My wife is a great cook. Over the past 22-ish years of marriage she has made about two things that were just not good at all - we both laugh to this day about the Green Bean Soup recipe from the Moosewood Cookbook (if I recall correctly); a cold, milk-based cream-style soup. Pretty awful. And some weird thing from the WW cookbook, I think, that sounded good and looked good, but the minced mushrooms and whatever else it was just ended up being awful. Otherwise, amazing stuff.
To help her with ideas and such, she has bought several cookbooks over the years. The above-mentioned Moosewood (all vegetarian/vegan from the Moosewood restaurant - mostly good stuff!), as well as Weight Watchers, the famed "Eet Smakelijk" or however you spell it from the Holland Junior League, and one of our faves, "In the Kitchen with Rosie." But therein lies the topic of this post.
You see, Rosie is the famed Rosie Daley, celebrity chef to Oprah Winfrey. You can see her book on Amazon here. About 20 years ago when Ms. Winfrey was going through her weight loss issues in public (she had one or two more followers than I do), her second attempt, after that liquid diet thing ended up being a bad idea, was to hire Rosie and eat great, healthy food. Very cool.
Hell, yes, it's cool. And hell, yes, couldn't we ALL lose a ton of weight if we had Rosie??? "Good morning, Mr. Walker, I made you this lovely healthful breakfast. And your lunch is in the fridge ready to go to school."
"Why, thank you, Rosie, I'm sure I'll enjoy it." And when you get home, exhausted from the tough day at the office (or with hordes of teenagers...):
"Dinner's ready. Look, I made your favorite - baked chicken tenders and fries." (This recipe is really in the book, and it's awesome.)
Well, OF COURSE I'D LOSE WEIGHT. I have often thought that Rosie is exactly what I need to succeed. But I don't make a gazillion dollars a year and can't afford a personal chef... So what do I do?
Well, Dana is of course a huge help. She makes great meals and uses some healthy recipes. And there are indeed some pre-packaged things that aren't too bad calorie- and fat- and such-wise. So we can do reasonably well.
But if you've been keeping up with my posts you know that convenience is a big factor; Dana has been known to work many 12+ hour days planning, grading, teaching, and other school-related duties (for instance, tomorrow morning we have a 6:30 a.m. staff meeting. They just don't make stuff any more fun than that...). So sometimes we fall victim to grabbing whatever's in the fridge.
To combat THAT, Dana does a great job trying to buy good stuff. I don't always do a great job EATING it... The bags of fresh green salads, the frozen veggies, the fruit. Yeah, it gets wasted sometimes. And really, what is more convenient than opening a bag of spinach and putting some dressing on it? Or eating an apple? For God's sake, you don't have to do anything to an apple - you just eat the darn thing. I mean, bananas and their annoying peels - how inconvenient is that?? Peeling a banana takes time. Sigh...
So, we don't exactly have Rosie. But we do have each other, and we do, in theory anyway, possess self-control. But still, I can dream, can't I? It would be cool, wouldn't it? For the record, I would also hire, for my personal staff, a massage therapist, a housekeeper, and a person to just scratch my back when I need it. So if I ever win that Mega Millions jackpot, you can bet I'm not going to be on TV saying how I'm going to keep my job and live life like I have been. Nope. (OK, maybe I'll keep the job...) I'm going to buy a house on the lake, a totally impractical car, a Seven bike, and hire a staff. And do whatever I want to all day. And Rosie will make delicious, healthy meals, and I will have lower blood pressure and cholesterol, weigh about 160 pounds, grow my hair back, and.... I know, I know, time to wake up. I'm late for school:)
Have a great week, and thanks for reading. Not sure if there was really a point to this particular writing, but hey, you get what you pay for, right? Got some good stuff coming up, though, including sharing the success of one of my students, who has lost over 50 pounds this past year.
Go eat some healthy food.
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