What's For Dinner? Beef, Vegetable, and Barley Soup

It was really cold this week, at least for North Carolina, and my urge for soup was really strong. It's difficult at times to get a sufficient amount of protein into a meal if soup is the main course, and this recipe is no different. You have a few options - adjust your eating throughout the day so that this meal can handle having only about half the normal amount of protein in a meal, or add extra meat to the soup. If you do that, remember the nutritional information will change in all respects, not just in the protein count.

Don't skip the fresh herbs, it really makes the flavor.

This recipe makes a ton of soup when you're eating it in just 1 cup servings, but it freezes well. I use 2-cup storage bowls and pop them in the freezer, that way I'll either have a meal for both of us, or two lunch servings for myself. 

Beef, Vegetable, and Barley Soup
 

• 1 small turnip, peeled and diced (about 1 cup)
• 1 medium onion, diced (about 1.5 to 2 cups)
• 4 or 5 medium carrots, peeled and diced (2 cups)
• 2 stalks celery - outermost fibers peeled off, then diced (1 cup)
• 2-3 small red potatoes, diced (1 to 1.5 cups)
• 1 cup petite peas, frozen
• 3 tbsp butter
• 1 cup pearled barley
• 12 cups low sodium beef broth
• 4 cups low sodium vegetable broth (or homemade)
• 12 oz beef tenderloin cut into small cubes
• 1.5 tbsp minced fresh thyme
• 1.5 tbsp minced fresh oregano
• kosher salt
• pepper

Melt butter in large pot. Add all vegetables, along with a healthy teaspoon of kosher salt and a few twists of freshly cracked black pepper. Saute for about 10-15 minutes until they soften and onions begin to turn translucent. Add broth, bring to a boil. Reduce to a firm simmer and cook for 20 minutes. Add barley, and herbs, stirring well. Cook for 30-35 minutes until barley is softened. It will absorb quite a bit of liquid, so what may have looked like a very brothy soup will be thicker at this point. Add  the beef, simmer another 10 minutes for beef to cook through.

Nutritional information: Makes approximately 12 1-cup servings. 204 calories, 6.2g fat, 25.8g carbohydrates, 5.5g dietary fiber, 5.5g sugars, 12.6g protein

 

What's for Dinner? Cheesey Corn Chowder

I've been really quiet on the blog over the summer - a couple reasons for that. Still working on the baby making thing - had to deal with a few surprises in uterine health that I'm not going to get in to tonight. But then mostly? Summer eating for us is about steaks and corn on the cob on the grill. We'd eat that 3 or 4 nights a week and be really happy with it, so it's not very blog-worthy!

But, the weather has started to cool down, it's by no means "fall" yet here in the North Carolina, but we can start thinking about soup and not have it need to be chilled! I was watching the Food Network this morning and caught an episode oft he Pioneer Woman making a cheese and corn chowder. YUM! I started with her recipe as a jumping point, and shaped it to my tastes and needs.

The key to a good soup that has only a few ingredients is to use the best quality ingredients that you can. Each component really has to hold up. To that end, I used some late season fresh corn, home made chicken and vegetable stock, and good quality cheese. If corn is out of season, frozen would be preferable to canned, and commercial stock or broth will work as well. As for cheese, grate it yourself off a block. Most packaged shredded cheese offerings have corn starch or another added ingredient to prevent clumping in the bag, and that can create a grainy texture in a chowder. Take the extra minute or two to do it yourself.

Pre-op, I'd have made this with half and half and full fat cheese. I can tell the difference, but the differences are modest enough that it doesn't impact the dish for me.

That said - here's the recipe!

• 2 tbsp butter
• 3 strips cooked bacon with rendered fat reserved
• 1 large sweet onion, chopped fine
• 5 ears corn, kernels removed (about 2 cups)
• 1 small red bell pepper - seeded, chopped fine
• 2 cups home made chicken stock
• 1 cup home made vegetable stock
• 2 cups whole milk
• 8 oz Monterey Jack cheese - shredded
• 8 oz 2% sharp cheddar cheese - shredded
• 1 bunch green onions, white and green part  - chopped
• salt and fresh cracked black pepper

Melt butter in a large pot - preferably an enabled cast iron pot. Add reserved bacon fat. Saute onion until it begins to turn translucent.

Add bacon, then add bell pepper - cook for a minute or two until it begins to soften. Add corn, stir to coat with butter and fat.

Add flour, mixing until the fat is absorbed. Cook stirring frequently for 3 to 4 minutes letting flour and fat turn into a light roux bound to the vegetables.

Add chicken and vegetable stock - bring just to a boil. Mixture should begin to thicken.

Add milk, salt and pepper to taste (I use about 1 tsp kosher salt and a good dozen cranks of freshly cracked black pepper). Reduce heat and cover, simmering for 15 minutes.

Add both cheeses, stirring until melted into the chowder. Ladle into bowls, top with green onions.

Recipe makes about 9 1-cup servings.

Bariatric eaters: up the protein by adding diced roast chicken at the end - 1 oz chicken adds 7g protein, 35 calories, and 1g fat. 

WLS Post-Op Rating: 9+ months (fat content and corn). 

Nutritional information (1 cup serving): 263 calories, 15g fat, 24g carbohydrates, 13g protein, 9g sugars.

