Life of a Fit Foodie

Potato-Leek Soup

2011-01-16T17:10:00.004-06:00

I have been a cooking machine today! I am trying to make up for all of the lost time this week. I am pretty sure that by the end of the weekend I will have spent 5 hours cooking.

Anyway, onto this soup. Like I said... groceries were not plentiful in the house today, so I had to improvise a little on this recipe.

2 tbsp canola oil
2 tbsp unsalted butter
3 leeks, white and pale green parts. Well washed, halved and thinly sliced
2 shallots, chopped
2 gloves garlic, very finely chopped
2 lbs potatoes, peeled and cut into 1 inch cubes
4 cups chicken stick or low sodium broth
Bouquet garni (1 bay leaf, 2 springs of rosemary, 2 springs of thyme, 2 springs of flat leaf parsley, 6 whole black peppercorns tied together in a cheesecloth)
1/4 cup heavy cream (optional)

1. In a stockpot, heat the oil and butter over medium-low heat. Add the celery, leeks, and shallots. Cook until soft, about 4-5 minutes, stirring, but do not brown.

2. Add the garlic and cook for another minute.

3. Add the potatoes, stock and bouquet garni

4. Bring the mixture to a boil over high heat, decrease the heat to low and simmer until the potatoes are tender. 40-45 minutes. Remove the bouquet and discard.

I did not have enough potatoes, so I added some barely as well. I added too much, so I would say if you wanted to try this as well, 1/2 a cup of barely is plenty. You can also choose to puree this soup or leave it chunky. (do not puree if you add barely)

Burgundian Honey Spice Bread

2011-01-16T16:57:00.007-06:00

I have figured out a way to have breakfast all week long. I bake some kind of bread on the weekend and then take it to work all week long.
This book only has a few items that are breakfast friendly that do not require using yeast. (nothing I ever make with yeast turns out well)

3 tbsp unsalted butter , at room temperature, for the loaf pans
1 1/4 cups milk

1 cup firmly packed light brown sugar

1 1/2 cups honey

4 cups unbleached all purpose flour

1 tsp ground fennel seed

1/2 tsp ground cinnamon

1/4 tsp ground gloves

1/4 tsp ground ginger

1/2 tsp fine sea salt

2 tbsp finely chopped candied ginger

1 large egg, at room temperature

1 large egg yolk, at room temperature

2 tsp baking soda

1. Preheat the oven to 350. Brush two 9x5x3 inch loaf pans with butter. Line the sheets with parchment paper. Trust me- if you don't this cake will stick!

2. Heat the milk, brown sugar, and the honey in a small saucepan over medium heat an set aside until slightly cooled.

3. To make the batter, in the bowl of a heavy duty mixer ( I just used a plain bowl because I didn't want to clean the mixer) fitted with a paddle, combine the flour, fennel, cinnamon, cloves, ginger and salt.
4. In two batches add the honey mixture and candied ginger, scrape down the sides as needed, and blend on low speed just until combined.

5. In a small liquid measuring cup, combine the egg, egg yolk and baking soda. Stir to combine. Add the egg mixture to the batter and beat until well blended.

6. To bake the loaves, pour the batter into the prepared loaf pans, dividing it evenly and not filling the pans more than halfway. Bake rotating once, until a skewer inserted into the center comes out clean. 45 to 50 minutes. Cover it with aluminum foil if the bread becomes too dark.

7. Remove the loaves to a rack to cook slightly, about 15 minutes. Turn them out of the pans and immediately remove the parchment paper. These can be stored tightly wrapped in plastic wrap for up to one week, or freeze.

Ham-and-Swiss Frittata

2011-01-16T08:12:00.003-06:00

I am usually skeptical about frittatas because they never seem to want to come out of the pan. The food in the fridge was slim pickings this morning since I have not been able to go to the grocery store all week. I did however, have eggs, onions, ham and some kind of cheese. So this frittata was born.

1 1/2 tbsp canola oil

1 onion, preferably Vidalia, chopped

4-6 slices of cured ham, finely chopped (about 1 cup)

5 large eggs, lightly beaten

3/4 cup grated sharp cheddar or Gruyere cheese (about 2 1/5 ounces)

1 tbsp snipped fresh chives

salt & pepper

1. Place the top rack about 6 inches from the broiler. Preheat the broiler.

2. In a large, ovenproof skillet, heat the oil at medium heat. Add the onions, ham and cook until the onion is soft and translucent.

3. In a bowl whisk together eggs, half of the cheese, and the chives. Season with salt & pepper.

4. Pour the egg mixture into the skillet and cook for 3 minutes, lifting the egg around the edge with wooden spoon or spatula to let the raw egg flow underneath. (tilting the pan). Decrease the heat to low, cover, and let this cook for another 5 minutes. Remove from heat.

5. Sprinkle the rest of the cheese on the top of the frittata and place under the broiler until the cheese is melted and bubbling. About 1-2 minutes.

Now the tricky part- trying to get the frittata out of the pan with out completely destroying the shape. I took a wooden spatula and went around the edges of the pan. Then I took another spatula and went around the pan (underneath the frittata) then I flipped it onto a plate.

Not too shabby!
This was actually really good. I kind of surprised myself because this was so simple and required such basic ingredients.

Restaurant Review Boka

2011-01-16T07:54:00.010-06:00

So this week has been a little crazy. I have been working really late and eating out more than cooking. Tuesday's restaurant was BOKA. I have been wanting to go here for a really long time and after years of living in this city finally made it.

Hmm... what can I say. It was pretty expensive for what you get.We did order pre-dinner drinks, then wine, then dessert wine. I would say we probably spent around $140 on alcohol between the 4 of us. The tab ended up being $200 per couple not including tip. And I did not even order a proper entree.

Aside from the cost complaint, the food was great. We ordered the CRISPY CHICKEN THIGH served with APPLE & CHESTNUT RISOTTO, PICKLED TURNIP, WILD MUSHROOM SAUCE. And the CORIANDER CRUSTED BIG EYE TUNA served with POMELO GRAPEFRUIT, AVOCADO CARPACCIO, HEARTS OF PALM, CILANTRO PEARLS. Both were really good, and I normally do not eat dark meat on a chicken.

Then for the entrees we tried MAINE DIVER SCALLOP which were served with KOREAN SHORT RIBS, FORBIDDEN BLACK RICE, CUMIN DUSTED LOTUS ROOT and ROASTED ZUCCHINI PUREE,. The NEW ZEALAND RACK OF LAMB with BRAISED QUINCE, CECI PUREE, CARROT & CHIVE SLAW and CHERMOULA SAUCE. Someone also had some kind of duck dish that is not on the menu online and then I had the GRILLED BABY OCTOPUS with EEL TERRINE, POTATO & HORSERADISH SALAD, CANDIED BACON and ARUGULA PUREE. I did try a little of everything, but like I said- it was pretty expensive and I would not go back again unless it was on a company tab.

Country Captain Chicken

2011-01-09T07:23:00.007-06:00

I bought a whole chicken earlier this week thinking I was going to use it for one of my magazine Sunday recipes, however, I have a birthday party tonight and may have to postpone that post for later this week. I was really all over the place with what I wanted to use this chicken for. If I buy a whole chicken I typically bake it all in one piece, but all of these recipes called for a cut up chicken. Gross! Sorry, even though I eat meat I can't think of the preparation of it. So I enlisted some help.

This was not an easy task and not advisable. Note to self- always buy a cut up chicken if making this recipe again. I am not going to go through the process of how to cut one up because it was a painful task that probably did not come out as it should have. But somehow we got it into the 8 pieces and the recipe turned out just fine.

1 (4-5 lb) chicken, cut into 8 pieces. If you only eat the chicken breast, buy 4 breast with the skin on

Coarse salt and freshly ground black pepper

1 cup all purpose flour

1/2 tsp Hungarian paprika

1/2 tsp cayenne pepper

3 tbsp unsalted butter

3 tbsp canola oil

1 large onion, preferably Vidalia, chopped

1/2 green bell pepper, cored, seeded and chopped

1/2 red bell pepper, cored, seeded, and chopped

2 cloves of garlic, finely chopped

1 tbsp curry powder, preferably Madras

1 tsp ground cumin

1/2 tsp ground turmeric

1/4 tsp ground cinnamon

1 ( 28 oz) can whole tomatoes with juice ( I used 1 can crushed tomatoes)

1 cup golden raisins (I used dried chopped apricots)

1/2 cup sliced or slivered almonds, lightly toasted, for garnish

2 tbsp chopped fresh parsley, for garnish

1. Season the chicken with salt and pepper. Combine the flour, paprika, and cayenne in a shallow bowl, and season with salt and pepper. Turn the chicken pieces in the flour mixture until coated. Shake of excess flour. Set aside.

2. Line a plate with paper towels. In a large skillet, heat the butter and the oil over medium-high heat until sizzling. Without crowding the skillet, cook the chicken in batches, if necessary until a rich golden brown on both sides. Remove the chicken pieces and place on lined plate to drain.

3. Decrease the heat to medium-low and add onion, peppers and garlic to the pan, stir until soft, but not browned.

4. Add the curry powder, cumin. turmeric, cinnamon, tomatoes with juice, and raisins. Season with salt & pepper.
5. Return the chicken to the pan, cover and cook over low heat for 20-30 minutes, or until the chicken is tender and juices clear when pierced with a knife. At this point you can take the chicken out and reduce the sauce to thicken for another 5-7 minutes. I served the sauce as it was, and it turned out just fine.

To serve I spooned it over some Naan, but you can always eat this with rice. Sprinkle with parsley and almonds.

Meme's Pound Cake

2011-01-08T19:55:00.006-06:00

This weekend I was going to my annual holiday brunch with my college friends. I was in charge of bringing muffins or pastries, but rules are rules, so I found something from this month's cook book. Neither a muffin nor a pastry but still a nice breakfast addition.

In the south some people call their grandmother's Meme, including my husband. This recipe is the author's grandmothers pound cake. And let me tell you- it is one of the best pound cakes I've had!

1 cup (2 sticks) butter, at room temperature, plus more for the pan

3 cups all purpose flour

1/2 tsp baking powder

1/2 tsp fine sea salt

1 cup whole milk, room temp ( I used 2%)

5 large eggs, at room temperature

1 vanilla bean, split and scraped, or 1 tbsp pure vanilla extract

1/2 cup solid vegetable shortening, preferably Crisco, at room temperature

3 cups sugar

Preheat the oven to 350 F. Generously grease a 16 cup bundt pan with butter and flour the pan. (I can't but help thinking about my Big Fat Greek Wedding every time I see the word "bundt")

1. In a bowl sift together the flour, baking powder, and salt. Set aside

2. In a large liquid measuring cup, combine the milk, eggs, and scraped vanilla seeds. Set aside

3. In the bowl of a heavy- duty mixer fitted with a paddle, cream together 1 cup of butter, shortening, and sugar on medium speed until light and fluffy.

4. Add the flour and milk mixtures to the butter mixture in 3 batches, alternating between dry and the liquid. Beginning and ending with the dry mixture. Occasionally scrape down the sides.

5. Fill the pan with the batter (it should not be more than 2/3 full). Shake the pan gently to spread the batter evenly.

6. Bake for 15 minutes. Increase the oven temperature to 325 F and bake an additional 45 min, or until cake is golden brown. ( I baked mine for another 65 min until an inserted toothpick came out clean)
Remove to a rack and let it cool for 10 minutes. Invert the cake and let it cool completely.

I was really worried with the additional cooking time it would come out dry, but it was really moist and delicious. I would monitor closely after the 45 minute mark to make sure you are not over cooking.

Restaurant Review Vincent

2011-01-05T06:45:00.010-06:00

The first restaurant for our Restaurant Tuesday is Vincent. This restaurant is fairly new, but has gotten great reviews on Yelp!
Everyone in our group has different palettes which makes for a great dining experience because you are forced to try things you would never normally order.

The first appetizer we tried was the Date & Duck Rillette, it was served with endives, persimmon jam and grainy mustard. I myself am not a duck lover, but this was really great. Almost like a pâté. The jam offset any potential gameyness- not there there was some.

The next appetizer was the Pork Bitterballen (fried dutch meatballs) with dijon mustard over greens. This appetizer was good, just not sure if I would have ordered it again.

I am also not a big lamb person, but we did order three entrees between the four of us to share. So the first dish was the Grilled Lamb Burger- stuffed with roasted garlic and mint butter, melted edam, roasted tomato served with aioli & frites. YUM super tender.
The next entree was the Roasted Pork Loin (HUGE portion size) it was served with zuurkool (sauerkraut) , roasted fingerling potatoes, apples and mustard. Also very good and tons of flavor. It has a lot going on, but it all came together really well.
MMM I love fish! I am usually the only one that orders any seafood in our group. The last entree was the Beer Battered Haddock on Snert (split pea soup) smoked sausage, caraway, aioli. This was almost like a huge piece of cod and fish and chips. Really great flavor, and although it looks really heavy, the crust was nice and flaky.

mmmm.. no meal end with out dessert! The last course was chocolate cake with peanut butter cream in the middle. I am not a huge fan of chocolate dessert, but I am obsessed with peanut butter, so I did like this one. It was peanut butter mixed with whipped cream between two pieces of super moist cake.

