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.

Recipe: French Bordeaux Chicken

This recipe could be done in a smaller batch, but with a good wine involved, I hate to make too small of a batch or the rest of the wine might go to waste. So with this recipe, I made it with the intent to freeze and save additional portions.

Adapted from a Rachel Ray recipe , I've changed some ingredient quantities and cooking times - it was a 30-minute meal, and with some things, you just need a bit more time than that.

• 1 lb cubed boneless skinless chicken breasts
• 3 medium carrots, diced
• 2 medium parsnips, diced
• 3 celery stalks - tender inner ones with leaves
• 4 slices bacon, chopped
• 2 cups white Bordeaux wine
• 1 cup chicken broth - low sodium
• 1 small box frozen pearl onions (alternately 1 box sweet onions - diced)
• 1/2 cup all purpose flour
• 1 tbsp minced fresh thyme
• 2 tbsp butter
• 2 tbsp all purpose flour
• salt and pepper

 Using a heavy dutch oven, brown bacon until most of the fat has been rendered. Remove bacon bits and drain on a paper towel.

Salt and pepper chicken, then toss in flour. Shake all excess before adding to the bacon fat. Brown on all sides, about 6 minutes total. Remove from pan and set aside. Add celery, carrots, and parsnips, browning in remaining fat until softened. If choosing to use diced onion, add at this time as well. Season again with salt and pepper, add chopped thyme.

When vegetables are cooked, push to outer edge of pan leaving an empty circle in the middle.  Melt butter, then whisk in 2 tbsp flour to make a roux. Cook roux for 1 minute, then add wine, whisking to fully incorporate. Add chicken broth. Mixture will thicken, bring to a low simmer.

Add chicken back into pan along with pearl onions. Simmer for at least 15 minutes, or reduce to low heat and simmer for up to an hour to allow flavors to combine.

Serve over egg noodles, brown rice, farro, or barley as desired. Nutritional information for chicken and sauce mixture only.

Freeze extra servings air-tight using Food-Saver type storage.

Recipe makes 8 servings: 201 calories, 5.7g fat, 13.6g carbohydrates, 4.4g sugars, 14.5g protein, 6.1g alcohol

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?

Recipe: Honey Lemon Chicken

Some post-ops have trouble with chicken, in part because it can be dry, even when cooked carefully. To that end, though I rate this recipe as 3+ months post-op, you should be mindful of your own personal tolerances to chicken and as always, chew chew chew.

• 12 oz boneless skinless chicken breast
• 1 tbsp honey
• 1 tbsp extra virgin olive oil
• zest and juice from one lemon
• salt and pepper

Preheat oven to 375F. Trim any remaining fat from the chicken breast(s), season with salt and pepper, and place in a baking dish sprayed with non-stick cooking spray. In a small bowl whisk together honey, oil, and juice. Pour half of honey combination over the chicken, turn over, then pour on remaining mixture. Turn or use a pastry brush as necessary to coat chicken completely.

Bake in oven for approximately 40 minutes - turning half way through and basting as necessary to keep moist.

Makes 4 3-oz servings.

Rated: 3+ months post-op

Nutritional Information: 124 calories, 4.5g fat, 5.7g carbohydrates, 4.7g sugars, 17.3g protein
 

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

Cheesy Chicken Corn Chowder

This chowder uses a mix of broth and milk as it's base - lightening it up compared to some traditional cream or half and half based chowders.  Note that ore-shredded cheeses tend to be packed with corn starch or other additives that prevent sticking and clumping, which may result in some separation when added to hot liquids. I recommend shredding your own cheese for this dish.

• 4 oz cooked and diced boneless skinless chicken breast
• 1 cup yellow corn
• 1.5 cups low sodium chicken broth
• 2 cups milk
• 3/4 cup shredded cheddar cheese
• 2 slices bacon
• 1 small to medium onion,chopped
• 1 large carrot, diced
• 1 large red potato, diced (about 8 oz)
• 1/2 small red bell pepper, diced
• 3/4 tsp salt
• 1/4 tsp black pepper
• 1 tbsp fresh minced thyme

Slice bacon into 1 inch pieces and render in heavy bottom sauce pan. When browned, remove to drain on paper towels. Discard all but 1 to 2 tsp fat. Saute onion in bacon fat until translucent. Add carrot, potato, and chicken broth. Bring to a boil then reduce heat and simmer for 15 minutes until vegetables are soft. 

Add milk, salt, and pepper. Bring to a simmer (but do not boil). Add thyme and bell pepper. Stir in cheese until melted. Sprinkle reserved bacon over soup when served.

