November 15, 2009
Food is love. Symbolically and literally, we often use food for many messages:
I love you.
I’m sorry.
You did good.
I want to help.
Thank you.
I hope it gets better.
It’s better!
Congratulations!
For decades, we humans have passed around warm plates of cookies, savory hot casseroles, and frosty beverages to pass along many messages. While I’m not going to go so far as to argue that we shouldn’t use food as a symbol of our love (because didn’t I just bake my sister pumpkin cookies for her birthday and celebrate the end of internal medicine month with sirloin steak, WHY YES I DID)… what does one do when you know the recipient of your food gift is trying to lead a healthier lifestyle?
The inspiration for this post was three-fold. First, it’s the holiday season. Tis the season to make cookies, tie ‘em up with curly ribbons and leave them in the mailbox for your carrier who puts up with all your ebay packages. Or at least, that’s what we do here in our household. One of my clients asked me the other day to help her come up with non-food small gift items for the people in her life she had previously gifted with food. She herself is on a weight loss journey, having lost 30 pounds over the last year, and I’m sure she is thinking “if I’ve struggled with gifted food before, is it fair to pass the same challenge along to others who might be trying to live healthier?”
I also struggled with this question a few weeks ago when I was put to the task of delivering a meal to a friend who was going back and forth to the hospital to take care of a sick relative. The first thing that came to mind was “a casserole!” but i knew my friend was also trying to eat healthier, and I was pretty sure her irregular hospital schedule didn’t leave her a lot of time to prepare healthy meals on her own. I started brainstorming healthy “care package” meals that i could make, and it was from that list this blog was born.
So, without further ado, below are ideas for gifts and care packages that will allow you to shower you recipient with your love without derailing their pursuit of healthier living. And isn’t that even more loving of you?
Gift Ideas:
Tea or Coffee Drinkers: Buy a few boxes of specialty teas and mix them up. Purchase tulle or another light fabric from a craft or fabric store to tie up your tea sampler satchel. If you’d like, you can pair it with a reusable tumbler or a tea infuser. If you’re local in Winston, visit Chad’s Chai and Tea shop for loose leaf teas to make your own collections. (He’s also on Foodzie for those of you not here!) Include with your gift a recipe of homemade Chai Lattes or Pumpkin Spice Lattes.
Scrubs: When I was in high school, I discovered that I could make exfoliating scrubs for mere pennies… quite a wonderful surprise after I had been buying the $15 version at Bath & Body Works for a couple years. This is so insanely easy you won’t believe it. First, go to Michael’s (or some other craft store) and pick up some small glass jars. Think baby food size – they are usually only a couple dollars each. If you’re planning far enough ahead, you can BE green and SAVE green by beginning to rinse our glass jars from food items and sending them through your dishwasher a few times to get rid of any food debris/smell. (Hint: black bean salsa jars don’t work so good for this… the smell never quite goes away, and there’s nothing very relaxing about smelling like a jalapeno in your bathtub.) You’re going to fill your glass jars with three things: a moisturizing agent (oil), a scrub (sugar, salt or coffee) and a wee little drop of essential oils. Oops, I should have mentioned – while you’re at Michaels, you’ll need to buy a small thing of essential oil. This is usually in the candle section. Hope you read this whole blurb before you went.
It takes a little bit of mad scientist style chemistry to get the ratio of oil: scrub right, but just start by filling up your jar halfway with three-fourths of the scrubbing agent and then slowly adding the oil in. Salt (especially big gritty kosher salt) and sugar works great (brown sugar is a little more gentle and has a yummy smell too), but coffee works as well and the caffeine temporarily works to tighten things up. (I said temporarily folks… no miracle cures here. But that’s what the rest of this blog is for!) Add a few drops of the oil for a yummy smell, and voila! Ready to gift!
This is what the texture should look like: more grit than oil.
