The Epicurean Esquire

My beef stew recipe

By request, here's my beef stew recipe. It's a combination of a few recipes that I've come across.

1.5 lbs. or less beef stew

1/4 cup flour

2 carrots, chopped into bite sized pieces

2-3 potatoes, chopped into bite sized pieces

3/4 cup frozen peas

2 onions, chopped

2 cups beef broth

2 cups red wine

1 bay leaf

~1.5 teaspoons marjoram

~1 teaspoon thyme

Salt and pepper to taste

Heat olive oil in large pot over med-high heat. Dredge beef in flour. Brown beef in pot
. Then add onions and saute until transluscent. Add garlic, then add wine. Boil wine and scrape up bit from bottom of pot. Add beef broth and spices, then carrots and potatoes. Stir up, then cook covered over low heat for 1-4 hours. Add peas 10 minutes before serving.

Day 8--Smooth Sailing

Image by jodigreen via Flickr

So I'm on Day 8 of Lyn-Genet Recita's "Plan" and all is going well. I'm feeling good and continue to lose weight, even though I don't really want to. Since Day 1, I've lost 4 pounds (and a grand total of ~12 since I started this in mid-August) . (My husband has lost over 5 lbs.) My rings are actually starting to slip off of my fingers, and I don't plan to lose any additional weight at this point. From here on in my goal is to just test the different foods and try to determine which ones don't work well for me.

I'm now able to have more enjoyable breakfasts and can actually drink wine! Woohoo! I do love wine;)

So far we've tested chicken, wild caught halibut, rye, goat cheese, and rice. None have bothered my system. And, the for the most part, the food is very enjoyable. If your'e interested, you can find pictures of many of my recent dinners here.

What I really like about eating using this system is that after I eat, I feel satiated and my stomach feels settled. I'm not bloated, my belly isn't grumbly and I don't have any indigestion. I also have been sleeping really well since I started this plan back in August.

All in all, I'm pleased so far and have received very useful feeback and input from Lyn-Genet.

As for my weight loss, tune in tomorrow to see if it stops. I sure hope so. I'm as thin as I want to be and the last thing I want is to be a gaunt older woman. At this point in my life, I can kind of use a little layer of softness to round out my increasingly angular features.

So let's hope the weight stays stable. Only time will tell...

Day 4-Returning to normalcy

Image via Wikipedia

So it's now Day 4 of Lyn-Genet Recita's "Plan" and I'm beginning to feel more like I'm returning to normal. Since I started on Saturday, I've lost 2.5 lbs and am feeling good.

Every morning, I make a fruit shake from a pear, blueberries, raspberries, blackberries and coconut milk (the pear is supposed to be my afternoon snack of fruit, but I forego the fruit from that snack and include it in my smoothie). I then snack on the bland flax granola that I'm not very fond of.

Yesterday's lunch was a salad and an apple. Today's was veggie soup (I didn't like it--it was far too bland and needed at least a tablespoon--or more--of salt) and rye crackers with goat cheese.

Dinner last night was chicken with Italian herbs, broccoli and carrots and beet and carrot salad. Tonight's will be chicken with mango salsa, a salad and broccoli.

The dinners have been quite good for the most part. And at this point I'm pretty much eating the same way I have been for the past few months, so I'm no longer feeling hungry.

I'm looking forward to the next stage, where we "test" new foods and see if I'm reactive to any of them. That's been my goal all along--to figure out which foods don't work for me and eliminate them from my diet. A weight gain of .5 pounds over one day is an indication of reacting to a food, so it will be interesting to see if/when that happens and what food might be the culprit. I hope it's not one that I really enjoy.

I'm also looking forward to working wines back in to my diet. I can't live without my vino!

So, that's the latest. Tune in tomorrow for more...

Day 2-Finally, some protein!

Image by ontheflyrecipes via Flickr

So today is Day 2 of Lyn-Genet Recita's "Plan". Although weight loss isn't my goal (figuring out which foods work best for me is my main goal), when I weighed in this morning, I'd lost a pound. So had my husband.

For what it's worth, I've never actually owned a scale. I feel like constantly weighing yourself is a recipe for disaster and low self esteem. Instead, I've always focused on how I looked and felt. If my clothes started to fit differently, I knew I'd gained or lost weight.

That was about as specific as I chose to get. And, sicne I have two young daughters, I felt that having a scale in the house could send the message that I cared too much about weight and might encourage them to do so and possibly end up with eating disorders. I even had my husband return a scale that he brought home a few years ago. I just didn't want to have one in my house.

But, since Lyn-Genet assesses how food affect you by subsequent weight gains as little as .5 lbs, I bought a scale as part of this food experiment of mine.

Today I started with a fruit smoothie. It was supposed to be flax granola in coconut mil with some blueberries. But, since I just don't enjoy most fruits whole and really don't like that flax granola, I made a smoothie. I used blueberries, the pear I was supposed to have as a snack in the afternoon, ice and coconut milk. Then, an hour later, I snacked on that flax I don't like.

Lunch was mixed greens with apple and avocado and roasted butternut squash.

My afternoon snack was a bunch of almonds (it was also supposed to include that pear from earlier).

Dinner is spicy apricot glazed chicken over mixed greens and sauteed zucchini.

All in all, today was much better than yesterday. My stomach felt better and wasn't as grumbly. Both days I've been really thirsty, but aside from that, it's been going ok.

Tune in tomorrow for Day 3.

 

Day 1-Veggies Alone Just Don't Cut It

Image by mhaller1979 via Flickr

So, today I'm starting Lyn-Genet Recita's "Plan" that I spoke of in my earlier post. In August, I read about it in More magazine and decided to give it a try on my own. Since that time, Lyn-Genet was able to fit me in for a consult, even though she's booked through October 2012.

I spoke with her via phone earlier in the month and will be doing the 20-day Plan. My goal isn't weight loss--I actually lost about 8 or 9 pounds just by bungling through the Plan on my own, and at this point I'm nearly at my ideal weight (and I was actually pretty happy with my weight before I tried the Plan on my own). Instead, I want to figure out which foods work best for me and then get in the habit of eating healthy, satisfying, energy creating foods.

I started today off with a bowl of Columbia County Flax granola in coconut milk (I figured out on my own over a year ago that milk doesn't work well for me), blueberries and tea. Quite honestly, I didn't like it at all. I think breakfasts are going to be the hardest for me over the next few weeks. I typically eat a fruit shake (pear, berries and milk substitute) for breakfast and I really, really enjoy that. Flax granola--not so much.

For lunch I had carrot ginger soup, a mixed green salad with pears and pumpkin seeds and broccoli. As I discovered last time I did this 3-day cleanse, a menu of all vegetables with minimal fats, protein or carbs doesn't really fill me up at all. Usually for lunch I have a mixed green salad with chick peas, avocados, cucumbers, and sunflower seeds along with rye crackers and goat cheese. That lunch I love and always feel really satisfied afterward. Today's lunch--again, not so much.

For dinner, it's roasted veggies, rice with sunflower seeds and a shredded beet & carrot salad. As it's all veggies, for the most part, I have a feeling I'm not going to be a happy camper tonight. And, because salt is a no-no at this point, the food is rather bland even though I'm using other spices like cumin and coriander.

Also, all day long, I've had a sort of raw, grumbly feeling in my stomach--I think because the veggies just don't satisfy me.

Unfortunately, breakfast tomorrow, which is the same as today's, isn't going to help much. I have a feeling I'm going to be pretty miserable come 10 a.m. tomorrow--especially because I'm not able to drink coffee. But, I'll persevere through. Hopefully tomorrow night's dinner--chicken--will help get me over the second day hump. Last time I was truly frustrated by the end of Day 2.

But, since my goal is to figure out what foods work for me--and this cleanse starts with only a small number of foods that most people's bodies don't react to, I figure it's worth it to suffer through a few days of bland mostly veggie torture. Starting with Day 4 we gradually introduce new foods and see how I react to them.

Finally, lest I sound too negative, last time I really found that the cleanse was helpful and an interesting thing to experience. It really does almost re-boot or re-set your body so that you're much more sensitive to new foods and are able to assess how they affect your system. My husband did it last time, too, and experienced the same thing. He's also doing it this time around. In fact, he was looking forward to it more than me, which is kind of weird since, of the two of us, he's more of the junk food junkie.

So, I'm looking forward to working through the first few days and moving on to better food--including small amounts of salt, coffee and vino. Stay tuned for my updates, and you can find photos of my dinners as I go through this here.

And now for something completely different...

Image by Getty Images via @daylife

(I know this might sound like an infomercial. I promise I get nothing from discussing this. I'm simply sold on the concept and thought others might be interested as well.)

So, I'm going  to do a dietary cleanse. I've never done this before. In fact, I've never even dieted before. I don't even own a scale. And, I'm in the best shape I've been in since I was 20, mainly as a result of cutting milk from my diet (more on that below) and playing tennis regularly all year round and swimming in the summer.

But I read something the other day that convinced me to give this a try. I'll explain further below.

But first, let me explain how I got here. As many of you know, I'm a total foodie. I love cooking, I love wine, I love the entire culinary experience.

And, some of you may also know that I've become more and more about organic food lately. I'm convinced that much of the food that we eat is so far removed from actual "food"--it's over-processed, full of chemicals and hormones and simply unhealthy--and that's a problem.

I've been thinking about food a lot lately (that and, as some of my Twitter and Facebook friends may know, sunscreen and Vitamin D deficiency, but that's another story;) For a while now I've been thinking that people's genetic make up/ethnicity contribute heavily to how we should eat. In other words, in many cases, people should eat what their ancestors ate hundreds of years ago. So, for example, if your ancestors hail from Japan, foods traditional to that region are likely healthier and more easy to digest for your body. If your ancestors are from Italy, same idea.

It's tough to implement in the US though since many people are, like me, mutts. But, if you listen to your body, sometimes you can figure out what works best for you.

For example, a little over a year ago, I noticed that even though I'd recently lost weight, I was bloated. So much so that I thought maybe I had ovarian cancer (unexplained bloating is a symptom) and was going to go in and get screened. However, I also noticed that I felt bloated after breakfast. I decided to cut milk out of my diet and as soon as I did, the bloating disappeared, I felt so much better and lost 5 lbs. in a matter of weeks. It turns out, milk really upsets my system and I'm much better off without it.

I've always felt as if there were other foods that had similar effects, but have never really had the time to sort through it all and think about it everytime I ate. So I just never really bothered.

Then I read this article from More magazine. It describes Lyn-Genet Recita's "Plan".It works as follows:

There are 4 basic variables for weight gain- not enough water, eating too much sodium, eating the wrong chemical combinations and eating foods you are reactive to.  When you eliminate foods that are reactive you can increase your calories because your body is no longer having histamine/inflammatory responses which retard digestion and causes you to put on anywhere from .5 to 2 lbs in inflammatory response.

As soon as I read this, I was sold. This comports exactly with my milk reduction experience and theories above.

So, I've dedcided to do that "cleanse" described in the More article. It only lasts 3 days and is really more of a "starting from scratch" concept rather than a starvation cleanse. You get to eat good foods, albeit simple ones, and certain amounts are unlimited.

Surprisingly, when I told my husband I was doing this, he jumped on board and wanted to try it as well. So, tomorrow we start and I'll blog about it as I go.The hardest part so far was finding oat-free granola. I finally found some at the Super-Wegmans in Pittsford. It's Wegmans' flagship store and they have a huge organic section and I was fortunately able to find a granola that fit the bill.

Unfortunately, as a result of the More article Lyn-Genet Recitas is now booked through July 2012 and isn't accepting new clients, and her book isn't due out for a while. She was very helpful when I contacted her on Twitter and sent me a very nice follow-up email. I'm not sure what we'll do after our 3 day cleanse is over. Maybe we'll just take a stab at adding less reactive foods each day on our own.

So, tune in tomorrow. I'll let you know how it's going!

 

 

 

Episode #4: Steak Diane, Roasted Potatoes & Broccoli

Last night I made Steak Diane, roasted potatoes and broccoli. Here's a link to the recipe and the episode, where I cook it and set the sauce on fire, can be found below, along with a photo of the finished meal.

 

And here's the end result:

The Epicurean Esquire-Episode #3 (Balsamic chicken w/ spinach)

Last night in Episode #3 of The Epicurean Esquire, I made Balsamic Chicken Breasts with Spinach and roasted potatoes. You can find the chicken recipe here.

Here's a recording of Episode #3 and below that you'll find a picture of the finished meal:

And here's a picture of the result:

The Epicurean Esquire--Episode #21 lb

In this episode, I cook beef stew--my own recipe. It's a great stew recipe, if I may say so myself;) Here it is:

• 1 tbsp olive oil
• 1 lb. stew beef, cut into bite-sized pieces
• 1/4 flour
• 1 medium onion, diced
• 2 cloves garlic, chopped or pressed
• 2 carrots, cut into 1/4" - 1/2" pieces
• 1 lb. potatoes cut into 1" pieces
• 1.5 cups frozen peas
• 2 cups red wine
• 3 cups beef broth
• 1.5 tspns marjoram
• 1 tspn thyme
• 1 bay leaf
• salt & pepper to taste

Dredge the beef in the flour. Heat the olive oil in a large pot over med-high heat. Brown the meat for 5 minutes or so. Add the onions and cook for 4 minutes or so until translucent. Add the garlic and the carrots and cook for 3 minutes or so. Add the potatoes and the red wine. Turn up the heat to high and boil the wine for a few minutes, then add the peas and beef broth. Heat the beef broth and add the spices. Cover and cook for 1-2 hours. Serve with crusty bread or over egg noodles.

The video where I cook the stew follows and underneath the video you'll find a photo of the finished meal.

 

The finished meal (it tastes better than it looks this time!):

The Epicurean Esquire--Episode #1

Last night I live streamed my first episode of "The Epicurean Esquire," my new, experimental cooking show. I'll be live streaming again tonight at 6 pm EST and will be making beef stew.

Last night, in Episode #1, I made curry chicken breasts (recipe: http://bit.ly/eBvaP0) & a kale and yam stir fry (recipe: http://jcp.is/fZPjUS).

Here's the video and the finished dish can bew found below:

 

Here's the end result: