Monday's Menu

I'm on a quest to get healthy, fit, and fast!  I would lovelovelove to get Whole30 a-go, but I've tried and tried and can't get past the first few days of cravings.  I always cave and wind up with cake or a martini.  So, I'm slowly starting to build my nutritious meals in hopes that some day I can actually make it through a whole month (and training cycle).

My new favorite breakfast is actually courteous of The Biggest Loser tv show and is Whole30 approved.  It's very simple too (although clean up is a different story).  Basically, you cut open an avocado, crack and egg into each half of it, and then cook it at 350 for 20 minutes.  Then we eat it with salsa.  It is so yummy!

As I've said, clean up is a different story.  The egg usually gets all over the pan and then is baked on.  Our dishwasher and terrible water does not do the job.  I try to remember to immediately put water and soap into the pan and let it soak.  Then I usually have to use a spatula to scrape it all off before actually washing.  If someone has a better idea, please let me know.

What's your favorite healthy breakfast?

Monday's Menu: Worst Edition

With following a new "diet", Dave and I have tried out a lot of new recipes.  We have bought some cookbooks, Googled things, and even tried out recipes from Pinterest.  We have loved the plantain recipes we have tried and have made some good meat dishes in the crock pot.  But the other day we tried a recipe that was just disgusting.

We were having chicken for dinner and I wanted some barbeque sauce for it.  If you haven't noticed, all BBQ sauces have sugar and/or honey in them.  Big no-nos on the Whole30 diet.  So, we found a recipe that seemed simple enough and thought we would try it out.  Without giving away the website, here is the recipe:

3/4 cup fresh orange juice
2 tablespoons apple cider vinegar
10 tablespoons tomato paste
4 tablespoons shallots, minced
4 cloves garlic, minced
1/2 teaspoon mustard powder
1/2 teaspoon paprika
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/4 teaspoon pepper
1 tablespoon coconut oil

I followed the instructions as they were given.  I tasted it and it tasted like tomato sauce that someone had spilled orange juice in.  So I added some cayenne pepper.  Still all I could taste was the orange juice.  I threw in some red pepper.  Still orange juice.  I tried some seasoned salt.  I had Dave tried it.  He said, "Ew!  Tastes like orange juice!"

We threw it away and just ate the chicken without any topping.  And it tasted just fine.

Monday's Menu

Chicken and dumplings do over!!!

Instead of going out for Valentine's Day (too crowded, too lazy, too pregnant to fit in decent clothes), Dave had dinner planned when I got home from work.  He had found yet another recipe for chicken and dumplings claiming that they were just like the ones from Cracker Barrel.  We went "lazy man" on the rest of the meal.  We didn't necessarily make chicken and dumplings; he had bought a rotisserie chicken from the grocery store and we were going to make just the dumplings.

Here's the recipe we used this time.

And voila...



These were incredibly yummy and tasted a lot like Cracker Barrel. We kept this recipe and will be using it again.

Monday's Menu

This is not a new recipe for us, but the easiest recipe in the world I'd like to share with my readers.  This recipe was introduced to us from my mom while we were on vacation with the family last spring.  I like to call it "Homemade Chipotle Bowl".

Place thawed chicken breasts in the crock pot/slow cooker.  We use the number of chicken breasts we're going to eat.  Two people = two chicken breasts.  Then cover the chicken breasts with salsa.  We then cook ours for four hours.

When the chicken is done we layer it up like a chipotle bowl.   We make rice, put the salsa chicken on top of it, then maybe some guacamole, cheese, sour cream, beans, etc.  And the finished product:


(Grrrr, not happy that somehow Blogger has changed their picture uploader and now I can't change the size of my pictures.)

World's easiest dinner and not all that bad for you.

Monday's Menu

Dave tried out a new recipe last week. While we planned on eating this meal earlier in the week, I dragged my feet until later in the week.  I really didn't want to try this meal.  Why?  Because this meal was vegetables and vegetables only.  Are you kidding me? 

Here's the recipe for this vegetable stew.

We started out at the grocery.  Gah, I hate to grocery shop, especially in the produce aisle.  Not only do I not know what half of that stuff is, I have no idea how to pick any of the items.  Seriously, when Dave sends me to the grocery store to pick out avocados for guacamole, I just stare and hopefully one will just jump into my cart.  After the produce aisle, Dave needed to pick up some spices.  Oh my stars!  We have oodles of spices at home.  How can we not already have what he was looking for?!  Somehow we made it home without any cupcakes or oatmeal creme pies in the cart (I'm pregnant, give me a break!) and began work on the recipe.

