Grains - All together in one spot

As I begin to move once again to a less restricted diet, I am starting to check out adding very limited amounts of grain to my midday meal. My plan is to move to a non-boxed meal to replace one of the HRM meals once a day. I originally thought that I would make that my evening meal, but it would make sense, once I have finished the school year, to make the midday meal the more complicated meal. This will let me forego evening clean-up, and allow me to avoid the kitchen at that awkward time from about 7:00 to 9:00, when I have habitually given in to my need to snack - even when I'm not hungry.

ANYWAY - I am building a list of calories for 1/2 cup of various grains. Then I can add them to meals. Here is the list, as compiled from many internet sites:

Long grain rice - 102 calories
Medium grain rice - 121 cal.
Brown rice - 108 cal.
Wild rice - 83 cal.
Quinoa - 80 cal.
Barley - 97 cal.
Couscous - 88 cal.
Bulgar Wheat - 76 cal.
Steel Cut Oats - 85 cal.

I am not sure why the medium grain rice is so much higher in calories than anything else. I will have to re check that, but I did look it up on two sites already. The Bulgar wheat is a real surprise to me, I expected it to be much higher. Since it is low, I may be able to modify a tabbouleh salad to fit into a 250 calorie meal. It also helps to let me know which items can be switched out for a piece of beef or for a medallion of turkey tenderloin. Balancing is much easier when I don't have to figure out everything at the moment.  If I can pre-figure the caloric cost of different cuts of meat (at 3 oz. per meal) and legumes (1/2 cup servings) I can use my recipe prowess to add the right spices and vegetables to each meal.

Back at It Again

Wow! Really tough holiday season, here. Food-wise, that is. Generally, I don't make cookies for Christmas, because I've always known they were too much of a temptation. Well, this year I was asked by two people to bring cookies for parties, and I had a small gathering at my house as well. I decided to start making cookies, and you know what? I LOVE TO EAT COOKIES! Pretty soon, I was looking up recipes on the internet, buying ingredients for some of my mom's old recipes, baking on the weekends, etc. Then, I'd make four or five kinds, because you can't just bring a cookie platter with one variety of cookies on it. Then I'd have leftovers, and you know who ate those leftovers? Me. Then I started having leftovers on purpose, and I'd make 'test batches' of cookies, and ....

Well, I put on 12 pounds in the month of December alone. Not just cookies, mind you, but cookies were the 'gateway' food. I ate out with my husband more times than I should have, and I wasn't careful to order the 'fit fare' or 'good for you' selections. I now look like Jabba from Star Wars.

Back to HMR.

It is harder to lose weight as you get older. I used to scoff at that idea, but I'm finding it is true for me.
I also have a house that is set up for my own convenience, so I don't move around as much as I used to in my day to day activities.

As I look through the recipes I have here, I am reminded how important planning ahead is, and how important it is to have good habits supplant bad habits. Here's hoping I can get back into those good habits.

Veggie Kabobs

Vegetable kabobs are festive, colorful and low calorie. I made a couple of iterations for my birthday celebration, and they were very good. I called them Greek kabobs and Italian kabobs, although I suspect those labels may be flawed. Still, It's a good way to get your veggies, and as a bonus, the kids at my party also really liked them.

All the kabobs used grape tomatoes and red onions. These are a cold appetizer, not to be confused with grilled kabobs, which are also delicious. I am a little 'out of the box' on these, since I use mozzarella pearls and/or cubed chicken. After some figuring, I discovered that the 'pearls' have 6 or 7 calories per 2.5 gram pearl. A 1/2 inch cube of chicken is a bit more caloric, but also low enough to fit under the 30 calorie threshold for additions to a serving of vegetables. The picture shows plain kabobs, but for my own adult taste, I prefer to add the herbs in the recipes. It's fun to make these for yourself, because you can add your own favorite vegetables in larger quantities if you want.

Greek Kabobs
grape tomatoes
cucumber, peeled and cut into wedges approx 1/2" per side
red onion, cut into 1/2 " to 1 inch pieces, pulling layers apart
green stuffed olives (I use small size)
mozzarella pearls OR fat free feta cheese cubes
dill weed
salt

Using bamboo skewers, thread a tomato, cucumber piece, onion, olive, pearl (or feta), olive, onion, cucumber and tomato. If wanted, dill weed and salt can be sprinkled on the kabob.

Italian Kabobs
grape tomatoes
green pepper (cut into 1 inch pieces)
red onion, cut into 1/2 " to 1 inch pieces, pulling layers apart
small size black olives
chicken breast cooked and cut into 1/2" cubes
Italian seasoning or basil dried and crumbled
salt

Using bamboo skewers, thread a tomato, pepper piece, onion, olive, chicken, olive, onion, pepper and tomato. If wanted, Italian seasoning or basil and salt can be sprinkled on the kabob.

