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 13, Shoot Em

Scramble with smoked salmonWhile out running errands earlier this week, I picked up some locally smoked salmon.  This smoked salmon isn’t like the thinly sliced style.  This is a fillet of salmon that has been smoked and it flakes apart.

I love the texture of this more than the very thin kind.

I knew that I wanted the smoked salmon for breakfast so I decided to add it to a scramble.  The scrambled eggs had horseradish and dijon mustard added.  Once they were almost finished cooking, I seasoned with a little salt and pepper and then added in the salmon and some green onion.

Delicious and very filling breakfast!  Some fresh fruit on the side as well.

We took the dogs to their Saturday morning playgroup so they could see all their friends and socialize.  On the way home we stopped for provisions.

You know Saturday means it’s  Odell Day!  We got some growlers and some food from Commonlink.

Sausage, fries, and fruit

Andouille sausage with kraut, cajun fries and some fresh blackberries on the side.  We also had a kombucha with lunch.

The dogs were sacked out for the rest of the day and since the sun kept hiding behind the clouds, we stayed inside and played video games.

Salad with chicken

Dinner was quick and easy, mixed greens with chicken on top.  The dressing was a super simple honey dijon dressing with balsamic.

Definitely could have used more veggies yesterday.  Next Odell day, I’ll probably make a smoothie and have a salad with lunch.

I have an event to attend today so Saturday ended up being the perfect relaxing day!

Spring Clean Eats: Day 12, Much Better

Scrambled eggsWoke up in the morning and felt much better but not 100%.  Since I didn’t eat much the day before I knew that I wouldn’t have the energy or fuel to do any kind of workout.  Which sucked but not much I could do about it.

I started the day off light and had some scrambled eggs and a mandarin orange for breakfast.

That sat a little funny in my stomach but it stayed put.

WHEW!

Later lunch, early dinner when we got back home after running a few errands around town.

Chicken breast, parsnip mash, sauteed brussels sprouts

Roast chicken (not sure if roast chicken is becoming our “thing” for Friday nights) with parsnip mash and sauteed shaved Brussels sprouts.

The parsnip mash was amazing!  I want to make it again but look for that to be a recipe soon.  It surprised me by how good it was!  The Brussels  sprouts I chopped and sauteed in some ghee with salt, pepper, and garlic powder.

I know this is a short post but it’s amazingly sunny outside and the pups and I are itching for some sunshine!

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 10, Piggie Piggie

Breakfast soupUgh, I totally slept like crap the night before.  I woke up in the middle of the night and was up for four hours before falling back to sleep again.

GAH!

By the time I rolled out of bed I was feeling like I got run over.  Running was not happening as I had zero energy.

Thank goodness for breakfast soup!  A big bowl of broth hit the spot.  This had spinach and a little bit of shredded chicken in it as well.  Not the best picture I’ve taken of soup but it will have to do.

I started feeling better and 100% a couple hours later.  It took a while but I got there, the broth helped tremendously.  Back home from a meeting, I made a quick lunch for us.

taco salad

More taco salad!  This totally hit the spot.  After a late lunch, Scott went out to do errands and I plopped down on the couch with the pups.  I was feeling lazy and not motivated to do anything.  Since Scott was already out, he brought home dinner.

This became interesting and a challenge of its own.  With Spring Clean Eats, the goal is to eat high quality foods and little to no grains/empty carbs.  That eliminates a lot of places for takeout!

Scott came home with BBQ from a place just up the road.

BBQ Ribs

We had ribs, pulled pork, coleslaw, beans, and potato salad.

I was totally bummed out because the food was disappointing.  I’ve had really good BBQ before and this was just a’right.  I only had two of the ribs because they were gigantic so two was plenty. Only a few bites of coleslaw because it wasn’t very good.  The potato salad and beans were not my style.

So I was left feeling guilty that we just spent money on subpar food and I should have just made something quick myself.  Plus there’s the fact that I doubt this was a nice pastured pork, so ugh what did I just eat?

That is what I call, The Quality Food Dilemma.  Do you sacrifice quality for authenticity?  This will definitely be another topic that I bring up after the challenge so we can have a full on discussion about it.  It’s one of my on-going “food” debates  and I haven’t figured out an answer just yet.

