Iced tea~

One of the hurdles of clean eating is our tendency to want something for nothing.  In other words, we hope for a substitute for the unhealthy stuff we love that will be exactly like it's more fattening or sugary sister. 
Ain't. Gonna.  Happen.
Now that we've gotten that straightened out, this is the iced tea I make.  If you're looking for traditional Southern house wine (sweet tea,) this will not satisfy your craving.  I haven't found a way to make Southern sweet tea that doesn't require white table sugar and Lipton tea bags!  Yes, I love it too.  But I can't drink it every day. 
So this is iced tea, not a sweet tea substitute

Ingredients

• 3 green tea bags (I like Bigelow green tea with lemon)
• 1/4 cup Agave (I tried honey, family prefers Agave.)
• Fresh fruit to suit your palate

Method

• Bring water to boil in tea kettle
• Add 3/4 cups of the boiling water to the 1/4 cup Agave, set aside
• Clean & slice fruit and put it in your pitcher (I like apple, orange and lemon)
• Pour remainder of hot water over fruit, pour in Agave/water mixture
• Put in your tea bags and stir gently.
• Cover and allow to steep to desired strength
• Uncover, remove fruit & tea bags with slotted spoon
• Top off pitcher with cold water & refrigerate

Tips

• For sweeter tea, add only sweet fruit for the steeping step and use lemon by the glass
• For more concentrated flavor, steep over night.
• If you steep in lemon or lime overnight, you'll have more of an Arnold Palmer (lemonade/tea) flavor.
• Be careful adding and removing tea bags so you don't puncture them and get loose leaves in your tea!
• You can skip the step of mixing the hot water with the Agave but the Agave is thick and I think it mixes better this way.
• If you like flavored teas, add whatever fruit you usually like.  I bet peach would be delicious!
• If you just can't manage with your white sugar or sweeteners, try this and you might find you can reduce the white sugar/artificial sweetener you need because of the fruit.
• CAUTION!  I mentioned this isn't traditional sweet tea?  It also isn't zero calorie tea.  Agave has a much lower glycemic index than refined sugar and you need much less to flavor more tea.  Still, it's not a "free" beverage.

Hosting guests in a clean-eating home~Mother's Day

I hadn't intended to post today but a thought occurred to me & if you're out there, I'm curious.  If you're clean eating, do you carry that philosophy through when you're entertaining?  Do you "make" others eat the same way when they are in your home?

Many years ago, my parents were invited to the home of friends for dinner.  The husband of the household had some cardiac health concerns and his dutiful wife had him on a strict cardiac diet.  No fat, no salt, no sugar.  And good on her for her efforts!  But when the dinner guests arrived, they were served the same strict cardiac menu, there was no salt in the house. 

Which side of the healthy eating line do you fall on?  Do you say that people in your home will eat the way you eat or do you relax a bit?

I'm thinking about this on Mother's Day because we're having the family over for lunch, flat bread pizzas.  I won't keep you in suspenders (as my grampa would say,)  I don't make my guests eat clean.  When I can easily trade out fresh and whole for processed, I do so.  For instance, I made the pizza sauce instead of buying prepackaged.  This creates a fresh and more delicious version of pizza sauce.  But I won't be serving whole wheat molasses cake.  Unless everyone was on the clean eating program with us, I wouldn't expect them to forgo something they enjoy (and so do I!) because they are guests in my home.  Same with beverages.  We drink infused water, plain water or iced green tea with agave. Today I'm serving old fashioned southern sweet tea or lemonade with Splenda. We also have a few 2 liters of pop.  My dad's diabetic and drinks diet beverages and the Agave sweetened tea is not the same as its refined sugar sister for those who use refined sugar.  I'll offer everything and if, at the end of the day, the clean stuff is enjoyed and the "dirty" stuff isn't used, maybe I'll change my menu next time.  But I won't force my diet on others, nor preach at them. 

So what do you think?
Is it a matter of your guests eating the way you eat in your house?
Perhaps you feel it's your responsibility to maintain healthful standards when others eat at your table?

