After returning from our vacation, down a few G's because of unexpected hurricane Irene expenses, we decided to stay thrifty for the week. We grocery shopped in our cupboards and pantry and tried to keep going-out expenses to a minimum.

Thanks to my dad and his hobby of fishing we had multiple whole frozen fish in our freezer. This was a Cod he had caught last year, so it's been cooling it's heels (fins!) in our freezer for quite some time.

Well, what better time to bring it out than when we had decided to keep our costs low!

I tossed it on a baking sheet and brushed it with a little bit of olive oil, sprinked it with plenty of salt, pepper, lemon seasoning and lemon juice and threw some onion rings and capers over it for good measure.

It baked up in less than 30 minutes (flipped after 15) at 375 degrees.

I served it with cous cous on the side.

The cous cous (1/2 cup dry) was cooked in 1 cup vegetable broth (unsalted) + additional water added. I added some basil paste, some salt, pepper, lemon juice and Italian seasoning.

Seconds were had for the fish and the cous cous (by both of us!).

Actually I failed to be as decadent as I had planned on vacation and so decided to go full hog this weekend!

There was a LOT of fish made, so I had it for breakfast and lunch in various forms for about 3 days (it may be a while until I'm interested in cod again). I'd say I had it alone about half the time and with sides the other half

The fish made it's appearance next to a side of broccoli slaw (sold in most supermarkets and definitely super healthy, crunch and tasty!) dressed with balsamic vinegar.

At the end, having only some little pieces left here and there, I decided to stick them into modified fish tacos. I had invested in some low fat/low cal Lavash bread at Fairway a few weeks ago and had frozen it. Unfortunately, it was a big low-fat failure! The bread is softer and more fragile than a warp, and at 100 calories barely gives any more actual volume. Fail.

These worked out well though. It's a little bit of lettuce, the fish on top and some Aji sauce (kind of like a spicy mustard) spread on the other side.

                         A closeup:


Tips for white flaky fish (cod/halibt/sole/tilapia):
1) If you cook it on the bone like I did instead of fileting, expect it to be severely underseasoned (like mine was) and assume you will have to dress it up in a sauce or with a mustard or more salt. Unfortunately there is just no way to season the inside while it cooks. =(
2) This is not a fish that lends itself to rarity like tuna or salmon. Always cook all the way through until you can flake it with a fork.
3) This is the best fish to put inside of a fish taco/wrap etc.
4) White/flaky fish actually contain less calories and more protein than salmon, the commonly known "healthy fish". They do not, however, contain the same amount of omega-3 fatty acids, so that's worth noting.

And finally, one of the purchases I did make was a box of raspberries which were eaten both raw and with cereal. Why am I putting this up? Because this cereal is made with something I've just disovered (though I realize this is old hat for most): Slender Soy Vanilla Soy Milk.

Soy milk and skim milk actually carry similar amounts of vitamins (like A) and calcium, however, soy milk actually has more vitamin B12 and D. Regular skim milk has more protein. The big debate now is how soy affects our hormone functions because it does contain a compound known to mimic estrogen. Because many of the female reproductive tract cancers are fed by estrogen, there is a lot of scrutiny on soy as a carcinogenic substance. Furthermore, because it's generally quite modified from it's original genetic makeup and contains a high amount of pesticides, the speculation on whether or not soy is a healthy alternative to meat or dairy products has been making it's way to the public arena.

My interpretation? Honestly, if we were to stop eating/consuming/wearing/using any substance that was known or suspected to cause cancer, our lives would be very poor quality indeed. As a matter of fact, from a purely medical perspective, cancer is a disease of aging and the statistical probability that one cell will undergo just the right mutation to set off the process of cancer. That probability becomes higher as substances known to cause mutations are introduced into our bodies, but that's where moderation comes into play. If you are a vegetarian, it is better to consume soy to meet your body's protein requirements and take the potential risk than to avoid soy and most certainly develop a protein deficiency. If you are not a vegetarian, consume soy at low levels, just like you would consume red meat or fried food.

We risk cancer by living longer and living in a world where we don't have to hunt and gather our food or even use only food to provide us with the necessary nutrients our bodies require.

Ok, that was my rant! On to lighter fare: Does anyone else have a favorite thing they've made that got them a lot of mileage during the week? I'm always open to suggestions =)

I also made oatmeal-apple-cinnamon muffins this week, so I'll be blogging about that soon! They disapeared in 3 days and a second batch was requested, so there may be a comparison batch coming to pass too! I'm also considering making them in oatmeal bar form =)

xoxo
Jules

"The coldest winter I ever spent was a summer in San Fransisco"-Mark Twain

We'll get back to that.

This picture does no justice to what we had for dinner the night after we said goodbye to Yosemite National Park (it was a sad, sad parting).

We stayed in a sweet little town called Healdsburg and we arrived at about 8:45pm on Thursday night. We were fish out of water here and surprised that everything closed at 9pm! We quickly ducked into the Healdsburg bar and grill where the menu looked so uninspiring! Burgers, chicken wings, falafel?

We decided to order the tuna sandwich and garden salad to share. I was so pleasantly surprised to find that the rare, seared tuna on my sandwich was accompanied by a delicious garnish, aioli and a wonton cracker between the bread. The garden salad was also fancy schmancy with pieces of broccoli and cauliflower and tomato chopped very finely all in a large bowl with a mustardy dressing!

