Hi again! After yesterday’s more serious post about modifying the SCD to fit my lifestyle, I thought I would make today’s post very light, including a couple of awesome recipes. But first…
Monday Recap
Breakfast: Almond bread with almond butter, honey, and banana slices. I went back for a round two slice without the bananas though.
Run: Breakfast did a great job of fueling me for a great 3-mile run around the neighborhood. I took it nice and slow and it actually felt like good run for once. It’s been a long time since I could say that. I am excited to start incorporating more of it into my routine again. My next race is a 5k at the end of August, and I am going to be ready!
Lunch: I salivate over these salads. Mixed greens with grilled chicken, strawberries, avocado, mandarin orange slices, feta cheese, and raspberry walnut vinaigrette (Newman’s Own). Insanely delicious. These are the salads I have been missing all summer. It’s time to make up for lost time.
After lunch, my mom and Abbie came over and we hung out and girl-talked it up for a while outside. As always, I love my family time. 🙂
Dinner: Quinoa with kale basil pesto.
For the pesto: food process two small handfuls of fresh kale, about 2-3 tablespoons (I used 7-8 small leaves) of fresh basil, 1 1/2 tablespoons of garlic olive oil, garlic powder, and salt until well blended. Mix the pesto in with cooked quinoa, top it with parmesan cheese, and you have yourself a winner winner quinoa dinner.
Our evening was spent watching the Olympics. My favorite is still gymnastics, but I am really loving the volleyball (except it makes me so nervous), and synchronized diving. I love it all though, really. My husband’s crazy love for the Olympics is starting to rub off on me a little bit.
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The second recipe comes from Sunday night. I scanned our fridge for dinner ideas and after seeing the cherries and olives, I thought hmm…I could do something with that.
I remembered a chicken dish that Dana’s mom had made for us a while back that had dried cherries and olives, so I thought I would try to make something of that sort except use fresh cherries instead, since that is what we had on hand.
Ready to see what I came up with?
Baked Chicken with Cherries and Olives
Ingredients
2 boneless skinless chicken breasts
1/4 tsp garlic powder
1/4 tsp oregano
salt and pepper
1 cup cherries, pitted and cut in half
1/4 cup green olives, sliced
3/4 cup red wine (I used a red zinfandel)
3/4 cup reduced sodium chicken broth
3 Tbsp honey
Directions
Season chicken breasts with garlic powder, oregano, salt and pepper.
Use cooking spray to lightly coat a large non-stick skillet; cook chicken over medium heat for about 5 minutes on each side, or until the inside is no longer pink; remove from pan.
Add the remaining ingredients to the hot pan, bring to a boil, stirring occasionally. Let boil until liquids reduce and you are left with about 1/4 inch of sauce in the bottom of the pan.
Return chicken back to pan, allow to heat through for 5 minutes, and serve warm.
This dish paired well with quinoa and would be great with a side of steamed green beans as well. It could be made for date night, a dinner party, or even just a casual Sunday evening. Have fun with it!
Happy Tuesday!
Question of the Day: What is your favorite go-to summer lunch?
Hello there! Everyone having a great weekend? Mine has been wonderful. I have quite the Saturday recap for you, hope you’re ready.
Breakfast
I blended up a fruity smoothie packed with strawberries, banana, cherries, spinach, yogurt, and sweetener. I also ate a spoonful of almond butter to pack in extra protein.
Farmer’s Market
After breakfast we cruised on over to the big Minneapolis Farmer’s Market. Holy cow I was in fresh vegetable heaven.
It was so crazy busy but it always is. It’s always encouraging as a dietitian seeing SO many people at the Farmer’s Market getting excited about fresh produce. Let’s just hope they don’t go home and make them into fried green beans and buttered bacon mushrooms. 🙂 My brother Scott would say what’s wrong with that?!
We ended up buying: onions, cilantro, carrots, Poblano peppers, grass-fed ground beef and bison.
Whole Foods
We were getting pretty hungry after all of that commotion, so on our way home we stopped at Whole Foods for their outstanding salad bar.
We enjoyed our salads at the beautiful Centennial Lakes.
On our way home from lunch we drove by a few garage sales. We are thinking about buying a book shelf for our office and ideally would like to find a cheap one from a garage sale or Craig’s List, and fix it up if need be. No such luck at the sales yesterday, but we are keeping our eyes out.
Dinner
Back at home, I prepped for dinner. It was only about 2:30 in the afternoon at this point, but Dana and I were going to church at 5:00, so I figured I would get everything prepared beforehand, so that after church, we could just finish up the cooking process and have ourselves a delicious meal in no time.
Dinner involved the fresh farmer’s market Poblano peppers. I began by cutting off the tops, deseeding the peppers, and baking them in a 400° oven for 15 minutes.
***MAJOR TIP! Wear gloves or use a spoon to scoop out the seeds if you handle these bad boys. I learned the hard way; wasn’t even thinking about the fact that these were spicy peppers, and ended up with a right hand that burned for a good hour. You’ve been fore-warned.
Next, I sautéed 2 diced small onions with 3 minced garlic cloves. After about 4 minutes, I removed them, and added 1/2 of a pound of ground beef to the same pan (the less dishes the better!). I browned up the meat, then brought it to the sink so I could rinse and drain some of the fat off. I returned the meat and the onions to the pan, no longer on any heat.
