Do you like Lentils?

Then you'll LOVE this!

I made my husband Jim a Turkey meatloaf a few weeks back while I was doing Beachbody's Ultimate Detox and have been hungry for meatloaf ever since!  I just am not ready to add a ton of animal protein back into my diet, and every day it was too late to make this Lentil Loaf recipe because I never had the lentils prepared!

Well, I made the lentils and couldn't wait to try this one out.  It is a vegan recipe from the creator of Oh She Glows and it is hearty, sweet, savory and downright DELICIOUS!

(This is her photo)!

It does take a little bit of prep work, but I found that eating clean and healthy using whole ingredients usually does!  This was total comfort food!

Ingredients

1 cup uncooked lentils (I used precooked - didn't hold together as pretty, but was fine)

1 cup walnuts, toasted and finely chopped

3 tbsp ground flax + 1/2 cup of water (whisk together and set aside)

3 garlic cloves, minced

1.5 cups sweet onion, diced

1 cup celery, diced

1 cup grated carrot

1/3 cup peeled and chopped sweet apple

1/3 cup of raisins (I used craisins)

1/2 cup of oat flour

3/4 cup of breadcrumbs

3/4 tsp of dried thyme

salt & pepper, to taste

red pepper flakes, to taste

Balsamic Apple Glaze

1/4 cup of ketchup

1 tbsp pure maple syrup

2 tbsp apple butter ( I used unsweetened applesauce)

2 tbsp balsamic vinegar

Preheat oven to 325*.  toast your walnuts for around 8 minutes, set aside.

Raise temp to 350*.  Rinse and strain your lentils.  Place into a pot with 3 cups of water and bring to a boil.  Reduce heat, simmer uncovered for 40-45 minutes.  Stir frequently.  The goal is to overcook the lentils a bit so you can slightly mash them with a spoon.

Heat tsp of oil in a skillet over medium heat.  Salute the garlic and onion for about 5 minutes.  Add in diced celery, shredded carrot and apple, and the raisins.  Salute for about 5 minutes more.  Remove from heat.

In a large mixing bowl, combine all of the ingredients together, season with the thyme and red pepper.

Grease loaf pan and line with parchment paper.  Press mixture firmly into pan.  Whisk together the glaze ingredients, and spread 1/2 of mixture evenly on top.  Save the rest for a delicious dipping sauce!

Bake at 350* uncovered for 45-50 minutes.  Edges will be slightly browned.  Cool in pan for at least 10 minutes before transferring to a cooling rack.  Let cool some more before slicing.  ENJOY!

  I'm not vegan, but if this how the food tastes I may just convert!

Clean Eating Peanut Butter Cups?

My Life is Complete!

Anyone who knows me knows that I love peanut butter.  And Dark Chocolate.  Separate, together, in cakes, on spoons - however you want to dish it out.  And I found myself digging into the jar while adding chocolate chips on top a little too much.  I was hungry for these and was trying to recreate them.  It was good, really good.  The problem was when you dig into treats that way they don't seem like real treats, like they're invisible or something!  And my spoonfuls got a little bigger and a little more frequent.

Enter the clean eating Reese's!  There are so many different recipes you can find on Pinterest.  My good friend Jaissa forwarded me this one.  It uses all whole, clean ingredients right down to the cacao powder and madagascar vanilla.  It does have a little bit of a coconut taste to it as well because of the coconut oil but I'll take that over preservatives and high fructose corn syrup any day!  Give them a try - I hope they hit the spot!  Just don't eat all of them at one sitting...

Reese's

1/2 cup of Coconut Oil  (melted but not hot)

1/2 cup of Cacao powder (you could use cocoa but there's sugar in some)

1/4 cup of Raw Honey

1/2 tsp of pure vanilla extract (I used Madagascar vanilla from William Sonoma)

Mix all ingredients together until well blended.  Spread a spoonful evenly into cupcake liners.  I used mini.  Place in freezer to set for about 5 minutes.  Spread Natural Peanut butter on these once they have set, then cover with the remaining chocolate mixture.  Freeze and Enjoy!

Hubby's Favorite

Italian Potato Soup

Have you ever had one of those meals that your spouse asks you to make over and over and over again?  Well, this just may be another -especially since cold weather and the infamous football season is upon us!

I don't have an actual picture for this like my other posts - you just have to trust me on this one!  But you can enjoy looking at this cold winter scene while you're dreaming of this hot soup!  ;)

Italian Potato Soup

8 ounces of Turkey Sausage  (I use 1/2 hot, 1/2 sweet)

3 cups of chopped red skinned potatoes, skin on

1/2 cup of chopped onion (Jim hates onion so I omit this - never missed it)

1 (15) oz can Italian style tomatoes, low salt if you can find them

1 TBSP each of basil & parsley flakes

1 tsp each of oregano and salt

1 (15) oz can of tomato sauce  (many times I use leftover home made - about 2 cups)

2 (14) oz cans of chicken broth

3 cups of water

finely chopped escarole, endive or kale - your choice  I always use escarole.

