At least until I get lab work drawn in 2 weeks I'm sticking to strict McDougall again. Still no weight loss, my joint pain hasn't improved, my fatigue and brain fog are as bad as ever, but at least the lack of dairy the past few weeks has improved my sleep because I'm snoring less.

Here's a few of the meals I'm making this week:

Sweet Morocan Stew


Marla's photo - my husband dived in before I could take a picture of mine last night. I served ours over rice, as I can't stand the smell of couscous.


Picadillo Pie


Photo by Marla. Hopefully I could get a shot before my husband grabs the serving spoon when I make this tomorrow.


Italian Garbanzo Stew

I would have sworn I had a pic of this from when I made it in the past. Oh, well. I'll have to try to get one this week. I have the new camera so I may as well use it for food porn.


Irish Vegetable Stew



Again, Marla's shot from the recipe's page.


After months of S.A.D. foods, my family hasn't been too happy about this change back to healthy vegan meals. My husband got used to tuna casserole, chicken, even the occasional kielbasa meal again; my son started missing his meatloaf, hamburgers and mac and cheese instantly, so he refuses to eat the veg foods and makes his own meals. And I have to agree with them.

The food is tasty, and probably the healthiest in the world, but even after eating until my stomach was full I just wasn't satisfied and was still, well, HUNGRY, and so was my husband. For instance, the Moroccan stew recipe should feed about 4 to 6 people, as written. I doubled the veggies and served loads of brown rice (my husband took about 3 cups of rice with his first serving, about 2 with his second, I had a total of three cups) and the only leftovers we have fit into a small container, about 2 cups of the stew and 1 cup of rice. We both had salads before the meal, and immediately after finishing my husband grabbed a package of fig newton bars and ate a whole sleeve, he was still hungry. I grabbed a banana maybe an hour later when I couldn't stand the hunger pains any more.

Last week we ate low fat veg, but most of the meals were pasta-based. This week I'm aiming for all MWLP legal meals, but I don't think we're going to last if we're as hungry after the meal as we were before it. Tonight's the Irish stew, and I'll double the cabbage and carrots. Knowing my husband, I'll have to pop on a loaf of bread to go with it, so I'll decide later whether it's going to be a loaf of whole wheat or a traditional Irish Soda bread, as Marla suggests. Hopefully that will keep him satisfied enough to forgo the cookies, at least for a few hours.

And hopefully after another week or 2 our tastebuds will change again so all this food will be as satisfying as they are tasty and healthy.