Buzzfeed Clean Eating Challenge Day 3 - A Day Without Kale

So, today is going much better.  I actually had a chance to get caught up on the kitchen last night (phew) and today is a kale-free day (huzzah!). 

With the exception of the basil and cabbage, this is a fruit salad

 Dinner last night were napa cabbage wraps with chicken/mango filling.  Surprisingly I didn't hate the mango in this, although I did cut down on the mango load by a bit.  I also diced up the mango and chicken and let it chill in a bag with some of the dressing for a bit, so I think that helped.  I used half an avocado because I had half of one chilling in the fridge from a few days ago I needed to use up.  I also had a Healthy Choice Greek frozen yogurt cup instead of my 2 clementines.  Like I said, I'm doing this for fun, and I usually want something sweet in the evening.  It's only 100 calories and since there's already a ton of greek yogurt in the diet I figured it wasn't too far off course, even if it wasn't "clean eating".

Food Stylist Note -it looked way more appetizing before the flaxseed

 I decided to stick with the recipe and didn't dick with the yogurt this morning.  I kinda wish I had though,
unlfavored fat-free greek yogurt is just a bit too dry and cheesy for my preference in the morning.  Pair that with almonds and flaxseed and the whole dish was rather dry.  I ended up mixing it all up rather than leaving it layered but the blackberries ended up being the only thing 'moistening' the dish.  I feel like it could have used some honey or jam or something to liven it up a bit.

That 9 cup bowl makes another appearance. 

The Asian chicken salad was supposed to use half the remaining head of cabbage.  Pictured here is approx. 35% of the remainder and it was already full to the brim.  Flavor is okay but the dressing to cabbage ratio is such that I'm eating most of it dry, which I'm noticing seems to be a recurring theme in this diet.

I skipped the avocado and had the carrots & hummus I skipped on Day 1 as my afternoon snack.  Since they both contained healthy fats & similar calories I considered it an equivalent exchange.  Some avocado would have been nice on the salad though.

Now with less kitten!

Fridge, end of day 2 - Things are finally starting to fit in the fridge again.  I have a lot of partial containers (leftovers of this & that) and had to chuck some of my pre-existing produce due to spoilage (looks like I need celery and I'm beginning to question if the collard greens will hold up) but now that the kale & fennel have been broken down (I went ahead and cored/hulled/de-fronded the rest of the fennel) things seem to be fitting nicely.  I'm having people over tomorrow night so I'm hoping to chuck some of the leftovers at them (from pre-eating plan).  I'm going out of town in about 10 days and don't think my strawberries or watermelon will last two weeks.

Tonight may be a challenge.  It's my monthly homebrewer's club meeting, which involves a beer tasting and usually some kind of snacky foods being passed about.  I have the willpower to forgo the food, but I really, genuinely do enjoy tasting others homebrews.  I could skip, but one of the things I hate is choosing a diet over a good time.  I have personal training today after work but before the meeting, so if I do indulge at least I'll have gotten in some good exercise beforehand.

Drizella put herself in kitten jail and couldn't get out.

If not, tonight is hot chocolate night, as well as the roasted cauliflower with lentils recipe I'm excited to try.  And the foster kittens have a vet visit tomorrow and if they pass they will be put up for adoption, so I could use some extra kitten cuddle time tonight.  Nimbus the Stormbringer is a beautiful, playful boy and Drizella the Sea-Witch is a total snugglecat, so they shouldn't have any trouble getting snapped up quickly.