Week 6

We're wrapping up our 6th week on the Clean program, but we've also started incorporating some other things. My sister told me about Udi's Bakery, which is based in Colorado. Her boyfriend has Celiac, so she's been shopping for gluten-free products for a while and has tried pretty much everything out there. Udi's has a line of gluten-free products that are freakin' awesome!

So far, we've tried their gluten-free sandwich bread and their gluten-free chocolate muffins. I don't know how they do it, but their bread is pretty close to normal bread. If you toast it, it's even better. The muffins are expensive ($7.00 for a box of four), but MAN, ARE THEY GOOD! They're better than most conventional muffins we've had. Craig and I were chatting on instant messenger the day that he tried one for the first time. He took a bite and his next message was, "I want to have sex with this muffin."

I want to have sex with this muffin

Something else he said to me a few days prior to the muffin experience was equally shocking. He told me that he thought he needed to be eating more vegetables.

WHAT?!?

After I took a minute to process the words that had just come out of his mouth, I hit the Clean web site and found their recipe section. There was a dish there that featured roasted veggies with quinoa, so I thought I would try that.

I cut up some carrots, butternut squash, and broccoli, doused them with olive oil and salt and pepper, and threw them in a 400 degree oven. I roasted them for about 15 minutes, flipped them around, and stuck them back in for another 15 minutes.

I threw all of that into a bowl of cooked quinoa and voila!

 He loved it. I'm still in shock.

I was lamenting in my last post about how we were starting to get weary of the same foods day in and day out. I'm a member of a message board for moms of preschool kids and I remembered that someone there had posted a recipe for a Thai Peanut Noodle Salad that I'd always wanted to try but didn't, because I knew I wasn't be able to eat regular pasta. I've always been carb sensitive. I love Thai and Vietnamese food, but if I eat a bowl of Pad Thai or Pho, I'm in a carb coma shortly afterward. My head's in a fog, I'm super sleepy and sluggish, and I'm hungry all over again 20-30 minutes later. I've gotten myself into some really bad carb cycles: I get hungry, eat carbs, get hungry again, eat more carbs, get hungry again, eat MORE carbs...so really, the only thing I can do is be very particular about the carbs I eat. I learned this when I read the book The Metabolism Miracle and did the author's three-month program.

So I went to my message board and located the noodle recipe, because I had a feeling I could tweak the ingredients and make it a Clean-friendly dish. So I did!

Here's the recipe:

Mix
6 Tbsp peanut butter Almond Butter
1/4 cup soy sauce Gluten-Free Tamari
3 cloves minced garlic
1 Tbsp brown sugar Agave Nectar
1 Tbsp hot chili oil
1 Tbsp red wine vinegar Apple Cider Vinegar
1 Tbsp sesame oil

Mix with cooked spaghetti quinoa spaghetti pasta, some shredded chicken, cucumbers, a couple chopped green onions. Great served cold.

It was delicious! Craig, however, did not like it. He's not a fan of cucumbers. Whatever. More for me. When I make it again, I'll be adding some bean sprouts, some fresh squeezed key lime juice, and maybe sprinkle some crushed almonds on the top for garnish.

We're planning to continue on to Week 7, but I have a business trip next week to Raleigh, NC. This will very challenging for me. Business travel and eating is always a challenge. But I've already located a place near the hotel for smoothies (though I doubt they'll have almond milk) and for the rest, I'll just have to do my best.

As for Craig, I'll be doing a lot of cooking this weekend to keep him fed for the week.

Wish me luck!

Weeks 4 & 5

Man, I'm so behind on this blog!

I started a new job on the 14th, so I no longer work from home, my routine's all different, and I'm discombobulated.

So let me see if I can piece together the ideas that I had in my head for this post:

1. I went to a WalMart last week to pick something up that the local grocery store didn't have in stock. I walked in and the smell hit me: plastics, chemicals, fumes. I thought to myself, "maybe they just unloaded something for a display near the front door." But no, that smell was throughout the entire store. How could the shoppers and people working there not smell it? How was it not bothering them as much as it was bothering me?!? I couldn't wait to get outta there! So I guess my sense of smell is heightened, because it happened to me again at...

