Month 1 Check In

Well... I starting this Diet Blog on December 27, 2007 and today it is January 27, 2008. One month into the diet-exercise-life plan. Time to check up on my progress.

Food:

My cunning plan is turning out to be much more difficult than I had made it out to be. I am averaging one home cooked meal a week totaling on average 6 servings. I am supplementing the dearth of home cooked meals with packaged stuff of dubious nutritional value and by eating out far more than is recommended when you are supposed to be on a diet. In my defense I will say that I have been watching my serving sizes in general and feel that I am overall eating less than I was a month ago. I couldn't hazard a guess as to how many calories I was taking in in a given day but i'm still fairly sure it is in excess of what i ought to be taking in.

Exercise:

I'm not getting in every day. I am failing to go nearly every Sunday and Tuesday. But that still leaves the other 5 days of the week which I regularly manage to get to the gym on. So I would say I go 5 days a week and sometimes 6. I've been lengthening the time I work out until just yesterday I was on the elliptical trainer for a solid hour! I've been doing mostly aerobics on the elliptical trainer but I have started branching out into the weight machines for a little variety and because gaining muscle is a way to encourage weight loss. I now consistently get 2 miles or more in the first 30 minutes I'm on the machine. I do ache for spring and summer when I hope to do some exercising outside.

Self-Denial:

I have not had a drop of alcohol since New Year's Eve. I did have that one Ramen I noted on January 15 but I've not bought any more and I've not found anymore lurking in dark corners of my cupboards (other than that crab flavor one I bought in Aruba but that is more like a souvenir than food...I have no intention of learning what crab flavor ramen tastes like.).

Weigh In:

Scales are funny things. Since I've started this diet I have has the opportunity of weighing myself on 4 different scales. I have even had the chance to weigh myself on 3 in one day. They never agree on my weight. For this reason I have to say that my starting weight and my current weight have to be taken with a large grain of salt. I have no actual idea what I weigh except for alot. But according to the scale in the ladies changing room at Supreme Health and Fitness my "Starting" weight was 207. (I lied on my original journal entry but I've since edited it to reflect a more likely starting value) According to the same scale I weighed in at 198 on Thursday.

Verdict...I've lost 9lbs.

Reflection:

Obviously something is working. I've lost more than 2 pounds a week. I don't think I look any better. I might look a little different but not thinner per se . My clothes don't fit any different. I don't have any more energy.

Plan:

I want to keep at it. Something is working and I don't appear to be having any adverse reactions to anything (last year I tried a radical low calorie diet and began to get sores on my arms and legs - vitamin B deficiency). I'm going to endeavor to cook more and eat out less. I am going to keep going to the gym 5 to 7 days a week. I am still going to lay off the booze until I lose the first 20 pounds (I'm nearly half way there).

Point of Note:

I am no Saint. I did spend 2 days sitting on Eric's couch eating dough nuts and watching tv. I was PMSing and needed to be bad for a couple of days. I'm not proud of it but I'm also not going to beat myself up over it. I get PMS. When I do I need to comfort myself. If that means white cream filled bismarks and Rough Science for a couple of days I'm going to do what I need to in order to get better and on an even keel. The same should be said of yourselves. Everyone cheats eventually...some more than others, but everyone cheats. The important thing to remember is that one or two days is not the end of everything.


Today's food log:

Brunch: Parmesan chicken and risotto (no spinach as I used the rest of the leftovers in lasagna)
Dinner: Onion Rings and a chicken sandwich at BW3's
Snack: 1/2 a Clementine (shared with Eric)

No gym today

Notes from the Kitchen: Missing Ingredient

Honeymoon Suite-The Missing Ingredient

Every recipe, no matter how often you’ve made it or how simple, can present a learning experience. Or a reminder of previous learning experiences.

I’ve been making Hamburger Soup a couple times a year for a decade. Nearly every ingredient is something I keep on hand. So when I went to the store spontaneously last Monday to get some stuff to cook I thought: “I’ll make Hamburger soup! I have nearly everything I need for that at home. I only need to get burger.”

Now, as I said yesterday I was being lazy and I haven’t cooked a damn thing all week. So last night at 10:30 PM I finally got up enough gumption to get out there and cook. I decided that it would take too long to make lasagna (at least 2 hours) and definitely too much time to make beef stew (4 hours) so again my mind settled on Hamburger Soup. It is simple and fast -at less than an hour to make with all the food prep thrown in.

I chopped up my onion and threw in some minced garlic with some oil and sautéed until translucent. Added the ground beef and cooked until nearly all the pink was gone. Then I added the frozen peas. I was on a roll. Everything was going smoothly.

