Building Blocks

So I’m not one for salad dressing, I just always eat my salads without it, but I want to eat salad more often now that spring/ summer is here and I’ll be able to buy a plethora of fresh veggies from the farmers market. This idea kinda started out as a breakfast smoothie, but after I started throwing random things into the blender I realized how great it would taste on top of any salad.  Plus, it’s made entirely out of fruits and roots, so there is no oil or anything to worry about!

Lemon Beet Salad Dressing

Ingredients

1/3 cup sliced, canned beets (drained)

1 gala apple

1 lemon

1/2 avocado

Instructions

1. Wash and cut fruits as necessary

2. blend

Makes about 3 large servings, and you may need to stir it up if you dont use all of it at once. It has a wonderful sweet-lemon flavor and is a beautiful rich purple color from the beets. I put it with Craisins, avocado (I’m borderline addicted to these, as you may notice), grilled chicken on a bed of kale and mixed greens. 

Breakfast: Apple and oatmeal

Lunch: BBQ Grilled Chicken Salad

Dinner: Carrots with Artichoke and Spinach Hummus, grilled chicken, frozen peas

I’m going to start posting only if I have an interesting recipe to share. I already track everything I eat in a notebook, so this is actually more work for me haha. Hope everyone had a lovely day!

Alright guys, I made it 2 whole days without eating anything that was bad for me (which is more than I can say about the past couple months)! I went home for Mother’s Day, so my eating was all over the place, but I ate completely safe except for a slice of mozzarella cheese! I may or may not be addicted to that stuff, but I figured if I had one slice there, I would be less likely to buy an entire pizza here to fill the same cheesy craving. Here at school, its easier to eat well because I only buy things I can safely eat (or my housemate does things to motivate me, like block me from the cheese isle in Kroger), and I would feel bad about eating my housemate’s food. But at home, it’s a free for all. The food belongs to everyone equally, and there are chips and cheese to make nachos, and graham crackers and chocolate candies, but I really want to do this, so I’m glad I was able to hold out. Still searching for replacement recipes for things like safe cinnamon rolls, graham crackers, mac n’ cheese. I’ll work on that a little later

Breakfast: Apple and Raisins

Nothing fancy here, folks! Straight up ate an apple and a handful of raisins.

Lunch: Mash Noodles

I’m going to suggest not making this in a large batch. It was purely experimental, but it’s kinda gross after 1 day. Maybe it would have been better had I not pulverized it in a food processor. I think it’s a large volume of food to eat with a very distinct texture, and it might be better to mix it up by leaving things whole and treating it more like a pasta salad.

Dinner: Greek Salad, Quinoa, Amaranth & Peppers, Sweet Potato, Mashed Potatoes

Okay, so it looks like a lot, but we just made a lot of good food and had very small portions of each thing. 

Greek Salad

Ingredients

1/2 cup garbanzo beans

handful cherry tomatoes

1/2 cup beets

1/2 cup sliced cucumber

1 1/2 cups spring mix lettuce

Instructions 

1. Wash lettuce and veggies and cut to desired size

2. Drain and rinse beans

3. Combine everything in a bowl

Quinoa, Amaranth & Peppers

Ingredients:

1 cup quinoa

1/2 cup amaranth

2 red bell peppers

lemon juice

Instructions:

1. Bring +3 cups water to a boil and add quinoa and amaranth. Let simmer for ~40 or until grains have absorbed all of the liquid

2. While that’s cooking, wash and cut red peppers into small pieces, and cut lemon juice

3. Serve quinoa and amaranth together, and add as much lemon juice and bell peppers as you would like. (I prefer it very veggie heavy :) ) 

Mashed Potatoes

Ingredients:

yukon golds

chicken broth

Instructions

1. Boil potatoes in broth until completely cooked

2. Mash potatoes with a fork/ masher

Dessert: Black Cherry Sorbet

Breakfast:  Oatmeal with berries

Ingredients

1/2 cup whole oats

handful berries of choice (I used strawberries) 

pinch of cinnamon

Instructions

1. Boil 1 cup water and add oatmeal. Turn heat down and cook until oatmeal is completely done

2. Wash and cut up strawberries and combine with oatmeal and cinnamon in a bowl

Lunch: Mash Noodles

This was my attempt at making a bowl of vegan mac’n’cheese. It doesn’t quite look or taste anything like mac’n’cheese, but it’s pretty good regardless. 

Ingredients

1 can northern beans

1 can artichoke hearts

1 avocado

1 head cauliflower

handful grape tomatoes

garlic powder

pepper

1 bag pasta (I used Dellalos gluten-free shells; made of brown rice)

3 cups frozen peas

Instructions

1. Rinse and cut the florets off the head of cauliflower, place into boilding water and cook for 6 minutes. Drain water and place into a bowl and set aside

2. Boil water and cook pasta, and while that’s cooking…

3. Open and drain the artichoke hearts, then add to a food processor along with the avocado (pit and skin removed), the can of northern beans, and the cooked cauliflower

4. Slice grape tomatoes and combine with peas and sauce. Season as is needed

5. Once the noodles are done cooking, drain and combine with the sauce

(makes 5 servings)

Dinner: Mash Noodles

Something you’ll probably notice that I repeat meals a lot. I’d rather have a meal that takes awhile to prepare but has lots of leftovers that I can just grab later, than lots of little meals that take some prep before every meal. It makes it easier for when you’re on the go and just grab a whole meal and a fork out of the fridge. It’s cheaper too!

Today starts my adventure! Really listening to my body and eating the way that I should! I’m not counting calories or anything, just making sure that I eat enough each day, and according to the rules that my body has set out (food-allergies and IBS).

I’ll start out writing recipes but once I repeat them I’ll just provide a link to where I got them/ originally posted them. I am in no way qualified to provide nutritionally balanced meals, merely meals that appeal to me and attempt to provide as many nutrients as possible.  Leggo!

Breakfast:  Smoothie

Ingredients

1 Gala apple

2 cups Kale

1 cup cucumber

1 Navel orange

8 oz. green tea (can always add more water)

2 tbs chia seeds/ flax powder

4 large strawberries

Instructions

1. Brew green tea ahead of time, putting 2 tea bags into 8 oz of water. Put in the fridge to cool (I left mine in overnight) 

2. Roughly chop apple, cucumber, orange, and strawberries

3. Put everything into a blender and blend until smooth 

4. Separate into 2 servings, refrigerate one for later

Lunch:  BBQ Chicken Sandwich 

Ingredients

1 loaf gluten-free bread (I eat Ener-G Tapioca Bread, found at Kroger in the natural foods section)

6 chicken-thighs (would work with chicken breasts too) 

2 tbsp olive oil

1/3 cup white vinegar

1/2 tsp garlic powder

2 Hass avocados 

6 tbsp Sweet Baby Rays BBQ sauce (or sauce of choice)

Instructions

1. Marinate chicken thighs for 3 hours in a Ziploc bag with olive oil, vinegar and garlic powder

2. Grill chicken thighs until fully cooked

3. Toast bread (optional, but adds to the structure of the sandwich)

4. Per sandwich: put 1/3 of an avocado on one piece of bread, and 1 tbsp of BBQ sauce on another. Place chicken on BBQ side and put the two slices together

Eat with a side of 1/2 cup beets and a handful of carrots to add more veggies!

Dinner:  Turkey Salad

Ingredients

2 cups Spring Mix lettuce

handful cherry tomatoes

2 slices of thick cut turkey sandwich meat (I use Oscar Mayer Cutting Board smoked turkey)

1/3 cup Craisins

1/2 avocado

Instructions:

1. Wash the spring mix and place into a bowl

2. Cut avocado into cubes, and turkey meat into small squares

3. Throw everything on your lettuce and enjoy 

(Bonus: make many at the same time and store them in mason jars to grab later! Future Sarah always thanks me when I do this :)  Tipped on it’s side, fill the jar 1/2 with Spring Mix (vertically), then toss in other ingredients on the other side. Helps to keep the salad mixed up so you can enjoy as many flavors in 1 bite as you’d like.)

I’ll work on adding pictures to my recipes later!