Spring Clean Eats: Day 29, Steak Salad

Even though Sunday was miserable with dreary skies and wet heavy snow falling all day long, Monday was much more manageable.  It was sunny, warmer and all the snow melted.

Thank goodness!

We need to get the heck out of April and into May because I’m not enjoying the spastic weather at all.  More snow on the way Wednesday night.  Good times.

Banana, paleo scone, coconut cream

Breakfast was a crumbled up paleo scone with sliced banana and drizzled with some coconut cream!

Steak salad

Lunch was a huge salad with leftover fake’em steak’um on top.  This time when I heated up the roast beef, I added in some dijon, horseradish, and a little stock.  This made a nice little sauce that I used as a dressing for the salad.

Since lunch was late (and hefty) we had a light dinner.

Veggie tray, sausage and cheese tray

Fruit and veggie tray, some prosciutto, sliced cheddar, and some cooked sausage.  The sausage ended up having a weird texture that neither of us liked so it sat on the side mostly untouched.

Today is the last day of the challenge!  Hooray!

Spring Clean Eats: Day 25, Bad Choices, Interesting Results

Fried eggs, guacamole, mandarin orangesWe are in the home stretch! This is the last week of the challenge and I admit that I’m pretty excited about that.  Not because I’m going to go crazy and have foods that were not allowed on the challenge (spoiler alert: I totally won’t) but because posting everyday takes a lot of planning!

I’ll be posting a follow up post about the challenge once it’s over.  Then I will be posting all of the recipes that I developed during the challenge.  If there’s a particular one you’d like to see first, let me know!

On to the eats!

Breakfast was one of my favorite combos, eggs with avocados.  Two fried eggs topped with some quick and dirty guacamole and hot sauce. Two mandarin oranges on the side.

I spent most of yesterday in the kitchen developing a paleo tortilla recipe.  I was getting frustrated with recipes I was finding online and decided to see if I could create my own.  I’m proud to say that my experiment was a success!  Here’s a sneak peek, recipe will be posted after the challenge.

Paleo TortillasAfter walking the dogs yesterday, we swung by Odell to pick up a growler of a pilot beer that just got tapped.  It’s all kinds of barrel-aged and we couldn’t pass that up!

The Waffle Lab was there and we also decided to get some waffles.  Now I didn’t swear off grains completely for this challenge.  I said my goal was to limit them.  Since I haven’t had any grains, save for some small tempura shrimp, I didn’t have a problem getting waffles.  The Waffle Lab’s waffles are damn good!

Scott also came back with chicken and waffles.  I also didn’t think much about this till I opened the container up.

Waffle Lab's Chicken and WafflesOh snap! I had no idea this dish would be covered in sausage gravy.

That’s a lot of food.  A lot of heavy and very rich food.

I had a couple of bites and then had to call it quits.  Don’t get me wrong, this dish is tasty and done very well.  However that was just too much for me to handle for lunch.

Way too heavy.

That was the first time in almost a month that I’ve had that much grain and gluten.  Again, didn’t think much about it but my body sure let me know that it was too much too soon.  Interesting reaction!  While I’m not a big carb eater normally, I really didn’t expect to have such a strong reaction to it when it got introduced again.

SaladI ended up making a small salad because I needed some veggies STAT.

SmoothieAnd then later I had a smoothie.  Not the prettiest thing ever but it was tasty and did the trick.

  • 1C Carrot Juice
  • 1C Water
  • 2 Large Handfuls of Spinach
  • 1C Frozen Blueberries
  • 1 Frozen Banana

Blend, makes 2 smoothies.

When I asked Scott if he also wanted a smoothie, he practically yelled, YES.  So I know it was sitting a little heavy for him too. Which is also interesting because he’s not one to notice stuff like that.  I did feel bloaty and blah the rest of the day.

5 more days left! Whoo!

 

 

Spring Clean Eats: Day 22, Moar Sushi

GF granola, blueberries, almond milk After spending two days in a conference room this past weekend, I very much needed a “me day”.  Or as I refer to them, Hermit Days.

