I Love Dairy

I love dairy. Seriously. LOVE. Dairy is my downfall and my saving grace at times. I tried to be a vegan many years ago. My doctor told me I needed to eat meat or dairy, some kind of animal product because I was getting so sick. I know, I know, this is not necessarily true. No I mean he said it and he was a vegetarian so I believed him so I went ovo-lacto. The way my body works, this was best. I veered away eventually and went back to a major meat diet and reduced my veggies and subsequently gained weight without my salads to round anything out. Then I stopped beef and pork and became slightly healthier. In those days there were not a million resources for eating better, there was Richard Simmons and Susan Powter, Weight Watchers and Jenny Craig. You were kinda on your own unless you wanted to pay for help. (I hope this doesn’t sound like whining because I don’t mean it to be.)

Back to what is important, I love dairy: butter, sour cream, yogurt, cheese, milk, ice cream…dairy!  I have long been a fan of Greek yogurt after working for Greeks for years. They used to make it for me, I was a spoiled girl. Moving back to South Florida after I had my son I had to search for it. Fage was the only option and locating it was few and far between. Then I could only find the FageTotal – which is delicious but outside of my current dietary restrictions. It was then as well but you know, gaining 80lbs because you make excuses is easy.

So back to making changes and having a brighter future I am making chicken and sweet potato tacos later tonight and wanted something creamy and delicious to go with them. I had Chobani 0% and cilantro in the fridge, along with some cutecumbers I needed to use and so my ChoCucLantro sauce was born. Cucilbani sauce? Cucumber Cilantro Yogurt Sauce? That sounds better. So I gathered my ingredients.

Cucumber Cilantro Yogurt Sauce

1 Tub of Chobani 0% plain yogurt

1 handful of cilantro

2 cutecumbers – probably 1/4-1/2 cup of shredded cuke

2 cloves of garlic – I buy mine pre-peeled in the big container and freeze them – easy to grate and microplane, not to mention crush when thawed.

dash of sea salt

1/4 tsp of jalapeno powder

1/4 tsp of white wine vinegar (not pictured)

I grated the cucumbers first and then threw into my miniblender/food chopper with the cilantro and garlic and spun that for about 30 seconds. Added the yogurt and spices  – blended for another 30 sec to 1 min. Put into a container and mixed in the vinegar by hand.

I won’t lie, it came out really good. Reminiscent of Pollo Tropical’s Cilantro Garlic Sauce. Which I love, and miss. Oh, how I miss you!

My new favorite everything!

So this is my new plan for salad dressing and sour cream. I figure if it has flavor and less fat/calories than the usual then better to mix in my own ingredients and make it what I want it to be. Happy Being!

You can take the Fat out of the Girl…but cheese still tastes good.

My Grandfather grows tomatoes in his backyard. Yes, an 89 year old man is still raising food for his family. He amazes me everyday. I could write a book about that man, but for now, tomatoes. So he needed to take out the tomato plants as season is pretty much over. Yay South Florida! So we wound up with around 20 tomatoes. No bigs, right? Now to figure how to use them without just making marinara sauce.

Here are 13 of the lovelies!

I cut the beauties into wedges – I totally used my Steve Irwin voice as I said this. Put a small amt of olive oil into a pan and then wiped the pan with a paper towel so there was just a light coating. I do this when I make pancakes too. Cuts down on the oil and avoids greasy pockets. I threw the maters on in there over medium high, a little sea salt and pepper then I added torn spinach leaves. I know what you’re thinking, “didn’t she say something about cheese?” I did. In a separate pot I took SmartBalance and a little oat flour – oatmeal I put in the blender and made a roux that I added unsweetened almond milk to. Then some pecorino romano cheese, jalapeno powder, garlic cloves and a tablespoon of pesto. Maybe a cup to a cup and a 1/2 of sauce total. I felt guilty for this, but everyone has their day and the Gods of Hormones have decided today was my day. Some whole grain Barilla, mixed in the veggies and the sauce, baked for 15-20 min then broiled the top for crunch and voila!

I refuse to feel guilty for my meal. Before I would have been regular pasta and alfredo pesto with mozzarella on top and made with cream and blah blah blah. I have to be proud of the small steps for that is what keeps us moving.

Mmm Spicy!

Before I had my son and my tastes buds changed, I put Tabasco’s Jalapeno sauce on everything. Literally everything. Mac and cheese? Jalapeno sauce. Ice cream? Jalapeno sauce. I took it to an extreme, but it was sooo good. After pregnancy I wasn’t able to tolerate the heat. But guess what?? I’m baaaack. Today I had decided to make “Southwest Turkey Burgers.” Turkey breast mixed with cumin, corn, red peppers, black beans. I took it a step further.

I made a relish out of those items (corn, black beans, red peppers) with some Badia Jalapeno powder, white wine vinegar and cilantro. Then I mixed some into the burger. Satisfied my carby cravings, spicy and full of fiber. In fact, some people had seconds. Point scored for a healthier family!

May not look nummy but it was!

