Eating clean on the go...

What to eat what to eat? I have never been a fast food advocate...I really don't like to eat out if possible. Yesterday was a weird day! Dustin and I were all over the place and so my eating schedule was all sorts of thrown off, I missed the gym, I ate lunch late, ate dinner late...ugh! Anyway...I was just thinking about my fave eat clean places to eat on the go. Sushi of course is my go to eating out meal. I know that white rice is usually frowned upon but I let that slide...I think that sushi has such yummy fresh stuff in it that a little whit rice won't hurt anything! So after much indecision about what to make for dinner at 830 last night we decided sushi was a good choice. Dustin really wanted to eat lunch at Sweet Tomatoes yesterday. There is one like a mile from my apartment and I hadn't gone in years! I was starving! It was almost three and I hadn't had lunch yet! UGH! It's ridiculously easy to eat clean at STs if you stick to the basics....salad. I topped my fresh veggies with olive oil and vinegar. Now usually I am not a huge fan of salads. I mean it's fine but I won't lie...I was still hungry afterwards. I wanted a whole wheat roll or something but there was nothing that looked even remotely clean in that department. I did have a bite of chocolate froyo but ya know what? So not good! Def not worth it! For a snack I had some dates...then off on the road again to pick up my mom from work. I was sad I didn't make the gym. I was feeling grumpy and I totally think it's due to not hittin the gym very much the past week.


So starting off fresh today. I have been doing well with the veggies! So that is good. I am going to make some lasagna tonight for dinner and Dustin and I are definitely hitting the gym hard this morning. I still need to make the banana cashew balls so I might attempt that this morning. So my goals today are to have a nice workout, attempt my cashew balls, and find a delicious veggie packed lasagna recipe to make for dinner tonight.

Dedicating September to Veggies

I have been a healthy eater for YEARS. I have gone the packaged diet food route (in my defense I was young and stupid haha) but truly for the past few years I have been focusing mainly on fresh healthy food. I have always had one problem...one serious problem...I don't eat that many veggies. I know I need to! I know how good for me they are..but I just don't do it! Lately I have been doing better with snacking on carrots and eating lots of edamame and mixed frozen veggies, throwing peppers in my pasta and stirfry etc...but I need to eat more! I am thinkin that I need to invest in some delicious hummus (heck maybe i'll even make my own! :)) and maybe I will be more inclined to snack on some veggies with something yummy to dip them in. It's not that I don't like veggies...fruit is just easier. I can grab a banana, apple, peach and just throw it in my bag. So my goal for the month of September is to concentrate on veggies. Celery, pepper slices, cucumber slices...alright..I am dedicated! I am also going to try to make some veggie packed entrees. I think I will follow in Jessica Seinfeld's footsteps and start sneaking in some veggie puree to my recipes!

Thank Goodness for Thursday!

I am sooooooooo happy it's Thursday! Monday I had an easy day at work and actually got sent home at 3! So that was nice! Yesterday made up for it. I have never run so much in my life haha! My whole body still aches this morning! This week I have been munchin on my leftover pasta from this weekend. I have added a piece of fruit or some carrots and called it a meal! I am trying to branch out more with my meals. So I need to create some things this weekend for snacks haha. Maybe some protein bars or something along those lines. I need to make pizza sometime because I want to use up some of my ingredients. Other than that I want to concentrate on some good snack recipes/ideas! I am definitely going to try my hand at banana-cashew balls from fatfreevegan! These just look amazing!

Already MONDAY?!?!?

I need these weekends to slooooow down please! I did end up having a very nice low key weekend. Last night I made a pasta dish for Dustin and I. I got the recipe from fitness magazine and tweaked it a little to make more (I wanted leftovers for my lunches this week!) I have posted the recipe below. It was really good! Dustin was a big fan! I had some turkey meatballs from trader joes so I threw in four of those for him. And speaking of Trader joes...I found myself some DELICIOUS organic red wine. Six bucks a bottle! I tried a glass last night with my pasta and it was sooooo good, slightly strong, perfectly sweet...just very yummy! I am really liking the organic ecofriendly wines I am trying out. I will have to be more conscious about my wine choices from now on, especially because now I know they don't have to be super expensive!

