Welcome to EatCleanLiveGreen! My name is Allison, and I'm a 23 year old grad student. This blog is about my journey to a healthier life, by eating clean foods and decreasing my impact on the environment. I also hope to lose a few pounds along the way!
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That doesn’t look like it would taste anything like meat. Wisdom my younger brothers once departed on me while I ate a veggie burger, a choice they found quite odd.
Why eat a veggie burger, if it doesn’t taste like meat? Because a vegetable-based veggie burger can be delicious, just on it’s own!
You’re never going to fool yourself that a veggie burger tastes like meat. Instead, these Very Vegetable Veggie Burgers are crunchy, filling, packed full of nutrients, delicious burgers, that taste like vegetables. And that’s a good thing! 
Very Vegetable Veggie Burgers
adapted from Oh She Glows
Ingredients:
- 1 cup cooked white navy beans
- 1 small carrot, chopped
- 1/4 medium onion, chopped
- 1/2 Red pepper, chopped
- 1/4 cup spinach
- 1 t chili powder
- 1/2 t dried basil
- 1/4 t salt
- 1/4 cup sunflower seeds
- 1 T pumpkin seeds
- 1 T flax meal
- 1/2 cup + 2 T spelt flour (whole wheat would work too)
Directions
- Preheat oven to 375F
- Place all ingredients except the seeds and flour into a food processor. Process until mixture is blended.
- Transfer vegetable mixture to a large bowl. Add seeds and stir to mix .
- Add the flour in ~1/4 cup increments, stirring well until blended.
- Flatten mixture out into a large rectangle (~1/2 inch tall) on a cutting board. Using a cookie cutter or inverted coffee mug, shape into patties.
- Bake for 15 mins at 375F, flip and bake for another 5-10 minutes.
Makes 8 small patties, approximately 125 calories each. Store in the fridge or freezer.
Absolutely delicious served on a pita with spinach, sprouts and avocado!
What is your favourite burger topping? I’m loving the avocado!
Breakfast really is the best meal of the day.
Egg. Maple. Cheese. Waffles. You could eat them separately. It would be a delicious, traditional weekend breakfast.
Or, you could combine them into a fun, sweet, and cheesy breakfast sandwich. Did I mention that it’s super fun?
It’s super quick too. Faster than you can drive through McDonald’s for a McGriddle, you can have a real food, healthy version – all of the delicious flavour, none of the trans fats!
Breakfast Wafflewich
adapted from Danica’s Daily and Meals and Moves
makes 1 breakfast sandwich – approximately 350 calories and 18g of protein.
Ingredients
Directions
- Heat canola oil in a small frying pan.
- Whisk egg + egg white together. Add to frying pan. Let egg cook for about 2 minutes, until almost set.
- Meanwhile, toast waffles.
- Using a spatula, flip egg over. Let cook another minute.
- Top 1 waffle with egg, cheese and maple syrup. Top with other waffle.
Resist the urge to use a fork and knife – eat like a sandwich!
Is going green a passing fad, or is it here to stay?
Green is pretty much everywhere you look; reusable bags, reusable coffee mugs and reusable water bottles. Countless companies are beginning to offer green products, from Reynolds Wrap (click the link for a coupon!),
Ziploc bags:
Clorox GreenWorks Cleaners:
These companies are making changes because consumers are asking for them. Going green is definitely trendy right now – for both companies and consumers.
Is green here to stay? Or is it just a passing fad?
It’s up to you.
Buy green products. Use green products. Ask for green products to be available in your store.
Don’t let those reusable bags just sit in your garage/laundry room/car – use them!
Continue to create the demand for green products, and going green will not only continue to be trendy, it will be here to stay.
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How do you go green in your daily life? I always carry a reusable coffee mug with me – as a bonus, most coffee shops give you a discount for doing so!
Welcome to a new series at Eat Clean Live Green: Shopping With A Conscience! I’ve discussed before the reasons I try to buy local, organic foods as much as possible, and why I consider Ethical Eating so important, but I realize that it can be a difficult thing to jump in head first – for your wallet, your schedule and even depending on what you have locally available!
Each week, I’m going to discuss one item – whether it’s worth the money for organic or not, if there are other substitutes you could use, and if there are any other benefits to buying each item ethically.
If you choose to buy the concsious consumer item of the week each week, the price difference to your overall budget bill will be small (and sometimes it might even go down!). As you change your grocery-shopping practices, these small changes will start to make a big difference!
If you already buy the specific item ethically – that’s excellent! I hope you share your opinions about why, and where you do so in the comment section
This weeks Shopping With A Conscience Item of the week is eggs!
