WIAW- Back On Track

Crowd gathering in Marquette, MI to see the fireworks over Lake Superior. Photo courtesy of PhotoYoop.

Hope you all had a great Independence or Canada Day weekend! Ours was spent full of sunshine, beach time, spontaneous BBQs with friends, visiting on front porches, and mountain biking. It turned out to be the best weekend of the summer, so far! 

This long holiday weekend was on the heels of a week long camping trip with my family on Lake Michigan. Needless to say, I've been enjoying my summer break from work. As the celebrations continued, I noticed more and more that my eating habits had changed.... more pizza, more bread, cheese, desserts, and drinks. I'm not an all-or-nothing kind of person and occasionally make allowances for "unhealthy" food choices, but when they all started adding up I realized that I wasn't feeling the energy, vibrancy, and overall sense of well-being that I have when I'm eating the way my body wants me to. Talking to my husband about this the other day, I realized that this feeling- sluggish, upset guts, itchy skin- was NORMAL to me in college. I didn't know then how dramatically different my life could be with a healthy diet. When you're feeling the effects of healthy eating, its easy to forget what it was like before. These last couple weeks have been a wonderful reminder of why I nourish my body with food that makes my cells happy and a cue to get back on track.

So, this week I'm focusing on getting back on track. I even convinced a couple friends to try it for a while too. I've heard this diet called the Paleo diet, or the Innate diet.... but in reality, its not a "diet" at all. Its about eating food that your body was intended to eat, and not eating food that it wasn't intended to eat. Its about lots of veggies, fruit, some sustainably raised meat, some nuts, some seeds. Its not about processed foods, dairy, grains, or refined sugar. Its about feeling amazing, a life of vibrancy, energy, clear skin, and a dramatically improved sense of well-being. Try it for a week or two, see what happens! If you try it, let me know how it goes for you!

That leads me to this week's What I Ate Wednesday, hosted by Jenn at Peas and Crayons.

There was tea, and a beautiful reminder to love myself today...

Breakfast was a veggie and egg scramble: greens from our CSA, broccoli from our CSA, bell peppers, artichokes, and homemade pesto, with a side of cantaloupe.  

  

We try to eat outside as much as possible in the summer. Everything tastes better in the sunshine!

Lunch was homemade chicken salad (grilled chicken, organic mayo, almond slices, red onion, celery, lots of fresh dill, celery seed, salt, and pepper) on a bed of fresh greens. 

A little later I had a snack: an apple dipped in almond butter with cinnamon and vanilla.

(Do you see my tomato plants back there?! My cilantro bolted, but I think I'm so-far-so-good on the tomatoes. Still keeping my fingers crossed for the rest of the veggies!

We still had quite a lot of veggies left from our CSA and a few of them looked liked they had a short shelf life. I threw everything into a pan and made Thai red curry, served over quinoa. 

 Braising greens, broccoli, bok choy, and hemp seeds in a Thai red curry broth with quinoa.

What are you doing to get back on track after the long weekend?

WIAW: Spicy Black Bean Burgers and Cilantro-Lime Cabbage Slaw

What a beautiful sunrise to wake up to! I feel so blessed to be two blocks from this amazing view!

  

Its Wednesday, and you know what that means...

Thanks Jenn!

My day started out amazing all around. My husband made coffee before he left for work, so I came downstairs to a cuppa java (not pictured).

If you've been following along, you may have read that things had been getting pretty stressful for me. Things have completely calmed down and I'm enjoying summer, fresh lilacs blooming next to our deck, and those beautiful sunrises!

After my cup of coffee, I visited with a friend and her new baby. We shared Leanne's Strawberry-Cinnamon Shortcake Sandwiches. I made the coconut cream, but cheated on the strawberry filling. I just marinated fresh strawberries in a little bit of sweetener, lemon juice, and a touch of balsamic vinegar. My picture didn't turn out as pretty as hers, but they tasted amazing. A++. 

In the afternoon, I made some fridge-pickles. These are patiently sitting in the back of my fridge. Keep your fingers crossed, this was my first time making them!

 I seem to have been on a roll with Leanne's recipes. I made a HUGE batch of her Vegan Sour Cream and Chive Kale Chips. I used a leek instead of the chives because thats what I had, and I just skipped her version of "bacon" all together. Oh my gosh. This took my love of kale chips to a whole new level. I ate them all in one sitting. That's two large batches of kale. For lunch. 