I then added 1 fresh tomato—-from our garden. Our first normal tomato of the summer!
And 1 tablespoon chopped fresh farmer’s market cilantro, 1 tablespoon salsa, 1/2 teaspoon cilantro, 1/4 cup shredded cheddar cheese, salt, pepper, and if I would have remembered I would have put a dash of chili powder in there, but I forgot. I mixed everything together to make the “stuffing” for the peppers.
I stuffed all of the peppers using a spoon, wrapped them individually in tin foil, and placed them in the fridge for later.
Next, I made a small batch of guacamole using 1 ripe avocado, 1 teaspoon fresh cilantro, lemon juice because I didn’t have lime, a dash of garlic powder, onion powder, cumin, salt, and pepper. I gave this all a mix, covered it and put it in the fridge.
When we got home from church, and after running a couple of errands, we got the grill fired up. The peppers did their thing on the grill for about 20 minutes over medium-high heat.
Transfer to your plate, remove the foil, top with guacamole and some salsa if you like, and there you have it. Deliciously healthy stuffed Poblano peppers.
Stuffed Poblano Peppers
Ingredients
5 Poblano peppers, top cut off, deseeded
2 small onions, diced
3 small garlic cloves, minced
1/2 lb ground beef
1 small tomato, diced
1/2 tsp cumin
1/4 tsp chili powder
1 Tbsp cilantro, chopped
1 Tbsp salsa
1/4 cup cheese
Directions
Preheat oven to 400° F.
Place prepared peppers onto baking sheet and bake for 15 minutes.
In medium pan, saute onions and garlic for 4-5 minutes; remove from pan, return pan to heat.
In same pan, brown the ground beef; rinse and drain in sink, return to pan and take off heat.
Add remaining ingredients including the onion and garlic, to the pan to make the stuffing.
Once peppers are done, use spoon to fill peppers with stuffing.
Wrap peppers individually in aluminum foil.
Place on heated grill and grill for 20 minutes.**
Top with guacamole, salsa, or enjoy as they are!
**These would also work in the oven, although I am unsure of the temperature and cooking time so you may have to experiment!
So, this post is ALL over the board. I missed a day of blogging so I’m going to try to catch you up on anything I feel is important enough to share.
First of all, this arrived on our doorstep yesterday. My very own food dehydrator. No more spending mega dollars on dried fruit and veggie chips at the store, I’m making my own. You better believe there won’t be any preservatives or added sugars in my dried goods. I can’t wait to get this up and running. I am particularly excited to try to make veggie chips. They will be a great crispy snack, or at least I am hoping they will be.
For dinner Tuesday night I made myself an egg scramble with 1 egg, 1 (or 2?) egg whites, cheddar cheese, and diced avocado. I topped it with Wild Harvest’s Mango Salsa and had a tasty meal in no time. I also ate cooked carrots–I think I am officially turning into a carrot the way I have been eating those bad boys lately.
Wednesday Breakfast
I started my day off yesterday with a cup of coffee and a bowl of cinnamon and honey yogurt.
I was at a conference for work all day and since lunch wasn’t provided, I brought my own of course. I packed cooked carrots, and a banana pancake with almond butter. I also brought an extra banana in case I needed something else, but it turned out that I didn’t eat the banana but should have eaten it, because by 5:00 I was not feeling so hot. I know that if I go too long without eating I tend to bloat, but the conference setting we are in doesn’t make snacking very easy. First of all food and drink are technically “not allowed” in the auditorium we are in, so if I did want a snack I would have to have one outside of the auditorium, and second, it’s so cramped in the stadium seats, that reaching into your bag to dig out a snack makes for quite the tricky task.
I don’t want to deal with the bloating again today though, and since I am at the conference again, I’m going to do my best to have snacks in between meals to help tame my gut.
During lunch break, my co-workers and I set out for a walk. It was incredibly humid and hot here yesterday, so we walked at more of a leisurely pace than we normally would. It felt great to stretch the legs for a while after being cramped so long.
After the conference, I had plans to meet up with my girlfriends, so I packed myself a little snacky dinner: cheddar cheese, a hard-boiled egg, more carrots, and honeydew melon.
I headed over to my friend Julie’s house along with my friends Kate and Amanda. We caught up, laughed a lot, watched SYTYCD and completely enjoyed eachother’s company. I love all of those girls so much. Girlfriends are so amazing. Oh, and I cannot forget to mention we also hung out with her two adorable Maltese pups, Ava and Bella. Seriously the cutest little furballs. This old lady (moi) had to leave the party at 8:30 to get home and pack her lunch for today so she could make sure to hit the hay by 10:00 pm. I need a lot of sleep these days.
I am out of here for the day, unless Moose decides to jump on my computer and write a guest post. 🙂 Have a great day every one! It’s looking like a beautiful one around here.
I am happy to say I survived yet another Monday. I hope you all did too!
I am still doing my best to stay on track with the SCD intro diet, but did deviate slightly from the plan mentioned yesterday. I started it off right with two hard-boiled eggs and pineapple juice jello. I know that jello in the morning sounds totally weird, but I was limited for options. I didn’t even give myself my morning cup of coffee and being that it was Monday and that I was trying to follow the intro diet which generally makes me feel a little low energy, it made for a pretty lethargic day.I felt the same low-energy back a few weeks ago when I had started the SCD. The only difference was, I started it on a Sunday and didn’t have to be at work which can of course be draining (I also had that Monday off). Needless to say, yesterday was a little rough, but I did my best to not let it show.
