Mary – Page 22 – Fervent Foodie

Chicken Larb

May 23, 2011 6 Comments

Reasons why you should never judge a recipe by its cover.. err title:

Chicken Larb!

Say whaaaaa? What the crap is “larb”? Google tells me “larb” is a type of meat salad. Good to know, Google. Good to know.

Had I known this fun fact, I might not have hesitated to clip the recipe for “Chicken Larb” out of one of my issues of Cooking Light. But lucky for my belly, I looked past the gag-reflex-prompting title and filed this puppy away in my big black book.

I tweaked the recipe slightly and scaled it down to one delicious serving. First up, toss the following in a food processor:

4 ounces chicken breast
2 tsp red curry paste
1/8 tsp salt
1/4 tsp minced garlic
sprinkle of black pepper

Give it a quick buzz in the food processor, and you’ll end up with this crazy orange colored ground chicken:

I’m still amazed that I can make my own ground meat at home. It’s the little things, I guess!

Saute the chicken in a pan coated with nonstick spray over medium heat. I occasionally added a tbsp of water to the pan to help moisten things up.

Meanwhile, combine the following:

1/2 cup diced cucumber
1 tbsp chopped cilantro
1 tbsp minced shallot
The juice of 1/4 of a lime

Thing of beauty:

Once the chicken is cooked through, combine the chicken with the cucumber mixture and then spoon onto romaine lettuce leaves, and juice a quarter lime over top:

Looks crazy good, am I right? I had a big serving of roasted broccoli on the side:

This was super tasty and SUPER healthful. I decided mid-meal to grab a tablespoon or so of fat-free plan Greek Yogurt to dollop on top. It really was the icing on the larb 😉

This was my first time using red curry paste, and the paste along with the cilantro really made for a tasty combo.

There’s a recipe on the back of the paste bottle for Red Curry Shrimp. I need to try that STAT!

Roasted broccoli Smile

A delicious dinner enjoyed on my newly assembled patio furniture:

It’s nice to have a little helper. Or a 6’4” helper… either way Smile

Stats on the Chicken Larb + 1.5 cups broccolee broccolye brocco-lee-hee: 221 calories, 19g carbs, 1g fat, 27g protein, 4g fiber

I can’t believe how outrageously low cal yet still tasty that meal was – next time I may beef it up with some beans or avocado.

Soooooo did you catch the broccoli reference?!?! PLEASE take 4 minutes and watch this. You won’t regret it. And as an added bonus you will now know the song I sing to myself every time I chop up broccoli Laughing out loud

What I ate

Waffles in mah belly

May 21, 2011 2 Comments

I woke up bright and early this lovely Saturday morning to head to Day #4 of Body Pump. Apparently, sometime between Thursday and today the Y got new weights, which are LB weights as opposed to kilograms… Needless to say, I was thrown off by this ABSOLUTELY INSANE change, but I managed through the class Smile

When I got home I wanted something a little special for breakfast. Something delicious but balanced…

After some foraging in the kitchen, here’s what I came up with:

That’s

2 Eggo Light Whole Grain Waffles
1/2 cup Trader Joe’s vanilla fat free Greek yogurt
3 sliced up strawberries
1/4 cup of blueberries
2 tbsp Smuckers Sugar Free Syrup

And that, my friends, was a whole heck of a lot of deliciousness.

This may be my new Saturday staple Smile

Mmmmmmmm…

Stats on breakfast: 286 calories, 54g carbs, 3g fat, 14g protein, 5g fiber

What’s on the agenda today? I’ll be running some errands, hopefully grabbing a tasty lunch, then spending some quality time with the condo *hopefully* making a dent in the pile of boxes I now call home Smile

Fitness, Ramblings

Beef Cake Mary–part 2

May 20, 2011 11 Comments

Lucky for me the BF doesn’t read this blog. If he did, he’d catch one of the RARE instances of me admitting to be wrong. One of the far and few between moments where my big brains did not perform to their maximum outrageously high potential. Lucky for me, this little admittance will stay between you and me Smile

Last post, I admitted that there might just be a little something to this whole weightlifting thing. Perhaps.

Of course I did some (extensive) research. Hello, have we met?! And apparently it’s not just about WHAT you eat that’s key, but the combination of foods you eat.

Way back last year I revamped my workweek meal plan to include lots of healthy and nutritious meals. Step in the right direction? Check. The combination of foods in these meals, however, never crossed my mind. I had a really good plan based on ZERO exercise. So if work got insane, at least I was eating healthy. And if I did exercise I got to eat more. (more=better, am I right?!)

My anal teensy bit neurotic self likes to keep track of everything I eat (I use myfitnesspal.com). This means I have TONS of data of the foods I’ve consumed over the past year. When I sat down and started analyzing all this information I realized something. Something kinda big actually. I was doing such a great job of eating healthy during the workweek (weekends are another story), but those days that I did exercise I filled those extra calories “earned” with the junk that I’d worked so hard to get out of my diet. If I ran on the treadmill I earned a cookie or two or a big bowl a cereal before bed. None of these are “bad” things, but if you think about it I was forcing my body to work overtime so that I could refuel it with crap. No wonder I have been feeling so weak. Busting your butt exercising results in your body needing FUEL. Not cookies or chocolate or Peanut Butter Puffins, but rather lean proteins and slow digesting carbohydrates.

