Starting Over, Take 1,847

Today I was excited to see fresh Rambutan in a local asian grocery.  I’ve seen pictures of the fruit before, and have seen it cans, but canned fruit doesn’t really appeal to me.

Rambutan, longan, and lychee are related fruit.  They all have leathery skin, that when peeled off yeilds a fruit that resembles a large peeled grape.  Inside each fruit is a large pit about the size and shape of an almond (but it’s smooth, firm and shiny - almost like an almond-shaped buckeye)

The name rambutan is derived from the Malay word for “hair,” and it’s the rambutan’s hair that set it apart from the other lychee-like fruits.  The wikipedia article calls the hairs “fleshy pliable spines,” which I think describes the texture better than hair.  

(to see a photo and a description of the fruit, here’s a link to the wikipedia article on Rambutan) http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rambutan

When I saw them, they reminded me of tribbles, those furry little pet/pests from Star Trek, but when I touched them, I decided they weren’t tribbles so much as kooshballs (those soft rubber balls with hairs/spikes). 

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Koosh_ball

Adorable, and tasty - what more can you ask from a fruit?

So they’re cute, but are they good?

Oh, my yes!

Similar to both lychee and longan, and almost a flavor cross between the two.  The lychee has a very sweet and floral scent and flavor.  The longan has a milder, more subtle, but also more complex flavor (but be aware that there are at least two types of longan that are sold in the US.  The grocery store owner told me that the longan sold still attached to their branches are the more expensive and the better flavored.  The ones sold loose are cheaper and the flavor is more musky, almost a fermented flavor, like that of beer.

The first longans I tried were sold off the stem, and I did not like them at all.  They tasted like warm, flat sweetened beer (I hate beer, so I was not impressed).  Then I tried the higher quality longan and was very impressed. 

The rambutan fall right in the middle of they lychee in terms of the flavor and aroma.  Less perfumey than lychee, more so than longan.  The lychee is very sweet and the flavor lingers on the tongue longer.  The longan is slightly less sweet and the flavor disapears from your mouth quickly.  The rambutan again falls in the middle. 

DRESSING:

3/4 - 1 cup mayonnaise (I like Hellman’s, especially the canola mayo, which only has 45 calories per tablespoon.  The olive oil one has 50 calories, but the flavor is a little stronger) 

3 tablespoons. Splenda

2 tablespoons, blueberry pomegranate vinegar (any mild or fruit flavored vinegar works well.  The vinegar doesn’t have to “match” the fruit you’ve chosen.

Combine salad ingredients together in large mixing bowl, set aside. Combine dressing ingredients together thoroughly. Pour dressing over salad ingredients; stir to blend. Serve (or refrigerate to serve later)

One caution:  Some deeply colored vinegars (such as balsamic, and some fruit and wine vinegars) can give an unappealing brown or gray tinge to the salad dressing. You have a couple options 

Avoid using dark vinegars (but they’re so yummy)

Tell yourself, and your family or guests “It tastes better than it looks”

Add a drop or two of food coloring to the salad dressing (you’ve got to have some artistic talent, or you could make it worse) 

Add chopped or sliced canned beets for example can turn a pinkish-gray salad into a bright pink salad.

Add your vinegar to your mayonaise and sugar mixture very slowly.  If it starts to take on a hue you don’t like, add a little more mayo to get it back to a color you like and if it needs more vinegar, use a clear vinegar for the remainder of the vinegar.

I bought a few frozen dinners last week.   I don’t eat frozen meals very often, because they’re so often disappointing in taste and texture the portions are ridiculously tiny, there’s hardly a vegetable to be found - and they’re outrageously expensive for what you get.  Even the 99 cent ones have less than 10 cents worth of ingredients if you were to make it at home, but….

They’re convenient, especially for sick days or other situations in which anything more challenging than rinsing an apple is too much work.

So when our grocery store had a special on Healthy Choice dinners, I bought several.

I didn’t expect to be impressed, but I was. 

