figure it out, whatever I've decided won't be ready for another hour or two.  And we have two small-ish kids with early bedtimes (for mommy's sanity!) 

When I read her plan and how she went about prepping her meals, I thought "hey, I can do that. And if I do it NOW, it will take me through the Christmas holiday!"   So I started looking through Pinterest and lots of blog posts finding some good and diverse menu plans.  I knew from the start that I wanted "dump" meals - I didn't want to spend a ton of time pre-cooking things and I wanted the prep on the day I cook to be minimal to nothing. 

I will say, almost everything in my meals is clean! I honestly didn't check the Worcestershire sauce or the A-1. 

I found the following meals: 

Mongolian Beef x2

Pepper Steak x2

Mexican Spiced Pork Loin x2

Coconut Chicken Curry x2

Honey Rosemary Chicken x2

Beef Pepperoncini Sandwiches* x2

Herb Wine "Dump" Chicken x2

BBQ Chicken (using SkinnyTaste BBQ Sauce!) x4

Tacos (my own creation) x3

Pizza Dough (following this recipe and process for cooking, but freezing after first rise) x3

I started the day with shopping. Costco and Walmart.  Here's my shopping list: 

Costco

5 lbs beef chuck roast

4.5 lbs beef roast (to chop into stew meat) 

2-5lb bags of onions

2-10lb bags of boneless, skinless chicken breasts

shredded mozzarella cheese

gallon sized bags (although we didn't need these!)

Worcestershire sauce

Walmart

Turkey pepperoni (to freeze for the pizzas)

Whole wheat flour

Fresh rosemary

Green peppers

Soy sauce

Hoisen sauce

Balsamic vinegar

Liquid smoke flavoring

Fresh ginger

1 lemon

2 jars pepperoncini

I had planned to shop today and prep all the food tomorrow. However, I came home and was too anxious looking at everything just sitting there to leave it be! (And my fridge was WAY too full!)   So I started prepping right away, around 3pm. 

After a brief run to the grocery store one last time (Helpful Hint: Don't just say "yes, I have balsamic vinegar in the pantry" - Actually MEASURE that you have enough. I was 1/3 cup shy for the recipe!!) I got to work. First thing I did was make up my own Italian seasoning and taco seasoning mixes. Then I started my pizza dough, knowing it would need to rise before I could package it away.  While my pizza crust was rising, I got to work on my BBQ sauce. I've made this recipe a few times, so I know I like the blend of spices & flavors so I made it exactly as written. 

Once this was done, I labeled all of my bags. I made sure to put today's date, the name of the recipe (sounds obvious, but it wouldn't shock me if I saw a bag mislabeled and could never find the recipe I used ever again!), any additional ingredients to be added at the time of cooking and the actual cooking directions! 

While that simmered and my pizza rose, I started chopping. I PURPOSEFULLY picked recipes that were fairly easy this time around (you know, the first time I've done this!)  Most of them were a sauce or spice mix and meat.  I chose very few veggies. Thankfully, my work schedule gets me home by 3pm everyday, so throwing together sides isn't usually an issue.  I have no problem making veggies and a starch once I'm home.  

My chopping prep consisted of  onions, 1 finger of ginger, 4 green peppers, slicing 1 lemon and some fresh rosemary. I even used pre-minced garlic to make it easier on myself. 

Around this time, my pizza dough finished it's first rise. I pulled it out, separated it into 4 servings and covered three to put away in the freezer. One became dinner tonight!

I put all of my chopped goods in the bags and moved on to the actual recipe ingredients. Sauces, spices, vinegars and sweeteners, if necessary. I did this one recipe at a time until I came to the end. 

Mexican Spiced Pork, Herb Wine Chicken

The last step I did was to add all of the meat. I started with the beef that I had to portion and chop into "stew meat" pieces. I weighed it out and added it to the separate bags - for Mongolian beef and Pepper Steak.   Then I pulled out the bags of chicken. We had an open bag in the chicken in the freezer so I started with that one.  Added frozen chicken breasts to each of the required bags. It took the remainder of the partial bag and a full 10lb bag. 

I didn't have a formal recipe for my bbq chicken or my taco meat. For my bbq chicken, I just made up the BBQ sauce then threw in 4-5 chicken breasts and froze. 

For the tacos, I took already frozen ground beef and added 2Tbsp of my homemade taco seasoning and a can of rinsed black beans. I plan to add a cup of water to the crockpot and probably a bag of frozen corn just before serving.

