Diet Update

About a week ago I posted that I was going to try the PH Miracle. It seems to be helping, so I decided to commit to doing that, starting with their juice fast this morning. I'll do this fast for two more days and then move into their rigid plan for 8 weeks, and then to maintenance.

I'm very, very hungry, but otherwise I feel fine. It's funny how it seems like I usually feel worse after I eat something. But since I'm not eating anything today, I have more energy than usual (except for being hungry and a tad weak from that!)

More Diet Changes

I've been doing the THM (Total Health Makeover - mostly vegetarian, dairy-free, sugar-free, and, for me, wheat-free) diet for almost two months, starting the day with a piece of fruit, then a bowl of oats mixed with granola and soy milk, and doing lots of salads with beans and grains. And Luna bars. And I had the worst month I've ever had - constantly bone-tired, no stamina, napping every day and going to bed earlier than usual, low blood pressure so I'd feel woozy when standing, visual auras, headaches, blood sugar drops, on and off sore throat, chills, and my head felt puffy so that my eyes would't fully open. All of this for a MONTH! I wondered if I had a virus.

The day before yesterday, I woke up exhausted, foggy and with a headache as usual. Instead of granola, I made a green-green-green smoothie with one apple and lots and lots of spinach and lettuce. It tasted tolerable, but not sweet. And within an hour, the headache and fogginess were gone and I didn't feel exhausted anymore. I've felt a lot better the past three days doing dark green smoothies, salads and a small serving of beans and grains late at night.

So now I'm looking at The PH Diet, which is mostly raw, lots of greens, but almost no fruit. Lots of green smoothies, salads and vegetables with a little other healthy food added in. It could be that too many grains (granola, millet, rice) is too high in carbs? Or, one thing I haven't considered, maybe the gluten in the oat-based granola isn't agreeing with me?

Diet Change

I've made another adjustment in my ever-evolving search for the perfect diet. I'm going back to the diet I felt best on (the diet outlined in Total Health Makeover by Marilu Henner, which is near-vegetarian, dairy-free, low-sugar basic healthy eating with proper food combining encouraged) but I'll be incorporating some raw foods into it and doing it gluten-free. Reasons for the switch - I'm increasingly always hungry, fruit is expensive, and I'm concerned about my greater risk for diabetes with all the fruit since I had gestational diabetes with my third pregnancy. Without fruit as the foundation of the diet, the tendency is to base the diet on nuts, seeds and avocados - which is too much fat and can make you tired. The other option is to base the diet on vegetables - lettuce, carrots, peppers, cucumbers, etc. And I don't want to live that way.

I'll be starting the day with a piece of fruit, then having a small bowl of gluten-free cereal and soy milk a couple hours later, mega-salad for lunch, and some kind of protein for dinner - either fish or, more often, beans and a gluten-free starch like rice, millet or potatoes. With a side salad.

Oddly enough, the best I ever felt was the last time I was pregnant and the baby was pressing on my stomach so I could hardly eat. Maybe there's a clue there - that it's food itself that disagrees with me. ;)

Raw Pasta

The family had pasta with parmesan cheese and garlic bread - hard to pass up being on a raw diet. I have one of those saladdaccio thingies that cuts zucchini into angel hair pasta, but I haven't had much luck making a satisfactory pasta sauce. The conventional way is to use sun-dried tomatoes and regular tomatoes, but it's always too thin and too bland, and the "pasta" is watery by itself.

I decided I needed pasta after smelling the family dinner. I sliced the zucchini into strands first and then let them sit in a dish lined with a paper towel to hopefully absorb some water while I made the sauce.

But I had no dried tomatoes. So I used two plum tomatoes, half an avocado and a small handful of sunflower seeds to thicken it up. and oregano, basil and some salted sun-dried tomato flakes in a spice jar (dh must have picked those up for his pizza?) and a dash of onion powder. Then I whizzed it in the blender. It turned out the color of sunflower seeds, but it was nice and thick, and it smelled like pasta sauce - the oregano and basil, no doubt.

I read that you can mix ground up sesame seeds and salt to make parmesan cheese, so I did that. It sure looks like parmesan cheese!

The result was perfect! Well, except for the color. The spices and salt, and the thickness of the sauce hit the spot. I will definitely do this again! (I posted the recipe on my blog so I won't lose it!) Next time I'll remember to add garlic!