It was obvious to me that I was missing my morning mojo, when I was on my way to work and realized I forgot my lunch in the fridge at home. Womp wompppp. Luckily, I only live about 9 minutes away from work so I was able to come home during my lunch break, but I had originally had intentions of running to Target on break and scoping out the women’s clothing clearance rack. Maybe another day.
My food for the day was extremely lame. Lunch and dinner were basically identical.
Lunch: Crockpot chicken with honey mustard, cooked carrots with cinnamon, and applesauce.
Dinner: Crockpot chicken with honey mustard, carrots with cinnamon, and a piece of SCD cheesecake which I still don’t like, and a bite of peanut butter.
I had told myself I was going to lay off the pb for a couple of days (this is where I deviated), but I am finding it very difficult to do that. It is such a major part of my diet and I love it oh so much. During the first couple weeks of the diet, I was doing a great job of keeping a food and symptom diary, but since then have kind of forgotten about it. I know it would be a good idea for me to start it up again so I can really track my trigger foods. I should probably do that.
I plan to continue the SCD, and continue to slowly introduce foods into my diet. Eventually, I would like to adapt to a SCD/Paleo/more personalized type diet. For one thing, I don’t want to live a life without chocolate; one of my absolute favorite foods. Life is too short and I want to be able to enjoy that little piece of heaven on earth. Second, I want to adapt the diet to my own life and needs. Everyone is different and reacts differently to foods, and I will continue to experiment and learn what my body is able to handle.
Slightly off-subject, but before dinner, I met up with a new friend (I sound like I am in first grade I realize). Our mutual friend, Kalley introduced us. Her name is Marissa and she is a fellow dietitian. We met at Centennial Lakes in Edina and went for a nice warm stroll around the lake. It’s always great to meet other dietitians and hear about the different jobs in the field and talk about our experiences with education and dietetic internships. We had LOTS to talk about. Thanks Kal for introducing us, and Marissa can’t wait to meet up again!
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I mentioned yesterday that I was a very busy girl in the kitchen on Sunday. I had prepared a laundry list of foods including homemade BBQ sauce and guess what? You’re going to hear about it. You all know I am a saucy gal. I love sauce and dips whether it’s for chicken, fish, broccoli, whatever, I just love sauciness. I know that if I want to survive this SCD bit for much longer, I need to step it up in the sauce department, so I got to work on a BBQ sauce. My inspiration came from this recipe. Here’s what I threw together.
BBQ Sauce (SCD-friendly, Gluten-free)
Ingredients
2 tsp olive oil
1 cup onion, diced
3 cloves garlic, minced
1-46 ounce can tomato juice
1 1/4 tsp chili powder
1 1/4 tsp ground mustard
1/2 tsp cumin
1/4 tsp paprika
a touch of cayenne pepper
1 tsp salt
cracked black pepper
1/4 cup apple cider vinegar
1/4 cup honey
Directions
Over medium heat, saute onions and garlic in oil until transparent, about 3 minutes.
Add remaining items. Stir and turn to medium-low.
Let simmer uncovered for about 2 hours; stir often. Sauce will thicken as the water evaporates.
Once sauce has thickened and reduced down, place in food processor and puree to smooth.
That’s it! Okay, two hours plus later, and that’s it. I have only tasted it off of a spoon so far, not on any meat or in a meal yet, but it is definitely tasty.
I am feeling pretty lethargic yet again today; but I think it’s due to the weather. It is rainy and gloomy here; the kind of day where you just want to snuggle on the couch with some reality TV and great snacks. Oh…if only. 🙂
I hope you all have a great day. Catch up with you soon.
Question of the day: What’s your favorite condiment?
Mine is probably ketchup if you can believe that. I really love honey mustard too though, especially Newman’s Own Lite Honey Mustard. I miss that stuff!
Well, I still can’t believe the weekend is over. It was a good one as they always are. Saturday was spent celebrating Kari and Tony’s wedding and relaxing in the evening.
And Sunday…
We slept in until 8:30 which felt amazing. It was so nice to have a relaxing morning and not have to rush to get up, or set the alarm. Once I rolled out of bed, I got to work on a fruit smoothie.
In the mix:
Strawberries
Blueberries
Banana
Spinach
Yogurt
Sweetener
Splash of water (to get things moving)
I also had a cup of hazelnut coffee. I drank my liquid breakfast while flipping through the Sunday paper and cutting coupons.
After a leisurely morning, we got out and ran our standard Sunday errands. We made a trip to the co-op for freshly ground peanut butter (we priced it out and it was cheaper to buy it this way than make our own), then we went to Target, and lastly Costco. By the time we got home at 12:30 I was about to eat my hair. Our fridge was fully stocked.
I whipped up a batch of scrambled eggs seasoned with salt and pepper. I wanted to try incorporating some Dry Curd Cottage Cheese (SCD talks about this stuff all the time). It took me 2 weeks to find this cheese–I thought I had the right kind during the intro diet, but turns out I bought the wrong stuff. Anyway, I mixed in a spoonful of DCCC into the eggs with high hopes of a cheesy nummy egg, but it turned out to be a flop. It tasted like cottage cheese mixed with eggs (duh) and I should have known that it would come out that way. I guess I thought the cheese would sort of melt into the eggs a little better. The texture was a little too funky for me. I topped it with salsa which made it taste a little better, and I choked down a couple of bites before moving on to something else.
