Tuesday, September 4, 2012

A New Toy!

Now there's a title that makes MSB (My Sweet Babooh AKA my hubby) sit up and take notice!  Today will be a cut and dried type of post since I have a little too much going on to wax poetic about another of the Rocket Fuels - since we still have two more of them to talk about. 

I will mention about my new toy though.  My dear friend Jill made a suggestion to me the other day that helped her follow this plan while working full time.  I will be attending a medical meeting downtown starting this weekend and will have to pre-make and pack all my meals in order to be successful during those four days. 

She mentioned using a "Bullet" type blender that has you blend your meals in the drinking cup so there's less transfer and way more convenience.  This sounded like a brilliant idea to me.  For anyone who knows me they will attest that I've never met a kitchen appliance I didn't love so....   I, of course did some internet research and found several of these blend in a jar / drinking cup contraptions out there.  Although the Cuisinart model had some detractors I do love everything else I have that is from Cuisinart so it is a name I trust.  I went to my local discount store with their handy Labor Day 20% off coupon and looked at the three or four models on the floor and since the  Cuisinart blender had four drinking cups - I was sold!  I just love new toys.

So, today I made a few of my drinks in the Cusinart drink maker.  You would have seen more of the photos except my phone chose to not save the picture I took of our first shake this morning.  So, I'll have to do a better job describing it, I guess. 

We are certainly moving right along with these programs.  I do like having everything all prescribed for me and then just following along.  When not on a special program how do you decide which recipes to pick for your meals?  Do you plan a day at a time?  Do you plan out a whole week?  Do you look in the refrigerator and figure out what recipe would work for what you've already got?  How often do you cook the same thing?  I read somewhere that most cooks just rotate a few recipes and that's it.  Research has shown that actually having too much variety causes us to overeat.  This is why going to a buffet is such a diet buster.  Not only do most people fall into the silly thinking that they want their money's worth at the buffet - but even those that only take a little bit of this and that way over eat. 

Here's todays' menu:


First thing in the morning we have a shake that will make most of us salivate just to read the title - Chocolate Banana Mylk Shake.  This delightful mixture of a banana, flax seed, cocoa and sweetener certainly hit it out of the park!  Making it an antioxidant powerhouse by adding the Matcha green tea powder to the water made me like I wasn't being a dessert cheat at breakfast.  Obviously this one gets an A.  She also suggests adding Maca - a supplement to this which she calls a "power pack".  I'll have to read more about why she calls it that and why she likes it.  I went to the health food store to buy some Maca and when I read the label saying women on Hormone Replacement should stop these hormones a few weeks before taking Maca - I put the container back.  Nope, gonna take more than something called "power pack" to make me stop my hormone replacement.  If you're not taking it you might try this.  Would love to know how it makes you feel.  Also - sorry for no picture.  This is the one the camera phone ate. 

Next we have the mid-morning snack of Pineapple Coconut Salad. This is a very simple salad of just some pineapple chunks sprinkled with coconut and ginger.  The coconut I got is unprocessed and quite dry so it was not actually all that palatable and since I was way into playing with my new toy I just threw it all into the cup with a bit of water and Voila' - instant smoothie that softened up the coconut and was extremely palatable.  I hadn't taken a picture since we all know what pineapple looks like and after I smoothied it up I was too hungry to take a picture then.  I feel like I'm letting you all down.  This gets a B.

For lunch we have a new salad called Asian Cabbage Salad with Apple Cider Vinaigrette.  For this salad I used a great technique called wet chopping of the cabbage in my Vitamix that my friend Jan reminded me of.  Jan has also done the 15 days before and is actually the person that inspired everyone I know that has followed this plan to give it a try.  Along with the chopped cabbage there are carrots and cucumber some wonderful fresh basil and mint as well as almonds.  I wanted to use up the dressing from yesterday's salad so that is why my dressing looks so brown in the picture.  This salad is 'da bomb'.  That's a good thing.  I love, love, loved it!  I will definitely be making this salad again and again - it clearly deserves an A and will be a contender in the best salad hall of fame when we get to the end of the 15 days. 

For the mid afternoon snack we have Mango Mint Shake.  This drink not only looks very inviting it also  smelled wonderful with the chopped up Mint.  The shake is made even greener with the addition of romaine and uber healthy from the addition of coconut oil.  I thought I would like this shake better than I did.  I'm glad that I don't dislike the coconut oil the way did 6 days ago.  As I was drinking this I kept feeling like I was almost going to say "Meh?"  I couldn't figure out why it was I didn't like this that much until I decided I just don't like mint.  It just tastes too much like toothpaste to me.  So - since I didn't actually say "Meh" and also figure people that enjoy a minty flavor might really like this shake I'm going to give this a B.

Finally, our dinner is a soup called Coconut Tomato Soup.  If you remember, I've mentioned I do not like tomato soup.  I always think of the horrible canned tomato soup they would serve at the school cafeteria during my Wonder Bread years - Ack!  In sharp contrast this is a very nice, tasty soup.  In addition to the tomatoes there is garlic, ginger and miso in the soup.  This was a good tomato soup that definitely deserves a solid B.

Looking back at the day we had coconut THREE times today!  There is no way that our bodies did not get whatever nutritional goodness that she was aiming for via coconut today.  After today I would think we would be set for the rest of the week - we'll see what she's got in store for us.  See everyone tomorrow.  Here's your recipe tally:

Name Category Diet Day Page number   Rating
Ginger Mango Shake Shake Fat Blast four 118   B
Easy Being Green Salad  Salad Fat Blast four 133   B
Strawberry Mint Shake Shake Fat Blast four 126   B
Red Pepper Soup Soup Fat Blast four 148   A
Banana Shake Shake Fat Blast five 114   A
Pomegranate Blueberry Salad Salad Fat Blast five 165   A+
Spring Sauerkraut Salad  Salad Fat Blast five 138   B
Pineapple Protein Shake Shake Fat Blast five 125   C+
Kreamy Dill Delight Soup Fat Blast five 147   D
Chocolate Banana Mylk Shake Shake Fat Blast six 117   A
Pineapple Coconut Salad Salad Fat Blast six 165   B
Asian Cabbage with Apple Cider Vinaigrette Salad Fat Blast six 129   A
Mango Mint Shake Shake Fat Blast six 120   B
Coconut Tomato Soup Soup Fat Blast six 140   B

1 comment:

  1. I had to put the Pineapple Coconut Salad into my blender also. It works into a nice palatable smoothie.

    I am glad you like your new personal blender. I couldn't believe I would like something better than my Vitamix, but I do. :)
    (thought I would try a different browser to see if I can comment here)

    ReplyDelete