Cod with tomatoes would leave me very hungry

I really enjoy receiving "The World's Healthiest Foods" newsletter and find the nutrition charts very interesting (web page is awkward and difficult to navigate).  But today's featured recipe is "Mediterranean Cod with Tomatoes."  One pound of cod serves four, and it has 200 calories.  Really?  That would send me to the frig or pantry very quickly looking for something more satisfying.

I'm a stress eater, and it's been a very stressful time the last two weeks. (Death of our cat.)  I think I've fixed three Marie Callender pies in the last 10 days--cherry with a lattice top, dark chocolate cream, and dutch apple. If you cut the pieces rather small, one piece is about as many calories as two decent size cookies, or a good slab of cheddar cheese, which also help with stress. 

Wouldn't you still be hungry?

  

Off shore drilling, the rest of the story

I saw a reference to this in my cousin’s last weekly letter, and thought it quite interesting. You may not agree, but let’s agree we’re only hearing one side from the environmentalists. Offshore Oil Drilling: An Environmental Bonanza By Humberto Fontova. Excerpts:

"Environmentalists" wake up in the middle of the night sweating and whimpering about offshore oil platforms only because they've never seen what's under them. Louisiana produces almost 30 per cent of America's commercial fisheries. Only Alaska (ten times the size of the Bayou state) produces slightly more. So obviously, Louisiana's coastal waters are immensely rich and prolific in seafood. These same coastal waters contain 3,200 of the roughly 3,700 offshore production platforms in the Gulf of Mexico. These oil production platforms off the Bayou state's coasts also extract 80 percent of the oil and 72 percent of the natural gas produced in the Continental U.S., without causing a single major oil spill in half a century of this process. This record stands despite dozens of hurricanes -- including the two most destructive in North American history, Camille and Katrina -- repeatedly battering the drilling and production structures. So for those interested in evidence over hysterics, by simply looking bayou-ward, a lesson in the "environmental perils" of offshore oil drilling presents itself very clearly. Fashionable Florida, on the other hand, which zealously prohibits offshore oil drilling, had its gorgeous "Emerald Coast" panhandle beaches soiled by an ugly oil spill in 1976. This spill, as almost all oil spills, resulted from the transportation of oil -- not from the extraction of oil. Assuming such as Hugo Chavez deign to keep selling us oil, we'll need increasingly more and we'll need to keep transporting it stateside -- typically to refineries in Louisiana and Texas. This path takes those tankers (as the one in 1976) smack in front of Florida's panhandle beaches. Recall the Valdez, the Cadiz, the Argo Merchant. These were all tanker spills. The production of oil is relatively clean and safe. Again, it's the transportation that presents the greatest risk. And even these spills (though hyped hysterically as environmental catastrophes) always play out as minor blips, those pictures of oil-soaked seagulls notwithstanding. To the horror and anguish of professional greenies, Alaska's Prince William Sound recovered completely. More birds get fried by landing on power lines and smashed to pulp against picture windows in one week than perished from three decades of oil spills."

But then, I never thought it was about safety, bio-diversity, wildlife, fish, etc. Did you? It's about shutting down the economy, about not using petroleum at all, for any reason.

Getting fat on the border

There is a restaurant called "On the Border." I checked a map, and we have one in Ohio--in Columbus. Think fish or beans and rice are a healthy, low calorie choice? Think again! On the Border Dos XX Fish Tacos with rice and beans tops out at a whopping 2100 calories, 130 grams of fat, 169 grams of carbs and 4750 mg of sodium. My arteries are clogging just writing this!

It costs $9.49 and features 3 fresh flour tortillas, stuffed with Dos XX beer-battered fish, creamy red chile sauce, shredded cabbage, cheese and pico de gallo.

To think they're blaming McDonald's for the obesity epidemic!

I've learned to like beans and rice. I make a package of boil-in-the-bag rice (can't cook rice to save my soul--worse than my coffee) and mix it with a can of drained black beans and refrigerate it. It will last about four lunches. I grill some onions and peppers in olive oil, add a cup of the beans/rice mix, and toss in some frozen corn. Heat about 2 minutes in the microwave in a glass dish covered with a damp paper towel. Yummy. And it probably has under 350 calories. High in protein, calcium, iron, as well as all the stuff that rice is fortified with, and flavor. It will take you through all the way to supper.