Fooled Ya Frittata!

Once again I find myself in the position of getting ready to head out of town, and needing to clean out my fridge in order to eliminate waste.

Before bed last night, I noticed a carton of egg whites that was about 1/4 full.  And my veggie drawer was filled with garden goodies.  With these things fresh in my head, I believe I dreamed of preparing this morning’s Fuel Pull Frittata.

For the frittata, I chopped up onion, jalapeno, zucchini, garlic, and okra and sauteed them in a teaspoon of butter in my cast iron pan, seasoning all with salt and pepper.

Meanwhile, I added a little scoop of turmeric to the carton of egg whites, and shook the carton like mad.  When the veggies were nice and softened, I poured the now-yellow egg whites over all the veggies.  After a nice crust formed on the bottom of the pan, I finished the frittata in the oven. 

Frittata with inflammation-fighting turmeric

Out popped a golden yellow egg and veggie dish, which I admit was a little bland upon first taste.  So I sprinkled it with Parmesan cheese, nutritional yeast, Italian herb seasoning, and a little more salt and pepper.  Yum! Much better!

Fuel Pull Frittata

This frittata can be tweaked in so many ways. Use whatever veggies you'd like!  Add some feta, kalamata olives, pepperoncini, and sun dried tomatoes for a Greek style S frittata.  Throw in some salsa, black beans, corn, and taco seasoning for a south of the border E frittata.

To keep this breakfast in Fuel Pull mode this morning, I topped off my brunch with a Triple Berry Triple Zero Greek yogurt.

And now for a travel tip:  I filled the empty egg white carton about 7/8 full and threw it into the freezer. I did the same with an empty coconut milk box.  Voilà! Handy disposable ice packs for my cooler while traveling! 

These egg whites freeze well. 
I buy a case at a time and thaw as needed.

THM Traveling: Israel

Eating in Israel is an experience!  Everything in the produce section of the grocery store is fresh and in season, because it comes from right here - this tiny little country that can fit inside Lake Michigan.

Is there anyplace else on earth like Israel?  A tiny little country - and yet it grows both apples and bananas, which require different climates!

Anyway, I digress.

I just spent two weeks in an apartment with four other ladies, and we were located just steps from a grocery store, where we were frequent visitors.

Meat, chicken, and fish are expensive here, which is partly why Israel has the highest number of vegetarians per capita behind India.  The other part has to do with the rules of kashrut (kosher food).

Meat and dairy do not mix here, so we would either choose to have a meat meal or a dairy meal.  Our kitchen had separate dishes, utensils, and sinks for each.

We pooled our money and enjoyed several meat meals, but I have to say that dairy was queen when it came to protein.  Israel makes the most delicious cottage cheese I have ever tasted.  And I found Triple Zero yogurt in that nearby store!  O joy!  Cheese has been another big ingredient, and I confess that I brought two bricks of Costco cheese with me, because deciphering the Hebrew in the cheese section has always perplexed me.

Eggs are reasonably priced and are considered pareve (neutral) and can pair with either meat or dairy.  I made a dish called shakshuka at least three or four times.  Basically, it is eggs poached in a spicy tomato sauce, which doesn't really sound very exciting, but let me tell you... it is delicious!!! Here, let me give you a quick recipe (which can be widely varied):

Shakshuka
1 medium onion, diced
1 red pepper, diced
1/2 hot pepper, chopped (more or less or none depending on your desired heat level)
Butter or olive oil
1 can chopped tomatoes
1 tsp cumin
1 tsp paprika
1 little smidgen of stevia (cuts the acidity of the tomatoes)
Salt and pepper to taste
Eggs
Shredded cheddar

In a frying pan, sautee onions and peppers in butter or oil until lightly browned.  Add tomatoes and spices.  Taste and adjust seasonings.  Crack eggs (as many as you need or whatever will fit - I usually did 6-9 for our group). onto the top of the tomato sauce, season with salt and pepper.  Cover and simmer until the eggs reach your desired done-ness.  Turn off heat, top with cheese, and cover pan again so the cheese melts.

Variation:
One day, I added a can of black beans and a little BBQ sauce to the basic tomato sauce and eliminated the cumin.  I also added a little Trader Joe's 21 spice blend.  I skipped the cheese on this version.

Every time I made shakshuka, I asked myself why I never make this at home.  The answer is that I don't think about it.  Well, I'm thinking about it now, and plan to make this regularly!

Wonderful shakshuka

Ahh, the veggies!  Berries from the shuk.  Eggplant. Peppers. Cabbage.  Sweet potatoes. Not to mention tomatoes and cucumbers for classic Israeli salad.  There was never a shortage of salads at our house.  I buy fresh lemons for dressing, and I travel with a small olive oil.  Those lemons also got squeezed into my water bottle, along with a little stevia for a refreshing beverage on these hot Israeli days.

This billboard from Ben Yehuda Street pretty much says it all.

When I stay at apartments while traveling and do my own cooking, I bring my own culinary kit - because you never know what the place will have.  One year, before I started doing this, all I found in that apartment were salt, pepper, and rosemary.  I got so tired of flavoring everything with rosemary that I went to the Arab market and got ripped off buying spices.  I have learned a lot since then.

My current culinary travel kit contains the following:
1 small bottle olive oil
1 small container Now brand pure stevia
1 bottle pepper and Celtic sea salt mixed together (I used to carry each separately, but since I always use them together, it made sense to combine them)

1 bottle Trader Joe's 21 Spice Salute
Cinnamon in a baggie (not needed this time because the apartment had it)
1 knife with a sheath and a sharpener

I used to carry many little jars of different spices until I discovered the Trader Joe's 21 blend, which I absolutely love (introduced to me by my friend Lynne).  I try to bring as little as possible in my culinary kit for the sake of efficiency.

I am considering adding a small bottle of red wine vinegar to the mix if I can make room for it.  We bought a huge bottle, the only size available, and barely used an eighth of it.

My Mount Hagen organic coffee sticks travel with me in a separate little bag, along with  individual THM packets of sweet blend.  Then I grab half and half and almond milk from the store.

And now I must make a confession:  bread.  There is nothing like Israeli bread.  The pitas are so soft and delicious. they are like eating a baby seal.  (Note:  I do not actually eat baby seals.  I am being facetious).  The bagels, covered with sesame seeds and zaatar spice, are heavenly.  Challah bread on Shabbat.  Yes, I have indulged in much bread.  I believe they treat their wheat differently here, because one of my friends who cannot eat the wheat from the US has no problem here.

With all these crossovers, I have been careful to pair them with exercise.  This is not difficult to do here.  Jerusalem is a city of many hills, and walking is one of my main forms of transportation (along with a bus card for when I am just too weary, too hot, or need to be somewhere quickly). 

Last night was a fun night out with some good friends of mine who live here in Israel. We went out for sushi. It was delicious, and they brought their one-year-old baby who got to taste sushi for the first time. He enjoyed himself tremendously, and had a sticky rice spa treatment in his hair.  Isn't he just adorable?

Israeli sushi - so good!

I probably could have kept this sushi meal in E mode, except for those delicious tempura ones that pushed me into crossover territory.

This post has been a work in progress for several days now, and this morning I had the courage to step onto the scale at my apartment, (since today marks one month away from home in my current travels). I was pleasantly surprised! I am up only about a pound since the last time I weighed, which was about six weeks ago.  Traveling and THM really can work together!

I am wrapping up this rather long post from my favorite coffee shop in Jerusalem - Etz Café (my daughter had her first official date with her husband here). I'm enjoying a late-morning E+ smoothie with strawberries, blueberries, spinach, almond milk, and honey. (I just made that up... E+ due to the honey).

In two days, I'll be on a flight back home so that I can catch my breath before my next journey to visit my kids.

Shabbat shalom and blessed Shavuot (Pentecost) from Jerusalem!

Traveling THM: Alaskan Cruise

I’m sitting here in the colorful international terminal at Chicago O’Hare, preparing to transition from 10 days in Alaska to three weeks in Israel. It is going to be a 40-degree temperature swing, so that should be interesting.

This post is going to talk about Alaska, and more specifically, navigating the food on a cruise ship with minimal cheats.

If you’ve ever been on a cruise, you know that food - and lots of it - is generally available to you 24/7. But with a little determination, you can disembark without lugging 5 or 10 extra pounds home with you. And you won’t feel deprived!

For me, the biggest challenge was getting those E meals in. So several mornings, I enjoyed oatmeal, along with fresh fruit and smoked whitefish for protein. I also had a pineapple and cottage cheese plate one afternoon for a snack. That same night, I enjoyed an E meal of wild Alaskan salmon, broccoli, and rice.  Here are a few photos:

E dinner:  Poached wild cod over warm lentils.  Confession:
I gave away the potatoes and ordered a second plate.  Yum!

E dinner of salmon, veggies, and rice.  The sauce was an
herb butter sauce but I only ate a little bit of it.

Afternoon E snack.  I couldn't find any protein for this one.

Another afternoon E snack.  Found the protein!
Cottage cheese and salmon, to accompany the
pineapple and roasted sweet potatoes. Yes, it was a big snack.
 I was hungry after kayaking on the ocean.

E breakfast:  oatmeal, veggies, fruit, yogurt, and
smoked whitefish with capers.

But honestly, most of my other meals ended up as S meals. There were salads galore, and every kind of protein you can imagine. My S breakfasts included things like made-to-order omelets, smoked salmon, veggies, and breakfast meats. S lunches and dinners included lots of delicious salads and proteins. 

S buffet dinner with a lamb chop, cheese, brussels sprouts
(from the kid's section - LOL, what kid loves brussels sprouts??)
 and the ship's amazing Caesar salad.

A light S meal of fish, beef, veggies, and salad

By the end of the week, my S buffet plates all starting looking the same.

A common denominator the whole time in Alaska as wild caught salmon. What a superfood! I tried it in so many different ways, each more delicious than the next!

A fuel pull meal of wild smoked king Alaskan salmon.
The accompanying plate of veggies did not make the photo.

The hazelnut crust on the salmon made this into a crossover.
However, my rice-loving hubby was happy to take most of my rice.

A shore excursion with a wilderness chef had us enjoying wild salmon
and wild halibut many different ways.  

There were two things missing on the cruise that surprised me. Berries (boohoo, how I missed them!), and stevia. Fortunately, my hubby found me some Truvia packets at our first stop in the tiny town of Hoonah, which had one grocery store.  The ship had every other form of sugar and chemical sweetener, but not stevia.  My evaluation at the end pointed out this fact to them.  

Finding stevia was a lifesaver.

On the boat, I allowed myself 1-2 small desserts per day. To counteract them, I climbed the five floors up to the restaurant buffet deck and back down instead of using the elevators. I went on excursions that kept me moving (biking, hiking, and kayaking). And I made good use of the walking track around the ship on the Promenade deck. I tried to stay as active as possible, because I know I ate a much larger quantity of food than I normally do. (Someday soon I will wrote a post on the other E - exercise!)

Once we left the ship, my hubby and friends enjoyed two nights in an Airbnb and a trip to Denali. A quick grocery store run equipped us with all my THM favorites - veggies, Greek yogurt, cheese, smoked salmon, meat, and BERRIES, lots of them!

I didn’t weigh myself before I left, and I am not weighing myself between trips. I know where my weight was a few weeks ago, and I hope to be somewhere around the same after returning from the Middle East.  Thankfully, my clothes feel pretty much the same.

My next post will explore the vast THM possibilities of the Middle East. Mediterranean cuisine, here I come!

Traveling THM: Holiday Week Part 3

This is the final post from my week long road trip. I just got home today, and I am looking forward to spending some quality time in my kitchen!

The last several nights of our road trip were spent in hotels that featured breakfast buffets. Since finding  E meals seems to be more challenging in restaurants, I generally go for oatmeal at the hotels to make sure I get those E's in. One day I added cinnamon, and another day I added a small handful of dried blueberries, and always stevia.  Both times, I also ate an Oikos Greek Triple Zero yogurt to get my protein in. Since both meals were nonfat, I added one little serving of half and half to my coffee.

Later that night, lo and behold I was able to find an actual E meal in a restaurant.  It was called Bourbon 'n Toulouse in Lexington. The dish was called Chicken Piquant, a lowfat and delectable cajun chicken stew.  It was served over rice and had bread on the side, both of which I enjoyed in moderation and gave the rest to my hubby.  Since I was in E mode, I actually ordered a rare (for me) beer.

E dinner - Cajun Chicken Piquant!

The next day, I knew I couldn't leave Lexington without just one more trip to the Vinaigrette Salad Kitchen.  This time, it was a BLT salad with added wild salmon and strawberries (I know, sounds weird but it was delicious).  I declined the croutons to keep it in S mode.

S Salad - BLT with Wild Salmon

Side note.  While in Lexington, I stopped at an olive oil and vinegar store where they let customers taste the products.  Those kinds of stores seem to be popping up all over the country (in cities, of course, and not in my little town of 5,000).  I came home and rearranged my kitchen around those oils and vinegars, which will someday soon get their very own blog post. 

Anyway, it was time to head home.  Lunch on the road was a simple E picnic at a rest area.  No lingering.  I still had stops to make while on the road.

E lunch on the go

The last of these stops was Costco, knowing that I was out of vegetables at home.  While there, I picked up my favorite frugal travel food… The amazing Costco chicken Caesar salad for $3.99. You simply cannot beat them for an S meal on the road. And you do not have to be a member to eat at the food court.  I am saving that salad for tomorrow, and I picked one up for my daughter as well.

Travel hack - Costco Chicken Caesar 

You might be wondering why those Oikos Greek yogurts kept popping up throughout my week of travel. They are my latest convenience food discovery, and my daughter’s Costco in Nashville had them on sale. (Oddly enough, they were not on sale at my own Costco, so I’m glad I stocked up).  They are a Fuel Pull food, so they are a great protein option to go with any kind of meal. 

My beloved Oikos

When I travel by car, I usually take my ancient gray cooler and keep a frozen gallon of water in it to keep things cold. And from Sunday to Wednesday, everything I had in my “traveling fridge” stayed cold. I have traveled with that beloved gray cooler for years. When my kids were little, I think they were disappointed to see it, because it meant fewer Culvers and Cracker Barrel stops for them.

I hope you have been able to see that traveling with trim Healthy Mama is quite possible. I have two big travel challenges coming up soon, and they involve an Alaskan cruise and a trip to the Middle East. I am determined to demonstrate that THM can be done in both cases.  Stay tuned!

Traveling THM: Holiday Week Part 2

Here we are at part two of my Holiday Week THM travel log.  We start with Resurrection Sunday morning, which we celebrated together as a family in the living room, with worship and a podcast (we willingly gave up our seats to make room for the Christmas and Easter attenders).

We continued our celebration with a homemade S brunch.  I made mushroom, red pepper, onion, and feta omelettes for the four of us, along with Triple Zero Oikos Greek Yogurt and coffee with cream.

After much discussion, my daughter and her husband decided to have a date in the afternoon, and we grandparents gleefully agreed to babysit!  We took the baby to the park and simply had a marvelous time with her.  Here she is eating her plantain salad:

Plantain the herb, not plantain the banana-like substance

Upon our return from the park, I raided my daughter's fridge in search of leftovers.  Based on the ingredients I found, I scored big:  Southwestern Chicken and Quinoa Salad. Finally, a much-needed E meal!

This one was simple.  In a bowl, I combined cooked chicken meat (left from our previous day's Costco run), cooked quinoa (leftover from a previous day's unsuccessful attempt to feed quinoa cereal to the baby), chopped romaine, chopped red and yellow peppers, and chopped onions.  I then tossed everything with an E dressing.

For the dressing, I located some leftover salsa in a jar, then added the juice of one lime (I always keep fresh limes with me, even when traveling), some cumin, some chipotle powder, and a small sprinkling of stevia.  After tossing the salad, it went on the plates and I decorated them with sliced jalapenos.  It was really yummy!  (Hubby added shredded cheddar to his salad for a crossover.)

Our time with family came to a close, and Sunday night we had to head out to another city so my hubby could work in his territory on Monday while I found things to do, like hike and blog.

En route, we stopped at an Indian restaurant in Elizabethtown, KY.  I ordered Tandoori Chicken Tikka (extra hot), which was an S meal but it arrived with a giant bowl of rice.  My husband ordered a curry lamb shank which arrived with lots of broccoli but no rice.

He loves rice.

I love broccoli.

It was a meal made in heaven once the swap was made.  I kept one small spoonful of rice, just enough to keep me in S mode, and he kept one twig (?) of broccoli.  My sauce was a very spicy tomato and cream sauce.  So good!

Monday morning arrived, and we were now at a hotel.  For breakfast, I enjoyed oatmeal and cinnamon from the hotel's hospitality room, to which I added my own stevia.  For the protein, I added some Greek yogurt from my cooler in the room. (Yes, another thing that I travel with if I am driving and not flying).

The day was gorgeous, so off I went on a lovely hike at a nearby nature center. where I saw all kinds of Kentucky flora and fauna. 

Like this bug

And this deer.  See her?

When I got back to my car after the nearly two hour hike, I was really hungry, and one of my favorite local eating places was 30 minutes away.  Epic (brand, not adjective) Chicken Sesame BBQ bar to the rescue.  I always keep one of these in my purse.  Protein snack on the run.

I arrived at the aforementioned restaurant, which I had discovered the last time I was in Lexington, Kentucky.  Hello Vinaigrette Salad Kitchen - a local chain here.  I ordered the Tuscan Salad (spinach, artichoke hearts, kalamata olives, mozzarella cheese, red onion, and roasted red peppers, tossed in a tasty vinaigrette) to which I added a fillet of wild salmon.  I declined the croutons, so my astute server asked if I'd like some sunflower seeds instead.  Indeed.  A great way to garnish this S salad.

That drink you see there is an unsweetened lemon hibiscus mixture that they were offering.  Once again, out came my own stevia.

There are still a couple of days left of this trip as we make our way home to join our other daughter there.  So there just might be a part three, you never know.

Update: Yup, there is a part three.  Click here to see how I wrapped up my holiday week of travel.

Traveling THM: Holiday Week Part 1

My last post was written as we headed out for a week of holiday travel.  Now it is five days into the trip, so I thought I'd give an update on my THM traveling adventures.

It IS possible to stay on plan while traveling.  Here are some situations that I have encountered so far.

On Friday, my son-in-law had to work, so we decided to dine at the fancy restaurant where he is a server.  I ordered probably the fanciest chicken salad I have ever had in my life.  My S-mode Caper Tarragon Aioli Chicken Salad came with romaine, red pepper sauce (the little orange blobs in the picture), pickled winter squash, and topped with Louisiana red onion relish.  The menu failed to mention the potato chips, so my hubby was happy to take them.  All but one...  yes, I ate one.  It was probably not even enough to make this meal a crossover.

When your chicken salad belongs in a museum of art

Later that evening, we headed to a Passover Seder.  I can honestly say that this was my one cheat meal of the week.  Had I chosen to say no to the macaroons and the Nutella mousse, I could have kept it in crossover mode with the lamb kebabs, apple charoset, matzah, and wine.  But the beautiful thing is that cheat meals are a part of this lifestyle!  The frequency with which we enjoy them has a direct correlation to the time it takes to remove (or keep off) the pounds.  So I make them rare.  It was a special occasion and I enjoyed every minute of it.

A beautiful Passover celebration!

The next morning, we took the kids to a coffee shop for brunch.  Breakfast and brunch can be a challenge, because they are usually filled with carbs, carbs, carbs.  So I ordered a smoked salmon platter that came with four half-slices of marble rye bread.  I kept only one half slice, and my obliging husband took the other three.  This kept me in S mode, as that half slice had around 7 carbs (you want to try and stay under 10 in S mode, although the plan recommends not obsessing about numbers).  It too was a pretty plate.  Aren't big cities fun?  The restaurants in my own small town just don't offer this kind of food!

Brunchy goodness!

After brunch my daughter and I headed out for a shopping trip.  Upon our return to her house, we whipped up a fabulous meal of Spaghetti Squash Casserole before settling down to a raucous game of Settlers of Catan.  Ohh, it was a gooey, yummy S meal!

Here is the recipe:

One spaghetti squash, halved, de-seeded, and baked in the oven for about an hour or until soft (or seven minutes in the InstaPot!)  Allow to cool till handle-able.

Meanwhile, make your sauce:

1 lb Italian sausage (or your favorite ground meat), browned and drained

1 jar marinara sauce with no sugar added

Let simmer.

Meanwhile number two, prepare the filling:

8 oz cream cheese (or reduced fat neufchatel)

1/2 cup sour cream

1 tsp Italian herb blend

Combine well in a bowl.

Now go back to your cooked squash.  Using a fork, remove all the stringy squashy goodness and spread half of it into a 9x13 pan.

Top with half the meat sauce and then all of the cream cheese mixture.

Add the remaining squash, then the remaining meat sauce, and sprinkle two cups mozzarella over the top of all.

Bake at 350 degrees for about 20 minutes, or until cheese is melted and bubbly. Enjoy with your favorite tossed salad.

It has been an S-heavy weekend so far.  In part 2 of this traveling log, watch for some much-needed E choices.  Click here if you'd like to read it.