Married to Amazement

  Like most of the Weight Watchers and diet-focused cookbooks, this one starts with a brief introduction to healthy eating habits. There's advice and suggestions, and even though it's nearly sixty years later for many of these books, the advice is still pretty sound. For example, weighing yourself only weekly or monthly to keep track of progress. WW has an app these days for tracking your food and exercise, and as much as I like that part of the app, I despise the social media aspect they've included as well. The intention is good, especially the last few years when in-person socializing has been minimal or non-existent for folks: it's important to uphold Jean Nidetch's first goal for WW, which was community . That said, most of the posts I see on the WW community page are rife with disordered eating habits and language. Folks weighing themselves daily or more often, folks double-tracking on WW and other calorie or macro-counting apps to "make sure" they&#

A new cookbook today! And kind of an interesting one, in that it has "weight watchers" in the title, but it doesn't refer specifically to the program - in fact, this cookbook even predates Jean Nidetch's first meeting by a couple of years! When I was in high school, I took an Earth and Space science course, and one day before showing us a movie, the teacher cautioned us about "documentaries" and certain educational films, telling us to do our own research and discover what point of view and opinion is being centered, to guide our understanding and expectations. Then he showed us a movie about the terrific work being done by scientists to clean up oil spills and rescue affected animals. The film was produced by Exxon, naturally. This popped back in my mind as I perused this cookbook - promising glorious eating, talking about weight loss and management ... and printed/distributed by Wesson. The booklet starts with promises about the recipes - you'll eat al

Back on track this week and it feels so, so good - it's an exceptionally big moment of pride too, because I was on Spring Break this past week, so I didn't have my usual routines, but I *still* managed to lose all of last week's regain plus some more. I biked a few times, went for a few walks, and made sure I made good food choices. This week I'm back on campus, and I'm hoping the return to routine will help me get a second good week in a row.  I've got a few interesting recipes lined up that I'm excited to try this week, too, so that's motivational also! Looking at my graph from the last five or so months, it's good to see a pattern. There are always ups, but there are more downs, and the overall trend is downward. I persist, and that's what matters - not being successful all the time, but never giving up when the going gets tough.

Further north for today's recipe, from the Scandinavia section of the International Cookbook. Admittedly, my knowledge of Scandinavian food is limited to infrequent trips to Ikea cafeterias - but I have enjoyed everything I've tried, at least. Meatballs? Love 'em. Lingonberry jam? Delightful. Princess cake? Always. A few months ago I read "A Man Called Ove" by Fredrik Backman, and I was completely spellbound by the writing. I've been seeking out his other works since then, and equally loved "My Grandmother Asked Me to Tell You She's Sorry." I'm in the middle of "Anxious People" right now, and finding myself just as fascinated and rapt by the story.  They're all so, so good - and all set in Sweden, so naturally, I've been curious about the area and the culture I've been surrounding myself with in the stories. What better introduction than food? I love literally everything about this recipe - salmon is delicious, dill is m

Another day, another dish - this week, I'm focused on fish. I took chicken out of the freezer, but since I've made a few different chicken dishes so far, I wanted to try something totally different. Today's recipe used canned salmon; later this week, I'll make one with a salmon fillet. I enjoy seafood very much; having grown up on the Connecticut shoreline, we ate fish and shellfish fairly often. I remember my dad would go out on a chartered fishing boat with some folks he knew from the hospital where he worked, and they'd come home with pounds and pounds of prepared fish fillets - the folks on the boat would scale, debone, trim, and package them so the folks on the boat could just sit back, relax, and catch the fish. We'd always end up with a freezer full of striped bass for the winter. Nowadays, we try to eat fish at least once a week, but kosher rules and geography limit us a little bit - in central California, our fresh fish options are just non-existent. I

Oh, what a week. It was one of those Perfect Storm of Anxiety and Stress weeks: testing for students, working with their general exhaustion and apathy right before Spring Break, the shift and sleep troubles from the spring time change, phone calls with family about upcoming holidays and visits ... no rest for the wicked this week. It made for a challenging week, and my WW app showed it. Usually I try to get at least 5 blue dots a week - days when I am within my daily Points goal. The best weeks I've had, I've had 6 or 7.  This week? Three. I keep going back to what the dietitian told me in December when we talked about my anxiety about being in Connecticut, the end of my dad's life, and the usual stress that comes with visiting family even when there's not a significant, life-changing event on the horizon. She reminded me that there's no wagon to fall off of - it's just your life, and sometimes the situation calls for flexibility. I knew this would be a tough we

Back to the International cookbook for this one!  The "Marengo" of Chicken Marengo was a battle from 1800, a decisive victory for Napoleon Bonaparte and the French army. The skirmish took place in Northern Italy and succeeded at defeating the Austrian troops who had been holding positions there due to the ongoing French Revolutionary wars of the 1790s to early 1800s. The recipe's legendary origin is on the Marengo battlefield, where Napoleon's chef needed to assemble a meal with whatever was available, and because of the victory, it became something of a superstition for Napoleon and he insisted on having it after every future battle. The reality is more likely that a restaurant made a dish in his honor later, and that recipe was passed down and re-created many times since. Considering I'm a French teacher, it might be a little surprising that it has taken me this long to try something from the French recipe section! Even more interesting still, is that this isn&#

Before anyone gets too excited about a Point-friendly cheesecake, I'll spoil the ending: the recipe was, quite literally, a flop.  Choosing this recipe to try was born of necessity. Long story made medium, I like to have cottage cheese and some fruit for a snack after work (lately it's been strawberries since they're coming back into season here). My favorite cottage cheese is from Good Culture, because it is thick and rich and very, very delicious - and only 2 Points for a single-serve cup of it. They carry it at the Target I pass after picking up my son from school, so whenever I'm running low, I'll place a drive-up order so we can swing by quickly on our way home. But the other day, there was a bit of a snafu with the drive-up folks, and my order was given to someone else on accident. They apologized (it happens! First issue in years of doing drive-up, that's not bad at all!), then reshopped my order. Except ... they were now all out of the 5 oz. cups of Good

There's not much new to share this week - the scale didn't budge an ounce from last week, which makes sense because I'm about to start my period and I tend to have a maintain or small gain week before a big loss. So I am optimistic about things catching up next week. I know I did well this past week. My pants are getting baggier, and I had to order smaller bras. (Why is it always the bras first?!) I'm consistently hitting and even passing my step goals, and I've been sleeping a little better also. Still, I'm tired, in a life sense. It's been a heavy start to 2022 and I'm just counting the days until Spring Break. This week my students have a chapter exam and then their oral midterm assignments, and then we're off for a week. Spring semester is tough because no one in my family has vacation time at the same time, so there won't be any little trips anywhere. But it is still nice to look forward to a few days of a brain break from teaching, commutin

Another gem from the International Cookbook, this time from the Caribbean and West Indies chapter. I had Haitian food at a wedding a couple of years ago and really enjoyed it, and I am really looking forward to exploring more of the recipes from this section. Most of them are meatless, which is always good in our family - not only is it easy with the kosher rules, but my son can be picky about meat sometimes, so it's usually easier to avoid it. I have been trying to incorporate more beans and whole grains like wild rice into my eating also since I had some health problems a couple of months ago. I went to my OB-GYN with some concerns, and she sent me for some bloodwork. The bloodwork was inconclusive about my issues, and I was sent for a biopsy to rule out cancer as a cause (fortunately, I heard back a few weeks later that the sample was benign). But the bloodwork showed elevated levels of something in my liver, so I was sent to a liver specialist to follow up. They did a scan, whi