Perfect Pantry

It's been a goal of mine for a long time to organize my pantry. I mean really organize it. I'm a bit of an organizing freak...and pantries have been a particular obsession of mine for awhile now. Okay, so maybe it doesn't say much about me that when I have some time to spare I google "perfect pantry", and "organized pantry" and oooh and aaah over the results. Perhaps it's downright pathetic to spend over an hour in the Container Store evaluating and selecting just the right containers for my own pantry. But, that's me. It hit me after Christmas that I wanted to completely organize my house...again. So I've been contenting myself with going through cupboards and drawers purging and organizing the heck out of every last material posession. But I must admit there was special satisfaction when it came time to do the pantry. Oh...should the diced tomatoes go with canned goods or with tomato products? Should the kosher salt go with spices or with seasonings? How many varieties of dried beans must one possess before one could be considered obsessed with the little legumes? Anyway, it was bliss. I spent the day purging, containerizing, labeling, and enjoyed every moment of it.
I'm very happy with the results. I swear I can hear the Hallalujah Chorus every time I open those pantry doors! Most importantly, my new, organized pantry will help me stick to my diet goals since I got rid of the bad stuff and now I can easily locate the healthy stuff. And let's face it...it just looks cool...it would do Martha or Ina Garten proud. Now on to my bedroom closet!

Comfort Food

It was cold yesterday and I wanted something warm and comforting, and when I opened the fridge staring back at me was a cabbage that needed to be used sooner rather than later. I considered stuffed cabbage rolls but had a package of turkey sausage that I was hoping to use up at the same time, so either soup or a casserole came to mind. The casserole won. It was embarassingly easy - a quick saute of the cabbage (in water or broth to keep the fat contect nil) and then dumped it into a casserole dish. Quartered Yukon Gold's came next - a quick boil before being added just to make sure they would cook through. Then I removed the sausage from its casing and chopped it into bite-sized chunks before browning it in a drizzle of olive oil, then into the casserole dish on top of the potatoes went the sausage. I gave the whole thing a grind of pepper and added a little broth to keep it moist and juicy. I sprinkled the entire thing with a decent dose of kosher salt, then I covered with foil and popped in a 400 oven for about an hour (my oven was not pre-heated so if you pre-heat it would take less oven time). It wasn't fancy and it wasn't difficult at all to put together, but it tasted good especially served with my favorite grainy mustard, and there was no-guilt afterwards.

My challenge for 2009 is to be consistent with the small changes, and to stop considering myself and/or my diet a failure when my grandiose plans fall flat. Last night's dinner was a small step, but a good one. It was healthy and fortifying but nothing extreme. I tend to want to develop very stringent plans for myself that last all of about a day, because after all who wants to eat steamed cauliflower with flax for dinner? It's time to get real about my plan and about my goals. Perfection is no longer the objective and oh, what a relief! Success is no longer going to be defined by reaching 115 pounds, or else I'm a failure. Losing 20 or 30 pounds would be great, and would be a huge boost to my health. So for now I'm aiming to be healthy, not skinny, and being healthy means I need to drop some pounds. So I will, and I'll do it one day...no, one meal...at a time. Sounds pretty simple to the average person, but to those of us addicted to food, our emotional selves need to become in synch with our intellectual selves. Sure, we know intellectually what we should eat and what is ideal for our bodies nutrition-wise, but our choices don't always reflect that knowledge. Coming just a little bit closer to DOING what I KNOW is a change I am going to work really hard to make.

New Year's Resolutions

When last we left our heroine (woman in distress...this is not a substance abuse post) she was blogging on and on about her diet, but alas she was seduced by a whirlwind of holiday goodies that held her hostage and forbade her from blogging or worse...gasp...losing weight. But she's back. On track. And ready to make 2009 the Year of the Bikini. Oh sure, that's unthinkable right now...but come July or August...a bikini could be a possibility.

But it's a new year and I've been thinking, as I often do in new year's. This isn't just a weight loss story...it's a food story. It's about my philosophy about food, my thoughts about food, my approach to food. And I want to make some changes this year in those areas. My goal for 2009 isn't going to just be losing weight, but also to eat a more locally grown, sustainable, and seasonal menu. I would like to remove processed foods from my family's diet to the largest degree possible, and to replace them with as much made-from-scratch food as time and motivation allow.

The reasons for this aren't just health-related, although that's certainly a worthy goal. But I'm also looking at this from a budget viewpoint and the desire to increase the simplicity of our lives. I relish the thought of teaching my daughter to make homemade applesauce in the fall and jam when there is a bumper crop of strawberries at our local farmer's market in the summer. These aren't things that have to come from a jar, and I'm betting there will be a great deal of satisfaction that comes about from making them ourselves, not to mention that eating seasonally is also good for one's health and one's pocketbook.