Day 5 of the trip was devoted entirely to wining, dining and wheeling. Yes, we decided to bike to the wineries after breakfast and before lunch. I can see how saying it that way already makes it sound like a bad idea!

The wineries were all beautiful, some having lakes, picnic areas, beautiful stone wall interiors....we couldn't get enough! Really.

We started out with a 2 for 1 tasting at a winery with big plans to only go to two more and share tastings. Our neighbors in tasting here tipped us off that one of the wineries on our way was a "must-see". We didn't resist that. Our tally was now up to three more wineries, all shared tastings.

After the first winery, we felt great. At the second winery, we discovered that our Visa card got us free tastings. "Why share?" we thought. Now bike riding was a little more strenuous. As we biked down quiet country roads to our third stop we enjoyed feeling the wind in our faces and watching all the pretty scenery go by. The third winery had free tastings altogether. We didn't even discuss the possibility of sharing.

Yes, at 1oz/pour I had approximately 18oz before lunch (3 glasses!). A small bike-related incident and a less-small bruise ensued. Boo. It was time for lunch. Or was it? Nope, it was time for one last tasting. We had another 2 for 1 coupon. It's so hard to turn down free wine (I did no such thing).

Our completely inadequate lunch included jerky (sweet chipotle beef and cilantro basil turkey!) with Doctor Kracker (c'mon we HAD to get these!) cheddar/pumpkin seed crackers and a 1/2 loaf of pumpkin seed bread. There were fruit items as well.



Sigh, that was it, we were on our way to San Fransisco. Goodbye Sonoma! (We took home a package of the jerky and the most amazing dried mangos I've ever tasted!)

By the time we got into SF, it was already time for dinner! And apparently, winter. I felt like I was more in the mood for turkey and stuffing than bay scallops and crab as I huddled even closer into my sweater. It would be cold and foggy and gloomy every day while we were there, and apparently we should have been prepared because, as one San Fransiscan put it "we only get one week of summer here, and it looks like you missed it". =(

We walked around (again at 9pm) and found few options. Then, we heard jazz music and wound our way down to an alleyway full of french restaurants! We ate at the one with the jazz music (I just love female vocalists!)

We ordered escargot (prerequisite) that came in a butter sauce topped with a bit of puff pastry, a shrimp casserole dish and a seared Ahi Tuna (yes, again). It was delicious. So was the creme brulee we shared at the end. Can you see how this vacation is getting more and more decadent? =)

The next day we grabbed some hotel breakfast and headed to the airport to change our tickets in the face of Hurricane Irene. Our flight was canceled and the options they presented us were pretty disheartening. Finally we were offered a flight to Baltimore a day and a half later than our original departure. Having no other choice, we spent the day walking, walking, walking (about 4 miles altogether) around the Bay area of SF. We found ourselves a touristy seafood place, ordered unwisely and weren't impressed. We WERE, however, amazed by a fruit display we saw along the pier and couldn't resist having some strawberries (they looked airbrushed!), a peach an a plum. (Is this the cutest pic ever or what?)

After even MORE walking we found ourselves ready to eat dinner and retire. We walked around and accidentally found ourselves in Little Italy.

Now, I'm going to commit heresy: I don't really like to go out for Italian food. I'm not afraid to admit that I find it somewhat monotonous and very heavy. But we were in the market for a cioppino that night and little Italy DID look promising for that.

We looked and looked and nothing had it. On a complete whim I peeked into a place with a green awning called Cafe Sport. Of course, I was expecting a sports bar but what we found was this place. A restaurant completely overflowing with kitch but looking so adorable and hey, selling cioppino!

This isn't an actual picture of our cioppino (it was too dark) but it's pretty close. It's a big red mess of seafood stewed in salsa and served with PLENTY of bread to mop up the sauce!

We also had a glass of wine apiece and a tiramisu to finish up. Mmmmm.....I walked (waddled!) home feeling stuffed and totally happy!

We woke up the next day preparing to walk again. This time, we had an approximately 6 mile route planned! We needed to fuel up! This crepe (thanks google image, it looks exactly like it!) was shared (unequally) besides a little market in a tiny little stand with red-tableclothed tables! So cute!

The best part? We discovered the pluout. Yes, if a plum and an apricot had a baby, this is what you would get. All joking aside, the varietal name for this fruit is the Flavor Grenade. And it's completely accurate. At $2.50/lb these things did not come cheap, but they were worth that and more anyway!

I carried these babies with me for to days, having one with every meal. Yummmmm!

Finally, to completely top my slide into food-related recklessness, we ended our last night of vacation in a completely divey-looking place called Pier 23 that had a great little heated (a must!) patio with jazz playing. We got some pull and eat shrimp and to top it off had this delicious, rich, mayonnaise-smothered crab and shrimp sandwich with a side of sweet potato fries. No dessert was necessary here. I anticipated having to pay dearly for these three days of no-holds-barred eating and knowing that the next day was going to be spent in an airport made that easy.

Well, this post came out too long to go into the baked fish and definitely I will save my newest muffin creation for next time. I hope this wasn't too tedious. I'll be cooking things up again now that I'm home for a while!

xoxo
Dr. Jules

Beware, this is a monster post. In fact, I'm going to split it in 2 so I don't overwhelm anyone!

