NEWS FLASH

This just in.  Another doctor talking about the link between cancer and carbs.

http://www.drbriffa.com/2011/11/29/low-carbohydrate-diets-look-good-for-the-prevention-and-treatment-of-cancer/

Cottage Pie

I survived October without incident (see previous post) and enjoyed my first Thanksgiving in three years without being in chemo.  I made several low carb dishes for our turkey dinner but indulged in some amazing traditional cornbread stuffing made by a good friend, and a tiny piece of the best cheesecake made by my daughter. The kids out did themselves with some old favorites and new recipes. My son-in-law smoked the turkey over cherry wood. WOW! Needless to say, nobody was left wanting.

Weight-wise I am still slowing losing about 2 pounds a month.

With these cold winter months ahead of us you may want to try this recipe from Judy Barnes Baker’s new book, Nurished, to be released in January, called Cottage Pie.  It is a low carb version of Sheppard’s pie. So far it has got rave reviews from everyone I have made it for.

Cottage Pie

4 cups (1 recipe) Cauliflower Faux Mashed Potatoes

1 teaspoon of oil

1 pound lean ground beef

11/3 cups (6 ounces) chopped onion (one 7-ounce onion as purchased)

1½ cups (5 ounces) sliced fresh mushrooms

2 teaspoons potato flour

2/3 cup of beef stock or broth

1 teaspoon of Worcestershire sauce

¾ teaspoon salt or to taste

¼ teaspoon black pepper or to taste

1 tablespoon melted butter or use cooking spray

¼ teaspoon smoked or sweet paprika

Prepare Cauliflower Faux Mashed Potatoes, (There are several recipes online or in Judy’s first cookbook, Carb Wars). Grease an 8- by 8- by 2-inch (2 quart), ovenproof baking pan or casserole. Preheat oven to 400^o F.

Heat a large skillet over medium-high heat. Add oil, heat for a few seconds, and add ground beef. Cook and stir until meat starts to brown. Add onions and mushrooms and cook until onions are softened. Remove meat mixture from pan and reserve. Drain off all but 2 teaspoons of fat from pan. Add potato flour and cook and stir for a minute or two or until flour is slightly browned. Add stock or broth, Worcestershire sauce, salt, and pepper and cook and stir until slightly thickened. Return meat mixture to pan and stir into gravy. Transfer filling to baking dish. Spread Cauliflower Faux Mashed Potato mixture evenly over top. Drizzle with melted butter or coat with cooking spray. Sprinkle with paprika. Bake for about 15 minutes or until bubbly and brown. Use convection heat if your oven has that option or broil for a few minutes 6 to 8 inches from heat source if top does not brown adequately. Serve hot.

Carbs and Cancer

Here is a video of Craig B. Thompson, President and CEO of Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer talking about how cancer grows and how it is connected to carbohydrates.  The first 20 minutes is basic stuff to back up his conclusion.  


Craig B. Thompson, President and CEO of Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer

30 days hath September

Ahhh September.  It is only the 5th and it already feels like fall.  I am always amazed at how fast the sun starts heading south.  I think it is ironic that this is National Ovarian Cancer Awareness month.  The last 3 out of 4 Septembers I found out I had a tumor. The last 3 out of 4 Octobers I was in surgery. The last 3 out of 4 Novembers I started chemo. I am aware.

My low-carb diet is going well.  I haven't lost much weight. Only about a pound a week.  But that is not my purpose. Was just hoping for a nice side effect. Although, my clothes seem to be fitting looser so maybe I am losing fat and gaining muscle. I don't crave carbs but they are hard to resist when they are sitting in front of me (chips at the Mexican restaurant, facochia bread at Barking Frog, Stan's fries at Red Robin).  I have discovered some wonderful recipes. Yesterday I made a Rhubarb Custard Pie that was sooooo yummy from Judy Barnes Baker's cookbook CarbWars. The pie crust was an Almond Pie Crust from her new book Nourished, which hasn't been released yet. I should have taken a picture of it.  My friend Joe often posts "Food Porn" on his blog and this would have been a good one. It was full of rhubarb, eggs, and cream. If there had been any left over it would have made a tasty breakfast.

