Green bean-flavored popcorn is NOT good

[thistlechaser]

As part of my new diet*, I'm eating vegetable. None of this half-assed 'one new one a week' thing that I give up in the second week. Nightly. Sometimes I only eat a little (I could only get a few bites of broccoli down last night), sometimes I can stand it (I can eat a whole serving of snap peas -- I don't like them, but I can get them down).

Greek yogurt turned out to be such a great lesson. Remember early on I quoted someone who said it's a treat? A dessert? So creamy, rich, and sweet? And a bunch of us boggled at that? Well, that's how I feel now. It is so amazingly thick, creamy, and most of all sweet. I have no idea how I used to think it was too tangy/sour to eat, I don't taste any tang or sourness at all anymore, just overwhelming sweetness. I would happily have it as a dessert. If I can adjust to yogurt that way, then I can learn to eat vegetables. Or die trying.

(For new folks, my family rarely served vegetables and never forced me to eat them, so I didn't. All through childhood and into my adult life, I've not touched them.)

So tonight's veggie was green beans. I've been buying 'microwave fresh' pouches of various kinds. I could eat some of them (they were mushy and tasteless, which is a 100% win in my book -- no texture issue and no taste!) but they left an AWFUL smell in my microwave. I was still hungry when done, so I air popped a little popcorn in the microwave... you can see where this is going. What a disturbing, awful flavor for popcorn.

Using butter flavored Pam on air popped popcorn works well, it makes the salt/fake butter powder stuff stick. I will use that trick again one day, once my microwave airs out.

I was smart tonight. I got my chicken breast ready before going IC to RP! Hey, recipe writers? Please never, ever use "season to taste". How in the world am I supposed to judge that, especially on a raw chicken breast?! I used this recipe, sort of. I forgot the cooking spray, but everything stuck to the chicken just fine anyway. I left out the "Italian seasoning" because there's some herb in there that I know I don't like. I seasoned the breast with garlic salt, pepper, and some parsley, then put the cheese on top. Win. It's going into my chicken breast rotation for sure.


* I know "diet" is a bad word, I'm not on a diet, I'm "adjusting my lifestyle~", but there needs to be a nice, short word for this process. Something like 'diet'.

---

In RP news, it's always feast or famine. I had people I wanted to RP with tonight, and two scenes I owed people. Almost no one was both around and free! Ha! I'm doing a little archaeology on Clover to burn off rested XP writing this post, then might go look for random RP. I did get one short, fun scene in earlier though. Fingers crossed for more!

Comments

[aliceinazeroth.livejournal.com]

mmm, vegetables.

also , double mmm Greek yogurt

[alaias-stories.livejournal.com]

^^^ This. I could live on those two things. Oh, and some fruit! *shares blueberries*

[gconnor.livejournal.com]

So far my approach to veggies has been a moderate amount of mayo, and a lot of salt and pepper. My sweetie prefers butter, salt and pepper. I go through a lot of garlic salt. And, I went to the ranch99 market and got white pepper, which now has its own peppermill.

Actually my approach to diet so far has been kind of like hacking. Try something, see what works, keep doing it, keep trying. I'm having reasonably good luck with 1. keeping track of what I did and 2. making small changes, only one or two at a time. Like, substituting A for B and leaving the rest alone for a while. Sounds like your approach is similar... so keep doin like yer doin.

[mel-redcap.livejournal.com]

I shall hereby give you my recipe for Reasonably Easy And Quick Nommy Chicken!

Ingredients:
- One skinless chicken breast per person
- Diced pears canned in juice (one small snack pack per person or equivalent)
- Teriyaki marinade (you should be able to find this in bottles or jars; get the thick, gooey/gloopy type rather than the thin runny type)

Method:
- Put the pears and all their juice in a small saucepan. Add some teriyaki marinade - I measure this by eye, one large 'gloop' per serving. Basically add marinade and stir it in until the juice is deeply teriyaki-coloured.
- Bring to the boil and simmer over low heat until the pears are cooked soft (but still holding their shape) and the liquid is thickening. Turn off heat and cover.
- Cover your grill or a cookie sheet with tinfoil (shiny side up!). Arrange chicken breasts on this surface and brush with a generous coating of teriyaki marinade. Grill until the marinade is bubbling and turning black in spots (it's not burnt yet, don't worry!).
- Turn, brush with marinade, grill until this side is also bubbling/blackening. Test if necessary by cutting into the thickest part of the chicken to see if it's cooked; continue turning, marinating, and grilling until cooked through.
- Plate up, spoon pears and sauce over each piece of chicken, serve with steamed vegetables or salad or whatever you feel like eating.

:) Enjoy!

[thistle-chaser.livejournal.com]

Envy! If I loved vegetables, this would be so much easier. I'd eat them endlessly!

[thistle-chaser.livejournal.com]

Envy to you, too! I can hardly imagine how much easier this would be if I liked vegetables. I could fill up on them! They have so few calories!

[thistle-chaser.livejournal.com]

Mmmmm mayo. I love the stuff. Problem is, I'm trying to keep calories down, too. I've been buying those microwavable fresh packs, they come with a "butter" sauce (yet have only like 40 calories a serving, so it's unlikely to really be butter). That's sort of okay.