Well, I finally got washed back into NYC at 2am on Tuesday via air (San Fransisco -->Atlanta --> Baltimore) and car (Baltimore --> NYC). The original plan was to get back Sunday morning via air (SF --> NYC) and minimal fuss. Unfortunately, Hurricane Irene ruined all of that and we spent $500 (!!) between accomodations for 2 extra nights in San Fransisco (but only 1 extra vacation day!) and a car rental. Luckily we had a hitchhiker of sorts to split some of the car cost with us. I even made it to work, missing only 1 day. 

For the readers who live on the East Coast, I hope everyone and their families and belongings are safe and in one piece! 

Anyway, now that everything has gone more or less back to normal, I will have to start cooking again. SIGH!! Man, spending a week eating amazingly fresh, local, organic, real whole food has been absolutely wonderful. The scale did not even object this morning. No surprise there of course, since our vacation featured enough walking, hiking, scaling and biking to make my daily workouts seem tame in comparison. Yes, we need a vacation from our vacation!

Our week started by a drive through San Fransisco and straight out to Sonoma on Monday. We went right to the first pretty winery that was described in our guidebook and just inhaled two wine tastings and this wonderful lunch. An antipasto plate with cheese and pork (for Boyfriend) and some really fresh artichoke salad and a delicious baguette. Along with a shared glass of Chardonnay.



A note on the wine tastings: when we didn't get 2 for the price of 1 (this happened twice) or had free wine tastings (once) we either had 1 tasting each and shared each taste (thus tasting many more wines for the same price and volume) or just shared one tasting (especially useful when biking/driving).

We then walked all around the little village of Sonoma, bought some trinkets and had a small dinner at a Portugese place. We shared a little plate of tapas (these are spiced almonds, sardines, anchovy pate, chorizo and roasted octopus)

And a sea bass filet. Mmmmm..... Just the garnish (corn and kale?) under the fish tasted fresh and straight from some nearby farm. This is an actual picture of our plate, no google-imaging this time!

Then we went to Sonoma Market to shop for our next adventure: Yosemite!

The market was absurd. I could have literally lived there. Besides the intense selection of cheeses (esp the local ones!) there were olives galore, increadibly cheap wine and bulk bins full of delicious trail mixes and dried mangos that put anything I've bought in NYC to shame.

We then drove out to the middle of nowhere where we spent a night before heading out to Yosemite National Park. It was a 2 hour drive right through the most breathtaking scenery as the morning fog was lifting. We wanted to be in super-early in order to start our Practice Hike (9.4 miles!) up to Yosemite Point. It was a straight 4.2 mile climb up narrow little rock stairs to the top of a waterfall. Once we got to the top there were big pools there where people were swimming. We were NOT wearing bathing suits =( =(

We brought with us 1/2 lb turkey + a block of locally made Jack cheese and a REALLY buttery Dutch crunch bread as well as a roasted pepper tampenade. Here they are,  heading right into my belly atop of Yosemite Falls!  We then proceeded upwards to another summit and got a view of the Half Dome (actually more like 3/4 Dome!) which we would be climbing the next day.

Actually to climb this thing you need a permit. These get completely sold out months ahead of time and our only hope was to get one when they started putting out cancellations at 7am the previous morning (we managed to snag one!). The other thing you need is a lot of cajones because it's a 14.2 mile hike (7.1miles straight uphill) with some majorly steep stuff and the cables that are simply terrifying. But we definitely did it.

Hmmm....it's a LOT steeper than it looks in the picture!

When we finally got up 6 gruelling hours later we saw the most incredible views and got to perch with our lunch (too sad to take pictures of: super processed stuff that we figured would hold up best for 6 hours of hiking in the sun) on top of these crazy cliffs. we had to fight off some squirrels though, who would have thought they'd be up here?

I think Boyfriend nearly had a heart attack with some of my antics! That tiny little dot on top of the rock is me.

We even met some girls from Boston who were kind enough to share some champagne with us when we got DOWN the cables (this was actually much scarier and I even took a slip which really got my heart pounding!).

After the Half Dome hike we got some wine, some hummus, cheese, carrots, some crackers (cheddar cheese and pumpkin seed crackers were ahhh-mazing!), more jerky and mustard and had a picnic under the stars. Of course, living in the city that never sleeps we almost never get to see real stars, so this was just fantastic. It looked like someone had sprinkled powdered sugar up there!

Day 3 was an "easy" day. We started by climbing all over the Bridalveil fall to the amazement of some families down at the bottom who ogled Boyfriend and I while we scrambled the boulders up to almost the top of the falls.

We finished up our day by seeing the huge sequoia trees (seeing=hugging) and taking a look at El Cap, the most absurd climbing wall ever. Lunch continued to be a sad little affair of left over cheese/meat/jerky/crackers. Clearly our culinary adventures had to wait for Sonoma/San Fransisco again =)





I will leave those for the next post also. There are fewer pictures because we spent our time on bikes and then walking through foggy, gloomy, flipping COLD San Fransisco. You hear that West Coast? Your weather isn't all that after all!

Tonight I am defrosting my dad's cod, baking that up along with some microwaved Bird's Eye Chef's favorites risotto for an easy dinner after my first workout in 8 days. I have full confidence that we will be going to sleep before 10pm tonight.

