Eat your veggies . . .

Hello everyone:

I have struggled with my diet since I had RNY 5 months ago. I have had difficulties finding a small variety of dense proteins that I can tolerate most of the time.

Unfortunately, during this process, I became bored with the food that I was trying to eat. I tried to "spice" up my diet in the wrong ways.

For instance, instead of sticking with good ol' plain water, I started to drin**** black raspberry sparkling water again. It is allowed on my post-op diet, but it is very sweet from artificial sweeteners. That made me start looking for sugary snacks to eat. And we all know those "evil" carbs are "slider foods" . . . much easier for my pouch to handle than the dense proteins my pouch doesn't like.

Well, the end result is not unexpected --> a big stall in weight loss during my precious honeymoon period. It's time to move on!

I thought that I couldn't add veggies to my diet until I was tolerating dense proteins well. But, I now believe that's not true. I absolutely don't like salads at all, but I like most vegetables. For example, I really like caramelized onions with mushrooms -- not much color but savory flavor!

Do any of you have suggestions for favorite non-salad vegetables or recipes for mixtures of veggies and dense protein? Your ideas will really help to me to "spice up" my meal times and get my weight loss back on track!

Thanks!

---Joyce

I pretty much always roast, steam, or "hibachi" a vegetable for my dinner side dish. I roast sweet potato, brussel sprouts, broccoli, and cauliflower. I roast or saute asparagus. I use a variety of seasonings from just salt and pepper, to garlic, to Italian seasoning or poultry seasoning. We really like to do zucchini, mushrooms, and onions in a little sesame oil and soy sauce with sesame seeds. Snap peas are another one we do pretty often or green beans. I generally saute both of those as well. I also like to steam broccoli and cauliflower and add some butter and a little bit of cheese.

Thanks for a lot of good ideas to try. I just seem to draw a blank when I think of making vegetables.

---Joyce

could you do something like a Chinese- or Thai-style stir-fry without rice (or spooning it over riced cauliflower instead of regular rice)? Then you could incorporate some protein in there, too, like chicken (or whatever).

I've been buying a lot of Trader Joe's vegetable concoctions lately. They're more expensive than doing it yourself, but they're already cut and seasoned and I just have to nuke them - super quick and easy.

I wish I had Trader Joe's near me. So many people on this forum mention all kind of great foods that are there. I may have to make a special trip to a Trader Joe's out of the area.

I like the stir fry idea mixing protein and veggies. I'm going to give it a try. Thanks!

---Joyce

A favorite meal of mine is chicken fried cauliflower rice. First, I dice and cook a chicken breast (or sometimes I use leftover shredded rotisserie chicken, or whatever I have on hand). Set the cooked chicken aside. In a sauté pan, add a drizzle of sesame oil (sesame oil will give the fish a more Asian flavor) and whatever veggies you like. If I'm lazy I just use about a cup of a bag of frozen mixed veggies (peas, carrots, etc). I also like some chopped garlic. Once the veggies are cooked through, I add riced cauliflower, and let it all cook for a minute or two. Push all the veggies to the edges of the pan, and crack and scramble an egg in the middle. Mix the scrambled egg into the rest of the veggies. Add your cooked chicken. Then add soy sauce to taste. You have chicken and egg for protein and the rest is vegetables!

Yum!

Wow! That sounds really good! Now, I'm starting to look forward to my meals, again!

Steak, usually ribeye, and mushrooms is a dish I could eat every day and not get sick of it. I especially love leftover steak sautéed with mushrooms and butter. I use jarred mushrooms these days for convenience, but baby bellas are my favorite for fresh shrooms. Onions are optional. I toss the shrooms in a hot pan with butter, sauté it for a few minutes, then toss in left over steak that I've chopped up. I only cook it long enough to heat it.

I also love ground beef seasoned very well, and sautéed with mushrooms and onions. I can make a batch of that and it'll be my lunch for a few days. I'll freeze the rest for later use.

I make a zucchini "hash" with zukes that I've peeled and chopped and onions, seasoned with salt, pepper, and lots of granulated garlic. I sauté in butter.

I've made a roasted veggie casserole out of fresh mushrooms-has to be fresh for this dish, zukes, and onions lots of times. This last time, I added shredded mozzarella on top the last 5 minutes or until it was melts. If it's in season, I sometimes add fennel, and artichoke hearts. I roast a square 8x8 dish for about 35-40 minutes on 350. I can eat that as a side for almost any protein. I don't discard the broth that develops from cooking the veg. It's pretty good in its own right.

I really don't care for most veggies. Those I mentioned plus green/red/yellow/orange bell peppers are about it for me.

I season everything I cook pretty liberally with salt, pepper, and garlic, then add different spices/herbs for different profiles. For the oven roasted veggies, I also season with dried thyme and oregano.

I'm all about the salty/garlicky flavor, but I think any flavors you prefer would work for most of what I've listed.

I love your suggestions. I've had some trouble eating beef, but if I chop it up enough, I think I will have success. And I love fennel, too!