Clean Eating Week: Food Prep Sunday

Okay, so everyone was much amused by my buzzfeed Clean Eating challenge, and although I didn't make it to the second week, I'm surprised I made it as far into the first week as I did.

But, as I mused on my summary post, the worst part about the clean eating challenge (besides surviving without coffee) was how much work and cooking time was involved. Not very practical or realistic for a working girl who hates cooking.

I have my own version of clean eating that is both reasonable and affordable.  It's basically an example of 'if I can do it, you can probably do it better'. Because I'm lazy.

So. My typical week of clean eating usually involves $50 or less of groceries, and 3-4 hours of food prep (per week, NOT day! That would be ridiculous!)

In a nutshell, I try to do all the food prep on Sunday, divide it up into containers for each day, and then I'm done with cooking for the week! Huzzah!  The downside is, if I don't prep everything on Sunday, I'm much less likely to do anything until the next week, and my diet completely derails. D'oh.

I usually get 90% of my food from Trader Joe's but this weekend I wasn't able to make it over there, so I got everything at the local grocery store in my neighborhood (so it was a little pricier than usual, but still under $50)

Grocery list for the week:

Breakfast:

32oz plain non-fat yogurt - $4.99

Bob's red mill honey oat granola - $3.99 (won't use the whole thing this week. I usually get TJ's praline granola)

6 oz Fresh blackberries - $2.50

1 lb Fresh strawberries - $2.50 (I never find strawberries that don't look like a mushy hot mess. These looked spectacular, I couldn't not get them!)

Snacks:

2 apples - $1.85

2 pears - $2.75

2 forelle pears - $2.54

Baby carrots - $1.50

8 oz Hummus - $2.79

5 Bananas - $2.04

Lunch:

Small Lettuce head - $1.00

Nappa cabbage - $4.96

1/2 lb Sun dried tomatoes - $3.68 (I used half, save the other half for next week)

2 sweet potatoes - $1.52

3 limes - $.75

Dinner: 

1 lb Frozen mixed veggies - $.99 (there was a sale, so I stocked up on these for the month)

2 broccoli stalks - $2.49

Things I already had:

quinoa

Frozen chicken breast

Almonds

Spices, oil, etc...

Storage containers

Not too shabby, and easily carried home by myself.

It took about three hours to prep all my meals for the week.  I'll try to write up the prep guide and recipes for what I did with all that food!

(Here's a sneak peek):

Summary: buzzfeed clean eating challenge

Well, I survived the first week of the Buzzfeed clean eating challenge. I certainly learned a lot, and had some crazy mouth adventures, but after much deliberation*, I've decided not to continue the second week. Not that I'm going to immediately run out and grab a burger and fries**, I'll just resume my regular eating plan for the rest of the month, starting with the abundance of leftovers this past week has supplied.

*not that much deliberation  **this might happen though

After a week of following the clean eating plan, here's what I learned (both about the plan, as well as myself):

What I learned after a week of the Buzzfeed clean eating challenge:

Pros

pretty good recipes

This plan has some pretty good recipes if you need new ideas to shake up your boring old food routine. Aside from a few miscalculated ingredients, the instructions were easy to follow and a lot of it came out really tasty. I learned that I might actually like cooking (gasp!), or at least am better at it than I think.

photogenic meals

Aside from easy to follow and mostly delicious recipes, the food itself was very pretty to look at. Even with my lack of culinary enthusiasm and simple iphone camera, I was able to whip up and capture some pretty impressive looking meals.

sets a plan

The best part of this food challenge is that it gets you to set a plan and schedule meals. You are forced to think about the food you are eating: you have to make everything yourself, measure things out, plan for leftovers, and account for each meal throughout the day. 

you feel good!

