I have a real refrigerator, hooray, I can now concentrate on the pantry raid.
Out with the sugar, flour, cereal, oatmeal, grits, cornmeal, crisco, all oils designated PUFA's (polyunsaturated fats) crackers, pasta, rice, peas, beans, peanut butter (goodby dear friend), prepackaged snacks and corn. If I had popcorn, pretzels, peanuts or any other type chip or snack it would have been given away too.
Part of clearing the pantry is going through the spice cabinet too. Read every label. We've weeded out anything with mono-sodium glutamate and any questionable herbs and spices. We have been ordering Celtic Sea Salt, which is high in mineral content, from Amazon.
By the way, it can be less expensive and easy to find sources of whole foods on Amazon. It may be worth it to you to join Amazon Prime. http://www.amazonprime.com.
One cheat, before I cleared the cabinets I decided to have Irish steel cut rolled oats for breakfast. I made a cup, added a teaspoon of locally harvested honey and some walnuts. Very soon, my digestive system rebelled. I was bloated, had indigestion and other digestive issues that had already disappeared. The good news is I learned that even so called clean grains do not agree with my digestion. It was not very difficult to give them up after all.
It was also Super Bowl week so I had a cheat on Sunday as well. On the menu: Raw celery, carrots, broccoli and ranch dip. I skipped the dip. Wings that I baked in the oven at 375% until done and crispy on the outside with home made wing sauce I made with hot sauce, garlic and butter. Yummy! We also had gumbo, which I skipped because of the rice. Buffalo chicken dip my daughter makes that is so good I ate some on celery instead of chips. Spinach dip, cheese dip, red velvet cake with cream cheese filling, I skipped those too. But, someone brought home made chocolate cupcakes and yes, I ate one. Again I felt awful after consuming the cup cake. The good news is: I get just as sick when I consume alcohol so I generally skip those harmful and empty calories.............Now to remember how I felt after the oatmeal and cup cake. Two cheats in week two and if you ask me were they worth it I would say definitely. I can say in all honesty that oats and sugar do upset my digestive system.
My mood was not as light as this post. I was already tired of planning to prepare each meal. Once I started the prep work I was okay, but not looking forward to all the time in the kitchen. Note to self....Set aside one day per week for planning, another for running around doing the shopping and another for food preparation. You will have a lot of dishes, but on the upside, the food processor and blender are starting to pay for themselves. They had been sitting pretty shiny on the shelf. I grumbled about bacon and eggs until I discovered that cottage cheese and tomatoes were a great breakfast food. The thing about this plan is you are supposed to start thinking about fasting longer between meals and I had been making it to lunch, but the energy was not enough to get me through my workout. I felt a little lazy overall.
Lunch is either celery stalks with almond butter or a salad with left over meat from the night before. Supper is the same fare of either steak, roast, chicken, fish or shellfish. The vegetables vary from salad to spinach, broccoli, cauliflower, green beans, green peas, turnip greens, cabbage and beets. I still have a handful of almonds and a square of 75% dark chocolate.
The workout for the week was walking running up on the road in front of my house and the WOW is still 50 squats, 25 pushups, 25 pullup and one minute plank for three rounds. My outdoor play was walking around taking nature pictures.
Inspirations: Listening to Chevelle on my IPOD, remembering how the oats and sugar made me feel and again, comfortably wearing those small jeans.
Recipe: Hot Wings
Ingredients: Package of hormone free certified organic chicken wings, sea salt, pepper, 3/4 bottle of hot sauce, your choice and free of MSG, unsalted real butter, one or two cloves fresh chopped garlic.
Pre-heat oven to 375%. Thoroughly wash and pat dry the wings. Place them on a shallow baking sheet such as a cookie sheet. Sprinkle with sea salt and black pepper or any other seasoning you prefer. Bake until golden brown and crispy, 30-40 minutes. Pour the wing sauce over the wings and return to the oven for a couple of minutes.
Sauce: In a heavy saucepan on the stove, sautee the garlic in a couple of teaspoons butter and add hot sauce. You can add as much hot sauce as you like, but you want enough to drizzle over the wings.
No comments:
Post a Comment