Releasing Fat with Chicken Soup

My quest to release fat continues. The Digest Diet (the latest book from the people at Reader's Digest) has menus for 21 days and the first four days include nutrient-rich soups. I've made "diet" soups in the past and they almost always have been watery and flavorless.

The recipe for Hearty Mexican Chicken Soup was an amazing surprise. The broth is made from chicken stock and re-hydrated ancho chilies. By reducing down the chilies and the water that they are soaked in (along with the seasonings and a pureed onion), you concentrate the flavor plus build body. Even though the soup looks like it could set your kitchen on fire, it was not spicy - there was just a hint of heat that lingered after each bite. And the sprinkling of (unsalted) pumpkin seeds gives it a yummy crunch and a shot of flavor. Delicious!

I'm always somewhat conflicted about posting recipes from sources that are only available to paying members. Since this book is so new, I've decided not to publish it here but have found a very similar recipe online.  The only vegetable in The Digest Diet soup was zucchini. Next time I think I'll add more of an assortment, like the recipe in the link.

Releasing Fat and Loving Every Sip

The cover of this month's Reader's Digest looks like an infomercial. It screams out...

Eat to Release Fat

Revolutionary Diet Plan!

Drop up to 21 pounds in 21 days!

If this were any other magazine, I would probably  walk on by without a second glance, but I LOVE Reader's Digest and subscribe to it on my iPad. So I read the article. It turns out it is mostly an advertisement for a new book they are hawking, The Digest Diet. 

I told myself a long time ago that I was never going to buy another weight loss book or gadget ever again. My struggle with weight is definitely not due to a lack of knowledge or a lack of gadgets. But this is READER'S DIGEST and, as I have mentioned before, I am a sucker for infomercials (and apparently, things that look like infomercials). So I bit and ordered the book. (It comes with a 14 day-money back guarantee and they pay return shipping so I figure, what's the harm?)

Since I do not intend this posting to be a book review, I am not going to go into much detail about the content. I found it to be consistent with what I know about diet, exercise and general healthy living. What it does do very nicely is pull together information about foods that the author says helps your body release fat and provides recipes and menus for a 21-day Fat Releasing plan.

I've decided to give it a try. I've started adding nonfat yogurt, light coconut milk, and flaxseed meal to all my smoothies. I'm experimenting with new flavor combinations that I would not have considered previously, like banana and peanut butter. (According to the book, nuts are a good source of protein, healthy fats, and fiber, all of which are fat releasers.)

In the photo:

• Coconut milk
• Cabbage and cauliflower
• Natural, no-salt-added peanut butter
• 6 oz nonfat yogurt with flaxseed meal
• An overly ripe, but perfectly sweet, banana 
• Not pictured are a splash of low-fat milk and water, to liquefy
• Also not pictured are soy protein powder and fiber

I'm still adding protein powder and fiber to my shakes (this plan seems to be a little light on protein, especially in the first four days). So far, things are going well, and I am finding my smoothies to be a lot more satisfying (calorie-wise thanks to the yogurt and milk) and actually, a lot more delicious too.

Beets are Real Plants!

It wasn't until last year that I learned that beets are plants, that they aren't born in cans. That they grow in orbs, not slimy slices. Thank you, Alton Brown and Good Eats, for introducing me to lovely beets and delicious beet greens.

I love them roasted or steamed, in salads or glazed. And now I love them raw. Lots of juicers on the web recommend adding beets and their luscious leafy tops to smoothies and I am addicted. My favorite blend includes beets, oranges, a carrot for good measure, not to mention their green tops and a generous helping of peppery arugula.

The beet to orange ratio is more like 1 : 3 (contrary to what the photo suggests). The flavor of the beets and greens is really strong so in order to be able to taste the oranges, you have to either use a high orange to beet ratio or use fresh orange juice as the liquid.

Happy Sipping!

A New Spin On Tabbouleh

I'm having a lot of fun experimenting with new combinations of ingredients. Rather than just tossing in random vegetables, I try to put a new spin on my favorite dishes. (Get it? A "new spin," as in spinning in the blender?) Today I'm having a Tabbouleh smoothie - all the ingredients of the Mediterranean salad minus the bulgar.

Here's the list:

• parsley
• roma tomato
• green onion
• lemon
• sliced cucumber
• mint
• and a handful of kale for good measure

I used water to liquefy since I didn't want to mix in too much tomato or introduce unusual flavors. It was yummy!

Happy sipping!

Popeye Would Be So Proud

I plan my menus a week in advance but only shop for two or three days at a time. Today's lunch was supposed to be curried chicken salad but I didn't make it to the grocery store so I had to scrounge around in my fridge. Thanks to my juicing stash, I had most of the makings of one of my all-time favorite salads from epicurious.com: Spinach, pear, and green bean salad with Riesling dressing.