Don’t get me wrong, these are not great food, either in taste or healthfulness.  Anything you make yourself is going to be healthier and probably tastier, but for frozen dinners they were surprisingly good (so far I’ve tried the Honey Balsamic Chicken, the Sesame Glazed Chicken, and

The Honey Balsamic Chicken per the label, contains “chicken tenderloins with red potatoes, asparagus, cherry tomatoes in honey-herb balsamic glaze.”
 
Also according to the label

Calories       220
Fat                  3.5 g
Carbs             34g
Fiber               5g
Sugar              3g
Proten          13g
Sodium          540 mg
WW points       4
Exchanges:      2 starch, 1 vegetable, 1 lean meat {protein}

I follow an exchange plan (and usually track calories too).  I can translate any nutrition label into exchanges, using the math I learned in the book “Exchanges for All Occasions.”  It’s not complicated math, and only takes a few minutes, but Healthy Choice gets “points” from me for having this information on the box, and it’s easy to find - underneath the standard Nutrition label is a green box for Weight Watchers Points, and under that, the diet exchanges.
The chicken pieces are typical frozen dinner chicken pieces.  Brined with salt and other preservatives so they have a deli-meat/ham texture (I don’t know how else to describe it - you probably know what I’m talking about, the chicken “breasts” you can buy that have the fake “grill markes” molded into the tops).  

The asparagus wasn’t mushy (big plus), and there was a fair amount of it.   I didn’t have to pick around the cherry tomatoes - I’m not a big fan of large pieces of cooked tomato.  It’s a texture thing.  If you love them, you’ll probably be disappointed, there were only three halves in the entire dish. 

The sauce is tasty, but a little too sweet (though not as cloying as many frozen dinners).  And unlike many, the entree isn’t swimming in the sauce.

My main criticism is the low protein level and the high carb count (proportionally).  Only 1 protein exchange is a bit skimpy, especially as it’s outnumbered by starch exchanges.

Also, the calorie count is too low to consider a real full meal for most (especially dinner).  Though the portion is decent considering how low the calories.  To make a frozen dinner more filling, I serve them on top of or along side raw or cooked vegetables.  A bed of lettuce, cooked or raw spinach, french style green beans, roasted eggplant…

Several years ago, I found a recipe strawberry daiquiris, in one of Joanna Lund’s Healthy Exchanges books (I’ll include my modifications after the basic recipe).

 Joanna Lund’s Frozen Strawberry Daiquiri

2 cups frozen strawberries no sugar added (do not thaw)
2 cups Diet Mountain Dew
2 tablespoons lemon juice
2 tablespoons lime juice
1 package JELL-O sugar-free strawberry gelatin 4 serving

PreparationIn a blender container, combine strawberries, Diet Mountain Dew, lemon juice, lime juice, and dry gelatin. Process on HIGH 15 seconds. Continue processing on HIGH until mixture is smooth. Pour into 4 glasses

As written, the recipe is good, but I found that the diet jello isn’t necessary (but if you do use it, unless you’re a gambler by nature, only use Jello-brand.  Some store-brands work fine, others are horrible).

Instead of Mountain Dew, I often use Diet Sprite or Crystal Light (actually Walmart’s version - pink lemonade and cherry lime are my favorite), or flavored sparkling water (Walmart, Target, and Aldi all carry their own brands and flavors - I’ve used pomegranate, raspberry, lime, wild cherry).

I’ve also used other frozen fruits.  Pineapple, blackberries, raspberries (just remember the fruit has to be at least partially frozen).

I also love making strawberry or other berry sorbet.  Just by cutting back the liquids (start with a small splash, you can always add more until it’s the consistency you want).

Process until it’s the texture you want (I like it very smooth). Pour into a bowl or glass - and then sweeten to taste (if the berries or your processing liquid are very sweet, you may not need any sweetener).

I prefer to sweeten in the glass, because everyone can sweeten to their taste.  

If you don’t have a blender, the food processor works fine.  For sorbet, I think the food processor works best. To make beverages, it can be a bit messy - so before I had a blender, I would make sorbet, spoon it into the glass, and then add more liquid and stir in the glass (or if you don’t stir, it make a pretty “float”).

There really are endless variations, so experiment with ingredients and proportions. 

I recently added a new (old) book to my collection of exchange-based diet and cookbooks.  The 1988 Weight Watchers’ Quick SUccess Program Cookbook by Jean Nidetch (the founder of WW).

The plan is unnecessarily complicated in my opinion,  Rather than allowing you the full list of exchanges - you begin with a limited list for each exchanges, and the food lists are expanded each week until week 5. Week 5 is the full plan, and no changes are made afterward.  It seems logical to me, to just start with week 5).   Because the carb and calorie contents are still quite similar within all choices within each exchange group, there’s no logical reason (in my opinion) to limit the lists (except as a marketing ploy by WW to keep you coming back, at least for the first five weeks until you have the whole plan.  They still do this today with the point system). 

One thing I love about the 1988 and subsequent WW exchange plans is the floating exchanges and optional calories.  It’s a nice way to ”count” combination exchanges and foods that really don’t fit well into any of the exchanges (I was never comfortable counting table sugar as some plans do).    The floating exchange was an optional exchange (after week 5) that you could spend on a fruit, protein, bread, or milk exchange.  Joann Lund in her Healthy Exchanges series of books uses a similar system, though I believe she calls her flexible-choice exchanges ”flexible exchanges” rather than floating exchanges. 

Since I have no interest in changing the format of my exchange plan, I didn’t buy this book for the program (though for anyone who is curious, I’ll describe the basic plan from the book at the end of my book review), but rather for the recipes.

It’s an “old-school” cookbook in that most recipes do not come with photos, and none of the photos are paired with the recipes (instead they’re grouped together in clusters of several glossy pages, distributed throughout the book).  The recipes themselves are written on matte paper, and the nutritional information is at the bottom of each recipe.  This is a vast improvement over some older Weight Watcher’s cookbooks in which the nutritional information was not listed with the recipes, but rather was listed in an appendix at the end of the book.  So you had to look up the information every time you made the recipe (or write it in the margins of each recipe.

As far as the recipes go, they’re fairly standard for the time.  A nice variety, but nothing too far from the ordinary.  A nice basic, “white bread american-style” cookbook, with the occasional americanized asian or latin inspired dish.  A nice addition to my collection, but not a must-have (not that I’ll be givng it away any time soon).

The Plan as described in the book:

The first number is the number of exchanges for women,  Exchanges for men and youths are in parenthesis - except for the milk exchanges in which case only the youth’s servings are in paranthesis.  Adult men get the same number of exchanges as women.
Week 1

Fruit 2-3 (3-4)
Veg 3, at least
Fat 3 (3)
Protein 5-6 (7-8)
Bread 2 (4)
Milk 2 (3)

Optional:
Floating 0 (0)
Optional calories 150

Week 2

Fruit 2-3 (3-4)
Veg 3, at least
Fat 3 (3)
Protein 5-6 (7-8)
Bread 2-3 (4-5)
Milk 2 (3)

Optional:
Floating 0 (0)
Optional calories 200

Week 3

Fruit 2-3 (3-5)
Veg 3, at least
Fat 3 (3)
Protein 5-6 (7-8)
Bread 2-3 (4-5)
Milk 2 (3-4)

Optional:
Floating 0 (0)
Optional calories 300

Week 4

Fruit 2-3 (3-5)
Veg 3, at least
Fat 3 (3)
Protein 5-6 (7-8)
Bread 3 (5)
Milk 2 (3-4)

Optional:
Floating 0 (0)
Optional calories 400

Week 5 and onward

Fruit 2-3 (3-5)
Veg 3, at least
Fat 3 (3)
Protein 5-6 (7-8)
Bread 3 (5)
Milk 2 (3-4)

Optional:
Floating 1 (1)
Optional calories 500

Guidelines:

No more than 3 eggs
No more than 4 oz of hard or semisoft cheese (”slicing” cheese. Cottage cheese would be ok any time)
No more than 12 ounces of limited meats (red meats such as lamb, beef, and pork).
Between 9 and 15 ounces of fish or shellfish

I’ve bought jicama in the grocery store, and was disappointed.  They were expensive, awkward to peel, and they didn’t have much flavor (which can be an asset in some dishes).  I thought the the wet crunchiness was nice, but just not worth the price and pain of peeling.

