Pre-Christmas Diet and a Recipe

So far this year I have lost 14 lbs. However, I have not quite reached my goal for this year of being right smack dab in the middle of the normal BMI range. This requires me to lose another 3 lbs. Big woop.

No.

Not big woop.

This is hot chocolate baking cheese milk cookie gravy butter potato cider chocolate candy face stuffing season and it will be a little bit more challenging than if it were January or another boring month. So I have initiated: Diet Phase Three. (A follow up to the 7 lb loss of phase 1 in the spring and the 7 lb loss during phase two in the summer, neither of which I ever referred to as phase anything it just sounds fun to call it that now.) I will diet for about 20 days stopping on Christmas Eve so I can enjoy stew and pancakes and also allowing myself one holiday party in the middle. Woo. The rules are: No sugar or dairy, at all, no carbs after lunch and no food after 8pm (with the execption of days when I am working until 12am.) I will also try to get a bit of exercise but not worry too much about that factor. Yesterday was my first day and so far so good. I made this for dinner:

Pear, Butternut Squash and Chorizo Hash

1 tablespoon olive oil 3/4 cup chopped red onion 1lb peeled, diced butternut squash 1 large pear, peeled, cored and diced 6 oz soy chorizo sausage, crumbled 1/2 teaspoon cinnamon 1/4 teaspoon coriander poached or fried eggs for serving, optional In a nonstick skillet over medium heat, heat olive oil until shimmering. Saute onions until soft and translucent, about 7 minutes. Meanwhile, place the squash in a covered, microwavable dish with 1 tablespoon of water. Cook on high for 3 minutes, until just tender. Add the squash, pears, chorizo, cinnamon and coriander to the skillet with the onions. Increase heat to medium high and cook for 5-8 minutes more, stirring occasionally, until heated through and browned. Serve hot with poached or fried eggs, if desired

Recipe from http://www.carascravings.com/

I didn't measure things out perfectly, I used turkey chorizo instead of pork, I used a little bit of granny smith apple instead of pear, I didn't have corinander and I added some chilli flakes, salt and pepper. Still it was delicious. I had it with a poached egg and some spinach.

Stay tuned!

Ode to Almond Milk

Now that I know that I should avoid dairy for the sake of my skin and digestive system I have had to find some substitutes for the dairy-laden meals I used to love. I have learned that with enough gaucamole cheeseless nachos are delicious and that high quality thin crust pizza with thinly cut salami can be tasty even if there is no cheese on it. Also, I discovered that in many situations Almond Milk can be a geat replacement for milk. I had tried soy and rice milk before and never really got on board but almond milk is by far my favourite yet! It's great in cereal or by the glass and I have even successfully used it in baking once or twice. My favourite kind is Silk True Almond Original. However, I also found a recipe in Chatelaine Magazine of all places for almond milk you can make yourself...

Homemade Almond Milk (Courtesy of Chatelaine)

• 1 cup sliced almonds
• 4 cups water
• 1/4 cup honey

Soak almonds in water overnight. In the morning puree almonds and water in blender for 3-5 minutes until very milky looking. Strain mixture into bowl through a cheesecloth-covered seive, pushing around the grounds with the back of a ladel to make sure you get all the "milk." Stir in honey and store in the fridge up to 3 days. Just make sure to give it a stir before you use it each time as it does separate a bit. Almond milk is super low in calories and carbs and doesn't have much fat in it at all. :)

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A little late...

My desire to blog comes in waves, sometimes I don't feel like it for weeks and then one day I'll will write five posts. Anyways, I never did do a final diet update so even though it ended a couple weeks ago I will update now. In about 33 days I lost a total of 11.2lbs. Now, about two weeks later, I have reintroduced most things (although I am staying away from dairy for the most part as I seem to have negative reactions to it) and I have manged to maintain my new weight. I would still like to lose another 7-10lbs but will try to do so over time, with gradual and permanent changes such as more excersise and clean eating as often as possible. It was a difficut five weeks but it was the first time I have ever been successful with a diet and it showed me that I have a lot more self control than I give myself credit for.

Dinner

 Tonight's dinner: Homemade turkey burgers with guacamole, mashed sweet potatoes and veggies.

Turkery Bugers:
Mix extra lean ground turkey with minced garlic, finely chopped white onion, chopped parsley and salt and pepper and form them into burger patties (or a heart like mine...) Cook burgers in a frying pan over medium/high heat about 7 minutes each side or until internal temp reaches 75'C.

Guacamole:
In a food processor blend 1 ripe avacado, 1 tbsp diced onion, 1 tbsp diced tomato, a small squirt of lemon, a generous squirt of lime, a dash of garlic powder, salt, pepper and chilli flakes and a little squirt of white vinegar.

