Compass & Coffee Spoons

Weekend Brunch Special: Non Carb Zombie Edition

 

I love weekend breakfast/brunch. If I had to pick one meal to eat for the rest of my life, it would be breakfast. This is, of course, due to my being a carb addict. So many breakfast foods are carby, sugary goodness. The problem with this (yes, I said problem) is that your blood sugar crashes after eating a heavy pancake breakfast and you're a bump on a log for the rest of the day. Unless you have nothing to do, this is a problem.

Oatmeal pancakes to the rescue! I first discovered this recipe when I tried the South Beach Diet (which works great, but for me, is too difficult to sustain--the carb thing). These pancakes use oatmeal which has a low glycemic index and cottage cheese along with egg whites to create a pancake with high protein and no sugar crash later. This fact would also probably make the recipe a better choice for diabetics.

I found this recipe submitted by The South Beach Diet on Allrecipes.com. I've gotten between 4 and 6 pancakes from this. That's 1 serving, or 2 small servings.

1/4 c cottage cheese (or tofu--I've never tried that. I HAVE used ricotta, which also works nicely.)

1/2 c. old fashioned oats

4 egg whites

1 tsp. vanilla extract

(You can also add cinnamon and/or nutmeg or other spices as desired. The recipe calls for 1/4 tsp each of cinnamon and nutmeg. I've put more, I've left out--it's up to you!)

Couldn't be easier. Heat a pan as in making pancakes. Put all the ingredients into a blender (maximum easyness is a stick bender or Magic Bullet...I'm sure a small chopper/food processor would also work). Blend. Make as in making regular pancakes. Serve.

I eat these with regular maple syrup, because I don't trust sugar free stuff. But, the real South Beach thing of course requires that you don't use sugar. I should also note that I've made these with 3 egg whites--this makes them slightly thicker (see below for pictures of that time). I imagine you could also get creative and do some mix-ins: dark chocolate chip pancakes, blueberry, pecan...whatever you like with regular pancakes. The pancakes don't taste like regular pancakes...but in some ways, I like them MORE. They're very substantial. And I'm not catatonic afterwards.

 

 

 



Fat Phobia Sweeps the Nation! Story at 11!

Yeah, so it's no secret I'm obese. My BMI is above the "obese" mark. America would put a big red "O" on my dress if it weren't for the fact that conveniently, everyone already knows already. My doctor sure knows. He can barely keep it together enough to tell me anything else other than the importance of diet and exercise. I don't disagree, but what I do disagree with is the assumption that all fat people are walking time bombs and all thin people are naturally healthier. It was this assumption that led an endocrinologist I saw to suggest weight loss surgery within a few seconds of meeting me. Can you say "kickbacks"?

It is also this assumption that is leading a new trend (reported on this week) for companies to charge a higher insurance premium to its obese and overweight employees. (To be fair, they added smokers to it too...and the irony of the State of North Carolina being at the forefront of this is too good to pass up. But that is easier to hide, isn't it.) This is ridiculous for so many reasons. Why not charge people with more problems? Despite what "scientific" studies tell us (as reported by the media who we all know love nothing more than talking about how bad fat people are), not all fat people are unhealthy. Do you charge former smokers? Former fat people? People who eat fast food regularly but are not fat? Do you charge African Americans differently because they have a higher propensity for certain diseases? Or those from Mediterranean backgrounds? Or Asian? See what I mean? So MANY factors play into a complete health risk picture.

But YOU can help it, you say. To a degree, yes. If people are honest with you, though, they'd tell you they don't fully understand why certain people are fat and certain people aren't. There's no doubt that if I were absolutely "perfect" with my diet--ate 1,500 calories a day and worked out every day, I'd be smaller. I would probably NEVER be able to maintain what the CDC considers "healthy" though. I find sticking to a 1,500 calorie diet difficult even when I try really hard. Why? Because the world (and by the world, I mean the U.S.) makes it so easy to NOT do that. Foods are calorie dense and everywhere. You have to really plan to get low cal foods prepared, and if you work late or the kids are sick or whatever other reason you can't, you have some difficult choices to make. Anyone faced with food choices at, say, a hotel snack bar in the middle of a rural area can attest to that (may I recommend the peanuts?).

The short argument is this, everyone is dealt a set of cards--genetic, social, mental, emotional, and othewise. And you make the best play you can with what you've got. Some people, like in populations living in poverty-stricken areas, can't go to Whole Foods to get their organic skim milk for $4 a half gallon. They walk to the Checkers to get the 2 for 1. I am fortunate to not be in this category. But, for the "system" to pick on a category of people, in this case "the fat," without treating the underlying causes, that is just discrimination.

