Beef and Mushrooms

The End of Week Twenty-Five

Twenty-five weeks, boys and girls. We've been at this for twenty-five weeks. That means at the end of next week, we will have been at this for six months.

Never in my wildest dreams would I have ever thought I'd be going to a gym for six months, losing weight, and actually enjoying it. It's almost as if someone else has taken over my mind and body. This can't possibly be me!

But it is me - and I have the sore muscles to prove it.

I lost two of the pounds I gained over the holidays and Victor is down two, as well. I think, though, our focus for the next six months is going to be a bit less about weight loss and a bit more about how we feel and how we're doing. We both have more weight we want to lose, but 2 pounds a week is pretty unsustainable. Even one pound a week is stretching it after a while. The goal is to drop some more, but not push it. At some point we're going to reach that magic number we're looking for and it will all be about maintaining at that point.

The gym is getting both easier and more difficult. Easier in that many things are much more doable today that they were six months ago. more difficult, because as we get better at doing something, our trainer adds another twenty pounds or throws another move into the mix. He's pushing - and not letting up. It's the discipline I need to keep going forward. At the same time, I'm finding myself saying that I can take another 10 pounds, or I push it to twenty when the rep was fifteen.

And then there's recovery time. When we first started this, we'd walk out of the gym and be shot for hours. Now we walk out and are ready to face the day. There's no down-time. It's almost like our bodies are starting to work the way they were designed.

What a concept.

On the food end of things, I still need to work on portions. I will probably always need to work on them - although I really am getting better. Marginally, perhaps, but better. Kaizen, as we used to say at Trader Joe's.

Tonight's dinner was going to be Beef Stroganoff - until I went to the 'fridge and found out what I thought was sour cream was actually ricotta. Dinner became beef and mushrooms, instead. Served over egg noodles. We did not suffer.

Things that still amaze me are things like taking one steak and having enough food for both our dinners and at least one lunch the following day. Once upon a time, it would have been two steaks - and no leftovers.

Beef and Mushrooms

  • 1 12oz strip steak cut into strips
  • 1 lb assorted mushrooms, sliced
  • 1 small onion, chopped
  • 2 tbsp tomato paste
  • 1/4 cup brandy
  • 1/2 cup red wine
  • 1 1/2 cups beef broth
  • flour
  • salt
  • pepper
  • garlic powder

Mix flour, salt, pepper, and garlic powder in a bowl. Dredge beef in flour mixture. Reserve flour mixture for finishing sauce.

Melt a pat of butter in a skillet and sauté beef strips just until browned. Remove from pan and set aside.

Add chopped onions to skillet with a bit more butter, if needed, and cook about a minute Add sliced mushrooms and cook until mushrooms are quite well-cooked.

Stir in the tomato paste and cook slightly. Add the beef and coat with the tomato.

Add the brandy and cook until it mostly evaporates. Add the wine and do the same.

Add the beef broth and bring back to a boil.

Add a bit of water to the leftover flour to make a smooth paste. Stir in small amounts at a time until sauce has thickened to your liking. Continue cooking for a few minutes.

Meanwhile. cook egg noodles according to package instructions. When done, drain and stir into beef mixture.

Enjoy.

There's lots of flavor going on with this. One thing I tend to do is under-cook mushrooms. They really like to be cooked well - and half the time I try and rush it. Tonight, I did it right - and it showed in the finished product.

Little splashes of brandy, of wine, and of tomato paste all added to the sauce. And I weighed the noodles.

A successful dinner - even if it was supposed to be something else.

And another successful end of a week.

Twenty-seven more until the end of our contract. Just in time for summer!


Risotto

The End of Week Twenty-Four

The good news is Victor stayed the same - no loss no gain. The bad news is I gained three pounds. To be honest, I'm surprised it wasn't more. The Christmas Goodies have been calling my name - and I've been answering! The cookies have been excellent - and last night - when I dropped the entire container of fruit salad Victor had cut up all over the refrigerator and the floor - it took four biscotti to soothe my soul.  [We did our best to get it cleaned up last night, but I had to break out the floor steamer this morning so we could walk in the kitchen without getting glued to the floor. What a flippin' mess.]

