tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2426481510135424782023-11-15T17:34:46.681-08:00The Raven's FlightEnjoy the journey as much as the destination.Tk Wojcikhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07190059315858965834noreply@blogger.comBlogger31125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-242648151013542478.post-84183167637099088632021-10-06T17:30:00.008-07:002021-10-08T23:32:43.304-07:00Fennel and Potato SoupIt's finally soup season again, and I'm looking forward to making some of my
favorite recipes when the weather is just right to enjoy them. This soup is
definitely one of my favorites, right behind split pea with ham. <div><br /></div><div>In the interest
of not being one of those blogs that takes forever to get to the recipe, let's
dive right in! Soup is one of those things that can be really forgiving, so the
quantities I list for things are what I happened to buy or have on hand, and
don't feel like you have to use exactly as much of any one ingredient as I do.
This is just how I like it. </div><div><br /></div><div>You can omit the ham and sub an unsweetened
non-dairy milk to make it vegan. </div><div><br /></div><blockquote style="border: none; margin: 0px 0px 0px 40px; padding: 0px; text-align: left;"><b> Ingredients: </b></blockquote><blockquote style="border: none; margin: 0px 0px 0px 40px; padding: 0px; text-align: left;"><br />1-2 bulbs of fresh fennel <br />2-3 lbs
of russet potatoes <br />2-4 oz fresh garlic <br />1 lb yellow or white onion <br />1 lb carrots <div>1-2 lb cooked ham, cubed </div><div>1/4 cup heavy cream </div><div>1-1.5 qt chicken or vegetable stock </div><div><div style="text-align: left;">optional - small amount of neutral flavored cooking oil of your choice
</div></div></blockquote><div><div><div class="separator" style="clear: both;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhFjj2fWQRAyoE8mOLO4LCsuHzoUx2N7VrVHm523BXo6Lo-r8GETIsfyKfR0bHhTmdrePD-Pk0bbwSTw_VOynIIPCUgnUJZqPkVa-3IK97D63ELJici8Jkj5QZQGsLj3eYNub5hvxKwCXNI/s4032/PXL_20210824_033735339.jpg" style="display: block; padding: 1em 0px; text-align: center;"><img alt="" border="0" data-original-height="3024" data-original-width="4032" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhFjj2fWQRAyoE8mOLO4LCsuHzoUx2N7VrVHm523BXo6Lo-r8GETIsfyKfR0bHhTmdrePD-Pk0bbwSTw_VOynIIPCUgnUJZqPkVa-3IK97D63ELJici8Jkj5QZQGsLj3eYNub5hvxKwCXNI/s320/PXL_20210824_033735339.jpg" width="320" /></a>
</div></div><div style="text-align: left;"><b>
Method: </b> </div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;">Clean your fennel, mince the fronds and separate them from the fennel bulb. Slice the bulb separately. Clean and peel
potatoes, carrots, onion, and garlic.</div><p>If you are making this on the stove top,
dice your potatoes and carrots into 1/2 inch pieces, mince your onion and
garlic.</p><p>If you are making this in the instant pot, chop your potatoes and
carrots into 1-2 inch pieces, dice your onion into 1/2 inch pieces, and throw
the peeled garlic cloves in there whole.</p><div><div class="separator" style="clear: both;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjpZfqcCGICY6wbzKyRE7kjm_S5cIXTWVXKGVAKtgMUoGsTK3hZNnMi_RbuxX892nDHhlvScI6efb4WgHtdSUxTPCFkVslNPAxK17r0pH39IvSHXhjBNIb3kkm9Agscimur3YfUgI15ZE9N/s4032/PXL_20210824_041044922.jpg" style="display: block; padding: 1em 0px; text-align: center;"><img alt="" border="0" data-original-height="3024" data-original-width="4032" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjpZfqcCGICY6wbzKyRE7kjm_S5cIXTWVXKGVAKtgMUoGsTK3hZNnMi_RbuxX892nDHhlvScI6efb4WgHtdSUxTPCFkVslNPAxK17r0pH39IvSHXhjBNIb3kkm9Agscimur3YfUgI15ZE9N/s320/PXL_20210824_041044922.jpg" width="320" /></a>
</div>
I like to sautee the onion, fennel bulb, ham, and garlic in a little bit of olive oil
before adding other ingredients. You can also saute the ham first until a bit of
the fat has rendered and use that to saute your vegetables without adding any
additional oil. You can do this in your big soup pot on the stove, or in the
instant pot on the saute setting for a couple minutes before adding your stock. </div><div><br /></div><div>Scrape the bottom of the pot a little as you add the stock so any brown flavor
stuck on there is incorporated into the liquid. After adding the stock, add your
potatoes and carrots. </div><div><br /></div><div>On the stove top, simmer on med/low heat until the
potatoes and carrots are cooked through. </div><div><br /></div><div>In the instant pot, set it to high
pressure and medium or high heat for 20 minutes. You can quick or slow release
when time is up, it shouldn't make much diffrence. </div><div><br /></div><div>Once the potatoes and carrots
are cooked through, add the fennel fronds and cream, stir to incoroporate and
allow to simmer (not boil) gently for a few minutes to incorporate. </div><div><br /></div><div>Salt to
taste (try smoked salt if you have it) and serve. I like to top this with a generous amount of fresh ground black pepper, and a couple croutons, or serve along side some crusty bread.</div><div><br /></div><div>The vegetables pictured here made six to eight servings.</div><div><br /></div><div>We added leftover thin
siced chicken breast to this one night just to add some extra protein and avoid
wasting leftovers, you can see it in this clip.</div><div><br /></div><div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<iframe allowfullscreen='allowfullscreen' webkitallowfullscreen='webkitallowfullscreen' mozallowfullscreen='mozallowfullscreen' width='320' height='266' src='https://www.blogger.com/video.g?token=AD6v5dwmKfYj8soG542TT9Xlsej3HUH8e-jGRFfY0ROSFlIMqiXGWElp_erM2GOuIPVMFzHEqFhg-j2hMCfH8oqtuw' class='b-hbp-video b-uploaded' frameborder='0'></iframe>
</div><div><br /></div>
If you try my recipe I'd love to hear what you think of it. Hope you enjoy it as
much as I do!
</div></div>Tk Wojcikhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07190059315858965834noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-242648151013542478.post-90223313626891577702017-06-23T22:11:00.001-07:002022-01-19T23:16:09.176-08:00Domino Sugar Diet Recap<p> Now that my adventure with the Domino Sugar Reducing Diet Menus pamphlet has come to an end, I wanted to try to share some of the things I learned along the way. I've made some comments in the menu lists below as well.</p><p>And now on to the menus:</p><h4 style="text-align: left;"><u>Week 1</u></h4><p></p><ul style="text-align: left;"><li>Poached egg on buttermilk toast, OJ, coffee with milk & sugar</li><li>Roast chicken breast sandwich, chicken broth</li><li>Hamburger with lettuce bun, carrot & pineapple slaw, green beans</li><li>Apple pie</li></ul><p></p><h4 style="text-align: left;"><u>Week 2</u></h4><p></p><ul style="text-align: left;"><li>Poached egg on sourdough toast, tomatoes & mushrooms, coffee & sugar</li><li>Roast chicken sandwich, chicken broth</li><li>Angel food cake & apple with pie spices</li><li>Bratwurst, sauerkraut, mashed potato, orange slices</li></ul><p></p><p>This dinner was received much better than I expected, and we're actually having it again this week. It was something totally new to our table, but we both really enjoyed it, and I think it'll be making regular appearances from now on.</p><h4 style="text-align: left;"><u>Week 3</u></h4><p></p><ul style="text-align: left;"><li>Vegemite toasty (tomato & swiss on dark rye), grapefruit, coffee & sugar</li><li>Ham & Swiss on dark rye, chicken broth, iced coffee, jello</li><li>Roast chicken thighs, carrots & peas</li><li>"Cactus Cooler" sorbet</li></ul><p></p><p>I think this type of dessert is the only daily dessert we'll be having going forward. It was tasty, low cal, and low effort, and with the insane heat we've been having already this summer I think freezy treats will be a nice way to end some of our hot days in the next few months.</p><h4 style="text-align: left;"><u>Week 4</u></h4><p></p><ul style="text-align: left;"><li>Poached egg on light rye, grapefruit & sugar, coffee & sugar</li><li>Liverwurst sandwich, radish, celery & tomato veggie snack bag</li><li>Roast turkey, spinach salad & tomato vinaigrette, soft pretzel roll</li><li>Peppermint icemilk</li></ul><p></p><h4 style="text-align: left;"><u>Week 5</u></h4><p></p><ul style="text-align: left;"><li>Fried egg & hot sauce on light rye, bacon, sparkling grapefruit drink, coffee & sugar</li><li>Egg salad sandwich, tomato slices, lemon rosewater whipped jello</li><li>Baked trout, squid ink pasta with tomato & garlic, green beans</li><li>Strawberry rhubarb pie</li></ul><p></p><p>This was the week when I realized that having dessert every day gives me dessert burn-out. I didn't think it was possible, but I truly can have too much of a good thing. Having pie every day is awesome, but after a couple days I start to feel like the calories could be better spent on a larger volume of food. Over the course of this project I tried a few weeks where I got to have an indulgent dessert every day, and a few where there was no dessert because I budgeted those calories into a bigger meal instead.</p><p>I think both of those approaches are wrong for me, and going forward I intend to aim to fit dessert into my weekly menu by budgeting a weekly dessert amount of calories instead of daily. My plan is to have desserts 2-3 days a week, so that my total weekly calorie budget still works out to 1200/day even if my daily calories aren't exactly that every single day. I feel like I'm finally armed with the ability to evaluate my meal choices on the fly and make edits to a few days each week to fit the dessert in as a regular, but not daily, treat. I think taking the time to make a few desserts, and get a handle on exactly how many calories are in a serving, and what a reasonable serving looks like, was a very important part of developing that ability.</p><h4 style="text-align: left;"><u>Week 6</u></h4><p></p><ul style="text-align: left;"><li>Cloud egg, buttermilk toast & butter, coffee & sugar</li><li>Chicken, goat cheese & pasta salad, dill pickle</li><li>Chicken liver, mashed potato, broccoli, onions & red peppers</li><li>Baked cider-spiced apple</li></ul><p></p><p>These apples were a huge hit, and the flavor is really easy to customize. We tried them with chai tea instead of mulling spices one night and they were just as good (if not better.) I also intend to make some with earl grey tea, and I've been trying to work out a recipe on paper to make them with maple syrup and bacon because I think that'd be amazing too.</p><h4 style="text-align: left;"><u>Week 7</u></h4><p></p><ul style="text-align: left;"><li>Cream of wheat & butter-maple-raisin topping, coffee & sugar</li><li>Pork roll, egg & cheese sliders, dill pickle</li><li>Steak & mushrooms, tomatoes, broccoli</li><li>Baked pineapple-right-side-up apple</li></ul><p></p><p>This was the week I truly felt like I could eat like a king on 1200 calories a day.</p><h4 style="text-align: left;"><u>Week 8</u></h4><p></p><ul style="text-align: left;"><li>Pork roll, mushroom & goat cheese omelette, coffee & sugar</li><li>Pear, pineapple, pecan & gorgonzola salad</li><li>Chicken & carrot "Thai" pumpkin curry & rice</li></ul><p></p><h4 style="text-align: left;"><u>Week 9</u></h4><p></p><ul style="text-align: left;"><li>Rice Chex & milk, coffee & sugar</li><li>Olive, salami, gorgonzola & apple topped crackers</li><li>Casera chuck roast, carrots & green beans with butter</li></ul><p></p><p>It was this menu that made me realize that as much as I love breakfast cereals, I don't think they're a good breakfast meal for me. Instead, I've decided to have the ones I enjoy most as an occasional snack, because one 100 calorie portion of Rice Chex is just as good as a serving of potato chips, and really hits the spot when I want something crunchy. I imagine that won't work as well with other cereals, but I think there are quite a few I wouldn't mind just snacking on without milk.</p><h4 style="text-align: left;"><u>Week 10</u></h4><p></p><ul style="text-align: left;"><li>Poached egg on Russian rye toast, grapefruit & sugar, coffee with sugar & milk</li><li>Swiss cheese toasty, salad with tomato & gorgonzola, dill pickle, beef broth</li><li>Macarons & dirty chai</li><li>Spicy baked mahi-mahi, celeriac mash, peas</li></ul><p></p><h4 style="text-align: left;"><u>Week 11</u></h4><p></p><ul style="text-align: left;"><li>Buttermilk toast with butter & strawberry jam, coffee & sugar</li><li>Ham & swiss sandwich, cherries, dill pickle</li><li>Spaghetti & beef meatballs</li></ul><p></p><p>This week I made a lot of sacrifices to fit the spaghetti and meatball dinner into the menu. I made the meatballs with beef because that's what we had in the freezer, and I don't think I'll do that again. They were super delicious but it's just too many calories compared to the same recipe made with ground turkey. This was the week that I woke up starving just about every day, and it was difficult to convince myself to only eat a slice of toast with butter and jam for breakfast. Once I had eaten breakfast I was fine, but psychologically it was a week full of difficult mornings for me.</p><h4 style="text-align: left;"><u>Week 12</u></h4><p></p><ul style="text-align: left;"><li>Poached egg on Dark Sweet toast, tangerine, coffee with sugar & milk</li><li>Chicken & swiss sandwich, BBQ potato chips</li><li>Garlic pork chop, caesar salad, green beans</li></ul><p></p><h4 style="text-align: left;"><u>Week 13</u></h4><p></p><ul style="text-align: left;"><li>Scrambled egg & hot sauce on Dark Sweet toast, tangerine, coffee with sugar & milk</li><li>Ham & swiss sandwich, greek yogurt</li><li>Turmeric mix pork chop, carrots, baked potato with butter & scallion</li></ul><p></p><h4 style="text-align: left;"><u>Week 14</u></h4><p></p><ul style="text-align: left;"><li>French toast, coffee & sugar</li><li>Beef heart sandwich, strawberries</li><li>Pasta & sausage, green beans</li></ul><p></p><p>My relationship with food has changed in exactly the way I was hoping it would. I understand now that the routine of having meals at different points in my day helps keep me on track. So does eating the food I like at the right portion for my height, and while I love veggies, "food I like" also includes carbs and treats.</p><p>I found that my major issue with trying to eat similarly to a lot of folks on weight loss/meal prep/dieting subs was that many of the "meals" seem like a compilation of snacks instead of a meal. Not that I think there's anything wrong with eating that way, or that some of my meals over the course of this project weren't like that, it's just not something that works well for me as a long-term habit. I understand the ease of calorie counting with that approach, but it always leaves me feeling like I forgot to eat a meal when my meal eats like a lot of disconnected little snacks together. My meals need a star and some backup dancers, and they need to work together.</p><p>Now that I've had weeks of experience making a set meal plan, my favorite part is that gone is any hesitation about what to eat. When I'm hungry for breakfast, I know exactly what I should have. When lunch rolls around, I don't spend half my lunch hour trying to decide what to prepare. I'm ready to cook dinner without having a conversation with my fiance first about what we should eat. I don't feel like I'm missing out on quality food, but I have more free time, because no time is wasted trying to figure out what to eat. We have that conversation once a week instead of every single night.</p><p>Please feel free to ask any questions. It was always my intention to try to be an open book through this process and if I can help even one person on their path to health and happiness I'd be more than glad to do so.</p>Tk Wojcikhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07190059315858965834noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-242648151013542478.post-63128444842994003342017-06-09T17:43:00.001-07:002022-01-19T22:55:35.220-08:00Domino Sugar Diet - Week 14 (day 14 menu)<p> </p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://i.imgur.com/Lfbeviz.