This is another soup I make for housemate that I want to log for future reference.
Ingredients:
1 large onion or 2 medium, chopped
1 large carrot or 2 medium, sliced
1-2 potatoes, peeled & chopped
1 cup green or yellow split peas
1/2 tsp marjoram
1/2 tsp basil
1/4 tsp ground cumin
fresh ground pepper
1/2 tsp salt
1/2 tsp liquid smoke
5 cups water
Combine everything into the InstantPot pressure cooker, and cook for 10 minutes.
Friday, June 26, 2015
Tuesday, June 23, 2015
My weight journey
A friend on the BLE forums shared an excel template for plotting your weight, so I've been having fun playing with that. Here is my 4.5 year history:
After the initial faster weight loss (I was on vacation so I have a two week gap between the beginning point on Feb. 25 at 157 lbs and March 11 where you start to see lots of dots), it stabilized at a rate of 1.1 lbs/week. According to the trend, I should reach my goal weight on July 9. Then I will start my "maintenance dance" (currently the fictional red squares), if all goes well!
The green triangles are pre-BLE, blue diamonds are BLE (Feb. 25, 2015 to present), and the red squares are my fictional future starting on July 9, when I reach goal weight, if I continue on my present course. You can see my weight gain accelerated over time! That was due to going off plan more and more as time went on. My eating was definitely out of control. Here is a zoom of the BLE portion of my journey:
Friday, June 19, 2015
My Health Update
Here are some blood work results after following Bright Line Eating for nearly 4 months.
6/18/2015
| Component | Standard Range | Your Value |
|---|---|---|
| CHOLESTEROL | 115 - 200 mg/dL | 135 |
| TRIGLYCERIDE | 10 - 149 mg/dL | 47 |
| HDL | 40 - 60 mg/dL | 46 |
| LDL, CALCULATED | 50 - 130 mg/dL | 80 |
| Component | Standard Range | Your Value |
|---|---|---|
| GLUCOSE | 65 - 105 mg/dL | 79 |
| Component | Standard Range | Your Value |
|---|
| VITAMIN B12 | 239 - 931 pg/mL | 778 |
| Component | Standard Range | Your Value |
|---|
| FERRITIN | 11.1 - 264.0 ng/mL | 31.0 |
That looks good to me! I'm 3 lbs away from the weight Fuhrman recommends (for women, the formula he suggests is 95 + 4 x [the number of inches you are above 5 ft], so for me that's 129 lbs.
Here is my typical menu:
B: 4 oz cooked oat groats, 2 oz edamame or 4.5 oz yogurt, 6 oz fruit, 1/2 oz nuts/seeds
L: 4 oz beans, 6 oz non-starchy veggies any combo of raw and cooked, 6 oz fruit, 1/2 oz nuts/seeds
D: 6 oz beans, 14 oz non-starchy veggies any combo, 1/2 oz nuts/seeds
Food prep
cook up 6 oz dry oat groats into 4 servings.
cook up 1 lb beans into 8 servings, 4 4oz, 4 6oz
Does it sound boring? I really like it. For one thing, you vary the beans and the nuts and the fruit and the veggies every day and every meal. Once corn season arrives in mid-July, I will modify the plan to include starchy veggies! I should be at my goal weight then but even if not, I will eat corn!
Saturday, June 13, 2015
Cream of Tomato Soup
I've been making this a lot for housemate. I think I have it perfected so I'd better write it down before I forget!
Ingredients:
1 medium-large onion, cut into chunks for cooking (will blend later)
1 large carrot, peeled and cut into chunks for cooking (will blend later)
1 medium red bell pepper (optional), cut into chunks
3 deglet noor dates or 1 medjool date
1/2 cup raw cashews
2 16-oz cans of tomatoes (ours are from the garden!)
3-4 fresh basil leaves (or to taste) and/or other fresh herbs (dill, chives), or some dried
1/4-1/2 tsp salt (optional)
1. Soak the cashews and dates covered in water for 1 hour or overnight. (If you forgot to soak, you can do a quick load by covering them with waterm microwaving them until hot, and let set for a minute or two).
2. Strain the juice from the tomatoes and use that to cook with the onion and carrot and red bell pepper until soft. You'll probably need some water too, but don't use too much. I usually use a pressure cooker, set for 3 minutes.
3. Blend the cashews and dates in their water on high until creamy. Then add the tomatoes and blend again until creamy. Then add the onions and carrots and blend again. Add the salt. Add water if needed for desired thickness. By this point, my blender container is about 50 oz full which is just about right. You can add a little more liquid if you want, say 1/2 cup. Then add the herbs and blend just until they are chopped.
4. This makes 4 servings, each about 1.75 cups.
Ingredients:
1 medium-large onion, cut into chunks for cooking (will blend later)
1 large carrot, peeled and cut into chunks for cooking (will blend later)
1 medium red bell pepper (optional), cut into chunks
3 deglet noor dates or 1 medjool date
1/2 cup raw cashews
2 16-oz cans of tomatoes (ours are from the garden!)
3-4 fresh basil leaves (or to taste) and/or other fresh herbs (dill, chives), or some dried
1/4-1/2 tsp salt (optional)
1. Soak the cashews and dates covered in water for 1 hour or overnight. (If you forgot to soak, you can do a quick load by covering them with waterm microwaving them until hot, and let set for a minute or two).
2. Strain the juice from the tomatoes and use that to cook with the onion and carrot and red bell pepper until soft. You'll probably need some water too, but don't use too much. I usually use a pressure cooker, set for 3 minutes.
3. Blend the cashews and dates in their water on high until creamy. Then add the tomatoes and blend again until creamy. Then add the onions and carrots and blend again. Add the salt. Add water if needed for desired thickness. By this point, my blender container is about 50 oz full which is just about right. You can add a little more liquid if you want, say 1/2 cup. Then add the herbs and blend just until they are chopped.
4. This makes 4 servings, each about 1.75 cups.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)