I heard that the average American eats over 5,000 calories at Thanksgiving dinner. That's a full two days worth of calories and then some. One pounds equals 3,500 calories, so the average individual gains about a pound.
Am I too incredibly smug if I say I did not eat 5,000 calories? Or gain a pound? This morning, I wrote down everything I ate yesterday. I ate 2,256 calories at dinner. Still more than a single day's allowance, but it was almost all I ate all day, which makes up for it. And I weighed in Thanksgiving morning, and I weighed in this morning. I actually lost weight. Mostly water weight, it's true. But still . . . .
:)
Friday, November 29, 2013
Thursday, November 28, 2013
Thanksgiving
Today I cooked my first thanksgiving dinner. Now, I have cooked all the foods that go into thanksgiving before. Even all at once. But never before was I in charge of the thanksgiving day feast. Today I was.
Remember my last post - about being laid up sick? I'm pretty well recovered now, but during that laid up time I also caught up on my favorite shows. Including Good Eats. And they had a thanksgiving day special. They've had them before, but this one promised 4 hours of cooking on the day, stress free. So I followed the plan. There are a couple of hours pre-preparation, and the turkey has to be thawed four days early so it can brine, but on the day itself, four hours.
I pre-prepped. I brined the turkey. I chopped vegetables and peeled potatoes, and had bowls of things in the fridge waiting for turkey day to arrive. And I wrote down his instructions, complete with times to start doing different things. I printed it all out so I had a checklist.
Wow. It worked! Four hours of cooking, with a few breaks in the middle. No stress, plenty of mess. Dinner was on the table at the appointed hour. And it didn't taste half bad! And I learned a few things in this process.
One - yellow potatoes and Yukon Gold potatoes are not the same thing. I cooked the yellow potatoes for the specified amount of time and they were not soft enough to rice.
Two - potato slices do not mash in a mixer. Not very well. Unless maybe you have one of those guards that make everything that wants to fly out of the mixer fall back in. On the plus side, the dog was quite happy to eat potato slices off the floor.
Three - "smashed" potatoes taste as good as mashed potatoes. They just aren't as light and fluffy.
Four - Using a shopping list made up of the ingredients from the recipes does not include beverages or ice cream for the pie. Oops.
Five - giblet gravy may taste good, but it looks gross. Next year, the giblets may flavor the gravy, but they won't be IN the gravy.
Six - It is possible to have cleanup for thanksgiving dinner take twice as long as cooking it. Of course, there are the long waits for the dishwasher to finish a cycle. Still . . . .
All in all, dinner was a success. The turkey was good, nobody was upset about the smashed potatoes, the panzanella (which was made in place of traditional sage stuffing) was approved. I think my mother-in-law was grateful that dinner was at our house instead of theirs, so I got the major cooking and cleaning up to do and maybe she was not unhappy that I didn't do a perfect job.
I think this was successful enough that maybe I'll do it again next year.
Remember my last post - about being laid up sick? I'm pretty well recovered now, but during that laid up time I also caught up on my favorite shows. Including Good Eats. And they had a thanksgiving day special. They've had them before, but this one promised 4 hours of cooking on the day, stress free. So I followed the plan. There are a couple of hours pre-preparation, and the turkey has to be thawed four days early so it can brine, but on the day itself, four hours.
I pre-prepped. I brined the turkey. I chopped vegetables and peeled potatoes, and had bowls of things in the fridge waiting for turkey day to arrive. And I wrote down his instructions, complete with times to start doing different things. I printed it all out so I had a checklist.
Wow. It worked! Four hours of cooking, with a few breaks in the middle. No stress, plenty of mess. Dinner was on the table at the appointed hour. And it didn't taste half bad! And I learned a few things in this process.
One - yellow potatoes and Yukon Gold potatoes are not the same thing. I cooked the yellow potatoes for the specified amount of time and they were not soft enough to rice.
Two - potato slices do not mash in a mixer. Not very well. Unless maybe you have one of those guards that make everything that wants to fly out of the mixer fall back in. On the plus side, the dog was quite happy to eat potato slices off the floor.
Three - "smashed" potatoes taste as good as mashed potatoes. They just aren't as light and fluffy.
Four - Using a shopping list made up of the ingredients from the recipes does not include beverages or ice cream for the pie. Oops.
Five - giblet gravy may taste good, but it looks gross. Next year, the giblets may flavor the gravy, but they won't be IN the gravy.
Six - It is possible to have cleanup for thanksgiving dinner take twice as long as cooking it. Of course, there are the long waits for the dishwasher to finish a cycle. Still . . . .
All in all, dinner was a success. The turkey was good, nobody was upset about the smashed potatoes, the panzanella (which was made in place of traditional sage stuffing) was approved. I think my mother-in-law was grateful that dinner was at our house instead of theirs, so I got the major cooking and cleaning up to do and maybe she was not unhappy that I didn't do a perfect job.
I think this was successful enough that maybe I'll do it again next year.
Friday, November 22, 2013
Meant to be
Do you ever feel like something is meant to be? I have been thinking lately that I may have food allergies. I have been dealing with depression and a general run-down feeling and some other symptoms that may very well indicate a food allergy of some sort. Probably something I eat every day, based on recurrence of symptoms. I don't know for sure, so I did a little internet research. According to my research, the only real way to tell if you have a food allergy is to try an elimination diet. Essentially eliminate all the foods that could be causing trouble and see if the symptoms go away.
No, that's not all of it. Then you add foods back one at a time. When you do, watch and see if the symptoms come back. Some sources say two days should tell, some say a week. However long, you watch and see, then either add the food back into your diet or accept that it makes you sick and do without it. Then if you are having a reaction, go back to base and let the reactions go away, then try something else. That's pretty much it.
