First Day of

Tomorrow is the first day of the rest of my life, and I’m working on making it a healthier life, come hell or high water. This afternoon I used my favorite cooking utensil, the crock pot.  

I found this recipe on Facebook

Crockpot Balsamic Chicken - 

Ingredients:
1 teaspoon garlic powder
1 teaspoon dried basil
1/2 teaspoon pepper
2 teaspoons dried minced onion (I used onion powder)
4 garlic cloves, minced
1 tablespoon extra virgin olive oil
1/2 cup balsamic vinegar
8 boneless, skinless chicken breasts


Directions:
Combine the first four dry spices in a small bowl and spread over chicken on both sides. Set aside. Pour olive oil and garlic on the bottom of the crock pot. Place chicken on top. Pour balsamic vinegar over the chicken. Cover and cook on high for 4 hours. .

It was delicious, and we had it with some green peas and mashed potatoes. Tomorrow’s lunch will be 4 oz of chicken, about 7 oz of salad, topped with a tablespoon of homemade Balsamic Bleu Cheese vinaigrette dressing, and a side of brown rice & quinoa. I’m DEFINITELY adding this recipe to my repertoire, since it is delicious, in addition to low fat, low sodium, and good for me! 

I’ve also made protein shakes with some fruit pureed into them for breakfasts, and stored them in baggies in the freezer, so I can take them out the night before to thaw enough to drink on the way to work.

Short term goal is 5 lbs by the 19^th, and a total of 10 lbs by my birthday on October 5^th. If I can meet a goal of 10 lbs a month, then by the time I take my next trip out of town, for DoTS in December, I will have exceeded my doctor’s goal for me. Maintaining that pace, by Opening Weekend of Scarborough, I will be within 25 lbs of my high school graduation weight, which would be fabulous.

My current pant size is somewhere between a 24 & a 26, depending on the pants and the maker. Shirts I’m doing a 3xl or a 22/24. By my birthday, I’d love to be down to a 24 or less in pants (because, let’s face it, my ass is a bigger problem than my upper body). By DoTS, I’d like to be down to a 2x or an 18/20 shirt as well.

Happy Jar for the day: I’m blessed with an awesome chosen family and household, even at the times that they drive me up a wall.

Fresh Bread

So I've decided to stop spending money on bread, which often goes bad before I finish the loaf. I made a loaf last week that turned out to be entirely too dense to use for sandwiches. So today I found another recipe, over here at the Hungry Mouse. Instead of two loaves, I cut the recipe in half and made just one loaf.
My recipe is below:

1C warm water
1T sugar
1 pkg yeast (yes, I'm still using individual packages, but once I get moved, I'll be investing in bulk yeast, since it's significantly less expensive per use)
2 & 3/4 C self rising flour
1T butter

Since I was using self rising flour, I eliminated the salt that is in the Hungry Mouse's recipe.

I dissolved the sugar into the water in my bowl, then added the yeast and let it sit for about 10 minutes or so before I added in the flour and butter.

I don't have a stand mixer (yet), so I used a fork to get the mixing started, then kneaded by hand for about 5 minutes or so, until the dough was firm and elastic.

I let it rise for about an hour until it rose to a little more than double it's original size, then punched it back down, kneaded it a few more minutes and formed the loaf before I put it into the lightly greased glass loaf pan.

I baked it for 40 minutes at 350 degrees in my toaster/convection oven.  My only regret is that I didn't take into account that the back of my oven heats faster than the front, so I neglected to turn the loaf halfway through, in order to brown it evenly.

Overall, I'm much happier with this loaf than I was with last week's, it's lighter, and it tastes better. I sliced several slices, but then stopped because it wasn't quite all the way cooled down, so the slices were a bit gummy. The end piece I ate was delicious, and I'm looking forward to having some for breakfast in the morning... I'm thinking perhaps some chai toast...

