Making Something Simple, Pretty

I feel like I say this a lot, but it has been a while.  I hope to one day get back on track with the whole blogging thing since it is an aspect of my life that I truly enjoy and gives me a few moments alone with myself...usually...where I talk about the things I'm passionate about.  One day I will get back to doing it daily...or at least weekly.  Maybe after my oldest starts kindergarten in the fall or when my youngest can entertain herself without needing mommy's attention every five minutes.  Like I said...one day.  And sadly, that one day will probably happen before I am ready for it to.  So for know, dear readers, I hope that you can be satisfied with my scattered communications!

Now for the juicy stuff...

In the culinary world, chef's have an expression.  "You eat with your eyes first."  I'm not sure who the first person to coin this phrase was, but I do know there have been more than a few times I have looked at food (mine or someone else's) and thought, "I'm not eating that, it looks awful!"  I grew up in the days of t.v. dinners, casseroles and good 'ole SPAM.  How can you make some of those things "look" good even if some of the MAY taste good? 

As much as some of you may want me to, I'm not here to elevate the likes of the everyday casserole.  It is a rich, creamy, gooy, wonderful in every way and meant to look like a lunch lady slapped it on your plate...except DELISIOUS!!  I'm also not going anywhere close to SPAM.  My mom used to try to elevate SPAM by scoring it like ham and sticking in little cloves for decoration, trust me, it doesn't work, it's gross.  What I would like to put up for your consideration is a little elevation of the classic t.v. dinner that, while does take more than 4-5 minutes on high in your microwave, won't have you spending all night in the kitchen either.

So what made up t.v. dinners anyway?  There was always some sort of "main course," protein usually, a starch, a vegetable and (if you were lucky) a little sweet treat at the end.  My sister and I would have these whenever my parents went out for the evening.  I remember liking very few of them and trying on more than one occasion to throw them in the trash can.  I wasn't very good at covering up the evidence though, so I got in trouble a lot for that particular hijinks.  But I digress.  At the heart of them, it really is what most families are looking for when looking for dinner.  Protein, vegetable, starch...and if you eat good...dessert.  And this week, I think I found the perfect alternative.

I give to you this weeks "t.v. dinner"!  Chicken Thighs in Mushroom Cream Sauce with Mashed Potatoes at Green Beans.  I'm going to go ahead and fess up to two secrets here. 

1 - I didn't make the mashed potatoes myself.  I can, but that's a long process.  I have fallen in love with Simply Potatoes Garlic Mashed Potatoes, so that's my go to when I know I don't have the time to make them from scratch.  And let's be honest, who has time for that anyway?!?

2 - Those ARE fresh green beans...BUT...I bought them in a nice little one pound bag already cleaned and prepped and ready to go.  I could have even steamed them in the bag they came in, but since my microwave was taken up by heating the potatoes, I threw them in some salted boiling water and 7 minutes later, they were done!  *Side note - Sometimes I like to throw a cube of chicken bouillon in with my green beans to give a little more flavor, this time I just forgot! *

Side dishes down, I turned to the main course.  I found this recipe on Pinterest, because where else does one find recipes nowadays.  With a few minor tweaks, this recipe was golden.  AND 30 minutes, start to eating.  SCORE!!  So next time your planning your dinner, just remember that you don't have to feel guilty when you can't produce a four course meal worthy of a fine dining restaurant for your family.  Just make the simple stuff work for you!!

