Day 26

Day 25

Day 24

Day 24... Almost there! WOW! That really went faster then I though! 

Breakfast: Today I only had Juice (Kale, apple, Carrot) I was in a hurry and that is what I had time for! Better then my past of just skipping breakfast! DON'T Do that! It's so important to have breakfast! It gets your brain, metabolism, and body going for the day! 

Lunch: Today we had Veggie sands for lunch. Avocado spread on bottom of the toast, topped with sprouted lentils, tomatoes, and brags amino acid

Dinner: Tonight we had veggi pizza. (We have had this way too much, but it's been crazy so it's better then getting the normal cheese with whatever toppings). It's a growing process and this is growth! 

Learning, Growing, Sprouting! 

Day 23

Day 23

Breakfast: Today was whole grain cereal and carrot and kale juice

Lunch: Bean Salad

Dinner: Pinto Bean Tacos

* So today I ate out twice. Once with my sweet friend and once with my sweet hubby.

I was able to get a really good salad at the restaurant that we went to after a museum visit. 

Then for dinner my hubby and I stopped by this restaurant and I was able to get pinto tacos with corn tortillas. When I got home I added some avocados, tomatoes, and hot sauce. 

It was so good to know that I could find some healthy options while still enjoying time to "go out" to eat. It's all apart of changing our habits! 

Instead of ordering something off the menu I asked for a side of pinto beans and a side of corn tortillas. Much cheaper then a meal and I was able to make some delicious tacos. 

I have to remind myself that....

I can Have it... but I don't WANT it. 

Not I can't have it and I want it.

I can have it, but I DON'T want it! 

Yep! Learning, Growing, Sprouting! THat's what life is all about!

Day 20, 21, 22,

Sorry all! So busy this last week with school. To be honest we did not stick directly to Plant Based with a few crazy nights we ate out and our choices were very limited. We tried to choose as healthy as we could, but not much plant based was offered. However This is what we did eat and learn...

We had whole grain blueberry pancakes, Juice, and water. 

Salad with Peanut dressing 

While rice soup with avocados and Hot sauce. 

We had veggie tacos one meal

Thai style saldad and wild rice

PBH sandwiches and fruit

cereal

Avocado toast

Veggie Sandwich

Celery and PB

Learned: 
If we are in a bind or need to stop for something quick it's more about changing our habits. Instead of driving through why not stop in a grocery store and grab some fruit, hummus, and veggie sticks at least to hold us over until we can get to somewhere that has healthier options. This is my goal. This can be hard when you have 4 kids and the car is one load crazy chaos full ride, but like I said, it's changing habits.

Learned:
* eating out made us feel HORRIBLE! Our stomachs hurt and we felt awful!
* I don't sleep well when I don't eat well! Weird... but I even have bad dreams when I go from eating healthy and clean to eating something processed or yucky. Crazy how food effects you!
* Don't let a busy schedule ruin your stride!
* Don't get too down about a unhealthy choice, just dust yourself off and try again! :) Really tho! Just start fresh the next time! Don't let it get you in a rut! Keep moving forward! There is much to celebrate in the choices you have made!

So this is what we are working on. Changing our habits! However, stilling success! Look at all the yummy and whole foods we ate! Much victory!!!

Day 19

Day 18

Day 17

Day 16

Day 15

Today I only have two pics of what we ate, but here is what we ate on Day 15!

Breakfast: Juice (grape nuts and fruit) 

Lunch:  Broccoli slaw with peanut dressing 

Dinner: Veggi Pizza

Learning, Growing, Sprouting

Day 14

Breakfast: Rye oats, bananas, and flax meal

Lunch: See day 13 same recipe

Dinner: Dinner with a friend! So refreshing and such a blessing. Thai food! One of my favs! 

Have a blessed day! 

Day 13

Breakfast: Juice

Lunch: Whole Wheat Flat bread toasted with sun-dried tomatoes, olives, and Basil! Delicious! I love this recipe. I use to add cheese to this too. I bet goat cheese would be good. 