Cookie Swap 2011

This year, I heard about a food blogger cookie swap. Honestly, I'm not sure how I wound up there, but it was probably a Facebook link, as are many of the places I end up on the 'net. I do follow Love and Olive Oil, which is one of the organizers. I'm not strictly a food blogger, but I am kind of a foodie, and I do like to find new recipes to try, and have begun to post them more and more often. When I first discovered the swap, my immediate thought was to use my favorite chocolate chip peanut butter cup cookie recipe, unfortunately, I first published it on my blog back in 2008, after I discovered the teeny tiny little peanut butter cups in the bulk section of one of the fresh foods stores. Aren't they cute? 

Since I couldn't use my favorites, I decided that I should just go through my cookie recipes and my late mother's recipe books and find something I could modify to include the peanut butter cups. I decided to go with the chocolate chip cookie bars in one of her notebooks. I simply substituted the peanut butter cups in place of the chocolate chips. 

Peanut Butter Cup Cookie Bars
2 C brown sugar, firmly packed
1/2 C melted butter
2 eggs
1 tsp. Vanilla extract
2 C all-purpose flour (NOT packed)
2 tsp. baking powder
1/2 tsp. salt
1 C extra mini peanut butter cups (I get mine in the bulk foods area. These are the TEENY ones, not the original "mini's" that come individually wrapped from Reese's. Sometimes you can get a 1 or 2 oz pkg of Reese's in about this size now too) or chopped up regular peanut butter cups

Heat oven to 350 & grease 9x13" pan

In a large bowl combine sugar & melted butter & blend well, then add eggs, one at a time, beating well after each addition. Stir in Vanilla. Add flour, baking powder & salt & mix well. Fold in peanut butter cups & mix through.
Spread into prepared pan & bake 25 to 35 minutes, or until set. Be careful NOT to overbake.
Allow to cool before cutting into squares.

Makes up to about 36 bars. 

As I don't have a full size oven right now and am using a nice toaster/convection/rotisserie oven, I made up the whole batch, but had to bake it in 2 smaller pans to fit them in the oven. 

It was lots of fun, I've already enjoyed and shared my first dozen cookies that arrived over the weekend from KidEats. That recipe is DEFINITELY going into my book!
 

Italian Crusted Chicken Tenders

I'm working on eating more balanced, healthier meals, and tonite I fixed my favorite breading for chicken to go along with some Quinoa and steamed green beans.
(Serves about 4)
Ingredients

• 1 tablespoon and 1 teaspoon olive oil
• 5/8 clove garlic, minced
• 2/3 cup dry bread crumbs
• 1/4 cup and 3 tablespoons grated Parmesan cheese
• 3/4 teaspoon dried basil leaves
• 1/8 teaspoon ground black pepper
• 8-10 skinless, boneless chicken breast tenders

Directions

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C). Lightly grease a 9x13 inch baking dish.
2. In a bowl, blend the olive oil and garlic. In a separate bowl, mix the bread crumbs, Parmesan cheese, basil, and pepper. Dip each chicken breast in the oil mixture, then in the bread crumb mixture. Arrange the coated chicken breasts in the prepared baking dish, and top with any remaining bread crumb mixture.
3. Bake 30 minutes in the preheated oven, or until chicken is no longer pink and juices run clear.

Quinoa is a whole grain that's cooked in the same manner as rice, 2 parts water to 1 part quinoa, and cook it covered until the water is absorbed. I do about 1/2C of grain and 1 C water, which easily gives me two meals out of it, and I don't get tired of it before it's all eaten so it goes bad and gets wasted. I season my water with a bit of garlic powder, and then when the cooking's done, I stir in about a tablespoon of butter, herbs of Italy, and then top with fresh rosemary. 

My green beans have about 1/2 tsp of butter, fresh ground black pepper, and some herbs of Italy.

My portions were about 4 oz chicken, about a cup of quinoa, and a cup of green beans.