After my failed DCCC eggs, I went on to eat cooked carrots, watermelon, and almond butter. Then, I hit the road to go meet mom for a hot and humid walk. We walked around mom and dad’s neighborhood for about a half hour and we looked like wet noodles by the time we got back because of the humidity. It was a great walk though! After the walk I hung out with mom, dad, and Abbie before coming home to get to work in the kitchen.
I think Sunday can officially be deemed food prep day. Lately, it has been working out well to spend a few hours on Sundays preparing food for the SCD so that I am able to continue to stay on track throughout the week. It can be slightly exhausting but it’s always worth it in the end.
Yesterday I made…
Cooked carrots
Applesauce
Cheesecake (SCD)
Crockpot Chicken
Tilapia
Hard boiled eggs
Pineapple gelatin
Homemade BBQ sauce (recipe to come)
And I cut up fresh strawberries from a Costco-sized container
Cooked carrots: place organic baby carrots in a large bowl with about a cup of water, cover and microwave for 8-10 minutes or until carrots are fork tender. I have been eating these like crazy and wanted to have plenty for the week ahead.
Applesauce: Peel, core, and slice your apples. Place in pot with an inch or two of water in bottom of pot. Bring to a boil and let boil for about 10 minutes or until apples are fork tender.
Let the apples cool slightly, then transfer the apples (not the water) to a food processor or blender and blend until smooth.
Refrigerate and enjoy plain or with cinnamon. That’s what you call all natural applesauce!
Next up was SCD cheesecake and I used this cheesecake recipe right from the book.
Crock pot chicken: I placed two boneless skinless chicken breasts into the crock pot with ground mustard, salt, pepper, and a touch of honey. I set the crock to low and let it go for 4-5 hours. Once the time was up, I removed the chicken and placed into my Pyrex so that it would be ready to eat for lunch or dinner this week.
For dinner, we cooked up tilapia seasoned with fresh dill from our garden, fresh lemon juice, and pepper. I ate mine with ketchup (obviously), and I had a side of cooked carrots with a sprinkle of cinnamon and honey.
I LOVED the carrots with the cinnamon and honey holy cow. They tasted like a dessert to me! I finished the meal off with a piece of cheesecake pictured above. Hmm…well, it tasted better than the last time I made it but that’s because I had used the completely wrong cheese! The taste was alright, but I had a hard time getting past the texture. It wasn’t smooth like I was hoping. Oh well, I can’t say I didn’t try, but probably won’t be attempting to make that again.
There you have it; my busy day in the kitchen. The next couple of days I am going to be cooling it with introducing new foods into my diet. My body has been a little off lately and I this past weekend I wasn’t feeling too well. I plan to eat a modified version of the intro diet for a couple of days to get me back on track.
This is what I’m tentatively planning to eat (I am basing these foods off of the SCD Intro Diet and modifying to fit my needs):
Eggs
Chicken
Lean beef (if necessary)
Fish
Fruit Juice Gelatin
Cooked carrots
Applesauce
Bananas
Basically, I’m just adding applesauce and bananas on to the intro diet. Since I have already improved tremendously, I know I will be able to handle both of those foods just fine yet still give my system a bit of a break. This will only be for 1 or 2 days, then I should be able to move on again with adding foods back in slowly. That’s the plan as of now.
Once I was all done with the food prep, the rest of my Sunday night was spent watching the Season Finale of The Bachelorette. I am pretty surprised with the outcome. Have a great day everybody! I’ll catch up with you soon.
Could we please slow this weekend down a bit? It is FLYING by and I’m not okay with that!
We had a great day yesterday…
I set my alarm for 7:00 am with the hopes that I would be motivated to get out of bed and get a run in to begin the day. Well, the alarm went off at 7, but I just wasn’t having it. Although I think I only slept for another 15 minutes after that, I was happy with my decision to skip the workout yesterday. I officially declared it a rest day.
After I rolled out of bed and showered up, I made myself a tasty comfy belly breakfast: banana with homemade almond butter and a touch of honey.
Then it was time to finish getting all prettied up before hitting the road for our friend’s Kari and Tony’s wedding. I’ve been friends with Kari since 1st grade. She is one of the most genuine, kind-hearted, and thoughtful people I know. I was very excited to help them celebrate their special day.
The Ceremony
As I mentioned yesterday, the morning started off very rainy, and it was still sprinkling when we were walking into the ceremony at 10:00 am, but after the ceremony, it started clearing out. The ceremony was beautiful. Kari was glowing with happiness and Tony was cool, calm, and beaming as they exchanged vows. They chose a song called “I Will Be Here” to be sung during the unity sand part of the ceremony, and this was a song that Dana and I had also chose to be sung at our wedding ceremony. I couldn’t help but be brought back to my own wedding. I teared up several times because 1. You could see and feel the love between Kari and Tony and it was so real, and 2. I was able to reminisce about my own wedding and remember the joyful moments. I am such a sap, wow. I love weddings.