Although it feels like you are CONSTANTLY cooking or eating all week, you won't feel bloated or overly full at all. The meals for this plan really do make you feel good, and it also seems to help clear out the system, if you know what I mean

Cons:

too many recipes

While the meals for the week are all unique to keep things interesting, in reality it's actually way too much food to buy and prep for one week.  Maybe I just suck at food storage, but since I'm not a fresh produce wizard with a magical time-suspending refrigerator, I ended up picking out bits of things that were going bad before their time came up in the schedule, and even had to replace a few items entirely. Thus defeating the purpose of getting all the groceries in one shot (which I normally do every week with much success)

not practical

To piggy back off the first point, this meal plan is oddly not very practical, particularly in how it uses up leftovers. For example: cooking half the asparagus on the first day, and then saving the rest for the very end of the week; or buying collard greens the first day, when you don't really need them until after shopping for week 2; or making chili then freezing half to use a week later. None of this makes sense to me. I have no problem with leftovers, and would much rather make one thing and use it up over consecutive days rather than make something new every day and THEN go back to whatever was leftover three days later.

costs too much 

Because of the volume and variety of foods needed for the plan, it would easily cost at minimum $100 per week, not counting the amount of food waste and replacement. I usually average 50 bucks a week on food, and don't have to throw anything out. So, yeah

not enough fueling for workouts

Something that actually surprised me about this week was how EXHAUSTED I was. The whole week. And it was one of the least busy weeks I've had in a long long time. Yet I was almost literally dragging through each day, particularly during my workouts. While this food may be clean, it's more about eating less junk and cleansing the body, less about fueling with energy. As an 'athlete' (I use that label extremely loosely), I was struggling through my workouts this week, yawning through both training sessions, and bumbling through cardio. And it's not like I was doing anything extraordinarily challenging. The lack of coffee did not help.

doesn't work with my schedule

The primary reason why I can't continue with another week is that this meal plan, while fun and interesting, simply doesn't work with my schedule. I don't have time to be whipping up fancy omelettes in the morning before work, nor do I want to be cooking for an hour when I get home, exhausted, at 9 o'clock at night.  I just ended up snacking on dates and almonds while waiting for the food to cook, thus defeating the purpose of the week! I do much better with meal prepping at the beginning of the week, and having my meals planned out and ready to go when I leave in the morning and get home at night.


In Summary:

I had a lot of fun testing out this food challenge and explored a lot of new things that I would never have otherwise tried (I'm looking at you fennel) and made some really delicious meals (most especially you, mind-blowing lentils). It's important in life to know when to let things end. We had our ups and downs, good times and bad, and the time has come for the clean eating challenge and I to part ways. We had a good run, maybe we can stay friends.

This morning I gleefully welcomed coffee back into my life. Let's never be apart again

Want to follow along from the beginning? Start Here, then check out Day 1, Day 2, Day 3, Day 4, Day 5, Day 6, and Day 7

Day 7: Buzzfeed clean eating challenge

Today's been a pretty lazy Saturday. I am absolutely exhausted after a week of the clean eating challenge. I woke up at 7:30 (blergh), made a fancy breakfast, went for a run, and crashed on the couch for the rest of the day.  I made quite a few alterations to the meal plan today, because I'm going out later so don't have time to stand over a stove all night! I got things to do!

Breakfast: Poached Eggs and Asparagus

Breakfast was an adventure.  Even on Saturday, cooking first thing in the morning is not my ideal way to wake up. Still, today I learned a new skill, how to poach an egg! I was surprised at how closely this resembles an actual poached egg. In the photo you can clearly see which one was the first attempt. The second egg came out pretty good!  The asparagus came out okay, it was a week old by this point, so the fact that it was still useable was a miracle

Deliciousness Level: fancy looking

Lunch: Arugula Legume Salad

This was supposed to be a kale black bean salad, but I didn't have any kale left, and have too much arugula left, so that's what I used. I also didn't bother making yet another vinaigrette and used the leftover paprika yogurt sauce for the dressing, and threw in the remaining chickpeas while I was at it. It made for a pretty delicious salad! And was a nice way to recover from this morning's run

Deliciousness Level: filling and refreshing

Snack: Almonds and Pistachios
I had a couple handfuls of pistachios and almonds for a snack before crashing on the couch and taking a rare and elusive mid-day nap. Just a sign of how tired I am, I almost never can take naps! Naps are glorious, I wish I had stronger nap taking skills.

Dinner: Meatballs and Chili

I was going to try making the collard greens to go with tonight's meatballs, but since I had gotten them a week ago, they were pretty sad and wilted and turning a strange yellow color, so I decided to nix that idea.  I also did not want to bother making tomato sauce from scratch, especially since I have so much leftover blackbean chili left over from last night. I did venture into another new food item today: meatballs. I've never made meatballs before, so I don't know what the difference between this 'clean' version vs the real thing is, but I think for my first try these came out pretty well. I used flax seed meal instead of oats, and used oregano instead of basil.  Just mixed in the ground turkey, threw 'em in the oven for 15 minutes and they came out pretty good! They definitely taste 'clean', vs the usual greasy delicious meatball. But still pretty tasty, especially with the chili.  I'll probably try these again, but with more spices next time

Deliciousness Level: a little bland, but still very tasty!


Dessert: Dark Chocolate
I'll be out pretty late tonight, so it is still to be seen whether I'll end up having this or not, but I'm going to try to be good and not splurge while I'm uptown!


I survived 7 days of the clean eating challenge! Want to follow along from the beginning? Start Here, then check out Day 1, Day 2, Day 3, Day 4, Day 5, and Day 6

Day 6: Buzzfeed clean eating challenge

It's Friday. The sixth day of the buzzfeed clean eating challenge. I survived a week without coffee. I am tired.

Breakfast: chia seed pudding

Ahhhhh finally back to a better breakfast. Anything that is made ready to go is far superior than anything needing to be cooked in the morning. The biggest flaw with this pudding is that it isn't truly grab-and-go since you have to add the pistachios in the morning. Pistachios that were supposed to be chopped, if I had remembered before the last minute running out the door. I don't know that they were really a great addition either, but I gave it a shot. I also didn't bother making almond milk and just used 1/2 cup greek yogurt and 1/4 cup water, and it came out just fine. I also didn't add salt to this, it seemed unnecessary. But who knows, maybe I missed out on something big. Oh well, it's too late to change it, and too early to care.

Deliciousness Level: the pistachios weren't really a good mix, but otherwise okay

Lunch: green bean salad

Another excellent pre-assembled lunch. Still not a huge fan of arugula, or making vinaigrettes, but as far as assembly, this was pretty simple. 

The vinaigrette by itself tastes pretty horrid. It's sour and bitter and I figured maybe my vinaigrette making skills have left as quickly as they came. But then I mixed it in with the rest of the salad and to my delight, it actually tasted pretty good! Something about this combination works, and it works it.

Deliciousness Level: surprisingly delicious 

Snack: Cucumber and Hummus

A twist on the classic combo. I could have cut up the 'cuke last night, but I chose to be lazy and test the limits of the workplace kitchen and put a plastic knife to the task. It worked out much better than expected!  I also just brought the hummus container instead of putting it in a nicer container because why bother.

Deliciousness Level: Crunchy and refreshing

Dinner: Black Bean Chili with Zucchini

Okay, so I've been humoring these unnecessarily extravagant meals all week, and at least they saved the chili for Friday. But seriously, after a massively long week the last thing I want to do, tired and starving, is wait around for a pot of beans to simmer for 45 minutes. So inevitably I was snacking on almonds and dates while I sat there waiting for the food to be ready, contemplating my will to survive another week of this. I'm starting to crack, the challenge is winning.

The preparation for this meal is actually pretty simple, I subbed a green pepper instead of red and used vine tomatoes instead of canned (I heard somewhere that canned tomatoes are supposedly the worst thing you could possibly eat, didn't want to risk it). Then just chopped everything up, threw it into the pan, added a little water, and let it simmer!

While the chili was simmering down, I whipped together the paprika yogurt and sautéed the sliced zucchini.  I was tasting all of the prescribed elements while prepping tonight's dinner and it was shaping up to be a pretty good meal. The yogurt has a nice zippy zing, and the chili came out perfect!

And then I put everything together. And it was awful. Maybe the worst thing I've ever eaten. The zucchini does not go with the yogurt, the yogurt does not go with the chili. At all. I will not make this again. And I'm supposed to save this for lunch next week? Yeah, no. That's not happening.

The best thing about this meal is that it's actually very filling. The worst thing about this meal is that I can't wash the taste out of my mouth.

