Grocery List - Continued /AKA The Basic Spices

Meet Chef Paul Prudhomme, one of my heroes!! Yes, the originator of Seafood Magic, one of my most indispensable spices. I LOVE this spice! I love cooking with it on shrimp and seafood and chicken too (better even than the poultry seasoning by far).

And if I ever get a chance, I'm going to eat at Chef Paul's restaurant down in Louisiana and thank him personally! And I LOVE that it's available everywhere!

Get some, cook with it. It is awesome! And, oh, did I bother to say it has a calorie count of one big fat 0, zero-bazero calories. Yep, my kind of hot and spicy!

Okay, back to:

The Grocery List - Continued
(AKA: " The Basic Spices!")

-Chef Paul Prudhomme's Seafood Magic

-(If you're out and about and can get to a William-Sonoma store, they also have a Potlatch Seasoning, a rub for salmon and seafood that is really, really good too. The only problem for me with that is that the store is not my corner grocery store and I am not a mall girl except when I am on a shopping spree.)

-McCormick Lemon and Herb (I like this so much better than lemon peppers that get too gritty and I like my peppers fresh and separate. This is a very nice lemon herb, but sometimes hard to find.)

-Original Spike gourmet seasoning (Although I don't use this as much as I used to, it is wonderful on fresh corn or on some sandwiches.)

-fresh ground pepper (There IS a difference between fresh pepper and old pepper, so buy it in smaller quantities and more often!)
-fresh pepper-mill black pepper
-fresh four-peppercorn pepper-mill (great on eggs!)

-Pam Olive Oil nonstick spray

-Original Hidden Valley Ranch Dressing Packets

-small container of buttermilk (When the recipe comes up–very soon!–for spicy shrimp/but not a regular household item as it will not keep.)
-small jar of Hellman's Mayonnaise (Sometimes you have to go there.)

-fresh cilantro
-fresh big white nice looking mushrooms
-a fresh cucumber
-fresh red radishes
-a nice fresh avocado or two
-fresh lemons

-one seedless watermelon (Oh come on, it's summertime!)

(Note: make sure you still have Del Monte's original recipe canned stewed tomatoes and Freshlike canned small sliced beets in your cupboard from an earlier list too.)

-Imagine Bistro Organic Cuban Black Bean Bisque (You'll find this in the health food section and, OMG! A long time ago, my husband and I passed through Asheville, North Carolina and had the best darn bowl of black bean soup I've ever had in my life and it also happened to be my first too. It was sooooo delicious that, four years later, we went out of our way on another southern trip and back to Asheville with another bowl of that very same black bean soup in mind. Alas, in spite of Asheville being a very good stop altogether, the soup was no longer to be found. Many, many years and many samplings later, finally, this is IT! This is incredible, back-to-Asheville fine fine fine!) (4 servings in a box.)

-Pacific Natural Foods All Natural Thai Sweet Potato Soup (Small box - 2 servings a box.)

-tin foil

-ginger sauce (we are always on the hunt for good ginger sauces and they always seem to come and go. Please let us know if you find one that is worth hunting down. I am talking about the orangish-yellow colored sauce that doesn't have any stand-out onion overtones. Right now, we are settling with the Whole Food's 365 Soy Ginger Sauce.

-soy-ginger sauce (same story as above - only this one is the dark, thick, black colored sauce. Right now we are going with Annie Chun's.)

(If you can find it, the Ginger People sauces are top! Buy the Lime Ginger (it is awesome all by itself over sea bass on the grill!) and the Spicy Ginger Teriyaki Sauce. The store locator is found here: http://www.gingerpeople.com/storelocator/location/map/
They were everywhere in our town and then they all but disappeared with only one or two of their unbelievable sauces to be found! Why is ginger such a fleeting find???)

-Korean Sweet and Spicy Sauce (There are a number of brands. I'm still experimenting. One has 100 calories and another 45 per serving. I like the spicy, less sugary variety and, so far, nothing beats the kitchen-made sauce that our local Thai restaurant puts together. Grin!)

Okay, you are set up nicely with this list.