Of course, the good news about gaining a couple of pounds shows that I'm not invincible and I cannot eat with wild abandon and expect to maintain my weight. You've probably never noticed, but I can get a tad cocky now and again, so it's helpful to get knocked down a peg once in a while. I need to take it easy and not be a slave to the scale, but, at the same time, I need to be cognizant of cause-and-effect. This ain't brain surgery - If I eat a bunch of cookies, I need to balance it, elsewhere.

Balance. One of my strong points. Yeah, right.....

There's a couple more days coming up where excessive calories may be involved, but I'll be back on track January 1st. We have homemade pizza happening on Sunday when family is here - I just made the pizza dough because it's a 2-day slow rise dough that is excellent!! I also made the fruit for a lamb dish for New Year's Eve that will actually be pretty good - provided I keep my portions reasonable. Reasonable portions... that will always be my challenge.

I'm working on it.

To celebrate my only-three-pound weight gain, I decided on a risotto for dinner - full of things one does not often find in risotto, like golden beets, wild rice, and ground chicken.

Risotto

I'm usually not a fan of ground poultry. I really dislike ground turkey and ground chicken only has a minimal amount more flavor. I just don't really see a reason for the stuff. But... it was an impulse-buy the other day so I thought I'd try to do something with it. I also had a couple of golden beets in the 'fridge that I wanted to use up, so a risotto was born.

The beauty of a risotto is you can literally put anything into one - and it will be great. Creamy rice and a bunch of good stuff - how can it possibly be bad?!?

I did decide to switch things around a bit and use half wild rice blend and half carnaroli rice.

I roasted the beets and cooked the wild rice blend early in the afternoon - they never would have cooked properly from raw. Roasting beets makes for such a rich and sweet vegetable. It's how I got Victor to finally like them!

To make the risotto, I started with a chopped onion. I sautéed it in a dab of olive oil and then added the ground chicken and some chopped garlic. When it was just about cooked, I added a half-cup of the carnaroli rice. Arborio would be just as good.

I cooked it up a bit and then added a half-cup of white wine. I let it cook down, and then started adding hot chicken broth, a half-cup at a time, letting it all cook in before adding the next. After about a cup and a half, I added the cooked wild rice blend. I added about 3 cups total of broth.

Right before adding the last of the broth, I added the chopped roasted beets and stirred them in well.

In went salt, pepper, and a hefty dose of Penzey's Mural of Flavor - Hand-mixed from: spices, shallots, onion, garlic, lemon peel, citric acid, chives and orange peel. Any herb blend would work - from Italian seasoning to French herbs or herbes de Provence - or a goodly pinch of oregano or whatever you like or have in the cupboard.

When the last of the broth had been absorbed, I added a handful of grated cheese and stirred it all in.

It came out pretty good!

 


Potatoes in Phyllo

The End of Week Twenty-Three

No weight loss, this week. What's surprising is there wasn't a weight gain. We've been hitting the biscotti - and I think portion sizes have started creeping up, again.

But... it's the holiday season. We're not pigging out as we have in the past, and I am definitely not going to fret and stress over a few calories. We'll find our balance and double down after the first, if need be.

It's the Winter Solstice, a few days before Christmas, the rains have almost stopped, and the basement only flooded a bit. Those are the good things. The bad thing was I had to go inside of a Bank of America, today. Nonna needed her Christmas Money.

I walked in to the otherwise empty bank and was immediately accosted by a kid in a suit who had appeared from a glass-fronted office off to the side.

"What can I do for you, today?" he asked, as I walked up towards the lone cashier behind the new counter-to-ceiling two-inch thick bullet-proof glass.

I need to make a withdrawal," said I.

"Oh. You can do that at the ATM in the front," said the probably minimum-waged employee.

""Ah... but I need different denominations," I replied.

He stated "You can get the money there and just come up here and change it for what you need."

I looked at him incredulously and said "That would be rather inconvenient for me, wouldn't it?!?"

He looked taken aback, stammered, and said "Well, since you're here, you can just go up to the cashier."

My reply was "Thank you. I think." and walked up to the cashier as he slunk back to his little office.

