Love/Hate Food: Week 3

From the start of Week 1, I was looking forward to the arrival of Week 3.  Week 3 is the week where you get to slowly re-introduce citrus, cow dairy, cow cheeses, wheat and grains.  I love carbs.  I love bread.  Thats probably the reason why I had so much trouble losing weight in the past, carb heavy diet.  I didn't each much rice, heck I don't even like rice!  But if I did eat rice, it was brown rice, which is healthier than white rice.  My love is towards breads.  I can't say no to a freshly baked loaf of bread.  My favorite meal in the world is fresh bread and butter.  I could eat that every single meal, forever and ever!  Alongside my previously carb heavy meals, the rest of everything I put into my mouth was pretty healthy.  Low fat, plenty of fresh fruits and vegetables.  I have to admit now I see that I was consuming less protein than I should.  You should have heard me counting down the days to when bread was reintroduced again.  Each day I would say to the hubby something along the lines of, "Guess what???  On Tuesday for breakfast we get to eat a slice of rye bread!" or "On Friday for lunch we get to eat an egg, tomato and cheese sandwich!"

The purpose of re-introducing these foods slowly day by day is for us to notice if our body has any bad reactions when these foods are consumed.  Bad reactions include, bloating, gassy, constipation etc.  If you have any of these reactions, you should probably be avoiding these foods in the future. The rule is re-introduce each type food each day separately, and cannot eat that type of food again until all foods have been re-introduced.  This is so that you can get a clearer picture of which foods affect you and which do not. No confusion this way. So basically once you re-introduce the food for that one day, you cannot eat it again until week 4.

I also have to note that on the second day into our week 3 detox plan, our diet got derailed a small bit.  We had a friend's wedding to attend.  Dinner reception was at a Chinese restaurant (10 course meal) AND I was told not to leave so early because at 11pm Smoke's Poutinerie was catered for some poutine.  I cursed my friend for doing that and told him that I hope his poutine sucks so I won't eat any of it.  In truth, the poutine wasn't the greatest, I found the gravy very weak and it wasn't cheese curds, it was broken up bits of mozzarella.  But regardless, I still ate some poutine because it sure beat the salads I've been eating recently!  As for the main dinner meal, aside from the oil, most of the food in a Chinese banquet meal is allowed in the meal plan.  The only things I didn't eat was the suckling pig which isn't allowed (the hubby was looking forward to this dish in particular all day long and ended up eating double portions) and fish, because I just don't like fish.

Week 3 down, just one more week to go! Hovering around an 8lb weight loss so far.

Week 3 Day 1 Citrus:

Grapefruit & Goat Yogurt

Roasted Beet, Orange & Walnut Salad




Rice Pasta with Peas, Zuchinni and Goat Cheese



Day 2 Yogurt:
Friend's wedding was this day.  Breakfast was Dose of Dopamine Chocolate Yogurt.  Lunch was Roasted Vegetable Soup topped with Greek Yogurt.

Day 3 Cheese:

Low Fat Caesar Salad with Shrimp

Carb-Conscious Lasagna

Day 4 Rye:
For lunch instead of the Rye bread it was supposed to be Wasa crackers.  But I didn't want to buy more food just for one meal, so figured we'd eat another slice of rye bread.

Slice of Dimpflmeier Rye with Almond Butter and Boiled Egg

Slice of Dimpflmeier Rye Topped with Goat Cheese & Tomato and Roasted Vegetable Soup

 
Day 5:
Today was supposed to be the re-introduction of Kamut.  But since this isn't something that we normally consume anyways, we figured we would omit it.  Today's meals consisted of what we are allowed to eat in Weeks 1 and 2.

Mary's Cracker Crusted Chicken with Herbed Sweet Potato Fries and Steamed Broccoli

Day 6 Ezekiel Products:
Ezekiel products are bread products made with sprouted grain.  This has to be the absolute worst bread out there.  Texture reminds me of either sawdust or a crouton.  And this is all prior to toasting the bread!  Worst part is, each loaf of bread is $5 and it's not even fresh....it's located in the freezer section!  For lunch, the recipe was for Tuna melt.  However since I dont' eat fish, I used some left over roasted chicken breast and made myself a Chicken Salad Melt instead.

Sunday French Toast

Chicken Salad Melt

Tuna Salad Melt

Day 7 Whole Wheat:
Since I volunteer on Fridays I didn't take a picture of my lunch which was Tasty Egg and Cheese Sandwich with Mixed Greens.