Or do you plan your menu with your guests in mind and offer goodies that normally wouldn't be found in your kitchen?

And if you do offer those refined or processed treats, do you indulge yourself?

Shopping list~

They say the best way to switch to clean eating is to do a sweep of your pantry and throw away everything that isn't "clean."  Well, I honestly couldn't bring myself to do that.  Yes, I know that it isn't wasted money; it's an investment in my health.  In my mind, it's still wasted money.  I think that's really an individual decision.  And there are items that will always require use of those refined/white items like baking.  So we have minimized our use of the processed and refined items and as we've used them up, we are not buying more of the same.  I thought today I'd post some clean eating basics with which I'm stocking my cabinets and refrigerator as we clear out the items that we want to use less often.

1.  Dried beans/legumes
2.  Fresh fruit and veggies
3.  Whole grain bread
4.  Whole grain crackers
5.  Green tea bags
6.  Agave, honey, molasses, raw sugar, pure maple syrup, organic syrups (like Boysenberry)
7.  Whole wheat flour
8.  Organic eggs
9.  Steal cut oats
10.  Plain Greek yogurt
11.  Whole grain pasta
12.  Brown rice
13.  Real butter
14.  Olive oil
15.  Low/no sodium broth (read label for added ingredients!)
16.  Nothing added stewed/sauce/pureed tomatoes
17.  Fresh herbs:  parsley, dill, cilantro, mint, rosemary, basil, oregano...  They are relatively inexpensive at farmer's markets so try them in small batches in salads, warm dishes and soups.  Experiment!


Canned veggies or frozen ones are fine, just read the label and be sure you're not inadvertently eating something you'd rather not.  As always, the nutrition content is higher the closer to nature you get.   

One day at a time!

Ain't that the way it goes?  Just when ya start a blog about eating clean...you have a dang dinner to attend for work and you're tired down to your ankle bones and yes, let's just say it, you have PMS.
Lord have mercy!
So Tuesday night I went to the work dinner, ate the raw veggies and fruit because I didn't know what was in the hot entrees and no one could seem to tell me.  I came home and the Mr. had picked up burgers but thankfully, there's a great new organic burger joint down the street!  So we were able to indulge without getting dirty ;)
Wednesday night is my late night at work and we indulged dirty.  Insert sad face.  Not really, it's ok.  It's a goal, a lifestyle but not a means by which to find myself failing.  We got take out ribs which is ok but the place uses BBQ sauce that contains preservatives.  But I did get up on Wednesday morning to make steel cut oats with diced apples for breakfast. So good for me I say!
Today I've got the Thursday night tireds.  We had some meals planned for Tuesday and Wednesday that didn't get done so I took the perishables intended for other dishes and added them to our menu for tonight.  It's in the oven now and smelling purty good! 

Today's news:

• Breakfast:  Greek yogurt with blueberries and granola, coffee
• Lunch:  Campbell's soup (not whole, just convenient for a lazy nurse) 
• Snack:  Nectarine & apple.
• Dinner: Unstuffed green peppers.  I prepped the peppers on Monday and they are too floppy by now to really stuff so I cut them open and lined the bottom of a 9x11 dish with the peppers.  Next, I layered the brown rice I had cooked in bulk on Monday.  Then I combined equal portions ground sirloin and ground turkey, diced green pepper (remnants of prepped bell peppers,) onion, garlic, salt, pepper & oregano and onion.  When that was cooked and soft, I dumped in fresh mushrooms intended for another dish I didn't make yesterday.  Once that was all done, I drained it and added tomato sauce and canned fire roasted red peppers.  I took a second can of the peppers and puree'd them to add to the sauce.  After simmering for 15 minutes, that was added as the final layer to my unstuffed bell peppers and into the oven covered with foil.  For the last few minutes, I'll take off the foil and sprinkle Parmesan cheese.  The Mr. is making the salad.  Perfectly balanced dinner-protein/complex carb/veggie!  Update:  If you don't like ground turkey, substitute all ground beef.  I tried the turkey (which I usually hate) and I hated it, literally threw it down the garbage disposal.  Otherwise, it would've been good!
• Snack:  *Maybe* fresh fruit smoothies. 

