Jenn's Menu & Lifestyle Blog

Fish and Chocolate Chips

Jenn (j3nn.net) — Fri, 05 Mar 2010 09:46:52 +0000

I think Dustin’s feeling a little better, but not quite all the way there yet. I’m crossing my fingers that tomorrow is the day that he wakes up feeling great. I haven’t gone anywhere since last week and I’ve got the itch. I need to soothe it was a mini shopping spree. lol I actually need some spring nightgowns, plus we have to return the carpet cleaner that we got mom for her birthday–wrong one. Who knew they make one with multiple mini rotating brushes at the bottom? I certainly didn’t. So apparently I got the old fashioned, one spinning brush kind. My mother is obsessed with vacuums. No, I’m serious. She goes through 3 or 4 a year because she’s always breaking them! I bought her an Oreck for Christmas, she doesn’t like that one either. She has a Dyson, loved that one but broke the handle. Whatever floats her boat; I’m all for fetishes that keeps a house with 6 cats sparkling clean. LOL

I did a lot of picking while cooking today. Probably because I didn’t eat until 7 hours after I woke up. It was just one of those days, ya know? I defrosted some salmon in the fridge overnight, then turned it into brunch later on in the evening. Dustin requested hot dogs, so we had a food party this evening, including cupcakes baked by the vacuum slayer and decorated by moi.

Fridays just seem like a fish and chips sort of day to me. Maybe because a lot of people eat fish on Fridays? Well, I didn’t have traditional fried fish and chips, but I made an equally delicious version:

Salmon with gorgonzola spread and avocado drizzled with honey on a sprouted grain roll, red potato oven fries and steamed asparagus

It’s that time of year again! The time to find beautiful fresh asparagus in season. I don’t care for the thick stalks, I prefer the very thin, tenders stalks. I think asparagus just might be my number one favorite green veggie, but shhhhhhhhhh… don’t tell lettuce, spinach, brussels sprouts or broccoli!

4oz salmon filet (120 cal) pan-fried with EVOO, then placed on an Ezekiel 4:9 sprouted grain roll (170 cal) with 14g gorgonzola spread (45 cal), 22g avocado, and 3g honey
Red potato oven fries; parboiled, then cut and drizzled with EVOO + garlic salt + black pepper, then roasted on 400F for about 20-25 minutes on a baking sheet. Heinz no salt added ketchup on the side.
Steamed asparagus (microwaved with a bit of water and covered with saran wrap)

I didn’t keep track of the calories, this was my biggest meal of the day, though. It was fantastic! The salmon sandwich was salmonsational, loved the touch of honey mixed with the gorgonzola. Mmmm! And the oven fries were outrageously good, just as good, if not better than anything regular deep fried ‘tater. Later on I had some leftover meatballs and a turkey sandwich with 1oz turkey and1 slice bread.

While I was making dinner, mom was making cupcake batter. Swooooooooooooooooooooooon! They baked while we ate, you can just imagine how much better dinner tasted when you’re in a room that smells like cupcakes.

She made the recipe on the back of Hershey’s special dark chocolate powder container, but substituted real butter for the vegetable oil, which I highly recommend. This dark chocolate powder is excellent!

I helped make the butter cream frosting with butter, powdered sugar and my secret ingredient:

1 teaspoon Chambord (raspberry liquor) instead of vanilla, which makes it a light raspberry flavored frosting. I decided to get fancy and decorate them with a pastry bag and added some mini chocolate chips on top. I had one after Dustin and I watched a movie on Pay-Per-View (Everybody’s Fine with Robert DeNiro and Drew Barrymore — so sad!)

Oh my! Best cupcake EVER!! The cake part was so incredibly moist and chocolaty, WOW! It actually tasted like chocolate pudding to me, it was just amazing. Dark chocolate in baking ROCKS! Totally loved it, can you tell? LOL Next time you want to bake something chocolate, use this dark chocolate powder and thank me later. Dustin fell asleep right after movie, he needs his rest, but he doesn’t have a sweet tooth, so he didn’t want a cupcake anyway. I mean, he will eat desserts and treats, but he never ever craves them. Never looks for a sweet palate cleanser after dinner; never adds ice cream or cookies to the shopping cart. Then again, he’s addicted to Coca Cola so he definitely gets his sugar fixes, but he says it doesn’t taste sweet to him, probably because he’s desensitized at this point. *sigh* Honestly I think he’s addicted to the caffeine more than the sugar. Terrible habit he picked up from working 36 hours straight in his teens and early 20s; he hardly ate anything, just drank caffeinated beverages and would go days without eating. If I didn’t remind him to eat now, he would still probably only eat once a day or every other day lol. And I thought sugar was supposed to make you hungrier? I imagine his brain must use a lot of glucose programming in 5 languages, he’s like a coding machine. It’s a little freaky, but very attractive. Nerd love <3 hehe

Alright, I'm rambling. Very, very tired--almost 5:00AM. Must go beddy byes.

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Mama’s Meatballs

Jenn (j3nn.net) — Thu, 04 Mar 2010 07:45:22 +0000

How could I resist? The aroma was calling me since I woke up. Nothing smells like home more to me than tomato sauce cooking. If you’ve never let tomato sauce cook slowly all day, I highly recommend trying it. It’s hard to not take a crust of bread and dip it in while it’s cooking, it’s just so wonderful. Like red, liquid gold. Sunday dinner, which is almost always something Italian, seems to be popping up on random days lately. I won’t fight it though, I’ll just savor it.

So mom made a huge pot of sauce and meatballs. Not lean meat, either. Fatty, delicious, ground meat. She ate a little bit, and Dustin’s still not feeling 100%, so he was only up for one meal today. It was just the meatballs and me. What could I do? I paced around the island in the kitchen a few times (I do this all the time actually, it’s fun lol), then decided to make some pasta!

1oz whole wheat angel hair pasta (105 cal) with 1 meatball, a little sauce and a little grated cheese. YUM! I estimate this little bowl of goodness to be around 250 calories.

Dustin was feeling better, but as the day went on he progressively got more congested. Hopefully this is the summit of sickness peak and it’ll be much better when he wakes up. During the time he was feeling better, he came downstairs to join me for some of the sauce and meatballs that he couldn’t smell. lol

I wanted to make something quick and simple, so I made meatball parmesan “subs” on hot dog rolls. They double as 6″ inch subs, only not as crusty… or delicious lol. I digress.

A side salad with more of that fantastic gorgonzola spread and strawberries

1 Martin’s potato hot dog roll (130 cal) with 2 of mama’s meatballs (200 cal?? *shrugs*), a little sauce and 19g Sargento reduced fat provolone (50 cal) that I put in the mini food processor to shred
Side salad with about 2 cups mixed greens (10 cal), 2 large strawberries (15 cal), 1 TBSP Bragg healthy vinaigretee (45 cal) and 14g gorgonzola spread (45 cal)

Calories: Around 459-550ish

This was sooo good! Dustin loved it, too. He ate his faster than me, but I had a yummy salad to slow me down lol. Ever since my sinuses cleared up, everything tastes so much better to me! For example the raspberry flavored seltzer is now like “WOW!, tasty” when it used to taste like regular (plain) to me. Maybe my taste buds have been on the fritz for awhile?? Or maybe now that I got my sense of taste/smell back after not having it for a few days it’s like reintroducing flavors into my life all over again? I don’t know but it’s pretty cool.

I was on my own again for supper. *sniff, sniff* I was going to make salmon, but I was like, “eh, now’s the time to use up some of the loot in the freezer!” So I found this Guiltless Gourmet burrito/wrap that I bought a few weeks ago:

What I liked about it when I found it in the store: Made with entirely wholesome ingredients; 70% organic, whole wheat flour and all and it’s relatively low in sodium; 290mg. So I followed the direction and nuked it. I had a little trouble taking it out of its wrapper, so it ended up breaking, but I patched that with some Fage Total 0%.

Yes, I am obsessed with this gorgonzola spread. You can pry it out of my cold, dead hands. It’s amazing!

1 Guiltless Gourmet Caloifornia veggie wrap (270 cal) topped with 2oz Fage Total 0% Greek yogurt (30 cal) and a few splashes of Tabasco
124g Gala apple slices (70 cal) drizzled with 3g honey (10 cal) and a 28g side of gorgonzola spread (90 cal)

Calories: 470

The wrap was pretty good, but I think I overcooked it in the nuker ’cause it was hard on the ends, but I ate it anyway. The apple drizzled with honey and gorgonzola… OMG! AWESOME! Try it, it’s fantabulous!

It’s after 4:00AM now and the house is chilly. I need to put the heat on. We had it off all day because it got up to almost 50F! Wooooooo ~~ heatwave ~~ LOL. Nite nite

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My Inner Child

Jenn (j3nn.net) — Wed, 03 Mar 2010 20:23:22 +0000

We watched the movie Julie & Julia for the first time last night. I loved it! Dustin’s been telling me that I would like it, so it finally arrived from Netflix after being in our queue for the longest time. Meryl Streep was absolutely brilliant! I could relate to Julie Powell a lot, but I was fascinated by Julia Child’s story. I had previously read a bit about her life, but to see it breifly portrayed on the silver screen gives you an even better sense of her passion. Her life in Paris was remarkable and something I, too would have enjoyed during that period of time and even in present day. She and her husband actually remind me of Dustin and me. I often think back to my favorite Julia Child quotes when I try to cut corners with “lighter” foods or eliminate foods that American society frowns upon:

“Because of media hype and woefully inadequate information, too many people nowadays are deathly afraid of their food, and what does fear of food do to the digestive system” “I, for one, would much rather swoon over a few thin slices of prime beefsteak, or one small serving of chocolate mousse, or a sliver of foie gras than indulge to the full on such nonentities as fat-free gelatin puddings.”

“The pleasures of the table ” that lovely old-fashioned phrase ” depict food as an art form, as a delightful part of civilized life. In spite of food fads, fitness programs, and health concerns, we must never lose sight of a beautifully conceived meal.”

From “The Way To Cook,” written by Julia Child and published in 1989.

I’ll probably never even be close to the chef that Julia was, but my inner Child pretends to be. I have my own style and I like it a lot, but I truly appreciate all cooking techniques and recipes. Not much cooking went into my breakfast yesterday, but that’s ok, it was still awesome!

6oz Fage Total 0% plain yogurt (90 cal) topped with 4 large strawberries (25 cal), 14g slivered almonds (85 cal) and 1 tsp honey (20 cal)
1 Kashi Heart to Heart multigrain waffle (90 cal) with 1 TBSP MaraNatha dark chocolate almond spread (90 cal)

Calories: 400

Deeeeeeeeelicious! I know strawberries are WAY out of season, but wherever these came from, they are in season and taste great. This kept me full for quite awhile, yum!

Dustin’s still sick, but feeling better, YAY! I went rummaging through the chest freezer to find something easy for him to eat. I found pot pies. Well, mine wasn’t exactly a pot pie, it was an Amy’s Light in Sodium Sheperd’s Pie (vegetarian)…

Being it’s only 160 calories, I paired it with some peas & carrots and warmed up a white bean burger that I had previously frozen from the last time I made them.

But first, I made a mess with the peas & carrots

Easy as (sheperd’s) pie!

Half a tablespoon REAL butter on my peas & carrots, Julia would approve.

1 white bean burger (~200 cal) warmed in the microwave for 1 min, then drizzled with 1/2 TBSP Heinz no salt added ketchup (10 cal) and 1 TBSP Mr. Spice salt free garlic steak sauce (10 cal)
2/3 cup peas & carrots (50 cal) with 1/2 TBSP butter (50 cal)
Amy’s Light in Sodium (vegetarian) sheperd’s pie (160 cal)

Calories: ~480

Delightful, but quick comfort food. Amy’s sheperd’s pie wasn’t the most attractive thing to graze my plate, but it tasted really good! I was pleasantly surprised to see chickpeas inside of it–YUMMY! I really liked the ketchup and steak sauce on my bean burger. This reminded me of meatloaf with mashed potatoes, the light-in-calories-and-sodium veggie version. hehe

After the movie, Dustin was in Benadryl coma, but I was hungryyyyyyy! So I trotted down to the kitchen with a parade of kitty cats behind me to make something to eat. I haven’t had many cold, raw foods, like leafy greens, since I got sick, but now that I feel much better, salads sound SO good to me!! I know that I jumped the seasonal gun with the salad, but I couldn’t help it. I also found some past-their-prime shrimp in the freezer when I was down there earlier, but that didn’t stop me from using them anyway.

I planned on topping my salad with the gorgonzola crumbles that I picked up last week. Well, that’s when I discovered that they weren’t crumbles, it’s a gorgonzola spread !!

I debated putting dobs of it atop my salad, but then decided to just spread it on the roll I was having on the side. Good choice, it was amazing!

~2 cups mixed leafy greens (10 cal) tossed in 1 tsp EVOO (40 cal) and 2 TBSP red wine vinegar (10 cal), then topped with: 3oz grilled shrimp (100 cal), 2 large strawberries (15 cal), 26g avocado (45 cal) and 1 tsp honey (20 cal) drizzled over the top
1 Ezekiel 4:9 sprouted grain roll (170 cal) with 14g gorgonzola spread (45 cal)

Calories: 455, 240 calories just for the salad

Wow! Despite the shrimp not being the greatest, this salad was still INCREDIBLE! The bread with gorgonzola on the side complemented it perfectly. Sweet, salty, sour, bitter, chewy, creamy–OMG, heavenly. LOVE! I had to add up the calories 3 times to make sure it was accurate. LOL So low in calories for all of that deliciousness. Next time I make this I’m going to do grilled salmon. I can’t wait!

It’s so warm out today. I woke up and it was 73 in our bedroom even though the heat is only on 66. Spring is on its way, hooray!! I feel so energetic and bubbly today, I’m going to take a shower and make something to eat. Be back later!

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Sinuses Are Gonna Clear Up…

Jenn (j3nn.net) — Tue, 02 Mar 2010 05:44:15 +0000

…put on a happy face!!

I feel SOOOO much better! I had some really horrible nights of sleep–or lack of–all week, I didn’t think it was ever going to get better, but thankfully I woke up yesterday and could actually breathe… through my nose! My nose is still a little stuffy and now I have an annoying tickle in throat cough, but I’ll take that over a runny nose and eyes.

So while I’m feeling better, poor Dustin is coming down with something. I hope he didn’t catch it from me. I’m almost positive mine was a sinus infection, especially because it only lasted about 4 days. He has a sore throat, which I didn’t have, other than it being a bit irritated. Not sure, but I hope he feels better soon! Guess he won’t be shoveling the snow out of the driveway in a t-shirt again. *ahem* Sighhhhh! Due to the weather, our doctor appointments were postponed until next week. Figures, we’ll probably feel awesome by then lol.

My food hasn’t been that thrilling the past few days, as you can imagine. Lots of canned soup, but it did give me a chance to use up the ever-growing supply. So at least one good thing came of my suffering. Keeping up with my soup + sandwich theme, I had an easy combo for breakfast/lunch–whatever. I’ve only been doing 2 meals a day with minimal snacks for the past week, but lots of liquid calories in the form of OJ.

Salmon salad on a hot dog bun with Trader Joe’s low sodium minestrone soup

And a cup of cranberry juice. We ran out of OJ

1 can Trader Joe’s low sodium minestrone soup (200 cal)
2oz Trader Joe’s no salt added canned salmon (60 cal) with 1 TBSP Hellmann’s olive oil mayo (50 cal) on 1 Martin’s hot dog roll (130 cal)
1 cup Ocean Spray cranberry Juice (120 cal)

Calories: 560

Simple, but filling and yummy. Not to mention, easy to eat!

By the time I was hungry again (6 hours and a glass of cranberry juice later…) I was feeling more ambitious in the kitchen. So I cleaned and prepped a tray of brussels sprouts for roasting. I have a serious addiction to them these days! They are just SO GOOD! I have a hard time getting them to my plate when I take them out of the oven LOL. I’m a little paranoid about the carcinogens associated with the browning/blackening of them, though. So I’ve been peeling the outer most layer off, just to help it a bit.

While the brussels were roasting, I heated up a can of Eden organic no salt added garbanzo beans (chickpeas)…

(Did you know these have seaweed in them? I just noticed that tonight)

…and boiled 2oz whole wheat angel hair pasta (210 cal). When the brussels and pasta were done, I ~~ate half of the brussels~~ tossed the pasta with 130g of the chickpeas (130 cal), some brussels, and for extra yumminess: 2 TBSP Bragg healthy vinaigrette (90 cal)

The brussels were buried underneath…

Calories: ~580 calories or so, I have no idea about the roasted brussels, so just a guesstimate.

This was delish! The chickpeas weren’t easy to eat with spaghetti (should have had penne!), but I liked it a lot. Very filling and very healthy. It made quite a large portion, so you could make it 2 portions and add a salad for a hearty lunch or light dinner. Could have used a pinch of salt, but I figure these are the recipes to cut sodium corners with when I have complete control over it. hehe

While I was experiencing the worst of my sickness, Dustin brought some sunshine into my cloudy headed day. Remember how I said I bought a laptop for him on Valentine’s Day? Well, he thought that we should have matching ones, so he bought one for me, too!

Ladies and gentlemen, I present my new blogging buddy:

Dustin’s is blue and mine is pink! LOVE IT! I’ve wanted a pink laptop for awhile now, so this is just perfect. Plus it has Windows 7. I can’t wait to start blogging on this beauty.

My blog looks good on it, too! *giggles*

Hopefully we’re feeling better tomorrow so we can go buy another mouse. I can’t stand touch-pads, YUCK! lol Anyway, I’m pretty tired and looking forward to a night of uninterrupted sleep. Zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz

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Marshmallows Descended From The Heavens

Jenn (j3nn.net) — Fri, 26 Feb 2010 21:30:18 +0000

This has been a completely crazy week. I know I said I was going to do a “catch up” post the other night, but I decided to just scrap last week’s updates and do the current ones. We were so busy last week with shopping, my mom’s birthday, her party and work that I was looking forward to welcoming a “normal” week. Then this week started off with insane amounts of snow, my mom having to go to the ER for a kidney infection and now I’m sick with what I believe to be sinusitis. We got 17 inches of snow the other night and another 38 inches last night!! We can’t even see our car, it’s covered in snow! Our house looks like its surrounded by pools of marshmallow– a gingerbread house gone wild! LOL

Our back deck, there’s nothing under that mound of snow!

At times I thought we moved to Narnia, which would be totally awesome.

Dustin went outside to take some pics. This is our car buried under the snow. It’s a crossover, so it’s not small at all. To the left is our white Jeep, also covered in snow.

Luckily, Dustin found a good use for the snow

2 days later, we just now got our driveway cleared. We had a “snow hurricane,” yeesh! I’m so over you, Jack Frost. Warm Spring air is going to feel SO good!

The other day when I still had my taste buds, I made a glorious Field Roast sausage and pepper pizza on dough from the bakery:

I preheated the oven to 450F, then rolled out the dough, which was being difficult every step of the way. Then I topped it with: tomato paste, 4 slices Sargento reduced fat provolone cheese (200 cal) that I shredded in the food processor, 1 Field Roast Italian sausage (vegan) link (240 cal), 1 chopped medium red onion, and Trader Joe’s tri-color bell pepper strips zapped in the microwave for 1 min and drained before putting atop the pizza. The crust didn’t rise like it did last time, nor did it get that brown, but it still tasted delish.

With a spinach and dried cranberry salad on the side topped with 1 TBSP Bragg healthy vinaigrette (45 cal)…

I love making homemade pizza, it’s so gratifying and not to mention, inexpensive.

I found these pics while editing my food images. Mongo and Clyde wanted to be on the blog, too!! This is Mongo:

And this is Clyde:

The next day, my sinus woes were getting progressively worse. I had felt this infection creeping up for over a week now, but I wanted to believe that my nose and throat were just irritated due to the cold air. We went to see Shutter Island last Saturday and that’s when I started to notice that my sinuses were draining because I had an annoying cough. Ugh, thankfully it didn’t disrupt the movie, which was excellent despite the RUDE, talkative people in the theatre. Why do people go to movies to have conversations?! Go to a diner or something!

I haven’t done too much cooking this week between mom being sick and now me. The first day that I woke up with official sickness, I wanted soup and a sandwich. So I made a spinach, Laughing Cow Light and berry fruit spread sandwich on this whole wheat bread from Shop Rite.

Hard to argue with these ingredients:

A little high in sodium, but it’s so tasty! You have to freeze it right away because without preservatives, it doesn’t last more than 2 days. So I bought 2 loaves the other day ans stuck them in the chest freezer to be enjoyed at my leisure. hehe

On 1 slice (100 cal) I spread half of a Laughing Cow Light Swiss cheese wedge (25 cal) on it, then 1 TBSP Everyday 365 Fruits of the Forest fruit spread (30 cal) and a handful of fresh baby spinach (7 cal).

On the side: A cup of Dr. McDougall’s vegan Chinese Chicken Noodle Soup (140 cal)

I picked up a package of these new Stonyfield Oikos yogurts the other day after seeing them around the blogosphere.

110 calories and 10g protein for something that tastes like dessert? Perfect. I still had my taste buds when I ate it and I was pleased! It’s a little tangy, obviously, because it’s yogurt, but it was sweet and delectable. I liked it so much I bought a package of the chocolate flavor the next day.

I started to feel worse and worse as the day went on, then the next day woke up with a runny, stuffy nose and head/teeth pain. My upper teeth hurt so badly, as if they are in a vice. Ugh I had a shot of cognac to try to fall asleep with, but apparently cognac doesn’t work the same as Nyquil. I woke up every 15 minutes, then eventually found some Nyquil to take. That knocked me out for a few hours I guess, everything is a blur. I haven’t had a decent night’s sleep in days now, I can’t breathe through my nose and I feel so lethargic. I’m almost positive it’s sinusitis because I get a mild infection every few months, and a really bad case at least once a year since I can remember. Being allergic to sulfa and penicillin, there’s not much doctors can do for me. Hopefully it clears up soon. I have a doctor’s appointment on Monday, so we’ll see what she says.

I wanted comfort foods yesterday, all warm things, nothing cold or raw, except for ice cream. The prospect of eating a raw salad makes me cringe just thinking about it. When you can only breathe through your mouth and your throat hurts, chewing a cold veggie and then swallowing it sounds like the worst idea ever. lol! I made French toast for breakfast with a tall glass of orange juice:

I bought a can of coconut oil cooking spray at Mother Earth’s last week, so I decided to try it with this.

I don’t know if it was the eggs/bread combo or the spray, but it didn’t seem like the French toast wanted to get brown. It was weird. I made mine with:

3 slices Harvest Pride no salt added white bread (180 cal)
2 large eggs (150 cal)
Splash of whole milk (20 cal)
Coconut cooking spray (15 cal)
2 TBSP Fifty50 fructose maple syrup (35 cal)
~2 cups of OJ (220 cal)

365 calories for the French toast, 400 with the syrup

Unfortunately, I couldn’t taste very much of this. I couldn’t even taste the syrup! Dustin tells me it was delicious, so I’ll take his word for it. LOL Sighhhhh

I’ve been eating just 2 meals a day for the past few days, so I don’t mind if they are calorie-dense. My mom feels better now, so she made dinner last night:

Grilled porterhouse steak with sauteed crimini mushrooms and onions (I cut off the filet portion for mine, which came to under 3oz)
Baked russet potato topped with Fage Total 0% Greek yogurt and caviar
Roasted carrots tossed in EVOO and garlic salt, then roasted on 400F for 20-25 minutes

We have so much leftover caviar from Valentine’s Day that we have to use up, so we looked up ways to eat it online and someone said it goes great on potatoes. Once again, I had to take Dustin’s word for it because I could barely taste it.

I ate all of my steak and carrots and half of my potato. I hate feeling hungry but not being able to taste what I’m eating. I also hate not being able to breathe through my nose when I chew, it’s so annoying. Please go away sickness, I don’t like you. At all.

I feel soooo groggy. I’m going to take a shower, then lie down. I feel yucky to the power of 10. And for some reason I’m craving liver. My nanny used to make it for me when I was little, I thought it was steak at the time. It’s supposed to be very good for you though, my body is probably craving the nutrients, but I’m generally more of a plant person.

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Smoussie

Jenn (j3nn.net) — Mon, 22 Feb 2010 21:12:24 +0000

Hey guys! Sorry that I’ve been MIA for so long, I’ve been insanely busy since last week. I wanted to do a quick update to share this amazing smoussie with you. What’s a smoussie you ask? Well, it’s when you attempt to make a smoothie and it turns out thick, fluffy and creamy like mousse instead of drinkable like a smoothie. This is the first time I used my Vita-Mix and l am totally in love with it!! I’ve seen hundreds, if not thousands of green monsters all over the blogosphere forever now, but I’ve never tried one myself. So I figured now is definitely the time to try it with this fancy schmancy new mixer, right? Get your spoon ready!

Banana Avocado Smoussie

1 cup hemp milk (100 cal)
35g Lifetime Life’s Basics vanilla plant (complete) protein powder (129 cal)
2 frozen medium bananas (220 cal)
2 cups fresh baby spinach (15 cal)
137g fresh Haas avocado (230 cal)

2 servings, 347 calories each

Add liquid in first, then everything else
Blend on medium-high for 2 or 3 minutes

This is dairy-free, vegan and absolutely delicious! It might also qualify as raw vegan, but I’m not sure if the sugar in the hemp milk is considered raw or not. Anyone know? I topped mine with 7g Trader Joe’s 3 berry granola (15 cal) and 7g coconut flakes (35 cal), which brought mine up to 397 calories.

I picked up this box of Hemp Dream hemp drink at Mother Earth’s last week:

LOVE the nutritional facts on it!! Unlike other milk alternatives, this is very low in sodium, only 5mg per serving and it has a decent amount of protein (4g) unlike almond milk.

Back to the smoussie: It was truly amazing! I don’t know if I can attribute the Vita-Mix to the texture, but it was SO good! It would rival any dessert, but it’s filling enough for a meal. This was our breakfast yesterday and I was so impressed. Such simple ingredients, yet SO tasty! Oh, and did I emphasize how healthy it is? Extremely good for you! I promise you can’t taste the spinach in it at all. It’s sweet, creamy and kind of tastes like banana pudding. I’m sure the avocado contributed to its awesome creaminess, too, but you can’t taste it at all. Loooooooooooved it!! Dustin loved it, too. I can’t wait to have it again, it’s THAT good. I highly recommend everyone try this combination ASAP! Let me know if you liked it!

Ok, I have to go workout now, but I’ll do a big “catch up” post later tonight with all of last week. I just wanted to share this. Enjoy!

What’s your favorite smoothie (or smoussie)? My Vita-Mix is going to be going 24/7 in the summer. I have so many ideas going through my mind. YUM!

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XOXO

Jenn (j3nn.net) — Tue, 16 Feb 2010 06:36:30 +0000

Hey guys! I’ve been really busy the past few days, so I have a ginormous Valentine’s Day update today. I was going to do an update yesterday, but I got a nasty spyware infection on my laptop that Dustin took care of for me. So annoying, especially knowing exactly what it’s doing, but thankfully we cleaned it up quickly.

Let’s rewind to Friday, the 12th. We headed out to Middletown for our hair appointments and to do some shopping. With a limited selection of places to eat lunch, we went with our safe choice: The Park

We started with a Philadelphia roll, my favorite.

Dustin got the gorgonzola filet mignon…

…and I got the Salmon Duet; 2 salmon filets with 2 different sauces.

My salmon was delicious, but I don’t care for salmon that is cooked with its skin on. It’s too slimy for my taste. But otherwise, it was great. The Park has such a lovely, modern Asian atmosphere, but they really need to ramp up their advertising because they’re not very busy! The sign outside of their building needs to be a little more catchy, too. That’s my marketing side coming out of me.

Then we got our hair done, Dustin HATED his. He was supposed to have it done by Vinny, his usual, but he ended up with someone unknown and she chopped up his hair. We were pretty pissed! Thankfully mine came out great. I have bangs now; one long side one, not straight across. We’re considering hiring a hairdresser to come to our house twice a month or so, it’s so important to have a good relationship with your hairdresser, you need to communicate with and trust them just like you would a health care provider or else you’ll end up with crappy results like Dustin. He had to get it touched up the next day by someone else because the other one gave him a mullet. Seriously, she left it longer in the back and butchered on top. The girl that fixed it that next day was like, “Was it her first day?!” Ugh. Poor Dustin. lol

After our hair was done, Dustin reluctantly put his hat on and we headed toward the city to do some shopping. We originally planned to spend the whole weekend in the city, but we changed our plans when Aunt Flo showed up and I knew I wouldn’t feel good enough to truly enjoy myself. So we decided to just do a little shopping, mainly for mom’s birthday. I didn’t want to announce my plans until I knew for sure what we would be doing, we were basically undecided up to the last minute.

We didn’t stay out very late on Friday, I was exhausted and still full from lunch, so we headed home, watched a movie and went to sleep. The next day, Aunt Flo was being her usual mischievous self, so I loaded up on Advil and continued with our plans. We decided to stay home on Valentine’s Day and eat out on Saturday night. After some more shopping, we ended up going to Cosimo’s in Middletown again, mainly because it was late and our choices were dwindling once again. It ended up being a FANTASTIC choice as their dinner menu for the evening was superb.

I tried to get a better pic of the menu, but they took it away before I was done. I didn’t want to ask to keep it lol.

The bread basket of DOOM!

We started with scallops wrapped in prosciutto and a goat cheese salad with strawberries and apples…

For our entrees, Dustin got the lobster ravioli:

I had a bite, it was absolutely fantastic. Very fresh. And I got Pasta Della Nonna (spaghetti with meatballs and mozzarella). The waitress was impressed that I pronounced it correctly lol.

Between the bread basket and our appetizers, we had a lot to take home!

Everything was fabulous. We arrived there late in the evening, so it was just us and another couple. It was very romantic.

On Valentine’s Day, I woke up to this beautiful sight:

Flowers and candy from Dustin!!

And this little cutie I wish it was real!!

I swear I took about 200 pics of this arrangement, I just love it so much!

Lots of kitchen goodies from mom <3

What’s this? Oh, no he didn’t!!!!!

!!! yes, he did! OMGGGGG! I wanted a Vita-Mix after seeing them around the blogosphere and my sweet hubby bought one for me. I’m SO excited about this, you have no idea! I cannot wait to use it.

!!!!!!

*squeals with excitement* LOVE IT!! It came with 3 mixing containers. So incredibly awesome.

He didn’t stop there though! Seriously, my spoiled-ness was off the charts this weekend. He bought me a Prada bag and matching wallet.

He didn’t do too shabbily either. He got a new laptop and scotch. Presents are fun, but food and drinks are even funner. We delved into the inexpensive caviar that the guy at the import store recommended. And by inexpensive, I mean $14 and $20. We had a sampling and decide on whitefish and some kind of black. We bought 2 new caviar spoons while we were shopping on Friday in anticipation of Sunday.

You shouldn’t use metal spoons for caviar because it oxidizes the eggs. These are made from pearl I believe. We brought a cooler with ice packs with us, so we picked up a container of this while we were there:

Then we enjoyed the caviar with creme fraiche on crackers with some Moet.

Creme fraiche is amazing. This is the first time I had it, it really does compliment the caviar beautifully.

Salty little bites of heaven.

