The natural foods co-op had 2 brands, both from Canada (of course) - the Living Harvest as well as the Manitoba Harvest - and both came in plain, vanilla and chocolate. I bought both in vanilla. I haven’t tried the Manitoba Harvest yet, but the Living Harvest is delicious! It’s very smooth and flavorful. I think I like it better than the almond milk, even. And I definitely like both the hemp and almond milks better than soy. Neither of them seem to cause gas which is a nice bonus.

Smoothies are incredible with the hemp milk as are protein shakes. I do plan plan to try the other flavors - well, the chocolate, anyway. Probably not the plain. I also plan to start using it in place of regular milk when cooking and see if the kids notice a difference. Actually, in that case, maybe I will get the plain. Macaroni and cheese with vanilla flavoring might taste a bit odd.

The final conclusion is that if you’re looking for an alternative to soy, try hemp. Technically, hemp is a seed (like sunflower seed) so those with allergies to tree nuts might be ok with it. Be sure to check with your doctor if you do have such allergies to be on the safe side before you try it, though.

What do you use instead of regular milk? Do you have a favorite? Please share!

Talk to you next time!

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Note that during the week, the kids will either have cereal or oatmeal for breakfast and I will have a protein shake so I’m only listing lunch, dinner and snacks.

Monday:
AM Snack - Nectarines
Lunch - Tuna on homemade oatmeal bread, spinach salad w/raspberry vinaigrette
PM Snack - Avocado slices
Dinner - Grilled salmon filets, roasted baby red potatoes w/asparagus, spinach salad w/Asian sesame dressing

Tuesday:
AM Snack - Bananas
Lunch - Lentil soup w/homemade oatmeal bread (toasted), spinach salad w/diced tomatoes, garlic, green beans and roasted red pepper and tomato vinaigrette
PM Snack - Whole wheat Ritz crackers w/homemade red pepper and garlic hummus
Dinner - Crockpot chicken, steamed carrots and peas, wild rice

Wednesday:
AM Snack - Applesauce
Lunch - Ham and cheese sandwiches on whole wheat bread w/mustard, raw baby carrots
PM Snack - Peanut butter and celery
Dinner - Tacos w/beans, extra lean ground beef, onions, diced tomatoes, cheese

Thursday:
AM Snack - Peaches and Pears
Lunch - Individual pizzas w/sauce, onions, garlic, sun dried tomatoes and feta cheese
PM Snack - Graham crackers
Dinner - Grilled pork steaks w/applesauce, steamed broccoli and mashed potatoes

Friday:
AM Snack - Strawberries
Lunch - Split Pea soup w/sourdough bread, spinach salad w/roasted red pepper and tomato vinaigrette
PM Snack - Popcorn
Dinner - Stir fry chicken w/carrots, broccoli, pea pods, celery, slivered almonds, and cauliflower

Saturday:
Breakfast - Crockpot hashbrown casserole, homemade oatmeal bread w/strawberry jam
AM Snack - Apple slices
Lunch - Macaroni and cheese
PM Snack - Plums
Dinner - Pot stickers w/wild and brown rice

Sunday:
Breakfast - Frittata w/broccoli, onions, peppers
AM Snack - Oranges
Lunch - Turkey meatball sandwiches on rolls w/vegetarian potato salad
PM Snack - Popsicles
Dinner - Grilled chicken tenderloins w/herb seasoned penne pasta, squash, spinach salad

Yum! It’s going to be a delicious week. I’ll also be baking bread several times throughout the week including oatmeal bread, sandwich bread and whole wheat. I may even try to make some sun dried tomato and basil french bread.

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Vegetarian Potato Salad

• 1/2 cup of vegan mayonnaise
• 1/2 cup of dijon style mustard (you can cut this to 1/4 if mustard isn’t your thing)
• 3-4 large potatoes, cooked but still firm and cubed
• 1 package of penne pasta, cooked to desired doneness
• 3-4 green onions, minced
• 3 tbsp Vinegar
• 1/4 tsp Black Pepper
• 1/4 tsp Turmeric

As noted in ingredients, cook potatoes and cut into bite size cubes. Cook pasta to desired doneness. Once potatoes and pasta have cooled, toss together with remaining ingredients and let chill in refrigerator for 3-4 hours before serving.

