Fresh Eats

Last week, I blogged about how much better I feel when I am eating real, whole foods as opposed to processed and packaged foods.  Not only do I continue to maintain my weight loss, I get a lot more variety in my diet and save some money at the grocery store.  I thought it might be a fun idea to give my readers a better picture of the types of food that I eat on a regular basis by taking you through a recent shopping trip.

This Sunday, I bought 4 sweet potatoes, 3 boneless skinless chicken breasts, some baby spinach, a package of blue cheese, some English muffins, some Arnold's Thins and 2 packets of this stuff:

What I love about Justin's Nut Butters is that they come in these little one serving packs. A year ago, despite how much I absolutely love it, and despite that the fact that it's actually better for me than peanut butter, I had to stop buying Nutella.

Why, you may ask, if I love it so much?  Here's the long story:  I was recently having a conversation with my parents about willpower versus portion control.  My mom suffers from lack of willpower.  She will go to the store and see a decadent gooey brownie, absolutely have to have it even though she knows it's horrible for her, but then she'll take it home and only eat two bites of it each day for a week.  My dad's problem, on the other hand, is that while he can easily walk past the brownie aisle and opt for a much healthier jar of macademia nuts, he will then go home and consume the entire jar in one sitting.  Where he has willpower, he lacks portion control.  Like my dad, when it comes to certain foods, I lack portion control too. (I also sometimes lack willpower, as we all do, but not nearly as often.)  My lack of portion control was the sole reason for my break-up with Nutella.  I eat too much of it too quickly.  I don't trust myself to even have it around.  So, when I found these Justin's packs, I realized I could still enjoy chocolate hazelnut butter and have the portions controlled for me.  Problem solved!

One thing about eating fresher foods as opposed to processed foods is that you do have to do a little prep work.  So, when I got home from the store on Sunday, I got right to cooking.  I started by cutting up my sweet potatoes up into little squares, gave them a bath in a drizzle of olive oil, some salt, pepper and cajun spice, and baked them for 45 minutes.  After they were cooked and cooled, I put them in some Gladware:

Ah, I just love fall foods!  I think they are just as good cold as they are warm, so while they are great as a side with a sandwich or burger, they also make for a great snack right out of the fridge.

I also whipped up some more of my pesto and put that in some Gladware too:

Then, I made some barbeque chicken.  All I did was take the three boneless skinless chicken breasts I bought and threw them into the crockpot with store-bought barbecue sauce, Dijon mustard, worcestershire sauce, olive oil, and a hickory barbecue spice rub.  Three hours later, the chicken was so tender that it fell apart as I scooped it out of the crockpot, and into my Gladware went this delicious concoction:

For lunch today, I warmed-up some of the chicken and made a sandwich on 100-calorie Arnolds thins, and it was soooo sloppy and tasty:

When I came home after work last night, I was hungry but was heading back out to go play flag football.  So I whipped up what is quickly becoming one of my favorite snacky, light dinners.  I toasted an English muffin and dressed it with some leftover shaved turkey meat that I bought last week:

I sprinkled on some of this wonderful stuff, which was part of my Sunday shopping trip:

I broiled the whole mess in the oven until the cheese was melty and bubbly, then I sprinkled some basil and garlic salt on it, and...the best part...a drizzle of honey:

One word: Yum!  The sweetness of the honey really balances out the sharpness of the blue cheese.

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While we all know that eating healthy is essential to losing weight and maintaining weight loss, it doesn't have to be boring. You don't have to eat rubbery Lean Cuisine chicken and tasteless soggy vegetables for lunch every day.   I still enjoy cooking and eating, as well as watching my calorie intake and managing my portion control too (as long as there's not a jar of Nutella in the house).  It does take a little more time and effort to eat fresh foods, but the payoff is worth it!

Power Foods Part 1: Spinach and Sunflower Seed Pesto

When I was first losing weight, I found that shopping for one person and being on a tight budget made selecting healthy choices at the grocery story difficult enough on its own.  But then when I started looking at fat grams, sodium content, fiber, nutrients and everything else on the back of a package, it was enough to make my head spin.  So, to make it easier on myself, I just counted calories and portion sizes and didn't worry about any of that other stuff. 

