The Eating Out Balancing Act

Not that we eat out a lot when we're at home, but we've found that having this daily feedback on our food has really made us look at what we order in restaurants. Not only that, but we've seen just how all that extra sodium in restaurant food manifests itself as retained fluid and noticed how long it takes to finally clear our systems.

A few evenings ago, we went to The Keg Steakhouse for dinner. One of the wonderful things about the wealth of information on the internet nowadays is that the larger chain restaurants are putting nutritional information on their websites, and The Keg is no exception. I have to say that their site is extremely good in this respect, letting you build your meal exactly as you had it. Or, in my case, exactly as I was going to have it. Not that I scrimped at all or had something less than I really wanted because of calories or fat concerns. Well, that applies to everything except dessert. They have something called Billy Miner Pie, which is their signature dessert. It is delicious, but, be warned, if you are keeping track at all of calories, you need to share this dessert with at least 3 people!

The good thing about doing my research first was that I knew what I would be comfortable eating, and it also wouldn't take me as long to make my decision when I got there. And anybody who knows me knows I can take a while to make up my mind sometimes... In the end, my meal of salad, steak with vegetables and mushrooms, french fries (but I only ate half!) and vanilla ice cream only came to about 800 calories, which for a restaurant meal is pretty good.

Of course, the other planning plus is that we went out on a day that we also work out with Eric, so we had more calories to work with on the consumption side. After getting on the scale 2 days after the meal out, I found that I was exactly the same weight as the previous week, and I'd managed to drop my body fat percentage by a bit, too.  But I think that might also be due in part to what we ate the next day - and that leads me to today's recipe.

Still trying to keep the protein percentage high and the fat content low, I made a Lentil Stew for dinner the next night. Not only did it fit the bill in both cases, but the vitamin and mineral content is great, too.

Lentil Stew

2 slices Bacon, cut into strips
1 Pork Loin Chop, cut into 3 pieces
1 cup Onion, chopped
1 cup Carrot, chopped
1 cup Celery, chopped
1/2 cup Tomato, chopped - canned or raw
1 tbsp Tomato Paste
2/3 cup dry Lentils
1 1/2 cup Water or Vegetable Stock
1 small Bay Leaf
Salt, Pepper to taste

Chop and cut all ingredients as needed. Rinse the lentils. In a deep pan or a pot, start the bacon and saute until it starts to render some fat, but not until it is too brown or crisp. Add the onion, carrot and celery and cook for about 2 minutes. Move the vegetables out of the way and add the loin chop pieces in the middle of the pan. Brown for about 2 minutes on each side. You may have to stir the vegetables a little to keep them from browning too much. Add the tomato, tomato paste, lentils, stock and bay leaf. Stir to blend everything together. Cover and simmer on medium to low heat for about 30 minutes. Check seasoning after the first 5 minutes or so and adjust as you stir occasionally during the rest of the cooking. Serve in shallow soup plates or bowls. This recipe makes 3 servings.

Nutritional Information per Serving (about 2 cups):

253 Calories, 5.3 grams Fat, 48.1 mg Cholesterol, 30 grams Carbohydrate, 7.7 grams Fibre, 22.2 grams Protein

So we're finding that balancing what we eat day by day is also a great help in keeping control over our weight and nutrition, and still lets us enjoy a meal out once in a while.

Tonight's dinner will be rainbow trout that has now become one of Larry's favourite fish dinners. And that's an achievement since he's truly 'not a fish person'. I'll show you that next time.

New Stuff for the New Year

Hi! Sorry to have been away so long, but the holidays are always busy and 2013 had us doing more than our usual share of entertaining. That, of course, means more than the usual share of leftovers to deal with, many of which are higher in calories and fats than the usual pantry and fridge contents. A bit of a challenge that we're still dealing with to some degree - and having some fun trying to come up with ways to use up the remainder of the cheese selection...

Before I go any further, last post I promised a nice addition to a Sunday breakfast that's tasty and easy to throw together - a Fruit and Yogurt Parfait. It's a twist on the photo on the Bran Buds package, but I didn't notice that until I'd made them a couple of times.

Fruit and Yogurt Parfait

1/3 cup Vanilla Flavoured Greek Yogurt
2 tbsp. Bran Buds Cereal
1 large Strawberry, hulled and quartered
8 Blueberries
1/2 oz. Pineapple in chunks
1 tsp. Pumpkin Seeds

Spoon the fruit into a small bowl. Spoon the yogurt over that and add the cereal and pumpkin seeds on top. Makes 1 serving. Pretty simple, but a nice addition of calcium and fruit to a Sunday morning breakfast that might not have much of either one.

