Arriving at my parent's place, we decided to go out to eat that night. It was the first time for me going to a restaurant since I started this diet last week.
Usually the "health" options on the menu are not very appealing. Who wants grilled chicken with vegetables? Not me, anyway. It doesn't get more boring than grilled chicken in my opinion.
But this restaurant had a grilled salmon and that was a whole different story!
I happily ordered salmon with asparagus and grilled tomatoes and switched the broccoli side for cole slaw (I like broccoli but only cooked particular ways and I rarely like it at restaurants).
I avoided potato, breading, and we didn't have dessert. Though we did eat some dark chocolate cookies at home.
So that was a pretty good success!
The next day was a brunch and pot luck event. I didn't do quite as well there. Had some brownies. But for the most part I made good choices like wheat toast with almond butter and apricot jelly.
So far for this week we have the following meals planned that I'll cook for my family:
Creamy grits with asparagus and poached egg
Spaghetti squash with regular pasta sauce (my parents were curious to try the spaghetti squash)
Butternut squash zoodle mac and cheese (I don't have a zoodle machine so I'll just be cutting small pieces of squash to be the macaroni noodles)
sweet potato falafel (falafel is one of my dad's favorite foods)
almond crusted chicken tenders (still need to get ingredients for this one)
I started using coupons a couple of years ago because of the show Extreme Couponers. I saw it on TLC and was inspired. I had never used a coupon before. I hadn't seen my family ever use coupons. I didn't know the first thing about it!
But I got out my notebook and I took notes while I watched the show.
I can't do the crazy shopping trips they do with getting $600 of groceries for pennies or free. But I do have some great moments with coupons.
I started out by subscribing to The Grocery Game because she does a lot of the work for you. You just need to get a source of coupons (subscribing to the Sunday paper usually costs $1-2 a week and pays for itself). The Grocery Game costs money but also usually pays for itself. I used that as training wheels until I was ready to do it on my own.
This week I scored a couple of great deals and I wanted to share my excitement with you!
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At my Weis store I saw Mucinex Allergy medication in the clearance rack. My husband takes allergy medicine every day and Mucinex is a brand he likes. Allergy medicine is super expensive so I knew I wanted those but I wondered if I could get them even cheaper.
I went home and googled for recent Muscinex coupon and found one for $2.00 off any one product through their Facebook page. We each have a Facebook account so I printed it twice.
Even though I only had coupons for two of them I still bought all the packages they had, which was six. Each box had ten pills in it, so this was 60 allergy pills.
The original regular cost would have been $68.94 (and my coworker who was ringing me up was shocked that I would spend so much on allergy medicine!)
As soon as my card was scanned the price dropped to the clearance price. Then I added my coupons and the end result was a cost of $30.47 for all six boxes. That made them $5 per box (usually $11.49) and just 50 cents per pill.
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On top of that I also needed some hair dye. I went gray at 20 and I dye my hair back to its original black. I don't do it too often but it's looking really bad right now!
I got a paper coupon for $2.00 off a Clariol hair dye product and I went ahead and loaded an identical coupon onto my Weis card at the ecoupon center. I wasn't sure if these coupons would stack but I thought it was worth a try.
They did and I bought a box that was also on sale. So I got a $7.49 box of hair dye for $2.99
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Next I took advantage of a Big G cereal sale. I can't eat my beloved Lucky Charms anymore because that's a lot of both white sugar and simple carbs. But my husband can eat them.
There was a special at Weis for an instant $6 off 4 boxes of Big G cereal.
I downloaded a coupon from MyPoints.com for 50 cents off a box of Lucky Charms. It doubled at the register to a dollar and I'll get 20 points (usually ten but there's a special) to my My Points account that I can later cash out.
Then there's also a SavingStar.com coupon for 50 cents back on a box of Lucky Charms (I've found that when one site has a coupon for a product, most of the other sites have it too).
So we got 4 boxes of Lucky Charms that are usually $3.99 each and got $7.50 back. So $15.96 minus $7.50 is $8.46 for all four and that makes them $2.11 per box. (I usually try to get cereal under $2 before I buy it but this was not bad).
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The last thing was Dole frozen treats. They've got frozen chocolate covered fruit and smoothie fruit mixes. They were on special at Weis for $5 off instantly when you bought $20 worth.
At SavingStar they had save $4 when you spend $12.
Since our meal plans are built around where we are in our cycles, what do we do if our cycle phase shifts while we're in the middle of a week?
I'm back to taking my temperature to get a baseline even though it doesn't currently tell me much about where I am in my cycle yet. Eventually I'll have more warning about when I am likely to switch phases (and exactly where the elusive Ovulation phase is). If this diet works, anyway. I expect to see my temperature charts make more and more sense as I eat with these principles.
In the mean time the only thing that will switch my meal plan for me is if I start menstruating.
Since that's only about three or maybe four days for me, what I will probably do is put the current meal plan on hold and freeze/store whatever I can for the next time I'm in Luteal phase. Then I'd make a quick meal plan and get to the grocery store that day (pretty convenient for me since I work at a grocery store!) Whatever I can't store for later I'll try to work into the new meal plan.
