A South Beach gripe

I alluded to this when I began following the South Beach plan a month ago. I'm a "whole foods" kinda gal. When it comes to dietary fat, SB suggests that you:

Dispose of all solid vegetable shortening, lard, butter and hydrogenated oils. Replace them with extra-virgin olive oil, canola oil and cooking spray, and with margarines and spreads that do not contain trans fatty acids.

The South Beach Diet Super Charged, p. 165

I have some issues with this directive.

Obviously I'm not doing much baking on South Beach. Do I miss it? Hell, yeah! I told my husband last night that possibly the worst thing about the plan is I really don't get to cook. Mostly I throw a chicken breast on the George Forman and toss a salad or roast some cauliflower – not exactly haute cuisine, nor is it even creative cooking.

In the second phase of the plan you can eat whole grains. I'm really missing pizza, so I decided to try making a 100 percent whole-wheat pizza dough. It's in progress; I'll report back tomorrow on how successful I was.

I found the recipe I'm using in Nourishing Traditions: The Cookbook that Challenges Politically Correct Nutrition and the Diet Dictocrats.

Right up my alley, little rebel that I am. Heh.

The thing about the recipe that doesn't fit with South Beach is, um, butter. And full-fat yogurt (which I make from fresh, grass-fed, non-homogenized cow's milk). I'll post the whole thing if it's edible, but I just wanted to say right up front that butter is now and always has been on my menu.

Granted since Dr. Agatston doesn't encourage baking or the eating of bread, there's not much opportunity to eat butter. And I use olive oil when I sauté meat or poultry in my non-stick skillet (or Dutch oven, I love my new Dutch oven!), but I've been using olive oil to sauté for years.

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There is, however, butter in the pizza dough. One. Entire. Stick. The recipe calls for softened butter, and mine wasn't, so here's a tip. Don't put a stick of butter in the microwave to soften. Instead, grab your box grater and shred it into your mixing bowl. It will soften quickly and be ready to incorporate into your recipe in no time.

I need to make the mozzarella this morning, pull a jar of frozen pesto and a chicken breast out to thaw and  tonight – we feast! I hope. Film at eleven.