Another weigh in

Down another 2 pounds, for a total of x-5 so far :)

This week is still barley, as I have not run across anything else in my travels. I'm thinking tomorrow or Wednesday will be a good soup day.

And, oh yeah, a weigh in

We are x-3 pounds. 3 pounds is good! Especially considering I am judiciously good throughout the day, and it all goes to hell at night when I can finally relax without children (who hate sleeping through the night, by the way) and fill my face with naughty things. I'm working on that, but managed to lose despite it.

Radishes Result

As usual, stirfry just plan makes me smile. Sesame oil, garlic, tons of veggies, soy sauce, ginger, what's not to love, exactly? Plus Ramen. In a more ideal time, I will make it with brown rice. But seriously, those noodles just make my heart sing. I'm a simple person, I realize.

The radishes were good! I tasted them raw and they didn't seem especially spicy to me - not sure if different 'strains' of radish are more or less spicy, but these were pretty bland. They took to the flavors added to the stir fry nicely, and added a good variety of texture when I was eating it. I feel a little bit like I copped out, but I did cook with a new thing, so what the heck? When I was reading online, looking for ways to cook radishes, a few suggestions of oven roasting came up. I LOVE oven roasting vegetables. Mmmm. So when I go to my A-team grocery store, I will see what they have in the way of radishes, and give roasting them a try.

I believe next week will be Barley. This week would have been if I hadn't come across the radishes. Again, I'm sure I've had beef & barley soup out of a can, but I certainly have never cooked with the stuff. I bought a bag, and I'm looking forward to making a hearty soup.

Week 3: Radishes!

I've never given radishes so much as a second thought before. They are tiny, red, hard, and sometimes I see them in my salads. But I was a girl with no clue at the grocery store today. It didn't help that I was at my least favorite of all the grocery stores; my C-Team of grocery stores, if you will. Their produce department is underwhelming (sorry, Shaw's). I will concede that the produce is generally fresh, but the selection just blows.

Radishes caught my eye, so radishes it shall be! I'm planning on making a stirfry tonight. What can I say, I'm a creature of habit? I can overload it with vegetables so it is healthy and filling and makes me happy. I never promised to make new recipes with my new ingredients!

Week 2: Lentils

So, dried lentils were a success! I did a Moroccon Chicken & Lentil Stew. Ish. I'm kind of obsessed with A Year of Slow Cooking. I am also kind of obsessed with cooking with my crock pot - it has been my lifesaver these past 2+ years.

I used her recipe for Moroccan Lentil Soup and her recipe for Indian Spiced Lentils with Chicken as guides, and sort of wung it from there. It was tasty, and (tmi) gave me gas for days. Aren't you glad you know that? I kept it light on the spicy/heat factor because I was giving some to my mom, but otherwise it was tasty.

Which brings us to Week 3: I am stumped. Help me.

Leeks: The Results

First off, let me say: God Bless Trader Joe's. They sell a package of cleaned & trimmed leeks (you get two), which made this ingredient a lot less intimidating and easy to work with. Now if I ever want to buy them at the store, I know approximately how much to clean & discard. So, kudos to you, Joe's. For that and approximately 50 million other reasons, I love you.

As I mentioned a couple days ago, I made a relatively basic beef & vegetable soup. I did end up adding orzo - incidentally, another ingredient I have never actually cooked with. If I get behind a week, I'm totally counting this. Leeks really have a mild, oniony flavor, so they didn't overwhelm or stick out. That also means you kind of don't know they're there, but that's ok. I know they contributed to the undertones of the dish - or, to use my favorite phrase from Food Network's 'Chopped' - the flavor profile of the soup. I happen to be eating leftovers for lunch as we speak. Mmmm, Mmmm, good.

That soup left me with one more leek in the fridge, which I used last night in an Asian Stirfry. A stirfry that I would make every meal of every day, quite frankly. It came out so yummy! I used sesame oil to sautee onion, leek, shredded cabbage, mushroom, red pepper, and garlic. For spices, I added curry, coriander, ginger, and a pinch of Chinese Five Spice, plus some soy sauce and terriyaki sauce from a local restaurant (the best ever). Separately, I cooked up two package of ramen - yes, ramen - putting the flavor packets aside. I removed the veggies from the pan, and cooked the noodles in more sesame oil to get them a bit crispy, and added the flavor packets there. You might notice this isn't the healthiest stir fry, undoubtedly why it was so dang delicious. I added the veggies back in, a bit more soy & terriyaki, and voila! Oh, I also diced some cooked chicken from a rotisserie chicken breast I bought at the grocery store.

I feel pretty successful this week. When I told my husband the first ingredient of 2011, he said "Oh, you were serious about that?" Yes! Yes I was. Here's hoping I stick with it as long as I can. Next week? Lentils. Something I've never had except in a can of Progresso soup, which totally does not count.

Week 1: Leeks!

I've decided that my little project should be extended to any food I've never personally cooked with. Mostly because I'm a fairly adventurous eater, so I've tried lots of things at least once. My comfort zone as far as what I use in the kitchen is much narrower. I'm trying to also incorporate things I don't have very often, or haven't had in a long time. So while I am sure I've had leeks in something at some point in my life, I've definitely never purchased or cooked with them.

