A Favorite Recipe

First off, Happy 237th Birthday to the US Marine Corps and to all Marines, past and present, who have served their country with dignity and honor.

Now, I have a LOT of favorite recipes. I share them on Pinterest, this blog, and Facebook from time to time. In honor of the fact that fall has finally arrived to San Diego (it's rained off and on the past couple days with temps only in the 60s) I'm going to share a recipe from Cooking Light that always gets play at my house during the colder months. It's from their January 2006 issue which means we've been having this for almost seven years now. In fact, we're going to be having it sometime in the next week. It takes a little prep time since you have to make the sausage yourself, but with using ground pork and ground turkey, it's super lean, very tasty, and worth the extra effort.

Ingredients

Sausage:

• 1 1/2 tablespoons Hungarian sweet paprika
• 2 tablespoons minced garlic
• 3 tablespoons dry red wine
• 2 tablespoons sherry vinegar
• 2 teaspoons ancho chili powder
• 1 teaspoon ground cumin
• 1/2 teaspoon dried oregano
• 1/2 teaspoon ground coriander
• 1/2 teaspoon black pepper
• Dash of kosher salt
• 3/4 pound lean ground pork
• 3/4 pound ground turkey breast

Chili:

• 2 tablespoons olive oil
• 2 cups diced onion (about 2 medium)
• 1 tablespoon ground cumin
• 1 tablespoon finely minced garlic
• 2 teaspoons dried oregano
• 3 canned chipotle chiles in adobo sauce, minced
• 4 (15-ounce) cans black beans, rinsed and drained, divided
• 3 cups fat-free, less-sodium chicken broth, divided
• 3 cups water
• 2 (14.5-ounce) cans no salt-added diced tomatoes, drained
• 1/4 cup freshly squeezed lime juice
• 1/4 cup very finely chopped cilantro, divided
• Low-fat sour cream (optional)
• Sliced green onions (optional)

Preparation

To prepare sausage, combine first 12 ingredients in a large bowl. Cover and refrigerate overnight.
To prepare chili, heat oil in a large saucepan over medium-high heat. Add sausage mixture; cook 7 minutes or until browned, stirring to crumble. Add onion, 1 tablespoon cumin, 1 tablespoon garlic, 2 teaspoons oregano, and chiles; cook 4 minutes or until onion is tender. Place 1 1/2 cups black beans and 1 cup broth in a food processor; process until smooth. Add puréed beans, remaining beans, remaining 2 cups broth, water, and tomatoes to pan; bring to a boil. Reduce heat, and simmer, partially covered, 45 minutes or until slightly thick. Stir in juice and cilantro. Ladle about 1 3/4 cups chili into each of 6 bowls. Garnish each serving with sour cream and sliced green onions, if desired.

Fed the Garbage Disposal

Last night’s dinner was a big bomb. I’m very much a recipe kinda person. Some of what I make starts out from a recipe and then is modified by me to make it tastier. Some of what I cook is straight up recipe. Lastly, a few dishes that I make I don’t use a recipe at all. One of those dishes is homemade macaroni and cheese with diced ham. How hard is boiling up some elbow noodles and melting some cheeses into it, right? Well, last night I decided to try a recipe for three cheese macaroni and cheese that I got from Cooking Light. One of the reasons I chose this dish is so that I could use their nutritional information rather than having to look it up on all my ingredients and then doing the math. It’s lazy but what can I say. Another reason is that their recipe called for gorgonzola cheese and we’ve never tried that variety of cheese before. Well, it was GROSS. The cheese sauce was really thin and then it started gooping altogether until it was pretty basically inedible. I know how to follow a recipe but the mistake still could have been mine. Who knows. My mac and cheese is always a huge hit with the family. I think this is a lesson learned in don’t mess with a good thing. We ended up dumping the entire pan (what a waste) down the garbage disposal and ordering a pizza. The only other thing I had to cook in the house was frozen solid chicken. Still, even after eating two slices of pepperoni, sausage, and mushroom pizza, I was 600+ calories under my daily allotted amount. Go me! I’ve lost 3.4 pounds this week so far.

To add to our somewhat shoddy evening, the Mister and I butted heads with the oldest child all night. Sometimes I just don’t know what gets into her. She’ll be 13 in July so I’m perfectly aware that this is only the tip of the iceberg of what’s to come. After her atrocious behavior last night, she has lost her phone, she’s grounded until Monday, and I’m making her clean out and organize the garage (She doesn’t know about the garage yet. Keep your ears tuned for yelling around 3:30 EST this afternoon, lol.)  I also got her up for school early this morning so that she could unload the dishwasher and wash the dishes that she didn’t wash last night. You know something they never tell you about being a parent? That punishments suck just as much for the parents as they do for the kids. Although, I did find it funny to watch her stomp around the kitchen this morning, heheh. I'm evil, I know. And you know what really sucks about this whole thing? She’s just like me. I have nobody to blame for her attitude but myself. In fact, my attitude was probably worse at her age, lol.

In My Neighborhood

It snowed again. This snow is much wetter than the other snow so it’s mostly slush. Weird thing about it is that the last time we  got snow, school was cancelled while it was still raining. This time, it was actively snowing and at a good rate and school wasn’t even delayed. Not that I mind. I get much more work done when the kids are in school, but it was still a bit intimidating being out on the streets with people that can’t drive in the rain.

Also in my neighborhood…

We got Bailey back in 2005. She has lived in three different houses. We got Hannah in 2007. She has lived in two different  houses. In all that time, with all the different neighbors, my dogs have never barked at people. They don’t bark at the mail carrier, the UPS delivery person, the neighborhood kids, people on a stroll, nobody. That is, until a couple weeks ago. I’m not sure if we got new neighbors or if they are just behaving differently, but every time the guy that lives directly behind us comes out of his house (our backyards butt up against each other being separated by privacy fences.) Hannah goes crazy barking at him, scratching at the back door, and jumping at the fence. She does not  like this guy. It’s weird. Even more weird, the oldest child and I saw him standing inside his house, staring out his patio doors, and into our kitchen yesterday afternoon. He wasn’t just glancing, he stood there for several minutes. It was so odd that I closed all the blinds at the back of the house. I know it’s probably wrong to judge a person based on how your dog reacts to them, but her behavior is so out of the ordinary and then the watching our house, I’m beginning to wonder what the heck is up with this guy. I’m probably just being paranoid.

Also in my neighborhood…

One of our neighbors moved yesterday. They moved into their house a day before we moved into ours and they are already moving. We’re sad about it because their daughter is friends with my daughters. She’s a sweetheart too. She calls me Miss Trisha and gives me a hug whenever she sees me. The turnaround time in my neighborhood is huge. There are several houses for sale and for rent and there’s only two streets. That also makes one wonder about the neighborhood. Oh well.

Living healthy update…

Prior to typing this entry, I was on the elliptical. It was a pretty good workout and no nausea, lol. Last night for dinner, we had seasoned tilapia, broccolini, and corn. We were supposed to have polenta with it but I bought the wrong kind and it looked like nasty, gooey, slop in the pan. The recipe was another one from Cooking Light. For the day, I was 382 calories under my total allowed for the day AND, I wasn’t even hungry. Nifty, eh?

Now that I’ve stopped sweating, I’m off for my shower and breakfast. Oh! That reminds me. Something that I’ve added to my daily routine is a glass of Cranergy. I honestly can’t stand the taste of the stuff. For one thing, I hate artificial sweeteners and for another, it has a celery taste to it which is odd considering that isn’t an ingredient. Even so, it gives the most awesome energy boost that lasts for several hours and it’s only 50 calories per 12 ounces. You can’t say that about coffee or soda. At least not the coffee or soda that I would normally drink trying to perk myself up.

Ok. Enough. I’m off

Putting it out There

The Mister and I started something new this week. We have both gone on a new diet and exercise regimen. This isn’t really all that new. We both regularly go on diets to try and lose our extra poundage but it never seems to last. I hate that. This time, I hope it’s different. I have a philosophy about weight loss and it’s by no means unique, lol. Losing weight should be more about making a lifestyle change than about finding a quick, and usually, temporary fix. You don’t lose weight and keep it off by popping pills, starving yourself, and then sitting on your lazy butt while you wait for the pounds to melt off. It should happen by modifying your diet and getting a healthy amount of exercise. Thus, our newest journey is beginning.

The Mister is trying out this program that a coworker introduced him to. I don’t remember what it’s called, but the Mister said it’s Satan at work, lmao. After his first workout, he couldn’t walk straight for days. My regimen includes regular abuse on the elliptical machine (I laid on the floor and dry heaved after my first workout yesterday, lmao) and some weight training. I’d also like to throw some yoga in there because I don’t think there is anything more relaxing while being stimulating at the same time than yoga. I love it.

We are also modifying our diet. Eating out is a thing of the past. Normally, I cook very healthy meals. I don’t fry anything, we have veggies with every meal, lean meats, etc, etc. The only bad thing I cook is starchy carbs. We likes the pastas and potatoes. Eating out is our Achilles heel when it comes to eating right. It has got to stop and we have already been making positive steps toward to this goal. Last night, for example, we got a late start to dinner. Our old selves would have rationalized that we didn’t have enough time to cook so we may as well pick up some Burger King instead. HOWEVER, last night, we sucked it up and made our planned meal at home like responsible adults. It felt really good. Plus, it was excellent!. We had a healthy fried rice. Sounds UNhealthy, right? Well, I got the recipe from my Cooking Light magazine and it had very low sodium and fat while still being loaded with nutrients. Loves me my Cooking Light magazine.

So, if you’ll bear with me, I would like to start posting regular updates about how we are doing. I figure that if I talk about it, it’ll give me more motivation to keep going. So, I’ll be talking about my exercise and our meals and how we are doing. You will NOT be given updates on how much I weigh, lol. I don’t even tell the Mister that even though he probably knows. That’s a skill he picked up as a recruiter, being able to tell how much people weigh by just looking at them. He’s kind enough not to tell me that though, lol. I will tell you, however, how much I am losing. For example, I lost 2.1 pounds in my first day which was awesome. My jaw dropped when I saw the scale this morning. I know you lose weight faster in the beginning, but I didn’t expect to lose 2 pounds in a day. Neato and very encouraging. Plus, I had no nausea after my elliptical run this morning. Improvement already! I am also open to comments about this topic. If you ask me what I had for dinner or what I did for exercise every once in a while, I’ll be more motivated to keep up with it so that I don’t have to lie, lol. This blog is NOT going to turn into a weight loss blog though. You know me, I’m never on topic nor do I stay on any sort of topic for very long. This is just something positive to post about instead of my usual whining, heheh. Plus, maybe you’ll get some healthy meal ideas from me which would be cool.

Last night at dinner, the youngest asked why we are dieting. The Mister and I both replied that it’s because we are trying to lose our fat, lol. She said that we weren’t fat which was very sweet of her. But the real reason is that I’m unhappy in my own skin. Before I had kids, I weighed 115  pounds. Gosh! I can hardly remember being that little, lol. I have no intention of trying to get back there but I would like to be happy with how I look in the mirror and I would like to have fun shopping for clothes again. I don’t think those are unrealistic goals. Plus, I feel tons better mentally when I’m exercising.

Anyway, enough blah, blah, blah’ing for now. There will be more to come laters!