Homemade Dog Biscuits: If your favorite people might be watching what they eat and might find your homemade cookies an easy distraction from their goals, doesn’t mean that Fido won’t appreciate your hard work in the kitchen! There are many recipes for homemade dog biscuits on the web, I like this one for it’s simplicity and it’s use of everyday ingredients. (Someone mentioned garlic is bad for dogs; I can’t find anything that supports this but if you’re concerned just omit it. I’m sure Fido won’t mind.) Make sure your gift recipient knows who the benefactor of this treat is!
Flavored Oils & Vinegars: I love this idea that was in the latest issue of Prevention (December 2009): flavored oils and vinegars. I can’t say I have tried it, but it looks fairly straightforward and would be such a fun gift to share. You could reuse glass bottles or if you have a World Market in your city, I know they sell olive oil decanters for very expensive. (I got one to put my dish soap in for $2.)
Post-Cards or Note cards: This one works best for people you know, because you cater the design to their likes. (Your mail carrier may not jump up and down about a pack of postcards with your darling 18 month on the front, but your “don’t buy me any more stuff” grandmother might.) There’s a couple places you can make these, my favorite are Snapfish and Moo. On Moo, you can make a 20 pack of post-cards for $17.99. You can easily split this into 4 mini-packs of cards for 5 people. I like to bundle these up with scraps of ribbons I’ve saved throughout the year from gifts. Try scenes of your city for people you work with, a place you’ve vacationed to for family members, old photos of good times with friends – the possibilities are endless. Go the extra step to include a roll of stamp for bonus points. If you’re super crafty, I love these photo notepads that you can make at home. This would be a great way to use up the paper sitting in your work recycling bin too. I’ve never tried making these, but they just might be on my to do list this year. (Let me know if you try them!)
Angel Food Care Packages: If you’re delivering a meal to someone, here’s a few ideas of angel food care packages that will let you deliver your nourishment with love, minus the heaping dose of cream of chicken condensed soup.
One note: when bringing food to someone, be sure to use Tupperware or disposable dishes you don’t need back. This will make it easier on the recipient. (If you want to be a little bit more green, go to Goodwill and load up on dishes or receptacles you can pass along. Be sure to mention in a note to the recipient that they don’t have to return the dish; let them know they can keep it or pass it on. I found a bunch of plates for $1 each on my last trip to goodwill and with a tight saran wrap seal, they’ve worked well for many pass-alongs.)
Grilled Chicken Salad: Grill chicken and cut into strips. Put into tupperware or ziploc bag. In a separate tupperware or bag include pre-chopped up salad greens. (Don’t include more than 1-2 servings per person – otherwise this becomes a science experiment in the fridge.) Include separately chopped up bags or tupperwares of fixings such as carrots, onions, peppers, cucumbers, tomatoes. Keep them separate – they’ll get mushy if mixed in. Include a small bottle of dressing. If you want a really special touch, make a homemade dressing. This is a really nice way of letting the recipient feel really special about receiving a meal from you. There’s ton of recipes online; I like a number of them listed here. I save glass bottles from a number of different foods for this purpose, a quick run through the dishwasher will make them ready to go. (Peel the label off first, and if there’s any residue left if usually comes off in the DW.) A salad dressing in a jar with a lid can be shook up before pouring if it settles while traveling. Be sure to note if it needs to be put in the fridge or not. If you’d like, include a crusty wheat bread to go along with the salad.
Baked Potatoes and Turkey Chili: This is a favorite of mine for winter months. Purchase the baked potatoes that come wrapped in plastic that take 7 minutes in the microwave. Include small Tupperware or baggies of toppings including sour cream, pre-chopped chives, salsa, crumbled cheese. Turkey chili is a great, healthy swap and best of all, will keep in the freezer if the recipient chooses not to eat it right away. My favorite recipe is by Ellie Krieger, but you can find a number of other ones online. If you want, you can pour the recipe into Ziploc baggies and lay them flat to freeze – essentially making one-two serving recipes that the recipient can thaw as needed. (Bonus: make yourself a batch to freeze too.) This works well for many soup recipes too.
