I went on retreat over the Labour Day week-end and had answer to my prayer of 2 weeks ago. The prayer was on the lines of "Help Lord, I eat healthily by general standards, keep off meat, fish & gluten most of the time yet I am yo-yoing in a 3kg window. Show me what I need to do & please help me do it"
While up in the beautiful Rockies I began re-reading my book on Reversing Heart Disease by Dr. Dean Ornish. I got to the bit on fats. Well of course I don't eat much fat I thought, but decided to do his calculation any way.
What a shock! My healthy breakfast of porridge made with water, fruit, nuts and my 'elevenses' of a bagel with a scrape of vegan marg put me 8 grams above the daily allowance I should be aiming for!
I had this OMG moment & realized that this may be the glitch. Came on to my blog today & what do I find, my last post used a whole tin of Coconut milk - very high fat content!
So when I got home on Monday evening I decided to go back to keeping a daily food log as this really helps me keep track and think twice before I put anything in my mouth. I have succeeded in keeping my fats intake down to 18-20gramms per day since Tuesday, have had no gluten & have been in vegan delight with delicious meals. I will weigh myself tomorrow to see if it is helping in that department.
Delicious Curry
I love creamy curries with coconut milk so trying to create one without was my challenge yesterday. It turned out good and once the rice was mixed in it was more like a biriani.Way to Go:
Put 5-6 dried shitaki mushrooms broken into pieces to soak in enough boiling water and 1-2 tbsp of low salt tamari (gluten-free soy sauce) before preparing rice.
Remember that whole grain rice and wild rice take about 50 minutes to cook so get that going first. It is good if it can stand for at least 10 minutes before adding to the rest of the mix.
1/2 cup of wild, brown & other whole-grain rice mix (I used Lundbergs)
1 1/4 cups water
pinch of sea salt
Put all in large wide bottom pot, bring to boil, stir & turn down to simmer. Cook for 50 minutes til rice cooked but still firm & whole. Turn off heat & leave covered.
2 tsp birani curry mix - feel free to use your favourite mix or make your own & adjust to your heat level
1 head of garlic peeled
3 carrots chopped into bite size bits
1/2 very large sweet potato chopped into bite size bits
1 small red potato chopped into bite size bits
1 onion peeled & chopped into bite size bits
2 vegan stock cubes - I like McCormmicks
1 tin chickpeas drained & rinsed this helps reduce the salt content.
water to nearly cover
Feel free to add any other veg you might enjoy - this was just what was in the fridge on a Friday night.
In a very large pan on medium heat add the spice mix & stir for a moment until aroma begins to rise. Be careful not to burn the spices. Add all dry veg & stir. Add water, stock cubes, mushrooms and their liquid, chickpeas and enough water to nearly cover the veg. Bring to boil, stir and then turn down to simmer. Cook for about 30-50 mins, this will depend on the size of the veg pieces. Add rice & cook for 2-3 mins so all flavours are mingled.
This amount made enough for 2 bowls last night & for lunch today.
