(Worse-than-Pea) Avocado Soup

Sorry I haven't posted in a while! Again, I have no internet at my new apartment so it's tough to find the time/place sometimes. Tuesday afternoon my new blender came in and I made myself a smoothie that night! It was so yummy :)

Banana Mango Smoothie

• 1 banana
• 1 cup of milk
• 1/2 scoop vanilla protein powder
• Handful of ice cubes
• 1/2 cup finely diced mango

The next morning I had peanut butter and banana overnight oats for breakfast Wednesday morning, mmmm.

Me with my new cat-eye sunglasses I got from Ebay in the car on the way home from school on Thursday.

Thursday night I had leftover stuffed peppers with a cheesy baked potato. They were still yummy a few nights later!

Last night I made avocado soup. I was expecting it to be amazing, because I LOVE avocados, but unfortunately it was pretty disgusting! I had a few spoonfuls and ended up throwing away the entire batch that I made. It was that gross! I should've known since it had yogurt in it, but I couldn't even taste the yogurt in the recipe. The soup is supposed to be served cold, but since I dislike cold soups and it tasted kind of bad, I decided microwaving it a little bit might make it a little better. I was wrong. It became so much more revolting.

This morning I had the yummiest breakfast (which totally made me forget to eat lunch, so my stomach was growling like crazy at work by 2pm!). I bought a canteloupe at Stop and Shop on Sunday for I think $2.50 and finally cut it open today. It has been sitting on my table all week but I didn't ever have the time to eat it or anything to do with it. Adapted from a recipe in the Biggest Loser Family Cookbook I made a slice of canteloupe covered in warm blueberries (I microwaved about a quarter cup of frozen blueberries I got on sale for $2 at Stop and Shop last week).

Tonight I worked until 7 and afterwards went home to visit my parents in Woonsocket (*cough* *cough* ... do laundry... *cough* *cough*). I stopped at the grocery store on my way home and picked up some staples I don't have in Woonsocket to make myself overnight oats for tomorrow morning and a bread-less tuna fish sandwich for dinner tonight. It was yummy! I made it with English cucumbers because those were the ones on sale, which gave it a distinctively different flavor. It was pretty good, although I think I prefer the regular cucs.

Cheesy Cheesy Pepper Squeezy

Mmmm! Yummy yummy overnight oats :) Like I said in the last post, I got this idea from the blog Kath Eats Real Food because it's the perfect no-cook breakfast for mornings I leave from Brent's house. Since I didn't really know how much I was going to like it, I kind of threw everything but the kitchen sink in this one. I added 1 cup oats, 1/2 cup skim milk, and 1/2 cup plain nonfat yogurt. I also added vanilla, maple syrup, brown sugar, frozen peach slices, frozen raspberries, and some peanut butter! Probably not the healthiest idea, but I didn't know how it was going to turn out and I wanted to save myself from a gross breakfast.

The only thing I didn't end up liking about it was the yogurt. I've never been a yogurt fan and every time I try it again, I still hate it. I should really learn! I made some more for tomorrow, but this time I went a little bit of a healthier route...

Peanut-Butter & Banana Overnight Oats

Ingredients

• 1 cup old-fashioned oats
• 1 cup skim milk
• 4 packets of Splenda
• 1 mashed banana
• 1/4 cup organic peanut butter

Directions

• Mix together
• Refrigerate overnight
• Reheat in the microwave for 1 minute, stir, microwave 1 more minute
• Enjoy!!

For lunch I made myself a bread-less tunafish sandwich with a side of avocado. 

Since my new apartment doesn't have laundry facilities, I had to go to my grandparents for a few hours today to do a load. When I got back around 7pm I was STARVING! I made myself some stuffed green peppers - a recipe I got from my Biggest Loser Family Cookbook.

The recipe was all-in-all pretty simple and healthy... I was done eating by 8:15pm.

Stuffed Green Peppers

Ingredients

• 2 green bell peppers
• 1 oz. feta cheese
• Olive oil
• 4 cloves of garlic, minced
• 2 cups cooked rice (1 cup uncooked)
• 2 tomatoes, finely diced
• 1 lb. lean ground turkey
• 1/4 teaspoon salt
• 2 large egg whites

Directions

• Preheat oven to 375˚
• Cut stems off peppers and cut in half, top to bottom.
• Fill a large pot 2/3rds with water and boil peppers for 5 minutes.
• While peppers are boiling, cook turkey and garlic in pan with olive oil 3-5 minutes, breaking up turkey into bite-size pieces.
• Take peppers out of the pot, drain, and let cool.
• In a bowl, mix together turkey, feta, tomatoes, rice, eggs, and salt.
• Put peppers in an 8x8 glass baking dish and stuff peppers with turkey mixture (I had a bunch left over). Fill dish with about 1/4 inch of water.
• Place dish in oven and bake for about 20 minutes, or until peppers are golden brown and slightly crusting on top.

The peppers were really good! I did need to add some salt once it was on my plate, but I was really pleased with how it came out. The tomatoes were actually my own addition to the recipe. When looking at the stuffing mixture, I felt that something was missing. I remember my mom's stuffed pepper recipe and that she always cuts up some of the bell pepper to add to the mixture. Since I had already cooked mine and didn't have extras, I decided tomato would be a good substitute. It would definitely have been found lacking without the extra pizazz my lovely vine-ripened tomatoes added ;)

Along with my stuffed peppers, I decided to make use of another recipe I found in the Biggest Loser Family Cookbook... cheesy baked sweet potatoes. Unfortunately I just bought a bag of russet potatoes on sale the other week that I should be using up, so I had to go a little bit unhealthy for this. But I made up for it without all the butter and sour cream!

Cheesy Baked Sweet (or regular) Potatoes

Ingredients:

• 1 potato
• 1 wedge Laughing Cow Lite Garlic and Herb cheese 

Directions:

• Scrub potato under warm water.
• Place potato in microwave safe bowl. Poke potato 5 times on each side with a fork.
• Place paper towel loosely over the bowl. Microwave 5 minutes on each side.
• Add cheese and salt.

I've always been skeptical of microwave-baked potatoes, but the oven just takes too darn long! I decided to try it just this once... and I really liked it. Huh! For a quick side dish... it was beyond my disgusting expectations. I have to admit that I added a LITTLE bit of margarine to my potato along with the cheese... but it was really good. And I love sour cream! This was totally worth it.

Sunday, Monday, & Tuesday

I wish I didn't have to cram all this in into one post... but, don't worry, I'm sure I'll be back to my normal blogging schedule pretty soon.


Sunday, was pretty hectic, so I just scarfed down a Zone Perfect Fudge Graham bar like normal and grabbed a PB&J sandwich on whole wheat bread made with organic peanut butter and sugar-free grape jelly for lunch.

After moving all day, I was THIS close to just giving up and making myself a steamy, comforting bowl of Ramen noodles for dinner with some saltines... but eventually I made the right choice and whipped up a quick salad with tomatoes, cucumbers, chick peas, cannelini beans, avocado, feta, and walnuts tossed with Ken's Lite Ranch Dressing.

I was really proud of myself for making the good decision, and it felt great knowing that I've come one step closer to really making a lifestyle change in my diet. Plus, even though making a salad takes a little more effort, it took probably the same amount of time making Ramen does, if not even less. So if you're going to cheat one time, don't give the old "time" excuse.... just own your mistakes and vow to start with a fresh slate tomorrow.

To treat myself after the long day moving, I also tried out my oven and made these healthy muffins. The recipe was originally for Pumpkin Muffins, but apparently Stop&Shop only carries canned pumpkin during the fall, so I decided to go with No Sugar Added Canned Peach Slices instead. But.... I was still getting used to the oven and they came out pretty burnt. The recipe said 40 minutes, but they were burnt in 20! The insides were kinda good, though...

Monday morning, I started the day right with some Frosted Mini Wheats. Like I said, I usually don't eat cereal, but Monday was another busy day, so I went with a high-fiber choice in skim milk.

Monday night's dinner was, in a word... AMAZING! Even Brent said, it's the best thing I've ever cooked that he's tried that wasn't dessert! It was delicious. Yummmm, I'm drooling just thinking about how tasty and awesome it was. I got this recipe from the February issue of Taste at Home magazine that my friend Sarah lent me. 

Nutty Chicken Stir Fry

Ingredients:

• Chicken breasts (I used about five chicken breast tenders, but it depends on how many people you're trying to feed)
• Vegetable Oil
• Stir-fry vegetables (The easiest thing would be the pre-mixed frozen stir-fry vegetable packets, but I don't like everything in those, so I used canned baby corn, water chestnuts, and bean sprouts)
• 3 cloves garlic, minced
• Brown sugar
• Cornstarch
• Ginger
• Reduced-sodium chicken broth
• Reduced-sodium soy sauce
• Peanut butter
• Long-grain white rice

Directions:

• In a large skillet, stir fry chicken breasts in oil for 2 minutes
• Add vegetables and cook until soft, then add garlic
• In a bowl, combine 2 tbsp brown sugar, 4 tsp cornstarch, 3/4 tsp ground ginger (I bought fresh ginger and ground it with a cheese grater). Stir in 1/2 cup chicken broth, 1/3 cup soy sauce, 1/4 cup peanut butter (I microwaved for about 30 seconds - make sure not to burn!! - to make it soft enough to stir with the other ingredients) until blended.
• Pour sauce mixture over chicken mixture. Bring to a boil, cook a stir for 2 minutes until sauce thickens.
• Serve with rice (I used the rice cooker my parents got me for Christmas... makes perfect rice every time! And they aren't that expensive)
• The recipe also called for salted peanuts to sprinkle over the top before serving, but the water chestnuts gave the recipe all the crunch it needed and it was definitely peanut-y enough without them!

I also made a new batch of muffins! I put the muffins in at 325˚ instead of 375˚ and made sure to watch them. They came out great, and I'll definitely make them again. 

Pumpkin Quinoa Muffins

Ingredients:

• 1 cup whole wheat flour
• 1/2 cup brown sugar, packed
• 1.5 tsp baking powder
• 1/2 tsp cinnamon
• 1/4 tsp nutmeg
• 1/2 tsp salt
• 1/2 cup canned pumpkin
• 4 tbsp butter, softened
• 1/2 cup quinoa, cooked
• 1/2 tsp vanilla extract
• 1 egg
• 1/3 cup raisins
• 1/3 cup walnuts, chopped

Directions (makes six muffins):

1. Preheat oven to 375˚F
2. Coat muffin tin with non-stick cooking spray or line muffins cups.
3. Combine all ingredients in mixing bowl; blend well.
4. Pour batter evenly into muffin tins.
5. Bake for 35-40 minutes until muffins are cooked through.
6. Allow to cool before enjoying.

This morning I slept late because I had a bad night's sleep, so I had a quick bowl of my favorite cereal - Special K Fruit and Yogurt - with some skim milk.


When I got home from class, I made myself some peanut butter oatmeal which was YUMMY!

After lunch, I read a cookbook I got a while ago made by one of The Biggest Loser chefs. It gave me some interesting insight into my diet and there were definitely a lot of great, healthy recipes in there. Reading about portion size and the food pyramid made me realize that I'm probably going to have a plateau in my diet if I don't start cutting down on some carbs. Which is why I made a tunafish sandwich - minus the bread - for dinner tonight :) And I planned out my meals for tomorrow so that I would get the right amounts of everything... 4 servings of fruits and veggies, 3 servings of protein, 2 servings of whole grains. And of course, one serving of sweets! ;)

Shrimp and Orzo

Hi! Happy Wednesday, everybody :) Today was actually a pretty good day, even though I had an AWFUL sleep last night. After getting back from a relaxing physical therapy appointment, I ate a breakfast of whole wheat english muffins with peanut butter and bananas, a side of a grapefruit with Splenda. With my breakfast, I drank a glass of organic skim milk. I love drinking milk, and it's so good for you. The kind that I buy is made from local Rhode Island farms, because supporting local industry is important to me, and it's also organic so that I don't have to have all of those extra added hormones in my body that big milk companies like to give to their cows. 

After my breakfast, I fell back asleep for about two hours before I had to go into work. Normally I would've had class, but it was cancelled today. When I woke up, I knew I should eat something before going to work, so I had an avocado and a juice box.

One of the things that I've always done, because that's what my parents taught me, is I basically only drinking water. Most days I'll have a ton of water (at least the daily recommended amount) and usually one glass of milk (I almost never drink more than one glass because your body doesn't need that much milk in one day so I don't want to overload on those calories). Sometimes to treat myself (a few times a week) I'll drink a juice box with lunch to give myself a serving of fruit in a healthy size so that I'm not pouring myself a huge glass of sugary juice to satisfy a drink craving. Occasionally I'll also drink diet soda with nothing added, like Fresca, to give myself a change of pace from all the water. Also, I add fiber powder to my water once a day... just to make sure my digestion is on track and so I get enough of that essential nutrient :)

Oh I forget to show you... these are the flowers Brent gave me for Valentine's Day! Purple is my favorite color. He was so sweet... he said that he got me a plant because he thinks flowers dying is a bad omen. That was so adorable, so now the flowers are sitting on my windowsill soaking up the sun, where I can admire them all the time :) I just hope I don't accidentally kill it!!! Have you all seen How to Lose a Guy in 10 Days? (ha ha ha... love fern!)

After getting out of work (and traffic court... c'mon, it was a broken taillight!) I stopped at the grocery store to pick up a few extra things I needed for tonight's recipe. By this time I was STARVING! Walking around Stop&Shop with my stomach growling was torture. Luckily, I was able to stick to my list and didn't buy anything unhealthy :)

This recipe I found from Cooking Light. It was so yummy!!! The only thing that I didn't like about it was that I completely followed the portion directions, but there were WAY too many shrimp. I had to eat a whole shrimp in every bite with only about five orzo noodles to make each bite even.

Shrimp and Orzo

Yield: 4 servings (serving size: 1 1/4 cups)

Ingredients

• 1  cup  uncooked orzo (rice-shaped pasta)
• 2  tablespoons  olive oil, divided
• 3/4  teaspoon  salt, divided
• 1/4  teaspoon  black pepper, divided
• 1  pound  medium shrimp, peeled and deveined
• 1  cup  chopped Vidalia or other sweet onion
• 1  tablespoon  bottled minced garlic
• 1/4  teaspoon  crushed red pepper
• 2  cups  cherry tomatoes, halved
• 1/3  cup  (about 1 1/2 ounces) grated fresh pecorino Romano cheese
• 1/3  cup  chopped fresh basil

Preparation

Cook the pasta according to package directions, omitting salt and fat.

While pasta cooks, heat 1 tablespoon oil in a large skillet over medium-high heat. Sprinkle 1/2 teaspoon of salt and 1/8 teaspoon of black pepper evenly over shrimp. Add shrimp to pan; cook 1 1/2 minutes on each side or until done. Remove from pan.

Add remaining 1 tablespoon olive oil to pan. Add onion, garlic, and red pepper; cook 2 minutes, stirring frequently. Add tomatoes, and cook 3 minutes or until tomatoes begin to soften, stirring occasionally. Stir in pasta and shrimp; cook 1 minute or until thoroughly heated. Remove from heat, and stir in 1/4 teaspoon salt, 1/8 teaspoon black pepper, cheese, and basil.

Question of the Day: When I'm eating something, I'll make sure that I grab equal pieces of everything to make each bite "the perfect bite" and so that it all ends up even in the end. Do you guys do that too??

Chicken&Pasta with Feta-Walnut Stuffed Cucumbers

Because of my new big focus on a healthy, balanced diet, I've been doing a lot of research lately on what types of foods I should be eating. Like I mentioned before, vegetables, fiber, and proteins are going to be the most important parts of my diet. I get my information from a lot of different places, but I try and make sure they're reliable. Two of the resources I like to use are Carrots 'N' Cake and Women's Health Magazine. Also, I'm very excited because this semester I'm taking a Nutrition course which I'm loving, and that has given me some good information too. My professor is a registered dietician so she's always giving us some little tips about how to maintain a healthy lifestyle.


Tonight I was exhausted after having to get up at 6:45am this morning for class and not leaving the university until 5:15pm. Even though I was about ready to serve myself some Ramen Noodles and curl in bed with my laptop and electric blanket soothing me to sleep, I was too excited about a cool recipe I had read earlier in the day and too hyped up from posting about my new healthy lifestyle to slack off. I went right to the grocery story and loaded up on all great foods to last me for the next week. Besides the ingredients for my dinner, I stocked up on eggs, organic peanut butter, skim milk, avocados, and whole wheat bread, among some other things.


For my appetizer, I made Feta and Walnut Stuffed Cucumbers, which looked so irresistible that I had to make them tonight. Honestly, they weren't as great as I had hoped (but maybe I could have blended the stuffing a little bit more - I didn't want to disturb my roommate with the loud noise), but they were still pretty good. I made two, which was a little too much. I would have been content with just one to nibble on. 




Feta and Walnut Stuffed Cucumbers


1/2 c walnut halves

1/4 c chopped fresh parsley
1/2 c crumbled feta cheese (about 2 oz)
1/4 c fat-free milk
1 sm clove garlic, minced (1/2 tsp)
1/2 tsp mild paprika
1/8 tsp ground red pepper
4 med cucumbers, peeled, halved lengthwise, and seeded

1. Combine walnuts and parsley in blender or food processor and pulse until powdery in texture. Add cheese, milk, garlic, paprika, and ground red pepper and puree until smooth.

2. Fill cucumbers with feta-walnut mixture, patting into place with fork or spoon. Slice into wedges and lightly sprinkle tops with a little extra paprika.

Nutritional Info Per Serving 164 cal, 6 g pro, 8 g carb, 3 g fiber, 12.5 g fat, 3.5 g sat fat, 17 mg chol, 222 mg sodium

For my main course I made a pasta dinner with homemade sauce and boiled chicken. Brent gags when I tell him that I like to boil my chicken instead of sauté it before putting it in my tomato sauce. But for me that's just how I like it... I find that, for a sauce, sometimes the chicken gets too tough if I sauté it. Maybe this just means I'm bad at cooking it that way, but I figure if it's mixed in with the sauce you can barely taste the difference anyway. 

Whole Grain Pasta w/ Tomato & Chicken Sauce

1 Can tomato sauce

1/2 cup Alfredo sauce

2 Chicken breasts, cubed and boiled

3 Cloves of garlic, minced

Salt

Oregano

1/4 cup Parsley

1 box of whole wheat rigatoni

The thing that I liked about this recipe is the whole grain pasta. Before tonight, I'd only ever had whole grain pasta once, when my roommate made me dinner one time. I don't know if maybe it was a different brand or something, but for some reason I just didn't like it that much. But after reading about the benefits of whole grain pasta vs. regular pasta I decided to suck it up and try it one more time. Honestly, I had already taken a few bites of the pasta before I remember it was whole grain!! My roommate is a great cook, so I don't know what we did different, but mine ended up turning out really delicious! I'll definitely be using only whole grain pasta from know on - it's so much better for you! This recipe is pretty self-explanatory, which is why I didn't include directions. But one interesting thing you might notice is that when I make my pasta sauce, I use both tomato sauce and Alfredo sauce. Once in North Carolina I was served pasta this way and have loved the combination ever since! Alfredo sauce isn't the best thing for you, but with only 1/2 cup in the whole recipe, it's really not that bad.

Homemade Chicken Noodle Soup

Mmmm yummy! Just looking at this picture I can almost taste it in my mouth. This chicken soup was SO good! I got this from TasteOfHome.com and it boasted that it only took 30 minutes to cook - and it really did. It was so easy and fast, I am definitely going to cook this all the time now. It was perfect because I got a killer cold last weekend and have still been kind of sick all week and everybody knows the best cure for a cold is a nice big bowl of steaming homemade chicken noodle soup!

The recipe called for parsley flakes and bullion granules, but I didn't put either in. I didn't put the parsley in because (if you have been reading my blog, you know full well that) I really don't like any kind of herbs/spices so I always just skip over those parts when a recipe asks for it. I didn't put the bullion granules in... because I forgot to buy them haha. But I guess they weren't all that important because it was super tasty even without them.

One thing I really liked about this recipe is that it was a really good size. Usually when I make recipes (like the pumpkin soup), since I'm only one person, I end up with enough leftovers to feed a small African country after I'm done eating my one serving and end up with soooo much food in my tiny fridge. I had one bowl of this soup and then the rest I could fit in one average-size tupperware container so it'll be great for like one or two more servings and then it's done :) This was especially good because I ended up making another broccoli-chicken casserole (click HERE for the post I wrote about it and the recipe) to eat next week because I remembered how awesome it was last time I made it - so I couldn't take up a lot of room in my fridge with chicken soup leftovers.

Something I learned... Well something I tried new with this recipe is that usually I cube my chicken pretty large (not sure why, I just do) and then end up not liking that aspect of the recipe, so this time I diced the chicken breast pretty small and I definitely liked that, especially for a soup. I'll probably do that for all my recipes now. Since I don't like meat, I guess I should have figured I'd like the one kind of meat I do cook with in as small bites as possible :P

30-MINUTE CHICKEN NOODLE SOUP
(TasteOfHome.com)

Ingredients

• 4 cups water
• 1 can (14-1/2 ounces) chicken broth
• 1-1/2 cups cubed cooked chicken breast
• 1 can (10-3/4 ounces) condensed cream of chicken soup, undiluted
• 3/4 cup sliced celery
• 3/4 cup sliced fresh carrots
• 1 small onion, chopped
• 1-1/2 teaspoons dried parsley flakes
• 1 teaspoon reduced-sodium chicken bouillon granules
• 1/4 teaspoon pepper
• 3 cups uncooked egg noodles

Directions

• In a Dutch oven, combine the first 10 ingredients. Bring to a boil. Reduce heat; cover and simmer for 10 minutes or until vegetables are crisp-tender. Stir in noodles; cook 5-7 minutes longer or until noodles and vegetables are tender.