My Summer Diet: The List. Week 1

Grocery List:

**Prices according to Harris Teeter website, only priced what will be completely used this week, the other stuff will be used in the weeks to come as well.

• 1 red grapefruit $0.78
• 1 red apple       $1.00
• 1 beet               $4.00 (most stores sell in bunches, so save for next week)             
• 1 sweet potato  $0.87
• 1 yellow apple   $1.00
• 1 yellow squash $1.00
• 1 avocado         $1.27 (2 count bag)
• 1 eggplant         $2.00
• 1 red onion       $1.16
• 1 cucumber      $0.99
• garlic clove       $0.50
• 1 sweet onion   $1.16
• choice of tomato
• carrots
• russet potatoes
• celery
• arugula
• spinach
• frozen blackberries 
• frozen blueberries
• bag of lemons (for drinking in your water as well)
• peanut butter (natural)
• Parmesan cheese
• pinto beans
• 3 cans of diced tomatoes
• 1 can of crushed tomatoes
• 1 can of tomato paste
• green chili peppers
• refried beans
• can of pumpkin
• whole wheat, water mix pancake mix
• whole wheat pasta noodles
• quinoa
• whole rolled oats
• whole grain artisan bread
• almond milk, if you want for flavor, not necessary
• 96/4 ground beef
• meats of choice, remember 2 nights you need to eat fish

NOTE: Most of these ingredients will be used in week 2 or later on in week 1, so since this is the first week it will be the longest list. Please freeze and refrigerate appropriately.

>>Keep everything to 1 serving size<<

Monday

Breakfast: Red grapefruit + red apple cinnamon oatmeal*. 

Lunch: Beet quinoa salad*

Dinner: Your choice of tomato with your choice of meat.

*Signifies recipe at bottom

Tuesday

Breakfast: Pumpkin oatmeal*

Lunch: Pasta Fagoli*

Dinner: Baked Sweet potato with choice of meat.

Wednesday

Breakfast: Yellow apple slices with 2 tablespoons of peanut butter

Lunch: Lemon quinoa salad*

Dinner: Incorporate yellow squash with choice of meat.

Thursday

Breakfast: Avocado spread on toast (Whole grain artisan bread)

Lunch: Arugula and spinach salad (Incorporate extra vegetables from the week, like tomato, carrot, onion)

Dinner: Meat with your choice of greens, I would recommend more spinach just a different way.

Friday

Breakfast: Blueberry pancakes* 

Lunch: Vegetable quinoa salad*

Dinner: Eggplant parmigiana* made with meatsauce.

Saturday

Breakfast: Blackberry oatmeal*

Lunch: Refried beans*

Dinner: Russet potatoes prepared how you like plus a meat of choice.

Sunday

Breakfast: Potato and white onion hashbrowns, cooked in very little olive or canola oil.

Lunch: Roasted galic spaghetti*

Dinner: Leftover vegetable medley or leftover pasta fagoli (stir fry) plus choice of meat.

