Let's talk about love....

It is freezing here today! I say this with the full knowledge that 49 degrees is not freezing and that some people are really enduring freezing temps. I am cold, though. We are wimpy out here when it comes to the cold! I did actually venture out this morning at 0730 for a hike! I went yesterday at sunrise as well. I LOVE hiking. If I could only do one workout for the rest of my life it would be hiking. I love the changing scenery, I love that I can always do some trail running if I feel up to it. I love the interval aspect of hikes with the up and down elevations. I just love hiking, and I REALLY love hiking at sunrise! So beautiful!

I am also now in love with popcorn. I received a popcorn maker for Christmas and I cannot get enough of it! It's so nice not to have to read labels to see what is in the little microwavable bag. My fave way to eat is is drizzled with a little olive oil and sprinkled with a little salt. YUM! I need to find ways to spice it up. I know that lime and chili popcorn is yummy! I have also had it with braggs amino acids, and I tried it with nutritional yeast as well. I will continue to research new ways to eat these little puffs of goodness.

Now onto my third love. I am in love with a salad creation that I concocted last week. I had some chicken strips from trader joe's (the frozen kind which makes them SO EASY) and I had some lettuce. I thought..."well I'll make a chicken salad." As I opened the fridge I noticed that I had an abundance of salsa...YUM! Why stop at salsa...why not throw in some cottage cheese too! I also have some roasted corn in the fridge from trader joe's so I threw that in there too. The end result was absolute deliciousness. To. Die. For. Deliciousness. I know that I say a lot of things are to die for but this was really really really good!

Speaking of salad I feel that I need to give a shout out to Picazzo's restaurant out here. I had a delicious organic salad today while out to lunch with my mom. That place is fabulous. They use organic ingredients, they offer lots of wonderful healthy options for crusts and toppings, and their salads are just sooooooo good. I had a spinach salad with sliced chicken breast. Dressing on the side (I prefer just a light drizzle rather than a downpour). Very very good! I will definitely be taking Dustin there in the near future. Or better yet...I snagged a take out menu. :)

Goodbye Christmas...hello potatoes!

Christmas is OVER! I feel like being in the hospital kinda cramped my style as far as the holidays were concerned. I had a great Christmas though so I really can't complain! It just always goes by so quickly. One thing that is good about Christmas being over is that now there are far less temptations! :) Dustin did buy me a box of dark chocolates that are to die for...so I have been having one piece a day just to satisfy the sweet tooth! 80% clean has always been my goal so I think sneaking a dark chocolate here and there does nothing but keep me sane and happy! Dustin has packed on a few holiday pounds, also the food police (being myself) was in the hospital and didn't keep the boy in check ha! So we are starting fresh and I am throwing him on the eat clean wagon!

Dustin brought me a bag of little red potatoes that were leftover from dinner at his mom's house. So now I need to find a delish eat clean potato dish. I am feeling soup. I am feeling the crock pot. So we will see what I can come up with.

Eat Clean Christmas Treats!

My all time favorite treat to make at Christmastime is Buckeyes! Delicious balls of peanut butter and powdered sugar dipped in chocolate. To. Die. For. I was lying in bed the other night thinking about Christmas treats and how I could make them clean. Buckeyes popped out in my mind as being ridiculously EASY to make clean. I decided I would just substitute the mounds of powdered sugar with protein powder. I turned to my good friend google and actually found quite a few recipes that were close to what I was looking for. One in particular called for oat bran or oats to be mixed in and that sounded really good to me! None of the recipes proposed that I dip the delish pb poppers in chocolate, but that part is easy peasy. I am going to use dark chocolate. What I have found is that even if the fam or friends don't like dark chocolate, they will still like this! The sweetness from the pb balls sweetens up the dark chocolate. I am so excited to try this!

Eat clean buckeyes

Ingredients

• 1 cup protein powder
• 1 cup peanut butter
• 1/2 cup agave nectar
• 1/2 cup flax meal or wheat germ ( I used wheat germ)
  

Directions

In mixing bowl, combine all ingredients thoroughly. Roll 1 tablespoon of dough each into a walnut size balls and place on cookie sheet covered in wax paper.