Reception
We had about an hour in between the ceremony and needing to be to the reception, so we headed home and hung out with Moose. On our way to the reception, we dropped him off at the groomers’ to get a full on doggy shampoo and brush out. OMG he was stanky…and I mean so bad that I couldn’t even touch him. Poor dog. I think it was from all the swimming the weekend before. He’s just not used to it, and his skin and body oils couldn’t keep up. I don’t know. That’s just my guess. But he was rank.
At 12:30, we made it to the loading dock on Harriet Island in St. Paul. Their wedding reception was on a boat on the Mississippi! How cool right?
But first, we had to get a photo in front of the building behind us because this is where our dear friends Adam and Stacy had their wedding reception. I boogied the night away right inside that building. A lot of great memories there.
Next, it was time to board.
We boarded at 12:30 and took our seats.
For lunch, a “brunch” style buffet was served. There was french toast, muffins, potatoes, eggs, bacon, and fresh fruit. Another first wedding experience for me was having a brunch. Very cool! I was even able to stick to SCD by eating scrambled eggs, bacon, and fresh fruit. Bring on the protein!
However, I will not tell a lie…I ate a piece of wedding cake. That is not SCD legal, but I decided I wanted to live a little and went for it. I didn’t have any repercussions but this isn’t to say I will eat cake every day. I will admit though, that cake was TASTY! Num.
After lunch and the speeches, Dana and I made our way to the top of the boat where there was open air and a nice cool breeze. At this point, the sun was completely out and it was just perfect outside. We cruised the Mississippi for three hours.
Then it was time for the first dance. We made our way back down to watch. Isn’t she stunning?
Then back outside we went to cool off again. I had the chance to catch up with my long time friend, Malia who I have known since I was 3 years old. We met at dance class and ironically, my dad and her mom went to grade school together. After we met in dance, we went to school together through 6th grade and have been friends since. We still keep in touch and I love her to pieces. It’s always great to see that gorgeous girl.
We deboarded the boat at about 4:00, and wished the newlyweds well once more before heading home. We picked up Moose on the way home. He looks like a stud, and no longer smells at all. We have our boy back. Now I can hug him and kanoodle him again. 🙂
Dinner?
I wasn’t really in the mood for anything in particular for dinner, so I made it a snacky kind of night. I ate watermelon, cooked carrots, almond butter, and then I made these…
This was definitely a cookie experiment as I wasn’t using a recipe. I threw some ingredients into a bowl, baked them up, and crossed my fingers for a decent outcome.
Banana Cookies (Grain-free, SCD)
Ingredients
2 very ripe bananas, smashed
1 egg
1 tsp vanilla
1 Tbsp honey
1 cup almond flour
1/2 tsp baking soda
1/4 tsp cinnamon
Directions
Preheat oven to 375°. Prepare baking sheet with parchment paper or non-stick cooking mat.
In small bowl mix to combine flour, baking soda, and cinnamon; set aside.
In medium bowl beat together bananas, egg, vanilla, and honey.
Add flour to banana mixture; mix until combined.
Drop cookies onto baking sheet.
Bake for 19-21 minutes. Cookies will be lightly golden on the bottom and tops are firm but soft.
I immediately said that these would be 100 times better if they had chocolate chips in them, but since that’s a no-no with the SCD, I opted out. But even without the chocolate, they were pretty good! They taste like a softer, lighter version of banana bread. Dana and I ate half the batch last night if that tells you anything. If you are looking for a gluten-free, SCD-friendly cookie recipe, I would give this one a shot! It was super easy too.
Alright, it’s Sunday Funday which means we have some grocery shopping to do. Catch up with you all soon! Happy Day!
Oo la la looky what I have! Fresh green beans from our garden! They are so crisp and wonderful. The tomatoes are popping up like crazy too but not quite ready to be picked. I love having fresh veggies right in the backyard.
In the back I pulled fresh beans, in the front I snagged a box full of almond flour from nuts.com. By snagged, I mean I bought a box of almond flour; 25 lbs to be exact. Check out the awesome box it came in. This should be a theme box for my blog; so cute and nutty. 😉 I especially love “Kiss me, I’m nuts.”
I priced it out and found that it was a better deal to order the almond flour in bulk, versus buying smaller individual packages from the local stores (which wasn’t surprising). Also, I really wanted almond flour, not almond meal, and buying individually packed almond flour in the store is ridiculously expensive, so this was definitely the way to go.
That is quite the load of flour!
With the help of my trusty assistant Dana, we bagged the flour into gallon freezer bags and placed all of the bags into the freezer except for one. Thank goodness we have a large freezer in the garage.
As for that bag of flour I left out, I had baking plans. I wanted to see how the SCD bread would bake up with the almond flour compared to the almond meal that I have been using. I made two loaves so that I could freeze one for another time.
And the verdict? I like the bread better with this almond flour. It is less crumbly which makes it easier to eat. The taste is pretty much the same though.
That was a quick recap from a couple of days ago…now on to yesterday.
For breakfast, I sliced myself up a big ol’ piece of that fresh loaf of bread, topped it with homemade almond butter and a drizzle of honey. Almond on almond…mmm love it.
Lunch at work was nothing to write home about. I made myself a bowl of SCD yogurt with a banana, and cooked carrots. After work I headed to the gym and snacked on watermelon on the way. At the gym, I hopped on an elliptical and sweated it out for 35 minutes or so.