Hope everyone had a great (and yummy!) week!

Yes, week. Russians love birthdays and they love to make big deals out of them, so I've had myself a looong birthday celebration =) Before the birthday celebration, there were many salads. Kind of a slim-down before the fattening-up.

The mushroom salad:
3 rehydrated giant shitake mushrooms, sliced, sauteed
Handful of baby carrots, chopped
Cucumber
Red Pepper
Greens
1 piece of toasted whole wheat bread, torn (poor woman's croutons?)
Wasaabi Dijon Dressing Lite (mmm, tangy!)

Also on salad: hot salt. Salt with a kick. =)

There were also some scavenging lunches. We are heading out to San Fransisco, Sonoma Valley and Yosemite Park tomorrow so there were some efforts to clean out the fridge. Here is a charming little lunch of a tomato, the rest of the baby carrots with some BBQ sauce as dip, two wasa crisps with the last of our salsa, a little cup of kidney beans (in the middle) with nutritional yeast on top and finally the remainder of some kale chips I made one night. For dessert: the last yogurt-strawberry cheesecake.

A note: nutritional yeast is amazing, I don't know why I didn't buy it sooner or use it more often now. It's kind of cheesy, kind of bready....kind of delicious when sprinkled on top of stuff!

Here's a really messy ugly egg-white omelet (remainder of egg-beaters), rehydrated shitake mushrooms, last of the turkey bacon and some salsa. Sitting on the bottom there is actually a piece of bread that was supposed to add crunch but just added 40 calories and a some taste.

Actually, this was completely delicious and only came out to about 250 cals! Very filling.

Also, it helped that it was on such a pretty plate! =)

And finally, when the food ran out, and my willpower to eat healthy did too, there was the deli lunch. Sushi, cauliflower, kim chi, fake shrimp, calamari and some bean sprouts. Maybe this was healthy, but it's doubtful. It was certainly tasty though!

And now, for the birthday festivities. I chose Morimoto, the yummiest Japanese Modern Cuisine restaurant run by Iron Chef Morimoto. I went with the Parents and the Boyfriend, who better to spend a birthday with? The decor is amazing and the food was spectacular! I started off with a cucumber/wasabi saketini and we got some tempura rock shrimp, a salmon ravioli (the picture with the foam) and I got a roll of Uni for apps. Uni is sea urchin and while I've been told on numerous occasions that I had to try it, I was completely unimpressed.

I was, however incredibly impressed by the sea bass, shown here. It was buttery and served on a delicious broth. Unfortunately, 1/4 of a bottle of wine later, I couldn't remember what the vegetables underneath looked like.

We also got the famous Morimoto Duck Duck Duck. A trio of duck with a duck confit (?), a duck breast sliced on a roll with foie gras (not apparently) and a duck egg. It was tasty, but not overwhelming.

But oh my goodness, the star of this meal was the dessert. This is surprising since it's not a dessert restaurant but this was so delicious and rick and beautiful that it was perfect. Served with a candle for me to blow out =)

This is a good shot of it, it had popcorn, the rich dark chocolate cake, ice cream, fruit and ours even had some flowers on it to make it look just like an exotic garden.

All in all, a wonderful birthday =)

The birthday week did continue with a dinner at El Paso Taqueria (medium upscale Mexican) for my friends and party time for a joint birthday party on a rooftop. It rained cats and dogs right before the dinner and everyone arrived soaking wet. By the end of dinner (lots of sangria, a fish taco platter and bites from everyone else's dishes later) the rain had stopped and we enjoyed a beautiful night overlooking harlem. There were lots of people, lots more sangria and mini-cupcakes. I had 4. It was decadent. That was two days ago. I've been doing some serious calorie cutbacks for the weekend in anticipation of a delicious vacation. Hopefully I'll either blog from there or come back with great pictures of food, wine, hiking etc etc. Expect a very picture heavy post coming up!

Adios!
xoxo
Dr. Jules

As part of Foodbuzz, I get emails now and then asking if I'd like to receive a sample of food from a company, try it and blog about it. One of the companies I signed up for is Bird's Eye. If that doesn't sound familiar to you, it should. Probably up to half of the frozen vegetables and steamed sides you see in your grocery store freezer come directly or indirectly from them.

The sides were of the Lightly Sauced variety: Creamed Spinach (90 cals/2.5 servings per bag), Green Beans and Potatoes in Garlic Parmesan, Primavera Risotto and Mushroom and Green Beans Risotto. I was pretty excited but kind of figured they'd want to see something a little more than just using them as a side.

I had just recently had a meal of sushi with my dad and so, not being in the mood for rice, I chose to use the potato and the spinach packages.

I got the packages right before I headed to the gym so I had plenty of time to figure out what to do with frozen sides and came up with this: Bird's Eye Creamed Spinach (with turkey bacon) on top of Cauliflower Pizza.

Pretty simple, folks. I used the Cauliflower Pizza Recipe (though I used 3 servings of fat free cheddar and 2 servings of reduced fat Weight Watchers Mexican Cheese blend (this stuff is so good!). Also I think it took longer to bake this time, and I broiled it for longer too!

