Blog: SF Diet Day 2

Ok, I may have slipped up unintentionally.

From now on, no added 'starches' either, as they too are another form of sugar. Sadly, my cottage cheese had, under the 'less than 2%' category,  'food starch.' Shucks. But the container is empty, so I won't be buying that again.

Starches, Fibers and Sugars were still confusing me a little bit, especially after finishing the book "Sugar Busters!" today, which did not talk about glycemic load.  I'm a little wary of any diet that says to avoid carrots. Carrots are 85% water, and 100g of carrots only contains 10 grams of carbs.  7-8 of which are sugar. But in order to get the full Glycemic  reaction of  71,  you'd have to eat about 500 grams of carrots,  (the GI is based on a serving of 50g of Carbs of a certain food) which would be about 4 cups, (1 cup can weight roughly 130g). I know I have my binges, but 4 cups of uncooked chopped carrots, would be rough on a lot more than just my blood sugar.

I also, still find it hard to believe that a carrot is more than 87% water (http://www.botanical-online.com/carrots.htm). How is that possible?! Cucumbers must be almost all water... oh yep they are ... 96% (http://www.botanical-online.com/carrots.htm). Wow. Learn something new everyday.

I've also read a lot about (/it feels like I've always been told that) complex carbs are harder for the body to break down when compared to simple carbs.

Ok this is NOT always true. Starch is a complex carb, yet potatoes are really really easily broken down, yet fruits (who's carbs are mostly fructose and glucose) are sometimes (depending on which fruit) broken down more slowly.  This website, although I don't necessarily agree with everything it says in terms of carbs being an essential food group, explains it pretty well: http://www.sparkpeople.com/resource/reference_carbohydrates.asp

But other than that, day two went pretty well. Dinner was awesome; romaine with carrots, feta, cucumber, cherry tomatoes and beans: and I also made a huge pot of Bulgar Wheat cooked with a can of tomato sauce, chicken broth, garlic powder, and peas added afterwards... it was awesome and easy. I made it in the rice cooker!

Oh yeah and a dried peach or two for a little sweetness post  dinner... okay and maybe one between the salad and the bulgar wheat....

Recipe: Waffle Iron Hashbrowns!

AWESOMELY EASY AND HEALTHY!

1) Plug in Waffle Iron, and spray with a decent amount of olive oil
2) Shred a Potato or two
3) Add a shake or two of Paprika and Garlic Salt each
4) Add shredded Potato to waffle iron, and press down on lid so it sequels a little
5)10 min, you're done!!

Blog: SF Diet Day 1 Complete

So the NSA (No Sugar Added) diet is underway.  I was fully prepared with food (see prev. post) so even though I was super lazy and didn't cook anything today except egg whites for dinner.

Pre-Workout:
Banana + 2% Cottage Cheese
Post Workout:
Watermelon
Almonds
2% Cottage Cheese
Throughout the day and in no particular order
more Almonds,  too many more.... :)
more Cottage Cheese w/ frozen Blueberries
Carrots w/ Humus
Homemade Hashbrowns in waffle iron! (AWESOME)
Fresh Mango
Frozen Mango
large Egg White Omelet w/Carrots, Parm and Garlic Salt
Banana with PB x2
Romaine w/Cucumber, Tomatoes  and Humus
1% Milk
Fish Oil pill

I feel pretty good today! Minus the fact my body isn't recovering well from this stupid injury I'm getting over.

I'm hoping to feel more up to cooking tomorrow! Wish me luck

Blog: SF Diet Starts Tomorrow! (always does...) hah!.... no but for real this time:)

Ok so I think it's time I mapped out my plan.  This diet is less of a 'fad diet' and more of an 'awareness exercise.' 
I'm not planning to stick to the strictest portion of it for more than 7 days. 


Goal: Recognize how much 'sugar added' I eat every day
Caveats: Will still use Gu  replenish and recovery  powder for during and post workouts


Week 1: Absolutely NO added Sugar foods. Everything from ketchup to cereal to sausages will be out, unless of course they don't contain any of the following: 

• Agave nectar, Brown sugar, Cane crystals, Cane sugar, Corn sweetener, Corn syrup, Crystalline fructose,  Dextrose, Evaporated cane juice, Fructose, Fruit juice concentrates, Glucose, High-fructose corn syrup, Honey, Invert sugar. Lactose. Maltose, Malt syrup, Molasses, Raw sugar, Sucrose, Sugar, Syrup 

 From: 

http://www.hsph.harvard.edu/nutritionsource/healthy-drinks/added-sugar-on-food-labels/

I'm also avoiding all fake sugars for many reasons, which I'll post about later

I'm not going to worry about sugar that naturally occur in foods quite yet. I've done a little reading on GI indexes and I haven't done enough research to make create an informed eating plan based upon the indexes.  

The Glycemic Index rates how much a food affects your blood sugar from 1 to 100. You can get a feel for what foods are high on the GI here:  

http://www.high-fiber-health.com/glycemicindex.html

Anything lower than 55 is in the good zone, meaning it won't disrupt blood glucose levels too much.