Nutritional Value per 1 serving:
146 Calories, 1.7 grams Fat, 3.3 mg Cholesterol, 26.4 grams Carbohydrate, 6.5 grams Fibre, 7.8 grams Protein

One of our Christmas gifts was the Fitbit Aria Scale to go with the activity monitoring wristbands and the online log. This is the 'no, you can't cheat any more on your weight' scale that is connected wirelessly to your computer. After creating your personal ID and connecting to your Fitbit account, it gives a very nice and LARGE digital readout of your weight (to the 10th of a pound) and your body fat percentage. YIKES!!! And it synchronizes directly to your account. So far, we've determined that it's best to weigh ourselves in the middle of the week, so any odd excesses from the weekend have melted off and the reading is more accurate to our average weights, and makes it easier to look at the progress line on our accounts. So now we have one more reason to keep up the lower fat, higher protein diet.

This time, I'd like to share a recipe for a soup I made from the remnants of a veggie tray. In the winter the selection seems to shrink to a group of raw foods that, while extremely good for us, aren't everybody's favourites: broccoli, cauliflower, carrots and celery. They may not be too appetizing in the raw form, but they make a fantastic base for any kind of soup. This one is a take on French Onion Soup with a cheesy crouton on top.

Vegetable Soup with Cheese Crouton

1/2 Onion, chopped
1 cup Celery, chopped
1 cup Carrots, chopped
1 cup Broccoli, chopped
1 cup Cauliflower, chopped
4 cups Low Sodium Beef or Vegetable Stock
4 cups Water
1 Bay Leaf
1 tbsp Tomato Paste
Salt & Pepper to taste
6 Slices French Baguette Bread, drizzled with olive oil
3 Slices Cheese - Swiss or Havarti, halved to fit the bagette

Start the onion, celery and carrots in a pot in about 1 tbsp canola or olive oil. Sweat them for one or two minutes. Add the broccoli, cauliflower and tomato paste and stir to coat. Cook for another minute, stirring to keep the tomato from sticking to the pot. Add the stock, water, bay leaf and seasonings. Cook for about 45 minutes until the vegetables are softened, adjusting seasoning as you go, a little at a time.

In the meantime, cut the baguette into 3/4"to 1" slices, place on a sheet pan and drizzle with olive oil. Broil until the slices just start to brown, then top with the cheese slices and set back under the broiler until the cheese has melted.  To serve, ladle into bowls and top with a crouton. Recipe makes about 5 good sized servings.

Nutritional Info per 1 Serving:
239 Calories, 6.4 grams Fat, 25.3 mg Cholesterol, 29.4 grams Carbohydrate, 3.8 grams Fibre, 13.5 grams Protein

There are so many variations on this soup that I could go on for hours. And the good thing of it is that, even if you add chicken or beef pieces and make a heartier version, it is still low in fat. And if you don't have any cheese you need to use up, you can dispense with the crouton all together and save some fat and carbs!

Back to regular posts this week. I'm even going to throw in a few restaurant meals. It is quite amazing what you can find with a little research on a restaurant chain website!

Easy Beef Stew

Wel we've been tracking our food and exercise for about a month now, and I'm very happy to report that something must be working! Last week was absolutely terrible for me as far as exercise goes - only one training session, no time on the elliptical and no time (or good weather) to get in a walk around the neighbourhood. On top of that, the days I usually visit the gym were spent at seminars that hit me with a double whammy against the program - sitting all day AND catered buffet lunches. Even after all of that, I put on a pair of jeans that had been a bit on the uncomfortable side about three weeks before, and they fit just fine!

Little successes, but they are there and they've come even though we haven't made any drastic changes to diet. We're more careful of what we eat and its nutritional value, and we try to get in those 10,000 steps a day, which can be difficult when we're in our offices, but on the whole we haven't suffered or felt that this change was in any way a drudge.

Of course, it helps if you like to cook and can make the time to prepare food from raw ingredients instead of packages.

Today's recipe is for a Beef Stew that we tossed together a few days ago. It only takes about 15 minutes to prepare and about an hour to simmer out. If you try it, feel free to change up the veggies depending on what you have around, fresh or frozen, and what you like.

