Pour Olive & Summer Salads

So this post is really kind of two parts.  One part how much we love our neighborhood shop Pour Olive, and the other part how we're trying to clean up our lunch around here and eat more greens. :)  I feel like there are so many specialty olive oil shops these days (all the sudden!) but we're VERY partial to Dilworth's Pour Olive and really do think they may be the best.  They treat everyone like family and every time we go they act so happy to see us and ask us how Virginia's doing.  (They remember her name!  that's crazy, we don't go that often!)  But also, their branding!  How genius is their name and logo, and I love that their name and branding isn't a rustic Italian name like so many olive oil places I see.

Overnight Oats

In an effort to clean up my eating I’ve starting brainstorming go to recipes for weekday breakfast and lunch.  Those seem to be my trickiest meals in keeping clean.  Not because I’m eating cheeseburgers but because I’m not eating enough good stuff.  My typical breakfast is cereal and while that isn’t the worst thing in the world it’s not the best either.  Recently I’ve started doing overnight oats and I’m really liking it so I thought I’d share the recipe and ask you to share any of your healthy breakfast recipes too.

Overnight Oats

adapted from Skinny Taste

1/2 cup old fashioned or quick oats
1/2 to 3/4 cup almond milk (test to determine what you like best)
1/2 banana, sliced

1/2 tablespoon chia seeds

1 teaspoon cinnamon

1 tablespoon chopped pecans (or anything you have on hand)

1 handful of berries (Andy prefers his berries soaking with his oats overnight, I prefer mine fresh)

A pinch of salt and honey

Place all ingredients in a jar/bowl, shake/stir, cover and refrigerate overnight. Before eating, add any fresh berries or crunchy topping and enjoy.
 

 

Here’s the thing with this recipe, there are never ending variations and you don’t even have to measure once you make it once or twice.  It’s super healthy and it’s so easy to make.  A few things we’ve found after trying different recipes:

- You can substitute cow’s milk for almond milk but skim or lower fat milks are thinner so you’ll need to add a little more. I have successfully used coconut too but almond if my favorite.

- The banana dissolves and helps thicken the oats, it’s yummy!

- If you throw the berries in overnight with the oats you can easily substitute frozen berries or any frozen fruit here.

- You can add yogurt too, which I’m sure is delicious, but my standard grocery doesn’t sell coconut milk yogurt and I wanted to keep this dairy free.

- You can easily make a handful in advance for breakfast all week.

- This size portion is pretty big, I find it keeps me full for a while, much longer than cereal.  

Anyone have any healthy breakfast and lunch recipes you want to share?   I’m all ears!

 

- Heath

PS lots of variations here!

Detox

Guys as I’m writing this I’m eating food for the first time since Sunday evening. Holy cow! I can’t believe we actually went through with this. I’m sure you’ve gathered from all our talks about food that Andy and I really LOVE food. We both were hesitant before doing this but really needed to reset our bodies to a better place to kick start some healthy habits. It’s so easy to get out of a routine and we definitely did so we were hoping this would put us in position to get back to a healthy lifestyle.

So here are the details if you’re interested…

After your first two green juices in the morning, the order of the remaining juices is up to you. I just liked to keep my taste buds on their little toes so I spread my green juices out throughout the day. And Pro Fuel is so delicious and hearty I saved it for last as my dinner and desesrt all in one.  We bought all our juices from Viva Raw, a local juice place in 7th street station, but you could easily do this with Suja or other brands commonly sold at Whole Foods and Healthy Home Market. So a quick recap on my three days.
 

Day One – pretty rough. Not going to lie I wanted my coffee BAD and I never thought I’d want a hand full of the raw nuts (I keep at my desk) so bad! We stayed busy that evening and I think that helped keep our mind off of the hunger.

Day Two – I woke up feeling great. As the day went on I honestly would have loved a snack and was a little more lethargic than usual but overall felt great.

Day Three – feeling good. I think I determined by day three that my body felt great but my head didn't. I was a little out of it. Not terribly, I still accomplished plenty at work, but I definitely wasn't on my A game.

 Overall - I struggled to focus but needed things to do to distract me. I could not have done this on a weekend or days that were not packed with activities.
 

So now that I am detoxed, I’m focusing on my morning runs and eating cleaner. I think I’ve mentioned before we generally try to eat pretty healthy Sunday/Monday to Friday. Basically allowing two days (the weekend) for a few splurges. Not like every Saturday we eat burgers and fries but we‘re allowed to be more generous with our selections and indulge a little more. I’ve always felt like this kept us on track and I think it does but I want to focus in the future on keeping the M-F foods even cleaner. So I’ve compiled a few breakfast, lunches (packable) and dinner recipes that I have on my list to try.  
 

Breakfast

Overnight Oats and Muesli Parfaits

Yogurt, Fruit and Granola Parfait

Banana and Almond Butter Toast (a current favorite!)

 

Lunch

Thai Rice Bowl

Quinoa Salad

Hummus Stuffed Pitas
Mexican Rice bowl

Dinner

Asian Chicken Lettuce Wraps

Best Salmon Ever

Avocado Cups

Salmon and Lentils

Eggs in Tomato sauce over zucchini noodles

  

I'd love to hear any of your go to healthy recipes! Oh and has anyone else ever done a cleanse?
 

- Heath