As I said in my last post, I have been saved years of research by family and friends helping me learn from their lessons. Hopefully I can pass on some things to help save you time and effort to if you want to learn!
I have tweaked the guidelines for my eating since my first post. Pretty simple:
- no gluten
- no corn
- no sugar...which means no honey, no agave, no splenda...only stevia or xylitol
- no fruit other than berries and green apples
- no soy
Other important priorities during this time: grass fed beef, high quality eggs, some raw cheese (I also never eat pork.)
The key to making this doable is reading labels, eating at home and cooking a lot. Everything from hot dogs and bacon to worchestire sauce, salad dressing and dijon mustard has sugar in it. The thing I have enjoyed about this process is learning to reintroduce healthy versions of food that we haven't eaten for a long time. With my mom's diagnosis, out went things like pancakes, rolls, dumplings, chicken pot pie (or anything else with a crust), etc... I am learning that we CAN have those things, we just have to make them. :)
These are the books I've been using:
This is a book co-written by Kim Roberto, our chiropractor in GA's wife. This book is the key to understanding a lot of the why behind the eating. If you don't have a why you are eating, you will have temporary success at best on any "diet."
**Please just know these are my thoughts and summation of things I'm learning. I'm not a doctor or an expert.
Here are a few key things I have learned or been reminded of:
- Fat doesn't make you fat, sugar, or anything that immediately turns to sugar in your body, does. I won't go into detail, but if you don't believe this statement, the smallest amount of research will prove this simple fact. Look at societies, like Eskimos, that eat 75% saturated fat in their diet and yet they do not have the levels of obesity, diabetes and heart disease that our American "low fat" diet has produced. Don't be afraid of healthy fat. Healthy fat is not only good, it is desperately needed by your body to function and heal.
-Constantly eating a diet high in simple carbs and sugar, is like putting newspaper on a fire. It burns, but it burns quickly, reaking havoc on your body. Your body wants to burn fat, like putting a log on the fire. Our typical diet trains our body to burn sugar instead of fat. A diet, like the one I'm on, helps retrain the body to burn fat, like it was designed to do.
-I used to complain that I was hungry all the time and now I know why. Sure, I have decent metabolism, but I wasn't feeding my body anything that I could use to fuel it for any period of time. That resulted in constant blood sugar swings and spikes. I can honestly say, I have been a lot less hungry in the past week!
-The right kind of salt is really good for you - Celtic Sea Salt.
For more information, check out their website: www.maximizedliving.com
and for more recipes - http://smartmeals.wordpress.com/
Kim also gives recipes in the book that have been helpful. Our favorite by far is almond bars. They are packed with good fats and great protein. I will be honest, they are amazingly yummy made with natural peanut butter, but for now, I use the almond butter. The girls and Chad put a little peanut butter on top. My mom puts unsweetened dark chocolate. I love eating these for breakfast or a snack.
Almond Bars
(I always 1/2 the recipe)
2 cups raw almonds
1/2 cup flaxseed meal
1/2 cup unsweetened shredded coconut
2 scoops flavored whey protein powder (make sure it is high quality, low temp whey protein)
1/2 cup raw almond butter
1/2 tsp. sea salt
1/2 cup coconut oil
3/4 tsp. stevia powder
1 Tbsp. vanilla extract (make sure it doesn't have sugar)
Optional: 8 squares unsweetened chocolate, melted and sweetened with stevia or cinnamon to taste
Place almonds, meal, coconut, protein powder, almond butter and salt in food processor. Pulse briefly, about 10 seconds.
In a small sauce pan, melt coconut oil over very low heat. Remove oil from heat and stir in stevia and vanilla.
Add oil mixture to food processor and pulse until a corse paste.
Press mixture into an 8x8 glass baking dish. Chill in the refrigerator for an hour or until firm.
In double boiler melt chocolate, stir in stevia or cinnamon. Spread melted chocolate over hardened bars. Return to refrigerator until hardened, about an hour. Cut into bars to serve. Store in refrigerator.
This the book I have used the most. She also has a blog, with tons of recipes: http://www.elanaspantry.com
So far, the recipes have been hit or miss. I will give her the benefit of the doubt though. She specifically says NOT to use Red Mills Almond Flour. However, that is all I have right now, so hopefully when I get the Almond Flour I ordered from www.honeyvillegrains.com will be here tomorrow!
Recipe 1: Bread
This is the sandwich bread in the book. It uses 3/4 cup almond butter...which is hard to eat by itself. This bread is pretty dense and very grainy tasting...even though it has no grains. :) I am going to try the Bread 2.0 recipe on her website next.
Recipe #2: Cheese Crackers
Overal they are pretty tasty. One thing when cooking with almond flour - don't make more than you need. I made these crackers Sunday night and they are already too soft to eat. I halved the recipe and would double the amount of cheese next time.
