Sunday Funday - Megan

Whooeee.

Boy did we do it up today!

Today was father's day - Brig and I had EPIC CHEAT DAY in celebration. Eight of us went to one my all time favorite restaurants, Barrio . They had this phenomenal brunch menu, which we all took sufficient advantage of. The fathers both got pork belly Benedict (yumtown), I got a make your own breakfast taco dish (fried potatoes, guac, salsa, eggs, and chorizo with corn tortillas) AND a size of biscuits. With syrup on the side. Did it COME with syrup? No. Did I ORDER it on the side and pay TWO extra dollars for it? Yes. Hey. I wanted french toast AND breakfast tacos. I couldn't have both! So I improvised (at the disdain of my tummy - and my waistline. ha!) Brig got the croque seniorita - The fancy spanish version of a croque madam. So of course chips and salsa were involved, and I had two AMAZING cocktails - blood orange mimosa, and a marmalade sour (tequila, orange marmalade, lavender bitters, and egg white) - mouthgasm! So good.

Well, so it's cheat day, right? Naturally we all (and by we all I mean Brig and I) decide it's time for YOGURTLAND. - (p.s. dear family: I think the fact that no one else was interested in stuffing their faces with MORE food - SUGAR - is further proof that us third generation baer girls have problems!) So, yogurtland occurred and massive quantities of garbage was consumed there as well.

We went our separate ways, and did other father's day activities. When I got home, I decided to prepare all of the food for this week so I can get back on track.

Adventures in Grocery shopping (with pictures!)

Got home, strapped on the ipod (necessary for all activities) and hoofed it up the hill to Safeway. I should have walked the  mile to Trader Joe's to try and further digest my gluttony, but Safeway had more things that I needed.

Grocery shopping has always elated me. Okay, maybe not elated - but it really is a mostly relaxing activity for me. The only time it's not relaxing is when there's someone (usually a man) pressing me to make up my mind quickly. It's not that easy, people! There's things to consider! There's brands to compare! There's calories vs nutrients vs ingredients vs price vs package size vs organic to take into consideration! Anyway, I usually take an obscene amount of time in the store. And dangit I'm not sorry!

Today was a little different - I was looking for different things on the labels. I found it quite distressing how much sugar really is in everything. It's disgusting. See label for Odwalla's pure protein shake:

 cane juice. fourth ingredient. Boo.

(there was an ENTIRE huge paragraph in here  that somehow got deleted - I am trying to retain my fury. It was a lot of things that I wanted to talk about. I will attempt to re-create what I can remember)  :

I've been paying more attention to organic lately. Kimmy - I remember some time ago in the past discussing organic vs non organic with you as far as cost goes. You mentioned that you felt it was worth it as the nutrient value was so much higher, you didn't need to purchase as much food. I'm beginning to understand this now. In the past, I would buy one or two things organic and shun the rest because of the cost. This is definitely beginning to shift. I don't buy organic things that have thick skins - bananas, oranges, etc. That's dumb and a waste of money. I do know, however, that things like berries, apples, and ground veggies absorb the most chemicals. I've worked on getting almost 100% organic dairy now that it's back in my diet (re-introduced this a year or so ago). Organic eggs are EXPENSIVE. oi. I know that a lot of brands tout the fact that they don't have recombinant bovine growth hormone - yet they still aren't labeled as organic? Not sure what's up with that. Okay - organic meat. Where do I find this? Maybe I didn't look hard enough. Are there guidelines for it? Things that should be looked for, things that can be glossed over? I'm curious for any wisdom you have (and you too, brig) on what you choose to buy organic and what you choose not to, and why.

I'm generally a pretty good grocery shopper. Yknow, stick to the outer aisles, focus on the fresh food, etc. When I lived in Arizona, I bought a lot more food that required preparation. I began doing this same thing when I moved out on my own - and finally, FINALLY have relented to the fact that I'm simply too lazy for this. I've now decided that if I am going to eat healthy, it needs to be easy. If that means paying another dollar for some machine to cut and wash my veggies - so be it. I can't change who I am! And who I am is lazy - and someone who will resort to cereal because it's easy. Ha.

Furthermore - There is something profoundly depressing about grocery shopping by yourself - for only yourself.

