Paula Deen Should Eat more Oats!

Gasp! Paula Deen has Type II Diabetes! Are we all so shocked by this? Really? Ahhhh, the media really does know how to pour it on thick. They almost give her a criminal-like quality.

Paula, being the positive person she is, will turn this into another million dollar opportunity. So, don't feel sorry for her. She is a brilliant business woman who will turn this "tragedy" into a fortune. She has already teamed up with the pharmaceutical company, Nova Nordisk. It is just a matter of time until her new diabetic friendly cookbook comes out(if it hasn't already). And yes, I'll check it out. In fact, Paula, if you need a dietitian to colaborate with on this book, I am available.

The truth is that famous chefs and other TV food personalities seem to be regressing these days in terms of promoting healthy cooking. And we eat it up(literally). Do they feel any sense of responsibility? Last night, I watched the Cleveland celebrity chef on his newest TV show venture(won't mention names). So, he cooks smashed potatoes and deep fries them in bacon fat. Ok, I was already drooling. Some might say that he could have stopped there, but no. He went on to toss them in a spicy aioli(mayonnaise) sauce. No one can deny that
this stuff tastes good. Doesn't anything that is cooked in bacon fat?

Ok. I'm done bashing. It is a snowy morning in Cleveland so I want a warm bowl of oats(even though I didn't actually eat those potatoes, I am imagining them in my arteries).

Did you know that soluble oat fiber has blood sugar-lowering abilities? For those of you who want to know why, keep reading. The rest of you can skip the science mumbo jumbo and go down to the pictures.

Oatmeal has a huge amount of Magnesium, a mineral that acts as a co-factor which interacts with certain enzymes involved in the body's use of glucose and insulin secretion. Anyways, it is founds to be extremely helpful in lowering blood sugar levels in diabetics.

It is also very valuable in lowering cholesterol. A bowl of oatmeal contains 3-4 grams of soluble fiber. If eaten daily, this will help to lower your bad cholesterol by 8-23%.

So Paula, eat your oats. She can probaly come up with all sorts of interesting ways to serve it up. I just hope she leaves out the bacon and butter. Here is my morning concoction.....

-

I cooked 1 cup of steel oats in 2 cups of 1% milk and 2 cups of water on low heat

for about 30 minutes.

I prefer dried fruit(especially dries apricots), but didn't have any on hand. So, I added some fresh chopped pear.

And apples....

and chopped walnuts....

Here we go! Not sure if Emeril feels the same, but this makes me "happy, happy".

Thanks to Tina( The Wellness War) for getting me blogging again this morning.

Happy New Year 2012!

I am about to join the legions of other bloggers to recap 2011 and some of the resolutions I had set last year at this time. It just needs to be done. I must come full circle and evaluate how I did..... And Yeh! I think I achieved a lot! I am pleased with myself and I hope anyone that is reading this is feeling hopeful and refreshed now that a new year is starting. I love that we get another chance every year to better ourselves. I am ready to let go of past disappointments and fears. The new year is a time to move forward with new aspirations and reach for them.... even if it means falling down a few times.

So, here's my recap...... I promise to be brief.

1. To continue to cook often and with a focus on good health and locally purchased ingredients. Check. I still love to cook. My explorations this past summer of local farmers markets was so inspirational!

2. To learn to take better pictures for my blog. Well..... not so much. BUT, I just got a Bloggie camera for Christmas which should improve the picture quality and efficiency(I hope).


3. To explore different types of exercise. I continue to love and make progress in my yoga practice. I joined Inner Bliss Yoga studio which I can't say enough about. The instructors there have really helped me to connect with the spiritual aspect of yoga. Making that mind-body connection has made it more meaningful for me. Living in the present(even if its just for that 1 hour) has brought more stress relief and serenity into my life. Also, I tried cross-country skiing. It was my goal to try to find something fun about winter. I live in Cleveland. The snow is not going away, so, might as well embrace it. I can't wait to try some new trails this year!



Also, helped to organize a walking club with some co-workers which culminated at the American Heart Association walk last August.

4. Spent some great quality time with these guys. My son is now towering over me and has doubled my grocery bill with the amount he eats, so my time with them is growing shorter. We had some great trips! We ate our way through Savannah. See us below chowing on low-country boil.

We hiked and white-water rafted in the Laurel Highlands of Pennsylvania!

5. I also made more of an effort to become more financially secure. This is scary territory for me but I took steps to improve my financial future and was able to put some money into home improvements which included my entryway below. The wallpaper before was not pretty. Now, the foyer feels like my own little art gallery complete with Cleveland photography from Local Girl Gallery in Lakewood.

6. Worry less. This will always be an ongoing process for me. I come from a long line of worriers. But, as long as I try to fill my life with good people and the things that I am passionate about. There will be less space for the negative.

7. Volunteering. I fell down on this one, but, I am still hopeful!

2012

It feels like our world has become so much more complicated over the last couple years. I have noticed that many people are keeping things simple when they discuss their new year's goals. And I am totally on board with that. My biggest aspiration for this year is just To Be More Kind. I want to be more kind, not only to strangers in the grocery store, but, mostly to the people that our closest to me. This will make the greatest difference.....

and

to cook with this thing..... the Green Egg. Our new Christmas present.

It is amazing and it is going to help my husband and I combine his love of grilling and my love of healthy cooking.

Here is the first creation of 2012. Bourbon glazed salmon from Earth Fare taken on my new bloggie camera(how did I do?)

Going Bananas in Cleveland

It was a wonderful Thanksgiving in Cleveland. I ate in and I ate out. I took a moment to enjoy all the beauty which can be found in our city. All the while I felt grateful for my family, the delicious meal we shared, and the fun and culture we have at our fingertips living here in Cleveland.

We spent Thanksgiving at my house. This meal takes a lot of preparation, but, it is so gratifying for me to be able to do this for my family once a year.

Some tasty snackies prior to dinner......

B's delicious smoked turkey.... so glad it didn't rain.

Pear, Gorgonzola, and toasted pecan salad.... my favorite side dish.




On Friday, the weather was unsusually nice for this time of year(last year at this time we had a blizzard). So, we took a break from eating and walked off that Thanskgiving meal at the Cleveland Botanical Gardens. Here are some pretty pictures......

I hate to say goodbye to fall but these Pointsettias are helping me to warm up to the idea of Christmas. This is what its all about.

As others were fighting it out in Walmarts around the country over "Black Friday" deals, I gazed up to see blue skies and this guy.

My sweet teens taking a break from their cell phones to actually speak to each other. It is the little things that warm my heart over the holidays.

Nothing makes me feel more happy than a room full of butterflies! I will make it to Costa Rica one of these years.




And to top off a great weekend, I ate at a fantastic Tai restaurant in Ohio City called the Banana Blossom!

More pretty pictures.....

We started off the meal with some Edamame lightly steamed and salted.

My sister had the Lemongrass Chicken. The chicken was marinated with lemongrass and grilled. It is served over vegetables and topped with spinach.

Although I am curious about curry dishes, I must confess that I usually shy away from curries because there are so many different types. I just wasn't sure how each of them differs. This menu has a "create your own curry" section which was complete with detailed descriptions of each type. They have 5 different curry sauces as follows: red curry, yellow curry, green curry, Massaman curry, and Panang curry. I chose salmon and vegetables simmered in the green curry. It was amazing... It was much sweeter than curried dishes I had tried in the past. The waiter even had the chef prepare the salmon the way I like it. And check out the carrot garnish( a bird shape) below.

Overall, I completely enjoyed this restaurant. It gets a 10 for service, creativity, and flavor. The menu is quite expansive, so, there are about 10 other things I would like to try. They are open for lunch and seemed to have a busy "take out" business. You could say I've gone "bananas" over Banana Blossom. Ha, ha.... time to end this post.

Trader Joe's Saves the Day!

I went through 10 years of catholic school, so I am very familiar with guilt. We have had some really busy weeknights these last few weeks in my house making it difficult to have family dinners. It is so much easier to pull up to the Chick Filet drive thru. However, the guilt of not making a healthy dinners kind of gets to me. That's why I am so grateful to have Trader Joe's for their simple but healthy sauces and dinner kits. This meal took 10 minutes to make and was really flavorful thanks to this tasty sauce below...

Step 1: Stir fried my already cut-up vegetables from Trader Joe's. I like to stir fry using vegetable broth instead of oil

Step 2: Added my chopped chicken breast to the pan along with the Tai Red Curry sauce.

Step 3: Served over Trader Joe's already cooked Jasmine rice(found in the refrigerated section). They also had this in brown rice which would be an even healthier choice.





Serve to your fam- guilt free!

La Petit Triangle- Oooh baby!

I have never been to France but, I would imagine that its cafes look something like the scene above. I read about La Petit Triangle in a local newspaper doing an article on good happy hour places. This struck me as an usual pick for happy hour, so I have been intrigued ever since. Unfortunately, I haven't made it for happy hour, but, I did meet my sisters and mom there for a mini baby shower. My sister is due any day now with baby boy #2. Yeh!

Anyhow, this quaint Ohio City restaurant is warm and cozy and a great place to spend a rainy afternoon. Or a sunny one out on the sidwalk patio. It has the wonderful aroma of French roast and crepes in the air. You can see the chef above working her magic on the crepes. I have a hard time making crepes so I am more than happy to sit back and watch her make them for me. She was so calm and collected preparing crepes solo for the entire restaurant.

We started off our lunch with some bellinis and the soup of the day. Bellinis are a peach nectar drink with champagne. AMAZING! There was also a nice selection of french wines(will definitely have to go back). The soup was a roasted pork and vegetable soup.

Next, onto the entrees... this was a tough decision. There are a number of crepes and omelets both sweet and not. There are some classic French dishes such as Croque Monsieur( grilled ham and Gruyre cheese) and cassoulets. We had a chicken cheddar buckwheat crepe with a mango chutney. A side couscous salad was equally good.

There are a lot of options for vegetarians as well. My entree was a spinach, tomato, and chevre omelet with Lyonnaise potatoes. Also delicious.

But, the highlight of the meal was this pumpkin latte! This probably should not be on a blog called skinny eats as it definitely was not. It was the best tasting coffee drink I have ever had. I'm guessing there was lots of cream involved. Maybe come and have with a salad? Anyhow, we had great service on top of good food so I will definitely come back. The hardest decision will be.... do I go back for wine and apps, coffee and dessert, or breakfast and bellinis? You can't go wrong with any of those options, so give it a try. Bring out your inner Parisian!

Congrats to my sis on her upcoming little one! We can't wait to meet him.

La Campagna!

Laura Taxel, author of Cleveland Ethnic Eats, is my new hero! I had gone to hear her speak a couple of months ago at the library. Someone in the crowd asked for a recommendation for an Italian restaurant on the westside of Cleveland and she replied, "La Campagna"!

So last night was B's birthday and I surprised him by taking him to a restaurant that we have never been to. In fact, he had never heard of the restaurant. It was risky..... but it turned out to be great. Better than great.... amazing!

La Campagna is a little Italian restaurant tucked into an average looking shopping center in Westlake. It a tiny little place that you would never look twice at. Laura Taxel described it as a gift shop by day and restaurant by night. It is family owned and everything is made to order. The owners shop daily(from local vendors) and try to use foods which are organic when available. The menu changes everyday. Laura Taxel had recommended that a reservation be made because the restaurant might just close up if it has no customers coming. Another warning..... there is no written menu. They make a handful of entrees daily and they just list them for you. Now, I like this kind of adventurous eating, but, others may not. But, I will tell you that everything we ate was extraordinary!

We started off with a bottle of Syrah(above) and a fried pepper appetizer(below). The wine is purchased from the shop so it is not marked up and there is a large selection. This picture of the peppers does not do them justice. They were simply sauteed in olive oil with a generous sprinkling of sea salt. However, there was a nice combination of sweet yellows and reds along with some spicy Poblanos. So simple but delicious!

Next we ordered our entrees which were accompanied by salad and soup. B had a corn and clam chowder. I had the salad below. It was a nice mix of fresh greens, blueberries, and goat cheese. One of the owners was actually making the salad dressing, a balsamic with fresh figs, minutes before I received the salad! It was like eating at a family members house, except an extremely talented family member. I think I may have to adopt this family!

My entree was mussels in a fresh tomato broth. Also phenominal.


But B's dish was the award winner of the night. He ordered their clam bake. This clambake wasexceptional. Check out the lobster twice baked potato in the front of this plate. There was no skimping on the lobster. The chicken was cooked with some nice herbs and very moist. The corn was picked that day.



Needless to say... we were very happy customers!!!! The price was also a pleasant surprise. I intend on becoming one of the regulars at this spot.

Weight Watchers... a proven success.

A weight loss study that came out this week which indicates that Weight Watchers is one of the most effective methods for losing weight. 772 obese people were followed in Australia, Germany, and the UK over a years time. The results showed that those who followed Weight Watchers lost an average of 14.7 pounds as compared to those on standard diets who only lost about 7# after 12 months.

There was no information suggesting the reason for its success, but, I have to think it is a result of the weekly support that members receive. It is always easier to accomplish something difficult in numbers. Also, the weekly meetings provide lost of inspiration. Although I have never been a member of weight watchers, I really like the recipes. One of my favorite recipes is the Mozzarella Stuffed Turkey Meatloaf. It is easy, healthy, and low in cholesterol and fat. Oh, and it tastes good which is always helpful. Here are the steps....

1. Separate 2 egg whites into a bowl

2. Add 1 1/2# of ground turkey

3. Add 1/2 cup of minced onion

4. Add 1/2 c of bread crumbs

5. Add 1 c. of part-skim mozzarella

6. Add 10 oz of chopped frozen spinach(thawed and drained)

7. Add 1 T of Worcestershire sauce

8. Add 2 T of ketchup or spaghetti sauce

9. Mix all ingredients and pack into a greased loaf pan


10. Bake for 60 minutes at 375 degrees and let stand for 5 to 10 minutes.

Cut into even pieces and enjoy!