What I Eat - Day Eighty-Nine

Breakfast - Rutabaga Fries

This is a really cheap and delicious breakfast!  What is the difference between a rutabaga and a turnip?  A rutabaga is a hybrid of a cabbage and a turnip, and is sometimes called a yellow turnip (or so Wikipedia tells me).   

I combine the following to make my own seasoning mix:
7tbsp. mild paprika
one tbsp. smoked paprika
1 1/2 tsp. ground ancho chile pepper
one tbsp brown sugar
2 tsp. ground black pepper

I cut the waxy peel of the rutabaga, cut it into fry-sized shapes, put it in my large glass pyrex lasagna pan, pour a few tablespoons of avocado oil on top, add a few tbsp. of the seasoning mix, and then mix it up with my hands.  I bake it at about 400 degrees until the rutabaga is soft and browned.  

Lunch - Chicken Salad

This is my favourite thing to do to finish off a roasted chicken!   I combine it with chopped organic apple (one of the dirty dozen), sliced organic celery (also one of the dirty dozen), Renee's Poppy Seed Dressing (I'm just finishing up some bottles I bought on sale before I switch over to my yummier version), chopped chicken, and black pepper.  

Dinner - Baked Falafel, Fried Zucchini, Cucumber Parsley Salad, and Tahini Dressing

I used this recipe for the falafels, which turned out okay.  Not great, but okay.  I find frying them so frustrating (they never stick together or cook through), so I'll probably just stick with baking them now.

I fried the zucchini in avocado oil.    Please note zucchini is the newest genetically modified crop, so you're probably getting a good dose of trouble when you regularly eat zucchini from Mexico. 

I mixed up chopped cucumber, rinsed and chopped parsley, white wine vinegar (it was the kind I had on hand), and salt to make the salad. 

The recipe for the tahini dressing is here, except this time I made it in my Magic Bullet, which was infinitely easier!   You can pick up tahini in the ethnic sections of grocery stores like Freshco in North Bay.  

​All in all, this dinner was delicious!  

Treat - Vegan Chocolate Chip Cookies

I used the Bob's Red Mill Gluten Free Chocolate Chip Cookie Mix.  I've discovered a secret with these mixes, which I've shared before on this blog...you can just leave out the eggs!   They taste just as good and stick together just as well without the eggs.   

I like this mix because is a hypoallergenic combo of rice, potato, sorghum, and tapioca flours; and it is dairy free.   I follow the recipe on the package, except I add a little of extra water, replace the butter with Earth Balance Soy Free Buttery Spread, and leave out the eggs. 
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Extra Information

I was inspired by this post to create the chart (just below) suggesting how you might eat home-cooked food all week long while only preparing one meal a day. I'm not in love with this dietician's food choices, but I do love the general concepts.  There are three key concepts that go into eating with this kind of a meal plan:

1) It's a better choice not to snack.   I KNOW, this runs contrary to what we've been told for years about how eating very regularly balances our hormones, helps with weight management, and keeps insulin in check!  Think of it this way.   Our digestive tract is a complicated system.  In anticipation of food, our liver and gallbladder secrete bile, our stomach secretes acid, and our pancreas secretes digestive enzymes.   All these secretions work, together with the food, in a complicated symphony of muscle contractions and chemicals reactions that help us do everything from absorb nutrients to maintain a good pH balance.  This complicated system does not like sneak attacks, especially with poor snack choices.  

2) The more frequently we eat a particular food, the more likely we can be to develop an allergy and/or sensitivity to it.   I've written more about this concept here.  This chart arranges it so that you get a break from any particular foodl for two days.  

3) The things we eat for snacks are often not as healthful as the things we eat as meals.    

If all of this information raises a lot of questions for you, it might be time to visit your naturopathic doctor to talk about digestion!