healthy lifestyle changes: progress report

Since I posted about my weight gain last week, I've been trying to implement some healthy changes in my life.  I am trying very hard not to get obsessive about body image, but I'm also finding that as an always-skinny girl, suddenly bumping up against a noticeable weight gain makes it hard not to obsess.  Sometimes it's hard to accept that my body will never again look like it did before I got pregnant and had a baby.  The best I can hope for is the leaner but still visible belly rolls and droops of my body after pregnancy.  In a culture that accepts nothing less than physical perfection, this can be hard to accept.  But my husband consistently reminds me that that droopy ol' belly is evidence that our sweet daughter lived there once; because of that, he says, it is beautiful.  What a gift he is to me!

So I am trying to accept that perfection is not a realistic goal.  Rather, regular healthier choices in the area of food and exercise will eventually begin to pay off in a more fit body, an ability to fit into my clothes better and feel better about how I look.  (I actually got asked if I was pregnant a few weeks ago.  NOT an ego boost!)

Anyway, I've been trying to get exercise in as often as I can.  If it's a nice day, I try to invent a reason to go for a walk.  If it's a gloomy day, I do leg exercises and Pilates.  Every day?  Heck, no.  I'm still sedentary at heart, but I'm really trying to increase my exercising and get more active.  I've noticed increasing strength and stamina and the exercise along with eating healthier is helping my body to just feel better.

I counted calories several days as well.  Mostly to attune myself to how much I actually am consuming and to hold myself accountable to make better decisions.  But I am not starving myself.  It's tempting (for about half a minute!) because I know I would get quicker results.  But I would also have the grumpy hungries all day and I'd end up gaining a lot of the weight back.  It's not good for me mentally or relationally or physically to be without nourishment.  So instead of starving myself or eating gross food-like substances labeled "diet food," I am trying to make my calories count.  Rather than getting a huge portion of my daily calories from butter or other fats, I am trying to get them from a lot of protein and I'm eating a ton of vegetables too.  I'm also eating more whole grains again.  But I've not fully cut out fats.  I tried some low-fat cheese as a snack this week, but I think I'm going back to full fat cheese and just having a sensible portion.  Our bodies do need some fat.  They just don't need us to gorge on it all the time. 

I've found some great snack ideas (I require snacks during the day and at night, but without good options in the house, I go back to my trusty popcorn with three tablespoons of butter!).  Here's a few to share with you:
--Triscuits with 2 TBS of good cheese (Manchego, Parmigiano-Reggiano, and Boursin are some of my favorites)
--Sugar snap peas, baby carrots, and red/orange/yellow pepper strips with Skotidakis Jalapeno Yogurt dip (available at Costco and just 50 calories for a 2 TBS serving!).
--Tabbouleh
--Spinach Salad, with onions and tomatoes, tossed with homemade salad dressing (lately, I've been partial to Maple Dijon)
--Fage 0% Greek yogurt with fruit (120 calories per container)
--Skinny Cow ice cream sandwiches (although, I think I'm going to go back to regular ice cream and just eat less of it! Low-fat dairy just isn't as satisfying!)
--Half an apple with 1 TBS of natural peanut butter (salty and sweet craving!)

I've also found some great lunch ideas, packed with protein to keep me going.  My favorite was this smoky, sweet and savory Creamy Chicken Salad, served on a bed of spinach. 

If you have good healthy and filling recipe ideas, post them here!  I'll be back with another post on healthy dinner options soon!  It's funny how easy it is to get lazy about what we eat, but healthy nutrition is starting to come back to me!  Stay tuned!

but i don't worry about my weight!

Ever since my growing up days, I have been a classically skinny girl.  Despite not being very physically active, I've been blessed with a high metabolism and good genes and have always managed to eat what I want, with relatively few problems.  There was the time I was working at Culver's and eating lots of Butter Burgers and frozen custard and put on a few pounds, I suppose.  And until I took off my pregnancy weight, I was bigger than I'd ever been (nursing helped a lot with that!).  But without pregnancy or post-pregnancy to blame, I've never carried this much weight.

I had started noticing my clothes fitting tighter in recent months.  But as a rule, I don't weigh myself.  Too many neuroses as an American woman!  I don't need to add to it by obsessing over a stupid number on a scale.  Plus, I accept as dogma that I can eat whatever I want since I have high metabolism.  And I don't worry about my weight.

So you can understand that it was a big shock when I went to doctor's office this past week and found I had put on about 15 pounds in the past year!  How did this happen?

I blame the butter.  Yes, in moderation it is a reasonably healthy food since it is natural (unlike, say, margarine).  But the problem is that me and butter do not usually equal moderation.  I was eating a shocking amount of butter on popcorn many nights a week.  And I was letting unnecessary fat sneak into my diet (full fat sour cream, instead of lowfat, for instance).  This combined with the extra-sedentary nature of winter...well, it wasn't helping me out.

Now that I know I've gained this extra weight, it's hard not to get super obsessive about it.  But I'm trying my best to start simply making healthier choices.  Doing more exercise (which the beautiful spring weather is helping me to do).  Making healthier choices in my consumption (which is difficult since my high metabolism leaves me hungry very often!).  I am trying to get more of my calories from nutritious foods rather than using them all up with fatty butter and sauces (which I know are still ok in moderation).  I REFUSE to eat diet foods or officially go on a diet, however.  I firmly believe these methods backfire.  I won't eat a bunch of pre-manufactured foods, because I believe that overall they are bad for my body.  I won't go into deprivation mode but will simply work hard on finding healthy, delicious foods that still feel like a "treat" for me (like this salad or some crackers with slivers of good quality cheese).

I guess it was bound to happen, humbling this "skinny girl."  We grow older and our metabolism slows.  We get lazy and make bad choices, thinking there will be no consequences.  But I am hopeful that if I am consistent in some lifestyle changes, I will begin to see results!

So, who has healthy recipe recommendations (especially for snacks and lunches!) and words of advice?  I hope to hear from you!

dinner tonight: chicken pasta salad is fresh for spring

Here's a very simple recipe that you can throw together quickly for dinner or lunch.  It's fresh and savory: a perfect combination for Spring!  I've gotten great compliments on it.

CHICKEN PASTA SALAD

For the salad:
1/2 pound of uncooked rotini
1 cup frozen peas
2 stalks of celery, chopped
1 small onion, chopped
1-2 breasts of chicken, cooked and chopped (or use Rotisserie or canned chicken)

For the dressing:
1/2 cup mayonnaise
1/2 cup plain yogurt
Salt and pepper, to taste

Cook the noodles according to package instructions.  During the last 5 minutes of cooking, add the frozen peas to the cooking water.  Meanwhile, mix the dressing in a separate bowl until well-combined.  Drain pasta and peas and run cold water over them for a couple of minutes until they are sufficiently cooled.  Pour into a large bowl.  Add chicken, celery, and onion.  Toss with the dressing and serve!

Note: this salad may be served immediately but it tastes even better if allowed to chill for at least a few hours.

summer vegetable spaghetti

I got a bounty from the farmer's market this week, so I thought I'd adapt my usual spaghetti sauce recipe to incorporate some of my delicious fresh veggies.

Here's the recipe:

SUMMER VEGETABLE SPAGHETTI
For the sauce:
4-5 cloves of garlic, minced
2 medium onion, diced
1 large carrot, peeled and diced
1/2 cup zucchini, diced
3-15 oz. cans of diced tomatoes
1-15 oz. can tomato sauce
1 TBS dried oregano
2 TBS dried basil
1 tsp. fennel seed
Salt and pepper to taste
Extra virgin olive oil
Splash of Balsamic Vinegar

1 lb. of spaghetti

Heat 2 TBS olive oil over medium-high heat in a large dutch oven or similar pan.  Add garlic, onion, carrot and zucchini and saute till tender and slightly browned.  Add remaining ingredients, including 2 more TBS of olive oil.  Heat till boiling then reduce heat and simmer for at least an hour.  Right before serving, put in a splash of balsamic vinegar.  Serve over whole wheat spaghetti with fresh Parmigiano-Reggiano sprinkled on top.  Serve zucchini sauteed in olive oil with salt and fresh ground pepper on the side.

