Baking Woes

Snow days make perfect baking days.  They're lazy, and you're stuck in your house with nothing to do, and you can imagine the smell that would permeate your kitchen, and you know you have the time to do it...

I like to bake. Wait, I L-O-V-E to bake, but you know what I'm gonna say next.  It is such a huge temptation to eat everything I bake that I have a rule against doing it unless I know I can give all the goodies away.

Today I broke my rule.

I desperately wanted a snow day today.  Teaching makes a great job, but it is such a busy career and paired with motherhood sometimes I become physically exhausted.  I wanted to lay around my house and do nothing, burn no calories and just relax.

As afternoon set in, though, the kitchen was calling my name.   So was the chocolate in the pantry.  So was my daughter, begging me to don our matching aprons, like we're wearing six months ago here:

I went to a blog my dear little friend Frances told me about called Smitten Kitchen .  I have my standard recipe blogs, but I enjoyed this blog today because there are just so many selections, and the narrative that goes with each is well-written.

Now, I am recommending this blog, and the recipe I made, as long as you keep in mind that the recipes are not necessarily created for the healthful.  I absolutely recognized that.

I told myself I could wrap each individual cupcake up really tight and put them all in the freezer, eating one every other day (which actually can be a really good solution when baking).  I told myself I don't even like cheesecake.  I told myself I'd been sick, and my appetite hadn't come back quite yet.

When I smelled the cupcakes cooking in the oven, I knew I was done for.  My stomach starting making little hungry noises.  It expected me to eat one of those cupcakes.  It wasn't my fault.

The recipe was called black-bottom cupcakes .  That sounded innocent enough.  It doesn't even sound the slightest bit tempting, honestly.

The problem is, whoever named the cupcakes, was an idiot.  Naming these cupcakes black-bottom would be like calling a chocolate covered cherry a cherry.  Or cotton candy, cotton.  The moniker chooser left out the most important part, which is, of course, the tops of the cupcakes, which are like cheesecakes with tiny hunks of melted chocolate dispersed throughout.  Black-bottom cupcakes. Hmmph.

Needless to say, I ate two cupcakes today.  After my second one I kind of felt like my daughter looked:

Like I had just eaten like a pig.

I've done pretty well with my eating this week, not including today, and I could let these two innocent, little cupcakes ruin my diet.  But I'm not going to do it.

Instead of giving up for the day, I tried to look at the positive.  I mean, you do burn about 150 calories an hour or more cooking.  So that might be about half of one of my cupcakes right there.  Then I did spend about 15 minutes sweeping the kitchen floor afterward, which accounts for at least 50 calories.

My second coping strategy was making something I don't enjoy eating for dinner.  To some that may sound sort of sick and wrong, strategically planning not to eat much for dinner.  To me it sounded like a dang good idea.

I made sausage and potato soup.  I loathe nothing in the world more than potatoes, and in soup form nothing could be worse.

Therefore, I believe I ended my lazy day with no net weight gain.  See, it is completely possible to stay on your eating plan and bake little decadent, chocolate cheesecakes in cups.  Or at least it is until tomorrow.

Healthy(er) Italian Food

I spent my afternoon off today making dinner for the priests and sister at our church.  Last time I made this particular meal, I don't remember it taking quite as long as it did today.  It consumed my entire afternoon, but I enjoyed every minute of it since I love cooking.

As one of my dear friends pointed out, it probably is daring to make food for company healthy.  It inevitably tastes better if it's filled with fatty butter and cheeses. My problem is, I was feeding a portion of the meal to my family, and I want to keep them healthy.  Therefore, the goal I have is to make healthy(er), yummy food.

Here is the recipe I used today.  It's not exactly healthy, but it's better than it could've been.  And it tasted better than Lean Cuisine, that's for sure.

