main meal: stuffed peppers

It's a new year, and while I am not all about resolutions, I am focused on newness. I've been looking through the schedule of classes at my gym and decided to try a new class. I'd considered signing up for personal training but thought maybe some of the more intense classes might be just as good. You need activity as the first step to seeing any progress, after all. So I went to the HIIT class - somewhat nervous of how it would go - and it was good! I knew I would most likely be starving afterward, so I wanted a dinner that was going to fill me up, both with satisfaction and nourishment. I've never made stuffed peppers before. In fact, I've never even eaten stuffed peppers before. I had everything I needed to make them, so I gave it a shot. They were great! I'm really glad I tried a new meal, and I think it's a new favorite (see what I did there?).

STUFFED PEPPERS

what you need:

up to 6 bell peppers (the more colorful, the better)
1/2 cup quinoa
2-4 boneless skinless chicken breast strips
1 tbsp olive oil
1 cup water or broth (vegetable or chicken)
2-3 large carrots
2-3 stalks of celery
1/2 cup corn (canned or frozen)
cheese

what you do:
-prepare quinoa (two parts liquid, one part quinoa) by adding liquid and quinoa to a small pot, bring to boil, cover and lower to simmer until water or broth is completely absorbed
-cut chicken into small pieces and cook through in olive oil in large pan
-prepare vegetables by washing and chopping carrots and celery
-slice around tops of bell peppers, twist and pull out (hopefully with seeds); slice out spongy flesh inside pepper and rinse out any remaining seeds
-after quinoa and chicken have cooked, mix in a large bowl with carrots, celery and corn; add cheese if desired
-fill the peppers with the mixture and mound just above top of pepper; stand upright in a baking dish and sprinkle with cheese
-bake uncovered at 400 degrees for about 20 minutes

Stuffed peppers are a great and easy meal with so many options for the "gut" mixtures - quinoa and veggies, rice and veggies, taco stuffing, chili - so many! While the stuffing makes enough for 6 peppers, I made 3 and froze the rest. It freezes and thaws great! Just take it out of the freezer the night before or early in the morning before making your peppers. I only topped my peppers with cheese, so I don't know how well the stuffing will freeze and thaw with cheese added.

stuffed bell pepper with tostones

Growing Dinner

We've had all sorts of wonderful rain storms lately - so that stay the entire day, others that roll in and out without warning, some with rumbles of thunder and flashes of lightning. It's doing wonders for my garden.

Last night I cut these beautiful bunches of greens, freshly washed off my a passing storm.

And then I made this delightful chicken Caesar salad. The chicken is from a local farm - free range and no antibiotics. Just cooked with a little olive oil and garlic. Add some halved grape tomatoes, croutons, a little shredded mozzarella (I forgot the shaved parmesan...I'm good at forgetting), and light Caesar dressing. And that's dinner...filling yet light and fresh.

Chicken teriyaki udon noodles

Do you have a favorite recipe that you feel like you could eat almost every day? I have definitely found mine. Browsing recipes online, I came across Caramelized Baked Chicken Wings on Cathy's Kitchen Journey. The flavor of this wing sauce is superb. I do generally love stir fry and teriyaki sauce, but this steps it up a notch, and I love that it's comprised of fairly standard pantry ingredients.

I've made some adaptations to the original recipe, which are as follows (makes enough sauce for 2-3 servings):

• 1/3 cup of low sodium soy sauce
• 1 tablespoon of honey
• 1 tablespoon of ketchup
• 1 teaspoon of extra virgin olive oil
• 1 teaspoon of minced garlic (I use pre-minced, from a jar)
• 1/2 teaspoon of ginger paste
• 1/2 teaspoon of cornstarch (to thicken)

Combine all of the above ingredients in a saucepan (my measurements are more of the "eyeball" type rather than exact) and heat, stirring with a fork or whisk, until the sauce becomes bubbly and begins caramelizing. Heat and stir for about 1-2 minutes more. The prep and cooking time for the sauce is fairly quick, so be sure to time it appropriately with the prep and cooking for the rest of the meal.

Chicken: I cut up about 4 oz. of boneless, skinless chicken breast and cooked over medium heat in a frying pan sprayed with extra virgin olive oil. 

