Super Foods Wrap up!

A week ago today James and I set out on a mini-adventure to eat nothing but super foods for seven days. We successfully managed to stay on track for 5.5 days, but we “fell off the wagon” on Friday evening. We decided that our bodies had enough of super foods, and we cashed in on a Ruby Tuesday’s gift card we received as a Christmas gift!

Even though we decided to forgo super foods on Friday, we collectively agree the benefits of the super food plan outweigh the challenges. After 5.5 days of eating nothing but super foods, I will share the benefits we discovered:

• We noticed that we did not feel as hungry throughout the day

• We felt more satisfied after our meals.

• We enjoyed the new recipes- with the exception of the sweat potato/pumpkin soup that I shared with you earlier in the week (We will NOT repeat that recipe!!!)

• We felt more energized and alert

Today we reflected on the new recipes we tried this week, and we crowned “super food chili” the winner, I provided the recipe at the end of the post if you are interested. We found the original recipe on www.sparkpeople.com, but James substantially improvised the original.

Since we considered our super food plan a success, and we enjoy the noticeable benefits of our experimental super food diet, we decided to continue the plan next week. Today we spent time preparing our menu and grocery list for the week, we went grocery shopping, and we prepared all of our meals for the week. The super foods diet poses a risk to our food budget. We went over the grocery budget by 15 dollars this week. We will continue to refine our portions and purchases to maintain our budget. This week’s food preparation time was significantly reduced. James and I prepared our weekly lunches and seven dinners in two hours (we prefer to cook our meals ahead of time because it saves us time during the busy week). You should give it a try sometime! We’ve tried meal prep during the week, and we find that we are irritated with each other because we are hungry, and we eat later in the evening.

I did a little taste test this afternoon, and I think that the recipes for this week will surpass last week’s in the deliciousness category!

Strout’s Super Food Chili

1 large onion (1 cup)

1 Large Red pepper (1 cup)

1 Large orange pepper (1 cup)

2 tbsp chili powder

½ tsp ground cumin

1 small jalapeño

3 ½ cups 100% low-sodium vegetable juice

1 can red kidney beans

1can black beans

1 tomato

Directions:

Combine ingredients in a 4-quart saucepan and bring to a boil, reduce the heat to low and cook for 4 hours.