Baby names, healthy choices, pigtails and workouts

One of the biggest lifestyle changes I made in the past year is that I have learned that most of the time the healthy, more wholesome and less processed version of any food tastes so much better.

Take my Friday night homemade pizza ritual.

I cannot tell you how much tastier it is to control the quality of my pizza. If you have ever ordered a pizza thinking you were going to get fresh veggies and instead you had a can of mushrooms dumped on top and a crust that probably contains a stick of butter, than you know what I can talking about.

My pizza includes a full bag of spinach, a full container of fresh mushrooms, 1 whole fresh tomato (instead of sauce with added sugar), fresh garlic and olives....YUM!

I really love fresh veggies and I feel sad for people who are veggiephoebic. I often wonder if they just don't know how to prepare them correctly.

Anyhow, I am really hoping to pass on these healthy eating habits to these cuties.....

They are always asking me to buy them prepackaged, sugary, processed crap (the damn boxes and commercials are sooo appealing to the 3 year old eye) and it can be difficult to say no. I admit, they have eaten more gold fish crackers than I would like and they have had plenty of other treats in the same category....but I am trying to influence their choices even more these days.

I will let you know how that goes. At least they like my pizza.

Speaking of my babies, I am loving that Charlotte can have her hair in pigtails now. What is it about baby girls and pigtails that is just so stinking cute? Love it!

I am looking forward to seeing what this next little girl will look like. My sister and I look nothing alike and I find it strange that two siblings can end up being so very different.

The great news is that we finally named baby girl. I didn't know if I wanted to share it with everybody but now that I feel 100 percent sure, I don't care who knows.

Our newest little lady will be

Vivienne Rose

I have loved this name for a while. I adore the French spelling and pronunciation which honors my French heritage and Rose was my great grandmother's name. But best of all it is not in the top 100, which is super important to me. The kiddos are already calling her "Vivi" so I am pretty sure it has stuck.

Pregnant life is still going okay. I am getting a lot bigger and have had to modify some of the workouts, but I still made it four days last week. I am doing 2 days of lifting and 2 days of cardio/ core with lots of stretching.

I still spend a lot of time on squats, lunges and deadlifts because I know these keep my lower half strong for carrying around this big belly.

I love the looks I get at the gym; some sympathetic, some concerned some just friendly. I just keep plugging away. I also wear these tanks sometimes:

http://fortwofitness.com

I don't exactly look like this lady:

but I like the cute tanks and they are super long and keep the big ole' belly covered. Plus my picture was taken at 4:30am....so that's my excuse!

Thanks and Thanksgiving

I have been blogger MIA lately. I have a few reasons: I haven't had much to say, my kids are seemingly more crazy lately, I have been preparing for the holiday and I have been teaching myself to knit, which has taken up some of my couch time.

Not much has been going on here. I had a doctors appointment on Monday and they officially readjusted my due date to May 11, putting me at 15 weeks. I ate a lot of crap this week, and am hoping to redeem myself next week, which will be hard with the holiday.

I had a decent workout week with 4 days at the gym and a few good workouts where I was even able to up some of my weight because I was feeling so good.

Today my mom and sister came down and took the kids out for the day while I went shopping. I am hosting Thanksgiving at my house this year. I really do love to cook and do not mind hosting at all, in fact I love it...however, it takes some serious prep. I have a lot of people bringing dishes, which helps. I find that the hardest part is trying to cook everything at the right time with only one oven.

I also got almost all of the kids Christmas shopping done and I am done with my nieces and nephews, and it's not even December! Wohooooo. Thank you Mama and Little Sis, I could have never done it without you.

The main things I am cooking this year are:
The turkey (obviously)
Homemade Cranberry-orange sauce
Whipped banana and honey sweet potatoes, recipe found here
Red Bliss Garlic and Chive Mashed Potatoes
Homemade Green Bean Casserole, recipe doubled and found here
Crockpot spinach and artichoke Dip
Homemade sweet roles with honey butter
Pumpkin Pecan Pie and Apple Pie

All the other stuff is being brought by a family member. I am praying I didn't forget anything.