Then I discovered tiny jicama at our farmers’ market a few days ago.  I didn’t even know jicama could grow in northcentral Wisconsin. 

They’re not as round as those in the grocery store, they’re more knobby with a turnip-like root.  The skin is thin, and they’re the size of a small to medium sized apple.  Much easier to peel, and the texture is awesome.  They don’t have any more flavor, but that’s really what you get with jicama.  They’re sort of like crunchy water - very wet and bland - but perfect for adding crunch to salads, sandwiches, and stir-fries or to eat with a bit of seasoned salt or veggie dip (bet they’d be a good hummus dipper).

And the best part, the vendor sells them in bunches of 2 to 4 jicama (depending on size) for a dollar.

The season is short, only a few weeks in late June to mid July. And they don’t come cheap. Average prices in the US run $5 or more per pound (and if you find them cheaper, stock up).

Birds get first choice, as up to a third of the crop is lost to them every year. A large portion of the crop is exported to Japan where the cherries are so prized that they may sell for up to the equivalent of $1 each (yes, that’s for one cherry. Roughly $60 per pound. Makes $5 a pound seem cheap, doesn‘t it?)

The flesh is creamy-yellow, and the skin is yellow to gold, blushed with red. They’re so firm and juicy that they seem to “pop” in your mouth… sweet, juicy, and absolutely addictive.

And only 288 calories per pound, and you’ll want to eat them by the pound. (Ok, maybe that’s just me).

If you have more restraint than I do, that’s 5 calories per cherry, or

¾ of a cup (105g) = 1 fruit exchange (about 65 calories).

Mark Twain said, “All things in moderation, including moderation,” and Ranier cherries are my happy exception to moderation. Every year I try to maximize cherry consumption, while minimizing the odds of what I call Rainier’s Revenge (diarrhea from eating too many cherries). Usually I fail at least once.

But then again, some people pay good money for colon cleanses - so you could see it as a side benefit rather than an unfortunate consequence.  I’m joking, of course.  I don’t believe in colon cleanses, but if I had to, I’d choose a pound or two of cherries over a coffee enema any day (Just to be clear, I mean EATING the cherries).

I like exchange plans, because they allow me a short-hand way to at least see (whether or not I’m wanting to limit) the kinds of choices I’m making.  Did I eat more fat this week than other weeks?  More or less fruit?

Even my interest in Primal and Paleo eating, hasn’t steered me away from counting my food exchanges (it’s how my food journal is set up.  I’m not choosing as strict minimums and maximums on each food exchange types as I have in the past, I still count them.  I can see at a glance whether I’m eating more fat, less protein… than previous weeks… and it’s a shorthand way to keep track of calories too.

I have the exchange counts of most simple foods memorized (from 4 plus decades of dieting), but I ran across a food yesterday that stumped me.  Rhubarb, is it a fruit, or is it a vegetable?

Botanically it’s a vegetable (a stem, like celery or fennel).

In the midwest (at least) it’s usually sweetened and used as a fruit.

I’ve also seen it used as the sour ingredient in thai and viatnamese soups on restaurant menus. 

So, is it a fruit or a vegetable.  To answer the question, I referred to my handy reference “Exchanges for All Occasions,” and discovered that the answer is yes.

Rhubarb, raw (diced in 1″ pieces).

1 cup = 1 vegetable

2 cups = 1 fruit

My first reaction was “Wow, I can have two full cups for one fruit serving.” That seemed like a bargain until I realized what 2 cups of raw rhubarb was likely to do to my digestive system (I love the stuff, but with my IBS, it amounts to botanical ex-lax).

So vegetable it is (even though I’m eating it raw with Splenda tonight and will be stewing it with Splenda later in the week to serve over low-carb icecream).

You may have seen these in the grocery store.  “Flat” peaches and nectarines.  They have names like UFO, saturn, sweet bagle, or donut. 

You can find them in the standard pale orange (”peach”) colored skin and flesh, or in white (white/cream flesh and cream skins with red blush accents).

I prefer the white.  The flavor is more delicate, with a light peach/apricot flavor.  They seem sweeter, because they generally are less acidic than the darker fleshed (peach-colored) peaches.

The donut peaches also seem to bruise more easily, so I always am very careful with them and make sure they’re bagged seperately (I’m always tempted to bring bubble wrap).  The rest of the groceries may go into the trunk for the ride home, but the flat peaches/nectarines are cradled in my lap (if hubby is driving), or nestled on the floor (so they can’t fall off the seat) in the blanket we keep in the car.  My husband teases that he expects me to one day buy a carseat for those peaches (not a bad idea, really).

I think that mimicking a primal diet is pretty difficult, but it’s an excellent way to think about how we eat (Primal meaning, a diet that attempts to mimic the diet of Paleolithic humans, as described in books such as Primal Blueprint, Refuse to Regain, Neanderthin, The Paleolithic Prescription, The Paleo Diet, The Caveman diet and other “ancestor diet” books).

I do include some (heck, many) very non-primal foods (like Splenda, diet jello, and Yoplait Light yogurt), but I try to keep things in perspective. Mimicking the fat/carb/protein/vitamin & mineral/ calorie ratios to me, makes more sense than mimicking the exact diet (in the USA, it’s not palatable and probably not safe to eat insects in the proportions that early man did).

I’m not philosophically opposed to eating insects. In fact, I think it would be kind of cool if we developed better insect harvesting techniques, and could rely less on pesticides. Eventually insects would be safe to eat once again. That being said, I’ve never intentionally eaten an insect, and I’m not sure I could do it. I think I could eat an ant (I’ve watched Anthony Bourdaine and Andrew Zimmern do it often enough on their food/travel shows), but I don’t think I could eat a grub or a spider (maybe the grubs that when you deep fry them, are said to have the texture of popcorn or cheesy puffs).

I don’t eat insects, and I don’t eat much animal bone, skin, and other connective tissue, so I don’t mind getting my calcium from supplements and occasional dairy servings.

Today was a good example of keeping the “spirit” of primal eating. I had a slice of super-thin crust pizza. I was tempted to go down the dark path of “I blew it, so I’ll have another piece and start fresh tomorrow.”

Instead I imagined Grok. Occasionally Grok would have encountered high-carb treats. But they were few and fat between. High starch or high sugar foods like some tubers, honey and really ripe fruit weren’t frequent treats, because there was too much competition for them - or they were difficult to aquire.

So, I imagined that pizza crust (about 80 calories - it was a super thin crust, and I had a slim slice) as a starchy tuber or a piece of very ripe fruit. Grok probably would encounter such foods rarely, and when he did, he probably had to work pretty hard to get it (imagine the difficulty in harvesting wild honey).

So instead of grabbing that second piece, I reminded myself that Grok could have occasionally found a similar treat (ok, not very similar - can’t think of an primal equivalent of pizza) - the chances of him getting a second would be pretty unlikely, and would have probably had to work pretty hard to get it.

So, I stuck with the one piece, and I’m going to add some time to my walk.

Don’t get me wrong. I’m not justifying the pizza. It falls under the 90/10 moderation that Mark Sisson talks about in the book, Primal Blueprint and on his website marksdailyapple.com, but I find it very helpful to put it in a primal context. It’s so easy to think of diet changes as black and white, on and off. Especially when it comes to weight loss, it’s the way I’m used to. I’ve had to struggle with that, especially because 30 plus years of dieting has taught me to be rigidly on-plan or out-of-control eating and rarely anywhere in-between.  I need (and am trying very hard) to learn that in-between.

I’m working hard at stopping that. For some reason, though it seems that the primal concept really helps me stay focused. I’m trying to be as much like Grok as I can be…

And right now, that’s not very. I have no illusions here. If I were dropped into the Paleolithic era right now. I’d be dead within a month (who am I kidding, probably within 24 hours). But, by trying to imagine what I would need to learn in order to stay alive then, I think is really helping me learn what I kneed to do in order to stay alive and get healthy now.