EGGS WITH REFRIED BEANS

[niki]

hey charles.....you're a very bright guy and you're asking excellent questions.........you recognized let's do lunch as live saving...i think that's great.....
  as far as i'm concerned, chocolate is one of the most addictive things in my universe...not eating it just does me better.....now that i think of it, i don't remember roger's reasoning..i think he just believes it to be fattening and not good for let's do lunchers....he'll read this and give you some of his own input....
  i looked up barley grass and wheat grass and see that they're the grains at a very young age and have more of the quality of vegetables than grains....i read where one person said he would recommend wheat grass when he WOULDN'T recommend wheat or wheat products.....
  i remember someone giving me something green in a jar from a health food store that i mixed with juice...i think it was barley green.it was REALLY gross.......i would never buy it again...does this stuff taste good?..
  i don't know what roger or mary would say about this, but i personally wouldn't use it....mary's adage is "when in doubt, leave it out" and this is definitely in that gray area...down the road, you might want to reintroduce it once you've lost 50-60 pounds, but by then you might care too much to take something that might hold you back from losing....listen, mary and roger might tell you they think it's fine..in that case, ignore me...................sincerely,niki

[BookGuy]

Hey Niki-
OK, I will wait to see what Roger says.  I would think that putting spoonfuls of Hershey's sweetened chocolate powder into a smoothie might be detrimental to LDL success, but the chocolate powder I use is 100% raw cacao beans, powdered.  It is supposed to be one of the most effective anti-oxidants on the planet, dozens of times more powerful than red wine or even green tea.  I am hoping that UNsweetened chocolate isn't a LDL no-no, but I will wait to see what Roger says.  I do not normally crave chocolate (I crave carbs, not sweets), and find that the green powdered veggie mix actually overpowers the chocolate, so I don't really taste it that much.

I really like the taste of the green powder, but I cannot vouch for it's taste really - I have really weird taste buds.

Thanks again for taking the time to help me,

Charles

[EnJae]

If I remember correctly, the reason chocolate is not acceptable is because it CAN trigger cravings. I did not find that it triggered cravings for me; so I ate one bar a month at first.
I no longer desire chocolate, so I no longer eat it...

[BookGuy]

Hey NJ
I feel ya! Chocolate bars would probably not work for me.  All the sugar in them would trigger spikes that would really knock me out of whack with LDL.  I am curious to know what Roger will have to say about unsweetened raw cocoa beans in a powdered form though.

Charles

[Forever Young]

Charles,

I eat fruit for breakfast and POPCORN!  And my system is so used to it that it when I change it...it still wants POPCORN!  That satisfies me until lunch.  BUT, I don't make smoothies...I eat whole fruit so I have the benefit of the fiber too.  Just a thought perhaps for you to think about.

Jeanne

[BookGuy]

Jeanne-
Popcorn is a Godsend.  I have not really been hungry enough much to have to use it often though.  OK, now you bring up another question... (I'm warning you... a stupid quesition): Why does whole fruit have more fiber than a fruit smoothie?

Thanks,

Charles

[Forever Young]

Do you use whole oranges rather than juice?  Whole apples rather than juice?  Just how do you make your smoothies?  If you use whole fruit, fresh or frozen, then you would also get the same amount of fiber.  I don't think that most people use whole fruit with the peels.  I have never made or had a smoothie.  I like the taste of the whole fruit.

Another use for POPPED POPCORN..."crackers" in your soup!

Jeanne

[niki]

I did not find that it triggered cravings for me; so I ate one bar a month at first.

