Tips for Fooling Your Tastebuds

As most of you know I've embarked on another "diet plan".  This has been the story of my life, unfortunately, because of the choices I've made and probably because of the "pudgy gene" I've acquired!  I take one look at my lineage (grandmother) and I see the pounds lining the areas where I constantly try to carve them away.

Over the years and with alot of knowledge in this area, I've come to realize that you need to fool your taste buds.  This will make the road to weight loss an easier and more flavorful path. 

Here are my tips:

Instead of peach pie cut up a  peach, sprinkle with cinnamon and truvia. mix it well and enjoy!

Roast, roast, roast your veggies with a sprinkle of olive oil, sea salt and pepper.  The roasting brings out the goodness and sweetness.  My favorites are roasted red peppers, eggplant, bok choy and believe it or not, cabbage!

Roasted cabbage with lemony mahi mahi

When you have a sweet tooth, make a fresh fruit smoothie.  Just ice, about a cup of fresh fruit, a dash of truvia and vanilla and water. blend and you have it!  My lifesaver has been an orange smoothie.

If you like applesauce, make your own.  Don't buy a big jar filled with chemicals!  Peel and chop apples, add a little water and cinnamon and cook on low.  If you don't want chunky applesauce. place in the blender for a swirl.

And finally, start an herb garden with perennials like oregano, thyme, lavender, chives, and some mint.  Come summertime add cilantro, parsley, basil and rosemary.   With these you can embellish your meats, fish, salads, desserts and dressings or marinades.  My latest creations have been numerous variations of marinades like chili lime, ginger lemon thyme, or rosemary lavender dressings.

Dried lavender from the garden.



Dried oregano ready for the sauce!



Dried Lemon verbena - great in anything!

If you're limited to lettuce, dress it up with handfuls of herbs.  It will wake up the taste buds and fool them into thinking you're eating something special.  But, actually you are!  You grew and nutured those herbs for that healthy meal...

Fighting the Diet Demons

So, the good news is I've lost 16 lbs and 10+ inches.  The bad news is,  this week has been a struggle with the same 1 lb!  I found out you can't cheat one iota on this "eating (not much food) plan". I lost, gained, lost, gained the same lb!  The only thing to do is evaluate what went wrong.   Could it have been the glass of wine?  The one measly oyster appetizer?  The ahi selection for my entree was perfect except for the wasabi mashed potatoes hugging the sides of the fish like a Siamese twin.  or the bite as tiny as a fingernail of a limoncello raspberry tart?   Oh, oh...I sniffed the aroma of the carrot bread pudding (pounds by osmosis?) Or, all of the above?

Carrot bread pudding - off limits!

Raspberry Limoncello tart - Couldn't resist and forgot to take a proper picture before...mesmerizing!

Then we went out  to dinner last night for his birthday, again.  This time I would be more prepared to trick the diet demon and that nasty lurking pound.  I had apples all day...I mean nothing but apples...3 to be exact!  So, when I drank that one+ glass of red wine, I'm sure it wasn't going to register.   No fingernail size dessert and no eating of the pasta silently surrounding my steak which I promptly portioned in half.  Wrong!

The scale this morning deceived me again...there's that same pound.  No more cheating until the ultimate surprise.  That comes in November.  Until then, stay tuned for more creative ways to fix chicken and fish.  And if I'm feeling really strong willed,  I may bake a cake or two.   Yahoo!

Temptation Comes in Many Forms

Yes, temptation comes in many forms. This week was a birthday week for my husband. Enough said! I'm sure it is written that it's bad luck to refuse a piece of birthday cake. Or, so I've been told. I had to make sure Ralph's amaretto cake was worthy of this blog. Evidently, it passed the test. That was Thursday's entry. And, I was forced to sample the lasagna sans the sausage. (I tossed the meat onto Ralph's plate.) Even though I was the official taste tester, I did adhere to my "delete the meat" policy.

Then, there was that blister from the trail of torture. See Sunday's blog. No major walking until I found those corn cushion! So, Thursday morning the scale was not cooperating and moving in the wrong direction! But, that's okay... I just went back to square one where I ate mostly steamed zucchini spritzed with lemon during the day and steamed swiss chard with raisins along with roasted rosemary potatoes for dinner. Stepping back onto the scale Friday was more to my liking! I can do this...

I once heard a great saying, "How do you eat an elephant?" Answer: One bite at a time. And Rome was not built in a day, for that matter. I'll apply these wise sayings and take one day at a time and the inevitable will happen. And when this phase is over the maintenance will begin. It never ends but I will enjoy the journey...

Sorry, no food today unless you want to know how to steam veggies!

The picture displayed above is of the gorgeous sunrise in Playa del Carmen, Mexico. It stirs my soul.....

