Jimmy Johns, I love you

I love subs. They make my heart sing and just satisfy my hunger in a way nothing else does. However, I'm not actually allowed to eat them anymore, so I haven't had one in a long time. Jimmy Johns, however, is freakin AWESOME. Because they have a little thing called an "Unwich." If you've never had one, all they do is make their subs but wrap it in lettuce instead of putting it on bread. Perfectly legal for me! And SO UNBELIEVABLY YUMMY!!! Why don't more sandwich places do this?? It just made my whole day better - sitting outside on the porch in the PERFECT weather, eating the closest thing to a sub I'm gonna get.......yeah, life is good :-D

Breakfast:

• Smoothie with 1/2 c frozen berries, 1/2 banana, 2 tbsp vanilla rice protein powder, handful of almonds, 1/4 c flax seeds, almond milk
• 1 slice sprouted grain cinnamon raisin bread with sunbutter on top (like peanut butter, made out of sunflower seeds - actually VERY good!!)

Lunch:

• Jimmy John's Beach Club Unwich *Angels singing melodiously*

Snack:

• apple with sunbutter

Dinner:

• Organic beef and veggie stir fry, and some leftover super chip dip with corn chips
• 1 slice cantaloupe
  

I hold sunlight and swallow fireflies...

....well, not literally. The song just came to mind, and it's like the most magical phrase EVER...I mean, can you imagine HOLDING sunlight and SWALLOWING fireflies??? Wow. WOW.

Maybe it's just me.

Aaaanyway...

To catch up with food! Let's see....

In the past couple days, I've had a deeeelicious salad with leftover curry chicken on top and sliced grapes, dates, figs, and a cranberry balsamic dressing I made. We also had chicken enchiladas, which were delish. I made more of those amazing protein bars I posted in the beginning.

Today, here's what I had:

Breakfast:

• protein bar in almond milk with 1/2 peach on top

Lunch

• salad with 2 hard boiled eggs on top, black beans, black olives, cherry tomatoes, and a bit of spicy ranch dressing. Yes, ranch dressing is horrible for you, but I was in a hurry and didn't have time to make something, so I just threw on a dash for a bit o'flava flav.

Snack:

• homemade protein bar
• Kashi granola bar with peanut butter on it

Dinner:

• wrap with melted cheese, preservative free turkey, lettuce, tomatoes, black beans

AND in other exciting news...IT'S FALL-Y OUTSIDE so I get to go on long bike rides and skates and frolics.........healthy food, healthy weather, healthy amounts of activity...life is good :-D

Brief synopsis

The past few days have been, in a word, NUTS, so I haven't been able to post daily. SO I'll just tell you the exciting things I ate:

• Indian-inspired chicken marinated and grilled in a yogurt curry sauce with mango mint chutney, curry vegetables, and grilled naan - AH-freakin-MAZING.
• Salad with leftover curry chicken and homemade balsamic vinaigrette dressing
• Scrambled eggs with sauteed red peppers and tomatoes
  
• Protein/fiber smoothie with almond butter, almonds, 1 banana, 1 slice pineapple, 1 tbsp coconut oil, flax seeds
• Salad with spring greens, mandarin oranges, strawberries, grapes, pear, dried cranberries, grilled shrimp, toasted walnuts, and a gorgonzola dressing - OMG SO GOOD!!

Yeahh that's pretty much the exciting stuffs. Does anyone have any requests of stuff they want to learn about, types of recipes they want ideas for...? Anything?

Mmmmm Thai food! :-)

Ya know, if you do NEED to eat out, Thai and Vietnamese restaurants are usually a pretty safe bet. I just ask for Vietnamese food with more veggies and less rice, and I'm good to go!