Over all Vincent was a great place, my first Dutch dining experience. Very meat oriented and probably not recommended for vegetarians.

Happy New Year!

2011-01-03T18:20:00.025-06:00

Already I am making changes, I think rather than having magazine Monday, I'm going to cook my recipe on Sunday. I feel like I have more time to make a more involved meal that day. I though I would give into tradition and make something with black-eyed peas.

This Sunday I picked a recipe from the January issue of Southern Living magazine.

This week's recipe is "Big Easy" Gumbo

1/2 cup peanut oil

1/2 cup all purpose flour

1 cup chopped sweet onion

1 cup chopped green pepper

1 cup chopped celery

2 tsp. Creole seasoning

2 tsp. minced garlic

3 (14 oz) cans of low-sodium chicken broth (I use the concentrate from Trader Joe's)

4 cups shredded cooked chicken

1/2 lb. andouille sausage cut into 1/4 inch thick slices (precook if buying raw sausage)

1 1/2 cups of frozen black-eyed peas

1 lb. peeled, large raw shrimp

1. Heat oil in a large Dutch oven over medium-high heat; gradually whisk in flour, and cook, whisking constantly 5-7 minutes or until the flour is chocolate colored. (be careful not to burn)

BEFORE

AFTER

2. Reduce heat to medium. Stir in onion and next 4 ingredients, and cook, stirring constantly for 3 minutes. Gradually stir in chicken broth; add chicken and next 2 ingredients.

Sausage BEFORE being cooked

Sausage AFTER being cooked

Increase heat to medium-high and bring to a boil. Reduce heat to low, and simmer stirring occasionally for 20 minutes. Add shrimp and cook 5 min or just until shrimp turn pink.

I felt like Sandra Lee with my table setting :)

The Gumbo recipe was also shown with a Hoppin' John recipe.

Saute 1 cup diced sweet onion in 2 Tbsp. of bacon drippings in a large skillet over medium-high, heat until golden. I used the drippings from the andouille and cooked red onion for more color. Feel free to be creative. Stir in 3 cups of medium grain rice cooked per instructions. Stir in 2 cups of cooked and drained black eyed peas. Stir gently for 5 minutes until thoroughly heated. Add salt & pepper to taste.

* This was really good gumbo (not that I am an expert). If I had to do it all over again, I would have reduced the amount of peanut oil. The end result was a bit heavy for my taste. And I would have added in some more Creole seasoning for more kick.

I have also picked my cook book for January. I had a hard time with this one because there were some really great summer recipes that I wanted to try, but in the end I chose it because of the soups and comfort food factor. In the upcoming weeks I will be making at least 12 recipes from this book. I have a few functions I am attending that I will need to cook for, so hopefully I can come up with something appropriate from Bob Appetit Y'all.

I am starting to wonder if I really belong in Chicago? That's two southern picks so far.

It's been too long

2010-12-29T13:00:00.002-06:00

Things started getting really crazy around August as I was only 4 months away from my wedding. I kind of stopped posting, started living and breathing the wedding and my food diary was no longer the center of my world.
After the wedding and the holidays I started thinking about what I wanted this blog to be. Yes I am still a fit foodie, although I don't like to exercise nearly as much as I like to eat, cook and travel. So for 2011 I have decided on a new approach to my food diary.
I will be posting more about the recipes I cook, the restaurants I frequent and all of the places I travel to.
I work really well with structure, so I've come up with a fun (or maybe not so fun) way to document all of my food adventures. Since there are 12 months in a year, I am going to select one cookbook a month, that I have to make at least 12 recipes from. I have dozens of cookbooks that I have accumulated over the years and this would be a great way to actually cook out of them rather than always searching for something on Epicurius.com. I am also guilty of subscribing to too many cooking/living magazines. So on Mondays I will select a recipe from a magazine.
While out to dinner with some friends last night we decided as a part of our New Year's resolution, between the four of us, we were going to select one restaurant a week to try. So far we have a list of just over 100 places. This list started with the restaurants that were mention on Michelin's Bib Gourmand List. Which is essentially a list of restaurants that have a good value. It then progressed to oldies but goodies I have yet to try, all of the Chicago Steakhouses and a few other oddities that I added.
This is much better that the lose weight, quit___(fill in the blank with bad habit) or spend less resolutions that I typically have. This year I have decided to take advantage of the Chicago restaurant scene, cook more and enjoy 2011. Hopefully I can do all of these things while still being a fitfoodie.

Leaving Work at Work

2010-08-18T21:19:00.002-05:00

I was up too late last night and was not motivated to go for a run. So I took Elsa for an hour walk instead. We ran some and walked some.

Breakfast
Breakfast was strawberries, Kashi Go Lean Crunch and Stonyfield yogurt with Cherries on the bottom. Some people hate the consistency of fruit on the bottom yogurt, but I am a huge fan.

Lunch

Lunch, of course was at my desk because I am trying to put together this presentation that is due in a few weeks. I made my garbage Mexican salad which was loaded with garbanzo beans, corn, avocado, fresh salsa, chicken breast and low fat cheddar cheese. As dressing I mixed salsa with 1 Tbsp of Greek yogurt. I'm starting to think how lucky the Greeks really are- they've had Greek yogurt all their lives, and we just got introduced to it a few years ago.

Snack

... I hope this is not a sign of things to come with this sunflower seed butter. I really am obsessed! I had it again as my 4pm snack. It really is filling and a great mix of sweet and salty.

Dinner

Tonight I was getting sink hair (my awesome hair girl actually drives over and does my hair) so I made pizza for the crowd and restrained myself with one piece since I made a yummy meal of sauteed zucchini and onions and a Masala burger.
One pan wonder.
I am really going to miss fresh veggies when the weather gets cold again.

Come to Jesus Moment

2010-08-17T21:21:00.001-05:00

So after stuffing my face with pizza at 2am on Saturday night, I had a come to Jesus moment. Less than 4 months before the wedding and I have done MINIMAL work to look wedding ready. I guess if I wasn't getting married I would not be too concerned about losing weight or being more focused on my eating habits. However, every bride wants to look and feel their best.
I've decided that I am really going to try hard to behave myself on the weekends and not cancel out all of the hard work I do all week long.

Tuesdays and Thursdays are hot yoga mornings. This is a nice way to start my day. Hot Vinyasa is definitely a work out, but it also relaxes me when I have 100 things on my mind.

Breakfast
MMMMMM! Oatmeal, I haven't eaten oatmeal in months. I find that I usually save this staple for the LONG Chicago winter. This morning I had 1/2 a cup of oats with a banana and a tsp of coconut oil. I feel that the fat keeps me fuller longer and it's also a healthy add.

Lunch

I made this lunch the night before by sauteing broccoli, baby bok choy, eggplant, sugar snap peas, and ginger with some sesame seed oil and of course sunflower seed butter.
I topped it with some baked cod.
NOTE TO SELF: reheated fish is not good and it makes the whole office smell :)

Dinner

I was reading a self magazine on the train home from work and I found an easy recipe for salad. Below is my less complicated version.

Arugula Salad with Chicken

2 cups Arugula

1/2 a mango

1/4 peeled cucumber

Sugar snap peas

2 oz of cooked chicken

1 tsp nut butter

3 tbsp rice wine vinegar

Mix first 5 ingredients together. Whisk together nut butter and vinegar and put it on the salad.

Sorry for the lack of measurements but I just whipped this up.

Hatred for Monday

2010-08-16T19:50:00.001-05:00

Monday's are always rough. They are extra rough when you spend all of Sunday recovering. I have began to ask myself why I work my tail off all week long just to drink myself stupid on Saturday and sabotage all of my efforts?

Breakfast
For breakfast I had a Stonyfield mango honey yogurt with raspberries and half a cup of Kashi Go Lean. They had this yogurt at the Healthy Living Summit this weekend and I really like it! I also haven't had Kashi in years so while at Target this weekend I decided to give it another try.

SnackThe breakfast didn't really hold me over so I ate my afternoon snack early. I bought a jar of sunflower seed butter and I am OBSESSED!!! I really love all kinds of nut/seed butter, but this stuff is really good. I spread some on a piece of Ezikiel Bread for a high fiber snack.

After my snack I went out for a run. I have a feeling this will be the last time in a long time that I will be leaving my desk for lunch. :(

Lunch

Can you tell what kind of day I was having? Sticky notes and highlighters all over the place. For lunch I made a low fat chicken salad and a mixed green salad with balsamic vinegar.

Low Fat Chicken Salad

1 can of canned chicken, drained

2 Tbsp plain Greek yogurt

1 Tbsp light mayo

1/4 cup dried Bing Cherries

1/4 -1/2 cup pecan pieces

salt and pepper to taste

Mix everything together and enjoy over crackers or toast

Dinner

I had to eat something quick- I had work to do, so I did not spend much time thinking about my meal.

I made a Green Goddess salad topped with a Masala "burger". This is an all veggie burger and it's really good. A bit high in fat, but it really hits the spot.

Obsessed with Benjyehuda

2010-08-13T22:46:00.000-05:00

Today for lunch we went to Benjyehuda. I am obsessed with this place! I typically get a lafffa with with falafel, but today I went for the salad instead. It was loaded with all kinds of yummy things. Corn, cabbage, hummus, baba ganoush, tomatoes, cabbage, carrots and hot sauce. I really could eat there every day.

This weekend is the Healthy Living Summit Summit , and there is a happy hour at LaSalle Power Company.

TGIF

2010-08-13T08:31:00.003-05:00

I haven't been keeping up with the blogging like I planned. Work and wedding planning are taking up a lot of my free time. It's hard for me to post before work because I don't like to eat right away and my lunches have been spent running around like a crazy woman.

This morning I was sooooo not in the mood for a work out. I kept trying to think of fun things to do so that it wouldn't be so miserable. My mind won and I only ended up running for 10 minutes on the treadmill and did one day of 5 Factor. I guess I shouldn't beat myself up about it, I did make it to the gym or yoga everyday this week :)

I am running out of creative things to eat, so last night I made some oatmeal and layered it with Greek yogurt and dried cherries. This sat in the fridge last night and now I am having it for breakfast.

Can you tell I have a wonderful office job and my meals are spent at my desk?

Oh Blogging How I've Missed You

2010-08-03T20:59:00.005-05:00

It's pretty pathetic that my last post was in May. This was around the time I got engaged and everything since then has revolved around planning, planning and eating. The summer is always a really hard time to keep my diet in check. The summer eating and drinking really derails my efforts. Not to mention that we have been traveling more than usual.

Since May I have probably gained and lost 10 lbs. Up on the weekends and down during the week. Finally I've decided that the yo-yo needs to stop. I don't know if it's because I am attending the Bloggers Health Summit in a few weeks, or I have finally eaten and drank everything under the sun and its time to get back to business.

We got back from Wisconsin yesterday and to finish off my unhealthy weekend I ended the day with a bang and got Chipotle. Today was a different story and I feel really great!

Coming back to work I was welcomed with about 100 emails, and about half actually required me to do something :( I took pictures of breakfast and then lunch was swallowed in 5 minutes because I just didn't have much time.

Breakfast was an everything bagel from Trader Joes with some whipped cream cheese, cucumbers and sprouts.

Lunch which I just didn't have time to take pictures of - was a tuna salad (white tuna fish with 1 Tbs of olive oil mayo, capers, and green olives) squeezed between some Ezekiel bread. Then in the afternoon I snacked on some vegetables. Pretty boring food day, but I need to reset my system.

Dinner

Dinner was spent at the computer while I was updating my registry... really fun stuff, but someones got to do it. (note Williams-Sonoma magazine in the background)
I made the salad with mixed greens, artichoke hearts, baby tomatoes, red onion, blue cheese topped with 3 oz of flank steak and some yogurt dressing and balsamic. I had to improvise because I didn't have vinaigrette at home.

Not only have I fallen off the eating wagon, but my exercises routine has been pretty non existent. Today I went for a 25 min run with the dog so she could get out of the house too. I was planning on riding my bike to work tomorrow, but we will see how it goes.

I am really excited about the dinner post for tomorrow. I've already made it since we have ANOTHER cake tasting after work.

Healthy Start to REALLY Unhealthy Week

2010-05-29T23:42:00.002-05:00

My day started off with cooked oatmeal and a banana. Then things really started to go downhill from there.

Lunch
For lunch we went to NEWKS . I really wish they had one in Chicago. It reminds me of a Corner Bakery but with better food. The salads here are HUGE and made to order. It would be a perfect place to grab lunch during the week.

I ordered a Newk's Favorite with the dressing on the side and no croutons since I munched on the grissini before I got my salad. It took me a while to get used to the grapes in this salad but now I am addicted! The salad has mixed greens, grilled chicken breast, gorgonzola cheese, dried cranberries, grapes, artichoke hearts, pecans and croutons tossed with Newk’s sherry vinaigrette.

Dinner
Dinner was a large part liquid and then late night Enchilada's. This is where everything started going downhill.

This plate looks reasonable right? Well in addition to this I had a ton of tortilla chips probably another enchilada and then ice cream cake! I will be paying for this meal and others when I get back. Oh well, I guess I can not really do anything about it now.

Week Off Of Cooking

2010-05-28T22:41:00.001-05:00

I love Southern Cooking. It was definitely an adjustment when I first started coming here three years ago. I remember going out to eat, everyone ordered fried catfish and I asked for crab cakes! Wow was I missing out. We brought Elsa on the trip, and of course she is playing the role of sous chef no matter where she goes.

Dinner was grilled pork tenderloin, mac and cheese and squash casserole. I am really looking forward to a week of southern meals.

Road Trip

2010-05-28T13:27:00.001-05:00

When I was a kid I hated road trips. I never understood why we couldn't just fly everywhere. As I get older, I find myself not minding them so much. Between airport security, dealing with my bags, cab rides etc., driving doesn't seem so bad.

A lot of William's family lives in Mississippi so we are heading down to spend a week away. Then next weekend we we have a wedding in Memphis. I love coming down south. It is always so relaxing and it's nice to catch up after not seeing each other.

For breakfast I took some challah bread topped it with butter, cinnamon and sugar. This was kind of like a cinnamon roll. Of course we also stopped at Starbucks so that I would not fall asleep at the wheel. (we left the house at 5:45am!)

We grabbed lunch at the drive through. Between all of the places that were available, I picked Taco Bell. Not sure what it is about road trips that makes it seem okay to eat junk.

I do not even remember what this thing is called. Some kind of a wrap? We split the wrap and then I also had a beef taco. This wrap was very strange, it had a hard shell , cheese, tomatoes and beef on the inside an then it was wrapped in a tortilla. I am sure it was pretty terrible for me, but better than a burger.

Last Dinner Before Hitting The Road

2010-05-27T23:11:00.001-05:00

For dinner on Thursday night I was still on a mission to use the vegetables I bought earlier in the week. I was actually surprised what a great dinner we had since we didn't have much food in the house.

First I took 2 brats and cooked them in a shallow pan with about an inch of water. (you can also use chicken sausage for a low fat version) I covered the pan so the sausages could steam. Then I cut the brats and added them to the roasted vegetables.

I roasted the vegetables the night before so that I could focus on packing rather than cooking. I chopped up tomatoes, eggplant, zucchini, broccoli, onions and mushrooms into large pieces. I added olive oil, salt, and pepper and roasted them in the oven at 400 for about 25 minutes. Then I put them in the fridge over night.

Here is a picture of all the veggies and brats.

In the mean time I boiled some fettuccine noodles.

This is a picture of my plate. This was so good and my only intention was to use up the veggies.

Tomorrow morning we are off on our road trip down south. I have a feeling whatever we will be eating on the road will not be healthy.

To Weigh or Not to Weigh

2010-05-27T12:57:00.003-05:00

I will admit- I am crazy when it comes to weighing in. I am not sure why I torture myself because I can usually tell when I have put on some weight or am retaining water. I still like to stand on the scale and make myself miserable.
Today for example- I was up 3lbs from the day before! REALLY 3lbs... that means I would have had to eat 10,500 calories yesterday! Which I clearly did not. When this happens I am in a terrible mood and then end up eating poorly because I feel sorry for myself. There has to be a better way.

After I chowed down a chocolate covered pretzel, I ate a decent breakfast of strawberry yogurt, half a banana, topped with cold oatmeal.

I also poured some flax seed meal over the fruit.

Lunch was left over Mexican Pizza. I am sure I will have food coma in an hour or so. Aside from my scale slip up- and a missed work out (after all- nothing is going to burn off 10, 500 calories, so why bother) I am happy to report I am all caught up with my posts! Just in time for a week down south. I am sure I will have all kinds of fun snacks to report on.

Stuffed Mexican Pizza

2010-05-26T20:45:00.004-05:00

I had some left over rice from a couple of nights ago. Of course I do not like for anything to go to waste so I used the rice, corn and left over black beans to make a "Mexican Stuffed Pizza".

Ingredients

Rice

Black beans

Cooked corn (frozen or canned will work too)

Red onion

Cilantro

3 fajita size tortillas (corn or flour)

1/2 cup Mexican Cheese (taco, queso fresco or whatever else you have on hand will work)

1 can of enchilada sauce

Mix together the first 5 ingredients.
Spray a square pan with cooking oil. Place tortilla in the pan and top with half of the rice mixture. Sprinkle half the cheese on top of the rice then repeat this one more time, ending with a tortilla on top.
Top with the whole can of enchilada sauce and bake at 350 for about 25-30 min.

Slice into 4 pieces and serve. I had mine with sour cream, salsa and some guac. This was so easy and really great for a week night.

I Dream of Falafel

2010-05-26T13:36:00.000-05:00

I really don't dream about it, but after going to this place for lunch, I may start.

For lunch we went to I Dream of Falafel. What a great concept! I am starting to think that there is a Chipolte following for all kinds of food. This was the same concept but with Mediterranean food. I think people love the concept of choice or being able to DIY, without really doing anything. First you pick your base (Lebanese bread, rice, salad etc) then your meat or meat equivalent (chicken, lamb, beef, falafel) then you pick your sauce. You also have the option of adding a bunch of veggies.
I picked the salad trio, with falafel and a bunch of veggies. This was so delish. Definitely a repeat place for lunch.

Hump Day and Tropical Oatmeal

2010-05-26T10:29:00.001-05:00

What a crazy day, I had to be at work early (8:30) for a call, then I was in meetings pretty much all morning. I've decided I really like the summer. I am full of new cooking ideas!

Breakfast was Tropical Oatmeal. I made oatmeal with half steel cut oats and half regular oatmeal and let it sit overnight. You can probably just make it and cool it for the same effect.

I layered the bottom of a container with Greek Yogurt, then I added about a cup of pineapple/mango mix then I topped that with the cold oatmeal. This was awesome on a hot day!

Easy Weeknight Dinner

2010-05-25T21:57:00.001-05:00

After being on the phone most of the afternoon I was definitely in the mood for a cocktail (or two) after work. My friend Lorie came over for dinner tonight. She has a miserable commute so drinks were definitely in order.

I made quinoa and roasted veggies with some chicken.
This is a different kind of quinoa than I am used to. I saw this at Trader Joe's and wanted to give it a try.
Of course just as William was about to grill the chicken and veggies, he informs me that we are out of gas... great timing. So I had to resort to the grill pan.

And I baked the veggies in the oven at 425. I cut up some zucchini, eggplant, baby portabello mushrooms, tomatoes, and onion. I drizzled some pesto vinaigrette over everything and baked until they were lightly brown.

Lorie's plate. Mine did not look as pretty. Did I mention how much I love the summer? We ate our meal outside and drank some wine.

Still Behind

2010-05-25T13:29:00.000-05:00

I am still behind on posting, but I think I am just going to start working backwards, so just check back tonight and I should be all caught up. The problem is that my pictures are either on my IPhone or my camera. So if I have not uploaded something I am unable to get full post.

Tuesday's breakfast was cottage cheese with low sugar jelly and a flax seed roll. I have been on a Starbucks kick this week. I always have coffee in the morning, but usually it is made at home and enjoyed on the train. This week I have been riding my bike to work, so as a treat I am paying for my coffee.

The weather has been amazing, so I picked up a Slurpee when I went out to run errands.
Slurpee and a turkey sandwich = great lunch.

Whole wheat bread, low fat Swiss Cheese and a spicy turkey.

As a snack I had some frozen papaya. I think this may be a summer standard. Papaya is really good for you and is especially tasty frozen.

The Weekend Should be 3 days Long

2010-05-24T21:17:00.006-05:00

I really do not like the kind of Mondays that leave you wishing for another day off. Sunday was so fun and relaxing that it left me wanting another day off.

Breakfast was the standard. Oatmeal with a banana and cinnamon. I also had an iced coffee. This will be the start of many iced coffees to come. I rode my bike to work this morning so the thought of a hot coffee did not sound good at all.

Lunch was a salad with a left over chicken burger. I bought a ton of fruit so now it will be going into salads and whatever else I can fit it into.

Dinner was a piece of white fish with brown rice. I was so not in the mood to cook tonight, so this was as lazy as dinner can get. The rice cooker saves the day. I added some basil, tomatoes, and olives in the rice.

Relaxing Sunday Night

2010-05-23T21:31:00.002-05:00

After lunch I did some much needed cleaning and then we went for a bike ride to buy more herbs for our vegetable garden. After some shopping we stopped by to get some coffee.

I was too lazy to plant when I got home. So I made dinner instead and William dealt with the garden.
Mexican salad with salmon, avocado, black beans and salsa. What a great weekend. I am really looking forward to the nice weather and lots of white wine.

Elsa Had Fun Today

2010-05-23T14:34:00.001-05:00

After breakfast we went for a walk. There were plenty of dogs at the beach, but due to her injury I did not want her to get wet. It was so hot outside she kept taking breaks in the grass.

Happy dog!

I have decided that I am going to try more recipes out of the Food and Wine magazine. Usually I get the magazine, look at all of the pictures and then go to Epicurious.com for recipes. So I am going to get into the habit of cooking from here more often. That being said, I found a great chicken burger recipe in this month's issue.

Chicken Burgers with Spicy Peanut Sauce (click here for the link to Food & Wine)

1 1/4 pounds ground chicken
1/4 cup plus 2 tablespoons very finely chopped red onion
2 tablespoons vegetable oil, plus more for brushing
2 teaspoons chile powder
Salt
1 teaspoon garam masala
1/4 cup unsweetened coconut milk
2 tablespoons creamy peanut butter
2 tablespoons hot water
2 tablespoons chopped salted peanuts
4 round ciabatta rolls, split and toasted
Lettuce, for serving

I cut the oil down in half.

I also did not add chopped nuts to the sauce.

I made this salad to go with our lunch.

The burgers were really great! I will definitely make this again. Especially since I cannot stomach ground turkey, this is a great alternative.

My plate. What a great summer meal

Early Morning Golf

2010-05-22T21:12:00.001-05:00

Going out last night was NOT a good idea. We had a 9am tee time. (No I do not really golf) I was trying to make William happy and I thought we could do something that he enjoys. Needless to say we had some good laughs.
Breakfast was a not so healthy Sausage and Egg Sandwich from Starbucks.

I also needed to use up a Groupon so we went to The Counter for lunch. This place allows you to build your own burgers. I started with an apple pie shake. I had no self control and basically ate the whole thing. It had chunks of apples and pieces of crust and I could taste the cinnamon.

They also have great fries, we got the half and half. Half regular fries and half sweet potato.
Rather than getting a burger I ordered the carne asada salad. This was on the special menu. I am a sucker for special menus and limited time items.
The salad was topped with a fried tomatillo. Which made it not so healthy.

Dinner was spent at a friend's birthday party. I enjoyed a slice and a half of pizza from Lou Malnati's and then some yummy cake. This was a pretty bad day of eating, but tomorrow is a new day.

Friday Diet Sabotage

2010-05-21T21:22:00.000-05:00

Apparently there is someone who wants to sabotage my diet. I guess there is a woman on my floor that loves to bake (same person who baked the banana cream pie a few weeks ago) So today after my work out I was faced with a serious temptation. (see below)

For breakfast I was actually really good and had a raisin bagel with home made strawberry cream cheese. It was actually much easier that I am making it out to be. I took plain cream cheese and added chopped up strawberries. This cream cheese was so much better than the store bought stuff since it had big chunks of fruit.

As a snack at around 11 I also had some fresh strawberries with honey Greek yogurt. Can you see a theme here? I was trying to eat up the fruit before it went bad.

DIET SABOTAGE! This week's Friday treat was peanut butter banana bread. It was a chocolate marbled banana bread topped with chocolate and peanut butter chips! I tried REALLY hard to stay away, but at 4 o'clock the smell coming from my desk drawer was just too much.

For lunch I had a salad from Potbelly's. I have not had bacon in a few weeks and I was way overdue. I know it's not an every day food, but I found myself craving bacon.

