Category: Memoir

Posted on

More Sugar More Fat Please

Food Addiction?

The study, published online Wednesday in the journal Cell Metabolism, found eating a snack high in fat and sugar every day alters the reward circuits in human brains to create lasting preferences.

Fatty and sugary foods train your brain to hate healthier options: Yale study — New York Post, March 22, 2023

HT to Sally Feltner for the original post. Link to the original post is provided above. I’ve also credited the New York Post because I’m not sure who wrote the sentence I’ve quoted.

What I am sure about is my cerebral reward circuits still function very well if I have to choose between a piece of fruit or a cup of ice cream. Or a piece of pizza versus a salad. Or french fries rather than a plain baked potato.

Posted on

Chicken Thigh Week – The Sequel

Chicken thighs are one of my favorite ingredients to cook with because they’re fairly inexpensive, they always stay juicy and tender, and they can be added to just about anything. If you’re a new cook, chicken thighs are perfect because they’re really hard to mess up! So today we’ve rounded up some of our favorite cheap and easy chicken thigh recipes for you to dive into. Bookmark this list so the next time someone asks, “What’s for dinner?” you’ve got a lot of great ideas in one place. 🙂

Cheap & Easy Chicken Thigh Recipes — https://www.budgetbytes.com/cheap-easy-chicken-thigh-recipes/

Another Electronic Sticky Note!

Another blogger who loves chicken thighs!

Some kind and faithful readers may remember Chicken Thigh Week (vegans/vegetarians avert your eyes) which ended up becoming a week of food diary tracking and introspection. Well, welcome to the sequel.

BTW I found boneless thighs on sale for $1.69 a pound. Guess what’s going in the oven in about 15 minutes?

Posted on

Sugo Finto

  • 1 small sweet onion, small dice
  • 1 stalk celery, small dice
  • 1 large carrot, small dice
  • 3-4 cloves garlic, minced
  • dried basil, parsley
  • Salt and black pepper
  • white or brown sugar
  • 3-4 Tbsp extra virgin olive oil
  • 2 Tbsp butter
  • 15 oz can stewed tomatoes
  • 28 oz can crushed tomatoes

This is a poor man’s meat sauce: the vegetables are cut smallish to simulate the texture of ground beef. The inspiration for my version comes from a cookbook I’ve had since 1986. I wasn’t happy with a number of my sugo sauces until I started using stewed tomatoes instead of 100% plain crushed tomatoes. Then finally, Chinese-Italian success!

Saute the vegetables in olive oil until soft and fragrant.

Add dried basil and parsley (if using dried) now.

Add the stewed tomatoes and simmer over low heat uncovered until the tomato chunks start to break up. Smash the rest of the tomato chunks with a wooden spoon. You want somewhat chunky but not super chunky.

Add the can of crushed tomatoes, mix well, and simmer over low heat for at least one hour.

Add salt, pepper, a little sugar, butter and parsley (if using fresh). Adjust seasonings until you get that perfect balance between salt and sweet.

You’re ready for pasta.

This sauce freezes well. Half of the sauce was enough for Baked Rigatoni with Ricotta and Parmesan (no recipe for this, yet).

This pasta sauce will be invaluable when your kid turns into a teenager, comes home and announces she has stopped eating meat to save the planet.

Trust me on this.

Posted on

Chicken Thigh Week – Sunday, The End

Another short post today. There’s too much bracketball to watch today.

Breakfast – Roasted chickpeas and veggies

Lunch – Ampaipitakwong Fried Rice (aka Pete’s), egg roll (yes, it does resemble last night’s dinner)

Dinner – Chicken fajitas

I enjoyed tracking my meals this week and learned a lot.

I no longer need to track consumption like I have in the past. The habit and behavioral changes have stuck around.

My snack last night was grapes and crackers. They found my mouth after I posted.

The very ripe spotted bananas seemed to ripen faster when residing in the same bowl as the once rock hard green avocados that are now ripe enough to eat hence fajitas for dinner tonight.

I made Whole Wheat Banana Muffins (updated). See above.

Snack – muffin?

For the week 1/3 of my meals were meat based. Time to rename The 90% Solution The Nearly 70% Solution.

Still not a vegan.

Posted on

Chicken Thigh Week – Saturday

Short post today. The Boss is Back and there will be Boss directed activities to be done today.