*Recipes

1. Red apple cinnamon oatmeal. Prepare 1 serving of oatmeal with water using the stove top, adding half of the red apple, cut into small chunks, into the bowling water and oatmeal. Cook until the oats and apple are cooked all the way through. Add 1/2 to 1 teaspoon of cinnamon, plus no more than 1 tablespoon of brown sugar. Flavor with 1-2 tablespoons of almond milk if desired.
2. Beet quinoa salad. (This makes 1 serving, if you want to make more than one and save the other half for your green salad day you can, as this also has greens in it). Prepare this the night before to save time!                     
   • 1/3 cup of sliced beets (Steam until tender, about 7-10 minutes)
   • 3 tablespoons quinoa (cook with water until tender and water is fully absorbed, about 15 minutes)
   • 1/3 cup water
   • 1 tablespoon olive oil (whisk following ingredients, until star, to create dressing)
   • 1 tablespoon red wine vinegar
   • 1/4 teaspoon white sugar
   • 1 clove garlic, crushed
   • 1/8 teaspoon salt
   • 1/8 teaspoon ground black pepper *
   • 1/4 cup red onions, sliced (Mix with beets and qunioa)
   • 1/2 ounce arugula, chopped (small hand full) - Place salad on top of arugula and serve
3. Pumpkin Oatmeal. Prepare 1 serving of oatmeal with water, using stove top or microwave. When fully cooked add 2 tablespoons of canned pumpkin (refrigerate the rest in a new air tight container) and cinnamon. You may add walnuts or almond milk for flavor addition.
4. Pasta Fagoli. (This makes more than 1 serving, a serving size is 1.5 cups). Prepare this the night before to save time!     Chop or dice 1 potato, 1 cup of carrots, half of the white onion, half of the red onion, 1.5 cups of celery, and a few pieces of fresh garlic. Add all of the chopped vegetables to a saucepan with 1 tablespoon of olive oil, cook until the are softening. Add can of diced tomatoes and the can of pinto beans. Cook until evenly heated and all the vegetables are softened. Flavor with basil, thyme, rosemary, garlic powder, fresh ground pepper, and sea salt. (To your liking).  Freeze extras in 1 serving sizes so you can grab and reheat easily. This is a mixture of colors, so you can eat this for lunch on a red, green, white, or brown day if you don't have time to prepare the other! 
5. Lemon quinoa salad. Prepare the night before for best results. (1 serving size)
• 3 tablespoons quinoa (cook with water until tender and water is fully absorbed, about 15 minutes)
• 1/3 cup water
• 3 tablespoons of fresh lemon juice (whisk together with the following, until star)
• 1.5 tablespoons of olive oil
• 1/4 teaspoon dill
• 1/8 clove garlic crushed
• 1/2 teaspoon parsley*
• 1/2 cucumber sliced into half moons
• 1/8 cup of white onions, diced
6. Blueberry pancakes. Whole wheat pancake mix, mix with water. Add desired amount of drefrosted blueberries to your pancakes. (Great thing about only add water mix, you can make just 1 serving!). Use canola oil spray for the pan. Sprinkle with powdered sugar (tiny amount).
7. Vegetable quinoa salad. Dice red onion, cucumber, carrots, celery, and other vegetable you choose. Eat no more than 1.5 cups of total vegetables. Mix with cooked quinoa, prepared the same as early that week. Pour on 1-2 tablespoons of a vinaigrette of choice.
8. Eggplant parmigiana. Slice your eggplant into the desired thickness. Soak them in water. Brown 96/4 ground beef with remaining red onion. Pour in can of diced tomatoes, crushed tomatoes, and tomato paste. Add basil, thyme, rosemary, oregano, a sprinkle of sugar, salt and pepper. Grill your eggplant either on a grill or on the oven racks. Place grilled eggplant into a pan, cover with sauce, sprinkle with parmesan cheese. Bake. Eat! **Freeze extra sauce**
9. Blackberry oatmeal. Prepare oatmeal as usual. In a saucepan place desired blackberries (1/4 cup) with a tablespoon of sugar and a tablespoon of water, cook until broken down. Mix with oatmeal. Flavor with almond milk if desired.
10. Refried Beans. Eat refried beans with avocado, carrots, green chili peppers, and diced tomatoes. (Read labels to create 1 serving size). **Fridge what you do not use from beans, peppers, and tomatoes**
11. Roasted garlic spaghetti.  Roast garlic in the oven with a tiny bit of olive oil. Turn on a sauce pan, heat the rest of your diced tomatoes, add basil and oregano and roasted garlic. Boil whole wheat pasta. Mix and enjoy. Add an arugula or spinach salad for a nice balance crunch!

My Summer Diet: The Set Up

So, this summer I decided to create a diet plan for my sister. Then after thinking about the plan, I realized how healthy this is and that I want to try it out for myself! 
Why?
1. Because I hate to recommend something I have never tried.
2. To know if it is a bad set up and plan. To learn ways to tweak it. Because this is for overall health advantage, not necessarily for people to lose weight. Yes, if you are overweight you will lose weight, but this is a step process diet that will teach you to make healthy choices over time. 
3. To see if there are physical benefits. Am I less tired? Do I have more energy? Am I starving? Am I satisfied? All worth while questions to consider when changing your diet.


Disclaimer: A diet is your everyday food choice system, it is not necessarily a miracle drop 10 pounds and get off the diet program. This is a set up that will adjust the foods every 3 weeks, to eventually have you eating normal without thinking 'diet' but yet you will be eating super healthy.


I will be updating my blog every week with a grocery list, breakfast and lunch plan, and suggestions for dinner. I also will update every day or two to tell you if I enjoyed my food, hated my food, or just how I felt that day. Enjoyment is a big part of eating, and I don't want to lose it!


So here are the plans for the next 3 weeks (starting Monday) of my life. [In 3 weeks I will make adjustments, making it less strict]


Daily goal: at LEAST 10 minutes of vigorous exercises a day. (Run, jog, brisk walk, jumping, skipping, etc.)

So the set up:

Breakfast and Lunch everyday is VEGAN. That means absolutely no dairy or meats. (No eggs, butter, milk, cream, cheese, meat, mayo etc.)

Dinner you can have 1 serving of meat (that means no bigger than the size of the palm of your hand and no thicker than a quarter inch).