Chicken Thighs in Mushroom Cream Sauce recipe adapted from Better Homes and Gardens
Makes 4 servings

4 chicken thighs; skin on
salt and pepper
4 T fresh rosemary; chopped
4 T fresh thyme; chopped
1 T olive oil
6 oz cremini mushrooms; sliced
4 oz shiitake mushrooms; sliced
1 T flour
1 c chicken broth
1/2 c white wine (or more chicken broth) *The alcohol does cook off*
2 T grainy mustard

1 - Preheat oven to 400 degrees.
2 - Season both sides of chicken with salt and pepper.  Mix together rosemary and thyme.  1 T of mixture on the skin side of each chicken thigh.
3 - Heat the olive oil in a skillet big enough to hold all thighs at once.  Add chicken, skin side down, to the hot oil and cook 5-7 minutes until well browned.  Transfer to a sheet tray and put in the oven.  Bake at 400 degrees for 15-20 minutes.
4 - Meanwhile, add mushrooms to the same skillet and cook until they begin to soften.  Add flour and stir to coat the mushrooms.  Add broth, wine, mustard and remaining herbs to the skillet.  Cook, stirring occasionally, until the mixture is thickened and bubbly.  The beauty is this will happen about the same time your chicken is done.  SCORE!
5 - Serve your chicken covered in sauce accompanied by green beans and mashed potatoes (no shame if you don't make them yourself).  Any extra sauce is lovely stirred into to those hot potatoes!

ENJOY!







 

 

 

Ready For a Little Healthy Competition?

So things have been super crazy lately!  I feel like I say that a lot...and as soon as summer is over and the oldest little one in back in preschool, I promise to set aside a day to blog and get back in the swing of things...promise!!

I've started to find that with my little peanut, the baby weight isn't falling off of me like it did before.  I know with my oldest, I didn't really do anything any differently and the weight was pretty much gone by the time she was 2 months old.  This time around...not so much.  My little peanut is quickly approaching the 5 month mark (how is THAT even possible?!?) and my weight isn't much lower than it was when I brought her home from the hospital.  Sigh.  It was time for something to change. 

Enter the hubs.

He suggested the only way either one of us was going to do anything about our weight and getting healthier was to have a contest.  If you know me or my husband, you know how competitive we can be.  If you've never met us before, let me make perfectly clear that neither one of us like to loose...at anything...ever.  His plan was to set a start and end date, each of us track our own nutrition and workout plan, and when the time was up, whoever lost the biggest percent of their starting body weight wins.  This all sounded way to familiar...and I was pretty skeptical that any of this would work...here's why.

Years back when I was still teaching, the staff did a "Biggest Loser" style challenge.  Each participant threw money into a pot, set their own personal weight loss goal and those who met their goal at the end of the challenge split the pot.  The hubs decided that he wanted to get in on the action too.  His "prize", he decided would be a new flat screen for the living room.  A few weeks before the challenge was over, Best Buy had a huge sale on TVs.  Assuring me that he was "so close" that he would definitely meet his goal and tempting me with the idea of saving a good chunk of change, I agreed to him buying the TV that he hadn't "officially" earned yet.  Want to guess what happened next?  Yep, he stopped keeping up with his plan and never met the target he had set for himself.  No worries for him though.  He was now enjoying watching football on his new TV.  Cheater.

To say the least, the thought of entering into another weight competition with him wasn't very appealing.  He had decided that the prize this time would be $150 (the exact price of the new tennis racket that has been stuck on his Amazon wish list for months).  Promising me that this time there would be no cheating or early prize receiving involved, I agreed.  This time the hubs is going down!

In order to insure success, I needed to find a way to have ultimate accountability.  First enter My Fitness Pal.  If you have never tried out this website/app before, you need to.  It is AMAZING when you use it right.  All in one place you can keep track of your food intake and exercises for the day.  There is even an option to upload recipes from the web or scan barcodes to enter your food.  And they have everything.  I mean EVERYTHING!  You take a few moments to enter your food, and it calculates your calories for you.  And I will tell you one thing.  When you look up how many calories are in that double cheeseburger you've been craving, you will think twice about eating it!

Next, I needed a plan for food.  I've always been a pretty healthy eater, but with a baby and a toddler in the house, I've been falling short on staying as healthy as I want, sometimes skipping meals completely.  I wanted something that didn't have a lot of "don't eat this" guidelines since those programs will help you loose weight only as long as you stay on them.  When you're done with the "plan" the weight tends to come back. 

