Nanna's Shortbread

There are a lot of shortbread recipes out there. Some better than others. This one is simply a traditional shortbread. The kind usually rolled out and cut into festive shapes :) It's a favourite of mine but I don't cut them into shapes anymore I simply roll some into a ball about the size of a cocktail meatball and make an indentation into the middle which sort of flattens the ball a little and then I put a half teaspoon of jam or lemon curd into the depression. Delish! Much easier than all the fuss of rolling it out cutting some shapes, gathering the bits and rolling them out again ... although if that's your thing shortbread is the way to go, it's very forgiving and you can keep rolling out the scraps until you've cut all the cookies you can ;)

In memory of my Mom, I miss her dearly, but at least I have all her recipes :)

Nanna's Shortbread

Ingredients:

• 1 lb butter
• 1 cup icing sugar
• 4 cup flour, all purpose
• 1/2 tsp baking powder
• 1/2 tsp almond extract
• 1.2 tsp sea salt

Directions:

1. Cream butter and icing sugar with a fork in a large bowl.
2. Add almond extract and mix in well.
3. Mix all dry ingredients together in a separate bowl then add to butter mixture. Stir in well with a large wooden spoon then turn out onto floured surface.
4. Knead til dough no longer clings. It will go from VERY sticky to almost none after enough kneading. You may have to add a little more flour but it shouldn't take much. It will be obvious when you are done.
5. Pinch off a small amount about the size of a cocktail meatball and roll into a ball. Repeat with remaining dough.
6. Make a depression in the center of each ball and fill with jam or lemon curd.
7. Bake at 345' for exactly 12 minutes. Edges should just show a HINT of browning the lighter the better, these must NOT be overcooked or they aren't nearly as nice and can get too crispy tough. They should be light and almost melt in your mouth.
8. Alternately you can roll out dough to about 1/4' thickness and cut with your favourite cookie cutters. Scraps can be gathered and rerolled out to use up all the dough. Decorate individual cookies if you like by using colourful sprinkles, flakes or icings :)

These cookies are quite light tasting and a nice addition to any holiday table. Another shortbread recipe which can be quite nice as well uses cornstarch instead of baking powder. That type of shortbread is even lighter and more melt in your mouth but more delicate as well. Both types are lovely but I prefer this one because , well it's my moms.

Christmas is coming oh my!

Ok some of you may not know this but it isn't something I hide ... I am an atheist. Even so, I really really like Christmas ... maybe it's a throwback to my childhood but I love the festivity of it. No, I don't buy into the Christian hijacking of what was once a pagan ritual but that's sort of beside the point. I really like the gathering of family and the pomp and circumstance of the holiday. Heck I even like the songs ... even the Christian songs. I love giving gifts and I love receiving them as well ;) Even more relevant to this blog anyway I love the food! Every year I go to great lengths to have all kinds of home baked and store bought goodies on hand ... my gang has a hard time even making a dent in all the decadence I provide, but that never seems to stop me from overdoing it year after year .... I mean you never know when an army drop by and gosh if you didn't have a ton of cookies and squares set aside you might not have anything to feed them! Horrors .... so I always stock up ... and we eat well for a month after the big day ...

This can make it hard to maintain weight or lose weight for the months of December and January but if I limit myself to only one or 2 treats a day .. even I can manage :) Everything in moderation ... and it's the holidays already ... enjoy!

I will post a few of my family favourites over the next few days starting with what I made this afternoon ... My mother's shortbread recipe.

Curried Squash Bisque

Made a delicious curried squash bisque last night. Stashed most of it away in the freezer in handy one cup servings ... this will go sooo nice for a light lunch paired with a half sandwich! It was really yummy and I'll definitely keep this recipe around for more.

Curried Squash Bisque

Ingredients

• 3 cups squash puree ( I didn't have 3 cups so I used 2c squash puree and 1c pumpkin puree)
• 1 onion, rough chopped
• 1 large carrot, rough chopped
• 1 apple, peeled and rough chopped
• 2Tbsp butter
• 2 tsp Thai red curry paste (I used a little more, it was fairly mild in the soup)
• 2 cloves Garlic, rough chopped
• 15 oz chicken broth, no salt (I used my home made stock)
• 2 bay leaves, whole
• 1/4 cup whipping cream (could prolly use less fat cream without any discernable difference in taste, I'll have to experiment)
• 2 Tbsp honey

Directions:

1. Saute onions, carrots and apple in butter for 5 minutes over medium heat.
2. Add curry paste and garlic and cook another 2 minutes or so
3. Add stock, puree (actually doesn't HAVE to be puree, I just had some already prepped in my freezer, you could sub in frozen squash or fresh or even fresh roasted, this will all be eventually pureed anyway) and bay leaves, bring to boil, reduce heat and simmer for about an hour. May add water as needed if it gets too thick
4. Remove bay leaves and puree soup either with an immersion blender or in batches in a food processor/blender and return to pot
5. Add honey and cream. stir to blend.

May garnish with some sour cream or cilantro if desired, but I didn't

Overall calories are approximately 141 with about 2g of fiber for a cup serving. This recipe makes about 8 cups.

Complete nutritional analysis for recipe as written can be found here :

http://www.livestrong.com/recipes/curried-butternut-squash-bisque/

IA

Chicken in an Orange Curry Sauce

I have some leftover cooked chicken breast in the fridge and was trying to figure out what to do with it. I ALSO have some leftover vegetable fried rice from one of our grocery store's Chinese takeout counter (Quality Foods ... best Chinese takeout in the valley!) and last but not least I saw a video recently on Foodwishes showing the proper technique for sectioning an orange to get perfect orange supremes and this gives me the chance to experiment with THAT as well!

So with those 3 criteria set out I began pondering what to do for supper and decided on Chicken in an Orange Curry Sauce .. sounds yummy but I am a little gun shy from my pecan crusted chicken fiasco last week, so we'll see. At the very least it allows me to use up 2 leftovers in the fridge as well as practice a new technique so it's definitely worth at least one try :) Nothing ventured ... nothing gained ....

Ingredients:

• 300g chicken breast, cooked and cubed (about 2 small breast halves or 2-3 cups)
• 2 cup Vegetable fried rice (or plain cooked rice, whatever you have on hand)
• 1 can sweet potato diced, drained
• 1/2 cup orange juice concentrate (undiluted)
• 1/2 cup water
• 3 Tbsp honey
• 1 Tbsp curry powder
• 2 Tbsp lime juice OR juice from 1 lime
• 2 cloves garlic, minced
• 1 tsp cinnamon
• 1 tsp nutmeg
• 1 tsp salt
• 1 tsp garlic salt
• 1/2 tsp ground black pepper
• 1/2 red bell pepper diced
• 2 oranges peeled and sectioned

Directions:

1. Place rice in 9x9 baking dish, top with diced cooked chicken and drained sweet potatoes
2. Mix remaining ingredients, except the orange sections, in a small bowl and pour over chicken, if it looks too dry you can add a litle more orange juice.
3. top with orange sections
4. Bake at 350 for 30 minutes or til heated through

Makes 2 generous servings or 4 if you add a side to this such as green beans or a salad

This turned out surprisingly good. Not to die for by any means but pretty decent for a leftover meal. Hot and spicy and fresh tasting. It looked kinda pretty as well with the orange sections on top. I'd make this again but not for company, while it's a good hearty meal it isn't quite guest fare. Next time I'd up the honey by a Tbsp and cut back on the ground pepper ... I included those changes in the written recipe above. I might try and cut back the sodium in this as well it was kinda 'up there' maybe use garlic powder instead of garlic salt.

The whole meal as written clocked in at an even 800 calories/serving (based on 2 servings) and you can view the complete nutritional values HERE

IA

Thanksgiving!! Sweet Potato Pecan Casserole

I must be having a grey hair week this week .... I just realized it's THANKSGIVING this weekend and I have done nothing to get ready! Wow .... I guess I am going shopping today for a bird and some other goodies. Sadly my daughter will not be making it hope for the weekend :( It's the first time we will be having our thanksgiving feast without one of my kids ... she will be missed A LOT. I was looking forward to some quality time with her in the kitchen, she loves to experiment as much as I do. I must remember to send a care package to her with some choice leftovers ... she does so love my caramelized basalmic glazed onions and sweet potato pecan casserole. Ahh well there's always Christmas. Still, it won't be the same with her absent and I know she is upset too which makes it worse. Stupid work anyway! They don't deserve her ....

Anyway in honour of my daughter who is doing fabulously at college (and work, busy girl) I am going to post her two most favourite holiday sides, starting with the sweet potato pecan casserole which became an instant family tradition after we tried it 3 years ago. Made with yams of course, which is why we call it sweet potato casserole *doh*

Sweet Potato Pecan Casserole

• 5-6 yams, medium sized about2x the size of a baking potato
• 1/4 tsp salt
• 1/4 c butter
• 2 eggs
• 1 tsp Pure Vanilla extract ( NEVER used artificial, there's a reason it's cheaper)
• 1/2 tsp cinnamon
• 1/2 c brown sugar (or 1/4 cup brown sugar splenda blend)
• 2 Tbsp heavy cream (whipping)

Streusel topping

• 1/4 c butter (softened)
• 3 Tbsp flour
• 3/4 c brown sugar
• 1/2 c pecan pieces (chopped)

Directions:

1. Preheat oven to 350 bake sweet potatoes for one hour. Test for doneness, should be very soft, if not, add half an inch of water, cover with foil and continue to steam/bake until done. Cool, peel and mash with a fork in a large bowl to get sweet potato puree.
2. In a large bowl mix the sweet potato, salt 1/4c butter, eggs, vanilla, cinnamon, brown sugar and heavy/whipping cream.
   
3. In a medium bowl combine 1/4c butter, chopped pecans and brown sugar to the consistency of course meal.
   
4. Put sweet potato mixture into greased 9x13 baking dish and crumble streusel topping over the top.
5. Bake 30 minutes or until done, until topping is crisp and lightly browned

This can be made a day or maybe even 2 ahead and baked while the turkey is resting after coming out of the oven and you are preparing the gravy. This clocks in at about 250 calories a serving based on a 9x13 baking dish divided into 12 servings. Full nutritional details for this can be viewed HERE. You can cut back on the sugar content on this by substituting Brown sugar Splenda for the regular brown sugar. I have not tried that however as I usually go off the tracking wagon for holiday meals ... Not sure how the blend works in a streusal topping but I suspect it would be unnoticeable in the filling so I may give it a whirl this weekend to see. If substituting brown sugar splenda you only need HALF the volume given for regular brown sugar. This would reduce the volume of the streusal topping by bulk but not by sweetness so be careful if you need more topping add more pecans rather than more splenda blend.

This is really delicious and I like it much better than my old sweet potato casserole. I have never been fond of the marshmallow topped variety, I mean ... really? marshmallows? NOT classy. This presents as gourmet and I will never go back in fact I tossed ALL my other recipes in favour of this one, that should tell you how much I like this cause I NEVER throw out recipes ;)

IA

Creamed Spinach

Spinach is really really good for you and packed with fiber and a ton of vitamins and minerals, unfortunately not many people actually like it ;)

I happen to be one of the lucky few who do, although just plain cooked really isn't my style. Fortunately there are tons of great recipes out there.

