I’ve been eating a lot of the same things for dinner while on the cleanse. While it’s great because I’m getting the right number of calories and nutrients, I know that I can’t keep this up for forever.
I’ve tried doing a little experimenting with my food and it’s all been pretty successful. But I wanted to get out of my comfort zone.
I had seen portabella mushroom pizzas on Pinterest a lot, but I’ve never been motivated enough to try them. I had to make them with soy-free vegan cheese (made from peas) to make this cleanse-friendly. But I will totally make this again with real cheese!
Portabella Mushroom Pizza
What you need:
Portabella mushroom caps
Pizza or marinara sauce
Cheese
Whatever toppings you like (I had olives, onions, garlic, and spinach)
What to do:
Preheat your oven to about 375.
Clean and prep the mushroom. Clean off the outside with a damp cloth and then remove the stem and gills from the inside. I used a spoon and it worked pretty well.
Put the mushrooms on a foil-lined baking sheet. I saw online that by making little cups for the mushrooms to sit on, they wouldn’t get as soggy.
Take some of the pizza or marinara sauce and spread it on the mushroom.
Cover the sauce with the cheese and then add your toppings.
Once the oven is at the correct temperature, stick them in to bake. I kept mine in about 15 minutes and I think they could have used a bit more time. But a good judge is once the cheese is browning and bubbly, it’s ready.
I made a few decisions with my pizzas that could be considered mistakes (too much sauce, not enough toppings, not baking them enough), but honestly it was still very yummy! With a few adjustments, this recipe will definitely be in a regular rotation at my house.
I’m still so shocked that I’ve gone from never really cooking to cooking every day (and making up my own recipes!). This is such a positive change in my life and I’m looking forward to continuing it even after the cleanse is done this week.
I’ve had lots of people ask me what exactly I eat (or what I’m allowed to eat) while I’m on this cleanse. While I do share pictures online of some foods that I’m enjoying, I figured I would break it down meal by meal.
This breakdown doesn’t include the tonics or detox drinks I’m having. Those are spread throughout the day. At the phase I’m in now, I have a detox drink when I wake up, a liver tonic between breakfast and lunch, another detox drink 2 hours after lunch, another liver tonic about 90 minutes after my last detox drink, and my bowel tonic about 2 hours after dinner. I mix all the drinks and tonics with orange juice, so that’s something I’m consuming over the course of the day that I’m not including on this meal breakdown.
For breakfast, we are supposed to have fresh fruit of smoothies. While I’m getting much better about being lazy in the kitchen, I don’t want to bother with making a smoothie in the morning. It’s too much effort for what I want. My old breakfast was toast with peanut butter. I’m not a huge breakfast person normally and while I’m being careful on the cleanse, I’m keeping that pattern.
Most days, I just eat a banana for breakfast. After having my detox drink in the morning, I’m pretty full so a banana is perfect. Sometimes I get a little fancier with my fruit.
I really like cantaloupe and strawberries and when I find some good ones, I love to add them to my breakfasts. But lately the selection is pretty bad, so I’m just eating my bananas.
For lunch, it’s supposed to be something that is not cooked (I like this since normally I am preparing lunch between working with clients on the phone or on chat for my box office job). I started out making broccoli slaw salads, but I quickly tired of broccoli slaw. Now, I’m eating either an apple with cashew butter and a little salad or a big salad.
I’m not a big lettuce person (I try and unless it’s got some sort of dairy on it I just don’t love lettuce), so my salads are pretty much tomatoes, onions, cucumbers, avocado, and walnuts. Then I top it with balsamic vinegar (I use good vinegar so I don’t feel the need to add oil). I also eat some dried apricots with my lunch most days. I forgot how much I love them and they add a perfect sweet touch to my lunches.
On days that I work out, I eat a small handful of cashews before going to my workout to add little extra protein and energy. I really need it on my workout days and even though I’m not supposed to snack on this plan, I have to do what allows me to work out and not feel sick and light-headed.
Dinners are a cooked meal. I’m eating a lot of rice and beans bowls. I think of them almost as my own version of Chipotle (which I love!).
Most dinners have sautéed onions, zucchini, and squash. Sometimes I add mushrooms or red peppers to the mix. I just sauté them down in the pan with a tiny spray of Pam (no oil). I cook them until they are pretty brown (I don’t mind them if they are overcooked). Then I put them onto a bowl of brown rice and black beans. Most of the time, I top this with avocado.
