Thursday, January 31, 2013

I said no to monkey bread!!!

If you don’t know what monkey bread is then you are missing out.  Check this out: http://www.pillsbury.com/recipes/grands-monkey-bread/7a1e41b1-4708-4028-8ce6-fcb5baebbc19 . 

My friend in NY introduced me to it a couple years ago and I haven’t had it since.  I walked into our staff breakfast this morning and there were TWO huge loafs of monkey bread there.  Now I came prepared, I brought my own yogurt and granola so I wouldn’t be tempted to eat…. UGH!  All I wanted to do was eat the entire loaf of sugary goodness.  But I didn’t!  Seriously, I should get a metal.  This stuff is delicious.  I may try to make it at home… I could make homemade dough and use raw sugar.  Not sure what to substitute for the brown sugar though?  Maybe molasses???  Thoughts?
 
 

Ps- As I am uploading this a funfetti cupcake appeared as if by magic at my computer desk.  I definitely ate half  ALL (minus the icing... that helps right?) of it before deciding my hardboiled egg was a smarter snack choice….

Tuesday, January 29, 2013

Mold. Yuck.

On Friday I got home from work, frantically packed for Philly and ate some lunch before getting on the road.  While I was making lunch (whole wheat pita and chicken salad with spinach) I looked down and saw mold on the pita bread.  Yuck.  Tom told me to stop being a baby and that it wouldn’t hurt me.  Wrong move sir.  I promptly doctored up two pita’s so that I had two halves without mold and he had two halves with mold.  I will give him credit though… he ate the whole thing (I still think its gross).  I guess now I understand why everything on the market has preservatives in it…. I’m going to have to do a better job of freezing things when I buy them if we can’t use them right away (like freezing 5 of the 10 pitas in the package).

Monday, January 28, 2013

Half and half, groceries, and ice cream

I happened to be in Philly this weekend with a wonderful bunch of ladies, one of whom eats mostly unprocessed as well.  And we both love coffee.  I was complaining about my almond milk making failures and how I can’t find anything to put in my coffee that doesn’t have sugar.  My friend looks at me and says “What about half and half?”  Seriously.  I’m a pretty intelligent person and I had not thought to look for a natural half and half before making my own almond milk? 

I got home from Philly on Sunday and Tom and I went grocery shopping.  Sure enough Nature’s Promise (a brand that Giant sells) makes an organic half and half that only has 2 ingredients, cream and milk.  I’m drinking my coffee as I type this and it tastes amazing (plus no chunks of almonds at the bottom of my coffee).

While I’m on the topic of the grocery store… it is really misleading to see how many products have the phrase “all natural” on the box AND ARE NOT ACTUALLY ALL NATURAL.  We started picking up random things as we were walking around and everything that claimed to be “all natural” had sugar in it or a preservative stuck in at the end of the ingredients list.  What a rip off.

Before finishing up our shopping I wanted to look for natural ice cream.  Tom laughed (rightfully so) and told me I was not going to find anything.  Even so I wanted to look.  We spent about 20 minutes in the ice cream isle reading every brand on ice cream.  Nada.  Giant does not sell an ice cream that has no sugar in it.  And if they say “no sugar” it’s only because they have splenda.  I need an ice cream company to make an ice cream with stevia… please!!!!!  After the repeated let downs I finally decided that I was eating ice cream no matter what and we bought a pint of ben and jerry’s.  Woops.

Food Diary, 1/20-1/26

This week was ok... but definitely not great.  I did a good job when I was at home (for the most part).  And I knew already that the weekend was going to be a wash since it was girls weekend in Philly.  The  buffalo chicken dip was reoccuring... I need to figure out how to make ranch dressing so that I can make buffalo chicken dip without processed ingredients (because lets face it... I will never stop eating it).  Also, Tuesday night I was so exhauseted when I got home from work and wanted sushi.  I defitely could hae chosen something other than the spicy california roll that would have had unprocessed ingredients.  And lets not even talk about the cupcake on Wednesday (it was a baby shower for a coworker at school).  This upcoming week is going to be interesting because I didn't have any prep time over the weekend to get things ready.  We'll see how we do...


