Easter brunch post, more than a week late

90 percent of my pictures with her look like this.

Sorry about the lack of posting; I've been having some health issues that have taken priority over cooking and blogging. Anyway, Kyle and I took the baby to my parents' house in Avon Lake last weekend. Kyle and I were finally able to get out by ourselves on Friday night (a rare event when you have a baby) and went to the Moosehead in Olmsted Falls, one of our favorite places to go when we're visiting my parents. (Our other favorite is Viva Fernando. Thanks to their restaurant.com deal, we regularly eat about $40 worth of food there and get out for about 10 bucks.) On Sunday, we went to mass at St. Raphael's, then came home and made brunch. My contribution was a spinach and cheese quiche.

 

 I only got a picture of my slice, because the rest was gone in about 30 seconds. As Kyle put it, "I think your quiche was the most popular item." It was delicious, and very easy to make.

Ingredients: 

1 tablespoon butter
1/2 onion, finely chopped
1 clove garlic, minced
1 10-oz. package frozen chopped spinach, thawed and squeezed dry
1 1/2 cups grated Gruyère
1 9-inch unbaked pie shell
3 large eggs, lightly beaten
1 1/2 cups milk
Salt and pepper
Pinch of ground nutmeg

Directions:

1. Preheat oven to 375ºF. In a small skillet over medium heat, melt butter. Add onion and sauté until translucent, about 5 minutes. Add garlic and cook for 1 minute longer, stirring. Transfer to a small bowl and let cool.
2. Sprinkle onion mixture, spinach and Gruyère over bottom of pie shell. Beat eggs and milk together, season with salt, pepper and nutmeg. Gently pour into crust.
3. Bake quiche for 40 to 45 minutes, until set and browned. Remove from oven and let rest for 10 minutes.

 

 We also got some adorable pictures of the munchkin in her dress and with her Easter basket from Grandma and Grandpa. My personal favorite:

 

She went home with some new toys, too.

Weekday dinners: Spicy cream rigatoni and chicken cordon bleu

 Chicken cordon bleu, roasted red potatoes, and spinach, feta, and apple salad. All made from stuff I had lying around.

I hate wasting food. I once had a roommate who was basically a food hoarder. I exaggerate not. She would always have at least five different juices, ten to fifteen salad dressings, multiple jars of mayonnaise, butter, and sauces, and overflowing drawers of deli meats and cheeses. (Not to mention cupboards so full of rice, pasta, and other boxed and canned items that they didn't shut. But at least that doesn't spoil.) Stuff would literally fall out of the refrigerator when I opened it. While I was trying to make some room for my food--no easy task--I checked some of the labels and discovered at least half of her food was expired, some of it having never even been opened. Unbelievable. Not only are you literally throwing money away when you toss moldy cheese or wilting produce in the trash, but it just feels, well...wasteful. And yet it turns out her habit wasn't all that extreme: one-third of food produced for human consumption is thrown out every year.

I try to avoid throwing out food by being selective with produce and deli items--since it spoils fast, I never buy more than we can eat, and I try to buy vegetables that can be used in a lot of different dinners (like sweet potatoes, spinach, onions, and peppers) rather than exotic fruits and vegetables that will be bad in three days. To save money and reduce waste, I occasionally put a moratorium on grocery shopping and make dinners from stuff we already have. And doing this is actually fun. It's a creative challenge to look through the fridge and the pantry and see what entrees and side dishes I can come up with. Sometimes, I'll even Google around for recipes that use random ingredients I have lying around. This Wednesday, it was rigatoni with spicy cream sauce and sausage, with a side of roasted asparagus. And as my husband can tell you, it was good.

The low-calorie recipe I based this off of called for a combination of marinara and light alfredo sauce. I didn't have any alfredo, so I used melted reduced-fat cream cheese mixed with fat-free half-and-half.

Ingredients:
2 cups of rigatoni
1 cup of marinara sauce
2 cups of light alfredo sauce, OR 4 ounces of melted reduced-fat cream cheese mixed with 1 and 1/2 cups of fat-free half-and-half
1 clove of minced garlic
1/2 cup of chopped spinach (optional)
1/2 tablespoon of crushed red pepper*
Cajun seasoning (optional)*
2 chicken sausage links, cooked and sliced. (Johnsonville and a few other brands sell chicken sausage, which is way leaner than the regular stuff. I used a Chipotle-flavored sausage. Kyle liked it, but I thought the pasta would have been better plain or with sliced chicken breast pieces.)

*Spiciness is an individual preference. I love spice, so I used a tablespoon and a half of crushed red pepper and a generous sprinkling of Cajun seasoning. If you like your food milder, start with 1/2 tablespoon of the red pepper--or less--and taste it before you add any more.

