Days

Days go by
Fog follows me then floats away
Days go by
Time follows me then floats away
Days go by
My thoughts are scattered and then float away

Well, it's been 78 days since I've updated my blog...........I do have things to share or things to say and obviously being retired, I have the time but I find I put my blog on the back burner when other things come up and I guess that's okay especially since it's not like I make any money doing it but I like to think that someone out there in the big world of the internets likes reading my stuff.

It's also been 46 days since my father passed away and his passing is one of the reasons I've not posting anything earlier than now.....I'm still processing his death and I honestly feel like I'm in a bit of a fog since then.  Not having parents anymore is a sad, sad club and some have been members since they were young and others enjoy having their parents around late in life.  There is also another dynamic when your parents are divorced when they pass and depending how long that had occurred come into play also.  In my situation, my father had been married to my step-mother for longer than he had been married to my mother and my mother never remarried.   There is also a decade between my parents deaths....my mom's in April 2006 and now dad's in March of 2016.....spring time and Easter time don't hold fond memories for me because my mother died the Thursday after Easter the year she died and my father the Thursday before Easter this year.

At my age, you also start to question your own mortality.  My parent were very young when they had me (age 18), so I'm not that far behind them.  My mother was 67 when she passed and my father 77.  My maternal grandmother was only 63 when she passed, but I my mom's younger sister just turned 73 and is still going strong...my dad's side lived to be older except for his brothers.  My dad, the middle boy outlived both his older and younger brothers but both grandparents on that side were in their late 80's when they passed.   Our family is small, so when we lose someone, an entire branch seems to be cut-off and gone forever.

One of the things that my dad and I talked about over the years was both of our struggles with our weight.   My weight really wasn't as issue until I quit smoking 13 years ago and over the next 3-4 years continuingly put on weight.   I think the same thing happened with my dad.  You quit smoking, you look for another "thing" and with many ex-smokers, food is it.  Then if you really enjoy food, the battle is super hard.  Both my dad and I are "snackers" and I'm hoping that identifying

Since my dad's death, I've though about what I could do to honor him and I decided that I was finally going to make a concentrated effort to lose 30 pounds.   I'll be thrilled, my doctor will be thrilled and I can hear my dad say "Outstanding!".

So to "chunk" this task out so I don't become overwhelmed or set myself up to completely fail, I'm going to concentrate on the next 90 days to lose half of it.....15 pounds.....that's only 5 pounds a month....should be doable.....here's my obstacles

1. Booze (craft beer, wine, margaritas).  I don't drink everyday, but I do like a beer or cocktail with our meal probably twice a week.
2. Snacking.   One thing my dad and I had in common, we are "snackers".
3. Emotional eating.   This can go one way or another depending on what's going on.
4. Not taking the time out to eat during the day.   Then ravenous at night and we eat late due to the husband's job.
5. Keeping non-healthy crap out of the kitchen.   With a skinny 20 year old still at home there is still more junk food than I would like and my willpower is crap also.  :)

So, now that I've complained about my obstacles, here's some of the things I'm going to try and implement

1. Challenge myself to use My Fitness Pal every day to track my food because tracking does help.
2. I doubt I'm going to completely cut out my snacking, I'm just going to make better choices of what kind of snacks.
3. I'm also not going to give up my Diet Pepsi, but I'm going to make sure I drink TWO bottles of water to every one Diet Pepsi I drink.
4. I'm not going to cut out, but limit the amount of added sugar I consume....I'm talking to you ketsup.  :)
5. I'm also not going to cut out, but keep in check any processed foods that may find their way into our house because I know that little pouch of Idahoan potatoes isn't going to kill me once in a while.  :)

I love most fruits and vegetables and don't hesitate to eat them, I just need to make sure I'm getting the right amounts each day.

I also am pretty active but I could bump it up a bit, but I have to be careful because of the arthritis I have in my ankles, feet and neck.  No running ever, but I do like to walk and I need to start strength training again.

The husband and I were going to a aqua boot camp for quite a while, but it's just too hard to get to anymore because of what time the husband gets home and trying to rush to make the class.   I could go by myself and I might but it was much more fun doing it together.  It's bike season now also, so I anticipate getting out on the bike trails very soon.

So, it make that long story short....I'll be updating you on my fitness journey here if you're interested...sharing any recipes, workouts, etc. that have helped me.   I'm hoping that if I share here, I'll have some accountability of what changes I want to make.

Thanks for stopping by and listening to me!

Winner, Winner, Chicken Dinner!

I've been remiss with my blog lately....unfortunately or fortunately depending on how you look at it, life got in the way AND I'm also working on the gazillion pictures I took in New York City that I want to share with you at a later date......in the meantime though, I'll share another recipe from our family dinner table.

