Clean Eating Minestrone Soup with Quinoa

http://www.livestrong.com/thedailyplate/meals/smc1228/minestrone-soup-with-quinoa-clean-eating/

I found this recipe in the last issue of Clean Eating Magazine. I don't follow it exactly, but here are my modifications and quick instructions. The recipe takes about 20-30 minutes to prepare and another 20-30 minutes of solo cook time.

Spray a stock pot with olive oil spray. Cook the following until tender (8 mins or so):

• 2 bay leaves
• 1 C chopped carrots
  
• 1 C chopped fennel
• 1 C chopped red onion
• 3 or 4 garlic cloves, minced (I put the carrots, fennel, onions and garlic in the food processor until they are chopped - mine get to a pretty fine consistency)
• Sometimes based on what is in my fridge, I might add a chopped red pepper or chop a few stalks of celery

When veggies are done cooking, add:

• 2 t chopped thyme (I just pull the little leaves right from the 'twig' and don't bother chopping)
• 1/4 t fennel seeds (not terribly important if you don't have them)
• 6 C water
• 2 cans Muir Glen Fire Roasted Tomatoes, no salt added variety (I get these at Meijer, Kroger, etc, in the organic food section)
• Beans - the recipe calls for white kidney (cannelloni) beans. I usually get a 15 oz can, drain and rinse. However, rinsing doesn't get rid of a ton of the sodium, so the last time I made this soup I bought dry beans and made my own. I couldn't find dry cannelloni beans, so I used great northern beans. They have a similar size, shape, consistency and flavor. Making the beans added a little more time to the recipe as I needed about 2 hrs to quick soak and cook. When using my own cooked beans, I added about a cup and a half cooked to the mixture.
  
• 1/3 C quinoa (pronounced KEEN–wah; quinoa is often called a superfood - it's grain like, high in protein, and easy to digest. Read here for a nice article on its awesomeness: http://www.menshealth.com/men/nutrition/food-for-fitness/quinoa/article/b19f96cf917d1110vgnvcm20000012281eac. You can find quinoa in any grocery store, but I buy mine at costo in a 3lb bag for 10 bucks. Cheap!!)

Let the soup simmer for about 20 minutes until the quinoa has a chance to cook. Remove bay leaves before eating. The recipe calls for some chopped fresh basil and chopped fresh spinach thrown into each bowl as you prepare to eat. I will cut the basil and spinach (a handful of each) into thin slices and throw it into the pot while it's cooking. Top each cup of soup with 1 T grated romano cheese and salt/pepper to taste.

This particular recipe gets me anywhere from 11 to 13 cups of soup. One cup of the soup (with 1T romano cheese) has approximately:
100 calories
3 g fat
13 g carb
7 g protein
5 g fiber
172 mg sodium

To up my protein and calorie intake (and make this enough for a meal), I add 3 oz cubed chicken breast (you could very well use a rotissere chicken for this purpose) or a cooked tilapia filet (individually frozen bulk bag from costco - 10 minutes in the oven).

A batch of this soup made on Sunday gives me lunch and dinner options for the entire week!

What do I eat?

I was recently asked about what I eat, how much I eat, and how often I eat by a friend... I wrote quite a lengthy response, so I figured I'd share it here.

Calories:

• Typically 2000 calories is the standard, but you need to adjust that up or down based on your goals, current activity level, and then it's really a moving target once you start. I have played with my caloric intake for the last year or so, going up and down anywhere between 1300 cals and 2200 cals depending on my activity level at the time and how heavy I was lifting. There are great calculators online for determining what your basal metabolic rate is and using this as a starting point for determining caloric needs.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Basal_metabolic_rate
http://exercise.about.com/cs/fitnesstools/g/BMR.htm

The Basics:

• Eat every 2-3 hours (breakfast is a MUST, even if you're not hungry. It jump starts your metabolism)
  
• Drink LOTS of water. I drink about a gallon a day (128 oz). You pee a lot in the beginning, but your body gets used to it.
• Eat a good combination of foods at every meal - lean protein, complex carbs, and healthy fats.
• Steer clear of alcohol - slows the metabolism and lowers inhibitions, which leads to crap eating.
  
• Remember that liquid calories count just as much as solid - pop, juice, coffee, Gatorade, etc. Try and limit yourself to water and tea. Carbonated beverages (even calorie free) still cause bloat and discomfort. Plus, have you seen all of the chemicals in a diet pop?
• Eat clean - this means eating food as close to its natural form as possible. Try to stay away from things that are processed or have more than a handful of ingredients. If it contains something you can't pronounce or sounds like a chemical, stay away. This is probably the most important aspect of everything. People that adopt a clean eating lifestyle can lose weight without ever trying to work out. Your body's metabolism is slowed down by the amount of chemicals and processed crap that we put into it every day.
• Subset of eating clean/processed foods - stay away from anything WHITE. White bread, white flour, white sugar, etc. You can eat bread, just get whole grain bread. Anything that says 'enriched' is garbage. Sugar is the devil - it's so refined and overly processed - along with white flour. There are other alternatives to those. Whole wheat flour, for example. Or oat flour. For sugar, there are tons of non processed options - honey, agave nectar, and tons more natural types of sugar. Clean eating isn't about giving up the stuff you like - it's about eating it in a different way.
• READ LABELS!
  
• Pay attention to portion sizes. I bought a food scale and measuring cups and it's amazing to realize how our food portion sizes are so distorted. Just look at the massive sizes of cups, plates and bowls - compare these to the size of dishes 10, 15 years ago. It's eye opening to see how large a true portion is.
  
• PREPARE. This helped me SO MUCH in the beginning. On Sundays, I take an hour or two and cook some food for the week and plan out a meal list. That way I always have something handy and never have to give into the temptation to eat crap just because its quick and easy. That's no excuse.
  

Typical Schedule:
7:30 am: Breakfast
Mid-morning (10, 10:30): Snack 1
Between 12 and 1: Lunch
Mid-afternoon (3ish): Snack 2
6-7 pm: Dinner
9 -10pm: Snack 3

This is a pretty standard day, but can change a bit based on how often and when I work out. If I'm training at night, I'll break up my dinner into two sittings - something small about an hour before I train (lower fat, slightly higher carb - maybe a bowl of Kashi and milk) and then something small right after I train (3 oz fish and a bowl of soup or veggies, half sweet potato).

Examples of meals:

Breakfast:

• Protein oatmeal: 1/2 c quick cook oats and water, nuked. Add 3 or 4 egg whites and a scoop of protein powder, nuke again for a minute. Maybe add some cinnamon.
• High protein cereal (kashi go lean) and skim milk or almond milk.
• Scrambled egg whites w spinach and salsa in a whole grain tortilla.
  
• Lately I've been making protein pancakes - mix 1/3 c fat free cottage cheese, 2T ground flax seed, half scoop vanilla protein powder, cinnamon or pumpkin pie spice, and 4 egg whites (add the egg whites last so they don't get too mixed). Spoon onto a skillet and cook like pancakes. Mmm!
  

Snacks:

• Raw Almonds (Small handful - 20 or so)
• Celery with natural peanut butter (very important to have natural, no oils, sugars or salts added - I like the Trader Joe's brand (pretty cheap @ 2 bucks, or Krema Natural - make sure peanuts are the only ingredient)
  
• Apple w/peanut butter or almond butter (same rules apply to any other nut butter)
  
• Fat free Greek yogurt (Oikos or Fage - tons of protein) with a scoop of protein powder
• Fat free Greek yogurt with chopped apples and walnuts
  
• Sliced red peppers with hummus

Lunch:

• Chicken breast with broccoli (I grill 5 or 6 chicken breasts on Sunday - frozen ones in a bag from costco - and then put them in baggies for the week so I just need to nuke). I either get frozen broccoli or fresh and put it in a microwave steamer bag - 3 minutes and your lunch is done.
• Salads with chicken breast - I like spinach/onion/sliced apple/fat free feta, or romaine/black beans/salsa/red onion/low fat shredded cheese.
• Soup - there is a minestrone soup that I LOVE right now, I make it once on Sunday and eat it for lunch and dinner all week. It makes about 13 cups and it's super easy to make. (I'll have to post the recipe.)
  