red cabbage slaw

A lot of my recipe inspirations come from having lots of extra veggies in my fridge that I don't want to go to waste.  In this case, I had lots of red cabbage and radishes left over from pulled pork tacos.  I pulled out Betty Crocker's Cookbook and adapted her Sweet-and-Sour Coleslaw to my own ingredients.  You can adapt too, according to what you have in your fridge.  This salad would make a great side for a family barbecue or for a church potluck.  In fact, I think I had something similar at a church potluck once (and come to think of it, the lady who made it thought Betty Crocker's cookbook was the best on earth!).  Here's my creation:

For the slaw:
2 cups red cabbage, shredded
2 cups shredded carrots

6-10 radishes, sliced thin (or more, if you like it)
1/2-1 small onion, diced
1/2 cup cilantro, chopped

For the dressing:
1/2 cup sugar (I used Splenda)
1/2 cup white wine vinegar (or substitute a vinegar you have)
1/4 cup canola oil
1 TBS Dijon mustard
1/2 tsp celery seed (very important ingredient)
1/2 tsp salt

Toss the veggies together in a large bowl.  Wisk the dressing together in a small bowl and toss that in as well.

For a fun variation, you might want to add some dried fruit to the salad, like raisins, yellow raisins, dried cranberries, or dried cherries.  You could also top with toasted sliced almonds for a classy touch.

Enjoy!

the angry trout and trout chowder

The first time I ever went to the Angry Trout Cafe in Grand Marais, MN, I was on my honeymoon.  Christopher and I had decided we would go on a tour of bed and breakfasts throughout Iowa and Minnesota.  I knew about the bed and breakfast part, but not the specific location (Christopher planned that part).  Each day when we got in the car, he would hand me an envelope with a print out from the bed and breakfast's website and I would get to read about where we were going while we drove there.  It was a lot of fun, not to mention an economical and romantic way to spend a week's honeymoon.  I think, we spent about $1000 altogether.  And we had a splendid time, enjoying really nice accommodations, which we wouldn't have been able to afford if we had flown far away.

On one of the final nights of our honeymoon, we stayed in Grand Marais, MN.  The bed and breakfast itself that night was unimpressive, but from then on, I fell in love with the artsy, outdoorsy community of Grand Marais.  And this was due in no small part to making the acquaintance of the Angry Trout Cafe.

The owners of the the Angry Trout are incredibly intentional about their goals in their business.  Not only do they want to make money (and they do), but they also want to make a positive impact on their world.  This shows up in numerous little touches that make their restaurant different from any other restaurant I’ve ever been to. 

For example, they are powered by wind energy   They use smaller than average cloth napkins to save on water and electricity when they are washed.  If you want to take leftovers home with you, you are given a washable dish that can be returned when you are done with it.  Their chairs on their patio overlooking the lake (and they have one of the best views in town) are made from recycled tractor seats (and they actually look pretty cool).  Their plates and coffee mugs are pottery made by local artisans.  If you order a salad, your homemade salad dressing will come to you in a bottle.  Your pat of butter will come to you in a small butter dish, instead of a foil wrapper.  The foods that are used are mostly from local farmers and vendors, thus benefiting not only the planet, but also the local community.  Not only that but you can tell the employees at this restaurant on a mission are incredibly happy and well-treated.  Your tip to your server is divided also with kitchen employees, in the interest of fairness.  The servers are always well-mannered, in a great mood, and more than ready to help you with anything you need.

Now, all that is well and great, and if a restaurant treats its staff and the earth well, you can feel good about eating there, but if the food is no good, what’s the use?

A pregnant me craves the Trout.

But the food…oh, the food!  Ever since the first time we visited, Christopher and I have tried to make a pilgrimage almost every year.  The ingredients are fresher than fresh, homemade, and prepared an attention to detail.

Grilled fish and one of those famous salads.

The first thing I ever had at The Angry Trout was their salad and trout chowder.  Salad???  Big deal, right?  You couldn’t be more wrong.  The Angry Trout has the distinction of preparing the single best salad I have ever eaten in my life.

