I'm not even going to try and re-create what happened between my last post and this one (approximately days 13 - 15).
I was in a foul mood and hadn't really planned ahead most of those days. Note to self; the combination of those two is NOT a formula for success when it comes to clean eating. While I DID stay completely TW30 compliant, it was not fun. My meals had fallen into a rut and I was not putting forth the effort. Add to that about three grueling days at work and we have the makings of a train wreck. Whew. Glad I dodged THAT bullet.
On Friday (Day 16) I tried the eMeals Thai Flank Steak that Mandy referenced a couple of days ago. In a word, um, searching, searching...yep, that's it...DELISH! Oh my goodness! Like Mandy, I didn't marinate overnight; marinated for close to eight hours. Larry grilled it for 4 minutes per side, a little underdone, so he put it back on for 5 minutes; perfection! Medium rare for me and the end pieces were medium for him. Not being familiar with flank steak, I didn't really take into consideration that it does not shrink. So...in summary, I will be eating leftover Thai Flank Steak for a couple of days. No problem here, I loved it! I'll have it tonight, probably with a quick sear in a skillet, and tomorrow, chilled, on top of a nice green salad. I have some awesome tangerine balsamic vinegar I'm going to use to make up this week's MPV and I think it will go perfect with the steak. With my flank steak on Friday I fixed some cauliflower rice; I started with sautéing onions and garlic in 2-3 Tbsp. combination of olive oil and butter (use ghee if you are avoiding butter during TW30), I then added some sliced almonds, about 3 Tbsp, 1 tsp curry, and salt and pepper to taste, I then added my cauliflower "rice" and stirred to combine and heat the cauliflower. YUM! I have some of that leftover as well.
Day 17 (BS 125) was an indulgent Scrapbooking Day with my gal pals. This is usually a very indulgent get-together with decadent food and wine. However, since one of my guests (a co-contributor here) is also doing TW30 and the other is an avid runner and all around healthy eater, this was not a problem. I served a wonderful "Ensalada Mixta," which, with just the tiniest tweak or two is completely Paleo Compliant. One of my guests brought a wonderful "pure" fruit salad and we were all in heaven. We even managed to get in a 2 mile walk AND lots of scrapbooking! For dinner, I fixed the prosciutto wrapped chicken (also a recipe that Mandy tried...I think from now on I'm just going to let her run the test kitchen and I'll take her recommendations!), "fan style roasted sweet potatoes" and Tiffany contributed a loaded green salad. All around, a great Paleo Day!
Day 18
BS 139
Subtitle of this post:
What a Difference A Good Playlist Makes
With some recommendations from Tiffany and Lorna, I began creating a new playlist to play during my "run" (I kind of laugh at myself when I call it a "run"... it's a walk/jog interval at this point, with lots of huffing and puffing at the slightest incline, but I'm doing it). Today I finally downloaded all of the songs I had been accumulating on my iTunes wish list and updated my "Run" playlist. What a difference! "California Gurlz" almost had me breaking into "Dance/Run" but I held back. I logged 1.89 miles ("walk" portion was 1.44 miles (15:16 mph) and my "run" portion was .45 miles (17:55 mph). Yay me! That's up from 1.84 total (1.26 miles (17:26 mph) during "walk" and .58 miles (13:42 mph) "run") last Sunday. I'm definitely feeling stronger than I did a week ago.
Make a-heads
As I was beginning to put together dinner, I decided to put to good use some of the leftover veggies and whatnot that had accumulated in the refrigerator. I pulled out the browned, ground sausage from the freezer and whipped up a dozen egg muffins. This time these little babies were loaded with baby greens (kale and spinach), diced mushrooms, diced onion, diced bell peppers and for good measure I diced up and threw in the leftovers from last night's roasted sweet potatoes. Add one dozen eggs, seasoned with garlic powder, cayenne pepper, nutmeg and sea salt and voila! Breakfast for about six days. These are in the freezer right now and when they are frozen, I'll toss them in a bag, throw them back in the freezer and breakfast is done.I also tore a page out of Mandy's book (seem to be doing a lot of that lately) and chopped up a bunch of veggies for salads; tonight's, tomorrow lunch and extras for the week ahead.
I saw an interesting idea on FB or Pinterest, can't remember which; it was "salad in a jar." The concept is that you can layer your salad in a jar, dressing on the bottom, other ingredients layered with lettuce on top, refrigerate and, when ready to eat, give it a good shake. Supposedly you can make several of these days in advance and then just "grab and go." I'm not sure about that, but I did take a tip from here; layer my salad. Salad is just a little less appealing when it is "slimed" by the juicy tomatoes or other "wet" ingredients that have been sitting with the lettuce since the salad was made (usually, in the case of a workday lunch, leftovers from the night before). Putting the "juicy things" on the bottom should get rid of the slime factor; in tonight's case, marinated beets, pickled asparagus, red pepper stuffed olives (I sliced these...by the way, all three of these were ingredients left over from Saturday's salad), then the quartered Campari tomatoes, then the avocado then the lettuce. I'll put my MPV in a separate little container, thank you.
I also grabbed a pineapple from Costco the other day; we've been on an "orange" kick and I'm wanting to mix the fruit selection up a bit. I took the time this afternoon to clean and cut up the pineapple. Again, this is a great time saver for busy workday mornings; all cut and ready to grab to have alongside my breakfast muffins.
And today's meals...
Breakfast: Egg scramble w/spinach, bell peppers, green onions, mushrooms, crumbled bacon. Leftover fruit salad. Coffee w/almond milk
Lunch: Prosciutto wrapped chicken, leftover Ensalada Mixta
Dinner: Thai Flank Steak, curry cauliflower rice, green salad with MPV (made with Tangerine Balsamic vinegar...yum!)
I'm ready for the week ahead!
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