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General Weight Loss Tips

Sweet Potato Love

dinner2 11 12 Sweet Potato Love

I’m so in love with this dinner. It’s making me feel nourished, satisfied and happy this evening. Half of the plate was covered in a mixed green salad with cauliflower, boiled egg, cucumber, cherry tomatoes, green onions, purple cabbage, chopped bacon and homemade croutons. I made another creamy dressing, which was so easy, it’s ridiculous that I haven’t made creamy dressings at home before.

I placed about 4 T mayonnaise in a small jar with 1/3 C milk, about 1/4 (or more to taste) salt, dill, garlic powder, and cayenne. Place lid on jar and shake. The result is a very thin and flavorful dressing. A little goes a long way.

The shrimp was tossed in cajun seasoning and cooked in the skillet with a little olive oil and butter. The sweet potatoes were tossed with about 1 T. leftover bacon grease, sea salt, garlic and cayenne. They were roasted at 425 degrees for  20 minutes. They were fantastic. I think I prefer savory sweet potatoes so much more than sweetened ones.

Oh! Thank you guys for the exercise recommendations here and on facebook today. I pulled out my resistance bands and did a lot of arm and leg work. I’m already starting to feel sore!

We’re experiencing some major wind and below zero temperatures tonight! Time to break out my quilt and boil water for a mug of tea.

What is your favorite way to prepare sweet potatoes?

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Categories
Weight Loss Exercise

Making Diet Food Desirable



There are three main reasons why most people don’t stick to their diets. For one, they get too hungry and look to “comfort food” to fill the void. Secondly, they don’t like the taste of diet food, and out of sheer boredom they look for their usual, “exciting” (aka fattening) cuisine. And finally, many people simply can’t afford healthy options, and so it’s back to the drive-thru dollar menu. So how can we overcome these obstacles? This article will attempt to provide an answer.

We will address three things that can be done immediately to not only identify “diet food” that will have your taste buds thanking you, but to also fill up your tummy without emptying your wallet. I personally believe that you deserve the best of all worlds… health, happiness, satisfaction, sensation, and affordability. So let’s make it happen!

3 Steps to Overcoming Common Dieting Obstacles:

1. Go natural. The closer you can get your diet to 100% natural, the better off you will be. This means instead of buying a frozen or prepackaged meal, do some actual produce shopping. Buy fresh, lean meats. And don’t be afraid to prepare meals yourself. There are many diet plans out there that rely almost solely on you “eating like a caveman.” When you eat like this, it won’t even feel like you’re eating diet food!

2. Vary your flavors and textures. One reason that people typically hate diet food is that not all flavors and textures are being represented in their meals. People like things to be chewy, salty, juicy, sweet, starchy, meaty, crunchy, spicy, flaky, and a vast array of other things.

Instead of fighting this natural desire for variety, embrace it. Incorporate “heavy” foods like mushrooms and avocados, stick to lean meats such as chicken, turkey, and fish. Try spaghetti squash for a sweet, hearty crunch. Sprinkle some sea salt on green apple slices. Let your own imagination serve you well.

3. Buy in bulk and clip coupons! The greatest way to save money on your grocery bill is to go into the store with a plan, a budget, and a pocket full of coupons! Seriously, I can’t stress enough how much you can actually save yourself when you buy big family packs of meat, take advantage of “buy one get one free” offers, and use coupons.

You may also want to check out the meat department’s “discounted meat” selection. If the freshness looks questionable, don’t bother… but I have found many, many great bargains on healthy “diet food” just by taking advantage of clearance items. Just remember to invest in some freezer bags and fill your freezer to capacity!

These three steps can truly go a long way in making diet food not only a heck of a lot more enjoyable, but a practical and affordable alternative to the garbage that continually contributes to our obesity, heart disease, stroke, and cancer epidemics.

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Categories
General Weight Loss Tips

31 Recipes

This month I’m participating in FloCoIMo which is Floyd’s (and beyond) alternative to NanoWrimo. My idea first was to create an art journal, but after the first day of the year that seemed like too much work for me right now. I imagine I’d sit around the last week of the year hurridly putting something together, just because. And so I went back to my original idea, which someone told me would be too much, but that’s me, I’m doing it any way. 31 recipes in January.

So far I’ve made five and I actually want to do it, I look forward to each recipe. It goes along nicely with my resolution to cook more and I’m trying out new recipes that I’ve been saving up for way too long.

Yesterday morning for brunch I had another tandoori chicken burger served on naan. Recipes one and two of the month. I just love this recipe.

For dinner I made Black Bean and Sweet Potato Enchilada Casserole. I was scared that I wouldn’t like the mushy texture of the sweet potatoes in this, but I did. This recipe was a success, Josh said “I think this is even better than I think it is” as he is now battling the same sickness I had over the weekend. It was very good. Savory, spicy (but not too hot) and comforting.

I made a few minor changes to the recipe, which you can find here. I used kidney beans instead of black because my black beans were not done soaking. I used tomatoes with green chilis in the sweet potato mixture instead of just chilis. I added red onions to the layers. I didn’t use cream cheese. I used cheddar cheese instead and on top. I used beef broth instead of chili when making the green chili sauce, only because that’s what I had on hand. I served with avocados sprinkled with sea salt. I also made more sweet potatoes than that recipe suggests so I could put it in a bigger pan and make six servings. This will definitely be made again.

My fifth recipe is Five Ingredient Granola. I used pecans, oatmeal, chocolate chips, peanut butter, sea salt, honey+corn syrup.

These were good, but way too sweet, especially post Christmas. Next time I would use dried cranberries, more nuts and all honey.

 

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