Spinach is a beauty food that is incorporated into my diet daily - not only do I use it in my Glowing Green Smoothie every morning, I usually have some sort of salad that uses spinach also. On this day of appreciate for spinach, though, I decided to use it in meals rather than a basic salad. I started off my day with my Glowing Green Smoothie - I got some spinach right off the bat. For lunch I cooked up a 'Greens Stir Fry' - In coconut oil I threw in onions, green beans, asparagus, zucchini, broccoli and spinach, seasoned with tamari, onion powder, and brown rice vinegar. For dinner I classed it up a little and did a vegan 'carbonara'. I had been watching Food Network while I was at the gym and was inspired to make my own carbonara, vegan edition. I used my raw taco meat, tomatoes, salt & pepper, spinach, and extra virgin olive oil all tossed with gluten-free pasta. |
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I am happy to have completed my second Kimberly Snyder challenge! (after the Glowing Green Soup). It helps me feel more connected with the community and keeps me involved and constantly thinking about how to incorporate more Beauty Detox friendly concepts into my every day life. I have already made habit drinking a glass of lemon water right when I wake up in the morning, and my Glowing Green Smoothie is a breakfast must every day. I've already seen and felt my body slimming down - I can't wait until I can start incorporating exercise again! I'm currently in the process of clearing out my fridge to make it more Beauty Detox friendly. I have food left over from before that I don't want to waste (I'm a college kid, everything is about saving money) so I am trying to use it up so I can purchase only BD foods from now on. The foods that I have left over aren't necessarily unhealthy, but they are not vegan or vegetarian. I have chicken, eggs and some cheese that I need to get rid of but I don't really want to waste it, so I will incorporate it in small portions in my meals. Some of the dishes that I made this weekend are: baked oats, brown rice stir-fry, and apple-banana cakes. I have seen a lot of fitness and nutrition Instagrams make posts about baking oats in the oven. I used to make oatmeal a lot for breakfast and its a great thing that I can keep at work, but I was intrigued as to why baked oats have become so popular. So, I decided to try it out. I found a general recipe online, but I substituted all of the unhealthy ingredients for healthier ones. My oats had:
These were baked in the oven at 350 degrees for 30-45 minutes - and they were delicious. I don't want to make them a consistent part of my diet (egg is not vegan), but this is a good, healthier sweet treat if I'm craving cinnamon rolls or something similar (and I always crave cinnamon rolls). I was feeling a little sad this weekend - being in a long-distance relationship gets to me sometimes, but most of the time experimenting with food can make me feel better. I decided to put together apple-banana cakes. Initially, I wanted to just mush together a banana and very thinly sliced apples with some cinnamon and see if they would cook together like a pancake. It turns out that they don't hold like pancakes do (there is no binding ingredient) but they do make some delicious mush. The last pancake I added some amaranth flour to and it held slightly better than the first two. Finally, today started Kimberly Snyder's Avocado Remix Challenge. I started off simple by adding it to my stir-fry recipe, but it turned out to be incredibly delicious. My stir-fry was brown rice with red onion, yellow squash, garlic, an egg, and some grilled chicken. I know it wasn't beauty detox at all, but the rest of my recipes will be! The avocado added to the stir-fry added a delicious creaminess and tied all of the ingredients together. I won't post the Avocado Challenge daily here (follow my instagram @fightforthefitlife to see it daily), but rather I will do a post at the end of the week summarizing my Avocado Remix Challenge experience. I can't wait to see what this week has to offer! I love that Kimberly Snyder posts weekly challenges for her followers, and they make great blogging assignments. I went through all of her blog posts and made a list of all of the assignments so I can get caught up and always have some kind of challenge or goal to accomplish. This recipe for Glowing Green Soup was the first assignment, so I it is the first one that I tried. When I printed out the recipe initially, the zucchini and tomatoes were covered so I couldn't see them on the list. Therefore, they were not included in my soup. I made this recipe on a gloomy, rainy day so I thought soup would be the perfect option. To be honest, I did not really enjoy the taste of the soup, which could be due to the fact that I had the missing ingredients. I don't know if I will try this recipe again. i woke up this morning with a text message from my sister. she and i have always been "health buddies" - she inspires me more than anyone else. her text said "tmw. start of 30 days no processed sugar. want to do it with me?" now, i don't normally eat any foods with processed sugar, but i love having challenges to keep me on track. 30 days is usually too long for my attention span, but this would only require me to make small changes. i already cook all of my own food. i figure thats a good, small step since i'm just starting to get serious about this healthy lifestyle. so, for 30 days, no processed sugar. i've researched the top 6 foods that have hidden sugars for you to avoid:
Now many of these are no brainers (fast food, cookies), but it is also good to realize that some of these have simple, healthy alternatives. It's so easy to make your own salad dressing! For example: Classic Vinaigrette
There are a lot of hidden processed sugars in food, but it is avoidable if you stick to cooking your own food and making your own recipes with fresh ingredients. for 30 days i pledge to be processed sugar-free! |