And that’s it. It’s very good. Not sure it’s entirely diet friendly if you’re trying to stay away from “white” foods like potatoes and such but it sure is good.

Hope you’ve been enjoying your summer. I’ve been busy with lots of things and am currently participating in the 2008 Thirty Day Challenge. You can read my progress here and if you really can’t enough of my writing, you can peruse my main blog for everything from real estate to writing to design and even more.

See you again soon!

Bye for now!

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So . . . let’s see - what’s newsworthy for weight loss here?

Oh yes! I tried almond milk and found that it’s VERY tasty. I really like the flavor and texture much better than soy or rice milk. Also tried a hemp shake mix that is delicious! It’s by Nutiva and comes in a couple of different flavors. I like the Berry Pomegranate but am not so crazy about the chocolate.

I’ll be back soon with updates and what-not and some recipes I’ve tried recently that even the kids enjoyed.

Have a great day!

~ Annie

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Anyway, I wanted to briefly update my plan and talk about some things I’ve been doing lately that I’m really liking a lot. The last few times I posted, I mentioned Blended Salads and I’m still drinking those - I really like them and I can even get my husband to drink them. That’s always a bonus. I’ve found, though, that although I love avocados, I don’t really like them in the blended salad.

My favorite blended salad is a couple handfuls of 50/50 Spring Mix (lettuce variety with spinach) and a handful of extra Baby Spinach blended with 12 oz of water, 2 tablespoons of flaxseed, 2-3 cloves of garlic, and a splash of fresh lemon juice.

I like to drink the blended salad in the afternoon and I’ve been making a quart size container of it which lasts 2-3 days in the refrigerator and still tastes fresh and great.

Now, breakfast is the hardest meal for me because I’m either allergic to, or just plain don’t like a lot of traditional breakfast foods. It’s one of my biggest struggles food-wise - what to eat for breakfast. I’d just as soon not eat it at all. However, skipping meals is not a good idea especially for a person intent on losing weight and maintaining it.

So, in the mornings, I’ve been drinking a fruit-berry smoothie - once at breakfast and then again for mid-morning snack. My favorite blend is 1/2 cup of raspberries, a medium banana, 1/2 cup of mangos and about 20 oz of water. It makes a couple of 10-12 oz servings. (Make sure to cut the banana up into 1-2 inch chunks for easy blending.)

I love oranges but I’m allergic to them so I can’t eat them. But I’ve been adding some extra fiber to my meal plan (and some orange flavor) by using an orange-flavored, powdered fiber supplement (like Metamucil). Sometimes I add it to my morning smoothie and sometimes I just drink a glassful mixed as per the package directions. I also generally have a slice of a good whole grain or oat bread with the smoothie.

You know, I’m the kind of person who could pretty much eat the same things day in and day out and not get tired of them. But part of a good, healthy eating plan includes a variety of foods and combinations of foods. Lunch is one of the things I have the hardest time with in getting a good variety because I don’t really like to eat sandwiches and such. As a result, I often eat soup - lentil, black bean, split pea or tomato. Sometimes I will eat beef stew or chicken noodle or some other variety.

Sometimes I’ll have a blended salad or tuna on whole wheat pita bread with a little spinach and fresh tomatoes for lunch. That’s pretty good. I don’t put anything on my tuna other than sometimes a bit of mustard or some roasted red pepper vinaigrette. I also have some tomato basil vinaigrette that’s very good on with tuna or I’ll put my tuna in some lemon spinach couscous.

One of my favorite dinners is a plate with a couple handfuls of baby spinach, some green beans, a couple tablespoons of chickpeas, some diced tomatoes, a couple minced cloves of garlic and a splash of tomato basil vinaigrette. I briefly warm the spinach, green beans and chickpeas in the microwave (just enough to begin to wilt the spinach - 45 seconds or so and warm the beans) and then add the rest. Once in a while, I’ll crumble a bit of feta cheese on top or add some chicken breast pieces.

Other vegetables I really enjoy are broccoli, zucchini, carrots and peas. I’ll often stir fry them with some peppers and onions and put them over warmed spinach with a baked salmon filet. Very good. Salmon also tastes great with couscous.

