building the recipe list

so far, i've got a couple of notches in my belt: breakfasts and snacks, chicken bryan, veggie mac and cheeseburger casserole, chicken cutlets, steamed veggies of all sorts. problem is, i don't have enough entrees that i'm crazy about yet. i made sirloin steak and it was fine, but not fabulous. same goes for the chicken saltimbocca. i had high hopes for that. DH loved the jambalaya, and it was okay for me, but the earth didn't move.

so. the bistro meals are still coming. i want at least 10-12 really great entrees before i cut the cord. the szechuan chicken/beef was all right, but didn't make my heart flutter. yesterday i had the bistro stir fry beef, and it was clear that i need to get the sauce absolutely right, so i love it the same. progress has been made, for sure, but i'm just not there yet.

i saved the label from the beef entree, so i have a list of ingredients. i can either attempt to re-create the sauce myself (PITA alert!) or compare it to ready-made sauces to find one that's as close as possible.

also on my to-do list: identify a strategy for replacing the cheese tortillini/ravioli meals (i LOVE those), create a buffalo chicken entree without turning it into a salt lick, try fish. i also need a good sauce for steak. (maybe i should just use A-1...) wouldn't some kind of indian curry be great too? like a chicken vindaloo or jalfreeze, maybe with low-fat creamed spinach and rice with peas. that's the nice thing about branching out on my own - i can use flavors bistro doesn't because they might not have the wide appeal. food for thought.

report: chicken bryan and chicken saltimbocca

last night i tried the stuffed chicken saltimbocca, and made a batch of chicken bryan (tried that about 5 minutes ago.) no contest - the chicken bryan was wonderful, the saltimbocca was okay. the combination of cheese and prosciutto was a touch too salty for me, but it was still tasty. the chicken bryan was great. REALLY great. so great, it officially qualifies for heavy rotation. if you want to make it, you'll need:

• chicken breasts; dorothy lane has thin-sliced breasts, which are super easy for stuffing
• soft goat cheese. i used about 3/4 oz per breast, but i think you could easily get away with only using 1/2 oz and getting the same flavor
• canned sundried tomatoes. squeeze out as much oil as you can
• dried herbs - i used herbs de provence, but whatever you've got in the house would probably work just fine

dust the chicken with the herbs and spread the cheese on top. put the tomatoes down, fold it all up, and put in a baggie. seal and sous vide like normal. DELICIOUS!!! the pre-sliced chicken worked out to about 31/2 oz each. nutrition as follows:

• cals: 240
• fat: 7 g
• sodium: 737 mg
• carb: 16 g
• fiber: 4 g
• protein: 31 g

i also tried my sirloin, and it was fine but not spectacular. i added 1/2 tbl of A-1 sauce and enjoyed it - but i'm not going to shout from the rooftops about it. i may have overcooked it a little. i've got 4 more portions to play with - i may try cooking at 131 degrees instead of 146. i'm also going to try something different with the seasonings - not sure what i'm going to do yet. ideas?

more prepping lessons learned

last night i did a lot of prepping and learned a few things. i made up:

• a full batch (12 servings) of mac and cheeseburger
• 4 servings of stuffed chicken saltimbocca
• 2 servings of sirloin steak with balsamic red wine sauce
• 5 servings of fresh broccoli and cauliflower
• 4 servings of frozen corn

it took me 2.5 hours from start to finish, but most of it was really easy. the few bumps were in putting my genious idea for measuring my cooking vessel prior to bagging the mac and cheese. that would have worked beautifully, if the total weight of all the food and the pot wasn't more than my 11-lb limit kitchen scale. for what it's worth, each serving of the recipe i wrote about should weigh around 295 g.

and i was right - bagging and sealing was the biggest PITA of the whole operation. i'll stick it out with the low-grade sealer for now, and maybe what i really ought to do is make up bags for later use on nights when i'm not prepping actual meals. it's not hard work, it just takes a while since you have to wait 20 seconds between seals, and 20 minutes once it overheats.

i'll try a chicken breast this afternoon and let you know how it turned out. should be pretty good! i'm also going to stop by dorothy lane to get goat cheese and sundried tomatoes for chicken bryan. not sure if that's going to need a sauce or not...

i'm starting to think seriously about how many more weeks i should stay on bistro. i still don't have this down to a science, but i'm definitely closer...your thoughts?

quickie update

hi folks! it's been a crazy busy weekend, so just a note that tomorrow night i'll be bagging two new meals: a stuffed chicken saltimbocca, and a sirloin steak with balsamic red wine sauce. we moved our chest freezer up from the old house (we've been a two-mortgage family for a while and are hoping to sell one, but that's another story) so i've got plenty of freezer space to use and accumulate in preparation for the eventual cord-cutting from bistro.

more tomorrow!