What is particularly awful to me is that things to cause obesity (like subsidized corn--got high fructose corn syrup anyone?--and other food industry atrocities, suburbanized development patterns that prevent walking, etc) have been institutionalized, and now the same institutions are trying to do an about face and pushing the cost to those affected by the policies.

I really didn't mean for this to be a tirade, but I guess it turned out that way. What I REALLY intended to share was this GREAT blog I found devoted to exposing some of the hype in the media about medical issues, and one of those is obesity. (http://junkfoodscience.blogspot.com/)  In general, I don't trust much of the "establishment" to tell me anything about anything. More often than not, there is a profit motive. Follow the money. If that makes me a radical, well, braid my hair and call me Moon Flower!

Christine's Weekend Miscellany

You'll have to excuse me if I'm all over the place. My mind tends to be all over the place these days, which is acceptable since my back has me firmly in one place. I did something (yet to be determined by xrays taken last Thursday) to throw my back out. This has limited my ability to do much. In typical Christine fashion, I not only injure myself but then remain persistent in finishing whatever I was doing. I'm impatient. The back thing happened while I was--surprise!--organizing my linen closet last Sunday. I did stop organizing, but persisted in making steak and potatoes and chickpea-mushroom-brown rice burgers. I have no pictures of the burgers, but I give you chickpeas, which I soaked and cooked the day before the fateful incident.

 

The burgers can only be described as "meh." Need more spice. But, they sustained me all week, and there's something about making stuff from dried beans that makes you feel very frugal.

The burgers must have appealed to someone, because I got home on Wednesday to a bunch of little visitors. Ants. The smallest ants I've ever seen. I put out some Terro liquid (best ant killer EVER), and they went to town.

 

They are now mostly gone. I haven't seen one since Friday. I felt kind of bad as they started to disappear. The remaining ones looked confused, like, "where did our friends go?" Yeah, that remorse lasted about 2 seconds. This reminded me of a thought I had once before when I was ant-killing. I was thinking "Stupid, ants, look at them, can't get enough of that stuff...even though it's going to kill them!" I think I was probably sticking a doughnut in my mouth at this point, and that drove the lesson home quicker than you can say Aesop. We humans put a lot of crap in our bodies that isn't good for us. Something to think about...

So, this weekend, was mostly relaxing and waiting for the back to heal. I did make it to Eastern Market this morning, and bought some pickles. Bread and butter slices!

Because of my back, I resisted getting too much produce, but did buy some blueberries, cucumbers, and peaches to supplement my grocery order set to arrive from Peapod tonight. I had to skip the "eat local" thing today--carrying groceries didn't seem prudent!

Because I was waiting for Eric to come for brunch, I had some time to kill, and found myself ducking in out of the rain and into Hill's Kitchen, a great kitchen store/demonstration kitchen with lessons by Eastern Market. I bought a great cookbook, "The Best Casserole Cookbook Ever." ($25) I plan on trying some recipes out of that soon. I LOVE casseroles--because I can basically cook once and eat all week! And, typically, casseroles tend to be things that reheat well. I rationalized my purchase by saying "Well, if I have a great cookbook, I'll eat at home more!" :)

 

I'll let you know if I find any goodies! Have a great start to the week!

Single Serve Cereal

I don't know how you are, but I LOVE cereal. Especially sugary kids cereal. I can't control myself with it, and if I buy a box, it literally won't last more than a day or two. Usually, I recognize this, and don't buy it, but on occasion, I float through the grocery store in a cloud of denial. It is at this time that I allow myself to buy crackers, cookies, and sugary cereal, thinking I'll "just eat a serving or two. This will last me for weeks!" Uh, yeah. Well, I discovered a good solution: to go cups. They typically sell for about $1 (at Shoppers Food and Target. At Harris Teeter in the city, they were a bit more). And, I don't allow myself to buy more than 2 at a time. They're more than one typical serving, I'm pretty sure, but they're nowhere near what a whole box would be! (The ones I've gotten have ranged from 160 calories--for Corn Pops--to 250 calories--for Cocoa Krispies). Granted, I wouldn't recommend this if you have control over the satan cereal, because you can sometimes get a box for the cost of two of those buggers, but if you don't, having the natural stopping point is key to self control!

