Found Time

Yesterday I found some time. (Does it get anything better than that?) An evening meeting was cancelled leaving me with approximately an hour and a half of time I didn't have to spend in a meeting. Subtract the twenty or so minutes I spent emailing the information I planned to distribute at the meeting and I still had over an hour "free".

So, what did I do? Take a bubble bath, read a magazine, watch TV, mindlessly surf the web? Nope. I made coleslaw. Why? I didn't plan to use my magic free time to make coleslaw, but I had the stuff and I wanted some coleslaw for dinner tonight (Buffalo Chicken Sliders...yum!) So, I made coleslaw.

The real question is, if I had known that was the only extra time I would have, would I have still made coleslaw?

Yeah, probably not.

Alignment

Achieving success is pretty simple. Align your actions with your goals and viola - success.

So, why is it so hard? Why is it that despite my top two goals right being losing weight and sticking to a budget does one little thing keep tripping me up...EVERYDAY!

So, what is my scary, all-powerful nemesis?

Yep, the infamous Starbucks latte. $3.25 each. One a day, six days a week...that's $78 a month.

130 empty calories a day. (Hey, at least it's nonfat milk)

Foiled by the Starbucks a three minute walk from my cube.

Not tomorrow!! Tomorrow, I will be stronger than the latte!

Spam Sushi

Yep, you read that correctly. Spam sushi. The Spam, was, in fact, cooked. But it was dressed up like sushi and sitting on rice.

I went to a Hawaiian restaurant this weekend (Did you know that Hawaiians eat more Spam than anyone else in the world? Yeah, me neither.) and this was on the menu as Spam musubi. Have to confess - I actually like Spam and the musubi was yummy.

Oh Me of Little Faith

In an attempt to cook more and eat more healthfully I pulled a recipe from the latest issue of SELF, but when it came time to actually make dinner I took a good look at the it and was not excited...at all:

Cook 4 oz of flank steak in 1 tsp of olive oil, transfer to plate, saute 2 cups of red cabbage, 1/2 cup of sliced carrots in 1 tsp of olive oil until tender, transfer veggies to plate, drizzle with 1 tsp of sesame oil and 1 tbsp of low-sodium soy sauce.

I was not terribly enthusiastic, where was the flavor? the seasoning? Shouldn't I be marinating the steak? But, it was late and I was hungry, so I just went with it. {Full disclosures, I did toss the veggies with a little rice vinegar between pan and plate.} It was delicious. Color me shocked. And stuffed.

Thanksgiving Turkey......Cake?

A cake that looks like a turkey (see the cakes in the background) is one thing. But a cake shaped and decorated like a roast turkey? I'm all about dessert and have pretty much never met a cake I didn't like, but I just can't get excited about this.

Have a great Thanksgiving!

My Nemesis

I have a confession to make. I have a serious thing for grocery store brownie bites loaded with grocery story frosting. YUM. I could (and have) made myself sick eating these things. I seriously cannot get enough of them. So, in the midst of yet another serious attempt to eat well and reclaim the contents of my closet, what appears in the kitchen at the office today? Yep, you guessed it..... a whole plate of Halloween brownie bites. So far, I resisted, but they'll still be there tomorrow....

High Hopes

Such promise.....

I know "long" is a subjective term, but I don't think it's unreasonable to expect the "Long Lasting Flavor" to last longer than the time it takes to get out of the Target parking lot.

To be fair, it was very tasty for almost a whole minute.

September with SELF Update

Halfway through September and I should be four pounds down. Hmm, not so much, actually, half a pound up.

Last week -

Workout Goals - 5 cardio sessions; 2 strength sessions

Actual - 3 cardio sessions; 1 (incomplete) strength sessions

I wish I could claim some reason for not meeting the workout goals. Unfortunately, it just boils down to a dysfunctional relationship with my alarm clock's snooze button. On the upside, I am managing to keep up with cardio program a little better and I got through two rounds of each strength session group. Next week - going for three of each.

As for the food plan. I can say I did better, but I cannot say I did well. And here in lies the reason why the weight is sticking around. I do claim extenuating circumstances. Twice in the last couple of weeks, my office has been invaded....



Yes, those are authentic French-style eclairs from The French Gourmet Bakery and they are amazing. I am helpless to resist.

(Disclosure - I stole that image from their website. I did take some great pictures of the actual invaders, but the cord to my camera is MIA in the box forest....)

The Glorious Aroma of Waffle Cones

Something very strange is going on in my neighborhood. For the last few days I have been enveloped in the glorious aroma of waffle cones baking while walking down to the park. Since Petey arrived, we have walked down to the park at least twice a day. Starting this weekend as soon as I get within a few blocks of the park it starts; subtly at first, but stronger with every step....the scent of fresh waffle cones. I even took a witness with me last night to make sure I wasn't losing it. Yep, there is was, confirmed by a second person. Waffle Cone Smell. I can't figure out where it's coming from, there is nothing for blocks but houses. Surely, someone isn't making waffle cones all the time in the house....for days?

It's a mystery.

It's also wrecking havoc on my program to fit back in to at least one pair of jeans in my closet.

