So on Labor Day, Delilah and I set off to begin what we dubbed "Food Boot Camp." The day before we sat down and created my meal plan for the week along with my grocery list. Delilah provided me with these great grocery lists split into sections of the store where I'd purchase each item. This was so smart and made the shopping so much easier. And by creating meal prep for the week we could guarantee we wouldn't leave anything off the shopping list.
But first, we cleaned out my kitchen. I kid you not, I took NINE garbage bags to the dumpster. I'm an accidental food hoarder. I had boxes of cereal in cabinets I thought had been empty for months. Oops. There was popcorn and crackers and cans of soup and pop tarts and oatmeal and just crap everywhere. So we purged. ALL OF IT. We weren't throwing out things that we could have taken to a food bank or anything, this was all stuff that was way expired. Like frozen pizzas that I should have eaten in 2011. I'm a hot mess.
 |
| Before pic of my fridge. I like beer. And spaghetti sauce. And beer. |
 |
| Before pic of my cabinet. I like carbs. And spaghetti. |
So off we went to the grocery store. HyVee has these amazing sections known as the Health Market. If you're like me and have never ventured into this area for fear of stinky hippies, I can tell you now with experience, IT'S NOT SCARY. Out of all the things I bought that day, Health Market and Produce were an even split. And it was A LOT. Of good stuff! Awesome stuff! Stuff you should try! For example: THESE SWEET POTATO CHIPS.
My taste buds exploded. Ingredients? Sweet potatoes, sunflower oil, sea salt. THAT'S IT. You're welcome.
An hour and a half and lots of $$ later (don't be scared, most of the things you buy on the first shopping trip will be staples you'll keep for a long time so that first trip will be more expensive than regular future trips) we got home ready to kick food's butt.
 |
| I actually have this receipt taped to my wall with the total circled and "DON'T CHEAT" written on it. |
 |
| After shopping, before food prep. |
THAT'S A LOT OF FOODS.
So we cooked, and prepared, and sampled, and laughed, and yelled in excitement (mostly me at how EASY this stuff is), and froze stuff, and I wrote everything down.
And then Delilah left, and I got very scared.
How the heck am I supposed to do this alone? I mean, sure, this week I've got everything basically pre made. (So truly, starting tomorrow, when I go food shopping and have to prep on my own, and NEXT week will be the true test... but I did okay this morning... I'll get to that later) But I was also excited. I could hardly sleep that night because I was starting my new position the next day AND I got to choose which smoothie to make in the morning and which snacks to take with me to have during the day and I got to come home and prepare dinner for my parents and myself.
So now I'll share with you what meals I had throughout the week, with recipes, and some pictures of dinners, etc. Lunches were always leftovers with some snacks!
BREAKFAST:
Every day was a fruit smoothie. Delilah and I put on the shopping list "smoothie fruits." This can be pretty much whatever fruit you like! I bought bananas, a whole pineapple, 3 peaches, a few pears, strawberries, blueberries, and raspberries. We cut the larger fruits up and got freezer ziplock bags. We put at least 1/2 banana in each bag and then just split the fruits up randomly in each bag however we pleased!
Put your frozen fruits into your smoothie cup, fill about 1/2 with unsweetened almond milk, add one scoop of vanilla whey protein, blend & enjoy!!! YUMMY!!
We also made Egg Bake! Very easy, very delicious! 1st, brown 1 lb (roll) of turkey breakfast sausage, cutting it into pieces as you cook it. & drain the oil. Put a piece of parchment paper into a bread pan. Layer the bottom of the pan with cut up chunks of sweet potato. Top the sweet potato with the breakfast sausage. Then the eggs. I used 14 eggs! Break the eggs into a bowl and mix them up adding salt, pepper, and garlic powder. Once they're all mixed up, pour over the other ingredients in the bread pan. I had to use 14 eggs to cover the potatoes and meat - you can start with less and add more if you need to - just make sure they are mostly covered. Bake at 400 degrees uncovered until "not jiggly!" Start for 20 minutes, test, etc. SO DELICIOUS. Then cut this up into slices (larger so they don't fall apart) and you can put them into ziplock bags and refrigerate or freeze. This is good cold or reheated!
TUESDAY, SEPT 3:
*LUNCH*
Since on Monday Delilah and I didn't actually prepare an official "meal," I had various small pieces for my lunch. They included the following: Summer Salad (various raw veggies in a tomato-based dressing), beets, and a side of cottage cheese. My snacks throughout the day were a mozzarella cheese stick and a handful of macadamia nuts. My drink was water infused with lemon, mint, and cucumber.
*DINNER*
Delilah and I had pre-prepared Spaghetti Squash Bake. Which basically tastes like lasagna, but with a more watery texture, and 10x more delicious and better for you. So, suck it, lasagna.
Recipe:
~Brown 1lb italian sausage
~Bake the entire squash for about 10 minutes to soften. We literally just set the squash on one of the oven racks while we were cooking something else. The bastard gets wicked hot on the outside so be careful when you take it out.
~Cut the squash in half long-ways, scoop out the gunk in the middle. Looks kinda like pumpkin seeds. They come from the same family, apparently. Did you know this? I did not. Look at me, learnin' stuff.
~Put parchment paper on a baking sheet, place the squash halves face-down.
~Bake at 375 degrees for roughly 40 minutes.
~Let it cool enough so you can hold it. Scrape the "meat" out into a pan (we used a square pan, again lined with parchment paper) with a fork so it kind of shreds - this is where it looks sort of like spaghetti. Hence its name. GET IT?! BRILLIANT GOURD.
~Cover with cottage cheese. However much you want. Who doesn't love cottage cheese?
~Add oregano (careful, that stuff pours out FAST. Don't over do it), parsley, salt to taste
~Top with cooked sausage
~Top with 1 jar marinara sauce (I used Mushroom Onion flavor - from the HyVee Health Market!)
~Cover with shredded mozzarella cheese
~Bake at 400 degrees 20-40 mins uncovered "until the cheese looks toasted like pizza!" I think we baked it for about 45 mins, I'd had it in the fridge overnight before we cooked it so it took a little longer than if we made it right away. But just keep checking it out. Now KEEP IN MIND, KIDDOS. Spaghetti squash is by nature watery. So this will not be a firm dish like lasagna. IT'S OKAY IT'S STILL FREAKING DELICIOUS. Just maybe serve it in a bowl.
 |
| You hungry, bro? |
 |
| Parent-approved. |
WEDNESDAY, SEPT 4:
*LUNCH*
Leftover spaghetti squash bake!! So good! Side of sweet potato chips. Snacks were mac nuts and a Lara bar. Water infused with lemons and raspberries tastes like unsweetened raspberry lemonade! Yum!
*DINNER*
I knew I was going to have my parents over for dinner this night (Tuesday was an added bonus!) so I wanted to prepare something special for them. My mom had purchased this cookbook called "Robin Takes 5: 500 Recipes, 5 Ingredients or Less, 500 calories or less, 5 nights a week at 5:00pm" for Christmas a few years ago and I had never made anything from it. It's not a paleo/clean cookbook but it is relatively healthy. So Delilah and I picked two recipes from it that were ideal and adjusted one to be more paleo. I'll write the recipes below how *I* made them!
Lettuce Wraps with Grilled Steak & Cheese
1 1/4 lbs flank steak
Head of iceberg lettuce - separate leaves
1/2 cup sliced red onion
1 cup shredded mozzarella cheese
1 cup diced tomatoes
~Scoop 1 tablespoon(ish) of coconut oil into a skillet and preheat medium-high heat. (Note: coconut oil is the new Pam. Get rid of that ish. Coconut oil is found in the Health Market and is wayyy better for you! Plus it smells delicious while heating!)
~Season both sides of the steak with salt (SEA SALT GRINDER OMG) and pepper (GRINDER FOR THIS BAD BOY TOO SRSLY) and place in pan.
~*The recipe said to cook on each side 3-5 mins for medium to medium-rare. I ended up cooking it lots longer, flipping every 4 mins or so. My folks prefer more well-done, so that was part of it, but it also just was looking bloody for a LONG time. so just cut into it and check it as you go.
~Cut against the grain into 1/4-inch thick slices
~Arrange the lettuce leaves and serve buffet style with toppings!
Stuffed Bell Peppers with Rice & Goat Cheese
**NOPE. First of all, we're kicking rice to the curb and bringing our friend, quinoa, into the game. Secondly, I'm not a huge fan of goat cheese. Next time I make this I'm going to try shredded mozzarella instead. SO ANYWAY.***
2 teaspoons olive oil
8 oz lean ground beef (I used a whole lb.. I bought huge peppers. This makes four)
2 teaspoons onion and herb seasoning (salt-free) - i also used more than 2 teaspoons since i used more meat
1 cup cooked quinoa (follow directions on box to cook) (get pre-washed but try to rinse first anyway)
1/3 cup cheese (again, I used more)
4 large bell peppers (red, orange, whatever you like)
~Preheat oven to 375.
~Heat oil in skillet at med-high heat, cook beef and break-up as it cooks. Add seasoning and stir. Stir in the quinoa and cheese, cook until the cheese melts. Remove from heat.
