New Diet

I realize that there has been a long break in this blog, which is to be expected when you suddenly find yourself involved in as many activities as we have had going on over the summer. But this is also due to the fact that we have made a dramatic change in our eating and cooking habits. Over the summer my husband and I were challenged to try a diet/fast that is found in the book of Daniel


Daniel 1:8-16 (The Message)
But Daniel determined that he would not defile himself by eating the king’s food or drinking his wine, so he asked the head of the palace staff to exempt him from the royal diet. The head of the palace staff, by God’s grace, liked Daniel, but he warned him, “I’m afraid of what my master the king will do. He is the one who assigned this diet and if he sees that you are not as healthy as the rest, he’ll have my head!”
But Daniel appealed to a steward who had been assigned by the head of the palace staff to be in charge of Daniel, Hananiah, Mishael, and Azariah: “Try us out for ten days on a simple diet of vegetables and water. Then compare us with the young men who eat from the royal menu. Make your decision on the basis of what you see.”
The steward agreed to do it and fed them vegetables and water for ten days. At the end of the ten days they looked better and more robust than all the others who had been eating from the royal menu. So the steward continued to exempt them from the royal menu of food and drink and served them only vegetables.

We decided that as a spiritual discipline we would eat only fruits, vegetables and nuts for two weeks. In no way did we expect this to be easy or something that we would want to do long term. I am the Queen of Desserts (especially chocolate) and my husband is the King of Carnivores. We decided to do this for only two weeks as a spiritual discipline.

Here's what we found out:

• The first three days are the worst, especially when your co-workers bring donuts, bagels and chocolate into the office.
• Days 4 and following, you begin to feel "GREAT" and you loose the craving for sweets, breads, and meat.
• By day 14 we were converts. We felt healthier than either of us could remember and both of us had lost 10 pounds!
• Another benefit - Fruits and vegetables don't cost near as much as we thought, our grocery bill was cut in half by shopping at our local farmers markets and Whole Food, Greenwise stores. These are some of the more expensive stores but we weren't buying, meat, bread or prepared foods so it came out MUCH cheaper than "normal" shopping at a cheaper store.

At this point our spiritual exercise was over but we had also learned some valuable health lessons and as good stewards of the bodies and life God has given us we decided to continue this experiment with a few modifications.

• We began incorporating fish 1-2 times a week. On the weekend, or if we are entertaining we will have a nice fish fillet and I make a nice tuna salad that we have a some point during the week.
• We switched from two gallons of regular milk per week to a quart of organic, non-homogenized milk per week. (Yes organic, non-homogenized milk is more expensive, but we actually come out cheaper here b/c we are dinking less. I'll go into the problems with homogenized milk and milk products in general later).
• We also buy dark chocolate covered pretzels from a local chocolate factory (yes, I can make my own but don't have time right now) we allow ourselves one chocolate pretzel per day if we want it. The surprise, we don’t always want it! When you have cut out sweets completely for a few weeks the craving isn't there anymore. Now when I get that occasional craving, I have something mildly sweet that doesn't leave me craving even more sweets and fat. It also doesn't have the milk products that were causing us so much trouble.
• We also use chicken broth in our cooking and occasionally eggs.

As you can see this isn't strictly following any one diet, while it has similarities to vegetarian diets, vegan diets and the Daniel diet it is really not any one of them; instead it is a lifestyle choice that we have made for this time in our lives to eat healthier foods.

So how do we do it? I'm sure some of you are wondering if you can even think of 14 different vegetables, let alone ways to cook them. I know that is how I felt at the begin of this experiment. Well over the next few weeks I'll share some of the ones I've tried. I am finding that there are many wonderful new things to try at your local farmers market and just because you think you don't like something, don't write it off, you probably just haven't had it cooked the right way yet.

So what does a typical meal look like for us? Well here is what I am serving tonight.

• Sweet potatoes
• Green beans w/mushrooms & herbs
• Brocciflower w/balsamic dip

Here's what I did

• Sweet potatoes I wrapped in foil and baked at 350 for 90 minutes (until soft) I did this over the weekend so tonight all I have to do is put them in my steamer for about 12 minutes to warm up. Then I mash them with a little kosher salt. I have found that this year the fresh sweet potatoes are so sweet they don't need anything else to flavor them, if you want other flavoring feel free to play around.
• In the second tray of my steamer I put the brocciflower and sprinkled it with just a touch of olive oil and some Italian herbs (fresh or dried) When it is finished in the steamer I cut a few leaves of fresh basil overtop and grate a tiny bit of parmesan cheese over them. I serve creamy balsamic dip on the side.
• The only thing left to do is the green beans. I take a small handful of chopped mushrooms (about 4-5 small white mushrooms) and sauté them in olive oil with about 5 basil leaves chopped and 6 cloves of roasted garlic. I then add three handfuls of green beans and sauté for just a few minutes until al dente.

Dinners is ready and it only took 12 minutes! Doesn't sound like enough? You'd be surprised how filling vegetables are but if you feel the need for more add a side of rice.