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Did a lot of cooking yesterday. The black bean soup came off the menu because my gf liked the sound of a stuffed pepper recipe I found on the NY Times web site. So that was dinner. Lunch was lentil soup cooked in the crock pot while I was at work Saturday morning. I also assembled the enchilada casserole last night. That will be dinner -- gf will turn on the oven while I'm at my OA meeting. Lunch today is going to be Jeff's tagine -- I cooked the chick peas yesterday. Whew!

Last night I also made the batter for michaelswarm's dosas (Indian pancakes) and I cooked them this morning. They were tasty, but after looking at a recipe in one of Raghavan Iyer's books, I'm going to make some changes. Michaelswarm said to use whole black lentils, which I did, but I had a really hard time grinding them up. The recipes in the books all say to use split urad, so I'm going to try that next time. I'm also going to try fermenting the batter for a full 24 hours, in a warm oven. I don't think overnight at room temp (at least room temp in my house) did much. But the basic recipe is definitely a keeper, and I'm going to stick with the brown rice (my book calls for combining plain white rice and converted rice, which is interesting but lacking in fiber and nutritional value). So thank you, Michaelswarm!

Yesterday I cooked some tasty, tasty turnip greens. I used two big bunches of fresh greens, and a Raghavan Iyer recipe that I have made in the past with Swiss chard (the recipe actually calls for mustard greens, but I'm not a fan). Total party in my mouth, and now I'm craving them. How great is that? I might have to take another walk down to the market and buy me some more turnip greens.

Another successful experiment for me: Banana Bread Oatmeal. I like any kind of oatmeal, but my gf is pickier and this got raves from her. I put it up over in the Food and Recipes forum.

That sounds really really good.Maybe I will make it over the week-end.RAS

I hope you enjoy the oats, RAS. I used up the last of the bananas this morning.

I've been eating nuts and seeds every day lately. Small amounts, but every day. I'm also staying off the scale, so I have no idea what, if any, effect this is having on my weight loss.

I broke down and got on the scale yesterday. Not knowing how my weight was going was making me anxious, and I caved. Of course I could've just gotten stricter with my program and trusted the process, but no. And . . . I've lost another 3 pounds! That's one more pound to go, till I get to my goal.

I didn't do any cooking this weekend, because we are still eating food I cooked last weekend! We're getting close to the end of that, though. I'm going to make black bean soup, and Cajun vegetable soup, and I'm not sure what else. Maybe Brunswick stew a la Grandma Jackie. I want to go get some more fresh turnip greens, and put them in both soups (the black bean soup is supposed to have collards, which my girlfriend doesn't like, and the Cajun soup is supposed to have whatever I think should go in there). So that and stay off the scale are the plan for this week.

Toadfood, I'm so happy for you. Great going. Can't wait to hear you reached your goal.

Thanks, HealthE1. I think it will be soon.

That's some cool Indian cooking you're doing toadfood. I made sambah and a few other things. I still have grains and flour from the 21 day Indian food challenge at PCRM.

Oh, and be sure to try experimenting with oatbran. Using oatbran in muffins adds an extra crunch that I really enjoy.

Thanks for the tip, StarchBeet. I don't eat baked goods -- they are just too addictive for me -- so I only eat oat bran as hot cereal. Today I cooked it with frozen wild blueberries.

We're down to the last bits of leftovers, so yesterday I made a huge pot of my vegetable soup, which I have been calling Maryland Vegetable Soup since I make it with Old Bay now. Here's what I put in it:

2 onions, chopped
About 2-3 pounds russet potatoes, peeled and diced
One celery heart, sliced
1 lb frozen carrots (Trader Joe's 2-color ones)
2 lb frozen chopped spinach
2 lb frozen cut green beans
1 lb frozen corn
1 lb frozen cauliflower
2 lb frozen butter beans
3 28-oz cans diced tomatoes
3-4 cans water
About 1/2 c Old Bay seasoning
About 1/2 to 3/4 c smoked paprika
About 1/8 to 1/4 c molasses

I used to call this Cajun Vegetable Soup and make it with Penzey's Cajun Seasoning, but I discovered that Old Bay is close to identical and much cheaper (also available in every grocery store here, whereas Penzey's I either have to mail order or drive an hour each way). The Old Bay seemed to have a bitter edge to it -- it does not contain sugar, unlike the Cajun seasoning -- so I added the molasses. I didn't measure it, just poured it into the pot, so I'm guesstimating.

This makes a giant pot of soup -- I use my 16 quart stock pot for it. We ate it for dinner, I packed two lunches, and then we had about 2 gallons left to store. You could easily cut the recipe down -- I like the convenience of just dumping all the bags into the pot without measuring.

That looks great. I haven't used butter beans in a while.

Thanks

This soup sounds wonderful but I just wanted to make sure the seasoning amounts were really in cups. I know it makes a large amount of soup but I've never seen seasoning measured in cups before (I'm not even sure if my little bottle of smoked paprika holds 1/2 cup). But, I'm also lousy at cooking so I wouldn't necessarily know the correct amount anyway.

Thanks for the recipe.

I know it sounds nuts, but yes, those really are the seasoning amounts for this quantity of soup. You could also start with less and keep adding till it tastes good to you (but I know you aren't a fan of "season to taste"recipes).

I buy my smoked paprika by the pound, at Penzey's. The Old Bay comes in big containers, too. We love smoked paprika and my gf doesn't like liquid smoke so I use smoked paprika in recipes that call for it.

My weight loss seems to have stalled. Weight is actually up to 192.6 this morning, but I didn't change my ticker because I'm hoping that's a fluke. I know I said I was going to stay off the scale but . . . .

Anyway, since really getting serious about my eating back in August, I have been about 95% McDougall compliant. Now I'm thinking, what would it be like to be 100%? What if I gave up:

Soy lattes from Starbucks
Recreational sugar (candy -- I don't eat baked goods because they are like crack to me)
Nuts and dried fruit as snacks (would still want to be able to use in small amounts in recipes)
The occasional teaspoon of oil in an entree
Eating out, except for sushi

I don't do all of the above in a single day, but in a typical week I will do at least one of the above.

I've been eating an ounce of walnuts or sunflower seeds on my oatmeal every day because I was worried about Vitamin E. I recently cut back to 1/2 an ounce. I also eat a tablespoon of ground flax on my oats every day. I would definitely keep the flax, not sure about the nuts/seeds. I discovered that 5 cups of cooked turnip greens would give me 100% of the RDA of vitamin E. That would certainly be very healthy, but I don't think it's realistic to think I would eat 5 cups of cooked turnip greens every day. I do take a multivitamin daily.