I do like to spend a bit of time thinking about what I am thankful for during this busy time of year. I know it is on most people's minds and I have seen it talked about on many a blog and Facebook post. So in the tradition of giving thanks, here is my top ten list of what I am thankful for.

1. My health and the health of my family. Every time I log onto Facebook or every other day in real life, I hear of another friend/ acquaintance with a sick child or family member. I have had healthy pregnancies, healthy babies and my husband and I have no real health issues. Thank you God!

2. My job and the people I work with. I have been employed by a public school district since the year I graduated college and have never been without a job. I make a good salary, have good benefits and I work with many supportive, funny and generally wonderful people.

3. My mother. She is so supportive, loving and is always there when we need her. She has helped us financially and in every other way. I love that she is still young and has energy to do fun things with her grandkids.

4. My house. I sometimes take this for granted, but I really do have a beautiful house. It is comfortable and custom made for us (thank you husband) and it is pretty amazing to own something that someone you love made.

5. Summers with my kids. It is super hard to go to work everyday and leave my babies behind...but having a whole summer on the beach with them makes it much easier.

6. Getting to educate young people. I feel so fortunate to have a job that matters and to get to be a part of the lives of so many wonderful young people. It isn't easy, but it is meaningful.

7. A husband who loves his family. It seems like it is how it should be, but I hear about a lot of women who are married to men who would rather be doing many other things rather than spend time with their family. My husband and I like each other as much as we love each other and he likes to be with us.

8. A beautiful place and fun family to visit. My dad lives in a beautiful part of Montana and going to visit him and his lovely wife is the highlight of our summer. It is a fun, carefree trip where we can focus on family and the outdoors and my dad always makes it a great time.

9. My ability to have children. I know many woman who have struggled with fertility/ getting pregnant. I had some points in my life where I thought it might be hard for me. I am so blessed to experience the miracle of pregnancy and childbirth and to do so with no hardship.

10. My intellect. I am no genius but I am happy to have enough of a brain to know the importance of being healthy, to be pretty quick in most situations and to see all sides of things. I know my intellect was a gift of genetics and of being raised by caring, compassionate people and I am glad to have received such a gift.

Recipes

As pictured below I did some cooking this weekend.

Among the highlights were-
homemade chocolate cupcakes with cream cheese frosting (oh so healthy), homemade lo mein, coconut shrimp wontons and pumpkin seeds

Let's start with the cupcakes. I do not bake often, mostly because I would be double the size if I did. But my son has been begging me to make cupcakes, so I figured Halloween was a good excuse to bake them. There is nothing like from scratch cake..so much better than the box.

Chocolate cupcakes:

1 1/3 cups all-purpose flour

1/4 teaspoon baking soda

2 teaspoons baking powder

3/4 cup unsweetened cocoa powder

1/8 teaspoon salt

3 tablespoons butter, softened

1 1/2 cups white sugar

2 eggs

3/4 teaspoon vanilla extract

1 cup milk

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C). Line a muffin pan with paper or foil liners. Sift together the flour, baking powder, baking soda, cocoa and salt. Set aside.
2. In a large bowl, cream together the butter and sugar until light and fluffy. Add the eggs one at a time, beating well with each addition, then stir in the vanilla. Add the flour mixture alternately with the milk; beat well. Fill the muffin cups 3/4 full.
3. Bake for 15 to 17 minutes in the preheated oven, or until a toothpick inserted into the cake comes out clean. Frost with your favorite frosting when cool.

