Calorie Counting is Hard Work (Pasta Sauce Recipe)

Well, the counting isn't so bad, at least not with this nifty app and webpage from MyFitnessPal.  It's staying within the proscribed guidelines that's hard.

For a guy my size, the system told me that in order to lose 2 pounds a week, I should eat no more than 1800 calories a day.  Day one was easy, not so much for day two, and, so far, day three is right on the edge.

Yesterday, for breakfast, I had my usual 1 cup of Old Fashioned Rolled Oats, with 2 Tbs of ground Golden Flax, 1 Tbs of Cinnamon, a half a banana, and a 1/4 cup of Vanilla Soy Milk.  That came out to 520 calories.

I followed that up with what turned out to me a delicious lunch.  I wilted and sauteed 1 cup of raw spinach in 1 TBS of Olive oil, added a little ground black pepper, a little garlic salt, one egg that I scrambled in the pan with the spinach, and a 1/3 cup of shredded cheese.  I placed it on a warm 8" tortilla that I rolled, placed in my 12" cast iron skillet, seam down, and flattened with a bacon press.

I then put that in some aluminum foil and took it to work to have on my rest break.  I kept it in the fridge at work, so when I had it, it was cold, but freaking delicious.  Yum!  But that was another 450 calories.

Dinner was also yummy, but 889 calories.I had two servings of spaghetti, with a delicious pasta sauce from the Big Sur Bakery and Restaurant Cookbook (recipe below).  A phenomenal vegetarian recipe.  This was served with spinach, again, that was wilted in olive oil and sauteed garlic.

Finally, I'm a guy who loves his dessert, and that's tough when you are trying to eat non-processed, whole foods.  I opted for two medium Granny Smith apples.  Not my favorite fruit, but what I had on hand from juicing.  Those two apples cost me 162 calories.

I also had a mid-morning banana snack, it seems, for an additional 90 calories.

Add it all up, and yesterday's food intake, as modest as it felt, was 2,146 calories, 346 calories over my daily allotment of 1,800 calories.  Damn!

My only real solace, is that I know the caloric intake levels for me for losing 1 pound a week, is something like 2300 calories.

I told you calorie counting was hard work.  Unfortunately, this kind of hard work doesn't burn calories, and gets you no extra calories allotted for exercise.

Oh well.  Later!

Big Sur Bakery & Restaurant Pasta Sauce

From the Big Sur Bakery & Restaurant Cookbook.

3/4 cup  Olive Oil

1 Large Onion, roughly chopped

2 Medium carrots, roughly chopped

2 celery Stalks, roughly chopped

1 Fennel Bulb, roughly chopped

10 Garlic Cloves

1 Serrano Chili, stem removed, and sliced

96 oz canned Whole Tomatoes

1 Tbs Kosher Salt

Prepare raw veggies, and place in a bowl.

Heat a large, 5 qt or larger, dutch oven, over medium high heat.  Add olive oil.  When olive oil is heated, add veggies all at once, stir, and reduce heat to medium low.  Cook veggies, stirring every fem minutes, for about 20 minutes, or until they have caramelized.

At this point, add the canned tomatoes, with their juice, and the salt.  Stir to mix.  Increase heat until the sauce boils, then reduce heat and allow sauce to boil at a slow simmer for about 60 minutes.

At this point, use an immersion blender (stick blender) if you have one.  If not, puree in a standard blender, in portions, until sauce is completely pureed.  I highly recommend an immersion blender though.  They are reasonably priced, and are perfect for these types of projects.

Return the sauce to the medium low heat after the pureeing, and simmer for at least 30 more minutes.  

You will be rewarded with a delicious pasta sauce that serves about 24.  The serving size is a 1/2 cup and has 81 calories, each.  The pasta sauce can be frozen in smaller batches for use later.

Here is the final product.