Beef Tacos Paleo Style

I had a craving all day for some old school ground beef tacos. Of course, almost everything about a traditional taco is anti-paleo so you have to get creative! Although there is no crispy outer shell or cheese or sour cream, I promise these tacos are SUPER tasty and bursting with rich flavors!

There is the extra step of making the taco seasoning. But I think it's worth it and you can store the extra and use the seasoning later for either more tacos or other Mexican type dishes. Plus when you make the seasoning, you actually know what's in it! The store bought stuff has god only knows what in it... I used the seasoning recipe from another blog and it was delicious!

Ingredients:

Taco Seasoning
1/2 cup dried minced onion, or onion powder
1/4 cup chili powder
1/4 cup sea salt
1/8 cup garlic powder
1/8 cup ground cumin
1 tablespoon dried oregano
1 1/2 teaspoon cayenne pepper

1. Put all the ingredients in a pint mason jar, shaking to combine.

Meat Filling
1 tbsp coconut oil
1/2 red onion, finely chopped
2-3 cloves garlic, minced
1/2 green pepper, chopped
1 lb grass fed ground beef
3 tbsp taco seasoning
Juice from 1 lime

1. In a large skillet, heat coconut oil using medium heat.
2. Saute onions and garlic until golden brown, 7-8 min.
3. Add green peppers until soft, 3-4 min.
4. Add ground beef. Be sure to let ground beef brown and caramelize first before moving around. This is the trick to successfully browning your ground beef.
5. Add taco seasoning and lime juice and thoroughly mix with ground beef and vegetables. Break up any larger pieces of meat.
6. Cook ground beef until pink is no longer visible, 5-7 min.
7. Remove meat from heat when done and let rest.

Taco construction
1 head bib lettuce
1/2 tomato chopped
handful of cilantro
1 avocado, sliced

1. Place 1 piece of lettuce on a place.
2. Fill with a large spoon full of meat filling.
3. Top with tomato, cilantro, and avocado.
4. Eat and enjoy!

Beef Tacos Paleo Style

A paleo friendly Filipino dish, pancit!

For those that may not know, I am half Filipino. I was born in the Philippines and that's where my mother is from. My father is basically a mix of German and Polish. So as you can imagine, I had a very wide range of dishes while growing up. But my mother's cooking was always my favorite and still is to this day. Filipino dishes give me that feeling of home. I can remember when I was a little girl she would make lumpia, pancit, fried rice, adobo and these little whole fishes that always made the entire house smell! It wasn't until I was in middle school that I realized these foods were not things that my friends had for dinner everyday! Now that  live away from home, I only get to experience my mom's cooking during the holidays. Her lumpia is one of the best parts of Christmas! I also loved her pancit. It is basically the equivalent of Filipino comfort food; you can eat pancit for any meal, any time of day and it's still awesome!

With all that said, Filipino food is not exactly paleo friendly. But I have had a craving for it lately. Pancit is a dish that is normally made with rice based noodles from the Philippines which is obviously a paleo no-no. So, I did a search for "paleo pancit" to see if anyone had figured it out yet and the folks at Everyday Paleo came pretty close. They used shredded cabbage as the noodle base and also suggested adding a sweet potato to get a starchy consistency. The combination worked perfectly. I also modified their recipe slightly to add vegetables that better reflected what I remembered my mother using. And I gotta say, it turned out pretty awesome! I found myself eating two very large bowls.

My mother knows that I am eating differently now but I am curious if she'd like it. Might have to make it for the family next time I visit to possibly improve it with some secret mom tips. Now if only there was a paleo lumpia...

Enjoy!
*****

Paleo Filipino Pancit

Ingredients:
4 eggs (optional)

2 tablespoons coconut oil
3 teaspoons crushed garlic*
6 green onions, diced*
4 stalks celery, diced*
1 1/2 lbs chicken breasts, cut into small bite size pieces*
1 lb pork loin, cut into small bit size pieces*

2 tablespoons coconut oil
6 cups shredded green cabbage*
1 sweet potato, spiral sliced using a Spiral Vegetable Slicer*
5 carrots, diced*

1/4 cup coconut aminos
1/2 cup chicken broth
2 tablespoons sugar free fish sauce
Juice from 1 lemon
Black pepper and Celtic sea salt to taste

*A tip for this recipe is to have all your prep done before you start cooking; the recipe comes together pretty quickly.

