The Mexico Diet: Week 3

 

 Monday morning I awoke to the misery which was not death. I was still alive, and so was my fever, and so was my headache...and my eyes which ached, and my body which still ached...

After I got my senses together and stood up out of bed, I realized I was actually somewhat better compared to the day before, but I still wasn't able to really move around that much. I was still very much sick. There was no way I could go to work.

I stayed home, and basically slept all day. I kept dozing off to the TV, and would wake now and again to take a sip of water with lemon next to my bed.

I ate some more baguette bread around noon, and even managed to eat part of an avocado with it. I had some more bread later in the day, but generally I didn't have much of an appetite.

I waited all day again before I had an actual "meal" of sorts. My friend and neighbor had graciously gone to Whole Foods for me the night before and left a bag of stuff outside my apartment - as she was afraid of me and my germs. Who could blame her?

I ate a can of organic chicken noodle soup she brought me. Boom. My fever spiked.

I took a cool shower to try and get it down, which I'd done repeatedly over the past 24 hours.

It wasn't until around 9:30 that night that I was suddenly starving again. I went into my cupboard and found some non-organic chicken noodle soup and ate that too. My fever spiked again.

I took another cold shower, and went to bed.

The next day, I stayed home again and was definitely feeling better, but also wanted to play it safe and not get anyone else sick, and also not make myself worse, or at the very least go back to where I'd been two days prior.

I needed to now go back on the diet, and eat the food that I'd originally purchased for the week which I did not want to go bad.

Breakfast...

I would never make this again for myself, but for those of you out there who like interesting smoothies...2 plums, seed removed with papaya. But now, I'm wondering...did I remove the seed?

Lunch was nothing special, but it did feel good eating something healthy instead of bread and canned soup.

Ground turkey patties with raw minced garlic on top. On the side, 1 avocado, 1 Roma tomato and 1 yellow bell pepper with a little salt on top.

Dinner was really just right. I got myself an air popper recently and I was very excited to try this out. Not only is it easy and convenient to clean, but it's so much healthier than popping with oil, and it tastes really good - just needs a little more salt...

And on the side, one of my favorite things to make:

The combination includes: 2 avocados, 2 cloves garlic diced, juice of 1/2 lemon, 1 can albacore tuna in water, salt to taste, 2 Mexican green onions. Mix together and that is all!

Wednesday was another day of getting well, but for me that included sticking to the diet.

There was no breakfast for me, as I did not feel like any... but lunch was filling.

1 Roma tomato, a yellow bell pepper, 1 avocado and some raw minced garlic tossed with salt and lemon juice. I was told by my friend that raw garlic helps aid a virus. There was no harm in trying out. God knows I love garlic, and have a lot of it!

Dinner was a masterpiece, if I do say so myself. Let me break it down for you.

I made my homemade salsa ahead of time, only changing it up by using 1 tomatillo instead of 5 like last time, and using 2 beefsteak tomatoes unlike 1 last time.

Once the salsa was done, I stored in the fridge until later. Earlier in the day I'd been soaking some pinto beans. Once they were ready to be drained I cooked them for just shy of 2 hours with some whole garlic cloves

Once the pinto beans were finished, I drained the water, put them back on the stove, added some avocado oil and began stirring...

In a skillet I added some avocado oil, Mexican green onion (diced) and some diced garlic (3-4 cloves). I stirred it all together and then added some ground turkey. Once the meat was nearly cooked all the way through I chopped up a beefsteak tomato and added it, about 1 tbsp cayenne pepper and 3 tbsp paprika, and of course some salt to taste.

Once the tomatoes had wilted and softened, I served up a plate...

Thursday, I was back to work and skipped breakfast. The few sips of coffee I had were enough as I'd been without caffeine for nearly a week and it shocked my system a bit. I had almost no appetite all day, but nibbled on my lunch...

And when I say nibbled, I truly mean that. I touched almost none of it, and later had 1/2 a plum.

I was ready for dinner once I got home, which was a combination of all three of the main ingredients I'd made the night before, all sauteed together in a skillet and served pipping hot with an avocado on top. Yum.

Friday, I did eat my lunch, and as you can see below it was just as exciting as usual, except I had an avocado in addition to the rest of my standard bell pepper/tomato salad...

At dinner, I had something new and delicious for a change, and I am definitely doing this again next week before I finish The Mexico Diet!

Pan Fried Grouper with Bell Pepper Corn Salad

I'll just start out by saying that Grouper is one of my absolute top favorite fish, and I think in some ways I may even like it better than salmon, which is hard even for me to believe. I have only had grouper once for sure, maybe twice in my whole life, and there's a reason - it's not cheap. This was in fact, the first time I'd ever prepared it, and oh my gosh...was it amazing. I must admit that I found the recipe on the internet, however, I did change it up a bit to fit my diet.

