Meals after Over Indulging

Saturday I went off the diet, I was in control, I planned it. I have to be fair to David and this is our month of fun, July when he is off. Anyway, I don't need to starve myself for three months.

I do have to get back to the right foods though so on Sunday I ate wonderful, healthy, fabulous foods. I know several competitors who wouldn't dare eat this when they are prepping for a competition, but I can and I do.

I started the day with my usual meal replacement drink, then a protein-carb (1 to 4 ratio) drink after training.

Breakfast was 1 cup egg whites with low sugar ketchup and some hot sauce, then one serving of steel cut oats with splenda and cinnamon.

Lunch #1 as David refers to it (actually meal #3) was this salad. I shredded raw green cabbage, chunks of tomatoes, roasted beets, thick cucumber, raw bell pepper and 4 ounces cubed cooked chicken breast. I tossed it with homemade balsamic vinaigrette (no oil, recipe will be at the bottom).

Dinner was this salad, a modified salad nicoise (my favorite). David made it for me (with my strict direction as he loves his olive oil), he does a great job. We went to the farmers market in the morning and bought it all there.

Thick slices of heirloom tomatoes, chopped green bell pepper, sliced breakfast radishes, sliced cucumber. Then I cooked pasture raised eggs, till the yolk was almost set, and topped it with two of those.

Stacy introduced me to pasture raised eggs. I used to buy organic, these are so much better, even my son can tell the difference and he asks for these ahead of time now to make sure we cook the right ones.

Whole eggs are more calories, about 50 per egg, but I am not drastically reducing calories now, just keeping it all clean, and on an even keel, besides, if you noticed there was no starch in this meal or the other one, when I reduce starch I increase fats.

Whole eggs occasionally are very good for you, in fact, when I am not prepping I will eat them more often, these are creamy, rich and have a fantastic mouth feel. 

Then I had 4 ounces of grilled ahi tuna. Rare, really, really rare. Topped with chopped chives and again, my balsamic vinaigrette, salt and pepper and I was not only satisfied but feeling good.

Had I not been dieting I would have shared David's lunch. These are fresh Monterey sardines, wrapped in grape leaves pulled from our vines out front. He just took them off the BBQ.

Here is the actual meal, looks pretty tasty huh? He oven roasted these cherry tomatoes with olive oil, coarse sea salt, balsamic vinegar, sherry vinegar and fresh thyme. Served with bread to sop up the oils, looks great but just a little to much for me right now, I have a goal in mind.

Then I made the boys a rustic crostada, it is a dough of white flour, white sugar, butter, salt, rolled out and then sprinkled with sugar and cinnamon and a mound of fresh apricots from our backyard is piled on, the entire thing is baked till flaky and golden.

And when it comes out of the oven it is sprinkled with confectioners sugar, and served hot with vanilla ice cream. I went to bed so I didn't have to suffer through the moans and groans of pleasure! ha ha

Vinagrette: Mix to your own taste approximately 1 Tbsp grainy mustard, 1/2 cup balsamic vinegar, 1 tsp splenda, salt and pepper. Keep it on hand always, take it with you when you go out to dinner so you aren't tempted to put any of their dressings on, they are full of oil and garbage! 

New Year's Eve Dinner

We stayed home, too many drunks out there on New Year's, and you know what they say : "Amateur night".

I made a lovely French meal from a book David bought called The Bistros, Brasseries, and Wine Bars of Paris, Everyday Recipes from the Real Paris by Daniel Young.

The meal was light, satisfying, healthy and so delicious.

We love France; the food, the people, the country and traditions are so much as we like to live.

To start we had Steamed Whole Artichokes with Poached Egg and Vinaigrette.

This is a cooked large artichoke, that has had the center leaves and choke removed after cooking, then a poached egg is placed in the center. The yolk is warm and runny.

You pull off the artichoke leaves from the center, which have the warm yolk clinging to them, and dip them in the herb vinaigrette.


Then once you have eaten all the leaves, you have the white of the egg resting on the heart of the artichoke, with some yolk still there. I loved it!

While the vinaigrette has olive oil in it, which is a fat and thus has more calories than a protein or carbohydrate, it is a monounsaturated fat, and it is important to include some in your diet everyday.

Then we had Garlic Soup with Mussels.

You saute garlic in olive oil and the cook mussels in water and white wine. Once the mussels open, the cooking liquid is added to the olive oil/garlic mixture then simmered. Although this soup appears to be creamy, there is no cream. One egg yolk (for 4 servings) is whisked into the soup at the last minute to add richness.

