Part III will come soon. I have lots of jars!
Saturday night certainly turned out well. We went with a couple who lives in our building to the village to see some artsy shows and all felt like we were in college again and we ended on a sweet note. Vinieros. Not sure if you've heard of it, but it's a legendary pastry shop in NYC. We didn't even share. We each got a humongous slice of cake apiece and tried each others. None of the slices were entirely finished but I'm proud to say that I chose exactly what I wanted AND it turned out to be light and wonderful, as opposed to heavy...and wonderful. Still though, that was a LOT of cake, late at night.
Interestingly, when I woke up, the scale didn't seem to take too much notice of the previous night's excess. So off we went to another picnic breakfast. The picnic blanket ALREADY needs a bath and it's not even June! Then off to hot yoga, a bit of a walk and a sticky trip to a bar later to watch the Yankee game. Wings? Waffle Fries? Beer? Yes, yes yes. This morning, the scale finally caught up. Sigh, I was doing pretty pretty well! Actually, I'll be honest, I only had 3 wings, a handful of waffle fries and really filled up on TONS of veggies. But those wings were SO salty, I legitimately feel like a huge bag of water sloshing around from all the retention. Between the two of us, Boyfriend and I drank like 2 gallons of water when we got home!
Advice: If you want to slim down super-fast and noticeably (though maybe temporarily), cut out as much salt from your diet as possible. You'll definitely see a difference.
Not that all this has stopped me from having a very full breakfast (in anticipation of a looong run in the gym). Seeing how I really don't like to exercise, you'd think I'd at least attempt to eat less. Nope. Guess my love of food trumps my dislike of exercise.
A quick note about exercise: I don't like goal-oriented exercise. Give me a hike, skiing, any sort of organized sport or social exercise and suddenly I'm Ms. Fitness. I was actually SUPPOSED to go on a hike today but between others ovesleeping and the weather being hot/humid/ex-rainy, I decided to simply bum around NYC.
But before I start my day, here's the recipe for today. Actually it's a redo of a previous post, but a bit more detailed. I have others on the backburner, but I figure everyone's out and about, I might as well not post the new stuff yet!
Advice: If you want to slim down super-fast and noticeably (though maybe temporarily), cut out as much salt from your diet as possible. You'll definitely see a difference.
Not that all this has stopped me from having a very full breakfast (in anticipation of a looong run in the gym). Seeing how I really don't like to exercise, you'd think I'd at least attempt to eat less. Nope. Guess my love of food trumps my dislike of exercise.
A quick note about exercise: I don't like goal-oriented exercise. Give me a hike, skiing, any sort of organized sport or social exercise and suddenly I'm Ms. Fitness. I was actually SUPPOSED to go on a hike today but between others ovesleeping and the weather being hot/humid/ex-rainy, I decided to simply bum around NYC.
But before I start my day, here's the recipe for today. Actually it's a redo of a previous post, but a bit more detailed. I have others on the backburner, but I figure everyone's out and about, I might as well not post the new stuff yet!
Baba Ganoush-Take II (with pictures)
First, cut of ends of one large eggplant (though I would recommend doing this with two small ones, they are better tasting) and slice in half.
Place on casserole dish with about 1/2 inch of water on the bottom (or an inch, whatever) and liberally salt and pepper both halves.
Bake at 375 degrees for about 40 mins to an hour, or until a knife easily pieces from one end to the other.
First, cut of ends of one large eggplant (though I would recommend doing this with two small ones, they are better tasting) and slice in half.
Place on casserole dish with about 1/2 inch of water on the bottom (or an inch, whatever) and liberally salt and pepper both halves.
Bake at 375 degrees for about 40 mins to an hour, or until a knife easily pieces from one end to the other.
Then the much less fun part. You have to scrape the insides out of the eggplant =(
I always do it when it's hot (in the interest of time, since I cook at night and get sleepy!) so there's sometimes an ouch factor. Still, this isn't as fun as scraping the spaghetti squash.
I always do it when it's hot (in the interest of time, since I cook at night and get sleepy!) so there's sometimes an ouch factor. Still, this isn't as fun as scraping the spaghetti squash.