  AND it took you HOW LONG to fess up to eating chocolate on let's do lunch?...very nice........nj, was chocolate not something you craved when you weren't dieting?....i always LOVED chocolate...before ldl, i could absolutely eat a big meal and then sit at my desk and eat a couple of chocolate bars....my desk was almost like a small candy store..a cup of coffee with half and half and a couple of chocolate bars.....AHHHH the good old days................SURE, right now i'm just forgetting the nasty after feeling i was left with....AND how ugly the remains are on your hips........or how my weight fluctuated so that i couldn't find clothes that looked good on me...and how tired i felt eating that garbage......AND how bad they made me feel about myself........i guess they weren't good old days....viva let's do lunch(i have viva on the brain...tv land has been playing a LOT of elvis lately...you know, "viva las vegas")........
  charles, what i believe roger will tell you is that chocolate is fattening....i, on the other hand, feel that it's plain out and out addictive(for me anyway)..and most chocoholics will agree with me...i've seen some info on it saying it's good for you, but i've NEVER seen anything saying it's the BEST anti-oxidant on the market..there are SO many good anti-oxidants...AND when i read that, i didn't even take it that seriously...i blew it off as propaganda from the candy industry(they make BILLIONS making americans fat...we are their leading market)...and if i'm not misunderstanding the product you're talking about, it's for health conscious people to spend a lot of money to feel less guilty when they make brownies.....but, please correct me if i'm wrong....i'm a little cynical since my eyes have been REALLY opened since i started on let's do lunch and realize HOW MANY products that don't need to have sugar in them, do.............niki         

[niki]

Why does whole fruit have more fiber than a fruit smoothie?

it's only the presence of the fruit juice...if you use the whole fruit in the blender, there's no difference....NOW, the people on the boards that drink smoothies would have to be the ones to tell you wether they think that it takes MORE fruit to fill them up when it's in the form of a smoothie..............
  now please...you're asking really good questions....we hate the word "stupid" or comparable terms around here...we're here to build each other up, not put each other OR ourselves down....very sincerely,niki

[DEBBIEWEBE]

I use 1 banana 4 or 5 frozen strawberries and about 1/2 cup of frozen or fresh grapes no more fruit than I would normally eat at a sitting.  Then I add icecubes and some of Rogers Diet Arizona Green Iced tea to fill a 24 oz tumbler.  It curbs hunger till lunch or later no problem.
God Bless
Debbie

[niki]

yes,that's what i'm talking about....you CAN make a smoothie without using fruit juice.........and that's something else i was wondering about, debbie, wether the same amount of fruit is as satisfying when it's in the form of a smoothie....ONE of these days, i'm going to make a smoothie..................niki   

[DEBBIEWEBE]

Roger,
Glad you liked the idea.  I love regular fruit smoothies but sometimes I wanted a huge tumbler full so, in order not to eat more fruit than necessary or resort to fruit juice, one morning I topped the blender off with some refrigerated diet green tea and I was defineately pleasantly surprised by the taste.  I thought the green tea would add some health benefits like antioxidens but I also enjoyed the flavor it added to the smoothies!!!
Ive been doing it that way ever since.
God Bless
Debbie

[BookGuy]

Niki & Debbie-
So today I tried my daily smoothie with just a very small amount of Newman's Own grape juice and with lot's more fruit - especially frozen grapes, fresh wild blackberries (picked wild when we went fishing the other day) - fresh picked blueberries & strawberries and a banana.  Delicious.  Thanks for the inspiration!

[niki]

it's wonderful when you rediscover so many wonderful flavors that were on the back burner for so many years...especially,so many different fruits....there are so many different flavors and tastes...you really never get tired of ANYTHING(i never do)...soups, stews......
  i'm in the mood for chili with meat...i have 2 pounds of red beans soaking..tonight, when i come back from the beach, i'll put them in my oversized crockpot(after de-gasing them)and cook them while i sleep..in the morning, i'll brown onion and the meat and add it with a can or two of crushed tomatoes and spices and cook it during the day....i'll freeze some....i'm working sat,sun,mon and i'll have food ready to eat when i come home(just what i like...i HATE to cook on the days that i have to work)...i know the cooking can be time consuming, but once you acknowledge that YOU'RE worth it and you plan it out, it's not that bad..........
  although, in an ldl world (skinnytown)you'd just have to drop by the kitchen at the ranch and see what vituls miss mary's got cookin on the stove............niki
           

[iwannalose2]

gosh I would like some food after reading this.lol...I have a question..you can have chilli??? I love chilli!!

[BookGuy]

Chili is the best. You can eat all you want if it is LDL approved.  There are two recipes for it in the LDL book. Let me know if you don't have the book.  There are probably more chili recipes on this website too.

Charles