Breakfast Wrap

I've seriously neglected my blogging duties lately but I am still following the organic diet and feeling better than ever. I had several people ask me what I eat for breakfast so I thought I'd get back to it with a breakfast blog.

I am a die hard coffee drinker and I used to drink my coffee with milk and LOTS of sugar. Way too much sugar really. I switched my morning beverage to coffee with almond milk and honey. Honey in coffee sounds strange, but it tastes really good. I tried several sugar substitutes (truvia, stevia, etc) but they all tasted overly processed. Honey is a great sweetener and much healthier than any of the alternatives.

Food-wise I usually eat a piece of fruit for breakfast along with a breakfast wrap. The contents of the wrap vary depending on what ingredients I have handy, but today for example I made this:

First I saute some veggies with olive oil. Today I used onions, red bell pepper and tomatoes. Then I mix in one scrambled egg (organic & cage-free mixed with a little almond milk). I usually add chives, cumin, salt & pepper. After the egg is mostly cooked I melt a little cooper cheese on top. 

Also in today's wrap is black beans and rice that I pre-made and sometimes I add refried beans as well. I also top it off with organic salsa when I'm in the mood, but today I did not. 

I stock up on flatbread wraps every week. Today I have the Garden Spinach variety. 

Here are the main ingredients: 

• Onions
• Bell Peppers
• Tomatoes
• Whatever other veggies you like
• One egg (organic cage-free)
• Almond Milk (about 1 tbsp) 
• Black Beans & Rice
• Cooper or American Cheese (1 slice)
• 1 wrap
• Cumin
• Chives
• Salt
• Pepper

Pile everything in the middle, wrap and serve! 

Organic Pizza!

Hi There! I'm still here... been a little busy with school but I wanted to get a post up for April so here goes... 

Giving up pizza has been the absolute hardest thing for me on my diet. Bread or anything with yeast is verboten. The good news is my doctor lifted some other food restrictions so I have a few more options to choose from. I can eat cheese now which is nice but I eat it sparingly and still go for the organic choices. The best addition to my diet has been Flatout Multigrain wraps. They are healthy, taste great and I really missed eating sandwiches (and pizza). 

The front of the wraps package has a picture of flatbread pizza so I tried making my own. It came out pretty tasty. My aunt stopped over on pizza night last week and got a sample. She's been begging me to post the recipe so here you go Aunt Molly!

Ingredients: 

• Flatout multigrain wraps
• organic marinara sauce
• tomatoes
• onions
• red bell peppers
• organic cooper cheese
• basil
• oregano
• garlic salt
• salt
• pepper

Grease a cookie sheet with olive oil and slap your wrap on there. Spread the marinara sauce on first. Try to go as close to the edges as possible it bakes better that way. Then add thinly sliced tomatoes, onions and bell peppers. Add your spices after the veggies: lots of oregano, some basil, salt & pepper to taste and garlic salt. Lastly break up some cheese slices - I use organic cooper cheese from Wegmans. 

Bake it for 10-15 minutes around 350° and then slice it with a pizza cutter. 

That's it! Super easy and  yay pizza!!!

Miso Ginger Chicken

I am so sorry I have not posted in so long. I'm a student so sometimes I get backed up with homework. I should be doing homework right now but I just tried a little "experiment" and it tasted so good - I wanted to blog it before I forget the recipe.

I have had mad cravings for Chinese food lately. I also had a few weird ingredients here and I wasn't sure what to make with them. I tried making fish with miso ginger vinaigrette and toasted sesame oil in the past but it didn't turn out so great. The miso ginger vinaigrette wasn't very tasty on salads either. However today I tried them both with chicken & carrots and OMG... you must make this. 

I'm calling this Miso Ginger Chicken

Ingredients: 

• farm raised chicken breasts

• miso ginger vinaigrette

• toasted sesame oil

• organic carrots

• sesame seeds

• garlic cloves (2 or 3)

• sea salt & pepper 

Put the chicken breast in a baking dish and covered it with miso ginger vinaigrette. Then slice up the carrots and garlic cloves and mix them with sea salt, pepper and toasted sesame oil. Dump the carrots & garlic over the chicken and cover everything with sesame seeds. Cover the dish with foil and bake it around 400° for about 45-50 minutes. 

I usually check chicken around 30 minutes, flip it over and take the foil off for the remaining cook time. There will be sauce left in the dish after cooking so pour that over everything before you serve it. 

