Sugar and Yeast Detox - Phase 1, Day 1

A few weeks ago the husband told me that he would like cut back on his sugar intake.  At first I thought he was kidding!  I have done sugar-free, grain-free, dairy-free diets before and I honestly couldn’t eat enough.  I was hungry all the time.  So, when he said that I was completely shocked.  Of course, his idea of cutting back on sugar and I my idea of not eating any sugar, didn’t match.  It didn’t help that he had a birthday filled with delicious bar food and beer at a very nice bowling alley.  The cutting back sugar diet failed before it really had a chance to begin.

Enter the sugar and yeast detox diet!  Phase 1, Day 1 begins the day after Easter, so it would not interfere with any celebrations.  We have a menu for the week and the fridge is full of healthy non-sugary, non-yeasty foods.  We just have to eat enough of these foods so that we don’t lose too much weight.  Yes, we don’t want to lose weight.  What we do want is to be healthy and have energy.  And what better way to get there than a 21 day cleanse with no sugar (and that includes most fruit!), no yeast (and that includes all grains!) and no dairy except for yogurt.

To keep us honest, I’m going to chronicle our progress.  I will keep the uninteresting parts brief and elaborate more on the meals that require the most creativity and the encourage the most response for the now sugar (almost free)  husband.

Breakfast

Plain Greek Yogurt with unsweetened coconut – It wasn’t as boring as I thought it would be.  It was a bit of a sour way to start the day and the new diet, but it could have been worse.  Because the husband had to eat his at work, I packed it to go.  I put the coconut and some walnuts for snack.  He forgot that the coconut was supposed to go in the yogurt.  I’m not sure how, but he managed to eat it the dry desiccated coconut with a spoon.

Lunch

Salad with chicken and black olives with a lemon and olive oil dressing – It was not that different than our usual lunches, but the black olives were a treat.  I added more chicken in place of a pita bread and chips though.  The husband was surprised how filling it was!

Dinner

Herbed Salmon with Zucchini Pasta and Grape Tomatoes – The husband said, “The salmon was on point!”  And I agree!  It was seasoned with dried dill and thyme and a little bit of salt and pepper.  It was cooked just right where the edges were crispy and the center firm.  (I like to eat things that I know are cooked, so burnt is better than mushy in my opinion.)  The zucchini was spiralized into thin pasta like curlicues and sautéed in olive oil and water.  I added a clove of garlic for flavor and grape tomatoes for color.  The zucchini had a slight crunch giving a freshness that true pasta will never have.  I would definitely make this again.  Who doesn’t like to be on point?

Day 1 of Phase 1 was a success!  We had good food and we weren’t hungry.  We are on point so far!

Spinach Chips aren't the Answer

Today was an all-around hard day.  It was hard for the normal reasons (work, life, balancing it all) which made it hard for the dieting reasons. For those of you who don’t follow this blog, I’ve put myself on a sugar-free, yeast-free, gluten-free diet.  For two weeks I have to avoid a number of foods in what is called a”cleanse.”  I’ve been pretty good. I have managed to avoid potatoes for about 5 days, but it seems like so much more!  I’ve gone about 2 weeks without my favorite snack in the world – corn chips.  I’m craving the salt, the satisfying crunch, and the somewhat sweet taste.   I don’t know why I think that having chips would make the day any better, but craving them is making the day that much worse.

Spinach Chips paired with Coconut Fried Chicken

I don’t usually like to let negativity seep into this blog, but without those chips or any kind of sugar, I

thought venting might help a bit.  I did look for a solution to my craving and found a recipe for Spinach Chips.  I’m not a big fan of kale (yet) and these seemed like a viable replacement for kale chips.  I mixed 2 cups of spinach with salt, Italian seasoning, and olive oil and then spread them on a baking sheet.  Getting them off the baking sheet was a little challenging.  The “chips” were so thin that some of them broke off before I could transfer them to a plate.  You can imagine that eating them posed the same challenge.  I tried using a fork but that was awkward, so I managed to use a combination of a fork and my fingers – messy and oily!

The taste wasn’t what I was expecting.  It tasted like spinach, of course, but more like wilted spinach. Maybe I overcooked them or maybe the spinach leaves I had were too ripe.  I’m not sure.  They didn’t have the crunch that I was hoping for, but they did have a nice crispiness to them.  They might make a good salad topping. I’m willing to try the recipe again to see if I can make it better.  Unfortunately, I still want corn chips.

A Delicious Disaster

I made a cake – not just any cake, but my first real cake; a cake with eggs. I’ve never been good at making cakes; they never seem to rise with my multitude of egg substitutes.  But this cake did!  I used (sort of!) a recipe for Vanilla Cake with Italian Meringue Frosting.

All was going well.  I baked the two layers of the cake one day ahead of eating time (the husband’s birthday.)  They baked perfectly evenly and with a little coaxing they even came out of the pan without too much damage.  On the big day, I was feeling pretty confident on my cooking efforts: the cakes looked good, I stopped at the store for some lemon curd for the filling, and expertly ordered a pizza.  All that was left?  The frosting; the meringue of the meringue cake.

I mixed the sugar and water in a saucepan as instructed, heated it until it boiled, and then stirred until the sugar dissolved.  I turned down the heat to let it do its thing as it thickened into syrup.  Meanwhile, I separated 3 eggs and beat the egg whites with cream of tartar.  I beat and beat, waiting for the “moderate” peaks to form.  The syrup was only supposed to heat for 4 minutes, but that quickly turned to 7 because of my unresponsive eggs.  After 10 minutes, I gave up on the eggs and slowly added the syrup to the mixture while still beating with my electric mixer.  The mixer seemed to jam.  I figured it was just a minor setback and pulled the beaters out.  I thought maybe I imagined it and put them back in the mix and started beating again.  Talk about “egg on my face” and my coffee pot, on the floor, and all over the counter too!

The “syrup” solidified as it hit the egg mix and created a candy around the beaters.  The mixer jammed and sent my would be frosting all around the kitchen.

As I stared at the mess, trying to think of a solution, my phone rang.  “Hey, I’m on my way home!” said the birthday boy cheerfully.  “OK!” I said equally cheerful.  Now what?

1.       Clean up the evidence of the disaster.

2.       Find the ingredients for fall back frosting (a/k/a buttercream frosting).

3.       Concoct butter free buttercream frosting.

Why butter free you might ask?  I don’t know how to cook with butter after so many years of being allergic to it and I threw away all of the Crisco because of my current soy allergy.  That left…Spectrum (the palm oil butter substitute and my frosting saving grace) added to my favorite flavoring – vanilla.  Voila!  Frosting!

I spread the store bought lemon curd on the bottom layer and then gently placed the top layer over it. Then I did my best to frost the cake.  Of course, bits of cake crumbled and spread throughout the icing, adding to the already brown tint from the vanilla.  But hey, it was frosting and it was a cake.

My disaster turned out to be delicious: a light fluffy cake, with a sweet yet sour lemon flavor in the center, topped off with an extra sweet vanilla frosting.  Lessons learned?

1.       Never use old cream of tartar

2.       Never boil syrup for too long

3.       Never take yourself too seriously

4.       Be flexible enough to stray from the roadmap of th recipe

5.       Disasters can still be delicious

Red Velvet Cupcakes

My sister made red velvet cupcakes as our family’s 4^th of July treat.  This is exciting because not only is this cake, but it’s cake made with an egg.  That means that it didn’t fall apart when I took a bite! That means I was able to enjoy the whole cupcake (and then another one!) without worrying how much of a mess I was making, how many crumbs were stuck to my chin and my shirt.  (Or maybe I just didn’t care about the mess because it was so delicious!)

There isn’t any way to describe these cupcakes without using the very words its name: RED VELVET.  They are RED – not stoplight red, but an enticing red, a crushed VELVET RED – subtle, yet mysterious enough to draw you in, tempt you take another look.  And they are VELVET to the taste too – smooth, not overpowering like some chocolate cakes are.  My sister said they are “chocolate, but not chocolately chocolate.”

And she’s right; red velvet cupcakes are the perfect balance of chocolate and sugary cake. And my sister, the culinary goddess that she is, topped them off with sweet butter cream (soy free!) icing, complete with blue sprinkles. Yet another reason to celebrate the red, white, and blue.

Steak & Eggs

I was disappointed with my first taste of scrambled eggs.  I imagined them to be light and fluffy, salted clouds with a yellow ribbon of yoked flavor.  Unfortunately, my imagination tasted better than the reality.  The eggs were rubbery, flat and didn’t even tease my taste buds.

Of course, my husband I thought we were being creative for my first real helping of eggs.  We had leftover steak from Easter that were already seasoned and grilled.  We thought the eggs would complement them nicely, so we chopped up onions and green bell peppers and whisked them into the gooey mix.  Then we dusted the mixture with paprika before dumping it all into an olive oiled skillet.

It didn’t taste bad, but it wasn’t GREAT either.  I always expect greatness from food, my calories.  If I don’t have it, I will seek it out.  I tried sprinkling the eggs with salt and pepper, but still couldn’t escape the flatness.  And then the husband suggested the miracle of all condiments: ketchup!

I squirt a huge pool of ketchup on my plate and dipped the eggs and the steak in it.  The combination of sweet and salty tomato saved my steak and eggs combo.  I’m more impressed with the versatility and surprising flavor of ketchup than the scrambled eggs.  (Expect another post on ketchup in the future!)