Update: What am I eating now?

I have done battle with the green monster's from my last post. Found 3 of them on my plant. I found a nice long poll, so I could dispatch them from the next county over, and knocked them down. I hope they can't crawl back up! Ok, I'm exaggerating a little. My first year I had to deal with them I did seriously get out a 5' long poll. *shiver* This year I got some tong out and used them. Only dispatched one, the other two I knocked down and I'm hoping they get lost in the wilderness and die of starvation.

My thyroid levels have fallen drastically, judging from my temperature and various symptoms, which is a really good way to figure out how your thyroid is doing by the way. So not sure why, my pharmacy has been giving me a new brand of generic, maybe that's the problem. So anyway, the weight simply won't budge despite some pretty severe dieting.

I've been keeping everything VERY low carb and pretty low calorie too (after my brief foray into higher calorie and subsequent weight gain). I have a protein shake in the AM (low carb of course). I was using whey but found it gives me the same symptoms I get when I have casein: Post nasal drip, sneeze-y feeling, nose blowing... I call it feeling "milky". So I have some egg protein and pea protein on order. We'll see how that goes. I'm really fond of these morning smoothies. I usually add instant coffee granules and perhaps some hazel nut flavored sugar-free syrup.

This morning I made coconut flour pancakes. They looked beautiful but were a little bland. I think they needed some salt. I topped them with hot raspberries, made from frozen, a little sweetener added. The way I make these is I mix about 2 Tbl of coconut flour with about 1/2 tsp - 1 tsp baking powder. Try to get the lumps out before adding the wet stuff. Next I crack an egg into that and work it in, adding water until it has the proper consistency for pancakes (sorry, haven't ever measured). With coconut flour you might want to let it rest a bit and add more water if it needs it. Coconut flour is thirsty stuff and can really absorb the water.

I recommend Aloha Nu coconut flour. I don't know if you'll find stores that carry it locally, I always get it over the Internet from Netrition.com or SimplyCoconut.com.

I'm usually having a steak at lunch which I cook with my usual method (sear then finish in the oven). My tutorial is here.

Dinner time has been either salad or fish! Yes, I am finally learning to cook fish. Something I've always been somewhat intimidated by. I saw Rachel Ray do an egg coating on fish and then fry it. I did that and it was very good! Basically I used an egg and a splash of coconut milk, beat together well. Coated the fish and tossed it into the pan with some hot oil on the bottom. The coating actually had a little crunch to it on the edges. I did try something new last time, I poached the fish in coconut milk and spices with a little lemon juice. For spices I used a Kaffir lime leaf (traditional Thai), some chili pepper flakes, salt and pepper. It tasted very good, very Thai like.

Salad is the usual quickie of pre-washed baby lettuce with herbs (from Trader Joe's). I cut up some avocado, throw in some chicken breast, maybe add some olives (I'm a freak for olives). My obsession with dehydrated onion really comes out here. I use a lot of them. They give the salad a lovely crunch. And sometimes I chop up some nuts and sprinkle them on. Then I pour on some oil, usually olive or peanut oil, and splash on rice vinegar and toss. I never get tired of this!

Costco has big containers of dehydrated onions for a good price.

What am I eating now?

No... not eating this horrid green thing. I have nightmares about these things!

Well, drifting a little further from Paleo at times. I've started using Whey protein for shakes. They certainly are delicious and a nice break from my usual left-overs or eggs with fish sauce. I got reminded of the "perfect cold chicken" recipe I posted back in 2008 and made another one of those. The broth is so awesome.

I've been in kind of an eating rut lately. Eating a sort of Asian cabbage salad with either chicken or shrimp daily. I use slightly sweetened rice wine vinegar, sesame oil, dehydrated onions and sometimes throw some avocado in there too. It's great and super fast to make.

I've also been on a pork spare rib campaign. They're 1.99 a pound at Costco and come in really huge containers. A typical package is about 7-9 pounds. So I've been experimenting with various rubs and roasting them in the oven (250 degrees) for a looong time, until they start to fall off the bone. About 6 hours. Then I make up a sauce of ketchup, sweetener, vinegar, onion powder. I think maybe some pickle juice would work good in there too. I should probably use tomato paste instead of ketchup to keep it lower carb.

Speaking of tomatoes, my tomato plant is producing despite my general neglect of it. I really need to get out there and looked for dreaded Tomato Hornworms... *shiver puke* They come every year and I have to overcome my strong repulsion to deal with them. I think I can blame my worm issue on my Mom. She used to pick them off her tomatoes and squish them with her foot. One time one splattered all over my legs (when I was a child). I must've been traumatized by that. :)