Eat Clean Recipe: Avocado Pasta

Today I had a craving. I wanted pasta combined with a creamy sauce.  But having such a craving doesn’t really align with the eat clean principles. EXCEPT you are going to use an avocado to make your pasta dish a creamy and healthy sensation.

This recipe is prepared in no time and only needs a small amount of ingredients. This makes it easy for beginners and is good for your wallet as well.

Ingredients (serves 2):

• 200 g whole-wheat pasta (Spaghetti)
• 1 ripe avocado
• 40 g or 1.4 oz Parmesan cheese (grated)
• the juice of one lime or lemon
• 2 gloves of garlic (crushed)
• salt and pepper to taste

Preparation:

1. Cook the pasta according to instructions on the packaging using a pot. Don’t forget to add some salt to the water.

2. Meanwhile peel the avocado (using a spoon) and add into a deep bowl. Add Parmesan cheese, lime or lemon juice and garlic. Blend the mixture using an immersion blender until you have a fine paste.

3. Add salt and pepper to taste as well as two tablespoons of pasta water. Stir together.

4. Strain the pasta of the water, e.g. using a sieve. Put pasta back in the pot and add the avocado paste. Fold in gently.

That’s it! Serve and enjoy your easy, fast and healthy meal.

 

Preparation and cooking time: 12 minutes, calories per serving: 390 kcal

Want to add a little protein? Use shrimp or salmon to serve with this dish.

A little side note on avocados: Most often they are not yet ripe when bought in the store. But don’t worry just put them in a paper bag at home to help them ripe quickly. But don’t forget to use them. 😉

Who doesn’t like pasta with a creamy sauce? Well, I do.

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Health Bites #3: Boosting Activity

Many people want to incorporate time for fitness and exercise into their daily routine but do not know how to do this. This post will give you some ideas how to boost your activity during your day.

The time people spend sitting is enormous. Adults with a desk job sit about 16 hours daily. This is the time commuting to work, sitting at a desk at the work place, commuting back home, sitting in front of the TV or in front of a computer screen to wind down. Thus we need to actively make time for exercise and activity. This will improve health and mood and will help in weight-loss or maintenance.

Here are some ideas of how to improve your activity level during your day:

1. Schedule time for exercise in your planner. When you actively make time for exercise you are less likely to skip it. Also if you work out in the morning your are less likely to omit it due to changes in your schedule.

2. Commit to a friend to exercise. If you are going to meet up with an exercise buddy you will be more likely to show up and work out as you don’t want to stand him/her up.

3. Train for a sport you enjoy. This is actually self-explanatory. If you train for something you enjoy doing you are more likely to pull it off more often.

4. Plan active activities for the weekend. Go for a hike in the surrounding nature or take your bike and cruise the neighborhood. Meet-up with family and friends to spend a good time.

5. Wear a pedometer (many smartphones apps are able to count steps, too) and set a goal for number of steps for the week. If you are able to get to your goal up this number the next week.

6. I can’t emphasis this enough. Take the stairs whenever your path crosses some. In your apartment building or office take the stairs instead of the elevator. This will give you quick activity boosts throughout the day.

7. Sign up for a race. Even if you are new to running you can do this. Train with the Couch to 5K training plan and after nine weeks you should be able to run a 5K race. The best way to commit to this is to sign up today for a race in nine-weeks time.

Don’t feel intimidated though. Whatever your current activity level is, incorporating even one of the above ideas will improve your fitness and will boost your activity.

How to you boost your activity? Do you actively make time for exercise in your busy schedule?

Eat Clean Recipe: Red Lentil Dal

Today I prepared one of my most favorite dishes for lunch. It’s a red lentil dal with some delicious Indian flavors and coconut milk. What’s not to like about that? Now I want to share the recipe with you.

Ingredients (serves 6):

• 500 g red lentils
• two cans diced tomatoes
• one can coconut milk
• 4 spring onions
• 2 gloves of garlic
• 1 tbsp oil
• 2 tbsp tomato paste
• about a thumbs length of ginger
• 1 tsp cumin, turmeric and curry each
• 600 ml vegetable broth
• salt and pepper to taste
• plain low fat yogurt and chopped parsley to serve

Directions:

1.  Heat the oil in a big pot. Chop the spring onions, garlic and ginger and add to the pot. Reduce heat to medium and add the tomato paste and then the lentils. Stir occasionally for about three minutes.

2. In the mean time prepare the vegetable broth and add to the pot. Put on a lid and let simmer for 15 minutes. Stir occasionally so that the lentils won’t burn. If necessary, like when the lentils soaked all the broth, add more broth.

3. Add the canned tomatoes and the spices. Let simmer for a few more minutes until the lentils are soft enough to eat (Just try a spoon-full). Add the coconut milk and stir under.

4. Add pepper and maybe salt to taste.

5. One serving corresponds to two scoops of the lentil dal. Serve with plain yogurt and chopped parsley. Enjoy!

Cooking and preparation time: about 45 minutes.

Do you like foreign cuisine like the flavors of the orient or the spicy Thai kitchen? I certainly do!

Weekends are the hardest and goals for June.

Weekends are the hardest days in a week to maintain a healthy diet because we all want to enjoy our free time. We spent them with friends or family or both. Last weekend I visited my best friend from Friday to Sunday. I didn’t make the healthy choices I use to make because I ate with people who don’t really care what they are eating and how much they are eating (how can they just be so slim then?). And although there are tons of advice out there how to eat healthy with company or when eating out, I just didn’t. Here are three reasons why:

• my friend’s kitchen is not as healthily stocked as mine
• eating with friends usually animates me to eat more because in groups it is totally a socializing thing
• food choices for the weekend were already made before I arrived and I didn’t want to make it harder

A list of unhealthy things I munched on Friday evening through Sunday:

• M&M’s with peanuts
• salad with pasta and fatty mayonaise
• a hot dog at IKEA
• fruit salad with added sugar (what?)
• salty crackers
• small Magnum ice cream bar with caramel
• some Kinder Schoko Bons (little German chocolate and milk thingys)
• some more ice cream

I also ate regular stuff at too big portion sizes. The scale does not show a difference but my body does. I felt bloated from eating things I regularly wouldn’t eat and eating too much. I carried a food baby with me most time.

So what is left to say?

I won’t beat myself up about it. I just will go back and eat healthy again. What will help me is all the good people doing the dietbet with @blogilates. They motivate me and inspire me although I don’t officially do the challenge. I want to try and do it on my own. The goal is to lose 4% of my current body weight until the end of June. For me that is about 6.8 lbs or 3 kg.

I took pictures of myself wearing nothing but underwear today. One from the front, side and back each. I’ll do so again at the end of the month to track my progress. To achieve my goal I’m going to follow Cassey’s June calendar the best I can. This month it is all about losing weight with focus on cardio training three days of the week to slim down. I’m happy Cassey provides this calendar which is really ideal for people who want to shed some pounds.

Apart from that I’ll start a new job with H&M next week. I’ll surely face some time issues this month, because I will have to learn how to make time for workouts and food prepping. Working in a big shopping mall with lots of food stands will be a temptation to eat unhealthy and just because. Goals for June will include time management and staying on track with clean eating.

Have you joined Cassey’s diet bet? Or do you follow her June calendar? What are your goals for June?