Chicken and brown rice

Day two of healthier dinners for me and my family.  I am feeling pretty good today. I have not ingested a single "food-like" substance, white sugar or white flour thing so far.  It has taken some serious will power the later in the day it gets because I find myself craving the empty calories of soda and candy.

On a serious note, it has been discovered my husband has diverticulosis.  I am going to have to watch this man's diet a little closer and one of the first things we are going to eliminate is corn. That is kind of sad but kind of not. I reckon I will have it on special occasions but it is empty calories anyway so it is the first item to go!

Tonight is baked chicken.  I have skinless, boneless chicken breast with some Mrs. Dash table blend sprinkled on it in the oven baking.  As I am staying away from white stuff, brown rice is cooking on the stove.  This is a little bit of a problem for me as I have never really liked brown rice.  I am hoping that I will like it better now. It has been about 10 years since I tried it last.  I never realized how much of my eating involved chemicals and process.  Now don't go thinking I have jumped on the band wagon. I highly doubt I will ever give it all up for good. But for right now, it is time to get a lot healthier. I am a 47 year old, overweight woman who has a family history of diabetes and heart disease.  It's time to get real.

Tonight I actually made dinner without any butter.  Yes. I did.  NO BUTTER.  I have discovered something important.  First, I like my green beans just as they are.  I did not miss the butter I usually put on them.  Second, olive oil is a good substitute for butter.  I used olive oil to saute my veggies in and I also added a little bit of oil to the brown rice in lieu of butter.  It was pretty successful overall.

All things being equal, I would really love a nice fat piece of cake or a big bowl of ice cream right now.  I know it is going to take time to get things the healthy way.  I won't always deprive myself of these things, but for now, I will be okay.

Now it is time to go take a walk as I only have 6085 steps on my pedometer and I would really like to hit 10,000 before bedtime.

A Healthier approach....

I just spent a week in Kansas City training for my new job. Since I was staying at a hotel, I ate out everyday for lunch and dinner. There is nothing like KC bar-b-que! It was wonderful. By the end of the week, however, I was very tired of pork and beef! I was also not happy with myself and my size. I have gained a bit of weight back over the last year and it is not good.  Three of the nights in KC I spent pacing the floor trying to figure out if I had really bad heartburn or did I need to go to the hospital with chest pains.  Enough is enough.  Time for a new plan. One that I can live with and stick to. Tonight's dinner was the very beginning of that plan.

Tonight's dinner was oven-baked tilapia with roasted broccoli, scalloped potatoes and green apple slices. After consulting friends on Facebook, I put my tilapia in the oven with smashed and chopped garlic, a sprinkle of basil, sea salt and freshly ground pepper, a slice of tomato and a drizzle of olive oil.  While that  baked, I chopped some more garlic and put it on a baking tray with some fresh broccoli cut up and more olive oil.  The broccoli roasted while the fish baked.  Paulina made scalloped potatoes and I sliced some apple and tossed it with a little lemon juice so that it did not turn brown.

The tilapia was very moist and I liked the tomato and basil although the Italian in me was craving some cheese or something on it! Crazy huh?  I loved the broccoli.  I had just bought it fresh today at the Farmer's Market.  It was so good! The little bits of sliced apple were a wonderful palate cleanser and I even drank water instead of kool-aide!

I am off now to take a walk!

Luscious Lemon Bars

Tonight I am making some cookies for my family. I have to be out of town for a few days so I wanted to leave something sweet behind.  I recently re-discovered a cookbook I forgot about called "Grandma's Old-Fashioned Cookies" by Favorite Brand Name (Publications International, Ltd. 1996).

It is an amazingly simple recipe that does NOT require graham crackers.  Of all the baking ingredients I keep handy around the house, I never have graham crackers! The crust is simple and light and only consists of sugar, flour, butter and lemon zest.  It is baking in the oven right now and when the 15 minutes are up I will be pouring over the filling.

Here is a picture of the crust.  And here is what it looks like when I poured the filling over top of it:

It is now in the oven, all warm and cozy and baking away!  I can't wait for it to be finished.  The filling is a wonderful mixture of eggs (four of them!), sugar, lemon zest and a touch of vanilla.  Shoot me a message if you would like the recipe as I am not sure I can post it online because of copyright but I will be happy to email you!

