Tomato Basil Bisque

2 Cans of Italian style whole peeled tomatoes (28 ounce each)
1-2 Cloves Garlic (chopped)
1 Peeled Carrot (chopped)
1/2 large or 1 Whole Onion (chopped)
1 Stalk Celery (chopped)
1 cup Chicken or Veggie Stock/Broth (can or carton is fine)
Smoked Paprika (to taste)
Salt & Pepper (to taste)
pinch of sugar
1 cup Heavy Cream
1 whole package of Fresh Basil Leaves- chopped (or a good packed handful)

Heat a good drizzle of olive oil in a pot and then add all of the chopped veggies.

Throw in a little salt, pepper, and smoked paprika. Stir and cook until they are just barley starting to brown a bit.

Add in the basil and broth or stock, let it reduce down just a little bit.

Add the tomatoes and the pinch of sugar, then let the pot come back up to a good simmer. Continue to simmer for about 30- 40 minutes when all the veggies are soft and the tomatoes are very soft.

Turn off the heat and let the pot cool down for about 30 minutes or so so.

Puree the soup by using a stick blender; or working in batches, a regular blender will do. If using a regular blender be sure to leave plenty of room for expansion and do not use an air tight or un vented lid.

Return the soup to the pot and add slowly whisk the cream in. Season with more salt, pepper, and paprika bring it back up to a good hot temp slowly...do not let it boil after adding the cream.

Procrastinantion, Weight Loss, and Grief

It's been nearly a year since I last blogged and I'm wondering myself, what is it about today that's broken this on going cycle of procrastination? Not just the procrastination of writing the blog, I mean, It's not like I've been sticking to any of my fitness goals either. I would love to sit here and type how I've been so busy with working out and shopping for smaller sized clothing that I just couldn't make the time to write about all the progress I was making, but that's as far stretched from the truth as my jeans are across my fat ass!

Still, I shouldn't be so hard on myself. I did manage one positive step towards my better health in the past 11 months by quitting smoking. When ever I get to beating myself up (which is often these days) I feel somewhat better to remind myself of the fact that I not only quit, but I didn't gain an ounce since quitting back in October.

So, as far as my weight goes I guess I can say; nothing gained, nothing lost. Where does that leave me? About 15 weeks away from my 45th birthday and not even an ounce less than 11 months ago when I last wrote. If nothing else, I know I'm good at maintaining and 15 weeks away from now is still, well...15 weeks away from now.

I am a bit surprised to find that my numbers on the scale aren't up because I actually feel heavier at times since I lost my dad last month. I wonder how much space would a pound of grief take up and how many ounces can one loose in tears? I have found comfort in food that is fortunately through my working with it and not eating it. There is something I find quite soothing in the monotony of kitchen prep. Who needs therapy when you have a mallet and a case veal, and can use it in an environment where no one will mind a sudden outburst of obscenities?

I feel lighter just thinking about that and I feel lighter having typed these words up on the screen where they make some kind of sense and have order verses swimming around chaotically inside my head. Maybe I can keep my emotions in check today and be nicer to my wonderful and understanding husband, who has been like the unfortunate veal under my mallet lately. I'm sorry honey, I love you and thank you!

Getting Back On Track

This week I am committed to getting back on track since I was slightly off last week. I never made it to my weekly weigh in and meeting, so now I have resorted to a step above Slim Fast.... Special K protein bars and shakes. They really are pretty tasty and certainly make things very convenient and easy. Not that I would want to do this for more than a one week period, but in a pinch it will do just fine.


Something other than laundry has been on my tread-mill this week too. It would be embarrassing to say how long and fast I walked, but at least it's a start. At any rate, I am looking forward to Friday and I will keep you posted.

Weekly Weigh In Results 9/4/09

The loss was minuscule but a loss is still a loss, no matter how small. I will not complain about it and I'll consider myself lucky that I didn't move the scale in the opposite direction. Surely, this would have been the case if I hadn't experienced a cleansing effect from eating seaweed the other day.

Speaking of seaweed, I was just certain that the three different cleansing products I had buried in a forgotten corner of the medicine cabinet, were sure to contain it in mass quantities. After digging them out and thoroughly scrutinizing their labels, I found that Relacore, Whole Body Cleanse, and Internal Flush (ugh, the name alone....what was I thinking?) had not contained any amount of seaweed whatsoever.

