Went away (from blogging) for a while, but now I am back.

For the last month - and then some! - I just haven't posted any new information here.  It isn't because I have lost interest in blogging about my experience with The Maker's Diet, but rather it is because there just hasn't been anything new to report on.  I have pretty much settled in to the eating habits and have not varied my food choices very much.  I have revisited the 'egg fast' as I described in an earlier post, Eating on less than $3.00 per day, several times over the last month.  I am also still keeping to an average of one slice of Ezekiel 4:9 bread per day.  About the only change has resulted from my continuing effort to find better options for the foods that I eat.  I have been able to upgrade quite a few of the foods - cage free eggs and grass fed beef, specifically.

One thing that has changed for the better is the addition of 'quinoa' to my diet.  I have been hearing about this 'grain' for a while, but I balked at the price in the store as it is not terribly inexpensive.  Oddly enough, I finally decided to buy some when I was shopping at It's Only Natural the other day.  What is odd is that It's Only Natural is not the place to shop when looking for low prices yet they had quinoa in their bulk section that was priced comparable to other stores.  The truly nice thing was that I could buy only as much as I wanted.

Pretty much every reference that I could find to preparing quinoa called for it to be soaked prior to cooking.  Most called for it to be soaked for a minimum of two hours.  Nourishing Traditions has only one recipe that I could find that included quinoa.  This recipe called for the quinoa to be soaked in a solution of filtered water and yogurt for at least 12 hours.  Having never prepared quinoa before, I opted for the longer soak.  So, last night I started soaking the quinoa.  I used 1/2 cup of the dry quinoa in a solution of 1 cup of water with 1 tablespoon of plain yogurt.
Today, I rinsed the quinoa and set it to boil in 1 cup of fresh, filtered water with a teaspoon of soy sauce.  After bringing it to a boil, I turned down the heat to a simmer and added some peas, onion, and green pepper to the mix.  It seems that I should have cut down on the water a little bit because it took quite some time for it to cook off.  At any rate, I am happy to say that it turned out great!  I think that I have found my new favorite side dish.  As it is prepared similarly to rice, it can easily be substituted for - or blended with - rice to provide some variety.

According to NutritionData.com, one serving (one cup, cooked) of quinoa has:

• 4g of fat
• 39g of carbohydrate 
• 5g of fiber
• 8g of protein.

Compare this to a one cup serving of medium-grain brown rice at:

• 2g of fat
• 46g of carbohydrate 
• 4g of fiber
• 5g of protein.

In addition to buying the quinoa at It's Only Natural, I also bought two other Ezekiel 4:9 products; the Ezekiel 4:9 tortillas and the Genesis 1:29 English muffins.  These give me a little variety over just the bread.

Well, tomorrow morning I intend to start my day with a hot quinoa 'cereal' for breakfast.  I put 1/2 cup of dried quinoa in filtered water to soak overnight.  Tomorrow, I will prepare it with raisins, cinnamon, and some raw honey.  Rather than preparing it separately, I will add my VidaCell to the mix.  I am really looking forward to breakfast!