Directions:
1. Cook pasta according to package directions and set aside.
2. Cook sausage according to package directions, slice, and set aside.
3. In a saucepan, combine the alfredo and marinara. (If you're using cream cheese and half-and-half instead of alfredo, put those in the pan first and stir over medium-high heat until cream cheese is melted.) Add garlic, crushed red pepper, and cajun seasoning. Pour over pasta. Add sausage, stir everything together, and heat through before serving.

Tonight's dinner was a little more challenging. It's the end of the week here at 206, since Kyle and I have a lunch outing planned for tomorrow afternoon, and then we're going to my parent's house for Easter weekend. I had a lot of lunch meat, cheese, spinach, and red potatoes (from last Friday's German dinner) to use up. Since I also had bread crumbs and frozen chicken breasts, I decided to make chicken cordon bleu (breaded chicken bundles stuffed with Swiss cheese and ham), with roasted red potatoes and a spinach, feta, and apple salad. The chicken cordon bleu came out so tasty, and was the perfect way to use up meat and cheese that we use for sandwiches during the week.

Ingredients:
2 boneless, skinless chicken breasts
2 to 4 slices of Swiss cheese (any sliced white cheese--such as provolone or mozzarella--would also work)
2 to 4 slices of ham or prosciutto
5 teaspoons of melted butter
1/4 cup reduced-sodium chicken broth
1/2 cup dry bread crumbs
1/2 cup of crushed corn flake cereal
1 minced garlic clove
1 tablespoon of grated parmesan cheese
1 teaspoon of paprika (I screwed up and used a tablespoon, but it just added extra flavor)
salt
pepper
oregano (optional)

Directions:
1. Preheat the oven to 350.
2. Place broth in a small microwave-safe bowl; microwave at high 15 seconds or until warm. Stir in butter and garlic.
3. Combine breadcrumbs, parmesan, corn flakes, and paprika in a bowl; set aside.
4. Place a piece of wax paper over each chicken breast and pound with a meat mallet or rolling pin until about 1/4 inch thick (but be sure not to pound it so hard that it falls apart. I ruined my first chicken breast that way.) Sprinkle both sides of the chicken breast with salt, pepper, and oregano.
5. Top each breast with 1 to 2 slices of cheese and 1 to 2 slices of ham or prosciutto. (Amount is up to you.)
6. Roll up each chicken breast so the ham and cheese is secure inside. Dip it in the chicken broth mixture, then roll in the bread crumb-corn flake mixture. Place the chicken rolls, seam-side down, in a baking dish coated with cooking spray.
7. Pour remaining broth mixture over chicken and bake at 350 degrees for about 35 minutes. Be sure to check the chicken at about 28 minutes to see if it's done--most of the recipes for chicken cordon bleu I found suggested baking for 25-30 minutes, but at that point, mine was still undercooked.

The roasted red potatoes were also delicious and had a French fry-like taste. (Except much lower in calories, because they're not fried!) To make them, chop up the potatoes into one-inch pieces. Preheat the oven to 425 degrees. Toss the potatoes with two tablespoons of olive oil and 2 tablespoons of rosemary (optional) in a bowl. On a baking sheet lined with foil, spread out potatoes in a single layer and season with salt and pepper. Roast for 30 minutes, stirring once, or until potatoes are golden brown.

Irish dinner, and some family history

Me, my cousin, and my sisters in Dublin.

Since I paid homage to my dad's side of the family last week by making German food, I decided to try something I haven't cooked or eaten before last night: Irish food. You would never know from looking at me, but my mom comes from a big Irish family. We celebrated St. Patrick's Day every year, but I never had much appreciation for my Irish heritage--until I went there last Thanksgiving.

I honestly wasn't that excited about going. I'd just moved and finished up working on a campaign, and I was burned out. But it turned out to be the best trip I've ever taken. We spent a few days in Dublin, where my cousin Molly was studying abroad at the time, then went out west to Galway. It was more beautiful than I expected, and the people--customs officers, cab drivers, even the cops--were incredibly friendly.

If you ever go to Ireland, go on a tour. It doesn't matter what kind of tour, as long as you get a local guide. The Irish have a very vivid manner of speaking and are natural storytellers. We went on an 8-hour bus tour of the Connemara region of western Ireland, and it was unforgettable.

 My sister at one of the bus tour stops.

I'm happily married now, but I also think Dublin would be an ideal place for a single girls' week. There's tons of upscale shopping, and the bar scene was so much fun. And while I've heard women complain that in other European countries they've had to put up with a lot of gross dudes who leer and grope, Irish guys aren't like that. American men do all sorts of weird, indirect things to get women's attention in bars--there's an entire industry devoted to teaching men how to play mind games and act like a jerk to get women to like them!--but Irish guys will come right up to you and strike up a conversation, and they don't hold back or act cocky. They'll say things like "you're so beautiful, I wanted to buy you a drink."

