BuzzFeed Clean Eating Challenge: Day 7

I've reached the half-way point! Actually, since I'm going to New York next Friday, I'm not doing the last day and a half (although I might work the recipes in to the next week), I'm actually over half-way done. Today was pretty good. I also went shopping for the rest of the week. The total bill was ~$91, although I was overcharged for my mushrooms, since the cashier rung them up as Shiitake, when they were Crimini, which were $7/lb cheaper. I found this out when I was already at home, and the extra $6 wasn't worth going back to fix. I also included some of Carl's lemons/limes in this total, and the new bottle of olive oil, which should last six months. Averaging over the two weeks, it was about $110/week, which is a little pricey, but I also think that I will have so much food left over. I actually didn't buy any romaine this week, since it was just supposed to be used solely for lettuce cups, so I'm going to use leftover Napa cabbage. I also didn't buy the arugula, since I had so much left over, along with blackberries. Anyway, today's recipes can be found here.

Breakfast: Asparagus with Poached Eggs. I hate asparagus, so I used broccolini. I wasn't paying attention, so I overcooked my eggs, which was probably for the best, anyway, because broccolini isn't great for sopping up runny egg yolks. This would have been significantly better with bread to sop up the yolk. In fact, I've made this with challah rolls, and the sweetness of the challah really makes it delicious.

Lunch: Kale Salad with Tomato, Feta, and Black Beans. Too much kale and tomato. All of these salads with tomatoes have included a whole tomato along with a citrus vinaigrette, which is a lot of acid. Also, the salads have been made with bitter greens, and I really can only do spinach or romaine in salads.

Afternoon Snack: Almonds and a Clementine. Pretty straightforward.

Dinner: Turkey-Basil Meatballs with Collard Greens. I added parmesan to this, since it was in the picture but not in the recipe. The meatballs were really good, although I may have slightly overcooked them. The greens were a little bitter, though, and I had to really coat them with the tomato sauce.

Evening Snack: One Ounce Dark Chocolate. Again, pretty straightforward. I just ate the fancy chocolate chips that were in my cabinet.

On to week 2!

BuzzFeed Clean Eating Challenge: Day 6

Today had challenges. I strayed from the menu, once on purpose and once on accident. Recipes here.

Breakfast: As I mentioned, I switched today's and yesterday's breakfast, so today was the Cauliflower Omelet. This was a much quicker omelet than the scallion one from the other day, and a good way to use up limp roasted vegetables. For some reason the two teaspoons of olive oil today was able to lubricate the pan more, and I was able to flip the omelet, although in a cheat-y way (I slide it on a plate and then turned the plate over).

Lunch: Arugula Salad with Green Beans, Salmon, and Dijon Vinaigrette. Things fell apart around lunch. I had to go to this stupid seminar thing that I really didn't want to go to, and it was from 12-2, i.e. in the middle of lunch. I felt weird being the only person eating lunch, and I didn't want to have everything smell like salmon. Also, this seminar was so awful, and to make myself feel better I ate three small cookies and some extra fruit. Then I ate lunch at two. I dressed the salad at noon, though, which in some ways was better, because all the arugula got coated and so it wasn't as bitter.

Afternoon Snack: Carrots and Cucumber with Hummus. I didn't eat all of this, because see above re. cookies.

Dinner: Black Bean Chili with Greek Yogurt and Zucchini Ribbons. More mistakes were made here. It was late when I got home, so I skimmed the recipe and put the whole can of black beans in when the recipe only called for half. More fiber, I guess. I liked the paprika in the greek yogurt, because it's super-smokey. I also added the green onions to the yogurt. The zucchini ribbons reminded me that I have a spiralizer that I bought on a whim that I've never used, and now I kind of want to do so.

Evening Snack: Blackberries with Pistachios. Didn't actually eat this, because of the cookies, the extra beans, and the late dinner.

I feel a little sad that I cheated, but not that sad. Sometimes life gets in the way of healthy eating, and that's ok. And at least now I know I don't have a gluten problem, since I have had no adverse effects from eating those cookies.

BuzzFeed Clean Eating Challenge: Day 5

I had to switch things up a bit today, since breakfast called for another omelet, which I didn't have time to make, so I swapped it with Friday's. Recipes here.