Stuffed Shells

1 lb. lean ground beef (I like 90-10)
1 lb. Italian-style turkey sausage
1 tsp. + Italian blend of spices
1 tsp. garlic powder
salt to taste
1 large (12 oz) package jumbo shell pasta
1 16. oz container low-fat cottage cheese
1 large package part-skim mozzarella
1 24 oz. can spaghetti sauce (I like Hunt's garlic and herb)
parmesan

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Brown both meats in a large skillet.  Drain well.  Add spices, garlic powder and salt to taste.  In skillet, add entire carton of cottage cheese and about 3 1/2 cups cheese.  (You can add more or less depending on your health and taste preferences.)

Meanwhile, boil shells according to package directions.  Rinse with cold water, so shells are not apt to fall apart.

Stuff each shell with enough filling to fill shell completely but so each shell is not overflowing, and place them in a 9x13 baking dish.  Cover shells with pasta sauce and a light sprinkling of parmesan cheese.  Bake in oven for 30-40 minutes or until heated through.

Voîla!

I served it with Italian green salad, bread and chocolate buttermilk cupcakes with light (of course) cream cheese frosting.  It made a nice meal that didn't break my daily calorie budget.

Random Thoughts

– Kellogg's attempt at Fiber1 bars are not cool.
– Sans Sucre Mousse Mix is pretty darn yummy.  I had mocha cappuccino, but they have all these delicious flavors that sound even yummier, like chocolate cheesecake.  I like Jell-o pudding packs, but these are better!  (Sans sucre means without sugar, for those of you who don't know Latin. Or Spanish. Or whatever it is.)
– WW just came out with these ice cream bars that look and taste like Snickers.  They are the most delicious thing I have ever tasted.  I could eat the entire box.  I need a padlock for my freezer.
– My calves are seriously killing me after my "Biggest Loser" workout more than 24 hours ago.  I only worked for 30 minutes.  I mean, I regularly go to the Y for hour-long torture classes.  You would think I would be ready for Jillian Michaels.  Haha, nobody is ready for Jillian Michaels.
– This week I am failing at feeding my children.  Violet will NOT eat any baby food veggie.  She is seven months old, and at most she has choked down five consecutive bites of baby food.  She looks at me like I have put rocks in her mouth, and I give up way too easily.  Ruby won't eat dinner.  EVER.  Last night I made lo mein, and she ate two bites.
–I'm making dinner for my priests tomorrow night.  I believe I have an excellent recipe for stuffed shells.  The problem is, if I make it I might have to eat.  It is too good.  I will post photos and recipes tomorrow of my cooking adventures.  Maybe I'll secretly attempt to healthen up the recipe.  Do you think they'll notice?

Short Stuff

My sister is getting married in May.  I am super excited for she and her intelligent, fun future spouse.  I can't weight for the wedding – oops, I mean wait.  That typo honestly was an accident, but it sure leads me right into my point:

Of my sister's six bridesmaids, four are blonde, gorgeous and tall.  Like really tall.  Modelesque, if you will.   It's such an attractive wedding party, jaws will drop.  Leading the pack as matron of honor will be me, in all my short, average glory.  (Shout out to R, my fellow short bridesmaid.)

I'm aware when I write this post people are going to assume I'm obsessed with weight loss.  It's like, can't she talk about anything else? The truth is, I am obsessed with food.  In me, that manifests itself in nutrition and exercise fascination.  I probably won't apologize for that again, so take this as my all-encompassing plea for forgiveness for harping on the same topics repeatedly.

Hence, today being a Sunday, I thought the first day of the week would be the perfect time to begin my quest for wedding body perfection.  Oh, Weight Watchers, I sure have missed you and all your companions: grumbling belly, too much fiber and an extra shot of blandness.  (Disclaimer: WW is awesome. It's been good to me. Disregard all complaints.)

This trip down weight loss lane, I decided to open up the "Biggest Loser" Wii game we got for Christmas.  I thought surely if trainer Jillian Michaels yelled at me for awhile that would get my butt in gear.

What I found when I turned on the game is it is like playing a little mini "Loser" game of your own! It takes your weight and has you input your daily calories.  Oooh, I'm getting all excited just thinking about it.

Then, when you perform the workouts using your Wii remote and the custom balance board, it keeps track of how many calories you burn, so it can calculate what you should be losing.  That way if you lose less than it thinks you should have, maybe it will yell at you or something.

Personally what this does for me is give me some accountability, which is what helped me while going to WW meetings.  Just think, if I don't stick to my diet Jillian's going to be so disappointed in me.  It's like being on the show, but better, because you can still have a life and don't have to worry about being voted off every Tuesday.

My goal is come May I will look good enough to feel comfortable in my dress (which, by the way, has gargantuan pleats all the way around the waist, increasing your perceived weight by about 20 lbs., but is darn cute). If I can pull this off with self confidence, then maybe my undersized 2-year-old will believe as she gets older that height ain't nothin' but a number, be it a small one.

Eating Can Be Stressful

I've always wanted to believe there's some kind of biological reason stress leads to eating.  It would explain college.  

Obviously, a lot of people, and let's not lie to ourselves, especially lots of women, eat when stressed.  What I mean is, I want someone to say, "Don't worry, honey.  That's natural.  Your body makes you do it."

This is what ruined my diet in college: I never slept at all on Wednesday nights.  I was married to the student newspaper, and we pulled all-nighters on Hump Day.  The student newspaper traded a free ad to the snack bar upstairs for providing a refrigerator-sized box each week filled with pizza, soda, candy bars and chips.  And finally, no matter what I did to try to prevent it, I ate the stuff in the box.

I would do everything I could think of to try to avoid the box.  I would move it behind a bookshelf on the other side of the room.  I would eat as many vegetables as I could for dinner so I would be full. I'd bring my own healthy snacks. 

But dang that box.  It beat me at my game every time.  Always the candy bars, and it's not as if I'd eat just one.  

Interestingly, the semester after I graduated I lost 15 lbs., and it's never come back.  Admittedly this is most likely due to Weight Watchers, but I'm also going to give props to myself for leaving the box, and that type of stress, behind.

Cue this week in my life.  One day this week, I started an interview for a magazine article I was writing at 7:30 a.m.  By 10 p.m. I had written and turned in three of my own articles and submitted what will probably be the most controversial issue yet of the high school paper I advise to the printer.  

The stress level felt extremely familiar, and for whatever reason it was the first time I'd felt that type of stress since college.  It's not the worst kind of stress, not like the kind when you've committed a crime or lost a loved one.  And it's not like when you have a ton of stuff to do and you don't want to do any of it.  No, it's exhilarating: Adrenaline shoots through your body, and you are forced to perform superhuman acts just to stay above water.  It's glorious and horrifying all at once.

Anyway, by 10 p.m., I was scouring my kitchen for that box.  "Why did I ban candy bars from entering my house?" I thought. Then I remembered the elusive 15 lbs.

I went to the Internet to figure out why stress may drive me to chocolate. I found an article from last month's Mayo Clinic magazine, and it basically told me that what I am talking about is called emotional eating.  Really the only plausible reason they offered for the eating was eating is a distraction from my problems.  Whoopty-doo.  I wanted those smarty doctors to tell me there was a "eateverythinginsightrightnow" chemical in my brain forcing me to eat.

The article also offered some lame advice to overcome emotional eating.  It had some great ideas, like eat healthy food, which I clearly have tried, and get enough sleep.  Oh yes, Mayo Clinic Geniuses, I will just go ahead and sleep through my two children 2 and younger screaming and all my work responsibilities  calling my name.

Apparently, I didn't need medical doctors to tell me how to escape emotional eating.  You see, that box, it's two hours away.  Even I am not that desperate for chocolate.

Sugar, sugar

I love sugar. It is my drug of choice.  It ruins every healthy eating plan I've ever had.  

I can resist buttery sauces, fried items in vast array, even white bread and pasta.  But don't take my sugar away from me.