I was also testing out the second hand camera I had been given and it was working well despite the warnings I had been given about its finicky nature.

I went to the cupboard to retrieve the next ingredient and found to my dismay that I didn’t have any cream soup. None. How could this be? Of course, the answer is easy. I scrimp when I go to the store and some staples – even cheap ones – just don’t get bought when they are used up. I also frequently go to the grocery store on the bus. You just don’t want to buy anything extra when you have to haul them on the bus when you are done shopping.

So…Pop Quiz! What do you do when you are missing an ingredient needed to finish a meal? There are lots of answers.

1.) Substitute. What could I substitute for cream soup? Gravy would work and I could easily make some. Just be sure you know what to substitute with or you can end up with lumpy purple fondue like Mary did once ("Gruyère and gorgonzola both start with the same letter of the alphabet I bet I can substitute one for the other").

2.) Go and get the missing ingredient either from the store or ask the neighbors. I frequently do this one. Hell…I even borrowed the downstairs neighbor’s oven once.

3.) Stop cooking. You can nearly always stop cooking. I can’t actually think of an example when you can’t stop cooking because of the food. Obviously…if you need to have dinner on the table in the next 20 minutes or you will be horribly murdered- not cooking would not be recommended. I would recommend option 1 in that instance.

In my experience last night at quarter to 11:00 I decided that I should just stop. I put a lid on the whole business and tossed it in the fridge.

So...What was the learning experience that this little cooking drama presented? Always check all your ingredients before you start cooking, and preferable before you go to the store.

And how goes the diet?

Today’s food – Poor.

I had a sausage patty and some very mushy hash browns from the Student Union for breakfast.

Lunch was leftover Chinese from Asian Kitchen – and as usual they gave way more food than even 2 meals worth but I ate it all in 2 meals.

Dinner? I have not had any - it’s 2:30 in the afternoon. I expect I’ll be having a bowl of Hamburger soup after I stop at the store on the way home and get the missing cream soup.

Exercise? I expect to get at least 30 minutes at the Nat.

The Lazy Days of Winter

I can't seem to get myself motivated this week. I got a decent start...went to the grocery store and bought stuff for lasagna, hamburger soup and beef stew. It is Thursday night and I haven't made anything yet. The food is going to go bad and I won't have anything to show for it.

I have also been having a bit of trouble on the gym front. I went on Monday and Wednesday but not Tues or Thurs.

To go to the gym of Tuesdays I'm going to have to give up my dinner with Joe. Which I don't want to give up. Thursdays are normally fine but today I was sick so I stayed home from work and the gym.

It is 10:00 at night and I am actually contemplating cooking. This is crazy.

I'm just going to have to cook tomorrow night instead of going to my second job.

Parmesan-Panko Baked Chicken, Lemon Risotto, and Balsamic Sautéed Tomatoes with Spinach

A few words on cooking with Rebee….

I seldom ever measure. I prefer eyeballing things and then tasting them after they have had time to do a little cooking, and then adjusting as needed. What this means for you… I will be giving a rough estimate of how much of a certain ingredient I used, so that you can (if you wanted to) make basically the same dish. Please taste as you cook. Your idea of a good amount of garlic and mine may differ drastically. (My sister won’t touch onions and I use them in nearly everything – for example) Alter any of this to your own flavor preferences.

Also…I have provided nutritional information for this menu (and hope to do so for all recipes I provide). This information is only a guideline. 1.) It is taken from information that may be incomplete. 2.) It is based on the supposed normal 2000 calorie diet. (Like anyone is on a 2000 calorie diet!) 3.) Math was never my strong suit. 4.) A lot of estimating goes into this as I nearly never measure anything. You are welcome to double check my numbers yourself if you would like. I use: The Wellness Encyclopedia of Food and Nutrition from UC Berkeley.

Finally…I am NOT a professional cook. My methods are very basic. I hope that anyone will be able to follow my directions.

One of the meals that I bought the ingredients for on Monday was:

Parmesan-Panko Baked Chicken, Lemon Risotto, and Balsamic Sautéed Tomatoes with Spinach. – Serves 6

To make this meal you will need…

A Stovetop and an oven

A frying Pan, and a lid for it

A large pot, and a lid for it

A baking sheet

Some bowls

A cutting board

A decently sharp knife

Some spoons

Ingredients:

1 lb Chicken (boneless, skinless, breast meat, uncooked)

½ C Miracle Whip (or your preferred Mayonnaise)

¾ C Parmesan Cheese (The real stuff, not the green shaker!)