While we sipped and savored, I had a batch of whole wheat dough on standby waiting to be made into a glorious BBQ chicken pizza. I found one last way to make heart-shaped food for the holiday:

I shaped the dough into a heart!! Cute, huh?! I used half of the dough for a BBQ chicken pizza and the other half for just plain cheese.

Whole Wheat Pizza Dough

2 cups whole wheat flour
1/2 cup warm water
2 TBSP honey
1 package yeast (1 TBSP)
Salt, optional (I didn’t add any)
1 TBSP extra virgin olive oil

1. Mix yeast, water and honey together; slowly add in flour and mix until dough bowl forms
2. Coat bowl and top of dough ball with EVOO
3. Cover with damp towel and let sit in warm place until it rises

I preheated the oven to 450F, then placed the dough with 1 medium diced red onion in there without anything else so the dough would get a head start before the cheese and other toppings. I took it out after about 7-8 minutes, then put the rest of the toppings on. My mom grilled a batch of chicken tenders earlier, so I chopped them up and tossed them in Hick Lickin’ Good BBQ sauce, then spread it over the dough and drizzled it with some other BBQ sauce being I ran out of Hick Lickin’ Then I sprinkled a generous amount of 2% cheddar cheese over the top and popped it back in the oven for another 8 or 9 minutes, until the bottom was browned.

The result:

Ultimate YUMMINESS!!!

I had to get my Reebok step board to get all of the heart-shaped pizza in the picture LOL. I love my Canon Rebel xsi, but the lens I have doesn’t work with the zoom in/out function. So my pics are always really closeup and if I want something from a distance, I have to stand way back or way up. I’m only 5′3″ and even after standing on my board, I could still barely get it in. hahaha

It tasted SO good! I had two three pieces. YUM!

I am definitely going to make this again sometime soon. Next time I’ll add some green bell peppers. My veg friends: You could do BBQ tofu cubes OR omit the protein component altogether and just do cheese and veggies with BBQ sauce. Delish!

As you can see, we had a wonderful weekend, despite Aunt Flo trying to crash our celebrations! lol I felt really blah all day today, so I ate leftovers from Cosimo’s and took a day to chill after an indulgent weekend. Tomorrow is back to reality, but that’s ok, because reality is awesome, too. I can’t wait to use my Vita-Mix!!! I already have a plan that involves avocado. I can see a lot of smoothies and soups in my future. Weeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee!

Did you do anything special this weekend? Did you eat anything yummy? Tell me, tell me!! Inquiring minds wanna know!

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My Sad Oatmeal

Jenn (j3nn.net) — Fri, 12 Feb 2010 18:43:54 +0000

It appears that my oatmeal has 2 broken hearts. I used 2 small heart-shaped cookie cutters as a mold for my oatmeal toppings today, but the toppings tumbled and broke my little oatmeal’s heart–TWICE! lol

Sad looking as it may be, it tasted out of this world YUMMY!

In the pot:

1/2 cup (40g) Quaker 100% rolled oats (150 cal)
1 small banana (100 cal)
1 cup + 2 TBSP water (to make it extra creamy)
2 packets Truvia

Toppings:

15g Trader Joe’s mixed honey roasted nuts (95 cal)
7g coconut (35 cal)
7g Nestle mini chocolate chips (35 cal)
10g dried cranberries (30 cal)
1 TBSP/16g MaraNatha dark chocolate almond butter (90 cal)

1 serving, 535 calories

It was deeeeeeeeeeeeelicious!! Fruity, sweet, tart, crunchy, creamy and chewy all in one bowl of awesomeness. I think Kath would be proud!

That was eaten about an hour before my workout, so by the time I was done, showered and dressed, I was thinking about what to make for lunch. Leftovers? Meh. Looking at the bright blue sky from our bedroom, I was in the mood for something fresh and spring-like. So I decided on pasta salad with tuna and leftover string beans. If you like volume, this dish is for you!

2oz whole wheat elbow pasta (210 cal)
4oz Trader Joe’s no salt added Tongol tuna (120 cal)
A heaping cup of string beans (40 cal)
5 Lindsay low sodium black olives (25 cal)
1.5 teaspoons grated pecorino romano cheese or parmesan (30 cal)
2 TBSP Bragg healthy vinaigrette (90 cal)
1 TBSP red wine vinegar (5 cal)

1. Boil pasta; drain
2. In a large bowl mix in pasta, tuna, string beans, olives, dressing + vinegar, and 1 tsp of grated cheese
3. Top with remaining .5 tsp cheese

1 large serving, 520 calories -or- 2 servings, 260 calories each

This Bragg healthy vinaigrette is excellent. Love the flavor, made with entirely wholesome ingredients and only 60mg sodium per serving.

This was SO good! And filling! I wanted 3 large meals yesterday, so all of my meals were around 500-600 calories. Dustin was eating leftover chili (he LOVES it) and I found myself stealing the Tabasco away from him to shake on my pasta salad. LOL

I was running out of creative juices by the time dinner came around, so I decided to just eat leftover chili, Mexican style to make it more interesting. I don’t know what you would call these… burritos? Tacos? Enchiladas? *shrugs* I call them: Chili rolls!

I reheated a heaping 1/2 cup of last night’s chili, then put some inside 2 small Food for Life Ezekiel 4:9 sprouted grain tortillas (160 cal, 80 cal each) with a few drops of Tabasco; rolled them up, topped them with 1oz shredded 2% Cracker Barrel cheddar cheese (90 cal), then popped them in the microwave for a few seconds. When they came out, I added on 2oz Chobani plain Greek yogurt (35 cal), 1oz Wholly Guacamole (50 cal) and another splash of Tabasco. YUMMMMMMMMM! These were sooo goooood. I estimate the calories to be around 550.

We’re running late today, we have hair appointments, then we have shopping to do. This is an extremely busy upcoming week. Just when I thought the holidays were over, we have another string of events. Aaaaaaaaaah! Fun though. Be back later, we’re going out to lunch and I am starving. I don’t even know where we’re going to eat. I’ll have plenty of time to think about it during our long car rides. *sigh* YAY for satellite radio!

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Tingly

Jenn (j3nn.net) — Thu, 11 Feb 2010 06:12:27 +0000

I love Tabasco sauce, but I’m not too crazy about the tingly, medicine-y aftertaste that refuses to go away. lol Worth it though!

I decided to catch up on my updates and do yesterday’s and today’s in one shot. Well, yesterday’s isn’t really that great being I ate mostly leftovers, but why waste pics that were already taken, right?

Like I said yesterday, I was pretty active. I woke up, had some cottage cheese, went to the office for awhile, then shortly after got busy working up a sweat. I did:

20 minutes recumbent bike
Upper body resistance training
1 hour of my obstacle course
20 minutes recumbent bike

I <3 my obstacle course, it's so much fun. I was starved after all of that, so I made a fluffy 6" inch turkey sub:

I saved a few calories by doing something that my dad used to do: Gutted the roll!

I took out as much as I could and it ended up weighing just 2oz, which made it 150 calories. It’s a useful trick that works great with thick bread. So once the bread was perfect, I piled on:

3oz Boar’s Head reduced sodium turkey breast (90 cal)
1 TBSP Hellmann’s olive oil mayo (50 cal)
2 big handfuls of leftover salad from the night before

With 14g of olive oil potato chips (75 cal) on the side

Deliciousness for less than 400 calories. Then I had a serving of Haagen Dazs dark chocolate ice cream. Hey, it was post-workout, I totally earned it. I only felt like having 2 big meals yesterday and a couple snacks, I had leftover sauce and braciola for dinner.

So remember the batch of cannellini (white beans) I told you about? They ended up overcooking in the crock pot. I was heartbroken! *sigh* See?

BUT all was not lost! I ate them anyway and they weren’t that bad, just mushy. hehe I tossed about a cup of them in 2 TBSP Hick Lickin’ Good BBQ sauce (30 cal), then popped them in the microwave to make fake baked beans to have with breakfast:

I fried 2 large eggs (150 cal) with Pam olive oil cooking spray (15 cal), steamed about 2 cups of fresh baby spinach in the microwave (15 cal) and then layered it on my plate:

Spinach
1/2 of the beans (~150 cal)
Eggs topped with 14g cheddar cheese (55 cal)

Along with a piece of beer bread with seedless raspberry Polaner All Fruit

I estimate this to be around 600 calories, give or take. This was SO GOOD! Loved the beans, despite their texture. Very filling too, kept my tummy happy for about 5 hours!

I took a chance on the beans again and made white bean burgers for lunch:

I mixed the remaining beans with:

1/2 cup flour
2 large eggs
Garlic salt
Paprika
Dried parsley
Pinch of cayenne
Black pepper

I mixed it by hand– gross ! –and it ended up being really runny, like pancake batter. So I fried them in a nonstick pan with EVOO…

…and they ended up coming out totally awesome!!

I had mine on an Ezekiel 4:9 sprouted grain roll (170 cal) with spinach, red onion, tomato, Heinz no salt added ketchup and no salt added mustard. Along with 20g olive chips and string beans tossed in red wine vinegar and lemon pepper.

Yum! It made 10 burgers, I froze the rest of them. Dustin said they tasted like a bean burrito, I concur. They turned out tastier and firmer than I thought. I love when things turn out great when you are expecting the worst.

And finally: Black bean and corn chili with lean ground beef

1.2 lb 96% lean ground beef
1 can Cento crushed tomatoes
1 can Trader Joe’s no salt added diced tomatoes
1 can Eden organic no salt added black beans
1 can no salt added corn
2 medium yellow onions
Minced garlic
~3 TBSP chili powder
~3 TBSP cumin
Garlic salt
Black pepper
1 TBSP EVOO

1. In a large pot or dutch oven, add in EVOO, onions, garlic and ground beef; cook on medium heat until beef is browned and onions are softened
2. Reduce heat; add in tomatoes and spices; mix well
3. Toward the end, add in the beans and tomatoes
4. Let simmer on low for about 45 minutes

Servings vary, I would estimate between 8 and 12 servings.

It turned out fabulous! I topped mine with 14g cheddar cheese (55 cal), red onion, diced tomatoes and 3oz Chobani plain Greek yogurt (50 cal) and had 1 serving of Tostitos Scoops (140 cal) on the side:

You can easily make this vegetarian or vegan by replacing the beef with tempeh, tofu, seitan, meatless meat products or just skip the “meat” component altogether and just do the veggies and beans. It’s REALLY yummy, especially doused with Tabasco.

I’m exhausted, so I’m just going to end this like one of those movies where it just ends and you’re like WTF? lol I can barely see the screen @_@ lol Nite nite!

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Shell of A Dinner

Jenn (j3nn.net) — Wed, 10 Feb 2010 00:49:21 +0000

When my mom doesn’t make a pot of sauce on Sundays, it just doesn’t feel right. Being the Super Bowl took most of her attention this past Sunday, and Dustin and I weren’t home until later, she made a pot of sauce on Monday instead. Some people have asked me to post her recipe, but she doesn’t follow one LOL, she just throws everything into a pot and let’s it cook slowly all day. She uses all different types of canned tomatoes, including paste and sometimes fresh ones. There’s so many variations, it’s almost never the same. I do it the same exact way, it works well, except when recalling it to duplicate. lol

This time she made it with braciola, which is an Italian meat preparation using very thin slices of meat, such as beef, pork or chicken, then stuffed with various fillings, rolled up and tied with butcher’s twine or toothpicks and cooked in EV olive oil or in a pot of sauce. Some people stuff it with creamy cheese like provolone or mozzarella, but my family always does raisins, grated parmesan cheese and herbs. The pasta of choice was medium seashell shaped, served in my romantic zebra dishes. Zebra stripes are romantic, right? They are on Sims! hehe

Along with a romaine side salad drizzled with EVOO + red wine vinegar…

I had about a cup of cooked shells, about 1/2 cup of sauce and 1 braciola. Deeeeeeeeelish! I love when 2 or 3 shells stick together and form one big chewy shell; the texture reminds me of gnocchi.

Earlier in the day, I had a quick, but yummy sandwich for lunch.

Dustin had Honey Nut Cheerios

My sandwich was yuuuuuuuuummmmmmy.

2 small slices Le Brea Bakery sourdough bread totaling 1oz (70 cal)
2 slices Italian flavored Tofurky (40 cal)
1 slice reduced fat Sargento Swiss cheese (60 cal)
1 TBSP Cedar’s original hummus (30 cal)
Handful of fresh baby spinach (7 cal)

With 14g Glutino’s gluten=free pretzels (70 cal), this was a really low-cal sandwich and “crunchy” combo for only 277 calories. Cool, huh?

My posts are lagging behind by a day, maybe I’ll do 2 posts tomorrow to catch up? Encourage me! lol I’m the lazy food blogger. I was very active today, I’ll tell you about it in my next update. We’re supposed to get lots of snow, or so they say. We’ll see I guess. Good day for baking if we’re snowed in. I made a BIG batch of cannellini (white beans) in the crock pot last night. I have so many plans for them this week, they’re so good for you. *excited*

What is your favorite kind of bean? I love them all equally I think. <3

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Super Bowl Fun-day

Jenn (j3nn.net) — Mon, 08 Feb 2010 15:26:11 +0000

Ok, so we participated in the Super Bowl festivities just a little bit, but only because I was tired. Being we had a late start, we didn’t go through with all of our plans yesterday, but we still had fun. I didn’t want to wait until lunch to eat, so I had a hearty snack in the morning with MaraNatha dark chocolate almond butter and Polaner seedless raspberry fruit spread.

First I took 2 slices of Martin’s 100% whole wheat potato bread and applied a heart-shaped cookie cutter to it, which ended up making it weigh 36g, just about equal to the 35g/1 slice/serving (70 cal)

Then I spread 1 TBSP MaraNatha dark chocolate almond butter (90 cal) and 1 TBSP seedless raspberry Polaner All Fruit spread (40 cal) inside. With 1 cup skim milk (90 cal) this was a tasty little snack!! It actually tasted like a soft chocolate and raspberry candy. YUM

Then we headed out to Middletown. We intended to have sushi at The Park, but they were closed due to the Super Bowl. Not wanting any chain restaurants, it left us with very few options being we were seeing a movie at 4:45PM. We decided on Cosimo’s Brick Oven, their menu is mainly pizza, which is delicious, but not exactly what I was in the mood for. You know when you are planning on one thing, then have to settle for another and it’s hard to get in the mood for it? Maybe I’m just spoiled. Anyway, we still had a delicious late lunch that started with my weakness: The bread basket!

The focaccia was a little hard, but the crusty Italian bread underneath was soft, crusty and irresistible. We ate almost the whole basket with the EVOO + vinegar.

Dustin ordered a margherita pizza, of which I had a bite or 2.

It was yummy, but I was more interested in my beautiful Caesar salad with salmon:

The salad was aaaaaaaaa-mazing! Romaine lettuce tossed in Caesar dressing, with croutons, a ridiculous amount of shaved parmesan cheese and grilled salmon. LOVE! I ate all of the salmon, about half of the lettuce and just 1 or 2 slices of the parmesan–there has to be at least 5 or 6 HUGE slices on there! Oh, and I found all of the croutons hiding under the lettuce. I didn’t order this salad in an effort to make a “healthy” choice, because it’s not exactly healthy, I genuinely LOVE salmon. It’s always the first thing I look for on a menu and I usually choose it more than anything else because it’s freakin’ fantastic.

Feeling very full from the bread, salad, and 2 glasses of water (not the brightest idea before a movie lol), we headed to the theatre to see Edge of Darkness with Mel Gibson. We missed the 4:45PM showing, so we waited for the 5:15PM one. It was pretty sweet, just us and 2 other people in there who were kind enough to sit far away from us. lol The movie was good, kind of predictable and a little sad at the end. I’m really tired of seeing terrorist/homeland security/weapons of mass destruction movies though, Hollywood needs to be more creative! Comedies are few and far between these days and a lot of other plots are recycled, with the same tired actors. Foreign films with subtitles are kicking Hollywood’s butt. Yay for Netflix! hehe

We were going to go to Kingston after the movie for a late dinner, but I was exhausted after the movie. So we stopped by Shop Rite for a few things and headed back to the love nest. Mom was having a Super Bowl party with the cats, so we joined them for the last quarter of the game and had some unhealthy Super Bowl munchies. We still ended up going to sleep later than we wanted, we like to be up by 2:00AM for when the London market opens, but our schedule shifted to a regular morning schedule the other day when we stayed up too late. So now we have to fix this, but it’s not easy when you don’t have to be up at a certain time.

It’s a bright, sunny Monday morning and I’m thinking about lunch. I’m also thinking about Valentine’s Day! We haven’t decided what we want to do yet, but we have some ideas. I’m excited!!

What did you guys do for Super Bowl Sunday? I haven’t visited any blogs yet today, but I can’t wait to see all the parties that everyone hosted or attended! This is going to be an awesome day around the blogosphere. Speaking of blogs, this is the week of sweet. Check out one of my favorite sweet blogs: How Sweet It Is — Jessica has an awesome blog, with a lot of sweet, amazing recipes that would be perfect for Valentine’s Day or any day for that matter. Plus she’s gorgeous and fit, a great example of someone that lives a healthy, balanced lifestyle.

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Hearty Foods

Jenn (j3nn.net) — Sun, 07 Feb 2010 18:34:28 +0000

I put a lot of love into my foods yesterday. It all started with heart-shaped sodium-free pancakes topped with fresh strawberries and Fifty50 fructose syrup…

Sodium-free Pancakes

1/2 cup (60g) all purpose flour (210 cal) — you can use whole wheat flour if you like
1 large egg (75 cal)
1/2 teaspoon sodium-free baking powder (use regular if you don’t have it)
2oz skim milk (20 cal)
2 teaspoons (9g) sugar (30 cal)
1/2 teaspoon vanilla (6 cal)
Cooking spray (15 cal)

1 serving, 356 calories

1. Mix all the ingredients in a large bowl (I used a wooden spoon)
2. Preheat nonstick frying pan; spray with cooking spray or use butter
3. Spray heart-shaped mold with cooking spray or coat with butter (I used a cookie cutter for my shape); pour batter into mold about halfway
4. Flip when golden brown

You’re probably wondering why the edges of my pancakes look like they were chewed off. Well, some of the batter oozed out a little, probably from me prematurely playing with it, and it made a thin crust around the pancakes that I peeled off.

They didn’t taste light and fluffy like regular pancakes, but they tasted really good! With the strawberries (20 cal), 2 TBSP of Fifty50 fructose maple syrup (35 cal) and 1 cup skim milk (90 cal), this was a yummy breakfast for only 501 calories. I think the whole egg made them a little denser, plus I probably should have used a whole teaspoon of baking powder instead of half. I’ll experiment next time and see how it goes.

After seeing Beer Bread around the blogosphere, Zesty Cook convinced me to try it. My mom is the baker in the family, so I passed the recipe along to her. The result:

A lovely loaf of beeriness. Note: I adjusted the baking powder per his suggestion and put the butter IN in the batter instead of on top. I had a piece hot out of the oven, it was pretty good! We used 12oz of Heineken because that’s all we had. It’s very, very sweet and then has a beer aftertaste. I decided to have it with a grilled cheese sandwich and leftover Trader Joe’s tomato soup:

Grilled cheese with 1 slice Sargento reduced fat Swiss cheese (60 cal), 1 slice Sargento reduced fat provolone cheese (50 cal), and 30g avocado (50 cal) on 2 slices beer bread
1.5 cups Trader Joe’s low sodium creamy tomato soup (135 cal)

The avocado kept trying to fall out of the sandwich, but I pushed it back in. This was a really good grilled cheese + soup combo, BUT I think next time I will leave the avocado out because it was a little too rich. Otherwise, I loved it! There’s nothing like a warm, ooey gooey grilled cheese sandwich with tomato soup on a chilly winter day. Although, I like it just as much in the middle of August. Oh, by the way, I didn’t use any butter or cooking spray when grilling the sandwich because the bread already has so much butter in it and it worked out perfectly.

For dinner, I made a big salad topped with squid salad that my mom made earlier in the day:

With a piece of sourdough bread and buttah

Bed of mixed greens drizzled with EVOO + red wine vinegar
Topped with a plum tomato, Linsday low sodium black olives, squid salad, and about a TBSP of grated pecorino romano cheese

If you’ve never had squid, I highly recommend trying it! It’s very high in protein, low in calories and rather inexpensive @ around $6/lb. My favorite way to eat it is in a cold salad form; boiled until very firm, then tossed with EVOO, red wine vinegar and parlsey. Deeeeeeeeeeelish! I like it well-done and super chewy, when it’s too slimy and mushy, blek!

So while most of the country is getting ready to watch the Superbowl, Dustin and I are going out! We’re not football fans, and honestly, the only things I find remotely entertaining about the Superbowl are the commercials and the halftime show. LOL And of course, the food! We love going out on Superbowl Sunday because most others are watching the game, so it’s like having the town to yourself, providing you avoid bars and such. lol We’re blasphemers, I know, but we’re nerds before anything, so you have to understand.

Time to take a shower and get going!!

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Friday Rewind

Jenn (j3nn.net) — Fri, 05 Feb 2010 17:25:22 +0000

I’ve spent more time shopping this week than I have working or cooking. So now my at home to-do list is a mile long, and when everyone else is winding down for the week, I’m pretty much just getting started. Honestly, days of the week and dates make very little difference to us being there really is no start or finish to our workweek; working for ourselves at home we often lose track of what day it even is. If it weren’t for holidays and bank holidays, and seasons changing we probably wouldn’t even realize what month it is most of the time. LOL

I’ve been shopping for my mom’s birthday and Valentine’s Day all week, so of course I couldn’t resist my favorite grocery stores while we were out. We found this incredible new pizza place in Middletown called Carbonella’s Coal Fire Pizza. Their pizza is absolutely amazing, but this time I had their tuna sandwich on ciabatta, which isn’t made with mayo, I think they use just oil and vinegar. I had half of it for lunch while we were out on Tuesday, then brought the rest home for dinner:

Delish! If you’re in the OC, check it out.

When we came home, I got a delivery from one of my favorite online stores: Healthy Heart Market

Sodium-free baking soda

Sodium-free baking powder

Low sodium Lindsay olives: 25 calories for 5 of them, 40mg sodium — wish I could find these locally, they are awesome! They have the regular ones, but not the low sodium ones. Shop Rite, Hannaford, Mother Earth’s, you need to get on these!!

Yesterday we went to Kingston, after hitting up Best Buy, BB&B, Macy’s, Pier 1, Barnes & Noble, and a few other stores, we dropped by Mother Earth’s for just a few things. No, seriously, just a few things. We didn’t even get a cart, just the little hand basket! :

I’ve seen this MaraNatha dark chocolate almond butter on other blogs, so I just HAD to buy it when I saw it. When we got home, I had a snack with it:

One medium-ish banana (110 cal) with 1 TBSP MaraNatha dark chocolate almond butter (90 cal) with a few Valentine’s Day sprinkles (15 cal) that I picked up in Target for baking. I also tried the Bigelow white chocolate kisses tea I bought the other day:

It’s SO good! Pick up a box if you come across it. I added 2 packets of Truvia and 3oz skim milk (35 cal) to it, so with my banana this was the perfect quick bite for just 250 yummy calories.

My MaraNatha dark chocolate almond butter review: It tastes fantastic!! The only downside is that it was $8.50 for one jar, but this will last for months so I think it’s totally worth it. I highly recommend it if you like almond butter and chocolate, it’s a little like chocolate frosting, but healthier.

I also got a cute little Quorn roast, which I haven’t tried yet. I plan on slicing it for sandwiches or in salad.

I really like the texture of jerky, but it’s usually really high in sodium. This organic beef jerky is much lower in sodium than other leading brands:

It will make a tasty low-cal, high protein snack. Yum!

Speaking of snacks, I was excited to find Glutino unsalted gluten-free pretzels and Good Health Natural Foods potato chips cooked with olive oil

Love the list of ingredients in the chips:

They were reasonably priced @ just $2.89 for a large bag, too. I tried the Glutino gluten-free pretzels and I thought they were really good! They taste pretty much just like regular pretzels; they’d probably taste even more like them with salt on the surface. I love seeing and trying all of the new gluten-free products on the market. If I ever have to go on a gluten-free diet, I’m ready!

I’ve been wanting to try non-dairy coconut milk “ice cream” for awhile now, so I picked up a pint of Luna & Larry’s Coconut Bliss:

I tried about a half serving of it last night — WOWWOWOWOW! It’s fabulous! The flavor is rich, the texture is a little less creamy than regular ice cream, but very close to the real deal. Dustin liked it, too. I think he’s lactose intolerant at times because ice cream tends to give him a bellyache, so this is perfect. Plus it’s made with entirely wholesome ingredients that you can pronounce. Love! <3

For dinner I made Field Roast sausage omelets with spinach and leftover roast sweet potato wedges from the other day:

Omelet

2 large cage free organic eggs (150 cal)
1 teaspoon EVOO (40 cal)
~2 cups fresh baby spinach (14 cal)
Quarter of a small red onion (20 cal)
A little diced plum tomato (10 cal)
1/2 Field Roast Italian meatless sausage, diced (120 cal)
30g fresh avocado (50 cal)
5 Lindsay low sodium black olives (25 cal)
14g Cabot 50% reduced fat shredded cheddar cheese (35 cal)

1 omelet, 475 calories

I started by adding in the spinach, tomato, onions and sausage in a nonstick frying pan with 1 teaspoon EVOO:

When the spinach was wilted down, I poured in the eggs, then towards the end I added in the olives, avocado and cheese.

I don’t know how many calories were in the sweet potatoes, but put me down for around 100. I also finished the bottle of Vitamin Water 10 that I opened the day before. Love that stuff!!!

The omelet was YUMMY! Aside from the cheddar cheese and avocado, I guess it qualifies as an Italian omelet, but I brought some American flare into it. hehe

Ok, I have 99 things to do and staying here at my computer isn’t one of them. LOL Be back later!!

Are you watching the Superbowl? If so, what are your plans? We’re undecided on what we’re going to do, it depends on the weather!

Blogosphere news: Attention all bloggers! If you want to disable trackbacks, send me an email and I’ll send you the link to the plug-in that I just installed last night. No more trackback spam, yay!

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Loot and Love

Jenn (j3nn.net) — Tue, 02 Feb 2010 19:38:26 +0000

Hi, lovelies! Can you believe it’s February already?! Days, months, YEARS are just flying by, geez! We went to Middletown to do a little shopping yesterday. I wanted to do some more, but we were just exhausted having been up since 3:30AM. I bought 2 pairs of jeans from Macy’s; one Calvin Klein, one Tommy Hilfiger — both came to just $74, I think they were half price? *shrugs* Good deal. Isn’t it kind of weird how they’ve been pretty much the same price for like 20 years now? I remember them being $75-80 a long, long time ago and they still are. Not that I’m complaining, but I also remember gas being .99 cents a gallon, so you’d just expect things like that to go up with the times. Maybe not. Ok, now I just feel really old. LOL

My mom made a batch of hard boiled eggs, so I decided to have one for breakfast. I actually took a chance that they were hard boiled, I wasn’t sure until I cracked it open. lol I assumed they were though because they were in a bowl, which usually means they’re cooked. When I confirmed that it was indeed cooked, I put it in the egg slicer and then made a sandwich out of it:

1 large hard boiled egg (75 cal) with plum tomato slices (10 cal) on a Martin’s 100% whole wheat potato roll (100 cal) with a cup of apple cider (120 cal). Quick and yummy breakfast for around 305 calories.

After the mall, we went to Shop Rite. I was in search of granola bars to replenish my dwindling stash. So I put a box of my favorite Kashi honey almond bars in the cart, then out of curiosity I checked the nutritional label, and sure enough, those tasty little buggers contain soy protein isolates. Grrr! Every box I picked up contained it and this was in the “organic and natural” section of the store. Now I’m not a purist by any means, but is it really necessary to add that to a granola bar?! No, it’s not. So, I picked up some other things to tide me over, but I’m going to have to take the plunge, I’m going to have to make my own granola bars. I should have done that a long time ago, but I was reluctant. What if they come out wrong? And every other excuse. lol. Please share your granola bar recipes with me if you have any. Thank you in advance.

Yesterday’s loot…

Couldn’t resist this! Doesn’t it look soo good?

I haven’t tried it yet, but when I do I’m going to use Truvia to sweeten it. Has anyone tried it yet?

I used to buy Wholly Guacamole all the time and then I stopped, how come? It’s fantastic! Check out the ingredients list and nutritional facts:

I waste so many ($$$) avocados when they go bad before I can use them, it makes more sense to just buy this for when I don’t plan on using a fresh one right away. For only $1.29, I think it’s one of the best “processed” foods you can buy.

I bought a bag of Udi’s vanilla almond granola, which is one of my favorites. I wish they came in bars! Not crazy about the canola oil, but again, I’m not a purist. Love the short ingredients list, though!

Incidentally, if anyone is on a gluten-free diet and searching for a delicious bread replacement, I have heard nothing but good things about Udi’s gluten-free bread: http://www.udisglutenfree.com — I’m not on a gluten-free diet, but the reviews are so great that I might order some just to try it. Almost every Celiac I have known says they miss wheat bread the most, so it looks like this may be the winning ticket. Kudos to you, Udi’s!

I also picked up a box of Ezekiel cereal. Not exactly granola, but it’s crunchy and wholesome (and expensive! $6 for that tiny box) It will last a long time though, so I think it’s reasonable. I picked up a quart of fresh strawberries, I can’t wait to try it with yogurt. Yum!

I got a second wind when we came home, so I continued with our dinner plans for spaghetti carbonara. I defrosted a package of Trader Joe’s uncured center cut bacon before we left, then went to work on it as soon as we got home. It’s really easy to make, so don’t be intimidated by it!

Most recipes call for cream and basil, but I don’t find the cream to be necessary and I substitute fresh baby spinach for basil, which makes it a little healthier. Not that it’s unhealthy, in fact, I think it’s a very wholesome dish.

Jenn’s Spaghetti Carbonara

2oz spaghetti (210 cal, I used thin linguine)
2 slices Trader Joe’s uncured center cut bacon (100 cal)
2 cups fresh baby spinach (15 cal)
2 large eggs (150 cal)
2 TBSP grated parmesan cheese (40 cal)
A little bit of the bacon grease (20 cal)
Black pepper

1 serving, 535 calories (multiply the ingredients for additional servings)

1. Boil 2oz pasta
2. Pan-fry 2 slices of bacon; drain them well on paper towels; chop; clean out pan with paper towel but don’t wash it, use the same pan to cook the eggs in, with just a very light coating of the bacon grease leftover. If you can see it, then that’s too much.
3. Fry the eggs, add black pepper. The black pepper is what makes it the carbonara part
4. When pasta is done, mix in 1 TBSP grated cheese, the chopped bacon and spinach; stir well and cover so that the spinach wilts down
5. Transfer the pasta to a plate, then place the eggs on top of it and sprinkled the rest of the grated cheese on top

You can also scramble the eggs, and then pour it over the hot pasta, mix it and let the heat from the pasta cook it if you don’t want the runny yolks. I like it both ways, but honestly, the runny yolks make it soo creamy and amazing. This was fantastic! The last time I made it I used turkey bacon, which I like slightly more, simply because it’s more ham-like. This was excellent though. Yummmmmmm!!!!!