Recipe: Any Day Chicken with Lemon Scented Carrots and Snap Peas

There's some days where you just don't feel like cooking, are uninspired, tired, or otherwise just not excited about being in the kitchen. Today was one of those days for me. But, we still have to eat and as a post-op, still need to have a reasonably healthy meal.

This is one of my go-to dinners when I need something quick but don't want to go through a lot of fuss. All of the ingredients are regularly in my pantry. The only plan-ahead would be defrosting the chicken if I don't have any fresh in the refrigerator (tip: freeze breasts individually in Food-Saver bags - perfect portions for a post-op plus 1 or 2 others).  The process of flattening the chicken breaks up some of the muscle fibers which makes for a more tender piece of meat, something that can make chicken easier to handle for many post-ops.

• 1 lb boneless skinless chicken breast
• 1/4 cup all-purpose flour
• 1/2 cup dried bread crumbs - plain or Italian seasoned
• 3 tbsp extra virgin olive oil - divided
• 1/2 cup milk
• juice and zest of 1 lemon
• 6 medium carrots
• 1 cup sugar snap peas, trimmed
• 1/3 cup water

 Prepare chicken breast by pounding it out to 1/2 inch thickness. There's a couple ways to approach this. Place chicken between 2 pieces of wax or parchment paper. If you have a meat mallet with flat side (vs. the nubby side), put some muscle behind it and pound the meat with a slightly outward motion. The idea is to spread out the breast while making it thinner (rather than just smashing it down).  If you don't own a meat mallet, a heavy bottomed pan can also get the job done - I've been known to use my cast iron skillet - that will flatten it instantly!  Cut flattened breast into serving sized pieces - my very large one pound breast was cut into 5 pieces, roughly 3 oz each.

Heat 1 tbsp olive oil in large skillet over medium heat. Peel carrots, then slice thinly on a diagonal - about 1/8 inch thick. Trim ends and any strings from sugar snap peas. Saute carrots for 2 minutes, then add peas, saute for another 2 minutes. Add zest from the lemon, then it's juice along with 1/3 cup water. Cover and simmer over medium low heat while preparing the chicken.

Heat 2 tbsp olive oil in large skillet over medium high heat. Pan is ready when oil begins to shimmer.

 Pour milk into a shallow dish or plate. Using paper plates for easy clean-up, put flour and bread crumbs on their own plates. Working one piece at a time, dip chicken in milk then press into flour on both sides. Shake off any excess. Dip again in milk, then press into bread crumbs on both sides, again shaking off any excess. Sprinkle with salt and pepper as you place them in the pan. Saute until cooked through, about 4 minutes per side.

Nutritional information: Chicken: 3 to 4 oz serving - 197 calories, 6g fat, 10g carbohydrates, 28g protein. 

Nutritional information: vegetables - 1/4 recipe - 92 calories, 4g fat,  13g carbohydrates, 6g sugars, 2g protein

Recipe: Chicken Salad with Creamy Balsamic Dressing

Salad is an interesting topic for WLS patients - most people immediately go to "salad" as a food for those on a diet, but what is typically thought of as a salad is actually a rather poor choice for us - lettuce is pretty much void of nutritional content, vegetables are good, but then it's usually doused in very fattening dressings and other toppings. This salad uses a lean boneless skinless chicken breast for protein, goes light on the lettuce, and gets considerable flavor from the balsamic component of the dressing. As with any dish with just a few ingredients, using the highest quality produce you can find is paramount.

You may used left over chicken, rotisserie chicken, or cook a breast fresh - coat a single boneless skinless breast with a very light coating of olive oil or mayonaisse, bake for approx. 20 minutes at 375F, let rest until you can handle it comfortably to slice.

 

• 3-oz boneless skinless chicken breast
• 1/2 flavorful heirloom tomato - variety of your choice, chopped
• 1 oz sliced pickled beets
• 1 cup salad greens
• 2 tsp finely grated Romano cheese

For Dressing

• 1 cup balsamic vinegar
• 2 tbsp brown sugar
• 1 tbsp soy sauce
• 1 tbsp mayonnaise - low fat or regular
• 1/2 to 1 tsp milk

For dressing choose a moderately priced brand, there's no need to use super expensive imported brands, but don't use the bargain brand either.

To make dressing, combine vinegar, brown sugar, and soy sauce in a small sauce pan. Bring to a boil then reduce to low and simmer for 20-30 minutes until syrupy - sauce should coat a spoon without running off. Let cool.

Combine mayonnaise  with 1/2 tsp vinegar reduction to start, adding a bit more to taste - I like mine fairly flavorful, so my ratio was about 2:1. Thin as desired with milk for your preferred dressing consistency.

Remaining reduction can be kept air-tight in the refrigerator for other uses.

Combine first 4 salad ingredients in a serving bowl. Drizzle with dressing, then top with cheese and serve.

Nutritional information based on use of regular mayonnaise for dressing.

Per serving: 245 calories, 15g fat, 10g carbohydrates, 8g sugars, 17g protein
 

Large Batch Cooking

Cooking from "standard" recipes for the post-op sometimes turns into an exercise in multiple serving storage. I am usually quite adept at reducing recipes to serve 2 standard servings (so 4 bariatric - or as The Man puts it, .5 for me and 1.5 for him). At other times, a particular ingredient or recipe pushes me to make it as written. This occured tonight as I wanted to slightly adapt a recipe I found on the Food Network web site by Rachel Ray - for a French White Burgundy Chicken. Using over half a bottle of wine made it more suited to cooking the whole batch (and using that much wine), vs. trying to use only half a cup or so of a good bottle of wine.