You can roll the balls in extra protein powder, cocoa powder, or powdered sugar to make less sticky on the outside.

Place cookie sheet in the refrigerator for at least an hour.

Alright...now here comes the chocolate! Melt 1 1/2 cups dark chocolate or semi sweet chocolate chips in a double boiler. Take the pb balls with a toothpick and dip into the chocolate. Place back on the wax paper and put tray back in the fridge when finished and let them harden for an hour or so.



And for my next treat...brownies. I have made some eat clean brownies before...they were good. I thought they were good, but they were VERY clean and not very sweet. I am excited to make these brownies. VERY excited!

Sweet potato and cinnamon brownies

Ingredients

Servings: 16

• 1 cup whole wheat flour
• 1/2 cup unsweetened cocoa powder
• 1 tablespoon ground cinnamon
• 1 tablespoon baking powder
• 1/4 teaspoon sea salt
• 1 cup cooked sweet potato
• 1/2 cup agave nectar
• 1/4 cup olive oil
• 1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
• 6 egg whites
• olive oil flavored cooking spray

Preheat oven to 350°F. Prepare brownies: combine flour, cocoa powder, cinnamon, baking powder, and salt in a medium bowl. set aside. In a food processor combine cooked sweet potato, agave, oil, and vanilla. Puree until combined and smooth. Gradually mix wet ingredients into dry ingredients, until just combined. don?t over-mix. In a separate bowl, whisk egg whites until fluffy. Then, using a rubber spatula, gently fold egg whites into batter. Lightly spray 9X9X2" baking pan. Bake for 16-18 minutes, until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean. Allow to cool to room temperature (30 Minutes). Remove brownies from pan, cut into 16 squares, and wrap in plastic wrap. Refrigerate overnight.

This recipe has cream cheese frosting for the brownies, but I left that off. I want simple and not too messy. Frosting and I never play well...it's always messy, never the right consistency and I always end up eating half of it before it get used.

New clean snack item!

I am a snacker. Everyone who knows me knows that I carry snacks everywhere I go. I am always on the lookout for a little somethin somethin to switch things up a bit from my usual snacks. Last night I stumbled upon this delicious little item. It was expensive (like 4 bucks for 4 mini bags) and it has inspired me to buy myself some popcorn kernels and make my own delish creations! I used to be big into popcorn and then I guess just kinda forgot about it! Well I have been reminded by how gooooooooood this popcorn combo was! I will definitely be trying to recreate this on my own. They also have other flavors like salt and lime (YUM!). I bought the salt and pepper and the plain (normal sized bags) to test out.

Happy Healthy Shopping

I ran across this this article this morning. I can't believe Trader Joe's is #4! It is definitely #1 in my heart! I am also surprised that Kroger/Fry's isn't on the list. Out here Fry's Marketplace has a HUGE health food section that I frequent often!

America's 10 Healthiest Grocery Stores

Cottage cheese enchiladas!

Dustin LOVES himself some enchiladas. I made chicken enchiladas last month and they were gooooooooood. The only complaint I got was that they could have had more sauce. So I have decided to try my hand at spinach and cheese enchiladas. Of course there is no recipe online that fits the "clean" definition so I have done some tweaking and combined a few recipes. I'm using my chicken enchilada recipe for the sauce and for the "base" recipe for the enchiladas. I am making these tonight for dinner so I will update on how they turn out and what Dustin the enchilada lover thinks of them!

P.S. You guys know that cottage cheese is my "go to" secret ingredient. It has never let me down yet so I am kinda excited to see how these turn out!

