Sounds good!

So, I just got my July/August issue of Everyday Food and two of my favs are on the cover: Martha Steward (what can I say, I love her) and Emeril Lagasse. Kick it up a notch! BAM! How can you not love that??

Now, Emeril's food--of which I would love to sit at the counter on his show Live w/ Emeril and eat anything he makes for me--is probably pretty high in points. Dlish, yes, but oy. Pre-WW to be sure for me. But in this issue, this dynamic duo teams up to create some really tasty and healthy and low WW points meals. A few I'm going to try:

Tex Mex Turkey Burgers w/ Zucchini Salad
Shrimp Salad w/ Apricots and Cucumber
Emeril's Fish Provencal
Spaghetti w/ Bay Scallops, Leeks, and Tarragon
and so many more...

There's also a recipe for an orange vanilla milkshake that I believe can probably be made with low-fat 1% milk and still be delicious. I'll try it and let you know.

And, while I'm on the subject of delicious-sounding, low fat recipes, check out my friend Tammy's blog, Boston Food and Whine, and her recipe for Bok Choy Salad w/ Grilled Salmon, which she adapted from a friend's recipe to to be low fat and low cal. And, since Tammy says she is trying to lose a few pounds and is pretty adept w/ the WW system, she includes the WW points. Love that!!

Random Thoughts, continued

Hello friends!
I'm so sorry, I completely forgot to mention that I have some new friends! Blogger friends from BlogCatalog who have added me to their neighborhoods and friends groups. Welcome and thanks so much!

Good news!
New York City's ban on trans fats goes into effect today. Now, I do have some thoughts about food police and restrictions on cooking liberties and freedom to eat whatever I choose. But, I also have serious concerns about the high reate of obesity, especially in children, in this country and all of the related health concerns associated with it. Trans fats are particularly insidious because they raise bad cholesterol and lower good cholesterol. And, researchers at the Harvard School of Public Health also warn that they can cause inflammation in the body. Bad bad bad. For a great resource on healthy eating from the experts who really know their stuff, visit the Harvard School of Public Health's Nutrition Source.

Get naked!
About 1,000 people in Ireland did just that this past weekend and had their picture taken as part of a performace art installation. Several people quoted said they found the experience to be quite liberating. I'll bet. I would love this. I think that we are so body conscious because we have such limited experience seeing real bodies. The naked or semi-naked bodies we see (beyond the one or few we may see privately of those who are our intimates) are in magazines, TV, and in the movies and they have been so airbrushed and made to look perfect that as a culture, we have very little idea of what real bodies look like. Even at the gym I go to, where the women's locker room is one big open room, women are constantly wrapping themselves up tightly in towels and trying to put on and take off their underwear underneath the towels. It's a little crazy, actually. If we just realized we all were imperfect, then maybe we'd be more relaxed. I'm not saying that we still shouldn't strive to have healthy weights and to be fit and take care of ourselves, but we'd realize that other people have bumps and dimples and little rolls and there's nothing to be ashamed of or embarrased about. Go Irish!

Update and Random Thoughts

Hello,
I have been bad and not been writing, but now I have some exciting news to share: I'll be spending the a lot of the summer on Cape Cod!! We just rented an apartment there, so I am very excited. The eating challenge, however, will be with several friends coming to visit, there will be lots of drinking. I will have to really watch how much I drink, while I also have a good time. Hmmm.

The good news, however, is all the fresh fish and vegetables available. Truro has an amazing fish market in the same little shopping center as a farm stand, so that will become a regular stop. We stepped in this past weekend just to look around, and were made teary-eyed by the selection of fresh haddock, cod, tuna (I wanted to take a spoon and scoop out a bite right there!), and lobsters. Watch for my summer grilling stories. Low points in fish!

More updates: I am now down 12 pounds since starting WW. I think that's great--and I feel great--but I am surprised, I guess, by how long this is taking; I'm averaging a 6-pound loss a month. Is that too slow? I guess I do realize that stable weight loss is slower and that losing too much too fast usually means that most of the weight lost is gained back. But, it seems a little slow to me. I feel like my metabolism is stubbornly holding onto having more food so it's not going to budge. We'll see.

