I had a dream..well more like a plan

I had a plan for today and I actually followed that plan.  One gold star for me.  I started my day relaxing, which everyone should do on Sunday morning.  The laziness was followed by meal planning and then shopping at Right By Nature.  I love this store.  It's a local organic grocery store with a great selection and much more economical than Whole Foods.  (No offense to Whole Foods, but it's December and I've got gifts to buy!)  I took Aaron along, but he gets all freaked out around wholesome, all natural foods, so he just stood outside for the most part. 

Breakfast today was Stonyfield Lowfat Blueberry Yogurt and a PecanPie Larabar.  Lunch was a serving of hummus with an ounce of Stacy's Naked Pita Chips and a piece of string cheese.  Dinner was delish..Herb Roasted Pork Tenderloin, Oven Roasted Potatoes and Sugar Snap Peas.  I limited by coffee intake to two cups today and drank my daily dose of water (1 liter).  I even had enough calories left for 1/2 slice of pumpkin pudding pie.  Overall I'm pleased with myself today, but I do need to get more fruit and veggies into my diet.  Oh wait...add and apple as my mid day snack to that menu.

New look...same great taste

I've decided that a blog about food isn't really the best thing for someone trying to eat a little less of it.  After all, there is more to getting healthy than just eating healthy food right?  I can tell you one thing for sure, there was not an abundance of healthy food at my Thanksgiving table this week and it didn't help that we had 2 celebrations within 5 days of one another.  I guess I also realized I'm just not that much of a creative writer, so I'm going to stick with something I do well, talk about myself.  The most important thing for you to know is that I'm committed to this new healthy lifestyle and yes, I will fall of the wagon, but I will jump back on and dust the powdered sugar off.  The second most important thing for you to know is that I can't do this alone and I will be looking to you, my three followers,  to help me along the way.  Sound like plan everyone?

I woke up this morning and declared I was going to get back to eating like a normal person today...that didn't happen.  I made it through breakfast with a bowl of Cheerios and skim milk and have every intention of a little leftover turkey and a salad, but we ended up at a mexican place and it was all down hill from there.  I think I recovered nicely at dinner with some wheat crackers, hummus and an ounce of cheese, but that dang apple pie kept calling to me.  It would be nice if I could just trash all the leftovers, but my mom and hubby might be a wee bit ticked if I did that.  All I can say is tomorrow is another day. 

On the fitness front I did manage a 30 minute fast ride on the good old stationary bike.  I'm sure that helped burn a few hundred calories today.  I always feel so much better after a good sweat.  I've got to find a gym with fitness classes.  Take my advice ladies...DO NOT let your husband pick out the fitness center and DO NOT let him lock you into a one year prepaid membership without checking it out.  I'll save that story for a rainy day.

I've Seen The Light or is it Lite?

Well for me there was nothing better than 2 big bags of Halloween candy and very few trick or treaters to scare me back on the wagon. I knew when I woke up Sunday morning there would be way too much undistributed candy to take my weight loss plan lightly. It seemed rather unfair to punish my candy loving husband and donate it, but I had to insist they put it out of my sight. Hiding the candy combined with digging into my latest food book “The Healthy Urban Kitchen” did the trick.


I haven’t gone all crazy and started believing that I could eat only whole foods, my life is too chaotic to fool myself into believing I could live by such a strict food code, but I did take away quite a few good things from the book and would suggest it to anyone trying to eat better and by better I mean healthier.

Did you know that:
- America is a nation of children who are expected to die before their parents
- 90% of the money Americans spend on food goes to fast food chains
- The average American eats 150lbs of sugar per year
- The U.S. sprays over 1 billion pounds of pesticides each year on our food
- As Americans we eat less saturated fat and cholesterol than we did 100 years ago, yet we have more heart disease and cancer than ever before

The premise of the book and cookbook is to eat only real food, food that was grown in the ground or had a mother. Additionally the food should be organic, unprocessed and animal products should be grass fed and chemical free. I know this lifestyle is possible, but just not for me. Not now anyway. I need convenience foods sometimes and I’m making a better effort to make sure whatever convenience foods I buy are as chemical free as possible. In defense of the author, he does suggest that you ease into this lifestyle and work with a nutritionist to develop a plan that works best for you and your possible allergens. Most importantly, he stresses the need to examine what we put into our bodies and the benefits or consequences of that food.

