Zucchini Pizzas! (Thanks Julia!)

Today I made spaghetti sauce from scratch (later post) and zucchini pizza.  I got the idea from one a friend... shout out to Julia!  It's pretty self explanatory, but here is what I did.  Slice the zucchini and lay them out on a tray.  Brush with olive oil add a little garlic powder, salt, and pepper (probably not absolutely necessary), add sauce, cheese, toppings.  Bake at 350 for 15 minutes.  Enjoy!

Day 7 of 7 (Juice Fast Round 2)

It is finished!

Those are some great words.  I ended my fast at 2pm.  As much as the 5th Avenue candy bar was tempting me, I know my body would rebel if I put that in my tummy.  Wisdom prevailed and I ended my fast with a banana and a handful of peanuts.  It is enough for now.  I remember last time I fasted I was surprised with how slowly I needed to reenter the world of food.  This time I am prepared.

Speaking of last time, I have a few thoughts on the differences between the two fasts for me.  I found the second time around to be exponentially easier than the first time.  Perhaps experience and knowing what to expect helped.  I also did not have nearly as many side effects of fasting this time around... a furry tongue and some postnasal drip were about the extent of it.  I had no headaches or fatigue past the first day.  I had some slight insomnia but not like last time.

What will I do now?  I am throwing around a couple ideas.  One is to fast one day a week, the other is to do what I have been doing and fast for a two day period each month.  I also plan to do an extended 7 day fast once per quarter.  (April, July, Oct, Jan).  I have some blog posts planned to talk about the research and health benefits regarding fasting.  Contrary to popular opinion, it will not sabotage your metabolism, it is not merely water weight you lose, and you don't have to gain it all back again.  :-)

I will finish with some stats from my two fasts.

My first fast in April(10 days), I started out at 113 lbs. and weighed 106 on the final day of my fast. I immediately gained back a pound or two once I started eating again and for the next 3 months I fluctuated between 107 and 109.  

My second fast (7 days) I started out at 109 and this morning I weighed 103.4.  My hope is to stay below 107 this three months.

Day 6 of 7

Day 6 has been rather uneventful.  I cooked a lot today and felt good, not hungry much at all during the day.  I tend to feel more hunger in the evenings.  Tomorrow I get to EAT!!  woot woot!

 

One thing I love about juicing is Nathan's excitement when he hears the juicer running!  He comes running and begging for me to give him some. 

Day SIX notes:
*Weight- 104.2 (first thing in the morning).
*Energy- Really good!

*Hunger- I really wasn't hungry today
*Headache- None
*Coffee- 1.5 cups

Making Naan Bread!

Today was Jordan's day to pick his favorite meal for me to cook.  I let each of the kids do this as a reward for reading 10 books at their level.  Jordan picked Curry rice.  As I was making it I was thinking about how yummy it would be with some naan bread.  So once again I went to allrecipes.com and found this recipe.  I followed the directions almost exactly, but I recommend reading the "most helpful" reviews for some good tips.  I cooked my naan in the cast iron skillet rather than grilling it.  The kids have taste tested and wholeheartedly approved!  (The entire batch cost less than $2 to make)

Rolled golf ball size and raised until doubled

Roll it out pretty thin.

They cook quickly on preheated pan.

Made about 30 pieces... you can freeze them.

Day 5 of 7 (Juice Fasting Round 2)

For me by this point in my fast I am really just in cruise mode.  Everything is basically the same, I feel good, I have energy, I am hungry occasionally but it isn't killing me.  Two more days until I eat... what am I craving?  PEANUTS!  LOL.

Although today was rather boring and uneventful I did have sort of an epiphany regarding the lack of hunger in our lives and its consequences.  I think I mentioned that I do a LOT of cooking while I am fasting.  I am not sure why but I just love being in the kitchen and doing things with food even if I can't eat it!  So today while I was cutting up fresh garlic, onions and peppers to make fajitas, my mouth was actually watering over the vegetables.