1. Boil your eggs. If you want to learn how to make the perfect hard boiled eggs, read this blog. Works every time!

2. In a large wok heat the first 2 tbsp coconut oil over medium to medium high heat.  When the wok is nice and hot, add the garlic, green onions, celery, chicken, and pork and saute for about 10 minutes or until the meat is done all the way through but still tender. Remove the meat from the wok and set aside.

3. In the same wok, heat the next 2 tbsp coconut oil over medium to medium high heat. Add the cabbage, sweet potato, and carrots to the wok and cook until the cabbage is tender, about 10 minutes.

4. Add the chicken and pork back to the veggies and pour in the coconut aminos, chicken broth, fish sauce, and lemon juice. Season with black pepper and salt to taste. Stir well and cook for another 5-7 minutes until well combined.

5. Slice hard boiled eggs and place on top of pancit. Serve in bowls with a lemon wedge.

Paleo Filipino Pancit

Paleo Veggie Stir Fry

You are going to love this recipe! I discovered something called coconut aminos which is a soy free substitute for soy sauce! It's all the flavor without the soy or high salt! Cooking with this stuff will change your life. I found coconut aminos at Whole Foods in the Asian food section but you can also order it through Amazon here. Coconut aminos is basically the “sap” of the coconut tree. The sap produced is loaded with amino acids, minerals, and is low on the glycemic index. You can read more about this amazing ingredient here.

Tonight, I decided to make a stir fry that was adapted from an Asian Style "Noodles" recipe. I had a bunch of vegetables that needed to be used, so a stir fry is always a good solution. The sauce for this recipe reminds me of a peanut sauce (but without the peanuts of course). It's VERY tasty and could probably be used on chicken as well. Hope you like it as much as I did!

Ingredients:

1 tbsp olive oil
1 large cooked spaghetti squash (you could use zucchini noodles as well)
1/2 yellow onion, diced
1/2 red bell pepper, sliced into strips
1 large head of broccoli, florets cut off
3 carrots, sliced into matchsticks
2 cloves garlic, minced
4 tbsp almond butter
6 tbsp coconut aminos
2 tbsp Red Boat fish sauce (this is a sugar free brand)
Juice of 2 limes

Ingredients

Instructions:

1. Pre-heat oven to 375 deg.

2. Cut spaghetti squash in half and clean out seeds.

3. Place spaghetti squash in glass casserole dish filled with 1 inch of water, hollow side down.

4. Bake for 45 minutes, remove and let cool. Scope out squash and set aside.

5. While squash is cooking, heat 1 Tbsp of oil, in a large skillet, over medium high heat. Saute onions, 3-4 minutes.

6. Add the broccoli and carrots and sauté for 3-4 minutes or until mostly tender.

7. In a blender, mix together garlic, almond butter, coconut aminos, Red Boat fish sauce, and lime juice.

8. Add the sauce to the stir fry and mix thoroughly (you may not need to use all of the sauce).

9. Add the spaghetti squash to the stir fry or serve stir fry over spaghetti squash (see picture below).

Stir fry served over spaghetti squash

Shrimp and Tomato Sauté with Zucchini Spaghetti

So, my last entry was Shrimp and Tomato Sauté with Spaghetti Squash and I loved it so much! I wanted to try the same recipe using zucchini spaghetti. The recipes are very similar to each other, just basically served over a different vegetable. I also made some tweaks to the recipe for my own tastes. 

I just made this dish for dinner tonight and I must say, it's awesome! The zucchini had more flavor than the spaghetti squash and was closer to the consistency of al dente pasta. Might be my new favorite for the summer! To make the zucchini spaghetti you need to invest in a spiral slicer. I bought mine on Amazon and it works great!

Ingredients:
10 roma tomatoes
turbinado sugar
1 large zucchini
2 tablespoon extra-virgin olive
1 1/2 pounds medium shrimp, peeled and deveined, tails removed
coarse celtic sea salt and ground pepper
3 garlic cloves
pinch of red-pepper flakes
handful of fresh basil
juice from 1 lemon
fresh parsley for garnish

Directions:
1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.

