Carrot and Basil Soup

Since the Easter Bunny has left for another year, I thought you might not know what to do with all the leftover carrots so here is an awesome recipe.  The broth really makes it.  With regular vegetable broth it just tastes like carrots!! Hee hee. Don't get me wrong, I like carrots, but with this broth it is really something special:


Carrot and Basil Soup

1 Tbsp Olive oil

2 Tbsp butter or Earth Balance or Smart Balance

1 Large Vidalia onion, chopped

3 stalks celery

2 medium potatoes, chopped

2 pounds carrots, cut into chunks

6 cups of College Inn Thai Coconut Curry Broth (orig recipe calls for vegetable broth, I like to add a zing!!)

2 tsp ground coriander (optional)

1/4 chopped fresh basil

fresh ground black pepper to taste

Heat oil and butter in large soup pot over medium heat. Sauté onion for 3-4 minutes until slightly softened. Add celery and potatoes, cook for few minutes, then add carrots. Sauté for 3-4 minutes, stirring frequently. Cover, reduce heat to low and "sweat" veggies for 10 minutes. Make sure veggies do not stick to bottom of pot.

Add the broth, bring to a boil and cover and simmer until carrots and potatoes are tender. Let cool slightly.

Use an immersion blender to process until smooth, or put the soup into batches and process in a blender until smooth. Stir in coriander, basil, and pepper to taste.

16 – 1 cup servings at 1 point each

Wine Tasting

My niece, Kim, came to visit and my daughter, Kelsey was home from college over Easter weekend. My niece turned 21 last June and I promised to take her out for a drink and I finally got around to it!! Kelsey was the designated driver.

We did a tasting at Macari and I explained the process to Kim. She did a great job and really liked the wines, as did I.  Here are some of our favorites.

Next stop was

Kelsey ad Kimberly

We sat outside by soon to be blooming vineyards and ate out snacks of Weight Watchers Multi Grain Crisps, Laughing Cow French Onion and Garlic Herb cheeses, blackberries, apple slices, carrots and cucumbers. Yes, you can go wine tasting and still be prepared :) We enjoyed a glass of Chardonnay here. Very delicious.

Onto our final winery, One Woman Winery. Check this winery out on line, http://www.onewomanwines.com/ 

It is an amazing story and she makes truly fantastic wines. I had the Gewurztraminer and Kim had the Chardonnay. It is a bit pricey but well worth it.

This is the tasting shed where her charming and friendly daughter, Gabriella, serves up the wines.

After a fun filled wine tasting tour we ended the day with a little shopping and dinner in the beautiful and quaint town of Greenport.

Girls will be girls.  What a great day!!

Sangria

It wouldn't be a holiday weekend without a little wine......well, actually for me, it wouldn't be any weekend without a little wine ;) I decided to make a nice sangria with a great inexpensive chardonnay, called Barefoot.  Their sparkling wine is really delicious too which you can add to the sangria for a extra taste sensation.

Just cut up your fruitof choice.  In this particular batch I put blackberries, an apple, a peach and some leftover pinapple chunks I had in the fridge with their natural juice. Pour it all together with the wine in a big container and let it sit at least a day.  The riper the fruit the better.  Sometimes I add a little bit of honey. This is so clean and refreshing for a sunny day.

For those of you counting POINTS, a 4 oz glass is 2.  If you eat the fruit count it accordingly.

Action shot (LOL)

Mr. Misto

Since we all need to get some healthy oil in every day as part of a balanced meal plan here is one way that I like to do it. Since olive oil is so good for you, but in moderation, like everything else, I like to be accurate with my measurement.  Weight Watchers recommends 2 teaspoons a day. I figured out a long time ago that I do not like washing oily measuring spoons every darn day, so genius move......I put my salad on the scale, set it for grams and zeroed it out.  I then measured 1 teaspoon of olive oil out and drizzled it over my salad to figure out that it weighs 4 grams.  Now every time I have to measure my oil, whether in a salad or on my toast or english muffin I just put it on the scale.  So easy! Can someone press the EASY button please.  The other day I maade a beautiful salad and was lamenting at the fact that I was going to have mix it all together and ruin the presentation after adding the oil. Here is what I did.

