So we did it.

Lobster Stuffed With Taco Cake

Our inspiration came from these two sites:

• Lobster Cake
• Candy Tacos - we used chopped maraschino cherries for the tomatoes

We gathered up all the necessary ingredients and went to work making our delicious masterpiece. Enjoy the photos!

Completed Candy Tacos

Funny story. The middle of the cake didn't cook through, but turns out, that left a great hole for the taco.

All the cake parts assembled

A redonkulous amount of frosting hides all sins. (Book of Cake 3:14)

Of course, he needed a fondant hat and Twizzler antennae.

A close-up of the taco in his claw. Delicioso!

"Excellent, Sir. Lobster stuffed with tacos."

Love my crazy cake? Please pass it on to a friend!

I almost passed right by the bright orange DVD (I don’t mean the cover, I mean the actual case), as it was clearly a kids’ movie.  But I glanced at the title: Shorts.  And I recognized it from way too many fangirl hours scouring imdb.

“Oh, hey,” I said.  “This is one of Robert Rodriguez’ movies for kids – you know, he made Spy Kids.” This was a clarification for family members who didn’t see Grindhouse five times in the theaters.  Rodriguez fan though I may be, I probably didn’t need to buy his kids films (okay, my arm could be twisted on Spy Kids).  Idly I flipped the DVD over and read the special features.

“Ohmigod!  A ten minute film school and a ten minute cooking school!” Without a second thought, I chucked the DVD into the cart.

Now, like the rest of my family, you may be wondering why I was so excited about a few special features on a DVD aimed at nine-year-olds.  You obviously haven’t been introduced to the World of Robert Rodriguez’ Special Features.

Rodriguez started out as a low-budget, indie filmmaker.  He gained critical acclaim with his movie El Mariachi, famously made for only $7000, and went on to make sequels Desperado and Once Upon a Time in Mexico, as well as movies pushing the horror genre like Sin City and From Dusk ‘Till Dawn, and finally the aforementioned kid films.

Even as his theoretical budgets got bigger, Rodriguez still employed many self-taught, small-budget tricks.  His do-it-yourself mindset has extended, at some point, to every stage of production: production design, editing, even music.  His house is basically his studio, as I understand, and much of his filming takes place in and around Austin, Texas.

After Rodriguez got big, he went around in the mid-90s giving seminars on making films the cheap and creative way.  BBC broadcast one of his talks.  While that early talk is fairly basic, his DVD special features allow him to go more in-depth on several movie-specific subjects, without becoming exhausting and boring.

Ten Minute Film School

Several of Rodriguez’ DVDs contain specials called Ten Minute Film Schools.  These typically cover tips and tricks that were used specifically in that movie.  Unlike your typical behind-the-scenes specials, these short features deal with the more technical side of film-making, from stunt work to using Photoshop to clever editing, usually with an emphasis on doing things inexpensively.

A particularly fun Film School to watch is this 15 Minute Flick School from Sin City.  Warning, though: it’s pretty much imperative that you watch the movie first if you don’t want to be spoiled.  If Sin City isn’t your style, it’s still interesting to watch, but note that there are still some violent clips from the film (though they lose their effect once you see the green screen).

Ten Minute Cooking School

There aren’t as many of these around, but they’re all worth a watch.  My personal favorite remains the breakfast tacos from Sin City, but there are a few other dishes floating around out there.  The Cooking School on Shorts is quite different from the others – he makes cookies with his daughter.  Adorable, but he doesn’t use his trademark Cooking School phrase (and when you watch one, you’ll understand what I mean and why).

Movies to Find

Pretty much any movie from Once Upon a Time in Mexico ’til now is loaded with interesting special features.  From scouring amazon, I see that both Spy Kids 2 and 3 have Ten Minute Film Schools.  Strangely, I can’t seem to find any information on Sharkboy and Lavagirl - maybe there are some geek parents out there who can help me out?

Of course, there’s always Youtube, but what’s out there is woefully incomplete (I couldn’t find the features from Shorts, for example).  For many, special features are something to skip – but I could listen to Rodriguez talk film and food all day.  Mmm.

Um, I’m thinking of the volcano cookies.  Of course I am.

As I write these words, I’m recovering from a delightful Thanksgiving dinner. Rather than just succumb to a tryptophan-induced coma while watching “The Wiz,” I pulled myself up out of my club chair, poured myself another mug of apple cider, and sat down to do some typing. As I did so, I mused on the old saying ,”The shortest way to a man’s heart is through his stomach.” Food has certainly played a part in many memorable times for me, and it seemed only fitting that it be the subject of an article.

Food and Romance

The nice thing about food and eating is that everyone does it. Your prospective first date may not be interested in bowling, movies, or your stamp collection, but it’s a pretty safe bet that they eat. You may not know what they eat, what they like to eat, or if they have any particular food allergies or hang-ups, but you should feel confident suggesting a meal as a prospective dating venue.

