Bar Method: 10 Months!

Image from: blog.beauty-goodies.com

I can't believe it's been 10 months already since I started Bar Method!  Everything is still going well, I love the classes and teachers and continue to go about 4x a week.  I have to admit there have been a few weeks when I do 3x a week, but for the most part it's been 4x/wk and that amount feels right to me.  As I sit here, I feel soreness in pretty much every muscle.  Despite the constant muscle soreness (which varies in intensity depending on the class), I've never experienced an actual injury doing Bar Method so I'm not too worried.  

One thing I've come to realize is that the class is sneaky.  It's structured into arm, thigh, butt, ab sections but even when you think you are just targeting one area, the only way to do each exercise properly is to work the other parts too.  So for example, when you do the pretzel you are supposedly targeting your butt.  But you also end up torturing your obliques and your arms and since posture is emphasized throughout the class, you are always working your back muscles.  Actually, that's probably the correction I get the most - "Open your chest" "Engage your back muscles" "Draw your shoulders back."  It's awesome though because now I have great posture.

Still using the same weights, but they still feel challenging so oh well.  I might be ready to move up from the 1 lb weight for the one arm lift/lunge exercise though.  Wish there were half step weights, like 1.5 lbs.  My main goals when I started this was to improve strength and flexibility and I think I've done both, although there are still many things to work toward.  There's one girl who is in my class sometimes that I love watching because she's crazy flexible so all the positions look beautiful and graceful when she does them.  I'm not sure I'll ever attain that level of flexibility, but one can try!

A Nice Noodle Broth

Now that I have a noodle recipe that's pretty fast and easy to throw together, I wanted to have a good standby vegetarian broth in the event I don't have any leftover meaty soup-ish ingredients on hand.  The key to this broth is star anise (to lend depth) and miso (for umami).  All of these ingredients I happen to have in the pantry already, but they may be acquired in any Asian supermarket.  The first time I made it I kind of threw things into the pot but the second time I tried to keep an eye to measurements for reproducibility.  Here is what I have roughly, I believe the proportions can be easily adapted to taste:

Vegetarian 'Meaty' Broth for Noodle Soup

2 tsp vegetable oil
2-3 tsp finely grated fresh ginger
1 tbs dry fried shallots (find in Asian supermarket)
3 cups of water
1.5 tbs miso
2 star anise
1.5 tbs soy sauce
1 tsp shaoxing wine (optional)

topping ideas:
scallions, chopped
leafy greens
bean sprouts
poached egg
lime wedge
cilantro, chopped
chili garlic sauce

Heat the oil in a medium saucepan and fry the ginger and shallots until fragrant.  Add water, miso, star anise, soy sauce and shaoxing wine and let simmer for 15 minutes.  Taste and adjust seasonings accordingly (can add a pinch of sugar or salt or more soy sauce if desired).  I like to quickly wilt the greens in the broth before combining with the noodles and scattering scallions over.  I bet a squeeze of lime would be nice too.

Simple Dinner 3

I guess my simple dinners are pretty much all bread based.  I definitely had more than what I pictured above;  when I'm by myself I tend to eat various courses of things until I am no longer hungry.  I've been semi-obsessed with soup recently and this was my latest effort, a cream of tomato soup from Cook's Illustrated.  I've never been much of a fan of tomato soup until now, this was extremely good.  Especially with some toasted bread alongside, yum.

Cream of Tomato Soup (adapted from Cook's Illustrated)

2 (28 oz) cans whole tomatoes (not packed in puree), drained, 3 cups juice reserved, tomatoes seeded

1 1/2 tbs dark brown sugar

4 tbs butter

4 large shallots, minced

1 tbs tomato paste

pinch ground all spice

2 tbs unbleached all purpose flour

1 3/4 cup chicken stock

1/2 cup heavy cream

2 tbs brandy or dry sherry

salt

cayenne pepper

My substitutions:

I forgot the brown sugar until after the tomatoes were already roasted so I quickly threw 1 tbs of light brown sugar over them and stuck them back in the oven for a couple of minutes.  Next time I will follow instructions better.  Instead of shallots, I used 3/4 of a red onion.  I used 1/8 tsp of allspice and used 2 cubes of powdered chicken bouillon combined with water.  Having no brandy or sherry on hand, I used 1 tbs Chinese Shaoxing wine instead (my usual substitute when sherry is called for).  And instead of cayenne pepper, I gadded some black pepper.  Even with all my subs, the soup was delicious and pretty easy to put together on a weeknight.  

