Friday, March 19, 2010

Turkey Wrapped Sweet Potato and Fennel Salad, Bean and Kale Soup



Started the day off with Oatmeal..
recipe
1/2 cup Bob's Red Hill organic extra thick rolled oats..The best I have found!
1 cup of water
boil quickly til almost dry..watch the pot or you will burn it
add hot skim milk, agave syrup, a little currents and a little sliced almonds

Coffee with hot skim milk and Agave syrup

low glycemic agave syrup tastes great and doesn't spike your glycemic levels. It is the same calories as you get in cane sugar but doesn't have the effect of making you hungrier later as does cane sugar

Lunch
Salad:
mixed mescalun greens with shavings of fresh fennel dressed with lemon juice and good tasting extra virgin olive oil pepper and a few flakes of sea salt
Shopping in New York City is a joy
Fairway allows you to taste different olive oils daily and sells large great bottles for 12 to 15 dollars..your food is only as good as the individual ingredients you use..especially if the recipe is simple and ingredient driven

Main Course

a sly diet copy of a recipe by Mark Bittman seen on video at the NYT.com website..he makes sweet potato wrapped with proscuito

Sweet potatoes are recommended in stage two South Beach Diet because they are not as starchy as white potatoes and again are low on the glycemic index..something integral to the diet, so I decided to slightly change Mr. Bittman's recipe substituting turkey bacon for the somewhat higher fat of proscuitto.

Here is what I made

peel and slice a medium sweet potato
parboil til medium tender..not too much so it stays together and can be baked again
roll in a bit of olive oil and salt very slightly as the bacon is already salty
place a fresh sage leaf against the potato and wrap a slice of applegate farms turkey bacon around each piece laying them loosely into a baking pan..drizzle a tiny bit more oil into the pan and rotating the pan around to distribute oil under the wraps.
bake 450 for 20 or so minutes..you want little crusty edges to form. I had three of the wraps which was quite filling for lunch after eating the salad and will have the remaining 3 pieces next week for a lunch. or even for breakfast.

the potato is about 170 calories..half ends up one serving and the bacon is 35 calories per slice with 1.5 grams of fat so a serving for lunch might amount to more or less 300 calories!

skipped the gym today as it was pouring all day
Dinner at 7 pm a little late

Bean and Kale Soup

I cut the leaves off and put just the leaves in boiling water to parboil. Then I lifted the leaves from the pot put them in a colander and ran cold water over them to cool..then squeezed out the water and chopped up..then reduced the water to about 5 cups of liquid.
Next, in a tablespoon of oil I sauteed a medium onion and two minced cloves of garlic and salt, adding a bit of broth and a bit of water, two cans of navy beans two sprigs of rosemary two sprigs of thyme and a bay leaf as well as enough of the reduced water to cover the beans simmer 20 minutes or so. Then I put it all into my cuisinart after removing the rosemary, thyme and bayleaf and puree the beans and liquid in batches til smooth. I put it back in a pot and added the kale strips to warm it..if you need extra liquid add kale stock or a bit of water.season with lots of pepper and salt to taste.
I like it topped with croutons. Just a few..this is after all a diet!
Fried croutons
a small piece of french bread I took from the freezer and thawed.
in a small frying pan, I cooked a clove of garlic in a tablespoon of olive oil. Removed the clove of garlic and I added the bread cut into croutons. Cooked slowly til brown. Just before it is ready turn off heat and cool in the pan then drain them on paper. When they are cool they can be stored in the cupboard in a covered glass jar.

Kept drinking my water..lots of water is really good for a diet.
Tomorrow morning cardio then Yoga.
And I have lots of leftovers for meals.





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