Flat Belly Diet

Even with my food obsession I've managed to maintain my goal weight for over a year. But over the past few weeks I've just been feeling sluggish and bloated. I knew I needed a little jumpstart to get my system back on track and maybe lose a few pounds in the meantime.

After exploring a Raw Foods cleanse and the Candida Diet (both of which seem helpful but not for me due to a number of reasons, especially "NO cheese"), my very dear friends F & C suggested The Flat Belly Diet.

The Flat Belly Diet, on the most basic level, helps one reduce the intake of salt, excess carbs, raw bulky foods, and "bad fats" and increase the intake of monounsaturated fatty acids (MUFAs or "good fats"), such as olive oil, salmon, walnuts, and dark chocolate. (Yes, I managed to use diet and chocolate in the same sentence.)

A strict 4-day Jumpstart menu commences the Flat Belly Diet. The Jumpstart is intended to alleviate water-retention that often happens at the beginning of a diet. Today is my third day of the Jumpstart, and quite honestly it's been a breeze. A breakfast of cornflakes, skim milk, applesauce and sunflower seeds is are more than filling. My lunch of organic deli turkey, string cheese (YES!), and steamed carrots with herbs, spices, and black pepper in place of butter is quite tasty. My dinner of turkey cutlet, green beans and roasted potatoes is light and healthy, a perfect meal after teaching late or before hot yoga. Plus, each day there's a snack, which I can have any time in the day I want it. And they call this a diet?

After the 4-day Jumpstart, 28 days that each include four 400 calorie meals follows. During this time one can use suggested menus from the diet book or the cookbook. The only objective is to stay within your appropriate calorie range, eat MUFAs, avoid "bad fats," and exercise.

As a skeptic and food-obessed maniac, I bought and cooked from The Flat Belly Diet Cookbook well before I embarked on my Flat Belly Diet journey. If the food wasn't going to be good, I knew I wouldn't have anything to do with it.

I was sold on the recipes after F cooked fantastic-after-fantastic meal for us during our visit to Delaware. But I knew I wanted to actually do the diet after I successfully BAKED (yes, me, the woman who can't bake) the BEST cupcakes of my life. A diet with delicious cupcakes--here's a way I can stay on track & not deprive myself of the foods I love.

Because I lost the majority of my weight with Weight Watchers, I can't say if Flat Belly would be as successful. I imagine it could be. Both diets help a dieter rethink portion size and offer good foods. Through my reading of the Flat Belly Diet, I believe it encourages dieters to buy more fresh, less-processed foods and to buy organic and from farmers markets when they can. With that said, one drawback of the Flat Belly Diet is its expense; the organic products and specialty oils can be expensive, especially if one is not used to buying these products. Also, I wish I would have read more regarding how to dine out on the Flat Belly Diet. Realistically, dieters, at some point, must have a meal out. With Weight Watchers, you can anticipate that meal and plan for it with points. I assume with the Flat Belly Diet you control your portions and try to order foods with MUFAs. That doesn't seem too difficult. I'll be trying it this weekend, and that's my plan, at least.

What's definitely not too difficult was making those tasty Lemon Cupcakes with Citrus Icing from the Flat Belly Diet Cookbook. And I will make them again and again, even when I'm not strictly following the diet, which very well might be after I finish the Jumpstart in which I've already lost 3 lbs and am feeling light, cleansed, and energetic.



Vaccariello, Liz and Cynthia Sass. The Flat Belly Diet Cookbook. New York: Rodale, 2008. Print.


Lemon Cupcakes with Citrus Icing

Cupcake Ingredients:
1 2/3c unbleached all-purpose flour
1c sugar
2t baking powder
1/2t baking soda
1/4t salt
3/4c safflower oil
2 eggs
1/3c fat-free milk
1/4c freshly squeezed lemon juice
1t lemon zest
1t lemon extract
1/2t vanilla extract

Icing Ingredients:
1 1/2c confectioners' sugar
2T freshly squeezed orange juice
1t orange zest

Directions:
1.) Preheat oven to 350. Line 12 cup muffin pan with paper liners.
2.) To prep cupcake batter: Combine flour, sugar, baking powder, baking soda, and salt in bowl. Combine oil, eggs, milk, lemon juice, lemon zest, lemon extract, and vanilla extract in a separate bowl. Add to the flour mixture and stir until smooth.
3.) Spoon batter into muffin cups and bake for 17-19 minutes or until cupcakes are lightly golden and spring when gently touched. Place pan on rack and let cool for 5 minutes. Remove cupcakes from pan, transfer to rack, and let cool completely.
4.) To prep icing: Combine confectioners' sugar, orange juice, and orange zest in a bowl and stir until smooth. Spread some of the glaze over each cupcake with a small spatula and let stand for at least 10 minutes before serving.

