Diets Be Gone

Sandi thought it would be a good idea for her to cook a healthy meal. A couple of days ago, she made a nice pork tenderloin dish that was reasonable healthy. She sauteed the Brussels sprouts the same way she did last week except for the bacon; it was delicious. She even made some "pretend" mashed potatoes made out of cauliflower; not bad at all.

Last night she invited me again; I swear, I should have a room at her house so I can retire at the end of a big meal to sleep it off.  I don't know what got into her but the healthy dinner was a chicken breast cooked in cream.....oh yessss! There was a salad of course since we had to have vegetables. She also make some black rice and couscous in case the black rice was inedible. It turned out, the black rice was quite edible especially when she decided to fry it a bit after it was cooked so it gave it a chewy but crunchy texture.

She did not make her usual surprise dessert as we eliminated dessert for the next two weeks. Here is more good and bad news. My friend Ana decided to give me an early birthday present and had her husband deliver her famous Chocolate Cake. This is the ultimate cake. I guarantee there is no richer, lighter, moister cake in the world like this one. She also had to make her famous caramel sauce to go with the cake. She made a mini cake for Sandi with the sauce. That was our dessert! I waited to go home to have mine as I didn't want to take a piece from her portion.

Since the cake was a good size cake.....you can guess what I had for breakfast this morning with my morning coffee.

Day 8 Final Day of Our Semi Diet

We had to go to a birthday celebration at Port's O' Call in San Pedro last night. We had a nice table with the view of the water and some boats. It was still happy hour so we had the chance to indulge in a complimentary buffet of vegetables; cauliflower, broccoli and carrots with various dressings (yippee- ki-yay). There was also a big basket of chips and beside it was melted cheese. Since I could not have the chips, I splattered some of the cheese on my veggies to make it slightly edible.

Margaritas were $4.00; what a deal! Sandi and I studied the menu and since we didn't want to blow our diet, we adhered to the no potatoes, rice or pasta rule. We ordered the Fried Calamari with Lemon and the Beefeater Salad which had slices of filet mignon, diced egg, yellow bell pepper, asparagus, tomatoes and Gorgonzola wedges in a raspberry vinaigrette dressing. We were both pleasantly surprised that both dishes were delicious. The filet mignon was tender as can be and the calamari was very tasty as it was lightly floured and flash fried i n Thai red pepper sauce.

Since we didn't have time for dessert as we unexpectedly had to go home for personal reasons, I stopped by Coco's and got a Fresh Strawberry Chocolate Harvest Pie. As soon as we got home, we had a nice slice each and really enjoyed it. It had a flaky crust, chocolate ganache and strawberry mousse topped with fresh whipped cream. Didn't care for the fresh strawberry on top as it was sour.

I am happy to report that after 2 weeks of the semi diet of no rice, potatoes or pasta, I lost a total of 4 lbs. We shall now eat whatever we want but cut down on portions AND no desserts, pies, cakes, etc. with the exception of a piece of chocolate at the end of the day. The no desserts rule will be only be for a limited time of 2 weeks and we shall then figure out and evaluate the diet.

Port's O'Call is located at 1200 Nagoya Way in San Pedro, California.

Day 7 of Our Semi Diet

This would have been our last day of the diet but since we had Easter Sunday which was "free to eat whatever", we had to go 8 days. We were running out of ideas. I still had 2 chorizos left so I cooked them the same way I did last week which was sauteed in onions and garlic. I added garbanzo beans and tomato sauce, simmered and cracked an egg to poach. It was delicious but at the end, it was sad to see the sauce on our plates begging to be swept over with a nice slice of baguette. Only my husband was allowed to do that since he was not on a diet.

Life is truly unfair! Thanks to Ana for this wonderful recipe.

Day 6 of Our Semi Diet

Chic-fil-A was the venue for our dinner on the 6th day of our semi diet.  It was hard not to order the chicken sandwich with French fries. Instead, we ordered the Cobb Salad. I normally do not like cobb salad but this one had lots of fried chicken which is o.k. on our book of dieting since chicken isn't rice, potatoes or pasta. The salad also had bacon, crispy bell peppers, corn kernels, shredded carrots, Jack and cheddar cheese, tomatoes and diced eggs. Sandi spotted a poster that advertised a new drink: Frosted Lemonade which looked good. It also listed the calories. With diet, 240 calories and with regular was 330 calories. I immediately announced that 240 calories isn't that much especially if our salad was only 430 calories. This sounded amazing. 

