by creativeone » Mon Feb 08, 2021 2:16 am
Hi Marsha - thanks for your kind words! The MWL is going along easily and without issues and am losing about 2 lbs a week.
I feel really in the groove and have a method for eating that takes little thought but simple action. A fruit for breakfast is usually all I have hunger or time for. Then I head to studio early in the morning. I keep potatoes there with a microwave and that is my snack/lunch and I take few celery stalks or a bell pepper or carrots with me. Dinner is simply the potato and I have become incredibly creative with them and am pretty proud of my inventive meals.
Soup - since getting the soup maker I am making a fresh soup nearly daily unless we have leftovers for the next day. The variety of vegetable soups is incredible and we are finding that they help reduce the amount of 'food' we eat for dinner. I used to make 1.5g of potatoes and now 800-900g. Not that we were trying to reduce it, it just happened. I started an index card binder for soup recipes so I have them all written down. One night feeling creative I wrote some for the future that have yet to be tried or tested.
Since I have a MWL partner doing it with me and he is motivated and has good will power and far exceeded my expectations. Honestly I thought he'd break down and order in a fave british meal by the 2nd week. But he is really great and we are happy doing this! But that being said we are discussing how long we want to MWL and when we will go to regular McDougall way of eating. At this time we are planning end of February or 1st week in March. Then we will add in a few things such as brown rice or WW pasta. We only eliminated them from MWL (I know you don't have to) but we found we overate them or only maintained our weight and did not lose. So we have stuck to potatoes but it works for us and we are not tired of them in any way.
I have simply mashed, and baked and microwaved. But added scallions and leeks to the mash using an instant pot to cook them - it makes the leeks take on a fondant consistency and become creamy. Then topped them with fresh sliced red onions after the mash.
I created a casserole dish with sliced potatoes and onions, veg broth and nutritional yeast and baked it - like a scalloped potato and it was spectacular. Then cut and roasted on silpats and parchment trying to get the 'french fry' style. I came close and made homemade 'ketchup' from tomato paste with a few spices. It was amazing. They roast potatoes here in the UK for Sunday roast dinners. Naturally they are made with lots of fat and very rich. Yesterday I was stuck at home, so I took on figuring that out and had some decent success. I used a flour sprinkler to dust parchment on a pan with brown rice flour. Then I boiled the half cut potatoes in water with 1 tbsp white vinegar which keeps them whole and not falling apart. Start with cold water and when it boils, simmer for 10 minutes, drain and dust very lightly with brown rice flour. Bake in a very hot oven for 20 minutes, remove pan and using a potato masher, lightly smash the potatoes and flip them. Bake 20 mins more and repeat the gentle mash and flip routine. Bake again until they are as crisply browned as you like them. I know rice flour is not MWL but the amount used is about 1-2 tbsp at most so I felt we could eat that. The rice flour has a gritty texture and keeps the potatoes from sticking and gives them added crisp. We agreed not to eat them again for a month, and this morning was our weight in day and we each lost weight, me 3 lbs and he 4 lbs. So it didn't seem to hurt us but we don't want to add foods to MWL that are not allowed strictly. It was just an experiment.
And for desserts most evenings we share tinned fruit and sometimes a warm dish of porridge.