Day 16
Protein shake: protein scoop, cup of fruit and cup of milk …blend…delicious
2 slices of turkey bacon
We had no turkey or ham and the only protein we had was turkey bacon. So I had a BL, well more commonly known as a BLT, but I am not a fan of tomato unless it is chopped or in the form of salsa so a BL is what I have. 2 slices of wheat bread, 4 slices of turkey bacon (which is 2 servings of protein) with a little but of light mayo for my condiment. Along side I had a cup of cucumbers and a cup of carrots. None cooked veggies are the hardest thing to eat, especially without any dips or dressings. Just not much flavor going on…
We had things to do after work so we didn’t get home till late so we did a repeat of last nights dinner
Day 17
Protein shake: protein scoop, cup of fruit and cup of milk …blend…delicious
2 slices of turkey bacon
Another one of those meat packed sandwiches for lunch. I cut this sandwich in half and my mouth barely fits over it (seriously), the guys at work make fun of me because I literally have to take 2 bites to get through it! Cup of the red pepper soup to go with. Which was still so delicious the 3rd time around. Even spicier too.
For dinner I made beef and broccoli stir fry. I took ¼ cup soy sauce and heated this in a sauté pan. Added half a red onion and chopped garlic until tender. Then added sliced flank steak and cooked for about 5 minutes (depending on how red you want the center). In a bowl a combined 2 tbsp rice vinegar, 1 tbsp sesame oil and minced ginger. I added this to the meat mixture and continued to cook for another 3 minutes. Lastly, I added cooked broccoli and let that sit for another 5 on low heat. I poured all this over soba noodles and my stir fry was complete. It was delicious. The meat was a little chewy because it’s a lean meat but you gotta deal with what you got…or in my case what you can eat.
Thursday, May 27, 2010
Tuesday, May 25, 2010
Case of the Mondays
Day 15:
Protein shake: protein scoop, cup of fruit and cup of milk …blend…delicious
2 slices of turkey bacon…is there such thing as sugar free syrup?? But then again, whats the point? Syrup is good because its sweet, and don’t give me that Vermont crap I want the stuff that’s bad for you but oh so good.
Pita pocket for lunch. It’s hard to stuff a pita pocket with 6 oz of meet, cheese and lettuce. It broke half way through making it so I settled for a just meat sandwich. Side of carrots and cucumbers to go along.
I worked out after work today, call it the case of the Mondays but when my alarm went off at 5 am I was like haha heck no, I need an extra hr of sleep. But I definitely regretted it coming home knowing I still needed to work out. And I was so tired after working out and running the dogs cooking a meal was the last thing I wanted to do. I don’t call this laziness I call it dead tired. I put 2 chicken breasts on George, cut up some lettuce and some feta cheese, tossed the chicken in and added 2 tbs of ceasar dressing and dinner was served. I counted ceasar dressing as my condiment and fat for the day. Along side was a cup of the red pepper soup Justin made last night to get my last serving of veggies. And 20 minutes later I was on the couch barely able to move. To reward myself I had a bowl of fat free/sugar free frozen yogurt. You call that a reward?? Nope but it’s the closest thing for the next 75 days.
Protein shake: protein scoop, cup of fruit and cup of milk …blend…delicious
2 slices of turkey bacon…is there such thing as sugar free syrup?? But then again, whats the point? Syrup is good because its sweet, and don’t give me that Vermont crap I want the stuff that’s bad for you but oh so good.
Pita pocket for lunch. It’s hard to stuff a pita pocket with 6 oz of meet, cheese and lettuce. It broke half way through making it so I settled for a just meat sandwich. Side of carrots and cucumbers to go along.
I worked out after work today, call it the case of the Mondays but when my alarm went off at 5 am I was like haha heck no, I need an extra hr of sleep. But I definitely regretted it coming home knowing I still needed to work out. And I was so tired after working out and running the dogs cooking a meal was the last thing I wanted to do. I don’t call this laziness I call it dead tired. I put 2 chicken breasts on George, cut up some lettuce and some feta cheese, tossed the chicken in and added 2 tbs of ceasar dressing and dinner was served. I counted ceasar dressing as my condiment and fat for the day. Along side was a cup of the red pepper soup Justin made last night to get my last serving of veggies. And 20 minutes later I was on the couch barely able to move. To reward myself I had a bowl of fat free/sugar free frozen yogurt. You call that a reward?? Nope but it’s the closest thing for the next 75 days.
Sunday, May 23, 2010
Laziness...
Yup laziness just took over the past few days. I made sure I got my protein and veggies in before dinner because the last thing I wanted to do after work was to think about cooking and then to proceed to cook it. Yea yea I know, but no worries I still got all my servings in :)
Day 11:
Ok not going to lie, I dont remember what I had for lunch for dinner this day, whoops but thats what you get when I dont blog. So lets skip to day 12
Day 12:
Protein shake: 1 scoop protein, 1 cup milk, 1 cup fruit...blend...delicious
For lunch I had another one of those sandwiches where the meat is just overflowing the bread, well pita. Turkey and ham piled high with cheese and little mustard. Along side I had some rice cakes, a yogurt, and a cup of sliced cucumbers. Rice cakes were quite delicious...with the hint of blueberry, a nice snack...also very high in fiber.
For dinner all i needed was a protein and a vegetable. I looked in the cabinet and laziness (again) took over. We had V8 cans so I decided to take that plunge. I was determined to just chug the whole thing but in about 2 gulps I could feel that it was cold and I gagged. I put the rest in a bowl and put it in the microwave, Justin thinks its weird but I told him it was just like tomato soup.
Day 13:
Protein shake: 1 scoop protein, 1 cup milk, 1 cup fruit...blend...delicious
Today was a big day, I had people over for dinner and by the request of my brother in law he wanted lots of carbs and sweets. Awesome, 2 things I cant have right now! So with that request I made sure I had plenty of meat and veggies. And shish kabobs did the trick. For desert I made homemade icecream sandwiches...let me tell you how hard it was NOT to eat one of those. I settled for frozen yogurt (sigh). I will be making them again on day 91 though :)
Day 14:
Went to brunch with a few of my friends and thought it might be hard to order egg whites, turkey bacon and a protein shake, but after looking over the menu I settled for a steak salad. A serving of protein and a serving of vegetables. Delicious, but once I got home I was still so hungry so I made a protein shake and had some rice cakes.