I really like Robin McGraw, talk show host Dr. Phil's wife.  She is well-known for her advice on being a wife and mother. However, I do take issue with her on one point: She swears sugar is the white devil.

It's not necessarily that I disagree with her.  It's just that I wish I could.  This very night I ate several too many handfuls (more like bathtubfuls) of Starburst jelly beans, which are definitely my favorite candy.  I know they are filtering through my digestive system, and when I fail to be active this evening they are going to gleefully transform into thigh fat. Because isn't that where all women's fat goes?

One of my resolutions, which is laughably unsuccessful considering my previous paragraph, is to use less of the white stuff.  I have been experimenting with Splenda, and I suppose it is a good substitute, if a substitute is necessary.

One Web site I love is called Hungry Girl,  and I tried this HG recipe for low-sugar Upside-Down Chocolate Peanut Butter Cheesecake out on my sweet friend Abby and her family for dinner last night.  

Hungry Girl is great for healthy recipes and product recommendations. It really rocks and I urge you to go there if you haven't; but sometimes the end result tastes... a little TOO healthy.  I once made my husband a Hungry Girl recipe for pizza with a crust made out of Fiber1 cereal.  It tasted sort of like soggy, inflated dog food.  

So I made this cheesecake I'd never made before for company, which is always a brilliant idea.  Luckily I was able to taste it before they arrived, and I decided I just could not serve it to them without adding a little bit of real sugar.  

When you make desserts using a sugar substitute, you kind of feel like you are trying to put one over on whoever will be eating them.  It's like saying something is real when everyone who takes it in knows it is fake, like an actress trying to deny breast implants.  I just couldn't be that girl, so I added 2 Tbsp. of sugar.  

It really helped. Really.  All parties who ate the cheesecake said they enjoyed it.  Proof that you can make really yummy desserts using Splenda... or perhaps it was due to my secret additive: sugar.

The Myth of Millie Metabolism

One of my favorite shows is NBC's "The Biggest Loser."  I love the show because it has such a positive message: You can change your life.

If you haven't seen "Biggest Loser," a lot of the show features the obese contestants exercising.  However, the trainers also teach contestants a healthy diet, and together with the activity it helps them lose massive amounts of weight by the last episode.

Truly, I personally am fascinated by the contestants' stories about how and why they gained so much weight.  If you have not seen the show, it airs at 7 p.m. CST Tuesdays, and this season has just started.  Turn it on sometime; it's inspiring.

On the flip side, I'm incredibly blessed with a job that allows me to spend a lot of time interacting with teenagers.  (I can hear all of your jealous screams now, wondering how I got all the good fortune.) 

I absolutely adore my students, the majority of whom are girls, but one problem I have with spending time with beautiful and skinny teenagers is it creates an unrealistic body image for me.  If you spend enough time with teens, whose bodies are tiny due to activity level and youthful metabolism, you start to wonder how they eat Little Debbie snackcakes at such an alarming rate while still fitting into their skinny jeans.

Which brings me to my point: It is perplexing to me that some folks can be unhealthily thin and some others can be unhealthily heavy and the rest of us fall in between, all because of our eating and activity habits. Notice I didn't say, all because the good Lord blessed us with different speeds of metabolism.

Millie Metabolism is an ornery little booger who often pops up in conversation.  She's the convenient excuse. "I'd be at healthy weight if it weren't for that Millie.  She's just tooooo slow."

As many of you may know, your metabolism, loosely defined, is the rate at which your body burns calories, or the number of calories your body needs just to get through your typical day.

Well, ladies and gentlemen, I hate to break it to you.  I know it hurts to part with old friends. But in all actuality, your Aunt Millie most likely isn't slower than your skinniest friend's Millie.  It's a scientific fact that obese people actually have a higher metabolism than thin people.

Think about it: Would I burn more calories tomorrow if I gave my two-year-old Ruby a piggyback ride all day tomorrow, or if I gave one to my husband Wayne?  Obviously, if you have more to carry around with you, you will burn more calories.

