Headache Day

Banana Pear Cereal

Once a clean eating plan starts, within a few days comes the headache.  It is basically withdrawals from carbs, caffeine, sugar and alcohol.  Thankfully I do not drink coffee so I do not have to deal with the caffeine part.  The Thrive plan is not sugar free, agave nectar is used everyday, just in small amounts.  But the elimination of bread and wine get me.  I woke up with the headache and it lasted all day.  At least it is temporary.  I started out the day with a home made Banana Pear Cereal.  This was a banana, a pear, a date, and some almonds mixed with flasxeed, hemp protein, cocoa powder and ginger.  Almond Coconut Milk was poured over the top.  The banana and chocolate give it a nice savory taste.  It taste much better than the picture looks.

Blackeyed Pea Quinoa Pizza

Lunch was a Blackeyed Pea Quinoa Pizza. The crust was  a blend of blackeyed peas, quinoa, chickpea flour, coconut oil, chili flakes, black pepper, cayenne pepper and salt that was grounded in the food processor.  I cooked the crust for 45 minutes before adding the toppings.  The sauce was a layer of Red Pepper Hemp Pesto. The toppings were red bell pepper, onion, sweet potato, cauliflower and grated beet.  By pre-cooking the crust I was able to make it crispier, but I needed to cook it with the toppings longer.  It still fell apart when serving, but was not mushy.

Pizza after serving

For a post workout snack, I made a Chocolate Almond Smoothie.  This was a blend of banana, dates, cocoa powder, water, almonds, flaxseed, and hemp protein,

Dinner was a repeat of the Cucumber Pesto Salad with Tomato Basil Dressing.  My evening snack was Crunchy Cinnamon Plantains.  They were not very crunchy, but well cooked.  The lemon juice was the dominate flavor over the cinnamon and salt.

Crispy Plantains

The Purge

Apple Cinnamon Cereal

We continue with the healthy food for the New Year, or as I like to call it - The Purge.  Yesterday's breakfast was a Toasted Apple Cinnamon Cereal with almond coconut milk.  The cereal was a granola style mix made with apple, hemp protein, quinoa, almonds, flaxseeds, sesame seeds, sunflower seeds, cinnamon, nutmeg, EFA oil, pomegranate molasses and orange juice.  This was mixed together and slowly toasted in the oven.  The result was dry, but not chunky like granola.

Lunch was a Buckwheat Hemp Salad with Cayenne Dill Dressing.  The salad was simple - mixed greens, buckwheat, hemp seeds, nori and snow peas.  This was more filling that the first salad on Tuesday.

Buckwheat Salad

The dressing was a blend of garlic, balsamic vinegar, EFA oil, water, tahini, dill, cayenne, agave nectar and salt.  I go very light on the cayene because I do not like overly spicy foods.  My post workout snack was the other half of the Ginger Pear Smoothie.

Cayenne Dill Dressing

Dinner was a Adzuki Quinoa Sesame Pizza.  The crust was made in the food processor with adzuki beans, quinoa, sesame seeds. coconut oil and dulse. This was spread in a pan and the Red Pepper Pesto was spread over it.  The cooked toppings were onion, dulse, basil and green onions.  After cooking, I added cucumber and bean sprouts.  The taste was good, but the consistency was not very pizza like.  The outside of the crust hardened, the center did not.  Next time I make one, I will need to cook it longer.

Adzuki Pizza

My evening snack was Vegetable Crackers with a Sunflower Seed Pate.  The crackers were made with flaxseed, celery, tomato, almonds, sunflower seeds, carrot, cumin and salt.  These were nice and crispy.  The vegetables made the taste savory and not too seedy.  These are easy to munch on without a topping.

Vegetable Crackers

Pate

Pate on crackers

The Sunflower Seed Pate was made with sunflower seeds, walnuts, hemp oil, orange juice and sauce.  The result was a flavorful seed spread.  However, spread on the crackers there was just much seed going on.  The spread would be better on some regular whole wheat bread.

Addicted to Results 4/22

Garlic Vinaigrette

With a fresh batch of groceries in the house, serious cooking will happen this week. Breakfast however, was pretty basic.  I added a chopped apple to Maple Pecan Cereal with rice milk.

Lunch was a Pasta Salad.  I used leftover pasta that I had frozen.  I added toasted pine nuts, yellow and red bell pepper, basil, nutritional yeast and the Garlic Vinaigrette.

Pasta Salad

For dinner I roasted potatoes, carrots and celery. I topped it with mock chorizo and some ranch dressing.

toasted pine nuts

The ranch dressing was made with tofu sour cream, vegan mayonnaise, garlic, onion and garlic powder, and black pepper.

Ranch Dressing

Addicted to Results 4/18

I forgot to start the dishwasher last night, so no smoothie this morning.  I had one serving of an Engine 2 cereal left.  This one is a super fiber blend that was made by shredding a variety of cardboard boxes.  At least that is what it tastes like.  I added some sunflower seeds, peaches and a generous pour of soy milk.  It was pretty substantial and kept me going during my personal  training session.

At lunch, I had leftover Barley Soup.  On the side I topped a corn tortilla with vegan jack cheese and olives.

Ciabatta

Dinner was the same Arugula Salad as last night.  I has a few slices of a fresh ciabatta bread from Whole Foods.  To accompany the meal, we pulled a rose champagne from the cellar.