An Italian Tradition: food, food, and oh wait, more food

Like most big Italian families, my family likes to eat, especially around the holidays. Don't get me wrong: we are equal opportunity eaters. We don't require some holiday to get together and pounds delciousness...nope, not us. We'll use any excuse really--from a birthday to a holiday to a Sunday. In fact, growing up, I went to my Grandmother Yola's house every single Sunday for a huge family dinner. There were 16 of us that gathered around the table every week. The usual meal was pasta topped with my Grandmother's gravy. And what feast could be complete without a bowl of steaming hot meatballs and a loaf of Italian bread?

These days, we don't eat as many huge pasta Sunday dinners, but we sure know how to do it up (aka waaay over do it) for a holiday. To give you an idea, this past Thanksgiving we started with a ton of picky appetizer type foods, before we moved on to the traditional Italian antipasto (and by traditional I mean best to ever exist) and then indulged in the full turkey dinner. The real disgustingness occurred during dessert when we had 9 pies! After all of that eating, we did not have room for one of my most favorite holiday traditions: the stuffed artichoke. I don't know why we eat the artichokes last, but I know that for as long as I've been alive, that is just what we have done. So, like every year, no one could fit the artichokes at the end of the meal, so we all take them home and enjoy them the next day.

Usually, my Grandmother makes the artichokes but because she is getting a bit older and I am the world's best Granddaughter, I decided to make them this year. And, because I am so proud of myself and because they turned out peeerfect, I am going to be nice and share the awesome recipe with all of you! And, good news, these artichokes are a tasty treat that are good for you!

Start by rinsing the artichokes. Then, cut the bottoms (leave a little stem) and a bit of the tops off of the artichokes. They should look like this:

Next, combine breadcrumbs, evoo, parsley (dried) salt, pepper, and garlic powder in a large bowl. Mix ingredients together. (And, if you're really hardcore like Yola and I, you'll use your hands to mix). Your mixture should look like this (without the shadow of your iphone):

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Next, grab an artichoke and use your fingers to open it up a bit. Hold artichoke over bowl and grab a handful of breadcrumbs. Sprinkle the breadcrumbs over the artichoke, ensuring that the breadcrumbs fill in the space between the leaves. Stuff all of your artichokes and put them in a pan. Make sure you pack the artichokes tightly into the pan, so that they are all standing up and not leaning. Fill the pan about halfway with water. At this point, your artichokes should look amazing like this:

Put the pan with the water and artichokes on the stove and cook until the leaves are tender and you can easily break them off. While the artichokes are cooking, preheat your oven to 375 degrees. When the leaves on the artichoke are tender, remove the pan from the stove and put it in the oven for 15-20 minutes. They should now look like this:

Note: you can serve your artichokes right away or keep them overnight. If you choose to keep them overnight, wait to bake them until before being served. If you like leftovers, they can also be heated up in the microwave.

Your mouth is probably watering by now looking at the pictures of my masterpieces (and if it isn't I don't know what is wrong with you). Now for the good news...these tasty little treats are good for you! Sure the huge bowl of breadcrumbs looks like trouble, but when you think about how many breadcrumbs end up in one artichoke, it's not much. I would estimate that in one artichoke, there is probably 1 tsp of evoo (1 WW pt) and 1/4 cup of breadcrumbs (2 WW pts). Combine that with the artichoke (1 WW pt) and you have a phenomenal 4 point meal.

Finally, I leave you with a warning and a secret.

Warning: These suckers are a HUGE hit. If you bring them somewhere, they will all get eaten and you will become known for them and then you'll always have to make them.

Secret: They are not that hard to make! You'll be famous for your artichokes and people will think you slaved for hours and hours to make the Italian tradition when you really didn't!

Just wait until I post pictures of my Grandmother's famous Christmas Cookies (15 types). Sorry though, you won't be getting those recipes...they are a secret (and also don't go with the whole healthygirl theme)!

A Realistic Approach to Thanksgiving

I like to think that my blog readers (if there are any out there besides me) are somewhat knowledgeable about diet and exercise already. After all, if you're reading this post, you're likely trying to lose weight or maintain your weight or simply have an interest in a healthy lifestyle (or just think I'm ridiculously amusing and awesome). So, when thinking about writing my Thanksgiving Day survival blog, I'm going to make a couple of assumptions.

Assumption 1: Everyone knows that eating a massive plate of turkey, mashed potatoes, stuffing, gravy, and cornbread and then washing it all down with a half of a pie, is NOT going to make the number on your scale go down.

Assumption 2: Your idea of a good time on Thanksgiving does not include making yourself miserable because your plate only has peas and carrots on it while everyone else is shoveling in the good stuff.

Ok, now that we are all on the same page, there are some things you can do to enjoy Thanksgiving and not want to kill yourself the next morning. As I've said before, I believe in balance. It's not realistic to think that the average person is going to be able to resist the deliciousness that is Thanksgiving. Sure lots of people like to "pretend" this is the case, like my favorite Biggest Loser competitors. If I was in the running to win hundreds of thousands of dollars for losing weight and the finale was only 2 weeks after Thanksgiving, yeah, maybe I'd ease up on the stuffing too or make some low-calorie version, but I'm not so I have zero intent of doing either of these things.

So, how do you enjoy your Thanksgiving and not ruin your weight loss progress? Well, there are definitely some popular tips and strategies that you can adopt. Here's a quick list of some things you can do to save yourself a few calories without missing out on anything.

Eat a healthy breakfast. It does not do you any good to skip this meal to prepare. Eat what you normally would.

Reach for the white meat. White meat is much better for you than dark meat, and while you are at it, avoid the skin.

Don't use a heavy hand on the gravy. Smothering your plate in gravy is an easy way to add hundreds of calories. If you love gravy, don't skip it, just be mindful that you don't need gravy soup with turkey floating in it, a tablespoon or 2 will do the trick.

Pick pumpkin. Pumpkin pie is typically lower in fat and calories than all other pies. If you can, don't pick pecan or cream pies. These are usually the worst for you.

Here are some other things to think about...

Thanksgiving is a holiday and therefore a special day. Its unlikely that you have Thanksgiving Day foods like stuffing many (if any) other time in the year, so it is ok to enjoy these seasonal favorites on this one day a year. If you love your Mom's pumpkin cheesecake and this is the one time of year she makes it, by all means, allow yourself a treat. That being said, don't go crazy. In other words, have a piece of the pumpkin cheesecake. Don't take the whole thing to your face or I promise you will regret it later. After all, it's the first bite that tastes the best anyway.

Even though its a special day, keep the important question in mind, is this worth it? In the example above, the piece of pumpkin cheesecake is worth it. You love it and its not something that you can eat everyday. Maybe before you hit the bread basket hard, think about whether or not you need that roll in addition to the heaping pile of mashed potatoes you are about to consume. Unless you make some sandwich concoction (which is usually for leftovers--which I will cover shortly) than you probably can skip the roll and not miss anything special. Rolls are not Thanksgiving specific and you can get one any day of the year. Remember, don't eat as much as you can until you feel sick just because you feel like its the one day you are allowed to cheat. Eat what you want until you are full. After that, stop eating, because it does not taste as good and you will feel sick.

Now, onto the leftovers. Let's be real here. Leftovers are often better than the original meal. So, what do you do? Normally, I would give that advice that it is ok to splurge on the special day, in this case on Thursday, Thanksgiving Day. I would normally tell you that after that one day, it's time to get back on track. I would warn people not to think that because they over-ate on Thursday, it is ok to just call the weekend a wash and start again Monday. But, since Thanksgiving leftovers cannot possibly be put into the normal category, I am altering my advice. Here it is: If you host Thanksgiving at your house, give away most (not all of your leftovers). Keep enough for you and anyone else you live with to enjoy ONE plate of leftovers. On Friday, eat breakfast and lunch like you normally would, and eat your delicious tasting leftovers for dinner. DO NOT and I repeat DO NOT keep enough leftovers so that the next morning, you are eating mashed potatoes and pie for breakfast and then again for lunch and for an afternoon snack and so on... If you do not host, maybe you are lucky enough to have someone give you some leftovers to take home. If not, you don't even have to worry! But, be careful. Eat your one plate of leftovers and do not call the weekend a wash. It won't make for a pretty sight on the scale on Monday.

I've read in numerous places that the average American consumes over 4,000 calories on Thanksgiving Day. This whole time, I've been telling you this is ok. While that number is beyond disturbing, I still don't think it will stop many of us from pounding on Thursday. Personally, I want to eat my favorites on Thanksgiving, but not at the cost of completely blowing all of my recent hard work. Since I know my will power is non-existent when there is a bowl of stuffing in front of me, I know I need to work out on Thanksgiving to at least give myself a little piece of mind. So, if you're going to eat it, you might as well work some of it off. Find some time to hit the gym or get in some form of physical activity (and no, mashing the potatoes does not count). You obviously won't be working out after dinner, so you must get this done in the morning. If you can, up your workout a bit to prepare for the big meal. Also, make sure you hit the gym the next day too!

To end this post, here is a little poem I found:

May your stuffing be tasty
May your turkey plump,
May your potatoes and gravy
Have nary a lump.
May your yams be delicious
And your pies take the prize,
And may your Thanksgiving dinner
Stay off your thighs!
-Anonymous

Happy Thanksgiving everyone!