Hello BariBrothers, BariSisters, BariFamilies, and general lovers of healthy, good food. My name is Smye and I live on a small farm in the Pacific Northwest.

During both pre and post op appointments with my nutritionist, I was horrified by the suggested things I could eat once I was back to 'regular foods.' The suggestions I was given were flavorless, full of preservatives & junk, and/or otherwise reminiscent of the american 'instafoods' that are, in my opinion, a huge part of the original problems. That said, I wanted to share some of the real, whole foods I've been enjoying lately without hurting my sleeve or deviating from the dietary guidelines provided to me by my NUT. I'm down 86 lb since I started this journey on Jan 22, 2015, and loving every meal as much as, or more than, pre-op.

I've spent the last 7 years accommodating good food to meet my partner's corn, dairy, and gluten allergies without losing any of the flavor or texture with 80% of all ingredients sourced from my own small farm, so it wasn't too big of a jump to make these recipes low carb, high Protein and delicious.

Over the next few weeks I'll be posting recipes like:

Bariatric BibimBop
Pho
Pastrami Sandwich
Madras curry with fried tofu
chicken tenders with sauce
Sushi - Philadelphia rolls in particular
Personal Pizzas
Smoked cherry-glazed chicken
Barbeque-smoked chicken
Ham and cheese omlette
Pickled duck eggs
Quiche
Ham, egg & cheese sandwiches
Bari-bread
Guacamole Cheeseburgers
And many more

There's no need for food to be tasteless, uninteresting, or questionable in it's contents. If there's something you'd like to see that's not here, please PM me and I'll do my best - I also make sure to try everything myself and feed it to my executive chef neighbor before I post it to ensure it's excellent!

Edited May 2, 201511 yr by Smye

@@hillgirly, Yes, the BariBread is quite different from the Oopsie Rolls without the egg yolks or the full fat cream cheese. I LOVE oopsie rolls, but have actually found the BariBread version to be more widely adaptable to many different sandwiches and/or crusts.

Shortcut Tofu Curry - Prep Time 10 Minutes, Cook Time 3 Minutes

Not anywhere near as good as Madras Tofu, but in a pinch it works. I prefer the Classic Korma or Tikka Masala sauces, but for those who need dairy-free, this is the way to go.

Ingredients:

Maya Kaimal Coconut Curry - 15 oz tub

Silken Tofu - 1 container

Rice Flour - 1 Tbsp

Preparation:

Drain & dry the tofu. Cut into 1 inch cubes & dust with rice flour. Lightly fry in a nonstick pan until golden brown and crispy. Pour in curry sauce and warm through. Serve.

Nutrition per serving (recipe makes 4 servings):

Calories: 161

Fat: 6 g

Carbs: 11 g

Protein: 17 g

Sodium: 453 mg

Oh my !! I have to try the Sushi! Thank you @@Smye

Edited April 24, 201511 yr by VSGmary

@@VSGmary, just let me know what you think, and tell all your friends

Oh my gosh! These recipes sound so good I might have to dust my kitchen off and try some this weekend

Oooh! Can't wait for more recipes!

chicken Tenders Prep Time - 10-15 min Cook Time - 10-12 min

For those of you without any love for coconut, put your prejudice aside and give these a try - the roasting essentially eliminates the coconutty flavor and lends these tenders a spendidly breaded texture & flavor. Don't use coconut flakes or chop them to powder, but a shredded coconut with grain sizes similar to dry rice are about perfect here. Give them a try with your favorite low sugar sauce (I'll be posting a few shortly) and see if you can't stop making these.

Ingredients:

Chicken Breast, skinless & boneless - 1 large

Coconut Flour - 1/4 cup

Egg - 1

Coconut Milk - 1 Tbsp

Dried Shredded Coconut - 1/3 cup

Salt & Pepper to taste

Preparation:

Preheat your oven to 400 F.

Place the chicken breast between two pieces of plastic wrap and pound to roughly 3/4 inch - 1 inch flat. Keep it as even as possible

In one bowl wisk the coconut milk & egg together. In another bowl, place the coconut flour, and in a third place the shredded coconut.

Slice the chicken strips into roughly 8 equally-sized strips. Dip each strip first in the flour, then the egg/milk mixture, and lastly in the shredded coconut before placing on a large baking sheet.

Bake chicken strips for 10-15 minutes or until chicken has cooked through and coconut has browned but not burnt. Salt & pepper to taste.

Dip, bite, enjoy.

Nutrition (makes 4 servings of 2 strips each)

Calories: 182

Fat: 10 g

Carbs: 5 g

Protein: 17 g

Sodium: 104 mg

Edited May 4, 201511 yr by Smye

Blackberry Barbecue Sauce Prep Time - 2-3 minutes

Although I prefer this with 1/4 c of honey rather than the stevia when using on the grill, this certainly gets the job done as a dipping sauce. Turns out we use a LOT less when we brush it on before grilling, and eat a lot more of the stuff when dipping. Thus, I give you, the dipping "go wild" version of this tasty barbecue sauce.

Ingredients:

Blackberries - 1 cup

Tomato Paste - 1/4 cup

Stevia Powder - 1 tsp

Apple Cider Vinegar - 1 Tbsp

Ginger Root, Raw - 1 Tbsp

Onion Powder - 1 tsp

Cinnamon, Ground - 1/2 tsp

Salt - 1/4 tsp

Pepper - 1/8 tsp

Preparation

Place all ingredients in a blender of food processor and blend until smooth.

