I have turned a corner and there was pesto

I've had a very emotionally draining week this week. Most of it does not need to be mentioned in a public blog for various and sundry reasons. But the big thing I've noticed, going into my ninth week of Weight Watchers (weigh in is tomorrow), is that I have broken the cycle of emotional eating.

Honestly, it's been an emotionally draining year for a whole other set of various and sundry reasons. However, before I started WW, when that awful gnawing feeling in my tummy happened, I would soothe it with a peanut butter fudge shake, first from Sonic, then realizing I could make them cheaper and better (and bigger servings), at home.

In the past week, I have written two papers, taken a final exam, hosted a gathering at my parents' house, sold the car my grandmother gave me, drove said car to Atlanta, saw my in-laws on my own for the first time, saw old friends, got peed on by the friend's kid (it's ok, it didn't smell bad, just made cuddling time a little more moist at the GA Aquarium), had a negative encounter that ended very badly, found out some somewhat bad news from the hubby, had my sewing machine break (again), and threw away a lot of stuff we've been saving for no reason because we didn't know how to let go. The me of four months ago would have immediately brought out the ingredients (because the me four months ago would have already had the blender out as a permanent fixture on the counter) for the milkshake a number of times in the last week. The me of now put the blender away in a cabinet last week when I was decluttering the kitchen and is not particularly interested in getting it out. It's a pain to clean and it's in a high cabinet and I'm only 5'2".

When I was having a low day yesterday, due to exhaustion, dehydration and my depression getting the better of me, I did not eat a super heavy meal at my parents' house that would have made me feel sick. Instead, I went home and ate some carrot sticks and hummus and went to bed. I've heard the phrase "Eat to live, don't live to eat" a lot over the years (people tend to say it to heavy girls a lot). However, I have finally reached that point where I'm eating to live. I plan my meals out as best I can, with much help from the WW iPhone app. I try to make good choices, but I also occasionally splurge and have a burger and fries, but I make good choices later to make up for it. I am by no means perfect, but I certainly feel a lot better about myself now than I did six months ago.

Speaking of feeling better. Here is one of my new favorite recipes that makes me feel good about my food.:

Pesto Genovese

Recipe Type: Appetizer

Author: Tamara Novakovic

Prep time: 15 mins

Total time: 15 mins

Ingredients

• 4 cloves garlic (I love garlic)
• some sea salt
• 3 cups (150 g) fresh basil leaves
• 1/2 cup (50 g) Parmesan cheese
• 1/4 cup (30 g) Pecorino cheese
• 1/3 cup (50 g) walnuts (you can use some other nuts, but walnuts are almost always on sale)
• 7 tbsp (100 ml) olive oil
• pinch of nutmeg

Instructions

1. I took my food processor and ran it with the garlic and some sea salt.
2. I then added the fresh basil leaves and pureed them.
3. I added grated Parmesan cheese and Pecorino cheese with the walnuts (which I used instead of pine nuts because they're way cheaper), a pinch of nutmeg. I pureed everything together and in the end combined it with the olive oil.

Recipe by Honest Cooking at http://honestcooking.com/2011/05/03/italy-pesto-genovese-with-walnuts/

I discovered this recipe courtesy of a friend several weeks ago when I mentioned that I have a massive basil plant that is always full of more leaves than I can handle. I keep a jar of minced garlic in my fridge, and anyone that knows me knows of my love for cheese, so if I don't have parmesean and pecorino, I use more of one or the other or substitute asiago. The beautiful thing about this recipe is that it can be adapted. I add more garlic than the original recipe because I love garlic, but there are people that are not fans. I've marinated chicken breasts in this pesto and cooked it on the grill. My brother has asked for "That Green Chicken" three times since I made it last month.

I'm going to do something big

I'm going to give you my sketti recipe. And here's why: I have joined Weight Watchers and I want to share this great recipe because I'm really excited that something I made already is only 5 points and gives you two or three servings of fruits/veggies per serving of sauce!

Points Value: 5
Servings: 20 1-ladle spoonfuls
Preparation Time: 20 min
Cooking Time: 1.5 hr
Level of Difficulty: Easy


Ingredients
10 clove(s) garlic clove(s) (medium)
2 tsp olive oil
28 oz canned crushed tomatoes
1 cup(s) canned diced tomatoes
3 pound(s) cooked ground beef, 10% fat
2 shallots
1 1/2 cup(s) Carrots
1 1/2 cup(s) vidalia onion(s)
2 cup(s) celery
2 medium green (or yellow or red) pepper(s)
12 oz canned diced tomatoes
1 cup(s) red wine
fresh or dried italian herbs like basil, sage, oregano, red pepper flakes, rosemary, parsley, thyme


Instructions

Sweat veggies until soft. Add crushed and diced tomatos to veggies. Add half a cup of wine and let simmer for 30 minutes to an hour. In another pan, add a tablespoon of olive oil and saute shallots, add the ground beef, brown, drain, add to the sauce. Add herbs. Let simmer for half an hour or more.