Spinach and cottage cheese enchiladas

Ingredients:

5 medium whole-wheat tortillas (5-6″ each)
few handfuls of shredded cheese to top enchiladas ( I am using natural mozzarella)

Filling:

1/2 cup natural mozzarella cheese
2 cups low fat cottage cheese
4 oz green chiles, chopped and drained
1 tsp ground cumin (didn't measure just a couple shakes)
1 tsp chili powder ( couple shakes)
1/2 tsp ground black pepper
1/4 tsp sea salt

About 2 cups of frozen spinach (thawed, drained, and patted dry with paper towel)

Sauce:

15 oz all-natural diced tomatoes with chiles (optional but Dustin like his really saucy)
15 oz all-natural tomato sauce
2 cloves garlic, minced
1 1/2 tsp chili powder
1/4 tsp sea salt
1/2 tsp ground black pepper

Directions:
Preheat oven to 350*.
Combine all filling mixture ingredients (up until the spinach ) in a large bowl and set aside.
Combine sauce ingredients in the nonstick pan; set over medium heat and cook until warm, about 10 minutes.
Spread a thin layer of sauce on the bottom of a baking dish. Divide filling mixture evenly among tortillas, and top with spinach. Fold sides over and place seam-side down in the casserole dish. Top enchiladas evenly with remaining sauce, and sprinkle with cheese (I sprinkle Dustin's half with cheese and leave mine as is). Bake in center of oven for 20 minutes. I like to top the enchiladas with a tbsp or two of olives before baking. If it looks like it lacks some sauciness add some salsa! It spices it up a bit and adds a little more juice to the sauce.

* UPDATE* These. Were. To. Die. For. Dustin RAVED about them! I loved them too! Sooo good. Filling but not too filling and spicy but not too spicy. They really turned out great! Next time I am going to leave out the 1/2 cup of Mozerella cheese I added to the filling. Just to cut down on the cheese (more for me than Dustin who doesn't think there is such a thing as too much cheese).

Blueberry Bran Muffins

I wanted something warm and delicious as a snack for tonight. I went over all the desert/cookie recipes on the Eat Clean friendly websites and I just didn't want something too sweet, too chocolatey or too...well...desert-ish. These muffins are definitely what the doctor ordered! They smell divine!

Ingredients

• 1 cup wheat bran
• 1/2 cup fiber one (or other bran cereal)
  
• 1 cup almond milk
  
• 1/2 cup unsweetened applesauce
• 1 egg
• 1/2 cup agave nectar
  
• 1/2 tsp vanilla
• 1 cup whole wheat flour
• 1 tsp baking soda
• 1 tsp baking powder
• 1 tsp salt
• 1 cup blueberries (fresh or frozen)
• oatmeal to sprinkle on top before baking

I got this from the Eat Clean Diet website and I made some changes. First of all I am never one to mix ingredients seperately, dry and wet and then add together later (the original recipe suggested this). I add them all in together and mix ( I did add the blueberries last). They always turn out alright so I figure it must work out somehow. Bake for 20 mins on 400! YUM!

Back on the bandwagon!

I'm back home and sooooooooo READY to get back on the eat clean wagon! Today for lunch I made a delicious sandwich. Dustin bought some honey whole wheat bread from Fresh and Easy. Nothing too crazy added to it, and it is soooooo good. I had a slice of that with 1/2 of an avocado mashed with some salt and pepper. I cooked up an egg white and added a big slice of tomato! YUM! For dinner tonight I am whipping up some pizza. I used the whole wheat flax recipe and I am going to top it with pesto from trader joe's, sliced tomato, sliced peppers, mushrooms, and some natural low fat mozzarella cheese.

As some of you may know...I am a huge fan of The Gracious Pantry blog! Tiffany is AWESOME! So I steal a lot of my recipes from her! She is whipping up some serious holiday goodies and this week I am determined to make her eat clean egg nog! I will keep you posted on how it goes!

Also I am going to admit that I am not being 100% clean. I know I know shocking ha! I ordered myself some peanut butter from Peanut Butter Co. I got 5 jars for 30 bucks! Dark chocolate dreams, white chocolate wonderful, mighty maple, the bees knees, and cinnamon raisin. These jars of absolute awesomness are well worth a little splurge! So I have been having a tbsp or two a day and enjoying every wonderful bite. These peanut butters are totally my item of the week. They also have a coupon on their website for 5 bucks off 30 dollars!