Amanda's Beef Shepherd's Pie

Yep, I'm calling this one my own because while I got inspirations from some other recipes, I made so many changes that it's worth recording so that I can come back to it to make again in the future. It was HEAVENLY.

Ingredients:

• 1 bag of frozen cauliflower florets (or 1 head of fresh cauliflower)
• Water for steaming
• 1 small onion, diced
• 1/2 stick butter, divided
• 1 tablespoon minced garlic
• 1 pound cooked ground beef, browned and drained
• 1 can cream of mushroom soup (or equivalent - I actually used this recipe for inspiration to make my own wheat-free, non-processed version) ***If using canned soup, you'll also need to add enough milk to make this saucy, rather than a condensed jelly goo.
• 1 cup frozen corn
• 1 cup frozen peas
• 2 tbsp Worcestershire sauce
• Salt & Pepper
• 2 oz cream cheese
• 1 cup shredded/grated extra sharp cheddar cheese
• Paprika

Directions:

1. Preheat oven to 375.
2. Steam cauliflower until very tender.
3. Meanwhile, saute onions in 1/4 stick of melted butter with minced garlic until tender.
4. Add cooked, drained ground beef. Stir in cream of mushroom soup, corn and peas. Mix well. Add Worcestershire sauce, salt pepper, other seasonings to taste. Turn heat down to low/medium to simmer for about 15 minutes.
5. Once cauliflower is done steaming, place tender florets in a large food processor with cream cheese and remaining butter. Add salt & pepper to taste (I'm terrible at guessing salt measurements - sorry). Puree until it has the consistency of mashed potatoes.
6. Place beef mixture in the bottom of a casserole dish. Top with shredded or grated cheddar cheese, then pureed cauliflower mixture. Sprinkle with paprika. Cover with aluminum foil, bake for 35 minutes.

YUM. FYI - if you've never had steamed cauliflower as mashed potatoes.... The above is the best way to make it - steamed and pureed with butter, cream cheese, salt and pepper to taste. Any kid will eat it. Oh so delicious, and so much better for you than starchy potatoes. I suspect that I will be buying cauliflower by the bulk to substitute this in many recipes. (Must give credit where credit is due - this cauliflower recipe is in the new Wheat Belly Cookbook.)

If you decide to make this - let me know what you think!

So discouraged right now....

More affirmation that my health still sucks: I wasn't diligent about taking my medication this week. It was Turkey Day, and I wasn't as cautious as I should have been. 2/3 of the weight I lost during the fast is back, and now I'm as depressed as ever. This blows. I know this is a result of introducing meats back into my diet, and I'm assuming it's going to take time to balance out by not eating wheat products... but in the short term, it still sucks big time. It's apparent that I cannot CANNOT afford slip ups. Ever. And that stinks because fasting is not meant to be a long term lifestyle change. I go back to eating "normal" and apparently any little bit of variance from eating flippin' rabbit food shoots my body back into a damn tailspin. And so much for the possibility of weening myself off drugs. Doesn't look like THAT is going to be a real possibility anytime soon. Guess I'm going to have to be at my actual goal weight before that can even be considered with my doc, and even then, I may be stuck on these dang drugs for the rest of my flippin' life.

I'm so upset right now I can't even think straight. I've made so much progress, and this is such a setback. I do not want to fall off the wagon.... but I'll be honest, there's no other way to describe just how horrified and discouraged I am right now. I know it's only been a week and a half... and it's been turkey day, and introducing meat back into my diet is a huge change. I shouldn't let it upset me as much as it has. I'm trying to think rational here but it's not working. I'm just mad, upset and confused. Glad I have another doc appointment soon. Hopefully she will prescribe a blood glucose monitor for me so I can see the effects of the food I eat as a reinforcement. I need constant reinforcement.... and I guess seeing immediate results of how a particular food product affects me will encourage me to cut that product out of my diet, or severely limit it.

Damn damn damn. What a way to begin the week :(

Chicken Caesar Salad

I love a good Caesar salad. With my recent elimination of wheat from my diet, I'm running in to many opportunities to make my favorite dishes as wheat and grain-free as possible. Croutons tend to be a staple for salads, but I've found a fun way to bypass them and still have a yummy salad.

Ingredients

• Handful Romaine Lettuce
• 1 Tbsp Grated Parmesan Cheese (NOT to processed crap in the pasta aisle - get this in the chilled cheese section or from the deli at your grocery store)
• 1 Tbsp raw unsalted hulled (shelled) sunflower seeds
• 1 Tbsp thinly sliced almonds
• 4 ounces of rotisserie chicken chunks
• 2 Tbsp Caesar dressing (Unfortunately, the brand I have right now, which will remain nameless, is not organic, and I didn't realize when I bought it that it had corn syrup in it! I will be buying this version very shortly. 

