Category Archives: Clean Eating

Meet in the Middle

Posted in Clean Eating, Food, Run, WIAW by

With the Tough Mudder looming over my head this week I am being a spastic mess. Part of me wants to go run 12 miles to make sure I can, while the other part of me knows not to push it this week since I don’t want to be sore or injured on Saturday! For now, I’m attempting to meet somewhere in the middle – a few workouts (nothing too crazy) early in the week and then resting on Thursday and Friday.

I was feeling too lazy to drive to Crunch last night, so I settled for running on the treadmill at my apartment gym. It was so hot, stuffy, and sweaty in there that I could only force myself to run 2 of the 5 miles I had wanted to. I can’t believe I used to use that shithole little room as my actual gym! (Sorry apartment building.) But seriously, it smells gross in there. Thank gawwwd for Crunch.

It seems that any sweat inducing activity entitles me to refuel with lots of carbs. Simplicity was the way to go last night! I gobbled down whole wheat pasta with tomato sauce and peas.

Since Jenn @ Peas and Crayons reminded me that Fall is approaching, I snagged the opportunity to spice up my daily overnight oats with a bit of unsweetened applesauce.

That’s a lie. I just have no fresh fruit and am getting sick of eating prunes. Or as my mom tricked me in to eating them, “dried plums.”

It actually was a nice change! I can’t wait for scarf weather and apple cider and cinnamon smelling candles. And oh yeah, being able to run outside again.

Lunch was an oldie but goodie: romaine lettuce with hard-boiled eggs and Italian dressing. Maybe one day I will eat meat for my protein source. But then I’ll have to cook it first…

Dinner tonight was a keeper for sure. Puffins with milk, granola, chia seeds, prunes, and a dollop of dark chocolate dreams peanut butter. Mental note to self – buy more than one box of Puffins at a time. I go through those things at a ridiculous speed.

Though it was plenty filling a few hours ago, I just got home and was ravenous. No, I’m not eating a bowl full of leftover linguini at midnight.

OK, you caught me. But it’s race week – so I’m allowed, right?

What do you normally eat for your protein source?

Are you a midnight snacker too?

Slopes and Scones

Posted in Clean Eating, Food, Recipes, Tough Mudder by

If I do want to reach my goal weight the same week as Tough Mudder, I gots some work to do this next week!

I’m so close, yet so far.

The iPhone app I use to keep track of my weight is called “Lose It.” When I originally started to lose weight  (see the first negative slope) I did use the app religiously, recording both my calorie intake and exercise. But then you know how it goes next – became obsessive about putting in all of the data into the app, being mad at myself if I had chocolate pudding that put me 120 calories over my daily budget, that sort of thing.

But that sucks. No one wants to do that. (At least I don’t!) So now I just use it to simply record my weight.

The second negative slope started when I began eating clean and running at the end of January 2012. It will be nice to eventually reach that goal line and then plateau out. 🙂

Last night before book club I munched on a healthy dinner that used up the last of the tzatziki sauce. I’m definitely going to buy some more the next time I’m near Trader Joe’s!

I made some vegan chocolate chip oatmeal “scones” to bring a dish to share at book club last night, based off this recipe.

Did you notice I finally got a cooling rack?!

Chocolate Chip Oatmeal “Scones”

Ingredients

  • 1 cup oats, blended into chunky flour
  • 1 cup wholegrain spelt flour
  • 1/2 cup brown sugar
  • 1/2 cup apple sauce
  • 2 tbsp almond milk
  • 1/4 cup almonds coarsely chopped
  • 1 tbsp ground flax+ 3 tbsp water
  • 1/2 tsp baking powder
  • 1/4 tsp vanilla extract
  • handful of milk chocolate chips

Follow these directions with the subbed ingredients!

We got the final Tough Mudder map – my friend Mal pointed out we won’t get to do the fire-walking! Booo.

TTYL, I need to memorize this shit…

Do you ever get weight loss iPhone app obsessive? Or very into recording the food you eat? I used to, but realized it’s not worth the pressure to stress. Just eating mindfully usually helps!

What I Ate Wednesday: Mediterranean Style

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Looking back on this summer (ack, it’s almost over!)  I realized one of my favorite new types of food is Mediterranean food. I.e. typical variations of all things pita, hummus, cucumber-y, and in my opinion, the most exciting – falafel!