Lean protein and slow digesting carbohydrates… that doesn’t sound nearly as tasty Sad smile

So my new project at hand is tweaking my meals to focus on the pairing of foods and the quality of “fuel” for my body. All without sacrificing the level of tastiness my mature pallate demands 😉 The other issue to take into consideration is that I get super bored eating the same things day after day. So my lunches and dinner NEED TO be especially varied.

For those who are interested, here’s what I’ve come up with so far. No, I’m not a nutritionist or any sort of dr. This is meant to be a rough guide to help me make smarter choices throughout the day—not a rigid list of requirements.

Granted this is Week #1, so I foresee lots of adjustments to come. Suggestions are WELCOME!

Pre-workout (EARLY am)

1 slice Trader Joe’s 7 grain Sprouted Bread (protein & slow digesting carb)
2 tsp Smucker’s Organic Natural Peanut Butter (protein & healthy fat)

Breakfast #1 (post workout)

1 whole egg (protein & healthy fat)
3 egg whites (protein)
1/2 cup strawberries (fast digesting carb)

Breakfast #2 (mid-morning)

Overnight Oats (1/2 cup oats, 1/2 cup almond milk, cinnamon, 1 tsp brown sugar) (good carbs)
1/3 cup Greek Style nonfat plain yogurt (protein)

Lunch

Flexible, but frequent large salads with protein (chicken, tuna, shrimp, etc) (protein and lots o healthy veg)
2 tbsp cheese (fat/protein)
1/4 beans (good for ya carbs)
Small piece of dark chocolate (mandatory for mental health)

Afternoon Snack

1 apple (carb)
~~Small protein shake (protein)~~ Bleghhhhhh… I tried. I promise I tried. I just can’t stomach protein shakes. I’m still seeking a good protein to pair with the apple…

Dinner

Flexible. Focus on protein, veggies GALORE, and minimal processed carbs.

Late night snack

Cottage cheese Strike that… cottage cheese is absolutely disgusting. It literally made me nauseous the first night. Dry heaving commenced. So I cut it out IMMEDIATELY. For now I’ve replaced it with 1/2 cup fat free plain Greek yogurt (protein)
2 tbsp nuts (healthy fat)

I’m really interested to see how my body reacts to these slight changes in diet over the next couple of weeks. I’m also really interested to see if alternating Body Pump days with cardio days will hold my easily bored self.

We shall see……………

Fitness, Ramblings

Beef Cake Mary

May 17, 2011 6 Comments

I’ve NEVER been into weightlifting. I’ve tried. I’ve researched. I’ve made spreadsheets. I even made a fancy pants powerpoint slideshow. To date, each of these tactics has failed. I just can’t get into it. I admit (somewhat shamefully) to the list of reasons why I thought I hated the idea of weightlifting:

1.) I (thought) I’d burn more calories doing cardio

2.) I didn’t want to get big and beefy cakey or she-manish

3.) It’s boring

4.) I don’t understand it

5.) If I don’t see results or some sort of numerical indicator of my success (i.e., miles ran, lbs lost), then it’s clearly not worth my time.

On and on.

Despite this apparent disdain for weightlifting, I HATE how weak my body is. I have internal anguish every time I have to ask for help carrying, lifting, opening, hauling etc. I’m a strong independent women, so why can’t I carry a 75 pound entertainment center by myself? Why can’t I open this friggin jar of banana peppers? Who says I can’t rotate a queen size mattress by myself? My baby muscles, that’s who.

For months I’ve been hearing about Body Pump. Body Pump is an full-body strength training class that utilizes a bar bell and “rockin music” … It sounded interesting, but my gut told me it wouldn’t hold my interest. When I finally got my YMCA membership lined up, I felt like the pass was burning a hole in my pocket. I HAD to try Body Pump. STAT.

This past Saturday was my very first class. I was pretty apprehensive, but I went in there and gave it my all (as shockingly little as that was). As I left class, I felt pretty excited. It went by crazy fast and it was definitely challenging. Two steps into my exit I realized my legs were not quite so excited. I was literally week in the knees. I had to physically concentrate on stabilizing myself so that they didn’t give out from under me!

When I got home, I jumped in the shower and quickly realized washing my hair was extremely difficult. It took everything I had to lift my arms high enough to touch the top of my head… And all I had, whelp, it wasn’t enough. I actually had to scrunch my head down to meet my hands half way. Later, I realized sitting was difficult. As in sitting in a chair, sitting on the toilet… actually anything that involved any sort of movement was difficult… borderline impossible actually.

The next morning I went shopping, and actually went home EARLY because my arms were too tired to carry bags. WHAT?!?!?

Holy hell I was sore.

This much SORE must mean I did something right. Maybe there is something to this weightlifting thing after all…

to be continued….

What I ate

Friday Night Kabobs

May 13, 2011 3 Comments

While talking to my sister on the phone tonight I came to an odd realization. Even though I have gobs more free time (compared to a month or two ago), I feel as if I have no time to myself. What the heck have I been doing with all my free time? Your guess is as good as mine my friends! I guess I’m still getting acclimated to the big move. My brain must need some serious veg time.

Speaking of a serious amount of veg, tonight I cooked up some chicken and veggie kabobs on the BF’s outdoor George Foreman grill:

SO DELICIOUS!

I used a McCormick’s Peppercorn Garlic marinade packet on the chicken, and it was terrific! Kudos to you McCormick!

I’ve been debating on whether to get an outdoor grill like the BF’s outdoor George Foreman Grill. OR get the GRIDDLER that I’ve been pining over for nearly a year.

George Foreman Outdoor Grille: