Life Style Challenge Week 11

This was a sort of weird week.

Life Style Challenge Week 10 Review:

(1)  No bread, no pasta, no rice
(2)  Cardio exercise for 30 minutes, 3 days a week (T, Th, Sat--though this often gets pushed to W, F, Sun lately, which is perfectly OK)
(3)  Strength training exercise for 10 minutes, 2 days a week
(4)  Average 2 or fewer Triscuits per day
(5)  Restart flaxseed oil regimen AGAIN and add cod liver oil
(6)  Make wilted spinach and chocolate "cake" recipes

I was sick a couple times this week, so my eating was a little bit off, but overall, it was OK.  I have discovered that the combination of flaxseed/cod liver oil + almond butter on the same day is a mistake.  I think I did my oil regimen about 4x this week, which was satisfactory.  I'm still just trying to do it as much I can and not worry too much if I miss sometimes.

The wilted spinach recipe was fantastic!  And it's very easy, too.

Sauteed Spinach with Pine Nuts and Golden Raisins:  Toast 2 T. pine nuts for about 5 minutes over low heat in a large skillet.  Remove pine nuts.  Add 1 T. olive oil, 4 cups baby spinach, and salt and pepper to taste.  Cover for about 2 minutes.  Stir the spinach and cook until it's wilted.  Top with toasted pine nuts and 2 T. golden raisins.  Serves 2 (or 1, really--spinach cooks down to almost nothing).

The recipe calls for dried currants but I used golden raisins like the restaurant in San Fransisco does in the dish that inspired the recipe.  I used 1 bag of baby spinach but that really wasn't enough for the amount of oil and nuts/raisins, in my opinion--I think a bag contains 3 cups, maybe?  Next time I'll use more spinach (and/or less of the other stuff.)

The chocolate "cake" recipe--god, the less said the better.  It smelled good but the texture was so gross (simultaneously runny and gritty) that I couldn't face it.  (I don't even like genuine custards so this nasty fake custard like product was out of bounds.)  I could not even make myself taste it, nor could Robert.  From pan to cake to trash.  It doesn't get any healthier than that, I guess, but the cost/effort per serving is depressing.

This week I also made some roasted sweet potatoes using the pre-peeled and chopped potato pieces that come in a bag.  Have you tried that?  God, so convenient!  For me, it's too much time/effort to peel and chop a sweet potato to have freshly roasted sweet potatoes after work, but with the ones that are already cut up, I had them oiled and spiced and in the oven in a couple minutes.  About 30-35 minutes later, they were ready to eat...and they were great!  I tried a specific recipe this time.

Sweet and Savory Potatoes:  2 c. chopped sweet potato, 1 T. olive oil, 1/4 t. onion powder, 1/4 t. garlic powder, 1/2 t. cinnamon, and salt/pepper to taste.  Bake on a baking sheet in 375 degree oven for approximately 30 minutes.  Serves 2.

Robert likes eating his baked sweet potatoes with cinnamon but I've never tried them roasted that way.  I can definitely recommend this seasoning blend.  I also think that a person with an appetite will want more than 1 c. of sweet potato but that depends on how big/caloric your entree is.  I had my potatoes with fish so I ate more than half the recipe (and left the pathetic remnant, perhaps 1/2 cup potato, for Robert to taste and declare good).

Life Style Challenge Week 11:

(1)  No bread, no pasta, no rice
(2)  Cardio exercise for 30 minutes, 3 4 days a week
(3)  Strength training exercise for 10 minutes, 2 days a week
(4)  Average 2 or fewer Triscuits per day
(5)  Continue flaxseed oil/cod liver oil regimen
(6)  Identify recipes/ideas for snacks/desserts that can substitute for my old standbys, almond butter and/or dark chocolate

Robert and I are upping our exercise game this week to four days of cardio.  I'm also going to get more serious about making sure I do the strength training.  I'd really like to do it for 10 minutes, 3 days a week, which is easily doable.  The TV shows we watch are about 43 minutes per episode, so it's straightforward to do 30 minutes cardio, then 10 minutes of weights.  I just don't always remember to wrap up the cardio until the show is over.

The other initiative for me is that I want to cut back on my almond butter/dark chocolate consumption so I need to figure out what I can eat as snacks/dessert/meal supplementation/etc. that is:
--Paleo "enough"/generally a good fit for my exotic animal eating needs
--Tasty enough that I'll eat it
--Does not require very much (preferably, any) prep time/effort
--Does not require being eaten within a couple days of purchase
--Is not some kind of meat jerky or fish from a can (see second bullet point)

I use almond butter and/or dark chocolate as the general purpose "something else to eat" a LOT and I really want to cut back on this.

I don't mind if some things require a bit of prep work, and it's OK if a few things are quickly perishable, but I really need to match, or at least approach, the convenience offered by shelf-stable almond butter and dark chocolate that can be eaten directly with no preparation.  It's not that I don't have enough time or that I don't think putting time into preparing healthy food is "worth it" or whatever--it's just that realistically, if it's not almost as easy as what I'm doing now, the substitution isn't going to happen with enough consistency to create new eating habits.

Fortunately, Robert is a total rock star who is willing to stop at the grocery store on the way home if I do need to replenish my supplies more often than the once a week we're doing now.  And you'll notice that price is not one of my criteria.  I mean, I'm not going to take up a daily caviar habit or anything (because, ewwwwwwww) but I can afford to eat whatever it makes sense for me to eat.

Any suggestions?  I know it feels risky to put ideas out there when the requester has such idiosyncratic needs and preferences, but I'm curious what you guys think, what you've tried, non-grain-based convenience foods you like...hell, or just how you have handled similar requirements for yourself, with whatever idiosyncratic preferences and needs you have.  Even if I'm like, Yeah, I don't think the daily lemon-pineapple-peanut butter-tofu smoothie after work is a great option for me, or, Fritos from the work vending machine every afternoon seems like the opposite of what I need to do, or, There's no way I'm really going to start an organic vegetable garden on my balcony--it might make me think of something else.  Do you have any go-to places you look for food ideas?