Tag Archives: Food

Trumps’ Chocolate Tea Cake: A Scissor-Worthy Recipe

02 Wednesday Oct 2013

Posted by in Food for Thought

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Be warned: There is one danger to making this cake. It is impossible to walk away without licking every batter-covered surface.

Making this cake is dangerous. It is impossible to walk away without licking every batter-covered surface. You have been warned.

If you’ve followed this blog for a while, you know I’m something of a compulsive recipe-clipper. This particular scissor-worthy recipe entered my baking rotation sometime in the 1980s, when I served on a social committee that was planning an English tea-themed event. I remember the recipe came from a magazine, but cannot recall whether it was Gourmet, Food & Wine, or Bon Appétit. If a recipe I’d clipped was a hit, I’d bestow it with my highest honor, typing or writing it out on an index card. In this case, however, I neglected to note the source. Too bad. But it’s funny; I can still see an image of The Donald and Ivana (for they were still married then) in a photograph accompanying the recipe.* (I tend to have a selectively eidetic memory.) The Trumps owned the Plaza Hotel at the time, and this cake was on the menu there. Not that I ever had a chance to enjoy it in those hallowed halls myself. But if the Midlife Second Wife couldn’t go to the Plaza, then the Plaza surely can go to the Midlife Second Wife. And it does, each time I bake this sumptuous cake.

Don't be alarmed; this is really how the cake is supposed to look after you remove it from the oven.

Don’t be alarmed; this really is how the cake is supposed to look after you remove it from the oven.

TRUMPS’ CHOCOLATE TEA CAKE

Six-ounces semisweet chocolate, melted and cooled
One stick unsalted butter, softened
Two-thirds cup sugar
Three eggs
One-half cup cake flour, sifted
Raspberry or strawberry jam

Butter and flour a nine-inch cake pan and line the bottom with waxed or parchment paper; set aside. Whisk the chocolate and butter together in a bowl. Add the sugar, then beat in the eggs, one at a time. Blend in the flour until just mixed. Pour into the prepared pan and bake in a preheated 350-degree oven for 20-25 minutes. (At 25 minutes I insert a wooden skewer into the center of the cake; if it’s clear when I pull it out the cake is done. It really depends on each individual oven.)

The cake will rise slightly, then sink in the center. Cool cake in the pan, then invert onto a serving plate and peel off the parchment paper. Cake will be dense and moist. Chill for one hour and spread the top with fine quality raspberry or strawberry jam.

This cake freezes beautifully, if carefully wrapped. I should point out that I always make two cakes at a time, doubling the ingredients. This way, I always have a delicious dessert on hand for unexpected company, or the start of a stash for the holidays.

To freeze, I wrap the completely cooled cake in waxed paper, then I wrap it in foil, and then I place it, gently, in a plastic bag.

To freeze, I wrap the completely cooled cake in waxed paper, then I wrap it in foil, and then I place it, gently, in a plastic Ziploc bag.

I know that you’re eager to see a picture of the finished cake, so here it is!

Voilà! I frosted this with strawberry jam and garnished it accordingly.

Voilà! I frosted this with strawberry jam and garnished it accordingly.

*Ivana, you might want to think about subscribing to my blog…

Unstuffed Peppers: A Scissor-Worthy Recipe

09 Monday Sep 2013

Posted by in Food for Thought

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UnstuffedPeppersNames are so important, aren’t they? Kim and Kanye naming their daughter North West was particularly cringe-worthy. (And what happened? Weren’t they going with a K-name? In which case shouldn’t she be called Knorth West?) But to my point: names matter. They are windows into the soul of its subject. Take this recipe, for example. When I clipped it from a newspaper decades ago and typed it on an index card, it was called “Texas Hash.” I no longer remember if the recipe originated from the Lone Star State, but most of the hash recipes I’ve ever seen call for potatoes. There’s nary a spud here! The taste, however, is so reminiscent of my mother’s stuffed peppers (a recipe for which I’ve never found), that I have taken it upon myself to rename the dish. I call it “Unstuffed Peppers.” It’s quick and easy and delicious. Inexpensive, too. Can’t ask for much more in a casserole (or a kasserole), now can you?

