When you all have a pasta for dinner, whether with ground beef or with grilled chicken, what kind of sauce do you use? I prefer red. Do you just use your own tomato recipe and count it as a veggie? I am also looking at the Contadina Puree can which is 0 fat 4 g carb 1 g sugar in 1/4 cup. Seems like that should be okay, what do you think? I suppose I would have to season it.

Wildflower,

I prefer red sauce that I make myself. I only count the sauce as maybe 1/2 a veggie, so I always have 1.5-2 more cups of some other veggie.

While we are talking about pasta, I understand from my coach that we're supposed to have 7 oz. of complex carbs at dinner. That comes out to like over a cup of cooked pasta! Yikes! I've kept it down to 1/2 cup at a time just 'cause I'm scared to eat too much. That seems plenty to me. How much do you eat usually?

Also, that means the complex carbs could come from whole wheat pasta, brown rice, corn, potatoes, carrots, beets (or other starchy veggie), right? So many rules, so little time...

Karen

I had sashimi the other night and for me it fits the lowfat recommendations for dinners.
(Except for tempura fried in oil ) Its clean protein. Once in a while the white rice is fine...just not too much. We are allowed carbs at night. Get a salad and/or miso soup with it and I think you'd be just fine on regular eating day. If its a free day then go for the dumplings and tempura sake and whatever and do your ph.1 the next day.

I'm wondering about exercising during maintenance - I went to the gym this morning for the first time in 3 years, it's my second day on Phase 3 (LOVING the breakfast, but it's weird to feel hunger again ).

Do those of you in maintenance add an extra protein when you exercise as is recommended in Phase 1/2? I am thinking that in Phase 3 it would be a good idea as it's still pretty low calorie.

What do others do?

1 1/4 cups rice milk
1 tablespoons white sugar
2 tablespoons canola oil
1 teaspoon salt
4 cups spelt flour
2 1/2 teaspoons bread machine yeast
Directions

Place ingredients in the pan of the bread machine in the order recommended by the manufacturer. Select cycle; press Start.
Nutritional Information

Amount Per Serving Calories: 144 | Total Fat: 2.6g | Cholesterol: 0mg

Well, I haven't gotten so far as to actually eat it yet because my first Maintenance day isn't until Tuesday but I was thinking around 40 carbs or less. Is that close? I need to study up a little better on the simple/complex carb thing but I saw there is a small list in the end of Tran's book. So far my plans include about 2 oz dry of a whole wheat rotini, maybe that is 1 cup after cooking?

BCgirl- forgot to add that I used the quick cycle but it turned into quite a dense loaf so may try the basic cycle next time.
Had pumpkin soup last night and enjoyed it so much, I made a butternut one tonight... I cut up the squash into 2 inch strips, added red onion tossed in 2 tsp grapeseed oil mixed with pumpkin spice and roasted for 30 min @ 425. Peel off the skins from the squash puree it with either chicken or vegetable broth ( I used chicken with the pumpkin, vegetable with the butternut) anywhere from 1-5 Cups depending on how thick of a soup you like. I used an immersion blender one night to puree and just my regular blender the next- both work well. yummy.
Like you, I find myself cooking and preparing more than ever before. Figure convenience got me into quite a fix and planning, preparation, cooking and some little silver packets got me out of it. And of course all the support on here- the recipes & advice were invaluable...
If those things can get the weight off, they can keep it off. Cheers to maintenance!

Thanks Capricious for the bread advice, I'll post when I try it . I'm still on phase 3 so won't bake a full loaf for a while. ALL I can think about is my breakfast for tomorrow - phase 1 and 2 I hardly thought about food .

Wildflower or Karen: have you tried the Miracle noodles or the shirtaki noodles? I have been curious about them.

Caprious: Thanks for those soup recipes. I love pumpkin and butternut squash. I used to make a mock pumpkin pie..You take a small package of sf vanilla pudding and mix it with 1 cup of water. Then stir in the can of pumpkin puree. Then add a tsp or so of spices. Chill. It does taste like pumpkin pie.

The drawback is the sf pudding..It uses aspartame.
I looked for puddings that do not have this. The only one I found was one with cornsyrup. This does not seem healthy either.

PixlKitty.. Thanks for the tech support. Look for me as Kanoesunset. There were too many Mailes on that site. Off to look for spices on Penzey. I like the idea of finding a no sugar taco..so I can be lazy and not make my own!

Later.. found all of your breakfast entries and printed them. Thanks very much..This was very helpful!

I've been using the shirataki noodles for a couple weeks now since my coworker's been picking them up for me at a store near her house. They have a horrid fishy smell when you open the package, but after much rinsing and draining, they end up pretty good in a stir fry or chicken noodle soup. My husband and daughter even eat them.

I use the shirtaki and yam noodles exclusively now. You must rinse them, boil them for 2 minutes, cool, then dry. I have even used them in cold tomato salad. Tomato, onioin, fresh basil, vinegar and EVOO + the noodles.

I prefer them, I purchase them at the Asian market and also at the health food store.

If you need a visual of how far you have come, go to the pet food dept. at your grocery store and heft a 50 lb. bag of dog food.

Mamarix1: That is too funny about the 50 pound dog food..However, it will make me smile every time I go to the grocery store. I can look at those bags and feel good. Thanks for the info on the noodles.

Pauley: Also thanks for the noodle information. I have heard they are good.