I'll be back!

Next Wednesday. I'm off for a short vacation in a mountain cabin without phone or Internet access. It will be a challenge to eat healthy, and stay at an 1800 calorie a day diet. I'll try, but if I fail, I'll get back on the horse on Thursday! :)

Any tasty recipes I promise I will share, with pictures.

I hope you all have a wonderful weekend, plus a few days.

See ya!

Pulled Pork Sandwiches, & Sausage Sandwiches with Peppers & Onions. Today is NOT about healthy eating!

It is about selling pulled pork sandwiches with coleslaw, and Fresno States sausages with peppers and onions, at the Harlan Ranch Farmers Market tonight,

Modestly speaking, I make the best traditional pulled pork sandwich, in Fresno/Clovis.  Top it with Kasi's coleslaw and served on a sesame seed bun, with my homemade Strawberry Chipotle BBQ Sauce, and you have some fine eating.  Good for dinner, or saving for lunch.

We will also be doing Fresno State Sausages tonight.  Your choice, Spicy Sicilian, or Smokey Ranch, served on a sesame hoagie roll with sauteed onions and red, yellow, and orange, julienned, peppers.

If your in the area, come on out and have some and shop the other food, produce, and sundries, vendors.  A good time will be had by all!  The hours tonight are 7:00 PM - 8:30 PM!

The Harlan Ranch Farmers Market is held in the parking lot of the Harlan Ranch Community Center, at the corner of Harlan Ranch Boulevard & Leonard Avenue, Clovis, CA  93619.

Here are the three Pork Shoulders that have been smeared with mustard, and covered in my homemade BBQ rub.  They have been in the smoker for about 4 hours now, and will remain in the smoker for at least 10 hours.

Sausages, peppers, and onions on the flat top!

On the left is the pork shoulders coated in mustard & rub.  On the right is after 11 hours in the smoker, pulled, and sauced, ready to be served.

Kasi's Birthday Dinner: Grass Fed Beef Hamburger with Crispy Baked Sweet Potato Fries, and Avocado Banana (Non Dairy) Ice Cream.

Happy Birthday, Kasi!

Today is the love of my life's, BIRTHDAY!  So, in order to celebrate it, she picked out a meal she wanted, and I get to make it happen.  She also got, as a present, the bowl she will be served in (actually it's a matching pair.  I'll eat out of the other one.), and a new set of lovely chopsticks (see the picture below).

Kotobuki Dragonfly Soup Bowl

I had planned to make her a nice grass fed beef burger (our first red meat, let alone a burger, in weeks), and had already purchased the meat, but then she asked for her dinner to be a Black Pepper Salmon Soba Salad with a Wasabi Ginger-Peanut Dressing (see recipe below).  So I went out and bought the bowls and chopsticks to match the meal, as a present.  


Of course, she came home from work last night and saw the burger meat, and changed her mind, but now I have to insist on making this meal because of the presents I bought.  Things got a little tense, but, because she loves me, she listened when I insisted that she, "TRUST ME!"  :)


Well, now I have entered the Black Pepper Salmon Soba Salad with a Wasabi Ginger-Peanut Dressing meal into the MyFitnessPal.com's recipe program, and realized it would be 887 calories, each, for that meal.  After speaking with Kasi, she decided that was more calories than she wants to afford today (her meal plan puts her at 1210 calories a day).


So, while I will leave this recipe here as a bonus, be warned.  As tasty as it is, and with healthy ingredients, it does pack a caloric punch.


Now, for Kasi's Birthday dinner, I have a Gourmet Grass Fed Beef Hamburger, with a side of Crispy Baked Sweet Potato Fries (see recipes below).  Frankly, there are not many fewer calories in these recipes, than the other recipe, but they are comfort foods for her birthday.  I think that's fair.


Anyway, despite our eating healthy, I had to make a dessert.  Heck, it's a birthday!  How do you have a birthday, without a dessert?  It just isn't done,  So, I made a Avocado Banana (Non Dairy) Ice Cream (this recipe is also below).  We each had a half a serving.  Yum!  


All is right in the world again!


These are all delicious, relatively healthy, and pretty easy to make, recipes.  I hope you like them as much as we did.


Now, let's celebrate!



Gourmet Grass Fed Burger with Wasabi Aioli (773 calories per burger)

2 x 1/3 lb    Grass Fed Beef Patties

To Taste     Salt & Pepper

1 Slice          Cheddar, or American, Cheese

A selection of sliced tomatoes, red onions, and pickles, with lettuce.

Start grill (I prefer charcoal) and bring it up to temperature.  Salt and pepper both sides of the meat, liberally.  Place on oiled grill, and let cook for 3 minutes.  After 3 minutes, turn, without flipping, the burger, 90 degrees and cook for 3 more minutes.

Flip burger and repeat.  When done, move burger to a cooler spot of the grill, place cheese on top, and cover the grill for 1 minute or so - until the cheese melts.

Remove burgers to a plate and let rest. Toast buns.

Wasabi Aioli (3 servings of 2 Tbs, 172 calories each)

1 tsp            Wasabi Paste

1/2 tsp        Garlic Powder

1/3 Cup      Real Mayonnaise

To Taste     Lime Juice

While the burgers rest, combine the mayo, wasabi, garlic powder, and any lime juice you want, in a bowl, and mix well.

Assemble the burgers as you like.  I like the aioli on the top and bottom bun, cheeseburger, lettuce, tomato slices, a pickle, and red onion slices.

Crispy Baked Sweet Potato Fries (4 servings, 159 calories each)

2-3        Medium Sweet Potatoes

2 Tbs    Cornstarch

2 Tbs    Extra Virgin Olive Oil

1 Tbs    Garlic Salt

Peel sweet potatoes and cut into medium size fries.  Place fries in a bowl full of water, and soak for at least 1 hour.

Preheat oven to 425 degrees.

Drain fries.  Place cornstarch in a large zip lock bag.  Add fries to the bag and seal, leaving plenty of air in the bag, and shake the bag to coat the fries.

Place the olive oil in a bowl, and dump the fries into the bowl.  Using your hands, make sure that all the fries get coated with oil.  Add oil if needed.

Dump fries on a cookie sheet, and spread to a single layer with room between the fries.

Place in preheated oven and bake for 15 minutes.  Turn fries with a spatula, and bake for 5 more minutes.

Remove fries from the oven, and return them to the bowl.  Sprinkle with garlic salt, and/or any other seasoning you desire, toss, and serve hot.

Avocado Banana Ice Cream (Non-Dairy) (4 servings, 222 calories each)

1          Frozen Banana, cut into chunks
1          Avocado
1 tsp    Vanilla
.5 cup  Nut milk, or vanilla flavored nut milk
.5 cup  Sugar
.5 cup  Ice cubes

Blend everything in a blender until smooth.

Place in the freezer in a sealed container.  The ice cream will freeze solid.  To serve, let the ice cream thaw for 5 minutes on the counter, and scoop.

Black Pepper Scallops & Salmon Soba Salad with a Wasabi/Ginger/Peanut Dressing (887 calories per serving)

(Makes 2 meal-sized portions)

For the fish:

1 skinless     Salmon fillet (about 7 oz)

4                    Sea Scallops

1 Tbs            Extra Virgin Olive Oil

2 Tbs            Soy Sauce

1 tsp             Sesame Seeds

To Taste      Fresh Ground Black Pepper

1 tsp             Toasted Sesame Oil

For the salad:

4 oz               Dried Soba Noodles

½                 Red bell pepper, thinly sliced

1                   Medium Carrot, julienned

2.5 oz           Broccoli florets

2 handfuls   Bean sprouts, thoroughly washed

2                   Green onions, thinly sliced

2 Tbs           Chopped Peanuts

1 Tbs           Sesame seeds

To Taste     Fresh Coriander, chopped

For the dressing:

6 Tbs            Soy Sauce

3 Tbs            Rice wine vinegar

2 Tbs            Peanut oil

1 Tbs            Toasted sesame oil

1.5 Tbs         Creamy peanut butter

1 small          Garlic clove, minced

1 Tbs            Fresh Ginger, grated or finely minced

1 tsp             Wasabi Paste

.5 tsp            Red Pepper flakes

1 tsp             Sugar

Bring a large pot of salted water to a boil. Cook soba noodles according to package instructions, stirring occasionally so they don’t stick. Drain and rinse well under cold water.

While you are waiting for the water to boil, mix together Olive Oil and Soy Sauce, in a small bowl. Pour over salmon & scallops, making sure they all are coated. Allow them to sit in the sauce and marinate for 5-10 minutes.  Sprinkle with sesame seeds and grind black pepper on top.

Make the dressing by combining all the dressing ingredients in a food processor or blender and pulse until dressing is smooth.


Heat a skillet over medium high heat, and coat with the sesame oil,  Place scallops and salmon onto the skillet, pour excess sauce on top and sear scallops for 1-2 minutes on each side, and the salmon, 3 minutes a side.  Remove from the pan and cover with aluminum foil to keep warm.

In a large bowl, toss the noodles with the bell pepper, carrot, broccoli florets, bean sprouts, scallions and dressing to taste. Add half the peanuts and sesame seeds and toss well. 


Serve in large bowls.  Break the salmon fillet in half and add it, and two scallops, to each of the bowls.  Finally, sprinkle each bowl with fresh coriander and the remaining peanuts and sesame seeds.


Enjoy!

A different, but still delicious, Sweet Potato Chili.

I hope everyone had a great weekend, I know I did.

We went out for Sushi, on Friday night, for the first time in weeks.  I went a little over my 1800 calorie diet, but it was worth it.  Saturday was primarily left overs, but I backslid a little, and had a McDonald's ice cream cone.  Tasty, but, frankly, not worth it to know I had eaten a lot of processed non-sense.

Oh well.  I got it out of my system.

Sunday night was different though.  Kasi made another delicious, but very different from last week, Sweet Potato Chili (recipe below).  While the other was slow cooked, this is quick - 30 minutes or so, and is designed to be served over cooked Couscous.  It was very tasty.

Here is a picture of the finished chili.

Sweet Potato Chili

2 Tbs                  Olive oil
1                         Onion, chopped
1                         Red bell pepper, cored and chopped
1 tsp                   Garlic, minced
1 Tbs                  Chili powder
1 tsp                    Antjo chili powder
1 tsp                    Smoked Paprika
1.5  lbs                Sweet potatoes, peeled and cut into 1/2-inch chunks, about 4 cups
1 (14.5 oz) can    Diced tomatoes
1 (15 oz) can       Chipotle Pinto beans, rinsed and drained
1 1/2 cups           Water, or vegetable broth
3 cups                 Couscous, cooked


In large pot, heat oil and sauté the onion, bell pepper, and garlic, over medium heat, until tender, about 5 minutes. Add the chili powders and stir, for about 30 seconds.

Add the sweet potatoes, tomatoes, beans and broth, and bring to a boil.

Reduce heat, and simmer for 25 minutes or until the sweet potatoes are tender.

Serve over cooked couscous.

Salmon & Shrimp with a Basil Romesco Pesto and served with a Fresh Herb & Lemon Bulgur Pilaf

This was last night's meal.  Delicious, very filling, and only 572 calories.  Compare that to a McDonald's Big Mac, sandwich only, at 540 calories, and I know I'm way ahead in my healthy eating.  In fact, all my meals combined yesterday gave me 1642 mg of sodium.  A Big Mac packs 1050 mg of sodium into one sandwich.  Wow!

Sorry, I didn't mean to bash Big Macs.  Lord knows, I've eaten many of them in my life time.

But now, I'm trying to eat healthier, and, and most fast food burgers simply do not make it onto my menu anymore.  There are a few exceptions, that might work their way back into my rotation.  For instance, any of the In 'n Out burgers can be served "protein" style - wrapped in lettuce leaves - with reduces both carbohydrates and calories, at least.  The Habit Burger chain will also serve their burgers in a lettuce wrap, upon request.

That said, if I am going to eat burgers out anymore, I will be looking for ones that come from only grass fed beef.  It's healthier for the cow (cows aren't made to eat corn, it makes them sick, and forces the farmer to feed them anti-biotics and hormones to keep them well, and to process the corn), and the meat tastes so much better.

For instance, a couple of years ago, Kasi and I decided to spend the weekend over at the coast, in the Cambria, CA, area.  One of the things we wanted to do was tour the Hearst Castle in San Simeon, CA, so we purchased our tickets for a 12:45 tour the next day.  The next morning, I was searching Yelp.com for somewhere good to eat lunch before heading up to the Castle, and came across Sebastian's Store, by the beach, in San Simeon.  It had received excellent reviews for its sandwiches and burgers.

Needless to say, we went.  I had the tastiest, juiciest, burger, I've ever eaten.  Why was it so good?  The meat came from grass fed beef, raised to roam the land around Hearst Castle.  Very fresh, very local, grass fed beef.  There simply is nothing tastier.  My review of Sebastian's Store, on Yelp!, can be found here.

Yum!

But, as a healthier meal choice, I am now looking primarily to seafood for my meat entree.

Last night's meal provided both salmon and shrimp.  Both were formerly frozen, and were the Kirkland brand.  For the salmon, Kasi and I split one of their 7 oz filets, and we did a whole serving each of the 31-40 count frozen, tail on, shrimp - 8 shrimp a piece.

The Basil Romesco Pesto (recipe below) was made fresh, of fresh ingredients, while the fish cooked.

The Fresh Herb and Lemon Bulgur Pilaf (recipe below) was also made fresh, of fresh ingredients, and was prepared just prior to the fish cooking, and was resting with the lid tightly on, while the fish cooked.  It was very easy to stage, and was very delicious.

My only issue with the meal was that the Bulgar had more of an South Asian food flavor profile, and the Basil Romesco Pesto had more of a Mediterranean food flavor profile.  They were each delicious, and good together, but, frankly, not perfect.

I had been hoping for more of a Spanish paella profile to go with the seafood.  I think the next time I do this, I'll substitute saffron for the turmeric.  It will give it a very similar coloring, and the flavor profile will better fit the rest of the dish.

By the way, the extra Basil Romesco Pesto would be very good over pasta.  In fact, that may be my lunch today.  :)

Here is what the dish looked like.  The recipes are below.  I'm sorry the Pesto hid the pretty pink of the salmon.

Salmon & Shrimp with a Basil Romesco Pesto

(The salmon & shrimp are for 2 people, the Pesto makes about 6 servings, 2 Tbs, each) 307 calories per serving. 

1/2 lb                              Salmon fillet

16                                    Shrimp, medium
1 tsp                                Olive oil

Dash                               Salt and Pepper

2                                      Roma tomatoes
1                                      Garlic clove, peeled
TT                                   Salt and Pepper
small handful                Basil leaves
3 Tbs                              Pine nuts
1 Tbs                               Balsamic vinegar

1 Tbs                               Olive oil

Preheat oven to 400 degrees.

Spray a baking dish with oil, and place your salmon in it.  Drizzle the olive oil over the salmon, sprinkle with salt and pepper, and put it in the oven for 10-12 minutes, or until just done.

While the fish is cooking, make the Basil Romescu sauce. Place the chopped tomatoes, pine nuts and garlic in the food processor, pulse until coarsely ground. Add the pepper, salt, vinegar, oil and basil. Pulse until basil is minced.

Cover the cooked fish with the sauce and enjoy.

Fresh Herb & Lemon Bulgur Pilaf

(6 servings, about 1 cup each) 129 calories per serving. 

2 Tbs                                 Extra virgin olive oil

2 cups                               Onion

1 clove                              Garlic, finely chopped

1 1/2 cups                        Bulgur

1/2 tsp                             Ground Turmeric

1/2 tsp                             Ground Cumin

2 cups                              Vegetable broth

1 1/2 cups                        Carrot, chopped

2 tsp                                 Fresh Ginger, finely chopped

1 tsp                                 Salt

1/4 cup                            Fresh dill, finely chopped

1/4 cup                            Fresh mint, finely chopped

1/4 cup                            Flat-leaf parsley, finely chopped

3 Tbs                               Lemon juice, or more to taste

Heat oil in a Dutch oven, or other large saucepan with a tight-fitting lid, over medium heat until hot enough to sizzle a piece of onion. 

Add the onion, reduce the heat to medium-low, and cook, stirring often, until onions are golden brown, about15 minutes. 

Stir in the garlic and cook, stirring, for 1 minute. Add the bulgur, turmeric, and cumin, and cook, stirring, until the bulgur is coated with oil, about 1 minute.

Add the broth, carrots, ginger, and salt, and bring to a boil, stirring. 

Cover, and cook over medium-low heat until all the broth is absorbed and there are indentations in the surface of the bulgur, about 15 minutes. Do NOT remove the lid during this time, and do not stir the pilaf.  Be patient.

Remove from the heat and let stand, covered, for at 5 minutes.

Stir in the dill, mint, parsley, and lemon juice into the pilaf.  Cover, and let rest until ready to serve.

Some Changes on the site

Some of my readers were having a hard time finding my recipes.  So, to make things more seamless, I am adding new recipes at the bottom of the post that they are first mentioned in, and providing links to the original posts where the recipes appeared, when a recipe is mentioned again, in a later post.

I am also, at least for now, adding what recipes are included in the post, in the title of the post.

I hope that helps.

The "Recipes" page has been replaced by a "Links" page.

I plan to add a variety of links to this page that are related to eating healthy.

Thanks for the suggestions.  I hope to hear fro more of you as the site grows.

Fascinating! Watching what you eat, actually works (Rice Recipe).

Eight days ago I started using the myfitnesspal website and app for my phone.  At that time, I had just completed a 3 day cleansing juice, and was trying to start eating better, exercising, and lose some weight.

That morning, Tuesday, July 10th, I weighed 265.4 pounds.  I decided I would, using MyFitnessPal's guidelines, attempt to lose 2 pounds a week, on an 1800 calorie a day diet.  I also decided I would stop using most pre-packaged process foods, and eat a primarily vegetable based diet.

Today, I weighed in at 261.8 pounds.  That's still a lot of weight, but it is heading in the right direction.  Since starting this 1800 calorie a day diet, I have only exceeded the limit once - and that was by only 6 calories. 

I have been religious about tracking my calories, and eating well, and it is changing me for the better.  Now, I need to start exercising more.

It has been blazing hot recently, here in the Central Valley, but yesterday and today are cooler.  Consequently, last night, Kasi and I took the dog out for a 33 minute walk at a 3 mph clip.  Not too far or fast, but, according to MyFitnessPal, enough to earn me 216 more calories.  I quickly used some of that up in my first glass of red wine in a few weeks.  Yum!  :)

Well, anyway, suffice it to say, I'm happy that things are moving in the right direction.

Yesterday's food intake was simple.  I had the usual morning breakfast and coffee.  For lunch, I took half of the bread I baked on Monday, Sliced it open, put a TBS of the Hummus I made on Monday on each half of the bread, added two slices of red tomato, a TBS of the diced roasted veggies we made on Saturday, and used on the pizzas, and added some fresh sliced red onion.

It looked like this:

I took it to work, and had it on my break.  It was delicious!

Dinner was simple as well.  I made some long grain white rice - incredibly easy.  For those who struggle with rice, here is the safest, fool proof method.

____________________________

Rice Recipe

1 Cup    Rice

2 Cups  Water (with or without a TBS of Olive Oil, or Butter), or your choice of broth.

Take out a smaller saucepan that has a tight fitting lid.  pour the rice in the pan.  Add the two cups of liquid (make sure it is to cups, which is 16oz.  Broth comes in15oz cans, usually, so you have to add 1oz of water.)

Place pan on burner, and set the heat to HIGH.  Bring the rice and water to a good boil, then cover the rice with your tight fitting lid, and immediately reduce the heat to LOW, as low as you can get it.

Set a timer for 20 minutes, and walk away.

Do NOT lift the lid until the timer goes off.  when the timer goes off, you can lift the lid, and fluff the rice with a fork.  Serve immediately.  If you are not ready to serve, recover the rice.

______________________

Now, where was I?  Oh yeah, dinner.

While the rice cooked, we took three tilapia filets out of the oven, sprayed a small casserole dish with Pam, and placed them in a 350 degree oven.

These filets are delicious.  They are the Kirkland Pesto Tilapia filets, sold at Costco.  Really good.

Once those were in the oven, we trimmed some raw broccoli, about 2 Cups worth, and placed it in a bowl with a little water, partially covered them with another plate, so it could vent the steam, and cooked it in the microwave for about 4 minutes.

My plate, which was 568 calories, is pictured below.  It consists of 1.5 Cups of rice, two tilapia filets, and a cup of the steamed broccoli, all topped of with a very light dusting of garlic salt.

Simple, and delicious