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.)                   

What's Cooking

In conjunction with my new resolve to stick to my diet (which I was on for 2 successful weeks before Christmas, and then conveniently forgot existed until after the new year), I've been on a cooking kick. Laura is partly to blame for this, too, since she posted the recipe for this split pea soup on her blog. She found it on Epicurious. Instead of the linguica or andouille sausage that the recipe calls for, I used Italian sausage (I tend to like it better than other types). It also calls for kale, which I'm 99.99% positive that I have never purchased nor cooked with before. It also always reminds me of that episode of Cheers where Woody does the commercial for Veggie Boy (they start talking about the kale 1 minute and 7 seconds into the clip).

Despite the color in the photo, I'm pretty sure this isn't radioactive.

The soup was surprisingly delicious! I was worried that it might be bland because there are so few ingredients. It's not. I think cooking the peas with the sausages infuses the broth with a lot of their flavor. I think I'm going to have to make this soup one of my staples, since it gives me an excuse to pull out my immersion mixer and the pureed peas did not trigger my IBS like the canned split pea soups that I enjoy(ed). It also cooks up really quickly.

Later in the week I decided that it was high time I put my crockpot to use again. I found this recipe for French Chicken Stew that I thought I needed to try. So I did. I prepped all of the ingredients the night before, threw them in the pot, then stuck it all in the fridge. Before leaving for work, I placed the crock into the base and turned that sucker on. I almost forgot to plug it in, but averted disaster by realizing that the cord in the outlet behind it belonged to a different appliance. Remember that I was doing this before I had any coffee...

After a long day at work, during which I kept noticing that my hands STILL smelled like the onions I had chopped the night before, I finally made it home and was greeted at the door by the succulent aroma wafting from my kitchen. And my cat. (Clarification - she greeted me, not her odor, which is anything but succulent).

This greeted me when I came home. Hi chicken!

After a long day at work, during which I kept noticing that my hands STILL smelled like the onions I had chopped the night before, I finally made it home and was greeted at the door by the succulent aroma wafting from my kitchen. And my cat. (Clarification - she greeted me, not her odor). All I had to do with stir in the jar of pasta sauce and enjoy. This was really good, and different from the stews that I usually throw together in my crock pot.

I'll make this again, but I will use a different pasta sauce to stir in at the end. I think that the one I used overpowered the herbs that are used during the slow cooking process. I also couldn't used bone-in thighs and simply removed the skins at home. The bone-in thighs also keep the chicken together (mostly) when portioning this out into servings (important for me when I'm actually tracking my Weight Wacthers points - this came out to a Points Plus value of 5, based on 6 servings, since my 2lbs of chicken was only 6 thighs). The meat falls right off of the bone though, so it's easy to remove it before eating.

It photographs well, too, doesn't it? This is after adding the tomato sauce.

Speaking of removing the bones, I did so and tossed them into the trash can. The next day, I come home from work to see my trash can laying on it's side on the kitchen floor, spilling trash onto the tiles. Just past the rim of the can was a chicken bone missing one end, with the marrow exposed. I didn't bite the end of that bone off, kitty, or knock that trash can over, so you've got some explaining to do! Luckily, I had emptied the trash just before I started making the stew, so there wasn't much in it, and not much to clean up. Regardless, I didn't expect my cat to forage through my garbage.

Chop Chop and Other Random Thoughts

After all of my recent baking and the non-stop eating, I decided I need to hop back on the Weight Watcher's wagon. Yes, it's true, I do come to this realization at least once a week, if not more often. Regardless, this time the realization caused me to cook, or at least prepare to cook. One of my co-workers re-dedicated herself to WW last week (she calls it food rehab) and had printed out the recipe for the zero point soup, which I found on the printer. This inspired me, and today I chopped up a ton of veggies and threw them in the crockpot, which I'll leave on low all day tomorrow so I can come home to a nice hot dinner. I did change up the recipe a bit, since I used chicken broth instead of veggie broth, left out the sweet red bell pepper (there is no way I am paying $2.50 for a single pepper - what are these things grown in? Pure gold soil? Crazy.) and the swiss chard. I also finally found a use for that sugar pumpkin I bought weeks ago. I peeled, seeded and chopped that puppy up and threw half of it in the crockpot, too. (I roasted the other half and ate with some butter and brown sugar for dinner.) I hope it turns out okay, but am a little worried that I overfilled the crock... I guess I will find out when I get home, based on how much soup ended up on my counter...

During the chopping session, and pumpkin peeling (what a pain!), I discovered that I must not do enough cooking anymore. Why? Because I ended up with a blister on my pointer finger, right where I was holding the knife. Of course, I just might need better knives. Any suggestions?

Now to randomly change the subject...

I believe that the horde of 2-3 year olds at my friends' party yesterday must have worn me out. I believe there were around 17 little munchkins running around during the party. I don't know where they get their energy, but I swear I got tired just watching them go! And to prove it, when I set my alarm last night I accidently set it for PM. I haven't done that in years! I knew there was a problem when I woke up this morning feeling awake. Luckily, my new boss was really cool about it and didn't give me any grief (I gave myself enough). I also found that I had left a candle burning all night. I haven't done that in ages, either.

As I mentioned, I went to Kristin's party yesterday. I helped her out with some of the planning and stayed afterwards to help out a bit with the cleanup. After the party, I reached up to scratch my head and noticed that I had 3 brightly colored spider rings in my hair (probably what caused the itch in the first place). The spider rings brought back fond memories of my maternal grandmother (which is why they ended up in my hair after I picked them up off of the rug in the first place). Grandma used to cover the screen door on her porch with those artificial spiderwebs and place a bunch of the plastic spiders throughout her blonde hair. The neighbor kids called her the spider lady (only at Halloween, mind you. She didn't do this daily.) My family always had a great time when we visited my grandparents on the night before Halloween, which is when their town trick-or-treated. They called it beggars night, I think. Then we'd go out again in our own neighborhood on the day of Halloween. All of us, except probably my grandfather (usually in the living room watching baseball) got pretty deeply into the spirit of Halloween, and I wonder sometimes if that's why I still enjoy the holiday so much. And the reason why the spider rings always make me smile. I miss you Grandma! (And Grandpa, too, but I can't imagine him with a spider ring in his hair.)

My favorite photo of the spider lady and her husband - 1945