2010 Goals

Yeah, yeah, it's that time of year when one must set goals they will not accomplish in the new year. Let's get it over with, shall we?

1. Eat better. This past month has been an orgy of rich food. My system is looking forward to going back to eating healthy but I suspect the withdrawals, from sugar and coffee especially, are gonna be rough.


2. Exercise...consistently. The kicker with the exercise is that I need to spend the first month just doing rehab and physical therapy type exercises. My back and my shoulder are both causing problems lately. Jumping into a vigorous exercise program without building them up first is just asking for trouble.
   
   Three categories of fitness to be addressed:
   
   
   • Increase endurance. Goal by the end of the year is to be able to walk 10 miles with a heavy backpack and bike 50 miles with loaded bike (not necessarily in the same day).
   
   
   • Increase strength. Goal is to be able to do household chores, hard work in the yard, remodeling and such without hurting myself. Core strength is going to be a major focus.
   
   
   • Increase flexibility. Goal is to be less likely to overstretch when doing special projects and to keep range of motion as I continue to age.


3. Improve mental health. Whether it's relaxation or breathing exercises, or meditation, I need to do something to get some calm and balance back.

Do you have any health goals for 2010? How do you intend to ensure you will stick to them?

Back in the Kitchen

The beginning of November found me very busy, the middle of November found me quite sick, and the end of November was filled with Thanksgiving cooking and family visits. Life is finally getting back to some semblance of normal and I've been able to get back in the kitchen. More importantly, I've been interested in getting back in the kitchen.

I want to share a couple of tasty dishes I've made recently. I'll also be blogging later at Chile Chews about my long day in the kitchen today.

Wild Rice & Orzo Salad



A friend mentioned that she was making this salad to take to a Thanksgiving gathering. She read me the ingredients over the phone but not amounts or directions. I took the idea and used the ingredients I had on hand.

4 cups of water
1 cup of wild rice
1 box of orzo pasta
3 large leeks
1/4 to 1/3 cup chopped dried cranberries
1/4 to 1/3 cup chopped toasted pecans
Maple syrup
Prepared mustard
Fruity vinegar (I used homemade apple vinegar.)

Bring water to a boil in a medium saucepan. Add wild rice. When the water returns to a boil, reduce heat to a simmer and cover. Cook for 1 hour. Drain and set aside.

Meanwhile, cook and drain orzo pasta.

Cut root ends and tough leaves off the leeks. Slice in half lengthwise and chop roughly. Put in a large bowl and water and swish around thoroughly to remove dirt. Lift pieces out into strainer, leaving the dirt at the bottom of the bowl of water.

Heat a well-seasoned cast iron (or non-stick) skillet over medium-high heat. Cook leeks, stirring frequently, until lightly browned and caramelized.

Combine cooked wild rice, orzo, and leeks in a large bowl. Add cranberries and pecans.

Mix maple syrup, mustard, and vinegar to taste. Toss with the salad and season with salt & pepper.

This is best served at room temperature.


Potato-Kale stuffed Enchiladas



2 dozen corn tortillas
1 batch enchilada sauce
Potato-kale filling from Post Punk Kitchen

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Spray bottom of 13 x 9" pan with oil.

Put down a layer of corn tortillas, after dipping them in the enchilada sauce. Tear them as necessary to fill in any gaps without overlapping.

Sprinkle evenly with half of the potato kale filling.

Put another layer of corn tortillas, dipped in sauce, over the filling.

Sprinkle the remaining filling over the tortillas.

Put a third layer of corn tortillas, dipped as usual, over the filling.

Top with remaining enchilada sauce.

Cover with foil and bake for 25 minutes. Remove foil and bake an additional 10 minutes.

Note: Layering the tortillas is a whole lot easier and faster than rolling filling in each individual tortilla. It may not look as fancy when served but it tastes great anyway.


Hope this whets your appetite for healthy cooking!

