Coming at you a little bit late *sorry* but here is my account of following Kayla Itsines’ #sweat app food recipes for days 3 & 4.
Day 3
Breakfast – Banana & pecan overnight oats
I was excited for this because (as they’re overnight oats) it was all prepped and in the fridge the night before so I knew that all I had to do in the morning was add the banana and I was good to go. One thing about lots of these recipes is that they can take ages to prep/cook so having something that would be ready as soon as I woke up was appealing.
Not sure if it was the texture or the cinnamon or all of it but to be honest it just wasn’t my cup of tea. I’m not a huge oats/porridge eater at the best of times. Ahh well.
Morning Snack – Strawberries & cream smoothie
This smoothie turned out suuuper thick with the amount of frozen strawberries that Kayla recommends. Next time I would probably halve the berry quantity. I ended up eating this with a spoon rather than drinking it but nevertheless it was tasty.
Lunch – Egg Chicken* & Salad Roll Sandwich*
As you can see from the title I changed this one up a bit due to my dislike of eggs and having no rolls on hand. Again, it was super exciting to play around with my spiraliser again for the beetroot.
I cooked up some chicken to replace the protein I would have gotten from the egg and coated in some Moroccan seasoning I had lying about.
Afternoon Snack – Minted ricotta on fruit toast
So as I am finding with this program, having 5 really filling meals in a day seems like a lot of work for my body. I feel that by the time I have prepared, eaten, and started to digest one meal, it’s time for me to start prepping the next. What I’m trying to say is I was too full by this stage to eat anything further so I waited until dinner.
Dinner – Beef with chimichurri sauce, grilled vegetables & coriander yoghurt
Yum, ok I was really excited about this meal before I’d even cooked it because a) it was the first red meat I’d eaten in the programme and b) the picture of it in the #sweat app makes it look even more amazing (wayyyyy better than my picture hahaha).
This meal did take a little longer than most to prep and cook because of the different elements. My chimichurri sauce didn’t really turn out the way I wanted it to because I don’t have the right type of blender for such a small amount to get it really fine (I use a nutribullet) but when it was all pulled together the flavours were there and they were awesome. The coriander yoghurt I had with it (not pictured) really helped to tie it all in together and was good with the beef and with the vegetables.
Day 4
Breakfast – Muesli, yoghurt and passionfruit parfait
Why have I crossed out passionfruit? Because it’s not in season here yet so I can’t get any! So I just had muesli and yoghurt together on their own. Not very fancy, not reallyy a parfait, but filling and a simple breakfast.
Morning Snack – Egg & cucumber crispbreads
Welllll… As I keep repeating, I don’t like eggs. And having cucumber by itself on some crispbreads isn’t very fun. So I changed this one completely and just put peanut butter on a couple of crispbreads and had those instead.
Also, the recipe says 3/4 of a cucumber. For 2 cruskits. That’s an absurd amount of cucumber.
Lunch – Tomato, beans, and greens salad
Quite a simple lunch. The thing that took the longest was making the little croutons. What I’m finding in these recipes is that the amount of beans that it tells you to include is wayyy too much and I find I’m not finishing my meal because I get full too quickly. Then it feels like I’m wasting food so I’m working on finding a good balance for myself between what the recipes say and what my body can actually manage.
Afternoon Snack – Cherry Ripe shake
What a drama I had to go through for this deliciousness.
So the cherry’s I purchased in my shop for the week had, by this point, starting to grow mould and were all unusable so I had to quickly nip down to the supermarket and get some more. Then when I was blending it, I mustn’t have had the lid on properly and purple splatters were heading everywhere in my kitchen. BUT in the end I finally got there and it was worth it. It was so yummy. The recipe called for cacao powder but that’s expensive as here so I substituted for cocoa powder (probably not the best but hey). If I made this again I’d probably put slightly less cocoa powder in but apart from that it was awesome.
Dinner – Vegetarian Pad Thai
The picture doesn’t really do this dish justice for the amount of flavour it had. The picture looks a bit bland but the flavours were anything but. Loved this dish. Could’ve easily added in some chicken to make it non-vegetarian but it was enough on it’s own. Usually *again* it would also have egg in it but I didn’t find that it was missing anything without it.
I’ve got 3 more days left of this week and I will be continuing to try out the recipes for a second week also. The recipes in the second week are all different again so plenty more to try. Beyond that, I’m not sure what I’ll do at this stage but I’m enjoying trying new things out and seeing what works for me and what doesn’t. It’s been good to renew an interest in food.
If you have any suggestions about other foods/diet plans/trends etc. I should try out once I’ve finished with this little experiment feel free to let me know about them!
Next update: Saturday – end of week 1 🙂