Food and Me

Hello!  Let's talk about food.

I love food.  It's a huge source of happiness and satisfaction for me, and it's how I like to spend time with people: cooking and eating.  It's also something I didn't know much about until after college.  I used to eat things solely because they were delicious.  Now I eat things that are good for me and delicious.

I've been fascinated recently about the origins of our food.  It started a couple years ago when I read a book called My Year of Meats.  It's technically fiction, but I am inclined to believe that the portion about cattle farming is pretty accurate to real life.  It really got me thinking about the quality of food I want to be putting in my body.  Well worth a read.

Then Andrew and I watched Food, Inc., a documentary as well as a book, on one of our stay-in date nights.  I still get chills about it and am extremely wary of ground meat and fast food joints.

Fast forward through more research and enlightenment, and I am more into being selective about the ingredients in my food than ever before, more into portion control and monitoring (hey - I know better than anyone it can get away from you!) and generally being more mindful.

It's a long time in coming, but better late than never!  Recently I lost about 18 pounds, and while most people who know me would say it's because I'm running so much -and yes, that's part of it- the real reason I was able to shed the weight was my new consciousness of food.  I don't diet - I'm not grudgingly eating salads every night or trying to get by on nothing but raw vegetables.  Instead, I'm just paying more attention, and it's paying off.  You bet your sweet ass I'm going to Brave Horse Tavern for a pretzel whenever I feel like it!  When I tell people this, they want to know what I eat on a regular basis.  So, I took a picture and now I'm going to tell you about it.

I love bread.  I'm not cutting it out.  I'm also not cutting out cheese.  In fact, I eat bread and cheese nearly every day.  Establishing a sustainable way of eating is more important than cutting out things just for the sake of losing weight.  If suddenly avoiding beer or cheese is the way you plan to lose ten pounds (and don't get me wrong - you will! easily, too!), well, get ready to gain it all back later when you're not feeling so gung-ho about the diet. Take it from a lady who knows.

A fantastic no-fuss dinner for me might be this:

• homemade whole wheat pita, which I throw on my George Forman to warm up
• an ounce of soft goat cheese
• five or so cherry tomatoes cut in half
• a zucchini sauteed in a teaspoon of extra virgin olive oil and sprinkled  with a little salt and pepper

It's filling, fresh, and delicious, but not heavy.  For you carnivores out there who might say you wouldn't feel like you're getting enough protein without meat , is twelve grams enough?  That's right. Might not seem like it, but meat isn't your only source of protein.  Meat is delicious, but it's not essential and I don't feel the need to make sure it makes its way into every meal.  I am not saying meat makes a person fat - I'm just saying that paying attention to the ingredients you choose opens up a lot more culinary possibilities in getting the nutrients you need rather than relying on meat as your protein crutch.  And no, you're not going to be hungry later in the evening after you eat this dinner because you just had 12 grams of protein and 6 grams of fiber.  You're set.

Running 'Round the Lake and Other Adventures

I went for a run around Lake Union today and snapped this photo at my halfway point.  The sun on my face felt as amazing as this photo looks.  It's days like these that almost make me forget how much I hate the winters here.  Truth be told, though, I felt like hell the whole way around the lake, trying not to puke because I was running so hard.  Being nauseated while running is not awesome, but it was totally worth it.

When I got home I decided to take a go at crock pot marinara - cooking from scratch for the lazy girl.  My kinda cooking.  My aunt gave me a mini slow cooker recently and I'm making it my mission to use the heck out of it.  I've tackled cheese fondue, but something about marinara seems more practical for daily life.  So my plan for this marinara is to layer chopped raw ingredients into the crock pot and keep it on low all night.  Here's what's in it before I tweak it tomorrow morning:

1 Tbsp extra virgin olive oil
1 chopped onion
5 cloves chopped garlic
2 Tbsp chopped fresh basil leaves
2 Tbsp chopped fresh flat leaf parsley
1-1/2 tsp sea salt
8-10 chopped roma tomatoes
1 Tbsp apple cider vinegar
1 Tbsp honey

I needed a little something to get me out of my slump, and refocusing on the two things that helped me drop 30 lbs in the first place, running and nutrition, seemed like a good bet.  I'll check back and let you know how it came out.

