April's CR Diary

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December 28, 2005

CR-Friendly Lasagna and Crab Vegetable Roll-Ups

In response to Gregg M.'s request, I'll post the lasagna recipe, as well as the recipe MoMR sent me for vegetable crab roll ups. Here's the crab first:

Makes 16 appetizers
Start to Finish: 40 minutes

Ingredients

2 medium zucchini

1/2 cup cooked crabmeat

1 tablespoon mayonnaise or salad dressing

1 teaspoon Wasabi paste

1/8 teaspoon salt

1/2 of a medium avocado, cut into 16 strips, halved

2 tablespoons fine matchstick-cut carrot

4 small fresh basil leaves, cut into strips

Directions

1. Trim ends of zucchini. Using a sharp vegetable peeler, slice zucchini lengthwise into wide, flat ribbons. Discard first and last slices, and the seedy portions in the middle. (You will need 32 ribbons.) Set ribbons aside.

2. Carefully clean crabmeat, removing any shell or cartilage pieces. Drain crabmeat well in a colander, pressing with the back of a spoon to remove most of the liquid. Pat dry with paper towels. In a small bowl combine crabmeat, mayonnaise, wasabi paste, and salt. Seed and peel the avocado; cut into thin strips.

3. On a clean work surface, place one zucchini ribbon on top of another, offset. For each roll-up, place 1 slightly rounded teaspoon of crab mixture at one end of a doubled zucchini ribbon. Top with avocado strips, a few shreds of carrot, and a basil leaf. Roll up; secure with toothpicks if necessary. If desired, cover and chill up to 30 minutes. Makes 16 appetizers.

Nutrition facts per serving:
calories: 23

protein: 1g
total fat: 2g
saturated fat: 0g
cholesterol: 4mg
sodium: 37mg
carbohydrate: 1g


Note from MoMR:
The original recipe called for WAY too much basil, to the point that it overpowered the other flavours. I use a bit more Wasabi.

CR-Friendly Pastaless Lasagna:

I've made endless variations of this recipe but the basic idea is that you use either zucchini, eggplant, or some other squash, or a green like kale or arugula as the separator between the layers instead of pasta. If you use a watery veggie like zucchini, it's good to sprinkle with half-salt and drain or pat dry before putting in the dish, otherwise all the water will release during cooking and your lasagna will be wet. You can also use an endless variety of veggies: tonight, I am using cauliflower, but I often use artichoke hearts, home-roasted red peppers, or broccoli. I usually use fat free or lowfat cottage cheese, mixed with garlic powder and either fresh or dried basil, as the filler where a ricotta would normally be in a lasagna, but you could certainly use fat free ricotta and get great results. For the tomato sauce, use whatever you like. Tonight I am using a combination of whole peeled tomatoes and tomato sauce (we need to use up some opened cans) but in the summer I just used fresh tomatoes simmered in red or white wine with a bit of garlic. You could also use a jarred marinara, or your favorite marinara recipe. I like to use Quorn Grounds, which is Quorn's version of ground beef and is a nice protein source, but you could use any sort of veggie burger type ground beef, or you could use chicken or turkey or even shrimp. I have at times used eggwhites, and tonight I will use about 30 calories worth of eggwhites to up the protein, since Quorn has quite a bit of carb along with its protein. The idea of a layered casserole in a rectangular baking dish with a protein source, a creamy dairy layer, vegetables, and a tomato-based sauce was brilliant: it's the pasta and the giant amounts of full fat cheese and overzealous indulgence in olive oils that make it a nutritional disaster. But who needs those? MR and I often sprinkle a small amount of part-skim mozzarella on top, though tonight we're skipping the cheese as we've already had enough saturated fat this month with all the turkey and seafood we ate at the holiday. We always add a bit of oil, either flax or olive, to the top of the dish once it's out of the oven, though we don't want it to oxidize so we don't use it to cook the veggies or do anything where it would get too hot.

Here is a link to one of the posts where I wrote a lasagna recipe I made for MR. But don't feel like you have to stick to that... mix up whatever ingredients you want, plug it into your nutritional software, and see what you get! Eat and enjoy!

Posted by april at 3:33 PM | Comments (1) | TrackBack

Calorie Counted Holiday Party

I think MR's mom almost died of shock when I told her that he was going to eat the party food. She had carefully crunched the calorie and macronutrient info on Nutrition Data, so there was no reason why we couldn't figure out a calorie-counted, Zoned, 629 dinner for MR made of party appetizers, veggies from the crudite and fruits from the fruit tray. It took me about an hour to do the calculations, and I have three pages of scratch paper to show for it, plus the last few items crunched into DWIDP, but I did it, and everyone was happy. Here's what MR ate at the holiday party:

1 crab vegetable wrap
1 mango chicken cup
6 chili lime shrimp
3 tablespoons antipasto
100 g asparagus
100 g cantaloupe
137 g honeydew
14.3 g spiced hazelnut mix
1 teaspoon flax oil
260 g eggwhites (we will bring from home)
3 oz. pinot noir

The crab vegetable wraps were my favorite: made with ribbons of zucchini, they were very healthy little appetizer bites. I'll get the recipe from MoMR and post it. The mango chicken cups in baked wantons were also amazing, but higher calorie at 60 each. All we had to bring from home was the eggwhites to balance out the protein. The chili lime shrimp were also fantastic, and we're going to get the sauce recipe so we can make it as a sauce for eggwhites and get the same delicious taste without the cholesterol in the shrimp.

I took one of MoMR's calculators and just walked around filling my plate until I hit my calorie target for the day: 1300. I got to try lots of yummy things! She had the calorie counts and macronutrient info on little print outs next to every dish... it looked a lot like my birthday/housewarming party! The house was beautifully decorated for Christmas, and all the food was presented on gorgeous plates and arranged prettily. The only minor disaster of the night was when the heel of my shoe got caught in the kitchen heat vent, but MR rescued it. Then it happened again, and he rescued it... again! But all had a wonderful time, and I left with both shoes firmly attached to my feet.

Tonight is my last night in Calgary for awhile, as I am flying out tomorrow in the early evening to go to a friend's wedding reception in Miami before heading home to Philly. MR is staying here for a few weeks to pack up his condo to sell. Needless to say, I'm going to miss him terribly, but I'm making a special dinner tonight with a variation on one of his favorites, CR-friendly pasta-less lasagna, so that he'll be sure to come rushing home to me and my cooking.

Posted by april at 10:09 AM | Comments (1) | TrackBack

December 27, 2005

CR-Friendly Family Holidays

My first Christmas with MR's family turned out beautifully, thanks to the efforts of his entire family to accomodate our weirdness! Our first family event was Christmas Eve drinks and snacks at the home of his uncle and aunt, who are not known for their low calorie cooking. In fact, they have a history of producing delicious but very high calorie, high saturated fat foods. However, this year, they provided a gorgeous vegetable tray with lightly steamed asparagus, cauliflower, radishes (people really don't eat enough radishes) olives, and other assorted colorful veggies with a spicy mustard on the side. I also ate two of the tempura scallops, shrimp, and mushrooms that his aunt had carefully prepared. MR's Mom was surprised that I ate the non-vegetable food, but I explained that as a cook, I just can't stand to see people slave all day to prepare food and then not even taste it. It seems intolerably ungrateful to me, and I know how upset I get when people don't even try a dish I've worked hard to prepare. A few small appetizer bites won't throw off my CR, and the rest of my day had been so light (no dairy with my breakfast, no extra eggwhites or almonds with my lunch) was so light that I had a few calories to spare. His uncle also stood over me at the appetizer table insisting that I take another scallop, shrimp and mushroom, and the Southerner in me could not refuse a direct order from my host.

Then we headed home to MoMR's house, where we made a fantastic chicken in Thai green curry sauce dinner. MR had his with quorn, but wishing to maximize protein and minimize carbs, I ate mine with chicken like the rest of the family. January will be an all-vegetarian month, as I've had quite a bit of meat this holiday season. MoMR made adoreable little apple sweet potato souflees, CR friendly, in cute little tiny dishes. Those were my favorite part of the meal. MR and I made our curry in separate pots, and MoMR made the same dish for herself, MR's step-father, and my mother (there are a lot of parents in this holiday, but one can never have to many!)11 I enjoyed some excellent red wine that S-FoMR had made himself, and MR drank some pinot noir... 3 oz as always.

Christmas morning MR and I rose at the traditional hour of 5 and made our breakfasts, then waited for all to get up and open Christmas presents. Among my many favorite presents was a Billy Joel CD from MR, so you can expect a whole lot of Billy Joel quotes in the blog for the next little while. MoMR and S-FoMR gave me a gorgeous dress, handpainted flowers on a black background, girls' size 16. It made me realize that shopping in the girls' department may be a logical next step for me, especially since the Banana Republic size 0's I tried on the day before (did I mention that my luggage didn't come till Christmas afternoon? I went out and bought myself something decent to wear Christmas Eve morning, fearing that I might never see my bags again!) were mostly too big. After Christmas present opening, we made brunch, which consisted of MR's CR-engineered low carb buckwheat pancakes with whey protein powder to lower the carbs and up the protein, plus eggwhite scrambles with tons of multi-colored vegetables.

Christmas dinner was quite an extravaganza. I started cooking almost as soon as the brunch dishes were put away, and enjoyed hanging out with MoMR and their very well-behaved dog Maxine while I made cranberry sauce, Jack Daniels sweet potatoes (cut with pumpkin to lower the total cals), mashed cauliflower, ginger ricotta cheesecake, and pumpkin flan. MoMR roasted a turkey (that turned out to be the best turkey I think I've ever had) and made turkey gravy, while MR made vegetarian gravy for us. I made red pepper and arugula Christmas salad, just like the TR pictures, with hazelnut oil and balsamic vinegar, but forgot the nutmeg. MR took on the stressful task of dividing the cranberry sauce, mashed cauliflower, and JD sweet potatoes by volume and weighing our servings for the two of us. Dinner was a little later than we had planned and there was a bit of tripping over each other in the kitchen, but we had a great time and MR and I were extremely grateful that his family was willing to put up with our weighing and measuring everything and creating lots of extra dirty dishes in the process.

MoMR was shocked at how much turkey both MR and I ate, but since it was our protein source in the meal, it had to be a lot. I had miscalculated though: I kept my calories so low earlier in the day in anticipation of a big dinner that I alotted too many calories for dinner. I had eaten fewer than 500 calories between breakfast and lunch combined, so even with two six ounce glasses of wine (one while I was cooking -- I realized upon dumping tangerine juice that was meant for the cranberry sauce into the JD sweet potato that cooking without wine was making me absent-minded, so I rapidly acquired a medicinal glass :) I still couldn't eat enough food to reach my calorie target for the day. And I ate a HUGE plate of food! I left some cranberry and sweet potato on my plate, and completely failed to eat my pumpikin flan, but never fear, I ate it the next day as a snack and enjoyed every pumpkin-y bite.

It was a lot of fun to eat a CR friendly Christmas meal with family that is very sympathetic to our goals. MoMR has been cooking Zoned for quite awhile now, and she has decorated her fridge with a Zone diagram. We all found it a bit confusing to have so many cooks in the kitchen... we're used to doing everything ourselves, and there was a bit more confusion and clean-up. But considering that we produced a very complex dinner for five, two of whom had everything weighed and measured and calorie-counted exactly, it's remarkable how easily it all came together. MR was the only one who had room for his dessert -- the rest of us couldn't eat another bite after the main dishes were served. MoMR didn't care for the mashed cauliflower, but MR loved it. Everyone loved the cranberry sauce. The turkey was amazing, and the JD sweet potatoes were a bit dry and not as smooth as I would have liked, but still quite good.

The next day we headed over for drinks and snacks to MR's dad and step-mother's house. I packed MR a simple dinner to eat at feeding time (7 pm) since we would be at their house, and I ate a small snack beforehand but left lots of calories for whatever healthy-ish snacks would be on offer and some wine. I was very glad I had left most of my dinner calories for the event, because MR's dad and step-mother served shrimp! I LOVE SHRIMP! I practically danced around the room singing, "Shrimp shrimp shrimp!" My mother, my giant cat and I are all huge fans of cocktail shrimp, and while my cat prefers it raw and naked, my mom and I love steamed shrimp with a bit of seafood cocktail sauce. MR encouraged me to consume them for protein, as shrimp are almost pure protein, though he did caution me about the considerable cholesterol. I will have to make January an all-vegetarian month to make up for the a mount of meat I've eaten over the holidays. I think I ate ten or twelve shrimp, maybe even fifteen! I had many tails to show for it. MR's step mother made it quite clear that she would not be in the least bit offended if I removed the bacon from the bacon wrapped scallops she served and ate the scallop underneath, so I ate three scallops. Shrimp and scallops... two of my favorite foods! She also had some Babybel cheeses, which my friend Myrna Perez swears by as a low calorie, high calcium treat, so I ate two of those. I also had a tiny slice of the brie (but no crackers) and some excellent cabernet. It was a delicious dinner!

MoMR had cooked dinner for herself, her husband, and my mom, so they were already mostly full of Zoned, healthy food. She had made steelhead, a fish I've never had, with (IIRC) a side of broccoli and a spinach and blueberry salad, so they ate only light bites of the snacks. I pondered the fact that between MR, his mom, and me, you had three different styles of handling holiday party eating, all of which can be very healthy. MR just brought his own perfectly calorie-controlled nutrient dense food (Quorn, broccoli with lemon, a megamuffin, and flax oil.) I ate a small snack beforehand and then ate the majority of my dinner calories in the healthy, protein rich options offered at the party. MoMR ate a healthy, Zoned dinner beforehand, and then just had a bite or two at the party. All good ways of handing party eating, and all well-suited to our eating personalities.

The holiday eating provided the perfect occasion for pondering about my eating personality. While I'm planning to make an experiment out of January and weigh and measure every morsel I consume to be sure I don't go above 1300 per day, I don't plan to permanently take up an MR lifestyle where I never, ever go out, eat at others' houses, or vary my calorie intake. I enjoy being able to have a bite here and there of unusual foods, and I don't mind making up for the calories in other meals. For instance, if I know I'm having a big dinner, it doesn't bother me to eat lighter versions of breakfast and lunch. I like being able to fit in socially when others are eating, and I can't stand to offend a fellow cook. MR's lifestyle works very well for him, but socializing is much more important to me than it is to him.

People often think that CR is about denial... for me, it is not at all. Making choices, day by day, to maximize my health and life and fun and pleasure is what CR is about for me. I am much happier eating a bunch of cocktail shrimp, some unwrapped scallops, and two lower calorie cheese bites than I would have been had I eaten the way I would have pre-CR: a plate full of crackers, huge amounts of cheese, and high calorie desserts. I enjoy the social aspect of eating, I get to eat very tasty foods, and I still leave feeling satisfied, but not stuffed. My weight has remained remarkably consistent over the last year since I lost the majority of my pre-CR weight (35 pounds in seven months, for those of you who are new to the blog) gradually dropping from 106 to 102. My mental state is much, much better than it was pre-CR when I would bomb my brain with carbs and drinks and blood-sludging saturated fats.

I also find it incredibly heart-warming how graciously MR's family has accomodated our bizarre diet. From the vegetable tray at his uncle and aunt's, to the way his mother went to great lengths to provide everything we needed, give us the run of the kitchen, and cook family meals such that we could all eat the same meal while MR and I measured our portions, to the fact that his step-mother bought shrimp since she knew we could eat it and made it clear that it was okay for me to peel the bacon off the scallops, everyone has been extremely kind, generous, and accepting of us. So many CR practitioners have terrible problems with their family's lack of support for their lifestyle -- MR and I are very lucky. My side of the family has been equally supportive... no one batted and eye when MR and I weighed all of our food at Thanksgiving. I know it isn't always easy to put up with us, and sometimes the Southerner in me recoils in horror at the thought that we are putting people to trouble. Then I make a mental note to write especially good thank-you notes and go on with weighing MR's dinner.

Meanwhile, I suspect that the highlight of this CR-friendly holiday is yet to come. MoMR is throwing a party tonight, and she has crunched the nutrition information on all the food and printed it up on little cards! While this will probably be a curious conversation piece for most of her guests, for MR and me, this is essential information. I plan to walk around with my calculator eating appetizers and adding them up until I hit my calorie goal for the day. Won't that be fun? Maybe if we're very nice, she'll let us post some of the recipes to the blog!

Posted by april at 9:18 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack

December 23, 2005

A CRON Christmas -- With Technology Review!

Well, Jason Pontin sure was a lot nicer to me than he was to Aubrey de Grey. Good thing, too, since I would have no doubt burst into tears if he had called me a troll. Anyhow, check out this article on MIT's Technology Review! You can finally see pictures of us, and here's the most important part: Kieffer found his way into the last pic! Yes, that's the kitty cat face on the left side of the last pic. He was no doubt plotting an assault on the Christmas turkey while I was too busy getting my picture taken to remove him from my chair. Finally, Kieffer makes his national media debut. I know it's the moment you've all been waiting for. You've made up your minds about CR, MR, eggwhites and the whole mess of issues surrounding life-extension, but you haven't really lived until you've seen Kieffer the giant tabby cat.

I had tons of fun making the feast, with able help from MR and photography by loyal blog reader Mike. Love those aerial salad shots. Mike stood on the chair to make that happen. I hope the readers enjoy the light tone of the article, and maybe even try some of the recipes! Small correction: a teaspoon of oil only has 40 calories. And be sure to cook the Jack Daniels pumpkin for at least half an hour... that's how long it takes for the alcohol to reduce, cutting the cals by 35%.

Lenny Guarente may think that CR makes people miserable, hungry, and cold, but as you can see, we're quite cheerful, about to sit down to a giant, nutritious feast, and not visibly chilly. I have to find his email address so I can invite him to dinner with us... does anyone know if he has a favorite vegetable?

Posted by april at 5:13 PM | Comments (7) | TrackBack

All The World Seems To Be In A Hurry

But darling we'll just keep on taking our time...

Line from a nice song from the 1970's that I heard a few weeks ago, before all the radio stations in Philly starting playing nothing but horrible Christmas music.

I thought of this song this morning as I reflected on my very long travel day yesterday. My flight to LA from Philly was horribly delayed, due to a missing part that apparently was only to be found in Mexico, so they put me on a flight to Chicago. Then I had a four hour layover in Chicago, followed by a three hour flight to Calgary. That flight was late too, and my bags seem to be either in LA or somewhere between LA and Calgary... no one is quite sure. So now I'm hanging out in MR's flannel longjohns, rolled up so that they fit me, and a pink cashmere sweater that I left here last June. We're back in the old condo, which MR will be packing up to sell so we can put a downpayment on our own house... as much as we love the possibly haunted house that we are now renting, we want to move back to the town where I work asap so that I can stop commuting and paying Philly city wage tax. We kept the condo for a few months so that if we decided we couldn't stand each other, MR could move back to Canada and not be homeless. But as it turns out, we tolerate each other rather well, and we can't afford to keep a Canadian vacation home in an industrial park in Calgary, so on the market it will go.

My trip yesterday turned out to be rather entertaining. I try to have a very good attitude about travel, and to assume that things will go wrong. I found a very respectable Salad Works in the Chicago airport and ate a salad with turkey, lettuce, tomato, green pepper, onion, and broccoli. I try not to eat meat more than about three times a month, but on occasions when I'm travelling it's sometimes the only low calorie protein source. Then I went to the airport bar right by my gate to have a glass of cabernet and read my book, but I got to talking with the person next to me who turned out to be a hospital CEO, and we had a long discussion about health care, insurance, nursing, and how to run a hospital. Very entertaining. He bought me a couple of glasses of wine and I shared my megamuffin with him. Then I proceeded to sleep through most of my flight to Calgary, which was lovely since I had been up since 4 am my time and didn't land until after 8 Calgary time, which is after 10 my time. As you know, bedtime in the April and MR house is around 10, so I was quite exhausted. MR's dad picked me up at the airport, which was wonderful since I didn't have to wait for and pay for a cab. We finally got to sleep around 11.