So I'm not eating the same thing for 3 days or more, I make use of my Food Saver and freeze the extra servings. At almost 18 months post-op I'm at a stage where I can tolerate traditional pasta. I served it over egg noodles. Still in very small quantities (1/3 cup tonight), but sometimes it's a food I choose to eat, and I am able to enjoy it in small quantities without it being something that lures me into making poor or excessive choices. An alternate choice would be brown rice other other complex carbohydrate grains such as farro or barley.

French Bordeaux Chicken

As for other things, we're still in the prep waiting game for the IVF - or donor is on her round of stims, retrieval, lab work, and transfer on track to begin in another week-ish from now.

We've celebrated my birthday and our 5-year anniversary in the last week, more on those events in a post or two later.

What's For Dinner? Honey Lemon Chicken

It's been such an odd day. It seemed that it finally had decided it was spring around here, and the weather had started to settle on upper 70s/low 80s for high temps, then suddenly it was back to low 40s this morning barely topping out at 60 but with a very chilly wind. Between that and a strong rain storm yesterday afternoon and evening, finishing the tilling of the garden was out - too mucky.

I woke up with a pain in my neck in the middle of the night, stretched a bit, and went back to sleep, and wasn't really going to think much more of it, except when I woke up for good this morning and rolled over, I felt like somehow I'd managed to break the middle finger of my right hand in my sleep. Moving my hand hurt, bending my finger was out of the question - what on Earth had happened?

I got up, moved my arms around a bit, stretched my shoulders and neck a bit more (got a half decent pop in the neck), but the pain in the hand was still shockingly strong. I noticed that while it was centered on the joint where your finger meets your hand, that movement did "tug" on things through my palm and give shocks up my forearm. A paramedic friend asked if I slept funny (at which point I remembered waking up in the middle of the night with the neck pain) - and we've fairly well decided I pinched a nerve some how, but I haven't managed to massage it away, and vicodin while taking the edge of the pain a bit hasn't relaxed anything enough to provide serious relief. I may end up at my chiropractor on Monday if I can't get any relief. Ugh.

I was looking for something fresh and "spring" like to make for dinner, and created a quick little recipe for Honey Lemon Chicken. It's super quick, very low calorie, and despite having honey it, less than 5g of sugars in a serving.

I served it tonight with some steamed broccoli spears and a third of a cup of Trader Joe's Rice Medley - a great combo of brown rice, red rice, and black barley - it's in the freezer section, so the rice is already cooked. It comes in steamer bags, 3 minutes in the microwave and it's whole grain goodness!

In non-food related news - I finally got my new assignment at work. My former group was brought back out of the global application development pool and into a different technology group - led by a woman I've known for most of my career at the bank. She's pretty awesome, and I think it's a great move. I'll be working on application governance for our group and the rest of her boss' organization - making sure we're adhering to enterprise policy on a number of issues: technology choices, data management, etc. Much more exciting for me than coding has ever been, so I'm very much looking forward to getting started on all that.

Finally, our egg donor has her major evaluation at the clinic on Monday and barring any surprises that throw a wrench into things, starting the meds which would put us on course for retrieval in about 4 weeks, with transfer to me about 4 days later. So quick, but so slow at the same time! Ugh!

Hoping tomorrow that my finger won't be messed up and that it's a bit warmer, really wanting to take Mabel the bike out for a ride. So how's your weekend going?

What's For Dinner? Cheesy Chicken Corn Chowder

I was never this cold when I was fat! It stayed below freezing most of the day today, and the house was just cold, even though I had the heat set to 72, and a space heater going in my office. Until I went downstairs to the treadmill at lunch, I was huddled in a shirt and a cardigan sweater - something I'd never have worn in the past, but I was that cold! You don't really think about body heat too much when you're heavy, but it really did make a difference!

In deference to the weather, tonight I wanted soup and decided chicken corn chowder sounded good. I wanted to keep it relatively light, so I'd use broth and milk instead of cream, and I do believe this version was a success.

My Meals

Breakfast

•  1 cup Kashi Go Lean! cereal
• 1/3 cup whole milk

Lunch

•  1 Trader Joe's Chicken Tikka Masala with Cumin Rice
• 10 almonds

Dinner

•  1 serving Cheesy Chicken Corn Chowder
• 1 honey yeast roll
• 2 tsp butter

Exercise

•  45 minutes treadmill - 3.2 mph, 2% incline, 200 calories burned

Water - 72 oz

Daily Totals - 977 calories, 43.3g fat, 105g carbohydrates, 24.1g sugars, 53.5g protein

Velvety Carrot Parsnip Soup

Cold, dreary days call for soup! This velvety vegetable soup is probably best as a portion of a meal - add a salad and some bread (if you can tolerate it), or half a warm sandwich or other protein to round out the meal.

• 1 cup peeled chopped carrots
• 1 cup peeled chopped parsnip
• 1 small or 1/2 large onion, chopped
• 4 cups low-sodium chicken broth
• 1 cup milk
• 1 tsp olive oil
• 1 tsp salt
• 1/4 tsp black pepper
• 1 tbsp chopped chives

Heat oil in heavy bottomed pan, then saute onion for 10 minutes until golden. Add broth, carrots and parsnip, bring to a boil. Reduce heat and simmer 45 minutes until vegetables are thoroughly softened. Add salt and pepper.

