Exploring Veggie Recipes

                                              Veggie Shepherd's Pie

Along with juicing, we're also trying out veggie recipes as we do want to make vegetables the mainstay of our eating regime.   The one in the photo above is a real winner!  It's Veggie Shepherd's Pie - delicious and oh, so filling!   I'll tweak it a bit next time by adding an additional leek and probably one more carrot.   We used almond milk since we're avoiding dairy and parmesan cheese for the cheese  (see notes below in red).  We used cream of mushroom soup so we might try it with cream of celery soup next time.  (I will add WW plus points for this after I put it in the online recipe builder.)

Here's the recipe:

Veggie Shepherd’s Pie

4 medium potatoes, peeled, cut & large diced Boil for 15 minutes or until done. (we used red-skinned potatoes and left the skin on)

1 onion, finely chopped 1 garlic, crushed 1 celery stalk, chopped 1 leek, halved and sliced Soak in water to clean off dirt. 1 carrot diced 1 Cup cauliflower florets.  Add all 6 ingredients to small amount of olive oil and sauté for 10 minutes.  (we had to use our largest saute pan for this as there are so many ingredients to this recipe)

Add cream of celery or cream of mushroom soup.  Add small amount of potato water if it dries out.

Add: 1 tsp Italian seasoning and 1 can drained beans.  Meanwhile, mash drained potatoes until smooth.

Pour ½ cup milk (almond milk) over mixture.  Add ¼ cup grated cheese (parmesan cheese). Season to taste

Spoon vegetable mixture into oven-proof dish.  Top with potato mash.  Add ¼ cup cheese on top Bake 350° for 20 min.

This coming week, we'll be having this has our one solid meal, and we will be juicing the other two meals.    This past week, we've been jucing only at dinner and eating 2 solid meals - mostly scrambled eggs and potatoes sauteed in olive oil for breakfast and veggie, bean and barley soup  (home-made) for lunch.   We also snack on fruit throughout the day.  When we return from San Antonio, we may attempt to a five day juice fast - that means only juicing throughout the day - 4 to 5 juices are recommended.

The results are phenomenal.  We've each lost nearly 10 pounds.  I was up from our trip to Albuquerque just a week ago - and I've lost 3.5 pounds within one week! (see addendum below) And that's mostly from juicing just once a day!  We're anxious to see the results this week after replacing two meals a day with juicing!   

Of course, this is not just about losing weight - it's also about becoming healthy.  We both feel more energetic, have seen positive changes in our skin tone, and have little or no joint pain - and Ralph's blood sugar has been in the normal range.   We also no longer feel sluggish and bloated.    

As I stated in a previous post...since this paradigm shift in our eating lifestyle is working well for us,  our mantra is Keep Moving Forward!  : )

Addendum:   February 25 - official weigh-in day - now down 11 pounds.  I went down five pounds in just the past week (though I had been up nearly two pounds from the week before when we spent the weekend in Albuquerque). Still feeling great, and virtually no cravings!