Now I'm trapped in the condo all day waiting for my bags to be delivered, but that's not too bad since MR will be doing some grocery shopping then I'll cook our dinner. It's nice to have a day of downtime. Then the family Christmas events at the home of MoMR begin. My mom is staying with them, and I trust she is petting Maxine the small dog. MR is missing the cats terribly, of course, but I think he'll be all right as long as I meow loudly at him several times a day.

Posted by april at 8:37 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack

December 22, 2005

Wireless In The Airport

My mother and MR are on one set of flights to Canada, but we couldn't get me on the same one, so I'm flying separately. And sure enough, there were horrible problems with my first flight so I'm re-booked on a later one. Luckily, I get to go through Chicago O'Hare, my favorite airport. "The moving walkway is now ending... please look down."

We spent the last few nights eating leftovers: brussels sprouts, Jack Daniels pumpkin from pre-Christmas feast, carrots (why do we always have so many carrots?), broccoli. All gone, or nearly. My mother stayed with us last night since we had to leave for the airport at 5:30 am and I fed her a veggie soup with eggwhites. She was a bit frightened of the eggwhites at first but liked it well enough after adding hot sauce. I'm so used to cooking for MR now that I forget that most people (me included!) prefer their food with a bit more salt.

I have a few interesting entries brewing in my head, but not much time before my flight, so more soon...

Posted by april at 9:20 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack

December 21, 2005

Candy Cane Lane and and Is There Such a Thing as a Good Death

My mom just wrote a comment about how she wrote her living will, that she is to be disconnected from life support if she is very old and sick with no hope of a quality life. I used to have a similar view, but now that I am close to people who are doing life-extension research, I'm not so sure.

For instance, what if I were terribly injured now and in a coma or a persistent vegetative state? I used to say that I would definitely want to be disconnected from life support machines. But now, knowing that there may be in my lifetime biomedical technologies that could both heal my injuries and then extend my life, I'm not sure I wouldn't want to take the chance. I know MR would want to keep me alive in hopes of being able to revive me when such technologies became available.

But who would pay the bill? Very responsible ethical question, and one I don't have a good answer to. I'd hate to bankrupt my family. For those of us unfortunate enough not to be born Canadian, the barbaric US health care system makes sure that our own families will be completely out of resources before the government will step in.

I've also thought that if I were in such a state, I'd want to be carefully frozen so that I could be cheaply babysat in Alcor's fridge and then thawed out when the aforementioned technologies are available. But would that be considered murder? Would the government prevent me from being frozen according to my wishes just because I wasn't technically dead yet? All tough questions. That's why I firmly support the right of people to make their own end of life decisions, and to let their loved ones know about them. The decisions we make may be different based on our age, state of health, and personal belief system. But we should make decisions now, while we're healthy, and communicate our wishes to our family.

The thing about becoming a life-extensionist is that you start to think that there's no such thing as a good death. While I definitely would want to die with dignity and minimal suffering if there were no real hope for a return to healthy life, I would much prefer not to die at all. And now that I am aware of how very close we may be to life-extending technologies of all sorts... from the biomedical to the nanotechnical... I'd hate to miss the boat. In the meantime, I do CR, wear my seat belt, and avoid driving in Manhattan, biking or skiing.

What does that have to do with Candy Cane Lane? Well, as I contemplated death I made myself some Celestial Seasonings Holiday Tea. Candy Cane Lane is a decaf green tea with peppermint, cinnamon and vanilla hints. It's quite good, though I think I could live without the vanilla. I love vanilla in shower gel, but am not crazy about vanilla tea. Is it because I feel like I am drinking soap, so strong are the associations between vanilla and bath products? Clearly I have a deep psychological issue with vanilla that must be explored.

At least I'm not a choco-holic.

Posted by april at 10:24 AM | Comments (1) | TrackBack

That Guy I've Been Chasing All Year

On my way to work this morning I heard that song by The Waitresses that I quoted this time last year in the blog. Note: Aubrey de Grey left an extremely scientific comment.

Well, this year I won't be doing a small Christmas dinner alone with my mom. No, I'll be heading up to the Great White North to have Christmas with MR and his family, and we're bringing my mom too! MoMR has very graciously invited the entire family... well, not the cats. I suspect that Kieffer would eat the MoMR family dog, Maxine. That wouldn't brighten anyone's Christmas, so we'll be leaving the cats at home in the care of their able cat-sitter, who is a vet tech and used to take care of lions and tigers at the zoo. She is not afraid of the giant tabby (yes, he has lost weight, thanks to MR putting him on a diet!) or the seven pound calico who takes up most of the bed. She actually sleeps with the cat, which is important because the cats are so attached to us that they get very sad when we're away and hate to be left alone. She comes over, gives them dinner, reads magazines with them (we have no television) and sleeps, then feeds them breakfast and goes to work. She also gives Philomena her fluids once a week. A wonderful service. Anyhow, off to Canada we go and I was very excited to hear the one and only Christmas song I like, right down to my favorite line:

When what to my wondering eyes should appear
In the line is that guy I've been chasing all year!

Hehehe. The ever so subtle subtext of the blog...

To quote the Waitresses once more: This year's been crazy. From three months working as a fundraiser for the Mprize, to lots of trips to Canada to see my Orange One, to moving in together into a house that appeared for a time to be possessed, to the Kurzweil luncheon auction and Mprize Three Hundred Member Dinner, it's been a year to remember. I sometimes felt like I had received that fortune cookie that reads:

May you live in interesting times.
-- Chinese Curse

I've made a lot of friends, lost touch with one or two friends, and gained a whole new perspective on life. I'm still a recovering workaholic, but being with MR has helped me set limits and make time for myself and my little family instead of focusing solely on my career. I've taken up meditation to great results, learned how to take my supplements on time (for the most part) and in general started taking care of myself, not just taking care of my nurses. I spent my twenties so focused on union organizing that I rarely took time for the kind of activities that most girls in their twenties enjoy... I was more likely to see the clubbing crowd as they left the bars at 5 am when I was just heading out on Saturday morning to a shift change meeting at 6 with some nurses. As my friends started to leave organizing to go to grad school, get married, or have babies, I felt frustrated because none of those paths appealed to me, and while I wanted to do *something* other than just work, I knew that the conventional woman's life wasn't going to be right for me. Little did I know, when I first started CR, that I would find an entertaining hobby (cooking CR food and blogging about it), a cause I could support and volunteer for (the Mprize) and the man of my dreams (no explanation necessary.)

I'm still no fun... I like to be in bed by ten, I get up at five am, and I'd much prefer sitting around my own dining room table eating my own cooking and drinking red wine to going out clubbing, which sounds way too much like what hunters do to baby seals. But I am in good company now as I eat CR'd meals at my own table with my Orange One. It's not everybody's idea of paradise, but for me it's heaven, and I don't want it to stop. That's powerful motivation for holding myself together with CR and doing all I can to support research into better methods of slowing or even reversing aging.

As The Waitresses say:

That Christmas magic's brought this tale
To a very happy ending!

Posted by april at 9:27 AM | Comments (1) | TrackBack

December 20, 2005

The Real Reason Why We Do CR -- and some notes on comments

I just figured out last night why it is that I both do CR and have to live with someone who is also CR'd. It has nothing to do with life-extension, health, or vanity.

I have to be small, and live with someone small, so that the cat can have all the room she needs in the bed.

Last night, as we were getting ready to go to sleep, we observed that my seven pound calico Philomena was taking up not just the entirity of my side our our queen-sized bed, but a large portion of MR's side as well. I hate to move her when she's sleeping comfortably, so we snuggled into about a fourth of our bed and allowed the cat to go on snoozing peacefully. She's so cute!!! It's a good thing we're thin, so we can make plenty of room for the cat.

Thanks to all for your comments... and Jeff, I'm very sorry about your dad. That's so hard, and I support you and anyone else in whatever decisions they make about the end of life. My mom has a living will that she wants to be disconnected from life support if no recovery seems possible. It's a question I think about a lot, and I firmly believe that everyone should have the right to make those decisions for themselves and their loved ones without interference from anyone (government included.) I'll definitely keep you and your family in my prayers.

The decisions about what is to be done at the end of life when disease has already done its damage, I think, are far different from decisions about whether or not we should encourage scientists to pursue strategies that may prevent those diseases from happening in the first place by slowing or even reversing the aging process. For those who are healthy and enjoying life, not sick and dying in a hospital bed, the decision to go on living is a very different matter. The point of the kind of life-extending research that I support through my Mprize donation is to extend *healthy* lifespan, so that people don't end up in the hospital dependent on life support machines. While we may not be able to postpone disease and death infinitely, I believe that it is good to postpone it as long as possible so that people can enjoy many more healthy years with their loved ones, pursing the goals they find meaningful, and serving God if that's something they believe in and feel called to do.

Biotechnology that can slow or even reverse the damage caused by the aging process isn't about adding days or months to the end of life when quality of life is already diminished: it's about adding years to youth and health. In the overall context of the blog, which is about CR and life-extension in general, I thought this would be clear, but I apologize for any confusion it might have caused.

Posted by april at 5:27 AM | Comments (2) | TrackBack

December 19, 2005

Everything I Needed To Know About Life Extension I Learned From Jesus Christ

Going to my father's house always gets me to thinking theologically, since my dad is a United Methodist minister in a gorgeous Southern church with a cute little matching chapel attached, and if I'm there on a Sunday we all go to church together. [Note: The Mprize does not endorse or support any religion or lack thereof. But I'm allowed to write about whatever I want to!] This Sunday, between processing the excellent sermon and preventing my two year old niece from squirming out of my lap and into the aisle, I took a moment to consider how growing up in a Christian church (or several) turned me into a life-extensionist.

Weird, eh? People often think of Christians as folk who think we should all die whenever because it's God's will. I think that's an oversimplification of even the most pro-aging of positions, but like all stereotypes, it has some basis in fact. If you oppose stem cell research, which some Christian groups do, you cut off a route by which we may reach cures for many of the diseases of aging. If you believe that there's a life after death that is preferable to the one we have here on earth, you might not want to slow your progress towards the beyond. But as I sat in my dad's church, my arms encasing my wiggling niece like a boa constrictor embracing its dinner, I thought about what a different message the story of Jesus holds for me about life and life-extension.

