Dan+Shay Obsessed Review

I started listening to Dan+Shay’s debut album (Where it All Began) late last year and have been waiting for their second release for a while. I loved the first album and the promo singles for this one, so I had pretty high expectations.

Here is my (brief) track by track review:

1. All Nighter

Good song. High energy. I can imagine driving to this one.

2. Road Trippin’

Another driving song. I love the ad libs on this one. Nice visual.

3. From the Ground Up

This was the first single. I love this one. A little slower but still good. Seems like a good wedding song (Bieber agrees).

Of course. It's the wedding song. Nice job fellas https://t.co/CxiZ1n6G2r

— Justin Bieber (@justinbieber) May 26, 2016

4. Already Ready

I didn’t like this one when they first released it as a single but it’s really grown on me. One of my faves from the album. On repeat. I would’ve preferred if they had a girl co-star in this video considering the whole idea of the song.

5. How Not To

To me this was the equivalent to I Heard Goodbye (from the first album) a.k.a. the sad break-up song, except I liked this one a lot more than I Heard Goodbye. I was definitely not expecting an interpretive dance video from Dan+Shay, but it worked really well and I really liked it!

6. Lipstick

First of all, the start of this song sounds a lot like N*Sync’s God must have spent a little more time on you

Compare: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-fxh7jAJR8U

Another slower song. I like the idea behind this one. Definitely not what I would expect it to be about considering the title.

7. Round the Clock

Another solid uptempo song. This one could have been a single too.

Favourite (British spelling) line: T-shirt and coffee, girl you already got me

8. Lately

I really like this one. Classic country love song. Show You Off/ Nothin’ Like You vibes. This one could have been a single too.

9. Sway

Another slow song. Good for when the night is dying down. I can imagine this playing at a BBQ.

10. Obsessed

This one is my favourite. The trumpets work really well. I’ve been listening to this one since its release as a single and I still have it on rotation. I liked the video for this one too.

Overall: Another solid album from Dan + Shay. You can definitely listen to this one all the way through.

It’s still release day, so I’ll add a bit after listening to the album more.

Top 3 tracks: Obsessed, Already Ready, Lately

Listen on Spotify below:

Rocco Dispirito Now Eat This! Diet Recipe Reviews

Since finishing the Buzzfeed Clean Eating Challenge, I have decided to try out recipes from celebrity chef Rocco Dispirito’s book (Now Eat This! Diet). I’m probably only going to try one recipe a day.

Final Thoughts on the Buzzfeed Clean Eating Challenge

When I started this challenge, my goals were to:

1. lose a little weight

2. try out a “detox plan”

3. learn new recipes and try out new foods

4. increase my energy levels

2 weeks later,

1. I lost 2 pounds (negligible)

2. I don’t really feel detoxified

3. I did learn a lot of new recipes and try out a lot of new foods. I will be trying out a bunch of recipes from the challenge in the future and look forward to incorporating new foods like kale, almond butter, collard greens, and fennel into my diet.

4. I surprisingly did have more energy and felt more focused despite not having any caffeine.

Everything considered though, I didn’t enjoy the majority of meals each day, and it was incredibly time consuming to prepare all of the meals. In addition a lot of recipes (7+) had errors making it a little hard to follow and the grocery lists also had some inaccuracies so some ingredients were lacking and I have a lot of leftover produce. Therefore, I wouldn’t do this challenge again, nor would I recommend it to anyone.

I would however try out the following recipes again:

1. Kale and Banana Smoothie

2. Kale, Chickpea, and Fennel Salad with Orange Vinaigrette

3. Sliced Tomatoes with Feta and Basil

4. Cauliflower Steaks with Lentils

5. Napa Cabbage Wraps with Chicken, Tomatoes, Mango, and Avocado

6. Scallion and Feta Omelet

7. Mango-Banana Smoothie with Chia Seeds

8. Quinoa-Fennel-Blueberry Salad with Mint and Lime

9. Roasted Salmon with Green Beans and Lentils

10. Arugula Salad with Salmon, Green Beans, and Dijon Vinaigrette

11. Turkey-Basil Meatballs with Collard Greens

12. Apple Omelet

13. Arugula Salad with Eggplant, Avocado, Feta, and Chickpeas

That’s all for now, no more challenges for the next while 🙂

Day 14: It’s Over!

