Whole 30 -- How I'm Making It Work

First off let me just say I am LOVING how I feel on the Whole 30 plan! After the first week, literally on day 8 I could sense the difference. It wasn't until day 10 that I realized I hadn't needed a nap on Monday (!) or Tuesday!! Now, I have two boys, 3 and 5, who take a lot of energy. Usually by their nap/quiet time I am pooped and lay lifelessly on the couch for at least an hour. Days 8 and 9 I exercised! That's how much energy I had!! WHAT!?!

Now, you may be thinking, "Aren't you still doing it, why are you talking about this energy as if it's in the past?" Good question! Just as I was relishing all this extra energy and realizing that I had a whole extra two hours in my day, Number 2, as we call him, decided to start getting up multple times a night for the following FOUR nights!! (Insert tired mother emoji here... why don't they have one of those, btw?!) So, last night was the first night in awhile during which I was not requested multiple times in the bathroom -- for no. good. reason. All that to say, even being awake all night those four nights, I still had plenty of energy most of those days. I wasn't jumping on the treadmill or forgoing my nap, but I was still facing the day with some sort of strange gusto. Today, after I slept most of the night... He got up only once to tinkle and then stayed in bed. I may have *ahem* bribed him *ahem* with the promise of Mickey Mouse shaped pancakes for breakfast. That's good right? You should always use food as motivation for children, right? Anyway, today I feel the most tired, as if my body has tasted of sleep and now wants more. Funny how that works.

Hubby enjoying some compliant hot wings -- his favorite!

The Whole 30 diet is pretty "loosey-goosey" in that you have a set of foods you are allowed to eat however you want. Now I know in their book they have lots of recipes but I'm cheap -- and by cheap I mean I would rather spend money on clothes than on a book! -- and I don't want to spend money on a book that I may or may not use. They have so much information on their website and there are so many recipes and menu plans around the web that I felt I had enough information to do it on my own. I enjoy trying new recipes. I like to meal plan. Not that we always stick to it, but I still do it! I figured this was very doable. And it has been. The hardest part is that I've had to make sure I have 25-30 grams of fiber every day, so I've been using My Fitness Pal to log my food. This is helpful if you have some nutritional requirement to fill. I love eating meat so I have to be very intentional about adding veggies to my plate and including fruit, otherwise I'll have eggs and bacon for breakfast, a lettuce wrap for lunch, and a big piece of meat with a small side of potatoes for dinner. There's veggies in there right?!

So here's what we've been doing:

For breakfast I found a great recipe for Sweet Potato Hash at Nom Nom Paleo, which we'll eat with a couple eggs or Aidell's sausage links. I'll include a Fruit Salad (recipe follows) with mine and cut back to one egg or half a sausage. I've made egg muffins or a frittatta, which are awesome because this covers several breakfasts for the busy weekday mornings. Ocasionally I do smoothies, which is not highly reccomended, but I can get extra fiber in that way.

For lunch we like to have leftovers from dinner. Some days Hubby will have a large green salad with tuna salad or shredded meat on top and oil and vinegar. I like to slice up a half a zucchini and a whole carrot and sautee it with s&p and some Mexican seasoning, then add whatever protein I've got in the fridge. It's so good! This week I made yummy Vegetable Turkey Soup for dinner on Sunday and that will be lunch for the week. Our little guys will eat either what I'm eating or I'll give them gluten free chicken nuggets from Costco or Annie's Mac-n-Cheese.

Dinner is my favorite because it is where I get to experiment. I've found several recipes that will be keepers for sure! I love that these recipes are so flavorful and easy enough. A couple of my favorites are Slow Cooker Roast Chicken from No. 2 Pencil, and Deconstructed Samosa from Nom Nom Paleo. I've also enjoy making new side dishes like Cauliflower Rice (this is a good tutorial, but I'm going to post my own soon), baked Sweet Potato Fries, and Roasted Winter Veggies. Yum!

Look at these adorable and silly little faces! I could just eat them up!!

If I need a snack I'll grab a piece of fruit, or a handful of almonds, or golden raisins.

My absolute saving grace has been Sweet & Spicy tea from Good Earth. OMG it's so good! I love it with a little bit of Unsweetened Vanilla Almond Milk (Silk makes one without carageenan or added sugar). I've also found that it goes well with chai tea. I just use the largest cup setting on my Keurig to get hot water then brew a bag of chai tea and a bag of Sweet & Spicy and add a little almond milk. It's divine! And it has replace my morning Mocha Mix or creamer with a little coffee in it.