Dinner: Creamy Avocado Pasta: Tonight I made it a little different. I cooked whole wheat pasta according to directions then blended: Avacado (one large), one juice of a lime, 1/2 juice of a lemon, a handful of fresh basil, two cloves garlic (add less if you don't want it too garlic tasting, but we love garlic), almond or milk of choice to get desired consistency. Pour over hot pasta and I added a few pine nuts. It was so so yummy and everyone was asking for more! I love when I hear, "Mommy this is so yummy!" and it's healthy! Praise God for real food! I also added green beans both cooked and raw with Brags amino acid and garlic. It was delicious raw and cooked! 

Today was a good day. Feeling better and knowing real food provides real fuel. God is amazing in His design for our bodies! 

Have a blessed day! 

~Do you feel a difference when you eat real food vs processed?~ 

Day 12

Breakfast: Carrot, Kale, Cumber, apple Juice

Lunch: Almond butter and honey, whole wheat unsalted pretzels, green snap peas, carrots, and hummus

Dinner: We ate out, at Chipotle. Had the salad bowl without the cheese, sour cream, and meat. It was delicious! Praise God for Chipotle! 

Day 12 is done! 

Where do you go for a healthy eat out meal? 

Day 11

So I am so bad, but today I did not take one picture of our meals. We were on the go at church and the came home had a quick nap and headed to see the movie Planes with the kids.

I will write what we ate today and let you all know that today was by far a crazy day!

Breakfast: fresh carrot juice, goat yogurt, grape nuts and orange

Lunch: bean burritos for the kids and left over chili for me

Snack at the movie: popcorn and water! I know it's not the best, but better then Nachos and a coke. It was the healthiest choice. I also brought Lara bars for the kids and raisins 

Dinner: almond butter and honey sands, apple slices for the kids. I had Mimi pizza with mushrooms galore

Snack: sweet tea and 1/2 bean burrito. Yeek I know sweet tea sugar. Well it's not all terrible! Another day in progress! Just keeping it real! 

Overall it was a plant based day so can't be too hard on myself for a sweet tea:) 

Lol.

I have been meaning to make my own sweet tea with raw sugar or honey! That will be on my to do list this week!;)

I love fresh juice, but it's not always available. Uh!!! Wish they had drive through juice bars😰 or even a jambs juice! 

Thanks for stoping in today!

What is your go to healthy drink? 

Day 10

Today we are on day 10 of our Plant Based 28 day challenge. So far we have done a pretty good job at sticking to Plant Based. We have had a few days that were not as good as the rest, but overall I am very proud of what we have done. 

Breakfast: Pancakes and French Toast

I decided to go with the Arrowhead Mill mix that I had in my pantry. But instead of using apple sauce and rice milk as usual, I was out of apple sauce, so I decided to us rice milk and chai seeds and water (let stand for 15 minutes together), and a little baking soda. We topped them with berries and Maple syrup. I also tried the E2 French Toast. Personally I didn't love it, but I would try it one more time. It was a little too mushy and I don't love warm bananas either. If you love bananas you will probably enjoy it. It's worth a shot. However, the Pancakes were delicious! 

Lunch: AVOCADO, HUMMUS, & SPROUT QUESADILLA: We used a sprouted tortilla, spread hummus on them, added sliced avocado, mung bean sprouts, tomatoes, cucumbers, bell peppers, and (my favorite topping on anything) cilantro and limes :)! 

Dinner: Sweet Potatoes Bowl: Tonight I made this recipe from E2 (can you tell I like this book?) This recipe was delicious! All of us loved it! Two of my kidos didn't prefer the mango mixed in, but everyone else loved it all! Yum! Yum! Yum!  In the bowl was: Baked and cubed sweet potatoes, topped with black and pinto beans, read diced bell peppers, diced mangos, diced avocados, cilantro, lime, and a drizzle of balsamic vinegar and touch of salt. It was really delicious! 

