I Love Myself!!!

I'm a firm believer in feeling good about yourself no matter your weight. 

One thing I rarely lacked was self-confidence.

When I'm not feeling good about myself, I really, REALLY come down hard...

I have always had a very hard time spending money on myself, and up until recently I didn't realize how my ill-fitting, dumpy clothes and generally not-cared-about looks were affecting how I felt not just about myself, but about everything! Those who know me know I'm not a "girly" girl at all, so I have to make an effort at some things, but they are worth it! The past week or 2, I went shopping for some new clothes, have been doing my nails, makeup (let's not get crazy, we're talking eye liner, that's about it!), made a hair appt, and try to feel good about myself each and every day.  I'm not doing these things to make myself look attractive to others, they really make my feel good about myself!   

Feeling good makes me feel like I can change whatever I want to! 

I'm moving up my official start day! It's tomorrow!!!

 I'm so overly ready mentally, going to make up some menus and go shopping later. 

I'm excited and energized, and it's just the beginning!

I'm back!!!

It's been a while friends!  Life is going well in general, but I can honestly say I haven't been caring about my weight at all for a very long time.  I've been eating and drinking whatever, and exercise is almost non-existent.  I haven't had the energy to even be upset by it, which is a problem, but hey, that's reality.

I have gained so much weight, and I'm at the point where I am ready to get myself back in gear.  For me, when I do anything, I put 100% of my energy into it, and I'm finally ready to do that with my food and exercise.  I'm starting in April.  

Yeah, I'm still cute, but I know this isn't healthy!

Why wait 2 weeks?

I know myself.  I need a starting point where I have no excuses.  March is extremely busy at work, I have limited time to cook and/or exercise, so if I start now I'm setting myself up for failure.  Failure = frustration = eating and being lazy.  Not good.  April starts with spring break, giving me time to collect my recipe ideas, plan out exercise, shop, etc.

I know that blogging about everything is something that really works for me, so I will be blogging here again starting in April.  I hope you can join me on this journey.  I'm older, wiser, and more fed up this time around, so I'm optimistic that I'll be successful and keep the weight off this time so I can be healthy for the rest of my life!

Zucchini Marinara

Simply delicious!  I'm a huge pasta-lover, and this truly takes care of my cravings!  

It's super easy to make, too!  The cook time depends on the texture you want to get out of the zucchini.  Some people like it raw, I prefer mine soft but not completely mushy.

I have a lot of kitchen gadgets, the latest is the Spirooli! 

It's very easy to use and clean, and can create veggie noodles, ribbons, shreds, and chips.

It's not expensive at about $25, so if this is something you plan to make regularly, you should go get one!

Ingredients

1 zucchini, turned into noodles using the larger attachment on the Spirooli

Sprinkle of salt

1 tsp olive oil

1/2 cup marinara sauce (I love Mamma Lombardi's- nice and garlicy!)

2 oz. shredded part-skim mozzarella cheese

Heat the oil in a large pan over medium heat.  Add zucchini, sprinkle lightly with salt, and sauté until it reaches your desired texture.  Add marinara sauce and cook one minute.  Plate and sprinkle with cheese.

Enjoy!

Stuffed Artichokes

I have to confess, I've never eaten an actual artichoke until last month.  I've had marinated artichoke hearts, but that's about it.  Artichokes are fun to eat, but they are certainly not a quick meal.  It takes a long time to eat, but I enjoy that aspect.  Just don't expect to wolf down your artichoke...  Remove one leave at a time, starting from the outside in.  Use your teeth to scrape off the tender part from the inside of the leaf, leaving the very fibrous leaf behind.  

I've had to do some work with this recipe.  Earlier versions resulted in very dry stuffing.  This version gives a moister result, but it is a little harder to stuff in between the leaves.  The end result is worth it, though!

Ingredients
2 artichokes
3/4 cup breadcrumbs
1/4 cup grated romano cheese
1 egg white
2 cloves garlic, chopped
olive oil
1/4 crushed tomatoes (or tomato sauce)
1/4 cup white wine
vegetable broth (can use chicken, too)

Preheat oven to 350.  Using a sharp, serrated knife, cut the bottoms and tops of the artichokes by about a 1/2 inch.  With kitchen shears, trim ends of the remaining leaves.

Untrimmed leaves have pointy ends, you don't want those!

Safe edges all around!

Fill a pot with about 2 inches of water, add in artichokes upside down and bring to a boil for about 15 minutes, covered.

Meanwhile, sauté chopped garlic in a small amount of olive oil until softened and just starting to brown.  In a bowl, combine garlic, breadcrumbs, cheese, egg white and tomatoes.  Mix well to combine.  It will be clumpy.

