Lemony Loveliness

Well, my little road trip is over, back to the grind. Beren and I had a lovely time, so glad we were able to get away for a bit even if it was work-related.

Here's a little story for you. When I was pregnant with my first daughter, Kali, I was 19 years old and about 105 pounds. I know, ridiculous, right? I had a really easy pregnancy, thank goodness, never got really sick or anything. However, I had the strangest craving - for lemons! I would slice them, sprinkle salt on top and devour them! It makes my mouth pucker just to think about it but that's what I did. Friends have speculated that the citrus might have helped keep the nausea at bay and they might be correct, all I know is they didn't prevent me from gaining 50 pounds! Anyway, all these years later I still enjoy lemon in anything/everything, so when Beren and I stumbled upon this adorable Italian restaurant yesterday I knew we had to try it! (sorry for the fuzzy picture which really doesn't do it justice, my phone camera is not the best).



Trattoria Limoncello which means Lemon Kitchen. Isn't that adorable? My own kitchen at home is similar, yellow & blue with a Mediterranean feel so I was quite at home! And, oh, my the food was just as wonderful as the atmosphere! I had a "personal" vegetarian pizza which ended up being enough for both lunch and dinner.



As you can see, typical of most Italian restaurants, the portions were huge! Beren will be enjoying his leftover calzone for lunch today, lucky guy!

Even after all of that "white stuff," and with the arrival of my moontime this morning, I got on the scale to find that I have lost another .08 pounds. Ok, not a ton for sure, but almost a pound with eating & drinking as much as I did was not bad! How did this happen? I did some thinking and really feel that it's portion control along with lack of snacking. When I'm in Ormond, we're so busy that I don't snack much. Same with the past couple of days being out of town. We have 3 square meals and that is it. I wonder if my metabolism is just not responsive to the often-recommended 5 or 6 mini-meals?

I'm going to continue on this way as best I can, it's harder to do while at work, I tend to get bored and reach into my desk drawer for a little mid-morning or afternoon snack but I'll see how it goes and will let you know how this experiment turns out. How about you all? What works for you?

Humpity Hump Hump

Happy Hump Day, dear friends! Ugh, did I really just get back to work yesterday and there are three more days til the weekend? Sigh. Tax season at an Accounting office, need I say more? The only thing that keeps me going some days is the promise of getting up and putting on a cute dress and heels, I swear!

Ok, I worked up another Retro Recipe Redux for you, this time Meat Loaf, a dish that surely graced most of our family dinner tables over the years! I haven't prepared this one yet so I'll save my verdict for this evening, perhaps someone would like to cook it along with me? We could don our pretty aprons, pour ourselves a cocktail and giggle our way around my kitchen. What do you say?!

The original recipe is from The Modern Family Cookbook by Meta Given, copyright 1942, 1953 and 1958.

Meat Loaf
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1 pound ground veal
1 pound ground beef
1 pound ground pork
1 cup fine dry breadcrumbs
2 eggs -- beaten
1/4 cup chopped onion
2 1/2 teaspoons salt
1/4 teaspoon dry mustard
1/8 teaspoon celery salt
1/8 teaspoon paprika
1/4 teaspoon black pepper

Combine the 3 meats thoroughly in a large mixing bowl, then work in the bread crumbs. Beat eggs well, add onion and other seasonings and mix well. Add to meat and stir or knead until blended. Pack firmly into a buttered loaf pan, then unmold onto a flat baking pan. Bake in a moderate oven (350 F) 1-1/2 hours or until well done.

Serves 10

Source:
"The Modern Family Cookbook"
Copyright:
"1942, 1953, 1958"
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Per Serving (excluding unknown items): 385 Calories; 26g Fat (62.9% calories from fat); 27g Protein; 8g Carbohydrate; trace Dietary Fiber; 151mg Cholesterol; 753mg Sodium. Exchanges: 1/2 Grain(Starch); 3 1/2 Lean Meat; 0 Vegetable; 3 1/2 Fat. Appx 10 POINTS.

NOTES : Unmolding the uncooked loaf and baking it on a flat pan produces more brown crusty surface. However, loaf may be baked in the loaf pan, without unmolding, if preferred, but let cooked meat loaf stand in pan 15 to 20 minutes before unmolding so meat can absorb all juice.


Whoa! While the calorie count is not terrible, check out the fat! Also, I simply can't imagine eating, or feeding my family, all of that meat! Here's my Redux:

Please note: I am using the Mastercook recipe program to tally nutritional information then plugging those numbers into the online WW calculator to determine POINTS. While I believe it to be accurate, please feel free to do the math yourself in your own way.



Meat Loaf Redux

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24 ounces boca® Meatless Ground Crumbles
1 cup fine dry breadcrumbs
3/4 cup Egg Beaters® 99% egg substitute
1/4 cup chopped onion
2 1/2 teaspoons salt
1/4 teaspoon dry mustard
1/8 teaspoon celery salt
1/8 teaspoon paprika
1/4 teaspoon black pepper
1/2 cup ketchup

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Lightly saute onion. Defrost crumbles slightly. Mix all ingredients together except for ketchup, bake at 350 for 45 minutes. Top with ketchup, bake for 15 minutes more.
Allow to set for a few minutes before slicing and serving.

Per Serving (excluding unknown items): 81 Calories; 1g Fat (9.0% calories from fat); 4g Protein; 15g Carbohydrate; 1g Dietary Fiber; 0mg Cholesterol; 1018mg Sodium. Exchanges: 1/2 Grain(Starch); 0 Lean Meat; 0 Vegetable; 0 Fat; 1/2 Other Carbohydrates. Appx 2 POINTS.

The Verdict: As you can see, I tweaked the original recipe a bit, found that 2 packages (24 ounces) of veggie crumbles provided a nice sized meatloaf and served my family of 6 perfectly. Because we like ketchup on our meatloaf, I added that as well. I served this alongside bread, scalloped potatoes (from a box, I cheated!) and veggies. Delicious, especially considering how many calories and fat we cut! Wow!!!