Adventures with the Skinny Cow

I'm so behind in my posting that the Blogger interface has changed since my last post. Has it been that long? No, it hasn't, but I am indeed behind.  It's not a reflection of my journey - I've been exercising and eating healthy food and taking care of me.  It's all happy-life-stuff that has kept me distracted - work, prep for fixing the bedroom, cooking, and even planning for the next SC600!

This week's adventure was a perfect one for Finishing the Hat.  It involved fashion... low-calorie food... friend-makin'... and, of course, adventure!

A few months ago, my friend Joanne (who works out with me at Slimmons) invited me along with some of our mutual friends to join her for a Girls' Day Out, with lunch after class and a visit to a Skinny Cow event called "The Perfect Cup," offering free bra fittings (get it?) and samples of their ice cream cups.  I am a fan of lady-dates, so naturally, I accepted and secured my spot at the event ASAP.

I had a delicious and light lunch with Joanne, Mia and Alexa at Le Pain Quotidien, and then Mia headed home while the rest of us went over to the Pacific Design Center in West Hollywood, where the Skinny Cow event was held.

Skinny Cow - if you haven't heard of them before - is a low-calorie snack company owned by Nestle.  I regularly enjoy their ice cream sandwiches. At 140 calories, they're a tasty way to sooth my sweet tooth without being triggered to pig out.  But I hadn't tried their ice cream cups before, and I was looking forward to a sample.

It was a terrific event, and extremely well-managed.  We checked in at the entrance to the Pacific Design Center in West Hollywood, and each of us were handed a little remote buzzing pager (like they use at chain restaurants) which called us when our bra fitting was ready.  Then Alexa, Joanne and I stepped into the very chic-looking, pink-lit space. 

I felt immediately welcome.  There was a lovely range of ages, sizes, and ethnicities in attendance, and everyone seemed to be in a terrific mood.  The guests were being pampered, and the Skinny Cow team members were all smiles, too.  We headed for beverages while we waited for our pagers to buzz - which didn't take long.

We've arrived! With beverages in hand, and scarf on neck. That scarf played an important part in my day.
I enjoyed my white wine with mandarin oranges. (It was unexpectedly delicious.)

Alexa and Joanne recline.  Joanne's sipping fizzy water with lime.

My fitting went well - I'm nearly exactly the same size as I was the last fitting, though I'm sort of between a D and a DD now.  I was surprised to find out that we were also given a coupon for a free bra by the event sponsor, Olga's Christina.  FREE BRA!?  We had heard that there were free bras, but we'd assumed they were some poorly-constructed one-size-fits-all they handed out in swag bags.  This was an entirely better reward! I'm going to redeem mine at Macy's this weekend. 

While I was standing at one of the tall tables, a woman complimented me on my scarf.  She was adorable herself, wearing a polka-dotted retro outfit that looked like something I'd put together on Fashion Friday!  I told her so, and we struck up a conversation that lasted for, well, pretty much the rest of the event.  Cassandra and her friend Jennie also chatted away with Joanne and Alexa, and all five of us were excellent company on that unexpectedly friend-makin' Saturday.

With Jennie and Cassandra.  Aren't they cute?  Cassandra's holding one of the Skinny Cow cups.

  
Cassandra's ice cream looked yummy, so I headed to Skinny's Ice Cream Bar to snag a cup of my own.

Two good cups, indeed.

  

Even the ice cream freezers behind the bar were themed.

  
I had the strawberry cheesecake flavor, and it was surprisingly yummy - and a surprisingly large portion - for 150 calories.  Thumbs-up, Skinny Cow.

Along with the samples, beverages, and bra sizings, there were a number of other attractions, including a museum of historical bras...

I'm amused by the name of the 1930s falsies.

Plus they had raffles at regular intervals.  Cassandra won an iPod, and others won books, bags, and even makeovers.  Oddly enough, the makeup artists were often without a makeover winner.  It would've been great if they offered more of them, or even let us pay for them.

Makeover in action.

Alexa tweeted about the delightful time we were having with our new friends, and moments later, it was up on their real-time social networking screens!

It really was meant to be. 

  

The five of us even posed together with the Skinny Cow herself - accessorized for the occasion.

  
As we headed out, we received swag bags including coupons, a sample of their new candy flavors, and a t-shirt (that, unfortunately, is going to be too small for a few months. Skinny Cow, consider your audience!)

