Wednesday, September 5, 2012

A Week On the Fat Blast Train

Who, Whoooo - we've made it to the last day of the first week on the Fat Blast!  How does everyone feel?  This is obviously a quite do-able diet.  I'm happy that I feel this way now since when I first got the book and took a stab at the first few shakes I didn't like them and threw in the towel right away.  I wish I could tell you what the difference is, but I'm not sure. Possibly it's because-

  • We sort of went through a detox by doing the three day weekend Reboot first
  • I was better prepared, went through all the menus before each day and reviewed the upcoming few days even earlier
  • I had this blog and all you great friends reading and commenting as an accountability system
  • I didn't have my dear sweet Babooh to drag home take out or entice me with a beach walk followed by dinner out.  
I've been pleasantly surprised by a lot of these recipes and I'm pretty sure some of them will creep into my usual rotation once I venture back to picking  out my own meals.  Almost sounds like picking out my own clothes!  

Today we need to welcome one of our newest readers - Ani  Phyo herself!  Yes!  I sent her a quick note on Facebook to let her know that I was blogging about her diet and invited her to take a look.  She was kind enough to respond and even got a chuckle over my ratings for her recipes.


Today I thought I'd go over some of the more unusual ingredients that we are finding in these recipes.  I think this is one of the best benefits to following a prescribed diet plane vs. picking an choosing recipes that look like things you might already like.  

As you recall from the first day I mentioned my journey toward becoming more of a vegan started with reading Marilu Henner's books.  She introduced me to different types of seaweed, Bragg's liquid aminos, Rice Wine and Rice Wine vinegar.  The list goes on and on and now these items are always in my pantry.  

So - in the past week we've seen the terms Maca, Matcha, Miso, Spirulina, Coco Nibs, Flax and probably a few others that are a bit foreign.  

I mentioned that Ani had an option to add Maca to one of our drinks.  Maca is considered a "super food" from the Andes that is taken to boost immunity.  It is also been called a natural type of viagra.  The preparation that I found at the health food store advised people of hormone replacement to cease taking hormones before consuming Maca.  This is why I don't take it.  If any of you take it please share your experience.  

Matcha powder
Matcha is a powdered form of very high quality green tea.  Ani's book says that one cup of this type of green tea equals 100 cups of regular tea.  Impressive!  Since it is powdered it can be added to many preparations to boost your nutritional value.  It is supposed to boost metabolism and decrease cholesterol with regular use.

  
miso paste
Miso is fermented soybeans.  It can come in several different colors which corresponds with the intensity of the taste.  It is used widely in Asian dishes and is considered to be very beneficial due to the fermentation. 



Cocoa Nibs
Spirulina is a type of blue-green algae that contains protein as well as other amino acids and other factors that apparently boost immunity.   

Coco Nibs are the little nibs from the bean of the cocoa bean- yum!  


flax seeds
Flax Seeds / Meal is very high in fiber as well as Omega-3 fatty acids which are good for your heart.  






Ok - let's get to today's menu before it becomes tomorrow and then I'll really get confused.  

 



First shake for breakfast is the Matcha Shake  Now that we all know what Matcha is this powder is added to the water for the shake along with a banana and some almonds.  There was the option to add some maca or spirulina but I did not.  This lovely drink tastes like the simple banana almond shake we've had before but now we know that we're getting extra goodness from the matcha.  I liked this easy morning starter and will make this again.  I'll give it a B.

For mid-morning snack we have the extremely inviting Pecan Candy Apple.   Who wouldn't want to gobble this up?  I know I had to make sure I took a picture before I nearly stuck my face in there.  So - yes, there's the apples, there's cinnamon, some ground up pecans, vanilla and even some coconut oil for good measure.  This had the OMG factor - lets eat this every morning for a week.  Obviously - this gets an A

For lunch we have another salad and this inventive salad is called Corn and Basil Mesclun Salad.  We had the option to use the Thermo dressing or the Cider vinegar.  Since I used up my Thermo the other day I went back made the Cider vinegar dressing.  The salad as you can see has greens, corn, radishes.  There's also some basil in there as well.  I think I mentioned before I hated radishes but I sliced them very thin and adhered to the plan.  The bite of the radish gave this salad some character and despite myself I actually liked it better than I expected.  What I wasn't a fan of was the Cider vinegar dressing.  Too blah - I much prefer her Thermo dressing with the miso in it.  The salad get's a B-.


Our mid afternoon snack is called Smooth Operator.  I'm not sure about the origin of the name although she describes how this is an infinitely better vegetable soup than anything you can get in a can.  No argument.  Still don't understand the name.  This soup should look quite a bit more green since there is celery, romaine, tomatoes, ginger and the ever present miso.  I think I would have called this vegetable soup with a Capital V!  At first I thought the tastes were too strong but I was wrong.  I really liked it.  It has a strong garlic flavor which I like and makes this a hearty tasting soup.  I guess the biggest surprise is that this is a "snack" since I would expect something so hearty to be the main meal of the night.  I give this B, too.  Probably a B+ since it really was quite good but not up to A standards.  See what happens when you write down the criteria?


Finally we have Souper Supper.  This soup really is Super in every way.  Cucumbers, celery, avocado for intense creaminess, a splash of lemon for zing and of course miso.  This soup is a real winner! She says you can put in one or two cups of water to taste.  In drinking the soups I opt for more liquid but I would definitely make this soup for dinner or lunch and would want to use a spoon so one cup of water is my choice from now on.  The cucumber is so light and refreshing and accented by the dill.  The avocado makes the soup so silky smooth that it just feels to good to eat this.  I'm so glad I have left overs because I'm already planning on when I can down the extras.  You will want to make this soup!  Obviously gets an A!

Tomorrow we start on our second week of the Fat Blast. Here's your recipe spreadsheet:

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
Matcha Shake Shake Fat Blast seven 120   B
Pecan Candy Apple Salad Fat Blast seven 164   A
Corn, Basil Mesclun Salad Salad Fat Blast seven 132   B-
Smooth Operator Soup Fat Blast seven 127   B+
Souper Supper Soup Fat Blast seven 149   A






1 comment:

  1. Ann, Momcat here. Love reading your daily adventures!! What I'm wondering is, how do you feel throughout the day? Do you feel full? And do you find yourself wishing you had more meals that you chew instead of drink? The recipes look delicious and I'm thinking the soups might be a way to get a few veggies into Songster ;-)

    ReplyDelete