The cashier was equally inept. She seriously had a difficult time trying to figure out the three denominations I needed - fives, tens, and twenty's. It wasn't a lot of money - and it wasn't weird amounts. I smiled so much my face almost broke. I left, hoping I would never have to venture in there, again.

My grandfather worked for Bank of America in San Francisco when A.P. Giannini was still at the helm. It was a grand institution back in the day and I am certain they're both spinning in their graves.

With banking done and an envelope-filling session with Nonna completed, I started thinking about dinner. I knew a chicken breast was involved, and I kinda sorta thought brussels sprouts would be, as well... That left another side - and a La Cucina Italiana email sent me on the right track.

The emails from them are all in Italian and the website is all in Italian. While I can pick out a word here or there, I have to rely on Google Translate to figure out what's what. And Google translate really sucks when it comes to food and cooking terms. One of these days I'm sure it will be better as it learns more and more. But right now, it's fortunate I know how to cook and/or figure it out.

This is what I saw...

Rose di patate e pasta fillo

INGREDIENTI

  • 600 g patate piccole
  • 14 fogli di pasta fillo
  • burro
  • sale
  • fiocchi di sale
  • timo

Lavate le patate e tagliatele, senza sbucciarle, a fettine molto sottili; se è possibile usate l’affettatrice oppure la mandolina. Sciacquate le fettine sotto l’acqua e raccoglietele in una ciotola.

Disponete sul piano di lavoro i fogli di pasta fillo, uno per volta, ripiegandoli in un doppio strato, e tagliandoli a strisce. Spennellate le strisce di burro, disponetevi le fettine di patata, come mostrato nella sequenza qui a fianco, salatele e formate delle piccole rose.

Imburrate 2 teglie rotonde (ø 16 cm) e accomodatevi le rose, serrandole bene tra loro, in modo che non si aprano. Infornate le teglie a 190 °C per 30’ circa. Servite le rose con fiocchi di sale e timo.

Google Translate gave me:

INGREDIENTS

  • 600 g small potatoes
  • 14 sheets of phyllo dough
  • butter
  • salt
  • salt flakes
  • thyme

Duration: 1 h 15 min

Level: Medium
Doses: 4 people

Wash the potatoes and cut them, without peeling them, into very thin slices; if you can use the slicer or the mandoline. Rinse the slices under the water and collect them in a bowl.

Place the sheets of filo pastry on the worktop, one at a time, folding them in a double layer, and cutting them into strips. Brush the strips of butter, arrange the slices of potato, as shown in the sequence on the side, salt them and form small roses.

Grease 2 round baking sheets (ø 16 cm) and arrange the roses, tightening them well, so that they do not open. Bake the trays at 190 ° C for about 30 '. Serve the roses with salt and thyme flakes.

It's rather fun reading recipes in Googlese - it's like computer pidgin.

Anyway... I made them larger than the pictured ones, but they really came out good. Perfectly tender, a nice little crunch with the phyllo... they totally worked. I used ramekins, but I think a muffin tin would work better if making more than two.

The chicken was baked with Penzy's Mural of Flavor spice blend. The brussels sprouts went into the same oven with olive oil, garlic, and balsamic vinegar.

Not bad, at all...

I have to hit the fish monger on Sunday for clams and Sunday night we're heading next door to visit the neighbors - and then it's sit back and enjoy the holiday.

Retirement is good.

 

 

 


Bread and Rolls

The End of Week Twenty-Two

I am down 41 pounds since July 15th. Forty-One Pounds! Victor didn't make the gym today because he caught a cold and didn't want to share it with the world - but he is most likely there, as well, since we've been pretty much identical since we started this.

Forty-One Pounds! To say I am psyched would be an understatement.

We've started purging the clothes... The local Goodwill Store is doing a brisk business. T-shirts, pants, casual and dress shirts all have been donated - with more to go. One sad note, though, was a suit I've carried around since I lived in Boston. I tried it on, it was snug but wearable - and moth-eaten! Holes in the pant legs, along the collar and lapels, arms... I am bummed. It was a classic Oleg Cassini - not really expensive, but cut well and always stylish - even at 30 years old. Into the trash since it wasn't worth donating. Oh, well.

