I was reading one of the more popular WW blogs this morning and looking at one of the recipes there. I find myself thinking, "why that ingredient and not something fresher? why not a homemade sauce instead of a can of soup?" Yeah, I'm a total snot for thinking this way. I like to cook a certain way. I have certain weird food issues that the rest of the world doesn't necessarily hold. But I need to be OK with the fact that we are all in our paths to health.
I have guilt when I eat my organic baby carrots. Why? Because we have a farm share and I should be doing something with my fresh carrots. I have guilt when my kids eat waffles made from a mix in the morning and not made from scratch. Don't get me started with how I feel when they eat frozen store brand waffles! I am totally going through a little mini crisis right now with how I feel about white flour and refined sugars and processed foods.
The total irony in all of this is the fact that I am totally addicted to diet Coke. I feel MUCH guilt about that these days too!
I made quinoa for hot cereal yesterday morning. NOT a success. It has a really savory flavor that is great for some things, but not for a hot cereal. At least not in our house.
Last night for dinner, I copied one of Kathy's recipes for a stuffed cabbage casserole. This past summer I made stuffed peppers with all the peppers we had around. My kids thought what I thought as a kid. The filling was good, but not the pepper. Since stuffed cabbage leaves are a similar thing, I thought they would like this casserole. They totally loved it. The big boys (including hubby) had 3 helpings while even Emma had seconds. This is how I prepared it.
I started a cup of brown rice cooking while I chopped the cabbage. I used half of a really large head. I cooked the chopped cabbage like Kathy recommends in a pot of boiling salted water for 10 minutes. I drained it and put in back in the hot pot to help it dry out. In a mixing bowl (because I have 2 nasty paper cuts so I didn't mix by hand) I combined a pound of lean ground beef and pound of ground pork, about 4 tablespoons of tomato paste, some diced onion, salt and pepper and the cooked brown rice. (I took the rice out when it was still a little firm since I knew it would continue to cook a little in the oven.) I mixed the cabbage with the meat mixture and put it into a greased casserole dish. I used a 10x14 rectangular dish. I poured 2 pint jars of italian tomato sauce and 1 pint of stewed tomatoes over the top. Baked at 375 for about 90 minutes.
Like I said, it was a total hit at my house. I put it through the recipe builder this morning on the WW site and came out with 6 points/serving when I used 12 servings for this recipe. Not bad considering I wasn't aiming for a low fat or low cal food. Ground pork with ground beef is so rich tasting. We totally love that here. And I like knowing that I know where every bit of that food came from-except the rice. All my food had a face. That's important to me I guess. I guess that's why I spend so much time canning tomatoes and freezing corn and making pickles and jams and learning about whole grains and baking bread.
Now if I could only figure out what to do about that diet Coke addiction. *sigh*
7 comments:
It's so funny when I go back and look at recipes I've posted in the past, because I can see at a glance where I was on my journey by what foods are on the list of ingredients. Since I've moved to Core list foods almost exclusively, I tend to use fewer prepared sauces and more fresh products. When you begin making healthy changes you just keep making more and more improvements as you progress.
Sounds yummy@ My hubby LOVES Cabbage rolls and this recipe sounds pretty similar.
Just curious...how uch diet coke do you drink day?
I used to drinnk almost a 2L a day before WW. Now I limit my deit coke to the weekends. It's a treat!
Oh I am a total food snob now, I actually feel kinda bad about it sometimes. When things are bad at parties, and I'm asked by everyone eating it (and ohhhing and ahhing), why I'm not eating all I can think of is "Bad Bad Bad", and I end up coming up with an excuse, I'm allergic, or don't like it, or I will flat out say because it's bad for you. I feel like such a stuck up person when I do that!
Thanks for the wonderful comment! It was so nice and it made my day!
So much has changed in the last 2 years especially on the outside. I wish I could say that I don't dream about chocolate bars anymore but honestly, it sounds horrible but if I could eat them everyday and not gain weight...I probably would! I've just learned to control my cravings and portion sizes. I do find that my tastes have changed and that too much junk just makes me feel awful. I look forward to those steamed veggies when I get home from work...most times I am craving them!
Thanks again! Your blog has been such a motivation in my journey! If a mama of 6 can do it, so can I!
I think we all become food snobs when we start eating healthier.
Diet Coke had been one of my down falls. I went to Diet Dr. Pepper and finally started drinking more water. Isn't Diet Coke dehydrating?
LOVE the dietcoke... EMBRACE the dietcoke... BECOME the dietcoke... Well, that's what I do. ;)
How about slowly cutting down on the diet coke by one less a day or a week? Slowly but surely I'm sure you can ween yourself.
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