Bread Advice?

I am finding that using coconut flour tends to make baked goods way too dense. Is there an alternate, Primal-approved, flour that can be used?  Please keep in mind that almond flour is not an option since Veronica is allergic to it. 

Or... tips on how to make the coconut flour product lighter?


Help!

Does Cheating Aid Weight Loss?

I weighed in on March 19th, had two pound(maybe three?) loss from the previous week, and then I hit a wall.  ::smack::  I stayed the same number for over three weeks.


 It was really disheartening. 

 I was working out, not over-indulging in treats, and eating a lot of healthy things. So what gives?

I remembered seeing something on Mark's Daily Apple that some people have real trouble losing weight if they are having too much dairy. So I tried cutting back on dairy, but really the only dairy I eat is cheese and butter, and on occasion, sour cream. I didn't want to cut out butter since it has so many great benefits, but I did cut back on cheese by about 60%. 


It didn't make a difference.


Then I realized I would frequently forget to eat during the day. Either I just didn't feel hungry, or I was too busy juggling babies, school projects, and trying to maintain the household, that I would go to be and think "did I eat anything other than that egg this morning?"  Not good. 


I wondered if the accidental fasting was causing my metabolism to drop too low. A commenter offered some advice: try to eat more often, add in some fruit, and a "cheat meal" here and there would help. 


So I added in an apple a day, which was nice because I love apples and haven't really had them much lately. I am getting better at remembering to eat (the commenter was correct when he said that adding in fruit would cause me to feel hungry again), making sure I eat at least twice a day, with the goal being three-four times a day.  And, finally, I had a few treats over the weekend (keeping it as primal as possible). I was skeptical that adding in cheat meals would help aid weight-loss, but... 


Today I decided to weigh-in and since Saturday I have lost 2 pounds! This is the opposite of what I was expecting---yippee! There is a bonus, too. I feel better all around: emotionally, physically, and mentally. I don't know if having a few cheat foods/ingredients helped, or if it's the eating more, or what, but I like it!


The idea of taking one day a week and using it as a cheat day is definitely more appealing at this point. However, I don't want to feel like garbage the next day, so I definitely would want to find the least offensive cheat foods to chow down on. 


What is your favorite cheat food?

Progess Update (Heather)

Yesterday was my last of 18 (six weeks) sessions with a gym trainer. I asked her to measure me to see if I made any progress.

In the last six weeks I lost seven pounds (could be more, but hard to tell with the added muscle) and over nine inches!

This is a total of 20 lbs and 27 inches lost since Going Primal three months ago.

While it's still discouraging to see photos of myself or to go clothes shopping, these numbers give me some hope :)

Before:

Shirt size: XL

Now:

Shirt size: Medium

Thanks, Dear!

Tom made a YouTube out of the Robert Scott Bell interview for me. Isn't he sweet?

Stuffed Mini-Bell Peppers

My grocery store was out of the large bell peppers, which are a staple in my house, so I did the next best thing and bought a bag of mini-bell peppers. The kids like to munch on them, but there are quite a few in the bag, so we had several left over. 


When I cleaned out the fridge, I noticed I had too much cream cheese and I should probably use it up. 


So... I came up with Stuffed Mini-Bell Peppers. 

Stuffed Mini-Bell Peppers:

•  1/2 cup Cream cheese
• 1/4 cup Sour cream
• 4 slices Bacon
• 1/2 Smoked Gouda
• 1/2-1 tsp Onion powder
• 1/2-1tsp Garlic powder
• Salt (about 1/8 tsp--the cream cheese is already salty)
• White pepper (a couple shakes)
• 1 egg

In a medium sized bowl combine: cream cheese, sour cream, chopped bacon, shredded smoked gouda, onion powder, garlic powder, salt, and white pepper. Stir until all is smooth. Then add 1 egg and mix well.  

Then you take your pepper, and slice off the top.

Make sure you use a sharp parring knife and strip the membranes

Then stuff the pepper with the cream cheese mixture (you can use a spoon, but a piping bag is *much* faster and less messy. If you do not have a piping bag, you can make one with a ziplock baggie. Fill you baggie with the mixture, and then snip off a small bit of a corner of the bag, and voila! you have a piping bag!) 

I tried to stand the peppers up so that the filling would not leak out during baking. You can slice the peppers down the middle, and lay flat to bake if you'd rather. 

I'm an idiot and forgot to take a photo *after* they baked, so this is the best I've have.

And they turned out fairly well! Of course, anything with bacon must be good. It's a law.

Leaving Comments Is Now Easier

I've had a few people email me (and a FB friend talk about blogs in general) about not having to sign in to leave comments, and how they hate those annoying word things you have to type in in order to validate your comment.


I am concerned about spammers leaving junk comments, and I don't really have time to authorize each comment as it comes in, so I figured having to sign-in would help with that. And I didn't realize I had it set to ask for word verification. 


We're going to try an experiment... I've set it to allow anonymous to leave comments and not to ask for word verification. Hopefully everything works out wonderfully, but if there are too many spam comments, I'll have to put it back to the original status. 


So there ya go, Sarah. ;P

Tom's Before/After Photos

Tom before GP:

Tom 12 weeks after GP: