web-goddess

Category: Cooking

  • DietBlog

    I officially lost one kilo during Week 2, bringing my total loss to three. And I got another gold star! I totally wasn’t angling for that one, either. Emily just asked if anybody had done anything new that week, and I mentioned that I’d played squash for the first time. (I had my boss Albert, who plays a lot, give me a lesson yesterday. More on that in a minute.) So she gave me another star. Yay! Things are progressing nicely. The Snook and I made an extremely yummy (yet very low point value) Shepherd’s Pie tonight using kangaroo mince. I’ve also noticed that my EXTREME HUNGRINESS seems to have dialed back a bit, and I don’t need to eat as much at lunch to ward off mid-afternoon STARVATION. Several people have told me that I’m looking skinnier (most notably when Amy complimented my actual ass on Saturday) but it’s easy to write them off as just being nice, you know? But the scales don’t lie, baby!

    Oh, and as for squash… I thought it would be pretty easy to pick up, given that I played tennis all through high school and I did a rotation of racquetball during college PE. Unfortunately, it took me a really long time to realize that a squash ball doesn’t, you know, BOUNCE. Albert would hit one off the front wall and it would bounce once, and I’d be waiting in the position I’d expect to hit a tennis ball from. And then the ball would bounce again three feet in front of me. It was like playing with the deadest tennis ball in the world. It took me a good fifteen minutes to mentally adjust and get into a position where I wasn’t lunging for every shot. The other big change is that in squash, all raquet speed is generated from the wrist, whereas in tennis you mostly use your arm. But you don’t have time to use your arm in squash, so I had to un-learn four years of tennis swing. We didn’t actually get around to playing a game; I was having enough difficulty just returning the ball reliably. I was getting a hell of a workout though. I think we’re going to make this a weekly event…

  • Points Lists

    I don’t want to be all “100% DietBlog!”, but this is a useful list of WW points values for generic foods. The author’s got a couple other lists for restaurants too.

  • There’s only one way to eat a brace of coneys…

    Happy Easter! We celebrated in true blasphemous fashion by eating The Easter Bunny. Seriously. I had been hesitant – “Will it have a face?” I asked – but in the end the smells won me over. It was really good. (Big thanks to Rodd’s grandma for getting us a La Creuset casserole.) It actually reminded me a lot of chicken, but in a good way. We also had lots of taters (precious), and salad and veg and bread and everything good. And now I need to sleep for 24 hours to process all these carbs.

    Oh, and I tried the egg mold Jigglers again, and they didn’t work again. They always break in half. I suck.

  • BreadBlog

    The Snook made our third batch this morning: Coffee and Walnut bread. YUM. He again set the machine last night to have the bread ready for breakfast. This time it worked perfectly! I wonder if the caking problem we had last time was because it was a prepackaged mix and this one was from scratch. All I know is, waking up to the smell of fresh-baked bread only to discover that the Snook has left a buttered slice and a glass of milk beside the bed for me makes for the Best. Morning. Ever.

  • The Death Knell for the Atkins Plan

    There is a simple explanation for my lack of blogging this week: I have been shamelessly stuffing my face with beautiful, delicious carbs. Oh yes, we bought a bread machine. “Of course, we’ll just use it to make low-carb bread and pizza dough,” we rationalized. That didn’t last long. The Snook started researching recipes on the Internet, and suddenly his inner baking demon – starved for activity for nearly two years – broke free. We spent over a hundred dollars at the grocery store last night just on bread-making supplies. We got, like, five different kinds of flour (including one ten-pound bag), spices, powdered milk, nuts, fruit, sun-dried tomatoes, potato flakes, yeast, seeds, honey, butter, everything. And now we’re eating it all. We’re fat, but man, are we happy.

    Bread Machine

    The First Loaf

    In the event you want to enable our addiction, does anybody know any can’t-miss bread machine recipes we should try? We’ll also take any technical tips you have. I made my first loaf last night from a mix, and it was also our first attempt at using the timer feature to have the bread ready just as we got out of bed in the morning. It wasn’t perfect though, mostly because the flour and water seem to have caked up overnight and hence there was a bit of lumpy, unblended flour at the bottom of the loaf. It still tasted good, but we want to work out the kinks. Anybody else experience this?

  • Beer-Battered Asparagus

    Note to self: If the Deep-Fried Feast ever goes ahead, be sure to include Beer-Battered Asparagus as a starter. That looks yum!

  • Virgin Risotto

    The Snook is the resident Italian cooking expert, but since I have Fridays off and he doesn’t, I figured it was my turn to treat him to a nice dinner of risotto. So I found a recipe for Asparagus Risotto and headed to the shops. I decided to add a bit of protein with chicken breast but otherwise I pretty much stuck to the recipe as written. The Snook was dubious about the addition of cream and rosemary but he became a convert in the end. It was delicious. I was worried that I’d added too much broth and it was too soupy, but ultimately it glommed together just right into the perfect melange of blessed, blessed carbs. Yum. Highly recommended.

  • Candy Sushi

    Hmm. I think Candy Sushi would be an awesome addition to this year’s Halloween party! Can somebody send me some Twinkies in, oh, about six months? (Actually, Twinkies don’t really get stale, do they? You could send them to me now.)

  • Bravo, Harriet Veitch!

    Bravo, Harriet Veitch! “[W]hat are you going to do with yourself when you get old and turn into a granny or granddad? You won’t be hip-hopping to your iPod on your motor scooter the way you think; you’ll be crocheting blankets for the grandbabies or carving cots because you can’t afford to buy one at McIkea. Someone will have to teach you these crafts, and it will be people like us, the ones you scorn right now.” Let’s hear it for the knitters, the crafters, the handworkers, and the bakers!

  • Aussie survey

    Vegetarian Survey: A friend of mine is working on a project to write a business plan for a vegetarian food store. She distributed this survey around here at work and I offered to post it on the ‘Net for her. Please take a second to post your responses in the comments. It’ll only take a second and I know she’d appreciate it! It’s technically only for Australians, but you international types can play along too, I guess.

    Meatless Meals Eaters – Research Questionnaire

    This survey is designed to explore the habits and purchasing intentions of frequent and sporadic eaters of meatless meals. Thank you for participating.

    1) Which of these statements best describes your meat eating habits?
    a. I do not eat meat.
    b. I eat meatless meals at least 4 times per week.
    c. I eat meatless meals at least 2 times per week.
    d. I eat meat in every meal. (answer question 6 only)

    2) What are your reasons for eating meatless meals? >> Select all that apply
    a. Health and/or wellbeing reasons
    b. Ethical reasons (animal rights, the environment, etc)
    c. Religious reasons
    d. Other: ____________________________________

    3) Have you ever purchased frozen/refrigerated meatless meal or meat substitute (vegetarian nuggets, soy sausages, etc)?
    a. Yes, more than once, and I plan to purchase it again in the next 6 months.
    b. Yes, once, and I plan to purchase it again in the next 6 months.
    c. Yes, once, but I do not plan to purchase it again anytime soon.
    d. No, but I intend to purchase it in the next 6 months. >> go to question 5
    e. No, and I do not intend to purchase it anytime soon. >> go to question 5

    4) Where have you purchased frozen/refrigerated meatless meal or meat substitute? >> Select all that apply
    a. Convenience stores (7-Eleven, petrol station stores, etc)
    b. Supermarkets
    c. Health food stores
    d. Other: ________________________________

    5. Where do you eat meatless meals? >> Select all that apply
    a. At home
    b. At work
    c. In restaurants or cafes
    d. In fast-food outlets
    e. Other: ________________________________

    6) In 12 months you expect to be eating meatless meals:
    a. More often than today.
    b. As often as today.
    c. Less often than today.

    7) How often do you have quick meals (pastries, pizza, sandwich, etc, with or without meat) at convenience stores?
    a. At least once a fortnight
    b. At least once a month
    c. Once every two months
    d. Rarely
    e. Never

    8) Have you ever purchased food from a health food stores?
    a. Yes, more than once, and I plan to purchase again in the next 6 months.
    b. Yes, once, and I plan to purchase again in the next 6 months.
    c. Yes, once, but I do not plan to purchase again anytime soon.
    d. No, but I intend to purchase in the next 6 months.
    e. No, and I do not intend to purchase anytime soon.

    Your gender: a. Male b. Female
    Your age group: a. 18-24 b. 25-34 c. 35-44 d. 45-54 e. 55+
    Your residential postcode: ______________