I may not like fruits and vegetables, but they're always so pretty.

While Dave was making this meal, I was asking about the spices.  I've had terrible reflux with this pregnancy and I did not want to spend the evening sick because of something I could control.  Dave said he would limit the spices he would put on my dish.

The finished product.

My conclusion....this meal didn't have a lot of flavor.  To me it was just mushy vegetables, especially the squash.  Dave took a bite of mine and said his was completely different because of the spices.  Dave kept the leftovers for lunches and poured even more spices on it when he reheated it.  Myself, I didn't eat any leftovers and I don't think I'll be requesting this for dinner again.  Well, at least I didn't get reflux that night.

Monday's Menu

Last week Jeff provided me with a recipe for chicken and dumplings.  Y'all, I love me some dumplings.  I would go to Cracker Barrel every day of the week if I could.  Thank goodness the closest one is more than 30 miles away.  I will admit, however, I'm kinda a chicken and dumpling snob.  For example, Swanson used to make a really good canned version of them, but then they were bought by Campbells and they ruined it by putting vegetables in it.  People, chicken and dumplings with vegetables equals a pot pie!!!

Although Jeff's recipe called for a few vegetables, I decided not to put them in and instead just went with chicken and dumplings.  Dave did the chicken part.  I did the dumplings.  Here's the recipe.  We halved the recipe because it was PLENTY!

Chicken and Dumplings – serves 14

8 chicken breasts or thighs, remove skin

salt and pepper to taste

8 T. unsalted butter

3 c. chopped onions

2/3 c. flour

4 c. hot water

3 ½ c. chicken stock (broth)

6 medium carrots

4 lg. celery stalks

1 t. thyme

2 t. salt

4 bay leaves

1 t. pepper

Dumplings:

4 c. flour

2 T. baking powder

1 ½ t. salt

6 T. butter (salted)

2 c. milk

Cut chicken breasts in half diagonally. Wash and pat dry. Sprinkle with salt and pepper. Melt unsalted butter and add chicken. While browning one side, salt and pepper the side facing up. After browning one side, turn over and brown other side.

Remove chicken pieces to a plate. Add onions to drippings and butter in pan and sauté until tender.

Stir in the flour and cook, stirring constantly for 1 minutes.

Remove pan from heat and slowly whisk the water and the chicken stock into onion/flour mixture. Whisking constantly, bring to a boil over high heat.

Add vegetables and seasonings through the pepper. Return the chicken pieces and all the juices and bring to a simmer. Reduce heat so it barely bubbles. Cover tightly until chicken is almost done. About 20-30 minutes.

Dumplings:

Mix together flour, baking powder and salt. Set aside.

Put the milk and butter in a saucepan and bring to a simmer. Do not scorch.

Add milk mixture to dry ingredients.

Stir with a fork or knead by hand 2 or 3 times until the mixture just comes together.

Push chicken pieces down so they are submerged in broth. Gently drop spoonfuls of dough over the hot broth. Cover the pan tightly and simmer for 20 minutes. Don’t remove lid. Serve immediately.

I, of course, did not take any pictures.  Overall, not bad.  We put WAY too much pepper in which, of course, caused me major acid reflux.  Course, there's not much these days that doesn't cause me reflux.  The base of this meal was more soupy than creamy.  I prefer a creamy base, but I have yet to find a recipe that actually is creamy.  Also, I think I made the dumpling balls a little too big as they were a little doughy on the inside.  Would we do this recipe again?  Probably, although I'm still looking for the perfect chicken and dumpling recipe just like Cracker Barrel.  

Do you have a great recipe we should try?  Leave me a comment or send me an email (it's in the contact information).

Monday's Menu

Like the rest of the world, I am addicted to Pinterest. Although I don't pin too much, I do enjoy looking through it on a daily basis and if something really sparks me, I'll go ahead and pin it.

I have a board on Pinterest titled "Yummy".  I have basically only used this board to pin desserts because, well, that's the kind of food I like.  Every once in a while I will pin a different type of food or recipe, but mostly just desserts.  With my interest in becoming a better cook, trying new recipes, etc. in 2013, I might have to start another board with real food (not just desserts).

