Week 3, Thursday (Day 25)

25 days in!  I can't believe I've been committed for this long. Michael Jordan asked me if I thought I would still be following the meal plan were it not for this blog.  I think my honest answer is no. I would have given up.  I would have done some of the snacks and eventually forgotten.  Maybe tried some of the recipes but really not cared.  I would have eaten a LOT of cookies.  But here we are on day 25 and I'm still going strong.  Thank you, chickpeasandcottagecheese blog.  


Breakfast: 1/2 cup oatmeal, 1 cup low-fat milk, 1/2 cup dried apricots - halved, 1 small sliced banana
Oatmeal is MJ's speciality.  Kinda pathetic, right?  I mean..... thanks babe!  MJ made me my 1/2 cup of oatmeal and I probably ate about half of the dried apricots.  They made the oaty-mush taste much better.  1 cup of milk is AMAZING.  I love that they allowed me to drink so much milk today!  I brought my banana to work and ate it as an early morning snack.  Based on what was on today's menu, I thought for sure I would starve.  


Snack 1: 2 clementines, 5 carrot sticks, 1 handful unsalted almonds
I only ended up eating 1 clementine today based on the timing of all my meetings.  I forgot to bring the carrot sticks to work, and then forgot to eat them when I got home, but I really don't think 5 carrot sticks would have changed anything about my day.  I did eat 12 cocoa almonds.  I'm almost done with the container!  Thank you Bethany and Jason!!


Lunch: 1 cups low-sodium tomato soup, 1 cup chopped apple with 1 oz walnuts
I can honestly say I've never purchased or chosen to eat tomato soup before, but I like it.  I chose the healthiest looking can that was about 1 serving size.  I ate my almonds at about the same time, which reminded me or a butternut squash type soup.  I also didn't chop my apple because who wants to waste their time with that?  I ate it whole.  


Snack 2: 2 stalks celery with 2 tbsp peanut butter and 1 oz raisins
Yuck.  No celery or raisins for this girl.  I replaced this snack with 1 slice of whole wheat bread and almond butter.  Major upgrade.  By far my favorite snack.  


Dinner: DELICIOUS Steak Salad (1/2 cup of: red beans, whole kernal corn, chopped tomatoes, chopped cucumber, and sliced carrots, 4 oz steak, 3 cups lettuce; dressing: 1 tsp evoo, 2 tsp red wine vinegar, 1 tbsp organic sweet relish)
This salad was amazing, and filling, and so easy to make.  And it was beautiful:

MJ said we should add this meal to our list of favorites.  Neither of us were able to finish our salads - they were so filling!  I also want to add this to a list of meals that are so easy, a boy can make them.  I think I will add new sections of my blog to keep track of things like that.  What do you think?


After dinner I met up with some coworkers and ordered my standard vodka gimlet.  Overall, I thought today's meal plan would be awful, but I was pleasantly surprised that everything was pretty good.  You won this one, Clean Eating Editors.