Justin made dinner tonight. He made a red pepper soup. In this soup was 2 cups white wine, an onion, 5 roasted red peppers, 2 cups celery, garlic, 2 tomatoes, tomato paste, 2 cups chicken broth, jalapeno pepper, pepper and ground cumin. He heated this on the stove and simmered for 25 minutes. Once cooked through he put it all in the blender to make it smooth. I gave it 2 thumbs up, it had a bit of a kick but still surprisingly very good! We had fish to go with this, he broiled this with some lemon juice and fresh rosemary, a little bland but thats what happens with tilapia, you need to give it a lot of loving in order to get anything from it.
So now that my 4 day stint of being lazy is over I am gonna go decide what to make for lunch tomorrow. 2 weeks in and with only 2 weeks left of this high protein diet I think I can manage through. I cant wait till week 5..carbs here I come! I am already planning what pizza I am going to make (with whole wheat crust of course).
Day 11:
Ok not going to lie, I dont remember what I had for lunch for dinner this day, whoops but thats what you get when I dont blog. So lets skip to day 12
Day 12:
Protein shake: 1 scoop protein, 1 cup milk, 1 cup fruit...blend...delicious
For lunch I had another one of those sandwiches where the meat is just overflowing the bread, well pita. Turkey and ham piled high with cheese and little mustard. Along side I had some rice cakes, a yogurt, and a cup of sliced cucumbers. Rice cakes were quite delicious...with the hint of blueberry, a nice snack...also very high in fiber.
For dinner all i needed was a protein and a vegetable. I looked in the cabinet and laziness (again) took over. We had V8 cans so I decided to take that plunge. I was determined to just chug the whole thing but in about 2 gulps I could feel that it was cold and I gagged. I put the rest in a bowl and put it in the microwave, Justin thinks its weird but I told him it was just like tomato soup.
Day 13:
Protein shake: 1 scoop protein, 1 cup milk, 1 cup fruit...blend...delicious
Today was a big day, I had people over for dinner and by the request of my brother in law he wanted lots of carbs and sweets. Awesome, 2 things I cant have right now! So with that request I made sure I had plenty of meat and veggies. And shish kabobs did the trick. For desert I made homemade icecream sandwiches...let me tell you how hard it was NOT to eat one of those. I settled for frozen yogurt (sigh). I will be making them again on day 91 though :)
Day 14:
Went to brunch with a few of my friends and thought it might be hard to order egg whites, turkey bacon and a protein shake, but after looking over the menu I settled for a steak salad. A serving of protein and a serving of vegetables. Delicious, but once I got home I was still so hungry so I made a protein shake and had some rice cakes.
Justin made dinner tonight. He made a red pepper soup. In this soup was 2 cups white wine, an onion, 5 roasted red peppers, 2 cups celery, garlic, 2 tomatoes, tomato paste, 2 cups chicken broth, jalapeno pepper, pepper and ground cumin. He heated this on the stove and simmered for 25 minutes. Once cooked through he put it all in the blender to make it smooth. I gave it 2 thumbs up, it had a bit of a kick but still surprisingly very good! We had fish to go with this, he broiled this with some lemon juice and fresh rosemary, a little bland but thats what happens with tilapia, you need to give it a lot of loving in order to get anything from it.
So now that my 4 day stint of being lazy is over I am gonna go decide what to make for lunch tomorrow. 2 weeks in and with only 2 weeks left of this high protein diet I think I can manage through. I cant wait till week 5..carbs here I come! I am already planning what pizza I am going to make (with whole wheat crust of course).
Thursday, May 20, 2010
Goal: Becoming the next Morimoto
Day 9:
Well one thing is for sure, having a high protein diet does not work if you are sick. I could not keep anything down, sorry if that is TMI but I don’t really know how else to say it. The only thing I could have was a protein shake, anything I had to chew was not going well. I think it was because I was dehydrated, I drank water all day and around 3 I felt better so I then proceeded to do my workout, which sucked because I had no energy but my thought process was, I don’t want to get to day 90 and say I did 89. I will half ass it and make it up with another round of cardio or something. But after my workout I was able to get down a protein bar and keep it down. Thank god.
For dinner, we used the left over sauce from last night, covered some chicken breasts with it and baked it in the oven for 45 minutes. Cut up some veggies sautéed them in a pan and made some garlic bread out of a whole wheat pita. I used ½ tbls olive oil instead of butter on the pita then sprinkled garlic salt over it. This will be my fat for the day.
Needless to say I did not get my full servings of protein or veggies for the day but c’est la vie.
Day 10:
Protein shake: protein scoop, cup of fruit and cup of milk …blend…delicious
2 slices of turkey bacon…still wishing I had syrup…
For lunch I had leftover a chicken breast and a cup of carrots. Boring yes but I just didn’t have the effort to make something extravagant.
For dinner I had sushi!! Now, minus the white rice, sushi is very easy to keep within this diet. I had spicy tuna with edamamba. This took care of the protein and the veggie needed for dinner. The white rice was my carb and fat for the day. Mmmmm deeeelicious.
I am determined to become a master chef at making sushi. I bought this cheap sushi maker at a food convention. Yes that’s right I attend food conventions, don’t judge. But what I need is one of those mats where you stuff and roll and there you go, sushi is made.
Note to self: watch more infomercials.
Well one thing is for sure, having a high protein diet does not work if you are sick. I could not keep anything down, sorry if that is TMI but I don’t really know how else to say it. The only thing I could have was a protein shake, anything I had to chew was not going well. I think it was because I was dehydrated, I drank water all day and around 3 I felt better so I then proceeded to do my workout, which sucked because I had no energy but my thought process was, I don’t want to get to day 90 and say I did 89. I will half ass it and make it up with another round of cardio or something. But after my workout I was able to get down a protein bar and keep it down. Thank god.
For dinner, we used the left over sauce from last night, covered some chicken breasts with it and baked it in the oven for 45 minutes. Cut up some veggies sautéed them in a pan and made some garlic bread out of a whole wheat pita. I used ½ tbls olive oil instead of butter on the pita then sprinkled garlic salt over it. This will be my fat for the day.