[My father, who I am fairly sure has never given up hope that there may be a religion PhD or an ordained minister lurking in the depths of my consciousness, is probably quaking with fear at the prospect of what appears to be some bizarre theology about to manifest on the blog.]

For one thing, as my dad mentioned frequently in his book Jesus and the Pleasures, Jesus came "that they might have life, and that they might have it more abundantly" (John 10:10) Now I've never been one for taking the Bible literally (you can't have two parents who are New Testament Ph D's and act like that... it's worse than eating a whole meal with your salad fork!) but this one phrase really speaks to me. Jesus did a lot of talking about how people should treat each other in ways that maximized their happiness while on earth. Breaking down class and race barriers, ignoring the purity codes of the Pharisees in order to eat and drink with all sorts of wacky people, and rattling on about how the Sabbath was for people and not the other way around... not exactly a pie in the sky when you die type of guy. While his own life certainly had its awkward moments, not the least of which was that part at the end, he knew how to have a good time. And like another bearded man I know, he was fond of spirited drink.

Jesus also had a downright disrespectful attitude towards death. When confronted with Mary and Martha mourning the death of their brother Lazarus, Jesus didn't say, "Well, it was his time." He certainly didn't say, "He probably didn't want to live that long anyway!" Nope, he raised him from the dead.

Now we modern liberal Christians like to shy away from the supernatural elements of the New Testament stories, as we are most uncomfortable with miracles and anything at all weird. But even if you're devoted to taking all the miracle stories as beautiful symbols, you can't explain away Jesus' repeated disrespect of death. Maybe he was just trying to make a point, or to get our attention, but by picking death as a punching bag, he got me to thinking that maybe this death thing deserves to be kicked around a bit.

When you get to the resurrection, a lot of Christians I know get just about as squirmy as my niece trying to get out of her fancy church dress. All that rising from the dead stuff is just too bizarre. Like, we're totally cool with Christ's humanity, but DON'T GO THERE with the whole "on the third day he rose again" thing.

Now before you call me a gnostic (unless you've already called me a gnostic, in which case it's too late) and burn me at the stake, I'd like to point out that I'm not saying anything about Christ's divinity. I'm not here to tell you that Jesus was a god chilling out on earth for lack of entertainment in heaven: you figure out your religious beliefs as you will. My point is, Jesus was just not okay with death. He made fun of death! He hopped right out of the grave and went out to freak out all his friends! My favorite hymn, "Christ the Lord Is Risen Today," ends with "Where o death now is thy sting?" Like, nah-nah-ni-boo-boo!!! Call the resurrection a symbol if you want, but that's one sassy symbol!

Now I don't know what Jesus would do if he were here today, I can only answer the question WWAD? But I personally don't see any need to passively accept an early death as God's will, any more than I see AIDS or natural disasters or unfortunate haircuts as manifestations of God's will. My own theology/spirituality is way too complex and off-topic to be gotten into on the blog... it would be a lot like what happens when a cat gets ahold of an un-opened pouch of strong catnip... but what I can tell you is that I find Christ's example, whether I choose to view it as literary and symbolic or as flesh and blood reality, as a powerful demonstration of life over death, love over hate, and the triumph of hope over despair.

The thing I love most about my father's ministry is that it's so real: unlike a lot of Christians (and people of all faiths, including athiests) I've seen who just go through the motions, my dad believes that the spirit of God is working among us, and when he presides over a church service, something happens! "Dad's really good," I said to MR upon my return from North Carolina, "He's got mojo!" High praise coming from me... a cynical double preachers' kid who had heard more first rate preaching by the age of ten than most people see all century. There's something about people who really believe in what they're doing that I find inspiring, even if I disagree with them.

A couple of people I like and respect have accused SENS enthusiasts of being a bit overzealous, even religious, in their defense of the SENS project, Aubrey de Grey, and the goal of radically extending human lifespan. This is a fair critique... there are definitely those among us who state our views in strong terms, and who are perhaps less than sportsmanlike when the mission is attacked. I hope that the occasional breach of taste can be forgiven as a symptom of sincere devotion to the cause of helping us all live longer. It's not just our own lives we're out to save here, but yours too. Whether we like you or not.

I doubt that large numbers of Christians are about to sign onto the Mprize's Three Hundred, citing Jesus' example in raising the dead and removing himself from the grave as evidence that we should all support the project of extending healthy human lifespan. Efforts to say what Jesus would or would not support usually end in everyone yelling at everyone else or in someone losing their head... literally. I have no wish to inject religion into the debate about when or whether people should die. But you turn to the blog for entertaining little snippets of my psyche, and Christian imagery is so deeply embedded in my cognitive structure that occasionally it's going to pop out onto the virtual pages. Just like when I speculated as to the calorie content of the host before and after transubstantiation, or mused that the body of Christ goes well with chickpea pesto, I tend to mix metaphors the way I mix eggwhites and vegetables. It's a bit odd, but it usually comes out pretty tasty.

And don't even get me started on the Virgin Birth...

Posted by april at 7:44 PM | Comments (4) | TrackBack

December 18, 2005

They Say That Looks Don't Count For Much If So There Goes Your Proof

Great line from one of my favorite songs of all time, "Is She Really Going Out With Him?"

It was a bit disconcerting when everyone I ran into at the Three Hundred Member Dinner and auction winner luncheon said, "You don't look like a CR person." I quickly dismissed my automatic girl-response, which was to think, "You mean I look fat???" One of the ga-zillion differences between CR and anorexia is that we CR folks know we're thin... CR isn't about weight loss, and we don't see imaginary fat in the mirror... so I know full well that I'm slim. MR translated for me that when men say "You don't look like you do CR," what they really mean is that you still look like a girl, and that's a good thing. But after spending most of my time with nurses, who frequently comment (and not *always* approvingly) that I'm thin as a tiny little pencil stick, it was a bit shocking to have all these folks say that I'm much less skinny than they had expected.

The media stereotype, to the extent that there is one, of the CR person is the geeky science boy who is thinner than Kate Moss and spends his nights alone at his computer reading scientific articles after consuming mountains of vegetables for dinner. Good thing, too, since it was exactly this kind of media coverage that convinced me that the CR Society wasn't just a great resource for information on how to change my life and save my health, it was also exactly the right place to pick up just the kind of man I wanted.

While that image worked well for me, it can be a bit off-putting to those who consider doing CR. Less skinny CR folk like the beautiful Little MR (http://www.crdiary.blogspot.com) give you the idea that CR might just be something a normal person could do. I know Little MR's example on her blog was very helpful for me in my early CR days. One thing Little MR and I have in common is that while we look normal now, we're not naturally thin at all. When we started, we were both overweight, and our weight loss has consisted almost entirely of fat loss. So now, in a world where women are just expected to be overweight post thirty, we're skinny freaks compared to normal women, but curvy girls compared to skinny CR boys.

While both Little MR and I practice a more moderate level of CR than Tall MR and some of the other brothers, I suspect that even if I am successful in lowering my calories and lose more weight as a result, I'll still look more like a normal, if petite, girl, than like the common media picture of the super skinny CR'd male. I aspire to look like those cute little genetically fat mice who are CR'd and look adoreable long after all their non-CR'd liter mates are dead. I'll pass on the long tail and the whiskers, but the general idea of svelte fluffiness well beyond middle age appeals to me.

People come in all different shapes and sizes, and CR does different things to different people. Of course, the effect of excellent nutrition can't be understated. Even after just one week with a few days of wild and crazy Christmas eating that is nothing compared to how I would eat pre-CR, I see the effects on my face of a less nutritious diet. Restaurant food is so salty that I look and feel puffy compared to how I feel when I eat my at-home, low salt diet. Those little dark circles under my eyes threaten to creep back after a few days of restaurant eating and drinking, making me appreciate the long detox period that is to follow my return home. It's fun to indulge in Christmas eating for a little while, and I'm glad I decided to not worry too much about calories during the work and family Christmas events so that I could eat some old favorite foods (like the delicious grasshopper pie my step-mother served last night!) But I can't believe how much better I feel when I eat my calorie-controlled, nutrient optimized diet at home. Breakfast salad, brewers yeast, and broccoli await me in Philadelphia...

And then we're off to visit MR's family for Christmas, where a CR-safe zone has been declared and MR's mom is planning holiday meals to fit within our calorie and macronutrient ratio requirements. Aren't you other CR folks jealous??? And no, his family is not orange... it's the beta carotene in his diet combined with the lack of body fat that makes him that way, not some sort of genetic predisposition to look like an unusually tall carrot.

It will be interesting to see if going up to 1300 or 1350 and then staying there, without the traditional seventh night dinner or lunch out, will result in weight loss. If it does, I hope that people will continue to say, "You're not all that skinny," ... even if they're just trying to be nice.

Posted by april at 5:58 AM | Comments (1) | TrackBack

December 17, 2005

Green Tomato Chutney

People are always saying that it's a small world, and I disagree. It's a very large world, it just happens to be a large world in which one is constantly running into people who know people one knows.

Yesterday in the Phildelphia airport, while I was waiting for my very delayed flight to North Carolina to visit my family for our pre-Christmas Christmas, a woman asked if she could borrow my cell phone to call her cousin to let her know her flight was delayed. She mentioned that her plane had been held up in Burlington, so I asked if she was from Burlington, Vermont. Sure enough, she was. We got to chatting, and she happened to be an EMT, so she knew tons of nurses at the hospital in Burlington where I led the RN organizing campaign back in 2002. We played the name game for awhile, then I asked about what she did and found out that though now she's a woodworker, she used to work in specialty foods.

For years, she made giant batches of green tomato chutney with locally grown Vermont green tomatoes. She knew some friends of mine, David and Rachel of Full Moon Farm, who grow the most amazing sungold tomatoes on earth and sell them at the Burlington Farmers' Market every Saturday in the summer.