We're not rushing out to buy more clothes, though. We're retired. We don't need much, anymore. It's great to gain back some closet space. We've been in a bit od a purge mode for a while, now - not just clothes, but stuff we've had forever and just don't use - and never will, again.

Since Victor has a cold - and it's raining outside - I made soup and baked bread. I took my basic Multi-Grain Bread and made one loaf of bread and 9 dinner rolls. The bread for sandwiches and the rolls to go with soup.

Whole Wheat Dinner Rolls

Tonight’s soup consisted of:

  • homemade chicken broth
  • 12 oz andouille sausage
  • 1/4 cup beluga lentils
  • 1/4 cup heirloom rice blend
  • 1/4 cup wheat berries
  • 1/4 cup green split peas
  • 1/4 cup brown lentils
  • 1/4 cup fregola
  • celery
  • carrots
  • onion
  • leeks
  • hot sauce
  • bay leaves
  • oregano
  • salt & pepper

Put it in a pot and make it hot.

Soup

As I say over and over - soup doesn't have a recipe. You just make it with what you have on hand.

We started baking the Christmas Biscotti yesterday. We'll see how well the next couple of weeks go!


Spaghetti

The End of Week Twenty

Twenty Weeks. Who woulda thunk we'd be going to the gym and losing weight for twenty flippin' weeks?!?

Certainly not me!

I do have to admit that this has been something clear out of the realm of possibility for me. Actually going to a gym on a regular basis was possibly one of the most foreign things I could have imagined. Yet, here we are, twenty weeks later - losing weight and feeling better every day.

Who woulda thunk?!?

Even more out of the realm of possibility, though, was changing our eating habits. Yes, we pretty much always ate good food, but, damn, we ate a lot of it! And we won't even go into desserts! Okay - we will, a little bit... Cutting out our dessert every single night was pretty much key to all of this. You have no idea how much ice cream I could fit into a small bowl. Or wedges of cake and pie. And the odd thing is as much as I once loved them, I don't really miss them.

I think when I finally started seeing a difference in how I looked and felt that everything really fell into place.

Who woulda thunk, indeed?!?

In celebration of making it through twenty weeks - that's  more than twice as long as Boot Camp, by the way - it's spaghetti night! I weigh out pasta, nowadays - 2 ounces per person - and we always seem to have some left over.

I made a simple sauce of thick-sliced leeks, diced chicken, partially sun-dried cherry tomatoes, red wine, garlic, about a quarter cup of olive tapenade, and a 16oz jar of our tomato sauce. It could not have been simpler - and it came out great!

Two more days of home-cooking and then 4 days of restaurants. It will be interesting to see how we rank at the end of week twenty-one!

Fortunately, the hotel has a fitness center. I'm packing gym shorts just in case!

 

 


Turkey Soup

The End of Week Nineteen

It's the end of week nineteen, our Twenty-Fourth Anniversary, and our Annual Turkey Soup and Christmas Decorating Day!

We'll start with the end of Week Nineteen: We made it through Thanksgiving and still managed to lose a pound and a half! That is saying something because we had a lot of really good food, yesterday. Or, rather, we had a really good variety of some really good foods, yesterday. We both ate our fill - but didn't gorge! I had cheesecake and apple pie but passed on the cookies and candies. Victor did the same. Those little things are making a difference!

We made it to the gym this morning for our normal Friday torture session and then we started our Day After Thanksgiving Turkey Soup and Decorate-a-Thon! This is definitely one of my more fun traditions - but my back is sore as hell as I write this! It's a combination of getting beat up at the gym and then bringing twenty-something bins of decorations up from the basement, standing, bending, stretching... Bringing empty bins back down to the basement... Of course, old age has nothing to do with it...

We ended up with two turkey carcasses, so I made a really big batch of stock - and then a smaller pot of soup. The stock was the carcasses, onions, garlic, bay leaves, salt, pepper, poultry seasoning, carrots, celery, and leeks - roughly chopped, nothing peeled - leftover gravy... all into a big pot filled with cold water and then slow-boiled for about six hours.