Remove artichokes from pot and allow to cool until you can comfortable handle them.  Gently spread apart the leaves without breaking them off.  Remove the innermost, smallest leaves and the hairy choke and discard.  It's easiest to do this with a small spoon, but take care not to remove the actual heart- that's the best part!!!

Artichoke innards- pretty to look at, not so pretty to pick out of your mouth!

Stuff the artichokes with the breadcrumb mixture, try to get in between as many of the leaves as you can, with the majority going in the center where the small leaves used to be.  Place in a baking dish.  Fill baking dish about an inch high with wine and stock.

Spray tops with olive oil and cover pan tightly with foil.  Bake at 350 for 40 minutes.  Remove foil and bake for another 10 minutes.  Serve with a nice salad.  Enjoy!

Grilled Pineapple Salsa

Seriously, you need to make this.  It goes with EVERYTHING!!!  

Eat it with chips, or use it as a topping for some blackened fish, chicken, or mushrooms!

And it's also pretty!

This recipe makes a lot of salsa, but I like having it around!  You can always cut it in half!

Ingredients

1 pineapple, peeled and sliced into rings (with cores still intact)

2 red bell peppers, diced
1 small red onion, diced

1 jalapeño pepper, seeds removed, diced

2 cloves garlic, chopped

1 cup cilantro, chopped

Juice from 2 fresh limes

Salt

Pepper

Olive Oil

Spread out pineapple slices.  Sprinkle both sides with salt and pepper.  Mist with olive oil (I LOVE my Misto- and love that I found it at Marshalls!) so it doesn't stick.  Cook on a grill or griddle pan (my preference), turning every few minutes.  You want it to start to caramelize, not burn.

Remove from heat once it is softened and browning, allow to cool.  Remove flesh from core, and dice flesh, discarding the cores.  Combine all ingredients in a bowl and mix well.  Season with salt if needed.

Mushroom, Onion, Spinach and Couscous Stuffed Poblano Peppers

I've been hearing about stuffed poblano peppers for years, but I've never found them in the grocery store…until now!

I wanted to keep the recipe healthy and vegetarian, and the results were fantastic!  

  Ingredients

4 poblano peppers

2 portobello mushroom caps, diced

1 white onion, diced

3 cups baby spinach leaves

2 cups cooked couscous

2 tbsp olive oil

3 tbsp grated romano cheese, separated

Salt

Pepper

Directions

Preheat oven to 400.

Hold each pepper with a long set of tongs and char over a flame.  You want the skin to get blistered and black, you won't taste a burnt flavor, I promise!  

Once they are charred on all sides, put right into a plastic bag and seal.  This will allow steam to loosen up the skins.

While the peppers are in the bag, heat the olive oil in a large pan over high heat.  Saute onions and mushrooms until they are soft and just beginning to brown, season with salt and pepper to taste.

Add the baby spinach.  Turn heat to medium and continue to cook until the spinach has wilted.   Add the couscous and cheese, stir to combine.  

Remove from heat.

Take peppers out of bag and carefully remove the skin.  It should be easy to peel it off.

Cut a "T" shape in each pepper and remove the seeds.

Stuff  each pepper with couscous mixture, and place in baking dish.  Sprinkle all with remaining 1 tbsp cheese.

Bake for 30 minutes, or until couscous just begins to brown.

So delicious!!!!!

Pumpkin Spice Muffins

It's that time of year where you can get pumpkin everything!  Pumpkin coffee, pumpkin beer, pumpkin ravioli.  You name it, someone's made it pumpkin!  I, for one, LOVE pumpkin, but most everything out there has been filled with tons of sugar and fat.  These muffins aren't exactly "healthy," but they are lighter than usual, have added fiber, and are portion controlled!

The muffin recipe is from HungryGirl.  It's so simple, you'll be amazed at how easy it is to get delicious results.
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Take one box of spice cake mix.  Add in one 15oz. can of pure pumpkin (be careful NOT to use pumpkin pie mix.  Only pure pumpkin).  Mix.  Fill 24 mini-muffin tins with the batter.  Bake according to package directions, or until a toothpick comes out clean.  Don't over bake.  That's it.  

While they are cooling, put about 1/4 cup of cream cheese frosting in a pan, and melt it over very, very low heat.  If you make the heat too high, it will separate.  Stir while it melts, and shut off the heat as soon as it's all melted.  Dip in cooled muffins to just glaze the tops.  

Viola!  Pumpkin spice muffins!  Each mini muffin has about 85 calories (depending on the exact cake mix and frosting you use).  Not to shabby, if you ask me!  So moist and delicious, perfect for something sweet this time of year!  They are best eaten on the same day as the frosting tends to get a little melty overnight.