Cali Strikes Again

After my last trip to California I went vegetarian for about a month.  I don't know if it's the healthy vibe of California or if it's my brother.  I think it's probably my brother.

Let's talk about Brother B for a minute.  B has always been a "healthy" person.  He played soccer in college and once ran a half marathon with me without even training.  I thought I was going to die at the end but I'm pretty sure he could've gone another 13.1 miles without breaking a sweat.  He's naturally athletic.  But he also lives and breathes a healthy life.  Aside from his son, obtaining and maintaining optimal health is his number one priority in life, followed by his desire to spread health to others.

B is a physical therapist.  He is a Reiki master, certified massage therapist, certified Ayurvedic perfect Health Instructor and soon to be certified yoga instructor.  The man knows health. 

And he owns a Vitamix and is not afraid to use it.  We had green smoothies chocked full of fruits and vegetables every morning before breakfast.  I feel vibrantly healthy after drinking one of his smoothies.  My body pracitally sighs and says "thank you" for not starting my day off with a load of crap food!  And I've found that by starting my day with a green smoothie, I'm more likely to make healthy decisions as the day continues.

Vitamix in action

Before even leaving Cali, I made the decision to keep up the green sludge smoothie morning routine once I was back in Atlanta.  So far I'm 9 for 11 (and the 2 days I missed I was out of town).  And I swear my skin looks better in just two short weeks of drinking these drinks.  But there's more.

The day I got back form California I stumbled upon a blog that was new to me called 100 Days of Real Food.  It's about eating, you guessed it, REAL food.  So I've jumped on that band wagon in addition to my green smoothies.  It's not a diet.  It's a way of living and eating.  The rules are simple - only eat real food.  This translates into not eating much processed foods.  My rule of thumb is to not buy/eat anything that has more than 5-6 ingredients and avoid anything that has an ingredient that I cannot pronounce or do not know what it is.  Check out the 100 Days blog, it has some amazing information and was very eye opening.

My body has been what I can only describe as detoxing the past two weeks.  Now that I'm eating only real food my body is purging all the toxins from the fake food I've been eating.  At least that is what the world wide web has told me is going on. 

Eating clean does take some effort.  It takes planning because I'm realizing that there are very few restaurants that have "real" food in their ingredients.  At least not many fast food places.



Box of Mangos from the Dekalb Farmer's Market = $5.00 (Much cheaper to buy, peel, chop and freeze mangos and make homemade smoothies than to buy a smoothie every day!)



So what have I been eating?  I kept a food journal the first few days:

Monday 8.13

Smoothie - pineapple juice, spinach, kale, red bell pepper, avocado, mango (frozen), strawberry

Coffee (black)

Cashews & almonds

Willy's burrito bowl - rice, black beans, steak, lettuce, salsa, guacamole, cilantro (I hadn't read the 100 Days blog yet, or I wouldn't have eaten Willy's....)

Pork tenderloin with roasted broccoli (olive oil, lemon juice, Parmesan cheese)

Tuesday 8.14

Smoothie - pineapple juice, spinach, kale, red bell pepper, cucumber, carrots, strawberries, peaches (frozen)

Coffee (black) (2)

Cashews & Almonds

Pork tenderloin with roasted broccoli (olive oil, lemon juice)

6oz 0% fat Greek yogurt with a dash of cinnamon

Quinoa made in vegetable stock; arugula, tomatoes, parm cheese; turkey meatballs (3)

1/3 banana

Wednesday 8.15

Banana

Smoothie: kale, red bell pepper, cucumber, carrots, strawberries, peaches (frozen), pineapple chunks & water + Moringa, Maca & Hemp Powder

Cashews & almonds

Quinoa made in vegetable stock; arugula, tomatoes, parm cheese; lemon juice

Apple

Edamame

Green tea

Hangar Steak

Brussel sprouts cooked with olive oil, bacon, balsamic vinegar

Banana

Quinoa made in vegetable stock; arugula, tomatoes, parm cheese; lemon juice

Thursday 8.16

2 eggs scrambled with a dash of feta cheese and pesto

Smoothie: kale, red bell pepper, cucumber, carrots, strawberries, pineapple chunks & water + Moringa, Maca & Hemp Powder

Cashews & almonds

Arugula with Quinoa, lemon juice, tomatoes, hangar steak, pork & parmesean

2 brownrice cakes with avocado

Brussel sprouts wtih bacon, olive oil & balsamic vinegar

Chicken burger (TJ) with avocado

Friday 8.17 (this was a strange day of food, I admit)

Smoothie: pineapple juice, spinach & frozen mango with Hemp Protein

2 bananas

Beef jerkey

0% Greek yogurt

Lara Bar

Banana

Blackened grouper with green beans and plain baked potato (no butter, etc.)

