Clean Eating (ish) BBT Pasta

So I'm not quite sure what the deal with pasta is. Is it clean? Is it not? Some people say whole wheat pasta is fine, some people only eat rice noodles, some people use gluten-free. You know what I did? Bought the cheapest out of those 3 options- which happened to be the gluten free version. I recognized all the ingredients so I figured what the hey, why not give it a shot? 

Also I know bacon isn't necessarily clean but it's paleo right? I try to stick to 80/20 (clean/not clean) so it fit into my week perfectly.

Ok and can we just talk about something? I've been cooking clean for almost a year now. Which means Harrison has only eaten clean dinners for almost a year. There have been maybe 3 times that he (ok we) hated the dish- 3 out of probably 300 is a pretty good average - yet every single time he is super skeptical and all like "ok I mean I'll try this to be nice" and 5 minutes later this man has eaten 5 servings. This was one of those meals.

The Sauce (adapted from PPK)

• 1 cup cashews, soaked in water for at least 2 hours
• 1 cup natural chicken broth
• 3 tablespoons nutritional yeast flakes (ordered mine on Amazon!)
• Fresh lemon juice of one lemon
• 2 teaspoons dijon mustard
• 2 teaspoons onion powder
• Salt and pepper to taste

The Pasta:

• 1/2 pack of Pasta Noodles (whatever you feel is best!), cooked
• 3 large tomatoes, diced
• 4 strips turkey bacon, cooked
• 1/4 cup basil leaves, chopped
• salt
• pepper
• garlic powder

Combine all the ingredients for the sauce in a blender and blend. 

Toss all the pasta ingredients together.

En.freaking.joy.

I don't know what about this was so good, maybe it was that I haven't had pasta in almost a year, but it was amazing.

Oh and wedding update: every time Harrison and I set aside time to send out our save the dates we get drunk and get nothing done. Which is fine. But really, we have opposite work schedules and the amount of times we have been to happy hour together in the last 3 years I can count on one hand, yet we have hit one hand worth of happy hours in the last two weeks. But hey, everyone tells us to enjoy our time as an engaged couple so I guess we are just taking their advice to heart? Tonight we went to a new place around the block from my work and Harrison got a fun-sized drink that I couldn't stop laughing about:

Tonight we're going to a wedding food tasting at Main Event Catering, can't wait!

Tell me: Any advice for wedding food tasting? What kind of pasta do you consider clean or DO you consider ANY pasta clean?

Linking up today at Delicious Dish Tuesday

Clean Eating (ish) BBT Pasta

Tuesday, June 10, 2014

Clean Eating Hard-boiled egg and Avocado Salad + HOUSE UPDATE

Ok so if you are like me and your main food groups consist of eggs + anything you can put avocado with, you're going to be veeerrryyy happy with this lil recipe I came up with. I saw something similar on Pinterest but it was loaded with mayonaise (sorry but even the smell of mayo gets me gagging like Mama June)

So here is the maranaise-less egg salad with AVOS!

Servings: 5 (my lunch for the week)
Prep Time: 5 mins + 20 mins-ish to hard boil the eggs
Cook Time: 0

Ingredients:

• 7 Hard-Boiled Eggs ($1.00)
• 3 ripe avocados (mine were pretty small) ($4.00)
• 2 Tablespoons fat-free Greek Yogurt 
• Sea Salt and Pepper to taste

Scoop out the avocados and put them in a bowl. Chop up the hard-boiled eggs and add them to the avocados, add the Greek Yogurt and mix it all up. Add salt and pepper, and that is it. Yes, that is all you have to do to make the most delicious egg salad in the world.

I topped Ezekiel bread with my egg salad and enjoyed a nice lil egg salad lunch every day!

Soooo as far as the house goes there are a few issues (surprise!).

1. We have to be moved out of our current apt by Wednesday (yes tomorrow)
2. Due to freakish May weather, the wood floors took twice as long to dry. And the fact that they put the finish down then couldn't walk on the floor to access the heater to speed the process up...
3. Due to wood floor finish taking a million years to dry, we didn't get painting done.
4. The electrician knocked about 5,000 giant holes in the ceiling then patched them up without smoothing them over. I was like "oh cool I'll just sand them myself and paint over." Yeah not so much. I think they use heavy machinery for that kind of stuff. So, ceiling painting is also not done. 
5. I hate moving.
6. I am mean to everyone right now due to #5
7. I went on a little online shopping binge to cope with #5 and the clothes are not here yet but are getting sent to this apartment. So NOW WHAT!
8. I also did online shopping for curtains, blinds, rugs and they cost A MILLION DOLLARS???? Where do you buy your stuff like this?!? HAYLP!

