Omnivore

January 10, 2015 – Chipotle bean burgers and kale salad

Posted on January 10, 2015 by Beebamom

Somehow I manage to delete the picture of the dinner tonight. It is a chipotle bean burger and a kale salad dressed with fat free Italian salad dressing. I buy these vegetarian burgers in a pack of twelve at Costco. They are quite tasty and ready in about 2 minutes. This is good because we spend the day working on our daughter’s move back home and I need something that will be ready quickly.

For lunch we go to Baja Fresh where I have a salad with shrimp. I do not use their dressing and eat only a couple of pieces of the avocado. I eat no chips. The important thing to realize is that YOU are always the one in ultimate control. No need for formal exercise today since running up and down the stairs many times carrying all sorts of stuff counts!

A picture that I do manage to save is the one from breakfast. I have breakfast pizza. It is a sandwich round, toasted, tomato slices, oregano, and one slice of chez (fat free cheese.) I really like this breakfast although I really need to drink my tea first and have my breakfast afterwards since the tea and pizza really do not go together.

Breakfast pizza

Posted in Vegetarian | Tagged breakfast pizza, chipotle bean burger, diet | Leave a comment

January 9, 2015 – Breakfast for dinner!

Posted on January 9, 2015 by Beebamom

Today I eat two breakfasts, one at the appropriate time and one for dinner. John goes into his office today and I am going out to lunch and then later we will slog home through the heavy commute traffic. I know I will not feel like going to a lot of trouble at dinner. Breakfast for dinner seems an easy solution.

My first breakfast is ham and chez on an English muffin. I’ve already had ham and chez once this week so this time I put it on an English muffin instead of sandwich round. At least it is a little bit different!

I have lunch at Le Boulanger. Being conscious about what choices I will have to make, I bring along a packet of fat free salad dressing. I buy these packets either on Amazon or Minimus.biz and always carry one when I want to avoid fatty salad dressing. I order a salad with shrimp and a roll. Unfortunately the shrimp is in some mayonnaise but it is not too heavy and there is not too much shrimp. So I eat my salad with my fat free dressing and I eat part of the roll. It turns out to be a pretty sound selection for lunch. It takes me quite a while to eat and is filling.

Salad with shrimp from Le Boulanger

Our commute home is terrible and what should take about 50 minutes turns into an hour and a half. I am so glad that I did not plan to make some elaborate dinner. We unwind with a little popcorn and then fix our dinners separately. I have two eggs over-easy on unbuttered low-calorie, high-fiber bread and a snausage (soy pattie.) Since it is dinner, I permit my self two eggs, a luxury! The oozing yolk seems decadent after a week of very little fat. Yum, I love my breakfast for dinner!

Two over-easy eggs on toast, a snausage and a cup of tea

Posted in Vegetarian | Tagged Breakfast For Dinner (BFD), diet, Eggs, fat free salad dressing in packets, Le Boulanger bay shrimp salad | Leave a comment

January 8, 2015 – Shrimp with brown rice and pea pods

Posted on January 8, 2015 by Beebamom

I decide to go with a toasted sandwich round and peanut butter for breakfast today. All the breakfasts I eat are about 200 calories but the PB breakfast has the most chance of creeping up. I always measure my portion carefully, scraping off the peanut butter that mounds up on my half tablespoon. I remind myself that peanut butter that sticks to the bottom of the spoon also is not mine to have. Each half of my toasted sandwich round gets a half tablespoon. Any peanut butter that is left on my half tablespoon measure is donated to John.

Yum, peanut butter!

Lunch was the same lunch as Monday except with mustard instead of mayo.

For dinner we had one of my favorite choices, shellfish. This time shrimp. I am lucky to be able to eat this since both of my sisters are allergic to shellfish. Somehow I managed to dodge that bullet. Our dinner tonight was skewered shrimp with steamed pea pods and brown rice cooked by the Cook’s Illustrated oven method (spray a 9 X 9 baking dish, add 1.5 cups rice, 2 1/3 cups of boiling water, 1 tsp. salt, cover tightly and put in a 375 degree oven for 1 hour. When done fluff, recover for 5 minutes. Perfect rice every time.)

