chef neil

Hi- I am in Nor-cal if you want to come this way and ride- hit me up. yesterday I did a 50 miler on my fixed gear road bike. It was around Napa valley. my time was 3 hours and 20 minutes on bike or 14.14 mph avg. for those that don't know, the bike has 1 speed- and you always have to pedal- always- never stop, unless you want to. I flew the coarse and sucked a total of 4.5 Water bottles some diluted with sport drink, had more sugar free drink after- hydration was spot on the whole day, considering the breeze and heat. Now I start to train for the Grand Fondo, in Sept. 104 miles and 9000' of climbing! will be using my geared road bike. what I have wondered is how I would do- coming out of surgery, and getting back into riding, and my stomach... It gives me issues on a normal diet- wow! I am happy- G-2, sport beanz, sport drink, trail mix- and goo packs all go down well- so I can ride as fast as I want... even after ride dinner went down well... it was a chickenstew and beans- with some salad, there was other things- but I stayed with safe foods.

Another great stew... I used red wine :wub: my tip of the week- if it is a bit juicy- at one hour 30 minutes make a slurry and stir in- let it cook the final 30 minutes. < slurry- a mixture of flour and water- you only need an ounce or so for a tagine.)

Did your significant other become insecure....are they more attentive now?..did you get back that honeymoon phase kind of love...? plain and simple...has the sex life changed? lol My wife was RNY 8 months before my sleeve. things are different- we are approaching 28 years of marriage- insecure? no- people treat us different- even though she lost 75# more than I, she doesn't get noticed as much as I do. maybe people are afraid to talk to a woman about her weight? either way- we are both loving our new life, and I don't think we ever lost that honeymoon phase, yes things are different- we are not hopping into the sack at every chance- but then again we didn't do that before-. we saved it for the evening- barring kids/tired/early alarms/health/what ever. The thing I will tell ya that is awesome... taking a bath together. so relaxing- so, what two people in love should do! without losing 280# between us that would never be possible... she is working on her list of 100 things to do- we have checked off a few things together It was taught in our class, if your relationship is good- it will get better, if it is not- chances are it won't get better. I was worried a bit... but now- we are having the time of our lives together... and yes- there is a convertible car in our future

RossJL ] meal for 4,it could be tight, so make some rice or Pasta and a salad to go with... Pookism- what did your hubby say? hopefully got you one by now...

Hi- I started the c to 5k program with some local WLS people. today I finished the program with a 5k run. anyone wondering how the heck can you do that, heck I don't know... i didn't run 3 x week- but every sunday was hard at work on it... It has been a great trip. I hope more people can try it and see how much fun it is...

I am thinking it will be similar, not having had the opportunity to side by side comparison. Back in the 70's my Granny had a clay pot- it was used for decoration... tomorrow I do a whole chicken - will use plenty of garlic

piperrenee#71 sounds good to me! tonight I took an onion, 4 little sweet peppers, 3 stalks of celery, all diced and dry sauteed then added beef broth and red wine. then I took a can of low sodium /fat-cream of celery Soup and added in pre cooked turkey meatballs. 1 .5 hours and it was divine!

RFC- hi- no- I put it all in together. Tonight I made chicken sate- chicken, bellpepper, onion, garlic and cilantro. 3 tsp chicken sate sauce and a little water- when finished, I stirred in a little peanutbutter to thicken sauce.

YO! come hang out in the recipe trades area...

' think 4-5 portions- depending on sides and or how your tummy is- Tonight I ate more than my wife- usually she eats more than I, though I seem to eat 4 meals. tonight I used canned chili beans- and mini chicken sausages from costco- (chili dogs) nice high Protein count- took less than and hour- everything was pre cooked. except the salad we had before-

Today is kinda cold out- with rains expected- after running yesterday and cycling, I am taking a day off of exercise and will do chores around the house. Tonight's tagine will be a Beef chili; Beef stew meat new Mexico chiles- were fire roasted and frozen- diced tomatoes in juice onion garlic pinch of oregano cilantro 1/2 bottle of beer cumin a nice amount of bbq spice canned Black beans- rinsed

:biggrinjester: oh lala- I have A fan Club :blush2: tonight's tagine was; chicken and green beans- I used cream of chicken soup added 1/2 can Water. I did it a bit different, i put julienne onion, and garlic in with chicken and cooked it for an hour (went for my 3 mile walk) got home and added the soup, water and draind canned green beans- let it cook another hour... was good- the onions were caramalized and had similar flavor to the Christmas greenbean casserole.

it has been the opposite for me- It is never on my mind, although when I'm needed- I can perform, and with some great stamina... wonder why it did a 180 on me??? :blush5:

Hi- I have not done top of stove... Tonight, I made jambalaya; used a new Mexico chili for the heat, chicken sausage, chicken breast and shrimp. along with peppers, garlic, onion and then spices- gumbo file, thyme, bay leaf and some pineapple wine.

Yea :banane58: we are doing tagine about 3 times a week at first I thought two hours for dinner was bad.... It seems that latino based dishes, like pork verde - carne asada etc. take longer in an oven than tagine, one set back is summer time, don't like using oven. going to have to make a solar oven outside. my fav is the chiil.

Waiting.... :coolgleamA: tonight is; beef chili with black Beans. :xena_banana:

Hi- I wanted to share this with you- I drink Kombucha- it is a living tonic, you can buy it or make it your self. The only think wrong with buying it is, it is made with tea- which has caffeine, and being that us WLS peeps should not be drinking caffeine pre-op or post op, or effervescent drinks... how would one go about getting their "booch" fix? The tea- which is a living thing- made from tea and sugar and the scoby, left to ferment. (google that) Scoby it's a culture of living organisms that are good for you- especially for your GI tract! similar to keifer and the yogurts. however it is fermented so there is a trace amount of alcohol and sugar. I started drinking this when I wanted to get off soda drinks-- it helped with withdrawal symptoms. especially the cravings...also when I was craving fried foods and breads... What I did was start my own culture from a bottle of store bought kombucha- I put it in a sun tea jar with a spigot- added 1 cup of sugar and filled it up with DECAF tea. Left on counter 2 weeks- it started to bubble around edges. Pretty soon I could smell it- it was sweet- then went vinegary. this means it is almost ready- also had a slimy thing growng on top- like plastic wrap- this is the new scoby- it will soon become up to an inch thick. (also called a mushroom- but it isn't really one) I drank several glasses and then started to replace what I was drinking with more decaf tea and a little sugar. apparently if you want a glass aday, by adding back- the culture devours the raw sugar and each day you have fresh kombucha ready for you. You can google and get recipes and more ideas on it- (endless kombucha) The thing I like about it is- WLS friendly using decaf tea and fermenting it down so it has no/little sugar as well as leaving in the sun tea jar- has no carbonation. if you never tried it- give it a gamble- just be careful, for your tummies sake. Some people think it tastes too sweet while others say it tastes like vingar- depending on how balanced your body is- is how it will taste- when I first started it was sweet - after a while it got vinegary to taste- then it went back to tasting good. just a general info post- drink at will.

Hi- I have not done whole pieces of meat- yet. always diced/cubed- etc. I would think the pork loin would come out great! if ya plugged it with garlic and rubbed it with spices- I bet it would come out tender and juicey.. so hard for me not to want to make that Latino style... GrannyK- you are so very welcome! - glad I could help at least one person. Tonight, I make beef stew again... and later this week- chili. thanks for the tagine spice recipe- I want to do a ratatouille with tagine spice. (my vegan side comes out) I love it- however my wife is not fond of- so I am keeping our dinners Americanized. ok- I will hit the Mediterranean side off to chop my veggies and show a few WLS peeps stopping by how easy it is...

Great morning to start... My wife, I and 8 others met and started the C25k... all WLS people... feeling good!

:Banane57: Tonight's Recipe; 3 chicken breasts diced 1 onion- diced 2 cloves garlic- smashed 1 can cream of broccoli/cheese Soup in the oven 1 hour @ 350* and then I stuffed to the lid, fresh broccoli cut up. I have about 30 minutes left- since we have friends coming over- I will be serving it over brown rice. Normally My wife (RNY) and I go starch-less - just tagine- unless I put potato in it- This recipe could have used potatoes easily enough. * edit * needed a cup of Water added when I added the broccoli - other than that- filling and warm and delicios.

TONIGHT'S TAGINE; Beef stew Americana 1# beef in cubes 1 onion 2 cloves garlic -smashed 12 baby carrots sliced 1 yellow squash diced 12 ea. green Beans cut into 14's 1 can diced tomato 1 cup california Syrah (red wine) dash of celery seed (notice the celery left out- for the RNY patient :smile1: two dashes Italian seasoning 1 tiny pinch crushed red chili flakes a couple grinds on the sea salt and pepper grinder 1 hour at 350* the I turned the oven off and left the house for an hour, when I returned, turned it back on for 40 minutes. served over mashed red potatoes- :smile1: my fav. meal- on GET THIS! a dessert plate... :biggrin2: back in the day, I woulda ate the whole darn thing... now we have enough for tomorrows dinner too :smile1: btw- total prep time- 10 minutes for tagine and 6 minutes for mashed potatoes

Please give us details about the latin pork one. it worked great! although a bit watery, use a slotted spoon or your taco's will be soupy. Next- I want to try a whole chicken- put celery,onion and garlic on bottom- rub the chicken with a dry rub and place on top of veggies then bake for two hours.

diced boneless pork- fat removed for the RNY patient :biggrin2: 1 small onion, 3 cloves of garlic smashed, 1/2 jar of salsa verde. tsp. chopped fresh cilantro. dashes of cumin and oregano.- it's in the oven... Pork verde taco's for dinner! after my walk-

Latin Pork was not in the works today- I pulled chicken out of the freezer, PSA- mark and date all freezer bound Items- :conehead: Tonight- chicken, 1/4 red and green bell pepper diced, onion diced, 3 cloves garlic crushed, 2 red potatoes, handful scallions chopped small, 12 mini carrots diced. 1 can cream chicken Soup, no salt added, low fat yada-yada... 1/2 can Water. dashes of italian spices, black pepper. I have some sour dough bread sticks to go with it. I have been feeding and working with a starter since mid Dec., I started it off the drags of one of my wines.

Back in November My wife and I decided to make Holiday baskets for friends. One of the gifties was Raspberry vinegar. We started out with fresh raspberries and a gallon of white vinegar. I let them soak for a month then strained it and also filtered through a double coffee filter. We bottled them and gave it away, (along with numerous other edible things) We have four bottles left over, and one day I found what looked like the paper seal floating on top. As I picked it up to look closer, I see there is a cloud of floaties. I quickly googled- worried I had given people something bad, though knowing it was 75% vinegar- can't be that bad... I learned I had a living culture- similar to a scoby found in Kombucha. Called "mother of vinegar" Today I triple filtered the four bottles, saving the rafts. I took the "mother" and dropped it into a clear gallon jug, along with left over red wine. I have a half gallon of red wine, various bottles from tastings, and bottling my home made wine. In a month or so I will have home made vinegar.