While the crust was cooking I microwaved the Lightly Sauced Cream Spinach according to the package instructions (5 minutes? 4?) and set it aside to taste. Pretty good, guys at Bird's Eye! Still I added just a bit of salt, a bit of pepper and some garlic powder. Sorry for the picture, but I challenge you to show me an appealing picture of creamed spinach! At least the paisley bowl is pretty =)

I did decide at the last minute to microwave 3 slices of extra lean turkey bacon (at 25cals/2 slices!) and chop it up into the spinach. Bacon makes EVERYTHING better!

I stirred it all together and tasted again. Mmmm......

Since the pizza crust took a little longer than I thought it would, I also decided to microwave the Lightly Sauced Potatoes and Green Beans with Olive Oil and Parmesan Sauce to serve as a side. I would have loved to do something fun with this too, but it's one of those sides that just does best as a side.

All together, these 2 slices of "pizza" came out to 210 cals (70 cals/slice + 72 cals or so for 1/3 of the spinach packet) and the side of potatoes (split unevenly, of course) was about 120 cals for mine? So this plate of food came out to under 400 cals.

Most unfortunately, despite the fact that these Lightly Sauced Steamer Sides are right up my alley (less than 200 cals/serving, 2 servings/bag), they arrived at my door completely thawed and at room temperature. I knew that before I cooked them and certainly before I served them to Boyfriend, I would have to be extremely sure that they were still viable. So, Bird's Eye, if you are reading this, the sides look great, but next time, send them with an ice pack.




Unfortunately, while the Creamed Spinach was pretty great, and I forsee it having a place in my freezer, the Potatoes and Green Beans had a somewhat tangy taste that I could not be sure wasn't attributable to it's thawed state upon arrival. Therefore, this side went largely uneaten. =(
As for the risottos, because they are cream based, I do worry about them but will give them a go in the microwave and see if they're ok in the near future!

Thanks, Bird's Eye for sending me these sides. The Spinach was great but I can't give my opinion on the Potatoes and Green Beans. I will say this though, I really like the idea of these Lightly Sauced sides. In fact, while the calorie count remained fairly low (and the portion size relatively large!) there was more than enough sauce to go around and I didn't feel deprived at all!

The pizza only required half of the giant head of cauliflower I had and I almost regretted buying a head instead of a bag of frozen florets. That was until I made the simplest, easiest and oh-so-yummy cauliflower puree!

Ingredients: 1/3 head of cauliflower + 1/4-1/3 cup vegetable oil (no salt added) + S+P + cumin.
Directions: Steam cauliflower. Blend it with remainder of ingredients. Done.
I topped it with dried Nori (seaweed) which is not a common ingredient. I ate half of it without the nori (it didn't fit in the ramekin, so I ate it with a spoon from the blender!) and it tasted just fine. Probably with the simple addition of a bit of egg white or some bread crumbs (?) this would make a great dip! Anyway, it was delicious and perfect for eating slowly on a rainy afternoon!

Lastly, this week has been insane and I've been going out a lot (and therefore, sleeping very little). I'm excited that I've now spent 3 nights in a row at home and in bed at the reasonable hour of midnight. It's actually my birthday today, so tonight will include a fancy-schmancy dinner with the Parents and the Boyfriend and I will be throwing a party on Friday. Soon after, we will be flying out to San Fransisco to visit Sonoma Valley and Yosemite National Park. We will spend a total of only 1 day and 2 evenings in San Fransisco, 2 days/1 night in Sonoma and 3 full, glorious days in Yosemite Park! I fully intend to get one more post in before I leave (will feature some salads and some

That should have been the title of my last post!
Well, since this post contains cooking with egg whites and grocery shopping, it still works!

Actually, I'm pretty proud of myself lately, I've been working with the groceries/freezer items on hand a lot lately instead of buying more stuff. A few weeks ago BFM (Boyfriend's Mom) dropped off a couple frozen tilapia filets and I haven't had a chance to use them since we've had plenty of FRESHLY CAUGHT FISH (!) to work with.

Anyway we were all out of fresh fish and sick of eating poultry, so I defrosted these 3 tilapia filets in a shallow dish with egg whites.

To add flavor: 1 part balsamic vinegar, 1 part low sodium soy sauce 1 good squirt wasabi mustard.

I whisked (spooned?) this together to create a nice thickish liquid which I poured in the marinade. I swirled the fish around in it and let it stand for another twenty minutes.

While the fish was defrosting/marinating I put together our rice side.
Ingredients (from 12 oclock)
1/2 cup wild rice
1 small shallot, chopped
6 rehydrated shitake mushrooms (stems removed), chopped
1 cup liquid that the mushrooms had rehydrated in.

First, I sauteed the shallot until it was translucent and beginning to brown. I added the mushrooms, sauteed for a bit and let stand.

Then I brought the mushroom liquid to a boil and dropped in the rice. I closed the lid on the pot and let that simmer for a while. Eventually I had to add up to a 1/2 cup water. I added it a little at a time as I saw the rice drying out.

A few mins before the rice was tender, I dropped in the mushrooms and sauteed shallots.

The rice was well underway so I started to swirl the tilapias in a shallow dish filled with panko bread crumbs and black sesame seeds.

The coating didn't stick THAT well so sometimes I used my hands.