Things that make a food have a lower GI rating:

Whole Wheat, Whole Bran, less ground, closer to the way nature created it

More fat and/or protein present will slow digestion

More acidity present will limit glucose absorption into the blood

But the more I read, the more I find out that GI is not the whole story. The Glycemic Load is just as important. The following article, quickly explains the difference, but here was one good quote from it: 

 "However, the average serving size of a baked potato is about 150 grams (5.3 oz) and contains 17 grams of carbohydrate. Conversely, a Mars® candy bar serving size is only 60 grams (2.1 oz) but contains 40 grams of carbohydrate. The boiled potato has a glycemic load of 17, while the Mars bar is 26. Thus, even though the potato has a higher glycemic index, the Mars® candy bar has a greater effect on blood glucose than the potato even though the size of the Mars® candy bar is less than half that of the potato. Dr. Jeukendrup, a respected sports nutrition researcher, reports that foods with a glycemic load of > 20 are high, 11-19 are medium, and < 10 are low (8). The following table lists some common foods with their corresponding glycemic index and glycemic loads. http://www.nsca-lift.org/HotTopic/download/Glycemic%20Load.pdf

So it looks like Glycemic Load is pretty important as well. But alas, I have digressed.

Ok, so NO SUGAR ADDED diet starts tomorrow. Just got back from Sams, loaded up on a lot of fresh and wholesome food. I may have overdone it, but I wanted to be as prepared as possible, so I could always have an NSA (No Sugar Added) food at hand. 

Here's my shopping list:

- bag of pre-cut, pre-washed Romaine

- 5lb bag of Carrots

- 6x10oz cans of Chicken

- 4 large tons of Plain Greek Yogurt

- 36 Eggs

- 4 pints Egg Whites

- 2 bags of Frozen Berries (to put in yogurt and oatmeal)

- 25 Bananas (frozen and then in a blender, it's like ice cream)

- 6 fresh Mangos (2 may already have been eaten....)

- 3lb tub low-fat Cottage Cheese

- 5lb block of Feta Cheese

- 2 qt tub of Cherry Tomatoes

 Already had on hand:

Oatmeal

Chicken Breasts

Milk

Frozen Mango

Frozen Veggies

Zucchini

Dried Peaches

Ok wish me luck!

Blog: Free Diet

I recently watched the movie "King Corn." It was a really good movie and I'd recommend it to everyone. You can even stream it free on Hulu http://www.hulu.com/watch/255609/king-corn. What's so great about it, is that it doesn't come across as having some monumental, life changing agenda. The creators simply want to understand more about the corn industry and they decide to film along the way. So there aren't any awkward accusations, or  morality lessons or anything that makes you feel deeply and utterly hopeless about America. At least for me it didn't. I knew or at least had an idea of a majority of what they discovered so none of the information was earth shattering, but their presentation was entertaining and the information, interesting.

But it really did get me to thinking about added sugar. From what I've read, there are three basics, glucose, fructose and sucrose. Glucose and fructose, when combined form, sucrose. So any food can have, free floating glucose, free floating fructose or sucrose (fructose and glucose bound together).

Fructose, is the sweetest of them all and if it is not cooked or heated is 73% sweeter (or so says wikipedia) than sucrose. It also doesn't affect blood sugar levels as much. So it used to be highly recommended for people with Diabetes because they could get the same sweetness with less quantity and have lesser effects on blood glucose levels.  HOWEVER, glucose can be absorbed by any cell in the body, fructose can can only be absorbed in the liver, which goes into overdrive when presented with fructose. The liver turns fructose into fatty acids, and although it doesn't spike insulin or leptin levels, it spikes ghrelin levels. Ghrelin increases appetite whereas insulin and leptin diminish it. So eating fructose can lead to not only weight gain, but livers that "looked like the livers of alcoholics, plugged with fat and cirrhotic."

I got all of this from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fructose. And it's definitely interesting.... It's all a start to a diet I want to try just for curiosity's sake: No Added Sugar.... that includes: Corn Syrup, Sugar, Aspartame. 

Still just thinking about it, looking at labels, trying to become more aware of everything that has added sugar in it. One quote i saw said on avg, an american 20yrs ago consumed 35lbs of sugar, not it's over 160lbs.

oi....

Recipe: Watermelon Basket

So this was the goal and the finished product!

This, I found to be, a relatively easy but super fun way to dress up a watermelon for a picnic or just to serve at home.

I started with a super oblong shaped melon, cut the corner blocks off (keeping the edges high), dug it out with a big metal spoon, cut the sides down to form the grooves, cut up the watermelon into pieces, and boom! Beautiful watermelon basket.

Video is below!

Recipe:Topsy Turvy/Mad Hatter Peanut butter Birthday Cake for Marcus

Goal: USA decorated version of the cake on the left.

Results: USA decorated GOP hat/submarine shaped peanut butter cake.

Recipe: (and I tripled this), or more accurately, I did this three times.

