Plan Z Diet Porterhouse Primer

Plan Z Diet Porterhouse Primer

By: Zola

Chief Dieter

Plan Z Diet

As one of 7 children, I didn’t eat a lot of steak as a child. There were just too many mouths to feed and we couldn’t afford it.

I do remember when most of the older kids had left home, my parents took to serving fondue on Sunday evenings. There were just 2 of us kids of steak-eating-age at the time, so we were allowed little bits of steak that we could cook in the boiling oil of the fondue pot. Truth be told, we had more chicken bits to put in the pot than we did beef cuts, but we were allowed a little bit. We knew it was a fancy deal.

Fast forward to my young adulthood. I went on a trip to New York City where I saw my first dry aged meats hanging in the famous Gallagher Steak House. That was about 40 years ago, but Gallagher’s still exists. In this picture you can see the dry aging room.

That evening I had my first T-Bone Steak. BIG YUM. I was hooked.

I have grown more fond of eating beef tenderloin now, rather than any other cut. I really think it’s because I find the tenderloin of a manageable size. If you want a hint of what tenderloin to order from your butcher, ask the butcher for 6-8 oz size and “center cut”. That’s the important bit. A center cut steak won’t have any of those strings holding wobbly bits together. A center cut steak is the most prized and comes in one piece.

Whenever I start to gain a few pounds I do a modified version of a steak day that is offered as part of Plan Z. What that means is, I eat lightly through the daytime; maybe just a salad. Then when dinner comes I have an 8 oz beef tenderloin with sides of veggies. Honestly, I wake up two pounds lighter each time I do it.

Tonight I’m cooking up my modified steak day plan and I’m going to be inventing a new porcini mushroom sauce to go with it. Truly decadent. I ate very lightly today and I’m starving so I’m ready for my steak. So very ready!

I thought you’d enjoy this little lesson on the Porterhouse steak. A porterhouse includes the tenderloin section.

There are informational pieces in this Porterhouse Primer that I didn’t even know and I’m a pretty big student of the steak. So I hope you take a look, a listen and pass it onto other steak lovers.

http://www.eater.com/2015/6/19/8813249/everything-you-need-to-know-about-americas-most-iconic-steak

Enjoy!
Cheers,


To read more of Zola's blogs CLICK HERE or head over to https://www.planzdiet.com/blog/

Music to My Plan Z Diet Ears

Music to My Plan Z Diet Ears

By: Zola

Chief Dieter

Plan Z Diet

Dinner isn’t the only thing we do at dinner here at Plan Z Diet Headquarters.

So what do I mean by that?

Every time we eat a meal we make a series of decisions.

We decide things like:

Where are we going to eat? Will we be eating in the car while we drive? Will we go into a restaurant? Will we be eating at home?

If we are eating at home, where will we eat? Are we just chowing down, standing in front of the sink? Are we sitting down? Will we be eating in front of the TV? In the kitchen at the table? Or in the dining room?

What will we eat? Is this going to be a fast food meal? A healthy meal? A hearty meal? Carry out? Comfort food? Gourmet dining? A Plan Z Diet recipe!?

Who will we be eating with? And how does that affect the meal? Are there young children involved? Or is this romantic dining for two?

Are we in a hurry to eat? Or can we take our time?

There are just so many environmental things that affect our meals. And our environment can even impact how good the food tastes and whether we really enjoy our time eating.

I’ve decided that enjoying our time eating is important. Most of us do this activity at least 3 times a day. And yet we pay so little attention. It’s probably one of the contributors to our population gaining weight. Studies already show that the French take their time eating. And they are skinnier. That’s only one factor but it does matter. Americans are always in such a hurry. That’s why fast food has such an impact on our diet. We act like we want to get eating over with; rather than enjoy it.

I’ve always made dinner a priority especially when I'm on the Plan Z Diet. And dinner parties are a way of life for me. I love to entertain. I celebrate food. I also celebrate the act of having dinner; even on weekdays.

Some would say I obsess with the details of dinner but I’m okay with that.

Each time I plan a meal I am thinking ahead to where I’ll eat it. I think about what plate it will be served on. (I have a collection of dinner plates of various sizes and colors. It’s a hobby. I realize I’m odd in that respect.)

I think about how the settling will look; whether I’ll be eating at the dining room table or off a TV tray. I also think about the noise around me and that’s where I come to today’s topic. Music.

