Home Cooking

IT’S ALL ABOUT THE FOOD November 2010 Chew Your Rope Eat Well, Lose Weight, Be Healthy

HOME COOKING All I have to do is mention that I am a personal chef who is passionate about food and 9 times out of 10 I get an enthusiastic response followed by a food story.  I met a man at Mrs Green's in Fairfield, CT that loves to cook.  He told me about all the delicious foods that he prepares for his wife.  He told me about the spices he adds and the techniques he uses that produced the most wonderful food.  He told me with pride and joy in his voice how much his wife loves his cooking.  My husband and I became friends with a couple from Vermont a few years ago.  When we get together we spend much of that time talking about restaurants, dinner parties and food.  They are wonderful cooks and love to talk about the things that they have made.  We love to listen.  I recently met a gentleman that loves to cook with his daughter.  They have been testing out raw recipes and are enjoying the interesting way those types of foods are created.  I love to watch people get excited about what they are making and eating.  Preparation of meals for friends and family has such a deep meaning and goes a long way in showing those we love how much we care. We eat differently when we are feeding ourselves and our family than we do when we eat out.  Restaurant food has lots of extra salt and flavorings and the portions are too big.  Many people want to get their money's worth so eat meals that are calorically and portion-size are meant for two. I hear it time and again - people just don’t have the time to plan, shop and cook at home. The process of learning how to plan meals, shop and cook is not difficult.  Meal preparation does not have to take two or three hours out of your day.  Simple, tasty and nutritious meals just take a little planning, some practice and the desire to show yourself and your family how much you care about their health.  Unless you cook for a living the process may seem daunting but with a little preparation and a plan you can be preparing delicious meals with minimal effort. So where do you start?  I would choose two or three cookbooks that have recipes for food that you and your family like to eat.  Simple recipes are better.  Save those complex, rich recipes for the weekend, if you're so inclined. I religiously refer to about 6 cookbooks. (I have a lot.)  One that is focused on greens, one on grains, another on soups and stews, a couple of raw foods cookbooks and one that focuses on healthy desserts.  Once a week I go through these books to see what is appealing to me, what is in season and what my schedule looks like for the next week.   This process helps me to figure out what I want to plan on cooking.  I like soups and stews because I can cook once and eat two or three times.  My husband works out of town a few days a week so he likes to take lunches with him.  Soups and stews work great for this purpose.  I look for a few quick entrees, like salmon, chicken or beef that can be grilled or baked.  Then I look for 6 or 7 side dishes that I can choose from during the week based on what we are in the mood to eat.  Once I have decided on the recipes I go to the master shopping list that I have created on my computer and start plugging in what I need to purchase at the grocery store.  There are inexpensive programs that can also do this for you.  They have recipes that are already loaded or you can enter in your favorites and they will generate shopping lists.  This list is organized by department to facilitate a shorter shopping trip. Once I get to the store I am very good at sticking to my list.  Occasionally I will get sidetracked by a veggie that catches my eye but otherwise I stay on track.  The object being to save time and money. My younger son and I used to make bets on how fast we could grocery shop.  This made the trip fun as we raced the clock through the store.  I occasionally got run over by the cart.  He was fast. Once all the food is home in my refrigerator I then schedule the meals I will make on what days, based on the time available.   I don’t leave much to chance as I find that not being prepared costs money and calories. Many times in the colder weather I will prepare all the soups and stews on the weekend and store for future meals.  This makes dinner easy on those nights that you experience unexpected delays in your day.  I post my menus on the frig so that I know what needs to be taken out of the freezer to defrost by dinner.  It also addresses that constant question I used to get from my two sons – “What’s for dinner?”  My replies weren’t always patient, probably because they were asking at 6:30 in the morning. If you have kids that like to cook or just like to comment on the food, have them get involved.  Hand them a cookbook and let them pick out a recipe that they would like to help prepare.  Once you have a few weeks of menus with recipes that your family has enjoyed and are easy to prepare you can rotate those menus, substituting new meals for variety. Choosing and cooking well-balanced meals is easy once you get started.  Choose a palette of colors from your fruits and vegetables.  Eat whole grains.  Choose meat, if that is part of your diet, that is fresh, organic and in portions that are no bigger than the palm of your hand, per person.  I even plan for snacking.  I know that I get hungry every afternoon around 4, so I plan a few healthy snacks like nuts or fruit to take care of those times.  This takes care of emotional binge eating. Most importantly remember that if there is an intimate relationship between you and the person that prepares your food, that food has a much deeper effect than the food you get at a restaurant.  It has been infused with love, caring and the cook’s time.  Those extra factors go a long way to creating a happier, healthier you. In the next newsletter I will talk about simple healthy cooking.  I would love to hear from you about what you like to cook and how you handle the planning and shopping phases of meal preparation. Chew Your Rope Change Your Life! Sign up today for your FREE Health History Consultation. Learn more about my 6 month program.  I would love to support you with improving your health. Learn how to reduce your weight, blood pressure, cholesterol, diabetes risk and increase your energy. Get control of digestive issues and allergies. Flexible appointments are available. Contact me at: Mindy@ChewYour Rope.com or 203-210-7462. I look forward to hearing from you Take Me To ChewYourRope.com

