Muffin Madness

It's been nearly a month since my last post, which I just realized as I logged in for today's entry.  Where does the time go?  To the corporate overlords, plain and simple.  Work has kept me quite busy, and fairly stressed out lately.  While I've been keeping up my new year dedication (not a resolution - those are destined to fail) to healthier eating with a decreased reliance on convenience foods, I have noticed myself slipping a little bit this past week.  I hit fast food twice after work this week after avoiding those places for months (every once in a while, I would grab something that was pre-decided, but rarely).

I've also been trying to keep up my nails with fun color, since when I'm mentally exhausting myself during the work day, I like to look down at my nails and have something to smile about.  Is is weird that a good manicure can boost my mood during a tough day?

So, while I've been spending time at work and letting my nails dry, I haven't been keeping up the blog like I'd like to.

However, I have been inspired.  Gina over at Skinnytaste.com may not realize it, but I semi-stalk her.  Earlier this month, I was on a banana bread kick, and tried out two different recipes in single serve and two serving portions.  The problem I found with the recipe I made into 2 serving portions (using mini-loaf pans), was that I seem to be physically incapable of only eating half of the loaf.  Those are in the freezer and are a bit of a treat on those low-point days.

Onto the inspiration.  I was sitting at work toiling away and fantasizing about that banana bread, but wishing it were fewer points (the 2 servings together are 11).  I had also just eaten my lunch - 1C of oatmeal with chopped apple and maple syrup (easier to throw together in the morning than a sandwich, when there's nothing in the freezer).  I was thinking of making an oatmeal fruit bread, similar to my lunch but with leftovers.  Later that day, while taking a short sanity break, I checked Skinnytaste.com and found the recipe for Insanely Good Blueberry Oatmeal Muffins.  I already had most of the ingredients on hand, and had chopped up strawberries and blueberries in the fridge.

Naturally, I had to hit the grocery store to pick up some things first.  I didn't think I had enough honey at home and didn't trust the applesauce in my fridge to still be good.  Long story short, the baking was delayed until last night, at which time my berries were dried out and sad looking.  Quick change - apple pie muffins instead.  I substituted chopped up apple for the berries and added some apple pie spice to the dry ingredients.

 I'll admit that sometimes I get intimidated by lengthy ingredient lists, but this recipe is really rather simple and easy to follow.  

Ingredients ready for assembly

Since the first step in the recipe is to let the oats soak in the milk for about 30 minutes, it gave me time to prepare all the rest of the ingredients while the oven pre-heated.  Once the oats are sufficiently soaked and the wet ingredients are mixed, everything comes together quite quickly. 

Ready for the oven

Normally, I would worry about filling a muffin-tin to that level with the batter, but since the photos in the recipe page showed this level (and the finished product), I was okay with it.  And you may be wondering what all that liquid is on top of the muffin-tin.  One of the recipe steps was to spray the tin and liners with oil.  I had never done both steps before, but after reading the comments, saw this to be integral.  I used non-stick cooking spray.

Pretty!

This is the first time I've baked something that didn't rise up and out over the top of the pan to the point that you have to destroy them to remove them.  I guess actually following written instructions has its perks.  Of course, since it's me, I had to do something stupid during the process.  This time, when I slid the muffins into the oven, I realized that I hadn't moved the racks to their usual positions (I had planned on putting these on the rack in the middle position, but had forgotten that I'd moved that rack to the top position to broil something earlier this week).  My solution was to bake these on the top rack for the first 11 minutes and then move them to the bottom rack for the last 11.  Result - some of the muffin bottoms are a bit over-done.  I'm not sure if this is due to the rack issue, or the fact that while I was mixing the ingredients, the pan was on top of the hot oven waiting to be filled.  I need a larger kitchen, or more inclination to keep the counters clutter free.  Normal people probably will not get this result.

The first taste

The verdict:  Moist and tasty.  I will definitely be making these again, and trying different fruit combos.  It has a good oat flavor and a subtle sweetness.  The big apple chunks cooked up well, and there's a nice fruit to muffin ratio.  When I first folded in the fruit, I was afraid it wouldn't be enough, but it is.  

To circle back to spraying the liners with the oil...you do not want to skip that step.  These muffins come out of the liners completely with no precious points lost to the wrapper.  That is so important to a Weight Watcher's member, since I know when I have counted points for an item, I am eating every morsel, even if it means gnawing the crumbs off of that muffin liner (I'm not proud).  From the recipe comments, you will want to use liners because otherwise these tend to fall apart when removing them from the pan.  Other comments have remarked that the muffins bottoms tend to be rather wet, but dry by the next day (I didn't have this issue, but I'm "special").

I may be smuggling one of these in to The Hunger Games later for a WW-Friendly movie snack.  

Kitchen Nightmares

I swear that if anyone decided to film my life for a reality show, I'd end up being portrayed as completely inept, dimwitted, and comically clumsy.  Really, these oddball occurrences only happen once in a while, but it does seem like I've been extra-blessed in the kitchen catastrophe department over the past few weeks.  Here's some of the wacko things that I'm talking about:

1)  I had a can of refried beans fall on my head a few weeks ago while rummaging around in a cabinet.   The can was on the counter over the cabinet where I keep my casserole dishes and tupperware.  My cat had been getting up on the counter and I think she must have nudged the can to the edge during one of her forays, because I can think of no other explanation for how that can could have possibly fallen on my head.  Other than poltergeists, and I really don't want to think about those in my apartment.  I also don't know how the can could have been perched that precariously on the edge of the counter without my noticing it.  Regardless of how it happened, it hurt like nobody's business!  The very bottom edge hit me right above my hairline and I did have a little bump from it.  Luckily, it didn't fall far before impact.