My post Cali-purchases: probotics, Kids Superfood (makes chocolate milk with hidden veggies and superfood and tastes delcious); Hemp Protein, Moringa & Maca Powder (B says they're the new Acai superfoods)

Today 8.23

Smoothie: spinach, kale, swiss chard, carrot, frozen mango, pineapple, cucumber, celery, water, Moringa, Hemp Protein, Maca Powder

Quinoa with zucchini, black beans, corn, cotija cheese

Banana

Almond butter (2 Tbls - from a spoon.  Don't judge)

2 homemade pork tacos - slowcooker pork, tomatillo salsa, avocado, lime, cilantro on Ezekiel tortillas

It's really not that hard to eat clean, real food if you plan and have the ingredients at home.  Last night we at out and I had the blackened fish with jasmine rice and snap peas.  One night I made a knock off Chik-fil-A sandwich that I baked in the oven - it was amazing.

Organic "REAL" knock-off Chik-fil-A sandwich - ready to be BAKED!

I am cooking more and trying a variety of new foods.  I plan on keeping this health kick going.  I'll keep you posted!

And at some point we'll talk about the Insanity workouts I'm doing.  But not now.  I'm too exhausted from my workout.

Guns, Horses & Meat

I was a country girl this Easter weekend.  The highlights of which included riding a horse for the very first time, shooting a 20 gauge shotgun and breaking my vegetarian streak by consuming steak, fried chicken and pulled pork all within a 48 hour span.

My little Easter bunny

We spent the weekend at a hunting lodge in South Georgia with a group of friends and their kiddos.  Lukas loved the fresh air and took a 3 and half hour nap one day!  I enjoyed hanging with my girlfriends and my two boys.  Lukas and his friend Elise even did an Easter egg hunt! I thought they were too young and wouldn't catch on to the hunt part, but they did - I'll post some pictures when I get them uploaded.  It was a wonderful weekend getaway. 

In the meantime, here's a video of my little guy from last week.  It's long, but the entire thing cracks me up. This is such a fun age!

Week 4 - what!

So I'm still not eating meat.  Well, not regularly.  In the past three weeks I have eaten meat exactly two times.  Once was last Saturday at a friend's BBQ.  I was eating the corn salad someone had made and didn't realize until about five bites in that the delicious flavor in the background was bacon.  I kept eating it even after this realization.  And I went back for seconds.

And Friday night my mom made one of her famous homemade Italian sausage pizzas.  I asked her to leave me a cheese slice.  But one slice of her pizza is not enough, so I had a second slice that was topped with Italian (turkey) sausage.  I had another slice Saturday for lunch.  There are some things that just taste better with some meat.  This is why I can never become a full-fledged vegetarian.

So I haven't gone out of my way to eat meat.  In fact, I've gone out of my way to not eat meat.  And I realized this week that eating a vegetarian diet does not necessarily mean a healthy diet.  Especially when eat out at restaurants.

Between our puppy being sick last week and Mr. Cob's sister visiting, we ate dinner out three nights last week.  The first restaurant (Big Tex in Decatur) left me with few vegetarian options: a portobello burger (I hate portobello mushrooms so that was out), a grilled pimento cheese sandwich on Texas Toast or a salad.  I opted for the pimento cheese, which was tasty, but I could feel my arteries clogging with each bite.  So much so that I ran five miles on the treadmill that night.

The next restaurant (The Marlay House) had more veggie options and I went with the Roasted Beet and Goat Cheese Salad with Granny Smith apples, walnuts and red wine vinaigrette.  It was a bit disappointing and I can't pinpoint why, but I won't be ordering it again.  I did get a side of the garlic rosemary roasted butternut squash which was AMAZING.

The last night of eating out (The Pullman) I ordered a fried green tomato sandwich on focaccia bread.  It was good but felt equally as unhealthy as the pimento cheese.

So from a health standpoint, I don't think eating vegetarian is necessarily the way to go when dining out.  Or maybe the restaurants we picked aren't the healthiest of places in general.  I do think when I'm cooking at home, vegetarian is the way to go for me.

