Day 9,10 & 11 HALFWAY THERE!

Like I said I have been busy so here goes:

DAY 9

BREAKFAST

Cinnamon raisin bread, strawberries a banana and apple juice

LUNCH

Portabello mushroom pad thai

DINNER

Black bean chipotle burgers with french fries

DAY 10

BREAKFAST

Rice chex with soy milk and honey, an orange and a cranberry fruit bar

LUNCH

Leftover burgers, strawberries, sugar snap peas, hummus, chips and apple juice

DINNER

Fuit bowl, Naked protein shake and sunflower seeds (we were having a meetin at church and they had pizza and cookies... this is what I brought,)

DAY 11

BREAKFAST

Cinnamon Raisin bread, and orange and a cranberry fruit bar

LUNCH

Baked potato with cheese, sour cream and butter (all vegan) and some hummus with chips

DINNER

Vegitarian Shepherds Pie (I got the recipe from here http://glutenfreegoddess.blogspot.com/2007/04/veggie-lovers-shepherds-pie.html)

I can only say that it gets easier and easier. I walked through the store today and I didn't want to eat everything I saw! I also have lost 3lbs total so... YEAH!

Day 6,7 & 8

So obviously we have been pretty busy this weekend and I haven't had a chance to update so I will try and make this quick.

DAY 6

BREAKFAST

Fruit bowl from Quicktrip and OJ

LUNCH

Spagetti with "meat" sauce

DINNER

Salad with oil and vinegar, fruit and red beans from Dillons salad bar

DAY 7

LUNCH

Potato with vegan butter, sour cream and cheese and brown rice made with veggie broth.

DINNER

Tomato and onion quesadillas with quacamole and vegan sour cream

DAY 8

EASTER

BREAKFAST

Corn chex with honey and soy milk and cinnamon raisin bread with vegan butter

LUNCH

Baked beans, Fumi salad and brocolli salad

DESSERT

Vegan, sugar and gluten free strawberry and chocolate mousse pie

So we were really busy on Friday running errands and we had to eat on the run for dinner. The Dillons Marketplace salad bar is amazing! They have a lot to offer and I will be going there again. On Saturday we were running around a lot too so I did eat breakfast but I just had a banana in the car so I didn't take a picture of it. I will say that the dinner we had that night was so amazing I think I might make it at least once a week when we aren't on this cleanse! I will try and put the recipe on tomorrows post. Now the biggest challenge we had was figuring out what we were going to eat for Easter lunch and Luke's Grandma's. I knew there wasn't going to be much since it is a pot luck. Usually at family gatherings we can go through 8-10 rolls between the two of us and I am happy to report that today we ate 0! Now we couldn't find anything that matched with our diet completely so we tried to do the best we could. The baked beans obviously had sugar in them but I felt that the bean content made it better than mac n cheese or turkey. We also had Fumi salad and I tried to pick out as many ramen noodles as I could. The brocolli salad had bacon in it and I just picked that out as well. I will say that after eating lunch, Luke and I both feel awful. Upset stomachs and indegestion so yeah for that. Since my stomach was upset at dinner time, I just had some hummus and Luke had leftover spagetti.

Now for the pie. I made a desert so I could try it. It was awful. Period. Awful. The crust was so grainy that it was inedible and I don't care for the taste of cocoa powder so to me the mouse wasn't that great. So lots of info for one day I hope you cold follow it. See you tomorrow!

Day 5

Well today went awsome! I almost starved my hubby to death by making dinner at 7:00 but he did survive so never fear. I don't really have any words of wisdom or new things I learned about myself today. I did learn that I can drink the Diet Limeade at Sonic and that McDonald's french fries have beef and wheat in them. Who woulda thought. So without further adue... here are the meals for today!

BREAKFAST

Fruit bowl from Quicktrip (cantalope, mango, grapes, strawberries and kiwi) and an orange juice

LUNCH

Leftover mushroom and tofu wraps from last night

DINNER

Eggplant, Squash, Zucchini and Amaranth seed wraps with garlic, baby new potatoes.

