Tilapia to the Rescue!

Did I mention to you that my 25 year-old, “fly-by-the-seat-of-his-pants” brother is crashing on my couch these days? Yeah. That’s how I feel about it too.

Although with the divas gone for the summer he is good company. Bad thing about having other folks in your home, though, is that you begin to rely on them for stuff. For instance, he gets up earlier than me for work and so he USUALLY makes sure to wake me before he leaves.

Not so this morning. I opened my eyes blissfully refreshed this morning and quickly saw why—it was 8:15 a.m.! You should have seen the speed at which I got dressed and made my lunch. Frankly, I’m surprised my outfit matches.

What does all this have to do with you? Well, I took a moment this morning to document my lunch because it’s a good example of how to cook on the fly.

I came downstairs this morning and put on my tea kettle to boil for coffee water. While doing that, I contemplated lunch. I didn’t have much time to babysit something on the stove so I decided to go with a foil packet. God bless Reynold’s wrap for promoting these things. So the one I made this morning was very simple.

I added rings of onion, some zucchini, halved cherry tomatoes and I chopped up a very small clove of garlic. Onto that I put a 4 oz. tilapia filet, which I seasoned with good ol’ McCormick Cajun spice blend.

Wrapped it in the foil and threw it on the George Foreman grill for about 15 minutes (I find this is good to ensure the frozen filet gets done through.

I quickly made my coffee and dashed back upstairs to get dressed, wrangled the dog into her kennel and by the time I was finished all that, look what was waiting for me:

I hit it with a bit of wasabi-sesame finishing oil and threw it into a microwavable container and was out the door! I walk to work (1 mile each way) and was a speed demon this morning. I got in at 9:30 (per the half-asleep e-mail I tapped out to my supervisor when I awakened) and now have a nutritious, delicious, protein-packed lunch to eat.

A look into the WLS crystal ball...

~~by Nikki

I want to talk to the newbies for a minute. Especially the ones going through severe “food mourning.”

There is hope. Keep up with your plan. Follow your doctor’s orders. Get your exercise, drink your water, take your vitamins. If you do these things, you’ll be healthy. And healthy people have less to worry about when enjoying the below dinner, which is typical of what I eat for dinner at 2 years post-op.

What is it? It is a quesadilla (yes, I know the picture could be better) with a side salad. For newbies this looks like an enormous amount of food. For pre-ops it looks like an appetizer. For me? It’s satisfaction on a plate and I don’t want for anything for a while after. In fact, dinners like this are way I often forget to eat dessert (can you believe I still have Reese’s Cup Pie left in my freezer???).

So this is easy to make. I took half of a Flatout wrap, one slice of pepperjack cheese, and two chicken breast tenderloins. I heated up a sprayed pan, laid the half-wrap on it, layered half with half my cheese, the chicken, then the other half of my cheese. After about two minutes I folded and flipped, another minute and it was done! I love quesadillas because they are easy to section out to accommodate your pouch capacity.

So take heart. Have hope. There is delicious eating in your future. Stick with me and it’s straight to the moon!

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Cuban Sandwich Spread

~~by Jen

You know how you have these "food memories" that get stuck in your head and you start obsessing about them?  Like a favorite casserole your Momma made when you were a child, or your Aunt's practically famous chicken salad?  I was having one of those moments last week, and it got me thinking.

Let me explain...My paternal grandparents spent many years living in Tampa, FL, and as a result, my Granny Sarah's favorite sandwich was the Cuban Sandwich.  I can still remember her making those once in awhile when we were kids.  It was a rare and tasty treat that we all looked forward to.

For the uninitiated, a Cuban sandwich consists of a hoagie roll layered with ham, swiss cheese, dill pickle slices, and mustard that gets pressed until the sandwich is flattened and the cheese gets all melty and nominous.   A good friend of mine also happens to be Cuban, and she makes finger sandwiches out of what she calls "Cuban Sandwich Spread" for every party and cookout we have. Everyone goes nuts for them.  So I was thinking to myself, "Self? How could I get the TASTE of a Cuban sandwich into a more WLS and pouch-friendly format?"