BUT! All this being said, it's all good because we have a house to move into! Andi has a yard to run around in tomorrow! We'll have a bed to sleep in! This whole process has been one big learning experience for me to understand that I can't always get my way, and when I don't life still goes on, and it goes on surprisingly smoothly.

More smoothly than Jay-z and Solange's Met Gala Afterparty. <--can we just talk about this? What is going on with my dream couple and my hair goddess? Anyone have any ideas?? Is the perfect couple not so perfect after all??

Anyway, back to house stuff. Pix coming tomorrow as we start moving in, until then- where can I buy inexpensive blinds, curtains, rugs, etc? Why is it 10x more than it should cost???

And don't forget about Women's Health Month! The infograph of the day- Healthy Eating:

Hope everyone has a great Tuesday, and please leave a comment about where to buy curtains, blinds, rugs, house stuff!

Linking up today at Turn It Up Tuesday, Delicious Dish Tuesday, Tough It Out Tuesday, What We Ate Wednesday

Clean Eating Hard-boiled egg and Avocado Salad + HOUSE UPDATE

Tuesday, May 13, 2014

Red Bean Burgers + Weekend Recap

So whoa the last week has been nuts! I feel like I haven't had a chance to sit down! Thank goodness for food prepping on Sundays because otherwise I would not have had lunch this week! I made these spunky red bean burgers and ate with salads, Greek Yogurt, tomatoes and veggies.

Servings: 6 patties
Prep Time: 15 mins
Cook Time: 15 mins

Ingredients

• 2 cans kidney beans, drained ($2.00)
• 3 garlic cloves, minced
• 2 Tablespoons tomato paste ($.50)
• 1.5 Tablespoons red wine vinegar (balsamic works too)
• 3/4 red onion, minced ($.50)
• 1/4 cup parsley (I used fresh parsley for this one, dried is fine too) ($1.00)
• 1 Tablespoon oregano 
• 1 1/4 cup old fashioned oats ($.50)
• 1 teaspoon sea salt
• 2 Tablespoons red pepper flakes (this made my burgers pretty spicy, definitely lay off the red pepper  flakes if you're not a spicy fan) 

In a medium sized bowl, smash the kidney beans with a spoon until about 3/4 of the beans are completely mush. Add in the garlic, tomato paste and vinegar and mix well. (Sidenote: you can do all this in a food processor too).

Next add the onion, parsley and oregano and mix well. Stir in the oats. Next mix in the salt and red pepper flakes.

Let the mixture cool in the fridge for about 30-45 mins. Once they are cooled, form patties and cook over medium heat in a non-stick pan for 6 minutes on each side.

So this crazy nutso week was jam-packed full of grown up things (sidenote: when did I get this old?)!

Thursday my work had our gala which was sooo fun (hello open bar, live band and fancy finger foods!)- I am really fortunate to have fun co-workers! And how do you like my black silk $4 THRIFT STORE dress I wore?

Harrison cleans up nice right?

And as of Friday Harrison and I OFFICIALLY BOUGHT A HOUSE!! Now we get started on rennovations so we can MOVE IN!!! This is us at closing (I'm sitting in shock that after all we went through to buy a house, the actual closing took 15 minutes of paper signing):

And Harrison got us these custom made keychains for our new house keys (fun fact: I used to run an afterschool program where the name "Lindsay" was too complicated. Kids: "Hey yo Linda!" Me: "It's Ms. Lindsay" Kids: That what I said! Linda come here"- and the nickname has stuck. I hate it but it is kind of endearing):

Then I went home to Richmond for the weekend to try on wedding dresses (EEEE)! This is my friend and MOH Meg, me, and Andi on the roadtrip from DC to Richmond

My mom and some of our friends came along and made these scorecards for the dresses- each card had a ridiculous picture of me on it that either meant yes, no, or maybe.