I plan my music to suit my menu. If I’m serving Mexican food like Plan Z Diet Taco Salad #2 I might choose salsa music. If I am doing a French meal with the Plan Z Diet Chicken Breasts with Zola's French Pan Sauce I’ll choose French music to go along with it. I might not understand a word of the French singing but hearing French music while I am eating French food brings back pleasant memories of being in France or even Quebec.

Plan Z Diet Taco Salad #2

Plan Z Diet Chicken Breasts with Zola's French Pan Sauce

Let’s say I’m having Plan Z Diet Great Steak. If the side dishes are simple, straightforward American-style items I might choose from several types of American music. I might choose Frank Sinatra or my favorite, Dean Martin. That way I can feel like it’s 1960, when straightforward American dishes were all the rage. If I’m cooking things that were popular in the 1980’s I might match the music to that and do oldies.

Plan Z Diet Great Steak

If I’m having a barbecue outside, like the Plan Z Diet Barbecue Burgers or Barbecue Chicken, Plan Z Diet Style I might pick the Beach Boys, or flip to pop music of today. Barbecuing just brings out a lighthearted mood and so I like the music to match.

Plan Z Diet Barbecue Burgers

Barbecue Chicken, Plan Z Diet Style

Tying the food to the music sets up the mood. I’ll surely pick romantic music for a dinner for two; especially on days like Valentine’s Day.

The food always just tastes more authentic. It tastes better. It tastes like it has more depth if the music matches the food.

I hope I have inspired you to go forward and choose music to match the food you’ll be serving. And feel free to let me know how that affects your meal, your mood and your enjoyment of the experience.

Enjoy!
Cheers,

To read more of Zola's blogs CLICK HERE or head over to https://www.planzdiet.com/blog/

On a Plan Z Diet Cinnamon Toast High

On a Plan Z Diet Cinnamon Toast High

By: Zola

Chief Dieter

Plan Z Diet

On Saturday morning I ate breakfast at the Cinnamon Café. It’s a cute place that specializes in Mexican food. They have lots of authentic dishes on the menu so my husband loves the place. I don’t usually like Mexican food for breakfast but I think my husband could eat that kind of breakfast every day of his life.

I ordered a straightforward omelet and bacon. Boring. (A perfect breakfast, though, when you're in ZReboot on the Plan Z Diet). When the waitress asked me what kind of toast I wanted, I paused. I generally don’t eat toast. I just don’t want the carbohydrates. We teach our Plan Z Dieters to stay away from the carbs because your liver can’t tell the difference between bread and candy. It’s all the same by the time it gets to that point in my digestion. Since I am working to keep my weight steady and not gain back all I have lost, I limit my carbohydrate intake to 20% or less of my daily consumption. I used to eat a LOT of carbs before the Plan Z Diet. Pasta. Potatoes. Whole grain bread. I used to think they were good for me. Now I know better.

On this day, I decided to order toast. I figured at the Cinnamon Café they’d have cinnamon toast. I was right. I ordered cinnamon raisin toast. I had not had any in years. I remember as a kid that we’d go to the local bakery and come home with one of those long tubular loaves of cinnamon raisin bread. It was in a spiral with the cinnamon in the cracks and it was dotted with raisins. I was wondering if I’d get round cinnamon toast or some other shape. Sure enough it arrived at our table and it was the round kind. I was immediately transported back to my childhood. I used to eat three pieces at a time for breakfast. We had what was a new invention then: the toaster oven. I could fit three pieces in the toaster oven instead of the usual two in the regular toaster. I smiled when she set the plate down.

I didn’t dive into the cinnamon toast. I enjoyed plenty of my omelet and bacon first. Then I took a bite of the cinnamon toast. When I bit into it, I first got a taste of the cinnamon sugar around the rim of the bread. I had forgotten that part. If my mouth could have jumped, it would have. That sugary rim just sent a shiver through my mouth and most of the rest of my body. That was what I would call true sugar shock. A cinnamon toast high. I was stunned at how sweet it tasted. I didn’t need much to satisfy my sweet tooth, that’s for sure. Certainly not three pieces. Not even a full single piece and I was done.