For dinner we had Spicy Black Bean Burgers, topped with freshly sprouted clover seed, avocado, and Cilantro-Lime Cabbage Slaw on Un-Muffins.

The un-muffins weren't really working for me as a sandwich bun, but my husband gave it a thumbs up. I ended up eating mine open faced, with just one half of the un-muffin. I think I'll need to work on coming up with something a little less dense for next time.

 Spicy Black Bean Burgers:

1 can black beans, drained and rinsed

1/2 bell pepper, chopped

1/2 onion, chopped

3 garlic cloves, peeled

1 egg

1 tbsp chili powder

1tbsp cumin

1 teas hot sauce

1/2 cup almond flour**

In medium bowl, mash beans with fork (or hands) until thick and pasty and most beans are mostly mashed. In food processor, finely chop bell pepper, onion, and garlic (careful not to over-process, you want it to still be kinda chunky). Add to the beans. In small bowl, stir together egg, cumin, chili powder and hot sauce. Stir egg mixture into beans. Mix in almond flour until mixture is sticky and holds together. Divide mixture into four parts, forming burgers with your hands. 

Grill or cook burgers (375 degrees for 8-10 minutes on each side).

These burgers hold together better if they are frozen first. No need to thaw before cooking.

**almond flour can easily be substituted for any type GF flour or GF bread crumbs. You may need to alter the amount slightly until you get a consistency that is sticky and will hold together to form patties.

Cilantro-Lime Cabbage Slaw:

1/2 head red cabbage, chopped

2 carrots, shredded

1 jalapeno, seeded and chopped

1/2 bunch cilantro

1 heaping tbsp tahini

2 tbsp mayo or veganaise

2 tbsp apple cider vinegar

1 tbsp lime juice

Combine chopped cabbage and shredded carrots in a bowl. In food processor or blender, combine jalapeno, cilantro, tahini, mayo, vinegar, and lime juice. Add contents of blender to cabbage/carrot. Best if marinated for 2 hours, serve chilled. 

I topped my burger with red clover seeds that I had just sprouted, avocado, and the cabbage slaw and had a little more on the side. Such a good combination!

These recipes were included in Slightly Indulgent Tuesday.

WIAW and My Baby Birds Update!

 Its time again for another What I Ate Wednesday!

Thanks Jenn at Peas and Crayons!

As with most days, I started out having a cup of hot tea. Today I had a special Therapeutic Organic Tea that was VERY THOUGHTFULLY given to me by a friend (thanks Kristina! wink wink)

 

For a quick breakfast, I crumbled up my version of Gluten Free and Vegan Cherry Vanilla Power Bars from Elana's Pantry.

They turned out just so-so, but I think that was probably due to the changes I made in the original recipe, but hey... gotta work with what you got! 

As has been standard lately, there were a handful of almonds involved in my day, and also half of a grapefruit. 

For lunch I had a salad of mixed greens, shredded carrot, cucumber, red onion, Holy Land brand falafel balls, and a whipped up recipe of white miso, tahini, and olive oil, topped with a little bit of humus. 

I wasn't very impressed with the Holy Land falafel, but in their defense it was close to the expiration date when I ate them. Either way, they were pretty dried out. I think I'm going to have to make some fresh falafel soon!

 When I got home from work, I made another Carrot Cake Smoothie. 

Dinner was grilled chicken, marinated in a homemade tequila-lime sauce, with grilled asparagus. Can I just say that I LOVE asparagus season. We got some at the farmer's market last weekend. I just dont think I could ever get sick of it!

 Had some of this after dinner, sitting on the back deck as the sun was setting. Great, great, grateful day!

Oh! And an update on our baby birds! 

The window on our front door, where the bird's nest is, looks right into our living room. Its been fun to see the mama-bird sitting on the eggs, and then watching as the birds hatched, and now watching the mama-bird feed the babies. We got a glimpse of the dad-bird the other day and are pretty sure they're House Finches.

This is a picture I took from INSIDE my house, looking out through the glass door that the wreath is attached to. Aren't they cute?!

Hope you are all having a happy, grateful, Wednesday!