Alas, the Los Angeles event was the last on the tour, but if Skinny Cow hosts events in the future, I definitely recommend going.  The ice cream was motivation enough, but a free bra and a professional sizing? Drinks? New friends?  Far more than I expected.

All right.  I'm off to test the fifth new recipe of the day (yes, five. More on that very soon!)  Keep adventuring, and take care of you!

Weigh-in Tuesday with a clean kitchen

Remember last week's weigh-in?  When I was honest about having a rough go, and weighing in 3 pounds heavier?

Well, for the last week, I may have been super busy (and not always on my regular blog schedule)... but I've also been working super hard on taking care of myself.  I've eaten carefully, and tracked my food every day.  And I exercised a LOT.

• 60 minutes on Wednesday at the YMCA pool
• 90 minutes at Slimmons on Thursday
• 8 hours walking around (and standing in line) at Disneyland on Friday
• 90 minutes at Slimmons on Saturday
• nothing aside from walking a the Farmer's Market on Sunday
• 60 minutes on Monday at the YMCA pool
• and it'll be another 90 minutes at Slimmons tonight

I felt emotional from time to time, but I didn't eat emotionally.

And as a result... when I weighed in this morning, I was 4.5 pounds down.  The scale said...

300.0

Seriously. I have a digital scale with tenths and it was exactly 300.0.  I even tried to pee more to see if it would go below, but alas, it did not.

Alas? What is "alas" about it? I'm at my lowest weight in years!  I am very close to saying goodbye to 300 forever.

I learned one thing this week that I'm surprised I didn't realize before... one weird thing that, when it's in place, always spurs me on:

Being healthy is easier when your kitchen is clean.

Last week, during the days I was struggling the most, my kitchen was a mess.  Piles of dishes, sloppy floor, unorganized fridge... the last place I wanted to be was the kitchen.  And Wednesday morning, after I cleaned it, the balanced eating was suddenly so much easier.  So I'm making a concerted effort to keep the kitchen clean, so there's nothing - no mess, no leftovers, no nothing - to make me want to hide from the kitchen.  I do best when I'm making all my meals, and now I know that I can't just stop there!

All right.  I'm off to keep kicking ass, so that hopefully next week I can finally say I weigh less than 300 pounds.  And you? No matter where you are, and no matter how we know each other or how close we are... I hope you'll keep taking care of you.  You deserve it.

Fashion Friday at the Drive-In!

Ach, I'm running behind again!  It's Tuesday... and although I missed posting on Fashion Friday, I wanted to conclude with the third part of my B-Movie BBQ series. (Have you seen Part I and Part II yet?)

Here's what I wore to the latest Supper Club 600:

The wind did terrible things to my hair!
Retro camp shirt by Torrid
Black jersey dress by Target
Blown-glass cherry earrings by Anthropologie
Bakelite cherry necklace by
Bat bracelet by Lisa at Inspired Adornments

   
  
I was excited to finally wear the camp shirt for the first time.  I bought it online years ago, but it was one of those terribly mis-sized pieces, and fit nothing like the other shirts by the company.  I finally fit into it perfectly, except for the sleeves, which were cinched in far too small for the size.  (It seemed like they hadn't used a fit model.)  My mother-in-law (our tireless volunteer tailor) snipped the sleeves' bands, they were almost too big! 

The shirt has such cute little details - the cheesecake print, the star buttons, and especially the monogram, which is "LS" for the designer, "Lip Service."  In certain online circles I'm actually known as "LS," so it felt like it was made especially for me.

An up-side of inviting creative friends to parties is that occasionally, those creative friends will bring a creative surprise for you.  In this case, my jewelry-designing friend Lisa brought me a horror-themed bracelet for the occasion, since she knew I had themed the event around B-movie horror.  It's adorable, and it's going to get a heck of a lot of use, especially around the Halloween season.  There's a brass plate on the back which is embossed with the word "spooky" - spooky like an abandoned drive-in lot...

OK, maybe an abandoned drive-in lot is not that spooky when I'm smiling.
Tom looked pretty Friday-Fashionable himself, in his retro shirt by Vintage Silk.
(I swear to you, we did not plan our outfits together.)

I'll be back later today with a weigh-in post for Tuesday... and I'm hoping to get back to my regular post schedule starting tomorrow.  Take care of you!

Barbecue Part Two: Recipe Boogaloo

Yesterday I shared my Supper Club 600 adventure at the Drive-In, and as promised, today I'll be sharing the recipes for all of the dishes we made.  (Well, all but the barbecue jackfruit, which I've already shared.)

Curried Chickpea Salad

An excellent source of protein!

We fell in love with this salad at Joan's on Third, our favorite place in Los Angeles to pick up a picnic-to-go.  Whenever we wanted it, we'd have to trek over to Beverly Hills... until The Times was so kind to print the recipe!

As with any recipe, Tom and I tweaked it to lower the calories... and I'm a wuss when it comes to spice, so we removed the heat.  Here's our variation on Joan's chickpeas:

• 1/2 cup diced onions
• 1 teaspoons olive oil
• 1/2 teaspoon turmeric
• 1/2 teaspoon cumin
• 1/2 teaspoon coriander
• 30 ounces of chickpeas
• 2 tablespoons cilantro
• 1 lemon, juiced
• Pam
• Water
• Salt

Saute the onion in Pam over medium-high heat for 6 to 8 minutes, stirring frequently.

Add the turmeric, cumin, and coriander. Stir regularly for about 3 minutes.  It will develop into a kind of spice "paste."

Drain the chickpeas, then add to the pan and cook for about 5 minutes.

Add a tablespoon of lemon juice along with a little water, to thin the paste.
 
Remove from heat and season with the cilantro, the rest of the lemon juice, and salt to taste.


Broccoli Slaw

Light and crunchy!

  
Tom got this recipe from "Big Daddy's House," starring Aaron McCargo Jr, the winner of Next Food Network Star a few years ago.  It's a lot spicer as Aaron makes it - and it includes oil that, in our opinion, weighs the slaw down unnecessarily.  Here's our twist on Aaron's recipe:

• 1 cup shredded carrots
• 2 cups shredded broccoli slaw (we buy ours at Trader Joe's.)
• 1/2 medium sweet onion, thinly sliced
• 1/4 cup cider vinegar
• 1 lime, zested and juiced
• 1/2 teaspoon kosher salt
• 2 tablespoons sugar
• 1/2 teaspoon cracked black pepper

Soak the slices of onion for a few minutes, which will make it slightly milder.  Then drain, and combine with the carrots and broccoli slaw. Set aside.

In a small saucepan, add the vinegar, lime zest, lime juice, salt, sugar, and the black pepper. Bring to a light boil over low heat. Remove from heat and allow to cool for a few minutes.


Add the mixture to the vegetables, and toss to combine.


 Blue Cheese Aioli

We served ours with crunchy veggie crudite.

I'm proud to say that I came up with this recipe myself!  I'd heard about combining sour cream with mayo to make aioli, but when I had discovered two perfect low-calorie ingredients, I knew that putting them together would make for amazing flavor and texture.  And I was right!  You can try other replacement ingredients, but if at all possible, I highly recommend these specific ones:

• 1/2 cup Trader Joe's Fat Free Sour Cream
• 1/2 cup Light Vegenaise (available at Whole Foods)
• 2 oz blue cheese crumbles
• 2 garlic cloves, finely minced

Stir it together, and that's it.  For some real foodie fireworks, bake some sweet potato fries and have at.

There are a couple of other recipes I can share with you... but they're hiding inside the movie snack sampler bags!

The spoils of Supper Club 600!

Every guest at the Drive-In received a sampler with two kinds of popcorn, some fresh market cherries, and a mini-serving of dark chocolate pomegranate "raisinettes."  (We did not make the "raisinettes" ourselves. They're available at Trader Joe's as Dark Chocolate Dried Pomegranate.  They're great, but be wary of portion size.  They list it at 1/4 cup for 200 calories - a third of our evening's calories! - so we gave our guests less than half of the recommended serving.)


We made the popcorn ourselves, with just a tiny bit of oil in the popper.  From there, we sprayed it with a little butter-flavored Pam and transferred it to a large bag (not packed - with plenty of room.)  Add the flavor mixtures and shake to coat!  Here is the ratio information for our mixtures, per cup of popcorn.


Cinnamon-Sugar
1/4 tsp cinnamon
1/2 tsp sugar
Pinch of salt

Southwestern
1/4 tsp taco seasoning (with salt but without MSG)
1/4 tsp cumin
1/4 tsp chili powder

Tom - who is a veritable popcorn fiend - liked the flavored popcorn enough that he's considering bringing some to a movie theater in the future.  (Movie theater popcorn is possibly his greatest vice, and he's cut way, way down.)

That's everything!  But don't forget to come back tomorrow for the sequel... ATTACK OF THE DRIVE-IN FASHION!  'Til then, take care of you!

Supper Club 600: B-Movie BBQ at the Drive-In!

I am so happy to be writing this blog entry.  You have no idea.  I've been preparing for it for weeks!

Every so often, my Adventure Wednesday post is extra-special to me, because the adventure of the week is a gathering of friends and loved ones for a celebration of my journey.  A celebration of food and health and joy... which IS POSSIBLE.  You can combine food and health and joy.  And that is why we started Supper Club 600, a dinner party series where we teach - by example -  that you can eat healthfully and still take great delight in being a foodie.  Each SC600 meal clocks in at less than 600 calories. And each time, it's themed for maximum party pleasure.

This time it was a barbecue.  At a drive-in.  With B movies.  And it was a blast.

Tom and I have been perfecting the menu over time, starting with the jackfruit itself.  I've already shared the recipe, but for those of you who missed it, the short story of jackfruit is: it's canned, it's unripened, it shreds like pulled pork, and it's delicious.  We first served it at another SC600 BBQ gathering, but I managed not to take a single photo of that party, so we decided to throw another one!

This time, we knew we needed to make everything simple so that we could prepare it in advance and deliver it to the Mission Tiki Drive-In, where we gathered for the occasion.  Here's our menu for the evening:

I lifted the illustration from an old B-movie poster I found while gathering inspiration for the party.

I stumbled upon the theme idea after Googling "movie fabric," on the hunt for some sort of textiles I could use to decorate.  I happened upon some amazing monster movie fabric by Robert Kaufman, and I thought... of course!  B-movies are notorious at Drive-In theaters, and it was just the perfect element to tie everything together.  Kaufman's fabric had gone out of print, but I was lucky to snag just enough on eBay, so my crafty mother-in-law Jean whipped it into table runners.  And a theme was born.

Here's the Kaufman fabric runner, plus one of our centerpieces - white hydrangea "popcorn."

  

It was the THEME THAT WOULD NOT DIE.  I ended up making personalized bags for the movie snack sampler, using an array of B-movie posters I'd found online.

Mmm.  Black Lagoonlicious!
Photo courtesy of Rochelle

We even used thematic serving forks - as modeled by our new friend David.
I got these beauties at Target during Halloween season two years ago.
Photo by Rochelle

Enough with the theme.  Let's get to the party!

We set up our table before the Drive-In opened for the night - and once other guests
arrived, there was much staring.  We could read their minds. "What the hell?"

  

THERE WAS NO ESCAPING...
Our dinner spread.
Photo by Rochelle

 

THRILLS AND CHILLS!
We offered chilled zero-calorie beverages, including still water, "fuzzy" water (as it's known in my circles)
and a selection of diet sodas from the awesome Rocket Fizz in Burbank.
Photo by Rochelle

Among them, Jones Zilch Pomegranate... plus Old Philadelphia Creme Soda,
Avery's Orange, Virgil's Black Cherry, Root Beer, Cola and Dr. Better.
Man, I love that "Children of the Damned" poster.
Photo by Rochelle

   

Every single one of our lovely guests arrived early
to help set up, and soon we were ready to dig in.
Photo OF Rochelle! (And David.)

ATTACK OF THE KILLER JACKFRUIT!
Possibly our proudest moment was hearing raves about the jackfruit from a friend of ours who is a firm non-vegetarian.

   
   

The awesome Patty is about to try jackfruit for the first time!

  

A bird's eye view of dinner.
Photo by Rochelle

Time flew past, and suddenly the sun was setting on the beautiful Southern California evening.

  
But at a Drive-In, that means the party's just starting.  Our gang grabbed their treat bags and split off into three different movie doubleheaders: B-movie horror (Fright Night & Final Destination), B-movie remakes (Conan & Planet of the Apes) and comedy (30 Minutes or Less & The Change-Up.) 

Regardless of movie quality, everyone seemed to really enjoy their Drive-In adventure.  Goodness knows I did.  Thanks, from the bottom of my heart, to Frank and the team at Mission Tiki, who made this possible; to Tom, who keeps me grounded and pops excellent popcorn; to our amazing guests.  No amount of cooking or planning really makes a party great.  It's the guests who do that.