Andi officially has a crush on my friend's dog who could possibly be her twin brother. Andi and Archie. Has a ring doesn't it? I also learned that my sweet puppy is a shameless flirt, and was a bit mortified at her behavior but hey, the girl knows what she wants!

How was your weekend? What kind of food prep tips can you share for crazy weeks like this??



Linking up today with Monday Morning Gossip, Much Ado About Monday, Weekday Social Media Blog Hop

Red Bean Burgers + Weekend Recap

Monday, March 31, 2014

Clean Eating Chickpea Patties

It's been awhile since a good Taco Tuesday and this was delish. The best part about it was that the leftovers were great for a salad the next day. The chickpea patties were a little crumbly which was no problem since they were going into a taco or a salad. Go Greek! Opa!

Servings: 4 (8 slider-sized patties)
Prep Time: 15 mins
Cook Time: 15 mins

• 1 can chickpeas/garbanzo beans, drained ($.99)
• 1/3 cup oat flour (I put steel cut oats into my blender on "grind" setting to make this. Can be replaced with Garbanzo Bean Flour or Almond Flour)
• 1/4 cup steel cut oats ($.50)
• 1/2 lemon juice ($.50)
• 3 cloves garlic, minced
• 1/4 red onion, minced ($.25)
• 1 Tablespoon Parsley
• 1 teaspoon Sea Salt
• 1 teaspoon black pepper
• 1/3 cup crumbled Feta ($1.00)
• 1 Tablespoon Olive Oil for cooking the patties
• For serving: greeko-de-gallo, additional feta, Ezekiel Tortillas , Greek Yogurt and tzaziki sauce

Pour the garbanzo beans into a food processor, OR heat them up in a bowl for about a minute (this makes them softer) and mash up with a spoon as much as possible. Add the oat flour, oats, lemon juice, garlic, red onion, parsley, sea salt, black pepper and Feta into the bowl with the beans and mix well (or if you have a food processor you can do it in this too).

Form the mixture into patties using your hands- since I wanted to put mine into tortillas I made little slider sized munchkin patties.

Line a frying pan with olive oil and heat over medium heat. Place the patties into the pan, cover, and cook over medium about 5 minutes. Flip and cook another 5 minutes. Check constantly to make sure they aren't burning- this varies based on your stove (gas vs. electric).

And that's it! You're done!

Mashed beans. Looks disgusting. Gets better.

Munchkin Patties!

And the next day you've got this!

Linking up today with Motivation Monday Team- check them out! Lots of great health blogs:

Clean Eating Chickpea Patties

Monday, February 10, 2014

Clean Snacking: Ezekiel Toast with Avocado Sauce, Hummus and Tomatoes

So if you haven't discovered Ezekiel Bread yet, get on it. It's in the freezer aisle of the grocery store- no preservatives, no flour, made with all natural grains and stuff and I actually think it's better than regular bread. So this is a little Sunday snack I had while I was prepping food for the week. Isn't it pretty?

Prep Time: 3 minutes
Cook Time: 1 minute (if you count toasting the bread?)
Servings: 1

Clean Snacking: Ezekiel Toast with Avocado Sauce, Hummus and Tomatoes

Thursday, September 19, 2013

EASY Quinoa & Red Beans That Doubles as CHILI!

Looks just like chili right? Tricked yaaaa haha

I had to laugh as I'm posting this because I really tricked a few people with this one. Soo Monday in about 20 minutes I threw together this red bean and quinoa mix and we had it for supper (and then for lunch the next few days). Thursday, I added leftover ground turkey from Taco Tuesday and some leftover tomato sauce from the Italian Quinoa Bake and the BF said "Whoa when did you have time to make chili?!" And I was like "Oh I found some time..." [evil laughs]. Anyway here's the recipe the Quinoa & Red Beans, as well as Quinoa & Red Beans Part II: Fake Chili.

Part I: Quinoa & Red Beans

Prep Time:5 minutes

Cook Time:20 minutes

Servings: 8 (total)

EASY Quinoa & Red Beans That Doubles as CHILI!

