Tag Archives: healthy

…and calm returns

Posted by sarah3030 in cooking, food, Home cooking, My food creations, photography, work it out and tagged with , , ,

There are things that always work for me when I start spinning as fast as I was a couple of days ago.

  1. Go for a long walk with good conversation.
  2. Write it out so I can put it behind me.
  3. Take pictures of food.
I’m not always rooted in rational and linear thoughts.  You know how if you thrust a stick into a spinning bike wheel everything comes to a halt?  Sometimes I need somebody to be a stick.  Take a 4.5 mile walk with a good friend (who also told me to leave figure skating with Scott Hamilton on The List 2.0 - why not?) who thinks you have valuable opinions and perspective on items outside of your own head and I’ll show you how to feel better immediately.  I appreciate all the kind comments after my spazzing out two nights ago.  All of you offered perspective and helped to calm me down as well.
As for taking pictures of food – let me show you what I made for lunch.  Tuesday nights are my longest work out nights.  I do a 30 minute run/walk on the treadmill and then a 60 minute Zumba class.  I try to time it so I can do some arm strength training in the middle of the two workouts.  by the time I get home it’s after 9:30pm and I don’t like to eat dinner that late.  Typically I’ll make a smoothie and just drink a lot of water.  When I can, I make a bigger lunch on Tuesday afternoons.  This gets me through the evening without feeling starved at 9pm.  Todays lunch was salmon and tomato orzo.

Risotto-like Orzo

I make this orzo all the time.  It’s really versatile and flavorful and is a quick and tasty substitution for time consuming risottos.  I start by sauteing a shallot in a tablespoon of olive oil.  Once the shallot has softened I add 2 cups of vegetable broth.  You can supplement some of the stock with water or white wine if you’d like.  Add salt and pepper to taste.  Today I added some grape tomatoes I had in the fridge.  I wanted them to burst while everything cooked.  Here’s the super easy part- bring to a boil, put the lid on it, turn to a simmer and let cook about 10 – 12 minutes until all the liquid is absorbed.  No need to drain anything and all the flavor of the stock or wine is in the pasta.  I like to add fresh spinach in the last couple of minutes of cooking and put the lid back on.  The spinach wilts really nicely into the dish.  After it’s done you can add some grated parmesan to increase the creaminess of the dish.

I splurged by starting with butter.

My salmon is super easy too.  Pat dry the fish filet and sprinkle with salt, pepper and dill.  I add two very thin lemon slices to the non skin side of the fish also.

Fresh lemon is so good with salmon.

After the flip.

I put my salmon into the melted butter with the skin side down first.  After about 6 minutes I flipped the fish with the lemon slices still in place over.  The lemon cooks and lemon juice steams it’s way into the fish filet.  I just love salmon like this!

After the cooking.

Lunch is served!

There you have it.  How I come back down after a minor meltdown.  Walk it out.  Write it out.  Take pictures of food.  A fairly fool-proof 3 part plan.  Add my favorite work out night to the mix and today is going to be okay.

Hopeful

Posted by sarah3030 in cooking, food, My food creations and tagged with , ,

I had a 2nd interview today.  It was good.  I liked it.  I love the opportunity.  I am hopeful.  I will be anxiously awaiting what happens next.

In the meantime, I fell off the vegan wagon.  It was sour cream that did me in.  One tablespoon of sour cream.  Sometimes between vegan diet and working late nights at the Kitchen Conservatory I don’t get a lot of calories in.  Yesterday’s total was only 850.  I woke up this morning and was out of bananas, which meant I did not make my now signature breakfast smoothie (banana, peanut butter, cocoa powder, almond milk, ice).  I had some coffee while I got ready for the interview.  On my way home I was famished.  I had no healthy snack to tide me over.  I started to have unpure thoughts about a cheese pizza.

I righted my mind and headed to the grocery store to pick up just a few things.  I’ve been thinking about making black bean burgers for a few days.  I wanted avocado to go with it.  (And I needed bananas!)

I whipped up a pretty tasty black bean burger.  Black beans, oats, frozen corn and some bread crumbs.  Plus cumin and chili powder.  I was worried they may be too dry, yet they were great!  Perhaps the best batch I’ve made.  I sliced up the avocado to put on top of it.  Then…I went one step further.  I had some just-past-the-expiration-date sour cream in the fridge.  I had lime and cilantro.  I thought a mixture of those things would be really nice on the burger.   I threw them all in the blender.  It was good.  It was really good.

