Welcome aboard Berkshire Girl.

I have to agree on the roasted veggies. How did I cook for so many years and not roast broccoli and cauli? Also, I've found the key to my mashed cauliflower is getting the moisture out. Roast it at 325 for an hour and you have nice and dry cauli for mashing. The high temp is much better for straight eating, but my mashed cauli is really a hit with potato fans since doing it this way.

I'm fasting, so I need to stay away from these discussions! *drooling*

The meatza was fabulous! I just googled for basic instructions and then used mushrooms, olives and pepperoni. I will definitely make this often once we get our beef. I should probably plan on canning my own pizza sauce too.

Susan, not yet! :) I'm doing pretty much Atkins right now... but I am thinking about cutting back on the cheese. Oh cheese I love you, but you make me puffy! :dance: (that was the puffy cheese dance, ha!)

I tried to adhere to Medifast again, but I just can't deal with the powdered food stuffs anymore. I also don't want to do a lot of carbs, I've noticed my asthma gets much worse if I eat bread especially, and my joints hurt more. Overall body inflammation, I'm guessing... So I'm curious about this plan and how it differs from Atkins. I look forward to devouring the book! :D

Thank you, BibBob! :wave:

Welcome BerkshireGrl! I'm a newbie to this thread too, although I have been eating this way for awhile, just didn't have a name for it.

I've never been much of a cook, so the switch to "real" foods has been an eye-opener for me! I have tried to cut out most processed foods including bars, powders, "packages" of stuff unless I read on the jar/can/package that they don't have any added weird ingredients. I'm not 100% on this, but I'm doing so much better than with the fake stuff. I think my body was starved for real food.

I used to live in the Berkshires myself 20 years ago ... it is indeed beautiful there.

That's the exact same ingredients I used for roasted veggies I do in the oven except I use sea salt... Is there a big difference between sea salt and kosher? I see a lot of recipe asking for kosher salt but have never bought it.
Kathy, have you ever tried it with frozen brussels sprouts? I buy the frozen when the fresh are not nice looking.

Food/carbs has been good. Last night my g/f came over and we had wine and almonds, I have no chips, crackers, or junk in the house, but no one complained ... The scale was slightly down this morning too :goodscale:

It's a dull day out this morning we wanted to open the pool today but not sure if that's going to happen it looks like rain, tomorrow's suppose to be nice though... So I guess I'll clean the cave :lol: off I go... Have a great day everyone :wave:

We went to our first farmers market of the season this morning. I'm sorry I bought vegetables in the grocery yesterday. The prices were the same ... for local.

We found a source for holistic pork! And it's only about 6 or 7 miles from here. We bought two different kinds of sausage and pepperettes. It'd be nice to get a box of stuff from them when I see how much freezer space our beef is going to take up.

Have a nice afternoon everyone. I'm off to work for 3 pm.

Great tip! I've tried cauliflower pizza crust, but not mashed yet. I'm going to have to go by the store tomorrow.

I think that kosher salt is usually more coarse than regular table salt, but similar (not from the sea). Real sea salt is gray and moist. It has the most minerals in it and the best flavor (in my opinion).

I don't know what sort of sea salt you have, but kosher is generally pretty coarse (like PP has said) and it's a bit sweet as well. It a sweeter tasting salt than other salts. I heart kosher salt.

I can't imagine using regular salt on my food anymore. Of all things to be snobby about! :dizzy:

Ya know how we have those little CW notions that hover around in our minds? Salt is one of mine. But since I'm rediscovering the tastiness of fats, I'm not even tempted. I think I can live without salt. I know it's in stuff (even the holistic sausage I bought yesterday) but I'm not adding any. And I'm not worrying about it any more.

Whenever I get around to cooking anything fancier than meat and vegetables, I'm going to come picking your brains, you know ;)

As for today ... I'm going to walk back and forth to church, grab a few groceries on my way home, pack my lunch and go to work again. Nothing too exciting.

My fast lasted 32 hours and was broken by almonds, of course. I ate three primal meals yesterday, and one probably had too much cheese in it, but it was good. Crustless pizza. Just put the tomato sauce in the bottom a pie dish, top with a mixture of mozzarella and provolone, then top that with some pepperoni, bell pepper, onions, or whatever you like and bake til the top looks like pizza. Eat with a spoon. This was very satisfying and low carb. I'm pretty sure it will be a staple snacker. I also did the cubed chicken with taco seasonings then stirred into some sour cream. This is another very satisfying dish alongside or on top of a basic salad. Third meal was an omelet with leftover roast beef cooked into it. I feel like I ate like a king yesterday, but the carb count couldn't be over 50.

I'm 16 hours into another IF and bbqing steaks tonight for a small family gathering.

Here's something Primal I'm about to do. I'm going rattlesnake hunting. If I get one, it will be on the grill tonight. :)

Also, I worry about salt too. But I cannot help using more than I should. I hope it is just flawed conventional wisdom because I have been making excellent beef jerky with too much salt that will keep me away from the nuts. I wonder if the salt is drawing me to the nuts? hmmm...

After reading the info from Good Calories Bad Calories, I'm not all that worried about salt *except* that it makes me eat more. I have cut back because I want to be able to better regulate my food intake (salty snacks are hard to resist) but give up salting my brussel sprouts? No way! :p Toooo yummy.

Thank you ALL for your warm welcomes!
 

:dizzy: :thanks:

Bob I can't wait to hear if you barbequed Rattlesnake!

I hope you're ALL enjoying your weekends.

I went back and read this entire thread. I think you're all on a great track. Inspiring. And as a group there seems to be a great range of personalised approaches. It's a postive place to be. Thanks so much for sharing!

I'm in NZ here, so it's Monday, and almost Winter. I envy you all coming into summer! My plan is to knuckle down over winter and to make some serious in-roads into my extra weight. My littlest just started school so I have more time for ME. I haven't weighed myself for hmmmm 18 months and I estimate I have about 80 - 90 pounds to lose. Oh :o or maybe it's more?
I like the idea of weighing once at the start of each month..that's if I can get up the courage to be confronted with my starting number! *Scary*

I cook from scratch and I already eat a lot of good stuff (home made ferments for probiotics, bone broth for minerals, coconut oil, grass fed or organic meat, lots of low carb veges)...just too much of the not so good stuff in addition. :o :o Ho Hum.
My kids eat exceptionally well, with hardly any not so good stuff. I need to look after myself as well as I do them and I'll be on the right track....ha, always easier said than done!

The plan is to be 90 - 100% by June 1st.
This week I want to try...
:coconut oil in my coffee, and t cut back to one cup a day (from 3).
:those yummy sounding roasted brussels sprouts!
:to cut back on unnecessary "extras".
:to find the courage to get on the scales.

Best to all,
Adele