While calorie counting alone worked for me through the first year of my weight loss, when I started training for my first marathon, it came to my attention in a hurry that I needed to start looking at the quality of the food that was going into my mouth, not just the quantity.  After all, I wasn't just eating now, I was fueling!  As someone who loves cooking and creating recipes, I found a lot of ways to disguise things I don't like (vegetables) with things I do like (cheese).  Over the years, I've come up with several recipes that not only taste good, but pack a nutritional punch as well and can boost your energy for a big workout!

For the first installment in my Power Foods series, I'm going to post a great recipe, but first I'll tell you what makes it so great:

1.) We all know that green stuff is usually good for us, and certainly by the taste of raw spinach you can tell it doesn't have a lot of calories, but the real reason we should eat more spinach is not quite as obvious.  Spinach is a super food that is packed with nutrients and studies show eating the leafy green may protect against osteoporosis, heart disease, cancer and arthritis. And while you should definitely be eating your spinach to help prevent diseases, the reason that it is important for boosting your energy is because of its high iron content. Iron is an integral component of hemoglobin, which transports oxygen from the lungs to all body cells, and is also part of key enzyme systems for energy production and metabolism. Women in particular need to make sure they are getting enough iron in their diets, since menstruation can cause iron deficiency. Also, if the above reasons weren't enough to eat spinach, it's also got a high fiber content, which will keep you fuller longer than less fiberous foods, and as we all have discovered by eating too much of it, fiber aids in your digestion.

2.) We also have all heard that garlic is good for us (even if it's not so great for our breath), but most of us aren't sure why.  Studies have shown that garlic thins the blood, reduces clotting and helps in controlling blood pressure and poor circulation. Garlic also stimulates the immune system and helps in fighting against various diseases.

3.) While traditional pesto uses pine nuts, sunflower seeds are quite a bit less expensive, have a similar taste and pack a huge punch in terms of energy. One of the reasons why many athletes enjoy eating sunflower seeds is that they provide a supply of protein and carbohydrates. Both are important for maintaining energy levels while training or competing. The seeds can also stimulate the liver to release glycogen into the bloodstream. Because glycogen is a form of sugar, this provides an additional boost of quick energy.

4.) Most of us also know that olive oil is the best kind of oil to be consuming, but here's why:  Olives are rich in monounsaturated fatty acids (as opposed to saturated and trans-fats that are in butter and partially hydrogenated oils).  Monounsaturated fats are more stable than polyunsaturated fats, and therefore their presence makes the cellular membranes more stable themselves against the action of free radicals. Also, in case you were wondering, all types of olive oil contain monounsaturated fat, but "extra-virgin" or "virgin" olive oils are the least processed forms, so they're the most heart-healthy. Those types contain the highest levels of polyphenols, a powerful antioxidant that also can promote heart health.

So, now that we know what we're eating and why, here's the recipe:

Spinach & Sunflower Seed Pesto
Ingredients:
2-3 large handfuls of baby spinach
1/4 cup lemon juice
1/3 cup extra virgin olive oil
1/3 cup sunflower seeds
1/2 cup shredded or grated Romano or parmesan cheese

2 cloves of garlic
Salt/Pepper

Start by getting out your blender or, ideally, if you have a Magic Bullet (umm, the kitchen appliance, not the sex toy), that works perfectly.  Pile the spinach into the blender and add the lemon juice, olive oil, sunflower seeds and cheese.  If you have one of those handy-dandy garlic presses (pictured at right), use it to crush the garlic.  (If you don't have a garlic press, you really should go buy one.)  Add salt and pepper to taste.  I usually add about 1 tablespoon of salt and about 2 tablespoons of pepper, but it's up to you. Blend all the ingredients together until they form a sauce-like consistency.  If you want it a little more thiick and rustic (more of a pesto consistency), add a little less olive oil and lemon juice and just pulse it, don't blend it.  Then, put it in sealed container and let it chill out in the fridge for a bit. 

I usually like to eat it cold as a dip with french bread or vegetables, but it's also a great warm as a topping for pasta or chicken.

Enjoy!