Curried Hot Pot 1 1/2 pounds beef roast 2 teaspoons olive oil 2 medium onions, sliced 1 medium apple, peeled and cubed 1 teaspoon curry powder 2 tomatoes ( can used 1 can of diced tomatoes - drained), chopped 1/4 cup raisins 1 tablespoon flour 1 can beef broth 2 teaspoons salt 1/4 teaspoon pepper 1 tablespoon brown sugar parsley rice 1.    Cut chuck lengthwise into 1 1/2 strips and crosswise into thin slices.  Brown in hot oil. 2.    Add onions, apple and curry and saute. 3.    Stir in the raisins, flour, beef broth, salt, pepper and brown sugar. 4.    Bring to a boil and simmer, covered for 40 minutes or until the meat is tender. 5.    Serve over rice, garnish with parsley.  Add a salad for the perfect meal. Portion Size, Then Vs. Now By: Liz Monte Over the past few decades, portion sizes of everything from muffins to sandwiches have grown considerably. Unfortunately, America’s waistbands have reacted accordingly. In the 1970s, around 47 percent of Americans were overweight or obese; now 66 percent of us are. In addition, the number of just obese people has doubled, from 15 percent of our population to 30 percent. While increased sizes haven’t been the sole contributor to our obesity epidemic, large quantities of cheap food have distorted our perceptions of what a typical meal is supposed to look like. Two Slices of Pizza       Twenty years ago       500 calories Today                             850 calories Those extra 350 calories, if eaten a two times a month, would put on two extra pounds a year, or forty pounds in the next two decades. Cup of Coffee Twenty years ago with milk and sugar 8 oz  -  45 calories Today Grande café mocha with whip, 2% milk 16 oz -  330 calories                                                      When our parents ordered a coffee two decades ago, they weren’t given as many size options—a standard cup of joe was eight ounces, the size of a small coffee cup. Nowadays, most of us feel like we don’t get our money’s worth unless the cup is at least twelve ounces; it’s not unusual to see thirty-two ounce coffee cups, four times the size they used to be. When made into a mocha, the morning coffee has as many calories as a full meal. Bagel   Twenty Years Ago                                   Today—Noah’s Plain Bagel 3-inch diameter                                         5-6-inch diameter 140 calories                                              350 calories Because portions are now so large, it’s hard to understand what a “serving size” is supposed to be. Today’s bagel counts for three servings of bread, but many of us would consider it one serving. Larger sizes at restaurants have also contributed to larger sizes when eating at home. A study comparing eating habits today with twenty years ago found that participants poured themselves about 20 percent more cornflakes and 30 percent more milk than twenty years ago. Cheeseburgers Twenty years ago   333 calories                           Today’s Burger       590 calories  According to a 2007 paper published in the Journal of Public Health Policy, portion sizes offered by fast food chains are two to five times larger than when first introduced. When McDonald’s first started in 1955, its only hamburger weighed around 1.6 ounces; now, the largest hamburger patty weighs 8 ounces, an increase of 500 percent. And while a Big Mac used to be considered big, it’s on the smaller side of many burger options. At Burger King, you can get the Triple Whopper; at Ruby Tuesday’s there’s the Colossal Burger; and Carl’s Junior has the Western Bacon Six Dollar Burger. Soda Original 8-ounce bottle   97 calories 12 ounce can               145 calories   20-ounce bottle           242 calories While the 12-ounce can used to be the most common soda option, many stores now carry only the 20-ounce plastic bottle, which contains 2.5 servings of soda. When presented with these larger sizes, humans have a hard time regulating our intake or figuring out what a serving size is supposed to be. A 2004 study, published in Appetite, gave people potato chips packaged in bags that looked the same, but increased in size. As package size increased, so did consumption; subjects ate up to 37 percent more with the bigger bags. Furthermore, when they ate dinner later that day, they did not reduce their food consumption to compensate for increased snack calories—a recipe for weight gain. Plates It’s not just food portions that have increased; plate, bowl, and cup sizes have as well. In the early 1990s, the standard size of a dinner plate increased from 10 to 12 inches; cup and bowl sizes also increased. Larger eating containers can influence how much people eat. A study published in the American Journal of Preventive Medicine found that when people were given larger bowls and spoons they served themselves larger portions of ice cream and tended to eat the whole portion. We Americans love to get the most bang for our buck. When confronted with a 32-ounce drink for 99 cents versus a 44-ounce drink for ten cents more, the decision is easy. You’d have to be a sucker not to go big. But our ability to get the most out of our dollar doesn’t always serve us well. Value pricing, which gets us a lot more food or drink for just a little increase in price, makes sense from an economic standpoint, but is sabotage from a health standpoint. A study published in the Journal of the American Medical Association found that Americans consume around 10 percent more calories than they did in the 1970s. Given no change in physical activity, this equates to around 200 extra calories per day, or 20 pounds a year. What is normal? Increased portion sizes give us more calories, encourage us to eat more, distort perceptions of appropriate food quantities, and along with sedentary lifestyles, have contributed to our national bulge. Unless you’re trying to gain weight, it might help to reacquaint yourself with serving sizes. The NHLBI tells us that a serving of meat should be the size of a deck of cards while one pancake should be the size of a CD. It’s unlikely that we’ll see a scaling down of food to these sizes anytime soon, so perhaps we should all become familiar with another image: the doggy bag.   Quote of the Month Success is to be measured not so much by the position that one has reached in life as by the obstacles which he has overcome. -Booker T. Washington We are talking food.... Join the excitement and visit the "Chew Your Rope - It's All About The Food"  facebook page and let us know what you love to eat.  Share your favorite recipes and ask questions.  We all love food.  I want to hear about it.