2013-07-12

Husband Health Challenge, Day 2

Day two for my husband, Kevin's first week eating Nutritarian.... Went fairly well. We went to help with my church's Last day of Vacation Bible School and we happily ate fruit for breakfast, but when lunch time came around and our church started to set up for a community BBQ, the tempting smells of fried and grilled meats started wafting towards Kevin. 

In his words: "This is just torturous!"  To my surprise, Kevin was the first to crack into the soup and biscuits I had packed for lunch and made the day before. He didn't even take time to heat up the soup, but it was actually pretty good chilled, so we went with it.  

Since Kevin had to work in the late afternoon and early evening, I was on my own for going to the gym today. Kevin wrote down what I was to do on a scratch pad, and apparently he wanted to torture me just as badly as he was tortured at the BBQ (in a good way). Here was my workout:

10-15 minutes of stretching
30 minutes on the stationary bike doing the fat burner setting
100 jumping jacks
10 minutes resting and stretching
30 minutes MORE on the stationary bike doing the strength building setting
80 calf raises
250 crunches (sets of 50)
10 minutes stretching

In the end I was sweaty and exhausted, but felt more energized for our evening out dancing with friends. My abs are sore from yesterday, but it is nice to feel the muscle building there. Now I'm looking forward to what else he has in store for me for the rest of the week!

Here was our general meal plan for today:
Breakfast: bananas and apples
Lunch: chilled leftover broccoli mushroom bisque, veggies, fruit, baked beans, blackberries
Dinner: Mexican Quinoa (recipe below) and black beans in butter lettuce "tortillas", apple slices, fresh broccoli

Mexican Quinoa

Ingredients: 
1 small onion, chopped
1 red bell pepper, chopped
1 fresh jalapeño, chopped
1 tsp minced garlic
1-15 oz can diced tomatoes
1-4 oz can diced green chiles
1 packet of taco seasoning
1/2 tsp liquid smoke

2 cups dry quinoa, rinsed

Directions: 
1.  Sauté the onion, bell pepper, jalapeño, and garlic until tender. 
2.  Placed the sautéed veggies and the rest of the ingredients (except the quinoa) into a high speed blender, and blend until smooth. Add enough water to bring the sauce up to 4 cups. 
3. In a large saucepan, stir together the rinsed quinoa and sauce.
4. Heat to a boil, then cover and simmer on low for 15-25  minutes, stirring every 5.  Take a taste to make sure the grain has cooked, and then remove it from heat and keep it covered for 5 more minutes. 
5. Serve with your favorite Mexican toppings and with or without taco shells (we used butter lettuce instead). 

Amy's Notes:  This recipe makes a lot.... A LOT!  This is great for having leftovers or feeding a big crowd. I added 2 cans of black beans to my recipe, but feel free to have yours plain or with any type of bean you like. Enjoy!

Have you ever tried quinoa before?  What is your favorite way to eat it?

13 comments:

  1. Hi Amy,

    I just fallen in love with Quinoa. I have quinoa and rice porridge with fruit every breakfast just about, But I have just started to take a shining to the whole quinoa. I love cooking it up and then mixing in tomatoe and cucumber, sring onions, garlic and lemon juice. I add what ever else takes my fancy on the day but it is so yummo.

    Good luck to your hubby on his health challenge.

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    1. Thanks for your comment Bec! I just can't get enough of Quinoa!

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  2. Hi Amy,

    I am reading your blog for a couple of weeks now and you inspired me to share my own experiences on a blog (in Dutch...). Great that your husband is joining you for a week now, I'm sure he'll be convinced by the benefits!
    Love you're quinoa recipe, will try it soon!

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    1. Thanks Nutri Tarier! Blogging is a lot of fun, although I haven't been keeping up with my blog lately since my job and homelife have caused me to be more and more busy. It is a great way to stay accountable and motivated. I'm hoping to get back to blogging very soon. Thanks for reading!

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  3. Oh and by the way, I've never eaten Quinoa warm. I use it in salads mainly, with chopped cucumber, tomatoes, onion and lots of fresh herbs!

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    1. That's funny because I am the exact opposite! I don't have the patience to wait for the Quinoa to cool before eating it. Haha!

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  4. Yay! So glad your blog is back! Good luck with the hubby! I make stuffed mushrooms (using quinoa, green peppers, onions and spinach for the stuffing). Drizzle some Braggs over the top of it all and bake for 30 mins...even my omnivore hubby will accept them as a meat substitute. :)

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    1. Suz Annah, Thanks so much for you tip. I'll have to try that recipe out for myself sometime. Although my husband won't touch mushrooms, I just can't get enough of them!

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  6. My husband (in the days when he was my boyfriend) was a meat and potatoes man. He ate sweet corn and roast pumpkin not much else and didn't EVER eat soup.....He came from a step family of butchers which didn't help matters but the crux of the matter was that his step mum ONLY let him in the kitchen to do dishes / never to cook and her cooking was dull.....her step daughter (stu's sister) was a sort of vego and every time I went there for dinner she would make dahl for the 2 of us to eat instead of roast chicken......and when I say dahl I mean DULL dahl!! Anyway within the first year my boyfriend moved in with me and since he couldn't cook he ate what I made or didn't.....he started eating veges really quick when he discovered they don't have to be boiled to death. He likes stirfried things and encouraged me to give tofu another go (I hadn't liked it due to a bad experience when my mum tried to make it for me). He started eating really thick / chunky soup (I called it stew) and gradually all soups and even tried some cooking with mixed results. By about 6 months of living together he didn't eat any meat although had fish outside the house and then gradually stopped eating all of it. We are not vegan yet but we are pretty close and although we thought our diet was healthy before it is WAY healthier now. With regards to converting meat eaters I try things like bolognese made with almond mass (from homemade almond milk) or "balls" made with soy beans and sunflower seeds with a tomato sauce or burgers with nuts / tofu / beans. My husband is a sucker for baked eggplant or tofu parmegiana / caccetore. There are loads of excellent blogs (like yours) for ideas!

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    1. Thanks so much for sharing your story about you and your husband. Unfortunately for me, in a world where fast food and pizza places are just a five minute drive away, if I don't make something my husband will like, he will go find it himself. My solution now-a-days is to always have health options that he likes on hand, as well as his familiar snacks and favorite meals, then to make nutritarian meals that are very meat-eater friendly, such as chili, whole wheat spaghetti, or anything with potatoes. I'm hoping that gradually his tastes will change, like mine did when I first went nutritarian, and I won't feel like I'm grocery shopping for two different families when I go! Thanks so much for reading!

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  8. How is the challenge going?

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