Ethiopian cravings, Girl & the Goat, tracking, thinking ahead, and holding myself accountable for it all!

Tracking, thinking ahead, and holding myself accountable for it all is pretty much the backbone of Weight Watchers and dang it's feeling good.  What I love so much is the structure and that it forces me to think ahead.  More time to think about food!  Weird, but it does satisfy my passionate addiction to food. The thinking ahead is taking place of impulsive, and usually unhealthy choices.  I'm sorting out foods that don't sustain me or satisfy me and choosing power foods that really fill me up, keep my hunger levels even, and just make me feel so damn good.  Every moment is a new learning experience.  Why would I eat a bagel and cream cheese and still be hungry when I could eat a big ass breakfast sandwich on Ezekiel 4:9 Sprouted Grain bread with spinach, reduced fat cheddar, egg & egg white, spinach, garlic and onion doused with my favorite hot sauce Cholula with a side of strawberries and feel satisfied.  After I eat my big ass breakfast sandwich I feel like Wonder Woman and I'm full and happy.  I also really love that WW recommends that you don't deprive yourself of foods you love, even if they are unhealthy.  You don't have to give up anything you love, you just have to hold yourself accountable for it and then make some changes to the rest of your day.  I'm learning quickly that most of my impulsive cravings are not worth it because I am still hungry after.  I'm also not eating impulsively because I'm less hungry and always have a healthy veggie or fruit on hand when I want something in my mouth.  This bitch wants to be full, satisfied, and feel great after I eat.  So far, that's how it has been! 

It's amazing how much my grocery cart's appearance has changed.  Less boxes and almost 85% produce and the bill is a lot less.  I'm eating up all the recipe suggestions on the site, and also using their "Recipe Builder" to figure out how many points are in my favorite recipes.  I'm not eating out as much because I have no clue how restaurants prepare my food.  So I'm saving money on my groceries AND saving money from eating out.  Double score.

One of me and my hubby's favorite cuisines is Ethiopian and we often frequent Ethiopian restaurants.  I was craving some Ethiopian but decided to take it in my own hands this week and make it myself.  I found a Tikil Gomen recipe (my fav Ethiopian dish with potatoes, carrot, cabbage, and onion) off of AllRecipes.com (FAVORITE recipe site ever).  I always choose the most reviewed/best rated recipe and I/anyone who tastes the food is always impressed and happy.  Guaranteed deliciousness. To make Tikil Gomen healthier then it already is I cut the oil in 1/2 and just added a little water as needed to help finish cooking the potatoes.   I also limited the potatoes to 2 lbs because they are more points and used 2 more carrots. I used the WW "Recipe Builder" to calculate my special Hillary version of Tikil Gomen to be 6 points a serving (makes 5 nice big servings in total).  I'll include my recipe at the end. 

But if you've had Ethiopian you know that Injera (the spongy sourdough-ish tasting flat bread) is essential.  Injera takes forever to make and I wasn't about to spend a few days making it when local Chicago Ethiopian ladies make it/sell it at Kukulu Market just east of us.   Fresh Injera bread in a pack of 3 (14in diameter pieces) for $1.75.  Can't go wrong.  Mami made my batch.  She did a great job.  I love her.  After some research I calculated that a 12 inch diameter piece of Injera is 4 points.  The kind I bought was more like 14 inches so I ate about 3/4 a piece to be safe and it was totally enough.  That's a nice bowl of Tikil Gomen and a lot of Injera to enjoy for 10 points, and we did enjoy it very much.

Speaking of enjoying good food, we celebrated Valentine's Day on Sunday at Top Chef winner Stephanie Izzard's restaurant Girl & the Goat.  I allotted my extra 49 points for this night and I'm pretty sure I used all of it.  We had the Culture Bread (fresh baked rustic bread) served with fresh butter and beer cheese sauce, the Chickpea Fritters, the Chicken with side of fried pickles, the Goat Sausage pizza with blood orange, Pig Face, the Green Beans, and an Agave Fleur cocktail.  I loved everything but the Pig Face.  My favorites were the Culture Bread, Chicken dish, Green Beans and Goat Sausage pizza.  One thing that was frustrating was when I came home to track the food...

Exhibit A:

 

Exhibit B:

... so I did my best and chatted with my WW leader about it.  I did exactly what she suggested and found similar things to account for the food.  I had to break down most of the dishes guesstimating the ingredients and their portions, but it wasn't too much of a hassle because I had such an enjoyable experience and was in a happy foodie coma.  If you haven't been to Girl & the Goat, you gotta go.  It's a foodie's dream on a plate.

Later gators,
Hillary

Oh! And here is my amazing Tikil Gomen recipe:

1 heaping teaspoon cumin

1/2 heaping teaspoon tumeric

4 tbs minced garlic (i love it)

1 tsp ginger

salt & ground black pepper to taste

2 lbs of white potatoes, peeled and diced

6 monster sized carrots, peeled and chopped thin

1 large yellow onion, sliced thin

1/2 head of green cabbage, shredded

1/4 cup Olive Oil

Sriracha (if you like a kick)

Prepare veggies (hardest/most time consuming part).   Heat olive oil in a big pot under medium high heat and add onion and carrot.  Cook for 10 minutes, stirring occasionally.  Add garlic, cumin, tumeric, ginger, salt & pepper, and green cabbage.  Lower heat to medium and stir that shit every 5 minutes for about 20 minutes.  Add potatoes, lower heat to low, cover, and cook it for an additional 30 minutes (maybe more) until the potatoes/cabbage are nice and soft and the sauce thickens.  Check on it every 10 minutes, give it a stir and add a lil bit of water if needed so it doesn't burn at the bottom.  The water also assists in cooking the veggies.  Taste it, and add some more salt & pepper to your liking.  I added a beautiful swirl of Sriracha to give it a kick and enhance the flavors, and stirred it one last time.  Now eat it.  Enjoy!