Cooking Quinoa

Part of the reason I like quinoa is because it's so darn easy to cook. I can walk my dog or watch an episode of Teen Mom 3 (I know, I know) or really do anything I want while it essentially cooks itself. Oh and of course the nutritional value make it great blah blah blah- let's be real, I have a total of 20 minutes of free time on weekdays and I'm not trying to spend all of it cooking/burning things. I've heard of frying your quinoa in olive oil before adding the water to add more flavor, but since this clean eating thing makes that a no-no I've set out on a mission to make tastier quinoa without the no-nos. These are a few different ways I have tried (and succeeded at) cooking quinoa to make it tasty.

Important things to note:

• The general rule is 2:1 (Water/broth/juice:Quinoa)
• 1 cup uncooked quinoa = 3 cups cooked quinoa. You can slash/increase using the same ratios. Remember this when you are picking the pot to cook it in- it needs to be big enough to hold 3 x what is in there before you start cooking
• Quinoa doesn't have a whole lot of flavor but it really fills you up. These methods add some flavor. 
• One time the BF felt he couldn't "taste" the quinoa so he kept adding more and more and more to his plate and ended up consuming about 2 cups of quinoa and was REAL uncomfy about 20 minutes later. This stays in your stomach and takes awhile to digest, and really helps make your stomach regular. If you eat too much of it in one sitting it can possibly make your stomach a little TOO regular if you get my drift. But that only happens if you consume tons of it.

Regular Ole Quinoa

• 1 cup uncooked quinoa
• 1.5 cup water

Bring the water to a boil. Once it's boiling, pour it over the quinoa and let it simmer for 20-30 mins or until the water is absorbed. This method maintains the nutty taste and I like using it when I'm making homemade granola/nutty snacks, in desserts, or in salads. This will be drier and less fluffy, if you want it less dry just boil 2 cups of water.



Chicken or Vegetable Broth Quinoa

• 1 cup uncooked quinoa
• 2 cups chicken or vegetable broth
• 1/2 cup water

Add all the stuff to one pan and bring it to a boil. Once it's boiling, turn it down to simmer (low on the stove) and cover for 20-30 minutes or until the quinoa has absorbed the broth and water (it may take longer than the regular methods). This method adds more of a savory/salty taste to the quinoa and covers up the nutty taste and makes it moist and fluffy. Sidenote: moist is top 5 grossest words in the dictionary but I really don't know how else to describe this one.




Tomato Juice Quinoa

• 1 cup uncooked quinoa
• 2 cups tomato juice
• 1/4 cup water

Combine all of it in a pan and bring to a boil. Once it's boiling turn it down to simmer (low on the stove) and cover for 20-30 minutes or until the quinoa has absorbed everything. I use this when I'm adding it to Italian flavored dishes.

Cooking Quinoa

Wednesday, September 11, 2013

CLEAN EATING PIZZA (cauliflower crust)

Did anyone else grow up in wacky Bible belt churches where this happens:
          Pastor: God is good!
          Roaring Crowd: All the time!
          Pastor: GOD IS GOOD!
          Crowd Near Out of Control: ALL THE TIME!!!

K well when I tried this pizza I was a part of that roaring crowd. In fact I was praise dancing down the aisle (the aisle being my galley kitchen) barefoot banging on my tambourine yelling in tongues praising my mighty God who has blessed clean eaters with a CLEAN PIZZA THAT TASTES LIKE REAL PIZZA. Yeah people, LOOK WHAT GOD CAN DO.

My moment was quickly interrupted when BF walked in the door and announced "yo it smells like pizza from the hallway but up close it smells like ass fart." Well cooking cauliflower has been known to smell like ass fart, but soon the other pizza aromas overtook the cauliflower-ass-fart smell and he was able to enjoy the pizza.

Prep Time: 20 minutes
Cook Time: 20 minutes
Servings: 4 pieces (it's a 12" pizza. Good for 2 to share)

Ingredients

• 2 Cups Grated Cauliflower ($4.00/head, 2 cups turned out to be about 1/2 a large head)
• 1 large egg lightly beaten
• 2 cloves garlic, minced
• 1 tsp oregano
• 3/4 cup shredded mozzarella cheese for the crust ($1.50)
•  + 1/3 cup shredded mozzarella ($.50) OR 1/3 cup cottage cheese to be easier on the tummy (shoutout to my fellow lactards!) 
• 1/4 cup tomato sauce ($1.00)
• Whatever clean toppings you want (we used mushrooms, red bell pepper, onion and arugula)