Hello? Anybody still here?

Traditional Nicoise Salad

Wow, I forgot this was here!  I started this (second) blog a while back as a place to record my thoughts on spiritual things.  Then I guess I wandered back to my "home" blog and stopped using this one!
So, hi!
What brings me back here to Better Things, is that my family is currently in pursuit of...better things.  We are starting week four of clean eating.  I found myself doing a good amount of posting about this topic at Seasons of Grace but thought, that's probably not all that interesting and perhaps even a bit preachy.  So I'll record food type stuff over here, assuming I don't forget this is here again.  I'm not going to say this is an advice blog so please, don't take anything you see here and make life changes based on my input.  I think of it as sort of a diary for myself.  If you find anything useful, mores the better. 
For my part, consider this sort of the latest generation of the food diary, the WW points tracker, what have you.  I check my e mail, work e mail, FB and blogs daily so this might just work into that routine in a way that's beneficial. 
What I'm saying is, you don't need to visit to cheer me on but if you would like to, I'm here.  Until I'm not, which probably mean I forget about here again.
So!
Week four.  We have, one week at a time, done the following...

1.  Add fruit/veggies to every meal.
2.  No more fast food.
3.  Replace white/refined foods and flours with whole grain.
4.  Make fruit/veggies the basis of every snack.
5. (The next step) Eliminate sugary drinks.  (P.S. I've already done this, working on the Mr.)

And this, is what you call clean eating.  Of course, it can go much farther with organic, preservative free, etc.  We're doing that as well, but I appreciated the 5 weeks to cleaning up your diet pin I found on Pinterest.  It made it rather clear and easy to ease into this lifestyle change.  I wrote the weekly steps on a small white board on the fridge along with a couple additional pointers:  every meal should be protein+complex carb+veggie or fruit;  no food with ingredients you can't pronounce; beware of grocery store items with more than 5 ingredients.  These are the basics we now live, shop and eat by.  You'll notice there's nothing about portion or calorie control?  Yeah, believe it or not, we're not focusing there at this point.  We're focusing on eating whole and healthy and paying close attention to fueling our body in appropriate ways.  Once we've mastered this, we'll look at the calorie concerns.  On a side note, the Mr. has started low intensity work outs a few days a week and clean eating, he's lost 5 pounds this week.  So, yay.

Today's news:

• Greek yogurt with half a banana, blueberries and granola for breakfast.  Ice water with cucumber & mint.  1 1/2 cups of coffee and I'm satisfied, down from about 4-5 cups.
• Lunch: Quasi Nicoise salad:  Green beans (canned last year), shredded chicken breast (left over from Sunday instead of the traditional tuna,) green onion, tomato, boiled egg,  fresh dill, light olive oil with a splash of cider vinegar.  Mini whole wheat pita. 
• Dinner menu:  Grilled tandoori chicken, brown rice stir fried with sprouts & peas, green salad with vinegar and oil. 
• *All meals meat the protein/complex carb/fruit or veggie requirement.
• Beverages in the house:  NO soda or artificially sweetened anything, only prepackaged beverage-bottled water.  Fruit infused water (currently apple & orange,)  iced green tea sweetened with 1/4 cup honey and steeped with apple, orange, lemon and lime slices, no preservative/no sugar added "naked" orange juice, milk.  I made the cucumber mint water in a mason jar for myself this morning.
• Snacks in the house: Fresh fruit, yogurt, wheat crackers, veggies, fresh salsa, tortilla chips, cheese, granola, whole wheat mini pita, hummus.

