So...whats for dinner?

I did pretty well on Jenny Craig when I was in my 30s (and with a toddler at home and a husband working too late for us to dine out often--not to mention not traveling much). Lost 65 lbs. on it (and when I started, I was 7 lbs. lighter and an inch taller than I am now). But in retrospect, I was really a pain-in-the-ass about it. Even when we went out, before I was allowed one make-your-own-meal-plan-day per week (or after, when it wasn’t one of those free-planning days), I would actually bring a frozen JC dinner to restaurants and offer to pay to have it nuked while Bob & Gordy ate off the menu (never got charged for that, though). When I hit goal, we were on vacation in a resort condo outside San Diego, and I brought a small suitcase full of JC nonperishables and drove into the JC center in Escondido for my weigh-in and frozen meal purchase. I think I was at goal maybe 5 minutes (or so it seemed). Threw my back out on my treadmill a week later; and soon got tired of having to log everything I ate and every activity I did and turn the diaries in to my counselor each week. The upshot was that by the time I hit 50 I was 235 lbs. and had to start the first of several diets (the most successful starting with a stint on Redux till it was recalled, and then getting hit by a car and being nonweightbearing--and thus basically bench-pressing my body weight with every step, using a non-wheeled walker--for 10 wks, leading to what seemed like an automatic 65-lb. weight loss). When, at 225 lbs., I nearly passed out after a 1/4 mi. walk and a trip to & from my basement on NYE 2012, my PCP used the word “de-conditioned” and ordered a battery of heart tests (all turned out perfectly normal). The 80-yr-old cardiologist who administered my treadmill stress test said to simply cut out sugar and limit my carbs. So I did. I hope to remain below 200 by this time next year. My MO says she’s good with that, given I’m on letrozole.

Tomorrow will be a challenge, though. We are walking to B’way Cellars’ staff-and-friends Super Bowl party. Tom, the owner-exec. chef, has known about my low-carb diet since I started it, and always has low-and-no-carb options as well as the usual traditional no-damn-good-for-you game-day snacks on the buffet. And now that he caught bacterial endocarditis last spring and has to eat heart-healthy himself, I’m sure there will be some low-fat low-sodium stuff as well. My challenge is going to be avoiding the free craft beer, popcorn, chips and sweets and sharply limiting my wine consumption. (At least there won’t be howling winds and 2+-foot high uneven snowdrifts to negotiate this year, so I hopefully can avoid tearing any muscles on the walk there & back).

Susan, you may have come across this one already. It's a little more "bagely."

http://www.foodandwine.com/recipes/german-style-pretzels

Well, I'm sure the squirrels will be thrilled with rejected soft pretzels, Susan. ;

Tonight I used the Roberta's recipe for pizza dough (since I bought some 00 flour at WF this week) and I actually think that I like another recipe better. That did not stop us from scarfing down a lot of pizza! I must keep experimenting....

Gordy’s got a couple of late shows to do, and the salmon didn’t thaw enough in the fridge. I wanted something beefy, but I had steak last night. So I marinated and grilled some asparagus, baked a small purple sweet potato (an interesting experiment I don’t care to repeat), and nuked some grilled portabello mushrooms from Whole Foods’ salad bar. Poured about 4 oz. of the Signorello Cabernet I’d preserved with the Coravin (a marvelous way to have good wine but in small doses and not all that often). Drank abt. half of it, but the vegan dinner just didn’t satisfy me (sorry, but I really am a carnivore). So I cut a small slice each of country pate, truffle pecorino, buffalo-milk Toma and queso Iberico (cow/sheep/goat) and had another ounce of it. Still have some left but don’t feel like finishing it (although since the Coravin leaves the cork & capsule intact, I can’t pour it back. So I’ll put it in a little container and save it in the fridge for deglazing a pan).

Think I’ll refill my seltzer, have a low-carb cookie and a square of dark chocolate, take my meds and call it a night.

Bedo, you and your family will be in my prayers. It seems like when it rains it always pours. I am so sorry.