Once you’ve advanced past the first date situation, a home-cooked meal is an awesome way to put a personal touch on a romantic get-together. If you’re a control freak like me, you’ll want to do everything yourself, and this is a sure way to earn major bragging rights. On the other hand, there’s a lot to be said for hands-on, interactive meal preparation. Even I can let go enough to let someone stir something, toss a salad, or provide something to drink. Even if everything goes wrong, it’s likely to be memorable. Remember the “chasing lobsters” scene from Annie Hall? (Or for a festive holiday disaster, think of the Chinese restaurant scene from A Christmas Story.)

Food and Community

One of the coolest things about being part of an urban tribe (see my previous article) is that it gives you lots of extra hands for food prep. You can organize a potluck meal and get a taste of what your friends like to cook. You can combine this with a romantic angle for further possibilities. If you’re dating, a potluck meal can be a great way to introduce your friends to your romantic interest without anyone having to do too much cooking.

A group of people opens up a lot of other options, as well. The other night, some members of our urban tribe organized a shabu-shabu party. We brought over a few bottles of plum sake, and they provided the food. Along with the sirloin, vegetables, noodles, and potstickers, we had heaping side dishes of camaraderie and conversation.

Some restaurants are actually better if you go with a crowd. Here in Boston, we have the long-running Medieval Manor dinner theater. If the group you go with is too small, you may have to share tables with strangers. Luckily, our urban tribe is quite large, so we usually have tables or even whole sections of the restaurant to ourselves. Likewise, eating family-style at Maggiano’s isn’t the same without a family sized group.

Food and Holidays

I mentioned in my previous article how Thanksgiving and Christmas have become dual holidays for us; we celebrate with friends on the day of the actual holiday and with family on the weekend. It comes as no surprise that these events center around a meal. Thanksgiving is a natural of course, with the requisite turkey, stuffing, potatoes, etc. We do exchange presents on Christmas, but it’s also an awesome excuse to trot out my awesome ham recipe (thanks again, Alton). And Christmas would not be Christmas without my sister Janet’s holiday cookies, which she gives as gifts to everyone; or the walnut stuffed dates rolled in granulated sugar; or my stepdad trying to take credit for the meal’s excellence due to his carving skills; or my sister-in-law’s chocolate roll…

In other words, it wouldn’t be the same without the food.

Do You Fear the Kitchen?

When I first moved out of the house, my mom gave me a book that stood me in good stead. It was called “Where’s Mom Now that I Need Her?” I had already been cooking a little bit before I moved away, but this book was an invaluable resource, teaching the very basic cooking skills that I needed to know. When a girl in college asked me, “When are you going to cook dinner for me?” this was the book I reached for. (Remember I was still in denial about my sexuality at this point in my life. As a humorous addendum, I prepared the whole meal from scratch – pot roast, potatoes, vegetables, chocolate cake – and she never showed up. My roommate and I ate extremely well that evening and toasted the fickleness of women. No offense, ladies.)

The point is that, as the movie Ratatouille tried to teach us, anyone can cook. If I was able to take an incredibly basic cookbook, very little experience cooking, and a handful of kitchen implements, and make an excellent meal by early college age, then anyone else can do the same. With access to the web… you do have access, don’t you? Otherwise how are you reading this article?… you have access to a massive database of culinary expertise and tasty recipes. FoodTV.com alone can give you enough advice, instructions, and viewer feedback to keep you cooking for months, if not years, and never repeat the same meal.

As a starting chef, the most important thing to know is to follow the recipe and not to try to improvise. If a recipe calls for cake flour and you only have all-purpose flour, go to the store and buy cake flour. Until you understand the difference, it’s best to play it safe. My good buddy Alton Brown… okay, he’s not really my buddy; it just seems that way because of his conversational TV show style… is still widely available for viewing, and he can teach you plenty about the culinary craft, assuming you actually want to know the difference between all-purpose flour and cake flour.

What Are You Waiting For?

Whether you want to reach for a cookbook, a take-out menu, or the phone to make a reservation at a local restaurant, you should be reaching out romantically and using food as a point of leverage. Try something new. If you always cook at home, take a date to a restaurant neither of you have ever been to. If you always go out to eat, find a recipe, gather your ingredients and cookware, and dazzle your date with a culinary creation. And this counts even if you’re already married to your date; fresh new dining experience is a wonderful bit of time together. Trust me; food and romance go together like bread and butter.

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This is absolutely true for me. After high school, I did my four years of college and got a job. I was in no rush to get into a long-term relationship, and I really didn’t get into one for several years following my graduation. My social circle became comprised largely of friends I knew through RPGs, the furry fandom, and the bookstore I worked at. Now that I’m married, my husband and I do have very close relationships with our families, but for day-to-day support, we tend to turn to our friends. We are the very model of the urban tribes Watters talks about in his book.

