Challenged

Petra sent me a message the other day with a link followed by “Click on ‘the 6 week challenge’.” I groaned like I had just taken a kidney punch because I just knew whatever was in that 6 week challenge was going to hurt in some way. Our Family Eats. I am doing weeks 1-3 together, or cold turkey, as it were. I had quite the headache yesterday, and was sure a Coke would have taken care of it blaming it on MSG withdrawl. But, I took 800 mg ibuprofen and drank a cup of hot tea, and it lessened considerably so perhaps it was just sinus. But back to the topic.

Around the same time as she sent the link, I got sucked into Pinterest. I had managed to avoid it for quite some time, and was quite proud of myself, but, alas, to no avail. I found some interesting recipes on it, and spent half of Sunday cooking. The first thing I tried was Fall-Vegetable and Quinoa Hash with Poached Eggs…minus the poached eggs because DragonLady only eats eggs fried, scrambled, or deviled…and Quinoa Salad with Toasted Almonds making the endeavor an added challenge by cooking from 2 recipes at the same time.

The finished Fall Vegetable and Quinoa Hash:

I want to state for the record, that those were some dinky servings, and is clearly a side with or without a poached egg on top.

The finished Quinoa Salad with Toasted Almonds (still in the pan):

That made more than I was expecting, which was a good thing.

So after church, I remembered that I still hadn’t done laundry, and absolutely had to, so I figured since I was going to be up late washing clothes, I might as well cook up a couple more things. Oh, yeah, because I am cooking ahead so I have food prepared and ready to heat throughout the week that is artificial color, flavor, preservative, and “-ate” free.

Anyway, Karyn had given me a link to Taco Salad, and I was itching to try it. I managed to get absolutely no pictures of it because I apparently cannot do 2 recipes at the same time while I am about half brain-dead. It turned out great though, and I have lunch set for all this week.

Then I started on Wild Rice Salad with Roasted Vegetables and Lemon-Tahini Dressing.

I did take a couple final photos with the whole thing mixed up, but I can’t hold a camera steady after midnight. As I was mixing the dressing together I thought, “This has the potential to taste like crap.” But it actually turned out quite nice, after I added that last half a lemon of juice to it.

So to sum up, hell has frozen over, and I am eating healthy, and as organic as I can. After dropping a load of cash on all those veggies, the hubby said, “You definitely need a garden if you are going to be eating like this.” So I guess I need to get started on that…

8 Responses to 'Challenged'

  1. Petra says:

    Awesome!!! So that is what that text was about (that I forgot to respond to)! lol!! I’m so proud of you – seriously, I might cry. 🙂

  2. Karyn Bridges says:

    AWESOME is right! So glad you didn’t cave and drink a Coke 🙂

    A garden sounds fabulous. I have 2 raised beds in our side yard and I wanted to do a garden last year but didn’t 🙁

    I am determined to do one this year though. We have a blueberry bush/tree and our neighbors across the street usually brings us corn, tomatoes and watermelon. I will be happy to share!

    • DragonLady says:

      I may do a mix of raised bed & container. Mainly because I have the containers and I need to build a raised bed. Or I could go rent a big tiller and till up the plot I tried to break up last year (or the year before last), and never finished. I have a small tiller, but it fails against bermuda grass.

  3. Skye says:

    Wow, those all look delicious! I may just try them myself. You’re much more motivated than me. If I had to stay up doing the wash, I’d just pop in a DVD and catch up on a movie I’d been wanting to see rather than doing something productive…haha

    I might have missed a link or something, but what exactly makes up the 6 week challenge?

    • DragonLady says:

      My motivation is waning, but I want to eat and I’m tired of being fat and tired. 😉

      I didn’t mark the link well now that I’ve gone back and looked at the post. I guess that’s why I work in IT and not as a writer. lol http://www.ourfamilyeats.com/the-6-week-challenge/ It is basically removing all artificial colors, preservatives, and chemicals from first your diet, and then from fragrances, body care, & stuff.