Day 160 - 3 Simple Ingredients That Will Spoil Your Mouth

I have been working hard at converting my eating to more straight-forward foods, trying to take in less processed foods. My body burns everything better and faster when I give it the simple things that nature gives us. Which is why when I saw a beautiful container of 'Baby Bellas' (small portobella mushrooms) at the market and couldn't resist. I knew that I had a bit of my favorite Riesling left in the fridge and thought that it might work well with the mushrooms and some butter. So into my shopping basket they went.

My favorite Riesling is sweet and smooth and has a beautifully round flavor, which is why I like drinking it. So it seemed to stand to reason that it would work well in cooking applications, too. I was right! Look below...

Drunken Mushrooms

1.  Clean your mushrooms well with a dry paper towel. No one likes gritty 'shrooms. And remove the stems leaving only the caps.

2. In a small skillet over medium high heat melt bring to a simmer 1/2 Tbsp. salted butter and 1/4 cup of your favorite Riesling.

3. Place the caps open side down in the pan of  simmering liquid.  Allow to cook this way for about 2 minutes. Turn the heat down to medium low and cook for another 1 minute.

4. Turn mushrooms caps over, open side up, and cook till the liquid has reduced to a thick glaze. keep you heat low at this point to give the mushrooms a chance to get tender. If your liquid has thickened too soon, just add a couple Tbsps. of warm water and continue to cook until the liquid has again reduced and is thickly bubbling.

5. Try not to eat them before you serve them... But do be sure to serve them with the glaze from the pan. It is packed with intense, rich flavor. This would be great with a seared steak. I eat them alone, no need to corrupt their amazingness.

Other white wines will work with this recipe, but Riesling seems to have a special relationship with mushrooms and butter. Enjoy!

Tomorrow: An introduction to the soon-to-be regular addition to my blog. You'll love her : ) 

Day 138 - Weigh In Day (DUN Dun dun...) and Last Night's Dinner

Feelin' good! Dropped 2.6 lbs this past week! *Happy Dance! Happy Dance!* For a total loss of 41.6 lbs since April 3rd.

It actually felt good to get back in the swing if things last week. I felt out of control the week before--in every way, not just eat and weight loss. Having that sense of control can be empowering and motivating. I like it. : )

And in other news... My dinner last night was delicious! Nothing crazy or out of the ordinary, but I did make the meatballs that my boys had been begging for all week. I was sad because I didn't think they would be point friendly enough for me to really indulge. But since I love pasta and marinara anyways, I didn't fret too much.

See below for exact meal amounts. The Riesling is St. Urbans-Hof.

So I made them the way I normally would, just used all egg whites rather than whole eggs, and didn't free pour the bread crumbs and Parmesan cheese. I plugged the recipe into my magical little Weight Watchers calculator and it said 2 points... 2 POINTS!!! This made my tummy grumble.

Yup. That's it. Right there. I had a little glass of Riesling with it--and yes, I know I'm supposed to have a red wine with the red sauce and red meat. But the sauce was marinara, not my traditional heavy red sauce (that I can't live without in the winters) so to me it was light. Which called for a light wine. And I always seem to have a bottle of Riesling available for these situations.

Come back tomorrow for the second half of my interview with Matt. Saturday's post with the first half was a big success! See what else Matt confided in me... well, us : )

**1 cup cooked whole wheat pasta, 1/4 cup Franks Marinara Sauce, 1 heaping Tbsp. shredded Parmesan cheese, 2 meatballs (as described above) and 1 tsp. olive oil. This equals 10 PP for my Weight Watchers buddies - but that doesn't include the wine. I dipped into my Weekly Points for that treat!)

Day 125 - Drunken Jam and Indulgence

So, even though jams/preserves/jellies are not the most friendly foods for weight loss, learning to eat anything in a healthy way is what I'm working on. And I love to make jams. One teaspoon at a time (or 20 grams if your a weigh-it-out kind of person like me) is only one point for my plan, which makes me happy! So I present you with my recipe for Plum Riesling Jam. This recipe makes 8 cups.

     *all photography by Kara, please no reproductions

The only problem with making such yummy things is the temptation to eat while making... Though this did in fact prove to be problematic, I still tracked every last drop that I "taste tested" and added it to my daily food intake. Some of this yumminess will be headed over to a couple friends so that I don't have so much available. Friends are wonderful things when you're watching your food intake and have to make 'batches' of recipes and can't keep all of it around. Thank you Becca and Shinera!

Tomorrows topic: My typical breakfasts and why I combine the foods that I do.

Days 114 & 115

I forgot to post yesterday : )  I was wallowing in my own laziness. Now I'm annoyed that I wasted a day, so onto doing lots of housework.

Since my visit home to Buffalo was full of food in ways I didn't want it to be, I charged myself all of my weekly allowance points (Weight Watchers) and am sticking just to my daily points for the remainder of the week. I thought this was going to be torture, but yesterday was ok. I even balanced my meals with all of my GHGs (Good Healthy Guidelines) so that I was satisfied before my points were up so I treated myself to a glass of Riesling from a wonderful Niagara County winery- Vizcarra Vineyards (part of Becker Farms). It is easily one of the best Rieslings I have had and was a terrific way to end the evening!

Today has been good so far and I am looking forward to heading to the store tomorrow to buy new pants for my return to school on Tuesday. All of my pants are now sliding down my backside... Good things!