Mashed Sweet Potatoes:
Wash and peel potatoes, chop into medium sized cubes, boil until tender, mash and add a bit of salt and pepper to taste.

Baked Tomato-Eggplant...Thing

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I have very few dinners that I enjoy and can have on this diet and Baked Tomato-Eggplant...Thing is one of them. It's essentially Eggplant Parmesean but without the parmesean, bread crumbs, flour, oil or egg. It's just baked eggplant, layered with homemade tomato sauce and whatever else I have laying around, usually topped with pine nuts or crumbled cashews to add texture that is then baked again. Here's how I make it...(Recipe makes 2 servings)

Ingredients
1 large eggplant or two baby eggplants
5 medium tomatoes
1/4 white onion
2 cloves garlic
Pine nuts or crumbled cashews
Italian herbs and spices and salt and pepper to taste

Directions
Sauce: Start the sauce early as it needs time to boil down. Wash and dice tomatoes and put them in a large frying pan or sauce pan over medium heat add some salt if you like. Let them cook for about 5 minutes. Then add chopped onion and diced or minced garlic. Let this mixture cook/boil down until after onion and garlic are soft. Then I like to puree everything in a food processor and place back in the pan to reduce and thicken more. (Careful-hot) Add herbs, spices, salt, pepper or anything you like until the taste of the sauce is to your liking. (I use basil, oregano, salt, fresh ground black pepper and dried chilli flakes.) After 1-2 hours of cooking the sauce should be ready, but leave this to your own judgement as I am not an expert, if it tastes too tomatoey keep cooking.

Eggplant: Preheat the oven to 375 C. Wash and peel the eggplant. (The skin is toxic when un-cooked so resit the urge to gnaw on it while cooking....) Cut the eggplant into discs approximately 1 to 2cm thick. I then place eggplant into strainer and sprinkle salt on it because I once read you need to let it sweat out its bitterness... Then I rinse and dry it. Place eggplant onto non-stick cookie sheet and bake in the oven 5 minutes on each side.

Baked...Thing: I use a meatloaf pan for the next step. Layer eggplant and sauce in pan. Sometimes I add spinach or chicken. When you run out of eggplant do one last layer of sauce and then you can sprinkle pine nuts or crushed cashews on top. The nuts brown nicely in the oven and add texture and more flavour to the dish. Place in the oven (which is still at 375 C) and bake for 30-45 minutes depending on how thick the slices are and how deep the layers go.  You can serve it on a bed of fresh spinach for extra points.

WARNING: If you are not on a diet/lactose intolerant/allergic to gluten please eat regular eggplant parmesean and not this. Thankyou.

Chips!

I love chips. I haven't had real chips in over a month now. How do I cope? Yam chips. Like yam fries, but not. Andrew makes them for me which makes them taste better. They can be a snack or an appetizer.

Ingredients:
1-3 long(ish), thin(ish) yams (actually orange sweet potatoes, real yams have bark-like skin)
1 Tbsp Olive oil (or other veggie oil)
Salt, pepper and chiplotle seasoning (optional)

Directions:
Preheat oven to about 375-400 C. Wash and peel yams, and slice them into discs as thin and as uniform as possible so that they will cook fast and evenly. Coat a cookie sheet in a very thin layer of oil and spread yam-discs out in one even layer on the pan. Sprinkle with a tiny bit of salt, pepper and chipoltle powder. Place in the oven and watch closely. Cooking time will depend on how thin your yam chips are, usually less than 20 minutes will be needed. You can flip them if you want them crispy on both sides, I'm not picky. If some start to burn you can take them out and put the rest back in. Remove pan when they "look" crispy or when they have all browned just a bit. I love the burnt ones and the smushy ones. Let them "sit" for a minute to cool a bit and crisp up. Sweet potaoes have lots of carotenoids...which are good for you*...so enjoy!

*If you want to make this not-so-good for you deep fry them or have the chips with Chipoltle Mayo dip! One part mayonnaise, one part sour cream and chipoltle seasoning to taste....

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Diet Update

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I am still in the middle of a very stressful final exam period but felt obligated to post as I have reached the halfway point in my diet. I am on day 20, of 35, and I just reached 10.2 pounds lost! This week I had reached a plateau and wasn't losing, but I started working in a little bit of low-impact excercise (walking the dog more often, haha) and not eating after 6:30, rather than 7:00. My main craving these days has been for fruit, I eat so much fruit I sometimes wonder if it's healthy...It is still hard not to eat after dinner, but from the time I wake up until after dinner I don't even feel like I am on a diet. My favourite time of day is still in the morning with hot black coffee in my "You're my Favourite Deputy" mug, fruit and eggs. There's just over two weeks left and I think I am going to have to keep up the excercise, maybe introduce more, and even bump up my food curfew to 6:00 if I am going to keep losing and get to 15 pounds lost by the end. Wish me luck! :)

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Butternut Squash "Soup"

I needed a clean eating dairy and sugar free soup option for my diet. So I improvised something delicious.

