Italian Cannelloni Beans

Posted on by Sam Boyd

Ingredients

1.  14 ounces of cannelloni beans drained and rinsed

2.  1 can of organic diced tomatoes drained and rinsed

3.  1 medium onion chopped

4.  1 tablespoon minced garlic

5.  1/4 cup shredded parmesan cheese

6.  1/4 cup vegetable stock

7.  1 big pinch of chiffonated fresh basil

Recipe

1.  Add onion and garlic to a small saucepan over medium-low heat to sweat, move frequently to prevent sticking.

2.  When they have rendered some liquid, after about 10 minutes add vegetable stock, beans and tomatoes.

3.  Reduce heat to low and simmer for about 10 minutes.

4.  Put on plate, add cheese and basil.  Eat, yummy.

This will serve 2-3 depending upon how hungry you are and which phase you are in.  This was meant for phase II for us, so we split this.

Parmesan Chicken Meatballs

Posted on by Sam Boyd

Ingredients

1.  16 ounces of ground chicken

2.  2 medium onions

3.  1/2 cup shredded parmesan cheese

4.  2 tablespoons of dried thyme

5. 1/4 cup milled flax-seed

6.  1/4 cup minced garlic

7.  1 tablespoon granulated onion

8.  1/2 tablespoon mustard

Recipe

1.  Combine chicken, cheese, thyme, garlic, granulated onion, mustard and milled flax-seed in a bowl.  Using hands, unless you know a better way, mix this into a big bowl of pasty chicken loafy stuff.

2.  Spoon out 1oz (by weight) gobs of meat paste and roll it around into a ball.  Weighing it out is the best way.  This will make approximately 18-20 of these monkeys.

3.  Put in the fridge.  They will harden up and do a better job of staying together, remember the usual bread crumbs and eggs are lacking in this recipe.

4.  Slice the 2 onions into pedals and sweat in a pan with 1 teaspoon of olive oil.  The operative word is sweat, you want liquid from the onions.  It takes about 10-15 minutes, they will look translucent and will have rendered some liquid.

5.  Get the meatballs out of the fridge and put in pan and crank the heat to medium-high, and lid tight.  Leave it alone for about 10 minutes.

6.  After 10 minutes, open lid, stir, turn the meatballs over and repeat for another 5 minutes.

7.  At this point, they should be done.  I would highly recommend taking one out and cutting it open to make sure it is done.  If it is, yay!  If not, throw it away and check another one in 5 minutes.

At the end of the day, you should have approximately 4 servings of 4 ounces worth with maybe 2 extra or so.  These are yummy and are right in the wheelhouse of phase II.

Week 2 Results and Thoughts

Posted on by Sam Boyd

Well, well, well.  This is really working well.  So this week, due to a quirk in when we decided to weigh in, I lost a whopping 8.2lbs and about 4 inches off of my body.  This is awesome and is providing all the motivation I could ever need to actually keep going with this.  I have not done anything broad like come up with a goal weight or a goal body fat percentage, but at this point, who needs the pressure.

Overall, my results are as follows:  total weight loss – 14.6lbs, total body fat %  – 39.4, which seems to have increased again this week and I am not sure what to think about that.  It should be going down, right?  total inches lost overall is 4 1/2″ and it came from my neck and my stomach this time.  And my hydration stays in a perfectly acceptable place in a number that I have not a single clue about understanding.  However, my personal water and hydration levels was never a concern of mine, and putting down 100-120 ounces of water as required by this program is pretty much par for the course here.

This week we got protein back and I was even able to use a little bit of oil in some recipes, as long as they were healthy oils like olive oil or coconut oil.  These have all been tagged on this site as phase II.

Cheers

Sam

Clean Butternut Squash & Pumpkin Soup

Posted on by Sam Boyd

This one is a warm hug when it comes to fall.  I was very happy we could adapt a typical recipe for Phase I.

Ingredients 

  1. 1 large butternut squash peeled, halved lengthwise and seeds removed
  2. 2 small baking pumpkins peeled, halved, and seeds removed
  3. 1 medium apple (we used an organic honeycrisp) peeled and diced. (about 8 ounces)
  4. 1 medium yellow onion
  5. 2 cups vegetable stock
  6. 1 bay leaf
  7. 1 tablespoon basil
  8. 1 tablespoon parsley
  9. 1 tablespoon chives
  10. 1 teaspoon celery seed
  11.  1 tablespoon chiffonated fresh basil
  12. 1 1/2 teaspoons salt, plus more as needed
  13. 1/4 teaspoon fresh ground black pepper
  14. Immersion Blender

Recipe

  1. Roast the squash and pumpkin, we used 350 and for about 45 minutes.
  2. When done, cube and put in a pan with the veggie stock and all the dried herbs. You will not be cooking this anymore but you want all at the same temperature, plus the dried herbs will wake up a little bit.
  3. When simmering, or boiling grab your immersion blender and put in too fast spraying yourself with scalding hot soup and ruining your shirt.
  4. Get new shirt.
  5. Begin immersing at the correct speed until it comes together. It will have a consistency of runny baby food, but yummier.
  6. Sprinkle some fresh basil on it and there you go.   We ate this for dinner and for a hot breakfast.