 

My Favorite Vanilla Scones

I was given a basic scone recipe by a British friend, who told me it's Delia Smith's recipe, however the searches I've done show Delia adds an egg, which is not included in the recipe I was given. At any rate, I've made a couple of modifications that suit me, and thought I'd share it here. 

Ingredients
8oz (225g) Self-Raising Flour
1 1/2 oz (40g) Butter (at room temperature)
1 1/2 tablespoons Sugar
4 fl oz (150ml) Milk
1 fl oz (37ml) Vanilla extract
A little extra flour
 Method
Pre-heat oven to 425 F
Sift flour into a bowl and rub the butter into it rapidly using your fingertips. After the butter is thoroughly mixed into the flour stir in the sugar, then take a knife and use it to mix in the milk and vanilla a little at a time. Now flour your hands and knead the mixture to a soft dough, adding a little extra milk if it feels at all dry.
Turn the dough out onto a floured pastry board or counter top and roll it out to a thickness of not less than 3/4 inch (2cm) using a lightly floured rolling pin. Take a 1 1/2 or 2 inch pastry cutter and place it on the dough. Tap it sharply so that it goes straight through the dough. Do not twist! Knead the dough together and repeat until you have used as much of the dough as you can.
Place the scones on a greased baking sheet, or a baking sheet lined with parchment paper. You can dust each one with a little extra flour or brush a little milk or egg onto the top of each one. Bake near the top of the oven for 12-15 minutes. When cooked the scones will have turned a crisp golden brown. Cool on a rack and eat them slightly warm. Eat as fresh as possible.
Scones do freeze well, but still eat them within a month.
Since my oven is a counter top version toaster/convection/rotisserie oven, and I like my breads BARELY cooked through, I bake for about 8-10 minutes, and take them out just as they start to turn golden.
***SUBSTITUTIONS***
Margarine can be used in place of butter
Soy milk works just as well as dairy milk, and the vanilla version is what prompted me to add vanilla to my recipe
If you eliminate the vanilla, and don't add some other flavored extract, add an ounce of milk to get the sufficient liquid

BLEU CHEESE

I LOVE bleu cheese dressing. I always have, and in fact, was 8 years old before I knew that there was a whole shelf at the commissary of different salad dressings! There are several that I've come to like on some level over the years, but my favorite creamy dressing will always be bleu cheese. My earliest memories of salad dressing were Kraft's Roka Blue Cheese, which my father called Roquefort, instead of Blue Cheese. I learned later that not all bleu cheese is Roquefort, as only cheese produced in the Roquefort region of France is actually called that. As I understand it, it's rather expensive as well.

I've tried virtually all of the brands available at the major grocery stores in the Tarrant County area, I think.  As far as store-bought, in a bottle or jar, Litehouse (Walmart) and Marie's are my go-to quick & easy to get choices. *don't bother with the "low fat" versions of commercially prepared ones, they just don't have the rich flavor. Central Market has a wonderful version in their bulk refrigerated bar, though I doctor it a bit to add a little more black pepper, and more crumbled cheese.

My absolute favorite though, is the homemade version that I make:
1 pkg softened cream cheese (I've also used reduced fat or neufchatel cheese to reduce some of the fat)
6 oz buttermilk
Garlic powder ~1/2tsp
Basil flakes ~ 1/2-3/4tsp
Black pepper ~ 1/2 tsp
8oz blue cheese crumbles

Mix the softened cream cheese to and buttermilk on low speed in deep bowl (a shallow bowl will splatter EVERYWHERE, trust me on this), adding seasonings to blend well, then add blue cheese crumbles until all mixed in.  Makes about 2 & 1/2 cups of dip.

This recipe makes more of a dip than a dressing, which is my preference, however if you want actual dressing consistency, add more buttermilk a quarter of a cup at a time until you achieve your desired consistency.  This will also mellow your blue cheese flavor out some as well, so if I am making actual dressing, instead of dip, I add more buttermilk and more blue cheese crumbles because I so love the rich tang of the cheese.