One of the recipes I rather like is for creamed spinach. The only bad thing is, as a side dish, it isn't very low cal or especially filling so I don't make it often but I usually have a few half cup servings in my freezer to feed the urge when I get one. It goes really well with grilled meat like steak so depending on your other sides, the extra calories might not be an issue, such as if you had a salad instead of a baked potato with all the fixins, for instance ;)

One of the things I sometimes do is add a half cup serving to another recipe for added oompf (no, not a word), to my chicken pot pie recipe for instance. It adds a bit of extra flavour, nutrition and the flecks of dark green add a visual component that I like as well ... the flavour enhancement is not particularly noticeable but it does add an extra dimension that adds to the overall effect so people who don't like spinach would never even know it's there ... like my son ;) I might even try adding some to my Thai Red Curry with chicken recipe next time I make it, no it wouldn't be authentic, but I bet it might taste good;)

Ingredients:

• 1/4 c butter
• 1 onion, medium (150g) I use rather large vidalia (sweet) onions so only use 1/2
• 1/3 c flour, all purpose is fine
• 4 cloves garlic
• 1.5 c milk, I use 1% or 2% depending on what I have, doesn't really matter
• 1 clove, whole
• pinch nutmeg, fresh grated OR a pinch of ground nutmeg to taste
• 500g frozen spinach, thawed, drained AND squeezed in paper towels to remove excess water

salt and pepper to taste

Directions:

1. Melt butter in saute pan and add 1 whole clove (spice not garlic) to scent the butter.
2. Add finely diced onion and saute until translucent, do not brown.
3. When onions are translucent remove the clove and add garlic (minced). Saute a few second (20-30 no more) then add flour and cook additional minute or so to take the raw taste off the flour.
4. Slowly add milk, stirring constantly.
5. Taste and season with salt and pepper as needed.
6. Grate a little fresh nutmeg into sauce (to taste) then add drained/squeezed spinach
7. Optional - you may add a little ground clove to taste if you like at this point but the clove taste is supposed to be just a whisper ... personally I like it a bit louder but that's just me.

This inspiration for this comes from Foodwishes, he has an excellent video up showing the original recipe. In my version I have halved the butter used to cut back on fat but this still comes in at about 200 calories for a half cup serving with 100 of those calories coming from fat. I got about 5 servings of roughly 1/2 a cup each from this.

Full nutritional details for my version can be found HERE

IA

Good morning!

Another weekend over! It was busy so I did not get a chance to post but the good news is I got a lot done outside. My husband did some work replacing our deck and I managed to fertilize and lime our lawn in preparation for the long winter slumber. I also got started painting the new fence our neighbour put up this summer. In fact I have to do a bit more of that today as the sun is shining ;)

The best news however, is that it is fall and that means fresh pumpkins! I found sugar pumpkins at one of our local grocery stores (Thrifty's) and I was floored to see them. I have been looking for some ever since we came to the Island 7 years ago and finally found the health food store would occasionally have some .. but NEVER any grocery stores ... maybe all my whining over the years has finally paid off ... heh anyway I bought 3 and I may go back for more while they are available ... I plan to process and freeze those babies so I can use my OWN pumpkin puree rather than canned ... not that there is anything wrong with canned per se ... but real pumpkin makes the BEST pie EVER imo ;)

Just as an aside ... a jack-o-lantern pumpkin is NOT a sugar (pie) pumpkin. A sugar pumpkin, also called a pie pumpkin, is much smaller ... about 6" high and maybe 8" in diameter ... the ones I have seen are relatively smooth skinned and the flesh is sweeter and less stringy, much more suited to cooking than your run of the mill pumpkin ... as I have soo often lectured my grocery store's produce manager when he tried to sell me a 10 ton tough, tasteless stringy jack-o-lantern for my fall pie baking of all things ... sheesh

Fresh pumpkin puree is easy to do and it freezes really well in a ziploc for use later in the year when pumpkins are not available.

I generally cut my pumpkins in half and pull out all the seeds and stringy bits. I then cut the halves into smaller chunks, pop them into my dutch oven with about an inch of water and then steam them until tender over low heat adding more water if necessary. When they are tender I drain the remaining water and cool the pumpkin. Once cool it's pretty easy to scoop the flesh into a large bowl and to discard the remaining bit of peel. I smash the pumpkin with my fork, some recipes tell you to throw it in a food processor and puree it but I have never found that to be necessary or beneficial. I store the pumpkin in 2c servings in freezer proof ziploc bags.

An alternative method is to cut the pumpkins and clean as above then place cut side down on a cookie sheet and bake at 300' until tender. I've never tried this method so this year I might try it with one of my pumpkins to see if there is any flavour enhancement baking over steaming.

IA

Curried Cream of Cauliflower Soup

I usually eat a pretty light lunch. It's often just enough to hold me over to supper cause I like to eat a substantial evening meal. I'd like to switch things up a bit to eat a larger meal closer to the middle of the day and end the day on a lighter meal but i haven't yet worked up the courage ... yes courage, to do so.

I quite like soup for my mid day meal because it is light and low in calories and yet packs a nutritional punch. I occasionally will have a full sized sandwich on whole wheat or better yet a half sandwich with a half a bowl of soup but i rarely have any more than that.

While I used to buy most of my soups in those cartons you see (I'd mix and match ... a little of this ... a little of that) lately I have been making my own. It' easy and I make a big batch, freezing my extra portions to be thawed, heated and eaten later.