Grilled shrimp, brown rice and pea pods

Posted in Shellfish | Tagged brown rice, Cook's Illustrated brown rice cooking method, diet, healthy lifestyle, pea pods, peanut butter, shrimp | Leave a comment

January 7, 2015 – Lamb chops with sweet potato and broccoli

Posted on January 7, 2015 by Beebamom

Before we get to dinner, here is another one of my many different breakfasts – a sandwich round topped by 1 oz. of ham and a slice of non-fat cheese (cheddar flavored). John and I refer to this ersatz cheese as chez. It helps to differentiate when we are talking about real cheese and faux cheese. We also call the vegetable breakfast patties we had yesterday, snausages. “What are you having for breakfast this morning, John?” I ask. “Oh, I think I’ll have a snausage and chez McMuffin,” replies John. I know exactly what he’s talking about.

Multi-grain light English muffin with ham and chez

Because we are having red meat tonight I have to be really careful in my choices today. Red meat packs a much higher caloric punch than chicken (good), fish (better), or shellfish (even better.) Really, eating a plant based diet would be the best but it’s hard for us to eat vegetarian or vegan and feel satisfied. For lunch I have two of things that I picked up at Costco yesterday, bolani and baby kale. This lunch, low in calories and high in fiber and antioxidants, not only tastes good but takes a pretty long time to eat. It gives my brain time to know that I am full.

Kale salad with bolani

Dinner is a pretty straightforward affair – roast the sweet potato, steam the broccoli, and grill the lamb chops.

Grilled lamb chops, roasted sweet potato, and steamed broccoli

Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged broccoli, diet, Lamb, lamb chop, sweet potato | Leave a comment

January 6, 2015 – Whole wheat pasta with tuna and broccoli

Posted on January 6, 2015 by Beebamom

I can’t eat breakfast until I figure out what I am eating for dinner. How much I can eat for breakfast and lunch is predicated on what we are fixing for supper. Since Tuesday is usually GBOF day (giant bowl of food), we are going with lower-in-calories and higher-in-fiber whole wheat penne with canned tuna and broccoli. This is a great pantry dinner. Even if you don’t have fresh broccoli you can substitute in a frozen vegetable. It’s a tasty, easy, and filling diet dinner.

But first a word about breakfast and lunch. For breakfast today I eat a Morningstar breakfast pattie on a multi-grain light English muffin. These patties are a fine substitute for fattier and higher caloried pork sausage.

Morningstar breakfast pattie (original flavor) on a multi-grain light English muffin

I don’t really like to eat the same thing two days in a row. I know there are people who, when they are dieting, eat the same things day in and day out because they do not really want to have to think about it. Since my two previous diets both lasted over a year, I need some variety. (In those two diets I lost 60 and 70 pounds. This time I only have to lose 50!) So my lunch today is at least a variation on a theme – deli ham on a multi-grain sandwich round with mustard, lettuce and tomato served open-faced.

Open-faced ham sandwich

After lunch John and I go to Costco. I am so into my diet that I am not even tempted by the free samples. While at Costco we pick up a package of lentil bolani which make a very filling snack or lunch and a bag of baby kale for salads.

Bolani – a thin, stuffed, Afghani crepe

Baby kale because who couldn’t use a little superfood!

Our dinner tonight is salad and penne with tuna and broccoli. I love a big bowl of food for dinner! To keep calories down and fiber up we use whole wheat pasta. I’ve saved some broccoli stems and mix the diced pieces of stem in with the florets. Yay, for GBOF Tuesdays!

Mixed salad of baby kale, other lettuces, mushrooms, and tomatoes

Whole wheat penne with broccoli and tuna

Posted in Fish, Pasta | Tagged broccoli, canned tuna, diet, healthy lifestlye, meatless breakfast pattie, snausages, whole wheat pasta | Leave a comment

January 5, 2015 – Chicken, green beans and butternut squash

Posted on January 5, 2015 by Beebamom

A word about my methodology. I basically follow an old Weight Watchers program. I worked for Weight Watchers for several years about 20 years ago so I am most familiar with the program that was ongoing then. It worked for me. I see no reason to fiddle around with a winning (or losing) procedure.

First, most importantly I keep a food diary. I like to decide what I am planning on eating for the day and write it down first thing in the morning. For some reason it helps to keep me honest. I am making a commitment for a day’s worth of eating and all I have to do is fulfill it. As soon as we figure out our exercise routine, I’ll put that in as well.