Broccoli: I rinsed, cut, steamed and drained the broccoli from one medium-sized broccoli crown.

Udon Noodles: I was originally planning this meal with rice noodles, but my classy neighborhood grocery store doesn't carry rice noodles...I should have known. The last time I bought them, I did so at my co-op, so udon noodles it was. Boil them for about 5 minutes until they are tender, then drain.

Once the chicken was finished cooking, I stirred it in a little bit of the sauce to cover all of the pieces of chicken. First I plated the udon noodles, then the chicken and the broccoli, and finally I poured the remaining sauce over the entire scrumptious pile of food. So delicious.

The full prepared recipe I made was 500 calories. I didn't have a full appetite for dinner, so I ate about half and saved the rest for lunch the next day. It reheated surprisingly well, too. 

500 Calorie Dinner

Since using My Fitness Pal, I'm more aware of the contents of each of my meals - if I have a heavy lunch, I should have a lighter dinner if I don't have time to exercise. Similarly, a lighter lunch leaves room for a heavier dinner. All in all, the key is portion control, which can be difficult when there is a plate of your favorite food in front of you! One of my favorite comfort food dinners is chicken parmesan and it is so simple to make.

Ingredients:

• boneless skinless chicken breast (thin sliced or strips)
• olive oil/cooking spray
• bread crumbs or cracker meal
• grated parmesan-romano cheese
• pasta or pizza sauce
• shredded mozzarella or Italian cheese blend

I began with thin sliced boneless skinless chicken breast browned in a cast iron skilled sprayed with olive oil (I love my oil mister!). Once each side was browned, I removed the chicken and dipped it in a beaten egg, then a mixture of bread crumbs (I've also used cracker meal in the past, or a mixture) and grated parmesan-romano cheese. I then placed the breaded chicken breast pieces in a glass baking dish, topped each with a table spoon of Trader Joe's fat free pizza sauce, and then a tablespoon of shredded Italian four cheese blend on each chicken breast slice.

My sides were a piece of Texas toast (since I don't eat bread very often and usually cook for one, it's nice to keep a box of Texas toast in the freezer because I don't always have fresh deli bread otherwise) and brussel sprouts sprayed with olive oil and sprinkled with garlic powder. I slid a cookie sheet with the Texas toast and brussel sprouts into the oven alongside the dish with the chicken, and baked it all at 425 for about 15-20 minutes.

The end result is a full meal that is just over 500 calories: I used about 6 ounces of chicken, sliced 5 brussel sprouts in half, and cooked one piece of Texas toast. Eliminating the Texas toast would cut out 120 calories. Overall, not a bad meal, and it would be especially good after a tough workout at the gym!

Homemade chicken soup with pearl pasta

Mmm, my favorite homemade soup! I love this soup not only because it's so delicious and warming on a chilly day, but it's easy to make and doesn't take much time. 

A quick trip to the grocery store, and I picked up a pre-cooked rotisserie chicken from the deli along with a few of the ingredients that I didn't already have at home. 

I cut the ends off a small yellow onion, then cut it in half and threw it in the food processor and pulsed it a few times. I have to tell you...yellow (and especially white) onions make my eyes water and burn something awful, so I try to have as little contact with them as possible. I poured a few tablespoons of olive oil in a stock pot and put the minced onion in to cook while I started chopping carrots. 

Once the carrots were chopped, I put them in the stock pot along with 8 or 10 cups of water and about 2 tablespoons of vegetable Better than Bouillon. I know I've mentioned this stuff before, but it's really great. A concentrated paste than enhances the flavor of your food and tastes way better than any vegetable broth you could buy. And it sure goes a long way. Anyway, back to the soup. 

While the water was warming and cooking the carrots, I pulled apart the chicken and added it to the water. The final ingredients to go in were the leafy tops of a few celery stalks, chopped celery and a few sprigs of fresh thyme. I sprinkled in a dash of salt to bring out the flavors, and covered the soup for about a half hour to cook. 

To go with the soup, I always make pearl pasta or orzo. Put a few serving spoonfuls of the pasta in the bottom of a bowl, add the soup and sprinkle with grated parmesan cheese. Perfect.