BuzzFeed Clean Eating Challenge: Day 1

Breakfast:  Kale Banana Smoothie

Ease of Process: 9; Taste: 3

Easy to make, not easy to drink…  I didn’t prep smoothie packs the night before (I work from home, so this isn’t really an issue for me), so I just grabbed the ingredients out of the fridge/pantry, tore the kale from the ribs, threw them in the blender, and voila!  First “meal” was ready.  Easy peasy, right?!  Ya, until I went to drink it… First, it wasn’t very cold, which made its thick consistency difficult to stomach.  It was also fairly perfume-y, and you could actually feel the consistency of the kale, which is not my favorite.  Needless to say, I was able to get half of it down, and threw the rest in the freezer for in case I got hungry later.

 - Nutrition Facts:  392 Calories, 13g Fat, 59g Carbs (17g fiber), 19g Protein

Lunch:  Shaved Asparagus Salad with Shallots & Fried Egg

Ease of Process: 6 (without shaving asparagus); Taste: 7

From the outset, I was pretty excited about this meal, and I felt like it looked pretty delicious!  Once I got all of the ingredients out on the counter, I set out to “shave” the asparagus.  Let me tell you – this is NOT an easy task.  My asparagus was pretty thin, and my peeler just wasn’t doing the trick.  I tried using a knife, but after almost chopping my finger off trying to cut super thin pieces, I opted out.  I ended up leaving the asparagus whole, and cooking it as prescribed, although left it in the pan to sauté for about 10 minutes to assure it was tender.  I followed everything else to the tee, which was fairly standard salad assembly.  It did take about 20 minutes all together.  (Note that if you shave the asparagus, it could take you hours. Lol.)  As an FYI, I omitted one of the yolks in each of our salads to cut down on the fat content.  (So 1 full egg and 1 egg white went into mine, 2 full eggs and 1 white into Danny’s.) The salads were very portable, and proved to be pretty good! (Maybe not as delicious as I’d hoped, but for something this healthy and nutritionally sound, what more can you expect?)   The taste was good, and the lemon juice was a perfect dressing substitute.  The texture was also pleasing, and helped make them filling.  We ended up really enjoying this meal, and felt great heading into our first afternoon.

- Nutrition Facts (my way):  296 Calories, 14g Fat, 28g Carbs (8g fiber), 24g Protein

 (Guy Version w/ extra egg & feta: 383 Calories, 19g Fat, 28g Carbs (8g fiber), 34g Protein)

Snack #1:  Carrots and Hummus

Ease of Process: 10; Taste: 8

In the late afternoon, I started getting cravings for something to eat… not sweet, but savory.   And there it was – the perfect remedy: a snack of carrots and hummus!  To make this very simple snack even easier, I got Organic, pre-peeled baby carrots in lieu of regular.  Since the cleanse called for 4 regular carrots, I substituted 12 baby carrots (assuming 3 baby make up 1 full-sized carrot).   I measured out ¼ cup hummus into bowl, threw in the carrots, and there it was!  So easy, so refreshing, and so delicious!  And plenty filling to tie me over through my workout and to dinner.  LOVING this thing so far!

- Nutrition Facts:  187 Calories, 9g Fat, 19g Carbs (5g fiber), 5g Protein

Dinner:  Roasted Chicken with Quinoa & Kale

Ease of Process: 6 (bearing in mind that you are preparing for the week); Taste: 8
Feeling great, we went to the gym for a great workout before dinner.  When we got back, I started in immediately on dinner.  This meal requires you to cook a bunch of “big batches” in order to prep for future meals.  Nothing about it was particularly difficult, it was just more time consuming because of the multi-tasking and large quantities required.  If you can manage multiple tasks at once, it should only take you about 30-35 minutes.  My strategy was to start with the quinoa, then the chicken, and finish with the kale, since it’s the quickest.  Rather than taking the time to steam the kale on the stove, I summoned one of my favorite kitchen lifesavers – Ziploc steam bags.  These things ROCK, and allow you to steam just about anything in a matter of a few minutes.  I cooked our kale in two batches in steam bags in just over 5 minutes.  Pretty sweet.  Once everything was ready, I left our “leftovers” out to cool while we ate.  The meal itself was pretty tasty – the chicken came out juicy and well-seasoned, and quinoa is one of my favorites.  Not huge on kale, but it went well with this meal, and I enjoyed combining all three in one bite.  After dinner, I packed up the leftovers, and squeezed them into our puzzle of a refrigerator for future use.  All in all, this was an enjoyable meal, and I looked forward to the ease its prep would bring for the coming days.