Eating Leaves

Farmers market is open! I can do this diet MUCH more easily when there is good, fresh food available at the farmers market. I love to experiment with new ways to eat my old favorites.
I get my radishes and beets with the leaves still on them, and then use the leaves in a couple of ways:

1. As I cut the stems off of the beets and radishes, I choose the smaller leaves that are not bruised or torn. I wash them gently but thoroughly and drain them on a dishtowel. I add those leaves to a spinach salad, four or five of each kind to a large bowl of spinach. Then, I add a small handful of washed blueberries, a few mandarin orange sections, and a quarter of a red onion, sliced longways into narrow slices. The radish leaves add a nice peppery flavor, and the beet leaves give a sweeter taste and visual interest to the salad. I use a 35 calorie raspberry dressing. I used to add a couple of walnuts, but I don't miss them, especially if I'm eating this salad with an entree.


2. I use the large beet leaves to stuff with tomato, mushroom,  pepper, corn and hamburger. I blanch the leaves very briefly, then roll the stuffing into them, like grape leaves. Four of these fit into the HMR entree tray. I am replacing 1 meal a day of HMR entrees with my own 200 to 280 calorie meals. The trick is to balance small amounts of meat and grains with larger portions of vegetables. I have a couple of stuffing recipes that I will be sharing in the next week or so, after I get photos and calorie counts on them. I'm pretty proud of the stuffed beet leaves, and I think they even look like a professionally prepared meal.

I had the stuffed beet leaves for lunch with a cucumber, mint and onion salad (salt and fat free sour cream included). I had the spinach salad with extras for dinner with a beef stew entree and then made a pear/banana vanilla shake for dessert. I was satisfied with a full tummy and happy taste buds.

Rhubarb Strawberry Dessert

I'm adding some long overdue recipes to this blog. First off, I'm busy baking a rhubarb strawberry dessert. It's like a cobbler or crumble, except the amount of topping has been cut way down from the original recipe. Here it is, with the nutrition information alongside it.

Preheat over to 375 and spray a 10 by 5 glass baking dish with cooking spray.
Combine cut up rhubarb, quartered strawberries, flour and Truvia baking blend in a bowl. Stir to combine well. Turn into greased baking dish. Combine brown sugar, rolled oats (that's regular oatmeal) and whole wheat flour in a small bowl. Mix well. (I use clean fingers to get it combined and to break up the brown sugar.) Drizzle in the vegetable oil and combine thoroughly. Sprinkle the oat combination evenly on the fruit. Bake at 375 for 30 - 40 minutes. Let cool. (This will thicken as it cools.) Cut in six pieces and serve with a really thick vanilla shake instead of ice cream or whipped topping.


The original recipe I modified this from had 305 calories per serving. The biggest changes were:

1. Doubling the amount of strawberries, thus bulking up on fruit to make up for less topping.

2. Using 1/2 cup Truvia baking blend instead of 1 cup sugar in the fruit portion.

3. Cutting the amount of topping by 1/3. Changing the ratio of sugar to oats from equal portions of each to 3 oats to 1 sugar proportions.

4. Taking out 1/4 cup butter and using 1 teaspoon of vegetable oil instead in the topping.

5. Serving this with a thick vanilla shake instead of ice cream is also a really good modification.

I have had to make a change so it thickens up better. Put 2 tablespoons of flour in the fruit and sugar mixture. Then, leave flour out of the topping.  This keeps the calorie count the same, but the dessert can be eaten while it's still warm, and will be thicker.

Peaches and Cream Shake

This is a simple twist on a peach shake. When making the shake, add a peach (I added one and a half of a small peach) to the water before adding the powder. Then add a tablespoon of sugar free vanilla syrup to the mix just before adding the ice cubes. The extra vanilla adds a sweetness and smoothness to the shake that reminds me of my mom's peach torte, with none of the calories.

Spinach Blueberry Salad with Ginger Dressing

It is spinach season at the Johanek household. Here is another spinach salad with a non-oil dressing. I took a picture of this salad WITH some cheese sprinkles, but decided that they were superfluous, and not worth the extra fat and calories. I also used a slice of white onion for the pictured salad, although this does have a better taste with red onion.

2 cups spinach, well washed
1/2 cup blueberries, rinsed
1/4 red onion, sliced and cut into 1/2 inch pieces
1 tablespoon slivered almonds

Put the spinach on a serving plate, arrange other ingredients on the spinach. Drizzle with Ginger Dressing.

Ginger Dressing
1 teaspoon powdered or grated ginger
1 tablespoon stevia or other sweeetner
1/2 teaspoon dry mustard
1/4 teaspoon red pepper flakes (optional)
1/4 teaspoon garlic powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
2 tablespoons apple cider vinegar
2 tablespoons water
1 teaspoon poppy seeds (optional)

Whisk together all ingredients.

The lack of oil makes this a very thin dressing. But the calorie count (39 calories for the full recipe) is very good, and worth it to me to leave out the oil.