Frances Ellen Speaks!

Archive for the ‘Cooking’ Category

I’ve never been much for eating breakfast. Even as a kid, I could take it or leave it. But all the nutritionists agree, it’s an important meal. So I’ve adapted. I even have a few favorites.

1. If you’re on-the-go, grab one of those six packs of crackers. I like Lance brand the best and most of them are only 130 calories.
2. Since summer is right around the corner, I like to eat cantaloupe and cottage cheese.
3. Any other time of the year, you can eat one of those Cottage Doubles that Breakstone sells in the dairy section of your supermarket. They’re only 100 calories. I spread the mixture on 3 or 4 saltines or graham crackers.
4. I also like peanut butter and sliced banana on rice cakes or whole wheat toast, but remember if you’re trying to keep your fruit per day down to 2, then a whole banana counts as 2 fruit. Your daily intake is done for the day, but if you like peanuts and bananas, it’s worth it.
5. 1/2 large bagel (or a small one that you can find in the supermarket freezer) with cream cheese. Go for a little zing and use some fruity cream cheese. I love the strawberry. Plus this is a pretty filling breakfast. Or you can forget the traditional cream cheese and exchange it for a slice of Swiss cheese and warm it in a toaster oven.
6. Another good idea is to keep frozen fruit in your freezer i.e. blueberries, bing cherries, pineapples. Throw a couple of them into a packet of Instant Quaker Oatmeal, add water and microwave. You’ll be surprised how wonderful oatmeal tastes with plump cherries. Try a different fruit each morning. It’s addictive.
7. On the weekend, when you have a little more time, spoil yourself and prepare an egg, some turkey sausage and a slice of toast.
8. My one last suggestion to you is to keep a supply of fresh vegetables in your freezer. They’re every bit as important to have as the fruit. I always have chopped onions, scallions, bell peppers and chives in my freezer. I chop them when I bring them home from the supermarket. The beauty of having them handy is, you can whip up a really great breakfast with them. Scramble 1 large egg and 1 egg white with any or all of the above veggies mentioned. Serve over a toasted English Muffin or bread of your choice. You won’t feel deprived at all.

Each of the breakfasts above can be topped off with a cup of tea or coffee. Personally, I forego fruit juice because I don’t like to drink my calories, but if that’s your passion, go for it. Just remember if you have apple juice in the morning, you can’t have that apple in the afternoon.

The other thing you’ll find missing from my list is cold cereal. That’s because I like all the “wrong” kinds of cereals–all those sugary flakes and stuff like that. My best defense is to leave them on the shelves at the supermarket.

My final word of caution–if you’d prefer to grab a granola bar in the morning, check the calories. Some of them are deadly.

The most popular New Year’s Resolution year after year? Try to lose weight.

Here’s the newest suggestion that has come down the pike for the year 2012 and I’m going to give it a whirl since it has to do with carbohydrates. And I love my carbs.

Eat your three meals, as usual, but don’t eat any carbohydrates with your dinner. That means you can eat a sandwich for lunch with actual bread and you can have a slice of toast for breakfast with an egg or two.

At dinner, fill up on proteins and veggies. If you start with a salad or a vegetable beef soup, for instance, you will feel quite full without potatoes, etc. with your main meal.

For your sweet tooth, later in the evening, raid the freezer and munch on a sugarless fudgesicle.

If it’s salt you crave, crank up the microwave and pop a single serving of popcorn. I know technically that’s considered a carbohydrate, but what harm can an itty-bit of popcorn do if it assuages your hunger?

Of course, one of the other ways to lose weight that’s being touted loudly these days is to eat five or six small meals throughout the day. Maybe that works for some people, but personally, that means I’d have to think about food all day long. To tell you the truth, I get busy and forget to eat all those tiny meals, so that doesn’t work for me.

The bottom line–there’s no panacea. It’s still about eating less and exercising more, but that doesn’t mean we can’t try new ways of taking off the weight.

