Best Meals Yet and Week of April 11th Preview

Avid readers,
Sorry my posts have been so far apart.  This week I ate some really great foods and I'm very excited to share them with you!

DAY 80

Today I had my Go-To breakfast with 1 cup of skim milk.  Are we allowed to call it skim milk anymore?  Only non-fat?  I remember as a kid despising skim milk.  Now I can't fathom drinking anything else!
For lunch I had leftovers from our delish beef and broccoli stir fry.
During the day I snacked on:

• 1 cheese stick
• laughing cow spreadable cheese on 3 rykrisp crackers
• 1 vitamuffin top
• 3/4 cup blueberry kefir
• zumba gym class.

For dinner we had a chicken and toasted peanut "toss" which basically means stir fry.  They recipe only called for cooking the veggies for 3 minutes, which basically meant they were still raw, and Michael Jordan and I really prefer the veggies (esp onions) to be cooked.  I ended up cooking them up more before we packed them away for leftovers.  This dish was supposed to be made with pork, but we replaced the pork with chicken.  Served with brown rice.  There's also a ginger sauce that goes on it, that I thought called for WAY too much ginger and really didn't like it.

 

DAY 81

For breakfast today I had eggwhites and mozz cheese.  And it tasted like ginger from the sauce we made last night.  I lodged a complaint with my maid/MJ.  He apologized.
I actually took my egg "on the go" with me by wrapping it in foil and carrying it along with me.  That's when I realized I wasn't the only one who walks and eats breakfast.  The problem is that the other two people I saw walking with their breakfasts were eating Doritos.  Wow unhealthy.  It wasn't even 9am.  So sad.

For lunch I had left overs from our chicken/peanut toss.  They were better with the more-cooked veggies.

I snacked on: 

• 60 cal raspberry yogurt
• go to snack
• apple
• mini twix and milkyway bar
• coffee!

At work they got a new coffee machine with a new type of coffee that is SO much better than the burnt junk they used to have.  This is a dangerous new development.  


For dinner we tried this delicious new recipe!  It's called a southwest turkey bake.


You mix up some lean, ground turkey (cook on pan until no longer pink) and then add black beans, salsa, cumin and red pepper.  We found this great natural salsa where I recognize all the ingredients and it actually tastes really good!  Mix those together and then fill a 13 x 9 pan.  Separately mix cornbread mix (we used whole wheat corn bread) with an egg and low sodium chicken broth.  Pour over the turkey mix and bake for 15 - 20 minutes at 400º.  (Your are supposed to top it with Mexican cheese, but we skipped that step).
IT WAS SO GOOD!  MJ ate double what we were supposed to.  Seriously YUMMMMMY - you should try this!!!!

first piece never comes out pretty

a flawless second piece!

sideview

Today I also decided to try out dessert since we haven't done more than the occasional cookie or vitamuffintop.  

I made dessert nachos!  You cut up a whole wheat tortilla, sprinkle with sugar and cinnamon.  Bake for 10 minutes.  Serve with low-fat yogurt, fruit and chocolate chips!  Huge success!  So easy and can be changed to include whatever fruits/toppings you like!

 

DAY 82 

Today I had my go-to breakfast for breakfast.  With a coffee.
For lunch I had leftovers from my turkey bake.  MJ brought two portions for his lunch as well!  
I was pretty good about not snacking today, and I'm not sure how/why that happened.

For dinner, I used what we had around the kitchen to make a meal.  I had planned on making this recipe that called for butternut squash and replacing it with sweet potatoes, but upon further investigation, I realized it really wasn't possible.  Instead I peeled the sweet potatoes and sliced them like thin potatoes chips, seasoned them to taste and baked them for 8 minutes on each side.  Meanwhile, I baked some chicken and sauteed some broccoli and green onions.  The end result was a nice meal that turned out pretty good.  We tried some hawaiian teriyaki sauce on the side (about the size of a quarter) to give the chicken some flavor.

I had some fun with the plating... serve irish flag style...

or serve bulls-eye style!

After dinner we went out with some of our friends and I order my vodka gimlet.  The server called me an "advanced drinker."  I was very proud.  Then I almost got some late night falafel, but didn't give in to the peer pressure.  I was very proud.  

DAY 83

Today I tried another Amy's Organic breakfast.  This time, I tried the Mexican tofu scramble.  It was SO good!  I almost couldn't believe it.  I immediately added it to next week's shopping list.
For lunch I used some of the leftover plain chicken from dinner to make a salad - adding lettuce, craisins, pistachios and a light sesame ginger dressing.