Mediterranean food has definitely been one of my summer staples. I’ve eaten at Lebanese Taverna approximately a million ten times this summer, so I decided to commit to the next step in my relationship with Mediterranean food: make it myself.

Well, kind of. Make it from a mix and store bought pre-cooked chicken and sauce. But that’s how I roll, alright?

Plus, it didn’t hurt that falafel mix is $3.49 per box. That means about 12 falafel balls total, resulting in anywhere from 4-6 meals for 1 person or 2-3 meals for 2 people.

It might not be the healthiest of healthy food, being fried in vegetable oil and all, but I think the ingredients of the mix (chickpeas, fava beans, garlic, spice, baking powder, salt) still qualify as semi-clean.

Either my falafel patties were too big or my whole wheat pitas were too small!

Tuna totes gets the credit for Monday night’s meal – it was seriously like eating Lebanese Taverna but at home! Falafel with brown rice and pre-cooked frozen grilled chicken strips, all drizzled with Trader Joe’s Tzatziki sauce aka creamy garlic cucumber dip to non-foodies or to me before Saturday.

Time to infuse one summer staple with another: pasta salad with some Mediterranean flavor. Actually….regular pasta salad with more Tzatziki sauce because I can’t get enough of it.

This is a version of my mom’s pasta salad slash what I had in the freezer or lack thereof.

End of Summer Pasta Salad

5-6 Servings

Ingredients

  • 1 package whole wheat pasta
  • 1/2 bag frozen peas
  • 1/2 bag frozen shelled edamame (good source of protein!)
  • 1/2 cup sliced carrots
  • 1/4 cup chopped red pepper
  • 1/4 cup red onion
  • 1/4 cup olive oil
  • tbsp dijon mustard
  • salt and pepper to taste
  • 1/4 cup tzatziki sauce mixed in
  • tbsp of extra tzatizki sauce on top of each serving

In other news, I am 3 lbs away from my goal weight, and a week and a half away from the Tough Mudder!

Wouldn’t it be cool if I could reach my goal weight and successfully complete the Tough Mudder in the same week? That would be pretty cool.

Does anyone have any recipes of healthier falafel (not fried in a ton of vegetable oil?) My apartment still reeks of fried food.

Do you usually try new types of food at restaurants or at home?

I’ve Been a Bad, Bad Girl and Exciting News

Posted in Clean Eating, Food, Recipes, Run by

The past week has been REALLY busy at work, so by the time I got home at night the only thing I felt like doing was sitting my butt on the couch, watching TV, and eating lots of chocolate peanut butter and pretzels.

I usually gain a pound or two over the weekend from eating pizza for dinner and guzzling down wine and then lose it during the week when I cheat less, run more, and eat more spinach.

Last weekend I cheated a bit more than I usually do, so it wasn’t too appalling that I gained 3.5 lbs. Well, kind of appalling, but I figured I could do some damage control during the week to make up for it.

That’s where the chocolate peanut butter came in. And the gummy bears, extra diet cokes, and second portions.

I’ve been a bad, bad girl.

Not only have I been chillin’ on the clean eating front, I’ve also relaxed my workouts a bit. BAD! Especially when the Tough Mudder is in 15 days. And because I need to get in bikini shape for…..

our trip to Brazil!

Tuna’s parents moved to Rio de Janeiro not too long ago and we are lucky enough to get to go visit them over Thanksgiving (with a stop in Miami to visit his sister.)

(source)

I am beyond excited.

And I better fit in to that damn bikini.

Therefore, I swear I will be better about NOT CHEATING (too much) on both clean eating and on my workouts.

Starting with my yummy-ass bagel sandwich for lunch.

Yummy-Ass Bagel Sandwich

Includes:

– toasted pumpernickel bagel with salt and sesame seeds
– spicy hummus
– cream cheese
– sliced cucumber
– fresh spinach

With some Black Forest Berry Honest Tea. I’m going back to my one diet coke a day rule and I want to drink it tonight!

I did 5 miles yesterday (in my barefoot Merrell shoes, I’m loving them) and today calls for strength training – arms and abs.

Cheers to a healthy weekend!

Do you ever fall off the healthy living wagon? 