Even though dinners are smaller and lighter than lunch in this meal plan it is still really difficult to come up with dinner meals.
I'm struggling to find things that don't have carbs or sugar. Ordinarily if I wanted a light meal I'd do a piece of fruit or a fruit smoothie but I'm trying to avoid sugar as much as I can for this meal.
My husband pointed out that I need to focus on meat more.
So here are some gathered ideas even though many of them are not as light as I had in mind (I can try to just eat less of them too)
hamburger with lettuce "bun" (mustard instead of ketchup?)
Here are the snacks I prepared for myself when traveling...
Cucumber Crisps
I sliced cucumber very thin and I think I actually need to leave it a little thicker. My slices dried so much they were little more than just curls of skin!
I used my NuWave oven to dehydrate. It's a fantastic little device that I got as a gift from my mother-in-law. It's nice for cooking small meals for two rather than heating the whole oven. According to the chef on YouTube it also has cool uses like dehydrating.
Total failure. Again I tried to use my NuWave to dehydrate and again I got shriveled little bits of vegetable but it wasn't even crispy. I'm calling BS on the idea that the NuWave can function as a dehydrator.
I really want crispy green beans to work but I'm not sure it's worth getting yet another kitchen gadget to do it! Besides, what if I buy one and it still doesn't work?
Buffalo Cauliflower
This one was a winner! It is battered (I used Urad flour instead of garbanzo because I couldn't find my besan. I'm sure I have it somehwhere) and baked, then the hot sauce is added and it is baked again. It's nice and crispy.
My husband doesn't care for cauliflower so he was skeptical as I cooked this. But then he ate one and said, "This is great. You have to make this again."
Healthy Fudge
This fudge is free of gluten, dairy, and processed sugar! It's also super easy to make. (Yet another instance where I wish I still had my food processor!)
I happened to already have all the ingredients on hand for this one. Even the coconut oil (which I bought a while ago knowing it was healthy but not actually ever using it yet!)
This week was an odd one because Friday morning we're flying out to visit my parents for a week (and celebrate my mom's birthday!). I'm waiting to plan the meals for those days until I get there so I can plan with my parents and cook for them. They've always loved health food so I think they're going to really enjoy my meals!
Tue 3/31
Breakfast: Breakfast cookies
Lunch: Spaghetti squash carbonara
Snack: apple and nut butter
Dinner: leftover waldorf salad
Wed 4/1
Breakfast: Fruit Smoothie
Lunch: leftovers
Snack: hummus and crackers
Dinner: Spinach salad
Thurs 4/2
Breakfast: Fruit Smoothie
Lunch: Fried brown rice with veggies
Snack: clementine
Dinner: leftovers
Friday 4/3
Since we are going to be in an airplane I am making snacks for today: Cucumber crisps, green bean crisps, and buffalo cauliflower
(Usually I plan Monday to Sunday as a week but this week I'll wait and probably eat food prepared by others on Saturday and then plan out Sunday and the rest of next week from there)
How is it going?
Pumpkin Chocolate Chip Breakfast Cookies
These were edible! The chocolate isn't ideal for the diet but it made the cookies yummy and I used semi-sweet. I think morning is the best possible time to eat a little sugar since I'll have a chance to burn it off during the day.
I didn't have protein powder so I just skipped it. That was a bad idea. One, protein rich is the principle for breakfast and Two, the cookies were very mushy and my husband pointed out that the protein powder probably acted like flour. Next time I'll use it.
I already had canned pumpkin from the pumpkin sweet potato leek soup last week and I already had oats and most of the ingredients except the chocolate chips (can't keep sugar around this house. I eat it all).
Fish Tacos
A favorite food of my husband's and me as well. I assembled this from various Internet recipes. I had cod leftover from last week so I breaded that and baked it. Ideally I would have used grilled fish but I just love breaded fish too much! So I breaded it in urad flour which is an Indian flour made from lentils and also some flaxseed meal. I also considered using besan flour and semolina for healthier options than breadcrumbs.
The breading mostly fell off while cooking. I've never been able to get something breaded to bake and look like the pictures. Very frustrating. I wish I knew what the secret was to a nice breaded crispy fish or chicken.
There were a number of carb-free or low-carb tortilla alternatives on Pinterest but the one that caught my eye was this one made from plantains. It calls for three and Weis had a sale 3 for $1 so it was perfect. Although, they only had greenish ones and I really wanted to try it with blackened or darkened ones.
I seriously need a food processor! I don't remember how I got by without one!
For the sauce I mixed half mayo and half sour cream then added a dash of Siracha sauce. Not the healthiest thing ever, but being able to eat foods I love is crucial to staying on this diet (and I've already been going without all my beloved desserts like ice cream, fro-yo, and candy bars for nearly two weeks!)
I also had an avocado left from the failed breakfast of last week so I made guacamole from that by smashing it with some lemon juice and salt. And shredded lettuce instead of cabbage or cole slaw.
It was good and I even liked the cod, though that's because it was smothered in the sour cream/mayo sauce! I wish the fish had been crispy.
