30 Day Health Challenge

Oliver the Olive Tree in the background

In an effort to be healthier, Ryan and I have started a 30 day challenge for ourselves: Walking with Romeo or some form of exercise every night (biking, jog/walking since I cannot jog further than a block...one day I will!), and no meat, dairy or alcohol. 

Appreciating the little things 

It has been really nice making the effort to get outside more often and it helps us remember to appreciate flowers, good smells like fresh ocean air and cut grass (our dog taught us that), interesting features in the landscape, etc. The exercise certainly doesn't hurt either! It's so easy to sit on the couch and put something on Netflix or rent a movie at Redbox (we don't have cable but somehow find ways to watch more tv than we'd like). After a long day at work or constant work on the house, you feel like you deserve the break but your body deserves the exercise! You owe it to your self to be as healthy as you can and push yourself off the comfy couch.

As for the diet part of our challenge: cutting out meat isn't as hard as you'd think but the dairy and alcohol thing is difficult! We have been allowing slight amounts of dairy into our diets (I think there is dairy in tikka masala sauce and I had cream in my coffee at the coffee shop) but we haven't been buying cheese, half and half (for coffee), yogurt or ice cream...all of which we enjoy but eat too much of. We switched out milk for almond milk a few years ago, so at least that is an easy transition but to make the other transitions easier, there are a few tricks I have up my sleeve like: blood orange flavored San Pellegrino...not quite a glass of red but it feels like a treat.

So far our menu items have consisted of veggie fried rice, lentil soup, Boca burgers, oatmeal, and a not so healthy but meat-free meal: Ramen noodles with an egg, onion, peas, sesame seed oil and sesame seeds. So good but not especially good for you so we won't buy any more Ramen! 

Tonight was our new favorite: Veggie and Chickpea Tikka Masala. We LOVE this recipe so I thought I'd share it with you. First, chop half an onion, 1 million garlic cloves (or however many you enjoy, ours is more like 6), 2 carrots, 2 stalks of celery, 6 sweet basil leaves (chopped), a pinch of oregano, a pinch of black pepper and sea salt, and a few sprinkles of red pepper flakes (very scientific measurements). 

This is the Tikka Masala sauce we used...cheat cooking :)

Cook these ingredients in a mixture of 2 tablespoons of coconut oil and 2 of olive oil (rough measurements, you want to coat the bottom of the pan) over medium heat for about 5 minutes and then add two cans of drained chickpeas. Cook another 3 minutes and add a 10 oz bag of frozen broccoli. Add jar of tikka masala sauce, then add a bit of water to the jar to get all the stuff coating the inside (it's a thick sauce) and add this to the pan. 

Cover and simmer over medium low until broccoli unthaws and is hot. Serve over basmati rice, top with fresh tomato and VOILA! You're a chef. We cooked 2 cups of dry basmati rice and we have enough leftovers for lunch for at least 2 days for both of us, maybe the whole week...I'll update when we finish it off!

Serve with Aranciata Rossa San Pellegrino if you're feeling fancy and enjoy outside in the mosquito cloud of your front yard. Citronella incense, candles and bug spray will provide slight protection but the bug bites are worth the tranquil dinner al fresco :)