Tips: Use a blood orange for a more colorful icing like the one in my pictures. Also, fill each cup only 3/4 full so the tops are more flat. With the extra batter make a few extra cupcakes; this recipe yielded 16 cupcakes for me.

For the Pets (and Pet Lovers) Out There!

Our food-loving Black Lab Bleu and his best friend Benny convinced me I should do a pet issue for Connotation Press.

And because I believe dogs can talk and why wouldn't I listen to them, check out the March issue of Connotation Press.

It's funny, moving, and has a few great recipes for our furry, four-legged friends.

Let's Skirt Around the Issues

I've been toying with the possibility of reviving my personal blog: A Skirt Around the Issues.

I first began my journey with food and food writing on A Skirt, but lately I've been realizing food is leading me back to personal reflections that might not be so appropriate on a food blog.

If you're interested, please follow A Skirt Around the Issues. I won't be updating it as regularly as Everyday Palate, but I promise, between both blogs, you'll get enough of me to tie you over until the next post.

Apple Two Ways

I had pork chops defrosting in the fridge.

I had a honeycrisp apple on hand and two green apples on hand.

So I started digging around in my magazine and cookbook stashes for "pork and apple" recipes.

Even though I've heard from many food friends that Martha Stewart's recipes don't always work for them, I've had a lot of luck with her Everyday Food Great Fast Food cookbook. (And I hope to have a lot of luck with her iPhone App too. I'll keep you posted on that!) Both of these apple-inspired recipes came from there.

The pork chops with apples and shallots were crisp (because of the broiling and the apples) and juicy without being too sweet. Because my Luginbill Family Farm chops were about an inch rather than the recommended 1/2 inch, they took a little longer to cook: 15 minutes plus rest time and they probably could have used 3 more minutes. They were a touch pink.

As a rider on the Everything's-Better-with-Bacon bandwagon, I felt the side of red cabbage and apples would keep the theme of crispness from the chops going with some more pork flavor. It definitely did. My only recommendation is taste frequently so you can add the right amount of salt and pepper. The vinegar was almost too prominent, but salt really cut that tangy-ness.

Both recipes were super easy. The cabbage just requires some planning. It does need to cook down for 45-60 minutes. But the chops were done and ready to serve in 30 hour flat.

Definitely two keepers and enough leftovers for FD and I to come home from teaching late, eat, and then grade. If I want a Spring Break, grading crazily now is the only way I'm going to get it.

Pork Chops with Apples and Shallots

Serves 4.

• 2 tablespoons butter
• 1/2 pound medium shallots, halved or quartered lengthwise (pieces should be about 3/4 inch thick)
• 2 Granny Smith apples, peeled, cored, and cut into eighths
• 1/2 cup white wine
• 4 pork rib chops (each 1/2 inch thick and 6 to 8 ounces)
• Coarse salt and ground pepper

Directions

1. Heat broiler; set rack 4 inches from heat. In a large skillet, heat butter over medium-high. Add shallots; cook, stirring occasionally, until browned, about 5 minutes. Cover pan; reduce heat to medium. Continue cooking until shallots are soft, about 5 minutes more.
2. Add apples and wine; cover, and cook until apples are beginning to soften, about 5 minutes. Uncover; cook, stirring, until most of the liquid has evaporated and apples are tender, 2 to 4 minutes more. Remove from heat; cover to keep warm.
3. While apples are cooking, season pork chops generously with salt and pepper; place on a rimmed baking sheet. Broil until cooked through, 3 to 5 minutes per side. To serve, spoon warm apple mixture over chops.

Red Cabbage with Apples

Serves 4 to 6.

• 2 slices bacon, cut into 1/2-inch strips
• 1 small onion, halved and thinly sliced
• 1 small head red cabbage, cored, quartered, and thinly sliced
• 1 green apple, peeled and thinly sliced
• 3 tablespoons cider vinegar
• Coarse salt and ground pepper

Directions

1. In a Dutch oven over medium heat, cook bacon until browned, 10 minutes.
2. Add onion; cook until soft, 5 minutes.
3. Add cabbage, apple, vinegar, and 1/4 cup water. Cook, stirring, until cabbage wilts, 5 minutes. Season with salt and pepper.
4. Cover; cook, stirring occasionally, over medium-low heat to desired softness (if sticking, add water), 45 minutes to 1 hour.

Fish Fry with Flare

Fish, in general, never used to excite me.

In fact, it usually causes panic, especially when I used to buy it at the grocery store. I never knew if the fish--tilapia, sole, halibut, etc.--had come in contact with shelled seafood, my arch-nemesis that has the power to kill me.

So for many years I just avoided the whole fish situation by not eating it at all, unless it was a McFish sandwich during lent.

Then I married a fisherman. Then I stopped eating fast food. Then I became a returning Catholic.

Now I'm eating fish.

Not just any fish, though. I'm eating fish that FD or his dad or his brother caught--mostly crappies, perch or walleye--at Mosquito Creek Reservoir or in Lake Erie near the Canadian border.

Most times I've left it to FD to prepare and cook the fish. That is until Lent started. As one of my Lenten meditations, I've taken up cooking fish.

And, of course, the best recipe I found fries it. Proclaiming to be a huge fan of fried food doesn't do hot oil and batter justice. Literally, I would eat anything fried--pickles, pizza, twinkles, crickets, roaches. That's how much I love fried food. I try not to eat it often, though. As we all know, it's not the healthiest preparation.

FD makes the most healthy of fish recipes: sauteing fillets in curry powder, baking them in parchment paper, etc. And I find this little piece of buttermilk-battered heaven.

Surely God is proud of my Lenten promise to cook fish.

Or more likely the fool who invented Epicurious is definitely going straight to heaven.

FD and I didn't have the time or ingredients for the pickled onions and peppers or the salsa verde--mostly because I refused to buy the ingredients at the grocery when I know I could make it at the end of the summer with all local ingredients, which would taste WAY better--but we made the Baja Cream, I marinated those little fillets in the buttermilk batter and we fried up in an inch of oil for 4 minutes, kept them warm in the oven, and found ourselves absolutely in love with this Mexican fish fry. (Justin Timberlake and Timberland, how come you couldn't sing about this recipe???)

We made a few adjustments, though. Use flour instead of corn tortillas; they hold up better and taste better. (Yes, we used both to make sure.) Add Cayenne Pepper to the flour for a kick; it's awesome.

Seriously, I force myself to eat fish. With this recipe I devoured, easily and happily, four tacos in one seating plus a few sneak bites of leftover fish before FD did the dishes.

It was sick. It was sickly awesome.

(Note: I use the word sick as a good thing. I didn't get sick from this recipe. In fact, it made my tummy very happy.)

~

Ingredients:

Pickled Red Onion and Jalapeños

• 1 red onion (about 12 ounces), halved lengthwise, cut thinly crosswise
• 5 whole small jalapeños
• 2 cups seasoned rice vinegar
• 3 tablespoons fresh lime juice
• 1 tablespoon coarse kosher salt

Baja cream

• 1/2 cup mayonnaise
• 1/2 cup sour cream
• 2 tablespoons fresh lime juice
• 1 teaspoon (packed) finely grated lime peel
• Pinch of salt

Tomatillo Salsa Verde

• 12 ounces tomatillos,* husked, stemmed, divided
• 4 green onions, white and green parts separated
• 1 jalapeño chile
• 2 garlic cloves, unpeeled

• 1 1/4 cups (packed) fresh cilantro leaves
• 1 tablespoon (or more) fresh lime juice

Fish

• 2 cups buttermilk
• 1/2 cup chopped fresh cilantro
• 2 tablespoons hot pepper sauce--Sriracha!!!
• 3 teaspoons coarse kosher salt, divided
• 1 tablespoon fresh lime juice
• 2 pounds skinless halibut, sea bass, or striped bass fillets, cut into 1/2x1/2-inch strips (or in our case, walleye, perch, crappies!)
  

• 16 flour tortillas
• 1t Cayenne Pepper
  
• 2 cups self-rising flour
• Vegetable oil (for frying)

• Fresh salsa
• Guacamole

Preparation:

For pickled red onion and jalapeños:
Place onion and jalapeños in heatproof medium bowl. Mix vinegar, lime juice, and salt in small saucepan. Bring just to boil, stirring until salt dissolves. Pour over onion and jalapeños. Let stand at room temperature at least 1 hour and up to 8 hours. (Can be made 1 week ahead. Cover and refrigerate.)

For baja cream:
Whisk all ingredients in small bowl. (Can be made 3 days ahead. Cover and refrigerate.)

