Month: July 2017

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Five Packable Clean Eating Lunches

My favorite Lunch Box (it has freezer packs built right in!)

PackIt Freezable Lunch Bag

MONDAY

Smoked salmon and Paleo Gingered Beets. This smoked salmon from Vital Choice has no sugar.

TUESDAY

Jalapeno-dill Tuna Salad from The 21-Day Sugar Detox Cookbook

WEDNESDAY

Turkey, Bacon, and Avocado Lettuce Wraps

Directions:

Layer sliced turkey, bacon slices, and avocado on the inside of romaine lettuce. Top with a drizzle of mustard. Optional: add additional veggies – sprinkle with diced olives, diced tomato, diced onions, pickles, or peppercinis, etc.

I like to make about 3-4 of these depending on how hungry you usually are at lunch time.

THURSDAY

Shrimp and Avocado Salad and a green salad.

Basic Salad Building Rules:

Greens – Choose your base of greens: spinach, kale, mixed greens, romaine, butter lettuce, etc.

Veggies – Add more veg: bell peppers, carrots, beets, cucumbers, artichokes, radishes, avocado, jicama, cabbage, etc.

Fruits – Add some fruit!

Nuts/Seeds – Add a sprinkling of pumpkin seeds, pecans, almonds, macadamia nuts, etc.

Cheese – Add some feta, goat cheese, parmesan, or whatever cheese you have on hand.

Salad Dressing – check out this post of my favorite homemade salad dressings.

BOOM! Now you ave an epic salad to go with your shrimp and avocado salad.

FRIDAY

Cobb Salad

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Katie’s Favorite Homemade Salad Dressings

Plastic Free July  may be over, but here is a ditch and switch that’s good for YOU and the planet ?.

Making my own salad dressing was literally THE first step on my real food journey. About 12 years ago, I was at a friend’s aunt’s house and she had this super cool salad dressing container that had six different salad dressing recipes on the sides of the container ???. I went out and bought two immediately.

Making your own salad dressing is simple and you only need a handful of ingredients on hand. When I first switched, I used the container and made the full recipe every time. Now, I just make dressing each time I have a salad and it takes less than 2 minutes. But this dressing container was CRUCIAL in my switch, because the key is that it needs to be EASY in the beginning. Salad dressings contain a whole bunch of crappy ingredients, usually canola oil and other vegetable oils, sugar, high-fructose corn syrup, and so many other junky ingredients. This is an easy place to start when switching to real food.

And since most dressing containers are made from plastic, it’s pretty easy to see why this is good for the planet ?.

Do you make your own dressings? What’s your favorite kind?

Balsamic Dressing

cleaneatingwithkatie
Print Recipe
Prep Time 5 minutes
Course Dressing
Cuisine Italian

Ingredients
  

  • 3 tbsp balsamic vinegar
  • 1 tbsp Gluten-Free Dijon mustard
  • 5 tbsp  extra virgin olive oil
  • 1 tbsp finely chopped fresh basil
  • Pinch of minced garlic or granulated garlic
  • sea salt to taste
  • ground pepper to taste

Instructions
 

Keyword balsamic dressing, salad dressing

Apple Cider Italian Dressing

cleaneatingwithkatie
Print Recipe
Prep Time 5 minutes
Course Dressing
Cuisine American, Italian

Ingredients
  

  • 5 tbsp extra virgin olive oil
  • 4 tbsp apple cider vinegar
  • 1 tbsp Italian Spice Blend  Simply Organic is my preferred brand

Instructions
 

Keyword apple cider vinegar dressing, salad dressing

Mustard Vinaigrette

cleaneatingwithkatie
Print Recipe
Prep Time 5 minutes
Course Dressing
Cuisine American

Ingredients
  

  • 3 tbsp raspberry balsamic vinegar
  • 3 tbsp extra virgin Olive Oil
  • 3 tbsp Gluten-Free mustard
  • sea salt to taste
  • fresh ground pepper to taste

Instructions
 

Keyword mustard vinaigrette dressing, salad dressing

Sesame Ginger Dressing

cleaneatingwithkatie
Print Recipe
Prep Time 5 minutes
Course Dressing
Cuisine Asian

Ingredients
  

  • 2 tbsp rice wine vinegar
  • 2 tbsp coconut aminos
  • 2 tbsp honey
  • 4 tbsp extra virgin olive oil
  • ½ tsp sesame oil not toasted sesame oil
  • 1 tsp sesame seeds
  • 2 tsp fresh grated ginger

