Strawberries make the world go round!

Had breakfast this morning and oh how I have missed my strawberries! I was out of them for over a week and have since realized that they must have a super power that keeps the Earth spinning! They can top just about any kind of breakfast! Here’s what I enjoyed this morning!

Kashi Autumn Wheat cereal, cottage cheese, local KBC coffee and of course… STRAWBERRIES! But what is so good about them aside from their excellent flavor? It’s fruit, DUH!

OK, to be serious now… strawberries are high in fiber, vitamin c (don’t like oranges? pick up some strawberries!) and other vitamins, and are also full of antioxidents and phytonutrients that fight free radicals in our bodies. All that power in a tangy-sweet little bite size morsel! Who would have thought that Clean Eating could be so delicious! Other berries (blue- rasp- black-berries, etc…) are equally good for you as well, so take advantage of berry season, stock up on frozen berries for the winter and enjoy!

Not sure what to do with berries? Put ’em on cereal, oatmeal, or drop ’em in yogurt or cottage cheese. Make a salad with them or a healthy berry cobbler dessert. Or, just eat em straight from the package!

Or, try this recipe:

Ingredients

VINAIGRETTE
2 tablespoons champagne vinegar or white balsamic vinegar
6 ounces extra virgin olive oil
1/2 teaspoon honey
1/8 teaspoon sea salt
1/8 teaspoon fresh ground black pepper

SALAD
6 ounces baby spinach, washed and patted dry
2 cups strawberries, quartered
1 avocado, thinly sliced
4 ounces goat cheese, crumbled
1/4 cup rough chopped pecans, toasted

Preparation

1. VINAIGRETTE In the small bowl, whisk together the champagne vinegar, olive oil, honey, and sea salt.

2. SALAD: In the salad bowl(s), arrange the ingredients in layers: baby spinach on the bottom, then strawberries, avocado slices, pecans, goat cheese, and pecans. Serve with the vinaigrette.

*recipe and image courtesy of Andreasrecipes.com.

Hope everyone enjoyed my double post Monday!

Question: What is your favorite way to eat berries?

211.5… And other stuff.

This weeks weigh in, 211.5 lbs. Proof that even when you slide backwards a little, mess up from time to time, you can still be rewarded! This helps to strengthen my resolve and really reminds me what I am struggling for.

Breakfast:

Two eggs over easy, one slice of Silver Hills Mack’s Flax sprouted grain bread and a spoonful of organic salsa. Delicious breakfast. And of course there was local KBC coffee to wash it down!

While running around, had to get an afternoon pick-me-up:

Kaladi’s skinny tan white chocoloate mocha. Yea, I love my coffee! 🙂

For a quick lunch we split an order of sushi. My wife and I LOVE sushi and this lunch hit the spot.

So after lunch we headed to Eklutna Lake for the afternoon and enjoyed (a little) sun and (a little) rain. Walked for a good hour and a half enjoying mountain views and a gorgeous lake shore.

My wife and our two adorable kids:

And some gorgeous views:

iPhone camera close up:

And as for dinner my wife and I split half  of a half chicken quesadilla (1/4) and topped it with fresh made guacamole, salsa and lettuce and a spoonful of sour cream.

So, that was my day in a nutshell. Very good day. Hope everyone else is doing good too!

Bye for now!

Good Morning Breakfast!

I finally tried what everyone is talking about… overnight oats! Oatmeal seems all the rave around the blogging food-o-sphere, like here, here, and here. Final verdict: back to the drawing board. And because I am such a bad blogger, I didn’t take any pics so I will give you a shot of my half finished locally roasted Kaladi Brothers Coffee instead:

Anyways, back to the oats. My attempt was an apple cinnamon (for lack of other ingredients, i.e. strawberries – *cry*) and my first impression was simply ICK! But, try try again is the old motto, so I did. I promptly decided to warm them up over the stove and that seemed to do the trick for me. They were decent, but I think I have something against cinnamon. Either way, when my fridge is refilled with good toppings, I will definitely give this breakfast a second go.

