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July 31, 2006
My Favorite Fresh Basil Recipe
My dear friend Zeynep just bought some basil plants, so in honor of them I will post my favorite fresh basil recipe. It's a variation on a recipe I got out of Great Good Food by Julee Rosso, a cookbook my dad gave me when I was 21 that I must have read five hundred times.
Peppers stuffed with basil, tomato and chevre (aka goat cheese):
Take three innocent bell peppers and chop their heads off. Reserve the heads. Remove the pepper guts and seeds and compost them, or feed them to your cat.
Take the tastiest tomates you can find and chop them, not too finely. Into the pepper bowls place evenly distributed fingerfulls of tomatoes, fresh basil (chopped or torn) and goat cheese. Be sure to lick your fingers to clean off any remaining goat cheese.
Drizzle a small amount of tarragon white wine vinegar into the top of the peppers and replace the heads so that each pepper has a lid. Lovingly place the peppers in a baking dish and open a bottle of chardonnay or other dry white. (Actually, you should have opened the bottle and started drinking a glass while you were preparing the peppers. That's what we call "cooking with wine.") Splash the wine into the baking dish, being sure to wet the pepper heads, such that the peppers are wading in about a quarter to a half inch of wine (this is how you make it up to them for cutting their heads off.) Drip just another drop or two of the tarragon vinegar into the winey wading pool and place in the oven on about 350 for about 45 minutes.
Keep checking on the peppers every ten or so minutes to
a) make sure they're not getting too drunk and doing something they'll regret
b) make sure their heads aren't burning
c) splash more wine into their hot tub in case it's drying out. the peppers should always be standing in wine. Nice work if you can get it!
The peppers are ready to remove from the oven when they're looking light green and wrinkly, but they should not be brown, black, or otherwise burnt. If you'd prefer, you can even undercook them a bit for crispier peppers, but I like them quite oozly.
For a lower cal version, you can use fat free ricotta instead of goat cheese, but be sure to mix the FFR with a little garlic powder and half-salt to punch up its flavor, and don't expect it to rival the divine chevre.
I am going to send this recipe to Christine in hopes that she will give me more fresh basil from her garden.
Posted by april at 3:16 PM | Comments (2) | TrackBack
July 30, 2006
Zucchini Is Just a Vehicle
This is another quote from "A Chef's Table." The cooking teacher uses zucchini to teach how the cooking method can completely change the food.
This weekend, it was all about the zucchini. Or, if you're American, the baby yellow summer squash. I had picked up some beautiful ones at the Allentown Farmers' Market, and I wanted to use them while they were still fresh, so I made squash at about every meal. On Friday, I made the sunshine platter. Saturday night, I cooked the squash in chardonnay with yellow tomatoes, white eggplant and garlic, then served it over cubed eggwhites (which are a great pasta-alternative) with a fourth cup of fat free ricotta hidden under the sauce for added flavor and texture. Sunday was extremely hot, so I made a cold squash bowl by lining a large glass bowl with squash discs, then layering fat free ricotta, tomatoes, artichoke hearts, basil, oregano and garlic then topping with Muir Glen organic tomato paste mixed with olive oil. Sunday dinner was squash (again!) cooked in white wine with garlic, Quorn tenders, tomatoes, and the stems of the beautiful rainbow chard fresh from Luke and Christine's garden that they dropped off. On the side I served the chard leaves as a salad with Walden Farms dressing and a dessert that I'll tell you about in a minute.
I added either flax or olive oil to all the dishes after removing from the heat. I never cook oil anymore because it oxidizes, so I cook in wine or broth (usually wine) but always add oil afterwards.
For desserts, I mostly served fresh berries from the Allentown Farmers' Market with either flax oil, hazelnut oil, or in a parfait layered with fat free ricotta and hazelnuts. We had blackberries and blueberries, plus a few leftover strawberries. Last night I was out of berries, so I made up a new dish: cold pumpkin pie in a glass. I mixed a half cup of fat free ricotta with a half cup of canned pumpkin, added a drop of sucralose and a lot of cinnamon, and stirred up in a large wine glass. To that we decided to add some Walden Farms chocolate sauce. It was a big hit. A pumpkin pie for summer that you can eat with a spoon!
I really enjoyed my weekend cooking. I forget how important cooking is to me. When I am so busy with work and other obligations that I don't have time to cook, I feel like something is missing. Like all good hobbies, cooking is a great stress-reliever for me.
Speaking of stress, off to work! Today at noon I have a meeting with some of my favorite people, the social workers, so that should be fun. If no meetings get set up for Wednesday, I may actually (gasp!) take a day off for my birthday! We're allowed to take our birthdays off but I don't think I've ever done it.
Posted by april at 4:34 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
July 29, 2006
The Key To Success In The Kitchen Is Being In The Kitchen
I am listing to a wonderful cooking show, Jim Coleman's A Chef's Table, while I am making dinner. Jim just said, "The key to success in the kitchen is getting the freshest ingredients." I'll agree that fresh ingredients make a difference. But when people ask me how I became a good cook, I answer that I just cooked a lot.
I am mostly self-taught. I learned some from my mom, quite a bit from my dad and step-mother. I read cookbooks cover to cover like novels, never following a recipe exactly but grabbing ideas from each to put together in a way I find appealing. I started cooking when I got my first apartment in college, back when my roommate Samantha and I used to make a cranberry apricot pie so successful that our friends started calling it Samberry Aprilcot pie. I kept cooking.
I've always loved combining food and love, and most of my love stories involve food. Bell peppers stuffed with basil, goat cheese and tomato for my vegetarian boyfriend Jon in college... collard greens, beans and rice with the student activist boy I had a crush on the summer after I graduated when we were living in the big activist commune... gazpacho, salsa, and pasta sauces with the unbelievable sungold tomatoes that our friends David and Rachel of Full Moon Farms used to grow organically just outside Burlington, Vermont. Food and love are inextricably intertwined, not just over the medium term but forever.
I used to dream about a vegan cardiologist who would join me in a movement to cure heart disease, Ornish-style. Then I discovered that a no-fat diet was impossible to maintain long term, and I started eating eggwhites, flax oil and olive oil and feeling better than I ever imagined possible, not to mention easily maintaining a weight that is "underweight" for my height, and a calorie level that I hope will slow my biological aging process. Enter the Orange One. Now I have a tester for my ever culinary whim. I get better every day. Just last night, MR was amazed at how well the flavors in the sunshine platter I made him melded together, each bringing out the other.
Good cooking is a result of cooking. If you want to be good, just keep doing it. Get in the kitchen and have a good time. You've got to eat anyway!
Posted by april at 4:47 PM | Comments (1) | TrackBack
Nightmare
I woke up in the night having had the most horrible nightmare. I dreamed that MR went out to California to do some consulting at that school for obese teens I wrote about a few days ago. That part was good -- improving the menu. But he came home acting very strange. For instance, he was defending the inclusion of bagels in the diet of overweight kids. He was spouting bizarre, outdated lowfat dogma. "What has gotten into you?" I asked him.
He confessed that he wanted to move out to California to work at the school. I said I couldn't leave my job and didn't want to go back to long distance. I pointed out that he had been mentioning the name of one of the staff members, a foaming at the mouth lowfat propagandist, named Francine (there is no such person -- this was all just a dream.) He fessed up that he had been seduced by the lowfat girl and was going to leave me to go be with her. I said, "But honey, we're buying a house." He pointed out that we haven't closed on it yet. I said, "I keep hoping that this is one big nightmare and I'll wake up."
I woke up! And there was MR, sleeping peacefully beside me. Actually, he wasn't sleeping peacefully because he had just been woken up by the howling of our ever-hungry eighteen year old calico cat. I told him about the dream. He assured me that it was nothing more than a horrible nightmare.
"Don't worry baby," he said, "you'll always be the flax oil on my broccoli."
Posted by april at 8:55 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
Sunshine Platter
It's times like this that I really wish I had a digital camera and the ability to put pictures on my blog. Last night I made a beautiful dinner with baby yellow squash (MR calls them yellow zucchini -- Canadian thing, I think) from the Allentown Farmers' Market. I cut the squash into small discs and lined a glass plate with them, then topped them with eggwhites cut into chunks, topped with asparagus cut into small pieces, topped with a layer of Quorn tenders, topped with a layer of yellow tomatoes. Sprinkled with a little garlic powder and finished off with a large squeeze of organic lime and some lime peel (MR likes to eat the peel of everything) plus a teaspoon of olive oil. It looked like a giant smiling sunshine. For dessert I served Allentown Farmers' Market fresh blackberries with hazelnuts and flax oil. Anyone out there who has not tried flax oil on blackberries needs to drop everything and do it now.