The last soup I made was curried cauliflower. Now, I like plain old regular cream of cauliflower soup but THIS soup has a curry twist which is really quite nice and flavourful. If you like a bit of heat (not much) this is something you might like to try. It's only 156 calories for a full cup serving (250ml) and has 3g of fiber! You can see the recipe and complete nutritional data HERE

Curried Cream of Cauliflower Soup

Ingredients

• 1 Leek
• 4 tbsp Shallots
• 1/2 medium Onion, Sweet
• 1 tbsp Extra Virgin Olive Oil
• 2 tbsp Unsalted Cultured Butter My Country
• 1 medium stalk celery, raw
• 2 tbsp Minced Garlic in Water
• 2 tsp Curry Powder
• 2 tsp Ground Ginger
• 3 cups No Salt Added Chicken Broth
• 3 cups Vegetable Stock Salt Reduced
• 1/2 whole yiel LEMON Juice, Fresh Squeezed
• 840 g Cauliflower Head
• 1 cup Creamo Half & Half
• 1 tsp Salt
• 1/4 tsp Ground White Pepper
• 2 tbsp Parmesan Cheese, Grated
• 1 oz Shropshire Blue Cheese

Directions

1. Cut leek(s) in half lengthwise. Wash to remove dirt. Pat dry and thinly slice crosswise. Slice leeks and rough chop remaining vegetables.

2. Heat the oil with the butter in a heavy pot over low heat. Cook the leeks, shallots and/or onions and celery until softened, about 10 minutes; add garlic and cook another couple minutes, no more than 5, you don't want to burn the garlic :)

3. Stir in the curry powder and ginger, and cook over very low heat about 1 minute or so to wake the spices up.

4. Add the broth, lemon juice, and cauliflower florets from 1 medium to large head. Raise the heat to high and bring to a boil; reduce the heat and simmer, partially covered, until the cauliflower is very tender and falling apart, 15 minutes. Cool slightly. ADD cream, Parmesan and blue cheeses.

5. Purée in a food processor until very smooth, (I used an immersion blender) Season with salt and pepper. You can adjust the thickness of the soup by adding more broth if you need to. I did not need to it was perfect as is.

Notes:

This called for 2 leeks but I only had one so I subbed a couple shallots and half a sweet onion for the second. Don't be afraid of the spices, I used a 50/50 blend of mild and medium curry powders and the final soup just had a light hint of it, enough to let you know it was there but not nearly enough to really say there was heat to this. Fresh garlic minced would be great but all I had was some of the jarred variety and it was fine. The recipe called for 6c of chicken stock and/or vegetable stock so I used 3 cups of the last of my homemade chicken stock and 3 cups bought veggie broth to make up the difference. You can use what you like :)

This is optional but I added 2T grated Parmesan and 30g of blue cheese at the very end when I was pureeing this and it really made this soup sing! Be warned that blue cheese is quite a strong cheese imo so less is more, if you get my drift, still it does add a nice dimension to this soup so I recommend trying it at least once ;) If you want a richer soup use coffee cream (18% fat) but I used half and half (10%) and it was lovely. In a pinch you could probably even use milk but it wont be as rich. I found it plenty rich myself but then again I added cheese.

Salt and pepper are of course, to taste. I added about a tsp salt but most of my ingredients started out sodium free, let your taste buds decide

IA

BMR and Maintenance Calorie Calculations

Knowing how many calories your body burns to sustain your current lifestyle BEFORE you begin to try and lose weight can be the key to your dietary success. Luckily it's pretty simple to figure out. The first step is to calculate your BMR.

What is BMR you ask?

BMR is short for Basal Metabolic Rate and that stands for the number of calories needed by your body JUST to keep it alive. Basically it's the number of calories you would need if you were in a COMA ... just lying there ... not getting up ... not talking ... not walking ... not getting dressed ... not even eating and DEFINITELY not exercising.

BMR does NOT represent your maintenance calories .... but it can be used to calculate them :)

There are several way to figure out your BMR. The most accurate unsuprisingly requires a trip to a doctor or specialist. Measurements are taken just after you awake in a darkened room after 8 hours sleep and 12 hours of fasting to make sure the digestive system is inactive while you are still in a reclining position in bed. Sounds like an awful lot of effort, and you're right, it is ... so we won't bother .... luckily for us there is a really good way to ESTIMATE what your BMR is using a fairly simple calculation which for our purposes is plenty accurate enough to calculate a rough maintenance calorie number.

Now there are plenty of good BMR calculators out there (google it) but if you are curious about the specific calculation used BY those calculators .... here it is. We'll do it long hand just for giggles.

English BMR Formula

Women:

BMR = 655 + ( 4.35 x weight in pounds ) + ( 4.7 x height in inches ) - ( 4.7 x age in years )

Men:

BMR = 66 + ( 6.23 x weight in pounds ) + ( 12.7 x height in inches ) - ( 6.8 x age in years )

Metric BMR Formula

Women:

BMR = 655 + ( 9.6 x weight in kilos ) + ( 1.8 x height in cm ) - ( 4.7 x age in years )

Men:

BMR = 66 + ( 13.7 x weight in kilos ) + ( 5 x height in cm ) - ( 6.8 x age in years )

I live in Canada but I still like working in pounds for body weight so here goes.

I am a 52 year old woman. I am 5'5" tall or 65" and I currently weigh 220 pounds. Down from 325 ... stop laughing ... lets plug in those numbers, shall we?

