To Thine Own Self, Be Food

Because it is a skinny tome, and something easy to read before bedtime, my husband is perusing Michael Pollan's "Food Rules". Here are the ones in particular tonight that he brought to my attention...meaning the point struck well-enough home with him that he was impelled to vocalize it. #46. Stop eating before you are full. #53. Serve a proper portion and don't go back for seconds. Both rules get bandied about a lot these days.  However, it's easier said than done, yes?  I mean, if stopping before I got full was as easy as Pollan's wording seems to indicate, I would be doing it every day, every meal, right?  Same with not going back for seconds. But...as for rule #46, what is full?  For most of us, full is that uncomfortable, undo-the-top-button-of-the-jeans feeling.  Physically speaking, 'full' is certain.  We know what full is.  Pollan suggests we stop eating before we get there.  My husband seems to agree with Pollan, but readily adm...

First of all, there were no supermarket circulars or coupons in this week's paper, which reinforces my desire to steer clear of grocery stores this week.  Remember, I only have $1.75 left to my $400 goal, and it is for emergencies only! I do feel, with a great amount of certainty, that with the shopping and stocking I've been doing the last month, living off the contents of my pantry, freezer, and fridge is most definitely doable.  Also, my birthday is this week, and I will spend one night this week (at least) having dinner bought for me by my adoring husband/children/friends/parents. But, just in case, I've put some safety measures in place: I prepared three pounds of Sloppy Joes today (thank you for the suggestion, Martha).  I froze two and left one in the fridge.  No excuse for not having some semblance of a meal on the table, no matter how tired I am. Also, I updated my freezer/pantry inventories as well...and was pleasantly reminded of the 7 four-cup bag...

Total Spending This Week: $102.64.  Total After Week Four: $398.25   I have a sickness.  I am addicted to buying meat. I tell myself every week that it's not a big deal and that I can stop at any time...but, I can't! In my own pathetic defense, I will say that it was hard to pass up 10 boxes of Hormel Little Sizzlers sausage patties for a buck each.  And, it was hard to pass up the 3-lb bags of frozen chicken breasts for $3.99.  So, that accounted for about $18 dollars of the $27 I spent on meat this week.  The rest of it was lunchmeat and smoked sausage (for which I had a coupon).  One pound of deli-sliced turkey breast cost me $3.74 - too much money, and so I think it's time to take a lunchmeat hiatus. I can't, with any shred of credibility, promise not to buy any meat products this last week in April  But I will try. Some things I'd like to point out as you gaze upon my pie chart. One-third of the pie chart is devoted to dairy and...

I have just set my alarm for 5:45 tomorrow morning. So what, you may ask?  For early-risers like everyone of my dad's generation and backwards, 5:45 is sleeping in... Normally, I awake about 6:10 in the morning.  Yes, that extra 25 minutes makes a difference.  Tomorrow morning, though, will be different. I am rising early to take advantage of One-Day sales at one of my local grocery stores!  And here's what's even better - one of the items is on sale AND I just happen to have a coupon for it as well! Wheeeee!  I must say, these days, it feels good to be excited about something.  It kinda reminds me of last Sunday when my kids all raved about my homemade barbecue sauce.  

Remember I'd finished reading Gary Taubes's "Why We Get Fat" over a week ago?  Turns out that meat could be good and bread could be bad?  Well, I needed more info.  So, I skimmed Dr. Arthur Agatston's South Beach for some information and then I bookmarked Nutrition Data for handy reference. And after all that, I still had no real idea of what exactly I should be eating.  But, to do nothing still makes me part of the problem... I finally decided to limit my carbohydrate intake to under 100 daily.  Also, I wanted to steer clear of foods high on the glycemic index (high in sugars, even natural ones).  Usually, foods high in carbs are high on the glycemic index...but then you get something like carrots, which are good for you, but high in carbs.  Crazy... Monday's weigh-in was 132.6 lbs.  Breakfast was a bowl of oatmeal and a half cup of blueberries - 34g carbs.  And just like that, one-third of my carbs were used up for the day.  And...

My initial challenge was $50 a week, which I achieved easily that first week.  Then, a trip to Costco in the second week set things back considerably.  Now, in week three, I just haven't quite been able to bounce back to my fifty-buck limit.  I have theories, and I realize they'll probably sound like excuses.  :-) 1.  We are in the second full week of spring activities.  Between all three kids, there is soccer six days a week, not to mention board meetings for myself on Mondays, writing group on Tuesdays, and bowling league on Thursdays.  2.  And, being sort of wiped out from my full-time sub job has left me pretty ineffective in the kitchen.  The CrockPot is underused and my meal planning has gone awry.  3.  As a result, it feels like many nights' dinners are slapdash, piecemeal affairs.  Case in point, I had a half-pound of leftover ground turkey in the fridge on Tuesday...Kirby suggested she was in the mood for walking...

Briefly, here is my warehouse shopping biography. Oh, about 7, 8, 9 years ago, we were Sam's Club members when we lived in Minnesota.  Because we had little ones in diapers, that comprised most of our bill.  We bought toilet paper, paper towels, etc., as well...however, we never paid much attention to price.  Stupidly, we assumed if we were buying more, it was costing us less.  Eventually we gave up the membership, because we were spending too much, and we were also preparing to move to Iowa. The next several years passed in relative peace. Sometime in October of last year, I got the warehouse bug again.  Probably because I was tired of seeing Costco every time I went to a big-city shopping mall and probably because I'd picked up the book Fix, Freeze, Feast .  Things had changed now, our diaper-clad children were now voracious eaters, and so it seemed like as good a time as any to join. This time around though, things are different.  I've not g...

First off, I nearly went over my $50 budget by almost three times.  Second off, I'm not going to apologize because I took advantage of some good deals.  Besides, I do have three eaglets here at the nest to feed. Total grocery expenditures this week = $139.46.  Number of stores visited = 3. On Thursday I made a quick stop at one of the local shops for .77 cans of fruit (peaches, cocktail).  My primary thought here was to serve these goodies at dinner time, with my cottage cheese at lunch, or as an after-school snack.  I also stocked up on cottage cheese, going for .99 a tub.  Again, cottage cheese works well here as a dinner side dish - all kids like it.  I froze one tub, thinking maybe to thaw it sometime for a lasagna.  Packages of hot dogs were also going for .79 a package - hard to pass that up.  Not that I'm a big wiener fan (well...), but with summer camping around the corner... Then, today was our monthly trip to the Costco warehous...

Well, if that just doesn't flip conventional medical wisdom on its head, I don't know what will. So I'm reading "Why We Get Fat" by Gary Taubes, right? Chapter 9 is titled "Laws of Adiposity" - much of the first section discusses an experiment conducted by George Wade.  After removing the ovaries from three sets of female lab rats, this is what he found: 1. The rats who were allowed to eat whatever, whenever gained weight and became obese. 2. The rats who were put on a strict post-surgery diet still gained weight and became obese. 3. The rats who were injected with estrogen and left to whatever eating pattern they chose did not grow obese. Obviously, this experiment (with further explanation in the book) linked the presence of estrogen to weight loss/gain.  Taubes goes on to say "estrogen influences an enzyme called lipoprotein lipase (LPL)".  These enzymes pull fat into cells that express a need for it (91).  When there is no estrog...

Okay, I'll admit (don't lose respect for me), I've stopped reading Gary Taubes's "Good Calories, Bad Calories".  While it was a very impressive body of work, it was also very dense, hard to sift through, and just too darn scientific and data-based.  That stuff is important to me, but I already accept the premise...I kept waiting for Taubes to give advice.  And I waited...and waited... However, this girl's got a Plan B.  I picked up Taubes's "Why We Get Fat and What To Do About It",  a recently-published text that I suspect he put out in response to readers like myself who just wanted a super-duper condensed version of GCBC and more tips and advice. Thirty pages in, my expectation is met so far.  Taubes has summarized rather handily the tomes of research that exist regarding obesity, etc...both positive and negative outcomes.  Early on, it's clear that science, public health, government have made mistakes...ones they seem reluctant to...

But I'm pretty darned pleased with my Whole Wheat Buttermilk Pancakes this morning. 2 eggs 1/2 tsp. salt 1/4 c. sugar These I combined in a large bowl.  Then I stirred in: 2 cups of buttermilk and a 1/2 tsp. of baking soda. After that, I added and combined until just all dry ingredients were wet: 1 1/2 tsp. baking powder 2 cups of flour (I s'pose it would be best to use all-purpose, but I used what I had, so I went with a cup of King Arthur Whole Wheat and a cup of rye flour.  Crazy!) Then it was griddle time!   Smiles and second helpings all around today!

Not since September when our family went off restaurant eating have I been faced with any kind of monetary-food challenge...so what better time than now? I subscribe to a blog here that is mostly about being frugal.  The author spends $25 a week on groceries for herself, her husband, and their teenage son.  She reviews all mailings and coupons to get the best deals and stocks up whenever things are dirt-cheap. So, why not this same challenge for me?  I grant you, $25 a week with three growing kids might be an impossible stretch...I'm not looking to deprive anybody of valuable nutrients here.  But...imposing a reasonable dollar amount might be kinda fun. In preparation, I updated my pantry and freezer inventories.  Upon doing this, I discovered that meat is one thing I will probably not need to purchase much of in the month to come - unless, of course, there's a great bargain to be had.  It does appear, though, that frozen vegetables will make the groc...