1. Adjust oven rack to upper middle position and heat oven to 450 degrees.  Line a rimmed sheet with foil and spread tomatoes in single layer on foil.  Sprinkle evenly with brown sugar.  Bake ~30 min (until all liquid has evaporated and tomatoes begin to color).  Let tomatoes cool slightly, peel off foil and transfer to small bowl.

2. Heat butter in pot until foaming and add shallots, tomato paste and allspice.  Reduce heat to low, cover and cook, stirring occasionally until shallots are softened (7-10 min).  Add flour and cook, stirring until combined (30 sec).  Whisking constantly, slowly add chicken stock, reserved tomato juice and the roasted tomatoes.  Cover, increase heat to medium and bring to boil.  Reduce heat to low and simmer about 10 min.

3. Strain mixture into bowl and transfer solids into food processor (or blender).  Add ~ 1 cup of liquid and puree.   Add everything back into pot.  Add cream and reheat soup.  Off the heat, stir in brandy or sherry, season to taste and serve.

Simple Dinner 2

I have a weakness for baguette-centered meals.  All I need is a piece of cheese or even some butter and I'm good to go.  In this case, I mixed up a no fuss spinach and cream cheese dip and I happened to have a lovely piece of venison pate from the Farmer's Market in the fridge so all the ingredients necessary for a simple dinner was present.  Again, I'd like to reiterate my pleasure in living alone...somehow I can't imagine any of my past boyfriends looking at this and thinking it a satisfactory dinner...

No Fuss Spinach and Cream Cheese Dip

Throw half a block (4oz?) of plain cream cheese into a bowl and shake out some frozen spinach (the loose kind you buy in a bag, not the frozen block that comes in a box).  How much spinach you like is up to you.  Add a pinch or two of salt and pepper.  Heat bowl in microwave in 30 second intervals, stirring in between, until everything is melted and mixed.  If you have some cheddar cheese around, add a bit of that and zap with microwave to melt in.

Hearty Lentil Soup With Spice And Spinach

A couple of months ago I got two bags of French lentils from my sister, who had received them from my mom six months before that, who had gotten them from a neighbor who was moving away who knows how long ago.  So that's a lot of people who have no idea what to do with lentils, including me.  I made a lentil soup years ago that I felt pretty eh about.  In an attempt to use these up, I also made lentil salad and it was fine, but definitely something that I will be craving never.  This weekend I solved my lentil problem when I stumbled onto a Cook's Illustrated recipe for lentil soup.  My CI cookbook really has not let me down yet, best cookbook I own for sure.  The original recipe is for hearty lentil soup and then there were two variations, one with fragrant spices and one with spinach.  I basically turned out a version that combined elements of all three and I couldn't be more pleased.  Now I am jealously guarding my remaining lentils, so I can turn out more of this soup!

Hearty Lentil Soup with Spices and Spinach (adapted from Cook's Illustrated)

3 slices bacon, cut into 1/4 inch pieces

1 large onion, chopped fine

2 medium carrots, chopped (I used 3 and food processed into same size as onions)

3 medium garlic cloves, minced

1 tsp ground cumin

1 tsp ground coriander

1 tsp ground cinnamon

1 (14.5 oz can) diced tomatoes, drained

1 bay leaf

1 tsp fresh thyme leaves (I used a bit less than that of dried)

1 cup (7 oz) lentils

1 tsp salt (I omitted this bc I used regular chicken broth)

ground black pepper

1/2 cup dry white wine

4 1/2 cup low-sodium chicken broth (I used regular and omitted salt above)

1 1/2 cup water

1 1/2 tsp fresh lemon juice (I didn't actually measure this)

5 oz frozen spinach (eyeballed how much I wanted!)

1. Fry bacon in Dutch oven over medium high heat, stirring occasionally until fat is rendered and bacon crisp.

2. Add the onion and carrots; cook, stirring until the veggies begin to soften (2 min).

3. Add garlic, cumin, coriander, cinnamon and cook about 30 sec.  Stir in tomatoes, bay leave and thyme, cook until fragrant ~30 sec.  Stir in lentils, salt (if using), pepper, cover and reduce heat to medium low.  Cook until veggies are softened and lentils have darkened, ~8-10 min.

4. Uncover, increase the heat to high, add the wine and bring to simmer.  Add chicken broth and water, bring to boil, cover partially and reduce heat to low.  Simmer until lentils are tender but still hold shape, 30-35 min.  Discard bay leaf.

5.  Puree 3 cups of soup until smooth and return to pot.  Stir in lemon juice and frozen spinach, heat soup until hot and serve.

Note: If you have cilantro, chop some up to sprinkle over the soup.  The timing above wasn't really followed by me, just use some common sense.  It's a forgiving soup I think and tastes excellent.