Summer Smoothies - Low in Calories, High In Nutrition and Kids Love 'Em

When you or your children want a summer drink, give' em kale!  I'm serious!  You can incorporate every nutritious fruit and veggie into smoothies,  and they can look and taste like a raspberry freeze or a banana/strawberry frosty.  All without sugar, artificial sweeteners or any other bad stuff.  In these examples I use a Magic Bullet because I love it, and it works wonderfully.   

1/2 cup blueberries, 3 or four cored strawberries, small handfull red raspberries, a couple of  kale leaves or several baby spinach leaves, and water.  That's all. No yogurt. You can add a sprinkle of flax seeds to increase the nutrition benefits. Layer the ingredients in the Magic Bullet mug.  I usually use the greens on top to press down the fruit, just because it is easier and less messy, and add a half teaspoon or so of seeds or nuts if allergies are not an issue, and a splash of tap water. With practice you will learn how thick or thin you want it. Screw the mug on top of the blade and onto the base, press down on the mug and in a few seconds you have a bright pink smoothie that can be refrigerated and that adults and kids will like, and more importantly, will drink and boost their immune systems .

If you have kids who would like a monster shake, use pineapple, banana, a few slices of a cored pear or apple, a few blueberries and some kale.  This will make a delicious green shake for those who find charm in green eggs in ham, or green beer and pancakes if they are somewhat older. 

You can use most any blender and any fruit combo that catches your fancy. Try watermelon, peaches and nectarines, peeled oranges or tangerines. Other greens? Try avocado, Swiss chard, mixed greens.  Avoid making a bigger batch than you plan to use in a short time, because if the drink sits, you lose vitamins.

I have purposely avoided adding yogurt for several reasons.  Much of it, even plain, low fat, has artificial sweeteners, it causes "belly bloat" in many adults, and any dairy can taste awful in just a little while in the summer heat. You certainly won't miss it, and the fruit, veggie nut and seed mix is the optimum anti-oxident energy combination.

One of these a day will be plenty, so although fresh fruits can be relatively expensive, nothing is more expensive than junk. The fat cells you or your kids make now will beg to be fed for the rest of your lives, even if you later lose weight. Did you know that if your optimum weight is 150 and you go up to 250, and later go back down to 150, you will never be able to consume as much food without adding pounds as the 150 pounder who has stayed there? You will metabolize calories differently forever once your body has carried and nourished those fat cells. Makes you think. I know I am pretty well consigned to a life of lettuce.

Whew!

The ounces that jumped on the other day bailed after about a day of heavy walking and sweating, so I feel cheerier. When that little bit of fat rejoined the party, I began walking twice a day, and while that may not have been enough to lose the weight, I think determination and intent are definitely worth something, and the early evenings have even been more beautiful than the mornings. 

The past two evenings, a lovely doe has delicately stepped out of the yard across the street, crossed, and then skipped up my daughter's driveway and into the back woods. A sight of something so beautiful and wild makes you hold your breath, her presence an honor in the pale twilight.

My daughter is in every way a critter whisperer, and I fully expect to see the doe paying her a call before heading into the woodsy night, but so far the most she has done is munch some ivy and gaze at my daughter as she watched from a window. Only a matter of time, I expect.

I've missed so much these years, remaining inside in the early evenings. A family of rabbits lives in a good sized stand of yuccas down the street and comes out to play in the grass when the sun is slanted low. My gardening neighbor is out tending his magically mixed crop of flowers and vegetables, pleased to report on the latest reading of the rain gauge, and the lady who has worked at my local Kroger's for twenty some years is walking her  elderly little dogs, one nearly blind but  thrilled to be petted and then sniff her way along the street.

The half year mark (coming in three days) of this fierce attack on my weight is making me assess my next six months very intently. Can I really lose fifty-five pounds in that time? I lost forty-five pounds in the first six, and some of that was easy, water weight. Really, I wanted to lose the remainder in four months, not six - reunion time - but I don't think that is realistic, now.  Maybe not realistic in six.

Harder exercise would help, but although exercise helps rheumatoid arthritis, that disease limits a lot . No floor exercises, for one thing. And no  impact. The yoga I did at one time would help, I suppose, but I can't find the balance or the nerve. Tai chi sounds like just the ticket, and maybe I can find someplace near where it is taught, but I don't think it does much for weight loss.