Here's how to make my beautiful breakfast fruit salad, which of course you could enjoy any time of day!

My breakfast of choice -- Fruit Salad!

Ingredients
1 cup Strawberries, hulled and chopped
1/2 a Banana, diced
1/4 Apple, diced
1 Tbsp chopped Almonds
a palmful of Shredded Coconut (On Whole 30 you can't have sweetened coconut, but I love Dang coconut chips and they would be amazing on this salad!)

Mix it all up and enjoy!! You could really add whatever fruit you have on hand or that is in season to this yummy dish. This is just the combo I have found really satisfies, and berries have a lot of fiber! Ooh! Blueberries would be delightful in this!!

What do you eat for breakfast?

"Healthy" Breakfast Burritos

Soyrizo Breakfast Burrito

Even before I decided to try to be a vegetarian I liked "soyrizo." Actually, when I first heard of it I fake gagged and said "deeeeesgusting!" But then I was tricked into eating it under the premise that it was real chorizo. Not even my dad could tell the difference. I've pretty much never gone back. Josh was already boycotting chorizo because he accidentally read the ingredients. Big mistake! I, on the other hand, have always held that it doesn't matter what's in it, if tastes good I'll eat it. Much like my mom's mantra It doesn't matter if it feels good as long as it looks good! Unfortunately neither of those arguments really hold much water as I am now scrutinizing every label with a magnifying glass and my mom is wearing orthotics! (Don't tell her I told you!)

Anyway, back to my burritos. On our honeymoon to Maui Josh and I ate breakfast at this cool little restaurant called Soup Nuts and Java Jazz. Such a funny name. Turns out it was a coffee shop by day and a jazz club by night. I ordered the chorizo breakfast burrito, which was the size of my head! It had chorizo and eggs, black beans, and a load of cheddar. It was so so good! I thought it such a strange concoction with the black beans, served on a bed of Spanish rice. Oh my. That was seven years ago and I still dream about it!

With a few changes I would venture to say my version of this burrito is quite healthy. Lots of breakfast protein and healthy carbs, not to mention veggies and beans! I went ahead and substituted soyrizo for the real deal. I almost always add baby spinach to my eggs, so I included that in this recipe too. If you chop the spinach small and add it to the scrambled eggs before you cook them you will not even taste it! (This is pretty much the only way I can get Jer to eat spinach!) If you like a stronger spinach flavor, you can saute it before adding the eggs to the pan. Here is my healthy version of this delightful burrito.

"Soyrizo" Breakfast Burrito
1 Tbsp Olive oil
1 package Soyrizo -- I like the Trader Joe's brand.
6 Eggs -- You can use more if you'd like more burritos. I'd say up to 10.
A couple large handfuls of Baby Spinach, chopped small, and some extra to add later
1/2 cup Black Beans, drained and rinsed
6 Whole Wheat Flour Tortillas -- You may need more or less depending on how full you like your burritos.
A sprinkling of Cheese -- Right now I have a Mexican blend that I've been using, but you can use whichever kind you prefer, Cheddar is tastiest.

Heat the oil in a large skillet over medium high heat. Remove the Soyrizo from the package and add to the pan. Use a masher or wooden spoon to break it up and let it cook for about a minute or so before stirring. Since it's already "cooked" your goal is just to brown it up and add flavor. Stir every couple of minutes or so till browned.

Meanwhile scramble the eggs with salt and pepper in a large bowl. Add chopped spinach to the eggs and whisk it all together. Add the egg/spinach mixture to the soyrizo once it is browned. Let it sit for a moment to begin cooking, then use long strokes with a wooden spoon to mix.

Once the egg is mostly cooked through add the black beans. Continue cooking for another minute or two till the beans are heated through.

Now you can begin assembling your burritos! If you have a gas range you can heat your tortillas right on the stove top, otherwise you'll want to preheat a pan or "comal" (cast iron skillet) to warm them up. I like to heat one tortilla at a time, then make the burrito before I heat the next. You could heat all the tortillas and place them in a (lintless) kitchen towel to stay warm, then assemble the burritos all at once.

Here's the lineup: tortilla, light layer of baby spinach (you can leave this out for kids or picky eaters as I did here), soyrizo and eggs with black beans, sprinkle cheese; wrap! If you've never wrapped a burrito before you'll want to fold the bottom end (and top if you'd like) then roll from one side to the other. Make sure you're tucking all that yummy goodness inside as you go.