2. The nail salon. My husband was kind enough to send me on a day of pampering the day before Valentine's Day. I had just had a one-hour Swedish massage and was now going in for my spa pedicure. I had never been to this nail place before and when I walked in, I was hit in the face by the overwhelming smell of chemicals. And once again, I pitied the people that work there, because they sit in that space all day long, 6 days a week. YUCK!

3. I have lost a total of 10.2 lbs (yes, I include ounces, those are MY ounces and they count!) since starting this program on Jan. 17th. Craig has lost 15 lbs. 

4. Remember Craig's alopecia areata I mentioned in my first post way back when? The catalyst for this whole dietary change? His hair is starting to grow back.

5.  We're kinda scared of stopping the program and introducing the old foods again. We feel good, we're losing weight, and Craig's gastro stuff is completely under control. But we're also getting really tired of the same foods, over and over again. And this is where my brain shuts down. Because new foods will take time, effort, and thought. And that's exactly why I sucked at meal planning before doing the Clean program. I like being told what to make and how to make it. Alejandro, if you read this, please, please, please publish a cookbook. Please? Get your dietitian friend, have a glass of wine (ok, maybe not wine, maybe juice) and assemble a book of more recipes. Please?

Please?

Now for some food. I tried the Halibut Baked in Parchment w/Olives & Thyme, only halibut isn't in season yet and it's very expensive when it is, so I used wild caught Orange Roughy instead (cuz the fish monger told me to). I didn't really need to tell you about the fish monger, I just wanted to use the word monger.

The prep for this dish is super quick, it's very easy to assemble, and the cook time is very short. I did use parchment paper, but I wasn't able to get it to close up like a calzone (Mmmmmm, calzone....) the way they described it in the book. I couldn't get the folds to stay closed in the oven, but it didn't matter. Everything cooked just fine.

I had a lot of zucchini leftover, so I decided to just slice it up and throw it in a saute pan with some olive oil, salt, and pepper. I served it as a side, along with some quinoa.

It was absolutely delicious! The fish was moist and succulent. I ended up eating Craig's olives because he hated them. He tried one half of one olive and spit it out. He's not a fan of such strong flavors. He said it was too salty for him. I was proud of him for at least trying it. He ate everything else, though.

The week of Feb 7th, another arctic front blew in, driving temps down into the teens overnight (that's cold for us Austinites). Since I could not get warm, Craig decided to try something. Hot cocoa made with almond milk, unsweetened cocoa (the same kind we use for our blueberry/carob smoothies) and agave nectar.

We sprinkled it with cinnamon. It was fantastic! It really reminded me of Mexican hot chocolate, made with Ibarra, only a little more better for you.

His recipe wasn't all that scientific. He just took the mugs and filled them with almond milk and then poured it into the saucepan. He used 4 teaspoons of cocoa and 4 teaspoons of agave nectar. That's it. Craig, if I got that wrong, post your correction, please.

And here's another new food:  Quinoa pasta. I stumbled upon it at the grocery store and decided to give it a try in the chicken stock/veggie soup I make.

Normally, I'd be leery of anything made with corn because it's probably going to be GMO. But this says it's organic, so I felt better about it.

I've had gluten free pasta before...

...and I thought it was ok, not great, kinda tasted funny. But the quinoa pasta is very much like real pasta in texture and flavor. I liked it much better than the Schar brand.

So Week 5 was weird for me, because I started the new job, which now requires I get up earlier than before, then I have a commute to the office, my eating times are different, and it's all just weird. I found that by 9 or 9:30, I'd start to get really hungry and headachey. I'd eat an apple with almond butter, but the headache was still there. And it felt like a caffeine headache, too, so that was a bummer. I guess I'm going through an adjustment period or something, but I feel like I need to figure out some snack options. I'm getting bored with apples.

If you are doing the Clean program and have some snack ideas, please feel free to share them!

More to come as we progress. On to Week 6....

Week 4

Well, something's definitely kicking in, because we've both been losing at least a pound a day over the last three days or so.  I lost 1.4 lbs Friday night and 1.2 lbs Saturday night.

For me, it's Day 3 of no coffee. I just don't really think about it anymore. So weird.

