Mostly Clean

Woohoo!!! My boys, the Detroit Red Wings, are in the Stanley Cup Playoffs for the 24th straight year! It is a good day.

For our April meal plan we are doing about (if I'm being honest) 90% clean eating. There are a few small things that aren't "clean" such as our blended caffeine boosts (only twice a week), and the odd day when we desperately need caffeine at work. I suppose this could be negated if I took some of my home made creamer (coconut milk based) to work for these instances... But that would be planning.

Tonight's deliciously wonderful clean dinner was a pineapple chicken stir fry with black bean sauce and brown rice. It was full of sugar snap peas, onions and red bell peppers (along with the obvious chicken and pineapple). For once I had the where with all to take a picture of it before I devoured it like a boa on feeding day. Yea, that's right I dislocated my job and swallowed it in one go... Okay not really, but it was good enough to want to.

This weekend I am going to give a go of making my own "protein bars" a la Alton Brown's recipe (which you can link to here). It's time to switch up our breakfasty snack. We had been doing these banana oatmeal no sugar cookie things with raisins and such in them, but I don't want to get burnt out on them. It was like kismet. We were watching Good Eats on Netflix last weekend and one of the episodes we watched was about healthy snack bar options. I also plan to try the other recipes on the episode. One was a granola bar and the other was a healthier take on crispy rice treats. I'll share the outcome on anything that I attempt.

For the past few days I have been drinking a detox water. I don't know that I feel any significant difference but I think I will still sip it for another week to make it a full two weeks. The particular detox water I went with is infused with green tea, lime, and mint. I find it to be bitter but passable. I am thinking next week I will add cucumber to help sweeten and tone down the tart bitterness. It'd probably taste great with some gin...

Next time, I might try the ever popular lemon, cranberry, dandelion tea detox water. The main thing I have noticed with all the detox and infused waters out there is that they are another way of getting people to focus on consuming enough water, which too few of us do.

As always I will keep you posted if I find some miracle detox drink that makes me drop 100 pounds and makes me look ten years younger in two weeks, but realistically I will mostly update you on the flavors and effects if any.

I am thinking May might be a paleo month. I am a big fan of the paleo eating method; it tends to be filling but not "heavy". June, not sure. July will be a raw vegan month I think, that or August. Height of summer and all would be the ideal time to do it. Hrm... maybe June will be a soup month. And to allay any fears, when we go on these different eating methods each month I keep in mind that I am also feeding a toddler. Thankfully, she continues to be fairly adventurous and will try almost anything once.

Watching the very first episode of Grey's Anatomy tonight, and OMG the flashbacks. I first started watching this show day one with my mother in law. It became our weekly ritual; back then it was on Sundays.

Ta ta til the next post! Happy Friday tomorrow!