Fish Soup with fennel, zucchini and potatoes

I was wrong. I did take a picture from last week. I found it in my camera when I was getting last night’s dinner off the stick. Since we ate this two nights in a row, it counts twice.

This soup is really delicious. We made last week’s version with shrimp, scallops, salmon and snapper – just a little of each. Our broth was a little thin tasting since we didn’t have many shrimp shells to make broth with. We supplemented the shrimp stock with clam juice, chicken stock and water. This time we added a serrano chile for a little spice. There is some chopping involved but after cooking the vegetables for maybe fifteen minutes, you add the fish, then the shellfish and it’s done. In the picture you see that I served with rustic bread. (I really cannot be trusted with bread. We ate the whole loaf. Good thing it was very small.)

Fish soup with fennel, zucchini and potatoes

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Hiatus over

I see that I haven’t posted anything since June 11 which is two weeks ago. Actually I haven’t even taken any food pictures except for one. But even though I had a week with Jon and the kids, ate out a lot, and went with my best friend to wine country, I did manage to post a new recorded low. I am not sure how that happened but I am not asking any questions. Lose weight – be happy.

One of my out to eats was a dinner with Jon, John and the kids at Bobby Flay’s Mesa Grill at Ceasar’s Palace in Las Vegas. Here’s what I ate. It was really tasty.

ANCHO CHILE – HONEY GLAZED SALMON
Spicy Black Bean Sauce
+ Roasted Jalapeno Crema

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Pan roasted chicken with green beans, rutabagas and mushroom chicken gravy – June 11, 2012

This is kind of a crazy week. Jonathan, Nathan and Sam have come to visit and so it is hard to eat normally time-wise and food-wise. On Monday we didn’t even sit down to dinner until after 9 PM which is really too late. But at least we made a regular chicken Monday dinner. I did, however, use more fat in the meal than I would have if it were just John and I eating. I felt like I needed to make it tastier for Jonathan.

John pan roasted the chicken, I pressure cooked the rutabagas and cooked the green beans in a little water and butter. When the water had boiled away the green beans took on a little browning from the butter. Everyone liked them a lot. We made some gravy and added sauteed mushrooms. John and I ate the rutabagas and Jonathan had noodles.

I don’t think there is going to be much posting this week. Today is already Thursday and I’ve forgotten to take pictures for the last two days. Things are a little chaotic a dinnertime.

Chicken Monday

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Whole wheat penne, tuna, pea pods and other vegetables plus salad- June 10, 2012

Tonight’s dinner started the same way as last night’s, with a colorful and tasty salad.

Colorful salad

While the whole wheat penne boiled, John sautéed the vegetables that I had cut up. These were mushrooms, red bell peppers, carrots, celery, pea pods, green onions, and garlic. To moisten the sauce he put in a little chicken stock. The chunks of tuna (from a can) were added after the pasta and the sauce came together. This prevented the tuna from getting too mashed up.

Whole wheat penne with tuna and vegetables.

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Portobello burger, grilled potato and salad – June 9, 2012

With much amazement I found golden beets at one of the grocery stores in St. George. Roasted golden beets make any salad special. This salad with beets, tomatoes, mushrooms, green onions and a herb lettuce mix was dressed with very low fat Italian dressing.

Salad with roasted golden beets, tomatoes, mushrooms and green onions

I microwaved the potatoes until they were almost done then split them in half. Sprayed with a little olive oil spray and seasoned with salt and pepper, John put them on the grill. His hamburger and my mushroom joined the potatoes.

John at the grill


Mushroom, hamburger, red bell pepper and potatoes grilling

My mushroom was served on a thin sandwich round spread with a little goat cheese. Other garnish were grilled red pepper, grilled green onion and arugula.

My dinner!

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Shrimp stir-fry served over brown rice – June 8, 2012

In less than two weeks I will have been on my new healthy lifestyle eating plan for a year and a half. What I have discovered is that I was very good at losing weight in the first half of the time and very good at maintaining the weight loss in the second half. Unfortunately, I would still like to lose another 20 to 25 lbs. My eating habits over a week’s time have turned into two very good days, two bad to very bad days and the rest kind of in the middle. Weight loss is stalled. I’m up a little, down a little and it is frustrating. Frustrating turns into a dinner like last night’s.

Lots of good intentions to begin with – 4 oz. of shrimp with 2 oz. of whole wheat pasta, a bunch of vegetables, a salad and a little wine. Somehow that turned into 4 oz. of pasta (with parmesan cheese instead of just salt), no salad, lots of wine and even part of a bag of pretzel pieces (left over from when Jonathan was here in April.) So bad. I could not even bring my salt and wine bloated self to step onto the scale this morning. Apparently I was tired of dieting yesterday.

But hope springs eternal and today was a good day. John suggested we have a shrimp stir-fry using the shrimp we were supposed to use yesterday. I cut up a massive amount of vegetables and made brown rice. (I also cut up my thumb but omitted it from the stir fry.) John cooked our dish in the electric wok which gets super hot.

John busy at the electric wok

I spent some time while he was cooking looking out the window. It is so pretty here.

Hmmm, should we eat outside tonight?

When dinner was ready, I took half my portion. I always like to know that there is something left for seconds. We ate dinner inside since it was still over 90 outside and watched Roger Federer lose in the semi-finals of the French Open. (rats)

A little bit of shrimp and a lot of vegetables in an Asian stir-fry served over brown rice

Anyway, just goes to show that just because you screw up one day, you can make it better the next. Plus it teaches valuable maintenance skills.

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Turkey chili and arugula salad – June 5, 2012

After we got back from playing tennis this morning, we assembled the ingredients for turkey chili. We browned the extra lean ground turkey and sautéed a bunch of mushrooms, onions and bell peppers. We added three kinds of beans, diced tomatoes, chiles, seasonings, tomato paste, V8, cilantro, and soy sauce for a little umami. We put the whole thing in the slow cooker and served it later with a topping of cilantro and green onions and a squeeze of lime. A salad of arugula rounded out the dinner.

Turkey chili and arugula salad

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Pork tenderloin, grains medley and zucchini- June 4, 2012

I skipped what we ate on Monday night after we got in from driving to Utah because it consisted of a store bought chicken, couscous and broccoli. Quick, easy and uninspired.

After perusing the freezer to see what we actually had here in Utah and then going to the grocery store, we defrosted some pork tenderloin, and also defrosted a container of brown rice and farro. I sautéed some onions, peppers, garlic and tomatoes with the zucchini and heated up the grains. I added the leftover whole wheat couscous to the mix. John cooked the pork. Dinner done.

Pork tenderloin, grains and zucchini

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Dining Lite on the road

On Sunday we left for Utah. Traveling through Yosemite and staying over night in Tonopah, NV doesn’t give me a lot of good choices. But I do my best. Here is what I ate.

Breakfast at McDonald’s consisted, as always, of an Egg McMuffin with no cheese and coffee lightened with a purchased container of 2% milk. I find it really annoying that if you want milk in your coffee instead of cream you have to buy it.

Egg McMuffin with no cheese, coffee and a container of 2% milk

For lunch we stopped at the Whoa, Nellie Deli in Lee Vining. I chose a salad with a piece of salmon and fruit. I always carry my own single serving packets of fat-free dressing.

Salmon, salad and fruit

Finally for dinner I went with the vegetarian entree which was fettuccine with vegetables in a white wine sauce. If there are no shellfish entrees on the menu, eating vegan is the best choice.

Vegan dinner

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June 1 & 2, 2012

We went out to dinner on Friday at the Revival Kitchen in Berkeley. To keep from embarrassing my dining companions I did not take any pictures. However, this is what I ordered – Spring salad with breakfast radishes, NO dressing and halibut with vegetable ribbons and squash puree. There was also supposed to be fingerling potato chips but I asked them not to put them on the plate. It is definitely easier for me to not to be tempted than have to sit the whole time the plate is in front of me trying to hold my right hand down in my lap so it won’t eat potato chips. Plus I get to feel quite good about myself ordering this way in front of other people. The dinner was excellent!

We are getting ready to leave for Utah on Sunday so we were in eat-down mode tonight. I made a giant salad of leftover bits and pieces and we also had chipotle bean burgers on sandwich thins. It was filling if uninspired. Sorry, no pictures.

We are stopping tomorrow night in Tonopah, NV. This sorry place has seen a little revitalization with the refurbishing and opening of the Mizpah Hotel. Their main dining room is closed at the moment but there is a cafe which we hope will have some good choices. More about this tomorrow.

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