What a beautiful day ...

Hope your weekends were all good. Mine was great. It was so much fun spending Saturday with my mom all by ourselves ... SHOPPING!!! Yeaahhhh. Anyone who knows me knows shopping is one of my passions so we had a great day. Lots and lots of great deals in the US.

I did actually manage to stay pretty much on track as well. I packed a cooler for us Friday night (as we were leaving by 6:30 am) and had our snacks all ready to go. We had Subway for lunch and supper too actually. We just got a 12" oven roasted chicken breast sub for lunch and saved 1/2 of it to eat later. We knew that we would never make it home in time for supper! LOL

I do have to say, packing a cooler is one of the greatest tips. I'm sure you are all like me and when I have the growlies, I'm not real big on worrying about nutrition. I just grab the closest and easiest thing. Thankfully, I had our veggies, hummus, cheese sticks, and almonds all ready to go.

How was your weekend? Did anyone manage to get a copy of the book yet? I was reading my Oxygen magazine this morning and noticed a list of the clean eating principles so thought I'd list them here for you all and hope I'm not breaking any kind of copy right rules!:

1. Eat six small meals each day.

2. Eat every two to three hours.

3. Eat a combination of lean protein and complex carbohydrates at each meal.

4. Drink two to three liters of water each day.

5. Depend on fresh fruits and veggies for complex carbs, enzymes and fiber.

6. Eat whole grains, not refined, over-processed, or chemically charged foods.

7. Choose lean protein from poultry, fish, wild game, soy products and legumes.

8. Eat healthy fats every day from fish, healthy oils, nuts, seeds and grains.

9. Never miss a meal, especially breakfast!!!

10. Stick to reasonable portion sizes.


Thought I would also post a cookie recipe that I tried the other day. Yes, you still can have a treat now and then, just have to keep it to a minimum. I try to eat only one just once and awhile.

1/4 c Olivinia margarine
1/4 c Unsweetened applesauce
1/4 c Turbinado sugar (raw sugar also can be called Sucanat)
1/4 c Brown sugar Splenda *see note
1 tsp vanilla
2 tsp canola oil
2 T egg whites

Mix the above together, just folding in the egg whites gently

1 1/2 c oatmeal
1 1/2 c whole wheat flour
1 t baking powder
1 t baking soda
1 T cinnamon

Mix in separate bowl.

Mix the wet into the dry then separate into 2 batches.

In 1/2 of batter add: 1/4 c chopped dates and 1/4 c unsalted sunflower seeds.

In other 1/2 add: 1/4 c chocolate chips (I used semi-sweet as these were for the kids but if I was making them for myself, I would try to use dark chocolate)

Bake at 325 degrees for about 10 minutes.

* Alot of people in the clean eating world do not use Splenda. I do occassionally use it although normally only in baking. There is some contriversy over the safeness of it and alot of people use a herb called Stevia instead. I do use it as well however haven't had much success with it in desserts as I find it a bit bitter. You could simply increase the Sucanat to a 1/2 c and give that a try.

Give them a try and let me know how you like them.

Hope you have a great day/night (depending on where you are reading this) and I'll talk to you all again another day.