#MushroomMakeover - Week Three Recap (Day 22)

This post is one of several as part of the Mushroom Council's 30-day weight loss challenge called the #MushroomMakeover. I am being financially compensated for my participation as an ambassador for this program but the opinions and anecdotes posted are my own.

I am absolutely shocked that I am still sick! Well, I say sick in the sense that I still have sniffles and cough every once in a while. Other than that, I feel fine so it's a bit of bummer since I appear to others sicker than I really feel/am. Dang. What it has certainly also done is made it a little bit difficult to get through my workouts through the Mushroom Makeover schedule but I PERSEVERE! I'm still getting through them one by one. This past week, I spent most of my days in San Diego at the Social Media Marketing World conference so I admit that I did not have much of a choice in adhering to the guidelines 100% when it comes to the lovely nutritional plan given to us by Corinne Dobbas. Nevertheless, I still managed to get my mushrooms in! I would attribute my straying from the plan to why I did not lose any weight this week but I would credit the workouts to why I also did not gain. That's right - I stayed precisely the same to a tenth of a pound. Yay, no gain!

If you haven't seen the past posts, I am heading into the final week of this Mushroom Makeover challenge held by the Mushroom Council and Mamavation where I replace mushrooms for meat (or just make mushroom-centric dishes) four times a week in addition to following some dietary guidelines and a defined workout schedule. So far so good, and I have been losing some weight along the way. Given that they are low in sodium and quite filling though lesser in calories than other protein sources, mushrooms are a great way to go when it comes to making meals. I was already a fan of the fungi but after these past few weeks, am a bigger fan! For Week Three, I had gone a little bit in the direction of comfort food. Check out the recipes after the jump:



I'm always on the prowl for interesting ingredients so when I came across some red rice, it was a necessary buy in my mind. I paired these gems of a grain with black lentils and oyster mushrooms in a Black Lentil Red Rice with Oyster Mushrooms dish that was tasty by itself and could be a base for another added ingredients. You can see the whole recipe here but it involves plenty of stock, shallots, mushrooms, and earthiness.


Farmers' markets show off some lovely finds so when I came across an assortment of colored fingerling potatoes, I grabbed a bagful. I paired these into small bowls for individual Mushroom Potato Gratin dishes that were perfect sizes for snacks. The sauce involved some Manchego cheese in addition to creamy milk. It was a great pick-me-up straight out of the oven.


To warm up a bit and take full advantage of the herbs I had ready in the pantry, I put together a comforting pot of Mushroom Lentil Soup that was rich and full of flavor. This made for a robust soup that could either be had as a side dish or even as a full meal considering just how many nutrients are in the lentils and mushrooms. I think a crusty slab of bread would have rounded it out beautifully by sopping some slices into the soup but alas, I'm trying to stay away from that excess carb...for now. I'll definitely have to remake this!


Here's a small fact many do not know about me - I have a strange sensitivity to eggplant. My lips, tongue, and throat get buzzy within seconds of having it, and while I foresee no other danger, I do not like the feeling that can sometimes start to turn into stinging. So, I decided that even though it was not a meat ingredient, I would replace eggplant with mushrooms in a dish and the choice was Mushroom Ratatouille. Cremini were ideal for this job so the brown mushrooms got diced up with the rest of the multiple ingredients for this comfort food and the result was amazing. The colors were glorious as were the aromas. What a great week of mushrooms it's been!

This post is one of several as part of the Mushroom Council's 30-day weight loss challenge called the #MushroomMakeover. I am being financially compensated for my participation as an ambassador for this program but the opinions and anecdotes posted are my own.