Monday Meal

Meals are always better when Chef makes them. Not just because it's someone else doing the dirty work, but also because, as his name implies, he's better trained at these sorts of things.

In my one week effort (we're in week two now- yay!) to actually cook some meals, Chef got into the spirit by not only making the pot roast pictured, but suggesting it during our pre-shopping menu planning. And I have to say, that it was delicious. One might say excellent (and by "one" I mean me--the one who ate the thing like there was no tomorrow).

We also had a lovely side dish that I've requested for tonight. Because I'm now so bossy that I can request he make something again. Or maybe that's just a bonus of marriage, I'm not sure. But we had a side of Brussels sprouts roasted with bacon. Granted anything with bacon in it is awesome by association, but these had a flair of double awesomeness to them. I'd have taken a picture, but they weren't the prettiest. Brussels sprouts aren't super pretty when they're roasted. Just the tastiest.

One week down and it's been pumpkin ravioli, maple glazed chicken with Brussels sprout slaw, chicken tamale casserole and pot roast with Brussels sprouts roasted with bacon. Not too shabby of a week. I wish I could make more, but I'm off to Washington DC tomorrow for work. Although I'm sure to have some tasty meals there, too.

In the mean time, if you've got any more recipes or web sites to send my way, keep 'em coming! (And thank you).

Meal Plan Week Two

Okay, so week one was fairly successful. Aside from the great chicken debacle, we ate pretty well and I didn't have to answer a lot of food-related questions. This week has started out along a similiar vein. One thing I will say is that I'm a little over ambitious in the amount of meals I should be cooking each week. Mostly because we have a full fridge and need to add at least one leftover night.

We had cheesy grits with shrimp and bacon on Saturday night. Delish. Truly good. Tonight I think it's garlicky penne with broccoli. I had something else on the menu, but I'm a few dishes behind. I get overzealous.

Nonetheless, the experiment continues...

Mustard Chicken...Not so good

Tonight's dinner started out with good intentions and ended up with an emergency run for sustenance via a drive-thru. I'm fairly certain that's how most people end up in the their cars lined up for food that's passed through a window. That and good advertising.

But I digress. It was a baked chicken with a mustard herb rub. I made it, baked it and it took it out. The smell was pretty gross. I couldn't even make myself try it. I just asked Chef what he wanted from where and grabbed my purse. He was also in charge of clean-up or as he called it "hazardous waste disposal." Okay, it wasn't THAT bad, but it wasn't good.

Tomorrow is a garlicky penne with broccoli. It's also my normal grocery day, so I've got to come up with some recipes for next week. Again, I'm open to anything you all want to send me!!

Chicken Parm Night Treated Us Alright

I used a Cooking Light recipe tonight for some Chicken Parmesan. It might have been "light" but it was also delicious. I have to admit that I fudged mine up. The pan wasn't hot enough and I was impatient, so the first round of tenders stuck to the pan. Chef intervened for his round. Even thought they weren't perfect looking, my tenders were delicious.

So three nights down and two to go. Tomorrow features one of my new favorite vegetables: brussel sprouts. Damn, those things are delicious. Just roasted with some salt, pepper and olive oil.

Cooking is nice but thankfully doesn't take up all night. What is there to watch on TV this summer? It seems like nothing. Everything on Showtime and HBO is ending, except for TrueBlood and FINALLY Entourage. Nothing good on network TV. No good sports. I guess I'll have to spend more time reading!

Well, I liked it

Tonight we had artichoke chicken pasta, a recipe from an American Heart Association cookbook, by the way. I love artichokes. I love olives, feta, olive oil, Mediterranean spices, all that stuff. And I love them all together.

Apparently my love to artichokes blocked out the fact that Chef isn't a fan. I swear that I asked him, but clearly I didn't listen too closely to the answer because I had two dishes this week featuring artichokes. One was put on hold and was a pizza, so luckily, I can adjust that accordingly.

Nevertheless, tonight's dish featured artichokes heavily (as evident by the title) as well as lemon, garlic, red pepper flakes, salt and a bit of olive oil. It seemed to be a good, lighter flavored summer kind of recipe. And I loved it. It was flavorful, delicious and filled me up. Three things I look for in any meal. Add some salad on the side and BAM, I'm good to go. Needless to say, Chef wasn't the biggest fan as it tasted strongly of artichokes.

It was an easy recipe that only took about 30 minutes start to finish (Chef awesomely cut and cooked the chicken for me) and came in at 298 calories per serving. I probably could've used whole wheat pasta to lower some of the sugars, but I didn't.

So night two of cooking is under the belt. Tomorrow is a baked chicken parm (non-breaded). I'm kind of excited that we're eating some different stuff. I'm a little nervous because we've had leftovers both nights and I'm thinking that we might have to have a "clean out the fridge" dinner. Although I can't really complain about having too much food that's ready to eat after having no prepared food options, can I? Of course I can. The grass is always greener. . .

Just a food question that's a little off topic, but when did IHOP start thinking that diabetic-coma inducing carnival food was a good marketing strategy? Funnel cakes are not main dishes. Putting syrupy fruit and whipped cream on everything does not translate into a fruit serving and a dairy serving. Stuffing pancakes or French toast or crepes with cream cheese is not the best start to the day. Am I the only one whose noticed this?

What's for Dinner? Stuffed Shells

Tonight was the first real night in the meal plan. We ended up going out on Saturday night to Sportsman's Grill (and the newly opened Sweet Cece's--which was delicious--I had Cake Batter FroYo with fruity pebbles on top--heaven! But I digress...). So instead of taquitos on Saturday, we had them on Sunday. And they were delicious, as usual.

Instead of having the artichoke white pizza from Sunday, I went ahead with the regularly scheduled program: Stuffed Shells. Even though it was not all that different than spaghetti, the fact that the noodles were differently shaped and the proportions of herbs were different made it a good change. Plus the recipe came from a Trim and Terrific book my stepmom Robin gave me and so the calorie count per serving was about 400 calories. And it was mighty hearty.

Chef suggested measuring out some low fat ricotta cheese to add a bit to each shell. That would've been nice. I think the only fault was that the recipe made so much and called for a 2-quart dish when it should've been larger. So some of the shells didn't receive as much sauce and dried out a little.

All in all, the main point that made me excited was that I was excited again about cooking. I forgot how fun it can be when you're doing it for fun and not out of chore or obligation. I hope this enthusiasm lasts for a while.

Strategic Grocery Shopping

So one of the banes of my existence is the question "What's for dinner tonight?". Seems like a simple question and it's not that difficult really. But the question seems loaded. By the end of the day the last thing I want to do is make another decision. I'm typically drained as soon as I walk in the door and pillaging through the cabinets to find something.

So after being inspired by my friend who plan the week's meals and derive their lists off of it, I decided to put the effort back in. I used to sit with Chef and plan for the week. It made life easier. But much like you forget how good it feels to work out after you've neglected yourself for a while, I forgot how nice it is to have the "What's for dinner?" question answered before I walk through the door.

Tonight was grocery night and my cart runneth over. The recipes were less a contributing factor to that than the fact that I was hungry when shopping and it had been about two weeks since I'd done a thorough shopping trip. Tomorrow is the first day and not that outside of the box. It's taquito night. The timing is judged by the ripeness of the avocados--the right avocados are key to the guacamole. Other dishes I'm making this week (for the first time):

• artichoke white pizza
• crab spring rolls
• jumbo stuffed shells
• artichoke rotini with chicken
• Herbed Chicken Parmesan
• chicken with mustard and herbs
• Penne with garlicky broccoli

Wish me luck!

Chef's Birthday Binge

Chef's birthday was on Wednesday (he's still younger than me, but less so now and for the next 6 months which I prefer). He wanted cash and to binge on all the foods he loves. Both of which were fairly easy requests to accomplish. Primarily, I was happy to overcome my usual birthday giddiness and overcompensation. Maybe it's from years of being doted on by my mom, but I always try to go above and beyond for birthdays, be it my own or people that I love. Of course, the yin and yang of it is that I have to remember your birthday, which is sometimes a bigger problem than anything else.