However, I did find one ingredient that was consistently listed on every product label, and it is Marshmallow Root, or botanically speaking, Althaea officianalis. While I'm certain that eating a bunch of marshmallows would not give me the same effect, I am clueless as to what exactly marshmallow root is, and I would love to find out.

So if anyone out there is in the know on this stuff, please share. I could go look it up myself on Google or something, but where's the fun in that?

Half & Half Turkey Burger Recipe

I call these burgers half and half because I mix equal parts of lean ground beef with ground turkey. I do the same with meatloaf or anything else that calls for ground beef. I just find that lean ground beef alone is dry and flavorless, while the color of ground turkey alone turns me off and just isn't meaty enough. Together, however, they are great! The differences in nutritional values as far as fat and calories go are negligible. The beef having 170 calories and 8 grams of fat per 4 oz serving and the turkey 160/7.

This recipe was inspired by a heart healthy cook book belonging to one of my clients. I have made the recipe out of the book for their family many times, but I use my own special version when making them for myself. My recipe is as follows:

Ingredients

1 # 7% fat, lean ground beef
1 # ground turkey (not 100% turkey breast which is too lean and more costly)
1 8 oz container of fat free Greek yogurt
2 Tbs mayo
1 Tbs Dijon Mustard
1 good handful of fresh cilantro leaves
1 good handful of fresh dill sprigs
1 lemon
salt & pepper to taste
dash of onion powder

Procedure

Get a bowl large enough to hold and mix the ground meats but do not put the meat in to the bowl yet. Instead, dump the yogurt, mayo, Dijon mustard, and salt & pepper in to the bowl.

Then, take out a cutting board and finely chop up the fresh herbs, add that to the bowl, plus the zest of the whole lemon and half of the lemon's juice. Mix all of this up until well combined and then transfer the mixture in to a smaller serving bowl. This is a delicious low fat sauce for serving with the burgers. Reserve 2 Tbs of the mixture and leave it right in side of the same bowl that you will now use to mix the meats. Cover your cutting board with tinfoil or plastic wrap, as you will need a work space when portioning and forming your meat patties. This makes clean up easier.

Now add your ground meats to the bowl plus some salt & pepper and the onion powder. Be sure to mix it well incorporating all of the reserved yogurt sauce. Now divide your meat mixture into 8 (4 ounce) portions. Use the covered cutting board as a work surface for the raw meat. For complete accuracy, you can use an ice cream scoop and a scale to weigh the meat when portioning. Just be sure to cover your scale with plastic wrap for safe handling if it does not have a removable top that can be washed after use. Once you have your evenly portioned meat, form the portions in to balls first and then patties.

Cook the patties as you would cook any other burger. Grill, broil, frying pan, etc.. I like to use a cast iron grill pan over my gas stove. Just be sure that you coat what ever cooking surface you will be using with non stick spray. The turkey mixture is slightly softer than straight ground beef and care should be taken so that the patties won't stick or fall apart when cooking.

The Weight Watcher point value for one burger is 4 points. Tonight I enjoyed my burger on a regular wheat bun with the yogurt sauce, sliced avocado, lettuce and tomato for a total of 7 points.

Weed That's Good For You

Once a week the awesome family that I cook for has an international night. Last nights meal featured cuisine from Okinawa. I prepared a spare rib soup, purple Okinawan sweet potatoes, rice, and a purple sweet potato & coconut cream pie for dessert.

Besides the spare ribs, one of the other key ingredients that the soup called for was roasted seaweed, or as it is also known; Nori. I have always loved this stuff in sushi, though by itself, the flavor and texture profile is similar to fishy, crunchy, paper, that will stick to the roof of your mouth faster than a communion wafer and be twice as difficult to get unstuck.

As you already know, I am somewhat in the habit of impulsively eating what ever may be in front of me and since I work with food every day, there's no telling what may end up in my mouth at any given time. On Tuesday it was raw potatoes, and I'm actually quite thankful for eating them even though it disturbed me at the time. It was only upon reflection of that bizarre unappetizing moment that I realized how often I do eat on pure impulse.

