Week 6

Halfway through our 12 week challenge! It has been quite a lot harder this week as I still have this nasty flu/cough and haven't really had the energy to do anything!
I have been meaning to try a few new recipes (but don't really feel game for the inevitable FAIL before the try again & hopeful win!) & also to make our own hummus, mayo & ketchup supplies but to no avail.  I have also found it hard to carry on the walking - so am taking a break - hopefully better soon!

Though, I have been looking & researching were to source/buy cheaper & bulk amounts of tapioca flour, almond flour & also brown rice flour, as I want to start using that in Phase 3.  I am interested in trying out a sourdough bread & pasta.  At the moment Bin Inn plus a few traders on trademe have the cheapest prices - some as cheap as $4-5 a kilo.  Just need to source it without the transport cost!

RECIPE WIN
1.  Banana Bread - I thought I would give this a go & it was really nice.  I especially liked it when it had cooled down & I could slather it in butter.  I also substituted the shortening in the recipe for butter. 


RECIPES to TRY this week (that I didn't get to last week - AGAIN!) plus some new ones to attempt...
1.  Coconut yoghurt
2.  Israeli Salad
3.  Naan bread
4.  Cloud Bread
5.  Brownie - berry one
6.  Brownie - although it has coconut sugar in it!

Week 6

Week 5

I wasn't even sure if I would make it this far - but we have & I am amazed - but also more determined to keep going! I have now lost between 6-7kg & that helps to spur me on.  I also feel better (although I have just been sick!) in that I am not so tired & I also think my teeth are whiter! Random - but I suppose that has to do with the sugar (or lack of it).
  
RECIPE WIN
1.Pizza - made with almond & tapioca flour.  I mostly liked this, but Jon liked it ALOT - it was gone in 5 mins.   


Not much else happened this week, except I made up a list of 7 meals that I am happy with during the week - I would like to extend this to about 10-12 as then I don't get too sick of the same thing each week.  I would like to get it so that these are my easy "go to" meals. 

GO TO MEALS:
1.  Chicken curry (Korma paste has no sugar) with roast kumara, peas & beans
2.  Broccoli & other vege casserole with chicken (last week's recipe)
3.  Mince Bolognese (with carrot & other vege) stuffed into a hollowed out zucchini, butternut, potato or kumara
4. Chicken drumsticks/Lamb Chops/Steak with potato wedges & coleslaw or salad
5.  Curried sausages with peas & mashed spud & pumpkin/kumara
6.  Tuna cakes/friend fish/baked salmon & salad
7.  Pizza or Wraps - both require a bit more work but are nice treats



RECIPES to TRY this week (that I didn't get to last week - AGAIN!) plus some new ones to attempt...
1.  Coconut yoghurt
2.  Israeli Salad
3.  Naan bread
4.  Cloud Bread

Week 5

Week 4

Wow - Phase 1 done & dusted! It went fast  The first 10 days were definitely the hardest & now it seems we are in the swing of things.  Potato eating on the weekend wasn't that exciting! We were at a conference for the weekend, so I think we managed pretty well with very minimal (unavoidable) cheating. 

I have lost about 1kg this week, and now its about a total of 6kg or more that I have lost from the beginning of this diet! YAY

I have not done much experimenting in the kitchen this week - I have either been away or very busy. 
Just a pointer before I go onto the recipes - I have realised that making my own stuff means that it doesn't last as long - either it gets devoured - or it goes off a lot quicker than store bought.  I unfortunately had to throw out my tomato sauce as it was becoming tomato wine! Next time I will make a smaller batch!

RECIPE OK
1.  Meatballs - made with mince, egg & a bit of almond flour.  I also added some flavours/spices.  I'm just not sure if I liked both the texture & the taste.  I think if I had eaten them hot with nice sauce, then that would have enhanced the experience. 

  
RECIPE WIN
1.  Stuffed butternuts & zucchini.  This was a recipe I adapted/made up.  I made a mince/spag bol mix up with tin tomatoes & grated carrot etc.  I then hollowed out both zucchinis & butternuts & put the mince mix into these, sprinkled with chees & then baked.  These were awesome & had some leftover for lunches the next day. 
2.   Broccoli & chicken bake/casserole  - this was really yummy & very easy to make.  I used fresh chicken breasts, no mushrooms & I couldn't get stock without sugar in it, so just used water.  It was nice :-)
Sorry - no pics this week! 

RECIPES to TRY this week (that I didn't get to last week - AGAIN!)
1.  Coconut yoghurt
2.  Israeli Salad
3.  Scotch Eggs - will have to substitute pork mince for ??
4.  Sausage patties for breakfast
5.  Naan bread
6.  Choc slice

Week 4

Week 3

I can't believe we have completed week 3 & into our 4th week - the last one in Phase One - next week I can eat potatoes :-)

So this week has consisted of probably an equal amount of wins & fails in the kitchen - so that's mor encouraging than last week!
I have only lost about 1kg this week, but at least it is still going down.  I think we are starting to enjoy more and more now the changes & the food we are eating. 

So here's for some of the recipes...

RECIPE FAILS
1.  Lemon bars - again the taste of coconut in the base was just to much - am pretty much going to not try anymore recipes that have coconut flour in them!

