Recipes

Salsa:
2 cups chopped tomatoes (I used 3 tomatoes)
1/3 cup chopped yellow or white onion
2 tbsp chopped cilantro
2 tbsp lime juice
1-2 jalepeno or serrano peppers, stemmed, seeded, and finely chopped
Salt to taste
*I also added kidney beans (yes, I soaked them myself!) b/c I love them.
Just mix everything together! Couldn't get much easier :)

Stuff I threw together (first was a suggestion from Jess - thanks!!)

Breakfast Wrap:
Scramble 1 egg or 2 egg whites with 1/2 cup salsa (I like it warm)
Put a sprinkle of fat free cheese on top
I put it all in 1 small wheat tortilla, and stuff was still falling out.

Fish Taco:
I used another small wheat tortilla (imagine that)
1 tbsp fat free tartar sauce (yes, I cheated! At least it was fat free)
Diced tomato, lettuce, break up the fish, sprinkle some fat free cheese on top. Yummy!

Real Recipes:


http://simplyrecipes.com/recipes/dads_stuffed_bell_peppers/
Dad's Stuffed Bell Peppers Recipe


















Ingredients **I used quinoa instead of rice!**
4 green or red bell peppers
Salt
5 Tbsp extra-virgin olive oil
1 medium yellow onion, peeled and chopped
1 clove of garlic, peeled and chopped
1 lb of lean ground beef
1 1/2 cup of cooked rice or 3/4 cup of raw instant rice
1 cup chopped tomatoes, fresh or canned
1 tbsp chopped fresh oregano or 1 tsp of dried oregano
Fresh ground pepper
1/2 cup ketchup
1/2 tsp of Worcestershire Sauce
Dash of Tabasco sauce
Method
1 Bring a large pot of water to a boil over high heat. Meanwhile, cut top off peppers 1 inch from the stem end, and remove seeds. Add several generous pinches of salt to boiling water, then add peppers and boil, using a spoon to keep peppers completely submerged, until brilliant green (or red if red peppers) and their flesh slightly softened, about 3 minutes. Drain, set aside to cool.

2 Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Heat 4 tbsp of the oil in a large skillet over medium heat. Add onions and garlic, and cook, stirring often, until soft and translucent, about 5 minutes. Remove skillet from heat, add meat, rice, tomatoes, and oregano, and season generously with salt and pepper. Mix well.

3 Drizzle remaining 1 tbsp. Oil inside peppers, arrange cut side up in a baking dish, then stuff peppers with filling. Combine ketchup, Worcestershire sauce, Tabasco sauce, and 1/4 cup of water in a small bowl, then spoon over filling. Add 1/4 cup of water to the baking dish. Place in oven and bake for 40-50 minutes (or longer, depending on how big the peppers are that you are stuffing), until the internal temperature of the stuffed pepper is 150-160°F.

Serves 4.

Week 2

Well, week 1 was a success. I lost 6 pounds in a week! A record for me. Hopefully it wasn't a fluke and doesn't back this week :)

One of the oddest experiences is grocery shopping. When I go in, I don't normally need anything in the aisles, just the perimeter sections. I used to always go up and down every aisle, then wrap around. Now it's just produce, meats, dairy. (I get my whole grains from the natural food store next door, but even still, it's just 1 or 2 things). Thankfully this week wasn't quite as painful as last in terms of grocery bills!

I've found a few meals that I've really loved. A breakfast wrap and fish tacos are definite faves. The homemade salsa was really good and I put it on everything! I'll start posting recipes.

Day 2

Well, I didn't think I'd be posting again so soon, but thought todays experience was worth writing about! Previously my diet was very consistent, and relatively "healthy" (as in, I watched my calories, fat, fiber, etc...). Well, today it made me rethink that fact! I was miserable all day! I had a terrible headache, which didn't respond to tylenol (which always works), and it just kept getting worse. At first I figured it was caffeine withdrawl, since I've never given it up before, but I never really drank very much caffeine (one soda a day, 2-3 cups of coffee a week [not a day!]). Later in the day I realized it was most likely a result of sugar withdrawl. That was a shocker!

By late afternoon I had intense stomach pain. Eventually it just went away, the nap probably helped :)

After the nap I decided to make salsa. Uneventful, until when cutting the jalenpenos, when it splashed in my eye! I waited for the fire to begin, but it never happened. I thank my contacts! I can also cut onions without crying, which is wonderful!

So, that's day 2. Let's hope day 3 is better!

Day 1

Knowing how long my days are during the week, I am trying to prepare several things today, so less effort will be required during the week.

I cut up a bunch of veggies for salad, and put them in separate tupperware containers (figuring that they go bad at different rates, I wouldn't want to have to throw out a whole salad just because the lettuce went bad...). So far this entails hearts of romaine, celery, green and yellow bell peppers, tomato. (I had this for lunch, with fat free cheese and vinegar and oil).

I got french onion soup going in the crockpot, this will hopefully last through most of the week. If it's good, I'll post the recipe.

I'm also making salsa. I figure cooking up some ground turkey, quinoa, and salsa might make a tasty combination. I also hope this will last several meals.

I'm struggling with snacks. It seems to be fruit or almonds. I need to come up with some other options. I'd love suggestions! (But remember, has to be prepared myself, and whole grains and natural foods).

Introduction

I am in a small group training class. This week the trainer wanted us to bring in packages of things we regularly eat. I am lazy when it comes to cooking, so I drink slimfast every morning for breakfast, have lean cuisines every day for lunch, and come up with something for dinner. She didn't like how much processed food I was eating, so she asked me to give it all up for three weeks.

This is my journey of "eating like they did 1,000 years ago". (Her words). It's similar to the whole foods diet, but a little more extreme. Here are some of the guidelines she gave me:

Only whole wheat pasta, and eating quinoa instead, when possible
Oatmeal for breakfast (And not those packets of instant oatmeal! Although, I am opting for oat bran, which is also very high in fiber, healthy, and requires me to prepare it)
No packaged foods, no artifical sweeteners
I can have fat free cheese

I'm going to blog about the journey, and hopefully pass along some good recipes! This is going to be quite a challenge for me, since I rarely cook! Wish me luck!!


Ignore the pudding and graham crackers, they were for a dessert I had to take to a dinner party. The other containers are broth, which I'm not sure is allowed, but I didn't have any idea how to make it myself!