I played around with Liz's original recipe, and voila--the following spread was born!  I actually made finger sandwiches from this for a bridal shower at work last week and they went over really well.  The pic shows the spread on high fiber crackers, topped with squares of Swiss cheese and a dollop of mustard.  This is a neat way to serve it at a party or other gathering, particularly if there are fellow Pouchers in the crowd who can't handle much bread.  So go ahead, crank up the Ricky Martin, and get busy making your own taste of Havana.

Jen's Cuban Sandwich Spread

Ingredients:

1 can Lite Spam (yes, Spam! it grinds up more smoothly than regular deli ham.  If you are categorically opposed to Spam, by all means use deli ham instead.)

4 heaping tbsp Dill Pickle relish (or chop up whole dill pickles)

2-3 tsp of dill pickle juice (from the relish or pickle jar)

6 oz (3/4 of a block) of cream cheese, softened

1/2 cup 0% Greek Yogurt

1-2 tbsp mayonnaise

3-4 tbsp yellow prepared mustard (or Dijon works, too)

Directions:

Cut the Spam into blocks and put it in the bowl of your food processor,
then pulse until it is well chopped.  

Now add in the other ingredients and process until it becomes a smooth spread.  You don't need to add ANY salt AT ALL.  

Taste it and adjust the mustard/Greek yogurt/mayo ratio to your taste.  Store it in a covered container in the fridge, or dive right in and get your Cuban on.  

You know you wanna!

Nik's Excellent Adventure

~~by Nikki

Ok so usually I don't post stuff about my boring, so-called life but I felt inspired to write this because...hell...I'll come out and say it...I'm proud of myself.

Why for, you ask?

Well, firstly if you've been keeping up with me in other venues you know this weekend was my two daughters "SUPER BIG GIRL SCOUTS CAMPING TRIP!!!"

Yeah. I wasn't excited either. In fact, you look up "city girl" in the dictionary and there I am like, "whatevs!"

Funny enough, it did not even occur to me to be worried about my eating on this trip. I think I am far enough out from surgery where I don't need to pack an arsenal of food for a trip but still, it might have been prudent to do some prep work. To that effect, incorporating what went well (and a lot did) and what I could have done to make it go even better, here is the account of my eating on said camping trip.

The first night we had planned to do pizza. We arrived in the evening and after setting up camp we all knew nobody would want to make dinner. So when it came time to order the pizza, your girl had a LIGHTBULB! moment. The pizza place has other stuff...besides pizza! After a quick scan of the menu I decided on a grilled chicken salad (of which I ate the chicken and about 1/3 of the salad before relinquishing the rest to my children).

That night we did the camp fire s'mores thing. I did partake, although my s'more was about 1/nth the size of everyone else's (I used a half of a half of a graham cracker, 1/2 a marshmallow and 2 squares of chocolate. I know how much sugar I can get away with!)

Day 2: breakfast was actually pretty darn protein forward. Egg/bacon wraps and fruit. I admit I did the tortilla (cringe) and it was flour (double cringe!). To my credit my GoWear was registering CRAZY numbers so I'm pretty sure I burned it all off. But I did load up on plenty of eggs and some bacon and cheese.

Lunch was sandwiches and y'all know what that means for me - roll ups! These are soooo easy to do on a lunch meat platter. I did a couple of roll-ups and some more fruit and your girl was good to go!

Dinner was this curious concoction of the Girl Scouts called "Doracos." It is sooooo deliciously evil. You take a bag of Doritos, crunch it up, add taco meat, lettuce, tomato, sour cream, more cheese...and then eat it! Yeah. Not for me. I am in awe of my own will power on this one because me and Doritos definitely get down like that. But instead I loaded up my little plate with lettuce, tomato, sour cream, cheese and topped it with some taco meat (which was beef which usually makes me ill and this time was no exception). Score one for the Nikster!

That night the girls attempted camp fire churros. Yeah. Didn't go so well. Nobody wanted to stand by the fire long enough to cook their dough. I did not partake. I'm not a dough kinda gal. And the things were definitely dough-y. They also did chocolate/marshmallow dipped pretzel sticks. That I could get into. Which is why I split one with the youngest kid before reaching for a beer...y'know...to coat my mouth with a different kind of taste...it was strictly pre-emptive!!!

