Week 1: 90 Day Challenge & 30 Day Diet Supplement Review & My Recipes.

Recipes of the week & Monday 30 DayDiet Review

Clean Eating, Slow Carb Meat Loaf

So last Tuesday, I started my 90 Day challenge.

The biggest challenge was taking photos and measurements.  Seriously.  I was incredibly depressed after seeing those pictures.  I have never been this big before.  I've been close... especially after the last few babies... but my youngest "baby" turns 12 this month!  I can't use that as an excuse!

Summer 2011 I was still comfortable in a bikini, for heaven's sake.  After gaining 50 pounds in about 7 - 8 months, I started with the doctor and the tests once everything else failed to show results.  I gained another 20 over the course of taking tests and being repeatedly told that "everything is normal!  You're fine!"

This is me LAST AUGUST... after gaining 20 pounds in 3 months, I was still OKAY with myself... but definitely didn't think it would keep creeping up!

I've since gained ANOTHER 50 pounds and I can't even LOOK at the photos I took last week.  I want to get back to a weight I can be comfortable at.  I want to be able to look in the mirror without cringing.  I want to be able to sit without feeling my rolls.  

After 4 very long months, I FINALLY found a doctor willing to look past the test results and let me try Armour thyroid.  Ups and downs (ran out of my prescription and had issues getting it refilled/they filled it with the wrong prescription), but I finally feel like a somewhat normal person!  I can get out of bed in the morning and have at least some energy.  I am getting things done around the house, I'm having far less bouts of tears and depression, my constant itchiness is down and I've actually started going on walks with my husband in the evenings.

These are the supplements I take every morning.  I am adding my 30 Day Diet supplements to this stack.  I find that my mood and energy PLUMMET if I don't take my Ionix and B12 daily.

All of this gives me hope that I am finally ready for a change for the better. 

Day 1: Anyway, off topic (what a surprise)... Day 1 wasn't hard.  I was busy with stop motion animations for Bean's Monkey Business, and when I'm busy, my biggest challenge is remembering to even eat.  I felt a bit on edge, something that I tend to have when I'm taking any type of dietary supplement.  I'm majorly affected by supplements of just about any type.

So, grocery day isn't until Friday, and money is tight.  Thankfully, we already had some foods in the freezer that are acceptable.  It is kind of pushing me into the "Paleo" diet, though, because most of it is beef from a bulk package of meat we bought last month.

I finished off the last of our eggs, had a T bone steak and a chopped steak.  I also had 1/2 of an onion, some spinach, and because we have no "acceptable" vegetables in the house, I had an Isagenix meal replacement shake.  All in all, not an ideal nutrition day, but I have limited resources until Friday.

Day 2:  This stuff really curbs my appetite.  I didn't think I had much appetite before, but this is crazy.  I find myself kind of forcing myself to eat.  Of course it helps that I can't feed my carb addiction!

Day 3:  This is really easier than I thought it would be.  I'm making my grocery list for next week.  I plan to bulk cook up some of the recipes from this week and the ones I'll be blogging this week and freezing/refrigerating them in portion sizes so I don't have to think about it too much.  I find I'm looking forward to not having to try and figure out what to eat each day.

I'm feeling really down about my weight.  Yeah, I'm shallow, whatever, I feel really unattractive and its depressing.  I thought doing this weight loss challenge would make me feel instantly hopeful or something, but I just am more depressed from having to take photos.  That, and being blindsided by photos of myself from the wedding.  I hate this.

Day 5:  I'm taking Saturdays as a "cheat" day ala "Four Hour Body Slow Carb Diet" so that my metabolism doesn't plummet from the low calorie diet during the week.  These supplements REALLY curb your appetite.  Dang.  I thought I was just lacking appetite because my diet was so restricted, but even today, when I can eat anything I want and I'm supposed to be eating a LOT... I can barely force myself to.  I went and bought some of my favorite things and its just... not... I'm forcing myself to eat PIZZA for heaven's sake.  I think I'm going to have to go drink a shake.  I feel stuffed and I've not eaten that much today.  Huh.  I didn't expect that.

