The Kitchen Scale

Warning: A really dull looking picture

Whenever I attempt to "get healthy" (my euphemism for losing weight) I tend to get into habits and ruts, sometimes obsessively so. Like right now I start my day with a packet of instant peaches and cream oatmeal. So far I'm still liking it. 

I think that this is what anyone who is trying to "get healthy" does. If something works once then keep doing it until you make yourself ill from the lack of variety, get mind numbingly bored with it, or it stops working. I know that this isn't necessarily healthy with food. Some people end up on diets limiting themselves to only a hand full of foods or on one of those disgusting cleanses (like the maple syrup, water, cayenne, lemon juice whatever) because they drop weight fast... and then can't maintain it so they go back on the cleanse again. And if I hear someone say it's healthy one more time I'm going to squeeze a tube of honey up their nose. And before I get to far into this, yes there are some people who have had doctors recommend cleanses and I am not talking about them. I'm talking about the people who cleanse frequently and obsessively... like an older lady I worked with who was always on a cleanse because she was in denial that she was getting close to 50 and that gravity exists. To her I would like to say, "Subsiding on water with stuff floating around that you found in the back of your cupboard for weeks can not be good for you-electrolytes must get out of whack, all of the stuff in your digestive track gets freaked out, and you aren't consuming enough calories to be able to function. You are in essence starving yourself, yet you claim to feel so good afterward. Well why don't you ask people who are starving due to poverty if they feel all clean and energized or if they would rather have a club sandwich and see which one they pick." (Hint: It will be the one with bacon.) 

Anyway, to get away from that particular rant I'll try to get to the point. Severely limiting what you eat will not help you get healthy (both with and without quotation marks) for the long term. Once you stop your cabbage diet you will gain weight back, and if you only eat a few things then you will most likely be lacking nutrients. I find that what works best for me is to stick with an arsenal of basics for the day to day diet. I have my staples that I can easily turn to without having to put a lot of thought into it- grilled shrimp tacos, vegetable stew and dumplings, rice and stir fry, my lovely instant oatmeal, etc. Well I found a new one, and by God the picture of it looks so boring! (And judging by the picture alone you might think I'm a dirty water cleanse type of person who thinks grazing can pass for a meal, which I think I've made clear I'm not.)

It's actually lettuce wraps. And they are a revelation and a model of simplicity. You in no way need a recipe for the the lettuce wraps, but with the risk of being condescending I'll just tell you what I use: 5-8 big leaves of lettuce, 1 T hummus, 2 T babaganoush (you can even see a little dab of it peeking out from one of the lettuce wraps), and 2.5 oz of boar's head turkey breast. But the options are endless- chicken or tuna salad, ham and cheese with a spicy mustard, roast beef with thousand island dressing or cocktail sauce, sauteed mushrooms, peppers and onions, grilled shrimp... really whatever you want. And the ability and option to change it up is why it is something I know I will be turning to time and time again. It's a basic concept that I can manipulate to be what I want, so hopefully I won't get bored. 

How to Salvage a Bad Day

Everyone has bad days. It's an unfortunate reality, but you are bound to have a bad day. I'm sorry.

Now there are varying degrees of bad days, and I, like many of you, have had many a bad day. But today was one of the most frustratingly bad days I've had in a long time. And most of it seems to have taken place in the first few hours of my day.

When I woke up this morning I was feeling less than stellar and very much under the weather. And I was running late for a last minute, pre-final study session. The only good thing about this is it was my last final. But it was one of my least favorite classes ever and the tests are just unpredictable and challenging for the most part- luckily today's test wasn't too bad.

Anyway, I was running late and decided to try to see if I could catch a bus to campus. As I was crossing the street I apparently forgot how to walk or something (perhaps ice, perhaps a small sprite tripped me?). And down I went, to greet my old friend The Pavement. Now I am hopelessly clumsy, especially lately (I fell last week too and hurt my shoulder).  Luckily only one person saw me crash down and he was very nice and stopped to make sure I was ok. (Last time I fell only one person acknowledged me, and she looked angry, like I was disturbing her intentionally with my accidental fall.) Now here is the gross part, if you don't want to read the gross part then skip down to the next paragraph. When I fell I felt three distinct things in my ankle move apart and then sorta come back together.