Apple Cinnamon Overnight Oats (for two):

1 cup oats

1 cup skim milk

2 Tbsp wheat germ

2 Tbsp golden flax seeds

2 tsp sucanat

1 apple of choice

pinch cinnamon to taste

-combine ingredients to sucanat, mix, and refrigerate over night.

-chop apple into bite size chunks, combine ingredients in pan, add cinnamon and stir over med/low heat until desired temperature. Serve and enjoy.

The whole reason behind the attempted breakfast is the simplicity of it. Add berries, vanilla, PB, you name it! The possibilities are endless! And for somebody that works at 6:30 am (my loving wife who too often skips breakfast), simplicity is a must in the morning!

Well, I’m off for now to read more blogs before work.

Question: What is your favorite oats flavor/topping combination?

Mostly success… and a recipe!

Well, lately I have been having a mix of success and failure in my attempts at self-improvement. Firstly, I have eaten many clean meals and I’ve even been exercising. Sadly, I worked out so hard on Monday that I chose only a mild walk Tuesday morning and have been so sore I haven’t done anything since. Hopefully I recover by Friday and I can do some workouts this weekend. So, I’ve been trying to watch what I eat and have been adequately successful except for a sliver of cheese cake yesterday (horrible, I know!) and some Costco pizza (even worse!). For those of you who frequent Costco (especially their food court), please check out this website and follow the PDF link to see the nutritional information. It shocked me at first and (until yesterday) I haven’t eaten there since. Unfortunately, I haven’t learned to navigate a social gathering’s buffet table.

But, overall, I’m voting it a job well done which is hard for me to say and harder to write because I am, naturally, a negative person. And believe me… I kicked myself hard for it! But looking at all the pictures of the good, clean food I DID eat, it is hard to say I haven’t been successful.

BREAKFAST:

I tried a new cereal today:

It wasn’t bad, but I think I prefer my Kashi Autumn Harvest. I topped it off with banana and strawberries and a delicious cup of Kaladi Brothers coffee!

Eating breakfast like this really has made a difference in the way I feel everyday. I now drink less coffee, more water and I’m not tired from the minute I wake up.

The finished product:

I had a simple snack during my day of an apple and some cottage cheese and a later snack of veggies and humus. And now for my favorite meal of the day…

DINNER:

Mexican Pinto Beans and Brown Rice (with a flair!):

2 Tbsp EVOO

1 tsp each: ground cummin, coriander, cinnamon

1 Tbsp chili powder

1 med. onion peeled/chopped

3 cloves garlic, chopped

2 cups cooked brown rice

4 cups pinto beans

1 1/2 to 2 cups chicken or vegetable stock (low sodium)

3 Tbsp chipotle peppers, chopped

2 Tbsp tomato paste

1 tsp sea salt

1: heat oil in Dutch oven (really big frying pan?) over med. heat. Add cummin through chili powder and heat until fragrant.

2: add chopped onions; cook until soft. Add garlic; cook 1 more minute.

3: add cooked rice, beans, stock, chipotles, tomato paste and salt. Mix well, reduce heat and simmer for 20 minutes.

So, I didn’t have chipotles, coriander OR chili powder so I nixed the coriander and subbed cayenne pepper for chili powder and Tabasco sauce for the chipotles. Also, I used small red beans instead of pinto (I hate pinto beans!).

On top I fried some steak meat and red pepper in garlic, pepper and cilantro and served that over top with a fresh pico de gallo.

Overall, a little mellow at first, spicy near the end and oh so delicious! The recipe was modified from The Eat Clean Diet Cookbook, pg. 354.

Also, I have been thinking about posting my weights and measurements soon so that I can better track my progress. My last weigh in was 220 lbs and hopefully I have lost something. But if nothing else, eating healthy and drinking lots of water (more water info in later posts) has leveled my moods and made me a much calmer and self-confident individual. Ahhhh the power of FOOD!

And for the question of the post: What foods in your life are your vice (the ones you can’t “live” without)? For me, it’s chips and pizza. So I decided healthier chips dipped in salsa (veggies in disguise) and I try to “clean” my pizza as much as possible! And now, off to bed!