Day 6:  STILL not hungry.  I have to force myself to eat.  I have never had a supplement curb my appetite so completely without ALSO making me feel jittery, anxious and honestly, pissed off at everything.  Anything else I've tried has me biting everyone's heads off.  Before you get too excited, I AM more snappish than usual, but its not overwhelming like it has been with other things.  I'm hoping that part levels out for me.  I'm thrilled with the controlled appetite.  I'm wondering if I should measure this week or not.  I'm also thinking that I might do a weekly vlog review.... What do you think?

Next week I'll do another measuring session as well as pics and posting my progress.

Disclosure: I will be receiving product as a participant in the 90 Day Weight Loss Challenge. All opinions are my own. 

Green Beans with Sesame Seeds

Even Faster! Bulk Cooking Breakfast Burritos/Baked Quiche Wraps

We were going through the breakfast burritos at an amazing rate, so I found an even easier, faster way to make them... because you can count on me to constantly be on the look out for ways to make things more efficient so I have more time to be lazy:)

Baked Quiche Wraps!

Use whatever ingredients you like... for our Clean Eating Wraps, we like to use a variety of the following:
Whole Wheat Tortillas
Eggs
Spinach
Peppers (especialy red & yellow bell peppers for me!)
Sauteed Chicken
Onions (lots of onions!)
low fat cheeses

Not so Clean idea that my kids like, and helps extend the eggs are oven fries (cut really small).

Directions:

• Sautee your choice of veggies and meats in a skillet with a little coconut oil.
• Beat eggs in a separate bowl (I used 2 1/2 dozen for our pan, with LOTS of veggies)
• Pour all ingredients into a 9x13 baking dish
• Bake at 350 until done.  (Our 'new' oven is REALLY off temp, wise, so I'm really unsure of the time for a regular oven.  Probably 15-20 minutes?)

After the eggs cool (I just put them in the oven overnight), divide the pan into 16-18 servings.  I cut across the middle first, then in half the other direction... it makes it easier to get more even slices.

Lay out your tortillas with cheese and wrap.

Wrap each on with plastic wrap and you're ready to go!

I keep them in the fridge in a drawer and they're ready to go for my early morning husband and kids!

 What is your favorite easy-go to recipe?

Dirty Birthday Dinner: Grilled Cheese w/Apple Slices and CAKE!!!

Grilled Cheese w/Apple Slices on Pumpernickel Bread

Okay, so its not really a "dirty" meal... but it doesn't fit the "Clean Eating" standards.  That's because today is my youngest son's 16th birthday!!!  Wait.  That must mean that I'm getting old.  Huh.  Its not so exciting anymore.  

Family dinner minus the two oldest.  And me.  Well, I'm THERE, I'm just behind the camera. 

I picked up a loaf of pumpernickel bread off of the clearance shelf at Walmart.  Grilled sandwiches work wonderfully with day old bread!

Pumpernickel or Rye Bread, Apples, Swiss Cheese and Butter or Coconut oil and we are set!

Directions

Butter/Oil one side of each slice of bread (the girls don't like rye, so we used white for them)

Place swiss cheese slice, then apple, then another slice of swiss (our slices were THIN)

Grill like you would any grilled cheese sandwich:

LOOK at my EPIC Vintage Roper stove that my hubby got for me!!!  Not bad for $75.00!

I can cook on a double burner griddle, two pans (one for the vegetarian baked beans, one for the meat lovers) AND a pan for veggies and I STILL have one burner leftover!

We served with a side of  homemade baked beans.  YUM!!!

Then it was time for the truly "dirty" part of the evening... fudge cake made by my daughter, Paris, for Jaedin's birthday!

We cheated and just used a mix.  Why?  Because... I'm a bad mom and I forgot that today was Jaedin's birthday.  Everything has been so hectic this summer with the move, we STILL haven't celebrated Kainan's 17th birthday from June OR Patrick's birthday in July, or MY birthday OR our 18th anniversary.  The move just downed our entire summer!

