Have you seen the movie Julie and Julia? Or read the book? Julie Powell became an internet celebrity with her 2004 blog recording her yearlong adventure cooking every recipe in Julia Child's Mastering the Art of French Cooking. I am taking on a similar challenge, only I am blogging my way through a very healthy cookbook! And I will learn to master the art of healthy cooking! The book is called Eat For Health by Dr. Joel Fuhrman, M.D. I will cook every recipe start to finish in four weeks just as they are laid out in the book. I will write about the recipes, show you pictures, and tell you how my SAD (Standard American Diet) eating, carnivorous husband likes them too. (See archives below.) He is behind me 100%!!


Thursday, January 7, 2010

Day 21/ Phase 3/ Week 3

You should see my overly fat Eat for Health cookbook! It’s almost 3 times the size it’s supposed to be. All the pages are getting crinkled—and every other page has something dripped on it and/ or some type of food particle stuck to it. Wait a sec--here you go...






Aaaaaaaaaaah! Just the way a good cookbook should be!! I may however, need a fresh copy once this project is over!!





This was the last day of Phase 3! Hooray!! And on to Phase 4. I reeeeally hate to admit this, but I think that whenever I eat whole wheat, my sleep apnea comes back. I had it bad last night (sleep apnea) after eating whole wheat pasta. And the other day too when I had whole wheat pita. I loooove whole wheat!! I am going to have to ask Dr. Fuhrman about this. Am I allergic to whole wheat?? Although Haze's GERD and all symptoms of that are completely gone, his colitis is still no better. But after reading all of Dr. Fuhrman's information about bowel diseases, I think it will take a little while longer. So he is still hanging in there!




As I go along here, I find that I am just naturally becoming more creative! I am experimenting a little and learning a lot! I am even creating some of my own recipes! I am not a chef/ not a cook--just a regular person. And I am learning how to cook by cooking. This is great! Here was yesterday's menu...


Breakfast:
We had Eat Your Greens fruit shakes, and Haze also had toast and nut butter. In Eat for Health, Dr. Fuhrman gives you a plan to slowly wean you off of animal products (if that is what you want). Today was supposed to be an egg and veggie scramble dish/ but we chose fruit shakes!!


Lunch:
Greens and Berries Salad
Cashew Currant Dressing
Leftover Black Forest Cream of Mushroom Soup
YUM!! This was a super lunch! The soup was even better the next day. The salad was sooooooooo creamy and good. I loved it with the addition of strawberries. You will never get sick of salad if you just rotate all of Dr. F's recipes. They are all different and all yummy in their own way. We gave this an A-






Dinner:
Crazy-About-Carrot Salad
Pasta with Artichokes
The carrot salad was very carroty--but tasty with the cinnamon and OJ. I think a different salad would have been better alongside the pasta. Maybe one with the Balsamic Dressing? As a result, we did not eat much of the carrot salad, and then ended up overeating on the pasta! I made the pasta without the optional shrimp (Haze had shrimp), and then added spinach and zucchini. See how creative I am!! It was good! But we felt really super full afterwards (too full). We both gave the meal a B+.








Dessert:
Nutrient-Rich Chocolate Pudding
Haze liked this better than me--I just really did not like it! I hate saying that. But it was really--like I totally knew what went in it (because I made it) and it just did not seem like something I wanted for dessert! I would much rather have one of the fruity and lighter desserts! I would much rather have an orange! I did not even take a pic for you because I was supposed to have a beet to help with the color and did not have one. So it turned out like olive-green colored and it was just not pretty! Sooo... I ended up inventing my own chocolate dessert! It's called Jana Banana Chocolate Ice Cream! It was yummy!! I used frozen bananas, soy milk, dates, vanilla, and a small scoop of the unsweetened chocolate. Haze ate half of the pudding and all of the ice cream!!



Jana Banana Chocolate Ice Cream

7 comments:

Susan said...

Hi, Jana,
I am *SO* inspired by your blog and this project. I've been wanting to pull out the old "Eat for Health" books for a long time and really *make the commitment*. I mentioned your blog to my husband yesterday and even though he's definitely not super interested in the nutritarian lifestyle, he seemed interested in Haze's story and the great success he's had in losing weight and feeling better.

My question for you, though, is what do you do if there are things that either of you are really picky about? My husband simply will not touch broccoli, artichokes, cucumbers, portabello mushrooms and a few other things. I know that if I cook these dishes that include those things, he will only take a few bites and then run back to a ham/cheese/white bread sandwich to fill his stomach. Would you recommend just substituting a menu that is full of things he doesn't like with a different one that he will like? Have you done that for you or for Haze?

Jana Diedrich said...

Hi Susan,
Thank you so much for reading! Haze made the decision that if there is something he does not like, he will still definitely try it. At the beginning I knew he hated dill and brussels sprouts. But he requested that I make the recipes exactly like they are supposed to be. And lo and behold! When we made the dish with dill, he liked it! Same went for brussels sprouts--he gave that dish an A!! I did too--and we both thought we hated brussels sprouts :O) That being said--I would suggest for your husband that you do not add the things he says he does not like. He is not requesting (like Haze did) that the recipes be made exact. You can always substitute for any kind of veggies that you know he does like, or just move on to the next recipe! There are lots of them. And for Haze, I have had to add just a little bit of salt--so that he will eat it. It is MUCH better than they way he was eating before, and if adding just a pinch of sodium will help him eat it--then that is what we do!

Hope this answered your question! Good luck!!

Haze said...

Hi Susan,

There are a few things I don't like, but I have tried to be open minded to giving this program a chance...if Jana would have said we are having brussel sprouts the first night I probably would have balked at the idea...but they came 3 weeks into the deal and by that time I was even more open, because the menu items don't always sound great but overall they have tasted pretty great...so now I am even more willing to give it a try...so may don't start with the items he doesnt like start with the items he does like and the point is to really replace the processed foods like cheese, white bread and ham with fresh salmon, sweet potatoes, spinach and zuchinni salsa...overall I am surprised everyday by what Jana is cooking up and I am truly pleased with the tastiness of the food...I was big advocate of SAD before and now I see how much better I feel and look in such a short period of time. good luck and thanks for reading!!

Jana Diedrich said...

Thanks, my love!!

Susan said...

Thanks, you two!!! :) It's SO great to get both of your perspectives. I think you're right that if I start with dishes that I know he won't immediately turn up his nose to, I will hopefully get him on board and then I can slowly put in a dish here or there that is a little more adventurous...:) Or, if he absolutely refuses, then we'll just eat more repeat dishes that he DOES like....

Again, your blog is super inspiring and I will continue to watch to see your health progress updates (I really think that your weight loss numbers and success stories are the key to getting him on board with the program!). And, I am really considering joining the Member Center on Dr. Furhman's site now...hearing how useful it is for you, Jana!

Best to you guys!

PeaceofYarn said...

Jana,
Thank you, thank you! I actually ordered ETL, EFH & the Eat Right America Food Scoring Guide from Amazon today, then found Dr. Fuhrman's site which lead to your blog...which I couldn't tear myself away from till I'd read it all!
Can't wait to get my books & get started. I will be a loyal reader of your blog from now on.

Jane

Jana Diedrich said...

Thank you Jane! Let me know how it's going--and let me know what you make first!!

Jana
:O)