Gourmet for pennies

So That Nice Man I Live With and I have been on a bread kick as of late.  I think it's the colder weather, our bodies feel like they need to add some extra layers of fat (as if that were needed).  The problem is, bread at the store is expensive.  My favorite place to get bread in Columbia is rather pricey, considering that there are only two of us and it tends to go bad before the loaf is finished.  We buy our meat at Sam's Club or the commissary in bulk and put it in the deep freezer in the garage in portioned off sizes.  It helps me stay more in control of what I eat when I can only have what has been thawed out and it makes for less waste at meals.  The last time we mass bought meat, one of the items we purchased was a 10 pound tube (yes, really, a tube) of ground beef.  I put the beef in 1 pound portions in zip lock bags (another item we buy in bulk) and put them in the freezer.  Well, it turns out that there are only so many times TNMILW will eat spaghetti and chili.  So this week we started making gourmet hamburgers.  Well, I really like yeasty roll kind of buns, particularly the kind they make at Publix.  Those are not on the Have To Have grocery list.  So I made my own. 

Here is the recipe:

• 2 cups warm milk (110 degrees F/45 degrees C)
• 1/4 cup butter, melted
• 1/4 cup warm water
• 1/4 cup white sugar
• 2 (.25 ounce) packages instant yeast
• 2 teaspoons salt
• 6 cups all-purpose flour, or as needed

1. In a large bowl, stir together the milk, butter, warm water, sugar and yeast. Let stand for about 5 minutes.
2. Mix in the salt, and gradually stir in the flour until you have a soft dough. Divide into 25 pieces, and form into balls. Place on baking sheets so they are 2 to 3 inches apart. Let rise for 20 minutes.
3. Preheat the oven to 375 degrees F (190 degrees C). Bake the rolls for 15 minutes in the preheated oven. Cool slightly, then split them in half horizontally to fill with your favorite burgers. 

 

We paired the burgers with home made raw fries seasoned with kosher salt.  Those were made by using the slicer side of the 4-sided grater and frying in 375 degree canola oil for about three minutes and then set them on a cookie cooling rack to let drain.  That meal would have cost us $30 easily at a gourmet burger joint in town.  Instead, we used things we always keep in the house and had left overs for lunch the next day!

...Ooops?

So I am officially really bad at keeping this blog up to date.  Since I have all of two followers, I'm just going to make this a more food-based blog.

Since February, I've lost 23 pounds.  And most of that has been in the last couple months.  A big part of that has come from eating at home.  At a restaurant, I feel like I'm being wasteful if I don't eat everything on the plate since we're paying for it and restaurant food never tastes good later if you take it home and reheat it.  But at home, we almost always have left-overs that taste as good or better the next day.  My current favorite dish is Sour Cream Porkchops with Vidalia Onions.  The recipe was in a recent issue of Paula Deen's Best Dishes.  I am a huge visual person in terms of picking out food and the cover recipe was bacon pimento mac and cheese.  Really, how could I not pick up that magazine?  Well, the only recipe I have yet to use from that is the pork chop recipe, but I've made it three times in the last month, it's That Good. 

I will eventually make the mac and cheese recipe, but I'm doing so well with the weight loss, I'm going to wait until something sad happens and I'll make it then.  Because that's what we do in the south, we take carb-heavy foods to sad events.  Your grandmama died?  Here's a chicken and cheese casserole with extra fried onions on top.  You lost your job?  Here's some pasta salad.  Or ham.  When my Granny died, we received four hams.  I still love ham, though...

So I'm going to try and make an effort to be more diligent about writing on here.  Up next: Byron's going off Active Duty so we're living on what I make teaching piano lessons for the time being.  What can we do with ten pounds of pork chops, ten pounds of boneless/skinless chicken breasts, five pounds of ground beef, five pounds of frozen green beans, three pounds of bacon, various frozen fruits and veggies, and roughly twenty pounds of rice?  Sounds like a challenge to me!

Here's a picture of the bacon quilted meatloaf I made last week. It smelled deliscious. I've got to work on the meatloaf part a little bit more, though...

Picture courtesy of my brother.