21 days to Joyous Health part 2

Today is the last day for the 21 days to Joyous Health, it was really great! I did more cooking, tried new recipes, and of course worked out. She had some mindfulness to listen too, and I did listen to a few but not all. I would like to listen to them all before I lose them. It is the last day but she said we will have access to everything for the next 6 months. There's a few things I can save but not the mindfulness or the workouts. Here's a few things I got to cook/bake during the 21 days, and note that it's all her recipes.

This is my absolute favorite, well second to the sweet potato pad Thai, which we did make during the 21 days. For this recipe, I used my spiralizer to turn a zucchini into spaghetti noodles. I made a simple tomato sauce, so I used an organic, sugar free tomato sauce and added some mushrooms and onion, with some fresh basil. I added in my zucchini noodles into the sauce and let it cook for a few minutes to get everything nice and warm. I added the vegan Paleo meatballs I made during the first weekend before the 21 days started. It was so good!! I had some left over for another meal. I will for sure make this one again! I do still have "meatballs" in my freezer. Note that for my hubby I had a ground beef tomato sauce in my freezer that I made a little while back. I took it out, and used brown rice pasta for his supper, cause he does not like zucchini and wasn't interested in trying this.

This soup was also delicious! It's a vegetable quinoa soup. It has carrots, celery, onion, garlic, some cooked quinoa, a can of diced tomatoes, I used fire roasted diced tomatoes. I added some vegetable broth, and the spices are a little salt, some pepper, a tablespoon of Italian seasoning, and fresh herbs I added some parsley, oregano and rosemary. She also called for thyme but I didn't have any fresh, I guess I could have added dry, but I didn't bother, but I'm sure it would be just as good with. This recipe also called for zucchini but I omitted it, cause hubby doesn't like them. It also called for broccoli, and I was planning to add some in there, but it was pretty loaded so I ended up skipping the broccoli. We enjoyed this soup yesterday for lunch, and there's more left to have this week.

Above is a quinoa crust, and next to it, all the toppings on our pizza. You can find the recipe here on the Joyous health blog. I wasn't sure how well it would hold together, but it held together really well. You have to cook the crust first, then add toppings and add back to the oven to get everything warm. So the left half was hubby's side. I did BBQ sauce for the base of the sauce for the pizza, and added shredded BBQ chicken for his with sauteed onions, red pepper and mushrooms. My side just had the veg topped with the vegan Paleo meatballs, and added goat cheese on top of everything. It was so good! Wasn't sure how we were going to like the crust but we both really liked it. We had some left over which we enjoyed for two other lunches.

Here are a few breakfast items I had, the first being one banana mashed, then you add two eggs and mix together and put in a pan and cook it up like you would a pancake. I tend to make one large pancake and break it in half to help me flip it a little easier, but sometimes it ends up being in 3-4 pieces to get to flip it. In a sauce pan I added some fresh blueberries, some chia seeds and maple syrup and warmed it through and then topped my pancake. So yummy! The other is a loaded avo toast. I made another with a slice of tomato on the toast, but I had chunks of tomatoes left so I put it aside. So I toasted my sprouted bread, spread some avocado on it, like you would butter, then I added a touch of salt, some pepper, some garlic powder, hemp hearts, sesame seeds, and nutritional yeast, then added spinach and an egg on top. The recipe calls for sauteing your spinach a little with the garlic powder but the heat of the eggs wilts them down a little so I skipped it for this one and just sprinkled all the seasonings on the avocado and it was just as delicious.

 

This one on the right is a golden smoothie, with 1/3 cup unsweetened coconut flakes, 1 banana (I did half a banana), 2-3 large medjool dates (pitted), 3 tbsp shelled hemp seeds, 1 tbsp coconut butter, 1 tsp cinnamon, 1 tbsp ginger root, grated, 1/2 tsp ground turmeric, coconut milk until desired consistency, and you can add a scoop of protein powder which I did, mine is fermented, organic, and plant-based. This was really good!

This one is a super-food smoothie with pineapple, spinach, avocado, almond butter, chia or flax seeds, small apple, water or non-dairy milk until desired consistency and optional for a scoop of protein powder which I did. This too was really good!

This is Joyous Health's banana bread, that you can find on her blog here. It's so good! I skip the sliced banana on top and I added some dark chocolate chips but also some walnuts. So yummy, and a great snack/dessert to enjoy.

 

This is a chickpea pasta salad. So I bought chickpea pasta and cooked it up, and added some veggies, and the dressing is really good! I have corn on the side cause hubby doesn't like them so I only added some to mine. It was really good freshly made, and there was some left over so I put it in the fridge and it wasn't quite as good, it was drier, but still ok to eat up. I rather eat it fresh though.

Above is a budha bowl with some romaine, shredded cabbage, broccoli and carrot, some chunks of roasted beets, some cooked quinoa, I added sauerkraut and I think that's it. I don't quite remember, but it was delicious! There's another salad I made, which is really good, it has chunks of apples in it, some kale, I tend to do shredded cabbage and broccoli, some chunks of avocado, and for the dressing I put 3 tbsp of apple cider vinegar, with 9 tbsp of extra virgin olive oil, 2 tsp of Dijon mustard, 2 tbsp of maple syrup, 1-2 cloves of garlic, a little salt and some pepper and whisk it up. It's so good! So that dressing is enough for both of us for two big bowls of salad, usually chicken added to his, and shrimp or fish for me for our supper. 

