Hump Day

Welp, here we are. half way through (nearly) this project.

So far... it has been hard to get my dad to eat as much food as I would like him to. It is like pulling teeth to get the man to eat breakfast. Yesterday he came home from work with most of his salad still in the lunch box, and nearly all of his snacks still there. ugh.

This morning I left a threatening note on the coffee pot to try to get him to eat his food. He left his breakfast in the fridge.

His meals should have looked like this today (I've downsized his portions a little since he's not really eating as much as I want him to).

Breakfast: apple cinnamon chobani.

mid morning snack: nectarine

Lunch: tuna salad on a whole wheat pita, vegetable chips

mid afternoon snack: banana, raw almonds

Dinner: salad (lettuce, jalepenos, bell peppers, tomatoes, tapenade) with 2 turkey & quinoa muffins crumbled over the top.

Hopefully he does a little better today. I fear he is sneaking chips and/or chocolate.

Monday night I made grilled shrimp over wild rice with chickpea salad. He didn't really eat the rice or chickpeas... but he really enjoyed the shrimp.

Marinade recipe: honey, juice from 1/2 lemon, cracked pepper, salt, balsamic vinegar, cayenne pepper, minced garlic.

Strawberry Vanilla Protein Muffins

I keep on *saying* I am going to start baking again. Only.. I don't because I don't want to eat all the cupcakes and junk I used to bake. Believe me, I'm fantastic at creating sugary confections BUT they're not the best thing to eat if you're trying to eat clean!

So today I decided to attempt baking with protein powder. I have made pancakes and blueberry muffins from the TONE IT UP plan, and they turned out great. With the knowledge I have gained from various blogs about substituting healthy ingredients for not so healthy ingredients... I give you my first "recipe."

You will need:

1 1/4c vanilla (or strawberry!) protein powder
3/4c egg whites (or approx 4 egg's whites!)
1 tbsp chia
1 tbsp ground flax (unless your BETH, then you can leave this out!)
1 1/2 tsp unsweetened almond milk (or strawberry soy milk)
1tbsp water
1/2 banana mashed
1/4-1/2c strawberry chobani
1 tbsp coconut oil
1 tsp cinnamon (next time I am going to leave this out and add 1tsp honey!)
1 1/2 tsp baking powder
1/2 (heaping) c chopped strawberries
sea salt (optional)

Mix all the ingredients together & bake at 350 until brown on top (about 12 minutes).

These are going to be FANTASTIC with a schmear of peanut butter in the morning!