With the uric acid concerns, I've been working on ways to kick more purine out of the diet. One thing is to pull out some meat in favor of greek yogurt. My husband HATES yogurt. Heck, I love yogurt and I'm not a fan of plain greek yogurt. My gut feeling is to throw strawberries in everything, but he's been turning bright red every time he eats them so we cut them out.
Sooo... I have oranges, I have greek yogurt, let's go!
Orange Smoothie
Ingredients:
6 ounces plain greek yogurt
1 large orange, peel removed, cut up into pieces
A few drops vanilla stevia
Preparation:
Blender. Go go go. You know what to do.
Verdict:
I think this may be a serious winner. It's filling, and he loves it. It tastes a lot like an Orange Julius, and I'm not even kidding - it's shockingly similar in consistency and flavor. It's desert, it's a fruit, and it's a good amount of protein.
Analysis:
The vanilla stevia hadn't been the plan. I'd forgotten about it, as finding stuff to do with it is harder than I'd thought when I got it. I'm sure this would taste great with regular stevia, but the vanilla rounded it out just enough that it came out amazing.
He says it's pretty filling; at around 19 grams protein for the whole thing, that sounds about right. The downside is that the whole thing clocks in around 200 calories, which is a lot. There's a couple ways to deal with this. For one, a half portion a day may be more realistic for some. This is also good for the person who sometimes has trouble reaching the 500 mark. My husband is supposed to be at around 800, which is HARD with his appetite and the fact that he can't eat out and about as easily. It's pretty normal for him to get close to the end of the day, and not know WHAT to eat. This is an easy solution that I can keep in some containers in the fridge.
So yay!
Showing posts with label recipes. Show all posts
Showing posts with label recipes. Show all posts
Saturday, July 9, 2011
Saturday, June 25, 2011
Recipe: Buffalo tomato sauce
Standard disclaimer:
Buy stuff that has no sugar, and preferably no other crap either. Additionally, keep in mind that this is aimed for an 800 calorie plan.
Also disclaimer:
I'm not on the hCG diet. I'm just a supportive spouse.
Servings: 3-4
On my husband's 800 calorie plan, it's 3 servings; on a lower 500 one, 4 servings.
Ingredients:
-1 can organic tomato sauce (15 ounce)
-1 lb lean ground buffalo
-Handful of spinach
-2 tablespoons garlic
-6-8 leaves fresh basil chopped
-1/2 white onion
-Italian herb to taste
-Red pepper flakes to taste
-Pepper to taste
Preparation:
Cook buffalo in pan. Put in strainer and run under hot water for a few minutes (this is a trick I use making chili to try to keep the fat content from becoming overwhelming).
Wipe out pan and put everything else in. Cover and cook on medium heat and stir frequently; my goal here was to get some of the moisture out so that it could be eaten by itself or on Miracle Noodles (which may not work out depending, we haven't tried them yet). The little bit of fat left from the buffalo will help it not stick too much.
Drain buffalo well and add back in; simmer, stirring frequently. Put to the side with the lid cracked to let out a bit more of the moisture. It may sound weird, but it makes it a bit thicker.
Optional:
Mixing this with a handful of Miracle Noodles is going over well.
Non-hCG spouse option:
Serve with whole wheat noodles and a bit of cheese if you'd like.
Notes:
This makes a surprisingly large amount of food; I believe it may count as two veggies, but that could be cut down by adding less tomato sauce and omitting the spinach, or would work as-is for those on a higher than 500 plan. Me, I confess, I just like tossing spinach in stuff.
More disclaimer:
This violates one commonly cited rule of the hCG diet, and that is to not mix veggies. However, the naturopath said it's fine to do so, and it helps keep enough variety in things. Additionally, I know this is a lot of veggies in one meal technically. He came in under calories by over 200 yesterday, so I'm trying to make up that difference a little bit by rounding out some stuff.
Buy stuff that has no sugar, and preferably no other crap either. Additionally, keep in mind that this is aimed for an 800 calorie plan.
Also disclaimer:
I'm not on the hCG diet. I'm just a supportive spouse.
Servings: 3-4
On my husband's 800 calorie plan, it's 3 servings; on a lower 500 one, 4 servings.
Ingredients:
-1 can organic tomato sauce (15 ounce)
-1 lb lean ground buffalo
-Handful of spinach
-2 tablespoons garlic
-6-8 leaves fresh basil chopped
-1/2 white onion
-Italian herb to taste
-Red pepper flakes to taste
-Pepper to taste
Preparation:
Cook buffalo in pan. Put in strainer and run under hot water for a few minutes (this is a trick I use making chili to try to keep the fat content from becoming overwhelming).
