Clean Eating Challenge: Days 12, 13 & 14

Day 12

Breakfast: Roasted Pepper, Cheddar Cheese & Spinach Egg Muffins with Blueberries

Snack: Chocolate Avocado Pudding

Lunch: Shaved Pork and Cheddar Sandwich on a Portobello “Bun”

Dinner: Steamed Salmon with Snap Peas, Garlic & Quinoa

Snack: Mango Sorbet with Pistachios

I ate about ⅓ of my dinner last night and didn’t eat the popsicle. They just don’t appeal to me. So my stomach was starting to growl for breakfast pretty early on. The egg muffins are fine and blueberries are fine. It was all just fine. (Somehow I deleted the photo I took of this, but imagine a pile of blueberries beside two little egg muffins from the other day.)

Guys. I couldn’t do it. I tried. I ate a bite of the “sandwich” but it was so much mushroom. Then I tried making it an open-faced and that didn’t work either. I resorted to just picking out the good stuff in the middle.

I knew when I made the avocado chocolate pudding that it was not going to be as tasty as the picture on Buzzfeed would lead you to believe. Bleh. It was very strong on the avocado front. I like avocados, but not with cocoa powder mixed in. A lunch and snack fail had me asking “when is dinner??”

I was very excited to be having salmon for dinner again! The quinoa and snap peas came together quickly. Yum!

I have clearly gotten into the habit of not eating the last snack of the day. I did not eat the mango sorbet. It is still in the freezer. Maybe I’ll break into it next week. It just wasn’t calling to me.

Thoughts: Portobello mushrooms are just never going to make it onto my plate in massive chunks again. Fact. Avocados are delicious. Chocolate is delicious. Together they are disgusting. Noted.

Day 13

Breakfast: Soft Scrambled Eggs with Kale & Parmesan

Snack: Cherry Tomato, Chickpea, Parsley Salad

Lunch: Salmon Salad with Grapefruit, Pistachios & Infused Lemon Vinaigrette

Dinner: Quinoa & Zucchini Salad with Scallions, Mint & Crushed Almonds

Snack: Dark Chocolate

Breakfast was fine. I’m over the scrambled eggs and kale is not my favorite green. It sufficed though.

Lunch was great! The arugula and vinaigrette were on the sour side but the orange segments balanced that out with their sweetness. (I substituted orange instead of grapefruit for variety, but I think grapefruit would have been fine too.) I would make this again.

Cherry tomatoes and chickpeas was one of the heartier snacks I've had. It was quite satisfying. 

The quinoa and zucchini "salad" was really good. It is not something that I would have thought to mix together but I liked it. It came together very quickly since the quinoa was already made.

Thoughts: Overall a good day as far as the menu goes. I like that this challenge has everything mapped out for you, from the grocery list to every step of every recipe. But I at the same time I am getting tired of eating on a schedule. It is kind of a toss up for me. No guess work, but also no freedom. I need a better balance.

Day 14 (the FINAL day!)

Breakfast: Strawberry, Kale, Avocado Smoothie

Snack: Grapefruit & Almonds

Lunch: "Fried" Quinoa with Green Beans & Red Peppers

Dinner: Tuna Melt-Stuffed Tomatoes

Snack: Banana, Chocolate & Coconut Popsicle

You guessed it, I did not wake up early enough to even attempt to make that smoothie. It was straight to lunch for me! Again, because the quinoa was in the fridge ready to go, the kitchen time was relatively minimal. I liked this dish a lot. I'll add it to my pinterest board for future reference.

I ate my snack later on in the afternoon. I had half of the orange left over from lunch yesterday and only five almonds still in my stash. It was enough though to hold me over until dinner. 

It seems like the recipes are getting faster to make. The tuna salad concoction that gets stuffed in the tomatoes was very simple. It called for dijon mustard and I went with it, though I really don't like the taste of that stuff. I think I would prefer yellow mustard even. These weren't bad. Warmed up tomato is not my favorite way to eat these summer delights, but I ate it anyway. With some minor modifications I would make this again.

I didn't mess with that popsicle. Just don't care to eat them.

Final thoughts: I am greatly looking forward to eating chicken tenders/nuggets tomorrow. I have been craving them for days now! Also, I want something rich and chocolately, preferably on the fudgy side. Then I think I will be good. Hahaha! Overall I am very glad that I did this challenge. I discovered a lot of healthy dishes that I will make again. The measuring and counting helped me visually see portions differently since I typically just eyeball things. I still need to focus on the eating slower part. Since everything was portion controlled there really wasn't much chance of over eating, but this goes back to the better understanding of serving sizes I have learned. Buzzfeed has another two week challenge from last year...maybe I'll check it out and give it a go soon. Or at the very least try some of their recipes.