Sin

We awaken this morning with the news that Whitney Houston has died. The media seems to be trying to drum up some state of shock but really, are we? When the Mr. came in to tell me the news, I wasn't shocked. I was sad. Not shocked.
We are fragile, that is the only lesson to be learned. We are self-destructive by our very instincts. We are uncomfortable saying things like sin, we never want to say that anyone is bad. But from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, you must not eat; for in the day that you eat from it, you will surely die. Genesis 2:17
Did Eve 's heart stop when she took that forbidden taste? No, indeed she went to Adam to share. What she shared was not food, it was knowledge. The death they experienced was a different definition than that which we usually consider. To paraphrase,
"You must not do things which I tell you not to do (you must not eat). The moment that you disobey (gain knowledge of evil), you step outside of my presence (die.)"
There was not special power in the fruit itself, the power was in the will of man to rebel.
The serpent said-"For God knows, the moment you eat thereof, your eyes will be opened and you will be as gods; knowing good and evil." Genesis 3:5
Knowing good and evil, that is the death which God desired to spare us. After their disobedience, Adam & Even began a chain of events that we still stumble through. They realized they were naked. Shame was born. Condemnation spoke, "what you are is ugly." They attempted to cover themselves with inadequately with fig leaves, "do what you have to do to feel better." With their new knowledge of their own brokeness, they saw God through the lens of sin and no longer trusted him, "run & hide."
Then again, another link was added to the chain, God went after them. He gave them adquate covering (and the first blood sacrifice occured, the first statement that we would need Jesus.)
God didn't erase the memory of their sin, he covered it and enabled them to continue to live. But they lived with consequences. Things were changed. A price was paid.
I cannot sit and shake my head at Whitney Houston's life. I have, in my own ways, taken from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil.
After God had covered Adam & Eve, he cast them out of the garden and prevented them returning. Perhaps, a loving God, took Whitney Houston at a moment when she was covered? We cannot know.
We can only know that we are fragile. The knowledge of sin is a stone that weighs heavily in our souls. We must not be the voice that whispers, "you are naked...run & hide." We must go after those who are hiding in the leaves and assure them that they can be covered.

You're not ready.

This morning I was laying in bed having my morning prayer time and laying my day and my heart before God when something happened that I don't recall ever experiencing before. I felt the Holy Spirit's response to a request I was making and it was, "You're not ready for that." I actually smiled laying there in the dark! Was the Lord making fun of me? I think so! He was right, of course. I was asking for a change in the way I was handling something but what I really wanted was to suddenly become Super Christian Woman. In other words, I wanted to skip all of the steps in changing my heart (you know, all of the painful and humbling steps?)
Lord, don't let _______________get under my skin.
You're not ready for that.
God wants us to feel some of the frustration and disappoint in life while we are often desperate to be insulated from them. In my prayer time this morning, I realized God was not going to remove the person who is irritating me nor is he going to build an emotional wall that prevents me feeling this irritation. He wants me to be aware of that feeling and then to repent of it. This, I had not asked for!
Then I'm to examine my heart to find hidden sin there. A defensive attitude, a prideful heart, a past offense that I'm hanging on to, the assumption that the same thing is going to happen all over again. All of these things harbored in my spirit are manifested in my irritation. It doesn't matter what the situation is, it's my own heart that I am responsible to examine.
Jumping to not being bothered? I'm not ready for that. I need to back up to step on and repent of the me-ccentric instincts that drive this.
I realized that my hopes and plans for the day are so often completely earth-bound. No wonder there are so many opportunities to feel disappointed. It's not eternally important if I am talked over in a meeting or the credit for my project goes to someone else. It's not eternally important if my family doesn't notice that I cleaned the house or rave over the delicious meal I've made. The works of my hands are all submitted to the life of a servant; a servant never waits for applause. Often I deceive myself into thinking that I don't want applause, just a simple thank you. But it's the same attitude either way, pay attention to me. Recognize me for doing this or that. Be nice to me.
As I finished praying this morning, I had a thought that made everything clear. I pictured Jesus hanging on the cross and his final words, "It is finished." What if his final words had been, "A thank you would be nice." or "Hey, does anyone see what I'm doing here?" or "Father, remove the pain and humiliation from this experience."
I'm not anxious to be "tried" by the stuff that God doesn't find important. I seek the heart and mind of Christ so that I can understand the eternal significance of every moment.
My heart, being redeemed to eternity, can bear it.