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 :)