“7-Day No-Added-Sugar Meal Plan That’s Actually Doable” : Day Four
Cooking

“7-Day No-Added-Sugar Meal Plan That’s Actually Doable” : Day Four

This is a continuation of my My Experience with a “7-Day No-Added-Sugar Meal Plan That’s Actually Doable.” Today’s post shall focus on Day Four, with my comments throughout. (Want to catch up? Here’s the introduction, shopping and meal prep, and Day One, Day Two, and Day Three.)

Day four marks the halfway point of this journey, which is a bit odd to think about. The menu for Day four involved the following items, which I shall explain in further detail below:

  1. Fried Egg Breakfast Tacos
  2. Roasted Veggie Pita With Greek Yogurt Tzatziki
  3. Turkey Meatball Banh Mi Bowl
  4. Next Day Prep

Breakfast: Fried Egg Breakfast Tacos

No added sugar egg breakfast tacos
“Fried Egg” Breakfast Tacos, except I did not fry the egg.

Full disclosure: I did not fry eggs. I broke out my wonderful egg cooker (similar to this affiliate link) and had two “poached” eggs. It was much easier, and they still tasted great.

Yields two tacos in about 10 minutes. Requires the use of a stove and an egg cooker, if you are me and do not want to fry the eggs.

  • 1 TBSP olive oil
  • 2 eggs
  • 2 small corn tortillas
  • 1/2 cup cherry tomato pico de gallo (previously prepared)
  • 1/4 avocado, sliced
  • salt, to taste
  • pepper, to taste
  • red pepper flakes, to taste
  • 1 lime wedge
  1. Heat olive oil in a nonstick skillet over medium heat.
  2. Add eggs and let cook until whites are firm, about 2 minutes.
  3. Heat tortillas directly on a burner set at medium heat until warm and slightly charred.
  4. Divide fried eggs, pico de gallo, and sliced avocado between tortillas.
  5. Season with salt, pepper, red pepper flakes, and a squeeze of fresh lime juice.

Note: Drain any excess liquid from the salsa before using.

Egg cooker
This is my egg cooker (affiliate link).

I will always cut corners when I have the ability to cut corners in the kitchen. I consider it saving spoons and energy. The morning of day four, I looked at my stove top and thought to myself, “I do not want to fry eggs.” So I dumped some water in my egg cooker and placed two eggs in the poaching tray. Swap an active cooking method for a passive cooking method? Yes please!

Also, that pico de gallo definitely gets spicier the longer it sits in the fridge. It was still good, but it was noticeably more spicy.

Lunch: Roasted Veggie Pita With Greek Yogurt Tzatziki

No added sugar Roasted Veggie Pita With Greek Yogurt Tzatziki
Roasted Veggie Pita With Greek Yogurt Tzatziki

Yay! More veggies and tzatziki! Boo! More of those chickpeas! Oh well. The veggies and the tzatziki are able to hide the chickpeas. But let me reiterate, I do not recommend those chickpeas.

Yields one portion. Given the fact that everything was leftovers, it came together very quickly.

  • 1 pita
  • 1 cup veggies (previously prepared)
  • 1/2 cup roasted chickpeas (previously prepared)
  • 1/4 cup tzatziki (previously prepared)
  1. Reheat everything.
  2. Assemble.
  3. Enjoy.

I still believe that the texture on these chickpeas are wrong. I somehow made them super soggy, and it’s not recoverable. Also, I am now completely out of my prepared veggies. I hope that was planned and not an “oops” on my part. We shall see as the week continues.

However, that tzatziki sauce is still one of my favorite things that I have made this week. I definitely stole a spoon full of it as I was topping my pita. Anything that calls for cucumbers, I want to use zucchini instead.

Dinner: Turkey Meatball Banh Mi Bowl

No added sugar Turkey Meatball Banh Mi Bowl
Turkey Meatball Banh Mi Bowl, except I served it on a plate.

Do you see those beautiful green disks on the left side of my plate? Oh look, I subbed delicious zucchini for disgusting cucumber. I made the dish better.

Yields one portion in 15 minutes. Just needs a microwave.