But I digress, I listened to the sound wisdom of a long-time married friend who said "If he wants cash, just get him cash. No need for more or less." I did and then I also catered to his wants of the day when it came to our meals and snacks. Considering that we've been eating better for the last few weeks, I was looking forward to his birthday just as much as he was. Mostly to get some red meat, but more carbs and some cheese were also on my list of priorities. Here's a rundown of the items consumed during the course of a day:

• Chicken biscuits
• Hashbrowns
• Starbucks lattes
• donuts
• cupcakes
• cheeseburgers
• french fries
• Boursin-cheese laced mashed potatoes
• Filet mignon
• energy drinks
• whiskey
• Coke (full flavored, none of that diet stuff)
  

All said and done, Chef consumed more than 7,000 calories in one day. I didn't tip in at half of that, but it was still over my daily limit by quite a bit nonetheless. That's a lot of food. Especially when you're used to eating 5 mini-meals throughout the day. I was sick most of the night (never throwing up, but very full) and the next day I regretted my decision to eat steak. While it was certainly delicious, it was also like a brick of meat sitting in my stomach for boot camp the next night. I said more than once "I'm not eating red meat again any time soon." The meat hangover for boot camp was worse--like by at least a measure of 5--than my first day of boot camp that happened the morning after a really bad night of wine drinking.

By Thursday morning, I was happy to wake up to my bowl of oatmeal, fruit and start the day in a normal way. The meal plan doesn't seem so bad any more. Although, I'd totally be down for a bagel right now. I'm just saying.

Going to the Grocery and I'm Going to Get Healthy

I sent the meal plan for boot camp to Chef yesterday and he did his Chef thing. He came up with some alternatives to egg whites and tuna, some seasonings for the bland stuff and then got me excited about eating healthy. Actually, even he got excited about eating fresh foods, so we're going to try this together. Since I go to the grocery once a week (friday night because it's less busy and I usually have no life), it is the perfect time to get started.

So it's not lean proteins, fruits, vegetables, complex carbohydrates and water. The meal plan that Harold sent (trainer dude from Marathon fitness) doesn't say anything about Diet Mountain Dew or Diet Dr. Pepper, so I feel like if I get my 64 oz. of water in, then I can drink my caffeine until my heart (or pounding head) is content.

Of course, now I'm running to the bathroom every few hours because I'm peeing all the time, but it has to be better for me than The Whale. The Whale was the 54 oz. fountain drink from Exxon On The Run I was starting my mornings with. It was only $1 for any size drink, so if you're gonna go, might as well go big, right? I mean, it just makes fiscal sense to pay less than 2 cents per ounce when you can. It's revelations like these that make me know that I'm my father's daughter despite any moments when I might doubt it.

Where are the carbs at?

On Tuesday I started a boot camp with the other people in my office and I'm excited about it. I'm ready to have a little stead influence to kick my butt into shape. Even if it does leave me sore for two days and wondering if my butt can take the kicking.

And I've lost weight before. I never was able to say that until about 18 months ago when I started moving more and eating less. It was successful, but I'd still like to take some more off and make some permanent changes.

With boot camp, we were given a meal plan. I've never really had a meal plan before and I'm not so sure about this one. The two things that I'm really having trouble with are the tuna (not such a big fan of fish) and the egg whites (I gag nearly all the time that I'm around eggs of any sort). I get that I'm supposed to be eating lean protein, but the thought of choking down tuna and egg whites every day makes me a little sick to my stomach.

However, seeing this does give me some ideas for other lean proteins that I could be eating, but don't. I wonder if I can negotiate my way into some whole grain tortillas and turkey. There has to be some alternatives for this eating plan. I'm thinking I can do this, but Chef will definitely have to help out on seasoning front!