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Exploring the Realm of Protein Pancakes

So..I have a son who is quite picky in his food choices. Thankfully he did not get my metabolism or this may be a way very different life. I am guilty of hiding vegetables and healthy goodness in his food though. Grated zucchini and apple whole grain waffles, mashed cauliflower grilled cheese. I can be pretty crafty when it comes to these things. To think I started by using baby food in his pancakes and now he’s willing to eat homemade chicken nuggets. (That will be a whole other post.) Inspired by I decided to embrace this whole protein pancake thing. Her ingredients seemed simple and were things I had in the house. **Note to self, take pictures of this as you are doing it – helps enhance the whole blog thing.
This is what I made:
Vanilla Protein Oat Pancakes
makes 1 6 small pancakes

1/4 C of oatmeal – the old fashioned oats that I put into my food chopper thingy and pulverized
1/4 C Garden of Life Raw Vanilla Protein Powder
1 tsp Vietnamese cinnamon
1/4 tsp baking soda
1/4 C unsweetened almond milk
1/4 C plain, non-fat Chobani Greek
3 T egg whites
1/2 C of the leftover apple pulp from my juicer – we didn’t have any applesauce and I had used the last of my apples for juice

Mixed all my wet ingredients, mixed all the dry and then mixed together. Medium high and voila! If you use a 1/4 measuring spoon it will give you 6 pancakes.

Ok, ok so the real reason I made these?!? It was my dog’s birthday and I forgot to make him a “pupcake!” However the whole family enjoyed! Thanks to all!

Pitfalls, Successes and Side Salads

I had a stressful weekend. This is a usual thing, I work 40 hours in 4 days (Friday thru Monday) where what is expected of us is more than our best. Scratch that, they want our best, our first born, our spirit and a contract signed in blood. Yeah, stressful. Even as a big girl my blood pressure has been good, never over 125/80ish. I felt the need to check it while on the slave ship…141/98. I mostly maintained my eating. I behaved Friday, Saturday and Monday. Sunday was a baby shower. The way I felt after consuming such “non-clean, carb heavy” things was bloated, tired, sluggish and my body physically hurt. Even the small steps I have taken have instituted change in my body. One day will not destroy me, just like one day did not make me. I will prevail. I will overcome this. I did have to put some money in the vacation jar. Wendy’s side salad. At least it was a salad.

The Devils that Tame You

I woke up this morning, had some water and did a quick mile on my stationary bike. Not much, but something. I then made breakfast. Let me say this…one of the hardest things about being on a health journey is being on it when dragging someone behind you. I cook for my family. I made grits for them. Yankee girl making grits?!? It happens, especially if you moonlight a few years in the South. Ok so back to the story. I added a dash of salt, some pepper and per request, cheese. A half cup of cheese to the grits. What do you think the verdict was? It needs more salt, it needs more cheese.

There was nothing else needed other than a adjustment to one’s taste buds. Made a salad, it needs more oil, add more salt. No, no, no, no. no!! We are supposed to enjoy these foods as they were created. I am all for a little enhancement. Believe me, I was the biggest salt fiend of them all. My taste buds went to rehab and are on outpatient status.

When my son was born and I told my Grandmother I wanted him to be on organic products the response was almost amusing. “Organic? We didn’t have organic when I was growing up.”  This is probably because things were organic. You raised your own animals on your own farm, you harvested your own vegetables. My Great Uncle used to genetically modify corn, by crossing different types for the best grain, the most nutrition, the heartiest in order to stand up to the vile weather and bugs. The problem is that generation is a the Great Depression surviving generation. They watched the Government and big Companies take over the land and the ruling of our farmers and land. My generation decided that it was ok to see a few imperfections on apples after seeing what was happening to our world.

This planet has existed for millions of years and as a whole we have done more damage in the past 90 years than had ever been done to it, (other than that dino destroying asteroid.)  I am not trying to preach, merely stating that we need to change our outlook and our way of eating. I am trying, but my own family is not completely on board. Of course who am I to be judgmental? I fed them salmon, brown rice and asparagus last night.  These are not fish people, and I did it. **Happy Dance**  Clean eating recipe salmon at that. Whoo hoo.

There are inevitables to success, we just have to be able to identify them in order to avoid the pitfalls of them. Today will be a good day, today I will be healthier than I was yesterday, today will be a success because I deem it so. Happy Thursday everyone.

Make it Work!

So it begins…

I am on a journey towards a different lifestyle and am trying to take my family with me. This blog will explore my trials, tribulations, successes and celebrations. I started at 285lbs and as of today I am 278. I cringe as I type these numbers but realize I should have been cringing as I was putting the extra food in my mouth or flipping the channel one more time. Every change will have a result. It’s like the butterfly effect. You know. Do you not know about the butterfly effect? “Chaos theory attempts to explain the fact that complex and unpredictable results can and will occur in systems that are sensitive to their initial conditions. A common example of this is known as the Butterfly Effect. It states that, in theory, the flutter of a butterfly’s wings in China could, in fact, actually effect weather patterns in New York City, thousands of miles away. In other words, it is possible that a very small occurrence can produce unpredictable and sometimes drastic results by triggering a series of increasingly significant events.” This was brilliantly summed up by http://library.thinkquest.org/ So long story short, what you think may be an insignificant change may cause significant changes. By just moving 20 minutes a day I am changing my body. By bringing my own food to work I saved upwards of $70 in one week. Thanks $140 in 2 weeks, $280 a month. I mean come on $3360 a year?!?!? That’s a vacation or two depending on location. I have put a jar on top of my refrigerator and in it I put the money I save from dining out. That jar will be taking us to SeaWorld, Universal Studios and LEGOLAND. That jar is putting me one step closer to better clothes. That jar is making my goals and progress tangible things. We have to start somewhere. I’m starting here.