Thx Great Lakes. Your ideas match quite well with the info I discovered yesterday while researching several raw food blogs, etc. Very useful.

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My almond milk experiment was definitely successful. It's yummy. I ended up soaking the almonds overnight (actually they'd been soaking since 4pm yesterday) and put them in the blender this am with filtered water that I'd put in the fridge last night. I had 2/3 cup of almond, and used 2.5 cups of water. I blended until I thought it was 'done' as much as it was doing to do, and then I slowly poured the blender contents through my Jack LaLanne juicer. It worked perfectly! Frothy, fresh almond milk... and about a cup of almond 'pulp' that was strained out and caught in the juicer's pulp bin. Especially at present, until I'm in maintenance (and probably even then) I prefer to keep my almond milk strained, in order to keep the calorie/fat content low. I'll use the almond pulp residue some other way.

I put the 'drained' almond milk back in the blender and added a touch of sea salt and stevia, also a splash of vanilla extract. Yummy! Right now I'm enjoying a Cafe au Lait made with 1/2 almond milk/half boiling water. Really good.

And the almond pulp is drying in my oven at low heat, on a cookie sheet lined with parchment paper. I found a recipe yesterday where someone uses this almond pulp to make crackers - I'll give it a shot, once I'm in Maintenance - still a week to go. http://www.elanaspantry.com/vegan-almond-pulp-crackers/

BTW - scale gave me a weight loss this am of almost a lb. Yesterday was an active day though, and looking at my FatSecret.com log I see it was a pretty low sodium one too. So any water retention must have flushed out pre-WI.

Have a great day everyone.

Oh, btw... my flax wrap with scrambled eggs with the apple slices & ricotta/yogourt spread as dessert was pretty good too. I'd make it again.

Edited to add: The almond pulp took about 2 hrs to dry in my oven at 200 degrees. There's about 1 cup of what resembles almond 'crumbs'.

Wow this almond milk sounds great. Can't wait to try. Have been struggling with what to do with my coffee now that I am not doing shakes. Have to admit I am still using splashes of protein chocolate drink as my creamer, but want to try the almond milk next.

Thank you LizzR for the recipes. Today I used your lemon ricotta pancakes recipe, but just used muesli and whole wheat flour instead as it is what I had. Also put my strawberries right on the pancakes and cooked those a little too. Used cream cheese and WF syrup and all very very good. It is a pancake week for me! Thanks again.

I'm not a big fan of regular breakfast food and am a big fan of an easy RTD shake. So the big breakfast is a bit of a challenge for me. I don't want to reintroduce wheat right away. I started Phase 3 yesterday and this is my breakfast this week:

1/2 cup Oatmeal (old-fashioned, before cooking)
4 oz 2% cottage cheese
4 oz chicken breast
2/3 cup strawberries

Total:452 calories, 51 gm protein, 38.6 gm carbs, 10.1 gm Fat

(I tried to copy my Excel data with all the details, but couldn't maintain any sort of readable formatting.)

On page 5 on this thread, LizRR posted a recipe for Banana Oatmeal muffins. I had these for breakfast this morning with a 1/2 cup of greek yogurt. It is a huge plate of food so I just had to take a picture.

Starting Phase 3 next weekend. I've got a few breakfast questions:

1. Should I get reduced fat peanut butter or can I get it fresh ground from Whole Foods? I want to try one tablespoon for my protein.
2. Can I use the Morningstar Farms Vegetarian crumbles for my protein?
3. Greek yogurt: should this be fat free or reduced fat or regular? Is 1/2 cup about right?
4. Is there another sweetener I can use for these banana oatmeal muffins?

I'm not usually a breakfast person, so I'm thinking of ways to make this easy. The muffin/yogurt idea sounds great. So does the granola/yogurt/fruit + peanut butter. I'll do eggs on the weekends, but on weekdays I need something quick or prepared in advance, like muffins.

Wow, this is a big step! I'm glad IP has our phase off gradually!!

Thanks so much for all of your ideas. This thread is wonderful!

Joysh, so exciting that you are starting P3 soon. I agree it is good to have stuff prepared in advance. Last night I made a pumpkin pie and 2 cran/blueberry custards so they are in my fridge ready to eat. They are actually less work for me than measuring out yogurt, fruit and granola in the morning.

