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)