Thank You!

The old blog odometer rolled over to a pretty impressive number this morning, and November 2012 is on pace to become the month with the highest number of pageviews my blog has ever achieved in the two plus years I’ve been writing Eve Was Partially Right. 

I wanted to stop for a moment and thank you, sincerely – for your visits, your comments, your emails. Your enthusiasm for Clean Eating, your comments, and even those of you who stop by every few days, read, and never say a word….I know you are there, I know you keep coming back to learn more about CE with me – and I’m incredibly happy to share my journey with you all. 

Thank you, from the bottom of my heart. 

- Maura

 

My Latest CE Obsession: Chocolate Whey Oatmeal with Banana

My husband always likes to kid me by saying I'm easily distracted by shiny objects. The man knows of what he speaks - I am.
And my recent distraction?

Chocolate oatmeal with banana and honey. 

 ( photo credit : imtoobusy.com )

Looks kinda gross, huh? It isn't, I swear!

Simply prepare oatmeal as you normally would ( I use almond milk ) and add a scoopful of chocolate whey powder to the oatmeal. Add about 1/3 - 1/2 c more water than you normally would to adjust for the powder. A squirt of honey, a cut up banana...and you've got yourself a very filling nutritional powerhouse that will keep your machine going and going.

Why is this recipe so important? Think about it.

You are combining a complex carbohydrate ( the oatmeal ) with a strong protein ( chocolate whey ) with a vitamin and nutrient filled fruit
( the banana ), and adding a little simple sugar to give you an instant boost ( the honey. )

This is an excellent way to start the day, and I've even eaten it for lunch when I've left my lunch at home ( don't you hate that? ) and I've turned to my desk drawer to cobble together a Clean meal.

Micro Egg Microwave Egg Sammie Cooker

How cute is this?

Keep this in your desk drawer to cook yourself a quick egg any time! The silicone doesn't get piping hot like a bowl, and it forms a bread shaped little cooked egg - how clever! It sounds like ( from the product reviews ) that this product is best used with medium to large eggs - using an XL egg will get you a messy microwave to clean and the ire of your co-workers.

Eating a solid protein like an egg is a really key aspect of Clean Eating - balancing eating veggies and carbs with solid proteins ( eggs, dairy, nuts, meats ) keeps cravings at bay and gives your body's machinery something to work on metabolically. Do yourself a favor, and make preparing eggs simple.

$9.99 over a Solutions.com

Printable Food Journal

I found this great printable over at a Tumblr page: http://backonpointe.tumblr.com/image/25934653770
Head over there and print out a few weeks of this page if you don't have a regular food journal you are using.

Journalling is crucial to keeping yourself on track and analyzing your weak spots - where and when you are most likely to cheat / eat not as Clean as you should be.

Eve Was Partially Right 2010 - The Importance of a Food Diary

60 Thanksgiving Side Dishes - Clean and Can Be Cleaned!

While searching for tasty ( and Clean ) Thanksgiving side dishes, I came upon this interesting list over at Buzzfeed.com , who generally aren't known for recipes as much as snarky and funny Internet memes.

Pleasantly surprised to find a lot of dishes that are Clean, and a fair number I could easily Clean up with a few modifications.

Balsamic roasted root vegetables - a classic!

 

Spiced Glazed Carrots

 

Brussel Sprouts with  Maple Glazed Pecans

 

Maple Whipped Sweet Potatoes

 

And the list goes on. Thanksgiving doesn't have to be a nutritional disaster. Injecting natural sweetness and spices into your meal is the way to go.

Head over to Buzzfeed.com - 60 Thanksgiving Dishes To Make Absolutely Everybody Happy to see the complete list. Remember - this is NOT a list of CE dishes; there are several CE side dishes among the list...so make sure to investigate the recipe fully before deciding to make anything!

 

Stolen Content or "The Empress Has No Clothes"

“The thief, as will become apparent, was a special type of thief. This thief was an artist of theft. Other thieves merely stole everything that was not nailed down, but this thief stole the nails as well.”
― Terry Pratchett, Sourcery

When I first saw the post, I blinked a few times and said “Huh. Looks kinda familiar. Wait a minute – that looks really familiar.”

I realized I was looking at a copy of a post I did back in 2011 – tweaked just enough for the blogger to “make it her own” but not so much that the original idea didn’t come screaming back in my face. 

 Worst of all? This blogger actually POSTED A COMMENT to my post. She acknowledged it. 

Now, if this person didn’t want to acknowledge me, she could have at the very least provided a link to the source I gave attribution to – as I always do. 

When I post content I find elsewhere online, I always post a link – always post an attribution and always a thank you to the source. It’s not only good Netiquette, it’s the responsible thing to do. 

 I’m not trying to pass off someone else’s work as my own.

I’m not pretending to be something or someone I am not.

You’ve probably noticed; I haven’t named the offending blogger, and I won’t. She knows who she is; and I’m not writing this for public humiliation. I’m writing this as a wake up call to her. 

Your smoke and mirrors act is quickly coming to a coda. Your drastically reduced number of comments and blog traffic is probably telling you something you don’t want to acknowledge. We all see it : The Empress Has No Clothing.

-          Maura

PS – Stop stealing shit.

Cooking and Eating With The Seasons : Fall Fruits and Vegetables

 Eating the fruits and vegetables you find in abundance at any particular time of the year is called "eating in season." Eating in season lends itself to Clean Eating - the following fruits and vegetables are going to be quite abundant ( and lower in price ) than you've probably found them in the summer.

Fall Fruits

• Apples
• Avocados
• Bananas
• Clementines
• Cranberries
• Dates
• Figs
• Grapefruit
• Grapes
• Kiwi
• Kumquats
• Mandarin oranges
• Melons
• Oranges
• Pears
• Persimmons
• Pomegranates
• Raspberries

Fall Vegetables

• Beans
• Beets
• Bok choy
• Broccoli
• Broccoli rabe
• Brussels sprouts
• Cabbage
• Carrots
• Cauliflower
• Celery root
• Collard greens
• Garlic
• Jerusalem artichokes
• Kale
• Leeks
• Lettuce
• Parsnips
• Pumpkin
• Rhubarb
• Rutabaga
• Snow peas
• Spinach
• Sweet potatoes
• Swiss chard
• Turnips
• Watercress
• Winter squash

The Food Porn Problem

I'm a regular Pinterest user, and often browse sites like Foodgawker.com  for Clean Eating recipes to bring to this site.

I also browse fitness sites, Tumblr sites devoted to Fitness, and everything in between.  I stumbled up this article: Fitbie.com: The Food Porn Problem over at Fitbie.msn.com that I think bears reading. It's about the psychological impact of looking at tempting high calorie foods on sites like Pinterest and Foodgawker - aka Food Porn.

An excerpt:

It's your classic money shot, the camera tight to reveal every detail of steamy cinnamon buns drizzled just so. Jam-glazed pork falling off the bone. A slice of buttery-crusted apple pie letting it all hang out. Sweet or savory, slow baked or flash fried, it's food porn--and experts say it's whetting our appetites in ways we never imagined. "Like the sexual kind, food porn allows us to lust after taboo things," says psychologist Susan Albers, Psy.D., author of Eating Mindfully. "And now it's on our terms: We can search for exactly what turns us on, enlarge the images, and linger for as long as we want."

{snip}

 Photos seem harmless, but they provoke a real emotional and physical hunger response that can be tough to control, says neuroscientist Laura Martin, Ph.D., an assistant professor at the University of Kansas Medical Center who studies how we respond to food. And straight out of the insult-meet-injury department: Those who are overweight appear to be more sensitive to the effect of viewing irresistible food. Does that mean you can never ogle your cake without eating it too? Not necessarily. There are savvy ways to curb your appetite--online and in real life.



Eating with Our Eyes
The best food porn plays on the fact that the more indulgent a photo appears, the more likely it will trigger our instinct to eat. "Food porn relies on a phenomenon called supernormal stimuli, which exaggerates qualities we're already hardwired to love," says Deirdre Barrett, Ph.D., an evolutionary psychologist at Harvard Medical School's Behavioral Medicine Program and author of Waistland: The Revolutionary Science Behind Our Weight and Fitness Crisis. Usually, that translates to visual cues that a food is high in calories--things like pooling oils and the sheen of sugar--which were coveted assets back in hunter-gatherer days, when calories (particularly the gooey, fatty ones) were harder to come by, says Barrett. That might explain why, according to a recent study from 360i, a marketing firm that studies online trends, pictures of desserts are the most likely to be shared online. Cheesy, oozy comfort foods also get favorited more frequently on sites like Food Gawker.

I highly recommend reading this article to understand a more psychological level to food cravings and how visual cues stimulate cravings. As a Clean Eater and someone learning to navigate the sea of temptations out there, I think it is key to understanding our psychological underpinnings which trigger our brain to want foods our minds understand are no good for us - but we eat it anyway. 

Save $1 on 5 Cans S&W Beans

    Canned beans are so handy to have in the Clean kitchen pantry. Just open, rinse, and add to your favorite recipes or enjoy as a side dish. I have many cans of black beans at home; I love adding them to eggs, meatloaf, you name it.

I love to save money on them, too.

Save $1 on 5 cans S&W Beans, any variety.

Trader Joe's Spotlight: 17 Bean & Barley Soup Mix

With Fall upon us, now is the time for warming soups and stews to take center stage. I've long been a fan of bean soup mixes ( just don't use that hideous seasoning packet they sometimes throw in there! ), and they are great for a crockpot.

Trader Joe's sells a nice bean mix that makes a delicious soup. The barley is a nice addition.
If you don't have a TJ's near you, any bean mix will do.


17 Bean & Barley Soup

* 1 (1 lb) Trader Joe’s 17 Bean and Barley soup mix (or 2 cups of your favorite mix of dried beans, barley and lentils; soaked overnight)
* 2 Tbs. extra-virgin olive oil
* 1/2 large white onion, chopped
* 2 carrots, chopped
* 2 stalks celery, chopped
* 1 red bell pepper, chopped
* 3 cloves garlic, minced
* 2 Tbs Herbs De Provence
* 1 Tbs dried basil
* 4 cups organic low sodium vegetable broth
* 1 (14.5 oz) can organic low sodium diced tomatoes, in their juices
* 1 tomato bouillon cube
* coarse salt and pepper


Toss the soaked bean/barley mix into a large pot. Add the broth and canned tomatoes. Bring to a boil.
In the meantime, heat the oil in a medium skillet. Add the onions, carrots, celery, garlic and red bell pepper. Sprinkle with Herbs De Provence, dried basil, a good pinch of salt and pepper.
Saute until veggies start to soften, 5 minutes.
Add the veggies to the soup pot. Add the bouillon cube, partially cover and simmer on medium for an hour.
If you need to add water at any point, toss a cup in.
Taste and season accordingly. If the beans need a little longer, simmer another 20 minutes.

Dr. Oz Clean Eating Grocery List

I found this nice list over at Dr. Oz's website ( Click HERE  to see a larger picture / printable list ) Sorry I can't post it larger.

There are some great tips here for beginning Clean Eaters - but here are a few items I'd like to comment upon for those of you who might be unfamiliar.

#19 - Chicken. Make sure you are buying chicken that isn't injected with a sodium solution.
See this post: Eve Was Partially Right : Beware Enhanced Chicken

#20, 21 - Seafood - Make sure your seafood is sourced from a country that has good standards for aquaculture. Avoid fish grown, raised, and packed in Asiatic countries like China, Thailand, and Vietnam.
See this post: Eve Was Partially Right : The Seafood Dity Dozen

#25 - Canned beans - make sure you rinse all canned vegetables and beans to remove as much sodium as possible.

#29 - Canned Mushrooms - DON'T. These are a huge no-no, and I'm shocked Dr Oz would put these on his list. I double dog dare you to go into a grocery store, pick up any can- ANY CAN - of canned mushrooms and try to find one NOT GROWN AND PACKED IN CHINA. You won't find one. The quality is low, and the amount of fecal matter ( the growth medium for mushrooms! ) is often high.

DON'T BUY CANNED MUSHROOMS. THIS MEANS YOU.

#32 - Jams - These are ok, but try to find ones with no added sugar. Hard to do, but it can be done. I avoid sugary fruit spreads.

#34 - Canned beets - the artificial purple color in those beets and added sugar make these a CE no-no. Avoid them.

#62 & 63 - Soy hot dogs and burgers - Not for you, Clean Eater. Keep your soy intake limited to edamame and the occasional tofu. Soy hot dogs and burgers are processed, and unnecessarily will boost soy consumption which has been linked to breast cancer.

#90 - Protein bars - Be really - REALLY careful here. Most are very Unclean. The only Clean examples I've come across are things like Larabars. Clean bars are few and far between.

#93 - Slow churned ice cream - Um, really Dr. Oz? *rolls eyes* Not Clean. Do Not Eat.



Use common sense with this list. Buy organic where you can ( especially important for fruits with skins you eat, like apples, pears, tomatoes. Not as important for things you peel - like bananas or oranges. Free range beef and chicken is wonderful, but in some areas - crazy expensive.

This list wasn't published as a Clean Eating grocery list - but it can be used as a good starting point.

At some point, I'm going to publish a list of 20+ brand name food items I buy and consume on a regular basis. Items that are Clean and you didn't even realize it.

Clean Eating Chocolate - It CAN Be Done

Every once in a while...the human body requires chocolate for good mental health. I'm not talking a king size Hershey bar...but just something that satisfies that place in the brain where chocoholism dwells. Most chocolate products you can buy in the store are loaded with sugars, fats, and really unnecessary ingredients - making satisfying the itch for chocolate hard to scratch.

Until now.

This fabulous, wonderful person on Tumblr has posted a lot of great recipes ( many using protein or casein powders ) and I'm utterly grateful.

The picture at the top? A Clean Eating chocolate & pear pudding. 3 ingredients.

And what is this?? A Clean Eating simulant for Nutella with 5 ingredients. Crazy!

And in case you didn't get the "Hey, go here and bookmark this page for future reference"...

6 ingredient truffles:

Please note - I'm not advocating these items as a daily treat - far from it. But what better than to have a few Clean recipes like these to add to your recipe arsenal? Make the truffles to bring to a holiday gathering - and know you can have a few without fear or guilt. When those moments come where chocolate is more important to your brain than breathing and keeping your heart beating...you'll be prepared.


Tumblr: Fitness Treats - CE Chocolate Recipes

Positive Thoughts For A Friday