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="800" data-original-width="500" height="400" src="https://i.imgur.com/Lfbeviz.jpg" width="250" /></a></div><br /><p></p><p>This week the only prep I did was to portion the protein for my special lunch, we'll get to that later though because I want to start with something tasty before something weird.</p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://i.imgur.com/FmNnKYg.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="693" data-original-width="800" height="347" src="https://i.imgur.com/FmNnKYg.jpg" width="400" /></a></div><br /><p>For breakfast, I couldn't find an oatmeal I liked so I figured I'd to try to come up with a new way to have an egg and toast... so I made french toast!</p><p>In a small bowl, I beat one egg with two tb of half & half, and a pinch of salt, then soaked a piece of bread in the mixture. I cooked it in a non-stick skillet (no extra oil) until one side was brown and then flipped it and cooked until the other side was done. It's served with half a tb of butter and one tb real maple syrup.</p><p>French toast, coffee & sugar - 340 calories.</p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://i.imgur.com/fCNe4Ya.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="682" data-original-width="800" height="341" src="https://i.imgur.com/fCNe4Ya.jpg" width="400" /></a></div><br /><p>For lunch, I was supposed to have delicious tongue sandwiches, but I couldn't find tongue, so instead this is beef heart.</p><p>These are strips of beef heart seasoned with salt and pepper. Seared quickly in a non-stick skillet (about 2 minutes per side) and then sliced, it has a flavor somewhere between steak and liver, and a texture somewhere between steak and chicken gizzard. Closer to steak than to chicken gizzard, but that's the only thing I can think of that is similar.</p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://i.imgur.com/XxnCVx2.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="671" data-original-width="800" height="336" src="https://i.imgur.com/XxnCVx2.jpg" width="400" /></a></div><br /><p>On a sandwich, it's wonderful. It's not chewy so as long as you slice across the grain it's easy to bite through the strips of beef heart, and it's very lean, high in protein, and fewer calories per serving than most of the store-bought lunch meats I've had over this whole project. One oz of beef heart is about 32 calories. My sandwiches use just under 2 oz each.</p><p>Beef heart sandwich & berries - 271 calories.</p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://i.imgur.com/jXfD9d8.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="685" data-original-width="800" height="343" src="https://i.imgur.com/jXfD9d8.jpg" width="400" /></a></div><br /><p>For dinner I really wanted to do lamb chops, since it's something we both enjoy eating, but I couldn't find enough rib racks of lamb at the store to make them all week. Instead, we had sausage pasta with green beans.</p><p>Turkey sausage pasta & green beans - 581 calories.</p><p>Total day's calories - 1192</p><p>Well, that's it for the Domino menus. It's been so much fun sharing this project with you all! Thanks for reading!</p>Tk Wojcikhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07190059315858965834noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-242648151013542478.post-3581939823881633002017-06-02T16:32:00.002-07:002022-01-19T22:42:56.813-08:00Domino Sugar Diet - Week 13 (day 13 menu)<p> </p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://i.imgur.com/uCyKfyt.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="800" data-original-width="556" height="400" src="https://i.imgur.com/uCyKfyt.jpg" width="278" /></a></div><p></p><p>I can't tell if this bicycle babe is having fun or freaking out with her lamb-puppy. </p><p>This week was pretty simple with no extra prep needed because we continued pork chop dinners, so the chops were already portioned in baggies in the freezer from the loin I butchered last week.</p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://i.imgur.com/wBNxUde.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="577" data-original-width="800" height="289" src="https://i.imgur.com/wBNxUde.jpg" width="400" /></a></div><br /><p>For breakfast the book suggested that I have three drinks with my egg and toast, but we don't really have enough cups to support that kind of drink habit, so instead I put the milk in my coffee, and had a tangerine instead of orange juice. I decided to switch things up and have scrambled eggs and Tapatio on my toast instead of poached egg this week. The egg is just scrambled in a hot pan, nothing added while cooking except salt, then finished on the toast with black pepper and the hot sauce.</p><p>Scramble & toast, tangerine, coffee with milk & sugar - 300 calories.</p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://i.imgur.com/oQddhEp.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="735" data-original-width="800" height="368" src="https://i.imgur.com/oQddhEp.jpg" width="400" /></a></div><br /><p>For lunch I'm having almost the same sandwich as last week except it's on dark bread and with baby spinach instead of arugula. </p><p>I typically considered the yogurt a snack I could have any time. This one had the most calories out of the ones I picked for this week, at 140 calories.</p><p>Sandwich & Yogurt - 390 calories.</p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://i.imgur.com/oKsRxNS.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="601" data-original-width="800" height="301" src="https://i.imgur.com/oKsRxNS.jpg" width="400" /></a></div><br /><p>To make the potatoes, I scrubbed them under cold water, then rolled them in kosher salt and baked them on the top rack of the oven above the pork chops. On the potato is half a tb of butter and half of a chopped scallion.</p><p>The potatoes need to bake for an hour at 350 F, so I put them in the oven first, with the sheet pan I use for the pork on a lower rack to catch any drips. After 20 minutes I put the pork chops on a piece of foil onto the hot sheet pan. </p><p>The pan being hot from the oven helps the pork chops caramelize naturally without adding any oil. Flip the chops after 20 minutes, then remove them from the oven after 40 minutes, or when the internal temp hits at least 145 F. (I cook ours to 155 F.) Let them rest at least 5 minutes under a loose foil tent before serving. The carrots are simply steamed with salt.</p><p>Pork chop, baked potato, carrots - 495 calories.</p><p>Total day's calories - 1185.</p><p>Next week is my last week of the Domino menus. I couldn't find tongue for my lunch sandwiches, but I think I found something equally weird to share with you. Thanks for reading and see you next week!</p>Tk Wojcikhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07190059315858965834noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-242648151013542478.post-68244388274988493412017-05-26T15:22:00.001-07:002022-01-19T22:32:19.774-08:00Domino Sugar Diet - Week 12 (day 12 menu)<p> </p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://i.imgur.com/ED6hzCN.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="800" data-original-width="525" height="400" src="https://i.imgur.com/ED6hzCN.jpg" width="263" /></a></div><p>This week there wasn't much to do for prep. I bought a whole pork loin and cut it into chops, and that was it. Suddenly it's been super hot here instead of being cold and rainy, so this week it was nice to keep the cooking to a minimum, and have some easy stuff that didn't require a lot of attention, so I could be lazy in the heat.</p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://i.imgur.com/qSR4lk4.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="651" data-original-width="800" height="326" src="https://i.imgur.com/qSR4lk4.jpg" width="400" /></a></div><br /><p>For breakfast instead of having toast and jam, an egg, half an orange, milk, and coffee with sugar, I decided to put the milk in the coffee, skip the jam, and have my egg on toast with half a tangerine. Most days I ended up eating the whole tangerine, it only added about 25 calories to my day.</p><p>Poached egg, toast, half tangerine, coffee with sugar & milk - 275 calories (300 with the whole tangerine)</p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://i.imgur.com/h2Lmprz.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="590" data-original-width="800" height="295" src="https://i.imgur.com/h2Lmprz.jpg" width="400" /></a></div><br /><p>For lunch, instead of ice cream I decided I'd treat myself to potato chips. These are BBQ Kettle Chips, and one serving is 1 oz. My sandwich is chicken, swiss, and arugula with mayo & mustard mix.</p><p>Sandwich & Chips - 400 calories</p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://i.imgur.com/bviuxeb.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="543" data-original-width="800" height="272" src="https://i.imgur.com/bviuxeb.jpg" width="400" /></a></div><br /><p>For dinner I really wanted to figure out a way to get the diced beets onto the plate, but I don't cook beets often, and I still haven't found a way that we like them without adding a ton of oil or cheese, so we went with green beans.</p><p>For the salad I figured I'd just go ahead and make a caesar using the suggested bread in crouton form, and adding dressing and cheese instead of grapefruit. The dressing is bottled, it's Brianna's brand asiago caesar dressing. To make the salad, I combined 1 oz baby romaine leaves, 4 oz grape tomatoes, 30 g croutons, 1 tb dressing, and 1/2 oz grated parmesan.</p><p>The pork chop is 4.5 oz, cooked in a cast iron pan with no added oil. I coated it with salt & pepper, cooked it for 4 minutes on each side (including rendering the fatty edge) and then topped it with a tablespoon of minced garlic cooked in a tablespoon of Worcestershire sauce. The green beans are steamed and topped with salt.</p><p>Pork chop, salad, and green beans, with kombucha - 503 calories.</p><p>Total day's calories - 1178 (or 1203 with that whole tangerine for breakfast)</p><p>Only two more weeks to go! Thanks for reading, and see you next week!</p><p></p>Tk Wojcikhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07190059315858965834noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-242648151013542478.post-50457648201811747292017-05-19T13:09:00.001-07:002022-01-19T22:22:36.520-08:00Domino Sugar Diet - Week 11 (day 11 menu)<p> </p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://i.imgur.com/U5TUelI.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="800" data-original-width="538" height="400" src="https://i.imgur.com/U5TUelI.jpg" width="269" /></a></div><p>This week I decided to make my own jam, and I made a bunch of beef meatballs for dinner. Cooking the meatballs in advance was a nice change from making them every day because it helped me get dinner ready much faster after they were all cooked.</p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://i.imgur.com/UZdFlnJ.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="588" data-original-width="800" height="294" src="https://i.imgur.com/UZdFlnJ.jpg" width="400" /></a></div><br /><p>Here's my strawberry jam bubbling away on the stove. It's 1 lb strawberries that I hulled, quartered, and froze back in April. I let them thaw and then cooked them down with 1/2 c sugar and 2 tb lemon juice. After the juices started to get really thick I pureed the mixture with a stick blender. It made 8 oz of jam.</p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://i.imgur.com/2319KNn.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="777" data-original-width="800" height="389" src="https://i.imgur.com/2319KNn.jpg" width="400" /></a></div><br /><p>Mmmmm tasty jam. Pureeing it after cooking makes for a thinner set. If you'd like thicker jam, puree the berries before cooking. This recipe comes out at 34 calories per tablespoon.</p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://i.imgur.com/cOyxzT4.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="727" data-original-width="800" height="364" src="https://i.imgur.com/cOyxzT4.jpg" width="400" /></a></div><br /><p>For breakfast, I couldn't convince myself to drink tomato juice. I always think it tastes like watery pasta sauce and it grosses me out a bit. Instead I've added butter to my toast and jam to make breakfast a bit more hearty. This looks and feels like an extremely tiny breakfast, but it was necessary to fit in my calorie dense dinner.</p><p>Toast with 1/2 tb butter and 1 tb strawberry jam, coffee & sugar - 197 calories.</p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://i.imgur.com/taL9L7R.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="645" data-original-width="800" height="323" src="https://i.imgur.com/taL9L7R.jpg" width="400" /></a></div><br /><p>Here's lunch. I don't think I've ever had a veal and butter sandwich, so instead I decided to go with ham and use up the rest of the swiss cheese from last week. I tucked some baby arugula in there instead of plain small lettuce leaves. Served with a pickle and some fresh cherries because they looked delicious at the market so I got them.</p><p>Sandwich, pickle, and 5 oz cherries - 390 calories</p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://i.imgur.com/FMLuTUI.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="614" data-original-width="800" height="307" src="https://i.imgur.com/FMLuTUI.jpg" width="400" /></a></div><br /><p>For dinner the menu suggested hamburgers, but I had a request to make meatballs. Home made meatballs are one of my favorite things to make, so I obliged. Unfortunately they don't photograph all that well, but I promise you there are meatballs in that sauce.</p><p>To make the meatballs, I mixed 3 lbs of ground beef with 1 cup panko bread crumbs, 1 tb worcestershire sauce, 2 eggs, and a few tb of a spice blend I made. The spice blend is equal parts cayenne, paprika, oregano, thyme, caraway seed, garlic powder, and onion powder, mixed with two parts red pepper flakes, salt, and black pepper. Total it made 64 meatballs, and I have 5 with my meal. Each meatball is about 60 calories.</p><p>I baked them at 350 F for about 15 minutes, bagged up individual portions, and then boiled what I needed each night in the pasta sauce, in a very small pot with a lid, before serving.</p><p>The pasta is a Barilla spaghetti, the sauce is Classico Four Cheese, and the cheese on top is Tilamook's Farmstyle Italian blend. I went ahead and had a whole serving of pasta most nights (2 oz) but to make this lower calorie I think next time I'd have less pasta, fewer meatballs (or turkey instead of beef because that's what I usually make), and a veggie side dish like the menu suggested.</p><p>Pasta with sauce, meatballs, & cheese - 640 calories.</p><p>Total day's calories - 1227.</p><p>Thanks for reading, and see you next week!</p><p></p>Tk Wojcikhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07190059315858965834noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-242648151013542478.post-732824906917434532017-05-12T21:10:00.001-07:002022-01-19T22:08:02.714-08:00Domino Sugar Diet - Week Ten (day 10 menu)<p> </p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://i.imgur.com/RQZVYAC.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="800" data-original-width="504" height="400" src="https://i.imgur.com/RQZVYAC.jpg" width="252" /></a></div><br /><p></p><p>This week there wasn't much to prep, and most of dinner was frozen so my fridge looked pretty barren all week. I portioned some grapefruits, and ended up waiting until Monday night to cook the celeriac</p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://i.imgur.com/hxQk5gN.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="542" data-original-width="800" height="271" src="https://i.imgur.com/hxQk5gN.jpg" width="400" /></a></div><br /><p>For breakfast I was glad to return to my well-loved poached egg and toast. Served with half a grapefruit and coffee with milk and sugar. I ended up adding sugar to my grapefruit because these were particularly tart and I could afford the calories.