Bet you thought I disappeared, called it quits and was gorging on french fries and donuts.  Good news, not the case!  We've been a little stressed and distracted in our household the last couple of weeks.  David works on the base and was furloughed last week.  I put in extra hours at the spa and we both committed ourselves to projects to keep us busy and distracted from the underlying issue of "will we get paid?"  I have to admit that I am a stress eater, but that's just not an option anymore.  I'm also a stress shopper, and, well, not knowing if/when we'll get paid, that's not an option either!! What's a girl to do?  Go to the kitchen and get the creative healthy juices flowing.  So that's what I've been doing.

My own take on Pad Thai.  I'm getting more comfortable with what to cook and how to cook it.  What in the the beginning took hours of preparing at times, has dramatically lessened to quick dinners.  What a relief!  This certainly wasn't as fancy as the peanut sauce recipe in my trusty Well Fed cookbook. But it was still delicious and perfect for a fast meal.   For the peanut sauce I took about a fourth of a cup of almond butter, a splash of coconut milk, a few chugs each of coconut aminos, redboat fish sauce, and rice vinegar, stirred it all together over low heat and taste tested often to adjust seasonings.  It became rather thick so I added a couple tablespoons of water and let simmer until I was ready to pour it over my sauteed cabbage, sugar snap peas, garlic, ginger, onions and shrimp.  It was awesome and approved around the dinner table.

Char Siu (Chinese BBQ Pork) with "Fried Rice" from Well Fed.  Oh the glaze, oh the aroma, oh so good!  Ps.  Melissa Joulwan, Author of Well Fed has come out with Well Fed 2 available end of October.  This makes me giddy.

Quick dinner night.  Steak and garden tomatoes with homemade Italian dressing.  

So we made it through our Whole30 cleanse.  30 Days without grains, sugars, legumes and dairy.  We are currently in the phase of reintroducing some of these foods back into our diet and experimenting with what they "do to" us.  In the book we are instructed on day 31 to add yogurt to our breakfast, cheese for lunch and have a dish of ice cream after dinner.  While David was doing cartwheels over the ice cream, I was dreading it.  I already know what effects  ice creams and heavy dairies have on my system.  Then we eat as we have been the previous 30 days for the next 3 days and scope out the long term effects of our introduced food choices.  David didn't experience anything abnormal, maybe an extra trip to the bathroom, but I'm sure it was worth it to him.  I won't get into my issues.  It's best just to rule out dairy for me in general, ha ha! (That's the beauty of this cleanse, you are your own physician, you will find out what foods do what to you and what to stay away from).  Yesterday we gave grains a go.  I had a half of a bagel in the morning and felt like I had a brick in my stomach most of the day.  I didn't eat grains for lunch, however David had a side of pasta with his lunch and we both had bread with our Waldorf tuna salad for dinner.  He was dragging, I was dragging. We were sluggish and tired, It wasn't fun.  Bread won't be missed.  I've loved how we've dined those 30 days, I've already made up my mind to continue eating in the same fashion.  My taste buds have awakened, my energy has improved and I don't feel like I'm missing out on a thing. Oh, except 5 pounds! Although I want to add, losing weight is not why I chose to change my life style.  I worked hard in the past to lose weight and I don't have all that much to lose now...but hey, who doesn't like stepping onto the scale to a few pounds lighter? So it's a choice, satisfy that sweet tooth for a moment and put a drag on the rest of your day, even days!  Or put nutrient dense foods on your plate and be an energizer bunny.  These are only the immediate effects of course, I won't get in to the dangers of inflammatory diseases and everything that follows, obesity, high cholesterol, high blood pressure, diabetes, congestive heart failure...oh look I'm going in to it anyway.  All dangerous and all VERY reversible...just by what you put on your plate.  What's on your plate??