Instructions
 

Keyword salad dressing, sesame ginger dressing

Lemon Garlic Dressing

cleaneatingwithkatie
Print Recipe
Prep Time 5 minutes
Course Dressing
Cuisine American

Ingredients
  

  • 2 lemons juiced
  • 4 tbsp extra-virgin olive oil
  • 1 tsp garlic sea salt
  • 1 tsp lemon pepper Simply Organic is the best

Instructions
 

Keyword lemon garlic dressing, salad dressing
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Paleo Gingered Beets

Most people feel kind of “meh” about beets and I used to be one of those people. I slowly began liking them more and more, but my husband wasn’t having it. He was firmly on the “meh” train. Enter Paleo Gingered Beets. They have revolution-ized beets for him. He could eat them EVERY DAY. I brought these to Easter too and convinced even more beet skeptics. I highly suggest you try the recipe and see if you become a convert!

Paleo Gingered Beets

cleaneatingwithkatie
Most people feel kind of “meh” about beets and I used to be one of those people. Enter Paleo Gingered Beets. They have revolution-ized beets for myself and other beet-skeptics. Once you make the recipe, let me know how you feel.
Print Recipe Pin Recipe
Cook Time 25 minutes
Course Salad, Side Dish
Cuisine American, Asian
Servings 6 people

Ingredients
  

  • 2 packages Love Beets
  • 4 cloves garlic minced
  • 1 in. piece fresh ginger grated
  • 2 tbsp fresh mint, chiffonade
  • 2 tbsp extra-virgin olive oil
  • 1 tbsp red wine vinegar
  • 1 tbsp coconut aminos soy sauce alternative
  • sea salt to taste
  • fresh ground pepper to taste

Instructions
 

  • If you do not have Love Beets, you can certainly use fresh beets. Just boil until a knife easily pierces and peel.
  • In a small bowl combine coconut aminos, olive oil, vinegar, garlic, ginger, mint, sea salt, and pepper. Whisk to combine. Set aside.
  • In a medium bowl (with a lid), add the beets and then stir to combine all the ingredients. Allow the flavors to enhance by letting it sit in fridge for at least an hour. Enjoy!
Keyword beet salad, beets
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Digestion Help when Switching to Real Food

Many people experience different digestion when switching to a real foods based diet. Sometimes that is for the better and sometimes initially it can change for the worse. Here are some important things to know about digestion.

  1. Digestion begins in the brain. Smelling food, seeing food, or thinking about food can cause the hormones involved in hunger to be activated to prepare the body for food and digestion.
  2. Avoid drinking a lot of water before, during, and after your meal. Water weakens the stomach acid and the digestive enzymes and reduces their ability to help process and break down foods.
  3. Chewing is “pre-digestion” and it vital for optimal digestive function. Be sure you chew your food until it is soft and no longer resembles its original self.
  4. Sit, relax, and slow down for your meals. If you are stressed when you are eating (perhaps at  your desk), your body and your hormones are in “fight or flight” mode. When your sympathetic nervous system has taken over (as in flight or flight mode), digestion is “turned off”. The body prioritizes other functions instead, like vision and fast twitch muscles. For optimal digestive function, it is vital to slow down to eat.

Health begins in gut. Here are some tips for optimizing digestion:

  1. Remove irritating foods. Removing vegetable oils, wheat, grains, sugar, soy, and conventional dairy is important to optimize digestion.
  2. Increase your probiotic rich foods. Add foods like kombucha, (here is a link to a widely available (and no added sugar kombucha), sauerkraut, yogurt, kimchi, beet kvass, and kefir.
  3.  Heal your gut lining. Consider adding L-glutamine, an amino acid that is vital for gut health, bone broth, aloe vera juice, vitamin c rich foods, and collagen peptides.
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Seven Tips for Self Care

Self-care isn’t selfish, it’s actually really important for your health and wellbeing. It’s also important to focus on self-care when you are switching to a real foods diet. Here are my Seven Tips for Self Care:

  1. Create. Whatever you like to do to be creative, schedule some time for yourself. Some ideas include: playing an instrument, cooking (although you may be tired of that during the detox! :-), home DIY, adult coloring books, sewing, scrapbooking, painting, writing. The list can go on and on.
  2. At-Home Relaxation. Schedule a playdate for the kids, hire a babysitter, or call in a favor from a family member. Do whatever you need to do in order to have some time for some at-home relaxation. The great thing about these suggestions is that they are low/no cost. Winning!! This is can include an at-home facial, a relaxing bath with epsom salts, diffusing some calming essential oils, unplug from devices, an at-home foot soak, scrub, and foot massage, or self-massage with a foam roller and/or Yoga Tune Up balls (this is my personal favorite!).
  3. Relaxation. These relaxation suggestions will set you back a bit of money, but are so worth it if you can budget them in. Ideas include: massage, reiki, acupuncture, chiropractor, manicure, pedicure, facial, or even a spa day. These are also good ideas to use as rewards for yourself when you complete a milestone – I love these rewards so much more than food rewards :-).
  4. Quiet Time. In our modern world we have so many auditory inputs that it can be very taxing on our system. Sometimes we all just need a little piece and quiet! Because we are also living such scheduled lives, it can be hard to know what to “do” during quiet time (sounds a little ridiculous, right?). Here are five ideas for your quiet time: read, write, keep a mental or physical list of things you are grateful for, meditate/pray, or even sleep!
  5. Personal Connection. Humans need human interaction and not just virtual interaction, we NEED the live and in-person kind too. Try to schedule some time to connect (or even reconnect) with friends, family, or your children. My personal goal is to have a connection with friends and family at least once per week. You may also consider joining a group of like-minded individuals to provide you with more or different personal connection. Maybe you can join a book club, hiking group, bunco group, sewing group, or a meet up group in your area to increase the amount of personal connection in your life.
  6. Exercise. It’s good for your body and your mind. Our ancestors walked 6-12 miles per day! In our modern world, most of us do not get nearly that much movement in. Whatever you like to do, make time to do it each week. The options are endless, but here are a few ideas: yoga, cycling, crossfit, running, swimming, walking, hiking, tennis, pilates, barre workouts, HIIT, and so on.
  7. Treat Yo’self. Treat yo’self to a dinner out that is still real food, but you didn’t have to cook it. It’s likely that you’ve been cooking more than you normally do and it can be exhausting. Treat yo’self to night (or day) of not having to cook. Sit back, relax, and enjoy every moment of not having to shop, chop, cook, and clean up. Ahhhhhh.

BONUS: Sunshine. Go get some sunshine! Make some vitamin D and feel the sun’s glorious rays on you. The stack your life version of self-care would be walking with a friend (exercise, sunshine, and personal connection) or swimming with your kids (exercise, sunshine, and personal connection).

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Five Tips to Improve Sleep

Most Americans are under slept and without enough sleep we are setting ourselves up for unstable moods, hunger cravings, and challenges with weight loss. In fact, in Robb Wolf’s book, Wired to Eat, he notes that Americans, on average sleep 2.5 hours less per night than Americans in the 1970’s. We often taught sleep deprivation like a badge of honor, but it is really a disservice to our health. Wolf also goes on to explain that in order for humans to deal with the stress of sleep deprivation, we are wired to seek out any food, especially highly processed foods. In fact, we have less willpower to resist these foods when we are sleep deprived. Lastly, Wolf goes on to point out there is a relationship between poor sleep and the inability to lose fat.

Five Tips to Improve Sleep

Room Conditions:

  • As dark as a cave! Make sure your bedroom is as dark as a cave. Not only do your eyes have light receptors, but all of your skin does too.The light that is often emitted from electronics should be turned off or covered up. This includes clocks, night lights, TV, etc. Using electrical tape or a washcloth can help. I also LOVE sleeping with an eyemask. I have linked to my favorite Eye Mask and my husband’s favorite eye mask (Blinks Luxury Ultralight Comfortable Contoured Eye Sleep Mask). Blackout Curtains are something else that I HIGHLY recommend. Here is a link to my favorite brand, Eclipse.

Cool it Now! Your body temperature needs to fall a degree or two for optimal sleep and so your bedroom must also have a lower temperature. Between 64°- 66° is the optimal bedroom temperature according to Wolf. 

Supplements:

Magnesium naturally relaxes the body and reduces stress. A supplement like Natural Vitality Natural Calm Magnesium is great way to get magnesium citrate.

Vitamin D can be hard to get enough of in our modern lifestyles due to indoor living and loads of sunscreen. A Vitamin D3 Liquid Supplement can be helpful for improving sleep.

* Be sure to discuss supplements with your doctor before taking any new supplements.

Bedtime Routine:

Folks with children know that bedtime routines really help with getting a restful night’s sleep. The same is true for adults. Having a consistent and regular bedtime along with a regular routine (that hopefully doesn’t involve screen time) will help power down your brain and get your body ready for sleep.

Additional Resources:

Go To Bed by Dr. Sarah Ballantyne https://www.thepaleomom.com/books/gotobed/

Eleven Tips for a Better Night Sleep

Swannies Blue Light Blocking Sleep Aid Glasses