Today Cain say "Let's go out on a date" Of course I said "Yes!" We haven't been out on a real "date" since I took Cain to Chicago for his birthday in December! So just some time spent alone at dinner or something would be so nice. I love going out with my man, he is such a joy to hang out with. Honestly I couldn't ask for a better friend.
So I've said before that I would like to start posting on here the foods I eat. I often show you what I make for my dearest Cain but a lot of time I don't eat what I make him. Which is a reason I'm always so nervous if it's going to taste good because I don't taste test!
My diet it filled with vegetables and fruit! I do eat organic meat but come summer time I won't eat as much meat, if any. Because there are so many more vegetables to choose from that I can get straight from the garden or farmers market.
Today before picking up Graci at preschool I started thinking that there were only enough left overs at the house for one person and I wanted my mom to have it, so I got creative and thought buffalo sounded really good.
My mom asked if I could stop in at Kroger before coming home and pick up something we needed for our dinner tonight. I asked if she minded if I picked up a couple veggies. A mom can't say no to that! I picked up the Cauliflower, green pepper, cucumber and a bag of onions.
And with that I baked my cauliflower buffalo bites with onions!
As you can see I also have the sliced cucumber and peppers on the plate too! I try and eat as many RAW vegetables in a day as I can. It's not easy in the winter when all you want is warm comfort food but if you set your mind doing something, it will be done. Promise.
Here are the Chocolate covered strawberries Graci helped make yesterday for the ladies bible study I go with my mom too. They were the BOMB haha. Did I just say bomb? That's new.
Breakfast is always the same. If I am craving something special and have time I do make other things but eggs are easy and eggs are good. Not just in taste but in health. I top them with cinnamon sometimes. Yes you read that right, cinnamon. Have you tried that yet? It's so yummy.
Let's talk smoothies. I have been out of spinach the last couple of weeks (And when I say out it means I buy it for Cain but I don't buy it for myself here at my parents house. When my mom buys it I eat it, but I can't afford to buy two of everything, every week!) But normally I layer my smoothies with Spinach, fruit (Mostly berries) , filtered water, protein powder and sometimes Flax seed or Chia seeds.
This yellow heaven looking one was fresh Mango! And wow, wow.
Just cut and peel your mango to get the goodness out, add an cup of ice or more with some filtered water and you have a amazing desert!
Bananas are my treat. Banana's are soooo good for you. They really are. But they do have a lot of sugar that comes with them, now listen .... it's the good sugar. Natural. But even natural fruit sugar needs to be eaten in moderation. When summer comes and I am walking everyday, running more miles and just doing more activity I will most likely eat more Banana's. But because I'm not doing that much activity to burn those lovely sugars I try and eat one once a week!
I also LOVE almond butter! It might have a lot to do with it being close to Peanut Butter. I was always a huge fan of Peanut Butter until learning that they were NOT a nut but a bean also called an Legume. Legumes contain lectins, specific proteins known to cause damage in the gut lining. Now I'm not saying I will never have peanut butter again or beans. I just try and not put them in my everyday diet. But when the time calls for it. I will.
So back to the Almond Butter. I do love it, but again everything in moderation. Almonds are wonderful for you for a lot of reasons but so much of it isn't always a good thing. So for every 3 miles I run I enjoy a serving of Almond butter!
The two together is... well... try it. Taste heaven!
I posted this picture from last Saturday night when making Cain his Bison steak for dinner. On this plate you have a choice of either Green or Red Peppers, Red onion, Yellow squash, Carrots or Zucchini! We both ate everything on the plate.
Here is a Veggie Plate I had for lunch this week. I've got Green beans, a Carrot, whole Avocado with raw almonds inside! Graci was trying to tell me I couldn't finish it all and I should give her the green beans... this is after she already finished a plate of her own green beans! I said, I think I can finish it all... she smiled and said... "I don't think so" Well I almost finished it all but then decided I would share the last few bites :)
Fruit is my favorite thing of all time. Right next to chocolate though. Any fruit I love. This is a organge, strawberries and left over chocolate from the chocolate strawberries I made!
Now you see what I do eat! Here is something I DON'T eat!
For the past year once a month while I seat in the drive up line waiting on Graci to get our of preschool a lady will pull up with her SUV and open the back up and is a huge load of grocery for what I'm guessing is for the kids at the preschool. I am also the first one in line at the drive up so when she pulls up she is right in front of me. So a year ago this happened for the first time and it was snowy out and here she is loading all these groceries into a cart to take into the church. I right away got out and started helping her. It only takes 1 minute for us to load it onto the cart and then she takes everything inside and I get back into my car.
This has gone on for now a year. We don't say much, just something about the food or the weather. But today after everything was on the cart and she pulled her SUV into the parking lot like normal but this time she came up to my window and handed me a Reese's Peanut Butter Egg (Guessing for Easter coming up?) She said "I know it's not much but thanks for aways helping me" I smiled and said "No problem" And she walked away. It really is not problem. What am I going to do, sit in my car nice and warm and watch a nice young lady load a ton of groceries into a cart in the freezing cold?! But still, I thought it so sweet of her to want to do something small to just say "Thanks"
Now I think you know where I'm going to end with this though. I choice not to eat processed food so of course I didn't eat the Reese's Peanut Butter Egg. I did wonder though right away what the ingredients were in them so I flipped it over and here is what I saw...
So let's start with PEANUT: Not the end of the world but unless organic not great. MILK CHOCOLATE: Not so great either, get 70% or more cocoa when choosing chocolate. SUGAR: This is not the sugar from the banana I was talking about. It should not be eaten in motivation, it should NEVER be eaten. COCOA BUTTER: Ok. NON FAT MILK: No go. Full fat organic Milk is the only dairy to drink/eat. SOY: So bad for you. Look up the affects of Soy sometime you will be surprised. VEGETABLE OIL: The worse of it all! This is a oil you should never eat again. The SUNFLOWER and/or SAFFLOWER oil is also oils I stay away from. Choose either Olive Oil or Coconut Oil. Not sure what the next few are, which isn't a good thing. You should KNOW what EVERYTHING is before eating it. And last ARTIFICIAL FLAVOR: Beaver Butt. Don't believe me? Check THIS VIDEO out HERE <
Now again, I thought that is was extremely sweet that the lady wanted to be kind by giving me something as a token of thanks! And I'm not trying to call her out as a horrible person for eating this. Because, honestly she might not eat it and was trying to get rid of it! I've been guilty of that before!
But it just reminds me that when I do give food I wouldn't eat to others (Unless its a real food) that I'm hurting their bodies by doing so. So note to self: Treat others with what you would want to be treated with.
Thanks for reading,
Lanette
