Mediterranean Diet Boot Camp

Unless you've been living under a rock, you've undoubtedly been reading all the press this past week about how the Mediterranean Diet is the most healthy diet in the world and how Greek men have 90% less heart attacks than American men.  90%, that's astounding.

And if you're  a regular reader of my blog you also realize that I'm horribly  OCD.  The older I get, the more compulsive I am.  I'm also the Diet Queen!!!  I've tried everything known to (wo)man, sometimes with results, most often without.  Since January I have faithfully, until last week followed Low Carb dieting and I initially lost 7 lbs. stalled out, and didn't lose another pound.  And all the time I'm eating all that bacon and meat, I'm thinking I don't even like meat.

Enter my friend Cynthia, who is a tiny little thing and she's bummed because she's gained 10 lbs.  She told me she was going to try the Mediterranean Diet, and I decided, what the heck, I'll try it too.  I've known about it for years, read about it, but didn't really do any in depth reading, but that OCD kicked in and I have been reading everything I can get my hands on for the last couple of days.  Then I trekked to the grocery store where I spent $4,602.83 on Mediterranean friendly diet foods.

Now if you're not familiar with this way of eating, it's pretty simple.  You limit calories to 1200 a day to lose weight, you eat a lot of veggies, a ton of fruit, lots of olives, a handful of nuts a day, feta cheese, plain greek yogurt, honey  and of course, olive oil.  You eat fish and chicken, and limit red meat to a couple of times a month.  But the best part for me is beans, you eat beans daily, which I adore, so that part is easy.  And whole grains, whole wheat bread, whole wheat pitas, couscous, bulgar, barley, quinoa, and best of all whole wheat pasta, all the good stuff I really like.

 I'm going to chronicle how this is going, along with recipes in case anybody else decides it's time to eat healthy.  And since I don't have a good track record, I'll warn you ahead of time that this may fly out the window in a week,  a month, or even tomorrow, who knows.  But until it does, I'll give you all some "food" for thought.

I toasted  oats this morning by putting oats on my Silopat liner in the oven.  I used convection at 350 for about 15 minutes, stirring often until they were toasty and slightly brown.  And no, I didn't burn them, that's a shadow in the picture.  So now I jar them in my wonderful Ball jars, sit them on the shelf and they're ready when I need them as a topping for my yogurt.

 

And then I made black bean soup for lunch, which tastes pretty similar to Panera's Black Bean Soup.  This recipe is adapted from one I found on Once Upon a Chef, a great site, with lots of Mediterranean friendly recipes.  This was wonderful, a keeper recipe for sure, even hubby loved it.

Serving Size: 4

 

Ingredients

• 2 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil
• 2 medium yellow onions, roughly chopped
• 4 large garlic cloves, crushed and peeled - I used a couple of cloves extra of garlic
• 2 carrots, peeled and roughly chopped - I used a handful of baby carrots
• 2 15-ounce cans black beans, drained and rinsed
• 5 cups (40 ounces) low sodium chicken broth (best quality, such as Swanson) - I used a 32 ounce box of chicken stock,  which is 4 cups, I think that 5 cups would have made the soup too runny.
• 3/4 teaspoon oregano
• 1 teaspoon ground coriander - I omitted this, because coriander is dried cilantro and I am not a fan.
• 1-3/4 teaspoons ground cumin
• 1/8 teaspoon cayenne pepper
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 1 tablespoon fresh lime juice, from half a lime - I used half a lemon instead of lime
• 1/3 cup sour cream - I put a big dollop of Greek Yogurt in mine instead of sour cream
• Chopped fresh cilantro - No way Jose, another omission

Instructions

1. Heat the olive oil over medium heat in a large soup pan. Add the onions, and carrots and cook, stirring occasionally, until onions are soft and translucent, about 8 minutes, stirring in the garlic the last couple of minutes. Do not brown.
3. Add the black beans, chicken broth, oregano, coriander, cumin, cayenne pepper and salt and bring to a boil. Reduce the heat, cover and simmer gently for about 15 minutes.
5. Purée the soup using a hand-held immersion blender until very smooth and creamy. (Alternatively, you can use a standard blender to puree the soup in batches.) Stir in lime juice and season with salt and pepper to taste. Ladle the soup into bowls and top each bowl with a dollop of sour cream and freshly chopped cilantro.

I also started a Mediterranean Diet Board on Pinterest.  Here's the direct link, not a lot of recipes yet, but I'm sure it will fill up quickly.

And if you're rolling your eyes and thinking, "oh-oh, here she goes again" I totally understand.  Just ignore my posts about this, as you all know I tend to burn out quickly.

Tomorrow I'll update you with a book I'm reading and some great sites for you to explore.

Okay, I won't make you wait until tomorrow, here's a great site to get you started...

~ Jan