You're not archaeologists, are you?

I didn't have the brain power to do a meal plan yesterday so I did one today during work. I still have to grocery shop, though.

Monday
Roast chicken
Sweet potatoes and russet potatoes
Salad

Tuesday
Pork chops
Salad
Rice

Wednesday
Turkey cutlets
Normandy vegetables
Mashed potatoes

Thursday
Italian chicken with green beans (recipe from last week)
Mushroom risotto (my first!)

Friday
Pasta with Italian sausage
Rolls
Normandy vegetables

Saturday
Roast (beef)
Potatoes
Carrots
Salad

My mom's chile verde:

Cut up pork. Put it in a pan and start sautéing it. Add some oregano (1-2 Tbsp.) and some garlic salt ("not too much, you don't want it to be salty). Add onion (more vagueness about quantity and whether it should be chopped or sliced). Open a 14.5 oz. can of tomatoes. Mom uses diced tomatoes, I'll probably use whole. If the meat/onion mixture gets too dry add some juice. Put the strained tomatoes in. Mom doesn't use all of them and she doesn't like the meat mixture to be too juicy. It should be moist but not contain a lot of juice. After that, add a small can of diced green chiles. Warm the chiles in the mixture and serve with tortillas.


All of this made me curious about an authentic chile verde recipe but I have to say, her recipe is darned good.


Wow...just a cursory search and it's evident that this is nothing like chile verde. Like, embarrassingly not like it. Still, it is delicious.

Our Sunday dinner turned out great! Come visit my blog for more information.



The wine with dinner tonight was Willow Crest's 2006 Pinot Gris. It's a decent enough wine and best paired with food. It went with the pork very well. For about $12 you could definitely do much worse. I only had about a glass and a half, since I didn't want to overdo it! ^_^

Banana muffins:



Cinnamon rolls:



Beef stroganoff:



Delicious!

I have details for the muffins and stroganoff over on Mary Cooks.

Saturday
Beef Stroganoff
Pasta
Salad

Sunday
Pork Tenderloin
Brown Rice (perhaps with golden raisins and vinaigrette)
Roasted Sweet Potatoes
Salad

Monday
Chicken
Normandy Vegetables
Rice (probably from a mix*)

Tuesday
Pork Chops (hopefully breaded with panko!)
Green Beans
Brown Rice
Salad

Wednesday
Beef Rice-a-Roni* with Ground Beef
Peas

Thursday
Italian Green Bean Chicken
Pasta
Salad

Friday
Turkey Cutlets
Sweet Potatoes
Normandy Vegetables


( Recipes )

*I am going to try not to buy any more rice mixes (Rice-a-Roni, etc.) but I need to use up what I have. It'd be silly to get rid of food that can be fed to my family.

Bill's coworkers brought their sweet puppy pug, Edward, over when they visited. Everyone loved Edward! Sophia most of all, I think. :)

Over the past few days I have read Losing Weight When Diets Fail: The clinically proven Power Programming method for amazingly easy, fail-proof, diet-free weight loss by Tom Kersting, Ph.D.

When I first began reading this book I thought there might be some hidden gems in it; some items that may have been of use, even if they only served as reminders. Unfortunately, this book does little to deliver on its promise. Disclaimer: there is a CD-ROM that comes with the book but I have not put that into my computer.

The book starts out with a basic explanation of the four states of consciousness. You have alpha, beta, theta, and delta. This book is all about reprogramming your subconscious and how that is the key to successful weight loss. The author means to do this through hypnotherapy. I have never tried hypnotherapy before but I imagine it would simply put me to sleep. I don't know if that would be a desired state of consciousness but at least it would help with my lack of sleep! Ha ha! I kid.

Seriously, though, the book does provide some rather valuable reminders that using visualization is helpful in weight loss. The author guides you through the same visualization a couple of times wherein you imagine that you're eating a delicious piece of fruit and you crave that much more than you would ever crave, for example, a piece of chocolate.

Dr. Kersting also devotes a chapter to understanding your eating patterns. Are you a snacker? Are you a stress eater? Do you eat too little during the day and are famished by evening? All of this is fairly common sense material but could be a great reference to those just starting out on the weight loss journey.

The book had me at "meh" until it became a diet book. What's that?! I thought he said this wasn't a diet book? If it is not, explain to me how he encourages the reader to eat a lowfat turkey dog with sauerkraut instead of a chili dog because "you won't taste the difference". Then Dr. Kersting has the gall to write "Enjoy!" after telling me I won't taste the difference between chili and sauerkraut. He goes on to provide a lot of healthier meal alternatives. Is this new information? No. Is this inherently evil that he is doing this? Well, no. But if Dr. Kersting is going to proclaim this is not a diet book and then go on to provide "Power Programming Menus" then I call hypocrisy.

After the menus was the second half of the book devoted to hypnotherapy and guided exercises. This isn't my thing. If it's yours, that's great. However, just reading it made me want to hightail it over to my delta consciousness state.

After I got this book from the library I knew it wouldn't be anything overly thrilling but it is incredibly disheartening for someone to purposefully mislead people into thinking this isn't a diet book. It clearly is a diet book, and a very poor one at that.

I give this book one spoon out of five. He gets one spoon because I do believe that visualization can be a useful tool when trying to reprogram one's mind.

Sophia's bento lunch today:



( Project 365s )

No bath tonight. I'm wiped out.

So, this is interesting:



I got it from this website.

Tonight's wine is a Terra Blanca 2005 Reserve Roussanne and it is soooo much tastier than the Chardonnay. It's a bit sweeter and not tart at all. I've already had three glasses! (Again, Bill doesn't necessarily like white wine.)

Here are the notes from Terra Blanca:

"A tropical sensation radiates from the glass through aromas of pear, ripe peach, and lychee nut. Ripe peach dominates the palate with hints of tropical fruit and lychee nut adding to the complexity of the wine. The bright acidity balances beautifully with the fruit to leave your palate refreshed and invigorated."

(I corrected the lychee spelling.)

Anyway, I am not good at these reviews or what I am tasting. I know I need to get better but I'm not sure how, exactly. I just know: do I like it or do I not? I can definitely taste the pear and peach. It's not tart. It doesn't have time to get warm in my glass like the Chardonnay because it is too delicious.

Love the Roussanne, Terra Blanca!!