A great way to have Unlimited Diet Solution Recipes

Just yesterday I did a great tele-call with my friend Craig Ballantyne, author ofTurbulence Training. He is going to be sharing this call with his own readers and clients, but he asked me such an awesome question yesterday, I had to share the answer with you.

“Isabel, how can someone take any recipe out of a regular cookbook and make it Diet Solution friendly?”

I thought this was an awesome question because it is something I do on a regular basis and is how I am able to keep all of my meal plans new, interesting and most importantly….delicious!

Here are my step by step, do-it-yourself, DSP recipe creator rules (ok, that’s a mouthful but you know what I mean):

First, I search the internet or one of my many cookbooks for exactly what I want to make. We’re going to use shepherd’s pie as our example. When I Google shepherd’s pie, I click on the first link that comes up and here is what came up (I have inserted all of my substitutions in italics):

Easy Shepherd’s Pie Recipe (taken from simplyrecipes.com)

Ingredients

• 1 1/2 lbs ground round beef (I might use buffalo or even turkey for a little leaner option depending on your metabolic type)
• 1 onion chopped
• 1-2 cups vegetables – chopped carrots, corn, peas
• 1 1/2 – 2 lbs potatoes (3 big ones) (I would use cauliflower instead or do ½ potato, ½ cauliflower)
• 8 tablespoons butter (1 stick)
• 1/2 cup beef broth (use low sodium)
• 1 teaspoon Worcestershire sauce
• Salt, pepper, other seasonings of choice (use unrefined sea salt)

Method

1. Peel and quarter potatoes, boil in salted water until tender (about 20 minutes). (Steam cauliflower so you can mash it or put it in the blender so they resemble mashed potatoes.)

2. While the potatoes are cooking (or cauliflower), melt 4 Tablespoons butter (1/2 a stick) in large frying pan.

3. Sauté onions in butter until tender over medium heat (10 mins). If you are adding vegetables, add them according to cooking time. Put any carrots in with the onions. Add corn or peas either at the end of the cooking of the onions, or after the meat has initially cooked.

4. Add ground beef (or buffalo or turkey) and sauté until no longer pink. Add salt and pepper. Add worcesterchire sauce. Add half a cup of beef broth and cook, uncovered, over low heat for 10 minutes, adding more beef broth as necessary to keep moist.

5. Mash potatoes (or put cauliflower in the blender until they resemble mash potatoes) in bowl with remainder of butter, season to taste.

6. Place beef and onions in baking dish. Distribute mashed potatoes (or cauliflower) on top. Rough up with a fork so that there are peaks that will brown nicely. You can use the fork to make some designs in the potatoes as well.

7. Cook in 400 degree oven until bubbling and brown (about 30 minutes). Broil for last few minutes if necessary to brown. (Watch this carefully, as your cooking time will be less because you are using cauliflower)

Yummy! Is anyone ready for dinner?

Just as a side note, there is nothing wrong with having white potatoes if your metabolic type can handle it, but I find with sheperd’s pie you end up eating too much potato, well beyond what one serving should be and there are many people who cannot eat white potatoes because it effects their blood sugar too much (me being one of them).

The recipe above was an easy one (but I just love it and wanted to share it.)

Let me give you some possible substitutions to many other recipes.

1. When a recipe calls for vegetable oil such as canola oil, which we know we should be avoiding, replace it with coconut oil or butter. This can be done in 90% of most recipes. If you can’t use either of those, use olive oil and cook on low heat (below 350F). If the recipe is for a cake or other baked goods, you can use the same amount of unsweetened applesauce instead of the oil.

2. When a recipe calls for bread crumbs, I either make my own from sprouted grain bread or I purchase gluten free bread crumbs that are made from rice. You can make your own breadcrumbs by drying bread in the oven at 250F for 15 minutes and then putting it in your food processor or blender. Add Italian spices like oregano, parsley and basil to make Italian bread crumbs.

3. If a recipe calls for pasta, many times you can replace it with spaghetti squash.

4. If a recipe calls for sugar, you can use a Stevia blend instead. 1 cup of Stevia Blend (fromhttp://www.stevivasweetener.com) is equal to 2 cups of sugar.

5. Replace all the ingredients listed with organic ingredients instead. Ok, ok, you don’t have to replace all of them, but I just had to throw that in there…hehe.
I highly recommend you give this a try yourself and look for one of your most favorite dishes and see what you can do to serve it “DSP Style”.

Happy Cooking!

By www.thedietsolutionprogram.com/blog

Does your belly hurt? This may be why…

As you may or may not know, things over here at the Diet Solution are always super busy (but that’s a good thing right?) Busy or not, one of my highest priorities every day is listening to my readers.

We read every single comment, email, and question that comes our way. It’s the best way I know to make sure that I’m always giving you the information you want and need.

Yes…we get plenty of specific food questions. But you know what else we get a lot of?

Digestion questions!

Oh yes…from food combining, to gas and bloating and even the taboo topic of constipation. While most of my readers have seen incredibly positive changes in their digestion when changing to the DSP way of eating, there still have been those who have gone through a bit of an adjustment period where their stomachs and intestines are yelling…

“Huh? What happened to the chips and sugar? What is this…fiber? What am I supposed to do with this?”

Remember, if you’ve been feeding your body the not so go stuff for many years, it may take a few days, even a few weeks for your body to clean out the bad stuff and let the good stuff nourish your body the right way.

But digestion issues can be a real pain…literally. There’s nothing worse than a bad stomach ache or gas and bloating (especially when you’re out in public…just not cool) and the worst of all…constipation…painful and uncomfortable to say the least.