Moving on. I tried to buy meat today. I really did. I perused the butcher section. I looked at the sales. I looked at the different cuts and styles. I thought about getting sausage or kielbasa but figured that would fall into the "overprocessed" category, so decided not to. It comes down to this: I don't know how to buy meat. I don't know how to cook meat. I can broil or sautee chicken - but I have NO IDEA how to cook anything cow. Except ground beef - and if I can i'd get ground turkey or ground buffalo first. The thought of attempting to cook red meat completely grosses me out - partly because... ew. and partly because I know I don't really want to spend the MONEY on a good cut, but getting a bad, tough cut of steak? Sick. I'd rather pay a restaurant.  I mean really:

What in god's name am I supposed to do with THAT?!!?!?

Needless to say, I walked out with the only meat being deli lunchmeat. I'm beginning to think I'm going to have to start going back to B& E meats in des moines (the most awesome butcher ever) if I am going to legitimately begin eating and cooking meat again. Bah. More expensive ass food.

ANYWAY - The point I am getting at with all of this is - yes, I'm noticing changes with adulthood even when it comes to grocery shopping.

Today's loot:

• Lowfat cottage cheese
• 4 yoplait "light" dessert flavored yogurts (i know - completely disgusting. Normally I am a yogurt purist - even a snob - but I'm putting them in the freezer to have as ice cream during moments of weakness)
• 1 dz organic brown eggs
• 3 bananas
• 3 avocados
• 1 lime
• 2 lemons
• 1 zucchini
• 1 beet
• 1 english cucumber
• 2 yams
• 1 mango
• 2 pounds organic strawberries (they were buy 1 get 1!)
• 2 bags premade salad (bad, I know. that's where the convenience thing comes in)
• 5 pounds green grapes
• 1/2 lb deli turkey
• 1/4 lb deli black forest ham
• ziploc bags
• 1 can peaches in juice
• 1 box almond milk (to bring to work for coffee - I've already got a half gallon here)
• 3 bottles honest tea (the "barely sweetened" versions)
• 1 large dark chocolate bar (hey - it's got antioxidants!)

total = $57.52. Not sure if that's a good deal or not. Not going to worry about it though as I got some really good, healthy choices. 

Soooo... what is the plan for all of this, you may be asking? WELL! I will tell  you! I just spent 2 hours prepping everything for the rest of the week. Kinda makes me oddly proud.

I completed:

• Cooking approx 1# chicken tenders and cutting into cubes
• Blanching the remaining 1.5# of broccoli that I got from costco last week
• Roasted half of the beet and cut into cubes for salads
• Used my mandolin for the purpose in which it was bought for and made veggie chips from the zucchini, one of the yams, and the other half of the beet. This was something I'd been wanting to try for a long time, and I think it's going to need some adjusting. Half of them are burnt, and half of them are undercooked. Not sure what the trick on these will be. Has anyone made their own veggie chips before? I baked them at like, 325 for 50ish minutes. Going to have to work on this one.
• Hardboiled 4 eggs
• I've got a TON of apples that are about to go bad, so I cut up a little over half of them, put them in a quickbread pyrex with honey and pumpkin pie spice, and baked at 350 for 30 minutes. These are FRICKIN AMAZING after they are refrigerated. It's like apple pie - paleo style.
• Washed, sliced, and prepped all 2# of strawberries and 5# of grapes

If this doesn't inspire clean eating this week, hell - I don't know what will. It doesn't get any easier than grabbing this stuff to go! :)

I think part of my favorite part of this whole Paleo-overhaul is the fact that for the first time I am taking active steps to feed myself well. Not only is the food nourishing - but it's nourishing to my well being to treat myself this nicely.

On that note - I've had a few cheats - of course, that's part of the game... 80/20 rule, right?

Clean eating has been profoundly motivating for...clean eating. Almost every time i've cheated (not today, thankfully) I've gotten sick to my stomach. Yesterday Haley and I had some fried food - Very little in comparison - but still - we both got sick. She wound up going into a legitimate food coma on my couch for 4 hours. I just laid there in a daze watching Julie & Julia. It's kind of awesome to not want to cheat because you KNOW you will feel crappy. It's kind of awesome that my body feels good enough for the first time in months (years?) to be able to distinguish this.

Viva la Paleo.