Anush's Bulghur Veggie Salad

This recipe started out as an attempt to make "Eech", a favorite Armenian lenten dish.  So I got the bulghur out, poured the water in, and then realized I didn't have 1/2 the ingredients I thought I did (tomato paste, green pepper, parsley...none of them).  So I thought about what I liked about eech.  I love the sauced taste of the bulghur and the crunch of the pepper...so I used what I had ...added cucumber instead.  The end result was very delicious.  This packs really well for take along lunches.

2 cups fine Bulghur

1 large onion, finely chopped

1 8 oz can tomato sauce

1 bunch green onions, cleaned and finely sliced

1 Tbsp. Aleppo pepper

1 Tbsp. Sumac

5 Persian cucumbers

2 large tomatoes, chopped

1 1/2 c. boiling water

1 Tbsp. sugar

2 Tbsp Olive oil

First off, boil your water.  In a large bowl, measure out 2 cups of fine bulghur.  Pour 1 1/2 cups boiling water on top of bulghur.  Add an 8 oz can of tomato sauce, sugar, Aleppo pepper (sweet roasted pepper flakes), Sumac and set aside.

Saute onion in a large pan with olive oil until the onion is soft and translucent.  Stir often so as not to brown.  Add onion to the cooled bulghur mixture.  Now add the chopped cucumber, tomato and green onion.  This would also be great with chopped bell pepper and parsley added at this point.  I just didn't have any to add. Next time.  This salad is great to a bed of mixed greens.  

This recipe makes 9 cups of salad.  If you're following Weight Watchers, the points values are as follows:

1 cup serving:  5 points      1/2 cup serving:  3 points

I pack my lunch every day and I love having the right containers to take it in...here are some I found that are cool:
                                                              

Checking In: Getting Healthy One Ounce at a Time

Ta-Da!  Week 3 brings me a little
closer to my goal with a .8 pound loss

I realized that I reached the end of the work week and I never checked in.  So here I am.  I went to my weekly meeting with all these high hopes for a good weight loss, but alas, the scale went down only .8 ounces.  A half a pound.  Hey, at least it's movement in the right direction!  But I'd be lying if I said I wasn't a little disappointed.  I have been tracking my intake, staying within my allotted points and trying to get "some" exercise by walking - but, I also have to be honest.  I did manage to lose a half pound while still having a normal life: "normal" meaning that I wasn't on some freaky fad diet.  I did enjoy going to happy hour with friends, I did cook for my family and enjoy eating the same food that they did (just not in large portions).  So I'm on the right track.  It's a lifestyle change.

But just to pump myself up a bit, I started thinking of all the times that I had started Weight Watchers in the past, and then got discouraged because I lost .4 ounces here, and .2 ounces there...and then "just 1 pound"...and then stay the same, and then .2 ounces.  Okay, well, y'know, if I'd have just stuck with it, I would have been at my ideal weight, right?  And so let's say that I continued to lose .8 ounces a week.  That would be a loss of 26 pounds in a year.  So you say, a whole year, to lose just 26 pounds?  Excuse me?  JUST 26 pound?  Losing 26 pounds without killing myself doing it would be pretty awesome.  And hopefully there will be weeks where I lose more :::HOPEFULLY:::  So anyways, you get the idea.  I'm keeping the bigger picture in mind.  This is not a race. This is my life here...my beautiful life that I intend to enjoy!

And.....I have lost now, a total of 4.2 pounds in 3 weeks.  YAY!!  Hopefully this week I will lose another .8 and hit 5 pounds in a month! (5 pounds in a month is 60 pounds in a year!) Wait, did I just say that?  (hoping for a .8 pound loss...hmmm, I must be learning something!)

I will get there!  Even if it's one ounce at a time!

My Big Batch Mushroom & Barley Soup

This is a big batch soup recipe.  Enough for you to have some for dinner and freeze some for later.  OR, you can feed your family.  It's a vegan recipe, but it has a nice rich flavor because I used wine in the broth.

Serving size: 1 1/2 cups    Serves 9

Weight Watchers Points Plus Value:  5 points

Ingredients:

1 cup barley

8 oz. crimini mushrooms, washed, trimmed and sliced

3 - 32 oz cartons of organic vegetable broth

1 pound of carrots, sliced  

1/2 cup. red wine (I used a cab that I had in the fridge)

2 large onions, chopped

2 Tbsp. olive oil (because I'm counting points, yes, I measured)

8 oz. chard, washed and chopped

5 cloves of garlic, thinly sliced

                                                                Salt & Pepper to taste

Directions: 

In a large soup pot, add the olive oil, chopped onion and sliced carrots.  Cook on medium heat around 10 minutes until the onions and carrots start to soften.  Add 1/2 cup red wine.  Continue cooking the onion/carrot mixture.  Add vegetable broth, barley, sliced mushrooms, garlic and chard.   This has to cook until the barley is soft and tender.  It's going to take about an hour.  Stir occasionally.  I added another 4 cups of water at this point because I like my soup brothy, but if you like you soup more stewy, you can leave it as is.  Add salt and pepper to taste.

NOTE:  I would normally have added chopped celery hearts to the onion & carrot mixture.  I just didn't have any to add.  

                                                         

Baked Kale Chips - Light and Crunchy

 I went to explore the La Canada Sprouts Market today.  I've been curious since they opened, and I needed a break from making jewelry, so off we went.  It was very nice.  Great produce, and the prices weren't too bad.  I bought all kinds of veggies, one of which was kale.  I remembered a recipe for kale chips and thought I'd make a batch to snack on.  Needless to say, I haven't stopped eating them!  They're baked, so low cal, and they're fun to eat because they are very light and crunchy.  And simple to make. Here's what they look like when they're done. (see pic on left).  They should still be green, yet a little  brown on the edges.

Ingredients:
One bunch of kale, washed and dried
Pam cooking spray (or the equivalent brand)
Salt
Garlic powder

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees.  Wash your kale well, and pat dry.  If you have a salad spinner, this is a good time to pull it out and use it.  Use a sharp knife to cut away the stems from the leaves (see below).  Toss the stems.

With the stems gone, you should be left with a pile of leaves.  I baked my kale on a pizza stone, but you can use a parchment lined baking sheet as well.  Recipes I've read call for olive oil.  I'm trying to cut calories and maximize points, so I used PAM spray and lightly sprayed my kale.  Then I sprinkled with salt and a little garlic powder.

This is how it looked right before baking.  It's shiny from the PAM spray.   Once you've sprinkled with seasoning, bake in a 350 oven for 18-20 minutes.  Keep an eye on it.  My original recipe called for 10 minutes.  At 10 minutes, my leaves were still floppy and not crunchy.  So 18-20 minutes at 350.  Remove from oven.  They should be papery and crunchy.  If not, throw them in a while longer.

Cool.  Store in an airtight container.

0 Points!
  

Vegan Breakfast Idea: Tofu Scramble with Fresh Spinach and Sweet Peppers

Just because you can't eat eggs during lent, doesn't mean you can't enjoy a warm breakfast with your family. This is a simple recipe that everyone will enjoy.  You can change up the vegetables.  In the past I've used green onions to add a nice flavor.  Tomatoes are good, but they tend to add a little too much moisture...but they're good.  So are mushrooms.

I actually prefer my tofu scramble over traditional scrambled eggs.  It's a lot lighter than eggs, less fat, but more importantly, it doesn't have that funky egg smell.

This recipe serves 1 or 2.  If you eat it all, then it has a total of  4 Weight Watchers Points Plus.  If you share it with someone, you can count it as 2 points.

Here's what you'll need:

 8 oz of medium firm tofu, drained
2 sweet peppers, sliced
1 bunch of fresh spinach, washed well and chopped coarsely
1 tsp curry powder (for color and taste)
salt and pepper
Italian seasoning
Garlic powder (optional)

Spray a nonstick pan with Pam (or the like).  Saute your sliced peppers and spinach until they're softened.  Put your tofu on a flat plate and gently break it up with a fork.  Add the tofu to the pan and stir, getting it all nice and warm.  Add the seasonings and the curry powder, stirring gently to mix thoroughly.  NOTE:  Because of tofu's texture, you don't want to aggressively "stir".  Instead, gently turn it over on itself with a spatula.  You may want to cover it and just steam it to get it nice and hot.  I like adding a little hot sauce.  Serve as you would scrambled eggs....with toast, fruit, coffee...etc.  Enjoy!


