Don't Walk...Run!

Last month my posts were all about the food changes I challenged myself to make. Six weeks later, I've hit my first rough patch. There have been significant changes at home and my work schedule was rough this week. I was doing early rounds at the hospital and attenting late meetings or events most nights. I allowed gluten and more sugar to creep back into my diet. The consequence? Poor sleep, low energy, breakouts in my skin, and the return of my daily stomach pains. 

I'm resolving right now to put an end to it. I felt too good the past month to go back in this direction. Right now I'm going gluten free and refined sugar free again - indefinitely. 

On a more positive note, two months ago I decided I was going to start running. This was HUGE for me because I've never even been able to run a mile without wanting to die. Multiple times I've tried (and failed) to become a runner. I tried to run around the high school track with my friend in our teens and quit because I was so much slower than she was. I tried to do the "Couch to 5K" plan in college and decided my time was better spent studying. I planned to do a 5K mud run last fall with my cousin and could barely finish on race day due to lack of preparation. Each failed attempt re-affirmed my belief that I was incapable of running.

I really can't pinpoint what was different this time, but I've really been sticking to it. My goal has been to run every other day and I've mostly been able to keep it up. And when I haven't, and two or three days have lapsed, I haven't given up! I'm not fast and I'm building my distance gradually, but I've never felt more in control of my body. Huge success!

The Home Stretch

Just a few more hours to go before my "cleanse" is over and I'm really excited. Not excited so I can indulge and go back to my old ways, but because I feel great and have learned a lot about my body. It's a really wonderful feeling.

As I recap the last few days, let me remind you what the goals of my cleanse were:

• Daily Trader Joe's Total Body Cleanse supplements
• No caffeine
• No alcohol
• No refined sugar
• No gluten
• No processed or pre-packaged foods
• Try to eat at least 50% of my diet as raw foods

Day 11 - 5/8

Today was a rough emotional day for me. A little over a year ago my practice was absorbed into a larger health care system. A few (huge) benefits of this were a brand new, larger office space and the hire of my new nurse. My nurse couldn't be any more perfect of a fit for me (she loves Phish, shops at Trader Joe's and the local co-op, and is incredibly sweet to our patients) and I am so happy with my new office. The downside is dealing with layers and layers of corporate administration whenever something is wrong. Unfortunately for me, the thing that has been wrong multiple times is my pay. I discovered another error on Thursday and (as usual) was unable to reach the person I needed to talk to. I felt really powerless and frustrated. Normally an afternoon like this would end with me sitting in a pile of candy and Taco Bell wrappers hyped up on caffeine from a sweeter-than-I-usually-drink coffee from Starbucks feeling horrible. But it didn't this time. It didn't even enter my mind. Wow.

Breakfast - Smoothie (blueberries, organic whole milk yogurt, banana, chia seeds, water to blend), hard boiled egg

Lunch - Leftover Asian Salad with honey lime dressing topped with raw cashews

Snack - Pear

Dinner - Homemade steak gyros (steak, cucumbers, tomatoes) on corn tortillas with homemade tzatziki sauce and corn on the cob

Snack - herbal tea, small bite of homemade energy bars (I'll post my recipe soon!)

Day 12 - 5/9

Today was a much better day. I never got an answer to my pay question, but at least got in touch with the right person to discuss the problem. This evening was my first challenge with eating out at a restaurant. My monthly book club met at an Italian restaurant (like hardest place to find food fitting my rules!). I was hoping for an entree salad, but there wasn't anything like that on the menu so I went for the best option I could and boxed up half of the meal to bring home to my husband. It was definitely the richest meal I've eaten since starting my cleanse (and I enjoyed every bite), but I wasn't tempted to overindulge on liquor or dessert.