Needless to say I did not get my full servings of protein or veggies for the day but c’est la vie.
Day 10:
Protein shake: protein scoop, cup of fruit and cup of milk …blend…delicious
2 slices of turkey bacon…still wishing I had syrup…
For lunch I had leftover a chicken breast and a cup of carrots. Boring yes but I just didn’t have the effort to make something extravagant.
For dinner I had sushi!! Now, minus the white rice, sushi is very easy to keep within this diet. I had spicy tuna with edamamba. This took care of the protein and the veggie needed for dinner. The white rice was my carb and fat for the day. Mmmmm deeeelicious.
I am determined to become a master chef at making sushi. I bought this cheap sushi maker at a food convention. Yes that’s right I attend food conventions, don’t judge. But what I need is one of those mats where you stuff and roll and there you go, sushi is made.
Note to self: watch more infomercials.
Tuesday, May 18, 2010
Veggie Burger?? Nope Veggie Patty
Day 7:
I had a soccer game today so I knew I couldnt have milk or the turkey bacon before the game. I dont think that would have sat well during the game so I just had a protein shake with water after my workout but before my game.
Protein shake: 1 scoop of protein, cup of fruit, cup water...blend...not as delicious but still good.
After my game Justin made an egg white omelet. He says the trick to cooking an egg white omelet is to beat the egg whites for a bit, almost till they are frothy, this makes it easier to cook and flip. He added cheese and turkey bacon, but add whatever you want to this..veggies...ham...turkey..whatev floats your boat. 6 egg whites = 1 protein. so needless to say this was a huge omelet but after my game I knew I needed it.
For dinner we had our first veggies burger. I wanted it on the grill but Justin refused, his reasoning was he didnt want to waste the coal and time to cook just 2 veggie burgers, I agreed with him so we brought out George. Along side we had squash with sauteed onions and pepper jack cheese. This squash side is one of the best! Compliments from my momma, you take an onion and cut it so you have thin pieces. I sauteed that in veggie stock and let it cook for about 10 minutes. I continued to add the stock because unlike olive oil it does not stick to your food so you need to continue to add the stock to prevent the onion from scorching. Cut the yellow squash into halves or quarters, depending on the size, add these in and continue to cook covered for 7-8 minutes, until they are soft. Add 2 oz pepper jack cheese, now before my P90X days I would add so much pepper jack cheese because I loved the heat, but now I am reduced to 2 oz...one serving of dairy for each of us (sigh). With the burgers we added turkey bacon, feta cheese, tomatoes and lettuce. We used these buns called sandwich thins, I guess their purpose in life is to go with veggie or turkey burgers, well it did its job.
We had a discussion at dinner about how they shouldnt call veggie burgers a burger, it should be called a veggie patty. It just doesnt live up the hype of a nice juicy burger..so for now on its veggie patty. I gotta say for my first veggie patty it was good, I would have it again but its a catch 22, I know its good for you but it makes me want a five guys burger so bad! It also doesnt help that I just watched Paula Dean cook burgers 5 different ways...
Day 8:
AHHH back to my old routine : )
Protein shake: 1 scoop protein, 1 cup fruit, 1 cup milk..blend..delicous
2 slices of turkey bacon
For lunch I made a chef salad, I dont think I will ever get sick of a salad, I will let you know though after day 60 how I feel about salads.
Fish again for dinner. The thing I like about a bland fish is all you have to do is add a delicious sauce and you would never know it was a boring fish, its delicious, cheap and also one of the best proteins you can have. For the sauce we made a honey-chile sauce. Sauteed half a shallot in veggie stock till translucent, added fat free chicken broth and honey as well as chili powder and ground cumin. Waited till that reduced to half, put it in a food processor added some fresh cilantro and walaaa, a spicy yet sweet sauce. For the veggie we had peas. Broiled the fish for 7 minutes and 20 minutes later we had dinner.
Annnnnnd for dessert we had frozen yogurt. Nice treat to end a case of the Mondays.
I had a soccer game today so I knew I couldnt have milk or the turkey bacon before the game. I dont think that would have sat well during the game so I just had a protein shake with water after my workout but before my game.
Protein shake: 1 scoop of protein, cup of fruit, cup water...blend...not as delicious but still good.
After my game Justin made an egg white omelet. He says the trick to cooking an egg white omelet is to beat the egg whites for a bit, almost till they are frothy, this makes it easier to cook and flip. He added cheese and turkey bacon, but add whatever you want to this..veggies...ham...turkey..whatev floats your boat. 6 egg whites = 1 protein. so needless to say this was a huge omelet but after my game I knew I needed it.
For dinner we had our first veggies burger. I wanted it on the grill but Justin refused, his reasoning was he didnt want to waste the coal and time to cook just 2 veggie burgers, I agreed with him so we brought out George. Along side we had squash with sauteed onions and pepper jack cheese. This squash side is one of the best! Compliments from my momma, you take an onion and cut it so you have thin pieces. I sauteed that in veggie stock and let it cook for about 10 minutes. I continued to add the stock because unlike olive oil it does not stick to your food so you need to continue to add the stock to prevent the onion from scorching. Cut the yellow squash into halves or quarters, depending on the size, add these in and continue to cook covered for 7-8 minutes, until they are soft. Add 2 oz pepper jack cheese, now before my P90X days I would add so much pepper jack cheese because I loved the heat, but now I am reduced to 2 oz...one serving of dairy for each of us (sigh). With the burgers we added turkey bacon, feta cheese, tomatoes and lettuce. We used these buns called sandwich thins, I guess their purpose in life is to go with veggie or turkey burgers, well it did its job.
We had a discussion at dinner about how they shouldnt call veggie burgers a burger, it should be called a veggie patty. It just doesnt live up the hype of a nice juicy burger..so for now on its veggie patty. I gotta say for my first veggie patty it was good, I would have it again but its a catch 22, I know its good for you but it makes me want a five guys burger so bad! It also doesnt help that I just watched Paula Dean cook burgers 5 different ways...
