Angel Food (lowfat)

I’m really excited tonight because I’m finally heading into the weekend having not totally blown my WW points this week. What’s funny is that I’m more focused on food than I have been in a long time, despite being hot and heavy into dieting. Food has long been a passion of mine, and, like many, food is at the center of fond memories of family, childhood, etc. More than simply having heartwarming thoughts about my grandmother’s heavenly biscuits, I’ve also just been downright interested in food for almost as long as I can remember. I distinctly remember learning how to make butter when I was in kindergarten. For me, it was the most exciting lesson of the year (far more exciting than learning my right from my left). I still can remember how it tasted, and how the taste was so different from the butter and margarine I was used to. When I learned that a great aunt of mine actually owned a working butter churn, I was ecstatic and fascinated. My family all thought I was a little weird.

My interest in and passion for food has continued into adulthood. For many years, I’ve been wondering just how to use this interest (culinary school? blogging? teaching?), introducing fear and worry into my love. Well, lately, I’ve realized that I don’t want to continue fretting about food. I want to recapture the joy and fascination I felt when I was a kid. Perhaps while dieting doesn’t seem like the best possible time to recapture my own personal joy of food and cooking. Yet, that’s exactly what I’ve been doing these past couple weeks. I’ve been cooking new recipes and old favorites. I’ve been reading cookbooks just for fun. I’ve been absolutely enjoying myself, choosing seasonal ingredients, cooking and eating things that I really love. I’m feeling more satisfied at mealtimes and am accepting the hunger that comes with dieting much more readily than ever before. (And, oh yeah, I’ve lost about 3 lbs.)

I wound up not cooking one single meal last week. I was too busy organizing a black tie event, preparing for trustee meetings, and working on 3 different grant proposals to do meal planning, much less preparation. I’m lucky to live near my parents right now, so I took advantage of my parents’ kindness and ate with them a couple nights. For the rest of the week, I relied on catering from work and takeout Chinese food. By Saturday, I didn’t even feel hungry.

After a stressful week at work, this weekend has felt downright luxurious. I’ve been catching up on cooking magazines and planning some yummy meals. Today, I finally made the Chinese Chicken Salad  from Weight Watchers that I mentioned in my last post. The recipe is a fine way to use up leftover rotisserie chicken. Using lowfat instead of nonfat mayo was a good choice, despite the extra couple points it added per serving. The salad was nicely creamy from the mayo and crunchy from the vegetables, all in one bite. However, the recipe isn’t quite a homerun - it can be fresher tasting. If I make this again, I might use half yogurt and half mayo, add some squirts of lime juice, and throw in some chopped mint to brighten the flavor. However, I don’t want to dissuade anyone from trying the recipe as  it is written. I’m not usually a big fan of Weight Watcher’s recipes, but this chicken salad made for a satisfying spring lunch.

Later tonight, I’m going to make salmon with orange and fennel. Sundays in the kitchen just perk up my soul!

Sometimes weight loss just doesn’t make any sense. My family threw a graduation party for me on Saturday with a buffet laden with, among other things, pulled pork barbecue, sliced smoked brisket, a “southern caprese salad,” and key lime pie. I ate with abandon, not counting any points. Still, I lost 2.2 lbs last week. Most likely, the nice scale victory occurred because I was diligent about cooking last week and really enjoyed my meals. Also, I worked out twice. That’s not great, but it is a 100% improvement over the week before.

This week, I’m planning to make a weight watchers recipe - a chicken and cabbage salad with soy dressing. I’ve had mixed luck with WW recipes - sometimes they can turn out tasteless or glommy from the lack of fat. The recipe I’m going to try tomorrow night calls for fat-free mayo, which I find pasty and gross. I’m going sub in reduced fat mayo instead. Since the original only has 3 points/serving, I figure that I can afford to add a few extra points to the recipe.

I’m a good cook but sometimes can be a strict recipe person. It feels good to realize that I can tweak recipes to suit my palate, the ingredients I have on hand, etc. and still make them work. I’m slowly starting to accept how to incorporate dieting back into my lifestyle. I really have to make it work for me instead of trying to shoehorn myself and my personal tastes into a way of being that are counter to who I am. Now, let’s just hope that chicken salad with a ginger soy dressing tastes good!

Oops. I let a few days go by without blogging on 3fc. So, here’s my update…

My “weight watching” didn’t go so well last week. Let’s just say that I watched my weight go up a couple pounds, and I watched my weekly points count go off the charts. I succumbed to a lot of boredom eating. I didn’t cook as much as I usually do and wound up trying to rely on salads and baked potatoes to fill the hollow spot in my tummy. As usual, when I eat smallish meals (and especially when I combine smallish meals with boredom), my snacking gets out of control. Lots of small meals do it for some folks, but they’re not for me at all. I need to feel satisfied by the food I eat.

So, this week I’m trying to think carefully before I eat, asking myself, “How hungry am I really? Can I wait until the next meal?” and “What can I cook for dinner?” I’m a foodie at heart, so when I go days eating nothing but Lean Cuisines and bagged salad I almost feel like I’m letting myself down. I’d rather save my points (er, calories for you non Weight Watchers folks) for really tasty, satisying dishes. This week, I made a simple fruit salad of diced mango, shallots, cilantro, salt, and lime juice that has kept my mouth very entertained at dinner. Seriously, this salad kicks the pants off of any fruit salad you can buy pre-made at the grocery store. I’ve been eating it almost as a chutney or salsa accompaniment to an eggplant curry from a recent issue of Cooking Light. The curry itself needs something (ginger, maybe); I love eggplant and I love curry, though, so I hope to tweak the recipe until it really zings.

Can you tell I’m dreaming of cooking when I really should be working on a grant proposal (my real job)? This is my Thursday post-Top Chef hangover, as it were, when I dream of perfectly braised meats, silky pastry cream, and making Tom Colicchio’s eyes crinkle in delight over a perfect meal. Sigh. Back to work. Hope everyone’s having a terrific week!