Instant Pot Goulash

For lunch today, I made the Instant Pot Goulash from the Allrecipes website. We mostly followed the recipe, but I don't like mushrooms so I substituted sausage. Also, Jeff substituted Herbs de Provence for the Italian Seasoning. 

I didn't bother to do the high-pressure cooking step; I just set it on Slow Cook and let it cook for a couple hours. I did stir it once just to take a look at how the raw pasta was cooking.

It tasted quite good but Jeff's first comment was "it needs more vegetables."  Since the recipe made plenty of leftovers we'll probably add cooked vegetables when we reheat those.

Chicken Cacciatore for the Instant Pot

Tonight Jeff made the Chicken Cacciatore recipe from the allrecipes website. It was quite tasty. Unfortunately, I forgot to take a photo. It pretty much looked like the photo on the website.

He mostly followed the recipe, but he substituted a can of diced tomatoes and a can of tomato sauce instead of the extra-large can of tomato sauce. He also used a can of cider instead of wine because he didn't have an open bottle. It was delicious. 

We definitely wouldn't mind having this recipe again. I'm not sure we would change anything the next time around.

Sourdough Honey Quinoa Bread

We decided to highlight Quinoa as an ingredient during the month. We have tons in our pantry and it would be nice to use some of it up.

The original recipe is available here at the King Arthur Baking Company website.

As for changes, Jeff omitted the dry milk and water and instead used almond milk. 

It was tasty. If we were to make it again, we would make it exactly the same way!

Zuppa Toscana

Today we decided to make the Better than Zuppa Toscana recipe from the allrecipes website. To be honest, we loosely followed the recipe. We had less than a pound of sausages in casings so we cut those into fairly small pieces. And we had half the amount of bacon that the recipe called for and we cut that up and threw it in.

We also cooked it in the Instant Pot. Basically, we Sauteed the garlic and onions and then tossed the rest of the ingredients into the pot and added enough broth that the potatoes were covered and set it on Slow Cook then let it cook for more than two hours. 

When the potatoes were soft, we added the kale. We always use yogurt instead of sour cream in recipes.

I thought it tasted great. This is another recipe we'd be happy to repeat.

For next time, Jeff would like to take a cup or so, plus the yogurt, and run it through the blender and then add it back to the pot to give the soup a bit more body.

Naan

Gave naan bread a try. Sharon found a recipe using sourdough. The one tweak I made was to use white whole wheat for all but one cup of the flour, which was bread flour. Cooked them up on two cast iron pans with the burners set to 6/10. Two minutes on first side, a smidge less on second. 

Had a couple with burrito fillings. Folded up like a soft taco. 

Next day made bbq chicken naan pizza. 

More double bagged in the freezer for later. 

They turned out well.

Next time: I might go with more white flour next time for a little softer bite. 

Instant Pot Broccoli Chowder

Today, we made Instant Pot Broccoli Chowder. I had originally planned to make the Instant Pot Corn Chowder recipe from Taste of Home but I discovered we didn't have any frozen corn. But we did have quite a lot of frozen broccoli, so Jeff suggested we substitute broccoli for the corn and that's what we did. 

We had to defrost the broccoli so we could cut the florets into smaller pieces and we also didn't have any fresh onions, so we substituted dried minced onions. Otherwise, we simply followed the recipe as it was written.

The light isn't good in the dining room so it looks rather unappealing in the picture, but it tasted delicious. I sprinkled a little salt on mine, but Jeff liked it as is.

If we make it again, we would run a portion of the chowder through the blender after the pressure cooking to eliminate some of the chunks and make the chowder a little more creamy. This recipe is another keeper.

Instant Pot Lemon Chicken Orzo Soup

Jeff has gotten a job at Intel so I (Sharon) need to start doing some of the cooking. It's been at least ten years since I've done any cooking and I'm not terribly good at it but I can usually manage to follow recipes, so I just need to find recipes I like. 

