Fast(ing) Food - Honey Bean Salad

Day 67, Feast Day #35

I have been struggling to eat a decent amount of iron lately without eating a good hunk of beef or a bowl of steamed clams it seems like. Due to the constraints of my time and my income, I can't be eating steaks or mollusks weekly. It also appears that Zach and I didn't buy enough iron-rich veggies this week.So I whipped together a more primal version of a classic potluck dish, a marinated three-bean salad, in hopes of getting a little more protein in my diet on the cheap. I substituted refined sugar for honey and avocado oil for vegetable oil  Canned beans are not an ideal food for both primal (stricter people do not condone eating legumes) and non-primal reasons (the can), however, they are cheap. Zach's got to finish his doctorate degree before my pantry lacks cans of beans in it.

Note: Avocado oil is not cheap normally, but remember, I basically got this avocado oil for free. Olive oil is a cheaper substitute that you are more likely to have on hand. Also, I don't consider myself a 100% primal eater, I just have aspirations to transition to a more primal diet.

Marinated bean salad preferences are very prone to individual tastes (like meatloaf, barbecue sauce, and grits recipes). So feel free to adjust the salt, vinegar, and honey to whatever combo of sweet, sour, and savory floats your boat. Add in bell peppers or celery. Go crazy.

Honey Bean Salad (Yields 6 servings) ~153 kcal/serving
Takes 5 minutes
*BONUS* Cost me 50 cents a serving

• 1 can of beans, drained and rinsed (I used light red kidneys) ~385 kcal
• 1 can of green beans, drained and rinsed ~70 kcal
• 1 can of wax beans (sometimes called butter beans), drained and rinsed  ~70 kcal
• 1/4 of a large onion, chopped (I used a yellow one) ~15 kca
• 1/2 cup of vinegar (I used white, white wine or red wine would also work well) ~11 kcal
• 2 tbsp of honey ~120 kcal (if you aren't a big vinegar fan, you can go with even more honey, or less if you want a more sour marinade)
• 2 tbsp of avocado oil ~240 kcal (olive oil would work too)
• 1/4 tsp of celery seed ~2 kcal
• 1/4 tsp dried thyme ~1 kcal
• kosher salt to taste, I used a bit less than a tsp
• black pepper to taste (I used 1/4 tsp at about ~2 kcal)

Mix up the vinegar, honey, oil, celery seed, thyme, salt, and pepper in a large bowl, creating the marinade. 

Plop the beans and onion into the marinade. Mix. You can eat it immediately or chill in the fridge until your potluck or picnic.

Week 9 Summary

Day 63, Feast Day #33

Stepping up my self-control on my feast days lowered my average calorie count these past couple of weeks. Sure I had a deep-fried bacon-wrapped hot dog and a few beers the other day. The point is that I compensated by eating healthier other days. My overall average feast day calories is down, despite this week being a 4:3 (feast day to fast day ratio). I ended up losing a single pound over the past seven days, so I am still at a total of 19 lbs lost in 9 weeks (averaging a 2.1 lb loss per week). For the rest of the world smart enough to use the metric system, that is 8.6 kg total loss or nearly a kilogram loss a week. Americans are silly and I regularly have to look up conversions to cook in my native "customary" units of measurement.

Calories
Week 1: 1,437 kcal or 76% of baseline calories
Week 2: 1,938 kcal or 102% of baseline calories
Week 3: 1,680 kcal or 89% of baseline calories
Week 4: 2,196 kcal or 116% of baseline calories
Week 5: 1,829 kcal or 96% of baseline calories
Week 6: 1,531 kcal or 81% of baseline calories
Week 7: 1,954 kcal or 103% of baseline calories
Week 8: 1,196 kcal or 63% of baseline calories
Week 9: 1,638 kcal or 86% of baseline calories

While ADFing: 1,711 kcal or 90% of baseline calories
Baseline Days: 1,896 kcal

All Feast Days: 2,839 kcal or 150% of baseline calories
All Fast Days*: 470 kcal or 25% of baseline calories

For reference
Week 1: 3 feast days, 4 fast days
Week 2: 4 feast days, 3 fast days
Week 3: 4 feast days, 3 fast days*
Week 4: 4 feast days, 3 fast days
Week 5: 4 feast days, 3 fast days
Week 6: 3 feast days, 4 fast days
Week 7: 4 feast days, 3 fast days, 
Week 8: 3 feast days, 4 fast days
Week 9: 4 feast days, 3 fast days
*Includes faux-fast day that was my mama's birthday dinner.

There wasn't anything particularly interesting about my nutrient intake this week other than that I was missing over a third of my recommended iron intake despite eating plenty of protein. Whoops. This might also be because I didn't eat any of my usual iron-fortified cereals this week, since I am trying to cut down on my processed grains. My total carbohydrate intake was also the lowest it has been on on a 4:3 week as well, so that seemed to be a trade-off that happened.

One of the best sources of iron is organ meat, but the texture of organ meats isn't something I enjoy though. Zach and I are planning to buy most of our food from local markets, so maybe I can get some sort of mollusk to eat this week, since those also have a lot of iron, along with a bunch of dark greens. It doesn't make any sense to live in Seattle and not make some sort of effort to eat good, fresh seafood... unless you have allergies to that sort of thing.