Bedo, so sorry about your daughter’s dog--the only drawbacks to pets is that their lifespans are so short, and we must deal with grief so often. We had to put down our 19-yr-old kitty (whom we’d had since he was 2) a year ago and there’s still a hole in our hearts.

Nance, prayers that your dad’s foot heals. Is that “tunnel” a fissure? It often lurks invisibly beneath a thick callus until it becomes painful.

Bedo, I'm so sorry to learn of your young marrieds' sadness. They are fortunate to have a vet who will come to the house for this very sad event...for everyone involved. And I hope DSIL's mother is getting competent compassionate care. (((HUGS)))

Nance, how very frustrating for you to hear that "belated" news about your dad's foot. Geesh! I hope you can have a satisfying conversation with that doc, with some clarfication of his dx and appropriate treatment. Good luck with that difficult task.

No special SB events in this house today.....NO! WAIT! DH just made his first guacamole, (YAY!!!!!) which we will eat with anything else that jumps out of the fridge tonight.

We are expecting a foot of snow to fall tomorrow thru Tues. so we spent a few hours clearing the sidewalks of current packed ice so that the required shoveling and snowblowing will be more effective. Should do more preventative work, but my hands arms and shoulder are screaming at me for sustained overwork. Advil time....

Haha....we were so loving our warm temps last week....back to New England reality!

I will, Bedo.

Well, I didn't expect a spoiler here! *susan*

Holding my breath so hard I think I forgot the chemo SEs! My guess, Peyton retires..... Tyrell Davis thought that too when he said he saw Peyton taking it all in at the AFC championship. Stayed on the field 15 minutes after everything was over to savor it all in. We'll see, I guess anything is possible. Well, at least my Papa John's pizza was worth it.

Hello all! 

bedo - sorry about the pup and your DD's MIL, so hard, and a lot to deal with for your young'uns.

auntie - eeesh on your dad with an undiagnosed wound, but good that it was discovered and is now being treated.  Hoping that this is something fairly easy to resolve. 

red - I was beginning to worry about you/dad - but checked on something while I was writing this, came back, and then saw your recent post.  Hang in there.

lacey - thanks for the golden tree and snow pic!  So pretty!  I miss snow, as ridiculous as that sounds!

eric - good for you on car fixing!  That is a great savings and you are showing your DD what is gained by knowing how to fix things yourself.  Or, at the least, when to fix it yourself if you can, and when to leave it to others.  Keeping Sharon in my thoughts and hoping all will be well with her.  This has to be anxiety provoking, and so keeping you in my thoughts too.

SILs are safely home, but sad about the SB game - they live in Charlotte.  I was good with either outcome so all is well in my house.  I made vegs/dip, sweet and sour meatballs, shrimp/cocktail sauce - extra spicy, potato skins, jalapeno popper filling in filo cups, and DD made Buffalo chicken dip with crackers. Typical fare, but still yummy, especially the potato skins - I have missed those! We all ate too much and also had leftover chocolate cupcakes with cream cheese icing from the night before.  Had fun with the SILs - all did well in the race and we shopped (my DH is a patient man) on the way back to the car and went out for Greek as I had hoped, had some flaming cheese and wine, and then shopped some more, lol!  It started raining after that so we hung out at home, eating and drinking (them) and watched The Martian - my one SIL who read the book kept talking throughout and saying what would happen next - lol!  I had already seen it so I wasn't bothered but my DH was thinking they should have skipped the movie and she could have just offered a synopsis.  It was hilarious.

Carrie, I'm glad for you that you have a trainer who will move forward as your body can. When I first worked with my trainer, we were both a bit too ambitious and I ended up in PT for my shoulders for several weeks....so that I could resume my training! Learned my lesson that I needed to take it more slowly!

Yesterday's non-SB party in our house included DH's quite delicious guacamole with chips and veggies, and some red pepper hummus with same veggies and crackers. Woop! Wooop! That was pretty much it, and fine with me since I was way more tired yesterday than hungry. Never even bothered to make dinner.

We're in the midst of the predicted snow storm. Poor Winston is not too happy about being housebound. Unfortunately, when he goes out in the snow, he comes inside with a ton of melting snow in his thick Scottie fur, so we do lots of mopping of floorsfor about an hour.