Farmers' Market... tomatoes... tomato chutney... suddenly it occured to me that I had sampled, purchased, eaten, and given as gifts this woman's green tomato chutney several times when I lived in Burlington. I even remembered that she used to mix the chutney with cream cheese or tuna fish and set the mixtures out as samples on her market stand.

Wow, it's a large world where one might loan one's cell phone to someone whose green tomato chutney you had eaten years earlier.

Now I'm at my father and step-mother's house, and we spent the morning making curried zucchini soup. My dad just taught me how to get the food processor to slice vegetables into little discs! Cool! What a father/daughter moment. He gave me my food processor, and has the same model at his house, so we have done a great deal of bonding through the years over the proper care and feeding of the Cuisinart.

Last night I was late getting out, so by the time I landed, visited the grandparents, and got to dinner, it was past my usual feeding time. We went to a Greek restaurant where I ordered a Greek salad with grilled chicken, but ended up eating so much of the Greek appetizer plate we ordered: Hummus, eggplant spread, and a bunch of other things I can't spell that were amazingly fabulous, that I saved my salåd to eat on Sunday night in the airport for dinner when I'm waiting for my plane home. I have a lot of occasions these days when I can't eat as much as I think I can.

Today we're having our family Christmas. My brother and sister-in-law are coming over with their beautiful almost two year old daughter, Madeline. We'll be having holiday family favorites... more on that soon, I have to go finish making the zucchini soup!

Posted by april at 10:18 AM | Comments (1) | TrackBack

December 15, 2005

She Taught You The Meaning of Love. Now Teach Her The Meaning of Forever.

That was the cheesy slogan on a billboard for diamond engagement rings that I passed on my way home from work Monday night. Of course, it made me think of life-extension.

Before I started CR, I was completely unaware that anyone in the science world was working on radical approaches to slowing or even stopping aging. CR was a gateway for me, and the information I gained through the CR Society led me to investigate Aubrey de Grey, the SENS project, and the Mprize. The experience of changing my own health through CR was empowering enough to give me hope for a future without the suffering caused by biological aging.

These days, as I watch those close to me live out the consequences of their lifestyle choices, I find myself contemplating with some sadness a future without many of the people I care about. My friends who smoke, drink like fish (do fish drink?), poison themselves with saturated fat and sugar, and in general live like there's no tomorrow definitely won't make it to the day when any of our anti-aging dreams come true. While I hope that the day when they become very old and sick will be a long way off, I see it approaching rather quickly in some of my older friends, and it makes me sad.

Meanwhile, I am amazed and delighted as people my age and younger start CR. One of my loyal readers, Matt, wrote the other day to the CR list about how he is doing CR in hopes of reaching the dawn of radical anti-aging biomedicine. He's 21, and between starting so young and being born more recently, he's much more likely to make it than I am. He even joined the Mprize Three Hundred, a wise move in his quest to maximize his chances! Another student member of the Three Hundred, Tim, whom I met at the auction, is starting CR in the New Year! I'm so proud of my little brothers in CR and the Mprize (never mind that they're about a foot taller than I am!) and I wish I had started as young as they have. Reminds me of the line from the Crosby, Stills and Nash song that was so horribly overplayed the year I spent the summer in Tennessee with my father and step-mother, I think it was 1982,

I am older now
I have more than what I wanted
But I wish that I had started long before I did.

When I think now about all the time I wasted in my twenties, between hating my body, dieting ineffectively, being sick, and searching for Taco Bell locations in remote towns throughout the South, I wish that I knew then what I know now.

But don't we all? Of course, I might not appreciate the excellent state of health that I enjoy now if I had not had years of suffering -- the kind of lifestyle that most Americans consider normal but that I now find horrifying -- before.

Falling madly in love with a bright orange life-extensionist has definitely changed my perspective. The idea of going through a very long life with someone who is also willing to make the necessary sacrifices to get there is very inspiring. Living with someone whose self-discipline is rather legendary makes it easier to contemplate making radical lifestyle changes and sticking to them. I have learned to remove the labels from the cat food cans *before* I open them. I have learned to do dishes with minimal amounts of water. I have learned how to cook dinners every night with exactly 629 calories and Zoned macronutrient ratios. It makes me think I can do most anything I set out to accomplish.

With that in mind, I've designed an experiment. It's meant to be done in January, when the holiday travel rush is done and life calms down a bit. You know that I've been gradually taking my calories lower over the last few months, and losing weight at a pleasantly slow rate, complete with wild water fluctuations and the occasional overeating of jujubees (not to be confused with jujubes) or consumption of finger sandwiches at potlucks. I've figured out that when I take my calories down to 1200 for more than about six or seven days, my weight starts to drop rather alarmingly if I don't go out for one of my "out meals" and eat more calories to bring up the average.

I've started to wonder if keeping my calories so low, then dropping a giant amount of calories onto my head all at once (even a small restaurant meal has many more caloires than my quotidian at home dinner) is reinforcing my hunger and making it more difficult for me to permanently lower my calories. Both Tall and Little MR swear by consistency, and it only makes sense. So I'm going to try an experiment.

For the month of January, I'm going to set my calories at either 1300 or 1350 (perhaps depending on my exercise level) and weigh and measure every morsel, skipping my going out. I already weigh and measure every morsel at home, so that won't be hard. And I've enlisted the help of my friends by extracting promises that they'll come over to our house for dinner instead of going out. They were eager to accept my invitation, as they've rather missed the food I used to cook for them on a regular basis, so all are happy.

I don't plan to give up going out to eat forever. But I would like to see if very carefully keeping a constant calorie level helps me get over the hunger that seems to attack every time I try to lower my calories. This month long experiment will also be a great way to save money, that I can then spend on more important things like vanilla scented shower gel... I mean, saving to buy a house!

I once thought it would be quite impossible to contemplate not going out to dinner for a month, but now it sounds like a fun experiment and a great excuse to have friends over. Of course, I used to think it would be impossible to go without a bagel and cream cheese for breakfast, or sugar in my coffee.

I'm also interested to see the effects of my experiment on my moods. I still have mild anxiety when I over-carb, and if I'm measuring my calories and eating at home, I won't be tempted to do that the way I am when a pizza is staring me in the face. I may discover a whole new level of CR Zen!

Or maybe I'll decide it wasn't that much fun and go right back to six days on, one meal out CR. That would be fine too. Either way, I'll have more information with which to make my decisions.

And that's what this is all about, isn't it? Getting all the information you can so that you can make your own choices, the choices that fit your life and your goals.

And turning ever so slightly orange. Who needs self-tanning lotion when you can be your own carrot?

Posted by april at 6:55 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack

December 13, 2005

A CR Week That Maketh Even The Gods To Tremble

The holidays are hard times for almost everyone to stick to a healthy eating program of any kind, what with family food events, office holiday parties, and the constant deluge of sweet and salty gifts of all sorts. For me, it's not too bad, since my family and my Orange One's family are so incredibly supportive of our CR that they not only accept the way we eat, they eat our food and stick up for us in fights!

But this week is a tough one. Tuesday night: dinner out for birthday of one of my closest friends on earth, with the other of my closest friends on earth. Best BYO in town. Excellent wine, amazing food, cool kids.

Thursday: office holiday party at Cresheim Cottage Cafe, one of my favorite restaurants on earth.

Friday: fly away for family holiday weekend in NC with Dad and step-mom.

Big, high calorie, great food events.

So what am I going to do? What's my CR strategy?

Basically, I'm not going to worry too much about it. I'm eating my normal CR meals on the other days, including cooking a CR Christmas feast for a CR friend + MR on Wednesday night. I cut my breakfast cals back a touch, but not too much.

The thing is, food isn't a moral issue for me. It's not "bad" to eat a dessert, but it's often suboptimal for my nutrtion and my long term goals. So usually I don't do it. But if I have a few high calorie meals this week, I'm not going to obsess about it. I'll just keep the nutrition as high as I can, focusing on high quality protein (scallops, anyone? yum!) and keeping the carbs to a respectable minumum. There's a certain amount of flexibility built into my CR practice for times like these. I can be flexible because I know I can and will go right back to my 1200 calorie a day, nutritionally optimized on the computer CR diet. I no longer fear a long term slip... I'm way too used to eating the way I eat. It's fun to go out sometimes, but I find myself happy to return to my own cooking as soon as it's over.

Stay tuned... I am contemplating an experiment in January that might re-define my flexibility for awhile.

Now I'm off to pick up some psyllium husks on the way to the restaurant... MR needs to bake megamuffins!

Posted by april at 4:19 PM | Comments (1) | TrackBack

December 11, 2005

It's Great To Be With People Who Believe In the Future

So said Ray Kurzweil about the Three Hundred Member Dinner. I couldn't agree more. It was quite an amazing event.

Full disclosure: since I was responsible for logistics, my view of the entire event was largely influenced by thoughts about: does everyone have enough to drink? Is the food hot but not burnt? Did anybody get lost looking for parking? So I probably missed some of the heavy scientific discussion while I was busy removing plastic wrap from spinach phyllo pies. All the same, I enjoyed the fellowship of like-minded folks just as much as everyone.

More than thirty people attended: Three Hundred members, their partners or friends, and Jason Pontin, editor of Technology Review, who hosted us, as well as his angelic staff person Leila who went above and beyond the call of duty to make the event work... including chilling a Methuselah of champagne in her own car all day!

We started with fruit, cheese, bread, and veggies in dip. I had two pieces of cheese on green apples in between greeting new arrivals and getting everyone drinks. The Southern hostess in me was in full swing, and I had a great time showing everyone where to hang their coats and pouring wine and beer down everyone's throats. Lots of people drank pinot noir, and a few joined Aubrey in consuming the Bass Ale. At about 6:20, Aubrey opened the Methuselah of champagne and proposed a toast to the end of aging as we know it and the success of the Methuselah Foundation. Then we had a presentation from Aubrey about the SENS project, and I was pleased that with the work of Ray's director of systems, Ken, the AV equipment worked perfectly. One fewer thing for the logistics coordinator to worry about. My friend and blogreader Mike helped me out with serving: opening wine bottles, pouring wine, and giving directions to everyone who called wondering where to park. One of the auction winners, Tim, was quickly pressed into service to carry cases of wine and fetch a corkscrew.

