wholefoodnut's Journal, 25 March 2014

Sounds like a good plan, I hope you feel better soon 

Careful with your back! Shoulders back and lift with your legs instead of your back :) It must be difficult to have so much things to cook and having to control your calories :P Keep up the great work with your progress! :)  

Just like to cook always have since I was little. Just switch my cooking around to lower calories, not hard it's interesting. I get bored eating the same old stuff. I think that's why I had trouble following Atkins. For me to stay with any eating plan it simply has to taste good. Cooking is my addiction not junk food. Too many high calorie foods, beer and wine and not enough activity is what caused me to gain weight. So I decreased the alcohol and changed what I cook. Grins... Lol I won't carry many at a time, have a shelf in the grandkids' bedroom in the basement that has outgrown toys and books. It will give me an incentive to update it.  

I'm also like that. I need the food to taste good for me or it won't work heheh. :) That's great that you are still able to cook without too much restrictions! Have a nice exercise session! ;) 

Feel better, and take care of you, my sweet friend! xoxox 

I just limit my average calories. Just cook geared to that. Crashed on the couch reading my new cookbooks. Yummy sounding recipes in "Christina's Tuscan Table". Today letting the drugs work on my lungs. Nothing at all energetic till I get better. Body won't let me 

Hope you feel better soon and that those crazies at work allow you a sick day! BTW - love your idea for your dining room. Why not display your hobby?  

Grins...right now they are in 2 different bookcases and stacked. Ikea has some nifty shelving and expandable tables that would work in my little room. I want to also replace my table that is too big. I actually have 7or 8 sick days that I could use. I do have good benefits after 6 years 4 weeks vacation. I don't use them unless I absolutely have to. I get pneumonia too easily and am paranoid about using them all up. Doc decided she is going to order a pneumonia shot after 2 years instead of 3 later in the year.  

Made Italian bread, high gluten/high protein flour, sea salt, yeast and water nothing else. Was hungry for it today, bread tends to settle my stomach the meds churn up. Doesn't take much energy with my mixer. Baked salmon and fresh bread for dinner. Be back on plan soon.  

I love the Mediterranean diet. Unfortunately, it includes lots of bread and dough and that's off-limits for me lol. 

Get well soon!  

Lol I do love Italian bread actually any homemade bread, the stuff in the store is like eating glue. I also make my own pastas. Have to be good though and in moderation and fit into my calorie count. Actually lots of Mediterranean cooking has nothing to do with bread or dough. Lots of fresh veggies, legumes, fish, and some lean meats here and there.  

The food you made sounds yummy. I hope you feel well soon. :) 

Yeah, processed bread is definitely a completely different story from homemade bread! :) there are some processed breads I liked for the softness and sweetness but I can only imagine the amount of oil and sugar in them :P. I didn't know that! I should eat more legumes but the taste always pushes me away lol ;). Lately I have also got lazy with eating fish. I have to resume that. I tried to switch from canned to frozen sardines but it didn't seem to work very well in practical terms :P 

Mrs tofu if you are looking at my cookbook I don't think anyone could actually cook any thing from there. Especially since the measurements are so screwy. Like servings instead of weights or cups.and I just stick something in for instructions. Lol  

Lol. I often hate things like that. I like looking at cookbooks but have actually pared down my collection a lot. It's hard because they can be so attractive and enticing, but having a limited collection helps me to actually USE them more instead of just pulling up a recipe online. :P Admittedly some of the factors I use to decide whether or not to get a new cookbook are things like pictures, ingredient/ instruction format, explicit listing of required cooking time and serving amounts,and nutrition info reported. If a cookbook doesn't catch my eye, than I am less likely to pick it up. Pictures/ photos also give me a guideline to gauge if I'm doing it right. (does the end result look similar? is it something I'd want to eat? etc.,) I got a Joy of Cooking cookbook for Christmas a few years ago and that has been one of my favorite presents because I use it a lot. However, I HATE the format they list recipes in. I want to be able to know what I need to do with a quick scan--especially when there's a lot of time sensitive instructions at play. One time I was using it to try an make a dish that I had had before, but it required puff pastry. I thought, no problem, I'll just make a recipe of it to use in the dish I was trying to recreate. EXCEPT I misread the instructions and didn't realize how time intensive it was, that it wasn't going to be ready when I needed it and that it threw my plans off and made things much more stressful since I had already started following the Joy recipe. >< Also, when the servings are listed as a portion of the whole vs a separate measure- 1 cup, 3 oz, 2 TB, 1/2c, etc., it's harder to know if the nutrition info, if present at all, is reliable. However, all this talk about cookbooks is almost making me hungry. If I lived near you it sounds like your house would be borderline dangerous for me; sounds like a lot of good food is there and I don't always have good restraint when the food tastes so wonderful. :P 

Laughing!! I also have a joy f cooking, trusty go to for lots of things. Puff pastry is definitely labor intensive and tricky. One of the few things I would buy from the freezer section. Also look for things online but keep my cookbooks and keep buying more, mostly used. Thrift shops and half price books. I'm simply an addict. The crazy thing is that I usually change the recipes. My kids just laugh at me. Making a quick French onion soup for dinner, used barley flour instead of white wheat, added a handful of dried button mushrooms. Have some great Mexican melting cheese and some incredible Italian pecorino instead of the normal cheese.  

You sound like quite the pro! That is awesome. I don't think that's weird or anything; you're a culinary artist drawing inspiration from other performers. That soup sounds great! What I like is once I know what makes something great- flavor/ texture balance, cooking method, etc.- it gives me the freedom to adapt other people's ideas to my needs. However, I've had to learn to follow recipes first and see whether they work before I've understood what worked in them. I think I am starting to get into the innovation territory, but in the meantime it gives me great appreciation for things like Alton Brown or America's Test Kitchen. :) 

admire those who actually follow recipes! you can repeat what you made the same way again. I scribble all over my cookbooks with what I did. Not a pro, have been out of the restaurant business since the early 90's. learned the handful of this pinch of that cooking from my great gramma from when I was little. Alton brown has some cool ideas, what a character! love the cooking channel.