The soup was the stock, celery, potatoes, carrots, turkey, and frozen mixed vegetables. Simplicity. There is so much stock and so little freezer space that I'm going to make another small batch of soup tomorrow that we can have for lunches.

And then there's the Anniversary! Twenty-four fun-filled years. The things we have done in 24 years boggles the mind - and there are still a ton of things on the horizon. We're going to celebrate at Niagara Falls in 10 days. We were there in the summer, but now I have to get Victor there in the snow. By train! It's really beautiful in the winter, and there's a huge Festival of Lights that will be fun to see. We're also thinking our twenty-fifth will be warmer climes... Maybe Kaua'i. Next year our anniversary will be the weekend before Thanksgiving, so we could do the islands and then do Thanksgiving with my family on the west coast! It would be win-win!

In the meantime, it's time to take a couple of aspirin and relax. There's still more decorating to do, tomorrow!


Hamburger and Potatoes

The End of Week Eighteen

I did it, boys and girls! I officially weigh under 200 pounds! Granted, it is by a mere one pound, but I'm under, dammit!

Victor broke the barrier a couple of weeks ago and is now closer to 190. I'd call it a miracle if it wasn't for the pain - I don't think miracles are supposed to hurt...

My back is feeling better, but everything else seems to be screaming for attention. Doing lunges while lifting dumbbells or swinging a ball back and forth is a recipe for hurt. I do not know where he comes up with these seemingly innocent modes of torture - but he has a full arsenal of them. Every day is a new adventure in I Can't Believe I'm Doing This.

But... it's working. It's probably been 25 years since I was 199 pounds - and that was when I was gaining after quitting smoking. I think I was about 180 when I quit smoking the first time in 1993 and last year at this time I reached my max at 240 - well over my Disco Weight of 165 I maintained for years. I'm enjoying being able to see my toes, again. I still can't touch them, but... I can see 'em!

And, we're still eating well. We had our first real dessert on Wednesday. Victor baked Pistachio Biscotti because a friend came over to visit and drink champagne and visit for a few hours. We laughed and chatted and munched and sipped bubbly and had a great ol' time - and made sure she took all of the leftover biscotti with her!

I don't plan to ever see the other side of 200, again!

Dinner, tonight, was a riff on a childhood favorite - Hamburger and Potatoes. As I've said many a time, my mom was the queen of stretching a pound of hamburger, and hamburger and potatoes was a classic. Fried potatoes mixed with crumbled hamburger and onions with worcestershire sauce and soy sauce. A bit of garlic, salt, and pepper.

Simplicity.

Tonight, I oven-baked the potato slices and mixed them in with the beef, onions, fennel, garlic, soy sauce, worcestershire sauce, and a splash of hot sauce. A 2018 spin on a classic from the '60s.

It came out pretty good, if I do say so m'self! Smaller portions are key.

The real test of portion control, though, is going to be Thursday. Thanksgiving is a food holiday - my favorite kind! How to indulge without over-indulging shall be interesting, to say the least.


Moroccan Spiced Cod

The End of Week Seventeen

My first thought when starting this today was Janis Ian singing At Seventeen... It is second only to Society's Child as my favorite of her songs.

And those of us with ravaged faces lacking in the social graces...

There are so many songs out there from my youth that still resonate with me - songs that caused an aha moment and made something crystal clear.

The Unknown Soldier by The Doors, Say It Loud by James Brown, and all of the songs by The Weavers, Woody Guthrie, Peter Paul and Mary... Dylan...Joan Baez... I miss those days of actual radio and shared anthems by a generation we thought could change the world overnight.

Tin soldiers and Nixon coming We're finally on our own This summer I hear the drumming Four dead in Ohio

The good ol' days.....

Fast-Forward fifty years and that idealistic youth is now a senior citizen trying to get back into some semblance of shape. And, it's working - more or less. This week, a bit less.

On Monday, I strained my back on a leg press. I think I've mentioned a few times that I can't touch my toes and my overall flexibility pretty much sucks. I contorted myself into position - but I couldn't quite seat myself properly - and there went the back. The gym workouts have been a bit less strenuous because of this, so I'm only down a half-pound. On the bright side, that's pretty good, considering I didn't cut back on the calories to offset the ones I wasn't burning.