He's 'cool' with it, though.  Notice the ".  He is such a goof ball... this has become his "pose" for photos, unless he's doing his Trekkie thing.  *Shaking my head*  You just never know.

Happy Birthday, Jaedin!  And the rest of you, go try out this weird grilled cheese idea!  My family loves it!

Almost Clean Crock Pot Baked Beans w/Dried beans

Almost Clean Crock Pot Baked Beans

I have tried making truly "clean" baked beans, but I can never get it to taste... right.  We love our baked beans and we've had them for years, so I guess maybe we're just spoiled.  These are pretty close to "Clean" though, other than the BBQ sauce, everything else is good.  Here are a few that at least don't include HFC:

Stubbs Bar-B-Q Sauce
Bulls-Eye Barbecue Sauce (recently changed to no HFCS) -*note, it does have honey in it, but I'm fine with that.

Anyone have any more to add??

We are really enjoying family dinners in our new house!

Anyway, I appear to have finally gotten the right combination of a good crock pot and just the right beans.  My last crock pot had a hot spot and always burned everything in one section and didn't get hot enough throughout the rest of it to ever bake dried beans.  You can just use a pot in the oven if you like, but I am in love with my new crock pot and its... interesting settings, so I've been using it for everything I can.

I also use a variety of beans.  I don't know why... I'm just weird that way.  Using the crockpot takes ALL day.  I would recommend starting them the night before with the water, then adding your broth, BBQ & seasonings first thing in the morning so they'll be all nice and cooked up for dinner time.  These are odd measurements because I had random bags of beans half gone and I lost ALL the rest of my photos, so I can't even look back at them to see:(  Use whatever you want, you'll want to only fill up your crock pot or pan 1/3rd of the way full, because these suckers GROW.

Ingredients: (This filled my 5 qt crock to almost overflowing:)
1/2 bag of white beans
1 bag of black beans
1 bag of Great Northern beans
1 carton of beef broth or vegetable broth
1 medium-large onion
1 bottle of your favorite BBQ sauce
1 Tbsp. Chili Powder for a tiny bit of kick
*My meat eaters love it when I add bacon, sausage &/smoked sausage to theirs.

I LOVE this crock pot.  Seriously, it fits my A.D.D. nature perfectly:)

Directions:
1.  Put all dried beans in the crockpot.  Fill with water.
**Do not add salt or salt containing ingredients until the skins are soft**

2.  Cook on medium/low for 4-6 hours until the skins of the beans are soft.
**Our crock pot "low" seems to be much closer to the medium on my old one**
***If using the oven, bake COVERED on 300 for 4 hours or until skins are soft***

3.  Once skins are soft, drain 1/2 the water, then ADD broth, onions and barbeque sauce.  If you have meat lovers, you can add sausage, bacon, ground beef, hot dogs... but remember, these are NOT "clean" foods (My husband and 17 year old son don't really care about clean eating when it comes to meat:) To keep it clean, you could use chopped flank steak.

4.  Bake on high (oven 350-375) for 4 hours or until beans are soft.

5.  After two hours on high, uncover the beans and add the remaining seasoning.

DRIED BEAN TIPS:

Adding the broth as soon as you can AFTER the skins are softened gives them a LOT more flavor.  I used to make the mistake of cooking them in the water too long and they were always bland.

Stir at least every hour.  This helps the beans always cook evenly so you don't have annoying little hard beans in there.

Stir frequently when cooking for the last couple of hours uncovered.  This will prevent the beans on top from drying out, whilst allowing the sauce to cook down to a nice, thick consistency.

These beans cook down to a nice, thick, full of flavor texture that you will LOVE!   Let me know how it worked for you!

Clean Eating: Super Hot Chicken Jalapeno Dish

Super Hot Chicken Jalapeno Dish

*Best if prepared by marinating at least 24 hours*

Ingredients (serves my two guys who love the spicy stuff):
2 chicken thigh & leg pieces
8 Jalapenos, sliced in half lengthwise and seeded
6-8 oz. Neufchâtel
3/4-1 cup of 100% Pain Sauce

8-24 hour BEFORE your meal Directions:
Take your chicken pieces and put into a ziplock bag.  Cover with hot sauce & sit in the refrigerator for at least 8 hours (I actually left mine in for 48 hours because things kept coming up.  It was hot enough to make my hubby sweat, and he eats a LOT of spicy stuff!)