Nutrition Facts:  330 Calories, 12g Fat, 26g Carbs (6g Fiber), 32g Protein

(Guy Version w/ extra 2 oz. of Chicken: 390 Calories, 13g Fat, 26g Carbs (6g Fiber), 45g Protein)

Snack #2:  Pear & Almond Butter

Ease of Process: 9; Taste: 10

What a more perfect way to end the first night of the BuzzFeed Clean Eating Challenge than with a delicious, sweet treat!  Super easy – just slice the pear, scoop the almond butter, and you’re set.  Exactly what you want at the end of your first day.  Went to bed feeling satisfied and AMAZING.

Nutrition Facts (if you eat the whole thing yourself):  195 Calories, 8g Fat, 30g Carbs (8g Fiber), 5g Protien

DAY 1 NUTRITION FACT TOTALS: 1400 Calories, 57g Fat, 162g Carbs (44g fiber), 85g Protein ... (My thoughts: A little high in fat, but otherwise, pretty awesome. ^^)

BuzzFeed Clean Eating Challenge: Day 0

Prep – Tuesday, 6/10/14

Yesterday, I went and bought all of the stuff for the first week of the cleanse.  I knew from a lot of people’s comments, plus the sheer length of the shopping list, that it was going to be pretty expensive.  And it was.  My cart was brimming by the time I got to the checkout lane, and as I watched the cashier ring it up, I felt my wallet getting lighter by the second.  That being said, I was committed to going through with it – especially after the hour I’d just spent in the grocery store collecting all the stuff – so there was no turning back.

When it was all said and done, my grocery bill for the first week was $247.01 for both Danny and I.  When I thought about it, this actually didn’t seem THAT bad, considering what we spend when we eat out a couple of times a week.  (Disclaimer: I cook a lot, so I did have some of the common items, like oil and vinegar.)  This was one of people's biggest complaints about the plan, so if you're on a tight budget, that is something to consider before committing to BuzzFeed's Clean Eating Challenge.  That being said, eating healthy is expensive, but being unhealthy has FAR greater future costs, so if you can make it work, it's worth it IMO to bite the bullet.

When I got home, I found myself faced with the next challenge... getting it all in the refrigerator!  This was a complicated task, as there is a TON of produce that takes up a lot of room -- especially when 2 people in the same house do the plan together.  That being said, I used my trusty car-packing skills and was able to puzzle it all together and get the door closed after about 20 minutes... WINNING!  I stood there admiring my work, snapped a pic (see above), and found myself excited about starting the challenge!  Only 12 hours until go time!

LMS Returns to try out BuzzFeed's Clean Eating Challenge!

I'M BAACCCCK!

Yes, after a year and a half hiatus (I changed jobs and am planning a wedding, people!) - I have decided to come back to LMS!  I haven't stopped cooking healthy, delicious meals.. I've just stopped blogging about it.  So, here's my effort to get back into the swing.

A couple weeks ago, my fiancé, Danny (a BuzzFeed junkie), forwarded me the following link with the subject line: Wanna do this?
BuzzFeed's Clean Eating Challenge

After reading through it and thinking it looked amazing, I got super stoked on the idea!  But then, I started reading through all of the (mostly nasty) comments.  My lord people!  If you don't have any interest in doing a cleanse, why would you read the post in the first place, yet less feel the need to comment on it and drag everyone else down?!  I felt a certain NEED to not only do the cleanse, but blog about my experience so others would have more to go off of than just people's stupid reactions to seeing healthy food regimens and calorie limits.

So if you're interested in reading on about my experience doing the BuzzFeed Clean Eating Challenge, you've come to the right place!  And if you aren't, DON'T!  But please refrain from talking mad shit about something that you've never tried.

Thanks, and stay tuned! :)