 

 

Clean Parmesan Chicken w/mushrooms

Posted on by Sam Boyd

 This recipe is a Phase II recipe and is spectacular.  I will not go over the sauce here because it is the Clean Veggie Ragout put together an immersion blender and a can of drained and rinsed organic tomatoes.  This recipe serves two.

Ingredients

  1. ¼ cup parmesan cheese
  2. 8 oz of baked chicken breasts
  3. 1 cup of clean veggie ragout
  4. 1 cup baby portabella mushrooms, slided
  5. ¼ vegetable stock
  6. Salt and Pepper to taste
  7. ½ teaspoon dried thyme
  8. ½ teaspoon dried oregano
  9. ½ teaspoon dried parsley
  10. 10 chiffonated ribbons of fresh basil

Recipe

  1. Bake off 8 oz of chicken.  I do it at 375 degrees for about 20 minutes because we used breast tenders at the start.  Adjust your time for full breasts, thighs, or whatever.  These can be done ahead of time.
  2. In a sauté pan put the mushrooms, vegetable stock, dried herbs and a generous dose of salt in over med high heat. We are not looking for a sweat.  We are cooking these mushrooms until the liquid is dissolved.  Turn and stir often.
  3. When done, plate hot mushrooms, chicken on bed of sauce, add cheese and sprinkle with the basil when done.

Here is what we took to work:

clean pram chic broccoli

At the end of the day, it is 2 cups of veggies (including shown broccoli), 1/8 cup cheese, 4oz of chicken.  Yum!

Week 1 Results

Posted on by Sam Boyd

I posted my (Sam’s) results on Facebook, but I thought I should post them here as well with a little explanation as well.

Week 1

↓   6.2lbs

↔ 0″

↑  37.1% body fat

Now, these numbers are misleading.  First of all, I did not gain 37.1% body fat, I went up to that.  This is to be expected after a week of limited physical activity and dropping a lot of excess water and stool.  The loss of 6.2lbs is essentially a change in baro-water pressure weight and some fat loss.  The lack of change in inches seems to be related to a shift in placement of water and maybe some weight.  The important thing is that I have a fantastic base to work from and am super-motivated.  I predict a downward tick in all metrics this week.

This week, we are adding in more protein and some healthy oil while maintaining the 6 cups of veggie and 3 servings of fruit pace this week.  I am also adding in some exercise.  The idea is to get 30 minutes of Cardio and Resistance at least 3 times this week.  I am going to try to get the cardio in but the resistance is something I will be able to do in a more calisthenic way.  I intend to exercise in the following way:

1.  As many push ups as I can do in 1 minute

2.  As many sit ups as I can do in 1 minute

3.  As many leg extensions as I can do in 1 minute

4.  As many no weight squats as I can do in 1 minute

5.  Stretch for 1 minute

Repeat

I have put this together to be a good starting point.  Plus it is quite easy to track and maintain as a statistical representation of muscle-building.  After all, as my muscles gain in power and my body has less fat there should be an associative curve upwards in muscles and reps in relation to a downward curve in weight.  I will track and post graphs after two weeks.

Cheers

Sam

Emily’s Top Ten List of Things I Learned in Detox Week

Posted on by Sam Boyd

Today is the last day of detox and I’m so ready. Tomorrow brings proteins and healthy oils! How I’ve missed them!  But that said, detox wasn’t bad MOST of the time and I’ve learned some things during this first phase…

1. Eating only fruits and veggies does not make you poop all the time. It does make your poop far more tolerable, however. As in no smell.  My poop doesn’t stink (and that’s not just my ego talking).

2.  I despise baby carrots.  HATE.  THEM.  The companies that make them take the leftover part of the best parts of the carrot and then cut it to a desirable miniature size.  But they taste like dirt.

3.  I also despise artificial sweetener.  I have even yet to taste a form of stevia or food with stevia that is remotely tolerable to me.  I’d rather just have food without sugar than with fake sugars.  I’m going to try some recipes with stevia and see how that goes.  Jury is still out at this point.

4.  Squash is my everything food.  The wide variety, the buttery or nutty flavor that is just subtle enough to adhere to any food mood, the ease of cooking… SQUASH!  I love you.

5.  Dates are AMAZING.  They are amazing alone or in dishes as a natural sugar.  They have made me very happy this week.  DATES!

6.  Now this is actually a revelation:  I DON’T NEED COFFEE.  This may shock all who know me but I just don’t need it.  I still enjoy it (which I know because I may have snuck a sample at Trader Joes yesterday) but I don’t need it to wake up or to be happy or to be functional.

7.  I have done well enough eating like a vegan this week but I really missed yogurt.  And protein.  And olive oil.  And meat.  And fish.  One week is long enough for detox and I’m no vegan.  And raw food all the time just isn’t my thing.

8.  I am getting more mindful of slipping more vegetables into my kids’ diet because of the way I’ve been eating.  My boys are so picky!  But I’m figuring out ways to modify the main dish I’m making so they get some part of it.  The immersion blender is my new bff.

9.  I am more emotionally balanced without excess sugar.  I’m not saying I don’t get angry ever but I calm down more quickly and get upset less overall.

10.  This detox has affected more than just what I eat.  I’ve been keeping my house cleaner.  I’ve been getting a bit more sleep and going to sleep easier than before.  I’ve been waking up easier.  I’ve been getting enough water.  I’ve been getting along better with my husband.  I’m not saying my life is perfect– my kids have still been bouncing off the walls ALL WEEK– but I’m saying it has all been just a bit better.  And some days, that’s just enough.

And all this has just been the first week!  Can’t wait to see what comes next!  — Emily

A word on Dates

Posted on by Sam Boyd

We have made a couple of recipes involving the use of dates.  I have had some questions about why?  The simple answer is that they provide a great source of sweetness in dishes and sauces that require it but a reliable non-processed source is needed, like in our current diet.  The long and the short of it, when you render dates in a liquid, that liquid basically becomes a syrup.  And you retain most the health benefits listed below.  Keep in mind that most of the fiber and phytochemicals are destroyed under heat and pressure involved with cooking.  So, say a date sauce on sweet potatoes, while healthy, is not nearly as healthy as eating 3 raw pitted dates are.  But it’s a hell of a lot better than processed pancake syrup.  A lot of the below information was lifted directly from http://foodfacts.mercola.com/dates.html with a little revision.

Health Benefits of Dates

Dates contain a number of minerals, vitamins, and health-benefiting phytochemicals.  First and foremost, they’re easily digested, allowing your body to make full use of their goodness.  Dietary fiber in dates helps to move waste smoothly through your colon and helps prevent LDL (bad) cholesterol absorption by binding with substances containing cancer-causing chemicals. The iron content, a component of hemoglobin in red blood cells, determines the balance of oxygen in the blood. Potassium, an electrolyte, helps control your heart rate and blood pressure. B-vitamins contained in dates, such as the carotenes lutein and zeaxanthin, absorb into the retina to maintain optimal light-filtering functions and protect against macular degeneration.  They contain vitamins A and K. Vitamin A protects the eyes, maintains healthy skin and mucus membranes, and even protects the lungs and mouth from developing cancer. Tannins, which are flavonoids as well as polyphenolic antioxidants, fight infection and inflammation and help prevent excessive bleeding (anti-hemorrhagic). Vitamin K is a blood coagulant that also helps metabolize your bones.  Copper, magnesium, manganese, vitamin B6 (pyridoxine), niacin, pantothenic acid, and riboflavin are also present in dates and provide their own unique preventive and healing functions.

Together, these cofactors help your body metabolize carbohydrates, protein, and fats. Eating dates in moderation can contribute to many health benefits, such as protecting against damage to cells from free radicals, helping preventing a stroke, coronary heart disease and the development of colon, prostate, breast, endometrial, lung, and pancreatic cancers.

Studies Done on Dates

One study reported the most prominent health benefits of dates: there are at least 15 minerals in dates, including selenium, an element believed to help prevent cancer and important in immune function, protein, containing 23 types of amino acids, some of which are not present in the most popular fruits, such as oranges, apples, and bananas. Unsaturated fatty acids include palmitoleic, oleic, linoleic, and linolenic acids. The study concluded that dates could be considered a nearly ideal food, with a wide range of essential nutrients and potential health benefits1.

Summary

Iron for your blood, fiber for roughage, vitamin A for your eyes, potassium for your heart, B-vitamins, tannins – these are just a few of the many nutrients in dates, making them one of the healthiest foods in the world. But make sure you eat them in moderation, as fruits can contain high levels of fructose that can harm your health.

  1.  http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed?term=Phoenix%20dactylifera%20cancer The fruit of the date palm: its possible use as the best food for the future? Nov. 2012

Sweet Potato w/Date Sauce

Posted on by Sam Boyd

This started out as a breakfast today, but I think it is more of a dessert.  Hard to tell.

sweetpotatoesdaresauce

Ingredients

1.  1 medium sweet potato

2.  8 pitted dates chopped fine

3.  Salt n Pepper

Recipe

1.  Cut your sweet potato into smallish (1 to 1-1/2 inch sections) the thinner the better

2.  Pit your dates and chop them as fine as you can.

3.  Begin to boil both (as little water as you can in both, the more water you put with the dates, the more you will have to reduce it later.  I just covered them)

4.  When the dates begin to bubble up and potentially over, reduce heat to medium and take a mix-wand-thing to it.  Do this, spraying yourself in the hand and cursing, until it is smooth.  Put back on the heat to reduce.

5.  The date sauce should have a kind of caramelly color to it and be the consistency of soup or stew.

6.  Take your sweet potatoes out and salt very liberally.  A couple of grinds of pepper will do nicely as well.