I cooked the fish on a pan with Pam, 3 minutes on each side. Medium heat. Easy peasy.

The most important thing to remember when cooking a white fish is that you have to sometimes break apart the filet to see what's inside.

What you want: a flaky, super-white flesh
Raw: tan glistening flash. Doesn't come away easily

Finally, they opened up a supermarket near us called Fairway. It's supposed to be all the range with organic this-and that but honestly, I'd rather it be a Trader Joes.

Anyway I did go and picked up all this: kale, two types of shredded cheese, 4 yogurts, 4 "100-calorie cheesecake yogurt" snacks, liquid smoke, bunches of lettuce, string beans, carrots, a shallot, lavash bread, grapefruit and I"m sure something else.It all came out to $40. Maybe this place is more awesome than I thought!

Ok time to sign off and head for bed!
Goodnight!
xoxo
Dr. Jules

It translates to Breakfast of Champions. This breakfast hit all the major things I look for in a breakfast. It was 1) easy to make (10-15 mins? Ingredients can even be mixed before hand to save 5 mins) 2) took care of protein, carbs and even a little fat and 3) used leftovers from last night.

It actually started out more like this -->

I had leftover portabello mushrooms from my Colombian dining experience and decided to throw them on top of some egg whites (with S+ lots of P).

I sprayed a pan with Pam,
waited until it got hot (this is SUCH a key step, one that I didn't follow before and always ended up with scrambles!) and threw on the egg whites (actually this was 1 full egg and 1.5 servings of Egg Beaters 100% Liquid Egg Whites)

I also tossed this La Tortilla Factory huge 100 calorie tortilla in the oven at 400 degrees for as long as it took for the omelet to cook. When it came out, the omelet stood in the pan to cool and I spread a Laughing Cow Light Cheese Wedge on top of the tortilla and then eventually slid the omelet right up top. Finally, I topped it with some arugula, folded it over and cut it into 3 (big mistake, if you cut it into 2, the tortilla stays together!)

This was AMAZINGLY satisfying and warm and so so tasty!

It was soooooo good, that I decided to do it again! This time, I made a his and hers (Sunday morning!) and Boyfriend was as big a fan as I was!

These quesedillas hit all three points too! Here's a shot of a chicken breast I marinated and quickly sauteed on Wednesday night (still in the marinade so I guess it was part sautee part steam!).

I had been having the chicken breast in 1/3s in big salads I was taking to work (arugula, 1/2 bell pepper, 1 small cuc, 1/2 big beefsteak tomato, 1/3 chicken breast, 6 Saltine crackers-stolen from the cafeteria and crumbled).I took a salad like this (there's greens on the bottom, I promise) for lunch on Thursday and Friday.

Saturday morning was a light breakfast before a workout and BBQ, so the remaining 1/3 chicken stayed in the fridge.

On Saturday evening I threw about 8 dried shitake mushrooms I got in a huge bulk bag at an Asian store downtown in a tupperware of water.
**These are such an amazing deal, I would recommend that anyone buy a large bag of dried shitake mushrooms**

When I got up in the morning the mushrooms had expanded in a big way and smelled SO GOOD. They even turned the water into what appeared to be a mushroom stock!

(Stay tuned, the mushrooms become leftovers used elsewhere too!)

I love the beefy taste and the hearty texture of these things. I had to cut off the stems because they were just a little too chewy.

Anyway, I took 4 and chopped them up and just heated them up a bit in a pan before combining them with the leftover chicken breast.

This turned out to be quite a lot of stuffing for two quesedillas, but we made short work of them anyway =)

Final Products: His and Hers Breakfast Quesedillas (25-30 minutes total)

His Quesedilla (left)
1/6 chicken breast
2 large chopped rehydrated shitake mushrooms
1 slice munster cheese
2 eggs + 1/2 serving Egg Beaters
1.5-2 tbsp Black Bean and Corn Salsa
S+P
Handful of arugula
All on top of an 8" tortilla (10"?)

Her Quesedilla (right)
1/6 chicken breast
2 large shitakes
1 Laughing Cow Light Cheese Wedge (spread underneath)
3-3.5 servings Egg Beaters 100% Liquid Egg Whites
2 tbsp Black Bean and Corn Salsa
On top of 8-10" tortilla

Eventually I also put a handful of arugula on top and folded it over. This time I cut it into 2 and it was much neater (though with the salsa and chicken it was a little less solid!)
Calorie damage? 100 (tortilla) + 100 (chicken+mushrooms+cheese) + 100 (eggs+salsa) + 50 miscellaneous?
350 calories total. Huge omelet brunch. If I was really serious, I would have put down some sort of potato or grilled veg side and brought it up to 500 for a HUGE brunch! If we were to go out to brunch (in addition to spending a lot of cashola we both would have wound up taking in at least 800 cals for the same amount of food and same level of tastiness!

Great success. The Breakfast Quesedillas will be coming back again and again. The best part is, depending on what you have as leftovers this can change flavors and textures every time you do it!

Finally, that morning I had big plans to do a little workout after a running-heavy week (more on this later too!). Then, halfway to the gym I was convinced to go for a run in the park by Nurse, one of only two people who can tear me away from the treadmill. Well, she's a LOT more hardcore than I am and I wound up following her through 6.5 miles of central park trail. Good grief, I can't believe I actually made it through!

