Engine 2 Diet Week 1 Review

We have been taken over by Netflix food/health documentaries! Started with Food Inc, of course. Then Sick Fat and Nearly Dead, followed by Forks over Knives which lead us to Engine 2!

My husband, who is currently very close to having "high cholesterol" looked into several different ways to lower it. He stumbled across a few studies online (all which reappeared in Forks over Knives) and this guy, Rip Esselstyn. He's a former triathlete, which makes my husband happy that they have that in common (yes, like we know the guy personally now!) That lead us into watching his short documentary on Netflix and buying the book Engine 2 Diet and making the crazy decsion to go "plant-based" for 28days! No animal product of any sort!! Yes, no cheese! Crazy right?!?

The book has a ton of information!! Even a section on "crazy myths about food" which answers those myths- "You cant get enough protein on a plant based diet." "Carbohydrates make us fat" "You need dairy products for calcium". Its a really interesting read and the little personal stories throughout are a nice touch.

On their website Engine 2 Diet there is a ton of resources like a weekly meal plan. We printed week 1 meal plan and grocery list and were ready to go! There are some recipes on their website but not all. The book has a lot more. Though here comes my first issue with the book/program. It will suggest for dinner "Big Salad with brussel sprouts and new potatoes". Which is a perfectly fine dinner.. but the only recipe to pull up is the salad.. no mention how to cook brussel sprouts or new potatoes. Now, at our house we cook often and are comfortable in the kitchen and of course google most things if we don't know how to prepare it. But this diet has a lot of restrictions. He's not one for using alot of oil in cooking. The diet allows pam spray and suggests using veggie broth or a veggie juice instead of oil in a pan, which adds sooo much yummy flavor!! Ok, back to oils- oils are a processed form of the vegetable and instead of using a highly processed form, he'd rather have you chop olives and throw them in the dish in their natural state. So our old method of brussel sprouts was out the window! I could see how someone who is new to certain vegetables or has bad feelings towards certain ones, would be turned off by them not stating how to cook all parts of the meal!

Second thing that I was VERY shocked about was that there isn't a nutritional information guide with the recipes. You're telling me that a certain vegetable has 40% more protein than something else, but how much protein is that? Tell me how much protein the meal I am preparing has! This was a big let down for the book for me.

Even with these 2 personal hiccups week 1 was successful in our household, yes even with our 2 little ones!

Breakfast- breakfast was easy for our family. We've recently turned into a cereal fam. My husband and daughter LOVE oatmeal and they are enjoying the new grainier healthier versions. Lil man still needs some convincing on the real whole grain cereals, but he's made the adjustment from cows milk to soy milk well. It took a few days, but he's eating it in his cereal now. He would drink it from a cup before this adventure, but something about it in cereal just wasn't ok with him for a few days! We don't really do eggs often. I'm not a fan. But we have a container of egg whites in the fridge because with me pregnant and the kids we've made the choice that the 3 of us can "cheat" on the diet for breakfast and lunch if needed. Not my husband though! Our lil man gets really cranky if he doesn't get enough to eat due to low blood sugar and of course his MCAD. We want to make sure we're offering him the new foods but having back up if needed! Bagels/toast with peanut butter, fruit all good for breakfast!

Lunch- We're working on lunch... It's been interesting. I grew up LOVING a good veggie sandwich. Starts with ideally a pita pocket with cream cheese spread on the inside followed by whatever veggies you had as long as sprouts were apart of it! Yummmy!! Well being pregnant is a downer for sprouts! That's a no-no and obviously the cream cheese had to go too. So we've been having pitas and wraps with veggies galore and hummus as spread! I've been enjoying them. First few sandwiches lil miss and lil man were all in but then they wanted pb and j and other staples to lunch! This will be my challenge week 2 is to make some really great lunches! Hubby has been taking mostly leftovers and then sandwiches too. Taking things to work is harder for him since he only has a choice of a microwave and not a kitchen to prepare.