Saute' the sausage in a 5-6 quart saucepan until the fat is rendered.  You can use links that you cut into coins or loose sausage - doesn't matter!  Drain the fat.  Add the potatoes and onion and cook for just a few minutes.  Add the rest of the ingredients except the greens.  Bring to a boil and reduce heat and cook until the potatoes are tender.  Add chopped greens in at the end and continue to cook for around 10 minutes or until they've wilted.  Kale usually takes a little longer.  Sprinkle with Parmesan cheese if you'd like.

Serve with a salad and Italian bread and you have yourself a meal!

Kale & Brussels Sprouts Salad with

Butternut Squash, Pomegranate

&

Candied Pecans

Salad:

1 small butternut squash, peeled & cubed

1 TBSP olive oil

Pinch of Sea Salt

1 small bunch of Kale, finely chopped

1 lb Brussels Sprouts, finely chopped

1 cup pomegranate seeds

1/2 cup candied pecans

1/3 cup shredded Parmesan Cheese

Dressing:                                                                  

1/4 cup olive oil

2 TBSP apple cider vinegar

1 tsp dijon mustard

1 small clove of garlic

2 tsps shallot, minced

Salt & pepper to taste

1 tsp raw honey

Preheat oven to 400*.  Place cubed squash in baking pan.  Drizzle with olive oil, salt & pepper.  Roast 25-30 minutes or until tender.  Remove and set aside.

Place kale in a large bowl and sprinkle with sea salt.  Massage leaves for 2 minutes or until they soften and begin to wilt.  Stir in chopped Brussels Sprouts, squash, pomegranate seeds, candied pecans and parmesan cheese.  Season with salt & pepper.  Pour on dressing and toss to coat.

*I also added chopped figs because, well, I'm addicted to them :)!

serves around 6

This recipe is by Two Peas & Their Pod

www.twopeasandtheirpod.com

New year coming,  New Me here!

We have one month left in the year 2014.  What's in store for you in 2015?  I know what is NOT in store for me - going back to bad habits!  It took me a while to figure out that clean eating, regular exercise and optimal nutrition is the way to lose weight, keep it off and look healthy and happy.  I've done them all - fasting, low carb, no carb, vegan, vegetarian, only fruits & salads and at times only meat!!!  I don't know what I was thinking!  But I do know now what has helped me get into the best shape of my life.  It's discipline.  It's eating real food.  It's exercising!  Is my diet perfect?  Nope - not at all.  But for the most part I follow the 90/10 rule.  90% healthy, 10% not so much.  I also don't miss a day of my Shakeology.  It has ALL of my nutritional needs in one delicious shake!  So I don't worry on special days now where in the past - everyday I would fret and ultimately blew my diet, again.  I was out of shape, didn't feel good about myself.  My diet already sucked so why bother trying?  I bothered trying because I was unhappy with myself.  Period.  No one was going to do it for me but me. Period.

I was a marathon runner for Pete's sake - how could this happen?  Excuses.  Temptation.  Low discipline.  I get it.  I know it's hard.  Exercise is hard.  But what was harder was being uncomfortable in my own skin.  You might say I picked my hard and exercise and nutrition was it!  Now, everything is easy.  It's not even about being thin for me - it's about being HEALTHY.  No more back pain.  No more bloating.  No more depression.   I look at the pictures above and what was hard was being like that.

 Everyday now until December 31 I'm going to post a healthy recipe for you to enjoy.  One with clean, natural ingredients to help me stay on track and possibly get you on track!  I love doing this and this is my thank you to you for motivating me!  Let this be the jumpstart you need, or just plain enjoy the recipes!

I love these Millet, Feta and raisin fritters - I even enjoy them cold!

Have a great Day!

THE FINAL PHASE!

PHASE 3 RESTORE!

Yee Haw!  The final phase of the Ultimate Reset is complete - phase 3 restore!  What a ride!  21 days of changing my eating habits, cleansing my body from all sorts of toxins and learning that I had the

discipline and determination to do it really was a confidence booster!  21 DAYS!!!  

I'm not going to sit here and tell you the last week was easy - it wasn't.  Phase 3, or the restore phase, eliminated all grains and legumes and left me to focus on an all plant based diet - only fruits and vegetables.  Normally that would be ok but it's getting close to winter and the fruit wasn't my favorite!  I tried not to eat any fruit high in sugar like grapes and bananas but sometimes a girl's gotta do what a girl's gotta do.  The berries, kiwi and other low-glycemic fruits were just too sour so I needed to balance them out on some days - but I did it!  The portions were able to be larger but 4 cups of fruit is a lot on anyone's measurements.

I started every day off with my bowl of fruit, usually had the microgreen salad & baked sweet potato for lunch and dinners were a combination of some type of veggies.  On day 19 dinner did include Baked Tempeh which for me was a life saver!  Remember I still worked out as best I could during this reset so fruits and veggies weren't exactly easily cutting it and filling.  I may or may not have snuck in 1/2 tsp of peanut butter on the 3rd day of phase 3...