Nutritional information (1/6 recipe) - 221 calories, 9.4g fat, 19.5g carbohydrates, 7.1g sugars, 15.7g protein

What's For Dinner? Pork Tenderloin with Pomegranate Red Wine Sauce

First day back at work post-op and it went pretty well - no Vicodin during the day today, so that's good. I've got multiple meetings tomorrow morning, an interview for an internal job posting tomorrow afternoon, and I'm hoping that goes well.

I was browsing around for a recipe to use with the piece of pork tenderloin I took out of the freezer yesterday, concentrating mostly on something with red wine and ran across a lamb recipe with a pomegranate red wine sauce (which I will make as written at some point).

I decided to adapt it to my pork and was pleased with the results. The fun part was making pomegranate molasses. You can purchase this as a prepared food item from middle eastern grocers or online, but the lamb recipe author had a quick substitute available - so I did that, as detailed in the recipe. Be careful though, I went from a simmering and reducing liquid to a bubbling syrup in about 30 seconds - so you need to watch it at the end.

As happens some times, I got chatting with the Man and realized I was eating too fast - things still complain if I don't chew thoroughly, or swallow too fast - and I did it to myself tonight. I ate about half of what is shown on my plate (which was 3 oz of pork, 1/3 cup of rice and 1/3 cup of peas). Some day I'll learn!

Today was also the first day of any exercise post-op, it was pretty light - the Man wanted to show me the XBox Kinect Star Wars game, so I went through some of the tutorial stages of that (lots of lunges with arm swings), and then made him do some planks with me, and did my upper arm workout with the weights. My knee is still bothering me a bit, but I'm going to give it at least another week before setting an appointment with the ortho clinic. 

My Meals

Breakfast

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

Lunch

• Approx 1/2 cup left over lasagna
• 1.5 cups romaine, 2 radishes, 1/4 cup corn, 2 tbsp Ken's Lite Options Honey French Dressing
• 2 small slices garlic toast

Dinner

• 1/2 serving pork tenderloin with pomegranate red wine sauce
• 1/3 cup rice
• 1/4 cup peas

Exercise

• 186 calories burned between Xbox Kinect, planks, and upper body weight work

Water

• 48 oz

Daily Totals - 1110 calories, 38g fat, 141g carbohydrates, 36.5g sugars, 61.7g protein

Definitely could have done without the bread!

What's For Dinner? Velvety Carrot Parsnip Soup

It's been raining for days here in North Carolina, and they're predicting it may turn into snow tomorrow night into Friday morning (yay - hospital for surgery in the snow!). So it's been cold, dank, and dreary - the perfect weather for soup.

No exercise today, yesterday's treadmill session left my knee a bit sore, not taking any chances.

My Meals

Breakfast

•  1 serving Maple Pumpkin Seed Breakfast Barley

Lunch

•  Salad of 3 oz grilled chicken, 1.5 cups romaine, 1 small tomato, 2 radishes, 1/2 oz shredded cheddar, 1 tbsp chipotle ranch dressing

Snack

•  1/3 cup dry roasted peanuts

Dinner

•  Velvety Carrot Parsnip Soup

Water - 72 oz

Daily Totals - 905 calories, 42.1g fat, 77.2g carbohydrates, 23.6g sugars, 64.3g 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

What's For Dinner? Easy Cottage Pie

Lazy Saturday - I slept in a bit, 8 am!, and got a a decent amount of housework and laundry done, but mostly fiddled around online. Classes start up on Monday for my MSAE program, and I really should get a jump on the reading - maybe tomorrow.

Tonight I wanted something a bit different for dinner, and found a recipe for a beef-based Shepherd's pie (probably better called cottage pie since it's beef and not lamb). I fiddled slightly with it, and I thought it tasted pretty darned good. The Man gave it just an "OK" - turns out he's not a fan of that type of dish - who knew?

My Meals

Breakfast

• Dannon Light & Fit raspberry yogurt
• 12 lightly salted almonds

Lunch

• 2 oz deli roast beef
• 1 oz provolone cheese
• 11 Kashi Sea Salt Pita Crisps

Snack

•  1/2 cup roasted pumpkin seeds

Dinner

•  1 serving Easy Cottage Pie

Water - 60 oz

Daily Totals - 810 calories, 37.3g fat, 64g carbohydrates, 17.5g sugars, 57.7g protein

What's For Dinner? Rosemary Garlic Lamb Chops with Stewed Green Beans

Today was weird - I decided to see how my knee could handle the treadmill, and successfully managed a 45 minute session (3mph, 2% incline). I did a bit of weight work as well, and two 30-second planks. The planks will allegedly give me killer abs - I'm waiting!