Heavy on the Vegs

We're eating really tasty food today using a combination of veggies from the CSA and our garden, with a few from the grocery store tossed in, too.

Breakfast

Homemade hashbrowns with ketchup
2 firm baked potatoes
1 onion
1 bell pepper
Salt & pepper

Grate vegetables in food processor or by hand. If processing by hand, simply chop onion and pepper finely.
Toss vegetables with salt and pepper.
Heat a heavy skillet with a little bit of oil over medium-low heat.
Spread vegetables over bottom and cover. Let cook undisturbed for at least 5 minutes.
Uncover and flip potato mixture. Cover and let cook 3-4 minutes. Stir a bit and flip to crisp up more of the potatoes. Repeat as desired until hunger takes over.
Serve with ketchup.


Lunch

Veggie Sandwiches
Whole wheat bread (store)
Vegan mayo & mustard
Roasted or grilled vegetables such as zucchini, eggplant, onion, red peppers, and mushrooms
Fresh vegetables such as lettuce and tomatoes
Preserved vegetables such as pickles, olives, or relishes of all sorts

Assemble sandwiches with your choice of ingredients.


The Dinner Plan

Pasta with Vegetables
Onion, chopped
Eggplant, chopped
Zucchini, chopped
Mushrooms, quartered
Garlic, minced
Chard
Tomato, chopped
Basil, torn
Pasta

Preheat oven to 400 degrees.
Toss onion, eggplant, zucchini, mushroom, and garlic together with a little salt and pepper.
Place vegetables in casserole or roasting dish and cover. Roast until tender, stirring every 15 minutes or so. (Oil is not necessary for roasting, especially since the mushrooms will exude some of their liquid.)
Meanwhile, cook the pasta. Drain but reserve the hot water.
Return hot water to pot and quickly boil the chard for just a few minutes until it wilts. Drain the chard, let cool slightly, and then squeeze out the excess water. Chop the drained chard.
Toss the pasta with the roasted vegetables, chard, tomato, and basil. Season with salt and pepper as desired.

Relishing my Dinner

I recently cleaned out my refrigerator and inventoried all the contents. A few items had lurked for too long in the back corners and started getting fuzzy but most of the food escaped the compost bin. Since we hope to move - eventually - the perishable food really needs to be eaten up by the end of the year. The challenge is that I sometimes make preserved food that I then don't quite know how to use.

I love relishes, for instance. Traditionally, relishes accompany meat dishes. That doesn't work for a vegetarian, but I do love them on sandwiches. We don't eat sandwiches all that often, though, so it means the relishes sit forlornly on the refrigerator shelf for far too long. This evening, I decided to be daring and use some in a non-sandwich meal.

While I love vegan mac 'n cheese, in all honesty I find it a somewhat boring dish. I tend to dress it up by adding some vegetables and usually a generous sprinkle of Tabasco or some other hot sauce over the top. Tonight, I decided to stir in the last half cup of green tomato relish from the refrigerator, along with a handful of fire-roasted green chiles. Happily, the sauce absorbed and muted the relish, giving the dish flavor but not making it taste overwhelmingly of the relish. The chiles added a little bit of heat.

I still have several other kinds of relish in the refrigerator: tomato-eggplant relish (savory), sweet onion relish (sweet like pickle relish), mustardy watermelon rind relish (savory), and lemon zucchini relish (sweet and savory). I need to find ways to use these up, without necessarily resorting to sandwiches. Any suggestions?

100 Days Challenge Check-In

Only one other person besides myself signed up for the challenge on this blog; hence my neglect in writing about it here. I've been posting about the challenge, and my challenges with it, on my other blog. I chose an additional thing to do for the 100 Days here but I am throwing in the towel over here.

I commited to doing the Core Workout every single day but it just isn't happening. I did pretty well for the first 10 days but then did not feel well after that. Because the 'not feeling well' was centered in the digestive system, doing core work was not gonna happen! Yesterday, I had my first core workout in well over a week and it wasn't even at home.