Breakfast - Smoothie (blueberries, organic whole milk yogurt, banana, chia seeds, water to blend), homemade energy bar (dates, cashews, and sunflower seeds)

Snack - Herbal tea, raw cashews

Lunch - Chicken breast roasted with tomatoes, green vegetables in walnut pesto (purchased from the hot food bar at the Honest Weight Co-op and elderberry Kombucha

Snack - Pear

Dinner - Garden salad with house made Italian dressing on the side (it was delicious, but as I didn't know what was in it, I only used a very small amount) and chicken picatta with roasted potatoes and green beans

I went for a short 3/4 mile jog to my in-laws house to meet my husband and the girls.

Day 13 - 5/10

Today was supposed to be rainy, but turned out gorgeous! I went for a jog in the late morning (my best effort yet) and got to enjoy some real quality time with my family

Breakfast - Two egg omelette full of veggies (spinach, red peppers, and mushrooms) topped with chopped tomato (I shared with baby bear who LOVES tomatoes and apparently cooked spinach)

Snack - Pear

Lunch - Chopped lettuce, cucumbers, cabbage, and tomatoes with leftover tzatziki sauce

Snack - Homemade energy bar

Dinner - Baby spinach salad with red cabbage, sweet potatoes, and avocado

I went for my usual 1.8 mile walk/jog talking only a short walk break and jumping right back into it. I think on my next run I might make it the whole distance! I finished up with abs and arms as usual.

Day 14 - 5/11 Mother's Day!!
Today was a fabulous day with my family. My husband got up early and put the baby bear back to bed with me and he and the bug let me sleep. Bug even had Daddy make me a hard boiled egg for breakfast because she knows I like them, how sweet! We started our day off with breakfast, pictures, and tons of play at a gorgeous town park. Then, we came home and the girls relaxed a bit while I put the finishing touches on a few dishes to share at Mother's Day dinner. We spent the rest of the day at my in-law's house with our extended family. My mom is still in Florida so we only got to see her on Facetime, but it was better than nothing!Overall, it was a very relaxing day and I didn't spend a second worrying about food.

Breakfast - Hard boiled egg, homemade energy bar, and Starbucks iced coffee (this was my mother's day "cheat" and it was totally worth it!)
Lunch - Organic "power greens" mix and leftover chicken chili with avocado/organic yogurt mashed together
Snack - Blackberries
Dinner - Grilled chicken, grilled portabellas, salad greens, curried quinoa salad, moroccan carrot salad, and fruit salad (honeydew, blueberries, blackberries, and raspberries)

The Middle

Something surprising is happening with this cleanse. After last week that started off rough (headaches, body aches, and extreme fatigue), I don't even feel like I'm on a "diet". I feel completely normal. Actually, BETTER than normal. I feel empowered - like I finally am winning a battle with food I've been losing my whole life. Food isn't my comfort when something goes wrong. Or my reward for accomplishing something. Or my enemy - sneaking it's way into my stomach and "making" me fat. Food is JUST food. I still enjoy eating immensely, but I'm slowly unfurling myself from the emotional connections I've wrapped myself up in over the years. It feels amazing.

This is the start of week two. I'm introducing yogurt back into my diet this week, but holding off on any other dairy. I don't think I have any issues tolerating moderate amounts of milk, cheese, and other dairy products in my diet, but I've been feeling so well that I don't want to tip the scales against me. Especially because I've lost the "I need it!" feeling I was having about cheese last week...

Day 8 - 5/5

Totally uneventful day. The weather was nice and I took a trip to the local co-op on my lunch break. I haven't been to the co-op since it moved (because I get nervous about trying to go places when I don't really know where they are because I get lost easily) and I was very impressed. Now that I know the extent of their bulk supplies (and how to get there) I will definitely be going there more often. Seeing so many healthful choices really motivated me further that I'm on the right path.

Breakfast - Smoothie (frozen blueberries, whole milk yogurt, banana, chia seeds, and water to blend), hard boiled egg

Snack - herbal tea

Lunch - Raw veggies (carrot, celery, cucumber, snap peas), raw mixed nuts, Ginger Kombucha

Snack - herbal tea

Dinner - Honey soy marinated salmon on a bed of diced cucumbers and chopped baby spinach

Snack - Apple

I went for a 1.8 mile walk/run. I finally settled into a decent pace with this run, but was interrupted by a page because I was on call. Afterwards, I repeated the arms and abs workouts.

Day 9 - 5/6

Today was very slow at the office which used to be dangerous, but I didn't feel the urge to snack at all. I used the down time to catch up on a few CME (Continuing Medical Education) articles and to read the new book I borrowed from the library, Wheat Belly. I was going to try and squeeze in another run, but had too much work to do preparing two batches of crockpot chicken taco chili and a big pan of Reese's brownies for teacher and nurse appreciation days.

Breakfast - Smoothie (frozen blueberries, avocado, whole milk yogurt, chia seeds, water to blend), hard boiled egg

Snack - herbal tea, raw mixed nuts

Lunch - Grape tomato, cucumber, basil salad with olive oil/balsamic vinegar

Dinner - Chipotle burrito bowl (brown rice, pinto beans, barbacoa, mild salsa, corn salsa, avocado) in lettuce wraps

Snack - spearmint tea, grapefruit

Day 10 - 5/7

Today was the first day I stepped on the scale and didn't see any weight loss since I started the cleanse. I'm holding off revealing numbers about my weight loss until the end, but I've been steadily losing weight since I started. I immediately felt discouraged, which scared me. In the past I have done great on "diets" as long as I was losing weight, but gave up immediately as soon as I plateaued. I had to remind myself that this isn't a diet. This is me taking control of food, and by extension, my life. I should not be continuing to lose weight this fast and it needs to slow down. And I feel amazing. Crisis over. 

Breakfast - Hard boiled egg, peanut butter (I made these brownies for my nurses and consoled myself that I couldn't eat any by licking the PB off the spoon after adding it to the frosting)

Snack - Herbal tea, organic whole milk yogurt with blueberries, chia seeds, and raw cashews

Lunch - Baby spinach topped with chicken chili and a few blue corn tortilla chips

Snack - apple, raw cashews

Dinner - Asian salad (red cabbage, carrots, red pepper, red onion, cucumber, and black rice) with homemade honey lime dressing

Snack - herbal tea

I went for my usual 1.8 mile walk/jog. Each time I complete the loop I've been running a large portion of it as I build my endurance. I also ended the workout with abs and arms strength training.

Food Cleansing

I bet you expected my next post to be MORE party details, but I tricked you! Today I'm all about kick-starting my nutrition and exercise goals. I'm really using blog posting as more of a journal/motivational tool for myself, but you all can come along for the ride if you're interested.

I've been flirting with real food for awhile, but I've also been quick to stray back to old ways. I'll admit my overall diet today is still better than it was five years ago, but that really isn't saying all THAT much. In the past I relied far too heavily on fast food and processed food to get through my busy schedule. I think allowing myself to still have some of these foods on a daily basis was really sabotaging my efforts. I decided I really needed to "detox" from all the bad and give my body a chance to recover and reboot. Which brings me to...

My 14 Day Real Food/Raw Food Challenge
*This is based on so many different things I've read and watched, but does not follow one specific set of rules from any one source. This is 100% my challenge to myself - some of the ideas probably are evidence based, but I am not endorsing this in any type of medical way. This is just my journey (I hope!) to better nutrition.*

My plan is to cut out all processed foods, refined sugar, gluten, and alcohol and to cut down on dairy and animal protein. I'm intending to essentially eliminate dairy the first week and slowly introduce some back in next week. I'm also taking the Trader Joe's Total Body Cleanse vitamins to accompany my life changes.

Day 1 - 4/28
The first day was rough. I developed a horrible caffeine withdrawal headache mid-morning that continued to get worse as the day went on. By the time I got home I felt like I had a tight rubber band wrapped around my head. I also felt extremely exhausted, weak, and achy. I'm not sure if it was the change in diet, the headache, or the fact that I was so tired from bug's birthday party over the weekend but I could barely keep my eyes open driving home from work. I haven't felt that tired since residency! I went to bed before 8pm that night.

