Garlicly Spinach Zucchini Noodles

Garlicly Spinach Zucchini Noodles

Today I had a recipe pop up on my Pinterest alert that peaked my interest, but like any good recipe, I have to make it my own.

Raw spiral cut zucchini

Ingredients:
3 Med or 4 smaller zucchini, spiral cut into noodles
1/2 Med red onion, thin sliced
2 cloves garlic, minced
1/2 small package frozen spinach, thawed and excess water squeezed out
1 Tbsp Olive oil
2 Tbsp Butter
1-2 Tbsp Balsamic Vinegar
Salt & Pepper to taste

Prep all the vegetables so they are ready to go it the pan at the right moment.
Preheat a large 12" nonstick skillet to medium or a little more depending on your stove, you don't want it too hot, but if you cook the noodles to slowly, they will get too mushy.

Sauted onions & garlic

Start with warming the oil in the skillet, adding onions and stir around to start the softening process, add garlic and allow to cook for 1-2 minutes.  Add noodles and spinach, season with salt and pepper and continue to toss for 4-5 minutes,breaking up an clumps of spinach. Once the noodles begin to soften, add butter and vinegar and simmer for another minute to make a silky sauce to coat the noodles.

Dish it up with your favorite cut of meat and you have a great dinner, tonight we had it with kabobs I picked up from the local market.

Alternative: to jazz it up a bit, add crumbles bacon at the end too!

I know I will be making this one again.

  

Breakfast Scramble

Breakfast for me can be pretty unorthodoxed, but pretty darn tasty. Today was one of those days with a mix of leftovers, some extra vegetables, eggs and cheese.  So here's a peek at my crazy breakfast.

It started with dinner two nights ago when I needed something simple and quick for dinner that we fill the gut, and not derail what I've set out to do when it comes to my health. So what I had at my fingertips in frig included a pound of hamburger, half a head of cabbage and a medium onion. So I browned the hamburger, shredded the cabbage and onion on the mandoline and tossed it in with the hamburger until it was wilted and starting to brown just a little bit. I seasoned it all with salt, pepper and my favorite no-salt seasoning we found at Costco as it cooked and served it up in bowls in front of one of our favorite shows. Leftover tossed in the frig.

So this morning, as I scanned the frig for what to eat for breakfast, I spotted the container of cabbage and hamburger, a bag of chopped kale, a tub of sliced mushrooms and of course eggs and cheese.  ( And yes those are all items that you can find regularly in my refrigerator.)

Starting with the mushrooms, I browned a couple of handfuls with a nonstick fry pan, coated with cooking spray and a touch of olive oil. Once the mushrooms were golden brown and yummy, I tossed in the leftover hamburger and cabbage, stirring until it was heated thought. Adding a good handful of the chopped kale and tossed for another minute. Added five scrambled eggs and stirred until they were cooked though. 

  

We had enough for 3-4 servings and topped each serving off with grated cheese.  It sounds a little crazy and it's a healthy serving of vegetable with your protein, but it was good to the last bite.

This kind of scramble can be achieved with pretty much any combination of veggies that you have on hand, and you don't need to have leftovers either. You can use any kind of meat that you have handy too, its kind of a free range cooking with the ingredient you have on hand that hopefully support the lifestyle choices you are trying to make.

Time to head for the kitchen and go wild!
Coral

Week Two - My Goals - Nonalcoholic Fatty Liver Disease

Week two was a week of challenges, visiting out of town family, pain and sickness, but we got through it. Only a few pounds lost between us, yet we found that we were more aware of the choices we made, good or bad. We are recognizing when we are making that extra effort to slow down long enough to evaluate our choices before we make them. 

We all accept that fact that we are just getting started in making what should be a life long attitude about our food. We talked about getting back on task with this week and talked about making sure we get to the grocery store and buy the supplies we need to be successful this week.

When we decided to start this group, our goals include loosing weight for a son's wedding, slimming down for a cruise and just getting back into clothes we no longer get into.  I knew part of my goal was to get back into all great clothes that had to be pushed to the back of the closet, but I also knew I wanted to reduce the amount of diabetic medication I have been needing to take. Just the last fall I was forced to take it up a notch and add another med to the one I was already taking. With a diabetic mom and brother, I've seen them both progress through all the levels of medications to the point of full insulin dependence, and that in not a road I want to choose for myself. 

Well, I said at the beginning, that this past week was complicated with pain and sickness. I was dealing with pain in my upper right abdomen, and was expecting to get a diagnosis of gallstones and possibly needed surgery to have my gallbladder removed. One of the others in the group was also have a similar pain, but had her gallbladder removed years ago so she had no idea as what her pain was. With her trip to the doctor established she is dealing with a pinched nerve that is sending pain in the nerve channel that travels around to that region, and they also told her that she has a Nonalcoholic Fatty Liver. Well my diagnosis was yet to determined. 

