Almond Milk Yogurt

Woo Hoo, something new to have for breakfast, NOT!

I thought it would be fun to test out a variety of breakfast foods, to switch up between eggs each morning. Considering I love almond milk, I thought this would be a winning choice. Definitely not! 

As I write this, I continue to take tiny spoonfuls, reassuring my disgust for this. I take a small bite, and then hold it in my mouth until I feel I can swallow. This reminds me of the "I Love Lucy" episode "Vitametavegimen", "Its so tasty too, (gulp) just like candy" 

Upon first opening the container, It resembled apple sauce. I bought the vanilla flavored yogurt, figuring it'd be a safe choice. I can see tiny specs of vanilla beans, that's cool, real ingredients! The smell is comparable to regular yogurt, just not as yeasty. Consistency is a little looser then a regular yogurt would be (now I know why I loved Greek yogurt so much more). 

Lastly the important part, the taste! (i'll take one more bite now, just to get it right, ugh) Paint, It literally tastes like paint. Its slightly sour, and instantly breaks down in your mouth.  I tried adding some gluten free granola, obviously not enough, because its still awful.

Darn! I was really hoping this would be my new morning treat. I have a coconut milk yogurt sitting in the fridge, maybe that will be the star....

Cauliflower Risotto

Yup, I said it, risotto made from cauliflower. It was delicious! Very hearty and filling. Below is a link to my inspiration but I will post my recipe for tonight's meal so you can see what I had.

Ingredients:

1 head of cauliflower

1 10oz package of mushrooms(I used white) roughly chopped

1 medium shallot chopped

2 cloves of garlic chopped

2 cups of chicken broth

1/4 cup white wine

Olive oil

Salt, pepper, parsley

Instructions:

Lightly chop the cauliflower and then place, in two batches, into the food processor and pulse several times to "rice" the cauliflower.

In a large sautée pan, pour a little olive oil and add the shallots, mushrooms and garlic. Stir so they don't burn. Meanwhile get the broth warmed in a pot. When mushrooms are broken down, add white wine. Allow the wine to simmer and then add the riced cauliflower and stir. Slowly add 1 ladle of broth to the pan, until it absorbs. Continue to do so until the broth is completely added to the pan one ladle at a time. It should take about 20-30 minutes. Once all the liquid is absorbed, continue stiring until it tightens up. Sprinkle with parsley and serve!  

(To beef it up, I added some grilled shrimp. For extra flavor you can sprinkle some parmasian cheese or truffle oil on top.)

Here is the original recipe:

http://www.foodiefiasco.com/cauliflower-risotto-with-roasted-mushrooms/

I'm Going Bananas, Literally!!

How exciting is it to eat healthy and get something you crave....ICE CREAM!!

 I love ice cream, as many of you know! I love ice cream so much that we had an ice cream bar at our wedding!

Granted, I used to eat "slow churned" ice cream, which is generally half the fat, and lower sugar, its still not "healthy." I've debated this several times, and every time I hear my husband says "its not healthy, its just not as bad for you as other things."
 So with that, I give you my current post, MY healthy ice cream: Frozen banana and fruit... let me explain!

Sitting at home, feeling sick with a cold, I can't taste much of anything, so for me, I wanted something hot or cold: Soup and Ice cream. Now I was not about to breakdown and buy a sugar/fat/random ingredient filled bucket of goodness...so I started playing around.

Since I make smoothies a lot, I had some frozen banana in the freezer (hint, put them in the freezer sliced, when they're ripe, good and ripe.) I also had some frozen strawberries. I took out the food processor and added a cup of frozen banana and 2 frozen strawberries. I then added just a touch of almond milk. Hit that baby on high and let it go. I had to stop a few times to wipe down the sides, so it would continue to blend, after about 3 minutes, I had what looked like creamy, delicious, pink, soft serve ice cream.
 WOOOO HOOO!

Now some may gamble with whether this is healthy or not, for me, I say yes! 3 ingredients, could be two, if you want it thicker minus the milk. Its totally Paleo, and dairy free, and gluten free, and everything else. Yes, fruit is sugar, but natural sugar.

I will most definitely be making this again, and again, and again!

