Spring Clean Eats

Spring Clean Eats: Day 6, New Things

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Jackson's Honest ChipsLast night Scott and I tried out a new snack, Jackson’s Honest Chips, in Salt and Vinegar.  Now while I said that I was reducing our processed food intake, I wasn’t looking to eliminate it entirely.

If folks want to go 100% processed foods free, more power to them!  For us, that’s just not going to happen.

Life is short and sometimes you need a damn potato chip.

These chips are cooked in coconut oil and the ingredient list is short.  Plus they are made here in Colorado!

Jackson’s Honest Chips come in a few flavors but I picked the ones that didn’t have added sugar in them (keeping this challenge in mind).  The chips were very thin, super crispy, and not greasy at all.  There is a slight coconut flavor but it isn’t overpowering.  Since the chips aren’t greasy, they don’t sit very heavy in the tummy.

Basically they are awesome and we’ll be getting these from now on when the chip mood strikes.  I found them at my local Whole Foods.

Disclaimer: I bought these chips on my own and my opinions are my own. This company doesn’t even know I exist.

I didn’t sleep very well last night either and woke up very early this morning sort of feeling run down.  Bah!  When I walked in the kitchen and saw that we were getting some snow (!!#$@), I felt even more down.

Then I realized that this would be the perfect morning for some breakfast soup!  YES!

Breakfast soup, coffee

This will be a full recipe that I’ll post at the end of the challenge!

I also tried something new this morning, Bullet Coffee.  You can find the info here but the basic idea is that for each 8oz cup of coffee you add in 1TBSP of butter (grass-fed, that’s important and unsalted) and 1TBSP of coconut oil.  Blend in a blender until it’s all incorporated and you end up with a frothy cup of coffee.

I need to fiddle around more with measurements since our mugs are bigger than 8oz and also with the coffee beans to water ratio but it is very good.  I can see us going this route and cutting our dairy intake down dramatically.  We currently have some whole milk left that we need to go through first and then we’ll make the switch.

Never thought I would say that!

Not sure if it was the coffee or the soup, or both, but I woke up feeling crappy and after breakfast I felt amazing!

Scott and I have made Saturday’s “Odell Day”.  We head to Odell for a growler fill and for some food from Common Link.

Pulled pork salad, fries

Today we had cajun fries (only available from the truck and so so good!) and their pulled pork sandwiches.  I ate the pork on a quick salad with romaine and shredded carrots.  Scott ate his pork portion using romaine leaves as little scoops.

It was late when we ate so today was another linner day.  Both of us are fine and satisfied with that!

No exercise today, boo on me.  The weather was crappy enough that it left me with no motivation to leave the house.  That’s on me, instead of feeling guilty about it, I’m just going to look towards tomorrow as another chance to do my best.

Spring Clean Eats: Day 5, Only Two

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Scramble with tomatoes, spinach, and potatoes. Mandarin orangesBad choices continued last night since we last left off.  I had two beers (which was fine and not bad) but I stayed up way too late which caused a restless night (that is the bad).

I need to be stricter about being in bed by 9pm and asleep by 10pm during the week.  I know this works best for me and I need to commit to make sure it happens.

Up early this morning and hungry!

Scramble with some cherry tomatoes and sauteed baby kale, seasoned with salt, pepper, and garlic powder.  I also chopped up some of last night’s fries and added that to the mix right at the end.

This made for the best scramble!  I inhaled my breakfast and totally wished that I had made a bigger portion.

On the side was some mandarin oranges and coffee.

I am so ready for fresh produce to start rolling in!  It’s been a bad winter all over the country so I think all of us are ready for warmer weather along with some fresh fruits and veggies.

Scott and I actually have space to try out gardening this year, and I’m excited yet nervous to get started.  I’ve never grown anything before so I have no idea what I’m doing.

I will be putting the Sprout It site to good use!  I’ve talked about Sprout It before, it’s a fantastic website where you can plan out your garden.  Whether you live on a farm or are patio gardening, the site is designed to help you with each step.

