Monday, April 29, 2013

My weekend in pictures


When words don't flow, just post pictures. 
Mmm...Vietnamese food.  My lemongrass tofu is on the right, and my husband's something is on the left.



Spinach, yogurt, and strawberry drink plus bare feet outdoors.  Yessss.

Happy outdoor doggy
Happy indoor doggy (that is her tongue hanging out).  Werk it.
12 mile run*
Afternoon walk + some essential Dairy Queen with a friend
This ridiculous outfit for an 80's themed birthday party.  This is how I actually dressed in the 80's.  Only it's acceptable to wear a tulle skirt when you're 5.
FINALLY made a new recipe.  Here are your poorly lit players: sliced up French bread (not a baguette- the soft kind), 6 eggs, a can of lite coconut milk, 3 cups shredded sweetened coconut, and a half teaspoon vanilla.
Whisk up those eggs
I added about 10 drops of liquid stevia for some sweetness without added calories.  You could also whisk in 2 teaspoons of sugar.  You could also go buy this new OPI "liquid sand" polish.  So cool. 
Get your order of operations ready.
It gets a little messy...
...but it's totally worth it baby.
Coconut Crusted French Toast
-1 loaf soft French bread, sliced into 1" slices
-6 eggs
-90% of 1 can of lite coconut milk
-1/2 teaspoon vanilla
-10 drops liquid stevia or 2 teaspoons white sugar
-3 cups shredded sweetened coconut

1. Preheat a griddle to 325 degrees.
2. Whisk your eggs until blended.  Add vanilla, sweetener, and coconut milk.  Pour into a shallow pan for dipping.
3. Add 1 cup coconut to a shallow bowl.
4. Dip one slice of bread into egg mixture.  Coat both sides and let excess egg drip off.  Dip each side of the wet bread into the coconut.  Place on griddle until coconut is slightly golden brown.  Flip and cook other side until done.
5. This made about 6 servings of 2 slices each.  It is not a whip-it-up-in-a-moment type recipe as the coconut takes a bit longer.  Set your griddle too high and the coconut will burn before the inside gets cooked through.  However, if you like coconut, it's really tasty and unique.  I ate it right from the griddle- no syrup needed. 

*Let's be real.  It was more of a walk-run.  Like 20/80**

**Let's be real.  More like 30/70.

Happy Monday!

Wednesday, April 17, 2013

Rules are not meant to be broken

A large part of my job involves explaining to my patients what our clinic's rules are for eating right.  While it's nice to know what we ought to be doing, I think it's equally important to know the why.

(Disclaimer: In case you couldn't already tell, I am a total party pooper)

Rule #1: Chew every bite to applesauce consistency
The more we chew, the better we break down food for digestion and nutrient absorption.  Beyond that, chewing allows our brain to process that we are eating.  Hoovering your food down doesn't lead to the same satisfaction that chewing gives. 

Rule #2: Take 20-30 minutes to eat each meal
This goes hand-in-hand with the previous rule.  By eating slowly, we allow our stomach's stretch receptors to interpret how full we are getting.  Think about a time where you totally overate.  Had you been eating quickly?  It's nearly impossible to overeat when we take our time and pace ourselves.  Put the fork or spoon down on the table in between bites.  There's a new product on the market- a vibrating fork that forces you to slow down your meal.  Sounds awesome.  Buy me one and I'll test it out for you.

Rule #3: Eat meals at the same times each day
If we have a haphazard erratic eating pattern, our bodies will have no sense of when it's appropriate to get hungry.  By eating breakfast, lunch, and dinner within the same hour-ish window each day, our bodies will be less likely to get cravings or inappropriate hunger.  Your pet is on a feeding schedule, so why shouldn't you be on one too?

Rule #4: Use small plates, bowls, and utensils at mealtimes
There is no reason at all to be using a standard-size dinner plate.  Do we need 10" diameter's worth of food?  Nope.  Using smaller dishware serves two purposes.  First, it makes it look like we are eating more.  There's a reason why Lean Cuisine meals use that little black rectangle packaging.  If Lean Cuisine used a "normal" plate, we'd balk at the teeny portion.  Second, it helps us pace ourselves.  Eat your small portion using rules 1 and 2.  If you are still hungry, then go back for more.  We need to break ourselves from the large plate/large portion/clean your plate club.  

Rule #5: Drink your water
We're talking water water.  Not Vitamin Water.  Not Life Water.  Not the fizzy artificially sweetened "water."  The real stuff.  Sugar is not good for you.  Artificial sweetener is not good for you.  Yes, it's a bummer.  Time to get over it.  Try flavoring your water with a slice of lemon or cucumber.  Carbonated water is fine, so sometimes sipping the bubbly stuff seems different enough for us. 

You smell that?  Yep, party poop.  It's not easy to abide by these rules.  We are go-go-go multi-taskers and the thought of doing this stuff seems self indulgent and difficult.  It takes practice.  Set small goals for yourself, be dedicated, and it'll come eventually.  I'm not there yet myself.  But I can keep trying.  I can't be a party pooper and a hypocrite.

Wednesday, April 10, 2013

Buzzkill

It was my birthday last week.

Joy.

I'm of the age where I celebrate by wearing sweatpants and watching 3 hours of uninterrupted Bravo- not to be confused with my typical weeknight routine of wearing sweatpants and watching 2.5 hours of uninterrupted Bravo.

I thought I might want to celebrate another year older and an increasingly slower metabolism by having a slice of peanut butter cup pie from Baker's Square.  Now I am not a pie person...at all...but if it's chocolate, and peanut butter, and graham cracker crust, I dig it.  Too bad I took time to look up the nutrition facts at BS ahead of time. 

Whomp whomp!

730 calories.  In one slice.

I get that it's-mah-birthday-I-do-what-I-waunt!  But I do not feel like jogging seven miles to burn that off.

Six days later, I'm still craving that pie, so I did what any reasonable dietitian would do: try to make a lower-calorie version. 

 Peanut Butter Cup Pie
-1 pre-made reduced fat graham cracker crust
-1/2 cup chocolate chips
-1 teaspoon coconut oil (or vegetable oil)
-3/4 cup creamy peanut butter (ideally get natural PB)
-4 oz reduced fat cream cheese, room temp
-1/3 cup nonfat vanilla Greek yogurt
-1/2 cup powdered sugar
-1 teaspoon vanilla
-1 1/2 cups light Cool Whip 
-4 Reese's peanut butter cups, coarsely chopped

1. In a double boiler (medium pan filled with boiling water, with another smaller plan placed inside), melt chocolate chips with coconut oil until smooth.  Spread over crust.

Put crust in the freezer for chocolate to set up.

2. Meanwhile in a stand mixer, combine PB, cream cheese, sugar, yogurt, and vanilla.  Whip that up until it's nice and smooth.  Gently fold in Cool Whip. 

3. When chocolate is "set" spread PB fluff in the crust.  Top with chopped peanut butter cup bits.  Refrigerate for an hour or so, or until chilled.  Do your best to cut this into 8 pieces, instead of oh, my half/your half.


4. Go put on your sweatpants and enjoy some Real Housewives.
Per serving: 375 calories

Tuesday, April 2, 2013

The thrill of the sandwich

Back in grade school, lunch was a very big deal.

(Um, I guess it still is a big deal.)

A magical thing happened in my sixth grade year:  the addition of the cafeteria sandwich line.

Oh yes- we had TWO choices of what we wanted for lunch.  For a 12-year old, having a choice- nay, a voice- was awesome.  There was also a cool felt sandwich-shaped banner that hung over the sandwich line.
 One sandwich variety that I never got on board with was egg salad.  It just seemed weird.  Eggs?  Goooood.  Sandwiches?  Gooooood.  Eggs-with-mayo-on-a-sandwich?  Blech.

