Clean Eating Detox: Day 10

Just finished Day 10 of our two-week clean eating challenge! For info on days 0-9, 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. Tuesday's menu included:

A breakfast of cauliflower hash with fried eggs. Only in this diet will half a head of cauliflower and two eggs count as a single portion. What a filling breakfast! I can't say enough about pairing paprika with cauliflower, it adds such depth to an otherwise bland vegetable. Like tofu, cauliflower takes on whatever flavors you throw at it, so adding paprika brings out an unconventional, and delicious smokiness. And if you haven't experimented with fried eggs you're missing out. The runny yolk is truly one of the simplest to create, yet most complex tasting sauces ever - and it's completely natural! Throw an egg on top of vegetables and you've made your own velvety breakfast, lunch or dinner!

A lunch salad made from arugula, feta, eggplant, avocado and chickpeas. On Day 2 I was toying with the idea that Balsamic wasn't my favorite flavor; today, I confirmed it. And I figured out why I can't bring myself to enjoy it - it smells like garbage, like hot, steaming garbage. I only put a third of the 2 T portion on my entire salad and still grimaced when I got an overly "ripe" bite. But I loved the composition of the salad - I thought the flavors paired really well together, but might've been a little on the mushy side. Here, J and I disagree. He loved the dressing and being the anti-argula person he is, hated the contents of the salad. Opposites attract, eh?

Red pepper slices and hummus for a daytime snack. This was not the snack for me. I love peppers in meatballs, sauces, sauteed for fajitas but raw, not so much. Only within the past six months have I started eating any raw peppers and it's only on my sandwiches at Subway. But I thought I'd give this a try. Instead, I ate one and then ended up eating all of my hummus using a pepper strip as a spoon. I love hummus, but immediately regretted this decision. I think the peppers have too bold of a flavor, they overpowered the hummus and left me tasting nothing but rawness.

Original Buzzfeed photo

Shrimp, kale, mushroom and avocado bowl for dinner. This was a surprisingly quick dish that took only 10 minutes to make (not counting the prep of the falsely titled "EZ Peel Shrimp"). It was full of flavor with the garlic, tamari and of course, J has rejoiced at having two meals that included hot sauce in the recipe. And it had great textures, kale seems to retain a bite to it at all levels of cooking so there's slight crunch, with the incredibly softened and silky mushrooms, unique shrimp texture and the smooth coolness of the avocado slices. I continue to be impressed with the pairings that are included in these meal plans. I enjoy each of these elements but probably would never have put them together, especially topping the whole thing with avocado. What seems haphazard on paper is actually delicious and apparently, well-planned.

And a big ol' bowl of blackberries for our evening snack. Despite being a dumbass and dropping the box on the floor and then having to wash all the cat hair off, the berries were delicious.

Day 10 synopsis: Today I was leaving work, I realized that this detox has really simplified our lives and our marriage. Despite having a lot of prep and feeling like we are continuously cooking, this plan has cured one of our biggest stressors and reasons that we eat poorly - rushed indecision. Since we got engaged, and even now, we have been very busy on weeknights with Game Night, Relay meetings, Beer Night and more. And while we try to plan out grocery lists with meal schedules - to save time and money - we either get stressed out overthinking our hasty meals or do a half-assed job planning and end up swinging by a restaurant or pick up random bits at the grocery store after a conversation of "What do you want to eat?" "I don't know, what do you want to eat?" This plan has given us direction and order to our days. And while the type and sheer quanitity of groceries we've bought has been insanely expensive, if we were to build on these lessons with cheaper items (less organic, more freezable or non-perishable bulk) and focus on weekly ads and seasonal deals this could be just what we need to keep our wallets and our waists in line.

Ten clean eating points to Gryffindor!