  • 1 cup cooked brown rice (previously prepared)
  • 4 cilantro lime turkey meatballs (previously prepared)
  • 1/4 cup shredded carrots
  • 3 TBSP cooked edamame
  • 2 TBSP roasted peanuts, chopped
  • 5 slices of cucumber (ZUCCHINI FOR THE WIN)
  • 5 slices of jalapeño
  • 1/3 cup Thai peanut sauce (previously prepared)
  1. Place rice in a bowl and top with meatballs, carrot, edamame, peanuts, cucumber (ZUCCHINI), and jalapeño.
  2. Finish with a drizzling of Thai peanut sauce.
  3. Enjoy.

I still had some diced red onions in my fridge, so I threw those on top of the rice. Though I completely forgot the peanuts and purposefully left off the jalapeño slices. Sometimes, I want to dice things. Other times, I just want to eat things. This was one of the times that I did not mind slicing my zucchini but I did not want jalapeño juice on my hands. It still tasted delicious.

Let me just reiterate how much I love those meatballs. I plan on saving that meatball recipe and making it again. (Note: I actually completed day four on December 31st, 2019. I have made these meatballs at least twice more since this experiment, and even fed them to my mom. HIGHLY recommend.)

Next Day Prep

Oh sure. Now they’ll let you do next day prep, and yet they wanted you to do everything with the sweet potatoes in one night. Fortunately, the next day prep was fairly simple and could be completed while you were eating dinner.

  1. Move chicken from freezer to fridge.
  2. Cook Quinoa.
  3. Cook soft boiled egg.

Ok, I added the part about cooking the soft boiled egg, but you might as well. Those keep quite well in the fridge. All about saving spoons!

Cooked White Quinoa
No added sugar cooked quinoa
The Cooked Quinoa

Yields 3 cups in 30 minutes. Requires the use of a medium sauce pot and the stove.

  • 1 1/4 cups white quinoa
  • 2 1/2 cups water
  • 2 tsp olive oil
  • 3/4 tsp kosher salt (I used pink Himalayan)
  1. Combine all ingredients in a medium sauce pot.
  2. Bring to a simmer, reduce heat to low, and cover with a lid.
  3. Continue to cook until all water is absorbed, about 25 minutes.

They did not tell me to buy white quinoa in the original shopping list, so I bought rainbow quinoa, or tri-colored quinoa. Also, my quinoa cooked up much faster than they said so be sure to watch the stove if you try this yourself.

Soft Boiled Egg

This one flat out made me laugh. The recipe yields TWO soft boiled eggs and yet the ingredients only call for ONE egg? Come on BuzzFeed. You can count.

Requires use of either pot on the stove or an egg cooker.

  • Egg[s]
  • Water, as needed
BuzzFeed Instructions
  1. Bring a medium pot of water to a rolling boil.
  2. Gently add egg directly from fridge (egg must be cold).
  3. Boil for six minutes.
  4. Immediately transfer to an ice water bath and peel under cold running water.
  5. Store cooked egg in water in the fridge.
Amber Instructions
  1. Pull out egg cooker.
  2. Turn on.
  3. Wait for it to finish.
  4. Celebrate another perfectly cooked egg.

After failing over and over again at cooking eggs, I finally splurged on an egg cooker (affiliate link). It has been a game changer.

Concluding Thoughts for Day Four

Day four is done! I made Fried Egg Breakfast Tacos, Roasted Veggie Pita With Greek Yogurt Tzatziki, Turkey Meatball Banh Mi Bowl, and soft boiled egg with quinoa in preparation for day five.

Now, I did eat something with sugar added after dinner. I was celebrating the New Year with friends. They offered me a slice of homemade Jamaican Christmas Cake, baked with love in Jamaica from a family recipe over sixty year old.

In that moment, I had two choices. I could have refused partaking in one of their favorite traditions due to my newfound desire to avoid all added sugar. Or, I could try it. In the end, I requested a very small piece.

One small piece of cake will not destroy an entire lifestyle centered around eating less sugar. Yes, if you have food allergies or sensitivities, one small piece can do great harm. However, this was not the situation for me. Please be careful that you never become so strict with your eating habits that it is considered an eating disorder. We want to emphasis a healthy relationship with food.

This is why I want to reiterate that what I am doing is not a diet. I want to create for myself a healthy, sustainable life-style. I want to remain Clearly Alive.

This is part of a continuing series. Here are the other Parts: Introduction, Shopping / Meal Prep, Day One, Day Two, Day Three

Amber Nicole is Clearly Alive