And Craig - he was smart and took headshots of himself starting on Day 6. So let's look at those:

Craig - Day 6

Craig - Day 21

His face looks thinner, don't you think? 

What? Yes, he's from West Texas. Did you think he'd be wearing a ten gallon hat and have a handlebar mustache?

So with all this momentum, we're definitely going to keep going for another week. Even though, at this particular moment in time, two hours after my lunch (I wrote this yesterday), I'm so hungry I could eat a...burger and fries.

Seriously. I'm like this:

 

OK, I just had an apple w/some almond butter and I'm feeling much better now.

I have one more week of working from home, so I can continue to cook during the lunch hour. Whether we continue after that depends on my ability to get my weekends in order enough to be able to shop on Saturdays and cook on Sundays. I want to keep eating like this, but I also don't want it consuming my life. Now that would be some irony, huh?

Wrapping Up Week 3

I'm finding this a little hard to believe, but I swear, it's true:

Since Thursday (Feb 3rd), I've been losing a pound a day. So has Craig. 

I've lost a total of 6.8 lbs so far and Craig has lost 12 lbs. So needless to say...we're definitely doing this for another week.

I also wanted to share with you some resources I've found.

Dr. Junger has set up a web site specifically for those doing the Clean diet. Cleanprogram.com

There's no cost to join, you just set up an account and they take a day to approve your membership. Once they do that, you'll have access to a web site that's set up to feel a lot like Facebook. You'll have your profile page, and you'll be able to have 'friends' whose walls you can post on, but there are also forums for discussions, videos by Dr. Junger to walk you through each week, additional recipes, and all kinds of blogs by people doing the program. All in all, it seems to be a really nice, supportive community.

There's also a site called Cleanrevolution.tv, with more videos by Dr. Junger (like Understanding & Healing Allergies) and interviews with celebrity type folks who have done the Clean diet.

And I found this video on YouTube, which pretty much sums up why we thought this program would be good for Craig. He didn't have the same problems this guy Guido did, but the Alopecia that Craig has is an auto-immune disorder, so what Dr. Junger's talking about is pretty much what was happening with Craig in a different form.

One more thing that I wanted to add - I don't need coffee! I haven't even TRIED to kick coffee, and yet, I find myself forgetting all about it. I haven't had any since Thursday, and the only reason I drank it then was because of the cold weather that came through, driving temps down into the teens <brrrrr>. 

No more headaches....no more panic over the thought of not having coffee and getting that headache. I'm clear-headed in the mornings. Now, I'm not saying I'm a morning person, so if you work with me, do NOT expect me to be chipper and lively. And if you're chipper and lively with me, I might punch you in the throat. But at least I'll be doing it with a clear head.

Living Clean: Week 3

OK, I 'm a little off kilter with my timing of these posts.  We're almost to the end of Week 3, so let me just try to summarize how things have been going thus far:

1.  Craig has lost about 10 lbs, he's had no more headaches and no gastro issues whatsoever. We're still sneezing a lot due to the Cedar and molds in the air. On my list of things to do is buy a medical grade air purifier for this house. There are way too many allergens floating around here.

2.  I've lost just over 4 lbs so far. I'm sleeping really soundly. I'm not ravenously hungry or craving much, though I do admit to salivating a little when I see commercials on TV for hamburgers. I could really use a burger right about now.

3. We've decided to keep going at least for another week. We like seeing results on the scale and want to see how much farther we can take it in another week. I start a new job on the 15th that will end my days of working from home, so the cooking during lunchtime thing will become much more difficult to do after that. We'll see if I'm cut out for shopping on Saturday and cooking meals ahead on Sunday.

Speaking of scales, though, we finally decided to go out last night and get a new scale, preferably one that's more accurate than the one we've had for several years. I came to hate that thing, as it routinely put me at five lbs heavier than the scale at the gym. And since it's not always so convenient to drive to the gym just to weigh myself, we thought getting a new scale was the easiest solution.

We ended up with this one - Beurer Blue Eye Body Fat Scale

And it's awesome! Not only does it give you your weight, it also tells you what your body fat percentage is, your body water composition, your muscle ratio, your bone density, and your standing and elevated metabolic rates. I don't know how it does that, and I don't know how accurate it is, but I don't care. The weight part is accurate and that's mostly what I care about.