For "dinner" I had some beers and waffle fries while "watching" the Blackhawks game. I put those both in quotes because beer and waffle fries are definitely not a good dinner, nor did I really watch a game. I just come along for the company.

Thursday, As if Mexican on Wednesday Wasn't Enough

2010-05-21T07:33:00.005-05:00

There is a place that is in our neighborhood that we have been wanting to try. It is a BYOB Mexican Restaurant. The only issue we have with this place is the location! Yes it is CLOSE, but it is wedged between a dollar store and a pawn shop?

If you can get passed La Ciudad's location, this place is awesome! The service is incredibly friendly and the food is fresh and has clean flavors. As you may now realize I like clean tasting Mexican food. The kind that does not leave me in a coma after I leave the restaurant. They bring out a basket of chips to start with two different kinds of salsas.
For the appetizer we ordered the combo- this included guacamole, sopes and taquitos.

For my entree I had the diablo shrimp. WARNING- do not get this dish unless you like having a runny nose, watery eyes and mouth on fire. I like heat, but this dish was hot on a whole nother level. WOW!!! It was a great way for portion control- after having 3 pieces I could not take another bite. Took the rest home and they were good as snacks the next day. If you do happen to get these, make sure you have a huge cup of water that you can drink.

Wednesday More Thai Food

2010-05-21T07:29:00.009-05:00

Breakfast was oatmeal with a banana. I can't seem to get enough of this for some reason? I think it's because it keeps me full for so much longer than regular oatmeal?

Today was absolutely gorgeous outside! Check out the view from my hole "aka cubicle". Even though coming to work 9-5 is not my favorite thing most days, at least I get a great view of the lake and Buckingham fountain.
For Lunch I made tacos. This was obviously done the night before, but everything keeps really well in the office fridge.

First I chopped some red onions, you can use whatever onions you have. I just happened to have red on hand.
Then you brown 1 lb of ground beef. I try to get beef that is at least 90% lean, but if you find something with more fat, just make sure you drain it really well.

Once the beef is cooked all the way through you can add the onions and seasoning.
I have a SERIOUS issue with premade taco seasoning. I can not understand what half the stuff in there is, so I try to make my own.

Ingredients
1 tablespoon chili powder
1/4 teaspoon garlic powder
1/4 teaspoon onion powder
1/4 teaspoon dried oregano
1/2 teaspoon paprika
1 1/2 teaspoons ground cumin
1 teaspoon sea salt
1 teaspoon black pepper

If you do not have onion or garlic powder use onion/garlic salt and leave out the additional salt. I did not have any garlic powder so I chopped up some garlic, and then added onion salt.

I packed everything up and took it to work.

Ground beef in a separate container so I could reheat. Then everything else was packed up together.

Yummy tacos! I love DIY tacos because you can totally control the amount of fat they have with out being boring. I'm sorry- I just don't know how people eat tacos with no cheese or sour cream! It's almost a "why bother"

For dinner I went a friend's and we ordered Thai food! This was the second time this week I had Thai for dinner. While I was away- Elsa was up to no good.

I made cookies a few nights before, and they were on the counter top. She tried to get to the goods, but instead rolled the paper towels out.

She is not very sneaky to say the least!
She got the foil of the plate, and then made a mess. That's my crazy girl!! I guess I should not be too upset since she is still recovering from her bite.

Tuesday, Dinner at Banana Republic

2010-05-21T07:26:00.003-05:00

Today's breakfast was oatmeal with raspberries. I am trying to do a better job of using frozen fruit that has been in the freezer for a while. Appetizing right? I used frozen raspberries to create this mess. The oatmeal was really good, but slightly on the seedy side.
Lunch was a salad with left over chicken satay. This was not that satisfying, so it was followed by some snacks.
I had a yogurt and some granola later on in the day.
After work I ran some errands, and happened to walk past banana republic. The music was really loud and they were definitely having an event. Once I saw the champagne and appetizers being passed around I had to go in. I ended up trying on a bunch of stuff and only came out with a skirt and black top. I need a black top like I need a hole in my head. I also tried some of the food they were passing around. Some kind of fried shrimp, a beef skewer and then of course dessert!
Apparently I have not kicked my sweet tooth. They had cream puffs! YUM!
I grabbed one for me and one for William and took them home with me. Not the healthiest dinner, but it saved me from cooking tonight.

Dramatic Monday

2010-05-18T19:42:00.003-05:00

Monday started out on a good note. I had a yogurt and a bagel thin with peanut butter for breakfast.

At lunch I went to bootcamp and had a great work out. After my work out I went to the cafeteria and got a roasted chicken with vegetables for lunch. As I was checking out, I got a phone call from our neighbor. He was asking who Elsa's vet was!! I was a little concerned since last week she bit a dog at the beach. (She can be a bit anxious and not always the easiest to deal with if there are a lot of dogs around). Dog karma is a b*tch. No pun intended. She was actually the one who got bit today. Nonetheless by her best friend. It was a "friendly" bite that resulted in the below-

I took a cab home and ate my chicken in while in route home. My poor baby had to get 12 stitched on her side. She was a trouper at the vet, but she may have a scar.

I am surprised I even made a dinner, but I had shrimp and brown rice with broccoli. I was a bit impatient and ate in stages. First the shrimp, then the broccoli and finally the rice when it was finished.
I topped the rice with some olive oil and Parmesan cheese.

What a Monday, luckily it was no indication of the rest of the week.

WOW! Who sleeps Till 2!

2010-05-18T19:23:00.004-05:00

I had a little too much fun at the wedding on Saturday. I did not stay out TOO LATE, (2am) but for some reason I slept the day away. I woke up at 9, then went back to bed and did not wake up till 2 in the afternoon!!! At that point there was no sense in eating breakfast because it was clearly time for lunch.

Lunch was the Pepe from Jimmy John's, No mayo + sprouts + cucumbers. As bad as I felt, I tried to squeeze in some healthy stuff.

Loaded with ham and veggies, oh yeah and plenty of sodium :)

Dinner was not so healthy. On the bright side, I did not eat that much of it.

I always go overboard when I order take out and then we end up eating it for days after. Dinner was from Siam Noodle and Rice. By far my favorite Thai place in the city.

I ordered a bamboo shoot salad- this was my least favorite dish. The flavor was just off. I had a bite and tossed the rest.
It looks delish because it was loaded with things I love- cilantro!! But I was just not feeling it.

I ordered a rice dish with veggies. I always eat the chicken and tend to leave the rice. Of course more than half is always left over for the week.

Close up shot of my shiny (not so healthy because it's cooked in a bunch of oil) Thai food.
My plate- I also had two pieces of Chicken Satay. As you will come to realize the rest of the week consists of more Thai & Mexican food.

Saturday Wedding

2010-05-18T19:21:00.004-05:00

Since I am still catching up on posts- This past Saturday we went to a beautiful wedding. The day started out pretty relaxed. I had some raisin bread with cottage cheese and apricot jam for breakfast.
I love these kinds of breakfasts. For some reason they remind me of being in Europe. All that was missing was a cappuccino.
I was back to my old routine that day, and woke up at 6 am. So naturally at around 10 I was ready for breakfast part II.

I had half an apple with some better 'n peanut butter. After eating this for a while, I am no longer sure how I feel about it? It kind of tastes moldy? Maybe it is just me?

Lunch was a quick enchilada meal from Trader Joe's. This really was a great bang for the calories. At around 300 calories this meal was really filling and delish!

The wedding was held at The Union League Club. The space was gorgeous and the food was really good. I am used to below average wedding food, but check out my plate below.

Steak and shrimp! The shrimp was stuffed with crab. The steak was really tender, almost like a steak pot roast. Such a pleasant surprise for wedding food.

Terrible picture of the wedding cake, but I had about half a slice.

Spacca Napoli

2010-05-14T09:47:00.003-05:00

I did not fall off the wagon, but I wanted to post pictures from one of my favorite places in Chicago. Spacca Napoli by far has the best Italian style pizza in the city. We have been going here since it opened and it never disappoints. They have REAL Italian style pizza that has a thin bubbly crust and is loaded with fresh clean ingredients.

For a starter we ordered the Burrata. Burro means butter in Italian, and the Burrata mozzarella is named accordingly. There is no butter in this AMAZING cheese, but it has a hard outside that is filled with a gooey fluffy inside. They serve this dish with little toasts. I think they fly this stuff in every day because it is incredibly fresh.

My pizza was loaded with veggies and ricotta cheese. MMMM sooo good.

Every bite was so delicious. And it is one of those places that does not me feeling bad about the amount of food I ate, because even though it is pizza it is made so differently then any of the other stuff.

Sushi Dinner

2010-05-13T20:51:00.006-05:00

After eating much of nothing the last few days I figured I should probably get some healthy protein into my system. I went shopping after work today, it is the constant buy and return syndrome :) and then I got a brow wax. By the time I was done it was 8 o'clock. In my old days of eating junk, I would have been FAMISHED by 8, but I actually felt okay.

Dinner was a Mexican Roll from Rise Sushi and two pieces of salmon. The Mexican roll had a bit too much mayo for my taste, but I really wanted cilantro in my roll.

The picture came out a bit blurry, but the roll had hamachi, avocado, jalapeno and of course cilantro.

Clean Eating

2010-05-13T15:51:00.004-05:00

So this was day 1 of clean eating. I feel really great! The only downfall that I had was drinking Starbucks this morning, and I honestly think that is one habit that I don't want to break. Coffee IS my morning. I look forward to it everyday. Taking it away from me would be a bad bad thing.

Breakfast was oatmeal with strawberries. No sugar!

Lunch was a huge salad loaded with vegetables, seeds and tofu.

I felt so good eating this. For the 1st time in a long time I did not have food coma nor did I have a sugary snack after my meal.
I actually snacked on nuts and fruit today! I feel so much better knowing that I am FEEDING my body.

Wake Up Call

2010-05-13T15:45:00.002-05:00

So I took a few days off of blogging to get my eating habits in check. I was really starting to stray away from what was good for me. Between vacation, social activities, people in town etc. I had packed on 5lbs since March. This may not seem like a lot but when you are not that big to begin with, not only does it show but it feels bad. I notices myself eating a lot of junk and most concerning of all, was the amount of sugar I was consuming.

I am embarrassed to admit but I actually did a cleanse for a few days. This really goes against my beliefs in living a healthy life style and borders towards the fad side of things. I am truly against crazy measures but I honestly did not know what else to do. The more I thought about how I should not be eating junk, the more I wanted it. It was the forbidden fruit.

The day that I decide to get off my cleanse I also received some bad news about a friend. At the age of 30 she was diagnosed with stage 2 breast cancer. By the time I had found out she had already had a mastectomy in order to prevent the cancer from spreading or returning in the future. This sad news was one of few terrible things that have happened to women that were around my age. Earlier this year another friend found out she had a brain tumor. The tumor was benign but it made me realize how life really is precious and we only have one body in this lifetime. Call it a coincidence or a sign, but after learning about these two women it made me think about the daily choices I was making in my life.

The last month or so I took eating as a social activity, a way to deal with stress, or something I would do because I was bored or deserving. Food should be a form of nourishment and providing your body with what it needs to function rather than selfishly expecting my “engine” to run off of hamburgers, pizza and sugar.
All of that being said let’s hope that I can maintain this new way of thinking and stop being so selfish when it comes to daily food choices I make.

Addicted to Dessert!

2010-05-06T20:11:00.005-05:00

Tonight for dinner I decided to make risotto. I could eat this stuff every day. It is so versatile because you can make it with so many different things.
I always start off with onions. Usually I just use a regular yellow or white onion, but this is what I had in the house so this is what I used. I use about half an onion to one cup of risotto.
I heat 1-2 tablespoons of olive oil in a deep pan. I also heat up 4 cups of chicken or veggie stock in another pan so that I can add this into the rice as it cooks.
I use about a cup of rice for two servings.
I am lucky because my friends from Italy always bring me great risotto, but I find that the stuff I buy at Trader Joe's is just as good. I always have some white wine in the fridge. Sometimes it is drinkable, and sometimes it is left over wine that I keep just for cooking.

First I saute the onions until they are soft, then I add in the rice. I cook all of this until the rice starts to brown. Then I add in the wine and wait till it evaporates. (about 1/4 of a cup)
My favorite part of making risotto is drinking some wine while cooking.
Risotto can sometimes be pretty time consuming because it requires a lot of stirring and attention since you have to add stock every time the rice soaks it up. If I do not have time to attend to the risotto I just add more liquid at a time. Once the rice is just about done I add in the veggies. If you are using vegetables that require more cooking time (mushrooms) I cook them in advance and add them at the end.
I top my risotto with Parmesan cheese and some fresh ground pepper.

It's official- I have a serious issue with dessert. I think I have had ice cream in some form or another every day this week. This is really wrecking my efforts at the gym this week.

The Last Of The Slaw

2010-05-06T20:05:00.003-05:00

The downside to having a party is having a bunch of left overs. I have been eating this coleslaw for days. Today was it. We ate the last of it for lunch.
Lunch was a turkey and light Cheddar cheese sandwich.
I stuffed this baby with cucumbers, banana peppers, and tomatoes. It was pretty good, but sandwiches are leaving me hungry these days.
This is IT! The last of the slaw. I do not think I will want anything to do with coleslaw for months. This was a great slaw, and definitely a repeat, but I made way too much.

SABOTAGE

2010-05-06T08:51:00.003-05:00

I approach my desk after a kick boxing class (that I put about 75% effort into) and what do I find at my desk?

This piece of chocolate raspberry cake! Not just any raspberry cake, a cake from Butterfingers Bakery in Indiana. This is also the place where my friend Shannon got her wedding cake. This is the only wedding at which I ate two slices. Needless to say it is going to be really hard to keep my paws off this thing all day. I did have a tiny little piece, but I do not want this to be another night of cake for dinner. This is what I call diet sabotage!

Comfort Food

2010-05-05T19:34:00.003-05:00

I have been incredibly tired this week, and I am not sure if it is because of this weekend or if something else is going on? Our dinners have been really boring lately, but it is the best I can do when I come home.

Today's dinner was a turkey and cheese "panini" with tomato soup. I say "panini" because it was a piece of bread that I grilled on a griddle. There wasn't as much grease so it was a healthier version.This is the kind of meal I should be eating in December rather than May but the weather here has been all over the place. All I kept thinking about at work was comfort food and my book.

Happy Cinco de Mayo

2010-05-05T13:27:00.003-05:00

I think this morning cured my breakfast rut, although it did confirm that I need to split up my breakfast into 2 mini meals. Last night I tried a new way of making Swiss Oatmeal. I actually mixed the oats with water prior to layering them in with yogurt and fruit.

I used ½ cup of instant oats and added 1 cup of water. I microwaved this for 90 seconds and then assembled my oatmeal. The bottom layer was strawberries and raisins followed by 1/3 of the oatmeal and about 1/3 of the 1/2 cup of Greek yogurt. Then repeat 2 times. Cooking the oatmeal rather than relying on it to soak up the juices overnight made a much heartier version.

I think sometimes I am just hungry at certain times out of habit. So even though I had a pretty satisfying breakfast, I also had a piece of rye bread with Better ‘n Peanut Butter spread at around 11. This stuff is terribly addicting and tastes more like dessert than peanut butter?

Since it is Cinco de Mayo, lunch was half a bowl from Q’doba. I have a hard time saying no to cheese or sour cream on things.
So rather than depriving myself of the finest things in life (cheese) I just eat less. I wrapped up half of the bowl for dinner tonight.

My Sweet Tooth Is Getting The Best of Me

2010-05-04T19:24:00.000-05:00

Is a sweet tooth contagious? I never used to have one until recently. William has always eaten sweets and now I can't stop!!!
Dinner was pretty reasonable- I made a pork chops, sweet potatoes and had left over coleslaw.And then the sweet tooth got the best of me! I guess it wasn't a horrible but just not necessary after this weekend.
I had half a cup of low fat vanilla ice cream with an Oreo cookie. I just do not like that I have gotten used to having something sweet after dinner. My go to "treat" used to be a piece of great cheese and now it is some kind of sweet.

Tuesday, I Wish It Was Friday

2010-05-04T08:46:00.000-05:00

Aside from being a complete waste of space this weekend, I picked myself up off the floor and I am determined to have a better week. I missed my work out on Monday since I was still trying to recover. When I got to work on Tuesday it was so nice outside I decided to skip the gym and go out for a run outside.

How lucky am I, check out this view.

I am getting pretty bored with breakfast these days. It’s usually peanut butter on some kind of bread with a yogurt or oatmeal with a yogurt. I really need to switch it up. I am having a hard time thinking of different things to eat that I can still make or bring to work.

I ran some errands at lunch and then went over to Cosi to grab this delicious salad. I feel like you can make things pretty nutritious if you just sub out the bad stuff for extra veggies. I will have to say that their website is pretty bad when it comes to nutritional information. They list all salads with dressing and do not allow for you to pick your own ingredients.

In addition to this salad I also had half of the bread that came with the salad. I was so tempted to eat the other piece, but decided to have dessert after dinner instead.

Giordano's Pizza

2010-05-03T20:20:00.002-05:00

I feel like once I got started I just kept on going. On Sunday we went to Giordano's Pizza. Chicago style pizza is massive compared to pizza anywhere else. Of course after staying out way too late and not getting much sleep, eating a bunch of grease for lunch/dinner seemed like a great idea. Here is the FRIED platter, mozzarella sticks, fried mushrooms and fried zucchini.

Here is my slice. It was pretty big. And after having a slice and a half I was not really in the mood for dinner. It was a great weekend, but I am really paying for it today, and I will be all week by spending some serious time at the gym.

Kuma's Corner

2010-05-03T20:15:00.004-05:00

I think this picture sums up my eating habits all weekend. On Friday we went to the famous Kuma's Corner. This is known as the best burger place in the city. And it really was everything they said it would be. AMAZING! I have had my fair share of burgers, and this one was really good... I mean REALLY REALLY good.
The 10oz burger was served between a pretzel roll. I got mine with some fancy cheese, mushrooms and spicy mustard. If I could wear sweatpants for the rest of my life, I think I could eat here everyday. I tried to be civil and took half of it home... just so I could have Thai food for dinner. Hanging out with the boys this weekend was reflected on the scale this morning.

What a Crazy Weekend!

2010-05-03T20:06:00.006-05:00

There wasn't much food left to take pictures of when the party was over. I was also running around and the thought of taking pictures escaped me.

Today was really rough- I missed my work out. I was up very early but decided to go at lunch, and didn't make it to the gym. My food choices were much better today than most of the weekend.

Here is a what I ate throughout the day-

Breakfast:

Bagel thin with peanut butter and half a banana, then for a snack I had a siggi's yogurt.
I think siggi's and I are over. I really did not like this flavor and at over $2 dollars a cup it is just not worth it.

Lunch:
Then for lunch I had a tuna sandwich and some slaw that was left over from the party.

Dinner:

I can not seem to get away from all of the junk I ate this weekend, so I am changing my habits slowly. I made some Trader Joe's bolognese and had that with pasta. The bolognese only has 80 calories per serving and 3 grams of fat. It would not have kept me full for lunch, but it was a great dinner.

Derby Recipes- Slaw

2010-05-01T07:44:00.003-05:00

This recipe was slightly tweaked from a version that I found on Epicurious.

1/3 cup frozen orange juice concentrate, thawed
1/3 cup unseasoned rice vinegar
1/3 cup canola oil or vegetable oil
2 (8-ounce) bags coleslaw mix
1/2 bag of white frozen corn
2 medium carrots, peeled, coarsely grated
1 medium red bell pepper, stemmed, cored, cut into thin strips
6 medium green onions, thinly sliced
1/2 cup chopped fresh cilantro

Whisk orange juice concentrate, rice vinegar, and canola oil in small bowl. Season with salt and pepper. Dressing can be made 1 day ahead. Cover and refrigerate.

Combine slaw mix, corn kernels, carrots, red bell pepper strips, sliced green onions, and chopped cilantro in large bowl. Toss with enough dressing to coat. Season slaw to taste with salt and pepper. Let stand 15 minutes for flavors to blend. Toss again and serve.

Derby Recipes- Baked Beans

2010-05-01T07:28:00.003-05:00

There are so many Baked Beans recipes out there that I had a really hard time deciding what to make. Below is my version after looking at about 5 recipes.

3 Bean Baked Beans

1 1/2 cups dried butter beans
1 1/2 cups dried kidney beans
1 1/2 cups dry Great Northern beans (or cannellini beans)
14 cups water

1 1/2 cups ketchup

1/2 cup maple syrup

1/2 cup molasses
1/2 cups brown sugar

1 tablespoon spicy mustard
1 1/2 teaspoon salt

1/2 pound bacon, chopped

1 large onion, chopped

2 green peppers diced

3 cloves garlic, minced

3 cups water

Pick over and wash dried beans. Combine beans and water in a large Dutch oven or cast-iron pot. Bring to a boil, reduce heat and simmer for 30 minutes. Remove from heat, cover and allow to stand one hour. Drain the beans and put them back into Dutch oven.
In a medium size bowl stir in ketchup, maple syrup, molasses, brown sugar, mustard and salt. Set aside. Cook bacon in saute pan, once the bacon has browned, remove the bacon from pan and set aside. Discard all but 1 tablespoon of bacon fat. Add in peppers, onion and garlic and cook until soft. Add the sauce, vegetables and bacon to the beans and top with water. Cover and bake at 300° for three hours. Uncover, and bake an additional 30 minutes or until beans are tender.These are the beans being cooked. I could not find dry butter beans so I cheated and used canned.
Look how big they get even after 30 min!

This is the ketchup mix.

These are all my beans just before they are about to go into the dutch oven for the last time.

I will post another picture just once they are ready to be served.

Derby Recipes- Pulled Pork

2010-05-01T07:11:00.005-05:00

Pulled pork is a great way to feed a crowd because it does not require much work after it is all put together. This means that I can actually enjoy the party rather than serving food.

I use a pork loin for my pulled pork because it is not as fatty as a pork shoulder. I also cut off all the fat and "white part" which is the skin that gets all chewy. This makes it much easier to shred when it is all cooked rather than searching for the fat when it is all done. I estimate about a 1/4 of a lb per person. So pick a piece that is appropriate for your crowd.

Slice one onion. And peel 4 cloves of garlic.
Take a few pieces of bacon and place them in the pan with the loin. Then brown all sides of your loin on medium heat until golden brown. The bacon helps grease the loin since it doesn't have much fat to cook in.
Place the loin, bacon, sliced onion and garlic into a slow cooker and cover with beef broth or water. If using water then add salt and pepper to taste. Do not over season because we will be adding BBQ sauce later. Cook everything on low for about 6-8 hours. I did mine overnight and it came out perfectly.
This is what it looked like before I shredded everything. It actually ends up being pretty lean even though it was cooked with all of the bacon. I take the pieces out of the liquid and place them into another pan where I can shred the meat.
This is my pork loin before I add the BBQ sauce. I made this the lazy way and squeezed in a bottle of Sweet Baby Rays and some K.C. Masterpiece. I like to mix sauces because I think it tastes better. If there is a sauce that you like to use then add that instead.

Derby Recipes- Pimiento Cheese Spread

2010-05-01T06:54:00.006-05:00

I have been a little behind on the posts the last few days, but I feel like all I have been doing is cooking. I am going to post a few now and then the others later since I do not have the final pictures yet.

Ever since I started going down south, I have fallen in love with pimiento cheese spread. Growing up in the Midwest, I had never heard of this delicious spread. I am embarrassed to say, but I also started subscribing to Southern Living magazine. I am obsessed with it when I go visit, so I figured it was time to get my own subscription.

I found this pimento cheese spread in this month's issue.

Recipe

1 1/2 cups of good mayo

1 4oz jar of diced pimientos, drained

1 tsp. Worcestershire sauce

1 tsp. finely grated onion

15 tsp. ground red pepper

1 cup chopped pecans

8 oz shredded extra sharp Cheddar

8 oz shredded sharp Cheddar

1. In a large bowl stir together the first 5 ingredients until blended.

2. Toast the pecans in a single layer at 350 for 10 min, stirring half way through.

3. The recipe suggest grating your own cheese- given that I was working on 6 other things at the same time, I opted for shredded store bought cheese. I bought 2 bags of cheese and that equalled the 16 oz the recipe called for.

4. Add pecans and shredded cheese to mayo mixture stirring until blended.

This was my Midwestern version :)
I know this does not look like the most appetizing spread because right now it is in a huge bowl, but it will all come together when I set it up with crackers. You can also make paninnis with this, or serve it with veggies. I think using light mayo and light cheese does not ruin the taste of the spread.

Nothing Fit or Foodie About This Dinner

2010-04-30T10:38:00.007-05:00

I have had a MAJOR sweet tooth this week. For the second day this week I had dessert for dinner. Tonight we spent a lot of time cooking things for our Derby Party. One of the things I could pre-make was dessert. So of course after it was done, I dug in. Err.. not very healthy at all, but it was what I wanted.

I changed the recipe from something I found on the Kellogg's website. Below is the original with some tweaks.

