You’re wondering what we do with all those fruits and veggies, aren’t you? A month or so ago, a blogger friend mentioned the film, Fat, Sick and Nearly Dead. We watched it and then we watched another couple of similar films and we both looked at each other and said “We have to change the way we eat!”
I am not recommending that anyone do what we’re doing . . I’m just telling you what we’re doing. At the time we first watched Fat, Sick and Nearly Dead, we were already on Weight Watchers and we were doing good. I love their recipes! They’re mostly quick, one pot type meals. You know how we love to eat and we enjoyed every recipe I’ve made.
We bought a juicer. We’ve been having juice for breakfast and lunch and it’s amazingly filling. We use a combination of any of these things: lettuce, spinach, cucumber, zucchini, celery, ginger, strawberries, grapes, apples, pears, peaches, blueberries, mango, pineapple — just about anything we have goes into the juicer. If you’ve ever done any juicing, you know how quickly you go through fruits and veggies in the juicer. The cows are getting the pulp til the chickens are old enough to get it.
For dinner, we are now having a small meal. We’re not hungry at all. Vince is having coffee in the morning and I have one Dr. Pepper some time during the day on most days. Wednesday night, after we picked up the food from the co-op, we had a little baked potato (each of us had one), we each had an artichoke and we had a salad with lettuce, cucumber, tomatoes, cauliflower, tomatoes and blueberries and we used vinegar and olive oil for dressing.
Probably the item in the veggie box that would cause folks the most trouble would be the collard greens. As you might imagine, I love those. They’re good for you, they’re easy to grow in the south and they can be canned. They will definitely be planted in my fall garden. Here’s how I cooked mine:
Collard Greens with Black Eyed Peas (What could be more southern?)
2 bunches collard greens, washed and torn into pieces (maybe 3″ x 3″)
2 – 3 T. olive oil
1 medium onion, chopped
3 carrots, coarsely chopped
1 stalk celery, sliced
1 small bell pepper, chopped
1 can chicken broth
2 cans black eyed peas (I use half a pound of dried and cook them in the pressure cooker)
Tabasco
Salt, Pepper
Panko or bread crumbs (I used Italian seasoned Panko because I had it in the pantry)
1/2 c. grated Parmesan cheese
Directions:
- Preheat the oven to 350º.
- Saute the carrots, onions, celery and bell pepper in the oil.
- Add the torn collard greens and stir til wilted.
- Stir in the chicken broth, turn the heat down, cover and simmer til greens are tender. Add water if needed. You want to end up with barely any liquid in the pot so don’t add too much water.
- Stir in the black eyed peas, Tabasco, salt and pepper to taste.
- Once the mixture is heated thoroughly, pour into a greased baking dish.
- In a small bowl, combine Panko and grated cheese.
- Sprinkle cheese mixture on top of greens/peas mixture.
- Bake at 350º for about 25 minutes or until bread crumbs are getting brown.
That is really good and it’s fairly low fat. There’s even a version on Weight Watchers that doesn’t have the celery, onion and bell pepper but those things make it better.
This morning I used those two big old bell peppers and made 4 stuffed peppers out of them.
That yummy looking cabbage . . corned beef, cabbage and Irish Soda Bread tomorrow.
We’re doing good! We’re both losing weight, though as expected, Vince is losing more quickly than I am. We both have energy and the evening meals, no matter how light or small, really taste good, when you’ve had nothing but juice all day.
We sometimes splurge on a weekend meal but we pick up right where we left off on Monday morning.
Karin says
sounds like you are doing good! I need to dig out my Juiceman juicer and go buy some veggies (especially love carrot/apple combo!)……
Missy says
You are so blessed your husband will do this diet with you! I can’t get my husband to eat veggies, except peas and corn and then he complains if I make them too often.
Michelle says
I can see how a juicer would use up those fruit and veggies fast and taste great too.
I have a problem with all those documentaries. Americans do need to wake up about the average American diet, no contesting that, but some of these have their own agendas. I saw on a comment about one that some scientific sounding group was actually a pro-vegetarian group. Add to that, that if you watch too many about diet it’s bound to confuse you because they can contradict each other and agree with each other at the same time! But I do watch them anyway and if its on Netflix, I’ll probably check that one out. They do help me keep buying fruits and veggies and less processed stuff. Thanks.
Claudia Wade says
Judy – I just ordered some String Theory Caper yarn to try to teach myself how to knit socks. It is ALL your fault – LOL! I decided that hand knit socks would be an interesting challenge. I do know how to knit but haven’t knitted much in recent years and have only done simple scarves. Nothing that required fitting like an actual sweater. I decided that I could teach myself to knit socks using the tutorial at Come to Silver, and if for some reason I was totally defeated by it I could unravel the yarn and knit a simple scarf. I look forward to knitting socks for myself and gifts. Lordy this yarn isn’t cheap though, is it? Thanks for the inspiration!
kelly says
we saw that movie too and got a juicer for christmas. my favorite juice is made from kale, green apples, celery, cucumber, oranges, lime, and ginger.
marion usborne says
Hi Judy. I’m Marion’s husband and while she is a quilter, I’m more interested in your agricultural stories. When i was reading about the chickens, i’m thinking you should contact your County Cooperative Extension Office for adice on suppliers,good agricultural practices, etc. If you will send me the name of the County, i will send you a contact or you can Google yourself. I really enjoy all your stories. I really don’t know where you find the time to the many things you do. You’re amazing. You deserve to stay in your pajamas later once in a while. Thanks for telling us about all interesting adventures and advice on just living. Ron
Vicki W says
Oh you make me so hungry! It’s been almost 2 years since I discovered my allergy to all things green, even herbs, tea and things with green rinds like watermelon. I eat a lot of carrots and parsnips now and a ton of fruit, especially berries.
Jill M in Ohio says
Way to go, Judy and Vince! Have you been taking vitamins and supplements as well?
WiAmy says
I’m warming up to the idea of a diet. I bought the WW cookbook (points plus) and found it to be much like the WW cookbook just before the points plus one (several recipes are repeats or changed very slightly). I am glad that I have it though because I have tried lots of great tasting recipes–basically it renewed my interest. The next thing I have to tackle is stopping to buy the junk food I like. It might take a little longer to fully invest in this project, but at least I am interested! Keep up the good work–it is encouraging me to do more! I have a Vitamix (not a juicer–it is more like a high tech blender!). I should haul it out especially when all the great spring/summer produce hits the market!
Marsha says
I,m proud of my week. Only one diet Dr Pepper a day !!!
Cindy B says
I had to change what I ate not how much or how little. I follow Dr. Oz recommendations a lot. He said eat mustard greens every day. They are close to collards but not as strong tasting to me. I grew up on turnip greens about every meal so I love cooked greens. I really like how I can buy them pre washed! I won’t buy processed or prepacked, premade, pre cooked, pre anything but prewashed foods and my grocery bill is much less then the cart full of Little Debbies and Hamburger Helper. I practice what I preach about food. Food determines health, it’s that serious.
Sandy says
Are you and Vince still on the WW diet? I thought they said we couldn’t have juice. Maybe I have been doing something wrong. How do you count your points when you do juice in the morning and lunchtime? Or are you doing a combination type diet? Hey, whatever works for you, you are losing weight and have energy………that is great!!
Kristin says
Congratulations on making such healthy changes to your lifestyle. It seemed to me like you had endless energy ‘before.’ I can’t imagine the things you will get done with your ‘extra energy’!!