Category Archives: Dena

Salmon Cakes!

Posted in Dinner, Lunch, Recipes by

We are going to start posting the recipes we used to create the food we’ve been posting about on Instagram.  Today is the salmon cakes:

http://livinthecrunchylife.blogspot.com/2013/02/salmon-or-crab-cakes-with-cilantro-lime.html

Make sure to use Wild Alaskan salmon, as many of the farm raised fish do not contain the same nutrients and can be much worse for you.

We used Bear and Wolf Wild Alaskan Salmon from Costco, as it did not contain any bones.  The first time we made these, we used a canned salmon with bones and it was a major pain.  We also made them without eggs, due to Dena’s allergies, and they came out great.

Now, go eat!

Dena Day 19- Dining and Going Out

Posted in Dena, Dena Progress, Uncategorized by

While doing this month long detox, Cliff and I have taken the extreme by cooking and preparing all of our meals at home. It definitely requires some effort on our part but I think we have finally figured out a rhythm that works for us.  Since many social engagements revolve around food and drinks, I have to admit, I decided to make some adjustments like sticking to drinking only water at birthday parties or going to a museum instead of brunch. Look at that, I am staying hydrated and being more cultured!

I am not saying one can not go out to eat and order something healthy that is on the detox plan, but it is much harder to control what restaurants are putting in the food that you order.    Since I have food sensitivities to gluten, dairy, eggs, and yeast, at this point of the detox, I rather make my own food so I can avoid cross contamination.  However, this will not always be the case!  I absolutely love going out with friends to grab brunch or dinner. Whether you also have food sensitivities or have chosen not to eat certain ingredients, I thought I would share a few things that I have learned over the years and share some stories.

  • Don’t assume a dish is safe and free of your allergies. Make your waiter aware of your food allergies.  They can often guide you to what you can eat on the menu or tell you what changes need to be made to a meal you are interested in. I used to think if I ordered grilled chicken and vegetables, I would be safe. But unfortunately, they may use flour as a thickening agent or cook their vegetables in butter.  Also, I love Thai food and especially love curry. Years of ordering curry and feeling sick afterwards (I contributed this to overeating) but turns out, curry may be used with fish sauce or soy sauce that contains gluten.  The good news is not all curry has gluten in them. You have to ask though!
  • Some restaurants are more understanding of food allergies than others. It is such a treat when a restaurant has a menu that marks food allergies like gluten, dairy, what’s vegan or vegetarian, etc. I have had both positive experiences and negative experiences at restaurants.  My favorite was when I was ordering a salad at Chipotle and asked if their meats were gluten free and the woman immediately threw out my lettuce and changed her gloves as she sternly explained to me: “We take food allergies VERY seriously here. EVERYONE in here has touched a tortilla. EVERYONE!” Even though I was ordering ingredients that were themselves gluten free and dairy free, she was concerned with cross contamination. Her gloves had been handling flour tortillas and then were handling my lettuce.  I know you may think that this is crazy and that it’s probably such a small trace, but if you are sensitive to something, your body sure does react!  On the contrary, I once went to a restaurant in Brooklyn and told them my allergies and the waitress seemed annoyed with me as she responded,  ” weeeell, how allergic are you?”
  • Not all waiters understand what gluten is in or what has dairy. I once went out for a friend’s birthday brunch and let the waiter know my allergies. He was the nicest guy but thought that French Toast would be okay for me to eat.
  • Be “that” guy. Be picky! It’s perfectly okay to be picky and change your order to accommodate your personal needs.  My friends may be sick of me when we go out (hopefully not), but it’s my body and I do not want to feel ill from a meal.  An example of this:  “Hi.  I am allergic to gluten, dairy, and eggs. I would like the Chicken Cobb Salad, but without the blue cheese and the eggs.  Also, instead of the dressing, can I please have olive oil and lemon on the side?”
  • Check the menu ahead of time/Call ahead.  For me, If I am trying a new place out and I know where I am going, I check out the menu first. Also, I often call ahead to inquire about the menu to make sure there is something I can eat there.
  • Do the best you can. That is all you can do. The good news: It seems that more and more restaurants are getting on board with acknowledging food sensitivities and food allergies.  When I first found out I had these sensitivities in 2006, I had no idea what gluten was and I never heard it being talked about!

Below is an image of a menu where the waiter kindly told me what I could and could not have on their menu by crossing out everything but three items. I could have the oysters, pickles, or the Roasted Mackerel.  I had the Mackerel and it was delicious 🙂

IMG_5507 (1)

-Dena

 

Dena Day 13- Finding Balance

Posted in Dena, Dena Progress by

I am learning that the hardest part for me of this detox process has been finding balance…especially now that I have introduced going to the gym! For the first week or so, I had found my rhythm and was doing really well on prepping meals.  If I didn’t have the groceries I needed for dinner, I had plenty of time to swing by the grocery store, meat or fish market, and eat at a decent hour. But, it was time to get sweating (and not from the oven while cooking up a storm). Two nights ago was my first day back into the gym and I had planned to go straight after work since I am not a morning person.  My first set back was when I ran out of time in the morning and did not pack my gym bag.  The truth was…I had no idea where my gym bag even was! No problem!  I’ll just swing by my apartment after work to change and head on to the gym! Well do you know how cold it was that night?!? And my apartment was soooo warm.  I convinced myself that I HAD to go since I failed the night before but I will only do a quick workout. After all, by the time I got home it was around 6pm and I also needed to run to the meat market to pick up ground turkey meat for the cauliflower pizza crust I wanted to make that night, and the meat market closed at 7pm.  So…I never made this recipe before, but how much trouble could it really be?  The funny thing is that I had no excuses not to go to the gym in the cold. I was going to walk to the meat market and the meat market is literally a block and a half away from the gym.  After the gym, the meat market, and the vegetable market to pick up the cauliflower, I was finally  home!  It is now a little after 7pm.  My advice to you is to: A- read the entire directions of a recipe beforehand and/or B-try more complicated dishes on the weekend if you are pressed for time during the week.  This meal was delicious do not get me wrong and I will definitely make it again. However, It just took longer than I expected! By the time I finished cooking, it was 9:15pm.

Lessons Learned (sort of)

The next day I made sure to bring my gym clothes to work in my recently found gym bag. Also, we had leftovers of pizza we were able to bring for lunch which was nice. Cliff was going to be at a comedy show at night so I did not have to worry about eating together and what I was going to make. But, I realized that we needed food for the next day’s lunch and dinner since we were going to see a show after work.  For some reason after work, I was really hungry so instead of going straight to the gym, I decided to go home and eat something small, digest a little bit, then go to the gym, then cook meals for the next day. Finished up at 10:15pm and I was exhausted!

Lessons Learned 

  • Plan meals ahead- decide what you are going to eat for the week or at least a few days at a time
  • Spend some time on the weekends going food shopping and gathering all of your supplies.
  • Cook a bunch on Sunday to get you through the beginning of the week
  • When possible, make extra food and freeze it for emergencies or when you do not feel like cooking. This works great with burgers!
  • Stock your cabinets with proteins like canned salmon, and sardines.  This can easily be added to a salad to create a quick meal.

-Dena

Almond-Flax Crusted Chicken Wings

Posted in Dinner, Lunch by

Looking for a great recipe for Healthier wings during the NFL Championship games this weekend?  Check out this amazing meal!

