Steak and Potato? (mushroom and Cauliflower)

Don't get me wrong I always loved a good steak. Since our health plan we haven't ate beef in a year. I really don't miss it. But i do miss the hearty flavor.

I promise you though a portabella mushroom has the same flavor cooked in olive oil. And my potato was pureed cauliflower with a small amount of yogurt and cheese.

This was so yummy!! And half the calories this was just a small meal i could have very well had a huge salad also and grilled
onions just like a steak.It was so good. On this Patience knows it is a mushroom the funny thing is she would love it just as much as steak and potato. :)

Bok Choy, Eggplant, Mushroom, Carrot, Stir Fry..

Instead of Green Cabbage I thought Jerry and I would try Bok
Choy Which is in the Cabbage family.

It tasted alot like Spinach. Very filling. We added our own spices.

 

And it is less carbs. I know the picture doesn't make the meal look to appealing. But it tasted wonderful. And once again no guilt...LOL


If you make Bok Choy it is very important to wash thoroughly.
And remember it retains water. In the future i hope to make a Bok choy soup. And start to expand my ventures in using spices.
We ate a salad with the stir fry and was stuffed. ( Jerry ate chicken)

I'm really loving eating vegetarian. :) When I say vegetarian I mean all veggies and fruit, nuts, dark beans. And not rely so much on breads. When I was a teen I was a vegetarian and I lived on pasta and breads. Now I'm older and with my diabetes i would gain weight If i did that. My moms nick name for me was Victoria the Vegetable Vampire...LOL when i was a toddler.

I'm hoping   being a vegetarian will lead me in living more a vegan lifestyle. But Im not ready to do that just yet!!!...LOL It's to tough...

 But hopefully it will lead me into making more vegan recipes in time.
(I'm not going to ask my family to do that) They have been so committed in being healthy. I'm so happy with Patience you really wouldnt believe how many times a stranger has tried to give her a candy or treat and she has said No thank you. That is true will power.

Eggplant...Lasagna

Very simple Lunch today.

I took a eggplant and cut the ends off. Then cut the eggplant across. In rounds. I put a tiny bit of sea salt on the rounds (lightly) and let the egg plant sit in a colander for about 30 minutes. It makes the eggplant less bitter.

Then I poured all natural Tomato sauce in the bottom of my pan. And layered the egg plant with sauce and eggplant. And sprinkled mozzarella cheese. I added basil, parsley, oregano. And after the eggplant had cooked about 30 minutes. I put whole slices of mozzarella on top about 3 slices And sprinkled grated Parmesan cheese and broiled it till the top was brown.

And we grilled some onions and bell peppers for the top after it was cooked. And ate a nice salad. I know this looks like alot of cheese but I want to say this would be my higher calorie meal for the day. I'm watching my cheese intake. We are eating plain good ole veggies also. I hope to eventually eat more vegan.

I could have made eggplant with the bread crumbs but this was yummy without. No noodles.  In the future i plan to make eggplant similar to this with a spinach feta filling. When I put the cheese on this dish i mainly put it on the top. And added more sauce than cheese. I don't know I feel Little guilty if i drown veggies in to much cheese. But this was our higher calorie meal for the day.

I cheated and used Ragu all natural sauce but in the future Jerry and I plan to start making our own sauces. This dish could have had grilled mushrooms, shredded carrots, any veggies really. We just made it simple. :)  If  Patience eats a meal like this we do call it Lasagna but as in the past we always tell her it was made with veggies instead of noodles. She understands the difference. And most of the time it is "Patience approved" ;)

This meal was more economical than a traditional lasagna. I think a lot of times people will say Yikes A Eggplant is $3.00 but in the long run eating veggies does not cost more. It is easy to be intimated but if you plan your meals eating healthy is more economical. Plus No guilt.

In the past I would have spent a good 25 dollars on a meat meal with noodles. And we would have felt sleepy afterwards after eating the noodles.

So far still good....

Fourth day of  No meat. And im doing great. No weakness at all. Trying to eat veggies that are the colors of the rainbow. And this new plan is really given me a whole new apperication for veggies. I'm actually looking up different recipes for salads of all things. It's amazing of how many combations there are.

This plan to eat no meat isnt bad. I found this interesting quiz in


Diabetic Living. Hidden Carbs Quiz. ( I'm type 2 ) in case I have not said that yet.

Which has more Carbohydrate?
A. 1/2 of fruit flavored low fat yogurt
B. 1/2 cup of regular vanilla icecream

Answer A 1/2 cup of fruit flavor low fat yogurt is 26 g carb. low fat sweetened with sugar has more carbs than the ice cream at 18 carb.

What has more carbs
A. 1 oz of whole wheat pita chips
B. 1 oz of baked tortilla chips

A. 1 oz of Baked tortilla chips 24 carbs. thte pita chips were 17 grams.


Which has the most carbs
A. 1/2 cup of cooked green peas
B. 1/2 cooked pasta (white)
C. 6 whole grain crackers

Answer 1/2 cup of  cooked pasta
(white)

Reading labels are so important !!!