The 21 days to Joyous Health also recommended to be outside more, at least a half hour each day. I didn't get outside as much as I should, cause it is winter and cold here, but one Saturday we had to go out to shovel and the snow was perfect to build a snowman, and he had the idea to build Olaf, and take photo's to send to our nieces and nephews, so that's what we did. He did most of the work but I did help, it was a lot of fun!

I think he turned out really awesome! He's still standing, but he has melted a little so now slanting a bit. The buttons, we used wine bottles so we took those out to prevent them from braking and hurting someone. His eyes fell down and branches, but the carrot is still there.You can't really see his legs anymore either cause we got more snow so he's a little more buried.

I did have a lot of great food during this 21 days, but this also reminded me how great it is to try new healthy recipes, and I'm trying to be more mindful when I eat, to avoid over eating. I've been doing pretty good with drinking quite a bit of water as well. My work hours have also changed a bit, now I work 8:30 to 4:30, so gives me a little more time in the morning to get a good workout in, get a healthy breakfast ready before I have to start work. During my lunch hour, I tend to squeeze in some house cleaning so that I don't have to worry about it during the weekend, and it's a good way to move around instead of just doing more sitting during lunch.

Tonight's supper I plan to cook up some shrimp, and we have some delicious aioli already made to go with the shrimp, and I'm thinking some healthy rice (either black or brown rice) to go with it, and some roasted asparagus. The asparagus, I tend to add some olive oil with balsamic vinegar and add some pepper and roast it in the oven. It's so good!  Well almost time for supper, so time to get things ready.

21 Days to Joyous Health

 I know I share quite a few recipes from Joyous Health, but it's because they really are great recipes, and I learn a lot from her, and I'm a big fan! I saw she posted about a 21 day to Joyous Health and decided to go for it. Since my mom passed away, I had gained a lot of weight and struggle to get back to being healthy. I do make a lot of healthy recipes here and there, but I also have a lot of unhealthy foods as well. I thought this would be a great way to help me get back to being healthier. On Friday she shared the meal plan for the 21 days, and she will also post some workouts, and mindfulness during the 21 days, and I'm pretty excited to get started tomorrow.

 To help make things easier during the week, I prepared quite a few things over the weekend. I first started with writing down the meal plan, which I adjusted a little. She gives us an omnivore meal plan and a vegan meal plan. I am fine to eat seafood and eggs, but meat doesn't agree with me because of my endometriosis, therefore one supper we will have, will include fish, and another eggs, the rest I'll be following the vegan meal plan, and for my hubby, I will include some chicken. Once I had everything figured out, I prepared my grocery list and went to do that yesterday morning. I then took some time to make a few things in the kitchen

The top one is the golden soup, but 2.0. I tried the original golden soup she has on her website and it was very good! I didn't compare the recipes but this one will be really tasty as well. The next photo, is seedy crackers and homemade hummus. The crackers fall apart easily, it's just a mix of different seeds and some water then baked, so I don't be able to dip them in the hummus, but I'll try to spread some hummus on them. Not sure how well that will work, but if not, I will just take a piece of cracker and with a spoon, just spoon in some hummus in my mouth lol. I will get to have these together for a lunch, and I think a supper as well this week, and I'm looking forward to having them!

Today I got busy in the kitchen again to make a few other things so I'm more prepared this week for some healthy eating.

The top photo is sweet potato biscuits. I made these before but with buckwheat flour and I realized I'm not a fan of buckwheat flour. It's got a strong flavor and I didn't enjoy them as much. So this time around I made them with spelt flour. These also have oat flour, and I also decided to make her vegan parm cheese to top them with and I tried a bit of it all and it's so good!! I still have a lot of vegan parm cheese left so I'll be able to enjoy some when I make the zucchini pasta with the above "meatballs", and I can add some to my salads as well. The meatballs are vegan paleo, and I tried it raw, and it was very good, and then tried it once baked and they are just as good. I really can't wait to have these this week as well.

I did keep some of the biscuits and "meatballs" in my fridge, but also got to freeze some as well for another time. I love batch cooking so when I have a busy week and/or weekend, or just too tired, I know I have healthy options in my freezer to take out. In case your wondering about the recipe's, you can find them on her blog. Some may not be there, cause it may only be part of the 21 day to Joyous Health, but I'm excited to get this week started and eating these delicious foods!

This past Thursday I also started a new job, it's acting for a year, but there's a chance to get permanent so will see how things work out. I am unable to do my compress work schedule unfortunately, and working later is best as a lot comes in, in the afternoon, so now I work 8:00 to 4:00. I am still getting up at the same time I use to, when I worked 7:00 to 4:00 (compress schedule) so that I can now take the time to do a workout first thing in the morning. I rather work earlier and finish earlier but I guess one bonus is it's really great working out first thing in the morning.

I'm hoping these 21 days will help me get back on track to being healthier. I do want to keep it going after the 21 days. I may have a treat here and there, but I want to eat as healthy as possible. I ate too much meat,  dairy and sweets over the holidays and I got a lot of endometriosis pain cause of the meat and dairy, so it's a great motivation to get back on track. I will still have meat here and there, but I really need to keep it to once in a while, so I can avoid pain and inflammation.

I hope everyone is having a great weekend!