Summer has begun!

At least, the little guy's summer vacation has begun. I feel a lot more work coming my way. Ha! I absolutely cannot believe he's a first-grader now. Just...wow. I might have to come up with a new nickname for him. We kicked off the season with a grocery-getting jogging-stroller run--man, that's hard now that he's so big! He turns six in a few weeks. Because it is summer, and I didn't have a school dropoff to make, I just didn't feel like getting up early to run. :p

We picked up some locally-made multigrain bread, a few fruits and veggies for dinners and juicing, and a bag of local tortilla chips to shuttle guacamole to our faces. Most importantly, we beat the rain that was headed our way, and I didn't have to wait for The H to come home before I could exercise. :)

Tomorrow's juice will be a concoction that includes melon (from the reduced rack--nice and sweet), carrot, tomato, grapefruit or lemon, celery, an old spotty pear, and maybe some cranberries.

Lunch is ready!

A delicious way to refuel following a 5 mile run and 75 minute hot yoga class (after my "extreme peach" smoothie at the local deli next to the studio):

Strawberry caprese salad with garden basil, a touch of salami, heirloom tomatoes, chipotle olive oil, and blueberry balsamic vinegar. A little sweet, a little tart, with just a touch of salty zing. Fresh foods are so much fun in the summer!

Oh hey

Remember when I cut my running in half (61 miles in July) but forgot to adjust my caloric intake? Yeah, whoops. Thank goodness for stretchy running shorts and pants. My knee has been more cooperative lately, which is a big relief, and I'm making a conscious effort to rein in my sweet tooth, but I still have a few extra pounds to work with these days. Today I made a batch of Babycakes gluten free, vegan banana bread and muffins, which are, in the little guy's words, "So, so delicious." What a great way to use up the brown bananas cluttering up my freezer!

Thanks to colorful wonderful summer produce, I haven't put a ton of effort into meal planning lately. We've been starting with something like cucumber-onion salad, corn on the cob, and fresh fruit, and filling in the gaps with whatever protein I have handy: grilled chicken, chicken burgers, kale-quinoa-chickpeas, and so on. "So, so delicious" for sure, but not really blog-worthy! Sorry for the lack of interesting material.

I've also been slowly working on a business idea that's been rattling around in my brain, but has yet to amount to anything more than a brief blog post on another host. If it grows further, you bet I'll be hollering about it here! For now... wish me luck and awesome networking skills, ok? :)

Happy AUGUST!

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.

I was right...

I had no idea what day it was when we got home! We left for Connecticut on a Sunday, and returned on the second Thursday. For most of our extended  trips, we are gone Sunday through Saturday. When The H travels alone, he gets back on a Friday. So Friday felt like a Sunday to me and Saturday to him. Now that it's Sunday, it feels like...well, something else. I'm all messed up. What a jumble!

The little guy and I made the best of it, however, and made a stop at the farmer's market on Friday for some deliciously seasonal produce. Here's a couple-days meal plan I was able to concoct:

Friday - chicken tacos with cilantro-lime rice, corn on the cob, and homemade pico de gallo
Saturday - my former running partner's wedding! Leftovers for lunch
Sunday - breakfast-dinner for lunch, then homemade pesto pasta with chicken, watermelon, salad in the evening

My lunches on Friday and Saturday were largely composed of this beauty:

A rainbow of tiny tomatoes and fresh mozzarella, both from the farmers market, with basil from my yard and olive oil/vinegar from the co-op. I enjoyed a side of Greek yogurt with local blueberries and raw honey on the side. It was *almost* as good as ice cream. Don't let The H know I said so.

Summer staples

This afternoon, after a trip to the library and local coffee shop, the little guy and I stopped into our beloved Ken's Fruit Market for a few tomatoes. My mom came for a quick visit earlier this week and helped me plant some *beautiful* basil plants from the farmers' market, and it was about time to pick a few leaves for a caprese salad.

My lunch, or at least the first half (I'm sure I'll need more protein in a bit), was a delicious rainbow of summery colors: red tomatoes and green basil with some cubes of fresh white mozzarella, next to half of a juicy golden orange peach and emeralds of kiwi. Everything was SO fresh and SO succulent that I quite simply forgot to take a picture. Not everything was locally sourced (peaches and tomatoes aren't ripe here in the mitten until later, and I've yet to see a kiwi plant here) but I'm pleased I was able to support local business with my purchases anyway. These gorgeous shocks of color are sure to be major players in our meals for the next few months.

What is your favorite summer produce?

Berry Picking

This week, the little guy and I had our first berry-picking adventure! I can't believe I've never taken advantage of the U-pick stuff around our area. It was fun, and cheap. We got over 10 pounds of berries in about an hour, and it cost just a bit over $13. TEN POUNDS of bloobs is more than 14 cups, in case you were wondering. I felt accomplished when I washed and bagged them all up right when we got home.

He had such a blast, and was a great helper.

The berry bushes were so full--the farm was on their first picking--and it was so easy. We could get a handful of berries in one gentle grab. Look how pretty they are.

Happy summer, now in my freezer!

Gluten free fruit cobbler

This recipe comes from celiac.com, a great resource for those transitioning to gluten-free living. We were planning dinner with The H's parents, and I wanted to use some of our co-op haul for dessert. I was looking for something that would go well with with ice cream. Fruit cobbler sounded just right.

I used four of these lovely peaches, and the rest of the organic blueberries, perhaps 1 cup.

Gluten Free Fruit Cobbler

from Celiac.com

1 stick of butter

1 cup gluten-free flour blend (your choice--I used Bob's Red Mill GF all-purpose)

1/2 tsp xanthan gum

1 cup sugar

1/2 tsp salt

1 tsp baking powder

1/2 tsp baking soda

1 cup kefir or buttermilk (I used milk soured with 1 Tbsp apple cider vinegar)

1 large can peach halves, or 2-3 cups frozen thawed berries to which 1/4 cup sugar has been added (I had a total of 4 cups fresh fruit)

Ground cinnamon, nutmeg, cloves, or other spices, to taste (optional)

1. Preheat the oven to 350* and melt the butter in a glass 8x8 baking dish.

2. Mix all other ingredients, except for fruit. Pour batter onto melted butter. If you stir it around to incorporate the butter, you'll end up with a rich, buttery cakelike cobbler. If you don't mix it in, you'll have a chewy, buttery edge (I mixed it together).

3. Spread the fruit on top of the crust and sprinkle with spices of your choice. Bake 45 minutes or until set in the center.

Because of the full stick of butter and loads of sugar called for, I can't really consider this "clean" though there are certainly ways to clean it up.

I think the crust could get away with less than a full stick of butter (see how much is just sitting on top after I mixed it in? Yikes...), and the sugar in the dry crust mix could likely be cut back a bit and probably exchanged for sucanat. I just didn't have enough to try it.

I used maple flakes for the sugar on the fruit, though as I typed the recipe above, I think I could have omitted that since I wasn't using frozen berries, which are notably more tart than fresh peaches! If I were to use frozen, I'd try mixing them with honey rather than a dry sugar.

The spices I used on top of the fruit were cinnamon and nutmeg. I used a light dusting of each.

The middle was a bit soft after 45 minutes, so I left it in the oven for another 10, then turned it off and let the heat continue cooking it while we cleaned up after dinner.

It was still somewhat soft when we ate it, but since there was no raw egg or anything potentially harmful in it, we just dug in.

This made 9 servings. The H and his brother had two servings each, in rapid succession. It was one of the better gluten-free desserts I have eaten, let alone made from scratch. We didn't eat it with ice cream, but it was great nonetheless.

A good clean day

I feel good about what I ate today. I wonder if that's because I planned my eating/exercise last night? I'm not very good about that. Sometimes when it's time for a meal or snack, I don't know what to go for and having a written "menu plan" to refer to is a big help. Today was easy, though! Sorry I don't have any pictures up; I will have to get used to snapping a pic before we dig in.

Breakfast (my son slept in enough for me to enjoy this, start to finish, before he started chirping):

1 serving quick-cooking steel-cut oats

1/4 cup fresh blueberries

2 tsp ground flax meal

1/8 cup sliced almonds

1 Tbsp organic grade B maple syrup

Along with this I had a cup of half-caff coffee (it's all we make anymore) with a splash of low-fat milk. I know cow's milk is technically processed, but I'm ok with having that in my diet.

Snack 1:

1/2 cup Daisy brand 2% cottage cheese (Daisy has the shortest ingredients list of any cottage cheese I've ever seen at our grocery stores!)

1/4 cup peach salsa with 2 Tbsp black beans (rinsed)

8 soy-flax tortilla chips

The black beans got added to the salsa on a whim; I was trying to up my fiber, iron, and protein intakes. Wow, was it good! I seriously wanted to eat it with a spoon. I already love that peach salsa more than any person *should* love a condiment, but the beans just put me over the edge. Delicious.

Lunch:

1 small (half, I guess?) grilled chicken breast

1 Tbsp of my favorite (probably non-clean) barbeque sauce

1/2 of the largest sweet potato I've ever met in my life; I think it started life as a football

2 tsp brown sugar

1/2 cup brown rice

This was leftovers from dinner last night; we had to order from Logan's Roadhouse (Road House?) on the way home from visiting my parents. It was nearly 8pm and none of us had eaten dinner yet. I asked for the chicken plain grilled, and requested no toppings on the potato. I'm not the world's biggest sweet tater fan, but I'm trying--really, really trying--to get used to them. Half was all I could handle in any given sitting, so it worked out great. Oh, and then I had 1/4 of a small 72% dark chocolate bar. Could've lived without that, but oh well.

Snack 2:

Less than half of a green monster smoothie (milk, spinach, natural peanut butter, frozen banana, ice). I was still so full from the rest of the day that I didn't need this, but didn't want to bonk on my run tonight. I let my husband drink most of it; mine was probably closer to 1/4 serving.

Dinner:

1 grilled chicken breast, marinated in balsamic vinegar and olive oil

Grilled zucchini and summer squash, drizzled with a little olive oil and sprinkled with dried tarragon and fresh black pepper

Grape tomato-feta salad with white balsamic vinegar

Quinoa tabbouleh salad (cold)

What a gorgeous summery spread! I adore the colors of fresh food on the table in the summer. We had the green and yellow from the squashes, green onion and red pepper in the quinoa, and the brilliant ruby red of the tomatoes next to the golden chicken breasts, which were amazingly tender and juicy. Looking forward to leftovers for lunch tomorrow!

We ran two miles between the green monster and dinner. Not my easiest run (I'm blaming the humidity) but I'm glad to have done it. I'm very happy with my eating today and hoping for another like it tomorrow. The beets I'm roasting now (smelling up my house in the most tantalizing manner) are sure to play a part!