And I keep finding amazing vegetarian recipes.  For lunch today I made this grilled focaccia panini sandwich - it was one of the best things I've ever eaten.  Seriously.  This was another Pinterest find.  You can check out the original recipe, but the short version is this:

Cut focaccia bread in half (we used the cheese flat bread from Costco)
Spread each side with pesto.
Layer of mozzarella.
Layer of thin sliced tomato.
Salt.
Pepper.
Layer of sliced red onion.
Fresh chopped basil.
Layer of avocado slices.
Put bread on top.
Bake at 350 for 10-15 minutes, flipping half way.
Or use grill.  Or panini press.
Enjoy.
Wish you'd doubled the recipe.

Veg Week (1) Wrap UP

So Veg Week has ended.  Well, as you can tell from the post title, veg week #1 has ended.  Yup, we're doing a Veg Week #2.  So that should tell you how it went.  But in the interest of actually writing I'll give you more details.

So half way through the week, I'd made quinoa burgers, pasta and enchiladas.  We rounded out the week with  Twice Baked Spaghetti Squash (found here) on Thursday and Crock Pot Black Bean and Tomatillo Soup (found here) on Friday.  The Spaghetti squash was AMAZING!  I love spaghetti squash and often use it in place of spaghetti.  Mr. Cob thinks its a bit slimy, so the twice-bakedness of the recipe helped dry it out and he even declared the recipe a keeper!  The soup had mixed reviews.  I loved it.  Mr. Cob, not so much.  I knew his thoughts as soon as I spotted him pouring some of Lukas's goldfish in the soup in an effort to ramp up the flavor.  He thought it tasted just like tomatoes.  We probably will not be having the soup again.  But hey, not every recipe will be a winner.

Saturday night Mr. Cob made corned beef and cabbage for St. Patty's Day, but I stuck with the cabbage and some leftover soup to keep my vegetarian week going.  Sunday night we cleaned out the remaining leftovers from the week, so no cooking needed.

I did dine out twice this week, once for lunch and once for brunch on Sunday.  For lunch, I ordered a sandwich with brie, apple, arugula and cranberry relish (delicious!) and sweet potato fries at the Elis Hotel's Terrace Restaruant in downtown Atlanta.  And for Sunday brunch at Vickery's I had black bean cakes served over balsamic sauteed spinach, pico de gallo and goat cheese - it was amazing and I had enough leftover for lunch the next day.  At both restaurants there were plenty of vegetarian options to choose from so I didn't feel limited in what I could eat.  Now I know not every restaurant is vegetarian friendly but luckily these two were.  (I was wondering what a non-meat-eater would order at say Fox Brothers BBQ???  That is where the flexitarian thing would come in handy...)

For lunch, aside from Friday's outing to Terrace, I ate leftovers from the previous night's dinner, which made the veggie eating during lunch easy.  And then there was breakfast.  I'm not a big meat eater at breakfast anyway so this wasn't much of a change from my usual eating.  Most days I either made scrambled eggs with pesto or a smoothie - two easy meals when you're short on time in the morning.  One day I did just have a banana (I was running really late).  Over the weekend when I have more time I like to cook breakfast and this weekend was no exception.  I made egg puffs on Saturday and pancakes on Sunday- both with a secret veggie ingredient that I'll write more about on Tuesday's Toddler Tips post.

Overall, I felt energetic and healthy during the week.  I didn't miss the meat and when Mr. Cob asked me if we were doing week #2 of vegginess, I said yes right away.  I don't think I'll ever commit to full on vegetarianism 100% of the time, but I do think I'll cook more meatless meals than I previously was cooking.  I like the fact that most days I was eating anywhere from 7-10 different fruits and vegetables, which is different from my norm.  Sticking to a vegetarian diet for just a week definitely made me go outside the box as far as trying new recipes and food.

And I'd be lying if I didn't say one of the reasons I'm encouraged to keep at it, is that on Sunday morning (my weigh in day), I was pleasantly surprised at the 3.2 pounds lost over the week.  This may have been because I was diligently tracking my points on Weight Watchers this week, but I do think the veggies helped and every day I felt full and was within my point allotment for the day.  I realize this is a vain reason to keep on my no-meat streak, but at least it's a healthy change/way to lose some weight.

I'll continue to share the good veggie recipes I find and let you know how long this vegetarian journey continues. This week's menu includes Eggplant Parmesean Rollitinis, Zucchini & Corn Taco Seasoned Quinoa Salad, Chickpea Cakes with a cucumber, avocado, tomato salad and fancy grilled cheese with a side of "the best broccoli of your life"!

In other news, I'm back to coffee.  A toddler waking up for the day at 5:15am will do that.

Beet Roasting

I had an "ah ha" moment last night.  (It was more of an "I'm an idiot" moment, but hey, Ah Ha has a better ring to it.)