So let's see...what did I cook this week?

Thai Vegetable Wraps w/Almond Sauce

These were delicious and Craig was very proud of himself for trying it (and finishing it). And I was proud of him, too. He started out very reluctant, but he ended up not LOVING it, but liking it enough to want to finish it.

Only problem was I didn't buy a Napa cabbage. Have you seen the SIZE of Napa cabbages? I took one look at it and could picture most of it going bad and getting thrown out. So I didn't buy it. If I could find a smaller specimen or maybe even find it pre-shredded, then I'd go for it. Because I really think it was needed - I had all the other ingredients, but I think the cabbage was necessary as a filler. Without it, the wraps just weren't all that substantial.  The almond sauce was really delicious though - I loved it a lot. 

One other observation about this dish: I don't think it stands alone as an entree. I think it would be good served with some grilled chicken or a piece of fish. But it's not really enough for a meal on its own. Definitely tasty, though!

Chicken Stock w/Veggies and Buckwheat Noodles

This was my own creation. Craig was lamenting the soup rotation; he was not a fan of the Butternut Squash Bisque or the Split Pea, so that left the Lentil Soup and my Black Bean soup. He wanted something different and suggested chicken soup with noodles. I didn't actually put pieces of chicken in the soup, but I used 8 cups of organic chicken broth along with lots of carrots and celery. I threw in some dried thyme, marjoram, and rosemary as well as the MSG/Gluten free bouillon cubes from a previous post. It was really delicious and it made Craig happy.

Berry Smoothie w/Coconut Milk and Cinnamon

We made this smoothie as a night time snack (the chicken soup, as delish as it was, wasn't so stick-to-your-ribs as the other soups I've made). I was not a huge fan of this smoothie. For one thing, the seeds from the raspberries were all blended into it and it was like drinking sips of pulverized two-by-fours. That was my main problem with it.

But there was something missing from the recipe; something that we couldn't put our finger on. Craig liked it better than I did. I won't be making it again, though. Not sure he will, either.  Not when we can make the Blueberry Carob smoothie, which is way more satisfying and tastier.

Roast Chicken w/Balsamic Vinegar, Garlic & Rosemary Wild Rice Pilaf

This is one of our favorites! This was my second time making this dish.  In fact, this was the very first dish I ever made on this program, only I didn't think to take a photo of it at the time.

The first time I made it, I went by the recipe and used the amounts of scallion and cilantro that it called for and Craig hated it. So this time, I only used one scallion and cut out the cilantro altogether and he ate every bite. I would add a little bit of cilantro to my own dish next time, because I think it could use it. 

The amount of balsamic vinegar they tell you to use for the reduction is A LOT of vinegar. You'll have a lot of that reduction left over, so just keep it in your fridge; it'll keep for at least a couple of weeks. I used my leftovers to make this lunch and just threw the container in the microwave to melt it down a little bit.  Worked just fine.

Living Clean: Week 2

It's Thursday of Week 2, Jan. 27th, 2011.

You remember those old Fed Ex commercials with the guy that talked really, really fast?

Well, I'm that guy right now.  The book says that by Week 2, you should experience energy you don't know what to do with.  Can I just say that I couldn't type that fast enough?!?  I'm FILING right now, for God's sake!  FILING.  I'm ripping through envelopes that have been sitting on my frackin' desk for WEEKS and FILING THEIR CONTENTS AWAY - all at breakneck speed!

And I had some weird dreams last night that are but distant memories now, as did Craig. The book said that by Week 2, we could start having weird dreams.  So it would seem we're right on schedule.

 Adzuki Beans and Brown Rice, topped w/Avocado

This was really, really good!  And Craig loved it, too, so that says a lot.  The beans are reminiscent of black eye peas, only the flavor is much milder.  I even took pictures of the cooking process, because some of these ingredients are kinda whacky.

The food processor came in very handy for this recipe.  Before we started this program, we ran out to Bed, Bath & Beyond to use my gift certificate for a new blender.  We walked out with a Ninja! 

