Over the Hump!

So, four days of clean eating, and I am more than half way through this Clean Food Challenge movement started by Emilie at One Mom in Maine.  As I spent today thinking I was just three days in, it was a pleasant surprise when I counted from Tuesday.  Thankfully, it appears that the CFC will not kill me, as I originally thought.  I did, however, still have several moments today where I felt as though I might keel over from hunger.  I also spent the day with a general feeling of dissatisfaction, need to munch, lack of .... something.  Admittedly, I'm a snacker.  As a teenager at home, my parents used to tease me by mooing at me every time I opened the fridge or a cabinet.  (To be fair to my mother, it might have only been my dad that actually did the mooing.) I think I'm missing my gluten - bread, tortillas, animal crackers, etc.  I'm also missing butter.  I love butter.  I feel a little bit like my dog, who also suffers from a general feeling of dissatisfaction with life.  As I write this, she has whined extra dog treats out of me and is now flipping her dog dish around in the kitchen like Snoopy.

 

Maybe Shorty was worn out from her backyard fun today?  We did spend about 20 minutes outside in the sunshine hiding from pretend monsters under our umbrellas.  I might not look like a lot of work but being a prop in an intense imagination game is emotionally draining.

Anyway, I'm hungry and I shouldn't be.  I had a breakfast of oatmeal with strawberries and maple syrup.  Lunch was rice and beans with homemade salsa.  Dinner was a cookout with my neighbors, for which I made the stuffed squash.  (I didn't make it last night because what I thought was a squash in my cabinet was a turnip.)  It came out pretty good, though it would have been helped by a couple of spoonfuls of butter.  Because I changed the recipe from breadcrumb topping to quinoa, I mixed the quinoa with olive oil and honey to give it a little more flavor and help it crisp better under the broiler.  Since I made a boatload of quinoa, I'm looking forward to trying out the lentil salad recipe from www.cookingquinoa.net

My favorite raw mama, Joanna, made a green salad and a delicious lemon/limeade, sweetened with .... coconut milk?  It was just what I needed.  I passed on the minimally processed veggie burger and french fries she and hubby Matt cooked, but did have a 2nd dinner at around nine of napa cabbage and bok choy with soy sauce over basmati.  And another rice cake.  They're actually starting to taste good, with that unsalted almond butter.  I just couldn't take any more fruit - I've had strawberries, a banana, a pear, an apple, and a peach today.  Plus rice cakes and nuts.  And all I see on tv are commercials for pizza.