2)  I burned myself pulling a dish of homemade macaroni and cheese out of the oven.  Not the brightest, but also the most normal of my incidents.

3)  Last weekend I managed to burn myself while doing the dishes.  The tap water from the hot side has been scalding hot lately, which I knew when I started the dishes that day.  I must have had a lapse, though. While moving a pan under the stream I wasn't careful enough and ended up burning my wrist right under the thumb.  It hurt bad enough that I felt it through my whole body, stamped my foot on the floor and swore.  (Sorry Mom.  It happens.)  It was hot enough that it was a bit red and warm to the touch for the rest of the day (it looked like a mild sunburn, but didn't last long).  Right after it happened, I was so mad that I tested the water temperature with a meat thermometer held in the stream of running water.  150 degrees (beef, medium rare).  I had been meaning to report the temperature of the water to the apartment complex office for a while, but the burn prompted an actual irate call.  I also reported the broken garbage disposal, since I had to leave a message anyway.  Next day, the hot water is merely hot again, without being hot enough to physically endanger the young, elderly, or simple-minded.  The garbage disposal is still broken, but the drain is clear again.

4)  Yesterday, I had another dish washing incident.  I received a vegetable slicer for Christmas, and was cleaning the components for the first use.  I was planning to make scalloped potatoes with a giant sweet potato that I found at the store.  All necessary parts were washed, and I had taken special care not to come in contact with the extra sharp slicing blade (it ate up my poor sponge).  I was drying everything on my flour sack towel and made one last and nearly fatal (by which I mean not really even close to fatal, but not very bright) swipe with the towel, catching my middle fingertip right in the blade.  Amazingly, there was no blood on the towel.  But that sucker bled like a mother.  The cut wasn't that deep - maybe a millimeter - but it seemed like it bled forever.  And each time I thought it was finished, it started up again.  Then of course I started thinking too hard about it (Do I need stitches?  Should I see a doctor?  How clean is that towel?  What if it gets infected?).  I had to lie down and look away from it for a few minutes, to stop myself from giving in to the irrational panic and because I was feeling a bit faint.  Then, as I was getting myself a bandaid to keep myself from looking at the wound, and to keep from bleeding all over the place, I made the mistake of trying to assess the damage and started to feel faint/queasy again and had to lie down.  Did I mention that I hadn't eaten yet either?  That probably didn't help.  Anyway, I was so irritated at the slicer (and myself for being a dork) that I nixed the potato idea and moved on to something simpler and faster.

5)  Today, less actual physical damage to myself...but it did involve that vegetable slicer.  I decided not to hold a grudge against an inanimate object due to my own carelessness, and was preparing the scalloped potato recipe.  The white sauce was completed on the stove waiting for the potatoes to be layered in the pan.  I had already re-washed the blade component, without touching it, and didn't bother drying it.  I popped it into the top of the slicer and started slicing up the humongous sweet potato. This slicer has a container attached to catch the sliced veggies, and I was holding it in my hand instead of using it on the countertop.  Naturally, the whole slicer somehow catapulted out of my hands, crashing to the floor and distributing an even layer of perfectly sliced potato disks across the tiles.  I managed to keep a nice tight grip on the potato, though, and hadn't sliced more than 1/4 of it before dropping the container.  So, all was not lost.  Of course, it delayed my recipe prep and the white sauce ended up thicker than ideal, since it was sitting on the stove during this time and the aftermath.  I had to spread it over the potatoes instead of simply pouring it, as called for in the recipe.  The sweet potato produced enough liquid during cooking that it didn't seem to make a difference though.

Cut to my reality show after the inevitable editing process, and it goes something like the following scene from Frasier, only without the dating or the ironing:

Birthdays, Ball Games and Bad Baking

What a busy, busy weekend!  And the week has continued in the same busy fashion...  I am going to need this weekend to recover.

Saturday was my nephew's 2nd birthday, and my step-sister threw him a party.  He is very much into tractors right now, so that was the party theme.  My mother and Caroline created this cute cake for him, and he was very happy to see the vehicles on it.  (Every time he see's a tractor, and some other assorted large vehicles, he yells out tractor and gets very excited.  It's incredibly adorable, but I will admit to a bit of a bias, as his doting aunt.)

He got these tractor cookies, too.  I'm told they were a lot of work...  I know from experience that they were quite tasty.

Sunday, of course, was the superbowl.  Given that I'm not a sports fan, you'd think that I wouldn't give a flying fig.  But, I did have a party to go to where I could tune out the game and tune back in for the commercials.  The hostess's birthday was on the 1st, so I wanted to bring her a cake as a surprise.  She consulted me about what to buy or make beforehand, and I had to spoil the surprise to stop her from making the cupcakes she had planned.

I had stumbled upon this photo and recipe for a zebra cake a few weeks ago and had been itching to try it out.  I thought the superbowl party was the perfect opportunity to use my friends as test subjects, um, I mean, beneficiaries of my baking talents... The original recipe I had found called for olive oil and Sprite, and I was not too sure about that combination in a cake, so kept looking.  I settled on this one instead, since the ingredients looked more normal to me.

I ended up having to borrow a round cake pan.  I don't know how I can have at more than 4 different bundt pans and not have a single normal round pan...

I don't know that I've ever actually baked a cake from scratch before, being such a fan of the modified cake mix methods of The Cake Mix Doctor.  I was tempted to just use a white cake mix and a chocolate cake mix*, and pour the batter in the pan per the zebra cake instructions, but that would have resulted in way too much cake.  (Yes, I also realize that I could have used a single box of white cake mix, and added cocoa powder to part of that mix...hindsight and all that...)  I also thought that baking the cake from scratch went hand in hand with my resolve to eat fewer processed foods.