Hermit Days mean the only person I’m talking to is Scott and sometimes the dogs.  It also means that I sack out on the couch and either read all day or watch Law and Order.

Yesterday was a Law and Order day.  I caught a few episodes of Criminal Intent and it’s like L&O from another planet.  I don’t really care for that version at all.  Thankfully SVU came on and was on for the rest of the day.

Mmm Stabler is much much better.

On Hermit Days I try to keep everything low key and as easy as possible.  Breakfast was the last of the grain-free granola (already on my to-do list to make more) with blueberries and some almond milk.

I did some work and researched some blog stuff then it was couch time.  The pups and I hung out all day.

Scott had to run out to mail some packages and when he came home, he came back with some sushi.

I did not complain.  Easy late lunch early dinner and I still got to watch SVU while eating.  Score!

Tempura Shrimp SushiTwo rolls of tempura shrimp with avocado and one avocado and cucumber roll.

It was a perfect and much needed recharge day.

Today the sun is out and the weather is supposed to hit the 70s.  The pups and I are going to hang outside all day long!

Spring Clean Eats: Days 19-21, Catching Up

I’m back!  Thanks for being patient while I was squirreled away for the weekend.  I was at the blogging conference put on by The Scoop Blogs this past weekend and when I got home in the evenings I was wiped out.  Sitting down at the computer was the last thing I wanted to do!

So I sat on the couch with Scott and the pups instead.

Let’s get caught up on the past three days!  I’m going to break this up by Breakfast, Lunch, and Dinner.  A little easier that way.

BREAKFAST:

Blueberries, GF granola, coconut creamDay 19: Blueberries, grain free granola, and coconut cream.

Scrambled eggs, mandarin orangesDay 20: Scrambled eggs and mandarin oranges.

Scrambled eggs and sausageDay 21: Scrambled eggs and sausage

LUNCH:

Turkey, beets, asparagusDay 19: Turkey, golden beets, and asparagus.  All sauteed in ghee then I added a little splash of stock, dijon mustard, and maple syrup to create a sauce.  Delicious!

Duck poutine and 90 ShillingDay 20: Even though I was at the conference, I was still able to have Odell Day on Saturday!  Pulled Duck poutine with a maple bourbon gravy (From Common Link) and a glass of 90 Shilling.  Thanks to Kristin for being my lunch date!  Both of us were not about to pass up some duck poutine!

Day 21: An unpictured (because I was too hungry to take one) salad from Avogadro’s Number.  And a little side of sweet potato fries which were alright.

DINNER:

SushiDay 19: Sushi!  We tried out Jaws Sushi and loved it.  I had an avocado roll with cucumber and a shrimp tempura roll with avocado.  It wasn’t till after I ordered that I realized that the shrimp probably isn’t challenge friendly.  Regardless it was delicious! And I’ll probably have more. Sorry I’m not sorry.   If you’re curious Scott had their spicy tuna roll and  The After Burn roll.  He enjoyed both of those.

Chili and cheddarDay 20 & 21: Chili both nights!  I put together some chili on Saturday before I left for the conference because I knew I wouldn’t want to have to cook when I got back in the evening.  Thank goodness for prepping ahead and leftovers!

 

 

 

 

 

 

Spring Clean Eats: Day 17, Experimenting

Grain free granola, blueberries, coconut creamSame old breakfast which was totally delicious and filling!

Don’t worry, I’ll be sharing my recipe for the granola and the coconut cream sauce once the challenge is over!

Yesterday was pretty exciting around here, it turned into an impromptu kitchen day full of new stuff and experimenting.

  • Made stock
  • Roasted beets, prepping them for salads
  • Boiled some eggs
  • Cooked up some collards

I didn’t have a full lunch while I was in the kitchen, I snacked.

Califia Farms Almond Coconut Milk

First I tried out a new to me product, it’s almond and coconut milk by Califia Farms.  I’m still debating the dairy in my coffee.  Do I give it up or go strictly grass-fed?  Anyway as I was looking at milk alternatives at the store I spotted this line of almond milks.

