What's for Lunch?

This week has been long and tiring. I especially love taking extended weekends for holidays, but it definitely makes coming back tiring. So to be honest, cooking this week has been boring. We have been scrounging for stuff because i'm tired and don't feel like cooking. Or we've had to be somewhere so I didn't take pictures.

In lieu of dinner pics, I thought I would share with you what I packed for lunch and snacks today. :)

Morning snack (around 9:30 or 10 am): plain, nonfat greek yogurt with a smidge of honey stirred in. Clean pumpkin bread.

Lunch (around 12:30 or 1): banana and peanut butter wrapped in a whole wheat tortilla (all natural nut butters are a great source of protein. My favorite is almond butter), broccoli florets, baby carrots, and some crackers (Trader Joe's multigrain cracker minis).

Afternoon snack (around 3:30 or 4): 1 apple and scant handful of almonds.

What sorts of things do you pack for lunch?


Oh, also because it's December first, I am going to share one of my favorite Christmas youtube videos (also posted on Facebook). It's an oldie but a goodie!

What's for Thanksgiving?

Like many Foodies out there, over the course of this week I am going to share with you some of the recipes I will be using for my Thanksgiving Feast this year. I've found some cleaned up recipes to make so they still fit in with how we eat (mostly. But it's the holidays, we can break the plan. :) )

The recipes I share are mostly just going to be sides because, well, I figure everyone has the way they do their turkey. If it's not broken, don't fix it! That said, I'm on a quest to find a Turkey breast that will be suitable for Brad and I to consume. We don't like dark meat, plus a whole Turkey seems like a lot of food for two people! I'm having a very hard time finding a turkey breast that isn't injected with saline and other crap. I will succeed, though. But I might have to break down and buy a very small turkey and just find someone to take the dark meat off of our hands.

Anyway, so today I am going to tell you (because I don't have any pictures of my own) how I am going to do our potatoes this year. I call them: Not Your Momma's Mashed Potatoes. I adapted them from Terry Walter's Clean Start cook book. I adjusted the proportions a little because in my test run they weren't quite to our liking. Potatoes have gotten a bad rep recently, but they're really not bad for you. They are a starch, but unless you kill them with tons of fat or naughty add-ons (bacon), they're actually a good thing to consume!

Full Disclosure: Not my photo. :)

Not Your Momma's Mashed Potatoes:

-2 medium baking potatoes
- 1 large parsnip (or 2 medium ones or 3 extremely small ones. :) )
-Olive Oil
-skim milk

Peel and cut up the potatoes and parsnip into small pieces. Place in a pot and bring to a boil. Turn down and simmer until the potatoes and parsnips are mashable. Drain the water off and put the potatoes and parsnips into a bowl (or kitchen aid mixer bowl so you don't have to had mash them). Add 1 tablespoon olive oil and 1 tbsp  skim milk. Mash up! If you don't like the consistency, add milk a little bit at a time until desired consistency is achieved.Trust me on the tablespoon at a time thing, I have consumed lots of runny mashed potatoes because I am impatient and didn't measure! SO RESIST THE TEMPTATION TO JUST DUMP THE MILK IN!

This is for two people, and we'll have a little left over. I just really don't like left over potatoes because they get all weird, but if you want more or are feeding more people, simply maintain the ratio of potatoes to parsnips. The parsnips have a sweet taste to them, and last time I made them I used two parsnips (but they were gigantic) and was not happy with how they tasted. Ideally, you shouldn't really be able to tell that the parsnip is in there, but it will still up the nutritional value of mashed potatoes. We don't eat gravy, so that's not a worry for us... but if you must do the gravy thing, please do it sparingly!

And because I had no idea what a parsnip looked like prior to my googling, here is what you're looking for in the grocery store:

not my photo either. :) But don't they look like giant white carrots?

What's for Breakfast? 11/1/11

Look at that date. 11/1/11. Two things: 1.) How is it already November?! 2.) That's a lot of 1's. Just wait until the 11th!

I thought I would do a feature on what I normally eat for breakfast: Oatmeal! This oatmeal, however, has a special fall twist that I just can't get enough of lately: PUMPKIN! I love pumpkin. Normally at this time in the fall, I gorge myself on sweet pumpkin bread, pumpkin roll, and many other sweet pumpkin treats. Those treats, however, are not part of the Clean Eating plan, but I have found ways to incorporate pumpkin anyway. I must confess, that while I have cut a lot of processed sugars, I have not cut all sugar. Instead of using white sugar, I've been either using organic sugar, raw sugar, or honey in it's place. So I am still enjoying a cleaned up pumpkin bread. ;)


Onto how to make this. I need simplicity in the morning. I'm in a hurry and have a pretty rigid routine. I eat Oatmeal and scrambled egg whites for breakfast, so to make it quick I microwave both. That's why the oatmeal looks a little sloppy... I just microwaved it until it was done.

What you'll need:
1/2 cup old fashioned oats (less processed than those packets of oatmeal. Plus, it just tastes better. Once you go old fashioned, you'll never go back to instant. Blech).
1 scant cup of water (to make up for the fact that pumpkin has a lot of moisture in it. Plus I like my oatmeal a little drier)
2 spoonfuls of Organic Pumpkin Puree (or one giant spoonful. Eyeball it. Also, NOT pumpkin pie filling. I used Trader Joe's brand and it was delicious. If you don't get organic, look for brands that have just pumpkin and maybe some water in it. No added sugars!)
2 tbsp ground flax seed
Pumpkin pie spice to taste

Combine all the ingredients into the bowl. Mix. Microwave for 2-3 minutes, or until done.
Eat with your egg whites and you're good to go!