Delicious Banana Bread

This is GREAT!

Noodle Stir Fry and Quinoa Chili

I decided I'm only going to post success recipes here. Not many new recipes this week, but here are the new recipes we did try and liked:

Tuesday - Quick & Easy Noodle Stir Fry. I used these rice noodles instead of the linguine. I sprayed the skillet with olive oil. I subbed honey for the brown sugar - I used a little more than 1 TBS. I couldn't find the Asian sweet red chili sauce and so I used this sauce. It does have some brown sugar but I would say for a "sauce" it's pretty clean, although not perfect. All the veggies were the same. I didn't use any meat. Doug and I really liked it (well, me more than Doug, but he still liked it). Paige had her noodles and veggies separate with just a little sauce on her noodles. Will definitely do again.

Vegetarian Quinoa Chili. This was really great! I didn't have the zucchini or the green bell pepper on hand, so I didn't use those. Also, because it says it serves 10-12 I tried to cut back other places. So, I only added one can black beans and one can diced tomatoes. I did ADD 1 super small can of tomato sauce. It was really good and the author says it freezes well, so I'll be putting leftovers in the freezer.

Also, I made the granola from this post again and I modified it even more by only doing 1/8 c. Rapadura and then I added an 1/8 c. honey. Turned out great.

Sick

Well, I was on a roll, but have been really, really sick (all last week!) and so our eating has suffered. :( But, I'm feeling a little better and thought I'd update with some things we've made.

Oatmeal raisin cookies (GASP - cookies??!!!) How we modified: only all whole wheat flour, Rapadura/Sucanat instead of sugar - which is still sugar - just not refined. And since it is sugar we definitely limited our cookie consumption. As in - we each only ate ONE and froze the rest.

Steel Cut oats - the best I've ever had. Modified by using less butter, almond milk in place of the other milks, and no brown sugar. I added bananas, pecans, some unsweetened coconut and pure maple syrup after and it was delicious.

Granola - Doug is in love with this stuff. We changed it by cutting back on the sugar and maple syrup a little (didn't add the extra 2 Tbs). Also used the rapadura instead of brown sugar. Used unsweetened coconut, halved the oil and substituted unsweetened applesauce for the other 1/8 cup. And didn't add the cashews. Turned out FANTASTIC.

Pizza crust. Didn't modify it. I actually had to go borrow white sugar from my neighbor (my rapadura hadn't arrived yet) and I have to say this was the best pizza crust EVER. We used some really good, clean Central Market marinara sauce, fresh mozzarella (only way to go in my opinion), peppers, tomatoes, olives, and onions. It was SO YUMMY!

My friend has recently let me borrow her Moosewood Cookbook so hopefully I'll have some good recipes to post soon.

No matter what - I feel good about feeding my family real food. And even though we've added a little sugar back it's unprocessed and there's not much of it. I've also got this book checked out from the library right now and it has some recipes that look promising.

Dinner (and dessert)

Dinner was this. It was VERY good. Unfortunately I don't know how it would be without the cheese (darn cheese!). I've heard things about rice cheese and nutritional yeast, but haven't tried either yet. Also, I've never had stuffed peppers before, meaning - if I had grown up on stuffed peppers with meat inside, well, I'm not sure I would have liked them as much. I have nothing to compare them to - so they were very good.

Dessert was cookies from the Forks over Knives book. (The school cookies.) They are basically no-bake oatmeal cookies but without the sugar. :)

Doug is now making bread. Yay! Here's our bread recipe (done in a bread machine):

1 1/4 c. warm water
1/3 c. oil (I prefer olive oil, but canola is fine too.)
1/4 c. honey
4 c. flour (the original recipe calls for 2 c. wheat and 2 c. white.) I grind my own wheat (this is my wheat grinder and I really like it.) and use hard white spring wheat which makes a very light, very good bread. I use 4 c. ALL wheat.
1/2 T. salt
1 T. yeast

Put ingredients (in the order listed above) in to bread machine. Turn on dough cycle. When it's done shape your loaves and let rise for about 30 minutes. Bake in a 325 degree oven for 30 minutes. I usually get one really large loaf and one mini loaf - just to enjoy with some honey.

Tex-Mex Lasagna (vegan)

Tonight I made the Tex-Mex Lasagna from this book (which I need to buy.)

I was surprised to find:
1. I didn't miss the cheese
2. I didn't miss the meat
3. Doug loved it.
4. It didn't call for salt and it didn't need any. Not that salting your food is bad...but if you can cut it out and not miss it, why not?

Dinner with friends tomorrow, which means it's back to business as usual on Saturday night. On the menu: minestrone soup.

Delicious lettuce wraps

Here's the recipe from tonight. It's a mix between this and the lettuce wraps in the Forks over Knives how-to companion. So, I'll tell you what I used - but you can check that site for her recipe. The Forks over Knives recipe called for tofu but I am so intimidated by that stuff. I have never eaten it or prepared it. I probably just need to jump on in and buy it and try it. Anyway, here it is (perfect for our family of 3):

1 chicken breast - I cut it when it was frozen and cut it up really, really small.

salt & pepper

1/2 medium onion, minced

2 large carrots, peeled and finely diced

1 celery stalk, finely diced

1/4 cup chopped shitake mushrooms

2 large cloves garlic, minced

1 t. fresh ginger, peeled and minced

1 T sesame oil

2 1/2 T Tamari

1/2 T. water

1 T. natural peanut butter

1/2 T. honey

1 T + 1 t. rice vinegar

3 green onions, chopped

1 can sliced water chestnuts, drained and chopped

Butter lettuce leaves

I sauteed the chicken with some salt and pepper and set aside. Then I sauteed the onion, carrots and celery in a different pan.I then added the garlic and ginger and sauteed that with the other vegetables. While things are cooking mix the oil, tamari, water, PB, honey and rice vinegar in a bowl and microwave for 20 seconds. Add the sauce to the skillet and stir to combine all the ingredients. I cooked it for about 1 minute. Add the green onions and the water chestnuts and cook for 1-2 minutes until the onions are soft and the water chestnuts are heated through. Serve with the lettuce leaves.