Last night, I tried a new dinner (it wasn’t the prettiest thing so I didn’t take photos). Potatoes are allowed on this plan, but when I made a baked potato earlier in the cleanse I didn’t like it. I’m used to using greek yogurt with some spices as a sour cream substitute and I missed that. So last night, I diced up a potato and cooked it in the microwave for about 4 minutes to soften the pieces up. Then I added the almost cooked potato to a pan with an entire sweet onion in it. I cooked it down until the potatoes were nice and browned and the onions were almost caramelized. It was so yummy and reminded me of hash browns!
That’s pretty much my meal breakdown! It’s a little boring and I’m figuring out how I will start adding things back into my diet in about 2 weeks (I think dairy will come first). But as you can see, I’m not starving or just drinking shakes on this plan. It is all “real” food and I’m eating quite a bit to make sure my calories don’t dip too low.
A lot of what I’m eating now will continue to be meals for me. I’m finding out that the amounts that I’m eating are working for me and while I want to add some things back (mainly dairy and eggs), I don’t feel deprived. It’s so funny how this cleanse has changed my mindset on what my body really needs to have each day. Things that I thought I had to keep in my diet (like my toast in the morning so my stomach didn’t get too upset) are no longer important to me.
One of the reasons that people go on this cleanse is to get clarity in their life (weight loss is just a bonus). I’m getting to see the results that this clarity brings to me and it’s really awesome!
Since I was getting a little bored with basic chicken every week when I did my bulk cooking, I decided to spice things up a bit this week. I did a lot of searching online for ideas that seemed yummy and easy.
I found a lot of great ideas, but they all took so many ingredients! So I decided to take the ideas that I was finding online and simplifying them to make it something that I wouldn’t have to buy a ton of ingredients for.
And this is what I came up with.
Honey-Dijon Pork Chops
What You Need:
Dijon Mustard
Honey
Garlic
Pork Chops
Here’s What To Do (it’s seriously so simple!)
Put the pork chops in a zip bag.
Measure out about 1/4 cup of Dijon mustard and pour into the bag.
Measure out about the same amount of honey and pour into the bag.
Finely chop some garlic (I used 2 cloves because I love garlic!) and put that into the bag.
Zip up the bag and let most of the air out. Then massage the mustard/honey/garlic mixture all over the pork chops.
Put the bag into the fridge and let it sit for about an hour or two.
When you are ready to cook, pre-heat the oven to 425.
Take each pork chop out of the bag and place them on a foil-lined baking sheet.
Pepper the top and bottom on each pork chop.
Cook in the oven until they are done (for me it took about 25 minutes).
Take them out of the oven and set them onto a chopping board or other surface to rest (you don’t want them to stay on the hot baking sheet or they will continue to cook).
Since I was doing this for bulk cooking, I portioned out my pork into my dinner containers (I forgot to get a picture of how beautiful they looked before I cut them up).
Seriously, that’s it! They were so delicious, flavorful, and juicy! When I made them, I used closer to 1/2 cup of the mustard and honey and that was way too much. There was so much marinade on the pork when I removed them from the bag that I had to wipe them off a little.
I’ve had this for the past 2 days so far, and I’m really enjoying it! You can probably use the same marinade for chicken and maybe for fish as well.
This will totally be a part of my regular food planning from now on and I hope that you enjoy it as much as I have!
Seriously, I can’t believe how far I’ve come in my cooking over the last month. I started out scared to cook at all and now I’m creating my own recipes!
Since my first attempt at bulk cooking, things have been going pretty great so far.
I’m getting into a groove with my food, and for once it’s almost all food that I make myself. I know that boredom is going to happen eventually, but for now, my focus is to just get used to cooking on a regular basis.
My focus on cooking has been my dinners as that is my weak point in my day. 3 days a week, I’m getting home from my workout at dinnertime. And I don’t want to think about making something then. So it’s been really easy in the past to run to Subway on the way home for a veggie sub or to make a microwave dinner.
My dinners are pretty simple. My first week of bulk cooking, I put each food in a container and each night I would take out what I needed. But after that first week, I learned that doing things that way make my Fridays full of doing dishes. So now, I make dinner boxes (each container is a full dinner).
I always have chicken breast for dinner. I’m going to start exploring other good protein options, but this one works for me right now. I get skinless boneless chicken at Trader Joes and season it with some Trader Joes seasoning or another salt-free seasoning. Then they go into the oven until they are done. Then I put the amount of chicken I want for each night (right now it’s 4 oz cooked chicken) in the container.
I also have always had sweet potatoes in my dinner boxes. The first week of bulk cooking, I made them whole, but they got a little slime toward the end of the week. The next week, I tried cutting them into rounds, and those were ok. But this week when I went to Trader Joes to get my food, I saw pre-cubed sweet potatoes and made those instead. I think cutting them up myself is a better plan for me, but it’s good to try something else.
The last thing that I have had each week is roasted/caramelized red onions. I love onions, especially red onions. I’ve quartered them and roasted them once but this week I cut them into rings to roast them. No matter what, they are so delicious and I know that I will keep having onions in my dinner boxes.
Then there is always a vegetable. The first week I had broccoli and green beans. Those were awesome. Last week I had asparagus, and they didn’t turn out so great. I ended up going out and buying more asparagus so I could make some each night for dinner. This week, I tried to roast carrots. But something went seriously wrong. They never felt cooked (they felt really hard), but they turned white in the oven. I have no idea what I did, but they went straight into the trash. Fortunately, I had some frozen veggies that I hadn’t used so I microwaved those and put a cup of the veggies in each dinner box.
I’m still working on more lunch ideas, but I’ve been having hard-boiled eggs and turkey meatballs a lot. And on days I don’t have a workout, I sometimes have a sandwich. But I’m looking for more easy options that I can eat while I work (I don’t get a lunch break at my day job).
This week, I know that Thursday will be a “bad” food day since I will be ordering Chinese food. But hopefully since I’m doing really well the other days, I will still be able to make some progress. After all, isn’t this how I’m supposed to live? Mostly eating the right foods but allowing myself to have a splurge every once in a while?
If you have any bulk cooking things that you love, I’d love to hear them in the comments! I know that boredom will happen soon and I’d like to have some ideas to be ready for that!
Inspired by my cooking confidence that I gained while making the salmon dish, I decided to try something else new.
Bulk cooking.
I looked up a lot of ideas on Pinterest and various websites to find some basic things that should be easy enough for me to do. I decided on one basic protein (chicken breasts) and a couple of vegetables. I hadn’t completely decided on the vegetables prior to going to Trader Joes because I wanted to see what I would find and if anything inspired me.
I ended up buying the chicken breasts as well as broccoli, green beans, red onions, red peppers, and sweet potatoes. I also got some baby carrots, sugar snap peas, and hummus to have as snacks.
It was one of my more expensive shopping trips, but I was buying food for the week. Plus I usually don’t buy meat (at least not meat I have to prepare) so that was a bit more expensive. But considering that this should be my only shopping trip for the week and that I’m not eating take out or delivery this week, it actually is less than I would usually spend.
Before I knew it, my kitchen was looking like this.
I cut each chicken breast in half lengthwise and put a little olive oil and some Trader Joes seasoning on them. Then they baked until the insides weren’t pink anymore (about 35 minutes). The sweet potatoes went in the same time that the chicken went in, but they ended up taking a little over 2 hours to bake (starting at 400 and then ending at 450). The broccoli, onions, and green beans went in when the chicken was done. I did learn my lesson with the green beans that I overcrowded them and they steamed more than they baked, but they were still yummy. And the onions were perfectly caramelized!
Overall, I think my first try at bulk cooking went really well. My timing of things was a bit off, but that’s to be expected when you aren’t a big cooker.
All the food went into storage containers to cool before going into my fridge.
With everything in the fridge, it looked more crowded than it usually is, but since it’s just me at my house, that’s fine.
I made my first reheated bulk dinner the next day after a workout. I put everything on a plate and microwaved it (I’ve since learned that I need to smash up the sweet potato otherwise it doesn’t heat all the way through). My first plate looked beautiful and was very yummy.
I’m not sure if I’m going to bulk cook every week. I’m going to see how this entire week plays out. In a typically week, I can cook on Sundays, Tuesdays, and Thursdays so I’m toying with the idea of doing some bulk cooking but then cooking a recipe on those days and having leftovers on the day between cooking days.
Either way, this is a major step for me. I don’t know why I’ve been holding back on cooking for so long. While it’s a bit tough considering how small my kitchen is, it’s not impossible. And now I’m eating much healthier (and much more food since everything is lower in calories than frozen dinners). Hopefully I can make this trend continue just like my workouts have been.
I’ve mentioned my fear of cooking before. If it’s something I’ve made a hundred times or is really easy, I’m totally down to cook it. But if it’s something new or using my oven (which is always tricky to use), I’m pretty hesitant.
