Today my good food choice was...

pickle141~ I saw one of those ready to be cooked at whole foods.  Is that something you pop in the oven for a bit?  they looked so pretty....

Do any of you use ground flax seed over your foods?  I'm getting confused on the low fat diet part for the tiple neg dx I have.....

How neat Corinne!  My daughter used to enter a Latin cooking contest at her middle school.  It was so much fun, once a year.  She'd have to choose a region and write a short report on the background of the recipe.  Her first place win one year was Rabbit in the Mountains - a potato dish without meat - from a region of Spain that was high in the mountains, meat was hard to come by - so when someone would eat this potato dish flavored with smoked paprika and asked about the meat they were told the rabbit was in the mountain!

Eating vegan now, I'm glad she had me buy that smoked paprika back then!!!!!! It's so good.

Made a giant pot of minestrone without the pasta so that will be my good choice for the rest of the week!

Corinne - I can NEVER leave stuff on my plate. If they put it in front of me, I will eat it. Therefore, I use my words to diet.  I figure it is the CHOICE part that  sets things in motion. So I decide what to get and SAY it to the server. If I make a healthy choice at that point, THEN when the food comes, I can eat everything they bring me.  So if it comes with fries, and you SAY "can I have steamed veggies (or whatever) instead?", then you have done the hard work, and when the plate comes, you can eat what is on it. To me, that is SO much easier than looking at food right in front of me and not eating it.

Yesterday I took a client to lunch. I had a small cup of veg soup and a small caesar salad. She had a open faced crab melt on english muffins and fries.  She didn't eat the fries - and I swear i was tempted to ask if I could eat off HER plate after sitting and looking at them all thru lunch. But politeness won, and I didn't.  

Also I have read that if you order a meal that is going to be a large portion, you can ask the server to box up 1/2 of it BEFORE they bring it out. Again, that prevents you from sitting and just eating and eating until the whole thing is gone. Maybe I'm the only one who has to clean my plate (blame my parents!). But I am looking for ways around it.

Finally - I have found that the best two ways to keep a clean diet are when ordering (see above) and when grocery shopping. If it's not in the house, I can't eat it.  My husband loves ice cream so i try to get him to get stuff with peanut butter (which I hate) or peanuts in it. Then I would not even be tempted. I try to go to the store when not hungry, and make my good choices then. Then it is easier at home.

Am I the only one like this? lol.

SAB - I totally agree with you. There are definitely times that food and celebration and just enjoying one's self are called for, with NO guilt and no regrets. I'm talking more about every day habits.

We had homemade crab cakes last night - a rare treat.  My husband makes 4, eats 2, but I eat one and save one for the next day. So tonight he is out with friends and I get to enjoy crab cake AGAIN! We only get crabmeat from the Chesapeake bay, not other countries, so it is more expensive, and therefore not eaten often. But it is soooo good. 

I 

Has anyone had delicata squash before?  It was yummy.

Hi ladies! I was on a retreat for last four days! missed you all, and missed making my own food - bet I lost 5 pounds this weekend while everyone else gained!!! lol. 

I have not had much luck with "fake" meats, the textures just get me.  But I tried and liked whole foods mock chicken salad, so I had some of that with celery and carrot sticks and a spinach salad with quinoa, blue berries and sunflower seeds (it was a kit), with some baby sweet peppers and tomato.

I'm able to go to Whole Foods on Mondays and pick up different components for lunches, then mix and match them for lunches for the week.  I'm spending 30 to 40 dollars a week on it, not too bad for good choice lunches....

ok found it, KOHLRABI, any one try this before?

Oh SAB, that sounds good.

Today I am having veggie and black beans over brown rice with spicy thai pepper sauce.  Tonight we were invited to my SILs house for dinner.  She is making shepards pie, but I will be having acorn squash and broccoli.  We are also having mixed berry pie--I plan on having a small slice.

Corrina.

Here is the recipe I used for the stuffed acorn with couscous.It's from Williams Sonoma The Weeknight Cook.

2 acorn squash- halved and deseeded.
2 tsp olive oil
salt and fresh ground pepper
1 cup vegetable stock ( homemade or store bought)
3/4 c instant couscous. ( i used a morrocan flavor couscous)
1/2 tsp cinnamon
1/4 ground ginger
3 Tbsp slivered almond toasted
2 Tbsp dried currants
2 green onion
4 sliced dried apricots.
1/2 golden delicous apple sliced.

400*
Brush the inside of squash halves with oil and seson with salt and pepper. Bake cut side down for about 20 minutes until a knife easily pierces the squash.

Bring broth to a boil in saucepan. Add couscous, cinnamon, ginger, 1/2 tsp salt, and pepper to taste .Stir
Cover and set aside for 5 mins. Stir in almonds, apricots, currants, onions and apple into couscous.

Spoon the couscous into squash halves and serve.
I added a 1 tbsp of olive oil to the couscous at the end to moisten it a bit.

I make my own stock but when I don't have any I use store bought with no sodium added. I prefer to season things myself so I try to buy most stuff without sodium. Better for yiu and better flavour to do it yourself.

I always use kosher salt

This was really delicous and I served it with my homemade tomato soup.

Another great recioe from this book is eggplant lasagna...super delicous.
Let me know if you want the recipe
Cheers
Beth

Pickle, that squash recipe sounds good especially with the currants.  

Well fell off the wagon a couple times this week.  First with my flatbread pizza (2 slices for lunch then 2 slices for dinner cuz DH is away) then this morning I had a black bean and potato dish at a breakfast place--Amy I used a strategy and put half right into a to go container.  Anyway, tonight I'm climbing back on with an asian veggie whole wheat wrap.

Hi, y'all, I'm new to this site (and just coping with being diagnosed last Dec. - quite a year!).

Does anyone else feel really sick drinking green tea?  I just tried it again and threw right up.  It's always affected me this way.  No other food or beverage does this to my body.  It's discouraging because I keep hearing I'm supposed to drink vast quantities of it!

Hi micernice~ I have that reaction still with some foods I had during chemo - koolaid makes me gag.

Amy have you tried the green teas with additional flavoring (like cherry, plum etc)?  These mask the green tea taste.  Often they can taste like warm fruit water.

Had a blueberry, kale and banana smoothie this morning, pumpkin ravoli for lunch and whole wheat spagetti, steamed broccoli and meatless/soyless meatballs for dinner.

Tomorrow I am going to have a blueberry,orange, mango smoothie after I attempt to do a walk/run at 6am. I say attempt bc according to the weather its going to be 35 degrees!   Brrrrrrrr!