Ingredients:

• 1 Butternut Squash
• 1/2 a Granny Smith Apple
• 1/4 White Onion
• 1 Clove of garlic (minced)
• 1 small to medium carrot
• 1/2 a stalk of celery
• Pinch of Cinnamon
• Nutmeg to taste
• Salt and pepper to taste
• 2-5 Tablespoons of cold water

Preheat oven to 375 degrees. Stab uncooked squash with fork a few times and pop it in microwave for a minute. (This makes it easier to cut.) Then cut in half, length wise, and scoop out seeds and gross stringy bits. Place squash halves cut side down on cookie sheet (optionally lined w/ tin foil to prevent mess) and put in preheated oven for about 45 minutes. (This time will depend on how big your squash is.) Once cooked remove the skin from the squash and puree flesh in a blender/processor/with a fork.

Sautee sliced onion, apple, carrot, garlic and celery in a pan adding a bit of water to steam the veggies and help everything from sticking to the pan if you are not using oil. I covered my mixture with tin foil for a while and let it all singe a bit for a stronger taste. Then, puree this mixture in food processor. Combine it with the squash in a soup pot and add the salt, pepper and spices while stirring, keeping warm, and tasting. I think the nutmeg is what makes this meal but it is easy to add too much. If you find the taste too strong you can water it down or add milk or a bit of broth if you want. When it has the "right" taste you can use an immersion blender to puree further and get rid of any chunks. What you are left with is almost more like baby food than soup but I think it is delicious and it has been one of the meals that has kept me from thinking I am on a diet.

The recipe doesn't yield much soup but it's strong and concentrated so, as I said, it can be made more soupy with water/milk/cream/broth.

image of squash via and of the soup via

Diet

On Sunday I started a diet - well more of an intense detox/diet. It's a low calorie, clean eating, dairy, sugar and wheat free no food after 7pm detox/diet inspired by Jess from IROCKSOWHAT.  I wanted to wait until the end of the week to post about it but it has been pretty successfull so far and I want to share my progress. I have lost 5.6lbs in 5 days. I plan to continue the diet for approximately 35 days unless my goal of 15lbs lost is reached before that.

After the 35 days are up I will slowly reincorporate some of the foods I have been excluding. (However, my skin has been looking better too and if I have a bad rxn to bread or dairy being reintroduced I will try to keep them out of my diet for good as it may indicate that I am mildy "allergic" to them.) Also, I have been sleeping better as my stomach is never full when getting to bed and I am motivated to get in bed early so I won`t get hungry before I can fall asleep. I hope that the habits I learn from clean eating stick; like smaller portions and including waaaaay more fruit and vegetables in my diet. Here is, roughly, what I have been eating on a daily basis. Everything is made from scratch, at home and organic and local when possible. I try not to use oil when cooking but have used up to a quarter teaspoon when absolutely necessary.

Breakfast
- Cup of Earl Grey Tea or Black Coffee (Luckily I only like coffee with out cream and sugar!)
- Smoothie or Grapefruit or Fruit Salad
- An Egg

"Lunch"
- Hummus with Veggies or tiny bowl of Butternut Squash Soup

Dinner
- Spaghetti Squash with Tomato Sauce and Meatballs or Moroccan Chicken with Steamed Spinach or Chicken and Chickpea Greek Salad (essentially just meat and vegetables)

Snacks are either fruit, vegetables or almonds and I drink tooooons of water during the day. I always drank tons of water so now its ridiculous, I could drown. I hope to add more recipies and updates later on including my traumatizing experience with roasting a 4.5lb beast of a chicken, I still want to faint thinking about it....

This diet is hardest when I am out of the house; shopping, at school or just driving past a McDonald's. I am also having a hard time with how my energy is easily depleated (could just be exhaustion from cooking and cleaning so much)... It is easiest in the morning when drinking my coffee and stuffing my face with delicious fruit and scrambled eggs.

One thing I must say is that I have never been so committed to a diet. There's something about knowing that it worked for someone else, seeing the effects everyday on the scale and the intense nature of it that has kept me going. It helps that Andrew has been awesome too. xoxoxo

Stay tuned...