The cold came back a little bit today, mainly because I think I was too active too soon yesterday. At any rate, dinner was the following:
Cut a pork loin up into medallions, seasoned them with basically a home made adobo, and grilled them.
Made the quinoa salad again (I just make it in bulk at this point and eat it when I need a little snack. Actually have been taking on a more grazing like approach to food during the day. Apple here, carrots there, banana, handful or two of nuts, a thick slice of cheddar, etc., and then a nice, well thought out and balanced meal at night with maybe a piece of fruit or something as a snack), with the green onions, cilantro, avocado, red pepper, tomatoes, garlic, mushrooms, kalamata olives, and olive oil and vinegar. I eat a lot of it, but I just love it so much I don’t get tired of it, and I have always been a dance with the girl that brung you kind of guy.
Also steamed some more cauliflower with a little bit of cheese, and made some sauteed kale with a a little bit of finely minced jalapeno and sea salt and olive oil.
A very much summery kind of dish, I guess, but it was warm and I can see my grass and the snow is gone, so I was in a spring/summery mood. Had one of the frat boys over for dinner, and he liked it, I liked it, so I guess it was a success.
Again, right now, we are going on 10 days of this, and I can honestly say I do not miss anything nor ever feel hungry. I was never a big sweets eater to begin with, other than my Hola Fruta, so living sugar free and wheat and flour free has been pretty easy. It seems like something finally clicked, and I hope to FSM I stick with it, but I have to tell you, being able to type pain free and generally feeling better is quite a motivator. Additionally, I like the fact that I have to think about what I am making, and the added challenge kind of makes cooking more fun. Anyone can make something taste good by larding it up with unhealthful crap.
*** Update ***
Oh, funny story. My dad was at the house to drop off cat food and red wine vinegar since he was going to town to shop, and when he came back, he caught the Asplundh tree trimmers basically mangling one of the pines in the back yard. I wasn’t around to catch them (translation, I was sound asleep because I really started to feel like shit around noonish), and dad just yelled at them. This is the version of the story I heard:
Dad (who has the greenest thumb of anyone I know and knows a thing or two about trees and pruning): “What are you doing? You are destroying that tree!”
Asplundh jackass: “We have right of way and the power company wants us to do this, and the fire department gave us permission.”
Dad (have I mentioned that even in his 70’s he is very imposing when he so chooses?): Your ladder is on private property. Get off it.”
Asplundh jackass: Fine, but we’ll be the first place you call if your power goes out.
Dad (swinging major logic and reason): “Why the hell would I call you if my power goes out? You cut trees. I’ll call the power company, not you guys. Now leave.”
Now you know where I got it and why I love the old man so much, even though we both think the other is a total pain in the ass with a really weird lifestyle.
LauraPDX
Unlurking to to say that I’ve got to give your quinoa salad a try – sounds so delicious. Our favorite is to add dried cranberries, golden raisins, chopped red onion, and chopped fresh parsley in equal amounts to the quinoa, then toss with oil and vinegar, and add a little salt and pepper.
Happy, happy to read about how well you are feeling these days (except for the cold, of course).
Betsy
— I have always been a dance with the girl that brung you kind of guy —
Glad to hear that
Belafon
“Obama Panders to Senior Voters” or Democracy Strikes Again.
Punchy
I had Jimmy John’s, so there’s that.
ranchandsyrup
Nice work John.
Jim, Foolish Literalist
@Belafon: and what about those retirement rumors….
srv
I hope Greenwald can save us from this becoming just another foodie blog.
dance around in your bones
Oh JC, I’d move in with you in a second if you’d cook for me and let me steal away the affection of your pets. Tragically, I am old enough to be your mother (how do you feel about 60 yr old femmes with great stories to tell? They’re all true, I swear.)
OTOH, WV. Although I’m sure it’s lovely.
Omnes Omnibus
@srv: There are cat pics.
ruemara
This is true. Glad you’re enjoying it. It means you’ll probably stick to it. Maybe not as rigorously, but, in general. I made a roasted chicken 2 days ago and a spaghetti squash, so yesterday was an italian lemon chicken with “noodles” and today was a stew of chicken and zucchini. And there’s enough for 3 meals, which is awesome. Today, I experimented with making toffee nuts, but with coconut sugar, sea salt and sunflower seeds. Wasn’t bad. about 3.50 worth of ingredients to subvert from the urge to buy $6lb real sugar stuff. Working on sriracha raspberry frosting to go on my chipotle chocolate brownie bites. I’m thinking I’ll also make my cocoa dusted chipotle bacon candy and sell that for …$3 a strip for organic candied bacon? Not sure.