Nutrition (per 1 Tbsp)

Calories - 14

Fat - 0 g

Carbs - 3 g

Protein - 0 g

Sodium - 49 mg

Edited May 4, 201511 yr by Smye

chicken.html" rel="external nofollow">Smye's Favorite Smoked Chicken, Prep time - 20 minutes, Cook time -2 hrs

This recipe is adapted from the Neely's on food Network (by the way, I do NOT recommend food network for bariatric patients, food porn is never a good idea when we're trying to be so careful with everything we put into our bodies). I received a smoker for my birthday the year before my surgery and I was eager to still enjoy the fruits of my smoker. This recipe is absolutely delicious - the chicken is tender, juicy, and slightly reminiscent of Tim's brand barbeque potato chips.

Ingredients

Salt - 1 tsp

Paprika - 1 tsp

Garlic Powder - 1 tsp

Garlic salt - 1 tsp

Black pepper - 1 tsp

Crushed Red Chili Flakes - 1 tsp

Cayenne Pepper - 1/4 tsp

Dried Thyme - 1/2 tsp

Dried Oregano - 1/2 tsp

Brown Sugar - 1 Tbsp

Raw Chicken - 1

Preparation:

Preheat your smoker with either applewood, alderwood, cherry, or blackberry chips. If you don't have a smoker, set up your grill, charcoal or gas, so there's only (medium to medium-low) heat on 1 side of the grill, wrap your soaked wood chips tightly in foil and puncture with a fork 4 or 5 times so there's minimal airflow but it's not entirely sealed. Then set the foil packet full of 2 cups of chips directly above the heat source.

Thoroughly rince the chicken and pat entirely dry with a paper towel. Spatchcock the chicken (cut along the spine on both sides, remove the spine, 'unfold' the bird until flat and tuck the wing tips behind the 'collar bone' until the bird is roughly uniform in thickness and forms a 'sheet' shape). Set aside meat side up and allow to come to room temperature.

Mix all the spices thoroughly and rub all over the meat side of the chicken, make sure to get in all the nooks and crannies.

Place the chicken, meat side up, in your smoker. If using a grill, set the chicken over the portion of the grill without a heat source - this is called indirect heat. Cover and allow to smoke for 1-2 hours until the internal temperature of the meatiest part of the thigh reaches 165 F. The whole 'until juices run clear' thing is inconsistent and often leads to dry, overdone chicken that's near impossible to digest with our modified GI tracts without extraordinary discomfort.

Once the internal temprature of your bird reaches 165 F, remove from the smoker, cover in foil, and allow to rest for 10-15 minutes before digging in. You'll love this chicken, and so will all of your 'unmodified' friends

Note: with this recipe, you CAN eat the skin, you should eat the skin, it's crispy and delicious. Just limit yourself to the portion of the skin on your individual serving of chicken. And if your smoker temperature was too low to get the skin crispy, or if you just get sick of waiting, it's perfectly okay after at least 1 full hour of smoking to move the bird to a full grill on medium head to finish cooking mead-side up and then flip for 10-60 seconds to crisp up the skin. Just be careful not to burn it. Leftovers are 97% as good as the fresh thing and make EXCELLENT chicken sandwichse on BariBread.

Nutrition (makes 8 servings:

Calories: 163

Fat: 11 g

Carbs: 2 g

Protein: 13 g

Sodium: 591 mg

Make this one, impress your friends, and love feeling satisfied with a 'comfort' meal that's entirely comfortable on your conscience.

Edited May 4, 201511 yr by Smye

Naming Contest:

Thanks to all who've been reading & liking these recipes - more are coming. However, I've received a number of PM's (and one reply) asking me to duplicate this on a blog. Rather than being one of the 95% of blogs that start, fizzle and die with readership below 100, I'd like to actually make a go of this as part of my own bariatric journey, to help keep me accountable to an audience to keep up with my own goals & to keep exploring new and exciting food along the way.

Step 1 of any successful blog is a good name and here's where I need your help! If you have any suggestions of something clever & catchy but descriptive send them my way. If someone else posts something you like, say so. Or if you like one of the names below, then please let me know. You all are my target audience, so your input is invaluable. I'm undecided whether I want the title to clearly to communicate that this is written for a bariatric audience - though open to all.

Names proposed so far:

Real Food, Real Weight Loss, Real Delicious

'Smye Body 'Smye Life

That's all I've got

Edited April 25, 201511 yr by Smye

@@Smye

Love the 'Smye Body 'Smye Life but it won't reflect what your blog is about, if that matters. Hopefully our 'word of mouth' will have it growing by leaps and bounds.

I want to thank you for sharing all your tried and true recipes. I can't wait to try the bread and several of the others out. Making it as soon as I post this! I scour the Internet and Pinterest all the time for recipes that will taste good and not upset my altered stomach! This was a great thread, thanks for starting it.

I hope even when you get the blog up and running you'll post the new recipe names here with a link to your blog, is that acceptable here? Hope so. Here are some name ideas ----

Bari-Good food -

Bari-Delicious Recipes

Food to Live By

@@Sunshine_Gal, thanks for your input, let me know what you think of the BariBread and anything else you try. I know my chef friend and I love all of these recipes, but I want to make them as widely enjoyable as possible.

And yes, I'll absolutely keep posting here - they may only be links though unless I hear otherwise from Alex.

@@Stevehud Have you tried the sprouted breads? they are pretty good, but go bad rather quickly.Whole foods carries them

@@Smye Just took the Bari-Bread out of the oven, I only had Fat Free Cream cheese but can't see that it would make much of a difference. Not too keen on meringue but trying to keep an open mind until I try them. Can you use them with something hot for the filling?

@@Sunshine_Gal, absolutely! I particularly like burgers on these (though, as I said in the recipe, good luck eating more than even 1/3 of that burger in a meal). My neighbor made sloppy joes with one of his and it worked well. Just let them cool first. If they're hard/crackly like a hardened meringue, they won't be quite as good, but will still work. I think you'll be surprised by how different they taste from meringue. Good luck and keep us posted!