No Cream No Cry Penne Alla Vodka

I found this delish recipe in Fitness Magazine! I will copy and paste the recipe and then I will write a little tid bit on what I changed!

Makes: 4 servings

Ingredients

• 8 ounces whole wheat penne
• 2 cups low-fat marinara sauce
• Pinch crushed red pepper
• 1 7-ounce container 2 percent Greek yogurt
• 1 cup chopped fresh basil
• Salt and freshly ground black pepper, to taste
• 6 tablespoons grated Parmigiano-Reggiano

Directions

1. Bring a large pot of lightly salted water to a boil. Add pasta and cook according to package directions, about 9 minutes; drain.
2. While pasta is cooking, bring marinara sauce and crushed red pepper to simmer in a large nonstick saute pan over medium heat. Cook sauce, stirring it occasionally with a heat-resistant rubber spatula, until it is slightly thickened, about 5 minutes. Remove saute pan from heat.
3. Stir about 1/2 cup marinara sauce into yogurt until smooth (this prevents yogurt from curdling). Then whisk yogurt mixture back into saute pan with remaining sauce.
4. In a large bowl, toss sauce with drained penne and basil. Season with salt and pepper. Sprinkle cheese on top.

Nutrition facts per serving: 320 calories, 18g protein, 55g carbohydrate, 4.8g fat (2g saturated), 6g fiber

I wanted some leftovers for lunches so I used a whole box of Penne which was 13.5 oz. I used 2 cups of no sugar added tomato sauce, a cup of greek yogurt, I added some sliced peppers and some dried italian spices, salt/pepper and red pepper flakes. It was really really good! I didn't have any parsley, but I did have fresh basil I could have used but forgot! Grr!

Shout out to Z Tejas for their wine selection!

Last night after Dustin got off work we decided to go out for a drink. This girls definitely enjoys her wine (as is evident from past posts) so I thought I would have a glass or two. I wanted to go to Z Tejas because Dustin had never been there and I had been telling tales of the strongest margaritas in town! He had two, and he definitely agreed they were strong! Alright...now onto the wine selection. They have a whole section on their wine list for natural wines made from sustainable or organic grapes. I thought that was awesome! I got two glasses (Dustin insisted on the second...OY! Definitely felt that one!) of Trinity Oaks Pinot Noir. This wine was made from sustainably grown grapes and for every bottle sold a tree is planted! I checked out the website and they have a counter on the page to show how many trees have been planted! I love this! Anyway, Kudos to Z Tejas! Dustin and I decided we are definitely going back because there is a whole page of natural wines for me to try!

Eat clean fave!

And my favorite eat clean item of the week is not that exciting haha! But It's cheap! It's easy to find! It's DELICIOUS! I am loving Basha's brand natural peanut butter! I don't know what it is about it, but it is soooooooo good! It's creamy, melty, roasty, and just an all around good buy! This week it was on sale for $1.59! I should have bought two!

The weekend went by FAST!

Boooo! Usually my weekends don't fly by too fast, but this weekend just sped on by me! I did make a few things this weekend! I made some eat clean oatmeal cookies, which well...taste very clean haha! They are good, but definitely healthy tasting, so for me they were perfect and Dustin said they were alright, but I wouldn't bring them to a party lol! The recipe called for chocolate chips but I opted for raisins instead. I also made mine with bran instead of flax, just because I felt like adding some bran ha. I made Dustin some semi eat clean cornbread from Dr. Weil's website(made with white flour not wheat). And last night I made curried sweet potato and shrimp over brown rice! This dish was a big hit, the recipe was on the Kitchen Table on Eatclean.com! I was definitely a fan and Dustin liked it too! Over all I had a really nice weekend, I went to the gym Friday and Saturday, realized I despise the stairmaster and also did some yoga with weigths.