I love roasted beets.  I've mentioned that a time or too here.  But I hate the process you have to go through to get the end product of the roasted beets.  Specifically I hate trying to get the skin off the beets after they've been roasted (every recipe I've read said you should peel the beets AFTER you cook them).  So I tend to just order beets whenever I'm at a restaurant rather than make them at home.

But it's Vegetarian Week in my house.  So of course this meant I was going to have some beets.  I even bought red AND golden beets for the occasion. (Fancy, I know.)  And last night I roasted them for an hour, let them cool for 10 minutes and then set about the task of removing the skin.  I was mid-way through de-skinning the beet with a knife, the way I've always done it, (and cursing along the way) when a light bulb went off.

Use the vegetable peeler.  Dummy.

Duh.

For some unexplainable reason, I assumed you could only use the peeler on uncooked vegetables.  I have no idea why I had this thought, I just did. 

But lo and behold, the vegetable peeler worked wonderfully on my post-roasting roasted beets. 

So in the event you hadn't realized this either, I figured I'd share my new-found knowledge about beet peeling.

On another note, half way through today and I've already had 8 fruits and veggies for the day!  Here's my list:

Acai
Banana
Blueberries
Strawberries
Apple
Arugula
Sweet Potato
Cranberry Relish

And for dinner I'll add spaghetti squash, beets and maybe even cauliflower.  I'm not sure I've ever had this many vegetables in one day.

I've also noticed that one good/healthy decision makes the next healthy decision a little easier to make and eventually after a few healthy choices in a row, you're on a roll.  I even walked the dog for 15 minutes before work today - something I've done two times before in her life.  And taken two 20 minute walks during the work day this week around town.  I might even hit up a yoga class tonight.

I'm also on day 4 of no coffee.  Which perhaps you could tell if you talk to me before 10AM, but here's to hoping not.

I must say I'm happy with these unexpected effects of veg week.

But last night I was thinking about what it'd be like to dive into full on vegetarianism for good.  And I realized I'd miss prosciutto and bacon.  And skirt steak.  So I don't think I'm going to stop eating meat.  I'll be a flexitarian instead.  Yes, it's a real word. 

Is that sad that the one meat I'd miss the most is bacon?  I'm not sure what that says about me.  Mmmmmm, bacon.  Is it Sunday yet?

Veg Week - 1/2 Way

So far I have made some great and some not-so-great recipes for the Swans" Vegetarian Week.

SUNDAY: Crispy Quinoa Burgers with Flax Seed - AMAZING!  You can find the recipe here.  And then you should go home and make these.  We will be adding these to our regular rotation even if vegetarian week doesn't continue longer than this week.  Mr. Cob and I both loved these and they kept us full well after dinner.  The only thing I wish I'd done differently was double the recipe so we had more leftovers!!  Two thumbs up.  I made them with a side of roasted carrots, which are as simple as they sound - throw some carrots in a metal pan, drizzle with olive oil and roast in the oven. They're delicious and went nicely with the quinoa burgers.

MONDAY: Penne Pasta with Tomato Pesto and Smoked Mozzarella - Ehh.  I found the recipe in the Self magazine I bought for our flight home from LA.  For some insane reason I thouhgt I could flip through a magazine with a toddler on my lap.  Wrong.  Anyway, you can get the recipe online here.  It was OK.  We didn't have any penne so I used whole wheat thin spaghetti instead.  The dish had a strong parsley flavor, which apparently I don't care for.  Nor do I like smoked mozzarella, which I didn't realized until I made this dish.  It was actually better the next day for lunch and I would make it again with a little less parsley, a lot more sundried tomato and a different cheese.  So it wasn't a total fail.

TUESDAY: Black Bean and Sweet Potato Enchiladas -Keeper!  The recipe is from Real Simple and can be found here.  These were really delicious.  I used my food processor to shred the sweet potato and make the enchilada sauce (from scratch!), so it was super easy.  I was able to put these together while my little man ate his own dinner (of mac & cheese made with butternut squash - more on that next Tuesday on Toddler Tips).  The meat-eating husband even gave his seal of approval.  The recipe said the serving size is two enchiladas, but I was full after 1.5 and didn't go snack at all after dinner.  One enchilada is 6 points plus points for you WW followers.  The recipe called for a side of corn, which we didn't make and I didn't think was needed.  We'll definitely make these again!


So three days in to Vegetarian Week and I'm not missing meat yet.  I've made enough food each night to have leftovers for lunch the next day, so I haven't had to eat out yet.  And tomorrow will likely be leftover day, but I'll return to cooking on Thursday with tortilla soup and finish the week with twice baked spaghetti squash.  Overall, I feel good!  I decided to also give up coffee this week (yes, I'm losing my mind) and had a major headache Monday afternoon, which I think was due to caffeine withdrawal.  I'm drinking green tea as a replacement and drinking lots of water.  I'm not ready to commit to a vegetarian lifestyle, but I definitely think we'll start cooking more meatless meals around here.  Stay tuned for the final word on Vegetarian Week later this week!

Cali Made Me Do It

Every time I visit California I come home on a health kick.  It might actually be my brother's fault.  Healthy eating and living is in his blood.  You'd think it'd be in my blood too, but you would be wrong.  And yes, we are biological siblings.  And no, I don't know why I didn't get that gene.  (And while we're talking about it, I'm also annoyed that he got my mom's "great legs gene" and I didn't.  I got my dad's "athletic but still somewhat stocky legs gene".  Thanks dad!  I'm not bitter.)

But back to wanting to be healthy and actually change the things I do have control over (as opposed to my leg shape).  The first morning we were in California, Brent made a smoothie in his Vitamix, which is now on the top of my birthday present wish-list.  What did he put in the smoothie?  Oh you know, the typical: banana, blueberry, acai, lettuce, carrots, celery, avocado, dates, onion, spinach and he may have even thrown in some nuts.  And it was AMAZING.  (Admittedly in that I know this is healthy for me and it's surprisingly good amazing kind of way.)  Mr. Cob could only taste the onion, which I had no idea was even in there until he told me.  I thought the celery stood out, but not in a bad way.  And the real proof that it was tasty: my 3 year old nephew drank it up AND Lukas took a sip and then asked for more!  I now need a Vitamix, pronto.  Talk about getting your fruits & veggies in first thing in the morning!

We also went to an outdoor farmer's market that sold all sorts of organic fruits and veggies, smoothies, flavored almonds, breads and other delicious goodness.  It was a fun morning adventure and Lukas loved tasting the blood oranges, avocado and olives (he's on an olive kick).  Mr. Cob was excited because he finally found a satsuma, which was the one thing he wanted to eat in Cali.  (Although, I didn't think it was anything to write home about.)  My favorite thing was The Morningstar Ranch's Green Drink - made from rainbow chard, collard greens, kale, wild spinach, grapefruit juice, apples, yerba mate, raw agave nectar and flax seeds - and it really was delicious! 

And to top off our healthy eating in Encinitas, our last morning we enjoyed breakfast at the Acai Cafe with acai bowls.  I tried the PB and Acai Bowl made of a pack or two of Sambazon Original Açaí, banana, peanut butter, a splash of milk (I think almond milk) and topped with sliced bananas (or was it strawberries - it might've been both) and granola. Now this I can, and will make at home!  You can buy the acai packets from the Dekalb Farmer's Market here in Atlanta.

Aside from healthy eating, the weather in California was also beautiful and is conducive to outdoor fun.  We all went for a 3 mile jog along the coast one morning.  I had no idea we'd ran that far because I enjoyed the run and the view of the ocean the entire time.  I had hoped to fit stand-up paddle boarding into our trip, but it wasn't meant to be this time.  I think it would be easier to convince myself to get outside and exercise if the weather was always 65 degrees and I had the ocean as my backdrop, but I need to stop making excuses and just get outside and do it.  At least now we have the extra hour of daylight to get outside after work.

With the combination of being around Brent, the perfect Southern California weather for outdoor activities and healthy food at your fingertips, California makes me want to be a healthier person. I'd move there if I could bring all my friends, family and job, but that's not going to happen.  So I need to take what I can from Cali's healthiness and start living a healthier life here in Georgia.  And so for whatever reason, this time around that's evolved into "Vegetarian Week" in the Swan household.  The thought is that by eliminating meat (which in all honesty, I love), I'll be forced to cook with more vegetables and fruits.  I know that not all vegetarians are "healthy", but we're going to give it a whirl for a week.  Mr. Cob is even on board - at least for dinners, since I'm cooking them and he has no other option.  And thanks to pinterest, I have found tons of vegetarian recipes.
 
Last night we kicked off Vegetarian Week with Crispy Quinoa Burgers with Flax Seed from Oscar's Sandwich blog.  They were DELICIOUS, and I mean delicious, not just healthy delicious.  (I know you may not believe me given my positive reviews of green smoothies.  But seriously, these were good.  My meat eating husband even loved them!)  The rest of the week's menu includes sundried-tomato pesto pasta, black bean and sweet potato enchiladas, tortilla soup in the crockpot and twice baked spagehetti squash.  Stay tuned to see how it goes!