Posted by april at 8:50 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
July 28, 2006
Recipes and Nutritional Info For New York Magazine Dinner
NUTRIENT TOTALS:
Abs. Values %RDA/SA
Calories 639.16__cal 32%
Protein 48.56__gm 88% RDA
Total Fat 21.19__gm 33%
Sat. Fat 4.39__gm 22%
Mono. Fat 8.48__gm 29%
Poly. Fat 6.48__gm 97%
Carbohydrate 50.11__gm 17%
Fiber 18.19__gm 61%
Cholesterol 76.21__mg 25%
Vit. A 1457.90__IU 29% RDA
Vit. B6 0.64__mg 40% RDA
Vit. B12 1.40__mcg 70% RDA
Vit. C 126.63__mg 211% RDA
Vit. E 6.56__mg 82% RDA
Thiamine 0.37__mg 33% RDA
Folacin 282.19__mcg 157% RDA
Riboflavin 0.61__mg 47% RDA
Niacin 5.54__mg 37% RDA
Panto. Acid 2.32__mg 46% SA
Calcium 273.07__mg 23% RDA
Copper 0.92__mg 46% SA
Iron 5.29__mg 35% RDA
Magnesium 200.15__mg 71% RDA
Manganese 2.21__mg 74% SA
Phosphorus 474.49__mg 40% RDA
Potassium 1613.30__mg 81% RDA
Selenium 29.71__mcg 54% RDA
Sodium 245.94__mg 10% SA
Zinc 2.77__mg 23% RDA
Tyrosine 2.43__gm 253% RDA
Lysine 5.89__gm 818% RDA
Phenylalanine 2.84__gm 296% RDA
Leucine 5.59__gm 582% RDA
Valine 3.56__gm 424% RDA
Methionine 1.74__gm 581% RDA
Cystine 0.88__gm 295% RDA
Tryptophan 0.87__gm 482% RDA
Threonine 3.18__gm 662% RDA
Isoleucine 3.28__gm 456% RDA
Food List : NY Mag dinner quorn.FLS
DATE : 07/25/06
Num. Foods : 11
Food #1 : Mollusks, scallop, mixed species, raw 91 grams
Food #2 : Flax oil 1 teaspoon
Food #3 : Alcoholic beverage, wine, table, red 3 oz
Food #4 : Quorn tenders 170 grams
Food #5 : Strawberries, raw 166.7 grams
Food #6 : Artichokes, (globe or french), raw 85 grams
Food #7 : Arugula, raw 24 grams
Food #8 : Nuts, filberts or hazelnuts, dried, unblanched 10 grams
Food #9 : Alcoholic beverage, wine, table, white 40 calories (cooking wine)
Food #10 : Asparagus, raw 109 grams
Food #11 : Mushrooms, raw 40 grams
Food #12 : Oil, oilve, salad or cooking 1 teaspoon
Posted by april at 6:05 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
July 27, 2006
CR Dinner with New York Magazine!
I am starting to think that I really like journalists. Or maybe it's just the specific kind of journalists who have done stories on CR lately. We always seem to have the best time at these little dinner parties, and Tuesday night was no exception.
Julian the reporter and Adam the editor joined me and MR, Meredith and Paul, and Don for a CR'd feast. Julian has been experimenting with CR himself, so we actually had 6 CR'd folk in one place at once! It was almost a conference!
More on the dinner conversation later, but here's what I served:
Arugula salad topped with scallops cooked in white wine with garlic and cilantro and a squeeze of the juice of a fresh lemon
Quorn tenders cooked in water for MR and a spalsh of white wine for the others with asparagus, shiitake mushrooms and artichoke hearts with a teaspoon of olive oil added after removing from heat, also topped with tiny lemon juice squeeze
Strawberry parfait with fat free ricotta, organic hazelnuts, organic strawberries, and flax oil
Pinot noir
The total calories (with three ounces of pinot noir -- the non-MR among us were allowed to drink more than a three ounce pour, which would add some calories) for the men was 639, 30% fat, 30% protein, 40% carb. I was the only female eating (Meredith and Paul are doing two meal a day these days, and had already eaten) and I cut the dishes roughly in half for myself. The food turned out very well. Julian the reporter had saved up way too many calories for the meal (I should have asked him in advance how much he'd like to eat) so I made him a second strawberry parfait. Meredith and Paul drank tea and chatted. Adam did the dishes, which really impressed me because I dread the dishes at the end of a long dinner party. We used the office of one of his friends who has a test kitchen of some kind, and it was a great set up, including a dining room with a long glass table with interesting art work on all sides.
I'll post the grams later on today... it takes awhile to convert the DWIDP file numbers to useable recipe numbers, as anyone who has used the clunky old program can tell you. Off to work!
