Ruth's GI Diary

[CaliSweden]

Congratulations on the pound loss! That's really great!

Ohhh shark fish n chips sounds so yummy. I really want to try it oneday. Also I'm a sucker for caramel popcorn, thank goodness they don't have them here.

 

[babliboobabu]

Well done on the loss, Ruth, that's great. arty0049:

From the other thread: Your Christmas story from last year was funny. Did you stress at the time? Or were you chilled about it? I think my stress levels would have hit the roof.

 

[irish molly]

Good for you on getting a loss despite not being totally GL . It goes to show that small changes make a difference. It's a good incentive for us all .

 

[ruth frances]

It was so ridiculous that it was funny rather than stressful! We have no family here, so it was only me, hubby, and a friend that was joining us after work, so that took the pressure off.

Food's been good the last few days post nights. Been off work which helps tremendously.

Fri:
B:weetbix berry bites with skim milk (felt too guilty to put the whole pack in the bin, even if I've disocvered they are almost entirely made of sugar...)

L: Campbells healthy wholegrain minestrone soup. Small handful of grapes.

D: Baked blue grenadier fish with lemon myrtle and macademia crust, with a largish scoop of mash (low GI carisma potatoes), broccolini, snow peas and green beans.

S: 1 bottle light beer. Mini double choc high protein bar.

Saturday:
B: Spelt flakes with agave cereal, with skim milk (had high hopes for these having found them in the supermarket the other day. But they taste like a cross between stale bran flakes and cardboard. Bah! )

L: Large lazy saturday brunch-style lunch of sweet potato veggie burger, scoop of baked beans, scrambled egg hash ( scrambled eggs, onion, peppers, small chunks of potato) and spinach salad.

D: Channa masala and aloo gobi (very little potato, mainly cauliflower) with barley/rice mix. Lots of leftovers for work lunches yay!

S: small handful of grapes, pot of Pure Blonde, bag of fruit nuggets.

 

[CaliSweden]

Food looks good. I sure wish we had Carisma potatoes here

 

[babliboobabu]

Food looks great. I really like the sound of your fish dinner. What is Pure Blonde? It sounds like hair dye!

 

[ruth frances]

he hee- it's a low carb beer. A bit more enjoyable than drinking hair dye.....

 

[ruth frances]

Another fairly good few food days. Have been at work the last couple of days (and the next few coming), but have tried to prepare by being super-organised and sorting out meals for brekkie, lunch AND dinner at the weekend. Spent most of sunday evening cooking ! Also made all of the mango chutney for chrimbo pressies - went down to south melbourne market on sunday afternoon and managed to score a box of 16 overipe mangoes (perfect for chutney ) for $4 !! And they had bananas at 50cents a kilo!!! So obviously had to buy quite a few bananas, and made some banana and walnut muffins (healthy version) to eat for breakfast in the week. I put most of them in the freezer to avoid the temptation of scoffing them all. I adapted my tried and loved banana bread recipe by using only 3/4 of the fat, and using lower-fat butter spread instead of pure butter, used 3/4 of the 'sugar', and substitued the sugar for sweetener and yellowbox honey, and using a mixture of wholemeal flour/LSA mix/oat bran for the flour requirements. They are yummy! Next time I might try using some apple sauce instead of the fat, but I'm not really sure how you substitute this- I know it's popular in the States, do you know Cali? Or anyone?

Sunday:
B: protein 1st cereal with yoghurt
L: pack of roasted chickpeas. small bottle of grapefruit juice with soda (did have sugar in) at market
S- banana walnut muffin (had to check they had come out ok )
D: felt cold sunday night so took the opportunity to make beef and barley stew, with small helping mash and lots of steamed veggies.
S- half a banana walnut muffin (shared with hubby)

Monday:
B: banana walnut muffin
L: leftover chickpea and cauliflower curry with small amount of rice/barley mix.
S: fruit nuggets. grapes
D: leftover stew with steamed veggies

Today:
B: banana walnut muffin
S: fruit nuggets
L: leftover stew turned into soup.
S: muffin
D: not had yet. probably mexican chicken casserole.

Looking back, there been a lot of muffin eating ! Good job they're the healthy verison And good job I put the bulk of them in the freezer

 

[CaliSweden]

Food looks great, and the muffins sound delicious. That's really cool that you made a healthy muffin

 

[irish molly]

Good on you, Ruth, for all that planning. It really pays off. The chutney sounds very tasty. Your muffins sound delish. I've used the pear muffin recipe from the recipe thread and found them lovely. Two of them make a good brekkie on the go.
Hopefully you'll get a good weigh in this week.

 

[babliboobabu]

Wow@ all the planning. It makes a big difference, doesn't it? Food is looking good and yay at muffin overload

I am so jealous that you have juicy juicy mangos - they are my favourite fruit. I heard that banana was pricy in Australia because of the floods earlier this year? Is that correct?

 

[Plumfoodie]

Ruth it sounds like you've gotten super organised, good for you!

Re the muffins, you can technically replace all the fat with applesauce pretty successfully in muffins, but in a low GI way of eating I'd be a bit cautious about this. The fat will help the muffin be digested more slowly thus lowering the overall GI - I worry that you might get a bit of a sugar burst from a muffin with all applesauce instead. Using part applesauce sounds like a good compromise on GI and calories!

 

[ruth frances]

the super organised-ness wont last , I know I'm just a deep down disorganised person, but I'm making the most of it whilst I can !
Interesting point on the applesauce Plum - although the walnuts have oodles of fat (of the good kind obviously) so that should help with that side of it, but I hadn't thought of the added sugar load. Does it have to be apple sauce or would apple puree work instead (much less sugar, and no added sugar)? And what does the apple sauce 'do' instead of the fat, is it a moistness thing?

Ashie- bananas have been known to reach the heady price of $15/kilo due to crop distruction ! 50c /kilo has to be the lowest I've ever seen them go for

 

[Plumfoodie]

The applesauce for baking in the States is actually apple purée as you describe it. I'd still be a little cautious about subbing 100%, the sugars in the apple will be more quickly available because of the purée process. It serves the same purpose as fat in the muffin which as far as I know is to do with keeping it from being rubbery and also preserving moisture.

 

[Plumfoodie]

Ruth, how are things?

 

[irish molly]

Ruth, I hope all is going well for you this week.

 

[ruth frances]

Sorry I've not been around - with the long hours and the studying, plus Christmas on top of that, I'm struggling to have the time to post here.
Merry Chrimbo to everyone : )

 

[Plumfoodie]

Hope you had a nice time over the hols Ruth and enjoyed it rather than everything being too hectic! Come back to us when you can, I'm sure we'll still be here!

 

[CaliSweden]

Welcome back Ruth!

 

[irish molly]

Happy new year, Ruth. Good luck with getting back on track with your food.