This post is the start of my effort to document my attempts at cooking recipes I find on the internet and how they turned out and what we would change next time, assuming we like the recipe enough to try it again. This information is mostly for me as the blog is a pretty easy way to keep track of past efforts.

Anyway, today I made my first pot of Lemon Chicken Orzo Soup. The original recipe was published on allrecipes, but I also archived a copy at Google docs, in case it gets pulled down. It calls for the soup to be made on the stove, but I wanted to cook it in the Instant Pot so we did our best to translate the recipe.

It doesn't feel right to plagiarize the original recipe; just click on one of the links above to see all the details. We had to make a few changes by necessity: 

• We didn't have orzo pasta so we used elbow macaroni. 
• We also didn't have any bay leaves, so we omitted them. 
• We used a blend of homemade chicken and homemade vegetable broth.
• And we had to use frozen spinach.

We heated the oil in the Instant Pot on the Sauté setting and then added the onion. After a couple of minutes, we added the carrots and celery and let it saute for a few minutes. Then we added the garlic and other spices and let it cook briefly before adding about three quarts of homemade chicken and vegetable broths. (We used a blend of them because that's what we had in our refrigerator.) 

We stirred in the dry pasta and then pressure cooked it for 5 minutes before adding the chicken and lemon and then we set it on Slow Cook until lunchtime. Shortly before lunch, we took off the lid and stirred in defrosted frozen spinach. It had a few minutes to come up to temperature before we actually served it up for the meal.

Overall, we really enjoyed the soup; the pasta seemed a little overcooked, but we can remedy that problem in the next pot. The recipe made 8 servings so we'll be having it a few more times in the next week. 

We served it with Asiago bread that Jeff made. Also amazing.

Next time, I'll try making these changes:

• Try skipping the pressure cooking entirely and go straight from sautéing to slow cooking.
• Substitute Herbes de Provence for the thyme and oregano.
• Add the dry pasta at the same time as the chicken. 

I expect I'll probably make it once a month from now on, whenever we have leftover chicken.

A Year of Maintenance

One year ago, I hit my goal of burning 60 pounds with Noom. Since then I have been on maintenance. The goal was to stay in a 5-pound range: 170-175. In practice it worked out to a 10-pound range 170-180, which with all that 2020 has thrown at me (and all of us) I am ok with. After the first few weeks of adjustment to maintenance I found a pretty good rhythm, I started working on my next round of fitness goals. I also found some new apps to support my post-Noom life:

• MapMyWalk 
• FitBod
• MoodPath
• Ten Percent Happier
• Lose It 
• Habitica 

Habitica helped us extend some of the habit formation skills we learned from Noom beyond issues related to food and fitness.

When I started tracking my walks with MapMyWalk I had a pace of 18'22" per mile. I have brought that down to 12'52". 

When I started working out with FitBod I could do two pull ups (which was an improvement already over none pre-Noom). Now I can do ten in a set. I have also hit my goal of being able to do handstand pushups (with balance support from a wall). 

MoodPath has helped me track how I am feeling day to day which has helped monitor bouts of depression.      
With the Ten Percent Happier app, I have logged almost 100 hour of mindfulness sessions over 400 days which has helped with my anxiety. 

We discovered Lose It which does a better job of logging food than Noom, especially since we can share meals logs between my wife and I over Air Drop. It also tracks macronutrients so I can keep an eye on my protein intake. It also lets us track water. For maintenance, the main thing we give up is the colors, but those are ingrained enough at this point that I just need to remember to keep up my veggies game. I would still recommend Noom for folks working on serious weight loss. 

Turkey Breast in Instant pot

We got a seven pound turkey breast from Rinella Produce that I cooked under pressure in the instant pot.

So far we have had it:
With Eggs;
With brown gravy;
With mashed potatoes and bbq beans;
Sandwiches;
On Salads.

We still have turkey.
Trying to figure out more things to try.

One year of Noom

In one year with Noom I lost sixty pounds in the first six months and maintained within a five-pound range with a few excursions.

