My goal is to shed the weight I picked up in the last 6 months or so, refeeding to try to improve my hypoglycemia. The plan: I spoke to my favorite health researcher/cult leader (who shall remain nameless lest I fail and shame him) last night by phone and he suggested using a particular ratio: 30 grams of protein to 20 grams of carbs, per meal. I may play with the exact amounts as the day’s total should be 90/60. Since I am following a somewhat RBTI meal style (more info about that to come) I will go a bit higher for breakfast or lunch then lower for dinner. The pref is also to go low fat (!!!) to try and get my body to cannibalize its own fat stores. I’ll be logging my temp, monitoring other bits and pieces, such as my urine brix, conductivity, and pH to make sure I am staying on target. Ya know, I’ve not eaten a low fat thing in over 10 years. Low fat=anathema. Horrors. And low fat foods taste NASTY. At this point I’d be willing to do anything to shed this extra weight so I can fit in my car and clothes again, so low fat it is. Sigh.
So, this was breakfast using the special ratio. I came close: 35 grams of protein to 26 of carb. that muffin thingy has an egg and slices of deli chicken breast, and the yogurt was plain and gross. My guru warned me that the food was gonna be bland and boy was he right! Oy.
So, I am going to start using this blog again. I am going to use it to track an eating plan I am launching on to try and shed some weight. Argh. Again. Nothing ever changes in my world, yo.
I like to run it in the background when I am cleaning or cooking. I especially like the skewing towards Sabbath songs for Fri-Sat.
Keep in mind there are some wretched songs on there. Don’t be afraid to fast forward! I have developed a strange fondness for Aviad Cohen’s Techno-messianic music, but it seems it’s getting downvoted to oblivion.
December 22, 2009 - Posted by Michelle - 0 Comments
My family and I suspect most Americans don’t spend enough time eating. Oh my we get enough FOOD to eat, but seem to spend very little time enjoying the experience. We’ve been working at adding more variety to our diet in the form of organ meats, sea food and vegetables, to my dear husbands meat-and-potato-loving horror. I noticed a while back that in order to get my family to eat a wider variety of food, we needed to do it more like a restaurant would, in courses. First a salad, then maybe a nice cup of soup, and finally the main course (don’t forget dessert!)
So last night I was watching a Tony Bourdain marathon (I know! W00t!) and his Spain and Venice episodes really brought the eating more slowly and with great gusto idea home for me. Even Tony was waxing poteic at sitting at the table with a family eating and conversing, drinking wine and enjoying the company. I want that! No more TV on the news while we eat from TV trays! No more throwing together a plate of food and horching it down so can get back to whatever busywork task or internet BS I am currently involved in (doom-watching takes a lotta time, ya know?!?) At least we eat together, in the same room. But we can do better.
The clips I am referring to are embedded above.The meat of the matter starts at about the 7 minute mark in the first clip.
So, the new phase in our expansion of food choices: tapas. From our good friend Wikipedia (bold is mine):
Tapas (IPA: [ˈtaˌpas]) is the name of a wide variety of appetizers, or snacks, in Spanish cuisine. They may be cold (such as mixed olives and cheese) or warm (such as puntillitas, which are battered, fried baby squid).
In North America and the United Kingdom, as well as in select bars in Spain, tapas have evolved into an entire, and sometimes sophisticated, cuisine. In these countries, patrons of tapas restaurants can order many different tapas and combine them to make a full meal.
The serving of tapas is designed to encourage conversation because people are not so focused upon eating an entire meal that is set before them.[citation needed] Also, in some countries it is customary for diners to stand and move about while eating tapas.
Conversation? During a hillbilly meal? Impossible you say. The hard part will be in getting the Old Man to turn off the news. Fortunately the local news recycles their BS at the top of every hour so if we eat promptly at 5 pm, the preferred time in these here hills, we can catch the news at 6 and not miss a darned thing. I have a nifty table that can be raised and lowered and has leaves, so we can drag it out and set it up quickly to eat then put it away.
The tapas recipes I am going to try are already loaded into the recipe section of the site, and I will get up pictures as I go along.
The highlights:
Bacon wrapped shrimp, stuffed artichoke croquettes, ham or shrimp croquettes, Russian Salad, garlic mushrooms, meatballs in tomato sauce, roasted spicy almonds, skewered chorizo and shrimp, and Mediterranean eggs. These are all items made with familiar items but put together in ways that my family might not have tried previously. As you can see, I did not get terribly adventurous for the first week. As they get used to it, however: whammo! out comes the fried octopus or liver bits. Blam. I modified all these recipes from the originals to make them WAPF friendly.
We might put together a video if I am feeling ambitious. The pic up top? It’s from my grocery shopping today. I’ve noticed a lot of my favorite food bloggers are following the lead of that article that showed a pictorial of what people eat for a week. The items in the pic are all I needed to round out what I already have in the hillbilly larder. I think it looks nice
December 21, 2009 - Posted by Michelle - 0 Comments
I like to make soup a couple of times in the week for lunch and to add to dinner. Today I was working on tortilla soup but was distracted by chasing a pooping Pit Bull puppy: she ate an entire tube of raw chorizo that my (adult) son left sitting on the couch and it caused a regrettable mess. Phew. The puppy is feeling better now that she has it all out of her system but it took a long time to clean up. In that time my soup runneth over. It does not help that 1. the pot was too small; 2. the heat was on too high, and 3. it was left unattended.
The mess was even larger than what shows in the pic. It also ran down onto the floor in a giant puddle. Sigh. I was able to salvage the soup after I cleaned up the mess. Hurray!
Tortilla soup in three ways: I can make this will all fresh ingredients, or all canned prep ingredients, or a mixture.
4 cups chicken stock (or two aseptic packs, or three cans)
1-2 cups diced cooked chicken (or a couple of cans of chicken, or scraps from cooking stock, your pref)
1 chopped onion
a clove or two of garlic
1 tbs chili powder
1 tbs paprika (I love paprika, go by what you like)
1/2- 1 tps cumin (to taste: this stuff can overpower a dish)
1/4 cup of grits, polenta or cornmeal
1-2 cups cooked beans (leftovers or canned, however much you like)
1 can of tomatoes with chilis (can be without chilis but I like ‘em)
optional: 1/2 cup of uncooked or cooked rice
a mix of whatever you like out of the following:
canned corn, green beans, canned carrots, fresh carrots, celery, bell peppers (i never use bells for this) hot peppers, chili peppers; just use what your family likes
Cook until everything is soft (esp if you use uncooked rice)
Serve topped with shredded cheese, crumbled bits of tortilla chips, sour cream, green onions, olives: again whatever your pref.