Update on May 18: I woke up in the morning to the extremely powerful smell of onions.  I mean whoa.  It looked good when I gave it a stir, and I decided to take the immersion blender to it for a few seconds to lightly puree the ingredients.  The taste was meh, so I added another tablespoon of apple cider vinegar and a quarter tsp of ground black pepper.  It's still bubbling in the crockpot today while I'm at work.  Hopefully when the liquid cooks down a bit it will have a nicer richer flavor.

Natural Sweet Alternatives

image via Seattle Weekly

Last week I wrote a post about the scary findings in my sugar research. My friend Mina pinged me to ask if there was a natural sweetener I could recommend when you just have to have something sweet.  The short answer is, in the quantities that the average American eats sweets, nothing is really that great, but after looking into it, I determined raw honey and 100% natural maple syrup are the best.

Here's my disclaimer: my research is limited to reading studies and reports done by other people, so unless I find a way to do my own molecular experiments on food, what I know is subject to what other people say.  It's topical.  I'm not a nutritionist and I don't have a doctorate in this stuff - just a passion to find out for myself what's what, and share my discoveries with you.

Well, folks, I have a good read for you:  Kristen of Food Renegade posted yesterday a rundown of natural sweeteners (and impostors).  I consider her an authority on the matter and I highly encourage you to pop over and take a look.  It's a pithy and informative guide.  Also worth reading are the comments below and Kristen's responses.

Sugar: Your Frienemy

image via CBS News

Sugar is like those mean girls in junior high and high school; they're sweet and seemingly harmless, then one day you learn how hurtful they can be.  You think sugar is your friend - she makes everything you eat sweeter and more fun.  Then you make the mistake of crossing her and suddenly she makes it her personal mission to destroy you.  There's that day when your eyes are opened and you suddenly realize sugar is not your friend.  My day came April 13, 2011.  That was the day I learned what a bitch sugar has been to me and to my fellow Americans.  And we let her.  For years.

Last Wednesday the New York Times published an article by Gary Taubes titled, Is Sugar Toxic?  I read and reread it.  I sent it to friends.  I talked about it to co-workers.  It's like a light bulb suddenly went off in my head.  All the pieces fit together, like that moment in Usual Suspects when Kujan discovers he'd had  Keyser Söze in front of him the entire time.

Then I watched the video lecture by Robert Lustig referenced in the Taubes article titled, Sugar: The Bitter Truth.  Sugar isn't just about empty calories leading to malnutrition and a calorie excess (though it's that too), it's about sugar actually actively poisoning your body.  Here's how Lustig and Taubes broke it down for me: sugar comes with an evil ring leader and a side-kick.  Fructose is your true adversary.  Glucose, the other component of sugar, is just along for the ride.  While glucose is metabolized by every cell in your body, fructose is sent straight to your liver (your poison processing center) where, if it's over-inundated, it basically goes into survival mode and the excess poison (fructose, this case) is turned into fat.  Visceral fat, actually - the stuff that clings around your organs and clogs your arteries.

100 years ago we didn't eat nearly the amount of sugar we do today, and it's no wonder our nation has seen a spike in heart disease, cancer, obesity, and diabetes.

image via Perfect Health Diet

Today we eat over 45 lbs of sugar a year.

image via NYT

This is in addition to four gallons of high-fructose corn syrup.

image via NYT

Want to know something else interesting?  The difference between the harmful effects of HFCS and regular table sugar is negligible.  It's true.  Sugar is 50% fructose, 50% glucose.  HFCS is 55% fructose, 45% glucose.  This does not mean that HFCS isn't as terrible for you as you thought.  This means that sugar is worse for you than you ever imagined.  Gives me chills.  How 'bout you?  I, for one, am feeling sick just thinking about how I've been unwittingly slowly killing myself for years.

Before having learned the breakdown of exactly how sugar destroys your system at a cellular level, I knew it wasn't great and was looking for ways to cut back, mostly for vanity reasons: I want to be thinner, I want to have nicer skin, blah blah blah.