Lie to me

As I do my first ( and probably last) post from the treadmill, I am thinking of how often we fool ourselves to get through life. Or at least I do. The human brain's funny that way. It's like captives who develop coping mechanisms. About 95% of my workouts involve trickery..."only 5 more minutes..." or "just get to the 2 mile mark & then you can leave." That kind of thing.

That's why low expectations are so important too...they fool you into feeling better about whatever it is...something to think about: high standards and a keen sense of what's real get you nowhere!

Dagnabit! The Chips Tricked Me!

This is really an example of karma at its finest. When I saw news articles (such as in the

Center for Science in the Public Interest'sNutrition Action Healthletter I get each month) about food labels not having the calories for the bag but for the serving size, I rolled my eyes a bit. Of COURSE people should be smart enough to figure that out! Well, I got mine today. I "took a walk" with a colleague who was going to get her lunch, and ended at one of those buffet places. I decided to get some chips to go with my packed sandwich. I've been monitoring calories, and so, I looked at the label. In the hustle and bustle, I was in a hurry to get out of the way. I did a hasty comparison of the Kettle Salt and Vinegar chips and Glenny's Soy Crisps. I was not in a soy mood. I saw that the Kettle chips had 150 calories and 9 g of fat. Not a health food, more fat than we'd like, but overall, not bad for once in awhile. What I neglected to realize was that there were two servings in the bag. So, that's 300 calories and 18 grams of fat. Not quite what I'd planned. I didn't even realize until going to log in the calories online and seeing the serving size...hand to head, Homer Simpson "Doh!" Perhaps I saw what I wanted to see...I mean, I'm under no delusions of believing potato chips are healthy. But, still, the labeling made it much easier for me to make that mistake. Live and learn!

Image of the offending chips from the company's web site.

It's Not You, It's the Plate: A Book Report

Mindless Eating: Why We Eat More Than We Thinkby Brian Wansink is a fascinating (and quick) read. The basic premise of the book is that there are cues in our environment that control what and how much we stuff our faces with and that by being keyed into them, we can mindlessly lose weight. Many of the studies in the book rang a bell with me--because I had already read about them on Wansink's Web site: Mindless Eating.

Wansink is the director of Cornell University's Food and Brand lab. The lab's experiments (and those of similar labs) illuminate that clever marketing and sly environmental cues can drive us to eat a lot more than we think we are. For example, they constructed a special table with an "endless" soup bowl, and found that people did not stop when satiated. Those with endless supplies of soup kept eating more soup. How a food is described on a menu and our expectations of how a food will taste are almost as important as how it tastes. He uses the example of a WWII Navy cook who substituted red colored lemon Jello when he ran out of cherry. Hint: the diners never suspected a thing.

I was discussing the book with my cousin Jennifer who originally recommended it to me, and she said it helped her realize that gaining weight wasn't just genetics, that there were things you could change about what you do.  It also greatly impacted my view of eating better, but for me, it was revolutionary to realize that it's NOT just willpower. So many times, fat people are told to exhibit self-control and viewed as just having a lack of self-discipline. To me, the book says "hey, there's a reason you eat the entire quart of chocolate peanut butter ice cream." Knowing is half the battle. Now, I've stopped pretending to myself that I can (or should) be able to just have one slice of cake and save the rest for later or something ridiculous. Now, I buy smaller portions and engineer my environment somewhat with awareness of the things talked about in the book. Small changes, but they make a big difference!

Nutritional Know-How

I wanted to let my blog readers in on a good resource, the "Eat This, Not That" website. Part of Men's Health magazine, the column was made into a book. I was first clued into this by my cousin Jennifer, who used the book to successfully shed calories (and pounds) that lurked in unknown places. I consider myself to be relatively calorie-savvy (as in, aware of them as they're entering my mouth), and even I was shocked by some of the information.  For example, the "Turkey and Swiss Sandwich" at Au Bon Pain, clocking in at 850 calories and 41 (yes, 41) grams of fat. I could see myself ordering this and thinking I was doing okay--maybe slightly more calories than a sandwich I'd make myself, but not bad. Boy was I mistaken! I was also disheartened to find out (though, not surprised) that my favorite ice cream: chocolate peanut butter swirl, is one of the worst options at Baskin Robbins. That's one of those things I'd rather just save up for than waste any calories on an inferior ice cream!

p.s. Sorry for the lack of posting--I've been busy with trip-planning and my mom's visit. More on those later!