He wins.

The hubby is officially better at breakfast than I am. Eggs, chopped tomatoes, onion and bacon pieces with fresh herbs and a dash of cheese...so good.


I love when he cooks for me. I should really let him in the kitchen more often...


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Healthy Week, day five

Since it's Healthy Week, I figured it was as good a time as any to take care of some other things relating to my health-medically speaking, at least. So I made an appointment with the chiropractor, which will hopefully help my screaming-in-pain-for-weeks-now neck (I just have to make it through the weekend), and finally went to the lab at Kaiser today to get some blood tests I've been putting off for, oh, months now.

It's not for anything major...I hope...just making sure my old lady joints and weird skin aren't underlying issues of anything else. Anyway. I won't get the results for a few days, but my little trip did have an immediate result...it reinforced that I am officially old. Cause, seriously? The guy who took my blood was, like, 12. I had to bite my tongue to keep from asking him if he was old enough to be a tech.

He was great, btw. I only look like a casual heroin user (which is good, for these veins). And as he was a goofball, it actually ended up being a rather pleasant experience. So yay, 12 year old lab tech! You win!

Which brings us to...

Day 5:Yay Me!
See above.
Water, water, water.
24g fiber
Went to lunch at Flamin' Skewers, which has the.best.fries.on.the.planet. and only ate 7 off the hubby's plate. I counted.
Great jog (again) at the gym. I'm getting better at it.

Day 5:Damnit Pam!
I know the exact moment the night went downhill. It's when I walked in the front door and thought, "Wow...I should drink a beer in the shower and relive freshman year of college a little." All over at that point. But it was the best beer in a while, let me tell you. It even made cleaning the bathroom post-shower more enjoyable.
One Coor's Light
Rootstock Zin. Tsk tsk tsk.
Aaaand I found the chips.

Dinner, at least, was fabulous. Chicken Piccata over Quinoa. I'm out of gluten-free flour, so I decided to make Chicken Piccata 2.0. And I ended up liking it more than the usual, so here we go.

Chicken Piccata 2.0
Olive oil
2 6oz chicken breasts
salt
pepper
garlic powder
1/2 onion, halved and thinly sliced
About 3/4 cup chicken broth
Juice from one lemon
About 3 tbsp drained capers

Sprinkle chicken with salt, pepper, and garlic powder. Saute on medium high about 3 minutes a side to brown. Reduce to medium low, add onion, and saute about 5 minutes, turning chicken at least once. Add broth and cook at a low simmer about 8-10 minutes or until chicken is done. Remove and keep warm. Keep onion and broth simmering about 5 minutes or until broth is mostly reduced.

Add lemon juice, mix well, let simmer a couple of minutes. Add chicken back to pan, add capers, and move around a bit. Serve over rice, noodles, whatever...I used quinoa cooked in broth, and it was fab.

Correction

The Zin in question is from Rootstock in Lodi. I bought it at Trader Joe's, not Cost Plus. Got it for $6.99 a bottle. Did I buy more? Yes. Was that rather stupid? Siiigh. Of course it was. Cheers!

Healthy Week, day four

I made the mistake of opening a bottle of Zin last night. It was delicious, and I am totally going to stock up on it next time I go to Cost Plus. (No, I don't remember the maker...but it was from Lodi) And I probably would have finished the bottle had this not been Healthy Week.

The things I tell myself, I swear. In reality, the Husband got home and I didn't want him to tsk tsk tsk me.

Day 4:Yay Me!
Did yoga and leg lifts (I will have thighs of steel, damnit)
Good on fiber (25+g)
Lots of water
Did not touch the chips OR ice cream.

Day 4:Damnit, Pam
Since did not eat chips or ice cream, found everything else in house I could possibly eat, including popcorn, corn chex, and a slice of swiss cheese...and a See's sucker. Sigh.
Two glasses of Zin. Ok, three. Whatever.

Went with leftover pot roast for dinner, so nothing new to report there. Gym tonight! And I'm assuming the rest of the Zin..there's not much left.