Not long after I got home from the gym, I was pretty darn hungry. I grabbed a couple of handfuls of cherries to tide me over. I used our cherry pitter to help me enjoy the delicious reds even more. Eating a cherry without the pit in there is fantastic! With the pit is fine too you just can’t enjoy it as much because you are weeding out the pit. The cherry pitter was a wedding gift and it was a great one at that.
Dana and I were both hungry at about 5:00 so we decided instead of more snacking, we would just go ahead and make dinner. We fired up the grill and cooked up two very lean round steaks (I think that’s what they were). We also cooked some mushrooms to top our steaks. I served myself another helping of cooked carrots, which btw are really starting to grow on me, and Dana had a side of broccoli.
What’s that red stuff on my plate you ask? It’s ketchup of course. I like ketchup with steak sometimes. Is that weird? My homemade ketchup actually kind of tastes like Heinz 57, so it wasn’t weird to me at all.
It was a simple, nutritious, and tasty meal. Simple is definitely the way to go on a Friday night. Success.
The rest of the night was spent hangin’ with the boys, painting my toe nails, and getting ready for a wedding we are going to today. Right now it’s raining out, and I’m hoping for the bride’s sake that it stops by the afternoon. No matter what though, it will be a beautiful celebration! I am excited to help celebrate with them today.
I hope you all have a great Saturday! Catch up with you soon dudes.
Well hello there friends. Happy Thursday to you all.
A week ago I had a venting session about how overwhelmed I was with the SCD and how I wasn’t sure if I could continue to follow it as closely as I had been. I wrote that post at the end of a long work day and on a day when I wasn’t feeling well. Needless to say, my thoughts at that moment were most likely hinged to the fact that I was in fact exhausted, but not because I couldn’t handle the food preparation and the details of the SCD, more because I had a rough week.
Since my vent session, I have continued to follow the SCD very closely, sticking to “legal” foods and progressing with the diet at a rate based on my own health status. I have been doing very well with sticking to the allowable food items. I am really learning to pay attention to my body and how it reacts to different foods and activities. I continue to experiment with introducing foods back in to my diet to see how my body reacts (I learned I wasn’t ready for raisins—I knew better too).
I am about 2 1/2 weeks in to the SCD and I am feeing well, but still not 100%. It is rare that I have a “bloaty” day, and if I do, I can usually immediately associate it to a certain food that I ate, or correlate it to not eating as frequently as I should throughout the day, not drinking enough water, etc.
I continue to see the gastroenterology specialists who are treating my U.C. with medications, and who are fully aware that I am following this diet. I will continue to heal and share my journey with you all. It has been about two months now that I have been in this “flare” stage, but it feels like it’s been a whole lot longer than that. Thank you all for supporting me through this process. I can only hope that I am helping someone else out there who is facing the same challenges as I am.
On a lighter note, how about a Wednesday recap?
Breakfast: plain yogurt (SCD) sweetened with honey and topped with 3/4 of a peeled peach or maybe it’s a nectarine? Either way, it was delicious.
Lunch: I didn’t get to snap a photo of lunch because I literally had to stuff my face in a couple of minutes due to getting out of work late and Moose deciding to upchuck in the living room. I grabbed peanut butter and a banana before I had to head back to work.
Dinner: After work I came home and dug into some more of that super juicy refreshing watermelon salad I made the other day. This was part one of dinner.
I had two artichoke hearts from Costco while I pondered dinner options. These babies are packed in oil, so I gave them a rinse in the sink before eating them. They are very tasty! Dinner part two.
I was completely indecisive about what to eat for the more substantial portion of my meal. In the meantime, I meandered out to the backyard to check on the growth of one particular zucchini in the garden (aka the only zucchini in the garden right now). To my delight, it was ready to be picked! Finally, our first one of the year. I have a feeling now that the first one has been picked, they are going to start shooting out like wildfire like they did last year. I am going to have zucchini coming out of my ears soon (I hope!). I can’t believe how fast they grow. Just the day before I picked it was at least 2 inches shorter I could swear.
So clearly the next part of my dinner had to include the zucchini.
I remember an idea I saw on Pinterest for some sort of zucchini pizzas, and I ran with the idea.
First, I cut the zucchini into 5 mini rounds. I blotted each one with a paper towel to remove some liquid. Ideally, I would have like to let these sit in a colander with a sprinkle of salt for 20 minutes, and then blot them off with a towel, because I would be able to remove even more liquid. But since I was not in the mood to wait 20 extra minutes, I forged ahead.
I got the oven preheating to 375°. I prepared the zucchini bites on a piece of aluminum foil (easy clean up). I sprayed the aluminum foil with non-stick cooking spray but in reality, I probably didn’t need to do that as there was so much water that came out from the zucchini in the baking process and I don’t think they would have stuck.
I then sprinkled garlic powder on the zucchini, then layered on a tablespoon of homemade marinara sauce, cheddar cheese, and chopped green olives, and popped these bites in the oven for about 10 minutes. After 10 minutes, I turned the oven to broil, and cooked for an additional 3 minutes until the cheese was melty.
A quick, easy and healthy SCD meal in less than 20 minutes. Um, hello, yea! Dinner part three.