2. Cut plum tomatoes in half and arrange cut side up on a baking sheet lined with parchment paper.

3. Sprinkle tomatoes with turbinado sugar.

4. Bake for an hour, remove and let cool.

5. Cut ends of zucchini and place in spiral slicer. Slice the entire zucchini using the smallest blade setting.

Zucchini spaghetti coming out of spiral slicer.

Plate full of beautiful zucchini spaghetti.

6. In a large skillet, heat extra-virgin olive oil over high. Saute zucchini spaghetti for 7-10 minutes. Season with salt and pepper. 

Saute zucchini spaghetti.

7. In another large skillet, heat extra-virgin olive oil over high.

8. Season shrimp with coarse salt and ground pepper. Add the shrimp to the skillet and cook until opaque throughout, 3 to 4 minutes. 

Cook shrimp until opaque.

9. Place garlic cloves, red-pepper flakes, fresh basil, and fresh lemon juice in a food processor and mix.

10. Add mixture to skillet and cook for 4-6 minutes; toss to coat.

Toss to coat.

11. Stir in tomatoes and cook until tomatoes being to break down, 4 to 6 minutes. Season with salt. 

12. In a large dish, mix shrimp and tomato sauté with zucchini spaghetti. Top with fresh parsley for garnish.

Yum yum!

Enjoy!

Quinoa Mango Salad and Skirt Steak

Totally yummy salad!

INGREDIENTS

Quinoa
1 cup quinoa
1 1/2 cups water

Orange vinaigrette
14 mint leaves, minced
1 tablespoon capers, minced
2 tablespoons fresh-squeezed orange juice
1/4 cup olive oil
Salt and freshly ground black pepper

Salad
1 mango, peeled and diced into 1/4-inch chunks
1/2 cucumber, peeled, seeds removed, and chopped
1/2 cup roasted red peppers
1 cup packed greens (spinach, arugula, mixed lettuces), chopped

Steak

3 lbs of skirt steak2 tbsp Coriander seeds
2 tbsp Fennel seeds
2 tbsp Turbinado Sugar
1 Jalapeno, seeds removed and minced
5 garlic cloves, minced
2 tbsp finely chopped cilantro leaves
coarse sea salt
fresh cracked pepper

SALAD DIRECTIONS

1.    Place the quinoa and water in a small saucepan. Bring to a boil over medium-high heat. Reduce the heat to a simmer, cover the pan, and cook until all the liquid is absorbed, about 10 to 12 minutes.

2.    While the quinoa cooks, make the vinaigrette: in a large bowl, whisk together the mint, capers, orange juice, and olive oil. Season well with salt and freshly ground pepper. When the quinoa is cooked, fluff with a fork and transfer to the bowl with the vinaigrette. Stir well to combine.

3.    Add the mango, red peppers, jalapeño, and greens. Stir until the vegetables are incorporated into the quinoa. Chill until ready to serve.

STEAK DIRECTIONS

4.    In a food processor, combine coriander and fennel and grind. Put in small bowl and mix with sugar. Add jalapeno, garlic and cilantro.

5.    Rub spice mixture all over steak. Season with smoked salt and pepper.

6.    Heat grill pan to medium high heat. Lightly oil grill pan with olive oil. Cook steaks 9 minutes per side for medium rare. Remove steak and let rest for 10 minutes before slicing.

This recipe made enough for a large dinner serving and two extra dishes to pack for leftover lunches.

Salad recipe adapted from http://www.yumsugar.com/Recipe-Vegan-Quinoa-Salad-18794510

Steak recipe adapted from Tom Colicchio 

Paleo fish tacos

I've come to the realization that writing in a blog everyday was probably not realistic for me given the fact that I have a full time job and other activities in my so called life! I figure a blog is supposed to be fun, so I don't want to make it another line item on my things to do list. Daily blogging probably isn't going to happen but I can do a few times a week :)

