I have GOT to eat better

Last year, I tried the Whole30 Plan. It’s pretty basic. No grains, no dairy, no sugar, no processed foods or additives. No peas or corn (a couple of my fav veggies), no alcohol, no peanuts. I said it was basic, not easy.

But I did it.

I made my own ghee (clarified butter, really) to take out the milk fats. It took me a few cups before I could say I enjoy it, but I learned to drink black coffee. Fortunately, I could have potatoes and sweet potatoes (in moderation), so I was actually able to live without grains. I thought I would have the hardest time with the grains, but really, it was the cheese that got me. I wanted to lose weight, and I did lose some. But mostly, I wanted to learn some new eating habits so could lose weight and keep it off. Well, I have fallen back into some bad habits, so it’s time to work on me again. Harder this time. I am not going to do a strict Whole30 plan this time, but I will use a lot of what I learned and really work to make these changes that I need. I hope.

One thing I learned is that carbs for breakfast are useless for me. Sure, they taste great. But even the “healthy” things like oatmeal or Crispix cereal leave me hungry way before lunchtime. But if I have protein, I am only mildly hungry for lunch. So a protein-rich breakfast it is. I try to have hard boiled eggs, or sometimes I make mini frittatas, crustless quiches, whatever you want to call them. You can fill them with a meat of your choosing. I do try to pick a Whole30 approved one, which means no fake ingredients and no sugar — there is just one brand of bacon that my grocery store carries that does not have sugar. But I would rather cut added sugars out of everything else if it means I can have a cookie or something that actually tastes sweet and will satisfy my craving. For the mini frittatas, I leave out the cheese, and put in veggies, usually red bell peppers because they are one of my favorites in a quiche.

I also learned to love almond butter (a no additive kind, just plain ‘ole roasted and puréed almonds). Like black coffee, this too was an acquired taste. But now I like it more than peanut butter, which tastes overly sweet to me. I can put a couple tablespoons of almond butter on diced strawberries and bananas, or dip a sliced apple. I’m also excited to try a recipe I just saw for sweet potato and zucchini fritters - I think that will make a good breakfast. I am also going to master making poached eggs and serve them over roasted asparagus spears.

Something else I learned is that I can make just about anything for the guys for dinner. They are good sports and will try lots of different things. But while I can, and need to, avoid the carbs at dinner, if they don’t have a starch, they will be trolling through the kitchen an hour after dinner. Just different metabolisms, I guess. So one night, I made a homemade marinara sauce with ground chicken. I served it over portabella mushroom caps for me and big bowls of pasta for the guys. A perfect solution.

I know I won’t stick to a diet. But I can change the way I eat. Wish me luck! And if you have any suggestions, please feel free to share them.

Noodle-ing around in the kitchen

Get your mind out of the gutter - this is a family blog. 

I made homemade noodles! I feel so much more Italian now. 

Jeffrey and John got me a pasta roller kit for the KitchenAid stand mixer for Christmas. They also got me a pasta cookbook (more on that later) and some cool little tools – a pasta cutter and a ravioli form/cutter. The pasta cutter for the mixer is a separate attachment, and I am undecided if we’ll even need that. My favorite noodles can be made without it, I think.

We tried it out recently, settling on the basic pasta recipe in the book that came with the mixer attachment. We’ll save fancy pasta recipes for when we have a little more skill.

What are you doing? Can I have some?

I was a little unsure how this would all go. When my Mom was a newlywed, her mother-in-law, my Grandmother Pasquarello, taught her how to make homemade pasta. Grandmother Pasquarello was not actually Italian, but she had married into an Italian family so of course she had to learn to make sauce, pasta, hot sausages, etc. My Mom only did this that one time because she said she used every pot in the house. Twice. They didn’t have the spiffy equipment that I do now, and I have never been afraid of making a mess in the kitchen. I mean, I can make a mess boiling eggs (oh, yeah, I have a story about boiling eggs I’ll need to share sometime too).

Running through the pasta roller

All of us worked on this dinner. Jeff got started on the chicken. It’s sort of our version of Chicken Milanese, breaded and sautéed with, well, let Jeffrey tell you.

Well, it was kind of a feel your way as you go along thing. Plus, I was trying to keep busy while Lisa and John rolled and cut noodles. The chicken is simply breaded with the usual milk, flour, seasoned breadcrumb assembly line then fried up in some canola oil until it’s nice and golden brown. I didn’t worry about cooking the chicken through as I knew I had time to finish it in the oven, which I did end up doing. When this is done, you’re left with a nice bit of chicken-flavored oil. I deglazed with a bit of white wine, then put a little olive oil in to allow for more sauce and sprinkled flour onto it (while it’s nice and hot) to make a light roux. Then in went the juice of two lemons. It’s really just a matter of watching to keep the sauce the consistency you like, adding a bit of wine or oil (or lemon juice if you have any, but I didn’t) to loosen things up or letting it cook down to thicken. I fiddled longer than need be but I think it may have helped in the long run as I kept adding wine and cooking it down again. The sauce ended up pretty rich and, if I do say so myself, delicious.

Not too much of a mess...

It was delicious. I had made the pasta dough and let it chill and then John and I fired up the pasta roller. We had some successes and some not-so-great attempts. And I think next time I would run it though the next setting to make the pasta a little thinner. I figured out that if it didn’t come our pretty, I could just fold it in half lengthwise, run it through the roller again and it would be ok. As we made sheets, I cut out fettucine noodles. I coiled them up as best I could, and kept a towel over them until they were all finished so they wouldn’t get dry. Then we boiled them in salted water. We put a little butter and parsley on them, and voila! Dinner. The best part is that we were all in the kitchen together. And I have to mention that John was photographer for this post. I think he did a great job!

I think next I will try ravioli J