Still Life with Zest.

I wrote over the holidays about my blood sugar highs and lows. I have decided to rein things in using the Weight Watchers core program--basically a whole-foods, low-carb plan, with a (small) allowance for the occasional splurge. There's no calorie counting involved, just thoughtful eating. (I do hold myself above fat-free dairy, however, and am going with low-er fat cheeses in moderate amounts instead.)

So, armed with my list of permitted foods, off I went to Sam's Club yesterday. (Yes, it's evil, but in our case it is a necessary one. We actually go through ten-pound boxes of Cheerios at an alarming rate. Also, they are carrying more organic selections, so leave me the hell alone about it :-P)

In additon to the usual military-sized quantities of fishsticks and peanut butter, I loaded up on crudities and Laughing Cow cheese wedges for snacking, skinless chicken breasts and tilapia fillets for broiling, golden potatoes and colored peppers for roasting, sweet peruvian onions for carmelizing, eggs from veggie-fed hens and organic milk for my conscience, and an enormous mesh bag of lemons, because it is January.

(Also, I have discovered that just about any vegetable is wonderful if served up with enough olive oil, lemon juice and sea salt).

Today I ate oatmeal with a handful of blueberries for breakfast, a sort of nicoise salad from last night's leftovers for lunch, a banana, fat-free-sugar-free chocolate pudding, popcorn and perrier for a snack. Tonight's menu: this recipe from Jamie Oliver for lemon roasted chicken and this one for roasted beets with a ginger-balsamic glaze. I'm sort of on a roasting kick.

Don't worry, the blog won't turn into a foodie journal. It's just been a slow news day. But let me sign off with my preferred technique for zesting a lemon. I hate rubbing them on graters; half the zest sticks in the holes. I like to use a vegetable peeler to peel strips off, then chop them in a dish with scissors, like you would with fresh herbs. Yes, it makes for coarse zest, but I think most things in life are tastier that way.