The first time I heard this was three or four years ago.  I was watching "Oprah" (don't judge; it was before her show started to stink), and Dr. Mehmet Oz was on the TV talking about weight loss.  

Previously I had been quite certain that metabolism was a key factor in a person's final weight.  I was darn sure that my Millie was not created equally; in fact, I was certain she was the turtle of all turtles, and that fact made me feel justified in my weight loss struggles.

Dr. Oz burst my bubble. If you are wanting him to explain it to you, here is an article I somehow dug up about this topic.  I was upset at the time, but now I have come to the conclusion that he helped me not hide behind convenient excuses.

Now, I am not saying people's metabolisms don't vary.  Many factors can affect your metabolism, especially including your age and body chemistry.  I am quite sure as well that other medical factors can affect your weight.  I am not a nutritionist, or a scientist, or a doctor, so I can't really explain all that stuff to you.  

What I can say is, people of your age, gender and general body type probably have similar metabolisms to yours, so really all you can do to control your weight is watch your caloric intake vs. your calorie expenditures.  

To do this, I have a daily contest with my Millie.  I try to make sure the number of calories I eat is less than the number she plans to burn on her slowest day.  

Try it with me: Read my blog for ideas on how to beat your Millie!

Exercise Isn't Enough

It being January, I joined the rest of the country and decided to make some resolutions.  This year I actually wrote them down (or rather, typed them into my iPhone) because I always hear you better achieve your goals if you write them down.

Every person I have spoken with about resolutions this year has included some kind of health and fitness resolution.  What fascinates me about this is that I assume the percentage of people who actually keep these resolutions is miniscule.  

Proof of this is how IRRITATING it is to go to the gym in January, because the machines are always taken and the classes are always too full, yet when February rolls around the gym reverts back to being wide open space.  Although I go to the gym year-round, I definitely am among the ranks of people who neglect their weight loss resolutions.

I have an excellent theory as to why so many of us fail to achieve our weight loss aspirations.  I believe it is because our country, through many different avenues, sends us all the message that exercise = automatic weight loss.

I can hear all of you saying in your Americanized heads, "Well, it does."  Yes, it does – if you do enough of it. If you maintain your current level of calorie intake.  If your daily calories burned number is larger than your daily calories eaten number enough times.

However, I have thought for a long time that people underestimate the number of calories they eat and overestimate the number of calories they burn when the exercise.  

In addition, something I always do is overcompensate for my hard work in the gym by intaking more calories than I would otherwise. I know I am doing it, too, and I tell myself that it is just fine and dandy to eat one more handful of chocolate chips because, heck, I've exercised, so at least I won't gain weight.

I was both delighted and horrified when one of my many well-read and extremely intelligent high school students told me about this Time article. It basically confirms that it's not just me, that a bunch of people eat more when they exercise, because it's a scientific fact that exercise stimulates hunger.

Can we overcome this problem? Sure, now that we know about it, if we write down what we eat and calorie count.  

However, this is not the only hurdle we face.  Exercising, while wonderful for a million different health reasons, may not burn as many calories as you may think.

A person must have about a 3,500 calorie deficit to lose a single pound.  If a person is breaking even on calories in vs. calories out right now, and walking burns just more than 200 calories an hour, a person may have to walk an hour a day for 15 days in addition to maintaining his current exercise level and calorie intake, to lose just one pound.

Jeez, what a downer you are being, Kristin, you are thinking.  Are trying to discourage me so badly that I quit exercising? 

No, I'm not, but that's exactly what happens when people think that all they have to do is listen to the gym commercials on the radio, sign up, work out a few times, and BOOM turn into a size 2 fitness model.  The number one reason I believe people give up on resolutions is because of unrealistic expectations.  If you believe your solution to weight loss is exercise, you must exercise hard and often, and make sure it doesn't cause you to increase your calorie intake.

Which brings me to my point: Watching what you eat is a much easier way to lose weight.  It's pretty easy to cut 300-500 calories off your daily count, especially if you are eating the average of 2,000 calories a day. Besides, eating healthy can be so much fun!  It's like a game: Who can eat the most, tastiest food for the lowest amount of calories?

I am definitely not saying not to exercise.  Exercising makes me feel energized and super attractive, even when I have a few pounds to lose.  If I go to the gym in the morning, I walk around feeling like a hot mama all day long.

However, I am saying that healthy eating is the key to weight loss, and exercise isn't. 

 

Therefore, you should probably keep reading my blog so I can inspire you to establish and maintain a healthy diet.  Just consider me your entertaining (and if nothing else free) healthy eating motivator.  And hopefully I'll also motivate myself this new year.

Spicy Dinnertime Conversations

I really enjoy cooking and baking, and my husband enjoys eating, so you would think we frequently would experience dinnertime harmony.  You would be correct only if you liken harmony to going to the dentist's office while listening to nails on a chalkboard. (The first problem is my 2-year-old likes dinnertime as much as most kids like naptime, but that's another blog.)

"Those look ... interesting... " my husband muttered tonight as I served dinner.

I was placing crunchy, baked tortilla strips on the table.  Not exactly a controversial food.  They taste like crunchy salt, and who doesn't like crunchy, salty stuff?

This kind of comment is a regular occurrence at our house. And when I say "regular occurrence," I mean this happens every single day.

If you ask my husband if he is a picky eater, he might say yes.  If you ask him if he complains about my cooking, he will adamantly deny it.  He is in whining denial.

The problem my husband and I have is that I have this obsession with really yummy yet very healthy food.  It's like a double obsession, because I am not only very interested in my food tasting good, but I am super fascinated with what our bodies do with what we eat.

My husband, on the other hand, likes to eat large amounts of cow, fried carbohydrates and soda pop.  And that's about it.

I truly am not trying to speak ill of my sweet man.  I speak the truth, and honestly, it's surely the truth about most men (and heck, women, too).  It's not as if he only eats those things; it's just that those are what he wishes he only ate.

That fact combined with the fact that my husband truly is a picky eater (he does not like mushrooms, broccoli, most other vegetables, beans, chocolate, casseroles, mayonnaise, or many other items) creates a situation where he basically never jumps to joy when I bring dinner to the table.  Unless we are having cow.

Now, I like to think I am a decent cook.  Other people compliment me on my cooking. 

I have tastebuds, and the stuff I make tastes good to me.  It's also generally low in fat and calories, so that makes me doubly happy.  

But my husband's subtle, unintentional criticism has definitely given me a complex.  I dream about cooking for people who treat me like I am the Rachael Ray of Wichita.   

Unfortunately, my husband has never heard of Rachael and will never stroke my cooking ego like I'd it.  I most likely am going to have to live vicariously through Bethenny Frankel, my healthy cooking idol.  

If you don't know who she is, puh-lease look her up because she is a domestic goddess, and she's really pretty, and I want to be just like her when I grow up. 

But back to the tortilla strips.  I was serving them with chicken tortilla soup.  

Here's my recipe:

1/3 cup chopped onions

2 stalks celery

one clove garlic

2 tsp. extra virgin olive oil

one can corn

one large jar tomato sauce

1/2 cup dry white cooking wine

one can Rotel

2.5 tsp. cumin

1 tsp. cayenne pepper

3 chicken breasts, cooked and shredded

4 large tortillas

one bag mixed Mexican shredded cheese

Sautee veggies in skillet with olive oil and garlic clove.  Place contents of skillet into large soup pot with all ingredients through chicken.  Simmer for 10-15 minutes.  Meanwhile, cut tortillas into strips, spray with olive oil-based cooking spray on both sides, salt and place in 400 degree oven for about 10 minutes, until edges are brown and strips are crunchy.  Serve soup with strips, cheese and sour cream if you wish.  

Yum!