Food Diary

I start today’s eating with a favorite breakfast – scrambled egg and English muffin. I like my scrambled eggs cooked soft so that I can spread them on the English muffin almost like jam. I cook them with a little butter spray, toast my multi-grain light English muffin, John makes my tea and I print out today’s New York Times crossword puzzle. What an enjoyable way to start the day! Even when I am not dieting I rarely overeat at breakfast.

One egg scrambled on a light multi-grain English muffin and a cup of tea

At lunch today I eat my usual open-faced sandwich. This one is chicken with tomato, lettuce and a little low calorie mayonnaise. I use the large lettuce leaves as a top for the sandwich, like bread. I also have a cup of 60 calorie soup. Much like breakfast, this is rarely a meal at which I overeat except if we happen to go out. We eat the vast majority of our lunches at home.

Open-faced chicken sandwich

And now we come to the meal that gives me trouble, dinner. We have been starting the process around 5 PM, cocktail time. Usually there is wine and some sort of hors d’oeuvres. This is followed by cooking the meal while we enjoy more wine and more munchies. Then we eat dinner. So tonight we have popcorn and soft drinks. John cooks one chicken breast which we split and I make butternut squash and green beans with no butter added. We enjoy a glass of wine carefully measured to be just 4 ounces with dinner. I rarely eat dessert so that’s not a problem.

A very successful first day!

Pan roasted chicken with butternut squash and green beans

Posted in Poultry | Tagged butternut squash, chicken sandwich, diet, English muffin, green beans, pan roasted chicken, scrambled eggs | 1 Comment

Hello, 2015

Posted on January 4, 2015 by Beebamom

Here it is, 2015. 2014 was not a particularly good year for us from a healthy lifestyle point of view. My knee continues to trouble me. My mobility is not what it used to be. Stairs are very difficult and running has been reduced to shuffling about as quickly as possible. On top of that John has had both his hips replaced – one in June and the other in December. So our exercise has been way down. Couple this with a “poor me” attitude and you have the makings for substantial weight gain.

We are excellent at gaining weight. It is one of my talents that actually surpasses John’s. The good thing, though, is that we are also excellent at losing weight. So this being a new year and tomorrow being the first Monday of the new year, it is diet time. Goodbye red meat! Farewell goblets of wine! Sayonara junk food! Hello healthy eating and exercise.

Today we plan a menu and go shopping. Tomorrow is chicken Monday!

Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged diet, exercise, healthy lifestyle | Leave a comment

May 2, 2014 – Roasted cod with pureed chickpeas and parsley sauce

Posted on May 3, 2014 by Beebamom

I saw this recipe in Food and Wine magazine in the Tuscan dishes to cook. I’d already tried the chicken cacciatore from the same issue. So when John walked in the back door with a handful of parsley he had picked, I figured we would give it a try.

Sea bass is actually the called for fish but since they didn’t have any at the store, we decided on cod. The fish is marinated for 30 minutes and then rolled up and roasted at 400F for about 11 minutes. John used a skewer in the fish to keep it from unraveling. It was cooked perfectly. The pureed chickpeas and the parsley sauce were both a combination of water, oil, lemon rind, and lemon juice with some chopped up rosemary and garlic in the chickpeas as well. The recipe needed a goodly amount of salt and some cayenne pepper to make it tastier. I served the fish with an arugula salad.

I’d make this again.

Roasted cod, chickpea puree and parsley sauce served with an arugula salad

Posted in Fish | Tagged chickpeas, cod, parsley sauce | Leave a comment

April 26, 2014 – Seared ahi, mixed rice, broccoli

Posted on April 26, 2014 by Beebamom

Pretty good dinner tonight. I really like the combination of wild, brown and long grain rices. Also I try to pump up the broccoli by adding some mushrooms, onions and garlic and finishing the whole thing with a little sesame oil and toasted sesame seeds. John does a great job on the fish. It is hard to get it warm in the middle without overcooking it. Very tasty though.

Seared tuna, rice and broccoli

Posted in Fish | Tagged ahi, broccoli, rice, tuna | Leave a comment

April 25, 2014 – Leftover chicken with penne

Posted on April 26, 2014 by Beebamom

I add some more vegetables to the chicken dish we had Tuesday and warm up the leftover pieces of chicken. John makes some penne. Planning for good tasting leftovers is a lot better than takeout!

Chicken cacciatore with penne

Posted in Poultry | Tagged chicken cacciatore, penne | Leave a comment