The only thing I didn't enjoy was the food. Since I was still a picky eater at the time, I refused to try any of the stews or fish, which are menu staples over there. I ended up eating sandwiches the whole week, and managed to find the only McDonald's in Galway to get lunch. Twice.

So, to make up for it, I made a traditional Irish dish last night: Shepherd's pie. But this being a healthy eating blog, I switched out the usual white mashed potatoes for sweet potatoes and ground beef for ground turkey breast.

Mashed potatoes are yet another food that gets labeled a "no-no" for weight loss, and it's true that white potatoes have a lot of empty calories. (In fact, they're so lacking in nutritional value, government programs that pay for food assistance cover every vegetable except white potatoes.) But sweet potatoes are packed with nutrients, especially Vitamin A, and are considered a super food.

The other vegetables in this dish make it high in nutrients and fiber and low in calories.

Ingredients:
1 pound of lean ground beef or ground turkey breast
2 large sweet potatoes, peeled (you can also use a carton of premade mashed sweet potatoes to save time)
1/4 cup fat-free milk
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/2 cup chopped white onion
1 1/4 cups coarsely chopped zucchini
1 cup chopped carrots
1/2 cup frozen whole kernel corn, thawed
1/4 cup water
1 and 1/4 cups beef broth
2 tablespoons of ketchup
2 tablespoons of flour

Directions:
1. Boil the peeled potatoes for 20 minutes or until soft. Beat with an electric mixer to mash, mixing in milk and salt. Set aside.
2. In a skillet, cook the turkey and onion until meat is browned. Stir zucchini, carrots, corn, and the water into meat mixture. Bring to a boil, then reduce heat. Simmer, cover, for 5 to 10 minutes or until vegetables are tender.
3. Add ketchup and cook, stirring, for one minute. Add in the flour and stir. Gradually add in broth and cook until the meat mixture is thickened.
4. Pour the meat-vegetable mixture into a casserole dish, then cover with the mashed potatoes. Bake for 20 minutes or until heated through.

The finished product:

My husband isn't Irish, and he liked it.

Served with a very un-Irish side of mangoes, papaya, strawberries, and pineapple.

Craving Taco Bell? Make this instead.

Last September, when I was working on the State Auditor's campaign in Columbus, my car disappeared from a city street. After the city insisted they hadn't towed it and that my VIN number wasn't in the system, I reported it stolen and assumed I'd never see it again. 

Imagine my surprise when I got a notice several weeks later that it was sitting in a police impound lot. My first thoughts were "What the hell happened to my car?" followed by "oh God. It's going to reek."

By that point, it had been sitting in an open lot in 80-degree heat for days on end, and I'd picked up McDonald's on my way to work that day and left a half-eaten burger in the bag on the front seat. I was pretty sure I had other fast food bags with old fries and nuggets in there, too. (Yeah, yeah, yeah. I was a slob. I try to clean my car more often now.) When I got to the impound lot, I held my breath before I opened the door, expecting to get a whiff of mold and rotting meat. Instead...nothing. The half-eaten burger and fries were still in there, but they were completely fossilized. The meat, bread and fries were hard as rock, and instead of molding, the cheese had a plastic-like consistency. Huh.

At the time, I was just relieved that I didn't have to smell putrid, rotting food the whole way home. But meat and cheese is supposed to spoil. Bread is supposed to mold. I should've drawn one of two conclusions: 1. There's a lot of preservatives in that burger, or 2. it's not real food.

It took making and learning about food to discover that both conclusions are actually true. (Here's some scary proof.) In fact, if you start researching fast food, you'll find out all sorts of interesting things. Like that fast food is preserved with chemicals that are more commonly used in laundry detergents and industrial paints (ethoxylate), flame retardants (ammonium sulfate), and plastics (calcium chloride, which is also used to set concrete--no wonder my burger was rock solid). And that the taste and smell of fast food is manufactured in a lab. And that even at places like Subway, where you can "eat fresh," they douse the lettuce and vegetables with propylene glycerol to keep them from wilting. Propylene glycerol is generally used in products like antifreeze. Mmm....antifreeze.

Okay, I think you get my point: fast food is even worse for you than you thought, and I haven't even gotten to the calorie counts yet. (If you want to learn more and can handle a 200-page gross-out, I highly recommend reading Fast Food Nation by Eric Schlosser. If you don't have the stomach or the patience, you could also rent the documentary Supersize Me.) We know this. And yet 41 percent of Americans eat it at least once a week, and for Americans 18-29, that number is almost 60 percent.Generally, people acknowledge that it's bad for them but offer three reasons to eat it anyway:

1. I can't afford anything else.

2. I don't have time to cook.

3. It tastes better than anything I can make at home.

Those were the excuses I always used, anyway.