Breakfast:

• 2 organic eggs, 1/2 a peach

Lunch:

• Chicken pad thai with my daddy :-)

Snack:

• A bunch of red grapes and raw pumpkin seeds

Dinner:

• 1 serving Pot roast (about the size of your palm)
• 1/2 a baked potato, green bean/tomato/cucumber salad
• 1 slice cantaloupe
  

Don't try this at home

Today was one of the worst days meal-wise I have had in a long time. It was the first time in...gosh...as long as I can remember...that I actually REFUSED to eat something it was so bad. Normally I'll choke it down no matter what as long as I know it's good for me. They were these unidentified organic greens, cooked in balsamic vinegar, beef broth, garlic, and onions, and I swear it was burdock or something poisonous. EW. Anyway, here's the day.

Breakfast:

• 1 smoothie with 1/2 cup sunflower seeds, 2 tbsp rice protein powder, 1/2 frozen banana, 1/2 cup frozen berries, water

Lunch:

• I forgot to pack a lunch last night, and had like 30 seconds this morning, so this consisted of 1 cold turkey burger and some cut up cucumbers, peppers, and tomatoes. Luckily, I called my dad and he mentioned he was meeting my sister for lunch, so I was invited along and got a chicken burrito out of the deal ;-) Not the healthiest thing, but not too horrible either.

Dinner:

• This is where the terror occurred:
• Pork in homemade barbecue sauce
• burdock/hemlock/poison ivy stew
• Because the veggies were so bad, I made some delicious green beans instead:
• *Sautee fresh garlic in olive oil briefly; add in green beans, rosemary, some lemon juice, salt, pepper, and walnuts, almonds, or cashews. All 3 are good, but I like the walnuts best. Sautee up until green beans are tender, but I like 'em still kickin a bit ;-)
• 1/2 cup Coconut milk mint chocolate chip icecream with flax seeds on top
  

Snack:

• 1 organic apple with peanut butter

Aaaand our house is pretty much outta food right now...so tomorrow probably won't be very inspiring either lol. Sorry! With 5 jobs now, I've been having trouble finding the time to figure out exciting food to eat. It's kinda just survival instinct at this point.

Monday

Breakfast:

• 1/2 c frozen berries, almond milk, handful of almonds, flax seeds smoothied it up
• 1 home made protein breakfast bar
• 1/2 peach in almond milk
  

Lunch:

• Salad made of some bizarre organic green I can't remember the name of...w/cucumers, radishes, and some turkey chunks on top (we had "Thanksgiving dinner" the night before for my bro's b-day)

Dinner:

• A wannabe-vietnamese dish: shredded lettuce with rice, beans, tomatoes, peppers, a couple bits of steak, broccoli, and 2 fried eggs on top. Actually pretty good!
• some crispy red grapes - mmmmmmmmmm my favorite :-)

Bed-time snack:

• A banana with chunky peanut butter and raisins on it (none of which I should have eaten - WAY too carby/sugary, too fatty/fungus-y, and non-organic raisins are just chock-full of pesticides. But I was starving and exhausted when I got back from ballroom/swingdancing at 11 pm)
  

Un-Lameification

Hear ye, hear ye. There have been accusations of this being a lame blog. I will not mention any names *mary* but I resent such comments. In an effort to un-lameify my blog, I am now posting this entry.
I haven't written in here in a while because, honestly, I feel that my meals HAVE been extremely lame the past 2 weeks, and completely uninspired. And then that would just force you (if there ARE any "you"s out there who actually read this...) to to read about the half an apple and awkward jello smoothie that I drank. I've just been traveling a lot which doesn't afford time or creativity for good meals. BUT tomorrow begins a new week, so I promise to make a better effort to eat exciting healthy things again and post them for you.

But I don't want to keep posting stuff if no one reads it either. Because I have better things I could be doing with my time (like working my 5 jobs...or sleeping).

Anyway.........here is my attempt at un-lameification:
Hot Pockets

Have a nice life, everyone.

ADD to the Max

So. I get these ideas where I'll be all gung-ho for about, oh...a few days. Maybe a few weeks, even. For instance, keeping a journal while studying in Europe. I had every intention of writing in it every day. It lasted for 2 days. When I was little, I did ballet for about a month, then got bored of it b/c I was only 4 and they wouldn't let us do stuff I thought was cool enough. Same w/gymnastics - I didn't want to be on the stupid balance beam on the floor - I wanted to be doing backflips from the high bar!!! And Brownies too, same story...yeah, I'm basically too ADD to ever finish anything.