Dinner- We do a big chef type salad probably once a week anyway, so the salads weren't an issue, but the tofu.. It's just a challenge to think that the tofu is going to taste good. But once you have a good meal that satisfies with tofu in it, it kinda changes your mind! There was a dinner this week I kept putting off and putting off.. "meat"loaf... I did not grow up with meatloaf. I know there are people out there that love their meatloaf and I've been told several times that they have a great recipe I should try. Not sure I really want to, but thanks for the offer! But Hubby and I said we'd stick to dinners for the 28 days and that meant fake meatloaf week 1! (split pea soup week 2...) We had it Thursday night so we had time to fix something else if it was a complete disaster. Well it wasn't!! It was good! And flavorful! And the kids asked for seconds!!! Yes, seconds!!! Now it didn't stick together well (learned that old fashion oats aren't quick oats) but it didn't matter it was good! The book's chalupas were good, their portabello mushroom burgers were good! It was an overall good week for dinners. Yes, there was some hiccups with the kids and not wanting to eat fake/pretend looking chicken strips, but I don't blame them!

Overall, I'm excited for week 2! There is some more tex-mex food which we love and some other dishes I'm interested to see how they turn out. Though I am not looking forward to split pea soup...

If you haven't seen the documentaries I mentioned up above, look into them, watch them. Might make you want to do something drastic like us, or maybe just add in a vegan/plant-based meal once a week.

Enjoy!

Trying to figure out Quinoa

Quinoa is the new craze in the foodie world! It's highly nutritional and contains a ton of protein for a "grain-like" food. I thought it was a grain until I wikipedia serached it and found out it's chenopod(?) which makes it close to beets, spinach and tumbleweeds?!? (yumm tumbleweeds... :-/  )

But I figured we need to add it into our diet and try out some different recipes with it. We basically made it like rice, tossed some veggies in a few times, just experimented but every time we made it the kids would barely touch it.. MY kids, the ones who devour rice and enjoy couscous so much! Great.. of course it's because it's healthy isn't it?!?

Came across another RECIPE I wanted to try with it- what if I attempt to hide it in the food!! :-) So I re-googled "how to cook quinoa" and came across this website How to Cook Quinoa Perfectly Well if he claims this is the perfect way why not give it a try. Then I started reading the article and it's common to cook quinoa like rice (a 1 part rice to 2 parts liquid). Well he does 1 part quinoa to 1.25 part liquid! Maybe that's the key! So too scared to cut the liquid down that much I modified and it turned out PERFECTLY! Way better texture! You can go to the link above and read about quinoa and different ways to cook it or you can read below how I did it using less water than I was before.

Perfect Quinoa
1cup quinoa
1 1/2 cup water

If you got your quinoa from the bulk section (normally best price) make sure you rinse it in a mess colander before cooking. I didn't soak mine before hand- just a quick rinse with cold water.

Add rinsed quinoa and water to a pot. Bring to a boil. Once boiling, cover and reduce to low simmer. Cook 30mintues.

Uncover and fluff with a fork and tada!

(I didn't measure the end product but from what I read online 1 cup dry makes 3 cups cooked. that seems about right for mine. I used 2cups in a recipe and have some leftover still.)

Enjoy!

Slow Cooker Turkey Wraps

I LOVE a good slow cooker recipe! Throw things into a giant pot you plug in and get on with your day! This recipe we've done several times over the past few months! It's easy and you are able to change things around to whatever you have on hand and it still turns out great!
The original recipe comes from Betty Crocker. I'll explain how I've changed it to fit our liking.

Slow Cooker Turkey Wraps

2lbs turkey breast cut into strips. (you can use chicken too!)
1 onion sliced
3/4cup bbq sauce
2 tb taco seasoning mix

8 flour tortillas
avocado, sliced
lettuce, sliced
fresh bell peppers sliced (original recipe calls for canned roasted peppers- not a fan in this household. plus fresh add a great crunch!)
shredded cheese (optional)
Bacon (optional) we normally leave out the bacon to keep it lower fat

1. Pour a little olive oil into a skillet and brown the turkey a little with the onion. This step is very fast. If you choose to use bacon brown it in skillet first then remove bacon and fat and then add turkey and onions.