It's amazing that in the same month I've discovered and made two different casseroles that the spouse loves!  As I've mentioned in a previous post, the spouse is not fond of casseroles or stews but I keep making them thinking I'll hit upon some that he'll like and lately I have.

This one came across my Facebook feed from Tip Hero.   Super easy and really good.  One of our son's friends was over that night and ate two helpings of it and there were no leftovers.  I think the next time I make it, I'll mix it up a bit and use buffalo wing sauce instead of hot sauce and sprinkle fresh chopped green onion on top.

Loaded Chicken & Potatoes

1/2 lb. Bacon – diced and cooked, set aside

8 medium red or gold potatoes - diced

1 lb. cubed chicken breast

Mix together in large bowl:

1 Tbsp. Paprika
2 Tbsp. Garlic Powder
2 tsp. Kosher Salt
1 ½ tsp. ground pepper
¼ cup olive oil
2 ½ Tbsp. hot sauce or buffalo wing sauce

Add potatoes and chicken to the oil & spice mixture and mix well.

Pour chicken & potato mixture into a lightly sprayed 9 x 13 baking dish. 

Bake at 400 degrees for 60 minutes.

Top with:   
½ cup of chopped green onion
2 cups shredded cheddar cheese
Reserved bacon.
Return to oven for 5 more minutes to melt the cheese

Serve with sour cream.

"What's For Dinner?"

I'm so darn tired of trying to figure out what to plan for dinner for the myself and the spouse.  I'm married to a man who likes to know "what's for dinner" and the young adult in the house is rarely around at dinner time so we don't worry about him, but funny how, when I'm making a favorite of his....pasta, burgers....he seems to be hanging out. 

I started thinking about making it easier on myself last fall and scoured the Internet for ideas, so my idea is bits of pieces of the information I did find, but with my own twist on it.  Some meal planning is by day....Monday's are meatless, Tuesday is chicken, Wednesday is pork, well, you get the idea.

My idea is super simple and involves your favorite meals, so the first and most important step is to get a pad of paper or open a word processor program, sit down with whomever it is that you are eating with (your family, your spouse, your parents, etc.) and list 30-35 of your favorite meals.  List all those meals that your family asks you to make and jot down your favorite sides that go with the main meal.  

The philosophy behind this is you'll have 30-35 of your favorite meals right at your fingertips. 

Once you have your list of favorites ready, you'll want to make a meal card for each meal.  It's completely up to you....hand write them on index cards, print them on index cards or cardstock.  I was having issues printing directly on to the index cards, so I did it the hard way and created a word document and listed our meals in that, printed, cut them out and glued them to the index cards.  Printing directly on index cards or cardstock would definitely be easier. 

Of course, I'm going to embellish my meal cards....that's the fun part!  I just took some of my many markers out and while watching that three OT college men's basketball game between Kansas and Oklahoma the other night, I doodled on all of the cards.  I used a simple line and dots but it jazzed them up a bit. 

I also like to look at the meal plan cards as a prompt too....maybe seeing it will remind me of a recipe we liked.  I was somewhat vague on several of the cards (like the photo below) so that you have some flexibility in the plan.

"Chef's Choice" when mentioned on the cards is a favorite recipe for that food.  I also made room for any notes that I might want to jot down when using that card.

If your family is like mind, we don't cook all seven nights of the week.  There is usually a leftover night in there and there is usually a night where one of us isn't that hungry so we "fend for ourselves".  Currently, we also have a surplus of make ahead freezer meals, so I doubt I'll use seven of my cards a week.

I decided that I didn't need a box to store these.....I think I ended up with 35 cards and that's not enough to use a box, so instead I embellished up a chipboard envelope that I re-sized with some minions paper (I LOVE minions) which works perfect with my meal planning/coupon basket.

What? you say a meal planning/coupon basket?  Yep.....I've been using this basket for at least 15 years to stash my coupons, my grocery ads, my freezer inventory sheet and clippings of recipes we want to try.   It's 10x14, it's slim and it fits inside a drawer or cabinet easily...it's Longaberger too..

My meal planning routine happens on Sundays...usually in the evening....it's multi-taking at it's finest.   Meal plan, clip coupons, look at grocery ads all while watching the latest movie DVD we've rented or while watching Netflix......then I'm all ready for my Monday grocery shopping and around here, Monday morning at the grocery store will make you feel like you own the place.

So...when you're racking your brain trying to come up with ideas for meals, you'll have an envelope full of ideas to choose from!

I hope sharing my "30Plan" with help all of you with your meal planning.  Enjoy!