Deliciousness Level: It's all fun and games, until you have to eat it.

Dessert: Blackberries and Pistachios

Gah! Maybe my mouth is just too tired to function tonight, or maybe it's been stunned by the traumatic chili yogurt incident. I like pistachios, I like blackberries. Put the two together and my taste buds keep waiting for something happy to happen.

Oh well, guess I'll just have to sleep it off and start over tomorrow :-/

Deliciousness Level: I guess two rights can make a wrong

No prepping tonight, I can make everything fresh tomorrow!

Want to follow along from the beginning? Start Here, then check out Day 1, Day 2, Day 3, Day 4, and Day 5

Day 5: Buzzfeed clean eating challenge

It's the fifth day of the clean eating challenge. Now, you can accuse me of being many things, but a morning person is not one of those things.

I rolled out of bed, dreading to have to do  the unthinkable for the second day in a row: cook breakfast. 

Breakfast: Scrambled Eggs

I didn't  actually have the cauliflower I was supposed to use for today's omelet since I skipped Tuesday's dinner. I couldn't find anything to sub in for the cauliflower, so I made a simple 3 egg scramble as the next best option. If there's one thing I can cook better than anyone, scrambled eggs is that thing. For one, there's nothing to chop and two (most important), it cooks up in two minutes (two minutes I could have been sleeping, but I digress)

Deliciousness Level: I mean, it's my own recipe, of course it's delicious!

So with breakfast out of the way, and no coffee in sight, I gathered up my things for the day (training tonight, woohoo!), and headed out for work. And came right back because I completely forgot to put my lunch and snack in the bag! See what happens when you can't have coffee, bad things happen.

Lunch: Chickpea Lentil Blackberry Salad

So, I combed over and reviewed the meal plan this week, because somewhere at buzzfeed HQ, someone is maybe not so good at math. I was supposed to add quinoa from Sunday's leftovers, except that I used it all for the previously prescribed recipes (as per their instructions. There was nothing mentioned about saving this magical extra half cup for today's lunch). Since I had too much lentils left over for dinner tonight I used the lentils in place of quinoa.

I also used blackberries instead of blueberries, since I have so many and want to use them while they are still fresh

This is a very protein heavy salad, and if I were to do this again, I would switch last night's dinner with today's lunch. I don't want to feel full in the middle of the day, but I do need to feel full at night otherwise I'll just keep snacking.

Deliciousness Level: hearty and delicious

Cheat Snack Attack!: Cup Cake!

We had a little celebration at work for a few people today which meant cake. A cake in the shape of a cupcake. And I and ate a piece. I made my choice, I have no regrets.

Deliciousness Level: Sugar

Snack: Carrots and Hummus

A classic snack, but again buzzfeed's counting logic alludes me. If I recall, we needed 7 carrots for this week, but so far I've had two snack of "4 carrots cut into sticks" and I'll have another tomorrow and will still need carrots for dinner coming up. So I've already surpassed the carrot quota. But fortunately I read ahead and just used one carrot for today's snack, I'll skip the carrot for tomorrow's snack, and have one carrot left for the dinner recipe. So when they say 4, they really mean 2. Maybe sometimes 1. So annoying.

Deliciousness Level: a classic favorite

Dinner: Tuna Steak with Green Beans and Lentils

This recipe calls for salmon, and as much as I LOVE salmon, I already had tuna steaks in the freezer, so I used those instead.  I also maybe misjudged how much two cups of green beans actually are, because it didn't look like very much cooking up in the pan, but even after I split the batch in half, the remainder barely fits on the plate!  I may not be able to actually finish this, which is groundbreaking.  The tuna came out a little tough, but I left it in the oven a little too long while I was getting the green beans ready. Next time, I would start the green beans first, because they actually took longer to cook than the fish!  The leftover lentils were still as mindblowingly delicious as ever, and definitely are the highlight of this dish (sorry tuna, you're pretty, but the lentils are a keeper).

Deliciousness Level: Filling and tasty!


Dessert: Air

No dessert for me, because I'm a cheating cheater who cheated.



