eG Foodblog: Jensen - A Blog of Diminishing Returns

[Jensen]

This morning started out the same as every other morning in my world...with a bowl of porridge!

Right now, I'm having my tea though:

I buy two bags of tea: one is plain green tea and one is genmaicha (brown rice with green tea). Then I mix them 1:1.

I also have had to deal with a mutiny. Apparently, I can't cook meatless main meals for two days in a row and maintain control of the kitchen. (Who knew?)

The Spouse nipped out to the store last night and picked up some Korean-style beef ribs. Then, he stopped by our favourite sushi restaurant to ask the cook how he makes his bul go gi. As I write this, the ribs are marinating in the fridge.

Guess I won't be using my juniper berries today!

[Jensen]

It was a day of eating up leftovers...I finished off the beans from Friday night's dinner.

And then, I didn't have to cook tonight! The Spouse decided he was going to make dinner. So, I just sat back and watched (and ate, of course).

bul go gi, rice noodle salad, and Shanghai bok choy

I reckon the bul go gi was 4 points, the salad was 4 points, and the bok choy was free...so I had seconds of the bul go gi.

The Spawn has actually requested a specific dish for tomorrow night's dinner so I will be making that. When we lived in Vancouver, we used to go to Ezogiku, a ramen restaurant. (Apparently, there are three Ezogikus outside of Japan...one in Hawaii and two in Vancouver.) They specialise in Hokkaido-style ramen; I think that means that it is ramen made with a miso broth. I've been able to make a somewhat similar ramen to Ezogiku's, even though I have a hell of a time finding real ramen noodles here.

At any rate, that's what I'll be making tomorrow!

[Jensen]

Good morning, eGullet!

Today is the last day of my blog and, finally, I'm having something other than porridge for breakfast.

Today is the day that I attend my 12:15 WW meeting and get weighed. I will confess that, on more than one occasion, I have skipped breakfast on meeting day. However, as I've lost more weight, or maybe it's just that I'm now used to eating breakfast, I find that skipping breakfast will screw me up for the rest of the day.

I get overly hungry and then I forage through the kitchen, looking for snacks. And I'm not even a snacker!

So, I figured I'd better eat something:

Oranges! That's actually two very small mandarin oranges. According to my WW book, one medium orange is worth 0 points but a large orange is worth 1 point. I'm going to count these ones as "free". They are awfully tiny, aren't they?

To go with it, I decided I'd have a cup of coffee. This used to be my usual "breakfast" but, when I started WW, I quit drinking coffee. The decision to do that had nothing to do with any relationship between caffeine and weight loss or anything like that. I happened to like my coffee with a mixture of 1/2 and 1/2 and flavoured whitener (or, chemical cow, as I like to call it). That made my cup of coffee worth TWO points and there was no way in hell I was wasting TWO points on something that wasn't real food.

I've since found the low-carb chemical cow and, if I make the coffee strong enough, I don't miss the cream. Unfortunately, I went so long without coffee that when I have a cup now, I get the shakes.

So it's a mix of unleaded and leaded coffee that finds it's way into my coffee cup these days. And, using our pod brewer, that's easy to do.

This particular brewer has settings for "European-style" coffee and "American-style" coffee. I like my coffee strong so I use the Euro setting and make two cups in one. One pod is decaf and one pod is regular. It's still enough caffeine to give me the shakes but not so much that I draw attention to myself...

[Jensen]

I'm home from my meeting and, yes, I lost weight!

(Thank God, she said, wiping her brow. How embarrassing it would have been if I'd gained!)

For lunch, I wanted to use up the rest of the squash that I'd defrosted for the ravioli. When I'd first bought this type of squash (Kuri), I did some reading up on it. One thing I kept coming upon was that it was excellent in soups because of the flavour and texture. So, I mixed about one cup of the squash with an equal amount of chicken broth. Added to that were some onions, lightly cooked in just a bit of olive oil. For seasoning, I used a pinch of garam masala and a sprinkle of cayenne.

Et voilà!

2 points for the soup and 1 point for the glass of milk I had with it!

[therese]

I'm home from my meeting and, yes, I lost weight!

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Congratulations, and congratulations and thanks for your blog this week.

[bilrus]

I'm home from my meeting and, yes, I lost weight!

(Thank God, she said, wiping her brow. How embarrassing it would have been if I'd gained!)

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Public (or virtual) humiliation is a motivating factor - isn't it?

[little ms foodie]

Good for you! great blog and great progress!!

[reesek]

Public (or virtual) humiliation is a motivating factor - isn't it?

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as, i hope are accolades! congratulations jen - and thanks so much for blogging!

[Jensen]

Public (or virtual) humiliation is a motivating factor - isn't it?

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You're not kidding!

And thank you, reesek and therese, for your congrats. They do help too.

I've started dinner for tonight by way of making the soup stock.

I remember watching Good Eats one day, either the show about making homemade stock or the one about making stock in a pressure cooker. At any rate, Alton Brown claimed that stock made from pork bones was "too piggy" (or "porky" or something like that). At the time, my first thought was "Man, is AB missing the boat on that one!"