Healthy Week, day three

I was totally pissy at myself for having another FAIL day, but once I got my good girl/bad girl list down on paper, I actually feel much better. But since I'm the type to 'reward' good behavior with bad behavior, I'm gonna call yesterday a "could have been better" day.

Day 3:Yay me!
Awesome jog at the gym
Plenty of fiber (35g)
Lots of fruits and veggies
A waterfall's worth of h20
Lots of sit ups

Day 3:Damnit, Pam!
Came home from gym and immediately killed like a million chips (it's the never ending bag, I'm telling you)
Drank 2 homemade Cheladas (Coor's Light, at least)
Effing Rocky Road (Again...never ending. Hubby needs to kill it so it's gone and out of my freezer.)

Eh. Bad, not terrible. The tortilla chip addiction is seriously out of control, though. Must put bag down and step away.

I may have also been hard on myself cause dinner was not what I wanted it to be. I mean, it tasted great. But I was trying to cut cals and didn't dip my tortillas in oil, so they broke, and then didn't have enough sauce, so they got dry. And to top it all off, I didn't oil the baking pan-just didn't even think to do it-and so my dry, falling apart enchiladas stuck to the pan. Just awesome.

Sigh. At least I got to use a new ingredient, which is always fun. My old friend Sarah (the friendship is old, she is not) recommended a Vegetarian Enchilada recipe, and as I was making a grocery list, I realized one of the ingredients, Chayote, I had never even heard of. Turns out it's a squash. And is quite tasty. And I have totally seen it at the store a million times, but always assumed anything that looks like an old lady face/butt isn't anything I needed to know about. Wrong.

So anyway, the Hubby whined a bit about keeping this vegetarian, so I cooked and shredded a chicken breast and threw it in. It was a good call. I'm not putting the recipe til I get it right, but it was chicken, chayote, onion, garlic, zucchini, red bell pepper, corn, jalapenos, cilantro and cheese, all wrapped in corn tortillas and covered in salsa verde and more cheese. Quite, quite yum. Especially for only 215 cals a serving.

This was his plate.
Pammy: Ooh, how come your plate looks better than mine? I'm taking a pic of yours, don't eat yet.
Most Patient Husband ever: Ok...and it's cause mine has so much more on it.
Pammy:(looks at her two sad little enchiladas)...I think you're right.

I like small plates, ok? It makes me feel like I'm eating more. Shhh.

Healthy Week, day two

This is the sound of a huge Pammy sigh.

Day 2:Yay Me!
Hmm. Must think...
Enough fiber (25g)
Balanced dinner
Lots of water
Lots of leg lifts

Day 3:Damnit, Pam!
No gym
2 Coors Lights
Tortilla chips (the hubby ate the rest of the salsa)
6 letters: D-E-W-A-R-S

Let me explain Dewar's. No, not the alcohol. The ice cream parlor. The one I avoid like the plague. I don't usually get that into ice cream...but when the hubby brings home a carton of fresh churned Rocky Road that looks like this...it's completely out of my control.

Luckily I had a big salad with my pot roast, so the evening wasn't a complete failure. And my roast turned out better than last time—I followed this Cooking Light recipe for Beer Braised Beef.

I made some minor changes—I soaked the browned meat and veggies (chunks of turnips and baby carrots) in the broth and a can of Boddington's over night, and stuck it in the crock pot the next morning. I also added a package of frozen pearl onions near the end (not on purpose...I'm just not exactly on my game at 6:45am and forgot them. But an hour was plenty of time for them). And I added salt, garlic powder, and a dash of Worcestershire sauce at the end. Not sure the hubby didn't still think it needed something (he added more salt and horseradish), but I liked it.


So tonight is Veggie Enchiladas...and I'm doing well on water and fiber, and my gym clothes in the bag next to my desk are looking at me sadly, begging to be used...which means so far, today is looking good.

It's only noon. Wish me luck.

Healthy Week, day one.

Since it is your job to keep me on track, I suppose it's my job to be honest. Which is so not fun...sigh. So here's how Day 1 of Healthy Week went.