Obviously I can't speak to whether or not these recipes are TASTY, as we haven't tried them! But I will be sure to update with reviews as we begin eating them!

Curry Chicken, Honey Rosemary Chicken

 Four and a half hours, 2 3 trips to the store - 24 meals ready to go into my crockpot!! Yay for no cooking or meal planning between now and Christmas!! 

BBQ Chicken

Mongolian Beef, Pepperoncini Beef, Pepper Steak

Accommodation

I am making accommodations for myself. I am swimming to get some physical activity. I spend about an hour at a time in this lane in the pool (I am a creature of habit - I MUST be in THIS lane!) And I'm watching my calories SO closely!

We've gone back to a lot of clean eating.  Meals this week have been primarily veggies.

Monday I made a chicken dish. I used all tomatoes from our garden ( we have a CRAZY tomato plant garden this year! ).  I added chicken broth to the pan, fresh thyme/basil (from my herb garden), tons of tomatoes, a handful of chopped zucchini, several mini sweet peppers. Right before I served it, I threw in about 1-2 Tbsp whipped cream cheese. It gave the sauce a little more body. I tossed this mixture with brown rice noodles and away we went. Delicious! 

Tuesday night was a lovely burger with smoked white cheddar cheese and a bit of bacon. A sliced tomato from the garden. Corn on the cob. "Superfood" kale salad! 

Thursday night we had portobello pizzas. I've made this before, but tonight's topped ALL of them! I grilled the mushrooms first with just a touch of coconut oil. I layered them with pizza sauce, cheese, sauteed spinach and turkey pepperoni and grilled them until they were melty and delicious.  We had it with a salad and corn on the cob. Soooo yummy!

This morning I skipped my normal 1-2 cups of coffee in favor of this smoothie. I've talked about the amazing smoothie before but looking back, I realize I never shared the recipe!  I found it in a Tosca Reno cookbook. I found the recipe online here. I can take or leave the honey in the recipe, but it's sooooo delightful with the honey that I never ever leave it out!

Monday I am going to see an ortho about my leg. Of COURSE the pain is nearly non-existent now... But I am still going to go meet with him and find out what I did, if he can tell me. There is still pain here and there so I definitely don't think I am completely healed.  And hopefully I'll get the all-clear to start running again! 

Until then, I will keep swimming. I think we're planning to go on a family bike ride this weekend. I have a virtual race to do, so maybe a bike ride race is what I'll have to do in my current condition! 

A clean treat

I like to think that I'm doing really well with clean eating but there are days I JUST WANT CANDY. I want something chocolately, ooey and gooey. Today, I found the solution.

I stumbled across this recipe for Primal Paleo Fudge. OMG delicious. Melty, peanutty, chocolatey - and clean!  Definitely try it if you're aching for something sweet but not fake!  I used peanut butter instead of almond butter and subbed in almond extract instead of vanilla (because I will choose almond 100xs over vanilla!)


 Bonus, the kids liked it and thought it was candy.

Clean Pizza & Another Virtual Race

We have been on the hunt for the "perfect" pizza crust. I'm telling you, it's been YEARS. A few times we have thought we got close but never there. Flavor but not texture, crunch but not thickness, toppings but not sauce. Then we moved to clean eating and figured it was over, we would NEVER be happy with a clean crust. Until . . .

Last night - perfection.

I made a sauce last time and froze it. I used the recipe from The Cultivated Life, but used diced tomatoes instead of tomato sauce. Then I found this recipe and METHOD (method was the KEY) for pizza yesterday. Obviously I had to clean up the recipe to fit it to our lifestyle. I used 2 cups of whole wheat flour and a 1/2 cup of whole grain corn flour. Molasses instead of sugar. Closer to 1 1/4 tsp yeast. Closer to 1 1/2 cups water. Coconut oil instead of olive oil.   I added about 2 tsp of whole grain corn meal on the bottom of my pan because hubby enjoys that texture.

I followed the baking directions exactly, starting it on the stove then moving to the oven. It was perfect around 18 minutes.

We will be doing this one again VERY soon. It was a huge hit in this house!

I did my second virtual race this morning, the Anywhere 5K. My goal was a PR, of course. I was dying by the end, but I did it!! PR'd my 5k with a time of 27:20! Super excited to have run an average 8:47 mile! What?! My plan was to run 4 minutes at 6.5 then bump it up to 7.5 for a minute. I was able to do that the whole time. I even ran a minute and a half by ACCIDENT at 7.5! I didn't even notice. It's so nice to feel like I'm progressing, improving and becoming more fit and more able.

