I had just been diagnosed with high cholesterol and put on lipitor on 31 October. ACK. So I did what any normal 50 yr old woman would do; I flew to Vegas. Jenni, Ang and Mikey met me at the airport and the hilarity began.
I did take a good, hard look at what menu choices I would have normally considered and made better decisions when we dined. I listened intently to what Mikey had to say about Paleo and the positive impact it had made on her system. While the Paleo nutrition path sounded intriguing and close to what I needed to do, some things just didn't feel quite right for me.
We had a glorious weekend. I love them. I miss them.
Upon my return to CO and my newly acknowledged high-cholesterol self, I picked up my old copy of Eat Right 4 Your Type. I devoured the pages on what it means to be an "O". All the symptons I was experiencing coinciding with all the wrong dietary choices I had been making were CLEARLY laid out for me in black & white. Time to get serious.
And I did. I was militant. And frustrated. And stuck. And scared. I would eat the same thing for 6 meals, because it was all "clean" and I wasn't comfortable exploring. Yet. (That's another post.)
Fast forward 9 weeks to a check-up blood draw. I realized I had never asked for my numbers in Oct. I got them and it scared the crap out of me. I hadn't cleared this diet with my Doctor. I had gone on instinct. She was agreeable that the things I cut out were all good things to cut it (with an undertone of "if you have indeed done what you say have done") Well, I had done. And it worked.
But it took them 5 days to get results back to me and I felt like a ticking time-bomb. What if I had totally sabotaged my already compromised heart?
In 9.5 weeks, I dropped my cholesterol over 100 points - with the help of this diet and lipitor. I could go off the meds. Immediately.
I gave up: wheat, corn, cow dairy, pork, white potatoes, avocado, cauliflower, lentils and lots of legumes, coffee, hard liquor & white wine. (What's left, you ask? That's another post) Many of these items have given me profound epicurean joy in the past. They were, in fact, messin' up my system.
It's been hard. Some days sad and frustrating and some days rather expensive. I've scraped $8 of gluten free flour into the garbage because my pizza dough experiment didn't work. I don't like the taste/texture of gf bread/baked goods/pizza. So I gave them up.
This Summer my friend Linda "pinned" me with a recipe she had found on Pinterest: GF chocolate chip zucchini bread. I kinda ignored it til she gave me a bite at her house one afternoon. Amazeballs (Jenni!) I found the blog: Gluten Free on a Shoestring, found the recipe and made it 3 days later. First try, not bad. Not bad at all; in fact, delicious. I've made it a number of times since then and tweak it a bit more each time. Last night I made a variation with fresh Palisade Peaches, Fresh Blueberries and few Blackberries and a handful of dates. YUM.
I'll write more about this new life I have, eating an "O Life"; but for now, I'll just stop boring you and share the recipe.
Proceed with caution: I'm not a Baker. And the GF Baking game is very new to me. But these turned out wonderful.
Jilly's GF Fresh Peach-Blueberry Muffins (O compliant)
preheat oven to 325ยบ
Spray 2 12-muffin pans
whisk together:
1 c Pamela's GF Baking & Pancake Mix
1 c Pamela's GF Bread Mix
1/2 c Almond Flour
1/2 c Oats - I used Quaker quick
1 t baking soda
1 t baking powder
1 t salt
2 t cinnamon
1 c granulated sugar
1 c dark brown sugar
set aside.
In a food processor whizz together:
1/2 c chopped dates
1 soft banana
3 eggs
1 c olive oil
2 T soft butter
1 T vanilla
fresh zest of 1 lemon
add:
3 peeled and chunked fresh peaches
1/4 c blackberries
pulse 6 times.
Fold wet ingredients into dry ingredients along with 6 oz fresh blueberries. (I would have also included 1/2 c chopped toasted pecans, but Mother Hubbard's Cupboard was bare)
Scoop into prepared muffin pans.
Bake for 20-25 mins...til done. :-)
Turn out onto racks to cool.
YUM.
