Bariatric Foodie Play with your food
~~posted by Jen
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| Roasted Shrimp and Brussels Sprouts |
Nik and I have talked about our different styles and approaches to cooking quite a bit over the years. As most of y’all may know, she didn’t really cook all that much prior to WLS. Post-op, cooking became a necessity in order to make sure her nutritional goals were met. I’ve always loved to cook (maybe THAT’s how I got to 495 lbs lol), so we come from kind of different perspectives. As we’ve done more Pouch Parties and support group meetings, we discovered that lots of our Poucher friends were just like us! Either they loved to cook and always had, or were just starting their kitchen adventures. We were surprised to discover that the vast majority of of our post-op WLS friends never really learned to cook, even the most basic techniques.
With that in mind, we decided to create a new weekly post called Bariatric Foodie (BF) Basics. It will be posted every Sunday and include different types of cooking techniques and ways to use those off the wall ingredients we’d never heard of prior to having weight-loss surgery. Today I happen to be roasting a chicken for dinner, so this week’s feature is Roasting. Keep an eye out for that a little later this afternoon. Just to whet your appetites for future features, some of the upcoming BF Basics posts include: Pie Crusts, TVP, and Greek Yogurt. Hit us up if there is something specific you’d like to see featured here, whether it’s an ingredient or a technique. Play with your food, people!!
This is a great idea! I'm one of the people who is a post-op with no idea of how to cook (although I can bake till the cows come home).
I'd love to see something on how you know when your protein is done. I find I frequently overcook my chicken and steak and such because I'm worried about undercooked meat and food poisoning (can you imagine how bad food poisoning would be for someone post op?). Just a thought.
The Bariatric Babe
http://scribblinginthemargin.blogspot.com
Overcooking dries it out and destroys the flavor. Cook a chicken just until the juice runs clear when the thigh is pricked. Steak that is pink inside is perfect–not raw, pink=cooked. The only thing you really need to worry about cooking thoroughly with no pink is ground beef.
Donna
http://gastricsleevefoodie.blogspot.com/
@Babe, with poultry if it's a whole bird, jiggle the drumstick. If it moves freely, it is done. Donna is absolutely right about checking at the thigh to see if the juices run clear also. Pork and poultry are the main two meats that must ALWAYS be thoroughly cooked. If you don't have an instant read meat thermometer, it might not be a bad idea to invest in one. According to food safety standards, meat should reach an internal temperature of at least 165 degrees to be considered safe for consumption. You want to insert the thermometer in the thickest part of the meat. If you're roasting it in the oven, there will be some carry-over cooking once you remove it, because it retains the heat. (In other words if you're cooking a beef roast, it would be ok to remove it from cooking at 160 or 162, it will continue to cook outside the oven and reach 165 before serving.) Hope this helps! ~~Jen
Hmmm…perhaps a thermometer is a good idea. I try to poke the chicken to see if the juice is clear, and I can never tell the difference between the juice and the marinade. Obviously, I err on the side of caution, but Pouchie is not fond of it, and I'm tired of ruining all my chicken. 🙂 I think I'll put a meat thermometer on my birthday list. Thanks, everyone!