One of my biggest hesitations going to back to factory made almond/soy/coconut milks is that they contain a lot of extra ingredients.  Preservatives and thickeners and all kinds of stuff I don’t really want.  This is why milk is more appealing at the moment because it’s just milk.  Period.

I looked the ingredients over on the Califia Farms almond milks and they are amazing.  They contain nothing but almonds and water.  Score! So I bought the almond and coconut milk combo.

smoothie

It’s definitely different tasting but it’s not bad.  I decided to test it out in a smoothie.

  • 2C Almond Coconut Milk
  • 1C Frozen Blueberries
  • 1 Frozen Banana
  • 1 Large handful of spinach

Blend, makes 2 smoothies.

This was really sweet!  I probably could have used more spinach and either just blueberries or just a banana and it would have tasted just fine.  I definitely liked the milk alternative though.  I’m going to give their other flavors a try as well and experiment with it a little more.

Hardboiled eggs in water

I also snacked on a hardboiled egg (sitting in cold water after cooking) and an apple.

After doing all that it was time to start working on dinner.  Scott and I both are missing pizza and seeing commercials for it doesn’t help.   I decided to increase my cooking skills and play around with a grain-free pizza dough.

I found this recipe by The Domestic Man and used that as a base.  I made only a couple of changes (and kept my fingers crossed it would still work).

For the dough the changes I made were:

  • 1/2C milk instead of 1/4C Cream + 1/4C Water
  • 1/4tsp Garlic Powder and 1/4tsp Italian Seasoning instead of 1/4tsp dried oregano
  • 1/4C Tapioca Starch and 1/2C Almond Meal instead of 3/4C grated Parmesan

The recipe split the dough and made two pizzas.  I greased up a baking sheet with some butter and made this into one pizza.

The dough was interesting! I’ve never used tapioca starch before so I had no idea what to expect.  It’s smooth but it doesn’t really stick to your hands and you can manipulate how you like.

This wasn’t a dough I could roll out.  Instead I dumped the dough onto the baking sheet and spread it with my fingers until it filled the sheet. This took some time but it worked.  I made sure to make the dough thin but not have holes.

Grain free pizza

I followed the directions on baking and walked away with a pretty good looking pizza!

Grain Free pizza

You can see that this is a very thin crust.  It had a light chewy texture to it.  I didn’t go crazy with toppings because I had never worked with dough like this before and I didn’t know how it would turn out.  I still wouldn’t load it down with toppings but it could definitely handle more.

I would like to play around with the idea of a grain-free pizza dough, something that has a yeast base and could be rolled out and cooked on a pizza stone.  Can it be done?  I don’t know but I’d like to experiment and see!

Yesterday was a pretty good day!

 

Spring Clean Eats: Day 16, Run Done

Grain free granola, blueberries, coconut creamYou can expect to see this breakfast coming up a lot because it’s been a hit this week.  Plus with the warmer weather slowly starting to creep in, I want something a little cooler for breakfast.

Grain-free granola with blueberries and coconut cream.

Exercise:

This was lovely post run fuel!  Yesterday I ran my second full mile!  Whooo!  I’m going to start slowing increasing my mileage at this point and see how it goes.   So stoked to be at a full, albeit slow as hell, mile again!

Yesterday was one of those days where the time goes by so fast and you can’t seem to catch up.  After walking the dogs, working on a big project, and going to the grocery store, we finally got a chance to sit down and eat lunch.

But at this point it become dinner.

Salad

Big salad with purple carrot, cucumber, asparagus, and sliced almonds.  Unpictured on the side I had some Canadian bacon and mandarin oranges.

Not the most exciting day of meals but all of it was filling and tasty!

Spring Clean Eats: Day 15, Little Change Up

Paleo granola, coconut cream, blueberriesI needed a little change up for breakfast yesterday.  I didn’t feel like a protein heavy breakfast but everything else that I could have is not Spring Clean Eats friendly.  Oatmeal, traditional granola, and yogurt were all out.