I have a little gadget called MISTO that turns oil into an aerosol. You put it in, pump it up and spray out the oil in a mist. Genius!! I have used this over the years to oil my pans. Well, better late than never, I decided to mist my oil onto my salad.  I set the scale on grams and began misting until it hit 4.  It took several pumps to get it up to 4 grams but then I could eat it without having to mix the oil in.  I had already put the balsamic vinegar on. By the way, I buy the Good Seasons Italian Dressin mix and put it in my cruet with mostly balsmaic vinegar and a little water.  I then add my oil separately for a perfect measurement.

Cactus Pear

I am a huge advocate of always trying new things, so I set out on a quest to find some fruits and vegies I haven't tried yet.  The Weight Watchers Magazine March/April issue inspired me to try my hand at steaming artichokes and when I was shopping I noticed an interesting fruit called a cactus pear, so I bought that too.  Here is my experience;

The magazine said to use a steamer basket and cook on the stove top. Welllll.......I don't have a steamer basket for the stove top but I have a Tupperware microwave steamer so I thought that would work just fine.  I thought WRONG! I managed to burn the crap out of them, stinking up my house in the process.  I do not recommend this!  I will try again over the stove top at a later time.

Now, the cactus pear.  It is called this because of the spiny needles that stick out of it, although most fruits here in the states will have those removed before you purchase them. I understand the cactus part of it, but for the life of me cannot figure out why it is called a pear. Cactus Pomegranate would be more comparable.  Anyway, I had to look up on line how to even cut one of these things.  I get an E for Effort here.  I scored around the outside like it said to peel the skin back, but I guess I scored too deep because all the flesh peeled back leaving a core of red seeds. I tasted the flesh and spit it out.  Reminded me of dirt, or what I think dirt might taste like, having never really tasted dirt.  I tried the seedy part and spit that out too and wrapped it all up, minus the spit,  and put it in the fridge for my husband to try when he got home from work. (He had said he wanted to try it.)

When he got home I presented him with it and he bit into the flesh and said something like, "mmm, not bad".  I asked "Are you kidding?" And he said it tasted a little like unripe melon.  Of course I had to try it again and it did taste like unripe melon.  So the moral of the story here is, if you like unripe melon eat it cold.  If you like dirt, eat it warm.  If you don't like either don't bother spending $.99 a piece for them.

The pictures below show the pear in my fruit bowl whole, and what it looked like cut up on a plate.  Reminds me of raw beef. This will not deter me from trying other interesting things.  You never know what you might like, and it's a little like an adventure.

Suggestion from you

By request I will put points on everything from now on. Thanks for the suggestion. The omelette was only 2 points :) and the oatmeal pancake with blueberries and yogurt is 4 or 5 depending on how much blueberries and yogurt you put on.!  The recipe makes enough for 2 people and they are 3 points each.

Also someone wanted to know where I buy my exercise DVD's.  http://www.collagevideo.com/ except for the Weight Watchers DVD which is available in any meeting room.  You don't have to be a member to purchase it.

Speaking of Weight Watchers their new Blueberry Pie Yogurt is TO DIE FOR!!!! What a treat, oh so yummy!!

Preparation

So let's talk preparation.  No plan is a good plan if you are not prepared, right? A big part of weight loss and weight maintenance is taking the time to plan and prepare healthy meals and snacks.  You know the saying, "Fail to plan, Plan to Fail." Last Sunday me and my hubby spent a few hours chopping, slicing, dicing, portioning, freezing, and cooking.  Call it quality time! 

Fist step, pour yourself a glass of wine!! 

May I suggest a nice California Table Red?

I threw a few balckberries in mine for the sangria effect :)

Second step, turn on some music.  

Third step, put your significant other to work. 

He wanted to know why each brussel sprout

had to have a little X in the bottom. 

Do you  know?

It is so the heat get dispursed to the core of the sprout cooking it evenly with the outside so as not burn the outside leaves. See, learn something new every day ;)

I just put everything out on the counter and went to work.  I cut the bottom round in half and froze half and made a pot roast in the slow cooker with potatoes, carrots, beef broth and onions, oh and garlic.  I put garlic in alomst everything.

First you have to brown the meat and the onions and then put in the cooker topped with broth and vegies.

I washed and chopped the beautiful red, orange and yellow peppers and froze them for things such as omelettes during the weeks ahead.

The huge pack of chicken got seasoned and baked in the same oven as the brussel sprouts.  After the chicken was done, I broiled the sprouts to make them crispy on the outside.  These were rolled in Olive Oil and sprinked with salt , pepper and garlic powder. Oh, yum!

The chicken got frozen for quick meal prep during the week.  We ate good and healthy all week, with little to very easy prep after that.   A little work up front saves so much time and energy later on.  When you have good things available to you it is so much easier to make a healthy choice. Cheers!!!