---------------------------------------------------------------------------

I made this again this evening, but instead of mixing the avocado in the blender with the tomatoes, I cut it by hand and added it after. I hoped that it would help keep the sauce more red. It did help, but as everything slowly mingled on the plate, it all turned brownish anyway. Here's a photo of tonight's pasta:

My Non-CM Diet

Charlotte Mason suggested moderation and balance in all things, and warned against fad diets. Here's what she had to say about fad diets (I've paraphrased her words, but you can read them in her original here and here)

Vol 4 Book I pg 193: We can be moderate without going on a narrow diet (we don't need to live on things like apples and nuts). In fact, moderation might best be practiced by eating a moderate portion of whatever food is set in front of us . . .

Vol 4 Book 2 pg 18: Conscience isn't as concerned with how immoderation is manifested in our lives so much as the underlying principle behind moderation. St. Paul wrote about it when he condemned people who 'worship and serve the creature more than the Creator.' It's by this principle that we'll be justified or condemned. In light of this, we have good reason to suspect any style of diet or exercise that encourages us to have too much concern for our physical body, whether it's a diet of nuts and fruit, peacock brains, or cock-a-leekie. England is in serious danger of giving herself over to worship of the goddess of health. But a more elusive goddess was never revered--the more she is pursued, the more she runs away. Yet she's ready and willing to bestow smiling favor on the person who never even casts a thought towards her. I say truthfully and sincerely that the pursuit of physical and mental well-being is becoming a cult. The danger of this kind of cult is that it makes us focus our attention on our own selves instead of on Christ.

Meanwhile, I'm a week into a recommitment of my nuts and fruit diet. LOL! I'd been doing a raw diet for a few months, then got lax about it for the last few months - still doing a lot of green smoothies, but indulging a lot in wheat-free, non-dairy, mostly vegetarian "other foods", too. (soy 'chickin nuggets', Orville Redenbacher Smart Pop popcorn, Peanut butter on Newman's Own wheat-freechocolate cookies - mmmmm!) It was starting to take a toll in my energy level, so I'm going back to the strict raw diet.

Moderation in her world meant three meals of hormone-free meat, sides of vegetables and bread without preservatives. In our culture, it could mean anything from a boxed breakfast cereal with pasteurized hormone-laced milk and sugar-sweetened juice, to a burger with hormone-laced beef on a chemically laden white-flour bun and a side of potato strips fried in hydrogenated fat. Balance and moderation in itself is no doubt a fine thing, but in a world that encourages excess in the wrong foods, dependence on processed foods, pesticides and hormones added to foods, with the resulting food allergies, immunity issues and food addictions, moderation can become a mammoth feat, and existing health problems sometimes need more than a determination to not think about food, and to only eat what's put in front of you. Especially if you're the cook.

Oh, my. I wonder what Charlotte would have thought about this Bug Banquet featuring dishes like mealworm pasta and chocolate chirp cookies?

Menu/Meal Meme

I was tagged by The Headmistress at The Common Room. I hate cooking, but these things are always fun, so I'm playing anyway. :)

1. How many meals does most of your family eat at home each week? How many are in your family?

We probably eat 20 meals at home (mostly self-serve, rushed, or quick and easy) and we're a family of six.

2. How many cookbooks do you own?

Maybe a dozen.

3. How often do you refer to a cookbook each week?

Not even every week

4. Do you collect recipes from other sources? If so, what are some of your favorite sources (relaties, friends, magazines, advertisements, packages, the internet, etc)

I have a recipe collection, but when I decide to make something I've never made before, I always look online for a recipe anyway.

5. How do you store those recipes?

I've started keeping recipes that I plan to use regularly in a file on my hard drive.

6. When you cook, do you follow the recipe pretty closely, or do you use recipes primarily to give you ideas?

I have to follow it pretty closely.

7. Is there a particular ethnic style or flavor that predominates in your cooking? If so, what is it?

My kids seem to like basic stuff that kids like, but I prefer Thai; I've been buying easy Thai meals recently.

8. What's your favorite kitchen task related to meal planning and preparation? (eating the finished product does not count)

Cleaning up and getting out of the kitchen.

9. What's your least favorite part?

Deciding what to have for dinner, and rinsing and chopping lettuce.

10. Do you plan menus before you shop?

Yes, usually.

11. What are your three favorite kitchen tools or appliances?

Microwave, blender (for green smoothies), can opener that doesn't leave sharp edges

12. If you could buy one new thing for your kitchen, money was no object, and space not an issue, what would you most like to have?

A COOK! Or a Vitamix super-blender.

13. Since money and space probably are objects, what are you most likely to buy next?

I already bought it - it's a coffee grinder for grinding flax seeds and nuts.

14. Do you have a separate freezer for storage?

No.

15. Grocery shop alone or with others?

Dh usually buys groceries on his way home from work.

16. How many meatless main dish meals do you fix in a week?

Most are meatless.

17. If you have a decorating theme in your kitchen, what is it? Favorite kitchen colors?

No theme (unless efficiency is a theme?) Colors - I like yellow and white, bright and clean and sunshiny.

18. What's the first thing you ever learned to cook, and how old were you?

I don't remember, maybe a cake mix?

19. How did you learn to cook?

I remember making scrambled eggs a lot. I never could get them perfect, and it probably soured me early on cooking.

20. Tag two other people to play.

Miss Roxie
Beth

Apple Cinnamon Muffins

Apple Cinnamon Muffins (1 dozen)

I tweaked a recipe for "basic muffins" that I found online to make whole wheat apple cinnamon muffins. These use oil, but no butter or shortening, so they have no hydrogenated/saturated/trans-fat.

1 cup whole wheat flour
1 cup unbleached flour
1 Tablespoon cinnamon
1 Tablespoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
2 Tablespoons sugar

1/2 cup soy or rice milk
1/4 cup oil
1 egg
1 cup applesauce
1 teaspoon vanilla

Mix the dry ingredients in one bowl, the liquid ingredients in another. Then combine both and mix it all up. I use foil liners in a cupcake tin so they don't tear apart when you try to remove them from the paper to eat them.
Bake 400 degrees 20-25 minutes.

Pie and Cookie

This is the raw pecan pie; it's in a little pan about the size of a tea saucer. The little bit I tasted was very sweet. Pulverized nuts and dates - what's not to like?

And I baked chocolate chip cookies, I used the recipe from Marilu Henner's book Total Health Makeover book , it's a bit healthier than most. And Miss M sampled one - her first homemade cookie! Thus far, all of her cookies have been from the health food store. She loved it!

Raw Eggnog

I'm trying to be better on my raw diet, and I've decided to stick to raw foods, if I can, for Thanksgiving. I've been feeling pretty good this week sticking more (yet not religiously) to the diet, and I don't want to get back to cheating a lot and then dealing with the cravings again.

One thing I really want, though, is eggnog. I found a recipe on my favorite raw foods message board, and I altered it (it called for almond milk, but that sounded like too much work) so I used sunflower seeds and water instead. And I didn't have any cardamon, so I left it out. What does cardamon taste like, anyway? To me, it's the nutmeg that makes it eggnog. It was brown from the sunflower seeds and vanilla--it looked more like creamy hot chocolate. But it tasted very good!

I'm going to make a small serving of raw pecan pie, too (mostly pecans and dates, much of it pureed in a food processor). The rest of the family is having a normal Thanksgiving turkey dinner.

Eggnog, 1 serving

1/4 c sunflower seeds (raw, of course!)
1 c water
2 medjool dates (no pits)
1/2 t cinnamon
1/8 t nutmeg
1 t vanilla
half a dash sea salt

Run it all through the blender until smooth.

-------------------------------

I'm editing this out of guilt. ;)

The Common Room posted that I have "some raw food recips for Thanksgiving!" But all I have is the one piddly little eggnog recipe. So, here's a link to a whole page of holiday recipes from my favorite raw food message board.

And here's the raw pecan pie that I'll be making. This is just half the recipe; there will be a traditional apple and pumpkin pie, too, so this will be just for one person - me! This is from Alissa Cohen's book, Living on Live Food.

Crust - Blend fine in food processor:
--1 cup pecans
Add and blend some more:
--1/8 teaspoon cinnamon
--1/4 cup pitted dates
--1/16 teaspoon vanilla (a pinch? smidgen?)
Press into dish. Fill with filling:

Filling - Blend fine in food processor:
--1/4 cup pecans
Add and blend more:
--3/4 cup pitted dates
--3 Tablespoons unpasteurized honey
--1/8 teaspoon cinnamon
--1/4 cup raw cashews
--1/4 cup water

Garnish with:
--1/2 cup walnuts


There. I feel better now. :)

BTW, for anyone considering a raw diet, I can recommend Alissa Cohen's DVD (it really helps to actually hear her explaining how it all works, and see her making some of the food) and/or Carol Alt's book Living in the Raw (check your library). They both make it seem do-able even for a beginner and give tips for going from theory to practical application.

