Sonoma Diet and the Mediterranean Diet - Sonoma/Med Weekly Thread Nov 2-8, 2009

New week ladies. We seem to be getting into a good groove here. Let's keep it up. Things tend to slow down a bit on this site around the holidays so let's try to stick with it and support each other through the season of eating.

I forgot to take the leftover candy to work today but I actually completely forgot about it in the other room in my house which is amazing to me. Usually if I have candy in my house it is calling my name. I will make every effort to get it out of here tomorrow before my good luck wears out.

B: Shredded wheat n bran with banana, low fat milk, sugar free latte
L: Wrap made with tandoori chicken, mixed greens, roasted red peppers, yogurt cucumber sauce, apple
S: trail mix
D: ricotta and mint frittata, tossed salad with raspberry vinagrette.

I'm not a big fan of frittatas. This one hasn't changed my mind but it is better than the pineapple-teriyaki beef I made the other night so I'll stick with it for a couple days.

Hey, where are all my Sonoma/Mediterranean buddies?

Hey Mary,

Not deserting you!! I'm here for the long haul, even if it means confessing to some dreadful diet sins along the way.. Which may include...
Yesterday's menu:
B: Bowl oatmeal, honey and raisins
S: Sunflower seeds and raisins
L: Went out with a friend, Baked potato with curry mayo, bounty and banoffee ice cream
D: Celebratory dinner with boyfriend who got a new job, Risotto with port wine and melon, pint beer.

Tonight will not be much better, am going for dinner with a friend, we planned it ages ago and I'm pretty sure if I backed out he'd kill me. To be honest, this week will not be my most shining of moments, I've already been out for dinner twice, I'm going out tonight, and I'm having friends round for dinner on Thurs.. so the following week will be a detox of sorts.

So far today's menu is -
B: Bowl oatmeal, honey and raisins
S: Sunflower seeds and raisins
L: Bowl oatmeal
D: will update later.

Yeah I'm kinda the same about fritattas, not the most exciting meal, nice to try something different now and then though which is why I made it.. I make some things from a book called Mediterranean Harvest, its a lovely book, its tailored for vegetarians though so no fish or meat recipes. Glad you tried my recipe!! :)
Here's to a good week!!

Hi Sarah. Glad your back. It gets really boring talking to yourself, LOL
I had to go to a social function related to work but I did really well. I had a snack before I went so I wouldn't be hungry and I had a couple carefully chosen hor d'oerve's or however you spell them. I don't think I did any significant damage. Then I came home and had another snack.

B: greek yogurt with raspberries, blueberries and granola, sugar free latte
L: wrap with tandoori chicken, mixed salad greens, roasted red peppers, yogurt cucumber sauce in a whole wheat low carb tortilla, apple
S: trail mix
at the social event-a couple crab stuffed mushroom caps and a little mexican dip with a couple chips
S: slice of whole grain bread with almond butter

Hello! I thought I would join in here as a friend pointed out that I am basically following the Mediterranean diet on my weight loss journey. I have been reading up on this way of eating and I agree that I have been following a self made plan that has a lot of similarities.

I eat mainly fresh veggies and fruit, seafood, yogurt, gluten free grains and pasta, olive oil and spices. I avoid processed foods and I enjoy a couple glasses of wine here and there throughout the month. I am hoping to educate myself more about this form of eating.

Please feel free to join us Hydra.

I got thrown a curve ball today but it was my own fault. I go to a nursing home to see patients every Wed. I alternate nursing homes. The one I went to today, I have nowhere to eat so I have to go out for lunch. I usually go to the same restaurant and order the same Greek salad with chicken every time but today I decided to try this new restaurant. From the name it sounded like a Bistro/Bar kind of place........well, it was a mexican restaurant. I tried to limit the damage. I ordered steak fajitas and only ate half of what was served. I tried to estimate what that was in my food journal and it still comes out to about 800 calories! Can you imagine if I ate the whole thing! Holy cow! I won't be going there again.

B: 2 eggs scrambled with canadian bacon, green onions, cheddar cheese in half a pita, sugar free latte
L: the dreaded steak fajitas, rice and beans (I only ate half of these too), unsweet tea
D: smoothie made with greek yogurt, banana, whey protein, frozen mixed berries.

I went to pilates tonight too so hopefully that helped to compensate for the steak fajita fiasco. You know I haven't had wine in several nights. I need to work on that tomorrow!

I have been reading up on the Sonoma/Med. diet and I like what I see. It is very close to how I am eating. I have been looking through the recipes here and I have amended my grocery list a bit to try some of the chicken and the pasta recipes. I also plan to order The Sonoma Diet book. I found it used online for just a few dollars.

