New Way of Eating = New recipes!

I'm so excited to tell you that loosing weight can be fun and enjoyable.  I've just put the whole family on the Trim, Healthy Mama plan.  The book is at www.trimhealthymama.com.  I've had my eye on this book for quite awhile as many of my friends were buying it and discussing it.  I waiting until May which is Mother's day month and my birthday to ask for it. 

 Now that I'm 46 years old I'm not loosing weight like I used to.  I used to be able to skip a meal or just eat fruit for breakfast and then cut out desserts and get back to my pre-pregnancy weight pretty easily.  Two years after the birth of my 6th baby, I find myself struggling with not only an extra 10 lbs but my body shape has changed.  I no longer seem to have a waist!  All my life I've carried extra weight in my hips and thighs but not my waist or arms.  Now my arms are flabby, my stomach is bulging and so I'm feeling my age.  I do have a sluggish thyroid so I'm on Armor to give my thyroid a boost which I thought would give my metabolism a boost too.  But after 3 months of thyroid meds, I'm not able to get this weight off.  My doctor put me on the paleo diet which just means no carbs. I was allowing myself to eat fruit whenever and milk in my coffee which was probably spiking my blood sugar and at the wrong times. Never eating grains is quite a bit of work and to have little to no results is draining. This diet is different in that you can have carbs, you just have to eat them at the right time and limit your carb grams to 45 per meal.  Once you get the hang of it it's easy.  There is plenty of desserts you can play around with they just all contain Stevia instead of artificial sweeteners or even natural sugars.  I did not know that honey does the same thing in your body that sugar does as far as glucose levels go. Knowing how to combine your fats, carbs and protein is key to this diet.

I began looking at the Trim, Healthy Mama Facebook page and reading other peoples testimonies and looking at all the recipes and was hooked!   I wanted to start immediately.  So I tried my best while waiting for the book to come in the mail.  This is the dinner we were having the day I received the book.  

I knew my family would not be satisfied with barbecued beef ribs, cucumber salad and asparagus so I quickly checked the book for another side.  I made the cauliflower potato salad and it was so yummy!

This is considered a Satisfying meal or S meal for short because it has a protein, high fat and hardly any carbs.  No potatoes in that salad and no side of bread or any fruit to spike your blood sugar levels.  So you can eat all this yummy food and still loose weight.

This is an S lunch.  I'm telling you, this lunch was so tastey I could hardly contain myself.  It's a BLT salad on top of paleo flatbread.  So the bacon and mayo make it high in fat.  The flatbread is made with eggs, coconut flour, and cream.  Bacon makes everything fabulous and you can have it.  I buy the good stuff made with no nitrates and it's uncured.  Just a few pieces crumbled into your salad or casserole really makes a difference.

A side of fresh coconut is a yummy, crunchy snack or side to your lunch instead of crackers or potato chips. The benefits of coconut are amazing!

The key to making a good salad is lots of toppings.  My mother-in-law makes the best Italian salad and I noticed that she puts all the toppings in first, filling her bowl about 1/3 of the way and then adds her lettuce.  She tosses it with an Italian dressing and adds cracked pepper and salt.  My standard salad usually includes tomato, red onion, olives,  and shredded parmesan cheese.  Avocado is good on this too but not everyone in my family likes it.  So I put in on myself after I've put a large helping on my plate.  We make a delicious creamy Italian dressing  that is easy and healthy.  I've given this recipe out to many friends as it seems to be a favorite for lots of people. We make a lot so we have it on hand all week but you could cut the recipe in half if you don't want that much.

I'll list it here so you don't have to remember to ask me later:

• 1 cup of Apple Cider Vinager
• 2 clove of garlic
• 1 Tbsp of Tahini
• 1 tsp of Italian seasoning
• 1 tsp of salt
• 1/2 tsp of pepper
• a dash of Stevi
• 1 cup of Olive oil

Blend the first 7 ingredients in blender or Vita-mix and then slowly add Olive oil and blend on low till it's all nice and creamy looking.  Tahini is Sesame Seed butter, in case you are wondering and this is what makes it creamy looking. It's found in the same section as your peanut butter at the grocery store. You could make it without it but it would turn out more like an original Italian dressing.

