It's simple...

After a lifetime of losing and gaining weight, I get it. No matter how you slice it, weight loss comes down to the simple formula of calories in, calories out.
Valerie Bertinelli 

I've read a lot of articles, tried out a few diets, and watched my fair share of videos that like to point out that it really isn't this simple when it comes to weight loss. But truth be told, when I start to think about all the other hundreds of components involved with weight loss, fat burning, muscle building, "bulking", "cutting", or any of the other terms flying around out there, I get overwhelmed. I know that refined sugars are bad for you, I know that excessive amounts of carbs aren't good for you, I know that sitting on my ass all day and being a sedentary and sad excuse for "a body in motion" is terrible for me. But when you simplify it, and you tell me that as long as I can burn X amount of calories in a week from moderate exercise, so long as I don't eat more than Y amount of calories in a day, I understand it. 

Let's be clear: I HATE counting calories. I can't think of a less exciting way to spend my time. I don't measure things when I cook, so calorie counting is a nightmare for me. But when I am conscious of what I'm making, and I do my best to "guesstimate" what the portions of everything are, I do pretty well. What I lack is discipline. 

How do you convince yourself to stay disciplined? Motivated?

That is my current struggle. 

Delicious Frozen Rump Roast

I haven't posted in a while, and I'm only a little bit sorry about that. I'm working on a few projects right now, and am trying to figure out how exactly to integrate both into one venue. More on that at a later time.

Fall is here! I love Fall more than any other season and people will frequently argue with me about it. I don't care about bathing suits, or sundresses, and I get cranky when the temperature rises above 75 degrees. Give me a nice chill in the air, 70 degree weather, a hoodie, some sneakers, and a hearty meal and I'm happy.

I had a 3 pound rump/round roast in the freezer and I didn't want to wait the 8 hours to cook it in the crock pot and I didn't want to wait for it to defrost either. I decided to go ahead and try to cook it, still frozen, in the oven and see how it would do. The results were fantastic! It was moist, tender, fully cooked through (and evenly cooked I might add), and flavorful.

Frozen Rump Roast

2-3 pound roast, frozen
Brown gravy packet
Italian seasoning packet
Hidden Valley Ranch packet
Minced garlic
Potatoes, cut up into medium-sized pieces
Carrots, cut up into about 2" long sticks
Onion, sliced thin
About 1/2 to 1 cup of water.

Directions:

Remove your roast from the packaging and place it into your baking dish. I used a oval shaped ceramic dutch oven with a lid. Add your water and try to get the outside of the roast a little wet to adhere your ingredients.

In a small bowl, mix the three seasoning packets together and sprinkle it evenly over your roast. Try to massage it into the meat a little bit to get a good coating.

Wash and cut up your veggies listed above and add them around the roast into the pot. Don't forget the garlic!

Set your oven to 300 degrees, and cover up your pot. The lid on mine is a bit uneven, so I put some foil over it before adding the lid and filling in some of the gaps with the foil. You want it to stay nice and hot and moist in that pot so that the meat cooks slowly and doesn't dry out.

You can check it after an hour or two for the proper temperature for the doneness that you want. My mom is a bit picky when it comes to red meat and won't eat it if it's still pink, so I cooked mine for a lot longer to make sure it was cooked through.

When it's where you want it, pull it out and pull the roast out to let it rest on a cutting board for about 10-15 minutes. You'll notice that in the pot you've got a delicious mixture of cooked veggies and a very tasty broth that you can thicken up if you wish to make a gravy.

Slice up your meat, serve with veggies, and enjoy! We had leftover the next night and made some rice to go with the meat, veggies, and broth. Tonight, we're going to use the remaining meat to make some delicious Reuben sandwiches.

Unfortunately, I didn't take any pictures before or after everything was cooked, but you'll have to trust me when I tell you that it looked and tasted amazing.

Don't hesitate to pull a frozen roast out and make some magic happen in the same night. It's definitely worth it!

Lazy

Some days you just can't handle eating super spicy leftover sausage deliciousness... so you go to the store and get buttermilk fried chicken, broccoli cheddar poppers, heat up some mashed potatoes you had in the fridge, and call it a night.

At least I was good the rest of the day, right? A nice turkey sandwich on 7 grain with a slice of american cheese, a small salad with tons of veggies and only a little bit of Italian dressing, grapes, and a small handful of those peanut butter pretzel nuggets because they're in the office and they beckon me.

Don't judge me.

Italian Sausage, Cabbage & Angel Hair Pasta

When I was on the 4HB diet a couple years ago, one of my quick and tasty go-to meals was sauteed kielbasa sausage, onions, garlic, brussel sprouts, and brown mustard. It was simple, delicious, and filling. I've been meaning to make the same dish again, but always forget to buy kielbasa when I'm at the store. 

Lucky for me, my boyfriend's mother had a decent amount of sausage leftover from a package that she used to make some crab sauce and gave it to me. I gladly took it off her hands and planned to make it for dinner tonight. I didn't have any brussel sprouts on hand, and I'm pretty sure we just ran out of brown mustard (we need to go shopping this weekend), so I decided to improvise. Brussel sprouts are like little baby cabbages, right? So regular cabbage should be a fine substitute. Onward!

What I didn't realize until I started to cut into the sausage links, was that it was spicy Italian sausage. Now look - I like spice and I like spicy things.... to a point. I need to be able to still taste my food and enjoy it without the chemical burn in my mouth ruining the whole experience. I decided to take my chances and hoped that the crimson-fleshed links wouldn't turn out being too hot to my liking. 

Well it was too hot. I'm pretty sure I have third-degree burns in my mouth right now. 

Anyway, if you like spice and you're a brave soul, then use the spicy Italian sausage. I will be using the sweet Italian sausage next time I make this meal. 

Italian Sausage, Cabbage & Angel Hair Pasta

Italian sausage, sliced (Sweet, Mild, or Hot - whichever you prefer, I had 8 links on hand)

Frozen chopped onion, about 1 cup

Minced garlic, about 2 tablespoons

Cabbage, about half a medium head

Salt

Pepper

A few sprinkles of parsley

A splash of vinegar (just trust me on this, it helps to bring out the natural sweetness of the cabbage)

A few sprinkles of powdered chicken bouillon (you can use chicken broth if you're so inclined)

Angel hair pasta (I used maybe half a pound)

Optional:

Parmesan cheese (but seriously... is cheese really ever optional?)

Slice up the sausage into bite-sized pieces and cook them over medium heat in a non-stick pan until lightly browned. While they cook, chop up your cabbage into thin slices until you have a nice heaping pile of it. When the sausage is browned, add in your garlic, onions, cabbage, salt, pepper, and parsley. Cover the pan and reduce the heat just a little bit and let the veggies sweat it out. Take a peek every now and then and give it a good stir if the cabbage doesn't fuss too much about it. 

Once the veggies are all wilted down and you can stir without it being awkward, add in a splash of vinegar and some bouillon and start cooking your pasta. Keep the sausage and cabbage concoction on a slow simmer so that they get almost caramelized and delicious. Turn off the heat when it looks to your liking. 

When the pasta is done, throw it in a bowl and add some of the cabbage mixture to it to coat. Serve up some pasta in bowls or plates or whatever makes you happiest and add an extra little scoop of sausage and cabbage on top. Sprinkle with some Parmesan cheese and enjoy!

Sausagey, cabbagey goodness!

My mother and I both loved this dish, but we were both making crazy faces and required tissues to get through it. Perhaps your senses are more resilient than ours. 

A Little Gluttony Goes a Long Way

So I hope everyone had a safe and relaxing Labor Day weekend. I had a good weekend, but it surely would have been better if it was a few days longer. I don't know about what the rest of you did this weekend, but I ate. I ate quite a bit, and today I am fat. My fat pants were on and fully filled out today.

I ate sticky rib tips, lobster mac and cheese, delicious Belgian beer, smoked barbecue pork ribs, a lobster tail pastry, pignioli and hazelnut gelato, pistachio frozen yogurt and all the fixin's, Chinese pork buns, an awesome three egg omelette, home fries, homemade breaded fried chicken, and god only knows what else. I'm pretty sure I blacked out after the gelato, so those calories don't count, right?

Listen, whatever you did this weekend - it's over now. Get back to the grind tomorrow and cut your losses (and gains). I'm prepping myself with some unsweetened iced tea for now, and tomorrow I'm going to pretend that none of this ever happened. 

The real challenge will be making sure my pants get that same message. 

Sorry I'm not sorry.