Recipe #3: Chicken Pot Pie
Its been a long time since I've made chicken pot pie, so this was a nice change of pace for us. It was amazingly good and easy! You cook the crust, make the filling on the stovetop, pour it in and your done!
Recipe #4: Strawberry Shortcake
The biscuits used in this recipe are yummy. They are my one "cheat" for this 3 week period. We had guests in from out of town, so I decided to "splurge!" ha! The almond flour biscuits only have 1/4 cup agave nectar for all 10 biscuits, so not that much. Still though, not something I can eat again right now. I really like them. On top I just cut up strawberry and made a strawberry puree out of frozen strawberries (no syrup), a little stevia and water. Then I whipped heavy cream with a little vanilla. Next time I will add a little stevia to the whipped cream.
*You have to be careful with Stevia because it is bitter is you use too much.
Another great resource has been the Paleo diet. Paleo is completely grain, beans, sugar and dairy free. Even though I don't want to follow the Paleo diet completely, the recipes are almost always things I can eat. A friend loaned me her book. Her website has a ton of recipes too - http://everydaypaleo.com/
One of favorite recipes have been egg cupcakes. (forgot to take a picture!) Her recipe - Egg cupcakes
Egg Cupcakes
10 eggs
1 green onion
1 zucchini
6 slices of uncured bacon, cooked (I use Applegate farms turkey bacon)
1 small jar roasted red peppers
3 cups spinach
Black pepper to taste
Preheat oven to 350 and grease with coconut oil one muffin pan or use FOIL papers. Whisk all your eggs in a big bowl. In a food processor throw in the green onion, zucchini, bacon, and peppers and process until finely chopped but NOT smooth (yuck…). Add this mixture to your eggs. Throw your spinach into the processor and finely chop and also add to your eggs. Mix the egg mixture well and fill the muffin pans 12-18f cupcakes depending on how full you fill them. Bake for 20-25 minutes or until the eggs are set in the middle. These are great to take on the go and I like mine with some sliced avocado and green salsa.
Here is another recipe we tried out of her book. I would add a little stevia to the crumble next time, since I can't drizzle honey on it.
3 cups of fresh blackberries
1 1/2 cups almond meal (finely ground almonds)
1 omega 3 enriched egg
2 tbsp coconut oil
A drizzle of raw organic honey
Cinnamon to taste
“So Delicious” coconut milk
Preheat oven to 350. Pour the blackberries into a pie pan. In a small bowl mix together the egg, almond meal, and coconut oil, and shake in a bunch of cinnamon. Stir well. The mixture will be really thick and clumpy. If you wish, drizzle a bit of raw organic honey on top of the blackberries. By hand (or if you have a 2 year old to help you, that works just as well…) crumble the almond meal mixture on top of the blackberries and bake in your pre-heated oven for 35 minutes. Serve in bowls with cold “So Delicious” brand coconut milk poured over the top.
This morning we had pancakes! :) Our girls were pretty excited. I hate typical pancakes. White flour with sugar poured on it = immediate blood sugar surge and crash. This morning we tried coconut flour. Pretty yummy!
Fluffly Coconut Flour Pancakes
Recipe Notes: Both cow and coconut milk work well in this recipe. You can also add cinnamon or fruit as desired. Just keep the pancakes small and watch them so they don’t burn.
Ingredients
- 4 eggs, room temperature
- 1 cup milk (raw cow’s or coconut both work)
- 2 teaspoons vanilla extract
- 1 tablespoon honey or a pinch of stevia
- 1/2 cup coconut flour
- 1 teaspoon baking soda
- 1/2 teaspoon sea salt
- coconut oil or butter for frying
Directions
- Preheat griddle over medium-low heat. In a small bowl beat eggs until frothy, about two minutes. Mix in milk, vanilla, and honey or stevia.
- In a medium-sized bowl combine coconut flour, baking soda, and sea salt and whisk together. Stir wet mixture into dry until coconut flour is incorporated.
- Grease pan with butter or coconut oil. Ladle a few tablespoons of batter into pan for each pancake. Spread out slightly with the back of a spoon. The pancakes should be 2-3 inches in diameter and fairly thick. Cook for a few minutes on each side, until the tops dry out slightly and the bottoms start to brown. Flip and cook an additional 2-3 minutes.
- Serve hot with butter, coconut oil, honey, syrup, or fruit.
As I said, condiments basically all have sugar. Salad dressing is a super easy to make. We've tried a few different kinds so far. My favorite is the recipe on the side of the Pampered Chef Salad dressing maker, just leave out the sugar:
1/4 cup red wine vinegar
2 tsp Italian Seasoning (or just dried oregano and basil)
2 pressed garlic cloves
1 tsp. sea salt
1/4 tsp. pepper
3/4 cup olive oil
Whisk all together.
I will keep posting recipes that we enjoy! If anyone is interested in the exact menus we've been following. I'll be happy to post if there is interest.
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