When I follow the six small meals per day plan, I don’t get hungry and I don’t have to eat as much. I think that’s where most people have the problems - they let themselves get too hungry. And I know when I do that, I have a greater tendency to load up on things like rice or bread and stuff like that or to eat things like sweets or quick boxed meals. I think the biggest key is to eat enough to feel satisfied throughout the day. It also helps keep metabolism up and thus burns more calories.

And lastly, I continue to exercise. Now, I’ll admit I haven’t been working out in the mornings. Since I got sick back February, I just can’t get up that early. I’ve never been a morning person and I think trying to push myself to be one, really was more harmful than good and is what lead me to getting sick in the first place. So, I haven’t been working out in the morning - other than my daily walk (1.5 miles in the morning and 1.5 miles in the afternoon) - and I still need to find a good time to get that in. Once I get the kids up for school, though, everything becomes a rush and I find it’s lunch time or after school before I have a chance to even think about working out.

I might have to get the little kids settled into an activity when we get back from walking the kids to school and do it then. That might just work. The key will be finding something to the occupy them long enough to get a good workout. I like to aim for 20 minutes at the least and 30-40 at the most so if you’ve ever been around pre-school age children, you know finding something for them to do for that length of time can be quite the challenge!

Anyway, I’ve rambled on enough for now. I hope you haven’t gotten bored!

See you next time, (hopefully tomorrow)

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So, anyway - not much has happened on the weight loss front. I’ve been continuing to experiment with the suggestions in the candida article I read a while back including adding flax seed to my foods, staying away from “white” foods (bread, rice, potatoes, etc), eating no dairy products (except pizza last week for my oldest sons birthday) and drinking plenty of veggie juice and smoothies as well as cutting out sugars.

Although I still have not had any significant success with it, there are some small successes that I’m pleased enough with to keep going on it. I’ve also added some Niacin (aka, Vitamin B3) to my supplements for heart health and have also added a fiber supplement.

One of the things I like best so far are the “blended salads” I’ve been drinking. (I wrote about those in one of my last posts.) I’ve found a concoction that is really tasty -

• A handful of 50/50 Spring Mix (pre-mixed, bagged salad)
• A handful of Baby Spinach
• 1-2 tablespoons ground Flax Seed
• 2-3 cloves minced Garlic
• 1 teaspoon Apple Cider Vinegar
• Half of a medium sized Apple, seeded and cored
• 1 tablespoon psyllium powder (can use a fiber supplement like Metamucil or something)
• 10-12 ounces of water

Every once in a while, I’ll put some horseradish in there to give it some kick. It’s pretty good. I’ve been drinking this once or twice a day. Be warned, though, that if you use extra Spinach (there’s already some in the Spring Mix), you’ll need a pretty high powered blender as the Spinach can get pretty heavy and stringy when it’s wet and has a tendency to wrap itself around the blades. It doesn’t work so well in my Bullet Blender, but it does just fine in my regular, full size, multi-speed Oster.

Ok . . . let’s see . . . what else have you missed?

Oh, I know!

I made an incredibly delicious oatmeal bread last week. Even my picky 10 year old son who only wants to eat white bread, ate it. It was SO good! In fact, I’ve got to make some more soon. I’ll share the recipe later this week. I’d take a picture of it for you, but 3 year old seems have taken off with my SD card for camera and the camera won’t download pics to my computer without it. Hopefully I’ll find it soon. Maybe my 14 year old would let me borrow hers? Hmmm . . . will have to ask. (Unless I get lucky and she reads this post. Can I borrow your camera, sweetie? Please?)

Well, speaking of the 3 year old terrorizer, I hear him messing with something in the bathroom. I’d better go see what mess he’s left for me to clean up . . .

Note to self - don’t scream too loudly.

Til later,
Annie

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I do feel like it’s helping - my nasal congestion seems to be doing better and I hope will be totally gone soon. As a result of that, I can smell a lot better which is something I’ve been having trouble with for quite some time. I also seem to be losing some inches. That’s always a bonus! My pants are a bit more loose. My skin seems clearer as well.

I plan to continue this for another week or so at this point. And I am looking for a good way to get probiotics into my diet without eating yogurt and without  adding more supplements to my daily regimen. So, if you know of something, please do share!