Day 8:
AHHH back to my old routine : )
Protein shake: 1 scoop protein, 1 cup fruit, 1 cup milk..blend..delicous
2 slices of turkey bacon
For lunch I made a chef salad, I dont think I will ever get sick of a salad, I will let you know though after day 60 how I feel about salads.
Fish again for dinner. The thing I like about a bland fish is all you have to do is add a delicious sauce and you would never know it was a boring fish, its delicious, cheap and also one of the best proteins you can have. For the sauce we made a honey-chile sauce. Sauteed half a shallot in veggie stock till translucent, added fat free chicken broth and honey as well as chili powder and ground cumin. Waited till that reduced to half, put it in a food processor added some fresh cilantro and walaaa, a spicy yet sweet sauce. For the veggie we had peas. Broiled the fish for 7 minutes and 20 minutes later we had dinner.
Annnnnnd for dessert we had frozen yogurt. Nice treat to end a case of the Mondays.
Saturday, May 15, 2010
Day 5
Day 5:
Protein shake: scoop of protein, cup of milk, cup of fruit...blend...delicous.
2 slices of turkey bacon - I wrap them in a paper towel and cook them in the microwave for a min 30.
I did well at lunch. I ordered a turkey sandwich with a side salad. Yes it was hard sitting next to french fries but I powered through it.
Dinner we wanted to keep it simple so thats what we did. We put some seasoning on some steaks (no salt) and put them in a shallow pan and broiled them. I know who has doesnt have steaks on the grill, it was raining and again simple. Also to light Justins grill I feel like you need to have a permit or something, so many steps and the oven takes pushing a button...you decide. I had to opt out on the carb since I had the sandwich for lunch, so no baked potato for me. We steamed some frozen veggies (low sodium) and 15 minutes later we had dinner.
Day 6:
My first Saturday...my first day off. My routine was thrown waaaaaay out of whack. When I slept in till 830, yes thats my sleeping in, sad I know (sigh), I wasnt hungry at all. I just got up and went out the door. I realized at 1100 I had not had a thing to eat so I grabbed a protein bar and banked on the fact that lucnh was going to be a big one. And indeed it was, pita bread with turkey, ham, feta cheese, lettuce and mustard...it looked like one of those sandwiches when you are at the store and you see the clerk piling on the meat and you say to him light on the meat...yea one of those. Along with that I had my protein shake. A lot of handle in one setting but it was not bad. All I had left on my diet was 2 veggies and 2 proteins. I can see why they say a routine is good to have because having that lunch then realizing I still had 2 more servings of protein left was a lot to take in.
Side note: soy nuts with almonds and cranberries, delicious snack. We got this little combo at COSTCO and it was a nice grab...and all very good for you.
Dinner we had taco salad, well without doritos or taco seasning. Soooo I guess just dry chicken salad...hmm. Anywho, we used ground chicken and cooked that with a little chicken broth (low sodium), to give it some flavor since we didnt use the taco seasoning, cut up some veggies added some shredded cheese and there we go, dinner was served. Since we had a condiment left we used russian dressing...the best dressing for taco salad is western dressing but I grabbed the wrong one...as shocking as it sounds you should have heard my reaction to my first bite when I realized it was not western.
We were talking at dinner saying that we can have good food just need to have minor modifications (i.e. no doritos or taco seaoning) and with the right portions, its brought a little light on the mere fact that I have 83 days left...
Protein shake: scoop of protein, cup of milk, cup of fruit...blend...delicous.
2 slices of turkey bacon - I wrap them in a paper towel and cook them in the microwave for a min 30.
I did well at lunch. I ordered a turkey sandwich with a side salad. Yes it was hard sitting next to french fries but I powered through it.
Dinner we wanted to keep it simple so thats what we did. We put some seasoning on some steaks (no salt) and put them in a shallow pan and broiled them. I know who has doesnt have steaks on the grill, it was raining and again simple. Also to light Justins grill I feel like you need to have a permit or something, so many steps and the oven takes pushing a button...you decide. I had to opt out on the carb since I had the sandwich for lunch, so no baked potato for me. We steamed some frozen veggies (low sodium) and 15 minutes later we had dinner.
Day 6:
My first Saturday...my first day off. My routine was thrown waaaaaay out of whack. When I slept in till 830, yes thats my sleeping in, sad I know (sigh), I wasnt hungry at all. I just got up and went out the door. I realized at 1100 I had not had a thing to eat so I grabbed a protein bar and banked on the fact that lucnh was going to be a big one. And indeed it was, pita bread with turkey, ham, feta cheese, lettuce and mustard...it looked like one of those sandwiches when you are at the store and you see the clerk piling on the meat and you say to him light on the meat...yea one of those. Along with that I had my protein shake. A lot of handle in one setting but it was not bad. All I had left on my diet was 2 veggies and 2 proteins. I can see why they say a routine is good to have because having that lunch then realizing I still had 2 more servings of protein left was a lot to take in.
Side note: soy nuts with almonds and cranberries, delicious snack. We got this little combo at COSTCO and it was a nice grab...and all very good for you.
Dinner we had taco salad, well without doritos or taco seasning. Soooo I guess just dry chicken salad...hmm. Anywho, we used ground chicken and cooked that with a little chicken broth (low sodium), to give it some flavor since we didnt use the taco seasoning, cut up some veggies added some shredded cheese and there we go, dinner was served. Since we had a condiment left we used russian dressing...the best dressing for taco salad is western dressing but I grabbed the wrong one...as shocking as it sounds you should have heard my reaction to my first bite when I realized it was not western.
We were talking at dinner saying that we can have good food just need to have minor modifications (i.e. no doritos or taco seaoning) and with the right portions, its brought a little light on the mere fact that I have 83 days left...
Friday, May 14, 2010
Everyone is a critic
The "pâté" was actually really good with the goat cheese and crackers. Nice little combo. Celery sticks though, thank goodness they are crunchy because raw celery offers nothing. Cooked celery on the other hand, can really change up a recipe, like chicken noodle soup or thanksgiving stuffing, I need to make a note to cook something with that in the near future.
