Sous-vide truffled veal chop with radicchio "pesto" pasta

Recently a friend of mine sent me a link for cooking sous-vide style in a standard issue beer cooler. Fascinated by the concept, I immediately piloted the technique with a chicken breast, and the results were stunningly good. This technique has found its way into my culinary arsenal ever since.

Sous-vide cooking has two main advantages: first, the meat is cooked perfectly while incredibly tender and juicy every time, and second, that you can really infuse flavor into the meat during the lengthy cooking process. The second was more important to me last night, as I wanted to infuse as much of the valuable truffle flavor as I could into the meat.



Meat recipe as follows:

2 veal chops
1 tsp truffle oil
1 tsp truffle salt

Rub chops with oil and salt on both sides and place them into ziploc plastic bags, individually. Seal as tight as you can, removing as much air as possible (rubbing the chops inside the bags reduces waste, btw). Add water to a thermal cooler until the interior of the cooler is 140 degrees. Add the meat, seal, and wrap tightly to insulate (or, put it in a warm oven, but don't leave the oven on). I used a drink cooler which fit perfectly in the oven, and twice during the two our period I turned the oven on until the temperature was almost 170, and then turned it immediately off. The better your cooler is, and the more water you're able to use, the easier this will be. After at least an hour and up to, well, whatever you want, remove the meat from the baggies and sear for 1 minute per side in a blazing hot dry pan. Deglaze with a touch of water if you like to make a scant sauce, but really you don't need to do this - a light pepper dusting is all you really need.

The meat turns out phenomenal if you do it this way. It is unbelievably tender, and the flavor of truffle permeates throughout it. Be forewarned - it may look raw when you cut into it. It isn't at all.

Pasta recipe:

3 cloves garlic
1/8 cup hazelnuts, about 10 or so
2 tsp olive oil
1 head radicchio, washed and quartered, center rib removed
1/4 cup stock
1 tbsp balsamic vinegar
1 tsp agave nectar
Parmesan cheese to taste
salt & pepper to taste

Roast the garlic in the pan, skin on, until soft. Remove skin and put into blender. Lightly toast the hazelnuts and add to the blender as well. Blend until chopped. Sear the radicchio quarters until lightly browned, and then toss in blender with olive oil and stock. Blend until smooth, and add vinegar, agave nectar, cheese, salt, and pepper to taste. Note it will be slightly bitter - that's what radicchio is. But the sauce does a nice job of highlighting a flavored pasta, and the slight bitter flavor contrasts well with the meat. I used a fresh olive pasta I got at a local farmer's market, and it was a delicious pairing.

Chicken with Avocado and Coconut Soba

Last night I was in the mood for pho, since I love making and eating pho. My wife, however, wanted something a little different. My challenge was to take all the great flavors of pho and put those into a dish that wasn't actually pho, and this was what I came up with.



The avocado was the perfect accomplice to pull this off. Essentially, I took all of the ingredients from my normal "pho" and condensed them into a creamy (yet healthy) sauce for the soba. The avocado added just the right texture to create the sauce out of what would normally be a soup, and the flavor balance and pairing was outstanding. Plus, avocados are healthy, so that was goodness as well.

Recipe is as follows:

2 servings whole wheat soba noodles (substitute linguine if unavailable)
2 1/2 pound boneless skinless chicken breasts

1 tbsp sesame oil (untoasted)

1/8 cup chopped green onion

2 tbsp minced ginger

1 large stalk lemongrass, minced fine
2 tbsp chopped kaffir lime leaves (optional)
1 cup light coconut milk (approx. half of a can)

1 tbsp garlic-chili paste (more if you want more heat in it, but I'd suggest serving it on the side and being cautious)

1 tbsp soy sauce

1 tbsp rice wine vinegar

1/2 tbsp agave nectar (substitute honey if you can't find)

1 large ripe avocado

juice of 1 lime
2 tbsp fresh thai or purple basil, roughly chopped
cashews - see note at bottom

Prepare the soba noodles per package instructions and drain. Try to time this so they are ready when the sauce is ready, and ideally you will be able to finish them for the last minute in the sauce.

In a separate pan, cook the chicken breasts in the sesame oil over high heat, turning once. The pan should have a surface area on the bottom sufficient to cook the chicken, and not much more, with higher sides in order to hold the sauce and noodles together. Once the breasts are cooked thoroughly, remove them from the pan and let them rest. Reduce the heat to medium-low, an add the onion, lemongrass, ginger, and kaffir lime leaves. Saute until soft, being careful not to let them burn. Add coconut milk, chili paste, vinegar, agave nectar, lime juice, and soy sauce. At this point you can blend the mixture with an immersion blender in order to get the lemongrass and kaffir lime leaves minced extremely fine to make them edible - this will be more difficult once the avocado is added. Alternately, you can add the mixture to a blender or food processor and carefully blend it (hot liquids in a blender don't tend to behave). Add the avocado and blend again until you have a smooth paste - you can add additional coconut milk or the water from the noodles to thin the sauce if it is too thick. Add the noodles, toss together, and plate. Serve the chicken breast sliced on top of the noodle mixture, and garnish with fresh basil and cashews, if desired.

About the cashews....

There are two ways to go with this garnish, both of which are excellent. Most people will pick the "normal" way, which is to chop them finely and sprinkle them on top. This will add a nice nutty flavor and a pleasant crunch. When I prepared it, I went the "abnormal" way and had some fun with molecular gastronomy and created a light cashew powder. There were three reasons for this: 1) I'm a huge dork and loved the science of it, 2) the cashew powder is very light, almost disappearing when you eat it, and with it you can really fine-tune the amount of cashew flavor on the dish, and perhaps most importantly 3) I didn't have whole cashews, but I did have cashew butter and tapioca maltodextrin. So if you're like me, and God help you if you are, and want to do it this way, here's how you make the cashew powder:

1 tbsp cashew butter
2 tbsp tapioca maltodextrin

Mix together by hand making sure to crumble it as you mix in order to create a powder. Sure, you could dirty the food processor, but why bother. And yes, of course you can substitute peanuts for cashews (or peanut butter for cashew butter).