Whole Wheat Pasta with Chicken, Goat Cheese and Roasted Asparagus



Love/Hate Food: Week 2

I've been pretty lazy about updating this blog and am now finally getting around to writing about week 2 of The Supercharged Hormone Diet.  I'm actually in the middle of week 4 right now.  The end is so close!!!  Back to week 2.  The only difference between week 1 and week 2 of the detox is that in week 2 you are allowed the addition of 1 daily serving of gluten free grains or potatoes.  Gluten free grains or potato selections can include millet, rice and rice products, buckwheat, rice pasta, rice cakes, rice crackers, white potatoes and sweet potatoes.  I had no idea that one serving is only 1/2 cup.  I guess that would be a shock to any Asian out there.  One serving of rice to an Asian is always one heaping bowl.

Not many pictures for this week's food since most of the meals are the same as the previous week because of all the limitations of what we can and cannot eat.

Upside, down another pound this week :).

Week 2 Day 1 Lunch:

Chicken Chili

 Day 2 Dinner:

Chicken Souvlaki with Rice & Salad











Day 3 Lunch & Dinner:

Scrambled Eggs with Dill and Feta Served on Sliced Tomatoes

Roasted Chicken Breast with Garlic & Herb Sweet Potato Fries

The roasted chicken breast was supposed to be a whole roasted chicken.  But a whole roasted chicken would mean leftovers sitting in the fridge.  And the fact that I had chicken breast in the freezer already, I just thought might as well use it.

 Day 4 Dinner:

Chicken Stirfry with Peppers and Fresh Basil and Brown Rice











  Day 5 Dinner:

Rice Pasta with Chicken, Goat Cheese and Asparagus

 Day 6 Dinner:

Tilapia with Roasted Tomatoes on Brown Rice

This was the hubby's dinner since I don't eat fish.  I had a blueberry avocado smoothie instead because I perfer lighter dinners before going to yoga.  I have it arranged so when I have yoga, he eats fish so I don't smell the stinky fishy smell.

Day 7 Dinner: 

Chicken Cabbage Cashew Stirfry on Brown Rice

No cashews at home so I just omitted them.

Grindhouse Burger Bar

This visit to Grindhouse Burger Bar was in the midst of my detox diet.  So I had very limited options as to what I could and could not eat.  However, thank goodness that we had just started the second week in our detox which allows for 1 serving of gluten free grain or potato each day.  So as long as I made some wise choices, I was able to convince myself that this meal was a treat, but also allowed.  The reason also for going to a burger place for dinner downtown was because we had signed up for a Partner Yoga Class and Grindhouse Burger Bar was within walking distance from the yoga studio.

Walking into this burger place, I was a little skeptical as it was pretty quiet.  There was only 1 couple seated in there eating when we walked in.  So I was a little worried that we walked into a crappy fast food burger type place. I have to admit though, it was a little early for dinner, it was around 5:30pm.  But even as we left after, there were only 2 other tables being occupied.  We were starving and ready to order.  Me of course, was ready to order before we even walked into the restaurant.  I have a really bad habit of studying the menu at home if it's online on the restaurants website and chosing what I want ahead of time.  The menu seems pretty ecclectic.  There's burger patty options that you won't see at just any burger joint.  The best part of the menu, all the meats are naturally raised, grass fed, antibiotic and hormone free, sourced from local ontario farms.  Well to me, it's not a HUGE deal since I don't only eat organic foods, but for one of my friends it's a big deal.  She trys to eat oganic foods if possible and she ONLY eats beef if it's organic.  So she was SUPER happy to be able to eat a beef burger!  This is the only time i've ever seen her eat a beef burger ever!

The orders were put in:

Turkey Burger

Turkey Burger minus cranberry on a gluten free bun.  My turkey burger I thought was delicious.  Very juicy.  I've actually never had a turkey burger before, closest would be a chicken burger.  But usually the chicken burger is a whole grilled chicken breast or processed deep fried ones from fast food chains.  This turkey burger was made like a beef burger would be.  Ground up turkey.  Somehow they managed to cook it all the way through and maintain all the juices! The bun I thought was dry, maybe it's a gluten free thing?  One other thing to note is that their burger buns are are beer infused buns.  The whole wheat is infused with Steamwhistle and the white is infused with MillStreet.  Any noticable difference in taste?  I don't think it was noticed at all.

