If you haven't heard of Dani Spies at cleananddelicious.com, CHECK HER OUT! She is phenomenal! She is so knowledgeable and educated. Best of all, she gives full blown videos of her cooking so that her recipes are easy to recreate! You can look her up right on youtube and explore some of her videos.
Today my post is all about bettering myself. I am sick and tired of hating my life dieting to try to get to a point where I'll love EVERYTHING about me. Isn't it odd how we do things we hate to get things we love? What if we can have the best of both worlds and love the journey? With clean eating, I believe this is possible!
So over the next months, I will be posting what I think about Dani's clean recipes and others I find along the way. I will post my progress (and my set backs-I am human after all) with clean eating. Do remember that I'm not a dietitian so if you have any food/health related questions, speak to your health care professional. You can ask me and I will do my best to answer...but...again, I'm not a professional. Also keep in mind that I am a poor college student's wife, so I will do my best and make certain substitutions to make sure that this diet fits in our budget. By the way, I am also extremely picky about what I will or won't eat, so when I say something is delicious, I MEAN IT! I'm not just trying to get you to convert to clean eating...or am I?Jk.
Let's begin with day 1!
Today, I woke up and made some rolled oat oatmeal and added ground flax and chia seeds to get my Omega 3's and help to stave off hunger. I was afraid I'd dislike the added texture, but didn't even notice! I also added some frozen berries I got at Walmart instead of adding sugar. I was expecting a negative reaction so I prepped myself (and yes, I prayed that it would taste good). I was PLEASANTLY surprised at how delicious it was! The tip here is to make the oatmeal with milk instead of water. It gives it a creamier flavor. Also, if you have the time, I'd make it over the stove instead of in the microwave. I tend to overcook mine or it just explodes and makes a mess :S.To add to my oatmeal, I had a beautifully red grapefruit without added sugar on top like I usually do. I love the fact that they're in season! There's a stark difference in color and sweetness when they're out of season haha!
For lunch, I had Dani Spies recipe of Tuna pasta. Here's the link: Dani Spies Clean Eating Tuna Pasta Salad. This recipe is delicious! I made a recipe sometime last month that was clean and also had the purple onions. I have to admit, I HATED it. I did not like the red onions AT ALL!!! The flavor was so overpowering that honestly, the dish sat in my fridge and didn't get eaten (bad me!). This time however, the flavors of the whole grain pasta, peas, tuna and purple onions blended so well! In fact, they gave the onions an almost sweet tang to them. LOVED IT! And my husband loved it too :D That's always a bonus!
For dinner, I made Dani Spies Tilapia Oreganata. Dani Spies Tilapia Oreganata I don't think I made this one quite like she did. The picture was VERY different from how mine turned out. It was still good and we served it with a salad drizzled in olive oil and balsamic vinegar. My advice is to make sure you have a lemon zester (I used a regular sized cheese grater and then chopped the zest with my knife to make it smaller) which would have made the dish better. Make sure you also don't use anymore of the lemon than just the zest. Stop before you zest the white pith, otherwise your dish will turn out with a bitter zing to it. Also, this might be an "oh, duh!" statement, but make sure you coat EACH side in the herb oil, otherwise, it won't have the same flavor. Lastly, if you don't have whole wheat bread crumbs on hand, take a piece of bread and send it through the blender/magic bullet/food processor or whatever you have on hand. Each of these will get the job done. Bread that fits into the clean diet is a little difficult to find, at least in our extremely small town in Washington. I did find an organic bread that I figured would work. It's called Dave's Killer Bread. It's got 5 grams of fiber, 6 grams of protein, and is 100% whole grain. There are lots of nuts and seeds on the sides as well so it's delicious. It is a little tougher than regular bread, so in case this means it's going bad, I've been storing it in my freezer. Here's what it looks like.
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After dinner is where I have to be really careful. I get all sorts of cravings! I turn into a prego woman on crack (and I'm not even prego!). So to avoid getting myself into trouble, I turned to some strawberries for "dessert." This helped with my sugar cravings, but just like always, right after I satisfied my sweet tooth, my salty molar jumped up and declared it wanted its fix too! This is where the night turned interesting...
Kale chips...for all those who have tried them, you know. For those of you who, like myself, were/are hesitant, three words. BOMB. DOT. COM. These are DELICIOUS! In my picture, you can see how they're cooked just right and when you put them in your mouth, mmm, mmm, mmmmmmmm! Them be lip smackin good :D! Here's a video of Dani Spies making them Dani Spies Kale Chips
Be warned that they are not potato chips. Do not go into that first bite expecting potato chips...you will be disappointed, but only minimally. Also, make sure you don't use too much salt (lesson learned on my part).
Last thing I made tonight was Dani Spies (I know I talk about her a lot, but that's cuz she's the shiz!) protein pumpkin pancakes. Mmmm! So good! Typically, I would prefer to stop at the kale chips, but I was ironically still hungry (this happens to my body when I transition into different eating habits, so whatevs).
This is when I whipped out my newly acquired coconut oil. I'm oober excited about coconut oil :D and rightly so. I bought this baby at Walmart. It's not organic, but again, I'm a college student doing my best. We also don't have any health food stores around her (that I'm aware of), so I'm workin' with what I gots!
Before y'all roll your eyes and say "Oh my honk! You didn't just say coconut oil! It's a saturated fat!" Well, yes, it is. However, it is a good fat! Repeat with me...GOOD FAT! I know-unlike unicorns, IT DOES EXIST! Not only does it help with preventing injury to your arteries, but it is 50% lauric acid which prevents heart disease and helps to lower cholesterol and high blood pressure. But wait, it doesn't stop there! Next it can help with hair that has been damaged or is extra dry. Next time you go shopping for shampoo/conditioner, look at the ingredient list on the back and see if there is coconut oil in there. If so, your hair will be repaired and on its way to gawgeousness in no time! Also, if you have psoriasis or eczema, whip out some coconut oil and rub it in. I have waitress hands since I work as a server and will be putting coconut oil to the test this week (come back next week so you can see the progress on my nasty, dry hands). Coconut oil also helps your body fight infection and sicknesses along with promoting an overall better health weight-wise and digestion-wise. To read more, click here.
Wondering why I brought up coconut oil? Because I oiled my pan with it! This makes the pancakes extra crispy and soooooooo gooooood!!!!!!
So back on track, I tried the protein pumpkin pancakes and they have my stamp of approval! They're very moist in the inside and drizzled with a few drops (notice I said FEW) of Agave nectar (picture below), they rocked my socks off. I'm excited to try this babies tomorrow and see how long they hold me over.
Now that I've officially dumped my brain onto this blog post, I hope you come back and read up on my next meals. I'll take pictures tomorrow of the meals I attempt so y'all can see how they turn out when an amateur cooks them. Please take the time to look at Dani's website and subscribe to her youtube channel. She posts once a week and again, is rockin' awesome! If you have websites or know of some videos, tried and true clean recipes or ideas, please feel free to post them in the comment section! I am always looking for feed back, help and inspiration. On the way out, I'll leave you with a niblet of pinteresting inspiration:
Yeah!!! We are getting better already!
ReplyDeleteBy the way, there are a few people who are out there that thinks that coconut oil is bad for people who have cholesterol problems...this is not true! Anyways, a little heads up for everyone.