Shrinking Daisy

Thanksgiving Madness!

Monday, November 24th, 2008 | Recipe | No Comments

Well, it is time for the holiday that is completely centered around food.  Thanksgiving, more than any other day is about the meal, and I for one love it! I look forward to all of my traditional favorites, and putting a new spin on some of them to wow the family. 

My turkey day strategy is all about balance, I’m making some things lighter, but only when the taste isn’t sacrificed, this meal is really a labor of love, and I want my guests to feel appreciated, but I don’t want to weigh them down with the meal so much that they pass out in a food coma 20 minutes after the pie. 

Here’s what I’m serving:

Whole smoked turkey (seriously people, you cannot improve on a turkey, so lean and so yummy!)

Turkey pan gravy with white wine and mushrooms

Homemade cranberry/apricot sauce (based on a WW recipe)

• 12 oz cranberries fresh
• 1/2 cup dried apricot halves, chopped
• 1/2 cup unsweetened applesauce
• 1/2 cup water
• 1/4 cup orange marmelade

Cook everything together in a big pot until your cranberries pop (keep a lid handy!), this serves 10 with 1/4 cup servings.

Roasted root vegetables, this is not really a recipe, more of a method, cut up 2 potatoes, 2 sweet potatoes, 2 turnips, 3 beets, 3 carrots, 2 onions and whatever other vegetables you want (brussel sprouts are nice) add 2 t olive oil, salt, pepper, sage, parsley, thyme, and toss, roast in a 450 degree oven for 30-45 minutes or until veggies are fork tender and golden (you can do this the day before and reheat with good results!)

Whole wheat sausage and chestnut stuffing (8 servings, based on WW recipe)

• 12 slice(s) whole-wheat bread cubed and let to become stale or dried in 200 degree oven for 1 hour 
• 2 tsp olive oil
• 2 tsp light butter
• 1 cup(s) onion(s), diced
• 3 medium stalk(s) celery, diced
• 8 oz sliced mushrooms
• 2 tsp dried thyme
• 2 tsp dried sage
• 1/2 tsp table salt
• 1/4 tsp black pepper, freshly ground
• 2 cup(s) canned chicken broth
• 4 oz turkey breakfast sausage
• 8 oz chestnuts (you can get the already shelled ones in the produce area of your grocery store)

Preheat oven to 350ºF. Coat a 4-quart shallow baking dish with cooking spray. Meanwhile, in a large skillet over medium-high heat, heat oil and butter together for 1 to 2 minutes. Add onion, mushroom, and celery; sauté until soft, about 3 minutes. Add thyme, sage, salt and pepper. Cook about 1 minute. Transfer onion mixture to a large mixing bowl. Add bread, chestnuts, broth and combine. Bake 20 minutes. Uncover and bake 15 minutes more.

Pumpkin Pie (make it with ff evaporated milk to lighten!)

My guests are contributing rolls, salad, mashed potatoes and green beans to the mix, I’m really excited about the meal, and of course, the company.

Tags: holidays, thanksgiving, weightwatcher recipes

Seize the Season - Pomegranates, CSAs and Soup

Friday, November 14th, 2008 | Recipe | No Comments

One of the things I look forward to most throughout the year is the wonderful fruits and vegetables that peak in each season. I’m always excited when summer rolls around and it seems that mouthwatering produce is everywhere you look. But now it’s almost winter, the tomatoes are yucky, the late apples are everywhere, but more exciting than that is pomegranates!

I love Pomegranates! They’re weird, hard to figure out but full of great nutrients and anti-oxidents, not to mention they taste great! So… what do you do with them? Well, first of all, you have to get into them, it’s really quite easy even if not completely obvious.

1. First, fill a big bowl with water.
2. Then, put the pomegranites in the bowl, submerging completely under water.
3. Third, quarter each fruit with a knife while submerged under water (this avoids spurts of tasty yet possibly staining fruit juice from ruining your favorite sweater)
4. Finally, scrape out seeds with your fingers, the white pith will float to the top of the water discard this, the seeds will sink
5. Load seeds into a container and store in the fridge until you get hungry!

Now that you’ve gotten the good part out of the pomegranate, what do you do with it? First of all, you eat the seeds, (call arils) all of them, it’s kind of like a grapenut with a little burst of juice. I love to eat them straight, they take forever and are great if you’re munchy at work or while watching tv. You can also throw them in yogurt, add them to pancakes, fruit salad, as crunch for salads, and they are traditional in Indian cooking. Have a great time being creative and coming up with your own great pomegranate ideas!

—-beep beep—-beep—beep beep beep—–

This is a public service announcement! Now is the time to sign up for your local Community Supported Agriculture (CSA) Make sure you get in on next year’s program before enrollment is done in your area, and enjoy a year of fresh local foods, while supporting local farming and industry!

While I’d love to claim that I’ll plant and tend to a giant garden of vegetables and fruits, I probably won’t. This is the next best thing. I’ve already gotten on the list, and am anxiously awaiting a 2009 of produce!

Find out about local CSAs in your area by clicking here.

Crockpot Alert!

It’s cold, and rainy. My husband whipped up this weightwatcher friendly soup/stew (originally given to him by our WeightWatcher leader) and it was wonderful and warming on a cold day!

Stuffed Pepper Soup

• 1 pound 93% lean ground beef or turkey
• 28 ounce can diced tomatoes
• 28 ounce can tomato sauce
• 2 cups diced green peppers
• 1/2 cup uncooked rice
• 2 cups water
• 1 cup chopped onions
• 1 can beef broth

Combine all ingredients, add salt, pepper and garlic if you’d like, and throw it in your crockpot. Cook on low 6-8 hours.

Tags: Crock Pot, CSA, Fruit, Pomegranate, recipes, Seasonal Fruit, slow cooker, Soup, weightwatcher recipes, Winter Fruit

Carbmania

Friday, November 14th, 2008 | Food Finds | No Comments

I get so excited when some new product comes along that I haven’t tried yet. I know, I’m a dork but seriously, everybody needs a little motivation to stay excited, a little variety, and these latest carbfull food finds are doing the trick!

Mr. Krispers Rice Krisps - These are for the days when you really need a lot of something! You get 37 (yes, I said 37!) little crispy rice cracker/chip type things for only 120 calories, 3 grams of fat, and 1 gram of fiber. That’s a deal! These were great with some herb cream cheese, and would be a good thing to replace your giant pile of chips with any hummus or dip. The bummer though, is that with only 1 gram of fiber, they don’t keep you going for too long! I found them at my local PriceChopper.

FiberGourmet Macaroni and Cheese - This was totally awesome! I saw this product in the store a few months ago, but it took the review of another blogger to make me give it a try. I am so glad I did! This is the mac and cheese from my childhood, except it’s way better for you, and doesn’t glow with that fake orange powder look! The nutritional profile is outstanding, you get 1 cup of cooked macaroni and cheese for 170 calories, 2 grams of fat, and 18 grams of fiber! This really does keep you satisfied. The only downside is that there are 3 servings in a box (what happened to 4, that’s a nice round leftover friendly number?) Anyway, I picked it up at Hy-Vee, but it’s also available on the company’s website.

Wheat Thin Fiber Selects - I love crackers, but they always leave me wanting more, and a serving is often something ridiculously tiny like 6 crackers (not even worth my time!) Not with the new fiberfull offering from Wheat Thins! I tried the Garden Vegetable with gave me 15 crackers for 120 calories, 4.5 grams of fat, and 5 grams of fiber! These are a big hit with my husband as well, and would be a welcome addition to any holiday cheese and cracker spread. For a fiber filled sweepstakes, click here.

Tags: Chips, Crackers, Fiber, Food Finds, Macaroni and Cheese, Pasta

Provencal Style Slow Cooker Beef Stew

Friday, November 14th, 2008 | Recipe | No Comments

Provencal Style Beef Stew

This is a recipe based on a WeightWatcher crockpot recipe, I made it in my new dutch oven because I was so excited to try it out! To get the same effect, you could brown the meat and veggies in a pan, then throw it all into the crockpot. The stew was a big hit, and it’s been requested that I make it again.

6 Servings (About 1.5 cups each)

• 1 pound(s) lean beef round, cut into 1-inch cubes (London Broil)
• 1 small onion(s), chopped
• 2 cup(s) mushroom(s), sliced
• 2 medium garlic clove(s), minced
• 1 large carrot, sliced
• 2 small turnips cubed (I like them, alternatively, add extra carrots)
• 2 ribs celery sliced
• 15 oz canned cannelini beans, drained and rinsed, divided
• 1 1/2 cups canned beef broth
• 1/2 cup red wine
• 14 1/2 oz canned crushed or diced tomatoes
• 1 tsp herbs de province or (1/2 tsp dried oregano, crushed and 1/4 tsp dried thyme, crushed)
• 1/2 tsp table salt
• 1/4 tsp black pepper

Brown meat in nonstick pan with non-stick spray. Remove and put in crockpot. Brown onions and mushrooms in the same pan with non-stick spray. Add onions, mushrooms, garlic, carrots, turnips, celery, broth, tomatoes, wine, herbs, salt, pepper, and 1/2 of the beans. Mash remaining beans in a bowl or in the blender to form a paste. Add mashed beans to slow cooker (they will thicken the stew). Cook on low 6-8 hours.

Note: To save time in the morning, I often prepare the ingredients for my slow cooker meals the night before, and put them in the crock in the fridge overnight, then just assemble the slow cooker and start it in the morning before work.

Serve with salad or bread and dinner is done!

(nutritional information is based on ingredients I used, your brands may vary)

Tags: beef, crockpot, healthy cooking, round steak, slow cooker, weight loss, weightwatchers

The Big Picture

Friday, November 14th, 2008 | Thoughts | No Comments

Why are we so hard on ourselves? A couple of nights ago, I was working at a WeightWatchers meeting (I work for them part time) and a woman whirled into the door with tears in her eyes and declared, “I am so frustrated! If I don’t lose weight this week that’s it for me!” I asked her what was going on and she said, “It’s been 5 weeks, and I haven’t lost any weight, it’s just so frustrating, I can’t do this.” I told her that in the middle of my weight loss I had stalled out for 6 months. She looked shocked, said “I could never do that!” and ran into the meeting.

After the meeting was over, the same woman snuck back out into the lobby and said, “Ok, how did you last 6 months with out giving up?” I wish that I could have told her that I had been a saint, a model of perfect faith that knew throughout that whole time that everything would work out, and I would eventually reach my goals, but… that just wouldn’t be true! I was just like her, worried, overly focused on the number on the scale, and totally frustrated.

What I told this understandably upset woman was, that 6 months was still going to go by, no matter what, and what path did I want to be on? Really, that’s how I made it through, I kept telling myself that in the big picture, I really had made progress, and that these setbacks while frustrating, will pass. Actually, for me, I didn’t break through that stall until I stopped worrying about it so much. I went on vacation, got a little extra sleep, and that’s how I finally got through the plateau.

The whole encounter made me think… why are we so hard on ourselves? Why do we focus only on the negative, worrying about the number on the scale and forgetting all of the good habits we’ve gained, all the unhealthy things we avoided?

If this is supposed to be a lifelong journey, a balanced healthy way to live your life, then somehow we’ve got to keep the big picture in mind.

Tags: health, weight loss, weightwatchers