Optimal Health Journey

[StarchBeet]

funny chile, lol

Chile is a cherry pepper similar to a jalepeno? I have some hot cherry's and a few jelepenos and not sure which to use in the South of the Border salad. My poor garden wasn't protected enough AGAIN this year and I've lost more than half my veggies to the deer and critters and then the super heat has cut down on the crop yield.

[Loveskale]

Raw...as long as it is in some sort of acid it might cut down on the heat. No idea what a cherry pepper is, but a jalapeno sometimes is too hot raw. Sometimes you get peppers that are "duds" and not very hot at all, but I can't tell the difference.

[StarchBeet]

thanks loveskale; this is supposed to be a round hot pepper that turns red. I picked it green and cut it finely to add to the South of the Border Salad. It gave just a little heat and worked well.



This meal was worth the wait...but it took me a week to fix it! This is from MWL, four bean chili and I used fava's and kidneys in a can to substitute for what I didn't have. I am using up my basmati white rice too. Then the food closest to the camera is the South of the Border Salad.

This was breakfast the last morning I ate before getting sick. This was the best batch of Jeff's Oatmeal bars I'd made, too.

[Loveskale]

Those both look delicious! That salad reminds me of my trip to Costa Rica.

[Chile]

My use of the word "Chile" is in reference to the Anaheim green chile peppers that are so tasty when fire-roasted. I took the name years ago when a group of us regulars on the McDougall Friends Board (the socializing forum, so it was kept separate from the McDougall Board) at Vegsource all decided to change our user names to our favorite vegetable (or fruit). I had just purchased 40 pounds (yes, you read that right - FORTY POUNDS!) of chiles that were roasted while I waited. Took me two days to clean the skin off and remove the seeds, but man, was it worth it. I looooove chiles and can, and did, eat them plain while cleaning them.

Incidentally, I cheated on my avatar photo. It looks like a chile but it's really a long bell pepper.

[Ege Bamyasi]

.

[Rosey]

I love love love spicy and the kiddo I babysit is starting to like it too. laugh.

[StarchBeet]

you all are making me laugh...spice on my friends!!

My plant was so full of those red hot peppers and the bunnies got all but two. I have a jalepeno in my topsy turvey and if I get up a fence around that tonight I'll keep that and my few large tomatoes left. Cross your fingers.

Chile I need to come spend a few weeks learning at your place. That's a lot of HOT PEPPERS!! I buy that many potatoes, lol

B: bowl of boiled potatoes topped with South of the Border Salad

[Chile]

A tribute to Forrest Gump:

Chile is the fruit of the land. You can barbecue it, fire-roast it, broil it, dry it, freeze it. There's, um, stuffed chiles, green chile sauce, red chile sauce, pan fried, deep fried, stir fried. There's sweet 'n sour pineapple chiles and orange chile marmalade, chile rellenos, chile quesadillas, red chile soup, green chile & corn stew, chile salad, chiles and potatoes, green chile veggie burger, chiles on a sandwich... That's, that's about it.

No, there are a million more ways to eat chiles!

[StarchBeet]

hail to that chile!

Saturday I took the rest of the potatoes and made potato salad. I added a few more items to the South of the Border salad to freshen it up.

Sunday I made MWL Curried potatoes and peas and added some carrots and spinach too.

Today I ate potato salad for breakfast, then a bowl of South of the Border Salad for lunch. I munched on handfuls of generic honey nut cheerios. Hormones must be kicking up my sugar tooth or something.

Its hot outside and I wish we were at the beach or something.

I'm going to get a picture of my blue watermelons...very strange looking.

[StarchBeet]

So yesterday I was craving sugar and I feel out of control. I wanted sugar and had no fruit. I ate about 6 sweet beets. I stuck my finger in the container of honey almond butter that found its way back into my pantry. I probably ate close to a T of the almond butter.

Then I went out and the store was empty so I stopped to shop and bought watermelon (bells going offfffff) canteloupe, blueberries and a korean melon to make some fruit salad. OH, I found the peeled bag of fava beans. I must make something soon with them. And I bought that korean rice-cake treats. I ate about 4 of them.

