September 7, 2016 – Food. Oh glorious food! Food is a big part of my life. Huge. Okay, yeah yeah, food is big part of everyone’s life. But Brian and I really like making food from scratch, nothing processed, minimal restaurants, taking things back to the basics, so this week’s challenge was a fun one. Artistic Food.
Week 36: Artistic Food
Take your food photography to the next level. It’s not lunch, its art.
Every year, Brian gets a couple of bags of fresh roasted Hatch chiles from a friend who annually makes the trek to New Mexico to pick them up. There’s nothing quite like the flavor of a hatch chile. This year, Brian peeled two big hefty bags of roasted chiles while I did the Sunday food prep. Since he had a fair amount of red ones in addition to the green, he did something different. He took all of the red ones and dried them in the oven for 9 hours to get that fabulous toasty flavor every enchilada sauce must have. He makes a delicious chile powder with these suckers, too.
Even with all the food going around Sunday, the dried chiles ended up as my favorite photographs, especially with the tin painting a friend dug out of a dumpster for us years ago.
The reject photos from Sunday’s Food Prep…
The stacks of peeled chiles ready to go! Those red ones in the background are the ones he dried.
Homemade Almond Butter. I live on this stuff.
Sliced sweet potatoes for a Quiche crust.
Sweet Potato crust Quiche with egg, cream, havarti, cream cheese, mushroom, onion, and spinach.
Sliced.
Food prep results. Clockwise starting with Quiche. Quiche, zucchini noodles, hatch chiles, riced cauliflower, almond butter, and mashed sweet potatoes. Brian handles the meat side.
In other Food News:
For a month now, I’ve been on a no grains, no sugar diet to help fight off migraines. I know what you’re saying, “But you’re a pie baker!” I know. It’s okay. I’ve said my goodbyes and I’m fine with that. Why? Because for the first time in years, I went 28 days with only one (minor) migraine. That’s amazing. Brian and I both feel far better and have even lost weight. Sometimes I still miss a baked good, but it’s not worth the pain. I discovered this method of eating through a book called, The Migraine Miracle by Dr. Josh Turknett, MD, written by a neurologist who also suffers migraines. Miracle? I thought. Pshaw. There is no miracle for migraine. I was totally skeptical, but gave it a try anyway.
I am so glad I did.
The first 28 days, I followed a ketogenic diet hard-core (70% of calories from fat, 20% from protein, 5% from carbs). I wanted to purge the glucose from my body. I’ve never felt so great in my life.
I was so thrilled with the results, I went into full stalker mode and sent the doc an email (of which he kindly replied), and found his fantastic banjo playing you tube page! I was just so darned thankful to him.
Now (as you can see by the above photo) I’m adding back in some vegetable carbs, although I need to still keep things low to keep my body burning fat instead of glucose.
The Book:
Check out some of the reviews from people who have succeeded with this eating plan.
Sadly, hubby and I got some kind of a stomach bug which resulted in a nasty four-day migraine for me, but that isn’t going to deter me. Remember, I had 28 days headache free before getting sick. That’s HUGE. Once this bug is out of my system, I’m hoping for 30 days headache free. Then 45. Then 60. A year? Hey! I aim big.
Anyway, if you have migraines, do yourself a favor and check out this book. Seriously. Don’t scoff as I did for so many years, and say, “Sugar isn’t my trigger.” How do you know? Is that piece of cake truly worth a migraine? I think not.
Okay. Soap Box over.
Until next week’s Portrait Fashion (I did some test shots but haven’t nailed it),
