Week 3, Wednesday (Day 24)

I'm back on the meal plans and ready to start my third week of listening to "The Best of Clean Eating" cookbook editors tell me what to eat!


Shout out to whoever is reading my blog in Ireland!  My blog has reached over 700 hits!  Thanks for the support!!


Breakfast: 1 toasted whole wheat wrap with 2 tbsp natural peanut butter and 1 small sliced banana
Instead of toasting this whole wheat tortilla, I microwaved it for 10 seconds - just like my mom used to do for me to make wraps for lunch.  It tasted the same and is much simpler than toasting a big tortilla.  By the way, editors, what size tortilla should I be eating?  Large? Medium? Small?  I picked medium, but I really wish you'd specify.   You're so particular about everything else and I really think size does matter.  Julie: 1.  Clean Eating Editors: 0.
Also, I added 3/4 cup skim milk.  Because I seriously don't think peanut butter can be eaten in any other way.  By the way, I bought these great measuring glasses to make measuring liquids and random conversions easier.  It makes my life more enjoyable and I highly recommend them.  I wish they came in more colors and designs.


Snack 1: Roasted Red Pepper & White Bean Hummus with Crudités
HAHA what a FUNNY joke!!!!! Make my own hummus with a recipe that serves 16.  SIXTEEN!?!?! I'm just one person and I'm not wasting my precious time blending up some beans for 15 imaginary friends.  You know what I am doing?  Taking one of the travel-sized 2 ounce hummus packs in my fridge and 10 stupid snap peas.  TAKE THAT!  Julie: 2.  Clean Eating Editors: 0.


Lunch: Tofu Salad (5 oz tofu, 1/4 cup brown rice, 1/4 cup unsalted sunflower seeds, 1 cup spinach, 1/2 cup chopped red peppers, 2 tbls shredded low-fat jalapeno cheese, 2 tbls balsamic vinegar and 1/2 tsp evoo)
This salad was actually pretty fabulous, besides the fact that the lid wasn't closed tightly and my lunch box now wreaks of balsamic vinegar.  I used a 1 ounce pepper jack cheese stick which nicely equates to 2 tablespoons.  Cooking up the tofu was fast and easy.  I bought microwavable brown rice so I only took up 3 minutes in the morning making rice instead of the typical 40!  The bag makes 1.25 cups, and I only needed a quarter so there's plenty left over for another meal later this week.  Julie: 3.  Clean Eating Editors: 0.


Snack 2: 1/2 cup dried apricots, halved, mixed with 1/2 cup Nature's Path Optimum Banana Almond Cereal
Holy super specific menu item.  I was shocked to see that my grocery store actually had Nature's Path Optimum Cereal, but only in the blueberry cinnamon flavor.  I decided that was really close enough, and then decided it was taste delicious with some of the leftover FRESH blueberries that I had.  Boy was I right.  This might be one of my favorite snacks, even though I totally changed what they told me to eat.  Julie: 4.  Clean Eating Editors: 0.


Dinner: Zucchini Pasta (3 oz chicken, 1 sliced zucchini, 1 diced onion, 1 minced clove garlic, 1 tsp olive oil with 1 cup cooked whole wheat pasta, shredded basil)
This dinner was so easy, even MJ could make it.  But I made the mistake of measuring out the cup of pasta uncooked instead of cooked, and only now realized that it called for 1 cup of COOKED pasta.  Huge difference.  Major fail on my part.  How much uncooked pasta equates to 1 cup of cooked pasta?  Does anyone know that conversion?  Julie: 4.  Clean Eating Editors: 1. (Luckily I went to the gym so maybe I burned off my extra pasta calories).


So I guess I win today 4:1.  Not sure if there's a prize for finding problems with the meal plan that I'm choosing to follow.