Dinner you can have 1 dairy serving, only 1. So, that means you can look at the serving size. You CAN add together different types to make 1. For example, you can have 1/4 serving of butter plus 1/2 serving of milk plus 1/4 serving of cheese.

Dinner: have fish at least 2 times a week, if not more.

You MAY have 2 desserts between Friday and Sunday. 2 desserts means if you have 2 servings of cookies on Friday that is all you can have that weekend.

Drink only water or lemon water. No alcohol, we will add that back during adjustments, but for 3 weeks no alcohol. Drink 10 - 8 ounce servings a day, at the least. 

Food Rules: Absolutely NO processed foods. Do not boil vegetables, only grill, stir fry (use spray canola oil), or bake, because boiling loses important nutrients. You can boil if you make a soup.  Only can you eat whole grains, so if you want bread buy whole grains, but make sure it is vegan. Multigrain does not mean whole grain. Also, try incorporating quinoa and oatmeal as much as possible.

Overwhelmed? Well, here's a way to make a vegan crunch more appetizing and fresh and fun. 

The Color Days. So, in order to ensure that you are getting all the nutrients that your body needs and craves you are going to incorporate one color of food (still eating others as well) into each of your meals.

Monday: Red. You must eat something red for breakfast, lunch and dinner. 

              What is red? Red apples, blood oranges, cherries, cranberries, red grapefruit, red pears, pomegranates, raspberries, watermelon, beets, red peppers, radishes, radicchio, red onion red potatoes, rhubarb, and tomatoes.

Tuesday: Orange. You must eat something orange for breakfast, lunch, and dinner.

               What is orange? Cantaloupe, grapefruit, mango, nectarine, orange, papaya, apricot, peach, tangerine, butternut squash, carrots, pumpkin, and sweet potato. (Sweet potatoes are super healthy!)

Wednesday: Yellow. You must eat something yellow for breakfast, lunch, and dinner.

                   What is Yellow? Yellow apples, yellow figs, golden kiwi, lemons, yellow pears, pineapple, yellow watermelon, yellow beets, yellow peppers, yellow tomatoes, yellow potatoes, yellow squash, corn, and spaghetti squash. 

Thursday: Green. You must eat something green for breakfast, lunch, and dinner.

               What is green? Avocado, green apple, green grapes, honeydew, kiwi, lime, peas, artichoke, arugula, asparagus, broccoli, brussel sprouts, cabbage, green beans, celery, cucumbers, leafy greens, leeks, lettuce, okra, green peppers, spinach****, and zucchini.

Friday: Blue/Purple. You must eat something blue or purple for breakfast, lunch, and dinner.

           What is blue or purple? Blueberries, purple grapes, plums, purple figs, purple asparagus, eggplant, purple potatoes, purple carrots, purple peppers, and red onions.

Saturday: Black/Brown. You must eat something black or brown for breakfast, lunch, and dinner.

           What is black or brown? Blackberries, black currants, prunes, raisins, black olives, brown pears, russet potatoes, mushrooms, dates, and ginger.

Sunday: White. You must eat something white for breakfast, lunch, and dinner.

            What is white? White nectarines, white peaches, jicama, onion, parsnips, potato, shallot, turnip, popcorn, white corn, cauliflower, celery root, and garlic.

In the Pantry: Ripening Fruit

Ever wonder why you can buy bananas that are green, place them into your fruit basket and they ripen quicker than you would like? Or wonder why when you keep your fruit in a bag they ripen practically overnight?

Here's your in the pantry tip to keeping up with your fruits.
*First of all only fruits ripen after picked, vegetables do not.
*Second of all ripening is the process of starches becoming sugars... hence why fruits are sweeter when they are riper.

Notice how when your banana is green it is tougher (starchier) and when it is yellow or brown in is mushier (sugars).

In order to ripen, fruits give off a gas hormone. All fruits give off this hormone, however some give off more than others. The APPLE, for example, gives off the most.

"I give off a lot of gas"

So, when you place apples in a fruit basket among other fruits the other fruits will ripen at an accerlated rate, causing browning probably sooner than you anticipated. Also, if one apple is bruised (a precursor to higher hormone) the entire batch of apples will go bad faster. So, when people reference bad apples, they are referring to the fact and phrase that one bad apple can spoil an entire barrel. 

Ripening Persimmon in a bag.

If you keep fruit in bags they ripen faster because the hormone they give off has no where to go making the concentration then is higher.

In conclusion, if you want your fruit to ripen faster place them in a bag or next to apples. If you want them to last longer and stay fresh, keep them out in a bowl with fresh air and no apples. Fruit should last 7-10 days after purchasing.




This was In the Pantry: Ripening Fruit. Stay tuned for more!