Stir-Fry: Grill or stir-fry a chicken or pork with a little bit of olive oil or sesame oil, cut into strips. Toss in a Ziploc bag or Tupperware. Include a bag of frozen stir-fry vegetables that can be microwaved (SteamFresh is my favorite brand) and a bag of Uncle Ben’s Ready Rice. *This is the one that can be microwaved in 90 seconds.* (While typically I don’t use this rice because it is slightly higher in sodium, in the case of providing someone a “quick and easy” meal it’s a nice option. Best pick is the plain brown rice, although they have flavored ones such as Teriyaki or Jasmine that would go well with a Stir-Fry dish.) Include a small bottle of low sodium soy sauce as a nice complement. If you want, include a small baggie of chopped peanuts or cashews as a garnish.
Egg Frittata: This is a really simple, delicious way to get a bunch of veggies and protein! Sautee any type of vegetables in 1-2 tsp of olive oil. Spray a pie tin (disposable or one you’re willing to give away) with a few bursts of olive oil cooking spray. In a mixing bowl, stir together 3 eggs and 3 egg whites with 3/4 cup skim milk. Add feta cheese or goat cheese throughout and a little bit of salt and pepper. Put in a 350 degree oven for 40 minutes. Slices can be reheated individually in the microwave later.
Refill Your Glass Jars with Soups, Salad Dressings & Sauces
Soups also freeze well flat in plastic bags.
You can get creative and spin off any of these basics: new toppings for the salads, different soups to sub for the chili and variations on the stir-fry. Many meals that you might be making for your family could easily become “care package” meals – just pay attention to any meals you prepare that are easy to cook (i.e microwave or oven reheat) or non-cook and that have meal components that don’t require a lot of assembly before eating.
Food is part of our culture, and there’s nothing wrong with gifting something you’ve created or sharing a meal with someone in need. Finding a way to do it that supports healthier choices is even better. You’ll feel good about what you’ve shared, and the recipient will feel good about what they’re eating. It’s a win for everyone. I welcome you to share in the comment sections other “care package” or gift ideas that you’ve used!
September 28, 2009
Hi Mom (and other random blog readers who I can only identify as a series of random digits and ISP locations),
You’ve probably been wondering why I haven’t been blogging lately. Well, you probably aren’t, since I do call you nearly every single day… but for those other loyal random digits out there, I thought I best put up this under construction memo.
I was busy looking up the lyrics to “I’ve Got A Feeling” last Friday (that Oprah video link just really catapulated that song into all-time-stuck-in-my-head-status), when all of a sudden pop-up’s galore started flying across my screen. Most of the words that entered into my head at this point aren’t fit to type. You can imagine.
Fast forward to a week later, an inordinate amount of time spent on Geek Forums, and painstackingly tiny tweaks to get my computer back up and running. As it stands, I’ve gotten all but the search engine hijack cleaned up which means no Google, Gmail or *GASP* Blogger. I know, it hurts me just to write it.
In the meantime, I hijacked my lovely hubby’s computer to tell you not to desert me. When I return I shall regale you with Music, Thankfulness, stories of life in the Dash, and a step by step instruction complete with appropriate cuss-words for removing a search engine hijack from your computer. You can skip that last part if you’re not feeling it, I won’t be offended.
xoxo,
Megs
PS, in the meantime…Happy Blogiversary to Moi.
September 16, 2009
This was Monday’s recipe in my meal plan for the week, and I gotta tell ya’ll, it is one of my faves.
Pork with Peanut Sauce
Unfortunately, I rarely follow a recipe exactly, so I forgot to tell you about a few tweaks I made. If you haven’t tried it yet, here’s a few pointers.
- If you bought pork tenderloin, broil it. It takes about ~8-10 minutes on each side, and it’ll have this delicious, crispy outside and perfectly tender inside. Plus, it’s way faster than the grill / oven.
Broiled Pork Tenderloin
- I use about half the peanut butter called for in the sauce, and gently bump up the soy sauce / rice vinegar to taste. I’ve made this the original way, and it’s a little too peanut butter-y of a texture and taste. I like it to be more runny, with just a hint of the PB taste. This is also key for cutting some of the calories. I forgot I had actually made this and posted it about 2 months ago, and you can see here the thicker texture as well as thinner pork chops. This week’s was much better… what can I say, my cooking is a work in progress!
