Bo-Bo Knows Gratitude for Kitchen Marvels

The scale ruined a gorgeous stormy morning for me today. My grand experiment in spreading out the pounds left to be lost and being less obsessed ended this morning when I stepped on he scale (a Saturday morning ritual) and discovered that instead of a enjoying a smaller loss, I was suffering a big gain: 1.4 pounds.

My husband reminds me there's no way that I ate 1.4 extra pounds this week, that the gain probably means I ate too much salt this week or pooed too little poo or stood on the scale differently than I did before. And believe me. I know all about the caprice of fluctuations at the scale. But knowing doesn't make it feel any less like a bitch.

If you've never battled with your weight and can't imagine why I'm (still) whining about this phenomenon, consider this: 1.4 pounds represents 4% of the weight I've lost. Now imagine that you're trying to save $6000 for a dream vacation to Tanzania/Australia/Aruba...wherever. You're so motivated to save , that you actually look forward to going into the bank each week to tally that week's new balance. I mean, you wanted to go out and celebrate when you hit the halfway point, but celebrations are expensive, so you did a little dance instead.

Last week your balance was at $3400, and you're hoping that this week's deposits have put you up over the $3500 mark, but no. When you get to the bank, you see there's only $3260 in your account. What the hairy hell is that about? Wouldn't you make a beeline for the customer service line and demand that the manager explain where your $140 popped off to? And wouldn't you be a little miffed if that manager told you, oh, there are a lot of places it might be. Maybe the money was stuck behind someone else's wads of cash. Or maybe the teller spilled soy sauce on it from her take out and sent it out to clean it up. Or maybe the money's really right where you left it, but you just can't see it because the computer's touchy--that thing can range anywhere from $300 over or under your balance, you know.

If your bank worked like your body, you'd be nuts not to withdraw the cash and deposit it in the sane bank down the street where $3400 is always $3400. But losing weight isn't an exercise in capitalism,* so I'm stuck with a body that acts like a clueless bank manager every once in a while. And there's nothing for it but to keep depositing the money (exercising, eating well) and hope that the dweeb behind the counter (that would be my metabolism) gets his act together. And preferably before the big Thanksgiving meal, please.

So today I'm grumpy. And while that may not be the exact opposite of grateful, it comes pretty damn close. So in the interest of clearing my metal constipation around the idea that my weight detoured in the decidedly wrong direction, I'm going to force myself to catalog a few of the kitchen tools that make healthy eating as simple--or simpler--than I used to think take out used to be. Tools you might even say I'm grateful to have discovered:

1. THE STEAMER. Forget that set-it-and-forget-it rotisserie thing you see on TV. Pop a few chicken breasts into the steamer, press on, and in about 25 minutes, you're good to go. I steam a ton at the start of the week and pull from them for the rest of the week.
   
   
2. A SET OF CHEAP PLASTIC MIXING BOWLS WITH COVERS. I think we paid something like $2.50 for a set of three of these at Shaw's years ago, and I use them all the time. I throw my favorite cut up veggies into the big one, drizzle them with so little olive oil onlookers (like my husband) are sure it's not enough to coat them. Then I cover the bowl and shake-shake-shake. The veggies are coated beautifully.
   
   
3. THE ROASTING PAN. A recent purchase. Got tired of trying to stir roasting veggies on a shallow cookie sheet. The roasting pan has high sides that practical scream stir in me.
   
   
4. A FEW GOOD POTS. We used some of our wedding money to invest in a very set of pots and pans. You would think the price we paid for the set would cause us to choke on whatever food comes from them, but it's OK. The cost included a self washing feature. You just think about putting them in the sink, and they're clean. They also have an anti-burn feature. The pan tells the food to move to a cooler spot of the pan when burns are imminent. The pans are also guaranteed to turn passable cooks into speedy gourmets and inspire the uninspired chef to experiment with a variety of close-enough approximations of recipes you want to eat without the hassle of actually spending all that time making.
   
   
5. CHICKEN BROTH. The cooking oil of the gods. Stir fry can be moist without all the oil, and dipping sauces can be whipped up with just a little creativity. Want honey mustard without all the calories? Dilute mustard with chicken broth and sweeten with a touch of sugarfree maple syrup. Want Indian without the calories and total time sink? Splash a little chicken broth and margarine into fat free plain yogurt and season with curry powder and salt and mix into lentils. And for a plan stir fry, toss basil and oregano into the broth as you cook. If you're feeling really adventurous, add a dash of thyme.
   
   
6. FAST FOOD ALA TUPPERWARE. And by Tupperware I mean plastic containers from Rubbermaid. My mom spent a few of my formative years as a Tupperware lady, so every plastic container is Tupperware forever and always, though I think Rubbermaid and Gladware are just fine. Anyway, cook too much food. Like, way too much and then portion it out. I do this with chicken (as you can see above) and lentils and soups. Then I grab a base for lunch--lentils and a little chicken. Pick a fruit to spice it up and go. No thinking. No fuss. Just go. I have quinoa and roasted veggies waiting to come with me to work today.
   
   
7. TRAVEL COFFEE MUGS. For tea on the go so I don't get tempted to get my caffeine the nectar of the gods way: Coca Cola in a can. I keep plantation mint tea bags in my pockets pretty much at all time for such emergencies.
   
   
8. SPONGE WAND. Two people living with one set of dishes and a dishwasher means you run out of spoons and bowls long before you have enough dishes to merit running the dishwasher. Enter the dish wand--a sponge with soap in the handle. This makes it easy to use the wash the same bowl and spoon and mug again and again quickly.
   
   
9. DIGITAL SCALE. Touch-button portion control. Enough said.
   
   
10. HIGH QUALITY KITCHEN UTENSILS. They don't melt if you leave them on the edge of of a pot, and speaking of the space-age no stick, they won't scratch the coating. These get used so much they see wand cleaning more than dishwashing action.
    
    
11. PRETTY STUFF. Our wedding brought us a bonanza of beautiful kitchen things that make dining at home a bigger joy than dining out. Great news for the calorie count.
    
    
12. ICE CUBE TRAYS. I hate ice cubes, but the trays are great to help me with cookie portion control. I mix up my cookies, space out 36 cookies and freeze them. Once frozen, I put them into Tupperware (!) containers and keep them in the freezer. If I want cookies I can thaw a couple and treat myself without going overboard. And since cookies are the world's best food, I can use my stash of frozen treats to fend off cravings: will I enjoy this chai latte more than I'd enjoy a chocolate chip cookie? If the answer is no, I tell myself I can have a cookie when I get home, but usually I don't want one by then. And because the dough is frozen, there's no chance of mindlessly indulging. It's my ace in the hole where dieting is concerned.
    

And no, my 1.4 pound gain had nothing to do with number 12 and everything to do with the caprice of the body. I know I'll be down two pounds tomorrow, but mostly I know that because I reminded myself about all the kitchen marvels I'm grateful to have figured out. Let me know if any of them work for you, or better yet, share your kitchen marvels.

If you have any tips you'd like to add, comment away!


*Let's ignore the multi-billion dollar weight loss industry that begs to differ with me