I was going to wait a few more days, however, we have a storm warning for tonight. It was for high winds, heavy rain, and possibly hail. I’m betting that we won’t get it now though. I decided better safe than sorry so I took the last of the cherries off the tree. These are the other cherries, the Heidelfingen.

Okay, forgive the food porn, but I just had to share. Oh my goodness, this turned out so well. This originally was meant to be a 9×13 cake, but I cut the recipe in half, lightened it up and made it in an 8×8 glass dish. So this piece pictured is 1/16 of the recipe. Oh, did I mention that it’s only 106 calories and tastes fabulous? That’s down from 181 calories that the original would have been. I took pieces to one of the neighbours and got back rave reviews. So I decided I should share.

A Recipe for Weight Loss: Chocolate Zucchini Cake

The interesting point is that between the two pieces I’ve given away (my mother is off delivering the 2nd one) there are only 7 servings of it left. That was to some extent the plan.

This morning I chased away not one, but two squirrels. They were doing their best to break the cherry laden branches off the one tree. There are actually two trees growing side by side. So I stripped off the remaining cherries from the one tree and cut a huge piece of netting and tied up the other cherries. It likely won’t keep them off completely, but will hopefully slow them down a bit. So these are about a week or so from being fully ripe, but they are still lovely and sweet.

This is about a quarter of what was on the tree. From weighing out last night’s fruit I’d say this is probably about 3 or 4lbs worth of fruit. Some we’ve eaten, some we’ve given away. More than half fell to birds and squirrels. Next year I will be more prepared. The trees need a lot of trimming back though so next year’s yield may be low. The good new is that the boysenberries and the raspberries are starting to show colour!

I haven’t done much today, but sometimes that’s nice. Slept late, did some watering, had a swim, made some salad dressings. Now I’m doing laundry and wondering if I can sneak in a nap.

I decided to get a little more organized with the salad dressings. I’ve labeled each one and made a few minor changes as I made them. This way when I find one that I’m not as fond of I can decide if I’m going to modify it next time. Or stop making it. I found one last time that I wasn’t quite so fond of, but I’m not entirely sure which one it was! This way I can retype some of the recipes to how I’m actually making it.

Okay, so technically the recipe was called a marmalade, but still. The thing I’m most happy about is that it worked out to 45cals per Tb. I’ve been using the generic jam entry in FitDay (56 cals) but wasn’t sure where the homemade ones were in comparison. This ended up lower but I will check the rest when I’m making them this year. I also counted both the orange pulp and the peel when working out the recipe, since I suppose most normal people don’t usually eat the peel.

A Recipe for Weight Loss: Rhubarb Marmalade

So, I’ve been seeing these commercials for pasta salads recently. No, I didn’t go out and buy any, however, I had a first attempt at one today. To be fair it’s really more of a veggie salad with a little pasta in it. It was really good though. I did learn a couple of things.

1. I like most vegetables raw, but not so fond of broccoli raw
2. Chick peas are tasty, but not sure they’re worth the calories
3. I need to find a protein source I like cold (other than cheese)
4. I should label my homemade dressings (think I used the one I’d planned)
5. I really don’t need a lot of pasta to enjoy it (1oz whole wheat used)

A Recipe for Weight Loss: Pasta Salad

A Recipe for Weight Loss: Herb Dressing I

As pictured (big portion): 437cals (25g protein, 7g fat, 76g carbs, 17g fiber)
Without chick peas: 254cals (14g protein, 5g fat, 44g carbs, 8g fiber)
Without turkey sausage: 204cals (8g protein, 2g fat, 43g carbs, 8g fiber)

Well, since I was good this morning and got my cardio out of the way I decided I wanted to try some of the sausage sauce from yesterday. Lunch became pasta with the sauce and a side of roasted green beans. I put 2Tb of parmesan in the pasta, but if I add it again I think I’ll just sprinkle it over the pasta and veggies at the same time.

Spicy Sausage Sauce

Total for the dish as shown - 453 cals. I think when I make the sauce again I’ll bump up the amount of turkey sausage, since I’m always going to be serving it with pasta and veggies, so it likely needs a little more protein.

That’s 8 oz (by weight) sauce, 1.5oz pasta, 6oz green beans - on a decent sized luncheon plate. For me it’s likely a bit too light for dinner, but I could just add a touch more pasta. It made a lovely lunch.

This is the last of the three lunches. I suspect I might look for more of a recipe next time (not just BBQ sauce and a few added items). However it did work out very well. Between the three items I won’t have to do anything other than roast veggies every three days or so until about mid-July. Probably longer as I’ll likely still have lunch meat once a week (as my mother will still be buying it for herself).

Recipe - BBQ Pork

I promise, only one more tomorrow and that’s the three of them. It only passed the one carnivore seal of approval (ie. the fussy cat wouldn’t eat it). I realize that they may not be happy with the new lunches. With the luncheon meat they always got the extra bit (ie. if I’d allowed for 3oz and it was 3.5oz they got the .5 oz). This doesn’t work out so well for them. With the side of veggies the meal is 344 cals (36g protein, 10g fat, 27g carbs, 9g fiber).

 Recipe - Eye of Round Roast

I meant to post this yesterday, but forgot. This is the first of the three new lunches I worked on last weekend. The others should follow tomorrow and Friday. Served with a side of roasted veggies, this lunch is 356 cals (33g protein, 13g fat, 33g carbs, 10g fiber).

Recipe - Turkey Meatloaf with Salsa