Tribal Traditions

One of the most common threads of an urban tribe is that they tend to develop their own traditions. We absolutely have, and, as we come into the holiday season, many of our traditions come to the fore. A lot of our friends do not go home for the holidays, either because of financial burden, estrangement from their families, or work schedules. For my part, because my sister lives in the far western part of Massachusetts, my family tends to celebrate holidays only on the weekends. As a result, my family never celebrates Thanksgiving on Thanksgiving Thursday, and we rarely celebrate Christmas on December 25.

This has given rise to what we refer to jokingly as our Orphan Holidays. We host our Orphans’ Thanksgiving dinner for our friends who have no other plans on the Thursday. We make a roast turkey (which is always incredibly moist, flavorful, and juicy… thank you, Alton Brown), mashed potatoes, green bean casserole, stuffing (well… technically dressing…I never actually stuff the bird), Polish meatballs, cabbage rolls, cranberry sauce with walnuts, and gravy. We also provide soda, cider, and pies (usually apple, pumpkin, and mince). Our friends usually bring their own favorites or fill-in the gaps. We’ve had them bring salad, biscuits, wine, beer, other desserts, macaroni and cheese, sausages, and other treats. This guarantees that no Thanksgiving is like any other, because everyone puts their own stamp on it. It also gives my friends in place to be on the holiday rather than microwaving a frozen turkey dinner, an image I find heartbreaking. Besides, we can then bring the leftovers to my family Thanksgiving the following weekend.

Our Thanksgiving traditions don’t just consist of food (though that’s a big part of it obviously). We almost always throw in our DVD of “Planes, Trains, and Automobiles”. Let’s face it; there aren’t that many movies about Thanksgiving. Other traditions include clearing the table and playing board games, or heading to the movies to see films that were released the previous Wednesday.

Tribe as Support Group

There’re some obvious advantages to deriving your support from a group of people who you’re not actually related to. Your family tragedies and dramas probably aren’t affecting them, so you’re more likely to get honest emotional support. As a recent and still painful example, I lost my mother this past September. I leaned more and harder on my friends than I did on my brother, sister, or stepfather. Why? Because my brother, sister, and stepfather were already going through what I was going through. My friends who knew and loved my mother were affected less keenly and less deeply for the most part (though my husband was hit just as hard as I was… he and my mom had a great relationship). I was able to take from them the support and strength I needed to get through this incredibly difficult time without putting extra pressure, burdens, or heaviness on my immediate family.

Another advantage to having a large support group of friends as your tribe is that many of them probably already share the same loves and interests that you do. I loved my mom, and I love Disney, but my mom did not love Disney. So when I wanted to see a Disney film, or visit a Disney theme park, my mom was not the first person I thought of. Of course she wasn’t; she was convinced that Walt Disney was a sadist who hated children because Snow White (the first film she ever saw in a cinema) scared the crap out of her. So I tended to turn to my friends when I wanted to go see a Disney flick or was in the mood to fire up a Disney DVD. And while both my mom and my dad had a strong understanding of D&D, neither of them were the sort of person who really wanted to play. Again, my tribe was invaluable while I was growing up for just these purposes.

If you have a tribe of your own, and I suspect many of you do whether you think of them as that or not, then you’d probably rather turn to your tribe then your family for dating advice and support as well. I never really discussed my dating life with my mom or dad, initially because I was in the closet, but later because what I thought of as an appropriate date and what they thought of as an appropriate date really didn’t seem to coincide. Now it is true that my mom’s taste in my boyfriends was far better than my own. She disliked the boyfriend who made my life rather hellish for six months from the moment she met him, and she liked my husband Steve right away. But I can’t imagine that I ever would have brought a guy home and asked her to evaluate him. That’s something you can kind of ask a friend or friends to do that family just isn’t appropriate for.

Tell Me of Your Own Tribe, Usul

If you think you have an urban tribe of your own, tell us about it. Mine is actually called the Jolly Otter, after my SCA household… big geek here, remember? Does your tribe have a name? Do you have tribal traditions? Do you keep in contact by phone, newsletter, Facebook accounts, or by some other method? Fly your tribal colors proudly, and let us all hear about it.

You’ve probably seen the #fit4gencon movement if you follow geeky folks on Twitter. We use it when we’re talking about our healthstyle – eating better, working out, etc.

But there were folks who felt left out.

They said, “I don’t/can’t go to GenCon, but I want to be a part of this super cool idea!”

Introducing…

The +5 CHA Community!

Check out our (very) new digs at plus5CHA, where we have our very own, 100% private members-only forum for geeks looking to get fit.

+5CHA is for you if…

• You’re looking for like-minded, geeky friends
• You want support in reaching your fitness or weight loss goals
• You’re a squishy geek looking to get less squishy
• You’re a scrawny geek looking to get buff
• You want to set goals with other geeks who go to the same conventions as you
• You’re an expert or professional in food/nutrition/exercise/etc and want to help out!

+5CHA is NOT for you if…

• You’re not interested in getting fit
• Your idea of a “geek forum” involves flaming, edition wars, or other idiocy. Our mods will have a zero tolerance policy for such posts. We want to keep a friendly and supportive atmosphere at all times, and besides, there are plenty of other places on the internet where you can “express your opinions” on hot topics.

Twitter

Choose your own hashtags when talking about your healthstyle and/or fitness goals or if you want to share a post on the forum with fellow members you know on Twitter.

• #fit4gencon - for those working on goals for GenCon 2011
• #plus5CHA - to connect with everyone in the +5 CHA community
• #fit4_____ - insert your con of choice!

E on Fear The Boot

Chris of Fear The Boot interviewed me at GenCon just after the Fit4GenCon event was over. (I was super nervous – I don’t generally do video! Eek!)  Should you want to check it out, you can watch it here.

We Want You!

A forum is only as good as its members, so we want you! Come on in and chat with us. Bring your geeky friends.

Also, if you’re experienced with phpbb either as a forum administrator or mod, I’d love to pick your brain. I’m new to forum administration and could use some pointers on how to make +5CHA the best geeky fitness forum on the web!

Sign up today for +5CHA!

As part of my healthstyle, I’ve been cooking a lot of meals at home using ingredients fresh from the farmers market.

And every time I tweet about something I’m cooking, I get responses like this:

• WHOA! How did you DO THAT?
• That looks AMAZING! I wish I could cook awesome things like that.
• I don’t think I could ever learn how to cook stuff that looks that delicious.
• That must have taken forever to make!

And every time I see these responses, I shake my head and laugh a little.

My Cooking Journey

The Early Years

I grew up in a house where there were approximately 10 different dishes on the menu and the main methods of preparing vegetables involved a pot of boiling water or the opening of a can.  In this environment, I learned how to cook a chicken in a crock pot, chicken breasts in the oven or on the grill, and chunks of chicken in a stir fry.  Vegetables were a side dish or a salad.

The College Years

I’d rather not remember this, but college was the time I learned that you could make Kraft Mac n’ Cheese in a hotpot without milk or butter, that one could survive for a week on a loaf of Wonder Bread, a jar of peanut butter, and a jar of jelly (provided you had stolen a knife from the dining hall), and that hot dogs + George Foreman = some kind of wonderful.

Post College, Pre-Healthstyle

For a long time, I rocked the ready-made meals. You know, the “Just Add Chicken!” kind of boxes you see in the middle of the supermarket. The bags of rice that came complete with tons of sodium and just enough green flecks to convince you it was a serving of broccoli. Or even better, the bags of pre-seasoned rice that can be microwaved in 90 seconds.

I bought lots of cookbooks, though.  I read a lot of cookbooks.  I watched a lot of Rachel Ray’s 30 Minute Meals. (Don’t judge!)  But in the kitchen, I mostly stuck to the tried-and-true, the stuff I knew would taste good. Or at least, what I thought tasted good.

Healthstyle

We do the majority of our food shopping at the farmers market nowadays. (Except in winter, when sadly, we must cope with supermarket produce.)  After a first lap around the market to check out the week’s offerings, we stop by each booth and buy the things that look the most enticing. This includes foods that are new-to-me and foods that I’ve eaten, but never actually prepared myself. This also includes re-trying foods I think I don’t like.

Since DaveTheGame is vegetarian, we eat vegetarian at home. (I still eat meat when we’re eating out, maybe 1-3 meals a week.)  We have a big vegetarian cookbook, but I get a lot of recipes from the internet. When we get home from the farmers market, I check my favorite recipe sites and google for recipes that are elsewhere (like in newspapers, magazines, blogs, etc).

How The Heck Is This Like DMing, E?

Check it out!

Much like being stuck at your parents’ dinner table as a kid, before you’re a DM, you’re a player. You learned things about DMing from the DMs you’ve had. If you had great DMs, you learned great things. If you had less-than-great DMs, you learned from their shining moments as well as their fall-flat failures. If you had a horrible DM, you learned what not to do. Ever.

You stored this information in your brain in a file called Things To Remember When I Run A Game.

Depending on your gaming history, the “college years” of DMing probably happened anytime between age 10 and 50. This is when you first started DMing.  In your first games, you were excited to be doing it on your own, but tentative. You stole a lot of pre-made adventures and already-done ideas. You may have thought you were “making them your own” but looking back, you laugh about how in-the-box you were.