Spring Clean Eats, Day 9: On The Run

Fried eggs, avocado, mandarin orangeOne of the struggles with this challenge so far has been breakfast.  I’m trying to keep it different because I do get tired of the same thing all the time. But with semi-sorta-kinda-Paleo that has been the biggest hurdle for me.

If you have any fun breakfasts that are protein or veggie based, please share!

Yesterday’s breakfast was two eggs fried in ghee, topped with half a sliced avocado and hot sauce (Choloula, no sugar).  Also with a side of mandarin oranges.

We are still having milk with our coffee in the mornings.  I forgot to decrease the amount for this week’s delivery so we are trying to get through it.

I’m in the process of deciding to give it up or stick with it.  Still not sure!  The biggest draw is that we get it delivered fresh from a local dairy which is very convenient.

Exercise:

Running!  Ahhhh and it was glorious!  I probably could have pushed through the whole run but my legs started getting tired.  Mostly my quads so I had one walk break.  I wasn’t too surprised, they have been getting fatigued during kickboxing as well.

Lunch meetings and afternoon dog walks meant it was another Linner day.  This one was fantastic and totally hit the spot!

Taco salad

Taco salad!

Baby greens and chopped romaine topped with ground beef, shredded carrots, and a little cheddar.  I also made pico de gallo (tomatoes, jalapeno, onion, cilantro and lime juice) and some guacamole on the side.  I topped my salad with the pico for “dressing”.

The couch and I had a date yesterday which is why this post is late.  I really needed a couch and Law and Order moment to zen out.  I have a feeling that I’m going to need more today.  That definitely wasn’t enough of a recharge!

Spring Clean Eats: Day 8, Learning

GF asparagus quicheThis morning was not very spring like.  It started spitting snow when I ran the dogs out for their morning potty break and then picked up from there.

The kind of snow that’s very fine, wet, and all around gross.  The morning was seriously miserable.  It didn’t do anything to motivate me to want to leave the house.

I started a big pot of stock going on the stove and then heated up breakfast.  Hooray for leftovers!

Asparagus quiche with a grain free crust.

Eventually it was time to head to the gym.  I had a huge debate with myself about it too.  I did not want to go out in the miserable weather.  At the same time, I was very much aware that I hadn’t worked out in two days.

Exercise: 

I sucked it up and went to the gym for kickboxing class.  Of course I’m glad that I went, aren’t we always?  By the time I left it was sunny out and the snow was long gone.  Thank god.

I had low energy today while working out.  I feel like this is related to the fact that the previous three days I only had two big meals during the day.   I felt a little like I didn’t have enough umph and my punches and kicks were seriously lacking.  Back when I was distance running, for me, fueling for the run started the day before.  I had to make sure I ate enough to get through the runs.  Eating the day of did nothing for me.  I’m sure that nothing has changed and my body still requires proper fuel the day before.  Time to experiment and find out!

This whole challenge is to figure out what works and what doesn’t.  It’s not just about seeing if I can do it.  It’s about learning along the way and figuring out what exactly my body requires at this stage in my life.  That’s the fun part!  Maybe that’s weird?  Maybe most don’t think like that? But that’s my mentality as I go through this challenge.

What works, what doesn’t, and how I can fix that.

After the gym, I came home and quickly tossed together some lunch.  I had so many things on my mind that I completely forgot to take a picture!  Whoops!

I had a Medium-ish sized mixed green salad with carrots, cucumbers, and shredded chicken.  Tossed in some Tessamae’s Zesty Ranch dressing which is more like an Italian vinaigrette (If you were to ask me).

Experimented a little today with dinner.

Pork dumpling soup

I made a soup that combined my favorite things about won-ton soup and my favorite things about Pho.  Still working on this one but this was a good start!

Broth base with pork meatballs and  I used a spiralizer to make some “noodles” out of yellow squash.  Lots of cilantro and green onions too!

Very filling and it hit the spot today!  Still tweaking the recipe but getting there.

Despite the crappy start, Monday didn’t end too shabby!

 

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!