So... that's about it. simple, easy, but Oh So Yummy. I'm hoping to post more recipes as I try and perfect wheat free versions of some of my favorites. If you have a recipe you're looking for, send me a message and I'll see what I can find for you. Thank you!

Wow. Simply Wow.

Thank you, God, for pushing me to do this Daniel Fast. Thank you for letting me see what you've wanted me to see, and get out of this experience.

In the last year, I've learned soooo much with regards to my health. I've had success. I've had setbacks. And I've continued to push through.

I'm convinced that every step of this journey has served a purpose. From clean eating, and ditching the white refined sugar for maple syrup, honey, and stevia, and getting rid of packaged, processed products (such as boxed jiffy muffin mix, hamburger helper, blue box mac n cheese, etc) to giving up soda, and eventually my beloved sweet tea, to the experiment of being a vegetarian (no beef, pork, or chicken - dairy eggs and shrimp/fish still allowed), to what I thought was going to be the next step of the process: vegan.

Now...I heard of the Daniel Fast, and thought that it sounded like a good trial period for me to figure out if I could go vegan, and if I could go without any kind of added sugars. I knew I would be able to do it for the fast, but I wondered if I would be cranky, tired, miserable and ready to give up.

Amazingly, I have not. I have felt better in the last 2 1/2 weeks than I think I've ever felt in years. I'm not getting that 2pm in the afternoon feeling where I think I need a nap. I'm not exhausted when I get home, and force myself to stay up until bed time, only to eat something sugary late which spikes me back awake and limits me from being able to sleep. I've had basically fruits, veggies and grains, and nothing else for the last 2 1/2 weeks, and that's it. No bread, because the fast said no yeast, and I couldn't find any whole wheat bread without yeast. I did try to make a Daniel fast approved flat bread last week, but I only had a few small pieces. I forgot to store it in an airtight container, and the next morning it was as hard as a rock. le'sigh.

Anyway, I've felt great. I'm drinking lots of water because I'm trying to be diligent in my effort to drink half my body weight in ounces of water daily. I've got a few people at work who are helping hold me accountable. It's awesome, and it's working. lots of water = lots of potty breaks = lots of weight loss.

I came into this fast expecting a boot camp version of being vegan. I never expected that this experience would swing me the other way though. As it looks, I'm planning to slowly ween myself back into eating meat in moderation after this.

Yes, I know. I watched the Vegucated movie. And Food Inc. And Hungry for Change. And Fat, Sick and Nearly Dead. And all of those documentaries are fabulous and I'm not discrediting them because I think they all have VERY valid points. I'm 100% about natural, organic though. I won't be buying cheap meat to buy cheap meat. I won't be buying meat out at restaurants very often because I won't know where it's coming from. It IS important to me that if I'm going to eat chicken, I'm not eating it from somewhere that they injected these poor chickens with "stuff" to make them grow twice as fast as nature intends so someone can make a quick dollar. It's important to me that if I'm eating a steak, that I don't eat a steak from a cow that was treated poorly in the process. Yes, animals have to die for us to eat their meat, but they don't have to be tortured in the process (Lawd, I've become such a hippie!)

What changed? Why the complete 180 with regards to meat after being meat free for 4.5 months? Simple. Some seeds have been planted over the past year - no pun intended. Murmurs of the caveman diet (which I was vehemently against, because of the thought that cavemen died very young, etc etc.) I'm not going full Paleo, for the record... I also heard from various sources that grains were my problem. All those "Healthy Whole Grains" that are marketed to us over and over again is a myth. I thought HOGWASH when I first heard negativity ab out healthy whole grains. Healthy whole grains are good for you! Eat up!

No, actually. They aren't. Paraphrasing Dr. William Davis, while it is true that filtered cigarettes are better for you than unfiltered cigarettes, just because they are better for you does not mean you should smoke them in excess. Same thing goes for healthy whole grains versus their white counterparts. Just because whole grain is a better alternative than it's white counterpart, the problem with this logic is that we continue to eat too much of it.

