Discussion Board

May I ask what farro is?

HI, ,just chiming in to say that farro is a whole grain that looks like a bigger barley to me. I like barely better too..

Here's an interesting article about farro: http://www.nytimes.com/1997/06/11/garden/farro-italy-s-rustic-staple-the-little-grain-that-could.html?pagewanted=all&src=pm

Thanks for posting the article. Very interesting! I'll have to look for it.

If you decide to try the farro, the best price I've found locally is in the bulk section at MOM's.

Toadfood, thanks for the cranberry on oatmeal info. I have been enjoying making oatmeal or steel cut oats or oats in different ways. I could eat this everyday because of all the variety.

I've been reading your journal for a couple of years now and I love that. I see what a good place you are in and am so pleased for you. It gives me hope too.

Thanks, Toadfood. I was just in MOM's (Timonium). I'll check it out when I return over the weekend.

Anna, thank you so much for those encouraging words. Right now I am in the best place I've been in for a long, long time -- maybe ever. I think the combination of McDougall and OA is exactly the prescription I need.

I've been reading your journal for a long time too and I think you've made incredible progress, and will continue to do so.

This is my fourteen hundredth post, y'all! Kewl.

I was just looking back at Page 1 of this "starting over" journal. I started it just over a year ago -- November 8, 2010. In that time I have released 50 pounds, and my fasting blood sugar has gone from 138 to between 85 and 92.

The progress has not been steady, by any means. Most of it has been since I returned to OA in late July. But when I sum it up like that, I can feel pretty good about how the past 12 months have gone.

Great Job with the blood sugars! Way to Go! I am committing to eating more veggies.Mine are around 103 this am.RAS

Wonderful news about the blood sugar.

Thanks, RAS and HealthE1! RAS, beans help a lot with the blood sugar, too. I love me some beans.

Last night I tried a new product -- Trader Joe's quick-cooking brown basmati rice. Brown basmati rice in 15 minutes -- sounds great, right? Wrong. It's bland and mushy. I ate my portion but there was no way I was going to eat the leftovers, so I made a McDougall friendly rice pudding. Haven't eaten any yet, but it looks and smells good. I made it with almond milk. I considered using coconut milk for part of the liquid, but changed my mind after reading the label. 1/4 cup of "LIGHT" coconut milk has twice as much fat as a full cup of almond milk! I think I'll save the coconut milk for next Thanksgiving!

Note to self: Thanksgiving is OVER. You do not celebrate Christmas. Therefore, you are done with food holidays for the year. Don't you think it's time to stop making treats? If you lay off the desserts, and the veggies roasted with olive oil, and the teaspoon of olive oil in the Indian food, I'll bet you can lose another 10 pounds in December.

The food cooked with oil is gone. You've got cranberry sauce, poached pears, and rice pudding in the fridge. When those are gone, I think it's time for you to lay off the sugar and the nuts for a while, mmmkay?

I purchase the 3-pack package of frozen brown rice. It also comes in packages with Jasmine and a mixed medley. (Haven't tried that yet.) In 3 minutes - voila - rice! It's quite good. I don't think it has anything else in it. Better check the label for oil though. It's actually the same as Rice Expressions I think. Also WFM has it in their brand, though it's not in individual packages, just a large bag. I think it may even be a little less expensive. I bought at TJ's for $4-something, which is a little over $1.00 per package. I get 2-3 servings depending on how hungry I am. LOL

Thanks for the frozen brown rice tip. Usually I cook a big pot of rice and eat from it for several days. On that particular day, I thought there was enough leftover rice for two people, and it turned out there was only enough for one, hence the quick cooking rice experiment. Frozen brown rice would be good to keep around for an emergency.

The rice pudding turned out well, but this morning my fasting blood sugar was 100. Once upon a time I would have thought that was great, but now that is high for me! I am attributing this to a large rice pudding snack I ate last night about an hour before going to bed. I have found that too much brown rice at night can raise my fbs the next morning, and this was rice with sugar, almond milk, and raisins mixed in (plus some cornstarch to thicken it up -- maybe ground flaxseed would have been a better choice). Tonight I am going to try a (much) smaller serving of rice pudding, and eat it immediately after my dinner of beans and greens. Then I'll check my postprandial sugar (if I remember -- I have a hard time remembering to do this; maybe I should set an alarm) and see what happened. Science experiments can be fun!