A while back, before I got sick, I felt like my weight had gotten out of hand, so I talked to my GP about surgery and he swiftly pointed me to a nutritionist instead. Listening to her, it didn’t take me long to realize that most of what we know about food and eating and dieting serves corporate interests only. Even the food pyramid in elementary school was corrupted by sponsors. So I took what she said seriously and it helped, both before and after cancer and cancer treatment. And now whenever I see the scale register a few pounds too many, I fall back on her advice. She steered me away from sugars, starches, and carbs and told me that every meal should be built on protein and fiber in my case, with a little fat (preferably already in the meat, but a little real butter or extra virgin olive oil would work too) just to make it all work together once you get it inside you. It is so easy to slide back into breads and pastas, rice and potatoes, cake and cookies–but walking away will help immediately, kind of like when you were in college and took a week or two off from drinking beer when the belly started to overhang the belt. I’ve got some prep shots here, along with some finished product shots. The one sheet pan or steamer pan meals are quick and healthy, but you do have to know what you’re doing to pull them off because you are applying the same amount of heat to everything on or in the pan for the same amount of time. That means everything has to be the same density or cut in such a way that everything cooks in the same amount of time. Not everyone’s game. Upstairs is a shot of a grilled filet (barely grilled in my case) with sautéed spinach and half a salted grapefruit. Lean and mean. And a go to for me.
And here are a few after the magic shots.
Now I know a lot of people are addicted to the McRibs style of cooking pork ribs, low and slow, dressed in a thick Lea & Perrins, orange and pineapple juice paste and dusted in Italian seasoning, salt and pepper with maybe a bit of local honey to finish, foil wrapped and baked at 300 for two hours then finished on the grill with your favorite barbecue sauce and I understand. Used to do them that way myself, But now I like to just remove the silverskin from the bone side, wipe them down with olive oil and Lea & Perrins then hit them with a one to one to one mix of garlic salt, garlic powder, and onion powder followed by Zatarain’s and black pepper before sliding them in a four hundred degree oven uncovered for an hour. All that is because my aim now is not McRib fall off the bone sweet and tender, but perfect pork roast on a stick that I can chew on while watching football on tv. And if I have any ribs left the next morning Voila! ramen. With a lot of carb loaded noodles. You can only stay so good for so long.