For dinner we had another banquet to attend for work.  The good news is we got a free meal and I didn't have to cook.  There's no bad news.  I ate a salad, a roll, and the main course was chicken with asparagus (3 spears) and some mashed potatoes.  I, of course, ate the slice of cheese cake and berries for dessert.  And drank the free wine.  And then switched to free vodka gimlets.  Thank you, work function.  

DAY 84

This morning I made eggs with onions and a scoop of salsa.  I guess I enjoy the Mexican flavoring in my breakfast foods.  Okay let's be serious, in all my foods.  I love avocados too.  mMmmm that sounds good.  I'll need to add some avocados to our lineup next week.

I snacked on a chewy mocha brownie cookie (fresh from the freezer - that's right, they're still good!) and a 100 calorie pack of cheese.

For lunch I had a leftover portion of the turkey bake.   Still good.  I'm sad it's all gone.   MJ ate all our leftover couscous tilipia too.  We did a good job of getting rid of stuff we had in the fridge this week!

MJ snacked on an Amy's Organic Black Bean Veggie Burrito.  He gave it a big stamp of approval but declined the option of writing a guest post.  Mabye next time.

For dinner, we met up with some friends who cooked us rice with sauteed peppers and tofu.  It was served with a peanut sauce and I think it came out well and looked really easy to make.  They also had some corn chips/tortillas and this delicious bean dip out, that MJ and I devoured.  Apparently they bought it at a farmer's market, so now I'm working on convincing MJ to attend said farmer's market so that we too can purchase this bean dip.  

So that's all in our fantastic week of cooking!  Michael Jordan said it was probably our best week of meals to date.  

Week of April 11th

Coming up this week, we've decided to make:

1. Spanish Style Chicken with Mango Salsa 
2. Mediterranean Veggies with Navy Bean Penne (vegetarian)
3. Fish Tacos
4. Leftovers 

We only actually need to cook 3 meals this week because then we'll be heading home where Mama Chickpeas will take over the cooking!  Don't worry, the blog will continue from the Chickpea home!

What are you making this week? Need other suggestions?

Day 72

Aloha!  I am not in Hawaii.

Breakfast
For breakfast today I tried something new and totally different!  I got a frozen breakfast called Amy's Organic Tofu Scramble which is all natural, has all ingredients I can read and pronounce, and was a nice change of pace from my normal breakfast routine.  The whole breakfast was only 320 calories and it definitely held me over until lunch time!  It wasn't extremely attractive to eat, but it was definitely palatable.

At work I drank a super big coffee.  Shocker.  Does anyone else find coffee a necessity on a Tuesday? 


Lunch
For lunch I had more leftover pasta and meatballs with tomato sauce.  I only had 1 serving of turkey meatballs and this will likely be the last time I eat the pasta.  I did find a single guy from my hometown who just moved in to my building and said he would love some free pasta, so I will be passing that on to him and advising him to freeze it or toss it.


Snacks
My snacks today were 1 red delicious apple and 1 slice of whole wheat bread with almond butter - my go-to snack.  We're at the point where Michael Jordan will pack his own almond butter slice every day!  I'm impressed how much our regular routines have changed since we started eating these new foods.
 

Dinner
MJ was working late today, so I met my fairy blog mother out on the town for this fun girls event (with free drinks) and then dinner.  At the girls event, they were sampling these new Micaelob Ultra Dragon Fruit Peach that is only 95 calories!  I didn't think it tasted anything like beer, but it was definitely sweet and pretty tasty.  Mom - you might even like it!

For dinner I got a bento box at this Asian place - my bento box came with seared tuna (probably 3 oz), broccoli, sweet potatoes, rice, 1 veggie egg roll and some veggie tempura.  It also came with a mango margarita, which was gross and was not consumed.  

The good news is that today was another high-scoring fitbit day!  17,400 steps (7.49 miles - 2308 calories burned) without setting foot in the gym!  And a lot of them in high heels!


Overall just an okay day clean-eating wise, but all for a good cause - Happy Birthday to my Fairy Blog Mother!!!  

Week 4, Sunday (Day 64)

Monday Morning Weigh In:

I lost another half pound this week.  That means I'm only 2 pounds away from my goal weight.  I'm also 2 days away from finishing the meal plans in the book.  