 I actually have these Orgreenic pans and love them.  They truly are nonstick and work really well.

Anush's Veggie Pasta "Sauce" (or side dish)

I concocted this recipe on Valentine's day.  I'm lucky to have an organic farmer's market in the plaza at my workplace every Thursday.  This week I bought cherry tomatoes, spinach, brussels sprouts and mushrooms I was making pasta for dinner, but didn't want the traditional red sauce but instead a chunky vegetable dish to serve on top.  Here's what I ended up with:

Ingredients:

1 pound brussels sprouts, washed, stems cut and cut in half

1 basket of cherry tomatoes, cut in half (about 2-3 cups)

2 cups sliced mushrooms

2 TBSP Olive oil

4-5 cloves garlic, minced

Once bunch spinach (washed well), not shown in picture

salt to taste

pepper

Herbs d' Provence (or good Italian seasoning 

In a large wok, add olive oil and minced cloves of garlic.  Cook til fragrant.  Add brussels sprouts and cook, stirring every few minute until brussels sprouts soften and get tender.  Add tomatoes and mushrooms and allow it all to cook until the tomatoes start to soften.  The tomatoes will create their own "sauce" and the mushrooms will add to the flavor with their liquid.  Add herbs, salt, pepper, and continue to cook a few minutes more until all the flavors are married together.

At the end, add the spinach (not shown), stir in to cover, and put a lid on the pan and let the spinach steam until wilted.

Serve on top of pasta (which is really delish) or just as a side dish (which is equally as delish).  I made 4 servings out of this for 4 points using weight watchers points plus.  But I like a LOT of veggies.  The serving size was about 1 1/2 cups.

If you try it, let me know how you liked it...what you'd add or remove, and how you served it.

Checking in: Week 2

Ta-Da!!  Week 2 brings me .6 pounds
closer to my goal!

Happy Valentine's Day!  How is your week going?  Mine went really well....considering.  I had a lot of challenges this week.  Dinner out with my friend, out to lunch for business, and had a friend pass away unexpectedly, but through it all, I managed to track everything I ate for a second week.  Despite my successful tracking, today's weigh in showed only a .6 pound loss.  Yep, only a 1/2 pound.  BUT, I was okay with that.  I will tell you why.

1.  The night before weigh in, I met my friend for our annual bday dinner.  We have mutual birthdays and we always meet at PF Chang's.  So losing .8 pounds the day after you went to chinese, with all it's salt....not bad.

2.  I was honest.  It would be different if I didn't track, or tracked only SOME of what I ate.  But I was honest.  I tracked everything...good and bad.  So it's okay.

3.  It's more than a number.  Has it really taken me all these years to come to this revelation?  I am more than a number on the scale.  If you base your success solely on that scale number...then when your number isn't what you'd like it to be you're going to throw in the towel and get frustrated.  Nope.  Not this time.

So, 2.8 last week, and another .8 this week.  That's 3.6 pounds lost in two weeks.  I'm good with that.

So it's Valentine's day!  What's on the agenda for today?  Every Thursday at my work, we have a Farmer's Market that sells great produce.  Today I bought fresh brussels sprouts, cherry tomatoes, mushrooms, garlic and spinach.  My mom has been staying with us, so for Ned and mom I had cheese ravioli and for me, bow tie pasta.  I left the pasta plain and then I made this great "sauce" with the cherry tomatoes, brussels sprouts, mushrooms and spinach and served it over the pasta.  We had garlic bread (olive oil and crushed garlic), salad and grilled eggplant which I made on the Foreman grill.  The result was fantastic.

Here's a photo.  Tip:  I used my scale to measure out 2 oz of dry pasta to cook.  Once cooked it was about a cup and a half of pasta.  I piled the veggies on top and added the salad.  It was great.

That was it!  So what did you do this Valentine's day.  Whatver you did, I hope that you were good to yourself!

Here are links to some great Weight Watcher's Cookbook you might want to try out: