12W12S12: Magic Diet Miracle Trick

I lost 7½ pounds this week, by following the one simple magic diet miracle trick of not eating pizza bites at every meal. Seriously, I know that is a HUGE loss for one week, and that it's an outlier, and that any weight loss going forward will be smaller and more consistent, but DAMN. What the hell have I been doing for the past six months, if just eating like a normal person for a week helps me drop 7½ pounds?

= = = = =

One of the things that is always helpful when you're on a diet is knowing how to cook. I don't mean "tear open a package of rice and heat it up in the microwave," either -- although of course we do our fair share of that too -- but more of the "look at what sorts of random things you have in the fridge/freezer/pantry and throw together something that tastes good" kind of cooking. I would never argue that I'm any kind of gourmet chef, but I hope I never take for granted how easy it is for me to take one thing from Column A and another from Column B and yet another from Column C, throw in some herbs and stock, and come up with a meal that is delicious and satisfying and totally diet-friendly. (Plus, we very rarely have leftovers that go to waste.) This is what I came up with yesterday for dinner (we're having leftovers tonight - as always, see notes below the recipe for particulars and substitutions).

Sausage, Bean, and Vegetable Soup

• 1 Tbsp. basting oil
• 1 lb. spinach and feta chicken sausage
• 8 oz. package chopped celery and onion
• 4 oz. shredded carrots
• Herbs: rosemary, oregano, and fresh ground black pepper
• 2 cans seasoned petite diced tomatoes, undrained
• 2 cans cannellini beans, drained and rinsed
• 1 qt. vegetable stock
• about 1 package assorted frozen vegetables

Heat oil in stockpot over medium-high heat. Cut sausage into smallish chunks. Add sausage, celery, onions, and shredded carrots to pan. Season with rosemary, oregano, and pepper to taste. Saute until sausage is cooked through and onions are translucent, about 10-12 minutes. Add tomatoes and stir well. Heat to boiling. Reduce heat to simmer and cook for 15 minutes. Add beans and stock. Adjust heat as necessary. Cook for 10 minutes, then reduce heat to simmer and cook for an additional 30 minutes. Add frozen vegetables. Cook for an additional 10 minutes or until vegetables are cooked through. Serve.

NOTES: Use whatever kind of sausage you have on hand, obviously. We only ever buy turkey or chicken sausage these days except for special occasions. If you cut your own celery-onion-carrots, you want about ½ cup of each. You can use chicken broth instead of veggie, and we used whatever leftover previously-frozen veggies we had in the fridge from previous meals, so we ended up with a lot of broccoli, cauliflower, carrots, and squash in there, plus a few random corns. Green beans (especially Italian ones) would be delicious -- perhaps with a can of dark red kidney beans substituted for one of the cans of cannellini beans. Almost a minestrone!

My math says there's about 200-225 calories per cup of soup, depending on how lean your sausage is and what's in the veggie blend you use. We served ours with a sprinkle of parmesan cheese on each bowl, with a side of warm rosemary rolls. Delightful!

12W12S12: Amateur Food Pr0n

This is going to be the phase of my diet where I take pictures of everything I eat, isn't it?

We started on Monday. And by "we," I mean "the lot of us," because I have this thing where I won't make multiple meals just because one of us -- or, in this particular go-'round, two of us -- are on a diet. One of the reasons why this particular "lifestyle change" (because I am already getting sick of writing "diet" and it's only Day 3) worked for me before and why I have faith that it will work going forward is that it's based on "everything in moderation" instead of "not eating anything that tastes good." So, if my kid wants to have teatime on a Sunday afternoon, then by hook or by crook, I will find a way to be able to enjoy teatime and not feel the least bit guilty about it.

PS: Stella d'Oro breakfast treats? They really are treats. And neither my kid nor my husband are particularly fond of them, so I am going to get that whole bag ALL TO MYSELF BWAHAHAHAHA. But what can I say? It's pretty easy to stick to your diet when it openly involves cookies, you know?

The only thing I'm really doing different this time is that I am trying to get as much buy-in as possible from my husband, which means that we're doing a lot of "convenience" cooking. As in, "let's see what we already have in the fridge and see what we can count as a serving of vegetables." On Monday we passed on the traditional New Year's Day pork-sauerkraut-and-mashed-potatoes dinner because EW! and instead had stuffed shells and this salad I concocted out of assorted kitchen fixin's: iceberg lettuce (which keeps surprising well when your refrigerator is set at like 35°F, bee tee dubs), shredded carrots, shredded cheese, and bacon bits, with some "crunchies" that I found in the fridge and a couple of croutons apiece. Plus balsamic vinegar -- just balsamic vinegar, plus salt and pepper -- which is my very favorite salad dressing.

It is also easy to stick to your diet when you can go out to lunch to use up a gift card and you can find a drink on the menu that is light, something you'd drink anyway, and actually good. That's a "skinny mojito" from The Cheesecake Factory, of all places, and that whole giant drink is under 150 calories. I think I'm going to Google a recipe for this, because it was perfectly light and refreshing and delicious and I'd definitely drink that on vacation.

This salad, also from The Cheesecake Factory (from their Skinnylicious menu, which is smaller than their regular menu, of course, but pretty damned good, honestly), is much prettier than mine, and of course better, because I assume the chefs at The Cheesecake Factory actually know what they're doing: chopped lettuce, chopped bacon, chopped chicken, chopped tomatoes, chopped apples, corn (not chopped), and blue cheese (also not chopped). The regular menu salad comes with avocado, which I don't like, and I don't know what kind of dressing was supposed to be on this thing, but (1) there wasn't much of it and (2) it didn't really need it, anyway.

And the really best part? We still had calories left to have some tuxedo cheesecake, which was TOTALLY WORTH IT.

Missing In Action!

Oh, this poor, poor spare emergency backup blog, being all neglected for lo these many months. So sad. But, alas, 'Raffi shall be lonely no more, for it is a new year, and you know what that means: a new set of calendar photos!

Cousins, January 2012

Cupcake, January 2012

I'm going to start posting the monthly calendar photos on the first of each month. Unless I forget, in which case I will post them when I remember to post them.

Also, we're restarting the diet effective today. This time my husband is 100% on board, so hopefully he'll help me stay on track (and I won't have to nag him too much to do likewise). We're still doing Lose It, because that has worked pretty well for me so far -- I mean, yes, I gained some weight back from my lowest point, and of course that is to be expected because I haven't been the least bit careful. No exercise, no tracking, nothing.

So, yes, we're jumping right back on the wagon. Right now we're trying to get our eating on track because in just a few weeks I start grad school and we want to be "in a good place" for that. We're going to try to fit exercise in somewhere, even if we just go back to the "dance like you're drunk at a wedding" plan. Wish us luck!

BTW, I will continue to insist until the day I die that this is not a "resolution." This is not something we're doing because it's the New Year and we're supposed to. Yes, I have lapsed some in my diligence, but as I keep reminding myself, I didn't gain all this weight in a few months, and it's unreasonable to expect me to lose it all quickly. I am still down 50 pounds from where I started, and that's a hell of a thing. I still want to get healthy and be healthy and stay healthy, which has always been my goal.

Journaling has helped me before, so I'm going back to it again.

Cupcake Calendar: March and April 2012

I'm trying to keep myself busy while I make my way through the TiVo.

March

April

I sort of cheated on the April page by using a pre-made 5x7 "brag book" page and then "matting" it on background paper, but I'll have to work at things a LONG time to design something as nice as what the professionals come up with. When I try it, I always think my pages look busy and fussy, but of course when they do it, I think they look fantastic.

(Oh and also: those pictures on the April page are not from her birthday party, or even her birthday, but how perfect are they?)

Now if only I could get somewhere on the Cousins Calendar ... eesh.

12W12S11: Greek Stir-Fry

It's not really "Greek" and it's not exactly a stir-fry, but I didn't know what else to call this concoction besides "delicious." Possible substitutions are marked with asterisks.

Greek Stir-Fry
Makes 2 servings, about 550 calories each

• 3 ounces broad egg noodles
• chicken or vegetable bouillon cubes (optional)
• 2 tablespoons lemon vinaigrette*
• 1½ teaspoon olive oil
• 4 links (or about 12 ounces) chicken sausage with feta and spinach*
• 1 medium zucchini*
• 1 large yellow bell pepper*
• ¼ Vidalia onion
• salt and pepper to taste
• 1 teaspoon dried rosemary*

1. Cook egg noodles according to package directions, adding bouillon cubes to cooking water if desired. When done, drain and toss with vinaigrette. Set aside.
2. Meanwhile, preheat oil in large skillet over medium-high heat. Slice sausage into thin rounds. Add sausage slices to skillet and cook 1-2 minutes or until meat starts to brown slightly. Stir.
3. Slice zucchini into rings. Cut pepper and onion into strips. Season with salt and pepper. Add to skillet and cook 1-2 minutes or until vegetables begin to soften. Stir.
4. Add rosemary and continue cooking until desired level of doneness, making sure meat is fully cooked, stirring often. If necessary, reduce heat partway through cooking to prevent burning.
5. Divide noodle mixture between two bowls. Top with cooked sausage and vegetables. Serve immediately. Enjoy!

*Possible substitutions: Instead of "Greek" stir fry (which, BTW, is because of the feata-and-spinach sausage and the lemon vinaigrette), you can make this "Italian" by using Italian dressing or balsamic vinaigrette instead of lemon, and sweet or hot Italian sausage. If you want, you can swap out oregano for the rosemary, but I like rosemary and it will work fine. Also, I used zucchini and a yellow bell pepper (mostly for color), but you can use a yellow summer squash and any color peppers you want. You could also add a can of diced tomatoes if you wanted to and cook the liquid down by at least half (I often do that when I serve this with a heartier pasta instead of egg noodles), or serve Italian-style stewed tomatoes on the side.

Let me know if you like it!

Cupcake Calendar: August 2012

Sometimes, you see some pictures, and you KNOW.

(Dedicated especially to my sister who likes to look ahead in my Flickr photostream.)

Cupcake Calendar: July 2012

I have to rebuild my entire digital scrapbooking library because the Apple Geniuses are really not as smart as advertised and they couldn't "find" my all my scrapbooking stuff to bring it over to the new computer, and I have to re-learn how to use Gimp because some of the buttons and shortcuts work differently on the Mac vs. the old PC, but you know what?

When you have a great picture to start with, you're pretty much set.