Once I started this blog, I started thinking of healthy ways to satisfy fast food cravings and address the problem of time and cost without actually hitting up the drive-thru. Consider this the first in a series. I'll start with the worst of the worst: Taco Bell, or as I prefer to call it, Taco Hell.

First of all: ugh. I can't believe people were surprised when Taco Bell came out and admitted last year that their "beef" isn't technically beef, it's "taco filling," which is 36% beef and 64% "tasteless fibers, various industrial additives and some flavoring and coloring." And all that cheese? It's a lab-manufactured synthetic product made to taste like cheese.

Oh, and that $5 box and soda will cost you almost 1,600 calories, 73 grams of fat, and 2 days worth of salt. (Salt causes the body to retain water, making you look puffy and bloated. So even if you're not fat, you'll feel like you are.)

Unlike with some fast food joints, most people acknowledge that Taco Bell is disgusting. In fact, for some people, the fact that it's disgusting is part of the thrill. I knew a guy in college who claimed that he and his roommates used to go there, order the nastiest slop on the menu, and then see who had to, uh, "relieve himself" first. (I was simultaneously grossed out and baffled. Since Taco Bell has no fiber and is mostly synthetic, I imagine it sitting in your stomach in a congealed ball. But I digress.)

Still, I understand the urge to chow down on a pile of beef, cheese, and sour cream, especially when you're famished. I used to occasionally drive through Taco Bell when I was starving and order a Grilled Stuffed Burrito and a side of nachos. (That'll be 1,100 calories, please!) Therefore, I came up with a solution: taco casserole.

Beefy deliciousness.

Don't let appearances deceive you. The calorie count is 321 calories for 1/6 of the casserole (which is a pretty big portion), and it's loaded with fiber and protein. The ingredients cost me about $12 total--and considering this recipe makes six servings, it's much cheaper than Taco Bell.

Not to mention the beef and cheese is actually real.

I made this on Saturday night because Kyle and I were going to a friend's place to watch the OSU basketball game with a group of people. But this is also a good thing to make ahead of time and keep in the refrigerator or freezer--that way, when you're driving home and the drive-thru urge strikes, all you have to do is stick it in the oven.

Ingredients:

1/2 pound extra-lean ground beef

1 15-oz can of pinto beans, rinsed and drained

1 15-oz can of red chili beans, rinsed and drained

1/2 cup chopped white onion

1/2 cup chopped green peppers

1 8-oz carton of light sour cream

2 tablespoons of flour

1 15-oz can of no-salt-added tomato sauce

8 6-inch whole wheat flour tortillas (there are a couple brands that sell high-fiber, high-protein, low-calorie tortillas)

1 packet of taco seasoning

1 cup of reduced-fat shredded cheddar cheese

Directions:

1. Preheat the oven to 350. In a large skillet, cook ground beef and onion until meat is brown and onion is tender. Stir in green peppers and half the taco seasoning. Cook for 1 minute more and remove from heat. Add beans.

2. In a bowl, combine sour cream, flour, and the rest of the taco seasoning; set aside.

3. Place half of the tortillas in a bottom of a baking dish, overlapping as necessary. Top evenly with half of the meat mixture. Spoon half of the sour cream mixture over meat mixture in small mounds; spread in an even layer. Top with half of the tomato sauce. Repeat with another layer.

4. Cover the baking dish with foil and bake for 35 minutes. Pull it out of the oven and sprinkle the cheese on top. Bake, uncovered, for 5 more minutes or until cheese is melted.

And, yes, it was a hit on Saturday night.

Fred enjoys some taco casserole and vows to never eat at Taco Hell again.

Friday night: German dinner under 500 calories

My dad is from a Polish-German family. (Random trivia: my maiden name translates literally to "duke" in German. So if I lived there, I'd be Ashley Duke. I always thought that was kind of cool.) He loves the food. There aren't a lot of authentic German restaurants where we live, so when we went to visit his family in Milwaukee, the first place he took us to was Mader's. (Mader's web site has an overview of the restaurant's history and a list of celebrities who've been there.) My sisters and I even got a picture in the Mader's throne.

Before I started cooking, I was an incredibly picky eater, and naturally I refused to give German food a try. At Mader's, I picked at a salad and didn't touch anything else. (When my dad suggested I try wiener schnitzel, I think my exact quote was "'Wiener'? Ew.") But my husband loves it even more than my dad does, so I agreed to make him a German dinner. And what could be more German than wiener schnitzel and kartoffel salat (warm potato salad)?

Kyle made his dinner extra German by drinking a homemade beer with it.

Considering I've never made anything like this before, I was really happy with how it turned out. I always thought of German food as lots of meats, heavy sauces, and strong beer, but this was actually really light, and the schnitzel had virtually no fat in it.

Ingredients for the schnitzel:

2 boneless pork loins, with the fat trimmed off (traditional wiener schnitzel uses veal, but it's expensive)

1 cup of plain bread crumbs

1 cup of crushed corn flake cereal (I put it in a ziploc bag and pound it with a meat mallet. A rolling pin also works)

2 eggs

vegetable oil

Directions:

1. Mix together bread crumbs and corn flakes in a bowl.

2. Crack eggs into a separate bowl.

3. Place a sheet of parchment paper over the pork loins and pound them flat, until they're about 1/4 to 1/2 inch thick. Don't worry if the meat looks nasty or has holes in it--once you bread and cook it, it won't matter.

4. Dip the pork in the raw eggs and coat it thoroughly. Then roll the pork around in the bread crumb/corn flake mixture, coating thoroughly.

5. Pour some vegetable oil in a sautee pan over medium-high heat. Place the wiener schnitzel in the pan and cook until the breading is golden brown. Flip it over and cook thoroughly on the other side.

That's it. It was super easy to make. Use salt and pepper or spices to taste. (Kyle and I got an awesome spice rack as a wedding gift, and I used Bavarian seasoning on the wiener schnitzel.)

Ingredients for the warm potato salad:

4 or 5 red potatoes

4 slices of bacon

1/2 of a white onion, chopped

2 celery stalks, chopped

1/2 cup white wine vinegar

3 tablespoons reduced-fat mayonnaise

1 tablespoon sugar

1 teaspoon salt

1/2 teaspoon pepper

1 tablespoon dill, chopped (optional--traditional kartoffel salat recipes use it, but I didn't)

Directions:
1. Boil potatoes in a large pot for at least 20 minutes or until soft (if you can't stick a knife through them with ease, they're not done yet)
2. Cook bacon in a skillet until crispy. Remove it from the skillet and set aside. Add onion to the pan and cook it in the bacon grease for about 5 minutes, stirring frequently. Add vinegar, sugar, salt, mayo and pepper; bring to simmer. Set aside and keep warm.
3. Chop potatoes into slices. Transfer into a bowl and pour the dressing into it. Add bacon and stir until blended.

Overall, this dinner was easy and low-calorie. German is still not my favorite ethnic cuisine, but I was glad I gave it a try. Happy weekend, everyone!

Low-fat chili cheese and black bean enchiladas

 

These were really, really good, and very easy to make.

I love cooking with beans, especially black and kidney beans. They're filling, high in fiber and B vitamins, and low-fat. (These enchiladas were so filling that I only ate one; I was stuffed after that.) A lot of low-calorie Mexican recipes use beans in place of chicken, beef, or pork. 

Ingredients:

One 15-ounce can of black beans, drained and rinsed

1/3 cup of reduced-fat cream cheese

1 cup of reduced-fat cheddar cheese

1 teaspoon chili powder

2 minced garlic cloves

4 tortillas

One 10-ounce can of red enchilada sauce

Salsa (optional)

Reduced-fat sour cream (optional)

Directions:

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

2. Heat a large nonstick skillet coated with cooking spray over medium-high heat. Add chili powder, garlic, and beans, and cook 2 minutes, stirring mixture frequently. Add cream cheese and 1/2 cup cheddar cheese, stirring until cheese melts.

3. Pour 1/3 cup of enchilada sauce over the bottom of a baking dish. Spoon the black bean mixture down center of each tortilla and roll up. Arrange enchiladas, seam sides down, in the dish. (Don't line it with foil, because the enchiladas will stick to it.) Pour remaining enchilada sauce evenly over enchiladas, and sprinkle with 1/2 cup cheddar. Bake at 350° for 20 minutes.

4. Serve with sour cream and salsa, if desired.

I love Spanish rice, so I also made Zatarain's brand Spanish rice as a side dish. Rice can be very high in calories, but this brand has only 180 calories per cup, which isn't bad. Some frozen broccoli added a serving of vegetables to the plate.

Healthy Chinese food!

It's hard to find people who don't like Chinese food. I lived in Texas in high school, and a brand new PF Chang's opened up during my senior year. My friends and I used to wait hours to get in. To this day, whenever I visit my friend Audra (who's since moved to Pittsburgh), we go there and split lettuce wraps, kung pao chicken, and fried rice.

 At PF Chang's in Pittsburgh.

Unfortunately, Chinese takeout is right up there with Pizza Hut Meat Lovers' Pizza in terms of calories. For the most part, everything is breaded, fried, and sitting in grease. I found the nutrition info for PF Chang's online and found out that even nice Chinese places serve up calorie bombs. (If you like PF Chang's: don't look it up. It's depressing.) While that's perfectly fine once in a while, you don't want to do it on the regular.