One thing I have really missed since becoming pregnant is an occasional alcoholic drink.  I miss a glass of wine to unwind the day.  I miss my margaritas with tacos.  I missed not being able to celebrate New Year's with a tasty treat.  However, I have found some interesting alternatives that while they may not be direct substitutes, they have certain been an good non-alcoholic interpretation.  I found one on Pinterest (see below) that Dave and I made for New Year's dinner with the family.

 

Source: sweettreatsmore.com via Lindsay on Pinterest

Here's how we made it:
Mostly ginger ale (we wish we had bought the diet stuff)
A scoop of frozen limeade
A dash of grenadine

Overall, it was pretty good.  I wish we had mixed it a little more because as you got to the bottom the limeade was so strong it would pucker your face. Most of the family drank it and enjoyed it, so I guess it was a hit.  I will definitely make it again before the end of this pregnancy.

Monday's Menu

Each week, I will feature a recipe on Monday that Dave and I cooked the previous week. If you'd like to contribute a recipe, please leave a comment below or send it to me via email: meredith-gordon@insight.rr.com.

Last week we were at the grocery and saw a special: buy one get one free bags of chicken breasts. A gazillion chicken breasts for $13? Yes, please. Now what to do with a gazillion chicken breasts? We (well, Dave) made chicken cordon bleu. You can find the recipe here. And since I have no idea how Dave actually made it, I'll show it off in pictures.










This meal was so yummy. The chicken cordon bleu was so tasty and had great flavors. I had half of mine like it was built and then paired it with honey mustard for the second half. Still very yummy. This looked like an easy recipe and we will definitely be having it again.

Monday's Menu

Each week, I will feature a recipe on Monday that Dave and I cooked the previous week. If you'd like to contribute a recipe, please leave a comment below or send it to me via email: meredith-gordon@insight.rr.com.

Over the holidays Dave and I tried a couple different of pasta sauces. This was particularly tough for me since I think my mom makes the best spaghetti sauce in the world, but I was willing to try. The first one we made was just not good (in my opinion) and I can't find the pictures we took, so I'm not going to write about it. The second one we tried was better and I do have the pictures, so here we go!

The first sauce we made was spinach-based and bland as a lot of our recipes have been. I gentle told Dave that I like my foods spicier and he came up with this: arrabbiata sauce. I have to mention I had just finished a really tough workout when we made this and my stomach had not yet settled so I really didn't have anything with making this sauce.

Here's a few pictures of the process:

The wine made the sauce really sweet, but the red pepper over-powered everything and made it almost too hot to handle. There was definitely some heartburn after this one. Dave really loved it and froze some for himself. Me, I'm going to stick with my mom's sauce.

Monday's Menu

Each week, I will feature a recipe on Monday that Dave and I cooked the previous week. If you'd like to contribute a recipe, please leave a comment below or send it to me via email: meredith-gordon@insight.rr.com.

Before Ironman Kansas Dave and I visited this kinda yuppy restaurant just off the campus of Kansas. The menu had me a little worried. I'm a carb-loader before a race and I like what I like--spaghetti, lasagna, ravioli, etc. But I picked this off the menu:



It's chicken and linguine with pesto sauce. And it was GOOD!!! Since I raced to a HUGE PR, it's probably lucky too.

This weekend Dave and I decided to make our own chicken and linguine with pesto sauce with our BRAND NEW MINIATURE FOOD PROCESSOR (think The Price is Right for that one)!!!

Dave started out by mixing the ingredients for the pesto.







Then he fixed the chicken while I worked on the whole grain linguine (did you read that Coach?!?).





And here is the finished product that we served with a salad and a tall glass of water.



It was really yummy. Maybe a little heavy on the bread crumbs and cheese, but otherwise very good. I would have liked the pesto to be a little creamier, but maybe taking out some of the bread crumbs and cheese will help with that. Unfortunately, after looking up the calorie content of this, we're a little more disappointed, but now we're looking for more calorie conscious options for this meal. Bon appetite!

Monday's Menu

Each week, I will feature a recipe on Monday that Dave and I cooked the previous week. If you'd like to contribute a recipe, please leave a comment below or send it to me via email: meredith-gordon@insight.rr.com.

My favorite thing as part of a holiday meal is deviled eggs. And I make the best. :) Today I'm going to share my recipe with you.

6 eggs
3 tbls mayonnaise
1 tsp vinegar
2 tsp sugar
1/2 tsp mustard
1/2 tsp salt
1/8 tsp Worcestershire sauce
Paprika

I did my recipe with 12 eggs (big family). For this case, I just doubled the recipe.

Begin by putting the eggs in a pot, fill it with water, and bring it to a quick boil. Once it comes to boil, turn the burner off and let the eggs sit there for 20 minutes. At the end of the 20 minutes, remove from heat and immediately chill the eggs under running water. This keeps your eggs yolks from turning green.


Once cooled, peel eggs and cut in half lengthwise. Remove the yolks and mash them with a form until fine and crumbly. (Yes, I have a deviled eggs dish, from Pampered Chef.)


Here's my dog trying to get the yolks....


Once the yolks are finely mashed, add in all the ingredients and blend until smooth.




Fill the white halves with the yolk mixture. Be generous in making the halves slightly rounded. Sprinkle with paprika to finish.


Luckily, we got to enjoy a few of these before my mom accidently dumped them all over the floor. :)

Monday's Menu

Each week, I will feature a recipe on Monday that Dave and I cooked the previous week. If you'd like to contribute a recipe, please leave a comment below or send it to me via email: meredith-gordon@insight.rr.com.

Since my grandmother is not in the best health, this will be the first Thanksgiving in recent memory where my grandma has not made the pies. So, Dave decided to take it upon himself to make dessert. Problem is, he's never made a pie. Martha Stewart to the rescue! Last night Dave had a test run with pear and cranberry pie.











Dave made this dessert while I was at the gym, so I had no idea what was going on. The presentation looked great, but I have to admit, I'm not the biggest fan of pie, so I didn't really think I would give it a try. Dave made me, though, and it was good. Now here's Dave's take on the pie...

When we volunteered to make dessert, I wanted to give a shot at doing a homemade recipe. And I didn't want Thanksgiving dinner to be the first try. So, a test run was in order...and the verdict? I win at pie. Seriously, could this have looked better? And it tasted fantastic too. It was just the right blend of sweet from the pears and sugar and tangy from the cranberries. Since Meredith's family aren't big on fruit pies, I'll be re-making the same crust but putting pumpkin in it for Thanksgiving, and Meredith is putting together a chocolate pudding pie.

Monday's Menu

Each week, I will feature a recipe on Monday that Dave and I cooked the previous week. If you'd like to contribute a recipe, please leave a comment below or send it to me via email: meredith-gordon@insight.rr.com.

This week's recipe is courtesy of Colleen and is chicken divan:

I bag frozen broccoli cooked
3 chicken breasts cut into small cubes and cooked
1 can of cream of chicken soup
1 cup of sour cream (mix with soup)
1 cup shredded 2% mild cheddar cheese (or more!)
fried onion straws (optional)

In a casserole dish, place the broccoli, then the chicken, then the soup and sour cream mixture, then the cheese. Bake at 350 for 20 minutes. In the last 5 minutes, top with onion straws.

I was quite excited to get this recipe. Chicken divan was a staple of my childhood diet as it's my dad's favorite meal. However, this recipe was different (very different) and I was excited to try a different chicken divan.

We started by boiling the chicken. Don't know how to do this? Take your chicken breasts put them in water with a bouillon cube (or not), bring to boil, then turn back down to medium heat until cooked. Simple!


After the chicken was done we began to assemble the casserole.




In the meantime, my dog Sloopy figured out how to jump up on the kitchen table all by herself.


Finished product:



Conclusion....this was very yummy. It didn't get as hot in the cooking time as indicated. We had to put each piece we ate in the microwave for a few minutes. That's probably because we didn't thaw the broccoli. My favorite part of this recipe was probably the fried onion straws. It gave it a nice crunch. My mom's is more creamy, almost soupy, so the crunch was an unexpected surprise. We will definitely be making this again and will probably find a recipe for my mom's too so we can compare.

Monday's Menu

Each week, I will feature a recipe on Monday that Dave and I cooked the previous week. If you'd like to contribute a recipe, please leave a comment below or send it to me via email: meredith-gordon@insight.rr.com.

This week's recipe is courtesy of my coach. It is something we had no idea what it was and took forever to find at the grocery. Today's recipe: Vegetarian Pumpkin Polenta with Spinach and White Beans.

I have a confession. Although I've been the one writing these "Monday's Menus", Dave is the one who does the majority of the cooking. This recipe was all on him and honestly I had no idea what was in the recipe. Maybe I should have paid closer attention because this recipe did not meet my requirements: has to include things I like. See, I don't like pumpkin and I don't really liked cooked vegetables, especially spinach. Nonetheless, I continued to help with dinner.

I worked on the polenta:





Dave worked on the vegetables:



In the end it looked like this:


Honestly, I couldn't do it. I couldn't eat it. To me, it looked like CoCo Wheats covered in a wet salad. It just made me a little nauseous to even think about eating it. But, Dave did eat it and he liked it. Today, you'll get his take on this meal.

Dave, you have the floor....

Well, I agree that the texture and appearance wasn't much like any of our other dishes. When I tasted the polenta by itself, it was a little on the bland side. But I think the spices and cheese in the topping gave a nice contrast between the slightly sweet taste of the polenta and the tanginess of the Romano cheese. So, I thought it was pretty tasty. And I have LOTS of leftovers all to myself. :)

Monday's Menu

Each week, I will feature a recipe on Monday that Dave and I cooked the previous week. If you'd like to contribute a recipe, please leave a comment below or send it to me via email: meredith-gordon@insight.rr.com.

This week's recipe is courtesy of Julia.

California Quiche

8 Eggs beaten
1 Cup grated Swiss cheese ( not lowfat)
2 C grated Zuchhini
1 small onion diced finely
1 Tbs Oregano
salt to taste

Beat the eggs( I do it by hand) saute the onion and the zuch until soft, not too well done unless you want them mushy in the quiche. Add the veggies to the quiche, add the oregano and salt to taste.
Stir in the cheese.
Put in a casserole ( covered) at 350 for about 45 minutes.
Keep an eye on it and towards the end take the top off to brown it.

The only thing we changed in the recipe was the swiss cheese. I don't like swiss cheese so we changed it to monterey jack. Here's some pictures of ALL the eggs and the sauteing vegetables.




Here's what the assembled product looks like:


Our finished product was served with biscuits and a salad:



Overall this recipe was not bad. I think Dave liked it more than me. I would have liked it with less onion. Personally, I like my quiche with some sort of meat in it and with a crust. I guess that makes it a soufflé. :) Next time we make this we might make a few changes. Thanks Julia for the recipe!!!

Monday's Menu

Each week, I will feature a recipe on Monday that Dave and I cooked the previous week. If you'd like to contribute a recipe, please leave a comment below or send it to me via email: meredith-gordon@insight.rr.com.

This week's recipe is courtesy of my high school friend Mike. After high school Mike went to culinary school and became quite the chef. He suggested I might like pistachio-encrusted tilapia. He was right.

The full menu was tilapia, garlic potatoes, green beans (which we forgot to make), and bread pudding for dessert. (Make sure to click on the links for full recipes and descriptions.) We started with the bread pudding actually (it would take a lot longer). First we cooked the bread to make it stale.


While I was working on the pudding, Dave began working on the potatoes. Here's what they looked like after he washed and peeled and them.


From there they got a treatment of garlic and olive oil and whatnot. Did I mention we used the leftover potatoes we had from last week's Monday's Menu. Yay for using all our food before it went bad!

Next it was time for the tilapia. Dave prepared the "bath" for them. We seriously need to find a better way to grind the pistachios. I think next time we'll use the blender.


We dunked the tilapia in the "wash" then in the pistachios and then put them in the electric skillet to just seer both sides. The cooking would be in the oven.

While the fish were cooking we finished up making the bread pudding. We added a whole bunch of really good smelling ingredients...cinnamon, nutmeg...and then we put in zucchini. I don't understand the zucchini but Dave's swears it was necessary. This is what the pre-baked bread pudding looked like:


The bread pudding went into the oven; the fish and potatoes came out of the oven. It was time to eat. This is what the prepared meal looked like:


The result was YUMMY! Now, I haven't eaten fish in like 20 years and I've been really nervous about adding fish back into the routine. I don't know....I just don't like fish. BUT, this tasted delicious. In fact, I wish I had more to eat. It was so easy to make. I highly recommend the tilapia. The potatoes were okay. Just okay. I didn't think they had a lot of flavor to them. I wound up cutting them up and putting some butter and salt on them.

After dinner it was time for dessert and bread pudding.


It smelled terrific. Dave dipped us both some and I took the first bite. Um, what's the best way to describe it....DISGUSTING!!! It tasted like wet bread. I've had some really good bread pudding before but this was nowhere near good. Dave took a few bites and he too agreed it was not good. We threw it all down the drain. Oh well. We're trying to become better cooks and improve our eating habits, but they can't all be winners, right?

Next week's recipe has yet to be decided. If you'd like to submit one, we'd love to give it a try. Happy eating!