Unstuffed Peppers

— Serves 4 to 6

One pound ground beef
Three large onions (about 3-1/2″ diameter), sliced
One large green pepper, chopped
One 28-ounce can whole tomatoes, chopped
One-half cup uncooked rice (I use Basmati)
One to two teaspoons chili powder
Two teaspoons kosher salt
One-eighth teaspoon fresh ground pepper

Heat oven to 350-degrees. In a large skillet, cook and stir the ground beef until light brown. Drain off any fat. (If the beef is particularly lean, cook it in a tablespoon of canola oil.) Add onions and green pepper, cooking and stirring until onion is tender. Stir in the tomatoes (and the juice in the can), the rice, and the seasonings. Heat through.

Pour into an ungreased two-quart casserole. Cover and bake for one hour.

Enter to Win a KitchenAid Pro Line Dicing Food Processor!

30 Tuesday Jul 2013

Posted by in Giveaways, Product Reviews, What's the Buzz?

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The Midlife Second Wife, Marci Rich, KitchenAid, Viewpoints

Can’t you just picture this beautiful food processor in your kitchen?

This contest is closed. Watch this space for the announcement of the winner!

I’m thrilled to partner with Viewpoints, a leading product ratings website, on an exclusive giveaway. We are inviting you to try your hand at winning a KitchenAid Pro Line Dicing Food Processor—just like the one that I’ve reviewed for Viewpoints. With a suggested retail price of $599, this is by far the biggest, most valuable giveaway I’ve ever hosted on the blog. Yowza!

Viewpoints helps consumers make smart purchase decisions through the use of honest reviews. And as regular readers of the blog know, I’m a member of Viewpoints’ Blogger Reviews Panel. (You can read some of my other reviews here.)

Viewpoints sent me the KitchenAid Model KFP1642 (pictured above) to test for about six weeks, after which I wrote my review for Viewpoints’ website. Comparing KitchenAid’s Pro Line Dicing Food Processor to my trusty Cuisinart really wasn’t much of a contest; the Cuisinart came up short in more ways than one.

The Midlife Second Wife, KitchenAid, Viewpoints

In this case, size does matter. The KitchenAid Pro Line Dicing Food Processor, on the right—as big as a MINI Cooper—dwarfs my old Cuisinart, seen in the left corner. The KitchenAid food processor, along with the accessories shown in the center and the two additional work bowls, are included in what you’ll win.

My review addresses the pros (and a con or two) of the KitchenAid. You can read the full review here. (Viewpoints is giving the food processor that I tested to me in return for my six-week-long test and impartial review. The one you’ll receive is brand spanking new!)

The Midlife Second Wife, Viewpoints, KitchenAid

Revolutionize your kitchen! Enter to win this!

How to Enter:
If you’ve ever fallen in love with a product (or wondered how something inferior ever made its way to market), Viewpoints wants to hear from you. This is your chance to tell the world what you think—your opinion is your entry card! Here’s what you do:

  1. Sign in and register for a free Viewpoints account. Just head over to the  Viewpoints website and set yourself up with a username and password.
  2. Write two qualifying reviews on Viewpoints by Tuesday, August 6 in the Refrigerator, Freezer, Dishwasher, Microwave, Espresso Machine, Washing Machine, Dryer, Air Conditioner, Fan or eCommerce Website categories. Want to write more than two? Go for it! Each review is an entry, so the more you review, the greater your chance to win. Ya gotta write at least two, though.
  3. What qualifies as a qualifying review? Each of your two reviews must be at least 700 characters long to qualify. The character counter at the bottom of the review form shows your review length before publishing. Viewpoints is a stickler for quality, so write engaging reviews—as though you’re talking to a friend or a family member. Write about what you liked, what you didn’t like, and whether or not you’d recommend the product.
  4. Comment on this post (see the section for comments at the end of this article) with the links to your reviews and your Viewpoints username. If you’ve never commented on my blog before, please take a moment and register by adding your name and email address in the fields after you’ve written your comment with your review links and Viewpoints username.
  5. For good giveaway karma, be sure to like Viewpoints and The Midlife Second Wife on Facebook.

The winner will be chosen on Tuesday, August 13.

Here’s a short-hand checklist so you’ll remember what to do:

REGISTER on Viewpoints
REVIEW on Viewpoints
REPEAT on The Midlife Second Wife by posting links to your reviews, including your Viewpoints username, in the “Comments” section at the end of this post.

Got questions? Email support@viewpoints.com with Giveaway as the subject line. One of the gracious Viewpoints staff members will get back to you!

The Fine Print
As with any sweepstakes giveaway, there are a few rules and regulations. I strongly suggest that you read the Official Rules found on the Viewpoints website, noting the restrictions on eligibility. In a nutshell:

Employees of Viewpoints, its affiliates, agents (including Blogger Reviews panel members), and its advertising and promotion agencies, and their respective immediate family members (spouse, children, parents and siblings) and those living in the same household of each (whether or not related), are not eligible to enter.

Now go forth and go for it, friends! I can’t wait to see which one of you will be the lucky winner!

Good luck!

Dory’s New Year Strata

28 Friday Dec 2012

Posted by in Food for Thought

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Strata_MidlifeSecondWifeIMG_1956One of my favorite holiday recipes has absolutely nothing to do with dinner or dessert. I’ve had this strata recipe for years, and it comes from the kitchen of Anne Morse. My former husband and I enjoyed many gourmet dinners with Anne and her husband Andy as part of a couples’ gourmet club in the 1980s and 1990s. They hosted fabulous New Year’s Eve parties, too. The lucky ones who got to spend the night were treated to this the next morning. I don’t recall it being a cure for a hangover, but it certainly helps get one’s new year off to a good start. My tradition since marrying John is to serve this beautiful strata on Christmas morning, accompanied by crisp bacon, perhaps some fresh fruit, and steaming mugs of tea (for John) and coffee (for me). It’s a great stick-to-your-ribs breakfast on a cold morning. I use sharp cheddar rather than mild, herbs and seasonings from Penzeys, and for this particular occasion I bought good semolina bread from Whole Foods. Any white bread will do—I’ve even used baguettes—just so long as the bread is dense and has had a chance to get slightly stale. If it’s too soft you can slice it and leave it sit on the counter for a few hours.

The recipe serves as many as six, but if you’re feeding a crowd you can easily double it (using two soufflé dishes, of course). Just pay careful attention to the note about doubling that follows. And take special note of the timings. Enjoy, and Happy New Year!

Dory’s New Year Strata

1 pound cheddar cheese, grated
1-1/2 Tablespoons dry minced onion
1 Tablespoon dry chopped parsley
4 eggs
Approximately 9 slices firm white bread
Salt and white pepper
3 cups milk*
1 teaspoon Worcestershire sauce
1 teaspoon dry mustard

Grease a medium large casserole with high sides—I use a soufflé dish. Line the bottom with bread. Sprinkle with salt and pepper, followed by 1/3 of the onion, 1/3 of the parsley, and 1/3 of the grated cheese. Repeat this process two times. Beat eggs lightly, then add milk, Worcestershire sauce, and mustard. Pour the egg-milk mixture over the contents of the casserole.** Cover with plastic wrap and let stand in the refrigerator for 8 hours. In the morning, remove from the refrigerator and let rest on the counter at room temperature for 2 hours. Bake uncovered for 50 minutes at 375-degrees.

*If doubling the recipe to serve 12 instead of 6, use only five cups of milk.

**I find two tricks help avoid a mess when adding the milk mixture to the strata. First, poke a few holes in the top of the strata so the milk can more easily seep down into the bottom of the dish. Second, place the dish on a baking sheet to catch any overflow. Wipe away any drips and place the entire apparatus—soufflé dish on top of the baking sheet—in the oven.

My Gift to You: A Chance to Win ‘The Digest Diet’

08 Monday Oct 2012

Posted by in Special Events, The Healthy Life, Transitions, What's the Buzz?

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The recipes in this book are delicious and fun to prepare.

