Week 2: CT, Catching Up

Before I tackle the hard questions and "simple" tasks of CT Week Three, I want to tackle Week Two. Fortunately, for me, there really wasn't much for me to do to satisfy the requirements of this week. The real week, however, was quite full. And so, for the record, here is (part of) CT: Week 2.

Heart
Rummage through your brains (or your recipe books) for a dish you used to make "all the time" but have neglected in recent months (or years). Acquire the ingredients and make it! And photograph it (we like to see proof around here*). While you're at it, you might as well share the recipe. And tell us what the dish means to you. In fact... dish.

After much rumination, I am going to claim the Bran muffin recipes I posted for Mella. I could talk about how I used to make Lentil soup--but don't much anymore. (But then, I never made it much when I was single, either. It simply stands out because when I did make it, I ate really well that week!)

And that's the crux of it, right there. Until I had a family, I had no need to cook. I have no idea what I ate as a single person except the muffins, lentil soup and spaghetti sauce. (A recipe I've since resurrected. We have it once a month, now) Then (likely the result of years of severe sleep deprivation), when I did have a family, I've no recollection of cooking anything at all (unless it involved a spice mix) until I discovered Flylady--and through her--Leanne Ely.

Hers are my go-to-cookbooks. So much so, that it was with profound relief and joy when I discovered that Ely had broken down her recipes into diabetic exchanges--and thus would be ideal for my weight loss plan. In other words, I would have had to have found them if I hadn't already had them. (However, interesting thought: I believe that Leanne Ely's style of cooking is what Wende calls "Euro-trash Chicken." Personally, it was liberating to me. I really cannot overstate how much.)

I have these two:



This one is in the library.



I found a few recipes in it which we loved back when I decided that we needed to eat two (or more) vegetarian meals a week in order to save some money. I would have continued, except that eating vegetarian is heavily burdened with carbohydrates: nothing wrong with that except if you are me and trying to lose weight. The dishes used up practically all my carbohydrate portions and very few of my proteins. My challenge in life is getting enough solid protein, the carb part is ridiculously easy. So, vegetarian and losing weight do not go together for me at all, unfortunately.

So, the long and short of it is, I really can't recall anything I used to make that
1) I would make again
2) I can make again, and
3) I never made anything, anyway, so how could I make it "again"?

Breath

• If you've ever taken dietary supplements, go through the stash and toss any that are past their use-by dates or that you know you wouldn't take again. (I do take a multi-vitamin, as well as fish oil pills for strong, shiny hair and hooves.)

I threw out some vitamin combination recommended for stiff joints (I actually typed in monosodium glutamate, but that's obviously not it) outdated by two years and some B vitamins which expired earlier this year.

• If you have any sort of unused or disliked "how to eat better" materials hanging around the house, dispose of them. It's especially important to dump the stuff that you feel you should use but don't want to. Whatever you're trying to achieve with your eating habits, there has to be a source written in a tone and at a level of detail that works for you.

Strangely enough, I do not have any books like this in my home--oh, well, except one which has to do with feeding children. I took it out and skimmed through it a month or so ago. Really, the fellow was quite revolutionary, suggesting that diet could handle things like sleeping problems (the section I was most interested in) and attention difficulties.

My mother, on the other hand, read all of Adele Davis when I was a child and still has all her books. Brewer's yeast brings back bad memories.

Bones
Since all of the CT participants are women, we're going to take "bones" literally, and this is the one place where I'm going to push nutrition: check to make sure you are getting your full daily allowance of calcium. If it takes a supplement, take a supplement.

Done.

Or at least I'd thought so. I used to take two. Each one contained 300mg Elemental Calcium (Carbonate and citrate forms), 150 mg Magnesium, Zinc (5mg) and Vitamin D3 (200 I.U.) Turns out, apparently, that your body can only absorb 300 mg of calcium at a time: so it is best to take the pills at different times of the day. So, now I take one a day....and almost never remember to take the second one. Perhaps right before bed might work. The good doctor, in the book recommended above, recommends both calcium and protein before bed as a falling asleep enhancer. (So, a slice of cheese, which the sister of a friend of mine used to eat every night before bed is ideal).

I also take 1000mg of Omega 3, 60 mg CoEnzyme Q10, and a formula of B vitamins called "Stress B." (I don't eat fortified cereal and B vitamins help with depression as well as stress).

Head:
Menu Planning

This will have to be another post.