I'll be prepping lunch tonight, as well as breakfast (woohoo!! no cooking in the morning!)

Want to follow along from the beginning? Start Here, then check out Day 1, Day 2, Day 3, and Day 4

Day 4: Buzzfeed clean eating challenge

It's day 4 of the clean eating challenge. It's also hump day, halfway to halfway there!

Breakfast: Broccoli Omelet

I do not like scallions. I don't like them in food, I don't like them in cream cheese, I don't like them in miso soup. I never have, and probably never will. They have a weird texture, they make my stomach feel gross and I WILL pick them out of my food whenever possible. This was one of the first things crossed off the shopping list. I already knew I wouldn't be making a scallion omelet for breakfast.

Actually, overall not a huge fan of making omelets when I have to get to work. Or making anything that requires time and dishes as I lurch around the apartment trying to make myself socially presentable and get out the door on time. Nothing like knowing you have a sink full of dishes waiting for you when you get home to jump start your day.

As far as meals from this food challenge go, I would not do this one again, not on a workday.

I substituted the scallions with some broccoli I had leftover from the weekend, and it was a good way to use those up since they aren't part of the food list for this week. The omelet came out okay, I guess I'm used to using more eggs usually, because just two made for a pretty sad omelet. It was more of a broccoli scrambled egg by the time it was done. Also a little salty for my taste, I would use less salt or no salt at all, especially with the feta added.

Deliciousness Level: good, but too much cooking for a workday, and a little salty for the morning

Lunch: Greek Salad with Lentils

Today's lunch was completely assembled last night and was one of the easiest meals so far (if you count the lentils as leftovers). Just chop up a cucumber and bell pepper, and add feta, lentils and spinach and you're ready to go.

I used green peppers because I can't stand red bell peppers. I don't know why, I've just always hated them. I don't know if there's even any noticeable difference, but I could munch on green bell peppers all day, just don't even think about putting a red bell pepper near my face. I think it traces back to some childhood trauma. My aunt tells a story of when I was a baby and I thought I was eating apple, but it was really red bell pepper, and I burst into tears.  I guess I never got over the red bell pepper and its lies.

Aaaaaanyways. Today's lunch was one of my favorites so far. The lentils were delicious as expected, and while it might be one of the less impressive sounding lunches, it was absolutely tasty and filling. The cucumber and green pepper bits added a nice crunch in contrast to the soft lentils and feta. Overall, a perfect office lunch

Deliciousness level: quite delicious!

Snack: Mango Banana Smoothie with Chia Seeds

I was a bit skeptical of making a smoothie 8 hours before drinking it, but the chia seeds helps keep the thickness you expect out of a smoothie, and the mango adds the 'smoothie'-ness to keep this tasty.  I blended all the ingredients (and used honey instead of vanilla extract), but added the chia seeds separately so they could gel up during the day. Admittedly, this visually is maybe not so appealing. It's basically just chilled mango mush, but for an afternoon snack during a long day at work, this definitely hits the spot.

Deliciousness Level: Has a GREAT personality.



Dinner: Roasted Fennel and Chicken

For food that 'sounds harder than it actually is', roasted fennel is high on that list.  I got home early today (7:30, huzzah!) so even though the fennel took about 45 minutes to cook (from start to finish), I'm still finished dinner before 9, win!

To cook the fennel, I just sliced it in strategically placed wedges keeping a part of the root attached to each section to hold the pieces together. Toss on some oil, throw it in the oven, catch up on Louie, flip the pieces and watch the next episode.

And then this magic happens. I actually liked the raw fennel better than roasted, but maybe I should have left it a little longer in the oven since it was the really small roasted bits that tasted the most delicious.  Also the idea that this would be enough fennel to wilt the spinach by their own heat is laughable. This was basically a raw spinach salad with pieces of warm fennel and chicken tossed in.  Not my favorite meal to date, and it's not particularly filling, but it's a cool idea and I'm glad I tried it.

Deliciousness Level: Acceptably delicious.



Dessert: Medjool Dates stuffed with Almonds

I've only had medjool dates once as a salad topping and loved the thick creamy sweetness of it. So I was delighted to see it makes it's way onto my shopping list this week!  This 'dessert' is disappointingly tiny (I want more!) but the dates are actually so rich that it does a nice job of satisfying my sweet tooth. I don't know what the almond was all about, but I guess they had to do something more interesting than just make us eat dates.  There was a curious lack of direction on how to actually pit the date, so I just made a slit big enough to pop out the pit and replaced it with an almond.

Deliciousness Level: luxurious and delightful


I'll be prepping lunch and snack for tomorrow, but not right now.  First I'm going to relax a bit, since I have so much TIME tonight!

Want to follow along from the beginning? Start Here, then check out Day 1, Day 2, and Day 3

Buzzfeed clean eating challenge: Day 2

It's day two of the buzzfeed clean eating challenge, and this is the day the real challenge begins: transporting this food to work

The great thing about this meal plan is that it is realistic about people having actual things to do all day, like a job and not wanting to be near a kitchen (or even have access to a kitchen). 

So here's how my day tasted:

Breakfast: Overnight Oats with Blueberries and Chia Seeds

These are pretty similar to what I usually have for breakfast: yogurt, granola and berries.  I stuck to this recipe and it still turned out pretty good! The chia seeds help hold this together and makes this more of a pudding (which means no spilling!)  if I were to do it again (and I likely will), I would use blackberries or raspberries instead.

Delicious Level: pretty good, just sweet enough to satisfy my sweet tooth, just filling enough to keep me happy until lunch.

Lunch: Kale, Chickpea and Fennel Salad with Orange Vinaigrette

This salad was a great office lunch and the fennel with the orange vinaigrette is a brilliant combination. I've never used fennel because in my mind I always categorized it in the 'onion' category and so it has never come home with me, as cool as it looks. I was actually a bit nervous what it would be like eating it raw. Conclusion: I need more fennel in my life! It is light and refreshing and delicious. I definitely will be adding this into the permanent rotation.  If I were to make this again, I would add more chickpeas.

Deliciousness Level: revelatory

Snack: Diced Tomatoes and Feta with Balsamic

Okay, so this one didn't quite pass the 'transportable' test, and I probably could have found a better container for it. Balsamic and tomatoes, while delicious, are not a very office-friendly snack, and not a great pre-workout snack either. Also, I didn't have any basil, since that was the one ingredient that I just could not find in non-mushy sad little wimpy bunches. Anyways, after this snack I still had pretty low physical energy going into my training session after work. It was really my mental enthusiasm that powered me through the workout today. All in all, tasty, but not the most resounding success so far.

Deliciousness Level: A classic combination, but maybe best left for cocktail hour and not taken to the office.

Dinner: Napa Cabbage Wraps

Dragging myself home after the gym, it's late, I'm hungry, I'm tired. This is exactly why I don't like to cook elaborate dinners, ever. I was already dreading having to come come and still have to DO things to be able to eat. But, here I am closing in on 9pm and i'm chopping and whisking, and going back and forth from my phone to the fridge to the counter and circling back again.  

Eventually things started coming together, and in actuality, it only took about 20 minutes to get everything together from start to finish (and that's counting my non-sensical mad scientist method of food preparation)

Something I've noticed for this week is that I'm already whipping up another citrus vinaigrette.

I've never really been much of a vinaigrette maker, but I think I'm getting the hang of this!

Okay, substitutions: I still don't have basil, since I was not about to go on a food shopping adventure, starving, on my way home from having just worked out. It's only the second day, it wouldn't be good form to immediately derail after just starting this thing. Instead I just used some mint leftover from yesterday, and it worked pretty well!  Also, I was reading off the pdf recipe instead of the one with pictures, and it never actually says to put tomatoes into the wrap, so I ended up adding those later.

The arugula salad was a bit…much. I didn't exactly measure it out, I just used two handfuls, so maybe it was a little more than two cups worth, or maybe I'm just not used to the taste of arugula, but it's a little bitter, even with the dressing and tomatoes. But not terrible either.

The wraps were…..amazing. Probably one of the fanciest meals I've ever put together (definitely the fanciest I ever put together on a weeknight after the gym). It was actually pretty simple since I didn't have to actually cook anything, just chop everything up into small bits. It probably took longer to keep checking the recipe to make sure I wasn't missing anything!