They also have just launched their new mobile app and it’s fantastic!  Making it a lot easier to access and handy when out shopping at the garden center.  Plus it’s free, which you can’t beat. I downloaded it today and have been playing around with it.  I can’t wait for consistently warmer weather so I can get outside more and do some yard work.

I’m currently planning out our garden!  For a first timer, any suggestions on what to start with that would be easy?

Exercise:

Boxing today!  It was nice to get my body moving, I really needed that today.  After class I ran some errands and headed home to make Linner.

One of those days today, so we had a late lunch/early dinner today.  It tasted so wonderful that I was sad when my plate was empty.

Roast chicken breast, roasted carrots, and cauliflower mashRoasted chicken breast (sliced from a whole roasted chicken) with roasted purple and yellow carrots along with some cauliflower mash.

The carrots were slice and seasoned with:

  • Olive Oil
  • Salt
  • Pepper
  • Garlic Powder
  • Poultry Seasoning

Poultry seasoning isn’t just for chicken!  It goes great with veggies and actually is fantastic on pork as well.

The cauliflower mash had butter in it and I added some of the liquid from the roast chicken to help make it smoother and creamier.  Another meal that we basically inhaled because it just hit the spot.

We made it to Day 5!  Now to navigate the weekend and make sure I have meals planned out properly!

 

Spring Clean Eats: Day 4, Management

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Mugs of chicken brothIn yesterday’s post we left off with my need for a snack. I looked around my kitchen but nothing was Spring Clean Eats friendly. It was also later evening and my desire to cook something or even heat something up was non-existent.

Then I remembered that I just made a fresh batch of chicken broth! So Scott and I sipped big mugs of hot broth while we watched Helix. That show is batshit crazy but I have a very strong need to find out how it ends.

After a bit I headed off to bed to read for a little while.  Give me a moment while I shout that, I slept great last night!  I’ve been sleeping like crapola for a couple of years at this point (thanks shit diet and too much beer!) that a great night sleep is totally worth celebrating!  I would have run first thing but we had an early morning appointment so I needed to get to breakfast quickly and get some work done first.

Plus I was hungry!

Scrambled eggs, fresh from a friend’s backyard.  Hooray, backyard chickens!Scrambled Eggs, Mandarin Oranges

With a side of the norm, mandarin oranges.

We were running low on veggies, most especially greens, so after our appointment today, I headed to the store to get supplies our fridge.  I found some paleo “snacks” that I’m pretty excited to try.  They should be making an appearance this weekend!

I was starving and it was way past lunch time, so I picked up some sushi for us to have when I got back home.  Scott had spicy tuna and I just had a veggie roll.

Sushi

It had carrots, avocado, and cucumber with white rice.  I also had two chicken wings (from home) on the side for the protein portion.  Unpictured, is a half apple that I also decided to eat after I realized I was still hungry.

I picked up two portions of sushi but only ate one.  I wasn’t feeling the sushi really.  I also noticed that, for me personally,  it didn’t make for a very great lunch.  It didn’t fill me up or leave me satisfied at all.  I also had the mid-afternoon crash afterwards.  I haven’t experienced that in some time so that surprised me.  Was it the rice? Do I need a much better veg to protein ratio?  Not sure but I’ll keep experimenting and see what works.

I think that I would prefer salads with protein added (like chicken, eggs, or fish) than the combo I had today.

I didn’t get very much water in before lunch either so I feel like that could have played a large part as well.

Mental note, get more water in before lunch! And make sure you eat a proper lunch!

All I kept thinking about after lunch was dinner!

Burger and fries

Burgers and fries, oh yeah!

The burgers were seasoned with salt, pepper, onion powder, and garlic powder.  I cooked them in my cast iron skillet in some ghee.  I prefer to cook burgers and steaks in lard, but I currently need to make some more.  Ghee works just as well!

Topped with tomato, onion, and wrapped up in lettuce.  Oh I also put mayo on mine!

The fries were seasoned with:

  • Olive Oil
  • Salt
  • Garlic Powder
  • Chili Powder

And roasted in the oven at 425 for about 20-25 minutes.

