Posts by jezebelina

If you like cabbage, you can make un-stuffed cabbage rolls.  Brown the beef, drain (rinsing seems like it would take away even the tiny remaining wonderful flavor of animal fat ;) ), add chopped onion and shredded carrot, saute until veggies are soft, then add 1/2 head of shredded cabbage and your choice of tomato sauce/paste/juice/pasta sauce, and cook until desired degree of doneness.  Once you reach that point, serve on a bed of steamed or boiled white rice - :)  Seasonings would include S+P, some paprika or red pepper flakes (depending on how spicy you like your food), some caraway seeds, and some celery seeds.   It's one of my favorite ways of eating ground beef :)

Another thing I like to make is homemade italian sausage - it tastes just as well with beef as with lean pork, and I love making italian sausage soup!

Italian sausage: 1lb beef, salt and pepper to taste, 1/2 tsp garlic powder, 1 tsp paprika, red pepper flakes (if desired), pinch of fennel seeds, crushed, pinch of anise seeds (good if you have, won't ruin the dish if you don't) crushed.  Mix well and let sit in the fridge overnight. 

Italian sausage soup: http://allrecipes.com/Recipe/Italian-Sausage- Soup/Detail.aspx I don't bother with the the broth, since making it with water still makes it super flavorful - and I add lots and lots of red and green bell peppers for that sausage and peppers flavor.  Serve on some rice or noodles. 

Jannid - that's not a stupid question, but rather your own preference.  Sometimes i eat the seeds, sometimes i just suck the juice from them and spit them out.  The seeds are like grape seeds - ahem - in that they are completely "flushable" - i think you know what i mean. 

I can wait until most things go on sale, but some things are sold so rarely, that i'll grab them up no matter the price.

Pomegranates, anyone?  about $2-3 per piece, but oh so worth it!

Zefir - you totally have to be from the former USSR to know what these are, but man oh man, I can't resist them even if they are about $5 per half pound. 

clairelaine is right - you probably bought the shelled split red lentils (they actually look pink/orange).  they cook up to mush in about 15 minutes, and you shouldn't drain them

there are many different types of lentils

guy de puie (sp?) green - tiny french green lentils - don't lose their shape at all when cooked, even after an hour

brown lentils - there are also different ones here - some lose their shape, some dont

moong dal - indian green whole lentils

urad dal, and many others

they all taste slightly different, with a similar texture (except the pink/red/orange shelled split ones)

Don't know if that clarified anything except that you should look for more specific recipes using the exact type of lentil you have...

Bobo - What everyone said up until this point is correct - the cuisine in that part of the former Soviet Union is heavy on fatty meat, and unfortunately this is still the winter/early spring season, so there won't be too many fruits and vegetables readily available, but that depends on whether or not you will be in a rural or urban area (if the latter is true - there will most likely be supermarkets with a great deal of varied produce/food available).  The only advice I can give is similar to alenka's - see if you can find any russian restaurants - they do use much more chicken, and have some veggie based salads (root veggies) that are pretty good. 

There's nothing wrong with eating some white rice every once in a while.  As many people continue pointing out on these forums, variety is the key to diet success. 

p.s. Cooked rice is not so caloric (don't remember exact numbers off the top of my head, but ~ 150 cals/cup).  Are you sure you are not counting the dry rice? 

What age did you start, for example? And where did you learn?  We're you a curious little kid hovering around your parents & grandparents in the kitchen or are you a relative latecomer to the art, picking it up as you've gone along?   Have you ever been on a specific cookery course?  How much time do you typically spend making a dish?.... Do you enjoy slow-cooking as much as quick-cooking?   Do you stick to simple dishes or do you like the challenge of a complicated one?   What benefits do you think you've got from being able to cook?  What tips could you pass on to the nervous newbie?  What are the essentials you'd need if you'd never cooked before?   Do you have a favourite cookery book or writer you'd recommend? 

