Lemon Thyme Chicken Drumsticks w/veggies

I had a bunch of drumsticks in the freezer so I decided to marinate them overnight with lemon juice, dried and fresh thyme, garlic, olive oil, oregano, italian seasoning and s&p. I baked them in the oven at 375 for 45 minutes. 

For the side dish, I sautéed some veggies I bought from Costco (broccolettes, haricots vert and the kale mix). 

I also made the sweet potato flatbread from the 21DSD cookbook to have with the chicken. 

Dinner was delicious!

Day 21!!!

I can't believe I stuck it out to day 21 even though I had some failed days. Today we went our for breakfast and I ordered a pesto scramble with artichoke, tomato, and bacon. I realized after I ate it that the pesto sauce probably was made the traditional way with Parmesan :/ 

For lunch, I wasn't really that hungry do I made a pumpkin, hemp protein shake. 

For dinner, I cooked up some chicken thighs with homemade pesto and a variet of veggies (butternut squash, brussel sprouts, haricot verts and broccoli)

Day 20- One more day!

I can't believe I have one more day to go! For breakfast I made pancetta, eggs and spinach. I finally got to go back to Pilates after delivering and it felt good. 

After my workout I had a hemp protein shake. 

I went over to my cousin's house so the kids could hang out and she bbq'd some chicken and even made special ones for me because she knew I wasn't eating sugar. So I had some curry drumsticks. 

I wasn't sure how long I was gonna hang out but luckily I brought dinner with me. I had the bison stroganoff with squash noodles. 

When I got home I had some sweet potatoes and that was it for today. Nothing exciting...

Day 19- Almost there!

I wanted to have some pancakes when I woke up so I decided to whip up some pumpkin pancakes from the 21DSD book. I topped the pancakes with some coconut butter. I had it with some red pepper and spinach sausage

For lunch I had some plantain chips and salami. I also made a green drink that consisted of: coconut water, spinach, kale, green apple, lemon, ginger, celery, beet and bell pepper

For dinner, I made some squash noodles to eat with my bison stroganoff. 

Day 18- The simple things

Breakfast was eggs, bacon and guacamole

Lunch was Apple gate hotdogs w/sauerkraut and tomatoes and basil

I finally got around to buying pumpkin and made my first pumpkin pie protein shake. I used the recipe from the 21DSD cookbook and I used hemp protein powder and also added spinach. 

I bought a whole package of basil so I decided to make some pesto which led me to the pesto stuffed chicken wrapped with prosciutto from "Meals Made Simple". I thought I thawed out chicken breasts but turns out they were thighs. Still came out delicious. I baked the chicken w/butternut squash on the bottom and served it with some Brussels sprouts cooked with pancetta. My husband said everything was good. 

Day 17- Leftovers go a long way...

Breakfast was bacon, eggs, guacamole and an "English muffin" w/coconut butter

Snack: hemp protein shake, plantain chips

Lunch was a salad with tomatoes, bell peppers, olives, chicken, pumpkin and sunflower seeds

I also snacked on herb cheese and crackers. 

For dinner, I had the leftover bison stroganoff but I ran out of squash noodles so I mixed the meat w/sweet potato. 

Day 16- Thunderstorms

Today was a weird day. It was over 100 degrees outside and then pouring rain with thunder. Makes you just want to curl up in bed and take a nap. Well that didn't happen. My little girl likes to take power naps so I have to do what I can in 30 minutes or else I'm not getting anything done. 

For breakfast, I had eggs with pancetta, smoked salmon and tomatoes. 

Snack: hemp protein shake

Lunch: Roasted red pepper sausage with cucumbers

For dinner, I wanted to make a recipe from Danille Walker's "Meals Made Simple". I choose to do the beef stroganoff but I had to make lots of substitutions since I was missing a bunch of ingredients. Instead of beef chuck I had to use bison. I didn't have any sherry so I used apple cider vinegar. I didn't have any mushrooms or parsley. Despite all that it was still a delicious meal. 

Day 15- Too hot to do anything

I refused to leave my air conditioned house today because it was over 100 degrees here!  

For breakfast, I had some Peking duck, (not sure if t's detox approved- probably not?) with eggs, tomato and basil

Snack: hemp protein shake, cashews

For lunch, my husband picked up a salad for me with grilled mahi mahi. I used my own dressing for the salad

For dinner, I had the rest of the duck w/tomatoes, cucumbers and sweet potato

Day 13 & 14- Family function/out of town

Last night I went for a 3 mile hike for the first time since being 25 weeks pregnant. I survived but my legs are pretty sore! I guess that's a good thing. 

For breakfast I had left over steak and eggs w/tomato and basil

For lunch, I had left over broccoli and beef. 

I had to go out of town for a wedding so I packed some grilled chicken and nuts to munch on throughout the day but they only lastede so long before I got sick of it. I attended my cousin's wedding and it was a traditional Asian wedding with 7 courses. I did the best I could to stick to the detox but eventually I had to eat something to sustain me. Lucky for me the baby was over tired and cranky so I didn't really get a chance to eat much. 

The next morning (day 14) I went to brunch with my family at a Dim Sum restaurant. I avoided the soy sauce but I'm pretty sure some of the things I are weren't detox approved. 