I came home after the run and made this -->

6oz Vanilla Dannon Light n' Fit yogurt
4-5 frozen stawberries
1/2 cup frozen blueberries
1 tbsp chia seeds

Blended and garnished with two handfuls of Kashi Twigs and

Nurse, meanwhile, having plenty of energy left to spare after 6.5 miles went grocery shopping with me then went to an hour of yoga! Unbelievable!

That's it for me tonight. Stay tuned for the results of the grocery shopping and Sunday night's dinner (posted hopefully by Wednesday!)

xoxo
Dr. Jules

Back from a two weekends and one week of splurging with good food, easy rotation and less exercise than usual. I've got several interesting things to share, including a second attempt at Black Bean Brownies, spiked with chipotle, that were better than the first batch, but still are really just palatable.

I'll save the running-related chat for later because I just finished a book called Born to Run that I thought was going to be quite boring but turned out to be educational, inspiring and really quite well written. Instead, I'll tell you about my guilty guilty week and weekend! A friend of mine was in town from California so we went out for dinner in Brooklyn to a Columbian place where I had an empanada and a salad, both of which were fantastic. I also garnished those with 2 glasses of sangria, a good handful of plaintain chips and finished it all off with a Churro (covered in sugar and dipped in a LOT of caramel sauce). The next day involved an amazing grilled peach salad with blackberries, greens and carrots and a panko crusted goat cheese. I didn't leave the table without trying some of Boyfriend's melted brie salad, some of OutOfTownFriend's lobster ravioli and spoonfuls of both tiramisu and profiterole! Yesterday was a barbeque with a friend and his family where I had a burger AND a chicken drumstick, corn and loads of salads. All this topped off with a few Corona Lights and an ice cream! I was hurting this morning from all the decadence of the weekend!

Finally, I decided to give the Black Bean Brownies another go.

Ingredients
Sugar free maple syrup - 3 tbsp
Cocoa powder - 1/4 cup + 2 tbsp
Black beans (salt free)
Chipotle peppers
Egg whites - 1 serving
Vanilla - 1 tbsp
Agave nectar - 2 tbsp
Bananas-2
Sweet and Lo-1

After pureeing everything in a blender you get a nice dark brown mix with a lump or two (that's ok!).

It tasted soooooooo good in raw form, the bowl licking that took place afterwards was almost worth all of the trouble!

Baked at 375 degrees for about 40 minutes on some parchment paper (makes for easier cleanup) in a casserole dish and you get something that looks like this: it's a bit cracked on top and it feels all gooey inside until it cools, but just let it cool and you'll be ok!

Putting it in a little bowl of yogurt and mashing it up DOES give the yogurt a nice kick though. So once again with the BBBs, minimal success, but still good enough to eat =)



Sadly, in addition to coming back to reality in the form of watching what I put into my stomach, it turns out my easier rotation is over after just one week. I'm being pulled in to substitute for another resident who was in the middle of the tough rotation I had just left behind. One more week of hell rotation, here I come =(

It's come time to talk about the fishing trip from the weekend. Clearly I'm still behind, but I'm catching up!

My dad is a very avid fisherman and to prove this, I have a freezer stuffed full of frozen fish: cod and other fish whose species are unknown to me. Every now and then, I am convinced to join my dad on a trip on the boat because it DOES seem fun to spend some time with my dad doing the thing he loves, being out on the boat in the sunshine, having a shot of rum with breakfast... (that last one might be just a Russian pirate thing...).

This time my dad forgot his backpack at home. The backpack had a lot of essentials in it, but the most important thing was a hat! Hours spent in direct sunlight means headwear is a must! Lucky for him, there was a 7/11 nearby and we drove straight there in search of scalp protection for dad. Luckily for ME they only had one hat available. Yes, it was a bright orange hat with pink letters: Jersey Girl. I couldn't have imagined something more amusing. Here's a great shot of me and my dad with our respective hats. =)

Several hours into the fishing trip and I had been the only one in our family to catch a fish. I caught a pretty nicely sized Striper! It wasn't my first time out on the boat, so photographic evidence wasn't taken. Then my dad caught a Link. Also not photographable. Then Boyfriend caught his first fish ever! He fought valiantly with his rod and pulled up THIS beauty!

Sadly we had to rush home immediately after the trip. We were SO rushed, in fact, that my dad forgot to gut the fish for me! Yes indeed, it was almost as if I was bringing my work home with me. I won't go into detail about what that entailed!

Anyway, if you're getting a nice fresh fish at the market or the butchery (fishery?) sometimes I feel like there's really no need to even mask the taste of the fish behind a sauce or strong seasonings. I feel differently with a frozen salmon chunk or a tilapia fillet. With these though, I want the taste of the fish to come through!

Probably what you'll get looks something like this. My strategy is to throw a bunch of olive oil, S+P, lemon pepper seasoning, lemon juice (and zest if you want!) and some garlic powder into a ramekin and mix it together with a pastry brush. Brush the olive oil seasoning liberally on the fish and bake it at 350-375 degrees for about 6-8 minutes on each side (for a thinnish white fish) or more if your fish is thicker (or heavier). It's beautiful and flaky and easy to take right off the bones.

I happen to like eating the skin but you can take it off if you want!