Carefully transfer soup to blender and puree, then return to pan. Add milk and whisk to combine. Cook over medium heat until milk is up to temperature - do not boil. Top with chives when serving.

Optional - stir in 1 scoop Any Whey protein powder to milk and whisk to combine. Temper with 1/4 cup puree, whisking again. Then add milk/protein mixture to soup and continue as directed. 

Nutritional information (without added protein) - 1/4 recipe.  116 calories, 3.9g fat, 15.4g carbohydrates, 2.8g fiber, 7.4g sugars, 5.9g protein

Adapted from Cooking Light

What's For Breakfast? Warm Maple Pumpkin Seed Barley

My weekends have been odd lately, I seem to spend most of my time thinking how short they are, and how I don't want to be bored all week. My job isn't that boring, but I suppose it does illustrate how much of a slump I've felt I'm in professionally (working on that, my resume was sent to the hiring manager for one of the positions I posted for).

Today involved some quality Star Wars: The Old Republic play time, some knitting, a bit of house work, and a workout that included learning some new dance moves with Kinect Dance Central 3. I still feel really silly when it shows you dancing for a few seconds in high speed. But at least I'm having fun while getting some cardio in.

The Man had brought his car battery home and we took it back over there after he got home from work today, and his car started right back up. But as soon as we got home and he shut it down, it refused to start again. No idea what's going on. Pain in the ass though, as tomorrow I have pre-op anesthesia appointment at the hospital at 7am - he has to be at work at 6am, and works a block away from the hospital (and 20 minutes from here). So it wouldn't make any sense to drop him off and come home, so I get to find somewhere to try and have breakfast that won't blow out  my daily calorie intake and entertain myself for an hour. Joy. Of course then I'll have to leave for 45 minutes to go get him when he's off at 3. Most days we don't have conflicts in needing a vehicle, but it sucks when we're down one and really need two.

Breakfast today was scrumptious - I've never been a hot cereal fan, but this sounded good, and it's been too cold to really enjoy cold cereal and milk lately. Though I had to use additives too much, by adding half a scoop of heat tolerant protein powder kept the protein level where I need it. While it's a few more calories than I usually have for breakfast, it was a nice switch.

My Meals

Breakfast

•  Warm Maple Pumpkin Seed Barley

Lunch

•  1 serving left over Cottage Pie
• 1/2 cup romaine with 6 grape tomatoes and 1 tbsp Ken's Lite Ranch

Snack

•  2 celery stalks

Dinner

•  2.75 oz top sirloin steak
• 1/3 cup corn, .5 tsp butter
• 1/4 yukon gold potato
• 3 carrots, tossed lightly with olive oil, salt and pepper

Water - 72 oz

Exercise - 30 minutes of Kinect Dance Central, 2 30-second planks, weight work: 4lb dumbell set, 20x tricep kickbacks, 20x bicep curls, 20x lateral raises, 40x lunges

Daily Totals - 1006 calories, 33.8g fat, 119.8g carbohydrates, 34.5g sugars, 63.1g protein

Easy Cottage Pie

The variety bug has bitten me lately, and I've been scouring blogs, recipe sites, and more looking for something new to introduce into our meal rotation. It doesn't need to be fancy, and tonight's dinner definitely wasn't, but I found it quite tasty. Turns out the Man doesn't particularly like "this kind of dish" - so I suppose it was good it didn't have any spendy ingredients in it, but it was warm, filling, and best of all - fit well into my meal guidelines.

Modestly adapted from the Framed Cooks.

• 1 lb extra lean ground beef
• 1/2 medium onion, chopped
• 2 large carrots, peeled and chopped
• 1/2 cup frozen peas
• 1/2 cup frozen corn
• 2 tbsp tomato paste
• 2 tbsp flour
• 1 tbsp Worcestershire sauce
• 2 medium russet potatoes - peeled and cubed
• 1/3 cup milk
• 2 tbsp butter, divided
• salt and pepper

Preheat oven to 425F. 

Brown ground beef in large skillet then drain and set aside - reserve 1 tbsp drippings in pan.
Saute onion in reserved drippings and 2 tsp butter. As onion turns translucent, add carrots. Saute for about 5 minutes, until carrot softens. Add tomato paste, flour, and 1/4 cup water. Stir until paste and flour are well blended. Cook for 2 to 3 minutes. Add back ground beef,Wworcestershire sauce, and 1.5 cups water. Simmer 5 minutes until sauce thickens. Mix in corn and peas, simmer 5 more minutes.

While mixture simmers, bring potatoes to a boil in salted water. Reduce heat and cover, simmering for 15-20 minutes. Drain potatoes, mix in remaining butter and slowly add 1/3 cup milk while you mash or whip the potatoes. Add approx 1 tsp salt and 1/4 tsp black pepper.

Spoon beef mixture into 9 inch pie or cake pan, or 8x8 square baker. Spread potatoes on top.

Bake in 425F oven for 30 minutes until hot and bubbly. Makes 6 servings.