1 C Panko (Japanese-style Bread Crumbs)

1 C Rice (Any style will do)

4 Onions (Mary - you can, of course, leave these out)

6 tsp Minced Garlic (I buy pre-minced stuff to save time)

4 to 6 C Chicken Broth (Try to remember to get low sodium and low fat-I always forget)

2Tbsp Lemon Juice (Juice from one lemon can be used or the Reallemon stuff)

3 or so ounces Pine Nuts

1 C Frozen Peas (never use the canned stuff)

6 to 12 ounces of fresh Spinach

1.5 pt Grape, Pear, or Cherry Tomatoes (experiment with local heirlooms when in season)

2Tbsp Balsamic Vinegar (I don’t have the real stuff either just use what you can afford, my balsamic cost about $10.00 for a 15oz bottle)

Some seasoning mix or your favorite spices (I used a Tuscan mix this time, next time I might use a French mix)

Some Extra Virgin Olive Oil

Some Spray oil (or something to keep the chicken from sticking to the baking sheet)

Directions:

Right… Find a surface and clean it off. If your kitchen is as small as mine there is no harm in using your office desk or a folding card table in the living room as a kitchen surface. Just be sure it is fairly clean.

Preheat your oven to 425 degrees. If your oven is decent, it will be ready in about 15 minutes. If you feel like it… set a timer now. It is unlikely you will be ready to put the chicken in the oven 15 minutes from now, but on the off chance…go ahead.

Now…Back to that surface. You will need your decently sharp knife and your cutting board. If you only have one knife and one board, or you hate doing dishes as much as I do…you will need to cut up your veggies first to prevent the chance of salmonella contamination.

I like to use an empty bowl for scraps when I’m going to chop a bunch of veggies so I can keep my area as clean as possible.

Chop up your onions 2 at a time (2 are for the spinach dish and 2 are for the risotto). You can go ahead and place these in their respective pans (The frying pan and the large pot). If you are not using pre-minced garlic mince your garlic now and again split it equally between the frying pan and the large pot. Also slice each tomato in half. Set these (the tomatoes) aside in a bowl for later.

If your spinach is older you will need to cut off the stems. This is a serious pain in the ass, so if you can avoid it, do so by buying baby spinach. Also if you are buying your spinach from a farmers market (Highly recommended) you will need to wash these leaves very well, as they can be very gritty.

Now all the veggies are chopped. You can now use the same board and knife to cut up meat (if you don’t have a designated board and knife for meat – an unnecessary precaution if you know how to wash up). Cut each breast in half (assuming you chicken breasts are as ridiculously large as the ones I bought were) You want the chicken to be about the size of your palm, or a deck of standard playing cards (not Tarot cards, which can be much larger). If you happen to have a kitchen scale…you are looking for chicken pieces to be about 3 ounces give or take.

Right…Now take the large pot and add some olive oil to it and put the burner on to a medium setting. You are going to cook up the diced onions and minced garlic. This olive oil cooked garlic and onion mixture is very common in Italian cooking (as well as my own). They have a word for it in Italian but I don’t speak Italian so I can’t tell you what it is. Let the onion and garlic cook for a bit on its own…there is plenty of stuff to do.

Take out a bowl. Go to your fridge and take out the mayo and the shredded Parmesan cheese. Also take out the spices you want on the chicken. In the bowl, combine the ½ a cup of mayo with ½ a cup of cheese and however much seasoning you want (remember a little goes a long way with dried spices, so don’t over do it).

The onion and garlic cooking in the pot should be getting near to transparent at this point. If so, take the cup of rice and add it to the pot. Stir it and let it cook briefly in the oil. Then add some (maybe 2 cups) of broth and the lemon juice to the pot and stir. Lower the burner to a low setting but not all the way down. Do not add a lid to this pot.

Prepare the baking sheet (clear some surface to put it on and spray down the surface with cooking spray, or cover it with a silpat, or use some Crisco or whatever you want to keep the chicken from burning on to the surface).

Stir the rice pot. If the broth level is dropping add some more broth (1 cup or so)

Take a chicken breast half and cover the top with a thin (1/8” to ¼”) layer of the mayo mixture. Place the chicken on the sheet and repeat with the remaining chicken. When the chicken is all coated take out the panko and sprinkle the chicken until fairly well topped.

Place the chicken into the oven. Set a timer (if you don’t have one get one they are infinitely useful) for 20 minutes.

Stir the rice and add broth if it needs it. The rice should start looking more like a rice pudding very creamy. This is because the rice is exuding its starch into the broth.

Now you can turn on the large frying pan on to a medium setting on your burner. The garlic and onion should be in there. Add some oil to the pan and stir. Again you want the onion to be slightly transparent.

Keep an eye on the rice. Stir it occasionally and add broth every few minutes. Taste the rice to see if it is done cooking at this point. The rice should not be hard in the center but it also should not be too soft. When the rice is ready, add the remaining Parmesan cheese, the pine nuts, and the peas. Stir until the cheese is melted. If you want you can add some herbs and spices at this point, fresh parsley is fantastic in this. Turn the burner to the lowest setting. Then add a lit to the pot to keep everything warm.

When the onions and garlic are ready in the frying pan add the vinegar and stir. Put the burner on low and add the tomatoes, stirring occasionally. When the tomatoes are well coated add the spinach in batches. Stir the spinach until it wilts and shrinks slightly and then add the next batch to the pan. If the pan is filling too much you can take some of the spinach that has wilted out and add more fresh in. You may need to turn up the heat to do this. After all the spinach has wilted, return all of the spinach to the pan and put a lid on it to keep warm.

About now your timer will go off letting you know that the chick is probably done. Take the pan out and check the chicken for doneness. You can use a thermometer (170 degrees Fahrenheit) or you can cut open a breast and check that it is not pink. The thermometer way is better as it prevents you from overcooking, and therefore making you chicken dry. However the cutting method is cheaper, after all you do own a knife -I saw you use it earlier in this recipe.

If the chicken is not done put it in the oven again for another 5 minutes or so. If it is done serve up dinner!

This recipe makes 6 servings. These keep well as leftovers. And they will freeze decently too for a couple of months. There will be extra rice as this risotto makes more like 8 servings so don’t over load on the rice or the nutrition listed below will be off.

Each serving will contain roughly:

(To be added later as I’ve mislaid my notes-bugger!)

Ice Box Woman

So…Where have I been? I could claim I was busy. (I have been working 2 jobs, went to Florida, went to the gym, cooked, etc) But in reality I’ve been shirking. I have been doing those things aforementioned but it is not like typing my food journal really takes tons of time.

So…Have I been good? Answer: Fairly good. I’ve been to the gym 4 times in the last 7 days. I still haven’t had any booze. I did have my beloved Ramen for breakfast today but I have an excuse! It was left over from last year. I found it when I was putting away my groceries and I decided to make the temptation disappear as quickly as possible (by eating it). The ramen was not the only thing I found when I was putting groceries away…whoa!

I had not done any great excavations in my fridge since Thanksgiving and the results were that yesterday when I delved into the depths of my icebox I found great mysteries…

First… a quote from George Carlin…

Perhaps the worst thing that can happen is to reach into the refrigerator and come out with something that you cannot identify at all. You literally do not know what it is. Could be meat, could be cake. Usually, at a time like that, I'll bluff. "Honey, is this good?" "Well, what is it?" "I don't know. I've never seen anything like it. It looks like...meatcake!" "Well, smell it." (snort, sniff) "It has absolutely no smell whatsoever!" "It's good! Put it back! Somebody is saving it. It'll turn up in something."

This was some leftover Sweet Potato Puree that I had intended to make biscuits with right after Thanksgiving (you know that holiday we had 3 months ago!)

I do have a roommate so sometimes the food mysteries I come across are his, like the several nearly empty containers of pasta sauce. But we for the most part share food so the two open containers of butter was a mystery. Why open a second when there is one already open sitting on the shelf and then…put the newly opened container right in front of the older open container!?!

The best was the cranberry sauce/jelly that I found…

This was also from Thanksgiving but perhaps more frightening than the hairy growth on the sweet potatoes…for there was no change in it from when I had entombed it in the fridge. I opened the container with some trepidation only to discover that the scent was the same as it should be so I took a chance and tried some. It tasted fine!

I put it back into the fridge.

I moved things around and then put my new groceries away. Now, I was ready to cook. But I will tell you about that tomorrow.

And on a Final note:

It's a leftover. What a sad word that is. Leftover. How would you like to be...a leftover? Well, it wouldn't be bad if they were taking people out to be shot. I might even volunteer. But, y'know, leftovers make you feel good twice. D'ja ever think about that? When you first put them away, you feel really intelligent- "I'm saving food!" And then, after a month, when hair is growing out of them and you throw them away you feel...really intelligent- "I'm saving my life!"~George Carlin (Ice Box Man, From the 1981 album A PLACE FOR MY STUFF!)

Food yesterday… Rice Noodles, Country-fried Steak, corn, and salad dressing (breakfast)

1.5 tamales and ½ the rice from the pork tamale dinner at Pasquales @ Hilldale. (not strongly recommended) (lunch)

Parmesan-Panko Baked Chicken, lemon risotto, and balsamic sautéed tomatoes with spinach. (dinner)

Exercise? Yes: 30 minute on elliptical at The Nat.