This is the chili relleno casserole from the THM book.  It's so easy and fast to make.  Chicken, green chilis, cheese and eggs. 

Again this is an S meal with little to no carbs.  The berries don't count as carbs.  

You can have carbs on this plan but I'm still figuring out how to add them in without adding too many and you then have just a little fat. These are called Energy meals or E meals. I'm showing you all S meals in this post.

This was such a good side, I just have to share it with you!  I got the basic idea from THM but I tweaked it a bit.  It was easy and a filling side for our barbecued chicken dinner.  It's hard to know what to fix as a side if you want to eat an S-meal.  Potatoes and rice are out so this recipe was a great alternative!

• 2 1/2 yellow or green zucchinis (shredded)
• 1/2 cup of red onion
• 1 cup of shredded cheese
• 5 eggs
• 1/3 cup of cream
• Mix it all together and add salt and pepper.  Grease your muffin tins and Bake at 350* for 20 min.

Serve your mini zucchini quiches with sauteed green beans adding chopped almonds and parmesan.  Serve these sides with your barbecued chicken and you've got yourself a fat burning S meal! 

I think this plan will help me eat right for the rest of my life because now I can have a few carbs each day so I'm not denying myself so much and then feeling guilty when I cheat.  Now I understand how to combine food and keep my sugar levels down to a reasonable level which will keep me healthier and keep my body from storing glucose in my fat cells.  I've already lost 6 pounds which is encouraging.  The book is a good read and quite entertaining too.  I highly recommend it!

Blessings,

Kristin

Summer Fun

Olivia got a new camera for graduation and this picture was taken with it.  She has a nice zoom option! I love birds as long as they are not flying anywhere near me.  Flying things freak me out when they are fluttering next to my head and I have no control over what they might do!  They sure are cool to look at though, from afar.  Birds give out such a peaceful feeling.  Probably because they never seem troubled.

With two boys who fight a whole lot, I've been trying to pull tricks out of my hat to keep them occupied.  I used to live and breath "fun activities for kids" but as the years go by, I've forgotten what they love to do.  One day when I was particularly tired of trying to entertain my almost 5 year old, I saw a bucket out back and the hose and thought, "hey, who cares if he gets wet or dirty, I'll just give him a bath when he is done!"  Instant entertainment, when there is water around, right?

Then I was reminded of many summers spent in these little plastic pools and I went out to find one.  I'm still hopeful it will be just as entertaining next week as it was the first week.

We have a pair of lovebirds in our backyard and I'm pretty sure they have babies in one of our trees.  I'm a little scared to go searching since when I go to pick my tomatoes, they yell at me and fly around just like a mother bird would to protect her young.

Another summer activity that Anthony and I do every year is make soap.  This is our second batch this month.

Anthony always tries crazy stuff (his is on the left) and I decided to do my own since I really wanted a fresh green soap with a lemongrass scent.

Making stuff is so fun especially when it's useful. I love learning how to make things so that we don't have to rely so much on big companies to produce what we need to survive. I just recently learned how to make a lovely scented paste to use as a deodorant!  I don't have a picture of it here but the recipe is so easy that I have to share it with you.  It works so well that you only need to apply it in the morning and you will be good to go all day long!  And if I can say that, living in Texas, you know it's got some awesome oder power and . . . it's all natural!

Love this picture of Anthony's soap.

Ok, deodorant recipe is:

Equal amounts of Arrowroot and Baking Soda (I used 1/4 cup)

Stir together and then moisten with coconut oil until it's the consistency you like.  It doesn't take much.  I think I used maybe 2 TBSP.  I might add a little more to see If I can make it more like a lotion than a paste.  Then I used a Young Living essential oil called Thieves to scent it and for it's anti bacterial/fungal properties.  

I hope to post some pictures of Olivia's graduation once I get them.  Stay tuned!