Beth...your recipe sounds yummy! Guess I'd do fresh spinach ( steamed) but I remember when I was a kid I loved the canned!
Welcome aboard, and there is a  gatherer thread started by geminisue....for meal idea.

I've found several key things for me as a Gatherer, which may or may not help you.

1)  I have to make sure that I eat enough.  Decades of restrictive diets has really messed up my hunger cues and if I eat a big enough breakfast, sometimes I'm not that hungry for lunch.  It's a huge mistake if I don't eat enough lunch, though, because, all of the sudden I'll be starving and that's when I lose control.  I have to eat enough.

2)  I have to have a really large breakfast.  It is my biggest meal of the day.  I usually have all of the foods in there:  meat protein, veggies, legumes, fat, fruit.   The more complete I make my breakfast (and the sooner I get it in, actually - I always wake up STARVING), the more likely I am to have a compliant day.

3)  I have to eat a lot of fat in the form of nuts and beneficial oils.  The first thing that I reach for is protein, and the second is fat.  Consuming a lot of fat is another thing that keeps me compliant, full and in control.

4)  I have to not over-exercise.  I have spent my life working out and my tendency is to get into the thought process of "if I can do a 1-hour HARD kickboxing class and still walk out without feeling like I'm going to collapse, then I should add another 1-hour weightlifting class in after it."  This has really proven to be a very bad thinking process for me, making me over-fatigued, miserably sore from lactic acid buildup and struggling with compliance.  My goal is to work out 4 to 5 days per week, doing a HARD 1-hour class each time.  Cutting back on my workouts so that I'm not overtraining has really helped me a lot.

So, that's what works for me.  I am clearly a Gatherer with the exception of the fact that I am an Amazon, whereas most Gatherers tend to be small.  That might be why I need the extra fat in my diet.  Whatever the reason, I have lost 47 pounds since Feb.1, following my Gatherer SWAMI to approximately 85-90% compliance.

Quoted from angelighte

I love barley and bought some last night - I am going to test...

I am mostly happy that I have not had coffee for about 1.5 weeks - I was never able to give up before and this is the most amazing thing for plus I dont think about chocolate. I actually just feel like eating vegetarian at the moment and bought some butterbeans and canneloni beans, but I have been eating lamb/beef/turkey but just not as much as before. I am eating lots of spinach and celery and nuts/seeds and I've made my own cerial with millet and ricebran with flaked almonds and dried fruits - I am enjoying blacktea/green tea Power Chai that I used to love before but this time with ricemilk.
I kind of completley forget about eating but then when I do think about food I feel really excited.
I need to drink more water though. I nearly got a triple ginseng tea yesterday but wanted to take one step at a time and got the power chai instead for now and will get the other in a few days.

I would imagine Black tea is an aviod for You O.

Black tea is beneficial for Gatherers. If angelighte is currently following the diet as outlined in the GTD book (and not SWAMI) then  black tea is fine.

Black Tea is a black dot avoid for me, according to SWAMI!

And for me Black Tea is a toxin (no dot) according to SWAMI.

Black tea is avoid.. for me too.  

Peppermint is neutral .. good for some times but not all times.. it's medicine?  

Neutrals are just food, not medicine. Although, when stuffed up, peppermint tea can help loosen up the sinuses.

I had rice and black beans for breakfast today.. two very small scoops.  A nice change, and neutral/beneficial. It felt like eating bread-like food between the teeth, yet it will not do damage, so nice.  (And there is enough left overs for 3 days or more - I can think of so many places to add the texture and the relative flavor to thicken or a change of pace.)

My way of becoming compliant all over again.

The other I can seemingly do again, is drink watered down grapefruit juice.  For a while I had overdone it and my stomach had enough, now several month later I am ok again.  Also: nice!

I am planning to take more Magnesium to keep things moving and feel better...  I have to buy some, which type is best for O -? and available every where?  

I'm a Gatherer and new to the whole thing. I can def. feel a difference for the good and bad depending on what I eat that is beneficial or avoid. It's interesting that everyone mentions the looking younger thing. I've ALWAYS been told I look younger than I am. It was annoying when I was 13 but I like it now. lol

I'm looking forward to seeing improvements in my health with this new lifestyle change. I've always eaten healthy by "normal" standards, but after having kids my body seemed to go on a rampage against me. Now to make it happy again.

Not many male Gatherers, huh?

my husband is an O gatherer

Quoted from Jacquie

Not many male Gatherers, huh?

Not many men on these kinds of message boards, in general. I'm not exactly sure why that is, but women just tend to be chattier, I guess. Every single message board I've been a member of (both parenting and nutrition) seems to have many more women than men who participate- though almost all have had a few men who were valuable members of the community. The only exceptions were the pregnancy and breastfeeding boards- although even there we had a few fathers with questions.

Quoted from ruthiegirl

Not many men on these kinds of message boards, in general. I'm not exactly sure why that is, but women just tend to be chattier, I guess. Every single message board I've been a member of (both parenting and nutrition) seems to have many more women than men who participate- though almost all have had a few men who were valuable members of the community. The only exceptions were the pregnancy and breastfeeding boards- although even there we had a few fathers with questions.

Oh yeah, that makes sense. Not sure why I didn't think of that lol. I always seem to miss the obvious.

Quoted from Lola

my husband is an O gatherer

Cool

so is mine.... and isn't nutrition a female obsession? with the addition of some enlightened males?