I am excited, however, about wearing a new dress tonight to a party (not the BIG party with the slightly tight party dress--that party is next week!). But, just a casual party with a stretchy dress. We did some amazing shopping in Provincetown last weekend and now I have a hot new pair of leather sandals and a new red bag to accessorize my new dress.

I sound like such a girl, don't I? Get this: I'm getting a pedicure today, too, to go with the new shoes and the dress and the party.

I guess, in essence, I'm feeling so much better about my body and how I look that I'm happy again about a dress and a pair of great shoes. I had lost that feeling of wanting to put myself together to look good for a night out. And now, it's coming back.
I am in no way finished, but I'm on my way.

Recipes Revamped to Skinny

Remember when I said that I was tearing through my huge stack of foodie magazines to find recipes that could be revamped for lower points values? I just recreated a tandori chicken from Bon Appetit that was absolutely delicious. I have to share it. (I don't have a picture of it because I was starving when it was finished and then it was so good, I ate it all! Sorry! So, you'll just have to settle with a picture of the original recipe hanging on my refrigerator!)

So easy though to make this into a low points meal. The recipe called for a full chicken cut into parts; I used (no surprise!) skinless, boneless chicken breasts. The recipe also called for full fat Greek yogurt. Yes, that would have been delicious, but too many points. I made it with nofat yogurt and it was still really good.

Chicken, especially breasts, was just made for yogurt. When you marinate the chicken with a yogurt-based mixture, the chicken is tender and just explodes with flavor. It's really an amazing little secret. Fill the yogurt mix with 0 points flavors, such as cumin, red chili flake, fresh herbs, lemon juice, and you've got a real treat coming.

Here's the skinny:

Low Points Chicken Tandoori

2 boneless, skinless chicken breasts (or more if you have more people--I had 2)

1/2 cup chopped fresh parsley

garlic cloves (I don't like garlic that much, so I only used one; original recipe called for 4)

1 tbs ground cumin

1 tbs sweet paprika

1 tbs kosher salt

1/2 tsp cayenne pepper

1/4 cup olive oil

1/2 cup plain nofat yogurt

1/4 cup lemon juice

Whir all the ingredients (except the chicken!) in a food processor or blender until well combined. Put chicken breasts in a big sealable plastic food bag and pour the yogurt mixture over the chicken. Seal the bag and turn it upside down a couple times so that the chicken inside is covered with the yogurt. Refrigerate for a couple hours, turning the bag a couple more times.

You can grill then grill the chicken on a grill, or you can do what I did, which was to sear it in a saute pan that had been sprayed with cooking spray and sear each side and then finish in the oven until an inside temp reaches 165 degrees.

Serve with slices of mango and yummy yummy yummy and so low in points!

Enjoy!

Where Have I Been?

So sorry. I have been sick, dear reader. But am back on the mend, thank goodness. And, you'll be happy to know that even though I have been sick, I have stayed on the plan! My weekly weigh-in: 149.6!! So, that means that I've lost a little over 10 pounds. Which is great, unless you consider that I've been on this for 6 weeks, which means I should have lost at least 12 pounds by now, if you believe WW that average weight loss is 2 pounds a week. I'm below average :-(

But, I'm not really complaining too much, because I am losing. So that's a plus. And, I'm working out a lot; isn't it true that muscle weighs more than fat? People always tell you that to make you feel better, but I really think there might be some truth to it.

I also have a confession. Call me crazy, or overly optimistic, or something, but I bought a fantastic dress that is ... well... a little tight. Not too much--it's not like it's 3 sizes too small or something, but it's a size below where I am now. But, a lot of the clothes that are the size I am now are too big, so it's not completely inconceivable that I could soon be in a size lower. Right?