2. Put turkey and onions into crocpot and cover with bbq sauce and taco seasoning.

3. Cook on low for 5-6hours

4. Take out turkey and shred then return it to crocpot.

5. Wrap tortillas in wet paper towel and heat in microwave until warm, I usually go in 30sec intervals flipping them every 30secs.

6. Start filling the wrap with your topping choices.

We make these fun for the kids and let them add their toppings. I think it makes them eat whatever recipe it is, better when they get to help. For me I normally make one wrap and then make a little 'side' salad with the veggies and turkey, just basically no wrap. So if you're trying to get away from so many carbs that would be a good option.

(you can see that I devoured the wrap and went back for seconds with a salad!)

Eat Right for Your Blood Type

Happy New Year! Yes, a few weeks late! This holiday season was CRAZY for our family! We took a very long vacation to visit family and took a road trip to get there. We're finally back and settled back into reality.

This year isn't going to be about diets for myself or my husband. It's going to be all about feeling great! I was introduced to the book Eat Right for Your Blood Type years ago. I tried to get my husband on board a few times but of course it has to be their idea, right?!? Well we borrowed the book and are digging in!

This book is all about how the different blood types evolved over time and the areas of the world where they are more predominate and how body chemistry is different for everyone depending on your blood type. Interesting huh?!? Even for you "not-into-it" people out there, healthy eating is never bad! This book isn't extreme and we're not living every ounce of food by it. Just a healthier approach to the meals we're cooking.

Well of course my husband and I are the complete opposites! I'm O blood type, the most common as are both kiddos and he's A. Which of course means I do well on red meats and he does best on vegetarian foods. So we're experimenting a lot with vegetarian foods lately and how to make some of our favorite recipes better for him. And I'm trying not to feel guilty eating more red meat than he is!

I'm excited about what this year holds for our family and the new foods we're going to be trying out.

Amazing Grilled Sandwiches!

Love Love Love Grill Season!!! (which is most of the time in Southern California) But there is something about those warm early summer days and firing up the grill!
We stumbled across the recipe while trying out the 'one vegetarian meal a week" idea.
Here's the originalrecipe from Allrecipes.com But of course we've changed things up a bit... :-)

Grilled Veggie Sandwiches

1 Red or Yellow or Orange Bell Pepper, cored and pulled apart into two halves
1 Zucchini, sliced longways
1 Yellow Squash, sliced longways
Half Red Onion, sliced
Mushrooms, if desired, either buttons sliced or Portabellas- they would make a pretty hearty huge sandwich
Loaf of Really Yummy Bread- (we normally go the focaccia route) sliced horizontally and vertically
Feta Cheese, crumbed
Pesto
Olive Oil for drizzling

Preheat grill to medium high.

Brush veggies and grill grate with oil. Place veggies on grill about 3min each side. Watch carefully though some may cook alot faster! (when I do mushrooms I do them inside in a saute pan and just saute with some garlic powder and pam spray)

(you can see the kids' ham and cheese side, but we did veggies

on their other side. Also added some parm cheese this time too!)

Place bread on cookie sheet. Spread both sides of bread with pesto. Pile on veggies (one side or both- sometimes hard to put together if on both sides) Top with feta. Pop them under the broiler for a few mins (could also put back on grill)

and ENJOY!!!

Sorta Soba Bowl

I really enjoyed watching Rachael Ray when I became a newly stay at home mom. She has such great recipes and understands the need to make a quick healthy meal. I don't get much time to watch her show now (Kids keep me too busy for that!) But we have some favorites of hers that we always come back to.

Sorta Soba Bowl
 Feeds 4-6 Adults

1lb of whole wheat spaghetti (we normally have a ton of leftover noodles but I freeze them or use them up         the following days)
2tbs vegetable oil- basically a few turns in the pan to help with sticking
1 onion diced
2+cloves of garlic-chopped
3 "handfuls" of store bought shredded carrots- I don't shredded my own carrots- more power to you if you do!
10ish shiitake mushrooms- thinly chopped
1 large zucchini, cut into half moons then sliced 1/2-inch thick
1 large bok choy or 3 baby boks- (remove middle part if using large bok choy) chop
6 cups of stock -chicken or veggie works

Topping
1/4cup toasted sesame seeds
1/2tbs ground coriander
1/2tbs chili powder
cayenne pepper- just a pinch depending on how spicy

Soy Sauce

Bring a large pot of water to a boil for the noodles. Once it boils add some salt and the noodles and cook until al dente- try not to overcook.

While water is boiling for noodles, swirl veg oil in a large soup pan/pot over medium heat. Add onion, garlic and carrots. Cook until onions start to get tender (4-5mins)

Add mushrooms, zucchini and bok choy- cook for another 2-3mins. Add stock and bring to a simmer for 5mins.

In a small bowl mix topping ingredients together- reserve for a garnish for soup.

Take cooked noodles and drain. Toss with a little veg oil and place in individual bowls. Drizzle some soy sauce over the noodles. Then pour veggie soup over noodles. Top with sesame seed topping.

For our little ones, I leave off the spicy topping and just sprinkle regular sesame seeds on theirs. I also serve it with forks and spoons for them. I, myself, use just a fork. We have left it vegetarian before but have also added shrimp and/or chicken to it. If chicken, I will marinate the chicken in some soyaki (from trader joes) or just some regular teriyaki sauce. Then bake in marinade and shred or dice cooked chicken and add into soup last minute.

Enjoy!

Vegetable Id Posts

We finally got our garden planted! I am so excited to plant our garden in the ground this year! It's been in containers for the past 2 years and I am really hoping it just takes over out there.

I thought it would be cute to have little stakes that said which vegetables were what, especially since we started most from seeds. I had some craft popsicle sticks laying around, picked up a sharpie and some markers and wrote down what the veggies were. So proud of myself and then..... fast forward to when my husband watered the garden for the first time and sure enough my markers were not waterproof.. :-(

Did a little googling and found DIY: Garden Stakes. SOOO CUTE!!!

It was a project I did outside while the kids were playing. They even came over and helped with the first coat of paint.

These were my colors.. really wanted yellow but didn't have enough

You can tell that the Lowe's side was hard to cover- but it's only on one side.

She says to use a paint pen to write the types.. Had no idea what a paint pen was or where to find it, but they are locked up at Michaels.. sharpie brand is what I picked up- also called a poster pen. Just FYI..

There's my little basil plant!

Getting Settled

Oh the joys of moving! Takes forever to pack things up and then just as long (if not longer) to unpack! Moving also means eating take out and super fast already prepared meals! We tried our best to stay semi healthy while moving but didn't always work out that way.

It's a month after closing and we are getting settled. Pictures are going up on walls and stuff is finding it's permanent home. Meals are also coming together. The kitchen is put together enough to actually want to cook a full meal and try new meals even!

Check out our beautiful new island!!

Last night's dinner...

Maui Maui with Pineapple Apple Salsa

3 maui maui fish fillets- Any white fish will work (We normally split a fillet between the two kids)
Pineapple- We used half of a fresh pineapple diced small- You could use a large can of pineapple chunks if needed
Half an apple diced small
handful of cilantro chopped
lime juice from half a lime- we only had the fake lime juice last night so just a few squirts (if you use a real lime and not the fake stuff in the plastic lime bottle, squirt the other half of lime over the fish before baking)
salt
pepper
paprika
red pepper flakes (didn't add this to the kids' fish fillet but did to the adults)

Preheat oven to 350. Place fish in sprayed baking dish. Sprinkle with salt, pepper, paprika, and optional red pepper flakes and lime juice. Bake for 10mins and check. Continue baking until forks easily. Ours took 20mins but they were thick and still slightly frozen.

Mix pineapple, apple, cilantro and lime juice in bowl. Let it sit until ready to serve (can be made a day before and store in fridge)

Place cooked fish on plate and top with salsa. Enjoy!

Can't wait for more cilantro meals!!!