What was the most recent trip you took?

Cheap-Ass What I Ate Wednesday

Posted in Clean Eating, Food, Recipes, WIAW by

Welp, I sure didn’t budget my money that well this month!

No, it didn’t have to do with splurging on my fancy new shoes or the heavy duty overpriced headphones I bought online.

Ok, maybe it did a little bit.

Basically, this past week I needed to make lots of meals on a minimal budget. It was kind of a pain, but it was also nice to use my brain a little bit and be resourceful. Since you know I am slightly OCD like planning ahead, of course.

Without further ado, I present to you: Cheap-Ass What I Ate Wednesday.

I still wanted to make sure my meals this week were healthy and involved getting plenty of protein. Luckily, I called upon my trusty secret form of cheap protein – eggs!

Egg Salad Sammie

Makes 3 servings

Ingredients

  • 7 hard boiled eggs
  • 1/2 tsp mayo
  • 2 tsp dijon mustard
  • 1/2 cup chopped cucumbers
  • salt
  • pepper
  • whole wheat bread

Directions

Hard boil 7 eggs. I started out with 9 eggs, but two cracked while coming to a boil. Oh well.

Peel your eggs before you cool them for too long. It’s easier to peel them when they’re still a little warm.

Separate the whites from the yolks.

Cut up the whites and smash up the yolks.

I am weirdly grossed out by mayonnaise, but I had a little bit in my fridge from making deviled eggs awhile ago, so I used a teensy bit for good measure. It probably could have used a bit more, though.

Same thing with mustard. Not a huge mustard fan, mostly likely because I got sent to the principal’s office in second grade for throwing mustard at a boy in the cafeteria for putting a spider on my lunch tray. Brat. (Him, not me…)

Enter weird vegetable substitute secret ingredient. Though many egg salads usually feature celery, I opted for some sliced cucumber because I bought one to have with hummus and salads this week.

Mix everything together in a big bowl.

Add salt and pepper.

Toast some whole wheat bread and you’re good to go!

*****

I also scrounged around the kitchen a bit and decided to make some hazelnut cookie pies since I had a lot of leftover ingredients from baking them a few weeks ago. But this time they got made-over into almond chocolate oatmeal cookies.

I actually used spelt flour this time and it made all the difference! I think it’s finer than oat flour, which worked better with the texture of the cookies.

I added oatmeal in whole, rather than using oat flour. I think I’ll take Michele’s advice and grind it up next time. Will doing that in a blender that work? I don’t have a food processor. Maybe I’ll steal borrow Tuna’s unused brand-new food processor that’s been sitting in the corner of his kitchen since Christmas. Hmm.

Lastly, I added in about 1/4 cup of Truvia as an extra added sweetener.

They were still good (and super filling!) but I think I will keep tweaking them on the next batch. Maybe I’ll add chocolate chips!

*****

Another staple this week (actually, for the past month) has been a huge mexican baked potato for dinner. I love this because it surprisingly fills you up and is super easy to put together.

Ingredients

  • 1 russet potato
  • cheddar cheese
  • salsa (obsessed with the hot Whole Foods brand kind)
  • optional – anything! guacamole is especially delish

Directions

Rinse off your potato and poke a bunch of holes in it with a fork so it won’t explode.

Cook in the microwave for 7-10 minutes.

Cut open the potato vertically and add in cheddar cheese, salsa, guacamole, and any other toppings of your choice.

I would be a little nervous about not having straight up protein if I’m just having a baked potato for a meal, but Scott Jurek assured me not to worry in Eat & Run.

“Our bodies pool the amino acids from the foods we eat over the course of the day. I didn’t have to sit down and do the math every time I ate. As long as I ate a varied whole-foods diet with adequate caloric intake, I would get enough complete protein” (p 59).

Sweet. Thanks, Scott!

TGIW. Thank Goodness it’s Wednesday payday.

What’s your go-to food/meal when you’re strapped for cash?

Pesto Pasta Salad with Chicken

Posted in Clean Eating, Food, Recipes, WIAW by

Pasta salad is one of my favorite summer foods. It can be just as healthy as downing an actual salad but fills you up a bit more if you’re tired of eating leaves every day for lunch.

Thanks as always to Jenn at Peas and Crayons for hosting What I Ate Wednesday.