Clean Eating Detox: Day 9

We are starting the work week with Day 9 of our two-week clean eating challenge! For info on days 0-8, 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. Today we enjoyed the following foods:

"Sweet and savory" apple omelet at breakfast. This was good, but weird. I've never in my life had a "sweet omelet." It even had vanilla in it! It tasted alright and the texture was good but it was one of those mindwarp things that's just really hard to accept. I just couldn't bring my mind to come around to the idea of fruit not just with, but IN my eggs. It may have toed the line between sweet and savory too much - if it had been more bold in one direction or the other, say have had a drizzle of maple syrup (I know, clean eating yadda yadda) or cinnamon it would have been deliciously sweet or if it had featured sage (and in a "unclean world," sausage) it would've been perfectly savory like Thanksgiving dressing. This is just too middle-of-the-road, I guess.

Raw collard wraps with turkey meatballs, tomato, dijon mustard and avocado at lunch. Again, another weird idea; albeit this one worked better. I will warn you, smooshed up turkey meatballs look like cat food. But the "sandwich" as a whole worked. The collards could be a little bitter at times, but the flavors paired together really well including the almost shockingly vibrant mustard and was surprisingly filling and enjoyable. Be sure you cut your collards to size, otherwise you'll have bites with layers upon layers of collards and it will be chewy (and squeaky) and too bitter. I'll admit I had my doubts, but, yet again, Buzzfeed surprised me.

An afternoon snack of blackberries and Greek yogurt at snack time. GAH! Greek yogurt! AGAIN! ARRGHHHHH!! Those are my feelings on this snack from Hell. I was so lost in disgust and dread that I didn't even take a proper photo.

Original Buzzfeed photo

Fried quinoa with peas, mushrooms and scrambled eggs at dinnertime. If you enjoy vegetable stir fry and/or fried rice, you'll enjoy this dish. It is chock full of vegetables and every bite is crunching and popping with great fresh flavor. The apple cider vinegar adds a kick that sneaks up on you occasionally (or maybe I didn't stir well enough - be sure to do that) and the tamari brings that delicious soy sauce flavor and richness without excessive salt. The quinoa does give you a completely different texture from rice - more like a thick oatmeal - but it really breaks up the uber-fiber of the stir fry. And, this is a lesson I learned many years ago when I started making my own "Chinese food" (microwaved egg rolls with boil-in-bag rice), rice/stir fry just aren't the same without a few scrambled eggs!

A pear with raw almond butter at our evening snack. When we're done, we are going to post our top 10 (+-) recipes (and the worst, too) and this snack is one of my favorites. We ate it first on Day 1 - it's understated complexity blew me away then, and I'm still impressed.

Day 9 synopsis: I know that on many other diets, I'd complain about being starving or some whining over a stupid rule to only eating foods that end in -abbage, so I am pleasantly surprised (and a little uncomfortable with) how full and satisfied I am. I wasn't doing this diet to lose weight, but to achieve the awesomeness (and dance moves) claimed in the article. And I do feel good and I think I just might be losing weight. But even on diets we have to be mindful of our eating habits. I am sitting here almost nauseated at how full I am from dinner and/or from how much water I've drank today. Even if it's "diet food" you don't have to eat it all - we need to listen to our bodies and be willing to say "I'm full." 

Buzzfeed says "You're lookin' good!" And yes, we take selfies like this er'day. 

Clean Eating Detox: Day 8

Today is Day 8 of our  two-week clean eating challenge! For info on days 0-7, 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. Our menu today included: (we swapped yesterday and today's breakfasts to make before-work prep easier)

Asparagus and poached eggs for breakfast. Week 2 is really egg-heavy, like REALLY egg-heavy, so be prepared to read all about the many clean ways to prepare eggs. This was pretty darn good. I enjoy asparagus a lot, but I can't really think of a time I've eaten it for breakfast. When I was a kid, my dad would boil asparagus and we'd pour lemony hollandaise sauce over the limp stalks - and it was delicious; the brightness of the sauce and the creaminess it added was wonderful. These poached eggs reminded me of that. When the yolks broke and poured out their golden sauce it coated the spears perfectly and added the earthy flavor that only comes from eggs. This was J's first time poaching eggs - and he had to do five (!) - but he did a stellar job!

Shakshuka - red sauce with asparagus, basil, and yes, eggs. Since we switched breakfasts this weekend, today was double the eggs and double the asparagus. I might have enjoyed these dishes more had they been served on different days - but this was still delicious. We've fallen in love with the "big batch tomato sauce" we made last night for meatballs and it was just as flavorful today. And in this dish it serves as a stew into which we cooked the eggs and tossed the asparagus; so leaving it chunky last night was a great choice. Eating it out of deep bowls, it had the feel of a really hearty chili. I will say though, that the egg portions - like most of our other meals - feel somewhat excessive. J gets 3 eggs per serving and I get 2; and as we've noticed with other detox dishes these portions that seem small in our mind are really huge.

 Note: As mentioned on Day 3, the PDF directions you can bulk download on Buzzfeed do not match the individual day recipes. In this recipe, the PDF claimed we had to wilt spinach into the sauce and mentioned the asparagus as an ingredient but provided no preparation directions. If you choose do this diet, please use the day-by-day notes, they seem more accurate. 

Six strawberries with raw almond butter for our daytime snack. I love strawberries and have really enjoyed the almond butter, but I was skeptical of this snack. Grape or blackberry jelly are my go-to's for PBJ and I've never even considered dipping strawberries in peanut butter, so I wasn't sure this would go well. But it was delicious. The graininess of the almond butter paired beautifully with the juiciness of the strawberries and their flavors worked well together. I still don't know that traditional peanut butter and strawberries would work together, but why bother trying if this was so successful? 

Roasted eggplant with chickpeas, cauliflower and lemon-parsley yogurt for dinner. This seemed like a lot of work (or at least watching J, he looked pretty frantic) because you're making three "big batch" dishes and a sauce. There was a lot of prep, but everything roasted in the oven without much attention paid. And it makes a ton of food - not just the additional servings for later meals, but look at our portion! The flavors were great; the garbanzos were tossed with paprika but the other veggies just used salt, pepper and olive oil, so we were enjoying their natural flavors. And that might be the most important take-away lesson from clean eating: with just the right amount of subtle seasoning, or one bold component, you can make anything taste good; no need for added fillers and fake flavorings.The Greek yogurt sauce is shocking at first - super tart; but when you stir it in to all of the veggies it really makes them pop. It tasted like a beautiful middle eastern hash. 

Medjool dates stuffed with almonds. Again, a winner. And I continue to be surprised by (and grateful for) the immense sweetness of these dates. They're almost like candy!

Day 8 synopsis: We've made it through a whole week and we are closing in on the end of our challenge. We feel good and have enjoyed the food immensely. But, today, I started craving a coke (not a Coke, but in the South, all caramel-colored, and some clear sodas are referred to as coke) and a "junky" lunch. Not because I wasn't full or didn't enjoy my breakfast, but because it's Sunday. In the South, and I'm sure in many church-going households, Sundays are big eating days. Either you go out with your family or fellow parishoners after church (buffets beware) or make a big Sunday dinner at home or just veg out for the last afternoon of peace before the workweek. It's just what we do.

We also thought about going to the movies today. And although I have no qualms about sneaking in my own snacks, I was not about to bring strawberries and almond butter. We eat buttered popcorn popcorn and chocolate covered peanuts and drink way too much "coke" when we go to the theater. It's just what we do.

And these things are hard to let go of. I've been thinking about how to make this clean eating menu more sustainable for our lifestyle, so that we can do it long-term, but I will be honest and say that we won't ban junk food like this detox does. It's all about portions and moderation and we are going to have to do considerable planning to keep ourselves in line.

Clean Eating Detox: Day 7

We are half-way through our two-week clean eating challenge. For info on days 0-6, 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. Today we made:

In light of my 12+ hour Relay extravaganza and J's early work schedule, we opted to switch out Saturday's labor intensive breakfast (poaching an egg!?!) for Sunday's blueberry smoothie. It was pretty good, but like our first smoothie (kale-banana) it was an overwhelming portion with a gritty texture. Other than having to brush my teeth for twice as long as normal, it was pretty decent.