That's it! Enjoy!!! (With a sprinkling of hot sauce of course! My fave bottled kind is Tabasco Chipotle.)

P.S. If you're having a cheat day or just want to be a little decadent go ahead and use real chorizo and white flour tortillas. Don't forget to load up on Cheddar too! I could die happy after eating this...

Eat Your Greens!

My most recent stop on the journey to healthful eating is this great little book called "Eat to Live" by Dr. Joel Fuhrman. It has really changed the way I think about food. I read it before Christmas and told Josh that I would love to adjust our eating to fit the plan as soon as the holidays were behind us. He, of course, said "yes" thinking that I would get over it by then. Little did he know... (Stranger Than Fiction, anyone?) I finally convinced him to read it this last month, and now he is all about it! It's great to have him on board with it. He is so good at making healthy changes when he's convinced.

We really started wholeheartedly, although not 100% on the diet, this week. We've both lost a little over 2 pounds in only a few days! It's crazy! I think the small changes I had made before this week were what kept me from putting on a bunch of weight during all the holiday festivities and the emotional ups and downs of postpartum. This book is also what started me on a path toward vegetarianism, or what Dr. Fuhrman calls "nutritarianism". Basically it means eating food that is nutrient-rich instead of empty calories.

I've decided that my health and the health of my family is important enough for me to learn to eat veggies. So here we are. When I started this blog it was because of this journey from "meat and potatoes to leeks and tomatoes"! I literally had never tasted a leek when I wrote that...not very long ago I might add.

Over this last week of wholehearted healthful eating I've been more in experiment mode than anything. I am trying to figure out which recipes I love and which I could live without. Also, I have been trying to figure out how to make everything as tasty as possible using only high-nutirent foods. Many of Dr. Fuhrman's recipes are quite good as they are, but I don't know if I could have or would have enjoyed them if I had not been adapting my taste buds over the last few years.

Well, this first recipe is straight from the book. I had avoided it because it seemed scary to me. I mean "Eat Your Greens Smoothie" just sounds like a trick you play on someone to make something healthy seem like something fun. It kind of is. But in the most surprisingly delicious way! I made it yesterday because I was having weird cravings and I was trying to avoid eating an entire bag of chocolate...chips...the Costco size one. Yeah. Anyway, I was a little intimidated by all the spinach that was going into my blender. The other ingredients didn't seem so bad though. I hoped they would make up for all the greens. And they did!

So here it is. Do give it a try. Don't be afraid of all the good-for-you stuff.

Eat Your Greens Smoothie (1/2 the recipe for 1 serving)
2.5 oz (Baby) Spinach - if you don't have a food scale just take two really huge handfuls
1/2 large Banana
1/2 cup Frozen Blueberries
1/4 cup Pomegranate Juice - this adds a lot of flavor to smoothies and is super good for you! It's worth a little extra dinero.
1/4 cup Vanilla Soy Milk (or Almond milk)
1/2 Tbsp Ground Flaxseed

Throw it all into the blender and blend away. You may have to stop and mix it up a bit and get it all blended. Pour it into a glass and drink up!

I know it looks gross, but it is really good, I promise! Give it a try and let me know what you think. This is more spinach than I thought I would ever eat in a day, let alone a smoothie! I am so healthy!

Breakfast Sandwich

I love a great sandwich for breakfast. As a child I would only eat cereal for breakfast. Even in high school I hated breakfast. The eggs were just too egg-y and the oatmeal too squishy! Now don't get me wrong I have always loved a good pancake or French toast, but that's basically the same as cereal...bread and sugar! YUM!

Now I love a bowl of oatmeal or an omelet for breakfast. But I really love a breakfast sandwich! So much so that for Christmas last year my mom bought me a breakfast sandwich toaster! It's awesome and easy for making a quick sandwich. But when I have a little more time I like to prep all my ingredients and put it together hot. So good!

Healthy breakfast sandwich recipes are abundant. Here's the basic recipe I use:

Healthy Breakfast Sandwich
1 low-calorie, whole-wheat English muffin
1 whole egg
1 slice of extra-lean turkey bacon
1 oz cheese

If you're going to cook your bacon you will want to start there. Trader Joe's has a great Turkey Bacon that is nitrate free and really tasty. We still fry ours in some oil to make it more bacon-y, which adds calories and fat, but also makes it yummier. You can also use Canadian bacon instead of turkey bacon. I even used some Black Forest Ham the other day, which was delish too!

