THM – Page 4 – The Cookbook Experiment

Organizing for THM

The hubby and I have been eating the Trim Healthy Mama way for 10 months! Yay for us!! It hasn’t always been easy, especially for him since he is a major carboholic. However, with exercise and eating mostly on plan, he is down nearly 50 lbs and quite a few percentage points of body fat. Although he’s slipped up some over the last few weeks, he is determined to keep at it. The difficulty now is seeing weight loss since he is gaining muscle weight by working out 3-5 times a week. He and son #2 have a goal of doing their own tri-athalon sometime before the end of September. We’ll see how that goes!

Good organization makes cooking the THM way easy. I haven’t yet tabbed my book, but I do have a notebook put together of all the recipes that I have printed from the very smart ladies who share their recipes over on the THM facebook page. My niece Hannah over at Through the Lens has a great post for getting organized. You can read her post here. I’m so proud of Hannah! She is expecting her first baby in a few short weeks and has been eating healthy the THM way. She feels amazing! I can’t wait to meet my newest great-nephew soon!

Fruit Pizza

We had a fun July 4th on Saturday and tried to keep our eating on-plan through out the day. Unfortunately, the church picnic is where we fell off the wagon! It is so hard to eat right at a wonderful church buffet! But we are back on track today and hoping for a good week of proper eating habits! Tim and I can both tell a difference in how we feel when we eat the wrong type of foods!

My sweet Mia Joy is 10 months old now! We enjoyed having her and her mommy join us at the picnic Saturday. We missed her daddy who had to work! She was very interested in eating Mommy’s BBQ sandwich! With only 4 teeth, that’s just not possible yet!

I discovered this amazing fruit pizza recipe several months ago but never made it until Saturday. It tastes wonderful! As you can see, I switched out the fruits from what is listed on the main recipe. I also used my flour blend of almond meal, oat flour, flax and coconut flour instead of using only almond flour. One other change was to add 1-1/2 tsp of Truvia to the cream cheese mixture to give it a little more sweetness.

You can find the recipe here. I highly recommend it! It is very easy to make and is delicious!

Strawberry Cheesecake Fat Bombs and Overnight Oatmeal

I haven’t felt very creative lately, so coming up with new recipes has not been high on the priority list. Maybe it is because I am feeling the summer slump (no road trip planning going on like last summer) or maybe it is because it is July. July has become a bittersweet month for me over the years. Many of my family members and friends have birthdays in July which make it a fun month, and my parents’ anniversary was July 3, 1956! I just love this picture of them!

Back in July of 1972, my parents moved our family and our farm (about 15 goats, 2 horses, 3 dogs, and several rabbits!) from NJ to SC. We often say it was the best thing that they did for us!

July also has its sad memories for me including the death of my dad in 1989, and the loss of our 3rd child mid-pregnancy in 1992. I often find myself a wee bit melancholy during July. I am so very thankful to have the love of my God who does all things well. He is good all the time! All the time He is good.

Today I am sharing 2 recipes that I discovered over on the THM Face Book page. I’m telling you…the ladies on that page are amazing creators when it comes to on-plan recipes! I have a notebook full of recipes that I printed from that page!

The Strawberry Cheesecake Fat Bombs recipe comes from lowcarbsosimple.com. I made these last night and they were a big hit with everyone who tried them! The only change I made was that I used about 1-1/2 tbsp of Truvia as my sweetener instead of the erythritol or liquid stevia since I don’t have either of those ingredients. I also used the coconut oil option instead of the butter. I also used my mini muffin pan since I don’t have candy molds. You can find the recipe here. Give them a try! you will be glad you did!

The other recipe I’m sharing is also delicious! It is called Peaches and Cream Oatmeal and you can find it here. I made the recipe exactly as written except for switching out the peaches for diced strawberries. It is sooo good! I think that the strawberry version can do without the nutmeg, though. Next time I will leave that out. I also gave mine about 65 seconds in the microwave to warm it up a bit since I don’t like my oatmeal cold. If you are often rushed in the morning, you definitely want to give this a try! It is great making it up the night before so it is all set for breakfast in the morning!

Twice Cooked Sweet Potatoes

I can’t believe we are at the end of June already! Summer has officially started, the days are getting shorter and the year is half over! Seriously, time truly does fly when you get older!

Since sweet potatoes are allowed on our THM eating plan, we eat them often and I needed to come up with a way to use any that we might have left over. Usually I bake one medium-size potato for each person who will be eating. Last week I ended up with an extra one since son #2 didn’t eat dinner at home.

This recipe is really easy to make and tastes very good!

baked sweet potatoes

1-2 tsp. coconut oil

seasonings to taste: salt, pepper, garlic powder, onion powder, etc. Whatever you might like!

Peel the sweet potatoes and cut up into bite-sized cubes. Heat coconut oil in a large skillet. Once the oil is hot, add the potato cubes. Gently turn them as they brown until they are golden crispy on all sides. Sprinkle with seasonings as they get crispy. Serve with your favorite meat and a salad! THM friendly!

Pickled Eggs

A few weeks ago my hubby asked about fixing him some pickled eggs. I had never made pickled eggs before, so I had to do some searching to find a suitable recipe. Unfortunately, the recipes I found all use sugar. Sugar is not on our eating plan, and I wasn’t sure if they would taste ok if I used a sugar substitute. He assured me that he would eat them without sweetener. So after reading various recipes, I came up with this one for him. I hoped he would like them because I don’t eat pickled eggs. I don’t eat anything pickled! Yuck! He liked them, so they are now on the menu list to make again! Without sweetener, they are THM friendly!

1 can sliced red beets (15oz)

6 eggs, hard cooked and peeled

1/2 c. water

1/2 c. apple cider vinegar

Place the sliced beets and eggs in a 1-quart Mason jar. Combine the beet juice, water, and apple cider vinegar in a saucepan and bring to a boil.Pour over the beets and eggs in the jar. Let cool.

Cover and refrigerate for about 24 hours before serving. My hubby said that 24 hours wasn’t enough time for the eggs to pickle well. He liked them better after waiting for about 48 hours.

THM Friendly Lemon-Blueberry Poppy Seed Muffins

I love lemon-flavored breads and desserts especially in the summer! My mom made the BEST lemon meringue pie, and I find that I often crave it during the hot summer months. She was a pro at making pies and pie crusts! Last night we were remembering Mom and her wonderful baking skills. While I remembered her lemon meringue and pecan pies, the hubby remembered her peach pies! It really didn’t matter what kind of pie Mom made. They were all delicious!

I needed to take some muffins to a brunch last weekend and desired to make something lemony. After doing a little bit of research, I realized that there are tons of recipes for lemon or lemon-poppy seed breads and muffins. I found a basic recipe and then tried my best to make it THM friendly. While they didn’t rise like I would have liked them to, they tasted fabulous and received rave reviews!

1/2 c. butter, softened

2/3 c. truvia-blend sweetener

2 eggs

1-1/3 c. flour (I used a mix of oat flour; almond flour, and coconut flour)

1 tsp. baking powder

1/2 tsp. baking soda

2 tbsp. poppy seeds

zest from 1 large lemon

1/2 c. Greek yogurt (sour cream or buttermilk is fine, too)

2 tbsp. lemon juice

1 tsp. vanilla

36-40 fresh blueberries

Place paper liners into a 12-cup muffin pan. In a large mixing bowl cream butter and sweetener. Add eggs and beat well. In a separate bowl, combine all the dry ingredients including the lemon zest and the poppy seeds. Combine the Greek yogurt, lemon juice and vanilla. Mix well. Add half the dry ingredients to the butter/sweetener mixture and blend well. Then add half the yogurt mixture and blend well. Repeat using the remaining dry ingredients and yogurt mixture. Spoon into the prepared pan. Drop about 3 blueberries on top of each muffin. Bake at 350* for about 20-25 minutes or until a toothpick inserted comes out clean. Let cool and enjoy!

Update on the THM Journey

We got home the other night after a wonderful weekend seeing our son commission and graduate! I can’t believe his 4 years of college are now over! It took a lot of grace, prayers, and miracles, but he is finished and well-prepared to do the job ahead of him.

If you’ve been following this blog for a while, you will know that the hubby has been following the Trim Healthy Mama (Man) eating plan since September. His first goal was to fit into uniform so that he could give Ben his first salute. I am pleased to tell you that he made it!! He went from 268 lbs. down to 220 lbs! Of course, being away for a weekend caused both of us to get off the plan and eat poorly for a few days. I felt it mostly in my joints. I also got a terrible headache on Mother’s Day. Now that we are home, we are right back on track, and already I am feeling better! This eating plan is so forgiving! It is easy to hop right back into it when you make a mistake!

The hubby has come a long way since last September! He still wants to lose another 30 pounds, and I think he will do it!

Here are a few before and after pictures. The first picture was last August. The other 2 were just this last weekend.

4-Cheese-Bacon-Ranch Cheese Ball

Last weekend we took a whirlwind trip to see my sister and her family for Easter. I don’t know when my sis and I were last together on this special day! I do know it has been years. She was blessed to have had ALL 5 of her children, their spouses (the 4 who are married), and all 7 of her grands with her!! Isn’t this a beautiful family?

Yes, I do realize that the name of this recipe is quite a mouthful! I was trying to figure out the best name for my cheese ball and didn’t want to leave any part out. So, this is what I came up with!

Believe it or not, I had never made a cheese ball until this week. Not ever. My mom never made one, as far as I know, and we only ate them during the Christmas season, so I usually bought one. However, a few weeks ago, a friend asked me to make one for a bridal shower. I did some searching on Pinterest and on the internet and found several that I thought would do, but none of them seemed to be just right. So, as I often do, I created my own! This is the Cookbook Experiment, after all, you know! Anyway, the ball was a hit at the shower (and the hubby gave it his approval, too)!

16 oz. softened cream cheese

3 wedges of spreadable garlic & onion cheese (I get mine at Aldi)

1/3 c. grated Parmesan cheese

8 oz. finely grated sharp cheddar cheese

1/2 to 2/3 c. crumbled cooked bacon

1 pkg. ranch dressing mix

powdered garlic and onion to taste if you want a little more flavor

1-1/2 c. chopped pecans

In a large mixing bowl, combine the cheeses, bacon, ranch dressing, and spices. Mix well until very creamy.

Spread chopped pecans on a piece of plastic wrap. Shape cheese into a ball and roll in the pecans until fully covered, pressing the nuts into the cheese. Gently lift ball and place into a bowl about the same size as the cheese ball. Cover and refrigerate at least 2-1/2 hours. Serve with your favorite crackers!

This recipe is fine for my hubby to eat on his diet plan as long as he uses the Wasa crackers instead of traditional crackers. Yay!!

THM–A Man’s Perspective

I have been trying to cook for my hubby using a low-carb plan since September. While it has not been an easy road, it has been a successful one. He is down almost 40 pounds! He still wonders if he can do this for life, since it is supposed to be a way of life, not just a diet for a time. As we plan and cook together (yes, he is in the kitchen helping more!) we tweak recipes more to his liking.

Today I read a man’s perspective on the THM eating plan. I love the way he has put the information into 3 easy points. With permission, I am sharing his blog post with you today. If you have been wanting to try THM or if you are trying it and are still confused by it, read this post. I think it will help you understand it better! And keep on working through it! Your health is worth it!