Breakfast was a scallion and feta omelet. I liked it, but not as much as last time. This time around I managed to flip it without breaking up the entire omelet 🙂

Lunch was mushroom caps with tomato and feta. I didn’t like it at all. More importantly, my stomach didn’t like it at all. In addition, it was very messy to eat.

The afternoon snack was apple slices with almond butter. I liked it, but I like pears and almond butter better.

Dinner was a chicken stir fry. I didn’t like it that much, but I don’t generally like stir fry.

The night snack was dark chocolate and I love my dark chocolate.

Final thoughts: I’m so glad this is over!

Day 13: A Confession

Breakfast was strawberry overnight oats. I liked them better than the overnight oats from last week + I added a little extra honey and some vanilla essence to the yogurt. Even so, I don’t think I would make this again because the oats are still a little too bland for me.

Confession time: this morning I may have stopped by a hot fries stand. I only had one fry, but the entire time I was thinking about the roasted eggplant/chickpea salad that I had a few days ago. I love fries, but the one fry wasn’t really THAT good. One thing this challenge has shown me is that there are a few foods that taste really good (roasted eggplant) and happen to be good for you. Key word: FEW. I’m determined to find these foods so that I can enjoy delicious food guilt free 🙂

Lunch was a quinoa, beet, and arugula salad. I didn’t really like it. The only good thing about this salad was the balsamic vinegar. It kind of reminded me of the roasted eggplant/chickpea salad from a few days ago.

The afternoon snack was carrots and hummus. I always like carrots and hummus.

Dinner was lettuce wraps. I didn’t really like them. The shrimp and tamari sauce were good, but it was a little hard to eat and just wasn’t worth it for me.

The afternoon snack was apples and honey (not pictured). Who doesn’t like apples and honey?

Final thoughts: One more day of this! I’m planning on making my own meal plan for the next week starting Sunday. It’ll incorporate some of the recipes I liked from this challenge and other healthy recipes that I’ve come across.

Day 12: Peanut Day

Breakfast was a yogurt parfait. I made it once before last week, but this time I added some honey and vanilla extract to the yogurt to sweeten it up a bit. This time around, it tasted much better (mostly because of the sweetened yogurt, but also because I remembered to layer it this time).

Lunch was leftover chilli. Like most chilli, leftover chilli > freshly made chilli. I still probably wouldn’t make it again though because it wasn’t rich enough (I think that there were too many vegetables in it).

The afternoon snack was pears and peanuts (not pictured). I liked it, but I like pears and almond butter better.

Dinner was fish with bok choy and peanuts. I didn’t particularly like it. First of all, the recipe had some mistakes. The pictures showed lemons, but the recipe didn’t mention anything about lemon. I added some lemon slices as shown in the picture. In addition, it took more like 30 minutes, not 18 minutes, to cook the fish and steam the vegetables. The tamari sauce was good, but I didn’t think there was enough of it.

The night snack was hot chocolate (not pictured). I decided to make it using a different recipe. I liked it a little better than the buzzfeed version because it’s a bit sweeter. It has about the same amount of calories.

Final thoughts: I probably wouldn’t make any of today’s dishes again. 2 more days of the challenge! All I can think of is what I’m going to eat on Sunday 🙂

Day 11: The Baby Food Diet

Breakfast was a kale and banana smoothie. I didn’t like it as much as last time, but once again, it was my favourite meal of the day.

Lunch was tuna salad wraps. I didn’t really like them and it wasn’t the most portable meal of all time since the lettuce had to be stored separately until lunch time.

The afternoon snack was a banana and avocado “pudding.” I might have liked it more if I hadn’t eaten a smoothie for breakfast. It tasted like baby food; pretty bland, a little sweet.

Dinner was a salad. I didn’t particularly enjoy it. I wasn’t very hungry tonight, but i wouldn’t choose to eat this as a dinner meal. It seemed more like an appetizer salad; maybe a lunch salad but even that is pushing it.

The night snack was dark chocolate. I love dark chocolate, but there has been a lot of sweet food today, so it wasn’t especially exciting.