The salad was delivered to our table and we were amazed on how good and little it looked. It was delicious but it was not enough. It was just a salad; a precursor to an entree. I ate my salad almost in slow motion so it would last a bit longer. We did enjoy the Frosted Lemonade. It was creamy and yummy. Sandi mentioned that it reminded her of an Orange Julius which it kinda did, only this was better.

This semi diet is truly annoying. I hope we lose a few pounds with all the sacrifices. We didn't want to overdo it and lose 10 lbs in a week as that would only be water loss and the faster you lose, the faster you gain so we will be happy with 2-3 lbs loss.

Easter Sunday Dinner 2015

Hallelujah ! Finally, a break from our diet. Easter Sunday dinner at Sandi's was heaven. After 4 days of semi diet with no pasta, potatoes or rice it was great to know we were having potatoes as this was the 1 day break from our diet. Sandi's table setting was very inviting with multicolored fresh daisies with matching daisy napkin holders. I brought everyone a Lindt chocolate bunny to watch over us.

The main attraction was the ham cooked in coke (coca-cola) and a few other ingredients. She had scalloped potatoes, coleslaw and a corn souffle. The potatoes and the souffle were wonderful and they were great partners that went with the delicious ham. Boy, have I missed my old friend (starch).
Everyone finished their servings except for Aaron who eats like a bird.

For dessert, Sandi spoiled us. She gave us a choice of Key Lime Pie on a chocolate crust or Gelato with fudge. I asked if I could have both. Everyone decided to be a copy cat. Our eyes were bigger than our mouths. Gary and I ended up having the rest of our pie wrapped "to go".

I thank Sandi for slaving away all day. It was well worth it to her guests. I don't know if she feels the same way?

Day 4 of Our Semi Diet

No more fish! Yesterday we were determined to have anything but fish. I had my usual oatmeal which I am getting sick of.  Sandi and I were in Manhattan Beach and we had to go to Macy's. We decided to have lunch somewhere in the vicinity. The Tin Roof was right by the parking lot. The only time I went there was long ago and I could not even remember anything about the food as it was so noisy that I could have a conversation with my friend and that was around 2 p.m. !

We decided to give it a try. It was noisy but nothing like when I was there last. We both decided to split the Thai Salad.  I asked our server if they normally serve bread and he answered: "I'll bring some over". Sandi and I told him not to as we would not be able to control ourselves. After all we were recovering "starchaholics".

The salad came which had the word "Healthy" written all over. Indeed it tasted very healthy. We were afraid we would start hopping around. We did finish it since we were both hungry and had very little choice.

For dinner, my friend Aaron drove himself and Sandi to Long Beach to Bigmista's Barbecue and Sammich Shop. It's supposed to have great barbecue and they both have had their brisket which was excellent. It was day before Easter so they were out of brisket. They ended up getting the pulled pork, beans, cole slaw and potato salad to go and they called me up to join them. Turns out, the potato salad and coleslaw were missing. They must have forgotten to pack them up. The pulled pork was good but only because Sandi had some Baby Ray's barbecue sauce. The sauce that came with the pulled pork was so spicy that none of us had it. We dipped our little finger to taste it and our mouths were on fire! Sandi had some chicken and beets she served along with the rest of the pork. There was a spicy sausage and that was very spicy. It was good with the chicken.

We survived another day of dieting. Thank God.

Day 3 of Our Semi Diet

Yesterday was day 3 of our semi diet. Misery loves company so I invited Sandi over for dinner since we are still both in this sad diet. There were no appetizers. I served a green salad with croutons; oh, I just realized croutons are made of "bread" which is a big no-no! Funny, Sandi didn't say anything while I unloaded the big chunks of "Cheddar Crisp" croutons unto the salad. It was an honest mistake on my part.

Dinner was fish again. Three days in a row!!! I got some filet of cod. I marinated them in lemon, seasoned with salt and pepper and baked them for 20 minutes. In the meantime, I made a sauce of Japanese mayonnaise, parmesan cheese, lemon and green onions. I took the fish out of the 350 degree oven, spread the sauce over the fish and broiled it till it was brown in color. Note: I had the oven door slightly open and I just stood by the oven to keep a close watch. I was afraid we would not have enough of the filets so I bought some rolled up salmon and white fish with spinach stuffing from Ralphs market. All I had to do was bake them for 20 minutes. They were not bad at all.

Since we could not have any potatoes, I tried to duplicate the pureed carrots I had the night before at Dominique's Kitchen. I boiled the carrots, pureed them with butter and some cream. I then transferred them in a pan and heated it. It turned out to be very good. I served the fish on the fluffy bed of pureed carrots.

Dessert was store bought Magnum Caramel Bars. We had to be able to look forward to something exciting. The magnum was exciting enough.