3/4 cup	butter, softened
3/4 cup	packed brown sugar
1	egg yolk
1 1/4 cups	all-purpose flour
2 cups	*Kellogg's® Rice Krispies®*cereal , divided
1 bag (14 oz.)	vanilla caramels (about 48)
1 8 oz can	sweetened condensed milk
1 package (12 oz. or 2 cups)	semi-sweet chocolate morsels
1/2 cup	coarsely chopped pecans, toasted

Directions

1. In a large bowl combine butter and brown sugar. Stir in egg yolk. Stir in flour and 1 cup of KELLOGG'S RICE KRISPIES cereal. Spread mixture into 13 x 9 x 2-inch baking pan lined with foil. Bake at 350ºF for 18 to 20 minutes or until light brown.

This is what it should look like after it has come out of the oven. I used parchment paper rather than foil because I find it easier to work with.

2. In a non stick pan combine caramels and condensed milk. Cook, uncovered on low stirring until melted and smooth.

This was the hard part, making sure that the condensed milk did not stick to the pan and that the mix didn't burn.
3. Spread melted caramel atop crust layer. Chill until firm.

4. In a medium bowl place chocolate morsels; cook, uncovered, at medium (50% power) for 2 to 3 minutes, stirring once until melted and smooth. Spread half the chocolate mixture over caramel. Sprinkle with 1 cup of the cereal and pecan pieces. Drizzle remaining melted chocolate evenly over cereal mixture. Let stand until chocolate is set. Cut into 24 rectangles (about 3 X 1 1/2 inches)

I did half peanut butter chips half chocolate chips. And I used half the buts since some people do not like pecans in their desserts. This was pretty easy to put together and I had everything in the house.

Asian Inspired Lunch

2010-04-29T12:10:00.005-05:00

I am on a mission to use up most of the vegetables we bought last week before our party. What better way to do that than with a stir-fry. To the stir fry I added half an onion, a handful of baby portabella mushrooms, 3 little boy choys, spinach and some pea pods. I sauteed all of the veggies in a teaspoon of sesame oil for few minutes and then I added a tablespoon of red curry sauce. I also had a veggie egg roll. This lunch may be lacking in protein so I will see how I feel in a few hours.

Served over half a cup of brown rice.

2010-04-29T12:08:00.004-05:00

Do you ever feel like you are going to die during an exercise class? I went to kickboxing this morning and she kicked our butts. Of course I enjoyed it and will be back from more next week.
My breakfast left me a little hungry this morning, but this is what I had -

About a half a cup of 2% cottage cheese with strawberries and kiwi. Then at around 10:30 I had a peanut butter granola bar from Trader Joes.
I feel like I am having dessert when I eat these- that is probably why they are not very filling.

Bistro 110

2010-04-28T21:56:00.003-05:00

As you can tell I am a little behind on my posts these days. On Wednesday night we went to Bistro 110 for dinner. I am wondering if I should buy any more Groupons. I feel like I am always scrambling to use them before they expire.

At any rate, we went to Bistro 110, 2 days before the expiration date. They had a pretty interesting menu. April is garlic month in France, so they had a garlic inspired menu. I knew I wanted the French Onion Soup for dinner, but I am also a sucker for limited menus.
William got the beer flight to start.
Check out this piece of garlic! It was served with our bread.
I tried the Garlic & Honey drink. It was a white wine martini/sangria. It was interesting, but I am not sure I would get it again.
Sorry for the really dark picture, but the iPhone is not the best for taking pictures in the dark.
This was my French onion soup. I devoured the whole thing. It was perfectly seasoned and I would definitely go back just for the soup.

Overall it was in a tourist location and I am not a fan of really big restaurants that are in the Loop. The food was good for the location, and I may go back for drinks after work or just appetizers.

No Time For Anything

2010-04-28T21:36:00.003-05:00

I feel like the craziness doesn't end. How do people find time to do anything? I am not sure what is happening this week but I am feeling really stressed with my endless list of things to do. Since we went out to dinner last night I had no time to make a balanced lunch, so this was the next best thing.
The Chile Relleno from Trader Joe's is really good. Not that high in calories, but 18 grams of fat! It is not something I can eat every day that is for sure.
Terrible pictures, since everything I did was on the run. Aside from the less than desirable photos, this is actually a really great Chile.

After speeding home from work, I fixed myself an omlette. 1 egg, two egg whites, asparagus, mushrooms a heaping tablespoon of cheese and basil. This was a quick meal that I put together in 5 minutes. I also had a slice of dark rye bread on the side.

Then I was off to get my hair done. After my highlights I went to make some returns, of course half of which I forgot the receipts for.

Something VERY strange happened to me today. As I was walking into the store I was approached by a man asking if I wanted my bumper repainted. (We live in the city so of course there are dings) I mentioned that I had a mechanic and that my other half takes care of all car related issues. I asked for his number and that I would call if I was interested. He said he would do it right then and there and I could pay him if I wanted. I said NO! Do not do anything, I will call you if I decide to get my bumper painted. Long story short, he was still out there when I came out of the store. He tried to get my attention again, but at this point I was a little freaked out. As I get out of my car at Home Depot, I smell paint. He had painted my bumper after all!! I think he used a spray can! As you can imagine I was pretty livid, since I think fixing this may be more expensive since it would have been if I would have just gone to my mechanic. What a night.

Sugar Hang Over

2010-04-28T09:46:00.002-05:00

I can not imagine drinking Starbucks lattes and sweet drinks every day of the week. After dinner last night (which I still have to post) I treated myself to a tall cherry mocha for dessert. Do not get me wrong, it was very good, but after about half the drink I was starting to feel a sugar hang over coming on.
This morning’s work out was long to make up for my splurges from last night. I did the stair climber for 20 min, elliptical for 20 and ran on the treadmill for the remainder of the hour. It felt could to get all that crap out of my body.

This morning for breakfast I had one of the standard items: bagel thin with almond butter and half a banana. I also have a yogurt for mid morning snack.
YUM!! This one was loaded with bananas!

Blogging on the run

2010-04-27T13:14:00.003-05:00

Where has the day gone?
I have been running all over the place today. Well not really but there are so many things going on at work and home that I am having a hard time catching my breath. I have been up since 6 this morning, which I guess is not that unusual except I feel like I have been up for hours.
My work out was really quick today. I was only able to do about 40 minutes of cardio and did not have time for weights.
Breakfast was hot oatmeal with a banana and whey protein. Followed by a Blueberry Greek yogurt at around 11, which I devoured.

Lunch was a turkey sandwich between two slices of rye bread.
I also threw in a few basil leaves and low fat cheese for some added flavor. As a side I had some baby carrots. Sorry for the lack of pictures lately and the really random posts, but I am a little overwhelmed today.

Weekend Breakfast on Monday

2010-04-26T07:12:00.003-05:00

I was really busy at work today so this is the only thing I took a picture of and that is because I ate breakfast before I left the house.
I wanted to use up some of the ricotta so I made an open faced sandwich. I spread some ricotta on the bread and used my egg poachers to make an egg. Sprinkled with salt & pepper.
I love when the eggs are a little runny on the inside!

The rest of the day was pretty uneventful when it comes to eating. For lunch I had a salad with pesto chicken. Then after my afternoon work out I had a granola bar and yogurt. Then a co-worker came up to me and asked me if I like BANANA CREAM PIE! UM YES!!! I guess someone at work had made it and he said it was amazing, so of course I had to give it a try. Since I ate the whole piece, that was my dinner. Nothing like having a sugar coma and a tummy ache at 5pm. I am still on a mission to find a Derby dress. After work I did some more unsuccessful shopping and then came home to clean and pay some bills :(

I am looking forward to my work out tomorrow- it involves no treadmill.

Birthday Cake

2010-04-25T20:59:00.001-05:00

I think by now you know that I get a lot of recipes from epicurious. Including this one for Coconut Cake .

I did make a few substitutions that I think made this recipe easier/better. The recipe calls for fresh coconut. I thought this step was too labor intensive and I bought sweetened shredded coconut. The cake was still wonderful and I think I cut out about half an hour of work.

I also substituted coconut milk for the whole milk listed in the recipe.

Step one was to prep the baking pans. I only had one so I had to keep cleaning and prepping.
I sifted together the dry ingredients like the recipe called for. Then I creamed together the butter and sugar until it was light and fluffy.
I added the dry ingredients to the butter mix, alternating with coconut milk just until blended. Then I beat all the egg whites and folded them into the batter.
I poured the batter into the pan. Since I only had one pan, I weighed out the batter and put 1lb pound of batter in the pan each time I baked.
This is what the cake looked like when it was done. I waited for 5 minutes and did exactly as the recipe said.
I ran a knife along the edges of the pan to release the cake, then I plopped it over on a cutting board. I would advise flipping onto a non stick surface, or directly onto wax paper.

Now onto the frosting... !!!!!
I thought this was very strange since it didn't seem like 3 egg whites were going to make a lot of frosting but check out how much frosting I ended up with.
This picture was taken after I had beat everything together for about 7 minutes.
I continued to beat everything for another 7 minutes until I came out with a thick shiny frosting. It was so pretty.
Now onto frosting the cake. I followed the recipe and alternated between the coconut mix and the regular frosting.
Finished product. It looked really good, which really surprised me since I am not much of a baker.
I topped the cake with the remaining shredded coconut and tried to shave some chocolate on top. That part did not work out so well, and I kind of wish I hadn't but it was too late.
This cake tasted just as good as it looked! I gave some away because I did not want this lingering in the house all week.

Marta Stewart Table Top

2010-04-25T20:57:00.002-05:00

I am kind of weird when it comes to table settings. I get inspired by something and then do the whole table around one thing. This setting was done around the vase I found while shopping for the Derby.

Before I move on to talk about my cake recipe, here is my plate at lunch/dinner.

I actually had William make me a chicken breast with the rib rub for a lighter meal. Everything was really tasty.

The Most Amazing Ribs I Have EVER Had

2010-04-25T20:46:00.007-05:00

This Sticky Balsamic Rib recipe was another recipe I found on epicurious (click to get full recipe)

The ingredients were fairly simple. Garlic, brown sugar, Cayenne pepper, balsamic vinegar and rosemary.
I can not take any credit for this wonderful dish because William made the whole thing. I just took a few pictures along the way. The above is rosemary that he began chopping.
He always follows the recipe exactly like it is written. The above is the rub before he slathered it on the ribs. These are the ribs before they got coated with the rub.
After the ribs are baked, there is another step which requires glazing. Again, this is straight from what is written in epicurious.
This is the final out come. The ribs were really juicy and fell right off the bone. This is definitely a repeat recipe.

The Ultimate Potato Salad

2010-04-25T20:38:00.004-05:00

I am not sure how I feel about potato salad. Sometime I love it and sometimes it grosses me out. That being said I thought a potato salad would go really well with the ribs that we made.

I found this recipe on epicurious (click for full recipe)

I boiled the potatoes and cut them into bite size pieces, altering with rice wine vinegar like the recipe says. I also added in the celery.
I made the mayo mix the night before so that I could cut down on the prep work the day of. I only added in the dill and spices. The other herbs were mixed in a few hours before so that they were fresh. I also cut out some fat by using low fat mayo. I'm guessing you could use some Greek Yogurt as well.

This is the parsley and basil before I chopped everything up.

I mixed in the herbs, mayo and topped everything with the left over parsley.
This was actually a really great salad that was pretty light for the amount of mayo the recipe calls for.

Chorizo Stuffed Bacon Wrapped Dates

2010-04-25T20:07:00.005-05:00

One of my favorite foods in the entire world are the bacon wrapped dates that they serve at Avec in Chicago. Tonight I made my version of these wonderful dates. These are not as good but they come really darn close. I take one link of raw chorizo sausage and make little balls. You should be able to get about 18 out of one link.
Then I saute them in a pan. They are really greasy and the more fat you can cook off the better.
I brown them on all sides before I stuff them into the dates.
I take the Medjool dates (they are larger than your average date) and take the pit out. Then I stuff them with the cooked chorizo.
Avec has a fancy sauce that they put the dates in, but I go the easy route and use Ajvar (an eggplant red pepper mix) and some tomato sauce or diced tomatoes. The taste is pretty similar but not as complicated. I use about a 1 to 1 ratio.
After I stuff the dates I typically wrap them in bacon. The bacon that I happened to have was really thick so I ended up using half a piece per date and then I stuck a tooth pick through the dates to keep everything together.
I baked these at 375 until the bacon was nice and crispy.
I pour some sauce into an oven safe dish and plop the dates right on top. I put everything back in the oven until the sauce begins to bubble, about another 10 minutes.

Happy Birthday Mom!!!

2010-04-25T19:40:00.003-05:00

Saturday night and Sunday morning was literally a cook off! It was my mom's birthday and per usual I always go all out. I am going to start the posts by course, even though this is not the order I made them in .

For starters I made bruschetta with fresh ricotta and bacon wrapped dates.

For the bruschetta you start with FRESH ricotta. This is not the stuff you get at the grocery- it's the stuff you get at the deli. It is creamier than the store bought stuff. For about half a pound of ricotta I mixed in a teaspoon of good olive oil and a tablespoon of half & half to make the mix really creamy.

I toasted some soft crusty bread in the oven at 400 degrees for about 5 minutes to give it some texture. Then I spread the ricotta cheese on the toasts. I also sliced tomatoes VERY thin and placed them on top.
I love truffle oil so I made a few with the oil. (With a slice of mushroom)
I drizzled regular olive oil on the rest.
These little toasts were soft and a perfect appetizer! They reminded me of the ones we had at Inoteca in NYC.

Dr. Pizza

2010-04-24T20:04:00.002-05:00

After having a cook off tonight (I will post recipes later today) the last thing I wanted to do was make dinner. While out, I grabbed a Freschetta FlatBread. However, cheese pizza is so boring.
I decide to doctor up the pizza and make it more appetizing.

I put fresh tomatoes and garlic on one side, and then left over BBQ chicken, cilantro and red onion on the other side. It was like ordering out all for $5!
I am pretty non committal when it comes to pizza toppings so I like to have more than one option. Although tonight I only ate the tomato side because I am not much of a fan of chicken on pizza.

Finished pie- looks like take out right? The flat bread was a good option because it was not as cheesy and thick as a normal pizza.
I also made a huge salad to have on the side.
My plate was half salad and half pizza. This was a really great quick dinner that was much cheaper than ordering out.

Kentucky Derby Shopping

2010-04-24T17:18:00.002-05:00

Breakfast was Dunkin Donuts Coffee and Flat bread. Although I ended up making my own coffee and just ate the flat bread. I am not sure what was going on but the coffee from Dunkin Donuts was really bitter and I wanted nothing to do with it. After breakfast I was off to run errands. I had some returns to make and I also wanted to find a container to store the mint julep mix for our Kentucky Derby party next weekend. This is our second year we are having the party and William has gone crazy. He bought an ice shaving machine and made the julep mix last week so it can sit and blend together.
I felt like I ran all over the city to find a fun dispenser. This one did not make the final cut, but I thought it was kind of unique.
Hexagon? Who knew there were so many choice?
Round? This one was really nice too. I felt like I had too many to choose from.
Maybe just a decanter? I really had no idea what he was looking for so I kept sending him pictures when I came across something. I was all over the place so my lunch was from Panera and I ate it while driving from place to place.
This is what we ended up with. It was perfect because we can write on the bottle and I can also reuse it after the party.

Friday Night In France

2010-04-24T06:51:00.000-05:00

Well not really in France, we just tried a new French Bistro! Rendezvous Bistro just opened about a month ago, it is also BYOB which is an added bonus.

The space was very cute and inviting and the menu was not overly extensive but had the traditional French Cuisine. For appetizers we ordered escargot, mushroom pastry, and foie gras. (Which I do not eat because I don't think it is very humane). The escargot was garlicy and perfectly tender. The mushroom pastry was also very good. Unfortunately I forgot to take pictures before everything was gone.

Rendezvous also had really great bread. I know they always say to pass on the bread, but we were all really hungry and it was was exactly what I needed.
For the main course I ordered flounder with a Hollandaise sauce. The fish was sauteed and served over sweet peppers and roasted potatoes. It was nice and flaky. By now I wasn't all that hungry but I ate the whole thing!
I had them put the Hollandaise on the side so I could dip the fish rather than having in all over. We all really enjoyed this place and will definitely be coming back. Especially for the value. Our dinners were about 30 bucks a person and that was with the tip!

Sushi Friday

2010-04-23T15:39:00.004-05:00

I love sushi Friday. It's a lot of fun getting away from work and eating a healthy lunch. The only problem is that I am usually hungry about 2 hours later and it just causes me to eat more later.

The three of us shared a seaweed salad.
Then we also got an Alaska roll and an Unagi roll.

I think we knew what was coming (hunger) and got a larger roll as well. We took half of it back to the office and I just had some :)
I think that may be the end of sushi Friday for me. I think sushi is a great dinner choice since my appetite is not as bad at night as it is during the work day. I am off to the gym soon so I can enjoy a nice dinner tonight.

Jillian Michaels Kicks My You Know What

2010-04-23T12:04:00.007-05:00

This morning I was VERY ambitious and decided that I would do ALL 3 sections of 30 Day Shred. HAHAHA! After starting out at level 3 I quit after the first section. Jillian is tough! Really tough. She makes me want to crawl on the floor after a work out.

Instead I enjoyed a relaxing morning before heading to work. I was hungry before I left the house so I ate a yogurt. Then I made some chocolate cherry oatmeal for my snack.

There are some benefits to living with men- one of which happens to be having random flavors of whey protein in the house. We had some chocolate on hand so I used half a scoop in my oatmeal.
I also added some dried cherries. Chocolate Cherry Oatmeal!! This was so good and I am still really full. I will have to experiment with other combinations next week.

Great Company TERRIBLE Service

2010-04-22T20:24:00.003-05:00

My dear friend is leaving her current job and moving on. Today I joined her and some of her co- workers for a few drinks after work. We went to the Wit Hotel for some drinks and small bites. I had a great time tonight, but the service was atrocious!!! The server was around... um... NEVER, and she kept messing up drink orders. If I didn't like my company I would have left much sooner.I had 2 glasses of wine and decided to pass on the third after our server was MIA for half an hour. We snacked on some fries with ketchup and garlic aioli.
As well as flat breads with shrimp. The food was oh-kay. It may have been because everything arrived cold.
My plate + 5 fries :). I think this place would be great for a happy hour- assuming you could get served. I would pass on the food next time and head somewhere else. I guess people do not come here for the food or drinks, but more for people watching and the atmosphere.

Lunch Upgrade

2010-04-22T14:14:00.000-05:00

I am really embracing this eat what I really want concept. I brought a salad for lunch and was just not in the mood. I went out AGAIN trying to find the perfect Kentucky Derby hat. And I think today I may have found THE ONE! On the way back to the office I went to Potbelly for a sandwich. I ordered the ham on the skinny bread (same amount of protein & less carbs) I ordered it will no cheese but of course people don't always listen.. I wasn't going to complain and just took the sandwich as is. Does anyone ever pick one place over another because the nutritional content is listed?
The sandwich was not that big for the calories, but it was what I "wanted".
I also added lettuce, tomato, pickles and mustard. It was pretty good for about 3 hours until I was hungry again :(

As a snack I enjoyed an apple and a piece of low fat string cheese. This was a well balanced snack.

Thursday is Alternative Work Out Day

2010-04-22T08:46:00.004-05:00

I really need to diversify my work out schedule. Earlier this week I decided that I will only be able to run 2 days during the week and then both days or at least one day on the weekend. I do not want to burn myself out or get injured. Today I tried kick boxing again. I love the class and it's a really fun work out that works on all kinds of muscles all at once. Then after kick boxing I did a quick abs class. It feels so nice to be done and it's only 9 am!

Breakfast

Breakfast & snack are 1 granola bar, and a cup of cottage cheese with strawberries. Since I am used to eating 2 times before lunch, I am going to break this out between 1 meal and a snack.

Tom Kha Phak

2010-04-21T20:11:00.001-05:00

I went on a little shopping adventure after work today, so by the time I got home I was ravenous. No time to make a dinner. I opened up a can of Amy's soup.
This was a little on the high fat side, but it DID have coconut milk which is now a diet staple so I did not feel as bad.

One serving wasn't going to cut it so I ate the whole can! Also high on sodium, but like I said- STARVING. Not sure if I would buy this again, the flavor was nice, but for the calories it wasn't very filling. 2 hours later I had some turkey lunch meat.

Protein Packed Lunch

2010-04-21T13:30:00.002-05:00

For Lunch I had left over meat loaf from last night's dinner. It was not a very exciting lunch, but it kept me full for most of the afternoon.

I also had some veggies on the side, followed by a low fat string cheese at around 4pm.

I feel much more satisfied when I eat a protein based lunch as opposed to a carbohydrate filled one. I wasn't nearly as hungry today as usual, even though I ran 6 miles this morning.

One Bowl Meat Loaf

2010-04-20T19:40:00.003-05:00

This is the easiest and best meatloaf recipe that I make. It takes one bowl (easy clean up) and about 1 hour and 5 minutes to make- this includes cooking time. I have made this the day before and then just warmed it up when I am ready to eat.
One bowl Mexican Meat Loaf (pre heat oven to 350- spray pan with cooking spray)

1 lb of ground beef- you can use 5-15% fat depending on how healthy you want to be
1 cup of quick oats
1 large egg
1 cup of salsa verde or enchilada sauce
1/2 cup diced onions or green peppers
Dash of cumin, dash of chili powder & salt and pepper to taste

Mix it all up, place it into a 3x9 pan or whatever rectangular pan you have and bake for 1 hour.

I had this for dinner with a sweet potato and some spinach.
I warmed it up on a saute pan, then put the spinach directly over the meatloaf to cook.

No... Really I LOVE salad

2010-04-20T14:41:00.000-05:00

This is my 3rd salad in the last 24 hours! I had a great idea for some canned chicken that we bought. So I decided to make ANOTHER salad.I mixed 2 cans of chicken and 1/4 cup of prepared pesto. I mixed lightly so that the chicken would stay intact rather than having a shredded consistency. I topped a salad with this protein packed concoction. I dressed this with some red wine vinegar, salt and pepper.

My salad had:

Romaine
Artichoke hearts
Hearts of palm
Capers
Roasted red peppers
Spicy peppers

MIA

2010-04-20T08:44:00.004-05:00

I have been MIA the last two days and have some catching up to do. Before I post my meals from Monday and the rest of Sunday I'm just going to start with today and as I get some time I will work backwards.

I think I have decided on a work out schedule that will keep my entertained yet challenged. Today I did 20 min on the stair climber one day of 5 Factor Workouts and 20 some min on the elliptical. (2 miles)

Breakfast is the usual Bagel thin with peanut butter and half a banana, followed by a yogurt around 11.
YUM! loaded with banana and then nuked for 30 seconds so the peanut butter is nice and melted.

I Love Salad

2010-04-19T12:58:00.001-05:00

I really do love salad! We were low on groceries today so I packed some shredded chicken and then bought the rest at the cafeteria at work.
This one had romaine, zucchini, yellow squash, tomatoes, peppers and garbanzo beans. Very filling! In fact I didn't even need an after noon snack which is very odd for me. I think this eating filling foods kick is really working?

The Most AMAZING Oatmeal

2010-04-19T09:52:00.000-05:00

Breakfast

I had the most amazing oatmeal this morning. It was packed with everything under the sun, but very filling.

1/2 cup oats
1/4 cup canned pumpkin
1 scoop whey protein
1 tsp coconut oil
1 tbsp flax seed meal

I added water and nuked everything for 3 min. You need to watch the oatmeal since it can overflow (explode) easily.

I have been reading about the benefits of coconut oil and will try to incorporate it into my diet when I can.

Go Cubbies!

2010-04-18T22:19:00.000-05:00

Not the best day of eating, or drinking for that matter, but it was so much fun and totally worth it!

I got a really great deal on Groupon for 1/2 off tickets to a rooftop. All of the foods and drinks are included. After a couple of beers I had a nice dry burger (the food is just decent)
I decarbed the burger by only eating about 1/4- 1/3 the bun.
Then I followed it up with a few bites of this ice cream. Again, not really treadmill worthy.
After a LONG day of drinking and "watching" the game we came home and got some Thai food from Siam Thai. I had forgot all about this place and how much I love it!
Then I had a plate with some Panang Curry and fried rice. All very healthy for me :) Tomorrow is a new day and I had a great time at the game. I think everyone deserves to splurge every once in a while!

Sunday Fun Day!

2010-04-18T10:09:00.000-05:00

Breakfast
I picked up these little egg poachers at the hardware (out of all places) store yesterday, so I decided to try them out. They are so easy to use. You boil about two inches of water, then you break the egg into the poaching cup. You set them on top of the water and cover with a lid so they can steam. After about 4 min you take them out.
I also toasted some bread on the grill pan. A touch of olive oil on each side.
Check out these perfect little eggs. I think I over did them because I cooked them passed 4 minutes because they looked runny when they were actually cooked.
Flipped them onto the crispy toasts for a filling breakfast.
Sprinkled with chives and Parmesan! I would definitely make these again. So quick and easy.

7 miles and Dinner Out

2010-04-18T00:33:00.000-05:00

Not sure what happened but I went out for a run and I just kept going and going. I came home and mapped my run and I had run 7 miles! It's been a LONG time since I've run that long. I love running but its always around 3 to 4 miles.

I wasn't really that hungry after licking the utensils from making the raw almond balls so I snacked on a piece of bread and a slice of cheese then waited to eat dinner.

