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December 18, 2009

lots of comfort & the winner is . . .

Filed under: Blog,Comfort foods — Tags: , , , , , — Kristen :) @ 5:04 am

Hello everyone!  How is your week going so far?  I was so impressed by how many of you are on top of all your gifts this year!  I am still way behind, ugh!  But I’m not going to freak out about it.  I am also feeling much much better, still kind of coughy in the mornings, but much better thank goodness.  Humidifiers help me tremendously and I usually sleep with a sheet over my nose so I have moist air to breathe.  Is that weird?  . . .

I really enjoy the foods of winter because they are warm, comforting and mighty tasty!  It seems like I’ve been on a roll lately with the down home country cookin’.  These kinds of foods are also the best for leftovers and can be transformed to other dishes.

I just wanted to share a couple nice recipes that I enjoy during the winter and also announce the coconut water giveaway winner!!

The first one is cornbread-topped chicken pot pie mmmm!  Chris and I really enjoy this one and the addition of the leeks gives it such a wonderful flavor.  Give it a try it’s really yummy.

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The next one is my version of Italian-style meatloaf.  Gotta love all that gooey cheese in the middle!  This time I paired it with sautéed haricot verts with caramelized shallot and pecans, along with some roasted fingerling potatoes.  You know I never really eat ketchup unless I’m at a restaurant or if I make meatloaf!  For me I have to have ketchup with meatloaf 🙂

Mix this all in a big bowl:

  • 2 lbs lean ground beef
  • 1 jar TJ’s bruschetta mix
  • 1/3-1/2 cup quick oats
  • 1 egg
  • 1/2 onion, diced & sautéed in a pan (I threw in some mushrooms too)
  • seasonings:  Herbs de Provence (or Italian Seasoning), garlic powder, salt, pepper
  • topped with a bit of ketchup
  • Mozzarella cheese for stuffing

IMG_5888 Pre-heat oven to 375 F.  Take about a handful of the meat mixture at a time to form about four, 1/2 mini meat loaves on a foil lined broiler pan.  Place some mozzarella cheese down in the center and then top with the rest of the meat mixture.  Make sure there aren’t any seams open, or the cheese will ooze out when baked.

Bake until a thermometer registers 155 F, take them out of the oven and let rest until the temperature raises to 160 F.  Enjoy!!

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It looks like it has a giant tongue!

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You can also make stuffed meatloaf burgers!

With the leftover meatloaf this time I chopped it up and threw it in some tomato and roasted red pepper soup from TJ’s, along with some veggies and pasta.  It was great & easy!

Ok, now on to the fun stuff . . .

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—–> COCONUT WATER GIVEAWAY! <——

Thank you for your interest in my post about coconut water.  I find it fascinating!  I also agree with many of you on the downside of its expense.  It is pretty darn pricey at $1.99/per 8oz carton and a bit less if you buy the larger bulk carton.  It’s also not as accessible as regular sports drinks and can be very hard to find at grocery stores here in the US.  It sure is a refreshing treat though.

The two winners of 5 individual coconut waters are . . . (generated by RANDOM.org)

*Naomi* & Lori

Congrats guys!  E-mail me kristen@eatingrd.com with your address and I’ll try to get that out before the holidays.  Let me know if you like it or even hate it 🙂

On Friday we are having some friends over for a pizza-making party!  I’m excited because I love these kinds of parties.  Everyone gets to make their own pizza and chose from different toppings.  It’s not really holiday themed, but it’s fun & will involve some vino!  Saturday I’m going to be baking like a mad person for the cookie exchange I’m going hosted by Kristen, the swanky dietitian.  I’m looking forward to it!  It’s going to be tough with all those cookies around calling my name, but we’ll see how I do.  I’m thinking about making a gluten-free chocolate chip cookie from Tam, but I can’t decide on the other?  I was thinking either chocolate baklava or mint chocolate cookies.  What do you think I should make??  There are too many good recipes out there, help me decide!

Hope you all have a great weekend!  I can’t believe Christmas is just about here, but I’m just excited about going to visit my mom 🙂

November 21, 2009

sticking with it

Filed under: Blog,Dinner,Fitness/Health — Tags: , , , , — Kristen :) @ 2:29 am

IMG_5487Happy Friday all!  Since we met last my knees were in a bit of a fuss for the 4-5 mile run I decided to put them through last Sunday.  I am happy to report that they are feeling much better and Diana introduced me to a training program called ‘Couch to 5k’.  It’s a simple training program that combines running and walking, where the running is gradually increased until you can run a full 5k without stopping.

image At first I was thinking, well I’m not a couch potato!  I need to be running 3 miles right off the bat because I can handle it.  Well, you know what, this program is going to be just what my knees ordered I believe.  I did the first 30 minute session yesterday morning at 4:30am and was even able to do a weight lifting class that evening at 8pm without any mysterious aches and pains!  Yes!  The best part is it has an iPhone app too that tells you exactly when to run and when to walk.  Yes!  I’m feeling empowered already and am actually looking forward to my next lil session.  So I guess I’ll be sticking with this running thing a bit longer 🙂

I also signed up for my first 5k Turkey Trot!!  I’m really excited, and while it’s going to be way before my C25K training will be over, I figure I can just take it easy and see how it goes.  Anyone else doing some planned physical activity on that holiday weekend? Great way to balance out all those good eats, although we will all be practicing proper portion control, right?!

I still can’t get used to this time change!!!  The lighting is just terrible in my house now by the time I get home and I think I’m going to have to search for some kind of lighting station or special photography lights??  Anyone know of something like this that is reasonable?

I’ve been wanting to share this casserole recipe because it has become one of my favorites among many.  I love casseroles because they can be easily adaptable to a healthier profile and are so easy!

Quinoa Chicken & Broccoli Casserole

Serves 8

Ingredients

  • 2  tbsp  butter, 1 tsp olive oil
  • 1  medium onion, diced
  • 2  garlic cloves, minced
  • 1  pound shiitake or other mushrooms, sliced
  • 3 tbsp AP flour
  • 3-4 cups skim milk (or you could do 1/2 broth, 1/2 milk)
  • 3-4 heads of broccoli, chopped
  • 2 cups quinoa
  • 1-1.5 cups Italian cheese mix, shredded (I used TJ’s Italian Mix)
  • 1/2  tsp  salt, all purpose seasoning, garlic powder, 1 tsp thyme, 1 tsp herbes de provence, pinch of cayenne
  • 2 cups cooked chicken breast meat, chopped

Preparation

1. Heat 1 tsp olive oil in a large nonstick skillet over medium-high heat. Add onion, and cook. Stir in garlic, and cook 1 minute. Add mushrooms, and cook 8 minutes or until softened.

2. Melt 2 tbsp butter in a large Dutch oven over medium-high heat. Add flour, and cook, whisking constantly, 1 minute. Slowly whisk in milk, and cook, whisking constantly until mixture thickens.  Add broccoli and quinoa to cook halfway.  Remove from heat and slowly whisk in 1/2 cup cheese, seasonings, mushroom mixture and chicken.  Transfer to a lightly greased 13- x 9-inch (4-quart) casserole dish.

3. Cover and refrigerate overnight, or bake, covered with foil, at 375° for 30 minutes or until bubbly, uncover, sprinkle with the rest of the cheese and brown for 10 minutes.

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Great for leftovers too!

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As far as the weekend plans . . .

Tonight Chris and I are heading out with some friends to a place called Casa di Amore.  They have great Italian food and also a live crooner that sings till the weee hours of the morning and sounds just like Sinatra.  I just love that kind of music, especially with a nice glass of wine.  We’ll see how pictures go, as you can imagine the lighting is pretty low to ‘set the mood’.

photo (2) At the Lee’s Wine Experience that we went to a little while ago we found a Pinot Noir that was out of this world called Ritual.

We thought we should order some since it was such a special find.  Well, I guess we got a few of them!!  We aren’t going to drink all these ourselves, but will take a few bottles for Thanksgiving and for gifts.