Breakfast ideas

I am all about variety in my diet and in my exercise.  I get bored very easily. Breakfast seems to be the hardest place to find variety.  Here are two of my favorites.

The first one pictured is a pepper, spinach and cheese omelette.  (I buy peppers in chop them up and freeze them for this purpose.) 

Cook up some peppers and spinach (onions too if you want) in olive oil.

When soft and wilted I pour in Southwestern EggBeaters and cover until almost cooked through
and then flip it over.

Sprinkle in some Kraft fat free cheddar cheese, or cheese of your liking.

Fold over and serve.  It is really good with salsa.

I plated it with strawberries on the side.  The more color you can get the better. This will afford all kinds of vitamins, minerals and antioxidants.  I heard a cute saying on a commercial "Every color, every day." The more you can live  by that the healthier you'll be.

OATMEAL PANCAKES                                  

1/2 cup(s) uncooked quick oats


1/2 cup(s) plain fat-free yogurt

1/2 cup(s) fat-free skim milk

2 medium egg white(s)

1 tsp baking powder

2 tsp ground cinnamon

1/8 cup(s) Hodgson Mill Oat bran flour

1/3 packet(s) Weight Watchers Smoothie Drink Mix French Vanilla (optional)

In medium bowl combine oats, yogurt and milk. Let sit 15-20 minutes.

Beat in egg cinnamon, then the baking powder, flour and smoothie. Stir until moistened. Heat up griddle.

Fry in non-stick griddle, turning when the tops are covered with bubbles and the edges looked cooked.

Smoothie mix is optional but adds a nice flavor.

Serve with syrup, or berries and yogurt.

This is a great way to serve up plain old oatmeal differently.  My favorite way to have this is with blueberries and vanilla chobani  greek yogurt, or weight watchers vanilla yogurt on top. I thaw a cup of frozen blueberries in the microwave for 2 minutes until they are hot and juicy and pour over the top and then add a dollop of yogurt. Can you say YUMMY?

2 more Favorite Workouts

Another Workout DVD combining upper and lower body moves in unique combinations is Weight Watchers Next Move.  This is a wonderful workout if you are short on time since it broken down in to 5 - 20 minute segments.  I find myself doing this one in a pinch all the time.  Any exercise you can do is going to be beneficial. I usually do 2 back to back workouts on this DVD. The Total Body Toning segment is my favorite one.

If you don't have 20 minutes , how about 10?  I just purchased another DVD in the 10 Minute Solution series called Knockout Body. This is a kickboxing workout and you you can combine the workouts in any sequence you want or just do 10 minutes if that's all the time you have.  I really love this one, but I love kickboxing.

As with anything, begin slowly and add on in small increments. The idea is to keep trying things until you find something you really like.  Do you know what the best exercise is for your body?  Answer...........The exercise you will do!!

Enjoy!

Great Workout

Before the sweat cools from my body I wanted to get down my thoughts on a new workout DVD I just tried by THE FIRM called Get Chisl'd. The Firm workouts have been my favorites over the years and I own 30 of them, however anything repeated over time tends to get boring.Variety is very important, especially in workouts not only to avoid boredom but also to challenge your body. As a Personal Trainer and Group Fitness Instructor I was always challenged to come up with new ideas since there are only certain exercises that work certain muscles in certain ways. I am a believer in work smarter not harder and continually tried to figure out ways to combine upper body moves with lower body moves to maximize the time spent exercising.

This DVD certainly fills that bill. There were moves on here that were very original and certainly refreshing to me. Upper body moves combined with lower body moves with balance challenges interspersed. There were also short "power bursts" raising your heart rate to provide interval training. Interval Training is great for fat burning. Even the abdominal floor work at the end combined some unique upper body moves moves.

This DVD is an intermediate or advanced level, but there is someone on there showing a beginner level, with no weights and no power bursts. The total time including warm up and cool down and final stretch was about 42 minutes. I find that as I get older I like to keep my intense workouts around 45 minutes and then supplement with walking, biking, hiking and other activities I enjoy.

This workout is definately going to be one of my favorites.