Wipe out pan and put everything else in. Cover and cook on medium heat and stir frequently; my goal here was to get some of the moisture out so that it could be eaten by itself or on Miracle Noodles (which may not work out depending, we haven't tried them yet). The little bit of fat left from the buffalo will help it not stick too much.
Drain buffalo well and add back in; simmer, stirring frequently. Put to the side with the lid cracked to let out a bit more of the moisture. It may sound weird, but it makes it a bit thicker.
Optional:
Mixing this with a handful of Miracle Noodles is going over well.
Non-hCG spouse option:
Serve with whole wheat noodles and a bit of cheese if you'd like.
Notes:
This makes a surprisingly large amount of food; I believe it may count as two veggies, but that could be cut down by adding less tomato sauce and omitting the spinach, or would work as-is for those on a higher than 500 plan. Me, I confess, I just like tossing spinach in stuff.
More disclaimer:
This violates one commonly cited rule of the hCG diet, and that is to not mix veggies. However, the naturopath said it's fine to do so, and it helps keep enough variety in things. Additionally, I know this is a lot of veggies in one meal technically. He came in under calories by over 200 yesterday, so I'm trying to make up that difference a little bit by rounding out some stuff.
Friday, June 24, 2011
Support groups and salad dressing
As an aside, here is the rough recipe for the dressing. Mind you, I'm largely ballparking this as I don't measure anything. When people ask me for my chili recipe, I usually shrug. I managed to write most of it down, but even so, I don't follow it. I throw whatever I think is a good idea at the time into it, and I never taste it until it's ready to be served. I know, that's trouble waiting to be had.
My fans are not deterred by my sloppiness: this stuff is to die for. Hell, it will probably kill you. If the spiciness doesn't, the next day's consequences have a chance. If that doesn't do you in, wait for your arteries to clog. You know you want to.
Maybe it's no wonder we both have weight to lose? For me, though, I'd rather have a small bit of Death Chili than a huge bowl of something healthy, because some things are what they are. Tasty and bad for you. I'm fine with a tiny bit of bad for me, and eating some salad to round that out sometimes.
Onto the salad!
Drummergirl's First HCG Friendly Salad Dressing
(aka "Random Crap In A Cup And Cross Fingers" dressing)
Ingredients:
-2 tablespoons apple cider vinegar (I'm finding myself fond of Bragg's)
-2 tablespoon lemon juice
-.5 tablespoon brown spicy mustard
-1.5 tablespoon chopped green onion
-A dash of Bragg's Liquid Aminos
-1-2 drops liquid Stevia (I imagine this varies from brand to brand, but the stuff we have is really potent)
-Salt/pepper to taste (I also added some other seasoning salt mix I had)
A note on all ingredients: make sure there is no sugar in ANY item.
Preparation:
Prep is simple, throw it together and shake vigorously. I may even eat this!
The quantity is small, mainly because if I make a big batch, the green onions get a little brown. My suggestion would be to make a big container, and dole out smaller portions to add the onions to.
Support Groups
I was also thinking about support groups today. I heard that the wife of someone on my team is also doing the same diet. It made me think about if something like that would help my husband, some kind of support group. The problem is, we're not support group people.
When we did Weight Watchers a long time ago, part of why we didn't stick with it was the meetings. It was great that people came together to support each other, that they shared tips and ideas. However, there was so much feeling of validation, of "group hug!" constantly that it kind of turned us off from the whole thing. It felt kind of fake, as if no one were really talking about the challenges. We stopped going.
When I worked to lose weight, I didn't spend a lot of time with major support groups. Instead, I spent a lot of time in weight lifting communities, places where I could get tips, inspiration, and share my own successes. Support group? Perhaps. But a down to earth one for the most part.
After that, I ran a mailing list with tips and tricks, for eating, exercise, foods to eat, ect. I wrote lots of great articles, from the benefit of using a heart rate monitor to the joys of fruit. It helped focus me, to pass on this positive energy. This is the kind of support group that I feel can be very beneficial - it has a lot of room for the different ways people like to do things, without saying "this is the way to do it and that's it!" I don't think that's a good support group. I will say that if you're following a diet, yes, there may be one right way to do it. But that particular diet is not the One True Diet for everyone.
It happened with Atkins; people were fanatic in their devotion, and vocal in their criticism. It polarized people. HCG isn't really any different. Some people will say it's dangerous, some people will swear by it, some will swear by it to the point of aggression, some people will be supportive and thoughtful and encourage people to do what's right for them and give them resources. Every community has all of these types of people, I suppose. There's a trick to finding a balance between support and sounding crazy.
A diet like this simply would *not* work for me, and I would never want someone in a "support group" going off on me for that, attempting to correct me on my "facts" and how great it is. The only fact there is for me is: I lost 60 pounds with sensible eating and exercise. If that works for me, then that's that. If some other diet works for someone, same goes.
