Slipknot's Slope

[Chris55]

Did your real snow ever materialize? I've been chuckling a lot because my brother it Atlanta got 6" and they only have 8 snowplows in the whole city, so they're at a standstill. Our state is pretty much closed down - but it hasn't started here yet. Southern Maine has 4" already. They just said on the news how many people go to the ER every year with back pain from snow shoveling. I'll probably do it in stages through the day with help from DS. DH is off to work - he has to go in no matter what so at least he beat the snow on the way in, but that almost always leaves me with cleanup detail.

It's nice that you and your wife had a lunch date. I may try and look for that soup recipe - I'm always making soup. I think my pressure cooker is going to get a workout today while I'm stuck inside. It's the perfect day to cook ahead.

[Slipknot]

Well, I can't say I didn't need that workout - I simply didn't want it that early. I'm guessing we got 4-5" total, and digging out was fairly easy - it was a fluffy enough offering and the plow wall at the end of the driveway was manageable. DS did his usual 11 year-old job; once he gets a bigger frame, he'll be more help.

I texted HR and they basically told me to stay home, so telecommuting it is! Another day of hooky. I took the DKs to school and tried to tidy up the drive- and walkways with some salt. The combined exercise has me hungry for lunch early and I don't have a lot in the house that's not planned for tonight's or tomorrow's dinner. I'll have to twist DW's arm when she gets in to let me take her on another lunch date.

Chris - here's the link to that soup recipe. P1 with no alterations needed: http://www.foodnetwork.com/recipes/elli ... index.html

[Slipknot]

Snow cleanup was easy enough, but it was a different kind of morning workout than I usually do. That is to say, it involved moving around and actually doing something. It's not that I'm lazy - just really efficient. I'm blaming that caloric burn for the hunger that hit me around 11AM and shook me like a dog with a new chew toy. I had worked up a South Beach Hunger, you see, and nothing would satisfy it like a card-deck shaped dollop of flame-broiled steak alongside a bushel of steamed vegetables. So, big spender that I am, I took DW out to Applebee's. It was the manly thing to do.

Overall, the food was clean:
B: Two eggs scrambled with wilted cilantro and scallions; refried bean from a can; 1% milk
S: Peanuts
L: Sirloin steak with mushrooms, onions, broccoli, carrots and zucchini; diet coke
S: String Cheese
D: Savoy Sausage Redux; 1% milk
S: LCL

Yay leftovers. I made another batch of refried blacks after dinner but I think they're going to be too soupy and not chipotle enough. Lunch was a 7oz. sirloin with double veg instead of mashed carbs, and I even brought a nub home for some future snack. The Applebees veggies were probably cooked in a blend of butter, MSG, partially hydrogenated corn oil, high fructose corn syrup, and the federal deficit, but it was just one meal, right?

DS suggested that I might like a Belgian waffle when I'm "done with [my] lifestyle." See, he thinks it's a diet, but is being polite. I respect that.

[chefk]

Awesome attitude. Just sayin'.

[Chris55]

Sure wish someone would clean out my driveway and take me out to lunch!

You need to do a thread about eating out while on P1 - you seem to have mastered it. It's really difficult for most people to do that, ya know!

[Slipknot]

It had to happen sooner or later. How long can you listen to serpents dangling from trees? How long can you dispose of french toast and chicken nuggets on your DK's plates? Sooner or later something has to snap, right? I admit it - I had a chicken wing with lunch. Dark meat, skin, boiled in oil - all of the above. If you linger in restaurants, temptation will strike!

Bless me, beachers, for I have strayed:
B: Two eggs scrambled with scallions and recaito; refried black beans with jalapenos and chipotle sauce; 1% milk
S: Peanuts
L: A chicken wing; Buffalo chicken salad; diet coke
S: String cheese
D: Basil Chicken bake and roasted Parmesan squash redux; 1% milk
S: Babybel

So they served the Buffalo chicken salad in one of those taco shells(?). I got a small bit of the bottom of the shell by accident to further the P1 petit larceny for the day. Yes, yes, nobody's perfect, I know. But when you've been hearing every sugar-filled treat calling to you through the kitchen cabinetry for over a week, you want to keep everything clean. At least we know what sugar sounds like, right? Not everyone does.

It's not easy to explain this WOE to bystanders. My coworkers looked befuddled when I passed on additional wings. "That's not a carb," one of them concluded. It's sad to say, but eating healthy is not entirely normal in some circles. That's probably why we come here - to mingle with others who understand. Or maybe it's just the cool smileys.

[buttercups]

One whole chicken wing!! How can you live with yourself?!

I liked you comment about your kitchen being a lab (in Chefk's journal).... My kitchen nickname is the Mad Scientist! I create all sorts of strange and wonderful things..... and usually cannot create the same thing twice! I just toss things together! I guess I need to actually measure and write things down!

Happy Friday!

Laura

[chefk]

I'm actually a scientist by trade and personal chef on occasion, a recipe is just a formulation of sorts. I put in estimated measurements just for the reader, but I generally am just "winging" it. Sorry slipknot, I had to do it. (cool smiley)

Don't stress about the wing. It's a lifetime tou'll be doing this. I WILL have chocolate cake. I WILL eat flaming hot fried wings on occasion and I will eat a fry, but it'll be few and far between and when it happens, & I'll enjoy it. If you're eating perfect 95-99% of the time, you'll be a healthy, happy and satisfied person knowing you aren't denying, but choosing.

[Slipknot]

Cooking really is a mingling of right brain/left brain influences. I'm also a scientist by trade, but I ended up in quality systems due to my love of statistics among other things. You would think I'd be more concerned with measuring and batch consistency, but most of my best creations in the kitchen I can't duplicate because I made a quick decision to add a few shakes of something and a pinch of something else.

Clearly we all need kitchen scribes to document our every move. Wait'll the kids hear what an allowance costs now...

Oh, and chefk - that really was "fowl" joke you made about the wings. And I hear you about chocolate cake. I'm shaking my head at all the Belgian waffles I encounter around here; there's no way I'd cheat with a waffle if chocolate cake is an option.

[Slipknot]

I won't insult Indian cooking my claiming to cook Indian food. I cook up Americanized versions of things with curry powder, and I have few (read "zero") takers in the DF to enjoy my spicy delights with me. So with Friday traditionally being Pizza Night, I had the perfect moment to strike - they could chew on crust and I could generally baste myself in SB-friendly curry sauces. There was also DD's indoor soccer game to contend with, so I think I ended up eating close to 8:00. It was worth it.

I had a nearly identical lunch to last Friday and experienced none of the wild afternoon hunger I did then. The change up was ranch dressing on the side and mixed veggies instead of the stewed tomatoes. A little extra sugar in P1 can really throw me off. That, or it's just one of the vagaries of weight loss.

I've been forgetting to add Canadian bacon to my previous breakfast postings; two slices have been in my scrambled eggs all week.

B: Two eggs scrambled with scallions, Canadian bacon, and past-its-prime cilantro; refried black beans; 1% milk
S: Peanuts
L: Chicken broth (soup minus pasta); salad with ranch; grilled sirloin patty with onions; steamed carrots/broccoli/green squash; diet coke
S: String Cheese
D: Curried chicken; curried spinach; 1% milk
S: Babybel and probably some wine. Sssssh. We never had this conversation.

So dinner was something like this recipe http://allrecipes.com//Recipe/indian-ch ... etail.aspx. I removed the sugar entirely and the lack of sweetness really was a missing element; I skipped the tomato paste (spaced it) and used lite coconut milk and low fat yogurt. If that seems like a lot of fat, there was no rice or anything to sop up the sauce, so I really won't eat it all.

The vegetable, however, was a classic in a recipe coming off the rails. I started with this idea http://allrecipes.com//Recipe/absolutel ... etail.aspx, but so thoroughly deconstructed what was on paper that I don't have time to document it here. Let's just say I used frozen spinach per one of the comments, but the consistency was all wrong and I had to start winging it. It was like an episode of Chopped except for the lack of competitors/a panel of celebrity chefs to sneer at me. I ended up with some really tasty spinach that was dressed up in a cheap Palak Paneer costume it bought at the mall. Or something.

All told, dinner was probably a little high in dairy fats, but I wanted and got bold flavors; I skipped on pizza again; and I've had nary a leaf of lettuce at the dinner table since day 2 of P1! Woot!

Lots of good football to watch this weekend, so I'm off to mealplan some SB party food.

[Slipknot]

So my grill died and I was in no shape to perform mechanical surgery on the thing in the cold and dark of a January night. Burgers in the oven broiler? Sigh. Okay.

I needed to meal plan yesterday but was completely uninspired for some reason. Sometimes I suffer from the kitchen equivalent of writers' block, and Saturday was one of those days. I turned to Kalyn's Kitchen for some ideas and ended up with a decent enough dinner and a good plan for next week. Food went like:

B: Two scrambled eggs with scallions, savory, and Canadian bacon; refried black beans; 1% milk
S: Peanuts
L: Curry Chicken Redux; salad with goddess dressing; diet coke
D: Koobideh burgers; slow roasted asparagus; 1% milk
S: Babybel
S: String Cheese
S: Nub of Applebee's steak with onions and mushrooms

The burgers were something like this http://rasamalaysia.com/kabab-koobideh- ... b-nazi_11/, but just patties with the seasonings rather than kabobs. The asparagus was http://kalynskitchen.blogspot.com/2007/ ... ragus.html. Hunger struck after dinner, so I added in the string cheese I usually have in the late afternoon. That still wasn't enough, so I polished off the ~2 oz bit of leftover steak I brought home from Wednesday's lunch. It made me feel efficient.

I realized yesterday that I'm a cheese head. Dinners always satisfy me more when melted cheese is a component.

Either I left the grill on last time I used it and ran the tank out, or the old thing is finally dead for good. If I have time, I'll mess with it today, but a grill is really vital to this WOE for me. I'm thinking of getting a Foreman in the meantime just to have a non-broiler alternative. Dinner went in two stages last night which messed with my internal efficiency expert - you know, the annoying one with the lab coat, stopwatch, and clipboard. I stopped paying him years ago, but he still won't shut up...

The scale was all sweetness and light this morning, murmuring soft things to me that could only be insincere. It's going into the books as a net 10 lb loss for this round of P1 and my only cheat was a little wine here and there. No, not there - there. A little more the left....perfect. That's where the wine goes.

[Chris55]

Loved your last few posts!

If the grill is dead, why not buy a nice cast iron grill pan or grill/griddle? I have an old Jennair stove with the grill built in. Got tired of cleaning the darn thing a few years ago and bought myself a 2-burner grill/griddle and haven't looked back. Love the thing. It's a Lodge, made in the US of all places, and gets roaring hot and sears beautifully. Does a nice job on burgers, steaks, chicken, and even zucchini. The flip side does breakfast for a crowd, or a couple of quesadillas at a time. I haven't broiled anything in about 20 years. DS wanted to know the other day what the broiler setting on the oven was for......?

[chefk]

Sounds pretty damn delicious! I really like Indian food but I don't cook it often. Mainly because like your house, no one else eats it. When I have a night that everyone is doing their own thing, I really go overboard with the stuff they hate. Mushrooms, salmon, liver...so why not Indian? Maybe next shopping trip.

I think we're escaping. I think that's why there's no need to measure. I do enough of that at work. I can't stand baking for that reason. I NEED the creative outlet of savory dishes. It's funny you mentioned chopped. We've done 2 chopped nights at my house. The last one was a Christmas present that my daughter put together.
No appetizer round
Main: Smoked pork, asian wheat noodles, kohlrabi, and figs
Dessert: Canadian bacon, strawberry stikkos (Japanese processed wafer tubes), babybel swiss cheese minis, and a mango
She gives me extra time and it's just me cooking, but there's commentary and interviews going on and I don't have any where near the pantry that they do on the show. Here's a steamy picture of the main a sweet and smoky pork/kohlrabi Asian "goulash", but I don't think we ever took one for the dessert. It was a strawberry fritter held together with stikkos, egg and cheese served over the canadian bacon topped with grilled mango. (Yes I did have a bite)

I learned that I love Kohlrabi. Very cool.

[Slipknot]

Chris - I have a pretty decent electric griddle that can cook a crowd's worth of scrapple and eggs, but we have zero counter space thanks to a number of new gifts and gadgets. I considedered using it briefly but I like the drain I get from the broiling pan when doing burgers. I'd love a Jennair just for the fan and fume removal. Whenever I've been forced to use our oven broiler, I proactively take the batteries out of the smoke alarms in the vicinity of the kitchen.

Chefk - that picture looks awesome. I love Chopped - it's the only show I DVR, but I doubt I could assemble what you did given that list. Nicely done!

[Slipknot]

Dear Phase One,

Sometimes two ships just pass in the night. That's how I feel about the time we spent together - it was wonderful and amazingly intense, and yet I just don't think I'm the right guy for you. It wouldn't be fair to you, Phase One, for me to continue on because I know I will stray. Look at last night - I couldn't wait to eat winter squash; I had it meal-planned and I couldn't bring myself to tell you. And the wine...don't get me started. You'll do great without me, Phase One. There's a ton of eligible guys (and girls) out there just waiting to meet you. Treat them better than I treated you, okay?

Hoping we can still be friends,

Chris

B: Two eggs scrambled with red pepper, onion, garlic, scallions, and Canadian bacon; refried blacks; 1% milk
S: Peanuts
L: Koobideh burger; salad with goddess; diet coke
S: String cheese
D: Top loin roast; roasted red peppers and squashes; 1% milk
S: Babybel and a wedge of LCL

I think I let P1 down easy.

I needed some new flavors in my eggs n' ham for the mornings, so I sauteed some red pepper strips, leftover yellow onion, and a couple of scallions that were threatening to get soggy in some evoo with a sprinkle of refrigerator-aged minced garlic. I added a couple of spoonfuls to today's eggs and there's enough left over to get me through most of this week.

I've found how I really like yellow and green squash: chopped up with some red pepper strips, drizzled with ovoo and italian seasoning, salt and pepper, roasted, then dusted with a little parmesan. I made 3/4 of a cookie tray of that and the other 1/4 of some butternut with just evoo and salt. Lakegran was right - I'm starting to enjoy vegetables versus choking them down to get my quota in.

I'm going to start grains at dinnertime because I think it puts me in the best position to fend off any potential hunger. I eat basically the same breakfast every day and I don't even think about my morning snack until it's almost lunch - I don't want to mess with my flow, yo. The huge gulf between lunch and dinner is traditionally my worst hunger time, so that's out. Maybe an apple instead of string cheese, too.

Fun stuff to have to debate.