A friend suggested agave nectar as an alternative to refined sugar, the philosophy being it comes from the agave plant and is a natural substitute.  So I bought some, and I loved it.  I was replacing any call for sugar with agave nectar.  I even went out and bought it in bulk.  I imagined the plant being tapped much the way we tap maple trees to get maple syrup.  I felt good about making the change to get away from sugar.

Then I got educated.  After reading up on sugar I thought, "hey, I wonder what the molecular makeup of agave nectar is."  So I did a little research.  There are no hard numbers, but I did come across a lot of product-sponsored websites praising the stuff, and several health-centered (non-commercially-motivated) websites debunking what the perceived health benefits are.  The most thorough article I found was written by Kristen of Food Renegade.  (Her blog is fantastic, btw.  So glad I stumbled upon it.)  What I discovered in this research is not only is agave nectar 70-90% fructose (depending on which product website is reporting), but it's also highly processed.  Basically it's what we thought HFCS was to sugar - it's much much worse.  Just great.  Now I have a giant jug of a veritable poison sitting at home.

So to conclude this rather depressing post on a lighter note, I'm going to take this new information and use it as a tool of empowerment to further research nutrition.  Being active is a huge part of staying healthy, but holding control of how we fuel ourselves is key as well.  I'm not saying I will never eat sugar again, but I will be making better-informed decisions about my food and be more aware of what's going into it than I ever have before.

Coffee Revamp

I finally figured out how to help myself out with my coffee situation.  For many years now I have been addicted to hazelnut flavored Coffee Mate.  It is just so delicious.  I know it's not good for me, especially in the quantities I have been enjoying it.  Well, I'm changing my ways.

Here's my new coffee off choice:

6 oz hazelnut flavored coffee made in my mini french press
1/4 cup 1% organic milk
1 tsp agave nectar

It's only 56 calories in an entire mug, as opposed to an 8-oz short lowfat latte with no syrup from Starbucks, which is 110 calories (still not bad) and there's nothing on the label you can't pronounce.  I really enjoyed it this morning and I think I'm on to something.

Monday Night Dinner: Carrot Leek Soup and Greek Yogurt Biscuits

Happy Valentine's Day!  No $150 prix fixe menu here tonight; just soup and a biscuit.  This soup is simple and delicious.  I initially made it for a certain someone on hangover day and was just what the doctor ordered.  Hard to go wrong with this one.  Greek yogurt biscuits are pretty great dipped in the soup, but I also like to slather them with Smucker's Simply Fruit apricot preserves and eat them on their own.  I'll be honest:  I don't love that they're made with refined flour, but the whole wheat flour would do two gross things: make them heavy and make them bitter.  I don't eat biscuits every day (even though I'd like to), so I figure that how infrequent they come across my plate, in addition to the fabulous healthy Greek yogurt in them, is enough of a concession to make them the delicious way with refined flour.  At least in my mind it is.

Carrot Leek Soup:

Ingredients

• 2 Tbsp butter
• 2 Tbsp extra virgin olive oil
• 4 garlic cloves, sliced
• 2 cup leeks (just white and light green parts) sliced crosswise
• 4 carrots, peeled and sliced crosswise
• 1/2 cup flour
• 8 cups stock
• 1 tsp ground black pepper
• 2 tsp Better Than Bouillon beef or vegetable base
• 1 tsp kosher salt
• 2 Tbsp apple cider vinegar
• 2 tsp agave nectar

Directions

In a large soup pot, melt butter, add olive oil, leeks, carrots, and garlic.  Cook until soft.
Add pepper and flour, cook for 3 more minutes.
Add stock and beef/veggie base, bring to a boil, reduce heat and simmer for 20 minutes.
Add salt to taste, agave nectar, and cider vinegar.  cook for 5 more minutes.

Serves 4

PS- 2 cups is a big bowl.  You'll see what I mean.

Greek Yogurt Biscuits:

Ingredients

• 2 cups flour
• 1 tsp salt
• 3 tsp baking powder
• 4 Tbsp butter
• 1 cup nonfat plain Greek yogurt (I like Chobani)

Directions

Preheat oven to 450-F
Mix dry ingredients in a food processor.
Add chopped bits of butter and pulse in processor
Transfer to a mixing bowl, add Greek yogurt and stir with a spoon until just combined
Press into a 3/4-inch thick layer and cut with a 3-inch diameter biscuit cutter.
Place on a baking sheet lined with parchment paper and bake for 12-15 min or until lightly golden.
Serve immediately.