Breakfast: Chia Seed Pudding with Mango and Pistachio (actually Friday's breakfast). Pretty good, but I'm used to chia seed pudding. I don't love (or really like) mango, so in the future I'd use a different fruit. I'd also reduce the sugar content, because it was a bit sweet, but that may have been because the recipe called for honey, which I don't think dissolved well.

Lunch: Quinoa, Fennel, Blueberry Salad with Mint and Lime. Did not put fennel on this. Gave the rest of the fennel to Carl last night. Blech. Not the greatest of salads. A bit bland, and not very satisfying.

Afternoon Snack: Carrots and Hummus. Again, I'm not sure I got the right size carrots. I just ate carrots until the hummus was gone, and then saved the rest for tomorrow. There were A LOT of carrot sticks from my four carrots.

Dinner: Simple Roasted Salmon with Lentils and Green Beans. I love salmon, so this was good. Unfortunately, the piece of salmon I got was very thick in the middle and very thin on the sides, so it cooked a bit unevenly. Oh, well.

Evening Snack: Blueberries with Almonds. Pretty self-explanatory. I definitely needed a snack after yoga.

BuzzFeed Clean Eating Challenge: Day 4

Today started off pretty well, but ended poorly. Recipes here.

Breakfast: Scallion and Feta Omelet. A little onion-y, but I got to use my fancy fresh, local, sheep's-milk feta, which was very tasty and creamy. Omelets are kind of time-consuming, and maybe not the best weekday morning breakfast item. Also, two teaspoons of olive oil is not enough oil to be able to flip the omelet, which is a skill that I am not great at under the best of circumstances, so this turned out to be a little more like scrambled eggs, but still fine.

Lunch: Greek Salad with Lentils and Lime Vinaigrette. I misread the directions and used up all the lime vinaigrette yesterday, so I just used oil and balsamic. I also don't like bell peppers, so I left those out, but overall a pretty good salad.

Afternoon Snack: Mango-Banana Smoothie with Chia Seeds. I think my banana or mango was underripe, because this was kind of bland. I was surprised at how well it held up in my thermos in the refrigerator, though. Unfortunately, my office is really cold so it was hard to drink a smoothie today.

Dinner: Roasted Chicken Breast with Fennel and Spinach. I tried to choke this down, but it triggered my gag reflex, so I basically just ate the chicken. Fennel is kind of a strong flavor, and the spinach was just really dry.

Evening Snack: 2 dates stuffed with one almond each. Eh.

Because I knew that dinner was going to be iffy, I ate the random left-over half of a banana, as well as the half of the orange left-over from the other day. It helped soothe my desire for sweets.

BuzzFeed Clean Eating Challenge: Day 3

Today's food was pretty good, and filling. Except for before dinner (which I'll get to later), I was satiated all day. Recipes can be found here.

Breakfast: Blackberry Yogurt Parfait. Since I used low-fat yogurt and not non-fat, I reduced the amount of yogurt from one cup to 3/4 of a cup. I should have also reduced the flax, since it was a little bit dry, but not too bad. I liked this, but I also eat something similar for a snack many days. I really liked the blackberries, but they're usually expensive so I don't normally get them. I should eat them more. A good, filling breakfast.

Lunch: Asian Chicken Salad with Tamari-Lime Dressing. Again, I don't think these people have any idea how big certain foods are. This called for half a head of Napa cabbage, which would feed about four people. I just chopped up leaves until my container was full. Pretty good lunch. The "tamari" (I actually used regular soy sauce) cut down the lime in the vinaigrette and made it way less citrus-y. I liked this.

Afternoon Snack: Lemony Avocado. This was supposed to be 3/4 of an avocado with lemon juice, but I used an extra bit for dinner last night. I have texture issues with avocados, so I mashed it up with the lemon juice, salt, and pepper, and then used it as a dip for carrots. I didn't have enough carrots to eat it all.

Dinner: Cauliflower Steaks with Lentils. I really liked this. I probably undercooked the lentils, but I was super-hungry. I will definitely add paprika to my lentils in the future, and maybe soy sauce. It was a little on the sweet side, so I'd probably reduce the honey.

Evening Snack: Almond Milk Heated with Dark Chocolate. All my chocolate sunk to the bottom, which was fine. This isn't a very filling snack, but I also had it basically an hour after dinner.