As far as the action plan goes, I made it 6 entire days. On day 7, I happen to have plans to go to Tampa for their annual Gasparilla festival. And well... pirates and detox don't mix well. The ironic part is that by the morning of day 7, I was feeling great! And then throughout the festival I consumed all sorts of food and drink that were not allowed on the action plan: processed foods, sugar, caffeine, alcohol, gluten, and dairy. The next day I had a food and booze hangover. I'm pretty sure that I have a gluten intolerance because the next few days I had digestive issues and a reoccurrence of Keratosis Pilaris, (also known as ‘chicken skin’ on the back of your arms) which had cleared up dramatically when I was on detox. I found this article that lists 10 signs of a gluten intolerance and sure enough, the top two apply to me. There’s no doubt about it, my body is not a fan of processed foods, sugar, caffeine, alcohol, gluten, and dairy.

Since the festival though, I’m still making smart food choices. This week I’ve introduced fish and eggs back into my diet. And tonight I made paleo fish tacos. Super yummy! Recipe below, enjoy J

Salsa (makes a big batch)

6 Roma tomatoes
1 handful of cilantro
½ white or red onion
Juice of 1 lime
1 jalapeno pepper
1 clove garlic
Fresh ground pepper

Hand chop tomatoes, cilantro, onion, jalapeno, and garlic. Mix in a bowl with lime juice and ground pepper.

Fish

2 large oranges
1 lime
2 Tbsp olive oil (more for skillet)
1 tsp ground cumin
pinch sea salt
2 tilapia fillets, cut into large chunks

Taco Wraps

4 large green cabbage leaves
1 avocado, sliced

Using a juicer, juice oranges and lime. Mix juice with olive oil, cumin, and salt in bowl. Add tilapia chunks to the marinade. Marinate in refrigerator for 30 minutes.

When ready to cook, heat 1 Tbsp olive oil in skillet over medium-high heat. When pan is hot, add fish chunks in a single layer. Pour remaining marinade over the fish and let simmer, approximately 4 minutes on each side. Do not turn the fish more than once because the fish chunks will break up into small pieces.

To serve: Layer 2 green cabbage leaves on top of each another to make one large taco wrap. For each taco wrap, add fish chunks and top with salsa and avocado slices. Finish each wrap with a squeeze of lime and a sprinkle of kosher flake salt (if desired).

The Action Plan: Day 5 and 6

Happy Friday beautiful people (a throw back to my Song peeps)!

So I missed blogging yesterday but I did not fall off the cleanse! I'm proud to say, I have made it all the way to day 6 of this action plan cleanse! I'm really glad I decided to do it. The best analogy I can come up with is that it’s like spring cleaning your house. When you first start cleaning, everything is kicked up while dusting and sweeping, you're moving things around, trying to organize your messes, getting rid of clutter; it seems to almost get dirtier and messier in the process. But then you hit a turning point where you see progress! Your house looks cleaner, you've cleared out the clutter, things are organized and in their place, and it just feels good to sit in your clean house. That's how I would describe the last 6 days on this cleanse.

To be complete, I’ll back track on what my meal plan was the last couple days.

Day 4:

• Cucumber pear juice
• Cashew trail mix
• Leftover creamy broccoli soup
• Leftover French lentil salad
• Orange
• Mango pops
• These obviously fall under the snack category. The recipe says to use slightly thawed frozen mango. I would suggest going with completely thawed because I almost broke my blender trying to blend everything. But this is a great snack! I didn't make pops though. I just ended up filling up a plastic container and used an ice cream scooper to make a smaller serving size.

Day 5

• Pineapple spinach juice
• Not my favorite juice out of the bunch so far...
• Leftover cauliflower rice stir fry
• Cashew trail mix
• Mango pops
• Vanilla Rooibos Tea
• Herbal Tea
• Red lentil and sweet potato stew
• This stew is the boom dot com and will fill your house with the most fragrant aromas. Remember to ferment your lentils the night before!

I've read ahead to see what week 2 entails in Whole Livings Action Plan and I may have to deviate from some of their suggestions. I will definitely be adding fish back into the mix. I need to up my protein in take. I was doing a workout yesterday and had to dig pretty deep for energy during some strength training exercises. But Week 2 also introduces some foods that are not really paleo approved. So I might have to think through my own meal plan for the week... more to come!