Final thoughts: I’m kind of getting tired of this whole challenge… 3 more days…

Day 10: Hot Sauce and Chickpeas

Breakfast was “fried eggs” and “hash.” I like my eggs fried so that the yolk turns a little pink on top, and cracking some eggs on a nonstick pan with barely any oil doesn’t really provide that effect. I didn’t really like the hash because it was too onion heavy for my taste. I would have preferred more cauliflower and half the onion. The only thing that made that hash somewhat ok was hot sauce.

Lunch was a roasted eggplant, chickpea, and arugula salad. It was the best meal of the day. The roasted eggplant and chickpeas still taste amazing and I enjoyed them much more in this salad than in the previous dish. I usually don’t like arugula, but the balsamic vinegar really masked the bitterness of it.

The afternoon snack was hummus and red pepper. I like hummus better with carrots, and after having chickpeas for lunch, I would have preferred a sweeter afternoon snack.

Dinner was shrimp on a kale and collard green salad with mushrooms. I didn’t really like it. The shrimp were good, but the wilted vegetables tasted pretty gross. The only thing that made me finish it was the hot sauce flavour.

The night snack was blackberries (not pictured). I like plain  fresh fruit as a snack.It’s much easier to prepare than some of the other snacks in the challenge, and it’s delicious.

Final thoughts: I was pleasantly surprised by today’s lunch meal. I never realized how delicious roasted eggplant was. I’m really looking forward to tomorrow’s smoothies and perhaps one of the other meals will pleasantly surprise me like today.

Day 9: Another Day, Another Recipe Error

Breakfast was an apple omelet. I can’t decide if I liked it or not. Like yesterday’s breakfast, the flavours were good but there’s something so weird about eating something with the texture of omelet that tastes sweet. The recipe listed vanilla as an ingredient but failed to mention it again in the recipe, so I mixed it in with the egg mixture. As you can see, mine turned into more of an apple scrambled eggs. Apparently I’m not very good at flipping omelettes.

Lunch was collard green turkey wraps. I didn’t like them. The flavours were way too bland. On the upside, it was pretty filling. It was kind of hard to get the collard greens to stay wrapped around the turkey meatballs, but I found that cracking the spines of the leaves  a little helped them to stay wrapped.

The afternoon snack was a blackberry parfait. I tried to flavour the yogurt with some honey and vanilla but I don’t think I used enough because it still tasted like plain yogurt. I don’t really like plain greek yogurt so I didn’t particularly enjoy this snack.

Dinner was a hodgepodge of peas, scrambled eggs, quinoa, and mushrooms. It tasted ok but I don’t think I would make it again.

The night snack was pears and almond butter (not pictured). This was my favourite meal of the day!

Final thoughts: I think I’m getting a little sick of this challenge because I’m expecting the food to taste incredibly good. For the remaining days, I’m going to try and lower my expectations. After all, this is “the clean eating challenge,” not “the best food you will ever eat challenge.”

Day 8: How to Ruin Tomato Sauce

Breakfast was a blueberry smoothie. The flavours were good but I didn’t like the texture of it. It was too fluffy and light.

Lunch was shakshuka. I was really excited for this dish, but it was a major let down. The sauce was as good as it was yesterday, but the eggs and asparagus totally ruined it. In addition to it not tasting so good, the recipe made no sense because it mentioned wilting spinach when spinach wasn’t listed as an ingredient. It also took me closer to 15 minutes (not 5-7 minutes) to cook the eggs.

The afternoon snack was strawberries and almond butter (not pictured). I like strawberries and I like almond butter, but I didn’t really like them together.

Dinner was roasted eggplant, cauliflower, and chickpeas with yogurt. I enjoyed the roasted vegetables separately and the chickpea/cauliflower/hummus mix, but the yogurt was not good and overpowered all of the other components of the dish. The portion size also felt a little small for a dinner; this would have been better as a lunch meal.

The night snack was dates and almonds again. I had an extra date because two just isn’t enough.

Final thoughts: I had been looking forward to this day’s meals for a while and I am pretty disappointed by the smoothie and Shakshuka in particular. I hope that the remaining food tastes better!