Welcome Hydra!

Yesterday's menu.. slept late so no brekkie -
L: Sliced sweet potato baked in the oven with sweet paprika and olive oil
D: Risotto with mushrooms
about 3 glasses of red.

Tonight I'm cooking dinner for friends here, the menu shouldn't be too damaging, thinking of doing a vegetarian chickpea curry. The visiting couple are bringing dessert and the wife is making it herself so I can't poilitely decline it. Have no idea what it will be but knowing her it will NOT be low cal LOL. Will also have a couple of glasses, probably italian white.. Looking forward to a detox next week, this week I've already gone up a couple of pounds on the scale.

Have a great day!

Hydra-I think you will like the Sonoma book. It provides a really structured approach to the Mediterranean diet if that is something that would benefit you. How much of what to eat how many times to day, etc.

My scale didn't punish me too badly this morning from the steak fajitas. We are doing a little challenge on the Sonoma site and weigh in on Fridays so we'll see how it looks tomorrow morning. Right now I wouldn't recommend paying for it. Not much going on there.

Ok. Here's my menu for today.

B: Oatmeal with honey, raisins, walnuts, sugar free latte
L: wrap made with chicken, lettuce, roasted red peppers, yogurt cucumber sauce and a whole wheat low carb tortilla
D: shrimp and pine nut spaghetti, tossed salad with raspberry vinagrette, glass of white zinfindel.

B: Coco-Wheats with milk, and less sugar than usual, half grapefruit, coffee with 1% milk.

L: leftover lentil-rice-cabbage casserole

S: 1 bite-size Tootsie Roll, 1 Diet Coke, 2 handfuls of trail mix

D: chipotle salad (lettuce, fajita vegetables, black beans, fresh salsa, hot salsa, guacamole), apple

S: glass of pinot gris, 1 disk of Babybel lite cheese

Here's my menu for yesterday -
Had friends coming for dinner, so as you do, spent the whole day cleaning the house and shopping, so basically I never ate all day until I came back.
Early evening - Piece of bread with cheese to stave off hunger while cooking
Dinner - My share of a cheese platter with white bread as starter, main was a very spicy homemade veg curry with white rice.
As predicted, the visiting friends brought a sky high in cals dessert, ricotta cannolis, so had one of those too.
Also had about four glasses of white.

So thankfully any dinners etc that were planned are now all over and I can get back into a normal eating pattern.

Night shifts this weekend, menu for tonight is -
Early evening - Boiled zucchini & Brown rice
S - some almonds
Later on - Fillet of salmon and brown rice
Early morning - Bowl of oatmeal with sultanas.

Will be hammering the green tea and water tonight to try to detox after the last few days' overindulgence!

Oh, the cannolis! I love cannolis.

B: coco wheats with milk & sugar, coffee with milk
L: panera multi-grain bagel with honey-walnut cream cheese - 450 calories!
S: trick-or-treat sized kit kat, diet coke
D: chana masala tv dinner
S: personal-sized taco-style pizza (homemade - whole wheat pita, tomato sauce, beans, salsa, cheese)

I need more fruits and vegetables today.

Here's my menu for today.

B: smoothie made with greek yogurt, banana, frozen mixed berries, whey protein, SF davinci syrup, sugar free latte
L: shrimp and pine nut spaghetti, apple
D: pork tenderloin with sweet & salty glaze (this is an asian recipe), millet & quinoa with sunflower seeds, broccoli, cauliflower and carrots. No wine tonight.

Here's my menu for tonight (night shift again)

Early evening - a sort of curry - a red pepper, a chili, ginger, an onion and peas cooked in chopped tomatoes with cumin, tumeric, coriander, chili, and curry (i have a cold! hoping all the spices might help to blast it) and brown rice.
Later evening - Same
Early morning - Bowl oatmeal with sultanas and sunflower seeds
Snacks - handful almonds

Hey Sarah. Looks like things have settled down for you again. I guess sometimes I'm glad my life isn't so exciting. I do have to ask how you came up with a goal weight of 154 lbs? It seems such a random number.

B: 2 eggs scrambled with canadian bacon, green onions, a little shredded cheddar in half a pita, sugar free latte
L: Barley and black bean salad, 2 clementines
D: Pork tenderloin with sweet and salty glaze, millet and quinoa with sunflower seeds, broccoli, cauliflower and carrots with a little butter, glass of white zinfindel and dessert! Half of a roasted apple with yogurt, walnuts and dried cherries. This is yummy and only has 100 calories and completely compliant with my diet.

Can you believe it, I can have dessert once in a while. I'm planning one for Thanksgiving too-pears poached in red wine. I think having dessert once in a while will help me stick to this long term-I will feel less deprived.

