Microwave Potato Chips

Nancy here -

Even though I'm trying to change my eating habits away from "junk-food" type things, I couldn't resist this fun way to eat a potato. Don't try this if potato chips are a "red light" food for you. They really came out great - Dave & Amelia raved about them. I got this from "Eating Well" magazine. Takes about 10 minutes total to do one potato.

I didn't have the right kind of potato, so I used a regular baking potato. I'd like to try it again with Yukon Golds. Oh, yeah, and I used my little plastic Japanese Mandoline to slice them.

Microwave Potato Chips
Yukon Gold or Red Potato, unpeeled, scrubbed
Extra-Virgin Olive oil, about 1/2 t.
salt

Slice potato into thin (1/16") slices
Toss slices in a medium bowl with oil and salt to coat evenly.
Coat a large microwave-proof plate with cooking spray. Arrange slices in a single layer on the plate. Microwave, uncovered, on high until some slices start to brown and edges start to curl up (2-3 min.)Turn slices over and continue microwaving till they start to turn brown, 2-4 minutes more. Check frequently and if necessary arrange slices to avoid scorching. Transfer chips to another plate to cool. They will crisp up as they cool. (you only have to wait a couple of minutes for them to be crispy - we ate them still warm.)



From one medium-sized potato:

Weight markers

The other day I was talking to Dean about some of my weight markers. These are the milestones I'm looking forward to hitting.

Forty pounds- That's the most weight I've ever lost in one dieting effort. I was taking Phen-fen then. Man, that stuff was like magic. Too bad it caused so many problems. Plus it stopped being effective after a while.

Forty-nine pounds- When I've lost 49 pounds I'll be at the weight I was when I was in Michele's wedding. I remember how good I looked in the dress I wore. I had worked on losing weight for that wedding. My favorite outfit (that went with my 80's perm) was this pink blouse with shoulder pads, gray jeans and some pink sling-back flats.

Ninety pounds- When I've lost ninety pounds I'll be at what I weighed when I first moved to Santa Rosa in 1980.

One hundred nine pounds- Then I'll weigh the same as I did when Jim and I got married. We both dieted like crazy before the wedding.

One hundred twenty-five pounds- I'll be at my goal weight. That's five pounds more than what I weighed when I lived in San Diego thirty years ago. Wow. I haven't thought about that one in a while. I was living with my rich, Greek roommate. She had an awesome wardrobe and we were almost the same size. I had some pretty cool-looking clothes too and we had fun sharing. She and I used to jog down the beach almost every day. Lordy, I was in good shape then. I remember laying on the beach and being able to see my hip bones.

Well, I'm not expecting to ever see that body again but I think I can get to where I look pretty good in my clothes. This sure is an interesting process.

Jesu H. Christo on a cracker!!

No, it's not a recipe. It's what I wanted to yell when I weighed in tonight. Five pounds! Five freakin' pounds I lost this week! I couldn't believe it.

When I first started this thing I could really feel it when I lost a pound or two. The last couple weeks I wasn't sure if I had lost anything. I just don't feel it anymore. And I haven't been doing the program perfectly. I've been doing well but I know some of my meals have been more than 300 calories. I'm not keeping everything completely low fat. But I'm also not indulging like I used to. I stop and think about what I'm about to eat. If I'm craving something I do try to come up with an alternative. And I've been drinking a LOT more coffee, which isn't exactly a diet aid, but it's something I've been doing that's different from the norm. No cream, just Splenda. I've suddenly found that I LOVE coffee, especially hazelnut coffee.

Anyway, five pounds. That's 37 total. I'm looking forward to the 40 pound mark. That's the most weight I ever lost and I did that on Phen-fen. After 40 pounds we'll be in uncharted waters.

Ok, girl talk now. You know (not you, Jeff) how hard it is to find a good bra that fits and when you do you buy at least four of them. About four years ago I bought a bunch of bras that I really liked. I bought two more that were two sizes smaller because I was planning to work on losing weight. Well, of course, that never happened. I put them away in the closet. Today I worked a LONG time cleaning and organizing my room and I found those bras. I tried one on and, voila! It fits! Squeee!!! Now I have to go buy more!

