Forty-two down, at least ten more, to go. I say at least, because we will have been banking a few sessions every month… I don’t know what the final count will be, but we’re going to have some maintenance sessions we can schedule as we like…

Weight-wise, we’re pretty much into maintenance mode there, as well – we’ve both lost our original goal weight plus a few.  I think we’d both like to drop a few more pounds, but there’s no rush. We’re feeling great and enjoying our new-found energy. The original goal was weight loss – we’ve achieved that. Now… It’s all the other stuff – muscle toning and training, the cardio… all the stuff I mocked for years. I hate to admit that I actually feel good after our workouts – but I actually feel good after our workouts. It’s strange watching muscles grow and improve, see how repetitions peak and then improve. Just seeing how everything improves. I really had no real faith that we would see a lot of improvement. I was very wrong on that point.

We’ve also cleared out the closet. It was rather shocking how big some of those clothes were. The only thing we haven’t tossed, yet, are our suits and sport coats. I’m not sure if they can be tailored to fit the new us, but I’m not tossing them, yet. We don’t need them right away, so we shall see… I’m thinking that if we can each get everything tailored for less than the cost of a new suit, we’re on the plus side. We shall see…

And on to dinner…

Our friend, Susan, brought us fish that friends of hers in Alaska caught – so, tonight, we went with Pacific Northwest Halibut.

I saw a recipe in Fine Cooking that was basically fish poached in a tomato and fennel sauce. I had fish, fennel, and tomatoes – so I went for it. Naturally, I switched things up a bit, but that’s the fun of cooking!

We’ve been watching a few different food shows on Netflix and an underlying theme with all of these chefs is cooking in the moment – using what’s in front of you, not really writing recipes, and not trying to make the same thing over and over.

My kind of cooking!

I broke out my mandoline and thinly-sliced up a half of fennel bulb. Into the skillet it went with olive oil and minced garlic. When it started wilting and the garlic was fragrant, I added a cup of white wine – Sicilian, that I got from NakedWines.com. Then, I added a can of whole peeled tomatoes that I had roughly cut, along with fresh herbs out of the garden – two types of basil, oregano, thyme, and mint. I tasted it and added some crushed red pepper, because everything is better with crushed red pepper.

Meanwhile, in another skillet, I sauteed mushrooms in olive oil. When they were looking good, I added a healthy splash of dry Marsala and then added about a cup of cooked orecchiette. It may be the least amount of pasta I have ever cooked in my life.

I let all of that cook together and then added the fish to the tomato and fennel, covered it, and let it cook for about four minutes.

Onto the plate went the mushrooms and orecchiette, and on top of that went the halibut, tomatoes, and fennel.

Topped with freshly grated pepatto cheese.

This was definitely one of those meals you really want to eat. The fish was perfection. Absolutely no fishy smell – it was just rich and flavorful. The slightly-spicy fennel and tomato was the perfect foil for it all, and the mushrooms and orecchiette added that umami balance.

So here’s to fun TV food shows, exercise, fish from friends, and losing weight – not necessarily in that order.

Life is good…