Luckily, I found some healthy Chinese recipes that taste like the restaurant stuff. One of my favorites is chicken lettuce wraps.

Ingredients (you can find most of these in the Asian foods section of the grocery store):

1 head of iceberg lettuce
1 pound ground chicken breast
2 tablespoons minced garlic
1 tablespoon reduced-sodium soy sauce
1/4 cup hoisin sauce
1 tablespoon rice wine vinegar or red wine vinegar
2 teaspoons Asian chili pepper sauce
1 can (8 ounce size) sliced water chestnuts, drained, finely chopped
1 bunch green onions, thinly sliced
2 teaspoons Asian sesame oil

Basically all you have to do is cook the chicken, throw in all the other ingredients besides the sesame oil, mix together until heated through, and then stir in the sesame oil.

 I also really liked this sweet and sour chicken, although it came out tasting a bit more like stir fry, since it's not breaded. (Anything breaded is usually loaded with fat.)

 

200 calories per serving. This recipe makes 6 servings, so you might need to adjust your ingredients if you're cooking more or less.

3/4 cup reduced-sodium chicken broth

3 tablespoons red wine vinegar

2 tablespoons reduced-sodium soy sauce

4 teaspoons sugar

1 tablespoon cornstarch

1 clove of garlic, minced (I recommend investing in a jar of minced garlic, so you don't have to chop it up yourself. I hate mincing garlic by hand.)

4 teaspoons canola oil

1 1/2 cups sliced carrots

1 large red bell pepper, cut into strips

2 cups fresh snow pea pods

12 ounces boneless, skinless chicken breasts, cut into 1-inch cubes

1 8-ounce can pineapple chunks, drained

Directions:
1. In a bowl, stir together broth, vinegar, soy sauce, sugar, cornstarch, and garlic; set aside.
2. In a large skillet, heat 3 tablespoons of canola oil over medium-high heat. Add carrots and pepper, cook for 3 minutes. Add pea pods; cook and stir about 1 minute more. Remove vegetables from skillet; set aside.
3. Add the remaining  1 teaspoon oil to skillet. Add chicken to skillet; cook and stir about 4 minutes or until chicken is thoroughly cooked. Push the chicken to the side of the skillet. Stir sauce and add to the center of the skillet; cook and stir until it's thickened and bubbly. Add vegetable mixture and pineapple chunks to skillet; heat through.


Lastly, this dinner was a lot tastier than it looks. Spicy kung pao chicken is my favorite Chinese dish, hands-down, and it's especially good with broccoli and brown rice.

Ingredients:

1 pound skinless, boneless chicken breast halves, cut into chunks
2 tablespoons white wine
2 tablespoons soy sauce
2 tablespoons sesame oil, divided
2 tablespoons cornstarch, dissolved in 2 tablespoons water
1 ounce hot chile paste
1 teaspoon distilled white vinegar
2 teaspoons brown sugar
4 green onions, chopped

Directions:

1. To Make marinade: Combine 1 tablespoon wine, 1 tablespoon soy sauce, 1 tablespoon oil and 1 tablespoon cornstarch/water mixture and mix together. Place chicken pieces in a glass dish or bowl and add marinade. Toss to coat. Cover dish and place in refrigerator for about 30 minutes.

2. To Make Sauce: In a small bowl combine 1 tablespoon wine, 1 tablespoon soy sauce, 1 tablespoon oil, 1 tablespoon cornstarch/water mixture, chili paste, vinegar and sugar. Mix together and add green onion, garlic, water chestnuts and peanuts. In a medium skillet, heat sauce slowly until aromatic.

Meanwhile, remove chicken from marinade and sautee in a large skillet until meat is white and juices run clear. Add sauteed chicken to sauce and let simmer together until sauce thickens.

Low-calorie Italian: crispy parmesan chicken, roasted vegetables, and Italian cream lattes

Italian food gets a bad rap as being a "no-no" for anyone who's trying to eat healthy. Most people associate it with lots of cheese, oil, and bread. (Think of Olive Garden and their unlimited breadsticks.) Sure, if you go to an restaurant and order the four-layer lasagna with Italian sausage, that's going to be loaded with fat and calories. But if you stick with whole wheat pasta and tomato-based sauce, there are tons of Italian dinners you can make with only 400 or 500 calories.

My in-laws were in town tonight. I had a bunch of chicken breasts in the freezer and pasta sauce in the cabinet, so I made one of my personal favorites: chicken parmesan.

I've cooked it before, but the breading never came out right. The bread crumbs didn't quite stick, so it wasn't crispy. But this time around I tried something different, and it turned out--in my father-in-law's words--"spectacular."

350 calories for the chicken, if you stick to a serving about the size of a deck of cards. One cup of whole wheat linguine will add another 180 calories.