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It was DELICIOUS!

Black Bean Burgers

These were DELISH! I didn't put mine on a bun...but Doug did. I just topped mine with guacamole and pico de gallo on a bed of romaine lettuce. Added some clean tortilla chips and it was HEAVEN!!

Last night was a bust

So, yesterday was fast Sunday which meant we were VERY hungry after church. For dinner I made pasta with 100% whole grain spaghetti noodles, spaghetti squash, cherry tomatoes, fresh basil, parmesan cheese and some olive oil. I really liked it. Doug and Paige DID NOT! Doug could barely eat it. Poor guy. He despises squash.

Tonight we had stir fry. I used the rest of the chicken from Saturday. I also added (to the costco mix) onions, snap peas, yellow bell pepper and some more carrots. It was DELISH!

We are now five days in with no sugar, or any white products. No dairy products for me. I've eaten chicken twice. And I'd say that's pretty darn good. :)

Costco saves the day

Went to Costco today. I really wish it wasn't so far away.

Picked up a bag of frozen stir-fry veggies. Stir-fried that tonight with some organic chicken breast. It was good. I think I went a little light on the veggies though. Next time I'll add some onions, peppers, and snap peas.

Had an orange for dessert.

Doug told me he had a dream last night where he was eating a brownie and not wanting to tell me. Can you tell we are addicted to sugar?

Second day success

I dreamt of junk food last night. This is going to be hard. But I can do it. I can do hard things. I need to keep repeating this to myself.

I'm pleased to report that I had the best oatmeal EVER today.

whole oats cooked on stovetop, then coarsley chopped apples, some raisins, oat bran, honey and almond milk thrown on top. It was DELISH!!

I snacked throughout the day. Almonds, celery, oranges.

For dinner we fried last night's tortillas and I LOVED it tonight. Doug liked it too. He didn't put on any of the chipotle cream. Paige ate all of it too (but not willingly). I also fried up some tortilla chips and sprinkled some coarse salt over the top and mashed up an avocado. Yummy.

I wanted dessert tonight. I really, really wanted dessert tonight. I had an orange instead.

Day 2: success!

Change

Here we go.

A new year…a new challenge. And this year's challenge is to CHANGE the way I eat. And to change the way my family eats. I am going to take us back to the basics. We are going to eat clean, real food. I hope to incorporate vegan and vegetarian meals as well.

There are two main reasons for doing this.

1. Infertility. In 11 years of marriage we have been trying to get pregnant for more than 8 years. We did have our one miracle girl five years ago (thanks to Clomid), but have been unable to conceive since then. We have had many failed rounds of Clomid, a failed IUI, a failed Letrozole cycle, and a failed IVF cycle since my daughter was born. I want to heal my body. And if we get pregnant on the way - AWESOME. And if we don't and decide to pursue more assisted reproductive technology (ART), then I will know that I've done all I can. AND - I'll be a lot healthier.

2. Cancer. My husband's father died of prostate cancer at age 63. Diet can change a lot of that. I DO NOT want to wake up in 30 years and wish I had done more. I do not want my husband to die of cancer like his dad and grandfather did. And if he still develops cancer, we will know we did all we could to change it.

We just got back from our Christmas vacation to California to visit my family. It was our last hurrah. Junk food and junk food and more junk food. I am ready to start this.

First I had to do the grocery shopping. While at the grocery store I felt I was being bombarded with so many unhealthy eating choices. It all looked SO GOOD! It took a lot of will power to not add any junk to my cart. I discovered the bulk section today at my local grocery store. I was very pleased with it. It is also quite expensive to eat this way. My bill today totaled: $204.70. That's more than I've ever spent. There were a few things I bought that won't be bought every week, so hopefully next week it will be less, but I can definitely see that our grocery bill will go up. Why is it so much cheaper to eat unhealthy?

Anyway, today was our first day. And I'm pleased to report that the only thing that didn't pass the "clean eating" bill was the corn tortillas I bought. I tried to find the "cleanest" available, but the options weren't good. I need to either make my own or find some that don't have preservatives or sugar.

Dinner tonight was Black Bean and Sweet Potato Tacos with Chipotle Crema.

My sister and her husband raved about these and I'll admit that I was very apprehensive since I have an aversion to sweet potatoes. But, I'll tell you that they weren't that bad. :) I had to close my eyes and really focus on the flavors to realize that they weren't bad. Silly, I know. Doug didn't like the yogurt chipotle sauce (said it tasted too much like sour cream) and Paige didn't want to eat it at all. Well, she ate a little bit of the corn tortilla. We'll be having leftovers tomorrow night. Doug would like me to fry the tortillas. I don't know if frying tortillas is clean, but I'll fry them in olive oil and drain excess oil.

Then later tonight I ground some wheat and made bread. I also made a "clean" granola. Recipe here. I used oats and doubled it.

I'm inspired tonight from this post at Word of Wisdom Living.

I want to be healthy. Earlier today when writing out the menu for the week I felt overwhelmed, thinking that maybe I can't make all these changes, but then I remembered that it is all a process. And as long as I am trying to change, well, that's what counts. I count today as a success and hope tomorrow will be successful too!

I will be updating this blog frequently to track my journey.