Food and Exercise Review
Breakfast - Banana and raw almonds
Snack - Red pepper slices and baby carrots with herbal tea
Lunch - Cucumber, tomato, avocado, parsley, and cilantro with lemon juice
Snack - Pear and herbal tea
Dinner - Sweet potato and avocado topped with tomato, cucumber, cilantro salsa and Chia strawberry lemon water

No exercise today! I was WAY too exhausted

Day 2 - 4/29
The second day wasn't perfect, but was much easier. I only had a mild headache during the day and didn't have any problem sticking to my food plan during the day. My first test came that evening when I picked up my very sick little bug from her grandparent's house and had to come home and cook dinner. The bug had a fever and was miserable and the little bear was her usual unruly dinnertime self (scream for food, shove as much food in her face as fast as she can, demand to get down from the table). I was very tempted to give up the attempt to cook, but took a few deep breaths, got everyone settled, and pushed through dinner prep. I was exhausted early again and started dozing off around 8:30. It was with extreme effort that I stayed up later to chat with my husband.

Food and Exercise Review
Breakfast - Green apple and raw cashews
Snack - Pear and herbal tea
Lunch - Zucchini hummus with celery and baby carrots
Snack - Herbal tea
Dinner - Cod, wilted spinach, roasted green beans, and black rice with Chia lemon water
Snack - Carrots, celery, and banana slices with organic peanut butter

No exercise again, still laying low and letting my body adjust.

Day 3 - 4/30
By the third day I was over the caffeine withdrawal headaches and the exhaustion was getting better. I slept wrong and had a searing low backache all day which made everything more frustrating, but I stuck with my plan without too much difficulty. I did get hungry in the evening and needed to eat a bigger snack. This was really the first time I felt "hungry".

Food and Exercise Review
Breakfast - Green apple and hard boiled egg
Snack - Raw cashews, herbal tea
Lunch - Kale salad with red pepper, cucumber, avocado, and lemon juice
Snack - Pear, herbal tea
Dinner - Baked sweet potato and diced avocado topped with red cabbage, red pepper, cilantro, and scallion "slaw" with apple cider vinegar dressing and Chia lemon water
Snack - Frozen blueberries and organic peanut butter

The only exercise I did was household chores - up and down the stairs about a dozen times washing and folding laundry

Day 4 - 5/1 
Today I felt great when I woke up. I was up early to sign my bug up for the before/after-school program and had to round at the hospital. Being in the hospital brought out some STRONG cravings for coffee (literally 90% of the people that walked by me had a coffee cup in their hands), but I got through it by stopping at the store for a new box of herbal tea on my way to the office.

Food and Exercise Review
Breakfast - Green apple and raw cashews
Snack - Herbal tea
Lunch - Grapefruit
Snack - Pear and cherry tomatoes
Dinner - Chicken and Quinoa Thai Salad (modified dressing to remove anything processed) with Chia lime water

I finally felt like I had enough energy today to get back into the swing of things with exercise. I went for a short 1.6 mile walk/jog outside and followed it up with an arm workout and an ab workout.

Weight Watchers and Real Food

For the record, I was awake for 10 whole minutes today before a kid woke up. I didn't even move, I just laid there listening to the silence. Somehow, the older one still sensed that I was awake. She shuffled into the room and I pulled back the covers for her without saying anything. Miraculously, she snuggled between daddy and I and WENT BACK TO SLEEP.

I enjoyed the snuggle for a few minutes before slipping out of bed to try for that forbidden peaceful cup of coffee again. Just as I was adding the milk I heard the baby yelling out for a "baba". She's 15 months old so I really need to wean her off of it...but today is not that day. Giving her a bottle bought me ten whole minutes of quiet. Sweet, blissful quiet with nothing to do other than sip my HOT coffee and read Pinterest. When she finished the bottle we just snuggled and were silly together for a half hour while everyone else slept. These are the moments we just don't get enough of. Today is going to be a good day.

