Guilt free chocolate pudding

There's something liberating about writing a blog you know no one will likely ever see. For me I guess it's sort a of perfect harmony. I can say what I want and get stuff off my chest without worrying about it overmuch. I can keep myself motivated (and busy) which helps in 2 ways to keep me from reverting to old habits which could result in a binge. Doubtful after this long but I fear old habits are never too far absent and complacency is the first sign of failure looming. Lastly I have a place to post my recipes and recipes I've stolen and made my own (thanks foodwishes) where someone MAY just happen to find them and maybe appreciate one or two. If you want REAL recipes worth stealing however check out the foodwishes website, link in the sidebar. Chef John rocks and his site is worth more of a visit than this dump.

That said, here is my recipe, that I personally created for a rich chocolate pudding made from scratch with ZERO added sugar or fat (unless you WANT to add some anyway)
Note: Depending on what kind of milk you use there will still be SOME sugar and fat in this of course ... I did say ADDED sugar or fat ;)

What I found out AFTER I created this recipe, is that a few hundred thousand other good cooks had figured it out before me *shrugs* oh well that doesn't take away from the fact that I did this WITHOUT the knowledge that they had already done so. Ok yeah I knew but I never bothered to google their recipes ...

On to the pudding ....

Ingredients

• 1/2 cup Splenda Sweetner
• 1/3 cup Cocoa Powder
• 2 cups 1% Milk
• 1/8 tsp Salt
• 3 tbsp 100% Pure Cornstarch
• 1 tsp vanilla

Directions

1. Mix all dry ingredients in a saucepan and stir well. Slowly add milk stirring constantly to remove as many lumps as you can. Don't worry rest will disappear as it cooks.
2. Bring pudding to a slow boil over medium low heat, stirring frequently. Once pudding has thickened, remove from heat add a tsp vanilla and pour into 4 x 1/2 cup serving dishes or 3 larger cups for a more generous and satisfying treat.

Some might want to add butter or a tempered egg yolk to this at the very end stages before serving to make it a bit richer but I wouldn't bother it is plenty creamy without so why add all that extra fat and calories ... but you could if you wanted :)

Nutrition Facts
Serving Size: 1 half cup
Calories 99
Total Fat 2.85g
Cholesterol 5mg
Sodium 245.84mg
Total Carbohydrate 14.58g
Dietary Fiber 2.13g
Sugars 6.13g
Protein 5.7g


IA

PS: Of course there are all sorts of possible variations to this, I saw one person added a T of instant coffee to make it a mocha, since I didn't try that I have no idea if that is too much coffee or not enough, another user said to add a handful of mini marshmallow and crushed almonds to make it rocky road ... and yet another suggested adding a bit of real chocolate (semisweet) to make it even richer ... you get the idea. Me? I like it simple and only 99 calories.

Vancouver Island Diet

All my running around recently to find quality meats from reliable sources raised and butchered locally led me to the Vancouver Island Diet webpage. A site I have been to before but since I had not yet made the commitment to trying and eat better and practice what I preach with regard to trying to support local business and producers of quality food.

I have provided a link on the sidebar to their website for any who are interested.

While I am not committing 100% to eating only food produced and grown on the Island, I will go out of my way to seek it out over and above imported foods, not only because it's better to support local endeavours but because the less distance a food travels between farm and plate, the fresher and better tasting it is.

For example, I refuse to buy strawberries unless the scent of them draws me in ... if I can hold a plastic package of strawberries up to my nose but I CAN'T smell strawberry ... I know they are going to taste as good as they don't smell .. in other words, like cardboard.

Shopping for quality meat locally ... success!

So my visit to the local meat packer was a success ... sort of .... well yeah it was.

Yes they have good quality meat available in the Comox Valley and yes it is antibiotic and hormone free ... I think ... they said yes but they also looked a tad confused by my question ... or surprised ... or I dunno ... but it did sound like the answer was definitive so I'll take them at their word. The selection however was a bit skimpy, even though what they were offering on this particular day did look nice. It probably depends on any given day what cuts you will find ... not all that convenient I suppose, if you are looking for a particular cut, although, I suppose they might be able to find whatever you are looking for it you ask, even if it's not in the display case. I prefer to pick and choose my meats by sight however, I am not real fond of asking for a cut and having it handed to me without my being able to gauge it's quality for myself.

I guess they are more geared toward supplying restaurants and local food markets more than retailing themselves. I was probably expecting too much. When I asked about chicken backs and necks to make my home made chicken stock for instance, they said "Oh yes we have that" .. the nice lady then went into the back and came out with a 20 pound box full of them ... for $17. Good deal, but my freezer is already full and I only wanted 3 pounds ... so I thanked her and bought a few chicken breasts. I must confess, they do look like nicer chicken breasts than I usually buy from the big grocery store.

On the way home, I saw a small country market grocer that I had never shopped at before beside the highway so I stopped in. Glad I did. As a store it was pretty standard for a small grocer ... until I got to the meat counter. The nice folks who work there were buzzing all over the place and were more than happy to answer my questions. The lady gave me some reading material about their meat suppliers ... all local, including some beef from the meat packers I had been to earlier but it was more than that. I learned about their pork supplier ... all pasture raised pork, grass fed no hormones or antibiotic, humane living and butchering practices ... I am sold. Their chicken is also relatively local, island raise anyway, and the same deal, pasture raised chickens able to scratch in the dirt and eat bugs the way chickens were meant to do for the most part although there is a little grey area left for me according to what I saw on their website. It's possible some of the *free range* chickens they produce might still have been confined to a barn even though they weren't specifically confined in a cage ... I dunno ... some of the stories I have heard about so called "free range" chickens still curdle my brain ... sigh, well it did sound like MOST of their chickens came from small family farms where the chickens were allowed outside. I guess that will have to do.

I also finally found some honest to god REAL roasting chickens .. the kind I was moaning about yesterday ... I guess they were there all the time, I just never bothered to go looking for them, and you WON'T find them at your local big box grocery store no matter how nice it looks. Big fat birds that had my mouth watering for the taste of roasted chicken ... I'll be going back real soon to get one for a nice Sunday dinner next time the family gathers together for a weekend.

I ALSO found bagged in the freezer section 3.5 pound bags of both chicken AND turkey necks and backs. I never even THOUGHT about looking for turkey bones ... oh and in the pet food aisle? In a little chest freezer beside the bags of Alpo? Beef soup bones and even lamb bones ... I guess they sell more of them to dog owners for snacks but they assured me they were absolutely what I wanted to make beef or lamb based soup. I am in heaven.

Trying to decide what to have for supper tonight

So the fridge is bare and I need to get something for dinner. I am going to go visit a new meat packer in town I found out about the other day. I hear they sell locally produced meats from family farms (not factory farms) Pasture grazed beef and pigs and free range chickens ... antibiotic and hormone free. After what I have learned about factory farms lately I am having trouble looking at the meat counter in my local grocery store without shaking my head in disgust and I buy the antibiotic/hormone free meats as much as possible. The pickings tend to be rather slim though .. I guess I should be happy they offer any choice at all however. More power to the people!

I am old enough to remember when chickens sold for roasting were BIG enough to feed a family of 6 quite nicely for a special Sunday dinner ... now all I see are these anemic small roasters that remind me more of big quail than actual chickens ... when I was young my mother used to get a capon occasionally which was extra large, tender and juicy ... but I haven't seen anything larger than pigeon for decades and I have never seen a capon for sale. I have no idea where she got her capons and she is no longer here to ask but I am assuming perhaps our local butcher or maybe the mennonites ... sigh ... I was so oblivious of what she did when I was growing up ...

Recipe for the day, Mock Chicken Paprikash for 2

Note: this is NOT the traditional chicken Paprikash as taught to me by my German Grandmother but is instead, something I concocted tonight that SIMULATES it, in a sort of vague twisted way out of the meager ingredients I had on hand. That said, this didn't turn out half bad and I quite enjoyed it once I stopped comparing it to the real deal ;) On it's own this was quite good and I will likely make it again. It was quite satisfying for the calories and while not exactly good for you it isn't exactly bad for you either ;)

Ingredients

300 g Chicken Breast Raw (about 1.5 large or 2 small breasts)
1 medium Onion, Sweet
1 tbsp Paprika (I used Hungarian paprika, end dish had a mild bit of heat to it but not too much)
2 Garlic Clove
1 1/2 cups No Salt Added Chicken Broth (I used my own homemade stock with no added salt)
170 g Trad. German Egg Noodles - Spaetzle
1 tsp Olive Oil
3 tbsp Sour Cream
1 tsp Chicken Base-Better Than Bouillon (Optional)
Salt to taste

Directions

Saute onion in oil until it begins to turn golden, add garlic and cook additional 30 seconds. Add in chicken meat and cook until almost done then add paprika, salt and chicken stock. Simmer until sauce is reduced and is thick and rich (maybe 30 minutes or so). Taste and if it needs flavour add a little chicken demiglace. I usually add a little "Better Than Bouillon" chicken demiglace made with real chicken but if you don't have that, a little chicken bovril or oxo would do. Just before serving stir in sour cream.

Precook spaetzle according to package directions, drain and toss with sauce and cook a minute or two to infuse the noodles with the sauce flavour before serving.

