Slowing Things Down

It’s been 30 days since I’ve started this clean eating experiment and I feel really good about it. My body is not quite back to where it was pre pregnancy, but it’s getting there.

I am sitting pretty at a healthy 130lbs, my skin is clear, my energy levels are great (for a new mom), and my waist is slimming down. AND (tmi coming up) my poops have gotten so much better! You can always judge how well your diet is by your bowel movements. I found this cartoon that helps explain my point:

Courtesy of http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2014/06/25/poop-and-health_n_5530202.html

Lets just say, I was eating way too much fatty foods before.

I have decided that telling you day to day what I am eating is getting monotonous and, frankly, I am getting bored with it. Because of this, I will not be updating this blog daily unless I find something worth discussing and feel inspired to do so.

Also, until my fridge and pantry has been cleaned out of it, I will sort of, kind of, be reverting back to not-so-clean ingredients. I just can’t throw out food when there are still cliches in Africa. Plus, my budget for groceries is running out and I can’t run to the store every time I run out of something healthy when I have a perfectly good, albeit, not so healthy alternative in my cupboard. I will only do this occasionally and sparingly, however.

For instance: I have some white flour left and I am running low on whole wheat flour. I will use half and half in my recipes until the flour is gone. I still have some artificial coffee creamer in my fridge (notice how these expire like 6 months later?) and I will use it up in my morning coffees before buying sweetened condensed milk (which is the same price!) to make my own. I will keep my white pasta but only because whole wheat pasta is disgusting. I will, however, limit my pasta intake to once or twice a month.

Well I hope you enjoyed reading about my clean eating experiment as much as I enjoyed writing it and I hope you continue to enjoy what I have to say about the clean eating revolution. Thanks for all your support. Happy reading, happy eating.

Advertisement

Day 29: Revamping Old Classics

Today’s post is going to be a little different. Instead of telling you what I ate for breakfast, lunch, snacks and dinner, I’m going to share with you a classic recipe that I swapped out some ingredients to make more “clean”.

That’s right I’m not going to tell you that I had strawberry overnight oats for breakfast and Albacore Tuna Niçoise salad for lunch. I’m not.

Instead I’ll tell you about just dinner:

My dad used to make us this Spanish rice casserole all the time when I still lived at home and we all loved it. Except for mom. Three against one, sorry mom.

Anyways, when I started making it for my husband a couple years ago, it became a weekly staple in our house. The recipe used ground beef and white rice. Well I thought I would take it to a whole new level today by substituting lean ground turkey and quinoa.

An interesting fact I found after was that, nutritionally speaking, there is not a huge difference between extra lean ground beef and lean ground turkey. In fact, the beef might be a better option, I am now reading.

Similar in calories, extra lean beef actually contains less fat, more iron and less sodium.

What ever animal you choose just make sure it’s grain fed, and hormone free if you are eating clean.

Where my revamping really makes a difference is swapping out the white rice for quinoa. Quinoa packs a punch in the protein department as well has more fibre, folate, iron and zinc than rice. It even beats out brown rice.

So here it is:

Turkey Spanish Quinoa (serves 3-4, unless your really hungry like my husband usually is)

Ingredients:

1 lb lean ground turkey breasts (or extra lean ground beef)

1 onion (I used red), diced

2 garlic cloves, minced

1 sweet bell pepper, diced (I used red)

1 large (28oz) can of diced tomatoes, no salt added

1 cup quinoa, rinsed and drained

1 tbsp fresh chopped parsley (or 1 tsp dried)

1 tsp Italian seasoning

1 tsp paprika

1/2 tsp chili powder

1/2 tsp Worcestershire sauce

1/4 tsp red pepper flakes

1/8 tsp salt

Fresh ground pepper, to taste

1 bay leaf

Instructions:

Preheat oven to 350 Celsius.

Sauté turkey, onion and garlic in large skillet until no longer pink. Drain.

Add red pepper and cook until slightly soft, about 3-5 minutes.

Combine cooked turkey mixture and the rest of the ingredients in a 3-4 qt Dutch oven. Make sure all the ingredients are incorporated and you don’t have all the quinoa concentrated at the bottom.

Cook in oven for 65 minutes. Let stand for 5 minutes then fluff with a fork. Remove bay leaf before serving. Enjoy!  

Name(required)

Email(required)

Website

Comment(required)

Submit

Δ

Day 28: I Flippin’ Did It!

I flipped an almost perfect omelet! Here’s the trick:

First I sautéed my veggies in olive oil then set them aside. I used spinach, red peppers and cherry tomatoes. Then, I poured the eggs into the pan and kind of let them set, only lifting the very edges with a rubber spatula. I tipped and swirled the pan around so that the liquid on top would run off the edges and hit the pan to cook. I continued until very little liquid remained. Then, using TWO pancake flippers, I flipped the eggs over, loaded the top with mozza cheese and my sautéed veggies and folded in half.

Pretty good looking, if I do say so myself! Well I’m getting there.

It’s been four weeks of clean eating and I am starting to feel like I am in a rut.

For lunch I had a bbq chicken sandwich with hummus, romain, tomato and avocado. Nothing new there.

For dinner I couldn’t think of anything I really wanted to make. I had some roasted beets in the fridge, a spaghetti squash, black beans and chickpeas in the cupboard, but I sill could not put together a meal.

My grandmother brought us some meat pies from the bakery (I know, who eats meat lies these days?!). I was hesitant about eating them because a)I haven’t eaten these since the 80’s b)my grandmother and I haven’t seen eye to eye on food since as long as I can remember and c) they’re made with white flour! But we are trying to save money and I have no idea what to make so I threw them in the oven. There were too kinds but I’m not sure what exactly were in them. Beef and something. When she told me what they were I stopped listening after “meat pie”. The first ones we tried were delicious! The second ones were not our favorites but we ate them. I whipped up a roasted beet and arugula salad with chopped peanuts and goat cheese and served that right along side these mini pies.

I decided that I will get out of my rut by meal planning the rest of the week. I got to Monday. If anyone has any ideas they would like to venture forward, I’m begging you!

 

Name(required)

Email(required)

Website

Comment(required)

Submit

Δ