For the soon-to-be-following recipes, you will also need on the day you plan to cook it:

-fresh peeled and divined raw shrimp
-fresh thick even piece of nice salmon
-fresh (or still frozen with the ice crystals still on them in the fresh fish department) big sea scallops

NOTE: You will want to get your fish fresh daily. (Always do that! And smell it too. Old shrimp stinks. Fresh fish never does. If it doesn't look good to you, keep shopping.)

-bbffair

Lettuce Wraps

So, remember from the earlier grocery list http://lightbodies.blogspot.com/2011/05/grocery-list-continued.htmlabout the Boarshead low sodium turkey breast and the Artisan lettuce?

This is so simple and light.

You take two beautiful full leaves of the Artisan lettuce (or another lettuce) and in the middle you put 2 ounces of the turkey, two slices of tomato, and pepper.

Voila!

Lunch!

-bbffair

(One of these is just 125 calories. You can have two or three for a modest lunch or just one for a light protein boost meal or a snack.)

P.S. One teaspoon of horseradish mustard is only 5 calories so go ahead if you need a little kick!

Image: FreeDigitalPhotos.net

-bbffair

Once Upon A Time in Mexico

Okay, here is a true story.

Once upon a time, (a long time ago), I was in college in Southern California and it was spring vacation. I didn't have a lot of money. So I got on a (very long) bus and went down, down, down into Mexico.

I got a cheap hotel. I walked to the beach every day and walked on the beach every day. I got sunburned. And, at the time, I didn't like or trust the food south of the border. So every day, I ate shrimp cocktail for lunch, snacks, and dinner.

Hmmm. Delicious! Yes!

When I got back, I had lost a LOT of weight and I was already thin and in shape.

Shrimp cocktail (and nice beach walking) can do wonders for a girl!

P.S. When I allocate one night (like Friday or movie night or dancing night out night) a week to a dinner of just a LOT of shrimp cocktail, (I often buy a pound and share it with my husband! Yep! That's a half-pound a piece!) my waistline gets trimmer naturally!

-bbffair

Shrimp Cocktail

What do you do when you had a very healthy, but too big meal?

Eat a Big *Shrimp Cocktail Only* dinner the next day!!!

Delicious, low in calories, high in yumm and feeling fed factor,
and back on track!

-bbffair

Tracy Anderson Metamorphosis

I have had several wonderful, life and body revitalizing experiences in my life. Most of these have been eclectic, a combination of several methods that work well with my system, and that charge me with energy, health, and light.

I have been and will always be, at heart, a dancing path girl, but there is always something new to learn and a right opportunity at a right moment (and I will expound upon my dancing path ways in future posts).

[Image: m_bartosch / FreeDigitalPhotos.net]

Today I am going to talk about Tracy Anderson's Metamorphosis.

It is by far the most disciplined, hard-work–with no way around that–and yet still (most important!) doable if also the most demanding system I have ever personally experienced.

It is a six-day a week, 90 day body transformation program. I am currently almost 30 days in and I LOVE IT!

I have adjusted the diet, however, to fit my system. I have noted the parts I like the most and altered them to suit my needs and/or added them into my own diet, which is not so much "a diet," but how I need to eat to feel alive and fit.

I need regular protein. I love everything fresh. And I LOVE me my coffee and milk. Coffee is my own personal indulgence and I ain't giving it up.

My own food system has worked for me in the past and it is now working for me on the Tracy Anderson system too. So, if you are like me, and you need lots of regular lean protein, fresh veges and fruits AND you need wonderful flavor, variety and energizing food, please check in on my grocery lists and recipe posts. And please, comment and/or add in your own recipes and or variations.

So, you might wonder, if my food plan works so well, how did I get out of shape? Well, that's a longish story, but it includes not following my own innate nourishment wisdom. However, since starting Metamorphosis, I've mended my wicked ways and gone back to the food I know will lighten me up and light me up. Every time I regularly eat like this, I get leaner, healthier, more energy, and more Light! My body loves me. My mind is more alert and focused. My emotions are more balanced and happier. And my spirit sings.