And, for my dad, who requested that his fish be FRIED because it tastes better that way, I did indeed wipe a piece with olive oil and throw it on a non-stick pan with some Pam. Yes, it did taste SOMEWHAT better, but it wasn't as moist and it was a bigger pain to cook (higher maintenance).

As a side note, I only got to eat the tails pictured way up above because all three of these steak-style pieces were devoured by Boyfriend. (That's 2 baked, 1 fried!)

And, as someone who loooooves leftovers (and apparently blurry pictures) I had to make myself some fish tacos.

I've been able to come home for lunch lately (I live only 4 blocks away from the hospital and my easier rotation permits real lunch breaks!) and have made 2 of these great fish taco meals.

I like to divide my tortilla into 4 (this is probably a 10") and load each piece with protein (fish), greens (arugula), a vegetable (cucumber) and a condiment (mustard). I roll them up and eat something in between each piece (a few sunflower seeds, a few pieces of cuc, some bean sprouts, etc). Yummmm!!!!

And for dessert after a SUPER organic fish meal: a mini-apple-pie bowl (Fiber One Honey Clusters cereal on top, probably 1/3 cup plain, unsweetened Kefir, a nice tbsp of Walden Farms caramel sauce and a tbsp of sugar free apple sauce.

Thanks for the pretty pink mini-bowl mom!

I have one more cooking post to put up (black bean brownies, round II + breakfast jars) and then I'll run a post about a great book I've been reading about ultra-running and ultra marathons. It's been really awesome and inspirational and hits a lot of the aspects of nonfiction I love: gripping personal story, science and biology, a relatable topic and pretty impressive writing.

See you soon!
xoxo
Dr. Jules

This is my last post from the hell-rotation days, so hopefully the pictures and quality of instructions will get better from here on out! These were the most amazing stuffed peppers I've ever made. This isn't saying a lot since these are the only stuffed peppers I've ever made! Still, at

Ingredients (makes 2 big servings or 4 little servings)
2 bell peppers (any color, though I suspect actually red would be tastier and prettier!) - 80 cals
2 turkey sausages (I like the spiced sweet ones)- 300 cal
** You can also use any kind of ground meat!**
1.5 or 2 servings of the Veggie Cous Cous (from last post!) - a little less than 300-400 cals
4 slices of lite deli cheese (I used the lite Jarlsberg) - 200 cals
Pam

Halve the pepps like so and take out the seeds inside.
Bake these at 350 degrees for about 15 minutes (or until tender)

While the pepps are baking, spray a pan down with Pam, take the sausage meat out of the casing (or just toss in your ground meat) and break it up as it browns. 4 mins?

Just after the meat begins to brown, toss in your premade Veggie Cous Cous and toss to warm the cous cous.

Now, if you didn't pre-make a giant batch of this like I did (though you should, it was so versatile!), you can go ahead and make it at the same time and then you can just toss the meat in with the cous cous instead. Either way, make sure to really mix the two parts so you get even meat/carb distribution.

If making my Veggie cous cous fresh, use 2 servings cous cous, 1/2 large cucumber, a few handfuls of chopped fresh basil and some little tomatoes halved or cubed. Cook the cous cous as directed but in 1/2 cup unsalted chicken or vegetable stock. Season as you like with S+P, garlic, Italian seasoning, red pepper flakes, etc. I never add oil/butter to mine and it doesn't come out light OR fluffy and is kind of rissoto-y but still tastes great.


*Other ideas to try: ground-anything, using rice or any other grain (bulgur?) instead of the cous cous. Any veggies would do.
Want all vegetarian? No problem. Beef up the grains with tofu or tempeh or portabella mushrooms. Whatever your fave filler-upper is works best here**

Once the protein/grain mixture is warm and the bell peppers are just getting soft stuff them (I mean REALLY jam that mix into the peppers) with the carb/protein mixture until it just peaks over the rim of the peppers. The firmer you pat down the stuffing, the easier it will be to eat (i.e. it wont fall apart!).

Next, put the peppers back in the 350 degree oven for 5-10 minutes to really let the flavors marinate (but watch out that the peppers don't get TOO soft)

Finally, take them out, top each pepper with a slice of deli cheese and stick them into the broiler for that little crisp char (or just wait till the cheese melts in the oven!)

I just wish I had a better shot of what these look like inside. 3/4 of these are beautiful enough to serve to company.

The one on the upper right got a little too burnt in our weirdo oven, but it tasted great. =)

Finally, the damage? 880-980 calories for the whole thing, making each one of these under 250 cals. They were so filling and so delicious and made a very conveniently portable lunch the next day!

As for the pics, well, I guess it just means I'll have to make them again!

Finally, a quick shot of breakfast from later that week.

The Apple Pie Bowl
1 serving Fiber One Honey Clusters (3/4 cup)
4-8oz (I used 6oz) Dannon Light and Fit Vanilla Yogurt
2 heaping tbsp sugar-free apple sauce
2 tsp Walden Farms Caramel Sauce

Tastes JUST like an apple pie but for about 200 calories for a huge bowl (as opposed to over 400 calories for a slice) and amazing nutritional value: dairy (calcium), fiber (cereal), fruit (apples). Chemicals? I imagine the apple sauce and caramel sauce can't be all natural but what the heck, this is YUMMY!