Day 12...Clean Eating

Today was a much better day! You were all so supportive of my set backs. I really appreciate your kind words and suggestions on future issues with solutions. What would I do without you? I shutter to think about it. :)

I was able to spend some great time with my friend, Lisa, and together we went to CPK and had a yummy chicken club salad and NO diet coke. Lisa is diet coke free now too. It's not easy, but we are supporting each other and that makes is an easier pill to swallow. 

CPK Chicken Club Salad with beets and ranch dressing. 

The day went by pretty fast, as it always does when Lisa and I get together. We had a great lunch, chatted it up and then I went to physical therapy. That takes 2 hours so by the time I got home it was time to start cooking dinner.   Tonight was Italian sausage, roasted summer squash, brown rice pasta and homemade pesto sauce.  I got a little heavy handed with the fresh garlic cloves for the pesto and ended up having to counter it with avocado, then marscapone. Nothing really tamed it, so it was a very rough condiment for my pasta. My mouth still smells like garlic. Of course, I was the only one to attempted to taste it. Oh well, live and learn. This was another time where Chopped helped me to try different things to counter the bitterness. But, when you use almost a whole garlic head in your sauce, no TV shows will help you. 

Italian sausage, roasted summer squash & brown rice pasta.

After making dinner, I decided I was going to try my luck at ice cream again.  The kids didn't like my  first batch since I used coconut milk with chocolate, so I decided to make vanilla ice cream with almond milk, vanilla extract & agave. The mixture tasted pretty good, but I haven't tasted the finished product yet. 

Vanilla ice cream in the making. 

 I've been reading up on lots of recipes and ideas for keeping my cooking fun for me and tasty for my family. In my readings, I've learned that I'm really not doing Paleo because I eat dairy and GF grains, so I decided to refer to my way of eating as plain old clean eating. Trying to stay away from foods with a barcode, except for dairy. It really isn't changing anything about what I am doing except for what I call it. Just wanted to share my findings. I know it may not be pure clean eating either, but I am learning as I go and creating my own as I go with only our health in mind.  

I have to say that Mikey is already showing signs of clean living. His body is changing right in front of my eyes. Yes, he is tall. Yes, he is stalky.  But he is now sliming down and looking good. I know he feels good too. He doesn't love this way of eating, but he is doing it. He just needed me to be strong and enforce it, to not give in to fast food and processed snacks. I am finally doing what I should have been doing all along for him.   I know I talk a lot about what he likes and doesn't like, but that is just because Mackenzie is very happy about this way of eating. She has always tried to be a good eater and couldn't understand our poor choices in the past. Now, she is excited to have it in the house as a rule, not an exception. 

Thank you so much for being there for me. I hope, one day, that I can return the favor.

Until tomorrow,

Angela