Kangaroo Burger + Sweet Potato Fries

The Aussie on whole wheat bun: The ultimate free range burger, kangaroo, pickled beets, fried egg and house aioli.  The hubby wanted a beef burger so badly, but since beef is offlimits for the duration of the detox, he decided that he would follow what was allowed.  Although I would personally consider kangaroo red meat, the hubby claimed that the book did not say specifically that kanagroo was offlimits, only beef and pork were.  So based on technicality, he won and was able to order kanagroo.  When he saw his burger he was super happy.  It came as a open faced burger.  The lettuce, kangaroo, egg on one half. Tomato and beets on the other half.  This made for great presentation.  And for some reason, nothing makes me happier to see a beautifully cooked sunny side up egg.  The hubby enjoyed this kangaroo burger, he said that it tastes like beef but firmer. I vaguely remember thinking that as well when I tried kangaroo in Australia several years back.  I guess that's because of the lower fat content of a kangroo versus a cow.  The hubby greatly enjoyed his burger and said he would order it again.  The only downside is that he found it really messy to eat because of the runny yolk.

Signature Beef Burger (6oz) on white bun.  Because the patties are made in house, both the beef burgers were ordered medium rare.  And they came this way!  So yummy, delcious, and juicy!  My friend also made a comment that it's better than most other burger places out there! And then she was silent the rest of the meal as my friend was too busy enjoying her beef burger.  So tempting to give it a try......but good thing I have good willpower!

The Big Grind + Extra Patty + Poutine

The Big Grind (8oz) + additional patty (8oz)  on white bun: Our own all beef patty, special sauce, lettuce, cheese, onion and pickle.  This was a big one, reminded me of a higher quality version of the Big Mac minus the middle bun layer.  Cooked to a perfect medium rare, and super juicy.  The only complaint was that it was too salty.  I guess the chef over seasoned the patties on that one.

Side of sweet potato fries with black truffle aioli and side of poutine was added to the Kangaroo Burger and Big Grind.  Both the sweet potato and the regular potato fries looked overcooked to me.  They were pretty dark.  But the hubby claims that he likes well done fries so he had no complaints.  My friend that ordered the poutine agreed with me that the fries were overdone, but he said that the poutine is promising, but still doesn't compare to the Blue Chip Truck.

Overall a good burger place.  And will definitely make a trip down to Grindhouse if i'm in the area.

Grindhouse Burger Bar
365 King St. W, Toronto, ON
416-977-3010

Love & Hate Food: Week 1

As most of my friends and family know, I have a love hate relationship with food.  I love food, but food however does not treat me as kindly as I would like.  Throughout my childhood, I had a difficult time with food.  I was always the fat kid, so my parents tried to put me on a restrictive diet.  This didn't mean that I wasn't allowed to eat certain foods, but rather, I had to ask for permission to eat food.  This was their way of monitoring what I ate and hoping that I would look 'normal' like all those other skinny kids out there.  This led to lots of sneaking of food which didn't help me lose any weight at all.  What I did get used to was having to ask "Can I eat this?".

Throughout my life I've tried many diets.  I've even been bribed by an aunt and uncle with money to lose weight.  They told me that If I lost 5lbs they would give me $5.  I've tried this diet from some cardiac institute before.  Lost 20lbs back then, but also caused me to black out twice and walk into the wall once and the microwave once. 

Recently a friend of mine mentioned she went to an info session held by a naturopathic doctor by the name of Dr. Natasha Turner for info on a diet.  I thought she was nuts by wasting time going to some doctor advice when she clearly didn't need to lose any weight.  Anyways, she tried a few of the recipes in the book, and that was about it.  So she offered the book to me to read.  The name of the book is The Supercharged Hormone Diet.  I read through the book and found it pretty interesting.  This diet is all about re-balencing your hormones so you can lose weight.  I looked at the recipes and they looked way better than what I was able to eat when I followed the cardiac institute diet.  So I decided to give it a shot.  Worst case is I eat healthy but I don't lose weight.

To do a quick summary of the diet.  In total there are 4 phases, each phase lasting 1 week long.  Throughout each of the phases you will need to drink 2 detox shakes each day.  Exercise is 4 days of light cardio 30 minutes at a time and 2 days of yoga (they suggest ashtanga, anusara or hatha).  There is also a suggestion of taking quite a few supplements.  I didn't follow all of them, the only additional supplements I took in addition to my normal barrage of vitamins is vitamin D3 and a probiotic. 