Today I had to make quite a few substitutions:

• apple juice for the Riesling
• onion for the shallot
• olive oil for the vegetable oil
• regular green beans for their skinnier cousins, haricot verts
• honey goat cheese for bleu cheese
• salted, roasted peanuts for the walnuts

Amazingly, it all came together to make a delicious lunch and I ate probably twice what is shown in the photo.

For my smoothie, I decided to try a juice version of one of my favorite summer drinks. When it's hot outside, I love to sip on iced Ginger Snappish tea (a seasonal herb tea from Bigelow) with a few lime slices and mint leaves stirred in. To add bulk today, I chose to blend in whole limes (peeled), some cucumber, spinach, and apples. I also used half water and half apple juice as the liquid. The result was crisp and refreshing.

I have a couple of tips when it comes to making this drink:

• It is almost impossible to completely liquefy fresh ginger and for me, there is nothing worse than biting down on a piece of this tough, pungent root. First blend the ginger with some water and then strain it using a fine mesh strainer or cheesecloth. Then blend the remaining ingredients with the ginger juice.
• There was something slightly bitter in my juice, mild but just enough to be annoying. I'm not sure if it was the cucumber peel or the handfuls of fresh mint and stems that I put in. Next time I'll peel the first and use only leaves from the latter.
• Protein powder was too heavy and overpowered the taste of this refreshing juice. I'll mostly be drinking this as a side beverage rather than meal replacement from now on.

Not-So-Thai Salad

I love Thai food and so I was eager to try the Asparagus, Watercress, and Carrot Salad with Thai Flavors from cooksillustrated.com. The recipe sounded lovely -  marinated carrots and asparagus on a bed of arugula (I didn't have watercress on hand) topped with a sprinkling of peanuts. I was sorely disappointed.

YUCKY YUCK YUCK!

• First of all, the recipe calls for two TABLESPOONS of fish sauce in the dressing. It
  
  was waaaayyy too much. The Geek suggested that perhaps I had read the recipe wrong (teaspoons instead of tablespoons). I checked. I didn't.
• Second, the asparagus is quickly browned in oil and nothing else. It would have been better if it had been seasoned with some salt and a little garlic, as it did not pick up the dressing at all. 
• Finally, I didn't think the flavors came together very well and it definitely was not reminiscent of Thai food. Some of that may have been my fault - perhaps I didn't put the right proportions on the plate.

 I am definitely willing to try this salad again but next time I'll leave out the fish sauce completely and sprinkle on a more generous portion of peanuts along with a bit of cilantro and Thai basil.

On the plus side, this recipe gave me a chance to use some of my favorite kitchen gadgets.

• I prefer to use a reamer for the lime juice if the recipe calls for only a tablespoon or two of juice. I have both a press and an electric juicer but the reamer is convenient and quick enough for most things.
• I hate chopping nuts and they almost always turn out unevenly sized. My Progressive Heavy-Duty nut chopper has saved me from having to suffer through this chore and produces lovely and (mostly) same-sized chunks. LOVE IT!
• My newest find is the Titan Julienne Tool. I was very skeptical when I first looked at it in the store, but thought I'd give it a try. Wow, it works beautifully! The strips that it produces are really, really thin - more like a garnish - but they will work for most things that I cook.

Since I was having (what I thought was) Thai food for lunch, I decided to try something tropical for today's smoothie. I cheated and used canned pineapple along with the juice it was packed in and some light coconut milk.

Since I wanted the pineapple and coconut flavors to shine, I chose vegetables that were pale in color and whose flavors would disappear into the drink - cauliflower and cabbage.  But on first taste, I realized neither the milk nor juice were very sweet so I ended up adding a banana and apple juice. Yummy!

Piling on the Vegetables

As enamored as I am with juicing, I cannot drink all my meals, no matter how badly I want to lose weight. I love FOOD too much! Since dinner will be juice with protein powder for the next few weeks, I am planning on having salads for lunch. I have a very broad definition of what makes up a salad and hundreds of salad recipes from which to choose so I am eager to get started.

Today was the "All American Cherry Tomato Salad" from Cook's Country. At first glance, it was unusual in that called for cherry tomatoes, cheddar cheese, and bacon dressed in maple syrup and a tomato vinaigrette. I'm not a big fan of cheese, although I love Caprese salad (tomatoes with basil and fresh buffalo mozzarella). I was tempted to swap out the cheddar for mozzarella, the parsley for basil, and leave out the bacon and maple syrup, but the people at Cook's Country have never let me down, so I went with the recipe as is.

I'm glad I did. The flavor combination was unusual but actually quite delicious. I didn't have  bacon on hand so I used beef summer sausage that I briefly fried in a pan. I also used a mix of beautiful heirloom cherry tomatoes that varied in texture, flavor and acidity. I thawed the cheddar cheese in the microwave and over-heated it so the texture turned out crumbly (very odd), but was still edible. The salad is so beautiful to look at, that I think this posting deserves a second, detailed picture of the texture.

Today's juice turned out so yummy, that I drank some as my beverage with lunch. Here are the proportions for the ingredients:

• 1/2 raw beets and greens
• 1/4 carrots
• 1/4 spinach
• Fill blender with unfiltered, 100% apple juice to cover

This is surprisingly sweet and deelish!

A Juicy New Habit

It has been a while since I blogged. It has been a while since I did much cooking. When life gets crazy and things start to reel out of control, one of the first things I do to get back on track is to get back to my kitchen. Cooking is my way of slowing down, living in the moment, returning to routine and normalcy.

I had a little bit of a health worry a few months ago when I started feeling excessively tired. I had no energy  and was napping several times a day. I thought maybe it was my thyroid but the doctor diagnosed a pretty severe Vitamin D deficiency. Once I started supplements, I perked right up. It was an eye-opening reminder (literally!) of just how important good nutrition is for the functioning of our bodies.

The scale creeps ever upward as I progress into middle age, another unwelcome reminder that I am not eating properly. Now to be fair, I have been under tremendous stress the last several months and hate to exercise. The schedule has been crazy at times and we have been eating out quite a bit. Unfortunately, this has led to my wallet thinning and my waistline expanding.

Definitely time for the Pantry Shopper to come out and play.

This past weekend The Geek and I went for dinner at a friend's house and she had a Ninja blender sitting on the counter. She has been making and drinking veggie smoothies and loves them. She says she has lost weight and feels so much better. I've seen the Jack Lalanne juicer infomercials on TV and contemplated buying a juicer every time I passed them at the local warehouse store, but I resisted because it seemed like a novelty purchase. But something about sipping her delicious veggie concoction this weekend clicked with me and I decided I wanted to start juicing as well.

The first decision is what kind of juicer to use. My father had a heavy-duty juicer when I was a child, and I remember him making gallons and gallons of carrot juice every week. I also remember it was a pain to take apart and clean and it generated a ton of pulp. Today's models are sleeker, more convenient, and extract every possible ounce of liquid (just about) out of the veggies. They also tend to be pricey, with most starting at $100.

I happen to have both a Magic Bullet and a Vita-mix in my pantry  so it was a no-brainer... I am puréeing vegetables rather than the traditional "juicing." This would have been my method of choice anyway, since I like the idea of getting the whole fruit - pulp and all - in my juice. The Magic Bullet 12 oz cups are perfect for trying new recipes, although I find it does not liquefy as completely as the Vita-mix. I also prefer the convenience of mixing up a pitcher full of juice in the morning in the Vita-mix and then sipping on it as the day progresses.

Now comes the fun part... what to juice. I've made smoothies before (and blogged about it; see my posting here) but this is different. To boost the nutritional content, now I am skipping the fillers (ice) and calorie-laden sweeteners (chocolate milk, soda, etc) and going for whole fruits and vegetables with a little bit of 100% fruit juice to liquefy and sweeten the mix.

I wandered around the grocery aisles and received recommendations from friends as far as what to try first. So far the most popular vegetables seem to be carrots, spinach and other leafy greens, tomatoes, and beets. (YUMMM - I am loving beet juice!) Kale, lettuce, cabbage, and broccoli seem to be less common but delicious options.

I love fruit and it's easy to make fruit smoothies. But since I am trying to be creative with and eat more vegetables, I am limiting the fruit to either less than 1/3 of the total drink or only using 100% fruit juice as the fruit.  (There are no berries in the picture because I didn't have any, but of course, everyone recommends adding strawberries, blueberries, etc. to your drink.)

I am not one of those people who takes nutritional supplements, other than my daily vitamin and Vitamin D. But when I'm using the veggie drink as a replacement for a meal, I'll add in a scoop of soy protein powder and a bit of fiber powder as well. I've also been thinking about experimenting with different flavors, such as cinnamon and cloves in an apple drink to mimic apple pie. I'd also like to experiment with savory drinks such as adding lemon juice to a tomato/cucumber/parsley drink since I love middle eastern tabbouleh or adding hot sauce to tomato/celery/cucumber/spinach juice.

They say it takes 21 days to form a new habit. I'm looking forward to the next three weeks!