So of course I opened the watermelon and since last night I've eaten the entire small melon. And so today I'm reading in this blog about how healthy you are by eating smaller portions. Oy vey.

I need to figure out how to deal with that sugar craving better. I was hoping I'd go with the momentum of losing weight and get into the 140's. Watermelon may have put an end to that this week but I could walk both day and night to try to balance it out.

I need to limit portions...or at least eat slower so I actually feel my fullness. I felt uncomfortably full last night. So much for that shrinking of my stomach while in the hospital. I think that watermelon gorging undid that. Now I have to choose to eat smaller and slower and enjoy and feel how I am full.

B: watermelon
L: potato salad, two bowls and MWL curried potatoes

[StarchBeet]

Yesterday I helped my friend with her garden and dog while she's at the beach. It rained last night. Now I don't know if I need to stop the auto-waterer or not.

I made some great fava and potato stew yesterday. I need to figure out what I'll make today. I think it will be a three bean salad and maybe some noodle based meal for the kid and then another thing for me, too. My fruit salad isn't the same without the watermelon that I finished before I added it to the salad. I got a Korean melon that's very interesting though.

I made banana muffins to take to the surgeons office today. I'll try to run to the hospital and give some to some of the workers there, too.

Breakfast will be hash browns today.

[kkrichar]

Hey SB,

You are doing so amazing. Kudos! I don't know how you make pasta and muffins for other people and not eat it. I don't think I could do that.

Have I already asked you how you make your potato salad? It looks SO good in that picture. If you've already told me just let me know and I'll search farther back in your journal. Was the curried potatoes from a MWL recipe? Those look fantastic too!!!! I'd like to try both those recipes if you're willing to share.

Keep up the good work.

[StarchBeet]

kkrichar wrote:

Kudos! I don't know how you make pasta and muffins for other people and not eat it. I don't think I could do that.

Have I already asked you how you make your potato salad?

Actually I do eat what I make for others kkrichar. The muffins are mini muffins so I munch one or two now and then and so that's not MWL compliant but its perfectly McDougall legal. I think these little things keep me following the guidelines though I still need to commit to "no exception". But this is why I'm losing about 5 pounds a month. But this "tortuga" will cross the finish line!

For the potato salad (another rich non-MWL compliant treat) was a container of tofu, good measure of rice vinegar, some lemon juice, some garlic, mustard and my special addition was the pickled cucumber and carrots (I found this at the Dutch Market) that I put into the blender..oh another special addition was chopped mango. So that's the sauce and then I finely chop up what ever I have which was red onions, celery, peppers or what ever you like or have and add to potatoes then mix up the sauce.

Oh, yes the curried potatoes were from MWL, but I add my own Indian spices too, like tamarind paste and different types of curry, etc. And I added the black olives and those others things.

[StarchBeet]

Hey Debbie...thanks for your kind words. You've helped me so much through the last year.

I am feeling better, but in reading some more of "Digestive Tune-up" last night I am second guessing if I should have let my gallbladder go. The real commitment I needed was to NEVER cheat and eat oil so I didn't abuse my already hurting gallbladder. HO HUM; I do the best I can but I had no wiggle room at all and I wasn't strong enough to just leave the hospital after my pancreas calmed down. I did need a hernia repair though but that wasn't emergency situation.

I'm trying to adjust without a gallbladder and well I'm not sure how this is going to affect my bowels ability to digest things. However, over-all I feel little pain just a lot of lethargy. I am hoping I'll get up tomorrow and walk. I need no exceptions to this walking...and I'd like to go all the way and walk in morning and night. I know that will make the rest of the fat go much easier. And I need some strength.

The other commitment I need is to have a lot of fresh vegetables and/or salad to eat before meals and graze on. Those two things will make the final part of this trip happen without a glitch.

Thanks for being on the trip with me Debbie. Best of everything to your wonderful kids and great husband too!!