It’s week two on the Eat to Live Health Plan and my husband has lost 22 pounds and I’ve lost 12. I am so extremely happy with the results and we are both feeling great. It’s nice eating raw/whole foods and keeping most of the processed foods at bay.
Tonight for supper we enjoyed Roasted Cauliflower, Roasted Cabbage with Balsamic Onions and Roasted Sweet Potato Fries.
I baked everything for 40 minutes at 400°F. Turn the Sweet Potato Fries half way through.
Roasted Cauliflower
I used one whole head of cauliflower and it feed three of us. I could have easily gone for seconds so next time I’ll cook two heads. Cut the florets from the head of the cauliflower. Lay them in a single layer on a cookie sheet lined with aluminum foil sprayed with a non-stick spray. Drizzle olive oil over the cauliflower. I am trying to watch my intake of oil so I have an olive oil spritzer that I used. Sprinkle with whatever seasoning you’d like – I used a British Curry seasoning from Teeny Tiny Spice Co. of Vermont (my favorite). Bake in oven for 40 minutes at 400.
Roasted Cabbage with Balsamic Onions
Cut one head of cabbage into 6 wedges and place on a baking sheet covered with aluminum foil sprayed with a non-stick spray. Drizzle with olive oil or spritz with an olive oil sprizter. Bake in a 400°F oven for 40 minutes. While it bakes, slice an onion and place in a pan. Add about 2T of water and saute until the onions are soft. Pour in 1/2 cup balsamic vinegar and let simmer until the vinegar thickens (about 15 minutes). Keep an eye on it so it doesn’t dry out and burn. To serve, place a wedge on your plate and spoon some onions and balsamic on top.
Roasted Sweet Potato Fries
Cut your sweet potatoes into match stick fries. Put them into a baggie and drizzle some olive oil on them. A little goes a long way so don’t overdue it. Sprinkle in some seasonings – I used Mrs. Dash’s salt-free regular blend. Spread in a single layer on a baking sheet covered in aluminum foil and sprayed with a non-stick spray. Bake at 400°F for 20 minutes, turn each over and bake for another 20 minutes (40 minutes total).
I also love to roast green beans – my family will eat those like french fries when they are done.
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Last night for supper I made Vegetable Curry. I love spicy food but this time around I made it with a new curry blend I purchased from Penzy’s Spice Company and it was HOT. Too hot for my palate and I had to consume more rice than I had planned on to keep my mouth from burning up. The rest of the family must have loved it as we didn’t have any leftovers. Next time I’ll make a double batch and go easier on the curry spice.
Vegetable Curry (a Vegan recipe)
3 stalks celery, sliced
1 medium green pepper, chopped
3 carrots, sliced
1 medium onion, chopped
3 tomatoes, skinned and diced
1 T lemon juice
1 apple, peeled, cored and diced
2 tsp turmeric
1 T curry powder
2 T cornstarch
1 can lite coconut milk
Add the pepper, carrots, and celery into a large pot or pan and saute on medium heat until the vegetables start to soften. You can use oil to saute with if you’d like. I just use splashes of water.
Add the onion, apple and tomatoes. Stir. Add lemon juice, curry powder, and turmeric. Mix and heat on low for about 10 minutes. Add in cornstarch and coconut milk.
Add in cornstarch and coconut milk. Mix well. Heat on medium until it begins to boil, reduce to a simmer for 10 minutes.
Serve with Basmati Rice.
“Today is the First Day of the Rest of Your Life”. I love that quote. Growing up my dad used to say that in the mornings when he woke us up for school. I refer to that quote quite a bit especially when I think it’s time to change something in my life. My husband has high cholesterol. Thanks to his family heritage, most of it is genetic. Even with his genetics against him we are trying to get him healthier. Of course I could always use some “healthier” myself. I’m obese, morbidly obese as the doctor charts state. So while helping my husband get healthy, I’ll be getting healthy also. I have tried many, many, many diets throughout my lifetime – most of them are what I call “normal” diets and aren’t very extreme (in my opinion). I’ve never tried the grapefruit diet, cabbage diet, drink only shakes diet or even eat a pound of bacon every day diet. I have mainly stuck with things like Weight Watchers, counting calories and/or fat. This time around we are going in a different direction – something that I would have called “extreme” but am now thinking differently.
My husband’s doctor at the VA (Veterans Administration) wrote him a prescription, to get the point across, for a book called Eat to Live by Dr. Fuhrman. His diet is based on cutting out animal proteins (no meat or dairy). Cutting out all kinds of meat, even lean meat is pretty extreme for all that I know. It’s different than what the USDA has on their new “plate” guidelines.
My husband and I have been following this eating plan for two weeks now. After the first week I was down 8 pounds and my husband was down 12.
Daily requirements:
Eat…….
- 1 Pound of raw, green vegetables
- 1 Pound of other non-starch vegetables (these can be cooked)
- 4 fruits
- 1 cup beans/legumes
- 1 T flax seed
Don’t Eat……
- Meat (any meat, including fish)
- Dairy (no milk, yogurt, cheese)
- Sugar or sugar substitutes
- Salt
- Oil
I’m not a big salad person. Especially since I can’t have my own salad dressings (which are milk or oil based) so I find eating raw vegetables a challenge. If anyone has any really good vegan salad dressing recipes, I’d love to hear them. I absolutely love the Southwest Dressing you get from McDonald’s or French dressing.
I’ll be sharing some stories of my journey on this blog. I’d love to hear from any others who are eating vegan, vegetarian or Eat to Live.
I’ve started an Eat to Live board on Pinterest. Feel free to come follow me.