I'm baaaaack

I've been away from the blog for a while, focusing on the new job which has put me on the road some. It has also changed my focus, diverting the mania I'd had for exercise and diet into the job. And since the remaining free time was spent with the family, I didn't have time for the blog.

In reality, not much interesting has been happening regarding the diet and fitness regiment. I'm maintaining at 213-215, been there for a couple of weeks, but my exercise routines have been more limited. Gone are the days of hours at the gym, now I'm lucky to get half an hour of tabada in.

Don't get me wrong - I still make the effort to exercise, and I've really only missed a few days since I last blogged. I got a nasty cold that laid me up for a while, but other than that I've been able to get some sort of exercise in, even when traveling. I've been pleased with some of the results too - I ran my 5 mile course at an 8:45 pace once, and I swam a mile in 34 minutes the other day. I can definitely feel my overall fitness level is finally where I consider it to be "good", and begin at my goal weight and proving I can maintain it is a huge plus for me.

With that, I'm likely going to change the format of the blog. I'll focus on cooking, posting interesting recipes that I create, with the occasional anecdote about some sort of fitness thing if it is interesting or amusing. I think the other format of detailing my life was getting stale, and not needing to hold myself accountable anymore, past its useful time.

So hopefully you'll like the new format, and find some tidbts that are useful in it. My focus will still be on healthy meals, by the way, and even though I won't be posting caloric information, I feel confident that most of the recipes will be in the 600-700 calorie target range, and balance proteins, fats, and carbs.

Different strokes for different folks

I had lunch with a good friend yesterday over at Rudy's BBQ, which is phenomenal. Apparently he has lost 30 pounds this year doing a diet called SNAPP - Smoothies, Nuts, Apples, Protein, Produce. The theory behind this diet is that you only change your intake every other day. Eating "normally" every other day will keep your body from thinking you are starving and maintain your metabolic rate. On the alternate days eating the SNAPP categories keeps your calories low and burns the fat. Very interesting diet to be sure, and it has worked great for him.

It amazes me how many different diet plans there are out there, most of which actually work effectively. I'm pretty sure everything boils down to simple consciousness about what you're actually eating, and most plans just trick you into consuming less. Still, there is genius and logic in each interpretation to be sure.

Before lunch yesterday I did a speed workout for 33 minutes, running 3.5 miles in under a 9 minute mile pace when all was said and done. I planned on working out, but felt drained, and later that day I became a little ill. So I took today off to recover. It is pretty incredible that my midsection is still sore from golfing as well.

Yesterday for dinner we had a nice seared tuna loin. Put it in a pan with a drop of oil and coated it with jerk seasoning, until it was just brown on each side. The sauce was a banana cilantro sauce, with caramelized onion, seranno pepper, banana, and guava cooked in a saucepan until mushy, with a touch of lime juice, rice wine vinegar, and a big pinch of cilantro to finish. On the side I made brown basmati rice with cilantro-serrano-onion in veggie stock (it was delicious) and simple green beans in soy sauce. About 600 calories for the whole meal.

On the road

I've been away from the blog for a while with travels and a generally crazy existence. I've also been off the diet wagon during that time, well, as off the wagon as I'll let myself be.

Early morning flights on Thursday, 6 AM to midnight meetings Friday, up at 3:30 AM for a plane Saturday, then a day chasing kids around, and then another similar day Sunday, and it is four straight days without exercise. I did sneak in a little exercise when I could, like running up stairs, running to the car instead of taking the bus, bjorning the baby while watching soccer, and a little Tabada even. Oh, and I can't discount a couple of hours making a complete fool of myself in a bouncy house for a kids' birthday party. But no serious workouts to be sure.

This has been killing me because the day before my trip I got a new pair of running shoes. I finally decided to throw out the old ones, mainly because they felt line I was wearing Earth Shoes while running. Straight to the trash after the run, where they should have been 9 years ago. Apparently you're only supposed to run 300 miles or 6 months in a pair of shoes. Not sure the math is correct there, but I am quite sure the abuse I put on my shoes far exceed the correct number. But alas I have yet to run in them, save the jaunt from the terminal to my car in Austin just because I was going crazy from hours on a plane.

Today I snuck in a round of golf for my exercise, which was awesome. Hadn't played in months, and I was hitting the ball far, if not accurately. Great to be in the sun for that amount of time in a perfect day.

As for food, I think I held up well to the perils and temptations of travel. I kept my intake reasonable in the face of pressure to do otherwise. Went to Benihana one night, which is delicious and fun, but seeing them cook your food is really eye-opening if you watch carefully. Every dish had a giant glob of butter tossed into it at the end, which is completely unnecessary, and the rice portions were gigantic. Definitely a chore to keep everything in check.

Hopefully things will get back to normal here. I should be back in the gym tomorrow for an abusive workout. I look forward to it.

Bad run good dinner

Despite working my legs a little yesterday, I still decided to go on a run. Given my competitive nature and the speed training I've been doing, I wanted to run a good time. The confluence of these bad decisions, naturally, was a predictable result.

I had a new app on my Android phone that I downloaded to track the run. It was worth exactly what I paid for it. It overestimated the course by half a mile, and I couldn't drill down into the run to see the mistakes I made that led to the wheels completely falling off the bus. It did show me starting off near an 8 minute pace, which isn't a good thing for me on worn legs. And it did show me hitting the wall at the 4 mile mark when I absolutely had no legs left, and me walking home from there.

One of the best aspects of the run was that I downloaded Pandora and was able to have my custom music mix stream to me as I ran. Pandora does a great job of creating a custom mix especially for me, with songs not otherwise in my iTunes library. So I could get my horrible musical taste served with different songs than I'm used to. Woot!