Which brings me to the fact that I definitely haven't been posting in here every day like I wanted. Partly b/c life has been crazy, and I haven't been really eating ANYTHING inspiring or good at all, so it's just embarrassing to even TELL you what it's been. Really, it's mostly been random meals of like...an apple and almond butter and some yogurt. Dumb. And this weekend won't be any better, b/c I'll be traveling.
BUT...since I'm traveling, I spent all evening baking delicious magical goodies to bring with me on my trip!

First, I made more of those AAAAMAZING breakfast bars I posted before - except this time they were a little dry, so I added some pineapple juice to them, and used dried unsulfured apricot for the fruit. YUMMM! And on Elana's site, I found another recipe for almond flour/flax meal muffins. And LET me tell you ....first, I am AMAZED at how well they turned out! The actually rose, and don't fall apart, and FEEL like real muffins!!! Mine were sadly kinda tasteless tho, but we can easily fix that. I would recommend probably using coconut oil instead of olive oil, maybe putting more dates in it to make it sweeter, or adding some agave nectar. Or make cinnamon apple muffins, I think that'd be good too.
http://www.elanaspantry.com/bran-muffins/
And tomorrow morning...I'm makin WAFFLES!

...ok, no I'm not. I just had to say that. Really, I'm making this Greena Colada, and I'm sooo excited :-D


Ummm ok. Just wanted to post SOMETHING. But I'm going to bed now.

*P.S. for Erin M., I am tagging entries that remind me especially of you and are full of magical things you would love, with "Roomie Love." Read, cook, enjoy, and relish in the gluten-free goodness!! <3 <3 <3

Today, class...

Sooo the past 2 days have been so utterly crazy and un-inspired foodwise, I'm really not even going to waste your time by writing what I ate. Because it will not help you at all.

Instead, I shall write of the importance of whole food supplements! YAYY!!! And of supplementation in general.

SO. Our soil has been ridiculously depleted by the over-working of fields, the pesticides and herbicides sprayed on them, etc. They lack most of the vitamins and minerals that used to be found in soil. Thus, when we plant food in this soil, it then grows into nutritionally-deficient crops. Because of this, it is impossible to get all the vitamins and minerals we REALLY need solely from what we eat. Can't be done. Add on to that the fact that all the environmental toxins we come into contact with have greatly decreased our bodies' ability to absorb nutrients, and you have a big problem on your hands.

Due to a lack of nutrients, many people find themselves lacking energy, getting sick often, feeling like death in general, etc. Luckily, though, there are some pretty easy things you can do to start feeling better! The first is to EAT BETTER if you eat junk right now. On top of that, though, here are the 3 major supplements you'll want to add to get you feeling tip-top!

1. Whole food multivitamin/mineral - Good brands are Rainbow Light, Standard Process, Jarrow, Biotics. Whole food vitamins, as opposed to synthesized vitamins such as Centrum or something, are VITAL. Whole food vitamins, believe it or not, are made from real food, but concentrated so you get all the goodness in capsule size. Synthesized forms of vitamins are actually stereoisomers, which means they are the mirror image of the actual vitamin found in food. And guess what, kids? OUR BODIES CAN'T USE THEM. You will pee 'em right out. AND they are also made of petroleum too, which is just disgusting. Who wants to eat petroleum?? Whole food vitamins are the wayyy to go.
   
2. Vitamin D - Recent research has been showing that this is incredibly important in helping to prevent all sorts of diseases, especially cancer (had a HUGE impact on breast cancer statistics). Amazingly, most of the population is hugely deficient in this vitamin, greatly because we're taught to fear the sun, so we don't produce as much as we should. Even if you do get sun though, you're likely deficient. 1000mg a day will do wonders - I like the liquid or emulsified Biotics Bio-D Mulsion 1000 because your body can absorb it more easily than solid form - 1 drop a day!
3. Fish oil - hugely important for cardiovascular health, immune health, and BRAIN FUNCTION, for all you students! Omega 3's are where it's at! You can also get these from flax oil. If you get fish oil, make sure it is a good mercury-free brand, not some cheapo Walmart brand. Nordic Naturals is excellent, as is Standard Process, Jarrow, Nutribiotics. And you might want to buy ones with lemon oil in them, and take them before you go to bed, else you'll be burpin' up fish taste allll day long, and let me tell you...that is not a pleasant experience.