Day 3 we broke camp early to head out so we only did breakfast which was continental (read: carbinental). I did allow myself a splurge. Just because I wanted it. I had a harvest fruit bagel with peanut butter, banana and strawberry. It was carb city and I loved every minute of it dammit!!! Mind you, I had to do almost all protein the rest of the day to even it all out but it was sooooo worth.

So things I coulda done better:

Well there are a plethora of protein bars, RTD stuff etc. I could have brought with me. But I must say it felt good to not have to do that. Within the choices I was given, there were ways to modify to suit my needs (although I didn't always make that choice admittedly) but I think in the future I'll pack a thing or two just in case.

I did, however, stay hella hydrated (sugar-free drink sticks are my salvation y'all!) and in the end I had a nice, relaxing weekend with my daughters. And one where, for the first time in a long-time...I was not food obsessed.

Ok, back to work making the yummy things you crave! Holla!

BF Top 5: WLS Books

~~posted by Jen

We here at Bariatric Foodie don't purposely pimp any certain publications, and we tend to dance to the music in our twisty little heads rather than the beat of someone else's drum.  However, once in awhile we come across a book, magazine, website, cookbook, (you get the idea) that we think would be helpful/interesting/beneficial/insert your own adjective here and want to share it with you in our "Top 5."

This week I was browsing along through my Amazon order history, looking for something I ordered a couple years back, and I stumbled across the myriad WLS books I bought before my RNY in July 2008.  Yes, I bought many.  Yes, I read them all.  No, they weren't all helpful.  But there were a few that really helped me, some that I refer back to even today at almost 2 years post-op.  In no particular order, I give you......Bariatric Foodie's Top 5 WLS Books.

1.) The Expert's Guide to Weight-Loss Surgery by Garth Davis, MD.
I heart Dr. Garth, like in a deep abiding kinda way.  He breaks it down and gets real with WLS from a professional's point of view.  If you are still on the fence about whether or not you want to go through with weight-loss surgery, this is definitely a good read for you.  I still refer back to this book (that would be my personally autographed copy I got at the OH conference in NY....have I mentioned I heart him?).












2. Women Food and God: An Unexpected Path to Almost Everything by Geneen Roth. This book is notsomuch about weight loss surgery as it is the journey to understanding emotional eating, and working through some of the mental stuff that causes us to eat. Geneen Roth is a nationally acclaimed writer on the topics of emotional eating and weight loss. I am always inspired by her writings, she "gets it."

















3. The Emotional First Aid Kit by Cynthia L. Alexander
I highly, highly, HIGHLY recommend this book for all stages of weight loss surgery patients.  This covers all the head crap that no one tells us will be the absolute hardest part of the whole journey.  I can't even tell you how many times I go back to this book.









4. Weight Loss Surgery For Dummies by Marina S. Kurian, Barbara Thompson, and Brian K. Davidson
Just like the title implies, this book covers all the nuts and bolts of weight loss surgery both before and after.












5. Life After Gastric Bypass: 6 Steps to Ensure Your Weight Loss Success by Gerald Wayne
This is a great guide for us "Afters."  It gives lots of helpful info on maintenance and maintaining your success once the "honeymoon" is over.

Chocolate Peanut Butter Protein Frozen Pie

Before I start, let me say this: my children are very angry with all of you.

I put the poll up on the blog and they just KNEW you would choose cookies and cream. Each day they checked the blog excited to see their favorite race to the finish line. And each day it was with a mixed sense of excitement and desperation that they checked the blog to see Reese Cup overtake C&C as your selection.

Alas, it was not meant to be. They would like to say the following to you:

“We are not happy. That is all.”

Moving right along…

I, on the other hand, was ecstatic! You all know my love affair with peanut butter. So much do I love the stuff that I am on partial restriction from it. But for you, I will make the sacrifice, take one for the team…ah…who are we kidding! I’m as ready to dig in as you are!

(side note: please excuse the fuzzy picture. My digital cam is sick. I took it with my phone and...well, I'm not the best photog anyway so this did not make it better! You get the gist though right?)

