Goin' Guerilla

I have to apologize that this post, and perhaps a few more, will be photograph-free. I have lost my camera, and I'm not happy about it.

Hopefully, with St. Anthony's help, it will turn up. I haven't been able to weigh-in for my online Biggest Loser competition and had to resort to using my free week, which sucks, too.

Oh well.

But losing my camera will have no impact on my mindset this week. Even though it is Saturday, I plan to go GUERILLA on this baby weight. I no longer want to feel like I'm wearing a fat suit. These extra 30 lbs are not me. People tell me to stop comparing my 40YO self to my 25YO self, but I cannot. I know that the right combination of food and exercise can get me back there.

So this week, it's half-portions. I know that portion control is my problem, so I intend to combat that, this week. My motto is this: Just try. Meal by meal.

It's all I can do!

Wednesday and Thursday eats

I made the bestest chicken for dinner last night!  I try not to sautee or fry breaded chicken, but baking breaded chicken is almost always slightly disappointing.  It's kind of soggy, never crisp.

But last night, I finally realized why.  I have always just laid the chicken right there in a pan.  The trick is to get the chicken up in the air, via a cookie cooling rack.  That way, the heat gets up underneath the chicken and crisps it just right.  I made a double batch, and froze some for my daughter's 'nuggets'.

Here's the recipe:

• 2 cups breadcrumbs (panko, if you've got them)
• 1 cup grated Parmesan
• 4 tablespoons olive oil, divided
• 2 tablespoons freshly minced thyme leaves
• Kosher salt and freshly ground black pepper
• 1/4 cup Dijon mustard
• 2 tablespoons water
• 2 1/2 pounds boneless skinless chicken breasts, pounded to 1/4 -inch thickness

Directions

Preheat oven to 400 degrees F. Line a baking sheet with heavy-duty aluminum foil. Place a cooling rack over pan and spray rack with nonstick cooking spray.

In a shallow dish, combine bread crumbs, cheese, 2 tablespoons olive oil, thyme, salt and pepper, to taste. In a separate shallow dish, combine mustard, water, salt and pepper, to taste, and remaining olive oil. Coat each chicken breast with mustard mixture; dredge each in bread crumb mixture. Place on prepared rack in pan. Bake for 25 to 30 minutes, or until chicken is golden brown. Serve immediately. 

Heavenly.  I served with some garlic dill steamed green beans.

Breakfast today was my usual radish homefries with a spinach mushroom egg white omelette.  I won't bore you with photographs.  You've seen it before.

And lunch was a rerun of yesterday's black bean soup, but I added some frozen corn and two big tablespoons of hot sauce.  Much, much improved.

Off to start tonight's dinner!  Though I'm not sure what that will be.....

Irony

Just yesterday, I was posting about our lack of of vegetables in the house.  Of course, I went grocery shopping last night to remedy that situation.

Then, my mother-in-law, bless her heart, brought us THIS today, from their garden.  And some things they picked up for us at the grocery store.  AND some kind of zucchini/tomato dish, that she cooked herself.

Zucchini, anyone?

And in the event that my camera failed to show the enormousness (is that a word?) of these vegetables, allow me to do a comparison shot.

That's a full bottle of wine, folks.  Methinks we'll be eating zucchini for a while......

I'm up for the challenge.  If you have a good zucchini recipe, give me a holler.  Please.

Okay, so let's start at breakfast.  I went to the movies last night, and instead of dinner, I indulged in an entire tray of soft pretzel bites, complete with a little tub of nacho cheese.  Not.  Healthy.   And I saw Sex and the City, which sucked.  Last night was a FAIL on all accounts.

So this morning, I had to repent for last night's culinary sins.   I whipped up one of my protein shakes and called it a day.  Two scoops of protein mix,  half cup of milk, handful of blueberries, some crushed ice, and today, a small activia yogurt.

Then for lunch, I figured I'd better start using up that zucchini.  I just broke out the cast iron griddle and oiled it up, then sliced the zucchini diagonally and let 'em rip.  Salt, pepper, and a little Lawrys spiced them up nicely. 

Then I made a batch of the easiest spicy black bean soup you'll find.

• 1 Can unsalted black beans, drained
• 1 cup chicken or veg broth
• 1/2 cup salsa
• 1/2 tsp cumin
• 2 tbsp chilli powder or hot sauce (optional)
• salt and pepper to taste

Puree (should be partially chunky) and heat!   I happened to have some cooked barley and fresh mushrooms, so I added them for more oomph. 

And before I forget, I wanted to throw this snack idea out there.

I tend to nibble as I'm cooking.  It's bad.  I would take a handful or two of nuts, a slice of bread, crackers.  All kinds of things.   But I pay attention to skinny people, and how they eat.  And recently, one of the blogs I read, written by a thin, beautiful girl, spoke of nibbling on marinated vegetables that she makes herself.

Well, I don't have time to marinate my own veggies right now, but I thought I'd look for something like that in the store.  Lo and behold, I found these.  And I love them!!

They're crunchy, and vinegar-y, and just all around yummy.  Better to munch on THESE, than fatty nuts, or a spoonful of almond butter or whatever.  There's nothing to them, no fat, little calories, no sugar.  They're a teensy bit high in sodium, but I tend to eat a diet low in sodium anyway.

I wonder if you can pickle zucchini?

Produce is getting low!

Time to hit the grocery store.  I'm on the last of the veggies in the house.

For lunch, I made eggplant pizzas.  It's easy, and pretty much carb-free.  I slice off the eggplant skin, because it doesn't appeal to me.  If you've never used fresh eggplant before, it's really quite simple.  I cut off the ends, then stand the eggplant upright.  I take a sharp knife and slide right down, to remove the purple skin.

The only other ingredients you'll need are pizza sauce and cheese, or whatever toppings you'd use for a pizza.  I didn't have pizza sauce, so I used spaghetti sauce.  Which is almost a SIN in to my Italian in-laws, but I find  jarred sauce to be a lot better these days, than in the past.  I don't mind it, really, in a pinch.  I also topped my pizzas with some black olives.

Now, it probably not necessary, but I broil my eggplant a little first, before I top them.  I sliced them up, laid them out on a foil-lined sheet, sprinkled them with salt/pepper/olive oil, and broiled them for 7-8 minutes.

Then I topped the pizzas and broiled them another 7 minutes or so, or until the cheese browns and bubbles.

We love them, here.  You can top them with anything you want!  Then for dinner, I made stuffed mushroom caps and some sweet potato fries.  First, I sauteed some onions and garlic in a teaspoon of oil.  Then I added about a pound of ground turkey, browning it.  Once the meat was browned, I added a can of diced tomatoes, and let that heat through.  For flavor, I added a half-packet of Lipton onion soup mix, and a teaspoon of Hickory Smoke. 

  I placed the mushroom caps in an 8 x 8 glass pan, but probably could have used a 9 x 13.  I had a lot more meat mixture than I had mushrooms.  So there was a lot of leftover meat which I'll probably eat for lunch today, over some brown rice.  Anyway,  I loaded up the mushroom caps with the meat mixture, topped it off with a sprinkle of parmesan cheese, then baked them for 16 minutes at 475 degrees. 

For the sweet potato fries, I just sliced two sweet potatoes, tossed them with a little canola oil and a few onions, and through them in the oven about 15 minutes before the mushrooms went in.   They need about a half hour to bake.

My husband LOVED these.  And do did I, actually!  They're not much to look at, but they tasted great!

Back on the Horse!

Have I mentioned that I am taking part in an online Biggest Loser competition?  I came in 6th, the last round.  We have just entered the third round (each round is 12 weeks), and so far, I've gained.  GAH!

So I must start this Monday off the right way.  I just returned from an overnight trip to Newport, RI, where I overindulged and then some. 

Here's today's breakfast of champions: 

That is 8 oz of skim milk, five strawberries, some ice, and two scoops of protein powder.  I make sure to use a protein shake that is made from protein other than soy, because soy tends to mess with me, hormonally.  I have noticed that removing soy from my diet has curbed my PMDD and PMS significantly. 

Anyway, my menu today will be minimalistic.  I will post later.  But for now, allow me to post some of the last Thursday's meals, which I never got to blog.  First, our breakfast.  These are parsnips.

Instead of white potatoes, I tried parsnips for homefries.  I chopped them up with onions, and fried in a teaspoon of oil.  For the main event, I made fried eggs with spinach and mushrooms.  See how I make it all in one pan?   I hate doing dishes, so I try to make everything in the same pans, when I can.

Then, Thursday evening, I attempted some maki rolls.    Now, I made sushi rolls in the past, once, and they turned out a little better.  This time, I had some trouble.

To make the rice, you would usually use special sushi rice.  But I tried brown rice, because it's healthier.  And if you ask me, I didn't detect TOO much of a difference.  So I made the rice in my rice cooker, then added :

• 3 1/4 cups water
• 1/3 cup rice vinegar
• 3 Tbsp sugar
• 1 tsp salt

You're supposed to put this all together in a saucepan to allow the sugar to dissolve, but I'm lazy and hate to dirty dishes.  So I dumped it all into the prepared rice and stirred it up.  It worked.  You have to use a non-metallic bowl to make sure there is no interaction with the rice vinegar.  I don't THINK this bowl was metallic.  It's non-stick over aluminum, probably.  Oh, I don't know. 

Then, I prepared my bamboo mat.  First, I covered the mat with a sheet of press n' seal glad wrap.  This assures that the rice won't stick to the mat.  It plain doesn't work without some kind of wrap overtop.

Then, I laid out a piece of nori seaweed.  This stuff had been in my fridge for months, and did not smell oh-so-fresh.  But I used it anyway. I spread out the rice, leaving about an inch border.  Then I laid out my filling.  In this case, I used canned sweet potatoes.  Not the best, but it was all I had around.  Next time, I will use fresh avocado, cucumber, and matchstick carrots.  That pulled pork from the other night would have been good, too.  Really, it's whatever you can dream up!  Anything you would eat with rice, works well.

I then took the bamboo mat and started rolling and lightly squeezing.  Then I removed the mat, and lifted the roll onto a plate.

I sliced it up and made a second roll, after this.  Boy, were they oogly.  But they didn't taste awful.  We were lucky to have a little tube of wasabi in the fridge. 

Next time, fresher ingredients......