I could write an entire book on constipation alone and have written several newsletters about it, but I just got done reading a very helpful report on how to improve digestion and intestinal health by a friend of mine – Yuri Elkaim. I met Yuri at a conference several months back and realized right away that we both follow many of the same non-conventional principles when it comes to nutrition. He had some pretty interesting information when it came to digestion and told me he would send me some more info.

In fact, he’s allowed me to share it with you and my other subscribers – for free! (something he’s never done before!)

http://tinyurl.com/DSPdigestion

This 27-page report reveals 9 powerful techniques to improve your digestion so that you can combat that bloated, gassy, and tired feeling, and even how to not feel excessively full after a meal ever again. (I personally loved the 3 Quick References Guides he’s provided – makes these principles so easy to remember and apply).

He also discusses

• how to end constipation for good.
• how to combine your foods for maximum nutrient absorption (a topic I myself am still learning a lot more about and appreciate his input on the subject).
• 3 specific nutrients that will keep your colon squeaky clean (and healthy).
• how to prevent (or overcome) 2 “intestinal” conditions that you may not even know you have.
• and so much more!

The report is a quick 10-15 minutes read, there’s no fluff, just great usable information:

http://tinyurl.com/DSPdigestion

Enjoy and I’ll be back tomorrow with some more great digestion info for you!

By www.thedietsolutioinprogram.com/blog

3 of my Favorite Fat Burning Foods, Part 1

I know how challenging just getting a few fruits and veggies can be on a daily basis.

First, sometimes veggies can be a little more time consuming to prepare than some other foods. You’ve got to wash, chop, cut, steam, sauté or peal and many times this is a lot more than some people can fit into their busy schedules.

Second, there are a lot of different vegetables that are wonderful for our health and can really assist in burning off unwanted body fat, but people just don’t enjoy the taste.

I’m going to share 3 of my favorite foods (not necessarily all veggies) and how I’ve made them a delicious part of my healthy eating plan. We’ll begin with….

Super Healthy Food #1: KALE

Kale is “all the rave” these days. If there was an equivalent vegetable to the captain of the football team, kale would be it!

The good news is Kale is a health warrior like no other vegetable. It is jam packed with Vitamin C (for helping keep the immune system strong), loaded with beta carotene (to keep skin healthy and ward off skin cancer), and loaded with tons of calcium (which is wonderful especially for those who are worried they are not getting enough calcium when eliminating dairy products from their eating plan). Not to mention it is jam packed full of fiber, making you full faster and keep your bowels moving at a regular pace each day (2 very important components to weight loss).

With all these health benefits, what could be the bad news?

Unfortunately many people just don’t love the taste of kale. Now I’m not the right person to ask when it comes to the taste of veggies, because I am a diehard lover of all veggies (always was), but someone like my dear hubby who just does not appreciate many green things describes kale as “eating the grass in our backyard might be tastier”….you gotta love his honesty, right?

So here are 3 ways I, my hubby and my toddler all enjoy kale, not necessarily on a daily basis, but a minimum of 2-3 days per week.

1. Kale Chips

Making Kale Chips is easy. Tear the leaves into pieces and toss with olive oil, sea salt, and pepper. Spread on a baking sheet and bake at 300 degrees F until crisp, 20 to 30 minutes. Make sure to monitor your chips while they are cooking so as not to burn them.

My son and I are happy to snack on these throughout the day. You can combine them with some raw nuts and they’ll really help you get that snacking “crunch” you may be missing in your eating plan.

2. Chicken Vegetable Soup with Kale

Ingredients:

· 2 teaspoons coconut oil

· 1/2 cup chopped onion

· 1/2 cup chopped carrot

· 1 teaspoon thyme

· 2 cloves garlic, minced

· 2 cups chicken broth or water

· 3/4 cup diced tomatoes

· 1 cup cooked chicken, skinned and cubed

· 1/2 cup cooked brown rice (optional)

· 1 cup chopped kale, stem removed (about one large leaf)

Directions:

1. Heat oil in a medium sauce pan. Add onion and carrot. Sauté until vegetables are tender, 5-8 minutes.

2. Add thyme and garlic. Sauté for one more minute.

3. Add chicken broth or water, tomatoes, cooked rice, chicken and kale.

4. Simmer for 5-10 minutes.

I love to eat this soup just as it is described. My son, on the other hand, loves for me to put the soup in the blender and make a “creamy” soup instead. My hubby will eat this soup but will almost always eat around the kale. I figure he is still getting a lot of the benefits of the kale in the broth (you just can’t win them all, can you?), but he also enjoys the creamed version I make for my son.

3. Morning Green Drink

Ingredients

· 1/2 pear

· 4-5 green grapes

· 1/4 banana

· 1/2 cup kale

· 1/2 – 1 cup water

· 1 cup ice cubes

· Stevia or Raw Honey to taste

Directions:

Place all ingredients in a blender on High. Enjoy immediately.

You can vary the ingredients (adding more or less of each fruit or kale) to suit your taste. I am very good at making sure to eat breakfast each morning, but my husband tends to jump out of bed and want to race out the door, so this is a fast breakfast option you can take with you. This is a great way to start your morning along with a good serving of protein to go along with it (raw nuts, cottage cheese or some hard boiled eggs).

If veggies are still really not “your thing”, you may want to look into one of my favorite “greens drinks” to ensure you’re getting all of your recommended vitamins and nutrients each and every day. Not only do I love the taste, but the ingredients are all organic and minimally processed. This is the only greens drink I trust to take myself and give to my entire family.

By www.thedietsolutionprogram.com/blog