And so, these are a few of the areas I would like to focus on as I cut calories throughout 2009. I would like to choose smaller portions of delicious, healthy seasonal food as opposed to larger portions of processed foods that are not as healthy as they should be. Sounds like a challenge, hey?

Up and Running...

I'm smart enough to know that this new lifestyle of mine isn't going to work without a real commitment to exercise. I'm not an exercise girl...never have been. As a kid I much preferred to fret away my time with movie-watching, listening to music and trolling the mall rather than engaging in sports. Oh yes, I was on a basketball team once. But it was my church team and they pretty much had to take me. I even got to play once-in-a-while, if we were leading by like 20 or more points. Truth is I was terrible...but I digress. I like's Oprah's approach to exercise - she freely admits that she hates it, but it's a necessary evil. I can deal with that. I can exercise knowing that it's helping me lose weight, helping me lower my cholesterol, and helping me live a longer, more vital life. Just don't ask me to like it folks, that's all I'm saying. So my goal from this point forward is to commit to doing some sort of physical activity a minimum of 5 days per week. I don't think that's asking too much of myself, although I have a feeling my muscles are going to protest vehemently. But they'll get with the program soon enough. That being said, I'll start tonight by taking Baxter (my dog), and my daughter, on a walk. They'll both appreciate it and when I look at the scale at the end of the week I think I will too. I keep thinking about all those Biggest Loser contestants, who exercise for something like 4-6 hours a day. Can you imagine? That's how they lose so much each week though. For now, I'm happy just to move each day. But I know I'm going to have to keep increasing the intensity as I go along.

Party Pooper

What was I thinking? I have a dinner party I'm hosting tonight and here I am starting a new diet! But this is just the kind of obstacle I need to learn how to deal with. I have no intention of giving up dinner parties, so I'm going to have to figure out how to host a fabulous party and not go overboard eating-wise. Hmmmm...I hear that word "moderation" again in the back of my mind. I tweaked my menu yesterday and scratched off a calorie-laden appetizer of mushroom bruchetta (a variety of mushrooms sauteed in in butter and vermouth then mounded on crostini and topped with shaved fontinella before being put under the broiler to brown) and removed the scalloped potatoes with bacon that I was going to make in individual ramekins. Instead I opted to serve a pork roast with a warm, Greek-style couscous (adding feta, artichokes, a splash of sherry vinegar, caramelized onions, and some roasted red peppers) that I think will be just as a delicious. But my conundrum doesn't end there! I have an invitation to a friend's for dinner tomorrow night and she's one of the most amazing cooks I know! I'm quite certain she's planning to start off with bellini's too - my new most favortie drink. So what to do? For starters, I think I'll do a light breakfast of non-fat Greek yogurt with fruit, hot tea, and a drizzle of honey. Then I'll skip lunch in order to be able to enjoy a bellini, and then I'll fill up on the healthiest parts of the meal. I can easily skip dessert since sugar isn't my drug of choice usually anyway (oh yes, I love my chocolate...but my real high comes when I mainline carbs).

Homemade oven-roasted tomatoes that I will pair with fresh-baked croutons for a salad of mixed lettuces and herbs, walnuts, and shaved parmesan.

Cheese platter - perfect to serve with wine when guests arrive and something I can easily pass up without being obvious about my dieting.

Getting Started

Food is who I am, and cooking is what I do. It's the thing I think about first thing in the morning and when I go to sleep at night I'm planning future meals in my mind. Food has been a part of my life for as long as I can remember. I can remember sitting at the kitchen table with my Greek mom and grandmother filling and folding tiropites (yummy, buttery cheese pies). Pan after pan would be made and then frozen, to be pulled out and used during the coming months for company. I've worked in restaurants and catering for many of my adult years, and have done it all from washing dishes, to being a line cook, to training and management - and everything in between. But now I'm a stay-at-home mom who turned 40 last year, and pretty much my life is perfect. Oh yeah, except for the fact that I'm overweight, which is really strange for me still. In other words, this is a relatively new phenomena for me. I started getting fat 3 years ago when my husband and I went on a cruise for our honeymoon, and I have been gaining weight ever since. I catch glimpses of myself and I am shocked every time. I think of myself as I looked 10 years ago, which of course is a brutal joke my mind plays on me every time I walk past a mirror. So I've come to this realization that even though I'm a foodie and I love all things delicious, it's time to use my kitchen skills to save my health and my figure. It's time to use food to lose, hence the title of my blog, Cooking for Losers. So come along for the ride with me - I promise adventure, great recipes and weighing-in on a variety of health-related topics. What I promise NOT to include is anything radical. You'll find no meat-laden Atkins meals here, and I'm done with eating cabbage soup morning, noon and night. Yes, there will be pasta dishes sprinkled throughout, but precious little refined sugar. That's right...shock of shocks...I'm going to try out that whole "moderation" thing I keep hearing about. Crazy, I know, but it's worth a shot.