For dinner we went to Ceres Table . The food was amazing but I encountered a very strange situation at the bar. I ordered a cocktail and wanted to sub out the gin for vodka and the bar tender wouldn't do it? Really? I thought that was the strangest thing since I was the one who was going to drink it.

Anywho.. for dinner we ordered some arancini (rice balls) and ravioli as an appetizer, then for the main course I split a steak with my friend.

This was the mushroom salad with arugula and pecorino cheese. We ordered one for the table and they split it all out for us.
This was my amazing steak! Cooked perfectly.

We also had some dessert for the table. I liked the food but not sure how I feel about the place after my bar encounter?

Snack & Raw Food

2010-04-17T14:28:00.005-05:00

Since I was focused on cleaning today I did not want to deal with putting together a lunch. I defrosted some bread, but chose to eat yogurt instead.
I mixed some Oikos Greek yogurt with half an apple, Agave nectar, cinnamon and a spoon full of almond butter. This was so satisfying.

Raw Food

Not sure how I feel about the raw food diet? Is it a phase or is it really better for you? Raw or not, I am in love with this quick dessert.

Raw Peanut Butter Balls

1 cup almonds

1/2 cup raw almond butter

1/4 cup raw honey

1/4 cup + 3 Tbsp Agave nectar

1 Tbsp vanilla

1 tsp sea salt

*if you are not concerned with everything being raw you can use regular almond butter.

Put the almonds in a food processor and blend until coarsely ground.
Add in all other ingredients and blend well.
This is what it should look like when everything is mixed in. After this is all combined, take out the attachment and put this in the freezer for half an hour. Freezing the mix makes it easier to work with. Then roll into 12 balls and keep in the freezer. These are definitely not low cal, but I don't feel bad having one.

Dutch Pancakes

2010-04-17T14:15:00.004-05:00

Dinner was left over chicken schwarma and the salads had soaked through the laffa. There wasn't anything pretty to post.

Breakfast

I have mixed feelings about weekend breakfast/brunch. Weekend mornings are my favorite part of the week so I like to wake up early and make something for breakfast that I would not eat during the week. I also have a HARD time waiting more than 10 minutes after waking up to have a cup of coffee. So waiting around for people to get ready or places to open is not something I can usually deal with. However, this morning we both got up early and headed to Pannenkoeken to try the dutch pancakes. These are much thinner but bigger than an American pancake. They come with either sweet or salty toppings.

I had one with sliced apples and ginger jelly. It was awesome. Light and fluffy.

I also had some sausage on the side. Needless to say I was a part of the clean plate club this morning. This was a nice base for running errands and dewinterizing my closet today.

Gut Check II

2010-04-16T12:49:00.004-05:00

My strategy for today was to eat what sounded good instead of empty calories like yesterday. So for lunch I went to BenjYehuda. I like to think of this place as the Mediterranean version of Chipotle. You can pick from falafel, chicken schwarma or steak. Then you can get it in a pita, in a laffa, or in a box (over romaine or rice). The possibilities of toppings are endless. They have a bunch of salads and sauces to choose from and the food is pretty healthy. I had chicken schwarma in a laffa with basically everything. I saved the other half for later.

I met William there for lunch and he had a steak box.

They put all of the toppings off to the side so you can grab a bit of everything with each bite.

Gut Check

2010-04-16T09:07:00.003-05:00

After beating myself up over all of the empty calories I ate yesterday I woke up feeling like a new woman. I have decided that rather than eating what fills me up, sometimes I look for things that are lower in calories or quick snacks that are around rather than waiting to eat a meal. After consuming a bunch of snacks I cumulatively end up eating the amount of calories in a piece of pizza. (which I would of rather had than granola bars, gold fish and peanut butter) For breakfast I had an egg sandwich (1 egg and 1 egg white) with some low fat cheese on a bagel thin. I am hoping that this will be more filling than my two tiered breakfast of oatmeal, followed by a yogurt. Only time will tell if this actually work.

Disappointment & Stress/Boredom Eating

2010-04-15T18:54:00.002-05:00

I have noticed myself snacking much more at work due to boredom. Don't get me wrong, I have plenty to do all day, but I find myself thinking about food every few hours even though I am not hungry. I decided to eat the granola bar AFTER ALL.. and some peanut butter too.Then at around 4:30 I got some more work to do, and I got flustered and reached for a bag of goldfish that I had in my drawer. Am I snacking because it's there? Or am I stressed/hungry? I am thinking of bringing all of my snacks home so that I am not opening my desk drawer all day and eating a bunch of carbs. Needless to say I am no longer hungry for dinner, and disappointed in my poor food choices today.

Thirty Olive Lunch

2010-04-15T11:38:00.006-05:00

It's been one of those days that I have been all over the place with what I want to eat. I brought half a sandwich and some soup, but of course was in the mood for a salad. I headed over to Cafecito to grab my favorite chopped salad.

This salad is a total bang for you buck. Its loaded with garbanzo beans, hearts of palm, corn, chicken, red peppers and OLIVES. As I ate the salad I noticed there was a rediculous amount of black olives in this thing! So of course I got curious and started counting...

There were 30!!!! olives in my salad. I set these babies aside and ate the rest of my salad.

Before lunch I came across a really great article about diets, body type etc on www.time.com click on this link for the article. Time Article. Basically it discusses the different types of "diets" and who benefits most from the different kind- Atkins vs. Low fat. I would not consider myself apple shaped, but the apple shaped people on a lower carb diet did not gain the weight back after they went off the low glycemic diet. I think this is pretty true as some of my friends fall under this category.

Decisions Decisions

2010-04-15T09:05:00.005-05:00

I am really getting into the swing of things. Aside from hitting the alarm this morning waking up early has been like clock work all week. It's so nice to be done with my work out before 9am.

This morning I did a ten minute warm up on the stair climber, then one day of weight training from 5 Factor Workout followed by a 3 mile run. I get bored if I do not play games on the treadmill so I started out at a 6.0 speed and increased by .1 every three minutes.

First off let me just remind everyone that Starbucks is giving away a FREE cup of coffee if you bring in your own cup. That being said...

Breakfast
I have come to understand that if I eat something that I am not in the mood for I end up making poor food choices the rest of the day because I am not satisfied. After my work out I was torn between the usual - Oatmeal Complete

or a Crunchy granola bar with yogurt.
They both had similar nutritional value, although the oatmeal was lower in fat. After debating this for a few minutes, I went with the standard.

Oatmeal complete with half a banana. I think I made the right choice, this is always a satisfying breakfast.

For my mid morning snack I had a yogurt with the rest of my banana. I don't even think I was hungry but my body is so programmed to eating again before lunch.

Great Dinner with Friends

2010-04-14T22:03:00.003-05:00

Tonight I went to Athenian Room with some close friends. They do not have an extensive menu but thier food is always fresh and delicious.
For dinner I got a Greek salad with a chicken kabob. It comes with a HUGE piece of feta that we all shared. I also ate a few fries :)
Not sure what is going on with my sweet tooth these days. I love having dessert. This is kind of a new habit for me since I used to be a salty snacker. When I came home I had one Oreo soaked in milk.

Pathetic Eating Day

2010-04-13T19:31:00.003-05:00

It's not often that I reach for a Lean Cuisine and call it a meal. Today was one of those days. I was pretty busy in the office. I didn't make it to the gym in the morning, so I had to go at lunch.

Breakfast

Breakfast part I was Oatmeal Complete from Trader Joe's and ANOTHER cup of coffee. I already had one before I left the house.

Breakfast Part II was 2 kiwis, half a banana covered with Siggi's yogurt and a tablespoon of flax seed meal. I really love Siggi's, it is so thick!

Lunch

I went for a work out at lunch today, and all I could think of while on the treadmill was PIZZA! I still had one in the office fridge from a while ago, so I nuked a Lean Cuisine 4 cheese pizza. This isn't the best pizza, but it's decent for you and it was quick since I had a ton of work to do today.

Kind of gross looking really. I didn't even have time to cut it so I picked up the whole thing and just took bites. It was one of those crazy days and I just didn't have much time.

Dinner

For dinner I had some edamame and an egg roll. I had baked two the night before so I just ate it cold at the office before I left. Really lame eating day today, but it was the best I could do. I have already prepped my meals for tomorrow, so hopefully my diet will be a little more balanced.

Lazy Dinner

2010-04-12T18:54:00.003-05:00

I did not eat the spinach from Lunch Part II, so I made an asian veggie stir fry.
I added frozen broccoli, yellow pepper, red onion, spinach, fresh ginger and some sriracha. It was one spicy dish!
I over cooked the veggies because I was waiting for my egg roll to cook. This egg roll is actually not that bad for you, only 120 calories! I also had half a Skinny Cow ice cream sandwich.

Portion Control

2010-04-12T14:11:00.003-05:00

I feel like sometimes when you are telling yourself you are going to cut back everything seems more tempting and you end up over eating. After a pretty balanced weekend I did not come to work feeling tired or hungry which is has been the case the last few Mondays. This weekend I thought about smaller portions during the week since I was snacking so much last week. Lunch Part 1 was a can of tuna with carrots, celery, capers and plain yogurt. I also had a piece of rye bread.

The weather is not the best today, but that did not stop me from wanting ice cream. I went on a walk at lunch and on the way back I got one scoop of yogurt with strawberries and banana puree. I had a few bites and put the rest in the freezer! This was a perfect little snack, and since I am not going in with the cutting back mentality this week, I am sure I will have a better diet than last week.

Lunch Part II

I made a salad with spinach, artichoke hearts, beets and some feta. I ended up eating all of the veggies and left the spinach. I was just not in the mood for it.

I Have Not Had A Monday Like This In a While

2010-04-12T09:21:00.004-05:00

I actually woke up energized and ready for the week ahead. This past weekend was the first weekend in a while that we were not out of town or over booked with things to do. I worked out both Saturday and Sunday, however, the dog was not very cooperative yesterday. I also had a great work out this morning!

Breakfast
Like I mentioned yesterday, I am over Dannon, so I headed to Wholefoods to try out some Oikos. I also had a bagel thin with peanut butter and half a banana. This was a great breakfast! the bagel thin has 110 calories, and 5 grams of fiber! I will have the yogurt in a few hours.

What a Relaxing Sunday!

2010-04-11T19:59:00.000-05:00

I haven't had a do nothing kind of Sunday in a long time. Today we went to Evanston. We had lunch at the Fireside Grill and then walked around the downtown area.

I had a salad with chicken, avocado, tomatoes, and some cheese. I dipped my chicken in the avocado dressing that came with.
William got a burger, I snagged a few fries and had a bite of his cheeseburger.

After lunch we walked around and then went to the Whole Foods. We bought some root vegetables and chicken breast.

I chopped up the veggies (rutabaga, acorn squash, sweet potatoes, celery and onions) then tossed the veggies with olive oil, salt, pepper and thyme.

I baked these for way too long, but they should have gone in the oven for 30 min at 350.

In the meantime William worked on the chicken.

Roasted Chicken with Mustard Crust (adopted from Jacques Pepin recipe)

2 tablespoons chopped garlic
2 tablespoons Dijon mustard
2 tablespoons dry white wine
1 tablespoon soy sauce
2 tablespoons olive oil
1 teaspoon Tabasco hot pepper sauce
1 teaspoon herbes de Provence
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 chicken (about 3 1/2 pounds) or 4 chicken breast bone in, with skin

The recipe called for a whole chicken, but I only like white meat so we bought two chicken breasts. Try to buy the chicken with the skin still on, it makes it easier to cook without drying it out.
Preheat the oven to 450 degrees. Mix all of the ingredients in a small bowl. Place the chicken on a flat surface skin side down, rub the marinade on top of the chicken.
Heat small amount of grape seed oil (or other oil that can withstand high temps) in an oven safe pan. Put chicken skin side up in the pan. Rub the rest of the marinade on the chicken and cook on high heat for 5 minutes, then place the skillet in the oven for about 30 minutes.

This was my plate. Definitely a repeat recipe. It was nice and juicy. I don't eat the skin off the chicken, so the dog was very happy.
Dessert was some low fat ice cream with an Oreo.

Eggs in a Hole

2010-04-11T10:35:00.003-05:00

There are so many ways to make eggs. I had never heard of eggs in a hole until we went to a fancy diner in Sonoma, CA. I have wanted to make them ever since.
I took a piece of rye bread and used a measuring cup as my guide for the hole.
I cut around the measuring cup, for a perfect circle.
I put a little bit of olive oil, (or butter) in a saute pan. DO NOT USE Pam. I did this a few days ago and now my All Clad has a sticky coating on it. Break the egg directly into the hole.
Flip the egg when it is almost done and you have yourself one messy piece of toast.
One egg wasn't cutting it so I made another, sunny side up. There is a little trick to making the perfect eggs. I add a tablespoon of water to the pan and cover the egg. The steam cooks the egg and you don't have to flip it.