But what I LOVE about the Tracy Anderson Metamorphosis workout method is that [surprise! surprise!] after all the HARD exercise (I am used to the jogging–oh yeah, and I had to add that back in too–but not the exercise like she dishes it out, goodness!!), my body feels amazing.

And the Results!!! I have had awesome results every 10 days. There is nothing like results! Tracy knows how to reshape the body and I am loving how toned and tightened I am feeling every day now.

And–truth moment here–I can't do the weights part of the arms yet and I can only do half of the leg reps and I am STILL getting amazing results.

So if you are ready for an incredible way to lighten up, get strong, and get fit, and find yourself at a perfect moment for momentum, I suggest you run over to her site (http://tracyandersonmethod.com) and check it out. And if you came here from there, join me, as I continue to transform in this amazing program and transform with me!

-bbffair

Grocery List - Continued

Kroger's just happens to be my friendly, neighborhood grocery store. It's convenient and close. I can even walk to it!! (Extra exercise!) And I really like the people who work there. They are so nice. And, when you get to know the workers, well sometimes they'll go into the back and get you that cut you really wanted when it's not out. And, even besides that, it is always worthwhile to make friends with the people you do business with!

Kroger's has some of my favs in stock in my local store, but it may not necessarily be your neighborhood grocery store. So, go to the one of your choice. Any good grocery will do. Just be sure that the produce–and protein–is really fresh and looks and smells great when you buy it. Feel the energy of the food.

[Photo: "Mixed Vegetables" by Suat Eman http://www.freedigitalphotos.net/images/view_photog.php?photogid=151]

The following items are often on my grocery list:

-Fresh Whole Milk
-Tropicana Pure Premium Orange Juice (I like No Pulp)

-Folgers' Gourmet Supreme Deep and Full Bodied Dark Roast Coffee (My House Coffee)
-Ken's Steak House Lite Raspberry Walnut Vinaigrette Salad Dressing

-Artisan Lettuce (Premium Quality/Private Selection) Kroger (*These are four small masterpiece gourmet specialty heads of lettuce in a large plastic container. It costs $3.99 and it keeps and keeps and is 100% usable. It is well worth the money because the other lettuces all wilt in two days tops and are not nearly as good or tasty and, not only that, you can use whole pieces of the lettuce for "breadless sandwich wraps!")

-Italian parsley
-cilantro
-fresh avocados (you can never have enough choices for protein in my house)
-fresh tomatoes (smell them!)
-big fresh white mushrooms
-one nice spaghetti squash
-fresh baby spinach (usually in a plastic container pre-washed)

-Freshlike canned small sliced beets
-DelMonte's original stewed canned tomatoes
-Paul "Newman's Own" Soccaronni Spaghetti Sauce

-ground lean chicken (or turkey, but the turkey puts me right to sleep!)

-Boarshead low sodium thin sliced turkey (get it at the deli by the pound and when you get home divide it into four four ounce sections or eight two ounce sections - each ounce is 60 calories. That way, although you already know how light it is, you can count on the calories it contributes. This is great tasting, very lean sliced turkey and great protein and it doesn't put me to sleep either.)

-one or two packages of (2 breasts each package) fresh chicken breasts with the bones and skin on, (cheaper, more flavor for cooking and juicer results. You can let your family eat the skin or throw it away with the bones. I cook up four breasts, use two for (my husband and me) dinner that night and eat on the rest throughout the week.)

Note: I buy my fish fresh on the day I plan to cook it and I supplement extras and replacements as the week goes along.

-bbffair

Coffee, Lunch, and Dinner

Breakfast?
I am not a breakfast person. That ended with childhood for me. If I eat breakfast, I go straight back to sleep. Not a good idea. My digestive system is not wired for food straight away when I wake up.

I like to start my day off with a very cold, well-shaken 8-ounce glass of Tropicana Pure Premium–no pulp added–Orange Juice.

Coffee?
Oh yes! Bring it on. Hot and delicious. With whole milk!

Okay, I know, I know. Tracy and everybody says no coffee. But, listen up: I LOVES me my coffee.
If I have to have one weakness, let it be coffee. Hot and steaming and served with whole milk like they do in Paris. Please.