And... I'm now starting off with ten minutes in the sauna before my warm-ups to further loosen me up, a bit. It's working - along with a hot pad at home. Who knew that getting healthy could be so painful?!?

One thing that was not painful, however, was tonight's dinner...

I planned seafood, and I planned grits. I had the last of a bag of Anson Mills Antebellum Coarse Yellow Grits and wanted to use them up. They're excellent - and not something you want to have hang around because they're so much better fresh.

To switch things up, I decided that the fish should be something along the lines of a Moroccan-spiced dish. Fusion. With a cabinet full of herbs and spices, I made up a pseudo-Moroccan blend.

Moroccan Spice Blend

  • 2 tbsp cumin
  • 2 tbsp ginger
  • 2 tbsp salt
  • 2 tbsp black pepper
  • 1 tbsp cinnamon
  • 1 tbsp coriander
  • 1 tbsp cayenne pepper
  • 1 tbsp allspice
  • 1/2 tbsp cloves

Sift all ingredients together. Store in a cool, dry place.

It has a kick to it!

The rest of the dish was pretty basic - leeks, canned tomatoes, raisins, slivered almonds, and parsley with cod chunks served over a very basic buttered grits.

I cut the leeks in large rings and sautéed them - letting them fall apart if they wanted to. Added the spices, then the tomatoes, and the raisins and simmered it all. Next went in the cod, and then the almonds and parsley.

It came out really good. The grits really are spectacular and they were the perfect foil for a spicy fish dish.

I guess I'm just going to have to order some more - after I use up the last of the grits I have from Adluh, that is!

Here's to the coming week - a less-sore back and a more vigorous gym time!

Maybe I'll break 200!


Ravioli

The End of Week Sixteen

It's still two pounds a week, boys and girls - TWO POUNDS A WEEK!!! Victor is under 200 for two weeks in  a row - he has it and won't be going back there ever again. If the Calorie Gods are willing, I may make it next week. Regardless, it has been - and continues to be - a rough and rocky and totally worthwhile road.

Friday has become the rough day. Our trainer builds up to it with a myriad of different things on Monday and Wednesday. This past Wednesday, he worked on legs - and both of us were suffering. When we got off the last machine, my legs were literal jello. Try doing a couple of miles on a treadmill when you can barely stand up. I think my walk was measured in feet. although it might have been inches.

Today when we went in, I told him my lower back was still aching from Wednesday - so he had us swinging kettlebells, high planks and low planks, lunges and twists and contortions I never knew my body could make. My back feels infinitely better - but it was not easy getting there. Just keep breathing...

He keeps telling us to breathe - which is fine if you're the one doing the talking. It's quite another when you're gasping for breath because you just lifted a 25 pound metal ball from the floor to the ceiling a million and one times - squatting and stretching with every move. This is not for the faint of heart.

However... it is working. It can be painful and exhausting, but it's working. And it allows us to keep eating well.

For us, I think that's really one of the key points - we're still eating well. I could not do this if I was eating dry salads and steamed vegetables and lifeless boiled chicken breasts. I'd rather be overweight than subject myself to that - we simply enjoy food too much. In a world divided by eat to live and live to eat, we're definitely the latter.

For our Friday Night celebratory dinner, we went with ravioli.

Ravioli

It was one of those meals that will never be replicated, but that's okay.

Victor made a sun-dried tomato pesto the other day - basil, garlic, walnuts, olive oil, parmesan cheese, and sun-dried tomatoes in oil - and I used about a quarter-cup of it as the base for the sauce with a jar of the tomato sauce we canned this past summer. I added sun-dried tomato sausage and a package of Mediterranean Antipasto Vegetables from Trader Joe's. It made a great sauce. Arugula and Parmesan Ravioli were the perfect addition.

The Mediterranean Vegetables were pretty good in the sauce. The pesto was excellent. The ravioli had a lot of flavor and the sausage is always good. All-in-all, a very successful dinner that took all of 15 minutes to pull together - and that included water-boiling time. And we have leftovers for lunch!

Losing weight and eating well - life does not get any better.