Lunch was a black bean, kale and feta salad. It was another one extraordinary salad. This one didn't feature any wild flavors - like fennel, or heavy herbs - but scallions and kale as a base. And a simple lemon juice/olive oil dressing that we had to "massage" into the kale; which is a vital step. The massaging of the acid/oil softens the kale's texture without making it wilt, or over dressing it. This time we got 2 oz. of feta which was a super generous portion and added the necessary salt. 

For snack we were allotted 1/2 and orange and 2 T of raw, unsalted almonds. But, I was in a staying-up-all-night coma that left me napping through snack time. I did add my almonds to my nighttime snack. 

Buzzfeed original photo

This evening, J made "big batches" of tomato sauce and turkey basil meatballs with collard greens. This was a really exciting presentation where the collards acted as our "noodles" with meatballs and a wonderful fully homemade vegetable sauce. The sauce is impeccable and full of flavor and would be healthier and cheaper than store bought sauce; we did leave ours a little more chunky than the recipe suggested. I liked the meatballs, they were a little more bland than J's signature meatballs - old family recipe with crazy ingredients but tastes like heaven. 

For nighttime snack we were allotted 1 oz of dark chocolate (no milk this time, so no gray cocoa) and were in such a hurry to dive in to our only "candy" that we didn't take a photo. I've mentioned before that I'm a milk chocolate person, but I can tell that my taste buds are being more perceptive to subtle sugar, because even though this bar was 70% cacao it had a great sweetness to it (compared to our "desserts" of late). 

Buzzfeed original photo

Day 7 synopsis: I feel great. I can't pinpoint any great changes in myself but I have felt satisfied, full and pleased with all of the great food we've enjoyed this last week and look forward to more in the upcoming week. 

Clean Eating Detox: Day 6

We have conquered 6 whole days of our two-week clean eating challenge. For info on days 0-5, click here or use the "Clean Eats" label to the far right.

I apologize for my lateness, but yesterday was our local Relay for Life event - of which I was a county-wide committee member, a team captain and a member of two teams. I stayed there from 3:00 p.m. Friday to 6:00 a.m. this morning and I'm exhausted.

I apologize if my comments aren't incredibly in-depth or observant, because aside from 1:00 a.m. Zumba, I hardly remember a thing.

Each day of the challenge we receive breakfast, lunch, a daytime snack, dinner and a nighttime snack. Day 6's menu included:

Chia seed pudding with mango and pistachios. Now, let's get this clear, they use the word "pudding" really loosely. Really, really loosely. This is not a pudding, it's some kinda thick, goopy and ugly fruity mess. The flavor's pretty good, but the texture takes some getting used to. I could take or leave this.

An arugula and leftover greenbean salad with Thursday night's salmon and dijon vinaigrette. I loved this salad! You pre-dress the salmon with a tad of the herby, mustard dressing and it is so flavorful and bold. The dressing is wonderful and a pairing of flavors we've yet to use in the challenge. J doesn't like arugula or green beans, but the peppery arugula was toned down by the dressing; but he still didn't enjoy cold green beans. 

For snack we again had carrots and hummus, and this time with half a cucumber. Nothing new there. 

At dinnertime at the Relay track, J brought containers filled with black bean chili with Greek yogurt and zucchini ribbons. This was delicious! It was a filling, hearty chili and the smoky paprika yogurt cut through the tomato base with a tangy creaminess. Everyone at our camp was "oohing" and "aahing" over our dinner and it actually made me forget about the giant hot dogs and funnel cakes. In the summer, J makes a saute of zucchini, yellow squash and mushrooms that goes with any dish. These ribbons reminded me of that with their flavorful simplicity. 