On the day of your meal:

• Bake the chicken in a covered casserole/pan at 300 for 45 minutes to an hour (or until almost done, our oven is new to us, I don't know ho accurate it is yet!)  *You can cook it higher for less time, but I was taking my time so that the chicken would be tender... and I actually thought ahead today, Yay me!
• While that is cooking, cut & seed your peppers.  Fill them with the Neufchâtel cheese.
• Remove cover and pour an extra serving of hot sauce over the chicken.
• Place the cheese filled jalapenos around the chicken and return to the oven at 350 for about 20 minutes uncovered.

Serve and watch your hot food loving family as their faces turn red, their eyes water and their forehead starts to sweat.  They may yell things suddenly, without warning, like YAAAHHHOOOOOOOO!!! (Seriously, my husband did).  My son even said, 'Holy COW, this IS hot' (and this is the kid who puts hot sauce on everything.  EVERYTHING.)

And they're ready for another day out in the ridiculous heat!  My husband says that on days after he's eaten a spicy meal, it always makes a noticeable difference in how he tolerates the heat.  So I guess spicy foods at least help him tolerate the heat.  Whatever I can do to help!

Clean Eating Childhood Revamp! Skunkburger Pizza!

Yummy!  Skunkburger Pizza-Dilla

When I was growing up, my mom had a habit of renaming cuts of meat that she thought we might balk at eating.  We raised cows, pigs and chickens and butchered them ourselves, so we always had plenty of meat, even though we didn't have a lot of money.

We ate, or at least tried "snake" (beef heart), "Squid" (beef tongue) and we not only tried, but we loved skunkburger pizza.

Skunkburger pizza was such a hit, even with my friends, that one time we had my friend so thoroughly convinced that it was really skunkburger that her mom called our house to ask my mom where she could buy some!

My mom used a few things that I avoid now days, like Velveeta cheese and pizza crust mix, but since she was a single working mom when the tradition began, I can hardly blame her!  I also have the time & ability to make my own sauces now, too, so I don't even have to buy sauce in a jar.

Ingredients:
Whole Wheat Tortillas
Homemade Marinara
Mozzarella Cheese, shredded
Lean Ground Beef, cooked and chopped
Tad bit of Coconut Oil

Directions:
Lightly coat one side of a tortilla & place in a preheated skillet (Med-Low)
Mix together the Marinara and Ground Beef
Add the sauce & meat mixture to the tortilla
Top with mozzarella cheese
Top that with another tortilla (Even better, leave the top tortilla off and bake in the oven like a pizza!
If making the 'quesadilla' style, flip when lightly browned.

YUM!  

As I mentioned in the directions, I think next time I will definitely cook this in the oven with only one tortilla.  I was in too much of a hurry today!

However, it was still delicious, and there was enough to split with my son when he came in from raking leaves!

Do you have any fond childhood food memories or traditions?  Are you carrying them on with your family, or are you just working on making new ones?

And did I mention?  I cooked this on our 1950's Vintage Double oven-6 burner stove!

Whoa. I'm LOSING WEIGHT. Grain Free, clean eating Pot Roast

After a solid YEAR of gaining weight (whilst trying to LOSE), I have not  only NOT gained any weight this past week, but I have lost four pounds!!! (If you see them, please don't tell me, I don't want them back)

That may not sound like much, and its not a lot... but I am telling you, after watching the scale go up for so long, it feels like a miracle to see it go back down.

Apparently my body just does not like grains.  I went a while without eating gluten, but found that even brown rice was making my digestive tract go into spasms and a form of rebellion that I honestly hope I never have to deal with again.  

So I guess you'll be seeing more grain free recipes from me for a while.  And, since we're moving within the next two weeks, the recipes will be SUPER quick or made for bulk cooking because I don't have time for anything else!

