Quick, Clean Lunch!

Well, it has been a bit longer than intended. But I have a few minutes and thought I'd share the quick lunch I'm eating!

I've been getting quite bored with grilled chicken and found a delicious recipe for Paleo Jerk Chicken. I make this Sunday evenings so I have a bit for the week. It calls for wings or breasts. I used about 8-10 tenderloins (I think?), it's equivalent to about 5 chicken breasts. I pop it in a rubbermaid in the fridge.

Raw chicken with jerk rub:

Final cooked look:

I felt the need for some green in my lunch. I took some spring mix and some of the jerk chicken to make a quick salad. I've been trying to find good paleo/cleanish dressings to use. Yesterday I was told by my workout partner that we're no longer using oils, but switching to Apple Cider Vinegar. My dressing for this salad was about 2-3 teaspoons of Apple Cider Vinegar and lime juice. I wasn't really sure how I'd feel about the vinegar or the vinegar mixed with the lime juice. But it kind of tastes like cilantro. Delish. Pretty simple and basic. But still good. 

Boring looking delicious salad (after eating some of it, oops):

Since it's also a pre-workout meal, I needed some good carbs. On Sundays I also baked a few sweet potatoes or make some clean sweet potato casserole. Today I have the clean sweet potato casserole. I modify the cooking instructions a little. Instead of baking the topping separately, I combine it, prepare the cooked sweet potatoes with other ingredients, put the topping on the mixture and bake for another 10-15 minutes. 

That's all for today :) 

Entry One!

I'm still unsure of how a blog will work for me. But I've been pondering it for a while, and thought, hey, why not?

One of the reasons I decided to start this blog is due to CrossFit. I'm quickly approaching my 2 year anniversary at my CrossFit gym, Triple Crown CrossFit, and have been thinking of how I have changed in my health and fitness over this time. When I first started CrossFit I was bored with my gym routine and had seemed to reach the end of my weight loss. Once I started CrossFit, I began building muscle and inches.  

But what participating in CrossFit really made me realize was that I need to change the foods I was eating. Over the past two years I have made a conscious effort to "eat better." I tried to include more veggies and choose grilled chicken over a cheeseburger. I would, naturally, do better at eating during the week than the weekend. But it still wasn't great.

Throughout the past two years I also trained for and completed 3 half marathons (Cincinnati Half Marathon, Flying Pig Half Marathon, and Capital City Half Marathon). While training for these I restricted my social drinking habits a lot. This continued even when I wasn't training in between the marathons. I began to realize that part of the reason for my efforts to eat better and cut back on drinking were due to the training and CrossFit. I've been putting in all this work to make my body better and wanted to make the fuel I was giving my body better too. I believe there's a saying that your stomach isn't a garbage dump?

Now, please don't think I'm world's greatest eater. I've been attempting clean eating and lots of paleo recipes. But I don't know that I have it in me to go totally clean/paleo. Let's be honest, I need some sugar and bad carbs in my life from time to time. I love me some ice cream and I'm a bit of a social drinker :) 

With my above ramblings in mind, the real reason I created this blog is to share the food I'm attempting to make and note any progress or exciting things that happen along the way.

Since my summer has officially started (yay being a teacher), I've had a bit more time to play with the paleo/clean recipes I've been pinning (follow my "healthy fooooood" blog on pinterest and on instragram).  

I've been picking recipes that are easy to make, generally more cost efficient, and don't take too long to whip together. Last week I made zucchini pasta from Amee's Savory Dish. It was so good that I made it again this evening. 

Ingredients:

• 1 lb. ground bison (they sell it at Kroger!)
• package of mushrooms
• garlic cloves
• sweet onion
• 2 zucchini
• Simple Truth Tomato & Basil pasta sauce
• veggie or coconut oil

I used the veggie spiralizer I recently purchased ($30 on Amazon). It's amazing and super easy to use and clean. But I also made some slight changes to Amee's recipe. I used ground bison instead of the recommended meat. I probably also changed the order on how I cooked it.

I'm going to stop rambling for the evening. Expect more soon!