I guess if I had planned my meals in advance, I wouldn't be so starved and have to eat what's in front of me but I didn't have time to plan and I wasn't going to survive on nuts the whole weekend. If I wasn't breastfeeding, I probably would've been fine but I needed to fuel my body and hopefully I don't feel yucky later...

Day 12- Meals made simple

I forgot to take pictures of my breakfast and lunch...

For breakfast, I had pancetta w/eggs and spinach 

For lunch, I had grilled chicken breasts, cucumbers, beets, herb cheese and crackers

Snack: hemp protein shake

For dinner, I made a recipe from Danielle Walker's new cookbook. I made a roasted thyme chicken w/gravy and roasted carrots and butternut squash

It looks intimidating to cook a whole chicken but it's actually really easy and cheaper. I had non paleo dinner guests over and they seemed to like the meal so that's always good. 

Day 11- Lazy day

Breakfast: eggs w/pancetta and spinach

Snack: hemp protein shake, salami

Lunch: wild albacore tuna w/guacamole, tomato and jicama

Dinner: Beef w/broccoli 

Snack: apple and salami

Day 10- Protein w/a side of protein

Is it just me or does everyone else feel like they need to have a protein with their eggs? I know eggs are protein but I always have to have a meat group that goes with it. 

Today's breakfast was 2 eggs, carne asada, guacamole and an herb biscuit

Snack: hemp protein shake

Today's lunch was one of those days where I didn't feel like cooking and I keep going to the fridge and opening it up hoping something would magically appear. Well it didn't so I ended up eating herb cheese, crackers, salami, jicama and cucumber. 

I also munched on plantain chips, cashews and Brazil nuts. I was hungry today and just wondering around the kitchen.   

For dinner, I thawed out a NY steak and fried some veggies. 

Brussel sprouts, spinach, green beans, and beets

Day 9- Random foods from the fridge

It's been so hot lately it's hard to cook anything in the kitchen but I just crank the ac and tough it out. 

For breakfast, I had left over carne asada with eggs, guacamole and herb biscuits. 

For lunch, I had turkey, artichoke and basil meatballs from www.paleomg.com with beets and cucumbers. 

Snacks: herb cheese and crackers, hemp protein shake

I was really lazy today and didn't feel like thinking about dinner so I just looked in my fridge and this is what I came up with:

 

Carrots, green beans, zucchini, shrimp and chicken and red pepper spinach sausage.  I just threw in random seasonings and had that with a sweet potato. 

Day 8- One week done!

I can't believe one weeks has gone by!  I'm noticing a few changes in my baby but not sure if it's due to the detox or if it was because she wasn't feeling well. 

Breakfast: bacon, eggs, avocado, herb biscuits w/coconut butter 

Lunch: spinach, beets, cucumbers, carrots, olives, chicken w/a basil vinaigrette 

Snack: hemp protein smoothie

For dinner, I went to an education meeting for my nursing organization. It was held at a Mexican restaurant so it was very difficult to avoid chips and dip but I didn't have any. I choose to have the steak fajitas w/salad and guacamole. It was really good. 

I was a little hungry when I got home so I had some pistachios, plantain chips and turkey slices. 

Day 7- Leftovers

Breakfast: eggs, sausage, turkey & guacamole 

Snack: Hemp protein shake 

Lunch: Cracklin' chicken, cucumbers, carrots, jicama, and olives

Snack: avocado w/chia flax seed crackers

Dinner: chicken drumsticks w/sweet potato. 

Today was an off day for the little one so I didn't really get to cook. Hopefully tomorrow will be better!

Day 6- There's butter in my coffee!

This morning I decided to add some flavor to my espresso. I've been reading about the Bulletproof coffee so I decided to modify a bit since I didn't have any of their beans. I have a Nespresso machine so I added 2 shots of espresso, 1 cup water, 2 tbsp kerrygold, & 1 tbsp coconut butter. I added those all to the vitamix and I got a frothy delight 

I enjoyed my butter coffee w/eggs, bacon, sausage, herb biscuits and guacamole 

For lunch, I made the cracklin' chicken from nom nom paleo. It's delicious!  I served it w/a salad

For dinner, I had left over chicken, jicama and a sweet potato. 

Day 5- Not feeling good today

I had a stomach ache all last night and today. I've decided that I can't eat cabbage anymore.

For breakfast, I had the exact same meal as yesterday. 

I didn't have much of an appetite today because I had an upset stomach so I just snacked on plantain chips, my green protein shake, turkey, carrots, herb cheese and crackers

I had to throw something together quick for dinner because the little one wasn't feeling well today.  Luckily I thawed out some drumsticks earlier so I just threw them in a ziploc with olive oil, lemon, thyme, paprika, minced garlic, everyday seasoning (from Trader Joe's) and the 21 seasoning salute (from Trader Joe's).  I baked them in the oven at 375 for 45 mins along with some sweet potatoes.  