Low natural lighting in the kitchen made these shots a little fuzzy, but I love them anyway

I thought I'd take a few minutes this morning to share some advice about following Weight Watchers and sticking to an unprocessed, real food diet. A little over a year ago I joined WW for the first time. As I had an exclusively breastfeeding newborn I was allotted 46 points plus per day. I have to be honest, between the diet and breastfeeding I was dropping weight like crazy even eating oreos and Dunkin Donuts wake-up wraps on a daily basis. I went from post-baby weight to pre-baby weight in about a month and from post-baby weight to my lowest adult weight since I was in college in less than 6 months.

Then, the seasons started to change and the stress of selling a house, building a house, the holidays, and moving set in. I wasn't get fresh food from the Farmer's Market. My Weight Watchers subscription was cancelled. I was not going to the gym. The baby was nursing less. I was eating more processed foods. Nearly every successfully lost pound crept back on.

A year after my initial success I decided to start back up again. As I no longer have gads of points each day I need to focus a lot more on choosing "good" foods. Foods that are high in nutrients, satisfying, and that I "feel good" about eating. Here are my tips on combining a typical lower point (26) Weight Watcher's plan with real food ideas:

1. Real the labels! A trap a lot people following WW fall into is buying everything low fat or fat free because the point calculation is lower. This is a horrible idea. To save yourself a few points you will be filling your body with chemicals, additives, and fillers. You can find *some* reduced fat products that are only made with real ingredients (most dairy products), but you need to be extremely discerning and real your labels.
2. Plan ahead. If you have kids, or a job, or both you need to have your meals planned out or you will find yourself struggling to stay on the plan. Check back later this week for some easy meal plans to get through the week days.
3. Always have fruits and veggies on hand. Making healthy foods available will make you much more likely to eat them. For busy times of the day, having your produce prepped ahead of time is key - cut melon, rinsed grapes, easy to peel clementines, bananas, rinsed salad greens, sliced peppers, celery sticks, cherry tomatoes. For calmer times I find having a fruit I need to "work on" for a snack makes it more satisfying - grapefruit, cherries, kiwi.
4. Care about the food, not the diet. If you spend your time thinking about how safe and whole the foods you are eating are instead of calculating points on all the foods you know you shouldn't have, you will naturally make good choices! If you read the ingredient label on that box of Cheez-its you won't care that you can get away with 1/2 a serving for 3 points. You'll realize there are so many things in there that you don't want in your body it will be easy to chose a tablespoon of fresh ground almond butter and banana slices instead.
5. Splurge for real. Instead of planning myself a mini splurge every day (one cookie, a handful of chocolate chips, etc) which just ended up reintroducing all the "bad stuff" back into my system I plan one real splurge on a high quality item - a good piece of dark chocolate (not Hershey kisses), a handmade baked good (not Dunkin Donuts), a chunk of good full fat cheese (never eat the fat free stuff!), a few slices of good quality bacon (not turkey bacon), etc. 

Happy Sunday and Happy Eating!

Real Food Update and Drink Recipes

My sweet baby bear helping me unpack our goodies from the Farmer's Market last weekend

You've heard me talk a lot about real food lately, but I have to admit that my commitment to the cause waxes and wanes depending on how crazy life is. In general, I'd like to think we've made a lot of progress. We haven't purchased milk or eggs that weren't local in a long time and have far fewer processed junk foods in the house. My husband and kid are still consumers of processed beverages, but I've cut down my Diet Pepsi consumption from 2 (or more!) cans per day to a can or two per week and replaced it with home brewed iced teas and carbonated water that I make with my SodaStream. Our dinners have been well rounded and include lots of fresh local fruits and veggies.

BUT, we still aren't there yet. We tend to fall short during all the in-between times. When the girls and I are out running errands and it's close to meal time...when I miss lunch and am starving as I drive home...when we're all stressed and craving comfort food. It's SO easy to give in and stop at a drive-thru. I pretended I'm still doing a good job by avoiding McDonald's/Taco Bell/Wendy's and only giving in to Dunkin' Donuts and Starbucks. Today I'm publicly calling myself out; it's not good enough! 

For the next month (until my Mud Run on October 5th!) I am pledging myself to avoid all fast food. No more iced coffee. No more wake-up wraps. No more cake pops. None of it. I'll let you know how it goes...

