Thursday 23 October 2014

Greek Salad - South Beach Phase 1


An easy and yet very satisfying meal.  Cooked preprepared kabobs in oven and made salad. A definite hit on all counts!  Quite filling; refreshing and easy to prepare. 

8 leaves romaine lettuce, chopped
½ English cucumber, peeled and chopped
1 med tomato, chopped
½ c sliced red onion
½ crumbled feta cheese2 T olive oil
2 T lemon juice
1 t dried oregano

Combine lettuce, cucumber, tomato, onion and cheese in bowl.

Whisk oil, lemon juice and oregano in a small bowl.  Pour over lettuce mixture and toss until well coated.

Serves 1/501 calories

Wednesday 22 October 2014

Ginger Chicken with Snow Pea Salad - SB Phase 1


Chicken was nice and easy enough to make. A nice change from the teriyaki which we love but I would scrap the snow pea salad. 


Combine 2 t of canola oil, 1 T of soy sauce and 1 T minced ginger in a bowl.  Add 1 lb piece of boneless skinless chicken and toss to coat.  


 
  
Heat 1 T canola oil in large skillet over med high heat.  Add chicken & cook for approx. 5 mins each side covered. Chicken was quite thick so at that point, I added a little bit of water to the pan and continued cooking on med heat until chicken was no longer pink.  Remove from heat and slice.  Chicken was done to perfection! Poured gravy/juices over chicken once plated.  


Tuesday 21 October 2014

Coconut Chicken - SB Phase 1


Very Nice!  Definitely a keeper! 
Would serve as a course if planning an "Indian" themed meal.

2 T olive oil
1 lb chicken breast tenders
2 T chicken broth
1 med onion, chopped
1.5 t minced garlic
1 t minced ginger
1 t lemon zest
¾ t minced cilantro
1/8 t ground turmeric
1 c coconut milk
1 t splenda
¼ t red pepper flakes
1 T tamarind paste
2 t water

Heat oil in skillet over med high heat.  Add chicken and cook 5 min per side or until browned and no longer pink in the centre.  Remove chicken and set aside.

Heat broth in same skillet.  Add onion, garlic, ginger, lemonzest, cilantro, cumin and turmeric and cook 5 minutes or until onion is tender but not browned.  Stir in coconut milk, splenda and pepper.  Return chicken to skillet, cover and simmer 10 mins. 

In a small bowl, combine tamarind paste and water.  Stir into sauce and gently boil until thickened and sauce is reduced to approx. 1 cup. 

Divide chicken evenly among 4 plates and top with sauce. 

360 cal per serving.

Served with rice for hubby and steamed veggies.  

Sunday 19 October 2014

A very good thanksgiving!


I feel so blessed to have the people I do in our life; may not have much "family" but I was overfilled with joy to share time with the people who I feel are my family… cherished friendships... children growing up… new editions...looking forward to spending more quality time with each and everyone of them… and then of course there is the food…

I really indulged; 2 days in a row!  And the wknd before! 

And then there are ham and/or turkey sandwiches!  And you cannot waste all different desserts that get packed for you as takeaways on your way home! They were sooo good!

Goal:  Lose 5lbs - Minimum! 

The key for me now; and hence the blog; is to make what I want to eat vs following a “diet”. Never been good at that.  

But I digress; how?  Low Carb/No Bread/No alcohol/No Sugar and most importantly; plan a “Cheat” night once a week.  

And it has to be EASY!

This week’s menu:

Monday:

2 boiled eggs
tin tuna & salad greens
cesear salad, mini meatloaf (from freezer) and serve spaghetti for hubby

Tuesday:
2 boiled eggs
California wrap-TOSS- Horrible; made for lunches night before and when opened discovered lettuce wraps were sitting in water! Dressing? Lime Juice? Tomato? Not good; disgusting actually. Not worth the cost of product (ham and turkey meat)
Coconut chicken- KEEPER- Very Nice would definitely make again!


Wednesday:

spinach bake (from freezer)

Broccoli Lentil soup (from freezer)

Ginger Chicken with snow pea salad - KEEPER - Nice change from teriyaki

Thursday:
cheese omelet with salsa

Mexican soupTOSS – Okay but not something I would rave about. 


Souvlaki Chicken kabobs & SB Phase 1 Greek SaladKEEPER – Easy & Satisfying!


Fri:  
1 boiled egg

chicken salad w green goddess dressing - KEEPER - Dressing was easy to make and smelled and tasted of pure goodness!  A great weekday/workday lunch.  

Steak au Poivre - DO OVER - Next time; cook tenderloin steaks as I normally would/bacon wrapped.  Preferred Balsamic peppers cooked for hubby’s b-day dinner. Tempted to have a glass of wine while preparing and dining; why is it that a steak dinner & a bottle of red wine go hand in hand?

SatCheat Night:  
chicken broccoli bake/haunted walking tour/wine at pub

Sun:  
Pot Roast, mashed cauliflower and mascarpone cheese, roasted onions & peppers, gravy

And tonight it was: 

Roasted Beet/peeled and sliced
Kale salad – prepackaged with cranberries & sunflower seeds tossed with poppy seed dressing – Yum!  Star: Good cut of steak pan fried on stove!  Thumbs Up!