** Take note of the serving size, just enough to get my fill :-)

Day 17

I cant believe its been more then two weeks now. Feeling great, feeling very healthy, love this! Wishing I was loosing more weight but in general, I'm feeling good. I imagine if I cut out some of the fruit and replace it with more veggies and protein I'll be feeling better. I think its very easy to grab an apple or orange and pack it for lunch, instead of cutting up celery and carrots. I will get better, I just need to invest the time, more time, which im lacking, now that I've started school, but I will make time. (<---run on sentence? )

Its been a long week. And a different week at that. I have officially started college. Every Tuesday and Thursday night I attend college from 7-9:45. I get home around 10ish, depending on when we leave class. It helps me to not eat as much as I would at home, but I sometimes find myself hungry at 10 when I get home. Need to put the kibosh on that!

Meal plan for the day:
Smoothie for breakfast and a LaraBar-for $1.85 each, they better be worth it!

Lunch is a "taco" salad. Seasoned ground chicken, lettuce, tomato, red onion, black olive, avocado with a homemade cilantro lime dressing. (Thanks Babe)

Dinner- Hotdogs, without buns, with sauteed onions and sauerkraut. Sweet potato fries. YUM! As you can see, I try to bring as much normality to our lives as possible. I should note, these hotdogs are ALL BEEF, with no casing.

Days 14, 15, 16 MY BAD

Damn! Kinda disappointed in myself that I havent posted in several days. I guess College really does take most of your attention!

To make this quick, Not really loosing weight, but feeling great, so I guess thats ok, right?

Some of the meals we had in these days include:

Cauliflower Chicken fried rice with Pineapple. Tasty, and really looked like rice!
Sausage and Broccoli Rabe with Mushrooms. YUM, one of our favs, of course we always like it with pasta, but by itself, it was much more flavorful, Lots of fresh garlic helps! Good for the heart they say :-)

Baked chicken, I take the skin off, with plantains (we ate out so im sure they were fried, but very tasty of course). I also discovered this new "dipping sauce" that this mult culture restaurant serves. Its like a vinegar, pepper, scallion, onion mix. I will definitely be trying to make it this weekend!

Day 13, getting so used to this!

Thinking back on my weekend, I'm starting to see how the body reacts to things it shouldn't have. I had butter, beer and too much oil and I was really feelin it! It's kind of encouraging! Makes me think I can do this 90/10 Paleo a lot longer then 1 month!

This morning I made smoothies, strawberry, banana, almond milk. So sweet tasting, like a strawberry milk shake. I really liked it but I felt so full so fast that I had to put my smoothie in the fridge when I got to work, and then I finished it later on. 

For lunch, I had a very green salad- iceberg, cucumber, green beans, tomatoes and egg. I'll admit, I used Ken's Italian salad dressing, I'm getting bored with vinegar and olive oil. 

I'm very proud of John, he was at a seminar today so he had to eat out. His friend wanted Taco Bell. John thought about getting the cantina bowl, then his inner cricket must have chirped and lead him in a much better direction. He went to Mo's and got a chicken salad filled with lots of veggies. He used hot sauce instead of dressing! I have to admit, he's doing great and I'm so glad to have such a good partner! 

Snacks for me- orange and some banana chips. For John-raisins and plantain chips.

Dinner tonight, let me tell you! Homemade egg drop soup, so good, and I'm getting closer and closer to making it taste like real Chinese. The trick this time, add a little grated goner and garlic! For our meal, chicken and pineapple stir fried "rice". I had I take a couple double takes because it honestly looked like the fried rice I used to always make, with real white rice! I loaded if ip with lots of fresh veggies and some scrambled eggs. Yes, I am using soy sauce, not near as much as I used to use, but enough for flavor and familiarity. 

Day 12

This morning I switched it up. Made a ham and sweet potato hash with red peppers and onion. Very tasty and filling!

For lunch, we ate a little late because we went out shopping. Made some ham, salami and lettuce wraps.

Dinner tonight, were at moms house. This time a much better meal- roast beef, parsnips, potatoes( which we won't have) and string beans. I've reading that string beans may not be considered Paleo but I've read so many good things about them so were gonna eat them!