Day 1:Yay Me!
Did 1/2 hour of Yoga (hard yoga, too. Ow)
Did leg lifts til I couldn't lift my legs anymore
No booze
A massive amount of fiber (and I do mean massive...46g)
No coffee, just herbal tea

Day 1:Damnit, Pam!
Probably not enough water
Chips (with peach salsa...I swear, it's an addiction)
There was possibly a Sugar Free Klondike bar for dessert, but hello, 4g of fiber? (I'll go with that being half bad)

Not terrible. Not the best, either, but for me, I'm impressed. Yes, that's kind of sad. I don't care.

I'm also impressed that I went to the store and got 4 full meals worth of food (plus breakfast stuff!) and only spent 70 bucks. (Thank you, Cooking Light, for your cheap meal ideas) Last night was Shrimp Fra Diavolo, tonight is a beer braised roast, and I also got stuff for vegetarian enchiladas and chicken piccata. Yum.

The shrimp was good...it wasn't fantastic, but it was good, and really quick. Less than an hour total to prep, cook, eat, and clean up. I pretty much followed the recipe, adding more garlic and more red pepper. Fresh shrimp would have been better, but frozen were cheaper...oh, well. Hubby told me he likes it better with clams, meaning he thought I had made red clam linguine with shrimp. I hadn't even thought of it like that, but he was totally right. Good either way!

Ok. Now back to flushing myself with water. Gym tonight!

I need to behave myself.

Ok, I need your help. I have totally fallen off the wagon and need a boost to get-and more importantly, stay-back on.

I am going to make a serious effort to do three things this week:
1. Eat balanced, low cal meals.
2. Work out 6 days (3 cardio, 3 yoga)
3. Keep the booze under alcoholic levels. Which means no more than one, since my self control is about thhhiiiss big (thumb and forefinger millimeters apart) and anymore than one generally ends up being like, four.

And as my masseuse informed me on Saturday, I have some major toxin build up going on. Which...no bueno. I gotta give it a rest. I figure a healthy week can only end with me feeling better, looking better, and hopefully weighing better.

I started yesterday. Well...if you don't count the tortilla chips. I certainly don't, cause I ate them with Smokey Peach Salsa (reason #5 I cannot stay away from Fresh & Easy), and obviously fruit counteracts any evil from chips.

My boss would refer to this logic as a Pamfact, btw. I just call it a fact (air quotes).

Anyway, here was my first dinner. Balanced, high fiber, easy. And delicious. And bonus, when I'm trying to be good, I eat less, which means I have half a piece of chicken left over for lunch the next day. (It was also delicious.)


The chicken I made for the Greek quinoa salad last week was so good I wanted to try it on its own...fresh thyme, garlic powder, salt and fresh pepper, browned and then simmered in a bit of water (half cup or so) til cooked through. I recommend. Highly. Add a veggie and a high fiber brown rice medley, and you're done.

Now for the next six days...wish me luck. And your job is to yell at me, point and laugh, whatever it takes to shame me if I fail. This should be fun.

It's with two a's, not two o's. Trust me.

For all you mushroom fans out there, I've got a new one for you—chicken sausage and marinara stuffed portabellas. For those anti-mushroomites...well, I'll throw in my wedge salad recipe for you.

Unless you don't like mushrooms because they're in the veggie family...then I've got nothing. But really, eat your veggies. Your mom would want you to.

Also...I've come to notice there's a bit of disagreement about how to spell portabella/portobello. Alternate spellings bug me...I'm a big fan of 'theatre,' for example, and think everyone should spell it that way. It's so much more dignified...so if this sort of thing also bugs you, here. And listen to me from now on. I'm always right. (I know this because I cheat. Google is my best friend. As a recent article in Esquire pointed out...why spend time arguing when I can have the answer in 15 seconds?)

Anyway, I-as usual-digress. Seriously, this dinner was absolute ridiculousness-crazy flavors and far too much food. Not that we didn't eat it all...I'm just saying.