If anyone else wants to join me on the real food journey, here are a few simple real food drink recipes you should definitely try out!

Watermelon Mint infused Water

Add 6 oz cubed watermelon and one sprig of mint to a pitcher and fill with water.
Allow to infuse in the fridge for at least 2 hours.

Brewed Peach Iced Tea

Slice 4 very ripe peaches. 

Boil 6 cups of water in a saucepan. 

Remove from the heat and add 6 black tea bags. Infuse covered for 5 minutes.

Take out the tea bags and add the sliced peaches. Allow to infuse for 10-15 minutes.

Using a potato masher, squash the the peaches into pulp.

Rest the mixture for 5 minutes.

Strain the tea through a fine mesh sieve into a pitcher and chill.

*If it is too strong for you, add a little bit more water to the pitcher*

Homemade Pitas

When I started to focus more on simple, whole foods I began looking for recipes to replace some of the store-brought staples in our house that are laced with chemicals, preservatives, and sugar. Although it takes some extra time and preparation, the end result is SO worth it.

My husband and I really enjoy eating hummus as a snack, but I've been really disappointed by the taste (or lack thereof) of wheat pita bread options at the store. It's even more disappointing when you read the labels and see how many additives there are. So, my search for a better option began. I made a few batches of pita bread from this recipe. Although the bread tasted good it didn't "puff" and form a pocket like you'd expect from a pita (it was more of a flat bread). Today I decided to give a new recipe a try and I am so glad I did. These pitas puffed just right and taste great. You will never accept the store brought variety again after trying these...

Adapted from this recipe over at Mama's Gotta Bake

Ingredients

1/4 cup warm water

Pinch of sugar

Packet of active, dry yeast

3+ cups of whole wheat white flour

1 tsp sea salt

1 1/4 cups warm water

2 tablespoons olive oil

2 tsp honey

Coconut oil spray (or oil)

Directions

1. Dissolve sugar and yeast in warm water and let stand for 10 minutes until bubbly.
2. Pour yeast mixture into bowl of stand mixer and add 3 cups of flour, salt, oil, honey, and water.
3. Stir mixture with wooden spoon until moistened.
4. Attach dough hook and mix on low for 10 minutes (you could knead by hand, but I'm too lazy for that). 
5. If the dough isn't coming together after the mixer has been on for 5 minutes, add more flour a TBSP at a time. You want the dough to be cohesive enough that it kind of rolls into a ball around the dough hook.
6. Take the dough out of the mixer and knead it a few times by hand before forming it into a ball. (I sprayed my hands with the coconut oil to prevent the dough from sticking to me for this step).
7. Spray a bowl with coconut oil (or grease with olive oil) and put the dough ball into the bowl. 
8. Place dough into a pre-warmed oven (set to 120 degrees, opened to let the big rush of heat out, and then turned off) or just cover it with a towel and place in a warm place to rise.
9. When the dough has doubled in size (approximately 1 hour), punch it down and divide into 10-12 pieces (depending on the size of the pitas you want). I did this by shaping the dough into a rough log shape, cutting in half, cutting in half again, and then dividing each quarter into three equal-ish pieces. Roll each piece into a ball shape and set aside to rest on a lightly greased cookie sheet. Cover the balls with a piece of plastic wrap that has also been spritzed with oil and set aside for 20-30 minutes.
10. While the dough is resting, place a baking stone (or non-stick cookie sheet) into the oven and preheat to 400 degrees.
11. When the oven is heated and your dough is done resting, prepare a lightly floured surface to roll out the pitas. I sprinkled a little bit of extra flour on each side of the dough, flattened it with my palm, and then rolled it to a rough circle/oval shape approximately 1/8-1/4 of an inch thick.
12. Working in batches of 2-3 (depending on how big your pitas are), place the rolled out pitas onto the baking stone/cookie sheet and bake for about 5 minutes. I really recommend setting a timer for 4 minutes and checking them at that point. At five minutes my pitas were just barely browned, but the puffed tops were firm to the touch. Cook less for softer pitas, longer for crisper pitas.
13. Remove pitas from oven with a spatula or tongs and place to cool on a baking raking.
14. Fill with the stuffing of your choice, cut into wedges to use with dip, or be inpatient and eat one still warm from the oven like this girl right here did! 

