Weekend Cooking: Slimmer by Harry Papas

Slimmer: The New Mediterranean Way To Lose Weight by Harry Papas
Published by Turner Publishing ISBN 978-1-59652-856-7
Hardcover, $26.95

Harry Papas gained 110 pounds in one year. Knowing how unhealthy that was, he changed his college major from Economics to Diet and Nutrition and created his own program to lose the weight and get healthy.

Slimmer: The New Mediterranean Way To Lose Weight is the result of his knowledge and experience in losing the weight. Papas is from Greece, and he learned that there was study done in the 1960s, entitled The Seven Countries Study, that concluded that Japan and Greece had the lowest rates of coronary artery disease and low levels of serum cholesterol.

Papas discovered that the Greek diet of fresh fruit and vegetables, lean protein, whole grains, dairy products (higher protein Greek yogurt has recently become popular in the United States), olive oil and wine and vinegar have contributed to the healthier Greek population.

Most of the above I had already known, but the vinegar one was new to me. Including vinegar and lemon juice at a meal reduces blood glucose levels and helps to burn fat intake. It would be easy to whip up a vinegar/lemon juice and olive oil dressing to add to salads or to marinate a protein in. He suggests using organic vinegars and avoiding those with added sugar.

Walking outside in the sunshine for 30 minutes every day is preferable to walking a treadmill in the gym. Shutting off the cellphone and just meditating and relaxing for a few minutes daily will help your health, according to Papas.

There are lots of recipes in this book, with Papas giving the reader three-21 day cycles of menus. I like that he gives such a long-range menu cycle, and you get free days when you can choose what to eat; you feel less deprived.

Breakfast is important, and he recommends fruit, bran or whole grain cereal, reduced fat milk, whole grain bread, a protein like turkey sausage or turkey bacon, and coffee or tea every morning. You get three small snacks, lunch and dinner.

Three recipes that I am going to try first are:

• Mediterranean Tuna Salad- which you can prepare ahead of time and assemble easily at work
• Chicken with Orzo
• Summer Vegetable Risotto with Chicken

The recipe below came from Maria and Eleni's Taverna, a famous restaurant on the Greek isle of Fiscardo, owned by Papas' mother and aunt, and visited by many famous people like Tom Hanks, Oprah Winfrey and Madonna.

Mediterranean Chickpea Salad By Harry Papas Author of Slimmer: The New Mediterranean Way to Lost Weight Full of fresh flavor with a hint of spice, not to mention a good amount of healthy fiber, this salad will satisfy any size appetite, just as it has at Maria and Eleni's Taverna for years! One 15 oz can chickpeas, drained and rinsed  1 scallion, trimmed and thinly sliced ½ small cucumber, seeded and diced 2 Tablespoons diced green bell pepper 1 plum tomato, cored, seeded, and diced  2 teaspoons chopped fresh parsley 1 teaspoon capers, drained and rinsed A dash of cayenne pepper Juice of ½ a lemon 2 teaspoons olive oil 1 teaspoon balsamic vinegar  Salt and pepper to taste 1 teaspoon prepared mustard  A pinch of dried oregano 1. In a medium bowl toss together the chickpeas, scallion, cucumber, bell pepper, tomato, parsley, capers, cayenne pepper, and lemon juice. Set aside. 2. In a small bowl stir together the remaining ingredients and pour over the chickpea mixture. Toss well to coat and allow to marinate, stirring occasionally, for at least 1 hour before serving. Makes 1 serving The above is an excerpt from the book Slimmer: The New Mediterranean Way to Lost Weight by Harry Papas.

Papas' own success and his easy-to-follow menu plan should inspire anyone who wants to eat healthier and lose weight. The recipes are simple and full of fresh flavor, and the book is written in a easy to read style.

rating 4 of 5

This post is part of Beth Fish Reads' Weekend Cooking.  If you have anything related to food, cookbook reviews, novel or non-fiction book reviews, recipes, movie reviews, etc., head over to Beth Fish Reads and add your post. Or, if you want to read food related posts, head over to read what some interesting people have to say about food!

Broadway: Other Desert Cities

I had the play Other Desert Cities on my list of must-sees, and I finally got around to seeing it this week. It is nominated for several Tony Awards, including Best Play (it won the Drama League Award for Distinguished Play), Best Actress for Stockard Channing and Best Featured Actress for Judith Light, and all are deserving of a win.

The play opens in the Palm Springs home of Polly and Lyman Wyeth (Stockard Channing and Stacy Keach), staunch Republicans who were friends of the Reagans, and parents to Tripp (Thomas Sadoski), who produces a reality show similar to Judge Judy, and Brooke, a writer who hasn't been home in six years.

We learn that Brooke (Elizabeth Marvel) had a major breakdown, and Polly flew east to care for her daughter. Brooke is about to publish a new book: a non-fiction book about her brother Henry. During the Vietnam War, Henry became involved with drugs and a bad group of people who bombed an Army recruiting station where an innocent man was killed. Henry fled the scene for home, where he fought with his parents who turned him away. Then he killed himself by leaping off a ferry.

That is what Brooke's book is about; how her parents turned their backs on their young son and drove him to suicide. Brooke's parents are horrified that she is dredging up the most painful time in their lives for public consumption; and they see things differently.

Polly's sister Silda (Judith Light) is an alcoholic who used to write silly screenplays with Polly. She has failed at rehab and Polly and Lyman have taken her in. Silda hates Polly and Lyman's politics and she secretly helped Brooke with her book.

The fireworks fly when Polly is finally allowed to read Brooke's book. I liked that the author takes issue with the memoir phenomenon, showing that how people remember things that happened in the past aren't necessarily the way that they actually happened. People's perspectives affect memory and sometimes they don't have all the facts.

The character of Polly could have been a stereotype, the cold bitch of a mother, but in the skilled hands of Channing, you see from the very beginning she is not. She loves her family, and when the chips are down, they turn to her (Brooke and Silda) and she is there for them.

While the women have gotten the lion's share of attention for this play, the men Lyman and Tripp both have explosive speeches that are powerfully performed. These WASP-y men show the build-up of emotions they have been carrying around with them.

The end of the play has some major fireworks and some confessions that rock all of the characters. When a major revelation takes place, you could hear a pin drop in the theater, and at the end, the audience was almost as emotionally spent as the characters.

The only criticism I have is that the age of the characters didn't seem to work out for me; it takes place during the Iraq War, but Henry and Brooke were older teens during the Vietnam War. Brooke seems to young for that and it would make Tripp nearly 40, which didn't seem possible.

Other Desert Cities is a brilliant American play about family, love, loyalty and politics by John Rabin Baitz, and stunningly performed by the five actors. Go see it before it closes on June 17th; it is a theatrical experience not to be missed. I got my tickets for half-price at TKTS,but this is a play well worth paying full-price.

The winner of THE CHAPERONE

The winner of the signed personalized copy of Laura Moriarty's novel The Chaperone is (drumroll, please)....... Anne Mlod! (winner drawn via Random.org)

Congratulations to Anne, your copy will be arriving soon via Riverhead Books.

Thanks to all who entered, and if you want to read more about this fantastic book, one of the best I've read this year, go to Laura Moriarty's fanpage here or Riverhead Books fanpage here. Thanks too to Riverhead Books for providing the prize.

My review of The Chaperone is here.