Tonight for dinner I dipped once again into molecular gastronomy for the feature pairing of mango and rosemary. I made a "salsa" consisting of diced mango, tomato, finely minced rosemary, balsamic vinegar, lime juice, salt, and a touch of red onion (a very delicate touch) that I served over broiled halibut. Side dishes were great northern beans with a caramelized red onion-rosemary-tomato essence, and roasted artichokes. The thing about the rosemary-mango pairing is that it makes you think about the individual flavors of both ingredients, and taste them differently, as they do have chemical similarities. I'm beginning to enjoy these new taste experiences a lot, and I've been scheming new madness as I get deeper into the science of food.

Easter brunch and roasted beets

Yesterday for Easter we did a family brunch in the middle of the day. I'm beginning to be a little afraid of restaurants, because you really don't have any control over what you're eating. Of course, you can read the menu, and try to figure out the caloric content, but most restaurants that want to do such things as "stay in business" and "make money" focus almost exclusively on delivering food that tastes great, and will sneak a calorie or two in there to make that happen.

As I've said before, I'm not going to be "that guy" that complains and gets special treatments and preparations on his food. My weight is good now, and I want to appreciate the genius of the chef in the restaurant I visit, not insult him or her by forcing them to cook something my way. Plus, going off diet every now and then is perfectly okay. So I enjoyed my brunch with the family. I did resist the temptation to eat the delicious muffin that came with my meal though. Muffins, cupcakes.... anything you bake in those little cups is kryptonite to me. Delicious kryptonite.

Brunch sets you in a weird place when dinner comes. Do you eat a full meal? Do you eat late? Light snack then another snack? I decided to make a light quick dinner with pan seared chicken breasts topped with a caramelized onion-caper-marsala sauce, served with green beans in a sun dried tomato and caramelized onion sauce with oven roasted yellow beets. The beets were incredible - I tossed them in a touch of oil, salt, and pepper, and roasted them at 400 until they started to brown lightly and got nice and soft. Absolutely delicious, and surprisingly low in calories - about 35 calories per beet. Overall, the less than 500 calorie meal seemed to do the trick.

Today I went to the gym and did weights at lunch. This is a slight deviation from my normal routine, but I've decided I am going to add more weights to the routine in order to maintain the weight and improve tone. One of the most painful things I did was a Tabada routine of jumping up on a block that is about 2 feet high, 7-10 times per 20 second jump. I had to sit on the block for a minute or two after to catch my breath from that one.

Dinner was with the kids - simple pasta with red sauce. I made my standard meat sauce with lean turkey breast inspired by Mario Batali's basic red sauce of onion, thyme, and tomato (I added carrots to it for additional sweetness). One serving of pasta with meat sauce is about 500 calories if the lean turkey is used, and a side salad with balsamic vinaigrette rounded out the meal.

Vegan Night

Tofu. What can I say about tofu? I like to use it occasionally, if only that using a tasteless mass with a bizarre texture challenges my inner chef to make something tasty and delicious. High in protein and low in fat, it is a healthy ingredient and it makes a nice light meal if prepared well. So tofu! Woot!

I usually go to Asian cuisine when preparing tofu because you can put a lot of richness and flavor into the sauce. I considered making pho again, but I'm better than that, so I decided to make a spicy stir fry with it. I had bought some salsify, also known as oyster root, and I thinly shaved it with a peeler to make a tagliatelle-like "pasta" to serve as a starch in the meal. The rest of the ingredients were garlic, ginger, lemongrass, carrots, snow peas, veggie stock, coconut milk, cilantro, sriracha, chili paste, and a magical tablespoon of cashew butter. To be honest, I was just throwing stuff in the pan, so I'm not even sure of the recipe, but with the tofu and salsify as the main ingredients, I had calories to spare, so it didn't really matter.

By the way, I have to give Marcus Samuelsson credit for the idea of using salsify as pasta. I saw him do that once, and I now use that as my primary preparation for the product. It cooks nicely, and has a good flavor and texture to it when cooked. I'm not even sure how to prepare it with traditional means, if there is such a thing as a "traditional" salsify preparation.

In workout news, today was Saturday so it meant a long day at the gym. I couldn't get there until around noon, which is a horrible time because that is lunch time and I'm hungry, and therefore low on energy. I started with a 5-4-3-2-1 interval speed workout, ramping up from 7:30 per mile for the 5 minute interval all the way up to a 6:30 pace for the final minute. That pretty much took everything I had in me, but I still managed to struggle through some chest, back, and abdominal workouts before I had to quit and grab some lunch. Lesson learned, again, make sure you're properly fueled before you work out. You'd think I'd know that by now...

24

Since I hadn't gone for a swim in a while, I decided to get back in the pool today for my workout. I've been varying my workouts a lot, and as such I wasn't in the mood to do my usual 2x3x10 freestyle and breaststroke combination. Problem is, I wasn't sure exactly what I was doing when I hopped into the pool. Luckily, the workout didn't turn into the disaster my run did the last time I tried this, mainly because I enjoy swimming a whole lot more.

I started out with an 8 minute warmup in freestyle, and then switched to breaststroke as normal. I decided to try a Tabada-like approach, but since I didn't have a clock, I did 20 strokes at max effort, and then 10 strokes at light effort, for the standard 8 repetitions. I then replicated this with freestyle, and decided to try to swim a mile as fast as I could. When I realized it was going to take me longer than I had to do the mile, I scaled it back to a half mile, and swam away.

I could tell the difference when I really locked into the new correct technique, and when I was struggling with my old inefficient technique. My lap times (lap = 50 meters) were about 1:20 each but if I swam correctly I could get them into the 1:10 range. I felt everything coming into alignment about 4-5 laps into the swim, and felt strong throughout. I wound up swimming it in a respectable 18:46, a time that I am proud of, and would be competitive in my age group in a triathlon. Cool.