BMR = 655 + (4.35 x 220) + (4.7 x 65) - (4.7 x 52)

BMR = 655 + 957 + 305.5 + 244.4

BMR = 1673.1

Ok then that means my body needs 1673.1 calories a day just to stay alive, keep my heart beating and lungs working, digesting food, processing waste ... you get the picture

NOW if were to start moving about, getting out of bed, going downstairs to make breakfast, walking the dog, getting the paper, vacuuming etc I would need MORE calories to sustain my weight ... how many more depends on how active I am in any given day.

Lucky for us there is ANOTHER formula, (this one is easier) to calculate THAT number, which represents maintenance calories.

Let's say, just for argument I live a really sedentary life. I don't get out much. I sit most of the day either at a desk or on a couch. I do a little light housework but I don't do any outside sports, yard work or much of anything else ... to calculate my MAINTENANCE calories to support that sedentary lifestyle I would take my BMR number and multiply it by 1.2

BMR x 1.2 (for sedentary) = MAINTENANCE CALORIES

1673.1 x 1.2 = 2007.72

So there we have it. If I live a sedentary life I could eat roughly 2007 calories and still MAINTAIN my current weight of 220. If I am more active than sedentary I would use a different factor to multiply my BMR by:

Activity Factor	Category	Definition
1.2	Sedentary	Little or no exercise and desk job
1.375	Lightly Active	Light exercise or sports 1-3 days a week
1.55	Moderately Active	Moderate exercise or sports 3-5 days a week
1.725	Very Active	Hard exercise or sports 6-7 days a week
1.9	Extremely Active	Hard daily exercise or sports and physical job

So you see ... the more you move, the more you can eat and not gain any weight.

BUT .... you want to LOSE weight

Well now that you know your maintenance calories it's pretty simple to figure out the deficit you should aim for. There is just a little more math to do, bear with me it's not too hard.

A pound of fat can be represented as 3500 calories ... if we were to eat 3500 calories LESS in a day than our maintenance calories we'd lose a pound a day .. but that is NOT a reasonable number. A much healthier number to aim for is, at the MOST about 1% of your current weight or 1-2 pounds a week in general, although very obese people can lose at a slightly higher rate.

This works out kind of neat actually ... remember that a pound is 3500 calories? Well there are 7 days in a week and that divides quite nicely into 3500, soooo if you were to shave 500 calories a DAY off of your maintenance calorie number, you would, over the course of a week eat 3500 calories less than your maintenance or 1 Pound's worth of fat ...

Since my maintenance calories at sedentary worked out to 2007 if i were to subtract 500 from that and eat 1507 calories a day I could expect to lose 1 pound a week. If I wanted to lose 2 pounds I would have to take ANOTHER 500 off daily for 1007 calories ... (see below)

Now another word of caution. To maintain a healthy weight loss and to give you the best shot at KEEPING the weight off it is not advisable to eat less than 1200 calories (for a woman) and 1500 (for a man) it's just not healthy to aim for more, that puts the 1007 calories/day right out of the picture so in reality it is just not feasable for me to aim for a 2 pound a week loss with a sedentary lifestyle ... it would be impossible to make sure you got enough minerals and nutrients eating that few calories on a daily basis ...it just isn't healthy, so don't do it. Period.

Besides, eating too few calories can actually SABOTAGE your progress and/or cause you to lose muscle mass INSTEAD of fat and that is not a good thing. It sends you body into what is commonly called starvation mode and that causes all kinds of havoc with your system and metabolism. It's not worth it .. I repeat .... don't do it. Make sure you are eating ENOUGH to lose weight .. it sounds counter intuitive but it works ... trust me.

My general goal is to eat 1500 calories a day, give or take. That should net me a loss of a pound a week or maybe more if I am more active than sedentary. I find 1500 calories allows me to eat three decent meals a day with room for snacks and/or dessert. I am not deprived in any way and I can enjoy the occasional meal out without any difficulty.

Hopefully this might help you figure out your own numbers. Knowledge is power. Armed with the right numbers, you should not have any difficulty meeting your goals and I wish you luck on your journey.

Mushroom Crusted Beef Tenderloin Steak (Filet Mignon)

My husband and I go cruising in our sailboat every summer for 2 weeks in the San Juan islands located in the Straits of Georgia just off the coast of southern Vancouver Island. Its in the US so our first port of call is usually either Roche Harbour or Friday harbour so we can check in with US customs.

When we go cruising the majority of our meals are made on the boat, but when we do go into port we really like to look for a fine dining establishment so we can splurge on a fancy gourmet meal. This summer for the first time we tried the signature restaurant of the tiny Roche Harbour community instead of going for the more casual balcony cafe with it's umbrella tables overlooking the harbour.

The dining room is definitely more formal but unlike other years if my memory serves, THIS year I think they changed their menu cause it was much more appealing to me than I remember it being. I usually *wanted* to eat there in other years but after checking out the posted menu by the door we usually gave it a pass. The items were SO high end gourmet and/or seafood that it was definitely not my thing. I am not overly fond of seafood and lambs brains and such curdle my stomach.

This year however among other tasty menu items (gone were the lamb brain type offerings) I saw they offered a filet mignon steak (beef tenderloin much more my style) so we decided to give it a try ... oh man am I glad I did!

It was perfectly cooked with a delicate delicious crust and was served with some sort of red wine reduction. My idea of heaven! I am still drooling and I sure hope they have it available next year as well!

When I got home, I made tenderloin a few times ... did it the simple way I always did with the results I always had. A 'tasty' or so I thought, tender steak, BUT, it wasn't even a fraction as good as the one I had this summer in Roche harbour and it just wasn't good enough any more ... even for an easy Sunday meal. Steak on the grill, baked potato and a couple cobs of fresh corn on the cob. So I started to look for recipes to mimic my favourite steak dinner of all time.

I succeeded.