The Action Plan: Day 4

This was what I ended up eating the rest of day 3:

• Blueberry mint smoothie
• This was a great smoothie. First I used my juicer and juiced two peeled cara cara oranges and ½ organic lemon (with peel). There was so much juice that I didn't need to add water to the smoothie. I blended the juice with the rest of the ingredients. YUMMY!
• Macadamia nuts
• I didn’t have any trail mix left but I had a small bag of macadamia nuts. It was an easy grab when I was packing my lunch for the day.
• Leftover cauliflower rice stir fry
• Was just as good as the night before!
• Vanilla Rooibos Tea
• This is one of my favorite tea flavors by Starbucks. It's caffeine free and tastes great without adding any creamers or sugars.
• Sweet potato chips
• I made these last night using my new spiral vegetable slicer. They were a great snack.
• Leftover French lentil salad
• Lots of water

I have made it to day 4 and honestly, it has been touch and go, especially last night. I have definitely been feeling some of the common side effects of a detox: foggy head and achy joints and muscles. But they come in short waves; sometimes for just a few minutes and other times for half an hour or more. It's the strangest thing because when the wave passes, I feel great! Everything else seems to be functioning just fine. And my skin! OMG my skin. I need to write an entire blog on skin and the things I’ve gone through. But if vanity is strictly what you’re going for then do this Action Plan because I cannot remember the last time my skin has been this clear. True story on that one.

But I digress… I want to talk about the detox symptoms so that people know what to expect. I wish I could better articulate what my head feels like because it's not a headache and it’s not painful. I don't have any trouble concentrating or thinking clearly. I just feel blah. Last night was probably the worst of it. I was sitting on my couch and I just felt yucky. I have read that massaging the lymph nodes helps to get the toxins out so I decided to try out this thing called dry brushing. I first read about in a book called Crazy Sexy Diet by Kris Carr. In her words:

"Dry brushing loosens dead cells, stimulates acupressure points, tickles your chi, massages your meridians, moves the lymph, helps reduce CELLULITE, stimulates your immune system, wakes up circulation and makes your skin soooo soft and velvety!"

That all sounds like good stuff, right? It’s basically exfoliating your skin and at the same time massaging your body to improve the flow… Afterwards, I took a nice hot shower and it seemed to the do trick. The foggy blah feeling was gone and I felt like a million bucks going to bed.

I know everyone will have a different reactions to this cleanse. It all depends on where you’re starting from. For me, I managed to cut out my caffeine addiction a couple years age. So I knew caffeine headaches were not going to be an issue for me. But the foggy brain feeling really peaked my curiosity. What was causing me to have these small waves of “blah?” What’s going on up in my head?? I did tons of online research to try and figure out exactly what causes the foggy brain feeling (it's the nerd in me to always ask the how and why). I found an online article that went into great detail on the different causes for a foggy brain, everything from psychological causes to cancer to bowel toxicity to misalignment of the spine. I thought it was an interesting read to share.

So far on day 4, the foggy brain situation has lifted and overall I feel pretty good. I should mention that I have not felt hungry, deprived or starving at all. And I’ve only eaten the recommended meals and snacks. Thoughts of sugary snacks still enter my mind but they're not maddening like on day 2. I think I had about 4 different opportunities to eat sugary snacks at work yesterday:
1. Birthday cake for the secretary
2. Brownies in the break room
3. Bacon caramel cupcakes in my managers office
4. Publix soft cookies in one of my meetings
And I didn’t have any of it. So that’s a mini victory for me! I wanted a bacon caramel cupcake like no other because they were made by a girl in my office who does some professional baking on the side. But I stood strong. If I make it to day 21, maybe I’ll experiment with making a cleaner version J

The Action Plan: Day 3

So, what was the rest of day 2 like? Well, I started with a big glass of cucumber-pear juice. I used an Asian pear because I like them better. The juice was very tasty and easy to drink. And just note, you’ll need a juicer for this recipe. I will definitely be making this juice on the reg.

Then for lunch I had leftover creamy broccoli soup. And it was just as awesome as it was the night before!

After lunch, I decided to take on the monstrous task of cleaning my garage. It was a lot of hard gross manual work like cleaning, sweeping, scrubbing floors, moving boxes, etc. I was a hot sweaty mess afterwards. But I figured it was a good way to get some movement into my day but not do a full blown workout during the first few days of this cleanse. A few hours after I was done, I had the craziest craving for something with sugar! Ice cream, chocolate, a cookies, anything! Fortunately, I did not cave because I have no such items available in my apartment. But the cravings didn’t really subside or go away, so I decided to make the strawberry coconut smoothie. The smoothie seemed to do the trick! Sugar withdrawal is such a strange phenomenon.

I made the cauliflower rice stir fry for dinner. This recipe is packed with all sorts of vegetables. The entire dish probably took me about 1 hour to make from start to finish. There’s just a lot of prep work involved when you’re using a large variety of vegetables. I got to use my new spiral vegetable slicer which is a fun new kitchen tool. Overall, the dish was very good and filling. The addition of cilantro is a must to give your taste buds something to smile about. I also had enough leftovers for at least two more servings. And yes, I used the chopsticks!

It’s now day 3 of the detox and I've already managed to purge four pounds of God only knows what! A quick unexpected side effect (but always welcomed)! I could tell when I woke up this morning that I was a little smaller around my mid section. My first thought, "Wow, this detox thing might actually be working!" So far today, I’d say I feel pretty foggy in the head. It’s not a headache and it’s not painful but I just feel “blah.” I’m pretty sure it’s a sign of my body cleaning house. I’ve heard that the level of your discomfort during the first few days of a cleanse depends on how toxic you were when starting out. I went into this assuming I was high on the toxic scale, so I'm expecting some discomfort. I'm hoping by day 4 or 5, it starts to clear up!

I had mentioned yesterday, the difficulty of doing a detox is doing it while you tackle your real life responsibilities. And low and behold, I came into work and at 8:30 am we had a birthday celebration for my secretary. There was a beautiful Pulix cake, brownies, and cookies. Of course, I wanted a piece of cake but I refrained. I sang happy birthday, gave her a hug, and went on my way. She got my love on her birthday and I get to say I'm still on track. Birthday cake temptation averted, for today at least!

The Action Plan: Day 2

I've made it to day 2 and I swear, I feel lighter already! It always amazes me how much crap you can carry in your mid section when you're bloated...

Day 1's lunch menu called for French lentil salad. I served myself a huge plate because I had waited too long between breakfast and lunch and was SUPER hungry. The salad was very filling and didn't taste bad. I went into eating lentils with an open mind, so that always helps. I don't think this will be a repeat recipe in my life but it was fun to try.

For dinner, I made the the creamy broccoli soup which doesn't look like much but it is AWESOME. I really liked it! It's super easy, quick to make, filled with good for you green stuff, and tastes good. I followed the suggestion by one of the readers on the website and added the juice from one lemon. It was a fantastic addition. I also probably used a bit more crushed red pepper than it calls for but I like spicy, so it worked for me.

I strictly followed the meal suggestions for all of Day 1. I did snack on some trail mix between lunch and dinner but that's allowed. I just need some crunch in my life. Otherwise, I drank TONS of of water. Overall, I'd say Day 1 was a success.

Today is Monday and it's MLK Day (may he rest in peace). I get the day off from work which means I get another "easy" day at home doing this Action Plan. Easy in the sense that I don't have to worry about anything but this Action Plan! This morning, I already got to sleep in, walked the dog, took things slow, made some cucumber pear juice, and wrote this blog. There was no need to pack or pre-plan my meals for the day. It's all just right here at my place. Tomorrow will be a different story. I think everyone could be successful with any detox or change in eating habits if we didn't have to work (i.e. responsibilities)! My real life is filled with bad habits! It's trying to merge the development of good habits while at the same time breaking the old that's the hard part.

I also might start tracking my calories during each day, just out of curiosity. The Action Plan says that calorie counting it's a big deal since it's basically good for you stuff (i.e. no processed foods, dairy, or sugar). But calculating the calories can turn into a lot of work since these recipes don't have the information readily available. By the way, what is up with that Whole Living?

Have a great day!

The Action Plan: Day 1

I picked up a Whole Living magazine at the HOU airport last week. The cover said, "Fresh Start!" Later I found out it's a Martha Stewart magazine, so of course I was drawn to it. Inside the magazine was a 21 day action plan, a detox basically. Looked easy enough. I could do 21 days, right?

Well, today is Day 1. So far, I've had a Magno-Tahini Smoothie for breakfast. It wasn't bad. What is tahini you may ask? Cause I asked the same thing. It's basically sesame seed in a liquid butter form. I found some at Whole Foods in the produce section.

But getting to the point of actually having this first smoothie took some work! First, I had to read the entire plan to get a feel for what it was about. You can read view the plan here. Basically it eliminates processed foods, added sugars, dairy, gluten, alcohol, and coffee. I already know my biggest issues are going to be sugar and alcohol. They are my nemeses! But it's still January, the time for resolutions, and I'm still feeling the need to clean up my act, so I'm all in.

First step was to make a shopping list for the week 1. This is what my shopping list looked like. It might vary for you depending on what you already have in the house.

Produce:

• 4 limes
• 4 Asian pears
• 4 cucumbers
• 2 bunches of celery
• 2 avocados
• 2 oranges
• 6 lemons
• 6 green apples
• 3 red onion
• 3 yellow onion
• 2 bags of carrots
• 2 bunches of beets
• 4 sweet potatoes
• 2 bananas
• 2 red bell pepper
• 1 red chili
• 1 cauliflower head
• 1 broccoli bunch
• 1 large tub of baby spinach
• 1 bag of romaine
• 1 bag of shredded red cabbage
• 2 bunches of parsley
• 2 bags mint leaves
• tarragon
• basil
• cilantro
• fresh sliced pineapple
• jar of garlic

Frozen:

• 1 bag of frozen blueberries
• 2 bags of frozen mango
• 1 bag of frozen strawberries

Other:

• tahini
• slivered almonds
• French green lentils
• red lentils
• coconut oil
• honey
• fennel seeds
• caraway seeds
• cumin
• turmeric
• curry power
• coconut milk

Seems like a lot, I know. But there is a cleansing broth that you're supposed to make before starting which uses up a lot of the vegetables. I also bought ingredients to make some of the suggested snacks because I know me, I like snacks.

The coolest part of starting this Action Plan was that I discovered a great place to start buying my produce. It’s called the Homegrown Local Food Cooperative. Their produce supply comes from local farmers so it’s all super fresh. And if you become a member of the cooperative, you can participate in their online ordering deal. Twice a week they accept online orders for produce. You click submit, they gather it all up for you and a couple days later, you pick it up. I just thought it was so brilliant, I signed up for a lifetime membership (it was more cost effective). I’m pretty excited to make that a part of my weekly food shopping.

Once you have all the required food for your first week, you need to make sure you do some of the prep work. First thing is to make the cleansing broth. It takes about an hour and you’ll need a jug or container large enough to hold about 12 cups of water. Second is to prep the use of lentils. There are two recipes in week 1 that use lentils. I’ve never really eaten lentils but I have read in all my Paleo books that they are on the no no list. But then I’ve read several online bloggers and other sources saying can be very good for you, if prepared properly. These two bloggers had very great write ups on lentils:

To Bean Or Not To Bean, That Is The Question (Legumes, Lectins, and Human Health)

Fermenting Lentils

I ended up doing the acidity fermentation on the French lentils that I plan to use in the French lentil salad for lunch today… I’ll let you know how it turns out.

3 Steps To Get The Juice

During this past holiday season, I over consumed all sorts of foods that I knew were bad for me. I had many occasions to drink “holiday cheer” during all the parties. I was stressed out over visiting the family for Christmas. I was short on sleep because of a heavy end of year world load. I felt gross, fat, bloated, depressed, tired, and foggy in the head. Not exactly how I wanted 2013 to start off. I knew that I needed some sort of action plan to get back on track!

Shortly after Christmas, I bought a juicer. I had always wanted to start some kind of juice fast/cleanse/kick start. The idea of cleaning my liver sounded good too (it’s been a hard working organ over the years). I have watched several documentaries that just go on and on about the benefits of juicing (Fat, Sick & Nearly Dead, Hungry for Change, etc). I figured, “Why not? It can’t hurt.” I jumped in and my first week of juicing was actually fun. I didn’t cut out solid food, I just juiced when I felt like it. I like to take baby steps when starting something new. I discovered it was quick and easy. The hardest part is probably keeping up with the food lists and shopping. You need to be fully stocked with produce to make the really good tasting and good for you juices.

