Feeling Good/ Tasting New Grains

Day Six and Seven went well.  We feel good, lots of energy and not craving sweets.  Our older children are making healthy choices.  They chose to turn down sweet treats while we were out today.  However, Blane's teacher said he ate lots of animal crackers.  Oh well:)

I found a good book about feeding your family clean food.  It is called The Eat-Clean Diet for Family and Kids by Tosca Reno.  It includes many tips, ideas, and recipes.  It is not vegetarian, but uses many better ingredients than ordinary recipes.  I will be trying some of them, and will let you know how we like them.

Tosca Reno's Clean Eating Principles
1.  Depend on Fresh Fruits and Vegetables for complex carbs, enzymes and fiber.
2.  Eat whole-grains, not refined, over-processed, chemically charged foods.
3.  Eat healthy fats from healthy oils, nuts, seeds and grains
4.  Never miss a meal, especially breakfast.
5.  Stick to reasonable portion sizes.
(I listed the ones I view as most important)

Avoid these:
Over-processed, refined flours
Chemicals and preservatives
White flour
White sugar
Artificial sugars
Saturated and trans fats
Alcohol
Calorie-dense foods with little or no nutritional food value (Reno, 2008)

Day Six
Breakfast:  Simple Scrambled eggs and whole-wheat toast

 Lunch:  Salad with apples, cranberries, and walnuts, a little olive oil and honey drizzled over.

 This is Jedrek's plate, he was proud of.

 Dinner:  Jedrek and I cooked Vegetable and Tofu Stir-fry on the wood stove, with whole-wheat rotini pasta, green salad, and tea.  This was a fast and delicious meal.  It is a keeper for our family.  I plan to repeat it often.  I think the key ingredient is red pepper flakes or ground red cayenne pepper.

Then for an evening snack we tried the new (for us) gluten-free grain called amaranth.  First, we popped some.  It was fun, little tiny pops...then quickly it burnt.  Jedrek ate it anyway?!  Then, we made a porridge, 1 cup amaranth with 2 1/2 cups water.  It simmered for 15 minutes.  We all were so excited to try our new porridge.  The first two bites were okay, then I just couldn't eat much more.  I added black-strap molasses to hide the slightly yucky taste, but to no avail.

Jedrek thought it tasted like the corn silk tea he made before...eeewwww.

Before bed, the kids had a little bit of Ezekiel 4:9 cereal with almond milk.  We had to wash away the bad taste, and fill their bellies with goodness.

Day Seven
Breakfast:  Cooked Oatmeal with dates, cranberries, raisins and Greek yogurt.  Delicious!

Lunch:  We went to the grocery store, so we ate cheese sticks on the way home.  Then, this was our easy lunch:  hard-boiled eggs, celery, carrots, with hummus.

Dinner:  Kale and Cannellini Soup/ Green salad with cabbage and cherry tomatoes and avocado/ Rice cakes (The kids also ate tortilla chips, left-over from before our clean eating endeavor). We also had frozen grapes for a fun dessert.  Later, we had some unsweetened applesauce with chia seeds sprinkled on top.

Meal Plans for the Future:

Vegetable Soup

Penne Pasta with Tomato Sauce and Arugula 

Kale Chips

Pasta with Cauliflower puree, cheese, and broccoli

Veggie Sandwiches

Roasted potatoes and sweet potatoes