Nutritional information: (1/6 recipe) - 227 calories, 7.3g fat, 21g carbohydrates, 4g sugars, 19.2g protein

What's For Dinner? Tri-tip with Nutty Quinoa Cakes

Three or four times a month the Man is scheduled to close at his store. It's slightly annoying, in that cooking for 1.5 people can be a challenge, but cooking for .5 of a person is even tougher. But, I try and take advantage of it and experiment with some recipes that he's unlikely to find appealing. One of his dislikes is "chewy grains"  which means anything but white rice. So if I cook quinoa or other grains, it's only for me.

I recently found a web site called http://www.foodily.com (Food, I Love You) that's sort of a recipe search engine, or maybe better said an aggregator of content crossed with a sharing site (think Pinterest). Through that, I found the recipe for tonight's experiment - Nutty Quinoa Cakes over at Big Girls Small Kitchen blog. Made as directed, they're OK. It seems to be missing a little seasoning - maybe a bit more salt, definitely some black pepper, and maybe something else - perhaps a bit stronger cheese than Parmesan? Not completely sure what's missing, but it would be a good basis for further experimentation at some point. Though the recipe says it serves 2, I got 9 cakes out of it, and had My Food Diary calculate nutrition information on 9 servings. I plated two cakes for my dinner, and got about 1.5 of them in - was a bit too full to finish it off.
 

My Meals

Breakfast

• 1 cup Kashi Go Lean! cereal
• 1/3 cup whole milk

Snack

• 2 celery stalks

Lunch

• Left over spaghetti shells made of: 
• 1/2 cup whole wheat pasta (medium shells)
• 1.5 oz browned ground beef
• 1/4 cup prepared spaghetti sauce
• 1 tbsp parmesan cheese

• small salad of romaine, 2 radishes, and 1 tbsp Trader Joe's fat free balsamic vinaigrette

Snack

• Dannon Light & Fit raspberry yogurt

Dinner

• 3 oz beef tri-tip marinated in marsala, oregano, and basil, then broiled
• 1.5 nutty quinoa cakes (see recipe link above)
• 1/4 cup french cut green beans
• 1 tsp sour cream
• .5 tsp butter

Water - 80 oz (new record!)

Exercise - 20 minutes Zumba! on the Kinect, 4 sets of strength exercises w/4 lb weights: tricep kickbacks, lunges, bicep curls, and shoulder presses, plus two 30-second planks (estimated 406 calories burned)

Daily Totals: 892 calories, 30.4g fat, 97g carbohydrates, 31.3g sugars, 72.4g protein 

What's For Dinner? Quick Faux Pho

Today I got to see the new surgeon over at Wake Forest Baptist Medical Center, since my previous surgeon seems to have given up on the ass fistula of doom. She's going to operate on Friday the 18th and insert a seton - a little rubber band that will make a full loop through the fistula tract connecting outside - both in order to see just where things stand, and then to keep things draining properly until she can take the corrective action in the next procedure she'll schedule about 6 weeks out. Thankfully someone who has ideas!

Beyond that, it's been an uneventful day - had to hurry back home to make a 12:30 conference call, but nothing particularly exciting going on there - just a routine Tuesday call.

Oh, lunch was disappointing - one of the few things I've purchased from Trader Joe's that i didn't care for much. It was only 210 calories, but plainly because it had very little in the dish! Flavors were OK, but for what it was - I'll not be buying it again. 

My Meals

Breakfast

• 1 cup Kashi Go Lean! cereal
• 1/3 cup milk

Lunch

• Trader Joe's Chicken Breast in Poblano Sauce with Barley and white corn risotto

Snack 

• 12 almonds 
• Sargento light string cheese stick

Dinner

• 1 serving   Quick Faux Pho
• Small salad of romaine, chopped tomato, and Ken's Lite Honey French dressing

Water - 48 oz

Daily Totals - 911 calories, 22.9g fat, 123.8g carbohydrates, 37.1g sugars, 65.2g protein

Quick Faux Pho

Pho is a dish that is simple in ingredients, but long on flavor. To make it "right", beef bones and long simmering broth are necessary. This quick version take short cuts, but can be a decent approximation of the real thing for a quick weeknight meal.

• 2 cups low-sodium beef broth
• 1/2 cup water
• 3 oz deli roast beef - shredded
• 1 tsp vegetable oil
• 1 medium shallot, minced
• 2 tsp ginger, microplaned or minced
• 1 clove garlic, minced
• 2 tbsp fish sauce
• 8 large leaves basil - preferably Thai basil
• 1/2 a serrano chili, seeded and minced fine
• 2 tbsp chopped cilantro
• 1 oz raw bean sprouts
• 2 oz snow peas, cut into 1/2 inch pieces
• 2 shitake mushrooms - caps sliced thinly
• 2 oz rice vermicelli (usually found in the Asian section of the supermarket)

In a medium pan of boiling water, cook rice noodles for 4 minutes. Add snow peas and cook for an additional minute. Drain peas and noodles and rinse under cold water.

Heat oil in same pan, then saute shallot until it begins to brown, about 5 minutes. Add garlic and ginger, stirring constantly for another minute.

Add broth, water, and fish sauce to the pot, bring to a boil, then simmer for at least 10 minutes to combine flavors.

While broth simmers, place bean sprouts, basil, cilantro and mushrooms in two large soup bowls.  Divide beef and rice and peas between the two bowls.

When broth is finished simmering, pour over vegetables in each bowl.

