Two Weeks Down

Here's the recipe for the Quinoa Salad I made last night.  You can use any amount of veggies.  Add your favorites.  Next time I will double the recipe and add halved cherry tomatoes and chopped cucumber.  Steph, we missed you and prayed for you!

2 cups cooked quinoa

1 can black beans

1/2 diced avocado

1 diced red pepper

1 diced green onion
1 finely diced jalapeno

1 handful chopped cilantro

2 big handfuls chopped spinach

1/2 chopped grapefruit w/o pith (try to collect all the juice)

Add all ingredients to big bowl and gently toss

Dressing

Approx. 2 tbls. Grapefruit juice 

2 tbls. White wine vinegar

3 tbls. Olive Oil

2 tsp Agave 

Salt and Pepper

Shake, pour over salad, and toss again

Serve at room temperature with grilled or baked chicken on top.

I'm so glad you enjoyed it!  

One Week Down

Well, we did it!  We made it through a whole week on the Daniel Plan.  The four of us lost almost fourteen pounds.  That's totally awesome!  Now on to Week 2.  We can do it!  Thanks to Anita for making us our goal charts.  Those are very cool.  We are going to Phoenix tomorrow and will be gone until Saturday.  Pray that I will rely on God's strength to stick with the plan.  I will be praying for you guys and will try to blog while I am there.

Prepping for Next Week

Anita has a delicious chicken chili recipe that she will hopefully share with us. :-) We should make it sometime this weekend and then portion it out in containers and freeze some for midweek so it stays fresh.  The chicken salad I ate today did not taste very fresh at all. We should also get all of our salad stuff ready too.  That means we should wash, dry, tear, slice, and dice, all of our lettuce and veggies into separate ziplock bags or containers.  It is a pain to make a salad.  Might as well do all the prep at once and then just throw the salad together at lunch or dinner.  I would also recommend making a large container of salad dressing for the week.  We should also bake or grill the chicken or beef that will be going on the salads.  Unless you like to make it fresh every day.  I think I will grill all of it on Monday or Tuesday.  Then I will slice it up and put it in baggies in the fridge and freezer.  I really loved having all my meals prepared at the beginning of this week.  It made mealtime way less stressful.  I wasn't thinking of food all day because I knew what I was going to eat, and it was already prepared.  This week if you get sick of chili or salad, you could always have veggie patties or black bean burgers.  Or you could make any meals from week one if you'd like.  I'm excited to see you on Monday and hear how Week 1 went.  Praying for you and love you!

Lunch, Dinner, and a Snack

So far Dominick and I have eaten the Chicken Salad every day for lunch this week except one day when I had it for dinner.  We also ate our Chicken/Roasted Veggies/Brown Rice Combo every night except for one night when I substituted Black Bean Burgers for the chicken.  I didn't mind eating the same thing and I loved not having to think about what I was going to make for dinner every night.   Here are a couple of ideas for next week.  We could make a big crockpot of Turkey or Chicken Chili.  I know beans and lentils are really good for us and a big part of the Daniel Plan.  The chili is good topped with a little Greek Yogurt.  We could eat the chili for lunch or dinner.  I think we should eat salad next week for one of our meals too.  I love to put lettuce, halved grape tomatoes, diced cucumbers, kidney or black beans, a chopped apple, diced avocado, and grilled chicken or steak.  It is easy for me to eat a whole avocado so I will have to limit the whole big family salad to half of one.  A good dressing is 2-3 Tbls balsamic vinegar, 1/4 cup olive oil, salt and pepper. Sometimes I add a little Dijon mustard too. Whisk it together or shake in a small container and toss with salad.  The salad could be the complete meal or you could add a little quinoa to it too.  It would be delicious.  We could interchange the chili and salad for lunches and dinners.  A delicious snack idea is to make hard boiled eggs and throw out the yolk.  Fill the yolk cavity with hummus instead.  It is really good.  :)

Daniel Plan Week 2 Meal Ideas

Week one is almost done.  I'm so proud of you for sticking to the plan.  I know we each modified it to fit our likes/tastes and that is good.  For next week, we can stick to our protein shakes for breakfast, or we can have some delicious oatmeal instead. Dominick and Savvy love when I make this.

Vanilla Creme Protein Oatmeal

1/4 cup oats
1/2 cup water
1 tsp. peanut or almond butter
1/4 cup frozen blueberries (optional)
1 scoop vanilla protein powder
2 Tbls. milk

Put oats and water in a microwave safe bowl or large mug.  Cook for two minutes but watch that it doesn't overflow in microwave. Once it is cooked, stir in peanut/almond butter.  Next add blueberries.  In a separate cup mix protein powder with milk to form a paste.  Add to oatmeal.  Enjoy!
P.S. This is delicious for breakfast, lunch, or dinner.  :)

Our Six Week Group Goal

Well, how are we feeling?  I know on Tuesday all four of us had headaches and were super tired all day.  I felt much better yesterday and today.  I think a lot has to do with eating enough of the right foods at the right time.  I'm glad we are all excited about our group goal.  Is fifty pounds too many for the six-week timeline? How about forty?  I know we can meet either goal.  What do you think?  Text me or add a comment to the blog.

Daniel Plan Week 1 Day 2

It was so nice getting together with you three last night.  I am so excited to be a part of such an amazing group of women.  Let's remember to have courage like Daniel when we encounter situations with rich food.  We don't have to eat it.  We are committed to glorifying the Lord with our bodies and have offered ourselves to Him as living sacrifices.  Even if it is uncomfortable, or we miss out on something really delicious, we need to stick to the commitment we made to ourselves, to each other and most importantly, to God.  He will give us strength and will bless us for honoring our commitment to Him.  Love you guys!