Breakfast: 1/2 cup oatmeal, 1 chopped apple, 1/2 tsp cinnamon, 1/4 cup low-fat milk; 3 egg whites

This morning's breakfast was pretty good.  I ate the apple as a whole apple instead of spending time chopping it up.  The oatmeal was decent with the cinnamon.  I upped the milk to 3/4 cups and instead of 3 egg whites had 1 hard boiled eggwhite.  Very filling.
  
Snack 1: 2 tbls natural almond butter, 1 whole wheat English muffin

This was a nice twist on my normal "go to" breakfast.  I think I like peanut butter on an English muffin better than almond butter on an English muffin, but it wasn't bad at all. 

Lunch: 1/2 cup edamame, 3/4 cup wild rice; 1/2 cup blueberries with 3/4 cup yogurt

I vote this meal in the "strange" category.  When I went to prepare this lunch in the morning, I was disappointed to see that MJ selected a package of edamame that expired the week before.  I could see that the edamames were brown and slimy inside.  I ran to the grocery store and went right to the customer service desk.  They let me replace the edamames, but all the fresh packages were expired or dated today (I advised the customer service lady to take the bad edamame off the shelves) and so I had to get frozen edamames.  This only required a little more effort on my part in the morning, but I definitely like the ease of using the fresh, shelled edamames.

Instead of wild rice, I used microwavable frozen brown rice.  Way easier since I had to spend more time with the edamame.  I threw in some soy sauce as well to add some flavor to  my otherwise boring lunch.  


I never got around to eating the yogurt or blueberries.  Whoops.


Snack 2: 1 sliced banana with 1 tbsp natural peanut butter wrapped in 1 whole wheat tortilla; 1 handful unsalted almonds

Another snack similar to my "go to" breakfast and lunch, but different.  This was a pretty good snack, but could definitely use a big cup of milk!  


I also had 1 mini Reese's Peanut butter cup.

And a free iced coffee from Dunkin Donuts (SO MUCH BETTER THAN STARBUCKS!)

And 2 beers at happy hour.

Dinner: 3 oz grilled pork chop (replaced with chicken thighs), 1 cup torn romaine lettuce and 1/2 cup chopped cucumbers with 1 tbsp balsamic vinegar and 1/2 tsp evoo; 1 cup cooked black beans; 1/2 cup cooked quinoa

MJ and I don't eat pork, so we replaced the pork with some chicken thighs.  I ended up broiling the thighs so they would cook fasted.  We also didn't have any black beans, so we used a can of chickpeas instead, which went well with the "salad" side dish.

This was my first time making quinoa.  My mom warned me to rinse the quinoa a few times before I cooked it to get off the "yucky" taste.  Rinsing quinoa is kinda tricky because it is so small!  I need a strainer with smaller holes!  Mom also suggested throwing fresh, raw garlic bulbs into the water while the quinoa was cooking to give it some added flavor.  I think the final result turned out very successful!

 

Looks good right!??!?! It was super filling and I would definitely make this meal or some combination of this meal again!     


The only negative thing was the amount of dishes I used making this meal.  Good thing the rule in our house is whoever cooks doesn't have to do dishes!  Thank you, Michael Jordan.

Also, I didn't go to the gym today, but Mr. Fitbit says I walked 12,419 steps (5.35 miles) and burned 2,152 calories!


Also, I now have over 3,000 blog hits!  Thank you for reading my blog!!! Maybe one day my blog hits will surpass my fitbit steps.... maybe...

Days 61 - 63

Hello all!  This Saturday I had a huge event for work, which is why I've been exhausted all week and not eating my best.  Here's how the weekend played out, clean eating wise:

DAY 61

For breakfast I had a cup of Blueberry Kefir.  Kefir reminds me of those drinkable yogurts I used to have as a kid.  Gogurt I think it was called. Was there another kind?  Mom feel free to comment if you remember!


I honestly can't remember what I ate for lunch.  I'm 90% sure I had my "go to" snack of almond butter on whole wheat bread, but I can't say for sure.  Sorry :(

For dinner, we had a "kickoff" cocktail hour for the big event.  At the cocktail hour I had some wine, some bites of cheese (I love brie cheese!), 1 beef satay stick, 1 coconut shrimp, 1 mini chicken empanada, and some pita chips with artichoke dip (not very good).  


After the kickoff cocktail hour, we stayed at work until past 11 working to finalize things for the big event.  I ate a twix bar.  It was 100% necessary.  One of those "In case of emergency, break glass" type of things.  You understand, right?  Great, thanks!

DAY 62

Today was the day of the "big event".  In the morning, I wanted my "go to" breakfast, but we didn't have any bananas, so I settled for a whole wheat english muffin with peanut butter only.  I also had a huge coffee.