Zucchini Oatmeal Spice Cookies

What a mouthful for a cookie name! These small cookies pack a big punch when it comes to flavor and you'll want a mouthful because they're almost "guilt free". I had a request to make more "healthy" cookies so I went to the pantry to see how I could switch it up. I found raisins and oats summoning me. I also had a small amount of hazelnuts waiting to be used. This is how I cook. My pantry has a way of dictating my meals.

I substituted a few ingredients from the chocolate zucchini cookie version I posted a few weeks ago and came up with the following equally good if not better healthy cookie. I even eliminated the butter and eggs in this recipe!

Ingredients:

1/2 c applesauce

1 c brown sugar

1 1/4 c oats

1 T oil

1 c flour

2 tsp baking powder

1/2 tsp salt

3/4 tsp cinnamon

1/8 tsp ground cloves

1/4 tsp nutmeg, ground

1 1/4 c grated zucchini

1/2 c raisins

1/2 c hazelnuts

1 tsp orange zest

Preheat oven to 350. In a large bowl or stand mixer cream applesauce and brown sugar. Combine flour, oats, spices, baking powder and salt. Gradually add to the sugar mixture until blended. Add zucchini, mix and add nuts, raisins, and zest. Drop by spoonfuls onto a greased or parchment covered cookie sheet. Bake for around 15 minutes. These are soft, healthy and full of flavor. Makes about 3 1/2 dozen.

My next cookie extravaganza experiment will be a Zucchini chocolate chip oatmeal cookie! Yum!

Wendy's Weigh-In

I can't believe a month has passed since I designed my life change slim down plan. Drum roll, please! 10+ pounds this morning. My food still consists of mostly vegetables, potatoes, rice pasta, beans, a little fruit, wine, yes I said wine and oatmeal or certain cereals with rice milk. No dairy, no butter, no eggs and no meat, (except for the one bite of chicken Milanese). I had to try it for your sake! After all, I am the official taste tester!

For lunch the other day I had leftover steamed zucchini with roasted red peppers on a piece of 14 grain bread spread with lemon flavored hummus! I know it sounds weird to some of you but it was heavenly! No mayo for me. Hummus is my new BFF! (best friend forever for the technically challenged ones)

So, I just wanted to check in and measure the progress, not that you care but maybe there is someone out there who is struggling with the weight issue. It's been a lifelong work in progress for me. And it's not the easiest thing to do when you love to create in the kitchen! But it can be done with a little "food fortitude", enormous amounts of patience and a little help from my friends and family. You keep me accountable. Until 2 weeks from now on this subject. Let the cooking begin!

A Father's Harvest

I'm so fortunate to have my parents living so close by for many reasons. Although I don't see them enough I always try to visit them at least twice a week. They are an active 80+ couple who enjoy their home and garden. Just recently they put in a rock wall by themselves! What?! It's pretty hard to keep them down.

My mom tends to her flowers and still mows the back lawn. My dad enjoys feeding his flock of ducks and reaping the harvest from his garden. Growing up we always had some sort of vegetable garden. I guess that's where I get my love of gardening although it's not so easy in my neck of the woods. "Ol Rocky Sage Critterville" My parents came up yesterday with some great Italian peppers, eggplant and bell peppers from their garden so naturally dinner would evolve around this bounty.

Still keeping with the "slim down" regiment I quickly made some basmati rice and served the medley of veggies over the top. I just sauteed some cut up onion, Italian peppers, roasted red peppers, mushrooms and garlic together with herbs de Provence. And dinner was served in less than 30 minutes!

Harvest Lentil Soup

We don't have this soup as often as we should. It's packed full of fiber and very low in fat, yet delicious and easy. Growing up we used to have lentils and oxtails. After realizing I was subjected to eating a real oxtail I wasn't too keen on the idea. I then switched it up and started adding kielbasa sausage for flavor and meatiness. Then it evolved into the crock pot since I worked many long hours for over 30 years. I would wake up around 4:00am and sleepily start throwing the ingredients into a crock pot. It was always so nice to return home to that aroma of home cooking, even though I would always worry about burning down the house while I was at work.

These days when everyone is so busy it's usually fast food or prepackaged food. Not so much in my home, though. Today I have streamlined the lentil dish reducing the preparation time to only 40 minutes from start to finish. To serve 4 people:

Rinse, drain and put 1 cup

lentils into large saucepan.

Add 2 cups water or broth (for larger servings use 2 to 1 ratio, water to lentils)

1 small sliced zucchini

1/4 chopped onion

1 clove garlic, minced

4 mushrooms, sliced

2 T rosemary, fresh

Bring it to a boil and reduce heat to simmer for about 30 minutes. Add salt and pepper to taste and serve. Great in the Winter! And you don't have to get up before the crack of dawn to make this! Who knew?