Can't say enough good things about this blender/food processor.  We use it every single day and it's super easy to use right out of the box and easy to keep clean.  If you get one, be really careful with the blades, as they're as sharp as knives.  Craig's finger can attest to that. He was taking everything out of the box and saw that one of the pitchers had a piece of paper in it, so he reached in past the blades to get to it and cut himself.  The piece of paper?

It was a warning to be careful, because the blades are a sharp as knives.

Oh, the irony.

I threw the squash and whatever else I was supposed to chop up in the food processor and gave it a whirl.

And here are the beans that I ended up finding.  I was told by a Foodie at Central Market that it's common for foods from Japan to end up being renamed all kinds of kooky things.  In this case, the Adzuki beans listed in the recipe are called Aduki beans <snicker snicker> on the can's label.  Same thing, though.  This brand is good cuz they're organic, no added anything that's bad for you.

Beans, beans, beans!

Instead of having to buy a whole butternut squash and then deal with peeling it and dicing it myself, I stumbled upon a pre-diced bag of squash in my produce section where all of the other pre-diced/chopped items are stocked.  Score for me!

This recipe calls for Kombu, which is a type of seaweed known for its nutritional and digestion aiding properties.

Here's what it looks like out of the package.  When you open the bag, it smells like ocean!

 

So I threw everything into the pot, added the water and the kombu, and let it simmer like the recipe said to.  I also added three of these to the pot:

MSG/Gluten Free Bouillon Cubes

These recipes just don't really call for much seasoning and who wants to eat bland food?  Not me, man.

The kombu, over time, didn't really break apart; it just got a little mushy.  At the end of cooking, I just took it out and threw it away.  The Central Market Foodie person also told me that kombu is a really great thing to add to almost anything you're cooking, so any type of stew or soup, pasta sauce, even chili, as it doesn't impart any sort of flavor or color to the dish you're making.  So you can reap the benefits of its nutritional awesomeness and no one would be the wiser.

 Quinoa Salad with Chicken and Mixed Greens

This was another great dish that even Craig liked!  The quinoa salad recipe is very similar to the tabbouleh recipe in the Tri-Salad dish, so that made me very happy, cuz I love that stuff.

I grilled the chicken with some salt n pepper and Mrs. Dash (again, me likey seasoning).  I sliced a chicken breast and used romaine and fresh spinach as the bed of greens.  The greens aren't dressed at all, so when eating, it's nice to put eat the quinoa salad with the chicken and greens on one bite, so you're not eating dry lettuce leaves.

Apple and Butternut Squash Soup

Tarragon bad!

Um. This recipe called for a lot of fresh tarragon, and pardon my herbal ignorance, but I'd never worked with tarragon before.  Well, lemme tell ya - it's not HORRIBLE - not like the broccoli rabe - but it's got this anise, fennel-y thing going on that I just don't wanna eat large quantities of.  And therein lies my quandary.  Craig took one little taste and went, "Oh.  NO!"  I ate a bowl of it cuz I was starving, but now I have an entire soup pot sitting in my fridge.  And in that soup pot is pureed butternut squash and tarragon made with crushed dreams and hunger.  God help me, cuz I have to eat it.  I paid for it and I slaved over a hot stove to create it.  Anyone wanna come over for soup tonight?

Updated to add:  I ate one more bowl of soup the next night and then threw the rest away. I needed the pot to make lentil soup. Something that I would actually eat.

Living Clean: Week 1

(Please note:  Week 1 for us was from Jan 17 - Jan 23)

So Craig and I started the 3-week Clean diet, which is an elimination/detox program that strips away processed foods and foods that are potential allergy causers. You eat two liquid meals a day, breakfast and dinner, and one solid meal for lunch.  The liquid meals can be in the form of a smoothie, juice, or a soup.

The author of Clean is a cardiologist who experienced health problems of his own that lead him to really figure out what their root causes were.  "The majority of these common ailments are the direct result of toxic buildup in our systems accumulated through the course of our daily lives.  As the toxicity of modern life increases and disrupts our systems on a daily basis, bombarding us through our standard American diet and chemical-filled environments, our ability to handle the load hasn't accelerated at the same rapid pace.  The toxins are everywhere, but Clean offers a solution."