Friday Five: Real Food Recipes

For some time now I've been looking harder at the foods I feed to my family. Many times my best intentions have been crushed by the time consuming nature and financial burden of providing real food three meals a day for three (now four!) people. I've also been so lost weeding through all the different claims regarding which foods are REALLY the best that I can't shop without spending hours reading labels and find myself staying awake at night worrying about what I am going to cook the next day.

Finally, I've found a way to simplify matters:

• I buy the highest quality meats, dairy, and produce I can by mini-shopping multiple times per week.
• I'm only buying local dairy from Meadowbrook Farms or Battenkill Creamery and looking for a more local source for eggs.
• I am anxiously awaiting fresh local produce, but I am also accepting the rule that conventional produce is better than no produce.
• I've stopped cooking things like potatoes, rice, or pasta just because I think there needs to be a "starch" on the table.
• Anything I can make, I am trying to make myself including sandwich bread, rolls, pita bread, granola, yogurt, ricotta, etc. I've also started juicing (more on that later...).

I'm premiering my new focus on nutrition with a Friday Five featuring some of the meals I've made in the past few weeks.

1. Crock pot Free-Range, Organic Chicken. Original recipe can be found here - I left out the cayenne pepper to make sure it wasn't too spicy for my bug. The chicken cooks up so tender it literally falls apart when you take it out of the crock pot. The huge advantage of cooking a whole chicken is that I can get at least two meals out of it. The first night we eat it straight out of the crock pot with veggies as a side. Second meal ideas? Chicken salad, chicken/cheese/veggie quesadillas, chicken fried rice, etc, etc, etc!

2. Homemade Chicken Stock with the leftovers from above. Recipe can be found here. I used some of the stock right away to make a delicious chicken, alphabet noodle, and vegetable soup and froze the rest in ice cube trays so I have a freezer bag full of stock cubes on hand when I need them.

3. Eggplant stacks with homemade ricotta. Eggplant slices were pre-salted to draw out the water and then prepped with egg wash, dipped in homemade whole wheat breadcrumbs, and pan-fried in olive oil. Ricotta and fresh basil were sandwiched between the slices and topped with marina sauce and fresh mozzarella before baking. This was delicious and I can't wait to try it again with fresh eggplant this summer.

 

4. Cobb Salad tweaked from a recipe found here. I added shrimp because the bug loves it and shrimp made the salad into more of a "meal" for my husband. All of my produce was store-brought organic, but I can't wait until we start getting fresh, local tomatoes and cucumbers to make it with. I used feta cheese instead of blue cheese because I always have it on hand. The salad dressing recipe was delicious with either red wine or apple cider vinegar and feta instead of blue cheese, but I recommend reducing olive oil to 2-3 TBSP.



5. Homemade yogurt! In the past, one of my co-workers and his wife told me that they made their own yogurt. At the time I was confused and slightly put-off by the idea. After reading up on the technique, I realized how easy it was and decided to give it a try! I followed the instructions here, but halved the recipe as it was my first batch ever and I didn't want to waste milk if it didn't work out. I started with whole milk from Meadowbrook Farms and Stonyfield Organic Whole Milk yogurt. I've been eating this for breakfast all week with bananas, frozen berries, and homemade granola. If I really want to sweeten it, I add a swirl of maple syrup or honey. FYI - I never used to look forward to eating yogurt for breakfast because I would always feel hungry an hour later - this is SO not the case when you have real yogurt made from real milk.

 

Here's a listing of some of the reading and viewing I've done recently to help me along:
Nina Planck's Real Food for Mother and Baby
Michael Pollan's The Omnivore's Dilemma
Real Food Tastes Good
100 Days of Real Food
Fat, Sick, and Nearly Dead
Hungry for Change