FOODIES

We had lunch at Caffe Moderne today. It was delicous!

Brian went to lunch without me this week. Booo!

He and a few coworkers went to Nancy’s Sandwich Shop. He said the sandwiches are just like the ones at the Artichoke. His favorite thing was their fries. They came out fresh and crispy. The sandwich he got is similar to the one he always gets at Walkway Cafe.

I wouldn’t mind checking out Nancy’s sometime. I hope next time they invite me. =P

I succumbed to temptation at dinner on Friday night and failed to apply the Stop-Rest-and-Assess method. My jumbo pork burrito was just too yummy. I had to eat every bit of it, even beyond fullness.

To top it off, I even had dessert. It was a gigantic fried ice cream drizzled with honey. I did share it with Jan, but I still ate quite a bit of it. More than I should have for sure. I guess I will just have to stay way from Felipe’s Jr from now on because my resolve isn’t strong enough yet.

I need to work on my will power and stick to the Stop-Rest-and-Assess no matter where I am or what I’m eating. Ugh. I just need to buckle down and be more disciplined.

Anyway, you’re probably wondering what the heck this Stop-Rest-and-Assess method is that I keep mentioning. Well, I can’t really take full credit for it because it’s Jay’s concept. I’m not sure if he coined the phrase in relation to diet and nutrition, but he is the first person I’ve heard to actually mention it.

The idea is actually pretty simple. When you’re eating, you need to stop and rest every few minutes and assess your level of fullness. If you’re full then you need to stop eating. LOL. That has always been my biggest problem. I eat everything in sight without regard to whether or not I’m full. Often I find myself eating way beyond fullness (which is what happened to me on Friday night). I’m usually miserable after a good meal. Unfortunately, that good meal isn’t good for me.

Eating beyond fullness is the worst thing that you can do when trying to lose weight. If you’re not physically active (Brian and I are trying to work out more and adopt a more active lifestyle) then you can barely burn off the calories of a regular meal. If you eat more than you should, imagine how much more calories and fat your body is storing that’s not getting burned off.

Anyway, this concept is similar to what Landon (physical trainer) told us on our first appointment. He said to eat slow. It generally takes 20 minutes for your body to register that you’re full. If you eat really fast, which is what we are prone to do, then you’ve probably consumed your entire meal within the first 10 to 15 minutes. Chances are you’re beyond full. At least in my case, if I stop to think about it, I’m usually full halfway through my meal so I don’t necessarily have to eat the rest of it. I can save it for later. However, if I don’t Stop-Rest-and-Assess then I won’t come to this realization.

I’d been doing really well over the last couple of weeks. My resolve crumbled on Friday night, though. Minor setback. I’m not going to let this discourage me though, I’m going to get back on the horse and keep on trucking.

I ordered some Girl Scout cookies from Lance’s daughter Ella’s troop today. I’m still mad that they retired Animal Treasures. Those were my one of my favorites. They are similar to the Thanks-A-Lot, except they were square and had animal figures on them. I ended up ordering the Thanks-A-Lot (along with some Peanut Butter Patties, Thin Mints and Caramel deLites) because I didn’t have a choice. Girl Scouts no longer offers the Animal Treasures. Boo!

They’re the same cookies, I know. But I liked the square ones because I felt like I got more cookie. I want the corners of my cookies, darn it! I feel jipped. =P

Besides feeling jipped, I was actually looking forward to getting Animal Treasures this year because I wanted to use them in place of the Chessmen cookies by Pepperidge Farm in Apple’s banana pudding dessert recipe. They would have been fantastic with the chocolate bottoms. Too bad Animal Treasures have been retired for about two years.

I think we will still try making the banana pudding dessert with the Thanks-A-Lot cookies. They’re going to be a little weird with all the gaps, though. We’ll just have to be a bit more creative, I guess.

The recent Toyota recall made me recall (pun intended) these chocolate chip cookies we got from Eddy’s shortly after we purchased Bebot. They gave us two tins of the yummiest chocolate chip cookies ever. They were probably yummy because they cost a lot (about $20K). LOL.

The note on the front of the laminated card states:

Our recipe for success is great customers like YOU!
The recipe for these great cookies is on the back of this card.
We appreciate your business!

Followed by their contact information naturally. What great marketing, right? Here’s the recipe:

GREAT CHOCOLATE CHIP COOKIES

3/4 Cup Butter Flavored Shortening
1 1/4 Cup Firmly Packed Brown Sugar
2 Tablespoons Milk
1 Tablespoon Real Vanilla
1 3/4 Cups All Purpose Flour
3/4 Teaspoon Baking Soda
1 Teaspoon Salt
1 Cup Chocolate Chips
1 Egg

Heat oven to 375 degrees. Combine shortening, brown sugar, milk and vanilla in large mixing bowl. Beat at medium speed until well blended. Beat in egg. Combine flour, salt and baking soda. Mix into creamed mixture just until blended. Stir in chocolate chips.

Drop dough by teaspoonful, 3 inches apart onto cookie sheet. Bake for 8-10 minutes for chewy cookies or 11-13 minutes for crisp cookies. Do not overbake.

Remove cookies to cooling rack. Makes about 3 dozen.