Makes about 7-ish biscuits

Keep extras refrigerated in an airtight container.  I reheated these the next day and they were still great.  They're a little denser than other biscuit recipes I've used, but I kind of like the heartiness of them.

So a big-ass bowl of soup and a biscuit is 534 calories total.  You won't be hungry after this meal.

Not valentiney enough for you?  Fine.  Use a heart-shaped cookie cutter for your biscuits.  Boom.  Love is in the air.

Monday Night Dinner: Cajun Beans and Rice with Chicken Andouille and Wilted Greens

Again, this is a quick and easy meal that uses pre-cooked brown rice.  I make rice on the weekends when I actually have the 45 minutes to wait while it cooks and then use it throughout the week.  Makes eating healthier a lot easier when you have it on hand.

Ingredients

• 2 Tbsp Extra Virgin Olive Oil
• 1/2 medium yellow onion, chopped
• 3 garlic cloves, sliced
• 1 package (4 links) andouille chicken sausage (or 1 sweet potato, peeled and sliced if you're going vegetarian)
• 1-1/2 cups cooked brown rice
• 1 tsp cajun seasoning
• 1-3/4 cups (1 can) black beans, drained and rinsed
• 2 cups Swiss Chard, chopped in 2-inch pieces
• 1 Tbsp Apple Cider Vinegar

Directions

Slice sausage crosswise in 1/2-inch thick pieces.
Heat 1 Tbsp olive oil in a large pan and cook onion, garlic, and sausage until browned.
Add cooked brown rice, black beans, and cajun seasoning.  Reduce heat to med-low.  Stir occasionally to make sure it's not burning to the bottom of the pan
Rinse and chop chard and add, wet, to a separate pan, cooking on med. When slightly wilted, add 1 Tbsp cider vinegar and 1 Tbsp olive oil.  Cook until tender.
Serve together: rice mix will be quite salty and rich, needing the tannic greens to balance it out.

Serves 5.

My suggestion for making this vegetarian is subbing in sweet potatoes and a 1/4 tsp red pepper flakes for the sausage.  You'll get the sweet spicy elements that the sausage provides without the cholesterol.

Taco Night on the Dock

Ok so abstaining from alcohol hasn't really been happening, but I've been successful in cutting out Coffeemate entirely and cutting waaaaay back on my salt.  So far today I've had about half the recommended sodium intake and I've already eaten breakfast, morning snacks, and lunch.  Go me.

This photo is last night's dock picnic (we ended up not opening the Rainier (pronounced "rah-nyay," if you're fancy... or "Renoir" if you're Andrew and classin' up the beer even more) in favor of wine out of plastic cups).  It was a fantastic balmy evening on the dock - perfect for sitting out in our shorts and chowing on gourmet dogs.  We decided, shortly after this picture was taken, that the following evening (tonight) should be a dock potluck.  I am currently slow cooking some pork for tacos.  Our guests are all bringing a taco topping.  I love taco nights.  Taco taco taco.  Taco.

I'm a Salty Dog

I stepped on the scale this morning and I'm down another three and a half pounds from when I pouted about my weight, making it a total of 5.5 pounds that I've lost in just a couple days.  Looks like that excess salt came with a lot of excess water weight.

Yesterday was my first day of not additionally salting anything, and according to the Daily Plate, I was still over my recommended sodium intake by about 350mg.  This might sound like a fail to you, but when I looked back over my nutrition intake from the last couple weeks, I was averaging about 1000mg to 2000mg over my recommended dosage.  Some select days I was up to something like 4000mg of sodium in a day.  Yowza.

Today is day-three of no Coffeemate.  I had two cups of French press coffee, black, and not an ounce of me wanted to break down and buy creamer.  My two slices of peanut butter toast may have had something to do with that - the peanut butter was sweet and creamy enough that it almost felt like I needed the black coffee to cut the richness.

Tomorrow evening I leave for Sacramento for a friend's wedding.  Wish me luck in staying on track!