During the day, I only ate 1 granola bar and 1/4 whole wheat bagel.


Next thing I knew it was 6pm and the event was finally over and I was ravenous!  I had some chips and bean dip, and then we went out for Spanish Tapas to celebrate a successful event. 
I had a few bites of the following items:

 

We also order Sangria, and then we went out drinking.  I allowed myself to have beer.  Partly because I knew I had eaten so few carbs that having beer really wouldn't matter, and partly because I just really wanted to, and I make my own rules!

DAY 63

HOOORAY!  For the first time in a LONG time I could sleep in today!  And then, I had absolutely no plans.  Probably the best day ever.  Mr. Jordan and I decided to start our day with a nice run, and then to end at our favorite bagel place (where the owner knows us by name and has 2 waters ready for us as soon as he sees us!)  The run was great - I surely missed the warm weather and I like spending that quality time with MJ.  When we go to the gym together, MJ is in the "big boy" room with all the weights, while I usually just go to a class.  

For brunch at the bagel place I had a whole wheat bagel scooped out with chicken salad, lettuce, tomatoes and onions.  It was delicious.  They use cranberries in their chicken salad so it reminds me of thanksgiving!  

After we ran/walked back home, I check my FITBIT STATS and found that we had taken over 7,000 steps and traveled about 5 miles.   I didn't look at the exact mileage before we left, so that's an approximate guess. 

In the afternoon, I ate a health valley granola bar and a little bit of thai food leftovers.  


Since it's March Madness, and there are few things in life I enjoy more than March Madness, MJ and I made some homemade guacamole and homemade pita chips as a snack to enjoy the basketball games.  Delish!  

homemade guacamole!

homemade pita chips!

For dinner, I made a quick and easy salmon with cauliflower.  Just broiled in the oven for 10 minutes.  We weren't really hungry, so it was the perfect, light dinner to end our relaxing, pleasant day.

 
Only bad part about today was that my basketball team lost.  Time to start rooting for the underdog!!

Days 53, 54 and 55

In order to fight off my problem with leftovers getting lost in my fridge, I interrupted week 4 for a few days of leftovers.  Brace yourself for the boredom (but at least there are pictures!!):

DAY 53

For breakfast I had about a cup of Nature's Path Optimum Blueberry Cereal... or whatever it's called.  


For lunch I had leftovers from Day 50's Lunch.


During the day, I snacked on:

• cheese stick
• 2 whole wheat crackers with peanut butter
• cocoa almonds
• 1 apple

For dinner, I used the leftover chicken (4.5 oz) and made a salad with spinach, grapes, strawberries, pistachios, and some blue cheese.  I topped it off with a little raspberry walnut dressing, which is not very healthy but I used a very minimal amount. 

After dinner I tried out a new healthy breakfast muffin recipe, that I will post about another time.  I know, talk about cliff hanger, right?!?  Just like the girl with the dragon tattoo trilogy - which I highly recommend!!!  

DAY 54

Today for breakfast I had 2 healthy muffins - post coming soon.  


For lunch I made a "healthy taco" using a whole wheat tortilla wrap, veggie burger, black beans, part-skim mozzarella cheese, chopped tomatoes and chopped onions.  It was pretty good, and a nice variety to the usual veggie burger meal.


My snacks today were:

• 1 chewy mocha brownie cookie
• 2 mini muffins
• 1 cheese stick
• cocoa almonds
• handful of grapes

For dinner I decided to re-make Lunch from Day 50 and upgrade it.  This time, I replaced the tofu with shrimp and the green onion with red onions.  Those little changes made a HUGE difference.  I would highly recommend this version of the meal - and it took no time to make!

DAY 55

Sorry for the lack of postings.  I've been unbelievably busy with work and just had a half second to sit down and finish up this post so you can read all about my lovely meals.

Today for breakfast I had a VERY LARGE cup of coffee and 2 healthy muffins.  I think.  I'm so tired I can't even remember what I ate for breakfast.  That is horrible.  I bet I'll find 3000 typos in this post when I re-read it.  Sorry for the severe sleep deprivation.

I snacked on an apple, cheese stick, and cocoa almonds in the morning.  

I ate a really late lunch from Chop't - a salad place that makes yummy salads. I had a salad with shrimp, tomatoes, avocado, pita chips, chick peas and a spa asian dressing (on the side - barely used it).  The nutritional info is the most complicated thing I've ever seen, but I think my salad was about 400 calories.  Which is amazing because I didn't even eat half of it.  Chop't = winner.  Or I = horrible at figuring out their nutritional info and I'm totally wrong and just too tired to figure it out.