The only really new recipes I made during this phase were the Avocado Cucumber soup (which I was really looking forward to) and the Asian Stir Fry.  Wasn't a fan of the soup which really disappointed me but the stir fry was good!   Of course, all I kept thinking was this would be REALLY good with brown rice or quinoa but just veggies it was!  I also LOVED the Roasted Fennel Bulb!  It was a sweet, kinda savory licorice tasting veggie that I had never had.  It was delicious!  That will definitely be added to my roasted root veggies to give it an extra kick!

How much weight did I lose you ask?  I lost close to 7 lbs - 6.6 to be exact!  I'll take it!  This isn't touted as a weight loss regiment but rather a detox to get so many of the bad toxins our bodies are faced with every day like smoke (can you say fire pits), chemicals like hair spray, makeup and perfumes - just toxins we are exposed to on a daily basis.  Things like these cause internal inflammations that we don't even know about and I personally have developed a dairy intolerance so eliminating that one source made a huge difference!

Would I recommend this to others?  Yes.  You really must be prepared to do it and have the right mindset.  It seemed like a LOT of prep work and cooking but if you embrace the process you'll be fine!  There are quick start meals as well that you could choose from to make life easier for this detox but hey, I'm not easy!  For some unknown reason to my conscience I do much better the harder I make things...Who knows - go figure...

I was also amazed that I did lose weight because let me tell you I was eating a lot!  I guess that's the true beauty of eating whole, unprocessed foods!

So I'm leaving you with one last recipe: 

 The Roasted Fennel Bulb

1 large fennel bulb, greens and root removed - cut into chunks

1 tsp Extra-virgin olive oil

1/4 tsp Himalayan Sea Salt

Combine Fennel with olive oil and salt in a small bowl and mix well.  Arrange on a single layered baking sheet.  Bake for 25-40 minutes or until golden and tender.  Only the easiest recipe ever!!!

Thanks for tuning in and following my journey!  There were some days just knowing that you all were reading that kept me going!!!

The Ultimate Reset Days 11, 12, 13 &14

The Bomb.com!!!

Wow, the first two weeks were awesome.  The only complaint that I believe I have are the dishes I used to cook everything in and the clean up afterwards.  I'm kind of a fly by the seat of my pants kinda girl so I think it would have been better had I prepped everything but that's just not me!  Another week has gone by and I am still so satisfied with the food!

I'm feeling really good too!  I finally had enough energy to get good workouts in, although I can tell they're still not 100%.  That is the only thing I really didn't follow on this plan to a T.  I need my workouts.  I did about 50% capacity and in the beginning of the detox that 50% felt like 110%.  I did take a few days off.

Still sleeping really good which is amazing to me!  I'm such a light sleeper and now when it's bedtime it's lights out for this girl!

Some of the foods I've eaten during this last week were Vegetable Miso soup, Mediterranean Roasted Beets, Quinoa- Lentil Pilaf, fruit, micro-green salads, Coconut Collard Greens & Edamame and Roasted Corn Succotash!  OH MY LORD...   OOH, and Kabocha Squash with a garlic-Tahini filling!

So many people were commenting on the Kabocha Squash so here is the recipe as promised!!!  I thought it was really good and the Tahini filling for some reason reminded me of peanut butter.  There was definitely a nutty taste to it and no doubt I have peanut butter on my mind.  That is the ONE THING that I really do miss...

Kabocha Squash with Garlic-Tahini Filling

1 Kabocha Squash, halved and seeded

4 TBSP sesame tahini

2 tsp miso paste

1 tsp clove garlic, chopped

2 tsp extra virgin olive oil

Preheat oven to 400*  Place squash halves on a lightly sprayed baking sheet.  Combine tahini, miso, garlic and oil in a small bowl.  Mix well.  Cover squash evenly with the tahini mixture making sure to get some on the top edges.  Bake for 30 minutes or until fork tender.  Enjoy!

I also loved the Coconut Collard Greens!  

1 1/2 tsp extra virgin olive oil

1/4 medium onion, diced

1/2 bunch of collard greens, stems removed, cut into 1/2 inch strips

1/4 cup of coconut milk

1 dash Himalayan Sea Salt (optional)

Heat oil in large skillet over medium high heat.  Add onions & cook, stirring frequently 8-10 minutes or until golden brown and soft.  Add collard greens and coconut milk.  Cook, stirring frequently for 10 minutes or until greens are very tender.  Add Himalayan Sea Salt if desired.

Now on to week three - the final phase of this detox.  This phase, called restore, eliminates all grains and legumes and focuses on a simple, cleansing fruit and vegetable based diet.  I'm looking forward to it!  As an added bonus, I'm down 5 lbs - and I felt like all I was doing was eating!  I didn't do this cleanse to lose weight but rather to rid my body of toxins that I know have built up n my body over the years!  But down 5 lbs?!  Hey, I'll take it!