Anyway, after getting home from my nephew's birthday party on Saturday night, I made a quick trip to the grocery store and got to baking.  

Per the recipe, I started out by mixing the eggs and the sugar together until most of the sugar was dissolved.  Then the oil, milk and flavor extracts were stirred in, followed with the dry ingredients (except for the cocoa powder).   Very soon I had 2 bowls of batter ready for pouring.

In order to achieve the stripes on the inside of the cake, you need to pour alternate between pouring small amounts of each batter into the center of the pan.  This will create concentric circles of batter.  It looks pretty snazzy in the pan, if I do say so myself, even though I think I should have poured a bit more batter per circle.


My circles were decidedly off-center, but there wasn't really anything I could do about it.  It still looked sort of impressive, though not quite like the photos in the links to the recipe.  This cake rose a crazy amount over the top of the pan, mounding in the center, and it developed a gaping crack at the top.  I will admit that I improvised with the borrowed pan - it was only an 8" and not a 9" as called for.  I am blaming that for the huge crack and the fact that I had to bake it an additional 20 minutes before it was done.  (I may have also mixed too much air into it trying to get rid of the flour lumps.)

After baking, my apartment smelled wonderful, and I was full of pride about my scratch-baked cake...until we cut into it at the party.  Luckily, we didn't make it a giant deal with candles or singing.  Lucky for me, if not the birthday girl, at least.  This cake tasted terrible.  The texture was fine and it was moist enough, but it had no flavor.  None.  Okay, maybe a little bit, since it actually tasted like cornbread to me.  I might have enjoyed it with a generous smear of butter and a bowl of chili, but cake this was not!  I knew it wasn't going to be an overly sweet cake, based on the description on the recipe site, but that site also stated that it had a good mix of vanilla and chocolate flavor.  People had commented on that site saying how perfect the recipe was and that they even used the plain batter for cupcakes.  Liars!  I don't believe it!

So much for my lofty baking ambitions...  What a let-down.  Next time, I will have to enlist the help of my good friend Betty Crocker.

Weigh In Wednesday

It looks like all of this cooking for myself business is paying off.  I am down another pound today for a total of 3 pounds gone in a 3 week period.  This is actually pretty incredible for me, since even when I was losing weight on the plan before (or rather, my version of the plan, which was cheating myself), I rarely lost a full pound a week.  So, I am hoping this trend continues.  It is certainly motivating.

Speaking of cooking for myself...I tried out a new recipe in my crock pot yesterday.  Originally, I had been searching for a crock-pot recipe so I could try out my nifty new Slow Cooker Liners.  I made chili last week, and still have 2 servings in the freezer for future use, so I didn't want a chili recipe.  I usually throw together whatever is on hand for a quick chicken or beef stew, but I didn't feel like either of those.  I also ruled out any recipes that require you to sear the meat first in a skillet, because I didn't want to do any prep work (also, I had planned to prepare everything the night before and toss it in the fridge, then set the slow cooker to cook it while I was away at work all day).

I settled on Cuban Style Pork and Sweet Potato Slow Cooker Stew from the Weight Watcher's website.  It was something a little bit different from my usual crockpot fare and I am a sucker for sweet potatoes.  I put together my shopping list and took a trip to the store on the way home from work.  Pork loin at buy one get one free?  Score!  (I do like free.  One package went right into the freezer and is destined for pasta sauce.)  Amazingly, I didn't forget anything from my list...

After combining all of the ingredients in my crock and nestling it all in my fridge, I signed on to my computer and read through some blogs before bedtime.  I saw this post and immediately realized that I forgot to use the liner!!  Naturally...

Wednesday morning I threw the crock into the base and turned it on before work.  There is nothing quite like coming home to my apartment and finding it smelling delicious (not a common occurrence, what with the cat and all), with a nice hot home cooked meal waiting for me.  

How it looked in the crock when I got home, after adding the lime juice and cilantro, but before stirring.

The recipe has very little liquid in it -  Only 1/4 Cup of orange juice and whatever liquid is in the can of diced tomatoes.  I worried that the meat was going to be dry and tough, but I had to add the fresh cilantro and lime juice and cook another 5 minutes before finding out.

What happened after I stirred...

I was afraid that the sweet potatoes would fall apart, based on some of the comments made in the recipe reviews.  They did, as you can see.  I don't know if they were cut too small or if I overcooked them by not setting the crockpot to revert to "warm" after the 7 hours of cooking time.  I was gone at least 8 hours, so they got at least another full hour on the low setting.  Next time, I will try to cut bigger chunks and actually use the "warm" setting (I don't know why I am always reluctant to do that).  

Ready to be devoured.  I am thinking of new plates...I'm getting tired of these.

It wasn't the prettiest meal, but it was certainly tasty.  The pork was not dry at all, but was fork tender and quite delicious.  I ate this with a tortilla on the side to sop up the sauce.  I can see myself making this again.     I was definitely not expecting this much flavor from a WW recipe, so it was a pleasant surprise.

Now, what to do with the rest of that orange juice...?  (I don't care for orange juice, so I know I won't drink it.)                   

Dieting Differently

This go round with my diet, I'm doing a couple of different things.  You know, besides the obvious: trying to actually follow the WW plan.  I'm eating real cheese that melts like it's supposed to and half and half that doesn't have any partially hydrogenated oil in it.  Fat free half and half is an oxymoron anyway, and I have little tolerance for morons.  Instead of relying on foods that are created as "diet-friendly" (many of which have added sugars to compensate for the lack of fat), I'm trying to eat a realistic diet.  If this is supposed to turn into a lifestyle, it needs to be full of foods that I enjoy eating.  And believe me, I find no joy in fat-free cheese.

Don't get me wrong, if it's a naturally fat-free item, I don't have a problem with it.  I'm just trying to eat generally healthier.  I'm not doing away altogether with processed foods either, but I'm trying to choose more carefully.  

Conseqentially, I've been doing a lot of cooking for myself lately, and also a lot of dishes.  (Note to self - contact apartment management to fix the garbage disposal!)  I'm making more frequent trips to the grocery store for fresh produce, and actually eating most of it as opposed to my old habit of forgetting that it exists and finding it in altered states in the bottom of my crisper.*

I've discovered that my preferred cooking method for fresh broccoli is tossing it in some olive oil and roasting it in the oven, which really brings out the flavor.  I've discovered that trying this same cooking method with fresh eggplant doesn't quite work the same, as those little buggers are like sponges and soak that oil up before you can coat it at all and ends up burning to the bottom of your pan.  It still tastes good though.

I'm learning to enjoy oatmeal that doesn't come pre-sweetened and packaged.  I've started eating it as a snack...though I still prefer it with some pure maple syrup (1T = 1PP).  It even keeps me satisfied for a while.

Yes, I realize this simple eating plan of mine is not a very revolutionary idea.   It's definitely do-able, and I think encouraged, on the Weight Watchers plan.

The other thing I'm doing differently than in the past is related to the 49 extra weekly PP that each WW gets.  Previously, I would horde all of these points and give myself a "free" weekend.  That meant I wouldn't track my foods on the weekend and I'd allow myself to basically eat any crap I wanted.  Somehow I was fooling myself into thinking that my splurges were within my points, though they may or may not have been.  Obviously, that wasn't really following the plan, and is most likely the reason that I was not losing weight on the diet.  (Because I wasn't really following it.)

No more.  I am tracking 24/7 now, weekday or weekend.  If I've used my minimum daily PP allowance and am still hungry, I will eat something else using my Weekly PP.  That's what's they are there for.  If I don't use them, I don't worry that they've been "wasted."  Using the plan this way (as intended), I am not left feeling hungry.  What a concept, right?

Now, I hope this all becomes habit and I can keep it up.  I think my mindset is where it needs to be for success right now, I just hope it stays there.

*Clarification:  the veggies are in an altered state, not me, just in case there was any confusion.

Back So Soon?

I have yet again re-dedicated myself to my weight-loss... I know, I know... You hear that a lot from me, don't you? Well, this time I mean it. Okay, fine. So I say that a lot, too. Too bad. This broken record is going to keep on playing until at least 20 pounds have spun off. (That metaphor may have spun away from me.)

In all seriousness, I had originally re-dedicated myself to the Weight Watchers program months ago, with exercise and everything. Then I'm not sure what happened. I got really busy at work with a special project, working late and on some weekends. I believe I used that as an excuse to slack on tracking my food and I stopped my mid-day walks when I was working through lunch. It's amazing how quickly good habits go by the wayside. Especially when I know that in the back of my mind I resent having to actually work to lose or maintain weight. Too bad I love food so much!

Reality hit at Thanksgiving, when there were photos taken. Standing next to my tiny mother (who recently had some very successful weight-loss herself), I looked positively stout. Mom looked great though! But, naturally, all I could focus on was how much bigger I looked than I had in any photos taken earlier in the year. Reality struck again when I visited the doctor about the recurrence of my tendinitis and saw the scale.

The Thanksgiving Pie Bar did not help matters.

I decided to hold off on going gung ho into Weight Watchers until after the Christmas festivities were over. Anyone that knows my family will understand the food-fest that any holiday entails. Plus, my father just moved down the Central Coast, and so close to Solvang, I knew I'd be powerless when faced with those excellent bakeries...and I was right.

Heaven on a plate! Cinnamon in the pastry dough!

After all of the festivities, my two Christmas celebrations (Dad's on Christmas, Mom's on New Year's Day) and New Year's Eve, it was time. Again. Which brings me back to the point of this rambling post. I'm back on the "journey" (as so many WW members call it) as of about 3 weeks ago. Tracking, healthier choices, cooking for myself instead of picking up fast food or take out, and relying on fewer convenience foods. Of course, I'll admit that I have not really incorporated exercise into my plan yet, but it will happen. I'm down 2 pounds already, and hope to see continued success.

Expect more frequent blog posts from now on, since I'm afraid my Facebook friends will get tired of me posting all of my food photos there and hearing about my weight loss issues repeatedly. Besides, if I keep my hands busy, I can't use them to stuff food into my face. Alas, this blasted tendinitis has severely curtailed my crafting, which was previously a satisfying non-food activity!

Curioser and Curiouser

I attended my cousin's wedding a few weeks ago in Fredericksburg, VA. It was a beautiful and touching Jewish ceremony (the rabbi was a really good speaker) and a lovely reception, and my cousin and his bride seem very happy. I wish them continued happiness together and hope to see them more often!

(The toasts went on for a while, and were all very sweet, but I did catch the bride eyeing the champagne.)

As a personal touch, the bride chose to give everyone two bags of M&M's as their favor. The two bags were tied together with a ribbon and a note telling the story of how when the bride's grandfather would take her to the movies, they'd both get a bag of M&M's. The bride (Jess) would finish all of her candy during the previews, and her grandfather would notice and share his candy with her. So, the first bag of M&M's was for us, and we were all to share the second bag. I thought that was a neat idea for wedding favors, and one I hadn't seen before.

So, diet be damned! I cracked open my candy and chowed down the whole first bag on my plane flight home. I ate the second bag at home a few days later. I would have shared it with my cat, but chocolate doesn't mix well with the kitties, so I had to act as proxy. As I was eating the candy slowly, I ran across this oddity:

(Yes, I did eat it. No, it did not taste like banana.)

