The French Polynesian Diet - a.k.a. If You Were Stranded on a Deserted Island Diet: Week 4

 

Week 4 is officially over, and I won't lie...I was kind of bad...

So, I'm just going to come right out and say it: work has been stressful. And I'm not really one to stress-eat...but sometimes it's nice to have some chocolate or a drink to calm my nerves. This happened once last week, Friday as you'll recall, I stopped to have a drink at a bar. No biggie. Especially since I didn't even finish the glass of wine.

But this last week of the French Polynesian Diet, I ended up having another drink at lunch two days before my official cheat day. Yes, it was a cheat. But, a much needed one, and it was good. And, even more importantly, I didn't cheat on the food at the restaurant. But we'll get to that momentarily.

First, let's go through my final week of the diet, day by day and assess everything I had...


Day 1:

Breakfast were 3 (picture was taken after the first one was eaten) of the left over macaroons I'd made the day before

Lunch consisted of sweet potato fries with the tuna rice cakes I'd made the day before. Honestly these were amazing, and if I didn't explain the recipe before, I'm going to now.

Ingredients:

Pre-cooked sushi rice

juice from 1/2 lemon

2 cans albacore tuna, water drained

2 eggs

coconut oil

salt to taste

Instructions:

1. In a large bowl combine all ingredients, forming patties out of it

2. In a skillet, heat coconut oil 

3. Add the patties and cook evenly, approximately 5 minutes on each side, until golden brown. Serve

Dinner was another crab omelette with an orange and cucumber slices on the side...

Day 2:

Breakfast was once again leftover coconut macaroons...

Lunch was something even better than the day before. If that's possible. I kept trying these different versions of the "crab cakes" and this one turned out phenomenally well.

Ingredients:

1 lemon

1 orange

3 eggs

4 oz. wild-caught crab meat

2 cans albacore tuna, water drained (optional)

salt to taste

coconut oil

Instructions:

1. Combine zest of 1 lemon, zest of 1 orange, and the juice of both with all other ingredients (save oil) and mix them together in a bowl, forming patties out of it

2. In a skillet, heat coconut oil and add the patties

3. Cook evenly for approximately 5-7 minutes on both sides until golden brown. Serve


Dinner though, I am not going to try and pretend I enjoyed it...because I really didn't. I had a bad day at work and had very little appetite. I made some rice, with cucumber slices and scrambled eggs with the crab meat. I did not like it. I barley touched it, and instead, had a few more of those coconut macaroons...

Day 3:

Breakfast was more of the coconut macaroons, and a banana coconut smoothie with coconut water and ice.  Lunch, I presume was an orange and more of the crab-tuna cakes with rice...and dinner...well, dinner did not turn out well. I had purchased and cooked up some chicken breast from Whole Foods, and that has got to be the first time the chicken was bad. So I had to throw it out. Which left me extremely limited with what food I had available to me in the fridge. I had to have some scrambled eggs for dinner, and relied on pure improvisation for lunch the following day.

Day 4:

Breakfast was a double espresso at Starbuck's, followed by some leftover plantain chips. I literally had not brought anything but these things with me to work, because I had a very early morning meeting before going into the office, and didn't have chicken from the night before to bring for lunch so it was all...improvised.

Lunch though was a real treat. I went to a restaurant where I ordered a drink-drink (a lemon drop to be precise) and they were so awesome, they actually made my lunch in customized fashion. So that I wouldn't be breaking my diet (too much anyway), I stuck to white rice, plain, broiled chicken breast and some sliced cucumber. The food itself was only like $6 too, so it was exciting!

My days start early and end long. I am always exhausted by the time I get home, and I was not in the mood to cook, but unfortunately I had to. My chef is out of town.

To make things easy on myself, I threw some chicken legs in a pan with lemon juice, orange juice, water and some ginger and salt. Bam. After 20 minutes, I threw it all in the oven for another 20 at 400 degrees and served it with some sweet potato fries.

It was delicious.

Breakfast the following day was a banana-coconut smoothie with coconut water and ice.

Lunch was left over chicken with more sweet potato fries. And because I knew I wouldn't be home until later in the evening, I had an orange right before I popped out of work.

My final meal of the diet was not that special, but easy and quick. Scrambled eggs with crab meat, sliced cucumber and an orange.

The next day was my cheat day, and I had no idea how long it would last...but will get to that soon enough. My plan for this cheat day was something new, different, but I was hoping it would have a positive result. Since all the other cheat days I always felt sort of sick after eating the foods that I would buy and then eat, I decided I was only going to eat all-natural, organic, homemade foods on Saturday. Which is pretty much what I did.

I had promised my staff at work that I was going to make brownies and bring them to work with me. However, though the recipe I followed on "Tasty" was pretty straightforward, my brownies were super gooey and essentially they tasted like cooked batter...

We didn't have any plates at work, so my colleague came up with the idea of using coffee filters...

It was honestly really yummy...just not visually appealing. That's okay. I made do while at work with a bag of natural chips (ingredients were avocado oil, salt and potatoes - that's it), and an avocado. It was so yummy and I was set until my very late lunch later that day.

Because I had several errands I had to run and didn't get home until after 3, my lunch was not served until 4. That chef does like to take his time...

This is a recipe that I learned pretty early on during my time in Italy and it's one of the most delicious to make. Super easy, quick and of course buonissima!

I am not going to reveal how I prepared it, but suffice it to say, everything you see is organic.  Organic peas, organic butter, organic half and half, organic...well, you get the idea...

Dinner was later that evening, and I had been wanting to make French Bread Pizza for a while. My mom use to make it all the time when I was growing up, and because it's so quick and simple it sounded like a good idea. But, before making it, I decided to change up the approach. I thought, let's make it more gourmet style and of course, a little bit healthier as well. So naturally, all the ingredients were organic.

Let me assure you too, it was amazing.

Ingredients:

100% organic, no-hormones, no-antibiotics peperoni

100% grass-fed ground beef

1/4 glass Pinot Noir 

salt and pepper to taste 

fresh, organic mozzarella 

organic mushrooms, canned, and drained

1 large red onion

1 green bell pepper 

100% pure cane sugar, 2 tbsp 

organic olive oil 

1 large French baguette

2 organic Roma tomatoes

fresh basil leaves

2 tsp sage

2 tsp oregano 

2 tsp rosemary 

2 tsp thyme

Instructions:

I'll start out by saying, everyone in this country thinks I'm a weirdo because I don't like tomato sauce on my pizza. Now, you are more than welcome to make it from scratch and I encourage you to do so, but me personally, I think pizza tastes sooooo much better without tomato sauce. Also, it's less heavy.

1. Preheat your oven to 400 degrees F

2. On a baking pan, place tin foil, and slice the baguette bread lengthwise, set aside 

3. Slice 3/4 of the onion into half rings; slice 3/4 of the bell pepper finely into small pieces 

4. In a skillet, heat the olive oil; add the onions and the cane sugar 

5. Sautee until they begin to sautee nicely 

6. Add the green pepper

7. Once the onions and bell pepper are finished, remove them and place in a bowl and set aside

8. Place the ground beef in the same skillet and begin frying with salt and pepper 

9. Add fresh basil leaves and continue to cook until nearly brown; add the sage, rosemary, thyme and oregano

10. Drain the mushrooms, and add to the mixture

11. While the meat is cooking, slice up the Romat tomatoes, and slice up the mozzarella as well

12. Once the meat is cooked, turn off the stove and let it sit for 1 minute; in the meantime, add some olive oil to the slices of baguette bread

13. Add the pepperoni, the meat and the sauteed bell peppers and onions to the baguette bread

14. Add the cheese on top and bake in the oven for approximately 15 minutes, or until the bread is crispy and the cheese is completely melted

15. Chop up the remaining bell pepper and onion and sprinkle on top. In addition, I added some chives for color. Buon appetito!

So here's what happened. I did not feel well in the evening. I had one small slice of the French bread pizza and thought I was going to die. But I could tell it wasn't the food that had made me sick. It was more than likely the wine, but I don't think it was just the wine. I think I was ridiculously tired. I work so much during the week and get so very little rest it seems, plus this week I've been so stressed out...it was a culmination of things that made me sick. Nevertheless, I was pissed. I was sups pissed. I got sick on my one day that I can eat whatever I want, and plus now all the food was going to go to waste, and I really did not want that to happen. I wasn't going to let that happen.

I went to bed at 9 pm, which a year ago I would have called myself a grandmother for doing something like that, but it was necessary. I got a full 12 hours of sleep, which told me a lot. I was in bad shape-tired. Over exhausted. I thought long and hard before making my ultimate decision. I had no one to whom I could give all the food I'd made the day before, and with the cost of groceries these days I was even more sick thinking about throwing it out. Against my rules and my waistline screaming at me, I did the only moral thing to do - I had a second cheat day. Which I have to be honest...I think I'll be okay. More exercise, smaller portions this coming week (the first week of the next diet), but it was worth it I think.

I honestly really enjoyed my second cheat day, quite possibly even more than the first, and I wasn't sick. I ate more of my brownies, and more of the leftover French Bread Pizza all day. And it was delicious.

So that is all. That is the final week of the The French Polynesian Diet, and I'm happy I experimented with it. Not everything was fantastic, and not everything was terrible. I am highly looking forward to my next diet, which starts tomorrow and I can't wait for you guys to see all the neat things I'm going to be making and eating.

Make sure to stay tuned... 

 “Then Jesus said, 'I am the bread of life. Whoever comes to me will never go hungry, and whoever believes in me will never be thirsty. '”