Posted by april at 5:58 AM | Comments (2) | TrackBack
July 26, 2006
Fat on the Brain
Hi AH... and thanks for your nice comments on the blog! Glad you're enjoying it! I think, however, that we still have a point of disagreement. According to the school's website, the kids are eating a diet that typically contains 10 grams of fat (that's 90 calories worth of fat -- fat has 9 calories per gram) per day and then salads, fat free yogurts, fruits and vegetables on top of that. The traces of fat in fruits and vegetables are not going to add up to 15-20% of calories from fat, nor are they going to provide the essential fatty acids in adequate amounts that a teaspoon of flax or olive oil would provide. The website doesn't say that the kids are eating 10-15% of calories from fat -- it just quotes a study that says that people find that kind of diet satisfying. “Popular Diets: A Scientific Review (published in Obesity Research, 2001)” Dr. Marjorie Freedman and her colleagues noted that “Low-fat diets (15-20% fat) received higher hedonic [pleasure] ratings compared with higher-fat diets (30%-50% fat)." [That's a direct quote from the website.] If these kids are eating a diet of 1500 calories a day (which would be very low calorie), then let's say, to be very generous, that they're getting 5 grams of fat from traces of fat in "uncontrolled foods," in addition to the 10 grams in the controlled foods (all of which, it seems, are coming from meat, since no sources of unsaturated fat are listed), then that's a total of 135 calories a day from fat. That's 9%. Since it strikes me as rather unlikely that 5 grams of fat can be squeezed from fat free yogurts and salads, let's say that in a 1500 calorie a day diet, there are 108 calories from fat (that's 12 grams). That's 7%. No source of unsaturated fat mentioned anywhere.
AH says, "And I still don't think that it is as deadly as a problem as you made it seem, at least not in comparison to the weight problem that the teens have." I don't get the comparison: just because these kids have a deadly weight problem doesn't mean that they should be malnourished while losing weight. Is is quite possible, and in my experience easier, to lose weight on a diet that provides adequate nutrition. Essential fatty acids are an essential nutrient, just like vitamin C and vitamin A. Fat isn't what makes people fat -- excess calories, no matter what their source, make people fat. Cutting calories while maintaining (and even improving) nutrition is the cornerstone of healthy weight loss. Even Dean Ornish has said for the last several years that unsaturated fats are essential to good health, especially keeping Omega 3's and 6's in balance. It is easy to create a diet that is low in calories and extremely high in nutrition, including in healthful fats. I do it every day.
The early nineties mythology that fat is what makes people fat may have encouraged people to cut back on steak and french fries. That's a good thing! I'm all for it! But it also spawned the fat-free junk food industry, filling foods that used to consist mostly of fat with useless carbs and sugar. There's a better way: keep the calories low by eliminating nutrient-free foods, both high carb and high fat. Get rid of the nutrient-free carbs (like bagels) and replace those calories with flax oil and olive oil. Fat actually improves the absorbtion of many of the nutrients in vegetables. I know how hard it is to make the transition from thinking of fat as the enemy to realizing that fat (in measured amounts -- some people find it easy to eat a whole bag full of nuts, but that's not what we're suggesting here!) to realizing that some kinds of fat are not only healthy, they're necessary. I was so used to no-fat cooking that it took me awhile to learn how to use oil and nuts in my dishes. Now, however, I realize not only how delicious a teaspoon of flax oil can be on a dish of berries, but also what a positive effect the addition of the flax has on my moods, my hunger satisfaction, and my skin quality. Because my diet has very little saturated fat (and I have more than I think I should, since I occasionally consume chicken when I eat out with co-workers) I have very low cholesterol levels and almost no risk for heart disease. One need not give up fat all together -- in fact, one should not. A diet that includes healthy unsaturated fats in measured amounts, along with healthy carbs like veggies and fruits, is the only healthy way to go.
I applaud all who try to put an end to the public health crisis of obesity, whether it is among adults, adolescents or children. I believe that all those who work at the Academy of the Sierras are doing their best to help kids who are in truly desperate shape. I just wish they would take advantage of up to date information and feed the kids some flax oil for omega 3's and perhaps sunflower oil, grapeseed oil or safflower oil for omega 6's? Maybe a hazelnut here and there. The kids would be healthier and happier. On this, I am willing to bet an entire bottle of excellent French extra virgin olive oil.
Posted by april at 8:35 PM | Comments (5) | TrackBack
July 25, 2006
Do the Math
In response to some of my comments:
10 grams of fat in controlled foods looks to me like all the fat these kids are getting, since the uncontrolled foods are either obviously foods with only a trace of fat (like veggies) or labeled as "fat-free." 10 grams of fat is a lot less than 15% - 20% of any calorie level that I imagine these kids are on. Let's see... 10 grams of fat has 90 calories. That's less than 10% of a 1000 calorie a day diet, which would be way too low for almost anyone who wasn't extremely petite and attempting hardcore CR. And the fats consumed aren't healthy fats -- they're fats found in the meats. I'm all for eating meat from time to time, though I prefer eggwhites and nonfat dairy. I'd be much happier if they'd just add flax and olive oil to these kids' veggies (the nutrients would absorb better too!) and a measured, weighed, calorie-controlled amount of hazelnuts or almonds to meals or snacks.
As to the commenter who wondered if fat people didn't already have enough fat, the fat stores someone is carrying around reflect his or her previous diet. Somehow I doubt that these kids got fat over-indulging in extra virgin olive oil. The fat they are carrying around is most likely French fry grease, not high in essential fatty acids or anything else anyone would want to consume for health. And fat stores aren't a great source of dietary fat. Sure, you can go lower calorie for awhile if you're carrying your own tank of fuel around, but this isn't a solution to getting the nutrients the body needs.
I'm off today to New York to do an interview with New York Magazine. I'll be cooking a CR feast, and three other CR Society members will be attending. MR is coming, of course. Kieffer and Philo are staying at home, where Uncle Luke and Aunt Christine will be checking on them.
Posted by april at 6:13 AM | Comments (5) | TrackBack
July 22, 2006
Growing Brains Need Essential Fatty Acids!
I was just reading MR's McClean's magazine, and read about a boarding school for obese children in California. I'm all for tackling adolescent obesity, as you know, and even for using stern measures to do it. But two facts jumped out at me as alarming.
1) This school only allows the children 7 - 12 grams of fat per day.
2) One of my college friends, Phil Obbard, is the executive director.
1) is alarming because such a low level of fat doesn't allow for the consumption of essential fatty acids. That's scary for adults: essential fatty acids are needed for all kinds of biological functions. But they are REQUIRED for the functioning of receptors in the brain and the rest of the nervous system. Deficiency in essential fatty acids can lead to neurological abnormalities. By feeding these kids too little fat, the school is actually damaging their brains. Almost any nutritionist these days will tell you this. The days of super low fat are over: people have realized that unsaturated fats, such as flax and olive oil, are essential for healthy metabolism. And for growing brains! Please, please please give these kids a teaspoon of flax oil morning and night. It's just eighty calories, and would be much better than the unlimited fruit and diet Snapple the school is dishing out. PLEASE! Stop the brain damage! Fat isn't making these kids fat -- too many calories is what makes kids, or anyone, fat. Please feed them the nutrition they need. Is anyone at this school using nutritional software? Does anyone care about the children's health, not just their weight? In their description of the diet on the website, it says they're talking about 15-20 percent of calories from fat. Yet seven to twelve grams a day is not fifteen to twenty percent of most any resonable calorie intake. It's Susan Powter nutritional advice from the early nineties that should not be tested out on growing children.
2) is scary because Phil Obbard was one of my college friends, and now he is the executive director of a school that is causing brain damage to teenagers. I would be really, really excited about his current work and supportive, if only I were to find out that they are actually using nutritional software, feeding the children appropriate amounts of essential fatty acids, and overall tending to the kids' health. But unless this article is grossly misrepresenting what's going on, they're not. And that's scary.
Phil, if your google alarm goes off on this, please, please please write in that you've gotten some good nutritional advice and have added flax and olive oil to these kids' diets. Seven to twelve grams of fat a day is not healthy. It's perfectly possible to have a low calorie, high nutrition diet that is not deficient in essential fatty acids. I can make up a whole host of menus to do this for you. If you're responsible for these kids, you're responsible for the damage the diet is doing to their long term health. I completely agree that obesity is a public health disaster, and I totally support extreme measures to end childhood and adolescent obesity. But obesity avoidance has to start and end with good nutrition, not diets that sacrifice health. It's possible - even easier! - to do both. Give the kids some flax oil and take the calories out of the carbs. The kids will be smarter, happier, and more satisfied. There's a reason why they call those essential fatty acids "essential."