Obscene Portion of Carrot cake

So, my daughter, Kelsey,comes home from college for a few days and all my good intentions fly out the window. We went out to dinner at Charlie Brown's. All was A-O.K. I had the salad bar making all good choices, and had the appetizer crab cakes of which I ate one of two and took the other home. The waitress asks if we want dessert. I don't but Kelsey and my husband, Neil do, but they are full and want to bring it home. >Sigh<. I made it through dinner and now they are bringing home dessert, temptation #2. Not only that but Kelsey gets carrot cake, my favorite. I suppose that if it had been a "normal" slice of carrot cake I would not have been tempted to indulge, after all it was HER dessert, not mine. But what do we find when we open the styrofoam to-go container? A slab of cake large enough to feed a small family. When you look at the photo imagine just the top 2 layers on a plate and that alone would have been a huge serving. 1/12th of a 9" carrot cake is 16 Points on Weight Watchers. So just the top 2 layers of that cake had to be at least 20 points. Times that by 2.5 and that whole piece of cake was 50 points. (maybe even more). I weighed it on my scale and it was 16.30 oz. I weighed the styrofoam container later and it was .30 oz. That was a 1 POUND piece of carrot cake with cream cheese frosting. Kelsey put the cell phone in the picture to try to show the size of this enormous thing. OK, so I ate the bottom 2 layers since it had less frosting. Was it worth 20 points you ask? You betcha!!!! Everything in moderation :)

Tilapia for Lunch

I found another great food in Sam's Club. Just like the Tuna Steaks they sell all types of frozen fish individually shrink wrapped into portion sizes and frozen. The Treasures of the Sea Tilapia fillets are 110 calories each for 4 oz. I cooked up some garlic and fresh baby spinach in 1 teaspoon of olive oil and then put the fish sprinkled with a little salmon seasoning blend in the same pan, covered it, let it cook for about 1-2 minutes on medium, flipped it for another minute and had a beautiful lunch. I am home most afternoons since I work mornings and evenings, so if you can't do this for lunch it would make a beautiful dinner.

On the side I had some little grape tomatoes and the awesome Sunset Gourmet Cucumbers, also from Sam's Club. I cannot rave about these little sweeties enough. I love cucumbers but they do not love me! If I ever ordered a salad out and it came with cucumbers I would pick them off because they give me the burps! These little guys do not do that. I am so excited to eat cucumbers with no stomach problems again. I plated them and put the water bottle cap in the shot to show the actual size.

For those Weight Watchers out there this meal was 3 points and I am stuffed from all those vegies.

Blizzard Day

I made a very interesting discovery about my fruit filled greek yogurt the other day. It is so delicious, I love it so much and I was thinking how great it is because it is all natural and has double the protein of regular yogurt. Although that is true I've decided that the fruited yogurt will now be treated as a snack or a dessert as opposed the yogurt I eat every day to get my dairy requirement in, and here is why. There is 20 grams of sugar in the 6 oz. container. There is 14 grams of protein. There are 4 calories in each gram of both carbs and proteins. (9 in fats). 14x4=56 calories from protein. 20x4=80 calories form sugar. The total calories listed on the container are 140 so it is probably rounded up since 80+30 = 136.

Of course some of this sugar count comes from the fructose in the berries but if you read the label there is sugar added. I will stick with the plain greek yogurt with no sugar, add a little stevia ( a natural sweetener) and some fresh fruit. Anyone trying to lose weight knows that too much sugar (carbs) in the diet that are not being burned off will be stored as fat. The picture illustrates just how much sugar 20 grams is.

2/3/10 continued.......

Woopsie, I hit enter and my blog posted but I wasn't done.

Lunch was a Tuna Steak which I bought a huge bag of individually portioned frozen steaks from Sams Club. Each one is 3 points. I encrusted it Flaxseed (14 grams) and grilled it on my George Foreman. I microwaved a pile of frozen broccoli and Viola' a beautiful,scrumptious, healthy lunch in 3 minutes flat for a total of 4 points.





Now compare that to the chocolate covered coconut candies I was speaking about the other day. (yes, there are some left!) 2 pieces are borderline between 4 and 5 points, so call it 5 points, compared to a whole lunch for 4 points/




Today's snack was blueberries and yogurt. I buy a big bag of frozen blueberries and big tubs of yogurt. I mixed 1 cup (170 grams) of blueberries with 1/2 cup (113 grams) of Fat Free Vanilla Yogurt for a total of 2 points.





Compare that to container of blueberry yogurt (170 grams) for 3 points. I guess it doesn't take a math wizard to figure this one out. 253 grams for 2 points or 170 grams for 3 points. hmmmmmm.....


Oh, and Louie, my adorable, precious, loving kitty cat also loved the tuna :)