Chicken Sausage Stuffed Portabellas
Stuffing Portabellas (2 large or 6 small/medium), gills removed
2 Portabella Chicken Sausages, chopped into small pieces (or any sausage)
2 cloves garlic, minced
Half an onion, chopped fine
Olive oil
1/2 cup marinara sauce
1/4 cup blue cheese crumbles
3 tbsp toasted pine nuts
pinch of tarragon (or other herbs)
Salt and pepper
8 cups raw baby spinach

Heat oven to 425. Saute sausage, garlic and onion in a bit of olive oil for a couple minutes until soft. Remove from heat, let cool a bit. Mix in marinara, nuts, cheese and herbs (including a pinch of salt and pepper).

Place mushrooms gill side up on baking sheet, and spray with cooking spray or use a bit of olive oil to coat both sides. Fill mushrooms with mixture. Bake for 15 minutes. While they cook, steam or saute spinach. Salt to taste. Serve mushrooms warm on bed of spinach.


'Wedge' Salad
Head of romaine, cleaned and ends removed.
Brianna's Blue Cheese dressing
Blue cheese crumbles
Bacon pieces
cherry tomatoes, halved
green onion stalk, sliced thinly

Take the romaine and cut in half lengthwise (you can cut width-wise, too, for smaller/more servings). Arrange leaves together on plates, and drizzle with dressing. Sprinkle with remaining ingredients.

Redemption

I got home from a painful neighborhood jog last night (I have become a treadmill whore. Street jogging just doesn't work for these old lady knees of mine. Note to self: stop leaving gym clothes at home) to find an excessively warm house-which gave me a lovely excuse to open the sliding door and take advantage of the awesome weather we've been having. Seriously, is winter over?

Anyway, it was the perfect environment for my summery dinner—Greek Chicken & Quinoa Salad. It also led to awesome compliment of the night—as my chicken was cooling, the hubby walked in the front door and greeted me with, "daaamn, that smell is coming from my house!? It smells amazing all the way to the parking lot!"

What's up, baby. Awesome. So here it is—amazing smelling, super tasting, forget-it's-winter-for-the-evening deliciousness. Enjoy.


Greek Chicken & Quinoa Salad
2 skinless, boneless chicken breasts
salt
garlic powder
fresh thyme leaves, chopped fine
olive oil
1 cup uncooked quinoa
chicken bouillon cube
1 cucumber, peeled, seeded and cubed
A little less than one package cherry (or tiny yellow) tomatoes
Half a red bell pepper, seeded and chopped
1/4 of a red onion, thinly sliced
One 3.5oz package reduced fat feta
About a dozen pitted kalamata olives, chopped
1/4 cup toasted pine nuts
Head of romaine, torn or chopped in salad size pieces
--
About 2 tbsp olive oil
Rind and juice from one lemon
About a tbsp thinly sliced fresh basil
About a tsp minced fresh thyme
Splash of red wine vinegar
large pinch salt
Fresh pepper
3 garlic cloves, minced

Season chicken on both sides with salt, pepper, some thyme, and garlic salt. Heat a splash of oil in a nonstick skillet over medium-high heat. Add chicken, cook about 3-4 minutes a side, then add a half cup or so of water and simmer 10 minutes or until done. Let cool, then shred using two forks or your hands. If there is still liquid left, discard.

In rice pan, bring two cups of water and the bouillon cube to a boil. In the meantime, rinse and drain the quinoa. Add quinoa to boiling broth, cover, and reduce heat for about 20 minutes or until liquid is absorbed. Fluff with a fork. Transfer to large bowl, add chicken pieces, and stick in the fridge or freezer to cool.

In small bowl, whisk together about 2 tbsp oil, lemon juice and rind, thyme, basil, vinegar, salt, fresh pepper, and garlic.

When quinoa/chicken mix is mostly cool, add cucumber, tomato, bell pepper, onion, olives and pine nuts. Drizzle dressing and toss well. Cover and chill til ready to serve. Before serving, add cheese and toss again. Serve over bed of romaine.
Serves 4 main course servings. About 480 cals, 20g fat, 6g fiber