This made about 18 cupcakes

Cream Cheese Frosting
2-8 ounce packages softened cream cheese
1/2 cup softened butter
1/2 tspn pure vanilla extract
2 cups confection sugar, sifted

Beat together butter and frosting until smooth
add in vanilla
slowly beat in sifted sugar until smooth

*Note: this is not super sweet..it is more on the cream cheesy side and soo fabulous with chocolate cake if you ask me. We added in food coloring for festive, orange cupcakes. This makes enough for 18 generously frosted cupcakes

Homemade Lomein
2-3 bonelss pork chops sliced into thin pieces
2 stalks brocolli chopped up and including sliced stems
1/4 cabbage slices
2 medium carrots julliened
3 green onions, chopped
2 tablespoons seasame oil
House of Tsangs Classic Stir fry sauce (to taste and found in most asian food sections)
1 package Soba noodle cooked slightly less than directions call for (I cook the Annie Chung noodles for 3 minutes)

Heat oil in wok or large stir fry pan
add in pork strips and cook about half way: 3-4 minute
Add in all veggies except green onions
Stir fry until cooked as you like and pork is totally done (3-4 minutes)
Add in a few squirts of sauce
Add in cooked noodles and toss
Continue to add sauce until it tastes how you like, I'd guess that I used 1/8 of a cup
Turn off heat and add green onions and toss
Better than restaurant lomein with less crap in it.

I really wish I could take credit for the delicious Coconut shrimp wontons, but one of my favorite bloggers at Peas and Crayons: http://www.peasandcrayons.com/, posted this recipe the other day and I had been thinking of it ever since. I was so psyched to try it today. You can find it here. YUMMY!!! I made them almost excatly as she did, excpet I didn't use the parmesan chhese, because I forgot to buy it and I used wheat panko breadcrumbs. In my opinion, the sweet chili sipping sauce was key.

And last but not least

Pumpkin Seeds
Set oven to 325
Remove all the seeds you can from your pumpkin and blace in bowl
Rinse the seeds in cold water and seperate any goo
Lay out on paper towl and pat dry

Put parchment paper on cookie sheet
Lay out seeds onto paper
Spray seeds with olive or vegetable oil (I prefer olive)
Then sprinkle with ground sea salt, garlis salt, and if you like a little spice, cayenne pepper
bake for approx 20 minutes, checking frequently..I also reach in and shake them around a bit a few times

Food, Work, Life

Before I say anything, let me start with some pictures of  recipes I have tried in the past week:


Sweet Potatoe and spinach Hash with Turkey Bacon, Poached Eggs and Cheddar Cheese



Grilled portabella mushrooms in balsamic topped with slices of tomatoe, mozerella and basil




Broiled Salmon with tomatoes and feta on top of Greek quinoa (quinoa, garlic, spinach, red peppers and greek olives)



Tilapia fish tacos with greek yogurt chipoltle


 I LOVE food. If you would like any of these recipes, just let me know and I will post. Someday maybe I will get a good camera so these pics don't look so bad. I have not posted in forever for two main reasons- 1) I started back at work.2) We live near the cost, which means we prepared for the hurricane (which was a bad tropical storm here) and we lost power and then the internet/ cable for a few days.  Starting a new school year is exhausting. I am going to have to really be disciplined if I am going to keep cooking and working out. So far so good. I am on workout sets 7 of NROLFW and I haven't slacked on that at all, which I do MWF.  The summer is over for me, but it was a good one. I am trying not to get down on myself about all the things I didn't accomplish during my weeks off, like the million lessons I should have planned, all the cabinets I didn't clean out and a less than stellar garden. Instead I will reflect on what I did accomplish: 1.A killer tan2. An amazing trip out West 3. Logging serious time in my beach chair4. Getting Liam to love the ocean water.5. Celebrating my baby girls first birthday.6. Celebrating the engagment and wedding of great friends.7. Growing some nice fresh herbs and tomatoes8. Cleaning out my closet and donating 2 lawn bags full of clothes.9. Teaching my son how to recognize letters.10. And most importantly, spending some quality time as a stay at home mom. Who cares if I never got to the bank to deal with our bank accounts? I had LOTS OF FUN! 

Pizza, Pizza

I love pizza. It is cheesy and saucy and garlicy and all the things I love all in a fun, hand-held slice.

