Cranberry and Wild Rice Salad

(makes 8 servings)

Ingredients:

• 1 cup wild rice, cooked follow package instructions.
  
  


• 1 tsp salt
  
  


• ½ cup walnuts
  
  


• 8 oz. fresh cranberries, or thawed frozen
  
  


• ½ cup sugar
  
  


• 2 tbsp olive oil
  
  


• 1 tbsp rice vinegar
  
  


• 3 green onions, chopped (including green tops)
  
  

Preparation:

• In a large-sized saucepan, combine wild rice, salt and one quart of water. Bring to a boil over high heat. Cover, reduce heat and simmer for about 45-60 minutes or until rice is tender to bite and most grains have split open. Drain in a colander and let cool.
  
  


• At the same time, spread walnuts on a cookie sheet and toast in oven at 325 degrees F for about 10 minutes or until lightly golden. Coarsely chop.
  
  


• Sort cranberries, discarding any stems and bruised or decayed fruit, cut each cranberry in half.
  
  


• In a small-sized saucepan over medium-high heat, stir the sugar and ½ cup water until the sugar is dissolved and mixture boils. Remove from heat, stir the halved cranberries, stir occasionally for about 8-12 minutes or until insides of cranberries have turned red but are still firm. Pour through a strainer into a bowl, reserving the cranberry-sugar syrup.
  
  


• Mix wild rice, cranberry halves, olive oil, and rice vinegar in a large bowl. Stir in 2 tbsp cranberry syrup, taste and add up to ¼ cup more syrup to sweeten and moisten salad as desired. Stir in green onions. Cover and chill for at least 4 hours or up to 1 day.
  
  


• Stir in walnuts before serving.
  
  

Make 8 Servings:

Weight Loss Recipes Amount Per Serving(⅛ of recipe (69 g)): 166 Calories, 4 g Protein, 20 g carbohydrates, 3 g Dietary Fiber, 9 g fat, 1 g saturated fat, 0 mg cholesterol, 293 mg sodium

I'm feeling fluffy / 189.0

Feeling fluffy for a human being is NOT a good thing.

I don't wear 189 pounds very gracefully. It's doesn't feel comfortable. I've passed the point where I'm a little overweight, now I'm into the obese category again.

My left knee hurts, I get out of breath easily and my blood pressure is up to hypertension levels (149/ 90--physical next month). I don't like this one little bit. I'm miserable.

I wrote a really bad post Wednesday night. I only left it up for about five hours. Only a few people read it before I got up at 5am and deleted it. As my 14-year old nephew said after he posted something awful on Facebook a few weeks ago (he sounded very angry and depressed)...he said "I'm sorry...that's not me. I didn't mean it." I'm saying the exact same thing.

It's strange how life slaps you up side the head one day, and you just think you're going to die from unhappiness. Sometimes that day turns into weeks. Then one day you wake up and it's like "oh well, that's life. Stuff happens. I'll be okay." That was me this morning. Whatever that thing was that I was going through seems to have passed for now.

My change of attitude came about early today. I had a really good workout at the gym. I didn't want to go, but I had to make myself go to the gym at 5:30am. I've been going, but not as often and not working out as hard as I was a few weeks ago. Today it was different. I felt the old me coming through. The woman that wants to be healthy, and actually gives a damn about her life.

Pretty good day today. Even if I am fluffier than I'd like to be. :)

Food Reward: a Dominant Factor in Obesity, Part V

Non-industrial diets from a food reward perspective

In 21st century affluent nations, we have unprecedented control over what food crosses our lips.  We can buy nearly any fruit or vegetable in any season, and a massive processed food industry has sprung up to satisfy (or manufacture) our every craving.  Most people can afford exotic spices and herbs from around the world-- consider that only a hundred years ago, black pepper was a luxury item.  But our degree of control goes even deeper: over the last century, kitchen technology such as electric/gas stoves, refrigerators, microwaves and a variety of other now-indispensable devices have changed the way we prepare food at home (Megan J. Elias.  Food in the United States, 1890-1945). 

To help calibrate our thinking about the role of food reward (and food palatability) in human evolutionary history, I offer a few brief descriptions of contemporary hunter-gatherer and non-industrial agriculturalist diets.  What did they eat, and how did they prepare it? 
Read more »

Classic Vinaigrette

(makes about 1 cup)

Ingredients:

• 2 garlic cloves, minced
  
  


• ⅔ cup olive oil
  
  


• ⅓ cup balsamic vinegar (or berry)
  
  


• 2 tsp combined herbs (basil, thyme or oregano), crushed
  
  


• Salt and pepper to taste
  
  

Preparation:

• Combine cloves, olive oil, berry, herbs in a jar with a tight-fitting lid. Shake well before using.
  
  


• Refrigerate between uses but let dressing come to room temperature before serving since some olive oils will become semi-solid when refrigerated.
  
  

Make 8 Servings:

Weight Loss Recipes Amount Per Serving(2 tbsp (29 g)): 160 Calories, 0 g Protein, 1 g carbohydrates, 0 g Dietary Fiber, 18 g fat, 2 g saturated fat, 0 mg cholesterol, 291 mg sodium

Cooking with Kaye- Pork: New Cooking Guidelines

From today's Cooking With Kaye email newsletter:








Pork: New Cooking Guidelines
Lower the Temp-Raise the Enjoyment!

Late last month (May 2011) the United States Department of Agriculture announced new cooking guidelines for pork and this is GREAT news for weight loss surgery patients. The old guidelines called for cooking pork to an internal temperature of 160 Degrees Fahrenheit. These

New Pork Temperature Guidelines

As published in today's Cooking With Kaye Great News for Pork Lovers:The Puck Stops Here!Promoted announcement fromPork Be Inspired 
For juicy, tender and flavorful pork, it might be time to toss out Grandma's advice. According to the new U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) guidelines, pork chops, roasts and tenderloins can be safely cooked to medium rare at a final internal cooked temperature

Coleslaw

(makes 6 servings)

Ingredients:

• 2 cups red cabbage, shredded
  
  


• 2 cups green cabbage, shredded
  
  


• 1 carrot, peeled and shredded
  
  


• ½ cup jicama, peeled and sliced into ¼” strips
  
  


• 1 green pepper, seeded and chopped
  
  


• 1 onion, chopped
  
  


• ½ cup radishes, chopped
  
  

Ingredients for dressing:

• 3 tbsp packed brown sugar
  
  


• 3 tbsp water
  
  


• 3 tbsp red wine vinegar
  
  


• 1 tbsp vegetable oil
  
  


• ¼ tsp salt
  
  


• 1 clove garlic, chopped
  
  

Preparation:

• Combine ingredients for dressing in a small-sized bowl and mix well then toss with cabbage mixture in a large-sized bowl and chill for about 2 hours before serving.
  
  

Make 6 Servings:

Weight Loss Recipes Amount Per Serving(1/6 of recipe (133 g)): 83 Calories, 1 g Protein, 15 g carbohydrates, 3 g Dietary Fiber, 3 g fat, 0 g saturated fat, 0 mg cholesterol, 115 mg sodium