Nutritional information (via myfooddiary.com): 1 serving = 1/2 recipe: 244 calories, 4.5g fat, 30.3g carbohydrates, 2.8g sugars, 19.1g protein

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What's For Dinner? Boozy Bistro Chicken

It's a new year, and time to finish the new me! I took most of December "off" - between the never ending ass issue and the holidays, I just needed to take it easy. The nice thing was though, even with reduced exercise (see ass issue), and a bit more rich foods/eating out, I maintained my weight for the month - yay  me!

I will definitely be trying to post daily again, as I've had comments as to how helpful that has been to see how someone eats day to day after having my type of weight loss surgery.

The other good news is, I finally have my appointment with a surgeon for a second opinion on the ass issue tomorrow morning! Progress! I'm hoping she'll have some good ideas, but I suspect new tests or imaging is in my future first.

Tonight's dinner included two new recipes I've posted - a boozy bistro chicken and broccoli cheese casserole. Yum! Probably should have paired the chicken with something other than the casserole, as my daily totals were about 200 more calories than I'm still striving for (850-900). But I'm fairly pleased on the day.

My Meals

Breakfast

• Multi-Grain sandwich thin roll, toasted
• 1 scrambled egg
• 1 tbsp mexican blend shredded cheese
• 1 tsp butter

Lunch

• 1.5 cups romaine lettuce
• 1 small roma tomato
• 3 radishes
• 3 oz grilled boneless chicken breast
• 2 tbsp Ken's Sweet Vidalia Onion dressing 

Snack

• Dannon Light & Fit yogurt - raspberry

Dinner 

• Boozy Bistro Chicken
• Broccoli Cheese Casserole 
• 1/3 cup corn
• .5 tsp butter

Water - 72 oz

Exercise - Kinect Zumba! - 306 calories burned

Daily Totals: 1134 calories, 50.7g fat, 94.9g carbs,  62.3g protein

What's For Dinner? Shrimp and Andouille in Creole Mustard Cream

The infamous ass incision is giving me a bit of trouble today, so I passed on another ride on Mabel. I did however, get out to get my grocery shopping done while the Man continued to work on the dining room floor. Though we rent, we've been here for years and don't intend on going anywhere for at least 2 or 3 more years. The dining room carpet was really ratty - it wasn't the best before we arrived, and the cats had honestly roughed it up some. So we decided to put down laminate wood flooring. I'll take pictures when it's done, but it looks awesome - he just has the moulding and transition between the dining room and the kitchen (which has linoleum on it) to go. It was an expense we were willing to take on to have a nice floor - and the landlord will get a bit of a bonus when we move out.

I don't know if I've mentioned, but we're going to New Orleans for a short holiday over the Thanksgiving weekend. In preparation, I've been wanting to try out some cajun and creole flavors, which guided my choice of dinner tonight. I modified the recipe heavily - as I know I'm sensitive to "heat" (vs. spice). I used just a dusting of cajun dry spice, and about half the suggested creole mustard. I added two tablespoons of heavy cream to the sauce at the end.

It was also a night to experiment with red bell peppers - I've always "not liked" peppers, but decided that I needed to try them again. Turns out I was pleasantly surprised! They were very sweet, and not at all mushy. I'll definitely be including their vitamin rich goodness in more recipes from now on.

My Meals

Breakfast

• 3/4 cup Kashi Go Lean! cereal
• 1/3 cup whole milk

Lunch

• Salad composed of 1.5 cups romaine, 1 roma tomato, 2 radishes, 1/2 oz   low-fat mexican blend cheese, 2.6 oz left over mojo marinated chicken, 1 tbsp chipotle ranch dressing

Snack

• 1/2 oz cashews

Dinner

• approximately 1/3 of a half recipe Andouille Sausage and Shrimp with Creole Mustard Sauce (modified as above)
• 1/2 cup cooked quinoa

Water - 60 oz

Daily Totals: 911 calories, 41.9g fat, 70.3g carbohydrates, 18.2g sugars, 74.4g protein

Salad Fail - Applebees, I'm Talking To You

We all know that chain restaurant food is hardly the most nutritious option around, but while some offerings looking healthy, they are deceptively full of calories and fat. 

Now I will be the first to admit that I should have asked for dressing on the side - but I've had this salad in the past, and it's not like it's slathered in ranch or other creamy/fatty dressing, so I didn't really think about it. I ordered Applebee's Grilled Oriental Chicken Salad in a half portion. Since it has almonds and a few other things in it, I figured I was in for about 400 calories, but no. I came home and looked up the nutritional information and was rather startled - the half portion as served came to a whopping 690 calories with 41g of fat. Holy Hannah. If I'd ordered with dressing on the side, the salad alone would have been a more reasonable 340 calories with 10g of fat. More than half the calories in that dish were from dressing. Ugh.

Looking at the rest of the nutritional information for Applebee's menu is positively shameful. The regular portion of the crispy Oriental chicken salad? 1390 calories. Even if you were eating a "standard" 2000 calorie a day mean plan, that's over 2/3 of your daily calories, on a fucking salad.

Don't even get me started on their pasta dishes, where all but two are well over 1000 calories each. The rest of the menu is just as bad. Portion size, of course, is one of the issues - but most people don't bat an eyelash at ordering just about anything on the menu - and as a result, consume in one meal the better part of the standard caloric intake for an entire day.

Now Applebee's certainly isn't the only one offending in this manner, various articles have been published about the worst offenders in national chain restaurant meals, but this seriously makes me rethink my ability to order something and have even a part of it fit in with my eating plan.

Someone at the company is mindful of their social media presence, as I got a response in short order to my tweet venting at my lunch salad taking up 4/5ths of my daily calories, and that I should have ordered dressing on the side. It wasn't a satisfying response (and I'm trying to shake off a feeling of condescension) but I suppose at least they're listening.

Blergh. I'm not going to go without dinner, even though I've met my calorie intake goal for the day, but this just leaves me so disappointed. I'll definitely think long and hard about all that comes in a dish next time.

My Meals

Breakfast

•  1/2 cup Kashi Go Lean! cereal
• 1/4 cup whole milk
• Dannon Light & Fit raspberry yogurt

Lunch

• Half portion Applebee's Grilled Oriental Chicken Salad

Dinner (planned)

• 3 oz beef tenderloin
• 1/2 cup steamed vegetables

Water - 60 oz

Exercise - 38 minutes bicycling, 6.25 miles, 316 calories burned

Daily Totals: - 1083 calories, 53.4g fat, 93.1g carbohydrates, 17.6g sugars, 67g protein

What's For Dinner? Mojo Chicken Tacos

It's Friday! I had a long day of meetings today, but it went well - the team I'm leading is going to get the development done by a date I'm happy with, and it gives me enough room to get all the approvals and installations done before we have a year-end lock-down on code changes. Yay!

I'm still a bit frustrated in the afternoons - while a lot of post-op RNY patients eat 5-6 small meals in a day, I find that trying to divide 800-900 calories into that many segments leaves me feeling unsatisfied all of the time, so I generally stick to 3 meals, sometimes with a snack. The hardest part is that my breakfast is typically 150 calories, and then I'll exercise on my lunch hour, before I have lunch. Given that my exercise sessions burn 300-400 calories, I'm really in deficit until I eat again - and sometimes just barely get back on the positive side. Then I go through the afternoon feeling under-fueled and hungry (in my new experience of hungry) until dinner. I don't want to slow down the weight loss, so I'm sticking with the nutritionist's edict of that 800-900 calories, but I wish I could find a better balance.

Tonight's dinner doesn't have any pictures to go with it, but it was just the thing. I marinated two boneless skinless chicken breasts in a "Mojo" marinade (found in the Mexican foods section of my local Food Lion), and then cooked them on my counter-top grill. I made taco shells from small yellow corn tortillas friend in just a bit of vegetable oil (the 8 shells absorbed maybe 2 tsp oil all together), and served them with diced avocado, tomato, lettuce, 2% mexican blend cheese, sour cream, and taco sauce. YUM.Turns out my little black cat Kara liked the mojo marinade too, as we found her up on the counter nomming on some of the left-over chicken.

Tomorrow morning I have a date with Mabel on the greenway - looking forward to it!

My Meals

Breakfast

• 3/4 cup Kashi Go Lean! cereal
• 1/3 cup whole milk 

Lunch

•  3 left over Norwegian meatballs 
• 1/3 cup egg noodles
• 1/4 cup peas
• half serving of meatball gravy

Snack 

• a medium carrot

Dinner 

•  3 tacos made with 3 oz shredded mojo marinated chicken, approx 25g avocado, diced tomato, 1/8 cup shredded 2% mexican blend cheese, 1 tbsp sour cream, and a sprinkle of lettuce and taco sauce

Water - 60 oz

Exercise - Jillian Michaels "No More Trouble Spots" toning DVD - 55 minutes, 296 calories burned.

Daily Totals 905 calories, 33.9g fat, 91.1g carbohydrates, 19.1g sugars, 67.4g protein

What's For Dinner? Shrimp with Corn and Basil

Ugh, what a week. Yesterday I went into the office to work with a group managed by an SVP that's one of my informal mentors at work. She's awesome, and her team's pretty cool too. One of the team members is a young man I started out with at the Bank, and his wife is expecting. They were having a baby shower for them at the same time. Now normally I avoid baby showers like the plague - originally I had declined to attend, and sent some money along for the group gift. But then, when I went to Charlotte last week for that Town Hall meeting, Danni invited me to come work with them, so I no longer had a good reason not to attend. I made it through mostly because it was so low key - pot luck, and presents, no extra games or silliness.

When I went, I wore my most recent clothing acquisition - a pair of size 14 Old Navy skinny jeans, and a women's size large long-sleeved tee shirt. I have to admit, with my hair curled and a light bit of makeup, I actually believed I looked kind of hot. I was looking in the mirror when I got home and actually saw small hollows below my cheekbones - holy heck! When I told the Man about it, he laughed, and poked me in the clavicle, saying he could see those bones too. It's starting, at times, to sink in that I really am thinner now especially if I didn't have the extra droopy parts.

Tomorrow I have a string of meetings all morning - the first to make sure my new work project is on track to deliver before the year-end code lock down, then learning a new process with a team mate, and then another on the new project to get a portion of it approved by the application owner. Definitely looking forward to the weekend, though it will be busy with homework for my macroeconomics course but I'll definitely be making time for at least one ride on Mabel.