Balancing Indulgences

Sometimes it's ok to drink 4 glasses of wine in an evening.  Sometimes it's ok to have little extra snacks outside of meals.  Probably best not to do both in one evening.

A Low Cal Recipe: Pho, With A Twist!

I have to share this beautiful soup with you.  It's low calorie and oh, so delicious.  If you like pho, you'll enjoy this soup.  The great thing about it is you can adjust any ingredient amount to your personal taste, and it will still be tasty.  There are no noodles, but I did add bok choy, which gives it some great texture.

Ingredients

• 64 oz Soup, Beef Broth, Bouillon, Consomme
• 1 oz chopped Onions, Green 
• 1/2 tsp Puree Garlic
• 1 tbsp Puree Ginger
• 3 oz Fish Cake
• 2 tsp Salt
• 1 tbsp Premium Fish Sauce
• 2 cups sliced Bok Choy (raw) 
• 4 oz Beef Brisket (for Pho)
• 2 quartered  Limes
• leaves Basil, Fresh
• sprigs Cilantro, Fresh
•  Hoisin Sauce
•  Hot Chili Sauce

Directions

bring the chopped green onions and beef broth to a boil
add garlic puree, ginger puree, fish sauce, sliced fish cake, and salt
add bok choy and cook for 30 seconds
add brisket and boil until no longer pink
serve and garnish with lime, basil, cilantro, hoisin sauce, and hot chili sauce

Regrets and Regressions

The past week has been one long over-indulgence and disregard for what I know is good for me.  in addition to enjoying the culinary side of life in excess, I ignored my promise to my body to stop eating wheat products.  When I stepped on the scale a few days ago I confirmed what I already knew: much of my hard work was undone.  I was even chided by my wii fit, not that I didn't deserve it.  You can see how puffy I am in the picture; most of it is due to wheat consumption.  I regret my absence of will-power and lack of determination to stay on track, and the way my body felt as a result, but we're here to admit our mistakes and move on to focus on positive progress, so let's look ahead.

Sunday evening I paid for what I've done with a long walk in my neighborhood, and then vowed to do better the next day.  I did.  I got some brisk, low-impact exercise in at lunch, skipped snacks and sweets, drank no empty calories, and had a lovely (gluten-free, thankfully) sushi dinner.  I feel a whole lot better today.

Yesterday:

Total Calories: 1627

Net Calories: 1424 (45 under)

H2O Intake: 40 oz

Total Exercise: 45 min

Cardio: 0 min

Recipe For Your Waistline

Last night we had a friend over for dinner, so I made my current standard for quick, easy, nutritious, and tasty:  Beef with Broccoli.  I had a fatty-fatso weekend with my poor eating choices, so this is the first step toward getting back on the horse.

Ingredients

Asian Beef Marinade:

• 1/4 cup Dark Sweet Soy Sauce
• 1 tsp Fish Sauce
• 1 tbsp Ginger Paste
• 1 tsp Concentrated Garlic Paste
• 1 tbsp Sugar

Main Dish:

• 1/4 cup Vegetable Oil, Canola
• 4 cup Broccoli, Chopped
• 1 lb Beef Sirlion, marinaded

Directions

Asian Beef Marinade: whisk all ingredients together, use to marinate meat.

Main Dish: Cut beef into bite sized pieces and let sit in marinade while you attend to other things. Make sure the meat has been fully coated with marinade.

Heat half the oil in a large wok or pan while you chop broccoli to your taste. Add 2 cups broccoli to heated oil and cook for 2 min or until cooked but still firm. Set aside in serving platter and repeat with the second half of the oil and remaining 2 cups of broccoli.

After the broccoli has been set aside, add beef to the pan, along with marinade. Cover with a lid and cook until browned, but not tough. Maybe 3-5 min.

Pour beef and sauce over broccoli and serve.

Brown rice would be an appropriate accompaniment, but I don't really feel it's necessary to tell you the truth... unless you love brown rice and can't get enough of it.

And of course, I had to map out the nutrition info for you:

Get a load of all that glorious protein!  If you want to cut down the fat, it would be easy to just use less oil without compromising the tastiness of the dish, but don't you dare overcook that broccoli!