The book is broken into 23 chapters with the first 11 chapters providing instructions on how to make your kitchen healthier, how to shop healthier, food allergens and healthy cooking and eating guidelines. The remaining chapters provide recipes for everyday eating. My goal over the next few weeks is to prepare several of these recipes and share my results with you as I attempt to incorporate a greater whole foods mentality into my every day life.

Tonight I have tilapia in the ice box, so I’m going to start with a twist on one of his recipes and make Tilapia drizzled with Balsamic Butter Sauce. Photos, recipe and my thoughts to follow.

- Recipe Update: Tilapia with Balsamic Butter Drizzle

Well I completely forgot to take pictures, but the fish was excellent. Here is the recipe:

Preheat oven to 350.

4 tilapia fillets
salt/pepper
olive oil

Brush the fish on both sides with olive oil. Salt & pepper to your tastes. Cook fish for
12-15 minutes until done. Prepare drizzle while fish is cooking.

1/4 cup balsamic vinegar
3/4 cup butter (unsalted)

Bring vinegar to boil and reduce until you have about 2 tablespoons left. Reduce heat to
low and add butter 1 Tbs at a time. Keep warm until fish is ready to serve and drizzle over
fillets right before serving.

My whole family loved this recipe and I hope you do as well.

Under Construction

I realize it's been way too long since my last entry. Hang in there please. I'm taking some time to rethink this blog and will see you soon.

Attack of the Killer Tomatoes..or so it seemed at the time

The older I get the more I look back on my childhood with fond memories and a longing to go back to them. There is however one memory that I do not wish to relive and try not to remember it all that often either. It is the single reason it took me until my early twenties to eat a tomato. I will, for the sake of this educational blog, recount this life changing event. My family has deep roots in southern New Jersey. As a child I would spend at least a week or two visiting my great grandmother during the summer months. It was during one such trip that I wandered into a neighbors yard and got lost in their tomato patch. I must have been 5 or 6 at the time, so imagine how much this simple tomato garden seemed jungle like to me. I'm sure the experience lasted no longer than 5 minutes, but it felt like so much longer as I listened to my parents calling out for me "Carrie where are you?", "Carrie you were specifically told not to go out of this yard", "Carrie get back here this very instant". Oh how I wished I could get back there, but the more I walked the more it felt like I was trapped in a never ending jungle of vines. You must understand that in south Jersey gardens grow like weeds and the tomato plants are larger than anything I've ever seen. Even to this day they amaze me. Eventually I stumbled out into the yard only to be scolded for wandering off and for ruining a very new outfit. The whole experience gave me a new attitude about the tomato.

Today though, I can say that it is one food I've come to love and enjoy. I've successfully grown my own tomatoes, but not as of late. It's just too easy to find locally grown, organic tomatoes of many varieties. This week I hope to tempt your tastebuds and encourage you all to go out and eat some tomatoes. I know I was a bit lazy in my blogging last week, but I've got plenty for you on the subject of tomatoes. Check me out again tomorrow.

Bewildered by beets no more...

I spend way too much money on magazine subscriptions that tend to go unread, so my mission this weekend was to catch up on my reading. I made it through 3 editions of Natural Heath and 2 months of Cooking Light and am I glad I did. I stumbled upon a wonderful recipe for a nice summer salad. Cumin rubbed steak and root vegatable salad. It was a hard sell, but I got my mom and hubby to agree to try it for dinner this evening. My hubby seemed to enjoy it, but my mom didn't eat any of the root veggies so she basically had a steak salad. Her loss. I don't know about you readers, but beets are a veggie I've always loved, but have been scared to try fresh, so this was my first adventure with fresh beets and it wasn't so scary afterall. I wonder if I could grow some next year? All this research on organic fruits and veggies is making me want to map out plans for a garden next year. Anyway, here is the recipe and I hope you enjoy it as much as I did.