Then, assemble the ingredients:
1 cup Greek Yogurt (Fage o% is my fave)
1 lemon (zest and juice) + 1 tbsp lemon juice
2 cloves garlic (grated)
Salt, pepper, cumin and paprika to taste (start with liberal helpings of each)
Note: the eggplant is in the clear bowl (second from the right) and what you see in the middle is my FOOD SCALE! This has been magical for me. $20 so well spent.
1 cup Greek Yogurt (Fage o% is my fave)
1 lemon (zest and juice) + 1 tbsp lemon juice
2 cloves garlic (grated)
Salt, pepper, cumin and paprika to taste (start with liberal helpings of each)
Note: the eggplant is in the clear bowl (second from the right) and what you see in the middle is my FOOD SCALE! This has been magical for me. $20 so well spent.
All the ingredients just go together in the blender or food processor bowl.
The grossness of this picture is very sad, because it depreciates the tastiness of the final product. Oh well, there it all is. In the bowl of my food processor.
Check this out: this is my food processor. It's actually a hybrid food processor and immersion blender. I've been in conversation with Serenity who reads my blog (yay!) and who uses her immersion blender to make creamy soups (without cream) and mashed potatoes. This sounds perfect for me but I feel like if I stick this thing into a pot and turn it on, everything will go flying and make SUCH a mess. But she's converting me, day by day and I think that with today's plans turning out to be such a mess and full of errands and the gym, making a nice cool soup might be just what I want. I'm considering a gazpacho vs. a squash soup.
Oops, got side tracked.
Oops, got side tracked.
Here's what I got from the big eggplant and 1 cup of yogurt.
Calories? Eggplant was 500 gm when it went in the oven, 370 gm after being stripped of it's skin and having given up a lot of it's water. I decided to stick with the higher weight so it's about 130-150 cals. The 1 cup yogurt was another 130 cals and I'm thinking that if I was generous with the eggplant, I can just consider the garlic/lemon juice to add only another 20 cals or so. That makes this entire 2 cup jar + about another 6oz (.75 cups) excess baba ganoush to be 300 cals. So....for 1/4 cup (or 4 tbsp) that's about 30 cals. Compare with 90 cals for 2 tbsp of regular Sabra brand Baba Ganoush and I think that the less creamy texture is totally worth it. The taste is pretty similar. If the creaminess is really important, add another bit of yogurt, or just use plain yogurt instead of Greek. This was made on Thursday night, the jar is still almost half full and I've been snacking on it for a while!
Mmmm....volume eating is wonderful.
Calories? Eggplant was 500 gm when it went in the oven, 370 gm after being stripped of it's skin and having given up a lot of it's water. I decided to stick with the higher weight so it's about 130-150 cals. The 1 cup yogurt was another 130 cals and I'm thinking that if I was generous with the eggplant, I can just consider the garlic/lemon juice to add only another 20 cals or so. That makes this entire 2 cup jar + about another 6oz (.75 cups) excess baba ganoush to be 300 cals. So....for 1/4 cup (or 4 tbsp) that's about 30 cals. Compare with 90 cals for 2 tbsp of regular Sabra brand Baba Ganoush and I think that the less creamy texture is totally worth it. The taste is pretty similar. If the creaminess is really important, add another bit of yogurt, or just use plain yogurt instead of Greek. This was made on Thursday night, the jar is still almost half full and I've been snacking on it for a while!
Mmmm....volume eating is wonderful.
Slather the stuff on 4 of these for a great 100 calorie snack.
That's all for me today. Still to come: sesame-panko crusted tilapia (those this isn't news since I am crusting EVERYTHING with panko/sesame lately), corn muffins with bacon (also healthy!) and "not quite creamy" mushrooms and rice. And hopefully, should the immersion blender finally stop scaring me, soup!
That's all for me today. Still to come: sesame-panko crusted tilapia (those this isn't news since I am crusting EVERYTHING with panko/sesame lately), corn muffins with bacon (also healthy!) and "not quite creamy" mushrooms and rice. And hopefully, should the immersion blender finally stop scaring me, soup!
RSS Feed