Grain Free Pot Roast & Veggies in Marinara

A pot roast with veggies and meat so tender, you can cut it with a fork!

Ingredients:

Home made Marinara Sauce (or you can buy your own, I prefer to make it in bulk at home so that I know what the ingredients are!)
Beef Broth ***I like thicker stew like pot roast, so I tend to keep it 3 parts marinara to 1 part beef broth, you can use the amounts that suit you and your family.

Round Steak/Flank Steak (I used round steak and just cut extra fat off before cooking)

Carrots, chopped in large pieces

Potatoes, chopped in large pieces
Frozen Corn (although some people sensitive to grains shouldn't have corn either)
Frozen Green Beans
Cabbage, chopped
Onions, chopped in 4ths (I keep mine big so that my one non-onion kid can pick them out)

Pretty much any other veggies you want!

Directions

OAMC:  Chop the veggies, Steak and divide into meal sized freezer bags/mason jars if you're avoiding plastic.  Add Marinara sauce and seal bag.  Freeze.

When you're ready to cook, take it out and Add 1-2 cups of Beef Broth throw it in the crock pot in the morning and have for dinner.

Regular Cooking:

• With thawed meat, put skillet on med-high.
• Sear meat by cooking it for just a few minutes on each side.
• Add marinara & beef broth
• Add carrots 
• After about an hour or so
• Add all other veggies

Cook on the stove on medium until the meat and veggies are done (at least three hours)
Bake in oven on 350-400 for several hours.

If I had the freezer space right now, this would DEFINITELY always be a OAMC recipe.  Until I get an upright or deep freezer, we're stuck with bulk cooking on the stove and then we all just eat it until we're stuffed.  

This is a slightly modified old time family favorite.  I remember eating pot roast with potatoes and carrots at my grandma's house for Sunday dinner.  Yum!

Sweet & SPICY Chicken with Broccoli & Rice

Sweet & Spicy Chicken

*You can find the original recipe here on My Recipes

Ingredients: 

(*I tripled the original recipe and made extra sauce for the rice & veggies)

• 6 boneless chicken breasts
• 2 Tbsp Coconut Oil
• 1/2 cup lime juice
• 1/2 cup lemon juice
• 2 Tbsp Crushed Red Pepper Flakes
• 2 Tbsp grated fresh ginger 
• 
  
• BWAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA
• I am SERIOUSLY LOSING IT HERE!!!!  
• OMG.  I just read the recipe on the computer screen and it says, "1/2 teaspoon of honey"
• When we printed this off, the / didn't show up so we thought it said TWELVE teaspoons of honey!!!  We adjusted it a little bit, but still, that is hilarious.
• Lol.  Wow.  Well, the recipe DID turn out yummy and seriously didn't taste all that sweet to me... so, onward...
• 
  
• 1/2 cup of honey or agave nectar
• 1/4 cup stevia or xylitol (although if you want less sweet, leave this out!)
• 6 Scallions/green onions, finely chopped
• 6 Tbsp cilnatro, finely chopped.
• 2 cups brown rice
• 1-2 bags of frozen broccoli

This is where I veer off even more from the recipe.  I was in the process of reading the recipe, and I have a BAD habit of getting distracted.  So I read, "Put the chicken on the stove and sautee..." I thought it was strange that it wasn't to be cooked in the sauce, but I wanted to follow the recipe, so I put the chicken on the stove, then noticed that it was time to pick up my girls from their friend's house.  I turned to my husband, who was right there, washing dishes anyway, and said, "Honey, can you watch this and make sure it doesn't burn?"

And out the door I went.

Thirty minutes later, I come home to find my husband turning off the stove.  "Well,  I imagine the chicken is done now.  How odd that the sauce isn't meant as a marinade or something, though"

So I get the recipe and read the rest of the sentence "Sautee for 2-3 minutes on each side... then add the...

Oops.

So we got busy making the sauce:

Paris helping me chop up the green onions

Using a pizza cutter for herbs works SO much faster than trying to use a knife!