To stay awake, I brought along several "clean" snacks, but our scheduled nighttime snack was blackberries with pistachios. Like the blueberry/almond bowl earlier in the week, it was a combination I would have never chosen for myself but greatly enjoyed. 

Day 6 synopsis: The onverwhelming lesson of the day is that this menu does require work for dinners. On nights when you have limited time at home or a crunched schedule, this could be tricky. My all-star husband left Relay for an hour to cook dinner and bring it back. I know when this challenge is over - and so far we are very interested in continuing this lifestyle - we will have to continue to plan ahead very carefully and stay organized. I also wonder how applicable it is being away from home and having to eat out. The Buzzfeed article does include info on what to order but it was a very limited list that we haven't tested yet.

This is symbolic of how I feel, minus the extreme exhaustion.

Clean Eating Detox: Day 5

We are almost out of fennel! Oh, and we have survived five days of our two-week clean eating challenge! For info on Days 0-4 click here or use the "Clean Eats" label to the far right.

Each day of the detox features a breakfast, lunch, daytime snack, dinner and nighttime snack. On today's docket, we had:

A cauliflower omelet for breakfast. This was delicious. The cauliflower was very hearty and added an interesting texture to the omelet. And if you didn't know, paprika is great with any cauliflower or egg dish. I thought I would miss the ever-present cheese, but I actually didn't - there were enough rich flavors. I will say though this is a huge amount of cauliflower (and it's dependent upon the size of the cauliflower used in Day 3's dinner) and if you expect this to look like a pretty folded omelet, I'm sorry. The cauliflower adds nothing to the structural integrity of the omelet. And like yesterday, this isn't a good traveling meal, you have to make it and eat it at home so despite it being huge, you will probably be hungry earlier.

Lunch consisted of a chickpea, blueberry and kale (was supposed to be roasted fennel) salad with mint, pistachios and lime juice. Even though we subbed in the kale instead of fennel, this salad sucked. The trio of toppings - chick peas, blue berries and pistachios - was delightful and a beautiful flavor and texture combination. However, the kale was somewhat bland and its texture fell flat which made for mushy on mushy on mushy. And even though we've loved most of the citrus dressings, just squeezing a lime over a salad is not sufficient - it makes for uneven flavor and the flavor that is there is way too sharp.

Our daytime snack was 4 medium carrots and a 1/4 c of hummus. Always a winner - and you get such a huge quantity that we didn't actually pack all of the carrots (only 3) and I split my snack into before- and after-lunch installments.

Dinner was roasted salmon with green beans and lentils. I have been looking forward to this all week. We've never cooked salmon together, so I was psyched and this dinner did not disappoint! J doesn't like green beans but was actually pleased with the texture these had from only a few quick minutes of simmering. This meal had what all meals strive for - well-balanced flavors that compliment each other, and a variety of textures to keep your mouth guessing. A shining moment of this whole experience was J saying "Even with the green beans, I'd eat this again!" Although this is a totally different bean preparation than I've ever done, it gave my little Southern-green-bean-canning-woman heart hope.

For our evening snack we had 1/4 of blueberries and 2 T (surprisingly a lot) of raw, unsalted almonds. This was wonderfully simple but still flavorful and interesting. This is not something I would ever pick by myself, but it works!

Day 5 synopsis: I was disappointed through the afternoon at being hungry due to the crappy salad, but overall, this was a successful day of food. Because of being sleepy and hungry, I quickly became hangry and began thinking about all of the things I could be getting out of the vending machine at work - but I powered through. And it made me think about how do-able this is long term. I thought about all of the meals we've eaten and how it's shaped our eating schedule and it works. I think we would want to incorporate some of our old favorites but the majority of these recipes, skills and schedules work for our lifestyle.

My clean eating observation of the day is that if you choose to start a clean eating lifestyle, you need to absolutely consider composting. Our trash can is absurdly heavy just from all of the peelings, rinds, seeds, pits and cores, and with all of the eggshells we're going to be tossing next week (15+ apiece) you'd have a great start to an at home compost pile. There are great odor-blocking, indoor cans for composting that are reasonably priced. You could go from clean eating to clean living.