My Meals

Breakfast

• 3/4 cup Kashi Go Lean! Cereal
• 1/3 cup whole milk

Lunch

• left over Mu Shu Pork w/1 wrapper and hoisin sauce 

Snack

• Sargento Light String Cheese

Dinner

• approx 1/3 recipe Shrimp and Corn with Basil  (3 oz shrimp)
• 1/2 cup quinoa 

Planned Snack

• Yasso Frozen Greek Yogurt bar - raspberry

Water - 60 oz

Exercise - treadmill, increased the speed to 3mph and walked the full 45 minutes, 299 calories burned.

Daily Totals: 856 calories, 34g fat, 80.6g carbohydrates, 19.5g sugars, 66.4g protein

 

I Want To Ride My Bicycle!!! Introducing Mabel

I finally bought my bicycle on Friday. I've named her Mabel, and I got to take her out for our first ride today. When I did a short test-ride at the bike shop, I was rather hilariously shaky on it - hard to imagine looking at me that I had been on an amateur racing team in high school. But then again, that was over 25 years ago.

Mabel's definitely not a racing bike, but I didn't want one. A good 95% of the streets here have no shoulder, and given my low confidence level in traffic thanks to being hit by a truck (or rather hitting a truck) when riding back in my racing days, I knew any riding I'd be doing would be on greenways and other off-road (but not mountain biking) situations.

I started rather small, and went to the Muddy Creek Greenway, a few miles down the road from my house. The trail length is officially 2.91 miles long - though there's a bit more paved through a private housing community up at the northern end, so I'd estimate probably 3.1 miles total.

I parked at the southern parking lot, rode north, then all the way back down south, and turned around back to the car making the full circuit. Despite being shaky at slow speeds, and not very confident on sharp turns, I had a BLAST. I could feel what I used to love about riding - the wind in my hair (under my helmet), the beautiful scenery, and nice deep lung-fulls of air on a cool, damp morning.

This trail has half a dozen or so bird houses along the path, and someone has painted them in vibrant colors.

My 6.2 mile ride took 41 minutes, and according to my heart rate monitor I burned 332 calories, with an average heart rate of 142 and a max of 160. Oh, and I did it wearing one of the Man's tshirts (Colonel Mustard in the library with a wrench!) - a victory in and of itself, and it was a bit big to boot!

  I did bring it home with a bit of muddy water in a line up my back - it had been raining overnight and earlier in the morning, so there was some standing water in a couple places across the trail. I went grocery shopping that way - too bad if someone couldn't figure out I'd been exercising, I didn't care!

I'll visit this trail again - it's a good length for me right now, and will let me get my confidence up to visit more populous areas or longer trails.

My Meals

Breakfast

• Dannon Light & Fit raspberry yogurt
• Sargento Light String Cheese

Lunch

• 1 serving Chicken and Farro salad
• 1 slice rye toast w/.5 tsp butter

Dinner

• 2 oz garlic rosemary marinated lamb loin chop
• 100g mashed red potato (a little bit of cream and butter)
• 2 medium carrots, steamed, then glazed with a tiny bit of maple syrup 

Water - 40oz (bad Annie)

Exercise - Cycling! 332 calories

Daily Totals - 861 calories, 32g fat, 94.2g carbohydrates, 27.7g sugars, 54.1g protein

 

New foods: Farro

I know I've been absent for a few days - the end of the week was tiring for me - and I spent most of yesterday feeling sorry for myself - until I was folding laundry and decided to try on one of the Man's tshirts (size L) - and it FIT. Holy crap.

See, my nutritionist claimed the other day that my ideal weight is 107.5 lbs. I laughed, loudly. According to the charts I refer to (on MyFoodDiary.com), 107 is the very bottom of the "thin frame" range for my height. I'm not thin framed. Not in a million years. I'm at least medium, if not broad. But being a little tough on myself, if we say medium, then the range they give is 116-129, and if we did go up to broad, it would be 126-143.  My personal goal right now is 150 by weight loss alone - after plastics, getting to 143 or lower is completely reasonable. As I get closer to 150, I've considered pushing myself down to 140 by weight loss, but we'll see how it goes.

Part of yesterday's blues was in trying to make a grocery list - as much as I love my mini tuna melts and chicken on salad, I need a bit of variety. One of the recipes I found used farro, a protein-rich grain. Since regular pasta and white rice is fairly nutritionally bereft, I decided to give it a shot - and I was immediately in love. It will definitely become part of my food options. It's chewy, nutty, and just plain good. I modified the salad to reduce the amount of oil in the vinaigrette, and I skipped the goat cheese.

For dinner, I was a bit ambitious and tried an onion, cheese, and bacon tart that I'd been eying for a while - I did modify the recipe to fit into some mini tart pans that I have, and it was rich enough that I could only eat half of one - but the Man happily slurped up the other half of mine. It's too rich to be anything but a very occasional treat, but damn, it was good.

My meals: 

Breakfast

• 3/4 cup Kashi Go Lean! cereal
• 1/3 cup whole milk

Lunch

•  1 serving Chicken, Green Bean, Corn, and Farro Salad (1/3 of half the original recipe)

Snack

• Sargento Light String Cheese

Dinner

• 3.2 oz beef tenderloin 
• 1/2 onion tart, based on Onion, Cheese, and Bacon Tart 

Water - 40 oz (need more!)

Daily Totals: 803 calories, 35.7g fat, 57g carbohydrates, 10.4g sugars, 70.7g protein