I've got beef & vegetable soup simmering in the crockpot. I had a package of ground beef that needed to be browned, and another part of my healthy eating/weight loss approach is to incorporate a lot more soup into our diet. My husband read an article that rated eating foods with more water content as the #1 most effective way to lose weight and keep it off. Makes sense! I first sauteed a vidalia onion, a sliced leek, chopped garlic, and mushrooms in some olive oil, along with some caraway seeds, celery salt, basil and thyme. Added the ground beef, cooked, and drained the fat. Put it in the crockpot with beef broth and added a can of diced tomatoes. When I want a flavor reminiscent of sausage, but don't want to actually muck around with it, add caraway or fennel. I also put in a 1/4 cup of sherry, and a couple of bay leaves. I think I'm cooking to cook some orzo and add it shortly before we eat. Also going to steam some mixed veggies and toss them in. Not way fancy, and perhaps a little bit within my comfort zone as far as preparation, but whatever. I never promised you a rose garden.

Pantry Staples

I've been giving some thought to my other "resolution", which is to try a new food (or cook with a food I have never cooked with before) every week in 2011. Since I'm focusing on A) cooking healthier, B) cooking more consciously and C) cooking more economically, my thoughts naturally went to our pantry, and the things I feel like I always MUST have on hand for meal components. My list probably looks a lot like many people's, but I felt like reflecting on it anyway.

I love things in cans. I'm not ashamed. I know a lot of people cringe at sodium content, but not I. I think it comes from my days (now renewed) of counting calories. I wouldn't even look at any other numbers most of the time. Sugar, protein, and fat sometimes, yes. Not the best habit, not the worst, but there you have it. So don't judge my pantry, or if you do, keep it to yourself. I like it. :)
So here, in no particular order, are the things I can't live without in my pantry. No, really. If I run out, I feel empty inside until I get to the grocery store.

• Coconut milk (preferably lite)
• Diced tomatoes (some plain, some garlic, etc)
• Near East Rice pilaf - I stock up when it goes on sale for 88 cents
• Baked Beans - I prefer B&M over Bush's, cuz that's how I roll
• Kidney beans, pinto beans, cannelini beans, garbanzo beans
  
• Sauerkraut (with caraway seeds, if I can find it - Bavarian style)
• Lipton's Onion Soup Mix
• Condensed Soup - Cream of Chicken, Cream of Mushroom, Tomato
• Chicken & Beef Broth
• Pasta (Rotini, Bowties, Spaghetti)
• Egg Noodles (not to be included with pasta because they are just not the same)
  

I'm getting distracted, but that is really the barest essentials, the things that immediately come to mind. Coconut milk is great for curries and Thai or Indian inspired dishes. Diced tomatoes go in everything from chili, spaghetti, soups, and cassroles. Rice pilaf is great to have on days I'm stuck for a starch. Baked beans are a great pairing with kielbasa or hot dogs for a really quick dinner. Sauerkraut is my favorite pairing with kielbasa & pierogies. Mmmm, pierogies. I hadn't even heard of the Bavarian style til last year, but trust me. Eez gooood. The soups/broths shouldn't come as any surprise, because so many recipes call for them - especially crock pot recipes, and I live by my crock pot.

We have a pretty amazing spice cabinet (oh yes, they live in their own cabinet) that really deserves a week of dedication all to itself. So I am seldom without the spices I need. I always keep a jar of minced garlic in the fridge! I <3 garlic. Mmmm, garlic. From these thigns I feel like I can always build a meal I enjoy in a pinch.

Auld Lang Syne

Yes, yes - with new years, come new "resolutions". I typically stray away from making resolutions, since when I break them I beat myself up over it. But New Year's truly is the perfect time to start a renewed focus on healthy eating and exercise. Why stress yourself throughout the holidays when there is so much temptation and fattening food? Life is meant to be lived. January marks a cold gray stretch with no (food driven) holidays in sight. Well, Easter looms in the horizon, but I can handle a few chocolate bunnies.

Unfortunately, January also marks the beginning of tax season, aka the four months of the year I work my butt off so I can be home with my girls for the other eight. Working long and funky hours usually means lots of fast food, take out, and lots of late night eating. Hurdles. But acknowledging the hurdles that lay ahead of you before you start the race is better than stepping forward oblivious and tripping over them.

So, here we are. I'm the heaviest I have ever been, excluding my weight when I gave birth to Violet. That's kind of scary. No, that's REALLY scary. This also means I am over 115 lbs away from my previous 'lowest' weight. That sounds like a long uphill battle, and it is. But I've done it once, so I can do it again. Of course, the first time I did it I was unwed and childless and free to go spend two hours playing tennis. Oh, man, I miss tennis. I was terrible, but it sure was fun. I'm sure it'll feel like the blink of an eye before the girls are old enough to bring to the park and we can watch them play as we lob balls around, but right now it seems a lifetime away.

Since I am too self conscious to record my official weight for the anonymous interwebz, we shall mark today's weight as x, and all future as x-5, x-30... Until I feel comfprtable enough with where I am at too tell you what x was today. I know the last time around, I was way happy to tell everyone how huge I had been when I no longer was. Here's looking forward to that day coming again, and here's to everyone else's dreams for themselves in 2011, whatever they may be.