So on Wednesday I made another deal with myself not to eat anything on impulse. I can't tell you how many calories I probably saved myself being armed with my new found awareness. Well, actually I could, but I don't want to embarrass myself here. Admitting to eating raw potatoes is embarrassment enough.

I did in fact eat several sheets of the Nori, but not until after looking at the nutrition label and making the conscious decision that fishy tasting paper really wouldn't be that bad of a snack. In truth, I ate it because I was actually quite hungry and I knew that if I didn't get something right then, I would be breaking the deal I made with myself later. Besides, for its low, low, calories, this food packs an amazing amount of nutrition. Each sheet of Nori is only 10 calories and loaded with vitamin A and Iron.

Today, I am wondering if there may be some magical extracting power to the seaweed. After all, it has been claimed to shrink body tissue if you get wrapped in it at the spa, right? Another claim I have read In the book, Food and Healing by Anne Marie Colbin, also author of The Natural Gourmet, is that seaweed will counteract the effects of radiation. The author recommends people undergoing cancer treatment to include it in their diets, as she herself will eat it any time she gets x-rayed.

The experience I had this morning was that of a cleansing effect and I'm pretty certain it had to do with the seaweed. My stomach was not at all upset, cramping, or in pain of any kind, but I did make three highly productive trips to the bathroom. While I may have just stepped over the TMI line, the point I'm trying to make is that I could actually see and feel that my stomach got smaller with each trip. What's even better is that I was able to obtain scientific proof that I was not imagining these effects.

I happened to weigh myself shortly after getting out of bed this morning. It's just another one of my bad habits. I don't do it every single day, but more like several times a week. After I wondered about the seaweed having this effect, I wondered if I would see any loss on my scale. Some scales, such as what they use at Weight Watchers are so sensitive, that they might detect a sip of water down to a tenth of an ounce. Mine, however, is not. Just a normal self calibrating digital. Numbers never lie and the ones that I was looking at were minus 2 pounds from where they were just a few hours before. Thirty two ounces of matter gone,... and I didn't need to ask where it went.

Next week I will embark on my own little scientific experiment to see if I can repeat the results. I'm very curious and I will keep you posted. More fish flavored paper please!

Tortured By Cookies

I was busy prepping meals in my client's home this morning when I discovered a cookie sheet in the oven. It's really too bad I have a habit of looking inside to make sure nothing is actually in the oven when I turn it on to preheat. If that were the case this morning, then the already baked cookies would have been burned beyond the point of temptation by the time I discovered them.

So there I was working, and there were those innocent little chocolate chips just sitting there begging to be eaten. I was determined not to eat so much as a crumb but my brain kept forgetting that I made this deal with myself to be good. I really had to stop myself several times from just absentmindedly popping one in to my mouth. At one point when I stopped myself, I could swear that the cookies looked as if they had little chocolate chip eyes and were smiling at me. You know things are getting a little out of control when you start having food hallucinations.

I quickly picked up a little chunk of raw potato and in to my mouth it went. Raw carrot would have been a much better choice, but the carrots that had been on my cutting board just a few minutes before were now simmering in hot liquid on the stove.

I guess I should be glad that it was a piece of raw vegetable I ate instead of the cookie, but I must admit I'm feeling a little disturbed by this. Why did I even feel a need to eat something else in order to save myself from eating the cookie? And how desperate is that, huh,... raw potato? It was just so impulsive, but it made me realize something about myself; I eat impulsively all the time!

Another thing my client keeps in a jar on her counter is Peanut M&M's. I don't even like those things! Don't get me wrong, I love chocolate and I do enjoy peanuts, just not together in my mouth at the same time. Does this prevent me from eating them? Hell no! I dip my hand in that jar every single week. Chocolate tainted with peanuts is still chocolate and I can deal with that.

What stopped me from eating the M&M's this week was not the fact that I really don't care that much for them, and it wasn't the deal I made with myself to not eat the cookie either. Truth is, I'm not someone my own self can rely too much on, in fact, I probably would have eaten the candy instead of the potato in my moment of weakness, rationalizing that one or two Peanut M&M's was way better than eating an entire cookie. Nope, what stopped me from putting my hand in that jar was simply that the jar was down to the last three pieces of candy!