Whole wheat pasta with enhanced sauce

Posted on January 29, 2012 by Beebamom

I was too excited by the pasta to remember to take a picture. We have just moved into a new rental here in Marco Island and the kitchen set up is a little lacking culinarily. We are missing reasonable pots and pans. So it is hard to cook. Until we buy or borrow enough kitchenware, we will have to be eating simply. Tonight was whole wheat strands with Bertolli tomato and basil sauce that I amped up a bit with tomato paste, red wine, garlic, red pepper flakes and oregano. I also added a little soy sauce to cut the sweetness of the jar sauce and give it a little umami. Well, it was pretty yummy. Since there was no protein involved, I could have a larger portion of spaghetti. Yay. Without a scale I am trying to figure out how much weight I’ve gained while in Florida. I’d say about 5 lbs. I’ve got two weeks left to try to get back to where I was before we left for Florida. Seriously, I really thought that this trip was going to be easy. Certainly much easier than traveling cross country or visiting Italy. I guess I didn’t count on falling into the old patterns of eating with family. Sigh.

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Pan roasted chicken breast, mashed rutabaga, haricots verts and mushroom gravy

Posted on January 29, 2012 by Beebamom

Last Wednesday we had Chicken Monday. Even though I have posted this meal quite a few times, it is remains one of my favorites. It is so cozy. Everything turned out really well and we spent dinner hour umming our way through the dinner.

Pan roasted chicken with mushroom gravy, mashed rutabagas and haricots verts

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Seared scallops with steamed new potatoes and mixed vegetables

Posted on January 29, 2012 by Beebamom

In between eating totally out of control, we occasionally eat something reasonable. We got some awesome scallops from Paradise Seafood and had a dinner of seared scallops, steamed new potatoes and mixed vegetables. It is a relief to eat something on program. The green vegetable is peeled and cut up broccoli stems.

Seared scallops with steamed new potatoes and mixed vegetables

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Lentils with turkey sausage, carrots , celery and mushrooms

Posted on January 21, 2012 by Beebamom

I have just finished looking through my archives and much to my amazement found that there are no entries for lentils. Lentils are so delicious and so good for you. They are packed with protein and fiber. They are easy to cook and require no pre-soaking. After rinsing and picking through the lentils, I simmered them in some water for about 20 minutes with cut up onion, celery, carrot and about an ounce of diced turkey sausage. I did that early in the day and later when I reheated the lentils, I added the rest of the turkey sausage (about 6 oz.), some more carrots and celery and a bunch of mushrooms. When the lentils were warmed through but the carrots and celery were still a little crunchy, dinner was served. We topped the whole thing with parsley and green onions. This dish is one of my comfort foods.

Lentils with turkey sausage and vegetables

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Whole wheat penne with tuna, asparagus, onions and carrots

Posted on January 20, 2012 by Beebamom

Yesterday was a day that I ate a lot of small meals. John played tennis in the morning. We played tennis in the afternoon. And I played tennis in the evening. So needless to say we were hungry a lot. I started the day with an egg. I had an ounce of turkey pastrami on a round for lunch. We had low calorie bean burgers for a late afternoon snack and the whole wheat penne for dinner. All these mini-meals were around 200 calories or less with the exception of dinner. It’s not a bad way to keep the hunger wolf away from your door.

The tuna was from a can. John sauteed some onions and garlic in some cooking spray and blanched the asparagus and carrots. When I got home from tennis, we boiled up the pasta, added the vegetables, moistened it with a little chicken stock (me) or olive oil (John) and sprinkled some parsley and green onions on top. The inelegant serving dishes are our bowls for popcorn and for any GBOF (giant bowl of food) while we are on vacation.

Whole wheat penne with tuna, asparagus, onions and carrots

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Rice medley with asparagus, carrots and green onion

Posted on January 19, 2012 by Beebamom

And by rice medley I mean any type of rice that was leftover in the refrigerator. Yesterday we took Sarah to the airport in Ft. Lauderdale. It’s a long boring trip and when we got home, we just wanted something quick and easy. We had some Near East rice pilaf with almonds and some brown rice that we had made during the past week so we microwaved them together and added a fast saute of carrots and asparagus. Then we topped all that with a sprinkling of green onions. Of course I was so ravenous from over-eating all week that I forgot to take a picture.