The following recipe is AMAZING gourmet fine dining and it is simplicity itself. This is now my 'go to' tenderloin recipe and it is perfect every time. Since I usually have the herb butter made in the fridge already, and the dried mushrooms already pulverised, it is super fast too. It isn't an exact replica of the tenderloin recipe I had at Roche Harbor but it is similar and in my mind just as good.

Herb Butter :

• 1 stick unsalted butter, for herb butter, don't panic we wont use all of it for this recipe, I keep this in the fridge for all sorts of applications, it's great with chicken too.
• 2 Tbsp dried Chives
• 1 Tbsp dried Tarragon
• 1 small garlic clove, pressed or 1/2 tsp garlic puree, that's what I usually do, I roast my own garlic and store the puree in the fridge just for occasions like this, use more if you really like garlic ;)

Beef Tenderloin :

• beef tenderloin, 1.5 inch thick, (too thin and it is hard to get the crust on the outside right without overcooking the inside, too thick and the reverse is true. Use as many tenderloins as you want for the number of diners you are serving, I always take off the little bit of silver skin the butcher often leaves behind and I trim any excess visible fat
• 1 or 2 small bags (1/2-ounce each) dried mushrooms, I am not sure it matters what type, I just used a small bag of assorted dried mushrooms from the grocery store produce section. (Last time I was in Costco they had the big plastic jars FULL of dried mushrooms for a fraction of the cost of the tiny bags I get at the grocery store. I bought one and threw it in my garage fridge. I used a handful or so to pulverize in my magic bullet for this steak recipes among others and the rest I left in the fridge to be used in all sorts of dishes! I have never been a mushroom fan, in fact they used to make me gag but they add a marvelous flavor dimension to almost all beef gravies and/or stews and pulverized you'd never even know they were in there ... it's even helped get me over my aversion to WHOLE fresh mushrooms  ... who knew?)

Preparation:

1. Mix first 4 ingredients in small bowl to make herb butter. NOTE: after mixing, I sometimes put the butter on a piece of saran and used it to roll the butter into a tube shape about an inch in diameter. Twisted the saran ends to form a wrapped tube and chilled in the fridge to harden. Makes it easier to slice and it looks nice on the steaks. You can do this wayyy ahead ... days even ... keeps forever in the fridge and is nice with other recipes ... or you can just keep it in a plastic tub ;)
2. Process dried mushrooms in spice grinder or blender to a fine powder (a few larger bits are nice so you don't have stress over this too much.  I also do this way ahead ... I buy a couple small bags of dried mushrooms and grind them into powder, then store in a small mason jar in my cupboard. Whenever I want to make steak I just spoon a couple Tbsps onto a plate as needed to coat the steaks and save the rest for use in other recipes. I add some to my beef gravy recipes quite often to add a little earthy mushroom flavour and no one is the wiser.
3. Season steaks with salt and pepper.
4. Transfer a bit of the mushroom powder to a small plate (a couple Tbsps) and press steaks into the powder to coat both sides well. (don't worry about the sides .. just coat top and bottom , I press it in real well to get as much mushroom powder on each steak as I can, but it sticks on nicely so it shouldn't be a problem) Add more powder to plate as needed till all steaks are coated on both sides, reserving remaining powder for future use.
5. Melt 2-3 tablespoons herb butter or as needed, in heavy large nonstick skillet over medium heat. I used my well seasoned cast iron skillet but any heavy bottomed pan will do. Add steaks to skillet and cook to desired doneness, about 6-8 minutes per side for medium-rare to medium (depending on how thick your steak is and how hot your element is. It should be sizzling but not smoking) I think I do mine for roughly 7 minutes and they are usually PERFECT but my stove may not be the same as your stove and my steaks may have been thinner or thicker than yours .. so time is approximate.
6. Transfer steaks to plates. Put a dollop of herb butter atop each hot steak and serve. The original recipe called for a rounded Tbsp of butter to be served on top but I think the MOST I used was a tsp and it was plenty ... as it melts it drips over the sides and flavours the meat with each bite ... truly, this recipe is divine and it doesn't get any simpler than this, especially for a gourmet meal, and I DO mean gourmet. You should try it.

I figure each steak absorbs a tsp of butter (for calorie counting, no idea if it really does but I doubt it would be too much more) while cooking and I add another tsp on top so it has about 2 tsp of added fat. Depending on your sides and how you serve them that isn't too bad, of course the final calorie count of this depends on the size of your steak but a small raw weight 4 oz steak is plenty and is only about 165 calories without the added butter of course that adds another 140, the mushrooms add almost nothing calorie wise .. maybe 15-25 calories so all together with a little buffer maybe 350 calories for a small tenderloin... and a generous 6 oz steak only comes in about 100 calories more, which should leave plenty of room for a small baked potato.  Calories dependent on how large the potato is and what you top it with of course, but mine usually end up in the 300-350 calorie range which isn't too bad for a splurge meal. A simple vegetable side is usually under 50 calories so if you were careful early in the day you should STILL have room for a light dessert.

Pecan Crusted Chicken

Have never made this before and in the process as we speak so can't say whether this is going to be a winner or not. But I like chicken and I like pecans and I like panko breading so by all accounts I should like this recipe! It looks like it's a pretty simple straightforward recipe as well which is perfect for a busy Saturday afternoon!

Ingredients

• 1/2 cup ground pecans
• 1/2 cup panko bread crumbs - you can use regular bread cumbs but it's worth looking for Japanese style panko bread crumbs, they give a much crunchier crust
• 1/2 stick unsalted butter (1/4 cup) you can use salted but if you do make SURE your chicken broth is no salt added
• 1/4 cup shallots
• 1 garlic clove, minced
• 3/4 cup home made chicken stock or no salt bought variety
• 2 boneless skinless chicken breast halves
• salt and pepper to taste

Instructions:

Preheat oven to 400°F.