The vast majority of egg-laying hens in the United States are confined in battery cages. On average, each caged laying hen is afforded only 67 square inches of cage space—less space than a single sheet of letter-sized paper on which to live her entire life. Unable even to spread their wings, caged laying hens are among the most intensively confined animals in agribusiness. Source: US Humane Society
Buying cage-free eggs is certainly a better option than the conventionally produced eggs; the hens are able to move around, and lay their eggs in nests. However, even cage-free hens are living in extremely crowded spaces.
Free-range eggs come from chickens who have access to the outside. However, how much access is unknown. The term free-range is not regulated for egg-production in the US or Canada.
Certified Organic eggs are the best option. The chickens are cage-free, have enough room to comfortably move around, significant access to the outdoors, and are not given mammalian or animal-derived protein, antibiotics or growth hormones. Certified Organic farms are also audited on an annual basis.
At a Farmer’s Market, where you can ask what they mean by ‘free-range’ or ‘happy chickens’ – ask! Getting certified as organic is expensive, so the farmers may be following similar practices as certified organic, only without the certification.
In addition to the animal-welfare benefits of buying organic, the eggs themselves taste so much better! If you have never had an organic egg, you will be so surprised by the bright orange colour of the yolk! They are also much healthier for you:
Testing has found that, compared to official U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) nutrient data for commercial eggs, eggs from hens raised on pasture may contain:
• 1/3 less cholesterol
• 1/4 less saturated fat
• 2/3 more vitamin A
• 2 times more omega-3 fatty acids
• 3 times more vitamin E
• 7 times more beta carotene
Source: Mother Earth News
Bottom line: if you buy eggs, organic is best. For you and the chickens!
Another way to be a conscious consumer about eggs is to look for alternatives. Flax eggs are great for baking! To substitute for 1 egg, mix 1 tbsp of flax meal and 3 tbsp of water. Let sit for a few minutes, and the flax meal will form a gel similar to eggs.
The good news? Chocolate is good for you! The cocoa bean has lots of flavanoids, which have antioxidant properties (similar to berries, red wine and green tea!)
The not so good news? The more chocolate is processed, the less flavonoids remain.
Chocolate is made from cocoa beans, which are first fermented and left to dry after harvesting. The beans are then roasted, and the shell is the removed. The cacao nibs, full of cocoa solids and cocoa butter remain. These nibs are the ground into a thick paste (called chocolate liquor) and pressed to remove the cocoa butter. The remaining powder is cocoa powder. To turn the cocoa into chocolate, some cocoa butter is usually added back in, along with milk, vanilla and other flavourings.
The reason dark chocolate is considered the healthy chocolate, is because it contains the most amount of cocoa powder (resulting in four times as many flavonoids as milk chocolate!). Look for dark chocolate that lists cocoa first on the ingredient list, not sugar, or a bar with a high percentage of cocoa, 70% or more.
Other great options include cocoa powder or the cacao nibs! As they are both less processed than chocolate, they’ll contain even more flavonoids!
I found some Cacao Nibs this weekend, and decided they would be perfect on top of a bowl of my favourite winter breakfast – pumpkin oats!
To make pumpkin oatmeal, I combine:
- 1/3 C rolled oats
- 1 C water
- 1/2 chopped banana
- salt
- cinnamon
- vanilla
Heat, continually stirring to break up banana. Once oats have reached desired consistency, I add 1/3 C canned pumpkin. Topped with:
- 1 tbsp natural peanut butter
- 1/2 tbsp flax meal
- 1/2 tbsp cacao nibs
This may be the best bowl of oatmeal ever. I loved the cacao nibs – a definite chocolate flavour, but without the sweetness (making a perfect match for the sweet banana oats!). They are also super crunchy!
I also think cacao nibs would be fantastic in a chocolate peanut butter granola bar!
Thank goodness for chocolate
What is your favourite kind of chocolate?
Happy Saturday!
I’m just about to head out to the Farmer’s Market and Grocery Store to get my weekly groceries, and I thought I’d share my meal and grocery planning routine with you.
It’s a really easy system – but it keeps me very organized! Planning meals ahead of time helps me both to make sure we have lots of variety in our meals and to save money as well, by creating a clear grocery list.
I use SpringPad to store recipes that I find online. It’s super easy to search by ingredient, or just browse through!
Once I’ve decided what to make for dinner for the week, I post it in my Google Calendar. I have a separate calendar, called Meals that Grant and I can both make changes on. It’s super easy to move meals around, and I set myself a reminder if there is something I need to thaw the day before. This week is pretty light on the cooking - we’re making homemade pizza and chicken parmesan (look for the recipes later on this week!). The other nights, we’re thawing some Vegetarian Chili, On Our Own (I have class Monday nights!  ) and going out for dinner for Grant’s birthday.
