Fitness

2013 resolutions!

New year, new you! Isn’t that what the Weight Watcher ads all say?

Egads, I hate that word “resolution” especially when it’s not backed up by motivation or action. But here we go with another year…and renewed enthusiasm. I always enjoy working out when the weather cold, coz I don’t have as many problems with overheating, and I’m always able to push the envelope just a little farther.

I got a new coach to help me focus on my personal goals. She took one look at my macros and exclaimed at the fat %. So now I’ll be topping out at 31g fat for my daily allowance. (Goodbye butter, cheese, mayo.)

So my daily totals should come out to:

 

  • 158g Carbs
  • 122g Protein
  • 31g Fat
  • 20g Fiber

 

Per sitting (assuming mealtimes), I’m looking at 50g carbs, 30g protein and 9g fat. 

We did arrive at an RMR of 1282 and agreed on my daily caloric intake of 1400. However, she recommended that I stop logging my exercise cals burned so I would have a better picture of my food diary. (I am puzzled by this because it sounds like I’m not eating my exercise calories back.)

Oh yeah and I’m also supposed to be drinking 11-12 glasses of water. 

Based on these metrics, it sounds like I’ll be dropping the weight and body fat % significantly! Let’s see how it looks in 2 weeks and if I’ll be making some progress on my goal weight objectives.

Helpful calculators found at: http://www.caloriesperhour.com/index_burn.php 

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Dining, Recipes

Recipe: Finding the perfect cheese bread recipe

It’s been largely miss in my hit-or-miss attempt to perfect the pao de queijo (Brazilian cheese bread) recipe.

I think I’ve nailed down the ingredients and nearly all the measurements, but I still can’t get my bread to contain all the air pockets and produce a “LIGHT” bread. Most of my attempts have resulted in dense or undercooked textures that make some of them unpalatable.

1 jumbo egg
1 cup tapioca starch (exact)
4 tbsp unsalted butter
1/4 cup heavy cream
1/2 tsp kosher salt
1/2 tsp garlic powder (substitute for real minced garlic)
3/4 cup sharp cheddar, finely shredded
1/4 cup parmesan, finely shredded

Most recipes I’ve found have indicated to heat up butter and cream then add to starch/salt/garlic mixture. This results in a dry batter until the egg  is added…which turns into a wet (not drippy) batter with the consistency of oatmeal. Continue to stir until all ingredients are mixed thoroughly. Then add cheese and continue to knead, stir, mix until incorporated. The dough gains a little stiffness and dryness from the addition of the cheese, but is still wet enough to require molding before dropping into the muffin tin. Bake for 15-20 min at 400F degrees.

Some of the failure may come from the cheese taking up too much space and not allowing air pockets to form in the bread. One video called for grated cheese mixed with the egg to alleviate this issue. Another recipe indicates hand kneading for 15 minutes before using a stand mixer to knead the dough for another 5-10 minutes.

Dining, Recipes

Recipe: Adobo Turkey Tails

Turkey tails! I spotted these in the frozen meat section of my local grocery store. Since I’m a big fan of tails, I thought I would do something with these tails. Originally I thought of smoking or frying them, but I stumbled on an idea on the internet that sounded really great. Adobo turkey tails!

1.5 cups apple cider vinegar
.5 cup medium sweet soy sauce (ABC Kecap Manis)
40 garlic cloves, crushed/chopped
2 tbsp sugar
1/4 tsp coarse kosher salt
1 tsp black peppercorns, crushed
2.5 lbs turkey tails (bone-in)

 Place the defrosted tails in a hot pan and cook until browned. No need to add oil to the pan, these tails ooze enough fat to brown themselves. Add peppercorns, garlic and cook until brown. Add 1 cup of vinegar and bring to a boil.  Bring heat down to medium heat and add the rest of the vinegar, sweet soy sauce, salt, and sugar. Mix thoroughly and continue to reduce sauce, taking care to coat each tail evenly.

1/8/2013 AdoboTurkeyTails 1

These were yummy. Regrettably, I had some gastrointestinal upset which I suspect came from the tails. My man also suffered some stomach pains after consuming the adobo. I discovered that the brand label Pride of the Farm and meat packer Cargill Turkey has a history of food recalls related to salmonella contamination. While I thought that the vinegar and high heat would have sufficiently killed off most of the microbes, it doesn’t any of the toxins produced by them. Of course, this also led me on a furious clean up with bleach of all the kitchen surfaces to ensure everything was sanitized.

Dining, Recipes

Recipe: Cheese-Mayo Baked Mussels

Baked mussels is a mainstay of many Asian menus and buffets. We had some leftover black mussels from our seafood broth experiment and I decided to use them to make cheese baked mussels. I used the an internet recipe as a guide to making the mayo sauce since I didn’t have any Kewpie mayo on-hand. The result was excellent home-baked cheese mussels.

6 tablespoons mayonnaise
1/2 lemon, squeezed of juice
1/2 teaspoon garlic chili sauce (or more if you like more heat)
1/2 teaspoon garlic powder
1 teaspoon sugar
Shredded cheese

In the pics, half of my mussels were covered with a cheddar mix (with asiago and romano), while the other half covered with only sharp cheddar. If you desire a bolder color on your mussels, go with straight cheddar.

1/4/2013 Cheese Baked Mussels 1 1/4/2013 Cheese Baked Mussels 2

Dining, Recipes

New lessons in broth making

As part of a New Year’s eve feast, we went with lobster for our meal. Unfortunately, pre-cooked lobster = fail. The man didn’t have much time to go hunt down fresh live lobster and settled for the cheap $$ frozen lobster he found at Kroger. Unless you plan on using the lobster meat as some kind of garnish or topping or mix-in, I wouldn’t recommend eating store-cooked lobster straight from the shell. Yuck!

However, we did have an opportunity to make lobster broth from the 4-some of puny lobster shells. We tossed all the shells, heads and claws into a pot, covered them with enough water, and added crushed raw garlic, quartered onions, salt and peppercorns. Brought the mixture to a boil, then we let it simmer several hours (about 4-6). The result was a dingy gray liquid that “perfumed” the entire house for a few days. Seriously,  if you don’t want your house smelling like a seaside fish market, don’t make seafood broth indoors.

Alas, the gray water didn’t make for an attractive clear seafood broth. We weren’t as industrious as straining the liquid through cheesecloth as some internet sites suggested. For future reference, I recommend cleaning the lobster shells of any dirty matter that might color the broth. Unfortunately, that means reserving the lobster heads, where all the flavor comes from.

We froze leftover lobster broth for future experiments in lobster bisque making.