However, I never get pizza unless I make it myself. The calorie count on most takeout pizza is out of control. A friend once told me that a pizza place she worked at used one whole stick of butter in a small pizza. I have serious issues with takeout food, as it is the reason I gained every pound that I have worked to get off.

BUT if you make your own pizza, you can really control how healthy it is and make it really, really good.

Lately we have been having pizza and a big salad on Friday night.

Here is what I used:

1 whole wheat pizza dough. They have these at Trader Joes, Stop and Shop and whole foods. I get a bunch at a time and freeze them. And of course if you are a much better homemaker then myself, there are great recipes for your own healthy pizza dough.

Part skim shredded mozzarella

Crumbled feta

2-3 very ripe tomatoes or a can of whole tomatoes drained

1/2 package baby spinach, 1 package mushrooms, 3-4 cloves of minced garlic (you could use any veggies you like, I have used red peppers, broccoli, asparagus when I have had it)

3 tablespoons olive oil

Preheat oven to 450
Roll out pizza dough on a floured surface. We like ours pretty thin.
Place dough a greased baking sheet or pizza stone.
Brush edges of dough with small amount of olive oil
Heat 2 tablespoons olive oil on med/high and saute garlic and veggies (not the tomatoes) until lightly cooked
Slice tomatoes very thin
Put a light layer of mozzarella cheese on crust
then spread tomatoes out evenly (this is a substitute for sauce so you want enough to cover pizza)
spread out cooked veggies
Then spread a light layer of feta cheese over veggies

**I also love to add diced kalamata olives or olive paste

Place pizza in over for about 10 minutes, or until crust is starting to brown.

YUMMY!

I also love making my own pizza because I can make a little section of it the way the kids like it, which usually means just cheese and tomatoes.

Tofu stir fry: because I need more meatless dishes

This is sort of my own recipe, but I do confess That it is really a mix of many recipes and based on what I had in the cabinet.

If you check in with me on the regular then you know that I don't really measure anything out, so this is all estimates.

What you need:
1 block extra firm tofu drained. I like to take mine out in the morning, layer paper towels on a plate and put more on top and leave it in the fridge so the liquid all comes out. Cut tofu into 1 inch blocks.

Honey
Low sodium soy sauce
Red pepper flakes
Sesame seeds
2 tablespoons sesame seed oil
Any mix of stir fry veggies that you like. Trader Joes makes a nice prepackaged mix.
Soba, or other stir fry friendly pasta of choice. I used wheat spaghetti because it was all I had. Soba noodles would have been better.

In a large bowl mix 1/2 cup soy sauce and a few sprinkles of pepper flakes, honey to taste, the sesame seed oil and sesame seeds.You want enough mixture to coat tofu and have extra to put in veggies. I kept tasting it until it was good.


Add tofu to mixture and mix to coat
Put bowl in fridge to marinate for about 30 minutes

Heat oven to 375
Place tofu on sprayed pan and bake for 15 minutes, turn tofu and bake for another 15,or until Golden

While tofu is cooking, boil pasta..but only cook it 3/4 of the way

Stir fry veggies in a little bit of sesame oil

Mix in noodles and the remainder of the marinade and cook for 2more minutes.

Mix everything together and enjoy.

Here what it looked like:









- Posted using BlogPress from my




Another one of my goals is to improve my blogging. Now that I have an ipad, picture taking for the blog is much easier. This is my practice post.

P.s. If you really hate tofu, you could make the same marinade for chicken. Tofu is something I have learned to love and this recipe makes it sort of crunchy, which is how I like it best.




iPadp

Recipe, Depressing Music and Vacations

I am feeling a bit random lately, and so is this entry;

After gaining a few lbs the last week or so, I was careful to clean up my diet again and decided to try out a few new recipes.

The one I am sharing is not my own. It is from Fitness Magazine. It can be found HERE.