RECIPE OK'S (but need work)
1.  Apple crumble - tasted too floury - would take out the coconut flour (surprise, surprise!) and add in shredded coconut.  I think it would be fine with just that, almond flour, butter & sliced almonds.  (I didn't measure anything!)
 
RECIPE WIN
1.  Tortilla (flatbread) - got a smaller frypan & had awesome success with these.  Wrapped up chicken & avocado & salad in these - YUM!
2.  Kombucha - after trialling the 3 flavours - the ginger came out as the best, so only did flavour again that this week. 
2.  Mayo - this was a fail to start with as I used extra virgin olive oil instead of the light it called for in the recipe.  When I used the right stuff it was awesome.  Added some garlic to it too - was very nice with avocado in these eggs for lunch. 

3.  Tuna Cakes - I thought these weren't going to work as they were quite runny - but these were awesome & my husband ate all of them! (I had intended on saving some for the next day's lunch!)
4.  Lemon slice - I made this recipe up myself & was very stoked that it tasted nice.  Basically the base was 1 cup each of coconut (shredded) & almond flour, 75g of butter melted & some honey pus lemon zest.  I pressed that in & refrigerated - then whipped up 250g of cream cheese, 75g of butter & some honey. And half a lemon of juice plus zest.  Then spread that over the base & refrigerated again. 
5.  Hummus - this was a piece of cake to make & will definitely make this regularly. 

RECIPES to TRY this week (that I didn't get to last week)
1.  Coconut yoghurt
2.  Israeli Salad
3.  Scotch Eggs - will have to substitute pork mince for ??
4.  Sausage patties for breakfast
5.  Naan bread
6.  Choc slice

Week 3

Week One & Two

Our first week was rather boring & consisted of following the diet prescribed menu without much creativity - getting my head around it & surviving with a weight loss of about 4kg! YAY

Week two - found me getting a bit bored with the same old, so started to experiment with some new recipes.  Some were disasters - others I have improved on, and some have been ok. 
So to start here are some ingredient links of stuff I have bought to help in the process...

INGREDIENTS
Protein Powder - for smoothies from Protein NZ - made sure it was the Whey Isolate & we got the vanilla flavour.  This is a great addition to our yoghurt & berry smoothies we have for breakfast. 

Supplements - Multi vitamins and Fucoxanthin from iHeal Trademe Store

RECIPE FAILS
These recipes worked but tasted yuk - I have decided that I don't really like the texture of coconut flour...and that tapioca flour makes things slimy.

1.  English muffins - passable but not really that nice
2.  Choc muffins - Jon liked them - very strong bitter taste - maybe too much cocoa & need more honey/sweetener
3.  Protein pancakes - tasted eggy - not nice (they looked so nice in the pic - but I couldn't stomach them!)

RECIPE OK'S (but need work)
1.  Falafal - wouldn't stick together without flour (& I think I then added too much!)
2.  Tortilla (flatbread) - needed a smaller frying pan as really hard to flip - but otherwise a WIN! I think this is where tapioca flour comes into its own. 
3.  Waffles - I liked these - but again the coconut flour was quite dominant

RECIPE WIN
1.  Kombucha - trialling 3 flavours this week (chai, ginger & cinnamon)
2.  Ketchup - sugar free (my own concoction)

RECIPES to TRY this week
1.  Coconut yoghurt
2.  Israeli Salad
3.  Homemade Mayo
4. Scotch Eggs - will have to substitute pork mince for ??
5.  Tuna Cakes
6. Sausage patties for breakfast
7.  Naan bread
8.  Choc slice

Week One & Two

RE - NEW (begin again)

2 years since I last posted - I wonder if that has any coincidence with the fact that I started a business and no longer have much free time on my hands!

Within the last year I have certainly not felt any urge to write at all.  Starting this time last year was a string of events that have really taken its toll & affected our lives quite a bit. To start, our church had a rather nasty split, which resulted in us leaving,  a month or so later Jon quit his job, a few weeks later we found out our pregnancy was not progressing, a couple of weeks after that Jon sunk the kayak & got rescued at sea, a week later his Dad passed away suddenly, then a couple of weeks after that I miscarried while we were on holiday in Sydney & ended up in hospital for a D&C.  We were reeling - it was a tough time.  Then a few months later the last frozen embryo was put in, but was unsuccessful - signalling to us, that our precious Gabriella would most likely be an only child. 

1 year on from the beginning of these tumultuous events we are beginning to find ourselves starting to find our feet again.  We are re-dreaming, re-gaining energy, re-establishing, re-newing & re-freshing lots of things in our house & lives.  One of those things has been our diet, weight & fitness.
It has been half-hearted within the past couple of years,  but got to the point where I need to do something to arrest the growing weight, aches & pains within my body. 

So to start I read "The Maker's Diet for Weight Loss" and we started 2 weeks ago the beginning of a 16 week diet challenge.  It has been a steep learning curve & quite difficult but I am learning along the way & now starting to enjoy it.  As I have been searching for new recipes and ideas, I have come across some good blogs of people who have embarked on something similar and documented the recipes and food that they have eaten - most of these are really good & have helped me a lot, so I thought I too could pass on what I have learnt & good recipes while I document how we go on this new journey.  I will try & post each week the recipes that have worked for me, those that have been a flop, some lifestyle changes and my progress!

RE - NEW (begin again)