I followed up this decadent dinner with a decadent dessert:

Why are you a limited edition, dark chocolate? You are amazing, please don’t go!! The serving size is 102g for 260 calories, but I had just 84g because that’s all that would fit in my adorable heart-shaped ramekins. That’s ok though, a little goes a long way.

If you like dark chocolate, this is the ice cream for you. It’s just incredible! I recommend you get some before it goes away! I don’t know why it’s a limited edition, I think it’s the best flavor they have ever made. Maybe I should start a “Save Dark Chocolate Haagen Dazs” Facebook? LOL

Alright, I have to go do some more shopping. Valentine’s Day is coming, plus my mom’s birthday, so I have to take advantage of every second I have in this short month because there’s a lot on our agenda.

What is the best cake filling you have ever had? We’re trying to decide what to put in my mom’s birthday cake, the bakery will do just about anything that we request, so I’m open to suggestions.

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Weekend Snoriers

Jenn (j3nn.net) — Mon, 01 Feb 2010 14:22:39 +0000

I’ve been doing so much sleeping since Thursday. My sinuses are acting up and the pressure always makes me drowsy. I’m feeling a lot more energetic today, so I think the pressure is subsiding. The low, freezzzzzzzing temperatures have probably contributed to our sleepiness, too. Needless to say, we didn’t have a terribly exciting weekend.

After a long slumber, I woke up on Saturday morning wanting just cottage cheese and coffee. This ended up being my wake-up snack, pre-cardio snack and my breakfast.

1 cup coffee (5 cal) with 2 TBSP Starbucks hazelnut syrup (80 cal) and 2oz skim milk (25 cal); leftover canned peaches in 100% fruit juice (~60 cal) and 1/2 cup Friendship California-style cottage cheese (120 cal). Then I did an hour of my obstacle course. This kept me pretty content for about 3 or 4 hours, then I made a quick semi-homemade lunch with Trader Joe’s low sodium creamy tomato soup:

Love this stuff! It’s only 90 calories per cup and 140mg sodium. In a small saucepan, I heated up:

1 cup TJ’s low sodium tomato soup (90 cal)
1/2 link Field Roast meatless Italian sausage (120 cal)
89g frozen green peas (70 cal)

1 serving, 280 calories

Along with 6 Nature’s Pantry organic Golden Round crackers (90 cal), it came to just 370 calories.

This was such an awesome combination!! I thought about adding a little grated parmesan or pecorino romano to it, but it honestly didn’t need it. This was nice and filling, easy to make and SOUPer tasty. I highly recommend trying to combo. Oh, and the Field Roast meatless sausage is fantastic. Loved the texture and flavor, it definitely rivals the real deal. I’ll definitely buy this again.

For dinner I made a meatloaf because my mom defrosted chopped meat from the freezer and I wanted to try these news seasoning packets I bought at Mother Earth’s:

I mixed half of the French onion dip with about a pound of chopped beef, 1 medium chopped red onion, and 1 large egg. Then baked the loaf in the oven on 425F for about 35 minutes, along with sweet potatoes.

The meatloaf came out perfectly! I drizzled 1/2 TBSP Heinz no salt added ketchup (15 cal) on mine and split a biggish sweet potato with Dustin that I topped with 4g real buttah (33 cal) and 1 TBSP Fifty50 fructose maple syrup (20 cal) that rolled right off of it. lol

Plus a huge salad with mixed leafy greens, plum tomatoes, red onions and blue cheese crumbles tossed in EVOO + red wine vinegar that I served family-style to reluctantly share with the others members of the familia. <3 Salad!

I gave the sweet potatoes a head start on cooking by zapping them in the microwave for a few minutes before putting them in the oven. I probably didn’t need to do that but I wasn’t sure how long meatloaf takes to cook, I don’t make them very often. hehe Everything was absolutely delish! I love when the sides of meatloaf gets a little cripsy, aka burnt. LOL The prospect of medium-rare meatloaf grosses me out though. Has to be well done!

Sunday dinner wasn’t that glamorous, but it sure was yummy! My mom was in charge of it this week, so I just let her do her things with minimal input (Ok, I gave a bunch of instructions LOL, but she did all the shopping).

Homemade salmon burgers with sweet potato wedges and steamed cauliflower

I wanted her to pick up Trident salmon burgers from the store, but Shop Rite doesn’t carry them, so we ended up making our own with:

2 cans Trader Joe’s no salt added wild Alaska salmon
2 teaspoons flour
1 large egg
A splash of liquid smoke

Makes 3 large, thin patties (or 4 smaller ones) baked on 425F for about 15-20 minutes on a baking sheet

Sweet potato wedges roasted on 425F. I don’t think she coated them in EVOO, I think she just drizzled it over them because they were really dry in some spots, but yummy anyway.

Yes, that is iceberg lettuce, get over it. It’s crunchy and delicious, and 3 or 4 leaves is not going to kill you. LOL I know a lot of people in their 70s and 80s that pretty much eat iceberg as their only lettuce, so it’s definitely not the worst thing you can eat as long as you’re getting fiber and nutrients from other things. The salmon burger ended up tasting JUST like the Trident burgers that we buy, but the texture was different. My mom mixed ours in the food processor before forming the patties, so it made the texture really smooth. I really like them though, YUM!

It’s a sunny day out, but COLD! We’re heading out shopping in a few hours, so I better go exercise, eat and shower before it gets too late. I jotted down my whole menu for the week yesterday, so now I need to gather some of the stuff I need for the recipes and some fresh produce. Oh, and I have to set my Valentine’s Day tablescape!! It will be in my next update, along with my Valentine’s Day plates.

What are you cooking and/or baking for Valentine’s Day? Anything special? Going out to eat? Tell me about it! Links to recipes if you have them, please.

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Family Practice

Jenn (j3nn.net) — Wed, 27 Jan 2010 09:28:31 +0000

Dustin had another doctor appointment today, we like her a lot. My mother is one of her patients, so she recommended that Dustin see her, then I was impressed by her, so I made an appointment 4 weeks from now when Dustin goes back. I love when doctors take the time to ask questions and get to know you, it’s very comforting and highly professional.

I had a wonderfully filling breakfast that kept me satisfied for 5+ hours! Peaches ‘n cream oats and hazelnut coffee:

1 cup coffee (5 cal), 2 TBSP Starbucks hazelnut syrup (80 cal) and 2oz whole milk (38)

In the bowl:

1/2 cup (40g) Quaker 100% rolled oats (150 cal)
Cooked in 1 cup skim milk (90 cal)
With 1 TBSP brown sugar (45 cal)
1/4 cup 4% cottage cheese (60 cal) stirred in at the end
Topped with 124g canned cling peaches in 100% fruit juice (60 cal)

1 serving, 405 cal, 20g protein

SO GOOD! I really wanted to add cinnamon to this, but I couldn’t find any! I don’t know if we’re out or if my mom put it in another place when she was baking. *shrugs* It probably would have been even tastier with a little of it sprinkled over the peaches, but this was so yummy that I’ll have it again sometime soon and use cinnamon next time.

I kept lunch simple being we had an appointment to get to. A chik’n salad sandwich on 2oz Le Brea Bakery sesame bread (150 cal) and a cup of Dr. McDougall’s light sodium tomato basil soup (100 cal):

I added some leftover chicken to the soup. Way to contaminate a VEGAN soup, Jenn! lol

The soup was crazy easy to make; I peeled the cover off and added hot water from our water cooler (the hot water side), stirred it and let it sit covered for 7 minutes (more like 20 minutes). I ended up going back to the office while it was doing its things and one thing lead to another, so I decided to reheat it in the microwave when I came back to get it. Oh boy, it made a mess all over the microwave. lol I didn’t see a need to transfer it to another bowl (I already go through 100 dishes a day cooking a couple meals), so I just wiped it off and all was well.

My review: Great stuff! I only added half of the seasoning packet that it came with to save a little more sodium, but it still tasted great. I liked it a lot, and for just $1.69 it’s a reasonable fast-food alternative to for work or school lunches. I’ll definitely buy more of these, they’re going to be a go-to staple for quick lunches, dinners or snacks. I really like the wholesome ingredients list and for just 100-160 calories per cup, it’s the perfect side dish or mini meal.

I still have a LOT of the chik’n salad that I made leftover. It has a longer shelf life than regular meat, so that’s a plus. However, next time I make it I’m not going to run it through the food processor, but instead use large chunks. I’m not crazy about the very fine chopped texture of it. Seitan and Quorn chik’n tenders both taste better in bigger pieces, but it’s still a really great meat alternative.

It’s around 4:30AM right now, I’ve been up since 9:00PM ish after just a few hours sleep. So, I think I’m going to take a nap now.

Do you eat meatless products? If so, what kind?

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Ice and Rice

Jenn (j3nn.net) — Mon, 25 Jan 2010 11:54:18 +0000

It seems like every time my cousin Tricia comes over we have some sort of hazardous road condition. This time we had icy roads from melted snow, but thankfully she made it to her destination safely after dinner. I wasn’t sure if I was going to actually make it through dinner on only a few hours of sleep, but once I was up and showered, it was like I had a full night’s sleep. 8 hours is SO overrated.

Sunday Dinner Menu:

Roasted chicken marinaded in extra virgin olive oil, garlic, white wine, red onion, salt, and black pepper.
Mushroom and green pea risotto
Roasted brussels sprouts !!
Tossed salad
Italian bread

The table:

Salad (topped with a little leftover parmesan from the risotto and tossed in EVOO + red wine vinegar)

My new favorite green gems! <3 I roasted them on 450F for about 15 minutes after coating them in EVOO, garlic salt and black pepper.

Assorted chicken sections. We pan-seared them in EVOO and a little more white wine before popping them in the oven. When they were fully cooked, we brush Polaner apricot fruit spread over them and put them back in the hot oven for a few more minutes.

The risotto that nobody loved except for me. lol Personally, I thought it was great, but the other fusspots aren’t risotto people I guess!

Mushroom and green pea risotto

2 cups Arborio rice
1 quart low sodium chicken or veggie broth
1 medium red onion, diced
1 TBSP EVOO
~1 cup frozen green peas
~2 cups sliced mushrooms
~1/2 cup grated parmesan cheese
Water as needed
Salt, optional (I didn’t add any)

1. In a medium to large saucepan, add in EVOO, onions, and rice;sweat onions and toast rice for a few minutes before adding in any liquid
2. Slowly add in broth, stir continuously on low to medium heat
3. Add in more liquid as needed, keep stirring
4. When rice is almost cooked, add in peas, grated cheese and mushrooms, stir

Servings vary

Note: It’s very important to keep adding in liquid slowly and stirring to 1-) Prevent burning/sticking and 2-) To achieve the creaminess of risotto. Otherwise you’ll just end up with regular cooked rice. Cook time takes about an hour.

The bread bowl, strategically placed by me, as usual.

I poured a glass of white wine while I was cooking, which lasted all through dinner. I’m becoming a big fan of white wine (Pinot Grigio) I totally earned those calories stirring the risotto over a 450F oven for an hour straight. LOL

My mom picked up Italian pastries from the bakery this morning. Unfortunately, they look better than they tasted. They were horrible! Very dry and poor quality. I had one of the mini cannolis, but it really wasn’t worth it.

Everything was delicious, despite what the naysayers think of the risotto! This was the only full sized meal I ate today, plus some leftover risotto later on. I don’t have any reservations about having one big meal for the day and a few snacks or whatever combination the day brings. I also don’t see anything wrong with fasting for a day here and there. Millions of people all over the world fast for religious and spiritual reasons and they are perfectly fine. Like I always say, it’s not what you eat or don’t eat in one day that matters, it’s what you eat (or don’t eat) over several days, weeks and months that matters most.

Dustin just changed the sheets on our bed because I was too tired. He’s the best husband EVER!! He is always willing to help with housework, BUT I prefer he doesn’t help cook. Like for instance tonight when we were preparing dinner, I asked him to grate the parmesan for me. Simple, right? Not for Dustin. He was taking WAY too long, so it ended up being one of those things that you have to do if you want it done right. lol We’d still be here waiting for dinner to get done if I let him finish. LOL Ah well, cooking is not his forte. No worries, he’s good at just about everything else.

Time to go feel those fresh, clean sheets! LOVE!

What did you guys have for Sunday dinner?

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Makeover Mania

Jenn (j3nn.net) — Sun, 24 Jan 2010 12:36:45 +0000

There’s no turning back now; as you can see I started giving my blog a makeover. I was playing around with WordPress and decided to enable the Thesis theme that Dustin installed awhile ago. One thing led to another and I decided to just keep moving forward with it. What you see now is only the beginning, I’m still working on a new header, a zillion other pages, new features and other design changes. So far I love the new theme! It’s extremely easy to use and saves me (and Dustin) a lot of time — YAY! So you’ll notice a lot of cosmetic changes and new things popping up around here, which I am totally stoked about and hope that you will be, too. My reader base keeps growing and growing, so here is a little thank you to everyone that visits my blog, you guys rock my socks!

I’ve been concentrating on revamping the blog and reorganizing the kitchen in between everything else, so I haven’t spent too much time cooking. I’m trying to use up everything in the freezer/cabinets, but it’s sooo hard because I keep adding on to it and then I end up throwing a lot of things out. Ugh, horrible habit that I’ve been trying to kick for the longest. Ah well, I’m working on it… a little.

I defrosted boneless pork chops the other day, then baked them with apricot fruit and minced garlic:

On the side: (over)steamed asparagus and a fresh baby spinach salad with 1/2 tsp EVOO (20 cal), red wine vinegar, 7g gorgonzola (leftover from New Year’s, hope it’s still good?) and 10g dried cranberries (30 cal)

I didn’t measure any of it, but I baked the pork chops on 425F, then towards the end drizzled Polaner apricot fruit spread, black pepper and minced garlic, that I microwaved to melt, over them and baked for another 10 minutes. I didn’t eat the fat around the edge, so they were a little dry but we still liked them.

The next day I made a huge batch of meatless chik’n salad with Quorn chik’n tenders and a package of seitan that I bought at Mother Earth’s. I heard that the texture of seitan is most like regular chicken, so I gave it a try. I processed the seitan, Quorn, celery, carrots, and onions in the food processor:

It needed more green, so I added 2 more stalks of celery and mixed it with 150g of Hellmann’s olive oil mayo (500 cal) — sounds like a lot, but the whole batch made at least 10-15 servings.

It turned out AWESOME! Almost identical to real chicken, yum! It ended up being lunch and dinner after I made it, but not picture worthy. There’s lots leftover and that will be making an appearance tomorrow or the next day.

Today was a 2 meal, 3 snack day. I finally tried the Field Roast slices for lunch. I put 2 slices (70 cal) of the lentil sage flavor in a wrap with hummus, avocado and red onion:

1 Gourmet tortilla (120 cal)
1 TBSP Cedar’s original hummus (30 cal)
20g avocado (40 cal?)
Red onion (10 cal)
2 slices Field Roast lentil sage meatless slices (70 cal)

Calories: 270

On the side: 1 Chobani vanilla yogurt (120 cal) with 1oz Trader Joe’s 3 berry granola (100 cal) and 10g dried cranberries (30 cal). Calories: 250

I don’t think I used the right flavor combination, the onion really overpowered the wrap so I didn’t really get to taste the Field Roast very much. Next time I’ll try it with milder components. Filling lunch for 520 calories, though.

Dinner was simple: Hamburgers, boiled potato and steamed brussels sprouts

5oz 96% lean ground beef burger (175 cal)
On a Martin’s 100% whole wheat potato roll (100 cal)
With red onion, 7g blue cheese crumbles (25 cal), dill pickle chips, Heinz no salt added ketchup and no salt added mustard (~30 cal)
12 brussels sprouts (90 cal) with a splash of Fifty50 fructose maple syrup (10 cal)
Smallish boiled potato (~120 cal) with 2oz Fage Total 0% yogurt (35 cal)

Calories: ~585 calories

The brussels weren’t as good as the roasted ones I made the other day but still yummy. I love them! These were a bag of frozen ones, that I may have overcooked a bit. Next time I’ll defrost them ahead of time and roast them. I was also surprised to see that they have a good amount of protein: 3g for 6 sprouts, so 6g for my serving. Not bad for a little green leafy thing, huh?

I’m up WAY too late right now. I actually have to be up in 6 hours to start on Sunday dinner. My cousin, Tricia, is coming over and I haven’t even shopped yet. Thankfully we have a live-in personal assistant, aka Rinks! Time to catch a few Zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz’s!!!

Question of the day: What is your favorite green vegetable?

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New and Improved

Jenn (j3nn.net) — Wed, 20 Jan 2010 08:28:28 +0000

My blog has successfully been moved to a new and better server, yay! It took a little longer than expected due to having to wait for the setup and Dustin having other work to do, but all in all, it was a near seamless transition. The photo gallery is down for the time being, until Dustin has a chance to get to it. He’s a busy dude!!

More blog changes coming over the next few weeks to months:

Installing a new theme and a new layout
Updates to my “About” and “FAQ” pages
Bringing back the blogroll (it was lost when I upgraded WordPress, ugh!)
Articles and calorie cycling calculator
Updated recipe section with photo gallery

I’m looking forward to a new theme, but I am having a hard time deciding which one I want. I already know the colors and layout I want, now I just have to decide on the header and other modifications I’ll be making. The hardest part of doing web design for me is deciding on colors and fonts, just like the hardest part of blogging is coming up with a title. LOL I can’t stand spending so much time on the smallest parts of a project. *sigh* What can ya do?

After Mastering Public Health tipped me off to Field Roast, meatless meat that is soy-free, I just HAD to go buy some. So, we headed out to Mother Earth’s on Saturday after I did 30 minutes (7.5 miles) on my recumbent bike and upper body strength training. It’s about 40 miles away, but totally worth the trip. It’s basically just like Whole Foods, minus the large seafood, meat and produce departments — theirs is much more limited.

Of course, I can’t go to a store like this for one thing and not end up getting 7000 things. I got some really great loot though!

These salmon snacks are actually baby food They were in the freezer and looked like a great, high protein snack.

They had a huge selection of Field Roast products, but the only actual “roast” they had was the celebration roast (stuffed). I got it anyway.

And some sausage…

…deli meat-like slices

Plus more Tofurky products. <3 I haven't tried any of the Field Roast products yet, but I will definitely give a review when I do.

These adorable little cups of “just add water” organic, vegan soups ++ light in sodium and calories (360mg each)

Dustin spotted these beauties — Black beluga lentils. Didn’t know they came in black!! So cool. Can’t wait to try them!

Zero calories diet soda sweetened with truvia (stevia)

Pink salt! I don’t use salt much in cooking, but I figure, if and when I use it, it might as well be pink hehe

Pad Thai sauce made with entirely wholesome ingredients and only 5mg sodium!! Love!

Mini Late July sandwich cookies. I had 3 of them, they aren’t that great. They are just “ok” but you get 10 cookies for 120 calories, which is cool, I guess lol.

Raw milk yogurt cheese

Smoked salmon pate

Organic dip mixes, which I plan to mix with Greek yogurt to eat with veggies and other crunchy stuff.

The last food pics I took were of Sunday dinner. Being I’ve been working on getting my blog back up, I haven’t spent much time in the kitchen. Mom made a pot of sauce on Sunday, so we had that with turkey meatballs and veggie sausage that was in the fridge and I wanted to use up (the bad ingredient kind ! ) over spaghetti.

Enjoyed with 1/4 piece of a Trader Joe’s garlic naan bread.

The veggie sausage tasted delicious, but unfortunately it contained soy protein isolates. Ugh! I bought it before I found out about them. I also realized that Luna bars have it. *sigh* I have to go through everything in the cabinets. I really hate throwing it all out. Why do you have to use nasty ingredients that I don’t know about until it’s too late, food manufacturers?! Ah well, live and learn, right?

A romaine side salad with EVOO + vinegar

A glass of 100% grape juice — did you know that 100% concord grape juice has the same health benefits as red wine? The more you know. I really wanted a glass of white wine that I have grown fond of, but we were out and it was sleeting outside, so I had a glass of antioxidant-rich juice instead.

For dessert: About a scoop of Haagen Dazs chocolate chocolate chip ice cream…

Lovely Sunday dinner. I should have known that Aunt Flo was on her way when I was craving that chocolate ice cream. She showed up yesterday, so I’ve been dealing with her. Blah! I’m totally exhausted right now, so I’m going to cuddle with hubby and watch TV. Nite nite!

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One More Time!

Jenn (j3nn.net) — Sat, 16 Jan 2010 17:57:33 +0000

Ugh, my server is being a pain so we’re moving my blog to another one, AGAIN! It was down all night the day before and into the morning, which is totally unacceptable! I apologize if you couldn’t get to it and if you sent me an email between Thursday night and Friday morning, please resend it! I’m moving it over now and it should be done by tonight. I have a really good “loot” update on standby but this server needs to go first.

I’m going to go get ready while it downloads/uploads, I’ll be back later tonight. <3

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The Uninvited Brussels Sprouts

Jenn (j3nn.net) — Thu, 14 Jan 2010 17:47:35 +0000

I made roasted brussels sprouts for the first time last night, and after cleaning them, they didn’t amount to very much:

That was a pint of them, halved, tossed in 1 TBSP EVOO (120 cal) and sprinkled with black pepper and a little garlic salt. I roasted them on 425F for about 30 minutes, but I think they were a little overcooked…

Well, even so, they were DELICIOUS, so I ended up eating half of them before they got to the table while I was impatiently waiting for the acorn squash to get done. So, I had to go to “greens” plans B and steamed a bag of frozen string beans in the microwave while the rest of dinner finished cooking.

I sliced 2 big acorn squashes in half; seeded them, cut them in quarters and rubbed about 1 TBSP EVOO all over them, mostly the skin. Then I drizzled 1/4 cup sugar free Fifty50 fructose maple syrup (70 cal) and roasted them on 425F for about 1 hour and 15 minutes — long time, huh?! The brussels sprouts had NO chance lying there looking all yummy. haha

Note: 100% pure maple syrup is the BEST, but there are some products like Fifty50 that I really enjoy for half of the calories. You can find it in most grocery stores where they have “diabetic products,” like Glucerna and such. I’ve found that a little goes a long way, so when I use it, it’s usually just a TBSP at a time, which totally rocks my socks for just 20 calories or so.

When the squash was almost done, I put 4 Trident Alaskan salmon burgers in on another baking sheet. And finally, it was time to eat!

TBSP of Cedar’s hummus on my string beans. It was awesome!

Totally worth the time it took…

1 Trident Alaskan salmon burger (130 cal)
On a stale Trader Joe’s ciabatta roll (115 cal)
With 2 slices tomato, 2 slices red onion (25 cal)
…and 1 TBSP Hellmann’s olive oil mayo (50 cal) + no salt added mustard (5 cal)
1 quarter acorn squash rubbed with EVOO + Fifty50 syrup (~100 cal)
~1 cup of string beans (30 cal) with 1 TBSP Cedar’s original hummus (30 cal)

Calories: ~485 (plus the brussels sprouts appetizer lol!)

Earlier in the day, I had a beautiful pear, walnut, and blue cheese salad with a Quorn sandwich.

Pear, walnut, blue cheese salad

~2 cups mixed leafy greens (15 cal)
Tossed in 1 teaspoon EVOO (40 cal) and red wine vinegar (5 cal)
3/4 of a very ripe Barlett pear (~80 cal)
1/2 oz walnuts (90 cal)
14g Organic Valley blue cheese crumbles (50 cal)
1 TBSP Bolthouse Farms blue cheese dressing (35 cal)

Calories: 315

Quorn sandwich

1 stale Trader Joe’s ciabatta roll (115 cal)
40g Quorn chik’n tenders (40 cal)
1 TBSP Cedar’s original hummus (30 cal)
Romaine lettuce leaves (3 cal)

Calories: 188

The salad was fantastic! Pear, walnuts, and blue or gorgonzola is one of my all time favorite salad combos. YUM!

Let’s Talk ~~Turkey~~ Tofurky!

I never had any of the “meatless” products on the market until a few years ago. I immediately fell in love with Boca and Morningstar burgers and chik’n, but I recently found out that soy protein isolates are carcinogens and they’re commonly found in Boca burgers, soy protein powders, and other highly processed foods. So, that eliminates a LOT of the meatless products that I used to buy. In the past year or so I’ve cut down dramatically on my meat intake due to moral reasons and not especially liking the taste and texture of certain meats, like chicken breast. I think I ate so much of it in the past, that I just got sick of it. Plus, ever since I can remember I’ve had a great distaste for veins and other GROSS things that are found in meat. So those are my personal reasons, but don’t get me wrong, I’m not a vegetarian, although I definitely could be if I really wanted to make that commitment, but I don’t at this time. I do love the taste of meat, but not enough to keep it as my main source of nourishment. I’ve just chosen to cut down on my consumption and eat more eggs, dairy, legumes (beans, lentils), fish, grains, and soy and meatless products in moderation for protein. Meat has pretty much moved to the top of my food chain, Mediterranean-style. I’m sure there are times where I go on a meat-eating bender, but whatever. As always, it’s all about the balance.

Right now there are a lot of meatless meat products on the market, but like everything, you have to read the labels. Unfortunately, I realized that Yves and Lightlife contain soy protein isolates, so I won’t buy them anymore. However, Quorn products are NOT made with any soy whatsoever and Tofurky products aren’t made with soy protein isolates, they’re basically tofu with extra flavorings. I dig them! Quorn tastes and feels just like chicken, I love it, but it’s high in sodium, so they’re a “one serving per day” sort of thing. Hickory smoked Tofurky is the only Tofurky product I have tried so far, and I really like it.

Another meatless meat product I enjoy is It’s All Good gardein. They’re chik’n is delicious and the ingredients list claims “soy protein” and not soy protein isolates, so I’m going to trust that they didn’t omit the “isolates” part, however, before I purchase it again, I’m going to contact them to inquire about it to be sure.

Meatless meat product pros:

Tasty
Some come very close to the real deal
Most are low in calories
Good source of protein (minus soy protein isolates!)
Reduces meat consumption
Humane
A little goes a long way
Tastes great on sandwiches, burritos, burrito-less burritos, nachos, salads, in sauce, stir-fries, etc.

Meatless meat product cons:

Most are high in sodium
They don’t taste or look exactly like real meat
Some have weird flavorings
Expensive
Questionable ingredients — be sure to scan the ingredients lists and look for ones that don’t contain soy protein isolates, artificial colors and other funky stuff
Highly processed — if you are a “clean eating purist,” these probably aren’t for you. But if you’re like me and allow for a little of almost everything in moderation, then these can be part of a healthful, balanced diet

By the way, none of these companies paid me to plug these products. These are all things that I have bought and eaten on my own accord, so this is my personal opinion that hasn’t been influenced by corporate marketing.

I have to take a shower now. Dustin and I are going to look at bedroom furniture and a little grocery shopping today. I’m thinking about selling our current bedroom set, not sure yet. But I need to buy some fresh produce, my lettuce stash is looking pitiful! lol

Be back later!

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2 Out of 3 Ain’t Bad

Jenn (j3nn.net) — Wed, 13 Jan 2010 18:37:36 +0000

I decided not to workout yesterday, I had a lot of other things to do and I just wasn’t feeling like it. I ended up having 2 full-size meals instead of 3 or 4. I guess my brunch held me over for awhile, but I had a few nibbles in between.

I’m on a blueberry kick. They’re just so good! And out of season. Ah well, the frozen version is just as yummy. I put about 1/3 cup on my yogurt, then 1 serving of Trader Joe’s roasted nuts:

Plus a Tofurky sandwich with lettuce, tomato, and hummus on Trader Joe’s sodium free whole wheat bread and a small honeycrisp apple that I couldn’t resist after slicing one for Dustin.

2 slices Trader Joe’s sodium free whole wheat bread (140 cal)
1 TBSP Cedar’s original hummus (30 cal)
Mixed greens + tomato (20 cal)
2 slices Tofurky (40 cal)
80g honeycrisp apple (~40 cal)
6oz Fage Total 0% yogurt (90 cal)
~1/3 cup frozen blueberries (25 cal)
30g Trader Joe’s honey roasted mixed nuts (190 cal)

Calories: 575 (230 for the sandwich, ~40 for the apple, 305 for the yogurt + berries + nuts)

I had a few more nuts in between, but this held me for over 5 hours. Then I started to make dinner, but I was ravenous by that point, so I had to have a snack while I was cooking. ~1 oz cheddar cheese with 3 Golden Round organic crackers (45 cal):

I made linguine with langostino (they’re like a cross between crawfish and lobster) and red pea sauce. We’ve only had langostino from Trader Joe’s (found in the freezer aisle) and we’ve craved them ever since. They are DELICIOUS! When we went to Trader Joe’s last week, I bought 3 bags of them @ $8.99/each. Love them!

In a separate pot, I boiled 2oz thin linguine (210 cal) and in another small saucepan I added in:

1/2 cup Franceso Rinaldi no salt added tomato sauce (70 cal)
1/4 of a medium red onion (20 cal)
1/4 cup frozen green peas (35 cal)
3oz langostino (70 cal)

On the side 1/2 Trader Joe’s garlic Naan bread (120 cal), toasted, with 1 TBSP Cedar’s original hummus (30 cal)

Calories: 555 (405 for the linguine + sauce, 150 for the naan with hummus)

DEEEEEEEEElish! Can’t wait to have more!

After dinner I had a small scoop of Haagen Dazs chocolate chocolate chip. It was ~1/4 cup that wasn’t picture worthy.

Ok, time to go start the day — VERY late! Ugh, I’ve been up for hours, but I can’t seem to get in the groove. Hopefully the day ends more productively than it started.

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Baked, Boiled, Bitten

Jenn (j3nn.net) — Tue, 12 Jan 2010 16:44:35 +0000

Hello, hellooooooooooo!

Since Friday there has been baking, boiling, and lots of biting going on at our house. I’ve been wanting to try pasta with nuts for awhile now, so I finally made it for lunch on Friday.

Whole Wheat Penne with Walnuts, Avocado and Apricot Spread

2oz whole wheat pasta (210 cal)
1oz walnuts, chopped in food processor (170 cal)
1 TBSP Polanr All Fruit Apricot fruit spread (40 cal) mixed in with the chopped walnuts
35g Haas avocado (60 cal)

Servings: 1
Calories: 480
Interests: Vegan, Low sodium

REALLY enjoyable! I mixed the nuts, fruit spread and avocado all around before I ate it. The only changes I would make: White pasta instead of whole wheat — it was a little too gritty between the nuts and the whole grains and the water that the pasta is boiled in, a dash of salt if it could it can be spared. Other than that, it’s virtually sodium free other than the trace amounts of natural sodium found in the avocado and fruit spread.

I seemed to have a vegan theme going on all day Friday, so I stuck with it with a Tofurky + hummus sandwich.

1 Trader Joe’s ciabatta roll (115 cal)
2 slices hickory smoked tofurky (40 cal)
1 TBSP Cedar’s original hummus (30 cal)
Romaine lettuce leaves (3 cal)

Servings: 1
Calories: 188 calories
Interests: Vegan, Low calorie

This is the first time I’ve had Tofurky and I absolutely LOVED it!!!! 5 slices packs 13g protein, only 100 calories, and 300mg sodium, which is much lower in sodium than most deli meats. 2 slices was all I needed for the sandwich to get the taste and texture. I’m not crazy about the canola oil in the ingredients list, but other than that, the ingredients are very decent. This will definitely be a staple in my fridge.