Other than that I would like to get another run/walk or ride in and finish tackling my proposal/presentation for Research Methods.  I have the lit review mostly done and now have to start working on the methods/statistics, eeek!  This is my area of weakness.

Hope you all have a wonderful weekend!!!

September 4, 2009

nice and refreshing

Filed under: Blog,Dinner — Tags: , , , — Kristen :) @ 5:44 pm

IMG_4573ahhhh, Fridays, the love of my life, I look forward to you all week!

Overall the week was good!  Progress has been made in my thesis in that I am meeting with my chair next week to get the ball rolling and hopefully I can come up with a topic that will be both interesting and doable.  I’m really interested in the coconut water topic, but there are no studies out there that I can find as of yet.  This would not be good for me in that I wouldn’t have any suggestions or methods to base my research off of.  Any of you with an MS out there have any suggestions for me as I embark on this crazy journey that you wish you would have done differently? I’m still trying to learn the proper protocol for everything, and I can’t believe all the grammatical rules, yikes!

I am sooooorrre today!  My muscles are not liking me at the moment, but I tried to win them over with some chia, flax, wheat germ oats love this morning 🙂  Workout week looked something like this . . .

tuesday – hip hop

wednesday – kick box (always makes me sore) I think my HR monitor is freaking out because it has told me twice now I maxed at 222, um cardiac arrest?!

thursday – first jazz class in a long time and I have definitely lost a lot of my technique and my hips were in shock.

friday – spin

I have to say though that since I’ve started cycling, my exercise classes have been feeling a lot easier and I don’t get very winded.  Granted I am still sucking air like a girl on my rides trying to keep up with the pros, other things are now feeling easier, just for conditioning.  I’ve got my clipless shoes, so now I just have to get the pedals.  Why did I decide to start something so pricey, geez!  I’m really nervous about this because you are practically locked into the bike and I can just imagine myself falling over while screaming ‘I can’t clip out!!!’  oh dear. positive thoughts.

Many of you around the blog world have been joyously praising the new fall weather coming your way and I’m jealous!!!  Please send some out my way!  It’s still freaking hot here and I look forward to the days when I can actually do activities outside in the afternoon without dying from heat stroke and bake lovely comforting warm casseroles without heating the house to oblivion.  So because of that I have a nice refreshing pasta dish, adapted from my pasta idol Giada, that is great really at any temperature and very refreshing!

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Lemony Roasted Chicken & Broccoli Pasta

Ingredients

  • about 3 bunches broccoli, trimmed and chopped
  • 1/2 box of your favorite long pasta (I usually make fresh fettuccine, but in a crunch we had spaghetti rigati)
  • 1 (14-ounce) can reduced-sodium chicken broth
  • 1/3 cup fresh lemon juice
  • 2 cloves garlic, minced
  • 3 cups shredded roasted chicken (from about 1 roasted chicken)
  • 3/4 cup freshly grated Parmesan
  • 1/2 cup pine nuts, toasted
  • 2 tablespoons olive oil
  • 1 tablespoon lemon zest
  • Salt, freshly ground black pepper and all-purpose seasoning

Directions

Bring a large pot of salted water to a boil.  Add pasta and cook until 4 minutes from al dente, then add broccoli and finish cooking together.  Reserve 1/2 cup liquid; drain and rinse with cold water.

Meanwhile, bring the broth and lemon juice to a boil in a large skillet over medium-high heat. Boil until the broth reduces a bit. Add the garlic and chicken, simmer on low.  Add broccoli and pasta to the chicken broth and stir to combine. Add 1/3-1/2 cup of Parmesan, pine nuts, oil, and lemon zest. Toss to coat, adding some of the reserved cooking liquid, 1/4 cup at a time, to moisten if needed* Season to taste. Sprinkle with the remaining Parmesan and serve.

*note  this is a really light sauce so it will seem as if it’s not ‘coming together’  give it time and some good light stirring.  The chicken and broccoli will absorb all that lovely juice.

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It’s great as a cold salad for leftovers too!

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If you couldn’t tell, I’m really looking forward to the extra day this weekend.  We don’t have any specific plans, but I do hope to make some progress on my school projects, organization and sanity, along with other house stuff like cleaning and wash.  Oh and hopefully a bike ride in there somewhere.  Tonight I plan to get together with a good friend for a little bite to eat and some drinks 🙂

Hope you all have a lovely weekend!

December 18, 2008

Oh the weather outside is frightful . . .

Filed under: Blog,Comfort foods,Dinner — Tags: — Kristen :) @ 5:11 pm

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But, my inefficient oven is so delightful (in the cold of winter anyways). We haven’t even had to turn on our heat yet because our oven is like the furnace from . . . well . . .
Since it’s actually cold in Vegas now, and we even got a big snowfall that is actually sticking! all I’ve been craving is something comforting from the oven to warm me up. It especially works well when we don’t have to use our heater too! I recently tried a great recipe from CookingLight called Biscuit-topped chicken pot pie. It was exactly what I was looking for in a bowl of comfort and warmth. This time around I made a few slight changes including the topping, because I absolutely love sweet cornbread and thought it would go very well with the pot pie filling. And it did! If you ever get the chance to make this you won’t be disappointed and there are lots of leftovers for reheating and savoring.

Before trying this recipe I had never worked with leeks before, but don’t be afraid of them. They absolutely make this recipe and should not be substituted. To clean them simply run your knife length wise down the middle of the leek then rinse all the grit from the layers. Then cut width wise using only the white and light green parts.

Cornbread Topped Chicken Pot Pie

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  • 1 tablespoon butter
  • 2 cups chopped leek
  • 1/4 cup chopped shallot
  • 2 tsp herbes de Provence or Italian seasoning
  • 1 1/2 cups small diced fingerling potatoes or sweet potatoes
  • 1/3 cup dry white wine or chicken broth
  • 1 teaspoon Dijon mustard
  • 1 (14-ounce) can fat-free, less-sodium chicken broth
  • 2 cups chopped roasted chicken breast
  • 1 1/2 cups frozen mixed vegetables
  • 1/2 – 1 teaspoon salt
  • 1/4-1/2 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
  • 1 1/2 tablespoons cornstarch
  • 2 tablespoons water
  • 2/3 cup non-fat half-and-half
  • 1/2 cup freshly grated Parmesan cheese

For the Corn bread topping:

  • 1-1/4 cups all-purpose flour
  • 3/4 cup corn meal
  • 1/4 cup sugar
  • 2 teaspoons baking powder
  • 1/2 teaspoon salt
  • 1 cup skim milk
  • 1/4 cup vegetable oil
  • 1 whole egg

Preparation

Preheat oven to 425°.

  1. Melt butter in a large nonstick skillet over medium-high heat. Add leek, shallot, and herbs; sauté 2 minutes.
  2. Add potatoes; sauté 2 minutes. Add wine or broth; cook 1 minute or until liquid evaporates.
  3. Stir in mustard and broth; bring to a boil. Cook 4 minutes, stirring occasionally.
  4. Stir in chicken, mixed vegetables, salt, and pepper; cook 1 minute.
  5. Combine cornstarch and 2 tablespoons water in a small bowl, stirring with a whisk. Add cornstarch mixture, half-and-half and Parmesan to pan.
  6. Reduce heat, and simmer 2 minutes, stirring constantly.
  7. Spoon mixture into a 13 x 9-inch baking dish coated with cooking spray.
  8. Combine dry ingredients for the cornbread with whisk.
  9. Use same whisk to combine wet ingredients in separate bowl.
  10. Add wet ingredients to dry and whisk until smooth.
  11. Dollop and spread onto chicken pot-pie mixture.
  12. Bake at 425° for 20-25 minutes or until topping is golden and filling is bubbly. Let stand 10 minutes.

This yields 8 servings, each with about 450-500 kcals.

Enjoy!!

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