No weight loss class for two weeks. I'm supposed to be eating three meals now and use the shake as a snack. Gotta get through Christmas. That'll be interesting. On Christmas Eve we'll have our usual Chinese food. Lots of calories there but I'll be ok if I control the portion size. Then I'm heading up to Dede's for the Lang family gathering. Lots of good food and Christmas treats. I'm going to take some shakes with me. If I can keep my portions small and AVOID the baked sweets I think I'll do ok. The adults always go out for a nice dinner on one of the nights so I'm planning on having that be my splurge. A couple years ago we went to a place that had this amazing pork chop. It was the pork chop of the gods. I'm hoping for a repeat.

Antsy

I just took my History final. I've got a hankerin' for some kind of celebratory food thing. Normally that's what I'd do but I've already had all the calories I should have today. Anything else will put me over. I can have a diet soda but that's about it. And yes, I WILL have that soda.

But what I really want is something... something..... something intense. Something with garlic in it... that crunches.... and is a little greasy. Something like that killer artichoke dip that I make for parties. Something like that. It's a good thing that dip takes about an hour to prepare and besides, I don't have the ingredients.

Fortunately, this doesn't happen very often. I'm jonesing. But I know if I don't give in I'll be happier tomorrow. I'll be even happier when I weigh in on Wednesday night. Writing this has helped. I might go slice a garlic clove and breathe it in. Sometimes it helps to just take a whiff of the thing I'm craving.

I'm going to have that soda.

Three pounds

I didn't know if I would be happy when I stepped on the scale tonight. It's been an inconsistent week, food wise. I was never really certain how many calories I was taking in, except for when I had a shake for a meal. I did try to keep things under control and not do any extra snacking. It seems to have paid off.

Thirty-two pounds total.

Bammo!

I hit a target! I can now fit into one pair of my target jeans. They're a little snug but not too uncomfortable to wear. I wore them today to uke circle. Tra-la-la! I'm thinking in a couple of days they'll be a comfortable fit.

After uke circle I went to dinner at The Old Spaghetti Factory. All I had had before that was a diet shake and a cup of coffee. I figured I could afford a few more calories. I had the baked chicken with broccoli instead of pasta, and a salad. Also, one small slice of bread. It was just right. I love their broccoli. I brought most of the chicken home. I'll have it for lunch tomorrow.

When I got home I did some more closet surfing. I now have a huge pile of clothes to get rid of, including the canary-in-the-coal-mine jeans. I'm going to need more clothes! I'll see what they have on eBay.

Still doing well

Twenty-nine pounds. I worry that it's going to get harder. Soon I'll be off the shakes and on my own. It takes a lot more planning and effort to make sure there's enough of the right kind of food available at home. At work, I've been having shakes for lunch. Pretty soon I'll have to make sure I get up early enough to make myself something to take to work. Not a hardship, but I need to be consistent with how I deal with food. Complacency is not an option.

But I'm really happy about how I've done so far. Even with the extra calories consumed last week I still lost a pound and a half. Really, I could bump up the effort and lose more weight. I could exercise more and drink more water. I really haven't been doing as much as I should. It's interesting to me how sensitive I've become to the amount of calories I take in and how much I burn with exercise or hard work. I can really feel it. Today I was doing yard work and at one point I knew I had to stop what I was doing and go inside and have a shake. If I had kept going I would have felt depleted. I can also tell when I've had just enough to eat. That's kind of a new thing for me. Of course, the trick will be to consistently listen to my body and not allow myself to get self-indulgent.

Don't worry, I'm going to keep doing what I've been doing. It's realistic and comfortable. I'd love it if I can lose about a pound and a half per week.

Still shopping in my closet. I have two pairs of "target" jeans waiting for me to lose about ten more pounds.

Ooh, pretty!

Back at the farm I used to turn on iTunes, switch on the Visualizer and dance whilst watching the pretty, random shapes fly by. It was a form of exercise that I enjoyed quite a bit. I hadn't done that since before we moved (Almost a year! Can you believe it?) so I decided to give it a try. Oh my, a new Visualizer! Let's see what this baby can do.

Wow. Man, Jim would have loved this one. It reminded me of some of the stuff I saw in my own head during some of those weekends when I was in my early twenties. I turned out all the lights and dove in and danced and danced. Forty-five minutes went by like nothing. It was great! When Frank Zappa's Don't Eat the Yellow Snow came on I knew it was time to stop.

I feel good. Gonna do that more often.