Our reason for trying it?  Craig.  His allergies were off the charts this winter.  And on top of the usual symptoms, he started experiencing some other weird stuff.  We learned about this book through a friend with an academic background in science.  Her mother suffers from rosacea and her father has an auto immune disorder.  Her mother did the three week plan, and within the first week, she dropped 11 lbs.  After the end of the three weeks, her rosacea was gone.  She was convinced that Craig needed to detox - clean out his system from any potential allergens, reset his system, and then slowly start to integrate back into his diet the things he ate before.  Any drastic reaction would mean it needs to be eliminated on a permanent basis.

Please bear in mind that we are not doing this to replace medical attention.  He'll see a real, honest to goodness doctor, but doing this won't hurt us - it could only do us good.

Week 1

So you're thinking "OK, how is it?  What's it like?"

Really?  It's not that bad! Craig has been great about trying new things, he knows that this is important to his well-being, and has been trying hard to keep an open mind. So yay for positivity! We've both learned that it's totally feasible to get through the day without constantly popping something into our mouths.  When we get hungry, we eat an apple.  Or some dried cherries and cranberries.  But that's it - that apple can get us through the next couple of hours or get me though my workout and over to the next meal.

The book says Week 1, you'll probably experience headaches and irritability.  The diet calls for no caffeine, so it says you'll experience symptoms of withdrawal from sugars and caffeine.  Well...

 

Screw that!  We still have our coffee; we just put almond milk in it instead of half n half and Craig now uses stevia, like I do.  And a little splash of agave nectar, if necessary.  But you know what?  Before this week, if I didn't have my coffee by, say, 8:30 or so, I'd start to feel that headache.  This week...no headache.  It's weird.  Thursday, I forgot to even make my coffee!  No headache!  So really, I don't NEED it, I just drink it cuz it's January and I'm cold.

As for irritability, yes, I noticed I was really irritable about two days into it.  But it seems to have dissipated. 

And Craig used to be plagued by daily headaches, but he hasn't had one all week.  So we're getting the opposite of what the book said. 

Now onto the food.  I decided to document what we ate mostly because the book doesn't have pictures of the recipes and I thought they'd be helpful to whoever might wanna try this.

 Blueberry, Carob and Almond Milk Smoothie

DEEEEElicious!  AND, while drinking it, it turns your lips, teeth, and mouth a lovely shade of dark purple.  Like Veruca Salt did in Willie Wonka.  Oh, wait.  That wasn't Veruca Salt.  You know what I mean - the stupid blueberry girl.  Don't get this stuff on your counter tops (if you have the old timey kind like we do), cuz it'll stain immediately.  If you do get some on there, a Magic Eraser will erase it...magically.

I don't make my own nut milk - I bought the vanilla flavored and sweetened Almond Breeze almond milk. Silk is very good, too.  I did try the HEB brand (our local grocery store) and found it to be a little on the bright side as far as flavor goes. We decided to spend the extra .60 on the name brand stuff and switched back.  Central Market Organic frozen blueberries, Hershey's brand unsweetened cocoa, and agave nectar.

Salmon with Broccoli Rabe and Quinoa

 Hmmm.  Sort of successful.  Because broccoli rabe?  I'd never had it before, didn't know what to expect.  Well.  It's bitter.  And I don't like bitter food.  So I took a few bites and threw the rest out.  Live n learn, I guess.  So if you don't like bitter food, I'd suggest doing steamed broccoli or preparing spinach in the same manner as the recipe called for the rabe.  That's what I'll be doing next time.  The quinoa was a first for both of us, too, and we both loved that.  It's really tasty.  I made it with chicken broth (Central Market Organics, not low sodium) and I didn't need to add anything to it.  Came out tasting just right.

 Stir-Fried Veggies & Chicken w/Buckwheat Noodles

Another successful dish!  Buckwheat noodles were a first for both of us.  Very interesting food item, I must say.  They have a very distinctive flavor, one that I can't readily describe accurately.  And the word that I have in mind might make you NOT wanna try it.  So I'll just say TRY IT.  I think the thing that drove us to eating it was A) they were noodles and we both LOOOOVE noodles and B) holy crap - it's solid food!  We get to eat solid food! 

