Friday Night Dinner

I think I should also share some of the challenges that I have on this diet such as temptations that I don't overcome......  I was supposed to go to a spa party after work last night, but the rain was so bad and storms were on the way, so I begged off and came home instead.  On the way home, I was trying to decide what to make for dinner.  I hadn't planned on dinner, because I expected to eat at the party.  I had fish, salmon and chicken breasts in the freezer, but then I thought about how good salmon patties would be with canned salmon.  Not changed for the 17 day diet - but just the way I always make them - which is the way mama made them, with crushed crackers, egg and seasonings (I use thyme and dill weed.)  I also had 2 yellow squash in the frig and I thought, "that squash sure would be good fried" - not sauteed in a little olive oil like earlier in the week, but coated with corn meal and fried in canola oil.  So when I got home from work, I boiled some corn on the cob, made fried squash and salmon patties - and I thoroughly enjoyed my soul food supper.

Dr. Mike's Power Cookie

I have been anticipating this cookie since I first read the recipes in the book.  I wanted to be ready to make it when I got to the second cycle, so I started looking for the ingredients I didn't have on hand. I found everything except the flaxseed oil and almond paste.  They weren't at my two most frequented stores: Aldi and Wal-Mart.  I figured I could find them at Bi-Lo, Publix, or one of the specialty grocery stores. 

Today I decided I wanted to make the cookies, so I looked online and found a few different recipes for almond paste, and of course, decided to make the easiest one.  I had a bag of sliced almonds in the freezer which was 1 1/2 cups, and that was the amount called for in the recipe.  It also used 1 1/2 c. confectioners sugar, 1 1/2 tsp. almond extract, 1 egg white and 1/4 tsp. salt.  You grind the almonds in a food processor alone, then add the other ingredients and mix until it forms a paste.  It makes plenty, I froze 4 2 Tbsp. batches (the amount used in the cookie recipe) and had a 1/2 cup container left that I put in the refrigerator and will use for something in the next few weeks.

I did find the flaxseed oil at Bi-Lo, they had one bottle on the shelf and it was on sale for over $7.00.  The expiration date was 04/11 - I decided I didn't want to pay that much for something that was expiring this month.  So I thought I would make the cookies and just use canola oil - the recipe only calls for one Tbsp. of oil, so I didn't think it would make that much difference flavor wise.

This recipe has a lot of ingredients.  I decided at the last minute instead of substituting canola oil for the flaxseed oil, I would use sesame oil.  I also had to convert the 10 Truvia packets into a bulk amount, because I bought Truvia in a container.  The way I figured it, 10 packets equals 3 Tbsp. I gathered all the ingredients and made the cookies!

I was surprised at the consistency of the cookie dough, it was rather thin for cookie dough and sticky.  The recipe is supposed to make 18 cookies and that's what I had - not all the same size, but I had 18.

The finished product!  There are 17 cookies on the plate, because I had to sample one.  It was quite dense and very filling.  One cookie is definitely all you need for a snack and will make a nice breakfast with milk and maybe an orange or something.

Oatmeal for Breakfast

I decided to make my favorite oatmeal breakfast this morning.  I like to combine steel cut oats, oat bran and regular oats, either old fashioned or quick.  I was excited to find quick cook steel cut oats at Aldi last year.  They cook in about 7 minutes compared to regular steel cut oats that take about 30 min. to cook.  This was also the first time I had found steel cut oats ouside a health food store.

I cook one serving of each, except I only had about 1/2 serving of oat bran left in the box, so I added a little more steel cut oats.

Before the 17 day diet, I would add butter, (not margarine, BUTTER) sourwood honey, and a little cinnamon to my oatmeal.  Now I use about a half tsp. of Truvia and cinnamon - not as good, but it'll pass.

Since I always have leftovers, I just add a little water and microwave the next day.

Dinner

There are times when you know having a healthy dinner is going to be difficult, usually because of schedules and time constraints.  Yesterday I had a hamburger patty and tossed salad for lunch.  About 3 pm I ate a piece of sweet potato pie.  Left work at 5, went to exercise at 5:30, left there at 6:30 and headed to a church service in East Ridge.  I ate a pear on the way to church.  I left church at 8:00 and was hungry, but couldn't figure what I should eat.  I thought about stopping at a convenience store for low fat chocolate milk, I had done that previously after exercise - have a pint of chocolate milk and call it supper.  But I was wanting something to eat, and finally decided to hit a drive through.  I went through Wendy's at 8:30 and got the smallest size of fries - the value size.  And that along with water was supper.  I knew it might cause some reflux problems - eating french fries so late, and it did.  I woke up for the first time in a long time during the night with reflux.

Tonight when I got home from work I didn't have anything prepared and had an hour before church.  So I prepared a "30 minute meal."  I thawed chicken breast tenders in the microwave and sauteed them in a little olive oil - seasoned with lemon pepper and garlic pepper.  I steamed some fresh broccoli and chopped up squash and onion and sauteed that in a little olive oil.  Thirty minutes from start to finish - that was great.  I made enough to have another meal, probably lunch on Friday.

Portable Breakfast

About once a week I have a smoothie for breakfast.  Very easy to make, I just hate having to wash the blender. Ha.  I use 1/2 cup Yoplait light vanilla yogurt, 1 cup 1% milk, about a cup of frozen berries - this morning I used half blueberries and half strawberries.  Sometimes I buy mixed frozen berries.

  It makes a portable, delicious, filling, healthy breakfast.

Tomorrow will be 2 months

It is hard to believe it has been 2 months since I started the diet.  I have lost a total of 14 pounds since Feb. 14th.  I had lost 3 pounds since the first of the year just by cutting back, nothing really structured.  So almost 20 pounds this year with about 30 more to go.  I have not been following the diet plan precisely, especially, in the last few weeks, but have the basics down and stick to it pretty closely. 

I plan to start back on cycle one the first of May - hopefully that will give me another jumpstart.  I would really like to lose 10 pounds a month and be at my goal by the end of July, but I know I will have to stop cheating on the weekends and having those occasional restaurant meals where I don't adhere to the plan if I expect that to happen.

I really think once I reach my goal weight, it will be easy enough to keep it under control - just watch my weight very carefully, and when I gain 3 or 4 pounds, go back to a more restrictive diet for a week or so and get it off.  Sounds good in principle anyway.......

Last night I made a hamburger plate - actually, the only "bad" thing about it is the sauteed onions - I cooked them in the hamburger grease - but they sure were good.  The ketchup was the reduced sugar kind from the book.





I love the new MiO that Regina sent me.  It is hard to believe such a small amount can make such a great glass of iced tea!  That was a real treat to go with my hamburger plate.



Last Friday night I had a couple of left over baked sweet potatoes and got a real hankerin' for a sweet potato pie.  I didn't have pie crust on hand, so went to the store to get them.  It would have been more healthy to just make it as a sweet potato custard without crust, but........  I tried to make it as healthy, low carb as possible so I used the two sweet potatoes, mashed; 2 eggs, beaten; 1/2 cup 2% evaporated milk; 1/4 cup truvia; 2 tsp. vanilla; 1/2 tsp. cinnamon; 1/2 tsp. nutmeg; 1/8 tsp. allspice.  No butter at all.  It turned out pretty good.  I think the truvia leaves a little after taste, I might should have used a little less.

This picture is after a few pieces have been eaten.  It's very good when you haven't had pie since Christmas!