Furthermore, I will stick to everything else. But I must have my coffee and milk. Or I WILL cheat. Life is too short.

(I count the calories too. For me, OJ + lots of coffee all morning long with lovely fresh whole milk (1 cup up to 2 cups of milk over the morning) = 400 calories. Divine Calories.

~~

Lunch.

Two days ago, we had chicken for dinner and now we have three nice cooked succulent breasts in the fridge. I needs me my protein or I get weak. And grumpy. And out of balance and don't eat or think right. I am one of those in-need-of-protein-nourishment types. I try to keep it lean, mix it with veges, mix it up (minimal but high-quality lean beef––think filet mignon––once a week at most right now, seafood (yumm) , poultry (does the trick too), and vegetarian protein too occasionally though that never sustains me for long, so vegetarian protein is a "meal" thing or a day thing at best for me–you don't want to see me fainting on the couch–there is no vitality in that and it ain't a pretty sight.)

So, before I eat, I think:
Am I hungry?
and
What am I hungry for?

I need the answer to the first question to be yes or it's not time to eat yet.
I need to listen to my body tell me what it wants. Then I need it to be handy, fast, and readily available because I am hungry!! And, if I already have good stuff in my house, I will eat the good stuff.

So, today, I want chicken. Yumm! I eat a little and then know I need a salad with the rest of it.

My great salad mix is to indulge in!
I have a wonderful round glass casserole dish with a lid I like to make it in.

First various lettuce selections from my Artisan Lettuce. I cut it in the dish to eatable size. Then, I take my handy kitchen food-scissors and snip off tons (tons meaning a good handful) of fresh Italian parsley and tons of fresh cilantro leaves. I toss in some fresh baby spinach. I throw in a generous handful of my "julienned vegetables." I slice two big white mushrooms and one fresh tomato and throw in a half-can of Freshlike small sliced beets. I stir and toss without dressing and take a handful or two and put it in my salad bowl, add the rest of my chicken breast to my salad, add Ken's Raspberry Walnut Dressing and fresh ground pepper. I am in heaven.

Satisfied. Delicious. Filling. Balanced. About 400 calories.

~~

Dinner: Spaghetti Squash Spaghetti

Bake or microwave the spaghetti Squash.

On the stove in a small pan, cook pure ground chicken (or turkey) meatballs with a little parsley flakes.

Warm the "Newman's Own" Sockarooni Spaghetti Sauce in a back pot of water (or straight in a pot, either way).

In a large skillet, sprayed with non-stick spray, add 1 TBSP of Earth Balance and 1 TBSP of canola oil. Bring to nice hot temp. Throw in bunches of the julienned vegetables and flip constantly with a spatula.

Scoop the cooked spaghetti squash into a bowl.

On your plates: first serve the spaghetti squash, then cover with the cooked julienned veges, then add some of the meatballs, then cover with the spaghetti sauce and serve.

It's okay to have some fresh grated (hey, the "Magic Bullet" is good for some thing after all!)
parmesan cheese if you like.

You can even serve some of the green salad you made earlier.

This is an indulgence dinner for when you are really hungry. And a great big serving (or a medium serving with the green salad with Ken's dressing) will still be 100% good for you and somewhere between 500- 560 calories. Your diet is still working! You can serve it to your happy husband and kids.

(*Note: And if you over-indulge and eat a little more–like a giant serving or a giant serving plus a little salad too–and go to 700 or 800 calories, well, you are still eating nutritious food and you are still in a fairly happy place for overall daily calories. This one did NOT stop my progress or results!)

Now, tell me you don't LOVE this diet!!
How about: WAY!!

-bbffair

Monday Grocery List and Healthy Food Prep

At the beginning of the week, or whenever, and sometimes twice a week, I prep a few things. Lately, the following two have been on my favs list:

Julienned vegetables:

two very fresh zucchini
two very fresh yellow squash
five beautiful carrots
four big fresh white mushrooms, the stalks removed
a handful of very fresh cilantro

(Add all these items to your grocery list. Cilantro needs to be very fresh and I buy it twice a week so I always have a very fresh supply. I love the way it smells and tastes in food and how it makes my kitchen smell too.)