For a nice variation you can add red peppers or sliced carrots, too! Remember, this is in my "slimdown" lineup so feel free to add meat in yours.

The Great Slimdown Revisited

Week 2 Results

The results are in. The dreaded scale has never been my friend but this morning we made amends. 7 lbs lighter, blood pressure way down and cholesterol medicine reduced by half! What a difference those seven pounds make. But, I have to be honest. I really miss the pasta and fish, so I 'll add fish to the menu once a week, doctor's orders.

I have found some "secret weapons" in my quest for low fat, low sodium snack foods. Whole foods makes a wasabi rice cracker that is amazing. It's not like those cardboard rice cakes of the past. Gag! Also, sugar snap peas taste like you're eating candy, seriously! My cherry tomatoes from the garden are a lifesaver and soooo good. I was even able to have sushi and a glass of Barolo this last week! Believe me when I tell you that I am not feeling deprived when I can eat a smidgen of my favorite foods once in a while.

My reward was a LONG, HILLY walk this morning! I'm refreshed and renewed from the weekend and ready to seize the day. Carpe diem!

Roasted Eggplant Dip

Continuing with the healthful eating theme I came up with a recipe that was surprisingly tasteful. Something I could actually serve my hubby without force feeding him.

My first introduction to eggplant was during a birthday dinner at my aunt's house. She married into an Italian family and her in laws brought this over. I devoured it. I was fairly young and didn't know what I was eating at the time but I knew I'd want more of this funny purple vegetable. Especially when it was layered with melted cheese. My dad was never an Italian food fan so we hardly ever had pasta or the likes of eggplant Parmesan growing up. So many years later it would be a regular in my home.

I served the dip along with fat free tortillas broiled after spraying them with an oil substitute like Pam and sprinkling garlic or onion powder, sea salt and dried rosemary for more flavor. Great and guilt free!

1 roasted eggplant

1 roasted red bell pepper

2 cloves garlic, cut

2 T onion

1/2 c garbanzo beans (chick peas)

squeeze of 1/2 lemon

handful of basil, fresh

salt (optional) and pepper to taste

Roast the eggplant and bell pepper in a 400 degree oven until done, turning once. This time will vary (35 mins) Peel and cut up both and place them in a food processor or blender along with the remaining ingredients. Serve on baguette or pita bread wedges. (or my fat free version tortillas)

A Food Failure!

"You may be disappointed if you fail, but you are doomed if you don't try." Beverly Sills

Yes, we all have them. I'm sure even Emeril, Giada and Mario have had them as well! You may never see them on TV unless it's a blooper segment. But, I can safely say that I will never buy brown rice pasta again. Or at least not that brand. (I'll never tell.) Yuk...what a clumpy mess that turned out to be!

My starving husband wandered in after work and starred in disbelief at this lumpy experiment. I figured , how bad could it be? Well, it looks nice on film but the taste and texture was not going to win any contest on the Food Channel. As he proceeded to doctor it up with butter, olive oil and cheese and pepper, I realized that no amount of anything would save this disaster. Sorry, Babe! Is that why we'll be going out tonight?

The Great Slim Down

I am ready for the great American slim down! I realized that I'll need to be in a bathing suit in Tropical Costa Rica coming up soon! The panic begins. My imagination runs wild with ways to make most of my recipes healthy. I should have my masters or PhD in this subject. I've probably lost the same 15-20 lbs. over the course of 35 years. But, because I love to cook and eat they always creep back on. I have tried weight watchers, Dr Atkins and several doctor initiated programs. Since May, I have been walking quite regularly with no results. So now I need drastic measures to drop those pounds and fast!

I am eating but only vegetables, mostly raw. Yum, yum...and 2 servings of fruit a day. Also, add to the mix, grains, potatoes and rice, plain. Again, do I hear a yum? Basically, no animal protein which is all meat, eggs, dairy and some beans. No oil or butter! I'm into day 3. I notice a slight difference although I would love to drop about 30 lbs. As I write this I'm gnawing on raw carrots. Delightful! If I happen to run into you, please do not feed me or tempt me with ice cream or chocolate. I will hunt you down!

I will continue to cook for Ralph (my wonderfully svelte husband) but he'll need to add the meat and olive oil, cheese, etc. Actually, he knows the drill and has been quite accomodating over the years. I managed to come up with a veggie couscous that was pretty tasty. Tonight I'll make some brown rice pasta with fresh tomatoes, basil and garlic that I roasted earlier.

I will keep you posted on my results. I know it's not great reading but, maybe there is someone out there I can help by doing this. Don't worry I have plenty of proven recipes I'll write about. I won't subject you to this eating plan. I have to admit, though, that when I am dieting I am extremely inventive! That is the sign of a good cook and I will claim that title!

Veggie couscous recipe, tomorrow. This too shall pass....