Day Seventy

So, here is the most exciting thing I can think of right now.  Last night's new recipe included instructions to make a smooth cheese sauce as part of the casserole, and I am thinking it's close enough to Velveeta that I won't need to buy Velveeta anymore.  I don't know what is in Velveeta--okay, I DO, because I just looked it up, but it has seemed less than healthy to me as I've used it in one of the kids' favorite meals.

The recipe for that came from their father, whose mother made up this comfort food out of four ingredients (one of them Velveeta) when she was a single mother.  I've continued to make it for the kids following our separation, but, as I've tried to eat healthy, keeping in mind that whole foods closest to nature are best, my heart has not been one hundred percent into buying and eating it. 

So.  Velveeta is reportedly made of milk, water, whey, milk protein concentrate, milkfat, whey protein concentrate, sodium phosphate, salt, calcium phosphate, lactic acid, sorbic acid, sodium citrate, sodium alginate, enzymes, apocarotenal, annatto, and cheese culture.  Except for the first two ingredients and salt, I would have no idea where to get my hands on those other things.  In other words, this is not whole-foody enough for me.  And I doubt I could make anything edible out of milk, water, and salt, which means it has been highly processed.  Also, Velveeta is a bit on the pricey side of things.  I already bought some for tonight's dinner, and I'll use it, but I think I won't be buying it anymore.

Last night, I made a cheese sauce with cream cheese, heavy cream, butter, and two seasonings I could pronounce and in fact had, plus shredded cheddar cheese stirred in.  Voila!  A smooth cheesy sauce.  I don't see why this wouldn't work in my ex's family recipe.  (I don't actually have the recipe, and I do not ask my ex for his recipes.  I've just been winging it, but my winging has been close if not spot on.)  Yes, it's a little more work, but not much.  Ever tried melting a block of Velveeta into a rice dish?  And this sauce is actually not much work to stir together.  I can't wait to try it. 

I found a simple recipe for bleu cheese dressing a few years ago and have never bought a bottle of it since.  Why?  Because store-bought bleu cheese dressing usually has sugar, or high fructose corn syrup, or other nonsense in it.  You don't need it!  I just whip sour cream, bleu cheese, mayonnaise, salt, pepper, and Worcestershire sauce together.  It's completely delicious and not that hard to do.  I think my homemade "Velveeta" will be similar.

And this brings me to explain my aversion to cheap store-bought cakes that I referred to yesterday.  I don't really have an aversion to them, and would gobble them up as quick as anything, but I've thought about it and realized there is a big difference between the ingredients used in something like that versus what I bake at home.  It's one thing to avoid sugar, but highly processed oils and fats are just as bad.  At least, at home, I know what everything is, and I haven't used shortening for frosting, as my mother did, for years.  When I bake a cake from scratch, I know exactly what is in it, and I can use a better sweetener, better flour, better oil, butter instead of shortening, et cetera, and make it less unhealthy.  Better ingredients taste better, too.

So, that's my bid for eating healthier.  Take a little more time, make a little more effort.  Your taste buds and health will thank you. 

Because of interruptions mainly of the giving-kids-a-ride-home-from-work type last night, I didn't really get to sleep until after midnight, which I worried about enormously because I am trying to get rid of this illness, and I also want to pounce back into long workouts so that I can get rid of this belly fat before my hundred days are up.  I woke up just before 5:30, and I could have gone to the gym then.  Normally, I would have.  The sun was just starting to come up.  But, I thought that five-and-a-half hours of sleep was not enough for my recovering body, and I did go back to sleep.

But, I DID go to the gym!  A little after seven, I was out the door, and I also did alternate the elliptical with weight-lifting, even though there were people there.  I started with abs and did the full three sets of each, since the only other time I did morning abs this week was on Monday.  Then I alternated one song on the elliptical with one song weight-lifting.  I had limited time, but that gave me twice through each weight-lifting set (in three parts), and four elliptical sessions, for seventeen total minutes there.  Not a huge workout, but SOMETHING.  I felt good about it. 

And. . .my weight is starting to budge.  Can't wait until next week, when I can really fast until lunch and do really good workouts, to see if it budges faster. 

I had a wedding to go to tonight, and I didn't suppose there would be anything there I could eat, but I did pick up a plate, because, among the petits fours, brownies, fudges, and candy, there was a tiny biscuit that did not look sugary.  I took one, and lemon water instead of punch.  I was right--the small biscuit had a little cream cheese in it, but was not sweet.  So, I made it through just fine.  I watched my diabetic husband eat several of the yummy things, so that's funny.

I compensated by having one small spoonful of that sugar-free frosting that is still in the fridge.  The confectioner's Swerve is way too sweet, though.

I have started planning out not just meals, but the vegetables for the meals.  I've got all the vegetables I like in a running rotation.  I forgot to do a vegetable other than the cauliflower in the casserole last night, but I know for sure that a green salad and the fresh green beans we had tonight were on the table this week because of that planning and goal.  I am also having tomato juice each morning with my eggs.  More vegetables can't be a bad thing.