And the verdict is...

The bbq chicken last night was definitely a success! The sauce really thickened up and had an almost molasses flavor and the chicken was really tender. It ended up making way more food than I thought- enough for 6 or 7 sandwhiches which sort of surprised me. Maybe I'll only do 2 chicken breasts next time, although I'm sure the leftovers will be eaten! I didn't add any extra spice to the sweet potato fries since the chicken was spicy and just stuck to s&p and some cumin. I made my sandwhich open face and P added the top of the bun along with some fresh parmesean cheese.





Tonight I'm going to try the mushroom chicken from last week but skip the noodles. I felt like they didn't add much to the dish. I have a sweet onion to use instead of scallions (I'll probably juch chop up half) and some white cooking wine to add along with tons of fresh mushrooms. The cheesy asparagus was so good earlier this week I'm excited to recreate that dish along with fresh green beans tonight. I'll remember to take pics this evening so I can post them tomorrow :)

I can't believe our trip to Chicago is less than a week away! We made reservations for Le Colonial on Wednesday night and I'm stoked that we can walk right there from our hotel. I'm also really excited for dinner at Blackbird on Thursday. We saw the chef on Anthony Bourdain and Top Chef and I can't wait to try the food! I was also thinking this morning how excited I am to eat Chiptole :) It is probably good that we don't have on here since I would eat there every day! P also wants to get sushi at some point, although I'm not much of a fish eater, so hopefully we can sneak that in for lunch on Friday or Saturday. I wonder if there's anywhere that's tasty and conveiently located to downtown that isn't crazy expensive...

It's such a gorgeous day here- hope everyone is having a fabulous week! :D

DOR

Wednesdays have unofficially become my day of rest workout-wise. It feels good to have a break mid-week and leaves me re-energized to focus and stay motivated for the rest of the week rather than burning out and being lazy on the weekends. I realized yesterday that I didn't watch any TV last weekend. Another small miracle. As Parker pointed out I used to spend the majority of Saturday and Sunday with my booty firmly planted to the couch. No doubt, the fabulous weather helps my motivation immensely. I feel guilty wasting such gorgeous days by laying around and eating ramen. Ramen is so gross.... bleh.

Not gross, however, was the mushroom chicken pasta last night. So delicious! I modified the recipe a little: no white wine, added shallots, and used fresh basil rather than whatever the recipe suggested (dried tarragon, maybe?). I also cooked it all in one pan rather in shifts like CL suggested. I love one pot meals and separating it out just seemed like way too much work and way too many dirty dishes. Plus letting all the flavors mix together worked perfectly. Coating the chicken in a little flour made it really tasty and tender. We also used whole wheat noodles instead of regular egg noodles. I think next time I will ditch the noodles entirely and just cook whole chicken breasts and dump the mushroom mixture over the top.

The green beans were super tasty, too, although at the last minute I decided to ditch the pine nuts and just stick with gbs, lemon, a little olive oil, salt and pepper. So fresh and easy. The pine nuts would have been great flavor, but it just seemed like lots of unnecessary fat and cals. I thought I made enough for leftovers but we woofed them all down which is always a good sign.
Here's how everything turned out:







For some reason I was super motivated last night (morning workout?) and made the lemon bars (yummy, gooey, lemony, sticky, delicious, and only 70 cals a bar!) and a morning oat glop. Maybe I should work on a new name for that... glop doesn't make it sound to appetizing... Anyway, it sort of looked like something the kitten hacked up but tasted awesome and has kept me full all morning. Last night I mixed together:

• 1 cup oats
  
• 1 cup light vanilla soy milk


• 2 tsp sugar


• 2 mashed overripe bananas


• 2 tbsp banana

I covered it up and let it sit in the fridge all night. This morning I scooped about a third of the mix into a bowl, sprinkled a little pumpkin pie mix on top and stuck it in the microwave for about a minute. Yum! Way better than the pumpkin oat mix I tried last week, although I think that still has potential. Berries also would have been good- I'll have to give that a try next time.

For lunch we had some delicious pizzas:

• whole wheat pita brushed with a little evoo
• 1/2- 3/4 pear (whatever fits)
• gorgonzola cheese crumbles
• chopped walnut
• fresh sage
• sprinkle of salt and pepper

They were tasty and I burned the heck out of my hand pulling one out of the oven. Not so smart. My hand still hurts like crazy but my tummy is very happy :)

Thank you all so much for the nice comments and encouragement. Further affirmation that I am so incredibly lucky to have such amazing family and friends.

Hope everyone is having a wonderful day!

Morning workouts

Last week I decided it was time to stop finding excuses and start working out in the morning. It's so beautiful this time of year I can always come up with a million reasons to skip the gym after work. Like wanting to go out for a cold drink, or make a great dinner, or go get ice cream. None of which are terrible on their own, but no gym + food/drink indulgence = tight pants. So beginning last week I set the alarm for 6, went to bed early, and hoped for the best. Miraculously, it worked. I made it out of bed, got dressed, and drove to the gym. Bruce and Pman seemed terribly confused, and I was still half asleep. Other than the fact that all the television programming at 6 am is terrible, I now love working out in the morning. Today was my fourth time, and I think I'm becoming a regular. I recognize the faces of other folks at the gym who are willing to put exercise before sleep and get moving in the morning. If you had told me six months ago, heck six weeks ago, that I would be one of them I would have laughed. Wonders never seem to cease.

