Thursday, October 29, 2009

great advice

A good friend of mine posted this quote on her blog today and in the spirit of staying healthy, I felt it appropriate to share. (read the full article here)

"I plead with you young women to please be more accepting of yourselves, including your body shape and style, with a little less longing to look like someone else. We are all different. Some are tall, and some are short. Some are round, and some are thin. And almost everyone at some time or other wants to be something they are not! ... sisters, you are our greatest examples and resource for young women. And if you are obsessing over being a size 2, you won't be very surprised when your daughter or the [young woman] in your class does the same and makes herself physically ill trying to accomplish it. We should all be as fit as we can be--that's good Word of Wisdom doctrine. That means eating right and exercising and helping our bodies function at their optimum strength. We could probably all do better in that regard. But I speak here of optimum health; there is no universal optimum size."
Elder Jeffrey R. Holland, Quorum of the 12 Apostles

Here's to ALL BEAUTIFUL ladies, the young and the wise!!









can't leave my Maggie out of this tribute. she's too cute!

Tuesday, October 13, 2009

guilty pleasures

In trying to stay healthy, I've been contemplating the best alternative at your local fast food. Since I'm not a huge fan of salads from a fast food joint (the recent news reports have pretty much nixed any chance of me buying them), I've decided to go back to a lesson my grandmother taught me several years ago - buy a kid's meal! (thanks for the reminder, Janie)

I have two guilty pleasures when it comes to fast food, Chick-Fil-A and Arby's. It's the fries. I LOVE waffle and curly fries. And I'm not ready to give them up yet. Plus since a kid's meal is technically the 'perfect size' calorie wise, why not go for it!! Since beginning my experiment, I have to admit that at first I was saddened when my meal was gone and thought, "I'm still hungry!". However, I held fast to my plan and waited. And my grandmother was right, it's the perfect amount of food! I was completely content after I convinced my brain that my stomach was in deed full. It didn't need the extra 200 to 300 hundred calories that I would have gotten in the value meal.

So check it out for yourself. How many calories is your favorite meal?

Friday, October 9, 2009

chicken....again?

cooked Wednesday, October 7
Yes, we had chicken again. This time, chicken pot pie. It's a GREAT recipe that I got from Stephanie. She made it for Janie and me several weekends ago and I've been thinking about it ever since. :)

here's the recipe:

Chicken Pot Pie

Ingredients:
  • 1 lb. chicken, cooked and cubed
  • 2 cans mixed vegetables (Veg-All)
  • 1 can cream of chicken soup
  • 1 1/4 c. chicken broth
  • 1 c. flour
  • 1 c. milk
  • 1/2 c. or 1 stick butter
Method:

Preheat oven to 350.

In an 8 x 8 baking dish, cover the bottom of the dish with the cooked chicken. Next layer the mixed vegetables. In a seperate bowl, combine the cream of chicken soup and the chicken broth. (Note: for a souper mixture, use 1 1/4 c. of broth. for a thicker mixture, slowly add broth until desired consistancy is reached.) Pour broth mixture on top of mixed vegetables. In a seperate bowl, mix flour, milk and butter to create topping. Finally, add flour mixture to top off pot pie.

Bake at 350 for 1 hour (60 minutes).

peanut gallery says:
Nathan loved it! Huge success but then again, when isn't chicken pot pie a family favorite? We really enjoyed the crust instead of the biscuit topping. Great change! I'm positive that this recipe, although delicious, is not very healthy.

However, it is very cost efficient and versatile. We had everything we needed (or something comparable) in our pantry. I substituted cream of chicken with cream of mushroom and since I only had one can of Veg-All, I added half a can of sweet corn and green beans. Not quite Stephanie's pot pie, but very good!

a classic twist

cooked Tuesday, October 6
Nathan cooked another great comfort food on Tuesday night. I'm not sure what it is about comfort foods lately, but I'm craving them. Maybe the fall weather?

here's the recipe:

Chicken Parmesan for two

Ingredients:

  • 2 chicken breasts (or 1 HUGE chicken breast), pounded to 1/4 inch thickness
  • Italian bread crumbs
  • Freshly grated Parmesan cheese
  • ~2 TBS Olive Oil
  • Spaghetti Noodles
  • Marinara

Method:

Cook spaghetti according to package directions.

While pasta is cooking, carefully rinse chicken breasts. Pound chicken to 1/4 inch thickness. Combine bread crumbs and cheese in shallow dish. Dredge chicken in cheese mixture. In heated pan, cook chicken until done.
Optional: Sprinkle chicken breasts with cheese and broil until melted.

Combine pasta with Marinara. Top pasta with chicken and enjoy!

peanut gallery says:

Quick, easy and tasty meal!! It's always better when someone else cooks it. :) To make this meal a little healthier, Nathan decided against using egg or buttermilk to moisten the chicken. Instead of drying the chicken completely after washing with water, he left it wet so the bread crumbs would stick. It actually makes for a better crust to me. I loved it! We also used Asiago cheese instead of Parmesan because we were out at the moment and did not want to make another trip to Kroger. :)
All in all, a great meal!!

Tuesday, October 6, 2009

beef stroganoff - a cost efficient recipe

cooked Monday, October 5, 2009:
I love anything with noodles. So beef stroganoff (done right - I've tried some weird recipes) is one of my favorite comfort foods. When I found this version of it, I was super excited. It's made with hamburger meat instead of strips of sirloin, which makes it much more cost efficient for those on a budget. :)

here's the recipe:

Hamburger Stroganoff Recipe

You can substitute the sour cream and lemon juice for a cup of full-fat plain yogurt (room temperature). Do not allow to boil.

Ingredients

  • Butter
  • 1 lb ground chuck (use ground chuck to achieve a flavor similar to the sirloin strips)
  • Salt and pepper
  • 1 yellow onion, chopped (about 1 cup)
  • 8 ounces sliced cremini mushrooms (can substitute button mushrooms), sliced
  • 1/3 cup of dry sherry, dry white wine, or water
  • 1/2 cup chopped parsley, loosely packed
  • 1 1/4 cups sour cream (room temperature)
  • 1 teaspoon lemon juice
  • 1/4 teaspoon paprika or more to taste
  • 8 ounces egg noodles

Method

1 Put a large pot of salted water (1 teaspoon salt for every quart of water) on to heat, for the pasta.

hamburger-stroganoff-1a.jpg hamburger-stroganoff-3.jpg

2 Heat a large sauté pan on medium high heat. Melt 1 teaspoon butter in the pan and swirl it around. Sprinkle the bottom of the pan generously with salt. Working in batches as not to crowd the meat (crowding it will make it hard to brown), break up the ground beef and add it to the pan. Sprinkle the meat with salt. Do not stir the meat, as stirring will prevent browning. Once the meat is well browned on one side (a couple minutes, depending on how hot the pan), use tongs or a fork or a metal spatula to flip to the other side. Once that side is browned as well, use a slotted spoon to remove from the pan and set aside. Continue to brown the meat in batches, adding a teaspoon of butter to the pan with each batch if needed, and salting the pan and the meat, until it is all browned. Remove meat from pan. Drain excess fat from pan.

3 Lower the heat to medium. Add the onions to the pan. If you are working with very lean meat, you may not have any residual fat in the pan. If this is the case, you'll want to add in a tablespoon of olive oil or butter to the pan. Cook the onions, scraping up the meat drippings, until soft, about 5 minutes. Remove onions from the pan (add to the meat).

4 Depending on the cooking times of your particular brand of pasta, this is likely a good time to add the pasta to the (should be now) boiling, salted water.

hamburger-stroganoff-4a.jpg hamburger-stroganoff-4b.jpg

5 While the pasta is cooking, add a tablespoon of butter to the pan, increase the heat to medium high. Add the sliced mushrooms. Sauté until nicely browned (about 4 minutes). Add the sherry (or dry white wine or water) to the pan to deglaze the pan, scraping up any browned bits. Let the sherry reduce by at least a half, then lower the heat to low.

hamburger-stroganoff-5.jpg hamburger-stroganoff-6.jpg

6 Remove the pan from the heat. Mix in the sour cream and paprika until smooth. Return the pan to very low heat, and not let the sour cream boil (or it may curdle). You may add a few tablespoons of water to the mixture to thin it out a bit at any time. Stir in the lemon juice, and about 1/4-1/2 teaspoon of salt (taste). Stir in the meat and onions. Stir in the chopped parsley. Add more salt, pepper, and/or paprika to taste.

7 Keep the stroganoff on warm heat until the noodles are done cooking. When the noodles are ready (al dente) drain.

Serve the stroganoff on top of egg noodles. Serves 4.
recipe via www.simplyrecipes.com


peanut gallery says:

I thought the recipe was easy, quick and tasty. We used reduced fat sour cream instead of yogurt or plain sour cream but I think I'll try the yogurt next time. I also think I'll add a little water to it to thin it out a bit more. Not sure how healthy it was but very filling and could serve more than 4. We definitely have leftovers!
Another suggestion (for those that don't like noodles, Daddy) would be to use rice instead of noodles. :)

The Beginning

Here it is! A blog for my mom and I to keep up with our latest quick, hopefully healthy recipes. We're both currently trying to eat healthier and think of ways to stay motivated. We're also always "working" on establishing a family cookbook. Hopefully this will be the key!

Our plan is to use this blog as a recipe / health diary. We'll post our meals every evening, rate the dish, and try to keep track of how healthy it is. ;) Wish us luck!