Deliciousness Level: arugula salad was okay, chicken wraps were a party in my mouth.


Snack (aka dessert): Navel Orange

I actually couldn't find clementines at the store, so I just got an extra orange instead. I'm sure buzzfeed had the idea that this would be sliced and arranged beautifully on the plate with the peels artfully decorating the whole thing. Or in in my case, carnage:

I'll be putting breakfast together in a moment. And I'm actually going out for lunch tomorrow with the rest of my ops team, so I'll be putting the "Dining-Out Guidelines" to use. And making tomorrow's lunch for dinner.

Want to see my challenge from the beginning? Start Here and check out Day 1

Buzzfeed clean eating challenge: Day 1

It's Day 1 of the Clean Eating Challenge, and here is what I did today!

Breakfast: Kale and Banana Smoothie

This was a pretty basic smoothie, and much more minimalist than my usual protein-packed version.

I made my own almond milk by soaking almonds the day before and blending a 1/2cup of raw soaked (skinned) almonds with 1 cup water. One tablespoon of almond butter, a drizzle of honey, and frozen kale and bananas, and I was ready to start my day!

Delciousness Level: eh, I mean it's kale, but you FEEL clean just drinking it, so that's a win.

Lunch: Asparagus Salad with Arugula and Fried Eggs

Lunch was an adventure. I admittedly don't cook full meals as often as I should, mostly because it is such a chore and I hate it.  By the time I start cooking, I'm so hungry that I need food NOW and lose patience for ridiculous time consuming things like 'simmer 2 minutes'. Bah. Yet, despite my revulsion toward even the most minimal culinary effort, this salad came together surprisingly painlessly. From prep to final assembly, I was eating within 30 minutes. (Read: for a normal person, it would probably take much less time)

I made a few alterations from the recipe. For example, I didn't bother shaving the asparagus, I just chopped it into small pieces. I also minced the shallots into teeny tiny bits so that I could cook them into mush and wouldn't notice them in the salad (I really hate onions and onion type things, it's weird, I know it, but it's who I am and you'll just have to accept that).

The last thing to finish the salad, that I would probably change next time, is to fry the eggs. It just seems like a really greasy thing to add to an otherwise clean  salad, so I would probably hard boil or poach them instead.

The assembly was easy peasy, just toss everything together and put the egg on top.  The last alteration I did was add hot sauce to the eggs, because we are civilized in this home.

Deliciousness Level: pretty delicious! The heat from the asparagus slightly wilts the arugula to take off some of the edge, and the lemon juice adds a nice fresh zip to the whole thing (and I didn't even notice the shallots at all).

Snack: Carrots and Hummus

A solid snack. The 'recipe' says to cut the carrots into sticks, but I mean, come on. Why bother.

Dinner: Roast Chicken with Kale and Quinoa

Since this is considered a prep day for other meals this week, tonight's dinner took a bit more effort and multi-tasking than just one meal's worth. And with all that work, what I ended up with actually doesn't look too far off from what I usually eat. Just...less, and with more ingredients. Go figure.

For substitutions, I almost completely changed the roast chicken since I already had boneless chicken breast in the freezer. I just baked it like I always do, and used my secret spice concoction in lieu of plain salt & pepper.

I cooked the quinoa exactly to the recipe, which involve an extra step of actually roasting the raw grains with oil before adding water.  I don't notice any difference, probably wasnt worth the extra effort and calories.

The kale was super easy, just simmer some water and steam the leaves for a few minutes. My kind of cooking.

For the orange vinaigrette I used rice vinegar instead of apple cider vinegar, because I'm Korean and that's the kind of vinegar I have and I wasn't gonna buy a whole bottle of something I never use for a measly half-tablespoon. Psh.

It still came out awesome and delicious.

While I was prepping dinner, I also started the assembly of tomorrow's lunch and drained chickpeas and sliced up some fennel. I added the rest after the leftovers cooled down.

Deliciousness Level: very delicious! The dressing adds a subtle flavor that makes this interesting and yummy.