I made some Fry Sauce for dipping.  I found some Paleo ketchup at the store today, made by The Paleo Chef. I used this instead of traditional ketchup (which has sugar) to make the fry sauce.

I ended up not getting a chance to work out today.  I was going to go to kickboxing but time ran away from me today and I didn’t make it.

Lessons learned from today:

I need to work on meal and time management.  I should have had lunch planned out a little better and I need to make sure that I manage my errands better so I can hit the gym.

Well tomorrow is another day! This whole challenge is supposed to also be a learning experience and I am definitely learning the new needs and wants of my body.

 

Spring Clean Eats: Day 3, Rinse, Repeat

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Coffee, mandarin oranges, chickenToday’s eats were pretty much the same as yesterday.  Wednesday mornings are when I head over to a local dog shelter to do volunteer work.  I was very tried from a crap night of sleep so I reached for the chicken.

Chicken and broth are two very comforting and restoring foods for me, especially in the mornings.  Since I loved the chicken and sauteed spinach that I had yesterday, I went with that again.

I was low on spinach and out of frozen chopped greens!  Ack!  Breakfast was mostly chicken with a side of two mandarin oranges.

Exercise:

Once back home from the shelter I was able to sneak out for a quick run.  Considering I haven’t run in weeks this run went amazingly well.  I noticed a huge change today during my run.  While I did have to take one walk break, the run was very smooth.  I had energy which I almost never do during noon runs.  My best runs always happen in the mornings because I have the most energy then.

I didn’t feel over tired or even struggling for energy.  I fully believe this has to do with my eats over the past couple of days, providing me with more sustained energy.  I am curious to see how this will transition over the next 30 days.  Will I notice myself getting stronger?  Having more endurance? Will I finally be able run a full mile with no breaks?

After a much needed shower I made us some lunch.

Salad

Salad, the same as yesterday minus the chicken.  I had 1.5 hard boiled eggs sprinkled with salt and pepper along with a small slice of cheese.  I really wanted a bite of good cheese today so I went for it.  Tillamook Extra Sharp Cheddar is what we usually have on hand and it’s fantastic tasting if you dig sharp cheddar.

Along with a Kombucha on the side.

Lunch was alright but I noticed that it didn’t quite fill me up and leave me satisfied.  I kept thinking about dinner and when I could eat it!

Thankfully we had leftovers from last night so I was able to heat that up quickly and chow down.

Curry Pork Bowl

Curry Pork bowls full of veggies!

I also got a chance to make stock today so hopefully I’ll be able to make some breakfast soup soon!  Breakfast soup and sauteed chicken for breakfast are tied as my second favorite thing to have.

My very favorite thing to eat for breakfast is pork tamales!  No judging now!

Sadly dinner didn’t seem to fill me up either so I’ll probably end up having some sort of snack tonight.  Tune in tomorrow to see what it was!

Spring Clean Eats: Day 2, I’m Hungry

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Coffee, mandarin oranges, spinach and chicken The dogs and I headed to the kitchen this morning as per our usual routine. I had every intention of going out for a run after the dogs ate and had their morning constitutional but that changed the minute I saw and heard the wind.

Damn it.

I hate running in wind especially when it’s 40mph gusts.  No thanks.

I put on a pot of coffee and headed off to the office instead.

About half an hour later my stomach was grumbling and ready for breakfast.  This has been one of the many noticeable changes that I have observed since Spring Clean Eats started.  I didn’t used to be hungry in the mornings and the thought of breakfast left me feeling eh. There wasn’t anything that I really wanted and I wasn’t very hungry.  Sometimes I would skip it all together.

The past me never skipped breakfast and I had always looked forward to that big bowl of oatmeal.  When I say things changed since our move here, I mean in a lot of ways.  I’ve changed.  My wants and needs, nutritionally, are drastically different than they were a few years ago.  Funny how that happens.  Just when you think you have something down, your body wants variety.

This morning I loved the fact that I was hungry.  Putting eggs to the side for the day I had some sauteed spinach and 1/2 a chicken breast.  Sauteed up in ghee with salt, pepper, and garlic powder.

A side of 2 mandarin oranges and 2 cups of coffee.