I was exhausted all day and my friend Aimee and I were working overtime on this ridiculous project we have for work.  I was dreading when dinner time approached.

But then guess what happened for dinner?!?!!  

You will never believe it!!!

MJ COOKED DINNER!!!!

This is a rare occurrence in this household, so praise, thanks, and compliments must be given so that MJ will continue this new trend.

Chef Jordan prepared an feast for us, comprised of scrumptious morsels of chicken mixed with a medley of greens served over steaming brown rice a topped with a glazed orange soy.  

AKA he made asian stir fry.  Chicken.  Veggies.  Rice.  Asian flavoring.

But hey, I didn't have to make dinner so major props to you Michael Jordan!!

After dinner I had some low fat chocolate frozen yogurt and low fat cookie dough ice cream for dessert.  

And a large glass of wine to make the work seem less painful.

Now I think I need to get some sleep, since I'll be losing an hour anyway for daylight savings.  Sigh.  This may call for some more wine.

Also, I'm officially at 2,000 blog views!!  Thank you for reading and keeping me accountable for my clean eating life style.

Days 47, 48, and 49

I now have over 1,600 views of my blog.  That is a huge number.  I encourage all my readers to become followers on my blog or make comments.  Apparently my blog is being read in countries like Vietnam, United Arab Emirates, and Taiwan.  All I can say is wow.  And I hope you've all tried almond butter.

DAY 47

Today was a really busy day for me.  And not a great day.  For breakfast I had an egg and cheese with mushrooms on a whole wheat roll from PotBellys.  I don't think this is healthy.  In fact, the PotBellys website tells me it was 587 calories.  Shoot. 

For snack 1 I had a slice of whole wheat bread with almond butter.  For lunch I also had a slice of whole wheat bread with almond butter.  For snack 2 I had an apple.


When I got home I was not in a good mood, so I decided to order sushi.  I had edamame, some pieces of a spicy tuna roll, some pieces of a crunchy salmon roll, and some pieces of a shrimp tempura roll.  It was good.  I also had some low-fat cookie dough ice cream.  I felt better after that.  And fat.  But better.

DAY 48

Today for breakfast I made a sandwich with two slices of whole wheat  bread, almond butter, and bananas.  Just like my English muffin sandwich, except I ran out of English muffins.

I forgot to pack snacks.  

For lunch, a friend bought me two slices of Domino's Pizza.  It was free, which makes me feel less bad that I ate some crap.

Then I spent the rest of the day out with friends.  I had some beer.  I also had some nachos and some bites of a quesadilla.  For dinner I had a spinach empanada.  They were all delicious.  

The best part about spending the day out and about with friends is that I got a TON of steps in on my fitbit.  15,513 steps to be exact.  This is my new record number of steps in one day.  I can't wait till the weather is nice again and I can start running.  I bet I'll get some great stats on my fitbit then!

DAY 49

Today for breakfast I had another two slices of whole wheat  bread, almond butter, and bananas.

For my morning snack, I had some slices of a red bell pepper with 2 oz hummus.

For lunch, I had a few leftover bites of sushi and edamame, and then I had a veggie burger with a little bit of cheddar cheese served on 2 slices of whole wheat bread.


Then MJ and I went to the grocery store.  I hate going on Sundays but sometimes it's unavoidable.  The store was actually much less crowded than a typical Sunday, and we didn't have any problems finding the food items we needed - which is unusual because on Sundays most of the shelves are empty.  However, they only had salted almond butter.  The next few days of meal plans call for almond butter, so we decided to go ahead and try the salted kind.  


When we got home, I had 2 whole wheat crackers with a little salted almond butter.  I can taste the difference between the salted and unsalted version, but I still like it.  MJ and I both prefer the unsalted kind though.  


For dinner I used what we already had in the house to make dinner.  I made hummus chicken with broccoli and corn.  

YUM!!  Baked hummus tastes great and this meal was really simple.  I've also made this chicken before with crushed terra chips, but I decided not to make it this time because:

1) I didn't have terra chips

2) Adding chips would not be healthy


Overall I'm really pleased with dinner.  Tomorrow I'm back to the meal plans!  Week 4, here I come!

Day 44 & Michael Pollan's Rules

I'm back home!  Gosh it feels nice to have all my own foods and not have to worry about catching a plane or buying a non-healthy meal.  


