Ahh, staying at home with much time to cook. It can be a beautiful thing! That is, when your almost 3 year old isn't climbing up your leg. Travis wanted to "help" me cook this week, but he quickly lost interest. So I was on my own with my recipes.
Earlier in the week I tried home made chicken nuggets from "Deceptively Delicious". I had tried this recipe once before when I first got the cook book, so I figured I could handle it, and Travis loves chicken nuggets. One thing I must note is I like to change recipes a lot, either substituting or leaving something out because I don't have it around the house.
This recipe called for 1 cup panko breadcrumbs, 1/2 cup flaxseed meal (didn't have it, so I left it out), 1 tablespoon grated parmesan, 1/2 teaspoon Paprika, 1/2 teaspoon garlic powder, 1/2 teaspoon onion powder, 1 cup broccoli puree, 1 large egg beaten, 1 pound chicken cut into small chunks, 1/2 teaspoon salt, 1 tablespoon Olive oil (I used Canola).
You mix all the dry ingredients in one bowl and the egg and broccoli puree in another. Get the skillet nice and hot with the oil and start breading the chicken. First in the egg/puree mixture, and then in the dry mixture, drop in the pan. 3 to 4 minutes on each side until chicken is cooked.
This really was a quick easy recipe that i paired with the broccoli that I didn't puree and some mashed sweet potatoes. Don and I loved it, Travis loved the broccoli, but prefers the store bought chicken nuggets. I plan to make this recipe again, so he'll just have to get over it!
A couple days later I decided to make the meatball sub recipe from "Double Delicious". I used deer meat instead of the ground meat and ground turkey that she suggested. Don said it might not hold together pretty well since there isn't a lot of fat in Deer meat, but I went ahead anyway.
Recipe: 1/2 cup whole wheat breadcrumbs, 1 cup chicken broth, 1 cup sweet potato puree, 1 large egg white, garlic, 1/4 teaspoon salt, 1/4 teaspoon pepper, 1 pound meat (1/2 ground, 1/2 turkey), 1 table spoon olive oil, 1/2 onion chopped, 2 tablespoons tomato paste, 1 can diced tomato.
I had a pregnancy brain moment and missed the step where it said to put 1/2 the chicken broth into the meatball mixture, so I put all the chicken broth in. Too much! I had to heat the onions in the oil and get it ready for the first meatballs. I plopped them in and tried to gently turn them when ready. It wasn't working out so well. Some of them decided to fall apart. When I was done with the whole thing I had about half meatballs and half sloppy joe. Oh well! I will try it again later, much later!
Friday, January 7, 2011
Tuesday, January 4, 2011
Reason's why?
I'm only guessing that every runner asks themselves at one time or another, "Why do I do this?".
I've been running consistently since I was in 7th grade, and I've noticed as time has gone by that my reasons for running have changed. When I first began running it was something to do, a way to be apart of things. I've noticed that with the middle school kids that I coach, it is 98 percent social for them.
When I got into High School it became more about competition and being the best. I did not like to lose. I trained with the boys because I knew it would make me faster. I ran in all sorts of weather, most days leaving the house with my father saying "you're going out in this?".
When I became a Senior running became my way to pay for college. Then, when I went to college, it became my job.
It wasn't until I was about 26 years old that it changed again. My father died of a massive stroke at the age of 56. His father died of a massive heart attack and the age of 56, and his brother died at the age of 54. This was when I realized, I could never stop running. Somewhere along the line my father went from a strong, athletic man, to an old man with diabetes and bad legs. It scared me to think that at 26 I might be at mid-life. If I take after my father (which I do in most respects) then the clock was ticking!
Now I run mostly for health and sanity. The social aspect that was there when I was in middle school has come back. I like having running buddies, although they are sometimes hard to find. I like going to the hash runs just to hang out with other runners. I like being outside and saying I ran the Boston Marathon in a Nor'easter, or I ran outside when we had 3 feet of snow on the ground.
It has turned out that running has been my constant companion for almost 25 years. Everything changes, that's just life, but running will always be there! At least I hope!
I've been running consistently since I was in 7th grade, and I've noticed as time has gone by that my reasons for running have changed. When I first began running it was something to do, a way to be apart of things. I've noticed that with the middle school kids that I coach, it is 98 percent social for them.
When I got into High School it became more about competition and being the best. I did not like to lose. I trained with the boys because I knew it would make me faster. I ran in all sorts of weather, most days leaving the house with my father saying "you're going out in this?".
When I became a Senior running became my way to pay for college. Then, when I went to college, it became my job.
It wasn't until I was about 26 years old that it changed again. My father died of a massive stroke at the age of 56. His father died of a massive heart attack and the age of 56, and his brother died at the age of 54. This was when I realized, I could never stop running. Somewhere along the line my father went from a strong, athletic man, to an old man with diabetes and bad legs. It scared me to think that at 26 I might be at mid-life. If I take after my father (which I do in most respects) then the clock was ticking!
Now I run mostly for health and sanity. The social aspect that was there when I was in middle school has come back. I like having running buddies, although they are sometimes hard to find. I like going to the hash runs just to hang out with other runners. I like being outside and saying I ran the Boston Marathon in a Nor'easter, or I ran outside when we had 3 feet of snow on the ground.
It has turned out that running has been my constant companion for almost 25 years. Everything changes, that's just life, but running will always be there! At least I hope!
Sunday, January 2, 2011
New Year's Resolutions
So, here I am, 27 weeks pregnant and beginning a new year! This is part of my New Year's Resolution! Really, I have many, but the main resolution is to make every recipe in the "meal time" sections of Jessica Seinfeld's two cookbooks, "Deceptively Delicious" and "Double Delicious". This will be approximately 2 recipes a week. I technically started a few days ago with some home made chicken soup from her book, but my husband said I couldn't use it because I didn't make it in the new year. The other part to my resolution is to blog about making the meals, and also about my running in 2011, so I am combining them in this blog.
For January 1st I made the Skinny Egg Salad. this recipe comes in very handy at our house because we have chickens and we seem to have a surplus of eggs on hand. I cut the recipe in half for my first try. I have to say that it was delicious and very simple. Probably the worst part about the whole thing was peeling the eggs, which were all brown (btw, the color of your egg comes from the breed of the chicken, so if you are spending extra money on the brown eggs at the store, you are being conned!). It seemed the egg shells did not want to leave the eggs. The recipe calls for 12 eggs, 4 green onions, but we aren't fans of onions in our house, so I used half an onion which I had leftover from another recipe. 6 tablespoons reduced fat Mayo, 1/4 cup non fat plain yogurt (I used greek, more protein), 1/2 cup cauliflower puree, 1 teaspoon Dijon Mustard, 1/4 teaspoon pepper, pinch of Paprika. I didn't have any paprika on hand, so I just left it out.
I am not a fan of spicy food, but my husband is. This didn't have any spice to it, so I warned him of that before he ate it because he usually likes to add hot sauce. I also added some celery because I like some crunch.
If you don't know anything about Jessica Seinfeld's cookbooks, she's big on Puree's, especially in the "Deceptively Delicious" book because that's her way to get her kids to eat more veggies, which goes great with another resolution to eat better in the new year.
Now onto the running! I've not been doing a whole lot of running lately, since I am pregnant with my second child. With my first I ran 30 minutes a day until I was 32 weeks. I had no complications, except that he was 9 lbs. It just became too painful to run after that, and I figured I would just enjoy my time off from running.
This time around I backed off to 30 minutes a day to try and get pregnant. I tried to maintain that, but I had more sickness with this pregnancy, and things are harder when you already have a 2 year old. I try to at least walk 30 minutes, 5 days a week.
Lately I've been going on walk/runs, and I try to go for more than 30 minutes. My goal is to make it past 32 weeks being able to still at least attempt to run. Baby first, mommy second! I've run some races along the way and I think I may run a 5 miler in a couple of weeks. I hope to recover as well from this baby as I did my son Travis, running 3 weeks after giving birth, but I'm not one of those crazy super moms who is practically running out of the hospital. I prefer to be cautious with it. So, we'll see how it goes! Happy New Year!
For January 1st I made the Skinny Egg Salad. this recipe comes in very handy at our house because we have chickens and we seem to have a surplus of eggs on hand. I cut the recipe in half for my first try. I have to say that it was delicious and very simple. Probably the worst part about the whole thing was peeling the eggs, which were all brown (btw, the color of your egg comes from the breed of the chicken, so if you are spending extra money on the brown eggs at the store, you are being conned!). It seemed the egg shells did not want to leave the eggs. The recipe calls for 12 eggs, 4 green onions, but we aren't fans of onions in our house, so I used half an onion which I had leftover from another recipe. 6 tablespoons reduced fat Mayo, 1/4 cup non fat plain yogurt (I used greek, more protein), 1/2 cup cauliflower puree, 1 teaspoon Dijon Mustard, 1/4 teaspoon pepper, pinch of Paprika. I didn't have any paprika on hand, so I just left it out.
I am not a fan of spicy food, but my husband is. This didn't have any spice to it, so I warned him of that before he ate it because he usually likes to add hot sauce. I also added some celery because I like some crunch.
If you don't know anything about Jessica Seinfeld's cookbooks, she's big on Puree's, especially in the "Deceptively Delicious" book because that's her way to get her kids to eat more veggies, which goes great with another resolution to eat better in the new year.
Now onto the running! I've not been doing a whole lot of running lately, since I am pregnant with my second child. With my first I ran 30 minutes a day until I was 32 weeks. I had no complications, except that he was 9 lbs. It just became too painful to run after that, and I figured I would just enjoy my time off from running.
This time around I backed off to 30 minutes a day to try and get pregnant. I tried to maintain that, but I had more sickness with this pregnancy, and things are harder when you already have a 2 year old. I try to at least walk 30 minutes, 5 days a week.
Lately I've been going on walk/runs, and I try to go for more than 30 minutes. My goal is to make it past 32 weeks being able to still at least attempt to run. Baby first, mommy second! I've run some races along the way and I think I may run a 5 miler in a couple of weeks. I hope to recover as well from this baby as I did my son Travis, running 3 weeks after giving birth, but I'm not one of those crazy super moms who is practically running out of the hospital. I prefer to be cautious with it. So, we'll see how it goes! Happy New Year!
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