After The Fast: Day Five

Well I spoke too soon. I guess it takes a bit to catch up to you. Weighed myself again this morning (I really need to stop doing that), and I had gained a bit more weight. Coming in at 205.5lbs. That's another two pounds. I'm not concerned, I guess I just thought I was special and wouldn't gain a few pounds back after the end of the fast. Wrong again Ronald.

If this was a real photo, it would be mostly just the left side of my body on the scale.

So, I think I'll stop weighing myself daily and go to once a week. Since I'm concentrating more on exercise anyway, I'll try to think more about how I look as opposed to how much I weigh. I want to tone my upper body more, as well as my abdomen. Doing a lot of crunches and curls. Sounds like a breakfast cereal: Crunches And Curls...by Kellogg's.

I'm still eating very well. Two eggs for breakfast. Granola at 10am. Sushi, rice and vegetables for lunch. Apples and peanut butter at 3pm. A little more sushi, or rice and beans, for dinner. Hell, all I'm eating is eggs, rice, beans, vegetables, a tiny bit of fish, fruit and nuts. All I'm drinking is water, and a little decaf coffee or tea at night.

I don't get a lot of cardio exercise except on the weekends. It's mostly isometrics what I'm doing. Resistance training. I may have to step up my weekend cardio a bit. But I think I'm getting a pretty good workout in the morning. Although never REALLY sore like I would be if I worked out in the gym. Not sure whether that's good or bad.

Wondering if it wouldn't be a good idea to juice one meal a day. Breakfast, for instance. It would provide me a lot of my vitamins and minerals for the day. Buying and maintaining the produce is a hassle though. You can't buy too much or it goes south, and I don't want to put any more time into this than I already am. It's consuming my life. :) Still, it would be very healthy and might contribute to my weight loss.

Ok, enough of that. Back to food. This weekend I was going to try to cook Naan, a middle eastern flat bread, but I found these two recipes for grill pizza and flatbread. I'm going to combine them and make some herbed flatbread on the Big Green Egg.

Grill Pizza

Cooked Grill Pizza

Making The Flatbread

Finished Flatbread

I haven't cooked on my Egg since I quit smoking and drinking. I don't know what the fuck I'm going to do while I'm cooking, but I guess I'll figure something out.

Here are the recipes I'm using as inspiration. I'm going to alter things a bit since I'm cooking on the Egg, but even if you don't have an Egg, you can use either the oven or a traditional gas grill and make do. Enjoy!

Herbed Flatbread

Makes 16

* 1 cup warm water (about 110 degrees)

* 1 teaspoon active dry yeast (from one 1/4-ounce envelope)

* 3 cups all-purpose flour, plus more for surface and hands

* 3 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil, plus more for bowl

* Coarse salt

* 1 teaspoon sugar

* 1 large egg whisked with 1 tablespoon water, for egg wash

* Sea salt, for sprinkling

* 1/4 cup fresh rosemary or thyme (or a combination)

Directions

1. Place water in a medium bowl; sprinkle with yeast. Let stand until foamy, about 5 minutes. Stir in flour, oil, 2 teaspoons coarse salt, and the sugar. Stir until dough forms.

2. Turn out dough onto a lightly floured surface; knead with floured hands until smooth, about 2 minutes. Transfer to a lightly oiled bowl, and cover with plastic wrap. Let dough stand in a warm, draft-free place until it doubles in volume, about 1 hour.

3. Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Divide dough into 16 equal pieces; cover with plastic wrap. Roll out 1 piece to roughly 4 by 10 inches on a lightly floured surface; transfer to a parchment-lined baking sheet. Brush with egg wash; sprinkle with sea salt and herbs. Repeat with remaining dough, arranging 4 pieces per sheet.

4. Bake, rotating sheets halfway through, until crisp and golden, 18 to 22 minutes. Let cool on sheets on a wire rack.

Grilled Pizza Dough

1- envelope dry yeast

1- cup water – room temperature or warm

1 teaspoon honey

2 1/2 teaspoons salt

1/3 cup fine ground flax meal- corn mean can also be used- I even sometimes substitute semolina flour

3 1/2 tablespoons whole wheat flour

1 1/2 tablespoons good quality virgin olive oil

3 cups all purpose flour

1- in a large bowl add the water, yeast and honey

2- after all is dissolved slowly stir in the flax meal, whole wheat flour, salt and olive oil

3- slowly stir in the flour until a firm dough has formed

4- remove all contents from bowl and continue to knead on a floured surface until a smooth dough has formed adding additional flour to prevent the dough from sticking.

5- after you have achieved a smooth sough clean of any lumps transfer to a large bowl that has been lightly coated with olive oil. add oil to the top make sure a skin does not form while rising. cover the bowl and let rise for about 2 hours. remove dough and knead again.

6- let the dough rise again for about 30 minutes.

Directions

When the dough is ready, transfer it, lifting it on each side with your thumb and pointer fingers, and spread it across the hottest part of your grill. Let it cook for about 2-3 minutes or until bubbles appear on the top almost like a pancake.

Using tongs and a spatula flip your pizza over on to the cool part of the grill. Quickly brush the top with olive oil and add toppings as fast as possible. The idea is to get each ingredient on to every part of the pie evenly. Then using the tongs slide the the pizza over to the hot side of the grill. When the cheese is melted and starts to bubble its ready. Slide it of to a wooden cutting board, garnish cut and serve right away. The ideal crust is chewy in the center and crunchy at the same time. Practice makes perfect.