 The recipe called for cooked grilled chicken, so I took some liberties and marinated it in the wheat-free tamari along with some crushed garlic and fresh ginger slices.  Then I grilled the chicken in a grill pan on the stove and kept brushing the marinade on them as they cooked.  One lil lesson I learned (cuz I'd never cooked w/tamari before) - don't salt your chicken before cooking.  Came out too salty, but we ate it anyway.  It wasn't inedible; just clearly too salty.  So don't do that.  I cooked the veggies pretty much to the recipe, except I used way less ginger - I only sliced about an inch worth. I don't care for it that much and thought 1/4 of a cup was just a lot of ginger.  But I understand its health benefits, so I added it in small quantity.

The book has legumes on the Acceptable Foods list, so one night, I made a split pea soup (didn't get a pic of that one) and another night, a lentil soup.  I also made a Butternut Squash Bisque that was awesome.

Butternut Squash Bisque (left) Lentil Soup (right) both topped w/raw sunflower nuts

 I realized something I hadn't realized when I looked through the soup recipes initially:  none of the soups were actually cooked.  The recipes consisted of basically throwing all the ingredients into a blender, pureeing them, and eating them either cold or slightly warm.  A very macrobiotic approach to cooking.  Well.  I like my soups cooked, so I cooked the crap outta my ingredients!  But since I had never worked with butternut squash before, I quickly went to Foodtv.com and found an Alton Brown video on how to prep it.  I roasted it in the oven in a 400 degree oven after dousing it with olive, salt and pepper.  I also roasted with it, a yellow summer squash.  Kept it going in the oven for a while and it still wasn't soft enough, so I upped the temp to 425 and that seemed to do the trick.  Alton Brown said to roast for 30-35 mins, but mine took more like an hour, but I think it was just a really big squash.

 I threw the squash into the soup pot after sauteing in olive oil some sweet onion (about 1/4) and two stalks of celery.  Then I added 4 cups of chicken broth and then another two cups of water, along with the rest of the ingredients in the recipe.  After cooking for a while, I blended it all into a smooth, silky bisque.  Fantastic!

Tri-Salad Platter of Hummus, Tabbouleh & Marinated Kale

This is a plate of goodness.  Might even be my favorite recipe(s).  I didn't use the kale specified in the recipe, I just used regular old kale. I stripped the leaves from the stems and just gave them a rough chop.  I didn't use radishes, cuz I don't like 'em.  I made this part of the recipe first, so that the kale had lots of time to get happy with the marinade.  The flavor is bright and clean and fresh.

For the tabbouleh, the only thing I would change is taking the 1 teaspoon of sea salt down to a 1/2 teaspoon.  Start there and add more if you need to.  I made the quinoa in chicken broth that wasn't low sodium, so that might've had something to do with my thinking it was a smidge too salty.  The currants I used were found where all the dried fruits are in my regular grocery store, made by SunMaid (Zante Currants).

The hummus was really thick - way thicker than I'm used to.  I tried to dilute it with more olive oil and a little more lemon juice and then some water, but it just wanted to be thick.  And I think I spaced out when I was adding the garlic and added more than a clove.  It's super garlicky.  But I'm all good with that.  Eating it with a cucumber slice helps to balance that out.  And it's even better on the second day.  I was so excited to have lunch today!

 Black Bean Soup

OK, so this isn't in the Clean book.  But black beans are on the Acceptable Foods list and this recipe came from my Lake Austin Spa & Resort Cookbook.  Spa food is good for you!  Simple ingredients, nothing that wouldn't be in the Clean book, so I ran with it.  And it was tasty, too!

Fresh: Healthy Cooking and Living from Lake Austin Spa Resort

Tropical Smoothie

My breakfast this morning.  My 2nd favorite smoothie recipe.

As far as our weight loss goes, I think Craig is down about 5 lbs and I'm still down around 2 lbs.  I'll be weighing again tonight when we go to the gym.  He swears that I look smaller, that my hips looks smaller (and he sees me every day), but I haven't seen a huge change on the scale yet.  I only worked out three times last week (usually it's more like 5), so maybe with the increased workouts this week, I'll see more change on the scale.  More to come next week....