Almond-Flax Crusted Chicken Wings

Almond-Flax Crusted Chicken Wings

We adapted Dr. Hyman’s delicious recipe for chicken breasts and applied it to chicken wings when entertaining guests at the apartment to watch football.  These were definitely a hit!  For me, my goal is always to make things that taste delicious even to people that are not detoxing. For this recipe, I omitted  the onions that are listed in the recipe and create 2.5x the liquid mixture that was covering the chicken wings in order to cover all the surface area. We had a lot of wings (approx 24)!   Also, we did not let the chicken marinate 1-24 hours prior to making the dish to enhance the flavor.  There were some hungry  mouths to feed!  We ended up cooking these for 10 minutes and flipping them and cooking for an additional 10 minutes on the other side. I suggest purchasing a meat thermometer to double check the internal temperature of these. In general, for chicken you are looking for a final internal temperature of 165º F for white meat and about 180º F for dark meat.  (USDA recommendations).

Enjoy!

-Dena

http://drhyman.com/blog/2010/05/18/recipe-almond-flax-crusted-chicken/

Dena-Day 11-Time to Move!

Posted in Dena, Dena Exercise, Dena Progress by

I am not going to say that binge watching 7 seasons of Dr. Who this past Fall caused my weight gain, but there was sure indeed a correlation! While Cliff was going to physical therapy for his Tendinitis, my workouts went from hour long intense gym classes with Cliff at a new gym we were trying out (Epic Hybrid Training) to sprinting several blocks to catch the morning subway as I saw it approaching the station. When Cliff’s elbow starting bothering him, I thought he only needed to rest up for a couple weeks and I saw this as a little break for my muscles! But that turned into three months of physical therapy.  I know I could have gone to the gym by myself, but I was in a serious rut and I was secretly enjoying my evenings alone watching Netflix.  I could not wait to get home from work, make or order dinner, lay my expanding buttox on the sofa and watch some eps!

Everyone goes to the gym for different reasons.  For me, it’s not only for weight maintenance, but it really helps me with my moods.  In addition, I have loose ligaments (perhaps from doing years of dance and gymnastics as a child?) and it is important for me to keep my muscles strong around my joints or else I suffer from subluxation-mainly in my shoulders   (This condition is known as shoulder instability and may result in the upper arm bone (humerus) moving partially or completely out of the socket during certain arm movements).   Since I stopped working out, I have experienced a multitude of issues with my shoulder.  But for some reason, it was just sooo hard for me to get back into my routine.

As the new year approached, of course one of my goals was to get back to the gym. The idea of a packed gym filled with people beginning their New Years Resolutions was a bit daunting to me. On top of that, the first week of the detox left me pretty exhausted and I could not get up the motivation to get to the gym.  After about a week though, I began sleeping better and my energy went way up (especially at night for some reason). This combined with the numbers decreasing on the scale has given me that extra boost of motivation to get back to the gym!  I only did a quick work out today but I am on the right track to getting back in a routine

-Dena

 

Day 5 for me/Day 3 for Cliff

Posted in Cliff, Cliff Progress, Dena by

You may be wondering why Cliff and I started the detox on different days… We originally agreed we would both start this past Monday and that would be our “Day 1”. Well…You see…I got on the scale last Friday night and got a reality check!  I know everyone weighs more at night but the scale was reading higher than I hoped.  At first I was totally convinced that the scale was off and that it was not zeroed before I got on it to weigh myself.  I demanded that Cliff “fix it” right away! After removing the batteries over and over again and restarting this scale, I came to the realization that it wasn’t the scale that needed fixing.  After some sulking, I am now no longer in denial about my weight gain. I can no longer blame my tight fitting pants on water retention.  I knew I had to start detoxing pronto and decided to start the next morning. The good news is I have lost 3 pounds so far and I am really excited for the process and seeing where I am at the end of January. Unfortunately I haven’t been sleeping that well the past few nights.  I have been waking up several times during the night and therefore do not wake up feeling refreshed. I took melatonin last night and listened to a meditation tape before bed.. but I still woke up in the middle of the night. I am rather foggy throughout the day and feel like I am on the verge of getting sick.  Is this my body detoxing?  Since I have been feeling under the weather, I decided to not increase my exercise at the moment and just concentrate on eating clean and not snacking at night.  Well.. that’s all for now. My brain is a bit foggy and it’s time for me to get to bed!  Night !