Thursday I went in for an ultrasound to learn my fate, and of course, they would not tell me anything, just that it will be three to four days before I get my results from my doctor. After a sent off email to my doctor I got lucky to get a response the next morning that I too had Nonalcoholic Fatty Liver.  

In my usual fashion, I started looking at what we need to be doing to support our team member with this condition, and now with my own diagnosis, I found myself diving in even deeper as to what we need to be doing to treat this disease, and to my amazement, the most effective treatment for this is what we had already set out to do two weeks earlier, which is low carb. 

So with this new condition compounding my already compromised health, my goal is now even more intense when it comes to improving my health which will include weight loss in the process.

As I've spent the last day and a half learning more about this disease, and I know we are on the right path to better health. This condition is common if you have one or more of the following health issues: diabetes, high blood pressure, over weight, vitamin D deficiency, high cholesterol and a long list of other common conditions that we hear about every day.

If you have any of the listed conditions, please take it seriously and make positive choices to improve your health. We only have one life, one body and we are the only ones who are responsible for how we will take care of them. 

Well Dressed - Salad Dressing for everyday

In class this week, we spent time reading labels of popular salad dressings, and well, we found some rather disturbing number ingredients that we didn't want in our food , let alone plenty of ingredients that we had no idea what they even were. So it's time that we think about taking control of what we put in our bodies. We have become accustomed to grabbing a bottle off the shelf at the grocery store not thinking about what is put in that bottle to make it stable enough to sit on the shelf for months on end without spoiling. We have it in our power to make wonderfully tasting dressings with ingredients our great great grandparents would recognize as food and we know is healthy to eat.

I work in one of Portland's select fine dining restaurants and I see them every week making batches of different dressing for our varied designer salads we offer our customers. All with fresh ingredient, each one unique to the salad it will be placed on. One would think you need special equipment or skills to produce such dressings, but in reality salad dressing are very simple to produce and once you get used to some basic recipes they become allot of fun to tweak and alter to fit your tastes.

So here are two that I use all the time and you will always find in my frig.

Greek Dressing

2 cloves garlic, minced

1 teaspoon dried oregano
1/2 teaspoon Dijon mustard
1/4 cup good red wine vinegar
1 teaspoon kosher salt
1/2 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
1/2 cup good olive oil
Splash of lemon juice to taste

For the vinaigrette, whisk together the garlic, oregano, mustard, vinegar, salt and pepper in a small bowl. Still whisking, slowly add the olive oil to make an emulsion. Pour the vinaigrette over the vegetables. Add the feta and olives and toss lightly. Set aside for 30 minutes to allow the flavors to blend. Serve at room temperature.

Uses for the Greek Dressing:

Traditional Greek salad: Cucumbers, tomatoes, red onion, olives and feta cheese

Chopped salad: Kale, tomatoes, green onions, olives, bell pepper  and feta cheese

In a pinch, this is a great go to dressing if all you have is a bag salad and a chopped up tomato too

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Slaw Dressing (Kale salad or Oriental Cabbage Salad)

1 c Mayonnaise or Olive oil

5 packet Stevia or other sugar replacement to taste

1/3 c or more Rice Vinegar

1 tsp Salt

1 tsp Pepper

Whip all ingredients together and adjust sweetener, salt or pepper to taste. Also adjust amount of vinegar to desired thickness.

  

Uses for Slaw Dressing:
Oriental Chicken Salad: Chopped cabbage, grated carrot, sliced radish, green onions, snow peas, toasted almonds, diced cooked chicken, mandarin orange sections (I use the version of the dressing made with oil for this salad)
Kale slaw: Chopped kale, finely shaved cabbage, grated carrots, red onion, sliced radishes, finely chopped cauliflower and broccoli, toasted nuts (prefered pecans) 
Coleslaw: use a  batch of bagged coleslaw mix or your favorite combination of vegetables
For the kale slaw and coleslaw I use the mayonnaise based version

Week One

A successful week. Wednesday as we all sat around the table, we found that each of us lost weight of varied amounts and everyone seemed to feel good  about choices they had made that week.

Our successes were measured in little thing, by passing an offer for Starbucks, making the decision to make careful choices when forced to make a stop at the local fast food place. Drinking more water and switching to a sugar free drink at Starbuck, eating no bread all week. All little things, but in reality huge steps to take better care of ourselves.

We talked about the biggest challenges we have been facing, and our biggest hurdle discussed this week was what to eat for lunch. A couple of us typically eat lunch at our desks everyday, wedging in eating with the craziness of the day.  

