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!