Tuesday I made the Chicken Marsala. I listed the recipe here. Again, tweaks. (I’d be a terrible chemist and/or engineer.)
Chicken Marsala
I love the sauce on this… it tastes even better the second day when the chicken has hung out in that sauce and just soaked it all up. This recipe originally came from WW “Simply the Best” cookbook, and they list the stats at 390, including the brown rice (which I did not list on the recipe). Sure beats Olive Garden’s 770 calorie version!
After I made it, I decided the grapes really didn’t add much. I think I would leave them out in the future, and put mushrooms back in. What’s chicken marsala without mushrooms?
I usually note in my cookbooks when I made a dish, what the reactions were, and any changes I’ve made. The last time I made this dish was actually November 26th, 2006. This is when I first start taking pictures of my food. I think I’ve come a long way in photography, as well as cooking. Here’s the original picture from nearly 3 years ago. I have no idea what setting I was using that made the dish look so…gray.
Original Chicken Marsala, Early Photography Days
Tonight, Chef Salad is still on the menu and I’m looking forward to a lighter dinner. Okay, sort of light, this salad does involve bacon and cheese. Everything in moderation, right?
September 13, 2009
Serves 4
1 tsp canola oil
3/4 # skinless, boneless chix breast, cut into strips
4 scallions, chopped
1 T flour
1/2 cup low-sodium chicken broth
1/4 cup dry Marsala wine
1 cup seedless grapes, halved
Pinch of pepper
1. Heat the oil in a large skillet. Add the chicken and cook, until lightly browned. Transfer to a plate. (5-6 mins.)
2. Spray the same skillet with cooking spray and add the scallions. Cook until softened, then add flour and stir for 1 minute.
3. Gradually stir in the broth and wine, cook and stir constantly for 2 minutes until it boils and thickens.
4. Add in the chickens, grapes and a pinch of pepper. Bring to a boil. Reduce heat and simmer, covered, for 5 minutes.
Eat solo, or top on brown rice or whole wheat linguine noodles.
Credit: Weight Watcher’s Simply The Best cookbook (I’ve made some edits, but this is where it originated.)
June 21, 2009
Ya’ll know how much I love Greek yogurt in just about everything right? Well, I’ve taken the obsession a step farther. Recently we adopted Buddy, a 5 year old sheltie rescue. One of his habits he came pre-packaged with was refusing to eat his hard food without some soft food gravy mixed in with it. This is something I wanted to break him off (daily gravy? no child of mine, not even a furry one!) and one day, while I staring into my fridge it came to me – YOGURT! Another Sheltie owner had told me she mixed in canned carrots with her dog’s food, and a tsp of plain regular yogurt. I thought Greek yogurt would be perfect, because there’s nothing artificial in it. Lo and behold, Buddy loves Greek yogurt as much as me.
Next thing you know, I’ll have found out a way to clean my bathtub with it.
Buddy Loves Yogurt Too!
April 8, 2009
Last Wednesday I came rushing into my office after a long day, with less than an hour before I’d have to leave for another appointment. I threw down all the bags I was carrying, booted up my computer and sat down to catch my breath. After teaching 3 group sessions, I hadn’t yet had lunch and noticed for the first time my ravenously growing stomach. At that exact moment, I spied the Panera box my co-worker had on her desk. Moments later, I was gobbling down a cinnamon crunch bagel and thinking to myself “Boy, I sure do get why people say they eat worse when they’re busy! You just don’t have time to get something healthy some days!”
AHEM. I realized a few seconds later, as I glanced over at the bags I rushed in with, that I had a yogurt, celery sticks and laughing cow, and a Clementine all left in my lunch bag. I knew those were there, but nonetheless, had defaulted to grabbing the bagel. This reaction made me wonder: how much of our busy day eating choices have to do with lack of time to find or prepare healthy food, and how much should more accurately be contributed to the emotional state that our frenzied lifestyle puts us in?
