Does anyone have a good recipe for poached salmon?
Month: January 2009
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Week 1 At Home Weight Watchers
Down 4lbs!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
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Edit
I went from 167.4 to 163.4lbs – 4lbs lost or about a 2.4% reduction
I try to minimize variation in my weigh ins by weighing in at the same time and same condition as much as possible EVERYDAY. I weigh post my first morning potty but pre-shower (don’t want the wet hair!) and I also do not eat or drink anything or wear anything when I weigh in. I also track everyday and there is quite a bit of variation but the general trend is definitely downward. Once I have a little more data, I’ll probably start posting weekly graphs – but frankly, one week’s worth of data looks pretty piddly!
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What else I do for food prep
The veggie bag has been a staple around here since I started trying to eat more vegetables ages ago…
This week was:
carrots
celery
radishes
sugar snap peas
If I’m feeling cheap, I buy actual carrots but we at Costco and got the 5lb baby carrot bag that doesn’t require I do any work….
So, I wash, I trim…
And I make four bags lately – I’ve been going out to lunch one day each week.
It usually comes out to just over one pound of veggies – which, I typically count as 2 servings.
This week I’ll be eating it with a Jalapeno and Cilantro Hummus I got at Whole Foods that is seriously like CRACK!
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2009 New Recipe #2 (a and b!)
I actually made TWO new recipes today – Feta Stuffed Chicken breasts and reduced calorie mashed potatoes. I’m counting it as one though, since mashed taters are nothing special in terms of recipes.
First off, the taters
They are from here.The recipe is simple -
Mashed Potatoes
2lbs of Russet potatoes
4T of fat free cream cheese
1/2c. of chicken broth
salt and pepper to tasteSuper simple – make them just like regular mashed potatoes. Peel, cube and boil the potatoes. Add the other ingredients when the potatoes are all cooked and drained and then go to town with the hand held mixer.
Sadly, I was in too much of a hurry to take pictures until I’d already portioned them out for later consumption (1 cup portions are mighty filling, I might add!)
Verdict:
Tasty enough, especially if topped with a bit of I Can’t Believe It’s Not Butter.
They would likely be better with gravy but for a diet friendly portion controlled and FILLING side dish that makes me feel warm and fuzzy inside (hey, what can I say? I really like mashed potatoes!) – they are definitely worthwhile and will be added to the rotation.Nutrition Information:
Per serving (And I made 6, since I had about 3lbs of potatoes)
Calories: 190
Fat: 0g
Fiber: 3g
Protein: 7g
Weight Watchers Points: 3 pointsFeta Stuffed Chicken Breasts
I also got this recipe of the internet but can’t for the life of me remember where! I know they were supposed to be served over salad, but I decided that 1 cup of mashed potatoes and 4 oz of chicken breast were plenty without salad. Plus I was too lazy to make a salad.1lb of boneless skinless chicken breast
1/4c dry bread crumbs (I used whole wheat ones, since they have fiber!)
1/4c crumbled feta cheese
1.5t of melted margarine
Cooking sprayCut the chicken breast into 4 – 4oz portions and pound them flat. I put mine in a heavy duty ziploc and whack the shit out of them with a rolling pin. Make them about 1/4 of an inch thick. Roll each breast portion in the bread crumbs and then place 1T of feta cheese inside each flattened breast, folding it in half. Place the folded breasts in a baking dish sprayed with cooking spray, drizzle the melted margarine over the top and bake at 400 degrees farenheit for 25 minutes or until done.
I also topped mine with salt and pepper as well as any leftover breadcrumbs in the bowl after I coated the chicken breasts.
Again, I forgot to take pictures until I’d already portioned them out…
Verdict:
Tasty enough but not as awesome as I thought they would be. I will try the basil and tomato feta cheese next time – probably in the reduced fat variety to help with the calories.Portions were small but were actually more reflective of TRUE protein portions (4oz or less) than the typical preferred meal in my household (8oz or more). Also, may try adding some spices to the breading to make it more interesting – maybe a cajun garlic powder I have?
Nutrition Information:
Per serving
Calories: 184
Fat: 5g
Fiber: 0.75g (only because I used Whole Wheat Bread Crumbs!)
Weight Watchers Points: 4 points
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2009 New Recipe #1
So I found this recipe here.
Which is also where I got the idea for this resolution.
She, apparently more crazy than I, vowed to use her crockpot everyday in 2008 – and succeeded. Go her! 366 different uses of her crockpot – with pictures and reviews. I’m thinking there will be several recipes I take from her site to use.Without further ado though, my first recipe….
Salsa Chicken and Black Bean Soup
-1 pound of chicken (I cut mine into chunks of 2oz or less)
-2 cans of black beans, drained (I didn’t rinse mine because I was lazy)
-32oz of chicken broth (I used fat free, reduced sodium generic brand)
-8oz of sliced fresh mushrooms
-1 cup of frozen corn
-16oz of salsa (I used Pace Medium Picante sauce)
-1.5 tsp of cumin (I was generous here as I loooove me some cumin)
-Sour cream, shredded cheese, avocado slices and cilantro (Optional!)I used our bigger crockpot (4 quart) and put in all of the ingredients except the optional ones and stirred it well. I cooked it for about 4 hours on high (6 to 8 hours on low) and then I removed (in a very messy mess) 2 cups and pulsed it in my food processor and added it back to the soup to try to thicken it up. It didn’t work terribly well and I’m considering an immersible blender….
My soup, while in the crockpot. It doesn’t look terribly impressive, does it? I was REALLY leery at this point.
As it was a bit watery and thin for my taste, even after blending some of the beans to try to thicken it, I served my soup over 1/2c of brown rice (we usually keep some in the freezer – either homemade or the steamer bags – majorly handy for food emergencies!!!).
I didn’t have avocado or fresh cilantro so I just topped mine with about 2T of light sour cream and 1T of 2% shredded co-jack (as I am weight watching, yo).
It still didn’t look like much. And I was still mightily suspicious. MIGHTILY. And also, taking pictures of food, it is REALLY hard. I’m hoping to get some tips and/or just improve a bit with practice.
Here is the food before stirring the toppings in:
And then AFTER stirring the toppings in. My husband says it kinda looked like barf. Sadly, visually, I had to agree.
Verdict
Yum, yum, super tasty.
Yeah, I was surprised too. It doesn’t look like much and it was really easy to make so I was really expecting little or nothing from this soup. So, color me super surprised! Next time I eat it (probably tonight or tomorrow), I’m going to try it without the rice as I don’t think that really made any difference (though a couple of extra servings of whole grains never hurt anyone!).I WILL be making this one again. No chopping and there is an alternative version on the crockpot lady’s website that allows me to use dried beans (take 9 hours of cooking on high then – which is great for days that I gotta work, yo!). However, I will likely be trying to reduce the soupiness and make it a bit more stewish. I like my soups dense – probably will cut out one cup or more of the broth and add in another can of beans or possibly another 1/2lb of chicken. Maybe even get crazy and add in a couple of links of super spicy sausage….
Nutritional stuff:
Okay, this is to the best of my abilities and based off of the stuff that I personally used. It also is NOT taking into account the 1/2c of brown rice that I used, or the 2T of sour cream or the 1T of cheese. I’m also rounding to the nearest whole number because keeping track of 0.2g of fat was driving me nuts…Total (For the entire crockpot):
Calories – 1688
Fat – 13g
Fiber – 43g
Protein – 28gPer Serving (I made it into 6, approximately 2c servings)
Calories – 281
Fat – 2g
Fiber – 7g
Protein – 28g
Weight Watchers Points (since I’m tracking these again) – 5 points
