The End of Week Twelve
24 pounds, boys and girls. Twenty-Four Pounds!
I am really psyched. When we started this, we had a goal - something that seemed nigh on impossible - but we had to aim somewhere. Today, our goal is not only realistic, but totally doable.
The gym is getting both easier and more difficult. I still can't squat and touch the floor - hell, I can't bend over and touch my toes - but I'm closer today than I have ever been. I have a sneaking suspicion I'll be there within a month. I'm more limber than I have been in years - although I have a long way to go to get to where I need to be.
We're both progressing well - although differently. Victor can squat and touch the floor - and does more weight on the leg presses. He's also much more limber and flexible than I am. I tend to be a tad more stubborn and get the other damned reps in without stopping. Usually. Today, in a sitting position up against a pillar with a kettlebell in my hands twisting from side to side, my legs were burning like you wouldn't believe. Thirty reps - done in groups of ten. No way could I do thirty straight through. Hell - doing ten was murder! It still surprises me what we can - and can't - do. And our Trainer knows what we can - and can't - do. He keeps pushing the can't. He's good. Really good.
Here's a little math for you to put weight loss in perspective... A pound is roughly 3500 kcal, so, to lose 2 pounds in a week, one must cut or otherwise burn 7000 kcal - 1000 kcal per day. That really can't be done by diet, alone. Not only is it unrealistic, it sets us up for failure because it means we're hungry all the time and tend to binge and make bad choices. And the metabolism slows, starts hoarding fat... It's a vicious cycle. Diets are designed to fail, hence the multi-billion dollar diet industry in this country. Follow the money.
A vigorous exercise routine burns calories, so you can eat more and still lose. I mean... you see what we're eating here. We are not skimping. Our portions are smaller than they were 4 months ago, but there is nothing we can't eat if we so desire it. We're not depriving ourselves. We're paying someone to beat the crap out of us so we can eat what we want and lose weight at the same time. It's a much more realistic approach.
And having a Trainer really is what's driving this. There is just no way we would be doing this - to this extreme - without being pushed. It's worth every cent.
So weight is down and spirits are up!
Also up tonight was a big bowl of Butternut Squash Soup. This is one of Victor's excellent go-to recipes. He used our homemade chicken stock, fried peppers, and a jar of the beans I canned a couple of weeks ago. It's really a simple soup with just a few ingredients, so make sure the ingredients are good!
Butternut Squash Soup
- 1 butternut squash – peeled and cubed
- 2 qts chicken broth
- 1 shallot, chopped
- 2 garlic cloves, minced
- 1 hot pepper, or to taste
- 1 can beans
- Salt, to taste
Sauté shallot and garlic in a drizzle of olive oil. Add squash, broth, and beans. Simmer until squash is falling apart-tender.
Puree in a blender until completely smooth.
Serve with a drizzle of good-quality olive oil.
The beans add a creaminess to the soup without having to add cream. You can also make it with water or vegetable broth to make it completely vegan. I added a few chopped scallions just for grins and giggles.
And we have enough for lunch, tomorrow!
The End of Week Eleven
At the end of eleven weeks, we're still on track - averaging a 2 pound a week weight loss. This is crazy-wonderful. It means that all of this is actually worth it. At least it is when I'm sitting here. I'm not always so sure when we're at the gym.
Today, we walked in feeling pretty good, did our warm-ups, and started in with our trainer. Within minutes I was ready to call it quits and go home. He can hammer home in nanoseconds just how out of shape I actually am. Movements that by all accounts should be simple to do are exhausting - moving a 5kg ball in an arc from side to side over my head for a mere minute has the sweat poring off me. Low plank to high plank to low to high... OMFG! And that was the easy stuff. And all the while he is singing encouragement - instructions to breathe, c'mon, this is an easy one...
What he's really driving home is getting the whole body to work in concert - and I have spent the past 66 years with my body parts playing solos. He's the conductor who is going to have me playing a symphony when this is over. Right now I feel like I'm still at chopsticks.
But the weight is coming off and the body is feeling better - at least it is after we leave - and it's taking less time to recover than it did the first couple of weeks. Maybe a modified chopsticks.
Our mantra continues to be smaller portions. That will always be the biggest issue with us - we like to eat. I very rarely actually clean my plate, anymore. I eat until I'm satisfied instead of gorging myself as in days gone by. And we're both satisfied with less. The body hasn't learned to listen to all of its moving parts, but it gets the idea that it doesn't need as much fuel to run efficiently.
Score one for genetic code.
Tonight's dinner is brought to you by a small turkey breast roast I picked up at the grocery store. It was boneless and skinless, so actually roasting it would not have made for a nice meal. Instead, I cut it into small pieces and pounded them, dredged them in seasoned flour, and into a skillet. Well - half of it. The other half went into the freezer. And we only ate half of what I made. We have lunch, tomorrow!
Turkey Scaloppine
- 1 lb turkey scallops
- 8 oz mushrooms, quartered
- 1 small bunch asparagus
- 1/2 onion, chopped
- 1 clove garlic, minced
- 1/2 cup Marsala
- 1/2 cup chicken broth
- sage
- poultry seasoning
- salt & pepper
- green onions, chopped
Pound turkey into scaloppine pieces. Mix salt, pepper, a pinch of sage and a pinch of poultry seasoning with flour. Dredge scallops and set aside.
Heat olive oil and a pat of butter in large skillet. Lightly cook turkey in batches. Set on a plate and set aside. In same skillet add chopped onions and cook until translucent. Add garlic and stir in. Add mushrooms and cook until nicely browned.
Add Marsala and reduce by about a third. Add chicken broth and bring to a boil. Add reserved turkey and reduce to simmer. Cook until turkey is completely cooked through and sauce has slightly thickened. taste for seasoning and add additional salt & pepper, as desired.
For a slightly thicker sauce, add a slurry of flour and water.
Really tasty, very filling, and just what the gym instructor ordered.
Bring on Week Twelve. We're ready!
The End of Week Ten
We're both down twenty pounds!
This, boys and girls, is pretty heartening - it means all of this work is actually paying off! We feel better. We have more energy. Everyday tasks are easier to do. It's a flippin' miracle.
This proves me wrong about eating with impunity as long as the food, itself, is good. I did it for years - and slowly gained weight while my activity levels decreased. Eating good food is of major importance - but the volume of food has to be realistic. We were eating way too much.
I've always joked that at any given moment, the neighborhood could drop by for dinner. That has changed. I'm actually starting to learn how to cook smaller portions. It's not as easy as it sounds for someone who is more intuitive than recipe-follower. But I'm getting there.
One of my greatest achievements is I'm actually weighing pasta! 2 ounces per serving. It's remarkable how much 2 ounces of pasta actually is - especially when we have always just cooked half a pound for the two of us - and eaten it! I just shake my head at the excess...
Tonight's pasta dish was a throw-together that ended up taking forever. I thought I'd cook the pasta right in the skillet with the veggies, broth, mushroom liquid, and Marsala. Sadly - for me - I picked the wrong pasta. I chose a mini rigatoni that on a good day takes close to 20 minutes to cook. Put it is a skillet with other stuff and it takes a lot longer. A lot longer. It was easily 35 minutes, although it came out perfect and totally full of flavor!
Pasta with Mushrooms and Chicken
- 8 oz mushrooms, thinly sliced
- 1/2 medium onion, diced
- 2 cloves garlic, minced
- 1 oz assorted dried mushrooms, reconstituted in 2 cups boiling water
- 6 oz frozen spinach
- 4 oz chicken breast, cubed
- 1 cup dry Marsala
- 3 cups chicken stock
- 2 cups mushroom soaking liquid
- 4 oz pasta
- Italian seasoning
- salt & pepper
Brown chicken in skillet and set aside. In same skillet, sauté mushrooms and onions until onion is translucent and mushrooms give off their liquid. Add garlic and reconstituted mushrooms - chopped, if large.
Add Marsala and cook a moment. Stir in mushroom liquid and bring to a boil. Add pasta and a cup of chicken stock. Cover and cook about 10 minutes, stirring at least once.
Stir in reserved chicken, spinach, and add more broth, as necessary to continue cooking pasta. Add seasonings
Recover and reduce heat. Simmer until pasta is cooked - up to another 15 minutes depending on style of pasta.
If sauce seems too thin, uncover and boil to reduce - or - add a tablespoon of cornstarch mixed with a bit of water.
Really good, really rich, and really easy! My favorite kind of meal.
On another note, we're coming to the end of the hot peppers. I still have a batch to cook up and there's easily one more basket-full in the garden, but Victor took the reddest of the reds and dried them last night.
200°F in the oven for several hours and then turn it off and leave them overnight.
I put them into the food processor this morning and made some fresh pepper flakes!
These guys are H.O.T. I almost choked breathing in the dust from the processor.
I love it!
A happy end to Week Ten and an optimistic start to Week Eleven.
Life is good.
The End of Week Nine
It's been nine weeks. Nine whole weeks since we began this odyssey. And, slowly but surely, it's starting to pay off - Victor is down 19 pounds, I'm down 17 1/2. Hallelujah!
I hafta tell ya, though, this has not been the easiest thing I have ever done. Our trainer is really starting to push - and there are moments when I'm not sure I'm going to survive. Trying to breathe and catch a breath is the hardest part - other than trying to lift some godforsaken thing over my head or trying to pull myself up just one more time - when I have 12 more to go after that. Piece of cake. A walk in the park. The seventh circle of hell.
But... we're getting there - and that's the whole reason we're doing this.
I'm rather enjoying the eating habit change, although it's still a bit strange getting a new cooking magazine and not immediately heading into the kitchen to try out the latest gooey dessert. On the other hand, I like feeling full after eating a lot less that I used to. And I do feel better.
The next test is Wednesday when I go in for my annual physical - I'm curious as to what the numbers are going to be...
And speaking of eating... It's rapidly becoming soup season! I'm rushing it just a little bit, but I do love soups! I did a clean-out-the-refrigerator pot this evening - Eggplant and Chicken! It worked.
Eggplant and Chicken Soup
- 1 medium eggplant
- 1 leek
- 1/2 onion
- 2 cloves garlic
- 1/2 bell pepper
- 1 hot red pepper
- 2 tomatoes
- 2 stalks celery
- 2 carrots
- 6 small red bliss potatoes
- 3 green onions
- 6 oz cooked chicken
- 1 1/2 qts chicken stock
- 1 can diced green peppers
- 1 can great northern beans
- 1 tsp cumin
- 1 tsp smoked paprika
- 1/2 tsp sumac
- 1 tsp ras el hanout
- salt and pepper
Cut eggplant in half, rub with olive oil, sprinkle with cumin, salt, and pepper, and roast in the oven for about 30 minutes. Cool enough to handle.
Meanwhile, saute onion, leeks, garlic, red pepper, and bell pepper in a pot. When wilted, add spices and cook about 30 seconds. Add broth.
Scoop eggplant pulp into pot and bring to boil. Reduce heat and simmer about 20 minutes.
Using an immersion blender, blend everything to a smooth consistency.
Add chopped carrots, celery, chopped tomatoes, quartered potatoes, and drained beans. Bring to a boil, reduce heat, and simmer about 10 minutes.
Add cooked chicken and heat through.
Taste for seasonings and adjust, as necessary.
Ladle into bowls and top with chopped green onions.
As I said - a clean-out-the-'fridge soup. And it worked on every level. Just enough spice to make it interesting, the eggplant made the broth creamy like a bean soup, and everything else made it hearty and filling - perfect for those of us who are watching what we eat!
Tomorrow is going to be the test - we're heading up to New York City for the day. Coney Island. I've never been there. Weather permitting, we'll be walking across the Brooklyn Bridge and catch the subway in Brooklyn down to the amusement park.
I see a Nathan's Hot Dog in my future...
The End of Week Eight
We've made it through eight weeks. That's like half of Boot Camp. I went into Boot Camp right around this time in 1971 - 47 years ago. I don't remember it being this tough, however. I'm sure that it has nothing to do with selective memory and the very simple fact that I was a mere 19 years old at the time. Invincible youth and all that... The ensuing 47 years have been a roller coaster of being bad and being good - more bad than good. I'm paying for it, today.
The gym is getting easier and harder. It surprises me how something that looks as if it should be fairly easy ends up killing me, while I'm able to get through things that I'm sure should kill me. Our Trainer has gotten to know us really well and is pushing more and more. Today, I took 2 aspirin when I got home. Ouch.
Weight-wise, we're both down a pound this week. Yeah... just a single pound. I'm going to attribute it to the fat turning into rippling, bulging, masculine muscle. I'm sure it's not portion size creeping up, or anything. But a pound in the loss column is a pound in the loss column. I'll take it! And we'll start paying closer attention to portions...
Tonight was pasta - weighed - in a sauce of ground pork, leeks, eggplant, mushrooms, and tomatoes. It was a throw-together, not a recipe, so it started growing in the skillet. I took half of it and froze it for another day. Once upon a time, I would have just cooked more pasta. Baby steps...
And just because I'm jonesin' for some good bread, I'm going to bake some sourdough tomorrow. I've been working on the starter and the leaven for the past 10 days! One of those loaves will end up in the freezer, as well.
I still plan on losing two pounds next week!
And... here's Blanche keeping me company in the kitchen while I'm cooking.
Life is definitely good!
The End of Week Seven
It's been another grueling week at the gymnasium. We've been dealing with dumbbells, barbells, kettlebells, squats, lunges, and every sort of pain-inducing piece of equipment the Marquis de Sade and the Inquisitors have been able to conjure up. The good news is it seems to be working. I'm down 15 pounds and Victor is down 14. And we're still eating like kings!
It's a flippin' miracle. Or something.
Rumor has it that going to the gym and exercising releases endorphins that make you feel good and reduces the perception of pain. I would like to call bullshit on this rumor. Getting beat up does not take me to my happy place. I'm doing this good-naturedly. I'm not doing it happily. But, happily or not, it's working - and that is what counts. We're both feeling better. We have more energy. Simple tasks are easier. And we're definitely eating better.
It's been a lot of fun refocusing on the basics - and scaling back recipes. This website has been great at tracing our eating habits all the way back to 2005. I shake my head in horror at the portions we were consuming! The real miracle is we didn't weigh twice as much as we did when we started this. I have pretty much always cooked what I wanted when I wanted - without any thought at all to portion size or calories. It was fun, but it certainly wasn't realistic. And most definitely not sustainable.
I'm liking it better this way.
Our celebratory dinner was steaks and lentils with roasted vegetables - and a fried Italian Long Hot pepper on top. These peppers are scorching-hot. I love it! We just cut the stem off and fry them - seeds and all. A pinch of garlic and anchovies towards the end. H.O.T. I'll be making a nice batch of hot sauce next month as they start turning red.
For the lentils, I roasted golden beets, carrots, celery, onion, and garlic - all chopped relatively small - and then mixed them with the cooked lentils. I added a splash of sherry vinegar, salt, pepper, and some herbes de Provence and stirred it all together. It was great hot - and will make an excellent cold salad, tomorrow.
We're not suffering in the food department.
Victor will head to the gym tomorrow for a solo trek, and I'll be there Sunday for mine - and then Monday starts Week Eight.
Bring it on!
The End of Week Six
And there's more good news coming from the boys in Gym Class - we're both down 12 pounds in 6 weeks! We're maintaining a 2-pound per week weight loss - and still eating like Kings! We are pretty psyched!
It is definitely not a walk in the park, though. Our trainer is pushing. And pushing. I was on some damned arm machine this morning and in the middle of my second rep of twenty, my arms just stopped working. I could not push that goddamned thing, again. He was singing encouragement and even assisting, but I had reached the end. On the other hand, I had done more this time - with more weight - than I had the last time I was chained to the implement of torture. Baby steps.
And the baby steps are starting to show in small, subtle ways... It's a little easier bringing the laundry up and down the stairs. Victor spent a few hours gardening, yesterday, and wasn't winded and feeling like crap, afterwards. I walked back from the garage after dropping the car off for its annual inspection and wasn't winded, at all. We're both moving easier.
I wish I had been doing this 20 years ago, but, better late than never, right?!? Right.
Aches and pains, aside, we're feeling pretty good about this. 6 weeks down, 46 weeks to go for this chapter. Totally doable.
Also totally doable was tonight's dinner. I marinated a couple of steaks in red wine, balsamic vinegar, olive oil, garlic, oregano, and a pinch of S&P. Onto the grill. Pretty simple. They were two 6 oz sirloin steaks I cut in half - poor man's tournedos - and we actually each only ate one! It seems we're actually learning to stop eating before we're gorged!
The fun dish was leftover eggplant stuffing from last night. It went into a skillet, got nice and hot, and then I fried a couple of eggs and dropped them on top. Yes, it was a bit of protein overkill, but I felt like celebrating - and ice cream is currently not on the weekly shopping list!
We'll each have a session at the treadmill this weekend, and on Monday - Week Seven begins.
This is going pretty quickly!
The End of Week Five
We're both down ten pounds! What a way to go!
It's pretty crazy. I feel good - sore, but good. I honestly never saw myself as a person who would go to a gym - let alone semi-enjoy it! It's rather amazing how 1) difficult it is and 2) easy it is. I know that's a complete contradiction, but it's strangely true.
Our trainer has figured us out in these five weeks. He's now pushing harder, making us do more difficult tasks with more repetitions - but the more we do them the easier they finally become - until he drops the next bombshell and picks up the pace. I am just no good at doing dumbbells over my head. He has me doing dumbbells over my head. My arms feel like they want to fall off and refuse to lift that damned thing one more time - and he tells me I only have five more to go. I'd call him a cruel, heartless man if it wasn't for the encouragement he also continually gives. He's an encouraging cruel, heartless man - and we're down ten pounds because he's giving us the motivation to succeed.
Ten Pounds! I'm pretty psyched!
You've noticed that we most certainly are not depriving ourselves in the food department. Desserts are pretty much off the table but we're getting by really well with fresh fruit. And the cakes and pies and cookies will be back, but probably not with the frequency they once were. This is the new normal for us - and it's not bad, at all.
Another thing I've pretty much knocked off is bread at dinner every night - although we're still eating bread and we often have sandwiches for lunch. I've missed my bread-baking, so I decided I'd bake some, today - a nice Five-Grain with Walnuts from Carol Field. It has a little bit of everything in it. I didn't feel like transcribing the entire recipe, so the link above will take you to the recipe on Google Books.
But I did take pictures of the process... This is mixing the five flours and the walnuts... white flour, sprouted wheat flour, rice flour, rye flour, and oat flour.
Mixed and out of the Kitchen-Aid... Slightly sticky. You want a bit of a wetter dough for sandwich bread.
Rolled into a ball and into a pan for the first rise. It's 90°F/32°C outside with really high humidity - perfect for Mother Nature's All-Natural Proofing Box.
And then after a mere hour...
Loaves formed and back out to Mother Nature's All-Natural Proofing Box for the final rise. I left them out for an hour - I really should have pulled them in after about 30 minutes because they over-proofed, a bit and then fell a bit as I put them into the oven.
But... they still came out great. I took one loaf and cut it in half and gave it to two neighbors - because I didn't want two loaves of bread in the house. We have great neighbors - directly next door is a young couple with two really cute girls who are very skeptical of Blanche, and the other side of them are two sisters probably 20 years older than us. We have a fun time with all of them and they said I could make too much bread any time!
And as a side note...
Dinner tonight was leftover Jambalaya with a fried egg on top.
Without bread. That's for lunch!
Added on Saturday:
Here's Lunch!
Victor just said I never have to buy bread, again...
The End of Week Four
“My doctor told me I had to stop throwing intimate dinners for four unless there are three other people.” -- Orson Welles
It's the end of Week Four and we're doing pretty well. I'm officially down 8 pounds and Victor is down 9. Not bad, at all.
I think the most interesting aspect of this entire thing is how good we both feel. Being the perennial cynic that I am, I have p'shaw'd people for the past 20 years saying how much better they felt after going to the gym - as if you could possibly feel better after having the crap beat out of you...
Mark it on your calendars, boys and girls... I was wrong. Again. I feel better after having the crap beat out of me. And the reason the crap is being beat out of us is because we're paying a Personal Trainer to do it. There is absolutely no way on this Earth I would be doing this stuff if someone wasn't standing over me telling me I only have to do that damn rep of 20 three more times - and then do it all over again on the other arm/leg. If I were on my own, I'd do a couple of reps and then eat a donut. The Trainer is making the difference.
I'm eating better. I have more energy. And this is after 4 weeks. The diet change has been ridiculously easy - almost scary-easy. I think the main reason is probably because we started feeling results right away - even though we purposely weren't looking for them. And we didn't dramatically change anything - we just started eating less - and switched out our nightly dessert for a bowl of fresh fruit. We're not denying ourselves anything. We're not on a diet. We're simply eating smaller portions and paying better attention to what we eat.
We both used to have a bowl of candy by our chairs in the living room - Victor with gumdrops and me with any number of different things. They're now both empty - and gone are those empty calories. There are chocolate bars in the cabinet if anyone wants one, but right now, we don't seem to miss them.
We're also not doing cheat days - because we're not dieting and denying ourselves anything. We're eating well - as is evidenced, here. I had a hot dog for lunch, today - on a roll. Bread - the dieters big no-no. I like bread a lot. I'm no longer eating it every night at dinner, but if I want a hot dog on a roll or a sandwich, I eat a hot dog on a roll or a sandwich. A hot dog. A sandwich. Circling right back to portion control.
Portion control. Cooking realistic amounts for two people and not preparing enough to feed the neighborhood. Something I'm still working on but getting better at - it's only been 4 weeks, after all.
Our celebratory dinner tonight was a steak, an ear of corn, and potatoes that were first steamed, and then slightly smashed and fried in a bit of oil. The potatoes are really easy - and really tasty. The steaks were liberally doused with Penzeys Mitchell Street Steak Seasoning. The corn just boiled and spread with a bit of butter...
So bring on Week Five! We're ready!
Salads
Another successful produce run down to Gentile's, today. It's becoming my grocery home-away-from-home. Once I finally learned how to get there using back roads, the trip takes no time at all. Gotta love Google Maps.
The trek to Gentile's was after the trek to the gym - Week Four has started. I went alone since Victor had to wait for Nonna's Nurse Practitioner to arrive. Nonna has a heat rash on her upper torso - caused from sitting under a throw in a hot room - and, while she was getting her shower this morning, she was complaining to Alisa - her shower lady - that she was feeling nauseous. The NP was scheduled for her routine visit on Friday, so we called and they moved it up. All is well - Nonna doesn't feel nauseous, and the heat rash is treatable with medicated powder. We surmised that the "nausea" was her way of trying to get out of taking a shower. Alisa - who may be one of the nicest and sweetest people on the planet - won't fall for the excuses and made her take her shower, anyway. She seriously needs her showers - and seriously hates taking them. Welcome to the joys of having a 92 year old living with you.
So I went alone to the gym and had the crap beat out of me and then spent almost 30 minutes on the treadmill. I have found that I can walk like hell on that thing as long as I have music playing. I cannot watch the TV screen in front of me. I made a huge playlist yesterday - 313 songs and 18 hours of music - spanning every genre imaginable. I just hit "shuffle" and let it go. I really do have some interesting music - and lots of music from musician friends. At first, I thought I would want all fast-paced music, but I really like the mix - and the totally unknown aspect. I can go from Phil Ochs to the Bee Gees to The Doors and back to Duke Ellington. It's a very entertaining way to spend 30 minutes sweating.
Victor went after lunch just to walk and has a make-up session with our Trainer scheduled for Thursday. He's also a believer in treadmill music and is making his own playlists to keep the feet moving. It's whatever works, ya know?!?
And speaking of working, tonight's salads worked really well! We're keeping a couple of grain, bean, and fruit salads in the 'fridge for lunches and side dishes, so putting together a dinner salad is pretty easy. I make different salads during the week and at any given moment we have a couple of healthy options to choose from. It's like magic, only better!
Tonight it was mixed greens, bean salad, corn salsa from dinner last Wednesday, radishes, tomatoes from the garden, fresh berries, grilled chicken, and a simple dressing Victor made - olive oil, a hard-cooked egg yolk, red wine vinegar, a drizzle of honey, a minced garlic clove, oregano, salt, and pepper. Perfection.
I'm getting used to not having crusty, crunchy bread at dinner every night but I think that come wintertime I'll be figuring out how to add it back in now and again.
