First IP recipe (Day Two)

Today's goal: not think about food all the time, not spend a lot of time thinking about or doing diet-related stuff.  Eating is normally just part of my daily routine, and I want it to become that again.

It's actually going better than it did yesterday.  Part of it is that I have a day's more experience at IP food prep and eating, so it's starting to become more automatic.  While I ate my breakfast omelet, I actually was reading newspapers on the internet, which is what I usually do while eating breakfast, but I certainly didn't do yesterday.

(TMI warning)  First physiological sign of change from the diet: my poop this morning had a distinctly green tinge.  The carb-loaded life I've lived until now has not been cleaned out of my whole body yet, but it has been purged from my digestive tract.

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Turkey with Asparagus and Mushrooms

I am something of an epicurean.  (This kind of thinking about food, I like.)  Since my teen years I've been experimenting with cooking, trying different recipes and techniques, always in search of my favourite flavour: the one I have never tasted before.  I haven't had the dedication that some people have, but it is an interest.  Weight-wise, I can be my own worst enemy.

However, the days of merely casual dedication are over.  The IP diet means a lot of food preparation, and I have taken it as a challenge to find ways to satisfy my easily-bored palate within the IP parameters.  I'm going to be inventing recipes every day, until I have a sufficient selection of keepers to start repeating them.

With fats and carbs gone, many traditional ways of flavouring are out of the question.  For instance, you cannot cook shrimp in butter, or sprinkle parmesan cheese over veggies, or marinate your daily portion of lean meat in wine, or use cooked onions (except green onions, which just don't do it), or make rich gravies.  Blessedly, however, a great many seasonings are permitted.  I just about fell over with relief when I learned that garlic is allowed, not to mention pepper.  All herbs and spices are permitted.  Hot peppers and ginger, too.  You can throw in a dash of lemon juice or zest.  (Limes, I have to ask Jo-Ann about; they're not on the list but Melissa and Marv use them.)  Sweetening is permitted with sucralose, aka Splenda, the "left-handed sugar."

So as I go, I am basically creating at least one new concoction, and sometimes three, per day.  I plan to write up the keepers as I usually do and sock them in my recipe folder.

I figured it would take at least a week or two to come up with the first keeper, but I hit it today... a meal that I enjoyed every bit as much as I would have if it had had That Other Stuff in it.  (Of course, as they say, hunger is the best sauce and I'm definitely feeling a little hungry, so I may be biased.  It also helps that I love turkey, asparagus and mushrooms.)

Without further ado:

Karen's IP-Compliant Turkey with Asparagus and Mushrooms

8 oz. turkey thigh (or breast if you prefer - I'm a dark meat person)
1 cup chopped asparagus
1 cup chopped mushrooms (I think any type would do)
1/4 tsp sea salt (that's half my daily allowance)
3/4 tbsp poultry seasoning
1 tsp paprika
2 tsp chopped garlic
1 tsp olive oil (half my daily allowance)
1/4 to 1/2 water or chicken broth (judge as you go)
(Hey... I didn't put any pepper in it!  Could have, that would have worked.  I think a squirt of lemon might have given it a little zing too.  Experiments for next time.)

Remove skin from turkey cut if it has some.  (Required under IP guidelines.)  Whack off any fat too and give it to your dog.  Combine sea salt, poultry seasoning and paprika into a dry rub and coat turkey with it.  Oil a frying pan, brown turkey on both sides at medium-high heat.  Add water and chopped garlic, mixing the garlic into the water, cover, lower heat and simmer until turkey is done.  Add asparagus and mushrooms, and a little more water if necessary, cook until asparagus are that perfect intense green, and serve.  Serves one; double, triple or multiply by 10 for IP dinner parties!

This dish goes perfectly with a nice delicate white wine.  No!  That was but a pleasant fantasy.  IP requires you to be a complete teetotaler at least for Phase One.

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