Hmmm. I bought the dress to go to a party on June 27: two days shy of an entire month away. Given the current rate of weight loss, I should be down by 6 to 8 pounds, unless I throw up my hands and give up; which I'm not going to do. So, I should be ok. It's motivation, inspiration, something. It's like that commercial for Special K: "....itsy bitsy teeny weeny yellow polka dot bikini..." You know, the one where she passes that skimpy thing every day while she eats her cereal, and then whola! At the end of the commercial, it fits? That'll be me. You watch!

Rah Rah Rah: Three Cheers for Raw Food at Grezzo

Wow! Very rarely in my jaded life do I have an experience where I say 'Wow, that was truly amazing (I don't know, maybe I need to get out more!). But last night, with my friend (and beyond the pale food blogger) Tammy, I went to the much buzzed about Grezzo in the North End. Wow!

Grezzo is Italian for raw, and nestled as it is in the heart of Boston's Italian food district, it holds its own as an eatery that deserves--and will likely receive--lots of attention.

On the way over, Tammy and I were stuck in Red Sox traffic and admitting to one another that we were both a little nervous, not quite sure what to expect. Tammy is a quasi-vegetarian and I am a bring-it-all-on carnivore, so this was going to be interesting. However, we are also both great lovers of food and food adventures, so we were the perfect companions for one another to try this new spot. (Tammy will be blogging, too, about Grezzo today, so check out her post.)

We arrive to this very small but very warmly colored room with huge paintings of vegetables on the walls and a server who both Tammy and I were immediately drawn to: she was energetic and obviously very passionate about the food and took great care to explain to us each of the dishes.

We chose the chef's tasting menu--a good choice since it came with a delightful sampling of several of the dishes on the short menu. (We also each ordered a glass of biodynamic wine--with a very healthy pour for each of us, that was a nice bonus!)

I'm going to leave it to Tammy to do a food overview, but I will tell you that from my perspective, I am very intrigued about the idea of raw food as a weight loss / healthy lifestyle choice.

Alissa Cohen, who has been eating raw since the 1980's and who works with people to turn them onto a raw life, has some impressive results to show on her website. We are all used to the before and after pictures of fat to skinny people, and this site has them as well. I'm listening!

As I was eating last night, I was thinking that since so many of these foods are based on nuts--nut creams and ground up nut pastes--the point count must really be adding up. So, while I would have loved to have lapped all the cream on my plate, I didn't. But then, my main entree was a marinated piece of papaya with a salad of shredded zucchini in a yogurt dill sauce. Once you get past the nuts, all the other foods are fruits or vegetables. How points free is that?

When I left last night, I was sated and happy and I didn't have that horrible post-big dinner feeling of needing to go immediately to bed and snore like a fat old man. I felt light and energetic and... well, alive. When I woke up this morning, I wasn't starving, I just had this really good feeling.

I've ordered Alissa's cookbook, so I'll report back in later posts about my attempts to cook with it and what my thoughts are then. But right now, I'm really impressed. I'll probably go back to try the other dishes.

Rah rah rah!!!

Random Quick Thoughts

Just what I'm thinking about now:

1. Got new running shoes yesterday: my first pair of Asics. LOVE the folks at Marathon Sports who fitted me. Will try them out later today--hope it doesn't rain.


2. Dale had to pack his knives and go from Top Chef last night. Too bad...NOT! After all his nastiness to his comrade contestants, I was surprised to see how much affection Stephanie, Antonia, and Richard showed him as he left; made me wonder if the producers really were only showing his bad side and never his good qualities. Hmmmm....


3. Remember the post about my having put points aside for a night and going out for a lovely evening at Lala Rokh, the Persian restaurant on Beacon Hill? My story about that night for Misstropolis.com is now live. Check it out.


4. I'm having dinner tonight with a friend at Grezzo Restaurant in the North End--all raw food; can't wait to try it and to tell you all about it tomorrow!!


5. I'm wearing right now a pair of jeans that 3 weeks ago didn't fit at all, one week ago barely fit, and now, fit just fine.