Those are the BIG 3. I would also HUGELY recommend a good Probiotic tho - it will SERIOUSLY get rid of almost any stomach ailment you have, plus boost your immune system amazingly. If you still lack energy, Klamath Blue Green Algae worked WONDERS for me! I took a couple in the morning, and then if I needed an extra boost I'd take 1 or 2 more in the afternoon. FAN-freakin-TASTIC.

Ok so that was my little lesson for today...though writing all this made me want sooo badly to go into detail about every subject...but THAT, my dears, will have to wait till another time. Cause I got me an FSU vs. Miami game to watch!

TTFN,
Karen

Saturday, Saturday

Today was kinda weird...I go through these phases where I'm constantly starving for about a month, then never hungry for about a month...well today must have started one of the "never hungry" phases. And I was out shopping w/my mums all afternoon, so lunchtime got kinda whacked out.

Breakfast:
This was magical :-)

• 1 homemade gluten-free rice waffle topped with peach slices and a handful of blueberries
• 1 homemade organic turkey sausage patty

Lunch/Snack:

• 2 slices hormone/nitrate/nitrite-free bacon, tabouli, tomato and cucumber slices
• 1 homemade protein bar

Dinner:

• Grilled organic orange garlic vinaigrette chicken
• Grilled zucchini, yellow squash, and red peppers

Snack/Dessert:

• 1 bowl mint chocolate chip coconut milk icecream with half a banana - can I just say how much I LOVE this stuff?? It is completely dairy AND sugar free - it uses coconut milk and agave nectar, and it's creamy and delicious AND won't kill me!! :-D Things like this excite me so much....
  

Slight Epic Fail

Soooo today my grandma paid for us to go to Red Lobster for dinner. One thought of the magical fluffy goodness of those cheese biscuits they have, and I KNEW today would not be a day when the diet was strictly followed ;-) But the rest of the day was good, so here ya go:

Breakfast:

• 2 organic eggs cooked with Earth Balance (dairy-free, non-death butter substitute that actually tastes like butter!)
• smoothie with 1/2 cup frozen berries, almond milk, 2 tbsp rice protein powder, flax seeds
• 1/2 nectarine

Lunch:

• Spinach salad with cucumbers, handful of blueberries, some walnuts, and a bit of feta cheese crumbled on top. I made a dressing of olive oil, balsamic vinegar, and a splash of agave nectar (to make a sweet-ish dressing like raspberry vinaigrette, without all the sugar)
• 1 homemade protein breakfast bar

Dinner:

• Maui Luau pineapple grilled salmon and shrimp with steamed broccoli - DE-LISH. I highly recommend this!
• And yes...I admit...I ate one of the fluffy dream-wonder cheese biscuits. And I savored every moment :-D

Aaand there you have it! Not too exciting today. All day I have been thinking of all this amazing important stuff I want to write about and inform people of here, but tonight, I am too tired. We went to the Downtown Get-Down and a coffee place and stuff and now I just wanna crash. But be on the lookout - b/c I'm EXCITED about these posts!!!

~Karen

My Brilliant New Idea...

So today I was sitting at work enjoying my AH-mazing home made lunch and thinking how great it was to eat my own delicious healthy food. And then I started remembering how often people would ask me for tips on how they could eat healthier, and *eureka!* an idea came to mind! "I shall start a food diary/blog and post it," sayeth I. That way, I can keep better track of MY diet (which at this point in my life is extremely restricted and specific), people can read it and take tips if they want, and if I'm posting it for the world to see, I will be less likely to cheat on what I eat lol.

