Only Firsts and Rule #54

Well, I discovered you can still eat a lot even without taking seconds. Ryan's method was to just to take a lot of food to begin with (but that could have been his normal serving size, the boy's metabolism is out of this world). The way I ended up over eating was thanks to my cousin's beautiful wedding. We had a huge Thai food feast and the dishes kept coming...and coming..and coming..and coming. I only took firsts (of all 5 billion dishes) but I have never been so full in all my life. All in all, we did a pretty good job of following this rule.

Also, speaking of FIRSTS I have had a few lately. I made an enchilada with tomatillo sauce and it was my first time cooking with actual tomatillos (in the past I have just bought the pre-made sauce). What funny little things and surprisingly sticky too. The dish turned out excellent but I forgot to take pictures. If you do not know what a tomatillo looks like I order you to go to the grocery store right now.

Another night I cooked some strange little peppers for the first time. I do not know the name of said peppers but I baked them in the oven covered with olive oil, salt, and pepper. We ate all of them. If you know the name please let me know because we want more (see picture below!).





As for Rule #54: "Breakfast like a king, lunch like a prince, and dinner like a pauper" I am going to need to switch my whole schedule around. Holy moly. I will have to get up earlier to cook a decent enough size breakfast. Did I mention Ryan leaves the house at 7:30am.....the time I usually start to wake up. Boo.

Little Plates. Big Hunger. & Rule #53

Oh my. I don't know if my recovery week helped anything. But we were able to regroup enough to experience Rule #52. This rule asked us to buy smaller plates and glasses because people that use smaller dishes eat less. This rule seemed absolutely ludicrous to us considering we have just registered and been receiving tons of dishes. NO MORE (except what we already registered for, of coarse). Instead of buying new dishes we just used the smaller dishes we already owned. Side note: We were we able to fit a lot more into a dish washer load this week!

See the pictures below. It looks like we are complete pigs because we have our little plates piled high. But, Ryan did notice that it seemed he was eating a better portion size. So, maybe this mental trick is worth something after all. Also, I included some bonus pics of a beautiful summer dinner party we had tonight. Sigh. That is the life.














This upcoming week we have Rule #53: Serve a proper portion and don't go back for seconds. MAN! I love my seconds. This week should be interesting.

Recovery Week

Sorry this post is so darn late but it further proves our need for a recovery week. Life has been crazy these past few weeks and especially THIS week I have not been able to focus on anything, including food. We have not been eating poorly necessarily. I have been making salads and eating fruit. But food has definitely not been our focus.

So what is going on? I just had an amazing bridal shower throw by Ryan's mom and sister at a Frank Lloyd Wright house in Silverton, Oregon. As a result I have tons of presents to put away thanks to our generous guests. One friend recently came over and said, "your house looks like the Crate & Barrel warehouse." I think this friend was being too kind because a warehouse would never be as disorganized as what we have going on. I also have thank you notes to write! And laundry and packing to do because we leave for a family raft trip this Friday. So between eating rafting food and bridal shower food and some quick food in the middle we are pretty much too busy to give a food rule the focus it deserves.

Next week.

In the meantime, here are two pictures to give you a taste of what we are dealing with in the Orwick household:

Sushi Madness & Rule #51

This past week we finally got it together to do something we have been wanting to try since December 2010: homemade sushi. For Christmas I bought Ryan all of the things needed to make sushi (besides the fish) and somehow we have put off trying it until now. BUT, what better week to try it then a week that has a food rule focused on the first bite! Sushi is all about first bites because you can make each bite taste a little different depending on the filling and what condiments you add.

Below are the pictures from our Sushi Madness. We intended on making three different rolls: 1. Shrimp tempura roll 2. Spicy tuna roll 3. Veggie roll Little did we know that each recipe made enough for four plus rolls on it's own. Thus, we ended up with sushi madness. It was pretty intense for two people to try and eat 12+ rolls in under 24 hours. We ended up having sushi breakfast, sushi lunch, and two sushi dinners just because we wanted to eat it all in the 24-hour window before the raw fish became at risk for spoilage.
















This week we are moving on to Rule #51: Spend as much time enjoying the meal as it took to prepare it. This will be a week with a lot of homemade goodness so we can take our time to eat slowly and enjoy our delicious food.

Slooooowwwwwww DOWN! & Rule #50

Trying to eat slower is a near impossible task unless you have some pretty intense focus. Our normal dinner conversations this past week went:

"KK, we need to eat slowly." "Alright." (3 bites later...) "Oh shoot, I forgot." (Repeat).

I remember a meditation weekend I did in college where there was no talking allowed. We ate in silence and really concentrated on every bite of food. I was surprised how fast I would become full because I was so attuned to my body. Also, each bite of food (even though it was Whitman food service--which I have to say was pretty delicious) tasted amazing because we allowed ourselves to pay attention to every hint of flavor.

Now I am stuck eating dinner every night with the love of my life.....not too bad, but it is definitely harder to eat slowly when we are concentrating on sharing/listening about the day's events.

This week we have Rule #50: "The banquet is in the first bite." This means that we should be savoring the first bite because it's all down hill after that.....less exciting taste and more calories. Kind of reminds me of what they say about drugs....you can keep eating (or shooting up) but the first bite (the first high) will never be as good as all of the rest, but you keep eating (using) hoping that is not the case.

This past weekend my childhood neighborhood showered me with love. It was an amazing event and not only did I get a lot of new and exciting stuff for the kitchen...I also got a favorite recipe from each guest. This should keep me very busy because I want to try them all!

"Consult Your Gut!" & Rule #49

A common phrase this past week in the Orwick household has been "Consult your gut!" (usually exclaimed as someone gets up for seconds of something). It's amazing how much your visual perception of something dictates how much you eat. For example, if I dish Ryan up and spread the helping all over the plate he seems more satisfied with the portion size than if I put the helping in one heap on his plate. Sometimes it was not fun consulting my gut because I would really want "one more piece."

This upcoming week we have Rule #49: Eat Slowly. I ate dinner the other night with a dear friend and we had these amazing wings at Pok Pok (Portland people should know what I am talking about). My friend and I marveled afterwards on what a good menu choice this was because it forced us to eat slowly (pulling the meat off the bones with our hands), which in turn helped us to consult the gut. Pollan recommends you eat slowly in one of two ways: 1. Liquefy your food & 2. Put down your fork between bites.

Here is a picture (sorry it's kind of dark) of me learning to belly dance at a Lebanese restaurant we went to for my friend's birthday (another occasion when it was not so fun to consult the gut!):




HAPPY 4th of JULY EVERYONE!

Lunch Time? & Rule #48

I learned that I eat when I am bored but at least I do not snack. My day consists of eating breakfast and then sitting around at work thinking: I could either write this psychological evaluation or I could eat my amazing tomato tart? Hmmmmmm......this is how I end up eating lunch at 10:30am and then I am starving by 5pm. This is also why I do not have unhealthy snacks in the house. If there is food in my sights then I have no self-control. I combat this by only allowing myself healthy fast stuff such as fruit and veggies.

Aside from realizing how early I eat my lunch when I am bored this rule was pretty easy. Next week is Rule 48: Consult your gut. I am anticipating that my gut and I will become ONE.

Full-less and Rule #47

Wow, when you make really really good food it is so hard (for me) to show any sort of self restraint. This week we cooked several amazing meals and I took a modest portion and refrained from going back for seconds. Why do I like to feeling of being really full anyway? It's not like it's a good feeling. BUT, for some reason I always look for that feeling to dictate when I should stop my indulging.

So, I said good meals and I captured two of them:

The first was a grilled pork loin with a mango and jalapeno chutney (my fingers burned for days after peeling the jalapenos!).




The second delicious meal was a simple spaghetti with buffalo meatballs. Even though it was a simple recipe it was hands down the best meat balls I have EVER eaten.




Next week we have Rule #48: Eat When You are Hungry, Not when you are Bored. Luckily, with all the wedding planning, cooking, salsa dancing, and friend adventures, I haven't felt bored in a while....and when I do I will remember my poor garden that has really been suffering lately.

Seatt-less & Rule #46

Busy busy week! I think we had plans almost every minute of every day. Eating less was hard several times. The biggest challenge was celebrating Ryan's promotion of Senior Engineer at an amazing restaurant and listening to my gut instead of my taste buds. We also went to Seattle and I wanted to eat everything I saw. I had several proud moments such as asking Ryan to share a piece of cake with me instead of having my own piece (oh my goodness that took self restraint) and when I never went back for seconds (if you know me that is amazing because I always want "one more bite"). I also made cream cheese brownies for something and gave them ALL away (normally I would have eaten half the batch)!

Next week we have a similar Rule #46: Stop eating before you are full. Instead of asking myself, "Am I full?" I will be focusing on, "Is my hunger gone?"

Here is a picture of my beautiful Seattle friends who I got to visit with very briefly and I hope to see more of this summer!

Margaritaville & Rule #45

We finally got sun in Portland! AND heat! Yay for vitamin D! I was so good this week and really focused on buying higher quality food and not overeating. The one night where Ryan and I ate way too much was when we went to the restaurant Pok Pok with a friend. We let our friend order because Pok Pok is one of her favorite restaurants and she knew all of the best dishes. I couldn't control myself the food was so good--if you haven't been there you should go! You will pay more, but you might also eat more too....

To celebrate the sun Ryan made me a homemade margarita. Ever since we gave up high fructose corn syrup I have been missing my margaritas (the majority of margarita mix from the store is filled with horrible stuff). Ryan used limes and lemons and made a simple syrup. It definitely hit the spot!



This week we will focus on a similar rule, Rule #45: . . . Eat less. Pollan discusses how the caloric intake for Americans is way higher than necessary and is a major contributor to things like obesity and cancer. I will continue to work on skipping unnecessary second helpings and avoid eating when I am bored. I am sure Ryan will continue to accuse me of starving him. ;)