The mussels are removed from their shells. Small toasted rounds of baguette are placed in a shallow bowl, some Gruyere cheese, the mussels and then topped with the hot soup and a sprinkle of Piment d' Espelette, a mild pepper from the Basque region of France.

A wonderful bistro meal, with a little sparkling wine and then a glass of Chateau La Canorgue. If you ever saw the movie "A Good Year" with Russel Crowe, it is the property that he "inherits".

We visited the winery a few years ago, I highly recommend it if you are in that area of France!

I digress. The meal was delicious, healthy and perfectly acceptable for any dietary goals (OK, not if you are prepping for a competition, but then you cannot eat anything!)

Remember, meals can be delicious and healthy, there is no need to suffer just to maintain a healthy body weight and low body fat. 

I went to bed at 8:45 (always thinking about the next day) and was set for a long sleep, the gym didn't open until 7:00 am!  The wind and the cat woke me at 5:30, I was full of energy and feeling good.

It was leg day, but I tweaked my right spinal erector on Friday and it was still a little tight, so I changed it to shoulder day. I had a fantastic workout! Heavy sets, jump rope in between each set, for an hour and 45 minutes. A great long steam and off to tackle the day.

Salad Lyonnaise

One of my favorite salads, Salad Lyonnaise. It can be rather fattening if you order it at a restaurant, but if you make it yourself, it can be quite delicious and good for you at the same time.

Salad Lyonnaise is made with frisee, with a mustard vinaigrette, croutons, lardoons and a poached egg on top. Most people automatically assume a salad is healthy and a great diet choice. Not so, in fact, most restaurant salads are as calorie laden as a cheese burger and just as fattening.

To start with, the salad dressing is always a killer. It is laden with fat and they put way too much on, the greens are almost always swimming in oil.

Croutons are also covered in oil, they are fried!

Lardoons? Those are just long, thick slices of bacon.....

So how do you make this at home so it tastes good and you aren't ruining your diet?

Make your own dressing, but make a white wine mustard vinaigrette:

1/3 cup white wine vinegar
1 Tbsp grainy mustard
1 Tbsp Flax oil
pepper
1 packet splenda

Then, don't fry croutons, but cut some whole grain or ezekiel bread into large squares, bake it in a 400 degree oven, turning occasionally until crisp, 10 minutes. Or toast it and cut it into cubes.

Cut turkey bacon into thick slices, then fry or microwave and drain well.

Toss the frisee with some of the vinaigrette, croutons and lardoons, then top with a poached egg. The egg should still have a warm, runny yolk so that when you cut into it, the warm yolk mixes with the salad greens. Sprinkle on some chopped chives and a couple grindings of pepper.

Delicious!

Steak Salad

I had this for lunch today, it is one of my favorite salads, but I find myself writing about so many other favorite foods, I guess I do enjoy a lot of them!

My husband dubbed this "clean out the fridge salad" today, and I think it was an appropriate term, and there is absolutely nothing wrong with it.

I was craving steak salad yesterday so I pulled some flank steak out of the freezer and had  David quickly grill it while he made dinner. Then I left it in the fridge overnight.

At lunch time I pulled all of my left over cooked vegetables out of the refrigerator and also the fresh ones I was craving.

It is fine to eat as many vegetables as you like, it's the protein and starchy carbs that need to be monitored. So the first thing I do is decide on the starch that I  will use as that needs to be weighed. My girlfriend dropped off some sugar snap peas (yes those are a starch!) and I wanted to use those. I also had a small amount of grilled plain corn that had been cut off the cob.

I would make two salads, one for today and one for tomorrow.

I weighed out 4 ounces of corn  and sugar snap peas (combined together 4 ounces per salad) and put that into each dish. Then I weighed out 4 ounces of cubed steak in each dish. I was then free to fill the dishes up with whatever I wanted!

In went two wedges of grilled radicchio, cut into large julienne, one cucumber cut into large chunks, one cut up tomato, a big handful of cilantro leaves, a couple canned  green Ortega chiles, cubed; a red bell pepper cut in chunks and I tossed it all together.


A generous grinding of black pepper, and fat free vinaigrette (recipe below). As a special treat, I add 2 tablespoons of low fat blue cheese dressing. 2 tablespoons has 70 calories, and adds an amazing amount of richness that compliments the beef and vinegar.

It was huge, I loved it and even with the small amount of blue cheese it was still wonderfully healthy (and I used all the left over vegetables in the fridge!)

Fat Free Balsamic Vinaigrette:
1/2 cup balsamic vinegar
1 Tbsp grainy mustard
1 packet of splenda
a few grindings of pepper

Combine ingredients in a small jar, shake well. Adjust seasonings and use as much as you like!