Category: Thoughts About Food

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Random Thoughts at Christmas – 2020

Sunday 12/20

Random Thoughts

Thanksgiving is now three weeks ago. The scale read 175.4 two weeks ago and as always I reminded myself never get too high, never get too low. In a past life I would gain five pounds in a weekend just doing weekend stuff followed by an agonizing week or two to lose the pounds I found. I have a funny habit that if I believe a particular strategy works I try to do more of what works and less of what doesn’t work. The strange thing is what works doesn’t always work again which is frustrating as hell.

The Digital Devil surprised me this morning at 173.8 and I always have to remind myself to never get too high, never get too low. Honestly I shouldn’t be surprised. I can’t remember the last time I had a beer (I majored in beer at college). When did I make chili? One week ago Sunday according my recent Pandemic Pantry One Bean Chili post. Part of my Pandemic Life is to be kind to old people. At my age it’s not easy finding people older than me to be kind to but our friend across the street qualifies at the spry age of 80. So last week I traded a healthy portion of chili and some homemade Texas Corn Bread with the spry one in exchange for two beers. A fair trade no doubt and I drank one that night and the second the following night. So the last time I had a beer was nearly a week ago Monday. This is not rocket science. If you’re not sucking down 300 extra liquid calories a night your weight should come down.

All of this is intentional since I believe this calorie restriction strategy is working. The last time I bought beer was well over a week ago. I’ve added beer to my Don’t Have It in the House List along with potato chips, ice cream and M&M’s. If it’s not in the house you can’t eat or drink it. So not buying beer translates into less beer consumed. You don’t have to go crazy restrictive with your own not in my house list. Allow some relaxation of self-imposed austerity. For example, pizza is not on this list. Pizza is a food group and absolutely essential for good health and a long life. Additionally my total alcohol consumption pattern is different. Single malt scotch or bourbon on ice, single shot, not every night.

Losing weight is hard. Keeping the weight off is harder.

That’s it. Do the hard things you know you need to do. Speaking of hard things time to continue pecking away at the keyboard on my book.

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More Random Thoughts on Sunday After Thanksgiving 2020

Sunday 11/29

Never get too high, never get too low. Trust the Process which has been developed and refined for nearly 45 years of weight loss followed by weight gain followed again with weight loss… The Truth Machine today displayed 177 and I am both pleased and relieved. I survived another Thanksgiving feast! Reading this you might think I’m compulsive about my weight. Guilty as charged. You get kind of obsessed with your weight when you never want to be 370 pounds again, ever. I am 70 inches tall. In high school I was the shortest (and heaviest) power forward on the hardwood. I had a decent shot but was better at rebounding because I took up so much space. I was also Captain of the tennis team but that’s a whole other story.

The roller coaster of shifting weights has been the story of my life. A constant struggle. A battle between the food within reach and my brain, one saying yes, the other saying well, here we go again. Part of the problem of losing a lot of weight is complacency. Knowing what works and what to do is not the same thing as doing that thing. I got lazy and allowed myself to balloon back up to 200-205. The Truth Machine had lost its policing effect. My brain started rationalizing, hey it’s a hell of a lot better than 370! Besides most people gain weight as they age…

I’m old enough now to remember what life was like before unsocial media. One (of the many) things I dislike about unsocial media are those dumb ass reminders in your online photo collections: One Year Ago Today…Two Years Ago This Week, etc. Well, at Thanksgiving this year for me, this unsocial media feature got a bit less unsavory.

“I saw a Memory on my photo timeline the other day. We were on the beach in Rhode Island and you looked heavier than you do now.”

“You mean fatter.”

“Not fatter, just heavier. You look really good now.”

And this ends the story of the best Thanksgiving ever observing Covid-19 pandemic guidelines while preparing turkey in a way you’ve never done before. Random Thoughts the Day After Thanksgiving 2020. The turkey turned out great and I got validation my weight loss efforts were working (again). The Mojo is back. I’ll be working on my book for a few hours today.

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McPlant?

The company launched the plant-based Big Vegan TS burger in Germany in May 2019, and started testing the “P.L.T”—a plant, lettuce, and tomato sandwich with a patty made by Beyond Meat—in Canada later in the year. Competitors already have plant-based burgers in the market, including Burger King, which tested the Impossible Whopper in April 2019, and rolled it out nationwide in August.

What we know about McDonald’s new “McPlant” plant-based burger — https://www.fastcompany.com/90573484/what-we-know-about-mcdonalds-new-mcplant-plant-based-burger?partner=rss&utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=feedburner+fastcompany&utm_content=feedburner

Remember in the end it’s still fast food.

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I am not a Vegan

“Are you a vegan?”

No.

“Are you a vegetarian?”

