Recently I was on pinterest and saw a 7 day plan for a diet/cleanse.  Each day you eat something different, but pretty much everything is really low calorie.  It looked reasonably easy, and so I thought I would try it.  Below is what I ate, my opinions about it, and how well it all worked out. :)

I am not a big breakfast eater, so for breakfast I had a granny smith apple, and 16 ounces water. For lunch I had Mangos, Blueberries, Strawberry, and 2 clementines..  Around 2 hours later I was feeling hungry so I had a plum, and some blueberries and another bottle of water.

Several hours after lunch I began to get hungry again, so I had some more water, a plum, and some blueberries.  To be honest, by the time dinner came I was growing tired of just eating piles of fruit, I never thought I would of said that!   If I had to do this again, I would pre-plan much better, find recipes or something to make some really good juices, and such.. However, I carried on, its only one day, right?  I am being very honest though, so if you choose to do it, you can know what you are up against and try and prepare better then I did! :)

For dinner I had Cantaloupe, Mangos, and Apples. After that I don't think I could of ate another piece of fruit if someone paid me! Ha!!! I really wish I would of made some really yummy drinks!  Live, and Learn! :)

So, today began a day of vegetables only, going into today I figured it would be easier then fruit, just because I have way more on hand.  Suprisingly, when I awoke this morning I was not starving, I really thought I was going to be!  For breakfast, I had celery, radishes, and sweet red peppers.

I had breakfast kind of late so I didn't have too much for lunch, I also had a radish a few minutes before lunch for a "snack".  For lunch I bolied mushrooms in vegetable broth, I don't know if this goes against the rules of the "diet", but oh well they were good. I also ate a few carrots with them. I am trying to eat all different types/colors of fruits and vegis to ensure I am getting all different kinds of vitamins.  I think if I did this again, I would research to ensure I was getting the best types of vegis to be sure I was getting all of my nutrients and vitamins. However, I am just going to take a mutlivitamin to ensure I am getting plenty. :)   I am also being sure to drink LOTS of water!

A few hours after lunch I had some carrots and radishes for a snack. Then, I needed to think about what I was going to do for dinner.  Since this diet I found, really didin't have clear rules it only said eat vegetables on day 2, I don't know if it means no cooking them, no using seasonings? So, I thought it would be ok to use 1 tsp of soy sauce to let my vegetables marinate in.. Since it was such a small amount I just kept rotating them so they each got some flavor on them.  One tsp of Soy Sauce is only 15 calories, and pretty much only contains soy, which is a vegetable, right? ;) After they marinated for about 20 minutes I heated up a pan really hot, and threw them in there for a couple of seconds. Next, I removed them and ate them! Tasted pretty good to me. :) Suprisingly, I dont feel hungry all the time, I try to drink 8-16 ounces of water with each meal, plus more water throughout the day.  For dinner, the vegis I had were zucchini, mushrooms, carrots, and  sweet red peppers.  

Well, well, well about 6:30pm I was reading over the little 7 day plan for the diet, and it said on day 2 that I could have a baked potato with butter.  When I compared the calories of my light cream cheese to the butter, I found it had less calories and less fat then the butter so I chose to use that instead.  A tsp of butter has about 35 calories, where a tsp of light cream cheese only had around 10, plus only about 1/3 of those are from fat. :)  I mixed the cream cheese with some garlic and used less then a tsp of the cream cheese, just enough to lightly cover the top. Day 2 has been a lot easier then day one, but I think I like vegis more then fruit.

On day three the diet says eat fruits and vegetables, seriously I am getting tired of eating ONLY fruits and vegetables.. Luckily, my mom brought over some fresh picked raspberries, because that was a nice change to the other fruit I had in the house. So, I had those for breakfast.

After I ate those I needed to get the kids ready for art club, so I packed their lunches, you know how hard it was to not eat a spoonful of peanut butter while making their sandwiches? HARD!  But, I kept up my will power and made it through. I got home late, so I had to think quick on what I wanted for lunch, I made some broccoli steamed in vegetable broth with a little garlic, some radishes, and clementines.    

After lunch I needed to work in the yard for a bit, we are re-seeding the entire thing, so there was a lot of raking to be done of the dirt.. Talk about exercise! Then, I needed to hurry and get everyone elses dinner, while getting the boy off to TKD. When I returned from his TKD lesson I was starving, I found that someone had ate my nectarine while I was gone, which was part of my dinner. : /  I didn't have much I was exhautsed, I had 4 ounces of orange juice, its 100 % juice, not sure if you are supposed to be drinking juice or not, again there were no actual rules along with the diet.. I also had an apple,some radishes, and some carrots. I cant wait until tomorrow, where I can eat some yogurt, and bananas, because it is very hard to get full off of the vegetables and fruits I have in the house!  BUY A LARGE VARIETY!!!!
 

Today was bananas and yogurt, the list said skim yogurt, but I hardly even like yogurt and the one kind I do like is 1%.  I decided that woudl be fine, and I would just eat it 3x during the day instead of more, then it would probably equal about the same amount. :)   For breakfast I had about 4 ounces of vanilla, tillamook yogurt.  A little while after that I had a banana.  For lunch I had another 4 ounces of yogurt, and then again a little while later I had a banana.  I think I had another banana at some point, and then for dinner I had a bowl of yogurt topped with one banana.  Then before bed I had another banana. Today was pretty easy, and I actually felt full after each meal, so far this diet has not been as hard as I thought it would be.

