Stuff That Moves Me

My mother sometimes tries to get at my motive for eating certain foods like Greek yogurt and organic sugar. Does it have less calories?, she wants to know about the sugar.

Well, I let my mother take a gander at a Cooking Light that I had because she had been looking for quesadilla recipes; she ended up cooking edamame succotash for me. I was so moved that I didn't even ask about the bacon type. I also have not knowingly had butter in ages; it's a slippery slope, you know...

Edamame Succotash


Yield: 4 servings (serving size: 1 1/4 cups)
Cost per Serving: $2.47


Ingredients

1 slice center-cut bacon
1 tablespoon butter
2 cups chopped sweet onion
2 cups fresh corn kernels (about 3 ears)
1 (16-ounce) bag frozen, shelled edamame, thawed
2 tablespoons red wine vinegar
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
1/2 teaspoon sugar
3 plum tomatoes, coarsely chopped
1 red bell pepper, seeded and coarsely chopped
3 tablespoons torn basil

Preparation

1. Cook bacon in a nonstick skillet over medium heat until crisp. Remove bacon from pan, reserving 2 teaspoons drippings in pan; coarsely chop bacon.

2. Increase the heat to medium-high. Melt butter in drippings in pan. Add onion; sauté 3 minutes, stirring occasionally. Add corn kernels; sauté for 3 minutes or until lightly charred. Add edamame, and sauté for 3 minutes, stirring occasionally. Stir in vinegar and next 5 ingredients (through bell pepper); cook 30 seconds, stirring occasionally. Sprinkle with bacon and basil.

Nutritional Information

Calories:300
Fat:12.1g (sat 3.3g,mono 3.3g,poly 3.6g)
Protein:17.9g
Carbohydrate:37.2g
Fiber:10g
Cholesterol:10mg
Iron:0.9mg
Sodium:386mg
Calcium:28mg

Julianna Grimes, Cooking Light, AUGUST 2010

Cooked anything interesting lately or had someone cook something interesting for you?

The Striker's Guide to Dinner

After weeks of not cooking, I finally got into the kitchen, chopped a few vegetables and made something happen.

In all honesty, I haven't felt like cooking.

In my old life, I had a lot of go-to recipes but I've been too lazy uninspired to adjust the recipes and, frankly, I find looking through cookbooks exhausting and, if it's a cookbook without pictures, spare me...

Did I tell you all that I was a picky eater as child? Big visual, temperature and texture issues. Big drama. Like, you're not leaving the table until you eat drama. I sat with my legs dangling until I was excused. My 'rents had long caught onto me slipping the dog my undesirables. Did my parents ever once consider that it might have been their cooking? Nooooooooooo.

To this day, if something tastes good but is mushy, I'll taste it but won't hang with the dish for long.

When I do find a recipe that calls my name, it usually involves a lot of chopping. For some reason, the labor intensive recipes beckon me.

I was flipping through the March Prevention when I saw a recipe, More-Vegetable-Than-Egg Frittata that I instantly liked. The recipe was a contribution by the one and only Mark Bittman.



I used a red bell pepper, spinach and squash for my frittata. And my verdict -- not bad at all and quite clean tasting. I wasn't doing that Al Green moaning thing but I liked the frittata and will make it again. The frittata doesn't stand alone and it doesn't make a lot. If you have more than three folks to feed, double up on the ingredients.

What I ate while on strike:












Steamfresh Veggies with Trader Joe's Marinated Chicken Breasts

Ironically, that same Prevention featuring Mark Bittman also had an article, 50 Healthiest Everday Foods, which had a very nice chart for folks, like me, who need visual cues.

For example:

Natural State, 1st Choice: apple
Somewhat Processed, 2nd Choice: strawberry preserves
Highly processed, limit: strawberry gelatin dessert

What is one of your favorite go-to recipes and what food do you resort to when the cooking comes to a halt? If you don't halt, kudos, and may I come over?

P.S. Another promising Bittman recipe in that Prevention was Chicken Not Pie.

Bon appétit, you all...

The 'Drea Slayer

I used to think that salmon and shrimp were the ultimate 'Drea slayers but standing at about 5'3 and 110 pounds, Kate is proving to be a formidable opponent.

Heel. Heel. Heel.

I almost checked to see if there was a dog but it was Kate's reminder for us to get our heels down while doing jumping jacks since we didn't want our calves to miss out on any action.

Kate's other chant for the night was:

Quicker, quicker, quicker.

They're already called fast feet; what more do you want Kate?

We did cardio in eight minute sets tonight and that's what almost killed 'Drea.

Suck those abs in.

Girlfriend was expecting us to do a lot at once. We were sucking and shuffling and jumping and my abs couldn't keep up.

We're going to do a lot of hopping tonight.

I was very aware of this fact as I hopped from one leg to the other.

And the thing about your tires, Kate said, they're far apart.

Of course, why wouldn't they be?

I hate imaginary tires.

We worked on our abs and glutes and it's funny how everyone, instinctively, went into child's pose at the end of the glutes portion of the program.

I feel like I'm yelling a lot tonight.

I love people who are self-aware.