Beef Stew

1-2 tbsp Canola Oil
2 lb Flank Steak, cubed
1/2 large Onion
2 tsp Tomato Paste
1 stalk Celery, sliced
2 Carrots, large chop
1/4 cup Red Wine (optional)
1/2 cup Leek, sliced
1/2 cup Yellow Beans, cut to bite-sized pieces
1/2 cup Green Beans, cut to bite-sized pieces
2 cups Water
1 Bay Leaf
Salt & Pepper to taste

In a heavy pot or Dutch Oven, heat the oil over high heat. Add the beef, a bit of salt and pepper, and brown it on all sides. Add the tomato paste and cook down for a further 2-3 minutes, then add the onion, celery and carrot. Cook these in for about 2 minutes, then deglaze with the red wine if you are using it. Add the leek, beans, bay leaf and 1 cup of the water. Let that come back to a boil and check the seasoning. Adjust to taste and add the rest of the water. Simmer, partially covered, for about an hour. If you need more water, add a little at a time so the sauce isn't too runny. If you've added too much and want it a little thicker, add a slurry of about 1 tsp flour mixed with 3 tsp water. Stir it in thoroughly and bring the stew to a boil briefly. Take out the bay leaf. Serve the stew over whatever starch you would like - potatoes, rice or even pasta. This recipe makes 3 good dinner servings.

Nutritional Value for 1 Serving not including potatoes:
574 Calories, 24.2 grams Fat, 93.3 mg Cholesterol, 420.8 mg Sodium, 22.1 grams Carbohydrate, 4.8 grams Protein

Want to jazz up your weekend breakfast? Next time, I've got a couple of ideas that we've come to enjoy along with our Sunday morning eggs.

Tasty and Nutritious Muffins

As all those people on the radio and TV say, most people aren't successful at changing their diets because 'diet = depravation'. Not only is it not easy to change your eating habits entirely, it certainly isn't much fun. So my take on changing our diets is to find ways to still have desserts and treats but find healthier ways to make them. They still taste great, but they're lower in overall calories and fat.

Before I get to this delicious muffin recipe, I have to share a link to the site I have been using to calculate the nutritional value of the foods I have been making. We don't use a lot of pre-packaged foods at our house, so I'm using the nutrition resources available on the web. I found one site, called SparkPeople, that not only has an excellent calculator, but it is a great place to enter, store and share recipes. You can find most of my recipes from this blog on the site (search for RoweFood), along with a whole host of other ideas from other SparkRecipes users.

    This links to the recipes page:       http://recipes.sparkpeople.com/recipe-calculator.asp

You don't have to be a member to use the recipe calculator, but you won't be able to save the information on the site unless you are.

Now, on to the muffins. These are Oatmeal Blueberry Pumpkinseed Muffins, made with yogurt and applesauce instead of added liquid and fat.

Oatmeal Blueberry Pumpkinseed Muffins

1 cup Flour
1 cup quick-cook Oatmeal (not instant)
1/2 cup Brown Sugar, not packed
4 tsp. Baking Powder
1/4 tsp. Baking Soda
1/2 tsp. Salt
1 large Egg
3 tbsp. unsweetened Apple Sauce
1 tsp. Vanilla
1 cup Plain Greek Yogurt 0% fat
1/4 cup Pumpkin Seeds
1 cup Blueberries, fresh or frozen

Preheat the oven to 400° F and prepare muffin tins (grease with butter or use paper cups) for 12 muffins. Mix the dry ingredients together in one bowl, and the egg, apple sauce, vanilla and yogurt in another. Pour the wet ingredients over the dry, add the pumpkin seeds and fold together until just moist. Then carefully fold in the blueberries until distributed but the batter is still lumpy.

Spoon into the prepared muffin tins and bake for about 14 minutes or until a tester or toothpick comes out clean. Let them rest in the pan for a couple of minutes, then remove to a cooling rack. It is best to keep these in a container in the fridge.

Nutritional Values per 1 Muffin:
118 Calories, 1.3 grams Fat, 1.4 mg Cholesterol, 24.7 grams Carbohydrates, 4.4 grams Protein.

We have found that these are a delicious alternative to bigger and more fat-laden desserts. They give a nice sweet punch as an addition to a smoothie at breakfast or as a small but satisfying dessert.

What can you do with chicken?

Chicken is one of the most versatile and protein-laden foods we have in our normal diets, but I have always found chicken breast to be my least favourite part of the bird because it tends to dry out and be rather low on flavour. But since I've been looking for protein sources that we can grab easily during the week, I've also discovered this really great way to prepare it - brining.

