Archive for ‘shopping’
6 items.
Jan02
It’s a new year and with the starting of a new calendar many folks around the world have all vowed to do one thing: lose weight.
And I saw a statistic the other day that was not all that encouraging for their chances.
Me? While my doctor would love to see that scale go down at my 6-month check-up, I’m not as concerned with the numbers as I might have been before. For me, it’s less about losing weight and more about being healthy.
That’s where moderation comes in.
Todd and I are pretty good about eating the “right” things, 9 times out of 10, but lately we’ve been less concerned about portion size. And if lab rats have taught us nothing, we’ve learned that too much of anything–even the good stuff–can be harmful.
Here’s a for instance for you: A while back I participated in the Game On! Diet
Folks, there’s a reason cows have 4 stomachs–1 is just not enough to deal with all that roughage in one day!
It didn’t help that, by no longer having a gall bladder, my body was just not equipped to handle such large meals in succession anymore. Basically, to say I was uncomfortable by mid-afternoon would be a severe understatement.
But before I swore off the challenge I dug around a bit and found where I’d gone astray (for the record, only 2 of the 5 meals–easily lunch and dinner–required the 2 cups of fibrous veggies) and the rest of the 4-week challenge went just fine (I even managed to lose 5 pounds, and our team won!).
Back to the point, moderation relies on one major factor: awareness. What you’re eating, how much of it and what it’s made of all play a part in this sort of healthy lifestyle choice. So how can you be more aware?
First, write everything down that you eat and drink. Really. You can do this in a notebook or use a hand website/app like MyFitnessPal.com. I started playing around with the latter the week before Christmas and found that if I was committed to writing everything down I was less likely to go grab a cookie from the breakroom because I didn’t want to have to write it down. And the time that I was willing to do so, I really appreciated that cookie a bit more.
Second, think about what really constitutes a portion. A 6 oz steak mike look pretty small on your plate, but it’s technically 2 servings of protein. Some folks like to relate portion sizes to the palm of your hand, the size of your closed fist, etc. but all I have to do is look at the size difference between my hand and Todd’s and know that’s not an accurate guide! If might feel weird, but carry around a 1/2-cup measuring cup for a week or two and visually compare it to the food on your plate will give you a much better idea of what a portion is.
Finally, know what you’re putting into your body. Obviously, if French fries are a regular part of your daily diet, you might want to start substituting something less fried for your side. But even the seemingly “healthy” stuff can do you in if you’re not sure of what’s in it. A salad topped with fat-free dressing might sound like a good thing, until you realize all the chemicals that went into making that dressing could be more harmful than a basic oil and vinegar dressing with, yes, fat (but the good kind of fat). If you’ve got the time to make everything from scratch, more power to you–I don’t and don’t expect anyone else to, either. But educating ourselves about ingredients is a step in the right direction and the Fooducate app is, I think, a great tool for making better choices at the grocery store.
That’s my plan, at least, and if the numbers on the scale go down, that’s great. (If not, you won’t find me boo-hooing, though, because quality of life, to me, is more than a number on a scale.)
Do you have any healthy plans for the upcoming year?
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Jun06
For the month of May it was undeniably purple!
I’ve still been enjoying my bi-weekly visits to the local farmers’ market and loving how simple a start it makes menu-setting for my weeks. If I had to state a downside, the only one I can think of is that if our plans get juggled and we push a day or two off, sometimes the produce just doesn’t last long enough! But, hey, it’s a smallish price to pay for just-picked goodness.
I’m even starting to make friends with a couple of the farmers!
As spring began we were excited to see more farmers showing up to the market and were looking forward to the variety the season would bring. I always seem to find new or uncommon things to try each time.
One week in particular I brought home tart plums (that we paired with boneless pork chops), purple beans that turn green when you cook them (well, mostly green, there was still a little bit of a brown tinge to it), and Norwegian purple potatoes (these are the ones with purple skin and white flesh, unlike the Peruvian purples that have purple flesh and skin–those I got later in the month). The following trip yielded some red noodle beans about a foot long, each, as well as some beautiful Japanese eggplant.
Of course it wasn’t all purple–there was plenty of greens, yellows and reds to be found.
What’s catching your eye at the market–farmer or otherwise–this season?
Jan10
Farmer's Market Haul
If there’s one thing I retained from 3 years as a Brownie it’s “Be Prepared.” In fact, I might be a smidgen compulsive on the research front, wanting to know as much as possible about a situation before heading into it. So it was that I asked for helpful hints in advance of my first trip to the local farmers’ market this past weekend.
Armed with my new-found knowledge I approached Saturday’s blustery market with my own shopping bag, plenty of 5s and 1s and a fresh dose of optimism. I started with a circuit around the pavilion to get an idea what all was available then went back to where I started and began to buy. Unlike the accidental reconnaissance of last month most tables featured well-identified price lists or tags, sparing me having to ask about more than a couple of prices.
Cash-wise I erred on the side of caution and brought double what I ended up spending (just as well–now I won’t) have to go back to the bank in 2 weeks when it’s my turn to make the menu again. If farmers’ markets gave receipts, here’s what mine would have looked like:
$9 for 4 petite acorn squash (1.50 each) and 2# of red potatoes ($3)
$2.50 for a basket of 6 sweet potatoes
$3 for Vidalia onions ($1 each)
$1.20 for a small rhizome of fresh turmeric
$10 for butter crunch lettuce, Swiss chard and arugula
$1.25 for a small rosemary plant
Since local shops take up most of the slots in the shopping center that hosts the farmers’ market, I also stopped into the seafood shop for some tilapia fillets and shucked oysters and into the patisserie for a round loaf of fresh-baked bread and a couple of pain au chocolats for Todd and I. (Future trips may start in Au Peche Mignon rather than than end there, especially if it stays this chilly–they serve coffee, too!)
Now, what to do with this bounty?
The oysters will be made into oyster stew served with the hearty bread from the bakery for a nice, light but warming supper. The acorn squash are the perfect size to steam, hollow, fill and bake with chicken, zucchini and hominy–a deconstructed take on my favorite Spanish Fork Chicken Stew). An onion tart seems very likely with the vidalias and Swiss chard with a salad of butter crunch and arugula on the side and the tilapia will be simply pan-fried and served with the roasted red potatoes. That just leaves the sweet potatoes to be scalloped alongside some chicken-fried steak.
To be honest, I’ve got no idea (yet) what I’ll do with the turmeric, I was just so stoked to see it in it’s natural state (to hear that it grows so well down here and actually likes partial shade was a bonus–I may try planting a part of mine just to see what happens!) that I had to buy some just to play with. The same stand sold ginger and baby lettuces and was one of the few seen using a scale as opposed to pricing per piece or bunch.
My knitted bag (made before every grocery store and it’s cousin started selling their own reusable shopping bags and based on the Itsybitsy bag at Knitty.com) was soon stretched to it’s limits and I felt positively giddy at buying fresh and local ingredients so near my home for, in many cases, less than I was used to seeing in the store. With that and the purchases from the other locally owned shops, my list for the supermarket is fairly short.
I can hardly wait until spring when the rest of the market is full and the new produce starts appearing!
