WEEKLY PLAN - Week 3

Well, the 2 pounds I gained while Bob was gone have disappeared. Yay! Of course that means unless something magical happens by the time he gets home on Wednesday, I'll be the same weight he was when I left. Man! Aside from wanting to be down 2 or 3 pounds, I really could use the extra $50 for my trip to Texas I'd win if I lost more weight than he has the past 3 weeks.

Good news is I have a fresh stock of vegies and of fruit. I seemed to do better when I was eating more of those. So Salad for lunch it is. Though I might have to add a bit of chicken salad with craisins and some fresh pineapple chunks for good measure :-)

As I said, Bob comes home Wednesday. I will continue to push fruit or vegies at every meal. I also want to get us back in the habit of having fish in some form two times per week. I have lobster tails in the freezer (that counts, right) as well as Tilapia. Albacore Tuna in the cabinet. I wanted to add some shrimp but shrimp has gone up almost $2 per bag and they are high in calories so will hold off on those for a week or so.

Fruits and Vegies here I come!

185/185/130

RECIPE WEDNESDAY - Chicken Yakisoba

My focus with Recipe Wednesday is to serve two purposes:

1) Try some of the many recipes I have on Pinterest Food board 

2) To try to showcase healthy - or at least quick - meals. 

This week I went strong on the vegie's for my 'incorporate more' challenge and went for this recipe Chicken Yakisoba recipe at Alicesweettooth.com  The recipe incorporated multiple foods I love into one pan (with the exception of precooking the ramen noodles)

I had everything but ginger and fresh carrots. I had some baby carrots in the freezer I need to use up (very few were actually usable) so I tossed those in just to add 'flavor'. I'm not a cooked carrot kind of person anyway so this worked... and one more 'old' thing out of the freezer. Yay!

The recipe in general looks like it will make a lot - and it does! But only 1 Chicken Breast. Nope.. If I'm going to eat on this for 3 or 4 meals I want chicken in at least every other bite. I used two. I also added some fresh button mushrooms sliced (would have preferred Portabella but local grocer didn't have any) and half of a green pepper julienne. If there is onions in a stir fry in my opinion green peppers are a must.

I also passed on the hot sauce. I'm not a 'heat' gal. But I don't think the recipe lost any flavor due to the lack of the hot sauce.

Loved this! In fact, I've ate out of it twice and I'm seeing more enjoyment today. Like a lot of foods, the more you reheat them, the better the flavors. 

Enjoy the Journey! 

WEEKLY PLAN - Week 2 - Oops!

That's the only way to describe the 2 pound gain. I have no clue what happened except that I don't have fresh fruit so I stopped incorporating that into my daily meal plan. I'll make adjustments and see how the week plays out.

I've already scheduled my Wednesday Recipe post. A yummy wok full of vegetables and SOOOO easy!

Enjoy the Journey!
185/187/120

RECIPE WEDNESDAY - Bennigan's Chicken Platter

Several years ago when my daughter worked in downtown Peoria, I met her at a local pub for lunch. Bennigans Restaurant. Bennigan's is a quaint 'Irish' pub with really good food. As I peruse the menu on their sight, I see my favorite is no longer offered.

The platter came with 2 chicken breasts on a bed of rice. The plate was rimmed with a ring of broccoli florets on the outside then a ring of grilled shrimp. A velvety smooth tomato- based bechamel sauce. For $8 and change, you could walk out of there with 2 meals from the one platter. My kind of eating out!

I have since created my own version with a little help from the following ingredients:

I used 3 chicken tenders I had left in the freezer, the last of the broccoli head, and a bag of shrimp I needed to use up. The only thing I did not use that I normally would is to saute diced green bell pepper and a small onion or large shallot. Alas, those items are not in my pantry so I made do.

You start by making the bechamel sauce with equal parts of butter and flour ( I used about 2 T. each). If I'd had the bell pepper and onion/ shallot, I would have sauted them in the butter first to translucent before adding the flour. With a nice rue in progress, add the Carnation milk and continue to whisk until smooth. As you're whisking, add 2 T. of Tomato Paste. (The leftover paste will freeze okay if you're going to use it within a month. So you might want to plan a marinara dish for the leftover) I had to add a bit of water to thin it down. Over kill on the butter/ flour I guess.

With the sauce finished, I moved it off the burner and browned off the chicken tenders, then let them simmer covered til they were done through. This creates a nice steam and keeps them moist.

In a small non-stick skillet (my omelet skillet), I melted a Tablespoon of butter then added 8 of the shrimp. (I'll be using the rest of the shrimp over the next couple recipes.) I just moved them around in the butter to coat and warm through as these are pre-cooked tails. Then I added about an 1/8 C. of Velvet White Wine (I love the wines from St. James Winery in St. James MO) This adds a level to the dish you do not want to skip. Trust me.

Since I eat alone most of the time (and for quantity control) I've taken to buying the single cups of Minute Rice. 60 seconds in the microwave and you have your carb. (when I add one cup to a stir-fry, I can usually stretch that cup 2-3 meals) I took the rice out of the micro and steamed the broccoli for 3 min on 70% (I seldom cook anything at 100%)

When all the components are ready, place the rice in the center of the place and spread it out. Put a little sauce on top of the rice (that layering thing) Add your chicken breast/ tender and the shrimp. Add more of the sauce. Ring the platter with the broccoli florets.

Putting this meal together took me about 20 minutes from start to finish and is plenty for a main meal. 

If you are not a tomato person, you could make this a cheese bechamel sauce just as easily. I'd recommend Velveeta but you might want to plan ahead. According to twitter there is a cheeseapocolypse in progress ;-)

I don't have a calorie count. I do know the portion was kept reasonable and I've added a vegetable. The most fat/ calories in this comes from the bechamel. But out of the whole can of milk, you're only using about 1/4 C of the sauce. I think I'm going to use more of it as a pasta sauce with the left-over shrimp.  When you spread the sauce recipe out over 3 or 4 meals, the calories are manageable.

Enjoy the Journey!

~Kel

WEEKLY PLAN - Week 1 - Starting from Scratch

A new year, a new plan, a new way of thinking. Sounds good.

And I'm off to a good start. By making sure I include fruit and/ or vegetable into every meal I am down one pound from last Tuesday. Bringing my current weight to 184.

As you'll see on the side bar, I am dropping to only three days a week here. Since I don't have a lot of comments back I'm going with my Monday - Weekly Plan, Friday - Week in Review and then Wednesday will be a recipe share.

I'm getting a lot of what read like really good recipes off Pinterest. So I'm going to start getting them off my Foodies Board and on a plate.I had multiple ideas but every one called for onion. Wouldn't you know, I used my last onion yesterday and like everyone else, we're under a deep freeze and I'm not planning on venturing out at least until the weekend.

So for this week, I'm going the crock pot route: http://foodpinsnow.com/?p=6311
I think I have just enough tortellini in the freezer to do this recipe in half. If not, I guess Wednesday will be a surprise.

Enjoy the Journey!
Kelly
185/184/130