But for the Orangetheory Nike ID Challenge, one of the required photos for the Instagram portion was me with a homemade meal. And while I could have made something I’ve made before or even taken a photo at Thanksgiving, I took advantage of this and decided to challenge myself.
I had pinned this recipe a while back because it seemed simple and would have an easy clean up. I was right on both counts. So here it is for all of you.
When I made this recipe, I doubled it so I would have leftovers for the next day. I highly recommend doing that.
Put all ingredients except for salmon and asparagus in a bowl and mix them to make a paste.
Place a piece of foil on a baking sheet large enough for the salmon (I made my foil twice the size of the salmon to be able to fold it over).
Arrange your asparagus in a row on the foil.
Place the salmon on top of the asparagus.
Coat the salmon with the paste you made with the other ingredients.
Cover your salmon tightly with the foil. I added a second piece of foil to make sure that all the seams were tight.
Bake in the over for about 30 minutes. Unwrap, plate, and enjoy!
Seriously, that’s it! So easy and since it’s wrapped in foil, the clean up is pretty much non-existent. When I reheated the second piece of salmon the next day, I did it under the broiler so the top would get nice and crispy. I would recommend doing that to everyone. It made it much better!
I’m slowing getting used to eating fish again. I was having sensitivity issues with it for years, but I’ve finally outgrown it. I’m discovering which fish I like and what I don’t. I’m not a huge salmon fan, so when I make this again, I will likely use something I like (I’m a fan of tilapia and cod). And you could use the paste mixture on chicken, but I don’t know how chicken does in a foil pack. But you could definitely bake it with the garlic and parmesan!
This was so easy and delicious that it inspired me to try to cook some more! But I’ll have more about that another day.
First of all, I hope you all had a great Thanksgiving! I’m writing this post in advance so I can focus my time on my family, but I wanted to share with you all the dish that I brought down to San Diego with me.
I had asked my mom ahead of time if there was anything I could help her with, and she asked me to get some chips we like from Trader Joes and to make her feta-pine nut dip because she didn’t know if she would have the time to do it on her own. I figured I could make it at home and then drive down with it in a little cooler with an ice pack, so I said that I’d be happy to help out.
This dip is a family favorite and something that everyone loves and looks forward to at any family gathering. And I had never made it before so the pressure was on! But thankfully, the recipe isn’t too tough. So here’s my mom’s famous recipe for feta-pine nut dip so you can all make it and impress your friends and family!
Feta-Pine Nut Dip
What You Need:
1 (8 oz) Tub Whipped Cream Cheese Spread
1/2 Cup Plain Non-Fat Yogurt
3 Tbsp Pine Nuts (Toasted)
2 Tbsp (Packed) Fresh Basil
1 Clove Garlic, Crushed
1 (7 oz) Package Feta Cheese
1/3 Cup Chopped, Drained Oil-Packed Sun-Dried Tomatoes
Here’s What You Do:
Place cream cheese, yogurt, pine nuts, basil, and garlic in food processor.
Blend using the pulse button until combined.
Add feta (crumbled or cubed) and sun-dried tomatoes and pulse until combined but still chunky.
That’s it! If you aren’t serving it right away, store it in the fridge. And this is a great make-ahead dip because it’s good for about a week in the fridge!
I highly recommend serving it with pita chips, veggies, or the flax-seed chips that you can get from Trader Joes.
As I’m writing this, my family has not tried it yet. I tasted it after it was made and besides being a little garlicky (I must have bought some potent garlic), it tastes exactly how my mom’s dip tastes.
Hopefully my family thinks that I did a good job with it and they enjoy it on Thanksgiving. And if you try out the recipe, let me know if your family and friends love it too!
I’ve been pretty active on my Pinterest page lately. I’ve been pinning a ton of recipes and craft ideas and I’m super inspired to do all of these ideas.
Except I’ve done none of them.
I went back through the recipes that I’ve pinned lately and they all look amazing to me. I want to make all of those meals now. Some of them are even slow cooker recipes so I can cook them while I work (but I don’t feel comfortable leaving my slow cooker on while I’m not home yet).
But then I look at the ingredients and realize that I have to do a shopping trip just to get those things. I don’t keep a very stocked fridge or pantry, but I feel like I have to do that so I don’t go crazy with food. So I can’t just “throw something together” because I don’t have the something to throw together.
I’m trying to do some planning about maybe going to get the ingredients on a day that I can make the dish, but then when I get to the store, I’m just motivated to get the things I usually eat (lots of salad ingredients and frozen chicken).
