Getting Started

Peanut Butter Chocolate Chip Heaven

Well, I had a really great plan in place today. I was going to start my new "regimen" of menu planning / eating. I started the day with a smoothie, my favorite Blueberry Peanut Butter Smoothie. I added a heaping scoop of Metamucil to that today because I'm on a slew of meds to help control the pain and swelling in my arm. I was told it was arthritis, but my physical therapist believes it is a herniated disc. Either way, things are rather slow going in the bathroom, hence the Metamucil! Sorry, TMI. ;-) I added a piece of Trader Joe's Daily Bread toast with a little butter.

For lunch I was planning on making this salad, which I believe I can get my boys to eat with me. But...we ended up at Taco Bell... What to eat? What to eat? I ended up with a Chicken Cantina Bowl. It's like something you might get at Chipotle but not quite as delicious, and oddly enough, with fewer calories. The total calorie count for the meal is 490 (as posted on the menu). I usually would ask for no sour cream and guac on the side, but of course I forgot. So I ate about 2/3 of the salad. It has grilled chicken, romaine, black beans, white rice, guacamole, sour cream, and pico de gallo. Not bad, but minus the rice and the sour cream I could've saved myself a lot of calories!

Then I woke up from my little afternoon nap, (I was up since 1 a.m. because somehow the Valium I've been prescribed as a muscle relaxer is giving me insomnia!!!) and I had two peanut butter chocolate chip cookies, which are deeeevine! And a mug of warm apple cider. Not exactly on the meal plan for a healthy day. Whoops!

Soooo good!

So, here's the recipe for these beauties! I love this recipe because it's easy and everything just goes right into the mixer. There's so much less mess! I substitute chocolate chips for the peanut butter chips, but you could use butterscotch or white chocolate, or whatever suits your fancy. When I'm really feeling indulgent I'll chop up a cup of dark chocolate and toss that in instead of the chips. It creates gooey chocolate strips throughout the cookies and they taste like peanut butter cups, but better. Yeah, it's possible. You should definitely try that.

For dinner I have a lovely crock pot full of turkey chili. Just bell pepper, onions, garlic, ground turkey, chicken stock, and white beans, and of course, lots of chili seasoning. YUM! My house smells so good! Hopefully tomorrow will be healthier!

Here's to peanut butter cookie heaven!

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!