But as you improved your DMing skills, you learned more about the separate elements that come together to make a great encounter, and the great encounters that come together to make a great gaming session, and the great gaming sessions that come together to make a great campaign.

You no longer have to use adventure modules as written. You can raid them for the elements that would be great in your game and leave the rest. If you love the story and encounters, but it’s not the right level for your party, you can change the monsters to make it fit. You can see how your favorite recurring villain can sneak into this story, even if he wasn’t a part of the module.

This is just like learning to cook. Much of what we eat is prepared by following a recipe. Just like DMing from a module, I read things through a couple times, make sure I have all the ingredients, and then I go step-by-step from beginning to end.

Once I’ve mastered a recipe, I start thinking about variations I can do with it.  Much like a good DM can make every dungeon crawl unique and fun, a good cook can serve quesadillas 7 days a week and have them be unique and tasty! (These are our favorite quesadillas.)

Then there are the days when I have to invent something for dinner to use up the remnants of this week’s groceries. Half an onion, some leftover beans, some random veggies, a hunk of cheese.  These are the times when I have to pull from my library of taste knowledge to figure out .

It’s exactly the same as a good DM throwing together an appropriate encounter on the fly when their players turn left instead of right.  You know what monsters are in the area, you know how to create a balanced encounter using these types of monsters, and you know the “tastes” of your party.

Toss it all together at the last minute and you have a delicious time for all!

Don’t Knock It Till You Try It

If you’re a DM, you have the skills needed to be able to cook.  You’re just making excuses and in the meantime, your tastebuds and your waistline are suffering for it. Due to a medical condition, I lose weight slower than the average girl, but DaveTheGame has lost about 25 pounds since we started living together.  We’re eating better tasting meals, experiencing new vegetables and fruits, and supporting our local farmers, too.

Start small with some quick and easy recipes. It won’t be long before you’re designing epic level culinary campaigns!

Can you think of other ways that cooking and DMing are similar?

If you’re totally lost, you may want to go back and read these posts first:

• What Will You Look Like at GenCon 2010?
• Get Fit By Becoming A Food Geek (guest post by Darya of SummerTomato)
• E’s Journey To Food Geek and Fit4GenCon: Part 1
• Geeks Can Cook: Apple Pie Breakfast (#fit4gencon)
• E’s 2010 Goal Word (Not Resolution!)
• Fit4GenCon: The First Rule of Salad Club
• Fit4GenCon: The Salad Club Starter Kit

Food Journaling

I’ve been journaling everything I eat for almost two months now. I started with using TweetWhatYouEat, but found that it was hard to update it on Twitter… and since that was the whole point of doing it, I left it for Google Wave.

Yeah, Google Wave.

It allows me to jot down more than just a food and a time. I can write about how I felt, whether the food satisfied the craving I was having, etc etc.  Also, it allows Darya to keep an eye on me and comment on any questions I have!  She’s been an awesome healthstyle coach, but more on that later!

Meals

Part of my healthstyle “resolution” was to try not to eat out more than three times a week.  There are weeks where that proves to be difficult, but on the whole, I think I have reduced the amount of meals that have been eaten at restaurants.  In fact, I’m getting to the point that most pre-fab food places (burritos, subs, etc) taste way too salty for me.  Or they taste like nothing. I had a Subway chicken wrap and the chicken didn’t taste like chicken. Creepy.

I had Burger King on the way home from DDXP and about barfed in the car. Seriously.  I’ve been ruined for fake food and I’m pretty happy about it.  Not the near-barfing.  The change in my taste buds and digestive tract. That’s awesome.

I’ve also started making homemade hot pockets on weekends. One batch will get the two of us through a little more than a week of breakfasts. Since we’re a mostly-vegetarian household, we use the fake sausage.  It tastes just fine to me (a little less greasy than the real thing).

Eating at Work

I love working at ThinkGeek. I’m surrounded by super-geeky, super-creative, super-awesome people and adorable dogs. However, I’m also surrounded by every junk food on the planet. There’s free soda in the fridge, free bags of chips, free candy, and free whatever-else-is-in-the-kitchen-area, which can range from doughnuts to cookies to cake.  Pretty hardcore temptation.

And then there’s the going out for lunch habit, which is easy to get into… and while we do have healthy options nearby, some of the other options involve buffalo wings and burgers.  I’ll go out sometimes (especially if it’s Indian or Japanese!), but I’ve started a movement that’s taking over our NO CAN HAS fridge: Salad Club.

Everybody who wants in pitches in a veggie or two for the week. Then when lunch rolls around, you can make a big delicious bowl of vegetables.  I can’t tell you how happy it makes me to eat a giant bowl of vegetation every weekday. I miss it on the weekends!!

For snacks, I keep several different types of nuts at my desk. Usually about 10 cashews or almonds is enough to quell a rumbling in my tummy.  I’ve recently ordered a box of fruit from The FruitGuys and can’t wait to taste it!  If it’s good, I’ll probably end up getting it weekly (at least until our local orchard opens again in the spring).

Working Out

At the very tail end of December, I joined a local gym. Now, I’ve been a member of a lot of gyms in my time and I’ve still managed to be fat-tastic.  But this time it will be different.  Or rather, it will be the same as the last time I got down to my goal weight (2003). Back then, I had a great gym with friendly staff and I saw the same people every time I worked out.

My new gym is shaping up to be the same way. There’s a trainer-assisted circuit that I do every other day, so I’m getting to know many of the staff members. Since my work schedule is 11 am – 7 pm, I have scheduled workout time every day before going to work.  There are mornings I have to literally throw my body out of bed, but once my workout is done, I feel awesome.

Also, doing time on the elliptical means I can finally fit in…

Reading

Darya suggested tons of books for me to read on my quest to becoming a food geek.  I will present them in the order I think would be best to read them (aka, not the order I read them in!):

Food Rules: An Eater’s Manual by Michael Pollan

A quick, breezy read with great tips on how to start thinking about eating healthier. You could read this in your local bookstore in about 20 minutes or pick it up on Amazon for five bucks.  Short and sweet!

The End of Overeating: Taking Control of the Insatiable American Appetite by David Kessler, M.D.

This one is a HUGE eye-opener. It’s the science behind overeating, but without being too technical. My liberal arts brain totally groks it, so you know it’s safe!  Kessler talks about conditioned hypereating and what you can do to break the cycle.

The Omnivore’s Dilemma by Michael Pollan

Pollan takes four meals and follows them all the way back to their source. You will learn things that you can’t unlearn.

In Defense of Food by Michael Pollan

“Eat food. Not too much. Mostly plants.” If you left Omnivore’s Dilemma wondering what the heck you should be eating, In Defense of Food has the answers.

Eat, Drink, and Be Healthy by Walter Willett, M.D.

An in-depth look at the studies done on eating.  Which is worse: carbs or fat? Do you really NEED all that milk to have enough calcium? Really interesting stuff (but much more science-y than the previous books). Willett presents a new food pyramid that is much healthier than the stuff the government has been pushing on us since grade school.

Good Calories, Bad Calories by Gary Taubes

I haven’t finished this one. I’m not sure I can. It’s VERY, VERY dense. If you want a good summary of it, check out Darya’s article on SummerTomato. I’m trying to hack my way through it, but it’s pretty much beyond what my brain can handle.

Coaching

I’m very grateful to have the talented and awesome Darya of SummerTomato as my healthstyle coach. She’s been great! We chat via IMs and Twitter and she’s always there to answer even the stupidest of questions.

Every week, she sends me a report that’s just chock full of encouragement, food suggestions, and tips on how I can do better. Since we do the reports on Google Wave, we can have a conversation thread about the items in the report and talk through things so they fit into my lifestyle. It’s pretty awesome.  I’m really glad to have someone as knowledgeable and friendly as Darya in my corner!

Also, if you’re in the San Francisco area, Darya does in-person coaching where she takes you shopping and teaches you how to cook!  Seriously, if I could afford to fly the girl out here to the DC area, I would!  Everything she talks about eating sounds delicious.

Weigh-In

I’ve saved this for last. I won’t say it’s the bottom line or even the most important thing about this healthstyle journey. Yes, I’d like to get down to around 150 pounds. Yes, it would be super if I could snap my fingers and have it happen tomorrow. But I know that’s not how it works.

What is important is that I’m changing my relationship with food so I crave healthy things.  I’m choosing salads over hamburgers. I’m choosing quinoa over white rice.  I’m choosing water over just about any other beverage.

At this point, I am currently down 5 pounds from the beginning of January.  It doesn’t seem like an impressive number, I know.  But I’ve made a vast improvement in the way I eat and I’ve been doing strength training at the gym and can feel a difference in my muscle tone, so I’m happy with the way things are going.

If I can continue to lose 5 pounds a month, by GenCon 2010, I’ll be down a total of 35 pounds!  By GenCon 2011, I’ll be at my goal weight!  But what’s more important is that I’ll have a healthstyle that guarantees the weight will never come back.

How About You?

Are you getting #fit4gencon?  Tell me about it in the comments!

Also: Want a Google Wave invite? I got a bunch. Leave a comment and I’ll send the invite to that email address.

Now, the problem with steel cut oats is that they take a long time to cook.  Who has 30-40 minutes to make breakfast?  My solution to this was making them in the crockpot and then reheating them in single servings in the morning.

My favorite kind of oatmeal has always been apple cinnamon, so I’m taking advantage of the delicious Honey Crisp apples from our local orchard.  Here’s a recipe that you can try and adapt to your liking…

Apple Pie Breakfast with Steel Cut Oats

Ingredients

2 cups steel cut oats
4 cups skim milk (can substitute soy milk or lactose-free milk)
3 cups water
2 medium apples, diced (sweet apples work best!)
many shakes ground cinnamon
a few shakes nutmeg
real maple syrup (not the crappy fake kind, seriously!) – sweeten to taste

Instructions

Mix all ingredients except maple syrup together in crockpot. It is going to seem like the oats are swimming in that much liquid, but don’t worry.  Unlike smooshed oatmeal flakes, steel cut oats absorb a lot of liquid.

Cook on low for 4 hours, stirring every hour or so until liquid is incorporated and oats are the firmness/softness you like.

Top each serving with an extra sprinkle of cinnamon and a drizzle of maple syrup to taste.  (Note:  Steel cut oats are very hearty – don’t serve yourself up your normal portion of oatmeal.  Start small!)

Variations

• I tried it with blueberries once.  It tasted good, but the blueberries pretty much dissolved while cooking and it turned out like purple oatmeal.  I may try it with other fruits, but I think apples hold up the best.
• Also wondering how it might turn out if I substituted a cup of apple cider for one of the cups of water… dunno if that would react poorly with the milk.  Anyone know?

The Most Important Meal of the Day!

It’s easy to eat breakfast when a week’s worth of it is in the fridge, waiting to be microwaved and topped with delicious real maple syrup.    (Yes, you can get Fit 4 GenCon while eating real maple syrup – a teaspoon a day won’t kill ya – and it’s REAL maple syrup, not the high fructose corn syrup nastiness.)

Try this recipe out – make some variations – let me know what you think and if you’ve discovered a tweak that makes it even better.

After all, unless food becomes something I geek out about, it will always be something of peripheral importance (at least as far as quality goes, I’m always up for some quantity!).

Every time I’ve lost weight before, I’ve slowly slipped back into old habits and gained it all back.  This time, it was “and then some.”

So… food geekery, here I come.   Here’s what I’ve been doing lately to become more of a food geek:

Buying Fresh & Local

I try to spend the majority of our food budget at Butler’s Orchard, where they sell local fruits and vegetables.  (They round it out with a few imported from elsewhere to have a good variety, but most of it is from in state.)

I’ve been having fun in the kitchen experimenting with eggplant lately.  Haven’t decided if this latest batch of eggplant will be ratatouille or eggplant parmesan.

Thanks to Darya, I’ve discovered the heirloom tomato.  They’re ugly buggers, but dang, are they tasty!!  I probably would have avoided them before due to their higher price and ugliness compared to regular tomatoes.  I’m glad my eyes (and tastebuds) have been opened.

Buying Less Crap

I’m not saying buying no crap.  After all, DaveTheGame still lives here and I think he’d promptly die without Cheez-Its, Chex Mix, and ice cream.

I also have some Annie’s mac n’ cheese in the cupboard, because a girl has to have her vices.

But on the whole, I try to keep our place relatively crap- and temptation-free.  It’s easier to eat healthy when your snack choices are mostly fruits and vegetables.

Darya’s quote really hit home for me:

I enjoy the occasional kettle chip, but it’s hard to eat too much of something you know will give you diabetes and cancer—especially once you learn how delicious the foods are that prevent these diseases.

Reading Up on Food Geekery

I’ve picked up a stack of books and will be letting you know how I like them and what I’ve learned as I finish them.  (And probably a few interesting bits via Twitter in the middle.)

I have:

• The Omnivore’s Dilemma by Michael Pollan
• In Defense of Food by Michael Pollan
• Eat, Drink, and Be Healthy by Walter Willett, M.D.
• Good Calories, Bad Calories by Gary Taubes

I started Omnivore’s Dilemma last night and it’s been a fascinating read so far.  Pollan follows four meals from farm to table.  I’ve learned all about corn – in fact, more about corn than I ever thought there was to know about corn.

My favorite quote so far:

“A chicken nugget, for example, piles corn upon corn: what chicken it contains consists of corn, of course, but so do most of a nugget’s other constituents, including the modified corn starch that glues the thing together, the corn flour in the batter that coats it, and the corn oil in which it gets fried.  Much less obviously, the leavenings and lecithin, the mono-, di-, and triglycerides, the attractive golden coloring, and even the citric acid that keeps the nugget “fresh” can all be derived from corn.  To wash down your chicken nuggets with virtually any soft drink in the supermarket is to have some corn with your corn.”

I don’t think I can ever think of a chicken nugget as a chicken nugget again.  I think from henceforth I shall call them “corn nuggets.”

Monday Kick in the Ass

The ONLY e-newsletter that I read on a regular basis and NEVER skip or delete is the one from Dave Navarro of Rock Your Day.

The guy has the knack of knowing the exact right words to say at the right time.  Never has a Monday gone by where I have not been inspired by him to keep on fighting the good fight.

Today’s newsletter was really good.  But I won’t talk about it here.  I want you to GO THERE and check it out yourself – This Is Your Chance.

What About You?

Are you a food geek?

Would you like to be one?

Have you read any other books I should check out?

Did you sign up for Dave’s newsletter?  (You should!!)

What do you do to maintain a healthier lifestyle?

What do you say to yourself to make resisting temptation easier?

On paper I am a huge nerd.

I’m a scientist for one thing (neuroscience Ph.D.) and I’m also a blogger and tech geek. I have three generations of Nintendo consoles that until very recently were hooked up to my 32” computer monitor. My favorite movie is Ghostbusters and I can recite it beginning to end from memory.

I even have a t-shirt that says I (heart) nerds.

But if you saw me, I doubt you’d peg me as a geek. On the outside I’m a hot chick that is thin and toned, with clear skin and shiny hair.

The irony is I look this way because I’m a geek. That is, a food geek.

Although I was never very heavy, I always struggled with my weight and was rarely happy with my body. I went through a period where I had really bad acne and my hair seemed prematurely thinning. I couldn’t get my nails to grow even a little because they were so brittle.

But all this changed about 5 years ago when I realized I finally had enough scientific training to figure out the weight loss mystery for myself. I began digging through the science literature for information on long-term, permanent weight loss and what I discovered was shocking.

It turns out that the people who are successful at losing and keeping weight off do not do it with strict diets and grueling exercise. Yes they eat well and are active, but mainly they just focus on eating healthfully and the rest takes care of itself.

For a chronic dieter like me, this information was hard to swallow.

First I had to accept the fact that weight was not going to come off quickly. I always envisioned myself finally finding a diet to end all diets, but I just assumed it would involve weird strict eating rules and that was fine with me. But the science says lasting changes are slow and steady, not a quick fix.

Second, I realized that since I didn’t need to go on some bizarre eating regimen I would actually need to change my habits—the things I do day in and day out—to build a healthy life.

Since I can no longer use the word diet, I call this my new healthstyle.

As I changed from processed diet foods and occasional binges to a healthstyle of fresh, whole foods (mostly vegetables, fruits, legumes, grains and fish) I did begin to lose weight, even while eating more and cutting back on my cardio workouts. I started a light weight lifting routine and lost even more weight.

After 3 years I had dropped below even my goal weight and now hover 3-4 pounds below it (about one full pant size). I also feel like the shape of my body has changed to a more balanced and fit form.

The craziest thing of all is that I enjoy food far more now than I have at any other time in my life. I have discovered the food scene here in San Francisco and am obsessed with all the wonderful food and talented chefs this amazing city has to offer. I eat virtually anything I want, but have found a way to balance meals and control portions so that weight gain is a secondary thought to health and pleasure.

Cool, huh?

To get started upgrading your healthstyle there are three essential things you must know:

1) What healthy food is

2) Why you want it

3) How to get it

Science has mostly taken care of numbers one and two for us. There are several fantastic resources describing what foods are best for you and what amounts are ideal. Books like In Defense of Food, Eat Drink and Be Healthy and Good Calories, Bad Calories are great places to start.

When you are finished reading you will be 100% convinced why you want to be healthy and what you should be eating to achieve it. The realities about diet and disease are truly remarkable, and once you know the truth and how simple it can be to get on the right path, staying on that path is a heck of a lot easier.

Unfortunately (or fortunately, depending on how you look at it) I could never find a good resource for number 3 on my list: how to find and eat healthy foods. Most of the guides I found were obnoxiously impractical and usually incorporate some aspect of a gimmicky diet.

This is the reason I started Summer Tomato, to offer practical tips for incorporating healthy eating into your life without completely changing your identity or sacrificing things you love.

I stay up on the science of nutrition by reading everything I can get my hands on. Anything relevant I pass on to my readers. Mostly I focus on practical advice to get fit and stay that way.

But by no means do I have a monopoly on this information. In my experience, anyone who starts to geek out a little on food and health can never go back. I enjoy the occasional kettle chip, but it’s hard to eat too much of something you know will give you diabetes and cancer—especially once you learn how delicious the foods are that prevent these diseases.

If you have a tendency toward science and nerdiness, food is arguably the most valuable place you could invest some of that geek attention. And if science is any indication, chances are you will drop a few pounds in the process.
What an awesome post for the #Fit4GenCon geeks!  Don’t forget to visit Darya at Summer Tomato, follow her on Twitter, or become her fan on Facebook.  (Or like me, all three!)