When I am really into the diet, it is easy to eat properly. My body has expectations about what is coming. But when I eat too much, I set up totally different expectations. I am shooting my blood sugar all over the place and end up starving for the next big meal. I think it will take a few days to calm this down. I plan on helping myself get back on track with lots of exercise and some mini-meals throughout the day. I spend a few minutes every morning planning out the day’s eating and exercise. I write it all down before I do it, not record it after its done. That way I have a responsibility to meet my own expectations. I really don’t like letting myself down. Onward!

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January 16, 2012 The sad truth

Posted on January 16, 2012 by Beebamom

For some reason I thought it would be easy to eat correctly here in Marco Island. There’s a great fish store and a nice farmer’s market on Wednesdays. What I hadn’t counted on was the corrupting influence of family. First, my older sister sees me as an opportunity to snack and drink wine. Couple that with my younger sister visiting this past weekend with my nephew and his girlfriend and three pounds of chopped chicken livers and a bunch of wine And as the coup de grace, Sarah is spending a week here with us. All this results in no pictures of healthy diet-conscious meals. Because there haven’t been any. I am, at this point, terrified that I have stepped on the slippery slope of weight gain. I really, really do not want to be the old me but all my shrunken fats cells are clamoring for more now that they’ve experienced the joy of eating again.

Must do better.

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Pan roasted grouper with smashed chipotle rutabagas and green beans

Posted on January 9, 2012 by Beebamom

I know, it’s chicken Monday. But I decided to break with tradition and serve the quintessential south Florida fish, the grouper. John cooked the grouper perfectly. First he got the pan really, really hot and then seared the grouper on all sides. After that it went into a 250 degree oven until it had barely turned opaque. It was fabulous. I made myself a little tartar sauce with light mayo, lemon juice, sweet relish, garlic powder and tabasco. Yum, it was so good. I had some challenges when making the sides. Usually when I make rutabagas I use the pressure cooker. But in our rental house here in Marco Island there is no pressure cooker. I made them in the microwave. It took a long, long time. It takes about five minutes in the pressure cooker and about 25 minutes in the microwave. They still were not pummeled to death even after all that time. So we had a rutabaga smash as opposed to a mash. I felt they needed a little help so I put in a teaspoon of light mayo and a little chipotle powder. Wow, did that make a difference. They were sweet, creamy and smoky with a little hot zing. The green beans I toasted in a pan with butter spray. They were okay, but not the best. The product left something to be desired. It is amazing to me that in a place like Florida where food can be grown year-round, that there is sub-optimal produce. But all in all, it was a really good dinner.

Pan roasted grouper with chipotle rutabagas and green beans

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The past couple of days

Posted on January 9, 2012 by Beebamom

Two things that I’ve made recently that I forgot to take pictures of were a meal of hors d’ouevres and a turkey sausage dinner. For hors d’ouevres I had Special K chips (you can have a ton of these for not many calories), artichoke hearts in a jar from Costco on top of Special K crackers (please see above parentheses), manchego cheese (I didn’t eat this), and vegetarian California rolls with brown rice. Really not too fattening. Oh, and there was also carrot and celery sticks. My poor brother-in-law, Ted, who is not much of a snacker, ate a few pieces of manchego. He probably went to bed hungry.

The other thing that I forgot to take a picture of was a melange of turkey sausage with small red potatoes, mushrooms, onions and assorted vegetables. A plain, basic meal but very satisfying.

John and I have decided that maybe I should put the camera on my plate before dinner. Hopefully it will stimulate my brain cells to remember to take a picture.

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Turkey chili with arugula salad (2)

Posted on January 6, 2012 by Beebamom

I seem to be in repeat mode this week as I struggle to get back on track diet-wise. Making turkey chili is kind of time-consuming but at the end you have a giant pot of food that just needs to be reheated. The recipe for this dish is here. I was going to make this in the slow cooker but the one we have in Marco was manufactured in the dark ages. So the pot is very small and the ceramic insert is not removable. I’ve made turkey chili on the stovetop, in the oven and in the slow cooker and it all works. The ground turkey available was only the very lean type and was less tasty than the higher fat version. Get the higher fat version if possible. Last night after playing tennis until almost 9 PM, it was nice to come home to a dinner that only needed to be reheated.

Floridian turkey chili with arugula salad

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