mizducky's migrations: a weight management blog with attitude

Brief check-in: yep, still alive and kicking

Hi folks--didja miss me?

My surgery was a complete success, and in the first followup appointment the doc gave me a completely clean bill of health.

Now I'm well into the recovery phase, which is going both much faster, and much slower, than I expected. Somehow I had managed to make it almost to age 50 without ever having undergone surgery for anything, not even tonsils, so this is my first experience with how much of a blow to the system it is to undergo major surgery. Plus as this was surgery to my abdomen (hysterectomy plus a hernia repair), I have a major muscle group that is working way hard to, erm, regroup.

So my energy level is extremely deceptive right about now--holding still, or even puttering around my apartment, I feel pretty good. But I went to church on my own this past Sunday, and while I felt fine the whole time I was out, I was so tired and achey the next day that I spent most of it sleeping. On the other hand, I am apparently up and functioning much sooner, and much better, than anyone would have expected.

I am convinced that this past six months of my little health regimen had a huge amount to do with the speed of my recovery. And, except for a few days in the hospital and immediately after when my stomach was so upset that I basically ate anything that I could keep down and called it acceptable, I have stayed on my food plan throughout. (Far superior to those hospital classics, lime Jello and boiled-to-death chicken!)

While I am now cleared for making short car trips and outings, I've been tending to stay close to the nest, so I haven't been back to my HMO's exercise center to weight myself on the Official Scale since before the operation. But I did break down and borrow a bathroom scale from a friend--no idea how it's calibrated with regard to the Official Scale, but whatever.

Anyway, as of this morning the borrowed scale says I weigh something like 251 pounds, which is a significant drop from my last recorded weight, on 7/31/06, of 269 pounds. Not to get too graphic about it, but I'm sure a lot of that weight loss is due to the amount of, erm, material that was removed from my body--NOT a weight loss strategy that I would recommend! However, it is nice to know where the hell I'm at after all that.

Now, it's just a matter of getting the rest of my strength and stamina back. My doctors recommended walking as the best exercise not only for that, but also for helping my innards re-sort themselves. When I was in the hospital, this took the form of walking around the ward. Now that I'm home, I've mostly been just puttering around the apartment--but this morning I got myself down the stairs from my second-story walk-up to take a turn around the apartment complex's courtyard, and then back up the stairs again. I'm hoping to keep doing that on subsequent days, and gradually build up to longer walks.

And I'm still trying to limit my time spent sitting up at the computer, so it might be another several days before my next post here. Or not--boredom is setting in despite books and TV and crocheting and whatnot. But anyway--yep, I'm still not only alive, but thriving, and hope to be fully back in the saddle soon. Onward and upward!

Random stuff that's been turning me on recently

Too hot to think of grand all-encompassing rant topics, so here instead are a few bits and pieces that have been making me smile:

• Blueberries: I was shopping in my local Food-4-Less yesterday, and spotted blueberries at $2.49 for a full-pound plastic clamshell box. Usually it's something like $2.49 for a tiny half-pint container, so of course I had to buy the cheapo berries. I quickly remembered how much I adore these little balls of beauty--some were tart, and some were meltingly sweet, and all of them were totally yummy (note the use of the past tense there--between last night and this morning, I've basically inhaled them all already). Blueberries are also low in calories and packed with anti-oxidants, but the main thing is that they taste so goooooood.
• Fixing my pressure cooker: my housemate innocently ran my pressure cooker, lid and all, through the dishwasher. My concerns about this were proved when I next went to use it, and the damn thing wouldn't hold its pressure at all. Now I had carefully saved the instruction manual, but of course I saved it in some really safe place that I can no longer remember. A bit of traipsing around the web, though, finally revealed that one of the safety interlock thingies in the lid of my Manttra pressure cooker is designed to give out under overly high temperatures--like when the pressure in the cooker goes too high ... or when subjected to the super-hot water in a dishwasher. But all's well that ends well--the replacement part cost maybe four bucks with shipping, and Manttra got the part to me in three days. There was a certain amount of expletives involved in taking the lid's pressure-interlock mechanism apart, fiddling with all the fiddly bits, and putting it back together again. But I tested the cooker out, and voila! it works again! Housemate is now on alert not to put the cooker lid in the dishwasher, and I feel absurdly pleased with myself for my little bit of detective and fixit work.
• More personal dance therapy: I went to hear one of my friend's bands play this past Thursday night, and once again enjoyed another spate of free-form dancersize. This time I managed not to damage myself so much that I was hobbling around like an old lady the next day. But I did note that I really need to get myself some better dancing shoes. All my current footwear has really fierce non-slip soles, mainly because with my crappy joints I became really paranoid about slipping and falling and banging myself up even more. However, non-slip soles are definitely *not* what you want when trying to boogie on a good hardwood dance floor. In fact, a shoe that grips the floor is the worst thing in the world for putting unpleasant amounts of torque on one's knee joint while attempting to shake one's booty. So I am now forced--forced, mind you!--to go buy more shoes. I'm so heartbroken about this (insert glyph of maniacal laughter here).
• Speaking of being forced to buy more stuff for myself ... I've now not only lost enough weight that I really desperately needed to buy some new smaller clothes, but now some of this new smaller clothing is starting to fall off me too. I am trying my best to shop the sales and discount joints as much as possible, but I also want to honor my newer, smaller bod by not clothing it in crap. So I'm treating myself to a few nice (but still bargain) things. All I can say is, my church's rummage sale organizers are really gonna love me come October!