Violet
It sure is a motivator! Once you start feeling better you really want to keep going. Just be aware that at some point you may plateau–you’ll stop losing weight, maybe some health issues won’t have gone away. Don’t give up at that point. Plateaus in weight loss can just be your body’s way of adjusting before the weight loss begins again. Some health issues need more work to uncover what’s going on–maybe an additional food sensitivity or something. It’s like detective work sometimes, but worth it when you figure something out.
KG
@Jim, Foolish Literalist: I’m fond of “McCain: Obama ‘most naïve president in history'”
Because “Major combat operations in Iraq have ended. In the battle of Iraq, the United States and our allies have prevailed,” and everything that publicly preceded and followed wasn’t naïve at all…. No sir, not at all
ETA: also, too, this isn’t naïve at all:
srv
@Omnes Omnibus: Even better, Yoda vs Dooku
Just Some Fuckhead, Thought Leader
God, do I love kalamata olives.
Jim, Foolish Literalist
@KG: God tolde me to strike Afghanistan, and I did. Then God told me to strike Saddam, and I did.
Also, too, Gog and Magog. And McPalin is proud of his 2008 campaign.
Violet
Your dad is awesome. I hate those guys the electric company sends to mangle the trees. They do it in my neighborhood too and we end up with completely and unnecessarily brutalized trees. The cuts don’t do anything to protect the lines and they ruin the trees.
My brain always reads this as “Ass plunder”. How’s it supposed to be pronounced?
StringOnAStick
I worked for a landscaper in the early 1990’s who called Asplundt “The Tree Butchers”. I cringe when I see their gangs of orange work trucks because I know what’s coming. I saw them 2 weeks ago, with white trucks instead so maybe they’ve decided to be less conspicuous?
Hey John, have a look at civilizedcavemancooking.com for some recipes; his paleo banana bread is wonderful and easy if you have a food processor – I add in some walnuts before I bake mine. The only sweetener in that recipe is from the bananas, and I make it using 3 instead of 4 and it tastes fine to me. Once you get rid of the sugar habit, fruit tastes plenty sweet and anything more than that is just too sweet. Sugar was not common for humans to have until the 1800’s, and now we have way, way too much of it (diabetes is a fast growing disease in the west for a reason…).
I can’t get into quinoa though – tastes bitter to me. I don’t eat any grains now though; I don’t need the additional calories and grains are really pretty nutrient-sparse when compared to veggies and protein sources anyway. All that “healthy whole grains” stuff is truly the triumph of concerted marketing campaigns, not of scientific evidence.
Ted and Hellen
I remember when you wrote about politics, and national issues, John.
Interesting how the self-absorption is gradually becoming more and more pronounced.
I think I have fellow BJers who would admit if pressed to say that the psychodrama and denial in your life and how you write about it is their main reason for checking this place out currently.
Where’s the pit bull/killer of Tunch? Anywhere but underground is the wrong place for it to be.
Suzanne
My green lentil salad:
Some cooked green lentils
Some cucumber pieces
Some chopped up red onion
Some raw spinach
Some feta cheese
Dressing of lemon juice, Olive oil, dill, lemon pepper, and garlic
You’re welcome.
hamletta
I’ve lost weight by just cooking instead of living on Lean Cuisine five times a week like I did when I lived in my squalid house in Nashville.
Of course, I make naughty things like ice cream and pimiento cheese.
But a roasted chicken is a thing of beauty.
dance around in your bones
@Ted and Hellen: You suckwit derp.
Amir Khalid
@dance around in your bones:
For quite a while, he was rarely posting at all, beyond attempts to shill his dreadful portrait art. Now he’s back to biting at people’s ankles. At least your return to these threads is a welcome one.
Foggy F Follansbye
Has anyone heard from Burnsy recently? I’m worried about him since his Devils couldn’t go the distance against the giant-killer Heels.
Culture of Truth
PARTAAY TONITE!!1!
dance around in your bones
@Amir Khalid: Thank you for your comments about my return. I just do not understand the one-note (OMG! a dog kilt yer cat!) comments from someone whom JC has shown great compassion and patronage – which, BTW, I do not understand, since his art is sidewalk-worthy at best. I know JC loves the Grateful Dead and if that portrait pleases him, well and good.
But for general assholery, T&H win(s) hands down. No doubt that will please them, so that’s all I have to say.
lahke
@StringOnAStick:
Eeep. First pages of recipes on that site are for desserts–trying not to encourage the sweet craving myself, since at some point I decide to just go for the “real” thing.
TheMightyTrowel
Open thread so I’ll share a few links about the travesty that is Australia’s asylum seeker policy. There was a huge riot on Manus Island – one of the offshore detention facilities that Australia uses to keep asylum seekers from actually entering the country – that resulted in at least one death and many injuries. Two self-declared unaccompanied minors were present. The riot has brought a lot of this simmering ugliness back to the surface. Aside from the moron immigration minister accidentally on purpose revealing the location of unencrypted files with personal data about 10k asylum seekers in interviews, the poor treatment that asylum seekers face is so stark that the Chinese foreign ministry is scoring political points by raising worries about human rights abuses.
Jay C
@Violet: @StringOnAStick: @ John Cole:
Asplundh (yeah, “ass plunder” sounds like a good name for them!) are a huge company: presumably their size keeps them from having to care a crap about
their victims’the public’s concerns.I must say though, that some utilities do it right: up in the Berkshires, when National Grid did a tree-trimming job along our road, they sent a very nice guy by our house to inform us of the work they would be doing. Of course, he DID have to point out we had no say in whether they could do the job or not – some sort of eminent-domain ordinance – but at least he was polite about it. They did a good job, too: though I thought it was odd that while the trees on our side of the road were trimmed right back from the power line quite neatly, on the other side, they left huge branches hanging over.
Not that I care: when the feet-deep snowpack is resting at 0 degrees F all night (and, occasionally, in the daytime as well), anything that keeps my electric power supply secure is just fine with me….
jonas
An awesome way to make kale (the curly kind) is to chop it into bite-size pieces, toss it with some sea salt and olive oil, throw it on a baking sheet in the oven at 375 for about 15-20 minutes or until it starts to get toasty brown around the edges. Makes these fantastic crispy chips of greeny goodness. You can just eat it straight, or crumble it on some rice or quinoa with whatever protein you’re serving.
Jim, Foolish Literalist
drip… drip… drip…
$150,000>>>> $250,000,000. Helluva return
trollhattan
@jonas:
That is quite specifically the only kale form I’ve enjoyed. It’s pretty gawddamn good (and a fine accompaniment to delicious beer…mmmm, beer).
Anne Laurie
@Jay C: Heck, I’m a little bitter that I couldn’t get the National Grid crew to hack off more branches from the oak trees on the neighboring property that shade my tomato garden!
(That neighbor is a rental storage company, which has less-than-no interest in keeping up their ‘landscaping’… and the private company that grooms our half-dozen cherry trees / lilac / rhododendron quoted removal of the worst of the overhanging oak branches at $1k we didn’t have to spare. Hurricane Sandy brought down some of them on the curbside power boxes — watching flames erupt even during the downpour was rather disconcerting — but not enough, dammit.)
Keith P
How did “Eat a bag of salted dicks” not make its way into that conversation?
mclaren
And now, as a reminder that we’re all governed by `D’ students, some quotes:
“And now, will y’all stand and be recognized?” — Texas House Speaker Gib Lewis to a group of handicapped people in wheelchairs
“I am filled with humidity.” — Texas House Speaker Gib Lewis
“Spending on the military doesn’t increase the deficit.” — Ronald Reagan
“If ignorance ever goes to $40 a barrel, I want drillin’ rights on that man’s head.” — Texas Agriculture Commissioner Jim Hightower discussing President George Bush’s policies
“There’s a lot of uncertainty that’s not clear in my mind.” — Texas House Speaker Gib Lewis
“This bill, if passed, will derail the ship of state.” — Speaker of the New York Assembly Stanley Steingut
“What is scattered to the wind here is just a drop in the bucket.” — member of New York City Council
“If we don’t succeed, we run the risk of failure.” — Dan Quayle
“Things are more like they are now than they have ever been.” — Dwight D. Eisenhower
“Republicans understand the importance of bondage between a mother and child.” — Dan Quayle
“Trees cause more pollution than automobiles.” — Ronald Reagan
“What a waste it is to lose one’s mind. Or not to have a mind is being very wasteful. How true that is.” — Dan Quayle
“Well, I learned a lot….I went down to (Latin America) to find out from them and (learn) their views. You’d be surprised. They’re all individual countries” — Ronald Reagan
“One word sums up probably the responsibility of any vice president, and that one word is ‘to be prepared.'” — Dan Quayle
“We must ask the question — `Is our children educated?'” — George W. Bush
“I believe we are on an irreversible trend toward more freedom and democracy — but that could change.” — Dan Quayle
“You teach a child to read, and he or her will be able to pass a literacy test.” — George W. Bush
“I have made good judgments in the past. I have made good judgments in the future.” — Dan Quayle
“I am here to make an announcement that this Thursday, ticket counters and airplanes will fly out of Ronald Reagan Airport.” — George W. Bush
“The future will be better tomorrow.” — Dan Quayle
“I know how hard it is for you to put food on your family.” — George W. Bush
“We’re going to have the best-educated American people in the world.” — Dan Quayle
Mj_Oregon
@StringOnAStick: Quinoa should be rinsed thoroughly before cooking or it will be bitter. I love quinoa salad so I really should make some soon. Plus I make a curried quinoa one pot dinner that’s yummy and very popular with the Mister. Quinoa is a full, balanced protein grain and it’s a great base for many other dishes.
trollhattan
Cripes.
http://www.sacbee.com/2014/02/20/6176884/police-4-dead-2-injured-in-n-calif.html#storylink=cpy
Those poor people. I’ll table consideration of limits on ammo clip size for another day.
Ripley
This thread sounds drunk to me.
stiv
Ted & Helen is rancid.
Richard Stout without the charm.
Mnemosyne
Octopus wrestles diver for camera.
Just because octopuses are cool.
Steeplejack
Must pop in to say that it’s good to see Dance Around and Hamletta here again.
I’m in a slightly weird state. Feel like I want to go to bed, but I’m not actually tired. And things are quiet here. Debating whether to start watching something on the DVR that could keep me up another couple of hours. Probably not a good idea.
John Cole
@Foggy F Follansbye: I could throw up a thread attacking Goldman Sachs and the banksters or a thread calling for a parade for Snowden, and I bet he would show up posthaste.
dance around in your bones
@Mnemosyne: Octopuzzy was cool – “Steal This Camera From The Oddly Shaped Octo-Botherer!”
@Steeplejack: Thanks, Steep. I’m in much the same mood sans grandkids – shall I party hearty all by my self? Or go to sleep like a ‘sensible’ sort?
Of course, the night I am able to engage for once, seems like everybody is asleep already.
Steeplejack
@dance around in your bones:
I blame the West Coasters. It’s only 10:43 out there, for chrissake!
I just checked the movies on TV to see if I could find something for you, but the pickings are slim tonight. Maybe dive into True Detective on HBO on Demand if you haven’t already started that.
Steeplejack
And I’m out. The housecat is starting to ooze from her workstation (heated microfleece throw) onto the laptop keyboard, which is a sign that she really wants to go to bed, which she could do at any time except that her work ethic prevents her from going without me. It’s so hard to find good help these days, so one does what one can to keep them happy.
’Night, all.
P.S. Leaving this for Little Boots in case he shows up. It’s right in his ’70s wheelhouse.
dance around in your bones
@Steeplejack: Don’t have the HBO at the moment, but have heard many good things about True Detective right here on BJ. Maybe it’ll get to Netflix soonish – ha!
Currently ‘watching’ The Barretts of Wimpole Street w/Charles Laughton on TCM – which means it’s on in the background while I sometimes type.
Nice to see you, as usual!
Goblue72
@Ted and Hellen: how small is your dick? Small or incredibly small?
Glocksman
@Jay C:
We have a similar ordinance locally.
My best friend built a privacy fence around his backyard, but he had to make a gate out of a section of it for the utility trucks to come on the property to maintain the lines on the pole at the back of the yard.
He did this after basically being told that if he didn’t make a gate, Sigeco would knock the fence down if they ever needed to access the pole and the cops would arrest him if he tried to stop them.
pseudonymous in nc
Power companies’ subcontracted tree-manglers are arseholes. I’ve told them to fuck off when they started eyeing up the ornamental cherry in our front garden.
Ass plundh indeed.
NotMax
@dance around in your bones
On in the background and behind me, too.
Laughton, IMHO, is the only reason to sit through it. The other main characters are written/played so stilted and dripping with artifice as to be caricatures.
Jewish Steel
@Omnes Omnibus: In spite of myself I have to admit that the riff to Great White Buffalo is pretty good (from the last thread).
dance around in your bones
@NotMax: My default channel is TCM. My grandkids wonder why I like B&W movies…..I find them restful on the eyes (no jump cuts). Of course, usually I’m only half-watching.
Gretchen
I’d never had quinoa until the salad-in-a-jar lady suggested putting it in the bottom of the jar, soaking in dressing until you eat it. I love, love, love quinoa this way.
kdaug
Do it or don’t, chief. Your call.
schrodinger's cat
If you want to feel like a kitten again and fit in that size 2 box, give this diet a try.
GHayduke (formerly lojasmo)
I’ve been away for a while. Have you given up grains, John? I gave them up a while ago, and my ankle arthritis has cleared up. I’ve lost 26 pounds in the last year after giving up beer.
Stopped drinking on Sunday, and am feeling worlds better.
imonlylurking
@ruemara: Ruemara-those toffee nuts sound absolutely fantastic. Would you be willing to ship? Send me an email and let me know how much you would charge for some.