Even More Things I Learned This Week

Rock hard green avocados ripen faster when placed in a bowl with very ripe spotted bananas.

Fresh grapes satisfy my sweet tooth.

I forgot to weigh myself this morning. “Daily weighing may be key to losing weight.” ScienceDaily. http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2018/11/181105081735.htm (accessed 03.25.23). My OCD may be getting better.

Keeping a food diary/journal makes me more aware of what I’m eating and provides opportunities for improvement. https://www.health.harvard.edu/blog/why-keep-a-food-diary-2019013115855.

The Boss noticed the brownie supply in the freezer was smaller than when she left. I have no idea what happened to them.

I forgot to include some snacks in my meal count.

Today’s Meals

Breakfast – Low sugar box breakfast cereal, added raisins, low fat cow milk

Lunch – 2 shrimp tacos, cup of black beans, green beans, 4 french fries

Dinner – Ampaipitakwong Fried Rice (aka Pete’s), egg roll

“Do not worry about immediate results. More and more you must concentrate on the value, the rightness, the truth of the work itself.”

Thomas Merton
Posted on

Chicken Thigh Week – Friday

Friday 3/24

After 47 years as a cardiologist with 200,000 patient visits, I can firmly say that vegans are my healthiest patients. I certainly agree with you it is not easy. My position is that 90% vegan which is 19 of 21 meals a week will do just fine. Foods should be, prior to preparation, ideally organic and unprocessed whole foods exactly as they grow up out of the ground and in the field.

H Robert Silverstein, MD, FACC

I found this quote in the comments section of an online article years ago. The 90% Solution has been my targeted balance of meals ever since. Yet the older I get the more I realize things are never that simple nor easy. Life is never simple nor easy. Too many of us don’t know what we don’t know.

More Things I’ve Learned About Myself

Over time I’ve revealed more personal information. At first I hesitated to share personal details about my journey. Now I’m much more relaxed about my privacy than in the past.

My personal journal remains my primary journal. My blogs have become journals as well. They’re all me. Remember what is here is only a part of me.

I write differently in my personal journal than I do in my public journals.

Writing in a journal has incredible health benefits so Keep a Journal (not just about food). Going back in time develops wisdom.

For the first time I’ve taken a deeper dive into where I’ve been in this blog. Some of what I discovered surprised me. I sometimes don’t follow my own advice. It is always easier to say rather than to do. It’s been quite some time since I posted Keep a Journal/Food Diary. I can’t remember the last time I tracked my meals.

When The Boss is away I listen to more jazz when working.

I’ve taught myself how to write more in my journals during the day when taking work breaks.

Today’s Meals

Breakfast – Buttered whole wheat toast, oatmeal with raisins, milk

Lunch – Two soft beef tacos

Snack – crackers

Dinner – Black bean chili, Texas Corn Bread

No Chicken!

Posted on

Chicken Thigh Week – Thursday

Thurs 3/23 Update 5:25 pm

I’m learning a lot about myself this week from tracking my meals. Since The Boss is away my meals and eating habits are totally my own. I don’t have to think about, shop for, plan or cook with someone else’s preferences in mind. I like not having regularly scheduled meals. I much prefer to Eat Only When Hungry. Last night I didn’t have a big dinner meal, just a cup of homemade chili beans.

Things I’ve Learned About Myself

I spend far more time at grocery stores than I realized.

I like spending time in grocery stores.

I tend to shop the sales and plan meals around what I end up buying with basic pantry items already in the house (ahem, Chicken Thigh Week?).

I do not like wasting food and will eat leftovers until I get sick and tired of them. I’ll also incorporate food items into several different meals to reduce food waste. For example I picked up a tub of organic greens for $1.49 (yes, you read that right) which I’ve been eating all week. The tub got eaten up today.

Although I once said I’m incapable of creating a 7 day meal plan I think I’m getting better and feel I can now plan a full day ahead.

I eat a lot of peanut butter.

Today’s meals –

Breakfast – Strawberries, banana and full fat Greek yogurt. Two Whole Wheat Buttermilk Pancakes.

Lunch – Toasted Irish Cheddar Cheese sandwich with organic greens and mustard.

Snack – apple

Lunch #2 – cup of soup, PB on whole wheat bread

Dinner – Roasted Chickpea and Veggie Burrito (see Veggie Burrito Spice Blend for the seasonings).