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.

I lost 60 pounds with Noom

Fruit!

Sensible breakfast

Portion size matters

Treats are part of the plan

Salad!

Budget for dessert!

In week 26 of Noom I hit my goal of burning 60 pounds of excess weight. 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 60 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.

I've logged over five hundred meals in a row, walked 9K steps most days, plus one other active activity: weights, yoga, biking, gardening.... I am feeling fit. Working towards a goal of doing three handstand push-ups.

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.

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!

Summer is for salads

Getting back into the salad groove.

My recent creation: lettuce greens from the garden, spinach, kale, pan fried chicken, tomato, apricot, toasted pecans, basic oil & vinegar salad dressing, grated carrot & zucchini soaked in white balsamic vinegar, feta, Romano, Parmesan, Asiago, bacon, fresh ground coriander and allspice.

Salad roll up

Sometimes it is fun to mix things up and serve a salad in a form that makes it into finger food.
This follows my Master Salad System and then wraps it in a tortilla.

Blueberry Salmon Avocado green salad

An ample salad for a crowd to get a taste. This is a scaled up and tossed version of a composed salad I did last year.

First allow me to review my Master Salad Schema:

• Fresh greens
• Vegetable(s)
• A fruit
• A meat
• A nut, toasted
• A soft to medium cheese
• Grated Hard cheese(s)
• A small amount of dressing
• Fresh Ground Coriander

Depending on what is in season and what is on hand I vary the details and try to fill out the other choices to balance. In this case I used:

• One head each of red leaf, green leaf, romaine lettuce
• Two carrots, scrubbed, chopped, soaked in white balsamic vinegar
• Fresh blueberries, and sliced avocado
• Smoked Salmon (skinned, flaked, no bones)
• Toasted pecans coarsely chopped
• Fresh lemon curdled cheese
• Grated Parmesan and Hirten Hard cheeses
• A couple tablespoons of dressing (rice wine vinegar, a splash of apple cider vinegar, a little water, orange juice, 4 drops of orange essence, micro-planned ginger, roasting salt, hazelnut oil, walnut oil, olive oil, a little sesame oil)
• Fresh Ground Coriander

Toss everything but the hard cheese and coriander with the dressing. Then put in presentation bowl and top with grated cheese and coriander. 

Summer fruit salad

Summertime and the living is easy...

With all this amazing fruit what could be better than a nice fruit salad. Here in Portland, when I don't make it by one of our many farmer's markets, I like to get my fruit at the Kruger's Farm Market on Hawthorn.

I like to get one of each kind of fruit that looks delightful. Wash, pare, mix with a little lemon juice.
Chill.
Chill the bowl too.
Serve.

Purple carrots

Purple through and through. 

Our CSA basket included some carrots of various colors:

Part of this week's CSA basket

Featuring purple food

Sharon and I are big fans of "purple food", but so often purple veggies only have the pigment skin deep. In this case the purple went all the way through. I was so excited and I had to make a special salad just to show them off.

Salmon Blueberry Salad

Had an interesting group of ingredients on hand when making a salad. I kept wondering if it was going to be discordant but when I tried the ingredients together in my mind, it seemed like it would be worth the risk.


I'm glad I did, for it was quite a tasty salad.

• Fresh greens
• Fresh blueberries
• Smoked salmon
• Crumbled blue cheese
• Diced carrots in balsamic vinegar
• Grated parmesan cheese
• Toasted pecans
• Orange ginger dressing
• Fresh ground coriander 
• Sliced avocado 

The blueberries and avocado provide some nice sweetness, the cheese and smoked salmon some umami, the nuts and carrots add some crunch.

Two Salads

We made two salads for a party: one an apple salad and the other a green salad.

The apple salad had, well apples, diced prunes, raisins, chopped walnuts, and a little diced celery in a dressing made from greek yogurt and a cran-raspberry drink.

The green salad had lettuce, fresh radishes, cucumber, tomato, celery, and some amazing avocados that the host provided. At the party we used prepared dressing, but the next day we made another greek yogurt dressing, but this one was made with sweet pickle relish, a squirt of deli mustard, and a squirt of catsup, and pepper.

They were both very tasty and a different approach than I tend to use with an all-in-one fruit and greens salad.

Cole Slaw: First attempt in recent memory

We had some cabbage, a knife and the Joy of Cooking. What to do?
Make Cole Slaw!

We used the technique of soaking the sliced cabbage (or rather 1/4 cabbage in our case) in ice water for an hour while we shopped for interesting things to add.

We made a dressing of greek yogurt, juice of 1/2 lemon and 1/2 lime.

After drying the soaked cabbage we added some cranberries, some not-too-sweet raspberries, chopped toasted pecans, and an apple cored and chopped.

Turns out the raspberries were rather sour so the sour dressing was too much sour. At the table, we sprinkled a little Splenda over the top which helped a lot. The apples, cabbage, nuts, and cranberries were all playing very well together.

Saladpalooza continues

We continue with our emphasis on saladacious dining as started in Saladpalooza.

An everything salad.

Saladpalooza -- return of the mixed greens

Time to make more salads. Here are some recent and some not-so-recent efforts...
I pan-fried some chicken to make a chicken salad with pecans and dried cranberries.

Christmas feast

We had some folks over for a Christmas feast -- a good day for cooking. In advance we made pumpkin pie and cookies: lemon cloud, chocolate crinkles, and oatmeal chocolate chip.

Experimented making orange jello from scratch for a spiced peach mold (recipe from Betty Crocker).

Probably rosemary oven roasted red potatoes.
On the day we baked Fresh yams baked in orange sauce which were well received, roasted red potatoes with garlic and rosemary, sourdough rolls, and a peach pie.