I’ve added ground flax seed to my diet as well. It doesn’t seem to bother me as much as the flax seed oil so I like that a lot. I’m being very careful of the breads and grains I’m eating too, making sure to include whole grains and fiber rich foods.

You know, I think that many of the issues I’ve been dealing with are due mostly to my allergies. I’ve known since I was about 8-9 years old that I have food allergies but they never bothered me much so I continued to eat those foods. But I’m learning that those foods DO bother me, just not in the typical allergic reaction of hives and rashes etc ways.

In addition to ensuring I eat more greens, vegetables and other foods that help support a healthy body, I am eliminating those allergens. Even if they are things that don’t seem to “bother” me - like peanut butter. I really like peanut butter and although I don’t eat it all the time, I’m thinking it’s likely one of the culprits of the whole health and weight dilemma. I  will strive to be much more conscientious of the allergy-causing foods and to stop eating them, even in small amounts.

Thus, I have purchased some almond butter. I tried this years ago and didn’t like the taste but I found some organic almond butter when I went grocery shopping this weekend. It doesn’t contain any of the things I’m allergic to nor any junk like high fructose corn syrup and the like.

I put some in my “blended salad” that I’ve been drinking the past few days and it’s very good. It adds a light nutty flavor to it that doesn’t overwhelm the greens. I also sprinkled in a little ground flax seed. I think I may experiment a bit more by adding other vegetables, fruits and perhaps some spices like garlic or cayenne.

If you drink smoothies or other liquid “meals,” what do you put in them? Feel free to post in the comments or write a post on your blog and link back here if you’d like.

Until next time,

~ Annie

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Post tags: blended salad, experiment, flax, food, smoothies

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Combine and mix in blender the following:

• 1-2 teaspoons Flax Oil (I suppose you could use ground flax seed as well)
• 1 scoop of HealthyGreens (or an equivalent product)
• 1-2 teaspoons Fresh squeezed Lemon Juice
• 1/4 - 1/2 teaspoon Cayenne Pepper
• 2 tablespoons MLO Vegan Brown Rice Protein Powder
• 8-12 oz cold, purified water
• 1/4 - 1/2 cup plain or vanilla yogurt (optional)

You can adjust to suit your taste but not much is going to make it great, I don’t think. Like I said, it’s certainly not delicious but it won’t make you puke, either. At least, I hope not. If you use yogurt, I would suggest not using a flavored one - it tastes worse! Plain or vanilla is best and will tone down the taste of the HealthyGreens which can be overpowering and although tastes a bit like licorice, is not that wonderful. I think it’s the texture more than anything that makes it that way.

In any case, enjoy! Let me know if you try and what you think.

~ Annie

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Makes 4 servings

These spiced-up potato wedges are oven-baked, so they’re crispy but very low in fat. They’re high in energy-boosting carbs, though, packing 5 grams of fiber per serving. What a dish!

Ingredients:
4 baking potatoes, cut lengthwise into 12 wedges each
1 1/2 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil
1 teaspoon chili powder
1 teaspoon ground cumin
1 teaspoon ground paprika
1 teaspoon dried oregano
1/4 teaspoon dried thyme
1 teaspoon salt
1/8 teaspoon ground red pepper

To Make:
Preheat the oven to 450°F. Coat a baking sheet with cooking spray. In a large bowl, combine the potatoes and oil. Toss well to coat. In a small bowl, combine the chili powder, cumin, paprika, oregano, thyme, salt, and red pepper. Sprinkle the spice mixture over the potatoes, tossing well to coat.

Arrange the potato wedges in a single layer on the baking sheet. Bake for 20 minutes. Turn the potatoes over and bake for 15 to 17 minutes more, until crisp.

Per serving: 109 calories, 12 g carbohydrates, 5 g protein, 5 g total fat, 0 mg cholesterol, 6 g dietary fiber, 610 mg sodium

I have not tried this yet but it sounds so delicious! I plan to try it very soon. Will let you know what I think of it. And let me know if you try it and what you think, too.

Enjoy!

~ Annie

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One of the most incredible things is Rob’s story. He used to weigh 475 pounds! Today he’s fit and muscular and is at 240. I really can’t enough good things about his site. It’s *that* great.

Go check it out for yourself, read his story, peruse the recipes and have fun.

~ Annie

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