Three out of four isn't so bad!

This one's going to be a doozie.  I'm still getting in the habit of keeping a food journal and updating the blog, so this post is going to span the past few days. Oh well! Keep on truckin!

So I started this dietary change on Sunday, and so far it's been a little like the Texas Two-Step - the version where it's two steps forward, one step back. It's actually going really well, and there's been some role reversal in the Williams house! My hubby's been very busy, so I've been doing most of the prepping and cooking, and a lot more of the cleanup than I used to!  I admit it, I've been fairly spoiled by a man who loves to cook and is damn good at it. So changing what we eat and trying to rotate things is, in some ways, more of a challenge for him than for me.  Many people automatically assume that by cutting out gluten, rice, chicken, almonds, etc. (you know the story...), that our diet must now consist of cardboard, tofu, and grass. Well, we're not vegetarian - just eating WAY less meat, and no chicken for me! Our meals have actually been really good! And that's one of the things I love about any time we've tried a new diet in the past - we inevitably discover something new. So what has the lineup looked like for the past week? Here's a recap of the last four days and some notes about some products we tried.

Day 1 (Oct. 13, 2013):
Our first day was detailed in my last post. Breakfast consisted of scrambled eggs, ham, and a plum. Lunch was amazing, because I never EVER thought I would like cauliflower, but the chile-lime-cilantro roasted cauliflower was a huge success! Dinner was a nice raspberry glaze salmon filet, with asparagus and wild rice.

I have to share the fact that I have once again gotten my husband to like, much less eat, something he wasn't very excited about. He was really skeptical about the wild rice, but this Lundberg Organic "Exotic & Savory" Wild Rice, cooked in veggie broth, is absolutely delicious. Score! Once again, we have a winner.

Day 2:
The second day started off great, but dinner was a bit of a backslide. We started off with a blueberry, banana, coconut milk, and pecan smoothie. Delicious! We love keeping frozen peeled bananas and other fruit on hand, as smoothies are actually a regular feature at our house. My snack was an apple and a handful of walnuts. Problem... for the life of me, I can't remember lunch! I was diligently trying to finish up our 2012 income taxes, which I just as diligently avoided all year, as our CPA filed an extension for us, but we missed the deadline to get our info to him so that he could meet the October 15th deadline. We had so much going on, we caved and ordered take-out from one of our favorite local pizza places, Uncle Sam's. I figured it was kind of a quasi "last supper" for me, at least as far as their heavenly onion rings, honey hot wings, and white pizza go. So yeah, I pigged out on gluten, dairy, more gluten, and chicken... and I loved every minute of it... including the Cabernet I almost forgot to mention. But on the bright side, I finished our taxes with one day to spare, using TurboTax for the 1st time ever for our personal AND business taxes, and saved us almost $300 in CPA fees. And we jumped right back on track the next day.

Day 3:
Tuesday started off with more frozen fruit - a strawberry, peach, sunflower milk, and cashew smoothie. I had to try a sip of the unsweetened Sunflower Drink, as I really didn't know what to expect, and didn't want to ruin a perfectly good smoothie. It was actually good and reminded me of almond milk. Sunflower Dream is the only brand I recall seeing at Sprouts, but I will definitely buy it again to avoid burning out on all things deliciously coconut. 

Lunch was a hastily prepped salad consisting of chopped cucumber, tomato, avocado, cilantro, sweet onion, garlic seasoning, lime juice, and a hint of sea salt. We both LOVED it! Definitely another keeper.

 I hate to say it (or do I?), but dinner was so delicious, I ate it before I remembered to take a picture. We sauteed chopped turkey breast cutlets, onion, and zucchini slices, and served it with an acorn squash I microwaved with Earth Balance organic coconut spread and a light dusting of brown sugar and cinnamon.  I'm supposed to limit my sugar, and I've been pretty good about it, so this was a treat. The only downside is that we were really hungry, and it takes over an hour to bake acorn squash in the oven, so we ended up trying the microwave directions on the label that actually came on the squash. We had to cook it longer than it said (more like 12 minutes than 8!) and it didn't cook consistently. Lesson learned.

By now I had figured out that the hardest part of this change is giving up all the convenience foods and treats. Even so many "healthy" or gluten-free pre-packaged foods have dairy, rice, almond flour, or something else I tested sensitive to. Fearing another wimp-out, like our pizza, etc. the night before, I scoured the shelves at Sprouts and found that (Hallelujah!) Bob Mill's makes a gluten free brownie mix without rice flour!  I've only eaten maybe four of them today... can you blame me? Rich isn't all that impressed with them, or so he says, but we both keep eating them, and it's the only chocolate I've found so far that works for the diet!

Day 4: I made it through today!
Today's breakfast was a bowl of Arrowhead Mills Gluten Free Instant Quinoa & Oat Hot Cereal. On its own, it might have bordered that bland, cardboardesque diet I dreaded. But add in some sliced banana and honey, and it was pretty tasty!


Lunch was awesome in the sense that I discovered another great quick and easy meal! I actually managed to find a soup that doesn't have rice, chicken, dairy, or gluten!!! Amy's Organic brand, which I typically like - even though it's quite a bit pricier - has a Lentil Vegetable soup with onions, lentils, carrots, celery, potatoes, tomatoes, spinach, green beans, olive oil, garlic, sea salt, balsamic vinegar, "spices," and black pepper.  Insert back flips here! It was really tasty, although I was working from home and (oops) left it on the stove too long, so a small layer tried to merge with the bottom of the pan and, therefore, got thrown out. :(  I also fixed a decent sized salad of spring mix, romaine, red bell pepper, red onion, and cucumber. And lo and behold, I even found a prepared salad dressing I can have - Trader Joe's Fat Free Balsamic Vinaigrette!  I absolutely love Trader Joes' and regularly tease my mom that I live so close to one (1 mile), while the cosmopolitan city of Amarillo, TX does not. But I sent her TJ's goodies for Christmas last year like a good daughter, and of course we shop there when she comes to visit. But back to salad dressings... We've been making our own (very good ones, I might add) recently, with apple cider vinegar (Bragg's is my favorite kind!), avocado oil, etc. Hmmm... I feel a future post coming on... Well, so many of the bottled dressings have rice vinegar (hello...! no rice for me!), but this one is actually spot-on for what I can eat.

Dinner tonight was quite tasty, but again, no picture. It consisted of sauteed onions, red potatoes, and sugar snap peas, with a slice of pork loin. Yummmm...!  Followed by brownies! I even managed to clean up, load the dishwasher, make lunch for tomorrow (you'll have to wait til tomorrow!) and still have time to write this post! So things are getting a little easier, I'm getting a little faster in the kitchen, and I'm discovering some easy meals that are definitely repeaters, which should help keep me on track!