Weekly weigh-in--plus: feeding a crowd healthily

Well, I could whine about the heat some more, and how it's still making it a royal pain to cook and exercise. But then you'd be fully justified in whining at me for complaining about a fact of life in Southern California. So let's just skip all that and get to this week's numbers:

• Today's weight: 272.0 lb
• Change since last week: -3.0 lb
• Cumulative weight loss: 62 lb

You'll notice that I breezed right through the big six-oh milestone without so much as a blink of an eye. Don't think for a minute, though, that I'm taking that for granted--on the contrary, I'm especially glad of my continued progress given that I've been eating out rather more often than usual this past week. I always try to conform to the almighty food plan as much as possible even when in restaurants, but there's no denying that it's a good bit more challenging than when I'm at home and have total control over recipe content and portion size. So--nice to get the positive feedback that I'm still right on track (despite the weather--whine whine whine giggle).

Meanwhile, one of those eating-out experiences still involved my own cooking. I have volunteered to supply the eats for the after-services coffee hour at my church one service a month, and my first go at it was this past Sunday. The woman in charge of the Church kitchen has been on a one-person war for the past year to stamp out the stale doughnuts and cookies repasts of the past, and I was more than happy to join her in this endeavor--especially since it allowed me to sneak in some healthy foods as well. What I presented last Sunday:

• Homemade hummus -- so simple, and so good! Either boil up some dried chickpeas till nice and soft, or rinse and drain some canned chickpeas. Mash well (but leave some lumps and texture)--by hand, blender, food processor, mortar and pestle, or whatever means necessary. Add to taste all of the following: tahini (Middle Eastern toasted sesame butter--you can substitute a good-quality natural peanut butter in a pinch); lemon juice; mashed raw garlic; fresh-ground pepper; extra-virgin olive oil; salt. Mix well; thin as needed with water, reserved bean juices, or more lemon juice till it's spreadable-to-dippable consistency. Optional: add some finely chopped parsley, cilantro, or green onions to taste.
• Homemade yogurt dip -- this is a super-mild version of an Indian raita, and also dead simple to make. Start with good-quality yogurt--whole milk is preferable, but lowfat will do. Peel, seed, and coarsely grate a big cucumber; let drain in a colander for awhile. Beat the yogurt with a fork to loosen it up, then mix in the cucumber plus a couple tablespoons of minced fresh mint; season to taste with ground cumin, paprika, and salt.
• Along with these two dips, I presented wedges of white and whole-wheat pita, plus a variety of cut-up fresh fruits and vegetables: cucumbers, zucchini, jicama, celery, carrots, papaya, canteloup, banana, grapes.
• Oh yeah--I did also have a tray of chocolate wafer cookies for those whose sweet tooths would accept no substitutes.

People totally inhaled all the hummus I brought, and also made significant dents in everything else. Cutting up all that produce before serving was a bit of a chore--I may well take the kitchen manager's suggestion next time and get some pre-cut produce. Or not. The pre-cut stuff is so much more expensive than just buying the whole items from the ethnic groceries.

