The Write Bite

The Write Bite is dedicated to my on going quest to find and write about the my journey through the culinary world. I fearlessly challenge myself to have a new culinary experience and write about. This will be an interesting little experiment. Recently, I have been experimenting with new fruits and veggies. Here are a few of my recent stories.

I have thus far tried cardoons. It ended up being a 3 week long love affair. I broke it off due to wanted to try new veggies. Cardoons will always hold a spot in my heart for their yucky celery but taste like a glorious artichoke but easier to eat and slightly easier to prepare. With some research they seem to be high in potassium and calcium and low in calories. I have them roasted with some olive oil, salt and pepper. Then, I tried them parmesan style with sauce and cheese. After, that I had one more experiment. I did the traditional au gratin with whole wheat bread crumbs and asiago cheese. That was by far the stinkiest. I'm pretty sure my curtains still smell like asiago. My favorite was the parmesan.

Last week was mustard greens. Well, they were very sandy and I was very sleepy while cooking them which resulted in very gritty chickpeas. I decided on a balsamic glazed-chickpeas and-mustard greens recipe from fatfreevegan.com. It was definitely delicious, minus the sand, but I'm not sure mustard greens agree with me. The were a bit spicy, well just like the actual yellow stuff but could have possibly had adverse affect. I have decided I will try them again because they are jam packed with all sorts of vitamin and super good for you. I think I might add them to a lasagna or something like that where I would use spinach but something that would balance the sharpness of them. Any suggestions?
This week is kohlrabi AND dandelion greens.... the looked lovely at the farmers market. I have no clue what to do with them. I tasted the dandelion greens when I got home they are very mild with a little bit of a bitter after taste. Salad lightly dressed with some lemon and olive oil might do them justice. As for the kohlrobi.... you will have to wait and see!

What are your favorite fruits and veggies?.. What should I try next?
Stay tuned, I'm also working on a low fat chocolate Almond cheesecake recipe.

Lesson of the Day

I've realized this, well a while ago, that cheating on my diet really isn't cheating anyone or on anything. There really is no point. Cheating is supposed to be bad and fun. Eating twice as much as I should is neither bad nor fun. Well, maybe a little fun but it really depends on the binge. Cato Corner Farm cheese... definitely worth the binge. Pasta and cake, not so much.

I wanted two whole wheat banana flax seed muffins this morning. (Mind you they denser than a hockey puck, have too much stevia in them and are just in general not a culinary masterpiece.) I put one back. I just didn't need two. I have pinpointed my issues being portion control and eating too fast. You can never have too much of a good thing, right? Well, it's generally not going anywhere and if it does you can always get more.

Frankie and I binged on whole grain saltines and smart balance the other night. Who does that, and why do I have to drag an innocent dog into my masochistic binging? Am I a terrible person? Ok, I don't really think I'm a terrible person, I'm just being a little dramatic.

Lesson of the day – Cheating on your diet is generally a stupid waste of time.

The 4 day diet

48 days and 30lbs later here are a few things that I have gained.

1. The 5 P's – Proper Preparation Prevents Poor Performance – getting there with life... it's much harder at work when there are other people involve. Eventually I will be able to hang that on the wall at work with out it being a joke.

2. I have a short torso.

3. Losing weight is 50% hard work and 110% mental. You will never lose weight unless you want to. You can not do it for someone else.

4. I have become slightly OCD about it. I think I have control issues. Reverting to one, I realized that I can control myself but not other people. I can not change anyone I can only do whats best for me and remove myself from the situation.

5. My knee, hip and back issues are slowly being corrected. Back no so much but I have been stretching which has helped and the weather still plays a big part in the aches and pains.

6. The good sneaker speech is not just for athletes.

7. I will never be a healthy size 2. I think I'm ok with that but I am secretly scared that the OCD will at some point kick in and make it not ok and I think 30 is way too old to be developing an eating disorder.

8. I absolutely LOVE roasted veggies. Particularly, broccoli with whole garlic, salt, pepper and chili flakes.

9. I do not get belts as a utility. I understand them as a fashion accessory but I think people need to buy pants that fit. I am currently having this issue and have just decided that I just can not wear the pants that will fall off if I walk.

10. I have always felt bad for the really tall people that are awkwardly proportioned. It always made me wonder... Like their head is clearly too small for their body so what happened that made them so tall or why didn't their head grow? Well, I have realized that no matter how much weight I lose my head is just not going to get any smaller. I will soon look like a bobble head and please do not flick me. I will not bobble, I will punch you.

I'm sure there are many more things I have learned, loved and hated through out this process but for now you get a list of ten and the assurance that I'm not done. This is just the beginning. xoxo ~ H

Beef Tenderloin

Yes, it is giant picture of raw meat! I'm proud of my giant piece of meat. hehe I bought it the other day and thought gee I hope it's going to be enough... well I pulled it out of its packaging today and realized that well, It was huge! I stared at my beautiful eight pound hunk of meat for a good 10 minutes thinking, ok, the silver skin needs to come off, but how and why is it in between two of the muscles. Oh boy, what have I gotten myself into. At least it was on sale for $6/pound. If I screw it up It will only be 40 dollar unlike the retail price of probably $15-20/pound... right?! The dog got wind of the beefy flavor and was going crazy so I decided I better get started before he gnaws my leg off. I am no butcher but I worked at it carefully trying not to tear too much of the tender meat... 20 min later... voila! Not bad for the 1st attempt. Four fillets, a few scraps for the ravenous pup and a beautiful roast for dinner tonight. One battle has been won. Now, I just have to cook it correctly!