With all the other changes I have going on, I think I mentioned that we discontinued my Depo-Provera. I've seemed to have started cycling again - but it's pretty rapid, as I started again today - just 27 days after the last time (before anyone says 'but a cycle is 28 days' - not for me, this is unusual). I'm not thrilled, but at least it's the weekend, and if it's as crampy as it was last time, at least I can chill out for a few days.

I'm a bit trapped here this weekend, the Man's car is having some odd intermittent issue with starting, and he ran the battery down the last time he tried. It's safely parked in the lot at the store, so it's not going anywhere, but he's driving mine in the mean time. He brought the battery home to charge up today, so we're hoping he'll be able to fire it up tomorrow and at least get it home so we can do a little more diagnostics on it and see if he and his brother can fix it, or if it will have to go to the mechanic. Ugh, just need one more year in that car, and then the next new purchase is his.

I did pretty good with food today, sitting here happy with dinner, and not feeling like I'll be itching for a snack before bed.

My Meals

Breakfast

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

Snack

•  2 celery stalks

Lunch

•  Salad of 1.5 cups romaine, 2.8 oz chicken breast, radishes, 1/4 cup corn, 2 tbsp Ken's Healthy Options Parmesan and Peppercorn dressing

Snack

•  Sargento Light String cheese
• 1/4 cup toasted pumpkin seeds
• 12 almonds

Dinner

•  3.5 oz lamb loin chop marinated in garlic, rosemary, lemon zest and olive oil
• 1/2 cup stewed green beans with bacon

Water - 80 oz

Exercise - 45 minutes treadmill - 3 mph, 2% incline, 2x10 reps tricep kickbacks, bicep curls, lateral shoulder raises with 4 lb weights. 2x20 lunges. 2x 30 second plank. (approx 300 calories burned)

Daily Totals - 943 calories, 43.8g fat, 63g carbohydrates, 24g sugars, 83.7g protein

What's For Dinner? Dickey's BBQ Pit

Ugh - eating out is sometimes still really hard. And it is rather ironic that it was hard while meeting some folks to eat before going to our WLS support group meeting.

We had a new meeting this month - one intended specifically for people that were more than a year post-op, as our concerns tend to be a bit different than the pre-ops and recent post-ops. The meeting location doesn't have a lot around it for easy food - and one place that a few people in this group likes is Dickey's BBQ Pit - a chain that some of you may be familiar with. I've never been too impressed with their food, and tonight I thought I'd just have maybe a veggie side and then eat when I got home. But, by the time I got there, I was hungry, and went ahead and ordered a quarter plate (4 oz of meat, two sides). I had been completely unimpressed with the brisket I'd had there before - dried out, tasteless. I ordered the marinated chicken breast that others had recommended. It was OK, but nothing stellar. Where I fell down a bit was in the sides - I ordered onion strings and green beans. The onion strings (fried) added some calories, the beans were bland, and I had 2 of the hush puppies that come with every order. Not the best choices.

Then, the group headed to Starbucks for coffee before hitting the meeting. I'm generally not a coffee gal, and I think I've had something to drink from Starbucks maybe 4 times in my life. I asked a few questions, and ended up with a "Light Cafe Mocha, nonfat" - according to MyFoodDiary.com that still had 170 calories in it - damn.

So tonight I'm over calories that I wanted to consumer, but that's kind of how things go down some days - tomorrow will be a better day.

Oh - I ordered some clothes from Old Navy's after Christmas sale - and I tried them on when I got home tonight. I love the new outfit - definitely could be worn to about any office event - with the boots as pictured below, or with pumps. Excuse the wrinkles - this is straight out of the package. Best thing? The skirt is a 14, and the shirt a large - even in a non-stretchy fabric!!

My Meals

Breakfast

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

Lunch

• Left over time! About 2/3 the size of yesterday's spaghetti shells
• 2 oz tri-tip
• 1/3 cup green beans

Dinner
 From Dickey's BBQ Pit

• 2.5 oz chicken in bbq sauce
• 1 serving onion strings
• 1/3 serving green beans
• 2 hush puppies
• Starbucks Venti Light Cafe Mocha

Water - 72 oz

Daily Totals: 1168 calories, 43.5g fat, 138.1g carbohydrates, 49.8g sugars, 68.1g 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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