I was working on a plan so I could eat this healthy, no-allergy way, and maybe find out if I was actually allergic to anything or if I was just imagining it and just needed to try to sleep more.And I have long wanted to cut down the amount of sugar in my diet. I have reasons behind that desire. Mostly having to do with how I believe our taste buds are overwhelmed by sugar and we cannot taste the other substances as well because of that. Too much sugar, too much salt, and I thought, as long as I'm cutting back to what is going to be a pretty boring bland diet for a while, I might as well make it MORE bland and boring and cut out ALL the added sugar to try to reset my taste buds. Why not? It's only for a few weeks, and with the elimination diet I can't eat any pre-packaged foods anyway, so I might as well include that in my healthy no-allergy plan.
Well, just as I started working on this plan, I got really sick. Laid up in bed, can't go to work, end up on antibiotics sick. I spent all weekend sick in bed and when I went to work Monday they sent me home. By then I was bored with my own company, so I turned on the TV. And Dr Oz was on. They gave teasers about the next day's show. I ended up recording Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday, because the promo said something good was coming up, but the menu info didn't specify which show. On one of those recorded shows was a segment on elimination diets and testing for food sensitivities (commonly but mistakenly called food allergies). The next one was on how too much artificial sweetener messes up our taste buds. They were suggesting a soda-free challenge to change our taste bud sensitivity. I'm going sugar free.
Unfortunately, I'm still sick. Not a good idea to start something like this when suffering from bronchitis. For one thing, how will I know if the symptoms go away when I'm not well? But, I'm almost better. Today is day three of my antibiotics, and although the doctor said I'd be well enough to go to work today, I'm still feeling too puny to be up much. I'm sure I'll be fine after the weekend.
Anyway, as soon as I'm well, I'm getting blood tests done to see where I am when I start, with blood sugar and all that. Then I'm going on the elimination diet and find out if I have food sensitivities. And when I'm done, hopefully I'll be able to come up with a healthy diet I can live with.
PLEASE don't let me be allergic to yeast or wheat! PLEASE! Although, the very fact that I really love bread probably means I'm allergic to at least one. <deep sigh of impending doom>
No, that's not all of it. Then you add foods back one at a time. When you do, watch and see if the symptoms come back. Some sources say two days should tell, some say a week. However long, you watch and see, then either add the food back into your diet or accept that it makes you sick and do without it. Then if you are having a reaction, go back to base and let the reactions go away, then try something else. That's pretty much it.
I was working on a plan so I could eat this healthy, no-allergy way, and maybe find out if I was actually allergic to anything or if I was just imagining it and just needed to try to sleep more.And I have long wanted to cut down the amount of sugar in my diet. I have reasons behind that desire. Mostly having to do with how I believe our taste buds are overwhelmed by sugar and we cannot taste the other substances as well because of that. Too much sugar, too much salt, and I thought, as long as I'm cutting back to what is going to be a pretty boring bland diet for a while, I might as well make it MORE bland and boring and cut out ALL the added sugar to try to reset my taste buds. Why not? It's only for a few weeks, and with the elimination diet I can't eat any pre-packaged foods anyway, so I might as well include that in my healthy no-allergy plan.
Well, just as I started working on this plan, I got really sick. Laid up in bed, can't go to work, end up on antibiotics sick. I spent all weekend sick in bed and when I went to work Monday they sent me home. By then I was bored with my own company, so I turned on the TV. And Dr Oz was on. They gave teasers about the next day's show. I ended up recording Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday, because the promo said something good was coming up, but the menu info didn't specify which show. On one of those recorded shows was a segment on elimination diets and testing for food sensitivities (commonly but mistakenly called food allergies). The next one was on how too much artificial sweetener messes up our taste buds. They were suggesting a soda-free challenge to change our taste bud sensitivity. I'm going sugar free.
Unfortunately, I'm still sick. Not a good idea to start something like this when suffering from bronchitis. For one thing, how will I know if the symptoms go away when I'm not well? But, I'm almost better. Today is day three of my antibiotics, and although the doctor said I'd be well enough to go to work today, I'm still feeling too puny to be up much. I'm sure I'll be fine after the weekend.
Anyway, as soon as I'm well, I'm getting blood tests done to see where I am when I start, with blood sugar and all that. Then I'm going on the elimination diet and find out if I have food sensitivities. And when I'm done, hopefully I'll be able to come up with a healthy diet I can live with.
PLEASE don't let me be allergic to yeast or wheat! PLEASE! Although, the very fact that I really love bread probably means I'm allergic to at least one. <deep sigh of impending doom>
Friday, November 15, 2013
I'm BAAAAACK!
I found my blog! I lost it for a while. Life was busy, I didn't get back, and I lost the bookmark. And had the hardest time finding it again. But here it is! Almost by accident. So I am posting again.
Yesterday was a good and bad day. I was exhausted all day long, and I don't even know why. But I didn't walk during lunch because I didn't have enough energy. But after the day was over, and I had attended my young brother-in-law's band class demonstration (it wasn't a concert, it was more of a music boosters event), I had about an hour or so to wait for my husband. So I walked from the school to Dairy Queen, past, and back, until my husband showed up and we had a treat to mark the end of the day. A nice three mile walk.And my feet complained about it for the next hour. :)
Yesterday was a good and bad day. I was exhausted all day long, and I don't even know why. But I didn't walk during lunch because I didn't have enough energy. But after the day was over, and I had attended my young brother-in-law's band class demonstration (it wasn't a concert, it was more of a music boosters event), I had about an hour or so to wait for my husband. So I walked from the school to Dairy Queen, past, and back, until my husband showed up and we had a treat to mark the end of the day. A nice three mile walk.And my feet complained about it for the next hour. :)
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)