Tonight, I left the push-ups alone since my arms are still sore from trying to climb that 5.8b on Sunday.

When I told Patti about my sore arms, she wrote:

No pain, no gain?

Believe it or not, I had forgotten about that expression.

We stretched on the floor after ab work then stood up. I really dug a simple stretch that just involved placing your hands in the small of your back. I also dug a kind of reverse Namaste gesture; you place your coupled hands at the top of your back. I can use these simple stretches in my arsenal...

I had Healthified Mexican Pasta Skillet for dinner. I got the recipe off of my recently delivered Eat Better America calendar. It was very easy to make and pretty tasty.

Cool Beans

I have two aunts who are big Sunday cookers and I'm always welcome to partake of Sunday dinner but, for the last two years, it's been a hit or miss proposition since I've eliminated certain things, like fried food, from my diet.

I received a special invitation from my aunt Girt to come to dinner on Sunday. I'm marinating chicken wings, she said and I'm making a green bean salad that's only 60 calories; you can eat that.

It sounded innocent enough. I made sure that I did what I needed to do in order to be in Illinois at dinner time.

I don't know what the marinade consisted of but the baked chicken wings were a little greasy but I didn't inquire about the marinade. Brownie point for me. The green bean salad was good and I found out that my aunt had gotten the recipe from a little pamphlet called 43 Healthy Soul Food Recipes, a publication of The American Heart and Stroke Associations.


What absolutely made my day was the brown rice that my aunt made. She also cooked a pot of white rice for everyone else. Of course, she promptly sent the remainder of the brown rice home with me.

Hitting The Bunny Trail

I made sure that I hit the bunny trail and the gym was quite interesting. There was this guy who was doing a drawn-out version of crouching tiger hidden dragon and he was also playing an invisible guitar. When I was leaving, this woman dropped a pink stone on the floor then threw it in my gym bag. I think it wants to go home with you. It's a sunstone and will give you energy, she said.
After the gym, I hit the grocery store as I dreamed about a personal chef but not Chris Paul's chef, mind you, because I don't need anyone who has a recipe for Krispy Kreme Bread Pudding.

I was doing some internal whining about cooking but, really, it didn't take that long, the dishes are washed and, now, I can hit the ground running tomorrow without having to look for faster food or worry about cooking post-workout because post-workout is not the time to cook since I'm usually starving by then.

I made this veggie quiche which I've made several times.


I have a few more recipes in rotation

Cajun Turkey Quarter-Pounder

Farmer's Market Vegetarian Quesadillas

Skillet Lasagna

Seared Scallops with Warm Tuscan Beans

Senegalese Peanut Stew

Vegetarian Chili

but I definitely need to find more. Any suggestions?

A Gala Apple, Chili Lime Peanuts & A Wheat Barley Stick

I was visualizing my exercise schedule for this week when I contacted Patti to see when we were going rock climbing.

I had two reasons. First, it takes at least two folks to rock climb -- unless you're using a designated route with an auto-belay.

Second, I wanted to take the torture step and muscle class and step and muscle back-to-back with rock climbing do not go together. Thus, the plotting and planning.

Tonight: Swimming
Tomorrow: Step and Muscle Class
Wednesday: Any Machine
Thursday: Rock Climbing
Friday: TBA
Saturday: TBA
Sunday:TBA

When I got to Riverchase, the lanes were occupied.

Lane 1: Instructor and student plus one lap swimmer
Lane 2: Six kids frolicking
Lane 3: Two women walking

I wondered what had happened to lap swimming.

I waited for about twenty minutes for a lane to open up. I was so eager to get in the pool that I swam the front crawl without pulling up. I went at the water for about an hour, took a shower and had notions of going to the store to secure ingredients for a meal. I quickly nixed that idea, turned on my GPS and looked for the nearest Crazy Bowls and Wraps where I got a Mediterranean wrap i.e. a baked falafel sandwich.


I took my face, ashy from being submerged in the water, into Trader Joe's. I just had to go to TJ's -- seeing that I was low on coffee and all.

At various points in my journey, I noshed on a Gala apple, chili lime peanuts and a wheat barley stick and the thought crossed my mind that I may very well kill myself via excessive exercise.

I didn't even care that my Mediterranean wrap might not be the best option. Tired and hungry, I devoured (half) it when I got home.

As I think about excessive exercise, my mind goes to The Biggest Loser's Where Are They Now? episode. Matt Hoover, a former contestant, participated in the Kona Ironman triathlon:

2.4-miles of swimming
112-miles of biking
26.2-mile marathon run

Hoover, who needed to complete the Ironmnan in 17 hours, missed the cutoff by three minutes and 43 seconds but still learned from the experience:

Our bodies -- they're amazing...I should not have been able to do what I did that day but my body kept going. There's something about pushing yourself beyond your limits that people need to do once in their life...

Seventeen hours, hunh?

And, on that note, I purchased a Groupon coupon today.

$20 for 20 Full-Access Day Passes to The Heights Fitness Center (Up to $120 Value)

I don't need to worry about where I will swim (for a minute anyway) while I figure out the best fitness club option for my varied needs.