On a side note Patience had her Girl Scout Meeting. I really should not even show up at snack time. Because it only makes me sad. The snack was Little Debbie Zebra's with Red juice drink!!!!

I add the complaint about this because in the future if I refer another parent to my blog I really want them to know I empathize with their journey. To be commited to myself and my family The words being Healthy are not just words I say now. They are becoming REAL. :) Healthy is a true commitment.  It is asking myself will this food help or hurt me.

Patience took her all natural yogurt with water. It did not phase her she is now playing with a bubble necklace she got at Walgreens. :)  And dancing around the room singing her Taylor Swift songs. Blowing the bubbles. Words could not express how moments like that fill my heart with joy and smiles. 

Coming up this summer in June...

Patience Girl Scout group is going on a outing to a Water Park.
A couple summer's ago I had a very difficult time finding a suit that would fit her. At that time she was wearing a Ladies Large shirt.  So all of the bathing suits were made for a lady on top. And she wanted to be like the other kids and wear I Carly or Hannah Montana suits :( It was tough.

Yes Patience is still larger than the other girls but it is so much easier now. At first I admit I was thinking oh no swimming. And in the past we did hear rude comments. :( ( mostly from teens) I remember a time in particular.

Even though I still have improvements for myself to make we have all decided to go as a family to the water park. I don't want deny Patience her fun.  Patience would like to wear a bikini like her sister but that is just something we tell her maybe when she is older.
And I usually buy her a new beach towel or something to make up for it. Or flip flops. I feel a small amount of guilt she cannot be like her sister. But I also tell her Momma cannot wear those type either. And I try to make over what ever one she gets and say it is way more fashionable. It's just a fact Patience inherited my big girl genes. All I can do is work with her on being healthy. Doing this together. To me she is always beautiful.

I never want her to look back on her childhood and think it was terrible because she was larger. I want her to remember I tried to help her. I was chubby as Little girl and when I became 13 my mom tried putting me on diet. It wasn't easy at that age.

And oh Ugh when we were going to doctor's trying to find out the reason for Patience weight gain. (3 doctors here in Tn at a well known research Hopstial.) They would make it seem like I was obsessed with her weight. One actually wrote in Patience file mom was over weight as a child seems obsessed!!!! Uh well yeah my child is gaining 30 pounds in a year. I really have to wonder why they did not think to check her insulin. Makes me mad thinking about it. Telling us to feed her baked potato for dinner. And those fat free products that were making her gain.

Anyway...we found help and Patience is going to her outing. We plan to have a fun time.

Day 1.... Veggie week

I have not decided yet if I am going to give up eggs/dairy but I'm going to slowly try to in the future. Depending more on fruits and veggies for food. I take multi vitamins also. In many of my meal plans your going to see stir fry, stir fry, and probably think. Is that all they ever eat. Well its one of my favorite things to eat. I feel like I'm eating at a Chinese restaurant without the guilt. So I guess my thoughts on that are if you really enjoy eating veggies in a certain recipe it doesn't matter if you eat it every night. It's OK. Because your supposed to enjoy what your eating :) But I will try to include new recipes we have adopted from our vegetarian cookbook.

Breakfast- whey protein shake, 1 tablespoon of all natural peanut butter,  ( almond butter is good also)1 Banana, and 3 frozen strawberries.

Snack- Apple

Lunch- Salad: lettuce, tomato, cucumber, carrots, And I have decided to not yet give up cheese. (a limited amount) Banana peppers. And Homemade yogurt dressing.This looks alot like one of Jerry's salad without the chicken.

Snack - Plum with 12 almonds


Remembering to always have a water bottle by my side. Water is the key to weight loss.

Cabbage, yellow peppers, mushroom, carrots, And hot sauce.

Yep I plan on eating this whole plate for dinner!!!!

 It was stir fried in a small amount of olive oil.

No guilt in this meal. This stir fry is not something we buy from a package. And we used our own seasonings. Onion powder, garlic, chili powder.

All veggies :)

This coming week....

My goal for myself is to eat 100 % vegetarian. Besides the fish and chicken our diet contained mostly
veggies.
Of course for the protein I'm going to keep my protein shake, and natural peanut butter. And I will add dark beans to the diet and nuts. And i love using my juicer.


For Patience of course I'm not going to do this. Her diet is mostly veggies fruit protein. I feel like she needs
 the fish and poultry to give her energy. We just  got a vegetarian cookbook so it gives me a reason to
learn a new recipe. And like i said Jerry and i want to start doing more with tofu.


We  only use soymilk. I have so much respect for the vegetarian lifestyle and would really like
to adapt in most of our menu's. From Saturday to Saturday is my goal. Im hoping to see a good move on the scale also.