I started by doing some research into the 21 Day Fix.  I've known several people who have had success with this program which seems so easy on the surface.  There is a simple equation to calculate how many calories you need a day and from there, there's a chart to show you how many of each colored (food group) containers you need.  If you buy the program, it comes with one set of containers and workouts to go along with your 21 days.  I didn't see the need to buy it myself since I have TONS of Tupperware and two other Beachbody workout products I need to dust off, so I set forth seeing if this was the program for me.

Although I LOVE the ideas of the containers so there really is no thought into how much is a serving, they get tricky to use when you are trying to work through a recipe.  Trying to work in all the servings of each container was also tricky, not going over or under.  So I kept looking.

Since the My Fitness Pal app was going to make inputting my food so easy, I decided that I would go for a diet based on clean eating...or as close to it as possible.  After all, if I'm going to make it through this challenge without wanting to kill someone, I can't completely give up a nice glass of wine at the end of a long day.  That seemed to be the best bet for my success.

So in the spirit of accountability, my starting weight is 141.4 pounds with a body fat percentage of 26.3 %.  Using the 21 Day Fix formula, I should be trying to stick close to 1200 calories.  Since I'm still breastfeeding, I had to add an extra 300 calories to that to keep my milk up which make my target 1500.  My goal is to be down 20 pounds in the 3 months that we have se for ourselves.  It's a pretty ambitious goal.  But, go big or go home, right?

So far, I've been doing pretty good.  Like I've said before, knowing that anything I put in my mouth I have to put down in the app really discourages snacking and poor food choices.  Here's been my favorite dinner from the past week. 

Triggerfish with Roasted Asparagus and Mushroom Quinoa (Quinoa adapted from Damn Delicious)
Serves 3

For the Fish:
3 pieces of trigger fish (I got this beautiful fish at Island Seafood in Ocean Isle.  If you are ever in Ocean Isle, get your fish from them.  You will NOT be disappointed.)
1 stick unsalted butter
dried minced garlic
dried dill
sea salt
black pepper

1 - Season both sides of fish with garlic, dill, salt and pepper.  In a saute pan, melt the butter over medium heat.  Once the butter is completely melted and bubbly, add your fish.  Cook for 3-4 mins per side, basting fish with butter occasionally.
     *Alternatively, you could saute the fish in 2 T olive oil and reduce the calories and fat that you take on during this cooking process.  We happened to need the extra calories and fat today, so I buttered it up!

For the asparagus:
1 bunch asparagus; ends trimmed
1 T olive oil
salt and pepper

1 - Lay asparagus out in a single layer on a baking sheet.  Pour olive oil over, season with salt and pepper and toss the asparagus to coat.  Bake at 400 degrees for 15 minutes.

For the quinoa:
1/2 c quinoa
1 T olive oil
8 oz cremini mushrooms; sliced
1 T Italian seasoning
2 T chicken broth
salt and pepper

1 - Cook quinoa according to package directions.  Make sure to rinse your quinoa well before cooking.  Once cooked, drain and reserve.
2 - Heat olive oil over medium heat.  When hot, add mushrooms and saute until slightly softened.
3 - Stir in cooked quinoa, Italian seasoning and chicken broth.  Cook, stirring often, until all liquid is absorbed.

Altogether this meal had 691 calories a serving and was loved by all members of the family.  Not bad for a quick 30 minute meal!

Wellness Wednesday - The Clean Eating Craze

My quest to feel better about myself in 2014 has led to friends and family asking me advice on how they can do the same.  While I love to help a few people here and there while I can, I thought a good thing to help more people...and continue to hold myself accountable...would be to start a "Wellness Wednesday" on the blog.  My goal is to post a new blog every Wednesday that has something to do with health concerns and general healthy living.  So if you have a topic you want to hear about, let me know.  First up...clean eating!