I started cooking when I was 21, studying abroad in France.  I could have lived perfectly well on frozen meals or the occasional salad & canned goods, but I got my hands on a couple of French cookbooks, and as part of learning the language, decided to try out some authentic recipes.  I remember I only had one hotplate, so I could cook only relatively simple meals requiring one pot or pan, and it was lots of fun!!!  I have never taken a cooking class, but I would like to learn the "official" French cuisine (beyond what I learned in cookbooks).  I also enjoy slow cooking (including crockpot cooking) and it usually takes me 30 minutes or less of active time to cook something.  I also love to bake, but still working my way towards the yeasted breads and baked goods.  I cook simple dishes most of the time, but sometimes for a special occasion or a weekend, i will spend some more time and effort for a more complicated traditional russian dish (for those who do not know this cuisine - you're missing a lot!).  I like to try different things and experiment, and almost everything i cook is healthy AND delicious - one of the perks of bieng your own cook!  To the newbie, the only thing I could say is brush up on the common cooking terms (poaching, sauteing, & etc.) and then pick up any cookbook that looks interesting (but check reader reviews also) and start from there.  That's the way that worked for me.  I can't recommend a specific cookbook because most of mine are in a foreign language, but Rachael Ray has some good recipes (and even though I think some of them take longer than 30 minutes - or I would cook them longer than that for tenderness and my desired degree of doneness) and they are pretty delicious.  I could also recommend seeing an episode or two of a cooking show to get a little familiar with the terminology and the techniques used. 

That's pretty much it - hope that wasn't too wordy and confusing, but I didn't have too much time to order my thoughts :)

Kefir is great to drink on its own, as umneydurak said, you can also use it instead of buttermilk in pancakes and baking, then there are the cold summer soups which really benefit from the salty sour tang, and a whole bunch of smoothie possibilities...  Just experiment :) 

Sorry this reply is too late, but kefir can stay in the fridge for weeks without going bad :)

I am in the same boat, actually.  I'd suggest getting a tap measure and measuring inches lost instead - it's a much better indicator of fat lost than weight is.  

igloogal, high fiber real food would be: cabbage, broccoli, apples, pears, bran, oats, & beans, believe it or not.  Lots more too, but basically fruits, veggies, whole grains...

Hugh Laurie as cranky House!!!

Everyone, thanks for your replies :)

Some middle eastern countries have something called a honey massage.  This is where you get naked, some heated honey is spread over the problem area, and the massage specialist slaps the area with the flat of the hand but pulls back the hands suddenly at a 90 degree angle.  This procedure is supposed to be repeated on the same area until the honey turns completely white.  The area will be red for a couple of hours and some bruising may occur.  The massage is painful, but is supposed to provide visible results for about a year or so.  HOWEVER - I have never done this myself and do not know whether it would actually work on me or if it is only for relatively average weighted people with only a bit of cellulite.  A couple of my friends (from Azerbaijan) did it, though, and it seemed to work for them.  Take that with a grain of salt because I don't know where you would find a middle eastern honey massage specialist in the U.S.

I just wanted to comment on the washing your hair every day...  As a teenager, I decided to try and wash my hair every day, but since I have long and very thick hair, it got to be a pain very quickly, especially since it took about all day to dry.  Therefore, I decided I was going to wean myself off of the daily washings.  And it's exactly that - weaning.  Your scalp, when it gets used to the daily washings, develops/secretes more oil quicker (therefore the oily look on the second day) to compensate for the natural oil stripped away while washing.  If you wash it every two or three days, the oil is still there, but is not developed/secreted as quickly.  All you have to do (if you currently wash your hair on a daily basis) is start washing it every other day (the first week the hair will still look oily on the second day) and hide the oily sheen with a hair band or something similar (the oily sheen is closer to the scalp anyway).  The second week you do this, the hair looks less and less oily on the second day.  By the third week, your hair only starts to look oily on the evening of the second day (closer to 48 hours after you washed it last).  If you wish, you can continue the process after this by making it once in a 3 day wash.  Same process, but this time it takes a little less than 3 weeks.  Believe me, it is totally worth it if your hair is damaged.  And after your hair is completely acclimated to the 1 in 3 days washings, it will only start looking oily on the end of the third day (right when you are supposed to wash it next)!

Sorry for long winded paragraph, but wanted to answer the question that was asked a couple of pages back.  I have great hair (no false modesty here) and I am convinced it is because I am gentle on it.  I wash every 3 days, don't blow dry, don't straighten, and don't use anything beyond conditioner - and I don't have any split ends, my hair doesn't tangle much, and is shiny and smooth. 

And on the topic of shampoo - I love Tresemme as well, but haven't been able to find it for the last couple of years (and they used to sell them in CVS).  Infusium is good.  Pantene does nothing for me that is different from other shampoos.  Dove makes my hair fall out so I hate it.  VO5 doesn't work - really does make hair feel like straw.  Some Suave products are good.  Fructis is also good.   

Rockyhard - if you cook at home, you should look at the recipe analyzer - it's a wonderful tool, and you can save the recipe for when you use it next.  You enter exact amounts of ingredients and number of servings and it tells you exactly how many calories per serving.