What I suddenly realized is that when I am hungry EVERYTHING looks and smells so good.  This might be a no brainer, but think about it for a minute.  When we are not truly hungry it takes a lot more "umph" to appeal to our appetite... normally in the form of high sugar, high fat foods.  But when you are hungry, really hungry, a fresh vegetable salad looks just as delicious as a bowl of peanut butter cup ice cream!  (I am not exaggerating here!)  Our problem as Americans is, we rarely experience REAL hunger, so we are not often craving salad or fresh healthy foods, instead it takes "more" to appeal to us.  Here is an example...  when was the last time you ate a dessert when you were already full?  We do it all the time, don't we?  Now think about this, when was the last time you were full and said to yourself "just one more carrot stick"?  It just doesn't happen very often.

So it dawned on me that real hunger is actually a blessing.  It allows good, fresh, healthy food to appeal to my appetite as much as the junk that I would most times rather be eating.  I have learned over the last year to see occasional hunger not as something to be avoided but rather as something that enriches my life and makes me appreciate good food more.

Day FIVE notes:
*Weight- 104.6 (first thing in the morning).
*Energy- excellent!

*Hunger- I've come to embrace it.
*Headache- None
*Coffee- 1.5 cups

Day 4 of 7 (Juice Fasting Round 2)

Day four!  I am officially past the half way point on this fast.  I really really love juice fasting.  Going into this fast I was starting to feel tired a lot and my energy was pretty low.   But juice fasting gives me energy, a sense of well being and control over my body.  I am not a slave to my appetite(s), but sometimes I forget that fact!  

This time around, by day two I was feeling great and still do.  I am composing a blog post in my head... something like "How diet 'rules' kept me from losing weight and how rejecting them was the best thing that I could have done."  Seriously... I could elaborate now, but just wait for the post! :-)

Amazing juicy goodness!

 

Day FOUR notes:
*Weight- 105.4 (first thing in the morning).
*Energy- excellent!

*Hunger- Not much... when I see or smell food it makes me aware of my hunger, in a good way.
*Headache- None
*Coffee- 2 cups

Garden fresh tomato and zucchini casserole!

After I made bread crumbs I needed to figure out a way to use up some of the veggies from our garden.  I found this recipe on allrecipes.com (awesome website!)  I used mozzarella in place of the cheddar.  Here is the result, which Mark and Kloe highly approved!

 

Make your own bread crumbs!

I think I have stated that our family has set a goal this year of removing much of the "junk" from our at home diet.  By junk I mean anything that is not really food.  Chemicals, artificial flavors and sweeteners, preservatives and the like.  So many times I have wanted to buy bread crumbs for a recipe and then I look at this...

THIS IS NOT REAL FOOD FOLKS

So, today I decided to figure out how to make my own bread crumbs.  And it was easy peasy.  Here's how...

 1)Take a few slices of homemade bread (I LOVE my breadmaker!)

 2) Toast them in the toaster or in your oven at 300 until dry and slightly brown

 3)Place them in the blender

 4)Once again, let the 2 year old run the power tool

5)You now have plain bread crumbs

Store in the freezer and add seasonings as you use them.  These 6 slices of bread made almost 1.5 cups of bread crumbs.  Stay tuned for the yummy zucchini, tomato casserole that these bread crumbs were used in.

Day 3 of 7 (Juice Fasting Round 2)

 Day three of my juice fast was pretty good.  My juice was fabulous, both the cucumber based one and the carrot based one.  The cucumber one is my old standby of cucumber, celery, kale, 1/2 green apple, 1/2 red apple, and a slice of lemon.  The carrot based one was carrots, celery, just a smidge of kale, 1/2 green and 1/2 red apple, a slice of lemon and a few strawberries.

For some reason juice fasting brings out my inner cook.  Today I made homemade bread crumbs. (Have you ever looked at the ingredients in the store bought ones? WOWZERS!) and then I made a zucchini and tomato casserole with fresh veggies from our garden.  I will talk about both of these in separate posts (complete with pics).  I don't know why I get the urge to make all this yummy stuff when I can't eat any of it.  I think it is all the time and energy I have from not eating. 


Day three notes:
*Weight- 106.4 (first thing in the morning).
*Energy- awesome until about 2:30 when I needed a short nap.
*Hunger- today is the first time my tummy actually growled.  Hunger was stronger than yesterday but still pretty low overall, probably a 5 out of 10.
*Headache- just slight, dull one later in the day
*Coffee- 2 cups

Day 2 of 7 (Juice Fasting Round 2)

This morning I ran out for some kale and made some Romans 8:28 juice.  This time all things did not work together too well, but it wasn't awful, just a bit sour.  This juice has cucumber, celery, tomato, kale, orange, apple, lemon, strawberry and carrots.  I told you it was "all things" lol!

Day 2 of juice fasting is feeling really great!  I have plenty of energy, even made some home made pizza sauce with tomatoes from our garden.  My hunger is for the most part non-existent and it just comes on occasionally for a few short minutes and that is it.  My mood is much, much better than yesterday!

This time it seems like my body entered fasting mode much more easily.  Aches and pains have been minimal, hunger too has been minimal.  I have some post-nasal drip that started and my tongue is furry, but that is the worst of the detoxing so far.

Day two notes:
 *Weight- 107.2 (first thing in the morning).
*Energy- awesome! ... more than I have had in a while!
*Hunger- almost non existent
*Headache- none
*Coffee- 2 cups 

The hard thing about juicing...

When my family gets this....

I get this...

Day 2 full update coming later tonight!

 

Making Pizza Sauce from scratch!

This morning the tomatoes from our garden were adding up and I could not bear to see them go bad, so I decided to try to make the pizza sauce for dinner tonight.  When I try to make something I usually look at the ingredients and directions from several different recipes and after I have the basic idea, I wing it.  Most times it turns out well, but sometimes it is a flop.  This is what I did for today's recipe. 

  

STEP 1: Gather 6-8 ripe Roma tomatoes, place them in boiling water for 30 seconds each, remove.

 STEP 2: Core the tomatoes and slice in half lengthwise, the skin will then peel right off.

 STEP 3: Let your 2 year old run the power tool.  AR AR AR!

 STEP 4: Place in sauce pan and add ingredients to taste.  I used some fresh garlic, dried basil, dried oregano, salt, pepper, olive oil and a dash of honey.  I didn't like the light color and the thinness of my sauce so at the last minute I decided to add one can of tomato paste.

STEP 5: Let simmer for a minimum of 30 minutes and TA DA!  Since I am juice fasting, Mark tasted it and said it was good.

Day 1 (Juice fasting round 2)

Day one of my second juice fast started off really really really badly. I got ready to make juice and every single one of the 11 cucumbers I had bought Tuesday night were squishy and rotten. I think I damaged/bruised them by shoving them into a bowl standing them upright, and then I left them unrefrigerated because we had so many foods from the 4th in the fridge. Regardless of how it happened it DID, and they were all ruined. Boo.

Then to make matters worse, as I took the cucumbers out to the compost bin, Nathan decided to let our dog Max out. I did not know it until several minutes had passed and by this time Max was G-O-N-E. We walked the neighborhood on foot, by car, and by bike and no Max. By the time all this had happened it was past 11 and I still had not had the chance to make any juice. I ran to the local veggie stand, bought more cucs, and some other produce and was back home around noon, and finally able to make some juice. (I still need some greens for my juice but that will have to wait until I get to the grocery store... the veggie stand didn't have any greens)

Since it was so late in the day already, I only made 4 cups of juice (32 oz). I was in a bad mood so I wanted to make sure it tasted really good. The recipe was 3 small cucs, 3 ribs of celery, a small tomato from our garden, 3 apples and an orange. It was good.

Day one notes:
 *Weight- 109.0 (at midday- I forgot to check first thing in the morning).
*Energy- depleted! ... stress + lack of stress eating = one tired mama.
*Hunger- moderate
*Headache- slight- just later in the day.(possibly stress or all the whiny kids haha)
*Coffee- 2 cups

It's time to do it again!

Wednesday after the fourth's festivities I will start my second (this time 7 day) juice fast. I plan to make it a quarterly habit. Last time I started out at 113 and dropped to 106 (it was a 10 day fast). Since then I remained in the 107-109 range consistently. For me the juice fast is like a reboot that gets me back on track nutritionally and also seems to give me energy from the cleansing that takes place. I am excited. :-) Here is the grocery list for the week: 14 Cucs 2 bunches celery 2 bags green apples 7 lemons 2 bunches Kale 2 pints strawberries 3 bags carrots Going to ALDI's tonight as they usually have the best prices on produce. Will post the total cost of the produce for one weeks fast when I get home.