Judy has a very interesting blog: http://carbwars.blogspot.com/

Post Script: I made another pie and took a picture.

The science lab

I tried to make low carb cheddar biscuits today.  I went to the store and bought all these weird ingredients; ground almonds, whey protein, whey flour.  I felt like I was conducting a science experiment rather than baking biscuits. First I had to make a flour substitute mix. Second, using the flour substitute mix I had to make a "Bisquick" type mix, Then finally I could make the cheddar biscuits. So I line up all my crazy stuff and start mixing and moving along...I needed 4 teaspoons of baking powder. Everybody has baking powder...except me. I only had 1 teaspoon left at the bottom of the can.  Soooo...hmmmm...substitute for baking powder...baking soda and buttermilk...maybe sour cream will work.

Stan hated them. I didn't think they were THAT bad.  I will have to get some baking powder and try again.

Is Sugar Toxic?

My brother asked me if I was doing this to avoid another turn at cancer or to loose weight.  I told him to avoid cancer.  Losing weight is a positive side effect.  Weight loss will probably be mentioned more than the cancer aspect because how many times can I say "I don't have cancer today."

Here is a recent article that I am finding more and more prevalent: NYTimes Asks: Is Sugar Toxic?
I would take this article one step further and say it is not just sugar but includes all foods high in carbohydrates. Many diabetics have been able to stay healthy and off drugs by going low carb.  And the link between diabetes and cancer grows closer every day. It is little tidbits like this article that encourage me to stick with it.

There probably isn't much funding for this type of research. Not much money in curing cancer by not eating carbs.  Pharmaceutical companies are behind most of the decisions of what gets funded and what doesn't. So I don't see any monies being thrown at this type of research soon.

Not everyone who eats sugar is going to get cancer. Truth be told, if I hadn't been hit on the head by God I would still be eating donuts, pasta and garlic toast.

Now on a lighter subject...Remember the faux mashed potatoes I was going to try?  Well I tried the Faux Rice instead. Also made with cauliflower and it was delicious!

DIET UPDATE: I wasn't on my best behavior over the weekend. My daughters took me wine tasting for my birthday but other than that I ate my hamburger without a bun, cheese without crackers, Tuna on lettuce instead of bread, and no sugary deserts. So I only lost 1 pound over the weekend. Total weight lost 3 pounds.

Ewwwww gross

Pork rinds. Fried pig fat. 0 carbs.

I know, right? Fried pig fat? bleech. That is right up there with pickled slugs.

I have started buying them by the case load.  It is a simple snack item with ZERO carbs and when you crunch them up they are a great replacement for bread crumbs. Bread crumbs that you would add to meat loaf. Bread crumbs that you bread chicken or fish with. I especially like the spicy ones.

Next I am going to try Faux Mashed Potatoes.  Made with Cauliflower *grimace*.  Hope I am as surprise with this as I am was the pork rinds.

Diet Update: So far the hardest part of the Adkins Diet is getting enough carbs from vegetables. I am also finding that the following tidbit is true. I have lost 2 pounds in 2 days.

Interesting tidbit: Carbohydrates make you hungry. Fat and protein actually reduce the total number of calories needed to keep you feeling satisfied. Gary Taubes, author of Good Calories, Bad Calories, said that studies showed that those who cut down on carbs ate less, but that it was important to remember that “no one was telling them to eat less!” From Judy Barnes Baker's soon to be printed book, Nourished.

I have a plan

I am going to start the Atkins plan.  Starting out with 20 carbs a day.  15 of those being greens.

I went to the doctor today and got a clean bill of health.  He was in intrigued with my no sugar idea of stopping cancer.  He says it has been know for a long time that cancer likes sugar.  That is what makes it so easy to see in a CT scan.