Taco Ring

I originally got this recipe at a Pampered Chef party more years ago than I want to count, but it's yummy, and it can be adjusted to your personal tastes.

1 pkg crescent rolls
1lb ground meat, browned & seasoned with taco seasoning
1 can refried beans, warmed in microwave
1 tomato, diced
1 small onion, diced (may be cooked in with meat if you want)
shredded cheese to taste
1 bell pepper, diced, then mixed in with cooked & seasoned meat

Preheat oven according to crescent roll instructions
Spray round pan (like an 8 inch cake pan) with non-stick spray
unroll crescent rolls and arrange in a ring in pan, with points lapping up over the edge, wide ends will overlap in the pan, kind of pinch them together to seal it
Spread refried beans in a layer on dough
Sprinkle some cheese over the beans
Spread the meat/onion/pepper mixture over the beans & cheese
Sprinkle cheese over meat
Top with diced tomato
gently pull points of crescent dough to center & tuck under wide end

Bake for about 20 minutes, until dough is cooked and golden

Cut apart and serve with tortilla chips

***notes***

• doesn't have to be ground beef, leaner meats, even shredded turkey, chicken or pork could also be used
• crescent rolls, cheese, & refried beans are available as well
• other kinds of beans can also be used in place of the refried, but I would suggest mixing them into the meat mixture and just layering it in that way
• I've found that the stuffing gets hotter if it's warmed before it goes into the oven, so I preheat my beans, or warm them in the meat mixture while I'm letting the taco seasoning simmer into it

Finally Getting Around

to posting about my house concert over the weekend. I hosted another show for Marc Gunn over the weekend. Originally, I had about a dozen or so people who were coming. I would have liked to have a few more, just because I wanted to make sure that Marc actually made money, though since it was his 2nd show in the area in a few days, I wasn't totally stressed or anything. A couple of weeks ago, I had 2 back out because they had committed to something before I scheduled the show, which they had thought was on Sunday, and it turned out was on Saturday instead, so I was down to about 10. 3 got sick, which took me down to 7, and then 1 bailed an hour before the show. *sigh* Bless Marc's heart, he played his heart out anyway. It was a good show, if a bit, umm, quiet, which is funny considering that there were 4 women in the audience, and 3 of us definitely are talkers!

I had baked a blackberry wine cake for Lissa's birthday. I was a little unsure about it, and very nearly screwed it up, because I didn't read the directions and put the butter in the cake instead of saving it for the glaze. I baked it in a casserole dish instead of a 9x13 pan because I didn't have a 9x13 platter to put it on, so it took about 35 minutes longer than the directions stated. When I started mixing the glaze (with another stick of butter), it looked TOTALLY funkified! The butter didn't cream at all, it sort of turned into these flakes that were all clumpy. Now the glaze recipe said "To Make Blackberry Wine Glaze: Mix together the confectioner's sugar, 1/2 cup blackberry wine, and the softened butter or margarine. Beat until smooth" Yeah, it never did get smooth, it just looked disgusting, so being the fly by the seat of my pants gal that I am, I decided to make glaze the way I usually do, but substitute the wine for the water. The sugar didn't completely dissolve, but it looked appetizing, and actually, once it went on the cake, you couldn't really see the glaze anyway. In the end, about 1/3 of it got eaten, I saved 2 pieces for specific people who didn't make it, and sent the rest home with Lissa.

On the upside, I made a new friend, Angela, who I've seen perfoming as a Drunken Damsel with Lissa, and dancing at the same studio I do. How cool is that? She's not allowed to dance right now, and I've not danced in months, but am going to try to get back to that this week. We stayed in here talking and giggling after we ran Marc out with our estrogen-fest. I think it was nearly 12:30 when they headed home! Fun times

One of my cats, who, at the last house concert in August was acting all orgasmic over Mike's sandal, was of course thrilled to have a houseful of people to pay attention to her. I think Lissa is her new best friend.