The twenty-four hour gym near me will probably get me as a member once more.  I was a drop-out long ago, because my weight was just too exhausting to haul on a treadmill, but now that I am walking outdoors, walking inside in some air conditioning in the middle of the day might be OK, as long as I don't abandon my little street morning and night. Exercising three times a day means I may have to cut out a few other things, but they probably aren't so important right now, any way. The gym is cheap and plain, my criterion for an OK gym, and nobody wears stylish exercise clothes, another important element. I am going to give it some thought.

Say It Ain't So

This morning, the scale paid me back for  my previous merriment by crossing my mystical weight line (referred to just a few days ago) in reverse and adding about a half pound for good measure. I know there is no immediate retribution for a meal the previous day, but I still blame the Mongolian Beef, even though I ate only about a tablespoon on just a little couscous. Maybe it was that little, tiny bit I sampled earlier to see if it  really did go with couscous, since I was purposely out of white rice. And maybe it was because I didn't make the  Mongolian Beef myself (why would I, when Kroger's deli does it so well?) and it was, well, shall I say, really sweet.

Now, today is Father's Day, and of course that means food. I chose a lunch that my husband would like and which I would never eat and which would require almost no work: a spread of deli selections, mustards, breads and some stuff to put on top, like lettuce, tomatoes and avacado.

My husband almost never eats sandwiches.  When he's home at lunchtime, he makes himself a big salad.  When he takes a meal to work (he works on Hong Kong time, so lunch is in the middle of the night) he takes a salad and an apple, or maybe just raw veggies.  So you can see what I have to work with, and also why he looks about fifteen years younger than I do. 

A rare roast beef on rye is a big deal, which makes cooking easy today.  Another thing that makes it easy is that we are eating this meal at The Cottage at Possum Ramble, which is not some chic little inn but the house next door, which my husband and daughter are remodeling. Our merriment, if you can call it that, will consist of admiring the potlights which he recently installed in the kitchen ceiling, and the fine drywall work by our daughter, when she repaired the kitchen ceiling after my husband put his foot through it, installing said potlights.

Then there is the new ceiling fan in the den, the previous one removed for looking like it belonged in a bordello. This fan is on a dimmer - no lights, but the fan speeds can be frequently and endlessly changed, to the installer's amusement.

I can't blame food eaten at the movies last night, because I didn't line up at the concession stand or take anything with me. Popcorn, even without the grease they put on it, is not a diet food, you know. No virtue even if you eat plain, air popped corn at home. It's pure starch, people! It turns to sugar as fast as your salivary glands get hold of it and start to break it down. You might as well eat a basket of nachos with fake cheese on top. Actually, the thought of that sounds pretty good. I went for my walk this morning without eating. I know you are supposed to always eat breakfast, but I am holding off for lunch, or something close to lunch, and am in no danger of blowing away just yet.

Sometimes milestones come in little bits

My daughter says it is nutty to be so concerned about ounces when it's the big picture that counts, and that is exactly what I would say to her. But when there is a forty year age difference, you grab for whatever you can get, and right now, ounces matter to me. I crossed a threshold this morning, measured in ounces, and it means the world to me. It is the matter of a beginning digit in a measurement of weight that is the difference between grim fact and the light at the end of the tunnel, and I am feeling celebratory.

 I also am feeling a large  black lab crawling into my lap because there is thunder in the distance, so the next paragraph will pick up after the storm has passed.

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All is well, the storm and fearsome threats have passed, and Ava once again has all fours on the floor.
Yesterday or so I brought up the subject of sweet potatoes. Or yams, whichever name you prefer.
I will begin by reminding you that I am not a nutritionist or dietician, not a chef, and I am writing about only what I have experienced and researched. Most of the details of calories counts, nutritional values and diet plans I leave to you to look up on your own. Google is a simple and wonderful thing.   This is just what I know from the results I have had. That said, just let me tell you that sweet potatoes are a wonderful thing.

No, not the orange lumpy stuff surrounded by marshmallows at Thanksgiving. If you like that, it is your business, and I won't interfere other than to say, "Please, tell me you aren't serious!" OK, so they remind you of home and Mom and warm and fuzzy things. You are a grown up. Move on.

Put a washed big, ugly sweet potato in the microwave after stabbing it four or five times with a sharp knife. (The s.p., not the microwave ) Set your microwave on the baked potato setting, and if you can't easily pierce the potato all the way through when the thing goes 'ding,' turn the s.p. over and  run  the baked potato setting once again for about two minutes. If you use a standard oven, cook it however you cook a large Idaho potato.