During Aubrey's presentation I removed the wrapping from the spinach phyllo pies and the lids from the serving dishes for the entrees while Aubrey convinced the assembled crowd that the SENS approach to ending aging is indeed sensible. He focused this time on the shfit in the debate around SENS among biogerontologists. The level of attention given to Aubrey in the popular press has forced critics who once ignored and then laughed at his ideas to confront them in both the popular press and increasingly in scientific forums such as the recent EMBO Reports letter and the debate at the last Gerontological Society of America meeting. This represents significant progress.

Everyone lined up to get their dinner, and all seemed to eat well. The vegans were pleased with the tofu dish I assembled for them: tofu marinated in balsamic vinegar and fresh lemon, and some ready to eat herbed smoked tofu that I picked up at the Whole Foods.

I had decided in advance to make this day the "seventh" day, since there was no way I'd have time to weigh and measure my foods at the events. For those of you who are new to the blog, one of the secrets to my CR success has been that I very carefully control my calories and nutrition for six days a week, weighing and measuring every bite and keeping to 1200 calories a day or just under, then about once a week I go out for a meal with friends or colleagues and I don't worry too much about the calories. It makes it easier to socialize, and I don't feel deprived, but I still maintain an average calorie level of about 1350 a day, low enough to maintain a body weight of around 102 (six pounds underweight for my height, according to those height and weight charts, and almost 40 pounds less than my pre-CR weight) but high enough to keep from feeling too hungry. So I tried a bite of the spinach phyllo pie, which was excellent, and a piece of the chicken with artichokes and lemon for a little protein. I didn't eat much with the lunch, so busy was I checking to see if the frittattas were done, so I was pretty hungry. Amy from Rebecca's Cafe had done a great job setting up a good combination of foods, and the guests seemed to enjoy their dinners.

We sat down for Ray's presentation, and I was fascinated by his discussion of the progress of technology, and how he predicts where we'll be technologically in a few years. I was also starting to get cold... it appeared that the heat was turned down at about 8:30. I put on MR's mittens and wondered if it was just the CR folk who were cold, but when one of the non-CR'd brothers put on his coat, I knew it was cold. Ray perservered, and everyone found his talk inspiring. We're all looking forward to reading the autographed copies of his new book, The Singularity Is Near, that he gave us as gifts along with copies of Fantastic Voyage.

By the time Ray's presentation concluded, I was starting to feel really tired. MR and I get up at 5 am -- NO MATTER WHAT -- because he is a former insomniac so sleep hygiene is a big deal to him. Due to late flights, we got to our hotel the night before close to 11 pm, so I had gotten little sleep and then run like a crazy person all day. Add that to some delicious food and a couple glasses of wine and a champagne toast (I am such a post-CR lightweight/cheap date!), and I was about ready for a long winter's nap. But we stayed to socialize, and had even more fun with our fellow Three Hundred members. The connections were amazing... I met people from Chapel Hill, NC, where I spent much of my childhood. I met a physician who works at a hospital where I've known some nurses. I met one of my very few fellow female Three Hundred members, a physicist, and her husband, who rescued us from a freezing death by driving us to our hotel so that we didn't have to walk. I wished that we could all get together more often. I feel such a sense of community with my fellow Three Hundred members, even though we come from different places and different professions, even from different countries. It's a big commitment to pledge $1000 for 25 years, and it's not something you do unless you really believe that curing aging is possible. As Ray said, it's great to be with people who believe in the future.

One of the most interesting conversations I had was with Jason Pontin, the editor of Technology Review, who hosted the event in his large conference room. Many were dismayed by his rather scathing editorial on the subject of, among other things, Aubrey de Grey. We chatted mainly about CR... and like Ray, Jason pointed out that I don't look particularly like one would expect a CR person to look. Most people seem to think that CR folks are all rail-thin and odd looking, but it all depends on where you started. When I started CR, I weighed 137... now I fluctuate between 99 and 104. I've gone from 33% body fat to 18%. I'm just lucky not to look very odd. I found Jason's conversation enlightening and entertaining... it just goes to show how rational, thoughtful people can have honest disagreements and still enjoy a glass of pinot noir together. I extracted a promise that he would allow me and MR to make him dinner at our house the next time he's in Philadelphia, and I plan to hold him to it.

It was wonderful to see Aubrey again, as always, and we made some good progress planning upcoming SENS/Mprize events... stay tuned!

One of the highlights of the event was seeing fellow CR'd Three Hundred member Aaron and his beautiful wife Christine. When last we saw Aaron in February, he had just started on his CR journey... now he has lost 40 pounds and looks fabulous! He looks like he just graduated from college. Christine has also started down the CR path, and looks even more fabulous than when last we saw her. It is so encouraging to see people who are having success with their CR program and contributing to the Mprize. Aaron doesn't look rail thin or odd at all... in fact, if you didn't know him before, he'd look slim but quite normal. Both of them just look very, very healthy.

All in all, it was a wonderful event. Though I was exhausted, I was pleased with how everything turned out. And I can't wait to see my fellow Three Hundred members again!

When I look back at my recounting of the event, I notice how much of it is about food, socializing, and logistics, and how little of it is an in depth discussion of the science of SENS or Ray's predictions about our technological future. I hope that others who were able to focus more on the science aspect of our dinner will write in detail about that. But my talents are not for doing rodent experiments or theorizing about biotechnology: my talent is for knitting people together, using food, drink, Southern hospitality and the occasional well-placed laugh line. The Methuselah Foundation is very important to me, and I feel that the way I can best contribute to its mission is to do what I know how to do well: bring people together and make them have fun. When I look back at the event, I am pleased to recall that all the guests had drinks in their hands, food on their plates, and smiles on their faces. As Emma Goldman famously said, "I don't want to be a part of your revolution if I can't dance." Well, more people will want to be part of the anti-aging biotech revolution if they know they'll have a good time there.

Cheers!

Posted by april at 5:08 PM | Comments (4) | TrackBack

December 10, 2005

Why I Am Moving In With Ray Kurzweil

Now don't get worried... I'm not leaving MR, and I can assure you that Ray is not leaving the beautiful woman he's been married to for thirty years. But since he likes my food so much and I love having an appreciative audience for my cooking, we've decided that it only makes sense for me to move into the bedroom recently vacated by his daughter who is off at college and cook all his meals. MR is coming too... he can use the room that was Ray's son's as his office, working happily on his book while Ray is working on his next bestseller, and we can all eat CR meals together! It won't be a problem at all when his family comes home for holidays, since we'll go spend holidays with our birth parents. We may not be related to the Kurzweils, but we sure do eat like them!

As you may have guessed by now, the luncheon went really well. Which is not to say that there weren't little hitches. For example, I headed out from our hotel in a cab at 8 am to hit the Whole Foods and pick up all our groceries for the luncheon, plus a few additions to the Three Hundred Member Dinner. I did my shopping and had plenty of time left over to enjoy a cup of coffee while waiting for Ray's head of business development, Celia, to come pick me up at 9:45 am.

9:45 came. And went. I stared at everyone walking in, wondering if they might be Celia. I even asked a few people if they were looking for me. I have great radar for nurses after all these years of meeting nurses I don't know in diners up and down the east coast, but every woman who walked in looked professional and together, so I had no idea who Celia might be. At about five after ten, my cell rings. It's another of Ray's staff, Nanda, calling to wonder where I am. It gradually dawns on all of us that I am at the wrong Whole Foods!!! Apparently, there are two in the town where Ray lives! Celia finds out where I am and arrives with her chariot to rescue me.

Then we get to the house and of course I am a bit nervous, about to meet the man who is directly responsible for my happy CR life. The first thing he says to me after exchanging some initial pleasantries is, "You don't look like a CR person."

Hmmm, think I. I think that's a compliment. I decide to translate it as, "You don't look like a skinny freak!" MR later confirms that that's exactly what it means. I am pleased. I annouce that there used to be forty pounds more of me.

Ray's house is gorgeous, yet comfortable. The kitchen is great, and I found everything I needed, including two casserole dishes that worked just fine for the frittattas. I unloaded the veggies, stuck the oils in the fridge, and set about making the tattas, since they need an hour to bake.

I began to pour the organic eggwhites into the casserole dishes, and I quickly realized that something was wrong. The eggwhites weren't white -- they were yellow! And the wrong texture! I began to panic. Quick: I thought. Calm. Everything will be okay. No one will die if the food goes wrong, somehow we will solve this problem.

"Celia," I say, "There's a problem."

I check my pulse and though my heart is racing, it's clearly still beating.

"These aren't eggwhites. They're eggs, in a carton. I can't pump everyone full of saturated fat."

Once again, Celia saves the day. She runs to the Whole Foods and purchases four cartons of actual eggwhites. That will teach me to shop for eggwhites without my reading glasses...

Celia returns, we assemble the food, with generous help from Ray's assistant Anya, and all is going well. Ray re-appears from his office as I am assembling the mountains of salad greens and stirring up the vinegarettes. The frittattas are in the oven, baking at 300, and the auction winners begin to arrive.

The auction winners were tons of fun: smart, cute, and they laughed at my jokes. We took the tour of Ray's house, with all the amazing art works, including those by his very talented daughter. We saw the office where Ray writes, including hundreds of cat figurines of which I was most envious. Then we returned to the dining room, and I went in to check on the frittattas.

Which were cold. Like totally cold. Lying in the oven, uncooked. OOOPS! I had turned on the lower oven, thinking I had turned on the upper oven. I moved the frittattas and started to figure out what to do. First, I would go ahead and serve the salad. A huge plate of dino kale, red kale, mustard greens, arugula, and sungold tomatoes. Two vinegarettes: fire roasted tomato vinegarette, and hazelnut nutmeg vinegarette. Here are the recipies for both:

Fire Roasted Tomato Balsamic:

2/3 small can crushed fire roasted tomatoes, Muir Glen Organic brand
1/3 cup balsamic vinegar
3 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil

Mix, stir, serve. This is kinda thick, and clings to salad. It was the favorite of the auction winners.