Well, I immediatly knew this day wouldn't work because I dont like raw tomatoes.. I thought about it for awhile, and realized if the diet is calling for chicken, then I dont see any reason why I cant eat some vegis with it, in all reality that is cutting down on the calories I will be taking in.  So, I chopped up 2 whole chicken breasts, and cooked them with a little bit of onions, celery, carrots, and a can of tomatoes, in some chicken broth.. I also added garlic and some seasonings. I figure, if I eat the pan of soup tomorrow that I made, I will get my 6 tomatoes that the diet called for, and about 12 ounces of chicken which is only 360 calories, plus a few calories for each of the vegetables. Total, I will maybe be eating less then 500 calories for the day, I think that is fine, considering it said eat as much chicken as you would like! :)

Since I kind of did chicken and vegetables yesterday, I chose to do chicken, fruits & vegis today.  Breakfast, was grapes, and salad with about 1/2 tsp of salad dressing..  My 2 year old ate part of my grapes too. :)  

For lunch I boiled some chicken in part chicken broth part water, and added some mushrooms, green onions, celery, and about 3 tiny drops of sesame oil, basically this made a broth that tastes similar to a won ton broth.

Tonights dinner for my family was going to be fajitas, so I decided to plan my meal around it.. I made sure to not use oil, while cooking the meat and peppers, and just used lime juice in the pan with it, and then my usually fajita seasonings of cumin, and chili powder etc... I put the meat over a bed of lettuce and spinach, I topped that with some cilantro and a tiny bit of hot sauce with is made from peppers and water... It was really yummy, which was a surprise to me, because generally I would of topped this with cheese, and sour cream or something. :)  

So, there was supposed to be a day seven, it sounded like a really yummy soup, however when I went to the store to buy all the ingredients I forgot 2 of them. When, day 7 started I went to make the soup and I realized I didn't have them.  We had people over helping clean out our basement, so I was unable to run to the store to buy the extra items, so basically I cut the diet short by one day.  I don't have a scale in my house, but I know I dropped some weight, not a huge amount, but I am already pretty thin.  If I had to guess I would say I lost 3-4lbs, which is close to what I was expecting. It's my belief that if someone was carrying around more extra weight then I am they would lose more. Overall it was a neat experience. And, a pretty healthy one at that! 

Ingredients:

1 3lb Pork Loin
Roast
1/4 Onion Sliced Thin or Diced
1 Green Onion Sliced into thin
pieces
4 TBSP Soy
Sauce
1 tsp Rice Vinegar
1/4 tsp Worcheshire
Sauce
1/4 tsp Brown Sugar
Pinch Black
Pepper
2 Garlic Cloves Minced

Directions:

In a slow cooker place diced
onions lay pork loin on top.  In a small bowl mix together all remaining
ingredients and then pour over the roast. Cover and cook on high for 30 minutes.
Then decrease to low heat and cook atleast 5 hours. Or cook on high for about 3
hours. You can always check your meat with a meat thermometer to be sure its
done. Pork should be, atleast 160 degrees in the center.


This is a good recipe to make on the go. 

Recently, I was browsing on pinterest and saw a link to bento boxes.  While looking through these bento box lunches, I thought, man our lunches are boring!!  So, I decided to give myself a challange to make 30 different lunches... Here are some of the things I came up with, and since now its "normal" for us to eat all different things, I doubt we will revert back to eating pb&j or turkey sandwiches most days like we used to!  We have also been slowly trying to fill our lunch plates with at least 1/2 fruits and vegetables.   

"All the lunches are taken of my almost 9 year old boys plate, the younger kids each have a little less going down by age."

Well over the last month or two we have successfully prepared, ate, and enjoyed over 30 different lunches.  My family is pleased! We will continue to come up with fun new ideas for lunches.  

Our family has been on a mission to try and keep High Fructose Corn Syrup and other fake sugars out of our diet. So, as summer approached we have been planning what types of popsicles to make!  The other day I bought some super good juice from costco that was Peach, Apple, and passion fruit  we all thought it was great!  So, on the 4th of July for a special treat, I decided to blend that with some fresh rasperries to make up our first batch of homemade popsicles of the summer.  They came out super delicious!!  I don't know the actual amounts, I just poured into the blender about the right amount I figured would fill my 6 popsicle molds, and then added a small handful of raspberries. :)  I think our next ones are going to be coconut milk and strawberries blended together, since one of my kiddos has to eat dairy free we can't really make a creamsicle.     

I really, really love refried beans at a mexican restaurant, and would love to make them at home.  I have attempted many times, and they never really come out right.  This last time I made them, they were much closer!  They are good, we really enjoyed them, but I will continue to toy with them to get them even closer to a restaurant refried bean! :) 

Ingredients:

2 Cups Pinto Beans
1/2 Cup Organic Salsa
3 1/2 Cups Organic Beef Broth (chicken or vegetable would work too)
3 1/2 Cups Water
1 Cup Diced Onion
2 Cloves Garlic Minced
1/2 - 1 tsp Chili Powder (or more)
1/2 - 1 tsp Cumin (again put as much as you want)
1 tsp Bacon Grease
pinch of Sea Salt
pinch of black pepper

Directions:

Rinse beans, and then place all ingredients into a crock pot, I cooked mine on low all night, about 12 hours, and then when I woke up in the morning I smashed the beans with a potato smasher, and then cooked them on high for about 3 more hours. Other recipes I have seen, say cook on high for about 8 hours, so just keep an eye on how much liquid you still have.  Enjoy!  We had them with taco salads tonight, and everyone enjoyed them.. :)