I got off the hook last night for making dinner. Justin made it : ) only thing I added was how long to broil fish. He got a recipe from the P90X book and made some variations to it because not everyone is going to have fresh herbs laying around, unless you are like my mom and grows them out back, but we do not. The recipe was for a pesto sauce, what’s in pesto you ask? Well it mainly consists of pine nuts, lots of fresh basil, white wine, little bit lemon juice, and garlic. We had about half of that, so he combined almonds, dried basil (note: dried herbs tend to be stronger than fresh herbs so they say for every tbls of fresh is the same as 1 tsp of dry, taste may be a little different which is why its always best to use fresh but not everyone has a garden), white wine, lemon juice and garlic. He put all that in the food processor and waaala, a sauce for the fish. He broiled the fish for about 11 minutes, they were pretty thick so it took a little longer. While those cooked he took the leftover veggies from last night and added one more red and green pepper in order to get our serving of veggies. To cook these he added some white wine vinegar to the pan…an excellent healthy subsistute to olive oil. But who has white wine vinegar right?? Well Lexie and I were making a crazy dish one night and one of the recipes called for the vinegar, have I used it since? No, but now that I know it’s a healthy alternative; it went straight to the front of the cabinet. I also believe that vinegar will help with our recovery. The reason I believe this is because in college during preseason my teammate and I would take 2 shots of vingar the night in between the fitness test and the beep test, we believed this helped with our recovery and it seemed to work because we passed but who really knows. Anywho, the vinegar gave the veggies a nice bite to it with the tanginess of the vinegar and the sweetness of the wine. If you do not have white wine vinegar cook with regular wine or go back to vegetable stock. Anything liquid is a better substitute for olive oil.
I must say he did an excellent job; the sauce over our fish went very well because tilapia being a bland white fish the sauce really added something to it. I gave it two thumbs up.
Today will be a test, I am going out to lunch for one of my coworker’s bday and to order something but also keep it within my diet is going to be tricky…
I have not yet come to terms that this is going to be a lifestyle change but I know it will be. I was at the dog park yesterday and overheard 2 people talking about what they cooked for dinner last night. It’s not eavesdropping if I happen to be throwing the ball in the same area that they were standing. They were talking about cooking with olive oil to make a 3 cheese macaroni and cheese topped with bacon along side fried chicken. If you do not know me, I have a deep fryer in my kitchen, call it my southern roots, but yes I have one and yes I love fried food, specifically French fries. Before I heard this convo I really didn’t put into terms what I am getting myself into. All I know is I hope this blog keeps me motivated to continue to eat healthy, if not I know how a bag of potatoes and 3 cups of oil can work wonders…
I got off the hook last night for making dinner. Justin made it : ) only thing I added was how long to broil fish. He got a recipe from the P90X book and made some variations to it because not everyone is going to have fresh herbs laying around, unless you are like my mom and grows them out back, but we do not. The recipe was for a pesto sauce, what’s in pesto you ask? Well it mainly consists of pine nuts, lots of fresh basil, white wine, little bit lemon juice, and garlic. We had about half of that, so he combined almonds, dried basil (note: dried herbs tend to be stronger than fresh herbs so they say for every tbls of fresh is the same as 1 tsp of dry, taste may be a little different which is why its always best to use fresh but not everyone has a garden), white wine, lemon juice and garlic. He put all that in the food processor and waaala, a sauce for the fish. He broiled the fish for about 11 minutes, they were pretty thick so it took a little longer. While those cooked he took the leftover veggies from last night and added one more red and green pepper in order to get our serving of veggies. To cook these he added some white wine vinegar to the pan…an excellent healthy subsistute to olive oil. But who has white wine vinegar right?? Well Lexie and I were making a crazy dish one night and one of the recipes called for the vinegar, have I used it since? No, but now that I know it’s a healthy alternative; it went straight to the front of the cabinet. I also believe that vinegar will help with our recovery. The reason I believe this is because in college during preseason my teammate and I would take 2 shots of vingar the night in between the fitness test and the beep test, we believed this helped with our recovery and it seemed to work because we passed but who really knows. Anywho, the vinegar gave the veggies a nice bite to it with the tanginess of the vinegar and the sweetness of the wine. If you do not have white wine vinegar cook with regular wine or go back to vegetable stock. Anything liquid is a better substitute for olive oil.
I must say he did an excellent job; the sauce over our fish went very well because tilapia being a bland white fish the sauce really added something to it. I gave it two thumbs up.
Today will be a test, I am going out to lunch for one of my coworker’s bday and to order something but also keep it within my diet is going to be tricky…
I have not yet come to terms that this is going to be a lifestyle change but I know it will be. I was at the dog park yesterday and overheard 2 people talking about what they cooked for dinner last night. It’s not eavesdropping if I happen to be throwing the ball in the same area that they were standing. They were talking about cooking with olive oil to make a 3 cheese macaroni and cheese topped with bacon along side fried chicken. If you do not know me, I have a deep fryer in my kitchen, call it my southern roots, but yes I have one and yes I love fried food, specifically French fries. Before I heard this convo I really didn’t put into terms what I am getting myself into. All I know is I hope this blog keeps me motivated to continue to eat healthy, if not I know how a bag of potatoes and 3 cups of oil can work wonders…
Thursday, May 13, 2010
Lemon or Lime?
Day 3:
Protein shake: protein scoop, cup of fruit and cup of milk …blend…delicious
Chicken salad: Remember that I cooked 3 breasts last night, we only ate 1 and a half, so I am using the other half to make our chicken salad.
6 oz of chicken, 1/3 cup of celery, 2 tbls Caesar dressing (you should use low fat mayo but we did not have any so I went to the closest thing), ½ tbls mustard, pepper, and celery seed. The book calls for dill but I am not a big fan of dill because it’s too potent, so I used celery seed. Cut up the chicken mix it all up and waaala.
Because I used Caesar dressing I am counting this as my fat…this means no oils for dinner tonight…oh boy. And because I made this the night before the flavors really blended together overnight. It was delicious. Check for another thing I will have again. Along with this I had a cup of carrots. Boring and tasteless yes but I had to get my full serving of veggies in at lunch. And of course I had my string cheese for a snack J
Another thing to add to the list of hard things to do is using the foods you have in your kitchen. We had 2 chicken breasts and a bunch of veggies so what does that call out? Yup, stir fry. Usually you throw a bunch of soy sauce, teriyaki, maybe one of those seasoning packets into the mixture but all that screams fat. So I looked in my fridge found a lime, some garlic and used some honey to make a sauce. One thing I learned at the end is to use more limes, you need a lot of limes when cooking stir fry so you get their real flavor. Unlike last night when I cooked the lemon for 45 minutes with the chicken you really tasted the flavor. Anywho, I marinated the chicken for an hr in the sauce. During that time I chopped my veggies (mushrooms, broccoli and red pepper). And I cooked the broccoli, my friend Lexie makes the best broccoli hands down, living with her brought a lot of interesting yet delicious meals, she adds chopped garlic and some red pepper flakes to her broccoli to give it some extra flavor. Steam for 4 minutes and there you go, cooked delicious broccoli.
Round 2 for brown rice: this time around I cooked it longer and it still did not taste good! I even added some lime juice to give it at least something aaaaaaand nothing. If someone can cook brown rice and actually like it please tell me what to do because I am dumbfounded by this food…
Once the chicken is done marinating, add it to a pan and cook through. Do not add any oil or stock, the juices from the marinade will be enough. Add the veggies once the chicken is cooked and let simmer on low (covered) for about 10 minutes, so the mushrooms and peppers cook.
All in all this was an ok meal. I would attempt it again but with a different sauce or more limes. Justin made the comment that he liked the chicken last night a lot better, unfortunately for stir fry you will not get the moistness you got with the lemon chicken. Baking whole for 45 minutes is much different than in a pan chopped for 10 minutes over the stovetop, or at least from my experience.
Day 4:
Protein shake: protein scoop, cup of fruit and cup of milk …blend…delicious
Also had 2 slices of turkey bacon...thoughts??? eh…because I can not have bacon its an ok substitute, of course no bacon is real bacon without a little syrup and I could not have that, so although filling it was not satisfying. But a serving of protein so I will take it.
For lunch I wanted to make something around cheese and crackers. My carb for the day will be crackers (you are allowed 12 crackers, I have 8 for lunch so I can have 4 later on if I want them, weird maybe but I like crackers and they are filling so they will make for a nice snack later). I will have 1 oz goat cheese with the crackers. You are probably thinking 1 oz is not enough, but you will be surprised how much it really is. Oh yea, we bought a scale. I think in the beginning its important because I had no idea how much 1 oz of cheese or 3 oz of tuckey really is, its best to make sure at first then you can measure by eye as you become familiar with the weights.
This is where it gets interesting, we had no chicken and no turkey left so I could not go to my traditional salads. So I made tuna…yes chicken of the sea tuna…I mixed it with a couple of pieces of ham to get 2 servings of protein. Note: I will have 4 servings of protein by lunch, leaving only one for dinner. I think it is important to get your protein out of the way during the day because at night you do not really do much after dinner, so having protein throughout the day gives it time to break down and store as energy for your next days workout. Atleast that is what I am told, and it works so I believe it. Back to tuna...i mixed the ham and the tuna with 1 tablespoon of honey mustard so give it a pasty feel. You can make this into tuna salad, by adding celery, apples, pickles, or any kind of veggie you want. But I decided against that because I will have this on top of my crackers and cheese, kinda like a pâté, I have no idea what a pâté really tastes like, but from the texture of the tuna this is what I believe is a pâté. With this I will have a cup of celery sticks and cucumbers.
After all that all I can think of right now (and have to think about) is how I am going to cook my fish tonight…
Protein shake: protein scoop, cup of fruit and cup of milk …blend…delicious
Chicken salad: Remember that I cooked 3 breasts last night, we only ate 1 and a half, so I am using the other half to make our chicken salad.
6 oz of chicken, 1/3 cup of celery, 2 tbls Caesar dressing (you should use low fat mayo but we did not have any so I went to the closest thing), ½ tbls mustard, pepper, and celery seed. The book calls for dill but I am not a big fan of dill because it’s too potent, so I used celery seed. Cut up the chicken mix it all up and waaala.
Because I used Caesar dressing I am counting this as my fat…this means no oils for dinner tonight…oh boy. And because I made this the night before the flavors really blended together overnight. It was delicious. Check for another thing I will have again. Along with this I had a cup of carrots. Boring and tasteless yes but I had to get my full serving of veggies in at lunch. And of course I had my string cheese for a snack J
Another thing to add to the list of hard things to do is using the foods you have in your kitchen. We had 2 chicken breasts and a bunch of veggies so what does that call out? Yup, stir fry. Usually you throw a bunch of soy sauce, teriyaki, maybe one of those seasoning packets into the mixture but all that screams fat. So I looked in my fridge found a lime, some garlic and used some honey to make a sauce. One thing I learned at the end is to use more limes, you need a lot of limes when cooking stir fry so you get their real flavor. Unlike last night when I cooked the lemon for 45 minutes with the chicken you really tasted the flavor. Anywho, I marinated the chicken for an hr in the sauce. During that time I chopped my veggies (mushrooms, broccoli and red pepper). And I cooked the broccoli, my friend Lexie makes the best broccoli hands down, living with her brought a lot of interesting yet delicious meals, she adds chopped garlic and some red pepper flakes to her broccoli to give it some extra flavor. Steam for 4 minutes and there you go, cooked delicious broccoli.
Round 2 for brown rice: this time around I cooked it longer and it still did not taste good! I even added some lime juice to give it at least something aaaaaaand nothing. If someone can cook brown rice and actually like it please tell me what to do because I am dumbfounded by this food…
Once the chicken is done marinating, add it to a pan and cook through. Do not add any oil or stock, the juices from the marinade will be enough. Add the veggies once the chicken is cooked and let simmer on low (covered) for about 10 minutes, so the mushrooms and peppers cook.
All in all this was an ok meal. I would attempt it again but with a different sauce or more limes. Justin made the comment that he liked the chicken last night a lot better, unfortunately for stir fry you will not get the moistness you got with the lemon chicken. Baking whole for 45 minutes is much different than in a pan chopped for 10 minutes over the stovetop, or at least from my experience.