Meal Schedule: 7am-8am breakfast, 10am detox shake, 12pm-1pm lunch, 3pm detox shake, 6pm-7pm dinner.  And no eating 3 hrs before going to bed.

The so called detox shake that I am required to drink twice a day is a mixture of 100% whey protein isolate mixed wth water, almond butter and a hypoallergenic fibre source.  There is another option for the detox shake and that has berries, water, chia or flax seeds.  But the second option requires a blender and I'm too lazy to have to wash it after.  So i just put mixture 1 into a cup with a lid and shake it.

Week 1 is a detox week (grain and potato free).  This first week you are to cut out all grains and potatos, corn, citrus and processed fruits, peanuts, red meats, cow dairy, alcohol and caffine, sugar (honey is ok), store bought condiments.  The only oils and fats you should be taking in is canola oil, butter, flaxseed oil, hemp oil and extra virgin olive oil.  I found this first week to be super heavy on the protein.  In my normal meals I probably don't even eat half the amount of protein put in front of me.  But so far so good, after week 1, i'm down 6.5lbs :)  Most of which i'm assuming is water weight....but we'll see.

Week 1 Day 1:


Easy Egg White Goat Cheese Omelette

 

Protein Topped Feta & Peach Salad



Tomato Turkey Delight



For the Protein Topped Feta & Peach Salad, I subbed the peaches for blueberries, since peaches are so expensive this time of the year.

For the Tomato Turkey Delight, I subbed turkey for chicken.  And instead of serving on top of green beans (hate green beans) I served on top of left over boiled Shanghai bok choy.

Day 2: I keep forgetting to take pictures of the morning breakfast smoothies :(

Goat Cheese, Pear and Pine Nut salad



Chicken Souvlaki with Salad



Day 3:

Quick Berry Delight with Goat Yogurt

Roasted Beet, Orange, Walnut & Baby Arugula Salad

Tilapia with Fresh Tropical Salsa

For the Roasted Beet, Orange, Walnut & Baby Arugula Salad, I subsituted the orange with strawberries since citrus is off limits this week and also subsituted spring mix for arugula since it's cheaper.

For the Tilapia with Fresh Tropical Salsa, the salsa not so tropical since our pineapple wasn't ripe enough.  Served with sauteed beet tops instead of squash since the hubby doesn't like squash.  And since I don't eat fish and had yoga after dinner, I made myself a blueberry avocado smoothie for dinner instead.

Day 4:

Mediterranean Omelette with Fresh Berries



Pureed Squash & Apple Soup





Roasted Chicken Breasts with Cauliflower Mash

The omlette again did not turn out, and ended up being scrambled egg whites again.

Pureed Squash & Apple Soup is the worst recipe so far.  It's disgusting!  I will never make this recipe again.

Day 5:

Power Protein Scramble



Japanese Spinach Salad







 

 



Almond Crusted Chicken Breasts with Steamed Asparagus & Rapini & Beets



Shiso Tree Cafe

A bunch of my friends and I decided to meet at Shiso Tree Cafe (J-Town) on Friday night because we haven't seen each other in such a long time.  The type of food Shiso Tree Cafe serves is Japanese style Italian pasta (Wafu).  I had no idea such a thing existed.  The definition of Wafu: pasta cooked in a japanese style or to japanese tastes (as opposed to a western style).  I was in for an awesome night!

When we walked in, we immediately saw a board that listed the specials.  We looked at the specials and took a peek at the regular menu and most of us decided to order off tthe specials menu.  All the pasta dishes come standard with a salad with wafu dressing and slice of garlic toast.  You also had the option of making it a full meal by adding $7 for a soup and a slice of cake for dessert.  The cakes I hear are not actually made by the cafe but brought over from Bakery Nakamura (J-Town).

For our appetizers we ordered the Nori Fries and Fries with Tartar Sauce.  Both delicious freshly cut fries, not from frozen.  The Nori Fries were supposed to be dressed with wafu dressing topped with shreds of nori.  However none of us could taste the wafu dressing.  The Fries with Tartar Sauce were the same fries as above topped with a large amount of home made tartar sauce.  Most of us loved the sauce, minus the one that normally dislikes mayo.

