Mediterranean Diet

[Steve Miller]

My friend in Tucson got some scary blood test numbers and started having other trouble related to his weight. His diet at that time was the absolute worst - fast food every day, greasy salty snacks at night, lots of sugar.

His doc told him to look in to the Mediterranean diet - not really a diet at all as no food is actually banned and portions are not necessarily controlled. He signed up for it in a big way and his results have been quite encouraging. Lost 25% of his body weight and got off of several prescription drugs.

I’ve started shifting in that direction myself, especially in limiting ultra processed foods - not easy to do in this family but not impossible. Upside is that I really like the foods that are recommended - fresh, filling and tasty. Cheap, too, for the most part.

I’ll be doubling down in 2025.

https://www.scripps.org/news_items/6276-mediterranean-diet-is-best-diet-once-again

[Mik]

I remember Ron coming with you for a Mediterranean dinner. Glad he's doing well with it.

I prefer whole foods like that too. They are better for you and taste a whole lot better. My latest kick is a 4 oz protein and a mess of great salad greens with a little olive oil, lemon juice, salt and pepper.

I find this site to be very useful.

https://www.themediterraneandish.com/

[Steve Miller]

Everything on that website looks fantastic!

Thanks!

[Daniel]

My PCP of five years recommends it to all his patients.

I haven't applied myself yet.

I have a second diet to master too.

The logistics of dieting and exercising might become easier for me soon because...

[wtg]

@Mik Great site. Will definitely be trying some of those recipes.

Here's a recipe I saw on Smitten Kitchen that I plan to try. I thought it looked delish.

https://smittenkitchen.com/2015/03/baked-chickpeas-with-pita-chips-and-yogurt/

[Steve Miller]

@wtg

That looks really good!

[Mik]

Smitten Kitchen is very good too. These sites have to be killing the cookbook. I never use mine anymore.

[wtg]

These yogurt popsicles look intriguing. But more a summer thing.

https://www.themediterraneandish.com/homemade-popsicles/

I'm going to try the Smitten Kitchen recipe for olive oil brownies that @AdagioM linked to in the Happy New Year thread.

https://wtf.coffee-room.com/post/8083

[Steve Miller]

@Mik

Haven’t bought a cookbook in years and thrift stores are full of them.

But we’ve made so many good things from the Cozy Cook website that we bought her cookbook as a show of support.

[wtg]

Gnocchi, spinach, and feta. I used the recipe that @dolmansaxlil posted in the WTF Cookbook recently as a starting point.

https://wtf.coffee-room.com/topic/12/wtf-cookbook/162?_=1736187069212

I changed things up a bit by putting some water in the bottom of my new Tramontina skillet and I cooked the gnocchi. Fished them out of the cooking water and then blanched the spinach. Drained the spinach into a colander and squeezed it out a little. Sauteed some onions and a couple of turkey Italian sausages. Threw in the gnocchi with the onions and sausage and browned things up a little. Chopped a couple of Campari tomatoes and threw those in. I forgot the red pepper, and Mr wtg isn't so much a fan of chopped herbs so I left those out.

Besides that, it was exactly like the recipe!

We sprinkled the feta on at the table.

The acidity from the tomatoes was sufficient, so we didn't do the lemon. Probably could have used a couple of extra handfuls of spinach.

[Mik]

What commercial gnocchi do you use? I haven't found one that worked for me. All too dense and doughy. I like the to be little puffs, a skin but very light and airy inside. Making Chicken Meatballs Marsala tonight, an NYT recipe.

[wtg]

I bought a three pack of Pompeian organic at Costco. We thought they were better than average. But we aren't gnocchi connoisseurs...

https://pompeian.com/gnocchi/

[Mik]

Look good. I'll give them a shot!

[AdagioM]

@wtg I love Smitten Kitchen. I mostly cook from online sites, hers and NYT especially. But I bought her book to be supportive, and then gave it to my sister, who likes cookbooks.

We loved the olive oil brownies. My kids did, too. Densely chocolate. Didn’t taste like olive oil.

[wtg]

@Mik said in Mediterranean Diet:

Making Chicken Meatballs Marsala tonight, an NYT recipe.

How did it turn out? I looked at the recipe and it looked really good, though I wondered about the amount of water added at the end. Did you/would you adjust anything?

[Mik]

I made the meatballs last night and will finish them tonight for dinner. Ran short of time.

[Mik]

Just looked, yeah, looks like too much water. I also used half the onions. If you follow the recipe you'll have 3 cups of onions in the sauce. Too much.

[Jodi]

I just cooked the NYT spinach and feta gnocchi that Dol posted and WTG linked to - as written except used dried used have the lemon juice (suggested in multiple comments) and dried dill and mint - it was really good! There are two other crispy gnocchi recipes in the NYT app, going to try them too. One with tomatoes and red onions, and one made on a sheet pan with broccoli and sausage. I guess I don’t know what good gnocchi tastes like, I used the one from Italy that I bought at Walmart, and we liked it. Will try the Costco one (may try to make it some day - but I really like the convenience of the stuff in the shelf stable bag!).

[Jodi]

Should say “used half the lemon juice)

[Jodi]

Just found this - maybe frying/roasting them makes the difference. https://www.bonappetit.com/story/roast-your-store-bought-gnocchi?srsltid=AfmBOoqvHMSSAxkE72chN_tYM7qmdgsAjQClEqvlA-YGFNUKvH4ph4LA