Thanks to the good offices of Reader’s Digest, I’m happy to announce that I have a beautiful, jacketed copy of The Digest Diet to give away. Here’s how to enter:

Visit the round-up post about my Digest Diet journey and leave a positive comment. That’s your “entry form.” Just a few caveats, however:

  • You have to live within the contiguous United States;
  • There has to be a way for me to get in touch with you to notify you that you’ve won. If you’re not sure that I have your email and postal addresses, please go to the contact page (found above the masthead in the drop-down menu under ‘Who is the Midlife Second Wife?’), and send me an email with that information. (There’s no form to bother with, but that’s where you’ll find my email address.) I do not and will not share your information with any third party;
  • If I am unable to reach you by email to notify you that you’ve won, I will draw another name;
  • And of course, you need to enter by leaving a comment on the round-up Digest Diet post. (“Enter by leaving.” I like that. Think I’ll start a meme to that effect!)

I’ll pick the winner sometime this weekend, and announce it next Monday here on the blog. Good luck, everyone!

The Digest Diet Day 21: Did I Do It? Am I Done?

02 Tuesday Oct 2012

Posted by in Food for Thought, The Healthy Life, Transitions

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This isn’t really a diet book, in my opinion. It’s more a handbook for a healthy way to eat.

Yes, I did it! I reached my implicit goal: to get my weight below 200. I now clock in at 199 pounds 8 ounces, for a grand total loss of 9 pounds 6 ounces. Yay me! Yay Digest Diet! Let’s recap, shall we?

I started the Digest Diet three weeks ago, weighing in at 209 pounds 4 ounces. I’m a 56-year-young thyroid cancer survivor with a job where I spend most of the day sitting in front of a computer in my home office. If you were paying careful attention, you can count three significant factors in that previous sentence: age, the loss of the body’s metabolism regulator, and lifestyle. These factors gave rise to my weight gain over the years. My issues with weight have been pretty consistent: I’ve needed to lose a good bit of it, and I’ve lacked the proper motivation.

There’s no motivator quite like telling the world what you’re up to. I believe one reason I’ve found success on this diet is because I’ve checked in a couple of times a week—not just here, but also on the Digest Diet Twitter hashtag (#DigestDiet) and their Facebook site. The community of Digest Dieters in the blogosphere has been incredibly supportive, as have the staff at Readers’ Digest.

If you’ve been tracking my progress, you’ll recall that my explicit goal was to lose 15 pounds. Although I fell slightly more than five pounds short of that goal, I’m satisfied with my results. The big deal for me, at least psychologically, was not to see the numeral two leading off the numbers of my digital weight. I cannot tell you what this means to me. I also went down a bra size, too. (I’m not much for measuring myself—I’ve always sort of gone by how my clothes fit and look on me—so I don’t have those stats.)

But let’s take a look, shall we? Here are my before and after pictures:

After

Before

When I tell you that this is the best diet I’ve been on, these are the indices I used:

  • I continually lost weight. I might have plateaued a day or three, but I never reversed direction. The trajectory was down, down, down. And I hope you can tell from the photos, but the sleeve on my shirt is looser than in the first photo, the girls look more reined in, and one of my middle bulges is nearly gone.
  • My self-esteem trajectory was up, up, and up.
  • I had more energy. It was easier to take extended walks for exercise—at minimum one mile—because I didn’t get winded and my knees didn’t hurt.
  • My skin has more clarity.
  • With one or two rare exceptions, I’ve absolutely loved every recipe I’ve prepared from this book—so much so that I plan to incorporate almost everything I tried into my regular routine. And here is the answer to the second question in my headline: I’m not done. Not by a long shot. Not only do I not want to see weight creep again, I want to continue this pattern of healthy eating. And I promise to check in with you down the road to let you know if I’ve done so.

Here’s what I cooked for dinner the other evening, toward he end of the diet. My husband loved this, and so did I.

Spaghetti with Super Mushroomy Marinara

I’ll try, before the end of the week, to share the recipe for this pasta dish. Coming from someone who is half-Sicilian, you know you can trust me when I tell you that this satisfied my pasta fulfillment requirements.