I was a little nervous when we got up this morning because every Thursday, Korbin, Emma and I stop and get breakfast before work. This has become a tradition and we usually get McDonald's or Krispey Kreme or Panera. Since we are on this diet I figured my best chance of finding something was at Quick Trip. When I found the fruit bowl I was so excited! I love Kiwi and was excited to let Emma try it when we got to work. Unfortunatley, the kiwi was so under ripe (hard) that I couldn't eat it! Oh well, I finished the rest of the bowl and was content.
Dinner tonight turned out pretty good. Luke really liked it. I thought it was OK. It is basically just grilled eggplant, zucchini and squash rolled in a tortilla with amaranth seeds, veganaise, red onion and spinich leaves. I will probably make it again but we shall see. Also if you don't know what amaranth seeds are, you should check them out at your local health food store. If you are in Wichita the only place I could find them was at Whole Foods. They apparently have the highest protein content of any grain. They taste pretty much like rice... so check them out!

Day 4

Well day 4 is over and what a day it was. I think I tend to be a stress eater and today was stressful. We had a lot of drama at work and all I wanted was a burger! Why you may ask? Because burgers make everything better. Anyway, I didn't find myself hungry really or struggling to not cheat. I just had a really bad craving for grease and cheese. I did not give in though so yeah for me! We also had Cubbies at church tonight and the snack was bird's nests (chow mein noodles, peanut butter, marshmallow and robin's eggs). Every time I would walk by them I would smell them (lame I know) because I couldn't have one. I was really, really tempted though. Moving on, here was todays fair:

BREAKFAST

GF Cinnamon raisin bread with vegan butter, blueberries and a banana

LUNCH

Leftover garlic greens, tofu and polenta, carrots with almond butter and corn chips

DINNER

Tamari-glazed tofu wraps with roasted portabello mushrooms, corn and chipotle dressing (recipe below), corn chips

So breakfast and lunch may not be too exciting for a few days because I will be eating leftovers and things. Just wanted you to be aware. The wraps we had for dinner blew my mind they were so good. TRY THEM. Here is the recipe.

TAMARI-GLAZED TOFU WRAPS WITH ROASTED PORTABELLO MUSHROOMS, CORN AND CHIPOTLE DRESSING

for the tofu

2 lb extra firm tofu

1/2 cup oil

2 T honey

Juice of 2 limes

1t sesame oil

Salt and pepper to taste

*Drain and pat the tofu to remove excess water. Let sit for 3 hours.

*Slice into 1/4" pieces.

*Mix all other ingredients in a bowl.

*Place tofu on a baking sheet and cover with marinade.

*Cook at 375 degrees for 25 minutes (flip 1/2 through)

for the mushrooms

5-6 large portabello mushrooms

Salt and Pepper

Garlic salt

Olive oil

*Remove stems and gills from the mushrooms. If they are not sliced, slice lengthwise.

*Brush with oil and sprikle with S&P and garlic salt.

*Place on baking sheet and bake for 10 minutes.

for chipotle dressing

1c vegenaise

2T chipotle seasoning

2T lime juice

*Mix all ingredients together

to assemble wraps

GF tortillas

1 can corn

Shredded romain lettuce

Sliced tomatoes

*Heat tortillas.

*Assemble as followes: Tortilla, mayo, lettuce, tomoato, corn, tofu, mushrooms.

*Fold and enjoy.



Day 3

So today was great. I can feel myself becoming more energized as well as happier. I would be even happier if I had a white chocolate kit kat but that is neither here nor there. So here comes the meals for today:

This is my smiley face breakfast! Two pieces of GF cinnamon raisen bread with vegan butter and a banana.

For Lunch I got to have leftover pizza (again), corn chips and sugar snap peas. We are now officially out of pizza so this wont be showing up agian. Although I didn't really get sick of it.

For dinner we had mushrooms and garlic greens over broiled tofu, polenta and tomatoes with the last of the garlic mashed potatoes. This recipe came straight out of the book so I will put it below because it was YUMMY!

So like I said, today went very well. I didn't really find myself craving much and about mid afternoon I had a bowl of rice chex with honey and soy milk. I did get a chance to weigh myself today and I am happy to say that I am almost down a full pound from when I started!! YEAH! Anyway here is the reciepe for what we had for dinner.

MUSHROOMS AND GARLIC GREENS OVER BROILED POLENTA, TOFU AND TOMATOES

for the mushrooms and greens

1/4 c oil

2 1/2 c sliced mushrooms

1/2 lb spinach greens

2 T chopped garlic

salt and pepper to taste

* saute the mushrooms for 8 minutes or until softened.

*quickly add the greens and garlic and stir at high temp for 3 min or until the greens have wilted and started to seep liquid.

*season with S&P and put aside.

for polenta, tofu and tomatoes

1 pkg prepared polenta

1 lb extra firm tofu

2 large firm tomatoes

4 T olive oil

Fresh chopped rosemary

Salt and pepper to taste

*slice polenta into 8 pieces at 1/2" thickness

*slice tofu lengthwise into 4 pieces at 1/4" thickness

*slice tomatoes into 8 slices

* brush polenta, tofu and tomatoes with olive oil and sprinkle with rosemary and S&P on both sides.

*Lay tofu and polenta on one cookie sheet and tomatoes on another.

*Broil for 7-8 minutes and flip 1/2way through.

*When finished cooking, stack as followes : Tomatoe, Polenta, Tofu and cover with greens and mushrooms. Each person should get two slices and it serves 4.



Day 2

So here is what I had to eat today:

8 grain hot ceral with flaxseed meal, honey and a banana

Mashed potatoes with vegan butter, sour cream and garlic, strawberries, 1/2 banana and sugar snap peas

leftover pizza and sugar snap peas

So I had to work 10 hours today so all of my meals had to travel to work. The pizza was leftover from the other day and it fits the criteria of the diet.

Now this morning I was crazy tired but after eating sunflower seeds continuously between every meal my energy level rose up quite a bit. I found myself trying to come up with a "sugary" snack to have. During my 2 hour break that I came home for, I found a box of Rice Chex in the pantry that is gluten free/vegan and I had a bowl of that with some honey and soy milk. IT WAS GREAT! When I went to the store this afternoon I thought I might look for some "sweet" stuff that would fit in the diet and lo and behold I found this:

ITS VEGAN, SUGAR FREE AND GLUTEN FREE!

It doesn't get much better than this folks!



Ooops... I forgot!

So I kinda forgot to tell everyone exactly what the diet is that we are going on. It is the Quantum Wellness Cleanse. For 21 days you must abstaine from the big 5: Gluten, Sugar, Caffeine, Alcohol and Animal Products.
We decided to try it becuase I read that it helps with digestion issues. So yeah... I am off to work (again) and hopefuly will have time to update tonight on what we ate today.

Day 1

So day one of the 21 day cleanse is over and here is what we had today:

BREAKFAST

Cinnamon raisin bread with butter, 1/2 gala apple, blueberries, strawberries and orange juice

LUNCH

Veggie fried rice with gluten free sauce and brown rice from Zen Vegitarian Cuisine on north 21st St.

DINNER

BLT with veganise, guacamole amd corn chips.

All in all it went pretty well today. I found it hard when I wanted to snack and a few times I tossed something in my mouth out of habit without thinking about it. We shall see how it goes tomorrow.

Prep work

As I was cleaning out the fridge I noticed some potatoes that where about to expire. I decided I should cook them and make some mashed potatoes for dinner tomorrow.

Baby golden potatoes
Minced garlic
Earthbalance butter
Tofutti sour cream

They tasted great! I was pleasantly surprise that the sour cream really tasted like sour cream!

I also decided that we would try to cook something that fits the diet for dinner even though it didn't count toward the 21 days. I made a veggie pizza for dinner and it was also verry yummy!

Arrowhead Mills pizza crust
Mezzetta Arrabbiata sauce
Soysation shredded cheese
Black olives
Onion
White mushrooms

The only problem with the pizza was that the sauce was incredibly spicy. It tasted amazing, but Korbin couldn't eat it because it was so hot. This recipe made two pizzas so I put one in the fridge for later in the week and we ate an entire one for dinner. Also I would let you know that the pizza crust is one you have to make yourself so be aware that since it is gluten free you need rice flour when you knead it! I didn't have any so I ended up using regular flour. Yes I know that added gluten but I didn't really have a choice at that point. I was also surprised as to how much the "cheese' tasted like cheese. In this setting everyting worked great!

Food For Thought

Well we did all our shopping today for the upcoming week. First we went to Food For Thought  and this was our haul:

Food For Life Tortillas ($3.39), Guinoa spagetti noodles ($1.99), Lightlife Smart Ground ($3.49), Tofuttie Cream Cheese and Sour Cream ($2.59 & $2.89), Earthbalance butter ($4.19), Soysation shredded cheese ($1.99), Tempeh maple bacon ($3.65), Soy Dream ($2.79), Follow Your Heart Veganaise ($4.99), Tree of Life Tamari ($2.49), Nutritional yeast flakes ($3.31), Mezzetta Arrabbata ($5.35), Bob's Red Mill flaxseed meal ($4.09), Hodgson Mill multigrain cereal ($1.59), Arrowhead Mills pizza crust ($1.99), Udis whole grain bread ($3.89) and The Grainless Bake cinnamon raisin bread ($8.09).

So I feel like I did really well here. Everything was insanely cheaper than I had seen at Dillons Marketplace. I will say that the only reason I bought $8 bread was that I wasn't paying attention when he scanned it and I thought I had grabbed the one that was on sale for $3.69. Oh well! A few of the items I got are not what I expected. The Multigrain Ceral and the Fakon (fake bacon) are both not gluten free. But it is inevitable that mistakes are going to happen. I am still going to eat them I will just try and be a little more conscience.

So after the health food store we headed to Dillons Marketplace to pick up some produce:

Firm Tofu ($1.79), White mushrooms ($2.00), Chipotle seasoning ($3.95), Blackened seasoning ($3.09), Island fruit leather ($0.49), Almonds ($2.50), Blueberries ($3.99), Portabello mushrooms ($3.99), Rasperries ($3.99), Strawberries ($2.50), Asparagus ($3.62), Avacodo ($1.49), Yellow squash ($0.70), Zucchini ($0.70), Sugar snap peas ($2.99), Spinach ($1.89), White onions ($2.99), Garlic ($0.59), Tomatoes ($2.99/lb), Jalepenos ($1.48/lb), Lemons ($0.59), Limes ($0.50), Red onions ($1.09/lb), Bananas ($0.56/lb), Carrots ($1.50), Polenta ($3.99), Eggplant ($3.49), Broccoli ($1.78/lb), Lettuce ($1.88), Baby potatoes ($2.99), Cilantro ($0.99)

I think we might have gotten a better deal on some of this produce at Wal-Mart but at least I got everything (almost) on my list. So the total for shopping this week is (with tax) $192.76. This may seem like a lot for a week but in reality, a lot of these items are staples that I won't have to pick up again during the cleanse.

So since I was adding all this new stuff to the fridge, I decided I needed to clean it out and throw away everything that would go bad before the cleanse is over. Here is what I threw away: 

Crab meat, pepperjack cheese, laughing cow cheese, deli turkey, heavy whipping cream, ketchup, parmesean cheese, apagetti sauce, Mayo and some herb flatbread. The crab would have stayed good, however, I LOVE crab and I didn't want to tempt myself.



So there goes the finals in the shopping wars! I do a few more things to pick up tomorrow but other than that I ready to go!

The Accidental Shopping Trip

So I hadn't planned on grocery shopping today, but alas I did pick up a few things while I was at Dillons. So I went to get cake mix for some cake balls I am making for a baby shower tomorrow. Lo and behold, across the aisle was the gluten free section so I picked up these gems:

Walden Farms Salad Dressing in Ranch and Honey Dijon
Whole Soy & Co Strawberry Yogurt
Veggie Tortillas

I was really excited about my finds until I got home and discovered that the sugar content in the yogurt was insane. Since I can't have sugar during the cleanse, I guess that means no yogurt for me. I will say it was my first time trying soy yogurt and I quite liked it. I imagine the vanilla would be amazing! I wonder if I can find a coupon for this and buy it when the cleanse is over.
I also discovered that the veggie tortillas were not actually gluten free so I will be returning them tomorrow. This actually makes me kinda happy because I saw some in the freezer section that were gluten free.
So now lets go over what I paid for everything, because everyone wants to know how much more expensive it is to eat this way. I feel it is my job to tell you. Keep in mind all prices are without tax.

Walden Farm Ranch                $3.99
Walden Farm Honey Dijon      $3.99
Whole Soy Yogurt                   $0.99

So the salad dressing was more than I wanted to pay but we eat a lot of salads and so I consider it an investment.

Well that is all for now, I make another (large) shopping trip tomorrow and we shall see how that goes. Wish me luck!

The Dealio

So what exactly does an average American family eat you may ask? Chips, soda, fast food and ice cream oh my! At least that is what doctors and the media would have you believe. I beg to differ! I wanted to start a blog to show everyone that sure we eat junk every once in awhile and we may go to McDonald's when we are in a hurry (who doesn't?) but it is possible for an average, middle american family to eat nutritious meals and sit down together at least 5 days out of the week to share those meals.

A large portion of American family have forgotten the importance of family time. I believe that every family should share their meals together and it is the Parent's job to make sure that their children are getting good things to eat. "Good thing's" doesn't mean only fruits and veggies. I don't know about you but I think a corndog is a pretty "good thing" to eat! So sit back relax and I hope you enjoy. I will be including recipes and pictures because frankly it isn't interesting if I don't and hopefully someone can look at this and say "My family is the most important thing in my life and I should make time for them."