Clean Eating, and a freebie salad

As many of you know, I started eating "clean" about 3 months ago. I was about half way to my pre Ezra/Elsje baby weight and I needed an edge. As I don't really believe in "dieting" in the literal term, I want to be able to eat delicious food, without losing Dairy, meat, and all the good foods that should be eaten, just in small doses. I have a couple friends from Green Shakes and Giggles that live just down the street and they have helped me through the years with all my health questions. I love those girls and I'm really glad to know them, and I urge ANYONE to check their site out...it would be worth it! ANYWAY.....I love a lot of recipes they offer, but I just can't see myself and family eating that way every day. So I started looking into a happy medium: little to NO processed foods (come on, no ones perfect) to making foods that have basic clean ingredients. I have embraced this way of eating and I'm loving it. I feel better, I have more energy, and I feel SO good when I feed my kids this food. Now I won't lie....I don't feed my kids this way every day. This type of food takes a little planning and if I'm short on ingredients, my kids LOVE mac and cheese (homemade of course, but still not healthy) and hot dogs....I know...so sue me. hahahaha BUT, I'm trying, and everyday gets better. Here are some things that I have changed in our diet:

No more high fructose corn syrup
--my husband still comes home with random things, but when he walks in with the item, he says, "i bought (said item) and it has high fructose sugar in it...I'll take it to work". At least now he knows I don't approve. haha

The processed foods we do buy don't have any more than 8 ingredients listed
--and If we can't pronounce them, we don't buy the product

Reading labels
--I was shocked at the random things that were added to even things like canned tomatoes. you'd think there would be just tomatoes...but no....check your labels!!! we spend a little more buying groceries, but its worth it.

Menu planning
--I've always done this, but with clean eating, its more important to stick to that list...your food will go bad...because THERE ARE NO PRESERVATIVES IN IT! You are eating WAY more veggies and fruit so if you don't stay on top of it, you'll be wasteful.

I've replaced brown sugar and white sugar with Agave, Honey, Molasses, and Stevia.
--If something looks delicious, and I want to try it, I have to be able to replace the sugar with one of those 4 above, or we don't get it. PERIOD.

Wheat Flour
--end of story. I keep a little white flour around for those days when you need to make something with white flour, but I hardly use it.

These are just a few of the things that I've had to adjust to, but there is SO MUCH MORE! I'd say that even if you tried just a few of these things, you'd be able to tell a difference.

Last night, I wanted to get out of the house and take the kids for a little treat. We decided to go get a cupcake at a local cupcake shoppe. Can I just tell you that one bite and I was sick. Like S.I.C.K. I didn't sleep well, I was restless, and my tummy was in shambles. and you know what, thats OK! I knew I was on the right track.

Today I want to share with you one of my favorite recipes. I adapted it from another site, but it really wasn't that similar.

Avocado, Tomato, Mozz Salad

1/2 avocado diced
4-5 cherry tomatoes diced
2 oz FRESH (it has to be fresh) mozz cheese
salt and pepper to taste
drizzle of Balsamic vinegar

mix all ingredients and enjoy!!

I dare you to try it!

XOXO

niss

Mozzarella Balsamic Sandwich

The other day I was hungry and had about .23658 seconds to make and eat it. I opened the fridge and looked at what I had. I had bread, fresh mozz cheese, some cherry tomatoes a neighbor had JUST brought to me (thanks Jenny!), and an avocado that was turning. Here is what I came up with:

Mozzarella Balsamic Sandwich:
2 slices bread (I use honey whole wheat)
Balsamic Vinegar
tomatoes or cherry tomatoes (I used cherry and cut them in half, the sandwich was less juicy that way)
Avocado (this is optional, I could have eaten it without the avocado)
Fresh mozz slices

sprinkle balsamic vinegar on the bread, I liked a lot, but it will make your sandwich soggy if you put too much on. then line the sandwich with tomatoes and cheese and avocado if you'd like to add that. Grill sandwich with no butter in a pan or on a grill. I put a couple pots on top of my sandwich so that it would smash everything together...a built in panini grill. haha then cut and enjoy. It was easy, cheap, and delicious!!

Enjoy!!

CHOPPED!!

So, a few weeks back, my cute mother in law made a great casual Sunday dinner. It was was called a Chopped Salad. There was chicken, mozzarella cheese (the good kind), tomatoes, lettuce, kalmata olives etc. So I decided I wanted to try it. It took a couple tries of what I liked, until TODAY, I finally figured out what exactly I like in it, and how I wanted it to taste. I'll give you the original recipe, and then I'll give you my version so you can decide just how YOU like it.

Mediterranean Chopped Salad (Cook's Illustrated July 1, 2009)

Serves 4 as a light entree and 6 as a side dish

1 medium cucumber, peeled, halved lengthwise, seeded, and cut into 1/2-inch dice (about 1 1/4 C)

1 pint grape tomatoes quartered (about 1 1/12 C)

Salt

3 T EVOO

3 T Red Wine Vinegar

1 medium garlic clove, minced or pressed through garlic press (about 1 teaspoon)

1 14 oz can chickpeas, drained and rinsed

1/2 C Kalamata olives

1/2 C small minced red onion (about 1/4 c)

1/2 C roughly chopped fresh parsley

1 Romaine heart cut into 1/2 inch pieces

4 oz feta cheese

1. Combine cucumber, tomatoes and 1 teaspoon salt in colander set over bowl and let stand 15 min. (yes, this is necessary)

2. whisk oil, vinegar, and garlic together in large bowl. Add drained cucumber and tomatoes, chickpeas, olives, onion, and parsley; toss and let stand at room temperature to blend flavors, 5 min. 

3. Add romaine and feta; toss to combine. Season with salt and pepper and serve. 

NOW.......my version is different, but both versions are great. 

Tomatoes 1 1/2 C

(grape are great, but ANY kind will do. I used yellow, orange, green and roma for mine. I like the color that the different kinds of tomatoes give and also the flavor. you get sweet and tart...yum!)

Sea Salt 1 teaspoon (I didn't ever need to salt my dish anymore due to the salt flavor left over from letting the tomatoes sit. 

3 T EVOO (extra virgin Olive Oil)

3 T Red Wine Vinegar

1 clove of garlic, minced

1/2 C marinated mushrooms (plain won't cut it...you'll need to do marinated mushrooms or Kalamata olives)

Chicken/turkey etc. I recently purchased sandwich meat (turkey) at Costco and had an abundance of that. I just took 4-6 pieces of that (it was pretty thick, not this 

Parsley; a generous sprinkle of dried will be just fine (I didn't use fresh cause if you read this blog or my cooking blog at all, you know I use what I have on hand. I tried to grow my own Parsley, but alas, it only started growing when I threw the pot of dirt into my planter bed...go figure)

1 Romaine heart, cut into 1/2 inch pieces (I'm sure any kind will do, but I like the crunch that goes with the romaine heart. I didn't like spinach with this...no crunch!)

Fresh mozzarella cheese (I just eyeball it. I'm sure I throw in a bit more cause I'm a lover of cheese. I just break the mozzarella into small pieces.)

INSTRUCTIONS: 

1. Combine tomatoes with 1 teaspoon salt in colander set over bowl and let stand 15 min. (again, THIS IS NECESSARY!)

2. Whisk oil, vinegar, and garlic together in large bowl. Add drained tomatoes, mushrooms, parsley, and meat choice. Let stand 5 min. 

3. Add romaine, and mozzarella; toss to combine. Serve, knowing you are serving a wonderful meal that is decently healthy. CHEERS!