Preheat the oven to 450 degrees. Grate your cauliflower- you can do this with a regular grater, a food processor, or with the Grate setting on the blender. Once you have 2 cups of grated cauliflower dump it onto a paper towel and wrap it up in 2 layers of paper towels and squeeeezzzeee all the water out- this is SO important if you want crispy pizza crust, otherwise the crust is soggy. Once you have squeezed out as much water as possible, combine the dried out grated cauliflower with the egg, garlic and oregano and mix it together. Flatten it out onto a parchment paper covered baking sheet. Put the crust into the oven for 15 minutes. After 15 minutes pull it out, slather (gross word but I can't think of a better way to say it) the tomato sauce onto it, top with the cottage or mozzarella cheese and your toppings of choice. Cook for an 5-10 minutes or until the cheese is melted.

Take it out, cut it up, and praise God. I'm looking into having this ready as a late-night snack after the bars to cut down on my jumbo slice habit. Anyone know how well the cooked crust can store?

Just a head's up- the blender method gets a liiittllle messy

Grated cauli. kinda looks like rice

The dried cauli mixed with egg, garlic and seasonings

Ready to get in the oven and smell like ass fart

Yeah yall. Yeah.

And in case you are unfamiliar with Bible Belt churches and Christian worship pop (WOW Worship anyone?) here's a glimpse into my childhood- I swear someday I'll write a book about my experience at church camp in Dry Gulch, Oklahoma...

CLEAN EATING PIZZA (cauliflower crust)

Wednesday, September 4, 2013

Clean Eating: Fruity Summery Salad

Notice the keyboard in the back? I prepped this and ate it at my desk. #multitasking

So I didn't have time to do my usual Sunday routine of grocery shopping and preparing meals for the week because I had to spend all day at the pool (thanks for the first weekend pool day all summer, Mother Nature) and at night I was too busy losing my ish over this:

Image from http://filmdrunk.uproxx.com/2013/08/ryan-gosling-nsync-vma-gosling-darfur-2005.

 
Sidenote: They aren't reuniting for a tour and I am crushed. All 90 seconds of the VMA reunion was every bit as exciting as when I was in 6th grade and my dad borrowed a rusty limo from a  friend to take my best friend and me to our first concert ever-*N Sync- followed by a drive-through supper at McDonald's. That was a special evening, and so was Sunday's VMAs. Double sidenote: is that Ryan Gossling performing in the bottom corner??!?!

But anway! I've been forced to throw together whatever is in my fridge which has led to the discovery of this delicious fruity salad. And let me just say- I'm not really a salad person. I hate when I say I'm doing clean eating and people send me a million salad recipes. I'm trying to stay full here, people. But this is a good one. Here's the breakdown:

Prep Time: 10 minutes (I threw the ingredients in a bag and did all the prepping at my desk)
Cook Time: 0, it's a salad
Servings: 1 heaping saladful

Ingredients:

• 2 handfuls of spinach
• 3 slices of onion, chopped
• 1 apple, diced
• 1/2 cup grapes, halved
• 1/4 avocado, diced
• 1/8 cup chopped walnuts (or any nuts)
• 1/8 cup craisins
• Balsamic Vinegar 

Throw it all together and toss it with some balsamic vinegar. Holy smokes this is good. Good think there are a full 3 days of summer left for me to enjoy summer salads. Are salads the same as fashion? Like can I eat summer salad in November or is it the same as wearing sundresses in November?

Clean Eating: Fruity Summery Salad

Thursday, August 29, 2013

Clean Eating Taco Salad with Avocado Sauce

Look I LOVE Mexican food. It doesn't matter what kind or what's in it or how clean/dirty the restaurant serving it is- give me some hot sauce and I'll eat the whole thing. So on Sunday I prepped all the ingredients for my taco salad and had pretty much the best week ever (my food plays a big role in how my week goes ok?). This is so easy to make, easy to store for the week, super healthy and filling and completely clean.

