Day 9- The best part of cooler 1 in the fall is the SOUP!!!

Well I am happy to report that apparently ranting to the universe pays off because this morning when I got on my scale FINALLY I lost some weight! Thus began a great day :)  Well pretty much nothing can tarnish Wednesdays in my view since I only teach 2 periods in the morning (yes I am only 68%) so that means I do have time off school.  Today after school I rushed to the yoga studio and did a hot class, then browsed the Chapters looking for some cute Halloween books for my kids, then it was back home for some lunch. After a very late lunch I got to go on a fantastic bike ride because the weather was absolutely perfect for it!  I rode up North of my place and the fall leaves are just stunning, yes the route north is uphill, but damn if it isn't worth the ride to see the sights. Plus what goes up must come down, my ride back home was easy-peasy.  Did I mention the temp was in the 20's!!!! So yes today was awesome!  So anyway here are my eats...

Breakfast
1/2 cup GF oats
3 tbsp hemp hearts
1tbps almond butter
1 tbsp ground flax
4 strawberries
unsweetened almond milk
water
decaf coffee with soy milk (because that's what they have at Strabucks- I know I'm working towards quitting)

Snack
3/4 of an orange pepper
2 cups of carrot ginger chick pea soup
water

Lunch: (this was slightly warmed up)
can of tuna (low sodium)
1/2 cup of salsa
1 large tomato diced
water
decaf coffee with unsweetened almond milk

snack (before bike ride)
brown rice cake (lundenburg)
water

Diner:
tomato tempeh soup drizzled with olive oil
green juice (collards, zucchini, 1/2 lemon, 1/2 apple, 2 carrots, 3 green tomatoes and mint)
water
tea with almond milk

Ok so yes tomato soup with tempeh is strange... but it worked because it's all blended up together!  And come on who doesn't like, tomatoes, garlic, basil and olive oil???? 

I sort of just threw a bunch of tomatoes from our garden about 7 or 8 in a pot
with a jar of Mark's tomato's sauce
lots of garlic
1 onion
1 carrot
some broccoli stems
about 2/3 of a pack of tempeh (plain, no salt, no flavour)
some dried basil and parsley
a dash of cinnamon
water

Veggie Pulp Crackers

So again I was juicing today, basically to empty out the fridge of the veggies that were starting to go bad.  It was either juice or make soup.  And usually I just compost the pulp but today I was feeling the need to experiment.  Of course I didn't record my ingredient amouts... intuitive baking has it's drawbacks, but I can tell you how I created mine.  And know that anything goes here. Crackers are crunchy so you don't want to add egg, you will need oil to help bind everything and of course some type of flour, or you will pretty much end up with veggie leather! 

Here is the juice that I made: I used a cucumber, celery, spinach, apple, lemon, carrot, zucchini and a bit of ginger.

Ingredients: (again you have to be able to play around here)

• veggie and fruit pulp left over from juicing 
• half an avocado (because I figured the dough needed some healthy fats)
• flax seeds (every good cracker has them right?)
• coconut oil (melted, about 2tbsp)
• a splash of agave
• italian herbs
• arrowroot flour (or any other type you want) I was going for GF
• a tiny bit of baking soda

 Directions:

So basically I mashed the avocado into the pulp, added the flax seeds, oil and agave.  I mixed all the wet ingredients first.  Then combined the dry ones separately and then added them to the mixture. It's important to tell you here that I have no idea how much flour I actually added. I was adding it mostly till I got a dough consistency.  Which means I did have to add a bit after I had pre-mixed the original dry ingredients.  Next I flattened out the mixture on the parchment lined baking sheets. I tried to make it as thin as possible, but even so, some places were thicker than others, to deal with this, I basically cut the thin pieces out of the pan and put the thick ones back in for longer cooking time.  I had the oven at 350F and initially put them in for about 15 minutes.  This wasn't nearly long enough, so I basically stood around the oven, cutting out the crispy pieces and putting the rest back in the oven until the whole lot was nice and crunchy.  I had two cookie sheets full.

At first I tried to press the batter onto the cookie sheet with my hand but soon realized I needed to find a much better way to flatten this out.  So I added a sheet of parchment paper on top and pressed it in this way. 

Pressed and rolled with a cup (sure a rolling pin would work too)

Very flat and very thin. And Green!!!!

They baked.  And the parchment just peels right off!  easy peasy!

Cooling off on rack before putting them away. 

Pretty thin :)

Crackers topped with plain greek fat free yogourt, cucs and cherry tomato.

Crackers topped with almond butter and sliced strawberry.  Yum!

Juicing my cold away!

Well Friday night I could feel some slight sniffle coming on, but like in the past I've been able to fight it off, however... this time the stupid bug caught me.  Pesky little bugger!  My morning wasn't too bad, I took some tylenol with my oatmeal and eggs and brought Annaliese to her gymnastics.  I was still surviving pretty well until we put the kids down for their nap.. and bang!!! I was hit.  I had a spinach protein smoothy for my lunch and took a nap.  I was still feeling pretty crappy so I just hung out in bed for most of the day...Sigh!!!! Why is it as a mom the only time I get to be lazy is when I'm really sick, ps my insides had also turned to water.. and I was having major cramping... I hoped this wasn't the beginning of a flu bug, because I also had a headache.  So at this point I ramped up my defenses' by adding loads of squeezed lemon in my water and making green juice to sip on.  I also had some tuna and cherry tomatoes for diner. 

A good night sleep and MAGIC!!!!

Today other than a funny voice and a little runny nose, I feel really good.  Here is how I made my green juice.

Ingredients: 1/2 english cuc., 1 apple, 1 lemon, 7 stalks of celery, a bunch of kale.

I quarter my apple and it goes in seeds and all.

Same with the lemon, peel and all!

This is the pulp after running it all through the juicer once.  I will run it through again!

The pulp and the juice left from all those lovely greens and fruit.

Take that Cold!!!!  

And just in case you don't think it tastes good!!!  Check this out. 

OOoohhhh Yah!!!  That's my boy.   He loves it!

Green Juice is back!!!

Just look at that gorgeous colour!!!  That my friends is 2 romain hearts, 3 celery stalk, a handful of kale leaves with stalks and a whole lemon (peal and all)... I know... weird right! well it's how it's done in the juicing world so... be it.  I dusted off the juicer today because eating salad today was getting on my nerves, I am tiered of so many veggies in one day.  Seriously I know it's good for me but 12-14 handfuls of veggies????


 I have to admit that cooler plan 1 is tough, not stupid hard.. mostly just annoying.  I want healthy food that I'm used to like peanut butter, berries and avocados, but they aren't in the plan for the next 11 days.. oh yes by the way. I have survived 3 days.  Headaches, cravings, basic detox (well not completely I haven't given up caffeine) but still pretty intense.  I've continued at the gym even though I haven't had my usual energy, I can feel a cold coming on. You know when your neck glands swell up?  and it hurts to swallow in the morning and before bed! Ya that.  Hopefully I can avoid the full on cold though!  Sleep is something in this equation that I am not getting enough of.  Patrick is waking up, because he doesn't like having a wet diaper and the baby is waking up to nurse!  Yay party time in our house at 4 am every day!

Well I'll leave you with a photo of my green juice, in my starbucks cup, with ice and lemon wedges and my cup of tuna (low sodium, jardiniere spice, a small celery, a few cherry tomatoes and a spray of lemon).  Yes this is pretty much what I'm eating a few times a day.  Not the tuna a few times a day but 4 meals with protein and veggies only!  The other two I can have 1 serving of grains and 1 fist sized sweet potato.  But the main point is that you basically eliminate most of the sugar (either fruit based, refined or unrefined)... no sugar and the only oils are from hemp (but I think ones like olive or pumpkin or walnut would be ok) but no more than 4 tbsp a day or less. 

Please direct your prayers my way... thank you... I am in need of strength and will power :D