P.S. We got a "clean care package" today from my best friend - a bag of quinoa from his local farmer's market! 

Clean Eating Detox: Day 4

We're closing in on a third of the way through our two-week clean eating challenge!

For info on Days 0-3 click here or use the "Clean Eats" label to the far right.

Each day of the detox features a breakfast, lunch, daytime snack, dinner and nighttime snack. Wednesday's fare included:

A breakfast of a scallion and feta omelet; and it was delicious! The scallions were softened in the pan with olive oil before adding the eggs and their flavor intensified. Also, contrary to my "I love cheese" lifestyle, an ounce of feta, goes a long way - you don't need a ton. This added just the right amount of saltiness. And two eggs were actually more than enough for me (men get 3) to keep me full. I will say though, I had to get up earlier to make my omelet, so I was hungry earlier than I would be if I could eat my breakfast at work. I will make this again - and tomorrow, we get another omelet!

A Greek salad (no yogurt, thank God) with leftover "big batch lentils," spinach, red pepper, cucumber, parsley, feta and more "big batch lime vinaigrette." This was also great. It was a bit more sparse than the past few salads, but it was still filling and delicious. One thing I've loved about this challenge is it is totally re-inventing the salad for me. Including items that are 1. normally served warm, and 2. served as sides has added great texture, flavor, substance and oftentimes, meatless protein to what could be a plain salad. We did opt to only use 1/2 a red pepper and 1/4 of a cucumber (we get the giant English cucumbers, and 6" of cuke in a salad is overkill) each though.

Chia seed, mango, and banana smoothie for our daytime snacks. This was AMAZING. Beats the kale-banana smoothie by a mile. This had amazing flavor -- it was sweet!!!! -- and the texture was really good too. It was more drinkable than our Sunday shake and the chia seeds had softened some since morning and had a slight crunch that was really pleasing. Winning recipe.

The dreaded roasted fennel, spinach and "big batch roasted chicken" bowl. However, I must admit, we "cheated." We could not bear the idea of making a "big batch" o' fennel - so we instead made another "big batch of steamed kale." Still clean, just not the flavor profile they were looking for. The recipe didn't include a dressing, since fennel would be the leading (read: overpoweringly gross) flavor, so it was slightly bland but still good and filling.

And, uh, this happened.. 

And a nighttime snack of two almond-stuffed medjool dates. I was skeptical about this snack only because I thought it would no way be filling, but it was a decent snack to end the day. And, more importantly, it was deliciously sweet. My parents used to make a "unclean" date snack at the holidays with plain dates, stuffed with a mix of powdered sugar and cream cheese and topped with a pecan. They are heavenly - and probably like 300 calories a piece. Medjool dates are much bigger but still with a wonderful, rich, earthy sweetness and the almond stuffed inside adds a great crunch. I can see myself packing this in my lunch or something later.

Day 4 synopsis: Overall, today's food was pretty great. These are all meals I'd eat again, several of which I'd actually order at a restaurant just hearing the description. This is what clean eating is about  -- it's not about eating kale until you're green or drinking nothing but wheatgrass shakes. It's about appreciating the flavors that already exist in nature. Nothing here was "jazzed" up; everything included ingredients that were just that ingredients - our salad dressing was lime juice and olive oil only - and that's the point. There are so many good foods out there for us to enjoy, that our bodies need and can appreciate in a healthful way that there's no reason to add monosodium glutomate or high fructose corn syrup.

However, those processed things really do get their claws into you. I've told you that I've been craving sugar; J said from the get go that next Sunday he wants a giant cookie cake that says "Happy Birthday" on it, and now, he may or may not be lucid dreaming just to eat food. The night before last, my frequent sleep-talker either said "Ok, so.." or "queso" and fell back asleep and last night he dreamed about Taco Bell; tonight he said "I hope I dream about a big chocolate cake!"