This Mama Cooks! On a Diet

The day of reckoning - Happy (gluten free) Thanksgiving!

Well T-Day is here. I made all the sweet potato and pumpkin pies yesterday, the only challenge coming from the gluten free pie crust mix. I used The Gluten-Free Pantry’s Perfect Pie Crust Mix, which makes two pie crusts. Unfortunately, the crust was too dry even with 12 tablespoons of butter (!) and a little additional water. In a panic, I added a few tablespoons of Spectrum Naturals Organic Shortening, which helped. The crust was still a bit crumbly, but rolled out O.K. The crust did split in places even though I pierced it and lined it with aluminum foil and beans while baking. Still, it worked and I have two gorgeous pies.

I was very impressed with Pamela's Products Wheat-Free Amazing Bread Mix that I used to make bread for the stuffing. It cooked up very well, and was moist and really tasty. The crust was delicious, too. I almost felt bad about cutting it up and toasting it to make stuffing.

Hope today’s cooking adventures are going well for you. Now I’m off to get the turkey ready to go into the smoker and the Thanksgiving potato dishes and stuffing into the crockpots.

Happy Thanksgiving everyone!

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Thanksgiving side dishes with a little help from BlogHer and my crockpot

Well, I thought my Thanksgiving menu was set. Then I opened up the latest enewsletter from BlogHer and I saw this post from my friend, Kalyn of Kalyn’s Kitchen, Make-Ahead or Crockpot Recipes Can Help with Timing for Thanksgiving Dinner.

Thanksgiving dishes in the crockpot. Oh joy, something I haven’t done before! Many of the dishes were by my friend, Stephanie at The Year of Crockpotting. (Gosh, I’m doing a lot of name dropping here, but I do know Kalyn and Stephanie, having met both of them at BlogHer conferences.)

Gluten free stuffing recipes

Besides doing crockpot recipes, Stephanie does gluten free ones! Since my mother-in-law is coming next week, I’ve been trying to find a good GF recipe for her and settled on using a gluten free bread mix to substitute for the bread. She has two: Crockpot Cornbread Stuffing and Perfect Homemade Crockpot Stuffing. I’m going to use the second one and add some venison Italian sausage to it. I have yet to find a truly healthy stuffing recipes, unfortunately, so might as well go all out and make it as yummy as possible.

Healthy holiday polymeal cooking with the Healthiest Meals on Earth

Why not create a healthy polymeal feast this Thanksgiving? Jonny Bowden, Ph.D., C.N.S, is a nationally known expert on weight loss, nutrition, and health. His new book Healthiest Meals on Earth: The Surprising, Unbiased Truth About What Meals to Eat and Why shows how to combine ingredients – what he refers to as “polymeals” – that promote long-term health to create meals that will literally save your life.

A polymeal is a meal composed of ingredients that enhance heart and blood vessel health. The seven magic ingredients are red wine, chocolate, almonds, garlic, fish, fruits and vegetables. Though every meal doesn’t contain them all, Dr. Bowden’s intention is to include ingredients in every meal that mimics the effects of those seven touchstone ingredients and that duplicates their health effects.

By eating the vital ingredients featured in Healthiest Meals on Earth as part of a balanced diet, Dr. Bowden claims you can cut the risk of heart disease by 75%, boost overall heart health, and add years to your life. The book has been endorsed by a virtual who's who in the world of integrative medicine and nutrition, including Mehmet Oz, M.D., Christiane Northurp, M.D., and Barry Sears, Ph.D.

The Healthiest Meals on Earth – not just a cookbook

When the folks at FSB Associates emailed me about the book, I was reluctant to accept a review copy since I’m overwhelmed with too many cookbooks. But Healthiest Meals on Earth is so much more. It’s a nutrition textbook with beautiful photographs and yummy looking recipes. The only failing in the book is that nutritional information (calories, etc.) aren’t listed along with the recipes. Still, you can go over the ingredients list, guesstimate calories, fiber and fat grams from a similar recipe, then figure the POINTS by typing it into a Weight Watchers POINTS Calculator.

I’ve been dipping into Healthiest Meals on Earth and have been enjoying looking over the recipes and the nutritional and health information. I’m very intrigued with the polymeal idea. (The book is divided into three sections: Four-Course Polymeals, One-Pot Polymeals with Simple Sides, and Delicious Drinks: The Liquid Polymeal.)

