Football weekend and all I want is some fries!

What a great weekend!  I literally spent the weekend on the couch with Kevin, watched season 1 of "Arrested Development", watched football, watched TV, and knitted... all while in sweatpants!  The highlight of Kevin's weekend was when the Oakland Raiders beat Texas (25-20), in what is considered a memorial game to the Raider's long time owner Al Davis.  Probably my favorite part of the weekend was getting to work on some of my knitting. I started on a scarf for Kevin which will be in a dark green yarn, and have plans for an eternity scarf for me in a coral orange/pink color.


For my food for the weekend, I sadly caved-in for Pizza Hut breadsticks with marinara sauce.  These particular breadsticks are a craving food for me that not only has hunger cues, but nostalgic cues.  I have very fond memories of when I was young and would go spend the day or weekend with my grandma, who passed away June of 2010.  Staying with my grandparents, of course, meant lots of spoiling in the form of food.  If I slept over, I would wake up and my grandma would make my grandpa and I french toast, we would then bake something like cookies and/or cake in the afternoon, and before my parents came to get me we would have Pizza Hut delivery with a deep-dish pepperoni pizza and plenty of breadsticks with marinara sauce.  I've never been a huge fan of pizza, so that is never too tempting to me, but the taste of breadsticks and marinara sauce just triggers me into memories of certain smells and feelings of being at my grandma's house playing cards and laughing while baking.  This weekend, I am particularly proud of myself that I only had as much breadsticks as would nicely fill me, and compromised to have one slice of veggie loaded pizza.  Next time we have Pizza Hut, my new goal is to only have breadsticks with marinara sauce.


For me, weight loss and getting to a healthy lifestyle isn't about perfection, it's about living, and living with the idea that you are never going to deviate from your ultimate goals is not practical, enjoyable, and is just setting youself up for failure.  I could have eaten Pizza Hut this weekend and have went on a binge for the rest of the weekend on unhealthy food, but I didn't.  I allowed myself this deviation and got right back on track!  One of the best nutritarian food I had all weekend was vegetable fries!  This is a recipe I have put on my blog before, but this time I used sweet potatoes, carrots, AND parsnips.  I have to say parsnips was a great addition to the recipe!


Vegetable "Fries"

Ingredients:

2 medium sweet potatoes

2 large (8 small) carrots

1 large (2 small) parsnips

1 TBSP olive oil

1 TBSP water

1 tsp ground cumin

1/4 tsp ground pepper

1/2 tsp salt

Directions: Preheat oven to 425 degrees F.  Peel potatoes, carrots, and parsnips, and cut into fry shapes.  Mix oil, water, cumin, salt, and pepper in a medium sized bowl.  Stir in vegetables till well coated with oil mixture.  Arrange coated vegetables in one layer on baking sheet (I cover with aluminum foil and spray with non-stick spray).  Bake for 30 minutes or until the vegetables are tender and the outsides are lightly browned and the edges are slightly crisp.  Serve plain or with a favorite dipping sauce.

As I have said earlier, this is one of my favorite "treat" recipes.  It really tastes great with addition of parsnips.  Hope you enjoy it as much as I do!

What is your "bad nostalgic food"?  Do you have some goals for minimizing this food trigger, or compromising to have it in moderation?