PB Texas Sheet Cake
Ingredients

Part 1:

-1cups Butter

-1cups Water

Part 2:

-2cups brown or white or mix Sugar  **i tried all three, and I think the white sugar actually worked the best, but the brown white mix was great, it was just the lighter coloring looked nicer).

-1tsp Salt (if using unsalted butter, otherwise omit salt)

-1tsp Baking Soda
Part 3:
-1/2cup Peanut Butter (Smooth, salted) ** originally I put this with part 1, but on a second try it worked better to add it to 

Part 4:

2cups Flour

Part 5:

1/2cup non-fat Yogurt ( I used greek for one and regular non-fat for another, they both turned out fine)

1tsp Vanilla

2 Eggs, beaten

Instructions:

1)Preheat Oven to 350F.

2)Heat p1 (butter, and water) in a large sauce pan on stove top until almost boiling.

3)Turn off heat.

4)Add part two (pb) and  (sugar, bs, salt) and stir until sugar is completely dissolved.

5)Add flour and mix in.

5)Stir in part 4 (yogurt, eggs and vanilla)

Marsh mellow Fondant:

Ingredients
-1 bag mini marshmallows - 

-1-2 Tbs Water (you can always add more later)

-1-2 Tbs Food Coloring

-2lb Confectioners Sugar, a few cups at a time.

Directions

1) Empty bag of marshmallows into microwave safe bowl and heat until melted (~90sec).
2) Add 1 Tbs of water and stir in food coloring (you can add more water alter
3)Add the sugar in, batter should start to stiffen to the point were you can knead it with your hands.
4)Cover your hands in butter/pam spray/crisco before handling dough.
5)Place dough in fridge over night. It will be ready to work with in the morning. (Or if you can roll it out flat, and put it in the freezer for an hour or so).

So this was an interesting one. Although I am a fairly adamant cook I dont' usually make cakes from scratch and I've never worked with fondant before. So this was a learning experience.

I am baking the cakes right now. I went with a peanut butter texas sheet cake because after making a vanilla texas sheet cake yesterday I realized that it is a very dense cake, which is recommended for a Topsy Turvy Cake. I put my vanilla trial it in the freezer yesterday after making it just to see how it would hold up, I am happy/unhappy to announce it was delicious and I am a little disgusted with how much I ate... all in the name of science!... er experiments... er... um... ok, it was just amazingly good.

This cake also didn't require an egg white fluffing or anything that would require a lot of beating or too much attention as I am doing it by hand and tripling the recipe. By tripling it, it also gave me an opportunity to try out theories of sugars and pb. In one batch, i did all brown, the second, half and half, and the third all white, so I'm excited to see how they each turn out. ** update: the white looked the best, but the mix of sugars, had the best texture. Although, they were in different size/quality pans, (which was not a part of the plan, human error), so I can't be certain the difference was all due to the pans, so I'd say to just go with what you have.

I also tried to make marsh mellow fondant. I did't have good dye (just typical food dye, which isn't strong enough) and I think I added too much water to the recipe. It never firmed up. It continually absorbed powedered sugar with out lessening the stickiness It could also be that it is 90+ degrees here. I may have to wait until tonight to make it and then roll it onto the cake early in the morning. I've made this fondant before, albeit not in the middle of a NJ summer, without a problem, so I'm crossing my fingers I just messed something up. ***Update: Went to the store and got the mini concentrated containers of food dye for $2 each, expensive, yeah, but wow the blue was gorgeous! Deep deep blue. One suggestion though is to add as little water as possible. I ended up using only 1-2TBS (instead of the recommended 4) because the dye added extra liquid.

But having the back-up batch of fondant was comforting... because knowing me, I might have needed it.

I make mistakes CONSTANTLY, whether it's forgetfulness or doing things too quickly... Even when I had all three batches laid out, with seperate bowls for like ingredients all pre-measured, I still kept forgetting to put everything in. The first batch, didn't add sugar, baking soda and salt (don't worry, I poured the batter back into a bowl and then mixed in the sugar later) - worked out ok.

The second batch, I actually got it all in correctly, but the third batch i forgot to add the egg/yogurt mix... also had to retrieve the batter from the cake pans. Which was actually a problem in itself, because like most of the baking population in America, I have two identical 9' rounds. One of them was filled with batch @2, and the other batch #3, so I'm not entirely sure I poured the one from batch #3 back into the bowl to get yogurt and eggs added to it.... So yes there is a 18% chance that one of the rounds has twice as much eggs, yogurt and vanilla as needed, and the other has none. But that's it goes when you are cooking with my genetics. ... Thanks mom.

Luckily nothing went into the oven before it was fixed.

Baking was uneven at best. I should invest in some nicer large round pans, instead of ones we found on a curb... but who's got the money? Not I. It worked out ok, because I trimmed down the sides to get the right shape, so the burning didn't affect the overall taste.

The fondant was tricky, and I should have taken more pictures during the process, but my hands were blue. And I was loosing patience quickly. At one point, I almost considered throwing it all away because I couldn't imagine how it was going to come out half way decent. Luckily, I didn't stop! And I was quite happy with how it turned out!