HAAA-le-LU-jah! (sing it!)

so i tried my szechuan chicken for lunch today and IT WAS PERFECT! Perfect, people, perfect, i tell you! wheee! yay! woot woot!

the chicken was tender and juicy but cooked all the way through, and the veggies also came out perfectly. i could just pee, i'm so happy. this particular batch of veggies i threw in the bag raw with about a tablespoon of water, and chucked in the freezer. this tells us one vital thing: fresh veggies do just fine without any prep at all, basically. they steam themselves in the microwave. today also marks the last time i ever pay extra for microwave-in-the-bag veggies. i don't want to chop them or anything, but no more paying extra for "steamfresh" or that kind of malarky.

ooooh, feels empowering, doesn't it? :)

so - basic formula to replicate any bistro poultry cutlet-type entree is:

4 oz. chicken or turkey breast
1 or 2 tbl of some type of sauce
4-6 oz. veggies
3 oz. starch (rice, quinoa) or starchy veggie (corn, beans) - optional (takes the calories from the 250-280 range to the 330-370 range, depending on type)

sous vide the protein, cook and bag the starch (optinoal), bag the veggies and put everything in the freezer. we know that 146 degrees F for 90 minutes works - will experiment with that to see if we can take it down a little. will also work on finding the most freezable, low-sodium sauces. you could also easily add seasonings or herbs to the veggies. one word of caution from the sous vide threads at eGullet.com: use garlic sparingly, because the flavor gets intensified to the point where it's not pleasant. actually, a second word of caution: alcohol. if you use beer or wine in your sauce or seasoning, you'll need to cook off the alcohol before bagging it because it also does strange things during the sous vide process.

this formula appears to hit the macronutrient ratios on the head, too. (can i get another woot woot?)

done. CHECK. now, it's on to making it easier and less time-consuming, and figuring out the most efficient protocol for prep (e.g. is it easier/faster to do one sous vide and one crockpot meal together, two crockpot, two sous vide, or what? should i cover everything in saran wrap to making cleaning faster?) and the bigger question, will i need to invest in a better sealer?

stay tuned!

bags-a-boiling (simmering, really)

i finally got down and dirty with sous vide last night. the szechuan sauce i'd put in the freezer the night before wasn't frozen (DH said the amount of salt in the sauce raised the freezing point. uh, duh. i henceforth dub him mr. science.)

i cut and bagged the chicken with the sauce, and it's abundantly clear why it needs to be solid. it's not so much that the liquid gets sucked out when you vacuum the bag; it's that tiny little amounts of liquid leak up and you end up with a less-than-stellar seal, which also takes two times longer for the machine to finish, and as a result, you have to stop often to let the sealer cool down. this rates fairly high on the PITA-meter. i'm either going to have to restrict myself to sauces that easily freeze, or invest in a heavier-duty sealer. since one of the main points of the exercise is to conserve funds, we'll start with the sauce thing. i read on some website that you can put a paper towel in the bag to keep liquids from affecting the seal, but the idea of cooking, freezing, and nuking with a soggy piece of paper towel just ain't doing it for me. yuck.

all of which reveals a new bistro MD mystery: the sauce bag. they often package sauces separately, like the orange sauce for the shrimp, or the cranberry sauce that comes with the pork cutlet. it's clearly not pre-frozen, and definitely vacuum-packed. i can only assume that the commercial-grade vacuum sealer system they use is light-years ahead of my dinky $50 one from target. now that i've thought about it, it's not much of a mystery, is it?

back to the task at hand: i also couldn't decide if i should sous vide the veggies or not, since i used an asian mix of fresh, pre-prepped veggies from the good people at Dorothy Lane Market. i cleverly decided to cook ONE bag and just freeze the rest, so we can compare the results. even smarter - i marked the bag i cooked so i know which one it is. :)

ironically enough, bagging was the trickiest part of the whole operation. i used a BIG copper roasting pan almost full of water, and i put it on my smallest, lamest front burner with a candy thermometer. set the temp 2/3 of the way beween low and medium, and watched as, well, very little happened. i'm not sure what kind of magic i expected, since i've put water on the stove before, so i have a pretty good idea of how that part works. after 20 minutes i turned the heat up to medium. when the meat and veggie bags were ready, the temperature was about 130 degrees. once they were in and temp was climbing back up again, i let it get to about 145 and turned the heat back down to midways between low and medium. the water temp stabilized at almost exactly 146. i checked on it every 20 minutes or so, but it didn't move more than a degree.