The Joys of Central Market on a Sunday

During my "unplanned sabbatical", I have carefully avoided Central Market on the weekends. If you can shop in the middle of the afternoon, you should shop in the middle of the afternoon, is my motto. {An aside here, the always impressive meat counter is fantastic on Friday afternoons.}

This morning, however, I found myself needing to go on Sunday. EEEKK. THE WORST day to go to Central Market. It's very crowded, full of food tourists and sample-seekers and generally incredibly aggravating. So, I decided to go early, as close to opening (8:00 a.m.), as I could muster and re-discovered something I'd forgotten. As long as you don't need to buy wine, (it's illegal in Texas to sell alcohol before noon on Sunday) Sunday morning is a great time to visit. The sample stations are just beginning to pop up and yes, there are more people than a typical weekday afternoon, but, most of these people are at least semi-serious foodies; a treasure-trove of ideas for an aspiring foodie, like me. I love to watch what people choose, especially produce I'm not familiar with or ambitious cuts of meat or any seafood. (Beyond already cooked shrimp, I'm pretty much afraid of everything in the seafood department.) Discreetly scoping out their carts will frequently send me backwards in the store to grab something new. Today was no exception, I walked in with a list of eight items and walked out with two bags full of stuff.

Yum!

Stir Fry Update

We didn't have stir fry last night because we didn't have any rice. However, we made it tonight and it was easy and delicious. One word of warning, their Szechuan sauce is HOT!

Died and Gone To Heaven

Tonight is my night to cook. The plan was stir fry. But between chasing puppies around and cleaning up after puppies and a zillion other things, I was having trouble drumming up the enthusiasm for the project. As the afternoon's errands progressed, chances of me actually cooking tonight were dimishing rapidly. By the time I got to the last stop chances were zero and I was planning a trip to Pei Wei. (Hey, Chinese is Chinese and my brother can't complain if I'm paying, right?)

But, as I raced through the produce section I stumbled upon this gift from the grocery gods

It's called the Kit Kitchen (I think) and includes pre-chopped veggies of all kinds to mix and match (sold by weight) as well as chicken, beef and seafood all ready to go and a wide variety of sauces. They also have complete kits for various dishes with recipes ranging from Tortilla Soup to Kung Pao Chicken. I grabbed some chicken, a mixture of veggies and Szechaun sauce. (I'll report back on the results.) Yes, it is more expensive than buying everything whole and chopping it all myself, but that was not going to happen. It is less expensive than two entrees from Pei Wei. Plus, you can experiment with new things in small amounts.

Once again proof that Central Market ROCKS!

Coddling An Egg

Recently, I made a Caesar's salad from scratch. (I know, I know, woo-hoo you made a salad). I've made salad dressing before, not that big a deal, but never Caesar and I made the croutons. The only thing that was a real challenge was coddling the egg for dressing.


Before I found this recipe for authentic Caesar's salad the only place I'd heard coddled eggs mentioned was in 19th century historical fiction. But it didn't sound too hard. After bringing an extremely fresh egg to room temperature (to prevent cracking) place egg in a mug and pour boiling water over the egg until it is submerged. Let sit for exactly one minute. Well, it's not as easy as it sounds.

Egg # 1 - cracked when the boiling water was introduced
Egg # 2 - cracked when I smashed it in to the faucet (why did I have an egg in my hand when I tried to turn on the faucet? ???)
Egg # 3 - success (I think)
Egg #4 - cracked when the boiling water was introduced
Egg # 5 - success

The recipe did say mayonnaise can be substituted for the egg and recommended reducing "some" of the oil olive. Some??? How much is some? I hate ambiguity, especially in cooking.

One tip - do NOT stick your finger in to the mug of boiling water to check on your egg. Use a spoon.


The end result was not spectacular and it was pretty runny, but when the homemade dressing and the bottled dressing (always have a back up plan) were mixed together something quite tasty emerged.

Update: I googled Caesar dressing and every other recipe I found had a lot more ingredients. So much for my "original classic Caesar's salad" recipe.

Spectacular Failure

Just to clarify, this is not going to be a cooking blog. I have a friend who writes a spectacular cooking blog, but prefers a low-profile, so no links in deference to her wishes. I am also a big fan of Smitten Kitchen.

However, I will share some of my more amusing kitchen escapades, which will most likely be the big flops...like this one.

It looked so simple. Low Fat Pepperoni pizza (SELF magazine) - yum. Polenta crust (I love Polenta), veggies, marinara from a jar, grated mozzarella, easy breezy, right? HA!

I will admit I cheated, I did not use low fat mozzarella, or low fat pepperoni either. (Central market cheese and salami) But, other than those two things, I followed the recipe precisely. The only problem was, even after cooking the pizza three times the length of time recommended , I still did not have crust. I had Polenta soup. Threw the whole mess in the trash and had hot dogs for lunch.

I tried again, just so I could email SELF and tell them they sucked. But, a strange thing happened. Even before I hit the three minute mark on the stove, the polenta as much thicker than yesterday. It didn't pour in to the pan, I had to scrape it in and after the prescribed time it was done. The only thing I did differently was to lower the heat more when I had the polenta on the stove. Wacky, but yummy.