I totally thought I was fine, and I really wasn't. So I hobbled back home after sitting on some steps for a while and some how made it up the stairs. I tracked down an ankle brace (I told you, I'm clumsy, plus I have bad ankles), called my school's health center to make an appointment,  and called a cab. I got to campus and studied for a while before giving up. I took my test and soon it was over. Now I had to hang around on campus to have a very gross lunch with one of my friends and for my appointment. The doctor that saw me was very nice, and after asking some questions and poking at my ankle and causing further pain she told me that I had a badly sprained ankle. Now, I have sprained my ankle several times and this is the worst sprain I have ever had.

Overall my day was stressful and ruined. I can't do stairs easily so I could haul my laundry up or down the stairs to the basement to do laundry. I can barely shuffle around, so no errands for me. And little cleaning too. Normally this wouldn't be a big deal, but I am leaving tomorrow for a couple weeks to go home and I can't stand coming back to a dirty apartment. I guess I'm going to have to cope.

So after taking a nap and having a calming, ranting conversation with my best friend I was able to address a rather pressing issue. I had no food in the house. Or so I thought. I found that I had puff pastry in the freezer, cheese, blueberries, sour cream, a quarter of an onion, and some eggs. So I had dinner.

I adapted a Suzanne Goin's recipe for a spring onion tart that is deliciously rich with a ricotta/creme fraiche base loaded with onions and bacon and topped with chantal cheese, and served with an herb salad dressed lightly with lemon juice and olive oil. What I did was spread a thing layer of low fat sour cream (which hardly seems important since this is puff pastry). Seasoned that with salt, pepper, and a very restrained amount of chili flakes (mostly because I ran out). And added some moderately sliced onions and topped with shredded monterey jack cheese. I baked that in an oven around 375ish for 15-20 minutes and it was delicious. I do wish I had the herb salad to cut through the richness though. (Also, even though it seems logically that there is enough oil in the puff pastry that you don't need to grease the foil you still should, as I lost some of it to the wrathful gods of stuck on  food.  but as it cooled it wasn't as problematic.) That was good, but dessert was so much better!

I cut the remaining sheet into 9 squares and stretched them out a little. In a bowl I combined some of the remaining low fat sour cream, brown sugar, a cup of blue berries, salt, cinnamon, and eventually some granulated sugar. I placed a good sized dollop on each of the pieces of puff pastry (which is why some of the turnovers exploded). Using some egg I sealed them and crimped them closed with a fork. Stabbed each one so that steam could be released and brushed the top of each turnover with egg and a generous sprinkling of sugar. It was perfect.

Granted this meal is one of the farthest things from a weight conscious meal as you can get it was worth it and o so necessary. Take that MacGyver!

Craving

Lately all I have wanted to do is bake. I can't help it. I thought if I made some cookies to give away I could satisfy my craving. It didn't work. I need to bake a cake. It's horrible, but it has been on my mind for days. I don't mind baking things and then giving them away, in fact I prefer it. But so many of my friends have gone away this summer or may not be able to handle the quantity of baked goods that I may make (sometimes I get on a roll and make cookies one day and muffins the next and cupcakes the day after). Then tonight I had this realization, I had completely fogotten that two of my guy friends are living in a house with their friends. I now have a home for my baked goods! Well, hopefully. We will see how much food I can shove off on them. I am thinking that in a household of at least 5 college guys I can probably get rid of a lot of. It's an experiment that I will have to investigate further. So, do not be shocked or concerned, dear readers, that there will be postings of cakes, cookies, brownies and other baked goods. Hopefully all of it (if not most of it) will go towards friends.