Huevos

I just made a delicious breakfast: Huevos Rancheros. It came in at only about 297 calories. I had a banana beforehand so my total caloric intake for breakfast was 387 g.

I've been doing very well this week with keeping my caloric intake at about 1500. My trainer did the math this morning and said I can go down to 1300 safely. I'll shoot for between the two for now. 1300 calories would come out to 3 meals at 400 calories each with a 100 calorie snack. I think this is also the flat belly diet.

I've been drinking Coke Zero instead of regular sodas and this week, and I discovered I like Pepsi Max (zero calorie as well) just as well as Coke Zero. I was going to splurge yesterday and have a small regular Coke with my happy meal at McDonald's, but a couple of small sips in I wasn't enjoying it like I thought I would so I put it down. I'm not going to waste my limited calories on something that isn't good.

I also keep plenty of SOBE Lifewater handy. These are calorie-free, contain vitamins, and use stevia as the sweetener instead of aspartame. My favorite flavors are Mango Melon and Yumberry Pomegranate. The Cherimoya punch is also very good. If you are a Hi-C fan/orange "drank" fan you will love the tangerine/orange flavor...I'm not a fan.

I have been tracking my calories and other nutritional info at myfitnesspal.com. They have a really good database of foods that includes brand names and restaurant foods. If you don't find exactly what you are looking for, they allow you to create a new listing. So hopefully most of the recipes I post from now on will also contain some nutritional data...approximate data at least. Here's the recipe for this morning's breakfast:

Huevo(s) Rancheros

1.5 tsp extra virgin olive oil

1/2 green bell pepper, julienned

small handful of baby carrots, julienned

1 tbs Soyrizo (veggie chorizo...I've only found it here at Wal-Mart and Kroger)

2-3 tbs salsa (I used some from a local restaurant: Casa Blanca)

Cholula hot sauce (or other hot sauce) to taste (I used about 1.5 tbs)

1 egg

salt/pepper to taste

3 Tostito's organic blue corn chips (optional)

Heat the oil in a nonstick pan over med-high heat. Add peppers and carrots and cook for 3-5 min stirring occasionally. Add Soyrizo, stir and cook until Soyrizo is hot. Add salsa and hot sauce, stir and cover. Let cook for an additional 3-5 minutes.

Make some room in your pan and add the egg and salt/pepper. You are pretty much frying the egg. Once I flipped mine I mixed it into the vegetable mixture a bit. Cook the egg to your liking and serve with the blue corn chips. It is very flavorful and filling. Plus, you are getting some of your veggies first thing in the morning.

Cal: 297 g; Carbs: 23 g; Fat: 16 g; Protein: 12 g; Fiber: 5 g

Chayote Squash Chicken and Rice

When I went to the grocery store yesterday to pick up a few things, I was trying to come up with something for dinner that would include yellow summer squash. My mind was swirling around Mexican food. I was thinking about something with chipotle peppers, maybe coating the squash with chipotle pepper paste and roasting it.

My eyes fell onto some chayote squash, so I grabbed a couple. I had worked with one before but it was years ago. Chayote is pronounced [chah-YOH-teh] and resembles a green pear in appearance, taste and texture. It is sometimes called a vegetable pear.


I had picked up a rotisserie chicken as well as some dried chorizo sausage (I love chorizo!). When I make chicken tacos or enchiladas I start with some shredded rotisserie chicken, so I grabbed the chicken and went to work. I used a fork to shred the chicken this time and it worked great. I hate shredding it with my fingers even though it is very effective. I will use the fork from now on. I still had no idea of what exactly I was making. I had no taco shells and no tortillas, so I would not be making tacos or enchiladas.

I added some extra virgin olive oil and minced garlic and put it in a non-stick pan on low heat. I decided I wanted to add the chayote to the chicken mixture, so I sliced and diced it. There was somewhat of a seed pocket at the very center. It was very easy to work around and discard.