Ingredients:
4 boneless, skinless chicken breasts (you can use more or less, but you'll have to adjust the ingredients accordingly)
1 package of fresh mozzarella (you can also use slices or the shredded kind, but the fresh stuff--the kind that comes in a big hunk--tastes so much better)
1 jar of marinara sauce
2 cups of corn flake cereal, crushed (I put them in a ziplock bag and crushed them with a meat mallet, but you can use a rolling pin, too)
1 cup of Italian bread crumbs
2 eggs
1 box of whole wheat linguine (optional--I like to set the chicken on a bed of noodles)
Oregano (optional)

Directions:
1. Preheat the oven to 400 degrees.
2. Combine crushed corn flakes and bread crumbs in a bowl and set aside. Crack eggs into a separate bowl.
3. Cover each chicken breast with a piece of parchment paper and pound it flat, until it's about 1/2 inch thick.
4. Take each chicken breast and dip it in the raw egg, making sure to coat it thoroughly. Then roll it around in the corn flake-bread crumb mixture until coated. Place each breast on a baking sheet lined with tin foil, then cover them with marinara sauce.
5. Bake the chicken at 400 degrees. After 30 minutes, pull them out to see how done they are. (I check them by cutting into the center of the thickest piece.) You may need a total of 35 minutes, or you might need 45. The thinner the chicken breasts are, the faster they'll cook. When they're about 6-7 minutes from being done, place a slice of the fresh mozzarella on top of each breast. (If you put it on earlier, it might burn.) Season with oregano.

I usually make a salad with Italian food, but this time I chopped up eggplant, carrots, grape tomatoes, and asparagus, tossed them with garlic and olive oil, and roasted them in the oven.

In case you haven't noticed, I try to incorporate fruits and vegetables into all my meals. If you shop at a chain grocer like Kroger, produce can be incredibly expensive, and it spoils fast. That's why a lot of people don't eat enough fresh fruit and vegetables. But I found an independent market up the street from where I live that has ridiculously cheap seasonal produce--I can walk out with a week's worth that costs $5. If you're trying to eat healthier, I'd check out local farmer's markets and small shops.

I'm also a Starbucks fiend, but since that's overpriced too (has anyone noticed their small-sized coffee is the size of your palm and costs something like $3.25?), I make a lot of coffee drinks at home. Tonight I made an "Italian latte": Coffee, two tablespoons of CoffeeMate Italian Sweet Creme creamer, light whipped cream, and cinnamon and sugar. 90 calories.

Sunday night: Mocktails, mac and cheese, and more

 

The finished product. 

We had friends over tonight, and it was 65 and sunny here, so Kyle grilled burgers for everyone. I handled the side dishes: fruit salad, sweet potato fries, and "gourmet" macaroni and cheese.

I said in my first post that I used to eat Kraft macaroni and cheese like there was no tomorrow. Sure, it tastes good. It's also loaded with salt, fat, and calories (450 for half the box prepared, which is a ton, considering it's not very filling and you'll be hungry again soon after eating it). Boxed mac and cheese also has no protein or fiber, because it's refined-carb pasta and that cheese isn't real--it's cheese-flavored powder.

So yeah, it basically has no nutritional value whatsoever.

Luckily, I found a way to make healthy macaroni and cheese that's ten times tastier than the boxed stuff--and ultimately cheaper. This recipe has only 300 calories per cup--and, thanks to the high-fiber pasta and real cheese, it's very filling.

Ingredients:

1 1/2 cups Smart Taste macaroni elbows (they taste like white pasta, but are lower in calories and have added fiber and nutrients)

1 8-oz package of reduced-fat cream cheese

2 cups of fat-free milk

1 tablespoon of flour

1 cup shredded 2% milk cheddar cheese

2 cups frozen spinach, thawed (you can use fresh spinach, too)--optional

1 cup of tomatoes--optional

Cajun seasoning (optional--I added a bunch of it this time, and it was delicious)

Directions:

1. Cook macaroni according to package directions and set aside.

2. Melt cream cheese in a skillet, being careful not to burn it.

3. In a bowl, stir together milk and flour until smooth.Add to the cream cheese; stir over medium heat until it's bubbly. Stir in cheddar until it's melted. Combine sauce and macaroni, cook and stir for 2 minutes or until heated through.

It was so, so good.

 I also made spicy sweet potato fries, which have a fraction of the calories of regular French fries.

To make them, cut one or two sweet potatoes lengthwise, then slice into wedges. Put the wedges in a bowl, pour in a little olive oil, and toss the wedges to coat. Preheat the oven to 400. Cover a baking sheet with foil and put the fries on in one layer. Sprinkle on chili powder and Cajun seasoning. (Be sure to put seasoning on before baking, not after, or the fries won't absorb the flavor.) Bake for 10 minutes, turn the fries over, and bake for 10 more minutes. 