I read the sample menus on the school's website, and I think they could be easily improved. Cut out the nutrient-free carbs such as fat free bagels, and add a teaspoon of flax oil and breakfast and lunch and a teaspoon of olive oil or some hazelnuts or almonds at lunch. Eating too low fat will make anyone crazy, especially anyone who is trying to cut calories. Teach the kids to cut calories and count RDAs, not just to count fat grams. Fat free bagels are not healthy! Omega 3's with those eggwhite omlettes would be a small, but brain-saving change. Lose a little of the fruit, add in some nuts. Lose the useless carbs. I'm pleased to see that at least they have high protein fare. That should keep the kids from dropping dead. Throw in a few grams of hazelnuts and a teaspoon here and there of flax and olive oil and you might have a healthy diet. Teach the kids to use nutritional software so they can self-monitor for nutrition.
The website states that they have nutritionists on staff and that they teach kids about nutrition. It is mind-boggling to me that they are serving fat free bagels and fat free chips to obese children when the last ten years of research indicates that extremely lowfat, high carb diets that lack essential fatty acids aren't healthy. I'm thrilled to see the eggwhite omlettes, lean chicken and turkey, and fruits and vegetables on the menu. But why not recognize that some kinds of fat are not just healthy but necessary for proper metabolism and growth? I promise, these kids will feel better, perform better, and lose more weight (and keep it off) if their nutritional needs are met.
Posted by april at 5:16 AM | Comments (8) | TrackBack
July 19, 2006
Omega
Ariel asks about Omega 3's and 6's from a CR point of view. My understanding is that we want them in balance: that's why I eat two teaspoons of flax oil a day, one with dinner and one with breakfast. I also eat almonds and hazelnuts instead of nuts like walnuts and peanuts because of omega issues.
Another busy day, though I finally got some sleep last night thanks to Luke taking the morning shift at work. I ate a megamuffin for breakfast, a salad at the Ruby Tuesday's while meeting with Edward for lunch, and my lunch salad for dinner with Walden Farms calorie-free French dressing. Now I am drinking a lovely glass of French white wine and taking a break between work calls and more work calls. My job never slows down, it seems.
At least this weekend I should be able to cook some for my angel. Friday night I have a party with some of the lab techs from the hospital we just organized (more on that soon...) but Saturday night I should be able to be home and make a wonderful dinner for L'Orange. I love it when we can have a quiet evening at home to enjoy our food and the pleasure of each other's company. While it's great that he understands and is supportive of my work, there comes a point when both of us just want to spend some uninterrupted time together being in love.
Meanwhile, I need to make some finger foods for my lab tech party. Suggestions?
Posted by april at 8:33 PM | Comments (4) | TrackBack
July 18, 2006
Be Faithful To Your Spouse; Play Around With Your Salad
That was the headline of a full-page ad for Paul Newman's salad dressing in a Ladies' Home Journal I glanced at today while waiting in line. I thought it a brillant slogan, challenging salad-eaters to vary their dressing choices.
I seem to practice salad bigamy these days: I eat my lunch salad, which is half of MR's breakfast salad plus pumpkin seeds and eggwhites, and then I eat Subway Club salads, that 150 calorie delight that carries me through many a union meeting with health care professionals. The MR salad is better, of course. It has more veggies of a better nutritional quality and variety; it is organic; its protein comes from eggwhites, which contain no cholesterol or saturated fat. It is simply dressed in red wine vinegar and a bit of organic hot sauce. The Subway Club is mostly just convenient, and a low cal way to eat on the run without looking like a freak at meetings.
I never got my second megamuffin of the day because one of my co-workers needed me to help her drop off stickers to nurses at 7pm shift change, so I didn't get home from work till after eight. Once again, MR ate dinner without me. Luckily, he is the only man in the world who could put up with my schedule. He just goes along, writing about radical anti-aging biotechnology, while I run around like the energizer bunny organizing health care professionals. We are the perfect team. He even made my green tea iced today so I could enjoy it while I was outside meeting with workers in the almost one hundred degree heat!
Off to bed... Luke is covering the 7 am shift tomorrow so I may actually sleep in... until 7:30!!! Wild and crazy, I know, but when normal is 5:30 and 4am wake up is at least once a week, half past seven sounds decadent indeed!
Posted by april at 9:02 PM | Comments (1) | TrackBack
July 17, 2006
Strawberry Vanilla
Over the weekend I bought some new shower gel at the Body Shop, and since they were on sale, I picked up almond shower gel and lotion, coconut shower gel, strawberry shower gel, and vanilla body lotion. On Sunday I used strawberry gel and vanilla lotion. So for lunch, I decided to repeat the strawberry vanilla theme in MR's dessert, just to confuse him as to who was his girlfriend and who was his meal.