I had brought egg cups as samples as well as a grain free muffin, and even these simple ideas could be part of healthy lunch that fit our plans. As we brain stormed for lunch ideas, these were some of the ideas we came up with:

  

• Egg cups with a side salad - http://coralsgrocerybag.blogspot.com/2014/07/bacon-spinach-mushroom-egg-cups-and.html
• Roll ups - http://coralsgrocerybag.blogspot.com/2014/07/roll-ups-in-park.html
• Make ahead casseroles. portioned into containers for easy grabbing
• Make ahead several casseroles and freeze portions for more variety.

I shared with the group one more kitchen tool to make this process easier is to consider picking up a silicone bakeware. The first couple of pieces I bought many years ago were super expensive and yes they work great, but  it was beyond my budget to keep buying pieces I wanted without needing to hire out the kids to feed my habit. But luckily I had a chance to chat with a professional Executive Pastry Chef and she said not to waste my money, jump on Amazon and find the pieces I needed $8-$20. Well she was a great help, I found regular muffin cups and jumbo cups that work just as good as the fancy home party ones I started with. And the cheep ones come in lots of fun colors too! Now I am considering a donut mold for my next investment.

We talked about continuing with our positive choices, what items from the list we had done well with and what we are going to look at achieving this week. As an added goal to the list I encouraged them to take the time to watch one of the following movies, and so I encourage you as well, to take the time keep reviewing the Positive Choices list and find things to work on this week. http://coralsgrocerybag.blogspot.com/2016/01/positive-choices.html

Movies/Documentaries

FU (Fed-Up)

Food Inc.

Fat Sick and Nearly Dead

Chew on this TedTalks

The Plan

You may ask what's the plan? For the people attending my group, it is totally up to each individual. So far we have weight watchers people and others who did not have a plan are trying out the plan I'm using, but its really up to each person. For me I'm returning to the Keto based diet/lifestyle, but I found myself reviewing a book recommended by my naturopath years ago and as I read, I found it making reference to being in a state of Ketosis which is the premise of the Keto diets.

So what book am I reading, well it's Eat Right 4 Your Blood Type. This book breaks down eating lifestyles based on body makeup that is a result of the blood type you have. As I read, I'm finding that for my blood type which is typo O, a keto type diet is best for me (which explains why I've had success in the past using a low carb lifestyle). The difference is Eat Right allows for a small amount of carbs under strict guidelines to remain in a mild state of ketosis.

So I will be return to posting lots of Keto friendly recipes, be reading keto based articles and watching video that will support the sugar free, grain free lifestyle my body needs me to be  living.

It's been awhile since I've taken the time to focus on cooking and food, and with only a few days in, I feel like I'm getting back into my grove. Scanning blogs, testing recipes and sharing with others is the focus that I needed to get my personal eating habits back in line. I find a having a project is where I do my best at staying focused, eating the right things and being accountable to others helps be stay on track.

 Because of my lack of focus and control over the last couple of years, I've found my blood sugars getting more and more elevated and found myself requiring higher levels of medication to to keep my blood sugars in check. And with the lack of control also came 30 pounds of body fat that has not been a pleasant road of tight clothes, forced to spend money on replacement clothing in bigger sizes in spite of having a wardrobe of perfectly good clothes still hanging in the closet.

Now with the confessions out of the way, it's time to do everything in my power to stay on track, shake this poundage and see if I can kick some of this medication.

So whatever your goals, stand here with us and keep working on making choices that bring you closer to the lifestyle you strive to achieve.

Cauliflower Fried Rice & Cream Cheese Pancakes

Last night, as I was putting together my notes from our group, I realized I forgot to share with you the two recipes we taste tested and shared around. In fact I like the idea of posting these on a seperate post so they will be easy to find next time you want to give them a go, so you can watch for the recipe pages along with pages of encourgment to keep going.

For those who are like me, getting back on the wagon again, here are the recipes for the week.

http://ohmyveggies.com/how-to-make-cauliflower-rice/

This recipe is cranked out almost weekly at our house, and it gets a regular tweeking to meet the needs of my menus each week. This week was Fried Rice, use this basic recipe and add what you love. I will grate up a carrot, slice 3-4 green onions, add some fried bacon (which then I cook the rice in the bacon fat) and sometimes a little chopped leftover meat (shredded chicken or a thin sliced leftover steak), and finish it off a splash of Tamari (gluten free soy sauce).
We leave it plan if we are paring it with a protien or plan to have some sort of sauce that will be put with it. Anything you would use rice for, you can sub this and wipe out the carb load from it.

http://www.ibreatheimhungry.com/2012/01/cream-cheese-pancakes.html
I've shared my Cream Cheese Pancakes before, and they are worth revisiting again. This time its just the pancake, last time I took them and stuffed them with  sausage, and made pigs in a blanket. But like the rice, you can make changes to this too. Concider omitting the cinnamon and sweetner, add garlic powder, maybe a few herbs, and now you have a light wrap you could put sliced turkey meat, a slice of cheese, a leaf of lettuce and slices of red pepper in and roll up for your lunch or a snack for a walk or hike.

