Asparagus and Leek Soup

(makes 6 servings)

Ingredients:

• Non-fat cooking spray
  
  


• 1½ pounds fresh asparagus, trimmed and cut into 1” pieces
  
  


• ½ cup onion, chopped
  
  


• 1 cup white part of leeks, washed and chopped
  
  


• ½ cup celery, chopped
  
  


• 1 small potato, peeled and cubed
  
  


• 3½ cups low-sodium chicken broth
  
  


• ½ cup non-fat sour cream
  
  


• Salt and pepper to taste
  
  

Preparation:

• Spray a large-size skillet with non-fat cooking spray and heat over medium heat. Add asparagus, onions, leeks, celery and potato, then cover and cook until vegetables are softened (about 20 minutes), stirring occasionally.
  
  


• Add vegetables in a blender and puree until very smooth.
  
  


• In a large-size saucepan, bring chicken broth to a boil then reduce heat to a simmer. Add vegetable mixture and stir well. Stir in non-fat sour cream and mix until well incorporated.
  
  


• Add salt and pepper to taste (optional)
  
  

Make 6 Servings:

Weight loss recipes Amount Per Serving(1/6 of recipe (341 g)): 105 Calories, 7 g Protein, 17 g carbohydrates, 4 g Dietary Fiber, 1 g fat, 0 g saturated fat, 2 mg cholesterol, 73 mg sodium

FOOD PORN BLOG

OMG after reading that Tina's husband was supplying her with food porn on his blog I went on a quest for more. Like her, I truly believe looking at it in all its glory can be just as good as the real thing and I found a cracker and this is it over at foodiewife-kitchen.blogspot.com click the link to view in technicolour!

FOOD PORN HEAVEN

Wow she is AWESOME and I am totally 'getting off' on her cooking. It is out of this world and some of her recipes that she creates are to die for. I will of course never be able to indulge in (for instance) lemon smashed potatoes - potatoes boiled in milk and then mashed with it and some lemon zest and served with green beans and lemon infused fish fillets. Wow, unreal stuff but truly gorgeous.

Indulge at your own risk!

Little deal

As opposed to a big deal!

The scales gave in an moved to 117.3kgs this morning. YAY. That means in just over a month I have done half a kilogram. So, like I said, little deal.

The gym was tough today for some reason. I found myself willing the time to go and I was really achy. I guess some days are just harder than others. Who knows.

Did my training for my new 'secret' job yesterday. I cant say what it is outright, because I can't draw attention to the fact that I am doing it and having it tied in with personal details and coming up on a google search, but it happens every 10 years, involves lots of questions... if you get my drift.

That was pretty cool. I am looking forward to it a lot actually.

Anyway, that's me checking in for now. Still alive, still not thin ;-)

Adios!

Garam Masala (Indian spice blend)

(makes ¼ cup)

Ingredients:

• 2 tsp black peppercorns
  
  


• 1 tbsp cumin seeds
  
  


• 1 tbsp coriander seeds
  
  


• 12 cardamom pods
  
  


• 8 whole cloves
  
  


• 1 (2”) cinnamon stick, broken up
  
  


• ½ tsp ground nutmeg
  
  

Preparation:

• Place black peppercorns, cumin, coriander, cardamom, cloves and cinnamon in a skillet over medium-high heat.
  
  


• Cook until spices start to smoke and become aromatic. Constantly shake skillet for 5 minutes then stir in nutmeg.
  
  


• Remove from heat and let cool completely.
  
  


• Place toasted spices in a spice or cleaned out coffee grinder and grind until finely ground.
  
  


• Store in an airtight container.
  
  


• Tip: Use as a spice rub over your favorite meats like chicken, pork, beef or seafood.
  
  

Make 12 Servings:

Weight Loss Recipes Amount Per Serving(1 teaspoon (2 g)): 6 Calories, 0 g Protein, 1 g carbohydrates, 0 g Dietary Fiber, 0 g fat, 0 g saturated fat, 0 mg cholesterol, 2 mg sodium

Gluten-Free January Raffle Winners Selected!

Raffle winners have been selected and shirts are on their way. You know who you are. Thanks to everyone who participated and filled out the survey! For those who didn't, there's always next year.

Janine Jagger, Matt Lentzner and I are busy crunching the mountain of data we collected from the GFJ survey. We got 279 responses, which is remarkable for a survey of this nature.

Stay tuned for data!

Watermelon Blueberry Banana Split

(makes 3 cups)

Ingredients:

• 2 large bananas
  
  


• 8 scoops watermelon
  
  


• 1 cup fresh blueberries or raspberries or strawberries
  
  


• ½ cup vanilla low-fat yogurt
  
  


• ¼ cup granola
  
  

Preparation:

• Peel bananas and cut in half crosswise. Then cut each piece in half lengthwise. Lay 2 banana slices against the sides of a shallow dish.
  
  


• Place a watermelon "scoop" at each end of the dish. (To make watermelon "scoops" use an ice cream scoop to create balls of watermelon. Remove seeds)
  
  


• Fill in with berries.
  
  


• Stir yogurt until smooth, spoon over watermelon "scoops". Sprinkle with granola.
  
  

Make 4 splits:

Weight loss recipes Amount Per Serving(1 split (166 g)): 151 Calories, 3 g Protein, 31 g carbohydrates, 3 g Dietary Fiber, 3 g fat, 1 g saturated fat, 2 mg cholesterol, 24 mg sodium

Hank's capture video

I loved this video!



It made me cry because it's such a happy event. You can see what a gentle soul this little guy is just by his demeanor. He's been on the run for a week, in a completely foreign land, with snow and freezing temperatures this last week. Scrounging for food and sick with bronchitis. He didn't understand our language since he's from Taiwan, and I'm sure everything smells very differently here than it did in Taiwan. You can see how gentle he is when Jim (the tracking dog owner) picks him up and puts him in the kennel. Really touching.

Posting today on Saving Great Animals Facebook:

Please email us if you would like to FOSTER HANK. He will be in need of a soft warm place to land as of this afternoon. He is being treated for Bronchitis with antibiotics and has a sore hip and leg from being on the run. The best place for him is in a home without any other dogs, since he has been through so much this past week, and with out any young children. Once he is settled and the PTSD (Post Traumatic Stress Disorder) has worn off his new home settings may change, but for now we want to find him a home where things are quiet and he will receive lots of TLC. PLEASE let us know if you can help.

~~~~~~~~~

If you live in the Pacific Northwest and are interested in either fostering or adopting this very special dog, email the Saving Great Animals director, Vashti Escobedo- Director Saving Great Animals: Matching Families and Pets at vashti@savinggreatanimals.org.

 ~~~~~~~

I've never heard of this organization until last weekend,  Missing Pet Partnership, Seattle Pet Detectives. They were hired by the Saving Great Animals rescue group to find Hank. I was really impressed by these folks.

The lady in the yellow vest in the video is Cat, and she is really a neat lady. They worked so hard to find Hank. They plastered the neighborhood with signs. There were signs everywhere. You couldn't go down a street within a two-mile radius from where he was lost without seeing one of the lost dog signs (and they were huge signs). They used a tracking dog to find where Hank was hanging out. They had a video camera at one of the live animal traps. They had a phone hotline that was answered 24/7.

I guess most major cities have a service like this, but I'd never heard of such a thing. Good to know in case I ever lose a pet.

There were also about 30 volunteers working to find Hank. A really nice group of people donating their time to help in the search. The whole thing just made me feel better about people in general. The world really isn't such a bad place. There's a lot of good out there, we just don't always see it.