Nutrition Facts Serving Size: 1 serving
Calories 595

Total Fat 20.23g
Saturated Fat 1.32g
Cholesterol 150.24mg
Sodium 614.03mg
Total Carbohydrate 70.7g
Dietary Fiber 4.03g
Sugars 2.39g
Protein 47.2g

Today

Flash forward to today

I am still heavy but I am now 100 pounds lighter! I only weigh 220 pounds ... a loss of 105 to date. I started menopause in the spring and went on maintenance calories for the summer cause I figured that a year on a constant calorie deficit can be hard on your body and I wanted to give it a breather before trying to lose any more. Well summer is over and I have to start again ... I am going to posts recipes and thoughts here in a continuing effort to stay motivated.

As to how I feel ....

Swelling is gone
Rashes are gone
I have gone from a 5X to a size 1-2X
My house is starting to shape up and I am tackling the basement next lol
I can shop without fear again in fact I love shopping
Last christmas I spend the entire day walking around downtown Victoria and even went to the large mall there ... did the whole thing too!
Back no longer aches while walking
I can walk for miles until my hip starts bugging me ... it's been through a lot and I AM getting older .... still ... sheesh
I am enjoying getting back into my garden, when time permits anyway :)
I am rekindling a love for REAL food. I am having a blast trying new recipes and cook mostly from scratch these days.
I am happier
I no longer think people are judging me, talking behind my back, feeling sorry for me ... whatever.
I am starting to think I might have a future after all.

All this without a fad diet, or spending a metric ton of cash to join a weight loss program.

It was simple, I ate what I wanted, when I wanted. I educated myself. I started to experiment with really good recipes, but knowing what went into them helped me determine what a proper portion should be. I don't go in for diet foods for the most part but I do use a sugar substitute (splenda) to help cut back on my added sugar intake for those things that eat on a regular basis that would normally have called for the use of sugar. I wasn't a huge fan at first but quite frankly now, I don't even notice the difference.

Real food, real flavours, no tricks ....

How did I do it?

Well that's a really long story and it will come out in my posts over time, but basically after a bit of initial experimentation with goals and such I settled on eating 1500 calories give or take a day. I tried to move more, which was very hard at first as I had no stamina AT ALL, I didn't go all ballistic exercising but I did buy a treadmill and I tried to use it at least 3 times a week. At first I could only manage a minute or two at a REALLY slow walking pace but now I can walk at 3 mph for an extended length of time ... I generally only go for about 30 minutes though as it just gets too boring.

As far as food, I gradually made changes so I could fit more bulk into my diet by reducing the calorie dense things I was eating that really added no flavour ... not sure why I was eating them really ... like I stopped adding butter to my sandwiches ...instantly halving the calories so I could have a bigger sandwich .. stuff like that. Some things I would not compromise on however, and those things I just learned to measure well and to reduce quantities a little to try and keep things in line ... like mayo in my tuna salad ... I am NOT going to sacrifice flavour for diet .. no lowfat/nofat crap for me .. thank you very much ... I just learned how to enjoy my tuna with a reduced amount of mayo and I sometimes only have half a sandwich paired with a half bowl of soup to help keep calories in line while still enjoying my favourite tuna salad for example.

I started eating more whole grains and brown rice instead of white flour products or white rice. This was one change that actually surprised me ... I had no idea I actually liked the whole grain products even more than the pasty white junk I had been eating my whole life ... way more flavour and texture ... a better choice all the way around ... didn't even have to get used to it .. I liked it right from the start and wouldn't go back even if I could.

Stay tuned ....

The Awful Truth

In March of 2009 I was surfing the web when I came across a website called Livestrong. It is a calorie counting website that allows you to input and track the foods you eat on a daily basis to see how many calories you are consuming on any given day. You can set your own calorie goals and track any activities you do as well for more accuracy. Did I mention that it was FREE?

Well ... I tried it. I started to punch in what I had eaten that day ... it wasn't a pretty picture ... but it was sorta fun exploring the site and all the neat tools and gadgets it offered to help keep you motivated. I joined something they called the LOSE WEIGHT dare and I started to read what other people were saying/doing ... wow ... a lot of them were struggling just like me.

Now I was a 50 year old woman (at the time) and grossly overweight, how much I did not know, because I avoided the scale at all costs. It was like, if I didn't know how much I weighed, it didn't count .... or something .... all I knew was that my feet which used to swell only in the summer were swollen BAD all year and my ankles had started to itch. I had chronic rashes where people shouldn't have rashes (TMI I know but this story is REAL not make believe) I was having increasing difficulty walking even few lousy feet and shopping had become something I feared ... a lot. Going to a mall was RIGHT OUT ... walks with my husband ... NOT A CHANCE. My life was one big icecream tub and bags of chips ... I was killing myself and I didn't even know why. My house was a mess cause I couldn't do the housework ... and I had to take the stairs one at a time in BOTH directions and it took me a good 5 minutes to catch my breath if going up.