Hazelnut Nutmeg Vinegarette:

Hazelnut oil
Balsamic vinegar
Nutmeg

Adjust the amounts to however much you want -- 4:1 vinegar to oil. Add nutmeg to taste.

"This is a big plate of greens," said Ray.

"I doubt that you're a stranger to big plates of greens," said I.

The winners were surprised at the amount of food, and I think they understood that they wouldn't be allowed to leave until they consumed every last nutrient filled leaf. We served cups of Tzao organic green tea, which was excellent, along with filtered water.

I hopefully approached the oven to see if the frittattas, which were now in an actual hot oven, were making progress.

Pretty runny.

"Celia, we need to figure out a frittatta-cook dance," said I.

We thought about what to do, and decided to serve the baked apples as a little intermezzo dish while we waited for the main course to cook. Apples baked in cinnamon and Grains of Desire, a peppercorn mix that I bought at A Southern Season in North Carolina: peppercorns with nutmeg, cinnamon, cardamom, grains of paradise, and cloves. I added hazelnut oil upon putting it on the plate, a half teaspoon per guest, and served them, with some explanation about the unusual order of courses.

The guests loved the apples. One of them asked how much more food there would be. Apparently, fearing that the CR friendly lunch would be "either very little food, bad, or a tiny pill on the plate," he had eaten a large breakfast at his hotel. I warned him that there was much food to come.

I went back to check on the frittattas. Not cooked.

I refilled the guests' green teas. I began to pray to the god of cooking things. I considered pulling a fire alarm to create a distraction.

Celia and I cleared the guests' plates, and collected their frittatta plates. By this time there was enough cooked frittatta to carve out safe pieces. The frittattas looked pretty: red pepper and arugula for one, broccoli for the other. They were a little dryer and less fluffy than usual, since they cooked for a shorter time on higher heat. But they went over fine, and we progressed to the dessert.

Celia cut the two Sherm's Binging Brownies and one Megamuffin that MR had donated to the cause into nine cute cubes each, and we toasted them in the toaster oven. We served them on a tray, and they went like hotcakes. The crowd appreciated the 10% of the RDA of everything per 100 calories figure, and they loved the desserts.

Ray talked with us about technology, nutrition, inventing, and all sorts of things. I missed quite a bit of the conversation running back and forth to the kitchen, but I definitely enjoyed being in the company of such brilliant people. Ray's dining room was a beautiful setting, with a view of the lake and amazing art worked in with a history of family pictures.

After lunch, I took my lunch time supplements and got Ray's dish full of supplements. I thought, not for the first time, of how well he would fit in with me and MR at our house. Eggwhites, raw veggies, green tea, supplements.

Ray is actually much easier to cook for than MR. He doesn't weigh and measure all his food, so I was able to throw together lunch in no time flat. I could probably cook a Kurzweil meal in about fifteen minutes. It made me think about how very much my perspective has changed since I started cooking for MR every day. Carefully measuring every morsel and not just controlling calories, but macronutrient ratios, is easy for me now, but it took some work to get used to and it makes regular healthy cooking seem like a vacation.

Finally it was time to go, and the winners and I spent the car ride back to MIT discussing our fascinating meal with Ray Kurzweil. We all felt like we had had a priceless experience. Being in the company of someone who has blazed so many trails could seem intimidating, but Ray was so friendly and gracious that we all felt at ease almost immediately.

And he liked the food. That's what really matters.

Posted by april at 10:35 AM | Comments (2) | TrackBack

December 9, 2005

Night-y Night

Hello bloggiefriends... I'm sure the suspense is figuratively killing you, but I'm way too tired to write... between delayed flights both ways, running myself ragged all day Wednesday and all day Thursday, and staying out way past my bedtime both nights, I am simply too tired to string a sentence together. I know you're burning with questions: Did Ray Kurzweil like the food? Is the dawn of radical anti-aging biotechnology just over the horizon? Is the singularity near? Did the caterer put the salmon sauce on the side? But I'm too tired to satisfy your curiosity right now. Big entry soon... in the meantime, raise a glass of pinot noir to the Methuselah Foundation and have a good sleep.

Posted by april at 8:16 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack

December 7, 2005

Ready, Set, Go!

A sense of calm falls upon me as I finish a zillion work tasks that needed to get done before I leave for Boston, put the final touches on the Three Hundred Member Dinner, and contemplate cooking in Ray Kurzweil's kitchen. Good news: he has a suitable frittatta plate! Yippie! Once again, Ray saves the day.

I am really looking forward to seeing old friends like Aaron and Christine and Aubrey de Grey, making new friends, and meeting the man who first introduced me to CR, Ray Kurzweil himself. The event is coming together beautifully, and though I always expect there to be a few last minute glitches, I've gotten so much help from the wonderful folks on Ray's staff, and from the staff at Technology Review that I think we're all set. Coordinating an event from a distance is never easy, but with such great people helping me out with all the logistics, right down to picking up the beer and wine and chilling one case of Bass Ale, while leaving the other at room temperature for the British among us. The fine caterers at Rebecca's Cafe have worked with me to create a menu to please the CR'd, the non-CR'd, the vegetarian, and the low carb -- and haven't threatened to kill me yet, even when I asked them to please put the butter sauce for the salmon on the side! I am so grateful for all their help... setting up this event has really been fun, and you can't always say that about coordinating large functions.

Here's the menu, cleverly crafted by me and the head of catering at Rebecca's to try to satisfy all:

Hors d'Oeuvres:
cheese tray with fruit
vegetable crudite

Salad:
house salad with dressings on the side
I'm providing extra virgin olive oil, organic, and organic balsamic vinegar on the side for anyone who wants to be sure their olive oil is organic and hasn't oxidized... I will personally keep it cold all day!

Entrees:
salmon with the sauce on the side
steamed vegetables with absolutely nothing on them
chicken and artichoke hearts with lemon
spinach and phyllo dough pie (vegetarian)

Desserts:
Mini pastries
Fresh fruit salad
Coffee, herbal tea, decaf
I'll put my own hazelnut oil on the side for those who'd like to try a teaspoon on their fruit, and maybe some organic hazelnuts too!

Do you think everybody will be happy? I know I will be ecstatic just to be in the presence of so many other people who have made a serious, long-term commitment to doing what it takes to fund real research into ending aging as we know it. These are people who don't just whine -- they act.

I hope to know my fellow Three Hundred Members for a long, long time!

Posted by april at 9:54 AM | Comments (4) | TrackBack

December 6, 2005

Does Anybody Have A Pie Plate In Boston?

I need two. Pyrex. By Thursday.

As it turns out, Ray Kurzweil and I think a lot alike. His food pyramid is almost exactly like how I cook at home! He and I are high protein, almost no saturated fats, lots of veggies and lowfat dairy, and you guessed it... eggwhites!

So on Thursday I will be making a Kurzweil-tatta! That's right, I'm making frittattas for the luncheon auction. I'm thinking a broccoli and mushroom tatta and a red pepper and artichoke tatta, depending on what's organic in the market. That alongside a gorgeous salad that's just a giant version of the breakfast salad: mustard greens, kale, arugula, tomatoes, green peppers, all organic. My very own olive oil vinegarette (secret recipe, which I'll tell you after the luncheon.) For dessert, I'm thinking organic apples baked with cinnamon and grains of desire, topped with hazelnuts and hazelnut oil. Plus one extra special secret dish... which you can probably figure out if you think about it. And of course, lots of green tea! It will be just like home!

The problem is: I need a pie plate. Two of them. Pyrex. Does anybody have a pie plate in Boston?

Posted by april at 8:51 AM | Comments (1) | TrackBack

December 5, 2005

And Not a Moment Too Soon...

As it turns out, they're changing the law so that come Dec. 31, you can no longer get into and out of Canada without a passport. Yes, this entire time, I have been using my driver's license and birth certificate to get into Canada. It suddenly dawned on me that I would need a passport for my Christmas time trip to Canada, but I've been so busy every single day at work that I hadn't made it over to the place where you can get passports which is open only 10 - 2 M - F. However, it takes two weeks, so I was getting down to the wire. And my old passport photos were too old -- I smiled, which apparently you're not allowed to do anymore, we must all be very serious in our passport photos -- so I had to get new passport photos.

So this morning I abandoned MR to the breakfast dishes (I usually do them cause I don't mind it at all and he appreciates it so much) and ran out the door to go to Kinkos before work to get my passport photos, then to drop off some dry cleaning so that I can wear something that is both snappy and casual for the Three Hundred member dinner, and then to the grocery store so I could end the reign of no nonfat plain yogurt at la residence d'Avril et l'Orange. All went relatively well: MR scraped the ice off my car after Sunday's snow, and while I got stuck behind a city bus on my way to Kinkos I got there with enough time to get my photo, make it to the cleaners and the store, and be on my merry way to work before any of my staff had arrived. The unspoken rule at my workplace is that the bosses always arrive first, so most mornings it's just me and my executive director and the administrative assistant. I beat him to the ofice this morning, put my lunch in the fridge, lit my office candle, and got some stuff done before anyone else arrived.

I had, however, forgotten to bring my birth certificate, which I needed to actually apply for the passport. So I made plans to run home during lunch, grab it, run to the passport place, apply for the passport, and run back to work.

Then my executive director informs me that we have a lunch meeting with our lawyer to talk about a case related to the campaign I'm running.

Hmmmm. Problem. I have to get this application in so that I can a) go to Canada b) return from Canada c) spend Christmas with the family of my Orange One d) try the recipe for sweet potato souflees that the Orange One's mom is going to make us. Yet, I need to be at a meeting over lunch with our lawyer, a meeting that was unplanned until twenty minutes before I was planning to leave for passport errand land.

My executive director suggested that I run out and call him when I was on my way back, so I could meet them at the restaurant. I called him as the extremely friendly and helpful post office employee processed my passport application, and he said they were at the Gypsy Saloon and had already ordered food. Could they go ahead and order something for me?

Hmmm... the Gypsy Saloon. Home of many of my seventh day lunch out high calorie seafood fests. Home of a great pinot noir. But this is not the seventh day, this is a normal CR day on which I had planned to eat my delicious quotidian lunch.

I said to order me a salad of some kind with chicken on top, and dressing on the side. And I hoped for the best.

