Tag: Good Food

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General Weight Loss Tips

Vietnamese Bun Thit Nuong

vietnamese pork and noodle dish Vietnamese Bun Thit Nuong

Recipe from Jennifer Cooks

This photo, taken at night on my phone, had to be captured because I was just so excited to eat Vietnamese food that tastes so close to the ones I started eating in restaurants.

This dish reminds me of Josh and my first visits to New York. The visits that would cement our relationship  and a combined appreciated for good food. We’d go to L’Annam in Union Square every single time I visited, even once on Thanksgiving after the parade. I’d always order the grilled pork vermicelli, and he’d order pho.

I may have known, but never could  have guessed that this dish would be the same one that I’d seek out while traveling and eventually make in our home.

I think this is the perfect summer dinner and since we basically skipped most of winter and spring and seem to be headed straight  into summer (it’s supposed to be 80 degrees today! no complaints here.), I thought I’d share this recipe with you. Jennifer, from Jennifer Cooks gets it right. Also known that this would be just as good with chicken thighs or even tofu if that’s your thing. And if you’re like me and have tons of leftover noodles, vegetables and sauce, it makes an excellent cold salad the next day.

Categories
General Weight Loss Tips

New vs. Old Habits

Old habits die hard. I’m hearing this a lot, as well as replacing old habits with new habits. And finding it difficult to identify these bad habits is a process in and of itself. Sometimes I don’t even know it’s a habit, or that it’s keeping me from my goals.

A couple of days ago I went through the house and threw out food that could cause me to binge. I went through this whole mental process of thinking this is wasteful, I can handle small amounts, and is this really bad to have around? It’s hard for throw away perfectly good “food”, but I did anyway and I have another round to go. I have boxes of graham cracks leftover from gingerbread house building, and right now they aren’t tempting- I could care less about graham crackers, but I worry about what they could turn into. So I will give them away.

And now I’m thinking of tackling my sugar/brown sugar and flour reserves. I cook occasionally with sugar, but I know I can use honey instead. Not much can be done (of the overeating variety, for me) without sugar, so I will keep the flour. I’m actually having these thoughts, what could I easily turn into a dessert? If this can be a dessert, it should go. This is the thing with being able to bake, you can do it quickly and easily without much on hand.

Old habits for me, are thinking “I can handle this”, and in the moment I can, but eventually something will pop up and I’ll find myself making brownies in the microwave and wondering how that even happened. Steps A to B to eating are a blur to me and I’m left with brownie residue in a mug trying very hard to wash away the evidence.

I’m asking myself, how can I  replace these habits and old ways of thinking? It’s a challenge, it’s hard to question a behavior you’ve worked hard at protecting.

What habits are you trying to throw away?

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Categories
General Weight Loss Tips

More or Less

I hope you all had a lovely holiday and are gearing up for a new year tomorrow. I had a very spoiled Christmas, filled to the brim with good food, good company and more gifts than I deserved.

I’m ready for 2012, are you?  It seems there are two sets of people on new years, those that diligently create resolutions and goals, and those that are violently against it. I’m a resolution person, but if you’ve been reading any amount of time, you already knew that. Mostly, I just think it’s fun to create a spread sheet of what I want more of and what I want less of.

Right off the top of my head, I want more contentment in the small things in my life. This past year, I was not content with contentment. I spent the year worrying that if I wasn’t piling on the projects and giving light to all of my ideas that I wasn’t moving forward. I was eager to skip steps and make things happen unnaturally for the sake of making something, anything, happen. That was a huge lesson.

I believe my health suffered because of this. Most notably that I’ve had a cold and now getting over a stomach virus in just two weeks.

As I sit here in my safe and quiet house, I realize how important this stability is to me. What I do is wonderful, I love passion, but I love knowing that I’m doing all that I can to maintain a happy home life for myself and my husband. That I’m doing what I can to keep myself healthy. And in this I find myself retreating, a lot. This year, I see myself saying no and passing on projects. I see myself riding the waves as they come. Taking the long road to my goals, rather than the “Let’s make this happen now!” insanity that I put myself through last year. I see myself going with the flow and trusting that I can grow and move forward just while, and especially so, taking care of my home, health and happiness.

This year, I will be narrowing my projects down to one. business. which is my design/art/creative business. And working on my blogs. Other than that, I will be cooking more and eating more vegetables, and taking time to dance and have fun and most importantly, to just be.

I want more fresh fruit and vegetable juices.  I believe in juicing and how good it makes me feel.

I want  to complain and worry less.

I want more exercise.

I want to take the long road and be okay with the journey.

I want to stop worrying, finally, about what other people think.

I want more sewing, painting and illustrating.

I want less social media.

I want more cooking.

I want less driving.

I want to make realistic and attainable goals.

Happy New Year!

 

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