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!

by Tim Dineen

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!

by Tim Dineen

Salads and Sore Muscles

Today was our first actual workout day at the gym. Other than some sore leg muscles, I'm feeling pretty good. Not being an anatomy major - I think they're the quadriceps I'm feeling. Whatever. I used them, today. What a concept!

On the plus side, it actually went better than I thought. I'm 66, overweight, and haven't been inside of a gym in 10+ years - and even then it wasn't like I was serious about anything. The simple fact that I walked out alive, today, is a step in the right direction.  Our trainer is a great guy who is probably mid-to-late 50s - not a 20-something jockhead - and he gets it. He pushed but was patient, he explained things. His best sage advice was talking about training the mind to learn how to do all of this, because, while it's all physical work, it's the mind that's driving it. That was my aha moment - and the moment I realized that I really can do this. Lord knows I'm stubborn, pigheaded, and obstinate - they're the perfect qualities for this! The other thing is we're in this for the long term. 3 days a week for a year. A whole year.

And, so... the food consumption is going to change, a bit. Not a diet, but a bit of a change in direction. In spite of the ridiculous desserts and such that I've made and posted over the years, we actually eat pretty well. We just eat too much. I make something and at any given moment, the neighborhood could drop by and there would probably still be leftovers. And being raised in the '50s when there was no such thing as wasting food and the mantra was you cleaned your plate because of the starving children in China has had it's psychological effect, as well. That needs to change. It's part of the mind driving it - a conscious effort to pay attention to what I'm preparing and plating. Cook less. Smaller portions. Stop eating when you're full. It's okay to leave food on the plate. And that will help me hone my portioning.

Summer really is the perfect time for me to start this. The garden, plus local produce, is going to make for some great meals and there's several months before we transition to fall offerings. I should have a pretty good grasp on this by then. We're not counting calories, per se, but I am going to be paying a bit more attention to them - making smarter choices.

And it's being realistic about our goals. We want to lose some weight, we want better mobility, we want better stamina, we want to be active at 80 - there are so many people we haven't annoyed, yet.

And we're not expecting anything to happen any time, soon. Nor are we expecting miracles and GQ Bods. I wasn't buff when I was 25 - I'm not expecting I will be 40+ years later. On the other hand, it would be nice to see my toes, again.

I'll settle for the little victories!

by Tim Dineen

More Salads

We've joined a gym, boys and girls. A real gym. With all sorts of wild machines and a pool and a sauna and racquetball and a basketball court and people to tell you what to do - or don't do, as the case may be. And it was free - a perk from our new medical insurance!

One of the benefits of getting old!

On Friday we will get fitness assessments and see what we need to be doing to stick around on this earth a bit longer. I plan on outliving this disgusting sham of an Administration and Congress and want to be around to dance with glee as their lives and reputations are ground into the dirt. I need to be in good shape to celebrate and dance that much! I'm already working on the food end of things so seeing what we need to do on the physical activity end of things shall be interesting. No radical changes. Slow and steady wins the race.

On the food end of things I've been making various salads - most recently a Bean and Corn Salad with yellow beans we got from road stand in Lancaster on Monday. Today was a Caponata of sorts with a myriad of vegetables and our first zucchini from the garden. There's a lot more out there and I've been looking at various things to do with them.

The bean salad was pretty simple:

Bean and Corn Salad

• 1 can yellow corn
• 1 can white beans
• 1 can kidney beans
• 1/2 pint yellow string beans
• olive oil
• balsamic vinegar
• basil
• oregano
• mint
• parsley
• salt & pepper

Cut fresh beans into small pieces. Blanche and then quickly cool in ice water. Drain.

Drain bean and corn and rinse well.

Chop the fresh herbs and mix everything together with the oil and vinegar. Check for seasoning and add salt and pepper, as desired.

This is one of those recipes that you just make. Switch out the beans, omit the fresh beans, add a different fresh bean. Use corn, don't use corn. Add cherry tomatoes. It's just a simple, basic, throw-together salad.

The caponata I made is an agrodolce - sweet and sour - dish with a score of fresh ingredients. They usually won't call for quite as many vegetables as I used, but... what the hell.

No precise measurements, here. It's another just keep adding to the pot dish.

Caponata

• leek, diced
• white onion. diced
• red onion, diced
• carrot, diced
• celery, sliced
• red pepper, chopped
• eggplant, peeled and cubed
• zucchini, diced
• yellow string beans, cut into thirds
• assorted olives
• broccoli
• olive oil
• red wine
• passata
• golden raisins
• sherry vinegar
• assorted fresh herbs - basil, oregano, thyme, parsley, rosemary, mint

Saute the onions and leeks until wilted. Add the carrots and celery. Continue to slowly add the vegetables, stirring and cooking as you go. When all the vegetables are in the pot and have cooked down a bit, add  some red wine - half-cup to a cup, depending upon the amount of veggies you have.

Simmer until the wine cooks down a bit. Add the passata - tomato sauce. A cup or two. Then add the raisins, vinegar, ad the chopped herbs.

Stir everything together and simmer until everything is tender and the sauce has thickened - easily 30 minutes.

Check for seasoning and add salt and pepper, if desired.

Traditionally, Caponata is a Sicilian dish of eggplant, celery, olives, and capers. There are many variations - and some call for pine nuts or chunks of cheese - but one of my favorites is Little Gram's Eggplant Appetizer - a dish we've made forever. I thought of adding pine nuts and pecorino to this batch, but decided the pot was full enough. I did make a goodly amount.

While this is absolutely wonderful cold as a salad, it also is fantastic as a pasta sauce, served over polenta, or used as a topping for bruschetta. It's pretty much only limited by your imagination.

Can't wait to order those dancing shoes!

by Tim Dineen