Having that experience brought back the memory of a news story that ran last week. The story discussed how sugar should probably be regulated the same way liquor is. It should be taxed and have restrictions on whether children can buy it. The story came from a doctor that I follow and admire. I share his nutritional research often with other on the Plan Z Diet. His name is Dr. Robert Lustig. I am including a link to the article here. I hope you have a chance to read it. Dr. Lustig has taught me a ton about how sugar is metabolized in the body. It’s pretty scary stuff and the education is important.

http://healthland.time.com/2012/02/02/should-sugar-be-regulated-like-alcohol-and-tobacco/

I know for a fact that Dr. Lustig only lets his children eat a sugary treat once a week. He takes them out on Sunday and lets them buy something sweetened with sugar. He closely supervises their consumption of sugar. He seems like a pretty normal dad and his daughters seem healthy, happy and satisfied. I was perfectly satisfied with my bit of cinnamon raisin toast, too.

Enjoy!
Cheers,

To read more of Zola's blogs CLICK HERE or head over to https://www.planzdiet.com/blog/

We'll Always Have England

We'll Always Have England

By: Zola

Chief Dieter

Plan Z Diet

They were like kids in the back seat of the car on a summer vacation. I almost expected to hear “How many more driveways ‘til we get there?”

Some days the drives were quite long; up to 4 hours. The “kids” in the backseat were my in-laws, Jack and Sally. It was a trip I will never forget, and for all the right reasons.

My husband and I used to travel to Great Britain quite regularly for business; usually twice a year and once even three times. Each time we stayed at least two weeks, visiting our clients in several cities and conducting sales training seminars for their staffs and clients.

On this particular trip we invited Jack and Sally along. Sally had been to London once but Jack had never been out of the US except for his military duty on a war ship off of the coast of China during WWII. This trip was a big deal to them. It was pretty much routine for us except that they were along.

We tried to do some special things for them on the trip but mostly they just tagged along as we did our business. They made themselves busy during the day and most afternoons we had to drive to the next city and check into the next hotel. On the weekends we could venture out a bit more. In-between city visits there were a few times we had a day or two off so we could spend more time together.

My routine was to get up early and deal with my business back in the states. I had to answer faxes that had come through in order to run our company. (There was no email at that point in history.) Then I scoured my tour books and local brochures to come up with suggestions for how they could spend their day. They were very good at taking some of the suggestions and venturing out of the hotel. Other times they just read while we got our work done.

One of the days we were there was Jack’s birthday. We took them to a special restaurant and he got the autograph of the chef. Another evening we went to a play and ate dinner after. That meant dinner at after midnight for two folks in their 70’s. Highly unusual. They did just fine and stayed perky throughout the evening.

We visited cities and hamlets. You name it we either toured it or drove through it.

One weekend we found ourselves on the south coast. My husband and I decided to treat them to something we thought they would find special. And special it turned out to be. We decided to find our way down to the beach so they could look back at the White Cliffs of Dover. Those cliffs mean so much to those involved in WWII and are now listed as a national landmark and icon of Britain.

It took me quite some time to figure out how to navigate a route that would take us down to the beach. It wasn’t clear on the map, that’s for sure. We found parking and got out of the car. This was the only time the entire trip that Sally and Jack ventured off when we were with them. They always hung close to us, but not on this day. Without saying a word they joined hands and strolled off down the beach. They didn’t say “goodbye,” didn’t say “we’ll be back in a minute.” They just went off on their own for some quiet time together. It was one of the few times I saw them holding hands. It was a rare and special moment to watch them strolling along a quiet and peaceful beach, holding hands, looking up at the cliffs and just standing together, as a couple, on the beach. I never asked them what they spoke of while they walked or what thoughts filled their heads. It was more of a meditative moment for them, and one of those times couples share without intrusion. I’ll never forget seeing their silhouette in the distance as the sun waned.

On another occasion we met up in London with one of our dear friends and clients named Julian. Julian made a special trip into the city to take Jack and Sally on a very special adventure while Chris and I conducted our business of the day.

Julian had connections. Julian has connections to seemingly everything special. Julian had arranged for Jack and Sally to tour Parliament. This was no public tour. This was a private tour of the inner “sanctums” of Parliament and also to meet up with a Member of Parliament who was Julian’s friend. Talk about jealous. That could have been my middle name that day.

Julian arranged even more. He arranged for them to have lunch in the private dining room at Parliament. I’ll never forget his generosity and I’ll never lose touch of the chattering voices coming from Jack and Sally after their special day. Funny, too, was Sally’s tipsy behavior when she returned. Not much of a drinker, Sally had a bit of special sherry while there and was as chatty as ever for a good chunk of the afternoon. It was really cute. It was a memory to be captured and held close for a lifetime.