February Meal Plans

Here's our meal plan from last week and for this coming week.





Monday: Weelicious Ramen soup (I know the noodles weren't clean, but the soup is so yummy!) and grilled cheese with smoked cheddar cheese & bacon; side salad






Tuesday: Crockpot Cinnamon Chicken, green beans and whole wheat penne pasta.

Wednesday: Baked chicken tenders (Tosca Reno's Eat Clean Cookbook 2), brussels sprouts with bacon & a little maple syrup, spaghetti squash with a little garlic. Homemade honey mustard and a side salad. 

Valentine's Day morning, I let my kids make muffins. This is a huge test of my control issues, but it went so well! This strawberry muffin recipe is from Gracious Pantry and they were DELICIOUS! I was able to make 24 muffins instead of 18 like the recipes says and I calculated that they were only 80 calories each! There is no added sugar aside from fruit and the kids DEVOURED them (together my TWO kids ate ELEVEN muffins that morning!!!)  (And I usually don't let them eat like that, but it was Valentine's and I was ok with them loading up on good stuff instead of candy!)

Valentine's night we had a stir fry of Portobello mushroom caps, broccoli, carrots, celery, peppers and onion. Served with steamed brown rice.

Friday: Burgers with avocado, tomato and onion (on whole wheat, but not sprouted grain, buns); green beans and roasted red potatoes with thyme. 

Saturday morning my daughter requested her favorite breakfast, Dutch puff with apples.  Since it is an inherently clean recipe, I am always happy to make it for her! I use this recipe and always change the vanilla to almond extract. I just LOVE the taste of almond extract in this recipe!

For my baked apples, I saute them with a touch (Tbsp maybe) of maple syrup, cinnamon, lemon juice and nutmeg/allspice. Sometimes I will throw them in the oven and give it some time, but Saturday I didn't have that time so I diced them small and cooked them for less time.

I also pulled out my new $3 citrus juicer and juiced up a TON of oranges and grapefruit that just seemed to be lingering in the fridge. Fresh juice for everyone!

We went out to dinner on Saturday night.

Sunday: Meatless fajitas with peppers, onions and mushrooms in a whole wheat wrap. Served with a side of guacamole.

Monday: Mushroom & Rosemary pork scallopini; pasta; salad; peas

Tuesday: Eggs, turkey sausage, toast, fruit

Wednesday: Chicken masala; naan; brown basmati rice with peas; salad

Thursday: Hubby & I are going on a date and the kids will be having Chili mac

Friday: Pizza (clean crust!)

Saturday: Unknown yet

Sunday: Salsa chicken; sauteed peppers; brown rice

Foooood

Just more food porn posts :-)

I am loving clean eating mostly because my fridge is always full of leftovers! We had crockpot salsa chicken on Monday. Tonight, the chicken was reincarnated on a huge salad. Peppers, carrots, tomatoes, chicken and romaine. It was delicious!

Sunday for the "big game" we had an almost completely clean "dinner" (really just a gaggle of apps!) Homemade guacamole (Alton Brown's recipe) with homemade whole wheat tortilla chips. Tosca Reno's baked chicken tenders (from the Eat Clean Diet Cookbook 2). My own spin on potato skins - potatoes scooped out and filled with salsa and sharp white cheddar cheese.

We had burgers and mashed potatoes - with a twist! I used three potatoes and three parsnips. I also added some sour cream and garlic powder. My husband could tell there was something "off" about them but he didn't dislike them. I take that as a win :)

My favorite breakfast: plain Greek yogurt. Trader Joe's Very Cherry berry mix. 1-2 Tbsp of ground flax seeds. 

Stats post is coming soon! I need to wait to find someone at the gym who can measure my body fat, but otherwise the post is ready to hit publish!

Meal plan change - recipe success!

So my meal plan for Monday said portobello mushroom stir fry. I had a bag of broccoli slaw from co-op that I had planned to use - but it had other plans (like going bad before I got to it!)  So I had to find a new idea.  I found this recipe for a stuffed portobello mushroom. It sounded like a winner - and it WAS! Kiddos liked it, hubby liked it, success all around! The spices in the turkey really gave it a sausage flavor, except without the greasy mouth feel that real sausage leaves you with! I smothered the top with muenster cheese since I didn't have fontina on hand. WINNER.

