Healthy Recipes

I was posting recipes here for a while, then I dropped off the recipe bandwagon.  I don’t love to blog about recipes, but I do love to share yummy food, so I’ll do a quick cheater recipe blog post. 

These are the recipes I’ve been trying out lately on our low calorie diet.  They’re pretty yummy.  (you can click on the pictures to be taken to the recipe)

This is Kraft’s Fish and Vegetable Casserole.  It was pretty tasty, though, I would never have thought about putting something like this together.  I ended up changing some basics of it, so I can’t say what the original recipe tastes like, but the skeleton of it that I used worked well with my changes.  It calls for red peppers (I used green), onions, white fish (I used Swai), tomatoes (I forgot to add these), Italian dressing, and red potatoes (I used sweet potatoes because that’s what I had on hand).  And then it’s all topped with mozzarella cheese (I used a Mexican blend because that’s what I had).  It did call for cilantro, but none of us really like cilantro, so I left it out.  I think this dish would be great with chicken or pork as well. 

This next recipe is one of our favorites now.  Honey Mustard-Glazed Pork Chops from Eat Better America is now our go-to recipe for quick and yummy dinners around here.  We’ve had it twice in the last week.  You just sear the chops real quick, then add a mixture of honey, mustard, ground cloves, onion powder, salt (or onion salt if you have it)  and pepper to the chops and let them cook for about 10 minutes.  It’s that easy.  I usually roast some broccoli or do a mixed veggie on the side.  YUM!

Beef and Bean Enchiladas.  This is our other OH MY GOSH IT’S AMAZING recipe.  We fell in love with this recipe as soon as it crossed our lips.  I haven’t made it again yet, but I will be making it as soon as ground beef goes on sale again.  That’s how I roll.  I don’t like beans, so I was a little leery of this one, but I didn’t even notice the beans in there when I was eating it.  It’s another super easy recipe.  Sauté the peppers and onions, brown the beef, add the  seasonings and beans, then wrap everything up in tortillas.  Put some salsa in a pan, lay your wraps in the pan, then cover with salsa and cheese.  Bake and enjoy!  Really.  It’s so super easy and so super yummy.  I used low carb tortillas last time, but I’m going to use my homemade ones next time.

 

That leads me to this final recipe I’ve tried recently.  I like tortillas, but I don’t love them.  They usually have a harsh taste to them that I just can’t describe.  But it leaves me reaching for the hard tacos instead of the tortillas on taco night.  I decided to try my hand at homemade tortillas and WOW are they good!  I could eat the whole batch in one sitting I’m sure!  That strange, harsh taste is not there at all. Flour, salt, baking powder, water,  & oil.  That’s all.  Now, I do have to admit that they take a lot of work to roll out super flat, and my arm muscles were given a workout when I made my batch, but they really are worth it.

There ya go!  I hope you try something listed here.  They really are yummy.  Let me know what you try – I love to hear other’s reactions to what I think is yummy.  Oh, and if you’re looking for more healthy recipes, you can check out my ever growing Healthy Recipe Pinboard.  If you need an invite to join Pintrest, let me know and I’ll get you started.  it’s addicting, but oh so helpful when you want to find really great ideas. 

Down 15, Up 2

Well, my diet is working well for me so far.  Since January, I have lost 15 pounds.  Unfortunately, I’ve gained 2 of them back.  But 2 isn’t that big of a deal, right?  For women, that’s simply water gain.  Right?

In case you don’t remember, weren’t here, or never read my blog (what are you doing here now?), I’m trying the Atkins Diet.  My sister lost around 50lbs and my brother-in-law lost around 60lbs on this diet.  I wrote about their success when I first mentioned going on this diet. 

So, what’s working for me?  Is it the One Plate Wonder?  Is it not eating carbs except for one time a day?  Is it exercise? 

Let’s just clear something up right now.  I haven’t started exercising.  I want to.  Well, okay, so I don’t WANT to, but I know I SHOULD.  Maybe when this weather decides to stay spring-like I’ll get out with Jack and go for walks.  For now, there isn’t any exercise happening in my life.

The One Plate Wonder (where I put everything I’m going to eat for my hour on one plate – including the dessert)  has worked sometimes, but other times I just forget about it or simply don’t take the 5 extra minutes it takes to plan out my meal to have it all in front of me at one time.  Those are the days where I spend my hour grazing.  Not pretty.

Not eating carbs except once a day has really helped a lot.  I don’t crave sugar nearly as much as I used to.  Now, we have entered into the season of Reeses peanut butter eggs, so the sugar I’m eating in my hour has increased 10-fold.  But other than my hour, I have not snacked throughout the day on sugary treats like I used to. 

You know what worked the best for losing weight?  Getting sick.  I was so sick that I lost 5lbs in one week.  I just simply stayed in bed and didn’t eat anything.  After I stepped on the scale that week, I had to say I was a little happy about being so sick. 

Let’s be reminded of the ‘before’ picture:

And now for a really bad, but shows some weight loss in the face picture:

The joys of loosing weight so far:

My pants are loose and I can fit into more clothes in my closet!!! 

I was in a video for my church worship team and wasn’t as scared to see myself as I would have been 15lbs ago!

I feel better about myself!

I really hope to keep going with this.  I think it’s going to take exercise to really start dropping the pounds, but that’s to be expected.  Wish me luck!!

One Plate Wonder….

….and other ways I’m trying to loose weight.

I need to loose weight.  What woman doesn’t?  Even skinny girls feel like they need to loose weight (or so I’ve heard).  I’m no skinny girl, so let’s just say I need to loose a lot of weight.  Probably a good 50lbs to get to a good healthy weight.  I’m a horrible dieter and exerciser (especially in the winter), but I think I’ve found something that might work for me.

Enter my sister and brother-in-law:

My sister is 4 years older than me, a mom of two pre-teen boys, and a pioneer woman who spins her own yarn, weaves on a loom, knits, quilts, cooks, and creates –anything. 

My brother-in-law is a computer nerd, pioneer man who chops firewood to burn in their wood burning stove, and talks a lot.  A. Lot. 

Both of them went on the Atkins diet last year and lost 50-60lbs each.   The Atkins diet in its most general sense is to eat no carbs all day until your 1 hour reward meal where you can essentially binge on whatever you want after eating a sensible protein and vegetable.  The theory is that your insulin will be under control and you won’t crave carbs for that reward meal after a while.  It is amazing how much weight they lost, how good they feel and how great they look.  My sister has inspired me, My brother-in-law inspired Rick, and we’re ready to get on the healthy weight loss bandwagon!

Last September, we started the diet and the weight melted off of Rick immediately.  He lost a pant size in a little over a month.  It was awesome.  For him.  I on the other hand, lost 10lbs and put it back on over Christmas.  I couldn’t get the reward meal controlled and ate so much crap during my hour that the weight never really left completely.

But now, I have a plan!  I like to eat my reward meal for lunch.  That leaves my dinner either non-existent because I’m not hungry later, or light because I can’t have any carbs.  For my lunch, I crave apples and peanut butter.  I could eat apples and peanut butter for every meal and probably be content.  After I would finish my (LARGE) apple and peanut butter, I used to raid the cabinets and pantry for any and all chocolate, carbs, or treats I could find.  Now, I have a plan – wait, I already said that.  Let’s get to the plan, shall we?

I put everything that I’m planning to eat for my lunch reward meal on one plate.  That’s it.  That’s my plan. 

I pile everything I can on that plate.  After lunch, I’m not allowed to go raid the cupboards for anything else.  If I want to eat it today, I must plan for it at the beginning of my meal. 

It’s really worked for me.  I can now control my reward meal so that it is no longer packed with so many calories.  I’ve lost about 6 pounds in one month, so it seems to be working much better than last time.  I’m very excited to stay on this path of weight loss and be a inspiration to someone else – like my sister is for me.

One day I’ll have an ‘after’ photo to show you.