Dinner

• Protein:

• Grilled chicken
• Baked tilapia (I buy individually frozen filets in a bulk bag from costco - they work out to a little over $2 a piece. They defrost in the sink in about 15 minutes and only take 10 minutes in the oven. It's my favorite white fish - not 'fishy' at all.)
• Grilled salmon (again, individually frozen bulk bag from costco)
• Steak (lean cuts)

• Veggies:

• Anything really. In the summer I like grilling asparagus, zucchini. In the winter I like doing sweet potatoes, spaghetti squash, red skins, or baked crispy kale. Or when I'm super lazy, I eat a cup of that minestrone soup.

You should aim to get in a lean protein (any lean meat, low fat dairy, egg whites, protein substitute if necessary), complex carb (sweet potato, brown rice, oatmeal, wheat pasta) and healthy fats (avocados, olive oil (teaspoon drizzled over veggies), nuts, nut butters, fatty fish (like salmon)) at every meal.

Whew! That's a lot of info. It's really just the HIGH level. I could go into so much more detail about the differences in carbs (high glycemic vs low glycemic), dairy vs no dairy, natural properties of veggies, supplements (which is a whole other discussion)... I could go on for days, but this is enough to get you started.

I have been reading about nutrition, exercise, and supplementation for the last year and a half. It has become somewhat of an obsession (just ask anyone who knows me). If you have any specific questions, or want something addressed in further detail, just let me know! You can email me at sarahmcook@gmail.com.

Good luck!

Blog suggestions?

Anything you'd like to see me blog about? Questions about any of the foods I eat or the workouts I'm doing? Send me an email at sarahmcook@gmail.com

Chalean Extreme - I love you!

I have been meaning to post a blog about my love of Chalean Extreme. Chalean Johnson is another one of the Beachbody family of trainers who is most widely known for her Turbo Jam and Turbo Kick workouts. Instructors can become certified in TK and teach the classes at any gym across the country. Her dvds are a BLAST! She's so fun, peppy, energetic, and really motivational. I love working out with her.

As I was wrapping up my second round of the X, I heard a lot of chatter on the Beachbody message boards about this new program, Chalean Extreme. CE was just released earlier this year and people were raving about it. It is an extreme circuit program, similar to P90X, but different in so many ways. From a setup standpoint, there are 3 resistance days (similar to p90x), 2 cardio days (similar to p90x), and 2 rest days (this is where it's different - Tony only gives you one!). In general, the workouts are shorter. The resistance days are about 38 - 40 minutes, and the cardio days top out at 32 minutes. No need to worry - Chalean is no joke and this lady will kick your butt up and down. I burn as many calories in half an hour with Chalean as I would sometimes in an hour with Tony.

Here is how Chalean differs - she stresses lifting S L O W. If you're doing a chest press, you're only going to do 10 reps, as slow as you can (typically a 2 to 4 count to fully extend your arms), and then just as slow back down. This stuff burns!!! You aren't using momentum to lift the weights - just your muscles. Plus, the slower you lift, the more you pay attention to proper form. Chalean also focuses on dual movements. Instead of just doing a bicep curl, the woman has you doing a lunge AND a bicep curl as one move. Deadly!! You are moving so slowly, using both upper and lower body (and therefore core as well), you absolutely max out at 10 to 12 reps. Brilliant!

The program is set up in three phases at approx 30 days each - burn, push, and lean. In the burn phase, you are getting your muscles used to this slow method of lifting and start revving your metabolism. You max out at 10-12 reps and every move incorporates both a lower body and upper body aspect. In the push phase, she has you pushing as hard as you can possibly go. These moves only focus on one body part at a time (either upper or lower, not both) and you max out at 6 to 8 reps. It was amazing to see how heavy I could go - I was squatting 90lbs, curling 25 in each arm. Awesome phase! The lean phase goes back to the same types of moves as burn - incorporating upper and lower body, maxing out at 10 to 12 reps. The moves are totally different from the burn phase, so I'm sore all over again!

I just started week 2 of my lean phase (so I guess overall, that's week 10). LOVE IT! I'll be sure to post a link to my before and after pics once I complete.

You got me, I'm a sucker for sweets

Getting my monthly Clean Eating magazine in the mail is a good thing, and at the same time, a very very bad thing. I ripped open the pages last week and what were the first two recipes I made? Cinnamon Sweet Potato Brownies, and No Bake Chocolate Chip Cookies. The brownies were just okay... I might tweak the recipe a bit and try it again. I got all the way through mixing the ingredients when I realized that I didn't have the 9x9 pan I was supposed to bake them in, so a round cake pan had to do. It was a cheapie, and didn't bake them evenly. I'll have to try them again when I'm properly prepared.

The chocolate chip cookies though were DELISH! Todd even ate them and requested that I make them again (which must means that they are amazing... even though these cookies aren't "diet", he doesn't quite understand what clean eating is and thinks its a bunch of boloney). Here's the recipe for the no bake chocolate chip cookies, which can be found in the September/October issue of Clean Eating Magazine. If you don't subscribe, I HIGHLY RECCOMEND IT!! www.cleaneatingmag.com

No Bake Chocolate Chip Cookies
Makes: 42 cookies

1 1/4C raisins
1/2 cup pitted dates
2 cups whole oats
4 T agave or honey
2 t cinnamon
pinch of sea salt
1/2 C cacoa nibs (I got mine at Vitamin Shoppe, but any health food store should carry)

Place raisins and dates in food processor and chop into small pieces. Add oats, agave/honey, cinnamon and salt. Process to mix well. Empty into mixing bowl and stir in cacoa nibs.

Use a tablespoon to portion out cookies. Each cookie should be about a full tablespoon -roll it into a ball. Enjoy immediately or chill before serving for firmer texture. *

*This is where I'll add my 2 cents. Before forming into cookies, put the bowl in the fridge or freezer for a few minutes. The mixture, when room temperature, wouldn't hold together. Try as I might, I couldn't get these little guys to stay rolled into balls. I'd put the ball on a plate and it would fall apart. Once I put the cookies in the freezer for a few minutes, I was able to take them back out and roll them into balls and they'd actually stick together!

42 cookies is a LOT, so I cut the recipe in half and it worked just fine. They're so bite size, portable and delicious, they won't last long.

Mmmm.... baked goods :)

I am a sucker for anything sweet... savory... fruity... anything containing chocolate... and anything that isn't good for me. Since I've been eating clean, I have banished all of my prior "cheats" from my diet. No vitatops, no peanut butter marshmallow protein bars (those things are like candy bars anyway), and especially no sugar free fudgesicles (do you know how many chemicals are in those things??)! In my search for "clean" sweets, I came across a really great blog - SimplyClean (http://marialouisepeters.blogspot.com/). Maria has some GREAT treat recipes on her blog, and I decided to try my hand at two last night.


Chocolate-Banana Protein Muffins
1 cup oats, divided

2 scoops vanilla protein powder
2 scoops chocolate protein powder
3 tbsp unsweetened cocoa powder

1/2 tsp sea salt

4 tbsp raw almonds
1/4 cup unsweetened cacao nibs (You can get these at any health food store - I actually got mine at the Vitamin Shoppe)
1/2 cup mashed banana (about 1 banana)
1/4 cup unsweetened applesauce
1/2 tsp pure vanilla
1 tbsp honey
2 tbsp amber agave nectar (I only had light agave in the house, and they turned out just fine)

Preheat oven to 350˚. Spray 12 cups of a muffin tray with olive oil or use cupcake/muffin liners.
Blend 1/2 cup oats in food processor to make oat flour. Combine oats, oat flour, protein powders, cocoa powder, sea salt, almonds, and cacao nibs in a medium sized bowl.
In the bowl of a food processor combine mashed banana, applesauce, vanilla, honey, and agave nectar. Process until smooth.
Add wet ingredients to dry ingredients and stir until combined. Distribute mixture evenly into prepared muffin cups.
Bake 13 -15 minutes. Do not over bake. Cool on a wire rack. Store leftovers in the fridge.
Makes 12 muffins.

Nutrition info per 2 muffins: 216 cals, 6g fat, 30g carb, 18g protein, 6g fiber.

My review: these are WONDERFUL. They are full of chocolate, dense and chewy. I stuck them in the freezer so not to eat the entire batch when they came out of the oven. You know what? They are really good frozen, too! They were super easy to make. I just bought a mini food processor, so the prep was really simple. A note about the almonds - the recipe didn't specify what exactly to do with them - so I threw them in the food processor and ground them up a bit.

Since I love all things baked, I decided to try the carrot cake muffin recipe that Maria posts as well.

Carrot Cake Muffins
2 cups whole wheat flour or any gluten-free whole grain flour
2 tsp baking soda
2 tsp baking powder
2 tsp cinnamon
¼ tsp nutmeg
1 tsp salt
2 cups carrots, grated
1 (4-ounce) jar carrot baby food
1 ½ cups unsweetened applesauce
1 cup unsweetened vanilla almond milk, skim milk or unsweetened soy milk
2 tsp pure vanilla extract
½ cup agave nectar, pure maple syrup or molasses
½ cup organic zero or sucanat
½ c walnuts
½ cup raisins, unsweetened

Preheat over to 350˚ F. Mist 24 muffin tins with olive oil or line with cupcake liners and set aside.

In a large bowl, combine dry ingredients – whole wheat flour, baking soda, baking powder, cinnamon, nutmeg, salt.

In a medium bowl combine wet ingredients – grated carrots, carrot baby food, applesauce, milk, vanilla, sweeteners.

Make a well in the center of the dry ingredients and pour the wet ingredients into the well. Combine the wet and dry ingredients until moist, do not over mix. Gently stir in walnuts and raisins.

Add batter to prepared muffin tins and bake for 45 – 55 minutes.

Cool completely before icing with cream cheese frosting.

Cream Cheese Frosting
4 oz neufatchel cream cheese, brought to room temperature
2 tbsp agave nectar, molasses or pure maple syrup
2 tbsp organic zero or fine sucanat (place sucanat in food processor for 30 seconds)
1 tsp vanilla extract

In a small bowl combine all ingredients and mix until combined. Spread on cooled muffins.

Nutrition Information for 1 muffin with approximately 1/2 tbsp frosting: Calories 111; Fat 3; Carbohydrates 20, Fiber 2, Sugar 7; Protein 3

I modified the frosting slightly, adding a scoop of no-flavor protein powder (my new favorite is Detroit Bodybuilding Company 100% Whey Protein) and using 1/3 less fat neufatchel cheese.

And the consensus is... these muffins are DELICIOUS! It's like a little piece of carrot cake heaven. In fear of eating the entire batch (2 dozen!), I promptly packaged them up and sent them home with friends and family.

What is HIIT and how can it help me?

Like many of you, I used to be a cardio queen. I ran, I went to spinning classes, I went crazy on the elliptical machine for hours at a time, only to see the same jiggly butt and love handles not go anywhere. What was the problem? I thought that more cardio equals more calories burned, which meant I'd get a hot little body in no time. Boy, was I wrong. Only after killing myself for hours on the treadmill, or outside running the track, did I realize that I'd never achieve that perfect "runner's body" with my current cardio efforts. I needed to work SMARTER, hot harder! This is where HIIT comes in.

Here's a really great explanation (better than I could do) from AskMen.com:

What is HIIT?

HIIT (High Intensity Interval Training) is cardio performed at such an intense level that your body will spend the rest of the day expending energy to recover from the ass-kicking you gave it. This is commonly referred to as EPOC (excess post-exercise oxygen consumption) and it means that you consume a great deal more oxygen recovering from the exercise bout than you would have if you'd just done a steady-state workout.

This means that you will be burning up to nine times more fat while sitting on the couch later that night than you would have if you'd spent an hour on the treadmill at a moderate pace.

Obviously, I am talking about intense training. You will need to push yourself out of that comfort zone you have gotten used to and really challenge yourself. If you are willing to do this, however, I can guarantee that you will spend less than half the time you usually do on those machines and get much leaner in the process.

The benefits of HIIT

HIIT training has a number of benefits in addition to the reduction in training time. First of all, this type of training is far superior to steady-state exercises when it comes to increasing your VO2 max, which is the maximum amount of oxygen you can uptake during exercise. This means that you'll be in much better shape when it comes time to play a game of football with the guys.

Secondly, when you perform long-duration, moderate-intensity exercise, you can actually put yourself in a catabolic state in which you will start losing muscle mass. That's right: Some of that hard-earned muscle will start degrading itself in your quest to get lean.

The reason is that there are two types of muscle fibers in your body: fast twitch and slow twitch.

Slow twitch fibers are more compatible with endurance training (such as a steady-state one-hour run), whereas fast twitch fibers are more compatible with short, intense bouts of exercise (such as weightlifting or sprinting).

When we train in one of these modes, our muscle tissue has a tendency to take on the appropriate properties. As an illustration, imagine a marathon runner and a sprinter. The sprinter is composed of fast twitch muscles and carries a great deal more muscle mass, whereas the marathoner has a lot of thin, slow twitch muscle fibers so that his body is as light as possible to transport across those great distances.

This is going to the extreme to prove a point; however, you can see how much of a difference the type of training you do has on your body shape.

Lastly, HIIT training, when combined with a slightly hypercaloric diet (above maintenance level), can actually be anabolic and help you to add muscle mass without adding very much body fat. This means that you can develop the muscle you want without having to bother with endless treadmill torture.

So now that I've convinced you that this is a better way, how do you go about doing it?

The specifics of HIIT

There are a few different ways to do HIIT training.

You can either do all-out sprints -- during which you go above your VO2 max for a very short period of time -- coupled with adequate recovery periods or you can do sprints that are just below your VO2 max for a slightly longer period with an adequate recovery as well. The first option will really push your body and will elicit the greatest EPOC and VO2 max improvement. The second option will train your body to perform at a very high intensity for a slightly longer period of time while taking less time to recover.

For the first option, warm up at a comfortable intensity for 5 minutes. Then, give your maximum effort for 15 to 30 seconds, followed by a 2-minute recovery. You can walk during the recovery or you can just take it down to a very light jog, depending on your current level of fitness. More than likely, though, you will be going so hard that you will need to walk during the recovery. Perform between 6 and 10 of these intervals, and finish with a cooldown.

For the second option, do the same warm-up as in the first option, and then sprint at approximately 80% of your maximum intensity for 45 seconds to 1½ minutes. Follow this with a 1- to 2-minute recovery period. You may find that your recovery periods are shorter since you aren't running quite as intensely as in the first option. Repeat this sequence for 5 to 8 intervals, and follow it with a cooldown.

Working HIIT into your training

These types of workouts are very intense and should only be done 2 to 3 times a week. A great idea is to perform them on your "off" days from weightlifting; however, if you must do them on the same day, I strongly recommend performing them at a separate time so you can devote all your energy to each session.

As with your weight training, be sure to take in a post-workout drink (or quickly absorbed meal) to help replenish lost glycogen and repair the muscle tissues.

On a final note, I must enforce that this type of training is not for everyone. Since it is so high in intensity, many people find that they simply cannot work out at this level and end up bypassing their workout altogether. If this happens, you are much better off performing a more moderately paced endurance-type cardio workout.

However, try to challenge yourself with a few harder minutes interspersed throughout your workout. This will help increase your metabolism (although not as much as with HIIT), as well as your overall fitness level, which may help you to eventually include HIIT training as part of your workout.





I LOVE HIIT training! I can get in an ass kicking cardio workout, burning the same amount of calories (or even more) in 20-30 minutes than I would running at a steady pace for an hour.

Here are some of my favorite HIIT workouts. These can be done just as easily outside as they can on a treadmill:

HIIT 1

warm up
2 min @ 6mph
Hop off treadmill, do 30 plyo squats
2 min @ 5mph, level 4 incline
Hop off treadmill, do 30 plyo squats
2 min @ 7mph
Hop off treadmill, do 30 plyo squats
2 min @ 5mph, level 5 incline
Hop off treadmill, do 30 plyo squats
2 min @ 8mph
Hop off treadmill, do 30 plyo squats
2 min @ 5mph, level 6 incline
Hop off treadmill, do 30 plyo squats
2 min @ 9mph
Hop off treadmill, do 30 plyo squats
2 min @ 5mph, level 7 incline
Hop off treadmill, do 30 plyo squats
Cool down

That's an ass kicking workout in under 30 minutes.

HIIT 2

warm up
2 min @ 6mph
1.5 min @ 7mph
1 min @ 8mph
30 sec @ 9mph
2 min @ 6mph
1.5 min @ 7mph
1 min @ 8mph
30 sec @ 9mph
30 sec @ 10mph
2 min @ 6mph
1.5 min @ 7mph
1 min @ 8mph
30 sec @ 9mph
cool down

With warm up and cool down, you're looking at about 20 minutes. Serious business!

Have fun with your HIIT training!