For any Asian-style soups, I prefer a pork-based broth. And so, I use pork neck bones to make the stock:

I was going to try making the stock in the microwave, à la Maggiethecat. However, I like to pick the meat off the bones and add it back to the soup and I wasn't sure how it would hold up to extended periods of microwaving. So I went with the tried and true stovetop method.

[TheFoodTutor]

However, I like to pick the meat off the bones and add it back to the soup and I wasn't sure how it would hold up to extended periods of microwaving. So I went with the tried and true stovetop method.

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Very nice blog, Jensen. I'm currently making stock as well, and it occurred to me that all the trouble that I put into the little bits of meat on bones to make stock makes that meat too good to waste. Of course, in restaurants, much of this gets wasted because it's just too much work to pick the last bits of meat out of your mirepoix and bones to have a bit of extra. At home, though, it's a cook's treat, with a cook's work making it an earned treat.

Your food looks wonderful, and I applaud the fact that you cook so well and do not drive. It's always easier when you can just hop in the car and go searching for whatever you want. Learning to make a good list and get everything in one trip is a talent that not many people have. And to be dieting on top of that is an even bigger challenge, plus feeding spouse and child without them feeling deprived.

Marvelous work!

[Jensen]

Very nice blog, Jensen. I'm currently making stock as well, and it occurred to me that all the trouble that I put into the little bits of meat on bones to make stock makes that meat too good to waste. Of course, in restaurants, much of this gets wasted because it's just too much work to pick the last bits of meat out of your mirepoix and bones to have a bit of extra. At home, though, it's a cook's treat, with a cook's work making it an earned treat.

I actually got a lot of meat off these bones...more than I usually do.

The texture can be a little "weird" and often the flavour has been sucked out into the broth, but I think it still adds something to the meal.

Your food looks wonderful, and I applaud the fact that you cook so well and do not drive. It's always easier when you can just hop in the car and go searching for whatever you want. Learning to make a good list and get everything in one trip is a talent that not many people have. And to be dieting on top of that is an even bigger challenge, plus feeding spouse and child without them feeling deprived.

Marvelous work!

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Thank you. I didn't mention the not driving part this time around but, yeah, it cramps my style somewhat. I did buy an electric scooter a few months ago, that I use for trips to Trader Joe's and to Raley's. I plan on moving up to a Vespa (well, I have my eye on an Aprilia Mojito to be exact) and, if all goes well, perhaps then to a car.

[snowangel]

I want to see dinner (and the stock). Pig neck bones are good, aren't they? I get mine at the local asian market. When we lived inner city, they were available at every grocery, but this is not the case in the 'burbs.

Congrats on the weight loss!

[Jensen]

And the final meal is now done.

The one thing I really like about making this ramen is that I can make it all in advance and then just assemble it at the last minute.

Here are the bowls with the noodles:

I decided today that I would try Core for the coming week. So, instead of using up some leftover rice noodles from last night, my bowl contains buckwheat soba noodles (a Core food item).

Wayde will be away on business next week so there's one less food preference to deal with and I'm hoping I can just bully the Spawn into eating what's on her plate. It hasn't worked yet but you never know...

To the noodles, I added the meat from the neck bones, some lightly steamed Shanghai bok choy, and some sui choy. Normally, I would also add bean sprouts but I didn't seem to have any in the fridge.

For the broth, I add tamari/soy sauce and miso paste to the pork stock. I think for traditional Hokkaido-style ramen you should add red miso but my local Raley's only carries the white miso.

Once the broth is at a full boil, it is ladled over the noodles and vegetables:

I like this with a garnish of kim chee as well. Too bad I ate all my kim chee last week!

I guess that's it for me! Thank you all for looking in; I hope it was enjoyable for you. If anyone continues to be interested in WW, pop on over to the WW thread.

The whippets all came to the gate to say good-bye...

(Although, I'm pretty sure Streaka is saying "Feed me".)

[Jensen]

I want to see dinner (and the stock).  Pig neck bones are good, aren't they?  I get mine at the local asian market.  When we lived inner city, they were available at every grocery, but this is not the case in the 'burbs.

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These particular ones are from an Asian market on the other side of town. I've bought them before at my suburban Raley's (although I damn near died of shock when I saw them on the shelf!!!) but there wasn't nearly as much meat on them as these ones.

I love 'em.

[snowangel]

Why are you going core?

And, Jen, thanks for blogging and sharing more of you than many people would!

[Jensen]

Why are you going core?

Mostly because my rate of loss has slowed down. Between July and November, my average weight loss was around 1.5# per week. For the past month, it's really slowed down...around 0.5# per week.

I thought that maybe trying something new would force me to pay more attention to what I was eating. Wayde had said earlier this week that he thought the portion sizes were creeping up so I know I'm not paying as much attention to things as I used to.

(Anything to avoid exercising!!! )

And, Jen, thanks for blogging and sharing more of you than many people would!

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Heh. AT least I didn't post my "before" picture...

[patti]

I really enjoyed your blog, thanks so much. You've made me consider following the Weight Watchers diet. The meals and the pictures were excellent.

[Pan]

Very enjoyable week, Jen. Thanks so much for sharing it.