Tonight's molecular gastronomy pairing was mint and mustard. Actually, I also worked in the strawberry-mint pairing I used last night to synchronize the plate and all the ingredients. I made crab cakes, using spicy whole mustard, mint, 1/2 pound lump crabmeat, a tablespoon of sun dried tomato paste, and 1/2 cup panko, sautéing them lightly in a teaspoon of oil in a non-stick pan (about 200 calories per two cake serving). I made a mustard sauce out of an egg yolk, dijon mustard, olive oil, agave nectar, and Frank's red hot, which added about 100 calories to the dish. The mint and mustard paired nicely, the flavors both stood out but still complimented each other and kept them from dominating the taste. Worked very nicely.

I carried the mint into some bok choy I sauteed in garlic, mint, and stock (about 100 calories per serving), and then added some strawberry jelly and roasted garlic to some Quinoa (about 250 calories) on the side. The strawberry and mint combination works nicely as discussed yesterday, and it caramelized a bit in the preparation process.

Oh, why did I title this segment 24? I weighed in today at 218, down over 24 pounds since program inception. I'm not even trying to lose weight anymore and it is still coming off, so I need to tinker a bit to get back to equilibrium. More bacon seems to be the logical choice.

Molecular Gastronomy

It occurred to me the other day that the natural fusion of my chemical engineering background and my culinary interests is the emerging and fascinating field of molecular gastronomy. My wife is none too thrilled about this potential hobby, not wanting to eat anything containing sodium alginate or have a veritable kitchen full of beakers, flasks, and other scientific equipment. Of course on my side of the coin, these are driving and compelling reasons for me to proceed.

I was studying up on it today and learned there is a lot to the field. Understanding the molecular composition of food allows you to come up with non-traditional pairings and flavor combinations, and certainly using non-traditional ingredients allows the preparations to be more complex and interesting. Yeah, "interesting" isn't always the word you want to hear when someone describes your food, but I've never let that stop me before. So as I continue to learn more, I'll be turning mad science into good science, and alchemy into chemistry. In theory, at least.

I applied two things in my initial studies today. First, reading up on Maillard reactions, which simply put turn proteins and sugars into yummy, they apparently work better in a less acidic environment. As such when I browned the shallots I was using tonight in a few of the preparations, I tossed a little baking soda into the pan. The theory is that it will brown nicer, and produce a richer flavor, and it did seem to do that without any averse effects on taste from the baking soda. Win one for food science.

Also studying food matchings, I learned that strawberries and mint share a common chemical in them which allows them to pair nicely, and that strawberries and tomatoes are chemically similar as well. Since I have this giant field of delicious Kentucky mint in my side yard that always beckons me to do something with it, I decided to make a strawberry-tomato-mint topping for the sea bass tonight. And it worked brilliantly.

Recipe for dinner

Seabass:

1 lb sea bass filet (440 calories)

2 cups cherry tomatoes (50 calories)

2 tsp olive oil (80 calories)

1 tsp minced garlic

pinch dried Italian seasoning

1 cup strawberries (50 calories)

1 tbsp fresh mint, chiffonade

1 tsp balsamic vinegar

1 tbsp caramelized shallots (per above)

Slice the tomatoes in half, and toss in 1 tsp olive oil, garlic, and Italian herbs. Roast in the oven at 300 degrees until they just start to brown (roast with the bell peppers below). Mince tomatoes and strawberries, and toss with mint, vinegar, and shallots, season with salt and pepper, and refrigerate. Meanwhile rub the sea bass with the rest of the oil, salt, and pepper, and then grill on high heat, turning once. Serve with topping, serves 2 at 325 calories per serving or so.

Roasted Pepper Asparagus

1 bunch of asparagus, trimmed (80 calories)

2 red peppers, seeded (100 calories)

1 yellow pepper, seeded (50 calories)

2 tsp olive oil (80 calories)

1 tsp garlic minced

pinch Italian seasoning

2 tbsp balsamic vinegar

1 tbsp caramelized shallots

Roast the peppers in the exact way as the tomatoes above. Add roasted peppers to blender and add vinegar and shallots. Toss asparagus in oil, salt, and pepper, and grill until just brown on the outside. Serve with the pepper puree on the top, 160 calories per serving or so.

I served about 200 calories of purple fingerling potatoes tossed in pepper medley to make a balanced meal.

On the workout front, I'd been traveling the past two days, but still managed to get a good interval workout in yesterday. Did a 5-4-3-2-1 running workout, running at an 8:00 pace for the first 5, 7:30 for the 4 and 3 minute pace, 7:00 for the 2, and 6:40 for the minute, jogging at a 12 minute pace when "resting". I was happy to be able to get that done, and I definitely put a lot of sweat out - much better than the previous day's effort. Today, I woke up at 2 AM and was on planes for about 6 hours, so I skipped it.

Bad Run

This afternoon I went for a run at lunch time, and it was simply horrible through and through. At first, I tried intervals, meaning I run hard for a set period, then not so hard, in order to increase my speed. I was going to do 5-4-3-2-1 intervals (5 minutes fast, 5 minutes jog 4 fast, etc.) for a nice half hour workout, but there were many problems in conception and execution. I started out too fast, tried to do timing on my analog watch, didn't have a set program, was stuffy from the allergies, and then I changed the program to a 2.6 mile circuit run, but had no goals as to how fast I should be running at any time. At the end, I finally settled on working my calves on the last half of the run, and that felt good, but throughout it was a total mess.

I discovered a run is like your brain and body entering into a relationship. If you start out too fast, it is over before you even start, because the body will get repulsed by what the brain is trying to do to it. The brain needs to be strong, and take the lead, prepare, and set a clear agenda, or the body will be confused. Once you lose the body, the mind gets bored, and then they start fighting with each other. Soon enough, they make a Lifetime movie about your run starring Meredeth Baxter as your body and James Brolin as your brain, and nobody wants to see that movie. That painful vision was my run today.

I went out today and bought a arm strap for my phone so I can run with it. It is the Google phone and I have one of those nifty apps that can track my run, and a giant stopwatch too. That should help me keep better tabs on my run, and okay my horrible horrible music to boot. More math, more obsessive potential - we all win! Woo hoo!

Cedar Fever

I have had horrible allergies my whole life, which have surprisingly subsided in the past 5 years or so since we've moved to Austin. This is unusual because most people have it the other way around - people without allergies suddenly develop them when arriving in Austin, especially during tree pollen season. This is commonly known as "Cedar Fever".

Well, it is tree pollen season, and it appears as if my luck has run out. Coinciding with the spike in Oak pollen recently, which is high due to a wet winter, I have started to develop a consistent sore throat, and other unpleasant allergy symptoms. Spending more time outside exercising exposes me to more pollen to be sure, and since I basically spent all day Sunday outdoors, my allergies were rough yesterday. Unsure whether they were allergies or the onset of a cold, and having business travel on tap this week, I took no chances and gave myself an extra day of rest.

For dinner, I made an eggplant and garbanzo chili that was, well, spicy. I used the normal tried-and-true Texas beef chili technique, and added the eggplant and garbanzos (at the risk of offending the local chili police). Recipe as follows:

1 lb beef stew meat (1000 calories)
1/2 small onion
2 tbsp minced garlic
1 tbsp minced chipotles in adobo (may be a lot of heat, consider scaling back)
1 can peeled tomatoes (300 calories)
3 tbsp chili powder (consider scaling this back too, substituting cumin)
2 tbsp cumin
1 dark beer (150 calories)
1 can garbanzo beans (350 calories)
1 Japanese eggplant, diced (100 calories)
2 tbsp cilantro, roughly torn.

Season the meat with salt and pepper, and sear until brown on all sides, and add onion and garlic, cooking until translucent. Add chipotles, tomatoes, beer, and 1 tbsp of chili powder, and let simmer (stirring occaisonally) for an hour. Add 1 tbsp chili powder and 1 tbsp cumin, stir, and let simmer another hour, and then add the final tsp chili powder and cumin, stir, and add the garbanzos. Let simmer for 30 minutes, and then add the eggplant and cilantro. Add salt to taste. Makes 2 650 calorie servings with one bowl for leftovers.

Scallops with Cannelini Puree

Today was pretty insane end to end. My boys went with me to Home Depot to get some plants for the garden, and then to the grocery to get overdue provisions for the home. I then got home in time to say goodbye to my wife, who left for her sister's baby shower, and left her niece here with the boys and the baby. So my dad (who isn't exactly Mr. Mom) an I were alone with 4 kids 5 and under. Much running around and chasing, and in the meantime I decided to plant the garden, and I am pretty whipped right now. Workout? Please. It was supposed to be my day off, but I probably burned 1000 calories running around today.

Dinner tonight was seared scallops over a cannelini puree with a side of broccolini pasta. Recipe:

1 lb scallops (400 calories)

1 can cannelini beans (440 calories)

1 stalk broccolini, cut into large pieces (40 calories)

2 servings pasta (400 calories)

1 orange pepper, roasted and julienned (25 calories)

1/2 head roasted garlic

9 kalamata olives (75 calories)

1 tsp olive oil (40 calories)

1/2 cup vegetable stock

1 tsp marjoram, minced

1 tsp lemon thyme, minced

touch truffle oil

few drops aged Balsamic vinegar

grating fresh Parmesan cheese

pinch fennel pollen

Sear the scallops in a pan in the olive oil, and then remove them to rest. In the same pan, deglaze with stock, and add broccolini and 1/2 of the roasted garlic, mashed into a paste, and cook on high. Start cooking the pasta at this point. Cook broccolini for 5 minutes and then add 3/4 of the peppers and olives and all the herbs. When pasta is done, add to the pan and toss to coat, seasoning with salt and pepper. Finish with a splash of truffle oil.

Meanwhile, add the beans to a small pot, and add the rest of the garlic, olives, and peppers, and heat. Add a touch of stock to liquefy, and puree with a hand blender. Add the juice from the scallops to the puree after the scallops have rested.

Plate the pasta, and then on the side place the puree on the dish, and scallops on top of it. Finish with a light dusting of fennel pollen and a dot of aged balsamic, and then coat everything with cheese. About 700 calories.

Gooooooooooooal

Yesterday I went to the gym right after lunch, and hopped on the scale before I workout as per my usual custom. Having just eaten, I didn't expect a good number, and I was shocked to see it come up as 220.0, which is exactly my goal weight. In 2 1/2 months I have lost the 22 1/2 pounds I wanted to, and got myself in much better shape as a result. Yay me.

So where to from here? This whole program is more of a journey than a destination, so I know I have to continue. How do I keep my motivation and continue to improve my health? My friend with whom I had the bet has already put on some weight again having lost the impetus from the wager itself. How do I keep plowing through and continue to turn fat into muscle while resisting the temptation to balloon again?

In that spirit, I will set the following goals for myself:
1) Dunk a basketball. Done it before, and at my height, there really isn't an excuse for me not to be able to do it. I can already see where a number of my exercises have improved my leaping ability, mainly by making me, um, less attractive to gravity.
2) 8:00 mile for 5 miles. My five mile run is getting a little dreary for me. When I posed this to my wife, she said something to the effect of "duh". Doing the exact same distance on the exact same path over and over will get boring, and I've been pushing myself hard making it painful on top of repetitive. As such I need to mix it up a bit.
3) Bench 225. I don't even bench all that often at the gym, instead doing dumbbell bench, but the NFL acid mark can be a good goal for me. I've done it exactly once exactly once in my life, so no reason I can't do it again.

I think I'll start with these three and see where those take me.

I had a great workout on Saturday, by the way. Started on the elliptical where I "ran" the first mile in a 7:30 minute pace, then the next two in exactly 7:04 and the final one in 6:42. Of course, those times mean absolutely nothing when translated to running times, but I was pushing myself the entire way and got a pounding sweat going, which felt good. My lung capacity has definitely improved. I then did the chest-arm-back-abdominal workout afterward, and was a little enervated at the end to be sure. I definitely need to work on my stamina.

Last night I made semi-thai stir fry. Recipe:

2 boneless skinless chicken breasts, cubed (360 calories)
2 stalks broccoli (100 calories) cut into florets
1 cup shiitake mushrooms, sliced (40 calories)
1 stalk lemongrass, minced
1 tbsp minced garlic
1 tbsp minced ginger
1 tbsp chopped kaffir lime leaves
1 tbsp coconut oil (120 calories)
1 tsp crushed red pepper
1 tbsp Sriacha
1 tbsp soy sauce
1/2 cup light coconut milk (120 calories)
juice of 1 lime

Brown chicken, and add ginger, lemongrass, garlic, and red pepper to the pan. Add everything else and cook until broccoli is done, about 5-10 minutes. Finish with lime juice and thai basil/cilantro if you have it, and Sriacha and soy to taste. Serve over 1 serving basmati rice (1/4 cup, 180 calories) per bowl, 550 calories total per bowl.

Special day

Yesterday was a special day in our house. It was my wife's birthday, but it also marked the 10th anniversary of when we became engaged to each other. Note that on that special evening as I popped the question, I didn't get a "yes" or a "no". I got a "if you're joking I'm going to kill you." Such is the life of the wise guy.

Anyway, I gave my wife a day off from her job watching the kids, and needed both of our mothers to help manage the kids. I have no idea how she does it - she is truly amazing. Anyway, coordinating a special dinner and tending the kids, while doing my job, I didn't have time to go to the gym or workout, and I was pretty beat up, so it was good to rest a day.

Dinner was also excluded from the diet program for the day in order to celebrate. As a side effect of this program, I am completely conscious of the caloric content (at least in a general manner) of what I eat, so I can usually keep a meal within the parameters of healthy. But I didn't want to do the math so we could have a nice meal that was completely enjoyable.

I made a lobster and shiitake risotto, with a fennel and truffle crusted lamb chop topped with shiitake marsala sauce, and a side of brussels sprouts in marsala. And opened a 2000 Calon Segur, which unfortunately did not survive the test of time as well as our love has. Very enjoyable evening.

Today I got back into it with a 5 mile run, today in 47:20 (under a 9:30 mile!). I pushed hard, and had absolutely nothing left at the end - I don't do well with the 5:00 run at the end of the day when I'm at a minimal energy. That being said, that was the best time I ever ran for that distance, which felt good.

Dinner was turkey and butternut squash burgers with a spicy applesauce sauce, and a side of plantain fries. If you're anything like my wife, you're thinking "that sounds disgusting". But it was actually quite good. The butternut squash mixed in the burgers kept them moist and provided extra nutrition, while the applesauce sauce balanced out the flavors and added moisture without fat. Recipe:

Burgers

1 small butternut squash (120 calories for about 1 1/2 cups)

1 pound ground turkey (640 calories)

2 tbsp chipotle peppers in adobo, ground

1 small shallot, minced

1 tbsp minced ciantro

1 tsp cinnamon

1 tsp allspice

1 tbsp salt

fresh ground pepper

Roast squash in 400 degree oven until completely tender. Scoop out flesh and mix with everything, and make patties and grill them. They will be somewhat wet, and will stick to the grill if you don't lubricate the grates. Makes 4 nice sized patties.

Applesauce sauce

1/2 cup applesauce (50 calories)

2 tbsp Frank's Red Hot

pinch salt

dash cinnamon sugar

1/2 tsp ground chipotle pepper

1/2 tsp allspice

Mix together and spoon over burgers, best if applesauce is cold for a temperature contrast. Served over the burgers leads to a 410 calorie per serving meal (not including bread, which isn't really needed)

Plantain "fries"

Cut plantains down the middle lengthwise, and grill in skin fruit side down until lightly carmelized. Flip and grill until fork tender, about 10 minutes total. Remove from skin, cut into nuggets, and toss in 1/2 tsp olive oil, chipotle pepper, salt, pepper, and allspice. About 250 calories per serving, 1 plantain per serving. Riper plantains yield a sweeter dish

Hooked on Tabada

Earlier today my wife appeared in my office and asked if I wanted to do a Tabada workout. I was originally planning to go to the gym and work out, and the baby was fussy all day, so we didn't go through the routine in the afternoon. Work drug on, and then I took the boys out to feed them, so I figured working out was not going to happen today.

My wife usually puts the kids to bed while I make dinner, and tonight was no exception. When she was done, she came downstairs and wanted to do the Tabada workout. Apparently, she enjoyed it the last time, and felt good results, and now she's hooked on it. I was a little reluctant to do it, being in the middle of dinner preparation and, ahem, maybe sneaking a margarita when I took the boys to dinner. But heck, I figured I'd give it a go. So in the middle of dinner prep, I worked in a work out that was vigorous and worked my muscles hard. Mixing squats, incline pushups, jumps, and bicycle crunches and I was pretty whipped, and ready for dinner.

Dinner was a simple pasta dish. Took 1 pound of hot turkey Italian sausage (720 calories), and browned it in a pan with 2 tbsp of garlic. I added sliced mushrooms, spinach, mustard greens, and a can of San Marzano tomatoes (210 calories), and cooked it into a sauce. Meanwhile, I boiled two servings of pasta (400 calories) until about 2-3 minutes short of done, then finished it in the sauce. Note that it is during the finishing stage that I started the workout, which gave dinner good time to season the pasta, and a 650-700 calorie huge bowl of pasta was ready.

By the way, yesterday I gave another shot at a "race paced" 5 mile run. My gluteus maximus was the sore muscle during the run, from my Sunday or Monday workout, but I didn't think it was a big deal. Turns out it is a real pain in the... well.... to run with sore glutes. I started off really fast, between 8-9 minutes per mile for the first two, but really faded at the end. I still came in at 48 mins 20 seconds, including the 20 seconds I spent running into a friend and inviting her to dinner.

For dinner last night I made short ribs, which are delicious (about 400 calories per 1/2 pound serving cooked). Slow cooked a big pot of them for my friends and all the kids - simple and easy. Sear the ribs and then add tomatoes, carrots, onions, celery, stock, garlic, fennel seed, and a touch of molasses. A simple salad and a side of polenta (with a touch of cheddar for love, about 150 calories per serving) and I still had a 700 calorie meal that was a little decadent and kid friendly.

Sweet potato pho

I was surfing the web last night while blogging and saw a contest for the best sweet potato recipe, and you have to blog about it in order to win. Since I'm always looking for challenges and ways to keep dinner and this blog fresh, I decided to take them up on the bet.

I went through the easy uses of sweet potatoes. Gnocchi. Can I do anything original to that? Likely not. Maybe I could turn them into a pizza, or maybe use them as lasagna. Dozens of recipes for each all over the web. I had to come up with a non-traditional use for the deliciousness of a sweet potato that would take it in a different direction.

Pho. I'm a big fan (phan?) of pho, as evident from the other blog entries devoted to it, and as evident from my wife's saying "you're making pho again?" when I told her what was for dinner. I figured I could replace the creaminess of the coconut milk I sometimes put into the pho with pureed sweet potato, adding another level of flavor, and some good nutrition to boot.

Thinking of the spices that work well with sweet potatoes, I thought Thai seasonings would pair nicely with it. And as it turns out, it did work pretty well. The key was to keep the pho from getting too thick from the puree, and to put a good balance of acid in there against the natural flavors of the sweet potato. All in all, it was a pretty darn good dish.

Recipe as follows:

1 lb shrimp, shell on and deveined (360 calories)

1 tbsp coconut oil (substitute sesame or canola if you don't have coconut oil, 120 calories)

1/2 cup diced carrot (25 calories)

1/4 sweet onion

1 tbsp minced garlic

1 tbsp minced ginger

1 large stalk lemongrass, minced
2 tbsp chopped kaffir lime leaves (optional)

3 fresh curry leaves (substitute 1 tsp curry powder)

2 cups vegetable stock (or seafood stock)

4 cups water

1 large sweet potato, peeled and diced (150 calories)

2 servings spaghetti (400 calories)

1 cup sliced mushrooms (15 calories)

2 large jalapeno peppers, sliced (more or less as you dare)

2 cups mustard greens, roughly chopped in large pieces

2 tbsp fresh cilantro, torn

1 tbsp thai basil, chiffonaded (optional)

1 tbsp Sriacha hot sauce (substitute Tabasco or omit)

1 tbsp soy sauce

2 tbsp rice wine vinegar

1/2 tbsp agave nectar (substitute honey, 30 calories)

juice of 1 lime

Sautee the shrimp in coconut oil on high heat in a deep sided pan until just barely cooked, turning once, about 2 minutes a side. Remove from pan, and remove from the shells. Caramelize carrots in pan until they just start to brown, remove and reserve. Add onion, ginger, lemongrass, and curry leaves, and sautee until they start to brown a little, making sure nothing in the pan starts to burn. Deglaze with stock and water, and stir to get the tasty bits off the bottom of the pan. Add diced sweet potato and lime leaves, and boil covered until tender, about 10-15 minutes.

With an immersion blender blend the soup until smooth - add more water if too thick - you want it to have a brothy consistency, not thick like a traditional sweet potato soup. Add pasta and cook per package directions, about 10 minutes. Add mushrooms and jalapenos at this time. When there is about 5 minutes left on the pasta, add the mustard greens and cooked carrots. With about 2 minutes left add the cooked shrimp, herbs, vinegar, soy sauce, hot sauce, agave, and lime juice. Taste soup for balance - add soy sauce, hot sauce, herb, and acid (more vinegar or lime) as desired. Serve immediately after the pasta is fully cooked. About 550 calories per serving, serves two very large bowls.

On the exercise front, today my wife wanted to do Tabada with me, so we did. She is a much better athlete than I am, so it would be a good test for me to see what it did to her. We did burpees, step ups, pushups, and some pilates poses she had been doing. It was difficult for her, and she is under the impression she got a good workout, which is good validation for me to be sure.

Sunday Special

As I took yesterday off, today was a mandatory gym day. I had less time than my normal Saturday morning when I went this afternoon, so I had to push myself extra hard.

I can really feel my strength going up. My usual workout is becoming easier to do the full 12 reps per cycle of everything I do, despite the fact I'm increasing my weights. I did the usual Saturday chest, back, shoulder, and bicep routine, and then mixed a little Tabada in the end, doing one set on the seated row machine (that was brutal), one set of bicycle crunches (that was worse), and one set of sprints at 9.5-9.7 mph (that nearly killed me). I entered the gym today feeling fresh and with a lot of energy, and now I'm thoroughly beat down again, so it was a good day.

My weight loss has slowed to be sure - I've been the same weight for a week now, which isn't a bad thing. Consider I had the mexican buffet at the rodeo and pizza and beer on poker night, I'm pretty happy to be breaking even (even with the less than optimal meals I was making sure to watch my caloric intake). I'd still like to drop 2-7 pounds, and then turn fat to muscle more slowly. I feel the Tabada routine is working my muscles harder but burning less calories, which is definitely okay in the long run.

Dinner tonight was simple. Italian herb and garlic rubbed whole chicken on the rotisserie, with a sie salad and an ear of corn. The chicken meat was about 300 calories, the corn 120, and the dressed salad about 100. Add 60 calories for the olive oil (and non-caloric Frank's Red Hot) on the corn, and maybe another 50 calories for the small amounts of tasty crispy chicken skin I ate, and it was a good balanced meal.

Cauliflower Soup

I woke up today with every muscle group still sore, so I decided to move my off day from Sunday to Saturday this week. This means I have to make time to go to the gym tomorrow and abuse myself as I normally do on Saturdays.

Today was spent largely watching the baby, allowing my wife time to work out and do family things. It was chilly here after a violent storm rolled through last night - not good times if you're a skittish Chihuahua. We also watched a little basketball - I love the NCAA tournament. Didn't do a darn thing to get healthier other than get some much needed rest, unless you count bjorning the baby around the grocery store for half an hour, which was awesome.