Snack:  black bean chips, salsa, Jalapeños x2, oatmeal and chocolate chip cookies, did let the kids share a vanilla ice cream today and of course I had to make sure it was safe ;) just a bite or two ;). No condemnation! I am telling myself! We have done so good and it's a process! A treat every now and then. However, I have recently been trying to find healthier desserts. We did find one yogurt shop that has sorbet, but it's pretty far from our house. So please share your healthy desserts with us! Any that are plant based would be great! 

What is your healthily go to dessert?

Day 9

Breakfast: Juice

Lunch: sandwich with kale butter, avocado, tomatoes, carrots,bell peppers,cucumbers, and sprouts. So yummy!! 

Dinner: Veggie Chili Tacos: I used the left over veggie chili from dinner two nights ago and added tomatoes, guac, cilantro n onions, and lime on sprouted corn tortillas. So so yummy!  

Snacks:  popcorn, fruit, handful of dark chocolate raisins and veggie straws.

How do you make your tacos?

~sprouting on~

Day 8

Day 8: Here is Day 8 For us...

For those who are following along. Sorry for the confusion. I had posted the wrong meals on the wrong days, but I have it all straightened out now. 

Juice: 

Greens, Carrots, cucumbers, and apples

Breakfasts: Barley Flakes, Rye Flakes, Rasberries, and Blue berries 

Lunch: Ezekiel wrap with hummus, sprouted mung beans, and lots of veggies. 

Dinner:

Day 7

This is day 7 for the 6 of us:

Breakfast: 

Whole grain cereal with chopped apples, chai seeds and a orange and grapefruit squeezed on top! 

Lunch:

Watermelon and almond and honey sandwich.

Dinner:

We ate out tonight. We ordered from a local Mexican restaurant that we enjoy and were blessed to fine these healthy options....

Veggie tortilla soup without the tortillas, bean and rice burrito. 

Snacks today:

Pretzels no salt with hummus 

Watermelon

Green juice

Dried mangos 

What was the healthiest meal you ate today?

Day 6

Today is Day 6:

Breakfast: grape nuts, fruit, and chai seeds

Lunch: Open Faced Sandwich with Kale butter and veggies on top

Dinner: Bean and Kale Chili 

Snacks:

Day 5: Plant Based

Today is Day 5 of our plant based challenge. Here is what today looked like. 

BREAKFAST:

This is what it looks like to feed my family of 6 in the am. When I am juicing and cutting fruit breakfast can take a good little minute, but this is am I had juice done and oatmeal going so it went pretty quick. I usually run my coffee pot to get hot water while I am prepping the fruit then I can pour it over the oatmeal and let it sit a minute or so and add the toppings of choice. This morning we added flaxseed, peaches, and a little brown raw sugar on top. One of our kidos likes apple sauce in hers so she had that. We also use honey and agave at times too. 

Our Juice today was:

*Cucumber

*Carrots

*Kale

*Apple

LUNCH:

Today we had veggie sandwich with homemade HUMMUS and grapes. 

Dinner:

Tonight I through together this meal because I had forgot to start sprouting for my Pad Thai, which will have to be in a few days. Anyway, I used some veggie pasta from Trader Joes, with left over speghetti sauce from the other night. This time I sautéd some green bell peppers, mushrooms, and garlic in a little coconut oil to top the pasta with. Then added some snap peas and Hummus. 

Night Snack/For Dessert: (read below the last pic for more)

Okay so we had some jalapeño poppers tonight. Yep. The fried kind. Not exactly plant based, but you know what. I would normally beat myself up over it. I am not going to this time!! Look how healthy I ate all day! It's a process, remember! Yep. It's all good! Remember it's a learning Sprouting, Growing process! I might need to investigate a healthy Jalapeño popper. I have a thing for them! :) Any recipes out there? Please leave a comment if you do have one. 

We also had some...

Energy Balls 

Dried Mangos

With all of this said. I have to share this... It's amazing to me how well we can do and how healthy we can be and yet one slip and we condemn ourselves and at times it's a downward spiral or a excuse to quit. Well, let me just say that it is an attack spiritually as much as physically. satan only wants you to live in guilt and failure. BUT GOD wants and will allow us to life in freedom and success! Remember...

