Sunday, September 30, 2012

Healthy Eating and New Meal Catch Up

This meal was before we started our month health challenge.  And it wasn't all that great :(  But here is my new meal #25.  I have been so behind on making new meals but even more behind on posting the ones that I have made.  I actually have done a few but just haven't put it on the blog yet. 
 
Simple Macaroni and Beef with Cheese
1 large onion, diced
1 tablespoon canola oil
salt to taste
optional seasonings: black pepper, oregano, cumin, coriander, chopped garlic, hot smoked paprika, chilli powder—whatever you’re in the mood for (I just used black pepper, garlic and a tablespoon of fish sauce, which gives it depth)
one 28-ounce can whole tomatoes, pureed in the can with a hand blender or in a blender blender
2 pounds lean ground beef
1 box macaroni
1 cup each grated cheddar and mozzarella cheeses
 
Sweat the onions in the oil with a three-fingered pinch of salt. Add the beef and cook it, breaking it up as you do. (Because my beef was very fatty, I cooked it separately and added it to the pot along with the tomatoes. Also an option, but uses an extra pan.) Add another three-fingered pinch of salt or two, along with any dry seasonings you want. Add the tomatoes and any fresh seasonings you may be using, bring to a simmer, then reduce the heat to low and cook for an hour.
 
 Cook the macaroni in boiling water till it’s half done. Drain it and add it to the tomatoes. (I wanted this to stretch into two meals, so I used the whole box, but if you want your dish to be very tomatoey and beefy, you might want to add only half the macaroni). Stir it into the sauce. Taste it. Add more salt and other seasonings as needed, and cover. When it’s cooled and the pasta has absorbed the tomato juices, transfer it to a large baking dish and cover it with foil. It can sit out for several hours like this, be refrigerated for up to two days, or frozen a few weeks.
 
Bake it in a 400 degree oven till it’s piping hot (about 45 minutes if it’s cold to room temperature). Just before you’re ready to eat, remove the foil, cover macaroni with the cheese and broil till it looks beautiful.
 

This is what many of our lunches have looked like over the last 28 days.  Today was the last day of our health challenge by the way.  More about that later. 


And some healthy snacking...


We have been splurging a little on salmon.  Wow, so yummy!  Jay grills it to perfection and we have loved this meal!  And our salmon and bean salad dinner is our new meal #26.  No directions on this.  Jay just put lemon juice and lemon slices on it with some dill and then grilled it on the grill.  

 
I tried a new bean salad.  It was pretty good but not really my cup of tea.  Jay loved it though!
 
1 cup halved heirloom grape or cherry tomatoes
     1 teaspoon salt, divided
  • 3 ears shucked corn
  • 1 medium white onion, cut into 1/4-inch-thick slices
  • 1 jalapeño pepper
  • 1 tablespoon olive oil
  • Cooking spray
  • 1/3 cup chopped fresh cilantro
  • 1/3 cup fresh lime juice
  • 1 (15-ounce) can no-salt-added pinto beans, rinsed and drained
  • 1 (15-ounce) can no-salt-added black beans, rinsed and drained
  • 1 (15-ounce) can no-salt-added kidney beans, rinsed and drained
  • 2 diced peeled avocados

    1. 1. Preheat the grill to medium-high heat.
    2. 2. Place the tomatoes in a large bowl, and sprinkle with 1/2 teaspoon salt. Let stand 10 minutes.
    3. 3. Brush corn, onion, and jalapeño evenly with oil. Place vegetables on grill rack coated with cooking spray. Grill corn for 12 minutes or until lightly charred, turning after 6 minutes. Grill onion slices and jalapeño 8 minutes or until lightly charred, turning after 4 minutes. Let vegetables stand 5 minutes. Cut kernels from cobs. Coarsely chop onion. Finely chop jalapeño; discard stem. Add corn, onion, and jalapeño to tomato mixture; toss well. Add remaining 1/2 teaspoon salt, cilantro, and next 4 ingredients (through kidney beans) to corn mixture; toss well. Top with avocado.






    This has probably been one of our favorite new meals and is meal #27.  So good and super healthy! 
     
     
  • 3/4 lb flank steaks or 3/4 lb london broil beef, thinly sliced
  • 2 teaspoons cornstarch

  • 1 teaspoon sherry wine (We did not use this)

  • 1 tablespoon light soy sauce (We used regular soy sauce)

  • 1/2 lb fresh string bean, cleaned

  • 1/2 teaspoon sugar

  • 3 tablespoons oil

  • 1 garlic clove, finely minced

  • 1 piece fresh ginger, peeled & minced fine (We did not use fresh, just the seasoning) 

  • 1 teaspoon cornstarch, dissolved in

  • 1/2 cup chicken broth, and

  • 1 teaspoon soy sauce

  •  
    Marinate beef in cornstarch, sherry and soy sauce about 1/2 hour (I actually skipped this step and it turned out great!)  Cook beans in boiling water two minutes.  Rinse in cold water.  Heat oil in wok.  Brown garlic and ginger.  Add beef.  Stir fry until color changes.  Add beans and sugar. (We also left out the sugar and it was still great).  Stir fry one minute.  Add dissolved corn starch mixture.  Stir fry till thickened.  Serve with rice if desired (We also didn't do the rice because we couldn't have rice for a month.)  
     
    We have been doing a ton of smoothies.  This one is water, ice, frozen bananas, frozen blueberries, strawberries, spinach, kale, honey, and greek yogurt.  So good!      

     
    Our new meal #28 is an avocado/chicken salad.  It was good but not incredible.  It is meant to go in a sandwhich, pita, or with chips but we couldn't have any of those things when I made it the first time.  I want to try it again with chips and I think it would be really good that way.  I forgot to take a picture before we started eating which is why there is a messy plate.  There were no directions other than just do it all to taste.  I did boil my chicken though for the first time and it was incredibly quick and easy and made the chicken just right for shredding. 
     
    chicken, cooked and shredded
    avocado
    mayo, just a little
    green onion, sliced
    cilantro
    lime juice to taste
    salt/pepper to taste
    

       

    New meal #29 is a turkey and quinoa meatloaf.  We really liked it but did it without Worcestershire sauce because I didn't have any.  I want to try it again the right way and see if we love it even more.  Very good and very healthy!

         1/4 cup quinoa
  • 1/2 cup water
  •   1 teaspoon olive oil
  • 1 small onion, chopped
  • 1 large clove garlic, chopped
  • 1 (20 ounce) package ground turkey
  • 1 tablespoon tomato paste
  • 1 tablespoon hot pepper sauce
  • 2 tablespoons Worcestershire sauce
  • 1 egg
  • 1 1/2 teaspoons salt
  • 2 tablespoons brown sugar
  • 2 teaspoons Worcestershire sauce
  • 1 teaspoon water

  • Bring the quinoa and water to a boil in a saucepan over high heat. Reduce heat to medium-low, cover, and simmer until the quinoa is tender, and the water has been absorbed, about 15 to 20 minutes. Set aside to cool. Preheat an oven to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C).
    Heat the olive oil in a skillet over medium heat. Stir in the onion; cook and stir until the onion has softened and turned translucent, about 5 minutes. Add the garlic and cook for another minute; remove from heat to cool.
    Stir the turkey, cooked quinoa, onions, tomato paste, hot sauce, 2 tablespoons Worcestershire, egg, salt, and pepper in a large bowl until well combined. The mixture will be very moist. Shape into a loaf on a foil lined baking sheet. Combine the brown sugar, 2 teaspoons Worcestershire, and 1 teaspoon water in a small bowl. Rub the paste over the top of the meatloaf.
    Bake in the preheated oven until no longer pink in the center, about 50 minutes. An instant-read thermometer inserted into the center should read at least 160 degrees F (70 degrees C). Let the meatloaf cool for 10 minutes before slicing and serving.
     
    

     
    This blog is a bit messy!  Sometimes recipes don't copy and paste very nicely for me and I am too lazy and too busy to try to make it look perfect!  We had an amazing month at eating healthy and grain and sugar free.  We were not perfect but we were motivated, lost weight, and even took second place in both categories for our competition.  Jay lost 12 pounds and I lost 14.  We were proud of that.  We each won $20 and we each got a price as well.  It was a good month and now I just have to work at keeping it going.  It has already been way too easy to fall back into old habits.  We are adding grains back into our diet but I need to add it back in sparingly. 

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