Reese Cup Protein Frozen pie

Ingredients

Crust:

2 ½ c. Fiber One original cereal

2 tbsp unsweetened cocoa powder

2 tbsp no-calorie sweetener

4 tbsp. light butter spread (we use Blue Bonnet Light…and before you say “ack?!?!?” consider that you are sharing the love—and calories—with other people)

Filling:

1 box sugar-free fat free chocolate fudge pudding mix

½ c. PB2 (if you don’t have or use PB2 you can use the same amount of creamy peanut butter but adjust your calories accordingly)

12 oz. unflavored 0% Greek yogurt

1/2 c. skim milk

3 scoops chocolate protein powder (or, if you really want to get fancy, go for chocolate peanut butter protein powder)

1/2 cup fat free whipped topping

Optional Topping:

1 package of Atkins chocolate peanut butter cups, chopped (or, in the absence of those you can use sugar-free chocolate peanut butter cups)

Directions:
First, prepare the pie crust by crushing the Fiber One cereal in a food processor or blender (although we strongly recommend a food processor). If you don’t have a food processor, my favorite method is to put it in a large freezer bag and go over it a few times with a rolling pin or whack it with a meat mallet (this works well if you are cooking while pissed off).

Once you’ve got your crumbs, add sweetener and cocoa powder and blend thoroughly before adding butter spread and mixing with your fingers. A loose, crumbly mixture should result. Press this into a pie plate and bake it for 15 minutes at 350. Then transfer to a cooling rack to cool thoroughly.

In a bowl, combine the protein powder and milk and whisk until smooth. If necessary add more milk, one tablespoon at a time, to achieve a smooth, thick paste. If there are some lumps leftover this is ok.

Add the Greek yogurt, pudding mix, sweetener, and PB2 and beat with a hand mixer on medium speed for about 2 minutes (or you can whisk it until everything is well mixed).

Add whipped topping and fold with a spatula (do NOT use a hand mixer and be gentle!) until completely incorporated. Your mixture will be thick since there isn't a whole lot of liquid. If it is too thick to spread, add more milk, a tablespoon at a time, until it is "stir-able" but it should ideally be fairly thick.

Spoon mixture (which will be thick) into cooled pie crust. The best method I found is to put it in one big lump in the middle of your crust and gently coax it outward with a baking spatula.

The name of this pie is something of a misnomer. You can certainly freeze it (and I do) but that's not necessary if you like a softer pie. It is rather puddingy when you use the fridge, but the addition of the yogurt thickens the filling consierably so a few hours in the fridge works just as well.

Before serving add chopped peanut butter cups. Refrigerate (or freeze for longer storage) unused portions and let stand about 20 minutes before serving.

Now we cut ours into 16 slices (just because….um…we do…). For this pie that's a good thing because it is RICH. For those that use Daily Plate or Live Strong, here is the entry for this pie which you can easily plug into your daily plan! (for those that don't use it...check out the stats anyway...they're pretty damn good!)

How big you slice yours? That’s between you and God.

Edited to add: for those who are purists or just don't happen to have PB2 on hand, you can certainly use the same amount of creamy peanut butter. This will alter the calories, fat and protein content considerably, though, so run your own stats!

Curried Chicken Salad

I dunno how it happened...but it did.

Maybe you over-cooked. Maybe the family wasn't feeling your WLS friendly dish. Maybe, like me, you get sick of eating the same thing very, very fast.

But here we are. With an abundance of chicken meat.

I know...I know...starving children in third world countries...the voice of your mother going "finish your plate!!!" You just can't bring yourself to throw it away.

I have an answer for you.

What's this? Well...it's a little concoction I made out of the TON of left over curry chicken I had. The fam liked it, it was just...too much. And so in an attempt to appease my inner "good steward" I re-purposed it into a seriously yummy dinner.

Curried Chicken Salad

Ingredients

1 cup chicken meat, cold and shredded
1 tablespoon light mayo
2 tbsp vidalia onion, diced fine
2 tbsp shredded carrot (I diced for this recipe but you can't really see it)
1/2 tsp Splenda
1/2 tbsp curry powder
2 heaping tablespoons raisins (golden would have been good but I didn't have any)
Directions:

Mix all ingredients well and chill.