There is therefore NO condemnation for those in Christ Jesus!

Romans 8:1

I remind you as I remind myself. It's okay to have a "treat" every now and again. Even if you are doing a 28 day focused challenge. Just get back on track and don't let it get ya down! 

Focus on the good and refocus on the goal! 

Sprout on~Sprout up

Plant Based Day 4

For those who may be just joining in. We are a family of 6 striving to eat as much plant based foods as possible to improve and prolong our health. To treat and care for our bodies so they can function the way the creator designed them to. To be healthy and whole in body and spirit. Therefore to deepen our commitment and desire we decided to do a 28 day challenge. 

We are doing our second round of the Engine 2 Plant Based 28 day challenge to eat plant based and rid our diet of the following...

*dairy

*meats

*oils

*Processed food and sugars

So this is what we had on Day 4

Breakfast: Old Fashion Oatmeal with flaxseed and fruit

Lunch: We decided to eat out so my hubs grabbed my favorite...Thai food. We had. Tom Kha soup (thai coconut milke based soup) with brown rice, mushrooms, and spices

Dinner: Brown rice noodles for meatless spaghetti with green beans and Ezekiel boat squares

Snacks: We have been snacking on fruit, nuts, and popcorn

Night Snack: dark chocolate (one or two squares)

Starting to feel better, but still craving some of the things we don't want to eat. Funny how that works. But making the best choices possible in our effort to eat plant strong for 28 days. 

Everyday is a learning, sprouting, and growing process! Each choice is an opportunity to gain health! 

What choice did you make today that helped you sprout for healthy growth?

Thanks for reading! 

Sprout On~Sprout Up

Day 3: Plant Based

Today was day 3 of the Plant strong focus for us. Here is what we had today...

Breakfast:
Juice: Carrot, Kale, Apple

Rye flakes, barley flakes a little honey with blueberries and cranberries. 

Lunch:

Ezekiel bread with cilantro and jalapeño hummus, avocados, yellow bell peppers, tomatoes, and cilantro. 

Dinner: E2 recipe...This E2 recipe is one of my favorites! I bought the E2 book a few months back and we have tried many of the recipes. We have liked nearly all of them. I will post more as the days continue of our experience with E2 recipes. The one thing I have noticed is most of the recipes I have to double because of our family size. Especially if I want left overs to use as lunch the following day or two. Anyway, this is a inexpensive and delicious recipe! We(kids included) love it! 

Sweet potatoes, skillet grilled bell peppers, Kale n Spinach with cashew sauce. This was delicious! 

What did you have for dinner tonight?
Sprout On~Sprout Up

Healthy Plant Strong Popcorn

This popcorn is great for a snack or to kill that little sweet craving. 

Guilt free popcorn:

Just popcorn

dairy, soy, and nut free chocolate chip mini's 

1/2 teaspoon peanut butter

salt to taste (optional)

Mix on popcorn while hot

server and enjoy! 

Day 2: Plant Strong

This is day 2 of our 28 day Plant Strong Menu. We are doing well, and have not eaten out which is good! Man, eating out is so tempting at times, but most the time it is just crazy all the junk in our food!
Breakfast today was a bowl of whole wheat cereal with flax seed, peaches, and blue berries. (sorry forgot to take a pic)
So today this was Lunch...C&C Sandwich click to see more details...

For Dinner we had
For dinner we had Spinach Stir Fry: Yep... I made a big batch of brown rice a few days ago so I needed to use it. I tossed it in a wok with spinach, carrots, celery, brags, a little veggi broth, water, and salt and pepper to taste. It was great! Easy and quick! Everyone liked it. Although one of my kids tried to eat around the celery. :) Hey! At least they at the rest:) 

late night snack... cause that's just our weakness right now.
Slice of Ezekiel bread with hummus and sliced tomatoes
Few cherries
and a couple dark chocolate raisins (no added oils) :)
And that's our day! We made it! Day 2 down! 26 more to go!

~Sprouting On~