I made a pie

I made a recipe that is in the new cookbook I am working on, Nourished, by Judy Barnes Baker. Okay, I cheated a little. I couldn't find all the ingredients for the crust so I bought a graham cracker crust at the store. I will get there. Give me time. Here is the recipe:


Lemon Icebox Pie


My mother used to make a lemon icebox pie that had just three ingredients plus a graham cracker crust: sweetened condensed milk, lemon juice, and egg yolks. It seemed like magic when the acid in the lemon juice made the egg yolks set up. Here’s my super-easy version for the time-challenged. You don’t even have to measure anything, just open the containers and combine. You can leave out the lemon zest if that’s too much cooking for you!


Baked Almond Pie Crust, p.XX 
16 ounces (two 8-ounce tubs) whipped cream cheese 
1 eight-ounce container plain, Greek-style yogurt (full fat, if possible), with live cultures
3 packets of Crystal Light® On the Go powdered lemonade mix or the equivalent amount of any sugar-free lemonade mix
2 teaspoons grated lemon zest, optional 


Beat all ingredients together. Pour into cooled Almond Pie Crust, p.XX. Refrigerate until set. Top with sugar-free Whipped Cream, p.XX, if desired.

It was so yummy. Even Stan liked it.  He doesn't know it yet but he is going low carb also - lol.

It works for mice...

www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/21673053

Sabotaged

It is my birthday month so I get a free burger at Red Robin.  I was very good and had them put it in a low carb tortilla and didn't get the fries.  I was feeling so virtuous. Then they brought out the hot fudge sundae and told me happy birthday.  Of course I couldn't insult them by not eating it!  That would just be rude.  At least Stan helped me.

Hit on the Head by God

He started whispering to me months ago.  Just little snippets here and there. I was listening. Really. I was just moving in the right direction a little slow, gradual like. Then about two weeks ago I got a call from an author who needed my help. She wanted to sit with me and work through her book page by page. WHAT? Are you kidding me? I don‘t have time for this!

Well, as it turned out all my other projects were coming to an end and there was nothing new on the horizon. So I said ok. 

Now for the boring background stuff. As many of you know I have had cancer 3 times. The cancer wasn’t all that bad. As tumors go they have been well behaved. Staying where they do minimal damage. But the Chemo is the pits. I HATE losing my hair. Pain – nothing I couldn’t handle (by handle I mean take a pill and sleep through it). But losing my hair each time was so demoralizing. It was like screaming to the world “Look at me. I have cancer.” When all I really wanted to do was just get through it without fuss or muss.  From the very beginning I had turned it over to God. “It is in your hands.” I said, “If I die, I die. If I live, I live. Your timing is perfect and it is not for me to question.”  Well, I haven’t died yet.  God provided perfect timing and the right people at the right time to take care of me.

Now, from several, no, many, different sources I am hearing sugar is the cause for cancer. I even happen to turn to a news program about the savvy internet patient -- “If you start to see the same thing from several sources there may be something to it: So, I say “Hmmmm, sugar? Give up sugar? Naaahhhh.”

Enter author: Judy Barnes Baker.  Her first book – Carb Wars, Sugar is the New Fat – I only did a little work on in 2007. She called me, out of the blue, needing my help.  Her publisher doesn’t want to make any more changes to her book. She thinks he doesn’t want to spend any more money on it. But she wants it to be right so, on her own dime, she would like to sit with me and go over all the things she wants changed. I never, I mean NEVER sit with an author breathing down my neck. But I have always been an admirer of Judy’s, so, I said I would do what I could.  Judy is like the information freak on nutrition. Her new book started out being sponsored by the Diabetic Assoc as a way for diabetics to eat healthy so that they could get off the meds and live normal lives. It turned into so much more. Every day we are together she spouts so much information I am dizzy by the time she leaves.

God has gotten tired of my putzing and hit me over the head.  God’s timing is perfect. Mine is not.

Blog? Why not.

Everybody is doing it right?  Charlie, my little brother, does it (amazing blogs, I always look forward to reading them). Traci is going to Nicaragua and she has started a blog. (As she should. It is going to be an amazing trip.) So, here I am, jumping into the fray. Hope you enjoy the journey.