92 replies to this topic

[bloviatrix]

Thanks to eGullet, I was able to appear to be much more knowledgable than I actually am at book club this morning. In the Kosher Cassoulet thread, Swiss Kaese mentioned that leg of lamb is not kosher because the sciatic nerve cannot be removed. Our book last month was "The Red Tent" and someone brought up the passage from the bible in which Jacob wrestles with god and injured his hip. I was able to say (quite nonchalantly), "Oh, that would be why the sciatic nerve must be removed in kosher meats."

Thank you, eGullet! 

That's way too funny. Maybe you should tell us what the next book is so we can figure out all the relevant food facts.

Edited by bloviatrix, 08 January 2005 - 07:26 PM.

[Jensen]

At sunrise, as he left Penuel, Jacob limped along because of his hip.
That is why, to this day, the Israelites do not eat the sciatic muscle that is on the hip socket, inasmuch as Jacob's hip socket was struck at the sciatic muscle.

Thanks for teaching me something about my religion.

Just another eGullet service, I think...

Ooooh, those beans look good! Do you have a recipe you follow, or just sort of wing it?

I just wing it with the beans. This is how I used to make it (pre-Weight Watchers):

clickie

One thing I didn't do last night but will often do if I have fresh Roma tomatoes is roast them in the oven and then stir them into the beans. It adds a nice depth of flavour to them.

My friend who lives in Carmichael calls that Trader Joe's (at Marconi & Fulton) the Mean TJ's because all the customers are really mean! They shove their carts in front of you, shove you out of the way, reach in front of you, etc. I'm surprised there aren't brawls over the last bottle of two-buck chuck! 

That is too funny!

I've only ever been in that TJ's once. I'm in Fair Oaks and the shoppers at the one on Sunrise are quite pleasant. (Well, except for me maybe...)

Of course, instead of thinking about how yummy those pictures are, I'm thinking "how the heck does she figure the points for that???".  So, would you sometimes count for us, so we can get a sense of how you're managing to eat that stuff and still lose weight?

I'd be happy to! I didn't want to overwhelm the non-WW crowd with esoterica like that but, what the hell!

For breakfast, I ate far more points than I normally would have. Thank god for flex points! I counted the lemon cheese as jam and, as I only had about a tablespoon, that was one point. The scone was 3 points. Two puff pastry thingies were 8 points. I also ate 1/2 an apple for 0 points. So breakfast, usually a three or four point meal for me, was 12 points...over half of my daily allowance!

I don't expect that to be a problem though. I'll just dip into my flex points. (I used up 10 of them last night on a bottle of wine...me'n'Therese know how to spend our flex points wisely--on booze!)

For the leftover beans, there was one cup of beans and only a sliver or two of ham. The beans were 4 points so I counted 5 points, for any fat that the ham shank would have contributed.

So, I've got 5 points left before I have to hit the flex point page. I think I'll make it worthwhile...

Since my attempt at interactive blogging didn't succeed too well ( ), I made up my own mind about how to cook the lamb.

It was "unrolled" because I'd hacked it in half already so I cut some slots on the inside of the roast and inserted slivers of garlic. Then I sprinkled it with tarragon and freshly ground pepper and then rolled it up and tied it. So, all the seasonings are on the inside.

It's currently roasting in the oven on a bed of chopped onions. Our storm continues so I thought an entire meal of roasted things would make me feel good. So, I melted a tablespoon of beef fat and coated some peeled and quartered potatoes with it. They're also in the oven roasting.

When I take the lamb out to make a sauce, I'll pop the green in the oven...roasted green beans. I've never done them before so I hope they turn out!

I'll post all the pictures once dinner is finished.

[Jensen]

 
That's way too funny.  Maybe you should tell us what the next book is so we can figure out all the relevant food facts.

"I, Claudius" is the book for next month.

Peeled grapes, anyone?

[Jensen]

Dinner is done and it was pretty good.

