Erica & Wes are trying to eat healthier.

Just a warning before we start this... it is currently 7:17 am on a Friday morning.
       I work half-days on Fridays, meaning I don't go into work until noon. I am up entirely too early!! (so please pardon any typos and/or nonsensicals...and it's too early for pictures.) I usually do chores and errands on Fridays before I go into work. On the to-do list today is to make a slow cooker meal and then head to my mom's to do my laundry. Since no one would want to read a blog about laundry, I'll will be doing another recipe blog post.

Wes & I are starting a "diet" next week. It's not necessarily a diet, technically. We are just changing our meal choices by eating healthier. And we're limiting ourselves to one sweet treat a day (which will be extremely hard for me *sad face*). We're getting older so we need to start watching our cholesterol, sodium intake and such. Also, I feel as if I am the heaviest I've ever been and I'm starting to look a little frumpy (damn metabolism... why you gotta slow down?) Plus, I don't exercise as much as I used to so I'm trying to get back into that as well. Changing lifestyles... that's the ticket!

I tried this once before when I did the Super Shred diet with a coworker in January. Surprisingly, it wasn't bad at all. I'll certainly miss sweets and chips but the rest of it is actually doable. I won't be starving myself or limit myself to eating certain things by calculating calories. There's a lot of variety and meal options in me & Wes' diet plan. The key is eating small portions throughout the day and choosing healthy things to eat for those portions. This isn't exactly the Super Shred regime but it's pretty similar.
       So here's what we're doing... we complied a list of "super foods" such as almonds, leafy greens, salmon, yogurt, beans, and the like. We are eating breakfast (something from our list like yogurt, oatmeal or a hard boiled egg), one morning snack (another item from our list--say a handful of almonds), lunch (something from our list like rice & vegetables, a salad or a turkey sandwich), and an afternoon snack (you guessed it--something from our list) and then for dinner, we'll have a serving of a grains or legumes, a meat and a vegetable. And then one sweet (can be used as one of the snacks or a dessert at dinner).
       I also have been going to the gym on my breaks and lunch at work so I'll continue that routine to have some exercise dispersed throughout the day. Oh and yoga... I go to class once a week for that.

So back to my slow cooker meal... I love the slow cooker, by the way. I throw some stuff in there in the morning and it magically cooks into a meal by the time I get off work. Today, I'll be making soup. It is literally three ingredients: a leafy green, a meat and some vegetable broth. I've done this with kale, collard greens, cabbage, and mustard greens. I haven't explored as much with the meats... only smoked turkey legs and ham hocks (which I know are both superbly unhealthy). It always turns out hearty and delicious.

THREE INGREDIENT SLOW COOKER SOUP:
       Ingredients needed: a leafy green (we're using type of Chinese choy today, "swamp cabbage" is what it is labeled at the market), a meat (we're using lean beef meatballs) and vegetable broth.

1. Prepare the meatballs by rolling a spoonful of ground beef into a spherical shape. Or you can use a cookie scoop to make meatballs of the same size. Set aside.

2. Wash and cut the greens. Set aside.

3. Put the meatballs in the slow cooker.

4. Cover with greens. This may look like too much but it will cook down.

5. Pour vegetable broth over the greens. I also add a can of water but it's probably not necessary if you want to only use broth. If you would like, you can add in a bay leaf or some herbs and salt.

6. Cook on low for 8 hours. Then you'll have soup for dinner!