Meatless Monday New Product Review

(CLEARLY I am getting caught up today.)
Monday was Meatless Monday. We had tostadas. It is our fall back easy meatless thing. Hubby and I actually like the meatless crumbles, he calls it Veat (vegetarian meat). This week I found Yves Meatless Ground Turkey on sale ($1.50), so I picked it up to try it.
I seasoned it with onion powder, garlic powder, cumin, cayenne powder, a little salt and some paprika.
I used one pack. There was plenty for the 6 tostadas Hubby and I had. The kids had beans, rice and some of the veat mixed together like a dip. (as for the battle... Mommy gets 1/2. Hubby loved it. Caleigh ate it.) There was even some left That I am having for lunch today.
I Love this product. I would like it to be freezable, but it has a decent shelf life and it seasons really well. I would like to try it again in pasta sauce. But I think if I can find it on sale, will use this instead of the Morningstar Farms crumbles ($4-5 a bag).

A New Direction

While this food blog makes me sound like a crunchy earth momma, domestic goddess, this is not entirely so. I have a love for cheap mexican food, I love deserts, and I love cheese. This has resulted in my current predicament. My dr. called the other day to tell me that my cholesterol is too high. He wants me to start medication for 4 weeks and then retake the blood tests. I don't want to. SO. I have an appointment to talk to him (face to face). I am going to propose radical diet change and starting to work out again, instead of going on medication. If in 4 weeks my cholesterol has gone down. No medication. If not.. Well. I guess I am on medication.
So it is time for me to channel my inner crunchy earth momma, and do more home cooking and less eating mexican. I am going back to using whole grains, quinoa, brown rice, whole wheat breads. More fish, chicken and turkey and less red meat and pork. Less creamy sauces and less cheese. I guess I will be having oatmeal and cheerios for breakfast.
I will still eat out one day a week. My family goes to a mexican place near our church every Sunday after church, we have done it since I was 12 years old. So I will be doing that still.
The main problem is (confession...) I am terrible about doing the dishes. I hate doing the dishes. I don't know why. It really isn't that hard. But I will procrastinate until I have no clean dishes and we are eating off the "good china" with plastic forks. Then the leaning tower of plates, requires 4 loads of the dishwasher and 30 minutes of hand washing pots and pans. (I have started being better. It is another habit that I have to create. ) But when the kitchen is like that, I don't want to cook, so hubby lets me go out and get food. (an expensive and lazy habit.) The worst part is I love cooking, so it is stupid for me to eat food that doesn't make me happy.
So new direction.
Eat food that makes me happy, nourishes my body, and is healthy.
Get my ass to the gym 3-4 days a week.
Use whole grains, and convert the family.
Reinstate Meatless Monday, Fishy Friday and Wery Weggie Wednesday (sorry. little Star Trek reference there).
Oh and do the dishes every day.

Eat More Lose Weight?

So, I have described th daily plan for eating for my Gestational Diabetes. It is what usually comes out to between 3-5 cups of food for every meal. Plus snacks and fruit. Since my diagnosis and being put on this diet I have gained 3 lbs, and nothing since my last appointment 2 weeks ago yesterday. My Nurse Practioner yesterday said that this is a very healthy diet and one that I could lose weight quickly on after the baby.
Now, here is the logic behind it. When you skip meals, your body doesn't know where or when the next source of nutrition will come, so it starts to conserve energy. (energy is stored as .... FAT) However when you eat a diet with large portions of easy to use (fruit, dairy and vegetables) and complex energy sources (carbs and protein), your body barely finishes using one meal before you start putting more in. Your body needs constant fuel. That is why the best "Diet GURU Corporations" all incorporate snacks into their well portioned meal plans. So what should the regular person trying to eat healthy and lose weight take from this. Eat breakfast, (Your mother was right it really is important). Have a mid-morning snack, (like a piece of fruit and some cheese and crackers, or yogurt and part of a muffin or bagel). Have lunch, and eat your salad with it. Green vegetables help our system to run smoothly, and they are easy to burn food. If you eat a salad first you are less likely to overeat when lunch comes, and at the very least you will eat slower. Have an afternoon snack, a piece of fruit, or a fruit cup. This will be much better that another cup of coffee, diet soda, or a frappaccino. Have a healthy dinner. Have two veggies and one starch, a protein and you can even have a roll.
First of all is you eat like this you will almost never be hungry. You will burn energy all day long, and you will start to lose weight. This is a healthy life style change type of eating rather than a quick fix DIET that teaches you nothing except that 1) Grapefruit and tuna do not a meal make or 2) That you never want to see another popcorn cake as long as you live.
This is a way to enjoy eating again, rather than stress over how much this will add to the waistline. After all, who wants to just eat to live, we should WANT to eat, we should live to eat good food...
Love, Sara

Where did she go??

You may be wondering why I haven't been posting about all my wonderful recipes recently. The reason, I was sick. I had morning sickness, actually I had this weird variety of the same idea. I was nauseous all day but it was always worse at night. So, needless to say, I wasn't exactly in the mood to cook. That has passed, thank god. Now, I am dealing with low blood sugar. As my mother put it, "babies are like parasites, they don't care where they get the nutrients from, they'll just take it." If I don't eat like a Hobbit, I get dizzy, nauseous, and faint. (fortunately I haven't actually fainted yet.) So I eat like a Hobbit. I get up and have first breakfast, usually a small bagel, or a small bowl of cereal, or toast with peanut butter. Then I wait a little while and make second breakfast for me and Alex. This is usually scrambled eggs, and fried potatoes, and some vegan sausage. Then about two hours later I have early lunch, this is usually a piece of fruit, some cheese, a handful of nuts (raw or dry roasted unsalted) or a small salad. Then I get second lunch a little while later. This is often a bowl of soup and some veggies. Then I make dinner, lately just for me, this is sometimes leftovers from a big meal the night before, or sometimes frozen veggies and rice, with a little bit of chicken. (I can't stand the smell of fish right now, so I am not cooking with it very often. I try to save any red meat that I am going to eat for a night when Alex and I can go out together.) Then depending on how late dinner was, or how late I am going to stay up I get a second post dinner snackerel. Sometimes this is just a couple pieces of cheese and some crackers or a little bit more of dinner. Then I get desert, (sometimes not every night). Desert is usually, a Skinny Cow Ice Cream Sandwich, or a small bowl of Sherbet.
So here I am eating 8-10 times a day, and it is only going to be more fun as I go along.
I will try to post some new fabulous cooking things soon. I am thinking some reviews might be in order, I have found some wonderful new HEALTHY, and easy products on the market.
Love Sara