So every day (in theory), I will post what I eat. Mind you, I eat no gluten, sugar, little to no dairy, mostly organic...you get the picture. If you want to make any of the recipes I use, you can alter them and use wheat flour, dairy, etc. if you can tolerate them. The main point of my diet is this:

• TONS of servings of veggies a day, mostly fresh
• 3 servings of concentrated protein (eggs, fish, meat, etc) preferably organic
• 2 servings of fresh fruit a day (if you have blood sugar problems) - i.e. 1 apple and 1 orange
• Good fats, such as avocado, nuts, seeds, olive oil, coconut oil
• Very low carb - I can only have 1 serving of whole grains a day, which = 1/2 cup rice, quinoa, etc, or 1 slice of sprouted grain bread/rice tortilla. If you DO eat gluten and grains, NEVER EVER EVER NEVEREVER EVERRR eat white flour, processed snacks/crackers/cereals, etc. EVER!!!!!! It will kill you.
• Drink tons of water
• Eat small meals every few hours to keep blood sugar stable

Obviously, if you're at school on the meal plan you can't eat exactly what I do. BUT it is definitely possible to basically follow the rules so you DON'T feel like death and get fat and then complain how bad the food is when it's largely your own dang fault ;-)

Ok that's all I can think of for now...so here goes my food diary for today!

Breakfast:

• 2 organic eggs
• Smoothie made with 1/2 frozen mixed berries, a few tablespoons flax seeds, handful of almonds, some almond milk, and a squirt of agave nectar (if you've never tried this, you MUST. It is an all-natural sugar substitute with no gross aftertaste, AND it doesn't affect your blood sugar!! LOVE <3>

Lunch:

My lunch today was SOOOO lovely - a Mediterranean delight :-)

• 1/2 cup plain, lowfat, organic yogurt with half a nectarine slice into it and a handful of walnuts and sunflower seeds
• Spinach leaves and carrot sticks with homemade hummus* and tabouli on top (I either leave out the bulgur wheat or substitute quinoa for it in the recipe)
• A couple organic dried mission figs and dates

*Hummus recipe:

• 1 can garbanzo beans (add the liquid if the hummus is too dry)
• 1 tbsp olive oil (to taste also)
• 1 tbsp. tahini
• 1 clove-ish of garlic (basically just add to taste)
• some lemon juice
• salt and pepper to taste
• sprinkle some paprika
• maybe a nice roasted red pepper...mmmmm delish!
• Throw it all in the blender or food processor and whip it up!

Snack:

• 1 AMAZING grain-free protein breakfast bar I made. I found the recipe at Elena's Pantry, which is a great site full of healthy yummy recipes. I kinda winged it with the recipe tho - instead of what she lists, I used sunflower seeds, flax seeds, slivered almonds, coconut, and bits of figs and dates. I also used coconut oil instead of grapeseed oil. I'd recommend using less than 1/4 cup of agave nectar tho - they are wayyy too sweet. Oh, and I ground my OWN almond flour! I threw some almonds, flax seeds, and cashews into the blender and VOILA! You have just what you need and you didn't have to pay like $20 for a bag of almond flour! These bars are SO YUMMY and chock-full of protein, and have NOTHING bad in them! :-D Ahhhh I love stuff like this...

Dinner:

This is always more lax than my other 2 meals, b/c I get home from work and my mom has made dinner. She tries to keep my dietary restrictions in mind, and on the whole does a great job, but sometimes allowances are made because I don't want to be rude and refuse dinner after she's worked so hard to make something she thinks I can eat. SO tonight I believe the menu is...

• Curry pork with apples, onions, cabbage
• Basmati rice
• Corn on the cob
• Roasted cauliflower

Snack:

I'll probably eat some veggies and hummus, or make a rice protein shake smoothie. :-)

And drink tons of water.

So this is what a basic healthy day of food looks like. Notice that nowhere did I mention McDonald's, Taco Bell, pizza, or chocolate. All the food is fresh, delicious, full of nutrients, and will actually HELP your body, rather than harm it.

So come follow me...if you dare ;-D