Ugh. IBS! And recipe for the weekend!

My IBS has been out of control the past few days! I think it has to be hormonal because things have been going really well lately. Sigh. I tried the fiber smart and I felt AWFUL the day after. So either I need to really slow it down and start at super low dose or I will just stick with my fibercon and try increasing that. The last option sounds the best. Now I am hoping that I can take back that fiber to sprouts. It was expensive!

Alright enough about that!I need some recipes!!!! I have been trying to stay away from anything cheese for the past few days (including my beloved cottage cheese). So I want something that isn't full of trigger foods! While I'm at work today I will do some searching! I want to stop by the grocery store after work, Bashas has peaches for 59 cents a pound! That is just a DEAL! :)

In other news Dustin and I had the most wonderful daytrip to Prescott/Sedona on Tuesday! I made us some healthy snacks, and packed LOTS of water. My snack on the trip was carrots and peanut butter, I bought some ginger lemon water which is delish (I want to see if there is a recipe for that!) I ate quite a few ginger chews (they calm the tummy). We ate lunch at wildflower. I LOVE their sweet potato sandwich. I need to learn how to make my own fig spread too ha! We went hiking for a few hours and it was just an absolute blast! I love that guy! We have such great andventures. We ate peaches halfway through the hike :). Then we were off to get some sushi! It was a really wonderful day!

Sleepy Sunday!

I really had a low key weekend! Yesterday I did go to the farmer's market with my mom, I did some yoga with weights (great yoga workout!!!!) and I made Eggplant Parmesan that turned out to be super delish! My IBS was awful yesterday! I am not sure why I am having such problems these last couple weeks! I haven't had spasms and intense pain like that in a long long time! Anyway...I will post the eggplant recipe. I used the base recipe but I made my own sauce. I sauteed some mushrooms and garlic, I added some garlic oregeno diced tomatos, I chopped up a tomato I got from the farmers market, added 1/2 cup white wine and let everything simmer down. The eggplant I breaded with wheat germ. On my portion of eggplant I topped it with cottage cheese, Dustin's had the standard mozzarella and I whipped up some whole wheat spaghetti. All in all it was a hit and I sent Dustin home with leftovers for lunch today!

Crock Pot rosemary baked potatoes

Hmmm...well I gave it a good shot! Last week I made crock pot baked sweet potatoes and they were yummo! So I thought...well why not try it with reg potatoes. I got the recipe from the wonderful crockpot365 blog! I took three russett potatoes, scrubbed them, split them down the middle, rubbed them with olive oil, salt, and rosemary and put them on low for about 9 hours (the recipe said 10). They were good, but definitely overcooked. It was just a little dissapointing ha, but still edible thank goodness! I think tonight is gonna be pasta with eggplant and mushroom sauce. It's been a while since I made that and it seems like a good option for an easy dinner!

And for my new eat clean food/supplement of the week......drumroll.....


Renew life tripple fiber! With my vacation coming up in two months I want to find SOMETHING that will get me regular in time for the trip...just so I dont have to worry! Fingers crossed! I will have to journal about it on here to see how it's working out!

Fabulous Friday!

TGIF! I love having my Fridays off ha! It was a long week and I am glad I get some down time now! Yesterday was not perfectly clean lol. I definitely had some icing from a cake (maybe 1-2 tbsp) I also had a glass of plum wine last night. I needed to just sit and relax. But I don't look at it as a failure I look at it as being 80% clean yesterday. And 80% aint too bad!

Alright so it's the weekend. Time for recipe ideas. I have lots of leftover peanut noodles so I could do something with those....but I also have LOTS of potatoes! Like LOTS! So I think I really need to focus on using the potatoes. I am going to look into crock pot potato creations, if nothin else I will make an eat clean quiche with potato and egg and yummo ingredients!

Ch Ch Ch Chia!

I think by now it is apparant that I am a fan of Chia seeds. Mostly because of the fiber properties and I actually like the taste of the ground chia seeds. So for a few months now I have been buying the ground stuff from sprouts. It comes in a 12 oz container for about 17 buckeroos. Well that is pretty steep if I do say so myself. Dustin was shopping with me one day and noticed that they sell chia in the bulk isle. So in the spirit of budgeting I decided that I was going to buy in bulk. So I bought around 1.5 pounds of this stuff for 10 bucks...not too shabby. The whole seeds are quite different though haha. I added them to my normal dinner and was kinda put off by having to pop the seeds with my teeth! So I looked up the recipe to make "chia slime" as I like to call it. 2 cups water and 1/3 cup chia seeds, stir, let sit, stir again and let sit. Now I add the gel to everything! Tbsp here and a Tbsp there...it's still not as good as the ground IMO but it's alright. My next move will be to try and ground the seeds in the coffee grinder.

Homemade mayo is easy AND delicious!

I successfully made homemade mayo yesterday and I am definitely a fan! It is really really good! It has a distinct olive oil flavor and I think I might have used too much vinegar so it's a little tart, but I kinda like tart haha so it works for me! Overall I am pretty pleased with it! It has a lovely yellowish color and it is soooooo creamy! It was so so so easy! The recipe is posted on my Good Eats page. Definitely worth trying!
I was super lazy yesterday and even though I felt super guilty, I didn't workout. Eeeek! So this week its back on my workout schedule. Sometimes a girl just needs a little break. Also my IBS seems to be rearing its ugly head in all it's glory right now. My constipation seems to be a little problematic for me which is no fun. So I am working on stabilizing that right now. I would give anything for my IBS to go away!

Crock pot paked sweet potatoes = YUMMY!

I really couldn't see how this recipe could have been a flop, I mean it's just a sweet potato in the crockpot, but it really did turn out super super yummy! The spices made a little syrup in the foil so the potatoes had this yummy little glaze. The lime flavor was really yummy! I just drizzled a little olive oil on mine for some healthy fats and Dustin had some butter and sour cream. Yum! I still need to try to make my homemade mayo. I should do that today so I can have tuna in a pita tomorrow for lunch at work.

Crock Pot Sweet Potatoes (from crockpot 365)

--4 large sweet potatoes, washed well
--1 tsp cumin
--1 tsp chili powder
--1 tsp kosher salt
--2 to 4 limes

The Directions.

I comfortably fit four sweet potatoes in a 6.5 quart crockpot. I couldn't have fit another.

Scrub the skin of each sweet potato with a vegetable brush under running water. Pat dry. Use a fork to prick the skin of each potato--maybe 6 times.

In a small bowl, combine the dry spices.

Lay out a length of foil big enough to encompass one sweet potato. Put the potato in the middle of the foil, and rub 1/4 of the spice mixture on the potato skin. A bunch will fall off. That's okay.
Wrap the foil all around the sweet potato. Repeat for each of your potatoes.

Put them all into a large crockpot and cover. Cook on high for 6-8 hours. The potatoes are done when a knife inserts easily and the potato flesh is fluffy. Ours cooked for 6.5 hours.

Squeeze lime juice on before eating.

On the subject of sweet potatoes...I want to share my new fave way to eat sweet potatoes. I make it a meal! But it could totally be a side with some salmon or grilled chicken.

Fully Loaded Sweet Potato

This isn't really a recipe...it's just my new favorite way to eat sweet potatoes!

Ingreadients

• 1 Large sweet potato
• 1 Tbsp nut butter (almond butter is my current fave)
• 1/4 cup or so of plain nonfat yogurt (greek yogurt is TO DIE FOR in this recipe)
• Cinnamon
• Agave nectar is optional but sometimes a small drizzle brings it all together

I cut a few slits in the sweet potato, pop it in the microwave for 8 mins (flipping it over after four minutes), then I top with my delish toppings! I actually have this as a meal on some days. It is definitely filling and its almost like a treat! I rarely use agave because the cinnamon brings out the natural sweetness of the potato.