It is for Fish Tacos.
I have never been too big into fish tacos, but my husband LOVES them. He seriously orders them whenever he can. I really liked these. They had so many different flavors going on and were fresh and fun.
The only modifications I made were that I added extra Tabasco to the sauce and I used less mayonnaise. I also used canned corn because I didn't have frozen. The key is to be sure you do NOT cook the corn or black beans. I also added fresh cilantro because we have a ton on hand. I used he bagged coleslaw mix because it had a few more veggies in it and I got low-carb/ calorie tortillas. I also sprinkled on a small amount of cheddar cheese
I tripled the recipe and we both had 3 tacos. 1-lb of Tilapia was more than enough for 6 tacos and a little bit left for the kids. My guess is that for 3 tacos I ate about 700-800 very fulfilling calories.

This morning my daughter decided to wake up at 4am to eat. I fed her and put her back to sleep and decided it was pointless to go back to bed for 30 minutes, so I downloaded some new music before heading to the gym. As I listened to my playlist I realized that I have a tendency to depress myself with music. The majority of my songs have some sort of depressing theme. I don't consider myself a sad person, so I started thinking about what draws me to this type of music. My theory is that I like reflecting on my past, and somehow depressing music pulls out the raw emotions I have experienced over the years. Somehow this converts into adrenaline. For example, if I am listening to a song that makes me think of what a jerk an old ex-boyfriend is, it pushes me to workout harder. Interesting? I think so, but as you can see I am big of being reflective.

Some of my favorite depressing songs:
Third Eye Blind: How's it Gonna be
Limp Bizkit: Break Stuff
Keith Urban: Stupid Boy
Justin Timberlake: Cry me a River
Linkin Park: In the End
Jay-Z: Young Forever (probably not depressing, but makes me sad)
Christina Perri: Jar of Hearts
Garbage: I'm Only Happy When it Rains

And of course the King and depressing hip hop: Eminem. I like many of his songs, but I REALLY love Love The Way You Lie.

Now you may want to try and psycho-analyze me based on the fact that my favorite song is about an abusive relationship....but I assure you there isn't much to it. I just like this type of music. I must be a weirdo. I do however have several other upbeat songs going for myself..but you might judge me even more if I told you about my booty shaking playlist..that's a whole other post.

Now onto the subject of vacation. In 10 days we are leaving for Montana!!! Wohoo. I am so excited. We are going for TWO WHOLE WEEKS. I love, love, love long vacations. This one will be filled with hikes in the woods, sitting by one of the most beautiful lakes in the country, early morning sunrise with coffee, boats, fishing, RV's, rodeos with real cowboys.sState fairs, four wheeling, laughing with my dad, driving around aimlessly and just a lot of laid back fun. So I will be spending the next ten days packing and preparing, because that's what mama's do. Here is where we are going:

I cannot wait.

Summer Clean Eating

I love summer cooking because it is light, easy, and the grill just makes things so good. Plus it is a great excuse to make the husband (a.k.a grillman) help with the cooking.

Here is one of my favorite clean eating summer dinners. Sadly, I prepped this meal tonight and remembered at the last second my son had a karate lesson and had to stuff my face in the car with a Subway sandwich instead. But this will be tomorrow night's dinner:

Pineapple and Red Pepper with Soysauce chicken:

What you need:
A chicken breast for each person you need to feed
1 minced clove garlic per breast
fresh ground ginger to taste (I love ginger and use a lot)
Low sodium soy sauce. I use 1/2 cup for 4 chicken breasts..so adjust accordingly
Sliced pineapple
Sliced Red Peppers..I use one whole
3-4 scallion or green onions

In zip lock bag or container cover chicken breast with soy sauce, garlic and ginger, seal and set in fridge for several hours (the longer the better but 1-2 hours will do)

On med/ high heat grill chicken breast, pineapple and red pepper. It helps to coat grill with a high heat oil.
Serve over brown rice and topped with chopped up green onions or scallions.

Easy and good. I have also added papaya on the grill..which is very good too.

A recipe...finally

I have been way too lazy to type up a new recipe, but I liked this so I will share.