Whichever way you say it, you haven’t eaten a really good tomato in a very long time–well, unless you’re growing your own or buying from a farmers market. However, you are eating really, really pretty tomatoes: bright red, no blemishes, smooth skin, firm to the touch, perfect green stem. Too bad they’re red rocks with little or no juice inside.

photo from

Every year, it gets harder and harder to find an awful looking, ugly tomato–the ones that are grown to taste good, not to look good.

photo from

If you’re lucky enough to find one, don’t expect it to be bright red. Sometimes they’re more orange. And don’t bother to look for a perfect stem sticking out of its misshapen body, because there probably isn’t one.

If you’ve ever bent over and picked a tomato direct from the plant, you’ll know the minute you hold this ugly baby in the palm of your hand that it’s been sun-drenched and grown outside and maybe it hasn’t even been sprayed with “who knows what.”

So, the next time you pass the tomatoes in your supermarket, try to figure out why you don’t see those hideous looking tomatoes in the store anymore. Are we so enamored of beauty that our food has to look gorgeous, while real taste suffers?

Oh, well. Pretty is “in.”  So, I won’t even get started on our pretty, pretty red beef, or our pearly white eggs, or …

Last week I cooked a dish that called for broccoli florets. So there I was–stuck with the leftover stems. What to do. What to do. I chopped them up, threw them into a ziploc bag and put them in the frig.

Today I decided to make this soup. It turned out to be a good, delicious decision.

5 cups water
2 (14 oz) packages frozen, chopped broccoli
OR fresh broccoli, if you have it.
3 cups diced potatoes
¾ cup chopped onion
3 chicken bouillon cubes
2 cans cream of celery soup
6 oz sharp cheddar cheese, cubed
6 oz Colby jack cheese, cubed

Cook the first 5 ingredients for 20 minutes (1/2 hour if using fresh broccoli).

Reduce heat and add soup and cheeses.  Simmer until cheese is melted.

Stir often so cheese does not stick.

I’m sorry, but when I’m determined to eat a healthier diet and try to get back in shape, I can’t do it without counting calories. All of these other popular diet plans do nothing for me.

Once I become aware of how many calories I’m putting into my stomach, I begin to adjust and to understand how much I can eat and when I should stop.

A good rule to follow in life is “everything in moderation.” That’s the rule I follow when I decide to take off some pounds. After counting calories for a while, my mind and my body eventually come to a happy understanding and eating right becomes second nature.

In the beginning, though, to get myself on track, I go to my favorite site for help counting calories.

http://www.prevention.com/health/

The site has helpful diet hints, but best of all, if you put in your current weight and plug in the amount of pounds you want to lose in a specified time, it calculates the number of calories you can eat in one day in order to reach your goal. Is that somethin’, or what?

Then you list the foods you eat during the day in the Health Tracker. It’s a snap. Sometimes, I even plan my meals for the following day.

Now I’m going in the kitchen to cook some pasta. Pasta? Yep. Because according to my Health Tracker, I’ve only eaten 861 calories today and it’s time for dinner.

I’m not in a huge hurry to lose my weight and I have a lot to lose. However, I’m not a person who is going to starve myself. I’ve given myself two years to lose 80 pounds.

There’s a method to my madness, because in order to do that, I can eat a whopping 1800 calories a day and still take all that weight off. Plus I can easily continue to eat that many calories after the weight melts slowly away. I don’t intend to gain it back!

Just for the record, 1 cup of cooked pasta equals 176 calories. And according to the site’s calculation, I can eat 2 cups without walking away with a busted-up conscience.

Need more laid-back inspiration?    Success or Failure?

Got to go and get that water boiling.

1 lb. ground beef, lean
1/4 cup chopped onion
1 or 2 cans of your favorite vegetable (or leftover veggies)
Instant Mashed Potatoes, you choose the amount of servings
OPTIONALS: Shredded Cheddar Cheese
1 can Creamed Corn

Cook beef and onions in skillet until the meat is browned. Spoon into a baking casserole dish.

Prepare instant mashed potatoes. Add Shredded Cheddar, if you like. ** Place the prepared potatoes around the edges of the casserole dish on top of the beef.

Fill the center with vegetables (If using canned veggies, remember to drain beforehand.)

Bake in 425 oven for 15 minutes.   Serves 3 or 4 people.

**FOR A CHANGE OF PACE – Pour the can of creamed corn, straight from the can, over the beef, BEFORE adding the potatoes and veggies. Great!