CUMIN-RUBBED STEAK
AND ROASTED ROOT VEGETABLE SALAD
Total Recipe Time: 1 to 1¼ hours
Serves: 4

4 beef tenderloin steaks, cut ¾ inch thick (about 4 oz each)
1 lb beets, trimmed, peeled, cut into eighths (cut into quarters, if small)
½ cup water
2 sweet potatoes, peeled, cut into 1½ x 1-inch pieces
3 shallots, peeled, cut lengthwise in half (about 5 oz)
1-½ tsp olive oil
½ tsp sea or kosher salt
1-½ tsp ground cumin
½ tsp coarse grind black pepper
8 cups mixed salad greens
Sea salt

Sweet Beet Vinaigrette:
2 Tbsp reserved beet cooking liquid
1 Tbsp sherry vinegar
2 tsp brown sugar
½ tsp sea or kosher salt
1½ Tbsp olive oil

Heat oven to 425°F. Place beets in small roasting pan or 9-inch metal baking pan; drizzle with water. Cover pan tightly with aluminum foil. Place sweet potatoes and shallots on 15x10 inch metal baking pan. Drizzle with 1½ teaspoons oil and sprinkle with 1/2 teaspoon salt; toss to coat. Roast vegetables in 425°F oven for 30 minutes or until tender.

Remove beets from pan; reserve 2 tablespoons cooking liquid for vinaigrette. Loosely cover vegetables. Set aside.

Combine cumin and pepper; press evenly onto beef steaks. Heat a large nonstick skillet over medium heat until hot. Place top sirloin steak in skillet; cook 7 to 9 minutes for medium rare (145°F) to medium (160°F) doneness, turning occasionally. Remove to platter; keep warm.

Meanwhile, to prepare Sweet Beet Vinaigrette, combine all ingredients except oil in small bowl; gradually whisk in oil until blended.

Arrange salad greens on serving plates or platter. Top with roasted vegetables; drizzle with vinaigrette. Carve steaks into slices. Season with salt, as desired. Arrange over salad.

Nutrition information per serving: 400 calories; 15 g fat(4 g saturated fat; 8 g monounsaturated fat); 67 mg cholesterol; 783 mg sodium; 38 g carbohydrate; 7.9 g fiber; 31 g protein; 7.9 mg niacin; 0.7 mg vitamin B6; 1.4 mcg vitamin B12; 5.0 mg iron; 29.5 mcg selenium; 5.4 mg zinc.

"Pesti" Peaches!

As I sit here eating my last peach for lunch and contemplate a new topic for the upcoming week, it crossed my mind that I haven't yet touched upon organic vs. non-organic when it comes to peaches. Some say a general rule of thumb is you don't need to buy organic if the fruit or veggie has a thick peel/skin that you won't be eating. I think that's OK if your only reason to buy organic is to avoid ingesting any toxins in pesticides. There are also those with strong beliefs that you should buy and eat only organic produce and products. These beliefs stem from the fact that pesticides have been shown to cause significant environmental damage and have contributed to the growing number of food allergies. We could talk all day on the subject and I'm not likely to convince you one way or the other, but on the topic of peaches.....definitely organic!

A 2008 USDA study found that most non-organic peaches headed for U.S. stores are riddled with pesticides. In fact, 5 of the compounds exceeded acceptable EPA levels. Don't be fooled into believing that you are safe if you buy your produce from a farm stand or farmer's market. The produce might be local and fresh, but if it isn't labled as ORGANIC, chances are you are getting more than just the fruit you paid for. Additionally, the study showed that produce grown outside of the United States may contain pesticides that aren't even approved for use in the U.S. Not good my friends.

In short, be aware of what you are buying and how it was grown or produced. In a perfect world we would all have nice big yards and green thumbs and could grow our own organic produce, but since I tend to kill everything I plant...not an option for me. I know organic goods tend to be a bit more expensive, but as I tell my husband "I'm worth it".