green tea
My family’s Whataburger days are OVER!
Well, my work is done. In the last four days, my mother and I navigated through the grocery store, cooked a few healthy meals together and purged the pantry of all foods equivalent to a science experiment. I think tonight I will sleep a little better.
I have been trying to get my family to eat better and off the Whataburger diet for about a year now. Now that it has finally happened I am very relieved!
I think the whole experience was far less painful than we all thought it would be. My family was delighted at how great “health” food was and I was surprised that I didn’t hear too many complaints, especially from my mother,on our four mile trek through the woods. Can you believe my mother jogged? Even if it was only for a brief moment, it still counts! Mom definitely gets an “A” for effort!
Today, as I was leaving, my mom told me she felt great and had more energy. She even lost 2 lbs in the four days I was there. Contrary to popular belief, I did NOT starve her! Ha!
Monday
Mom and I went to the grocery store (H.E.B) and bought ingredients for our meals for the week which included pasta, turkey burgers, grilled steak tacos, and pizza. We looked at ingredients and learned where everything was located so my mom would have no excuses in the future!
Since my mother and I are big tea drinkers, we sipped on green tea with orange slices throughout the day. I love the taste of green tea ( I will ramble on about it in a future blog) and swear by its metabolism boosting benefits! The orange slices make it extra refreshing and sweet enough that there’s really no need to add sugar. I was inspired by this idea in the May issue of Health magazine. This works great in regular water too! Not much to it, here’s the recipe.
Fat-Flushing Cooler:
2 quarts brewed green tea (8 cups)
slices of orange, lemon & lime
Combine all ingredients in a large pitcher and enjoy hot or cold.
Here’s where I won’t comment on my mother’s knife skills or lack there of. For dinner we made Chicken Pasta Primavera, this recipe is from Health magazine July/August issue. This recipe is part of the Carb Lovers diet, it is full of RS (resistant starch), which fills you up longer and promotes fat burning. It is quick and delicious and has become a favorite around my house. You can go to http://www.health.com for the recipe, it is the second recipe that pops up if you search “Chicken Pasta Primavera”. Health magazine also has an iPhone app called The Carb Lovers Diet that has great recipes and snack ideas that focus on RS foods, like this one.
Dump all ingredients into bread machine pan according to manufacturer’s directions.
Select dough setting
When dough is done separate into 6 equal balls on a well floured surface
Allow to rise for 1 hour
Bake at 350 degrees for about 9 minutes
* When I was pouring the flour in the bread pan I lost track of my cup count ( brilliant I know!) thus I was only able to get 6 buns, the recipe states 12 servings, something to keep in mind.
This is not real food…
… this is not real food…
.
… this is NOT real food or drink for that matter. I did have to have a conversation with my sister about this tea. I thought as a family we had gotten past this, apparently I was quite wrong! My sister agreed it could go after we concluded that the added honey is why she likes the taste. She promised to make it herself and use real honey, sans Splenda! Gold star for you sister!
For dinner I made pizza. Veggie pizza that is minus the guilt! With all the flavor that this pizza packs you really don’t notice the missing pepperoni. For the pizza crust I also used the “dough” setting of my bread machine. You can find the recipe at http://www.Food.com.
Veggie Pizza 
:
1 garlic clove diced
fresh tomatoes diced
fresh red bell pepper sliced
fresh spinach
artichoke hearts
sliced red onion
organic mozzarella cheese shredded (Organic Valley)
Pizza sauce:
1 can tomato sauce
1 Tbsp olive oil
oregano , salt and pepper to taste
Top crust with ingredients and bake at 350 degrees for about 20 minutes.
I’m sure there are tons of variations for this pizza. I usually make it as mentioned above and add black Kalamata olives. I have also made it using left over zucchini and it was wonderful. My dad said that this pizza didn’t look like anything special at first, but after tasting it, he found out that I can “make a mean pizza.” So, I guess I will take that as a compliment!
The past four days have been great, I am so proud of my family! I know that they are now on the road to eating better and ultimately that means better health. It’s hilarious to watch people’s reactions sometimes when I talk about eating “healthier” and avoiding additives and chemicals. It’s as if they automatically flash to visions of eating granola and drinking water. I may be part hippie, but I promise you that my diet is far from being limited to eating granola and drinking water. There definitely can be a happy medium where food is flavorful yet healthy.
Happy. Healthy. Holistic. 