Tonight's dinner was a little experimental. Okay, every dinner is experimental around here, but I mention this fact because I tried something that didn't exactly work tonight. So I'll eliminate it from the menu recap in an effort to vindicate myself and re-write culinary history to reflect my actions in a more favorable manner. Hey, my blog, my rules.

Cauliflower soup:

1 huge head of cauliflower (200 calories)

4 cups stock (40 calories)

1 tsp oil (40 calories)

1 tsp fennel seeds

1/2 medium onion (20 calories)

splash sherry

1 tbsp balsamic vinegar

1/2 fresh wasabi root, grated (sub 1 tbsp horseradish)

1 tbsp agave nectar (60 calories)

Salt and pepper to taste

Slice and carmelize onion in the oil, and add fennel seeds toward the end to toast them. Deglace with a splash of sherry. Add stock and roughly cut cauliflower, and boil until tender and the liquid has reduced some. Puree until smooth with immersion blender, and finish with vinegar, wasabi, agave, salt, and pepper as needed to achieve the correct taste. 180 calories for an enormous bowl.

I added some pan fried parsnips to this for texture, but they were all wrong, so don't do that. If you want to add some crispy bacon bits at the end, who am I to judge?

I served this with veal cutlets (1/2 pound serving = 240 calories). Pan fried them in a teaspoon of oil, and then made a pan sauce with some shallots, sherry, milk, paprika, and fresh nutmeg. Probably added 50 calories.

It's a thin meal calorically without the parsnips, so if you're replicating, serve a potato or something on the side.

Sore all over

Its been a few days since I've been able to blog. Wednesday we went to the rodeo and to a concert, and last night it was poker night. Two late nights in a row, and no homemade dinners.

Wednesday and Thursday were Tabada days. It is amazing how much pain you can inflict on yourself in 16 minutes. After three days of experimenting with this I was limping around today, sore in every part of my body. Clearly, something is working, so I'll keep working on this as part of my regiment.

Wednesday I went to the gym to do pullups, rows, bicycle situps, and sprints as part of my Tabada routine, along with some chest and bicep workouts. Each was uglier than the next, and I could really feel a good burn after I was done. I started with the sprints after loosening up with a light jog on the treadmill (my quads were pretty sore after doing squats the previous day). Cranked it up to 9.0 mph and ran pretty hard for 20 seconds at a time. What's funny is that some people run entire marathons in a pace less than what I consider "sprinting". But then again, I'm not exactly Usain Bolt. Pullups were assisted to reduce my mass to about 120 pounds so I had a fighting chance of finishing.

Thursday I did Tabada boxing, pushups, and situps. I did the pushups against the counter so, again, I had a fighting chance of completing the set. It worked my back well, and I definitely felt it this morning.

Today I decided to "race" my five mile circuit. My quads were still sore from Tuesday and Wednesday, but I wanted to push myself, and it was a perfect day for a run. Walking with a cowboyesque limp all day, it probably wasn't the best idea to run that hard, but then again, I'm not known for my awesome decisionmaking. I could definitely feel my quads were tight throughout the run, and I had to baby them a little, but still I refused to quit and did the whole 5 miles.

I mentioned before how I've been working on my running technique per advice of my brother in law. Avoiding the same mistake I made last time running too far up on my toes and destroying my calves, I found a better foot landing which was quite comfortable. I also shortened my stride, especially on the uphills, per his advice, which worked great for me. Taking large strides forces my legs to do a lot of work pulling the big dumb land animal over a greater distance. Like my Tabada workouts, I can do more reps if I make the work per rep easier, and so increasing my pace and decreasing my steps made me do less arduous work.

I ran my 5 miles in 48 minutes, 2 minutes below my best time, and that on sore thighs. I had to walk a little at the beginning to work out that pesky back cramp I get, but my wind was good throughout and I was able to push myself as hard as my thighs let me. I was even able to maintain a quick and steady pace through the uphill segment of the run. I felt fast and good, right up to the point where the 50-60 year old man flew by me like I was standing still. Someone check the old dude for steroids!

Tonight for dinner I made pistachio crusted sole with yucca fries and mango-mustard greens. Yeah, I was in a funky mood at the grocery store, and it is fun to experiment with new things.

Fish:

6 filets of Dover sole, 1 lb total (500 calories total)

1/4 cup shelled pistachios (170 calories)

1 tsp cumin seed

1 tsp fennel seed

1 tsp dried jalepeno

1 tsp garlic powder

S&P

Crush pistachios in a mortar & pestle or food processer or, heck, use a hammer on a plastic bag full of it. Add the rest of the spices to it and lightly crush the seeds to release the aromatics (sounds fancy, don't it?). Put fish on a cookie sheet covered with Reynolds Release so you don't need oil to prevent it from sticking, and roast at 500 degrees for 3-4 minutes.

I also took 1/4 cup of mango (25 calories) and cooked it with some minced garlic, agave nectar, white vinegar, clove, and allspice until it was almost candied. I threw some of that on top of the fish for some sweetness and sourness and texture contrast, making the fish 370 calories or so a serving.

For the Yucca, I took one 1.5 pound root, peeled it, and chopped it into fries. I boiled it in water for 10 minutes to make it tender, and then tossed it in a teaspoon of oil, salt, pepper, and chili powder, and roasted that in the oven at 400 for about 15-20 minutes until it got a crispy exterior. Yucca is similar in caloric content to potato, so the fries were all-inclusive about 250 calories per serving. They tasted very light (no heavy oil feeling in them) and clean, and with a little Frank's Red Hot splashed over them, they were perfect.

For the greens I took 1/2 tbsp olive oil (60 calories) and cooked 1 tbsp of garlic in it. When it started to brown, I took 1 cup of mango (100 calories) and softened that, then put 2 cups of mustard greens (40 calories) in the pan to reduce down. Total of 100 calories per serving for just over 700 calories for the meal.