We went shopping on Saturday, so I kept breakfast simple: One 97% hard boiled egg salad on a Trader Joe’s roll with a honeycrisp apple

One large 97% hard boiled egg (75 cal)
Chopped and mixed with 1 TBSP Hellmann’s olive oil mayo (50 cal)
On 1 Trader Joe’s ciabatta roll (115 cal)
With a small honeycrisp apple (55 cal)

Calories: 295

You’re probably wondering what the heck a 97% hard boiled egg is. Well, it was almost completely hard boiled, but just a little bit of the center of the yolk was soft boiled, which made it extra delicious! Yummmmmm. Egg salad is so simple and wonderful. I could eat it everyday!

We ended up going out shopping later that night and having sushi (I didn’t have my cam with me ). But I made an fabulous lunch earlier that afternoon:

Grilled salmon salad with garlic Naan bread spread with hummus and topped with smoked gouda

1/2 Trader Joe’s garlic Naan bread (120 cal) topped with 1 TBSP Cedar’s original hummus (30 cal) and 14g smoked gouda (50 cal) left over from New Year’s and then melted in the microwave for 15 seconds. I grilled the Naan on the grill that I cooked my salmon on, too.

In the salad:

~3 cups mixed leafy greens (20 cal)
Tossed in 1/2 teaspoon EVOO (40 cal), red wine vinegar (10 cal) and 1 TBSP Bolthouse Farms yogurt Ranch dressing (35 cal)
~2oz grilled salmon (80 cal, including the EVOO I used to coat the grill)
1/4 cup frozen peas that I defrosted (35 cal)
Grape tomatoes (30 cal)
Red onion (15 cal)
14g blue cheese crumbles (50 cal)
Fresh broccoli (20 cal)

Calories: 335 calories, 535 with the cheesy Naan

Aaaaaaaaamaaaaaaaazzzzzzzzzing!! I am completely obsessed with salmon. I eat it several times a week and sometimes 2 or 3 times a day! I just love it. If you’ve never tried it with a salad, I highly recommend trying it. It’s fantastic. Yum!

Then we headed out to Best Buy to buy an Xbox 360. We needed a new DVD player for our bedroom, so we’re like, we might as well get an all-in-one type of thing so we can do other things with it. We actually wanted a PS3, but they were sold out. Boo!

The next day, my mom got busy baking with some recipes I found online. My mom is 100 times the baker that I am, I guess you can say she’s the resident baker. haha First she made these gorgeous potato rolls that I found here: http://annies-eats.com/2009/06/08/potato-rolls/ — minus the salt!

They turned out perfect! Mom is the best baker ever!!

Then she made this beautiful blueberry crumb cake from Ina Garten’s (love her!) recipe: http://www.foodnetwork.com/recipes/ina-garten/blueberry-crumb-cake-recipe/index.html

The cake part was moist and delicious, BUT I did not like the streusel on top! It was too hard. And my other complaint: It didn’t have enough blueberries! lol My piece only had 2 or 3 blueberries, where did they go?! haha We’re going to try making this recipe again with a different crumb topping and more blueberries. Loved the cake part though!

Traditionally Sundays are for pasta or other Italian cuisine around these parts, but I stepped out of my comfort zone and went with a Mexican-like chicken and rice recipe. I used my crock pot to slow cook a whole organic chicken from Trader Joe’s, which was good and bad. Good because it was easy, tasty and tender, and bad before it gets so tender that the meat falls off the bone and they were swimming in the sauce. Ugh! lol I’ve never cooked a whole chicken in a crock pot before, so I’m sure I didn’t go about it properly.

So easy though…

In the crock:

1 whole organic chicken
2 cans Del Monte no salt added diced tomatoes
1 bag frozen bell pepper and onions
Cumin
Garlic
Chili powder
1 jalapeno pepper (no needs)
A little garlic salt

Set on low and cooked for 10 hours. Then I used my rice cooker that I got for Christmas and made a small pot of white rice. Now I know, brown rice and healthier and yada, yada, yada, but seriously now, billions of people all around the world eat it daily and many of them are healthier than most Americans. There is no “right and wrong” when it comes to food, there’s only right and wrong for YOU. There are countless combinations of ways to maintain a healthy, balanced diet and it all starts with the right attitude. Don’t focus on perfection and definitely don’t worry about what other people are eating, eat what makes YOU feel best and helps you reach your goals, whatever they may be. Not everyone is designed for low carb living or veganism, we’re all individuals with bodies that respond to different things. Do what works for you and ultimately makes you happy and healthy.

When the rice + chicken were done, I had about a cup of cooked white rice, topped with about 3oz of the chicken breast (skin removed), the sauce and veggies and topped with about 14g of cheddar cheese:

It was so, SO, so goooooooooood, but we were paranoid about the bones the whole time, so it made it slightly less enjoyable. LOL Next time I’ll use just chicken breasts to avoid the bone problem.

Dustin had a doctor appointment yesterday afternoon, so I had a handful of nuts before we went being we were running late and didn’t want to be late for the appointment. Then we went out to lunch afterward, I had a cobb salad with grilled salmon instead of chicken from the diner. Didn’t have my camera, again!! Ugh lol. It’s so big and bulky that I feel a little silly taking it out in the middle of restaurants, but I’m getting used to it. I’m a food blogger, this is my business, so I have to produce the content. No need to be embarrassed, right? Except when the staff make comments about how much I must really like my food. lol

Sunday nights are pretty leisurely here, so we watched TV and then had simple soup and sandwiches for a late night din din.

Minestrone soup + a Tofurky sandwich on a homemade potato roll

1 can Trader Joe’s low sodium minestrone soup (200 cal)
1 homemade potato roll (175-200 cal?)
3 slices Tofurky (60 cal)
1 TBSP Cedar’s original hummus (30 cal)
Romaine lettuce leaves (4 cal)

Calories: between 475 cand 495, maybe less. I haven’t done the math on the potato rolls yet and they aren’t all the same size. So, whatever.

Alright, it’s almost lunchtime and I haven’t had breakfast yet! I had a potato roll when I woke up because I was starving, but then I lost my appetite for breakfast. So I’ll probably move right along to lunch now. We’ll see. Dustin’s busy programming with his headphones on, so maybe i”ll go rock out with my iPod on my recumbent bike. That’s a good idea! Get the blood flowing, burn some calories. Woo hoo!!

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Tasty Trades

Jenn (j3nn.net) — Fri, 08 Jan 2010 17:09:27 +0000

I’m excited to report that we went to Trader Joe’s in White Plains the day before yesterday! I so wish they had one closer to us, but we always make the 75 mile trip worth it. I’m crossing my fingers for one to open up in our well populated *hint, hint* neighboring cities that would be so convenient. I’d definitely go there once or twice a week — maybe more! haha

We had a quick breakfast before we left. I bought these Pepperidge Farms 100% whole wheat deli sandwich thins last week, and while I’m not crazy about the list of ingredients (sucralose aka Splenda and soy bean oil), I’m willing to tolerate a bit being they are just 100 calories each and delicious, not to mention those ingredients are such a small amount, it’s not that harmful. It’s when they make up a large portion of your overall diet that you should scale back. Everyone knows that I’m not a purist anyway, I’m all about the balance.

I made a well-done fried egg (no runny yolk) without any cooking spray or fats added in — risky, I know, but it didn’t stick, so YAY!

1 Pepperidge Farms 100% whole wheat sandwich thin (100 cal)
1 extra large egg (80 cal)
1/2 of a plum tomato (10 cal)
A few fresh Haas avocado slices (40 cal?)
A medium-ish Golden Delicious apple (90 cal?)

Calories: ~320

SO GOOD! Avocado is an excellent cheese substitute. So creamy and filling — MAJOR YUM!

Right next door to Trader Joe’s just happened to be a Haagen Dazs store, that was open… in the middle of January… in NY. Just HAD to have a little taste! hehe

We ordered “regular” sized cups, which I thought was their smallest one, but it ended up being HUMUNGO half pints! So we ended up having just a few bites and left at least 80% of it. I had Mocha Chip and Dustin had some kind of Brownie. Heavenly, but too rich to eat much of. Moderation is definitely key.

Then we headed home, but stopped in Middletown on the way home for some fresh produce at Shop Rite. We were hungry by then and I had to tinkle REALLY bad, and I HATE using public restrooms. Being home was still 20 miles away, we went to The Park for sushi rolls (and a meticulously clean + pretty restroom). I didn’t have my camera with me, so insert a Philadelphia roll and a KC roll here —-> <---------- Delish!

When we got home with 200 bags of groceries, I couldn't wait to dig into my favorite TJ's purchase:

Again, moderation because these are verrrrrrrry calories dense (190 cal per serving), but so crunchy and yummy. Truthfully, the macadamia nuts are my favorites, so maybe I should just buy some macadamia nuts and roast them at home? But then I wouldn’t have an excuse to go to Joe’s! *giggles*

Some other highlights from my TJ’s loot:

A 2 lb bag of Honeycrisp apples for only $2.49 !! They are usually $1.69/lb in other stores. SCORE!

Lots of nuts <3

LOTS of breads! This is only a few of the loaves we picked up. I also got sourdough rolls, ciabatta rolls, and more loaves of sodium free bread and Naan. I love using their garlic Naan bread (240 cal each) for pizza, it’s SO awesome!

15 cans of no salt added tunas and wild Alaskan salmon — LOVE it.

Several cans of low sodium minestrone soup — 200 calories per can.

Dustin got 2 bags of their ‘Lite popcorn’ and I got a bag of this popcorn that’s made with just popcorn, olive oil, and sea salt; 130 calories per serving and 170mg sodium.

Fun haul for sure.

Yesterday we went to look at the house that we fell in love with. We didn’t meet with the real estate agent or anything, we just drove by. We love it!! Before we left, we had a warm, hearty breakfast. I’ve been craving oats with chia seeds for awhile now, and I finally made them.

AMAZING!!!!!

In the bowl:

1/2 cup (40g) Quaker 100% rolled oats (150 cal), cooked on the stove top with 1 cup water
1 medium banana (110 cal), mashed up and cooked with the oats
6g chia seeds (30 cal), also cooked with the oats + banana
Topped with: 1 TBSP (16g) MaraNatha no stir almond butter (95 cal) and 7g Nestle Tollhouse mini chips (35 cal)

Calories: 420 calories

When you cook the chia seeds, they get creamy, gel-like and they pop in your mouth a little. So, so, so good! Very filling, too. This satisfied me for about 4-5 hours.

Now today I have my menu planned and my cupboards, fridge, freezers, and pantry is well-stocked up. I’m back on the grind and feeling GREAT! When I wake up in the morning, I am ravenous, so I need something right away or else I’ll eat the whole house when I do eat. Today my “wake up” snack was tuna on crackers:

2oz Trader Joe’s no salt added Tongol tuna (60 cal)
Mixed with 1 TBSP Hellmann’s olive oil mayo (50 cal)
On 6 organic Golden Round crackers (90 cal)

Calories: 200

Hit the spot! But that was 2+ hours ago and my tummy is rumbling — time for breakfast! I have pasta boiling. I can’t wait! Off I go.

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New Year, New Chair

Jenn (j3nn.net) — Tue, 05 Jan 2010 18:17:45 +0000

I finally tried the Egg Genie that Dustin bought me for my birthday. He’s been egging me on to try it (hehe), so we had poached eggs for breakfast. Or rather, what was supposed to be poached.

We only had extra large eggs, which is weird because we always buy large. I cracked each one in the 4 compartment tray that came with it; the eggs were so big that they barely fit. lol

Filled up to the brim…

I followed the directions and added the water in the metal plate part, then put the dome on top and plugged it in…

Cute huh? When the buzzer went off, I tried to scoop the egg out, but I struck a pool of egg white that wasn’t cooked. So I added more water and put it on again. I probably shouldn’t have let it cook as long as I did because they ended up coming out soft boiled, close to hard boiled. Totally missed most of the runny yolk! Ah well, I’ll know for next time. They stuck to the tray a little, but it wasn’t too bad for not having any oil/butter/cooking spray. It’s funny when you take the eggs out because they are triangular LOL.

I had mine (2 XL eggs, ~170 cal) on an Ezekiel 4:9 sprouted grain English muffin (160 cal) with a cup of coffee using mom’s vanilla creamer (~75 cal) and a medium Golden Delicious apple on the side (~90 cal), which came to just 495 calories or so.

I had a little taste of the runny yolk, but not much.

Dustin bought me this Hello Kitty mug for Christmas <3 Adorable!!

Next time I will try to cook them less, but before I try poached again, I’m going to try the hard boiled function. I like it a lot, but due to my inexperience using it, it ended up being more of a mess than the regular pot and stove way lol. Practice makes perfect.

After breakfast we did some work, ran some local errands (bank, post office, etc.) — YAY for first business day after the holidays — then came home, took showers and got ready to go out. I desperately needed a new computer chair, the one I had was no longer balanced. No idea how it got that way, but it wanted to lean in every direction and it was getting quite annoying to sit on. So Dustin and I headed to Middletown in search of a new computer chair and a new memory card for my digital camera(s). We decided to have a late lunch/early dinner at one of our new favorite restaurants: The Park.

Being it was around 3:00PM, we were the only people in there. It was great. I LOVE the decor and the staff is so friendly and attentive. Plus their food is outstanding and reasonably priced, which makes it darn near perfect. We started with Shrimp Sumai Dumplings and a Philadelphia sushi roll:

These were actually quite small; bite sized, but delicious.

Honestly, I have not had a lot of sushi in my lifetime, but this was the BEST I have ever had. The rice wasn’t overly sweet, which I’m not a fan of, so that’s probably why I liked it so much. Inside had smoked salmon, cream cheese and avocado. A-MAAAZZZing!

For my entree, I had the mahi mahi burger with garlic aioli on one of the best rolls I have had in a long time. Doesn’t this look like something that I would make at home?! LOVED it!

Dustin had the duck confit:

I had a bite, it was incredible. I had about 3/4 of the mahi mahi burger, 1 of the chips and Dustin brought home one of his pieces of duck. Can’t wait to go back, the Philadelphia roll is still on my mind.

After dinner (linner?) we stopped by Best Buy where I bought a new memory card. Then we went to Staples and I got a new chair, nothing fancy. I want to save the furniture I really want for our first house. We fell in love with one that we found online, but we’re not going to be in the market until around June. So I’m hoping that this house will still be available because it is just perfect in every single way. My heart flutters a little just thinking about it. lol

They’re shutting our water off tomorrow to fix something that broke, so I’m not sure how long it will be off for. Hopefully not too long! I’m going to take an extra shower tonight just in case. I’m paranoid about things like that. What if something goes wrong and there’s no water for the whole day, or week? *panics* LOL Should be quick and painless… I hope! Guess we’ll find out.

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Happy New Year!!

Jenn (j3nn.net) — Fri, 01 Jan 2010 19:04:24 +0000

Happy 2010, everyone! We rang in the new year with a little bubbly…

…and cheese. Lots of wonderful, flavorful, cheeeeeeeeeese!

Smoked gouda, gorgonzola, brie, and spreadable goat cheese served with organic Ritz-like and organic Wheat Thins crackers.

LOVE these crackers that I picked up at Hannaford. They taste just like the Nabisco variety, only made with entirely wholesome ingredients and they are fairly low in calories and sodium; The Golden Rounds are 90 calories, 149mg sodium for 6 crackers and the Wheat Thins are 60 calories, 105mg sodium for 7 crackers. Yum!

I had 2 glasses of champagne, and several cheese and crackers. We watched the ball drop, then watched a movie and called it a night. Sweet and simple, with the best company ever; each other!

My 2010 resolutions:

1. Be more consistent with a healthy lifestyle. No more 6 month long mouth parties!!
2. Keep my sodium intake lowish at least 80% of the time.
3. Eat more raw foods (fruit, veggies, nuts). I want to replace at least 3 or 4 meals a week with uncooked nourishment.
4. Waste less. I throw out way too much food and buy things that I never use.
5. Start running and run a 5k by Thanksgiving ‘10.
6. Reduce stress by any means possible. It’s a killer!
7. Be a better blogger.

That’s my list so far. It’s subject to change at any time lol. They’re all realistic goals that I would commit to any time of the year, but January is a fresh start, so now is as good a time as ever to set new goals. I’m not big on deadlines or anything, but I do like to have some sort of guideline to have things to look forward to or to stay motivated by. No pressure though (see resolution #6).

We’re going house shopping today, as long as the weather cooperates. hehe So far the new year is off to a great start!! I’m actually looking forward to Monday. I’m all holiday-ed out! haha Since Thanksgiving it’s been rush, rush, rush and eat, eat, eat! Ughh! I’m looking forward to work, exercise and cooking at home a lot more often. Time to go take a shower. I haven’t taken one since last year! *giggles*

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Farewell, 2009!!

Jenn (j3nn.net) — Fri, 01 Jan 2010 04:04:22 +0000

This is my last post of 2009 — and !

We were going to take a quick trip to Trader Joe’s in Westchester county early this morning, but just as we were leaving, heavy snow started falling! We have AWD, so our vehicle was capable, but we didn’t want to risk it. We decided to go shopping at Hannaford in Middletown instead. By the time we got out of the store, the snow had stopped and the roads were just about cleared. Figures! lol After shopping, we swung by Panera Bread for lunch. I had a Smokehouse Turkey panini — OMG, so good (and salty!). I felt kind of silly, I paid for a full price drink and ended up filling my cup with water. Ah well, probably best that way anyway. When we were walking out to the car, I almost fell in the parking lot! It was very slippery, with snow and ice everywhere. Thank goodness I caught myself or else I would have fell backwards and hit my head really hard on the pavement. Phew! Close call!! Dustin got scared and guided me the rest of the way to the car. My hero <3

I kept things simple last night with filet mignon defrosted from the freezer and a spinach salad:

A smallish filet, maybe around 3oz and a fresh baby spinach salad made with: ~3 cups fresh baby spinach, 1/4 cup Trader Joe’s 3 berry granola and a little shredded Cabot 50% reduced fat cheddar cheese tossed in EVOO + red wine vinegar.

I LOVE Mr. Spice salt free garlic steak sauce, it tastes just like A1 steak sauce, minus the sodium. YUM! The steak was perfectly cooked and succulent. Mmm!

Not sure where I got the salad combo from, but it was delish. Although, I started to get bored chewing all of it and left around 1/4 of it. Too much at once.

After shopping and Panera Bread for lunch, we took a nap to rest up for tonight. Then I made a quick sandwich on these soft, delicious onion rolls I picked up from Hannaford:

~1 oz reduced sodium ham, 1 slice genoa salami, 1 slice provolone cheese with a little Hellmann’s olive oil mayo on an amazing onion roll and about 1/2 serving of Ruffles reduced fat sea salt chips.

Simple and yummy. It’s 11:00PM now and we’re getting ready to pop the champagne. YAY! I wanted to make sure I had something in my stomach before drinking or else I’d get tooooo tipsy and feel yuck. hehe Tomorrow update is going to include my resolutions and we’ll look back at 2009. I have a small 2 person, 6 cat party to attend now.

Happy New Year!!!!!!!!

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Christmas Picture Catastrophe

Jenn (j3nn.net) — Wed, 30 Dec 2009 13:56:18 +0000

Merry Christmas, everyone!! (a little late) I hope everyone had a wonderful holiday. We did but I’m sad to report that my Eye-Fi memory card failed me and I don’t have very many pictures to show. I could not believe it. I had 2 days worth of pictures, Christmas Eve and Christmas Day, and they were all corrupted. I am SO upset! My dear, sweet husband bought me a Canon Rebel xsi digital camera for Christmas that I have been longing for all year and the first time I used it turned into a nightmare because that’s when I discovered that all the pictures I took with my Nikon D40 didn’t save at all. We tried and tried for hours to salvage the files that are there, but they are corrupted and cannot be displayed. I’m devastated. I took some really awesome food pictures and everything else, and now I only have a few, plus some new ones I took of my presents to replace the ones I had. Ugh! That memory card has been acting up since the day I got it; it NEVER worked like it was supposed to. I wish I had checked on the pictures sooner so I would have known that it wasn’t working right. UGHHHHHH! I thought I had hundreds of great pics waiting on the memory card, like they usually are, but come to find out I only had about a dozen that uploaded to my hard drive like the WiFi card is supposed to do. I do not recommend ANYONE use Eye-Fi wireless memory card, I’ve had nothing but problems with it.

Some of the pics that made it:

Santa paid us a visit!

We had a beautiful Italian 7 fish dinner on Christmas Eve and these are the only pictures that came out:

That’s it. None of the food pics for Christmas Eve or Christmas Day came out. *sigh* Maybe you can imagine by my description?

Christmas Eve 7 fish dinner

Salmon with apricot fruit spread and walnut crust
Squid salad with EVOO, red wine vinegar and fresh parsley
Scallops with bacon
Mussels with white wine, garlic, parsley and tomatoes
Shrimp cocktail
Linguine with clam sauce
Homemade crab cakes made with fresh crab legs
Crusty Italian bread
Broccoli with EVOO + garlic
Italian pastries

It was an absolutely delicious feast that we enjoyed the leftovers from for the past few days. Then Christmas dinner was a little simpler: Cheese lasagna, ham, tossed salad, Italian bread, string beans with bacon, and Italian pastries. Loved it all. Wish I could show you how delicious it looked!

I had lots of pictures of my presents, too, but they also didn’t come out. I took some new ones with my new Canon Rebel xsi, but not the same as the ones I took on Christmas day.

My wonderful gifts from my hubby and mommy…

Cookbooks! YAY! I should make every single recipe in them this year. hehe

Skechers Shape-Ups!! Size 10 I have big feetzzz *giggles* I can’t wait to wear them when I workout or go for a walk!

Canon Rebel xsi with a 50mm f/1.8 lens <3 LOVE!

A rice cooker

Waffle iron! YUM

Lots of DVDs, AeroGarden seeds, soaps, a Coach watch, and a bunch of other things that I HAD pics of, or so I thought.

Bvlgari sunglasses ~!

I made out like a bandit. But the food really was my favorite part of both days and I even considered recreating it just so I would have pics. LOL I have to get a new memory card now. Of all the days for it to fail, it failed on the biggest food events of the year. Ah well, guess I’m going to have to be extra cautious from now on. Technology… pfft.

I’m gearing up for New Year’s Eve now. I’m not going to do much drinking; 2 glasses of champagne max. Then January 2nd, after New Year’s dinner and celebrations — which I WILL have pictures of! — I’ll be back on the grind better than ever. Big changes coming to my blog in ‘10 and I can’t wait. I’ll have another update before 2009 is over to review the year and pledge my resolutions and hopes for 2010.

Happiest Holidays to all!!

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Ready When You Are, Santa!!

Jenn (j3nn.net) — Thu, 24 Dec 2009 22:55:07 +0000

Holy holidays, Batman! It’s been an extremely busy week. SO SORRY I haven’t done an update in awhile. Every time I started to do one, I was interrupted or toooo tired to do it before bed. Counting calories hasn’t even been on my radar in the past 2 weeks and there has been no formal exercise, but a LOT of NEAT. I think I’ve walked 10+ miles for the past 10 days, on top of my usual activity!! So I at least maintained my weight and possibly even lost a few, but I’m not stepping on the scale until after New Year’s. Well after New Year’s.

We got all of our shopping and errands done before Christmas Eve — YAY! No last minute dashes through the stores. Then, over the past week we have:

Made Christmas Cookies with my cousin, Tricia, and my mom…

Gingerbread cookies…

…and sugar cookies…

…and thumbprint cookies and butter cookies!

Dustin letting his creative juices flow in the form of gingerbread shaping

Some of them were overcooked, but still yummy. We had SO many, we didn’t miss the few dozen that didn’t turn out right LOL.

Our kitchen was almost all Italian cucina this week.

Homemade veggie pizza made with dough balls that we bought at the bakery. OMG, deeeeeeeelicious!

I preheated the oven to 450F, then threw on whatever veggies I could find. Mainly frozen ones. I used very little cheese and I didn’t miss it at all. It came out AWESOME!

With a side of steamed broccoli drizzled with Ken’s sodium-free ginger marinade

The crust came out perfectly crisp and soft in the middle. Aaah, heaven!

I also made a tray of almost vegan eggplant parmesan. Almost

I got this recipe from a vegan recipe site, but modified it with cheese.

1. Preheat oven to 425F
2. Slice eggplant lengthwise (I left the skin on my)
3. Drizzle liberally with extra virgin olive oil (salt + pepper, optional)
4. Bake in oven until soft; turn over halfway through
5. In a lasagana pan or any other baking pan, make layers of: tomato sauce, eggplant, slices of peasant or other hard bread, like ciabatta, (cheese optional), more sauce and repeat until you run out of layers. Top with slices of tomato (I forgot!)
6. Bake on 375F to 400F for 30-50 minutes depending on your oven and preferred crispiness.

Servings vary

I made a HUGE salad, which I ate all of throughout the day. I LOVE salad. LOVE it!

FANTASTIC! I loooooove the way the bread soaked up the sauce and expanded. It was amazing! So easy to make and leftovers were enjoyed for many days.

The next day I made another huge salad that I ate all of throughout the day, but loved it the most with my salmon that I marinated with Ken’s sodium-free ginger and then baked. Why does it get that white stuff (the fat?) on top?? Every time I cook salmon, it does that. I eat it anyway but I never see anyone else’s do that.

Served on one of my favorite holiday plates:

I <3 salmon!!!! I could eat it 3 times a day and never get sick of it. YUM!

I used my new crock pot for the first time the other day. I was going to make soup, but one ingredient leads to another and before you know it, I have tomato sauce with chicken sausage. hehe

Made with:

3 cans Del Monte no salt added diced tomatoes
2 medium onions, slices thinly
1 bag frozen zucchini slices
1 package Al Fresco roasted garlic chicken sausages, sliced in round bite size pieces

I let it cook overnight in my slow cooker on the lowest setting for about 10 hours. It turned out lovely! I LOVE using it. It literally took just 5 minutes to throw it all in there and then it does all the work for you. Brilliant!

I was going to serve it over rice, but chickened out at the last second and went with tri-color bowtie pasta.

I made some garlic bread with leftover peasant bread

HUGE plate of it, probably 2 servings of pasta, but I was STARVING after shopping and walking around for a good 6 hours+! Plus heavy cleaning, etc. It was well earned. So were the Nathan’s hot dogs Dustin and I indulged in at the mall 2 times this week LOL.

I’ve been trying to keep it simple the past few days with leftovers and nibbling because we have 2 back to back elaborate dinners planned and I want to enjoy them as much as possible.

Swiss and cheddar cheese, Kashi crackers that taste like Triscuits, and 2 clementines made lunch yesterday:

A Hershey’s Kiss with almonds for dessert x about 20 this whole week Candy dish = NAUGHTY JENN! lol

After our final day of mad dashes through stores and hot dogs for lunch, I made a simple veggie + cheese omelet with a leftover boiled potato topped with Fage 0% yogurt on the side:

I scrambled 4 extra large eggs, then added butter + EVOO in a nonstick pan and added in whatever veggies we had (TJ’s frozen asparagus, tri-color bell pepper strips, red onion) and then poured in the eggs on top of it. Halfway through cooking I added in a mix of Swiss and cheddar cheese (full fat). I split the omelet 3 ways with hubby and mom.

Water in my cup from the Radio City Christmas show last year…

Omelet topped with a few banana pepper rings. SO GOOD!

The stockings were hung by the chimney with care, in hopes that St. Nicholas soon would be there.

Dustin and I had some ornaments made last year…

…and my adorable little Hello Kitty ornaments!!

Our beautiful blue spruce Christmas tree courtesy of Aunt Gina and Uncle Brian’s Christmas tree farm. <3

Right now I’m in the middle of cooking the Italian 7 fish Christmas Eve dinner. I will have TONS of pics to post of that but I better get going before I miss it! LOL Be back later tonight before Santa gets here!!!!! He’s going through NJ right now, heading to NYC and then upstate. YAY, GO SANTA!!

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Forks and Soup Spoons

Jenn (j3nn.net) — Tue, 15 Dec 2009 21:25:14 +0000

Dustin and I decided to extend my birthday celebration just a little bit more by declaring last night “date night.” I’m a HUGE fan of the Twilight Saga, as many of you might know by now, but I didn’t want to see New Moon when it first came out for one reason: Hysterical 13 year old FANatics. I already read all 4 of the books, so I know what happens, and I didn’t want the movie experience to be ruined by chatty teenagers. So I patiently waited until the initial excitement wore off, then last night we decided that a 10:30PM Monday night showing was probably a good time, and it was! We almost had the entire theatre all to ourselves until a couple came in at the last minute and sat 2 seats away from us in the same row. WHY do some people do that?! There were 200+ other seats available, but they had to sit practically right next to us. I could understand if it was a little more crowded, but it was just the 4 of us. Le sigh!

Anyway, that tension went away as soon as the movie started. Edward Cullen makes me melt. Tall, pale, and cold? HELL YES! hehe The movie was awesome, just what I was expecting, but I maintain that the books are better than the movies. The movie versions are rather condensed and leave a lot of intricate details out that give you a better understanding of what is going on and why. So I highly recommend reading the books and then seeing the movies. If you’ve only seen the movies and enjoyed them, then read the books, too.

I totally overdid it with calories and sodium. Totally. The day started off innocently enough with a grilled gouda + tomato sandwich on peasant bread with a cup of Trader Joe’s no salt added minestrone soup (200 cal):

By the way, I used my old Sony CyberShot camera all day because I didn’t clear the memory card off from my full Nikon yet. So the pictures are pretty crappy! lol

1oz gouda cheese (100 cal) with tomato slices and 1/2 TBSP Hellmann’s olive oil mayo (25 cal) on peasant bread grilled in 1/2 TBSP butter (50 cal) and 1 can Trader Joe’s minestrone soup (200 cal).

SO GOUDaaaaaaaaaa!

Yum, yum!

We decided to try a new place called The Park for dinner. It has a variety of cuisine, but mostly Japanese (sushi). We weren’t expecting it to be as nice as it was. There really aren’t that many decent restaurants within our 20 miles radius, but we were pleasantly surprised.

The $8 bottled water was a little pricey, but worth it after we tasted the house water. Blek!

We started with 2 appetizers: Artichoke dip with garlic bread and pork & vegetable Gyoza with sesame sauce — I forgot to request the steamed ones, oops! I’m not a fan of fried dumplings, but they were tasty.

Dustin had the filet mignon with gorgonzola, which was amazing! It was so tender and flavorful, LOVED it.

I had, for the first time, Pad Thai noodles with shrimp. OMG, DELICIOUS!!!!!!

Sweet, spicy, crunchy, and creamy all in one dish. I ate just 1/3 of it while we were there, but I ate the rest later on. This is definitely a new favorite. I can’t wait to have it again and I’m so glad that my first experience with this popular dish was a hit. YAY!

We had about an hour before the movie started, so we went to Target for some household items, like toilet paper and cat treats — romantic, I know!! LOL We had a little more time to waste, so we went to Macy’s to do a little window shopping. Then we headed over to the theatre to buy our tickets… and a LARGE popcorn… and Nestle Crunchies… and Twizzlers. I ate SO much popcorn and candy. Ugh! But at least my drink was a 10 calorie Vitamin Water. Sodium overload!! My ankles were swollen by the time we drove home. Totally worth it though!!!

Now I have to go plan my menu for the rest of the week, work on the Christmas Eve and Christmas menu, plan Christmas shopping which we haven’t even begun yet, and a zillion other things. I better hop to it. *giggles*

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My 30th Birthday

Jenn (j3nn.net) — Sun, 13 Dec 2009 05:40:57 +0000

Happy 30th birthday, to me!!

(12/12/79)

I was too exhausted to go through 600+ pictures by the end of the night, so pretend it’s still my birthday, even though it was yesterday. LOL My camera’s memory card actually ran out of space. That’s the first time that ever happened. We were snapping pics like craaaaaaaaaazzzzzzzzzy, but unfortunately, Dustin isn’t as good with the camera as I am. lol

We started the day with a super calorific breakfast of eggs over hard, cinnamon toast with butta, and a VERY tall cup of hot chocolate with whipped cream made by Dustin <3

Yummy!! I drank ALL of the hot chocolate, too. I think it was the equivalent of Starbucks’ Grande. It was made with water and not milk though, so that saves a bunch of cals. Not that it matters on my birrrrrrrrrfday!

My party was starting at 4:00PM. Dustin decorated the dining room all by himself! Isn’t he the sweetest ever?

I decided to printed out place cards at the last minute, which came out totally cool. If I had thought of them earlier I would have made them more festive. hehe

The birthday menu: Beef tenderloin, mashed potatoes, green beans, tossed salad with gouda, and crusty Italian bread

Pictures of Dustin and me…

Bathroom mirror pics. hehe

Hello Kitty cake time! To be honest, I was a little disappointed with the cake that we ordered from our favorite bakery in Kingston; it wasn’t nearly as pretty as last year’s! It was rather plain looking, so I added a little to it by sprinkling purple sprinkles on it. Seemed to help! But you know what they say, it’s not that outside that matters, only the inside.

14″ vanilla and chocolate layered cake with cannoli + chocolate chip and chocolate custard filling and real whipped cream on the outside. DELICIOUS!!

I had a WONDERFUL birthday and got a bunch of awesome presents!! Including:

Bose headphones for my iPod
Cookie cutters <3
Wii games
New Moon and Hello Kitty calendars!!
Egg Genie
Sims 3
Bose iPod dock

Plus other fantastic stuff. Dustin took pictures of the presents and they didn’t come out so hot, lol. Love it all, though!

So, I’m officially in my 30s! I don’t feel any different. lol I feel exactly the same as I did when I was 10 with the exception of physically feeling VERY old and worn down sometimes. But my inner child will always keep me young at heart.

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Give a Little, Get a Lot

Jenn (j3nn.net) — Fri, 11 Dec 2009 04:28:10 +0000

We decided to sell a bunch of things on Craig’s List that were taking up room in our garage to the point that its hard to walk in there. So far we sold our bicycles, which we hardly used and my treadmill, which was also barely touched. No one wanted to take it apart and bring it upstairs to my gym, so we sold it. Actually, my husband’s exact words were, “I’d rather just buy a new one than take it apart and bring it all the way up there.” Whatever you want, sweetie pie!!

When I placed the ads on Craig’s List, I browsed the “Wanted” category to see if anyone was looking for anything we were selling, and that’s when I saw an ad for a mother with 4 children that needed dishes. I had been setting aside a pile of mine that I decided I no longer use or want, so I contacted them and offered the ones I had. They accepted and picked the box up the next day. I didn’t know anyone else that wanted them, so I was glad to find a home for them instead of throwing them out. I highly recommend that you check out Craig’s List or other local classified ads where people look for things they want or need. You know the saying, “One person’s trash is another person’s treasure!” So true. I prefer donating tangible items or physically doing something more than just blindly handing over money to a charity. This week we’re making our usual toy contribution to Toys for Tots and dropping off cat and dog food to the local ASPCA. I try to be charitable all year long, but especially so during the holiday season. Even if you don’t have any money or time to spare, perhaps you have coats, clothes, pots and pans, and other household products that you no longer use that would make someone’s day. Instead of throwing out unopened canned and boxed food, consider donating it to your local food bank or church. Keep it local and simple.

Highlights from the past few days eats:

Kashi Honey Puffs 7 grain cereal (120 cal) mixed with 55g Nature’s Path Flax Plus Pumpkin Raisin Crunch cereal (210 cal) and 1 cup skim milk (90 cal)

Aww, cuuuuuuuuuute gingerbread man bowl! hehe

Meh, not my favorite way to consume 420 calories, but I was craving a bowl of cold cereal. I realized that I do NOT like raisins in cereal, at least the ones that cereal. They are so hard and hurt to chew. I think that’s why I never cared for raisin bran, too hard on my teeth. I like just the bran flakes, though.

Health Valley no salt added split pea soup with 1 Pepperidge Farms sourdough roll (140 cal) and a lovely blue salad drizzled with Bragg’s Healthy Vinaigrette + red wine vinegar

WAAAAAAAAAAAAY too much at once. I ended up eating all of the salad, the roll and less than half of the soup. The soup is a little bland on its own, but I added in a few splashes of Tabasco and a very light sprinkling of potassium chloride (salt substitute) and it perked it right up. YUM!

I’ve been trying to find AlsoSalt, a salt substitute, but haven’t been able to find it. It’s used in Heinz no salt added ketchup and tastes great, so I’d like to try it now and then, but not too much. I tread very lightly with salt substitutes, though, being on prescription diuretics, I can use more potassium in my diet, but I still use it as sparingly as possible; not even close the the full serving size in a week, much less all at once. If I can find AlsoSalt, I’ll post my review.

I did find a sodium-free Asian marinade made by Ken’s Steakhouse that tastes awesome:

Serving size: 1 TBSP, 30 calories — and the list of ingredients is pretty decent, too, for something that’s store-bought. I used 1 TBSP (30 cal) on a 3.5oz salmon filet (105 cal) that I baked in the oven on 425F for just 9 minutes and nearly burned! I figured it would take 12 minutes and it ended up being well-done in just 9 minutes. Geesh, good thing I checked!

While the salmon baked, I boiled 2oz spaghetti (210 cal) and steamed Trader Joe’s frozen asparagus in the microwave. When the salmon and pasta were done, I tossed in the asparagus and mixed it with another TBSP of Ken’s Sesame Ginger sauce (30 cal), then placed the salmon top.

SO GOOD!! It came to just 400 filling-and-flavorful-calories. Yum!

Today I woke up craving tuna salad and A LOT of it. So, I mixed a whole can of Trader Joe’s no salt added Tongol tuna (~120 cal) with 2 TBSP Hellmann’s olive oil mayo (100 cal), then put it atop of a bed of mixed greens that I tossed in red wine vinegar and 2 TBSP Bragg’s Healthy Vinaigrette (90 cal) on my Snoopy and Woodstock platter:

Toppings: grape tomatoes, red onions, 14g reduced fat blue cheese crumbles (40 cal)

Deeeeeeelish! I love, love, LOVE salads!! <3 I was feeling pretty full, but had a smallish Granny Smith apple and a Kashi fruit + nut bar (120 cal) right after this to round out the meal a little more. But would you believe that after ALL of that I was HUNGRY 2 hours later?! My appetite has been insatiable ALL week! I've been good about watching my sodium intake, so I am dropping some water weight, but I think my increased hunger is due to all the activity I've had this week; we've been shopping, I've been walking an hour a day in my homemade obstacle course around my living room/kitchen, AND doing 45-60 minutes of recumbent biking, 15-16 miles everyday. No wonder why I'm so hungry! And I'm actually going to be even busier tomorrow. We have to pick up my cake (OMG, wait until you see this year's!! I think it's going to be AWESOME), I have cleaning to do, exercise, shopping, work, planning my birthday party and dinner for Saturday, going out to eat Friday night, and then after my party we are going to a comedy club with my cousin and her boyfriend. Meanwhile, we haven't even started Christmas shopping yet! Well, actually I bought a few things, but I haven't even scratched the surface yet. It's going to be a looooooooooooooong, but FUN month. I love December, it's such a go, go, go time. I complain, but I really do enjoy it. We're also practicing being more time-efficient and might even dodge Christmas Eve last-minute shopping. We'll see I guess! lol

Well, I've been fighting my hunger for the past 2 hours, I think 4 hours is enough time to have passed before I eat again. I usually don't fight my hunger, if I'm hungry, I eat, but I mean come on, that meal had it all; veggies, fiber, protein, fats, DESSERT, and flavor. I thought it would hold me for a long time. Nope! Ugh. Off to eat!

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Jitters

Jenn (j3nn.net) — Mon, 07 Dec 2009 10:14:42 +0000

I’ve found myself pacing aimlessly several times over the past week. I’m turning the big 3-0 next Saturday and I’ve been having a mini breakdown. Aunt Flo showed up a couple days after Thanksgiving, so my hormones were raging and of course, holiday anxiety is contributing to my madness. We can’t do anything to stop the aging process; the best we can do is hope to age gracefully. I don’t feel that 30 is old, I’m just anxious about starting a new decade of life and saddened by leaving my 20s, even though it’s just a number. Truthfully, some days I feel like I’m 80 and other days I don’t feel a day over 12. *sigh*

So, yeah, it’s been an interesting week. Poor Dustin. Every time I started to do an update, I’d get sidetracked by daydreaming, procrastination or self-induced panic attacks instigated by one thing or another. December is our busiest month business-wise, combined with the holidays, it’s been rather hectic. We picked up our Christmas tree the other day from my Aunt Gina’s house. Her house was built on a Christmas tree farm, so she still has some trees, but they are getting big. We ended up with a blue spruce because the others wouldn’t have fit in the house lol. It’s prickly, but gorgeous. I’ll post pics of it in a few days, we have to buy a new tree top.

Revisiting Thanksgiving…

I left off on our Thanksgiving feast; inevitably, there were LOTS of leftovers! Could NOT wait for a “leftover sandwich”

Oh my GOODNESS! Turkey breast, gravy, stuffing, and cranberry sauce on a leftover dinner roll with a side of mashed potatoes with gravy and sweet potatoes. YUM!

Remember how I said our pumpkin pie fell? Well, mom made another the next day. This time with a graham cracker crust. I enjoyed a slice with some whipped cream:

I ate the filling and left the crust. I’m not crazy about graham cracker crust, usually only on cheesecake. Still just as yummy though!

We didn’t do any “Black Friday” shopping, but we did go out Saturday. Dustin wanted to do some shopping for my birthday, so he dropped me off at Mother Earth’s, my favorite “natural foods” store in the area. I found a bunch of great things, but I think my favorite is this:

No salt added mustard!!!!!!! YAY! Also, the jar of dill pickles has almost no sodium in them. But they were EXTREMELY expensive; $9 but I just HAD to because I love pickles but due to the sodium, the best I can do is bread & butter ones. I’ll ration them for sure. Maybe one slice at a time LOL.

After we shopped ’til we dropped, we picked up Panera Bread to take home with us. I got the chicken cobb salad, Dustin got a smoked turkey panini:

My salad was “ok,” nothing impressive to be honest. I ate less than half of it, but all of the baguette, which was totally delish.

Tired from shopping and turkey, I made my “go-to” meal of choice for dinner: Pasta!

I decided to use some leftover bread that I picked up at the bakery while picking up Thanksgiving goodies for garlic bread. I was too impatient to let it get really toasty.

Back to leftover turkey the next day in the form of turkey salad made my mommy:

I tossed a bed of mixed greens in EVOO + red wine vinegar, then topped it with ~1/2 cup turkey salad, grape tomatoes, red onions and 14g reduced fat blue cheese crumbles (40 cal)

I was getting a little tired of turkey by then lol, so I started having some vegetarian yumminess:

A homemade sodium-free bagel (~210 cal) with 2 slices Yves veggie bologna (40 cal), lettuce, and 1/2 TBSP Hellmann’s olive oil mayo (25 cal) with 1 cup apple cider

Later on my pre-workout snack was this little container of Apple Jacks that I picked up in Target for $1 while we were out shopping.

The nutritional facts and ingredients actually aren’t TOO bad; 150 calories, 190mg sodium. I think Aunt Flo was whispering in my ear when I picked this up. lol I had it with 1 cup skim milk (90 cal), so for just 240 calories, it’s a reasonable portion-controlled indulgence.

They taste just like Fruit Loops to me lol. Probably are almost the same recipe.

More vegetarian cuisine on the menu: black bean tempeh chili:

I made it the same way I make regular chili, only instead of meat, I substituted a package of multi-grain tempeh that I crumbled up.

Black Bean Tempeh Chili

3 cans Del Monte no salt added diced tomatoes
2 medium red onions, diced
1 TBSP EVOO
1 block multi-grain tempeh
~3 cups cooked black beans
Chili powder to taste
Cumin to taste
Black pepper
Garlic powder

1. Add onions into pot with EVOO; cook down a bit
2. Add in tempeh (crumble it up); stir together; add some spices and stir again
3. Pour in diced tomatoes, more spices; stir
4. Add in beans; stir and let simmer for 45-60 minutes; stir periodically

Servings vary

On the side: Half of a corn muffin I bought at Mother Earth’s…

…and on my chili: 14g shredded Shop Rite no salt added Swiss cheese (50 cal), 56g Fage Total 0% plain yogurt (35 cal) and more diced red onion. It was DELICIOUS, but very filling, so I ended up eating only half of my bowl. We couldn’t even really tell that it was meatless. After I added in a few splashes of Tabasco, it tasted just like regular chili. Dustin loved it, too. Win win!

Santa Claus is coming to town!!!!!!

I started using my Christmas dishes on December 1st. YAY! Sant loves cookies and milk, but I hear he also loves spaghetti and meatballs? Can anyone confirm this? LOL My mom made homemade sauce and meatballs (with raisins in them, YUM!!), so what better way to break the festive plates in with than with an old favorite.

It even snowed on my salad for the occasion! hehe (grated pecorino romano cheese)

Heavenly!

This was breakfast the other day…

1 large cage free egg (75 cal) cooked in 1/2 teaspoon EVOO (20 cal) and placed on a Martin’s 100% whole wheat potato roll (100 cal) with 1 slice Sargento reduced fat Swiss cheese (60 cal) and an orange on the side for around 355 calories total.

You would think I’d be sick to death of turkey, but I returned to it again after my workout the other day lol. This time it as a 4oz ground turkey breats burger (120 cal) on 1 Pepperidge Farms’ 100% whole wheat deli thins (100 cal) with no salt added ketchup, red onion, no salt added mustard and no salt added bread & butter pickles (I had a low-sodium theme going lol).

This was my post-workout meal, so I went heavy on the protein. I picked up this chocolate protein powder at Mother Earth’s the other day:

I decided to try 14g of it (49 cal) with a 6oz Fage Total 0% plain yogurt (90 cal). Fage is very thick and sour, so when I tasted it after mixing it in, I thought it was a little too bland, sooo I added on some toppings. 6g Cascadian Farms dark chocolate granola (25 cal), 7g white chocolate chips (40 cal) and 10g Gefen raspberry syrup (20 cal). It was SO GOOD, but I’m sure it would have been better with a thinner yogurt and/or more protein powder. It mixed REALLY well though, not chalky or clumpy at all.

My burger was YUMMY! I really like the deli thins, the ingredients list is fairly decent. For 100 calories, they are in the same league as my beloved Martin’s whole wheat buns, so I’ll definitely buy these again.

By now you probably figured out that I bought a ton of “meatless meat” when I was out shopping the other day LOL. I love it so much, it’s just really high in sodium. I need to figure out how to make it from scratch so I can control the sodium. For now I’m just trying to practice moderation. I picked up a package of It’s All Good gardein BBQ skewers. They have 19g protein, 140 calories and 480mg sodium per 2 skewer serving, so I tried just 1 (70 cal, 240mg sodium) on top of my salad the other day:

There are little holes in the middle because they actually come on a skewer lol. It’s cute. They taste just like the “chicken” version to me, which isn’t too surprising, but I liked them a lot. My salad was mixed leafy greens, tossed with 1oz shredded Shop Rite no salt added Swiss cheese (100 cal), 1 teaspoon EVOO (40 cal), red wine vinegar (10 cal) and red onions. Along with my salad, I had 1 can of Health Valley no salt added chicken soup (160 cal) with 1 whole wheat unsalted matzo cracker (110 cal)

Every time I see a new Health Valley no salt added soup, I just have to try it. It was alright, nothing special and definitely NOT worth buying again for $3.49 a can! Their no salt added tomato soup is still my favorite.

We were watching The Golden Girls yesterday, one of my all time favorite shows, and there was a scene where Blanche was sitting down to breakfast, she said, “There’s nothing like starting the day off with a great big ole pile of eggs and cinnamon toast.” (paraphrased) I concur, Blanche!!! So for breakfast today I made exactly what she described because it sounded SO good, and OMG! It WAS!!

I spared no calorie expense with this meal. I scrambled 7 large cage free eggs, then cooked them in a nonstick pan with 1 TBSP butter (100 cal). I split them 3 ways with Dustin and my mom. Then I had 2 slices Ezekiel 4:9 sprouted grain cinnamon raisin bread (160 cal) with 1 TBSP butter (100 cal) and 2 clementines (~60 cal) on the side.

I estimate my portion of the eggs to be around 200 calories, 260 for my toast with butter, and around 60 for the clementines: ~520 calories. Not bad for a hearty breakfast. It was FANTASTIC!!

Breakfast held me over for awhile, but when we started getting hungry again, I ambitiously headed to the kitchen to experiment with flavors outside of my usual comfort zone. I absolutely LOVE Amy’s Light in Sodium Mattar Paneer frozen dinner, so while I was at Mother Earth’s I bought a bunch of ingredients that I planned to use in my own version of Mattar Paneer. Now, I’m not familiar with Indian cuisine other than frozen dinners and the limited prepared foods I have had, so I just winged this, but I was pleased with the results.

This creation was inspired by spotting this block of paneer in the dairy aisle:

I love this stuff!! It’s 100 calories, 50mg sodium per serving, and while it doesn’t have much flavor on its own, it absorbs the flavors that you cook with it. Just like tofu does, but it’s a dairy product.

I had this bottle of Mr. Spice Indian Curry in my cabinet forever, so I figured this is the best time to use it.

Sodium free and only 15 calories per TBSP. In a small saucepan, I added in: 1/2 cup Eden organic no salt added chickpeas (130 cal), 1/2 cup frozen peas (70 cal), 1oz paneer (100 cal) and 3 TBSP Mr. Spice sodium free Indian Curry (45 cal). I let it cook on slow, stirring it occasionally. Then I steamed string beans in the microwave while I boiled a small Chinese eggplant that I cut up into large chunks. When the eggplant was done, I drained it, then combined it with the string beans and tossed it in an Asian-flavored sauce that I made with: 2 teaspoons sesame oil (80 cal), 1 tsp Braggs aminos, 1 minced garlic clove (50 cal), 1 TBSP rice vinegar (5 cal), 2 TBSP Ken’s Steakhouse sodium free Sesame Ginger marinade (60 cal).

I also heated up a can of Eden organic curried brown rice & lentils (130 cal/serving):

The result:

DELICIOUS!! I wasn’t crazy about the curried rice and beans, but I ate it anyway. The chickpeas/peas/paneer with curry sauce was great and the veggies with Asian sauce were AMAZING!! I definitely have to make more Indian and Asian dishes, so flavorful!!

Ugh, I am exhausted. I can barely keep my eyes open. I’ve been typing this update for over 2 hours!! I’m being extra good with my sodium, exercise and calories this past week and plan to continue all week until my birthday. Well, until the day before actually. We have a lot of plans and I’m going to have more frequent updates this week (everyday, cross your fingers!!!). I think I’m over my craziness… for the moment. LOL Seriously though, we have a lot of fun things planned this week/month, so I’m definitely going to have A TON to blog about. I can’t wait!!

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Happy Thanksgiving!

Jenn (j3nn.net) — Fri, 27 Nov 2009 18:38:52 +0000

I hope everyone had a HAPPY THANKSGIVING!! It sort of sneaked up on me this year and I was completely uncreative with the menu. I had a few other things planned, including appetizers, but ended up skipping them and went the traditional route. It was just the 3 of us, but we still had a 21 lb turkey! Leftovers are the best!! Butter seemed to be the theme of the meal lol.

Steamed yellow + green beans with butter

Stuffing made with celery and onions (and probably butter lol)

Warm rolls… with butter

Say what you want about jellied cranberry sauce, but I freakin’ LOVE it!!

Corn with butter

Our big bird rubbed with butter and herbs. The butter blackened a little in the oven, but that’s ok, still delish!!

I started running out of Thanksgiving and harvest themed dishes, so I went with 2 small pumpkin bowls of mashed potatoes (made with BUTTER) instead of one large one.

Homemade pan gravy… hold the butta!

You can tell how often the salt shaker is used around here; the last time it was refilled was over a year ago and I didn’t even have anymore to top it off with. Dustin is the only one that uses it other than when I use it sparingly when cooking certain things like mashed potatoes. Gotta have a little flavor, ya know?

We had 2 pies: Pumpkin pie and this apple pie with oat, brown sugar and BUTTER crumbles…

…unfortunately, we weren’t destined to eat them. We were too full yesterday, then this morning the pumpkin pie fell out of the fridge!!! *hand to forehead* I had a sliver of it this morning and couldn’t wait to have a full piece with whipped cream. *sigh* Hopefully the apple one will be yummy. I think I’ll have a big piece with some hot apple cider later on today. I REALLY wanted more of that pumpkin pie though!! From what I tasted, it was sooo yummy. Boo!

So, as you can see, Thanksgiving was very humble. I’m saving my creative juices for Christmas Eve and Christmas Day. I better start planning it now or else it will sneak up on me just like Thanksgiving did. I have another update with a recap from the whole week that I’ll post tomorrow. I wanted the Big Bird to have its day in the spotlight. It was sooo yummy. Leftovers here I come!!!!!

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Feeling Hot, Hot, HOT!

Jenn (j3nn.net) — Sun, 22 Nov 2009 14:17:46 +0000

I’ve recently discovered that Tabasco is not only delicious, but also low in sodium! Who knew?! I’m always terribly jealous of hubby when he puts Frank’s Red Hot sauce on his food, but it’s SO high in sodium (200mg for a TEASPOON ) that I only have it when I feel like descending into puffy hell. So on a whim I decided to check out the labels for Tabasco. I was shocked to find that it has only 35mg sodium per serving!! OMG! SCOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOORE! I already went through a small bottle, now I just picked up a bigger bottle at Target for only $2.33! The bigger bottle was $7 in Shop Rite, so Target was a bargain.

LOVE

Pure awesomeness =

I didn’t think that I’d ever find a pre-made hot sauce that was low in sodium. Who would have thought that one of the originals was the one I’ve been searching for? Right under my nose the whole time.

I splashed it on almost everything throughout the week, and what goes with it better than hot sauce than Mexican food? I’ve had these Food for Life sprouted grain tortillas in my freezer for awhile now, so I decided to finally give one a try in the form of a bean burrito.

I made a HUGE pot of black beans at the beginning of the week (so easy to make, no more buying cans if I can help it), then stuffed my tortilla (150 cal) with:

~1/2 cup black beans (no salt or anything added, ~110 cal)
1oz Cabot 50% reduced fat cheddar cheese (70 cal)
A little diced tomato and Trader Joe’s no salt added tomato salsa (30 cal)
Diced red onion (15 cal)
Several generous splashes of Tabasco

1 burrito, 375 calories

All wrapped up and ready to eat with 1/2 cup Eden organic brown rice & beans (110 cal) and 1/4 cup Fage Total 0% plain yogurt (35 cal) with a wee bit more Tabasco splashed on it. Altogether, just 520 calories and far more superior than Taco Bell. Not to mention, significantly lower in sodium. A win, win din din! hehe

(By the way, that’s iced tea sweetened with 2 packets of Truvia zero calorie sweetener)

Tabasco also tastes great on eggs! I had a few splashes on my bell pepper + egg sandwich:

In a frying pan with 1 TBSP butter (100 cal), I added in:

4 large beaten eggs (300 cal)
85g Trader Joe’s tri-color bell pepper strips (25 cal)

425 calories, 2 servings, ~215 calories each

I split them evenly with hubby using 2 food scales lol. I placed most of my egg and pepper mixture into an Ezekiel 4:9 sprouted grain hot dog bun (170 cal) and had 1/2 cup plain black beans on the side (110 cal).

SO GOOD! Only took about 10 minutes to whip together and only 495 calories. Yum!

So many beans, so little time! Let’s say I definitely met my fiber requirements this week LOL.

I haven’t cooked real chicken in so long, I almost forgot how. I popped a few russet potatoes in the oven, then pan fried a package of chicken tenders in 1 TBSP EVOO (120 cal). The potato was awesome, but I wasn’t crazy about the chicken. I don’t like the texture after being spoiled by tender, juicy vegetarian chicken for so long lol.

My russet potato was 167g before cooking, fairly smallish, so I estimate it to be around 150 calories. Then I added on 1/4 cup black beans (55 cal), 1/2 oz Cabot 50% reduced fat cheddar cheese (35 cal), and 56g Fage Total 0% plain yogurt (35 cal). I steamed a whole bag of frozen veggies in the microwave, but I think they were freezer burnt — yuck! But I ate them anyway.

Delish! I’d estimate this meal to be between 420 and 450 calories.

I need to make another batch of sodium free bagels! This was the last one them:

2oz Trader Joe’s no salt added canned salmon (60 cal) mixed with 1 TBSP Hellmann’s olive oil mayo (50 cal) and a little lettuce on 1 homemade sodium free bagel (210 cal). ~325 calories

My freezer is ridiculously overfull. I found this package of Trader Joe’s 100% whole wheat pita bread from our last trip in there. I was in the mood for something BIG, tasty and a little unhealthy in the form of sandwich and crunchy munchy ‘tato chips. So, I stuffed one of the giant pitas (200 cal) with: 2.5oz store-cooked fresh roast beef, a big glob of Hellmann’s olive oil mayo, 2 slices Sargento reduced fat Swiss cheese (120 cal), and several handfuls of lettuce. On the side: 1oz crunchy Cape Cod potato chips (150 cal).

Not really that bad actually, I estimate it to be around 650 calories, including the chips. I can do much worse. Ohhhhhh so much worse.

The weather has been very pleasant lately, so maybe that’s why I’m gravitating toward summery foods?? I woke up wanting pasta salad the other day. *shrugs* Not that there’s an official right time of year for it, it’s delicious year-round!

Blue salmon pasta salad

2oz before cook radiotore pasta (210 cal)
2oz Trader Joe’s no salt added canned salmon (60 cal)
1/2 cup frozen peas (defrosted in the microwave for 30 seconds, 70 cal)
1.5 TBSP Hellmann’s olive oil mayo (75 cal)
14g reduced fat blue cheese crumbles (40 cal) sprinkled on top

1 serving, 455 calories or 2 servings, ~228 calories each

YUMMMMMM! The flavors and textures worked perfectly together.

Digging a little deeper into the chest freezer, I found a box of De Wafelbakkers Flaxseed Whole Grain Apple Cinnamon Waffle.

I decided to enjoy them as my post-workout meal. So I popped 3 of them (210 cal) in the microwave for about a minute, then topped them with:

2 TBSP/32g MaraNatha creamy almond butter (190 cal)
A very ripe diced Barlett pear (80 cal)
1 teaspoon/7g honey drizzled over the the top (20 cal)

With 1 cup of skim milk (90 cal), this was a SWEET, delicious waffle masterpiece for only 595 calories.

I couldn’t stay away from Tabasco very long. I just happened to find a box of Amy’s Light in Sodium black bean and veggie enchiladas (150 cal each, 300 for whole box) in the freezer, sooo, what better use for the leftover rice & beans than to pair it with enchiladas with splashes of Tabasco!!

A bed of 1/2 cup Eden organic brown rice & beans (110 cal), topped with 2 Amy’s Light in Sodium black bean & veggie enchiladas (300 cal), a little diced red onion (15 cal), a little Trader Joe’s no salt added tomato salsa (15 cal), 56g Fage Total 0% plain yogurt (35 cal) and a generous dousing of Tabasco.

Oooooooh sooo SPICY!! LOVED it. Once again, beats Taco Bell hands down, for just 475 burn-your-mouth calories.

T-minus 4.5 days until Turkey day!!! We just picked up all of our ingredients yesterday, now I have to find some try and true homemade dinner roll recipes; a graham cracker crust recipe and an apple pie recipe. I can’t wait. YUM YUM here I come. hehe

I’ve been doing bad with my sodium intake the past few days. I’m kind of ashamed. It’s so unfair because my calories are fine, but because my body reacts so badly to excessive sodium, I gain false weight. Whatever though. I’ll conquer this sodium and water retention battle. I see a lot of very bland, but other wise delicious, foods in my immediate future. There’s only a few short weeks until my birthday. I am NOT going to be a paperweight. I lose water weight rapidly, I just have to avoid it. So hard sometimes though, I’m addicted. Le sigh!

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Boss Banana

Jenn (j3nn.net) — Fri, 13 Nov 2009 10:23:34 +0000

Ok, it’s official: Bananas dominate anything you put them in. I did an intense 8.25 miles in 30 minutes on my recumbent bike, then decided to indulge in a decadent bowl of oats that I originally planned to have on Halloween, but didn’t get around to.

Milky Way + peanut butter pretzels banana oats in a Dark Chocolate Dreams painted bowl:

While I cooked (and stirred/mashed frequently) 1/2 cup (40g) Quaker 100% old fashioned oats (150 cal) with 1 medium banana (110 cal) in a small saucepan on the stove top, I spread 1 TBSP (16g) Peanut Butter & Co. Dark Chocolate Dreams (85 cal) around a bowl in an attempt to emulate the last scrapings in a jar of nut butter.

When the oats were done, I poured them in the bowl and topped it with 1 Fun Size Milky Way (75 cal) and 15g Trader Joe’s no salt on surface peanut butter stuffed pretzels (75 cal).

Delicious for just 495 earned-post-workout-calories, BUT even with all of that ooey gooey chocolaty and peanut buttery goodness, I tasted the banana the most. A little disappointing, but my tummy was happy. Oatmeal feels like a brick in my stomach, so this kept me full for hours afterward despite being somewhat low in protein and very high in carbs. Then again, carbs tend to keep me fuller longer than any other macronutrient. *shrugs*

When I was hungry again, I went for another taste bud-pleaser: A sweet and savory pear, roast beef and cottage cheese salad

I picked up this single-serving container of Rachel’s pear mangosteen cottage cheese in Shop Rite the other day. I’ve heard nothing but rave reviews about it, so I gave it a try. It was fantastic! A little high in sodium (380mg) as cottage cheese tends to be, but I balanced it out with lower sodium components in the rest of the salad and throughout the day.

In the bowl:

A bed of mixed greens (15 cal) tossed in 1 teaspoon EVOO (40 cal) + red wine vinegar (5 cal)
2oz store-cooked fresh roast beef (~100 cal)
1oz Shop Rite no salt added Swiss cheese (100 cal)
1 container Rachel’s pear mangosteen cottage cheese (130 cal)
1 VERY ripe Bartlett pear (~90 cal)
14g reduced fat blue cheese crumbles (40 cal)
1 teaspoon (7g) honey (20 cal) drizzled over the top

1 serving, ~540 calories and loaded with protein and yumminess

OMGosh! One of 2009’s BEST salad combinations! LOOOOOOOOOOVED it! Sweet, salty, savory, bitter, crunchy and creamy all in one tasty, TASTY bowl of goodness. This kept me full for 4+ hours, then I had some granola with skim milk for a snack and a small roast beef sandwich before bed. Overall, a successful calorie and sodium-conscious day. I’ve actually been pretty consistent all week. *knocks on wood* We have a movie and lunch/dinner date on Sunday, so let’s just hope I can at least get to Sunday with minimal damage. Should be easy, as long as we stay home… and disconnect the phone. lol I’m at least trying to be good in between all of the big events coming up: My cousin is coming home from FL (Hi, Tricia!! ); my in-laws are visiting sometime soon; Thanksgiving; my birthday; Christmas Eve; Christmas and New Year’s — all while dodging fast food and restaurants while out shopping and holiday food and food gifts in between. Fun times! hehe It’s cool, though. I know how to strategically make the best of it all without depriving myself, or at least how to not feel guilty for very long after I totally blow it. LOL

Ok, 80000000000000000 things to do and counting. I better go tackle the ever-growing “to-do” list!

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They Call Me Yellow Mellow

Jenn (j3nn.net) — Wed, 11 Nov 2009 12:58:32 +0000

I just noticed that my pictures come out considerably better in low-light when I use my yellow place mats. All of October I struggled with nighttime lighting issues over the kitchen table; obviously the combination of dark orange place mats and plates of the same color was contributing to the poor picture quality. As you’ll see below, my images got much clearer when I made the switch.

Who doesn’t love pasta for breakfast?! Ok, most people don’t, but I do!

1.5 oz whole wheat penne pasta (155 cal) with 2 Quorn meatless meatballs (45 cal) and 1/2 cup Franceso Rinaldi no salt added tomato sauce (70 cal). With 8oz skim milk (90 cal) for a strange, but yummy 360 calorie breakfast.

I love salads and Dustin loves… hot dogs. lol

After living primarily off of homemade bagels for several weeks, I’ve been trying to cut down on them a bit by incorporating more “grain-less” meals into my daily menu. Sometimes it works, other times it doesn’t. This time it was a major success with a great big salad with lots of delicious green bites, a salmon burger and several mouthfuls of cheeeeeeeeese.

A bed of spring mix topped with a salmon burger (120 cal), red onions, grape tomatoes, 1/4 cup frozen peas (35 cal) that I defrosted in the microwave for 20 seconds, 1oz Shop Rite no salt added Swiss cheese (100 cal), 14g reduced fat blue cheese crumbles (40 cal), avocado slices, and honey mustard dressing made with: 5g yellow and brown mustard (5 cal), 1/2 tsp EVOO (20 cal), 2 TBSP red wine vinegar (5 cal) and 2 tsp/14g honey (40 cal).

Delish!!

I tried one of these chocolate Odwalla bars (210 cal) later on in the day:

Wow, sooo good! Almost tastes like a soft baked double chocolate chip cookie. Not very high in protein, but would be good for a post or pre-workout snack.

I couldn’t stay away from the bagels very long. This time I turned them into a crusty, chewy mushroom pizza. YUUUUUMMMMMMMM!

First I toasted the bagel (~210 cal) in the toaster to make sure it would get crispy enough without burning the cheese in the oven. Then I topped each half with Franceso Rinaldi no salt added tomato sauce (35 cal, 1/4 cup worth); 2 slices Sargento reduced fat provolone cheese (100 cal) and 1 small can no salt added mushrooms (60 cal). I sprinkled them with oregano and popped them in my preheated 450F oven on a baking sheet lined with a silicon nonstick sheet for 12 minutes.

Umm, why don’t I eat mushrooms more often? I love them!! Best.pizza.bagel.EVER!!

*drool* SO good, easy to make, minimal clean-up and just 405 calories. These would be a total crowd-pleaser; very kid and picky hubby-friendly.

A HUGE thank you to Kath and her bodacious baker hubby, Matt for sending me a box of Great Harvest Dakota rolls!!!!!!! I’ve often envied them on her blog and was thrilled to be able to try a burger on one, just like she recommended. I figured such an elegant burger vessel should be honored with supreme toppings. So I loaded mine up with red onion (which totally goes against all KERF principles LOL), avocado, tomato, Swiss cheese and Heinz no salt added ketchup:

With a fairly large bowl of string beans drizzled with EVOO + red wine vinegar on the side, plus a small handful of Cape Cod cheddar chips. Totally not needed, but thoroughly enjoyed.

As delightful as it was gorgeous! YUM! I’m trying to ratio the rolls out, it’s not everyday that I get Great Harvest bread. I prefer the rolls over the whole loaves because they are sort of like portion control. I can’t be trusted with a loaf of unsliced bread. hahahaha

Speaking of mellow and yellow, here’s a yellowy breakfast of Stonyfield Farm fat free lemon yogurt (130 cal) topped with 1 crumbled Kashi honey almond flax granola bar (140 cal) for a grand total of just 270 calories.

Fun to crunch and munch on, but left me hungry about 1-2 hours later. Good for a snack, but a little wimpy for a breakfast.

Enter yellow place mats…

After a 45 minute, 11.25 mile spin on my recumbent bike, I was starved and ready to take on the kitchen. With little patience, I went for my quickest options: sandwich and a smoothie.

The sandwich: 2 slices Trader Joe’s sodium free whole wheat bread (140 cal) with 2oz Trader Joe’s no salt added canned salmon (60 cal) mixed with 1 TBSP Hellmann’s olive oil mayo (50 cal). (I saved this pic file as tuna, but it was salmon. Ah well lol)

I split the smoothie with Dustin. I made it with:

2 frozen medium bananas (220 cal)
2 cups (16oz) skim milk (180 cal)
2 TBSP MaraNatha creamy almond butter (190 cal)
2 TBSP Hershey’s chocolate sundae syrup (100 cal)
35g Lifetime Life’s Basics complete plant (vanilla) protein powder (129 cal)

2 servings, 410 cal each, 22g protein

It was SOOO goood!! Hard to believe it didn’t have any ice cream/frozen yogurt in it because it had the consistency of a milkshake. YUMMY!

I was feeling uncreative and a little wiped out from exercise, so I ended up doing a salmon sandwich once again later on in the day. This time around I opted for a side salad instead of a smoothie. hehe

And instead of mayo, I mixed my 2oz of salmon (60 cal) with 1 TBSP Bolthouse Farms blue cheese yogurt dressing (25 cal) — no, not a typo. I just got a new bottle with updated nutrition facts: It’s now just 50 calories for 2 TBSP!! I was pleasantly surprised. Thank you, Bolthouse Farms! You make my taste buds happy.

On the side: a deluxe side salad tossed in EVOO + red wine vinegar. I loooooooooooove salads! Can ya tell?

I went out shopping with my mom this evening. I was fairly disciplined considering I was hungry. I even managed to pick up takeout for Dustin without indulging myself. GO ME! haha I’m trying desperately to keep my sodium low. So far I’ve been successful for 3 days straight. WOO HOO!

However, hunger was ruling my senses when I came home, so I popped a high-sodium (680mg) Kashi Lemongrass Coconut Chicken frozen dinner in the microwave while I made an ultra-deluxe side salad that included Cento roasted red peppers (only 75mg sodium per ounce), kalamata olives, blue cheese crumbles, no salt added bread and butter pickles, grapes tomatoes and red onion tossed in EVOO + red wine vinegar.

The salad was AWESOME, but I didn’t care for the lemongrass coconut (I just typed chocolate lol) chicken at all. I gave up on it 3 bites into it and grabbed a bagel. I just don’t care for warm lemon foods, unless it’s warm, freshly made lemon pudding.

Probably just as well; I saved a lot of sodium, which is always a good idea for me.

At least the salad was yummy. This is the only Kashi frozen dinner that I didn’t like. I love all of their others, so I haven’t given up on them completely.

Later on I was craving spaghetti with clam sauce because I picked up a couple cans of Cento baby clams at Shop Rite, which is also just 75mg sodium per serving. I love Cento products, they rock!

I made a smallish side salad with 1 TBSP Bolthouse Farms blue cheese yogurt dressing (25 cal) while I boiled 2oz thin linguine (210 cal) and made a simple clam sauce with: 1 teaspoon EVOO (40 cal), minced garlic (5 cal), 112g Cento baby clams (120 cal), some juice from the can and some fresh parsley. When the linguine was done, I tossed in the clam sauce and enjoy it with a little grated parmesan cheese.

Simple, but filling and delicious for around 480 calories.

Sun is up, time to catch some ZZZZZZzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz’s! I have a busy BUSY week ahead and I have to keep on track with my low sodium goals. My birthday is just a month ago and Christmas is only 6 weeks! YIKES! Not to mention Thanksgiving and family visits. AAAAAAAAAH! lol I’m looking forward to all of it though, even turning 30! DUN-DUN-DUN! lol

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Buy Me Some Peanuts and Cracker Jack

Jenn (j3nn.net) — Thu, 05 Nov 2009 08:37:23 +0000

YAY YANKEES!!!!!! We proudly watched as the New York Yankees won their 27th World Series championship tonight.

Unfortunately, I didn’t have peanuts or Cracker Jack, but I did have a bountiful salad of assorted colors, textures, and flavors:

Aunt Flo arrived a couple days ago, so I’ve been feeling very blah and out of it. I kept things simple the past few days and tried to eat up things in the fridge and freezer so I wouldn’t have to cook anything. Salads are one of my favorite “go to” meals for convenience and minimal effort. This delicious salad included:

A bed of mixed lettuces
Grape tomatoes
Red onion
Yves veggie pepperoni
1oz Shop Rite no salt added Swiss cheese (100 cal)
1 Dole pineapple ring (30 cal)
3 kalamata olives
1 It’s All Good gardein chik’n cutlet (70 cal)
2 gerkin dill pickles (5 cal)
1 teaspoon extra virgin olive oil (40 cal)
Red wine vinegar

I treated my fridge like a salad bar and threw in everything I could find. lol It ended up working out very nicely. I loved the variety and especially loved how it only took about 5 minutes to make.

I dipped in the leftover Halloween candy all week. Ugh, it’s been my #1 snack in between meals; I need to get rid of it!! After the game, we were hungry, so I opted for something even simpler and easier than my last meal: A grazing plate.

1 homemade sodium-free bagel (~210 cal, see recipe below), 1.5 oz Cabot 50% reduced fat cheddar cheese (105 cal) and 1 Honey Crisp apple that was absolutely fantastic! Sweet as honey? CHECK! Crisp? CHECK! It was perfect. @ $2.69/lb it should be. lol

I’m off to read and relax now. I definitely want to exercise tomorrow. I feel terribly puffy and look awful. You can really notice the water-weight in my face, even my eyelids swell up. I have just a few weeks until my 30th birthday and with the holidays on the horizon, I have to make some serious progress. Plus the in-laws are coming for a visit in a few weeks. *sigh* So much to do, so little time! Keep me accountable, guys!!

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Booooooootiful Eats

Jenn (j3nn.net) — Sat, 31 Oct 2009 03:59:39 +0000

Wow, I am so late with this update! First, the bagel recipe that I promised:

Low-sodium Bagels

3 ½ cups (500g) of bread flour or high gluten flour *extra might be needed for kneading
2 teaspoons of active dry yeast
1 ½ tablespoons of granulated sugar *can substitute with other sweeteners like honey
1 ½ cups of warm water *extra might be needed
Toppings of your choice; e.g., sesame seeds, poppy seeds, etc.

1. Combine the yeast with the sugar and ~1/2 cup water, let sit for 5 minutes; then stir together
2. Add flour to a bowl, make a well in the middle, then add in yeast + sugar mixture
3. Pour the remaining water into the well, add more as needed.
4. On floured counter top, knead dough for about 10 minutes or until it is smooth and stretches well.
5. Coat a bowl with about 1 teaspoon of EVOO, put the dough bowl inside of it.
6. Cover the bowl with a damp dish towel and let rise in a warm place for about an hour or 2 or until it has risen. Then punch the dough down and let it sit for another 10 minutes.
7. Start making dough balls. Use a food scale to accurately divide the balls into even sizes. If you don’t have a food scale, just eyeball it the best you can.
8. Shape each ball into a round bagel shape, using the counter to roll them around if you want.
9. Flour your finger and make a hole in the center of each bagel; stretch it out a bit.
10. Preheat oven to 425-450F
11. Place dough balls on a cookie sheet covered with a damp towel again.
12. Boil a large pot of water, then reduce the heat.
13. Gently drop on 2 to 3 bagels at a time with a slotted spoon; boil on each side 1 to 2 minutes, 2 minutes gets them closer to NY style.
14. When all bagels are boiled, transfer them to a baking sheet lightly coated with oil/cooking spray or silicone baking sheets.
15. Bake for 15-20 minutes or until golden brown; cool on wire rack

Makes 8 NY style bagels (~210 calories each) or 16 mini bagels ~105 calories each

I have a bunch of food pics to get to, so please forgive me if I’m not very descriptive with all of them.

Yogurt, cereal and fruit bowl:

1 Chobani strawberry yogurt (140 cal) with 1 sample box GOLEAN Crunch! Honey Almond Flax (220 cal), 1 medium banana (110 cal) and 10g raisins (30 cal) = 500 calories

Leftover 96% lean beef meatball salad + homemade bagel

Bed of spring mix tossed in EVOO + red wine vinegar, tomato slices, red onion, meatballs, and parmesan cheese sprinkled over the top like snow on meatball mountain.

Tuna salad sandwich with a deluxe tossed salad

4oz Trader Joe’s no salt added Tongol tuna (120 cal) mixed with 1.5 TBSP Hellmann’s olive oil mayo (75 cal) on 2 slices Martin’s 100% whole wheat potato bread (140 cal) and a side salad of spring mix, tomatoes, red onions, shredded carrots, kalamata olives, 14g reduced fat blue cheese crumbles (40 cal) with EVOO + red wine vinegar. ~500-550 calories

Health Valley No Salt Added Vegetable Soup with a side of deviled egg salad + Kashi Honey Sesame TLC crackers

Soup: 180 cal
Crackers: 120 cal
2 large eggs: 150 cal
1.5 TBSP Hellmann’s olive oil mayo: 75 cal

525 calories

I sprinkled paprika over the egg salad in the spirit of this devilish time of year.

Morningstar Farms Mushroom Lover’s (meatless) Burger with Swiss cheese and a tossed side salad

1 Morningstar Farms Mushroom Lover’s Burger (110 cal, 220mg sodium) on a homemade bagel (~210 cal) with 1 slice Sargento reudec fat Swiss cheese (60 cal), 2 dill gerkin pickles (5 cal), Heinz No Salt Added ketchup (15 cal) and yellow mustard (5 cal). Side salad of spring mix tossed in EVOO + red wine vinegar.

Stuffed pork tenderloin wrapped in bacon with roasted potatoes and broccoli

This unintentional Atkins-style dinner was extremely high in fat, but full of flavor. I cut a pork tenderloin in half down the middle butterfly-style, then pounded it out a little bit. In the center I put: cream cheese, Polaner apricot fruit spread, minced garlic, and prunes. Then I folded it together and wrapped Trader Joe’s center cut uncured bacon around the outside and tied it with butcher’s twine. I placed it in an oven dish surrounded by a mixed package of very small sweet and regular potatoes and carrots. I baked it in a preheated 425F oven for about 45-50 minutes; the first 30 minutes with foil over the top.

Wow, this was so rich! I couldn’t eat too much of it, just a few small pieces was filling (the pieces are a lot smaller than they look lol). Fat has incredible flavor, YUM! My stomach didn’t really respond well to all of that richness though. I was left with a very unsettled feeling after eating it. Oh well, was worth it. hehe

Mini spaghetti and meatballs with a side salad

1oz whole wheat angel hair pasta (105 cal) with 1/4 cup Franceso Rinaldi no salt added tomato sauce (35 cal) and 2 Quorn meatless meatballs (45 cal) with a side salad topped with 14g goat cheese (35 cal), 1/2 tsp EVOO (20 cal) and red wine vinegar. ~290-300 calories

I love finding uses for my itty bitty colander. 1oz of angel hair is perfect for it!

My booooooooootiful salad.

Turkey and kidney bean chili topped with red onions, cheddar cheese and a side of unsalted tops saltine crackers

I made a HUGE pot of turkey chili with:

1.5 lbs ground turkey breast
3 cans no salt added diced tomatoes
3 cups cooked kidney beans
2 small white onions, diced
~TBSP minced garlic
~2 TBSP cumin
~1/4 cup chili powder
Black pepper

Clam chowder

I was in the mood for batch cooking this week, so I also made a big pot of clam chowder with:

1 TBSP EVOO
Minced garlic
1 lb whole baby clam meat
Diced celery, carrots, potatoes and onions
4 cups low sodium chicken broth
4 cups skim milk
4 cups water
2 TBSP xanthan gum (thickening agent) (can substitute corn starch or flour)
Black pepper
Dash of cayenne pepper

1. Add EVOO, garlic + veggies to large pot; stir and let cook for a few minutes
2. Add in clam meat; stir and let cook for a few minutes longers
3. Pour in liquids and spices, then stir; let cook for about 20-30 minutes on medium with cover
4. Dilute in xantham gum in a bit of water; mix and then stir into chowder; keep mixing until blended in well
5. Let simmer on medium-low for 30-45 minutes

View from Dustin’s bowl:

LOVED The consistency and the flavor!! The xanthan gum worked PERFECTLY! This is the first time I used it and I was worried that I messed up the whole pot of chowder because it was lumpy at first, but I kept stirring until it was smooth. Phew! My only regret is that I used whole clams instead of chopped, they were a little too chewy. Next time I’ll use chopped for better texture. By the way, you can find xanthan gum in the baking aisle or by the “specialty flours” in your store’s “natural or organic” section. The one I used was made by Bob’s Red Mill: http://www.bobsredmill.com/xanthan-gum.html I’m very pleased with the results and look forward to using it in other recipes.

Tomorrow is Halloween and I have a gazillion things to do, so, time for bed! Ghould night!

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The Art of Baking

Jenn (j3nn.net) — Mon, 26 Oct 2009 15:07:47 +0000

My mom is one of the greatest bakers ever. It was one of “those” weekends; wanted carby, comfort food and of course, mom delivered. I presented her with half a dozen recipes that I found online; some were successful, others, not so much.

The highlights of the weekend baked goods:

Cinnamon buns — I had a center ring out of one of them, which is the best part, in my opinion.

My favorite: Sodium free NY style bagels!!

I’ll share this recipe in my next post. She made 4 batch of these, the first ones didn’t turn out so nicely (but tasted great). By the 4th batch, she perfected the art of homemade NY style bagels — WITHOUT all of the sodium. She said they are incredibly easy to make, too. Only 4 ingredients, and while they are made with white flour, they are still homemade without preservatives or strange unpronounceable ingredients, so in my eyes, that makes them completely healthy and wholesome.

The high sodium content is why I don’t eat bagels more often, but now I can ejoy a bagel anytime I want, courtesy of mom’s golden oven!! YAY! By the way, they come out to 210 calories each.

Maybe next time I’ll ask her to make mini bagels, which would be around 105 calories each. Luckily, she enjoys baking as much as I enjoy eating her creations. hehe

I had one of the homemade bagels from the first batch and fell in love with it, despite it’s lumpy bumpy outward texture. By the 4th batch she got them to be much smoother. Only problem we have is, our oven doesn’t like to make things brown. It’s weird. *shrugs* The most recent batch was so incredibly soft and chewy, aaah, I want to eat them all LOL.

Hubby and I ate one from the first batch with just a slice of cheese, then popped it in the microwave. We thought it tasted a lot like a big soft pretzel, so we couldn’t wait to try them with mustard. Next time I had mine with 1 It’s All Good Chik’n cutlet (70 cal), 1 slice Borden American cheese (70 cal), and yellow mustard (5 cal) with a side of cantaloupe:

Delicious! They taste AWESOME with mustard. With my pumpkin cup of water, this bagel bite was only around 455 calories.

I’ve been on a “salad as my side dish” kick for the past several days. I love it. So low in calories and so good for you. I picked up a box of Morningstar Farms grilled meatless chik’n patties in Hannaford the other day. They are fairly high in sodium; 350mg each, but not too, too bad. I had one (80 cal) on an Ezekiel 4:9 sprouted grain roll (170 cal) with 1 TBSP Hick Lickin’ Good BBQ sauce (15 cal) and a pineapple ring (30 cal) the other day:

With my lovely side salad: ~2 cups mixed spring greens (10 cal), tomato slices (15 cal), red onion (20 cal), 1 teaspoon EVOO (40 cal), red wine vinegar (5 cal), and 14g goat cheese crumbles (35 cal). Fantastically filling Hawaiian style sandwich + tasty side for just 420 calories, 295 calories just for the sandwich.

I made a HUGE pot of low sodium tomato sauce and 96% lean beef meatballs with chopped prunes inside them on Friday. They were enjoyed with pasta, and then as a “Mini Meatball Sub” the next day. OMG, SO good!

I bought these Ezekiel 4:9 sprouted grain hot dog buns at Mother Earth’s last week. They are PERFECT for mini subs. I guess they are around 6″ or so, and make the perfect hearty vessel for meatballs. I put 3 medium meatballs inside with some sauce (around 150 cal?), with 1 slice Sargento reduced fat provolone cheese (50 cal); melted it in the microwave for a few seconds, then added a little more sauce on top (15 cal?). With my side salad, tossed in 1 tsp EVOO (40 cal) + 1 TBSP balsamic vinegar (10 cal), this was an amazing and FILLING meal for just around 525 calories, ~385 cal just for the mini sub.

YUM!!!

Thank you all for the kind comments and email you sent me. I really appreciate it. We miss our kitty a lot. All kitties go to kitty heaven though.

Dustin and I watched the Yankee vs. Angels game last night — We’re so excited for the World Series game 1 on Wednesday!! We’re going to have a WS party. GO YANKEES!!!!!!

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Until We Meet Again

Jenn (j3nn.net) — Thu, 22 Oct 2009 23:13:06 +0000

I posted this on some boards, so, I’m just going to cross-post it here so I don’t have to type it again…

We had to put our cat, Princess, to sleep in the middle of the night last night. She was overweight and had been losing weight for awhile, but, most of our cats go through those phases, so, we thought it was normal because she acted like her usual feisty self and ate normally. We figured moving to a new house, she was eating less, etc. Then about 48 hours ago, she stopped eating and drinking and started vomiting bile. So, we brought her to the vet yesterday evening and the vet said that her liver was enlarged, she’s dehydrated and she’s jaundice. We thought that she had some kind of parasite infestation, but, the vet said that it was a lot worse than that after she ran a blood test and almost everything was elevated.

The vet said that a lot of tests needed to be done to find out what’s wrong, but, she couldn’t do them there and we’d have to take her to another animal hospital about 40 miles away. It was already after 6:00PM, so, we were going to go first thing in the morning. Then my mother woke us up around midnight and said that Princess was barely moving or breathing. So, my husband and mother took her to the emergency vet about 20 miles away. When they got there, the vet said she was almost in a coma and the blood test results they showed him indicated that she wasn’t going to make it because her liver was not functioning. They also couldn’t do the tests that needed to be done and said we’d have to take her to an animal hospital in Paramus NJ, about 75 miles away, but she probably wouldn’t make it there and even if she did, it didn’t look good.

The vet said that this was likely something she was born with and that it would be hard to see coming because cats compensate for their pain up until the very end and there’s usually very little warning signs. He said that she would suffer for the rest of her limited time and that we should put her down to ease her pain. When they came back after 3:00AM, I never expected them to say that. I am devastated. She was only 8 and a half years old and I’ve had her since she was born. Our cats are part of our family, we love them dearly. We just buried her at my aunt’s house, next door to where she was born.

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Snowballing

Jenn (j3nn.net) — Wed, 21 Oct 2009 18:32:10 +0000

You know when you procrastinate and one things leads to another and before you know it, it snowballs into something bigger than the original matter at hand? Well, that’s what I’ve been doing ALL week. I’ve been dreading getting the images off of my camera to do an update because there was literally hundreds to soft through and I just kept adding more and more on with each passing day almost every time I ate something lol. By the end of the night I was too tired and put it off until the next morning, but, you know how mornings can start out with good intentions and before you know it: time to sleep again! Arrrrrrrgh! So, I finally got all of the pics off today; edited them and now I’m doing an update.

Speaking of snow, we got our first snowfall of the season the other day! Our front yard…

It’s WAY too early for snow!! Farmer’s Almanac is predicting a harsh winter, I believe it. *sighs*

I’m going to do a picture and minimal text recap of the past week or else I’ll be here until next week writing this post.

Woke up on a chilly morning craving warm comfort foods in the form of grilled cheese and tomato soup. I made the grilled cheese with: 2 slices Trader Joe’s sodium free whole wheat bread (140 cal) with 1 slice Borden American cheese (70 cal) and 9g butter (75 cal) in the pan. On the side: 1 cup Health Valley no salt added tomato soup (100 cal)

Delish! And only 385 calories!! I’m definitely not a purist, sometimes I just crave not-so-healthy things like plastic American cheese, so I eat it! LOL I’m not ashamed to admit it!

Our chest freezer is starting to get a little cramped, so, I really need to start eating up some of the things I stashed away in there. I found this box of fish filets the other day:

They are just 90 calories each and 210mg sodium. So, I decided to boil a small potato (100 cal) and bake these fish filets for a sandwich, a decision that was probably influenced by the Long John Silver commercials I keep seeing lol! I used 2 of them (180 cal) on 1 Martin’s 100% whole wheat potato roll (100 cal) with a little tartar sauce (~50 cal) that I made with Hellmann’s olive oil mayo + sweet relish. I topped my boiled potato with 56g Fage Total 0% yogurt (35 cal) and had 1/2 cup Del Monte no salt added sweet peas (60 cal) with 7g whipped butter (50 cal) on the side:

It was SO GOOD!! Very, very filling — totally loooooooooooved it for around 575 calories, 330 calories just for the fish sandwich.

The next day I made another egg sandwich for breakfast with my new favorite meatless bologna. There was a bit of an EGGPLOSION in the microwave when I made my egg in there and then added the slice of Yves meatless bologna (20 cal) on. It made a popping sound and the bologna went flying up against the glass of the microwave ROFL!

Luckily, it still turned out yummy!

1 Ezekiel 4:9 sprouted grain English muffin (160 cal) with 1 large egg zapped in the microwave (75 cal) with 10g Laughing Cow lite Swiss cheese wedge (25 cal) and 1 slice Yves meatless deli bologna (20 cal). On the side: 56g Hood pineapple cottage cheese (55 cal), a small/medium banana (100 cal) and a cup of water in my pumpkin cup for 435 calories.

YUM!

I was on an egg kick and craving egg salad by the time lunch came around, so I made a small egg salad sandwich with 1 large hard boiled egg (75 cal), 1 TBSP Hellmann’s olive oil mayo (50 cal) and black pepper, then put it on a Martin’s 100% whole wheat potato roll (100 cal). I also had a lovely Greek salad along with it:

Greek salad: Bed of mixed spring greens (15 cal), tomato (25 cal), red onion (15 cal), 3 kalamata olives (30 cal), 1oz goat cheese (70 cal), 1 teaspoon EVOO (40 cal) and ~2 TBSP red wine vinegar (10 cal)

AMAZING! I can’t seem to get enough leafy greens with EVOO + vinegar lately. Sooo delicious for around 430 calories, 225 cal just for the egg salad sandwich and around 205 cal for the salad.

Then for dessert I had one of these grape fruit rolls for 80 calories:

It’s actually a serving of fruit and brings back childhood memories of Fruit Roll-Ups!

Could not resist mom’s homemade lasagna on Saturday! I had a smallish piece with a great big side salad tossed in EVOO + red wine vinegar:

Sorry, no calorie info! Put me down for a LOT though! I had it several times this week lol.

On Sunday we went to PA to pick up our stuff from our apartment there that we haven’t been to in 6 or 7 months, so, we let it go. I packed us a simple sandwich lunch with deli meats from the small grocery store down the road:

Dustin had ham + cheese, I had store cooked roast beef on a club roll with mayo and leafy greens

With 14g of sour cream & onion dirty chips (75 cal) (these are a lot higher in sodium than most other chips, why?! lol)

I was craving cranberry juice, so I filled my Hello Kitty thermos with it.

All packed up with a small Milky Way (75 cal) for dessert! I’ve been dipping into the Halloween candy a wee bit too much. We already had to buy more because we ate a whole bag, but, we bought it weeks ago. We knew it wouldn’t last until Halloween, who were we kidding?! lol

This was 1 of only 2 meals we had for the day, it was a long, tiring day. At least we got home in time to watch cartoons on Fox. hehe

The next day I was back on my egg kick. My mom picked up some bagels at the store and they looked too good to not eat, so, I made my 1 egg salad again and put it on an onion bagel:

Along with my egg salad bagel, I tried 8oz of the Pomegranate Nectarine juice (120 cal) that POM Wonderful sent me. It’s TASTY!! I really liked it a lot. I still have the rest of the bottle and the kiwi to try, I can’t wait.

Yummm! No idea how many calories were in the bagel, but, I imagine a lot! It was pretty heavy: 4oz. Oh well, totally worth it. hehe

I haven’t been exercising, but stomach has been bothering me a lot the past week. Well, it bothers me all the time, but sometimes it’s even worse than others. Ugh, it’s water balance related and hard to explain. So, I haven’t been exercising, but I’m hoping to tomorrow morning, as long as tummy cooperates. We’ll see. I have a million things to do today and it’s lunch time, so I’m going to grab a bite or 10. *giggles*

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Octoburrrrrrrrrrrr

Jenn (j3nn.net) — Thu, 15 Oct 2009 12:18:41 +0000

It has been soooo cold the past few days, but, the good news is that warm foods are in season! I’m not much of a coffee or tea drinker, but today I wanted a nice cup of tea…

I picked up a package of Yves meatless deli veggie bologna in Hannaford the other day, figuring I’d give it a try because I do like the taste of bologna, but the sodium is SO high, plus the nitrates, fat and other funky ingredients. So, this would be a good compromise; 4 slices only 80 calories, 480mg sodium and 2 slices is plenty for a sandwich. I didn’t know if it would actually taste like bologna, but it sure looked and felt just like it. And to my pleasant surprise, it tastes JUST like beef bologna. Amazing. It’s not something that I’d eat everyday, but I’ll definitely buy this often.

I decided to use a slice to enhance a breakfast sandwich and it was AWESOME! I defrosted 2 slices Trader Joe’s sodium free whole wheat bread (140 cal), then spread 10g Laughing Cow Light Swiss cheese wedge (25 cal) on both sides and added on: 2 large cage free organic eggs (150 cal) over-hard and 1 slice Yves veggie bologna (20 cal) that I fried in the pan with the eggs. Finally, I completed the sandwich with 8g Heinz no salt added ketchup (15 cal), bringing it to just 350 calories.

I had my tea with 2 packets of Truvia no cal sweetener and 2oz skim milk (25 cal)

With the tea and cooking spray, this DELICIOUS breakfast came to just 385 calories. I’ve been making my eggs a little sloppy lately — on purpose. I’ve been breaking the yolk as soon as I put it in the pan. I love runny yolks, but sometimes I want it a little drier.