I cut the now super tender chicken into small cubes and poured the sauce over.  YUM.

This was a disaster.  My son would come in the house and eat it all in one sitting.  

So, we made another double batch of the sauce and I made some brown rice to mix it in with.  

This stuff definitely has some kick to it!  It almost reminded me of a Thai food dish that I used to get at Pei Wei, but I can't remember what it was called.  I think its like a blend of sweet and sour and their spicy chicken.  I think it would be fabulous with those little white button mushrooms and some pea pods.   If I could figure out tofu, this would be a fantastic vegetarian dish!  I think I'll add this recipe to my once a month cooking list.  It would freeze & crockpot well, I think!

Viola!  My husband's lunches packed for a few days and my sons container to eat at home.  Now to make something vegetarian for my non meat eaters!

Verdict:  This recipe is GOLDEN.  I will definitely add it to our OAMC, because the sauce was a little tedious to make, so I'd rather make a BUNCH at once and freeze it, rather than have to get all that stuff out each time.  Besides, we never use a full bunch of cilantro, and I hate to see it go to waste!

What are your favorite go to dishes for freezing?  I'm going to try doing at least our dinners in freezer meals so I can just have one big cooking/cleaning day a month and save a LOT of work other wise.  Do any of you do this?  

Clean Eating Super Yummy Spicy Goulash

Spicy Goulash

Ingredients:

5-6 carrots (my carrots were pretty puny:) sliced thin

1 16 oz. bag of frozen corn

3 zucchini, sliced thin

5 cans of diced tomatoes

**You can add some white beans or lentils, especially if you're making this for the vegetarian version.

1/2 carton of beef broth

1 capful of Mrs. Dash Extra Spicy seasoning

1 capful of Mrs. Dash "Garlic and Red Pepper" seasoning (I would have generally used actual garlic and red pepper, but I was out)

few shakes of black ground pepper and you should be good!

*You can use simple spices like chili powder instead, if you prefer.

I used my grater for slicing the carrots and zucchini

Mmmmm... spicy!

Dump all of the ingredients together in a pan (again, I pureed some of the diced tomatoes... not even sure why we HAD cans of diced tomatoes in the first place!) and cook on medium heat for at least an hour.  I left mine cooking for probably 3?  It would be fabulous in a crockpot if I had one that didn't burn half of everything I make!

Serve with whole wheat pasta for a "Clean Eating" vegetarian meal...

Or, you can serve with the Spicy Meatballs for the non vegetarian in your life.

This recipe turned out REALLY well.  It was a little watery, because I forgot the beef broth until it was almost done, but it was SO full of flavor, we loved it!  We had a nice big salad and some garlic bread with it (the garlic bread was NOT clean eating, but my kids aren't terribly concerned with being THAT clean!)

Clean Eating: Easy Spicy Gluten Free Meatballs

Super Simple Super Spicy Meat Balls

Ingredients:

2-3 cups of Gluten Free cereal.  I used Rice Squares.

1 pound of lean ground beef

1 Tbsp Chili Powder

1 Tbsp "Extra Spicy" seasoning from Mrs. Dash (you can leave this out, but I love these spices!)

1 Tbsp Crushed Red Pepper Flakes

1 can of diced tomatoes

2 eggs

I just crush up the cereal using my hands, but you can stick it in a food processor if you want.  I ended up pureeing most of the diced tomato when my picky girl said, "Ewww... you're putting tomatoes in it?" but you can usually just leave them in chunks.

I always bake meatballs on a wire rack in a pan to catch the grease, even with lean ground beef, this helps keep even more fat out.  I can't stand cooking ground beef where it is sitting in the grease... yuck.

Viola!  These were SPICY!!!  Dang!  I'm glad I made some without the crushed red pepper for Abyni and I because I took one bite of a spicy one and my mouth was on FIRE.  Of course Kainan actually ate his with extra hot sauce.  Go figure.  I served them with the goulash type dish that I kind of made up on the go.  It was a little liquid-y because I didn't get the beef broth until late in the game, but it was very flavorful!