Food, Glorious Food

OK, so it has been one week since my first hCG injection... and (drum roll please) I am down 11 pounds! No, I will not tell you what that makes me.

So today, I thought I would spend a little time telling you about some GLORIOUS food creations I have come up with this week. When you agree to go on a "food plan" that is this stringent, you want every morsel of food to be delicious. You savor it in your mouth, rolling it around on your tongue and teeth, feeling every texture, and chewing very slowly. You drink the juices from the pan and look longingly at the grill, thinking about licking off what flavor is left there.

As a disclaimer, this is an EXTREME diet, and please don't do it without a doctor. I had to have an EKG to be sure my heart was up to it, and I have no heart history in my family (unless you count that my dad has been married to my mom for almost 40 years-- I call THAT heart history)

Here are some ideas that I came up with this week. First of all, you must understand, my husband and I are doing this together, and we agreed that 3.5 oz of fish at any meal wasn't going to be enough. Heck, when we eat fish for dinner, we are always STARVING by bedtime. So we agreed to begin with chicken and beef. We bought some hormone free and range fed beef and chicken at Sunflower Market here in Murray. I carefully weighed and cut the portions, bagging them in sandwhich bags and putting them all into quart size freezer bags. I thought it would be easiest to succeed if I did this on the first day (while I was still motivated, and not inclined to cheat). The veggies and fruits are easy, because they are a "handful" of each. I can reach in and get a handful at mealtime.

Grilled Steak
3.5 oz steak
Grill mates steak seasoning
or
Lemon pepper and garlic salt
or
Worcestershire sauce (1 tsp will cover the whole thing) and salt
or
any other seasoning that you like on steak

Grilled Chicken
3.5 oz chicken
Grill mates chicken seasoning
or
Lemon pepper and garlic salt
or
Italian Seasoning and garlic salt
or
any other seasoning that you like on chicken (I am going to try poultry seasoning this week)

What to do with your Grilled Chicken or Grilled Steak
1-put it on top of a handful of green salad
2-eat it just as it is with a side of vegetables

that is all I have thought of so far.

So here are some menus that we ate this week:

1-Grilled steak with Sauteed Mushrooms I grilled the steak with the grill mates, and sauteed the mushrooms dry for a couple of minutes, then added white cooking wine (about a tablespoon) for a wonderful flavor. I felt like a guormet cook.
2- Chicken Parmesan (without the parm) I grilled the chicken with Italian seasoning and garlic salt. I took a whole tomato and cut it up, then put it on the stove. I cooked it down slightly and seasoned it with more Italian seasoning, garlic salt, and pepper. Then I cooked it some more. I served the stewed tomatoes over the chicken. Delicious. (I served the rest of the tomato juice in a glass, the flavor was so wonderful I wanted every bit that I was entitled to!)
3- Grilled Chicken with Wilted Spinach I grilled an extra piece of chicken for our lunches the next day, so I took the cooked chicken, cut it into small pieces, and heated it in the pan. When it was starting to get hot, I added a handful of fresh spinach to the pan, and continued to stir. Pour in a tablespoon of that white cooking wine, and cook a couple of minutes more--wow. So yummy.
4-Beef Fajitas- I took the steak and sliced it thin, then stir fried it on the stove. I cut a whole pepper and stir fried it too. I put the beef and pepper together, then added fajita seasoning and water. Very good, but a little too hot for me. I like the lime flavor in it, though.

Drinks
We have to drink A LOT on this plan, but it is a good thing because otherwise, your mouth gets bored with nothing to do. Here are some things that we have found to liven it up.

Herbal teas-- there are many types of herbal teas, and lots of them taste AMAZING! If you like your tea sweet, add stevia (just a little, mind you). We have also added cinnamon and cloves. Helpful hint: Ground Cinnamon goes slimy in hot tea. Cut off a piece of cinnamon stick and use a whole clove instead.

Lemonade-- we are allowed the juice of 1 lemon per day on this plan. I juice the lemon, add 3 cups of water and 2 droppers of stevia. This stuff is SOOO good, I don't know if I will go back to real lemonade-- ok, fake lemonade. What could be more real than this? Pure lemon juice, filtered water, and stevia.

Apple Cider Vinegar water. Sounds gross, doesn't it? Buy the raw, unfiltered apple cider vinegar at the health food store. Put a teaspoon in a bottle of water, add 4 drops stevia. It is pretty tasty!

Emergen-C for energy (and to keep the capillary bed strong-- I was bruising the first few days of shots)

and of course, plain old filtered water. It tastes good too.

See you later!

Next time: Bison "tacos" and Cabbage rolls