How did this make it past quality control? Do they have quality control? I don't know why I felt the need to take photos, but my camera was right there, so why not?

What a Crock!

Fall foliage photo that I took in Denver, CO

(My apologies if I've already used that title in the past...)

Fall is coming, and it really felt like it today. It was downright cold by the time I left work this evening. Although Mr. Weatherman (name has been changed to maintain anonymity) says that it will warm up again soon, I'm already looking forward to switching to my fall/winter wardrobe. I'm done with this paltry excuse for a summer and ready for a real season. And since we only really have 2 here in CA, bring on the fall! Besides, my car needs a bath and I have a cute new umbrella (thanks Kerri!), so bring on the rain, too!

I am also looking forward to soup and stew weather, and all those fall veggies (hello butternut squash and pumpkin!). I was thinking about that this weekend while staring at the empty crock pot on my counter. It just doesn't feel right using it during the summer (I know people do it, but I tend to use it more October-March). So, I need to start stock-piling some healthy crock pot recipes to be put to use once the weather really starts cooling down.

Lo and behold... One of the first facebook posts I spied this evening was my friend linking to www.365daysofcrockpot.com. This blog belongs to Karen, who challenged herself to cooking in her crock pot for 365 days in a row with no repeated recipes. Check it out - it's worth it! I need to re-peruse the entries for cooking ideas. She didn't stop after her year was up either, and continues to add recipes and post new entries. Today she's having a contest for a cookbook giveaway. See here for how to enter.

In the meantime...since it's still officially summer, I think I have to go have some ice cream...and enjoy the arrival of new episodes of my favorite TV shows!

Crockpot Cooking

So, apparently I am not the only one of my friends currently going through a crockpot phase. My friend Kristin led me to The Crockpot Lady's website, which I must admit is pretty awesome. Right after I visited that site and started cracking up at the humor level, I found out that my friend Caitlin was on a serious crockpot kick, too, and sent the link to her.

Anyway, the Crockpot Lady (Stephanie) committed herself to using her crockpot every day for an entire year - 2008. There are a ton of recipes (and she admits that they are not all winners) on the website, and today, I am making the Salsa Chicken and Black Bean Soup. This has become a staple in Kristin's house, and I tried it once over there, so I already know that it will be good. It is in the crockpot as I type, simmering away to perfection.

I did leave out the mushrooms and cumin though. I'll add spice when it's done, if it needs it, but I just can't stand cumin. And the mushrooms don't seem to go with the rest of the ingredients, if you ask me, so those were left out. I added a bit more corn to make up for the mushroom omission. I'll let you know how it turns out. (Sidenote - as much as I love avocados, I just couldn't justify buying one for this, since they are a dollar each! I decided to save the money and the fat content...)

And yes, I realize how long it has been since I last posted on here. I broke the resolution to blog more often almost as soon as I had made it. But, I'll try...

Diet Revisited

Okay, it's day one back on the diet - I tracked all my food today (did not get in my daily oil or all of my veggies, but at least I'm trying), and even...are you sitting down? I even exercised!!

After last week's weigh in disaster, I decided that I needed to forcibly push myself back on track...I'm weak though, so not sure the wheels are firmly on the track yet. We'll find out if it moves or not... Anyway, I bought a new exercise DVD - Pilates Core Challenge. Apparently, this is not a workout for the beginner! I got through 20 minutes and thought I was going to die. I think I will go back to my easy beginner's Pilates video (VHS) until I build up a bit of strength and endurance. Wish me luck. I am hoping that I don't give up on the exercise!

In honor of day one of diet determination (couldn't start over the weekend, you know...it was father's day, and Dad was barbecuing), I took the below quiz. Note that it says I am 59% Chunky...should I be offended??

Your Score: BROWNIE BATTER!

You scored 81% SWEET, 59% CHUNKY, and 62% UNIQUE!

brownie batter ice cream with a rich brownie batter swirl

Mmmm....you are a very sweet mix indeed! You are warm, loving, and caring to all those around you, but you're not boring in the least! You have a wild streak and a creative, unique streak, too. You are a great friend, an interesting person, and you know how to have fun without ending up crouching over a toilet bowl. Nice!

Link: The Ben & Jerry's Ice Cream Flavor Test written by weered1 on OkCupid, home of the The Dating Persona Test View My Profile(weered1)

Random Bits

I may have been imagining things, or perhaps experiencing a sleep to waking hallucination, but I could swear that my cat Gracie looked up at me and winked this morning. You know, with one eye… Maybe she knows something I don't?

I worked from home today, which Gracie seems to enjoy, since she gets all this extra attention from me. You know, I think she thinks it's a game to complete an obstacle course over my open file and lap…Jump on lap, from lap to writing area directly over moving pen in my hand, back to floor by my hand. Repeat. A lot.

Around 3pm today, I started hearing what sounded like very bad drumming, or even worse guitar strumming. I was convinced it was one of the downstairs neighbors messing around, and thought to myself that it wouldn't be annoying if they were any good…then I opened the back door to check on where it was coming from and realized that it was actually the high school marching band practicing. Gracing wandered out on the balcony in the light drizzle, intrigued. With the door open it didn't sound so bad, but it was way too cold out today to leave it open. The noise was distracting, so I decided it was time to use my iPod… I hope my bad singing along didn't bother my neighbors...

Now she's smiling! And searching for the band...