For breakfast, jetlag required that I had a cup of coffee (flavored fat-free vanilla creamer, no sugar) and a whole wheat english muffin with peanut butter.


For my morning snack I packed a 1/2 cup container of that Nature's Optimum blueberry cereal with a 1/2 cup of fresh blueberries.  Yum!  I probably would have had it for breakfast with milk but MJ drank all the milk while I was gone.  


We didn't have much in terms of food for lunch, so I bought a taco salad from the mexican place by my office.  I'm too embarrassed to tell you what was in it.  I make a vow never to buy it again.  


For dinner I went over to my friend Aimee's house for dinner.  Aimee is the person I have to thank for introducing me to the vodka gimlet and the best breakfast sandwich ever: peanut butter and bananas on a whole wheat english muffin.  


Aimee is following weight watchers, and made us a yummy dinner of chicken, mixed veggies (tomatoes, cucumbers and peppers) and cauliflower in some cheese sauce.  The entire meal was less than 4 points on weight watchers!  Aimee and I had a long discussion about the cheesy cauliflower.  It was 0 points for weight watchers.  They come in frozen, personal packages.  We're positive there is nothing natural about the cheese sauce but both agreed it couldn't really be that bad for us if it was 0 points. 


For dessert Aimee served this delicious low-fat chocolate moose tracks frozen yogurt.  I have no idea how many points it was for weight watchers but we really could have eaten the entire container.


Michael Jordan sent me this really interesting article called Food Rules by Michael Pollan.  


Mr. Pollan's rules are:
#11 Avoid foods you see advertised on television
#19 If it came from a plant, eat it; if it was made in a plant, don't. 
#36 Don't eat breakfast cereals that change the color of the milk.
#39 Eat all the junk food you want as long as you cook it yourself.
#47 Eat when you are hungry, not when you are bored.
#58 Do all your eating at a table.


I definitely agree with Michael Pollan's rules and will try my best to follow them.  He's definitely right about the junk food - you're not going to see my wasting my time making home made french fries!!

Days 39, 40 and 41

DAY 39

Today I started feeling better. For breakfast I had a few whole wheat crackers.  For lunch I had a half of a grilled brie panini sandwich.  Not the best, but I was so excited because I was finally able to keep food down!  This was just in time because my brother Jason and his wife Bethany were coming to visit!  (Yes, they brought their dog Bryn).  Bethany really wanted to try one of my healthy meals for dinner, so MJ and I decided to invite over my cousin Jamie and MJ's brother for  a big dinner.  We made healthy chicken "fried" rice (Day 5 Dinner) and it was a big hit!  However, cooking for 6 people requires a LOT more food and wok space than cooking for 2.  I had to use two different pans just to fit all the food and use a big bowl to mix it all.  I also served a salad with asian noodles, mandarin oranges and a sesame/ginger dressing to start.  I intended to make a healthy salad dressing, but picked the easier, ready-made version because cooking the "fried" rice took so much longer than I thought it would.  Regardless of the time and the small-pan problem, the "fried" rice was a big success!  I think it would be nice to have a whole asian themed dinner party - there are a lot of different options in the cook book that could be used as salads and appetizers and side dishes.  I'll be sure to post about it if I decide to throw such a party.


After dinner everyone had some drinks.  Since I was newly recovered from being sick, I stuck to water and had a little bit of Sangria.  


Jason also introduced me to Reese's Mini Peanut Butter Cups.  They are delicious and I hate him for brining an open bag of delicious chocolate into my life.  And I love him for it.  You should NOT try these unless you have a big group of people who can eat them so you don't eat the whole bag!!!

DAY 40

MJ and I took off from work to spend the day with Jason and Bethany.  For breakfast, I decided to try out out the pancake recipe in the cookbook.  

The pancakes are essentially made from oats and whole wheat flour.  We all agreed that they tasted like Matzah or Matzah Brei, and not like pancakes.  But they were okay.  And they were pretty filling, especially when you eat them with fruit.  MJ told me he would eat them if I made them again.  We'll see if that every happens.

We were out for lunch and ended up getting deli sandwiches.  I had turkey with an avocado spread, lettuce and tomatoes.  And mayonnaise.  I couldn't resist my old bad habits.  Shame on me.

And then we got cupcakes.  Shame on me again.  I had a fabulous fabulous red velvet cupcake.  It was worth every calorie!  

Before dinner we had some drinks - I made "margaritas" by using beer, limeaid and tequila.  They are delicious and so easy to make!  You should definitely try it out!  