according to the chart, at 146 degrees, a piece of chicken that's apprx. 40 mm thick needs 1 hr and 20 minutes or so to be fully cooked. since i had the false start, and have repeatedly read that you can't overcook when you sous vide (although i don't know that i really believe that) i left it in the water for about an hour and a half, took everything out and dried it, and put the bags in the freezer. this morning they were good and frozen, even that pesky sauce. (hm? will ask mr. science how that could be.)

my verdict on time and hassle: actually maintaining the water temperature was surprisingly easy, with the bulk of the effort spent on getting the food measured and bagged with a proper seal, and waiting for the sealer to cool down. this was complicated by the fact that i ran out of pre-made bags and started using the rolls, which require more sealing. when i'm doing these a dozen at a time, i'm going to use the more expensive, pre-made bags. they're about $10 for a box of 32 (adding $0.32 to the cost of each meal - still MILES cheaper than bistro's $11 per meal.) i'm also going to do what i can to find sauces that freeze easily. we'll have to wait and see if my cheapo sealer can stand up to the volume. i might check on ebay to spirit up a better one.

so, szechuan chicken and vegetables for lunch today. i'll report back in the afternoon with the results.

my next effort will be with a stuffed chicken breast. that might also be a way to keep non-freezing sauces contained during sealing. (ah-HA!) i'm torn between that, and something beefy. what do you think?

adventures in sous vide

hey everyone!

i've been studying up on sous vide (thanks renita!) and found an extremely helpful white paper online which includes charts with cooking times and temps based on the thickness of the protein, an evaluation of equipment, and a discussion of safety and pasteurization. i'll check the website of the guy who wrote it and see if he's okay with my reposting it. (i can't remember his name right now - i found him on eGullet.com where there's an exhaustive discussion.)

last night i bought some chicken breasts, a pound of fresh asian veggie mix, and a szechuan sauce. per eGullet discussion i put some sauce in an ice cube tray to freeze, since the vacuum sealer will inevitably suck both air and liquid out when i seal the chicken. as of this morning, it hadn't frozen, so i'm hoping that means that it's thick enough to stay in the bag during the seal. tonight is my first attempt at sous vide at home - szechuan chicken with vegetables. according to the chart, i need to maintain 146 degrees F for about 52 minutes for a thickness of 25-30 mms. will be interesting to see how PITA (pain-in-the-ass) that will be. if it comes out well, and is something i'm going to be doing a lot of in the future, DH will build me a sous vide cooker-type thingy that will self-regulate precise water temperatures using a hotplate and some sort of heat sensor. GOD i love that man. he's absolutely tremendous. i won't ask for that though until we've established that this is the way to go, and i can do it, and the food tastes good on the other end post-freezer and microwave.

here's what i've been able to establish so far:

• sous vide is really just a gentle way to poach
• 140 degrees F meat is generally considered the minimum "safe" temperature to avoid anaerobic culture growth (like e. coli and botulism) but there's some arguments from the culinary world that that number depends on post-cooking treatment and how long until you actually serve it
• most chefs cook fish at a lower temperature (between 105 - 130 degrees F)
• freezing after sous vide seems generally safer than chilling for a few hours

i'm also guessing that microwaving something after freezing leaves you on pretty safe ground. all this food safety stuff explains why all the bistro packages are explicit about NOT defrosting prior to reheating, and not to keep it after it's thawed. mystery solved, huh? i'm also proud of myself for picking up on the whole idea of freezing your sauce PRIOR to sealing. not doing that would have 1) made a mess, in addition to messing up my calorie estimates and 2) compromised the airtight seal on the baggies. good to know!

UPDATE: on the jambalaya, which DH had for lunch yesterday. he reported that he prefers it to the bistro version (huzzah!) because it's more tomato-ey and richer, and the rice's consistency was fine, not mushy at all. yay! maybe tomorrow i'll try it myself. :)

jambalaya with rice

jambalaya with rice was one of my first bistro meals, and is still one of my favorites. i found a ton of light recipes online, and sort of "took an average" to put mine together. it didn't make sense to do a small trial batch, so i made enough for 12-16 portions (depending on how you want the calories to fall out.)

something critical that i figured out AFTER the fact is to weigh whatever you're cooking your food in before you start cooking (e.g. the crockpot itself - mine has a bowl that comes out completely for cleaning.) this way, when the food is ready to be bagged, you're able to re-weigh the whole thing, subtract for the cooking vessel, and then divide the remainder by the number of portions you want. it becomes a simple matter to portion your servings out equally by weight. you don't even want to know the mess i made on sunday trying to get even portions!

again, my goal here was the best food possible for the least amount of effort and time. this seems like the type of recipe that can be tweaked for endless variation depending on taste.

jambalaya: saute about a lb each of diced onions and turkey sausage (andouille or hot italian works well) with diced garlic (i use garlic in a jar) until onions are soft and sausage is cooked. dump in a crockpot with 4 14-oz cans stewed tomatoes, 1 can tomato paste, and 2 lbs frozen shrimp. leave it on as long as you like/can. with about an hour to go, dump in some cajun spice mix (salt-free if you're sensitive) and hot sauce (also salt-free if you can) to taste.

i also cooked up some uncle ben's white rice because it's firm and i figured it would stand up to freezing and re-nuking. i haven't tried it yet, but i put some in DH's lunchbox today so we should have a report back from him tomorrow. i make it in a steamer/rice cooker i picked up years ago for about $20. that thing is the BOMB for making rice.

if you use these quantities to make 16 portions, nutrition is apprx as follows for jambalaya and rice together:

cals: 395
fat: 11 g
carb: 49 g
fiber: 4 g
protein: 27 g

mac and veggie cheeseburger no-bake casserole

a little something i came up with that isn't based on a bistro entree, but turned out so fabulous i thought i'd share. i read about fibergourmet on hungrygirl.com and tried some with morningstar farms burger crumbles, shredded 2% cheddar, and hot sauce. whoa nelly did that work well, and it made a huge pile of food!

make a box of fibergourmet mac and cheese with skim milk (you can find it here - http://www.fibergourmet.com/ - there's a store near me that sells it, but it turns out it's cheaper to order online, even with the shipping fees. more shipping, less shopping, i say!) add a bag of the veggie crumbles, and 3 oz 2% shredded cheddar. dump into a bowl, mix, and portion into baggies. this'll give you three portions, which work out to around 300 grams or so. i ordered a ton more so i can make this by the dozen. el nino loved it too.

here's the stats:

cals - 361
fat - 4 g
carb - 62 g
fiber - 24 g (holy colon blow!)
protein - 38 g
sodium - 836 mg

the sodium count will increase depending on how much hot sauce you use, unless you make a no-salt added hot sauce yourself. i have in the past, and they can be wonderful but would be a pain in the ass at this point in my life.

BBQ pork with corn and green beans

i started with this meal, since it's been one of my favorites from the beginning.

corn - easy! from bag o' frozen directly to sealer. bistro uses 3 oz, so i do too. i was considering roasting and flash freezing, but they taste just fine as is, and that seemed like a lot of work for a minimal improvement in taste. i can always toss them in old bay if i get bored.

green beans - no brainer. direct from bag o' frozen to sealer, again 3 oz.

pork - this was a little tougher (literally.) i bought really good, really lean pork tenderloin from a fabulous local place called dorothy lane. on my first try, i sliced it into chunks and baked with some diluted montgomery inn sauce (also local, to cincinnati) on low (300) for 40 minutes. it wasn't bad, but the sauce was waaay too watery so i dumped it and added two fresh tbls to the pork before sealing it.

the verdict: montgomery inn sauce is too sweet for me, and baking in liquid left the pork tougher than i liked. certainly not inedible, but not ideal. el nino liked it a lot, though, and ate almost half the meat and most of the corn. i gave it another go again last night, but used a spicier, vinegar-based sauce (can't remember the name offhand) and left the meat covered in a crockpot for 8 hours before bagging.

i got all excited when i nuked the corn and green beans and ended up with the little puddle of liquid that needed to be drained just like a bistro meal. dorky, i know.

will try the second batch tonight and see if this cooking method leaves it more tender.

original nutrition: 450 cals
my version (from Fitday): 286 cals, fat 7 g, carb 31 g, fiber 5 g, protein 28g, 371 mg sodium

it's got that new blog smell!

hi out there!
anyone else out there addicted to a high-end diet meal delivery service? do you find yourself needing to cut loose? whatever your reason - financial, customer service problems, can't stomach the environmental impact of all those styrofoam boxes, i'm there. it's getting to be that time, and i'm not going to freak out.

bistro MD has been an absolute revelation for me and my weight loss. i've been steadily losing weight, loving the food, and not having to spend hours and hours each week shopping, cooking, etc. has been friggin' joyous. for me, there was a conscious decision that i was exchanging hassle for expense, and when i initially signed up, i was struggling mightily with binging and needed the structure.

i'm getting to the point that this way of eating is normal for me, and i'm ready to start taking the training wheels off. the last few weeks i've realized that financially it's kind of important to do it now, too. i started feeling panicky and afraid though - worried that left to my own devices, i'd go back to what i was doing before bistro, which didn't involve weight loss. i'm phasing it out slowly.

the plan
1. replace bistro snacks (done!)
2. replace bistro breakfasts (done! - i'll fill you in on how - it's been the inspiration for the Big Shift.)
3. identify 15-20 replacement meals for lunch and dinner - my favorites
4. formulate recipes that replicate the macronutrient ratios using Fitday
5. test them until they're good enough that i look forward to meals. this includes freezing and reheating in the microwave, since that's how i'm going to eat them.
6. begin producing them in large batches both to accumulate a backlog of meals and to understand what the time commitment is
7. cut the cord with bistro. i'll miss playing with the bags of dry ice every week.

so far...

i bought one of those cheapie vacuum foodsavers ($50 at target.) i've already got a good food scale, a chest freezer, some tupperware midgets for syrups and dressings, and a crazy-supportive DH. ready to roll.

1. snacks
just a month after signing up, i went to the no-snacks option and started buying my own from http://www.dietdirect.com/. they've been great, so i'll keep going with that. DH just recently started eating them too - go volume discounts!

2. breakfasts
a few weeks ago, i heard that bistro was allowing for a no-breakfast option. i put together a spreadsheet comparing costs for what i was getting and what i could make for myself, and it was $20-$30 a month cheaper to go my own route. (also, i was never thrilled with the pastry and danishes.) it's week 3, and going beautifully. my replacements:

waffles - kashi golean frozen waffles with 1 oz of sugar-free syrup and a piece of fruit. total calories for the waffles and syrup: 200. the protein is about the same, too. i was adding fruit per the bistro dietician - adjust as you need to.

english muffin/bagel breakfast sandwich - for the english muffins, i used thomas light multigrain. for bagels, the alternative bagel in sweet wheat from http://www.westernbagel.com/ has an identical nutritional profile to bistro's. same taste, same size, looks exactly the same. that's where they probably get them from, but i can't confirm. i'm using morningstar farm's meatless sausage patties (80 cals) and making my own sandwich eggs. i bought egg rings from amazon and had to play around a little. i'm still trying to get it right (hints, anyone?) i buy a carton of liquid egg whites and use 2 oz in the egg ring. nonstick pan with some spray, heat up the pan with the egg rings in them. i up the heat a little and pour just a bit of the eggs in so they cook and "seal", then pour the rest in to let them cook.

when the eggs are done, i seal them in a baggie with a sausage, and plunk them in the freezer. one carton should make 8 eggs, but usually my rings leak and i end up with 1 or 2 servings of scrambled eggs. i also cut the bagels and put them and the english muffins in freezer bags. final count for jeanie's bagel sandwich: calories - 220, 3 g fat, 30 g carbs, 10 g fiber, 23 g protein.

blintzes and cheesy eggs - i found golden blintzes in the freezer section of the supermarket (i like cherry - http://www.aviglatt.com/Product_5662.html.) each one is 100 calories, so i package those with 2 in a bag and make a separate baggie with the egg whites that leaked and half an ounce of shredded 2% cheddar. you could also throw in a sausage pattie too.

oatmeal and cottage cheese - this one's easy. i picked up a box of quaker weight control oatmeal and a 4-pack of the 2% cottage cheese servings. ta-da!

cold cereal - one thing i missed with bistro was plain old cold cereal. i portion 53 g of kashi golean crunch into a gladware 1.75 c bowl, pour 8 oz of skim milk into a baby bottle (have these left over from el nino's recent past - he's almost two now, and laughs when i use them for MY meals but what the hell, they're the right size, conveniently marked for ounces, and meant to hold liquids). about 300 cals total.

in total this gives me 5 different breakfasts, and i could mix it up even more and eat muffins with PB or bagels with cream cheese. one of these days i might, if i get sick of the other stuff.

i'm also thinking about trying to make crepes from the protidiet pancake mix i bought from dietdirect, and filling them with fage yogurt mixed with sugar-free syrup and frozen berries. right now it sounds a little more labor-intensive than i'd like, though. :)

it's not a bad shopping list, and the vast majority of work involves taking frozen things out of boxes and putting them in the sealer. took me about an hour to make 2 weeks' worth of breakfasts. so far, so good!

next post: venturing into main courses - bbq pork and jambalaya