Later, there will be some actual honest-to-goodness baking going on. Yes, in my apartment even. We're having yet another pot-luck tomorrow at work, with a breakfast theme. I found a recipe in an old Weight Watcher's cookbook for Pumpkin-Apple Bread, so thought I'd try it out. Don't worry, the cookbook is recent enough that it's a normal recipe without anything weird in it…like the old WW cookbooks my mother had. I'm still trying to decide between a loaf and mini-muffins though. I had most of the ingredients on hand, so only needed to run out and pick up a few things at lunch today (like buttermilk and eggs), and was actually motivated to start when I got home. (The kitchen is actually really clean and organized right now, thanks to my mother's weekend visit and our collaborative efforts - what a difference it makes!) But, work got in the way…does it count as a work-related duty to bake for the departmental pot-luck?

If the recipe is any good, I'll share it in the recipe blog. I haven't posted there in forever, and it's about time!

Bake-a-Thon 2007!

I spent the weekend at my father's house, for a little (okay, a lot!) Christmas baking. My brother Joe came up to partake this year, so it was actually a lot easier, and we were able to get a whole lot done in 2 days. We made at least 9 different things (I lost count...and my leg fell asleep, so I'm not getting up to walk into the kitchen and check).

Here are a few cute (if I do say so myself) pictures of Gino in cookie baking bliss.

Peanut butter batter from our batch of buckeye balls

Chocolate chip cookie dough

Is this bliss or what?

I will only take responsibility for giving him the first beater. The last 2 were supplied by Dad, and the sugar apparently hit about an hour after Dad left for work, and I was watching Gino before my stepmother got home. That kid was just bouncing off of the walls. Literally bouncing!! (Off the furniture though, not the walls.)

Here's a shot of most of our finished product - this was taken Saturday, but we made more on Sunday:

Clockwise, left to right: Peanut Butter Blossoms, Hello Dolly Bars, Awesome Cookies, Molasses Drops, Butter Rich Spritz, Lemon Cookies (middle)

Now I am off to arrange a tray of cookies to take into work tomorrow, watch While You Were Sleeping and work on the hat/scarf set that my friend ordered today (more $$ for Disneyland!).

PSA - Nutrition Labels

Okay, I was shopping for portable work-friendly healthy lunch options this afternoon and saw that those Campbell's microwavable bowls were on sale for $1.77 a piece. Not bad, so I picked up my favorite (Italian Wedding Soup) and then realized they also had the Healthy Request version on sale.

I'm not sure what made me do it, but I decided to compare the nutrition labels. Now, mind you, the Healthy Request version has the big green banner across the front advertising it as 98% fat free and less sodium. Well, it does have a lot less sodium than the regular version, so if you are watching your sodium, by all means, choose the Healthy Request version.

If you're not watching your sodium intake, check this out...

The regular version has fewer calories (10) than the Healthy Request, and less fat! Not a huge difference (0.5g), but it's there nonetheless. There's also 5mg less cholesterol in the Healthy Request version. Still, I expected a much bigger difference between the two.

I also checked the Grilled Chicken & Sausage Gumbo HR v regular. Again, the "healthy" version has more calories (10 again, sense a theme?), but less sodium, 1 less g of sugar, and the rest all appears the same.

Well, at least they all sell for the same price. (And please note, I was not comparing the vitamin/mineral amounts, which differed slightly, but I don't think most people base their purchases on vitamin A content...)

Another Wedding

Well, I helped Kristin with a wedding last Saturday. We ended up spending the night in Napa, since the bridal party/family were staying there, and the wedding was in Rutherford. Plus, we were still running errands Friday night, so it's better that we stayed local.

Saturday morning I drove along Highway 29 to Rutherford. The sky was filled with hot air balloons (okay, not filled, but there were a lot of them taking off or soaring). I've seen the postcards with all of the balloons, but I guess I thought it was during festival time. However, it appears that the hot air balloons are always up in the early mornings (according to someone I spoke to at the reception site). It was cool.

The reception was held at Auberge du Soleil - very nice venue. I set up the entry table and arranged the dessert table and favors. It all looked very nice. Though I must say, it was probably the most expensive reception site I've ever step foot in (I say that now after checking out their website). As I was leaving after the set up, I noticed that I was in the only non-luxury, non-limo on the road until I got back down into the vineyards.

Anyway, here are some shots from the setup. (I forgot my camera, so these are from my cellphone. Not bad for the phone, huh?) Here is the fountain right outside on the terrace, completely covered in flower petals. It looked really neat (better in person, though).

Here is the dessert table. They did cupcakes instead of a traditional cake, but did have a small round cake for the cutting ceremony. And before you ask, no, I didn't taste one. Um, well, I did get a little frosting on my fingers while arranging them, but I hate to say the frosting had no flavor when I licked it off my finger. Fortunately for the guests, the menu included 3 desserts of the chef's choosing.


Anyway, I hope the bride and groom were pleased with the results. I left right after the bridal party arrived from the ceremony (there wasn't enough for me to do after that and Kristin had it covered). Of course, I later learned from Kristin that very shortly after I took off, the mother of the groom lost consciousness. More than just fainted - her bodily functions shut down. I don't know the full story, but I know that they called 911 and she was revived and didn't end up going to the ER. How embarrassing for her though. Kristin blamed the wine, her tiny stature and the jetlag. (Kristin - feel free to embellish.)

Anyway, later that night I went into San Francisco with Christyn and her husband (and the new baby) for dinner and stuff. We all forgot that it was fleet week, and didn't call ahead for reservations anywhere. Everywhere was fully booked until late, so we ended up at Lori's Diner in Ghirardelli Square. And since we were already there...we just had to stop into the Ghirardelli Chocolate Caffe. I was full from dinner, so just got their original Hot Chocolate (rich and excellent!). We were going to meet up with some of Christyn's other friends who were also in the city, but it didn't end up working out, so we headed home.

It was a long Saturday, but a good one. And Sunday I slept in (yay!), started a new book, worked on my Etsy shop and did 2 loads of laundry. Now, back to the usual grind...

