Ladybug Farms: A Rather Boring Week

Sorry that this was such a boring week for new things. We had a sick (or just allergies?) kid in the house--though I did get to administer an inhaler like ten times which is a new record. Needless to say, our outside activities were stifled. But I did get in some baking.

Sprouted wheat berries--Yes, it does look like a bowl of bugs

This week I did some experimenting in my kitchen attempting to make some Trim Healthy Mama approved baked goods. I sprouted wheat berries, which is incredibly easy, threw them into the food processor with a little salt (which was incredibly messy), and turned them into rolls. My first attempt was a bit of a flop. I under baked them so they were still gooey on the inside. Next time I will bake them even longer.

My next kitchen experiment involved making flaxseed meal wraps that called for 3 T of egg-whites into an egg-free food. While I can eat eggs without going into anaphylaxis, I do have to be careful with them because too much makes me break out in hives. I decided to do a test making up three alternate recipes using various methods of egg substituting to find the one that worked the best.

For 3 T of egg whites, I substituted 1 T flax meal and 3 T water; 1 T soy flour and 2 T water; and 2 T kefir. The kefir was a big fat gloppy mess that I ended up just throwing away. The soy flour turned it into a crispy cracker that was actually really tasty. Joy ran off with half of it declaring it delicious. But definitely not suited for being a wrap. The flax meal option did turn out a fairly decent wrap, though it was not as flexible as the egg recipe. So I decided to bake it in the microwave a little bit longer and turned it into a tostada.

But by far, my greatest accomplishment this week was sticking to a new eating plan without cheating even once for an entire week. I turned down cookies, mashed potatoes, tortilla chips, banana bread, and a whole menu of delicious foods when we went out to eat--I ordered a salad and a bowl of plan-friendly soup. I just kept reminding myself that cheating would only slow down my weight loss, so buck up and say no.

Hopefully next week we can get out of the house and do something more exciting than kitchen experiments.