Crustless Feta & Cheddar Quiche

* This recipe would be for Phase 2 or higher since there is a little whole wheat flour in the recipe.

Nonstick olive oil cooking spray
4 beaten eggs
1/3 cup whole wheat pastry flour
4 cloves garlic, minced
1 Tbsp chopped fresh dillweed, thyme, or mint
1/4 tsp freshly ground black pepper
1/8 tsp kosher salt
1 1/2 cups low fat cottage cheese (12 ounces)
1 - 10 ounce package frozen chopped broccoli, cooked & drained
1 cup crumbled feta cheese (4 ounces)
1 cup shredded reduced fat cheddar cheese (4 ounces)

1. preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Lightly coat a 9 inch pie plate with cooking spray
2. In a medium bowl combine eggs, pastry flour, garlic, dillweed, pepper, and kosher salt. Stir in cottage cheese, broccoli, feta, and cheddar. Spoon into the pie prepared plate.
3. Bake for 40 to 45 minutes or until knife inserted near center comes out clean. Cool on a wire rack for 5 to 10 minutes before serving.

Makes 8 servings at 188 calories per serving. Great for a ready to go breakfast.

The Crazy Makers

Carol Simontacchi is the guest speaker for weeks 2 and 12. She is also my favorite speaker within the PRISM program. The Crazy Makers, How the food industry is destroying our brains and harming our children, is just one of several books she has written. It came in the mail this past week and I wanted to share a page out of it. It says when we reach our 20's our bodies may be done growing but they are never dormant. We are a dynamic organism, constantly changing, constantly repairing, and never the same one minute to the next. To better explain let me quote from the book.

If you could see your body as it really is, you would never see it the same way twice. Ninety-eight percent of the atoms in your body were not there a year ago. The skeleton that seems so solid was not there three months ago. The configuration of the bone cells remains somewhat constant, but atoms of all kinds pass freely back and forth through the cell walls, and by that means you acquire a new skeleton every three months.

The skin is new every month. You have a new stomach lining every four days, with the actual surface cells that contact food being renewed every five minutes. The cells in the liver turn over very slowly, but new atoms still flow through them, like water in a river course, making a new liver every six weeks. Even within the brain, whose cells are not replaced once they die, the content of carbon, nitrogen, oxygen and so on is totally different today from a year ago.

Just a small excerpt from the book but for me it reinforces the importance of what we put into our bodies. We need the vitamins, minerals, enzymes, healthy oils, etc. They all work together and I'm embarrassed at what I considered food before learning from the PRISM program. I praise God for our complex bodies, capable of so much when given a chance!

Best fruits

And their father Israel said unto them, If it must be so now, do this; take of the best fruits in the land in your vessels, and carry down the man a present, a little balm, and a little honey, spices, and myrrh, nuts, and almonds:
(Genesis 43:11 KJV)

Almonds were an essential part of my Phase I & II. Even though they are relatively high in calories, they seemed to work great as a ready snack. I guess it shouldn't have surprised me to find that they were also praised in the Bible. I also found them praised in a NewsWeek article Up Close & edible: Almonds.

Almonds are chock-full of essential nutrients. “It’s a perfect nature’s package,” says registered dietician Dr. Connie Gutterson, author of “The Sonoma Diet.”

Almonds are also a great source of natural protein. A handful of almonds—about 23 nuts or 1 ounce—contains about as much protein as an egg, or an ounce of fish or chicken.

Rebels with a Cause

I had an epiphany today after hearing yet another story in a long line of stories about childhood obesity, childhood diabetes, and just today reading about undiagnosed hypertension among our youth. The epiphany? We are rebels! The twenty or so of us in our two groups have chosen to rebel against the unhealthy momentum growing in our society. We are cool and we are getting healthy. We are like James Dean, only not dead! We are like early Christians in Rome, only not dead. We are like rebels, only we're not just like rebels; we are rebels!

Link to Anti-Estrogen diet article

Glenn shared an article with Monday's group about how estrogen in our diets effects our health. Here is a link to the article The Anti-Estrogen Diet Could Change Your Life that was on Newsmax only a few days ago. This may not be common knowledge, but it isn't uncommon knowledge either. I've read and heard about estrogen sources and estrogen effects before, so for me this article was just another stick to hit me over the head with. A few more sticks up side the head and I might quit drinking soy milk in favor of the real stuff!

Also, a new Phase I group will be starting this Thursday and I think Monica said that there were 8 or 10 people. I guess there isn't a shortage of people who could eat better.