While we were chomping on our fries, the soups arrived for the ones that ordered the combo set.  There was only one soup option which was the soup of the day.  The waiter never mentioned what it was when he set it down so we figured we could take guesses after we tried it.  None of us had a clue.  It was green, undersalted, and super creamy. 

Goody's Diner - CLOSED

This was the longest lunch I think I've ever had.  Goody's Diner is located at 17-133 Manville Rd (major intersection Warden & Eglinton) which is quite a drive from where I live.  The fact that they are only open on weekdays 9am-7pm makes it extremely difficult for us to go and try.  But we managed to find a day where my husband and friends had a big enough break in their work schedules to join me for lunch there. 

When we got there, the place was full from the lunchtime crowd from people around the area.  We waited a few minutes before we were seated.  Once we were seated and glanced over the menu, we placed our order and waited.  And waited, and waited, and waited.  We waited for a good 40 minutes for our food.  My husband couldn't wait any longer and had to leave and rush back for a meeting.  Good thing my friends were willing to drive me back home after!  About 5 minutes afer my husband left, our food finally came!

I ordered the Goody's Turkey Club which came with a side of poutine.  Turkey club was good, had real turkey breast, not the sliced deli kind.  Inside it also came with peameal bacon, avocado, lettuce tomato, cranberry sauce and a bit of gravy.  It was a bit heavy on the cranberry sauce, in my opinion, but otherwise good.  The poutine was delicious!  The fries were skinny fries, super crispy on the outside but still meaty enough on the inside.  Gravy unfortunately was too salty for my liking.  And I would have prefered a little more cheese curds.  But definitely one of the better poutines i've had in the area.

My husband ordered their weekly burger special: The Montreal (which he ate once I brought it home).  The Montreal burger was topped with smoked meat and poutine along with the normal burger toppings.  He liked the taste of it, but would have prefered eating it fresh obviously.  I took a bite out of it when I was at Goody's and thought it was a bit overcooked and salty (that was the gravy agian!) for my liking.  Texture was not like the standard burgers that i've had before.  This beef patty had a chunkier texture to it.  This prompted us to ask the server if the patties were made in house.  And to our delight, they are!  Next time we know to ask for it to be cooked medium rare!  This gives us a great excuse to find the time to go back and try Goody's again! 

One of my friends ordered a Vegetarian Burger which on the menu states that it is an 8oz prime grilled vegetable burger with garlic mayo, zuchinni relish, lettuce, tomato and onion.  To our surprise when it arrived, it was TWO veggie patties.  We've never seen that before!  And as she was eating the veggie burger, juices were dripping out!  Again, that's something we've never seen, juices dripping out of a veggie burger! 

My other friend ordered the Goody's Burger which is an 8oz sirloin burger that comes with grilled peameal bacon, mushrooms, jalapeno havarti, caramelized onion, lettuce and tomato.  Again he loved the taste and flavour of his beef patty but also thought that it was overcooked. 

Goody's Diner is definitely one of the places I will be heading back to try again when our schedules allow.  Hopefully they will consider opening on the weekend which allow us to try their burgers again sooner rather than later.  We'll just have to make sure to ask for our burgers medium or medium rare next time.

Goody's Diner 17-133 Manville Rd.
Hours: Monday - Friday 9am-7pm
Phone: 647-348-9338

All About Me

I figured that my first post would be a quick introduction about me. To put it simply, I love food! But it wasn't always this way. Growing up I was led to believe that Miracle Whip was mayonnaise, ketchup was the only sauce you put on hotdogs, hotdogs were chicken weiners only, Kraft singles was THE cheese and the list goes on. I'm not sure when the lightbulb finally clicked for me that there was more food out in the world waiting for me to try and devour, but i'm glad it finally happened.

I'm not the most adventurous eater, there's definitely a limit as to what I do and do not eat. But I am definitely willing to try things once. Who knows, once I get over what it actually is, I might be able to enjoy it. The kinds of foods I love doesn't have to be complicated to prepare, fancy or expensive. I prefer homestyle cooking, something that will satisfy my soul. But that doesn't mean I don't enjoy a fancy meal every once in a while.  What ever makes my stomach happy!

This blog will be a place where I will be documenting my food adventures whether it be in trying out new recipes at home, or trying out dishes at a restaurant. I hope you all enjoy and join in all my food adventures. :)