I served over a Pop Rice. What's that? It's a flat rice cake thingie that I get at the Amish market. Each has 16 calories and 4 grams of carbs so you could theoretically put straight-up lard on there and still come out ahead in calories.

Not that I've thought of doing that.

Meatless Fridays: Spicy Cajun Tuna Burgers

I have noticed that since I committed to doing meatless Fridays in Lent that I have been eating a LOT more fish/seafood. Interesting.


One of my favorite things to make when I don’t want to fuss in the kitchen is tuna burgers. They come together easily (seriously…they take like 5 minutes to mix up a batch), are simple to cook and the only limit to the flavors is your own imagination.

I personally can’t do hamburgers (not even turkey…something about the coming together of ground meat seems to offend my pouch). I can do bites of a hamburger but even if I make a teeny one it doesn’t go so well. Tuna burgers give me the opportunity to sandwich something between two pieces of (low-carb, whole-grain) bread and eat it.

So for my offering today I present:

Nikki’s Spicy Cajun Tuna Burger

1 can of tuna (do not drain)

¼ cup textured vegetable protein (TVP), dry (if you are saying to yourself, “what is TVP?” click here)

1 egg white

¼ tsp onion powder

¼ tsp garlic powder

¼ tsp black pepper

½ tbsp Cajun spice blend

Optional: chopped onions or scallions
Directions:

1. Empty the contents of tuna can into a bowl and add TVP. Mix well and let stand for a few minutes so that the TVP can soak up the excess moisture
2. Add all spices and mix well again.
3. Add egg whites and mix again. If mixture seems too wet, add a tablespoon or so more TVP and mix
4. Heat a sprayed skillet. Take up some of your tuna mixture and form a patty. There will be some excess liquid and the mixture will be somewhat loose, Trust me, it’ll hold together.
5. Place the patty in the skillet and cook about 2 minutes or so. GENTLY flip and cook an additional 2-3 minutes.
6. Remove from pan and serve!

I eat mine on a whole-wheat Arnold Sandwich Thin with shredded cheese of some sort (sort of a tuna melt type deal) but it is also good as a wrap and you can also make tuna “meatballs” if you are newer post-op and can’t eat a whole patty. I think it’d also be fun to do tuna sliders…but that’s because I’m weird like that.

Have protein shake, will travel...

So you’re busy. You work. You have to get yourself, your kids and, let’s face it, even your spouse out the door every damn morning and you just don’t have time to stop and make, much less enjoy, a home-blended protein shake!

Calm down…we got you covered!

I have a friend who I will not name publicly but if she reads this she will know I am speaking of her. I knew her pre-op and talked to her quite a bit about surgery before hand. She is now the most armed little RNY soldier I’ve ever met. I dedicate this post to her.

Here are some strategies for doing protein shakes (if you should desire to do them) on the go:

1. There are a LOT of ready to drink options out there. Some of our favorites are:

• Muscle Milk Light – I am guilty of not drinking the light ones (my fave is chocolate malt) which are lower in fat and calories. I usually drink my own shakes, but sometimes if I have forgotten my lunch or am coming back from a hard weight lifting session at the gym, I pick one of these babies up at 7-Eleven and go to town!

• Pure Protein RTD – frankly, we like Muscle Milk better. This one, to me, has a chalkiness to it. The flavor is not bad though.

• Atkins – I started out with these as a lil’ baby post-op. The flavors are good, the texture is nice. Unlike Muscle Milk or Pure Protein, however, it reads like a protein shake. The above definitely have “Yoohoo” leanings.

• Isopure – for those that don’t like the creamy stuff. I personally don’t like these straight up but add half a sugar-free drink stick and SHAZZAM! It’s magical!

2. Like my WLS protégé, you too can make your work space into a protein shake kitchen!

How? With the purchase of a few simple items:

• A good protein powder that you like. You can portion them out into snack sized baggies if you want

• Some squeezy bottles of sugar-free syrups. I find the travel lotion bottles work well for these. Just remember to label them. I speak from experience here!

• A portable blender. Yes, they make them and no they are not expensive.

• A box of sugar substitute packets – yellow, blue or pink…doesn’t matter

I do this myself. I just bring in a half gallon of skim milk, stick it in the break room fridge and I’m good to go with breakfast all week. This may seem sort of extreme, but when you drink as much protein as I did early out, it’s a time saving investment!


3. Make your own “blends” at home and invest in a good shaker bottle!

I was going to make a video of this one but it’s so easy I am just going to tell you. Has everyone heard of Pam’s Protein Chai Tea? I hear it is awesome although I am guilty of not trying it yet. Perhaps she’ll bring some to OH conference so I can finally get a taste.

Anyway, this concept is not exclusive to that recipe. You can make a larger batch of whatever flavor you like and separate it into snack sized baggies. To take it a step further (because I have a serious mental block in the morning). I put a baggie in my shaker cup which I put in my lunch bag so it really is grab and go!

I recently posted my Decaf Moccachino recipe. Here’s how you would make that into a larger batch to bag up:

5 scoops chocolate whey

3 tablespoons decaf instant espresso (or decaf coffee if you want to make a mocha)

3 packets Diet Swiss Miss (the 25 calorie kind)

¼ c. Splenda

Mix in a big baggie, separate into snack sized baggies. You can mix this with either water or milk, with blended ice or over ice – your choice!

Let's get fruity!

by Nikki

For years, I went to Baltimore's Cross Street market just for fruit salad from a particular stall that has been there...oh...I dunno...since God said "let there be light" and there was light...and that guy with a bowl of fruit salad.

Nowadays I am on a budget. I am also living a bit differently. So it was a happy occassion that I found that I had enough fresh fruit in my refrigerator to make my own fruit salad!

Now for all the carbophobes out there...fruit salad is NOT evil! No, really! Fruit contains water, fiber, vitamins and when it's hot outside and the fruit is cold in the summer time...YOWSA!

So here is an awesomely awesome fruit salad I made the other day. It made a ton of salad which I have now taken to using as layers between protein infused Greek yogurt in a parfait (more on that later). It sort of puts me in the mind of Sangria...except I remember what happens after I eat it.

Boozy Fruit Salad

2 large apples (I like Pink Lady) cored and diced, skin on
2 cups strawberries, hulls removed and sliced
2 cups green grapes, halved
1 large pinapple, cubed
1 honeydew melon, cubed
1 cantaloupe, cubed
Yield of one small watermelon, cubed
2 tbsp Splenda
1 tbsp lemon juice
A few tablespoons (start with 2 and go from there to taste) sugar-free DaVinci Butter Rum syrup

Mix all fruit together well in a large bowl. Toss in Splenda and lemon juice and mix again. Finally, add the syrup and stir again. Cover bowl well and refrigerate for a few hours (let's say three...although I do this the day before). Whenever you go into the fridge during those hours, just give it a shake.

Serve cold!

BF Survival Guide: Buffet Restaurants

by Nikki

In general, we are not big fans of "the buffet." Doesn't matter which one you name, all buffets have one thing in common for post-WLS patients: they are NOT cost effective. And in most buffets the food is greasy or fried or--much, much worse--un-"stat-able" (translation: you can't tell how many calories is in it. If you are pre-op trust this will become a pet peeve very soon).

In my post-op life I've been blessed to visit the buffet more than my fair share of times. Each time is in the context of "going with the flow" when my family decides to have a function there. I mean, I can't blame them. It's a relatively cheap way for non-ops to celebrate--unlimited food, drink and most of the time a festive environment.

So anyhoo...what brought me to the buffet tonight was pure laziness. It was hot. I didn't feel like cooking. My "baby-daddy's-other-babymomma" (henceforth called "BDOBM") called me up to see if I was interested in going to the buffet. I relented. It happens!

The one good thing about all this is that she wanted to go to the ONLY buffet I'd ever recommend a post-op bother with--Golden Corral. Why, you ask? Let me tell you.

(A caveat: this is not to advise you to go to a buffet. But if you must--if you absolutely must--go to a buffet for a function, I'd HEAVILY suggest that you suggest going to this one for the following reasons.)

Let's start at the beginning:

First off, they give you a discount for being a WLS post-op. And you don't have to run down your medical history. Just show 'em the card from your surgeon's office (you do have one of those, don't you?) and they even have a special button on the register for us. Lookit!