Here's what I ended up putting in the oven:



I rethought my plans to have sauce, since it would really just add points to the meal and I probably should be a little circumspect with points after that book club breakfast.

So, when I took the lamb out of the oven to rest, I transferred the potatoes to the roasting pan and put them back in the oven. Even though they were only in the oven that way for ten minutes or so, they picked up the flavour of the onions. Yum!

I wish I could take credit for the idea but it was Wayde who suggested it.

The meal on the counter...



and on the plate...



I cooked the lamb a little bit more than I like but not quite as much as Wayde would like. It was a compromise situation.

I wish I'd put the beans in the oven earlier as they could have used a little bit more cooking. Even still, they were wonderful. Even the Spawn ate hers!

And now I need to calculate the points!

The beans are 0 but I spritzed them with some olive oil. It wasn't too much (less than a teaspoon, I'd guess) but I'll count them as 1 point, just in case.

The potatoes themselves were worth 9 points but the tablespoon of beef fat added 3 points to the pot. So, one serving was 4 points.

And, 3 oz. of lamb (regular, not lean) is 6 points.

I guess I did not too badly. I went over my daily allotment by only 6 points and I am absolutely stuffed!

And I still have 20 flex points for the rest of the week. Oh, btw, I weigh in on Thursday so we'll see if I'm able to blog and lose weight at the same time

[Gretch]

Thanks for the referrals to the William Glen, everyone... I think we go to a different Trader Joe's--the one next to the wonderful Italian Importing Mercato.

Jensen, the steel-cut oats at the Sac Natural Foods Co-op were 75 cents a pound. Great price, but probably not worth the incovenient trip...

[Jensen]

Thanks for the referrals to the William Glen, everyone... I think we go to a different Trader Joe's--the one next to the wonderful Italian Importing Mercato.

Jensen, the steel-cut oats at the Sac Natural Foods Co-op were 75 cents a pound.  Great price, but probably not worth the incovenient trip...

I love that Italian shop! Apparently, their meatball sandwich is to die for.

Once the weather is nicer, I'll have to see about stopping at the co-op. We are sometimes out that way on the bike and it's a lot easier to find parking for a VTX than it is for a Ford one ton!

Today's plans were initially to include attending a fun match with Rogie. With all the weather systems coming in and the warnings about flooding in the Delta (which we'd have to drive through to get to the match), we decided to gun the match.

So, that meant I could go to the farmer's market downtown! Yippee!

I got there a little later than I normally would have so I wasn't able to find any cauliflower that I liked. I didn't buy too much as I have quite a bit of produce in the fridges already. I also forgot to take the camera (bad Jen!).

Here's what I got today:



Starting at 9:00, there's broccoli, green cabbage (couldn't find any savoy, which I prefer), leeks, sorrel, leaf lettuce, acorn squash, Crimini mushrooms (in the bag), and, out front, a small piece of Old World Portuguese cheese from Spring Hill Dairy in Petaluma.

I like to buy something new to try at the market and today it was the sorrel. I have no idea what I'll do with it but it will be fun looking! The sign specified that it was "French sorrel". Does that mean anything special?

On this thread, Pan posted a link to a diet quiz that identifies what type of eater you are.

It said I was a "meal skipper" and, sure enough, I haven't eaten yet today! So, I'm off to get a little something in me before I start foraging through the fridges!

[Jensen]

Lunch was a few slices of turkey and some cottage cheese. I got the camera out and then looked at the plate again. "That looks way too much like diet food. I'm not taking a picture of that!"



Wayde had mentioned this morning that he thought our portion sizes were creeping up so I took the time to weigh the turkey (3 oz.) and measure the cottage cheese (1/2 cup). Those two items were 5 points (3 for the turkey and 2 for the cottage cheese).

So what exactly are these "points" that I keep talking about? Well, for those of you not familiar with Weight Watchers, they've assigned point values to all the food. The values are calculated based on caloric content, fat content, and dietary fiber. Depending on your weight, you are "allowed" a certain number of points per day. This goes down in 25 pound increments. When I started, I could have 24 points per day. Now I can have 22 and, very soon, that will drop to 20 points. You never drop below 20 points and the idea is to eat ALL of your daily points.

In addition to your daily points, you have 35 weekly points, called "flex points". Generally, I use my flex points for things that I consider "treats". So, if I want avocado on a sandwich or something like that, I'll count the avocado points as flex points and count the rest of the meal as regular daily points.

You can also earn "Activity Points". These are extra points for exercise and are calculated based on your weight, the exercise intensity, and the exercise duration.

There are a couple of different ways of figuring out your points. When you first join, you are given a small handbook with the points values of common foods in it. I purchased their "Complete Food Guide" which also contains specific values for brand name foods. I don't think I've ever used that section of it though since I don't seem to buy the big brand stuff!

Along with the handbook, you are given a little sliderule thingie called a "Points Finder".

To calculate points using the Points Finder, you start by looking at the nutritional information on the side of the food package. Here's the data from the cottage cheese I had:



Then, you use the Points Finder by lining up the fiber content and the caloric content:



With those two values lined up, you then find the fat content on the right. The points for that food will be in the window to the right of it.

So, my cottage cheese had no fiber and 100 calories. With the 0 and the 100 lined up, I then check against the fat content...2.5g. And, I see that there were 2 points in the serving that I had.

Simple, eh?

And, in case one feels that losing weight isn't its own reward, Weight Watchers does have some "incentives" to mark your weight loss.



When you lose 5 pounds, you get a "I lost 5 pounds!" bookmark. For every five pounds you lose after that, you get a gold star with a "5" on it.

When you've lost 25 pounds, you get the fridge magnet. Woo-hoo!

[Jensen]

Dinner is almost ready. Tonight I used the "carne asada" in the freezer to make my spin on braciole.

The meat for carne asada is already sliced so less work there. On top of the beef, I put 1/2 oz. of the Old World Portuguese cheese and one slice of serrano ham. Because Wayde had made the comment about our serving sizes, I weighed everything before assembly.

In each roll, the beef was 4 points, the cheese was 0.5 points (which I am counting as one, just in case), and the serrano ham was 1 point. On top of that, I poured half a bottle of Trader Joe's roasted red pepper pasta sauce. That added 3 points to the pot.

So, each serving will be 2 rolls and sauce and the pointage will be 13 points.

Here it is, ready for the oven:



I'll serve it with steamed broccoli (0 points):



and pasta. Pasta and cheese are both things that always weigh. For me, they're items that I tend to get a little heavy-handed with so weighing them keeps me on the straight and narrow.

For three of us, the pasta should weigh 168g.



I was really surprised the first time I weighed it out to cook it. It actually makes a fair bit more than what I had thought it would.

[Jensen]

Dinner was fab. The flavour from the ham and the cheese added an incredible depth and richness to the sauce. So rich, in fact, that I could only eat 1.5 of the rolls...

[snowangel]

Jen, thanks for better explaing the points thing. So, do you weigh the portions for you, Squid and husband? Or just yourself?

[Jensen]

Jen, thanks for better explaing the points thing.  So, do you weigh the portions for you, Squid and husband?  Or just yourself?

For dinner, I tend to weigh the ingredients individually and then divide by the number of servings made. I think my points calculations tend to err on the "plus" side though. For example, all meat points values in the guide book are given as cooked weights. There's no way I could weigh just the beef in tonight's dinner so I weighed it raw and used that weight to look up the points.

Both the Spouse and the Spawn tracked points for a while, back when I first started. They haven't kept it up though. Despite that, the Spouse has lost around 35 lbs and the Spawn has lost 30 lbs. I'm pretty sure that the Spawn is well within her correct weight range for her height now. She's very tall (5'9" or so) and never really looked like she had 30 pounds to lose but, now that it's gone, she's absolutely gorgeous.

[Chufi]

Lunch was a few slices of turkey and some cottage cheese. I got the camera out and then looked at the plate again. "That looks way too much like diet food. I'm not taking a picture of that!"

that's exactly what I like about this blog: that your food does not look like diet food at all!

I knew absolutely nothing about the WW system so thanks for enlightening me. it looks like you are eating very well!

[Abra]

I used to only make soup with sorrel, but this summer I discovered that sorrel leaves make fabulous wraps. For a simple example, just wrap your sliced turkey up in a sorrel leaf. And then, of course, the sky's the limit. I was wrapping all kinds of leftovers with the sorrel I got from my CSA this summer. It's got a lovely, lemony tang that enhances many foods.

That's wonderful that your whole family has lost so much weight with you!

[Jensen]

that's exactly what I like about this blog: that your food does not look like diet food at all!

I think that's one reason why I have been successful at it...this is food that I like to cook and I like to eat.

I've found that my tastebuds have adjusted to the new way of eating and, because of that, I have a deeper appreciation for some foods. For example, I used to have a really heavy hand with cheese in cooking (which is why I still weigh it) and the first time I used some after not eating it for a while, I dutifully weighed out one ounce to be shared between all three of us. When I tasted it...ohmigod! It was incredible! Creamy, cheesy, rich, pretty much everything that used to require gobs and gobs of cheese to taste. And all from only 1/3 of an ounce!

I guess there really is something to that "moderation in all things" saying...

[Jensen]

I used to only make soup with sorrel, but this summer I discovered that sorrel leaves make fabulous wraps.  For a simple example, just wrap your sliced turkey up in a sorrel leaf.  And then, of course, the sky's the limit.  I was wrapping all kinds of leftovers with the sorrel I got from my CSA this summer.  It's got a lovely, lemony tang that enhances many foods. 

Abra, do you think it would make an interesting pasta filling? I am going to make ravioli this week and plan on making more than just one meal's worth. I've got some arugula for one of the fillings but, when I saw the sorrel, I thought maybe it would mix well with that and some ricotta cheese.

The other filling will be Kuri squash...

And the reason why I'm making more than one meal's worth is that I plan on sending a birthday dinner to one of my best friends. If she lived here, I'd have her over for dinner but she lives in Connecticut so I plan on freezing the ravioli and overnighting it to her.

Just as an aside, the Spawn and I visited her for a week this past summer. She doesn't cook a lot and so whenever I stay with her, I cook for all of us. She lost five pounds while we were there.

[Jensen]

Breakfast this morning was porridge again. No picture this time as we only have the one Bunnykins bowl.

However, I did take a picture of my mushrooms. I'm growing oyster mushrooms in my laundry room:



One of the mushroom vendors at the farmer's market sells these "logs" that have been inoculated with oyster mushroom spores. The "log" is really some sort of wood shavings or maybe hay packed tightly into a plastic bag. The bag has small slits cut into it, through which the inoculations are placed. Then, there is a larger plastic bag over the whole thing.

You start your crop by cutting several 8" slashes in the outer bag. Every day, I reach in through those slashes and spritz the inner bag with water.

Interestingly enough, it requires partial sunlight, not darkness. The window in my laundry room door never gets direct sunlight so we thought that would be the perfect spot for it.

I've been tending the crop ever since Christmas and, as you can see, the white spots are starting to grow. If you get really close to some of them, you can see the little mushrooms starting to form.

[reesek]

jen,

your blog is very inspirational. plus you make totally british looking roasties (like my bf's mom...who's also in sacrametho!) it's so helpful to see photos of portion sizes etc. congratulations on all of your success so far, and on keeping food fun and interesting. i think it's so cool that you see the challenge of making healthy, delicious food as a positive one rather than as a series of restrictions.

i would definitely drink all my flex points

[Jensen]

i think it's so cool that you see the challenge of making healthy, delicious food as a positive one rather than as a series of restrictions.

i would definitely drink all my flex points 

I think a lot of that comes from my initial thoughts when I decided to do something about losing weight (after having the Monty Python image of me exploding from eating a wafer, of course). My immediate thought was not "I have to lose weight." It was 'I have to change the way I'm eating."

(I guess it also helps that I don't have much of a sweet tooth.)

And I have been known to refer to my flex points as "alcohol points".

[Jensen]

Lunch today was leftovers from a couple of weeks ago. About four weeks ago, I had made Moroccan Braised Beef from Epicurious (sans sultanas though). Even though I cut the recipe down, there were two servings left over. Neither Wayde nor Kathleen particularly liked the dish (too spicy for them) so I froze the remainder.

One of those was defrosted and then warmed up for lunch today. Served over plain couscous:



Couscous is listed in the WW book as being 3 points for 1/4 cup dry so that's how much I made. It was just the right amount.

The stew was 6 points.

[therese]

I think the sorrel with ricotta would make a great filling for ravioli.

And the Moroccan Braised Beef sounds great. I may have to cut back on the spice level for my kids based on your family's experience, though.

[Abra]

I think sorrel with ricotta or quark, and maybe some shallot and mushrooms, would be yummy. I don't think I'd put it with arugula, though, since I fear the flavors would clash. Try eating an arugula leaf and a sorrel leaf together, just raw, and see what you think.

Arugula is my favorite salad green of all time.

[snowangel]

So, how many points do you get in one day (may have missed that up above).

[Jensen]

And the Moroccan Braised Beef sounds great. I may have to cut back on the spice level for my kids based on your family's experience, though.

I think if you reduced or eliminated the cayenne, it would be fine.

I don't think I'd put it with arugula, though, since I fear the flavors would clash.  Try eating an arugula leaf and a sorrel leaf together, just raw, and see what you think. 

What a great idea! I did this and I couldn't taste the arugula at all...just the sorrel. So, I think I'll use them separately.

So, how many points do you get in one day (may have missed that up above).

I get 22 points per day, plus an extra 35 points to be eaten at any time over the week. When I lose a few more pounds, I will drop to eating only 20 points per day. I guess at that point I'll have to stop cursing people who say they only get 20 points.

Because I had meat at lunch time, I didn't want anything too heavy for dinner. So, I made curried cauliflower and cheese soup. The head of cauliflower I had was small so I added some broccoli as well.



I posted the recipe in the soup thread.

I followed it with a couple of changes: I used Lee Kum Kee curry sauce (my favourite ) and I used 3 oz. of cheese this time. The entire pot of soup worked out to 12 points. It was divided into 4 servings of 3 points each.

We also had steamed coconut milk bao with the soup. I count those as 2 points each. They're a little smaller than a dinner roll, which the WW book tells me is worth 3 points.

[Jake]

The soup looks wonderful, Jen! I can understand why it hasn't been too hard to stick to your program with food like that. Really enjoying the blog, thanks again.

[therese]

I get 22 points per day, plus an extra 35 points to be eaten at any time over the week. When I lose a few more pounds, I will drop to eating only 20 points per day. I guess at that point I'll have to stop cursing people who say they only get 20 points. 

Yep. Then you'll get to curse those people who still have an entire 22 points per day.

Hmmm...If memory serves, you'll only be 2 lbs away from your initial goal when you cross from the land of plenty (22 points per day) to the land of near starvation (no, no, I'm just kidding---it's more like the land of eating carefully). And I'm pretty sure we're the same height, by the way.

For those of you not familiar with WW and "goal" weights, when you first sign up, whether you're doing it on-line like me or going to meetings like Jensen, you pick a goal weight for yourself. If you're attending meetings (for which you have to pay) it's to your advantage to pick a relatively high goal weight, because once you meet your goal (and I think perhaps maintain it for some period of time) you attain "lifetime" status and no longer have to pay to attend meetings. This is not an option for on-line users, as there's no weigh for WW to see how much you really weigh, so I set a much lower goal weight for myself as an incentive.

More dinner ideas, please.

[misstenacity]

On WW - is there any guidance or advice as to how to stagger the points consumption each day? From one of your days ("I have 14pts for dinner..."), it sounds like you eat more food towards the end of the day.

I am not on WW but I do tend to eat more food earlier - perhaps 75-80% of my daily food is before dinner. Big breakfasts keep me sane. :-)

Comments?

I am really enjoying the blog so far - keep up the great work!

Andrea
http://tenacity.net

[Tess]

I'm on WW, and I eat most of my food for breakfast and lunch. I'm doing the program online and have not seen any particular advice on this issue. I'm in 20-pointsville (please don't curse me, Jensen!) and it seems like *a lot* less than 22. If I don't earn some activity points, I feel I don't have much to work with. If I'm still hungry at dinner time, frankly, I just cheat. (I can't use flex points on a daily basis because I need them for one dinner out a week.) I have lost weight anyway. The WW food allowance is a little too small, in my opinion.

Jensen, if you get a chance, I really recommend seeing if your library or video store has the BBC production of I, Claudius. It rocks! The book is good fun too.

Thanks for posting the cauliflower soup recipe. I'm all about the soups.

[Dana]

Part of the 'charm' of the WW program is that you can customize your meals however is best for you. You know when you get up that you have 20 or whatever points, and you can use them as you please. If you like a larger breakfast, then that's perfectly acceptable. Lots of people don't eat much for breakfast, although WW highly recommends you eat something to get your metabolism going.

Tess - have you tried the core plan? I thought I the food I was allowed on the point system wasn't enough, either, and am much happier and not hungry on core. You might want to check it out.

Hope I haven't highjacked this thread - sorry Jensen

[Jensen]

Yep. Then you'll get to curse those people who still have an entire 22 points per day.

Hmmm...If memory serves, you'll only be 2 lbs away from your initial goal when you cross from the land of plenty (22 points per day) to the land of near starvation (no, no, I'm just kidding---it's more like the land of eating carefully). And I'm pretty sure we're the same height, by the way.

As Therese said, if you attends the meetings, it's in your best interest to put your goal weight as high as possible. When you reach it, you immediately add 4 points to your daily quota to change from a "weight loss" routine to a "maintenance" routine.

I plan to stay in "weight loss" mode for a while, until I reach my "personal goal". I've decided that my personal goal is to be Therese...

On WW - is there any guidance or advice as to how to stagger the points consumption each day?  From one of your days ("I have 14pts for dinner..."), it sounds like you eat more food towards the end of the day.

I am not on WW but I do tend to eat more food earlier - perhaps 75-80% of my daily food is before dinner.  Big breakfasts keep me sane.  :-)

I went through my journal and found that I tend to eat half of my points for breakfast and lunch and half of my points at dinner. But you can distribute your points any way you like. You can also start your "counting day" at any point. So, whereas I get up in the morning and start counting then, someone else might start their day at dinner time. That has been recommended at the meetings for those people who eat more earlier in the day.

Breakfast was porridge again this morning.

I've been eating it every morning for months and I'm still not bored with it. Once the weather gets nicer, I'm sure I'll want something different though. Before I started with the porridge, I had been eating Trader-Joe's fat-free granola with plain yogurt (sometimes homemade and sometimes the organic low-fat stuff from TJ's). I found that eating whole grains in the morning kept me feeling full longer.

[fou de Bassan]

I'm enjoying your blog very much. Suffice it to say I knew nothing about WW before this blog. I hope this isn't a stupid question but, do you ever go off WW? Does it have an end or whenyou reach your goal weight do you just eat to maintain?

Thanks again