Remind me I said that next week when my legs give out and my arms stop working.

Just keep breathing...

 

 


Steaks and Sweet Potatoes

The End of Week Fifteen

I'm down Thirty-One Pounds. Victor is under 200 lbs for the first time since he quit smoking and is down six pant sizes. This has put a huge smile on my face. I haven't cracked 200, yet, but I'm working on it! We're both looking - and feeling - pretty damned good. I plan on getting to my Disco-Weight - without the illicit drugs of yore!

When I first quit smoking in 1992, I gained 60 pounds. Everyone said it was better to be overweight than be a smoker, so I went with it. I lost some of them and then started smoking again, around 1997. I lost even more - but was still close to 20 over where I was in my prime smoking days. Then I quit, again, around 2006 - and the weight came back with a vengeance. I've been walking around with an extra 60 pounds for the past few years.

What didn't register with me was how much the excess weight was slowing me down. I'm the king of justification. I just attributed slowing down to getting older - as I reached for another slice of cheesecake. Homemade, of course. I didn't have a desk job - I actually had to move a little bit at work - so I figured I was getting my exercise. And all of those cookies and snacks and other foods I was consuming at work were negligible. And the desserts I was making every night were being split between the two of us - it's not like we were eating all of it at one time...

Riiiiight. 

As I said, I'm the King of Justification.

But what a difference a few months makes. I have energy. I can get up out of a chair without grunting. I can make it up and down the stairs without being winded. My body is actually starting to work like it's supposed to. What a concept.

Our trainer is smart. He works us Monday and Wednesday, and then on Friday he pulls out all the stops. It is not easy by any stretch of the imagination. What really gets me is he will have us doing something that really looks as basic as basic can be - and either I can't do it at all, or I can barely eek out the most minimalist part of it - and then he adds another 10 pounds. He keeps pushing, knowing that little-by-little, we're making progress. He's not rushing us, but he's not letting us be complacent, either. I still can't touch my toes - but I'm down past my knees. I cannot sit on the floor with my legs straight out - but I can squat and get back up without effort. All things that 15 weeks ago were unheard of.

I never knew what I couldn't do because I compensated in other ways. I'm being taught how to un-compensate and do it right. The blinders are off and we're doing it right.

You've undoubtedly noticed we're eating pretty well around here. No dieting. It's smaller portions and better choices. I like bread. I still bake bread and I still eat bread - pretty much daily. Desserts are generally fresh fruit. I have no cravings for the ooey-gooey desserts of yesteryear. I actually miss making them more than I miss eating them - but I'm getting over it.

Dinner, tonight, was a steak and a baked sweet potato - with a lot of stuff in it. I pretty much just grabbed stuff out of the 'fridge and went for it.

Sweet Potato Casserole

  • 1 large sweet potato, baked and riced
  • 1 cup chopped fennel
  • 1 leek, chopped
  • 3 green onions, chopped
  • 3 large mushrooms, chopped
  • 1 carrot, chopped
  • 1/4 cup dark rum
  • 3/4 cup coconut milk
  • tbsp sambal oelek
  • salt & pepper, to taste

Sauté fennel, leeks, mushrooms, carrots, and green onions until wilted and they start to soften. Add the rum, cover, and steam until vegetables are tender.

Stir in coconut milk and sambal oelek and bring to a boil.

Stir in riced or mashed sweet potato and mix well.

Fold into a small casserole dish and bake at 350°F for 20-30 minutes.

It's only taken me 66 years to open my eyes and see what was right in front of me. That's okay, though. A younger me would have just reached for another piece of pie.

 

 

 

 

 

 


Chitarra

The End of Week Fourteen

Fourteen weeks. We're both down 27 pounds. It's pretty amazing how far we've come - and how far we still need to go!

I still can't touch my toes, but I did buy a new pair of jeans - 36" waist - because the 40" pants were way too big. These are loose. How sweet it is!

And how unsweet it is... I had another one of those arms just stopped working moments at the gym, today. Try as I might, I just could not do another rep on a machine. I could not push any further - they rebelled and said no! On Wednesday, my legs turned to jello after doing a ridiculous series of machines, squats, and making like a chair up against a wall, and I had to convince them not to give out on me completely. Walking up the stairs to get to the treadmills was a feat unto itself. I was walking like a 19 year old sailor on shore leave at 3am - not that I would have any firsthand knowledge of anything like that, of course.