The internet is cool in that you can shop around for the kind of community you want, though. Having supportive people in your life is a must, whatever you do. I've been where my husband is to a degree - I've gone to restaurants where the only thing I can eat is a green salad with vinegar or salsa on it. I already have the tools to help. In a way, I'm really excited that now I can use some of the tricks I learned. On the other, I know this is going to be crazy some days. It's not a diet in which I can toss a high fiber granola bar in a bag and send him off to work.
I suppose my bottom line for support groups is, "Support networks are good, but taking fucking crazy people and feeding them 500 calories a day is a recipe for burning down the house." Stick with people with balanced perspectives, helpful advice, and a positive attitude. In life, these are always the best people to surround yourself with anyway.
My fans are not deterred by my sloppiness: this stuff is to die for. Hell, it will probably kill you. If the spiciness doesn't, the next day's consequences have a chance. If that doesn't do you in, wait for your arteries to clog. You know you want to.
Maybe it's no wonder we both have weight to lose? For me, though, I'd rather have a small bit of Death Chili than a huge bowl of something healthy, because some things are what they are. Tasty and bad for you. I'm fine with a tiny bit of bad for me, and eating some salad to round that out sometimes.
Onto the salad!
Drummergirl's First HCG Friendly Salad Dressing
(aka "Random Crap In A Cup And Cross Fingers" dressing)
Ingredients:
-2 tablespoons apple cider vinegar (I'm finding myself fond of Bragg's)
-2 tablespoon lemon juice
-.5 tablespoon brown spicy mustard
-1.5 tablespoon chopped green onion
-A dash of Bragg's Liquid Aminos
-1-2 drops liquid Stevia (I imagine this varies from brand to brand, but the stuff we have is really potent)
-Salt/pepper to taste (I also added some other seasoning salt mix I had)
A note on all ingredients: make sure there is no sugar in ANY item.
Preparation:
Prep is simple, throw it together and shake vigorously. I may even eat this!
The quantity is small, mainly because if I make a big batch, the green onions get a little brown. My suggestion would be to make a big container, and dole out smaller portions to add the onions to.
Support Groups
I was also thinking about support groups today. I heard that the wife of someone on my team is also doing the same diet. It made me think about if something like that would help my husband, some kind of support group. The problem is, we're not support group people.
When we did Weight Watchers a long time ago, part of why we didn't stick with it was the meetings. It was great that people came together to support each other, that they shared tips and ideas. However, there was so much feeling of validation, of "group hug!" constantly that it kind of turned us off from the whole thing. It felt kind of fake, as if no one were really talking about the challenges. We stopped going.
When I worked to lose weight, I didn't spend a lot of time with major support groups. Instead, I spent a lot of time in weight lifting communities, places where I could get tips, inspiration, and share my own successes. Support group? Perhaps. But a down to earth one for the most part.
After that, I ran a mailing list with tips and tricks, for eating, exercise, foods to eat, ect. I wrote lots of great articles, from the benefit of using a heart rate monitor to the joys of fruit. It helped focus me, to pass on this positive energy. This is the kind of support group that I feel can be very beneficial - it has a lot of room for the different ways people like to do things, without saying "this is the way to do it and that's it!" I don't think that's a good support group. I will say that if you're following a diet, yes, there may be one right way to do it. But that particular diet is not the One True Diet for everyone.
It happened with Atkins; people were fanatic in their devotion, and vocal in their criticism. It polarized people. HCG isn't really any different. Some people will say it's dangerous, some people will swear by it, some will swear by it to the point of aggression, some people will be supportive and thoughtful and encourage people to do what's right for them and give them resources. Every community has all of these types of people, I suppose. There's a trick to finding a balance between support and sounding crazy.
A diet like this simply would *not* work for me, and I would never want someone in a "support group" going off on me for that, attempting to correct me on my "facts" and how great it is. The only fact there is for me is: I lost 60 pounds with sensible eating and exercise. If that works for me, then that's that. If some other diet works for someone, same goes.
The internet is cool in that you can shop around for the kind of community you want, though. Having supportive people in your life is a must, whatever you do. I've been where my husband is to a degree - I've gone to restaurants where the only thing I can eat is a green salad with vinegar or salsa on it. I already have the tools to help. In a way, I'm really excited that now I can use some of the tricks I learned. On the other, I know this is going to be crazy some days. It's not a diet in which I can toss a high fiber granola bar in a bag and send him off to work.
I suppose my bottom line for support groups is, "Support networks are good, but taking fucking crazy people and feeding them 500 calories a day is a recipe for burning down the house." Stick with people with balanced perspectives, helpful advice, and a positive attitude. In life, these are always the best people to surround yourself with anyway.
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