A few years ago I began a weight loss journey. I was not just tired of being too big, I had developed high blood pressure. Time to do something about it!
I’m a researcher, so I researched all the diets out there. Paleo, carnivore, Mediterranean, everything you could think of. My criteria were:
- It couldn’t be a diet per se. It had to be sustainable, so I could eat the same things after I lost weight as when I was losing weight.
- I could handle making something different than the family for breakfast and lunch, but dinner had to be something the whole family could enjoy.
That’s it, 2 things. None of the diets hit the mark. Then I found Vshred and that clicked. Vshred isn’t a diet exactly, but it introduced me to counting macros and carb cycling. It helped me understand the actual, pretty settled, science of weight loss. The Vshred app had some decent recipes, but I still needed to chase rules 1 and 2 above as far as food goes.
Enter The Mediterranean Dish. I’ve always liked foods from various places around the world, and when I discovered this book it hit the mark. It’s not a diet, it’s just a lady named Suzy who was born in Egypt, started a website, and then published a cookbook. Ok, so let me explain, because when most people think Mediterranean they think Greek. Maybe they add in Italian and Spanish, but this is ALL of the Mediterranean. Suzy was born in Egypt, her husband’s family is from I think Jordan, and her recipes take influence from all over the Mediterranean area. Egypt, Morocco, Libya, Türkiye, Jordan, Israel, Greece, Italy, Spain, etc. That is what makes this book and her site The Mediterranean Dish special.
This book seriously changed my life. The whole family has enjoyed nearly every recipe we’ve made from it, it fit into all my dieting requirements, and along with exercising and carb cycling, I dropped about 40 pounds pretty quickly.
Fast forward several years, and there are many recipes from this book, her follow on book, and the website that are in our family’s regular rotation for dinner. Our favorite is…. uh…. Sheet-Pan Smoked Paprika Chicken With Chickpeas And Carrots. Doesn’t exactly roll off the tongue, but it’s in this book and we call it Mediterranean Chicken. Here is a picture and link:
I could stop there, but last week I decided to email Suzy. You see, our family has really gotten used to eating this stuff, and when the church was doing a meal train for us (extremely helpful, don’t get me wrong), at one point the girls cried out “Can’t we just have Mediterranean?!” I thought it was hilarious that our kids, the tall girls with obvious Scandinavian heritage, love Mediterranean food so much. So I told her that story. I emailed the website’s info email, never expecting a response, but Suzy responded herself the next day. She was so kind, and her response so genuine, it made my day to tell the girls about it.
So if you’re in a rut, go visit themediterraneandish.com, buy her book, buy her second book, buy the Paprika app on your phone and download recipes. You won’t regret it.
The Pete Blog 