I know, I know it's fuzzy, but the third line up says "Medical Buffet." Wouldn't be my choice for wording but hey...whatever. Moving right along...

So of course you skip the drink and you get your table. The second thing I like about them is that their plates, in general, are fairly small. I think this is to make you think you are eating more than you are. Whatever the reason, it is not for our benefit I am sure. S'anyway, you get in line and guess what? The healthy choices are clearly marked with green signs as opposed to the red ones they use for all the rest of the food.

Sorry the pictures are so small. They were taken with my camera phone. But you get the point. And there are stats right on the sign so you know how many calories you are eating. On the regular food choices...not so much. But I can't be mad about that. If I was eating that crap I wouldn't want to know how many calories were in it either.

At this point you may be asking yourself, "what did you eat, Nik?" And that would be a GOOD question! While I like the green tagged food and all, with the amount I can eat I like to get creative and make something a little more festive. So I made my own little taco salad. It's so cute!

Now you all hear me talk about the "Wonder Pouch" right. In reality, even if it is wondrous...it is still a pouch. The above is what I started with and here's what I ended up with:

Yeah...so even big eaters can't eat that much post-RNY! So anyway. A few warnings. First off, AVOID THESE AT ALL COSTS:

That is NOT my hand by the way. That hand belongs to BDOBM. Whose food choices were good although ones I could not make. But I soooo enjoyed watching her eat (yes, there is something wrong with me...thank you for noticing).

So my camera conked out before I could chronicle dessert. They have many good options. They had some of the sweetest strawberries--bright red and HUGE! Fresh pineapple, melon, cottage cheese, the whole deal. BUT they also had three--yes I said three...tres...trois--regular dessert choices that I could have without fear of dumping.

• 
  
  NSA Chocolate pudding
• 
  
  NSA Blueberry pie
• 
  
  Sugar-free Vanilla Cake

I opted for the chocolate pudding and a bite of vanilla cake. Many times sugar-free cake is dry but not so in this case. Very moist, very yummy. But I'm a pudding gal so just a bite of the cake for me!

Anyways, if you happen to have to go to a buffet, just remember the following:

1. Stick to food that doesn't make you sick at home (I can't tell you how many times early out I paid full admission to the damn buffet to eat 4 oz. of cottage cheese)
2. Don't be afraid to speak up at the register because they may give you that discount. If you aren't comfortable doing it that's fine too though.
3. Beware the soups! Many of them are laden with cream and fat and other things that will disturb your system.
4. If something looks like it's been sitting a while, ask for a fresh pan to be brought out. I also cannot count how many "little episodes" I've had since surgery. For a while the Golden Corral folks thought your girl was bulimic!

Decaf Mochaccino Protein Shake

by Nikki

Ok, we’ll admit it. Both your favorite Pouch Party divas love Click! We both drink it nearly every day and both of us have it on automatic delivery from Amazon.

However, for those who are early-out or, for personal reasons, can’t or shouldn’t drink caffeinated beverages…Bariatric Foodie feels your pain.

And we have a solution.

We did blind taste tests on this shake and darn if it doesn’t taste just like Click! Now there may be some purists that scoff. After all Click is a magical elixir of the Gods right?

(chirp…chirp…) Moving on…

Whether or not you think it tastes the same as that other product, we know this shake will appeal to the Starbucks crowd, ESPECIALLY those who mourned the loss of their daily Frappucino fix (or was that just me?) because they dump on sugar and excess amounts of sugar alcohols.

Decaf Moccachino Protein Shake

Ingredients:
8 oz. milk
1 scoop chocolate protein powder
2 tsp. decaffeinated instant espresso powder
3-5 packets of no-calorie sweetener (team blue, pink, or yellow...whatever you like)
Optional: Ice

Directions

For those who like thicker shakes: Use the Triple X method.

For those who don’t, combine all ingredients except ice in a blender and whiz for about 15-30 seconds. Let it rest a few seconds and pour over ice. I like mine big, blended and topped with a huge glob of whipped cream personally.

But I’m sure that’s just my preference right? ;)