Recipes – A Sleeve Journey (2024)

January 20, 2015
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September 12, 2014
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Note: Full Chicken burger is pictured, but only consumed half as reflected in the MyFitnessPal data.

September 9, 2014
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September 5, 2014
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Cut half a Quest Cookie Dough protein bar into bite size pieces, lay out on a cookie sheet , and bake for ~ 5 minutes on 350F. Throw on top a serving of Bryer’s Carb Smart vanilla ice cream and prepare to be amazed by this less guilt dessert!

September 4, 2014
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Note: Milk was added to a venti iced Starbucks coffee, not pictured above.

September 3, 2014
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August 21, 2014
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1. Scrambled egg with cheese.
2. Roast beef and garlic hummus with half a brownie Quest Bar.
3. Herb and garlic chicken and Yancy Fancy steakhouse onion cheese.
4. Perky Jerky turkey jerky – sweet and spicy.
5. Gordon’s signature tilapia and diakon raddish baked with coconut oil.
6. CarbSmart ice cream with baked Quest chocolate chip cookie dough bites warm from the oven.

August 20, 2014
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Here’s to my first attempt chronicling a full day in the life of my sleeve. If you’re interested in ones from closer to surgery – I use to do this a lot on my Facebook, so check that album out for early pre-op food collages.

Starting in the top left, going clockwise, and finishing in the center:

• Scrambled egg with shredded sharp cheese
• Chocolate chip cookie dough Quest bar
• Chicken breast
• Coffee with cream
• Eggplant, sliced like noodles, baked in Alfredo sauce. Topped with ground turkey. Ezekiel English Muffin made into garlic bread (only ate half as shown in nutrition below). And only ate one bean of the Asian snap pea salad, which is why it is not listed in the nutrition facts below.

August 20, 2014
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I’ve spent plenty of time (and sacrificed my fair share of sweet potatoesin the process) trying to make my own sweet potato chips that aren’t laden with calories. Don’t get me wrong, I’m not afraid of fat – if you follow me at all you’d know that I don’t subscribe to the Lipid Hypothesis nor to I run shreeking in fear from full fat products – I’d actually rather have them over the reduced fat “healthier version”. But that’s enough ranting about fat for this post – why you’re here is to learn about my perfected sweet potato chip making process! These chips aren’t laden in anything except sweet potato – because sometimes I just want to nom on many more chips without loading in the calories despite the higher glycemic index. Okay, okay, rant over. For real this time.Here’s how to make the chips:

You’ll need:sweet potatoes, hand slicer or equivalent, canola oil spray, salt,baking sheets.

Things I’ve learned throughout my various fails:

• A mandolin or some similar device for consistently slicing very thin is invaluable to this process.
• More isNOT better – this goes for the heat and the oil content.
• This is time-consuming – and walking away from those chips in the oven for long will most likely result in some crispy little black discs and a burnt up baking sheet. Be prepared to baby sit your oven during this process.

The process:

• Pre-heat your oven to a LOW setting – like 225F.
• Slice your sweet potatoes very thin.
• Very very lightly, spray a layer of canola oil spray on your cookie sheet.
• Lay out your sweet potato chips in a single layer.
• Again, very very lightly spray another layer of canola oil spray on top.
• Sprinkle with salt as desired. (I’m not afraid of salt, but I won’t rant about fat and salt in the same recipe.)
• Place in oven.
• Wait for the magic to happen.

Additional notes to be aware of/tips and tricks continued:

• I’ve seen plenty of sweet potato chip recipes cooking them at a very high temperature. At first, this made sense to me – blast them – they get crispy. I sacrificed many a sweet potato subscribing to this theory of home-madesweet potato chips. They always turned up going from orange to charred little discs in about half a second. What worked for me was a lower temperature. I believe this helps them dry out better than blasting them does. Dehydrating is obviously a lower temperature than this and takes even longer but I seem to have found a happy medium between dehydrating and blasting them that works best for me. Maybe it also just extends that time between crispy and black that helps me catch them before catastrophe. No matter the reason – this is the happytemperature I’ve found for my sweet potato chips.
• You’re going to have to baby these things. Certain chips will cook faster than others. This process will most likely consist of a tray in and out multiple times for removal of some and moving around of others. I tend to just have a bowl of sliced ones ready to go in and the sheets become a dynamic process – take some off, add some new on. A whole sheet isn’t going to get done at the same time which is why no – I didn’t give you a cooking time. I’d suspect 10-20 minutes is how long most of my chips stay in, but it varies, and I use this dynamic process to get large batches done.
• Too much oil will also contribute to that quick burning process. Also, parts of the chips will end up chewy and other parts charcoal. Being incredibly light with the oil is key. That’s why when I track my calories for these, I tend to use the pre-cooked sweet potato weight – and that’s it. The oil should be so minimal it doesn’t need to exist on those calorie counters.

August 1, 2014
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Tonight’s dinner was a total winner so I thought I’d share. Anytime my non-WLS boyfriend takes a bite of my food and goes “OMG this is delicious!” I know it’s worth sharing. Healthy AND yummy!

Ingredients:
1/2 FlatOutRosemary Olive Oil Flat Bread Pizza Crust
1.5 oz grilled/boiled chicken, diced
1 oz shredded mozzarella
1 oz feta cheese
~1/8 cup frozen spinach (thawed)
diced red onion to taste (I put lots, so I’ll let you use your judgement on this one!)
Canola oil spray
garlic powder and oregano

Directions:
Spray both sides of your flat bread with a little canola oil and place on a baking sheet. Dust the top with garlic powder and oregano. Bake for ~3 minutes. Layer the rest of the ingredients on as follows: mozzarella, chicken, onion, spinach, feta. Bake at 350 for ~10 minutes or until cheese is melty and crust is crispy.

250 calories 25 protein 14 carbs2 fiber