Don't ask about the couscous, it was NOT a recipe winner!

Prep & Day 1-ish

So I spent today, the last day of 2012, making this:

easier to navigate. I am dragging my husband into this lifestyle with me, so I figure the least I can do is to make it as quick and easy as possible for him to follow when he goes back to work on Wednesday. 

I made this dry erase board (it's not pretty but it serves it's purpose) so that he knows what to grab from the fridge for his snacks and lunch at work. 

Then I prepackaged carrots and snacks. The bags on the right contain AkMak crackers and a hard boiled egg or a Wasa Rye crisp bread and a string cheese. 

I also replaced our Christmas bowl of candy with this bowl full of portioned sunflower seeds, raw cashews and raw almonds.  This should also make thing easier - grabbing proportioned instead of a handful of nuts could prevent us from overeating!

We did pretty well today and followed our eating plan to the letter! 

Breakfast: Turkey & Egg turnover (couldn't find uncured ham without added sugar!) & 2 clementines. 

AM snack: 15 raw cashews & 1/2 cup strawberries

Lunch: WW wrap with 3oz turkey, 1oz sharp white cheddar cheese, 1/4 avocado and a handful of lettuce. Apple.

PM Snack: Vanilla Fruit smoothie (1 c milk, 1/4c protein powder, 1/2c blueberries, 1 sm banana) - just a note. I LOATHE smoothies but this, this was edible! I almost had a moment where I almost liked it!

Almost.

Dinner we had planned to have heavy apps (read: UNCLEAN) for dinner to celebrate New Year's Eve. We did. I ate some cookies and drank moscato. But tomorrow AM we're back to it. And hopefully I will be hitting the gym to start out 2013 on the right foot!! 

Happy New Year!

Got Oatmeal?

Good. Now go make BOTH of these recipes.

Right now.

Two people from different parts of the country shared recipes with me last week and even though the recipes were very similar, I decided I needed to make them both. At the same time.  And boy, am I sorry I did, because I CANNOT STOP EATING THEM! 

The first recipe, from Weelicious, is for a delicious granola bar. I tweaked JUST a little - here's the original recipe from Weelicious, then my amendments are in red. 

Chocolate Chip Granola Bars

Ingredients

• 4 cups old fashioned oats
• 1/4 cup whole wheat flour
• 1/2 cup shredded unsweetened coconut I can't find unsweetened, so I did use the sweet kind
• 1/3 cup brown sugar Omitted but sprinkled about 1Tbsp on top
• 1 cup chocolate chips* Didn't have any, but I chopped up a Hershey's bar to mix in.
• 1/2 teaspoon kosher salt
• 1/2 cup canola oil I used coconut oil instead
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract Almond extract, because I adore nothing more in the world than the smell of almond extract.
• 1/2 cup honey

Preparation

1. Preheat oven to 325 F.
2. Combine the first 6 ingredients in a bowl.
3. In a separate bowl, whisk together the remaining ingredients.
4. Pour the wet ingredients over the oat mixture and stir to combine.
5. Place granola mixture on a parchment lined baking sheet and shape into a rectangle, about 13 x 9 x 1 inch thick.
6. Bake for 40 minutes.
7. Allow to cool for 10 minutes then cut into 3 x 1 inch bars.**
8. Serve.
* You can substitute raisins or other dried fruit for the chocolate chips.
** Individually wrapped, the bars will remain fresh for several weeks.

I thought I messed up somehow (maybe leaving out the brown sugar) because I was too impatient and started trying to eat them AS SOON AS THEY CAME OUT OF THE OVEN!  However, I had to leave and get the kiddo from school and when I came back - solid! Yay!

The kids have LOVED these and I'm not going to lie, I haven't stopped eating them either! I think the crumbles (from before I let them set up) will be FANTASTIC mixed into Greek oatmeal or even with some warm milk over top! (maybe with the honey Greek frozen yogurt I have outside in the freezer?!)



The second recipe was a suggestion of a friend, and she said to make sure you have people to share them with, because they are slightly additctive.

That was a HUGE understatement! These things are PHENOMENAL!  They are a no bake peanut butter chocolate cookie.  The recipe can be found at The Gracious Pantry under the title "Mini Chef’s No-Bake Cookies." 

Clean Eating No-Bake Chocolate Peanut Butter Cookies

Ingredients

• 1/2 cup honey
• 2 tsp. vanilla - Again, I used almond
• 1/3 cup creamy peanut butter I used Smucker's Natural (peanuts + salt!)
• 1/4 cup psyllium husks (you can substitute with wheat germ or oat bran too.) I used Flaxseed
• 2 tbsp. chia seeds
• 1 cup quick-cooking oats
• 1 tbsp. unsweetened cocoa powder

Directions
1. Combine all ingredients together in a large mixing bowl, using a wooden spoon.
2. Spoon 20-24 small balls of dough onto a parchment-lined cookie sheet and place the cookie sheet in the freezer for at least 45 minutes.
3. Remove sheet from freezer and transfer the cookies from the parchment to a Tupperware dish with a good fitting lid. The best way to remove them from the parchment is to get a good grip and twist slightly.

Store in the freezer (if you have any left over to store – don’t say I didn’t warn you!).

These are awesome for energy! I have LOVED popping one in my mouth before I head to the gym (or any other time) because I feel like they are an energy POWERHOUSE! Peanut butter, chia, flax.... seriously delicious too. Mine haven't left the freezer, I like the frozen texture of the honey.

So if you need snack foods - these should be your go-to's. Obviously it's not a great idea for someone in the early IQS stages, but honey is on my "natural ok" list for where I am in my journey - I haven't felt any adverse reactions, cravings, pain, etc., since eating these.

So check them out, try them out, let me know what you think. I think the granola bars would be DELICIOUS with some kind of dried fruit - raisins or cherries.  And there is NOTHING to improve upon for the cookies :-)

Delicious Recipe for you!

We had a few bananas that were WAY past their prime lying around and E has been begging me to make banana bread.  I've done so well this week saying no to sugar, I just couldn't bring myself to end the week by ruining the efforts.  I jumped on the internet and found the Spoonful of Sugar Free blog where there was a whole wheat banana bread muffin recipe.

Unlike some sugar free recipes, this recipe was COMPLETELY sugar free. There was no agave, no stevia. It was refreshing! The only sugar was from the bananas.  I was able to make 8 standard sized muffins out of the batter. I did also replace the milk substitute with skim milk, because that's what I had on hand.

I would have taken pictures for you, but honestly, the muffins WEREN'T ON THE PLATE LONG ENOUGH! My son, 18 mos, had two. My hubby had two. My daughter (4 this week, eek!) had THREE of them! I would say this is a resounding SUCCESS for a recipe!!  No one even mentioned that it didn't have sugar.   In fact, it even has flax added to it for an extra health kick. 

 I'm purposefully letting bananas get too ripe now, so that I have a reason to make these again. But maybe I'll triple the recipe next time. :-)

Here is the recipe, from Spoonful of Sugar Free:

Whole Wheat Banana Muffins:
These muffins are whole grain, vegan, and of course sugar-free!

• 1 cup whole wheat flour
• 2 Tablespoons ground flax
• rounded 1/2 teaspoon baking soda
• 1/8 teaspoon salt
• 1/2 cup milk substitute (i used almond milk, but soy, rice, hemp, or cow’s would be fine, too)
• 2 Tablespoons olive oil (or coconut, vegetable, grapeseed..)
• 2 ripe bananas, mashed
• round 1/2 teaspoon cinnamon
• 1/4 teaspoon nutmeg
• 1/2 teaspoon vanilla
• 1/2 cup of chopped walnuts (optional. can substitute almonds or dried fruit, too)

Preheat oven to 350*. Mix together all of the ingredients, but add the baking soda last. Line muffin pans with liners (i used adorable mini muffins!). Then, fill each muffin with batter to the rim. For mini muffins, bake for 20 minutes (makes 20 muffins). For regular muffins, bake for 25 minutes (makes 10 muffins). To make banana bread, double the recipe and bake for 30 minutes.

This is a definite KEEP in our house and I look forward to trying more recipes from the blog!

Juicing

Taking another step towards healthy!

My mom was in town this weekend and has been doing a lot of juicing. I am NOT a fan of "thick" drinks. My husband makes a fruit smoothie every.single.morning for himself and the kiddos, but the thickenss of it just makes me gag. So when my mom said "Let's go get a juicer and you can see if you like it!"  I was NOT on board.

