A Few Simple Meals and Grilled Zucchini

Strict eating for us = not so interesting blog material for you! But I figured you might actually benefit from seeing how we eat when we are being really strict and trying to actually lose weight instead of just maintain. So today I thought I would share a few of the meals we ate last week and the grilled zucchini marinade that made my farmer's market zucchini oh so delicious.

One benefit to cooking this way is that it is fast. I don't need any recipes so I am not slowed down by looking back and forth at measurements and ingredients. It also takes the brain damage out of figuring out what is for dinner every night and means I don't usually need to go to the store for that one ingredient I am missing.

So without further rambling, here you go................

Salad with kale, romaine, red cabbage, and a little Parmesan. 

Zucchini sauteed in balsamic and olive oil with some Greek seasoning.

And yes I choked down some fish. It was tilapia and it came in a parchment cooking bag which was very convenient but it was just okay tasting. 

Fresh green beans steamed in some Earth Balance and pepper.

A Greek salad because that is my favorite.

And some Greek chicken that I cooked in water then drained. Then I added some tahini, a can of fire roasted tomatoes that I drained first, red onions, and Greek olives.

It was better than the fish for sure.

Grilled zucchini of course!

Turkey burgers with no bun because I really prefer it that way. I served them on a bed of lettuce and topped them with tomato, red onion, and some delicious guacamole.

And a few Trader Joe's veggie and flax seed chips. The chips were a bit of a splurge since we have been avoiding those kinds of things but since they are made from veggies we ate a few and I do mean just a few!

Look for this bag if you want to try these and are fortunate enough to live close to a Trader Joe's store. The colors are pretty too.

I scored this bad boy at the farmer's market last Saturday. They suggested I make bread with it but I had no intentions of doing that!

I chopped it up into fairly thick slices.

Then made an easy marinade. You will need about 1 cup of marinade.

I was just going to use this balsamic dressing but I didn't have enough so I added enough balsamic and olive oil to get  to my full cup.

Then I also added about a teaspoon of the garlic and herb seasoning but that wasn't enough flavor so I added a bit more basil and garlic powder too.

Put that all in a Ziploc bag and marinated them for about an hour.

This is my absolute favorite way to eat zucchini. Those grill marks are so pretty on there and the flavor was incredible! Give it try!

So the moral of the strict eating story is that we have lots of vegetables!!!!!!! Usually I serve salad and another vegetable. We eat a lean protein alongside all those veggies and we skip the carbs and actually the fruit as well. We will add fruit back in this week. Giving up the fruit for a couple weeks helps you get over your sugar addiction and helps you crave sweets less. I could care less about giving up bread, but I do miss the fruit so this week fruit will be our dessert. Except for Wednesday night when we will indulge in cake pops! Our dear friends from small group are moving to Colorado in a couple weeks and we will be having our last get together with them Wednesday evening. It is very sad and they will be missed terribly. So we must have a little celebration time with them. Cake pops are so good I might be able to convince them to stay if I promised to make them a batch every month for the next year!

Stay tuned faithful readers. I have been a little more creative. I made some egg cups in the oven this morning that were delicious and last night I made some cheesecake tartlets from the clean eating website for a dinner we were invited too.

Enjoy your Saturday!