I wanted to workout right away, but you know, one thing leads to another and before you know it, 2 or 3 hours goes by. By then I was hungry again and wanted to have a snack before I worked out. I decided on cheese and crackers upstairs, but by the times I got down to the kitchen, it evolved into rice cakes with Laughing Cow Light cheese and salsa.

1 package Paskesz 100% brown rice cakes (76 cal) topped with 1 Laughing Cow Light Swiss cheese wedge (50 cal) and 30g Trader Joe’s no salt added fire roasted tomato salsa (10 cal) — The rice cakes come 10 in a package, but, I ate the other 5 plain.

YUM! I love these rice cakes, I don’t know why I don’t eat them more often? They are fabulous. I love how they come in individually wrapped packages of 10 so that they don’t go stale. I buy them in the Kosher section of Shop Rite, I’m not sure if available nationwide or not.

Who eats salsa before they workout?! Well, I do. It didn’t upset my stomach at all, thankfully. I did 45 minutes (11.25 miles) on my recumbent bike and then took a shower directly afterward because I wasn’t terribly yet. By the time I got done showering and dressed, my appetite showed up for duty. What better time to have an indulgent, yet healthy, ~~bowl~~ jar of pumpkin oats?!

Inspired by the oatmeal queen herself: Kath!! I took mine a wee bit further than she normally does, I added a special topping: CREAM CHEESE!! I absolutely LOVE cream cheese on pumpkin bread or a pumpkin muffin, so, I wondered: how would it taste on pumpkin oats? The answer: AMAZING!!!! I’m almost go as far as to say as I liked it better than peanut butter. It was like eating it on a warm slice of pumpkin bread straight out of the oven. It made it all melty and ooey gooey, YUMMMM!

I started with a nearly empty jar of Naturally More peanut butter…

Then in a medium saucepan, I boiled 1 cup water and added in:

1/2 cup (40g) Quaker 100% rolled oats (150 cal)
1/2 cup Trader Joe’s 100% pure pumpkin (50 cal)
1 medium banana (110 cal)
2 packets Truvia no calorie sweetener
A dash of pumpkin pie spice

Then I mixed and mashed, almost risotto-style, until the oats were cooked. I was worried that the huge pot of them wasn’t going to fit in the jar, but, it did… see?

The mug is just plain water, by the way.

Then my toppings:

The rest of the jar of Naturally More peanut butter (~170 cal)
7g unsalted peanuts (40 cal)
5g roasted & salted pumpkin seeds (30 cal)
1 TBSP Philadelphia 1/3 less fat cream cheese (35 cal)

The whole jar came to around 595 calories, including toppings and PB, but, this was my post-workout meal and my “lunch,” so, that’s totally cool with me. A little calorie-dense for just a snack, but, perfect for a FILLING meal.

DEEEEEEEEEEE-LISH!! If you like pumpkin bread with cream cheese, you will LOVE cream cheese on your pumpkin oats. I highly recommend trying it. Honestly, I could have skipped the peanut butter component and been just as happy with just the cream cheese, but, we all need good fats + protein, especially post-WO. Try it and let me know if you liked the cream cheese!!

That ended up being my last meal of the day. I was just too tired and FULL to eat anything else. So, I naturally calorie cycled into a low day. I’m sure I’ll make up for that over the weekend. hehe

Off to eat breakfast? Lunch? Brunch!

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Boom, Boom, Boom!

Jenn (j3nn.net) — Wed, 14 Oct 2009 11:24:59 +0000

I fell down the stairs and almost squished a kitty! Thankfully, kitty was fine, I managed to miss him when I landed and he went running out from behind my back. I didn’t get hurt either, I think we were both just startled. I woke up around 1:00AM, came to the office and then heard somebody pawing at the front door; they (a kitty) wanted to come in, so I went to let them in and somehow I slipped and fell down — butt first!! — the first set of steps. We have an “L” shaped staircase with the smallest set at the top. Good thing it wasn’t the other ones. It [my fall] must have been pretty loud though, because Dustin was sleeping and actually woke up and came out to see if I was ok. I got some minor rug burns from scraping against the carpet, but luckily, that’s all. I’ll probably milk my unfortunate accident for the rest of the day to get extra rubs.

Oddly enough, my whole right leg was already hurting before I fell. Maybe my body is getting all psychic on me? Not sure what’s wrong with it, but it feels like I pulled something. It hurts whenever I put weight on it, maybe a delayed recumbent biking injury from Monday? I had the same thing in my other leg from the knee down a few months ago, but, it went away. *shrugs* I’m chock full ‘o medical mysteries. lol

Which brings us back to Monday: Dustin and I started a new schedule and routine this week. We’ve both recommitted to being consistent in our everyday lives and work load. Dustin is exercising with me and he’s even trying to ween himself off of his soda addiction! So far we both worked out on Monday, but took Tuesday off, and now we’re going to hit up our home gym in a little while. It’s fun having him exercising with me!! But he doesn’t have an iPod, so we definitely have to get him one so he doesn’t have to borrow my mom’s anymore.

Before our Monday workout, we had some snacks: 30g Annie’s Fruity Bunnies (110 cal) with 2oz skim milk (25 cal) and a very ripe medium banana (110 cal)

These are so fruity and delicious! And they are made with completely wholesome ingredients. Perfect little pre-workout snack for just 245 calories. Yum!

After 30 minutes (7.25 miles) of recumbent bike; upper body strength training and a shower, we were hungry for our post-workout meal. I knew that I wanted to indulge in a frozen yogurt protein shake, but I didn’t know what else to have with it, so I just went with a quick and easy spinach salad with a side of crusty bread:

The protein shake was made with: 1/2 cup Stonyfield Farms vanilla frozen yogurt (100 cal), 39g Gefen raspberry syrup (80 cal), 1/2 cup skim milk (45 cal) and 35g Life’s Basics vanilla plant portein powder (129 cal). 1 serving, 354 calories.

Unfortunately, it was a disaster! I guess it was WAY too much powder, because it didn’t mix well at all; very lumpy and chalky and too sweet — YUCK! I drank most of it anyway, but next time I’ll definitely use less powder or more liquid.

The salad redeemed this meal, though. I made a bed of fresh baby spinach (15 cal) then topped it with: a plum tomato (15 cal), red onion (15 cal), 3oz Trader Joe’s no salt added wild Alaskan salmon (90 cal) mixed with 1.5 TBSP Hellmann’s olive oil mayo (75 cal); red wine vinegar and 2 TBSP Bolthouse Farms blue cheese yogurt dressing (70 cal). On the side: 1.25 oz crusty bread from Hannaford (80 cal?)

The salad by itself was ~285 calories, plus ~80 calories for the bread. So, this was a pretty high-cal post-WO meal for around 700 calories, which I’m totally fine with!

We had some small snacks throughout the day, but lost momentum early on and skipped right over lunch to dinner, which was our last meal of the day. I have been craving string beans + tomato sauce, so I took it a couple steps further and made a hamburger mountain with fluffy white rice and green bean terrain, a river of tomato sauce and a pecorino romano cheese snow cap.

I know it looks like a TON of white rice, but there’s actually about 1.5 cups of steamed string beans (40 cal) under there. Then about 1 cup of cooked white rice (210 cal), 1/2 cup Franceso Rinaldi no salt added tomato sauce (70 cal); a 6oz grilled 96% lean beef burger (210 cal) and 10g shaved pecorino romano cheese (40 cal)

It was FANTASTIC!! That mountain of goodness was only 570 extremely-filling-calories. Next time maybe I”ll try it with turkey or beans.

Yesterday we ended up oversleeping and starting work late, so we didn’t exercise or anything eventful for that matter. I kept our food as simple as possible, too. We had twin egg sandwiches with a banana for breakfast:

1 large, sloppy over-hard egg (75 cal) on a Martin’s 100% whole wheat roll (100 cal — they used to be 80 calories!! ) and 1 medium banana (110 cal), for only 285 calories.

Then for lunch: Matching spooky fiesta bowls filled with Mexican-inspired yumminess with a 5 chip/half-serving (70 cal) side of Food Should Taste Good multi-grain olive tortilla chips…

Spooky Fiesta Bowl

130g Eden brown rices and beans (110 cal) on the bottom
1oz Cabot 50% reduced fat cheddar cheese (70 cal)
1 It’s All Good gardein chik’n cutlet (70 cal)
Diced plum tomato (15 cal)
Diced red onion (15 cal)
30g fresh avocado (50 cal)
56g Fage Total 0% plain yogurt (35 cal) — the perfect sour cream substitute !
2 TBSP Trader Joe’s fire roasted no salt added tomato salsa (10 cal)

1 serving, 375 calories + the chips = just 445 calories

Deeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeelish!

Finally, the perfect end to a cold, windy, rainy day: Lentil + veggie soup made with this amazing Bob’s Red Mill Vegi Mix

I bought it at Shop Rite awhile ago and finally got around to making it for dinner. It was worth the wait! SOUPer yummy!

In a medium saucepan I added in:

1 minced garlic clove (5 cal)
50g diced red onion (25 cal)
1.5 oz diced carrot (20 cal)
98g Bob’s Red Mill Vegi Mix (330 cal)
5 parts water (it suggested 4, but I added in more)

Then I let it simmer on low for about an hour and 10-15 minutes; stirring it now and then to make sure it wasn’t sticking or burning.

1 serving, 380 calories

When it was done, I stirred in 10g grated parmesan cheese (40 cal) and it turned out incredibly creamy, almost risotto-like…

Not only is it packed with fiber, but it’s also packed with protein: 20g !! It also has cute little letter and number pasta in it, but you can’t see them too well in the creaminess. hehe

On the side: a Trader Joe’s sourdough roll (120 cal) that I defrosted from the freezer and popped under the broiler for a couple minutes

With the roll + parmesan cheese, this hearty bowl of loveliness came to just 540 calories. YUM! Too bad I didn’t have any bacon out, THAT would have made an EXCELLENT addition. Hmm… I know what’s on my menu in the near future!

Wonderful Things in the Mail

A big thank you to Janny from POM Wonderful for sending me a sample of their new POM Kiwi and POM Nectarine juice! I can’t wait to try it.

I LOVE their 100% pomegranate juice, I’m sure this is going to be equally delicious. I’ll let you know!

We just had our pre-workout meal, but I’m hungry already. I think we waited too long to workout, it’s been over 2 hours. Oops! lol I better get going so we can eat again.

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Good Things in Small and Large Packages

Jenn (j3nn.net) — Mon, 12 Oct 2009 18:08:22 +0000

I got my free sample of Kashi GoLean Crunch in the mail the other day!

They were giving samples out on their web site: www.kashi.com, so I requested the GoLean Crunch. I love getting samples in the mail, so much fun!!

Speaking of small things, I was having an Aunt Flo craving for a bagel with cream cheese (and lox) the other morning and remember that I have a bag of Trader Joe’s mini whole wheat bagels in the chest freezer downstairs. So, for my pre-workout snack, I had one (110 cal) with 1 TBSP 1/3 less fat Philadelphia cream cheese (35 cal) and 9g strawberry Polaner All Fruit (20 cal), along with some formula 50 Vitaminwater:

Yummy little snack for just 165 calories, and about 200 with the Vitaminwater.

Aunt Flo is still here, but the first days of her visit made me miserable (as usual!). I had taken some Advil on an empty stomach, which was a terrible idea. It gave me the worst stomach pains ever. So, after that incident, I haven’t taken anymore ibuprofen and just suffered for the past few days. She seems to be going away now, but she’s just full of surprises lately!

I didn’t feel like cooking much after she arrived, but I did pretty good, considering. We stayed in all weekend and kicked off the homebody festivities with a fiesta salad on Friday:

This salad was MASSIVE! That’s actually a platter LOL. I love, love big salads. Ok, this is what’s on it:

A bed of spinach mixed with iceberg lettuce from hubby’s tacos (25 cal)
1oz Food Should Taste Good multigrain chips (140 cal)
85g Yves Meatless Ground Round Original (90 cal) mixed with 130g Eden brown rice & beans (110 cal); heated in a saucepan with cumin and chili powder
Red onion (30 cal)
1 diced plum tomato (15 cal)
56g Fage Total 0% plain yogurt (35 cal)
1oz Cabot 50% reduced fat cheddar cheese (70 cal)
6 TBSP Trader Joe’s no salt added fire roasted tomato salsa (30 cal)

One HUGH JASS salad = 545 calories …and I ate it ALL! It was fantastico!! No dressing needed… the yogurt and salsa took care of that.

This held me over for quite awhile. We had a few nibbles in between, nothing major until I made a late-night spinach, veggie sausage omelet for hubby and me with a bacon and tomato sandwich on the side:

The omelet came out soooo dry, probably because I used just a little cooking spray?! Weird. Dustin said he likes it like that, and I”ll eat just about anything, so it was still good.

The omelet: 3 large eggs (150 cal), ~ 3 cups before steaming fresh baby spinach (15 cal), 1 Morningstar Farms veggie sausage (120 cal), 40g provolone cheese (150 cal); cooking spray (15 cal)

2 servings, 225 calories each

We had 2 lonely strips of Trader Joe’s uncured center cut bacon (100 cal) sitting in the fridge, so I nuked them and then popped a club roll under the broiler with some tomato — twice. The first roll burned! Had to do it over. hehe My half of the club roll was 1oz, so I imagine that it’s around 80 calories at the most. I don’t know the exact calories for this late-night breakfast, but it’s probably somewhere around 350-365 calories. No wonder why I was hungry shortly after!! Pretty low in calories when you split everything. I need to start splitting things with hubby in my favor like I do with blankets in bed. LOL We have an 85/15 rule; I get 85% of everything. *giggles*

Saturday was just one of those lazy, uneventful days. By Sunday we we ready to get a head start on the upcoming week, so I popped some russett potatoes in the oven wrapped in foil (I know, not the best method)…

…then we had a business meeting while they baked:

We planned our upcoming week and I was supposed to plan our menu for the week, but we ran out of time. So, that’s still on my to-do list, but, then again, what isn’t? lol

We had pasta on Saturday (twice!!), so I went with fish + potatoes for Sunday dinner. I didn’t weigh or measure any of it, though.

Flounder baked with bell peppers, red onions, tomatoes, garlic, butter and herbs; russett baked potato topped with Fage Total 0% yogurt and lemon pepper; broccoli rabe tossed in EVOO + lemon pepper

I spread 6 or 7 frozen flounder fillets on a baking sheet, then brushed butter over them. I chopped up a red bell pepper, a large red onion, a large tomato, and garlic and then tossed them in a little EVOO and spread them evenly across the fish, then sprinkled them with dry Italian seasoning and baked it on 425F for about 50 minutes, though, it could have been taken out 5-10 minutes before that.

It tasted REALLY good! I was taking a chance on hoping that it would turn out right and it did. Loved it. In hindsight, I think a little grated parmesan or pecorino romano would go beautifully on it. Delish! Although, I overcooked the broccoli rabe a little, I think. It still tasted good to me, though.

Flounder is my favorite white fish. I had these in the freezer for a long, long time. They were probably past their freezer prime, but I’m glad I took the chance anyway. Dustin liked it, too, and he isn’t a big fish eater, so that’s saying a lot. hehe

I’m soo exhausted! It’s bedtime for us now, we’re on a REALLY weird schedule where we go to sleep by like 5:00PM and wake up between 11:00PM and 2:00AM. It actually works out best for us right now. We had a busy, busy day, so, I’ll have that update when I wake up — too tired now. Nite nite

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Where’s The Beef?

Jenn (j3nn.net) — Fri, 09 Oct 2009 05:41:11 +0000

Guess who’s back in town? Aunt Flo. Yes, again! Actually, despite her extended stay just a few weeks ago, I expected her to be right on schedule anyway. I read that it’s normal for women of childbearing age to have extended TOM up to a few times a year. No wonder they call it the curse.

For some reason I crave fat, usually in the form of mayo or cheese, when she rolls into town sometimes. I’m not sure why, but I wake up wanting the goopiest, fattiest things ever. “Butter on my bacon? Yes, please!” She usually has me craving salt, sweets and then fat — in that order. I’m not going to argue with this witch, she might never leave lol. So, I try to give her what she wants. Ok, yeah, it’s what I want, but we’ll just blame her instead. *giggles*

This week, I’ve been craving fat + beef + seafood (especially meaty things like lobster claws), to the point that I feel bad about it. I did, however, indulge in what I wanted. And you know what else is beyond crazy? I’ve actually been losing (water) weight, even with her in town! I’ve been watching my sodium intake pretty well and it’s paying off, big time! Being water weight fluctuations are normal, especially for me, I won’t declare any permanent victories for a few more months yet. Ya know those water weight wins are easy come, easy go lol.

Oh, and leave it to me to try a spring-summery food when the weather turns frigid. I finally tried overnight oats the other day (Monday)!!! The night before, I mixed together:

40g Quaker 100% rolled oats (150 cal)
1 Chobani pineapple yogurt (160 cal)
78g fresh strawberries (25 cal)

1 serving, 335 calories

… and then I let them sit in the fridge covered overnight.

LOVED THEM! But if you don’t like doughy things, you might not care for them. I prefer cold cereal over hot cereal most of the time, so this is ideal and only take 2 or 3 minutes to throw together. It’s like eating cookie dough. Yummmmm! You can also let the oats soak in milk, soy milk, almond milk, etc. I think next time I’ll really try to make it like cookie dough and add some chocolate chips.

That was supposed to be my pre-workout meal, but I waited too long and got hungry again. So, I made us a quick soup + sandwich lunch:

I heated up a can of Trader Joe’s low sodium chicken noodle soup (110 cal) on the stove while I made a sandwich with: 2 slices Ezekiel 4:9 sprouted grain low sodium bread (160 cal), 1 It’s All Good chik’n cutlet (70 cal), some leftover broccoli pesto (50 cal?!), alfalfa sprouts (15 cal), a plum tomato (15 cal) and… I think that’s it.

I also had 3 Kashi Heart to Heart crackers (45 cal) with my soup that I picked up in Hannaford the other day:

They look and feel just like Triscuits, but the flavor is a lot different. Not bad, but not my favorite cracker.

The sandwich was good, but the sprouts made it taste a little too earthy, and that wasn’t the flavor I was going for lol. Still, a good quick meal for just ~480 calories.

Day 2 of Aunt Flo’s visit is when my cravings really kicked in and I wasn’t in the mood to behave. For breakfast we had sprouted grain English muffin… PIZZAS!

“I Can’t Believe It’s NOT Meat Lover’s Pizza Muffins!”

1 Ezekiel 4:9 sprouted grain English muffin (160 cal) toasted in the toaster, then topped with: homemade tomato sauce (50 cal?), 1oz fresh mozzarella cheese (80 cal), 4 slices Yves veggie pepperoni (20 cal) and 2 Quorn meatless meatballs (45 cal) and then baked in the oven on 425F for about 7 or 8 minutes.

Sprinkled with a little Italian seasoning when they were done — YUM! Only 355 calories. A little bland being my homemade sauce didn’t have salt added, but you could use sauce that’s a little saltier.

We went out for a little while, then later on I made bunless burgers with loaded boiled potatoes:

How unlike me to want a burger without a bun. I boiled a few white potatoes (mine was just under 170g, 125 cal), then grilled 4oz 96% lean hamburgers (140 cal) on the indoor grill and nuked some Trader Joe’s uncured center cut bacon in the microwave while I chopped and diced onions and tomatoes. When everything was done, I divided 1oz Cabot 50% reduced fat cheddar cheese (70 cal) and put half on my burger and the rest of my potato along with: 1/2 slice bacon (25 cal) and 56g Fage Total yogurt (35 cal). When I plated the burger and potato, I added on some diced plum tomato (15 cal) and red onion (15 cal), plus some Trader Joe’s asparagus spears (25 cal) that I steamed in the microwave.

OMG! SooooOOOoo good! Potatoes + yogurt fill me up so well. The burger was a little overcooked, but 96% lean beef is very dry anyway. I LOVED this combination and the best part: ONLY 450 calories for ALL of that! Deeeeeeelish! This is going on my top 20 favorite meals list.

The beef craving continued into the next day, so, I defrosted some beef tenderloin in the freezer and made an indulgent dinner, that turned out only half yummy.

I decided to make a box of Annie’s bunny mac ‘n cheese for the side and I thought it would be a good idea to use just half of the cheese powder to cut down on sodium; big mistake. It came out tasting like plain pasta. lol I also overcooked the bunnies; the box says there’s ~2.5 servings, but after my plate and Dustin’s there was still at least another 3 servings and it all got thrown out. Boo!

The steak + salad was delish though!!

I put 7g reduced fat blue cheese crumbles (20 cal) on my filet mignon, but I’m not sure how many calories are in everything else.

I just woke up and I’ve been working on this update since the night before. lol Geez, I need to find a way to do these in a more time efficient manner. My head hurts a little, but Aunt Flo is behaving much better than her last visit; maybe she feels bad? hehe I’m so hungry but I need a shower… badly. So, I’m going to bubbly up and then make something delicious (I hope!) lol.

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Toasty

Jenn (j3nn.net) — Tue, 06 Oct 2009 00:32:07 +0000

We woke up the other morning and it was SO warm in the house. We’re like, “Wow, summer is back!” But come to find out I accidentally left the oven on 425F ALL NIGHT! I can’t believe I did that. Luckily nothing happened, but I’m sure that was a costly mistake with a gas oven.

So, what was the oven on 425F for? Tasty salmon burgers + roasted potatoes with bell peppers and onions, of course!

1 wild Alaskan salmon burger (120 cal, the brand eludes me at the moment) on an Ezekiel sprouted grain roll (170 cal) with red onion (15 cal), 1 gerkin dill pickle (5 cal), yellow mustard (5 cal) and Heinz no salt added ketchup (15 cal).

I chopped up 3 red potatoes, 3 large red bell peppers and 1 large red onion; coated them in 4 teaspoons EVOO (160 cal) and roasted them on 425F for about 40 minutes, turning them every 10 minutes or so. I dipped them in a little extra Heinz no salt added ketchup (25 cal)

YUM! Other than greasy beef burgers, I think salmon burgers are my favorite kind of burgers! They’re packed with a lot of protein and for only 210mg sodium, I’d say it’s an excellent way to get some omega-3’s and a yummy lunch, dinner or breakfast, if you’re quirky like me! I don’t know how many calories were in the roasted veggies, so I’ll just estimate around 150 calories worth, making this filling meal ~505 calories.

We went out shopping on Friday night. I wanted to buy an apple corer at Bed, Bath & Beyond, but to my dismay, they didn’t have any! They said they were getting some in soon, but I couldn’t wait and picked up one from Hannaford for $1.79. It’s ok, but not exactly the one I wanted. I did, however, pick up this little gem from BB&B:

I’ve wanted one ever since I first saw Emeril use his “boat motor” on his shows. Fall is the perfect time to put it to use. I’m thinking: soups, smoothies, oatmeal, and who knows what else. I can’t wait to try it out. There’s a recipe for asparagus soup on the back of the box that looks SOUPer! hehe

On Saturday we went grocery shopping, but first, we had a mix of Trader Joe’s chicken & thai vegetable dumplings:

I made a dipping sauce with:

1 TBSP sesame oil (120 cal)
1 TBSP rice vinegar (5 cal)
12g PB2 powdered peanut butter (54 cal)
10g Bragg’s Aminos (10 cal)

2 servings, 95 calories each

It could have done without the peanut flavor, to be honest. I don’t know, it wasn’t as good as other Asian sauces I have made in the past.

I steamed the dumplings in the microwave with a little water covered in saran wrap. They each had different calorie counts, so I estimate a combination of 6 of them to be around 350 calories, give or take.

These were ok. I definitely liked the thai vegetable more than the chicken. They are high in sodium, too, so I probably wouldn’t buy them again because they weren’t that great. I still ate them all though, but only used about half of the sauce.

I picked these up at Hannaford:

Look how cute and innocent they look! Awwwwwww

Cute? Yes. Innocent? No! I ended up eating half of the bag this weekend.

Saturday night I made a huge pot of tomato sauce with plum tomatoes that were past their prime. I wanted to have it with pasta the next day, BUT I couldn’t wait and we had Rigatoni + fake meatballs as our late-dinner:

I LOVE these Quorn meatless meatballs (90 cal for 4 of them), but they are high in sodium. *sniff* My bowl: 2oz rigatoni pasta (210 cal) with ~1/2 cup homemade tomato sauce (~70 cal), 4 Quorn meatless meatballs (90 cal) and 5g shaved pecorino romano cheese (20 cal). Sooo deeeeeeelish and only 390 calories. YUM!

This is my version of heaven in a bowl…

Dustin likes the Quorn meatballs a lot, too. I wish they would make them with less sodium. I’d buy them by the truckload LOL.

So, you’d think by Sunday I’d be sick of pasta… nope! Never. lol I went through with my original pasta plans and made whole wheat linguine with red clam sauce:

2oz whole wheat linguine (210 cal) topped with ~1/2 cup homemade tomato sauce (~70 cal) mixed with 56g Cento canned baby clams (60 cal)

I finally got around to making broccoli pesto, which I generously slathered on my bread. I sort of winged the recipe because I didn’t have any fresh parsley or basil, so I made it up as I went along. I ended up using:

2 crowns steamed broccoli
1/2 cup EVOO
2 garlic cloves
32g pecorino romano cheese

First I put the cheese in the food processor; grated it and then added in the broccoli and garlic while slowly drizzling in the EVOO. It came out GOOD, but not GREAT because I think I overdid the garlic! It was SO spicy! OMG lol. Next time, just 1 garlic clove. Yeesh!

It didn’t stop me from having a second… and a third piece of bread with it, though.

I LOVE Sunday Italian dinners at our house. Brings back such great childhood memories and with the holidays right around the corner, it makes me start fantasizing about all the wonderful foods of the season!! I’m already planning Christmas cookies LOL.

Very, very filling meal. I don’t know exactly how many calories were in the bread + pesto, but the linguine with clams comes to about 340 calories by itself. Unfortunately, I overdid the Italian, too — the 5 mini biscottis after dinner probably weren’t needed.

Our late pasta lunch/dinner kept me full for hours, so I went with just 2 large meals (plus desserts) and called it a day. Dustin suggested sandwiches for our next meal. Ok! Don’t have to convince me lol. I wanted to use more of that strangely addictive pesto. So I made an open-faced sandwich with: 2 slices Ezekiel low sodium sprouted grain bread (160 cal); lots of red onion (30 cal), pesto (60 cal?), 2 slices Applegate Farms turkey breast (60 cal) and then popped it under the broiler with 10g shaved pecorino romano cheese (40 cal).

On the side: 1oz Kettle sweet onion chips (150 cal) with 28g Trader Joe’s cilantro & chive yogurt dip (50 cal), plus some leftover broccoli from earlier (25 cal)

Spicy! But I loved it. Yum.

I just woke up a little while ago and I’m about to go exercise. My tummy is growling, so maybe I’ll have another pre-workout snack. I already had one several hours ago but I think I waited too long to exercise. Oops!

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Oat Tales

Jenn (j3nn.net) — Thu, 01 Oct 2009 07:19:25 +0000

Once upon a time in a far away kingdom nestled in the Catskill Mountains lived a blogger named Queen Jenn. She had many, many jars of nut butters, but her favorite was at its end.

She paced nervously back and forth on her kitchen floor, when she finally decided to do what she has anxiously awaited for. She has seen marvelous things done with nearly empty jars of nut butters over at the KERF Kingdom, and it was then decided: Oats in a jar it must be!!

She quickly went to work in the royal kitchen by adding 1/2 cup (40g) Quaker 100% rolled oats (150 cal) and 1 medium mashed banana (110 cal) to 1 cup boiling water…

She mixed and stirred and mashed to her heart’s delight, and when the oats were done, she packed them in tight.

One last touch before she could eat them: 26g of Cascadian Farms dark chocolate almond granola (105 cal) made the jar of oats completed.

With the jar overflowing with heavenly oats, she took some pics for her next post. When the time came to dig into her jar, she exclaimed, “I can’t believe how creamy and yummy they are!”

King Dustin feasted on eggs inside toast, but Queen Jenn was only interested in her jar full of oats. Each delicious bite another treat, until she reached the end of the jar and her belly felt sweet.

The End.

(I estimate the jar of oats with the banana, granola and almond butter to be about 555 extremely-filling-calories)

My breakfast the next day wasn’t nearly as exciting LOL. 30g Kashi 7 Grain Honey Puffs cereal (120 cal) with 5oz skim milk (56 cal) + 1 medium banana (110 cal), plus 1 slice Trader Joe’s sodium free whole wheat bread (70 cal) topped with 1/2 Laughing Cow light Swiss cheese wedge (50 cal) and 1 TBSP Everyday 365 Forest Berries (or Berries of the Forest?) fruit spread (30 cal):

This is my first time having Kashi Honey Puffs — LOVED IT! Aaaaaaaand it has 0mg sodium per serving! WOO HOO! Score! It tastes just like Honey Smacks or Golden Bears or whatever those sugary cereals are called that I wasn’t allowed to have that often as a kid. LOL The toast and the cereal came to just 411 calories. YUM! Oh, and the Laughing Cow cheese light is the perrrrrrrfect cream cheese substitute, BUT it has a LOT of sodium; 250mg per wedge. I used half and that was the perfect amount, so it was cool.

Dinner was very labor intense, but totally worth it. I picked up this bag of langostino in the frozen section of Trader Joe’s. I’ve never had them before, but I’ve heard talk about them on message boards. They look like miniature lobster tails, and taste a lot like rock lobster. This is from Wikipedia:

Langostino is a Spanish word with different meanings in different areas. In America, it is commonly used in the restaurant trade to refer to the meat of the squat lobster, which is neither a true lobster nor a prawn. It is more closely related to porcelain crabs and hermit crabs. Crustaceans labeled as langostino are no more than 3 inches (7.6 centimetres) long, and weigh no more than 7 ounces (198 grams).[1] Langostinos are not langoustes (spiny lobsters) despite a similar name (in Spanish, Lobster is called Langosta.) Also, Langostinos are sometimes confused with langoustines (Norway lobster), which is a true lobster common in European cuisine.[2]

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Langostino

I’ve been wanting to make shrimp risotto for quite some time now and when I bought these, I thought they’d make an interesting addition. Altogether it took about an hour to make it, but like I said, it was worth it. I started with a medium sized saucepan; diced red onion (15 cal), 1 teaspoon EVOO (40 cal) and about 1 minced garlic clove on low heat. Then I added in 56g of arborio rice (210 cal) and a little low sodium chicken broth (10oz total) at a time, plus about 6oz water. If you’ve never made risotto, it involves a lot of stirring and attention. I added in liquid; stirred; repeated for an hour. Toward the end I added in 3oz defrosted langostino (70 cal), 85g frozen green peas (70 cal) and about 2 TBSP pecorino romano grated cheese (40 cal); then I mixed and let it cook for about 5-7 minutes longer.

I plated it on a bed of asparagus spears (25 cal) that I steamed in the microwave:

It was AMAZING! Loved, loved, LOVED the langostino and the risotto turned out perfectly despite me having doubts about adding too much liquid halfway through. And the best part: that ENORMOUS serving comes to just 475 calories, 500 calories with the asparagus. DEE-LISH!

Sticking with the Trader Joe’s frozen foods theme, we finished our meal with Trader Joe’s frozen creme brulee that defrosted in the fridge for 3 hours:

Dustin and I shared one because they are 340 calories each, so 170 calories is decent for a decadent dessert. These are good, but of course, not as good as freshly made creme brulee.

I’ve been pretty naughty with my sodium intake and I haven’t been tracking everyday. It’s been a stressful week, but that’s not an excuse, I have to resume consistency tomorrow. I lose a whole bunch of water weight (12 lbs last week) and then I gain it back within a couple days just from overindulging in sodium. It’s so ridiculous. I need to just stay consistent — with obvious exceptions — at least until Halloween. I have very big pre-birthday goals that I have to meet. I’m going to be 30 years old, the clock is ticking and there’s no time like the present!! So, tomorrow: Low sodium + exercise + track my menu; repeat x 4 weeks, minus “free meals/days.” I can do this. I will do this.

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Happy Days Are Here Again

Jenn (j3nn.net) — Mon, 28 Sep 2009 08:23:47 +0000

I’m happy to report that SHE is finally gone. No sign of her for the past 4 days!! But I’m sure she will show up at her usual time in a couple weeks. hehe I’m just glad to be back to normal and I feel sooo much better! I am losing water weight like crazy. It’s amazing how lousy imbalanced hormones can make you feel. I’m just glad they straightened out… for now, anyway.

I’m also happy to report that I resumed my exercise routines as soon as I started feeling better. I’ve been doing about 30 minutes/8.25 miles per day on my recumbent bike. It’s a start. I don’t have my home gym fully set up yet, I’ve been procrastinating because I want to paint the room first. I enjoy my bike though, so I’m not in a hurry to get everything else in place.

I’ve been sort of lazy and unprepared for my post-workout snacks/meals the past few days. I’ve either been pressed for time or too hungry to wait another second and ate the first thing in sight to avoid gnawing my own arm off. LOL

I dipped into the Fruity Pebbles after a vigorous recumbent bike session the other day. They sounded good at the time…

This tiny bowl held a 30g serving (120 cal) with 2oz whole milk (38 cal), so only 158 calories but the ingredients list is naaaaaaaaaasty and they tasted stale. Boo humidity!

My favorite post-workout meal of the weak was an Amy’s Light in Sodium vegetable lasagna (290 cal) topped with extra steamed baby spinach (20 cal) and 14g fresh mozzarella (40 cal):

With a bottle of formula 50 Vitaminwater (125 cal) that really helped me recover from my workout.

The lasagna was delicious despite being a frozen dinner. Very filling post-workout yumminess for only 475 calories, including the Vitaminwater.

We were going shopping and other things on Friday, so I made a quick breakfast before we left. I decided to make something with the bread Kath sent: Egg in a basket!

I sliced a THICK piece (3oz, 215 cal) of the Oat Bran Flax bread, then cut out a square in the center and put it in a pan with 1 TBSP butter (100 cal) and then cracked 1 large egg (75 cal) in the center of the bread.

The butter so already accounted for, so I made sure to sop up as much of it in the pan as possible.

It was soooo gooooooooood! 390 calories but it kept me satisfied for at least 3 hours. Did I mention how much I love that bread?!

This next post-workout meal was a spontaneous decision but it turned out wonderfully. 2oz brown rice pasta (210 cal) with 1/2 cup Trader Joe’s no salt added marinara sauce (50 cal), 2oz steamed broccoli slaw + asparagus tips (40 cal), and 1 It’s All Good gardein chik’n cutlet (70 ca) with 1 Fage Total 2% yogurt with side peaches (130 cal)

If you’ve never had brown rice pasta, I highly recommend it. It tastes JUST like regular white pasta, YUM! Want a bite?

I love Fage with side fruit. Reminder: Check the container for 2%, they make a full fat with fruit that’s over 200 calories per container. Not that that’s a bad thing, but if you are expecting the 130 calorie version, be sure to check.

Everything came to just 500 calories, 370 just for the pasta dish.

We had a lazy weekend with lots of rain. We had rather boring linguine for dinner, then lunch (yes, in that order ) was a simple spinach salad with chik’n apple walnut salad…

In my food processor I added in:

1 It’s All Good Chik’n cutlet (70 cal)
1/4 of a very small apple (20 cal)
1/8 of a large red onion (15 cal)

Then mixed it with 1 TBSP Hellmann’s olive oil mayo (50 cal) and 1/2 oz chopped raw walnuts (90 cal), then put it atop a bed of fresh baby spinach (15 cal) and sprinkled 14g reduced fat blue cheese crumbles (40 cal) over the top and drizzled 1 TBSP red wine vinegar (5 cal) and 1 teaspoon EVOO (40 cal) over it.

On the side I had a 2.5 oz slice 175 cal) of lightly toasted Oat Bran Flax bread with 7g whipped butter (50 cal)

Yummmmmmm! The chik’n walnut salad by itself is 245 calories; with everything: 575 satisfying calories.

Ooops! Almost forgot my awesome salmon melt from the other day:

This… was… SOOOO… AWESOME!! Of couse, how could anything covered in smoked gouda NOT be amazing? lol

I made the salmon salad with: 2oz Trader Joe’s no salt added wild Alaskan canned salmon (60 cal); 1 seeded diced plum tomato (15 cal) and 2 TBSP Trader Joe’s cilantro & chive yogurt dip (50 cal). Then I piled it on 2 slices of toasted Trader Joe’s sodium free whole wheat bread (140 cal) on top of a few slices of red onion (15 cal) and put on 1oz shredded smoked gouda, then popped it under the broiler for just a minute or two. *drool*

On the side: 14g BBQ Dirty potato chips (75 cal) — that’s they name brand lol — and some of the .99/lb red grapes, that I quickly realized why they were so cheap: they weren’t the best quality. Half of the bag had mushy and bruised ones.

With the chips and grapes it comes to ~565 calories. LOVED IT!

We’re going to watch a movie now. I’m getting pretty sleepy though, I hope I can stay awake through it.

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Jenn Eats Real Food, Too!

Jenn (j3nn.net) — Wed, 23 Sep 2009 18:58:45 +0000

Kath + Matt surprised us with another loaf of delicious Great Harvest bread on Monday, this time it was Flax Oat Bran. Weeeeeeeeeeeeee! Thanks, Kath and Matt!! You guys ROCK MY SOCKS!

Had to have a little taste… (saved the front end for mom)

…with almond butter and seedless raspberry Polaner All Fruit. I gave the other half to hubby (but didn’t want to lol). Out of curiosity I weighed the whole slice of bread before the AB + fruit spread, and it was 2.5oz, but I didn’t measure the almond butter or fruit spread, so I guess it didn’t matter.

I love, love, love hearty bread with nuts and seeds in it. SO GOOD!

I couldn’t get enough strawberries this past weekend. My favorite was as an oatmeal topping, along with Peanut Butter & Co. Dark Chocolate Dreams peanut butter and nuts:

I decided to mix 40g Quaker 100% rolled oats (150 cal) with 35g Lifetime Life’s Basics vanilla plant protein powder (129 cal), but I’m sure I could have gone about it in an easier, less messy way lol. I brought 1.5 cups water to boil in a small saucepan, then I added in:

1/2 cup (40g) Quaker rolled oats (150 cal)
35g Life’s Basics vanilla plant protein powder (129 cal)

But this was probably too much water; it took longer than usual and stuck to the pan. It tasted really good though! Next time I’ll mix the protein powder in after the oats are cooked.

Toppings:

Strawberries (20 cal)
32g Dark Chocolate Dreams peanut butter (170 cal)
7g 50% less pistachios (40 cal)
7g cinnamon almonds (35 cal)

Altogether: 544 calories

Sunday’s breakfast was a little more humble: 3 original Post shredded wheat biscuits (240 cal) with 1 cup skim milk (90 cal) and 3g chia seeds (15 cal)

Not nearly as tasty as the frosted kind lol, but for only 345 calories, it was a pretty filling bowl of cereal. I probably could have added some Sun Crystals or Truvia to it to sweeten it a bit, but I like bland things. You get used to it after having to eat so many low-sodium foods lol.

Yesterday I wasn’t in the mood for breakfast-y foods, so my first meal was a salmon sandwich with broccoli salad and grapes:

I picked up this yogurt dip at Trader Joe’s last week:

2 TBSP is only 50 calories and 75mg sodium and it tastes GREAT! I decided to use it in a broccoli slaw salad with 3oz broccoli slaw (25 cal) and 28g of the yogurt dip (50 cal). It tasted so good! Wish I had let it sit longer before eating it though.

I poached 3.5oz salmon (105 cal) in a shallow pool of water on the stove top. I’ve never poached salmon before, so I sort of winged it. I wanted to get it perfectly rare, but I think I made it a little too rare. lol Ah well, practice makes perfect and I’ll definitely keep practicing with my beloved salmon. <3 I placed it on 2 slices of Trader Joe's sodium free whole wheat bread (140 cal) with red onion (10 cal); spinach (5 cal); a plum tomato (15 cal) and Hannaford smoky BBQ mustard (5 cal)

Grapes that I found on sale at Trading Post for just .99/lb! Only $2.13 for a big bag, YUM!

Everything came to ~430 calories (I estimated the grapes). Deeeeeelicious! For some reason I could REALLY tasted the tomato on the sandwich, I don’t know why! It was so bizarre, but yummy.

That held me over for long while, well, that and the Halloween candy I’ve been dipping into. I wasn’t sure what to make for dinner, then it struck me: Naan pizza!!!! So, I preheated the oven to 450F and quickly threw together the pizza and a side salad.

1 Trader Joe’s garlic Naan bread (240 cal) with 28g Trader Joe’s no salt added marinara sauce (15 cal); 1oz fresh mozzarella cheese (80 cal) and 3 slices Yves veggie pepperoni (15 cal). I sprinkled Italian seasoning on it, then baked it on 450F for about 7 or 8 minutes.

My lovely side salad included: About 2 cups of spinach + arugula mixed (10 cal), 50g Bartlett pear (35 cal), 1 It’s All Good chik’n cutlet (70 cal), 7g reduced fat blue cheese crumbles (20 cal), 1 TBSP Bolthouse Farms yogurt blue cheese dressing (35 cal) and a TBSP of red wine vinegar (5 cal). I didn’t waste a second into Autumn by trying out fruits and colors of the season! LOL

WOW!! Naan is SOOO amazing!! It’s soft and doughy, but came out perfectly crispy on the outside after the oven. This is the best quick-pizza EVER! I looooooved it. The pizza by itself is only 350 calories and with the salad (175 cal) comes to just 525 happy-tummy-calories!! I need to go back to Trader Joe’s and buy out their Naan inventory lol! It’s awesome!

We just woke up a little while ago and Aunt Flo is STILL lingering. Just when I think she’s gone, she resurfaces out of nowhere! *sigh* My hormones are on the fritz. Well, they always have been, this isn’t the first time this has happened but my doctors said it was “normal.” Add my water retention problems are even worse than this, if you can imagine. Yale called back and I need to set up an appointment, probably for November. One good thing is that I am “deflating”; I’m definitely losing water weight despite not exercising in a few weeks. I’ve been really good about keeping my sodium down though, I just haven’t been tracking my menus precisely this week because I am so exhausted by the end of the day and have so many things going on in addition to Aunt Flo trying to kill me. lol We’ll get to the bottom of this… someday soon, I hope!!!

The weather is so beautiful right now, I LOVE crisp fall nights. My 30th birthday is just a few months away (December 12th), so I am focusing on getting in the best shape and health of my life before then. I’m doing well with sodium, now I just have to be consistent with my deficit and exercise and I’m back on the ball.

Time to eat something, sooo hungry!

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Overwhelmed By Choices

Jenn (j3nn.net) — Sat, 19 Sep 2009 20:21:40 +0000

We have so much great food from Trader Joe’s and the other stores this week that I am overwhelmed and indecisive when it’s time to eat. I wish I could just have a bite of everything, but that’s not practical lol. I didn’t know what to have for breakfast/lunch yesterday, but I knew it had to involve one of those crusty little ciabatta rolls from TJ’s. So, I decided on a tuna sandwich and TJ’s low sodium minestrone soup.

It was a good choice!

I warmed the can of minestrone soup (200 cal) in a small saucepan on the stove while I made the tuna with 2oz TJ’s no salt added Tongol tuna fish (60 cal) and 1 TBSP Hellmann’s olive oil mayo (50 cal). Then I placed it on a ciabatta roll (115 cal) with fresh baby spinach leaves (5 cal), a thick slice of red onion (10 cal) and a plum tomato (15 cal).

I wanted to add a little something to the soup, so I crumbled up 2.5 Food Should Taste Good olive chips (40 cal) and put them on top…

Perfect!

Excellent soup + sandwich combo for only 495 calories. YUUUUUUUUUUMMMMMMM!

That actually kept me full for quite awhile, but I snacked on cinnamon almonds and popcorn in between meals. Those cinnamon almonds are addictive! I should have bought more. Our next TJ’s trip might come sooner than expected lol.

I defrosted some salmon the day before to make for dinner. I wanted to poach it, but lost my courage at the last minute and went with a tried and true grilling method. It turned great, but could have been cooked just a little less. I wanted to make it rare, but that’s REALLY hard to do when the salmon is so thin. I love nice, thick pieces of salmon, but I usually end up with wimpy, thin pieces.

First I boiled 148g purple potatoes and steamed some asparagus in the microwave. I’ve had these potatoes for awhile now and wanted to use them before they went bad. They are sooo pretty and loaded with antioxidants!

I couldn’t decide what to put on the salmon. So, I whipped up a quick sauce of maple and mustard, then popped it in the microwave for 30 seconds. Luckily, it was delicious.

The salmon: 6oz filet (180 cal) coated with 1/2 teaspoon EVOO (20 cal) and grilled for 2 minutes on each side (in hindsight, I should have done 1 minute on each side being it was so thin)
Salmon sauce: Mix of Fifty50 maple syrup and Hannaford smoky BBQ mustard (I used about 30 cals worth)
Purple mashed potatoes: 148g blue potatoes (120 cal); boiled and then mashed with a wooden spoon and mixed with 7g whipped butter (50 cal) and 1oz whole milk (20 cal)
Asparagus: About 25 calories worth steamed in the microwave and then drizzled with 1/2 teaspoon EVOO (20 cal)
Dinner roll: A Trader Joe’s ciabatta roll (115 cal)

TOTAL: 580 calories

The potatoes were probably a little overcooked, because they were gummy, but I actually like them like that. They taste just like regular white or red potatoes, love them! My only regret was overcooking the salmon, I really need to perfect my salmon skills. I’m willing to practice (and eat my experiments!) hehe

It’s a lazy Saturday around here. Dustin and I might go out for a bite to eat just to get out of the house a little. We aren’t sure yet. We have to enjoy this beautiful weather while it lasts, they are calling for a brutal winter. I can’t wait for snow… and Christmas! And Christmas cookies… and… and… Ok, I’m getting ahead of myself here lol. Halloween and Thanksgiving, first! haha

Off to start the day… at 4:00PM LOL.

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Journey to Jersey

Jenn (j3nn.net) — Fri, 18 Sep 2009 19:44:58 +0000

Our closest Trader Joe’s is in Westwood, NJ, about 70 miles away. We don’t get there often, but when we do go, we try to make it worth it. We wanted to eat in NJ, but we couldn’t decide where because we aren’t familiar with the area and read a lot of mixed reviews online. So, we decided to order locally and had a pizza party before we left.

We ordered two 10 inch personal pizzas, eggplant for mom and I also ordered a grilled chicken salad (no dressing) with my pizza. I ordered a veggie pizza, light on the cheese. I wasn’t trying to save calories by leaving off most of the cheese, I was trying to save sodium being the mozzarella they use is VERY salty. Don’t be afraid to request that restaurants leave things off or add something special. They will usually do it, unless they suck. lol

I drizzled a little EVOO + red wine vinegar on the salad at home…

The pizza was fabulous! I might order it light on cheese from now on. It had just the right amount of cheesiness, but not an overwhelming amount. I ended up eating 3 slices of it and half of my salad. The slices were small and had lots of delish veggies, so this spontaneous pizza party fairly healthy and probably not too bad on calories or sodium, either.

Aunt Flo is still lingering, but she was very well-behaved on our trip to Trader Joe’s. I think she might be leaving, but I don’t know. Ugh. This sucks! Anyway, I digress.

It took about an hour and 10 minutes to get to Trader Joe’s; it would have taken about 15 minutes less if we didn’t miss the exit. OnStar lags a little sometimes and drives us crazy lol.

It was dark when we arrived, so I looked like this crazy chick taking flash pics in the parking lot lol.

The first time I went to TJ’s, I wasn’t impressed by it at all. Then it grew on me and now I LOVE IT!! They have so many unique low sodium items and specialty foods, it’s just awesome! I filled up the cart and debated using 2 carts, but I refrained lol.

This was enough… for now!

We spent $207, which isn’t TOO bad considering the amount of salmon + other fish I bought. We brought coolers and ice packs with us to keep things frozen and cold on the trip home.

Dustin loading up the loot…

All packed away and ready to head home!

We got home around 9:30PM, but I was just too tired to take pics and do an update — sorry!!

Here is some of the Trader Joe’s loot — I didn’t want to take the frozen and refrigerated stuff out again.

I bought a bunch of bread so I could freeze it. I loooooooove their sodium free whole wheat. I suspect that Vermont Bread Co. makes it for them, because it’s idential to Vermont Bread Co. sodium free bread. hehe

No salt added salsa!

No salt added marinara sauce

LOVE these rolls!!

These protein muffins looked great. Love the nutritional facts and wholesome ingredient list. Low in sodium — WOO HOO!

Light coconut milk. Hmm… pina colada smoothie?! YUM!

I got lots of their low sodium minestrone and butternut squash soup, which I love.

I went nuts in the nut aisle!

50% less salt pistachios!!!! YAAAAY <3

These whole wheat pitas were also fairly low in sodium compared to other brands

Beeeeeeeeeeeee-autiful multi-colored tomatoes

Couldn’t resist biscotti or their chocolate chip cookies.

Garlic Naan bread, which was also fairly low in sodium. I’m going to use it for pizza.

I had to try these when we got home last night. OMG, they are heavenly!

When I was going through my pictures for this update, I found these:

Dustin said that Moose wanted to be on the blog, too!

He’s very photogenic! LOL

Dustin is starving and has been patiently waiting to eat while I finished this massive update. I almost forgot that I’m hungry, too!!!! We haven’t eaten yet today. Geesh. I’ll be back with our “breakfast” update soon.

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Gotta Go, Gotta Go!

Jenn (j3nn.net) — Thu, 17 Sep 2009 19:32:09 +0000

Just had a really quick snack and now I’m doing a really quick update because I’m pressed for time. We’re going to Trader Joe’s in New Jersery!! YAY! They close at 9:00PM and I haven’t showered yet. I am feeling a lot better today, but SHE is still here. So I’m hoping it’s not too uncomfortable being out and about. *cross fingers and legs*

I had a craving for a plump cinnamon raisin bagel slathered with cream cheese. Wasn’t going to happen. No bagels! And they are too high in sodium anyway. So, I settled for 1 slice of Ezekiel 4:9 sprouted grain cinnamon raisin bread (80 cal) with 1 TBSP Philadelphia 1/3 less fat cream cheese (35 cal):

This was actually REALLY filling for only 115 calories and 130mg sodium. YUM!!

Ok, gotta get going! I’ll be back tonight with loot and food pics.

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Google Reader

Jenn (j3nn.net) — Thu, 17 Sep 2009 17:45:56 +0000

Just wanted to let you guys know that my Google Reader issues are fixed! So when you search for “j3nn.net” or “http://www.j3nn.net” in Google Reader, it will yield results now. The problem was I didn’t have the proper HTML in my header that Google uses to find RSS feeds. Dustin fixed it a little while ago, thank you, dumpling!!

I haven’t eaten breakfast yet, I just wanted to tell you guys about this. Be back with another update soon!!

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I Tasted The Rainbow

Jenn (j3nn.net) — Thu, 17 Sep 2009 04:57:49 +0000

…and it was delicious!

I was in the mood for BBQ tonight, but, 1-) I wasn’t up to grilling and 2-) I didn’t have any meat defrosted. So I improvised and made a fake BBQ feast tasty enough to please a king and a queen — if by king and queen you mean Jenn and Dustin. hehe

I’m totally lovin’ these It’s All Good gardein protein meatless meat products. I bought all the chik’n cutlets they had at Hannaford the other day and a package of the BBQ pulled “pork.” The pulled “pork” is a little high in sodium; 480mg for 2oz, so I had a half serving and gave the rest to hubs, who isn’t affected by sodium in the least.

I heated the pulled BBQ “pork” in a saucepan on the stove while I made some quick and easy sides:

No salt added canned corn
A can of Everyday 365 no salt added pinto beans heated in the microwave and then mixed with 4 TBSP Hick Lickin’ Good maple BBQ sauce (60 cal)
A gorgeous spinach side salad with tri-colored tomatoes, red onion, Yves veggie pepperoni slices, 7g reduced fat blue cheese crumbles (20 cal), 1 tsp EVOO (40 cal) and 1 TBSP red wine vinegar (2 cal)

When the pulled BBQ meaty stuff was heated, I put it on 1 Ezekiel 4:9 sprouted grain roll (170 cal) that I defrosted ahead of time. My sides included: 130g of the beans w/ the BBQ sauce (~120 cal), 1/2 cup no salt added canned corn (60 cal) with 3g whipped butter (33 cal) and my colorful side salad.

Isn’t the salad lovely? I think I covered every color: red, orange, yellow, green, blue and purple – if you count the red onions as purple, which I totally do!

I threw all this together on a whim and wow, even I was impressed. It was AMAZING! It took hardly any time being everything was pre-cooked. When you’re not feeling well, easy is always best and this meal definitely made things easy on me. It was starch-a-rrific, but worth it. Dustin asked, “Is this real pork or ‘I can’t believe it’s not pork?’” When I told him it’s not real, he was like, “Hmm, yeah, then I could totally be a vegetarian.” I concur! These It’s All Good meat alternatives are fabulous.

Let’s crunch some numbers…

Ezekiel 4:9 sprouted grain roll – 170 cal
64g It’s All Good gardein BBQ pulled “pork” – 80 cal
1/2 cup no salt added canned corn – 60 cal
3g whipped butter – 33 cal
130g Everyday 365 no salt added pinto beans with Hick Lickin’ Good maple BBQ sauce – ~120 cal (the beans are 110 cal per serving and being I measured out 130g with the sauce already on, that’s what I’ll estimate out of tiredness and laziness )
~ 2 cups baby spinach – 14 cal
3 various sized mini tomatoes – 30 cal
Red onion – ~15 cal
2 slices Yves veggie pepperoni – 10
7g reduced fat blue cheese crumbles – 20 cal
1 teaspoon EVOO – 40 cal
1 TBSP red wine vinegar – 2 cal

TOTAL: ~594 calories

Not bad at all! It was very filling and incredibly tasty. A wee bit high in sodium, BUT this is the only other meal I ate today. Remember, I’m not feeling so great, so I think I kept my sodium (and calories) pretty low anyway. I had a granola bar, 3 Ghirardelli chocolate squares and 3 cookies today, too. And now it’s time for bed. I am exhausted and hardly did anything today. Here’s to hoping for better health tomorrow.

Nite nite!

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I Didn’t Forget The Teabag

Jenn (j3nn.net) — Wed, 16 Sep 2009 21:40:23 +0000

My coffee cups are filled with (cold) water for those of you that are wondering. I like to drink water out of mugs, it keeps it cold and makes me feel grown-up. haha

Dustin and I zonked out early last night, so we had a quick snack before bed. Dustin had a frozen Snicker’s bar and I had a chik’n salad sandwich on 2 slices of Ezekiel 4:9 sprouted grain low sodium bread (160 cal) with a few romaine lettuce leaves (5 cal) and a small apple (55 cal) on the side:

I made the salad with 1 It’s All Good gardein chik’n cutlet (70 cal) and 1 TBSP Hellmann’s olive oil mayo (50 cal). I put the chik’n cutlet in the food processor. I was worried it would end up as a weird texture, but it held up beautifully and turned out exactly like regular chicken salad. Loved it!

These chik’n cutlets are lower in sodium (210mg each) compared to other meatless chik’n, but still pretty high. I wish they could make a sodium-free version because I would seriously eat these things 10 times a day. They are FANTASTIC!

The lettuce turned the bread and chicken a little green on the edges when I sliced it in half. Great little mini meal for only 340 calories, 285 just for the sandwich. Yum!

I’m not feeling so great. Aunt Flo is getting worse instead of better. I’m on day 8 now and the end is nowhere in sight, which is highly unusual for me. I feel very tired, my head hurts and I don’t feel like myself at all. My mom thinks I should see a specialist, so she called an endocrinologist at Yale-New Haven Hospital today after we called the local hospital asking if we should come in and they suggested setting up an appointment with an endocrinologist. So now we’re waiting for a call-back to set up an appointment. Something is seriously wrong with my hormones and I need to get to the bottom of this. This horrible visit from Aunt Flo is the worst it’s ever been, but I’ve had other similar experiences and this is just another one of my endless symptoms; water retention being my biggest one. I’m really nervous about going to Connecticut and meeting with new doctors. This is going to be a journey and a half. Hopefully we’ll find out what’s wrong and put an end this madness. It really bothers me knowing that I have an underlying condition that is being ignored when a doctor arrogantly blames everything on my weight. It’s so frustrating. I have faith in Yale though, I know they are one of the best in the country. Maybe I’ll end up on Mystery Diagnosis or something? lol I’ll keep you updated on what happens. I hope I can get an appointment soon.

Anyway, I woke up really hungry today and it’s no wonder; my body is being overworked by itself! So a great big breakfast it was. I’m really into breakfast foods the past few days, what’s up with that? I really, really wanted something with ham or bacon and American cheese, but I’m trying really hard to keep my sodium low, so I settled on a waffle sandwich with scrambled eggs and a slice of reduced fat Swiss cheese and a light drizzle of maple flavored syrup.

Halfway through taking these pics the battery in my Nikon camera died! I thought it was charging all night but the charger was unplugged. My waffle sandwich was made with: 2 large eggs (150 cal) scrambled with 7g whipped butter (50 cal); 2 Kashi honey oat waffles (160 cal) and 8g Fifty50 fructose maple syrup (10 cal)

Can you tell the difference in the images? The images below are from my Sony CyberShot camera:

My side of choice was a Chobani strawberry yogurt (140 cal) with 13g Cascadian Farm dark chocolate almond granola (53 cal).

The waffle sandwich was yummy, I LOVE sweet + savory, but I couldn’t taste the cheese much, so it probably wasn’t needed. I would have been able to taste some melty gooey ooey American cheese and ham though! The waffle sandwich by itself was 420 calories, plus 193 for the yogurt and granola bringing this to a whopping 613 calories. Meh, still not bad. Full-sized meals are meant to be in the 500-800+ calorie range, so that’s perfectly acceptable to me.

Oh, I almost forgot! When I was taking the waffle sandwich pics off of my Sony CyberShot cam, I saw that I had some pics of our visit to Rita’s the other day!! Neolilyz on Livestrong.com mentioned Rita’s caramel apple gelati, which sounded delicious so Dustin and I stopped at Rita’s the other day when we were out shopping. I got one with vanilla custard:

Dustin got a green apple Italian ice — why does mine look sooo much bigger when they are the same size? LOL OMG, the caramel apple gelati was SOOOOOOOOOO good!! There’s ice cream at the bottom, too. YUMMMMM! It’s a seasonal thing, so get it while it’s COLD! Ha!

Time to watch Glenn Beck, it’s after 5:30, so we’ll have to restart it. I love that Time Warner start-over feature, so convenient. I’ll be back after dinner or whatever my next meal is called. hehehe

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Sloppy Jenns

Jenn (j3nn.net) — Tue, 15 Sep 2009 23:19:48 +0000

I was feeling pretty good after breakfast, but as the day went on, I started to feel rundown again. I haven’t exercised, mainly because my head is throbbing. I don’t know if my sinuses are acting up or if this is just another Aunt Flo symptom. Either way I feel pretty blah. Ho hum.

My super delicious oatmeal kept me full for a long time, maybe 4-4.5 hours? I lost track of time. When hunger set in, I knew that I wanted my leftover chili from yesterday, but didn’t want it the same way. A “Sloppy Joe” popped into my head, but there was too much chili for that. So, I went with 2 open-faced Sloppy Jenns.

2 slices of Ezekiel 4:9 low sodium sprouted grain bread (160 cal) topped with the leftover lean beef & black bean chili (200 cal) from yesterday. I wanted to sprinkle a little cheddar cheese on it or even a little grated pecorino romano, but I’m trying to be good about my sodium intake.

On the side: 1 Chobani 2% pineapple yogurt (160 cal) topped with 70g Dole pineapple (40 cal), 3g chia seeds (15 cal) and 6g Cracklin’ Oat Bran (25 cal)

I was so excited to find this new Chobani flavor in the Shop Rite the other day. This is the first time I tried it; OMG!! It’s AWESOME!! Very, very tasty and dessert-like. Loved it! The subtle coconut flavor in Cracklin’ Oat Bran really complimented it. YUMMMMM!

The “Sloppy Jenn” + yogurt combo comes to 600 calories; 360 cals just for the sandwich. Deeeeeeelish! As soon as I tasted the yogurt, I was snubbing my sandwich lol. But of course, I finished both of them.

About My Photos

I’ve gotten some comments and emails about my pics, so I thought I’d tell you guys about my camera and editing my images for an update.

My camera is a Nikon D40, but I also have a Sony CyberShot that was my primary digital camera for the first 2+ years of my blog. I just recently started using my Nikon, which I got last Valentine’s Day from hubby and let sit on my desk for months and months due to being intimidated by it LOL. Once I started using it more, I fell in love with it! <3 It's a great camera, but sort of bulky and hurts my hands to take several pics in a row. Obviously I'm not a seasoned photographer, so I am still getting the hang of it and learning as I go along.

I use flash for almost all of my pictures. I know that's extremely unprofessional and usually unneeded, but I feel my pics turn out better when I use it. I'm sure there are settings that I haven't mastered yet that will wean me off of my flash addiction, but for now, I'm ok with blinding Dustin while I capture my yummies. LOL

To get my pictures ready for an update, I use Photoshop 6.0. These are the steps I take:

1. Select the best pictures out of 50-100 that I take for each meal
2. Resize the images to fit in my blog tables (I set my width @ 560 pixels)
3. Add my watermark to all the images
4. Save for web (JPEG high); this optimizes the images to make the file sizes smaller

That's all. I don't edit the pictures' colors, lighting, sharpness or anything of that sort -- that would probably take WAY too long. Once in awhile I'll crop the images or touch up some odd looking "bright spots" with the clone brush (e.g., if there's an out-of-place reflection on a dish or something tiny like that). Other than that, I owe their quality to my camera and ideal lighting when I'm lucky. And when they come out crappy looking, you can blame me and my poor photography skills for that lol. I know there's better and more efficient ways to edit and publish my images, but this has become routine for me and it really isn't that much effort once you get the hang of it.

My head hurts a lot, I think I might take a nap or relax for a little while. I really want to get some exercise in. I hate feeling so blah. Ugh! If I fall asleep, my next update, aka dinner will be later tonight or early morning.

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