Today's Meal - Chicken Stew with Pumpkin "Pie" for Dessert

This afternoon was spent prepping a crapload of various vegetables for the chicken stew. Hunnybun did the grocery run (thank you again, Sweetie!) while I chop-chop-chopped in the kitchen. Here's the pot of stew after we already doled out our first portions:


Then came the dessert (perfectly primal, thankyouverymuch! :)):


To make the crust, combine the following in the food processor:

- Freshly-ground almond meal
- Melted butter
- Various yummy spices like cinnamon, nutmeg and allspice

Press it into baking dish of choice.

For the filling:

- 1 can of pure pumpkin puree
- About a cup of coconut milk
- More of the above-mentioned spices

Pre-bake the crust in the dish. I only did mine for 10 mins at 350F but realized later it needed a bit longer.

Pour in the filling, spread it around, and bake at 350F until a toothpick inserted near the middle comes out clean. (For me, using a gas convection oven, it was around 40 mins.) Let it cool a bit before slicing.


I didn't realize that when you slice the root end off a bunch of celery that you end up with a pretty rose! That made me smile. :D

2-Ingredient "Cake"...First Attempt

I went down to the kitchen tonight with the intention of opening a can of tuna and eating it, but then I remembered we bought eggs last night so I got sidetracked!

Here's where I got the idea from.

When I first saw that thread, I bought a package of un-sweetened baker's chocolate to use for the recipe. That was about a month ago. Tonight, I finally got around to trying this out.

I took 100g (5 pieces) of the chocolate:


I then put the bowl into the microwave for 20 seconds at a time until the chocolate was melted enough to stir:


Next, I learned a lesson; that I should have let the chocolate cool down a bit before adding the egg to it. The egg started to cook a little as I stirred it in:


Once the egg was mixed in as best I could, back into the microwave the bowl went, for about 40 more seconds (my microwave is pretty powerful!). Here was the result!


Beauty! It was perfectly moist and spongy. However, unless you like a bitter chocolate "cake", don't use un-sweetened baker's chocolate. I'm getting minor tummy cramps now. Next time I'll use 85% cocoa, but there WILL be a next time! :D

MORE WATER!

I NEED to be drinking more water...clearly I'm not drinking enough!!

(Ouchies.)

Curry Pork Stew

Curry pork stew...a dinner I pulled outta my butt tonight (not literally!). :)
It has cubed boneless pork, onions, pigeon peas, and apple pieces. Next time I'll make this in the crock pot and add a second apple. It was tasty!

Just for the hell of it...

I weighed myself again this morning upon rising, after emptying my bladder. 146.6! Awesome!

No, I'm not going to be weighing myself every day going forward - just thought I'd see after all the bowel movements I had yesterday hehehehe. :)

...aaaaaaaand I'll now introduce a new label (tag) at this point: TMI! :D

After Two Weeks on the YeastBusters Program...

I'm holding steady at 147.9 lbs and although there were a couple of days where I couldn't drink as much water as I should have, I'm still regular.

Last night I started taking Greens+; one spoonful mixed in a cup of water (today I used unsweetened apple juice instead). It tastes like oddly-fruity green hell if you keep it in your mouth too long. The juice helped but made it way too sweet overall, so tomorrow I'll try it with more water than juice.

Slept like a log last night and went for a walk with my mom today. I made a huge bowl of popcorn for my hunnybun with a generous amount of melted butter drizzled over it (OMFG) and I resisted having even one kernel. Wow. One of my (now, former?) weaknesses.

I tell you, once I am finished the 8-or so weeks of this program I will be treating myself with something decadent and sinfully chocolatey! (I just hope that by that time I will be able to eat one thing as a treat and not need to eat 8 of them or every day, etc.)

Update

Thought I'd post an update since I have now been on the YeastBuster program for a week.

Day one (Monday):
- Mixed the drink together using just water. OMFG - NARSTY!! Got a few gulps down before the taste hit me. Couldn't touch any more so the rest went down the drain.

- Went to grocery store to get some unsweetened fruit juice to mix into the next one.

- Forgot to take the DDS Acidophilus pills before bed. Oops.

Day two:
- Mixed half water and half unsweetened pineapple juice in the drink. MUCH better! Downed the whole cup and then realized I was only supposed to use 2oz of juice with the rest being water. Oops.

- Remembered the damn DDS Acidophilus pills at bedtime. Yay!

Day three:
- Drink tasted just fine with the 2oz of juice. Yay! Finally doing it right.

Day four:
- Had my drink in the morning. After work I met up with my BFF to see Breaking Dawn. Picked up some dinner from Loblaw's (grocery store); salmon and sweet potato fries (sweet potatoes are on the 'reduce' list during the YB program). Had no problem walking by all the junk food in the store. I was hoping to grab a bag of plantain chips to munch on during the movie but they didn't have any. At the theatre I had nachos and cheese (hey look, another weakness!). BFF bought the nacho combo for me, which came with a gargantuan pop (that I didn't drink...the sweetie was thoughtful enough to get me Coke Zero lol).