I was quite concerned about how I would do in maintenance and experimented with a few different approaches:

• Should I keep logging? (I did)
• Weekly weigh-ins (tried it; didn't like it) 
• How do I set my new calorie budget?

Should I keep logging? 

I did keep logging. I could imagine stopping at some point. But it helps be stay mindful of what I'm eating and it provides realtime feedback of how my day is going calorically. I still don't trust my hunger signals, there are times when I am hungry right after I eat. But I think I am getting a little better at sussing out genuine hunger from mere snackiness. Some days I approximate more than others. It depends on if I'm in the middle of my range and having a normal sort of food day, then I don't sweat every last gram. If life is complicated, or I am above my range, I try to be more careful.

Should I go to weekly weigh-ins?

I tried it and didn't like it. The daily weigh in lets me know if things are ok, or need attention. And I like having the data. When I tried doing weekly weigh ins I felt more anxious not knowing if I was drifting.

How do I set my new calorie budget? 

By trial and error, I figured out that on the lowest weight loss setting (Turtle in iPhone) I needed about 200-300 calories over the max if I double counted my exercise (log twice as much as I actually did so the app would give me all the calories and not just half). Early on if I went above my range I would go full Noom immediately. And I would get back in range within a day or two. Now I am a little more relaxed and just try to be more careful with my logging and only count my exercise like normal and it usually corrects itself within a couple days anyway.

What's next 

I am very happy with the program, especially once I found the Noom facebook groups. I keep upping my exercise game. I got a set of dumbbells, then I needed a set with heavier weights. Then I got a weight bench from a friend. Now I use the FitBod app for my workouts. It tracks which muscle groups you use and how long they need to recover.

My wife and I also started using Habitica (app and website) which gamifies our task lists and helps with habit formation. This gives us a lot of the benefits of Noom but applied to other aspects of our life.

Each day is its own adventure.

Noom it up: Burritos

Burritos have become a regular meal since I've been on Noom.

I usually make a batch of filling that is enough for 6-8 burritos. I'll make two burritos that day, and keep the filling to make meals on later days.

Burritos in Thee steps: 

Cook the Rice
Make the Filling
Assemble the burrito

Cook the rice: 

I use my instant pot. First I set it to sauté mode (makes it like an electric skillet, or you could just use the stove if you don't mind one more thing to wash).
put 1 Tbs of butter and 1 cup of uncooked rice (I use short grain brown rice)
Optional: add some diced onions
Toast, stirring occasionally, until fragrant. 3-5 minutes.
Add two cups stock (I use home made chicken stock)
Set to rice mode (cooks for 10 minutes under pressure).
After the pressure is released, stir and take out one cup cooked rice for burrito filling, and put the rest in storage container in the fridge or freezer for later use.

Make the filling: 

Sauté some veggies (whatever is at hand: diced carrots, zucchini, ...)
Steam some Cauliflower Rice (I get it frozen in a bag. I follow the package directions in the microwave)
Rinse and drain one can of black beans
Combine: rice, veggies, cauliflower rice, black beans, prepared salsa  in a sauce pot and warm.
Measure out 2/3 cup servings, refrigerating unused portion for later meals.

Assemble the burrito

Shred some salad greens and toss with 1 Tsp of lime or lemon juice. 

Prepare some avocado (or guacamole if you wish)

Warm tortillas in microwave for 10 seconds. 

For each tortilla:

•  apply 1 Tbs plain Yogurt (or sour cream, or hummas, or ...)
•  some of the shredded lettuce
•  some avocado
•  2/3 cup of the filling (adjust  if you like smaller burritos)

Another Example:

Shredded chuck roast, low fat yogurt, rice & quinoa cooked in chicken stock, salsa, black beens, zucchini, carrots, hot sauce. Served with a side of grilled asparagus. 

Noom it up: Salads

Salads are good; composed salads can be amazing!