I'm not going to claim to be a genius on the whole clean eating movement.  It's become increasingly popular over the last few years, as has the Paleo diet.  I've talked in several blogs before about the Paleo diet and the Whole30 food challenge which both did AMAZING things for my level of energy and general "feel goodness".  If you are looking at clean eating as a means to help you loose weight, I suggest you head over to the website The Gracious Pantry.  She breaks it down so much more than I ever could.

That being said, here's my two sense.  Eating clean is exactly that, clean...no chemicals, artificial additives, nothing that can't be found naturally in nature.  The best way I've learned to think about this is to imagine your grocery store.  Now pretend the only place you can shop is around the outer edges of the store and not the isles.  This will hit your produce, fresh seafood, fresh meat, dairy and frozen foods.  Now, we all know that wonders of Ben and Jerry's that hide in the frozen food sections, but this does give you a starting point for figuring everything out.  You could also imagine that you are back in the pre-grocery days where everything you put in your body was either grown or made naturally and that is clean eating.  The truth behind the phrase, you are what you eat is ever present, and when you put crap in...well...you can figure the rest of that.

A lot of people look at this lifestyle change and think they can't afford to eat clean.  My opinion on this one is that they are confusing eating clean with eating organic.  So, ok, soapbox moment.  Most people who are full force on the organic train do so because they are under the understanding...or misunderstanding...that their organic food is grown COMPLETELY natural without the use of synthetic fertilizers or pesticides.  The truth is, organic farmers are only limited to the fertilizers and pesticides they can use, not completely banned to do so.  And when farmers have rough seasons, most will turn to some type of help to keep putting food on their families tables.  So when you're buying that organically grown lettuce that you're going to go home and wash before you're eating anyway, you kind of washing that money down the sink.  Buying fresh produce is enough.  If you want the added benefits of an organic product, do so in your protein (meat, eggs and the like).  Rules are stricter and you will taste and feel the benefits.  *Soapbox moment over*

Time is also a big issue I hear people talk about when wanting to make a change in what they eat.  For that I say, I hear ya!  My life is just as crazy as the rest of yours, and while I would love to spend my days testing healthy recipes for my family (and readers), it's not practical to everyday life.  So, that's why at the end of every Wednesday blog, I'm going to give you a recipe that is healthy, family friendly, tasty...and most importantly...quick and cheap!  Sound good?  Here you go...

Edamame Hummus (adapted from Oh My Veggies)

Quick note here:  I am a hummus fanatic!  I would buy Trader Joe's out of every single flavor every single day if I could.  But it's so easy and I know I could get more bang for my buck if I made it.  So I ran on to this gem one night...which I immediately cheered about since Trader Joe's doesn't sell Edamame Hummus anymore.  With a few tweeks, I had a fabulous hummus I would put up against them any day!

Ingredients
1 16 oz bag frozen edamame; thawed (not cooked-it gets really mushy if you do!)
3 T lemon juice
4 cloves garlic; peeled
1/2 c cilantro; leaves picked and stems discarded
1/2 c tahini (sesame seed paste)
4-6 T olive oil
salt and pepper to taste

1 - Get out your handy dandy food processor and get ready to be amazed at how easy this is!  The original recipe called to rough chop the garlic and cilantro (or herb of your choice).  No need!  Let the processor do the work for you.  And don't be scared about adding the thawed edamame without "cooking" them first.  I ate a handful just to be safe and I'm still here :)
2 - Add everything to your food processor except the olive oil.

3 - After a few seconds, slowly drizzle in your olive oil while the processor is running.  Stop halfway through, scrape down the sides, and continue adding the rest of your olive oil.
4 - Taste, season as you would like with salt and pepper and mix again.  Done!

My little one was even chomping at the bit to get a hold of this one!  Best yet, along with being "clean eating" approved, it's vegan, dairy free and gluten free!  Yeah for quick, easy and healthy!

Stay tuned next week for a few snacks for the little ones in your lives...