Guilt Free Late Night Snack

[caskur]

Right… here we go. This is my Curly Kale Plant… midnight no guilt snack.




Wash it, dry it and put it in a lettuce keeper… pour some virgin olive oil over it and throw in some Cumin seeds… put the lid on the lettuce keeper and toss the kale around inside so most of the kale is lightly coated with oil and cumin seeds..




Arrange on a tray and pop in the oven of 150 Celsius for 15 minutes.





It comes out of the oven looking like this…VVVV





Arrange on a plate and pig away. It’s really lovely.

[Deleted]

At midnight, I'm looking for chocolate!
No compromises!!

[jody]

lol me too Grim

[caskur]

Oct 24, 2013 9:03:07 GMT 10 @grim said:

At midnight, I'm looking for chocolate!
No compromises!!

I'm not a big chocolate lover...

I'd rather have Kale. I must need whatever is in Kale I guess.

[Deleted]

Chocolate is the way to go! Jody, Grim, - agreed!

[slartibartfast]

I tried kale, I wouldn't feed it to the snails, it is horrible!

[caskur]

Oct 29, 2013 6:49:24 GMT 10 slartibartfast said:

I tried kale, I wouldn't feed it to the snails, it is horrible!

How did you prepare it?

[jody]

Kale is actually very good for us and should be included in salads.

[Old Codger]

Looks disgusting!

[caskur]

I’m going to write about the Pritikin Diet… His first book and it’s most SEVERE diet designed to help triple by-pass candidates avoiding surgery.

This severe diet worked for me when I was loaded down with that wretched Chronic Fatigued syndrome no one believed was a real condition back in the 80.…and 90..

His most severe diet was called, “The Regression Diet”…. I stuck with it for 3 months… I lost weight and had plenty of energy and honestly believed it temporarily cured my Myalgic Encephalomyelitis… It was good for about a year with the effects…

Give me a bit to type what I did… And also, realistically, unless you’re one of those people who don’t eat animal products from a moral position, this is only for ones wanting to give their body a sorta fast… Let’s face it… none of us meat eaters are going to go vegan for long but I stress, as a temporary diet, it’s better than no other!


Breakfast

Would go something like this…

2 pieces of toast with banana and a liberal sprinkling of cinnamon … no tea or coffee… only water…

Or fresh tomato and black pepper, or avocado with lemon pepper on toast (no butter)… Any fruit you want..

The avocado, tomato or banana provides the moistness on the toast


Lunch was always, Baked potatoes in Jackets, fresh green salads, and Bean salad. (the Bean Salad was the most important part)

Eat as much as you want… trust me, the second week your quantities reduce because you actually want to eat less, instinctively…


Dinner same as lunch… Or can do Veggie soup… or even do both…

I will provide the actual recipes later…

The Pritikin diet (The Regression Diet) has a lot of don’ts, sad to say… but you can later add stuff… Try this for a fortnight… It won’t kill you and if it something you can do for longer… go longer.

The don’ts are… no sugar, no animal products including cheese, tea, coffee, alcohol, oil butter or smoking… Pritikin says if you smoke you undo all the good of the diet. At the time I didn’t smoke so that wasn’t a problem…

To stay interested in this diet you have to become inventive..

I’ll write out the Bean Salad… later but really all it is is a drained can of 3 bean mix, herbs, spices and lots of finely diced veggies… like spring onion, tomato, capsicum ( peppers) …

Now when I say I cheated its because I used a dash of olive oil (extra virgin) and a small dash of vinegar… You can eat all this raw for lunch or lightly cook it… It’s a Mediterranean style diet and with all the fresh ingredients you can buy these days it isn’t that much of a chore.

I’d make a huge lettuce keeper container of the bean salad and it lasts for 3 days… So make it up and help yourself at meal times! Just be mean with the olive oil and vinegar… Though they add flavour they work as a preservative mainly. Remember to turn the lettuce keeper filled with the bean salad around so the food is coated evenly..

[Deleted]

I eat kale because it's a super food. Unfortunately I don't particularly like it. Fortunately you can mask the taste when you're lightly steaming it with plenty of grilled tomato slathered over it. Otherwise chop it finely into a raw salad. But be sure to have some of it every day!

[caskur]

Nov 8, 2013 8:45:55 GMT 10 Stellar said:

I eat kale because it's a super food. Unfortunately I don't particularly like it. Fortunately you can mask the taste when you're lightly steaming it with plenty of grilled tomato slathered over it. Otherwise chop it finely into a raw salad. But be sure to have some of it every day!

I love it off my plant BUT Kurt bought some from the store and it was limp by the time I went to eat it... not so nice then...

[Deleted]

Home grown would be organic if you don't use any chemical fertilisers and sprays. So much better for you. I might try out the Manly organic markets just up the road but I bet they are really expensive. In the meantime the kale I buy from Harris Farm is good and very fresh - not limp at all and it keeps quite well in the vegie crisper.

[Deleted]

I'll stick with broccoli ...got a good track record for antioxidants and health benefits plus tastes a darn sight better!

[sonex]

I need to put weight on, so does anyone have any suggestions for food which would put some fat on me?

[Deleted]

Nov 9, 2013 12:54:58 GMT 10 sonex said:

I need to put weight on, so does anyone have any suggestions for food which would put some fat on me?

Therein lies your answer Sonex ... you need to eat fats - but healthy fats like a variety of nuts, seeds, avocado, oily fishy etc. Also eat cheese and red meat and have milkshakes but don't overdose on the saturated fat. No biscuits or cakes though because they contain the deadly transfats.

You could also take up weight training. This will really build your fitness levels and help to change your body weight from fat (because hopefully you're going to put some on) to muscle. My son who is the mad gym junkie has been nagging me to take up weight training for ages because he sees lots of older people doing weights at the gym and says their fitness is incredible for people of their ages. I think it's worth a go.

[sonex]

Thanks Stellar, not sure if it is a fallacy that the stomach can shrink, but I think that is what happened to me when I was ill for a few weeks, could only manage Sustagen so it's difficult to eat much at all now. I do drink calcium enriched milk each day. I agree with you about exercising at the gym, I have a couple of elderlies in my family who do this each week, apparently also strengthens the bones which will help avoid osteoporosis .

[Deleted]

I'm sure that the stomach does tend to shrink Sonex if you're not stretching it to the limits with food intake. Sorry to hear that you could only tolerate Sustagen! That takes me back to the nursing home and the numbers of oldies who just stop eating for one reason or another. Trying to get them to drink that Sustagen was a pain. I found that the chocolate variety was better and I always frothed it up in the blender and called it a chocolate milkshake, popped in a straw and thankfully they'd drink that but still a lot of time and effort on our part.

The best for you is take several smaller meals each day a couple of hours apart if you can't tolerate large amounts of food. But keep it coming. It's actually better for everyone to eat like that. I'd also be having a lot of complex carbs like potatoes. They definitely put on weight! When you're just eating a small amount of food at a time you don't make the mistake of combining the wrong foods together - such as meat and fruit. Never eat those together!

Yes, weight training is great for building up the bones. Walking too - I certainly get a lot of that at work because I am on my feet for almost the whole shift except when doing my documentation. But when not at work I make sure I walk, jog and do laps at the pool - at least one of those exercises every single day!!

[sonex]

Thank you again for your advice Stellar, I used to put Bickford's Iced Coffee with the Sustagen, made it more palatable. I'll definitely try potatoes and other things you mentioned. Need to get up to at least 50 kilos. That was kind of you to turn Sustagen into a nice chocolate milkshake.

[caskur]

Once a fat cell is made it stays forever.... they just empty on diets. That is why unless you get those cells suck out, they fill again..hence yo yo dieting.

[Deleted]

Nov 10, 2013 10:25:00 GMT 10 sonex said:

Thank you again for your advice Stellar, I used to put Bickford's Iced Coffee with the Sustagen, made it more palatable. I'll definitely try potatoes and other things you mentioned. Need to get up to at least 50 kilos. That was kind of you to turn Sustagen into a nice chocolate milkshake.

Did you know Sonex that in the nursing home, residents can die of anything but NOT malnutrition. Residents are assiduously weighed every couple of days and any weight loss causes concern. The resident is then monitored for food intake and this is recorded daily in their notes. If a resident refuses food at any time, this must be recorded because if the resident dies and they are seriously underweight, there will have to be answers and if the answers are not found in their notes - i.e. dates and times of every refusal of food - then there will be consequences! Hence encouraging the non eaters with Sustagen and believe me you will do everything you can to ensure that they get this down. Icecream is a good additive, not sure about the iced coffee but might give that a try.

[sonex]

"
Did you know Sonex that in the nursing home, residents can die of anything but NOT malnutrition."

I can sort of understand why this may be so Stellar, I guess the authorities need to be sure the nursing home operators are not increasing their profits by cutting down on nutritional meals. I can also see that it does add an extra burden on the nursing staff when they have to spend so much extra time coaxing the residents to eat.

[caskur]

I know it's not true... The elderly intestines deteriorate like any other muscle and they cannot absorb food properly..They waste away through no ones fault but aging alone!

[Deleted]

What's not true? If the organs start breaking down then obviously the resident will start to receive palliative care. But what happens when the resident is a lot younger and still won't eat? Residents in a dementia specific facility are not all old. Many are only in their early 60s - even younger - and they won't eat for some reason or other. That's dementia for you - they just don't care any more and don't want to go on. It's the only way they think they can control their circumstances - everything else is out of their hands.

And in the asylum, NO ONE is allowed to die (not that it hasn't happened!). It's not a nursing home, the inmates are much younger - yet even they can refuse food. People who are otherwise fit and relatively healthy apart from their mental state. Some will simply state they don't like it. Some will even throw their plates back at the kitchen staff or on the floor. Some will think they're going to be poisoned and going by some of the meals, you can't blame them. There's a whole heap of reasons why people won't eat. They're on a short fuse. Hence running around in circles trying to get them to eat something - very energy rich and hi cal. Hot chips, icecream, milkshakes, whatever they want. Not always very nutritious but definitely guaranteed to keep the weight up.

[caskur]

Appetite comes from smells. You can not be feeling hungry one moment, sit near a food place where fumes are coming out of the place, without then your mouth salivates and your stomach suddenly realizes it's empty. Old people lose their sense of smell.... young people in hospitals don't get a chance to get hungry from smelling food... their food is prepared somewhere else.

Everyone has different needs and hospitals can't cater to that. They run on schedules. It's understandable.