I was very satisfied with today. Tuesday is my exercise day, and I was able to do my three miles on the treadmill, although I did feel a little tired by the end. That might have been tired muscles from yoga, though. Unfortunately, I didn't read the recipe and found out the lentils take an hour to cook at 7:30 PM. Thus, by the time everything was done I was very hungry and then wolfed it down.

Buzzfeed Clean Eating Challenge: Day 2

In the interest of full disclosure, I forgot to mention yesterday that I ate the skin off the chicken instead of disposing of it. I did the same today when I got my second chicken breast. #Sorrynotsorry. Now, on to today. Recipes can be found here.

Breakfast: Overnight oats with Blueberries and Chia seeds. Pretty standard. I used blueberries that we had frozen from when we went blueberry picking in August. I also used low-fat yogurt, since that's what I had. When I usually make this I use only a teaspoon of chia seeds, and a higher almond milk:yogurt ratio, which makes it a little more liquid-y. I think I prefer that, but overall a good start to the day.

Lunch: Kale, Chickpea, and Fennel Salad with Orange Vinaigrette. I was surprised at how few chickpeas were supposed to go in this. A quarter of a cup is half a serving of chickpeas. Also, after shaving some of the fennel, tasting it, and realizing it sucked, I skipped the fennel. This was not very filling.

Afternoon Snack: Sliced tomato with Basil and Feta. This was a lot of tomato, and then there was even more tomato for dinner. Too much tomato, and I like tomato.

Dinner: Napa Cabbage Wraps with Tomato, Chicken, Mango, and Avocado. I made this into a salad. Again, the vinaigrette was too citrus-y. I think the people that wrote this recipe have no idea how much juice is in a citrus, because I felt like the salad was drowning. I also used half the avocado, because I was so hungry, and there is no way I can eat 3/4 of an avocado plain as a snack tomorrow (I have texture issues with avocado). I couldn't finish this due to the high acid content, and I was starting to get really full.

Evening Snack: Two clementines. Not a lot to say, other than I only ate one.

Today was hard. Lunch/afternoon snack were not very filling, and I was so hungry by the time dinner came. I ate some pineapple while getting it ready, but since I only ate one clementine, I'm fine with it. I also had to skip cookie time/pub with the speaker, because I knew I would crack. Trivia wasn't as bad, because I don't always get food, but I did feel weird eating my clementine.

Buzzfeed Clean Eating Challenge: Day 1

After a few months of holiday eating, I've been feeling blah and unhappy about what I've been eating and how I look. Vanity got the better part of me, so I enlisted my mom and got her to do the BuzzFeed Clean Eating Challenge. I went and bought all of the groceries, and the total came out to ~$130, which is much pricier than I expected. I think some of it is for next week, as well, so I'm not sure what the per week total will be. I will check back after the next round of grocery shopping. My goal is to lose a little bit of weight, and reset my eating, especially my lunches. I chose this because all of the lunches can be packed for work.

Today was day 1, which can be found here.

Breakfast: Your standard green smoothie. I prefer the Classic Green Monster from Oh She Glows (made with spinach), but they're pretty similar. For the next one I'll probably add some cinnamon, since this was pretty bland.

Lunch: Shaved Asparagus Salad with Shallots and Fried Eggs. I don't eat asparagus, so I replaced it with broccolini. I thought the dressing was too lemony, and as with the smoothie, I would have preferred spinach to arugula. While eating, I felt like I couldn't finish, but I got hungry pretty quickly after.

Afternoon Snack: Carrots and Hummus. I have no idea how big a medium carrot is supposed to be, so I may have gotten large carrots. Oh, well. This was surprisingly filling.

Dinner: Roast Chicken Bowl with Quinoa and Kale. I cheated and bought pre-washed, bagged kale, which cut down on prep time but this still took a surprisingly long time to prepare. It did create leftovers to use later in the week, though. Which brings me to my next point. The grocery list called for 2 chicken breasts, bone-in, skin-on, for a weight of one pound. I bought a chicken breast that was slightly over 1 lb, which I thought would be enough meat for the week. It was not, as there was supposed to be 12 oz left over, and I have six. I will have to get more. This dinner was pretty bland and not very filling.

Evening Snack: Pear with Almond Butter. My almond butter was not liquidy enough to drizzle over the pear, but it was fine. Nothing special.

Overall, I was underwhelmed by today's meals. I would have preferred spinach in breakfast and lunch, and I'm a little irritated by the chicken thing. Hopefully tomorrow goes better.