For tomatillo salsa verde:
Preheat oven to 375°F. Lightly oil roasting pan. Char half of tomatillos, white parts of green onions, and jalapeño directly over gas flame or in broiler. Transfer charred vegetables to prepared roasting pan. Add remaining tomatillos and garlic cloves to pan. Roast until all vegetables are soft, about 12 minutes. Cool.

Stem and seed jalapeño. Place all roasted vegetables, green onion tops, cilantro, and 1 tablespoon lime juice in blender. Puree until smooth, stopping to push vegetables down into blades several times. Transfer to medium bowl. Season with salt and more lime juice, if desired.

For fish:
Mix buttermilk, cilantro, pepper sauce, 1 teaspoon salt, and lime juice in large bowl. Add fish; toss. Cover; chill at least 1 hour and up to 3 hours.

Preheat oven to 300°F. Wrap tortillas in foil; place in oven to warm. Whisk flour and remaining 2 teaspoons salt in medium bowl. Add enough oil to large skillet to reach depth of 1 inch. Heat oil until thermometer registers 350°F. Working in batches, remove fish from marinade and dredge in flour. Carefully add fish to skillet, cover partially, and fry until golden brown, turning occasionally, about 4 minutes. Transfer to paper-towel-lined baking sheet to drain, then transfer to oven to keep warm.

Set up buffet with all taco fixings, along with fresh salsa and guacamole.

*Green and tomato-like with a papery husk, tomatillos are available in the produce section of some supermarkets and Latin markets.

Read More http://www.epicurious.com/recipes/food/views/Fish-Taco-Platter-233703#ixzz0gsEL89K

Carryout

The title of this post is a bit misleading.

Maybe you thought I was going to write about carryout food.

That makes sense. Too much sense, in fact.

This afternoon on our way home from walking Bleu at Oak Openings, FD and I heard the song "Carryout" by Timberland and Justin Timberlake. I love my boy JT, but this song made NO sense. To the point that FD and I thought it was a McDonald's ad or a SNL skit.

We were wrong.

I can only assume that love has become a convenient commodity when people think a song that compares love to an iHop is "sooooooo good" and "sooooo hard." (I'm all for slang but what does "hard" mean? I thought it was slang for thugs, not cheesy pop songs that sing, "Take my order, baby, because you're body's like a carryout?")

As much as I find this song offensive, I'm fascinated by the idea that food is a cool enough topic to warrant a metaphor for a pop song that JT sings and that is played A LOT on popular radio.

I just wish JT and Timberland would have compared love to grass-fed cows, heirloom tomatoes, lacinato kale, community gardening, the Slow Foods movement, backyard chickens, and Revolver Restaurant. Then I would have been on board. To the point that the song would have actually turned me on.

Alas, comparing a woman to an order or thinking of her as a waitress is just setting us all back--to the 1950s.

For your enjoyment, included is a YouTube video of the song. If you prefer not to indulge in the moronic delights that are popular music, peruse the lyrics.

Just some food for thought.

~




Baby, you’re lookin’ fire hot
I’ll have you open all night like an IHOP
I take you home baby let you keep me company
You gimme some of you, I give you some of me

You look good, baby must taste heavenly
I’m pretty sure that you got your own recipe
So pick it up, pick it up, yeah I like you
I just can’t get enough I got to drive through

Cause is me, you, you, me, me, you all night
Have it your way, foreplay
Before I feed you appetite

Let me get my ticket baby, let me get it line
I can tell the way you like it, baby, supersized
Hold on, you got yours, let me get mine
I ain’t leavin’ till they turn over the closed sign

Check it

Take my order cause your body like a
carry out
Let me walk into your body until you
hear me out
Turn me on, my baby dont you
cut me out
Turn me on, my baby dont you
cut me out

Take my order cause your body like a
carry out
Let me walk into your body till it’s
lights out
Turn me on, my baby dont you
cut me out
Turn me on, my baby dont you
cut me out

Number one, I take two number three’s
That’s a whole lot of you and a side of me.
Now is it full of myself to want you full of me?
And if there’s room for dessert then I want a piece

Baby get my order right, no errors
Imma touch you in all the right areas
I could feed you, you could feed me
Girl, deliver that to me, come see me

Cause is me, you, you, me, me, you all night
Have it your way, foreplay
Before I feed you appetite

Do you like it well done, cause I do it well
Cause I’m well seasoned if you couldn’t tell
Now let me walk into your body until you hear me out
And turn me on, my baby, dont you cut me out

Say

Take my order cause your body like a
carry out
Let me walk into your body until you
hear me out
Turn me on, my baby dont you
cut me out
Turn me on, my baby dont you
cut me out

Take my order cause your body like a
carry out
Let me walk into your body till it’s
lights out
Turn me on, my baby dont you
cut me out
Turn me on, my baby dont you
cut me out

What’s your name?
What’s your number?
I’m glad I came
Can you take my order?

What’s your name?
Girl, what’s your number?
I’m glad I came
Can you take my order?

Come over here (what’s your name?)
Come closer (what’s your number?)
I’m over here (I’m glad I came)
A little closer (can you take my order?)

Come over here (what’s your name?)
Come closer (what’s your number?)
I’m over here (I’m glad I came)
A little closer (can you take my order?)

Take my order cause your body like a
carry out
Let me walk into your body until you
hear me out
Turn me on, my baby dont you
cut me out
Turn me on, my baby dont you
cut me out

Take my order cause your body like a
carry out
Let me walk into your body till it’s
lights out
Turn me on, my baby dont you
cut me out
Turn me on, my baby dont you
cut me out

Dont you cut me out!

Roasted Chicken Thighs with Potatoes & Carrots

FD is a HUGE fan of chicken thighs.

And who can blame him? So juicy, so tender, so succulent. We should all be fans of chicken thighs.

Let me rephrase: we should all be fans of organic, free range chicken thighs.

9 times out of 10 I buy a whole chicken from Luginbill Family Farm, but in those in-between months when I'm out of Luginbill chicken and can't get to Pandora and we're craving a little farmyard friend, I turn to the organic, free range chicken from the grocery store.

Please know I'm not a fan of buying meat from the grocery store unless it's from Mustard Seed or Nature's Bin (oh, to live in the Cleveland area again...) because I feel the meat is already over-priced at Meijer and especially Kroger. However, I'm hawk when it comes to the sale meats, specifically organic, free range meats.

I found a package of chicken thighs on sale two weeks ago at Kroger. I bought them for FD. And after such a busy week for both of us, I thought I'd surprise him with one of his favorite meats.

For the recipe I turned to Epicurious but the actual recipe I used was in my archive of Bon Appetit magazines. The thighs were delicious. I'm sad to report, though, that my carrots overcooked and my purple fingerling potatoes also were a little over roasted. (Yes, I will use Yukon Gold and whole carrots next time.) It doesn't mean we didn't enjoy every single bite. I will make this recipe again. Especially after I have a kitchen with an exceptional hood. (I think I need to clean my oven; everything I roast smokes now...Ugh. How can I win a kitchen remodel?)

The herb and spice mixture of salt, pepper, thyme, and nutmeg was perfectly earthy with the root veggies. (Oh, I tried for parsnips instead of carrots, but the ones I bought a few days ago had already rotted. My detest of out-of-season veggies is only growing stronger. But it's in constant battle with my love of veggies all year round. What am I to do? *Sigh* I'm buying organic as much as I can...)

But those thighs.

Those thighs.


Ingredients

• 3 tablespoons olive oil, divided
• 6 large chicken thighs with skin and bones (preferably organic; about 2 1/4 pounds total)
• 1 tablespoon coarse kosher salt
• 2 teaspoons dried thyme
• 1 1/2 teaspoons freshly ground black pepper
• 1/4 teaspoon freshly grated or ground nutmeg
• 2 pounds unpeeled medium Yukon Gold potatoes, scrubbed, cut into 2-inch-long, 1/2-inch-thick spears
• 2 pounds medium carrots, peeled, cut into 2-inch-long, 1/2-inch-thick spears
• 3 tablespoons chopped fresh chives
  

Prep

Preheat oven to 450°F. Coat large rimmed baking sheet with 1 tablespoon oil. Place chicken on baking sheet. Turn to coat with oil and set skin side up. Mix salt, thyme, 1½ teaspoons pepper, and nutmeg in small bowl. Sprinkle half of mixture over chicken. Roast until chicken starts to brown and some fat has rendered, about 30 minutes.

Meanwhile, combine potatoes, carrots, 2 tablespoons oil, and remaining saltthyme mixture in large bowl. Transfer thighs to medium bowl; set aside. Transfer potato-carrot mixture to same baking sheet; turn to coat with drippings. Roast until vegetables soften, 30 minutes. Place thighs on vegetables; pour accumulated juices from chicken over. Return sheet to oven. Roast until chicken is cooked and vegetables brown, 15 minutes longer.

Place chicken on platter; top with chives.

Read More http://www.epicurious.com/recipes/food/views/Oven-Roasted-Chicken-Thighs-with-Carrots-and-Yukon-Gold-Potatoes-351711#ixzz0gbUgEG8s