- Experienced strange tummy grumblings after eating, unrelated to what was going on in the movie (heh).

Day five:
- Drink in the morning. Today I noticed how perfect my poops are this week. Stealth! :)

- Forgot to take one of the two DDS Acidophilus pills at bedtime. Oops.

Day six:
- Drink in the morning. Ate pork roast leftovers for breakfast. Awesome bowel movement shortly thereafter. Got on the scale for the hell of it, expecting to see ~150 again. Nope!! 147.8!!! WOOHOOO!!!


Part of this daily drink is a spoonful of psyllium powder, so I have to drink lots and lots of water...which means constantly having to pee like a racehorse, but it's important so that I don't get stopped up.

I'll weigh myself again next Saturday to see how things are going, and then I'll also begin taking Greens+ as directed.

I'm also poo-free again, using only ACV as a rinse in every shower. While it's in my hair I use my scalp massager brush to loosen up any dandruff. Next week I finally have a hair appointment and am going back to short and flippy hair. Can't wait!!

Thennnnnnn, right after my haircut, we're off to see The Tea Party in Toronto!! I hope they play this song....it's my favourite:

I *heart* my crock pot!!

Salt, pepper, roasted garlic and pepper spice, Italian spices, splash of soya sauce and splash of Worcestershire sauce. Put in crock pot on low for about 5-6 hours. Christ on a bike, were they ever good!! :)

An over-due update

Let's see...where to start?

I'm pretty sure I have candidiasis, based on the opinion of an online contact (who says he has a BSC and PHD in naturopathy and homeopathy):

If you're sugar-addicted you most likely have candida overgrowth in your gut. MD's should have their licenses revoked for reckless negligence as we see so much of this. They prescribe antibiotics like candy, and never recommend the patient follow up with probiotics. Prescribing antibiotics is ok, but antibiotics these days tend to wipe out all your gut flora as they're broad spectrum. If you have a white fuzz on your tongue in the morning, sugar-addicted, bloated after carbs/sugar, brainfog-ish, that's candida at work.

The sugar cravings are actually the yeast begging you to feed it. Once you get rid of it, the sugar cravings disappear. You must follow the candida diet (much like Atkins), and take both natural and medical antifungal drugs (Diflucan 100 MG, 30 Tabs, one pill, once daily) and no sugar! Sugar is candida food. Natural antifungals do work, but not as well as Diflucan which blows up the yeast cell. As the yeast cells blow up, you will feel crappy as all the toxins from these cells are dumped into your bloodstream. This is called die-off. Drink a ton of water. You can buy a Yeastbusters kit at any health food store, and a bottle of garlic capsules (not odor free) and chew on real garlic cloves as well.

Also, OOO (Oil Of Oregano) in liquid form, five drops on the tongue, breath in and out ten times, take a sip of water, swish in mouth, and swallow will kill yeast from mouth to the other end. Garlic and OOO are the most powerful natural antifungals. Buy a large bottle of probiotics (acidophilus/bifidus) to recolonize your guy flora. This will put your gut flora back into proper balance. Take the probiotics for the rest of your life and only use pharmaceutical antibiotics if your life is in jeopardy. OOO will kill most any bug/cold/flu you will ever come across in your life. And it won't destroy your gut flora.

Read all you can on Candida, buy the book The Yeast Syndrome, follow my guidelines and those in the book and you'll notice in four weeks or so you'll be able to walk through a bakery and look at sweets and you'll look at, smell the bread and you'll come to the realization that you don't crave it anymore.

I don't see myself munching on fresh garlic cloves but I have started taking spoonfuls of EV coconut oil, which is also an anti-fungal. I'm thinking of buying the Yeast Busters kit but I should at least ask my family doctor if the ingredients included in the kit are safe for me before I spend the $100 or so. I really would like to kick this sugar habit...

Beef marrow bones

I saw a package of these bones a few weeks ago and thought I'd try them out. Into the freezer they went for awhile, and this weekend I finally got around to dealing with them.

After defrosting in the fridge for a couple days I roasted them in the oven for 20 mins at 450F. The smaller ones looked nice and done (the larger ones still looked red and nasty) so I thinly sliced some little buns, toasted them, and spread the marrow on them. It was pretty tasty and Rabbit thought so too.

The crockpot was standing by, pre-loaded with baby carrots (all I had), celery, onion, two cloves of fresh garlic and a bit of freshly-ground salt and pepper. The bones went in and I filled the crock almost to the top with water. It's on low and will run at least until tomorrow. I look forward to drinking the stock...yummmmm!