Fitting Frustration

Just how much weight do I have to lose before I stop feeling fat in a fitting room? (It's a rhetorical question...as is the next one.) Why do bathing suit sizes not correspond to any other clothing size? Or perhaps the real question is, why does my body not fit any actual manufactured size? (Oh - I know the answer to that one! I don't have the body of a 10 year old boy! So, naturally, women's clothing isn't proportioned for me!)

Ah...yeah....So, if you hadn't guessed, I went shopping today. To make matters worse, I was looking for a new bathing suit (thought I'd try to get a new one before my trip to Santa Cruz this weekend. Looks like I'm stuck with what I've already got! Oh well, it saves me some cash). I should know better by now. And, since I was heading into the fitting rooms anyway, I picked up some other cute items to see how they'd look on me. Sizes no longer have any meaning. I'm totally convinced. Most places I shop I am a medium top, and about an 8 bottom. Today, a medium was way too small. One size 10 was too big, and one size 10 was way too small. Go figure. The medium one piece suit was fine on top, but too long for my torso (and the legs were cut too low, so I looked like a pear shape, even though I'm an hourglass. Who designs these things? I didn't want to spend any more time getting irritated at nothing working, so walked out with no clothes. Wait - let me rephrase that. I walked out without any NEW clothes.

And this morning I was all set to be on time to work. I grabbed the bag of frozen meals to take in to work, and the bag of stuff I was returning to Target after work, and headed down to my car. It was overcast, and had rained during the night, and I was totally dressed for summer, but was not turning back to change. I got to the highway and realized that I did not have my purse with me. That means no wallet, no driver's license, no cell phone, no money, no tax refund check that I had finally stuck in my purse to take to the bank...I had to turn around and go get it. I feel naked without it, somehow. So, that made me late again after all. :(

And because I promised Dagny some food porn, here it is:

It's not the bean salad I had planned to make. I got home way too late to start all the chopping that would be necessary for that. So I threw this makeshift omelette together instead. I like to think that I excercised a great deal of restraint in not swinging into a drive-thru on my way home, since I was starving half to death before leaving the store. And I spent the whole drive home thinking about what I had at home that I could prepare quickly (that would contain the necessary number of points for the rest of my day). With the omelette, I figured I could use the rest of the sliced mushrooms that I bought for the scallop dish before they went bad in my fridge. I sauteed the mushrooms in olive oil and added the eggs right to that, then threw in some vine-ripened tomatoes, mozzarella cheese and fresh minced parsley. Yum! And filling. 7 points for the whole thing, which was plenty. It's not really a recipe, so I'm posting it here instead of at the recipe corner. And yes, I realize I overcooked the eggs - they are browner than I normally make them, as the liquid from the mushrooms was fooling me into thinking the center of the omelette was not fully cooked. It still tasted good.

Sizzling...

I'd thought I'd post a picture a la Dagny. I decided to cook tonight, since I went to the trouble of buying all of the necessary ingredients, and didn't want the pricey scallops to go bad. So, I made Citrus-Scallops with Sweet Vegetable Saute from one of my old WW cookbooks. You can find the recipe, and more details of my culinary disasters, over at The Cooking Corner. (Just for you Jill, I finally messed with my template and added the link on my sidebar - I've been meaning to do it for a while, but now it's finally done!)

Traffic tonight sucked, and set me back, so I was really hungry when I got home, and it showed in my cooking distraction. I made more mistakes than usual...but if you've read any of my past recipes...you'll see that I have a tendency to improve anyway. It turned out pretty well, but I think I might have to give it another shot, another time, when I am less distracted. (And amazingly enough, Gracie was not one of the distractions. I think my opening the sliding glass door helped - she loves sitting by the screen when the glass is open. And now that I've closed the door, she's sleeping smack dab in the middle of the living room.)

This post really had no point. Sorry about that. If you've gotten this far - thank you for reading! Sometimes I just let the stream of consciousness flow. Guess this was one of those times. :)

Weekend Inspiration and Babies!

Before heading off to Jodie's yesterday morning, Kristin and I met up in Walnut Creek at the farmer's market. It was bigger than I had expected, given it's location (though not as large as the one in Pleasanton, that I used to go to with Joie). Apparently it is peach/nectarine/apricot season, as almost every booth had one or more of those fruits. Anyone who knows me knows I don't care for fresh peaches...one bad experience as a child ruined it for me forever. Though I did taste a few nectarines.

Lucky for me, it's plum and pluot season. I love me some plums...didn't see too many pluots though. Anyway, I ended up buying a whole bunch of stuff, and actually ended up talking myself out of buying more. I didn't want to end up with a bunch of spoiled veggies/fruits rotting in my fridge...which wouldn't be unusual for me. I walked out with some yummy looking lettuce, a few delicious plums, 2 large portobello mushrooms (which I may have paid too much for, but I wanted them and didn't see them elsewhere), some excellent vine-ripened tomatoes (which is saying something - I haven't tasted such good tomatoes since we grew them ourselves in Buffalo - you just can't get a great tomato in a supermarket, can you?), and a large bunch of fresh basil.

The Portobellos inspired me to create a recipe for Grilled Stuffed Portobello Mushrooms with a Balsamic Reduction. It was pretty good, if I do say so myself. Too bad I didn't snap a picture. I was too hungry. (I made it tonight and wrote up what I did into the recipe in that link.)

In other news - Christyn had her baby this morning, and called me pretty darn soon after giving birth. She had little Morgan around 9:30am today (and called me before 10:30am). She must have been tired. I don't know that she wants me sharing all the details with the world, so that's all I'll disclose right now. Welcome to the world little Morgan!