My doctor told me a year ago that I was insulin resistant and hypoglycemic. I didn't know what hypoglycemic meant, but I thought it was directly related to the insulin stuff, so I didn't bother to research hypoglycemia until this last week or so. I was given a list a mile long of things that were wrong with me. Overweight, insulin resistant. hypoglycemia. PCOS. Infertility. etc etc etc. This most recent doctors visit back in September, after having been vegetarian for 2 1/2 months, my doc mentioned the book Wheat Belly by Dr William Davis to me. I had heard of it, but never read it. I wasn't interested. It wasn't for me. I had already given up meat, why give up wheat too? What else would be left for me to eat, because I wouldn't have any options left after that.

That was late September. After starting this fast, being confident that the outcome was going to be vegan, something clicked. Somewhere along in my research on different recipes allowed on the fast, and studying up on insulin resistance, it's affect on PCOS and how people have combated it, led me back to the book Wheat Belly. I started reading the book mid week last week, and it's a LONG book, and it's taking me a while to get through.

One day this weekend, I had a dizzy spell. Completely not like me... I don't get dizzy, I don't pass out. It was completely out of the ordinary for me. The only thing I could determine is that I honestly had not had much to eat that day. I hadn't been hungry and I haven't been snacking on the fast. I didn't need to. After talking to my dad about some of the information I had been reading in the wheat belly book, we somehow got around to him having a dizzy spell earlier this week too. He reminded me of the term "hypoglycemia" which I had forgotten about, and he told me he has the same thing. I asked him what it means, and it's directly related to my insulin resistance. As I understand it, my body makes entirely too much insulin. Insulin is made by your pancreas to bring your blood sugar levels down when you've eaten something that has caused your blood sugar to spike. The problem is, my body doesn't know when it's made enough insulin and needs to stop. It keeps producing insulin, over and over and over again. Sweet foods don't trigger mine to turn on because it's constantly running. Prior to this fast, I was eating all day every day, at least every few hours even if it was a small handful of a snack. This weekend when I had my dizzy spell, I had been working in the yard, drinking alot of water, but hadn't had any snacks. I hadn't had food at all in probably 7 hours when this happened. My insulin had produced so much, but I hadn't had any food to offset the work the insulin was doing and it caused my blood sugar to bottom out.

It was not exactly a fun experience. However, listening to my dad's story and him reminding me of what hypoglycemia is, made me go home and research it... and then everything fell into place and made perfect sense. It made perfect sense why at night I ALWAYS ALWAYS want something sweet before bed. It never fails. Even when I try to ignore that urge, it's been there, and I've always caved. Since being on the fast though, I am not allowed to have added sweeteners, so when I've had the craving bad enough, I've had to settle for an apple or some natural applesauce.

So.... this research encouraged me to check out what exactly glycemic indexes are... what it means, how it works, and why it important. Apparently, when you eat something, depending on its glycemic index, your blood sugar rises and spikes. Your insulin helps bring you back down from your high, and about 2-3 hours later, when you've hit a low point, you're ready for something sweet again, or something that will cause your glycemic load to increase again. This is why so many dietitians tell us that you have to eat every 2-3 hours to keep your blood sugar levels constant.

Okay, so this stuff is starting to make sense to me. Except that since I've been fasting, I haven't been having the ups and downs. I'm not eating stuff that's making my blood sugar sky rocket, but it's not plummeting either. I'm generally eating just enough when my body is physically hungry, to prevent myself from having another dizzy spell.

Guess what kinds of foods are notorious for spiking your blood sugar levels? You guessed it. Anything with wheat. Anything. I don't want to spoil the book, but long story short, the wheat we have available to us today is more harmful than good. It's not the wheat of the biblical times. It's garbage. It's hybridized, genetically modified garbage that's making us fat. Even if you think this is hogwash, I want to encourage you to read the book, if for nothing other than entertainment value. It's presenting some mighty convincing arguments right now, which I'm totally buying into, and I've now determined to cut out wheat from my diet permanently. Lucky for me, the Daniel Fast allowed me to get through the tough first 5 days detox of coming off wheat because I was more focused on fasting than to think about the wheat.

All that being said - I'm not going back into meat full force day one of the fast being over. I'm going to go back to meat VERY VERY slowly. I gave up meat to give up fast food, and I still fear that I'm on a slippery slope of "if I eat it at home I'll justify going to Zaxby's to get some chicken fingers later." However, with this new desire to cut out wheat completely, I think I'll still be safe from the fast food temptation because of all the bread, and and fried breading, etc.

I'm convinced of the claims Wheat Belly describes because after I hit the 50-52 pound mark back in August, I hit another plateau. Immediately once I started preparing for this fast, about a week before the fast actually began, I started dropping weight again. As of this morning, I'm down 65 pounds. Who is excited? This girl right here. If I play my cards right, I'm pretty sure I'll be able to 75 pounds by Christmas, but hopefully even more than that. At this point, it's still not realistic to expect my original 100 pound goal by Christmas - that's practically a pound day. I won't say it's not possible.... but it's highly unlikely. I'm just gonna keep keepin' on, and do the best I can with the resources I have and see where this wheat/grain free journey takes me.

For more info, check out Wheat Belly on amazon, and I encourage you to read the 5 star reviews as well as the 1 star reviews.

Also check these sites out:
http://www.elanaspantry.com
http://www.eat-real-food-paleodietitian.com/paleo-diet-and-pcos.html
http://casualkitchen.blogspot.com/2012/09/how-do-i-follow-wheat-belly-diet.html
http://www.wheatbellyblog.com/2012/04/wheat-belly-safe-flours/

Back on the downhill turn

Whenever I've hit a long plateau in the last year or so, it's deterred me from blogging about my journey. I know that plateaus are a part of the process, but they still suck, and they are discouraging.

Tomorrow is 1 year since the day I went to the doctor's office and was given an ultimatum. As of today, I'm down 60 pounds. I'm thrilled! I had hoped to lose 100 pounds by Christmas... but that feels a little unrealistic now. That would mean I would have to lose 6 pounds per week between now and Christmas. Possible, sure, but unlikely. I've reset my goal to 75 pounds by Christmas, but if I make it, of course, I'm going to continue to bust it to keep going.

Several big changes have happened since the last time I wrote in this blog. I decided to take the plunge and go vegetarian as of July 1st. Well, to be completely accurate, I gave up beef, chicken and pork. I was still eating fish and shrimp as well as dairy and eggs. I wrote in another post how I hoped that I would one day be able to go vegetarian, and I'm glad I did. I was really beginning to slide on how good I was being when I was running around and hadn't properly planned my meals for when I was away from home. I was finding excuses to justify going to get fast food. The only way I was able to really give up fast food was to give up meat. Sure, I could get a salad at a fast food restaurant  but let's be realistic. If I walked into Zaxby's, I wasn't going to order a plain salad. I was going to order a chicken fingers and fries meal. So... while animal cruelty ticks me off, especially after watching so many documentaries and learning what I have, the main reason I was able to give up meat was for the purpose of giving up fast food. By not eating meat, I wouldn't eat fast food. If I had said "No fast food" it wouldn't have worked. If I were still eating chicken at home, I would find a reason to justify going to Zaxby's.

So... gave up meat, and I lost over 20 pounds in 6 weeks. It was AWESOME. Thhhhhen I hit a major plateau for another 8 weeks or so. Totally bummed me out. Sometime in October I learned of The Daniel Fast. In a nutshell, it's a 21 day partial fast that is closely aligned with the vegan lifestyle, except it's more restrictive than vegan. Absolutely no meats, no dairy, no leavened bread, no deep fried foods, no solid fats (butter, shortening), no beverages over than water, no added sweeteners (yes, even natural stuff. The only sweet you're able to have on the Daniel Fast is that which occurs naturally in fruits or veggies.) No processed or packaged foods of any kind.

Most of this wasn't new to me. Most of this is just pure common sense, but it's strict enough to make me roll up my sleeves and says "Alright, let's do this!" especially since it's a FAST, not a diet. This is not meant to be permanent. For 3 weeks, I can give up my weekend coffee, fish, shrimp, eggs, dairy, fried foods, added sweeteners, ghee (clarified butter) and bread. If nothing else, this is a test to see if I can finally go vegan (something I really want to be able to do).

Today is day 6. I feel FABULOUS this week. I avoided Halloween the best I could. Work had a Halloween party - people brought all kinds of treats to work. I avoided the kitchen except ti fill up my water bottle and I had my mental blinders on while I was there. I cannot believe the amount of ENERGY I have had.Whenever I would get up from my desk to walk to the bathroom, I felt like power walking to the bathroom (and tried to do it without looking like a dork). It felt like I had so much energy to burn, and no where to use it. So this is what it feels like to not be on a sugar high? And that 2pm feeling that the 5 hour energy drinks are always talking about? Yeah, not for this girl. No mid afternoon slumps for me this week. I could tell a difference. A HUGE difference in the way my body felt this week. UNBELIEVABLE. I've never EVER felt so good in my life.

My friend Katie is on a weight loss journey of her own. She reminded me of the whole concept of "drink half your weight in ounces of water every day." I've heard this concept before, but have never tried to follow through. That is ALOT of water. But, I decided to give it a whirl. I have this 24 ounce water bottle that I use every day. Normally I drink 2-3 bottles worth, and thought I was going good because it's such a big bottle.Yeah, I figured out that I'm supposed to drink 5 per day right now. Holy smokes, that's alot. So, I gave myself hourly check points. I told myself I wanted to shoot for finishing the first bottle by 10 am, then noon, 2pm, 4pm and 6pm... knowing good and well that I probably would fall behind, but would still have the rest of the evening before bed time to catch up. I did fall behind, but by having that goal, it pushed me to be more conscious about how much water I was drinking and how often. Good grief, I was getting up to go to the bathroom every 20 minutes though!

I started the waster thing on Wednesday. I lost 3 pounds overnight as a result. WOAH. I started prepping for my fast about a week before I started it. So in less than 2 weeks, I've shoved the plateau aside, and I'm down another 8 pounds total already. That's how I've hit the 60 pound mark already. I cannot wait to reach the 75 pound mark. I'm going to do another before and after picture then. I plan on doing it for each 25 pound increment from here on out.

Today will definitely be a test though. I am going up to SPSU for an Alumnae reunion, and I have a feeling there will be food.. and I'm going to have to pass. I guarantee that nothing (except for maybe a salad with no dressing) will meet my fasting requirements right now.I'll just have to plan to take something with me to eat before and afterwards.

Well, I'm off to make some Daniel Fast approved Pumpkin Pancakes for breakfast. Hope y'all have a good day!

Ghee

Until today, I had never heard of ghee. I now have a pint sized mason jar full of it in my kitchen.

I got a recipe off the an e-newsletter from Hungry for Change. The way the recipe referred to it, it "sounded like" it was simply a substitute for butter. Which it is. Sort of. Ghee is clarified butter, which is made from unsalted butter. Simply put, you take a pound of unsalted butter, boil it at medium high heat, reduce it to medium heat, boil it a little longer, and then carefully strain it through cheese cloth into heat resistant, airtight container. It should not be refrigerated, but left in your cupboard, or on the counter at room temperature. When preparing, I actually had to strain mine twice because I poured it too quickly from the sauce pan into my first container. I then strained it again, slower this time, so that it would catch all the solid foam particles which was defeating the purpose of it being clarified.

Here's the recipe I used to make it. I can't wait to try it :) You can use it in any recipe that calls for butter.

Juice Fast - Day 4

I skipped Day 3. In a nut shell, Day 3 was tough. At the risk of giving TMI, it didn't help that my monthly visitor arrived. Due to being on the juice detox, I couldn't have my "standard craving snack of a bag of M&Ms and bottle of Coke, and on top of that, I couldn't take any Aleve for the pain. No wonder yesterday SUCKED. I was in bed at 10pm, which is highly unusual for me.

I woke up today, determined that it was going to be a better day. It was, but I sort of felt like I was going through the motions at this point. I am enjoying the results, but I can honestly say that I DON'T really like what it's taking to get those results. I HATE cucumbers. I HATE celery. I HATE carrots. I can handle lettuce in small doses. I feel like I'm backed into a corner. I've lived my whole life, eating packaged, processed garbage, and now I'm at a point when I am trying to reboot my body to enjoy food the way nature & GOD intended, but yet I feel like I'm a failure because I flat out do not enjoy it.

I told my husband tonight that I will probably enjoy juicing more when it's not a complete fast. When I juice only once or twice a day and have several other regular meals, I probably won't mind it. I dunno. I mean, maybe I should fast longer to force myself to get used to it. It's a catch 22. I LOVE the results....I want to enjoy the green juices, but I just DON'T.... and it sucks, because I wish I did. Raw Rebecca, on FB, made video posts about her first fast, and she too said she didn't like the mean green. And then someone told her it would grow on her, and now she loves it. I guess I haven't found the right combo yet.

I guess I need to continue to compare this journey to my get out of debt journey. It's not easy or pleasant making sacrifices to get out of debt, but its a necessary evil to live a better life. It's not easy or pleasant making sacrifices to be healthy, but it's a necessary evil to live a better life.

I'm trying to be strong. I think I've done very well for this first attempt, but I'm not at a point yet where I can fast for a long haul. I'm going to check out some of the recipes at the Join The Reboot website for those folks who juice and eat (rather than just juicing) and make a plan for next week. I want to continue to make healthy choices, and ultimately, that is what this journey is about.

It's not easy, but I believe that it's going to be worth it in the end.