And I'm paying somebody to do this to me!

But for everything we can't do today, we're light-years ahead of where we were 14 weeks ago - and 27 pounds lighter. We are way ahead of the game. More proof of that is recovery time. When we first started this we'd get home and be exhausted. Now, we get home and bounce around with actual energy. Who knew?!?

I know, I know... lots of people knew. I didn't. Or, rather, I closed my eyes to it. I wasn't ready to actually work - and I really wasn't ready to work while I was still working! I highly recommend retirement to everyone! It's an amazing thing.

Tonight's dinner was also an amazing thing - Spaghetti alla Chitarra with Chicken and Mushrooms. The pasta is one of the goodies I bought from Eataly last week. It's a long pasta - a bit longer than a traditional store-bought spaghetti - and much thicker. It's also square - the shape comes from the chitarra - the guitar-shaped kitchen utensil the pasta is cut on. This particular pasta comes from Marche in central Italy. And it's really good.

Spaghetti alla Chitarra with Chicken and Mushrooms

  • 2 chicken thighs, diced
  • 12 oz assorted mushrooms, sliced
  • 6 small shallots, quartered
  • 1 clove garlic, minced
  • 1 cup white wine
  • 1/2 cup chicken stock
  • 1 tbsp flour
  • 1/2 tsp oregano
  • salt & pepper, to taste
  • 6 oz spaghetti alla chitarra or your favorite pasta

Sauté diced chicken in a bit of olive oil. When lightly browned, remove from pan. Add mushrooms and shallots to pan and cook until mushrooms are browned and shallots are limp. Add garlic and quickly cook. Add chicken and juices back into pan.

Stir in 1 tbsp flour and mix in well. Add white wine and stir until slightly thickened. Add chicken stock and continue cooking until sauce is smooth and silky. Add oregano and S&P to taste.

Meanwhile, cook pasta according to package instructions.

Stir al dente pasta into the sauce and let it simmer a minute or two.

Plate and enjoy!

One of those ridiculously easy dishes that just screams flavor. The pasta is hearty - heartier than a traditional spaghetti - and was the perfect foil for the mushrooms and chicken. The sauce was silky and creamy - like I had added cream or butter to it - yet was as basic as basic can be.

On to week 15 - and more fun food!

(And maybe 34" 501's!)

 


Pork and Butternut Squash

The End of Week Thirteen

Ah... what a week this has been! I have spent more time dealing with the Medical Industrial Complex than I would prefer - but - so far, all is swell.

My latest foray was to an urgent care center this morning to have a splinter taken out of my big toe. I had thought it was a blister and let it go for a few days. Today, it was not getting better. We both looked at it and off I went.

Pain Free!

And... we're more than 25 pounds free - each of us! Not quite 26, but more than 25. It's a victory, indeed!

It's quite amazing that our weight loss is so ridiculously the same. We do eat the same dinner, but our breakfasts and lunches are totally different. I'm definitely not complaining. I just find it interesting.

I have been remiss in posting dinners, this week.

Tonight, while I was playing with a new hard drive for my computer, Victor cooked dinner. He did a pork tenderloin with butternut squash, apples, and rice. Awesomeness on a plate! He cut the tenderloin into cutlets, pounded them, and then lightly fried them. He roasted the butternut squash, then added it with rice to a pan, added chicken broth, laid the pork on top and the apple slices on top of it.  Let it simmer on the stove for 20 minutes.

Delish!

Yesterday, he made a big pot of chicken soup.

Chicken Soup

The perfect fall item to have in the 'fridge. This will be lunch for a few days!

Prior to that, I made a chorizo and chicken dish with lentils. I then put an egg on top. Nice and spicy.

And we can't forget the chicken, mushroom, and olives with rigatoni.

Rigatoni

A good week.

Now... if I can stay away from a Doctor for a few days, it really will be good! Nothing serious - it's just the followup from the annual physical. A few things to look at a little closer... Typical stuff...