Stuffing Rice

This is a crockpot recipe that I, uncook though I am, actually made up myself!

Actually, I just converted my Thanksgiving stuffing recipe so I could eat wheat-free stuffing last year, but everyone else in the family liked it, so I've started making it regularly in the crock pot.

Saute:
1 minced onion
1 stick butter, margarine or oil

Add:
chicken, diced (I used 1 chicken breast)
2 teaspoons poultry seasoning
1 teaspoon salt
1/4 teaspoon pepper

Throw in the crockpot with:
1 1/2 cups brown rice
4 cups vegetable broth
1 cup water

Stir and cook on high 4-5 hours. It takes a LONG time for brown rice to cook in a crock pot.

Staying healthy

From I Have to Say - herbal health remedies for avoiding viruses this season.

Ode to Green Smoothies

To answer a question that Amy asked in a comment left to a prior post:
When I make smoothies, I don't peel my green apples. I cut the apple into chunks or slices, depending on my mood. I do remove the core, though! There's nothing more disgusting than the tough part of an apple core, and some seeds can make a smoothie bitter. I sometimes add about a half cup of water or pineapple juice. Sometimes I don't, though. I use a big carrot to push everything down instead. If the carrot gets nicked from the blade in the blender, it's no big deal, it just means I have a bit of carrot in my smoothie. I don't add any honey. Extra pineapple and banana makes it sweeter. When I need it extra sweet, I add as much as an entire half of a pineapple --I buy the already peeled whole ones in plastic containers at the grocery store; it costs the same as an entire pineapple that hasn't been peeled ($5). I add LOTS of greens to mine - 6 huge leaves of green leaf lettuce plus a handful of spinach, or, if I'm trying to wean myself back to the diet, I'll buy the bagged baby greens and throw in the whole bag, since I can't use the to-lazy-to-rinse excuse to forego my green smoothie. They say that variety is best - you should vary the kinds of greens you use, maybe using lettuce and kale one week, lettuce and spinach the next week, etc.

The following article has been passed around quite a bit lately on health message boards, and has spurred a lot of interest in green smoothies. Alissa Cohen, who was recently on Good Morning America promoting a raw diet, said that starting your day with a green smoothie for breakfast is the single most beneficial change you can make to your diet.

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Ode to Green Smoothies

by Victoria Boutenko
http://www.rawfamily.com/articles.htm
http://www.rawfamily.com/articles/odetogreen.pdf

As the Russian proverb says: New -- is something old, that has been long forgotten. This summer I re-discovered green smoothies. What do I mean by green smoothie? Here is one of my favorite recipes: 4 ripe pears, 1 bunch of parsley and 1 big cup of water. Blended well. This smoothie looks very green, but it tastes like fruit. I like green smoothies so much that I bought an extra blender and placed it in my office, so that I could make green smoothies throughout the day. More than half of all the food I've had in last several months have been green smoothies. I have so much more energy and clarity that I have removed green juices from my diet. (Juicing has been something that I've been doing regularly for years.) Green smoothies have numerous benefits for human health.

Green smoothies are very nutritious. I believe that the ratio in them is optimal for human consumption: about 60% - ripe organic fruit mixed with about 40% - organic green vegetables.

Green smoothies are easy to digest. When blended well, all the valuable nutrients in these fruits and veggies become homogenized, or divided into such small particles that it becomes easy for the body to assimilate these nutrients, the green smoothies literally start to get absorbed in your mouth.

Green smoothies, as opposed to juices, are a complete food because they still have fiber.

Green smoothies belong to the most palatable dishes for all humans of all ages. With a ratio of fruits to veggies as 60:40 the fruit taste dominates the flavor, yet at the same time the green vegetables balance out the sweetness of the fruit, adding nice zest to it. Green smoothies are simply the best tasting dishes for the majority of adults and children. I always make extra smoothie and offer it to my friends and customers. Some of them eat a standard American diet. They all finished their big cup of green smoothies with complements. They were quite surprised that something so green could taste so nice and sweet.

By consuming two or three cups of green smoothies daily you will consume enough of greens for the day to nourish your body, and they will be well assimilated. Many people do not consume enough of greens, even those who stay on a raw food diet. The molecule of chlorophyll has only one atom that makes it different from a molecule of human blood. According to teachings of Dr. Ann Wigmore, to consume chlorophyll is like receiving a healthy blood transfusion.

Green smoothies are easy to make, and quick to clean up after. Many people told me that they do not consume green juices on a regular basis because it is time consuming to prepare green juices and clean the equipment after juicing, or to drive to the juice bar.

Green smoothies are perfect food for children of all ages, including babies of six or more months old when introducing new food to them after mother's milk. Of course you have to be careful and slowly increase the amount of smoothies to avoid food allergies.

When you consume your greens in the form of green smoothies, you can greatly reduce the consumption of oils and salt in your diet.

Regular consumption of Green smoothies forms a good habit of eating greens. Several people told me that after a couple of weeks of drinking green smoothies, they started to crave and enjoy eating more greens. Eating enough of green vegetable is often a problem with many people, especially in children.

Green smoothies can easily be freshly made at any juice bar, restaurant or health food store for the great convenience of health-oriented customers.

I encourage the readers of this article to start playing with green smoothies, and to discover the many joys and benefits of this wonderful delicious and nutritious addition to the menu.

(See website for specific suggestions and recipe ideas for green smoothies!)

Getting Back on the Diet

I'm still struggling to resist cravings and stick to the diet I feel best on. So, I'm resorting to psychological tactics. I find that, at times like this, what I'm really wanting is protein (especially chicken!) and salt. I can't resist chips and meat meals. So, I'm starting by giving in. I bought chicken - lots of it, pesticide-free, both dark and white meat, and I wrapped it in foil and baked it. I start with the dark meat, since that seems to be what tastes best, and I salt it well. It's delicious and just what I want! But then, after the second or third piece, I remember why I stopped eating dark meat. It's fatty and really gross! So then I switch to white meat, still well salted. In the meantime, I continue to make green smoothies and eat them throughout the day. By the second day, I start to remember that white meat isn't as good as I always anticipate in the midst of cravings. It's really dry. By then, my cravings are subsiding and I'm getting really sick of chicken. And from that point, it's no problem sticking to the diet. I usually still have a little chicken left over to fall back on if I start craving again. By the third day, I'm eating the last piece of chicken, but not enjoying it.

For a 'wannabe' vegan, it's a disgusting cure. But it does seem to work, and I console myself by telling myself that my body could probably use the extra dense protein from time to time. And J, who also loves and craves chicken, never seems to mind helping me eat the chicken. ;)

The Water Cure

A cure-all for everything. The theory goes that many of our ailments are caused by unrecognized dehydration. The Water Cure (or here) is free.

The Water Cure Recipe:

Drink 1/2 your body weight of water in ounces, daily. 110 pounds would drink 55 ounces of water. Use 1/4 tsp. of sea salt (not table salt, which is depleted of necessary minerals) per quart of water. Use salt liberally with food. As long as you drink the water, you can use the salt. Avoid caffeinated or alcoholic drinks. These are diuretics and will dehydrate you.

Crock Pot Recipe

I've been looking for healthy, dairy-free, mostly vegetarian recipes for our new crock pot so I can throw everything in the crock pot in the morning and leave it until dinner. I found a few recipes online and I plan to try a few over the next few weeks. Today I tried this one:

Spaghetti casserole

1 lb (approx. 2 handfuls) spaghetti, break into pieces
1 26-oz. jar spaghetti sauce
1 c water
(optional - add soy cheese)

Combine all ingredients in crockpot; mix well. Cook on Low for 4 hours until pasta is tender, stirring once during cooking. Serves 6.

I followed the instructions, the house started smelling really good! Mmmm! Like spaghetti! Miss M kept asking for "pah-ta" (pasta) because it was making her hungry. On one ocassion, she came out of the kitchen with a chunk of banana in her hand and proceeded to tell me, very animatedly, how she got a banana, took a bite, spit it out, and ate banana. I went into the kitchen, and here is what I found on the floor: a banana peel; half a banana, slightly mushed; a whole banana missing a little bit off the tip; the tip that had been bitten off, peel and all, and then spit out!

An hour after I started the spaghetti, it smelled done. I stirred it and it looked done. But it was only 1pm, not even close to dinner. So I turned it to "warm." I checked again it an hour later. It was starting to get clumpy. I added a package of shredded soy cheese, hoping it would melt and make it palatable.

It didn't. I have a crock pot full of spaghetti that looks like refried beans and feels like rubber. It smells good, though! Miss M had some and loved it.

But Daddy is taking everyone to Burger King for chicken nuggets for dinner.