I'lll Be Your Beard Anytime! Great New Food Blog

During my 60-day juice fast, food blogs became my new pornography. I would google my favorite food dish and invariably it would lead me to some great food blogs. One of my favorites was this one:

The Food In My Beard - cute name, huh?

http://www.thefoodinmybeard.com/2013/03/sloppy-tofu-arepas.html

The food on this blog is a perfect mixture of health-conscious and gourmet. Check out the Sloppy Tofu Arepas and the Portuguese Peas and Eggs. This blogger's taste is impeccable and his techniques are solid.

About Juicing and The 60-Day Fast

After watching Joe Cross's film http://www.fatsickandnearlydead.com , my husband and I decided to go on an epic journey. We lived on nothing but vegetable and fruit juice that we created ourselves in a juicer for 60 days.

(This juice was sweet potato, carrot, red, yellow, and orange bell pepper, cucumber, oranges, and ginger)

Consuming the juice had an immediate and very satisfying affect on our health. My first glass was a beet combo and I actually felt my face tingle like crazy as the concentrated vitamins zoomed into my system. For weeks we lost nearly a pound a day.  We felt lighter and brighter and knew we were getting more nutrients than we had ever had before.

We had great fun experimenting with juice combinations. For some reason staying with the same colors usually resulted in complimentary flavors - like carrot juice, orange bell pepper and orange juice - or beets, red bell peppers, and strawberries. Nearly every juice we made had 80% veg and 20% fruit, nearly all had some carrots and some cucumber.

We juiced 3 times a day - each time making a 16-20 ounce glass for each of us. You can drink more juice but there comes a point where you just don't really have the time.

I won't say it was all roses. The second half of the 60 days definitely became more difficult. But I have to say that the consistent weight loss was usually enough to pull me through.

If you don't have a ton of weight to lose, you could do a shorter fast and still get the benefits. Some do 7 or 10 day fasts. The shorter fasts will still help you reset your tastebuds and put you on a healthier craving path.

One last note: 3 months prior to the fast, I had quit smoking. Whatever cravings I still had were greatly reduced during the fast. Maybe food just took the priority in craving but it was a great bonus.

If you have anymore questions about fasting, just let me know.

Guilt Free Apple Walnut Tarts

These tarts were a special treat that I created for my husband on his birthday. They are white sugar free, dairy free, and gluten free. You will need 4 granny smith apples, cinnamon, 1/2 a bag of walnuts, tahini, honey, and a box of gluten-free pie mix.

Guilt Free Apple Walnut Tarts!!!

Firstly, I thought I had a head start on this recipe because I found a gluten-free pie crust mix in my local health food store. Unfortunately, the mix called for adding eggs and butter and all kinds of things my hubby no longer eats. Lesson 1: Gluten-free doesn't always mean healthy.

So this is what did. I took the mix (which was basically rice flour with a few other ingredients like guar gum) and I dumped it in my food processor. I started the processor and started adding tahini - in total, maybe 3/4 of a cup. And then I added about a 1/4 cup of honey. The mix did not form a dough ball or anything that could be rolled out with a rolling pin, but I could feel with my fingers that it would clump enough to press into a tin. So I got out a cupcake tin and creased the tin with vegetable oil. I then grabbed some of the dough, rolled it into a ball about the size of a golf ball and placed it in each cup and then pressed it out until it made a dough cup. As you can see from the pic, the crust was about 1/8th of an inch thick.

Next, I peeled and cut up granny smith apples - about 4 apples - and placed the slices in a bowl. I added about 2 tablespoons of honey to the apples and a teaspoon of cinnamon. You could definitely add other spices or even raisins of you want.  I stirred the mixture together. I then spooned the apple mixture  about 3/4 full in the cups. Then in the former apple bowl, I put walnuts that had been crushed to smaller pieces and again added enough honey to coat the pieces. I then added the walnut mixture to each cup to top it off.

Place pan in a 350 degree oven for 20 to 25 minutes or until poking a cup seems to indicate that the apples have cooked - if necessary, after 20 minutes, cover with foil so that the nuts do not burn and the apples can keep cooking. Allow to cool completely before carefully removing cups by sliding a knife around the edges.

Note: There are many controversies about the differences between white sugar and honey. I personally believe that honey affects me differently and while you may not want to eat these everyday - they can be a really nice treat. They also go great in school lunches (or my husband's lunch).

In the future: I plan to try other fruit and nut combinations - blueberry and pistachio? Banana and almond? Experiment and let me know what you come up with.

An introduction to this blog...

After my husband and I completed a 60-day juice fast, I knew that learning to cook and eat in a healthier way would be a challenge. I am a self-confessed pasta and cake addict. Having worked in catering and owned a restaurant, I was not a stranger nor was I adverse to healthy foods - but I was often drawn to the dark side. I love to cook Italian, loved to season everything with cheese.  Before the fast, I weighed 250 pounds, after and currently, I weigh 214 pounds. I am on a journey to reach 150 and know it will take many more months of healthy eating. So I decided I would share what I learned in this blog in the hopes that someone else might benefit from it.

One last thing - many of my recipes will be descriptions of experiments and may not contain exact measurements. If you are a cook that needs that kind of surety - you might need to look elsewhere. If you are someone who peruses cookbooks in bookstores and says "oh that's how you do that" closes the book and doesn't buy the book - this blog is for you.