A Whole Wheat Holiday

Yes, I do eat cookies.  Sometimes.  


Okay, hardly ever. But I have Christmas parties coming up and I would be aghast if I offered anyone something I wouldn't eat myself. So I hunkered down in the kitchen to do my darndest to come up with a Christmas party menu that I wouldn't feel like a Grinch about.  Here's what I came up with!  Bon appetit!




Nibbleators (watch your portions!)
Sweet Potato Chips with Mango Salsa
I was going to make these myself but I bought Terra Chips instead.
Green and Red Caramel Apple Kebabs 
they look so pretty!  Then they become a weapon.
Spinach Mini Pizzas
it's actually one big pizza cut into tiny pieces. 


Man (and hungry girl) Food
Turkey Chili
ground turkey breast, tomatoes, onion, corn, black beans, kidney beans, cilantro, and a lotta lotta chili powder!
Whole Grain Jambalaya
whole grain brown rice, chicken, chicken sausage, onion, celery, and other stuff all mixed up together.


What You Came For (the sweet stuff!)
Whole Wheat Pizzelles
my mom told me this was not going to work but she was wrong. 
Flax and Dark Cocoa Buckeyes
a bin of these in my freezer has been tormenting me all week. I had to put a frozen turkey in front of it to block the view. Thankfully they're all gone now.
Carrot Cake Scones with Orange Glaze
featuring real carrots!  And just enough "frosting" to make them seem sinful. But they're not.


Want the recipes? Click on the "Holiday Recipes" tab at the top of this page!  Holiday food gets high marks for being decadent and indulgent, but remember, you can indulge without wrecking your fitness goals.  Do what you can to healthify your recipes and watch those portions.  Lack of portion control is where you get the belly that shakes like a bowl full of jelly.  Remember...he sees you when you're eating! 

Ho ho ho!

Clean Eating, and what it is NOT (this got long)

Thanks to my friend Tiffany at The Gracious Pantry (@GraciousPantry on Twitter), a recipe website chock-full of great clean-eating ideas, for sending me the link to this article. At least....I think thanks are in order.  The article pissed me off so much that I honestly needed to walk away from my computer and do a little internal screaming.  But it was an interesting perspective to read and one that I definitely feel needs a rebuttal.

The writer contends that clean eating, the practice of avoiding processed foods and eating clean and natural foods from the Earth, is a scam and should be abandoned because it is too rigorous and leads to disordered eating patterns.  And as he tells his story, I can see why.  Anything taken to an extreme - which it appears that he did - can be destructive.  I've been there too; I've been burned by my own extreme behavior and have learned from those mistakes.

But just because you went on a crash diet that someone sold you as "clean eating" does not mean that an entire philosophy, one that is not about weight loss or sports nutrition or strategic body manipulation, is flawed. 

In the article he maintains that people who engage in clean eating are purists who would not, for example, eat pizza...but would eat the individual ingredients in pizza.  Clean eaters, he says, would not eat fried rice, but would eat rice, egg whites, vegetables, and other components of the food they shun.  He eschews the lack of socialization that clean eaters have in recreational eating events, such as traveling or going out to dinner with friends.  His personal experience with clean eating was bad, that much is clear.  But please remember these important lessons from his experience:

1. Clean eating is a personal journey.  I know clean eaters who eat things I don't, and I eat some things that other clean eaters won't eat.  I see recipes in Clean Eating that I would never make because they include artificial sweeteners, which I do not consider to be "clean."  It's about setting personal boundaries for what you want to use as fuel for your body.  The only real qualifier in my mind is that the food be un-fooled-around with, simple in its ingredients, and actually healthy. A quick look at the list of ingredients on a food should clear that up right away (hint: it should be short and composed of actual foods).

2. Clean does not automatically equal healthy, and clean does not mean you can eat unlimited quantities of food.  Even healthy food has calories, and they add up.  Even clean food can have unhealthy attiributes (beef, for example, can be perfectly "clean" but still has a lot of saturated fat).  Just because something is natural does not mean it is good for you.  Use your noggin, people!

3. Anything taken to an extreme is going to bite back.  He complains that he was eating clean and working out...and that when his "best body competition" was over and he went to Denny's and binged on an enormous meal of processed meats, pastries, and other food he was dismayed that he had seemingly undone his hard work.  Clean eating did not do that to him.  His binge did that to him, and people can binge after any extreme behavior, not just clean eating.

In short, I can tell that this guy feels cheated and angry because the diet he went on betrayed him in the end.  I have to believe, however, that clean eating is about more than dieting yourself down to win a bodybuilding contest (which he does admit, he placed second in thanks to his clean eating).  As you've heard time and time again, being healthy is a lifestyle, not just something you do on the weekends.  Eating clean is a mindset, a commitment to yourself, and a plain and simple way to fuel yourself every day, not just when you're wanting to shed a few pounds.

If you want to eat clean to lose weight, go ahead, but if you treat clean eating like a diet, it will act like one.  Instead, eat clean because it is a smart way to eat. 

And by the way, this clean eater eats pizza

at least twice a week.  So there! :)

If you have clean eating questions, let me know and I would be glad to discuss with you.  And if you want to see how some real clean eaters cook and eat real food, visit the Gracious Pantry for oodles of recipes!

Good day!



From the Recipe Box

People ask me all the time what I eat during the day and I've featured some of my portable cleaneating meals here.  Today, my Change Your Life salad.

I am not exaggerating when I say that I have eaten this salad for lunch almost every day for two years.  Seriously, I have.  I love it that much.  I NEVER get tired of it and when I go to people's houses, they ask me to bring it.  People have put their own twists on it, which I love, and I have even tweaked it a little.  But all in all, this salad has changed my life.

Major food criteria for me are that it must be low-maintenance and easily created in advance, it must be clean and natural without additives or preservatives, and it must be portable.  This salad meets all of those requirements, as I make five of them on Sunday afternoon, stack my little go-boxes in the fridge, and bring one to work with me each day in my insulated lunchbag.  I even put a fork in the container so I am ready in a jif to eat wherever I am.  Completely low-maintenance!

The salad is insanely simple: spinach, strawberries, feta cheese, and baked chicken or turkey.  That's right, no dressing.  It doesn't need it.  I used to put raisins and some Annie's Poppy Seed and Papaya dressing, but as I reduced my sweet tooth I eventually phased those out so I am down to the four key ingredients. 

Here's my salad as I pack it - I put the strawberries (120 g), feta (28 g), and chicken or turkey (85 g) in little ziplocks and stack them on top of the spinach (100 g). 

Then when I go to eat lunch I just combine them and viola!  Fueled and ready to go for the next few hours.

Give it a shot and see how you like it.  Trust me, you can eat this without dressing and your body will thank you in droves for it.  You can't go wrong when you focus on keeping your food fresh, clean, and functional!

Good day!