Actually my approach to diet so far has been kind of like hacking.

I like that way of looking at it! And the small changes part for sure. I want to increase the time per day I exercise as well as the days per week, but I knew if I did both at once it would kill me or make me stop. So I went to seven days, but kept the time the same. Eventually I'll increase the time, while keeping the seven days.

Thanks!

[thistle-chaser.livejournal.com]

Oh man, that sounds SO GOOD! I love pears to death and I'd marry teriyaki if I could. Next time I go to the supermarket, I'll try this! Thanks!

[aliceinazeroth.livejournal.com]

Eh, I grew up in the country where we grew a lot of things for the table. :D

I am with you on brocolis, though. When I was younger I thought it was pretty much the Devil's vegetable.

[thistle-chaser.livejournal.com]

The texture kills me. The stem part was somewhat better, but still pretty bad.

[aliceinazeroth.livejournal.com]

How do you feel about cauliflower?

I like to run it through a grater and microwave it for a couple of minutes. It comes out with the consistency of RICE.

Then you can put teriyaki chicken or whatever over it :D

[thistle-chaser.livejournal.com]

I've never tried it, but it looks like brains so it worries me. :P That sounds like a good way of doing it though! I love rice. I'll have to see if I can find some!

[alaias-stories.livejournal.com]

I'm like Aellais, grew up in the country and we grew a lot of our own, what we didn't grow we went and gathered in the woods (mushrooms, blackberries, crab apples, wild pears, etc.).

But there's also the fact that I've been diabetic my entire life and have had a very strict diet since I was 9 months old. The only "free" foods for me were vegetables. I never craved all of the "bad" things that everyone else likes because I never had them.

The ice cream man would come by and all of my friends would be on the porch with snow cones and dilly bars and I'd have a bowl of pickles or a tomato that I was eating like an apple. XD

That said, I'm probably your girl if you need recipes. ;)

And as much as I love vegetables I'm not a huge fan of broccoli either. It can be really nice steamed with a bit of lemon but I've got to be in the mood for it. I tend to replace it with cauliflower or have some fresh spinach instead.

[aliceinazeroth.livejournal.com]

It can also be cut up, microwaved until its mushy, then mashed like potatoes!

[aliceinazeroth.livejournal.com]

Oh man, I can eat a tomato like an apple too. Revengesong is squicked by it:D

I have a great recipe for lowcarb chocolate cake. CAKE.

[thistle-chaser.livejournal.com]

Sounds like you must be really healthy now, eating that well all of your life! I worry to think what my insides might look like, having spent my life eating no vegetables at all...

[thistle-chaser.livejournal.com]

I like sauce and ketchup, but I can't eat a tomato (even just a slice). The texture kills me, it literally makes me gag.

That's my issue so often with vegetables. "OMG! I have a PLANT in my mouth! EWWW! Get it out get it out!" :/

[thistle-chaser.livejournal.com]

I like potatoes, too! I might have to try this...

[sahn.livejournal.com]

My go-to vegetable is kimchi. Koreans tend to prepare vegetables dishes heavily seasoned, often pickled, and often spicy. Also, when we eat unseasoned and uncooked vegetables, we typically dip it in hot pepper paste. After growing up with that, I tend to find the way Americans prepare vegetables (like steamed broccoli) very bland (though I do like asparagus). I can't help but think it's no wonder Americans don't like vegetables.

[thistle-chaser.livejournal.com]

I'm not a spicy person at all ("mild" is usually way too hot for my poor tongue), so I don't mind bland too much. It's more the texture that really bothers me.

[sahn.livejournal.com]

If you haven't tried it yet, try zucchini. Cut it width-wise into discs about a quarter inch thick or so and pan fry with a little oil until lightly brown. I'd dip it in soy sauce, but you could eat as is or season with salt or whatever. Zucchini also goes well in soups. I like zucchini because when it's cooked it has a savory flavor and it's very tender (sort of like mushrooms, but less fungus-y). It doesn't taste (much) like a vegetable. It's many, many times better than broccoli.

[thistle-chaser.livejournal.com]

Oh, huh! Thanks, I'll try that.

[aliceinazeroth.livejournal.com]

Yeah! I think of it as kind of fooling your mouth into thinking its eating something kinda bad and starchy. heh

[sahn.livejournal.com]

Let me know how it goes.

[alaias-stories.livejournal.com]

To some degree. Lack of insurance for 9 years keeping me from my specialists and a few other health problems have made me otherwise. Or at least made me feel otherwise.

Having a baby and being over 30 changed the dynamics on how all of these things work together and affect each other so I've got to figure all that out again. But I'm getting closer and closer to sorting it out! :)

But yeah, as far as foods go I've always lived on vegetables and lean meat and TONS of skim milk (I used to go through a gallon a week by myself!) so as far as that goes I'm doing pretty well! :)

[alaias-stories.livejournal.com]

Hahaha!! Most people are, I can't figure out why!

I make a really good strawberry cheesecake that is not filled with a thousand grams of fat. XD

[mel-redcap.livejournal.com]

No worries. :) I recommend this to people because even my stepfather, who hates hates HATES fruit combined with savory things, discovered he likes it enough to request the recipe from me. XD