Prep Time: 15 mins
Cook Time: 30 mins (for the quinoa)
Servings: 5 (one week's worth of lunches)

For the Taco Salad
Ingredients:

• 1 can black beans ($1.00)
• 2 cloves of garlic minced
• 1 tomato chopped ($1.00)
• 1/4 large onion diced ($.25)
• 1 avocado diced ($1.50)
• 1 head of lettuce or bag of lettuce- I mixed spinach, mixed greens, and arugula ($3.50)
• Small container of fat-free Greek Yogurt ($2.00)
• 1 cup cooked quinoa ($1.00)

Combine beans (undrained), garlic, tomato and onion into a sauce pan and mix together. Cook over medium heat on the stove for 5-10 minutes or until it is aromatic. Store the bean mixture, lettuce, avocado and Greek Yogurt separately. Put it all into a tupperware in the morning for an easy to-go taco salad. I switch up the avocado and avocado sauce to keep things exciting.

For the avocado sauce:

• 1 avocado diced ($1.50)
• 1 tomato chopped ($1.00)
• 1/4 large onion diced ($.25)
• 2 cloves garlic minced 
• Handful of cilantro or parsley (I had fresh parsley that was about to go bad, it worked!)

Put all this in the food processor or blender. If you're using a blender put it on "liquify" or an equivalent setting and let 'er rip. If you're using a food processor pulse it until you get a creamy green substance. Instead of the tomato/onion/garlic/etc you can use just combine a clean salsa with the avocado (Trader Joe's has a lot of great options, but so does the regular grocery store. Check the label and make sure nothing unclean is in it like corns syrup, sugar, artificial flavors, etc).

Clean Eating Taco Salad with Avocado Sauce

Monday, August 26, 2013

Black Bean Zucchini Quinoa Burgers

I know the name of this is unnecessarily long, but everything in it is so important- so many power foods packed into one little patty! These made about 10 patties so I refrigerated 4 of them for lunch that week and froze the rest. BF hates black beans but I didn't tell him there were black beans in this and he loved them too.

Prep Time: 15 mins
Cook Time: 20 minutes
Servings: 10 medium sized patties

Ingredients:

• 1 can black beans (drained) $1.00
• 1/4 cup balsamic vinegar (got this at Costco forever ago, no clue how much it cost)
• 2 cups cooked quinoa (so measure out about 3/4 cup dried quinoa and cook that) $2.00
• Half a large onion, diced $.50
• 1 zucchini, diced finely $.75
• 1 bell pepper, finely diced $.80
• 1 egg $.20
• A tiny bit of flour (I couldn't get the patties to stay together so I just added a litttttle tiny bit of dirty flour. You can use any kind of clean flour like garbanzo flour or coconut flour but I didn't have any on hand)
• 1 teaspoon chili powder
• 1 teaspoon cumin 

Puree the black beans and balsamic vinegar in the blender or food processor. Combine the black bean puree mix with all the veggies and the egg and mix them together. Refrigerate the mixture for about an hour. Once it's been in the fridge for awhile make the patties (this is where I had to add a little flour because the mix was too soft/sticky to form patties). Make the patties and cook them in sprayed frying pan, about 4-5 minutes on each side. Be REALLY careful when you're flipping these! They fall apart but they're so worth it!

I like eating these topped with Greek Yogurt, tomato slices and arugula. Yummm

Black Bean Zucchini Quinoa Burgers

Sunday, August 18, 2013

Clean Southwest Scramble

If I could I would eat bougie brunch (with bottomless mimosas of course) of huevos rancheros every morning, but I'm broke and I have approximately 3 minutes to make and eat breakfast in the mornings. So here is my cleaned up, cheap, easy Southwestern Scramble that kind of reminds me of my favorite brunch plate. This is also my go-to hangover breakfast, it truly works wonders. You're welcome for that one.

Couldn't be easier.

I love the runny yolk. When I'm feelin crazy I add some black beans.

Ingredients:

• 2 eggs (1 full egg, 1 egg white) $.20
• 1/3 ripe avocado  (it's great when it's super ripe because I just scoop chunks into the pan and save the 30 seconds it would take to dice the avocado) $.30
• 1/2 tomato, diced $.30
• 3 spoonfuls of black beans $.15

Throw all this into a frying pan and stir it together while chugging coffee. Season with hot sauce (ok I know not so clean) and sea salt, and glop some fat-free Greek Yogurt (sour cream swap) on top to make it even more southwesterny. 

Clean Southwest Scramble