But that's another time and another day. In the meantime, we're both feeling well and that's the important thing!
Piadina
It seems that most cultures have a flatbread of sorts. I thought the Italian versions were pizza and focaccia - and then I learned about piadina. Piadina hails from the north of Italy - Emilia-Romagna - more or less between Florence and Venice. It is a simple bread of flour, water, lard, and often a bit of dairy - from milk to yogurt to sour cream - and dates from the 1300s. I used sour cream today, because that's what I had in the 'fridge.
Right out of the skillet, it is soft and feathery-light. I have no idea what it's like after it has set for an hour - we didn't let it sit for 10 minutes!
I had seen a sandwich on La Cucina Italiana made with piadina and thin slices of fried eggplant and even thinner slices of swordfish. My first thought was to fry up an eggplant, but then I thought of using Little Gram's Eggplant Appetizer that I made, yesterday, along with some lettuce and hot peppers from the yard.
It worked. Really worked!
I cut the recipe in half because I only wanted two.
Piadina
adapted from Milk Street
- 1/2 cup water
- 1/4 cup sour cream
- 2 cups flour
- 2 teaspoons kosher salt
- 1 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
- 1/3 cup lard, room temperature
Directions
In a food processor, combine the flour, salt and baking powder. Process 5 seconds. Add the lard and process until combined, about 10 seconds. With the processor running, add the yogurt and then the water. Process until the dough forms a smooth ball, about 1 minute.
Divide the dough into 4 pieces. Roll each into a ball, then cover with plastic wrap. Let rest for 15 minutes. Meanwhile, prepare your toppings.
Roll each dough ball into a 10-inch round. Poke the surfaces all over with a fork.
Heat a 12-inch cast-iron skillet over medium until a drop of water sizzles immediately, 4 to 6 minutes. One at a time, place a dough round in the skillet and cook until the bottom is charred in spots, 1 to 2 minutes. Using tongs, flip and cook for 30 seconds.
Transfer to a plate and cover loosely with foil.
This is another really quick and easy bread that really surpassed all expectations! I pretty much figured it would be good - but I had no idea how good it was going to be! The eggplant and the peppers really made for a spicy and flavorful sandwich - something I can see us having, again.
The End of Week Three
We've been at this for three weeks, now - and are finally seeing some results! Victor is down seven pounds and I am down five - and it's quite obvious we have not been suffering in the food department! This is the incentive to keep going - and to keep eating well!
It's good to know that portion control - and going to the gym - actually works. I'm having fun reworking recipes and coming up with new ways to add vegetables and whole grains to the dinner plate. In a way, I'm kinda going back to how we used to cook when I lived at Tahoe back in the '70s with grains and vegetables creating the majority of the plate.
Back in those days, an avocado, tomato, cream cheese, and sprouts sandwich on freshly-baked 9 grain bread was a typical lunch when we were home. I just pulled out my 1972 copy of the Vegetarian Epicure and am having fun looking at all the stuff we used to make when we were being the cool kids living in the mountains. Of course, like the Greens Cookbook and The Moosewood Cookbook, it is not exactly low-cal - there's heavy cream in everything - but there are plenty of ways to get around that. I'm using them for ideas - not strict recipes.
And speaking of not strict recipes - that was definitely tonight's dinner. A homemade Blue Cheese Dressing on top of lettuce, radishes, cucumber, hard cooked eggs, tomatoes and peppers from the garden, and a few slices of pork from a grilled pork tenderloin. Really simple - and really good. I'm rather amazed that we're already happily used to smaller portions. It's been a bit of a challenge to start, but I'm starting to see a pattern and I'm getting used to dealing with what I would once have termed minuscule amounts of things.
The dressing was merely blue cheese, mayonnaise, sour cream, non-fat milk, worcestershire sauce, lemon juice, and salt & pepper - just enough for two salads. It was definitely rich, but when you look at the actual salad, there weren't a lot of high-calorie fixin's there. I'm not quite ready to start adding cakes, pies, and cookies back into the routine, but a decent dressing on a salad is important.
Three weeks down and 49 to go. I can't believe I'm looking forward to going back to the gym!