I’m giving myself an A for effort on the get-out-of-my-food-rut challenge.

It’s funny because I actually get the Real Simple magazine, but I must have missed this recipe – and instead found it while browsing Pinterest.

Another win for Pinterest!

Typ me, I switched around the ingredients a bit in true CNG style.

Ingredients

  • 2 1/4 cups whole wheat pasta (it’s how much I had left in my pantry, ha)
  • pre-grilled strips of  frozen chicken breast 
  • 1 tablespoon olive oil
  • kosher salt and black pepper
  • 1/2 cup whole kalamata olives (didn’t have pitted, my bad)
  • 1/4 cup shredded carrots
  • 1/4 cup pesto

Directions

First, make your pasta. After it’s boiled drain it and pour it back into your pot. Let it cool while you get the rest of your ingredients together.

This is time where you would make your chicken if you weren’t ridiculously lazy like me.

I bought pre-made chicken from Whole Foods – slices of already cooked and frozen grilled chicken breast that I defrosted by heating on a skillet at medium heat with 1 tbsp of olive oil for five minutes.

I was going to cut up the chicken into little cubes but decided it looked kind of gross that way, so  I threw ’em as is into my big pasta salad bowl.

Cut up anything else you want to add you to your pesto pasta salad. I added the olives but nixed the bocconcini in the recipe because I didn’t feel like going to the store to buy cheese. I added some shredded carrots – but you could probably do anything – tomatoes, croutons, etc.

Toss everything in your big mixing bowl with the salt, pepper, and pesto.

*****

I’ve never been a giant fan of pesto, but I do like the taste a little bit so I thought I’d give it another try with this recipe.

I picked up a little container of pesto at the store and was looking at the ingredients just in case I wanted to make my own pesto in the future.

The third thing on the list of ingredients was parmesan cheese. Ew! I don’t like parmesan! But I like pesto….so maybe I do like parmesan cheese at least a little? Who knew.

The best part of this dish? Leftovers!

What’s one of your favorite summer foods?

Did you try a new recipe this week?

Hazelnut Cookie Pies

Posted in Clean Eating, Food, Recipes, WIAW by

When I saw Michelle’s delicious looking giant hazelnut cookies a few weeks ago, I knew I had to try them out.

Hazelnut is a new thing for me – I tried hazelnut coffee at work two months ago and now I have a cup of it every morning!

This is the first time that I made this recipe (I promised I would make something new for What I Ate Wednesday, Min!) and I definitely could make a few adjustments the next time I make them, especially because I switched up some things that I probably shouldn’t have, i.e. flour choices.

And I WILL be making them again, not only because they tasted great but because the ingredients were so damn expensive and I have a lot left over. I’m really encouraging you to make these, huh? 😉

No, but really. They are good.

Ingredients

1 cup oats (I used oat flour)
1 cup wholegrain spelt flour (I used oat flour)
3 tbsp cocoa powder
1/2 cup brown sugar
1/2 cup apple sauce
2 tbsp almond milk
1/4 cup hazelnuts coarsely chopped
1 tbsp ground flax+ 3 tbsp water
1/2 tsp baking powder
1 tbsp powdered sugar (nixing this in the future)

(Also – note: next time I’m going to add 1/4 cup of Truvia Natural Sweetener. I have a sweet tooth!)

Directions

Dump the ground flax seed into the water in a little bowl and mix it together. Let it sit for 15 minutes while you’re making the rest of your batter.

Preheat oven to 350F.

I skipped Michelle’s step: “Process oats in a food processor until you’re left with a coarse flour” and used regular oat flour instead since I don’t own a food processor. Maybe next time I’ll just dump in the oats as is for more of an oatmeally cookie.

Chop up your hazelnuts.

That was the first time I’ve ever tried an actual hazelnut! It was softer than I thought it would be – I was thinking it would be harder, like an almond.

Put the flour, hazelnuts, cocoa powder, and baking powder in a large bowl and mix together.

In a smaller, separate bowl mix together the brown sugar, apple sauce, and almond milk and stir generously.

Add in the flax/water combo to the wet bowl and stir some more.

Dump the wet bowl into the dry bowl and keep on stirrin’.

Once the batter starts to get thick and gooey, begin to separate the dough into six equal sized balls and place on a non-stick cookie tray. It helps to wet your hands before rolling the dough – it kept sticking to my hands!

Flatten down the balls on the cookie sheet so they look like cookie pies.

Put your tray in the already preheated oven and bake for 10-12 minutes while keeping your eyes glued to the TV watching Olympic gymnastics and biting your nails.

My pies didn’t turn out to look as pretty as I’d hoped…

So I decided to add a little sprinkle (or a big blob) of powdered sugar on top.

Much prettier!

Like my cheap-ass cooling rack? I don’t own a cooling rack, and my middle refrigerator rack has been resting next to my fridge since girls’ night. Perf.

Every time I bake something I end up burning some part of my body.

This time it was my finger.

The cookie pies are SO dense and chewy that they needed a little something extra to soften them up.

I’m not a huge milk person, but you sure can’t beat cookies and milk.

I think these are going to become a comfort food ’round my apartment. They could be especially good on cold winter nights – maybe served warm!

Did you bake anything this week?

What is your favorite comfort food?

Weekend Recap: Grr, Aw, and Ew

Posted in Clean Eating, Food, Run by

Really, cable box/DVR? Did you purposefully wait until the Olympics were on until you decided to stop working?

Tuna and I went out for Mexican on Friday evening with my trusty DVR recording the Opening Ceremonies, only to return home, press play, and see the live version of the Queen/James Bond jumping out of the helicopter for approximately 30 seconds before the TV froze.

Needless to say, I was not amused.

Luckily for my cable box’s life, I took out my grumpiness on the treadmill on Saturday and ran 4 miles at Crunch. But lately I’ve been letting my mind get the better of me on treadmill runs. Last week I set out to run 6 miles, and quit at 5. On Saturday, I set out to run 5 miles, and ran 4. Ruh roh.

I can’t keep doing that! It’s bad for my ego self esteem.

Today I shall run 4 miles – and I WILL run 4 miles! No more shortcuts allowed.

After my run I went over to my dad’s to see his new….

PUPPY!

I. want. one. now!

What a muffin.

Sorry for all the grainy pictures – this little gal would not stay still long enough to take a good photo!

Dinner Saturday was a partial success. I heated up the last of the frozen shrimp and put it over brown rice (Tuna makes the best brown rice) with some sauteed zucchini. To continue my French dressing discovery week, we added French dressing to the skillet and stirred in the shrimp and zucchini with some pepper.

We also boiled some corn on the cob for a side dish. I thought it would be smart to ignore the fact that the pre-cut corn was sitting in my fridge for two weeks and had begun accumulating nasty grayish powder on the ends.

Once the corn was cooked, the core turned kind of red/brown color. I took a bite and thought it was alright, but Tuna said “Ummm. I don’t think we should eat this corn.”

Ew.

On Sunday afternoon I stopped by my mom’s house and was pleasantly surprised to find this whole wheat pasta salad waiting for me. I’ll have to get the recipe from her soon to share.

I hope you’re getting excited for a cookie filled What I Ate Wednesday!

Did you watch the Opening Ceremonies? What was your favorite part? (I’ve been looking up clips on youtube.)

What did you do this weekend?

Whaaaaat I Ate Wednesday

Posted in Clean Eating, Food, Recipes, WIAW by

Oh heyyyyy, it’s that time again.

Last week I promised myself I would make something new and exciting this week in hopes that it would jolt me out of my current food rut.

After stalking pinterest to find some fun clean eating recipes, I settled on making this one from the Domestic Mama and the Village Cook’s blog.

Spinach Burgers!

I’ve actually never made a hamburger, so I was pretty pumped to make these spinach-y ones.

To make 4 spinach burgers, you’ll need:

1 bag of spinach
1/4 cup chopped onion (I used red)
1/2 cup crushed pita chips
1/2 cup shredded cheese
2 egg whites
1 whole egg
1/2 tsp salt
1 tsp red pepper flakes
1/2 tsp garlic powder

I hoofed it over to Whole Foods to grab the shredded cheese and eggs, and of course I forgot about the bread crumbs. Luckily, Tuna had his thinking cap on and remembered he had some pita chips in the pantry (he calls it the cupboard? WTF?) that we could crush up and use as bread crumbs. The substitution worked just fine.

