South Beath Diet Phase I , Cooking New Recipes, and Getting Motivated

Hello Everyone!

I am so excited that it is almost the weekend that I can almost taste sleeping late and drinking my coffee in bed!

A post or two a go I was talking about New Years Resolutions.  One of mine was to try and lose weight to help my health and just to plain feel better.  To start this off my wonderful Mother-in-Law bought me two books with recipes for the South Beach Diet.  I read them after Christmas and Mer and I decided that the diet would start January 2, 2013.

The South Beach diet has three phases and right now I am in phase I which is all about getting your sugars under control.  During phase one, for 14 days, you have to cut out carbohydrates completely and also most fruits, plus processed foods.  You can however eat many veggies including cucumbers, cauliflower, broccoli, and more.  You can also eat most meats, low fat cheeses, eggs, and many other foods that you can make some great recipes with.

I have actually found in the last two days that I am not getting the sugar shakes and looking for a granola bar which has been what I have done for most of my life.

It has also given me the opportunity to try new recipes and become more confident in my cooking.

Tonight I made "fake" mashed potatoes with cauliflower.  I think it might take another few tries to perfect this one, but here are the ingredients and recipe.

Ingredients:
Head of Cauliflower
1/4 Cup Fat Free Half and Half
2 Tbsp I Can't Believe it's Not Butter
Salt
Pepper
Garlic Salt

Directions:
1.  First I boiled the Cauliflower head in a pot of water with a little bit of salt for about 15 minutes or until very tender.
2.  I then let the cauliflower cool and cut it up into small pieces putting it into the blender
3.  Then put the fat free half and half, the butter, salt, pepper, and pinch of garlic salt into blender with cauliflower
4.  Lastly blend it up, taste, and season as you go!

I did not take this picture (my camera battery died tonight!) but this is what it looked like.  I thought it was easy to make and tasted delicious.

So, I am definitely motivated on my diet and with my cooking and I have been working like crazy on new projects for LoveUPaperly for 2013, but I am having a hard time staying motivated finishing the projects!  I am hoping to take some pictures tomorrow to show you what I have been working on even if they are half finished.  Maybe posting them will make me make a push to finish at least one or two of them.

Happy Almost Friday.

Lots of Love,

Jess

Office Pot Luck, A horrible cold, and Blog Reassessing

Hello All!

These past few weeks I have been doing some major thinking about this blog, my Etsy shop LoveUPaperly and so many other things!  I am hoping that all of these things I have been thinking about will start showing up as changes in the New Year!

I think that is one of the reasons that I love the Holidays, Christmas, and New Years so much.  I always feel like it is a time to reassess and figure out if I think I am going in the right direction.

Besides that, I finally finished school this semester and I have a break until the end of January which is badly needed.

As for this weekend, I have had a horrible cold all week and it has only been getting worse so I am going to bunker down the next two days and try to get rid of these germs.  Last year I had just had surgery so Christmas was rather miserable for both Meridyth and myself so this year, cold or no cold, I am determined to try and feel well!

Friday we had an office potluck which was full of all different types of food.  I decided to go for a rustic Italian dish and made roasted cauliflower and broccoli with garlic and olive oil with tomatoes and of course pasta.  I topped the whole thing off with some mozzarella cheese!

I think it tasted pretty good!

Second, I took some pictures of the final product for my Parent's Chanukah present.  They were absolutely thrilled!  My Mom keeps calling to say that she keeps trying the pictures in different places all over her house.

I'm off to take some Theraflu.

Lots of Love,

Jess