For greek yogurt, I use a non-fat version. Depending on what else I'm having it is usually 3/4-1 cup for breakfast and 1/2 cup at snacks for P4.

I don't use a lot of nut butters yet but I would go with whatever version you enjoy the most and make it fit into your meal plan. If you have non-fat yogurt and fruit and a low fat bread then you can easily get away with the fresh made full fat version.

I can't comment on the morningstar crumbles because I can't get that brand here but if it fits on your planning sheet, then why not?

For sweeteners, I cross between Stevia and Splenda depending on what else I've been eating. I have a Stevia powder that uses a tiny scoop which is the equivalent of 1 tsp Splenda so I adjust the amount accordingly. You should be able to use which ever product you prefer in all of these recipes.

P.s. later this week I'm going to experiment with a muffin recipe using blueberries or cranberries instead of the banana. Then there is also strawberries and peaches to try (trying to use up the fruit I put in the freezer last summer to make room for fresh).

When it comes to P3 breakfasts - you can do pretty much what you want, as long as the numbers all work out on the P3 worksheet. For me, using full fat PB would add too much fat so I use PB2 to get the flavor. I use Fat Free yogurt and fat free cream cheese so that I don't have to worry about adding to the fat count (especially if I'm having breakfast meat). You can have whatever portion of dairy will keep you under 120 calories, I use Oikos fat free yogurt and can have 3/4 cup to stay within the guidelines.

My fast breakfast looks like this:
3 links Harvestland Maple & Apple breakfast sausage, or 3 slices canadian bacon

3/4 cup plain fat free greek yogurt, 1 cup sliced strawberries, 1/4 cup Bear Naked Fit granola

Fast and easy!

Bump

Scorbett, I love this breakfast!! I'll probably have a tablespoon of my fresh-ground peanut butter instead of the sausage, though.

I went shopping yesterday and bought my foods for my Phase 3 breakfasts. Also bought some things at Whole Foods in Houston when I was there last week, so I'm good to go. It felt super weird buying strawberries, cheese, and yogurt. For 9 months I've only shopped the perimeter of my supermarket: the vegetable area and the meat area, with one walk down the aisle for water. Now I'm walking around the entire store. Very, very strange.

I plan to begin Phase 3 on Saturday. What an adventure!

Thanks to everyone for the great ideas and recipes on this thread!

Oh - forgot to ask, is there a link to the Phase 3 breakfast planning sheet? I didn't get one from my coach.

Hello,
Lots of great info here, thanks!
I'm officially P3 tomorrow morning! Woohoo!
Alittle scary shopping and buying fruit,yogurt,bread. Seems like its
been along time. I decided to start with whole wheat bagel thin egg mcmuffin
with berries and nonfat greek yogurt. But I will definetly be using some
of the recipes I have seen here, gotta keep it simple for a few days!
Did anyone feel different after eating P3 breakfast? Just got so used
to my smoothie every morning I was fine with that, LOL!
OK thanks again!!

D

I always feel satisfied and full until lunchtime. I was always starved on P1. Couldn't wait until lunch. It's a nice change. I'll bet you'll love P3 breakfasts. I haven't given them up though I'm on maintenance.

Good luck and enjoy P3.

Molly

Thanks MOLLY!!!!

D

I love my P3 breakfasts which I'm surprised about as I never used to eat breakfast. I've been doing Greek yogurt, berries, egg on a whole wheat thin English muffin and I love it. At first it seemed like a lot of food but I've gotten used to it. It does take more planning then the shake but that's ok.

I'm all for keeping it simple! I was a wee bit overwhelmed with all of the recipes people were posting as I'm usually strapped for time, and cooking isn't really my forte - nor is it something I really enjoy, so the prospect of spending my Sundays getting food ready for the week wasn't something I was looking forward to! Once I realized that I could easily meet the requirements for the P3 breakfasts with an egg & sausage/ham/bacon sandwich along with fruit and yogurt, I was set! Makes it very easy, plus it's not an overwhelming amount of food.

As far as for feeling different, I'm finding I'm not freezing all the time like I was, and I'm also feeling a little more tired in the late afternoon (which was more the way I felt pre-IP, vs. feeling wired all day).

Same here!! It's so nice to not be ravenous in the late morning, waiting for lunch!