As soon as this is out of the oven I suppose I should hit the hay and go to bed as I have a very long flight tomorrow! Goodnight all! Don't forget to be thankful for EVERYTHING, no matter what!

Hamburger Sliders

Today's challenge was to make something for dinner without spending more than $15 at the grocery store. I was inspired by watching Melissa d'Arabian's show on Food Network this morning called "Ten Dollar Dinners".

I went to the FN website and explored many of her recipes and decided on this one:

Beef and Black Bean Sliders

I had the ground chuck (poor Chuck!) in the freezer so I was already a few dollars up on my budget!  I went to the store and purchased some Bush's Black Beans in a can, a bag of shredded coleslaw, some Pepperidge Farm slider buns, Sargento's thin sliced provolone cheese and some generic brand frozen french fries.

I  put the french fries on right away as I knew they would take longer than the sliders.  However I did not send those generic fries into the oven completely naked....I sprinkled them generously with garlic powder and paprika.  Into the oven they were sent!

I did not follow the recipe exactly (You are not surprised, are you?). I defrosted my hamburger and put it into a large bowl.  I opened the black beans and rinsed them well.  Into a small bowl I put 1/2 cup of the beans with 2 tablespoons of olive oil and a tablespoon of garlic powder.  I smashed them all together until they were a smooth paste using a fork.  Into the ground chuck (poor Chuck!) went the black bean mixture and I mixed well.  I formed the small burgers and put them onto a plate to rest.

There was no propane for the grill so this meant I had to fry my burgers. I rubbed my large skillet with some olive oil and heated it until it was good and hot.  I used the back of a large spoon and smeared the tops of the burgers with some dijon mustard.  Be careful putting them into the hot pan as you need to put them mustard side down and they sputter a little bit. After they go down in the pan, rub the top with some more mustard and let them cook at least a few minutes before flipping.

While the sliders were frying,  I made the dressing for the coleslaw.  I have never really made my own before so this was quite the new try.  Here is the dressing I made for my slaw:

(1) cup of Duke's Mayo (is there any other? I don't think so!)
(2) tablespoons of milk
(6) tablespoons of balsamic vinegar
onion powder
Soul Seasoning
Lemon Juice

Combine all the above.  The lemon juice is added to taste...I think I added about a tablespoon or so. I was tangy and tart.  Everyone seemed to like it.

With the burgers and fries done, we sat down to eat.  The black beans added a different texture to the hamburgers.  They were definitely moist, but quite frankly, did not hold together too well when fried. I am not sure if grilling them would have made a difference. Other than that, they were delicious.

Overall, I only spent $13 dollars at the grocery store and I think dinner turned out well.  It was eating within budget without tasting like budget food.  I consider that a success.

Crack Sticks (recipe from Shabby Chicks)

This recipe kept popping up all over Facebook and I just had to try them!  All the credit and the original recipe is located here:

Shabby Chicks

I was completely mystified how on these would taste good...it was the smooshed white bread that was throwing me!! I decided the only way to know for sure was to try them!

Here are the ingredients:

(1) loaf of thin sliced white sandwich bread
(1) 8 ounce box of cream cheese
(3/4) cup confectioner's sugar
(1) cup sugar
(1-1/2) teaspoon ground cinnamon
(3/4) cup butter, melted

Remove crusts from bread.  Flatten bread with a rolling pin.

In a bowl combine cream cheese and confectioners' sugar.
In another bowl, combine sugar and cinnamon, set aside.
Spread about 1 tablespoon of cheese mixture on each slice of bread.

Roll up, jelly roll style.

Dip in melted butter.

Roll in the cinnamon sugar.

Place on an ungreased baking sheet and bake at 350 degrees for 20 minutes or until golden brown.
Yield:  approximately 16 roll-ups.  Good warm or cold. (But I would not know about the cold because they did not make it that far!)

This was an awesome recipe and I would LOVE to know how it came to be! I have visions of a desperate housewife needing a dessert in a hurry! I am sure she was very smart!