Now, three minor caveats about the Digest Diet:

First, it will help enormously if you love to cook, don’t mind cooking frequently, and have access to a good market with a wide array of produce, seafood, and the occasional esoteric item, such as almond oil. Fortunately, I love to play in the kitchen and a fabulous market recently opened up within walking distance of my home, so I enjoyed pulling these recipes together. But do note that there is a time, labor, and shopping factor involved here, and this diet will require a level of commitment that must take those factors into account.

Second, I’m not sure I would have been as successful on the diet if I were working full-time away from home. The flexibility that being self-employed gives me enabled me to weave the demands of frequent cooking, shopping—and yes, eating—into my day. You’re eating five times a day on this diet, not three, so those with a different daily schedule might find it all a bit challenging. If you are willing to be more organized and dedicated, you’ll do fine. Trust me. Two days into this you will want to keep going. When you see the results and experience how you’re starting to feel, you’ll find it’s worth spending the extra time in the kitchen and at the market.

Finally, there are no guidelines in the book about eating out in restaurants while you’re on the diet, something that my husband and I do about twice a week. (We just avoided restaurants for the duration.) I did, however, find a page on the Readers’ Digest website that addresses this issue. Perhaps a subsequent edition of the book could incorporate the great information on the website.

Last Friday I had a lunch meeting with a client, my first foray into a restaurant since starting the diet. I chose a tossed green salad with feta cheese, grilled chicken, walnuts, and cranberries in a raspberry vinaigrette. I ate some of the cranberries but felt they might have too much sugar, so I left most of them on my plate. Once you’ve been on the diet for a week or so, you’ll get a sense of what foods to avoid and what foods will help you continue to release those damn fat cells.

Would I recommend this book to someone struggling with weight? In a New York minute! I have tried so many diets throughout my lifetime, and nothing—I repeat, nothing, compares to the Digest Diet in terms of results. At no time did I feel I was starving or denying myself of something delicious to eat.

Do you believe that some things in life are just meant to be? I do. I was meant to go on this diet, right now. Here’s the sign the universe sent to tell me so. Do  remember the chocolate chip/coconut/walnut cookie from my first Digest Diet post? You know, the “Royale” from Richmond’s Café Caturra? Here’s a photo to refresh your memory:

The restaurant doesn’t make this cookie anymore. They changed distributors and no longer have access to the required ingredients. Now if that’s not a sign from the gods, I don’t know what is.

(Just don’t ask me how I know.)

Related posts:

How to Buy the Book

13 Things You Didn’t Know About the Digest Diet

The Digest Diet: Day 18 and Wow! The Loss I’ve Seen

A Fat Releasing Salad that’s Good and Good for You

The Digest Diet: Day 13 and Slowly Getting Lean

The Digest Diet: It’s Day Eight and I’ve Lost Weight

The Digest Diet: Day 3 and 2 Pounds Free

21 Days of the Digest Diet: Days 1-4, There’s a Whole Lotta Shakin’ Goin’ On

Buh-Bye, Cookie. I’ll Be Blogging it Off With the Digest Diet

The Digest Diet: Day 18 and Wow! The Loss I’ve Seen!

27 Thursday Sep 2012

Posted by in Food for Thought, The Healthy Life, Transitions

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This is more than a diet book. It’s a food book.

I know what you’re thinking. The Midlife Second Wife has really done it now. She drank the Kool-Aid. Have you not been following this? Kool-Aid is not allowed on the Digest Diet. But yes, I agree with you. Two exclamation points in one headline is a tad zealous. In my defense I could not help myself. Why? I weighed myself this morning and since starting this diet 18 days ago, I have lost nearly nine pounds. (Eight pounds six ounces, for the sticklers among you.) I am less than one pound away from my implicit goal: to get my weight under 200 pounds. Put another way, I began at 209 pounds four ounces, and I now weigh 200 pounds eight ounces. I have lost eight one-pound packages of butter, for crying out loud. Can you blame me for expressing a bit of fervor?

