Most important tool for health:

A digital food scale! 

I love that thing.  It's easier to measure food- no clean up. 

1. Put plate on scale- zero scale. 
2. Add food.  Record amount. 
3. zero scale again add side dish record amount.
4. continue until all food is on your plate.
5. Add calories-
6. Eat peacefully; knowing you have not eaten more or less than you thought, because grams don't lie.  :) Measuring cups are messy and I feel a quandary when using them.  Do I really shove the rice in there, or do I lightly sprinkle it in?

Anyhow, Thursday will have been six weeks on the PRISM food program.  I am going to weigh in and report my findings.  I'm going to be proud of myself regardless of what the scale says because I have done a good job.

Side note: I am passionate about health.  When Peter asked me what I would want to add to my new life here in Alta I said, "A friend to exercise with."  Truly.  I need motivation to get out there and do it.  You know?!   

Jillian DVDs and treadmills don't quite cut it!

Anyhow, a brainwave came to me: I could study and train to be a personal trainer. That would make me HAVE to work out (lots of buddies) and help channel my new passion for learning about health, and I would have a career that worked into my time table and provide some decent income... hmmm?  It's a  certification process with a big fat test.  Could I do it?  Do I really want to?

I love my cast iron

My version of pizza

2/3 cup quinoa (160 cal), mixed with one egg (70 cal) and Italian seasonings.
Let cook on low to set as "crust"

Sprinkle with 1 cup diced tomato (60 cal)and seasoning.

Mix one egg, 4 (70 cal,) egg whites(64cal,) 1 cup light ricotta cheese (120cal)

Pour on top and sprinkle with parsley

Put 4 oz of homemade turkey sausage (160 cal) on top. 
Add a little tomato juice from diced tomatoes.

634 calories/2 (lunch serving) =

317 calories per servings 



Light breakfast sausage- sugar free

I started making my own sausage in Mongolia because I love it and I missed it.  Now I make it for a lighter, sugar free version. 

Click here for the recipe.

Today I'm making a "pizza" frittatta egg dish for lunch with this sausage instead of pepperoni! Yum!

Low Calorie Peanut Butter Sauce

I miss peanut butter.  It has 100 calories per tablespoon, too much to include in a snack with my calorie limit of 1200 per day.

Today I thought of a new idea- make a peanut butter sauce.

I mixed 8 tablespoons of peanut butter, 1 cup of milk, and a little stevia.  Whisk together. 

I measured it and it made 18 tablespoons. 
Total calories 910/18= 50 calories per tablespoon.

Store in the fridge. 

Enjoy on oatmeal, rice cakes, on bananas and apples or granola. :)

I love you peanut butter. 

Holiday Breakfast

I took two days off of calorie counting for Thanksgiving.  Now I'm back to it.  I'm a little bored with what I've been eating. 

So heres a new recipe:

Apple (or Pear) and Cheese Frittata
Ingredients:
1 t butter
1 ripe apple or pear
1 t honey (or 1 T sugar)
1/4 t cinnamon
4 egg whites
1 egg
1/2 cup ricotta cheese
3-5 packets of stevia (or 1/2 cup powdered sugar)
1/8 t salt

Directions:
Preheat oven to 350.
Slice:
apples completely through so that there are circles with stars in the middle.
Reserve three circles

Chop the rest into cubes.

Add to pan:
butter, honey and cinnamon into pan.  Let it bubble.

Add:
Circle apples.  Cook til soft and remove.

Add:
Chopped apples.  Cook til soft and remove.

Mix:
Eggs whites, cheese and stevia and mix.  Add cooked chopped apple.

Pour back into pan.  Cook for 10 minutes, until partially set.  Add apple circles on top.  Cook until set.

Enjoy a sweet and healthy treat! :)
The whole thing has 385 calories.

TWO WORDS:

SIZE 8!!!!

I haven't been this size since before we were married.  

Chair deconstruction

New thin, healthy recipes

Do you remember the egg in frame recipe?  You take a cookie cutter and cut through a piece of bread and put it in the frying pan, crack an egg in it and fry it in butter...

Not for me these days--
 Here is a new twist.

