Spring Clean Your Pantry

Welcome Spring! And welcome to all you Spring chickens and roosters!

Isn’t Spring great! I just love Spring. The days are longer, the weather is warmer and the outdoors just seem to come alive. Well, I guess that’s dumb because the outdoors is always alive but you get what I’m saying. I just love it. Oooohh and it means Summer will be here soon!!!!! <insert happy dance here> Man do I love Summer. You open the door and just start sweating, it’s amazing, but let’s not jump ahead. Back to Spring.

The only way you wouldn’t love spring is if you don’t have control of your allergies.  I mean, there really is a lot of Sh%$ in the air this time of year. As I’ve gotten older my allergies are tamer. I hadn’t really noticed the season change until this past weekend.  On Sunday I went Strawberry Picking with the Smith fam at a hydroponic farm. Don’t ask me about hydroponics, I just know the berries aren’t grown in the ground. Any who, so there I was, picking Strawberries, which were oddly tiny if I might add. It was a warm afternoon and the farm was pretty quiet. It was almost therapeutic picking Strawberries. I found myself just getting lost in the task and I felt my shoulders, which I keep pretty tight, just fall into place. It was very relaxing but the more I picked the more stuff was tossed into the air and for a brief while I thought I was going to die! My eyes started watering, my nose was stuffy and all I could think was, “Jennifer, you’re an idiot. The Allegra was right by the door.” But I survived.  Other than that, the season change hasn’t really affected me much.

LOL, had to add this in. The weather has been so nice lately Jack has tolerated going outside more. Had to share!

So, as I was stating before I got side tracked, Spring is the time of year to renew. Many people renew through Spring cleaning. It allows you to purge you home of any clutter and give every surface of your home a deep clean. My husband and I recently purged our garage. We filled the back of my truck with stuff we don’t even use anymore. In fact, most of it we hadn’t used in years! We had so much we had to take it to the dump. That was actually the fun part. I know, I’m weird.

If you don’t know where to begin your spring cleaning a great place to start is the kitchen! I’m not just talking about wiping down the counters and mopping the floors. I’m talking about your pantry and fridge. Now I know January 1^st is typically when resolutions are made but Spring just gives you a sense of a new beginning. I have talked to many people and overheard many conversations regarding healthy eating and losing weight. I think people see the effort I put in and feel I’m some kind of guru when it comes to diet and exercise. I’m flattered but I’m still trying to figure all of this out too! One of the phrases I hear a lot goes something like this, “I do good all day and then when I’m at home I eat those cookies in the pantry.” Or “I’m a sucker for dessert so I had ice cream.” It’s easy to blame it on the food but changing your diet must start with you and it has to start at home. Get rid of it! All of it! All of the junk food, all of the ice cream, all of the sodas. Just get rid of it. When I say that to people I am met with A LOT of resistance. “I can’t just waist food.” “I have to keep it around for (the kids, the husband, etc.)” I have great news! You don’t have to waist food, donate it. Sure, there might be a few things you have opened but whatever you haven’t donate it. Food banks are always looking for help. As for keeping tempting items in the home for others, no you don’t. Easy. NO, YOU DON’T. If you are the primary grocery shopper, they have to eat what you buy. Period. They can eat whatever they want on their time but at home they will eat what you buy. This will help get the entire household on the right track. If you are not the primary grocery shopper it’s time to have a heart to heart with that person or persons who do. Tell them how you would like to change your life style for the better and would appreciate their help. If they really need sweets or other snacks in the house help them pick out a healthier alternative so if you sneak some you won’t have so much eaters’ remorse.

Once you have cleaned your fridge and the pantry it’s time to stock it back up again. This time you will pack them full of whole foods. Here are some wonderful swaps to help make it a smooth transition.

Food	Swap
Canola/Veg Oil/Butter	Organic Applesauce, Coconut Oil, Olive Oil,Ghee
Sugar	Raw Honey, Coconut Sugar, Maple Sugar
Cow’s Milk	Almond Milk, Cashew Milk, Coconut Milk
Mayonnaise	Mashed Avocado
Table Salt	Sea Salt, Pink Himalaya Salt
Pasta	Spaghetti Squash, Zucchini
Tortillas	Romaine Lettuce, Ice Berg Lettuce
Mashed Potatoes	Mashed Cauliflower
Potatoes Chips	Raw Almonds, Raw Cashews
Soda	Sparkling Water

Once your kitchen is stocked with the right food it will make it easier to make healthy choices. 

 Start with this and next week I’ll give you some great tips on how to start meal prepping.

Meal prepping will help to keep you from straying away from healthy choices and help keep your metabolism running full steam ahead! Plus, if you’re working out you need all of the fuel you can get.

Here is one of my favorite quick meals. Sometimes I run out of time during the day but I still want to prepare a filling, nutritious meal for dinner. Lettuce wraps are my go to!

Turkey Lettuce Wraps

Ingredients:

-1 Head of Ice Berg Lettuce

- ½ an Avocado, sliced

- 4 Slices of Turkey

- 2 Slices of bacon (cooked)

- 2 Slices of tomato

Directions:

Peel off the first lettuce leaf and rinse head of lettuce.

Peel off two leaves of lettuce and place on a plate

Spread a ¼ of the avocado on each lettuce leaf

Place 2 slices of turkey on each leaf

Top each with a slice of bacon, broken in half and a slice of tomato

Fold in the sides and roll to form a wrap.

Serve with veggie of your choice or my favorite, Sweet Potato Chips with Sea Salt by Terra Chips!

I usually double everything to make a couple wraps for my husband.

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