How is this even possible? I have rarely felt hungry, I haven’t had a single craving for anything I used to consume with such abandon, and I really enjoy preparing the foods in this diet book. To call it a diet book, however, seems wrong, somehow; I think—and I hope the coming weeks will bear this out—that this is really a food book. A book on the best food to eat, how to eat it, and how often.

Collateral benefits? I’ve had a few. My knee joints are not as painful as they once were. I have more energy. And my skin has much more clarity than it did two-and-a-half weeks ago.

Let me tell you what I had for lunch recently. No wait. I’ll show you first.

Gazpacho served with five-grain whole wheat bread and skim milk

Here’s how easy it was to prepare this lunch. First, go to the market and buy a small
boule (French for ball) loaf of five-grain whole wheat bread and a carton of skim milk. For the gazpacho, which is served cold or at room temperature, grab a couple of plum or Roma tomatoes, a cucumber, a small red onion, and—if you don’t already have some stored in your refrigerator—flaxseed meal. You probably have the rest of the ingredients in your pantry (red wine vinegar and Cayenne pepper). Then, do this:

Spicy Blender Gazpacho
—Makes One Serving

Coarsely chop two plum tomatoes, one-half of a cucumber (peeled), and one-eighth of a small red onion. Throw ’em in the blender. Add two tablespoons of flaxseed meal. Then, to your taste, add cayenne pepper and red-wine vinegar. Blend for about as long as it takes you to pour a half-glass of skim milk.

And that, my friends, is that. Delicious. And as I’ve found so often with these recipes, I couldn’t finish the entire serving. I’m going to have the one-quarter cup or so of gazpacho for lunch today with a tuna, egg, chickpea, and arugula salad (with buttermilk dressing, if you can believe it) that I made for lunch yesterday.

I’d hang around and tell you more about all of this, but it’s time for my mid-morning snack. What am I having, you ask? It’s a dreamy little concoction that reminds me of a prune Danish without the pastry. I stir two chopped organic prunes into one-quarter cup of low-fat ricotta cheese and add a pinch of cinnamon to taste.

(The book calls for dates but I don’t have any; I do, however, have a package of organic prunes in the fridge. It also asks for fat-free ricotta but I wasn’t able to find that.) Even using low-fat rather than fat-free ricotta, I’m on a roll. And it’s better to be on a roll than to have one around your middle. My roll, dear friends, is deflating as we speak.

Other than providing me with a copy of The Digest Diet, Readers’ Digest is not paying me to blog about my experience on the program. (If I lose the weight I hope to lose, that will be compensation enough.)

The Digest Diet: Day 13 and (Slowly) Getting Lean

22 Saturday Sep 2012

Posted by in The Healthy Life, Transitions

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Shrimp Soup from the Digest Diet—delicious and satisfying

Well, here it is, the 13th day of the Digest Diet, and I seem to have plateaued a bit. Don’t get me wrong: I’ve lost six-and-a-quarter pounds and for that I’m grateful. I’m still on the downward trajectory—and that’s better than the alternative—but I’m trying to determine why the weight loss has slowed.

Several factors come to mind. First, last week a couple of events sort of knocked me off schedule. I didn’t eat any prohibited food, but I actually missed an afternoon snack and a dinner meal one day, compensating by having my afternoon snack in the evening. The practice of skipping a meal—or even a snack at this point—is one to avoid if at all possible. When you don’t eat, your body is tricked into thinking it’s in starvation mode and therefore clings to the fat for dear life. A paradox, but then so is the fact that women in France who eat butter- and cream-laden foods remain thin because they drink wine with nearly every meal. My resolve for the coming week: stay on track.

The other possibility is the fact that on the fifth day of the diet I shifted into its second gear. The Digest Diet is divided into three phases:

  • Fast Release
  • Fade Away
  • Finish Strong

During the first four days, the weight really came off—I lost three-and-a-quarter pounds by the end of this phase. I also enjoyed two delicious shakes each day and only one snack. I’m presently in the Fade Away phase, with only one shake per day and two snacks. The “Fade Away” phase is rather like a Mediterranean-style diet, with lots of green vegetables and protein, and it allows me a four-ounce glass of red wine at dinner (if I skip the wine I can have a handful of red grapes for dessert). I’m sure that diet results are as varied as people are, but I also wonder about something else.

I’ve heard that muscle weighs more than fat. I’ve been walking fairly regularly, and this past week I did get up to two miles. My legs look and feel more toned, but is it possible that my weight loss isn’t quite as dramatic right now because I’m replacing fat with muscle?

In an earlier post I stated my weight loss goal: to lose 15 pounds. I’m almost halfway there with eight days remaining in the program. I’m confident that I’ll make it, because even though I’m in something of a holding pattern, the meals on this diet are delicious enough, interesting enough, and filling enough, that I have no desire or intention to bail out.

It’s time now to prepare my lunch—a “Fade Away” shake. Tomorrow will be the last day of shakes on the diet, and I have to say I’m going to miss them. I don’t miss pizza, but I know I’ll miss these shakes.

Not missing pizza? That strikes me as another positive, and therefore another plus for the Digest Diet.

Other than providing me with a copy of The Digest Diet, Readers’ Digest is not paying me to blog about my experience on the program. (If I lose the weight I hope to lose, that will be compensation enough.)

The Digest Diet: It’s Day Eight and I’ve Lost Weight

17 Monday Sep 2012

Posted by in The Healthy Life, Transitions

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Bell peppers cut into short strips are sautéed with fennel and garlic in this delicious dish.

I won’t leave you hanging. So far I’ve lost five-and-a-half pounds on the Digest Diet.  This is amazing to me, not because I’ve never lost that much weight so early in a diet before, but because, with a few rare exceptions, I haven’t felt hungry or starved. I’m eating well—good, wholesome, healthy food—and it’s mostly been delicious. I wasn’t wild about a snack of green pepper boats stuffed with low-fat Ricotta cheese and sprinkled with pepper, but then I’ve never been a fan of raw green pepper. I love Ricotta. I’m half-Sicilian, for goodness’ sake. All of the meals I’ve prepared, using recipes from the Digest Diet book, have been superb. Take a look at this photograph, for example. Yes, those happen to be green peppers. They’re accompanied, however, by red and yellow bell peppers and sautéed in extra-virgin olive oil with fennel and garlic. Delicious.

And what a wonderful feeling to use salt again. I always cook with Kosher salt, using sea salt as a finish when a recipe warrants. The recipe for Peperonata with Fennel called for a generous pinch of fine sea salt. I buy coarse-ground, but since I have a mortar and pestle I simply ground the salt to the desired consistency and keep it nearby for later use.

I served this dish with a 4-ounce grilled boneless pork chop for Saturday’s dinner. And guess what? I enjoyed it with a 4-ounce glass of red wine—a robust Zinfandel. If this is what losing weight tastes like, well, I do believe I can keep this up for the full 21 days!

The recipes in this book are delicious and fun to prepare.

Everyone will tell you that it’s not enough to eat mindfully; it’s important to exercise, too. Monday through Friday last week, I walked one mile each day. I took the weekend off, and probably shouldn’t have. But this focused commitment to walking regularly is not in character for me. When I was walking regularly, it was only three times a week. (I wrote a post about the health benefits of walking last year. I’m disappointed in myself for not keeping the momentum going, but I’m trying. I really am.)

So this morning, after drinking a mug of hot lemon water (that’s not in the Digest Diet, but actually a regimen a good friend recommended years ago, when I was recovering from surgery for a broken leg), I walked a mile in my favorite park.

Here’s a picture, taken last year, of my favorite place to walk. (It’s too early in the season to make way for goslings.)

I like to listen to French music when I walk. I wonder: if I continue to lose weight thanks to the Digest Diet and regular, brisk walks accompanied by the French chansons of Edith Piaf and Charles Trenet, do I have to count my weight loss in kilos?

Other than providing me with a copy of The Digest Diet, Readers’ Digest is not paying me to blog about my experience on the program. (If I lose the weight I hope to lose, that will be compensation enough.)

 

21 Days of the Digest Diet: Days 1-4, There’s a Whole Lotta Shakin’ Goin’ On

10 Monday Sep 2012

Posted by in Food for Thought, The Healthy Life

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To market, to market: my shopping basket at Whole Foods

So just how popular is the Digest Diet that Liz Vaccariello, editor-in-chief of Reader’s Digest, devised? Here’s some anecdotal evidence. On Saturday, the Midlife Second Husband went grocery shopping with me at Whole Foods in Central Virginia to stock up on the items we knew we’d need. (He’s going to do one-third of the diet with me, which is to say we’ll eat the same dinner.) According to the nifty shopping list for Days 1-4 available on the Reader’s Digest website, I was to buy one 16-ounce box of nonfat milk powder—an essential ingredient in the “Fast Release Shake” (more on that in a moment). I wanted to buy an extra box for my pantry so I wouldn’t have to drive back to Whole Foods. Guess what? I bought the last one on the shelf. I asked the associate who helped me find it in the first place: “The Digest Diet?” “Yep,” he replied. “This is the last one we have left.”

Can you believe it? Powdered milk, for crying out loud. I’ve never bought powdered milk in my life yet here I am feeling like a bride-to-be who ended up with the short end of the veil at Filene’s Basement “Running of the Brides,” and all because I can’t buy more than one container of powdered milk.

Quite a few people have written me, or shared comments on last week’s post, that they’re trying the diet, too. (Do y’all live in Virginia?) I feel as though I’m leading a small army into battle. And yes, you know I have to say it: It’s the Battle of the Bulge.

So here’s some of what I bought at Whole Foods. I also pinned the Digest Diet list on my Pinterest board, which I’m ever-so-slowly building.

1 green bell pepper
1 small head Romaine lettuce
1 head broccoli
1 pint grape tomatoes
1 head celery
These are snacks, people. SNACKS. No candy, no chips, no nothin’ I’ve ever called a snack before.

While we’re in the produce section, I’ll also mention that I bought zucchini, garlic, kale, and Swiss chard to make two amazing sounding soups I’ll be having for dinner the first four days. Plus strawberries for the shakes I mentioned earlier. Since I’ll be preparing my first shake this morning, after going for a one-mile walk, here’s the complete recipe as I’ll be making it.* (The key ingredients, yogurt, coconut milk, fruit/fiber, healthy fats, and honey, are considered “fat releasers.”) I’ll also have another shake for lunch. I might even kick up my heels and swap out the strawberries for a banana!

Fast Release Shake (Days 1-4)
Hands-On Time: 10 minutes | Total Time: 10 minutes | Makes: 1 shake

3/4 cup (6 ounces) nonfat yogurt
1/4 cup light coconut milk
3 tablespoons nonfat milk powder
FRUIT/FIBER (I’ll use 8 fresh strawberries PLUS 1 tablespoon flaxseed meal)
HEALTHY FATS (I’m opting for 1 tablespoon natural peanut butter)
2 teaspoons honey
1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
FLAVORINGS (These are “optional” but I’m definitely adding both of them. And I’m pleased with the choices: 1 teaspoon unsweetened cocoa powder and/or 1/4 teaspoon ground cinnamon.
4 ice cubes

Combine all the ingredients in a blender and blend until nice and frothy.

*There are other variations on the theme—I could use banana, apple, red grapes, or mixed berries instead of strawberries. And one can choose among healthy fats—I love peanut butter, so that’s what I’ve opted for.

A typical shake contains the following:
395 calories | 16 g protein
18 g fat (5g saturated)
9.5g fiber | 430mg calcium
40mg vitamin C
50g carbohydrate
210mg sodium

I’ll send out a tweet later today to let you know if I loved this shake, or if it’s left me shaking my head. I’ll also be posting updates on Facebook. You can keep up with this great weight-loss adventure by following me on Twitter @midlife2wife or on the Facebook page for The Midlife Second Wife.

See ya later! I’ve got a date with the walking path!

Other than providing me with a copy of The Digest Diet, Readers’ Digest is not paying me to blog about my experience on the program. (If I lose the weight I hope to lose, that will be compensation enough.)