No.  I just don’t eat as much animal proteins as I used to.

“So where do you get your protein from?”

Plant-Based-Sources-of-Protein

Plant-Based Protein Chart

Except where otherwise noted, content on this site is licensed under a CC BY-NC-ND 4.0 license. This means you are free to use my work for personal use (e.g., save the file to your computer or share via social media) as long as you do not modify the image or use the image for commercial purposes ($).

Original posting is from Dana McDonald RD LD aka the Rebel Dietician.

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Tiny Taste Tester

IMG_0880

Meet my Tiny Taste Tester.  This post started as a Risotto recipe but somewhere I got off topic (I’ll return to risotto later).  When The Boss learned this Tiny Human was coming to the house for a weekend visit she got quite excited.  Then the orders began.

“Go to the store and buy some baby food.”

So I did just that.  Little did we realize that this small person was not limited to the mush you buy in jars and pouches.  We quickly began to realize our guest had worldly taste buds.  OK…back to risotto.  On most days I do a scan of what’s on hand and start thinking about what to make for dinner. When I gave The Boss a few options the other day  her reply was:

“Risotto.  You have never made risotto.”

I think I made risotto once but failed miserably.  But when I made risotto this past week it turned out pretty good.  When a cook makes something she has never made (or maybe just once and failed) and the dish turns out well you just can’t stop talking about it.  And when the father of the Tiny Human heard the story he asked for risotto for dinner.
So I thought to myself, I can do this even if I’ve only made it once successfully.

Last night the crawler got to sample my vegetable risotto.  We think she liked it because she asked for more.  Today the small person sampled Ricotta Buttermilk Pancakes.  When The Boss was eating her breakfast the Tiny Human crawled over and delivered her “more” sign, a small yet effective means of communication for the less vocally inclined.

Did I mention I can now make risotto?  Tiny Taste Tester Approved.

 

 

 

 

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Simple Truths #1

Quesadillas freeze well but frozen quesadillas heated to serving temperature in a microwave goes well only if you like floppy quesadillas.

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Veggie Burgers #2

Revised 03.11.18

  • 2 large eggs
  • 1/4 cup wheat germ, untoasted
  • 1/2 cup wheat germ, toasted
  • 1/2 cup shredded sharp cheddar cheese
  • 1/4 cup riced cauliflower
  • 1 medium onion, carmelized
  • 1/2 tsp garlic powder
  • 1/2 tsp thyme
  • 1 medium zucchini shredded
  • 1/4 cup shredded carrot
  • salt and pepper
  • 1 tablespoon vegetable oil or trans-fat free margarine
  • 4 hamburger buns

 

Directions

  1. In a large mixing bowl, beat the eggs.
  2. Stir in wheat germ, cheese, caramelized onion, garlic powder, thyme.
  3. Place the shredded zucchini in the middle of two paper towels.  Fold the paper towels over and gently squeeze out as much moisture possible.
  4. Add the zucchini to the wheat germ mixture.
  5. Add salt and pepper to taste.  (optional)
  6. Chill for one hour in the fridge.
  7. Shape into 4 patties, 3/4-inch thick.
  8. In a nonstick saute pan, heat the oil over medium high heat.  Add the burgers and fry  until golden brown.  Flip and brown the other sides.
  9. Serve with buns and your favorite toppings.

“Why don’t you make those veggie burgers that you used to make?”

Well, nothing ever stays the same.  Not even my World Famous Wheat Germ Veggie Burgers.

Revisions ( in other words what happened?)

How is it possible a grocery store on a SUNDAY has NO MUSHROOMS?  The only plain white button mushrooms were the pre-sliced variety.  They were brown and old.  I guess I could have bought some of those fancy gourmet mushrooms for a gazillion dollars a pound.  Or I could have stopped at another store for mushrooms.  In the end I decided to just wing it.

So, no mushrooms.  Dried shiitake?  No, too Oriental for me.  In the place of mushrooms I caramelized a medium sweet onion and also added some riced up cauliflower.

In about 20 minutes we’ll find out if the substitutions works.

 

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Gluten-Free Diet? Do You Like Heavy Metal?

A sizable number of people come into my practice and tell me that they feel better on a gluten-free diet, or they think that it is healthy. This is in line with most Americans who, when surveyed, feel that gluten-free is a healthier diet.[4]

We have recent evidence to suggest, at least from a cardiovascular standpoint,[5] that this is not the case. It is no healthier than a standard diet, and it may in fact be somewhat harmful for other reasons, including the removal of a lot of dietary fibers that you would otherwise consume and the reliance on things like rice and seafood-type products. There is evidence to suggest that the latter group of foods potentially has higher levels of heavy metals.

I’ve posted in the past about the gluten-free fad.  Now we have a study from the Mayo Clinic.