Clean Eating Detox: FINAL DAY! (14)

We  have successfully completed our two-week clean eating challenge!! For info on days 0-13, click here or use the "Clean Eats" label to the far right.

Each day of the challenge we receive breakfast, lunch, a daytime snack, dinner and a nighttime snack.The last day of the plan included:

Scallion and feta omelet. This was a winner when we first ate it and was just as good today. I think we will regularly incorporate this into our breakfast repertoire. I have realized though, that I think eggs and I aren't BFFs - they are far too filling and just wear me out. After this is over, I'll probably only eat egg-y breakfasts once or twice a week, certainly not this 15 eggs per week nonsense.

Portobello mushroom caps with feta, shallots and tomato (we nixed the mint). J was very skeptical of this dish. We enjoy mushrooms and he has some great portobello recipes - including a yummy sandwich with goat cheese - but this felt a little odd to him. However, it was delicious. The recipe calls for minimal cooking of the caps, but we sauteed them a little longer because that raw mushroom texture is awful! And having the tomatoes warmed in the pan and layered with the salty feta made for a great combination. I will say though, that eating the components separately was a little off, but when you make those "perfect bites" with a little bit of everything they were impeccable. Portobellos are incredibly meaty and are surprisingly filling. We were actually supposed to have three apiece but thanks to the error-riddled shopping list, I only bought 4 (which left us short for dinner too. Thanks, Buzzfeed; you will be getting comments on that); but three would have been entirely too much food. 

Apple with almond butter. We are converted almond butter/ natural "nut butter" lovers now. On today's shopping trip we scoured the peanut butter aisle and are trying a new type. We haven't opened the jar yet, but I will give a shout out that Trader Joe's natural almond butter was delicious, comparatively priced and only had one ingredient: almonds. That's clean eating at its finest. 

Chicken, mushroom and snap pea stir fry. This was pretty simple and delicious. We made our own marinade for the chicken early this morning and it soaked up the great flavors of lime juice, tamari, honey and olive oil beautifully. Too often when we make "Chinese food" at home, we soak everything in sauce and you just don't need it. We used less than 3 T of sauce and it was still full of flavor. My only complaint was that there was too much red pepper for my taste but I could work around that. This is also a quick dish and would be really easy to prep ahead of time and throw together after work. 

One ounce of dark chocolate. Ending on a sweet note! 

Day 14 synopsis (a complete overview is coming tomorrow): I am so proud of us. We have challenged ourselves in other ways before and only put forth a half-assed effort. But we finished! We didn't cheat, we didn't quit mid-way, we finished it! That may be because we spent an arm and a leg up front on groceries, but I think it's because we knew we could do it, and more importantly, that we should do it. 

We thought this was just going to make us feel good (see our inspirational GIF below), but it's done that and more. Both of us have felt satisfied, have felt more natural energy (coffee-free), relaxed better at night and lost weight! J has lost around 15 pounds and I've lost around 6 - men, sigh. 

This challenge has changed the way we look at food, cooking and eating (more descriptive lessons tomorrow). And we enjoyed these changes; so much so that today's grocery shopping trip and menu planning was based on clean eating principles. We have picked some challenge recipes we want to eat again, some new ones we'd like to try and are re-inventing some of our favorite dishes into clean reincarnations. While shopping we looked for ingredients that had 6 or less ingredients, all of which we could pronounce and knew what they were. We've also decided that it's unrealistic to think we can clean eat 24/7, especially right away; so we're doing a 2-day cheat plan that will allow us to go out with friends, try new recipes (for Fat Kid Friday?) and not feel deprived of our favorite things. 

Thanks for sticking with us! 

And yes, we're doing this dance through the house tonight, but won't subject you to that video.