My approach to salad construction is to layer in some order:
Fresh greens
Vegetable(s)
Fruit(s)
Protein(s)
Nuts (toasted)
A soft to medium cheese
Grated Hard cheese(s)
A small amount of dressing
Fresh Ground Spice (Coriander, Grains of Paradise, Pepper, ...)

Salads don't need to be boring.
Attending to the contrasts in shape and color, one can make a salad that is a pleasure to look at as well as to eat.

It doesn't add much time. Just prep the ingredients in the order you wish to layer them on the plate, and plate (weigh and log) as you go.

In this salad, I had some nice Feta cheese I wanted to
feature, so I made sure it was the
very last thing, even after the dressing.
If I'm going to spend the calories on
cheese, I want to taste it.

If your salad ends up more of a jumble, that's fine too.

Having many textures and an interplay of savory, sweet, and even some bitter helps keep the salad interesting to the palate. This is where even a few nuts and dried fruits can make a big difference.

Explore unfamiliar combinations: ham and strawberry? Give it a try. Take a hard look at leftovers in your fridge and things in your pantry and ask, "Is there a reason I couldn't use that in a salad?" You may find some great surprises.

Topping mixes can be pre-measured for speed of assembly and logging. Nuts, dried fruits, diced veggies... Anything that will keep and not make the other ingredients funky by the time you use them.

Similarly, greens and firm veggies could be pre-assembled. These make it easier to pull off a grab-and-go salad.

Carrots are one of the core veggies that I use in almost every salad. Since I use so many carrots, I like to prep two or three salad's worth at a time so I can batch the washing, cutting, etc. When in doubt, cut carrots into sticks (quartered down the length, then cut crosswise into a length that works in your storage container).

I try to mix up their treatment.
How to cut them: sticks, match sticks, sliced rounds, sliced sticks (little triangles), cubes....
Where to place them: top, middle, bottom, tossed with the greens, around the outside...

How to dress carrots: I often give carrots a quick marinade in good vinegar (white balsamic vinegar from Trader Joe's is nice if you want to keep the color), some lemon juice, and maybe a little toasted sesame oil, a little wine, port, or cider. Let them soak while you prep the rest of the salad. If you make extra, just keep it in the marinade until ready to use.

While I normally keep fruit in small pieces, if you have something worth showcasing at the peak of ripeness, make the pieces a little larger and give them pride of place: apricots, peaches, strawberries do well in this role.

Let's talk about dressing. My view (as a card-carrying member of the Red Rebel Alliance) is that it is better to have a small amount of a dressing you LOVE than any amount of a dressing that does nothing for you. Having some fresh or canned fruit in the salad further helps reduce the need for dressing by providing some juice.
I use between one and two tablespoons of dressing for a salad.

To minimize the dressing, take the greens and a few other ingredients that like to be well-coated (celery, carrots, ...) and toss just them in 1/2 Tbs of dressing per serving. Assemble the salad and drizzle another 1/2 Tbs on top.

For the greens, it is nice to have some variety, both within a single salad and from meal to meal. I like to wash and spin in a salad spinner enough greens for 4-6 salads and put any unused portion in a container with a little spacer in the bottom so the greens aren't sitting in any liquid that collects.

Red Rebel Alliance:
Count the red calories, and 
make the red calories count!

Nuts, cheese, egg yolks, bacon are all calorically dense (i.e., what Noom calls Red food). That does not make them bad but it does raise a warning flag to be mindful of the portions and if this item is really carrying its weight for you.

If it delights you, feature it, log it, taste it, enjoy it.

A salad does not have to be a whole meal. A smaller salad is a great companion to foods you love, but a reasonable portion size would not be filling. (I'm looking at you, Pizza. Did you know one serving of a Papa Murphy's Family Sized Stuffed pizza is one-sixteenth slice of the pie? True fact.)

When composing a salad, there is room around the outside to be creative: grapes, olives, berries, cherry tomatoes...

Let's talk veggies. Beyond the basic carrots, tomato, cucumber, and celery, the produce section is full of possibilities. Roasted potatoes, beets, fennel root, turnips,  parsnips, radishes, or Brussel sprouts all make lovely additions.