I’m not sure if my lack of motivation is due to not wanting to make the food or the cleanup involved afterwards. It’s also not motivating when I’m just cooking for myself. When I have company, I’m happy to cook.
Crafty ideas I’m getting a bit better about. I saw a pin about cute placemats for Thanksgiving. I went out and got all the things needed to make them and I’ll be working on them on the weekend (it involves multiple coats of paint so I want a day that I’m free to work on this). I’m much more willing to fail with crafty ideas than I am with food.
Everything looks so beautiful on Pinterest and not necessarily achievable by “normal” people. There are even websites devoted to Pinterest fail. I understand that with many things that are pinned on there, failure is almost inevitable because many pins are done by professionals.
I just have to get over myself and take the risk at making these foods I’ve pinned and maybe I can become a Pinterest success story!
Posted onDecember 30, 2013|Comments Off on Breakfast Bread Pudding (or Another Delicious Recipe!)
When I went home for the few days around Christmas, I had decided that I wanted to make a special breakfast for Christmas morning. Even though we don’t celebrate Christmas, I figured it was a good excuse to make something fun.
Originally, I had thought that I’d make overnight french toast. But then a few days before my trip, there was a potluck lunch at my day job. And one of my co-workers made this savory bread pudding. And as soon as I had it, I knew that it was going to be our Christmas breakfast.
4 Cups of Bread (we used Challah), Cut Into 1/2″ Cubes
8 Eggs
1 Cup Milk (we used 2%)
3oz Grated Cheddar Cheese
Salt and Pepper
What To Do:
Cook bacon until crispy. Drain on paper towel and set aside until cool.
In a bowl mix cooled bacon, bread, and about 1oz of the cheese. Pour dry mixture into 8×8 baking dish (sprayed with Pam or greased with butter).
Wisk eggs and milk together and add salt and pepper. Pour wet mixture over dry mixture. Mix to ensure even coating on bread.
Sprinkle remaining cheese on top.
Let sit for at least 30 minutes. What we did was make this the night before and let it sit in the fridge overnight.
When ready to bake, heat over to 375.
Bake about 40 minutes or until it is puffed up and the top is golden.
Serves 4
This was very yummy! Even though when we made it it was only a few hours after Chaucer’s passing, it helped to make the morning a bit better. There were only 3 of us eating that morning, so my dad saved some for leftovers. He had it a few days later and reported back to me that it was still delicious!
I’m definitely making this again. But I think that I would add some veggies into it. Maybe some mushroom or peppers. While it tasted great, it needed some more color.
If any of you are looking for a fun New Year’s breakfast that you can make ahead of time, I highly recommend this!
Posted onOctober 16, 2013|Comments Off on Skinny Spinach Dip (or A Recipe From Food Should Taste Good)
After I got the chips from Food Should Taste Good, I knew I wanted to make a dip to go with them. I ended up going to their recipe website and found skinny spinach dip. I love spinach dip, but it’s normally a pretty high calorie choice. I added up the ingredients from this recipe and the entire batch is about 500 calories! So of course I’m sharing it with all of you!
Here’s what you’ll need:
4 cups chopped fresh spinach, loosely packed
12 oz plain greek yogurt (I like Fage)
1/4 cup green onions, chopped
3 cloves of garlic, minced
1 cup shredded Mozzarella cheese
1/4 teaspoon salt
1/4 teaspoon black pepper
1/4 cup grate Parmesan cheese
And the steps to make this are super easy!
Put the first seven ingredients (everything but the Parmesan) in a bowl.
Mix it together.
Put the mix in an oven proof bowl (I sprayed some non-stick spray in it).
I actually made this a day ahead so for me, the next step was to stick it in my fridge. I was going to bake it the next day. If you are making this the same day, obviously skip this step.
(Now you all know what I keep in my fridge!)
When you are ready to bake it, put it in a 350 degree oven.
And let it bake for about 30 minutes (since mine came out of the fridge, I let it bake for about 40 minutes). The cheese should be melted and bubbly and the edges should be golden.
Finally, sprinkle the Parmesan cheese on top!
That’s it! It’s super easy and it was really yummy too! Between me and my friend, we pretty much finished it all! I know that I’ll be making this again for parties in the future. It was quick to put together and it looked impressive. The only thing that I would change was I would make sure to chop the spinach smaller. Or maybe take some frozen spinach and thaw and drain it to use. But even with the big spinach pieces, it was so good!
Finishing Up The Cleanse (or Some Lessons I’ve Learned)