Greek veggies with wheat cous-cous

What you need:
1 medium eggplant, washed and peeled and thinly sliced
1 bunch of asparagus with ends snapped off
1 cup whole wheat cous-cous, cooked according to directions (I sub maragrine with olive oil)
1/4 cup sundried tomtaoes (the kind that is NOT packed in oil) diced into small pieces)
1/2 cup feta cheese

Brush veggies with a very small amount of olive oil and add your favorite seasoning. I just used some fresh herbs and a tiny bit of sea salt.

1. Grill eggplant and asparagus for a few minutes on each side
2. In a sprayed glass baking dish , spread out cous-cous all over the bottom
3. Sprinkle 1/2 of the feta over cous-cous
4. Spread out grilled veggies and sundried tomatoes over feta
5. Add remainder of feta
6. Bake in 350 degree oven for 10-15 minutes.

YUMMY! This is a great side dish for your grilled meat and is clean eating.

Interesting clean eats

First I must report on my gym goings: It is FABULOUS and I am really enjoying it. I went Mon, Wed, Fri and Sunday and every workout was pretty good. Every muscle in my body hurts and it was great to have some me time.

On the clean eating front, we are still doing pretty well. I did endulge in a bag of whole wheat tortilla chips and have been eating it with a fabulous raspberry salsa,  and my neighbor did bring over warm chocolate chips cookies of which I ate 3...but otherwise we haven't cheated much.

My lovely and talented sister in-law has been trying some new recipes and she just shared an interesting one with me. I tried it tonight and it was pretty good.

I'll call in Fake Alfredo

If you like Alfredo sauce, but hate the HORRIBLE fat content and the stomachache it gives you to eat straight up cream..this is an inteersting substitute.

The original recipe was:

IngredientsTofu, firm, 1 block Do NOT drain!
Parmesan Cheese, grated, 1/2 cup
*Onion powder, 1 tbsp
Garlic powder, 1 tbsp

Directions
DO NOT DRAIN TOFU! Puree all ingredients together in a blender until well mixed. Add additional water to mixture to reach desired consistency. Let sit about 2 hours to absorb flavors. Heat over low heat in a heavy saucepan until warm. Serve over favorite pasta.

**Upon my sister inlaws suggestion I sauteed fresh galic and onions instead of powder and added more than suggested.
I also added some seasalt, black pepper and some ground red pepper.

It was really good. It didn't have the richness that real alfredo has...but it was tasty. I really liked adding the red pepper, but we like spicy.

My sister inlaw also suggested a VERY clean idea of putting it on spaghetti squash instead of pasta. I thought this was brilliant. I used to eat spaghetti squah as a pasta sub. all the time and had sort of forgot about it.

I love spaghetti squash because it has a lot of great vitamins AND you can cook it in the microwave.

I served my fake pasta and fake alfredo with a nice piece of haddock to which I added lemon, pepper and  a light coating of wheat bread crumbs.

Not a bad combination. My only complaint is that I was still very hungry afterwards. I think I didn't have enough calories today. So I had a banana with melted peanut butter...YUM!

Clean Eats

It's been a while since I talked food...I haven't made too many new things. But tonight's dish was fab.

I think I'll call it Italian Scallops.

I warn you. I don't actually measure out anything unless I am baking. So my measurements are always a guesstimate.

What you need:
2 plum tomatoes, diced
6 ounces spinach, chopped
4-5 leaves of fresh oregano
2 gloves minced garlic
1/4 cup shaved parmesan or asiago
10-12 large scallops
olive oil
pasta of choice (I used left over soba noodle and it was YUMMY)

Heat about two full swirls of olive oil on med/high heat
add garlic and oregano
add scallops and brown one side
Flip scallops and add tomatoes and spinach on top
Continue to stir until scallops are almost done. (3-5 minutes)
Add a few sprinkles of cheese and stir until cheese blends
Divide pasta and top pasta with remaining cheese.
Divide scallops and sauce onto pasta to serve.

