Will anyone believe
me if I recycle the old excuse, “it's been crazy the last few
weeks”?
Well, it has. In a
good way, I must confess—warm, summery winter days, strolls by the
creek with my baby, new books to read, and the THM cookbook to study
and obsess over during Dean's nap (my leisurely portion of the
day)--such enjoyments have kept me from updating this blog the couple
weeks. And before then? Shucks! I don't even know what happened!
Anyway, back to the
present. Dean's nap will end in about half an hour, so I have a
limited amount of time to finish up this post and get it published on
the blog. I can't share everything I would like to, this time around.
For now, I'm going to post on THM. In a few days, I will post family
updates and lots of cute “Dean moments” to share with you. :)
I officially started
the THM “diet” on March 1. Here are the culinary successes and
failures of that first week. If you have any ideas for improvement,
let me know! I'd like to keep posting THM weekly menu plans on a
regular basis; it forces me to write them out and start planning, and
I'd love to hear your feedback and ideas for improvement.
If you're new to
THM, there are 5 basic types of meals allowed on the plan:
S meals – protein
+ fat
E meals – protein
+ carbs
S Helper – S meal
+ small amount carbs
Crossover –
protein + fat + carbs (fats and carbs “even”)
Fuel Pull (FP)–
protein (no fats or carbs)
S and E meals are
the backbone of the plan and help you lose weight (so do Fuel Pulls,
but you can't rely on them too often). Crossovers help you maintain
or gain weight, if you need to. S Helpers help you lose weight, but
not as effectively as S or E meals.
OK! Moving right
along:
Monday
S Breakfast –
scrambled eggs
I'm used to cooking
eggs in butter, but this time I used coconut oil. It was surprisingly
delicious! Andrew didn't like it as much, though, so I'll stick to
coconut oil for eggs when he's not home.
E Lunch –
cottage cheese waldorf salad
Basically cottage
cheese, diced celery and apple chunks, and spices—good, but I'll
never eat this as a whole meal again. Too much of the 'same.' I love
cottage cheese but I couldn't eat that much in one sitting. Next time
I'll make this as a side, not a meal in itself.
S Dinner –
chicken with salad (complete with cheese and nuts)
S snack – 85%
chocolate bar
By the way, 1
chocolate bar equals about two pieces, so it's a small bar. It's
usually satisfying though, especially if you suck on the pieces
instead of chewing them.
Overall this was a
good day for THM. The lunch was regrettable, but hey – live and
learn. The waldorf salad is still yummy in small amounts! And none of
the meals required special ingredients, although I didn't buy cottage
cheese before starting THM.
Tuesday
E Breakfast –
quinoa with 1 tsp butter, s & p
Pretty good. Butter
is your friend here. Of course, this being an E meal, I couldn't put
on as much butter as I would like (I
discovered a couple weeks ago that quinoa + salt + lots of butter =
out of this world yumminess), but the allowed 1 tsp does make the
quinoa enjoyable. I wouldn't be tempted to eat it two or three days
in a row, though, as I do with some recipes.
S Lunch –
Thailand soup (from the original book) with a small side of cottage
cheese
Wow. I don't always
like ethnic foods, but wow...that soup was good, and incredibly easy
to make. You literally put a few ingredients in a pot, stir once or
twice, and wait for it to warm up. So easy, so delicious!
The
cottage cheese was tacked on as a filler—I was still a tad hungry
after the soup. They didn't really “go” together, though—I'd
like to experiment more with easy side dishes.
S Dinner
– PIZZA! With salad, of course. So...the crust for this particular
THM pizza was basically made from cheese and egg-whites. And it was
good. Oh. My. WORD. It was SO GOOD. I do not have words to describe
how good that crust was. It was almost a shame to put the toppings on
– they detracted from the crust, which was the real star of the
show.
Unfortunately...the
crust stuck like crazy to the parchment paper. (Actually, I may have
used wax paper...does that make a difference? Hehe, I hardly ever use
either one!). It took me at least half an hour to peel it all off. I
couldn't peel it off the edges so I just cut them off and used the
center for making pizzas. However...that crust was so
good...I couldn't stop eating
it, wax paper and all. Tells
you something about the flavor (or maybe I'm just crazy).
*happy
sigh * So, anyway, I'm gonna have to tweak this recipe, but it's a
keeper. I'm not sure if I'll use it for pizza though—I might opt
for the cauliflower crust on that front, and keep this cheese crust
for making crackers or even flatbread.
S/E snack – ½
cup blueberries
S snack
– 85% chocolate bar
Wednesday
E Breakfast
– oatmeal with 1 tsp butter, yacon syrup, blueberries and nuts
S Lunch
– Thai soup, 1 piece leftover pizza
Yes,
that's two days in a row. What can I say? It's good stuff!
S Dinner
– cheesy pesto chicken with salad and blueberries
S Snack –
85% chocolate bar
Good
stuff. I need more ideas for E meals, though.
Thursday
S Breakfast
- Cinnamon “muffin in a mug”
Edible,
but only just. To be fair to the recipe, our microwave is pretty much
shot, and I had to substitute ground flax for the almond flour.
Still...kinda gross. I might try my hand at an oven-baked version of
this, but I won't do it in the microwave again (unless we get a new
one).
By
the way—I experimented with the chocolate version of this recipe
last month, before I had actually committed to THM, and it was
terrible...let me tell
you, chocolate and stevia do not go together!
The cinnamon version was heavenly by comparison. Anyway, I purchased
the THM Gentle Sweet Blend recently, and I can't wait for it to
come—it's supposed to taste more like sugar and compliment
chocolate better than stevia. Once it arrives,
I'll start experimenting with THM chocolate desserts again. Not
before. ;)
S Lunch
– steamed cabbage with sausage and cream sauce
So...this
was meant to be a Fuel Pull, but I didn't have the right kind of
cheese for that, so I made it S-style instead. Sigh...I added too
much water to the cream sauce and that—well, it watered it down a
bit. It had potential, though, and I will experiment with this one
again. Next time I might just nix the sauce and use more spices for
flavor.
E Dinner
– flounder with garlic & parsley, quinoa, and salad
Really
enjoyed this. Nothing new
here, except I ate quinoa instead of fried potatoes (which is what we
usually eat with fish). I did fry up some potatoes for Andrew and
Dean, though—otherwise I might have had a mutiny on my hands! The
potatoes made them very happy, however, and Dean was content with
potatoes and bites
from Mommy's quinoa. Hubby was content to shun the quinoa, luckily
for me.
E snack
– lemon-blueberry muffin
S snack
– 85% chocolate bar
Breakfast
and lunch were miniature disasters, but I learned from the experience
and have some ideas for redoing them next time.
Friday
E Breakfast
– 2 E muffins and some nonfat Greek yogurt with blueberries,
sweetened with stevia and flavored with lemon extract
The
muffins were good (see the recipe here) and the yogurt was a good
idea...just a little
bit too much of a good thing, though. Greek yogurt just seems so
thick and tart, even when you sweeten it. I liked it, but not enough
to eat it for breakfast again.
The
muffins, though—those were yummy. I am looking forward to using the
THM Baking Blend (which I also just ordered and is in the mail) to
achieve a higher rise and a more “muffin-y” texture.
S Lunch
– Lettuce with 1 can salmon, mixed with mayo (homemade) and
drizzled with olive oil
Seriously
good stuff, woman. Insanely
easy to make, insanely delicious. This is a meal I will make over and
over and over and over again.
FP Snacks
– Good Girl Moonshine and
lemon gummies (both from the cookbook, which came in the mail just
yesterday!)
Oh
my word! So good! If
you like ginger, you will love Good Girl Moonshine. (And by the way,
if you are pregnant and suffer from morning sickness, I'm betting
this would be a great beverage to alleviate your nausea and help you
feel human again.)
The
lemon gummies were great too. Dean and I have been snacking on them
all morning! They were super easy to make and super delicious, too.
(Or, as Bertie Wooster might
say, “delish.”)
S Snack
– 85% chocolate bar; ice
cream
No
one's taking my chocolate away from me. EVER. It
doesn't MATTER how many other snacks I've had today—chocolate rules
supreme!
The
ice cream was super good—though I didn't get more than a bite or
two. My dairy allergy (?) kicked in and got me coughing again, so I
gloomily listened to my commonsense and did not partake. (I am,
however, in the process of making non-dairy ice cream, so we'll see
how that goes.)
S Dinner –
cabbage with salmon
So,
this is basically what I had for lunch...just with cabbage instead of
lettuce. Yes, I do repeat myself—a habit I need to break—but it's
so easy when you like
it and don't know what else to make!
Saturday
I
just realized, I forgot to track my meals for Saturday!
Sunday
S Breakfast
– scrambled eggs
S Lunch
– quiche and salad, blueberries in almond milk
Yes,
I'm repeating repeating myself again. ;) Sometimes it's just quick
and easy. And in my defense, I did not subject my family to this
repetition—they got up later and had something else for breakfast.
Crossover/Cheat
Dinner – raw cauliflower and
broccoli, half a bagel (with butter), half a slice of banana bread,
cheese
Yes—carbs
+ fat collision. I didn't have a lot of either, though, so I'm hoping
it counts more as a crossover than a “cheat.” :P
S Snack
– 85% chocolate bar, Skinny Chocolate, THM “Trimmy” hot
chocolate
Ate
a little too much chocolate today, but...it was good. :P The THM hot
chocolate was delicious, even though I didn't have all the
ingredients listed in the recipe. I substituted butter for the MCT
oil and added some cream to thicken it. It was still rather thin when
we drank it, but I enjoyed the flavor and the buttery taste. It was
different but delicious, and I will definitely make it again.
Monday
E Breakfast
– Trim Healthy Pancakes, with sausage
S Lunch
– leftover quiche, salad
S/FP Snacks
– Skinny Chocolate, Choco Baby Frap (FP)
S Dinner
– Loaded Fotato Soup, salad, cheesecake for desserts
The
“Fotato” Soup is really cauliflower soup, which tastes just like
potato soup. Cauliflower is great potato substitute. I never really
had faith in this principle until now! I think I actually prefer this
to the original.
The
THM cheesecake was good, though I will make it differently next time.
Next time, I will not use nuts for a “crust” (as suggested in the
original book)--soggy nuts don't add anything desirable to the
finished product. It also needs time to just sit in the fridge before
you eat it. Nevertheless, this was a yummy dessert and I will
probably make it again sometime.
If there's one thing I've learned from tracking my meals this week, it's that S meals are way easier to throw together than E meals; E meals take careful planning. You have to think ahead a little to do this successfully. That's definitely something I need to work on. I have a tendency to make "whatever is easiest at the moment" on a short time schedule, but if I want to be serious about this, that attitude is not going to work. Moral of the menu, right there. ;)
(Another moral--get some culinary variety in your life, or sharing your menu plans with friends and family can get embarrassing!)