For me, this moment was an insight. My knee jerk reaction to grab the bagel had nothing to do with the fact that I didn’t have TIME to get something healthy – although I had not had my usual lunch hour during the day, I had plenty of time the night before to pack a lunch box FULL of healthy choices and just as much time to reach over and crunch on some celery and LC. My inclination to grab the sugar-y, carb-y choice was clearly a response to my pent-up tension from a day (a week!) that had hit me hard on the stress-o-meter.
There seems to be an epidemic lately of stressed out, busy people. One of my clients’ most common obstacles to their weight loss goals are their “busy lifestyle.” My initial reaction to that is to look at their day-to-day schedule and figure out where exercise can fit in (one less hour of TV? wake up a smidge earlier?) and to develop strategies for cooking fast and healthy (hello, steamfresh veggies!) or finding healthy take out (thank you, Jared.) While these strategies are critical and they address the symptoms of a busy lifestyle, as I sat there wolfing down a bagel that did nothing for me but send me into a sugar coma that stretched well into dinner hour, I realized that the roots of our poor habits/busy lifestyle go way deeper than just “not enough time” to eat healthy or exercise.
It’s well documented that under stress, our bodies start pumping out 2 hormones: adrenaline and cortisol. The body’s reaction to cortisol: GIMMEFOODNOW kind of hunger. This was a great reaction to have in the days when stress meant running from a saber toothed tiger (thanks, Cavemen ancestors for establishing our metabolisms), but not so helpful today when running away from our stress usually involves vegging out in front of the TV with Simon Cowell or having your butt glued to the office chair for hours at a time. Chronic, low-grade stress (the kind of every day stuff we all deal with) can create chronic levels of cortisol.
The result? Your bodies’ craving for quick, concentrated energy. Here’s a hint: it’s not celery sticks and laughing cow.
But wait… there’s more! (That wasn’t enough? REPEAT: Thanks cavemen ancestors.) Not only does cortisol rev up your craving for Panera bagels, but it also makes your body more efficient at storing fat – a protective mechanism when times of stress might also be times of famine. No longer helpful when famine is practically unheard of in most of our lives – in fact, most of us have access to cheap, plentiful, high calorie food at any hour of the day!
Couple these physical reactions with our emotional response to stress – a desire to disconnect from the pain that focusing on our stressors create – and you have what is basically the perfect storm for not-so-healthy choices and weight loss efforts impeded. How to navigate from these treacherous seas?
Use the symptom-treating healthy eating strategies: packing healthy lunches/snacks the night before so you have plenty of good choices on hand, loading up on steamer bag veggies, lean proteins, bagged salads – whatever it takes to quickly throw together a healthy meal, plug exercise sessions into your calendar and treat them with the importance of a doctor’s appointment.
Another strategy: Move. It’s called fight or flight for a reason – sometimes a little flight can go a long way to can go a long way to clear your head and level out your stress hormones.
But, lastly go a little deeper. Recognize when you’re grabbing choices that don’t support your weight loss efforts that it may really be more about the comfort of that food than the “too busy” – I find a heaping dose of honesty with ourselves goes a long way. It’s easy to let yourself off the hook time and time again when you keep saying “I’m too busy to eat healthy” but it’s a big white flag for some work to do when you start saying “I’m eating this to distract myself from the stress of xyz.” Use the strategies I talk about here to work through emotional eating and change your thought process to alter your reactions to stress-inducing situations.
April 1, 2009
Lilacs in Rochester
When I went home to Rochester at the beginning of this month, I kept looking around in awe of how GREEN everything was. North Carolina, in contrast was quite a bit warmer but most definitely brown and dry. I sat in my parent’s kitchen on a Friday morning doing work, basking in the lush open green field behind their house, wishing that some of that green-ness would somehow transport itself down to my backyard.
Fast forward to 3 weeks later. It’s been raining, for a solid 3 weeks. Out of my mouth, I continue to hear complaints about not being able to go running, not being able to wear flat shoes (pant hems in puddles, ick), how all the good parking spaces are taken and how it’s raining, raining, raining. Today, as I drove to the research center to teach classes my eyes were opened for the first time to how GREEN the entire campus was. “Ahem”, something within said to me. “Wasn’t this, pray tell, the result you were hoping for? Did you forget what it would take to create this?”
Funny how when we set our eyes on the prize, we often forget about the process of creation. We want the green grass, without the rainy days. I see this every day in the work I do, and in my own experience. We set out on the journey to fit in our skinny jeans, escape diabetes, to like what we see in the mirror, to wow someone at the reunion…. but when “in the trenches” we are quick to scurry back to safety. “It’s hard!” “I didn’t know it would be like this!”
Weight loss, I don’t believe is the hardest thing in the world, just as I very consciously recognize that rain is not the worst kind of weather we can have. I can still have a good day even when I can’t wear my flats or go for a run! All too often though, I find our radar detectors are set to find the negatives. We want the weight loss, but we take stock of everything we have to change, give up or do different.
All morning long, I’ve made it a point to bid people good-bye saying “Enjoy the green-ness today!” I’ve gotten plenty of funny looks, and not just for the fact that green-ness is a made up word. But a few people have stopped in their tracks and pointed out how pretty it is, or how much we needed this rain. It’s natural to slip into commiseration over this weather, as it is to join the ranks of those who bemoan the process of weight loss.
Choose, as consciously as you can, to set your radar to notice the good. Focus on the end result and be daring: celebrate the process it takes to arrive there, no matter how many rainy days there are.
March 28, 2009
Good Morning, Loyal Readers!
There is nothing worse than checking a blog week after week and finding no new posting. This has been a packed month for me, but I hope I’ve been out growing my brain to share many new ideas about weight loss and cravings and life balance (oh my!).
In early March, I spent 2 days down in Tampa at the Nutrition, Physical Activity and Metabolism Conference. It felt like 2 years of graduate school packed into 48 hours, minus the coffee addiction and poor sleeping habits that I acquired then. I learned SO much about the latest research in nutrition & weight loss, and I hope my frantic scribbling of all the information will do it justice when I try to distill in to useful bits for you.
I’ve also been touring around my little city, doing numerous workshops on Weight Loss 101 and Emotional Eating. It never fails to surprise me no matter where or whom I am teaching, that the challenges for weight loss are quite universal. Yet, there is always at least one, brand new never asked before question. The more often I say “I don’t know”, the more work I know there is to do in this field and that excites me, for what I hope I can find and translate to you.
I also learned something important about myself… I NEED to write. I started this blog as a place to share my ideas and experiences with each of you, but I realized, with nearly a month’s hiatus, that this writing is just as much for me. When I’m coaching my clients, I always encourage them to build time into their day for the small things that do nothing but nourish them. When we lack that emotional nourishment, we often turn to food to fill the void. It’s a wonder to me at that after years of educating myself and others about weight loss, I am still my own best student.
I am back, with much to share with you. Hope you will continue this journey with me, and welcome to all my new readers who I have met in the last month at the conference and my workshops!
March 11, 2009
Continental Breakfast: the stable meal of hotel-based meetings. For me, this always brings up images of cereals in tiny boxes, questionable looking pastries and the breadiest looking bagels ever. If you’re really lucky, some make your own Belgian Waffles! (But oh! When there’s no cooking spray….)
I was wondering what our Continental Breakfast would be like today, considering this conference is put on by the American Heart Association. They did not disappoint. Huge vats of oatmeal with every topping imaginable – I went pretty classic with brown sugar, oatmeal raisin and some cinnamon covered almond slices. Carmen Miranda-esque piles of fruit. A dish of hot, baked apples. A small display of whole grain toasts and teeny tiny muffins. (Portion control!) Coffee with skim milk and plenty of tea to choose from. Water pitchers every where you turn.
A huge thumbs up to AHA for walking the talk. And now, if you will, please leave me to devour my delicious bowls of heart-healthy soluble fibers.
Oats and fruit. Fiber-ing it up to my heart's delight.
This is what the texture should look like: more grit than oil.
Refill Your Glass Jars with Soups, Salad Dressings & Sauces
Soups also freeze well flat in plastic bags.
