Fat and friends

As I said in my comments from the last post, my frustrations at work were best served by going in, reanalyzing my data from scratch, and being as skeptical as possible about it. None of this 'Oh, I think that's the molecule I'm looking for, so I'll count it.' I only accepted 100% proof-positive samples and was pleased to see that I got the same trend as my analysis from a year ago. That is exactly how science is supposed to work, people!

Now I'm relaxing and enjoying some wine and chocolate...in the form of a molten chocolate cake and some Spanish wine I ordered on WineShopper.com. Have you been there? It's a great idea...kind of like Groupon for wine, they have specials everyday. It allowed me to buy $45.00 worth of wine for $16.00 plus shipping. (I don't get anything from Wineshopper for saying that, but if you're interested and want to do me a favor, I could get referral credits for recommending it. Just e-mail me at thehealthydoc@gmail.com.)

Anyway, I also made an excellent dinner.  Recently, I had an amazing and unexpected meal at one of the Thai restaurants in town. It was called 'Tamarind Shrimp', and when I ordered it, I thought it was going to be fried, breaded shrimp, tossed in a citrusy sauce, and served with rice. I was less than excited. Lo and behold,  when it arrived, I was greeted with stir fried shrimp in a tamarind sauce over fresh spinach, with rice. It was so fresh and so good, and I wanted to make it at home.

First, I started with some chopped scallions - about a cup - added to a tsp or so of olive oil. 

 I added some minced garlic.

 And sauteed them up. It only takes a second, so make sure you have your shrimps ready to go.

 I cooked this dinner for two, so I used three servings of raw shrimp, which I peeled and detailed. Then I dumped them in the pan. Sizzle Sizzle!

Next, the star of the show. Tamarind is a tropical fruit that can usually be bought in North America as a dried pod, a reconstituted mash, or a concentrate. I think the concentrate is the most bang for my buck, but I have to be very careful with it.

Looks innocent, but is really like black tar!

I drizzled in about a teaspoon worth of it.

Then, I added some asian flair -

Sweet chili sauce and ponzu. Ponzu is a citrus infused soy sauce. The fiance and I are actually starting to prefer it over regular soy sauce. It's delicious - but high in sodium. A little goes a long way! I added about 2 tbsp of sweet chili sauce and three dashes of Ponzu.

Finally, I invited a friend from my childhood over...doesn't it look just like PacMan?

Or, some people might prefer to think of it as a friendly dinosaur head...see the speck of an eye and the nose bump at the top? Maybe I'm just too imaginative.
Well, OhMyDarling went into the sauce as well, causing quite the commotion and steam.

Finally, when the steam died down, I had a nice looking dish.

Taste it? Not sweet enough...add sweet chili. Not salty enough...add Ponzu. Too salty/sweet...add some acid, like lemon or lime juice.

I plated it up just like it was served in the restaurant (please, please notice the effort....a nice rice cake, beautiful greens...I'm trying here, people!) and added a side of sauteed zucchini.

Then, I ate it. And the fiance ate it. And we declared it delicious. Here's the short recipe-style for those of you in a hurry:


Tamarind Shrimp

3 servings medium, tail on, raw shrimp. Peel and de-tail. 
1 tsp olive oil
1 c chopped scallions
1/2 tbsp chopped garlic
1 tsp ginger powder
1 tsp tamarind concentrate (substitution: double or triple the amount of citrus fruit juice)
2 tbsp sweet chili sauce
1 tbsp Ponzu or soy sauce
Juice of 1 clementine or any citrus fruit


Raw Spinach
Cooked Rice


Saute scallion and garlic in olive oil. Add shrimp and ginger. Add sauce components. Stir until shrimp are pink. You may need to add 1/4-1/2 c water to keep it from sticking to the pan too much. Sauce should be like a clear/pink gravy. 


Serve hot on raw greens. Rice on the side. Enjoy!

SCIENCE ALERT!

I read some crazy article this week about how highly correlated obesity is among friends - i.e. if you have fat friends, you are also likely fat. This was a survey-based article and it indicated that, despite having a negative opinion about overweight people and unhealthy habits, people clustered into groups that had a high correlation with weight class. It also indicates that having overweight family members highly correlates with being overweight or obese.  I'm wondering if this is due to social norms, where you are friends with people you feel understand you and have commonalities, and therefore because you are overweight you pick overweight friends? I mean, I might have it completely wrong. I'd like to see a social experiment like 'The Colony'  where random people settle in a town, some overweight and some not, and see what kind of social groups form. I think that would be more informative than a survey.

What do you think about the 'cluster behavior' study?

Starting the week right

Morning blog friends! 

I am super impressed with the thoughtful comments and feedback on the stem cell post from yesterday. My personal facebook wall and the blog comments made my day. I love to see intelligent discussion!

Yesterday's post was loooong, so this will be a quick one. I had a busy weekend with job applications and I'm going to a conference next weekend, so I am trying to get all of my material in order. This is our upcoming  forecast, if you can believe it:

Gross. They were right though, I woke up to snow this morning.

I got a good solid outdoor run done on Saturday, which was a good idea to keep my mileage up, but it was hard on my body. I got this:

From the heavy socks I was wearing. And my back has a twinge now. I had to skip the weightlifting class yesterday, and after some cardio and yoga, it loosened up. Hopefully it doesn't continue to bother me so I am able to keep up with my crazy schedule!

Of course, I tried a new recipe this weekend. This one is from this book.

Super Natural Cooking by Heidi Swanson

I have had this book for years, and while it has beautiful photography, the only things I ever wanted to make from it were desserts. Trust me, I have enough desserts around the house....I don't need any more. 

Instead, I picked out 'Giant Crusty and Creamy White Beans with Greens'. It had perks - I usually have beans, greens, oil, and onion/garlic around. Plus, the fiance had insisted on buying some real butter for this awful ridiculous snack he likes to make (it's Healthy Doc Kryptonite. I can't help myself). Once again, I followed the recipe nearly to the letter, so I can't give it to you (go buy the book - or look it up online!), but I can give you the basics. 

First, you start with some fat. I used some butter and some olive oil. 

Then I added some white beans. I cooked these up in my pressure cooker a couple days prior. 

These brown on one side, then you stir them to get both sides nice and crispy. Add some aromatics. 

Develop that nice color! Then you add in some greens. I used a mix of kale and chard, and I tried to let them wilt without getting the beans soggy. This took two tries to figure out. 

Finally, you plate it with some shaved or grated parmesan on top. It's so pretty!

Or, if you're the fiance, you fry some pancetta and crumble it on top. It was local pancetta.....? I am not sure I can say much more to justify the blasphemy!

It makes a good side dish, or main dish if you pair it with a starch. As you can see, the fiance ate it with the leftover Afelia from last week and declared it delicious.

Ok, time to get to work. I've recently discovered some mistakes I made during the crazy busyness I went through this fall, which makes me frustrated. I need to go check to make sure that these incidents are isolated and can be fixed. I am also more convinced than ever that I can't keep up the ridiculous workload that I have been under, so I am even more resolved to keep my New Year's goals and be better to myself.

What do you do when you life feels out of control?