Keeping your New Year's Resolution!

Well, so far so good as far as my New Year's resolution goes! I almost let it slide last week, after all, it's a lot easier to pop some pasta in a pot than follow a new recipe with a long list of ingredients. I do find myself a bit intimidated at times just looking through the cookbooks trying to find something to make. I'm hoping it's just my pregnancy brain psyching me out.

Pregnancy brain! Myth or not, I have been misplacing things more lately (thankfully never Travis) or walking into a room and forgetting why I am there. It is very frustrating for me. I feel as if I am slowly going crazy. I think maybe it's because I am just a bit more tired than before and I now have to remember things for Travis and I, and sometimes Don, who by the way has what I affectionately refer to as "sometimers".

Last week I made Lasagna. Her recipe calls for ground turkey or sirloin, but I decided to go with the meatless version which is an option in the cookbook. It's all the same as your usual Lasagna, except she called for low fat sour cream and low fat cottage cheese. I had some low fat ricotta cheese in the fridge already. I bought it thinking I needed it for a recipe, but I couldn't remember which recipe. Really, it's driving me crazy. So, I used it in the lasagna instead of the sour cream and cottage cheese. It sounded better anyway.

Since I wasn't using meat I mixed the sweet potato puree, cauliflower puree, egg white, ricotta cheese and Parmesan cheese all together for my filling. She tells you how to make your own tomato sauce, but I just used regular old Ragu, which is also an option she offers to save time. I used noodles I had from another Lasagna venture a while back. We all loved it, but of course Don said next time I should use meat. I thought we needed a break from meat!

My second recipe of the week was Honey Mustard Chicken. This is the one where I was dragging my feet. I finally decided to make it on Tuesday for lunch and have the leftovers waiting for Don when he got home since Travis and I would be at Track club.

The recipe is as follows: 1 cup whole wheat bread crumbs, 1/2 cup crushed pretzels, 1 Tsp Parmesan, 1/2 tsp Paprika, 1/2 tsp garlic powder, 1/2 tsp onion powder, all stirred together in a bowl and set aside. Then 1 cup sweet potato puree, 3 Tablespoons honey, 1 large egg, 1 tsp Dijon Mustard all mixed together in another bowl and set aside.

Take the 1 1/2 lbs of skinless chicken breasts and cut them into cubes. Dip the chicken in the sweet potato mixture and then coat them with the dry mixture and drop into a pan on medium heat. Brown the chicken on both sides 4 to 5 minutes on each side until the chicken is cooked through.

Really, after having to crush the pretzels and mix everything together, this is a pretty simple recipe. I was on my way to track club when I got a phone call from Don who said I need a big food processor instead of my little tiny puree blender because the chicken was awesome and he is loving my recipes. Travis and I ate the chicken for lunch along with sweet potato fries and Travis seemed to like it too.

This week I am trying Chicken Enchiladas and Meatball soup. I am going to try and use Deer meat again, we'll see if it works!

PS. I am now 34 weeks and baby is running out of room. I've had many people tell me that I will probably go early. GOOD LORD I HOPE SO!! 3 more weeks at least. I have been enjoying the nicer weather and even got outside with Travis today and walked/jogged 2 miles on the rail trail while he was in the jogger. Maybe I can walk/jog this kid right out of me!!!