I get a pretty good core workout twice a week when I go to my self-defense classes. I think I'm going to call that, plus at least one weekend workout, good enough. There's just too much going on in my life right now to always fit this in and I don't want to beat myself up over missing it.

Debbie, how are you doing on your challenge to eat at home more?

The End of the Week (finally!)

What did I eat yesterday? Sheesh, I'm not sure I can remember but I'll try.

Breakfast
Banana bread


Lunch
Sweet Tomatoes buffet with my free coupon - lots of veggies!


Snacks
Pears (at CSA)
Sparkling lemon juice, roasted veggies, bread, hummus, strawberry at patio party by CSA (I was invited; I didn't crash it.)


Dinner
Bean burritos with homemade tortillas, vegan cheesy sauce, roasted vegetable salsa, fire-roasted chiles, & salsa


This morning, I made the potato latkes. I'm not sure what the big deal is about latkes. They tasted like hashbrowns to us. Maybe it's the changes needed to make them vegan; perhaps they taste significantly different if made with real eggs. I ate mine with applesauce but my husband got out the ketchup instead.

Show me the Money!

Cross-posted from Chile Chews

I was browsing through meet-up groups in my area a few months ago and ran across one for weight-loss. They had an intriguing premise: support each other in weight-loss and use money as a motivation. Participants can follow any plan they choose to lose their weight (except bariatric surgery).

Each week, the group meets at a local YMCA that allows them to use their scale - the accurate kind you find in a doctor's office. They weigh in and the weight is recorded on a spreadsheet. Each participant contributes $10 to the kitty. At the weigh-in the next week, whoever loses the greatest percentage of weight wins the kitty collected the previous week. (Keep in mind that 5 pounds lost for someone at 200 pounds is a lower percentage (2.5%) than 5 pounds lost for someone at 175 (2.86%). Theoretically, heavier folks can shed weight easier, but it still means they have to actually lose more pounds to win.)

There are a few more incentives to encourage continued participation and weight loss. Because some people kept regaining the weight and then losing it again, they decided that the initial weight when someone joins the group is their base weight. If the person goes over this weight, they are not eligible to win the kitty until they drop below it again. If a person misses a weigh-in, they are not eligible to win the kitty the following week. (Obvious - they didn't pay into it!)

The group is fairly small, unfortunately, with only 4 to 7 or 8 people participating each week. With more people, there would be a bigger kitty each week, possibly providing stronger motivation. However, there's been at least one success story in the group. One guy lost 87 pounds in 6 months and won enough money to buy a nice bike!

I joined at the beginning of August and have found the prospect of winning money is motivating, even if it's only a small amount. When tempted to eat something fattening, I ask myself, is that really worth giving up the possibility of winning $50? Usually the answer is NO!

I have won the kitty three times in the past two months. When I look at my winnings compared to what I've paid in each week, I have up $40 (net) so far. When I look at my weight, I have lost 20 pounds (net) so far. I've always said that money would motivate me and it seems to be working!

There is a nice social component to the group as well. At least a few folks go out to Sweet Tomatoes Salad Bar after the weigh-in each week. It's an easy place for people on different diet plans to eat together and very easy for a strict vegetarian to get their fill. There are far more veggies available for a salad than I ever have at home, some fatfree dressings or just vinegar, and baked potatoes and sweet potatoes in the hot buffet bar. Sometimes, I can even persuade the person on the pasta bar to heat me up some plain pasta with no sauce or oil. I then toss that on a plate with vegetables from the salad bar and fatfree Italian dressing. It's great with spinach, red onion, mushrooms, and green peas.

As a bonus, these ladies have been going to the same Sweet Tomatoes at least once a week for over a year. The managers there will occasionally give them coupons for a free meal. These are given as awards to the second place winner in the weigh-in. I've won two free meals so far, in addition to being up the $40!