~* Food Glorious Food *~

I've been wanting to share a few recipes with you that I've made for my family since the holidays and this blog post is about two of them.  One is an older recipe I created and we love and the other is a brand new recipe that we discovered but tweaked and it ROCKED!

The first recipe is one I've been making and improving for years.  I call it "Baked Chicken Mozzarella"

Baked Chicken Mozzarella

4 - Boneless Skinless Chicken Breasts
4 - Mozzarella String Cheese
1/4 cup of Pesto (homemade or store bought - for this recipe I used Trader Joe's)
1/2 cup of Bread Crumbs
Italian Seasoning (I use a local spice store's seasoning)
Cooking Spray
1 cup of your favorite Marinara sauce

Look easy doesn't it?  That's because it is!

^^^The chicken breasts I had were SO big that I was able to cut them into four portions shown below.
 

Here's where you get to pound out some aggression.  Between sheets of wax paper, pound the breast out to about 1/2" thickness. 

 

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Once you have the breasts pounded out to the right thickness, give them all a nice coating of the pesto.  Place a piece of the string cheese on the chicken breast and roll the breast around the cheese using toothpicks to secure it.

 

Here's the Italian seasoning I use from Allspice a local spice store in the East Village area of Des Moines.  Best spices and seasonings ever!

Once you have your chicken breast rolled up and secured with toothpicks, dredge them in the bread crumbs as best you can around the picks.  I like using my seasoning mixed with the bread crumbs and then sprinkle a bit more once I have the breast covered.  

 Place the breast in a baking dish that has been lightly sprayed with cooking spray.  I also spritz the breasts themselves with a bit of butter spray so they crunch up nicely in the oven.

What I can't believe I did was not get a photo of the finished product on a plate with a dollop of marinara sauce and served with crusty Italian roll and a leafy green salad with zesty Italian dressing.  I think I was too excited about digging in and eating it then I was getting that final photo.  :)

 

**********************************************************************

 

The second recipe is a remake of a recipe I saw on Facebook from a website called Six Sisters Stuff, but I changed up the ingredients enough that I call my recipe inspired by theirs.

 

 

Slow Cooker Mongolian Beef

 

1 pound of whatever steak you want to buy (sirloin, flank, flat iron) - cut into stir-fry strips

1/4 cup of cornstarch

2 Tablespoons of Olive Oil

1/2 teaspoon of minced ginger

2 gloves of garlic (I didn't have any fresh but I had jarred minced in my produce drawer so I used that)

1/2 cup of light soy sauce

1/4 cup of Tamari sauce

3/4 cup of water

1/2 cup of brown Splenda

1 pint of fresh mushrooms, sliced or quartered

3 medium green onions, sliced

 

 



Dredge the beef strips in the cornstarch, shake off excess and place in a slow cooker that has been lightly sprayed with cooking spray.

The next seven ingredients are what is needed to make the sauce to go over the beef mixture.  Dump them all in a bowl and whisk it up.  Do you have a rasp to grate things?  I love that thing, I had it for years and can't even remember when I got it....it's one of a set of two and they have held up well.

Once you have the sauce mixed up, pour it over the beef in the crock pot and let it go!   Set on high for 2-3 hours and low for 4-5. 

 

The original recipe had carrots and my spouse is not fond of cooked carrots in things, especially his stir-fry, so my recipe uses fresh mushrooms.  Since I'm using those I'm not going to add them until the final 30 minutes of so of cooking.  They don't take long to cook and I didn't want them mushy.

 

 

The results after the low slow cooking of about 3 hours was a heavenly smell and sight of ginger, soy, beef so tender it falls apart on your fork and mushrooms cooked to just the right doneness (is that a word?)  :)

 

One of favorite things in the world is sticky rice.  I adore it and it is SO carb heavy that I don't fix it very often, maybe 3-4 times a year but this recipe was begging for it, so I made sure I had the sticky rice soaking (a major part of making it......don't forget....for at least 4-6 hours).

 

Once you steam the sticky rice and no, you don't use a traditional rice steamer....won't work...you use a stainless steel pot and a bamboo hat and no, I don't have a photo right now of ours.....I bought it at a local Asian market.  I do have a photo of the bamboo serving container I have for sticky rice that I bought when I bought the pot and hat.



Here's the sticky rice!  SO good..........I can't even......

Slice up a few green onions to top the Mongolian Beef .

Enjoy!   After a couple of weeks of slug like behavior I am attempting to get some things done this week in addition to keeping up with a very demanding business class, the biggest of which is painting a guest bathroom that has never been painted in the almost 11 years we have been in this house....and for a bathroom that is rarely used, it sure was dirty....I had to clean before painting and really clean after too....I share it once I'm done......and it's the first of two I have to do.