Anyway, the first experiment was definitely a resounding success, and I'm already considering my menu for next month. How about a big bowl of my pico de gallo chopped salad madness, with a bunch of seasoned baked tortilla chips? Sounds good to moi!

More on "meaty" vegetables

I braised some collards this evening. Actually, true confessions time: due to the continuing hot weather, I did the desperation microwave braise again. Anyway ... many cookbooks advise you to just discard the stems of the collard leaves, but somehow, throwing out perfectly good veggie-parts just offends my tightwad sensibilities. Plus, I have discovered that I really like the collard stems. I slice them up thinly to equalize their cooking time with the leaves, and then toss 'em all in together.

I love the way the collard stems get when they're braised (even when desperation microwave braised). The insides get creamy-textured but still with a little bite. Almost gelatinous. Really analogous to the texture of certain high-collagen braised meats that I love so. Vegetables that, with the appropriate cooking techniques, capture that meaty texture are really great for mollifying my "meat tooth" despite my new low-meat ways. Vegetable stems seem to be especially given to this kind of texture when braised, like broccoli stems, and cauliflower stems and cores. Root vegetables produce a slightly different texture, but still a satisfying one. 

Braising isn't the only technique that can produce this texture in veggies. Roasting is especially good at bringing out their meatlike tendencies, even in relatively watery vegetables (the roasting drives out a lot of that moisture). The other night I sliced and roasted a couple of bulbs of fennel, and the section right around the root got wonderfully creamy, plus sweet in that way licorice does. I roasted them with chunks of onion and a liberal grinding of black pepper and they were terrific. 

With this continued heat, it's become really hard to persuade myself to do any kind of cooking at all, even desperation microwaving. But I will still try and sneak in a panful of roasted veggies in the cool hours of the morning, simply because the results in terms of texture are so rewarding.

Dealing with the heat

Yikes. Way too hot to cook, the past couple of days. Sometimes, too hot to even deal with standing in the kitchen long enough to chop up some salad. Lots of people resort to takeout or dining out when the weather gets like this. Alas, I have to watch it with doing either of those too much, both for budgetary and dietary reasons. The former: just laid a weekend out of town and an unexpected brake repair on the finances recently. The latter: non-greasebomb takeout can be a little tricky to find. Besides, I'd have to go outside in the heat, even if only long enough to make it to my car's air conditioning. Ick.

So here's what I've been subsisting on under such conditions:

• Iced tea. I've been going through gallons of this stuff. I go through gallons of water on a daily basis anyway, but somehow the tea hits the spot more in the heat. I've got some of the Celestial Seasonings herbal and green teas in various flavors. Pleasant and easy to drink in quantity. I don't sweeten them--in fact, with my long-standing prejudice against overly-sweet things, I prefer them that way.
• Ice-cold fruit. I have had a long run of indifferent luck with supermarket peaches, but I saw some big pretty ones in the local Food-4-Less the other day and decided to take a chance again. They were rock-hard when I bought them; a day in a plastic bag on the kitchen counter got them soft enough to be promising, so I stuck them in the fridge. Had the first of them just an hour ago. Not the tastiest peach in the world--perhaps growing that big watered down its flavor a bit--but it had cold and juicy going for it, which is no small thing. I'm letting another take a little chill off on my desk right now, to see if that helps the flavor a bit.
• Workin' the Foreman Grill. Sometimes you just want to slap some meat on the machine and have done with it. And it's hard to argue with the instant-gratification potential of hot sizzlin' pork chop. Oh yeah, the household cat now worships me--it turned into a real carnivore love-fest in the kitchen there.
• Braindead microwave cookery. I had some mustard greens that needed to be used. The thought of hovering over a hot stove made me cringe. I sliced 'em up and plopped 'em in a glass lidded casserole with a couple of cups of chicken broth, lidded them ... and microwaved the lot. Three bursts of three minutes each on high. Admittedly not as tasty as doing the braise in the proper way, but desperate measures for desperate times, y'know?

Thank god/ess, the weather is supposed to cool down starting tomorrow and I can return to actual cooking as opposed to these guerilla forays into my little oven of a kitchen. But it's nice to know a few more tricks for surviving in such weather, because hey, this is SoCal, the summer is young, and this ain't the last of the heat.

That healthy Mediterranean cuisine thing

The white-coat brigades seem to still be arguing over whether the much-hyped "Mediterranean diet" is provably healthier than other diets, but nobody denies that it's a really appealing opportunity for healthy eating. I say opportunity because, well, of course if you go and tank on huge bowls of pasta at your local Olive Garden, that's not particularly healthy--or particularly Mediterranean, for that matter. But if you exercise some portion control and are treated to authentically light and fresh foods well-prepared in the true Mediterranean way, it is easy to enjoy a meal that is both terrifically yummy and terrifically healthy.

It was my great good fortune to be invited to such a meal this past Saturday, courtesy of a silent auction through the Unitarian Universalist church I belong to. Our hostess J.M. served us a lovely dinner in her garden, during which we made all the typical stops of a rustic Italian dinner: antipasti, salad, pasta course, meat course with vegetables, and dessert ... but in light little servings, spread out over a leisurely couple of hours of chatting and nibbling, so that the dinner was almost more like the many-small-meals pattern I have adopted for my regimen than the heavy experience we usually think of as a "formal dinner." And the foods we nibbled on all fit well within my regimen as well.

Our antipasti included mixed olives, salame, little squares of parmesan annointed with balsamic vinegar, and cubes of canteloupe wrapped in slivers of prosciutto--I stuck mainly with the canteloupe, which was lovely. Next came a refreshing salad of spinach and radicchio, with walnuts and a soft white cheese (I'll need to check with my hostess as to the type of cheese), and a simple olive oil dressing.

The pasta course was a neat little bowlful of bowtie pasta, dressed simply with fresh chopped tomatos and basil, and more olive oil. One of the things the skeptics criticize the Mediterranean diet for is the large amount of fat the diet includes, but when almost all of that is due to olive oil, you know that at least it's a heart-healthy fat. And if you don't succumb to the urge to mop up every last drop of that oil with large amounts of bread, it's one of the gentler indulgences you can allow yourself.

The "meat course" was actually poultry, specifically herbed chicken baked to perfect juiciness, accompanied by asparagus, yellow squash, and onions. I was mightily grateful for the beautiful vegetables--as you all know I have this thing about how veggies so often get short shrift on the standard American dinner plate. In fact, if you've been keeping track, you'll have seen a whole lot of produce go by in this meal, with modest amounts of protein and starch, making for a great balance.

Okay, so I've been really healthy so far. But I'm not completely immune to the joys of little treats--especially when they really are little. Like these nice slices of not-too-sweet lemon tart. Just a little wedge of this with an espresso made a perfect end to the meal, leaving no cravings for anything bigger or richer.

In fact, so much about this meal was majorly different from the idea of the "fancy meal" that I grew up with. Then, it was all about overwhelming the guests with mass quantities of the richest foods you could pile together, because overkill was how you demonstrated it was a special occasion. But here we spent a whole evening eating satisfying and flavorful little servings of gentle, refreshing foods, and I think we all left feeling satisfied, even pampered.

My thanks to my excellent hostess, J.M., and to my fellow guests, for a wonderful evening of great conversation to match the great food.

On beyond tofu: the wonderful (and stinky!) world of fermented bean curd

One of the many charming stories my mother once told me about my baby days involved a trip to the supermarket. Mom had me in the shopping cart along with a package of those individually-wrapped American cheese "food" slices, and gave me one slice to keep me occupied. And then she got into her shopping, and only when she was done and rolling me and her haul to the cash register did she realize there was now nothing left of that entire package of cheese-food except a mound of plastic wrappers and a very happy baby.

My taste in cheese improved considerably since those early days, but my capacity for inhaling mass quantities of it in no way diminished ... until the start of my health regimen back in January. Then I got serious about lowering both my fat and protein intake, and alas the cheese went on restriction right along with the meat--much smaller quantities, and much lower fat levels in those quantities. But in some ways the cheese restriction has been more trying than that on meat, because while it is possible to find lean cuts of meat that taste good, I have found exceedingly few low-fat cheeses that don't taste like ass (with Laughing Cow Light being one of the very few exceptions).

But that was before I happened on yet another little wonder food from Chinese traditional cookery known variously as fermented bean curd, fermented bean cake, preserved bean curd, wet bean curd, bean cheese, or fu yu. All these names designate the same general product: little cubes of tofu that have been allowed to ferment with various seasonings. The fermenting process transforms the tofu from its original bland sponginess to something much more intense--creamy-textured and mashable like cream cheese, strong-smelling and sharp-tasting like a really heavy-duty bleu cheese. And yet, underneath all that, it's still tofu--significantly lower in calories than dairy cheese, and also lower in fat if you get the variety not packed in oil.

There are several different varieties of fermented bean curd, that you'll usually find all together in little jars in an Asian supermarket. Common varieties include the basic white fermented bean curd with no extra seasonings; the white stuff with a tinge of heat--and orangey color--from chiles; and, not to be confused with the chile-laced stuff, there is also a deep-red fermented bean curd, which gets its color, and a different flavor, from a special fermented red rice. You may also find other variations, depending on the market--I suspect that in earlier times there were probably as many different varieties as there were home cooks making this stuff, each no doubt a family recipe lovingly passed down through the generations.

Traditionally, the Chinese use fermented bean curd--sparingly--as a condiment or ingredient in various rice, vegetable, and meat dishes. It shows up frequently, for instance, as a condiment added to the wonderfully soothing rice porridge known variously as jook or congee (and many alternate transliterations of different Chinese dialects into the English alphabet). When just two or three little cubes of the fermented bean curd are added to such dishes, the pungency of the fermented bean curd mellows out and blends in, leaving behind a subtle boost of savoryness that just perks up the entire dish.

But recently, I've gotten bold and actually used the stuff like cream cheese as a spread--and boy, does it ever wake you up! A little of this stuff does go a long way, but as far as I'm concerned, that's a feature--you only need a little to get a big flavor hit. It really works well for me when spread thinly on a nice dark dense whole-grain bread. I also found that a cube or two, mashed, in a whole-wheat pita, along with a couple leaves of lettuce or other greenery, makes a really nice quick snack. And I'm still experimenting with other uses for this stuff.

Admittedly, the strong taste and smell of fermented bean curd will hardly be everybody's cup of tea, not unlike the strong-flavored dairy cheeses it so resembles. But for those who adore a nice stinky milk-cheese, a nice stinky bean-cheese might be right up your alley.

A very long, and extremely detailed, article on fermented bean curd can be found here.

"Eat More Veggies" recipe: roasted cauliflower

Roasted vegetables, when done right, may well be the salvation of reluctant vegetable eaters seeking to improve their nutrition. Just as with meats, the dry-heat method of roasting causes the target food item to give up some of its moisture content, resulting in a great concentration of flavors. It also browns the food, which not only ups the flavor content some more but also adds a nutty savory richness that is nigh irresistable. Naturally-sweet vegetables such as onions and red peppers become so sweet they're almost like veggie-candy. Sliced winter squashes roasted without any sugar whatsoever are so good, you'll never do that Thanksgiving candied sweet potato with marshmallow thing ever again. And when roasted, garlic becomes the vegetable equivalent of crack, it's so damn addictive.

Note, however, that qualifier I threw in at the very start: "when done right." Yes, it has been my sad fate to have experienced roasted vegetables done wrong, and let me tell you, it is not a pretty scene. The main offenders I have noticed here are 1) incorrect temperature and timing, producing wan, mushy veggies with no golden brown of caramelization; and 2) using way too much oil to lube up the veggies for their sojourn in the oven, resulting in food so slimy-greasy that even in my most fat-drenched eating days I found them irredeemably disgusting.

The first problem is easily solvable by correcting one's roasting technique. Despite those hopeful articles that surface every now and then about how to speed-roast at high temperatures (usually applied to poultry), roasting at its best is not a particularly speedy or high-heat process. Vegetables, thankfully, do roast up faster than meats, but you should still expect your panfuls of veg to spend a minimum of 30 minutes, and more like 45 or even longer, at no higher than 350 degrees F--and that's only after you've chopped them up into chunks to expose more surface area to the oven's heat.

The second problem is admittedly a little trickier. Even before I went on the health regimen, I found it was an extremely fine line between just enough oil and too much. It seemed to work best to toss the veggies in a big bowl with just a little oil plus whatever seasonings were desired, hopefully leaving any excess oil behind in the bowl when I transferred the veg to their roasting utensils. But even then, sometimes they'd still wind up a little oilier than I found palatable.

This is where those damnfool non-stick cooking sprays prove themselves to be more than just a dieter's convenience ingredient, and an actual boon to a cooking process. Because they are light sprays, with soy lecithin diluting the oil content, you can spray away as needed and not worry about overdosing on oil.

Admittedly, I haven't yet found an olive-oil-flavored spray that has good enough flavor to recommend itself, but if you want a good olive oil flavor on your roasted veggies, you can simply drizzle a little extra-virgin oil of one's choice on the veggies after they've finished roasting. You'd probably want to do it this way anyhow, as EVOO's lovely flavors would never survive the long heat of the roasting process.

While onions, bell peppers, garlic, and eggplant seem to be the veggies you most often find roasted on restaurant menus and such, there are many more that also make great roasting fodder. The main requirement seems to be that the vegetable be reasonably chunky, so that it can stand up to roasting without drying up to a cinder. Asparagus is mighty yummy roasted; so are beets. But one of my new faves in the roaster is cauliflower.

Now I adore cauliflower, but it never occurred to me to roast the stuff until I stumbled upon this monumentally long and enthusiastic topic on the subject over on eGullet. With that as inspiration, I began to experiment, and eventually came up with a method that pleased me and conformed to my food regimen. This method is so blissfully simple, I almost feel a bit of a fraud calling it a "recipe." Maybe I should just call it a technique. Whatever. It works, and it's pretty damn yummy. In fact, I've got a bowl of the stuff by my computer right now as I'm typing this, which I'm intermittently munching on as if they were potato chips--only much healthier.

So here's what I do:

1. Pre-heat the oven to 350 degrees F.
2. Take one head of fresh, high-quality cauliflower and break it down into flowerettes, as uniform in size as you can manage. I find chunks somewhere around the size of an apricot, or maybe a hair larger, seem to work really well. Don't throw away the core or stem--trim them up a bit and cut them into chunks, a bit smaller than the flowerettes since the stem/core stuff is a little denser.
3. Take a couple of roasting pans or rimmed cookie sheets, and spray generously with cooking spray. Spread your cauliflower out evenly in the pans in a single layer. Give the vegetables a generous spray, sprinkle with salt and/or other spices as the spirit moves you, and then give the veggies in the pans a good stirring, to more evenly distribute the seasonings and to make sure they're well-coated with the cooking spray.
4. Slide the trays, uncovered, into the oven, and roast away. Once the cauliflower starts picking up a little browning, stir it around a couple of times more to expose unbrowned surfaces to the oven's heat.
5. When the veggies have gotten some nice browning all over, and are tender but still with a little "al dente" crunch to them, remove from the oven, and devour as desired. You'll notice the veggies will have lost a significant amount of volume due to moisture loss--but a whole head of cauliflower still makes a goodly pile of roasted product.

These are great to eat as is. They really are at their absolute best hot from the oven, but they're also quite nice at room temperature. And I haven't yet had opportunity to try this, but I bet roasted cauliflower would make an absolutely killer soup. Hmmmm ... I feel another cooking experiment coming on!

Healthy dining: vegetarian restaurants

Vegetarian restaurants, and vegetarian cookery in general, seem to have gotten a bad reputation among certain of the foodies I hang out with on-line. Some of this bad rap seems to be just the latest version of popular stereotypes about vegetarianism. You know the stereotypes I mean: meals of bean sprouts and lawn clippings either poorly cooked or raw, with haphazard seasonings except for large dollops of moralizing from humorless animal rights activists. And to be perfectly frank, I have seen, and eaten at, a few restaurants that do embody those cliches.

On the other hand, I can't help thinking that at least some of the (over)-harping on these negative stereotypes by certain scoffers is more about their unconscious reaction to having to actually consider changing their behavior, in the face of some serious ethical and health questions about their daily food practices. Besides, there are lousy restaurants (and bad attitudes, for that matter) in every category and style of cuisine--to judge an entire cuisine solely on the basis of its sub-par exemplars is like dismissing the entire American culinary scene solely on the basis of Denny's and McDonald's.

Especially since I have also dined at many excellent vegetarian restaurants. So they really are out there, folks! And they're worth looking for, because they have a definite advantage for the diner seeking to put together a healthy weight-conscious meal out. Namely--no meat, and therefore much less opportunity for the cholesterol, saturated fat, and high-calorie issues of more omnivorous restaurants.

Mind you, it's still very do-able to put together an unhealthy meal at a vegetarian restaurant--just order all the dishes that are really high in fat and calories. A killer breakfast of wholegrain waffles drenched in maple syrup and vegan margarine-spread is still a killer breakfast, regardless of the "healthiness" of the ingredients. The point is that you don't have to pick that meal. You have healthy options on the menu that just don't exist on many conventional restaurant menus--especially if you're willing to be a little adventurous.

I especially like to frequent restaurants that specialize in one of the many Asian cuisines with centuries-long traditions of vegetarianism. Cooks in these traditions have inherited time-tested methods for producing tasty meals without depending on meat products for flavor, with really wonderful results. Plus the Asian cuisines in general, in my opinion, have such superior approaches to vegetable cookery that their vegetarian traditions have an advantage right from the git-go.

For example, there are whole traditions of Buddhist-influenced vegetarian cookery in China and neighboring countries, in which wheat gluten and soy products are coaxed into surprisingly convincing, and very yummy, approximations of classic meat dishes. I have been served vegetarian "chicken" dishes in which the texture and mouthfeel of the chunks of chicken have been so convincing that I was double-checking the menu to make sure this was a totally vegetarian restaurant and they couldn't have served me a real chicken dish by mistake. Some of that artful gluten meat in a stirfry makes a delicious meal that fits right into my food regimen.

And then there is the subcontinent of India, with its many rich and varied cuisines, including its own approaches to lactovegetarian cookery. For example, I had a wonderful meal over the weekend at a restaurant here in San Diego that serves South Indian vegetarian food. I feasted on several different vegetable dishes, fragrant spiced rice, stewed chickpeas, beautiful and fascinating unleavened breads such as naan and idlis, and a refreshing yogurt drink known as lassi (this one spiked with lots of sweet/tangy mango). One of the most satisfying meals I'd had in a good long while--and again, fitting surprisingly well into my food plan.

It is true that, in my heart of hearts--or rather, in that ol' debbil Food Jones that haunts my heart--I will always have a soft spot for a big-ass slab of prime rib. But that way of eating, except for extremely-low-frequency special occasions, is Over as far as I'm concerned. And let's face it, a petite eight-ounce serving of prime rib carefully trimmed of all fat, with a typical lackluster steakhouse salad and football-sized baked potato rendered boring without its usual saturation of sour cream and butter, is more like a sop to food nostalgia than an actually satisfying meal. So why would I want to dine that way, when instead I can feast much more happily--not to mention more frequently--on excellent curries and stirfries that happen to be meat-free? I dunno, except that my dining pattern seems to be voting for those curries and stirfries and such almost every time these days.

Rice cakes and low-fat cheese that don't suck!

A couple more items to add to the non-sucky diet food hall of fame:

• Laughing Cow Light cheese -- okay, I guess these are technically processed cheese spreads, but they taste amazingly good, the calorie count and fat content are impressively low, they spread really well, and they come in nice neat foil-wrapped wedges for easy packing into brown-bag lunches and the like. The garlic and herb flavor is my favorite, but the French onion and original Swiss-cheese flavors are quite nice too.
• Lundberg Farms rice cakes -- unlike your run-of-the-mill rice cakes that taste like very slightly flavored styrofoam, Lundberg rice cakes have some serious umph to them. In fact, a Lundberg rice cake weighs at least twice as much as a standard rice cake--probably because they manage to cram twice as much rice into them. Of course, that also means they have twice as many calories--but at least you feel like you've actually eaten something afterward. And their flavored cakes are excellent. I just picked up a package of a new flavor, not yet listed on their website: KoKu Seaweed, with what the package blurb describes as "a hint of wasabi flavor." I gotta tell ya, it's more than just a "hint"--these babies pack some serious wasabi thrill, and the little flecks of nori add some nice nuances too.