YUUUUUMMMY. I cannot even believe I ever ate sauce from a jar. GROSS!!!!!

P.S. Trader Joes sells a great fresh parmesan, romano, asiago shaved blend.

Menu Planning

Do you do it?

This is so important for me for 2 reasons:
1. I am not as tempted to stray from healthy eating
2. I save money and am prepared.

I try to plan our menu on Sunday. The last 2 weeks were pretty crazy. I had a late class on a few nights and then we went away, so menu planning was sporatic.

Now I am back on a regular schedule and am glad to have my menu planned through Saturday.

Here is this week's clean eats:

Monday-
Soba noodles with:
garlic, mushrooms, red peppers, feta cheese and green onions

Tuesday:
Spinach and pepper Fritatas with sweet potatoe hash browns

Wednesday:
brown rice topped with  ground turkey, tomatoes and spinach

Thursday:
Asian rice bowl with spicy chili chicken, cucumbers, carrots, avacado, ginger and toasted sesame seeds

Friday:
wheat wrap flank steak burritos with black beans, veggies and cheese

Saturday:
Turkey and veggie lasagna with brown rice noodles (best recipe ever) Find it here

No cheating this week. I got this!

Spicy Sesame Shrimp Bowl

Okay, YUM!

I love sushi rolls, like LOVE them..so this was perfect for me. I really wanted to use raw tuna, instead of the shrimp...but the seafood market was closed.

This was still really good and if you like spicy sushi, TRY IT.

What you need:
Sushi rice
1 lb medium or large raw shrimp
a few drops of sesame oil
Pickled ginger (they sell serving size cups of this in my grocery stores prepared sushi section)
red chile paste (you can find this in the Asian section of the grocery store)
Sriracha (also found in the Asian section, its hot Chile sauce)
1/4 of mayonnaise (I like the new low-fat kind with olive oil)
Sesame seeds
1 carrot, julienned
1 cucumber, julienned
1 avacado, sliced thin

-Cook 1 cup of sushi rice according to package and set aside
-Put a few drops of sesame oil in pan and heat on med-high. Add shrimp and cook until just pink and remove from heat
-In small bowl add 1/4 cup mayonnaise, 2 drops of sesame oil, 1-2 tablespoons of chile paste, and add drops of Sriracha to taste. It gets spicy fast, so be careful. Mix together.
-Heat a clean pan (not greased) on medium and add about 3-4 tablespoons  of sesame seeds to toast. Toss them lightly a few times. They toast in about a minute.
-Add half he seeds to the mayonnaise mixture and stir.
-Coat shrimp with the mayo mixture.
-Add rice to the bottom of 2 bowls. Lay the veggies on top of the rice. Divide the shrimp and put into each bowl.
-Use ginger to remaining sesame seeds to garnish.

I also added a little light soy sauce.

This was so good. A great alternative to Chinese food. Which is a food I CANNOT allow in my house because I am out of control with it.

I will try it again with raw tuna next time.

Coconut black beans over warm Asian chicken salad.

Okay, I do realize that this has suddenly become a food blog, but when I come up with a new recipe I NEED to share.

Here is tonight's Dinner. I have no idea why I paired these two things. For some reason it just sounded good together, and it was.

The coconut black bean recipe was not my own. You can find it HERE. I did modify somewhat. I did not have whole chili's, so I added Cayenne pepper powder instead and I added extra Cumin and some Tamaric. I also used light coconut milk instead of the full fat stuff (canned Trader Joes). If I made it again I would use only about 8 ounces of the coconut milk instead of the whole can.

I did NOT add the mango and avocado because I knew I would put it on the salad.