Sprinkle chicken with salt and pepper.

Grind up your pecans in a magic bullet or small blender to a fine powder. Mine were more pasty when done than powdery but I am presuming that's ok.

Mix panko and pecans in dish.

Melt 4 tablespoons butter in heavy large ovenproof skillet over medium-high heat. Remove skillet from heat; brush some of melted butter onto chicken, then coat chicken in panko mixture. I was generous and tried to use all the breading ... didn't quite succeed and lots fell off while doing the initial frying ... tried not to mess with the chicken too much.

Place skillet over medium heat. Add chicken and sauté until brown on bottom, about 2 minutes. Turn chicken over.and immediately place in preheated oven cooked side up. Bake until chicken is cooked through, about 18 minutes ( I left mine in for 30 minutes). Transfer chicken to platter.

Using slotted spoon, remove any crumbs from skillet. Add remaining 2 tablespoons butter( I actually did not add any more butter at this point. I just sauteed in what was there after I spooned away the extra crumbs), garlic and shallots (onions); sauté over medium-high heat 1 minute. Add broth and simmer until slightly reduced, about 1 minute. Mix in parsley. Season sauce to taste with salt and pepper; drizzle over chicken

Final thoughts ... while this was good, the high fat content almost makes me want to say don't bother ... if you can figure out how to make this without so much butter and with only half the breading it might be worth a try. This is definitely a recipe that needs some tweeking, as written, it doesn't pass the grade. It was low in sodium and a good source of fiber and the taste is good, quite good in fact but the greasy mushy coating (most of which fell off) wasn't what I was hoping for with this and for all those calories it should be something I go WOW over and it wasn't. Sauce was only so so. 

Dieting is about REAL food

For me dieting is about learning to eat real food ... in proper portions and training myself not to binge eat in between those proper meals.

Real food for me consists of less processing and unlike a lot of women I see trying to lose weight I do NOT go in for most of the highly processed *diet* foods pushed on us from every corner of the manufacturing world. I think of processed food manufacturers like drug dealers, except THESE drug dealers are prominently featured in every grocery store, magazine or TV channel.

Ever since I started my new lifestyle I have done a LOT of research, trying to glean whatever extra bit of knowledge I can out of the masses of misinformation out there. I've made mistakes, I'm still making mistakes but the learning curve continues and as I read more and more I can slowly weed out those mistakes and that's what I'm doing. It's a learning curve and I am still on the upward curve of it.

A lot of my initial misconceptions were based on conventional wisdom. Things drummed into my head over time, put there primarily by my mother (who sadly was hoodwinked by the drug pushers in the food industry) but also by the sheer volume of articles and opinions spouted by very serious people gracing our TV screens and magazine/newspaper covers telling us the danger of this food or that. Butter is bad, Margarine is good! Canola oil is "healthy"! Try this new sweetener it's ZERO calories! Aspartame that's the ticket! Saccharin! New! NO FAT mayonnaise, Fat free sour cream! Coke zero! Skim milk! Baked not fried! Animal fat is BAD! Trans fat is bad! Eggs are BAD! ... I could go on ....

I readily admit that while some of the things on that list are bad for us, not all of them are, and yet we think they are, and some of the things we think ARE good for us, aren't ... how are we to know the difference?.

For instance, Skim milk is a good choice of milk for the dieter but it isn't necessarily BETTER for you than say a full fat whole milk and to me it tastes like water. It's an option to be sure but it is not the only healthy milk option available to us and that's what we have been led to believe ... skim milk perfectly fine, especially for folks who for various health reasons are forced to try and reduce their fat consumption, but for reasonably healthy people, whole milk or a higher fat milk like 1% or 2% might actually be a BETTER choice. Have you seen the recent studies that said that kids who drank primarily whole milk when growing up tended to have a lower BMI as adults than kids who grew up drinking non fat milk? They aren't sure why yet but I bet when they do it will be something like ... the kids who drank whole milk had better overall diets and outlooks toward food and weren't nagged to death about food by well meaning but misinformed parents who passed their own hangups about food onto their children ...or ... the fat in the milk they had with their cereal in the morning probably help keep them full longer so they were less likely to develop bad snacking habits in between meals so they ate fewer calories overall ... stuff like that.

Whatever ... I don't really care what the reason is. From what I have read we would all be better off if we stopped listening to the food industry who's main goal ISN'T to give us healthier food ... it is to MAKE MONEY and they only reason they even SELL healthy food and fake healthy food is because they are trying to balance what they can convince us is healthy (and super cheap for them to make) and what is actually healthy.

What I have found on my weight loss journey is that to lose weight you MUST eat a calorie deficit .. it doesn't have to be huge but it must be less calories than you burn on a daily basis ... all the fad diets out there do this ... some do it by cutting out an entire food group or even several, but do you REALLY think that is a healthy way to lose weight? I don't. The fact is even those diets are really just based on getting folks to eat less calories than they burn, the PROBLEM with those diets is that they are unsustainable and even if the dieter is successful, as soon as they start eating *normally* again the weight just packs back on and often worse than before they started the whole diet thing in the first place. You heard it all before, I'm sure ... I am just adding my voice to the choir.

My diet plan goes like this is eat real food, keep track of what you eat, to lose weight eat a calorie deficit, exercise more ... The best thing about it is it works, it's healthy and it's sustainable for a lifetime. No tricks, no quick fixes and no huge cash expenditures to join programs that will ultimately fail.

