There’s No Way In Hell I’m Giving Up

2010 was a year of trying and falling down for me, again and again and again. Sometimes I took longer than others to get back up. Sometimes I was tired for weeks on end with no motivation and took way too long to get back on track. But as I look back at the year I see the positive: I tried. I know didn’t try as hard as I could have, or for as long as I could have, but I did try. And I will continue to try. I truly believe I can beat this weight thing. This is a process, and if I am successful at it then I have a lifetime of maintaining a healthy weight to look forward to, and that will be work as well. So I am not going to let one measly year of false starts hold me back. There is no way in hell I am giving up.

Now, on to a summary of 2010 Shedding the Fat-Suit blog happenings. This year I…

• Learned that I blog the most when I have something to crow about. And continuing to blog helps me stay on track. So I need to blog more! 
• Was approached by companies to host giveaways, which made me feel like big stuff... And I was happy to share this good fortune with my readers.
• Was grateful to procure my first actual sponsor, therapist Julie Gibson. Not only is she advertising on my blog, she offered me Gastric Mind Band Therapy free of charge since I would be blogging about it. Awesome!
• Learned to do some repairs, replacing the keyboard on my laptop and rescreening some windows myself. Totally empowering.
• Went sugar-free and low-carb for at least six weeks. It was easier than I thought, and boy was I disappointed in myself when I quit. But I found out: 1) I can do it! and 2) that really I believe in moderation in all things. I don’t believe in restriction or in cutting huge parts of the food pyramid out of my diet.
• Started a recipes page;
• Reviewed the book Eat Fat Lose Fat;
• Lost steam in Weight Watchers and eventually quit. Too much counting, and honestly when you do the math, it's such a low-calorie program. I know there is value in it and many people are successful with WW. And I really enjoyed the meetings; the people were great. But I don’t think it’s for me.
• Posted 124 blog entries;
• Made it to 69 followers!  Thank you to each and every one of you who cruises by my little corner of the web;
• Posted seven original Liz recipes:
• MY FAVE RECIPE OF THE YEAR!  Liz’s Asian Balls o’ Meat (Low Carb Steamed Pork Dumplings)
• Crab Salad
• Low carb cream of mushroom soup
• Almond-meal Encrusted Baked Stuffed Chicken
• Thai-Inspired Peanut Butter Noodles
• Shiritaki Noodle and Winter Vegetable Extravaganza
• Baked Crab Rangoon
• Tried 11 recipes from other sources: 
• Pineapple Angelfood Cake with Strawberries
• Roasted Brussel Sprouts
• Easy Two-Ingredient Marinade
• Beet Salad with Oranges, Walnuts and Blue Cheese
• Kale Chips
• Kale and Cannelini Soup
• Black Bean Salad with Oranges, Red Onions and Cilantro
• Coconut Jasmine Rice with Green Onions and Cilantro
• Homemade Almond Milk
• Steamed Pork Dumplings
• Cabbage Stroganoff

And in 2010 I gained and gained and gained. Maybe I’ll try fewer dessert recipes in the New Year…

So now it’s 2011. I’ve found that New Year’s resolutions are bad luck for me, so I’m not making any. But I am making plans. This year I plan to blog more consistently, eat more vegetables, exercise more, and not beat myself up when I fall off-track. I’ll just do what I proved I’m good at in 2010: get up, dust myself off, and try again.

Happy New Year!

Decadent Cream of Mushroom Soup (Low Carb)

When the weather gets cooler I start thinking about soup.  I remember when we were kids and would be home from school on a snow day, Mom would cook soup for lunch after we had spent the morning making snowmen and throwing snowballs at each other.  Nothing warms me up like the old soup does. 
I got the idea for this homemade cream of mushroom soup from a conversation on Sugar Free Sheila's facebook page, where someone asked about making the soup from scratch and she suggested sauteeing the mushrooms and adding cream.  And that's what I did!  It is quick, easy-peasy and way worth the few minutes it takes to make.

Ingredient amounts are approximate.  This really is a recipe where you can just throw things in the pan and not worry about measuring anything.

• 1 portabella mushroom cap or a handful of button mushrooms
• 1 garlic clove
• 1 or 2 Tbs butter
• 1 cup heavy cream
• salt and pepper to taste

I used a portabella mushroom cap.  Select nice, firm mushrooms.  Clean and chop them while the butter melts in the pan.  Chop or crush

the garlic and add it to the melted butter.  Once it is translucent and starts to brown, add the mushrooms.  Toss them to coat them with butter and go ahead and season with salt and pepper at this point.  Once the mushrooms soften but before they get mushy, add the cream.  Stir,heat through, and serve.

Pineapple Angelfood Cake With Strawberries

Who doesn't love angelfood cake topped with strawberries?  This recipe uses pineapple to pump up the fiber content of one of my favorites, the angelfood cake.  I think this is one of those ww food-hacks that have been around forever, but I could be wrong. 

It's pretty simple: mix an 8 ounce can of crushed pineapple (juice and all) with one angelfood cake mix.  I stirred it by hand just until it came together and there was no dry mix left in the bowl, then spread it in two loaf pans. 

The instructions on the mix said not to grease the pans but I couldn't help myself; I prepared the loaf pans with non-stick spray.

Bake at 350 for 35 to 45 minutes, until deep golden brown.  Mine took about 35 minutes.  Then I set the pans on their side on a cooling rack.  Once they cooled completely I ran a knife around the edges; the loaf-shaped cakes came free easily.  That's a relief because they are sticky; I was afraid I'd be scraping them out of the pans!

They didn't rise very much but I didn't expect them to since I didn't beat the batter for the fluff-factor.  I topped them with strawberries I had sliced, sprinkled with sugar (2 Tbs sugar on a pound of strawberries, so not alot of added sugar), and set aside earlier.  Awesome!  It doesn't have as much of the light, spongey texture of regular angelfood cake, but it still has the fabulous burnt-sugar tasting crust.  I had some trouble cutting it without the crust breaking in the wrong place, but that didn't change the taste.  I could see the pineapple bits but I didn't really notice them when I ate it.  Probably because of all the strawberries!

I would make this again, definitely.  And in my opinion it's good enough to serve to company.  Or keep for yourself...

Thai-Inspired Peanut Butter Noodles

I was pondering my previously professed love for peanut butter (say that five times fast) and though it would make a nice Thai-inspired twist on Lo Mein. None of my measurements are precise; I just eyeballed amounts, tasted, and in some cases, added more. I’m giving you what are, I think, the final amounts. But you would probably want to adjust the seasonings and sauces to suit your own taste. Don’t sweat about being precise.  And if you want to reduce the fat content of the recipe, you could skip the sesame oil and just use cooking spray for sautéing, and use PB2 instead of the actual peanut butter.

Ingredients:

Whole wheat spaghetti, enough for 2 or 3 people
1 cup frozen broccoli
½ cup frozen corn

1 Tbs sesame oil
½ to 1 tsp grated fresh ginger (I keep nubs of it in the freezer and just grate it frozen)
Dash garlic powder
Dash onion powder
Dash ground cumin
1 cup cabbage, chopped
1 cup cooked pork (I used leftover roast pork tenderloin)
½ cup water
½ cup peanut butter (I used Naturally More)
3 Tbs hoisin sauce
1 Tbs roasted chili paste
1 Tbs soy sauce

Cook enough whole wheat spaghetti for two really hungry people. I served this as a one-dish meal so I cooked plenty of pasta. When the pasta is close to done, add frozen broccoli and corn to the water to defrost.

While the pasta is cooking, heat a tablespoon of sesame oil in a skillet. Grate maybe half a teaspoon of fresh ginger into the heated oil and add the ground cumin, garlic powder and onion powder. Then add the chopped cabbage to the skillet, stirring it to coat. When it is wilted and becoming translucent, add the pork. Stir occasionally. Once the pork is heated through, add the water, peanut butter, hoisin sauce, chili paste and soy sauce. Heat, stirring occasionally, until the peanut butter is melted and the ingredients have distributed evenly.

Drain the pasta and vegetables and stir into the peanut butter mixture.

I loved this. I would probably like it a tad spicier; next time I’ll probably use some regular chili paste, as opposed to the roasted chili paste. Or that garlic chili sauce. So don’t be afraid this will have too much heat. The flavors come together so nicely, and with all the fiber and protein it’s really filling.

The Conclusion of the Trifecta of Chocolaty Goodness: All Bran Brownies

I had it stuck in my mind that I’d seen a recipe with brownie mix, All Bran cereal and water. Of course I had not bookmarked the recipe, and now that I’m looking for it I see tons of versions of this recipe. The All-Bran website has a version without brownie mix… cocoa, flour, etc. But I’m staying true to brownie mix in the Trifecta of Chocolaty Goodness. The low-calorie and diet websites all seemed to have member versions of the recipe, so here’s a link to one on Dotti’s Weight Loss Zone. It’s for muffins, but the idea is the same. And all the recipes I saw, whether for brownies or for chocolate muffins, called for baking powder. Now that says to me “Liz, this is gonna be a cakey brownie, not a fudgie one.” As a lover of fudgie brownies, I decided to throw caution to the wind and just wing it, making up my own recipe.

Here is the basic idea I started with:

3 cups All Bran cereal
2 ½ cups water
1 package brownie mix
2 Tbs mini semisweet chocolate chips

Check me out, rockin' the store brand chips and generic mix.  I do love to save a buck. 

Mix the water into the cereal and let them sit together for at least 5 minutes so they can learn to enjoy each other’s company. Then add the brownie mix and chips. Stir, spread in a pan you have sprayed with non-stick spray, and bake for 20 minutes at 350.

I could not resist tampering with the brownies a little more. I had some homemade cranberry sauce leftover from Christmas. I was in a hurry when I made the cran sauce or I would have taken pictures, the cranberries were so bright and cheery-looking through the short 15-minute process it takes to make the sauce. I attempted to swirl the cranberry sauce on top of the pan of brownie batter. I’ve never swirled anything into brownie better before; it turned out more like a “W” which I will say stands for “Wow.”

After seeing how bad that looked, I threw a handful or so more chocolate chips on top. Then I shoved it in the oven before I could mess with it anymore.

At 20 minutes they looked good, but a finger-poke found them mushy. After 10 more minutes they appeared solid enough. I had one while they were still warm because my mama didn’t raise any fools.

Here’s the good news: the chocolate gives the cranberry sauce a good solid canvas for its tart kick, and berry’s flavor enhances that of the chocolate. Cranberries and chocolate are a match made in heaven.

Now for the bad news: wow, the bran is really obvious. Bran is not bad. It was in the cupboard because I like it. But it interferes significantly with the brownie-ness of the brownies. I see now why there are so many recipes out there for chocolate muffins with All Bran; it is probably more suited to a muffin or maybe a bar. So I’ll call these chocolate-cranberry muffin bars next time. They are not brownies, not to me, but they are still pretty darn good!