I had time for decent lunch today too since my workout was in the late afternoon.

Salad and smoothieI had a small mixed green salad with a few pieces of leftover chicken from this morning, carrots, cucumber, and some sliced almonds.  The dressing was very simple combo of:

  • Olive Oil
  • Whole Grain Mustard
  • Maple Syrup
  • Salt
  • Pepper
  • Garlic powder

Washed all that down with a smoothie.  This is a pretty basic smoothie and one of our main go-tos.

  • 2C Water
  • 1 Large Handful of Baby Spinach
  • 1.5 Frozen Bananas
  • 1C Frozen Blueberries

Blend until smooth and creamy.  It makes 2 full smoothies.

Exercise:

Boxing class today!  Normally I would have also ran, but I’ll refer you to the beginning of this post.  Stupid wind.  While boxing class was tough today and I got tired, it wasn’t like yesterday’s lack of energy at all.  This was a tired from getting my ass kicked in class (in a good way, of course!).  Yesterday I was tired because I didn’t fuel myself properly.  Big difference! And I would much rather have classes like today!

Curry Pork BowlDinner this evening is one of my favorite dishes to make that uses ground pork!  It’s a curry spiced pork bowl full of veggies.

  • Cabbage
  • Broccoli
  • Red Pepper
  • Green Onions

All make an appearance!  This is a recipe that I’ll be sharing once the 30 day challenge is over.

Today ended up being an awesome day! I forgot to keep track of my water intake but I know that I drank enough because I’m not feeling dehydrated or sluggish.

Now I’m off to relax and watch the Pens game!

Spring Clean Eats: Day 1, Starting Small

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Scrambled eggs and mandarin oranges The first day of any challenge is always an amazing day. Full of motivation and eagerness. Let’s see how I feel on Day 15 or Day 20!

Breakfast this morning was 2 scrambled eggs and 2 mandarin oranges.  I admit that I have cheated and have been trying to have a protein centric breakfast for the past week now.  I throw in fresh fruit as much as possible and I have discovered that I love having fresh fruit in the mornings.

Back when I was having oatmeal all the time or yogurt and granola, I rarely put fresh fruit in those dishes.  A few exceptions like when blueberries and peaches are in season.  Fresh fruit starts my day off with a brightness that I don’t think I want to give up.

I cannot wait until peach season!

I also had two cups of coffee with about 1/2C of whole milk in each mug.

After breakfast and coffee, it’s been water for the rest of the day.

Exercise:

Today was a kickboxing day and I was feeling slow and winded during class.  I know this is completely related to yesterday’s (Sunday) eats. It was the last day before the challenge and also the last day of Birthday Week (for me).  We had some very yummy but not very nourishing eats.  During class, my body let me know it did not appreciate that.

Hard boiled egg and a sliced appleMondays tend to be a little weird when it comes to an eating schedule.  My kickboxing class is at noon and I don’t get back home until 1:30.  Then we run the dogs to the park and out for a walk.  By the time we are back home again and I’ve showered, it’s just about time to start making dinner.  We usually have a smallish snack and then eat a larger dinner.

I think I need to change that up a bit though and I’m curious how this challenge will influence that.

Today’s mini-lunch pre-dinner snack was a sliced apple and a hard boiled egg sprinkled with salt and pepper.

Chicken wings and cole slawI was totally ready to eat dinner this evening!  Chicken wings that marinated for about 20 minutes before roasting.  The marinade was:

  • Juice of 1 lime
  • Soy Sauce
  • Olive Oil
  • Honey
  • Salt and Pepper
  • Garlic Powder
  • Onion Powder
  • Chili Powder

Roasted at 400 for about 20 minutes.  I could have done longer to get the skin a little more crisp but I was hungry!

The quick cole slaw on the side had the same ingredients as the marinade at much less amount.

I don’t have any issues with small amounts of soy sauce or soy products and I consider it a clean eat.

Over all the day has gone smoothly and I have been feeling satisfied with each meal.  Now it’s couch time with the new season of Dancing With The Stars!  Totally guilty pleasure.  Shut it.

Here’s looking forward to tomorrow!