If you think this could work for you, then you're right ;)

IA

Chicken Pot Pie

Knowing the calories in your home cooked meals is crucial to successful weight loss. There are several sites out there that allow you to create recipes and they calculate the calorie count for you BUT the only site I have experience with is Livestrong so that's what I use.

The thing I like about Livestrong is that I am able to select EXACTLY the brand of whatever I use that is relevant to MY region. The same food can vary significantly in nutritional content depending on where it was produced, even if it comes from the same manufacturer so knowing the nutritional values of the food you are actually using is paramount. I trust the calorie count for my home cooked meals because "I" control what goes into each recipe and Livestrong helps me to do that by making the information available to me when creating the recipe. tracking the recipe to my plate and in the creation of my meals and recipes.

So what does this have to do with Chicken Pot pie? Nothing, I just thought of it while collecting my thoughts ... oh and I have to update my recipe on Livestrong to reflect the modifications I made to my regular pot pie recipe ... which is very good ... this one however is likely to be better ;)

Just a few thoughts before beginning;

1) This recipe changes every time I make it cause I tend to use up what's in the fridge, yours will probably do the same

2) Tonight I am making little packets filled with the chicken mixture made with phylo but I am just as likely to serve this as a stew on rice or beside potatoes or in small ramekins topped with a pastry crust or even as a 2 crust pie, which is how this was initially intended to be served. The final recipe calorie count given is just for the filling, see final notes below for more details.

Ingredients:

• 1 lb chicken breast cut into 1" cubes (about 4 small boneless breasts or 600g give or take) I also chopped up 2 boneless chicken thighs in addition to the breasts cause I had them lying around and needed to use them up. Just use whatever but at least 1 pound total
• 1 large Carrot, diced (about 1 cup volume or 145 g)
• 1 cup frozen peas (about 145 g)
• 2.5 cups home made chicken stock, no sodium added ( I had a little bought vegetable stock that I added in order to use up an almost empty carton. The total broth volume however was not more than 2.5 cups or end product may be too runny)
• 3/4 cup grated zucchini (left over from making zucchini cupcakes about 125 g not in original recipe)
• 1/2 cup creamed spinach (again leftover in my fridge not in original recipe)
• 1 can undrained peaches and cream corn, Green Giant
• 3 Tbsp Butter, unsalted or salted your choice
• 1 stalk celery, diced
• 1 small onion, chopped
• 2 garlic cloves (I used the equivalent of garlic puree in a tube)
• 1/2 tsp salt
• 1/4 tsp ground black pepper
• 1/4 tsp celery seed
• 1/3 cup flour ( if you REALLY want this to be thick you can use 1/2 c here but it could make the final product too dry if making a pie or pastry packets so be careful.
• 2/3 cup milk

Directions:

In a large dutch oven combine chicken, chicken broth, carrots peas, corn and any other veggie you have lying around that you think might be good in this. Cover and simmer on low about 15 minutes. Remove from heat transfer to a large bowl and set aside.

In the same (now empty) dutch oven saute onions in butter until translucent Add salt, celery, pepper and celery seed and saute an additional 5 minutes or so on low heat. Add garlic and cook about 30 seconds while you measure flour (remember burnt garlic tastes bad don't overdo it here) Add flour and cook another couple of minutes stirring constantly to take the raw edge off.

Add milk 1/3 c at a time stirring flour mixture after each addition.

Ladle and stir in reserved chicken, vegetables and broth mixture.

Bring up to temperature (but not quite boiling just enough to let the flour do it's thing to thicken this). Taste and season as needed. You can also add a 1/4 c of table cream to this if you want it more intensely creamy. I sometimes do but make sure it doesn't get too runny ;)

At this point you can either add it to a (partially cooked maybe 5 minutes before filling helps prevent soggy bottom) pastry lined pie crust, cover with pastry and bake it as a pie .. or you can line individual serving dishes with several layers of phylo overhanging the sides and pour filling in, bring up phylo overhanging sides, twist to seal and bake at 350' until top is golden brown and pastry is cooked. Read phylo package directions for more detailed directions for working with phylo. You could also just serve this as is in a bowl or with a side like mashed potatoes. It's your table, your calories, you decide ;)

Time is approximate but about 30-35 minutes at 425 should cook the pie I'd probably reduce the temp to 350-375 for the smaller phylo packets. If serving as a stew put it on the table right away and enjoy or put in a casserole, top with buttered bread crumbs and bake until crumbs are golden and filling is hot throughout before serving ;)

When all was said and done the total weight of this recipe was 2.124 kg assuming a serving is about a cup or 250 g this makes 8 generous portions. Your portion size will of course differ depending on the ingredients you use and how you are serving. When plugged into my Livestrong recipe builder this worked out to 280 calories per cup serving as written here, but of course that is without any crust or phylo or sides added .. that's just for the filling.

I ended up adding 1/4 c table cream as well as 2 tsp of better than boullion chicken demi glace to season it a bit more, after that addition this was delicious before that it was just really good ;)

PS: I ended up lining to small custard cups with 2 sheets of phylo pastry cut in half to make 4 layers for each custard cup serving using about 2 T butter in total per serving to brush each pastry layer. Since each sheet is 80 calories that added 160 calories to the meal for the pastry and 140 calories extra for the butter.

Total calorie cost for my packets was 280+160+140= 580 calories .. I baked this for 30 minutes at 375 and served with a side of brussels sprouts (100g serving 40 calories) for a grand total of 620 calories for my supper. Who said you have to eat like a bird to diet? Yeah with the pastry it's higher in fat but it's GOOD fat ... and do NOT start with me about butter being bad for you ... it isn't.