~Cut off the stem from the peppers and remove the seeds (rinsing them out usually does this just fine). Spoon the beef mixture into the peppers and arrange onto a pan (layered with parchment paper of course!) Cover with foil and bake for 20 mins. Uncover and bake another 10 ins until the peppers are tender!
Now, we had a bit of an issue where the inside bottoms of some of my peppers had some ickiness in them. So my mom, being the wonderful genius that she is, got creative. She cut off the ends, made new ends out of aluminum foil, and made them stand up in a cupcake tin. Brilliant woman, my mother.
 |
| BRILLIANT! |
 |
| Yay family dinner time! |
*LUNCH*
OMG you guys, I was terrified for lunch this day. I was scheduled to go marketing in Lincoln with my coworker, JJ, and it was going to be over the lunch hour, which meant we would go out to lunch and Enterprise would pick up the tab. Which normally is like, YEAH AWESOME LETS EAT ALL THE FOODS. But for someone just starting a new, intense, very particular diet, it was more like, "how many healthy snacks can I eat in the car on the way there so I don't have to eat crap?" However, JJ is a wonderful human being and he understood how important this diet was for me. So he suggested we go to Hu-Hot, where we could avoid noodles and grains and stick to meats and veggies. *VIRTUAL HUG TO JJ* So we did. And what made it even better is that Hu-Hot's menu has a listing on their sauces of what's vegetarian and what's gluten-free. Happiness!!
Chicken, beef, peppers, onions, carrots, celery, pineapple, and gluten-free sauce. Yay!
*DINNER*
Pesto Chicken
(This pesto recipe makes a LOT of pesto - enough for 8 chicken breasts. I was hoping to make enough for guests; so I have a lot frozen. But you can just add more pesto to each breast, or whatever).
Pesto::
1 cup fresh basil leaves
1/2 cup shredded parmesan cheese
2 tablespoons olive oil
1 tablespoon almond flour -found in the Health Market- (or 1 tablespoon pine nuts)
lots of salt
4 cloves of garlic
Blend all of the above in a food processor
Chicken::
~Cut a large slit into the side of the chicken, deep but not all the way through
~Spread pesto inside
(~If freezing, place 2 chicken breasts per one mid-size freezer ziplock bag)
~Place parchment paper in a baking pan
~Place chicken in pan (I baked 4 breasts at once okay, prob can fit more if needed)
~Bake at 375 degrees for about 40-50 mins, checking temperature
Side of fresh cut bell peppers with Healthy "Ranch" Dressing
1 cup Chobani plain flavor yogurt
mix in garlic powder, salt, pepper, and parsley to taste
THAT'S IT. I'M SERIOUS. IT TASTES LIKE RANCH.
Don't believe me?
TRY IT BITCHES IT'S AWESOME.
FRIDAY, SEPT 6:
LUNCH:
I actually had more leftover spaghetti squash bake for lunch, along with some sweet potato chips. My snacks were a cappuccino flavored Lara bar and a bowl of fresh-cut pineapple slices.
DINNER:
I heated up a leftover Pesto Chicken breast from the night before, but topped it with some bruschetta, and made a side of what Delilah has named "Zucchini Noodles." Very simple.
~Take a large zucchini, peel long strips all the way around and down until you're left with mostly just a "core."
~Heat up 1 tablespoon of olive oil and a small scoop of "Better than Bouillon Organic Chicken Stock" (found in the (where else?) HyVee Health Market!) in a skillet at medium heat.
~Add the strips of zucchini to the pan, adding garlic powder, salt, & pepper as you go. Cook until they look done, basically! EXTRA DELICIOUS!
SATURDAY, SEPT 7:
Which brings us to TODAY! Holy crap. I decided I'd try to make something breakfasty in a small skillet. Last saturday delilah threw together some eggs, leftover pork, random veggies, and it was awesome. So I tried that. I was envisioning omelette, I wound up with something more along the lines of scrambled egg thing. But it was delicious! Basically I just stirred up 4 eggs in a bowl, added salt, pepper, and of course garlic powder. I then poured them into the small skillet along with chopped up leftover flank steak, diced tomato, and shredded mozzarella cheese. And you know what? I burned some eggs to the bottom of the skillet but besides that, it was awesome!! I had no idea what I was doing, but I TRIED SOMETHING NEW and entirely on my own, and it was delicious.
Thanks for sticking with me through this outrageously long post. I hope that I'll just post like every two days or so, but we'll see how things go. Tomorrow I'll do my very own grocery shopping trip and food prep for next week, so wish me luck!!
Oh and, of course, GO BIG RED!!!
No comments:
Post a Comment