A year ago today I had the crazy idea to start this blog.  It seemed like a good way to motivate myself to stay on this diet by forcing myself to write about what I was cooking and share it with the world.  And it worked, Im still sticking mostly to the Montignac Method after all this time, albeit on the maintenance phase these days.  And yes its worked for me, I lost over 35 pounds and most of that was in the first 3 months of eating this way.  So this style of eating will help you lose weight it just takes a lot of self control and motivation to cook for yourself everyday.

Funny thing is along the way in writing about my adventures on this diet I started to enjoy doing the blog.  People started reading and enjoying the recipes which was a shock to me who expected to just be followed by my mom and a couple friends.  Then I blogged about cucumbers and things really got crazy around here.  Now Im addicted to food blogging, entering my second year on this blog with no plans to stop posting.  Except the title of the blog might have to change slightly now to something along the lines of “A Year on the French Diet Part Duex.”

A lot happened this year.  The fella and I moved to a new place with a great kitchen.  We had a lot of parties where we “forced” our friends to eat really great food.  I found out I was allergic to gluten and had to learn how to cook gluten free.  I joined another blog.  I ribboned a lot of vegetables.  A lot of great wine was had. 

I had a blast and Im glad youve all decided to take this journey with me.  Thanks to all my followers.  And an even bigger thanks to all my friends who on a daily basis talk food with me and never get sick of my culinary obsessions, especially those of you who come over to be a guinea pig for my latest creations.  A big thanks to my parents for coming over for holiday dinners at my place so I had something to blog about and especially for the amazing non stick pans.  And to the fella, I couldnt do this without you, thanks for all your support and Im pretty sure youll be sainted for helping with all those dishes.  And I didnt forget my fluffy dog friend, thank you for “vacuuming” the kitchen for me everyday.

There will be even more food, wine, and fun in the year to come so stick around.  In the meantime here is a round up of some of my favorite recipes.  And just so you can keep track of all my cook antics I started a Facebook group and am giving this Twitter thing a shot so follow me there too if you like.  I even included some of my biggest cooking disasters in the list for your amusement.

Now for a glass of wine to celebrate being a year old in blog years.
 
Favorite Main Courses
Almond Flour Pizza Crust   
Portobello “Steaks”
Sun Dried Tomato and Lentil Soup
Red Lentil Soup  
Lamb Korma
Asian Peanut Pork in the Crockpot 
Sushi Bowls
Salmon in Wine and Cream Sauce
Rigatoni With Caper Tomato Sauce 


Favorite Sides
Braised Cucumbers
Flowerless Naan  
Any of Mark Bittmans 101 Simple Salads
Beet Salad
Tapenade Salad
Cauliflower "Potatoes"
Puy Lentil Salad

Favorite Desserts and Breakfasts
Saffron Coconut Milk Ice Cream 
Hazelnut Brownies 
Chocolate Bacon Cake 
Flourless Beet Torte 
Brandied Cranberry Sauce
Quinoa Oatmeal
Cranberry and Flax Breakfast Muffins

Most Interesting Failures
Very Salty Quiche
Eggplant "Pizza"
Oxtail Rioja
The Modern French Culinary Art Cookbook

Blueberry Ice Cream

Best Wine
Cline Moudevre (or basically anything from Cline)
Snoqualme Nearly Naked Gewürztraminer
Aveleda Fonte Verde 
Optimus Chardonnay 
El Coto Rioja

Read More..

Lets talk carbs. Specifically pasta.

Yes the whole point of this diet is to cut out a lot of carbs and all sugar but you can still have carbs there are just a lot of rules. First you can only have carbs one meal out of the day, preferably for lunch when your metabolism is working harder. That means one carb/low fat meal and one protein meal a day. Secondly only whole grain carbs are allowed, brown rice and whole wheat pasta for example. Lastly the carbs have to be eaten with as little fat as possible so that your body doesnt absorb a load of fat along with the carbs.

So what does this leave for you to eat for low fat/carb meals? Plenty you just have to get creative, give up the idea of ever having cheese on your pasta, and look really hard for the couple grocery story products that you can eat. Lucky for you Ive already done the last step, the intensely annoying and soul draining part for you. Seriously I was torn between breaking into tears or throwing sauces on the floor the first couple times I tried to shop and found how little there was to eat that was sugar free and diet friendly.

The other rule with pasta is that it has to be very thin angel hair pasta made with hard wheat. Montignac claims the pasta dough being forced through the thin metal pasta extruder during production causes a reaction in the wheat that makes it harder to break down into bad carbs while being digested. A lot of his quasi science leaves me scratching my head so I just take his word for it and any of my scientist readers can let me know if this is total crap.

There are three pasta brands Ive found in stores in Madison that fit all these quantifiers. Bella Terra Organic Capellini Angel Hair, Whole Foods 365 Everyday Value Angel Hair, and Ezekiel 4:9 Organic Sprouted Grain Angel Hair. In regular grocery stores these brands hide in the organic section rather than in with the regular pasta.

Pasta sauces get a little more complicated depending on how strict you want to take the low fat rule. Ive found some good sauces with less than 2 grams of fat per serving from Barilla and Classico. The roasted red pepper and tomato basil in both brands were especially tasty. I was very surprised that the least expensive brands more consistently were sugar free.

In the past Ive been posting pasta recipes with penne and lasagna noodles going off the French version of the diet that didnt specify the angel hair only rule. Apparently the American diet needed more rules to keep us fat lazy poor eaters under control. Substituting angel hair in for my earlier recipes will make them perfectly legal for the diet however.

For now Ill post a very tasty and very easy recipe that will work for the weight maintenance stage of the diet when you can add a little more fat into carb meals without any dire consequence. This is when you arent losing weight but are following most of the same rules to keep your weight steady. It works, I havent lost or gained a single pound while eating this way. Next week the fella and I are going hard core on the weight loss phase again to see how much more weight we can get rid of, though the vacation from counting GI levels has been nice. I highly recommend taking a month off from the strict eating after a couple months just so the low GI doesnt break your will to live too much.

This recipe just involves tossing some marinated veggies into store bought pasta sauce to make it a little more special and give it a home made feel. It was delicious. We had pan roasted cauliflower with thyme and lemon juice as a side and El Coto Rioja which I believe I may have already raved about once before. It really is a wonderful spicy Spanish wine in the under $10 price range. With wine this good for that price I see no reason to spend more. Plus Im a sucker for quirky labels.

Antipasto Pasta

1 16-ounce package whole wheat angel hair pasta
1 28-ounce jar sugar free pasta sauce
1 4-ounce jar marinated artichokes, drained, halved
1 10 to 12-ounce jar roasted red bell peppers, drained, cut into strips
1/4 cup pitted kalamata olives
1 packed cup fresh basil leaves, sliced or chopped

Cook pasta in a large saucepan of boiling, salted water, following package directions, until tender. Drain, reserving 1/2 cup pasta water.

Meanwhile, place the marinara sauce, artichokes, peppers, and olives in a medium saucepan. Bring to the boil over medium high heat. Reduce heat to low. Simmer for 5 minutes or until sauce thickens.

Add sauce to pasta. Stir to combine. If desired, add some of the cooking water if too thick. Top with basil. Serve.

Original recipe from one of my favorite cooking blogs Enlightened Cooking.

Read More..