Day 4:
Protein shake: protein scoop, cup of fruit and cup of milk …blend…delicious
Also had 2 slices of turkey bacon...thoughts??? eh…because I can not have bacon its an ok substitute, of course no bacon is real bacon without a little syrup and I could not have that, so although filling it was not satisfying. But a serving of protein so I will take it.
For lunch I wanted to make something around cheese and crackers. My carb for the day will be crackers (you are allowed 12 crackers, I have 8 for lunch so I can have 4 later on if I want them, weird maybe but I like crackers and they are filling so they will make for a nice snack later). I will have 1 oz goat cheese with the crackers. You are probably thinking 1 oz is not enough, but you will be surprised how much it really is. Oh yea, we bought a scale. I think in the beginning its important because I had no idea how much 1 oz of cheese or 3 oz of tuckey really is, its best to make sure at first then you can measure by eye as you become familiar with the weights.
This is where it gets interesting, we had no chicken and no turkey left so I could not go to my traditional salads. So I made tuna…yes chicken of the sea tuna…I mixed it with a couple of pieces of ham to get 2 servings of protein. Note: I will have 4 servings of protein by lunch, leaving only one for dinner. I think it is important to get your protein out of the way during the day because at night you do not really do much after dinner, so having protein throughout the day gives it time to break down and store as energy for your next days workout. Atleast that is what I am told, and it works so I believe it. Back to tuna...i mixed the ham and the tuna with 1 tablespoon of honey mustard so give it a pasty feel. You can make this into tuna salad, by adding celery, apples, pickles, or any kind of veggie you want. But I decided against that because I will have this on top of my crackers and cheese, kinda like a pâté, I have no idea what a pâté really tastes like, but from the texture of the tuna this is what I believe is a pâté. With this I will have a cup of celery sticks and cucumbers.
After all that all I can think of right now (and have to think about) is how I am going to cook my fish tonight…
Wednesday, May 12, 2010
Day 2
Day 2:
Protein shake: protein scoop, cup of fruit and 1 yogurt…blend…delicious
Chef salad – 3 oz turkey, 2 cups veggies, sprinkle with feta and goat cheese just to get the taste. Balsamic vinaigrette: balsamic vinegar, fresh lemon juice, pepper, olive oil
Lemon, Honey and garlic chicken breast – 3 breasts about 8 oz each placed in a 8 x 8 cooking dish. Separate bowl mix 2 lemons squeezed, 2 tbls honey, 4 cloves of garlic chopped and a few splashes of worshestire sauce (Next time: add more lemon and honey so there is extra sauce at the end to pour over the chicken.) Pour mixture over the chicken, cover and refrigerate for an hr (turning chicken once).
Preheat oven to 425 and place chicken in a shallow baking/roasting pan and place on rack. Cook for 20 minutes, during this time baste the chicken with the lemon juice.
Once 20 minutes are up, set time for another 25 minutes and continue to cook, do no baste during these 25 mintues.
While chicken is cooking heat can of peas on the stove till it boils then turn to low and let it simmer for 15 more minutes uncovered.
In microwave cook baked potatoes. Poke holes in potato, wrap with a wet paper towel and cook away. Usually the microwave has a button for baked potato, if not I don’t know what to tell you. I never cooked a baked potato in the microwave before tonight, usually its in the oven for an hr, and most of the time i make them they are not cooked. My mom is a master at baked potatoes…as well as everything else in the kitchen but that’s beside the point…microwave worked wonders! In 10 minutes they were cooked all the way through, I added ½ oz of goat cheese to add some flavor and BAM there is my carb for the day. Do not eat your potato with butter, sour cream, salt, bacon…yes I know, seriously? Who doesn’t have a fully loaded baked potato…remember HEALTHY. Uggh I have a feeling I am going to get sick of saying that…
This meal was delicious, the chicken came out so moist and the flavor was right on with the lemon and garlic. i will make this one again.
The P90X nutrition book says I should be having per day:
5 servings protein
2 servings dairy
1 servings fruit
2 servings veggies
1 serving carb
1 serving fat
3 servings snack
1 condiment (but we all know I am doing 2)
I know right? 5 servings of protein is a lot! But this is why it is the fat shredder stage, 1 carb and 1 fat. They say build up on protein because of the exercises. It all comes back full circle I guess, I need the energy in my body so I can get the energy I need for the exercises.
Snacks: I am a chocolate feen, i love dark chocolate milky ways, I have a candy jar on my desk and everyday i have some chocolate for a snack...yes this was before my P90X days...so to compliment that chocolate craving I have a chocolate PB protein bar. I get my chocolate fix and get my serving of protein.
Another snack that I just fell back in love with was string cheese. Remember when your mom would make your lunches for school and when you opened your bag and poured everything out on the table you eyes just lit up when you saw the string cheese...no?? Well mine did, and i have fallen back in love. One string cheese (low fat of course) is a healthy snack to have in between lunch and dinner.
Is it hard? Yes. the workouts kick my ass, but I am used to that because of soccer, but its the heathly eating. its the counting the ounces in a serving, its the planning ahead. I have to know what i am having for lunch so I can plan what I am having for my dinner. But I guess those are the growing pains. When you start something new it will not come natually, it takes time. Tick tock I guess...
Protein shake: protein scoop, cup of fruit and 1 yogurt…blend…delicious
Chef salad – 3 oz turkey, 2 cups veggies, sprinkle with feta and goat cheese just to get the taste. Balsamic vinaigrette: balsamic vinegar, fresh lemon juice, pepper, olive oil
Lemon, Honey and garlic chicken breast – 3 breasts about 8 oz each placed in a 8 x 8 cooking dish. Separate bowl mix 2 lemons squeezed, 2 tbls honey, 4 cloves of garlic chopped and a few splashes of worshestire sauce (Next time: add more lemon and honey so there is extra sauce at the end to pour over the chicken.) Pour mixture over the chicken, cover and refrigerate for an hr (turning chicken once).
Preheat oven to 425 and place chicken in a shallow baking/roasting pan and place on rack. Cook for 20 minutes, during this time baste the chicken with the lemon juice.
Once 20 minutes are up, set time for another 25 minutes and continue to cook, do no baste during these 25 mintues.
While chicken is cooking heat can of peas on the stove till it boils then turn to low and let it simmer for 15 more minutes uncovered.
In microwave cook baked potatoes. Poke holes in potato, wrap with a wet paper towel and cook away. Usually the microwave has a button for baked potato, if not I don’t know what to tell you. I never cooked a baked potato in the microwave before tonight, usually its in the oven for an hr, and most of the time i make them they are not cooked. My mom is a master at baked potatoes…as well as everything else in the kitchen but that’s beside the point…microwave worked wonders! In 10 minutes they were cooked all the way through, I added ½ oz of goat cheese to add some flavor and BAM there is my carb for the day. Do not eat your potato with butter, sour cream, salt, bacon…yes I know, seriously? Who doesn’t have a fully loaded baked potato…remember HEALTHY. Uggh I have a feeling I am going to get sick of saying that…
This meal was delicious, the chicken came out so moist and the flavor was right on with the lemon and garlic. i will make this one again.
The P90X nutrition book says I should be having per day:
5 servings protein
2 servings dairy
1 servings fruit
2 servings veggies
1 serving carb
1 serving fat
3 servings snack
1 condiment (but we all know I am doing 2)
I know right? 5 servings of protein is a lot! But this is why it is the fat shredder stage, 1 carb and 1 fat. They say build up on protein because of the exercises. It all comes back full circle I guess, I need the energy in my body so I can get the energy I need for the exercises.
Snacks: I am a chocolate feen, i love dark chocolate milky ways, I have a candy jar on my desk and everyday i have some chocolate for a snack...yes this was before my P90X days...so to compliment that chocolate craving I have a chocolate PB protein bar. I get my chocolate fix and get my serving of protein.
Another snack that I just fell back in love with was string cheese. Remember when your mom would make your lunches for school and when you opened your bag and poured everything out on the table you eyes just lit up when you saw the string cheese...no?? Well mine did, and i have fallen back in love. One string cheese (low fat of course) is a healthy snack to have in between lunch and dinner.
Is it hard? Yes. the workouts kick my ass, but I am used to that because of soccer, but its the heathly eating. its the counting the ounces in a serving, its the planning ahead. I have to know what i am having for lunch so I can plan what I am having for my dinner. But I guess those are the growing pains. When you start something new it will not come natually, it takes time. Tick tock I guess...
Day 1
Phase One: PROTEIN PROTEIN PROTEIN
Day 1:
Protein shake: protein scoop, cup of fruit and cup of milk…blend…delicious
Chef salad: 3 oz turkey, 2 cups veggies, light French dressing
Tilapia: broiled with fresh lemon juice and old bay sprinkled on top, broiled for 7 minutes.
Butternut squash soup: 3 cloves garlic and some onion (supposed to be 2 shallots but we all know shallot is an onion, right?? Cooked in vegetable stock vice olive oil till translucent, add more if it starts to scorch. Olive oil is considered a fat and with the salad dressing I had this afternoon I knew I needed to stay away from the fats and vegetable stock is a healthy alternative. in the pot I added 3 cups squash. Bring to a boil and simmer for 20 minutes until the squash is soft. Blend whats in the pot (garlic and stock included) into a blender or food processor, return to pot and cook till warm through.
Wish the soup had a better consistency/texture but it still tasted good. And boy did it smelt so good in the house, if you want your house to smell delicious cook some butternut squash.
Brown rice. This is horrible. Maybe I didn’t cook it long enough but it was hard and I could barely eat the cup I needed to. Next time: add lemon or lime juice to give it a little kick of flavor
Day 1:
Protein shake: protein scoop, cup of fruit and cup of milk…blend…delicious
Chef salad: 3 oz turkey, 2 cups veggies, light French dressing
Tilapia: broiled with fresh lemon juice and old bay sprinkled on top, broiled for 7 minutes.
Butternut squash soup: 3 cloves garlic and some onion (supposed to be 2 shallots but we all know shallot is an onion, right?? Cooked in vegetable stock vice olive oil till translucent, add more if it starts to scorch. Olive oil is considered a fat and with the salad dressing I had this afternoon I knew I needed to stay away from the fats and vegetable stock is a healthy alternative. in the pot I added 3 cups squash. Bring to a boil and simmer for 20 minutes until the squash is soft. Blend whats in the pot (garlic and stock included) into a blender or food processor, return to pot and cook till warm through.
Wish the soup had a better consistency/texture but it still tasted good. And boy did it smelt so good in the house, if you want your house to smell delicious cook some butternut squash.
Brown rice. This is horrible. Maybe I didn’t cook it long enough but it was hard and I could barely eat the cup I needed to. Next time: add lemon or lime juice to give it a little kick of flavor
So it begins...
Why am I doing this? Boredom? To get fit? I don’t know exactly why I decided to do this. My sister and her boyfriend started and she was talking to me about it one day and how it kicks your ass and really pushes you. Maybe that’s what I need I thought. I am a person who gets motivated about something at the start but if it does not keep my interest I lose motivation and go back to my old routine. The gym for instance, I went for 2 weeks then I grew tired of the guys who pumped iron till their veins were about to explode and the girls who worked out with their hair down…hate that…so I lost motivation and I stopped. I figured this P90X was something that could work. I brought it up to my boyfriend and of course he was on board (he was already a routine gym go-er) and a week later was day 1. I am not here to talk about my workouts because I think there are plenty blogs out there that talks about them and I do not think people want to hear about the pain and suffering I will be going through, I am here to talk about the cooking. You could call me a wanna-be Julie & Julia, but why not blog about how and what I cook as I go through this routine? I figured it would be good for me to write down how I feel about cooking but also give the readers, if there are any, a better/healthier way to cook. Now what I cook may not be “exactly” what is in the P90X nutrition book, but a slight moderation. For instance, I can only have one condiment a day. Really?? You are trying to tell me if I have a chef salad for lunch I either have the condiment for the dressing or wait till dinner and have it with my meal, who has a chef salad without a little bit of dressing or a chicken breast without a little marinade?? This brings up another issue…flavor…right now I think it is hard to have a delicious meal packed with flavor but also keep it healthy, maybe ill learn this along the way. So I am saying this disclaimer now, I will have 2 condiments a day vice 1, mainly because my boyfriend is allowed to have 2 and its just not fair.
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