I think the secret must be the locally grown produce and the incredible homemade salad dressings (Buttermilk Blue Cheese!  Maple-Mustard!  Tomato-Basil!).  A typical salad at the Trout is hardy and filling.  It comes amply covering half of your large dinner plate.  A nest of leaf lettuce and baby greens is topped by whatever is in season and available.  This will probably be something along the lines of tomatoes, red onions, beets, carrots, strawberries, cucumbers, radishes.  The salad is topped with beautiful, white shredded Italian cheeses and a pretty edible blossom (such as a pansy) from the garden.

The salads are pretty special, but then so is everything else served at the Trout.  The second half of my first meal at the Angry Trout was the trout chowder!  It is made with freshly caught fish, right out of Lake Superior, fresh vegetables, dill, broth, butter and half and half.  It’s a fantastic, creamy, buttery, savory meal in its own right.

I have had many other dishes at the Trout in my yearly pilgrimages and none of them have ever disappointed. Grilled fish...maple barbecue chicken...garlic-olive oil fettuccine with Parmesan and hazelnuts!  Everything is fresh, the perfect temperature and good down to your bones.

So, trout was on sale this week at the grocery store, and I decided it was time to make the good stuff at our house.  The recipe can be found in Angry Trout Cafe Notebook: Friends, Recipes, and The Culture of Sustainability, a combination philosophy of business book/cookbook. In the book, the owners of the Trout give away a surprising number of their secrets and recipes, so if you can’t make the drive to the Café, it's the next best thing.

So, yesterday, I set my pot of delicious trout chowder to simmering, leaving us all drooling over its savory, buttery goodness.  We sat down to a family meal that evoked some of our happiest memories of the past few years.  I always feel so alive and so happy in Grand Marais.  In fact, one of the reasons I fell in love with the Flathead Valley so much is because it reminds me so much of Grand Marais.  The Flathead Valley has the lake, the pine trees, the theatres, the organic and earth-friendly eateries, the art galleries.  And we have mountains too!  But I digress...The point of this matter is that both the Flathead Valley and Grand Marais are awesome, and so is the Angry Trout, and so is trout chowder.  And so we enjoyed it again Monday night.

Not only was this happy feast husband approved (he even ate all the celery!), it was also kid approved!  Burrito kept asking for more fish and even finished her carrots. Score another one for the Angry Trout!

spaghetti with slow-roasted tomatoes

It's the simple things that are especially beautiful.  Especially when it comes to food.  That's why one of my banner rules in cooking is: Don't mess it up. 

My friends and readers are always asking me to share recipes from my cooking adventures.  Sometimes, it simply isn't possible because it's somebody else's recipe entirely and I don't want to violate a copyright.  Sometimes I could do a better job of linking to recipes that are available online (I'll try to do that when I can).  But today, I can give you a recipe that was inspired by Molly Wizenberg in her book A Homemade Life.  I can give it to you because I adapted it enough to make it my own.

I started with a big Costco-size package of Roma tomatoes.  I sliced them in half and tossed them by hand with some olive oil, fresh ground sea salt, and a couple pinches of coriander.  I laid them out, face-up, in a large casserole dish and baked them for 5 1/2 hours at 200 degrees.  They came out syrupy and juicy.

I sliced them into more manageable slices and tossed them with sliced garlic.  Meanwhile, I cooked a big pot of whole wheat spaghetti.  Then I tossed the spaghetti and sauce together and topped it with Parmigiano-Reggiano cheese and Italian parsley.

So simple, so easy.  Some of the best pasta I've ever had....I could have eaten two plates.  But I didn't...Maybe next time.

good food, simple food

I just finished French Women Don't Get Fat, not because I worry that I need a diet but because I share the philosophy of the book.  Basically it's about enjoying food, eating it in balance, eating smaller portions of only the really good stuff, and not having a huge guilt trip about food.  One of my favorite concepts from the book is that we overeat out of boredom.  We substitute quantity for quality all the time.  A lot of the time, poor food habits come because we are simply tired of our old food routine.

I used to like junk food, just like every other American.  I wasn’t brought up that way, which is key to how I came to approach food after my younger adult years.  My Mom was very careful about what we ate, with a balanced diet, low chemicals, lots of fruits and veggies.  I think my first food was an avocado, to which I attribute my continued love of that particular fruit.  But of course, when we are teenagers and college students, all of us eat the crappy stuff.  Easy Mac.  Fast food.  Slim Jims.  Potato chips.  Desserts that use high amounts of sugar to mask the lack of flavor.  High fructose corn syrup.  Soda pop.  I certainly ate my share of it. 

I remember when I was in seminary and my friend Natalie had come back from a trip to Europe and she said, “American food is gross.”  I just had no idea what she was talking about.  But I do now.  With every new indulgence I have into really good food, I understand more and more.  There have now come to be many foods that I can hardly bear to put into my mouth because they are, as Michael Pollan calls them, “foodlike substances,” things that my grandmother wouldn’t recognize as food.

Every few months I try have a cold cut sandwich because I forget why I don’t eat lunchmeat.  Today I did that.  Now, this lunch meat was fairly decent.  It was from Costco and was thick cut, good quality.  But it’s still pressed meat, you know?  It’s still full of a crappy salt mixture that makes me feel a bit nauseated when I put it in my mouth.  It’s still slimy.  Yuck.  I couldn’t even finish my sandwich.  Half of it went into the garbage.

Apart from the lunch meat misstep today, it was a lovely day for food.  Burrito and I have been trying to eat more fruits and vegetables as well as protein.  And since I have a tendency to run around the house or busy myself on the computer all day, failing to eat as much as I should, I am making the effort to sit down with her and have a snack when she has one.  This helps her to finish her meals too (or at least eat a little more).  And I’ve been noticing that when I eat a little bit every few hours, I feel so much better.  Our morning snack was composed of splitting an orange and having little almond butter cracker sandwiches.  We both finished the whole thing.  For lunch, I made her grilled cheese and homemade applesauce with cinnamon.  It is amazing what cooking apples will do to them.  These apples were the kind you get cheap in a bag, so they weren’t the best quality—rather tasteless raw, to be honest with you—but when I cooked them, they got sweet and tangy and delicious.  I made the applesauce chunky, skins on, and it was just perfect, still warm when we ate it.

Tonight was the best though.  I am of the mindset that vegetables artfully prepared are even more delicious than meat.  I'm sure this is a crazy idea to state in the middle of Montana.  And I'm not a vegetarian.  I love a steak as much as the next person.  But I do love well-prepared non-meat dishes.  They are savory.  And if you give me the choice between savory and sweet, I’ll choose savory almost every time. 

Ever since I saw pre-cubed butternut squash at Costco, I’ve been looking forward to trying this new convenience.  As everyone knows, it is a hassle and a half to cut open the tough skin of a squash, scrape out the seeds and fibers, peel the thing, and then cube it.  So it was very exciting to skip all those annoying steps and just get to the deliciousness that is a butternut squash.  Tonight I made Giada’s Butternut Squash Soup (with sage!).  Then I got a little creative and made an awesome Bruschetta.  I diced tomatoes, minced garlic, sliced basil, and drizzled it with balsamic vinegar and extra virgin olive oil, finishing with a couple of grinds of sea salt.  I put this mixture on top of warm artisan bread, added a pinch of Parmigiano-Reggiano and toasted it in the oven.  It was divine.  I could have eaten it all night.  The sharp savoryness of the garlic and the complex tang of the cheese particularly hit me.  Wow, that was flavor. 

The amazing thing about something like Bruschetta is the simplicity of the ingredients and preparation.  Good food doesn’t have to be complicated.  I think oftentimes with food the important thing as a cook is simply “Don’t mess it up.”  I was explaining this to Burrito today when she ate her sugar-free homemade applesauce.  I told her that God made many foods so delicious that they didn’t need extra sugar.  To which she replied, “Yeah!”  I hope she got it.  It’s a really important lesson.

Of all the cooking lessons I hope to impart to her, the main ones are:

1)      Butter will make everything better

2)      Garlic—and lots of it—will improve every dish except dessert (Hubby adds: “And cereal.”  I’m not sure…maybe garlic could improve some cereals)

3)      Don’t mess it up

Oh, and we made homemade chocolate chip cookies today too.  With butter, of course.