You cut a bell pepper into rings.  Throw it in the pan with some water.  Throw in some broccoli too.  Crack and egg in a bowl add an egg white and water.  Take the broccoli out the pan, mince it and mix it into the egg. Then pour the egg into the bell pepper rings.  Cover the pan, cook on low until set.  Add cheese on top and flip over.  Keep cooking until golden.

Yummy and low cal:

This picture proves I'll never be a food blogger, I don't plate food well.  However, it is really good.

Next:

I needed something with something in the morning.

I don't like oatmeal very much.

I do like eggs, but sometimes I just want something different.

I tried to find cereal with no sugar- unless I wanted Grape Nuts (all wheat) or something that cost $5 for a small box I was out of luck.

So I bought some oatmeal and came home to experiment. 

Most granola is oil, sticky sugar, sugary fruits and grains.

I couldn't use the oil because i don't want the calories.  I wanted a little honey for sticky sweet, but I didn't want to use too much.

So long story short:

Here is what I came up with:

3 cups oatmeal

2 T sesame seed

2 T ground flax

11/2 T honey

2egg whites

Stevia

Mix the dry mix the wet with stevia.

Pour the wet over the dry and mix well

Bake on cookie sheet at 250 for about 20 minutes or until crunchy and golden.

3.2 calories per gram

It is so good on 1/2 c greek yogurt with 1/4 apple and 1/4 banana with about 2.5 tablespoons of this granola on top- yummy, sweet nutty, crunch!

interesting reading

I've been reading a blog about a girl who lost 135 pounds, half her body weight.  It is very interesting that at the end when she finally reaches her goal, she then realizes she has to deal with the emotional side of eating- the why.  Read here if interseted.  This part really hit me:

 "Her book, “Women, Food, and God,” deals in part with this “inclination to bolt” as it refers to the intense desire to leave yourself, to flee, when life becomes difficult. It is the wanting to be anywhere but where you are. To escape boredom, anxiety, sadness, fear, and loneliness. Food is the place I go to escape. Many people do this. Obsession, in any form- be it with food, with schedules, with the future, with alcohol or drugs, is an avoidance of the present. It is a way of passing time, a way to “get through” life. Not to live life, but survive it."

She has to come to grips with having a regular life and being comfortable and not living in fear of gaining weight.  If interested read here

She then came to grips with the fact that she had to set her goal weight at something that was reasonable enough for her to attain without missing out on what was important to her with food and socializing. If interested read here.  She urges the reader to eat more and gain weight if they have to slave away more than they want to to maintain.  I thought it was really great.

Some of the best most real writing on the topic. 

Healthy Eating is Yummy!

This is sliced bananas with raisins.  There is a delicious peanut buter sauce on top.

to make sauce one part peanut butter, one part honey, three parts coconut milk---

SO DELICIOUS! 

(Yes, the kids should have washed their faces before this picture!)

My lunch of roasted veggies with a serving of ground turkey on top-

delicious!  310 calories- yes thank you!

I went out to lunch/coffee with some new friends today.  I knew they only served paninis there so I ate this at home and had a sugar free latte with the girls.  

Realization

Something I'm learning from PRISM:    I really feel ripped off when I have to eat a normal portion of food.  I really believe I should be able to eat a huge portion with no health consequences. 

It's not particuarly about the type of food like cake/sweets-  It's about really thinking I should be able to eat a HUGE portion.  Truly like I deserve it.  As if a normal portion is a punishment of some kind.

So with my dieting this year, I have replaced the huge portion need with vegetables.  I understand this is a strategy, but it is tiring to make that much food and expensive to buy that many vegetables.  I would like to still have a diet that is heavy on the veggies/lean meats, but in a normal portion ranges. I would like to learn that a normal amount of food is good and a blessing.

Stats:
I have lost about 8 pounds in two and a half weeks.  I was already extremely bloated from eating poorly for two months.
Within one week, I stopped having headaches and ache.
I'm comfortably back into my pants (whew, I didn't want to buy a new wardrobe, unless it was a smaller size! ;)

Sorry the pic is blurry- I got new cool boots in brown to match my new winter coat.



I won't be weighing anymore, per PRISM's guidelines.   I think I'll size down in pants by the end of this six week phase 1 (Dec 6.)  I have four pairs of 10s I found when I went through all my storage at my mom's house.  These are the pants from when Peter and I were first married.  One pair are the slacks I wore in our engagement pictures!   

I want to complete all 4 phases, regardless of my weight, to continue to learn how to measure success (not by a scale,) how to combat emotional eating and how to use these tools for life to be healthy.

great day shopping

I went to Storm Lake where they had a holiday shopping time.  Each store had cookies, candies and treats. 

I did some pre-planning and made a stevia sweetened mocha here before I left.  I made one for my friend as well so that there was no need to stop at a coffee shop. 

I passed up all the treats.  We went to the health food store they had raw nuts and dried fruit out. So I took 3-4 nuts and 4 raisin/cranberries.  I wrote it on my calorie sheet-- 37 calories ( i love caloriecount.com-- easy calculations)  I also bought a Zevia pop (that's what they say here not "coke.") Zevia is a stevia sweetened soda that this health food store has.  They also had wine tasting.  I got to try some Iowa wines.  They were good.  1/4 cup- 25 calories- in the journal.  No big deal.

I walked and talked with my new friend.  I didn't feel bad that I wasn't joining in with the treats, as I once would have.  It's just a fact-  I can't eat those types of foods.  (I was eating junky while we moved, I had headahces every day and a zit every minute and I gained 10 pounds) So I just had a nice time resolving to not feel that I was rejecting anyone, just being responsible for myself and not drawing attention to my not eating.  Fun times.  I got some cute clothes for Sierra at the consignment shop- Gap pants and a couple of really cute tunic shirts. 

I had my 62 calorie snacks and deepened a new friendship. :) Then I had my "supper" that was in my crockpot when I got home- veggies, roast, acorn squash- yummy!

Healthy Eating--

I don't have Sierra on a gluten free diet anymore. It didn't have much effect on her speech after six months of strict adherence.  So we've moved on.

I have moved us to a healthier lower bread/snack food diet.  We have all benefited.  We eat lots more veggies and fruits and whole grains and lean meats.

I'm on a discovery-  I've lost 56 pounds since last year.  However, I still needed to learn about emotional eating and how to break decade long habits. 

Since I lost weight with an extreme diet (which I am thankful for and forever will be) I still needed tools for real life eating.

So I've decided to commit to PRISM.  It deals each of my concerns.  It's not too extreme.  Basically to record what I eat, count calories and do a study to learn how to break habits.  I'm done eight days so far and I really like it. 

The family is benefiting because I'm cooking healthfully again and being careful about ingredients. 

I have a goal to lose 17 more pounds.  :) 

I thought I'd write about that journey here.

pie crust

This tastes just like gram cracker crust...

1 cup almond meal, 2 T butter, 2 T sugar- mix and press into pie plate with oiled hands. Bake at 350 for about 10 minutes until brown and crisp.

Add filling.

I used strawberries. For a healthy glaze I cooked and mashed strawberries and sugar to taste and drizzled this over whole strawberries to make the filling.

YUM!

Raw Eating-- I love my mom!

I'm incorporating more raw food into our diet for my mom. I'm searching for some great options for a special meal together.

These options must be delicious and easy.

Here are some cool recipes I've found.
Kebabs and Nutty Cole Slaw
Avocado Lime Soup
Nori Rolls with Red Sauce I would try other veggies in the roll as well and incorporate brown rice.
Wilted Kale Salad with Creamy Chipolte Dressing
Pink "Pasta" with Walnut Pesto and Brocolli
Lasagna
Stuffed Grape Leaves with Cashew Mint Dip---- YUMMO! I'm making this FOR SURE! You have the grape leaves in your yard.
Tomato and Macadamia Mozzarella Linguine- see tomato substitutions below



Substitutions for tomatoes:
Salsa Recips:

1 can of kidney beans
1 large mango diced
1/4 cup green onions
1/4 cup of chopped celery
1/2 cup diced green pepper (or onion)
1 tsp dill
Fresh chopped cilantro (however much you prefer)
1 fresh lime..squeeze the hell out of it into the pot
1 tsp of fresh cracked pepper (or however much you prefer)
1/2 tsp salt

Add franks red hot or some banana peppers, even jalepeneo peppers if you want!

Cook it all together for an hour. Pour it over rice or serve it with a cucumber sandwich with sprouts and cheese.

Serves two! Double, quadruple for company!

Tomato Sauce Replacement:

Blend: It is made with beetroot, carrot, celery, onion, and a bunch of other natural ingredients and tastes fantastic!

Cupcakes

I've made 3 batches of cupcakes so far.

This adaptation of the Chocolate Torte from Betty Crocker is the best so far.
Heat oven 325, line cupcakes set aside

Melt:

a stick of butter and 6 oz chocolate chips.
Separate:

4 eggs
Stir into chocolate:
1/2 c GF flour (I used BRM All Purpose and 1/2 t x gum)
egg yolks

Beat egg whites til foamy.

Beat in 1/2 c sugar a spoonful at a time.

Fold chocolate mixture.
Bake about 12 minutes until done.

Yum

Easy fun treat

This is a go to GF dessert- it's cheap, easy, healthier than ice cream and fancy in these cute dessert cups.

Gluten Free Chocolate Chip Cookie Energy Bars

I'm running a half marathon with my sister in May. We've built our mileage to 6.5 tomorrow. We need good GF energy treats. So I made this. I substituted half of the sugar for honey and used chopped 85% dark Lindt bars for the chips. I also threw in a handful of craisin and slivered almonds. Then I cut them into small bars and wrapped them individually for running snacks.

The whole family loves them.

two week report.

We've been trying the gluten free diet for two weeks. I can see that my girl is much less swollen. Her face is not as round, nor her stomach. She's even lost a few pounds and her pants are fitting better.

Her omega 3-6-9 has arrived and we are taking that along with a multivitamin supplement.

She has been doing better at speech therapy and in real life she has had a few growths that give me hope the gluten free (much healthier b/c all junk food has gluten) diet is helping.

At school, she went up to her teacher and said, "I need water."
At speech she said to the therapist, "I want you push me," when they were playing on the playground.

Both reports were that she said things clear as day.

a glimmer of hope...

Dining out gluten free

So many things to think about when eating out. Fat, calories, portions and now gluten.

This site is super cool. It shows you how to find the GF information for the restaurants that you want to eat. Chipolte has a chart (everything is GF except flour tortillas), Chili's has a new printable GF menu every other week on their website. Pretty cool resource.

The science of GF cooking

I love the library! I've been reading about gluten free cooking. The best book so far, in terms of explaining the best replacements for wheat flours is this book. Bake Deliciously by Jean Duane.

She explains that to transfer a recipe to a GF one the cook needs to replace
50% of the flour with a grain based flour (like rice,)
25% of the flour with a protein flour (like almond), and
25% starch (corn starch or potato.)
She explains that the baker must also use 25-50% more leavening,
and a teaspoon of acid (vinegar or cocoa powder)
and a 1 of gums (guar gum or xanthan gum.)

So far I'm only working with protein based flours, coconut, almond and flax. I will try other flours eventually.

I'm working on the fococcia bread recipe I posted.

I think adding pumpkin for some of the oil will really help the overall texture of the bread. also if a savory bread is desired, I think that adding olive oil and crushed garlic to the top of the bread during the last 5 minutes of cooking would be delicious.

The flexible gyro bread I made this weekend has been a big hit for sandwiches. Sierra ate it without hesitation right out of her lunch box. She'll have it as her bun for her turkey burger tonight. :)

Weekend Plan

I will make some bread this weekend. For grain, my girl has had rice noodles, brown rice, potatoes and rice cereal this week. I thought some variety for next week would be nice.

This is what I'll bake:
Gyro type of bread
Flax Focaccia

On a side note, I'm adding these breads to my diet next week as well!!! :) I'm starting the next phase of my diet plan! I am excited to have more variety starting Monday.

It is nice that we can all eat the same things because I'm not making two kinds. My man and my boy will benefit too from less gluten! :) Less carbs for my man and more nutrients for my skinny boy!

Pancake People

My girl, my boy and my man are pancake lovers. My huge boxes of grain arrived yesterday so what's for breakfast?

Almond Meal Pancakes- add way more liquid than this recipe calls for and it's perfect.

coconut flour...

Very interesting alternative to regular flour.

What is coconut flour? It is not a grain. It what is leftover after making coconut milk. It is extremely high in fiber and high in protein. This makes it lower carb and very filling. Click here for more label info.

The flour smells delicious and it is more affordable than other specialty flours. $3 or less a pound. The great thing about it is that you only need 1/2 c for a dozen cupcakes because it is so dense.

My girl goes to preschool. That means lots of gluteny treats. For birthdays mommies bring treats and cupcakes for their children's birthdays. I don't want my lovely girl to sit there sad when the other kids have a cupcake and I don't want the poor teacher to have to enforce a sad rule. I asked the school if I could bring some GF cupcakes to keep in the freezer. They said that was fine. Problem solved. All happy hopefully! :)

So today I made these from Comfy Belly. The author there is a mommy that is a magician with gluten free food. They are super easy, it took about 10 minutes to mix and 20 minutes to cook. Just as easy as making other cakes from scratch.

I topped them with a mixture cooked honey and natural peanut butter and slathered it on top for frosting.

They are out of the oven and they smell and look delicious. I'm not eating treats currently, so I need a taster... how convenient, the delicious chocolate cake smell brought the man and our boy running. Let me have them try it.



Both ate one. They both licked the plates clean.

They say, "It tastes like Reeses peanut butter cup cake." Our favorite is Reeses, so I that's a big compliment.

Just for my information:
I am also interested to see if I can make gluten free cooking and baking affordable. I'm convinced I can make a better product than the expensive box mixes!

So bear with me as I figure out how much this batch cost.
Coconut flour is about 12.5 cents an ounce.

1.5 oz coconut flour ( 20c), eggs (1.05), honey (40c), plus baking staples made this batch of cupcakes cost less than 2 dollars. They are completely pure as well, sweetened with honey and no fake ingredients.

The cheapest on amazon.com including shipping is $4. So this is a winner!

97 pounds of specialty flour is on the way!

So I bought 25 pounds of almond meal, 50 pounds of flax meal, and 22 pounds of gluten free premixed flour from Bobs Red Mill. Click that if you're interested. The 44 oz bags are on sale at amazon.com today. So I bought 8 bags! :) It has bean flour in it, so it's a good thing Sierra likes beans. :) I think we'll be ok with it.

I guess i'll be buying a freezer too to store these things. ;)

This will be cheaper than buying premade foods, I think! We'll all see together.

By the way- The cheesecake cupcakes are a hit with the whole family. They are sugar free too! That is great news. They're long gone.

cake for the party..

We'll I've just whipped up something that hopefully will pass for a cheesecake/cupcake for the party. I haven't bought any gluten free stuff yet, so I'm winging it big time.

I made a crust with rice square cereal and butter. Mixed up some greek yogurt, stevia a touch of sugar, cocoa powder and an egg. I poured it on top of the crust in the cupcake pan. It's in the oven. For frosting i'll whip up some peanut butter frosting and hopefully that will make it birthday partyish for my girl.

I need a bigger purse if I'm gonna be smuggling all this food! :)

Pizza Party

My girl was invited to a pizza party and I realized she won't be able to eat the snacks there. What to do?

I called the pizza parlor and asked if they have gluten free crust. Nope- so I made this pizza. The pizza place will warm it up for us though! :)

Now I realized there will be cake.... what to do now?

My dear one

I cannot wait to hear her voice... 4 years old and I have never heard her thoughts.

Last night I found this article and now I'm on a quest to cook for my daughter, feed her brain and hear her talk.

So my mission is (and I decide to accept it):

to help my dear girl's guts stop being annoyed by gluten so that she can absorb nutrients.and I'll be giving her lots of vitamins to absorb so that she'll be able to catch up for lost time- hopefully!

I am starting by cutting gluten only.

So we begin: Feb 25, 2011
Eggs and banana for breakfast
Corn tortillas tacos for lunch
Chicken carrots and rice for dinner

Snack: Cereal Snack Mix

In a large glass bowl, mix cereal and nuts.

• 3 cups Rice square gluten free cereal
• 1/3 c peanuts

In a small glass bowl combine other ingredients and microwave 30 seconds.

• 2 T butter
• 2 t Worcestershire sauce
• ¾ t garlic salt

Pour butter over cereal mix and stir to coat.

Then microwave 30 seconds and stir- repeating 4 or 5 times until crisp and brown.

Comments from the peanut gallery:

"Can we bring it to Disneyland?"

"Your mommy is too nice. This is good too good!"

It's all gone... :)