I diced fresh organic ripe strawberries and layered them with fat free ricotta seasoned with just a drop of vanilla extract. Then I topped with hazelnuts and hazelnut oil. Served in the beautiful wine glasses Mary gave me for my birthday/housewarming. It was gorgeous, cold, and sweet, as well as healthy! Just like me, if I do say so myself! ;)
Posted by april at 7:44 PM | Comments (1) | TrackBack
July 15, 2006
How To Stay Healthy While Working Those Hours
Hazel asks how one can stay healthy working the hours I've been working. Here's one thing that helps: don't do it forever! My work is always more than forty hours a week, but these periods of never stopping and sleep deprivation don't go on for very long at a time. The last five weeks or so have been particularly busy, and the last two before a major vote especially so.
Most organizers, under the pressure, resort to bad coping mechanisms like overeating, smoking, or drinking too much. It's so easy to think that a quick fix like that will make you feel better, when in the long run it makes you feel worse. I found that keeping low calorie really helped me maintain my mental focus in the last days. There's something about eating just on the lighter side of what I really need that makes me calmer and sharper.
Planning is really the key. We made the savory muffins over the July 4th weekend, and they were really a health-saver in these last two weeks. Being able to pull a 275 calorie package of perfectly Zoned yumminess out of the freezer, engineered to have 27% of the RDA of everything, made grabbing healthy food in a hurry easy. I had savory muffins for breakfasts on most days with such toppings as hot sauce, mustard, and fat free cream cheese. I really enjoy these little critters, so I felt like I was feasting instead of feeling deprived. Since MR packs my lunch time salad, filled with an amazing array of greens that pack a nutritional punch along with pumpkin seeds for zinc and fat and eggwhites for protein, I had lunches taken care of. And I was lucky enough to be working in a place that has a convenient Subway, so Subway salads and low carb wraps were always available. Subway can really be a blessing to the health conscious on the run.
The good news is: WE WON!!! And we won big. 272 votes for us, 128 for the other union, and only 19 for no union at all. It was a fight up until the end, including threats of violence from the other union. Don't worry, Mommies and Daddies out there... I was very careful never to be alone anywhere, I am being extra cautious. Our leaders inside the hospital were under a ton of pressure as they got attacked by both management and the other union, but so many of their co-workers were supportive that they held up beautifully. Now they finally have a chance to negotiate a contract that gets them the kind of salaries, benefits and working conditions they deserve. It's about time.
I'm off to a meeting to plan next steps... the fun never ends! And then tonight I will, for the first time in ages, be home to cook a delicious CR'd meal for my Orange One.
Posted by april at 11:57 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
July 14, 2006
CR'd Organizer
What does an organizer who works from 4 am until 10 pm do for food?
Megamuffins, Subway Club salads, and MR packed salads. South Beach diet wraps. Hot sauce and vinegar. Pumpkin seeds for zinc.
Today while picking up an iced coffee at Dunkin Donuts, I overheard someone say, "A sausage and egg biscuit is a nutritional disaster."
Yup.
More soon.
Posted by april at 1:08 PM | Comments (1) | TrackBack
July 10, 2006
Do Your Thing, Honey
That's a line from Christina Aguliera's new song, "Ain't No Other Man." It's a great song... makes me think of my angel. Anyhow, it is the title of this post because this week I won't have much time to write: my major, giant election that I have been working towards for a year is on Friday, and I have to spend the week doing my thing, my real thing, which is organizing health care professionals.
The megamuffin, savory and otherwise, is my savior. I ate one for breakfast, since I had to leave the house at 5:45 this morning. The savory muffies turned out great, and I will post the still in progress recipe tweaks asap. The basic idea is substitute lemon for orange, peas, tomatoes and corn (dried) for berries, and use savory spices like chili and cumin instead of sweet spices. I have even made a Megamuffin Cheesesteak by melting a piece of nonfat cheddar on top of my muffin, topping with flax oil, and eating with fork and knife. This week's food will consist of megamuffins, salad, and Subway Club salads, which I can pick up around the corner from the hospital.
Tomorrow, however, I will eat fruit because one of my med techs is hosting a fruit eating union meeting on the lawn of the hospital. She's really into making fruit trays.
Off to bed... I left for work at 5:45 this morning and got home just before ten. No real breaks... just talking with workers and instructing staff the entire time. A five minute break when I told Luke I just had to walk outside and drink some tea before I could return to functioning. Hopefully the cat will let me sleep. I am so grateful to come home to my Orange One, who is happily washing his tatta dishes and making my home safe and comfortable. Soon, I may even have time to spend with him! After Friday...
Posted by april at 10:02 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
July 6, 2006
Another Reason to Eat More Protein...
Dr. Russ Hepple of the University of Calgary makes news! Dr. Hepple helped me set up a lecture for Aubrey in Calgary, and now he's an advisor to the Mprize. I disagree with his final advice... makes more sense to me to pursue CR but do what MR has been telling us to do for years -- eat more protein! And engage in bone and muscle building exercise to stay strong. And eat more protein!
Eating fewer calories slows muscle aging: study
Last Updated Wed, 05 Jul 2006 17:39:40 EDT
CBC News
A sparse diet helps rats maintain strong, healthy muscles well past middle age, Canadian researchers say.
Russ Hepple (CBC) Elderly rats fed a nutrient-rich but restricted diet were able to keep up with much younger rodents, physiologist Russ Hepple and his colleagues at the University of Calgary's kinesiology department found.
"If you can think of an 80-year-old still being able to go out and have as active a lifestyle as someone in their early 20s, when they're considered largely to be in the prime of their life, I think that's a very attractive thought," Hepple said.
One group of rats had their calories cut by 40 per cent, while a second group ate normally for the three-year study.
Mimicking benefits of low-calorie diet
The team doesn't suggest humans should severely cut back on what we eat. For the average active person, a similar diet would be drastic and possibly destructive to muscle, especially if the calories come from protein.
"The body will borrow protein from its muscles – heart, liver, kidneys etc. – to make up the deficit," said exercise physiologist Lee Coyne.
Elderly rats fed fewer calories were able to keep up with the speed of younger rats. (CBC) The scientists hope the research will lead to ways to mimic the effects of limiting calories to reap health benefits without limiting what we put on our plates.
As for the immediate implications, Hepple said: "Probably get regular activity, and don't eat too much. I mean it sounds so simple and boring, but that happens to be true, and sometimes truth is like that."
The study will be published in this week's Journal of Gerontology: Biological Sciences.
Posted by april at 8:59 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
July 4, 2006
A Funny Fourth
Tonight for the Fourth of July I'm making MR a very entertaining meal. First, he's having a Quorn dog wrapped in a low carb tortilla and a fat free cheddar single for a cheese dog. Then I've made some Carolina barbequed eggwhites, adapted from the recipe my mother created for amazing barbeque chicken. It's just apple cider vinegar mixed with hot red peppers from the corner grocery store and left to marinate. Instead of chicken, I'm using eggwhites for a no-saturated fat protein souce. I'll serve the eggwhites over fresh greens from Christine's garden... kinda a vegetarian barbequed chicken salad. Then for dessert, it's a blueberry hazelnut parfait with fresh blueberries layered with nonfat ricotta and hazelnuts in a giant wine glass, topped with hazelnut oil. I had been planning to make a red white and blue parfair (ironically, I assure you) but I forgot and used up all the organic strawberries and raspberries this weekend, so it will just be a blue and white parfait. Red pinot noir on the side!
Posted by april at 3:38 PM | Comments (2) | TrackBack
Savory Muffins
For months, I've thought that I should make a version of the megamuffin that is savory, not sweet. I love the muffins, but I've never been much of a dessert person, and I don't like to eat sweet things as a whole meal. Since the muffins are such a convenient way to get tons of nutrition, it makes sense to make a muffin that I want to eat every day. So today, July 4, we finally did it.
We took the basic megamuffin recipe and substituted the dried veggies "Just Peas," "Just Corn" and "Just Tomatoes" for the dried cranberries and blueberries. Instead of sucralose and pumpkin pie spice (a blend of spices such as cinnamon and nutmeg) I put in cumin, chili powder, paprika, dill, garlic powder, No-Salt, and Tabasco. Next time I might add cilantro for an even more southwestern taste, or perhaps I'll do a rosemary and olive oil and oregano version for Italian foccacia muffins.
I can't wait to see how they turn out. If it's good, I'll post the recipe.
Posted by april at 8:38 AM | Comments (1) | TrackBack
July 2, 2006
Innocent Bystanders
Have you ever noticed that bad things are always happening to innocent bystanders? The news is filled with reports of innocent bystanders being injured or killed. These people seem to have nothing in common other than the fact that they were innocent and standing by. They were not involved in the mayhem that caused their demise -- they were just there.
It just goes to show the danger of standing by. People who are interested in life-extension should never stand by, not even for a moment.
Posted by april at 7:16 AM | Comments (1) | TrackBack