I usually buy most of my groceries at Kroger because it's my neighborhood grocery store and it's convenient and cheap. However, if the vegetables don't look irresistible, I go to Hiller's or Whole Food.

I eat an apple before I begin my prep.

Julienne the zucchini, squash, carrots and mushrooms (slice the mushrooms way thin and then along the long cut again so you have these little pin pieces). I like to julienne the zucchini, squash, and carrots as thin and as long as I can cut them. I have a mandolin, but I don't have the counter space to keep all my fancy tools out and I enjoy cutting them.

After all is julienned, they all go into a big plastic zip bag with a handful of fresh scissor-cut cilantro leaves on top.

I will use these throughout the week. For some dishes, I will heat up a pan very hot with non-stick spray and a small amount (1tsp to 1TBSP depending on the amount of veges) of soy free "Earth Balance" (that is wonderful to cook with and in the Kroger Health Food cold section). If I need more, I will add in 1 TBSP of Sunflower Oil. I hot quick-cook (throwing them into a hot pan and turning with a spatula often for a few minutes) just what I need. I often throw a bunch of the uncooked ones in afterwards and mix the two. It makes a great and yummy side-dish. Also, a handful in here and there in other dishes really makes them pop with flavor and vitamins.

Add to grocery list:

Soy Free Earth Balance (Health Food section - Krogers)
or Fresh (grass fed) Sweet or lightly salted butter
sunflower oil
parsnips
more nice carrots
package of nice slivered almonds
five assorted (why not try a few varieties!) fresh apples - great for hunger staving snacks!
3-5 fresh oranges (Along with apples, oranges can make a great "finish" to a meal!)
cinnamon
Organic Imagine Sweet Potato Soup (Health Food section - Krogers)
fresh ground pepper
fresh four pepper cracked pepper

Second Prep: Carrot - Parsnip Mix
(This is sort of a take-off on Tracy Anderson's recipe that was a sort of happy accident that turned out delicious! At least I think so!)

cut up two carrots and an equal amount of parsnips
add sprigs of scissor-cut cilantro

Stick it all in a food processor. (I have a "Magic Bullet" but I'll be damned if that thing can chop, so it's my trusty Cuisinart for me.) Pulse chop/mix/process it until it is sort of grainy. If you have to, add a few drops of water, but not more than you need. You want this gritty in texture, not baby food. Then add a touch or more (I like more!) of cinnamon. (All cinnamon is not the same. I have some fancy expensive stuff but it makes my head explode - so pure that it's sort of an irritant to me. So, for me, it's three or four shakes of my trusty household McCormic cinnamon.) I make about two cups and use it in lots of things throughout the week.

-bbffair

Monday – and a Tasty, Calorie-Light, Healthy Recipe - Sweet Potato Carrot Parsnip Almond Sliver Soup – Yumm!

Okay, at last. After I've cleaned up my mess; it's on to lunch:

Sweet Potato Carrot Parsnip Almond Sliver Soup

I love soups with garnishes. To be more succinct, I love a LOT of garnish with a little soup.

Heat one cup (110 calories) of the Imagine Sweet Potato Soup (there are 4 cups in a box) from the grocery list.
While it warms up, spoon 3 or 4 big soup spoons of the carrot-parsnip grainy mix into a bowl.
Measure out 1/6 of a cup of slivered almonds. (I like to take my 1/3 cup and fill it half-way and then add another pinch.) (1/3 cup of slivered almonds on my package says it's 200 calories, so my measurement–1/6 cup + a pinch–equals about 125 calories.)
Mix the almonds and the carrot-parsnip mixture, then pour the 1 cup of hot sweet potato soup over it, add ground and cracked pepper.

I seriously think this is Food!

Afterwards, finish with a small orange.

Your lunch was healthy, easy, and delicious. And only about 350 calories including the orange and it included protein (something I have to have at every meal in some fashion), vegetables, fresh ingredients, and a fruit finish!

Please let me know if you tried it and liked it. I'd love to know!

Bon Appetite!

-bbffair

Light Bodies

In whatever shape or size or form we come in, I believe we are all meant to have Light Bodies.
I define that as the place, shape, and energy wherein our bodies, our spirits, our life force shines.

This is a blog dedicated to sharing my own journey, and yours, towards a Light Body, a place for delicious, healthy, flavor-full recipes and ideas, a place to work it when it seems hard to do alone, and a place to Light Up and to Lighten Up and find freedom and bliss in that.

My own belief is that life is sacred. These vessels we know as our bodies are sacred too. I believe all of us are meant to be glowing and beautiful and unique in our aliveness and our expressions of it.

I hope you will find encouragement and inspiration here and share your own. This blog is dedicated to all of us on that beautiful journey.

-bbffair

How Did You Get Here? What Are Your Stories?

There are bodies that seem to be meant to be rounder, fatter. They even seem holy in their plumpness, like they are in their perfect state. I would not change an ounce of them. They radiate their own beauty and also, an indescribable centeredness that seems to calm and set at ease all those around them. They are special people with their own inner gravity and grounding. They, in all their roundness, are naturally beings of light.

But, in our culture, I have also seen people, women in particular, who are not naturally or spiritually meant to be round or fat. For them, it is not a beautiful state. It is in fact a way that they exhibit that something is out of balance or missing, that they have lost a sense of themselves as beings of beauty, alive and glowing. Instead, their fatness bogs them down, covers them over in something else, more often something hard to define that has slowly crept over them causing such discomforts as a growing sluggishness or loss of their natural energy, a sense of living in a shadow, despair, or even depression, a lingering self-doubt or a loss of self-confidence even when they are brilliant thinkers, a disconnect from the true essence of themselves, even self-loathing.

There is a sense of being forgotten, either by others or by themselves or a sense of needing insulation, protection, shelter inside a layer of dullness or fat against the world. It can exhibit itself in a subtle way or in an obese way. But a woman in this state of unnaturalness in her own body is always uncomfortable in herself. She is missing her light.

I have had to wonder long and hard about myself when I have lost my self, my body, in such a state at times in my life. For me, it has felt like a dead place, a stuck place. I can point from there to some lighter, freer place I used to be, but it is like I cannot move, like my feet are embedded in a cement when I am in that dreary world, my energy is disconnected, while I watch my life moving in increments on and away from me. In a way, it is a place where I've arrived when I've given up. Too much went wrong, too many disappointments, I'd wandered too deep in the muck of my problems and found myself mired in it and too tired to keep trying so very very hard. Too too tired to try at all.

So, sometimes, maybe, we have to give up. Hit bottom. And then as our feet touch the final bedrock of ourselves, or of the state we've arrived in, we know this is it. This is the bottom. We can rest there awhile. We can stay there. It is almost comforting. We are so exhausted. We don't have to worry anymore. We have gone to the bottom of ourselves.

Which may not be such a bad thing. Maybe it is a process. An extreme process perhaps. One we are often warned to avoid. But because so many of us go there (in our own way, and for one person, that might be just a dulling down, a loss of vitality, for another it will show up as a twenty pound disconnect from their life force, while for still another, as a hundred pound one) perhaps it has a wisdom to offer us. We see our heavy dense self and in the weight of all that, we find the light that will lead us out. Or the reason, perhaps, why we don't want to come out.

For some people, it is the loss of a sense of being loved, either by themselves or others or maybe both. For some it is sex that drives them there, fear of sex (yes, it is still a place of great confusion and/or anxiety for many people and weight is a way to hide from sex) or disappointment in sex. For another person, it is loss. In their insulation, they are comforted from feeling what is unbearable to feel. There are many reasons, even a reason as simple as comfort. Did food and drink comfort you when nothing and no one else did? Comfort is a powerful substance.

There are many reasons we find ourselves in such a state. Some are conscious. We know what they are. Others evade us. They hide and play games with us.

Do you know how you got here? What are your stories? All of them are revealing and healing and hold keys, I believe, to opening the way back to our light.

-bbffair