Well, here's the recipe with my usual nonmeasurement:

Chayote Squash Chicken and Rice

1 pack yellow rice (I use Vigo brand)
Extra virgin olive oil
Minced garlic (about a tablespoon)
1 bay leaf
Ground cumin (about a tablespoon)
Smoked paprika (small sprinkling)
Dried oregano (1-2 teaspoons)
Freshly ground black pepper (1-2 teaspoons)
Chorizo (I used one small dried sausage,sliced, but ground chorizo would work too)
1 chayote squash, diced
Shredded rotisserie chicken (1 to 1 1/2 cups)
Chicken broth (about 1 cup)
Salt to taste
Sprinkling of shredded cheese (I had mozzarella on hand)
Fresh cilantro for garnish (optional)

Get yellow rice cooking according to package directions. Heat 1-2 tablespoons olive oil in non-stick pan over very low heat. Add seasonings to oil (garlic thru black pepper). I shredded my chicken and sliced and diced my chorizo and chayote squash while the pan and seasonings were heating up.

Raise heat of pan to medium and stir seasonings and oil. When they start to sizzle a little, add the chorizo and chayote and stir to coat. Heat for about 3 minutes, stirring occasionally, and then add chicken and stir to coat. Add chicken broth, a little salt if needed, and simmer over medium heat until liquid reduces.




After most of the liquid has reduced, top with a sprinkling of cheese and toss the mixture. Serve over rice with a garnish of fresh cilantro.

This was very flavorful. I was a little too heavy-handed with the salt, but other than that it was fantastic. I will definitely make this again. It would be a great enchilada or taco filling.

Blackberry and Baby Spinach Salad with Goat Cheese

Blackberries are one of the highlights of summer for me. Sure they taste good, but they also remind me of my childhood. My dad's parents owned a farm, which is still in our family, and we would go there almost every weekend.

Every June my mother, my grandmother and I would pick blackberries from around the fishpond and off the fence that separated a field of cotton from a dirt road. I would sit in the kitchen nibbling on the fresh berries as the two of them made blackberry jelly, which they would then "put up" into numerous jars. I would wait in anticipation the rest of the afternoon for dinnertime to come around so I could eat some of my grandmother's blackberry cobbler. It is still the best blackberry cobbler I have ever tasted. It is one of the few recipes of my grandmother's that I have. My Aunt Jimmy gave me a copy of the recipe at my bridal shower along with a recipe cardholder. One of these days I'll attempt to make it.

I got some blackberries from the farmer's market Saturday and last night I tried something a little different...a spinach salad with blackberries...and it was delicious. Lee really liked it also.

Blackberry and Baby Spinach Salad with Goat Cheese

Baby spinach
Plain goat cheese
Fresh blackberries

For the dressing:
Balsamic vinegar
Balsamic glaze (optional)
Honey
Salt
Freshly ground black pepper
Extra virgin olive oil

I rarely measure when I whip up a salad dressing, especially when I make it up as I go along. I just eyeball it to make sure I have enough for the amount of salad I'm making.

The basic formula is the same, though. Mix your acid (in this case the balsamic vinegar) and seasonings. And then, as you whisk that mixture, slowly drizzle in the oil. You have vinaigrette. Don't be scared of it. Just get in the kitchen and bang together some dressing.

I really wanted a sweet dressing, which this was before I even added any honey because the balsamic glaze is on the sweet side. If you don't have balsamic glaze, just use more honey. I think the sweet balances nicely with the spinach. Overall the dish was nicely balanced. The slight sweet tanginess of the berries and the lush, creaminess of the goat cheese was perfect. Yum.


I had another salad with goat cheese and fruit a few weeks ago, and it was equally delicious. There will be a lot more fruit, salad greens, and goat cheese in my future. It is a great summertime combination.

I had some romaine lettuce from the farmer's market and a few dried apricots left from another cooking adventure. I couldn't look at the apricots without thinking of the peaches and creme fraiche I had during my 2007 visit to Chez Panisse. So that led me to apricots and the creamy goat cheese.

Apricot and Goat Cheese Salad

Romaine lettuce, chopped coarsely
Dried apricots (rehydrated in water for about 30 minutes) or fresh apricots
Fresh goat cheese

For the dressing:

Apricot preserves
Dijon mustard or spicy brown mustard (just a little)
Red wine vinegar
Salt
Freshly ground black pepper
Extra virgin olive oil

Spring Cooking and a Little Cleaning

Greetings. I am terrible about keeping up with this blog. I have taken a lot of pictures that I intended to post, but I was just too lazy.

Spring is here (it feels like summer already) and the farmer's market opened a few weeks ago. So, I am again motivated to do some cooking and post about it. My friend Allison and I joined forces last weekend to make some lamb meatballs that we entered in a food competition. We were on a Relay for Life team so the meatball dish was an on-site fundraiser for Relay night as well. We took 2nd place. Below is a picture of our trophy and team mascot, Bubba the sheep. Our team theme was "No Sheep Here: Count Laps Not Sheep." Check out our cute jammies...counting sheep and purple to boot! Several female members of our team were sporting these that night (and morning).





We both made meatballs (a total of about 12 lbs), and she made a lemon rice pilaf and I created a Moroccan-style tomato sauce. It was very delicious. When I'm ready to look at another meatball I'm going to make it again. The meatballs themselves were made from a Cooking Light recipe. Here's the link: http://find.myrecipes.com/recipes/recipefinder.dyn?action=displayRecipe&recipe_id=318994

We made ours with half lamb and half beef to make them more economical. Lamb was about $5/lb. I plan on substituting the mint for oregano and basil and serving these with some spaghetti and marinara sauce.

When the Relay for Life was over about 6:30 am Saturday morning, I had breakfast at Cracker Barrel and was able to stop by the farmer's market right before it opened. I picked up some carrots, Daikon radishes, asparagus, and strawberries.


I've never been a fan of asparagus, but I've read about the magnificence of fresh, spring asparagus so I thought I'd give it another try. I decided to roast them.


I was pleasantly surprised. They were really good. I will buy more next week if they are available. I added them to some whole-wheat spaghetti carbonara with chicken. There is also parmesan cheese, pancetta, cream, mushrooms, and one egg. The asparagus gave it more depth as well as a nutritional boost. It would have been better but I completely forgot to add garlic.

My first thought with the Daikon radishes were to make Korean "kimchee" out of them, so that's just what I did. I added rice vinegar, salt, black pepper, lots of cayenne pepper, garlic, and green onions to the diced radishes and put them in the fridge overnight. I usually do this with cucumbers but I did like the peppery bite of the radishes. Kimchee is usually made of cabbage, of course, but you can create something similar to kimchee out of lots of veggies.

I decided to pickle my carrots as well. I added rice vinegar, powdered ginger, garlic, sesame seeds, and stevia to them. They were quite good. Lee and I ate both tonight with some bulgogi. Bulgogi is a popular Korean beef dish that I have yet to perfect. It was still good, though.

We ate it alongside some steamed rice and roasted seaweed. Here's how I made the bulgogi:

I bought some thin-sliced top round beef for like $2 and sliced it into smaller pieces. I then marinated the beef for about 45 minutes in a mixture of these ingredients:

Dr. Pepper
sesame oil
soy sauce
black pepper
touch of salt
touch of powdered ginger
touch of cayenne pepper

I then cooked it in a pan with sliced carrots, a sliced Asian pear, some chopped green onion (only green part), and sesame seeds. It was a refreshing change to normal dinner fare.

Right now I am making chicken stock. I had celery, carrots, and parsley left over from other meals, so I just needed some spices, an onion, and some chicken to make some stock. I'm going to freeze it in ice cube trays.


So, that is what is cooking at my house. Oh, and I did mention there was a little cleaning. Last week I decided to clean the master bath, so I cleared the clutter from the counter, organized the cabinet below the sink, and then cleaned the mirror (the plain almost 5 ft. wide mirror the contractors glued to the wall). I left the room to get cleaner for the countertops when I heard a loud crash. I went in to find that the entire mirror had fallen off of the wall and broken into a zillion pieces. So there was a lot of cleaning that day. I'm just glad I had not been standing there when it fell.

I feel it is a good time to do some redecorating in there now (painting the walls and cabinets, buying new mirror and lighting, etc...). Lee said we aren't going to do anything until I clean up the rest of the house. So, a little more cleaning is in store. At least I have some motivation. I already know how I want to redo it. Stay tuned.