I realized that I should call this food-lifestyle something other than "Clean Eating" because, in addition to eating unrefined and unprocessed foods in a form that’s as close as possible to how the foods appear in nature, etc., etc., I've also incorporated local and organic as a rule of thumb. Plus we're eating way less meat (pork, chicken, beef) than before - maybe one or two meals per week rather than four or five.
Local and organic are not necessarily required of a "Clean Eater", nor is eating less meat. After doing some additional research, I discovered that there already is a name for eating as I do, and it's called "Green Eating", or "Eating Green". Well, I was close.
For my birthday, my mom treated me to lunch at Strizzi's and Rob took me out for dinner, drinks, and music at the local brewery. I sat down to each meal happily determined to "go wild!". I scanned the menu at Strizzi's searching for the most decadent and heavy Italian pasta dish. Cream sauce was a must! At the brewery, I joyfully perused the menu, trying to decide between philly cheese steak, burger and garlic fries, or fish and chips. You know what I did? Both times? Despite my sincerest efforts to go crazy, I ended up with salads; A delicious Crab Cobb from Strizzi's and a Thai Chicken salad from the brewery. How and why did that happen? I'm the queen of over-indulgance! It appears that I've become my food lifestyle. It's officially habit.
I still love the idea of splurging on a big, giant, greasy burger and some garlic or cheese fries from Bob's Giant Burgers some day. But perhaps it just sounds good in theory, and wouldn't be nearly as good in practice. I find that hard to believe. I think it's the feeling after that has me resisting temptation so easily. Now that I've eaten green for so long, and feel so good, the alternative is not nearly as appealing as it once was.
Back to last Friday. My one indulgance, since I don't care for cake (Really, I don't! I didn't even have one at my wedding. Pie though....I love a good pie.), is an order (ok, two orders, we were sharing with friends) of fried calamari at the brewery as an appetizer. Oh, and the cocktails. Lot's of cocktails. My hope is that I danced it all off.
Here's what we ate for the past week when it wasn't my birthday!
Apricot Glazed Scallops over Bean Thread Noodles: (I realize I need to practice my "searing". These are not seared. Not at all.)
The Spicy Thai Pork Soup was delightful, just like from a Thai restaurant! I was impressed....with myself. Next time I think I'll try it with seafood or chicken instead of pork. I cut up a whole wheat tortilla, sprinkled it with cumin and sea salt and baked it for a "chip" to go with:
Then there was the Lobster Risotto. It looks a bit colorless. I think I will add more parsley and maybe some asparagus next time. But it was yummy:
One of my favorites, (and used as "comfort food" the day after my birthday, even though it's a Weight Watcher's recipe), Shrimp Po'boy. O....M....G.
And last, but certainly not least, a new favorite that I will be making more often - Jambalaya (also WW):
While it looks like I'm lacking in the "green stuff", we have a salad with almost every meal, I just don't photograph it. You've seen one salad.....
And for my antioxidants, vitamins and minerals:
Hit me up via email if you would like any of these recipes!
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