Groceries
The next step was getting groceries. Recitas offers a helpful week 1 grocery list here. I was able to find everything (even the Sriracha sauce – Lee Kum Kee brand) at my grocery store. The only thing that was a little difficult to find was the salt-free potato chips. I finally found Kettle brand low sodium potato chips with 10mg of sodium per 18-20 chips (40g). They were at the grocery store, but in the health food section. The Maine Coast Organic Kelp Seasoning was in stock at the health food store.
Cooking
I had all the groceries sitting around in my fridge for more than a week before I was able to find the time to do some cooking. I started with the Carrot Beet Salad. I think it would look lovely in ribbons but I only have an inexpensive food chopper so mine came out with a similar consistency to cole slaw. It was only after I made it that I noticed there is no dressing for it. My husband and I did try it plain but neither of us liked it much. After a bit of Googling, I located this recipe for Carrot Beet Salad with a Ginger Vinaigrette. It seems like it could be made Plan-friendly. I left out the shallot as I didn’t have any on hand; you’d have to test for sesame and the sodium content might be high, but it was quite tasty on the carrot beet salad. (Recitas warns on the website not to combine the carrot and beet or they’ll get “muddy” but mine has been in the fridge for two days and it is still vibrant.)
Fathers’ Day proved a perfect opportunity to do the rest of the preparation. My husband slept in, my daughter was watching a bit of iPad on the sofa, and I had some time to cook.
First I got the Flax Granola started. This involves mixing the flax (I used the lighter tasting golden flax seeds) with cinnamon and water and vanilla extract and letting it sit in the fridge all day or overnight. It comes out solid and sticky, with the water absorbed. I spooned it onto two cookie sheets (double batch) and tried to smooth it into a thin layer, then baked it at 275 degrees for 50 minutes. I checked it and turned it every 10 minutes and added a dozen chopped dried apricots and two handfuls of raisins for the last 10 minutes. I tried it with the Silk Coconut Milk Original flavour and a handful of blueberries and it was pretty good. Not something I’d rush out to get, but definitely okay.
Then I made the Carrot Ginger Soup. Now, I don’t make soup very often. I always think it will be really time-consuming and I’ll end up with a dozen bowls of the stuff that I can’t use. This soup was easy to make – I just chopped the vegetables and simmered them while I made the other things. When they were done, I pureed them with an immersion blender and poured the soup into a mason jar. I did add an extra 2 cups of water after pureeing it as it was too thick.
Then I made the Orange Oil. I zested the organic orange (my microplane zester is one of my favourite kitchen tools) but the recipe confused me. It says to zest the orange (check) then “soak in olive oil.” Did that mean to soak the orange? Or just the zest? Or both? In the end, I just put the zest in, and we ate the orange for breakfast.
Next was the Spicy Coco Sauce. Recitas says this is “legendary” among Plan followers, so I was eager to make it. The toughest part of this recipe was chopping 8 cloves of garlic (double batch) as my garlic had sprouted and I knew from a previous cooking class that if you don’t dig out the green sprouts, the garlic will be bitter. As with the Carrot Ginger Soup, I was frustrated that all the spices were listed without quantities, simply “to taste.” This time I couldn’t Google an alternate recipe. I added a 2″ knob of ginger, chopped, plus a pinch of cinnamon, cumin and turmeric. I used one can of regular coconut milk and one can of “premium” coconut milk. Turns out the difference is the “premium” one is all coconut cream (the part with the consistency of butter) while the regular one is about half cream and half coconut water. I pureed this sauce as well when it was done. It had a nice, thick consistency but due to the turmeric was a yellow-brown colour. I saved 1.5 cups and froze the rest in an ice cube tray, then transferred the frozen cubes to a ziploc bag.
The last thing I did was get my food ready for Day 1 – Monday. The flax granola is ready to go. I will take some Carrot Ginger soup with me to work, plus I washed some broccoli to steam at the office and added a small container of orange oil, plus some mixed greens in another container with a pear and some pumpkin seeds, along with an apple. I also washed the kale for tomorrow and bagged it in the fridge to go with the Spicy Coco Sauce. The Atkins diet was really big on kale. I know it’s a nutritional powerhouse, and all that, but I never did find a way to prepare it that I actually enjoyed. It was always just okay, so maybe the Spicy Coco Sauce will be the thing. (I did also pick up some baby kale to use as mixed greens – I’ve had those in a Caesar salad and they were good.)
On The Plan Diet 