</p><p>Egg & toast, grapefruit & sugar, coffee with sugar & milk - 300 calories.</p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://i.imgur.com/wddPfga.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="570" data-original-width="800" height="285" src="https://i.imgur.com/wddPfga.jpg" width="400" /></a></div><br /><p>This week is the first time I've noticed a difference between the PDF version of this booklet and the paper one I have. The PDF suggested a sandwich with two slices of cheese, but the paper booklet I have says sandwich with one slice of cheese and some soup. I've been missing my soup and sandwich lunch, so I went with what my book said, and added a nice little side salad so the lettuce leaves weren't left out.</p><p>The sandwich is one slice of bread, one slice of swiss cheese, and half a tablespoon of butter. The salad is the same balsamic vinaigrette dressing I've been making for previous weeks, with half an oz of gorgonzola, 1 oz of baby arugula, and 4 oz of cherry tomatoes.</p><p>Grilled cheese, salad, pickle, and beef broth - 353 calories.</p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://i.imgur.com/4X49V89.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="646" data-original-width="800" height="323" src="https://i.imgur.com/4X49V89.jpg" width="400" /></a></div><br /><p>In the afternoon I decided to try these little frozen macarons they have at our local grocer, with my home made take on a dirty chai. Each macaron is 50 calories, and these are lavender, chocolate, matcha, and lemon flavored. To make the drink I steeped a chai tea bag in about half a cup of water a couple minutes longer than the bag suggested, then added coffee, 2 tb half & half, and 1 tsp sugar.</p><p>Macarons and dirty chai - 270 calories.</p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://i.imgur.com/Q9A53ye.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="669" data-original-width="800" height="335" src="https://i.imgur.com/Q9A53ye.jpg" width="400" /></a></div><br /><p>For dinner, instead of haddock with peas and celery, we're having mahi-mahi with peas and mashed cleriac root. I wish I had taken a picture of the cleriac root, as it's kind of a crazy looking knobbly root, and the one I picked out for this week was almost as big as my head.</p><p>To prepare it, I peeled it with a vegetable peeler, cut it into chunks, boiled them until they pierced easily with a fork, drained the water, and mashed them. To serve, I separated our portion for the evening (just under 2 cups), added 1 tb butter and 4 tb half & half, then split between our two bowls. It is mildly sweet with a subtle fresh celery flavor and I really enjoyed it with the peas and spicy fish.</p><p>The mahi-mahi fillets were individually quick frozen in 4 oz portions, so to prepare them I thawed two each day, placed them on a foil lined pan, coated them with cayenne, paprika, and salt, and then baked at 350 F until they reach an internal temp of at least 135 F.</p><p>Fish, cleriac, and peas - 322 calories.</p><p>Total day's calories 1245.</p><p>Thanks for reading and see you next week!</p>Tk Wojcikhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07190059315858965834noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-242648151013542478.post-45885955841779919942017-05-05T18:39:00.002-07:002022-01-19T21:55:46.912-08:00Domino Sugar Diet - Week Nine (day 9 menu)<p> </p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://i.imgur.com/jF99W3B.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="800" data-original-width="527" height="400" src="https://i.imgur.com/jF99W3B.jpg" width="264" /></a></div><p><br /></p>This week I didn't prep anything in advance, because the only thing that would have been prepared early was the roast for dinner and I wanted to serve that freshly roasted Monday night.<p></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://i.imgur.com/yuMtgmn.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="531" data-original-width="800" height="266" src="https://i.imgur.com/yuMtgmn.jpg" width="400" /></a></div><br /><p>Cold cereal for breakfast was definitely a shake up to my normal egg breakfast routine. I didn't have toast with breakfast because I would not have finished a whole loaf of bread before it went bad if I was only eating it with breakfast, and I didn't really want my lunch "salad" as a sandwich this week. It made this breakfast really boring even though I love rice chex, and I think were I to do a cold cereal breakfast again I'd make sure to add some dried fruit or nuts to make it a little more hearty.</p><p>Not shown here is the kombucha and OJ drink I had for a snack between breakfast and lunch this week. I somehow never got a picture of it.</p><p>1 c Rice Chex Cereal, 1/2 c whole milk, coffee with sugar - 193 calories</p><p>7 oz kombucha and 4 oz OJ - 90 calories</p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://i.imgur.com/wH83e5i.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="538" data-original-width="800" height="269" src="https://i.imgur.com/wH83e5i.jpg" width="400" /></a></div><br /><p>For lunch I wanted to try to use up the cheese I had left over from last week's salad, so I picked out a couple of things in the deli that I thought would complement it well. These are super thin plain crisps topped with sliced honeycrisp apple, gorgonzola cheese, "Toscano" fennel pollen salami, and chopped provencale olives.</p><p>9 crisps, 4 oz apple, 1 oz gorgonzola, 10 olives, 1.5 oz salami - 414 calories</p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://i.imgur.com/OSGBILr.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="616" data-original-width="800" height="308" src="https://i.imgur.com/OSGBILr.jpg" width="400" /></a></div><br /><p>For dinner instead of veal I made a chuck roast in the oven. It's sitting on a bed of chopped onion and seasoned with salt, black pepper, red chili flakes, oregano, and caraway seeds. After roasting it I removed the meat and shredded it with a can of casera salsa. We had a little with our veggies every night and it reheated really well on the stove in a sauce pan.</p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://i.imgur.com/LcBaqTn.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="800" data-original-width="595" height="400" src="https://i.imgur.com/LcBaqTn.jpg" width="298" /></a></div><br /><p>Dinner - 3 oz casera roast, 3.5 oz carrots, 4 oz green beans, 1 tb butter, lots of black pepper - 480 calories</p><p>Total day's calories - 1177</p><p>I'm really looking forward to next week's lunch even though it's well in the territory of something I would have considered boring before starting this diet plan. Thanks for reading and see you then!</p>Tk Wojcikhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07190059315858965834noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-242648151013542478.post-56162077034524801512017-04-28T20:24:00.002-07:002022-01-19T18:35:11.151-08:00Domino Sugar Diet - Week Eight (day 8 menu)<p></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span style="text-align: left;"><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://i.imgur.com/dI9hwDW.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="800" data-original-width="503" height="400" src="https://i.imgur.com/dI9hwDW.jpg" width="251" /></a></div><br /><div style="text-align: justify;"> <span style="text-align: center;">I'm going to try to start listing my ingredients and quantities. I weigh almost everything, and I've been keeping extensive notes over the course of this series, so feel free to ask if you'd like quantities or ingredients for anything I've posted in the past too.</span></div></span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">This week I had an interesting task for prep, I made a huge vat of "Thai" pumpkin curry sauce for our dinner. This is a different recipe than I've used before, but we wanted to try something new, and it didn't disappoint. I say "Thai" in quotes because I cook a lot of Thai food, and this recipe does not really work up the same way I'm used to when making Thai style curry. Plus I'm pretty sure normally Thai food doesn't have bitters in it.</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">I regularly make my own broths out of leftover bones or veggies, and freeze them in 1 oz cubes. When I make broth, I do so without adding any salt or oil. This way when I add the broth to other recipes later, I have the option of adding salt or something flavorful and salty without having to worry about how much salt is already in my broth. If you are using a store-bought broth that contains salt or sodium, you will need to adjust the recipe.</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">Check out these broth ice cubes tho...</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://i.imgur.com/2pTbs7i.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="612" data-original-width="800" height="306" src="https://i.imgur.com/2pTbs7i.jpg" width="400" /></a></div><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><div class="separator" style="clear: both;">SAUCE INGREDIENTS:</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both;">1 tb olive oil</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both;">1 large shallot (about 5 oz)</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both;">2 serrano chilies</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both;">1 tb minced garlic</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both;">1 tb minced ginger</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both;">1 tb minced basil</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both;">1 can pumpkin puree</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both;">1 can coconut milk (I like Chaokoh brand)</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both;">2 cups vegetable broth</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both;">3 tb fish sauce</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both;">2 tb brown sugar</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both;">1 tb Angostura bitters</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both;">Chop and sautee your shallot in the olive oil, stirring occasionally, until it's starting to caramelize and get translucent. Add your chopped serranos, ginger, and garlic, and sautee until fragrant. Then dump in the whole can of pumpkin, the whole can of coconut milk, the basil, and your broth. </div><div class="separator" style="clear: both;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both;">Once everything is incorporated, I like to blitz it a little with an immersion blender, but you could also transfer it to a regular blender. If you're going to use a regular blender don't put hot liquid in there, put your cans of liquid and your broth in, and then add the other ingredients from the pan.</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://i.imgur.com/O0aQMfd.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="800" data-original-width="582" height="400" src="https://i.imgur.com/O0aQMfd.jpg" width="291" /></a></div><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both;"><div class="separator" style="clear: both;">After you've done your blending, season to taste with the remaining ingredients.</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both;">My recipe yielded 6 cups of sauce, at 1396 calories total, making each cup about 233 calories. These kind of sauces typically also freeze well, so you could make this ahead, freeze it in portions, and then thaw it to use as needed.</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://i.imgur.com/cTSM3lQ.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="439" data-original-width="800" height="219" src="https://i.imgur.com/cTSM3lQ.jpg" width="400" /></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: justify;">For breakfast I made a 1.5 egg omelet with what was left of my pork roll, some scallop mushrooms, and a bit of goat cheese.</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: justify;">Every other day, I cracked three eggs into a container, beat them a bit, and then used half to make that day's omelette and saved the rest in a sealed container in the fridge for the following day.</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: justify;">OMELETTE INGREDIENTS:</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: justify;">1.5 eggs</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: justify;">1.5 oz mushrooms</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: justify;">1 oz diced pork roll</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: justify;">.5 oz goat cheese</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: justify;">salt & pepper to taste</div></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://i.imgur.com/KiVb20Y.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="513" data-original-width="800" height="256" src="https://i.imgur.com/KiVb20Y.jpg" width="400" /></a></div><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: justify;"><div class="separator" style="clear: both;">All the tasty stuff is hiding inside.</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both;">Omelette, coffee with sugar - 278 calories</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://i.imgur.com/h6b1beF.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="516" data-original-width="800" height="258" src="https://i.imgur.com/h6b1beF.jpg" width="400" /></a></div><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both;"><div class="separator" style="clear: both;">For lunch, I decided to use some of the leftover pineapple rings from last week in place of the pineapple juice suggested with breakfast, and make a pear and pineapple salad. I figure if I'm going to eat a pear and some lettuce with cheese I might as well make it the most fabulous salad I can come up with.</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both;">SALAD INGREDIENTS:</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both;">1 oz spring mix lettuce</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both;">1 pineapple ring, chopped</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both;">1 oz pear, diced</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both;">1 oz gorgonzola cheese</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both;">1 oz pecans</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both;">1-2 tb dressing</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both;">DRESSING INGREDIENTS:</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both;">3 tb olive oil</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both;">4 tb balsamic vinegar</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both;">4 tb maple syrup</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both;">1 tb yellow mustard</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both;">1 tb minced garlic</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both;">salt & pepper to taste</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both;">Dressing yields about 13 tb, each tb is about 48 calories</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both;">I ended up with about a tablespoon of dressing left in my bowl every day, so even though I'm counting two tb worth of calories it may actually be a bit less.</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both;">Salad & kombucha - 443 calories</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://i.imgur.com/5qCDD2D.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="645" data-original-width="800" height="323" src="https://i.imgur.com/5qCDD2D.jpg" width="400" /></a></div><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both;"><div class="separator" style="clear: both;">For dinner we had chicken and carrots in pumpkin curry sauce with rice. </div><div class="separator" style="clear: both;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both;">To cook the chicken, put 1 cup of the sauce into a small sauce pan on low heat. Thinly slice the raw chicken breast and add it to the warm sauce, stirring until it's completely covered. Add a little water if needed to cover the chicken. Cover the pan with a lid and cook on low heat until the chicken is done, about 10 minutes. Serve over rice and steamed carrots, garnish with minced basil.</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both;">This picture is from the same day that I made the sauce, so I also garnished our plates with a few drips of the coconut milk that was left in the can after making the whole batch of sauce.</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both;">INGREDIENTS:</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both;">3-5 oz chicken breast</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both;">1/2 c curry sauce</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both;">1 medium carrot</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both;">1/2 c rice</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both;">1 tsp minced basil</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both;">Chicken curry with rice - 511 calories -- this is with up to 5 oz chicken, it's much less if you use less chicken.</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both;">Total day's calories - 1232</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both;">Next week is another weird fruit salad lunch... should be fun! Thanks for reading and see you next week!</div></div></div></div></div></div><p></p>Tk Wojcikhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07190059315858965834noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-242648151013542478.post-73773275195425944912017-04-21T21:40:00.002-07:002022-01-19T18:22:37.111-08:00Domino Sugar Diet - Week 7 (day 7 menu)Weirdly, this week there was no prep needed for any of our meals.<br />
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For breakfast, instead of an orange, oatmeal, and toast, I'm having some similar stuff I already had around in the cabinets at home - Cream of Wheat with butter, maple, and raisins. This is one serving of the one minute Cream of Wheat, with 1/2 tb butter, 1 tb maple syrup, and 1 oz of raisins.<br />
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Cream of wheat, toppings, coffee with sugar - 316 calories.<br />
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For lunch things are about to get a little weird. The menu called for a bologna and butter sandwich, but that sounds awful to me. When I was shopping around thinking about a bologna alternative I happened upon a rarity in the deli case - Taylor Ham. I've never seen this stuff outside of New Jersey, and as far as weird lunch meats are concerned the nostalgia factor is high with this one, so I bought it. It's the most indulgent junk-food lunch I've had in ages.<br />
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It comes wrapped in plastic, and inside the plastic is a canvas tube which you peel back and then slice off pieces as you go. It's firm and easy to slice evenly. The slices are quite small in diameter.<br />
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The slices need to be cut a little so that they don't bubble up while you sear them in a pan. No extra oils or anything are needed, and the bit of oil left behind from frying the ham is plenty to cook the egg in.<br />
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I cracked an egg into the pan after removing the ham, broke the yolk so it'd cook along with the white, and then added a piece of american cheese after flipping the egg once. American cheese is kind of nasty, and doesn't really qualify as cheese, but I think this is as close as I'll ever get to bologna and butter sandwich. This meal is so indulgent, I'm skipping the cake and salad.<br />
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I present my "pork roll, egg, and cheese" sliders with dill pickle - 430 calories<br />
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For dinner the menu listed steak, mushrooms, tomato, spinach, half a head of lettuce with vinegar, a slice of bread, and a half cup of pineapple and apple. I've made a few changes here because we still had a lot of broccoli left over from last week, and I couldn't imagine either of us eating half a head of lettuce with vinegar along with our dinner. This is 3 oz of NY strip steak, half an oz of maitake mushrooms, 4 oz of cherry tomatoes, and 8 oz of broccoli. The mushrooms and tomatoes were sauteed in a small frying pan with a spritz of oil. The tomatoes do a great job of adding a bit of extra liquid to the pan to make the cooking of the mushrooms easier with almost no oil.<br />
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Steak, mushrooms, tomatoes, and broccoli - 158 calories.<br />
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For dessert we continued with the baked apples from last week, but on Thursday it was pineapple upside-down cake day, so we had pineapple right-side-up apples instead. This is before they went into the oven, and they're probably the cutest thing I've cooked in ages. The pineapple and cherries add 52 calories to the baked apple recipe from last week.<br />
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Pineapple right-side-up apples - 323 calories.<br />
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Daily total calories - 1227<br />
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I've made it half way through the book now! Next week is pretty tame, but should be fun anyway. Thanks for reading!Tk Wojcikhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07190059315858965834noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-242648151013542478.post-62686362293306452212017-04-14T16:13:00.002-07:002022-01-19T18:19:35.106-08:00Domino Sugar Diet - Week Six (day 6 menu)<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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If you were wondering on Sunday who was cutting onions, it was me. For prep this week I broke down three large red onions and five bell peppers, made pasta salad, trimmed a bunch of chicken livers, and cried a lot. Like, a lot a lot.<br />
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Seriously it was a lot of onions and peppers... this is only about half.<br />
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For breakfast I thought I'd shake things up a bit and stray from my well loved poached egg and toast, so this week I had cloud egg, on toast with butter. I decided to skip the orange juice and just have coffee with sugar.<br />
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To make a cloud egg, you whip your single egg white with a pinch of salt until it forms stiff peaks, then pile it on parchment paper or a silpat. Make sure to make a little dent in the middle where your egg yolk will sit, but don't put the yolk in yet. First, bake the white at about 350 F for 3-5 minutes, then carefully drop the yolk into the dent you made and bake for another 3-5 minutes, or until the yolk reaches your desired firmness and the white has started to brown a bit. For me I like the yolks a bit firmer here than I do with a poached egg.<br />
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This recipe is awesome if you gently fold in a bit of shredded cheese or some fresh herbs before baking the white, but I went with plain salt and pepper so that I could have the butter on my toast.<br />
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Cloud egg, toast with butter, coffee with sugar - 238 calories.<br />
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For lunch, the menu suggested turkey sandwich, but I think I'm developing a lettuce leaf habit so I decided instead I'd have some other stuff with my poultry. I had some more of that beautiful local pasta, so this time I put it together as a salad. This is fresh red wheat fusilli with baked herbed chicken, goat cheese, and red onion, served with a dill pickle sliced in quarters.<br />
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To make the salad I cooked the baked chicken breast just like in week 1, diced it up, added it to the pasta, cheese, and diced red onion, and seasoned with salt and pepper. It was pretty tasty but next time I'd use a bit less onion.<br />
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10 oz chicken, 14 oz pasta, 9 oz onion, and 5 oz cheese, the salad comes out to roughly 66 calories per oz. I'm having a 3.5 oz serving for lunch with my dill pickle.<br />
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Pasta salad and small dill pickle - 236 calories.<br />
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Dinner was supposed to be calf liver with onion, potato, broccoli, and bread, but I couldn't find calf liver anywhere so I went with chicken livers. I have always enjoyed chicken liver, even as a child, so this week was kind of a weird treat for me.<br />
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To prepare the liver, I dry it off with a paper towel before dry-frying it for 3-4 minutes per side over medium heat in a small skillet. Dry frying means there is no oil in the pan, not even spray, just pan and liver. I also let the liver rest for about 4 minutes after cooking.<br />
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The potato is one small russet potato, peeled, boiled, and then mashed with two tablespoons of milk and some salt and pepper. The broccoli is just steamed with some salt.<br />
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To make the "onions" I sauteed half a red onion and one whole red bell pepper in 1 tb of olive oil and 2 tsp sugar. When the onion and pepper slices are limp and translucent, add 2 tb of balsamic vinegar and cook until it starts to reduce and lose a bit of its sharpness, then add about 1 tb of chopped basil. Season with salt to taste, then serve. Makes 2-3 servings depending on the size of your veggies. In this case my recipe made 3 servings at 108 calories each. After I served the peppers and onions, I tossed my chicken livers in the sauce left in the pan before serving.<br />
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On this day I seasoned my oil a little by frying a couple garlic cloves in it before starting the onion mix, you can see one of the cloves at the top of my plate.<br />
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3 oz chicken liver, 1 cup steamed broccoli, potato, onions & peppers, garlic - 483 calories.<br />
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Now it's time for baked apple, and really I think it might always be time for baked apple. To make my baked apples I used honeycrisp apples. These were huge apples from Costco, the largest one weighed about 10 oz by itself. I tried to pick out some of the smaller ones but they were still 6-8 oz before coring.<br />
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When you core your apples for this, don't cut all the way through them. The idea is to trap the tasty stuff you're about to put in these apples so that it bakes into the flesh inside them, so you just want to scoop out the top and the part with the seeds, but leave the bottom of the apple intact. This would probably be easier with a melon baller, but I don't have one so I used a very sharp small knife (careful!) and a spoon to get the junk out.<br />
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After coring, stuff your apples with up to 1 tb sugar and then top with 1 tb butter. I cooked mine in a bread loaf pan, with about half a cup of water in the bottom.<br />
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Tent loosely with tin foil, so that it's not touching the tops of your apples, and bake at 375 F for 30 minutes. Then remove the foil and bake for another 30 minutes.<br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">This stuff is so delicious!</td></tr>
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Once your apples are out of the oven, drain off the butter sludge into the pan liquid, and pour all of the liquid in the pan into a small saucepan with whatever spices you like on your apples. This is my favorite mix here, one cinnamon quill (this one is broken in half) and this mulling spice tea bag, but this would also be good using a chai tea or earl gray tea.<br />
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Simmer the spices and the apple liquid for a few minutes so that you infuse all that tasty flavor in there. For mine I let it simmer for about five minutes. Keep your apples covered while you do this so they cool a little but not too much.<br />
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After you've infused your liquid, remove the tea bag and spices, turn down the heat on the pan to low, and add 1 tb corn starch. Make a slurry with your corn starch and some water before you add it so that you don't get lumps, and make sure that your liquid isn't too hot while adding the slurry.<br />
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Stir until it thickens, usually just a minute or two, then remove from the heat and add some salt. Don't be afraid to be generous with the salt, it will help balance out all the sweetness. Think salted caramel, that's what we're going for.<br />
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Dump that stuff over your apples, and enjoy. Makes two servings.<br />
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Spiced salted caramel baked apple - 271 calories.<br />
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Total day's calories - 1228<br />
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Thanks for reading, and see you next week!Tk Wojcikhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07190059315858965834noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-242648151013542478.post-53347400161734653122017-04-07T15:55:00.002-07:002022-01-19T18:14:30.064-08:00Domino Sugar Diet - Week Five (day 5 menu)<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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This week was one I have been looking forward to more than most. For prep, I turned the rest of my grapefruits into juice, hard boiled some eggs, and prepped six trouts for baking.<br />
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Behold my terrifying and hilarious french cat apron. My boss brought this back from Paris for me as a gift a few years ago.<br />
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I don't spend as much time prepping trout as some people do, because I bake it with the bones in and remove them as I'm serving it. I feel like you get more fish that way, losing less of it to the knife when you try to take the bones out while it's raw.<br />
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For this week, I placed my cleaned trouts on a bed of parsley and spinach, stuffed the body cavity with garlic and shallots, salted the inside and out thoroughly, and then made them into neat little trout envelopes, stored in a bag in the fridge. I moved them to the freezer on Wednesday, and took one out to thaw in time for dinner each day after that.<br />
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For breakfast, the book called for two strips of bacon, 1/2 cup grapefruit juice, and dry toast. Instead I'm having one strip of bacon, an egg over-easy with Tapatio hot sauce, toast, and grapefruit drink, which is three tablespoons of grapefruit juice in 8 oz of sparkling water.<br />
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Bacon, egg, toast, grapefruit drink, coffee with sugar - 273 calories.<br />
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For lunch, the menu lists bread, boiled egg, lettuce, and cherry pie. Don't tell Domino sugar, but I'm not having any lettuce leaves this week.<br />
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Using one hard boiled egg per day, I added my mayo mustard mix, salt, pepper, and paprika, and made egg salad sandwich. Served with half a tomato with salt, and my homemade lemon rose jello fluff.<br />
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When I was a kid my mom used to make a "jello pie" which was several layers of whipped and unwhipped jello, so I thought I'd take a shot at whipped jello this week.<br />
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The jello fluff was made with two packets of gelatin, 1 cup lemon juice, 2 tb sugar, 1/2 tsp rose water, and 1 c water. I put it in the fridge to chill for about half an hour, then as it was starting to set I whipped it until it was frothy and then put it back in the fridge. It ends up separating a bit as the bubbles all rise to the top, so you get a thin layer of regular jello at the bottom and this fluffy whip at the top.<br />
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Lemon rosewater is one of my favorite drinks during the summer when it gets too warm out, and the flavor is no less refreshing when it's chilled jello whip.<br />
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Egg salad sandwich and tomato - 210 calories<br />
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Whipped jello snack - 65 calories<br />
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For dinner I got super lucky at the Saturday farmer's market. There is a local pasta artist who makes a variety of awesome fresh pastas from locally grown grains, and this week he had squid ink pasta on the table. The flavor is very neutral, and similar enough to regular pasta that Randy said if I hadn't told him what it was, he wouldn't have known it wasn't just regular pasta with food coloring. I personally think it has a bit of a savory flavor that's different from regular pasta and goes well with seafood, so we're having squid ink pasta instead of boiled potato.<br />
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I baked the trout, steamed the green beans, and then used the garlic and shallots from inside the trout to make a brown butter & lemon sauce for the pasta and cook down the cherry tomatoes a little bit.<br />
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4 oz baked rainbow trout, green beans with salt, squid ink pasta with tomatoes and sauce - 429 calories.<br />
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For pie, I was set on making my own filling, and it's not cherry season right now. Randy suggested strawberry rhubarb pie after seeing some rhubarb on the shelf at the store, even though he's never had it before and I've never made it before. This was also my first time attempting a lattice top pie, so I probably could have done better getting a golden crust on top but I think it turned out pretty well anyway.<br />
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The filling was 12 oz each of strawberries and rhubarb, set in a bowl with 1 cup sugar, 4 tb corn starch, 1 tb water, 1 tsp lemon juice, 3/4 tsp cinnamon, and 1 tsp vanilla. I left the bowl in my fridge for a few hours, stirring every 30 minutes, until a good amount of liquid had come out of the fruits, then scooped the solids into the pie crust, and added just enough of the juice to fill the shell. Then I made a lattice over the top with a second pie crust, brushed with some egg white, and baked for about 40 minutes at 375 until the crust was golden.<br />
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The pie comes out to 170 calories per slice, probably a little less because I didn't end up using all of the top crust or the filling but I left them as part of the total anyway.<br />
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Total day's calories - 1147<br />
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Next week we have another liver dish on the menu... yummmm.Tk Wojcikhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07190059315858965834noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-242648151013542478.post-6741129991532517422017-03-31T15:43:00.001-07:002022-01-19T18:08:59.947-08:00Domino Sugar Diet - Week Four (day 4 menu)<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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This week for prep I made a batch of little pretzels in place of dinner rolls. I supremed some grapefruits, and I washed, weighed, and bagged some snack veggies.<br />
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Typically I make 8 large soft pretzels with this recipe, but I cut the dough further into 16 pieces to make little pretzel shaped rolls instead. Some came out a bit larger than others, but I have been eating the smaller ones with dinner to make sure that I'm at or under my calorie calculations if they had been perfect. I use Alton Brown's soft pretzel recipe and it turns out fabulous every time. Each roll comes in at roughly 150 calories according to the recipe, but I'm counting them as 200 to be safe.<br />
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For breakfast i'm skipping the liquid calories suggested by canned pineapple juice and I've moved the grapefruit from dinner to this meal.<br />
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Light rye toast with a poached egg, half a grapefruit with 1 tsp sugar, coffee with sugar (not shown) - 258 calories.<br />
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For lunch, it's liverwurst with grain mustard and lettuce on rye toast, and my veggie snack bag. The veggies I've been treating as my any-time snack, along with the "ice cream" you'll see later.<br />
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The liverwurst was really not very strong in flavor, I expected it to be more liver-y but it was kind of like mild soft balogna. It wasn't bad but I don't think I'll be having this specific brand again if I do try liverwurst lunch in the future.<br />
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The veggie bag takes the tomato from lunch and adds the radish and celery from dinner. It's 4 oz of "easter egg" radishes, 3 oz celery sticks, and 2 oz cherry tomatoes, coming in at about 56 calories.<br />
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Sandwich and veggies - 326 calories.<br />
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For dinner, we have roast turkey. I bought a single breast portion, coated it in seasonings and baked it. It was enough for the whole week for the two of us. The spinach salad is dressed with 1tb of a tomato vinaigrette I made, and 1/2 oz candied walnuts. I also had 1 tsp of grain mustard with my pretzel roll.<br />
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To make the dressing I put 2 tsp of olive oil in a small skillet, added some of my turmeric mix spices (turmeric, paprika, crushed red pepper, cinnamon, salt) until they started to sizzle and become fragrant, then I added 2 tb minced shallot and 2 tb balsamic vinegar. Let that reduce over a low heat for a few minutes, and then add the flesh of one medium tomato, about 4 oz.<br />
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The flesh is what's left of the tomato after peeling and seeding it. To peel the tomato run it under hot water for a minute or so, or drop it in boiling water for about the same amount of time, then wipe off the peel with a paper towel. Cut it in half and remove all the seeds, then mince what's left and add to the dressing. Give it a minute or two to break down and then you can serve the dressing warm over the spinach, it's pretty tasty. Makes roughly 13 tbsp, I dressed my salad with 1 tbsp at 13 calories.<br />
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Roast turkey, spinach salad, pretzel roll with mustard - 497 calories.<br />
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Peppermint icemilk - I'm calling it icemilk because I didn't use cream, I used whole milk. This is made in the blender with milk ice cubes. 8 oz whole milk (half frozen half liquid), 4 tsp sugar, and 3 starlight mints, blend until smooth. I let it set up in the freezer in a tray for about half an hour before stirring and serving. One recipe makes two servings - 113 calories each.<br />
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Total day's calories - 1194<br />
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Next week is full of fun with pie, jello, and fish dinner. I'm really looking forward to it!Tk Wojcikhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07190059315858965834noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-242648151013542478.post-11499033881460784022017-03-24T14:31:00.001-07:002022-01-19T18:05:37.314-08:00Domino Sugar Diet - Week Three (day 3 menu)<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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This week there was a bit more prep than last week, and I got to make up an interesting breakfast to compensate for the loss of eggy protein breakfast from the previous two weeks. My prep included portioning grapefruits, making jello, and portioning chicken thighs.<br />
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To portion the grapefruit, I decided to cut them into supremes and save the juice from the process for adding to my jello. If you aren't familiar with supremes, they are basically just the tasty part of a citrus fruit. The process is to cut off all of the rind carefully, then cut down into the fruit toward the center right next to a membrane and sort of flick your knife toward the other membrane to release the segment. There are probably a ton of good videos on YouTube that can teach the technique.<br />
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If I had ended up with enough juice I planned to make grapefruit jello from scratch, but I didn't so instead I went with strawberry-grapefruit jello.<br />
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You can see that after one grapefruit I had a pretty decent amount of juice. That's just shy of half a cup after squeezing the leftover bits that didn't make it into my cups.<br />
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Here's my drawer of meat... I portioned out the package of chicken thighs I bought into 5.5 oz portions. This meant cutting up some whole thighs and adding pieces to the bags to make the correct weight, but baked chicken thighs come out great if you do it right, even when adding extra bits.<br />
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My method is to take the whole thigh, and lay it out flat with what was the skin side down. Then you take the extra bits and lay them out the same way. Season the underside of all the pieces, then stack them so the smallest pieces are on top. Then take the whole thing and roll it so the seam is underneath, season the top, and bake until the internal temp hits 165. Using this method I can bake my chicken thigh right along with Randy's chicken breast and both are done at the same time because they're about the same thickness.<br />
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I really enjoyed this week because I used a different set of seasonings every day on my chicken, so it was like different dinners all week even though they were essentially the same.<br />
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For breakfast the book called for 1/2 grapefruit (with no sugar) toast with jam, and coffee with sugar. After the changes I made to the overall menu, I was way too low on calories (it came in under 1k) so I adjusted a bit. I've taken the tomato from dinner, added vegemite spread, a slice of swiss cheese, and milk for my coffee. You can see my little milk pitcher in the background, I measure my milk allowance for the day into that and keep it in the fridge, so that one portion of milk gets split between breakfast and lunch about equally.<br />
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I personally love vegemite, and one serving comes in at 5 calories but adds a ton of flavor and a little bit of protein. I weigh my toast before adding the spread and then again after, and it turns out I don't even end up using a full serving (5g) on one slice of bread.<br />
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In this picture I decided to have my jello with my grapefruit at breakfast instead of at lunch, but I only ended up doing that one time.<br />
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Vegemite, tomato, and swiss toasty, grapefruit, coffee with sugar & milk - 285 calories.<br />
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For lunch I'm having ham & swiss on rye with mustard/mayo mix, strawberry-grapefruit jello, iced coffee with milk & sugar (and coffee ice cube) and chicken broth - 447 calories.<br />
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Seriously if you like iced coffee make yourself some coffee ice cubes, no more watery coffee in exchange for cold coffee.<br />
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The jello was made with their new "simply good" strawberry flavor which has no artificial flavors, colors, or preservatives, and I subbed one cup of the water it called for with grapefruit juice. This brought the calories up a little but I think the flavor was much better so it was worth it. Next time jello is on the list I'll be more prepared and make it from scratch instead.<br />
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For dinner, the book called for 1/2 a broiled chicken or 8 oz coming in at 332 calories (seriously I'm not sure how that works, I've never seen a chicken that small at the store), so I subbed 5.5 oz of chicken thigh which comes in around 330 calories. It also called for 1/2 cup of carrots, bread and butter, and fresh pineapple. Instead of bread and butter I'm having 1/2 cup of peas with salt, and baked carrots. I like my carrots with a little char on them so I hit them with my culinary torch before serving. This eliminates the need to cook them in oil, saving some calories while adding roasty flavor.<br />
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Chicken, carrots, peas, and what I'm calling "cactus cooler sorbet" - 459 calories.<br />
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Let's talk about cactus cooler sorbet. I had oranges left over from last week, and some pineapple in the freezer from the week before, and when you add those two things to a blender with some ice it makes this little cup of sunshine for roughly 48 calories a serving.<br />
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One orange peeled and seeded, a bit of orange zest, about 3.5oz of frozen pineapple, and 8 oz of ice, blend until smooth, split between two cups, enjoy with a friend. This was by far my favorite part of this week's menu, but I enjoyed this week much more than the two before it.<br />
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Total day's calories - 1191.<br />
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Next week is liverwurst, prepare yourselves!Tk Wojcikhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07190059315858965834noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-242648151013542478.post-16683864302118808002017-03-17T13:32:00.001-07:002022-01-19T18:01:36.865-08:00Domino Sugar Diet - Week Two (day 2 menu)<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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So this week our breakfast and lunch menu is nearly the same as last week. My prep was much less exciting. I finished baking a par-bake loaf of Sourdough and sliced it into 1oz portions, along with a loaf of angel food cake. My chicken was already made from last week so I just had to thaw that out in the fridge overnight, and everything else was made at mealtimes.<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg_Q9lLdbmlUZQbMe7mzVgOXadGEFMMCIt6LOdOJexx9uy9wJndpdPZD6cdBlD1HQCje9LdIZLJmg4radWEAGk-2v1INoEQllSlE5RgPey6OYsBgVkdRrGYm41Qrvz-7dMx5PKB5ccnC2Sm/s1600/6SIlYM6.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="225" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg_Q9lLdbmlUZQbMe7mzVgOXadGEFMMCIt6LOdOJexx9uy9wJndpdPZD6cdBlD1HQCje9LdIZLJmg4radWEAGk-2v1INoEQllSlE5RgPey6OYsBgVkdRrGYm41Qrvz-7dMx5PKB5ccnC2Sm/s400/6SIlYM6.jpg" width="400" /></a></div>
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For breakfast I'm sticking with the poached egg on toast. I don't like tomato juice, so instead of that I'm having equal calories of button mushrooms and cherry tomatoes. I decided to use the butter allowance in spray oil to toast my bread in a small skillet and then fry up the mushrooms and tomatoes in what's left in the pan afterward. Poached egg, sourdough toast, mushrooms and tomatoes, butter, and coffee with sugar - 248 calories.<br />
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For lunch and afternoon snack, we have the same chicken sandwich from last week because I couldn't find a packaged roast beef I was happy with and I already had the chicken. Since the sourdough bread is much smaller than the bread I was using last week, and at 62 calories per 1oz slice, I'm having two pieces with lunch. I've also moved the bouillon from dinner to lunch, because at this point I'm addicted to soup and sandwich.<br />
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I end up snacking on the apples and angel food cake over the course of the afternoon while I'm working. It's way too much food for me to eat in one sitting. Sprinkled on the apples is a very light dusting of Spice Islands Pumpkin Pie spice mix, it's something like cinnamon, nutmeg, and mace, and it's pretty good for making your apple and cake more exciting without adding any extra calories.<br />
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Soup, sandwich, apple, and cake - 515 calories. It comes in at 438 calories if I skip the cake.<br />
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Dinner said we should have frankfurters, but I couldn't convince myself that was a good idea, so instead we're having bratwurst. One link is actually 10 calories less than the suggested two hoddogs, so dinner is one sausage, half a cup of sauerkraut, mashed potato with milk added, and half an orange.<br />
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To make the sauerkraut more palatable, I drained the pan I cooked the sausages in of any left over oil, then tossed in some caraway seeds along with the sauerkraut. Get all the brown bits out of the bottom of your pan, then season with salt and pepper to taste.<br />
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The potato is one boiled potato mashed with two tablespoons of milk and some salt.<br />
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Dinner total calories - 490.<br />
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Total day calories - 1253<br />
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Next week we're having roast chicken, and a grapefruit breakfast adventure!Tk Wojcikhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07190059315858965834noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-242648151013542478.post-41942899188254248932017-03-10T15:31:00.003-08:002022-01-19T17:59:35.540-08:00Domino Sugar Diet - Week One (day 1 menu)<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Domino Sugar Reducing Diet - Pamphlet from 1954</td></tr>
</tbody></table><br /> Someone shared this diet booklet to Reddit not too long ago. I personally thought it looked both reasonable and tasty, so I'm using it (modified a bit here and there) as a meal plan. I typically aim for 1200-1300 calories a day anyway. I'm 5'6" with a desk job so I don't need much more than that to sustain me on average. I'll be using one day for each week for the next 14 weeks. This is week one.<br /><br />
I like to prep on Sunday, so this week's prep included baking a pie, weighing out and shaping burger patties, making a carrot slaw salad, and roasting some chicken breasts. I made a second batch of the salad on Wednesday, and froze half of the pie and two chicken breasts for future weeks. Randy is eating this plan along with me, but he needs more calories than I do so his plates look a bit different.<br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">First day - or week in my case. How neurotic does this lady at the bottom of the page look? She is way too wide-eyed.</td></tr>
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Breakfast - OJ mixed with sparkling water (mostly sparkling water, I call it a virgin mimosa), poached egg with salt & pepper on toast, coffee with sugar and milk - 283 calories<br />
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I chose to have a whole piece of bread with breakfast, and skip one piece of bread from the lunch menu. Also I have opted for milk in my coffee instead of jam on my toast. I smush up the egg and spread it over the toast so no jam or butter is needed.<br />
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Lunch - Roast chicken sandwich with mustard/mayo mix, apple pie, and chicken broth - 513 calories<br />
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I didn't have time to make consomme and I'm not fond of the consomme concentrates from the store, so instead I'm having "better than bouillon - roast chicken" broth. I made the roast chicken and apple pie myself, so I could control what went into them.<br />
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The chicken is a whole boneless breast, butterflied and topped with minced garlic, fresh basil, and fresh thyme. Roasted in the oven for 35-45 minutes until internal temp hits 165 F. One cooked breast was enough for five days of sandwiches. I'll be having this next week too instead of roast beef sandwiches.<br />
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The pie recipe is much longer, ask and I'll type it out if you want. It involves making a roux on the stove and par-cooking the apples before putting them in the pie crust in the oven. I was surprised when my calculations ended up making the ideal slice about the same size as the book called for to hit about the same calorie value.<br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Most days, I've been skipping pie. Lunch with kombucha, this time with toasted bread because that's better - 298 calories</td></tr>
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Dinner - Lettuce wrapped hamburger with cheese, pickles, ketchup, mustard, and caramelized onion; green beans with salt; carrot pineapple slaw salad - 500 calories<br />
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I weighed out the hamburger meat before cooking, and the caramelized onion is just a minced onion cooked down with a spritz of oil, salt and water.<br />
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The carrot salad is mostly shaved carrot, but also has fresh pineapple, parsley, raisins, and a dressing made of equal parts lemon juice, olive oil, and maple syrup. I think it was 1tb of each for about 5 cups of carrot, 1/2 cup of pineapple, 2 oz of raisins, and about 2tb of minced parsley. I used rainbow carrots so some are yellow and purple in addition to the regular orange carrots.Tk Wojcikhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07190059315858965834noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-242648151013542478.post-82758205116023115202016-11-24T23:00:00.001-08:002021-07-30T21:56:27.000-07:00Happy Thanksgiving!I've been doing a lot of typing since my last post, but not really very much writing. Our situation with regard to moving plans has changed significantly recently, and it's put me in a super stressful place mentally. I'm trying to stay sane by planning, and being obsessive about planning, and doing as many things as I can think of to bring in extra funds.<br />
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So far that's been a lot of online transcription work when I can stand it, and swap meet Sundays. I think now that Thanksgiving has passed, the next time I go to the swap meet I'll have to go to SLO and see if I can get a better crowd there with more interest in my hand made items. It is prime time for picking up Christmas gifts. With this long weekend, I intend to knit like crazy, and see if I can come up with enough pieces to make my spot at the swap meet more craft-faire and less yard-sale, but we'll see.<br />
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Today was a whirlwind in the kitchen, but I find that I'm happiest there a lot of the time. We'll have leftovers to munch on for the weekend which will hopefully give me more time to get my crafts in order for the swap meet.<br />
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Reflecting on what I'm thankful for today, I realize that the position we're in is not a bad one. It's tough because the longer we're in this apartment, the harder it is financially to move out. Thinking about trying to move "all of our stuff" though is a thing I am starting to see from a new perspective. I know I have some things that are very special and important to me, and those things will definitely be coming along, but the more I look at all the stuff I've accumulated over my life, the more I see this as an opportunity to reduce what I own down to what's really important.<br />
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I've lived in California, within a bubble of about 60 miles, for almost my entire life. Every move I've made has been dozens of trips with a car dragging boxes and bins full of things to a new location. I want this time to be different. I want to get where we're going and look at what we brought and feel certain that it's only the stuff that matters.<br />
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The only part of this whole ordeal I'm still very nervous about is the part where I have to go on a hail-mary trip to what we expect will be our new hometown, and find a place for us to live in a few short days. Doing so during the holiday season might be a double-edged sword, because things like a hotel, car, and flight may prove to be more expensive, but everything I've read about moving suggests that rents are lowest during the holidays because nobody wants to be moving at that time of year, or during the winter. Hopefully that's true.<br />
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Anybody want to come with me on a brief trip to Oregon in the next few weeks?Tk Wojcikhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07190059315858965834noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-242648151013542478.post-26145896953671626372016-11-05T22:04:00.017-07:002021-07-30T21:52:35.360-07:00Home-Made Cheese-Stuffed Turkey Meatballs<div style="text-align: justify;">
Those of you who know me well know that I am a huge fan of Chef Gordon Ramsay. His show Kitchen Nightmares is one of my guilty pleasures, because it's largely the same story every episode. Chef Ramsay is invited to "help" a struggling restaurant fix all their problems and become a profitable business. Most of the time the restaurant kitchens are disgusting and to go along with that there are typically some kind of dramatic dysfunctional relationships between the owners and/or staff.</div>
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Now, I'm a fan of Chef Ramsay, so I tend to give him a pass on hyperbole, but just about every episode is "the most disgusting thing" he's ever seen, and the "worst food" he's ever tasted. Pepper in a bit of British slang and some curse words, and you've essentially seen almost every episode.</div>
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The episode I'm thinking of this evening follows twin brothers running an Italian food joint in Cleveland. These guys were like the saddest real life Tweedle-Dee and Tweedle-Dum you can imagine. Over the course of the episode, Chef Ramsay learns that they have no clue about food safety, and they bring in frozen meatballs to serve their customers. He is absolutely shocked that they don't make their own meatballs from scratch seeing as it's "easy" and by the end of the episode he's got them in the streets shouting "We have home-made meatballs!" to bring in customers.</div>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">The Tweedles and Chef Ramsay</td></tr>
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<div style="text-align: justify;"><br />Now, don't get me started on how food made at a restaurant is not technically "home-made" unless the chef is also living there... but this got me thinking, if it's so easy, I should know how to make truly home-made meatballs.</div>
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So, I set out to learn how to make meatballs, and the truth is, it is easy. At this point, I don't really measure any of the seasonings that go into my meatballs, but I can give you a basic idea. I think everyone has their own taste anyway so give it a try and see what you like, and what you might like a little more or less of in your mix.</div>
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We've been having a game night with a local friend of ours every other week, and I started making cheese stuffed meatballs for our dinner that night. They've been a huge hit, so our guest -- being that he's a super considerate guy -- started bringing us some pasta sauce and ground turkey when he comes over for game night. Usually I make two meals worth of meatballs out of a 1lb package of ground turkey, but our friend didn't know that, so he brought us a 3lb package instead.</div>
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Queue the dramatic cooking show music, because it's time to make an unusually large batch of meatballs. My apologies in advance for some of the blurry photos below.</div>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Here's all the stuff. In retrospect I should have used a larger bowl.</td></tr>
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<span style="font-size: large;"><br />Ingredients:</span></div>
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<ul><li style="text-align: justify;">3 lbs ground turkey</li>
<li style="text-align: justify;">3 large eggs</li>
<li style="text-align: justify;">1 cup Panko breadcrumbs</li>
<li style="text-align: justify;">8-12 sticks of string cheese (I like Frigo)</li>
<li style="text-align: justify;">2 tbsp Worcestershire sauce</li>
<li style="text-align: justify;">1 tbsp each of parsley, oregano, basil, thyme, paprika</li>
<li style="text-align: justify;">2 tsp each of salt, garlic powder, onion powder, red pepper flakes, cayenne pepper</li>
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<span style="font-size: large;">Optional:</span></div>
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Fresh minced garlic to taste</div>
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Cracked black pepper</div>
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More crushed red pepper or other fresh chili paste like Sambal Oelek if you like spicy meatballs</div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh-45Zt8qg1qLDXnmK0Bf_A5q8r3QLKanNgVPe9yPR3IcV2w-pPtCQdgG6NAHkmZeUPOhkPvRkK2tYK21xhsU8LmK75ySyT7K5yYZdEuGJuRNM5qzXsOV811q-0fP68DEOH7HnN_TGI9P5D/s1600/20160928_203109.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh-45Zt8qg1qLDXnmK0Bf_A5q8r3QLKanNgVPe9yPR3IcV2w-pPtCQdgG6NAHkmZeUPOhkPvRkK2tYK21xhsU8LmK75ySyT7K5yYZdEuGJuRNM5qzXsOV811q-0fP68DEOH7HnN_TGI9P5D/s640/20160928_203109.jpg" width="360" /></a></div>
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I wear nitrile gloves while making this because I like to really get in the mix and make sure it's all homogeneous before making the giant meatball into tiny meatballs, but I hate getting raw meat on my bare hands.</div>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">The cheese stands alone... sort of.</td></tr>
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First, cut up your cheese sticks. I like to cut each stick into the same number of pieces, because this will determine how many meatballs I need to make with each third (or quarter, however your brain does meat and cheese math best) of my meat mix.</div>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Giant bowl of meat</td></tr>
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<div style="text-align: justify;"><br />I divided my giant meatball into three smaller giant meatballs. Then each smaller giant meatball into 32 regular sized meatballs. </div>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Running out of room for all my balls</td></tr>
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After they were all done, I put them between layers of wax paper in a sheet pan that fits in my freezer. Once they're all frozen, move them into plastic ziplock bags.</div>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgGav9EQcvfXACCNTNoN6mE3hzwYY2PV0eSlOejuB3MUyRyXfGtTpyhDHklTwHh0N6mLuqE_ZjQ8yfoZUnJckrUhuJCpt_3QBM22NPAESBQFzy8xM__1SFjDmsk8jHDqdCssHP4FYW9OYPq/s1600/20160928_210550.jpg" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgGav9EQcvfXACCNTNoN6mE3hzwYY2PV0eSlOejuB3MUyRyXfGtTpyhDHklTwHh0N6mLuqE_ZjQ8yfoZUnJckrUhuJCpt_3QBM22NPAESBQFzy8xM__1SFjDmsk8jHDqdCssHP4FYW9OYPq/s640/20160928_210550.jpg" width="360" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Finally done, 96 meatballs</td></tr>
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<div style="text-align: justify;"><br />They will keep in the freezer for quite a while, and all you have to do to cook them after that is brown them quickly in a little olive oil in a skillet on the stove, then add some of your favorite pasta sauce to the pan. Cover and simmer over low heat for about 10 minutes to make sure they're cooked all the way through, then serve over pasta.</div>
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When I prepare this for everyone, I like to put veggies in mine instead of 2/3 of the regular serving of pasta I give everyone else. Mine is on the left, it's six meatballs with diced steamed zucchini and a fist full of arugula.</div>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Yummmm!</td></tr>
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<div style="text-align: justify;"><br />If you try your hand at making meatballs for the first time, I'd love to see and hear about your experiences! Feel free to share in the comments below!</div>
Tk Wojcikhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07190059315858965834noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-242648151013542478.post-8516022611648537392016-11-04T22:31:00.007-07:002021-07-30T21:54:51.235-07:00Weekends, Hobbies, and SleeperpowersFridays are great, right? So much potential with the whole weekend before you. As though I could decide what to do with all that free time. Last weekend I think I slept 12 hours a night Friday and Saturday.<br />
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If I haven't mentioned it before, I'm pretty sure my superpower is sleep. I have sleeperpowers.<br />
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Yesterday I decided to put my word count toward a different goal and worked on some set up for future posts instead of just writing one off the cuff again. Today I think I'll talk about weekends.<br />
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I've been trying this thing where every weekend I choose one of my hobbies and kind of go at it full-on. Last weekend it was knitting (while it wasn't sleeping) and the weekend before I think I sunk like 36 hours into video games. I say "games" but I mean <a href="http://store.steampowered.com/app/257510/">The Talos Principle</a>.<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgr92ZxRWb8kqBzENrfmmQ8z6DCkzl3cI7ZGKHPxApxWP2n9ji5ZjnJ1FkR6rhYIJardUm_rK2PpKMXkuUbxpAxgg2_1ry4E7QI1CHiLIOQ71EqckHG1cEDCRDxEwQRJh8kBtDz58xNLbf9/s1600/20161018000952_1.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="360" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgr92ZxRWb8kqBzENrfmmQ8z6DCkzl3cI7ZGKHPxApxWP2n9ji5ZjnJ1FkR6rhYIJardUm_rK2PpKMXkuUbxpAxgg2_1ry4E7QI1CHiLIOQ71EqckHG1cEDCRDxEwQRJh8kBtDz58xNLbf9/s640/20161018000952_1.jpg" width="640" /></a></div>
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It's been a very long time since I found a game I couldn't put down, but this one definitely qualifies. The Talos Principle is a philosophical sci-fi first-person puzzle game. I've gotten three or four of the possible endings so far, and I just picked up the prequel and sequel from the Halloween Steam Sale so I'm looking forward to a few more hours in that environment.<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhlZDXCv6EX_qa9EjzkFpTF6wkunWfAL4Wswy_jzBXh2OPBFNH01qgQrbMkdZKHv-mM2fB6rx6r6r3IEMSDBeMIsmjapuj4usohfuUHNQ0qiQpovW0m-ekEqkVYXSxMDlF8-JLuMBzoVnvp/s1600/20161016195122_1.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="360" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhlZDXCv6EX_qa9EjzkFpTF6wkunWfAL4Wswy_jzBXh2OPBFNH01qgQrbMkdZKHv-mM2fB6rx6r6r3IEMSDBeMIsmjapuj4usohfuUHNQ0qiQpovW0m-ekEqkVYXSxMDlF8-JLuMBzoVnvp/s640/20161016195122_1.jpg" width="640" /></a></div>
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I learned the other day that the game also supports VR for those of you out there pioneering that technology. I'd love to try it in VR, It was fantastic already, but the immersion I think would be magnificent, and it's just a perfect game for that in my opinion.<br />
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Also, it made me laugh plenty of times, and maybe question reality a couple times too.<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhiVUJdjIY1S67QXSmWDJk9z50IDcjnHh6InL2IN0KlkonHkBL9DSk5UF7OqfWfAA8jj4Y9Vm7xakmQPRa9r267t3aM0-3tNq3yhjAsZlz1I5TLDIf24pZi1Ut2jozuP7mxM7LQxqMu15of/s1600/20161016225230_1.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="360" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhiVUJdjIY1S67QXSmWDJk9z50IDcjnHh6InL2IN0KlkonHkBL9DSk5UF7OqfWfAA8jj4Y9Vm7xakmQPRa9r267t3aM0-3tNq3yhjAsZlz1I5TLDIf24pZi1Ut2jozuP7mxM7LQxqMu15of/s640/20161016225230_1.jpg" width="640" /></a></div>
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For those of you who like to watch people play games, if you add me to your Steam friends, you can request to watch a live stream of anything I'm playing from the friend list there. My username is fairyrebel, feel free to add me.<br />
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Other than games and knitting, I have a sewing project in the works. Perhaps some of you saw the pictures I posted to FB about it. I've been trying to complete a few sets of fabric covered foam curlers. The issue I'm having is that there's no good place for me to sit at my sewing machine and maintain good posture, so after a couple hours of work my back is basically dead. With our housing situation set to change virtually any day now, I also can't really just go out and find something to use in the meantime. I wish it was easier to sink a whole weekend into sewing. Maybe after we get moved it will be.<br />
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I wonder how the rest of you handle having multiple hobbies. How do you make time to keep up with more than one passion?Tk Wojcikhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07190059315858965834noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-242648151013542478.post-1761514174021456802016-11-02T23:28:00.004-07:002023-05-04T18:05:22.095-07:00Weekly Self-Care Spa Time<div style="text-align: justify;">
I've been trying my best to take time out once every week and get in the habit of self-care. It's difficult sometimes to put down the various half-done projects and take a break specifically with the goal of relaxing, but I'm starting to get used to it.</div>
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This week I'm enjoying some products from a small vegan business based out of Gresham Oregon, which is near Portland. They're called <a href="http://www.hausofgloi.com/">Haus of Gloi</a>, and they make some of the most spectacularly scented bath and beauty items. I have a variety of their scented hair oils that I use in rotation, one every week. I also am a sucker for their limited edition seasonal "butterbombs" for the bath. These little scoops are a bit different from your average bath bomb, in that they are loaded with cocoa butter and mango butter, so they leave your skin feeling soft and moisturized instead of just foaming and smelling up the bath.</div>
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This week, I chose a butterbomb from their recent Fall release, in the Burnishing Amber scent. It's described on their website as "A warm incense laden amber. Frankincense, golden opium, nag champa." Burnishing Amber certainly delivered what it promised. I've been on a real frankincense kick lately, mostly wearing a fragrance called "Scrying Smoke" from another indie house which I'll have to talk more about later.</div>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Burnishing Amber Butterbomb</td></tr>
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I recently got a new bath pillow after my first few weeks of spa nights, and I have to say it's one of the greatest things I've added to this ritual. I picked it up off of Amazon for around $10, it's the Epica Luxury Foam Spa Pillow<img alt="" bb32930jm="" border="0" height="1" src="//ir-na.amazon-adsystem.com/e/ir?t=fairyrebel-20&l=am2&o=1&a=B008MP481M" style="border: none; margin: 0px;" width="1" />. It seems like such a simple thing, but it really makes the bath tub much more comfortable.</div>
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In addition to the smell-goods and pillows for the tub, I build myself a nice bathside table out of an overturned laundry hamper and a bath towel. This week, bath time included a nice hot thermos full of Twinings Four Red Fruits tea, my iPad playing a Genius mix that turned out better than expected with how little music is actually on that thing, and the book I'm currently making my way through - <a href="https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/1861893019/ref=as_li_tl?ie=UTF8&camp=1789&creative=9325&creativeASIN=1861893019&linkCode=as2&tag=fairyrebel-20&linkId=0df346bb8a717409d1274e0cf846c753" target="_blank">Contemporary Gothic by Catherine Spooner</a><img alt="" bb32930jm="" border="0" height="1" src="//ir-na.amazon-adsystem.com/e/ir?t=fairyrebel-20&l=am2&o=1&a=1861893019" style="border: none; margin: 0px;" width="1" />. I saw a snippet of this book linked somewhere online and was so intrigued I had to read it for myself. The description on its Amazon page does a better job than I could of summarizing what it's about:</div>
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In Contemporary Gothic, Catherine Spooner probes the reasons behind the prevalence of the Gothic in popular culture and how it has inspired innovative new work in film, literature, music, and art. In an engaging way, Contemporary Gothic argues that this style ultimately balances a number of contradictions—the grotesque and incorporeal, authentic self-expression and campiness, mass popularity and cult appeal, comfort and outrage—and these contradictions make the Gothic a crucial expression of contemporary cultural currents. </blockquote>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Rogue Wave's MySpace Transmissions, Twinings Four Red Fruits tea, and some light reading.</td></tr>
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After my bath, I give my hair its weekly wash, and part of my advanced hair care routine these days includes a little bit of hair oil on the ends of my wet strands before they go up to dry for a while in a cotton handkerchief. This week's scent is keeping with the fall theme, another product from Haus of Gloi - Scarecrow scented hair oil. They describe the scent as "Dried corn husks, dust, straw, weathered wood and a ruffle of inky black feathers." When I first smelled it, I thought all of the "dry" elements would make me dislike it, but for some reason the first whiff always smells a bit like fresh carrots to me, followed by a surprisingly pleasant straw and amber scent that reminds me of a warm autumn day waiting for a hayride at one of the local orchards. I love it, and I put a little in my body lotion during the same week I use this on my hair. It blends wonderfully with the frankincense scent I mentioned earlier too.</div>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgVkrh_ApNsU8sEzuWiqiwhN0jzFQfMfjLBMjd_EwS0oa5_ebKW2M9GlsPshoBodkDYc8Dy1_gQcPkfVbA0KbJM3oUHa15qzi_jMFP57CqD-vBlAqmyKl_OMjuTOfE35OR8jOU7Zur9-6rk/s1600/20161103_011450.png" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgVkrh_ApNsU8sEzuWiqiwhN0jzFQfMfjLBMjd_EwS0oa5_ebKW2M9GlsPshoBodkDYc8Dy1_gQcPkfVbA0KbJM3oUHa15qzi_jMFP57CqD-vBlAqmyKl_OMjuTOfE35OR8jOU7Zur9-6rk/s400/20161103_011450.png" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">These bottles are much bigger than this looks.</td></tr>
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I'll admit, my hair routine has gotten a little more advanced than I ever thought it could. My hair is also the healthiest and possibly the longest it's ever been now. I managed to extend the time between washings gradually to once per week, which has really improved the natural body of my hair quite a bit. I use products free of sulfates, pthalates, silicones, and currently everything I'm using for my entire routine is also vegan, and cruelty free. I didn't necessarily choose the products for those values but I like that it's a side effect of caring which ingredients I opt to put on my skin and hair.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">This year I started up a regular habit of having my hair trimmed every three-ish months as well, and I'm due for another visit this month. I feel like for the first time in my life, I have gained the confidence and understanding to ask for exactly what I want when getting my hair trimmed, which is something that has eluded me most of my life until now. It's really empowering considering all of the nightmare salon visits I've had before, to know that when I leave after a quick trim, I'm not going to be upset and plotting my recovery plan from yet another bad haircut by the time I get home. I'll likely be heading in for my next trim around the middle of the month, and I'm weirdly looking forward to it.</div>
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Tk Wojcikhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07190059315858965834noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-242648151013542478.post-73763795308668460042014-08-04T07:30:00.011-07:002022-02-22T15:46:02.941-08:00Pacific Blue Dragon Egg Shells<div style="text-align: center;">
Sally Hansen's Xtreme Wear Pacific Blue and OPI Hands Off My Kielbasa!</div>
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<a href="http://media-cache-ak0.pinimg.com/736x/5c/8c/ff/5c8cff5a259976d82857d7dca1bf0cf7.jpg"><img border="0" height="300" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/proxy/AVvXsEjrrDa3Jj41sSCrSdIKSX_XJ1GBX4h7nTFA42BZm1ZBAdaI_9LaQIIHyHHe1fnDSOvDXszQD2KS_JtbHav6hip3QyGJt7ZOBZ3Bda36BUrXH_8WcdXXnVdlYJzNX7mUk0wCmN05V7a9u5fQ3msQYngpizUNKyR-GJTbaMWTX6K5f5sxFwpqka85JRhtI3awzXEJNqmH" width="400" /></a></div>
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This manicure was something I had high hopes for, and though I was a little disappointed with it, I still really enjoyed wearing it for a few days. How subtle the pink stamping is over the vibrant blue was an unexpected joy to behold. I had some help selecting which manicure to review this week, and though I didn't see it at the time, I think my friend's description of these as "dragon egg shells" is right on. This is Sally Hansen's Pacific Blue stamped with OPI's Hands Off My Kielbasa! and MoYou US Plate #217.</div>
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Pacific Blue is a fantastic cream blue, and one of my favorite polishes. Hands Off My Kielbasa! is a red-shimmering pink with a bit of a gold undertone, and with as often as I wear it, I'm sure you'll see it reviewed here later. I was a little disappointed in how it stamped, but I don't blame the polish so much as the plate.</div>
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Plate #217 from MoYou US is my first plate from this shop, and boy oh boy was I unhappy with the result from it. The designs are just so gorgeous online and on the plate, but the images are SUPER small and so intricate that I could not get it to stamp well with any polish I tried, and there was no way the narrow images would cover my whole nails. My nails aren't even that big really, though they are exceptionally long here compared to my average.</div>
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In the future I will probably not purchase any more plates from MoYou US, though the MoYou UK plates are some of the nicest I have ever had the pleasure of using. Don't get the two confused!</div>
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<div style="text-align: justify;">These polishes from Sally Hansen are very reasonably priced at around $2-3 each, and for the coverage they are a super bargain. You can usually get away with one coat of this color, though two looks more uniform. This particular shade wears a long time with or without top coat. Something to keep in mind with regard to clean up, it's blue, it can stain your skin if you aren't careful. It does come off easily with acetone or non-acetone remover. The color in the bottle and on the hand are completely identical and I always get what I expect from this line of polishes.</div>
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<div style="text-align: justify;">I give it a 9 out of 10. Very happy with this one.</div>
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<b><span face="Trebuchet MS, sans-serif">Bond With Whomever by Essie with Revlon's Wild Violets</span></b></div>
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<a href="http://media-cache-ec0.pinimg.com/736x/b5/ec/14/b5ec14920c0f34ae03abc2e7a3ffccc2.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="300" src="http://media-cache-ec0.pinimg.com/736x/b5/ec/14/b5ec14920c0f34ae03abc2e7a3ffccc2.jpg" width="400" /></a></div>
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<span face="Trebuchet MS, sans-serif"><br />Bond With Whomever is a fabulous purple cream from Essie. It was my first Essie polish and secured a place in my heart for the brand, both by being an awesome color, and by having a great formula. It's a springy color, and it's shown here paired with dotted flowers in Wild Violets from Revlon, with glitter centers in Scorpio from Color Club.</span><br />
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<span face="Trebuchet MS, sans-serif">Funny thing about Wild Violets...</span><br />
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<a href="http://media-cache-ec0.pinimg.com/736x/e3/36/1e/e3361eee483507d7e8f9d2f5525cb710.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="200" src="http://media-cache-ec0.pinimg.com/736x/e3/36/1e/e3361eee483507d7e8f9d2f5525cb710.jpg" width="400" /></a></div>
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<span face="Trebuchet MS, sans-serif">I couldn't stop smelling my nails. I LOVE Choward's Violet mints!</span><br />
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<span face="Trebuchet MS, sans-serif"><br />Essie is among the higher-end drug store polishes, but is not super expensive, and you get a lot of wear for your money. This reaches opacity in 1-2 coats and is so shiny It hardly needs a top coat. I wear it when I travel and it often looks as great when I land as it does when I leave. The inoffensive milky color removes easily and doesn't stain. Color in the bottle and on the hand are completely identical and completely awesome.</span></div><div><span face="Trebuchet MS, sans-serif"><br /></span></div><div><span face="Trebuchet MS, sans-serif">I give it a 9 out of 10.</span></div>
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Tk Wojcikhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07190059315858965834noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-242648151013542478.post-39834087494170091612014-07-21T07:30:00.010-07:002022-02-22T15:52:22.932-08:00Scalding Emerald Dragon<div style="text-align: center;">
<b><span face="Trebuchet MS, sans-serif">Covergirl's Scalding Emerald with Essence Gold Holographic Glitters</span></b></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhwscTinOPhr_n0pijjxmLu4USpSQ747KUO2tEYle4nmYlWLFJc_myW261xdn61FsPg6mUe9rjslV9D5wwMeK8__c54Hx1I3q_U2fjagYBhotkCAgEoEXq-_TQXwjYi-qIPH0P9ONIDRLPE/s1600/emerald+and+glitter.jpeg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhwscTinOPhr_n0pijjxmLu4USpSQ747KUO2tEYle4nmYlWLFJc_myW261xdn61FsPg6mUe9rjslV9D5wwMeK8__c54Hx1I3q_U2fjagYBhotkCAgEoEXq-_TQXwjYi-qIPH0P9ONIDRLPE/s1600/emerald+and+glitter.jpeg" width="239" /></a></div>
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<span face="Trebuchet MS, sans-serif"><br />Scalding Emerald is a very pretty olive colored micro-glitter which leans gold or even a bit red in the right lighting. It was released as part of the Hunger Games collection from Covergirl, and I love that there were minis available because they are so much easier to take through the airport in my carry-on bag. This was my first try at individually hand-placed glitters, and the effect of the gold holographic glitter from Essence along with this beautiful polish was a bit like dragon scales on my hand. I was amused by how many times other people compared it to dragon scales too.</span><br />
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<span face="Trebuchet MS, sans-serif"><br />Covergirl is inexpensive, even more so when you buy mini. In some of their cosmetic products the cost leads to a drop in quality, but I do love some of the polishes they come out with, and the micro-glitters in this collection are great. This color needed at least three coats to achieve opacity, and is still not as opaque as I would like at the cuticle. This particular shade wears a long time with or without top coat. It's glitter, yes, but it's pretty easy to remove and came off a lot easier than I anticipated. The color in the bottle and on the hand are completely identical and I felt like I got exactly what I expected.</span></div><div><span face="Trebuchet MS, sans-serif"><br /></span></div><div><span face="Trebuchet MS, sans-serif">I give it an 8 out of 10.</span></div>
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Tk Wojcikhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07190059315858965834noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-242648151013542478.post-78322615951923077242014-07-14T07:30:00.014-07:002022-02-22T15:56:27.975-08:00Orange Party Dinosaurs<div style="text-align: center;"><span face="Verdana, sans-serif">Custom Darling Diva Polishes!!!</span></div>
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<a href="http://media-cache-ak0.pinimg.com/736x/75/59/ff/7559ff7f8b3426a080d2098f0c795279.jpg"><img border="0" height="300" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/proxy/AVvXsEgsTxCxl4WehXiIQ5fAj4ZITfbkXvJRnlm9h99DWuRAqxOckgWy_ZQM2VYXB319FFXxgubhI3gWCAJBVqFwsFSmNZCTaOObjXY2xAEP3MUueKbxs4urkZ52cutzJuL1IVYsi0Fw7bEq_QfH-sUEchB0amwB6qNBdxGqPajwxyOgbBQvnFoUQ4SV891liQFJg3FfT36G" width="400" /></a></div>
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The winnings: She's Kayzee!!!, Shake Your Tail Feathers, and Whip 'er Hahr</div>
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<a href="http://media-cache-ak0.pinimg.com/736x/0a/69/8a/0a698ae61e198893c01970a5466a660f.jpg"><img border="0" height="300" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/proxy/AVvXsEjYQJO_arwyyQpSctlp3GETdMDEzgSbtCJdCHWgzrryWsiHSU5-bvXgEliRmye4Tle2CqbdwUTQnwnOuJCvJkipK2hyduqaYLFbn_2ZtWk3DYrYcqLp4nGm0B7pitMj3hW50nE1DyfHnPfADeLjsqIj_4k89S7abtI38XQYDD8KHdRhRbbcLlQLZyyUmVfZ_y-bifH0" width="400" /></a></div>
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My first successful gradient of She's Kayzee!!! and Whip 'er Hahr</div>
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<a href="http://media-cache-ak0.pinimg.com/736x/58/98/47/5898472c589673eb14af4cf2a6f14530.jpg"><img border="0" height="300" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/proxy/AVvXsEjCOPWHQN204kuvw5kHKLOeWNWWhHStEs9JorRAe5W3oA5hQpU2i-okX8kYrPsoGg_Yu9Jkj1ovfKiB2OPVxid4l9zcTaU7ue-KVN65obt6IgkMPpqLD_YdDGAqR16yE038ANw1AkluMW4Pp6igchEkEqqjiykHzpSsq1P23c7P-uFB_loaoBnD-pVMd0OkwfQZ5aEi" width="400" /></a></div>
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She's Kayzee!!! stamped with Sally Hansen's Cherry Red, Maybelline's Twilight Rays, and Mash plate #74</div>
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In April, I won a gift from a massive "Orange Party" giveaway over at <a a="" font="" href="http://superficiallycolorful.com/2014/03/orange-giveaway-party.html" https:="" span="" style="http: //superficiallycolorful.com/2014/03/orange-giveaway-party.html;" target="new" www.blogger.com="">Superficially Colorful</a> and shortly after that my custom polishes from Darling Diva arrived in my mailbox. These are my first indie polishes, and what everyone says about indies is true - once you have one, you're going to want more.</div>
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I'll stick to reviewing the colors used in my gradient here, as I've only worn Shake Your Tail Feathers once and it is such a pretty orange holo that I think it deserves its own photo review later. </div>
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She's Kayzee!!! is a color I never ever would have chosen for myself. It is still the only yellow in my whole arsenal, and boy is it a gorgeous one. It's got shimmer and sparkle, both in fine micro-glitter particles and in a bit of an opalescent flake glitter tossed in the mix.</div>
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Whip 'er Hahr looks to lean a bit more red in the bottle than it does on the hand. It's a beautiful red-orange version of She's Kayzee!!! and packs the same sparkly punch in a warmer shade.</div>
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This was a first attempt at stamping with Twilight Rays, and I would not recommend it. It was very very smudgy and did not stamp well at all. Cherry Red on the other hand, was a fabulous stamping polish, as are many of the Sally Hansen Xtreme Wear line.</div>
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Mash plate #74 is such a fun plate, and all the images together made for a really cute, though kind of juvenile, manicure. I especially loved the full nail suns print, and will definitely use this plate again.</div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjmD-0iomePsSQfhgg-gLy-EWeJV1b6qO3lsA5BML6pujIysoWlD8lW5yrYynsZSaXWYOoBgisNbXFjRNBf-zUJi5I4asxQWvAVnPuqorGdgo3RCgLdtXMpyTGqgbMuRe0rqy5dlAZIEsqJ/s1600/DSC02845.JPG"><img border="0" height="300" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjmD-0iomePsSQfhgg-gLy-EWeJV1b6qO3lsA5BML6pujIysoWlD8lW5yrYynsZSaXWYOoBgisNbXFjRNBf-zUJi5I4asxQWvAVnPuqorGdgo3RCgLdtXMpyTGqgbMuRe0rqy5dlAZIEsqJ/s1600/DSC02845.JPG" width="400" /></a></div>
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<div style="text-align: justify;">These particular polishes were a prize in a giveaway so I can't comment on what a custom polish would normally cost, however, as an indie brand Darling Diva's new releases tend to be a few dollars more per bottle than high-end drugstore polish. They both come to opacity in 3-4 coats which can be a bit much if you are pressed for time. They also look great over a more easily opaque base coat of white or black... or any other complimentary color to their shade. The formula is great and these colors wear for quite a long time. At clean up time, remember it's glitter folks. It can be difficult to remove but if you let your polish-remover-soaked- cotton-wad sit on your nail for a few seconds and then wipe, it'll budge quicker than most other glitters. After cleanup I did have a few little flake glitters still sticking around, but nothing major. The color in the bottle and on the hand are super similar, but in the case of Whip 'er Hahr, not identical. Very very close though.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">I give this pair of polishes a 7 out of 10.</div>
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<b><span face="Trebuchet MS, sans-serif">Ingrid by China Glaze, and Top Shelf by Color Club</span></b></div>
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<span face="Trebuchet MS, sans-serif"><br />Ingrid is a very sophisticated deep brown color. In the bottle it appears to have some gold shimmer, but on the nail it is all cream and no sparkle. Despite the difference, it is one of my favorite neutral colors, and I wear it often for work.</span><br />
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<span face="Trebuchet MS, sans-serif">Here Ingrid is shown stamped with Color Club's Top Shelf, which is a champagne gold color. I got this as a sample in my monthly Birchbox last year, and I use it for nail art all the time. It has great coverage in a very thin layer as you can see from the vivid stamping designs above, so it also works well with dotting tools to create your own free-form designs.</span><br />
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<span face="Trebuchet MS, sans-serif">These stamps were created with Mash plate #65 which is covered in Egyptian hieroglyphic style designs. Between the two hands, I was able to use every design on the plate. The plate is etched well and I had no trouble stamping with it. The sun design was difficult to stamp without it becoming wobbly due to the C-curve of my nails, but with practice it'd be better. I was surprised by how much I loved the French tip stamp seen on the tip of both ring fingers, and will definitely use that again in another manicure.</span><br />
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<span face="Trebuchet MS, sans-serif"><br />China Glaze is not the most inexpensive of polishes, but I consider them mid-range and you get a lot of wear for your money. The coverage is great and Ingrid achieves opacity in 1-2 coats. The wear on this is about average. I've had experiences where it chipped on day 2 or where it lasted for a week without any chips. Ingrid comes off easily and doesn't stain your skin, but if you use pure acetone it will melt into your cuticles during removal and make them a bit brownish so extra clean-up is needed. The color in the bottle and on the hand are not identical, and if you bought this expecting the golden shimmer you see in the bottle, you'd be very disappointed.</span></div><div><br /></div><div>I give Ingrid 7 out of 10.<br />
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<span face="Trebuchet MS, sans-serif"><br /></span><span face="'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif">Color Club is average in price and good quality. I've gotten quite a few sample size bottles from Birchbox, and found deals online for other brand new sample size bottles for as little as fifty cents. Top Shelf's</span><span face="'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif"> coverage is great and achieves opacity in 1-2 coats. </span><span face="'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif">When I used Top Shelf by itself for a manicure it had great staying power and wore for quite a while without chips. </span><span face="'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif">This color comes off easily and doesn't stain, and the </span><span face="'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif">color in the bottle and on the hand exactly the same.</span><span face="Trebuchet MS, sans-serif"><br /><br />Final score for Top Shelf is 9 out of 10.</span></div>
Tk Wojcikhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07190059315858965834noreply@blogger.com2