For dinner we met one of Bethany's friends at an asian restaurant.  I had three pieces of sushi, a steamed chicken dumpling and a pad thai noodle dish.  And 2 saki bombs!  So fun!  So not part of my healthy life style!  Good thing I lost so much weight when I was sick!  This is just part of my recovery, right?

When we went to the bars after dinner I stuck with my vodka gimlet.  Yum!  I missed you vodka gimlet!

DAY 41

Bethany and Jason are leaving today.  Maybe then I'll get back to my meal plan.  I still have to finish Week 3 and then get through all of Week 4!  I never would have guessed it would take me so long to eat 28 days of meals!  

For breakfast I had a whole wheat English muffin with peanut butter and a glass of low-fat milk.  For lunch we went out an I had 3/4 of a personal sized Papa John's pizza.  Luckily MJ ate my last little slice so I didn't have to eat the whole thing!  Then I said goodbye to Jason and Bethany and little Bryn and decided it was time to get back to clean eating!  But not after getting a skinny caramel macchiato from starbucks.  Only 140 calories!

MJ and I went to the grocery store to re-stock on fresh produce and natural foods.  As luck would have it, the grocery store is out of our beloved almond butter!! They only had the salted version available.  MJ and I decided not to "risk" trying the salted version because we're sure we will like it more than the unsalted kind we usually get and then we'll never go back to the "healthier" kind.  So we must be patient.  If they don't have the almond butter back by the end of the week we'll probably have to get some brand name kind.  I'll keep you posted.

For dinner we decided to make the Eggplant, Kale Penne Pasta with Pine Nuts and Feta (Dinner on Day 13).  Low and behold, the grocery store didn't have any eggplant.  Kinda difficult to make an eggplant dish without an eggplant.  We replaced the eggplant with onions and mushrooms.  The meal still came out pretty good, but I prefer the eggplant version.

For dessert I had a left over peanut butter chip cupcake. So delicious!!  For the next two days I'll be traveling for work.  Then I PROMISE to go back to the meal plans!  

Days 27 and 28

DAY 27

My friends Desire and Tiffany were visiting from out of town, so I kicked MJ out of the house for some girl time and decided not to eat a set day's meal plan, but still try to eat healthy!

For breakfast, I ate 2 egg whites with cheddar cheese and some left over mushrooms, onions, and peppers in a whole wheat wrap from yesterday's breakfast with Sophia.  

We sat around talking and drinking Sangria with apple slices.  It was deliciously unhealthy.  For my morning snack, I ate a slice of whole wheat bread with almond butter.  I made Desire and Tiffany try the almond butter as well on those yummy whole wheat crackers that taste like shortbread cookies.  They both really liked it.  Tiffany even made me take her to the grocery store so she could buy my same type of almond butter and the yummy Carr's crackers.  I highly suggest you do the same:

The we headed out on the town to get some manis and pedis.  My favorite salon serves wine and/or champagne while you get pampered, so we definitely indulged in a few free glasses of wine.  

For lunch, we went to a well-known restaurant that's a great place to take out of town guests.  I made the smart choice and had a Tuna (sushi grade) and Avocado Salad (fresh tuna pan-seared and served rare with a seaweed salad, sliced avocado, edamame, cucumber, tomatoes and mixed greens with a wasabi-honey dressing on the side).  The salad was delicious and felt very healthy, yet filling.   

We also got chocolate raspberry martinis.  They were delicious and felt very un-healthy, yet delightful.

We then did some sightseeing and decided to walk back to my house when we were done.  I didn't realize it at the time, but I got pretty good exercise (according to my fitbit). 

For dinner, I cooked whole wheat pasta, chicken and broccoli for Tiffany and Desire.  A simple, healthy meal that was very filling.  

After dinner I made Desire try an almond butter cookie.  She said it was great and tasted just like a chocolate chip cookie!  I only have 2 cookies left in the freezer - I guess it's time to try another type of healthy cookie!

We went to Michael Vick's house after dinner.  That also included some walking and I accidentally ate a half slice of pizza hut pizza.  It was probably 1000 calories worth.  Actually, my fitbit calorie tracker tells me it was only 140 calories.  Not that bad for a late night snack!  That makes me feel much better, but it was still a bad choice.

FITBIT Totals for the Day: 2225 Calories burned, 11,219 steps taken, 4.83 miles traveled.  I didn't go through to put my calorie intake in yet.  I think it might be too hard to figure out how many calories my lunch was, but minus the alcohol, I think I ate about 1300 calories.  

I also had 96% sleep efficiency.  Apparently I woke up 11 times in my sleep (Friday night).  I'm not sure how accurate this is.  The fitbit comes with a wrist band to wear on your non-dominant hand while you are sleeping and I believe that it tracks your motion and how much you roll around in your sleep.  

DAY 28

I really cannot believe I'm completing 4 weeks of healthy, clean eating.  I'm so impressed with myself.  

Because I didn't get a chance to go shopping, I had another day of making up my own meal plan.  For breakfast, I ate a whole wheat English muffing with natural peanut butter.  An easy, simple, classic breakfast.

I ate a 100 calorie pack of cheese as my morning snack.  Later on in the day I had a slice of whole wheat bread with almond butter.  

I was very tired and got a 140 calorie grande skinny caramel macchiatto at Starbucks.  It was wonderful.  And it was free.  

My day sounds boring, so far, but I made a delicious dinner that both MJ and I really loved.  It was the Thai-Style Chicken & Noodles (whole wheat linguine, chicken, red and green peppers with a peanut sauce).  The actually recipe calls for tofu, but Mr. Jordan nicely asked me to make it chicken instead.  It was incredibly simple to make and came out delicious.  The peanut sauce that was really yummy.  Can you tell I liked this meal a lot?

  

This picture isn't a full serving because I like to fill my plate less and go back for seconds.  Tricking my mind into thinking I'm eating more works like a charm!!

FITBIT Totals for the Day: Last night I had 95% sleep efficiency and woke up 10 times in less than 6 hours.  Allegedly.  I'm really not sure I believe that my sleep is being track accurately.  So far today I've walked 10,071 steps, which is 4.34 miles.  It also says I burned 2,174 calories, which is impressing since it says I have over 10 hours of "sedentary" time.  I also ate about 1800 calories, assuming everything was portioned out and measured correctly.

Loving this fitbit!

Week 3, Friday (Day 26)

Today is my first day trying out my new fitbit and I'm very excited to see how active I really am.

Breakfast: 1/2 cup low fat ricotta cheese pureed with 1/4 cup 1% cottage cheese and 1 tsp Sucanat; top with 1/2 cup fresh cherries and 1/2 tsp sesame seeds

How gross does this sound?  Seriously I can't imagine eating any of these foods together!  I opt to skip this entire gross meal, and instead invite my friend Sophia over for breakfast.  Sophia has been a great influence on me - she's been eating healthy for years and always has great, all-natural snacks with her at work.  I made egg white omelettes with some mozzarella and cheddar cheese, served with sauteed onions, peppers, and mushrooms.  This was much yummier than chunky cottage cheese covered with cherries and sesame seeds!

Snack 1: 1 cup low fat milk, 1 hardboiled egg, 8 whole-wheat crackers

I don't really consider milk a snack, but drinking a whole cup is always enjoyable, so I'm not going to complain.  I only ended up eating 4 whole wheat crackers - 2 of the rykrisp kind and 2 of the yummier shortbread kind.  I was glad to see that we made the hardboiled eggs correctly.  I guess Michael Vick is a good teacher.

Lunch: 4 ounces cooked tilipia topped with 1 boiled potato, 1 cup cooked green beans, 3/4 cup cooked artichoke hearts, 1 tbls chopped onion, 2 tsp red wine vinegar and 1 tsp evoo

I changed up this lunch a little just based on what was easy and convenient.  I ended up eating the tilapia, 1/2 a potato, and 6 ounces of broccoli that I had leftover.  I probably made this meal healthier (and definitely made this meal easier) than the editors suggested.  

Snack 2: 1 low-fat string cheese, 8 carrot sticks

I only had the cheese stick.  Good as usual.

Dinner: Roasted sliced eggplant (6 ounces), 1 tbsp broken walnuts, 1 small diced tomato and 1 crushed clove of garlic with 1 cup cooked whole wheat spaghetti and 1 tbsp parmesan cheese

Delicious dinner!  It's supposed to come with 3 cups of sauteed spinach, but we didn't have any left and I don't think the meal needed any for more substance.  It was great and very easy to make.  I will probably repeat the walnut/tomato sauce often.

The best part of my day was checking my active status on my fitbit!  My fitbit told me that today I ate 1440 calories and burned 2441 calories.  I walked 11,650 steps, which equates to 5.43 miles.  I attribute most of my steps to an African dance class that I took at the gym.  It feels great getting such high numbers on my first day of using the fitbit!  I hope I can keep it up!

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.