When I arrived (miraculously only about half way into lunch) I saw the two men chowing down on fries, but I was served a tuna nicoise salad, which was very good, though I am no doubt drowning in mercury from the tuna even as we speak. I asked for some vinegar and had just a bit of the olive oil vinegarette, along with the olives in the salad itself for fat. Diet Coke with lime to drink. Not a single french fry. No, not one bite. Not one little tiny bite. Yippie!

All in all, vaguely Zoned, decent protein, some veggies, and a little olive oil type fat. Not too bad, for short notice.

And my passport will be delivered no later than December 19. Not a moment too soon.

Posted by april at 2:39 PM | Comments (2) | TrackBack

December 4, 2005

Eggplant Eggwhite Ricotta Frittatta

One-eyed, one-horned, flying purple people eater.

Is the people eater purple and flying, or does the flying people eater only eat purple people? In any event, I fear to wear purple.

Tonight I wanted to get rid of the giant eggplant I served last night as eggplant medallions, and the tatta as the most likely protein delivery vehicle. So I made an eggplant frittatta with fat free ricotta, since we somehow managed to misplace or just not buy the fat free plain yogurt. It was pretty good, according to MR, but would have been better had the eggplant been steamed before folding it into the tatta. I served it with asparagus steamed lightly with a bit of fresh lemon juice and flax oil, plus mixed berries topped with hazelnut oil and 3 grams of hazelnuts. MR had a cup of TJ's marinara to mix into his tatta as well as a teaspoon of olive oil.

As to the question re: shopping: my pre-MR quotidian diet was VERY cheap. Eggwhites, flax oil (just two teaspoons per day), kale, nonfat plain yogurt, olive oil, frozen mixed cruciferous veggies, brewers yeast, veggie broth. Cottage cheese sometimes. What could be cheaper? I spend less on food now than I did pre-CR, but a lot of that, as Aaron (my fellow CR'd Three Hundred member!) says, is not going out to eat as much. I am a very cheap date now -- I get slightly buzzed on half a glass of wine! And I don't need an appetizer, entree and dessert: splitting an appetizer with a friend and eating a salad is enough for me when I go out, though I will frequently split a dessert three ways or order a crabcake (an old favorite) on my "eating out day" of the week. My quotidian calorie intake is low enough at 1200 that I can sample some higher calorie dishes without doing serious damage to my CR, as long as it doesn't become a regular thing. Splitting dishes certainly makes for cheaper going out events!

When MR first moved in, we were spending a lot on food. But as time went on we stocked up on staples and spices and I learned how to cook more cheaply. Eggwhites are our chicken -- we eat them several times a week, and they blend into recipes, taking on the flavor of whatever we pair them with.

MR spends quite a bit on organic greens, and I enjoy my lunch salads so much that I can't quibble with the expense... especially when he doesn't complain about how much money I spend on my hair and nails!

Overall, I'd say CR can be as cheap or as expensive as you make it. It's always cheaper to cook in than to eat out, so if CR makes you make your own food more often, you're going to save cash. Lowering your calories and getting good nutrition is more important than organics. Start simple: eggwhites in a carton, scrambled with veggies. You'll be amazed at how much less food you need to feel satisfied. A bottle of flax oil goes a long way (just keep it in the freezer!), and I've made a six month long project out of a bag of organic hazelnuts. Of all the strange things I've ever done, CR is the cheapest.

Welcome aboard... and thanks for reading!!!

Posted by april at 7:33 PM | Comments (1) | TrackBack

Dinner With Composed Salad

Composed salad. I love that term! It makes me feel so calm.

I don't make salads very often for MR because he eats a giant salad for breakfast every morning, along with his megamuffin and kefir with whey protein powder drink, but last night I felt like making a fancy salad to go with our fancy Saturday night dinner. Here's what I created.

Arugula and beet salad with hazelnut vinegarette:

16 g arugula
40 calories (about half a cup) sliced beets
6 g hazelnuts
1 teaspoon hazelnut oil
1 teaspoon balsamic vinegar

How's this for easy: arrange the arugula around a salad plate (I used the cute little glass Christmas plates my mom gave us.) Top with beets in artistic fashion. Sprinkle hazelnuts between the beets. Drizzle with hazelnut oil and balsamic vinegar.

This makes a nice, sweet and spicy salad.

For the main course I served eggplant discs topped with eggwhites and Trader Joe's marinara. I make several of my own marinara sauces, but Trader Joe's is so good that I sometimes like to use it, especially when fresh tomatoes aren't looking so good at the store.

For dessert we made a variation on the ginger cake. Same recipe, except that I added 78 g frozen blueberries to make a blueberry custard cake! It turned out really well, tasted like a blueberry muffin.

Now we're cooking Sunday breakfast, and it's time for me to scramble the eggwhite veggie omlettes, so I'd better run! More soon...

Posted by april at 6:10 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack

December 3, 2005

Do You Always Walk Around With a Knife Hanging Down Like That?

So said the pleasant sales woman at Ten Thousand Villages store to MR as I purchased our fair trade hazelnut coffee. I was amazed at how long it took someone to notice that a skinny and otherwise non-menacing orange man was carrying around a large kitchen knife. There is an explanation: we had gone to several stores along the street to find somewhere that would sharpen knives, and much to our frustration, no one did it on the spot. MR wasn't about to part with his favorite salad-chopping device for ten days while it got sent out to a knife sharpening place, so we took it home, but not until we'd done a fair amount of shopping knife in hand.

Shopping with April and MR is always fun, at least it's fun for us. We did a Whole Foods and Trader Joes run early this morning to beat the crowds. There are so many advantages to being morning people. Whole Foods was quite pleasant minus the crazy crowds, and we enjoyed our usual habit of kissing in the produce section without fear of blocking others as they reached for their napa cabbage.

We stocked up on fresh veggies at Whole Foods, then meandered to Trader Joes to pick up frozens, eggwhites, and dairy. We were disappointed to see that a lot of dairy items we were hoping to get at good prices at Trader Joes were not available in organic. With the amount of dairy I eat, I'm trying to go all-organic, so we'll have to bite the bullet and pay Whole Foods (aka Whole Paycheck) for the expensive stuff. Our shopping trip was overall highly successful, and I'm looking forward to cooking a leisurely Saturday night dinner tonight.

For lunch I made a quick and easy veggie dish for MR out of a bag of TJ's harvest hodgepodge, 80 grams of cooked eggwhites, a half cube of no salt vegan veggie broth (Rapunzel brand) a half teaspoon of olive oil, and a few shakes of low sodium soy sauce and garlic powder. On the side I served pears cooked with cinnamon and Grains of Desire spice grinds, then topped with a half teaspoon of hazelnut oil and 16 g hazelnuts.

Tonight I am planning a fancy dinner, but I can't tell you about it because it's a surprise for MR and I don't want him to read the blog while I'm not in the room and find out what it is. Details after all is said and done, or cooked and eaten!

Posted by april at 12:48 PM | Comments (3) | TrackBack

December 1, 2005

Ginger Ricotta Cheese Cake

All day, I had been craving a pumpkin cream cheese muffin. Mind you, I've never had one. I've just looked at them in the Starbucks pastry case while ordering my black coffee with nothing in it (that's redundant, I know, but I want to emphasize the calorie-free nature of the coffee.)

I was getting downright wiggy with hunger in anticipation of my delicious dinner, and the pumpkin cream cheese muffin haunted my daydreams. What would happen if I ate it? Would the world end? Would I, like Cinderella's carriage, be turned into a pumpkin?

But alas, it was against my CR vows du jour to eat a pumpkin cream cheese muffin, so I abstained. And I was rewarded.

When I walked in the door, MR announced that he had a surprise. I had known for awhile that he was going to do something fun with the left over fat free ricotta from his Thanksgiving pumpkin flan, but I wasn't sure what or when. Well sure enough, he made this amazing ginger cake based on a recipe from Miss Tenacity, that she helped him adjust to remove the sugar.

Here 'tis. This will rock your little low calorie, high calcium world.

Ginger Ricotta Cheesecake (for two)
------------------------------------------
1/2 C fat-free ricotta cheese
1/4 C "Eggbeaters"
1/2 T powdered ginger
1 T flour
1 Seamonkey spoon pure sucralose (or 1 t-tsp-equivalent pack Splenda)
1/2 capfull vanilla extract

Combine all ingredients, stirring until smooth. Pour into
nonstick-sprayed small Pyrex bowl or small cup. Bake at 375 for 30
minutes, until top is lightly browned and puffy. Set the dish out on a
rack, and allow to cool.

55% protein; 36% carb; 9% fat.

Nutrition facts for TWO Servings:

NUTRIENT TOTALS:

Abs. Values %RDA/SA

Calories 176.45__cal 9%
Protein 24.19__gm 44% RDA
Total Fat 1.81__gm 3%
Sat. Fat 0.31__gm 2%
Mono. Fat 0.38__gm 1%
Poly. Fat 0.99__gm 15%
Carbohydrate 16.08__gm 5%
Fiber 0.92__gm 3%
Cholesterol 10.30__mg 3%
Vit. A 202.50__IU 4% RDA
Vit. B6 0.05__mg 3% RDA
Vit. B12 0.06__mcg 3% RDA
Vit. C 0.07__mg 0% RDA
Vit. E 0.41__mg 5% RDA
Thiamine 0.05__mg 5% RDA
Folacin 6.21__mcg 3% RDA
Riboflavin 0.13__mg 10% RDA
Niacin 0.51__mg 3% RDA
Panto. Acid 0.35__mg 7% SA
Calcium 614.52__mg 51% RDA
Copper 0.03__mg 2% SA
Iron 0.60__mg 4% RDA
Magnesium 14.09__mg 5% RDA
Manganese 0.29__mg 10% SA
Phosphorus 38.66__mg 3% RDA
Potassium 82.77__mg 4% RDA
Selenium 14.14__mcg 26% RDA
Sodium 53.99__mg 2% SA
Zinc 0.37__mg 3% RDA

Many thanks to Miss Tenacity and her excellent blog for the original recipe and the suggestions on how to make it even more CR-fr