My adventures in peanut crusted chicken were a relative success. Besides the fact that I inadvertantly purchased kidney beans instead of black beans to add into the rice the dinner was pretty tasty (I think I was so focused on finding the low sodium kind I forgot to pay attention to the type of bean. Oops!). I added some red pepper flakes to the breading, used store bought bread crumbs instead of homemaking them (no food processor) and also added some lime juice to the salsa. I think next time I'll try peanuts and penko for the breading, per mom's suggestion. Having an amazing cook for a mom makes for some great advice :)

I'm going to give the mushroom chicken pasta a whirl tonight. Not sure how I can screw it up too badly. I'm skipping the white wine and adding shallots for some extra flavor. I think pasta likes to stick to my ribs once I eat it, so I'll just have a few noodles (whole wheat egg noodles to Parker's dismay) and cook some fresh green beans with a little garlic, olive oil, and some toasted pine nuts to have on the side. The picture at the top is what it's supposed to look like, I'll try and remember to take a photo of how it actually turns out :) Here's a link for a recipe that comes close to the green beans, but imagine a few crispy pine nuts on the top: http://find.myrecipes.com/recipes/recipefinder.dyn?action=displayRecipe&recipe_id=549731

I'm also going to take a shot at making these lemon bars tonight if I find the motivation. I have been craving them lately and a friend found this great recipe for me:

http://www.foodfit.com/recipes/recipe.asp?rid=1929

One of my big goals since getting on this eating well/working out kick has to eat 5 fresh fruits and veggies per day. Although it sounds like a snap it can be a little tricky. Thank goodness spring is here! If I was starting this plan in the winter I would be doomed for failure. As it is, I've done pretty well but definitely need to be diligent. I snuck in some leftover asparagus with lunch today so that along with fresh pineapple, mushrooms and green beans will get me pretty close.

Hope you're enjoying this gorgeous day! :D

Fresh Start

A couple of months ago I started getting serious about leading a more healthy and active lifestyle. A combination of the winter blahs, a closet full of clothes that had "shrunk" overnight, and a feeling of complacency culminated, motivating me to make a change.

I always thought it would be too hard, that I didn't have enough time, that I wasn't that unhealthy... lots of excuses and no serious willingness to commit. Until I found a website where I started counting calories. Not just counting the calories of what I ate, but also what I burned. It was like the lightbulb finally came on! So now I not only cook and exercise more, I enjoy every day more :D I am having so much fun trying new recipes, new exercises and challenging myself to learn more.

The biggest shift which is really a miracle in itself has been planning my weekly menus. This coming from the person who used to make a trip to the grocery store every day. Sometimes twice. I've also started going to the gym 5 days a week and taking two rest days to relax and recoup. I always used to dread working out and now not only love going, but sometimes get disappointed when my rest days roll around and I need to take a break. This surprises the heck out of me, but I am thrilled and grateful.

My goal has been to try at least two new recipes every week, so cooking Monday and Tuesday evenings will be a bit of an adventure!

In the midst of all this planning and moving and eating and learning I have lost 11 pounds. Not a huge deal in the world of The Biggest Loser, but a major accomplishment for me. My remarkable friends and family have not only been phenomenally supportive, but have also started asking me to share some food ideas. So here I am.

Here's a look at the yummy food on tap for this week along with links to the recipes:

Monday 5/18/09
bfast every day: Fiberone shredded wheat with lowfat vanilla soymilk (Silk brand)
lunch: Ceasar wrap (lemon pepper chicken breast on the Forman grill, lettuce, tomato and cucumber tossed in lowfast ceasar dressing all wrapped up in a wheat tortilla)
dinner: Peanut crusted chicken with pineapple salsa and lime asparagus(http://find.myrecipes.com/recipes/recipefinder.dyn?action=displayRecipe&recipe_id=1714551)



Tuesday 5/19/09
lunch: leftovers from Monday's dinner and some steamed asparagus with lime juice
dinner: chicken and mushrooms with garlic white wine sauce (http://find.myrecipes.com/recipes/recipefinder.dyn?action=displayRecipe&recipe_id=1545708)



Wednesday 5/20/09
lunch: whole wheat pita with 1 tsp evoo, sliced pear, gorgonzola, fresh sage and crumbled walnuts broiled for a few minutes
dinner: Sweet and sour chicken (http://find.myrecipes.com/recipes/recipefinder.dyn?action=displayRecipe&recipe_id=1599631)



Thursday 5/21/09
lunch: same as Wednesday but with apple rather than pear
dinner: friend's birthday dinner

Friday 5/22/09
bfast: breakfast cookie from fitnessista.com (Soak raw oats overnight in milk of your choice and some sort of produce- last week was pumpkin and vanilla soy milk, this week will be vanilla soy milk, peanut butter and banana. The first one was a bit bland so hopefully this attempt will be better!)
lunch: whole wheat quesadilla with black beans and mango salsa
dinner: Sage and Parmesean crusted pork chops with lemon and pine nut green beans http://find.myrecipes.com/recipes/recipefinder.dyn?action=displayRecipe&recipe_id=1860082

My goal will be to update at least once a week with new recipe ideas. Happy eating! ;)