And, since we were having people over, I decided to try something I've wanted to do for a while: mocktails. I quit drinking a while ago, and alcohol-free cocktail recipes are all over the web. My favorite was "virgin champagne." 

In a large punch bowl, combine 1 bottle of ginger ale, one large can of pineapple juice and one carton of white grape juice. Garnish with fruit if you like.


And, of course, the munchkin joined the party.

 

 Yes, she does have outfits that aren't pink...a few, anyway.

Have a good week everyone!

Saturday night: spinach and feta stuffed chicken breasts with cream sauce

Since we don't have a ton of free time during the week, I usually save complicated recipes for Saturday and Sunday nights. That way, instead of scrambling to put food on the table and get the dishes done, I can kick back and relax with some tea while I cook.

Not gonna lie: I made this recipe up. I've been wanting to do stuffed chicken breasts for a while, so I based it off of two different recipes I found online.

Ingredients:
1 can of low-fat cream of chicken soup (Campbell's sells it under its "Healthy Selects" line)
1/4 cup of skim milk
1 cup of feta cheese
1 cup of 1/3 less fat (neufchatel) cheese
1 cup of frozen spinach, thawed
2 boneless, skinless chicken breasts
2 cloves of chopped garlic

Instructions:
1. Preheat the oven to 375 degrees.
2. In a saucepan, mix soup and milk. Set aside.
3. In a microwave-safe bowl, combine cream cheese, feta, garlic, and thawed spinach. Microwave for 45 seconds or until cheese starts to melt. Mix ingredients well.
4. Using a meat mallet or a rolling pin, pound the chicken breasts until they're about 1/4-1/2 inch thick. Spoon cheese mixture down the center and roll the breast up. (Some of the cheese might ooze out, but that's okay.) 
5. Line a shallow baking dish with foil and put a light layer of the soup on the bottom. Carefully place the chicken rolls on the dish, seam-side down.
6. Pour the rest of the soup over the chicken. 
7. Bake in the preheated oven for 50 minutes, or until chicken is done. This is important! Every oven is different; 50 minutes at 375 worked for me, but you might need more or less time. 45 minutes to an hour is a safe bet.

I also made roasted Roma tomatoes and wild rice on the side. (If you're trying to lose weight, skip the rice; brown and wild rice can be healthy, but it's heavy on the calories.) The recipe for the tomatoes can be found here. 

Why blog about food?

This is me and my 5-month-old daughter.

This is me at my baby shower a little over 5 months ago, two weeks before having her.

Yeah, I know...

I gained 45 pounds while I was pregnant, above and beyond the recommended 25-35 for a healthy pregnancy. And I can't use the standard-issue excuse: "I just blew up, you know how it is...I don't know what happened!" Because I do know what happened. I won't go into detail, but my pregnancy was highly stressful. And to make a long story short, I was a fast food addict. I lived on meatball subs from Subway (or should I say "meat"ball?), boxed macaroni and cheese, Pizza Hut, and Chipotle.

And, as is the case for any addict, my habit was costing me an absolute fortune. One meal at Chipotle--burrito, chips, and a drink--runs almost $10. After delivery charges, ordering pizza can cost almost 20 bucks. Not only was I blowing away all my extra money on food, by the sixth month, I was lethargic, cranky...and fat. I left the hospital weighing 150 pounds, up from my normal 115-120 pre-pregnancy. The first time I looked in the mirror, my only word was "yikes." For the next two months, I tried diet fads. I refused to eat carbs and lived for a few weeks on hard-boiled eggs, bacon, and protein shakes.

Gross.

And--surprise, surprise--I barely lost any weight. By Christmas I still weighed nearly 140, making my "diet" seem hardly worth it. I threw my hands in the air and accepted that I'd probably look like this forever.

Instead, two things happened over Christmas. First, my mom got me a membership to the local YMCA as a gift. I had always loved to run in college (it's great for clearing your head and coming up with new ideas), so I started running 3 miles a day at first, eventually building up to 4 or 5. Then my mother-in-law gave me a low-calorie cookbook.

I had never cooked before in my life and assumed that if I did, I'd suck at it. In fact, the only meal I knew how to make was spaghetti, which consists of boiling noodles, browning ground beef, and pouring canned sauce over it. But since none of my ridiculous diets were working, I decided to at least give it a try. All you have to do is follow the directions, right?

To make another long story short, I've since lost all the weight and kicked my unhealthy eating habits. Instead of buying all my food at an overpriced drive-thru joint, I cook at home as often as possible. I'm no longer on a "diet," but I do enjoy making healthy meals for my husband and me, and sometimes our friends and family. On the rare occasion I eat out, I try to choose wisely. I wanted to start a food blog for anyone who's interested in doing the same. Enjoy!