Hungry for more about the Drive-In?  You're in luck! I'll be back tomorrow with RETURN OF THE DRIVE-IN... a close-up on the recipes from this edition of Supper Club 600, and a peek inside those little treat bags.  And if that's not enough... come back for Fashion Friday: IT CAME... FROM THE DRIVE-IN! That's right, it's a B-Movie BBQ trilogy.

'Til then, I'm working hard on taking care of me.  And I hope you'll take care of you, too.

Weigh-in Tuesday thoughts on honesty

I'm still behind. And I want to get this post out of the way because I have a post that I'm genuinely excited about to write today.  This post... I don't want to write it.  But I'm going to write it.  Because one of the most important parts of my journey to better health can be described with one VERY important word:

HONESTY.

Without honesty, I might still be secretly eating.

Without honesty, I don't have to remind myself where I've been, where I want to go, and where I am on that path.

Without honesty, I could be choosing to subconsciously punish my mistakes with more mistakes.

Without honesty, others who are on their own journeys would get a flawed picture of what it's like for me to be on mine.

Without honesty, I would break the trust between myself and my loved ones.  Myself and my readers.  Myself and MYSELF.

Without honesty, I could continue on a path of not taking care of myself, because I'd be duping myself - and others - that I was.

But you know what?  I don't WANT to be on a path of not taking care of myself.

Let's get rid of the double-negatives in that sentence.

I WANT TO TAKE CARE OF MYSELF.

And nothing... no stress, no projects, no passion, no work, no people, no emotion, no NOTHING... is going to get in the way of taking care of myself.

So here is the truth.  Here is my honesty.

I work really hard to lose weight.  Really, really hard.

This week, I didn't work hard enough.  I gained 3 pounds.  I did so by letting myself get wrapped up in a project I loved, and putting that project before myself.  I did so by being mindless about food.  I did not take the time to follow my plan or get to the gym or track what I ate.  And later, I let myself get down and stressed, and leaned on my addiction to get through it.

And that's not OK.

I'm having a hard time not beating myself up about it.  But that usually leads to the whole subconsciously-punishing-mistakes-with-other-mistakes thing I wrote about above.  So, instead, I'm just being honest.  And I'm picking myself up, dusting myself off, and keeping on this life-long journey of taking care of me.  I have plans, checks-and-balances, in place to help me as I work through this.  And I know I can do this.  I am fighting for me.

Oh my goozness, it's Friend Makin' Monday

I drafted but did not push this entry yesterday - apologies for the lapse!  Weigh-in Tuesday will follow later today.

I'm trying a new thing this Friend Makin' Monday... introducing one of my friends to you!

A few years ago, I stumbled upon a viral video that I literally watched three times in a row.  It was called "Fat Rant," and in it, a beautiful plus-sized woman took on several different characters, speaking to the camera about what it's like to be overweight, and how to treat overweight people.  It was my introduction to the Fat Acceptance movement.  And it was my introduction to Joy Nash.





Joy Nash developed and wrote the piece as a solo performance, and adapted it for video... which spread like wildfire.  Her performance was smart, insightful, and funny.  I fell in creative-crush.

A year later, I was involved with a Fat Acceptance online community and headed to a gathering of the local Fatshionistas.  (That's not my word, that's actually the name of the group.  Clever.)  When the host called me with information, I realized she was Joy.  That Joy.  Joy!  We met and became friends, and have collaborated on a few creative pieces, including her amazing performance as Roz (the second-grade school newspaper reporter) in our workshop reading of our animated kids' pilot, Bubble Gumshoe.

This year, Joy premiered her solo play, My Mobster, at the Hollywood Fringe Fest, and we had the pleasure of seeing it (both in development, and there at the Fest.)  And it is brilliant.  The Fringe Fest agrees with us: they selected her show for the "Best of Fringe," and it is playing once more, this Saturday.  Tom and I are going to go see it again, and I hope you locals will consider joining us.  She is a firecracker, and her story of a relationship with a wild, romantic possibly-mobster is both hilarious and full of beauty and life.  Just like Joy herself.  Let me know if you want to join us - you can get tickets here.

All right... I'll be back with a weigh-in tomorrow, with some really fun coming soon.  Til then, take care of you.