Ingredients:

avocado oil for pan 

1 6-8 oz. fillet of grouper

salt to taste 

1 tbsp corn flour 

1 bell pepper 

1 avocado 

3 TBSP organic corn 

Instructions:

1. Pat the fillet of fish dry with a paper towel or napkin on both sides 

2. add salt to both sides of fish 

3. dredge the fish in the corn flour until completely covered, then shake off any residual flour

4. In a cast iron skillet, add avocado oil for frying fish 

5. Place the grouper in the skillet, on medium heat, and wait 3-4 minutes until it easily flips with a steel spatula. If it does not give, wait 30 seconds before it does and then flip 

6. The fish should be golden brown on one side, then allow it to cook for another 3-4 minutes on the other side. 

7. The fish should be an opaque color in the center when it's ready to eat, and golden brown on both sides 

8. In a separate small bowl, mix together bell pepper, avocado and corn with some salt to taste, serve with fish on side 

Saturday, my breakfast consisted of 2 plums, and a few seeds to snack on while at work. I was busier than hungry that afternoon, and so my lunch was pretty sparse. I had a yellow bell pepper with a couple of tablespoons of organic corn - not much to write home about.

Dinner, though, was an invention that turned out incorrectly - but still really delicious. And yes, I know I make the butternut squash fries often, but they're super easy and way delicious and they go with a lot of the meals that I've prepared - so why not?

Tuna Fry Up with Butternut Squash Fries

I was trying to make tuna patties, but they did not turn out the way that I wanted them to. Word to the wise, it's basically impossible to make patties like this without eggs, as they are the binder that keep the meat or fish together. So it turned into a bit of a mess in the frying pan, but it was still delicious.


Ingredients:

2 cans albacore tuna in water

2 TBSP cayenne pepper

2 TBSP paprika

salt to taste 

avocado oil 

handful of chives 

4-5 TBSP corn flour

Instructions:

1. In a bowl, mix together corn flour, tuna, including water in can, cayenne pepper, salt, chives and paprika

2. in a heated pan, add the mixture 

3. cook on medium heat until somewhat golden brown and crispy on all sides of the mixture

4. Serve with butternut squash fries and avocado on side 

Now, I know that I've said I'm only taking a cheat day twice a month - I think I've made that very clear to everyone, including myself. But Saturday night, man, I had an itch that I had to scratch - I need chocolate, and bad. And so, I figured, if I'm going to eat one little piece of chocolate...I might as well make a new rule/exception and allow myself 1 and only 1 snack every other week. So I ate quite a bit of chocolate that evening...but I didn't feel bad about it. Honestly, I think sometimes you do need to allow yourself a small treat as long as it's in moderation and not all the time. I'm not suggesting that chocolate is good for you - physically - but mentally, it might just be.

Sunday, I skipped breakfast once again and went straight to lunch.

Some turkey patties with 1 Roma tomato and 1 yellow bell pepper with salt, and raw garlic on top. Yep. Healthy, delicious and easy to make. I will say too, that a trick I've learned which I think has helped me a bunch in cutting calories while on this diet, is not adding the avocado oil to my salads. Just salt and sometimes a lemon squeeze of lemon is perfectly adequate.

Dinner was amazing as well. I made a new invention - or at least I'm pretty sure it's new. I may have made it once before while on The Washington State diet, but I may have used wine instead of beer. But let me tell you something, this dish is absolutely perfect for fall days when it's cold and rainy outside. And it's so delicious!

Venison & Butternut Squash Stew

Ingredients:

1 lb. 100% grass-fed ground venison 

1 butternut squash 

avocado oil 

4-5 cloves minced or diced garlic

4 green onions

salt to taste 

2 tbsp paprika

2 tbsp cayenne pepper
3 tbsp organic corn

3/4 bottle of Coors Banquet beer 

 

 

Instructions:

1. Remove seeds, peel and chop up butternut squash 

2. On a baking pan with tin foil, add the squash, adding avocado oil on top before baking 

3. Heat at 425 for 20 minutes

4. Remove from oven, stir the squash and place back in the oven for another 25 minutes 

5. While the squash is cooking the second time, in a frying pan, heat oil and add garlic and onion, stirring consistently until golden

6. Add venison, corn, paprika, cayenne pepper and salt 

7. Stir altogether until the meat turns a nice light brown, and you no longer see any pink

8. By now, the squash should be ready, remove from oven and place in the meat mixture

9. Once the beer has evaporated the dish is ready to serve!

Again, this was an amazingly delicious recipe I came up with and I highly recommend trying it! And absolutely, beer goes much better in the flavor when simmering venison than the red wine did.

This is it for Week 3 - I can't wait to start Week 4 and come up with some new and exciting recipes. Stay tuned!
 

“Heap on the logs, kindle the fire, boil the meat well, mix in the spices, and let the bones be burned up.” -Ezekiel 24:10