Wednesday, September 21, 2011

Meal plan Monday

With our little family back under the same roof, it's time to get serious about a meal plan for the week. No more restaurant food for awhile, please!

Monday - GF pizza loaded with veggies
Tuesday - dinner with friends: a compilation of garden-grown veggies, chicken, and quinoa, with homemade salsas and two kinds of tortilla chips (sweet potato and chocolate, in case you wondered)
Wednesday - GF pesto pasta with chicken and tomato-feta salad
Thursday - breakfast dinner
Friday - TBA
Saturday - leftover beef & wild rice soup

I do have some recipes and pictures to post, I promise. Soon! But probably not between 9 and 10pm tonight, because I will be engrossed in fall TV premiers! One more reason to loooove this season.

Sunday, September 18, 2011

Not MIA, just technologically challenged!

I'm still here, with lots of potential blog posts banging around in my head. But I couldn't log in to Blogger for awhile! Frustrating.

This weekend The H and I are hanging out in our city's downtown, playing tourists and celebrating our anniversary. I'm excited to show you some of the treasures we've found (coffee and cupcakes, to name a few), and to get back onto a clean and fresh meal plan on Monday. There are some fantastic restaurants around us, and we have taken full advantage, but it's certainly not what I'm used to three meals a day!

We're going to start the day with a run along the river tomorrow, which should get the week off on a good note. He and I don't often run together, but we did when I first started running, and it's always a nice change in my routine to have him along.

Thursday, September 1, 2011

Mayo-free potato salad

In an inadvertent last hurrah to summer, we ended up with a picnic-themed meal Sunday night. The H grilled up our last package of hamburgers from our half-of-a-half-of-a-cow purchase, and I got to work on side dishes.

When I first started eating clean in May/June 2009, a mayo-free potato salad is one of the things I found myself making often. We had summer birthday parties and the requisite cookouts with friends to attend, and I wanted to bring something that I would feel comfortable eating, but that would still allow me to feel like I was participating in the spirit of the season... goofy? Maybe. But everywhere I took my mayo-less taters, everyone said how refreshing it was. I even made it for the little guy's first birthday party.

This isn't that exact recipe, but it's what I could come up with on a lazy summer Sunday afternoon.

Mayo-free Potato Salad
a Clean Eating Machine original, inspired by my mom's recipe

10 small-medium red potatoes, scrubbed clean and cubed into bite-size pieces
1/2 regular cucumber, mostly peeled (I like a little green for color)
1/2 sweet onion, chopped finely
1/4 to 1/2 cup jarred dill pickle juice
1/4 cup diced green onion, green parts only
2-4 hard boiled egg whites
Olive oil
Red wine vinegar
Kosher (or sea) salt and black pepper to taste

1. Place cubed potatoes into a large pot and fill with water until just covered. Add a teaspoon of salt and bring to a boil. Boil 15-20 minutes or until fork-tender.

2. Meanwhile, prepare other ingredients. Place diced sweet onion in a large bowl.

3. Drain cooked potatoes and add to bowl with sweet onion. Pour pickle juice over the potatoes while warm, and stir to combine. Let stand long enough to stop steaming. There should be a bit of juice in the bottom of the bowl, but you don't want the potatoes to be swimming in it.

4. Add cucumber, green onion, a drizzle of olive oil, some red wine vinegar, and salt and pepper to taste. Gently stir in chopped egg whites. Serve cold or at room temperature.

We had a fresh sliced farmers market melon and a not-your-typical green salad to round out the meal. I'll share that one with you another day! Even though summer is coming to an end (how did that happen so fast?!) this makes a great addition to any party/picnic table.