So there it is, make some good choices, try some new food and lets see if we can improve out quality of life a little.

I will be pulling out my camera and taking pictures of what I'm cooking again too so you can see what I'm up too. But these attached websites will give you all you need to try out these ideas.
This should be a crazy ride this year, we are getting the drawings back this week for remodeling our house, which includes a new kitchen for me, I can't wait and don't worry, I will be sharing pictures of the progress!

Coral

Positive Choices

Positive Choices
It's the name selected for our little accountability group. I decided we needed to focus on making positive choices more often than poor choices. 

So what are the choices you are going to make this week.

State of Mind - things to focus on this week

Self-talk
what are we saying to ourselves when we are faced with poor choices? How do we talk to ourselves when we get stressed, fidgety or bored, how do we talk to ourselves about  making good choices? 
Remind yourself that this time is temporary, it will pass and you can get through this. You can find something on plan to eat and not go to your old trigger foods. Don't give up, take a short 5 min walk. You can do this.

Plan for Change
It never fails, but when you are the least prepared, you will be blindsided with a meeting that runs long and you miss a meal, or you find yourself at a buffet of donuts and sweets and not a plan friendly morsel in sight. What do you do.... well keeping a couple of Atkins (or other plan safe) bars tucked in your desk, in the bottom of your purse or briefcase, the glove box of the car or tucked in your backpack. Make it easy for yourself to turn and walk away, grab one of your planned back-up items and have something that will tie you over until you can sit down to a meal that will keep you on track with the long term goals you want to achieve.


So what is the goals? 

Review the following list, select 2-3 items from the list and make them a priority for the week. So join us in this challenge. Don't pick items that you already do, but pick items that will challenge yourself to do better.

Positive Choices

Pick a eating plan

No Fast Food

Starbucks – no more that 1-2 times a week

Drink 75oz Water – 3 large bottles a day

Walk 3 times a week – minimum of 20 minutes each time

Read article on healthy habits

Home cooked dinner 3 times during the week

No starch/grain – potatoes, rice, bread, wheat or other grains

Watch one of the video’s on the list

Create a menu plan for your week including shopping list

Switch to small dishes

Build Pinterest board to keep recipes and articles you want to try, or remember for later

The Lists - 

Books to read, websites to visits, and videos to watch

Websites

grassfedgirl.com - Recipes

lowcarbfamily.com - Recipes

ibreatheimhungry.com - Recipes & meal plans

lowcarbsosimple.com

sugarfreemom.com

mariamindbodyhealth.com

www.pinterest.com/coralz1205/my-healthy-life/ - Recipes, links & articles

http://coralsgrocerybag.blogspot.com

Videos

YouTube – Sugar the bitter truth

YouTube – Reversing Type 2 diabetes starts with ignoring the guideline

Books

Eat Right 4 Your Blood Type

Cook Right 4 Your Blood Type

Live Right 4 Your Blood Type

Sweet Deception

Keto-Adapted

The Art of Healthy Eating

Breaking the Vicious Cycle

The Fat Fallacy

Food Rules

The Glycemic-Load Diet

The Glycemic-Load Diet Cookbook

Total Health Cookbook & Program

French Women Don’t Get fat

Betty Crocker Cookbook

Grain Brain

Movies/Documentaries

FU (Fed-Up)

Food Inc.

Fat Sick and Nearly Dead

Chew on this TedTalks

Tools - things that will help achieve your goals

Sharp Chef’s Knife

Cutting boards

Large fry pan

Spiral Vegetable Slicers - Veggetti

Food Processor

Stick blender
Silicone bakeware - muffin cups

All these items are close at hand and ready for use at any time.

Now get out there and start making positive choices!
Coral

A new chapter

Well, it's been a long while since I've slowed down long enough to share a few lines with you and much has happened during that time. I intend to start sharing more articles and recipes that will support a revived need to focus on my health and eating habits. 

As a way to keep on focus I'm been crazy enough to agree to lead a accountability group that will hopefully help all of us to stay on track with the lifestyles we strive to achieve.

So my return here is hopefully going to continue to be of interest to you, and maybe bring some moral support to the challenges that you may face in developing and maintaining the healthy lifestyle that we know we should live. 

As I part from you now, my goal it to return regularly leaving tidbits to share and hopefully encourage. 

May you be blessed this day, and I hope to see you soon.

Coral