Avocado has a special place for its creamy texture and richness, especially if you are not using much cheese.

Consider Fanciful additions like this little hedgehogs (pork sausage, ginger, salt, with almond sliver spines, baked in the oven). Salads are a great way of having a little of something naughty without blowing the budget, and still being full.

Protein can make a flashy top layer and often provides a nice contrast in color, flavor, and texture.

When I use tofu, I like to marinate it in something to give a little flavor and variety. This works with turkey and chicken breast as well, especially if they are a little dry.

Hard-boiled eggs make an attractive source of protein.

Canned tuna, crab, or salmon are nice to mix things up.

There is no end to the variety.
Salad on!

Noom: I Lost Fifty Pounds with Noom

Salad from my first day on Noom

I'm in week 21 of Noom. Noom is an integrated weight loss app that incorporates daily articles, weigh-ins, food logging, daily steps goals, exercise logging, and social support with a group of Noomers who started around the same time, a group coach, and a personal goal specialist.

Most people on the program have a goal of losing one to two pounds a week. I went all-in with the program and have burned off 54 pounds. What drew me to Noom was that it was grounded in science and focused on long term sustainability. You are not on a diet you are focusing on modifying your diet to maintain a modest calorie deficit. Many lessons focus on hunger and the factors that contribute to the sense of fullness and all of the emotions and triggers around eating. Importantly, there is nothing that is off the diet, though you may decide that there are foods that "aren't worth the calories" for you. It's about choices and building better habits.

Adjust my shopping. More fruit, veggies, whole grains

For most of my life, 200 pounds was my hard upper limit that I would make sure never to cross. Then various factors conspired and I took my eye off the ball for a few years and blew right through that limit. For a while, I struggled to stay even, but every couple of years more weight would come on and I would settle into a new normal. When I hit 235 it was like a switch flipped and I was ready to commit to doing what it took, and I found Noom which was just the right approach for me.

50 pounds. Weight I was carrying all day, every day.

I've logged hundreds of meals in a row, walked 9K steps most days, plus one other active activity: weights, yoga, biking, gardening....

I've developed a new relationship with food and hunger.

I am more aware of the triggers within me, and in my environment, and developed tools to respond to them more mindfully and healthfully.

It has helped to focus on limits while avoiding the sense of deprivation. Nothing is "off the menu", though there are some things I've decided just aren't worth the calories.

Foods that I am still eating, but more mindful about portions: pizza, bacon, chocolate, my rich chocolate pudding, chocolate chip cookies, whole milk, cheese, donuts, cheesecake, crackers, chips, pasta, bread, rice, ....

Foods that are making a much larger part of my diet: FRUIT, carrots, potatoes, salads, soup, salsa, whole grains, avocado.

Peach Coffee Cake

Christmas Day I wanted to make coffee cake. Flipping though the King Arthur Flour Whole Grain Baking cookbook I saw a recipe for peach coffee cake that tempted me.

I didn't follow the recipe, but started with it.

I heated some dried cranberries in some orange liqueur  then added a large can of peaches, drained and coarsely diced.

In a bowl I sifted together

• 2 1/2 Cup white whole wheat flour
• 1 tsp salt
• 1 tsp baking soda

In the mixer I creamed together:

• 1 cube butter (1/2 cup)
• 1 cup toasted sugar
• 1 large egg
• 2 tsp vanilla extract

I set at the ready:

• 1 cup whole milk (recipe called for buttermilk)

Added and mixed until combined 1/3 of the dry mix and 1/3 cup of the milk in turns.

Then folded in the Peach mixture just until mixed in.

Poured this into buttered 9x13 casserole dish. 

Topped with mixture of:

• 2 tbs butter
• 1/2 cup toasted sugar
• 1 Tbs sweet spice mixture (in this case cinnamon, nutmeg, allspice, grains of paradise, cubebs)
• 1 drop sweet orange essential oil

Bake at 250 for 35 mins, then cool 20 mins on wire rack. 

Ended up with a fragrant, moist cake. 

Cottage Pie

Snowy day, ground beef in the fridge, and half a bag of potatoes -- what a nice day for a shepherds cottage pie! Based loosely on a recipe Sharon found for me. [Update: Evidently a "Shepherds pie" is made with lamb or mutton, as the name implies. If made with beef, it is a cottage pie.]

I browned ground beef, minced garlic, two slices of bacon (diced) and some random stuff from the freezer (roasted beets, squash) until well browned in some bacon drippings and olive oil in a dutch oven over medium-high heat.

Meanwhile, in the instant pot, I made mashed potatoes by scrubbing and chunking half a bag of russet potatoes and adding a cup of beef broth and a dollop of minced garlic. Cooked on "manual" (pressure cooking) for 6 minutes, releasing the steam when complete.

I had several breaks to take in the beautiful day.

Please brown

When the beef mixture was browned I admixed a can of cream of something (in this case, chicken) soup, a tablespoon of BBQ sauce, a generous pinch of salt, and some ground pepper, long pepper, and grains of paradise.

This was poured into a pyrex pie pan.

The potatoes and stock were mashed with some butter and half-and-half. Maybe a little too much liquid (see later).

I used half the potatoes for the pie topping.

Finally browned

Baked at 400 degrees for 16 minutes.

This was not long enough (see picture). Didn't have any browning to speak of.
I kept checking the oven, then wandering off to check the snow, and twitter, and facebook, then back to the oven. Eventually, it browned.

Sliced up well and tasted delicious and comforting.

Next time: A little more peaking on the topping would make for nicer browning.
I also wonder about a little grated hard cheese either on top or mixed in with the last half cup of potatoes to form the top-most layer.

Instant Pot Refried Beans

For years we've been wanting to add more beans to our diet but it's a hassle to deal with soaking overnight. The Instant Pot has enabled us to make beans without pre-soaking. We tried a new recipe today from the Allergy Free Alaska blog, Instant Pot Refried Beans.

We didn't have the exact ingredients, so we made some changes to the recipe. Here is what we made.

INGREDIENTS
2 pounds dried pinto beans, sorted
1 cup chopped onion
2 Tbsp. minced garlic
2 tsp dried oregano
pungent spices: cubebs, long pepper, black pepper
1 1/2 teaspoons ground cumin (I used some cardamom and paprika)
1/2 tsp ground black pepper
3 Tbsp bacon drippings (or lard if you are a traditionalist)
4 cups chicken broth
4 cups water
1-2 tsp sea salt

INSTRUCTIONS

In a large mixing bowl, add the sorted dried pinto beans and fill the bowl with enough water to cover the beans by several inches. Set aside to soak for 15 minutes while you prepare the remaining ingredients.

To the Instant Pot bowl, add the chopped onion, garlic cloves, jalapeno, dried oregano, ground cumin, ground black pepper, lard, chicken broth, and water.

Use a colander to strain the beans and discard the soaking liquid. Rinse with fresh water.

Now add the beans to the Instant Pot bowl, and stir all of the ingredients together. It’s okay if the lard is in a solid lump, as soon as the Instant Pot comes up to pressure/temperature, the lard will melt.

Place the lid on the Instant Pot and ensure the steam release valve is set to sealing. Press the “Bean/Chili” key, which will show 30 minutes of cooking time, and increase the time to 45 minutes. Now walk away. When the Instant Pot is done cooking, it will come down from pressure naturally, about 40 minutes.

When the pressure is released, open the lid of the Instant Pot and add the sea salt to taste.
While directed to "Use an immersion blender" I opted for a potato masher to blend the beans to the desired consistency. Then I openly laughed at my hubris, and pulled out the food processor in which I processed half of the bean mixture for a few pulses, then the other half.  The beans will appear soupy, but will thicken as they cool.

Recipe made six pints.

Tasted good in a burrito with rice, cheese blend, chopped greens, and yogurt.