I debated sprinkling some parmesan cheese on the top but decided they were cheesy enough as is. I would make these again in a heart beat. They would be perfect for little ones too or even a fun snack or appetizer option.
Zucchini Pizza Bites (serves 1)
Ingredients
1/2 of a zucchini, cut into 5 circles
Garlic powder (not SCD legal—okay to omit)
Marinara or pizza sauce
1-2 Tablespoons shredded cheddar cheese
Your favorite pizza toppings: mine happens to be olives
Directions
Preheat oven to 375°
Cut zucchini into 5 rounds, blot with towel to remove excess liquid, and place on baking sheet or aluminum foil
Sprinkle zucchini with garlic powder
Spoon sauce on each zucchini, then cheese, lastly toppings
Bake for 10 minutes.
Turn oven to broil and bake for an additional 3 minutes or until cheese is melted.
Not too shabby for not knowing what I was going to eat for dinner, right?! Bring it on zucchini, I have a lot more plans for you. After dinner, I walked on the treadmill for an hour while watching Wheel of Fortune and So You Think You Can Dance.
I am out for the day. Enjoy this day, and I will catch up with you later gators.
I am feeling pretty tired this morning. I’ve got the coffee in hand and I’m waiting for it to kick in. I slept very well last night but just not quite long enough. I slept for about 7 hours but I function best at 8-10. I slept pretty hard, so I think I just need time to wake up still. I always wish I was one of those people who needed hardly any sleep to get by; I would be or could be, so much more productive. At least it’s not Monday!
Tuesday
For breakfast I made a smoothie to go and it was killer:
Cherries
Banana
Strawberries
Yogurt
Splash of Welch’s 100% Grape Juice
A touch of sweetener to take away some of the tartness
I threw a straw in the cup, and guzzled this smoothie on the way to work. I worked until 1:00 pm yesterday so I made sure to pack a snack to tide me over until lunch. Not pictured is two slices of Muenster cheese. They were nummy!
When I got home I was excited to dig into this beautiful looking salad.
I made this salad the night before and let it hang together over night.
Refreshing Watermelon Avocado Salad
Ingredients
1/2 of an english cucumber, peeled and diced
~1 1/2 cups watermelon, diced
1 avocado, diced
Juice of half a lime
1 Tablespoon fresh cilantro, chopped
1 teaspoon fresh basil, chopped
a touch of salt
Directions
Mix all ingredients together carefully so as not to mash the avocado. Serve cold right away, or let chill in the fridge over night. Either way you will enjoy this refreshing and super easy salad!
I really enjoyed this salad. It was so light and refreshing, yet it has healthy fats from the avocado to give it a little more substance. You could even add in some feta cheese if you were looking to get a little calcium in there too. You could really balance off the meal by eating this salad with a lean protein like grilled chicken or pork tenderloin.
Since I didn’t pair my salad with a protein like that, I finished my meal off with a couple bites of peanut butter for my protein fix. Then I hit the gym for a nice and sweet little jog on the elliptical.
Later in the afternoon, Dana and I got busy rearranging some furniture in our office and guest bedroom. I was in dire need of a better work space for my computer. Before I had it in the kitchen on a little bar that over looks our backyard, but in order for me to type I had to hunch my back and curve my wrists at an angle that just screams problems in the future. Besides that, it was right in the kitchen so the temptations were endless and I found myself sneaking for snacks often, and the other distraction was the television which was right to my right in the living room. When I am trying to concentrate I really need a quiet space. In college, I would often have to turn my fan on in my room and even use ear plugs when I needed to study. I have never been a good test taker and I think it’s because I get so distracted by noises; people clicking their pens, snapping their gum, tapping their foot, etc.
That was a slight tangent. We moved my computer into our back office where Dana has his office space as well. I already have my desk in there but I have been using it solely as a place to get ready in the morning (makeup, hair). I converted it to a desk as well with a space for my computer now. It is working out really well so far, and actually it will probably help me to not be on my computer as much too because it isn’t out right where Dana and I usually hang out at night. A break from technology is always a good thing, and I sometimes forget that.
Moving on to dinner. We made a super simple meal last night of pre-made turkey burgers on the grill, and grilled zucchini. I rolled the zucchini in garlic olive oil, and sprinkled it with garlic powder and salt and pepper. Dana manned the grill, and we were eating in about 15 minutes.
Alright, I have got to head out for the day. I hope you all have a wonderful Wednesday. I will catch up with you soon.
Question of the Day: What’s your most productive study environment?
I clearly like nice and quiet, but I know Dana prefers background noise. When he was in college he would almost always study and do homework with the TV on.
Well, hello there! How is everyone’s Tuesday rollin’ out so far? I’m going to give you a quick run-down of my day yesterday and then I have a super amazing recipe I want to share with you from Sunday evening.
Monday Morning
I started off my morning lacing up the sneaks for a 3.5 mile run around the neighborhood. It was a hot and sweaty run, but there was a nice breeze which helped keep me comfortable. Post-run, I attempted to model my new strawberry cup I bought at Target the other day. It matches my strawberry plate! I also bought a lemon cup to match my lemon plate. The summer dishware was 70% off and I just couldn’t pass it up.
For breakfast, I whipped up a smoothie, made my to-do list, and hit the road. My most recent smoothie obsession is a smoothie made with a frozen banana, a splash of pineapple juice, 1/4-1/2 cup SCD yogurt, and a dab of honey. It is so creamy and tropical tasting. I am loving it.