Next, pop your bread in the toaster. Meanwhile cook your egg. I prefer mine scrambled, and if you use a small pan it's just about the right size. Or you can use a bigger pan and fold it all up to fit your bread. I like to use the Thomas' Light Multi-Grain English muffins. They only have 100 calories and a third of your fiber for the day! They're a little sweet, so if you prefer something more savory, Josh likes the 100% whole wheat English muffins from Orowheat.

Once everything is cooked up, assemble your sandwich and enjoy!

The additional toppings are endless, and depending on your goal for breakfast (i.e. keep you full, get your metabolism going, something easy, etc.) you can pile it up! You can substitute avocado for the cheese to get rid of the bad fats (cheese is actually one of the worst kinds of fat you can add next to trans fats!) and add some healthy fat. Avocado is also good for keeping the mayo or extra butter out of your meal. Tomatoes will add moisture. Spinach is a great way to incorporate raw greens. BTW I always use baby spinach. It's more tender and you hardly know it's there. Since Jeremiah has been eating eggs I have always chopped up baby spinach and scrambled it right in. One day he'll figure out eggs aren't supposed to be green!

Get creative! And have a healthy breakfast that will keep you full for hours.

Peanut Butter Banana Stuffed French Toast

Peanut Butter Banana Stuffed French Toast

Before Josh and I were married I had never made french toast. Actually after we were married I would use it as an excuse to get him to make breakfast whenever we were craving it (or I just didn't want to cook!)! It seemed like such a difficult thing to me for some reason. I'm a rule follower kind of person so to not have a recipe made it seem like such an impossibility. As I learned how to let go and let cooking become an art I realized that I could do much more without a recipe than I ever thought.

Either way, french toast isn't very difficult at all. I don't know why I was so scared of it. Last week I saw a post somewhere about a grilled peanut butter and banana sandwich, which to me seemed like DUH! We eat peanut butter banana toast at least 3 times a week around here. I had to figure out how to make that better, more weekend appropriate, glam it up so to speak. Well, here you have it: Peanut Butter Banana French Toast with Honey Drizzle. So unfancy. So good!

I was going to make pancakes on Friday, but this sounded so much more appetizing. It was just as easy and rather quick once the sandwiches were made. I added a little cinnamon to the eggs and it was perfect.

Peanut Butter Banana French Toast
8 slices Whole Wheat Bread
4 Tbsp Creamy Peanut Butter
1 Banana
3 Eggs (you can use just egg whites if you want to save a few calories, but you'll need more eggs)
Cinnamon
Butter
Honey

First, prepare your eggs. I use a square pyrex dish. Crack the eggs in, sprinkle with cinnamon, (as much or as little as you like, you really can't go wrong!) and scramble them up. Heat a large skillet or griddle on medium heat.

Meanwhile, on a plate or cutting board assemble your sandwiches. I used about a tablespoon of peanut butter per sandwich, but it's up to you how much you like. I didn't want mine oozing out while I was cooking so I spread it thin, a little on each slice of bread. Next, slice the banana onto one slice of bread with peanut butter. I'm a little anal about having thin slices and lining them up just so. You'll probably only use about 1/4 of a medium banana.

Close each sandwich and press the edges together to decrease the chance of anything flying out when you flip it. You can do this to each sandwich right before you place it into the eggs. You may want more or fewer banana slices, but really they're just there to enhance the flavor, not be the flavor. Go ahead and place the sandwich into the egg mixture. Move it around to coat, then flip and do the same on the other side. When you're ready to cook, drop a good sized pat of butter onto your griddle or skillet. If it melts and foams up immediately you've got the right temperature. If it browns really fast, turn the heat down just a bit. Spread it around to coat the cooking surface. Remember you're going to flip the sandwich and you want there to be enough butter so it doesn't stick or burn. I used a stainless steel griddle so I needed more butter than if I had used, say, a non-stick skillet.

Next, put the sandwich onto the griddle or skillet right in the butter. Let it cook for a minute or two. The goal here is to cook the egg and warm the sandwich. You want it to be browned and crisp on the outside and ooey and gooey on the inside. Once it starts to brown flip it over carefully. Press down on the edges and let it cook for another minute, until it's browned on the second side.

Serve it up! I drizzled honey over mine. Then we added a drizzle of real maple syrup. Then I added honey roasted almond slivers from Trader Joe's. Sorry I don't have a picture of all of that. I ate it too fast!  Josh had his with just syrup. And you can have yours however you like too!