Sunday, July 21, 2013

Junk Free July WEEK: III

Week 3 and I feel marvelous.  I’m not so much counting down the days until I can have chocolate again. In fact I have really only had one day this week that I have even wanted chocolate (THIS IS HUGE!).  And guess what?! I lost another 4 pounds this week.  Workouts were great.  Fitness wise, I did the 300 workout again a few days, ran a couple different days(got up to 5 1/2 miles!) and did a hodge podge strength training day at a friends house. 

This weeks food was over all tasty and filling. Let me begin by saying…”I love and hate leftovers.”  I hate having a fridge full of tupperware of small amounts of random things, but then again it can mean I don’t have to cook or  in the best cases that I get to enjoy something delicious all over again.  Well it was a mix of the above.  I had some chili left over, a very small amount of salsa, and 1 hamburger patty from last week.  So, one morning we did..

- “breakfast burritos”-

  I made some eggs and tortillas, and then threw in the leftovers.  I did tortilla, spring mix, egg, chili/ham.patty , then topped it with salsa.  They were both pretty tasty, and hit the spot.

IMG_7505

  IMG_7507

Jeff wanted cheese melted on his, and then just wanted egg and salsa.  We both agreed that this homemade salsa is perfect for this kind of application!

IMG_7506

We love using the grill, so one night I made

-“KABABS”-

I sliced up some various veggies we had in the fridge. Potatoes, yellow and red bell peppers, cucumber, carrot, and mushrooms!

IMG_7114

 Skewered them, and brushed them lightly with olive oil. Sprinkled them with salt, pepper, and garlic and herb.

IMG_7116 

Grill and DEVOUR!

IMG_7122

I love salads! Now if i’m going to have a salad, it needs to have a lot of flavor and textures.  The problem with dressings is they can bring all kinds of flavor and CALORIES!  So, I knew I was going to have to make my own dressing (I’ve never done this) I experimented, and I was super happy with the results. I’m calling this a…

- “Fruity Fiesta Salad”-

I threw the chicken in the crockpot for a few hours on hi, along with:

4 cups Water

1/2 cup Orange Juice

then sprinkled the surface with REAL SALT, Mrs.Dash Garlic and Herb, Mrs.Dash Extra Spicy, Crushed Red Pepper, and Chili Powder. This gave the salad a little kick.

IMG_7654

As the chicken got closer to ready, I got some wild blend rice going in the rice cooker. I then pulled the chicken….

IMG_7663

…and sliced some veggies.

IMG_7660

Now for the dressing I pureed 2 TB. Olive Oil, 1 TB. Red Wine Vinegar, and a handful of Craisins. It smelled kind of strong and  interesting but was sooooo delicious!

IMG_7661

               IMG_7662

Spring Mix, Rice, Chicken, Carrots, Cucumber, Mushroom (on Jeff’s I hate mushrooms!) and tangy craisin dressing!

IMG_7665

I mixed it all up really well, and the flavors were able to blend nicely. The chicken gave the salad a kick, while the dressing gave it a sweet tangy spin.  I was very pleased with this experiment indeed!

WEEK 4 here I come!

3 comments:

N+A Miller said...

I'll definitely be trying your dressing recipe! I just made a huge BBQ chicken salad tonight that I'm getting ready to blog about. I've been trying to figure out how to lighten up the dressing.

So for you workouts, when you do strength training, do you still do the same amount of cardio or do you do a lighter version?

Ingrid Harris said...

Ooo bbq chicken salad sounds good! As far as workouts go....On days that I do strength I just try to walk atleast 30 minutes. Although the 300 workout that I do, combines strength with cardio. Your heart rate is high enough through the entire workout.

KarenM said...

I'm glad you love cooking now. I remember you always wanted to help, and I was usually too busy!