Fortunately tastes and maturity change, and now I'm into egg salad.  Of course I have to modify it though.  In case you aren't sure how to properly make hard boiled eggs, I'll walk you through.

1. Gently place eggs in the bottom of a pot and cover with cold water.  You want the water to be at least an inch higher than the eggs.

2. Put the pot on a burner set to medium-high.  As soon as the water reaches a full raging boil, put a cover on the pot and remove from heat.  Let sit for 12 minutes.  Yes, an oddly specific amount of time.

3. Fill a large bowl with ice water.  Scoop out eggs and place them in the cold water for another 12 minutes.  Refrigerate- ideally overnight, though you could peel them right away.  Older eggs (near their expiration date, or a little past expired, peel easier than fresh).  They will keep for up to a week.

The egg whites cook really quickly, so if you're not into eating the yolk part anyway, you don't have to be super mindful about how long they've been "steaming."

Ok so now onto our egg salad sandwiches.

Avocado Egg Salad
-1/2 avocado, peeled and mashed (it's ok if there's some chunkiness to it though.  Also, if you are lazy, you could just use pre-made guacamole)
-5 hard boiled eggs, peeled
-1/4 cup nonfat plain Greek yogurt
-2 teaspoons lemon juice
-2 teaspoons mustard
-Pinch of salt, pinch of pepper

1. Finely chop your eggs.  I removed most of the yolks and tossed them 'cause I don't really care for them.  You could use all your yolks though.
2. Add avocado, yogurt, mustard, lemon juice, salt, and pepper.
Stir it all up.  It'll turn a pretty green color.  Nothing screams "this egg salad is fresh!" quite like a nice green tinge.  Eat it as is, or put it on bread.  Avocados are high in fat, but the heart-disease-preventing kind of fats.  They take the place of not-so-great-fats from mayo to make this nice and creamy.

Makes 2 super-packed sandwiches, or 3 moderately packed sandwiches (or 4 really stingy sandwiches). 
One of my best pics to date.  Mmm...Ziploc baggies...but it's smart way to eat a sandwich.  Like I want chunks of egg falling into my keyboard while I eat at my desk.

Per serving (assuming 2 servings): 170 calories, 10 g fat, 14 g protein

See?  Lunch can still be a big deal, even if you don't have a school cafeteria sandwich line to prepare it for you. 



Monday, April 1, 2013

Easter Shortcomings

Easter is my second favorite holiday.  If I am a total spazz about Christmas, then I'm just a minor pest about Easter.  I love the special lilies, the pastel decor, and of course, the meaning of the holiday.

I always hope that I'll wake up on Easter to a brilliant sunrise and moderate temperatures.  But I live in Minnesota, and so no, yesterday was as cold and gross as ever. 

I thought that I would make some sunny-ish lemon scones for a festive breakfast.  Never tried making scones before.  Here's what *not* to do.
Here's me, going to town with my pastry cutter, all "Oooh look- I'm going to make some fancy-but-healthy-scones and everyone's gonna be jealous of my skills."  Except in the background lurks the very thing that would ruin this recipe. 
"Hmm, this looks maybe a little dry...but maybe this is how it's supposed to look."
"Ha HA!  I even have schmancy sugar- Fair Trade!- to top on my scones!  I am the best...person...ever."
"Uhhhhhhhh...really?  Tough wheaty vaguely-triangular bricks?"
"Ok let's try to save face here.  Maybe the lily will distract."
"Oooh look at the blueberry jelly!  And the cute monogram teacup!" 

Lesson learned- white whole wheat flour rules, but not with scones.  Clearly I still ate it because, well, apparently I enjoy eating tough wheaty bricks.  And also I had to hurry up and get ready for church.

Hope everyone had a beautiful Easter, regardless of weather, candy amounts, and breakfast foods.