Tuna was nice enough stir up everything in the bowl and make the patties for us so I didn’t even have to get my hands dirty. Bwahaha (evil laugh.)

Aw, look at ’em! Perf little spinach patties.

Put your burner on medium high and make sure to spray some PAM before you plop your patties down.

Let the burgers cook for 4 minutes on each side.

Tuna played photographer and got some cool action shots of the flippage.

Look! I flipped it!

Flatten ’em out….

and put in a toasted pita with hummus. Definitely adding some kind of Mediterranean yogurt sauce next time.Mmmmm.

We were both pleasantly surprised how our spinach burgers turned out! Tuna said that the only drawback is that it gets a little smoky in the kitchen, so make sure to open a window if you are one of those people who always sets the smoke alarm off who has a sensitive smoke alarm.

The other surprising thing – I was actually full after one spinach burger. Whaaaat.

******

Dessert this week is a keeper. At first I was disappointed that I couldn’t find my Powerberries at Trader Joe’s but these aren’t so bad either. 😉

Did you make something new and exciting this week too?

Homemade Lean Cuisine and Weekend Workout Inspiration

Posted in Clean Eating, Food, Read, Recipes, Run by

Last night I needed to have a quick dinner before trekking to book club. I knew I would snack a lot at book club, so I wanted to have something healthy and light.

Even though I hate Lean Cuisines because of their preservative-y taste , I kind of wished I had something I could just shove in the microwave and gobble down.

Then I thought – why not make my own Lean Cuisine?

I bought shrimp from Whole Foods on Monday for my protein source this week because I am currently too lazy to make chicken. I like to buy the already peeled, deveined, and cooked ones because I get grossed out by ripping out the shrimp poop.

All you have to do with these guys is thaw them by rinsing them under cold water for about 7 minutes in a cute purple strainer and they’re ready to eat.

I heated up some frozen organic broccoli in the microwave for 3 minutes and tossed it into a bowl with the shrimp, olive oil, salt, pepper, and hot red pepper flakes.

The steaming broccoli warmed up the cold shrimp nicely. It was a pretty sweet quick meal for a Thursday night.

There you have it – a plain Lean Cuisine without the preservative-y taste. Though I don’t really understand why frozen shrimp and veggies are still preserved but don’t have that nasty flavor and prepacked meals often do. Whatever.

It only took nine minutes to make, so I enjoyed my homemade Lean Cuisine on the balcony before heading off to book club.

 The book we chose last night for August’s book club read is Gone Girl by Gillian Flynn.

Here’s the book description from Amazon:

“On a warm summer morning in North Carthage, Missouri, it is Nick and Amy Dunne’s fifth wedding anniversary. Presents are being wrapped and reservations are being made when Nick’s clever and beautiful wife disappears from their rented McMansion on the Mississippi River. Husband-of-the-Year Nick isn’t doing himself any favors with cringe-worthy daydreams about the slope and shape of his wife’s head, but passages from Amy’s diary reveal the alpha-girl perfectionist could have put anyone dangerously on edge. Under mounting pressure from the police and the media—as well as Amy’s fiercely doting parents—the town golden boy parades an endless series of lies, deceits, and inappropriate behavior. Nick is oddly evasive, and he’s definitely bitter—but is he really a killer?

As the cops close in, every couple in town is soon wondering how well they know the one that they love. With his twin sister, Margo, at his side, Nick stands by his innocence. Trouble is, if Nick didn’t do it, where is that beautiful wife? And what was in that silvery gift box hidden in the back of her bedroom closet?

With her razor-sharp writing and trademark psychological insight, Gillian Flynn delivers a fast-paced, devilishly dark, and ingeniously plotted thriller that confirms her status as one of the hottest writers around.”

Since I just finished Born to Run, I can’t decided whether to start this one, finish Fifty Shades Darker, or keep up the running reading with Scott Jurek’s Eat and Run.

I’ll probably just work on all three and take turns depending on my mood. 🙂

*****

I need to live at the gym this weekend since I haven’t had a sweat-filled workout since Monday.

In order to get my butt off the pool lounge chair and on to  the treadmill and weight machines, I need a little extra workout inspiration for the weekend.

Was that good for you, too?