What to do?

I looked around for some paleo and grain-free granola recipes.  I came across a few but most had way more ingredients than I want in granola.  Some used things I didn’t have on hand so I decided to create my own.

I made a grain-free paleo friendly granola and I also made a coconut cream sauce to go with it.  Added some fresh blueberries and this breakfast totally hit the spot!  I would have licked that glass clean if I could have!  Recipe coming up after the challenge is over.

I honestly didn’t think that this breakfast would keep me satisfied all that long and by lunch time I would be wanting to gnaw my arm off.  It lasted me all day and I didn’t even think about food again until late afternoon.  By that point I decided to heat up leftovers and make some fresh green beans.

Sauerkraut, mashed potatoes, pork ribs, green beans

I washed and trimmed the green beans, then I put them in a pot with an onion, some stock, and some water.  I let that simmer until they were cooked through (I like softer green beans vs. crunchy).  Drained the beans, put them back in the pot with some ghee, salt, pepper, and garlic powder.

Again, not the most flattering picture I know but styling my dinner isn’t really the main priority here.

Loved having leftovers ready to go for Monday’s dinner!  It made Monday go a little smoother.

Spring Clean Eats: Day 14, Two Week Check-In

Chicken and spinachStarted the day with a huge breakfast so I could fuel up for an afternoon spent at an event.  The event was going to be through lunch and into the late afternoon so I knew I needed something hearty to get me through since I wouldn’t have time to eat during the event.

I had a large plate of chicken and spinach (one wee little slice of sausage left from the previous day).  Unpictured is a large bowl of mandarin oranges that Scott and I split.

This did the trick and I didn’t get hungry until about 2ish.  I packed a Luna bar to take with me and ate that.  Not challenge friendly in the least but it was all I had.  I meant to pack some fruit and nuts but didn’t get a chance to before I had to leave.

Spent the afternoon at Verboten Brewing down in Loveland chatting to folks about Animal House.  It was a blast and such a fun way to spend a Sunday afternoon.  While it was overcast, it was still warm and made for a nice spring day.

By the time I got home, I was starved and ready to eat my arm off.  Thankfully I planned ahead and had something cooking in the crockpot!

Pork and sauerkraut with mashed potatoes

Yes I realize this is not a flattering picture but in my defense, it’s hard to take a good picture of pork and sauerkraut.  I’m sure I could take the time to try and style it but when you’re hungry that’s the last thing you care about.

Country ribs (local pork from Jodar farms) with sauerkraut on top of some mashed potatoes.  The best thing I ate all damn week.

We have reached the halfway point of the challenge!  I will say that the challenge is going faster than I anticipated.  At the start I was feeling like 30 days would be so. damn. long.  But really it’s not a big deal.

Both Scott and I feel great and are enjoying trying out this new lifestyle change.  I feel like the meals are going well and since I am not a big pasta/bread person anyway, I don’t really miss that stuff at all.   So far I’ve learned that:

  • I need to plan ahead more
  • I need to have more “friendly” snacks on hand
  • We have a lot of two meal days
  • I eat less when I include protein with meals

The exercise portion I’m still working through.  Lately I’ve had a lot of stuff going on leaving me with not much time to fit in exercise.  Not an excuse, just an observation.  I need to be better about that obviously.

Only two more weeks and then we are at the end of the challenge!

Spring Clean Eats: Day 11, Return to Sender

Pulled pork, mustard greens, mandarin orange Let’s start the post off with the great news first then we can discuss how the day just fell apart after that.

Early morning, I got the dogs taken care of and I headed out for my run.  I took Wednesday off since I had a really horrible night’s sleep but Thursday I started the day off feeling great.

I did my normal 1 mile loop and I RAN THE WHOLE THING.

Hellz yes!  No walk breaks and no legs that felt really tired.  I pushed myself to see if I could do it.  I told myself that I had to run until I got to the last street by my house and I made it.  Since that’s the end of the run, I said I needed to run until I hit that one mile mark.