As we ventured along we gathered memorabilia. We kept that autographed menu. We kept the theatre ticket stubs. We kept brochures and stubs from museums, landmarks and anything else we thought would capture the memories. When we returned home my husband and I had all of those bits put into a collage and framed. That picture hangs in Jack and Sally’s house.

Sadly, my husband and I will be traveling to Ohio in the not too distant future to pick up that framed collage. Sally passed away this past December 23rd after a short illness. She was 88 years old. (Jack had passed away a few years before).

I have to profess that I had the best in-laws any woman could ask for. They were bright and generous folks. They gave me an example of a loving couple to emulate as I pass into the decades of marriage I hope to have ahead of me. They were loved in their community and by their family. They were funny. They stayed bright and downright hip in their elder years. Sally was emailing and reading on her Kindle even in her last days.

I had the privilege of taking a picture of Jack and Sally on their 50th wedding anniversary. It’s definitely my favorite picture of them. The trip to England was their 50th wedding anniversary gift from us. I’ll also forever hold dear my mind’s picture of them strolling the beach under the White Cliffs of Dover.

With Jack and Sally we’ll always have England.

To read more of Zola's blogs CLICK HERE or head over to https://www.planzdiet.com/blog/

Plan Z Diet Apple Chips

The Plan Z Diet Apple Chips

By: Zola

Chief Dieter

Plan Z Diet




Plan Z Diet by Zola

This is a Plan Z Diet ZReduction recipe from the creative mind of Jen. When we were at lunch the other day, Jen mentioned how dieters miss their crunch. She wondered if we could come up with a recipe for apple chips. I will tell you they worked. They are crunchy if you eat them quickly. If you let them sit overnight they become chewy. Still good but not crunchy. With this recipe be careful with your portions. Be sure not to eat too many.

I like the ones cut with the apple placed on its side. I feel those look the most like potato chips. The rings are fun, too. Use any kind of apple. I used Granny Smith for the chip style and Golden Delicious for the rings.

Servings: Serves 2

Ingredients:
2 apples. Don’t bother to peel them.
2 tsp of ground cinnamon mixed with
2 tsp of Truvia

Instructions:

Preheat oven to 250 degrees.

You’ll want to slice your apples very thin or they won’t get crunchy. To do this I used my mandolin slices and set it on level 1 which is the thinnest setting. Without a mandolin slicer this will be tricky but you can get them fairly thin by hand, too.

Take out a 2 cookie sheets. Cover each of them with a piece of parchment paper. Without the parchment paper the apples will stick terribly.

Place your apple slices on the paper. Try not to have them touch each other unless you don’t mind them sticking together. In the pictures you’ll see they stuck some but they are easy to pull apart. Each cookie sheet contains one apple portion.

Sprinkle the top side with the flavor mixture. I put mine in a leftover shaker jar so it sprinkled on very evenly. Don’t worry if it’s a bit messy. They will still taste great.

Put the cookie sheets in the oven and bake for 2 hours. Watch them a last few minutes to make sure they don’t burn.

Serving Suggestions:

Serve hot or cold. I can see all kinds of flavors. You can use nutmeg for another sweet flavor. You can use cumin for an East-Indian version, use cayenne for a spicy version. You can even use the barbecue rub and make barbecue flavored apple chips. Use your creativity to find flavors you love.

Enjoy!
Cheers,

To read more of Zola's blogs CLICK HERE or head over to https://www.planzdiet.com/blog/

Read the Label. It's a Plan Z Diet Requirement!

Read the Label. It's a Plan Z Diet Requirement!

By: Zola

Chief Dieter

Plan Z Diet

AC Nielson is known best in the US for its work with television viewership ratings. They rate radio station listening, too. That’s all well and good but AC Nielson is actually a global information and measurement company. They conduct polls and surveys in over 100 countries all over the world.

I found out today that AC Nielson has conducted a couple of surveys that relate to consumer behavior in the super market. This information can prove very useful for those on the Plan Z Diet.

For example, I found out that according to AC Nielson survey research, only 21% of the population ever reads a food label on the products they buy. I should not be surprised. Until the last few years I was probably more influenced by TV commercials than I was by the label on the product. If they told me on TV that it was good for me, I believed them. Not so much anymore.