I didn't even make it to the table with this one - I ate the whole thing standing up at the counter! Please forgive my half eaten chicken phone picture. I didn't realize I would be photographing & blogging it until I ate a few bites. 

I used Wegmans brand miso ginger vinaigrette (with the salad dressings). Hopefully you can find a good substitute if you don't have a Wegmans nearby. This definitely will do the trick next time I'm craving Chinese food.

Ouch!

So I had a little accident in the kitchen. I received a mandolin for Christmas this year. It was a very thoughtful gift and a cool product, especially if you slice lots of veggies. I will spare you the gory details. Let's just say I recommend if you decide to try a mandolin....

ALWAYS use the finger guard!!!

"She who does not use finger guard... must live with flat fingertip."

Spagetti Squash & Meatballs

I was a little intimidated by spagetti squash at first but it is SO good and super easy to make! To prep the spagetti squash cut off the ends and then cut it in half. It can be little tough to cut so eat your Wheaties and roll up your sleeves. Spagetti squash have guts on the inside like a pumpkin. Scoop all that crap out and throw it away. Then bake the squash open sides down on a baking sheet. Preheat the oven to 350° and bake 30 minutes. 

When you can stick a fork in the outer skin it is done. After it is finished baking, scrape out the insides with a spoon. This squash I made was a mutant. They are not normally this huge. Here's what you get after scraping. 

(Ignore the date stamps on these pics apparently I have to reset it)

I also make homemade meatballs for this dish. Here are the meatball ingredients: 

• 1 lb grass fed ground beef
• 1 organic egg
• 2 tbsp water
• 1/2 cup breadcrumbs (I use brown rice breadcrumbs from the gluten free section)
• 1/4 cup minced onion 
• 1/2 tsp sea salt
• 1/8 tsp pepper

Combine everything in a large bowl and mush it together with your hands. Roll meatballs about 1" in diameter and put them in a broiler pan. You cook the meatballs for about 30 minutes at 350° (same as the squash) so you can bake everything at the same time. 

I use an organic spagetti sauce to top it off. This is a really healthy alternative to spagetti and it's great if you are avoiding gluten/carbs. Pasta is verboten in my diet so this has been a fantastic substitute when I am craving Italian!  

Unfortunately I have to skip the cheese due to the diet but if you know of a non-dairy cheese substitute that actually tastes good please let me know! My friend Karla tried and reviewed a vegan cheese in her blog (sounded like an epic fail) but so far we can't find anything good in the non-dairy cheese department. 

Grocery List

A friend of mine asked me to blog my grocery list. I thought that was a great idea! Grocery stores can be totally overwhelming. It's so confusing to make healthy choices when you are confronted with a wall full of soup that all looks the same.

Before I got into the habit of reading ingredients on labels, I used to buy whatever had the coolest packaging. Unfortunately nicely designed labels on the outside do not always equal healthy food on the inside. 

ALWAYS READ THE INGREDIENTS! I was amazed to find that very few foods have just the basic ingredients. Almost everything has sugar, high fructose corn syrup, artificial color & flavor and a host of other additives I can't even pronounce. 

My rule of thumb, if I can't pronounce it... I don't eat it. 

Here is an example of my typical grocery list: 

• almond milk (Silk)
• honey
• onions (2 or 3)
• red bell peppers (2)
• baby spinach 
• carrots 
• squash (1) 
• cucumbers (1)
• free range chicken (1 or 2 packages of 3 breasts)
• grass fed ground beef (1 or 2 packages) 
• 1 bag nuts (almonds, cashews, walnuts)
• hard tofu (1 package)
• multi-grain wraps (1-2 bags)
• hummus
• Mary's Gone Crackers 
• bananas
• strawberries
• blueberries
• cantaloupe 
• refried beans
• organic brown or wild rice (1 bag lasts awhile)
• salsa
• veganaise (dairy free mayonaise) 

I may not get all of these items every week but those are the basics. I usually make a seafood run every week or so to Valley Seafood in Wilkes-Barre, PA for salmon, haddock or flounder. 

The Lyme diet has some handy shopping lists online if you are following the main diet:

Phase 1

Phase 2

Phase 3

Phase 4

Recipe Swap

Recipe thread!

 Post some organic recipes you've tried in the comments, I love trying new things!