Just some ideas.

I know it's hard to to keep up with ideas for foods and sometimes you just don't feel like cooking. Make sure you keep snacks on hand cut up or prepared for those moments that you need something quick. It will make you feel better knowing that you stuck with it. Here are some pictures that I took of things that I have prepared this week and love these meals.

This is a great meal believe it or not. I just throw one of the brown rice in a bag's in some water and then stir fry mushrooms and zucchini in my GOOD oil and then put it together and use my clarified butter and sea salt and yummy! You can also add some tomato sauce and have a different flavor.

I LOVE me a taco salad. I made my own seasoning that I have the recipe down below in another post and mixed it with ground beef. Then I put it over lettuce and I add LOTS of salsa and top it with raw cheese that you get at Fry's and Avocado.

If you want a good steak, go for Rib Eye. I usually find them on sale at Fry's or Safeway and then I cook it over the sear burner on the grill for about 10-15 minutes after I season it with sea salt, garlic powder and pepper. So quick and delicious. I added a side of spinach and orange slices but mix it up with whatever you like to go with it.

This is one of my favorite salads. I add my lettuce, cucumber, red onion, avocado's, mushrooms, tomatoes and whatever veggies sound good at the moment and then I open a can of black beans and pour it over the top. I use the juice as the dressing and top it off with salt. My 4 year old LOVES this meal!

My Shopping List

This is an example of my shopping list. You can use this or change it up if you want but it will give you an idea of what you will need.

fruit
eggs
whole oatmeal or Coach’s Oats from Costco
potato's
expeller pressed oil (I use the Canola oil from Trader Joe's)
apple cider vinegar-get the good kind. either organic or Mother's brand
raisins
organic craisins
nuts-cashews,walnuts,pecans and almonds etc
edamame
lettuce
expeller pressed mayo. I get mine from trader joe's, safeway or frys
tuna
ground beef
chicken
steaks
roast
ribs
black beans
pinto beans
no salt tomato sauce
petite diced tomato's
rice spaghetti-I get bolles brand from Walmart but trader joes has rice spaghetti too
veggies-cucumbers,celery,tomato's,avocado's,onions,bell pepper's,mushrooms,zucchini squash,carrots,frozen pea's, canned green beans etc
pace salsa
organic ketchup
organic spaghetti sauce or one with no sugar
grapes,strawberries,apples and lemons if in season
brown rice
cabbage
sea salt
fish
sticks of unsalted butter so you can make clarified butter
sweet potato's
stuff to make taco seasoning
stuff to make bbq sauce
garlic powder
if you can find raw milk or raw cheese, you can have that too. raw cheese is sold at Fry's

Other recipe ideas

Effortless Cream of Chicken Soup
• 100g cooked chicken
• celery (allowed amount)
• 1-2 c broth
• 3 cloves garlic
• 1 T dehydrated minced onion
• 1/2 t parsley
• 1/2 t basil
• ground white pepper (to taste)
• salt (optional)
1. Preheat saucepan over MED-HI heat.
2. In food processor, combine all ingredients and pulse until reaches desired consistency.
3. Pour into saucepan and bring to boil.
4. Reduce heat to simmer, cover, and heat 20-30 mins.
5. Serve.


Garlic Chicken
• 100g chicken400g chicken - 4 servings
• diced onion
• 3-5 cloves garlic - unpeeled & left whole
• juice of half lemon
• black pepper to taste
1. Preheat oven to 350.
2. Heat non-stick saucepan over MED.
3. Add the onion. Stir constantly until tender. 5-10 mins.
4. Transfer onions to glass baking dish.
5. Place chicken atop onions.
6. Squeeze on lemon juice & sprinkle with pepper.
7. Place garlic around and on the chicken.
8. Cover tightly either with lid or aluminum foil.
9. Cook for 30-45 mins or until chicken is no longer pink.

Taco Seasoning
• 1 T chili powder
• 2 t onion powder
• 1 t ground cumin
• 1 t garlic powder
• 1 t paprika
• 1 t ground oregano



Strawberry Sorbet
This is an old standby recipe I've enjoyed for many years. When off protocol I'll add banana or fresh pineapple, but it's just as good without. The kids love this one, too!
• Allotted amount of strawberries
• Juice of 1 lemon
• sugar substitute (as needed)
• water (if needed)
1. Freeze fresh strawberries about 1 hour.
2. Blend fresh frozen strawberries, lemon juice & sugar substitute in blender until very well blended.
3. You can serve immediately or place in freezer to allow it to firm up even further.

Orange Ginger Chicken
• 100g chicken - cut into chunks
• black pepper
• orange - cut in 1/4s
• 2-3 cloves minced garlic
• 1 T fresh ginger root (about 1/2"-1" long piece, peeled & minced)
• 1/2 t basil
• juice of half lemon
1. Preheat pan over MED heat.
2. Sprinkle chicken with pepper.
3. Add chicken to pan and stir fry until brown on all sides, about 5-10 mins.
4. Add garlic and cook for 1 min.
5. Squeeze juice of orange quarters over chicken.
6. Peel & separate orange into sections. Add orange sections, ginger, lemon juice, and basil. Stir well.
7. Cover and simmer for about 20-30 mins.



Cucumber Salad
• 200g thinly sliced cucumber (or allowed amount)
• 1 T vinegar (to taste)
• 1 t dill
• 1/2 t zsweet (as needed)
• black pepper
1. Combine all ingredients except cucumber & mix well.
2. Toss in cucumbers.
3. Cover & refrigerate. This tastes best if you wait at least one hour before serving.



Orange Julius
• 1 orange
• 5-10 drops vanilla creme liquid stevia (to taste)
• ice
• water (as needed)
1. Peel orange and place orange sections in blender.
2. Add about a handful of ice.
3. Blend.
4. Add vanilla creme stevia.
5. Blend to desired consistency. Add water as needed.


Smoky BBQ Sauce
• 2 T sugar free tomato sauce
• 2-3 T water
• 1/2 t dehydrated minced onion
• 1/2 t red wine vinegar or apple cider vinegar
• 1/4 t sugar free liquid smoke
• 1/4 t paprika
• 1/4 t chili powder
• 1/8 t cinnamon
• 1/8 t cloves
• 1/4-1/2 t sugar substitute (if needed)
• salt/pepper (to taste)
1. In small non-stick saucepan, combine all ingredients and bring to boil.
2. Reduce heat and simmer 20 mins.

Baked Apple
• 1 apple
• cinnamon
• ground cloves
• ground nutmeg
• water

1. Preheat oven to 350.
2. Core apple leaving about 1" in bottom. Do NOT core all the way through.
3. Place apple in baking dish.
4. Fill apple with 1/4 t cinnamon, 1/8 t ground cloves, dash nutmeg, and 2 t water (water should almost reach top of apple - adjust as needed).
5. Pour 1/2 c water, 1/2 t cinnamon, 1/4 t ground cloves, and 1/2 t nutmeg around apple in the baking dish.
6. Bake for 45 mins - 1 hour.
7. Serve immediately.

This is example of my week menu. You can change it up or be creative and come up with your own fun menu. I am challenging myself and anyone that wants to join me on an 8 week journey to cut out sugars, processed foods and simple carbs. And also committing to drink at least 64oz of water a day and workout at least 3 times a week of some sort of cardio. We do get one cheat day every 2 weeks :) I will be taking it one step further and not combining my protein's and carbs and beans on the same day. You don't have to do that.

Monday:

breakfast- fruit, egg omlet with LOTS of veggies.
snack- more fruit or nuts (I will combine walnuts and pecans with organic cranberries and raisins and makes a GREAT snack)
lunch-taco salad (I will chop up lettuce, tomatoes and avocado's and put taco meat on top with Pace salsa on top and mix together. I will add my recipe for the taco seasoning to this cause you have to make your own.
snack-avocado dip (mash up avocado's and pour salsa with it. Mix together and cut up cucumber and use those as your "chips". Taste's great)
dinner-chicken soup (LOTS of veggies, chicken broth and cut up chicken. It's a great warm meal.


Tuesday:

breakfast-oatmeal with raisins and cinnamon
snack-fruit
lunch-hashbrowns ( I get about 2-3 potatoes and peel them and grate them. Then fry them in Trader Joe's expeller pressed canola oil for about 20 min then after they are crispy I put sea salt all over and my organic ketchup on top. So hearty!)
snack-salad
dinner-rice spaghetti (I get the Bolles brand at Wal-Mart of rice spaghetti and I stir fry mushrooms, onions and zucchini and put over the top with organic spaghetti sauce).
snack-avocado dip with cucumbers or fried cabbage.


Wednesday:

breakfast-fruit smoothie (blend water, ice and fruit together and you can use ZERO as a sweetener. I get it at Fry's in the organic section. It is so good.)
snack-edamame with sea salt
lunch-steamed veggies with clarified butter and salt and black bean soup. (To make soup I just add a few different cans of beans and tomato sauce. You have to get the tomato sauce that says no salt added cause otherwise it has extra ingredients other than just tomato sauce. I also add in petite diced tomatoes. Look at the ingredients and make sure it doesn't have anything but maybe a few spices. I also add green beans. Then I add my homemade taco seasoning to it and what a delicious meal. You can also add in ground beef.
snack-carrots or fruit
dinner- beans that I would blend with my beaters and add salt and salsa. Get it warm and put on top of lettuce or do a lettuce wrap. Sooo good!
snack-apple crisp (peel and chop apples and add in a tad of water and lemon juice. Then I mix in the Zero sweetener and cinnamon together and mix over the apples and bake for about 40 min on 350. Such a great dessert!)


Thursday:

breakfast-Fruit and egg omelet with salsa on top
snack-veggies or avocado dip
lunch-chicken grape salad (I shred chicken and add expeller pressed mayo and grapes, celery and almonds to it and put over lettuce or do a wrap)
snack-steamed or raw veggies and/or nuts with craisins and raisins
dinner-steak dinner or roast with lots of veggies (season steak with salt, pepper and garlic powder)
snack-fruit smoothie

Friday:

breakfast-fruit and hashbrowns
snack-veggies
lunch-brown rice and sauteed veggies (I will saute my veggies and pour them over rice and add my clarified butter or add in diced tomato's to my stir fry and then mix in my rice. I do a lot of zucchini squash, mushrooms, onions, celery and peppers for my stir fry's)
snack-avocado dip, oatmeal etc
dinner-sweet potato with veggies or rice spaghetti with veggies and a salad.
snack-baked apple


Ok so this isn't a full week's worth but there are so many other ideas and this give you a pretty good idea of what you could do. We could all share different recipes we have found and give ideas as we go. And NO counting calories :)

To make clarified butter get 4 sticks of unsalted butter and melt on low till all melted. Scrape off top foam layer and pour the middle part which is the REAL butter and on the bottom you will see milk. Make sure you don't pour that into your container you are putting the actual butter. Get rid of the milk on the bottom and the foamy stuff on top.

Salad dressing: I use 5 parts oil to 1 part Apple cider vinegar. Mix together and it is so good!

Taco seasoning:

2T chili powder
1T cumin
1T oregemo
1T onion powder
1T sea salt
1T paprika
1T garlic powder
and cilantro to taste