Size 12 jeans are now a comfy fit.
I found a really neat little cooking aid: Le Crueset mini personal casserole dishes. Not inexpensive, but resistent to heat, cold, all sorts of things, and microwaveable, with a lid. This automatically measures one serving of whatever, and last night, eg, I boiled up some penne pasta, half a cup dry each person, spooned it into 2 mini-casseroles, added black pepper, and shredded sharp cheddar. Lid, microwave 4 minutes for the pair together, and out comes a nicely bubbly peppery mac-and-cheese that’s actually within our guidelines. Serve with a serving and a half of steamed veggies.
Anything that can be made within the little dishes or fit within them for heating, when accompanied with that serving and a half of veggies, is fair game on this end of the Long Diet. Add, eg, chicken bits, cheese, bacon bits; or chicken bits, taco spice, cheese, and top with sour cream when done. Or potato, bacon bits, cheese. or…
It’s a fast way to get your head around ‘proper size’ of things that would be dietary suicide if served with a spoon. The Sensa is definitely helping…particularly Jane. No more snackies. An unintentional blind test: she came in a moment ago and asked, “Did you forget the sprinklies [Sensa] on breakfast?” Answer: “Yes. I did. Sorry.” She was having a snacking urge 2 hours after breakfast. And felt it. There’s no taste to it except if you get it straight, so if it’s missing you’re not apt to notice its absence. In this case, we have fruit-flavored ‘straws’ we can dump into a cup of water that will turn off the snackies real fast.
So if you’ve battled the snackies, this IS a good answer. I can resist it, but why try? I may go have one of those ‘straws’ too, this morning.
And the jeans now have comfy room.
Question: 8 oz. or 12 oz.? A quick search at Amazon for ” Le Creuset mini personal casserole ” gives ” Le Creuset mini cocottes set of 4 ” with color options. One set is 8 oz., another is 12 oz., and the third is 8 oz. with a cookbook. The first two are pretty affordable. Apparently, getting the cookbook with the 8 oz. set… that’s one expensive cookbook. Nice color options, and hmm, this might be a good idea for a single guy like me, justify it as early Christmas. Colors? Cherry (grin), Cassis (a dark brown), black and white (2 black, 2 white), Caribbean (turquoise, y’all), Flame (orange), Fennel (a veggie/herbal green). Checking for lids; if so, that’d be a good deal.
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B000Q5UCXO/ref=oh_details_o00_s00_i00?ie=UTF8&psc=1
It’s the 8 oz. I got the Caribbean. Includes the lid. Sticky stuff like baked cheese seems to come right off. Pricey but the sort of thing that will last a lifetime if you don’t drop it on tile.
Thank you! The Caribbean would naturally appeal to me too. Heck, all the colors are appealing. After the 1st, I’ll order.
OOH! Pretty, and neat as well. This would be perfect for my daughter as well. Birthdays and Christmas are looming.
Thanks for the idea! I found a color that works with my color scheme…made sure it was available via PRIME and hope to have a mini-set soon for little mom/sister get-togethers. The different colors have different prices/prime availability…some charge shipping (not from amazon but via marketplace seller).
I find that if I take acetyl-L-carnitine in the morning, I don’t get ‘snackies’.
Forgot to say congrats on reaching that weight goal. I’ve plateaued for a while (35 lbs down from my heaviest) but find the more I read the less likely I am to go searching for a snack. Every time the munchies strike, I pick up a book or engrossing magazine article and read until the next meal time. Grocery shopping has been difficult and BargeBoy just doesn’t pick up all the little things I need when I send him out with or without a list, so I stay away from the pantry loaded with his snack items (he find them easily enough). Pain medications fuzz me just enough that I can’t drive reliably, although I’m tapering off the dosages. Looking forward to dropping the addictive meds before Thanksgiving and having a fog-free although not pain-free holiday season.
Hopefully that pain will go away real soon.
One of the most harmless munchies we’ve found is Terra Crinkle Cut Sweet Potato Chips, (Amazon). One measured cup of those will settle an upset stomach, buffer nasty meds, and otherwise blunt the desire for the whole bag if you put it out of reach.
Those little lidded pots are what I’ve been looking for. I don’t trust these plastic-lidded things they sell now on the cheaper side—if I wanted to cook in plastic (which I don’t think is as safe as they say) I could use the trays from the meals. But I think every time you microwave those things and it cooks hot, you’re likely to dislodge some molecules you might not want in your food.
A good munchie for me has been quinoa puffs for those who find sweet potato chips to have a vicious aftertaste. The ones I get have ONE ingredient. They are like a puffed cereal but using a grain/seed carb that’s very high in protein. They satisfy my need for a crunchy munchy. I eat 1-2 spoonfuls and I’m done. I get mine at nuts dot com and I go with the organic version although they offer it non-organic as well. It’s probably readily available elsewhere. Also good sprinkled on plain yogurt + raw fruit of your choice.
Congratulations! Size 12….that’s impressive! 😀
I’m back on my slow but steady lose a pound a week program…..and I’ve cut out all cookies, cakes and other assorted goodies. I think refined sugar combined with a bad allergy season was the cause of so many migraines.
We rarely cook in plastic. They’re fine for cold storage, but you can’t convince me that they’e okay in a microwave…just smell them! I have a lot of pottery cookware, but one of my great discoveries has been a line Pyrex makes that can go from freezer to microwave….not as pretty as Le Creuset but much cheaper!
We found Aloysius this morning after he zoomed out the door on Saturday….a tired, hungry kitteh to say nothing of very worried Proge and me. It’s amazing how little gets done when you are worrying…..and trying to search for a small animal who has thousands of acres of woods to get lost in. All’s well that ends well!
Oh dear, that must have been a very long set of days. I know that type of worrying over a missing kitty — it tightens up the stomach into a small, ever-anxious, never -relaxed ball. So glad for Aloysius and you that he is back safe indoors!
As an old chemist it’s my opinion that avoiding plastics in the microwave is good, especially with glass/ceramic alternatives available. It’s the flexible plastics to be avoided most of all. They most likely contain BPA. Of course the industry doesn’t want to have to tell us. 🙁
And that includes the “stretchy films”. Best avoided.
I have a couple 7″ glass “casserole” eared bottoms, but I’ve never found matching lids. But it’s easy enough to lay a plate over ’em. My 5:2 diet is keeping me down ~-10#. I’m 6’2″, 216#, but I’ve been over 275#!
Thanks, Paul. I tend to think exactly the same. And congrats on the diet!
Wow! At 175 my size 14 jeans wouldn’t even zip up. These are Lee’s and heavy denim – no stretch at all in them.
I can fit in them now though 😀
Oh, good on finding Aloysius!
Tulrose, I take up a lot of my weight vertically. I stand five six. But there’s a point past which I can’t shrink, either. And these modern sizes are a wee bit generous. In the old days, if I got into the 160’s — WHEN I get into the 160’s! —I could get into a 10. I once owned a size 9 VERY stretchy swimsuit; but the vertical dimension and the fact you can’t diet off your hipbone prevent me from getting into anything smaller.
I WAS five seven and a half. These days I’m around five six and a half but I think I’ve got 10 years on you. And those jeans are 14 tall (longish legs & short waist).
Still, we’re all doing well on our respective methods of weight management.
The big secret to dieting successfully, imho, is finding something that you can stay with for months, and easily go back to if the appetite starts to increase…that’s the important thing: the weight (we keep telling ourselves) didn’t come on overnight, and it’s not going to go off and stay off because we read the latest diet book—it’s more likely to take a year to get rid of most of it, if you have over 20 lbs to lose, and in our case it might take more than a year. I’m gratified that I’ve now reached the halfway point and I’m halfway through the year. But medical reasons and individual metabolism just varies. I am SO grateful that Jane and I lose on a very similar diet!
It took me just over 10 months to shed just under 45 lbs. I’m finding maintaining it is taking more work than I would have thought. Still, I plan on staying around this weight for the rest of my life. Even bought new cords to wear this winter.
“It’s not an event. It’s a process.”
I almost bought a new pair of jeans a few days ago…..mine are currently ‘patch and patch again.’ Then I decided if I wait two more weeks I will definitely be down a size. I’m losing about a pound to a pound and a half a week.
Even with just losing seven pounds I am amazed at how much better my knees feel. My knee doc is convinced that the first step to combatting knee pain is losing weight. He showed me the amount of pressure on knees and the difference even ten pounds makes….scary what we do to ourselves!
I second your knee doc. I’m gimping around today because I got a new pillow, Costco, memory foam and cooling panel, that straightened out my neck: so what goes wonky, on this day when I do a lot of hauling and filter washing winterizing the pond? The vertebrae below the neck and upper shoulders, mid and lower back. They’ll work their way out of this snit—but when you adjust a place that’s been ‘out’ a while, things below can flare; and when you adjust the way you’ve been moving and standing (as in dropping weight and carrying yourself differently) you can find some adjustments going on…Definitely it makes a difference. It makes a difference in your center of mass. It makes a difference in your leverage, and the way you move. I keep reminding myself: “Six large cans of Crisco” when I consider what I’ve been carrying around everywhere I go, but now the back has to adjust to a trimmer gut, the shoulders are no longer counterbalancing that when I move, etc, etc. If I were still on the ice (alas) I’d *really* notice the shift in stance. I do recommend that pillow, btw: 30.00 each, and heavy as sin, but omg, years with the chiropractor couldn’t do for my neck what that pillow did in one night: got ‘pops’ that mean movement in places that haven’t flexed well for years.
Le Creuset, Part Deux — L’Arrivant — Or —
A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to My Doorstep
I liked the Caribbean color for Le Creuset’s Mini Casserole / Cocotte 8 oz., and somehow I thought I’d ordered a set of four. I was very surprised when the package was shipped so soon and arrived. (I had signed up for Amazon Prime. They get more of my business lately anyway.)
Today, to my surprise again, a package arrived. “Hmm, that’s too small to be (4x) 8 oz. stoneware, however they pack it. What’s arrived?”
I open the package. One and only one very handsome, very useful little ceramic piece. Packed so neatly, I’ll store it that way.
But it is not a set of four. (Nor two, nor a felicitous three.) What?! So I go to check my order. Quoi?! Euh, bien…. Oui, yes, I ordered only one.
Aw, heck. I have now ordered two more, “Flame” and “Cassis.” Cassis is a dark brown. My mind says I should know the root, which has an additional primary meaning or else a connotation. Not “burned,” not “roasted,” but something like. Before placing my order, I notice something seems odd, so I double-check on the Flame. One offer has it as a 1 qt. size, while the Fennel and Cassis are 8 oz. Another offer lists Flame but shows the picture as Caribbean (or Fennel, their photo is dark). A third offer appears to be the right one, but from how the links are working, what’s in the cart versus product offer, text here versus there, I can’t tell for sure. But judging by price, this should be the 8 oz. and not the quart. If I wind up with a quart, haha, I won’t be unhappy, except that I want that 8 oz. Flame mini casserole or cocotte. (The product listings say both “petite casserole” and “mini cocotte.”
Memory says the English listing has the gender wrong, it should be “le petit casserole,” not “la petite casserole.” I need to look up cocotte to know what it means besides something like, “little cook pot.” For that matter, since a “casserole” is the same in French and English, I’ve never looked up what the French word means or is derived from. Larousse, here I come.
So for the weekend, I have a very fine petit casserole ou petite cocotte, Caribbean turquoise, just right. Next week, I’ll have another in Cassis, and either a third in Flame or else a quart size in Flame; of which, either is handy, though I want the 8 oz. so it’s a set of three. Understand, I would usually say a “set” is even-numbered, but as this is for personal use, I shall be content with three. …Though if that turns out to be a quart, I expect I’ll discover an urgent desire (for Thanksgiving and Christmas) for a Caribbean quart size, and the need to justify this to my budget, which will issue a formal complaint and most likely be ignored. No, not logical. But most likely, this and a couple of items (BJD related) will be my Christmas presents, so…perhaps it’s all well in the end.
The slip up with the orignal order, having one arrive instead of four, and my surprise at it, was funny enough I thought I’d share, though I think I overdid the telling.
It is a most handsome, useful little ceramic piece, nadi. One thanks you for the suggestion.
(There must be a potter back in my ancestry. I have family members, male and female, on both sides of my family, who have had a weakness for nice ceramics.)
One is reminded of the vases and fine ceramics and pottery in Foreigner, and of the prized oji in the Chanur Saga. Favorably reminded.