Arizona, Mesa - Sunday, December 27, 2015 - Lots of Cooking Going On

We had a wonderful Christmas dinner.  Greg smoked these lobster tails, I added the broccoli-cashew salad, shrimp cocktail and the pumpkin pie in the background.  We touched base with my Mom and all of the kids and grandkids either by phone, Facebook or Facetime – isn’t technology wonderful?

 

We are going into the New Year somewhat lighter than we began 2015.  Although we indulge occasionally we have stuck very well to a low-calorie, low sodium diet since the first of September.  Greg is down 27 pounds and I am down 25.

 

The kitchen is quiet now, but it was pretty busy for a few hours on Saturday and Sunday.  I estimate that we spend six to eight hours a week cooking.  We usually divide that up over a couple of days and then the rest of the week we just reheat things.  I probably spend another four hours researching recipes, calculating calorie and sodium counts of the ones that sound interesting and then keeping track of everything we end up eating.  Since this is a life change not a diet for a little while I want to come up with things that make us feel like we are eating as close to “normal” as possible.  Tonight we enjoyed Teriyaki pork chops with sautéed peppers and onions and some pineapple-cashew rice.  The only sodium in this meal is what is naturally in the pork and it still tasted great.  Mrs. Dash’s Teriyaki marinade is wonderful.

This weekend we put together pickled eggs, barbeque sauce, salsa, breakfast burritos, baked hush puppies, freezer slaw, pickled onions, au gratin potatoes, sausage and bean soup, chicken noodle soup, pizza, and jumbo shrimp for cocktails.  I was finally able to put together a homemade sausage recipe that Greg really likes.  This one has been a struggle but Greg likes sausage so well and it is great to use for so many dishes it was worth it.  I used very lean pork and lots of spices (but no salt) and it really tastes pretty good.  With what we had left over from last week, we are set for some really good meals for the next week.  Knowing that we have something good to come home to helps us to keep from indulging in the good smelling food we serve at the grill.

Our weather is still pretty cool, I’m looking forward to some warmer weather in a couple of weeks.