We have leftovers that I'll probably drag out for dinner.

I figure Peyton will retire. Neither quarterback had a great night. It was a contest between the two defensive teams. Not the most entertaining kind of football game for those who aren't students of the game.

BIL departed this morning. DH and I went to the gym, which will be closed tomorrow for Mardi Gras. I feel sorry for today's parade goers because the wind is whistling out there, making it feel colder than it actually is.

We'll be eating leftovers tonight along with salad.

Hope the dads are doing well today and the daughters/caregivers are enjoying some peace of mind.

Miracle of miracles, Bob arrived at the party only five minutes after I did--and he parked in our garage so we could both walk home. Biggest hit of the evening was an insanely wonderful pickle-brined fried chicken (which sells out within an hour of being announced as a special). First fried chicken I’ve had since starting on low-carb 3 yrs. ago and it was very, very worth it. No wings or dogs, but plenty of Italian beef & giardiniera, plus beef & black bean tacos and excellent salsa and guac. (I skipped the roll for the beef and the tortillas for the tacos). Drank a lovely brut Cava and Mutt Lynch Hellhound Red blend (I take the Fifth as to how much, but at least I didn’t “drink the fifth”). And we won $50 each on our squares and Bob won $25 in the “Sack-sack” drawing. (You sign a buck, put it into the grocery bag circulating, and every time a QB gets sacked--pretty often last night, poor Cam Newton--a dollar is drawn from the bag and the person who signed it wins the contents and seeds the sack with another dollar bill). I’d been rooting for Carolina, as I have many more connections both personal and professional with NC than I do with CO. But the outcome was not unexpected. As for the commercials, Bob & I loved the two commercials most reviled by critics and on social media--it proves we are soulmates. (But what do I know?--my fave SB commercial of all time was the first one by E-Trade: chimps screeching banging on pots & pans for 20 sec., with the punch line “Well, we just blew two million bucks. What are you doing with your money?”).

Tonight it’s back to healthy...almost. Salmon teriyaki seared on the flat-top, sauteed sugar snap peas, and cauliflower-veggie “fried rice” (Whole Paycheck makes it fresh daily for its Paleo-Friendly section). 3 oz. of a marvelous Gauthier 2012 Pinot Noir from the Carneros. So what’s unhealthy? Well, it’s Lundi Gras. WF sold out of all its paczki early this morning, but still had “beignets” (bearing no resemblance to the Cafe du Monde version, but more like “Honey, I Shrunk the Jelly Donuts"): basically mini-paczki covered with regular rather than powdered sugar. I got the chocolate-hazelnut ganache-filled ones--and one of them is about 1/4 the calories and carbs of a full-sized one. Bob usually brings them home from his office (in a heavily Polish part of the SW Side) on Lundi Gras, courtesy of a patient, but he doesn’t have office hrs. till tomorrow night.

I was shocked to find a sign for paczki next to king cakes in my local grocery. Unfortunately, the sign was all there was -- no paczki :-(

Pancakes for breakfast and gumbo for dinner in honor of Mardi Gras. An inch of snow overnight and bitterly cold wind and temps have dampened my party mood. Spicy gumbo will taste good. Carole, you'll have to give me some tips on the jarred rouxs. I seem to have better results making it from scratch.

I finally talked to my dad's foot doc. My dad's infection is cellulitis and the MRI showed that the "tunnel" is the result of a bone infection. This is scary stuff for a diabetic. He did say that the area of infection is small and treatable with antibiotics, which he has been getting from day one. Even under the best of circumstances, this stuff takes a long time to heal. I don't know where this all fits with rehab or if it even does. My main concern at this point is getting him out of the hospital with his foot still attached. One good thing is that the other ulcers on his feet have healed while he's been in there and off his feet. Dad was supposed to have an angiogram today to test the circulation in his lower extremities. No rest for the weary.

Carole, how was the Endymion parade? Did I miss a report?

Lacey, I wanted to read the bialy article but I have to join?

Susan, I hope you will post some pictures of the new place soon.

Red, I am going to miss Downton Abbey terribly!