Great Diet Dinner Recipe

With all of the beautiful tomatoes in the stores here in NM lately.   Try making this recipe it turns out incredibly and tastes great.  I use dreamfields pasta to give it a little extra protein.  The fresh tomatoes really take center stage in this recipe.  It is a lot of tomatoes at first but cut the full amount and maybe even more.. they cook down in the oven quite a bit.. and you will wish you had even more.  I also added extra garlic..we tend to like our garlic.

Oven Puttanesca - http://www.wholeliving.com/130839/oven-puttanesca

Your whole family will like this.

The Mediterranean Diet does it work ?

Does the Mediterranean Diet work ?   I imagine it does.   About a year and a half ago I went vegetarian at the urgent request of one of my sons. He does not like the idea that animals die for his food.    Without even trying I lost over 5 pounds.. bad habits and all.    I imagine if you got rid of bad snacking habits and eliminated foods with a lot of added sugar you would do even better.   (We still ate lots of cookies, poptarts, ice cream..etc... stuff you definitely try to cut down on when losing weight ).

According to this book the average woman needs 50 grams of protein a day.   Unless you eat a lot of beans and soy products without the diary or meat, how will you fulfill this ?  I guess nuts have some protein.  The "Eat More Weigh Less"  book by Dr. Ornish, helps to answer this question.. Actually vegetables do contain some protein.. most of the time just a couple of grams though.  Broccoli - 1 stalk has about 5.6 grams,  Brussel Sprouts about 5 grams, 1 Cup of corn - 4.3 grams, 1 cup of  okra 4.1 grams. 1 cup of cauliflower - 3.4 grams. 1 cup of green peas - 8 grams.  Brown Rice 1 cup - 4.9 grams..
Sounds like a lot of vegetables to get your protein.. unless you add beans and dairy which kick it up a lot...

I wonder how Vegans do it ?  Lots of beans I guess.  Here is a link to one answer:

http://www.vrg.org/nutrition/protein.htm

Mariluu Henner, a famous actress, was on a talk show the other day.  She is a Vegan, She is 60.. and looks incredible.   If eating vegan can help a person look like her, then I am all for it.

"The Mediterranean Diet"

I recently got the book, "The Mediterranean Diet" by Marissa Cloutier and Eve Adamson.   I am about half way through it.  It is a decent book about nutrition and the Mediterranean way of eating.   The diet which is quite popular these days is actually not a whole lot different than the Ornish Diet.   Throughout the book the writers refer to it as an almost vegetarian diet.  This it truly is.   You are allowed 1 serving of meat per WEEK, and 1 serving of fish per WEEK.    The main differences between the two diet plans are with Ornish you are supposed to try to eat very low FAT, with the Mediterranean Diet you are allowed to eat some healthy fats, through seeds, nuts, olive oils.. etc.
On the Mediterranean Diet similar to Ornish, you are allowed very small amounts of cheese..

Here is a picture of the food pyramid that is a basic to the diet.

Blue Bell Sugar Free Bullets - Food Review

Blue Bell Sugar Free Bullets are sugar free Popsicles.  They are the lowest carbohydate popsicle that I could find... only 2 net carbs.   They taste terrific.  They taste like a real popsicle.. not a fake one.  They were beautifully frozen.. no ice crystals making them kind of sticky.   I have eaten tons of different sugar free popsicles and these are by far the best.. they are only 14 calories per popsicle.   They cost $3.50 per box of 24 at albertsons.  A little bit pricey.

We give these 4 out of 5 stars.

Special K Cracker Chips - Food Review

This is a review of Special K Cracker Chips - Cheddar - they cost  4-5$ a box at our local Albertsons.  I bought these hoping to get a cracker chip type of taste.  I was very disappointed.  They taste like rice cakes with seasoning added.  They are relatively low in calories - 110 calories per serving.  The entire box has  3.5 servings.    Also there is very little nutrition in these.   For less money and a similar taste you can buy the white cheddar rice cakes by Quaker.   You will get more servings.. and the price is a little over 3$.

We give this Diet food 2.5 out of 5 stars.

Try better Special K.

Morning Flax Muffin.. lower fat version

In honor of reading "Eat more, weigh less", I tried to make a version of the morning flax muffin with egg whites instead of eggs.  This morning I used 2 whites, 1/4 cup of ground flax, and splenda to taste..(couple of  Tablespoons) and 1/2 teas baking powder.  It turned out great.. very puffy.    I could hardly tell the yolks were gone.    It might work fine with one egg white and some water.. I will try that tomorrow.    

Volumetrics or Ornish Diet

I picked up a copy of "Eat more Weight Less" Dr. Dean Ornish.  This is a decent book.  Although I do not totally agree with the super low fat approach.   The book is worth reading.   Basically this is a vegetarian approach to dieting.. he really does not want you to eat even lean chicken.. but only that if you must.    I like veggies but I really enjoy lean chicken.   The book has tons of recipes .. almost 300 pages of them.   I think this is good.. to me it shows he is really trying.

It also talks about the therapeutic issues involved with weight gain.   A whole chapter devoted to the emotional issues of weight gain, eating...etc.    This chapter makes the book worth getting.. especially if you get it at a used book store.

If you love vegetables, fruit, and beans.. and can live without meat.. you will like this diet.

Two days a week

My son was reading a readers digest article to me.. it claims that dieters who dieted only two days a week lost as much weight as someone who dieted 7 days a week.    Since I am frustrated with the lack of flexibility on Atkins, I have decided to give this a try.   The article suggested Monday and Friday.   My question is/was how to do those two days and what to do the rest of the week.    I have decided I will do a low calorie, high protein diet on those two days.   I am researching other more flexible diets for the rest of the week.

2 things I will keep up:

- morning flax muffin
- dinner spinach salad.

Some of the diets I am looking at are:

Weight Watchers - can I do this without joining and paying the expensive monthly web site fee ? I can
only eat about 12 points a day with this.    My morning flax muffin comes in at 4 points.. which seems
like a lot for a 200 calorie item.  Spinach comes in a 0 points.  It seems like most low carb tortilla's are about 1 point. This is good.

Mediterranean Diet - Still need to learn more.

Volumetrics Diet -Eating foods that have a large water content.

Why I am keeping my flax muffin:

I would like a diet that includes healthy oils.  I know the Flax seed oil is a healthy oil.  Flax seed lowers cholesterol, it helps fight cancer( lignans).  It has more omega-3 oils than my fish oil vitamins and it tastes a lot better.  And supposedly flax helps with menopausal symptoms.  Flax is the richest known plant source of phytoestrogens.   I have not felt these yet.. but a bit of preventive measure can't hurt.

I find I feel better when I eat some lean protein in almost all of my meals.  So I think a true vegan diet is out for me.. plus I really like chicken.

Easy Breezy Easter

Made through Easter without too much hassle.  Did some high carbohydrate baking for family and a little low  carbohydrate baking for me.  This helps a lot.   I have come up with a morning muffin recipe.  I find making it in a coffee mug works the best.  It is a variation on the low carb bread.  It tastes great and is filling and full of fiber.. and not too high calorie.

In the mug, - I mix 1 egg( 75 calories)
                           1/4 cup flax meal ( 120 calories.. no net carbs.. about 8 grams of fiber)
                           1/2 teaspoon of baking powder
                           spenda to taste.(more if you like it really sweet)  2 Tablespoons
                           mix well.. if it is a little dry add some water.

I microwave it on high for 1 minute.  I put a paper towel underneath just in case it overflows.
I let it sit a minute then I run a knife around the edge and plop it into a bowl.  

Sometimes I add a tablespoon of cocoa.  This adds 2gs of carbs but gives it a nice chocolate taste.

For about 200 or so calories you have a great healthy breakfast food. It goes great with coffee or tea.

You can try using soy flour instead of flax meal, it has more carbs but less calories.  In this case you might want to increase your cocoa a bit, to get rid of the overwhelming soy taste.   You get a much cakier muffin.. more filling(at least to me), definitely you will need more water, I think the soy absorbs the liquid more.


Its fun to make and really helps with cravings.