Clean Eating Challenge: Days 9, 10, & 11

Day 9

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

Snack: Cucumber & Hummus

Lunch: Kale Salad with White Beans, Butternut Squash & Vinaigrette

Dinner: Chicken Thighs with Asparagus & Red Peppers

Snack: Broiled Grapefruit with Shredded Coconut

I think I put more spinach into the egg muffins than I was supposed to but they turned out tasty. Strawberries are one of my favorites. So breakfast was a success today!

Kale is so bitter. I know that seems to be my buzz word for this challenge, but so many of the items on the menu are just that-bitter! The honey in the vinaigrette helped cut that a little, but not enough. I was telling a coworker about this challenge last week so each day I show her what I have. She is El Salvadorian and speaks Spanish so I went to her and said “Tengo comida de conejos!” (“I have rabbit food!”) hahahaha! Then we had a chat about butternut squash with the help of google translate. I continued to pick at my rabbit food for a good hour. It was a really big bunch of Kale.   

I failed to purchase a cucumber this week. Well, I almost did, but the cashier at Whole Foods pointed out that one end of the cuc I picked up was squishy/rotten so I did not buy it. Oh, my grocery bill this week was lower, $85 at Whole Foods ($13 of that being a large bag of chia seeds to continue using beyond this challenge), and $25 at Hollygrove because I wanted to get as much of the produce as possible from local farmers. Any way, I finally ate the dates with pistachios and coconut!! That was my substitute snack.

By the time I got home from work my hangry side was starting to kick in. I whipped up the asparagus, red pepper, chicken thigh dish quickly and devoured it! Those chicken thighs were heaven sent. Yum!!!

As this entire challenge has been a lesson in adaptability for me, I have learned how to eat a grapefruit without it nearly killing me. On my salad the other night I had pieces of grapefruit that I had carefully removed all of the white membranes from, the fleshy part is less bitter than the white stuff, and it was actually tolerable. I employed this method again with my night snack and opted out of the broiling stage. So, grapefruit segments, drizzle of honey and sprinkling of shredded coconut. Much better than my first round with this recipe!

Thoughts: You win some. You lose some. You adapt to suit your tastes!

Day 10

Breakfast: Strawberry, Almond Milk Smoothie

Snack: Avocado

Lunch: Pork Loin, Asparagus & Cauliflower “Rice” Bowl

Dinner: Baked Eggs with Butternut Squash & Spinach

Snack: Cheese & Dates

NO WAY was I making that smoothie again after last weeks debacle. I am still traumatized from that memory. Instead I made the strawberry, almond chia pudding and it was great! I really am a fan of this chia pudding stuff!

Lunch was also very satisfying today. Hearty and yummy. Can’t go wrong with that! With a filling breakfast and lunch I held off on the avocado until late afternoon before I left work.

Once again I modified dinner’s cooking instructions to suite my tastes better and made a scramble of everything instead of baking things. I am getting a little tired of all of the eggs but I’m dealing with it.

I felt like a little mousy nibbling on my chunk of cheese! A fig and some cheese wouldn’t be normal go-to snack, but it was filling. I’m really noting portion control with this challenge.


Thoughts: Still loving the cauliflower "rice". Getting tired of eggs so frequently.

Day 11

Breakfast: Chia Pudding with Pineapple, Mint and Coconut

Snack: Roasted Pepper, Cheddar Cheese & Spinach Egg Muffin

Lunch: Chicken & Avocado Romaine Cups

Dinner: Roasted Chickpeas with Kale on Cheesy Portobello Mushroom Caps

Snack: Banana, Chocolate, Coconut Popsicle

Chia Pudding = the best! Leaving the pineapple chunks in the mixture overnight really sweetened it all up!

The chicken & avocado salad if you will was nice and light. I made a few lettuce boats but in the end just used a fork to eat the rest of the salad. I would make this again. You could easily toss in some extra veggies like onions or peppers to add more volume and flavor.

Egg Muffin snack was fine. Again, a lot of egg action going on in this menu. I suppose it is a healthy, cheap form of protein (I say that, but egg prices are higher right now due to the outbreak of bird flu resulting in a lot of euthanized egg layers).

I dreaded dinner. That is soooo much mushroom. I like tiny bits of mushrooms, not massive hunks. The textures were all over the place. Chewy, rubbery mushroom. Crispy kale. Crunchy chickpeas. It didn't kill me, but I did not enjoy it.

I haven't eaten the popsicle dessert. Not sure that I will. They don't taste too bad but I don't care for the banana and chocolate combo. 

Thoughts: I am honestly surprised at my lack of full on cheating with this challenge. I have tried everything that they have presented, maybe with a few tweaks, but no major changes to the nutritional aspect of the recipe, and stepped outside my comfort zone of cuisine. Trying to hold strong. The cravings for junk are starting to kick in though.

Three more days of the regime. I can make it!