I don’t plan my breakfasts and lunches ahead of time – breakfast is almost always an oatmeal variation, and lunch is often leftovers! That said, since we’re On Our Own, and going out for dinner two nights this week, I do have to get some extra supplies for lunches
I also use Google Tasks to create a grocery list. Throughout the week if I think of something we need, I add it to the list, and then once I’ve planned out our meals, I add the rest along too.
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An update on Operation Get Up Early: I was way too ambitious! While I didn’t make it to 6 am yet, I am hovering around 7-7:30, which is still much better than 8:30-9! However, even getting up 1 hour earlier has given me enough time to start the day off with purpose, which was the entire goal of Operation Get Up Early! It will take longer than I thought to be a true early riser though!
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Do you meal plan ahead of time? How far ahead of time? How do you stay organized?
After I posted about my pet peeve eating label (the flexitarian), Cynthia emailed me to say that:
“I just sometimes feel that people look down on me because I still eat meat. I think that’s why occasionally I’ve used flexitarian.”
I’ve felt the same way myself before. Not in my non-internet life, where not many people I know are vegetarian, but as a healthy living blogger, where many bloggers of this genre are vegetarian or vegan. As a meat-eater, even a conscious, ethical meat-eater, it does sometimes feel like maybe, we aren’t doing enough. Maybe there are non-meat-eaters judging us.
In my opinion, it comes down to one question: are you ok with eating meat?
It is a personal choice. And depending on the answer to that, there are two paths you could follow as an educated, aware, and conscious consumer. If you have a problem with the actual eating of meat, vegetarianism might be the path for you (which is a choice I entirely respect. And, as someone who enjoys vegetarian meals, I enjoy reading vegetarian blogs too!)
However, if you are ok with eating meat, but are concerned about how the animals are raised, what they eat and where they live (which have not just implications on the animal’s life, but your health and the environment as well), you can be both a meat-eater, and an aware, conscious consumer.
To find out more about the conventional food system, I highly recommend reading The Omnivore’s Dilemma, or watching Food Inc.
I was watching Oprah this afternoon, Do You Know Where Your Food Really Comes From?, and while discussing Alicia Silverstone’s new book, The Kind Diet, Oprah was essentially asking – so what if you don’t want to be a vegan, and give up cheese or eggs? Not everyone will want to do that. What if the chickens or cows were treated well?
Is there something else we can do?
Yes.
With every purchase you make, you can make a choice. Local or Not. Organic or Not. Humanely Treated or Not.
It’s a choice based on ethics, health, environment, finance, time and knowledge.
It’s not a matter of cutting things out. You don’t have to give up anything. But you can include more things. Local, Organic Whole Grains and Fruit and Vegetables. Local, Organic, Humanely Raised Meat, Eggs, and Dairy, if you choose.
You can Eat Food. Mostly Plants. Not Too Much.
It can be mostly, not all plants, and still be a ethical choice. If you choose to eat meat, you are not confined to the factory farming system. There are always other options. You can choose to purchase animal products from local sources, where the animal was raised outside (weather permitting!), given the foods it was evolved to eat, enough space to comfortably eat and sleep, and not packed full of antibiotics to prevent sickness, or growth hormones to grow unnaturally quickly.
Next week, I’m going to be starting a new series at Eat Clean Live Green: Shopping With a Conscience! I’ve discussed before the reasons I try to buy local, organic foods as much as possible, and why I consider Ethical Eating so important, but I realize that it can be a difficult thing to jump in head first – for your wallet, your schedule and even depending on what you have locally available!
Each week, I’m going to discuss one item – whether it’s worth the money for organic or not, if there are other substitutes you could use, and if there are any nutritional benefits to buying each item ethically.
If you choose to buy the conscious consumer item of the week each week, the price difference to your overall grocery bill will be small (and sometimes it might even go down!). As you change your shopping practices, these small changes will start to make a big difference!
A Peanut Butter and Jam Quesadilla. Is it a breakfast, snack or dessert?
It could be anything you want it to be!
To make these fab treats, I useda new favourite: Food For Life Brown Rice Tortillas.
The nutrition stats for these tortillas are pretty good – while there isn’t a lot of fibre or protein, the calories aren’t too bad (many similar sized tortillas can have closer to 200 calories, as opposed to 130 for these). The ingredient list is nice and simple
And the price was great too – at $3 for a package of 6, these were actually cheaper than the conventional huge floury tortillas!
My favourite part of these tortillas is that they crisp up fantastically.
Making a PB&J quesadilla is super easy: spread natural PB & Jelly onto one side of the tortilla, fold in half and grill in a hot frying pan/panini press/george foreman.
Eat once warm and crispy
It seems like there are so many different labels you can apply to eating style: vegan, vegetarian, lacto-ovo, pescetarian, raw, etc. etc. However, each of the labels does mean something, and while I’m not a label person, I realize that sometimes, you do need to define what you will and won’t eat.
The one label that really bothers me though, is flexitarian. This label is often used by people to mean that they eat: lots of vegetables and vegetable-based meals, whole grains, dairy, fruit and some meat.
So… an eater? Sure, if calling yourself a flexitarian helps you eat more vegetables, good for you! But it doesn’t really change anything. You are an omnivore, eating a little bit of everything.
However, there is one phrasing of flexitarian I love, as used in regards to a recipe’s flexibility to be either vegetarian or meat-based.
This recipe, for stuffed bell peppers, is just that: flex-ible! You can use black beans for a vegetarian dish, or ground beef if you want to use meat. Or, you could use both!
Flex-ible Stuffed Bell Peppers
recipe makes enough for 9 stuffed peppers*
Ingredients
- Bell Peppers, any colour, as flat-bottomed as possible
- 1 onion, chopped
- 1 tsp olive oil
- 1 tsp minced garlic
- 1 lb ground beef (preferably organic) and/or 1 can black beans, drained and rinse
- 2 cups tomato sauce
- 1 tsp oregano, dried
- 1 tsp basil, dried
- 2 cups brown rice, cooked
- 1 cup part-skim mozzarella cheese, shredded
Directions
- Boil water in a large pot.
- Slice the tops off of the peppers, and seed.
- Boil peppers for 5 minutes, until just tender. Drain and set aside.
- Meanwhile, heat olive oil in medium-sized skillet. Add onion and garlic and cook until tender (3-5 minutes).
- If using ground beef, and to skillet and brown.
- If using black beans, add to skillet.
- Add tomato sauce and spices, and let simmer 3-5 minutes.
- Add brown rice, stir.
- Fill each bell pepper with 2/3 cup skillet mixture.
- Top each with 1/4 C shredded cheese.
- Add to a baking dish with 1/4 inch of water covering the bottom.
- Bake at 400* for 15 minutes.
*The stuffing is excellent on it’s own, as well, or would make a good wrap filling!
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Do you like using labels for food or eating?
I love sleeping (who doesn’t!?). I also love getting things done first thing in the morning. I like to wake up, make some coffee and oatmeal, read some blogs, make a to-do list and get cracking. I used to do this all the time – last year, I was almost always at school by 7:30 am.
However, I’ve been getting lazier and lazier about the time I get up. My husband is often out the door before 6:30 am (which means waking up before 6!), and I usually resist getting up so early. I ask him to call me around 7 to wake up. Usually, I answer the phone, thank him for calling, and roll over and go back to sleep. It is usually about 8:30 by the time I actually get out of bed.
By the time I’ve made breakfast, it’s 9. I’m then either rushing to school, to workout, or to catch the bus! The to-do list doesn’t get made, and I feel rushed for the rest of the day. By the end of the day, I still have lots of work left to do. This leaves me with two options:
- Stay up later.
- Get up earlier.
Pretty black and white. I don’t like the option of staying up later – in general, I like to have time to cook dinner and hang out with my husband/dog in the evenings.
This leaves me with one choice: get up earlier! Introducing:
Operation Get Up Early
I’m going to get up progressively earlier each day this week, leading up to 6 am! The following two weeks (Including weekends!) I’m going to continue to wake up at 6 am, with the whole day ahead of me – it takes three weeks to form new habits, and getting up early is going to be one of mine!
The first thing I needed to do was to get my own alarm clock. I’m planning on setting it to buzz, and scaring myself out of bed 
How I’m going to wake up progressively earlier in 1 week (I started off at 8 am this morning!):
- Monday 7:30 am
- Tuesday 7:15 am
- Wednesday 7:00 am
- Thursday 6:45 am
- Friday 6:30 am
- Saturday* 6:15 am
- Sunday 6:00 am
To get 8 hours of sleep a night, I’ll need to be in bed around 10 pm. Trust me, that’s part is the easy part
Many articles have the tip to have something to look forward to to get out of bed early. I’m planning on some morning workouts, extra special bowls of oatmeal (there are monster cookies in the house!), time to read blogs and drink coffee. really? oatmeal and… working out? yeah. time, baby!
Are you an early riser? Any tips?
Or are you a sleepyhead, with a too-flexible schedule like me? Want to join Operation Get Up Early?
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