Waldorf Salad
This was fantastic. I always forget how much I like this. Crisp red apples with yogurt sauce and walnuts. Couldn't be more perfect! The only thing I will change for next time is I'll leave out the parsley.
I had some leftover parsley so it seemed a great opportunity to use it but I really don't like it.
Waldorf salad, crackers, hummus, and clementine in lunchbox ready for work!
Spaghetti Squash Carbonara
I've never been a fan of squash. Okay, that's putting it mildly. I've avoided squash all my life. I have an irrational fear of it. But then this year I was out to dinner with my father-in-law and my dish came with fried butternut squash that looked and smelled wonderful. I was tempted enough to try it and I liked it!
That opened me up to trying other squashes. Though not summer squash. That still looks really gross to me!
I first heard about spaghetti squash at Weight Watchers. Since then I've heard about it a lot as a substitute for pasta. I've been really wanting to try it.
The first thing I discovered is that it is super hard to cut. I was afraid I had bought the squash for nothing and I wasn't going to be able to do it. But then I looked up a YouTube video and it worked perfectly.
My next question was whether I was supposed to pull all the pulp out when I removed the seeds. That pulp looked like the stringy stuff I'm supposed to end up with. But it seems that it is removed based on my Google search. Reminds me a lot of carving pumpkins as a kid!
The other thing to keep in mind when doing this meal is that it will take a lot of time. Roasting the squash first takes about an hour and a half. I'm lucky that my work shifts are mostly in the evening (4 to 10 is a typical one) so I have time in the mornings to make meals.
When finished this meal was absolutely delicious! I loved it. The bacon and caramelized onions really help!
Fri 3/27/15
Breakfast: Sweet potato with cottage cheese and rasins
Lunch: Lettuce wrap beef and brown rice tacos with turnip homefries
Snack: Hummus and rice crackers
Dinner: Cauliflower pizza
Sat 3/28/15
Breakfast: Sweet potato with cottage cheese and rasins
Lunch: Mini meatloafs and roasted parsnip
Snack: hummus and rice crackers
Dinner: Spinach salad with cucumber
Day One:
I like sweet potatoes and I like cottage cheese and I like raisins, yet somehow this combination was disgusting. Perhaps it was the heat of the potato against the cold of the cheese that I didn't like. I don't know. But it meant that I pushed up the avocado breakfast by a day because I was not going to eat the sweet potato one again.
The tacos with romaine lettuce instead of a shell was delicious. I liked that a lot. I wasn't even missing the shell part at all. I put some brown rice in (I always disliked brown rice before but it turns out I wasn't cooking it right. Have to put in twice as much water and twice the cooking time of white rice!). I seasoned beef with taco seasoning and then I put shredded cheese on top. An excellent meal.
Brown rice redeems itself
For the snack, for some reason I couldn't find rice crackers at the store. So I got seed crackers from the gluten free section instead. They are really good! I ate them with hummus and cucumber and it was the perfect snack.
(I was at work over snack and dinner time so I packed one of my bento "laptop lunch boxes" I love these things! The mix and match inner containers fit into an outer lunch box shell.
Dinner was pizza made with pureed cauliflower as the crust. This is something I had seen on Pinterest for a while and I wanted to try it. I'm not sure how I like this. First off, I accidentally left the egg out so that may change my results significantly and I'll have to try it again. I also really need a new food processor because mine broke and I used our little blender for this. Not ideal!
It was soggier than it should have been (so hard to get all the water out!) and it tasted odd but not terrible. Definitely want to try again with the egg in the recipe.
Day Two:
Went for the baked avocado and I hated that too! I love avocado. And I love eggs. And look how gorgeous it turned out!
What should have been the perfect breakfast!
Yet it was awful. Maybe I should have used Haas instead. Florida avocados may be too sweet for this recipe. But I'm not willing to waste expensive avocado to try again.
Lunch was mini meatloafs which are an old stand-by in our house. I don't even remember where I got the recipe anymore. You just take beef, an egg, some breadcrumbs, and chopped onion and green bell pepper. Mix together and add to muffin tin. Bake until done and eat with ketchup. They are cute and yummy! This time to extend our beef I put grated carrot in as well and I used crushed gram crackers for the bread crumbs. Both added a sweetness that enhanced the meal. My husband and I both loved the update.
I roasted parsnips but then I was reading that parsnip may be just as starchy as regular potato so I don't know if it's the best choice.
Dinner was super simple (my husband ate the lunch meal for dinner, of course). I had leaf spinach with veggies and olive oil as dressing.
Day Three:
Having no more plans for breakfast ideas, I ate leftover mini meatloafs.
For lunch we had soup and fish. The soup was really good. Again I need a food processor! Unfortunately I discovered that I don't like cod very much. Even just the smell of it cooking was off-putting to me. My husband loved the meal but I don't think I'll be doing sesame crusted cod again.
Dinner was a similar situation. I made these cheesy broccoli fritters and my husband liked them while I didn't. They also had breadcrumbs which kind of ruined the "avoid carbs at dinner" rule.
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Sunday I planned and grocery shopped and started a new meal plan for Monday. More on those meals next time!
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