And I did!  Hooray!  I don’t know if I’ll ever be able to be a distance runner again since the elevation totally kicks my ass but I can see myself at least getting up to 10K distance.

Oh the run is still slow as molasses on a winter’s morning but I did it!  I can see the light at the end of the running tunnel.

Thankfully I got my run done in the morning because the rest of the day was spent on the couch and making multiple runs to the bathroom.  UGH

For breakfast I sauteed up some mustard greens and added in the leftover pulled pork.  I seasoned all that with a little salt, pepper, garlic powder, and a small bit of maple syrup to cut the bitterness of the greens.

This is where things started to go down hill.  That pork didn’t sit right with me and I was paying for it the rest of the day.

Lunch was basically a snack because I couldn’t keep much in my system so I didn’t want to over do it.

Apple, almond butter, mug of broth

I had a large mug of broth for some powerhouse nutrients and a large apple with some almond butter.

Stomach churned the rest of the day but I was able to stay out of the bathroom.  Whew!

Oven fries

Dinner was also very light because again, I didn’t think I could handle anything heavier.  We had some oven fries, both were seasoned with salt, garlic powder, onion powder, and chili powder.  One set had some shredded cheddar added.

Oven cheddar fries

I was able to keep that down as well!

I hate to blame the BBQ takeout but this all started after I ate that for breakfast.  No. More.

More light foods are on the menu for today, not taking any chances!

Spring Clean Eats: Day 7, Vitamin D

GF Asparagus QuicheSince it was Sunday and I wanted to do something a little more fun and special for breakfast.  I wanted to make a quiche but needed some direction on how to make a grainfree crust.

Thankfully the internet is chock full of recipes!

I made a quick crust using the recipe from Elana’s Pantry.  This quiche will be a recipe once the challenge is over!

This crust was similiar to like a graham cracker crust, where you have to mold it around the pie plate. The crust worked out great though!  I’m going to tweak it just a tad to fit our tastes and I would like to make it so that I could roll it out. The coconut flavor from the oil was a little overpowering and I would like something more subtle.

 

GF Asparagus Quiche, Candian Bacon

 

This experiment worked out though and we had a delicious breakfast!  Asparagus quiche with some uncured Canadian Bacon on the side.

I split a gigantic apple with Scott later as a snack.  I dipped it in some almond butter for extra umph.  That breakfast was a hefty one and all the protein lasted me well until late afternoon.

My exercise for the day was getting some Vitamin D!  It was so nice out and the skies were clear, so the dogs and I headed to the backyard to catch some rays.

It was glorious!  Considering Saturday was a hot mess where it was cold and snowed all day, this was a nice change.

Dinner was quick and easy!

Roast chicken breast and sauteed cabbage

Chicken breast from a roasted chicken and some sautéed cabbage and onions.  Sometimes I think cabbage gets overlooked as a veggie.  Most people either use it in cole slaw or for making cabbage rolls.

But cabbage sautéed in some ghee with onions and a little bit of salt and pepper is a really great side dish.  It’s easy and it tastes amazing.  The cabbage gets a sweetness as it cooks that is surprising.

The evening was spent on the couch watching a really bad hockey game.  Scott and I snacked on dark chocolate chips paired with fruit juice sweetened dried cranberries.

Steve's Paleo Cranberries

I’m not a fan of chocolate and fruit (ew) but this combo is my favorite!  I picked up some of Steve’s Paleo Dried Cranberries.  These were the only dried cranberries in the store that didn’t have sugar added to them.

The. Only. Ones.

They are fantastic though!  Both Scott and I love them, and I hope they come in a bigger bag!  They are sweetened with apple juice so the sweetness isn’t overpowering at all.  The cranberries are huge whole dried cranberries so they pack a punch.  If you see them out, give them a try!

Disclaimer: I found these at the store and bought them myself. Opinions are my own.  Steve’s Paleo has no idea who I am.

Sorry that this post was delayed! We were rearranging our office yesterday and it wasn’t set up yet so that I could post!