It was exhausting just surviving and trying to hide all this (who was I kidding) from my family was equally exhausting.

But then we come back to March 2009 and a chance encounter with a random website while sitting on my butt surfing the web with a bag of chips in one hand and an ice cream scoop in the other ....

Sooo I woke up on the second day looking forward to tracking what I ate for an entire day to see what I was consuming ... I was curious. I was also READY to lose weight, I just didn't realize it yet. I played around with the weight graphs and charts to see *what if* .. I started to fantasize about how it would be to be 50 pounds lighter ... 100 pounds ... I couldn't quite imagine it. Before I knew it the day was over ... I had NOT had the usual binge session with chips and ice cream or whatever ... in fact my calories were only about 2000 or so ... and I wasn't hungry. I had been too busy playing online to think about snacking.

Next day .. I decided I needed a benchmark .. soo ... I got on the scale. Then I cried ... and cried ... I KNEW I was heavy but I did NOT know I weighed more than 300 pounds.

325 pounds to be exact .... and the date? March 25 2009 or 3/25 2009

I weighed the same as the date.

Just some random thoughts about energy use and lightbulbs..

Hello again world, it's been awhile. I thought I might try this blog thing again and see if i can stick with it this time. Probably not but who knows.

I saw a story today about Germans buying up and hoarding their old incandescent light bulbs in advance of a European Union ban on their use that made me sit up and take notice.

Several years ago my husband and I decided to make the switch to compact fluorescent light bulbs in all of our light fixtures. With the added benefit that they need to be replaced much less frequently than incandescent light bulbs they are also MUCH more energy efficient. Today I learned just how BAD our old light bulbs were in terms of their energy use.

Did you know that incandescent light bulbs WASTE 90-95% of the energy they use?!? I knew they were bad but I didn't know they were THAT bad! That's right only 5-10% of the energy they use is actually converted to light. The rest melts away in heat radiation. I was shocked at how inefficient these dinosaurs of the light bulb world actually are and kinda proud that I made the switch ages ago!

Now that isn't to say that I don't have a few quibbles with my new fluorescent bulbs ... I do. For one thing they are slow to warm up and when you first turn them on they sometimes tend to be rather dim. It usually doesn't take TOO long to warm up however, and when they do the light they produce is quite bright enough to satisfy. Unfortunately I do have a couple of bulbs in the house that are extraordinarily dim when you first turn them on and it can take some time to reach their full potential which can be very annoying at times. For instance there is a bulb in my powder room that is SO dim when turned on you would swear that it wasn't on at all. Folks have learned they need to pre warm the bulb for about 5 minutes in there if they want to use the room and actually see what they are doing. Having a sit down in a semi dark room adds to the ambiance I suppose if that's what you're looking for (reading a romantic novel perhaps? *chuckle*) but for most it's just plain annoying ;) Not all the bulbs are as bad as that one however, and I suspect it's a bit of a lemon but I figure I'll live with it until it eventually blows so I guess it's not THAT annoying after all :)

Another beef I have is the size. I bought a tri-light the other day for $14 egads! and when I got home I found it was about a third too big to fit inside the harp thingy that holds the lampshade on. ARGHH so back to the store to buy a energy guzzling heat wasting incandescent. Eventually the bulbs may get smaller or I'll buy bigger harp/shade(s) for my lights ;)

The cost is also an issue for a lot of folks altho I think that is a bit misleading. The fluorescent bulbs last a lot longer than the old style bulbs so paying up front while a bit of a shock MAY not be as much of an issue as it first appears. However I don't know whether it really does come out cost neutral in the end or not. I usually just chalk it up to the cost of trying to reduce my energy footprint as best I can and move on from there.

Is there a moral to my story? I suppose buried deep inside there might be, but I was just reflecting. No pun intended ;)

IA

Slippery Slope

Wavin in the wind.

Ok. This is my personal home away from home. Dateline Comox. Its Saturday and I have pretty much wasted the day away playing with this blog thingy. Its kinda fun but I have no idea what purpose it really serves as no one is likely to ever see this but then again it's fun so ....

Its a grey day today. Rain off and on but mild. I guess Mount Washington is still closed due to lack of snow. I am sure the skiers are upset but I am not a fan of the cold so this mild weather suits me. Nothing much to rant about today.

Talked to Peter over the internet today after getting the microphone to work. Amazing really. I sent a rather vague email off to microsoft asking for help and they got back to me within 24 hrs with a simple email that actually worked to solve the problem. Still shaking my head, was expecting a long drawn out ordeal with no satisfying conclusion.