How to quickly thaw meat without a microwave

This simple trick defrosts steaks, chops, chicken breasts and other small cuts of meat in 10 to 12 minutes, without the microwave. And it's approved both by the FDA and America's Test Kitchen. (But it shouldn't be used on larger items like roasts or whole chickens.)

Place each individual cut of meat in a zip-sealed plastic bag. Heat a large pot of water on the stove till the water measures 140 F. If you don't have a thermometer,* the water will be steaming, with just a few small bubbles on the bottom.

Remove the pan from the burner, and place the meat in the water. According to the Test Kitchen, chicken breasts should take about 10 minutes, and cuts of pork or steak about 12. They recommend not leaving any cut it the water more than 45 minutes (I'd recommend even less).

*P.S. If you don't have a cooking thermometer, you really should get one. Learning the proper temperature for different cuts of meat will improve your cooking like nothing else! It can also be used for making sure water is the right temp for meat, green tea, or yeast doughs, or even to make sure a loaf of bread is done in the middle. This is the cooking thermometer we use. It's handy because it has a remote, so you can put your food in the oven or on the grill, then go do whatever you need to do elsewhere, but still keep an eye on the food's temp. Love it!

Meat image and info from America's Test Kitchen.

Apology from a Former Weight Loss Consultant

Excerpts from An Open Apology to All of My Weight Loss Clients, by Iris Higgins:

I'm sorry because I put you on a 1,200 calorie diet and told you that was healthy. I'm sorry because when you were running 5x a week, I encouraged you to switch from a 1,200 calorie diet to a 1,500 calorie diet, instead of telling you that you should be eating a hell of a lot more than that. I'm sorry because you were breastfeeding and there's no way eating those 1,700 calories a day could have been enough for both you and your baby....

I'm sorry because it's only years later that I realize just how unhealthy a 1,200 calorie diet was. I stayed on a 1,200-1,500 calorie diet for years, so I have the proof in myself. Thyroid issues, mood swings, depression, headaches... 

I'm sorry because you were in high school and an athlete, and I pray that you weren't screwed up by that 1,500 calorie diet. Seriously, world? Seriously? A teenage girl walks in with no visible body fat and lots of muscle tone, tells you she's a runner and is happy with her weight... but her mother says she's fat and has to lose weight and so we help her do just that. As an individual, as women, as a company... as a nation, we don't stand up for that girl? What is wrong with us?...

Because I've been played for years, and so have you, and inadvertently, I fed into the lies you've been told your whole life. The lies that say that being healthy means nothing unless you are also thin. The lies that say that you are never enough, that your body is not a beautiful work of art, but rather a piece of clay to be molded by society's norms until it becomes a certain type of sculpture.

I owe you an apology, my former client and now friend, who I helped to lose too much weight. Who I watched gain the weight back, plus some. Because that's what happens when you put someone on a 1,200 calorie diet. But I didn't know. If you're reading this, then I want you to know that you have always been beautiful. And that all these fad diets are crap meant to screw with your metabolism so that you have to keep buying into them. I think now that I was a really good weight loss consultant. Because I did exactly what the company wanted (but would never dare say). I helped you lose weight and then gain it back, so that you thought we were the solution and you were the failure. You became a repeat client and we kept you in the game. I guess I did my job really well.

And now I wonder, did I do more harm than good?...

I am sorry because many of you walked in healthy and walked out with disordered eating, disordered body image, and the feeling that you were a "failure." None of you ever failed. Ever. I failed you. The weight loss company failed you. Our society is failing you.

Just eat food. Eat real food, be active, and live your life. Forget all the diet and weight loss nonsense. It's really just that. Nonsense.

photo credit: madamepsychosis via photopin cc

Emergency peanut butter cookies

Midnight: you've got a bad cookie craving. What to do? Making a whole batch of cookies is a recipe for waking up to regrets! This is perfect: a quick, easy peanut butter cookie recipe with a batch size of two.

Oh, and by the way, they're sugar-free. Sweetened with good ol' maple syrup! (Which is important for vegans, and those of us trying to avoid white or brown sugar. Learn more.)

This recipe is from Chocolate Covered Katie's blog, but I've neatened it up a bit.

Quick, easy sugar-free peanut butter cookies

Makes two cookies.

• 2 T. flour (I used white whole wheat)
• 1/16 tsp baking soda
• generous pinch of salt
• 1.5 T. peanut butter
• 1.5 T. maple syrup
• 1/4 tsp pure vanilla extract
• optional: add some chocolate chips if you wish!

Preheat oven to 350 F.

In a cereal bowl, stir together the flour, baking soda and salt. Add the remaining ingredients. Mix well and form into two blobs on a parchment-covered cookie sheet. Flatten into cookie shapes (use a fork, and wipe it clean between the first and second cookie). 

Bake in preheated oven for 8-11 minutes. Check at 8 minutes, and add one to two minutes at a time until it's lightly browned in some areas.

Let cool for as long as you can stand it. Enjoy with a glass of milk, if you like. Wake up in the morning with no regrets about having devoured too many cookies the night before!