See-Food Lunch
I got home from running my errands around 11:00 and I was starvin’ marvin. I pulled out the watermelon from the fridge and snacked on some of that while I pondered my lunch options. I really couldn’t decide on anything substantial so I chose to start with a bowl of seedless english cucumber slices. I peeled the cucumber, sliced some of it up, splashed it with vinegar, a pinch of fresh dill, and salt and pepper. This was my experimental food for the day. I am hoping I can tolerate it okay. The salad was very refreshing and I would love to make a big batch of it.
And so began my see-food diet day. I saw food, I ate it.
I ate some peanut butter and honey.
And some SCD crackers. I made one batch of crackers and then split it into two batches: one cinnamon and sugar (saccharin) batch, and one salt and pepper batch.
I also snacked on a handful of cherries. I am making sure to chew the cherries very thoroughly to help aid in the digestion process. I realize that cherries may be slightly “advanced” at my stage in the SCD, but I have decided I will not go all summer long without eating cherries. They are in season right now and the season is so short-lived and I have been eating a few here and there. They don’t seem to bother me at all. I am enjoying every perfect bite.
I was wanting something dessert-like yesterday, so I searched around and found a SCD gummies recipe on Comfy Tummy’s site. The only ingredients are 1/2 cup grape juice (or whatever juice you have on hand), 3 unflavored gelatin packets, and 1 Tablespoon of honey. I just followed the directions right from Comfy Tummy’s recipe, and this is what I got.
These weren’t too shabby for a sweet treat, but they don’t compare to my grocery store bulk gummies that I like so much.
Afternoon Walk and Dinner
In the afternoon I met up with my girly Kate for a walk around the neighborhood. It was going to be a walk around the lake but when I found out we would have to pay $6.25 for parking, we made other plans. We headed to a nearby neighborhood and hit some beautiful trails around there. We walked for an hour which, in the 100° heat, turned us into hot sweaty messes. As always, it was SO good to spend time with her and catch up on life. I love her, love her, love her.
By the time I got home at 6:30, I still wasn’t hungry for dinner. I think it was a combination of snacking all day and over-heating from the walk. I actually felt nauseous for a little while. Eventually I came around and ended up eating a bowl of cooked carrots, a couple of cinnamon cookies, a bite of muenster cheese, and a few more cherries.
Okay, I have got to move on to the long awaited recipe I have been so excited to share with you (drum roll)…
Butternut Squash Nachos!
Butternut squash SCD legal nachos. I kid you not. These are na cho average nachos. To begin, I peeled a large butternut squash.
I used the long neck of the squash to make “chips” on the mandolin. I sliced these very thin so they were chip-like. I steamed the other portion of the squash in the microwave and pureed it in the food processor. I bagged up the puree and placed it in the freezer for another day. You know I wouldn’t waste food. Haste makes waste.
Okay, so once the chips were sliced, I placed them into a pot of boiling water and boiled for two minutes. After two minutes, I placed them into a colander in the sink and rinsed with cold water until the chips were cool enough to handle.
Then came the tedious part. I used a paper towel to dry each individual chip and placed them onto my baking mat (I used two baking sheets). This took me a while but considering the end result, it was so totally worth it. Once all of the chips are placed onto a baking mat or parchment paper, spray with olive oil or canola oil, sprinkle with salt, and place in a preheated 375° oven.
I wasn’t sure how long they would take to bake, but it ended up taking about 30-35 minutes, turning the pans and switching shelves half way. I ended up flipping the oven to high broil at the end so that I could try to crisp up the top a bit.
While the chips were baking, I prepared the toppings. I took one avocado, diced it, added a splash of lime, cilantro, cumin, and salt and pepper. I gave it a stir and had guacamole in a flash. I grated cheddar cheese to melt over the chips. I seasoned some leftover pulled chicken with chili spices.
When it was time to assemble, I placed a layer of chips on the bottom of the plate, topped them with cheddar cheese and chicken and popped them in the microwave for about 45 seconds. Then I topped the nachos with organic salsa and a heaping spoonful of guacamole.
Holy moly you guys will not believe how insanely delicious this was! I didn’t want it to end. Can you believe this is SCD friendly? I am very proud of this dish. It was worth every bit of effort and Dana agrees. These nachos are the bomb.
I am going to leave you with that to drool ponder over. I hope you all have a great Tuesday. I will catch up with you soon!
*Use whatever nacho toppings you enjoy: lettuce, tomatoes, onion, black olives, would be great additions to this dish.
Instructions
Preheat oven to 375°. Prepare two large cookie sheets with parchment paper or non-stick baking mats.
Use mandolin or sharp knife to slice squash into thin round chips.
In a small pot, bring water to a boil. Once water is boiling, add chips; cook for 2 minutes.
Remove chips from stove and pour into a colander in the sink; run cold water over chips until cool.
Use towel or paper towel to pat each chip dry and place on baking pans.
Bake for 30-35 minutes or until the chips begin to crisp.
Turn oven to high broil and broil for 2 minutes, watching carefully so that chips don't burn. Once they are crisped up to your liking, remove from oven.
Plate the chips and add cheese and chicken. Cook in microwave for 45 seconds.