 

I've been craving some chocolate after dinner so I made some Almond Butter cups but I haven't had a chance to take a picture yet

Day 4- Nothing exciting today

Breakfast was 2 eggs w/guacamole, sausage links and the savory her biscuits topped w/coconut butter

Lunch was left over meatballs w/roasted brussel sprouts and cauliflower and a home made basil vinaigrette 

I made my green protein shake for my midday snack. 

The baby decided today she wasn't going to take naps during the day anymore so cooking anything today was impossible. I decided to take her for a 6 mile walk thinking it would put her to sleep but she didn't want to miss any of the action. When we got home I was so hot and hungry that I just grabbed whatever I had in the fridge and had it for dinner. I ended up eating the cabbage slaw with the rest of the meatballs. 

For my late night snack, I had a sweet potato w/smoked salmon (random but I wanted a protein w/my carb). 

Day 3- Cooking with a baby

Day 3 has been a bit difficult because I had a list of things to cook.  It's kinda hard to cook with a crying baby so I brought her along for the ride to teach her a thing or two about clean eating :)

 

Today I made some flax/chia seed crackers and the savory herb drop biscuits from the 21DSD book. I also made the Asian style meatballs and the red cabbage and bok choy slaw for lunch. 

Some of the items came out over done because I had to attend to the needs of my little diva :)

I made the Herb cheese and had it with my chia/flax seed crackers for my snack.  These were the broken crumbles that were left over. I know this doesn't look that appetizing but it was good 

I also had a protein shake at some point during the day. My protein shake usually consists of any or all of these ingredients:

Almond/coconut milk

Kale

Almond butter

Vanilla extract

Frozen banana

Cacao powder

Hemp protein powder

Hemp has a lot of protein so it keeps me satisfied for a little bit. 

Dinner was nothing exciting. Just leftover beef stew and a Greek salad I made from the Food Lover's cook book. 

Since I'm breastfeeding, I get hungry easily so I had to have a baked sweet potato and some turkey slices a couple hours after I had dinner. That hit the spot and I'll have to remember to eat a sweet potato a day. 

Detoxing while breastfeeding

I decided to give myself 6 weeks after delivering my beautiful girl, Amelia, that I would eat clean again so I wanted to give myself a jump start by starting another round of the sugar detox.  I started on September 1, 2014 and today is day 3!  Last night I had a pretty bad headache and I felt tired but not sure if that was from lack of sleep or my body detoxing- probably a combination of both!  This time around the detox is easier because I'm not working so I have the chance to cook during Amelia's nap time (sometimes I have to carry her with me if she doesn't feel like napping.

Along with my 21DSD books, I bought a few other ones that will give me variety in my meals.  I've been so hungry that I haven't had a chance to take pictures of my meals but I will try to stay on top of it!

Breakfast creation- Sweet potato hash

I've been eating a lot of sweet potato w/my breakfast and got tired of doing the same ole thing so I decided to change it up a bit. I shredded some sweet potato, sautéed it w/some coconut oil and cinnamon, threw in some back and spinach and topped it w/avocado and fried eggs. It was delicious!

21DSD while preggos

On this round of the detox, I recruited 3 other people at work. I think I've started a trend, people want to get healthy and feel better working a 12 hour shift. I'm kinda here for moral support and to answer any questions about the program. 

I started the detox when I was 11 weeks pregnant! Everyone kept asking me if it was safe and if my doctor approved. I've never done the detox while pregnant so I'm not sure if it's safe but I would never do anything that I thought would harm the baby. I eat real food on the detox so it shouldn't really be a problem. Oh and I never asked my doctor if this was ok...nurses are the worse patients :)

Days 9 and 10 were really tough. Day 9 was better than day 10. I fell off the detox wagon on day 10 but jumped right back on day 11- which I officially entered the 2nd trimester and felt good running for the 1st time in awhile. 

I'll attempt another round of the detox once the baby is born. 

For now, I'll try to eat paleo...

Coffe and cocoa rubbed ribs and Spicy Slaw

So I finally had time to explore the 21 Day Sugar Detox cookbook. I'm on my 2nd round of the detox and it definitely helps that there are more recipes available. 

I made the banana chia seed oatmeal, kombucha gelatin, sweet potato flatbread, crust less quiche, the ribs and the spicy slaw. 

The ribs were pretty good. I bought the meat from Costco and they were Costco proportions. I didn't get a chance to marianade the ribs overnight so I the rub was marinating for 3.5 hours. I cooked them in the oven for 2.5 hours and it was so juicy (and I was so hungry) that I didn't even grill or broil them. 

I also wanted a side dish to accompany my ribs and decided to try for the spicy slaw. I decided to try the wet chopping on my vitamix since I've never done it before. The 1st attempt was a fail- I had a cabbage mush. The 2nd attempt was much better! I like spicy things so I decided to put 2 tbsp of the chili garlic paste and boy did it have a kick to it! I decided not to add the jalepeños and I don't like onions so I didn't include those items. I used tahini for my nut butter. I probably couldn've used a little more tahini but the slaw was still good. 

On another note, the sweet potato flatbread was good except for the fact I forgot to add the gelatin! And my kombucha gelatin looked like my SCOBY. I let the gelatin cool down too much before pouring the rest of the liquid in so it was a mess. Next time around, I think these will turn out better.