Asian salad:
Ingredients:
Sesame Seed oil
2 Chicken Breast
2 whole leeks
1 whole or 1 bag of white cabbage


-Heat about 1.5 tablespoons of sesame seed oil (cold pressed) in large skillet or stir fry pan
-Add in 2 cut up chicken breasts (I prefer them cut into strips) and brown until almost fully cooked
-Add 2 cut up leaks. I like to slice the leeks in half and then cut into 3 pieces. Add leeks to chicken and oil and stir until they appear soft.
Add 1 whole cut up white cabbage to the pan, along with 2 more splashes of sesame seed oil. I buy the precut/ prewashed organic bagged cabbage and use the whole bag.
Sir mixture for a few minutes until cabbage is lightly cooked, it should still be firm.

Divide salad onto plate then top with black bean mixture.

****If I made this again I would add cooked plantains to the black beans. Then it would have been PERFECT!

What's for dinner?

Here's my back on the wagon clean dinner:

*4 oz Ezekiel Protein Pasta
2 tbsp Olive Oil
2 Cloves Garlic, diced
1/2 Red Onion
1/2 sliced red pepper
1/2 container of fresh mushrooms
1/4 wheat flour
1 egg
1 package firm organic tofu, cubed
1 tblspn crushed red pepper

Place tofu on paper towel covered tray and put more towels on top, place in fridge for 1 hour (gets all the water out)

Boil water for pasta

Heat 1/ 2 the olive oil and stir fry all veggies until golden brown and remove from pan.

add the rest of the oil into empty pan and heat on med-high

Crack egg and lightly beat

put all tofu in egg to coat

roll tofu into flour and place in oil.

Brown lighlty on all sides of cubes

Drain pasta and divide onto two plates.

Add veggies, tofu, and crushed red pepper and lightly toss.

Enjoy.

* Ezikiel Pasta is a bit of a different taste and it needs a lot of flavor added, hence the red pepper. You could also use brown rice or quinoa and it would be just as good. Here is a link to the pasta:
http://www.foodforlife.com/our-products

I love Soba Noodles and My Mama

My mom was down this weekend, which was WONDERFUL. Every time she comes it makes me wish we lived in the same town. She took my son all day on Saturday so I got some special one on one time with my little lady, got some errands done AND wrote a paper for the grad class I am taking. It is amazing what a human being can get done without a 2 year old hanging off of them. She also bought us our membership to the local farm we frequent. It is a great little place that had lots of animals to visit and pick your own crops to enjoy. I am toying with the idea of registering for their CSA. I know we plan to have a large garden this year, but I wonder if I would get additional variety if we bought in to their share. We are eating A LOT of veggies. Hmmmmmm....

Now on to the noodles. I confess that I am no chef, but one thing I am good at is pulling together a meal in a snap.
We were planning on salmon for dinner, but both local fish markets were closed and most of the grocery store salmon is yuck. So I needed a quick back up plan and it needed to fall into the clean category. 2 years ago we would have ordered a pizza, it grosses me out just thinking about it.

Tonight I worked magic with a box of Japanese Soba noodles.

If you don't know about Soba noodles, you should. Soba is made of buckwheat and has good nutritional value. They are more expensive then regular wheat pasta, but they taste better and don't get stuck together.

Here is tonight's clean eating recipe:
1/2 box Soba Noodles
1 can of Italian flavored diced tomatoes
1/2 package of sliced mushrooms
1/2 cup of whole wheat flour
1 egg
2 chicken breasts, cut up into about 8 pieces total (I use the chicken breast tenders)
olive oil
1. green onion
2 cloves garlic diced (I love the frozen cubed garlic from trader joes)

Boil water for noodles and cook them for 4 minutes
In pan add 2 tblspoons olive oil and heat.
add mushrooms and garlic and cook until brown
in separate pan add enough olive oil to coat pan and put on medium heat
beat egg in bowl
coat chicken in egg and then coat in flour
cook chicken in olive oil, browning each size (if the chicken pieces are small enough it should cook through)
when noodles are done, drain and add the can of tomatoes with liquid and stir
divide noodles/ tomatoes onto plates
Top with chicken and mushroom/ garlic mix
cut green onions to top off dish
You might also add a small amount of cheese

Enjoy!