To do, or not to do
This weekend I baked my first ever cheesecake. In an oven that needs to be set roughly 50° lower than what the recipe calls for.
It’s the “roughly” that’s kinda tricky.
It was part of my Social Media Mouthful goal – to start making some of the “wow, that looks good” recipes that I bookmark but never EVER try. Seemed like a noble goal at the time. The problem is, there’s a lot in that “mouthful” that is not all that helpful with some of my other goals. Like still being able to see my feet by the end of the summer.
So I’m doing a little tweaking. All the best plans involve a little tweaking.
I already know that I am way better at doing something than not doing something: Any successful run at weight loss has involved exercise, because I’m better at doing the exercise than avoiding the treats. A healthy meal involves lots of vegetables, because there’s just less room for other stuff. More soup & salad = less dessert.
I need to apply this to cruising the food blogs. I figure if I’m busy trying healthy recipes, there’s just less time to make cheesecake, brownies, and dark chocolate ice cream.
Am I going to outlaw that stuff? No. Because I know how well THAT works. So here’s the plan:
Tweak the Social Media Mouthful so that every recipe is either
- healthy, or
- comes with a plan to enjoy responsibly.
“Enjoying responsibly” will probably involve foisting the leftovers on unsuspecting collegues; preferably ζach’s unsuspecting colleagues. This may even curtail my desire to make them – I mean, there’s only so much time in the day, making an entire batch of brownies only to eat one is bound to get old. Eventually. Maybe.
Post a leafless salad recipe every week this summer (leafless because lettuce is for rabbits). If I start this week, that will be 12 recipes between now and the end of August. They can be old favourites or new discoveries, culled from the net or invented in my kitchen, inspired by past suggestions or google searches. The only rule is that I have to have tried and liked it before posting it (which, based on recent experience, will involve a few misfires. PSA: pineapple, lime juice, and garlic do not play well together).
And if I meet these goals, I figure I’ll have earned a new oven. A double oven. So I can bake more cheesecake.
It’s salad season – what are YOUR favourites?
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11 Comments
I like salad almost as much as I like cheesecake. Almost.
I like the standards — Greek, caeser, spinach — and mixing it up with goat cheese, strawberries, almonds etc.
Enjoy (and keep moving…. : )
Hi Pam. You’re so lucky! I have always had an on-again-off-again relationship with all things leafy, and have never fully recovered from a pregnancy aversion to baby spinach (which I used to love). I can do caesar if it’s drowning in dressing (and bacon, and croutons…), but kinda defeats the purpose
.
I don’t do diets well either. I like salad, but I hate making it. I like exercise, but it’s hard fitting it in and crucial body parts for bending and such keep giving out on me. I keep trying for action, though, because abstinence just isn’t happening. And I like that your ‘enjoying responsibly’ means giving it away – I hate those restaurant owners or cookbook people who gab about how great they are at ‘trying one bite of something and then throwing it away’ – that’s your idea of responsible?! Also, funny about the baby spinach – I had a pregnancy aversion to lemon chicken that still bothers me sometimes.
I know, preparing fresh vegetables takes forever. That’s another thing I like about non-leafy salads, they’re usually easier to prep in advance. As for taking one bite and throwing it away – seriously? That’s ‘the thing’ to do? I’ve never heard that, but it’s pretty appalling.
I love salad personally. Not a ‘diet’ or ‘health’ thing, I just happen to really like it. My favourite no-lettuce salad is a greek salad with everything but the lettuce. Lots of tomatoes and cucumber, green pepper, feta cheese, a few kalamata olives, garlic, oregano, olive oil, lemon juice, balsamic vinegar and a bit of sea salt. It’s delicious – the kids love it too – and even better if it sits for a day.
Also, I just about lived on this marinated salad with chickpeas last summer. This recipe makes a huge batch and the vegetables are firm enough that you can let it sit for days and it just gets better and better. http://pathwaystolife.ca/2011/08/go-ahead-make-it-easy-marinated-salad/
Excellent! I love make-ahead, it’s soooo much easier to make healthy choices when they’re sitting there in the fridge, just waiting to be eaten. Will definitely give this one a shot.
I have to confess I don’t eat salads – except for like bean salads or potato salads. (I hate green leafy stuff!!!)
Deb
But they don’t have to be leafy! Check out today’s post – http://www.ramblingnotebook.com/chickpea-red-pepper-and-feta-salad/ – not a leaf in sight!
I like anything but greek salad as I’m not a tomato fan. I don’t know if this counts as salad but the one with the broccoli, raisins and nuts in it, is one of my favorites!
I’d certainly count that as a salad! I might not eat it though. Not a broccoli fan. Not even in a cheesecake.
Oh yeah, I also love cheesecake…..