So, where does one start if you want to juice? For those that would like to embark on the juice trend, let me walk through what I went through… On December 29^th, I decided I was going all in on juicing. I was going to pick up a juicer, the produce, and a recipe book. One day, BOOM, get it done!

Step 1: Buy a juicer. I did tons of research on all sorts of juicers. I went through an internal conflict of, “Do I go all in and buy a top of the line so that I commit to this? Or do I just get a Juiceman Juicer and get on with it?” The answer just kind of landed in my lap… I had received a $30 gift card for Williams Sonoma for Christmas. My first thought, “This is awesome, I can use this card towards one of their juicers!” Initially, I was going to purchase the Breville Juice Fountain Plus for $149.95. It got great reviews online and would be a reasonable purchase for a first time juicer.

I drove the long arduous 30 minutes to the Mall of Millennia. Then I battled with other cars for another 20 minutes in the parking lot. But I didn’t care. I was there and I made it to Williams Sonoma and I was walking out with a new juicer! Now, I don’t know what other Williams Sonoma stores are like but this one happened to be JAM PACKED with people that day. I finally got the attention of one of the sales associates. I told her the juicer that I was looking for and she went into her computer to see if they had one available. Negative. As in, none. Not one Breville Juice Fountain Plus available in the entire Central Florida area. You know why? Because they are only available for purchase online. Nowhere on the Williams Sonoma website does it mention this about this stupid juicer. I was BEYOND frustrated at this point. Mostly because my time, effort, and gas had been wasted. You’re probably asking, well I’m sure they had other juicers? Yes they did but way outside of my price range. I couldn’t stomach dropping $200-300 on a new kitchen appliance. Wonderful Williams Sonoma wouldn’t even order the juicer for me with free shipping. I left the store, defeated with $30 gift card still in hand. Maybe I’ll re-gift it.

As I left the mall parking lot, I decided to go see what Target had available. I did not want to wait another week for an online order. I wanted a juicer THAT DAY. I ended up finding a Dash Electric Juicer that was $99. And you know what? I LOVE IT! It does everything I need it too and the cleanup is easy. Target to the rescue! So the moral of step 1, don’t waste your time with tons or research if you’re just starting out with juicing. Go to target, get a Dash, you’ll be plenty of satisfied.

Step 2: Buy produce. While I was at Williams Sonoma, they had a juicing display that had juice recipe cards. I grabbed one and decided that was my starting point. I basically used their recipes as my shopping list at the Fresh Market. It’s an intimidating shopping list that requires large amounts of produce (you may not be used to). For example, 6 Asian Pears, 2 bunches of celery, 10 lemons, etc. But when I was filling the cart, I just thought to myself, all of these wonderful fruits and vegetables are going to be put into my body. Just do it. It looks good in your refrigerator and gives you a proud healthy feeling. I promise. I keep a pretty clean and organized refrigerator but most people starting out might want to do some refrigerator spring cleaning before you start juicing.

Step 3: My last stop of the day was at Barnes and Noble. I know I can look up juice recipes on the internet but I’m a fan of real paper bound books. I picked up The Juice Lady’s Living Foods Revolution by Cherie Calbom. Great book, it sits on my kitchen counter now.

And that’s it. 3 steps and you can start juicing today. And just some side notes. While I prepared my first juice, I found a few things to be very essential. 1. Have a good sharp knife. 2. Have a good sharp peeler. 3. Make sure you have extra small plastic garbage bags to line the catch bin of your juicer (makes cleanup easier).

I also got to wondering about how much these juicers were calorie wise. I found this website which gives you a pretty good idea.

I still have not made juicing every morning before work a habit but I’m leaning into it. I can tell there’s a big different in my skin tone and clarity. My face was a mini battle ground in December and now it’s starting to clear up nicely. I feel pretty good too. Not worlds of improvement but overall, I’d say juicing has been a small positive step in the right direction.

Happy juicing!