We did that Saturday. After we picked up the juicer, we went to Whole Foods and loaded up on greens, veggies and a few pieces of fruit. When we got home, we set up the juicer and got to work.

This was our "recipe" the first day:

Kale
Carrots
Cucumbers
2 Apples
3 Ribs of Celery
1 Lemon
About 1" of fresh ginger

It smelled like freshly mowed grass - and it tasted WORSE!!

So the second day, after a little research, I tried something different.  I got rid of the celery, which I read can make the juice bitter. I swapped the lemon for an orange.  I split my greens between watercress and kale and only used 1 apple.  That was INCREDIBLE!

Then this morning, I skipped the apple and orange - and added PINEAPPLE - omg soo good!!

Today my "recipe" was:

1/4 of a fresh pineapple
Cucumber
Carrots
Spinach
Watercress

It was sooooo goood!

Am I doing a "juice cleanse"? Nope. I'm not even doing it more than once a day. At this point, it's just a morning thing for me. I want it to get the extra nutrition from veggies that I don't normally eat or enjoy.

I plan to get a few different things from the grocery store in the next few weeks, including parsnips and beets. I will, for now, continue to add one to two pieces of fruit to my juice until I can tolerate the greens on their own. I don't think I'm getting TOO much sugar out of it if I'm just having a small glass of juice and in the long run, I'm getting a lot of nutritional value that I wouldn't have otherwise.

 If you juice, what is your favorite combination? 

And in case you're wondering, I did not hit my magical GOAL number for weigh in this week. :( I gained 1lb because I took the weekend off from counting points and working out. My mom was in town and that is my cue to go out to eat, enjoy and indulge :-) I deserve those weekends once in awhile. Goal is waiting for me, hopefully next week!

I managed to make it to yoga this morning. I've talked Jen into taking a spin class with me tomorrow night. My hubby is going back too. Then I will have Pilates on Thursday and another spin class on Friday morning. I'm hoping that Mother's Day finds us with good weather so that we can go out for a family bike ride (with the little guy in the trailer and my big girl on her trail-behind bike attached to mine!)

Ten Miles!

Still training, still living mostly sugar free!  I'm finding that while I have cravings every single day, I rarely if ever give in to them!

Here's my calendar for training from the last few weeks:

If you can read that, you can see I did it! I went TEN MILES on Sunday!  So excited that I accomplished that distance!

Also, I've found a breakfast option that is sugar free (although I do use the fruit, so it's not fructose free).   This oatmeal is ahhhh-ma-zing!  I followed the recipe exactly, although I did add a pint of blueberries and I think it's perfect! I don't know that I will ever make any other kind of oatmeal again. Even the kiddos liked it.  It would also make a great dessert, warm over ice cream (you know, if you're not sugar free :-))


I'm am still so amazed that my body has adjusted so dramatically. Things that I wouldn't have thought was sweet 4 months ago are alarmingly sweet.  Bananas! I had my first banana the other day and I might as well have been eating a candy bar! I don't remember them as being that sweet before (you know, when I was eating four of them a day).

So if you're with me on the quitting sugar journey, what things have surprised you as sweet now, but not before??

For the sweet tooth

Even after the 8 week detox, I still find myself wanting something sweet now and again. I saw this recipe on Chocolate Covered Katie and HAD to try it!

I am glad I read the directions before buying the ingredients. She mentions a can of coconut milk. I have purchased a CARTON of coconut milk before, but found that the consistency of the canned coconut milk is VASTLY different. Honestly, it looked a lot like spackle to me, while the carton looks like watered down cow milk.

I wound up adding three packets of Stevia to mine. I tried it between every addition and it was TOO bitter until I hit that third one.  Mine came out as more of a mousse consistency than a frosting, but it hit the spot either way.

Very yummy! I highly recommend it for the quitting sugar crowd (after your 8 weeks, of course. :-))

Chocolate Frosting Shots

My "Cheat" for Thanksgiving!

I'm allowing one "sweet" on Thanksgiving - some homemade cranberry sauce! 

I used Skinny Taste's recipe obviously taking out the agave/sugar.  I used 2-16oz bags of cranberries and four pears. I added about 2.5 cups of water as well. I did add some cinnamon, allspice and nutmeg to the mix as it cooked. I wanted to add cloves, but I couldn't track down cheesecloth to float them in!

I think tomorrow morning I will add a bit of orange zest, just to mix it up.  

 So excited to taste it tomorrow!!

 

Happy Thanksgiving!