Date
Sunday January 20. 2013
Breakfast
·         Gatorade- processed and necessary- very hung-over
·         Toast with peanut butter
Morning Snack
 
Lunch
 
Afternoon Snack
·         Chocolate- processed
Dinner
·         Buffalo chicken dip- processed
·         Chips
Dessert
·         Oatmeal raisin cookies

 

Date
Monday January 21. 2013
Breakfast
·         Coffee- with almond milk and stevia
·         Scrambled egg
·         Toast with butter
Morning Snack
·         Granola with chocolate- chocolate is processed
Lunch
·         Cucumbers and homemade hummus
·         Oatmeal raisin cookies and milk
Afternoon Snack
 
Dinner
·         Buffalo chicken dip- processed
·         Chips
Dessert
·         Oatmeal raisin cookies

 

Date
Tuesday January 22. 2013
Breakfast
·         Coffee- with almond milk and stevia
·         Apple
·         Yogurt
·         Granola
·         Oatmeal raisin cookie
Morning Snack
 
Lunch
·         Egg salad
·         Whole wheat pita
·         Spinach
·         Cucumbers
·         Hummus
Afternoon Snack
 
Dinner
·         Sushi- spicy California roll (processed)
·         Sushi- shrimp and avocado roll- unprocessed
Dessert
 

 

Date
Wednesday January 23. 2013
Breakfast
·         Coffee- with almond milk and stevia
·         Apple
·         Yogurt
·         Granola
Morning Snack
 
Lunch
·         Egg salad
·         Whole wheat pita
·         Spinach
·         Cucumbers
·         Hummus
Cupcake- PROCESSED
Afternoon Snack
·         Hardboiled egg
Dinner
·         Turkey meatballs
·         Pasta salad with whole wheat pasta
·         Peppers
·         Hummus
Dessert
 

 

Date
Thursday January 24. 2013
Breakfast
·         Coffee- with almond milk and stevia
·         Apple
·         Yogurt
·         Granola
Morning Snack
 
Lunch
·         Turkey meatballs
·         Pasta salad with whole wheat pasta
·         Grapes
Afternoon Snack
·         Oatmeal raisin cookie (2)
Dinner
·         Cheddar cheese
·         Crackers
·         Hardboiled egg
·         Apple
Dessert
 

 

Date
Friday January 25. 2013
Breakfast
·         Coffee- with almond milk and stevia
·         Apple
·         Yogurt
·         Granola
Morning Snack
·         Hardboiled egg
Lunch
·         Chicken salad (started out as unprocessed but I could not get the second batch of mayo I tried to make to turn into mayo… so some of the mayo in the chicken salad is processed)
·         Whole wheat pita
·         Spinach
Afternoon Snack
·         Almonds and dried mango (yummm)
Dinner
·         Hummus and pita (probably unprocessed,… but we were out to eat so I can’t be positive)
Dessert
 

 

Saturday- In Philly.  Not even bothering to record J

Here are the highlights:

Breakfast at the hotel:

Omelet station, biscuit, yogurt (not greek and definitely processed- it tasted gross)

Lunch while on a scavenger hunt through South Street and the Italian Market:

Chicken cheese steak (obviously)

Dinner:

Baked mac and cheese (they definitely made it themselves at the restaurant but it was not whole wheat pasta)

Thursday, January 24, 2013

You can do it!

Quick fun story while I'm on a break from my grad class....

A co-worker stopped me in the hallway today to tell me she's been reading my blog. My response... That's great!!!  Her response.... No it's not! It's making me feel like crap about the way i eat.

YOU'RE WELCOME!

I'm not gonna lie... it's definitely hard. And I wish I could tell you I feel amazing (I'm fighting off a cold so it's not the foods fault that I feel like crap). But I am still excited about our diet change and hope I can inspire others. :) Happy Thursday.

Monday, January 21, 2013

Weekend Cooking Adventures


There has been a lot of time spent in the kitchen this weekend.  I forgot to take a lot of pictures but here are the highlights.

Saturday:

Granola- same recipe I used last week.  Delicious and quick!

Mayonnaise- Tried to make this by hand and failed miserably.  It never thickened and just stayed as a soupy egg mixture.  L  I was definitely not mixing fast enough.  My neighbor saved the day though and brought over her kitchen aid and food processor for me to use!

Bread- I made a honey wheat bread in our new bread maker.  It was super easy.  Only issue is that it was weirdly shaped.  It was kind of pinched in the middle so it wasn't a nice pretty loaf of bread.  It does taste good though.  Very dense, but good.  Going to try again later this week when we run out.

Sunday:

Lemon garlic hummus- Good, but not great.  I messed up my math and doubled the recipe but forgot that I had one cup less chick peas then I needed to double it so there is more tahini then there should be.  I think that’s making it taste a little more bland because the tahini is over powering and you can’t taste the lemon and garlic.  Will buy more chick peas tomorrow and try to fix this! 




Mayonnaise- It worked!  YAY for a kitchen aid mixer.  I don’t really like mayo as a condiment but I plan to make chicken salad and egg salad tomorrow so I need it for that.











Oatmeal raisin cookies-  I substituted honey for sugar… unsuccessfully.  I read a thing online yesterday about how to substitute honey for sugar (lower oven temp, add extra teaspoon baking powder, add more flour).  I forgot to do all of those things!!!!!!!  Woops.  
They taste ok but they are very thin.  I only cooked 12 cookies so I may add more baking powder and flour and try again.











Update: Added more flour and baking soda to the rest of the cookie mix today and baked them.  They actually look and take like cookies now!!!!  I think I'm going to crumble the first batch and add it to my granola.

Also added more chick peas to the hummus and re blended it.  It tastes better.  Still a little bland.  Will experiment with other add ins next time.

This afternoon/ evening I’m going to make some egg salad and chicken salad.  I feel like halfway through the week last week we ran out of things to eat that didn't require a lot of effort.  I got home late from work on Thursday and was not in the mood to cook… thus the picnic dinner.  Hopefully having egg salad and chicken salad on hand will help with nights like this!

Sunday, January 20, 2013

Food diary- January 14- January 19

Date
Monday January 14. 2013
Breakfast
·         Coffee- with splenda and creamer (processed)
·         Apple
·         Yogurt (processed)
·         Granola- homemade by me!!!  (and delicious)
Morning Snack

Lunch
·         Morningstar  black bean burger (processed)
·         Light wheat bread (processed)
·         Celery
·         Hummus (processed)
Afternoon Snack
·         Hardboiled egg
·         Apple
Dinner
·         Brown rice
·         Chicken
·         Peppers/onions in sesame oil
ALL UNPROCESSED!!!!
Dessert



Date
Tuesday January 15. 2013
Breakfast
·         Coffee- with splenda and creamer (processed)
·         Apple
·         Yogurt (processed)
·         Granola- homemade by me!!!  (and delicious)
·         Hardboiled egg
Morning Snack

Lunch
·         Whole wheat pita
·         Black beans
·         Cheddar cheese
·         Celery
·         Hummus (processed)
Afternoon Snack

Dinner
Ruby Tuesday’s:
·         Mini turkey burger (1)
·         Salad bar
·         French fries and ketchup
·         Wine

THIS MEAL IS AN UNPROCESSED FAILURE….

Dessert



Date
Wednesday January 16. 2013
Breakfast
·         Coffee- with splenda and creamer (processed)
·         Apple
·         Yogurt (processed)
·         Granola- homemade by me!!!  (and delicious)
Morning Snack

Lunch
·         Morningstar  black bean burger (processed)
·         Light wheat bread (processed)
·         Celery
·         Hummus (processed)
Afternoon Snack
·         Hardboiled egg
Dinner
·         Peanut butter and jelly pancakes- see other blog post for recipe
·         Wine

DELICIOUS AND TOTALLY UNPROCESSED MEAL J

Dessert


Date
Thursday January 17. 2013
Breakfast
·         Coffee- with splenda and creamer (processed)
·         Apple
·         Yogurt (processed)
·         Granola- homemade by me!!!  (and delicious)
Morning Snack

Lunch
·         Buffalo chicken dip (half processed)
·         Nature’s Promise corn tortilla chips
·         Grapes
Afternoon Snack
·         Hardboiled egg
Dinner
Snack/Picnic Style dinner:
·         Almonds
·         Peanuts
·         Pear
·         Cucumbers
·         Ranch dressing (processed)
·         Crackers
·         Cheese
·         Chicken pot stickers (processed… but just barely… they have a preservative in them)
Dessert


Yumm.  This was a great dinner.

Date
Friday January 18. 2013
Breakfast
·         Coffee- with splenda and creamer (processed)
·         Apple
·         Yogurt (processed)
·         Granola- homemade by me!!!  (and delicious)
Morning Snack

Lunch
·         Peanut butter and jelly pancakes
·         Maple Syrup
·         Grapes
Afternoon Snack
·         Hardboiled egg
Dinner
Out to Dinner- Joe Squared:
·         Chicken and balsamic pizza
·         LOTS of wine
Dessert



Date
Saturday January 19. 2013
Breakfast
·         Coffee- ALL UNPROCESSED!!!!  See coffee test post
·         Leftover peanut butter and jelly pancake
·         Granola with milk
Morning Snack

Lunch
·         Turkey sandwich- using up bread in the fridge that is processed before testing out the new bread maker. 
Afternoon Snack
·          
Dinner
·         Homemade bread with peanut butter
Dessert
·       Way too much wine... (but a good time was had by all)

All in all this week was a successful first week.  We knew going into it that we would have a mix of processed and unprocessed as we use up things in our fridge.  Hopefully a little less processed stuff next week :)