I’m so excited by this that I’m considering making his Healthiest Holiday Meal for Thanksgiving:

• Citrus-Stuffed Herbed Turkey (recipe below)
• Roasted Brussels Sprouts, Asparagus and Broccoli with Toasted Hazelnuts
• Holiday Waldorf Salad
• Cranberry-Orange Relish
• Sweet Potato Pie with Almond-Oat Crust

The challenge will be to use roasted pine nuts instead of tree nuts since my daughter has a nut allergy. (Pine nuts are not nuts. They’re seeds.) Also, I can make the Sweet Potato Pie without the crust, which make it nut-free and gluten free for my mother-in-law.

Wow, I’m getting excited about polymeal cooking! Check out Healthiest Meals on Earth and join me.

Got too much squash? Try a Summer Squash "Lasagna" Bake

I was looking for a recipe to use up our large supplies squash and zucchini from the garden, and at the same time use up some of the ground venison we have in the freezer.

In the Taste of Home’s - The Ultimate Ground Beef Cookbook, I found a recipe that would do the trick - Zucchini Beef Bake by Christy Saniga. I revised it to make it healthier and more weight loss and diet friendly. I decided to go with summer (yellow) squash since we had more of that. Either should work.

Summer Squash “Lasagna” Bake
Gluten Free - Yield 10-12 servings

Ingredients:

• 8 cups of water
• 6 cups sliced summer (yellow) squash
• 1 1/2 pounds lean ground beef
• 2 medium onions
• 1 large garlic clove, minced
• 3 cups cooked rice
• 12 ounces tomato sauce (use leftover spaghetti sauce in a pinch)
• 1 8-ounce container of small-curd cottage cheese
• 3 egg whites, slightly beaten
• 2 teaspoons minced fresh oregano or 3/4 teaspoon dried oregano
• 1 1/2 teaspoons minced fresh basil or 1/2 teaspoon dried basil
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 1 1/2 cup of shredded cheddar cheese

Directions:

1. Cook rice according to directions on box or package.
2. In a medium sized pot, bring water to a boil. Add the summer squash. Return to a boil. Reduce heat. Cover and simmer for 3 minutes or just until tender.
3. Drain and immediately place squash in large bowl of cold water. Drain and pat dry.
4. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.
5. In a skillet, cook the ground meat, onion and garlic until the meat is no longer pink. Drain.
6. Stir in rice, tomato sauce, cottage cheese, egg whites, oregano, basil, and salt.
7. Arrange half the squash in a greased 13x9x2-inch baking dish. Top with meat mixture.
8. Arrange remaining zucchini over top and then sprinkle with shredded cheese.
9. Bake uncovered at 350 degrees F for 40 minutes or until bubbly and cheese is melted.

Make it even healthier

• Use lean ground turkey or ground venison. Meat substitute crumbles are an option for vegetarians.
• Instead of white rice use brown.
• Use low or non-fat small-curd cottage cheese.
• Use low-fat cheddar or Parmesean cheese. Reduce amount to one cup.
• Once the cheese bakes, it is easily peeled off the top, and you can always remove it for further calorie reduction.
• Add 1 cup shredded zucchini or carrots.

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The red soups of summer

Paul Simon may have sung, "Kodachrome, it gives us those nice bright colors.
Gives us the greens of summers. Makes you think all the world's a sunny day, oh yeah!" But I think red is the color of summer, at least when it comes to these two low calorie, refreshing summer soups. Both are low in Weight Watchers POINTS, too!

Watermelon Soup with Floating Meringue
From Every Day with Rachael Ray (June-July 2008)
Serves 8

Ingredients:

• 14 cups seedless or seeded 1-inch watermelon chunks plus 4 cups small watermelon balls (from about 12 pounds watermelon)
• 1/4 cup sugar (use a no calorie substitute like Stevia)
• Juice of 1 lemon
• 8 meringue cookies (Try this recipe for 1 POINT Chocolate Chip Meringue Cookies if you want to make your cookies from scratch.)

Directions:

1. Using a blender, working in batches, liquify the watermelon chunks with the sugar and lemon juice. Transfer the soup into a large bowl, cover and refrigerate for at least 4 hours.
2. To serve, pour 1 cup watermelon soup into each of 8 small bowls, divide the watermelon balls among the servings and top each with a meringue cookie.

Weight Watchers POINTS = 3 (2 cups of soup and the cookie)

5 reasons why soup is healthy for dieters and everyone else

I'm having a get together next week and have decided to turn it into a "soup and salad" party. While doing my online research, I found out that soup is an excellent food for anyone trying to lose weight or eat more healthfully. Here are a few reasons why:

1. Eating soup helps cut your intake of food. By having a bowl of low-calorie soup prior to a meal, you can cut your total mealtime intake of amount of food and calories. According to Penn State researchers, diners consumed 20 percent fewer calories when they had both the soup and entree compared to when they did not have soup. The authors cautioned people to pick low-calorie, broth-based soups that are about 100 to 150 calories per serving.

2. Soup is convenient. Thank goodness for Amy's Soups. Not only are they organic, but many of them are low calorie, low fat, high fiber, vegetarian, and delicious! According to The Journal of the American Dietetic Association, 97% of people who ate soup as part of a low-calorie diet thought soup was a valuable part of their weight loss plan.

Whether you buy Campbell's, Amy's, Progresso, or a store brand, there are many terrific healthy choices for soup. Read the labels, pick the healthiest ones, and stock your pantry! Canned soup takes a few minutes to heat up. So if you always have it around, you won't be as tempted to cheat. Plus, it's easy to take to work, and you can often find healthy soup on the menu at most restaurants.

Working out and a revised Grapefruit Salad with Seared Shrimp recipe

For Christmas my husband gave me a gift certificate for five sessions with a personal trainer at our local rec center along with a 20 visit pass. I was excited to work with a personal trainer figuring that she could come up with an exercise plan that would compliment what I was doing with my physical therapist to rehab my knee.

When I met with Stephanie during our fist session a month ago, she gave me a set of leg exercises (leg press, leg extension, etc.) similar to what I was doing in PT. She then added core and arm exercises using an exercise ball, dumb bells and a lat pull down machine.

My New Routine and Some Challenges

I now go to the gym three times a week. I use a stationary bike for 30 minutes then I go into the weight room and work out for another 30 minutes. In the month I've done this, I've already been able to ratchet up the weight and reps.

The only thing I don't like about working out at the rec center is that I keep running into people I know. Talk about seeing me at my worse - sweaty, in workout clothes, and with no makeup. Oh well.

I wish I had more time to work out, especially now that I don't need to go to PT any more! (Yes, I'm doing very well according to my surgeon and can rehab on my own now.) However, my schedule and my family's is too busy right now to do more than three session a week.

That's fine because my routine is getting a little boring and I'm finding excuses not to go. To combat this I plan to download Ken Follet's World Without End on my iPod just to listen to while I exercise. I've been dying to read the book, so it should motivate me to exercise just so I can listen to the story.

It's also been a challenge to get together with Stephanie since we both have such busy schedules. We've only met once, but I don't mind because I'm comfortable working out on my own. Plus it'll make my five sessions with her last longer.

I look forward to our next meeting in a couple of weeks. Besides adding some new exercises, she always gives me interesting handouts about health, exercise and eating right. I really liked the recipe she gave me from Bob Greene that combined three things that I love - grapefruit, salad and SHRIMP! Then I looked at the nutritional info and did the Weight Watchers POINTS. Uh oh.

At 11 POINTS per serving, this was a really bad recipe for those trying to lose weight. To lower the POINTS total I give some tips below the original recipe. You can make the original recipe for all those skinny people in your life then make a version for yourself and any others at your table who are trying to lose weight or stay trim.

Pre-Op, Post Thanksgiving Update

Well, it's been more than a month since I re-injured my knee and been off my weight loss, diet and exercise routine. Parties, get together with friends, and holidays didn't help. (Yes, I've gained back some of the weight I lost.) But I go under the knife - well, the orthoscope - tomorrow. Then it's recovery and probably physical therapy, which means finally being able to (slowly) work out again.

And I'm looking forward to it.

Exercise has helped me feel better physically, especially my back and hips. I slept better, too, when I was able to work out. Since I haven't been able to exercise - though hobbling around can be extremely exhausting - my insomnia is back. And gaining some weight back makes me uncomfortable in my skin.

Here are my goals for the next few weeks:

1. Get back on the Extreme Fat Smash/Celebrity Fit Club diet starting Monday. This should give me enough recuperation time so I'm able to cook up things for myself as well as make a grocery run.
2. As soon as I get the o.k. from the doctor, start exercising again.
3. Cut back on the diet Red Bull and diet Rock Star drinks. They're becoming addictive.
4. Magically forget that there's all that delicious cheese in the refrigerator.
5. Remember that we never got out the shrimp I bought for Thanksgiving due to aforementioned cheese.

Speaking of shrimp, how about a shrimp Extreme Fat Smash Diet recipe to get you motivated?

My complete Thanksgiving meal (dieters beware)

I'm printing out all my recipes and making the final runs to the supermarket, cheese shop, and health food store. And yes, I'm off the diet bandwagon, so if you're trying to lose weight and not be tempted, you may want to skip this post even though I'm using several Weight Watchers recipes.

I'm going to make Alton Brown's Honey Brined Smoked Turkey and two Weight Watchers dishes - Cranberry-Cherry Compote and Weight Watchers Sausage, Apple and Cornbread Stuffing.

I'm also making a Cranberry Cocktail Sauce to go with the tail-on shrimp appetizers. (I love shrimp for the taste and because you can eat a lot even if you're on a diet.) Cranberries were being sold BOGO (buy one, get one) this year at my supermarket, so I needed a recipe to use up the other bag.

The November 2007 of Bon Appetit magazine was particularly inspirational. I will be making their recipes for Green Onion Gravy (gluten free since it uses cornstarch!), Brussels Sprout Hash with Caramelized Shallots, and Pumpkin Mascarpone Pie.

Oh, and I'm making a ham in the crockpot for Nathan who swears he hates turkey, and mashed potatoes.

TIP: This year I'm printing out everything and putting the recipes in plastic sheet protectors so my magazines won't get messed up from food stains and splatters. Afterwards, I'll put the recipes in my three-ring binder for next year's use.

Cranberry Cocktail Sauce

Ingredients:

• 1 1/2 cups fresh cranberries
• 1⁄4 cup tomato ketchup
• 1⁄4 cup raspberry preserves
• 1 1⁄2 teaspoons hot sauce, or to taste
• 1 (1⁄4-inch thick) slice of a large onion
• 1 tablespoon prepared horseradish
• 2 tablespoons honey

Instructions:

Place all ingredients in a food processor; pulse until smooth, yet chunky. Pause several times to scrape down the sides of the processor. Makes 1 1⁄2 cups.

Recipe by Crescent Dragonwagon, Relish magazine November 2007. Picture by High Cotton Food Styling & Photography.

Green Onion Gravy

Ingredients:

• 2 cups (or more) Shortcut Turkey Stock (I'll be using plain old chicken stock out of a can. I'm a busy gal who believes in short cuts.)
• 2 tablespoons water
• 4 teaspoons cornstarch
• 3 green onions, white parts and green tops chopped separately
• 1/2 cup heavy whipping cream
• 1 tablespoon chopped fresh Italian parsley (we still have lots of fresh parsley left from our garden)
• 1 tablespoon chopped fresh sage
• 1 teaspoon chopped fresh thyme

Directions:

1. Scrape juices and browned bits from reserved roasting pan into large glass measuring cup. (Since we're smoking the turkey, I'll be grabbing the juices from the drippings in the smoker. I just need to figure out how to do that.)
2. Spoon off fat, reserving 2 tablespoons. Add enough stock to pan juices to measure 2 cups. Whisk together 2 tablespoons water and cornstarch in small bowl until smooth.
3. Heat 2 tablespoons reserved fat in large saucepan over medium heat. Add white parts of green onions. Sauté until beginning to color, about 6 minutes. Add degreased pan juices, 2 cups stock, and cream. Whisk in cornstarch mixture. Simmer until reduced to desired consistency, whisking occasionally, about 8 minutes. Stir in herbs and green onion tops. Season with salt and pepper.

Weight Watchers Sausage, Apple and Cornbread Stuffing

This is very close to Cornbread Stuffing with Dried Cranberries recipe from Weight Watchers that I posted back in 2005. I wrote last week that I was going to make it Thanksgiving. Now I've changed my mind seeing that this recipe for Sausage, Apple and Cornbread Stuffing has only 2 Weight Watcher POINTS per serving.

The only problem for those of you dieting and following Weight Watchers is since the stuffing recipe makes 12 servings, you'll have to guesstimate how much to put on your plate for your 2 POINTS worth. I don't like when Weight Watcher recipes do this. Instead, I like it better when a recipe says something like 1 cup = 2 points. Much easier to figure out.

Since I was planning to make Cornbread Stuffing with Dried Cranberries, I went out and bought two bags of Bob's Red Mill Gluten-Free Cornbread Mix so my mother-in-law can eat it, too. (No gluten for her). Instead, I will make one batch of cornbread and substitute 8 oz. of that for the stuffing dry mix.

Also, I'm thrilled that I already have all the ingredients on hand. Now I don't have to buy dried cranberries! I'm going to double it as well since I love leftover stuffing, too. (I like stuffing better than the turkey, don't you?)