Fun w/ Fondant

I spent last weekend at my Mom's house to celebrate her birthday. Mom made her own birthday cake (from scratch - lemon with berry filling). She is practicing for my step-son's wedding, set for September, when she'll be making and decorating the cake. So I helped her with decorating ideas.

She likes the look of rolled fondant on a cake, but hadn't worked with it before (me neither). So, we gave it a shot. In the process, I managed to break the marble rolling pin that she's used for the past 10-15 years (I think she's had it that long)...I don't know if I used too much pressure or what, but I actually cracked the handle. There's me on the left (a highly unflattering shot of me, if I do say so myself...say hi to my 5 chins - they've come out of hiding!) pulling a MacGuyver and fixing the rolling pin with duct tape. It's a temporary fix... Some little slivers of splintered wood may have ended up in the fondant decorations. Good thing we'd already managed to cover the cake, and I was just rolling the rest out to play with decorating motifs.


Now, please realize that the below cake - our never really made it to finished product - is not how we would actually decorate a wedding cake, but was a platform for practicing. Like a very high calorie blank slate. All things considered, it's not so bad. Even though it looks like a veiled hat from the 40's.


Mom and I also made my great-grandmother's cream cheese mints, which Mom is thinking of making for the wedding as well. They turned out great, but I think I may need some helpful hints from my aunt. (Aunt Fran made a great batch at Christmas that she shipped out to Mom's.)


And, after the weekend food-fest, I am officially back on WW. According to my weekly tracker (I have the 3 month journal), the last time I tracked my meals was the end of March. Gee, wonder why I've been steadily gaining weight? Anyway, I'm back on track, and treating it like a new start. I'm even exercising...well, I'm walking at lunch again. A couple of my co-workers go for about a half-hour each day. Now that I'm "in" with the walkers (there are only 2...and one of them is leaving the company after next week), they said I'm staying in. That should help keep me on task. Wish me luck! (Again!) I only have 10lbs (give or take a lb) to go...though it was less a few months ago...The gain stops now!

***OMG - Can you believe I've had over 10,000 visits to this site?? Who'd have thought it?***

New Venture

*Edited 6/22/07 to correct link. I am a moron. Carry on.*

I have an announcement to make.

Now, before you all get too excited...No, I did not meet someone. No, I did not win the lotto. No, my cat did not learn how to clean my house while I was sleeping.

I have joined forces with Rose (aka Orelinde_03) to create a recipe sharing blog. Okay, I'll admit it...Rose did all the work and simply added me as a contributor. And I hope I don't disappoint her (or my blogging public) with my take on the culinary arts! (I also hope I don't infringe on any copyright laws, since most of the recipes I use are not my own originals.)

So, if you don't mind a little bit of personal commentary, and reporting of personal fiascoes, mixed in with your recipes, come on over to http://www.the-cooking-corner.blogspot.com/ and peruse our efforts! Rose has already 2 tasty looking recipes, and I added the ceviche.

If anyone has any recipes that you'd like to share, or would like to be a contributor to the recipe blog, please contact either me or Rose. Thank you!

Suddenly Ceviche

So it's not the prettiest concoction, but it's darned tasty. A few of us were joking around at work yesterday about who was bringing in food tomorrow (that is to say, today). "What's the occasion?" was a question thrown out there, and Sharon checked out her calendar and mentioned that it would be flag day. Also mentioned was the fact that our department had once had an all-finger-foods/appetizers potluck (I think I made cornmeal chili creampuffs or something for that one - they were more like biscuits, but started with a choux pastry). I thought about it over the rest of the day (since I had no actual motivation), and thought it might be fun to whip something up and bring it in for no reason.

So, while perusing Allrecipes.com, I ran across this recipe for ceviche and thought it looked really good. And I liked that it did not require any cooking (Caitlin - you can make this for Kyle over the summer and not have to turn on the oven!). I ran to the store and picked up the fresh veggies on my way home, and then got to choppin'. It was a success at work today, and I had 2 requests for recipes (1 from someone in another department that didn't even try it!).

Anyway, I decided that I would share it here. You can check out the original or you can check out what I actually did below. My editorial comments are in italics.

Shrimp Ceviche:

Ingredients -
1lb pre-peeled, deveined cooked salad shrimp (I opted for pre-cooked shrimp as it was easier to find, and I'm distrustful of the cooking by marinating method...)
5 limes, juiced
3 medium sized vine-ripened tomatoes
1/2 yellow onion, finely diced
1 large cucumber, peeled, seeded and diced
4 serrano peppers, seeded and minced (don't make the mistake I did. Wear gloves when handling/mincing these innocent looking suckers! I hardly ever eat spicy foods, and didn't actually realize that these were one of the hottest varieties... About an hour after mincing these, the fingertips and palm of my left hand started burning...and still are burning today!! Much worse after my shower tonight. But I read up on this online tonight, and ending up sitting in front of the TV for about 15 minutes with the affected digits in a cold container of yogurt to cut the capsaicin. I also popped a Benadryl. I'm not sure which one did the trick, but I'm not in pain at the moment. Thank God I didn't touch my eyes!! Okay, next ingredient.)
1 Avocado, diced
salt and pepper to taste.

Instructions:

1. Dice shrimp. Place into large bowl. (Most recipes I see for ceviche specify to use a glass bowl. I don't know if it needs to be glass, but I do know you want a non-reactive material...so steer clear of metal bowls.)

2. Squeeze (or pour) lime juice over shrimp until completely covered (you may need more or fewer limes, depending on the size of the limes. If using the uncooked shrimp, make sure all of the shrimp is immersed in juice. If using pre-cooked shrimp, this is less important).

3. Stir in remaining ingredients. Cover and refrigerate for at least 1 hour.

4. When ready to serve, adjust seasoning with salt and pepper as needed. Serve with tostada shells or tortilla chips.