Hey Mary, it is a random number. I guess I didnt give it as much thought as I should have but at the time I was thinking it would be a great achievement to at least lose 30lbs. If I manage to go lower than that then I certainly wont be complaining, its not like I want to get to that weight and just plateau! But we'll see.. its 28 lbs to lose now.. if I could steadily lose 2 a week then it does seem quite attainable. Just have to try to keep on track and be realistic with myself. Work, especially night shifts, is good, because I'm stuck here in the office for long hours so I make time to prepare my food and its easy to stay on track. My days off are my downfall so thats what I need to keep an eye on. I'm hoping that next week will mostly be a good effort, allowing for Tuesday night where I'm going out for the bf's birthday. Will just be a meal and a few glasses of wine so nothing too crazy..

I like the sound of that dessert... Did you just halve an apple and bake it in the oven for a certain amount of time? I'd like to try that one. Bet it would be good with coconut milk too.

B: coco wheats with milk and sugar, coffee with milk
L: chickpea-kale curry with rice, 3 small-but-rich cookies
D: (walked around an art event all day, so it was a bunch of crackers, vegetables, dips, fruit, cheese, etc.)

Sarah-are you vegan?

Hey Mary, no not vegan, I don't eat meat, but I do eat fish. I try to steer away from eggs and dairy but I don't rule them out in small amounts.

Did the vegan thing before but I had to give it a rest because living in Malta with limited grocery shopping compared to Dublin, it was far too limiting and I was relying on a lot of processed stuff which became unhealthy. This lead me to whole foods, which then lead me to the Mediterranean diet, as it's quite easy to follow since I'm living in the Mediterranean. Also it's realistic and healthy and something that can be followed for life.

Okay, here's the roasted apple recipe. This is a Sonoma Diet recipe.

3/4 cup plain low fat yogurt
Nonstick olive oil cooking spray
1 tsp lemon juice
1 tsp honey
1/4 tsp ground cinnamon
1/8 tsp kosher salt
2 Granny Smith apples, peeled, cored, and halved
2 tbsp chopped halzlenuts, toasted
1 tbsp snipped dried cherries

1 Make yogurt cheese if your into that. I just used greek yogurt straight out of the container and that worked fine

2. Preheat oven to 350 Lightly coat a small baking sheet with nonstick cooking spray; set aside. In a small bowl combine lemon juice, honey, cinnamon, and kosher salt. Brush lemon juice mixture on apple halves. Place apple halves, cut side down, on prepared sheet.

3. Bake about 30 minutes or until the apple halves are lightly browned and tender. Transfer apple halves to a cutting board. Thinly slice each half. Divide among 4 serving plates, serve with yogurt, sprinkle with nuts and dried cherries.

I only did one apple cause I live alone and that worked fine. I put the extra half in the fridge and will reheat it in the microwave probably tonight. I also had to bake it for less time or it would have been mush. I used walnuts instead of hazlenuts because I had them on hand. Very tasty. And definately filled that "sweet treat" spot.

Thanks Mary, I'm gona try that one over the next couple of days, I've a real sweet tooth so its great to have some nice recipes that are healthy. I'm keen on this Sonoma book. Is it good? I wonder if there's a vegetarian one..

Here's my menu for tonight -
Early evening - Bowl lentils made with tomato and spices
Later evening - Same
Early morning - Bowl oatmeal with apple and sunflower seeds
Snacks - Some almonds

The Sonoma books would probably not be a good buy for you for recipes. They certainly have vegetarian and fish recipes but that isn't the bulk of them. The Sonoma Diet book is very well written in terms of the nutrition part as well as giving a structure if you need that-how many servings of fruit, grain, how much starchy vegetable vs nonstarchy vegetable to eat.

Petra, those roasted apples sound sooo yummy! Thanks for sharing.

B: coco wheats with milk and sugar, tea
L: chickpea-kale curry and rice
S: corn tortilla with refries, fresh salsa, taco sauce, mozz cheese
D: colcannon (potatoes, kale, cabbage, garlic, onion, olive oil) and some shiraz

I live on the Gulf Coast and we are under a Hurricane Watch. Not sure what's gonna happen over the next couple of days so if I disappear for a little bit, don't worry, I'll be back when it passes. Here's my menu for today.

B: Shredded wheat n bran, banana, low fat milk, sugar free latte
L: Barley and black bean salad
S: indian spiced nuts
D: summer squash and bok choy gratin, mixed grains with cashews, glass of chardonnay. Will have that left over apple half tonight. Yumm.

Also went to yoga class today and got some unwanted exercise getting ready for a possible hurricane/tropical storm.

OK Mary, take care!