Brining is a bit of a fad with turkey and the like, and I've taken a basic turkey brine recipe from Food & Wine Magazine and adjusted it, both for quantity (I'm not making 18 pounds of chicken breast here) and some of the ingredients. If you decide to try this, play with the ingredients yourself and find a combination that gives you the seasoning style you like. There are only 3 basic requirements to the recipe:
       An acidic base such as vinegar or fruit juice
       Sugar
       Salt

My brining liquid for 3 boneless, skinless chicken breasts is made up of:
About 1/3 to 1/2 cup apple juice
3/4 cup water
1/4 apple, skin on, cut in half
1/4 or so orange, skin on, cut in 2 or 3 pieces
3-4 whole cloves
2 sage leaves
1 -2 sprigs of thyme
8 whole black peppercorns
1 shake of red pepper flakes (not too much)
2 or 3 shakes of dried ancho or chipotle chili pepper
1/4 cup salt
1/4 cup sugar

If you don't have the fresh herbs, you can substitute dried or ground versions.  Put all the above into a small pot and heat until boiling and the sugar has dissolved into the liquid. Take it from the heat and add another 2 cups of liquid. When this is cooled down, take the chicken breasts and poke them all over with a small sharp skewer or a fork and find a large enough container to hold them and the brining liquid. If the liquid doesn't cover the chicken, add some more water. Cover and place in the fridge for about 12 hours or overnight.

When you are ready to cook the chicken, remove it from the brine and dispose of the liquid. The first time I made this I didn't add any other seasoning and the chicken was OK but a little bland. Since then I have been giving it a little kick with a dry rub made of garlic powder (about 1 tbsp.), dried ground coriander (about 1 tsp.) and ancho chili pepper (about 1 tsp.) Mix them together and rub all over the chicken before it goes into the roasting dish.

You can use any covered roasting dish - a roasting pan, a heavy Pyrex type glass pan with foil covering, a Dutch oven - to make this dish. My preference, just because I have one, is the German clay pot, the Roehmertopf. Just put the chicken in the dish, cover and cook at 375°F for about 1 hour.

When it comes out of the oven, take it from the dish, let it sit for a couple of minutes, and then cut it up as desired. I like to take about half of it for sandwiches so I just slice it up, and the other half for chicken salad so I shred that part.

So there you go, high protein to add to salads, sandwiches or even soups all week!

A quick Fitbit update:  We've been using our Fitbits for about 1 month now and we're happy to report that not only are we starting to feel a little thinner around the waist, but Larry has already lost 5 pounds - by eating more!

Next time - Desserts and snacks can be healthy without being boring. And I'll give you a link to a great site for calculating the nutritional value of the recipes you 'cook up' yourself!

In Search of Protein

One of the first things we discovered when we started analyzing our food intake was that our proportions of macronutrients - carbs, fat and protein - were out of tune with where we wanted to be.

To meet our goals, we need to reverse the percentages of fats and protein in our diet, and that has been the most difficult thing so far. That's not to say we haven't been having some success, but trying to fit in about 1 gram of protein per pound of weight can be a pretty difficult task. Good thing there are lots of resources all over the internet that identify high sources of protein - we have a list hanging in the kitchen that has become the go-to for meal inspiration.

One of our favourite easy to make high protein dishes is my Bean Salad. This is a slight modification to the standard Three-Bean Salad, with more legumes and a much higher protein level.

Bean Salad

1 cup Red Kidney Beans (raw)
2/3 cup Baby Lima Beans (raw)
2/3 cup Pinto Beans (raw)
1 cup Green Beans, raw or frozen, cut to bite sized pieces
1/2 to 3/4 Yellow Onion, diced but not too fine

Soak the kidney beans, lima beans and pinto beans in separate bowls for about 20 minutes. To cook, transfer into pots (I put the lima and pinto beans together in one), fill to cover the beans with at least an extra inch or so of water and turn the heat to medium. Bring them to a boil slowly and try not to let the water boil too rapidly or some of the outside skin will come off of the beans. Cook for about an hour or until the beans are tender but not too soft, checking to see if you need to add any water. At the same time, cook the green beans until tender.

In a large bowl, mix all the drained beans with the onion. Add some salt and pepper to taste. Then mix in this simple vinaigrette dressing:

1/2 cup Canola Oil
1/2 cup White Wine Vinegar
1 tsp Dijon Mustard
1 tsp Sugar
A few twists of pepper from the grinder

The easiest way to make this dressing is to use an empty jam jar or a small Tupperware or similar container with a tight lid. Pour everything in, close the lid and shake, shake, shake for a minute or two, until you see that the dressing has come together and looks a little pale yellow and creamy.
Pour the dressing over the beans while they are still warm and mix everything together.

The recipe makes about 12 half-cup servings. This salad seems to get better the longer it sits in the fridge, especially if the dressing is stirred through whenever you take anything out of the bowl.

Nutritional Value per 1/2 cup serving:
232 Calories, 5.4 grams Fat, 0 mg Cholesterol, 560.1 mg Sodium, 36.3 grams Carbohydrates, 11.2 grams Protein

This salad makes a good addition to a sandwich at lunch or as a mid-afternoon snack if you feel a bit peckish. We never used to make bean salad of this type, but since I started with this recipe, we always have some available and are really enjoying it.

One of the other really good protein sources is chicken breast. Check out my next entry for an interesting way to cook chicken ahead of time and use it in various recipes.

Welcome to our journey!

Well, it all started with a Fitbit.

Actually, it didn't just start with a Fitbit, but that's what seems to have got us into high gear.

Just for a little background, my husband and I are in our '50s (though that shouldn't matter too much for what is to come) and, although we're relatively active we needed a push to start really looking carefully at how our diet and exercise programs were helping or hindering our quest for good health.

We work out twice a week with a personal trainer, and that's a real boost to our physical health, but at some point we hit a wall - the little improvements to our weight and body measurements just weren't happening any more. We had been talking with our trainer, Eric, about nutrition but didn't have a convenient resource to help us track what we ate and its nutritional value, positive or negative.

Then along came the Fitbit Flex. We ended up with one by default (we, being the newbies to fitness trackers that we were, bought our nephew a whole unit instead of just the wristband he needed) and started fiddling with it. The whole system is so easy to use and gives you great information back about your exercise (i.e. step count) and calorie intake. Of course, the calorie intake part all depends on you being extremely honest about everything you eat and drink....

We were so impressed with it that a few days after I started using one, my husband bought himself one too, and now we're both competing for the higher step count every day, taking more walks (to get that count up), working a little faster on the elliptical (to get that count up) - do you see a pattern developing here???

Awareness is a wonderful thing, and it has prompted us to start making some changes to our exercise regime and, mostly, our diet. Small, easy steps make the going a lot easier and we're already starting to see some positive effects.

Our first change actually predated the Fitbit. I started making my own 'Pull Anything Out of the Fridge' Smoothies in early summer, and soon had both of us drinking them to give our mornings a boost. This is our recipe, but you can make up your own with whatever fresh fruit and veggies you have on hand. Experiment! You're sure to find something you like.

Before...

And ready-to-drink

It takes a few minutes to load the blender with the ingredients, but the result is quite tasty and you can make enough for more than one day at a time. Just keep the extra in the fridge in a sealed container or a mason jar and try to finish it in a day or two.

'Make Your Own' Smoothie

3/4 fresh Banana
1 tbsp fresh Gingerroot cut into strips
5-6 pieces frozen Mango
1/2 cup frozen Berry Mixture (like Nature's Touch Pomberry from Costco)
1/4 Granny Smith Apple
1/4 regular sized Pear
1" chunk of Cucumber, coarsely chopped
1/2 Kiwifruit
1 tbsp Milled Flaxseed
1/2 cup Plain Greek 0% fat yogurt
Small handful fresh Cilantro and fresh Parsley, coarsely chopped
1/2 cup fresh Baby Spinach leaves
1/2 cup fresh Kale, coarsely chopped
About 1 cup cold Water
About 1/3 cup Orange Juice

Throw everything into the blender and process on the highest liquefying setting until it looks smooth. The recipe above will make about 5 cups worth. Pour into glasses and enjoy.

I will say that the smoothies look much more appetizing if you can include the berry mixture. Then at least it comes out purple. But feel free to leave them out or substitute something else; just know that the colour of your drink won't be quite as appealing, but still very nutritious. And don't mind about the spinach and kale - you really can't taste them at all but get the vitamins and minerals anyway.

Nutritional Values per 8 oz glass:
140 Calories, 2.1 grams Fat, 4.7 grams Fibre, 32.4 grams Carbohydrate, 6 grams Protein

I've spoken to a few people who seem to think that smoothies have to be made with yogurt and fruit, but from our experience we've found that all sorts of combinations work, and that a base of water and a bit of fruit juice works great.

Most of what I'll be posting has to do with food, always the most difficult aspect to change. But we've found that incorporating these changes a little at a time and doing our best to make every meal interesting and appetizing as well as nutritionally satisfying is a great way to Get Healthier!