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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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

Broccoli Cheese Casserole

Broccoli is one of those vegetables that while very good for you can also be a bit boring. There's steamed broccoli, it's often tossed in pastas with heavy alfredo sauces, or in homey cream-of-whatever soup casseroles. The casseroles can be tasty, but fat and sodium bombs. I set out to create a lighter version of a broccoli casserole that had less rice and binders than other versions out there. I believe I definitely succeeded on taste!

• .5 cup cooked white long grain rice
• 1.5 cups steamed broccoli - cooked until just past al dente
• 1/2 medium onion - finely diced
• 1 tbsp butter
• 1 tbsp all-purpose flour
• 1/4 tsp salt
• 1/8 tsp black pepper
• 1/2 cup shredded cheddar cheese, divided
• 1 slice toasted white bread (or scant 1/4 cup dried bread crumbs or panko)

Sweat onions in small pan until translucent, set aside in medium sized bowl. Add cooked rice and broccoli (may be added from refrigerated left overs or prepared ahead).

Melt butter in heavy bottomed sauce pan. Add flour and whisk together. Cook 2 to 3 minutes, whisking frequently, until roux turns tan in color. Slowly add milk, whisking constantly. Add salt and pepper. Cook another 2 minutes until mixture begins to thicken. Add half to three-quarters of the cheese, stir until melted. Add sauce to rice, broccoli, and onion mixture.

Spoon mixture into small baking dish (I have a 4x4 Le Creuset dish that fits this perfectly). Top with bread crumbs and remaining cheese.

Bake in 350F oven for 20-25 minutes until casserole is hot and bubbly.

Serves 4 bariatric or small side servings, or 2 larger portions.

Nutritional information (via myfooddiary.com, based on 4 servings): 195 calories - 10.2g fat, 19.3g carbohydrates, 3.6g sugars, 7.9g protein

Boozy Bistro Chicken

Epicurious.com has a take on the classic bistro Steak Diane, done instead with chicken breasts. My version is adapted slightly for our portion sizes and needs.

• 8 oz boneless skinless chicken breast - pounded flat or purchased in thin slice package
• 1 small shallot, minced
• .5 cup cognac or bourbon
• .5 cup dry white wine (I use Pinot Grigio)
• 1.5 cups low sodium Chicken broth
• .5 cup heavy cream
• 3 tbsp grainy Dijon mustard (I use Grey Poupon Country Dijon)
• 1.5 tsp butter
• 2 tbsp chopped fresh chives
• salt and pepper

Melt butter in heavy bottom saute pan. Sprinkle chicken with salt and pepper, saute until just cooked through, 2-3 minutes per side (at 1/4 inch thickness). Remove chicken from pan and cover with foil to keep warm.

In the same pan, saute shallot until translucent - about 3 minutes. Very carefully add cognac and the wine, then bring to a boil. Whisk in mustard, cook for an additional 2 minutes. Add broth, then simmer until reduced about in half - 5-10 minutes more. Reduce heat to medium, then add heavy cream. Whisk until incorporated and warm, but not boiling.

Return chicken to the pan, coating with sauce - rewarming for 2-3 minutes.

Plate chicken, spoon sauce over, and sprinkle with chives.

Nutrition information - 1/4 recipe (1 bariatric serving) - 238 calories, 9.1g fat, 2.3g carbohydrates, 0.4g sugars, 13.1g protein, 12.6g alcohol