Clean Eating, OhFeelYa Style...

Hello there! I've missed you all dreadfully, but it's been a crazy May/June. I'm teaching a ton right now, drowning in the grading, and gearing up to start as chair of my department at school in July. Also, I've retired from derby and needed a new hobby. My best friend and I started lifting weights about five days a week six weeks ago. It really seemed like a waste to eat a lot of crap and then go sweat for hours at the gym, so I had to revise my food plan a little bit. None of this is really revolutionary, but I thought I'd post about it anyway because it's pretty revolutionary for me. And it's all nice and light for summer.

Courtesy of my sweet sister. Swoon, Leonardo.

First off is sautéed shrimp and broccoli with sriracha. I love the ease of this one. I got a giant bag of cooked, frozen shrimp at Trader Joe's. In the morning, I put a handful of shrimp in a bowl in the fridge to thaw for the evening. I also usually get two heads of organic broccoli and steam it all at once and eat on it for the week. So I get a skillet hot (about medium), drizzle a tiny bit of sesame oil in it, and then add the shrimp, broccoli, garlic salt, Mrs. Dash, and some sesame seeds. Just toss it around until everything is hot, drizzle with sriracha, and serve with a side of cottage cheese. Yum!

Here's a variation with carrots and cauliflower with some kalamata olives on the side. 

I love any kind of lean red meat. And to be honest, not-so-lean red meat. This is some filet from a local ranch. I marinated it in red wine, crushed garlic cloves, rosemary, salt and pepper. To cook, I just seared it off on a high heat on both sides, turned the heat down, and put a lid on it for a few minutes. Season and let it rest before you cut it up. I layered it over fresh spinach, alfalfa sprouts a friend grew for me, avocado, and drizzled it with balsamic vinegar. Served with black-eyed peas and green beans. 

This is one of my favorites. It's a turkey loin from Trader Joe's. I marinated it in crushed garlic, white wine, salt, pepper, sage, and thyme. I seared it off all the way around on a med-high heat, covered it in turkey broth I made and canned from the Thanksgiving turkey, and let it simmer until cooked through. You really don't want to overcook the turkey loin. While it rested, I chopped some garlic, olives (green and kalamata), and sun-dried tomatoes and sautéed them in a little olive oil. Served with steamed asparagus. I love the salty tomatoes and olives with this mild-flavored meat. Turkey loin is surprisingly moist if not overcooked. I apologize for my fancy china; I frequently just help both mine and the girl child's dinner onto her plastic ware.  

Below are some of my favorite snacks. Tuna fish with Tabasco sauce and edamame. Yum! 

Steamed broccoli and cottage cheese. I'm sort of obsessed with cottage cheese right now. Large curd. Small curd is weird.

I saved my favorite for further down this list. Below is turkey (I know processed lunch meat sucks, but I did get the organic, nitrate-free kind, so cut me some slack, okay? Eating right is really hard) spread with some homemade sriracha humus (you can easily make this with store-bought plain hummus mixed with as much sriracha as you like if you don't want to really make humus all the way from scratch), avocado, and alfalfa sprouts. Roll it up, and you will be the envy of your office break room. Served with strawberries from my garden! 

I love fish. A lot. I should eat more of it. Below is cod with a tiny sprinkle of breadcrumbs, seared quickly in a little coconut oil with lots of lemon juice. Steamed broccoli and summer squash with Mrs. Dash as a side.



I have also discovered the joy that is ground bison. I get it at the Natural Grocer's, and it's really good mixed with anything. This is not a pretty picture below, I will warn you. When I'm less tired, I make bison meatballs, and they're prettier. However, tonight I was starving, so I just chunked it up in the pan and ate it with black quinoa and steamed carrots and edamame. I mix the bison with some chopped garlic, garlic salt, and Worcestershire sauce before I make it into meatballs or cook it. Btw, if you have a rice cooker (I couldn't live without mine--all this on the blog, and I CANNOT COOK RICE), it will steam quinoa perfectly for you.  

I'm surprised at how much I'm enjoying both the weight lifting and the clean eating. I usually eat a piece of Ezekial bread with organic peanut butter on it from the Natural Grocer's before I hit the gym, a protein shake after, two meals like what is pictured above with a snack or a protein bar in between somewhere. I eat two cheat meals a week, and my God, are they glorious, but otherwise I avoid fast food and processed flour and sugar. This is a pretty different way of living for me, but I'm kind of liking it. And I'm getting over my aversion to vegetables.



Squats!

I would love to know what you all eat when you're working out a lot! It's so easy to get stuck in a rut. I hope this has given you some ideas, and I'd love some in return!