Snack (aka dessert): Pear and Almond Butter

Just like the carrots snack, this is super duper basic. And the 'recipe' says to slice the pear into a bunch of tiny sliver slices. I think we all know how that's gonna go down....it's not.

Tonight I also prepped breakfast, lunch and snack for tomorrow. I'm pretty tired after so much cooking all day, but on the flipside, I don't feel like a bloated whale, so I'll call this a success!

Here's a preview of tomorrow:

Want to follow along from the beginning? Start Here.

Taking the Buzzfeed Clean Eating Challenge

So I've been pretty obviously slacking lately. The transition to the new job, while wonderful on so many levels, has really screwed with my training schedule and overall motivation. So while lazily lounging on the couch after a long day, I stumbled across the Buzzfeed Clean Eating Challenge and I could hear the sad siren call of my year-ago self begging me to investigate further.

Usually when I see these types of articles they're full of horribly mis-informed 'get fit quick' tips that are either insisting on some form of liquid diet (LOL no.), or basically just say to eat less and exercise more. Uh, yeah thanks captain obvious.

So when I saw buzzfeed had put together a detailed 2 week clean eating plan (a plan that is almost 100% food items that I will gleefully put into my body, including chocolate! Buzzfeed, you get me.), I knew I had to give it a shot. They even break it down with a full shopping list, day-by-day instructions, and a weekly schedule with details down to how much to prep and save to use later in the week, and photo instructions for each meal.

Challenge accepted.

I combed through the week one shopping list, and gawked at how MUCH is there. So much food! Best meal plan ever! How am I going to carry all of this home?!

I ended up splitting the list into 'stuff I can get at Trader Joe's' and 'stuff from the grocery store'.  And hoped that would be enough to get it all home. Armed with my two trusty grocery bags, I was able to get about 80% of the list at TJ's (I already had the 'basics', like oil and seasonings, honey, etc…) and the rest came from the grocery store. All in all, it was about $100 bucks for everything, and I was able to get it all home by myself.

On my way back from the grocery store, loaded with produce, the previously 75 degree sunny and clear skies opened up into a torrential downpour and left me trudging home like a pathetic wet cat.  of course this is the one time I don't have an umbrella with me. An ominous sign?

I got home, shook myself off and did the ridiculously simple prep work to get ready for tomorrow.  My fridge looks like it grew a garden overnight!  

I am a bit skeptical at how 'easy' this meal plan actually will be, but at least I have a plan again since winging it clearly does not work for me. It will be interesting to see how I do with some of the ingredients. Most of the list goes alright with my unique food quirks, but some things will be a bit of a departure from my usual go-tos.

We'll see how this goes!

Fit Trick: Stay Hydrated Using a Lime

Water. The single most important life-sustaining element on the planet.

Staying hydrated is the easiest way to get healthy and slim, but it's also the easiest thing to forget to do, especially if, like me, you're not in the habit of drinking water regularly throughout the day.

I needed a way to remember to drink water and keep track of how much I have had/have left to drink each day. There are tons of nifty apps for this that may work for someone more diligent than me, but I needed something a little less tech-y yet equally nifty enough to keep my interest every day.

They say that you need at least 8 glasses of water a day, but I don't want to have to count every ounce that I drink every day. So I started cutting up a lime into 8 pieces and dropping them in my water throughout the day. And it works! I remember to keep drinking water, and have a visual reminder of how much I have left to drink based on how many pieces I have left.

How To Use Limes to Get Your 8 Glasses a Day

(In 2 Easy Steps)

Ready for a week of hydration!

1. Cut a lime into 8 pieces.

(Protip: It's easier to cut each piece through its center,
rather than trying to make bar-style wedges)

2. Add a wedge of lime every time you fill up your water.

Store the lime pieces in a small air-tight container.

Even if you use different cups, you'll always know how many glasses you've had throughout the day by how many pieces are left. Keep adding wedges as you refill your glass until you've used up the whole lime!

3. Reap the Benefits.

You'll be amazed at how much better you feel after making this a habit. The water will help your body function better, you'll lose fat easier, and the lime helps your liver get toxins out, it's a win-win-win!

Bottoms Up!