January Weigh-In

Last night was my January weigh-in.  I was really nervous.  I kept thinking about all the fun-sized Hershey’s Chocolates and Reese’s I snuck in while at the office.  But alas!  My cardio and hard work canceled out those delicious distractions and I conquered!

My weight: 213 lbs (-6.25 lbs from December)

Huzzah!  I really think having all these recipes helped me as well.  It kept me focused on the goal and provided me with leftovers for a few days.  So it was easy to stay on track.

I’ll be making a new healthy recipe tomorrow night, so be ready to read about it on Thursday.  I’m pretty anxious to try this one.

You can check out all my measurements per month on the My Measurements page.

“My Fridge Food”

This is an awesome website.  I put in everything that I have in my fridge and pantry.  My results were over 100 recipes.  The kicker is that they aren’t all healthy, but the site does provide nutritional information for each.  So pay attention to that when choosing recipes.  It’s also smart to always keep your eyes for any healthy swaps that are possible.  Maybe you can get a “Light” option or “No Sugar” or something.

Overall, this is just a neat tool to have for those days where you want to cook something, but have no idea what and don’t want to go out and buy additional ingredients.  So helpful for those cold, lazy days.  Be sure to comment anything great that you come up after using this!

My Fridge Food – Recipes you already have in your Fridge.

Lightened-Up Taco Salad

I love tacos.  I love doing pot lucks where the host provides the shells/chips and the meat and everyone else brings some sort of topping.

Well this recipe is pretty basic in terms of swapping out some items for more health conscious items.  It encourages you to buy the light sour cream, ground turkey (I bought extra lean), etc.

When I made this recipe, I skipped the beans (not my favorite) and used a can of regular diced tomatoes.  Looking back, I wish I used the canned tomatoes with green chilies.  I’ve used that before in several recipes and it has some good flavor.  I also used multi-grain chips instead of the traditional tortilla chip.

And like most of my recent recipes, something had to go wrong with this dish.  I, am embarrassed to say, forgot to buy shredded cheese.   I relied so heavily on the ingredient list as my shopping list, that I forgot it.  Now, cheese isn’t the healthiest thing to eat (despite being delicious).  So if you add cheese, do it conservatively.

As a whole, this was tasty.  I just don’t think you can go wrong with tacos/taco salads.  And it’s proved to be a great snack.  I only have “scoops” chips, so I was able to make a bowl with the meat and all the toppings I want, and just spoon it into a scoop.  It really helped me realize how much of it I was eating and therefore ended up eating less of it.

Lightened-Up Taco Salad | Family Kitchen.

Safari Dip Recipe

I made this when a friend of mine came over. We’re both in our early almost mid-20s and both just thought it was adorable. I also believe small children would find it fun. Now I didn’t have any fruit to put on them, but my friend suggested raisins. And even some chocolate morsels to make it a bit naughty would be delicious. So this is really a pretty versatile recipe. Also, I love an excuse to buy animal crackers.

Safari Dip Recipe.

Lime-Honey Glazed Chicken

This is the first recipe I made with my family.  I don’t have a grill so I had to borrow theirs.  It was a fun conversation asking my mom about it.  I opened with “is it too cold to grill?” My mothers response: “It’s never too cold to grill.”  So over I went.

My family and I LOVED this recipe.  The flavor combination here for the glaze was dynamite.  And there is just something about a flame that makes meat taste delicious.  Combine them together and you’ve got an amazing dinner.

Naturally, with any grill recipe, your grill time is going to fluctuate from the recipe.  Just make sure the chicken is fully cooked.  I failed at this.  We started grilling and it got dark out, so I relied on the light coming out of the kitchen window.  Needless to say, we had to put in the oven for a bit to finish cooking the chicken.  I was so ashamed…

We paired this recipe with some Forrest and Jenny (peas and carrots) and some lemon pepper pasta we got at Trader Joe’s.  We cooked the pasta and dressed it with some lemon juice and olive oil.  So simple and so good.

Lime-Honey Glazed Chicken Recipe – Delish.com.

Recipe Calculator

I found this and thought it was really neat.  So now I can start going through the cookbooks I already own and my family recipes and see if they’re healthy enough to put KTB Eats!  I have so many books and recipes on hand and haven’t really begun to look through them for healthy recipes.  So soon I should start putting up some original recipes and some from books.

I also hope you all give this a try.  And if you have something you want to share, send it my way!

Recipe Calculator

Apricot Chicken and Hash Recipe

This had so many things going for it.  The apricot bit is what sold me.  That and the red potatoes.  When I went to the grocery store, they didn’t have green onions, so I bought leeks instead.  I used three leeks and did not use the leaves.  If you use leeks and use the leaves, make sure to wash them thoroughly.  I swapped the vegetable oil for olive oil and found myself added a bit more to the pan while cooking.  I also used Smuckers Sugar Free Apricot Preserves.  Because with a name like Smuckers, it has to be good.  And ladies and gentlemen, it was.

But what kind of post would this be if everything about this recipe were happy and perfect.  A boring one.  After all, one recipe I’ve posted almost burnt my place down.  I’ve got to keep things interesting to keep you all coming back!  There are two things with this recipe that I wish were different:

1. More potatoes.  Those who know me are probably thinking “She’s Irish, of course she wants more potatoes.” But it just felt like the potatoes were an accent to the pepper and leeks.  In my picture, the potatoes shown are just about all of them and they are on top a of large pile of veggies.  I think maybe two pounds vs the one pound the recipe calls for, would be better.
2. The apricot glaze.  I only cooked four thighs (recipe calls for eight), made the glaze as per the recipe (did not half it) and felt I didn’t have enough glaze.  Granted I used a spoon instead of a brush so it may appear as I put too much on anyway.  But after it was cooked and I bit into it, I didn’t get a whole lot of the flavor.  I’m not sure if brushing would have changed that, but something needed to be different.

Overall, this was a delicious meal.  And it was the first time I ever cooked with leeks so it was a learning experience.  And naturally, I think the potatoes are my favorite part.

Apricot Chicken and Hash Recipe – Delish.com.

Baked Parmesan Garlic Chicken

This probably isn’t the healthiest chicken recipe out there, but it sounded so good.  When I made it, I didn’t do as much cheese as the recipe calls for in an attempt to lower the calorie intake and such.

I also didn’t have garlic powder, so I used garlic salt.  The extra salt to the recipe didn’t make much of a difference.  If you switch it out like I did, be careful with adding any salt for flavor after it’s cook.  You don’t want to much salt.

That being said, it was quite delicious.  I cut my chicken breasts in half and they were pretty thick.  So I cooked them for about 25-30 minutes.  I had some cooked carrots and a small salad on the side to make sure I was getting more healthy food with it.

It was a well-flavored dish.  But I think I’d like to try it with some tomatos cooked with it or something.  Just to give it a little more texture and flavor.

 

via Baked Parmesan Garlic Chicken.

Baked Parmesan Tomatoes

These looked so easy and simple that I made them the same day I found the recipe (not a usual occurrence). And they were everything I thought they be…plus some smoke.

I didn’t really follow the recipe verbatim. I only did two tomatos and cut them in thirds. I took the rest of the ingredients and eyeballed it. They were delicious. But be careful with not hitting the target when putting on the toppings. I burned some cheese to the extent that my smoke detectors when off. Granted I saw the smoke before hand and tried to disperse it, but alas, I failed. Most importantly, I did not burn the tomato or anything on it.

I did the 15 minutes like the recipe estimated and found that they could have gone a bit longer. The tomatos were good, but could have been more tender (but I didn’t want to burn my apartment down). Overall, these were a delicious snack. I will likely be making them again (hopefully with better aim of the cheese).

Baked Parmesan Tomatoes | Eating Well.

Artichokes

I LOVE Artichokes! You have no idea.  I will go to a restaurant and get something on the menu specifically because it has artichokes (I do the same thing with shrimp).  With my love of this vegetable, I also don’t understand when girls are afraid of their wedding/prom dresses looking like them (maybe I just watch too much ‘Say Yes to the Dress’).  And when it comes to eating healthy, this particular vegetable makes it easy.

Sometimes when I make a salad, I will have more artichokes than lettuce.  So I guess it’s not quite a salad.  More like some artichokes with a side of lettuce drizzled with balsamic vinegar (yum).  I like to sprinkle some dried cranberries and such on there as well.  I can also eat them straight out of a can.  My old roommate gave me a can for Christmas one year even.  It was a great Christmas…

This isn’t a recipe, but you can learn more about artichokes and their nutritional information here and here.  Enjoy.