In retrospect I could have thrown the avocado in with the lime juice and cilantro and made a guacamole type sauce and omitted the sour cream.  I wasn’t thinking straight!  I wanted them both!  I have let down vegan month.

I won’t let it get me down.  I’m going to keep going to finish October strong.  Since October 1 I’ve lost 8 lbs.  That was 11 days ago.  I’m like a Biggest Loser contestant.  The fact that I’ve worked out at least an hour every day is a factor as well, but I cannot deny that being very conscientious about what I am eating matters.  It is true that my desire for sweets is less.  I was hoping that would be a side effect of vegan month as well.

Here’s hoping…for a new job and for less cravings for dairy!

Eggplant meatballs

Posted by sarah3030 in My food creations and tagged with , ,

I am suffering with some kind of cold or sinus thing.  All I wanted tonight was a hot, comforting meal.  And a nap.  I took the nap and much to my disappointment, found no hot comfort food magically in my kitchen.  I was a little burnt out on the food I had in my fridge as I’ve had leftovers most days this week.  Spaghetti and meatballs sounded so good.  Here in Vegan Month that would need some adjustments.  I had run across a recipe for eggplant meatballs and made the trip to the store to buy the few things I needed to make this happen.

I couldn’t remember which blog I found this recipe on, so I worked off of memory.  I sauteed an onion and garlic, added a diced up eggplant and lots of italian spices.  Once that was all soft I put it in the food processor with about 1/2 cup bread crumbs and walnuts I had in the pantry.  I used my small cookie scoop to portion out “meatballs” onto a cookie sheet and baked for half an hour on 400.  Meanwhile I made a really simple marinara, just adding a can of crushed tomatoes to sauteed shallot and mushrooms.

I didn’t take a single picture of any of it.  I don’t feel well.  This whole process took an hour.  I was hungry.  I wish I had.  It turned out well.  The eggplant meatballs were very good.  A very different texture than a real meatball, but the flavor was great.  Please don’t forget to spray some nonstick spray on your cookie sheet.

Vegan month is ongoing and going well.  I relaxed my rules a few nights ago to have dinner with my cousin.  Risotto and sweet potato pie were involved.  This first week was all about getting into some better food habits and trying to kick the sugar/alcohol dependency I have.  Is dependency too strong of a word?  I don’t think it is.  When Meg, the roommate, was here, we were imbibing with a pretty high frequency.  I keep lots of wine in stock, she makes a great gin and tonic – it was a match made in heaven.  All good things must come to an end.

I would like to incorporate another good habit into this next week.  On top of my ongoing cleaner eating, I’m going to leave the tv off as I fall asleep.  I like noise and I maintain that I can play music or a book on tape or something from my iphone, but no tv.  The light from it is really messing with my falling asleep.  And often times I’m playing something that I get caught up in watching and that isn’t helping either.  I need all the sleep I can get.

Stay tuned for on the job updates…

Vegan again

Posted by sarah3030 in Event, My story continues and tagged with ,

Years ago, I’m talking 2008, I read a book called Skinny Bitch.  It was of the opinion that veganism was the only way to go.  I thought it was a compelling read and took the plunge and became what I referred to as a six day a week vegan.  It was not as much about animal rights as it was about the environment and health reasons.  I believe some of the resources the book cites in that humans were making ourselves sick and crazy with the things we put in our bodies.  I changed what I put in my body, with pretty good outcomes.  It was hard to sustain as I then started working for a company where we went out to lunch 4 times a week.  My then husband was tolerant, if not supportive, of my new hobby, but not really willing to go all in with me.

A couple of weeks ago my mother landed in the hospital with a bought of colitis.  I listened to her list the medications she is on and for what to the doctor.  I knew I needed to do some eating overhauling once again.  This caught my eye just a few days ago:

There is an organization that has declared October the Vegan Month of Food.  There is a huge list of vegan bloggers that are planning on blogging once a day.  This seemed like an ideal time to commit to a month of vegan-ism once again.

I’m going to be all about green smoothies and entrees centered around vegetables and quinoa.  The timing is right, I’m mentally prepared and I have a giant community at my fingertips.

Today was my own day one of easing back into this and I declare it a success!  Even working for 5 hours in the chocolate shop did not tempt me.  I hope to post some of the meals and recipes that I make in the future.  Tonight, I’m exhausted and it’s enough for me to declare a win for the day.