I use a large soup bowl and slice the s.p. in half lengthwise, putting the halves side by side. Mash the potato insides with a fork, just as you would a regular potato. Salsa makes a wonderful filling, as does plain yogurt, vegetarian chili, tzatziki (plain Greek yogurt with garlic and chopped cucumbers,) and tabouleh, (chopped parsley, lemon juice, mint, cucumber and sometimes tomato.) The last two foods can be bought at COSTCO, Whole Foods, or easily made from the many recipes on-line. They are low calorie, healthful staples that make wonderful sauces for meat, fish, and almost everything else.

The great thing about a sweet potato is that it is filling, nutritious, and not fattening. It is a good main course or a side dish, and you can even put chopped kale in it. What more could you ask for?

Kale By Request...

Monday was lost, I considered waiting until Wednesday to post again, but then that is always weigh-in day, which tends to dominate, and people have been so nice and downright enthusiastic about kale and asking for recipes and all, which made me think that Tues. was a good day for a kale salad recipe.

I am not really into following recipes, unless they are for a delicately balanced or very complex dish, and I always assume that no one else is much interested in plain recipes either, but I am finding this is not true.  I have had a lot of requests for things to do with kale, and I am about as unqualified in the chef department as you can get, except that I eat a lot of kale. I also serve many foods uncooked, without sauces or dressings, and don't usually include animal products, if I can avoid them, so that makes it pretty simple: pick it, wash it and eat it.

 I guess what people want is some combination suggestions, so I will start off with my favorite salad.  The amounts are up to you, so you will have to experiment. I usually skip salad dressing because I think green things taste just fine without it, so if you want dressing, I suggest you put your favorite in a small bowl and just dip your fork into it as you eat. Don't pour it on and toss it. Make your own dressing, such as walnut oil and balsamic vinegar or buy one. I don't think it needs to be a diet dressing, and God forbid not a spray- on dressing. Respect your taste buds, please.

If you want to buy your greens in a bag, its OK with me, although some of the better ones won't be found in plastic.

Basic greens, in descending order of volume: Kale,  Baby Spinach, Boston or Bib Lettuce, Romaine, and Endive
Kale and Romain have body, Spinach, Bib and Boston are soft, Endive is peppery and has texture.
Do not use Iceberg lettuce. Never ever. No food value and sad.

Embellishments: Broccoli slaw(Buy this in a bag because it is a pain to cut up, even with a food processor,) Green beans, cut up, Snow peas, Broccoli florets (the more broccoli you can work in, the better)Edamame (raw green soy beans - you may have to buy these frozen)Ripe avocado,  Red onion, finely chopped, and Slivered raw almonds.

What is excluded: Cheese, (although I love it,) and all dairy,  salt and seasonings, Baco-bits, crazins or raisins, croutons unless you make your own without fat or salt, canned and jarred ingredients such as hearts of palm. canned olives (olives preserved in pure olive oil are OK.) "toppings"  and ham bits or anything else that didn't grow out of the ground or on a tree. Tomatoes are fine. I just don't like them in salads because I think they upset the green flavor harmonies.

The Fruit controversy: Blue berries are an antioxident superfood, you should eat them as often as possible, and many people include them in salads. My household is divided between the "fruit in a veggie salad is an abomination" and the "huh?" factions. So eat them for breakfast. Think cereal with skim milk and blueberries, then skip the cereal and milk and eat  plain, fresh blueberries. Cereal and milk for breakfast are horrible for you. Even worse if you add a banana and think you are dieting. And I love bananas, so don't sic the banana lobby on me.

Put your salad ingredients in the biggest mixing bowl you have, and that's about it.  There are many nights I use that much salad for several people as an addition to other foods, and nights like tonight when I am the only one eating it, it's all I eat, and I eat it all.

Sign and Portents All Around

Yesterday began ominously.  I have been roasting chickens for a good many years now, and I have never lost one to the garbage pail.  I learned to cook from Julia's Mastering the Art of French Cooking, volumes I and II. I feel safe calling her by her first name because first of all she's dead, and second of all, I have been cooking these chickens since I was sixteen, fifty three years ago, though of course not the same chickens. Anyway, The French insist, against all evidence, that a roast chicken is the epitome of French cuisine, and one cannot say one  cooks until one can turn out a proper roast chicken,  which I can do, and have done many times. Until yesterday.  This was a young, fresh hen, plump and unsullied, but that was not what came out of the oven.  What came out was slick, footballish in firmness and color, and unyielding to fork or carving knife. Then some juices shot out and burned me on the hand. I could not have been more shocked had the hen popped out of my oven and pecked me on the nose.

End result, after taking a small taste: the garbage can. Very disorienting.

The next disorienting event was finishing J.J. Virgin's The Virgin Diet and realizing that I was not a woman up to the job when it came to following her anti-inflammatory  three week detox plan that requires even more self discipline, not to mention memory than I have, and believe me, I have quite a bit.  No gluten, dairy, (what? No cheese? As Julia would say, "Impossible!" Say that with a trilling French accent and you'll have the idea,) no corn, and no practically everything else.  I don't doubt J.J. has a valid point. ( I feel like I'm on a first name basis with her, too, especially after reading her chapters on "poops.") I lost more weight (in addition to the 50 pounds more or less than I have already lost in the previous five  months,)  my ankles deflated dramatically, and I practically sprinted out the door to my morning walk. Nothing but fresh fruits and veggies crossed my lips the rest of the day, except for that small sliver of heinous roast chicken.

Somehow, when exclusively on Weight Watchers, I didn't feel deprived, but as I read J.J., I felt deprived. Deprived but sad. Healthier, less puffy, but definitely sadder. J.J. will remain with me, because I buy her spiel. I am a true believer that foods are the path to health, clear headedness, energy, better eyesight, and really good skin after fifty(as long as you don't smoke or sunbathe.) I want that! And to be thin, too, but with some cheese. But I'll happily trade for sometimes foggy, now and then puffy, and eating  more than three forkfulls of my birthday cake. No contest.

So last night, I dreamed that my husband was looking for a decent pair of scissors. That is surely symbolic of something or other, wouldn't you say?When I got home from grocery shopping today, I took a short nap and woke up starved for my favorite: chunky peanut butter and orange marmalade on rye bread (all three big no-no's from J.J.) and I got right up, made one and ate it, and I am glad about it, too.

And Zan Marie - Love your remodeled kitchen. Mine no longer has my husband's feet protruding through the ceiling and thanks to my darling daughter who has wizard like capabilities with drywall,  (a skill no woman should be without,) the ceiling and pot lights look just fine. See my Facebook page.

There's Kale....and Then There's Kale

I have to be honest.  Not long ago I had never heard of kale.  There was that stuff in the deli counter that supplies the green frilly stuff between the potato salad and the meatloaf slices that the deli guy calls lettuce, which I know is kale, unless it is parsley or plastic, but other than that.....

I read someplace how incredibly nutritious is is (no one said delicious) and how it does great things for your skin and how it fills you up when you are trying to eat lots of salads, and so on.
So, long and short of it, I started putting it in the huge salads I eat everyday, and pretty soon I started to actually like its firm, sort of scrubby texture.  I began making salads almost entirely with kale. And, don't underestimate it for stir fry.  You can buy veggies already shredded or shred your own, and with or without, you can make a very decent vegetable dish or a main course. And it's cheap. I bought huge amounts of kale.

Then came the tipping point. My macarative degeneration in one eye seemed to reverse itself.  Not seemed. It did reverse itself. Not there any more.  Gone. No signs of cataracts, either, and my prescription has gone more toward toward 20/20. I had taken lutein, recommended by my doc, for years, but nothing got better with lutein. Only when I chowed down on kale was there improvement.

"Your eyes must be youthening," my eye doc said."Must be something you ate."

"Of course," said a friend of mine. "It's the kale. I've known about that for years. "

Really?  She's known about it and hasn't told me?  What kind of a pal is that?

The other day I read an article in the AJ C about how the Atlanta public schools are trying to teach elementary school pupils better nutrition. On school had them grow their own vegetable garden and take the kale they had grown and put it to salads.  They carefully cared for their kale, gave it plenty of water, and put the gently washed leaves into a bowl with their carrots and tomatoes.

"How does your  kale taste?" the teacher asked.

"Great!" and "Delicious!" the kids shouted, and they ate it.

O.K., this was probably a lesson in growing your own foods, but it served mto boost kale's reputation, too.

And then another Atlanta school (and this is God's own truth) tried to introduce kale into the cafeteria menu. This is a baccalaureate school, run by some presumably some pretty progressive, smart people.

They cafeteria served the kids fried chicken, which everybody likes, and a side dish of steamed kale.  Yes. Limp, ugly steamed kale.

 The kids were anxious to say why they liked fried chicken. "It love it because its  greasy," one kid answered.  Obvious none of the lunchroom ladies had studied the Southern Living recipe for ungreasy fried chicken.

And the kale? "Yucky!  It's nasty!" Most of them left it untouched.

Steamed kale?  I'd have to agree. Probably had a a hunk of pork in the water, too, making it both ugly and bad for you.

Lots of lessons there.