That leaves almost 80% of our population wandering uniformed through the grocery store, picking up products and putting them into their cart with no real education about what it is or what it will do to them when they eat it. On the Plan Z Diet we teach people how to read labels and the importance of being a conscious consumer.

People watch TV and then go out and buy what advertisers (food companies) tell them to buy. They push their cart through the aisles and pull things off the shelf that look pretty, or colorful, or tasty. And then, without any real regard for the contents in the package, they cook it up and eat it. That’s sad.

We do more to research what kind of car we are going to buy than what we put in our mouths to fuel our bodies.

AC Nielson also reported that out of the 21% of people who read a label, on average, only 43% of them are confident that they understand what they are reading. That’s ridiculously sad. This stuff should be taught in high school.

I’m not going to go into great detail on how to read a food label, but I will give you a quick rundown from the perspective of the Plan Z Diet. Before the Plan Z Diet, I was only interested in the calorie count. If it was low-cal I thought I was good to go. Now I know better. Buying low-calorie foods made me overweight.

Let’s look at this label for spaghetti. Before I knew better, this was one of my favorites.

First off, let’s look at the serving size at the top. You’ll see it says one cup. That’s one cup COOKED. Do you know what one cup cooked looks like on your plate? I assure you it looks NOTHING like the portion shown on an Olive Garden TV commercial. What they show in TV ads is a HUGE amount of spaghetti. They make sure the sauce amount is smaller and the spaghetti sticks out around the sides and sometimes even covers the very edge of the plate. That’s insane. A cup of cooked spaghetti is a proper portion. The pasta trade associations even refers to pasta as ‘a vehicle’ for sauce. It’s the sauce that’s good for you.

The other thing I want to focus on for today’s conversation is the number of grams of carbohydrates. There are 40 grams of carbohydrates in ONE cup of spaghetti. Most humans can’t handle more than about 80 grams of carbohydrates in one day before their weight would start to go up. This number varies by your height and weight as well as your individual metabolism, but this is a fairly good number to gauge with. So 40 grams of carbohydrates would be half of your carbohydrates for a full day. That doesn’t even take into account the carbohydrates that would be in the spaghetti sauce. And don’t get me started on the garlic bread.

A Snicker’s Bar has 37 grams of carbohydrates. Do you get my drift?

Believe me when I say it isn’t fat that makes you fat… it’s the carbohydrates. Pay close attention and READ YOUR LABELS.

More on this soon.

To read more of Zola's blogs CLICK HERE or head over to https://www.planzdiet.com/blog/

Plan Z Diet Sloppy Joes

The Plan Z Diet Sloppy Joes

By: Zola

Chief Dieter

Plan Z Diet





Plan Z Diet by Zola

This is a Plan Z Diet ZReduction recipe submitted by Plan Z dieter JoAnn. Thanks JoAnn!

Servings: Serves 4

Ingredients:
1 lb ground sirloin
1-1/4 cup chopped onions
1-1/4 cup chopped celery
1/3 cup water
1 tsp paprika
1 tsp dry mustard
1 tsp chili powder
1/2 cup tomato sauce (no sugar)
3-4 Tbl tomato paste (no sugar)
1/3 cup water (yes, a 2nd time)
3 Tbl vinegar (I used white)
2 packets Truvia
Salt to taste

Instructions:

In a non-stick skillet, add 1/3 cup water and steam the onions and celery until tender (or consistency you prefer). Move veggies to bowl. Add ground sirloin to skillet and brown, breaking down into smaller chunks.

Return veggies to skillet, add spices. Then add tomato products, water, vinegar, Truvia and salt. Stir to blend and simmer approx 5 minutes. If too thick you can add more water.

To serve, use Romaine lettuce leaves as your ‘bread’ to hold the sloppy joes. I also have Melba toast with this meal and put several spoonfuls on them for the crunch. This recipe would be your protein and veggies. Fruit completes this meal. It also travels well.

Serving Suggestions:

I like to use the larger lettuce leaves and just put a spoonful on the leaf and then add another spoonful after I’m done eating the first bite. Haven’t tried the smaller leaves but would guess that would work as well and probably look a little neater if you are eating with others. Although how neat are sloppy joes?

Enjoy!
Cheers,

To read more of Zola's blogs CLICK HERE or head over to https://www.planzdiet.com/blog/