The Weight of The Matter...

Ya'll know I'm a southern girl.  Unless you live under a rock, you know some famous southern chefs/cooks and I'll bet almost everyone knows Paula Deen.  Have you ever seen Paula cook diet? Why in the world would she? Low calorie, low fat, light, sugar free, fat free....those are fightin' words for a southerner.  Almost as bad as saying we lost the civil war, which, if you're a good southerner, you know ain't true..the damn Yankee's made that up.  We adore butter, cream, ranch dressing, lard, sugar, liquor and bacon grease. Especially bacon grease.  I'd eat a car bumper if I could dip it in ranch dressing and drizzle it with bacon grease.  Pinto beans are a waste of time if you don't put bacon grease in them.  Why in the name of all things holy would you even bother making cabbage if you don't put bacon grease in it???  So, now you get the picture? I love it.  Apparently I love it too much as of late because a couple friends of mine think I'm fat.  One of them told me "...you are a little hippy" - and she didn't mean the free-loving-tye-dyed-headband-wearing variety, she meant my rear end was bigger than the rest of me.  Then, 3 days later, the other friend told me my "ass was big".  Yes, that was so nice of them.  I spent a full day fussing about it with myself and decided I can either stay mad or I can address the weight issue and deal with that.  I'm all about compromise so I decided to do both.  I'll stay mad WHILE am doing something about it. I'm not staying mad because that gives me fuel to achieve my 25 lb weight loss goal, I'm staying mad because I want to, so there.  I already run 5 miles a week and walk a couple days in between so it's not like I am a couch potato, but maybe I can add another activity to help with the calorie burn.  I talked to a friend of mine this morning about a bicycle and he gave me some pointers about shopping at a pawn shop and I took his advice and went out and bought myself a bike.  It's a Schwinn Breeze (circa 1968) and it's beautiful.  I'm 48, it's 44 and I figure we can huff and puff around together like 2 old ladies.  She'll haul my hippy ass around and I bet she won't complain at all.  In the meantime, I'm re-inventing some old favorite dishes of mine to see if I can help her out by losing weight along the way.  I tested one of my stand by recipes, Smothered Steak and Gravy, and it was just as good as the original and had 1/3 the calories.  I make it with ground beef, not cubed steak because it's better. I made some light mashed potatoes as well and I'll share that next blog.  Enjoy this, but don't get too used to it, I have to have my fat or I act ugly.

Smothered Steak and Gravy

1 pound extra lean ground beef or turkey
1/2 C fresh bread crumbs
1 egg
1/2 C finely minced onion (or to your taste)
1/2 t salt
1 t black pepper
1 can fat free cream of mushroom condensed soup
Whisk together condensed soup with 2 cans water, set aside.  Combine beef or turkey, bread crumbs, egg, onion, salt and pepper. Shape into 6 equal sized patties.  Spray large non stick skillet with cooking spray and lightly brown patties on medium high heat on each side, then pour soup over patties. Turn heat down to medium low and simmer 30 mins. Makes 6 servings.  Per Serving:   Calories: 161, Fat:  6 gm