Easy Chicken Florentine Soup

Here is a hearty chicken soup that is full of nutrients from complex carbs -- Vegetables! Making use of a rotisserie chicken and veggies from the frozen foods department helps put this meal in a pot together in a split second. Great for busy weeknights but don't hang your head in shame if you want to serve this to guests. They will love it too! Enjoy.

Easy Chicken Florentine Soup

Ingredients:
1

Chicken Marsala

(makes 4 servings)

Ingredients:

• 3 cups sliced mushrooms, sliced (Crimini, button, Portobello, Crimini, Porcini)
  
  


• 4 skinless, boneless chicken breast halves (about 1 pound)
  
  


• 4 tsp vegetable oil
  
  


• ¼ tsp salt
  
  


• ¼ tsp freshly ground black pepper
  
  


• ½ cup green onions, sliced
  
  


• ½ tsp dried sage, crushed
  
  


• ¾ cup Marsala wine
  
  


• 1 tbsp water
  
  


• 1 tsp cornstarch
  
  

Preparation:

• Tenderize breast halves by placing each between two sheets of plastic wrap then pound lightly using the flat side of a meat mallet until about ⅛” in thickness.
  
  


• In a large-sized skillet, heat 2 tsp of the oil over medium-high heat and cook mushrooms until tender (about 4 minutes). Remove from heat and set aside.
  
  


• Sprinkle the pepper and salt over the chicken. In the same skillet, heat the remaining 2 tsp of oil over medium-high heat then add chicken and cook for 3 minutes, turning once and no longer pink inside (cook longer if necessary to ensure doneness.) Remove cooked chicken and set aside.
  
  


• In the same skillet, stir in the Marsala wine to the leftover pan drippings, scraping up any browned bits then bring to a boil then reduce heat to medium. Stir in cooked mushrooms, green onions and sage.
  
  


• Combine water and cornstarch in a small bowl and mix thoroughly then add to the Marsala sauce.
  
  


• Cook and stir for about 1 minute or until slightly thickened. Serve chicken topped with Marsala sauce and mushrooms.
  
  

Make 4 Servings:

Weight loss recipes Amount Per Serving(¼ of recipe (228 g)): 215 Calories, 28 g Protein, 4 g carbohydrates, 1 g Dietary Fiber, 6 g fat, 1 g saturated fat, 66 mg cholesterol, 227 mg sodium

Fewer candy bars, more vegetables

My last post was titled "into every life a little rain must fall". That theme continued throughout the week and into my weekend.

Yesterday, Saturday, I drove into the office so I could do some heads down coding, without the interruptions at home. I was there for twelve hours.

I took an hour break and drove over to a Bally's gym in Kent. I'd never been to this gym before but it was 5 miles from my work so it was convenient. Even though I got in a a 30-minute elliptical workout, it was probably the worst gym I've ever visited. I felt like I was going to hit my head on the ceiling when I was on the elliptical.

To annoy me even further there was some goofy guy standing right in front of me doing weird stretching exercises and wiggling his butt back and forth, sticking it up in the air. He did these odd stretching exercises for twenty minutes. It was very odd, especially since the gym was almost empty and he could have chosen a more private location for his obscene stretches. I didn't stay for any strength training. I couldn't get out of there fast enough.

My job these past few weeks has been more coding than anything else. It's hard to explain coding if you're not not familiar with writing code (software development). It's sort of like figuring out a puzzle and getting all the pieces to fit together to create something. Sometimes though, you just can't get the pieces to fit so you try to force them and then you wind up with a big, ugly mess. That's where I was after twelve hours yesterday. Nothing worked.

Last night I dreamed about writing code all night. I tossed and turned, trying to come up with a plan to fix the mess I created. I came up with a few new approaches to try and after trying them today, they seem to be working, with the exception of one test scenario that I can't seem to figure out.

My eating has suffered a lot lately. Yesterday I ate candy for the first time in several weeks. The vending machine kept calling my name, and I had the stupid thought that maybe a little sugar would help me figure out the problem. After three Milky Way bars and two packages of cookies (at 600 calories each for the cookies and they were tiny packages), I was worse off than before. Not only was my mind not working at peak performance (which I desperately needed), but I felt sick and guilty.

I had brought healthy food with me to eat during the day, fresh fruit, turkey breast, carrot sticks, cherry tomatoes, some hummus. Good, healthy food. I didn't want it, I just wanted candy. Something, anything to make me feel better.

It totally backfired on me. The sugar made me feel sick, hot, sweaty, and my mind wasn't working. All I wanted to do was just cry. Finally, by 9pm, I gave up, went home, feeling sad and defeated.

After four slices of cheese and a glass of wine, I felt even worse. My husband was already asleep so there was no one to share my misery, just me and my cat.

Today, Sunday, has gone a tiny bit better. After a marathon house cleaning this morning, with my husband's help (he's trying to be super nice because he knows I'm stressed to the max right now), I started working on my project starting at noon. It's going a bit better, but I'm still not code complete.

I finally have accepted that the world is not going to end if I don't get this done. Life will go on.

My eating this past week has been all over the place. Healthy one day, candy bars the next. I don't think I ate a single vegetable yesterday (I made up for it today). Candy bars, cookies, and fruit. It was a terrible day that was was reflected in what I saw on the scale this morning. 188.6. Talk about adding insult to injury. I know it's just a number. I know it doesn't define me, etc. etc. etc. However, it's a direct reflection of how poorly I handle stress.

Right now, I'm just trying to remember to breathe and try my best to eat healthy good  in moderate portions. Fewer candy bars and more vegetables.

Day 100

Although I've been working out for 100 days straight, I don't have anything outward to show. My weight has pretty much remained the same since the beginning of the year--I've been up and down the same five pounds on the scale. No great losses, no dress sizes smaller, no inches lost. Nothing really. But that's okay.


It's been a rough year. It seems like everyone is going through something, and for me, it's dealing with unemployment. My husband lost his job just about a year ago and it's been hard getting used to a schedule where he's home all the time and to live on a fraction of his old income. It's been disheartening to see him post resume after resume only to end up with nothing. No interviews. No interest. Nada. He has his MBA, a ton of experience, and it's still not enough to get a job during this economy.

I'm a stay at home mom who homeschools our kids. I have to admit, the thought has crossed my mind to enroll the kids in school and find a job. But would the gain of a job make up for the loss of what I currently have? Considering I haven't been in the work force for over 12 years, and none of my children have ever stepped into a school except for my oldest when he was enrolled in Kindergarten, I'm going to have to say, NO. The benefits of working are not greater for the things I would lose.

I'm an emotional eater. I admit, I have NOT been eating as well as I should. I know better, my degree is in Nutrition, but I traditionally deal with the difficult things in life through food. I'm so much better than I used to be, but I'm nowhere near where I'd like to be. I am thrilled to say that although I haven't been eating as well as I should, I haven't binged like I have in the past. Considering my personal stress levels, I could have easily packed on 50 pounds the past 12 months--trust me--but I haven't, and I contribute this to the fact that I have a goal that has nothing to do with eating, or the scale, or what size jeans I wear.

Being successful with a goal that has nothing to do with eating gives me validation. It reminds me that even though I may not have complete control over what I'm eating, I can still feel like I'm accomplishing something with my workouts. For me this is huge, it's helping me maintain during a time I could easily be out of control.

I'm hoping that during the next 100 days I will be able to make better choices in my eating so I can maximize the benefits of the exercise I do each day. :)

US Omega-6 and Omega-3 Fat Consumption over the Last Century

Omega-6 and omega-3 polyunsaturated fats (PUFA) are essential nutrients that play many important roles in the body. They are highly bioactive, and so any deviation from ancestral intake norms should probably be viewed with suspicion. I've expressed my opinion many times on this blog that omega-6 consumption is currently too high due to our high intake of refined seed oils (corn, soybean, sunflower, etc.) in industrial nations. Although it's clear that the quantity of omega-6 and omega-3 polyunsaturated fat have changed over the last century, no one had ever published a paper that attempted to systematically quantify it until last month (1).

Drs. Chris Ramsden and Joseph Hibbeln worked on this paper (the first author was Dr. Tanya Blasbalg and the senior author was Dr. Robert Rawlings)-- they were the first and second authors of a different review article I reviewed recently (2). Their new paper is a great reference that I'm sure I'll cite many times. I'm going to briefly review it and highlight a few key points.

1. The intake of omega-6 linoleic acid has increased quite a bit since 1909. It would have been roughly 2.3% of calories in 1909, while in 1999 it was 7.2%. That represents an increase of 213%. Linoleic acid is the form of omega-6 that predominates in seed oils.

2. The intake of omega-3 alpha-linolenic acid has also increased, for reasons that I'll explain below. It changed from 0.35% of calories to 0.72%, an increase of 109%.

3. The intake of long-chain omega-6 and omega-3 fats have decreased. These are the highly bioactive fats for which linoleic acid and alpha-linolenic acid are precursors. Arachidonic acid, DHA, DPA and EPA intakes have declined. This mostly has to do with changing husbandry practices and the replacement of animal fats with seed oils in the diet.

4. The ratio of omega-6 to omega-3 fats has increased. There is still quite a bit of debate over whether the ratios matter, or simply the absolute amount of each. I maintain that there is enough evidence from highly controlled animal studies and the basic biochemistry of PUFAs to tentatively conclude that the ratio is important. At a minimum, we know that excess linoleic acid inhibits omega-3 metabolism (3, 4, 5, 6). The omega-6:3 ratio increased from 5.4:1 to 9.6:1 between 1909 and 2009, a 78% increase.

5. The biggest factor in both linoleic acid and alpha-linolenic acid intake changes was the astonishing rise in soybean oil consumption. Soybean oil consumption increased from virtually nothing to 7.4% of total calories, eclipsing all sources of calories besides sugar, dairy and grains! That's because processed food is stuffed with it. It's essentially a byproduct of defatted soybean meal-- the second most important animal feed after corn. Check out this graph from the paper:

I think this paper is an important piece of the puzzle as we try to figure out what happened to nutrition and health in the US over the last century.

Chicken Gorgonzola with Orzo

(makes 6 servings)

Ingredients:

• 1½ lbs. (about 0.68 kg.) boneless, skinless chicken breast halves
  
  


• 1 large onion, chopped
  
  


• 1 can (14½ oz) chicken broth
  
  


• 1-½ cups uncooked orzo pasta
  
  


• ¾ tsp Italian seasoning
  
  


• ½ tsp lemon pepper
  
  


• ⅓ cup crumbled Gorgonzola cheese
  
  

Preparation:

• Remove fat from chicken and cut chicken into ½-inch strips.
  
  


• Spray cooking spray in a 10-inch skillet and heat over medium-high heat.
  
  


• Cook chicken in skillet about 2 minutes until browned. Remove chicken and set aside.
  
  


• Spray skillet with cooking spray and cook onion over medium-high heat for about 4 minutes or until tender, stirring often
  
  


• Stir in broth, chicken, pasta lemon pepper and seasoning
  
  


• Heat to boiling then reduce heat to low. Simmer uncovered for about 11 minutes, stirring occasionally until pasta is just tender. Remove from heat.
  
  


• Stir in Gorgonzola cheese and serve.
  
  

Make 6 Servings:

Weight loss recipes Amount Per Serving(1/6 of recipe (238 g)): 264 Calories, 32 g Protein, 20 g carbohydrates, 1 g Dietary Fiber, 5 g fat, 2 g saturated fat, 71 mg cholesterol, 398 mg sodium

Pasta with Tomatoes & Goat Cheese

Please enjoy this recipe from the LivingAfterWLS Newsletter Archives:

I think we are all familiar with classic macaroni, pasta or potato salads that are heavy on starch and light on vegetables or complex carbohydrates. While no doubt these are enjoyable to eat they leave us feeling heavy, sleepy, and bloated. In many cases they lead to discomfort and possibly dumping in gastric surgery