A favorite.

I love Marinading Chicken! I love grilling chicken! I love salad! Put these three things together and you've a delicious, and healthy meal.

I made this Marinade one time and ever since then I can't do without it. It's simple, and delicious! The only problem is that I don't measure out the ingredients - bad habit. But basically it consists of this...

Olive Oil

Balsamic Vinegar

Course Salt

Black Pepper

Minced Garlic

Thyme

Rosemary

Thin sliced Chicken breast

The great thing about this marinade is that even if marinading for only an hour it is still SO flavorful. In fact, I don't think I've ever had this where it had marinaded (is that a word?) over night. That's why this is one of my favorites to make when I get home from work. I put it all together and wait for about an hour and then throw it in my little George Foreman Grill. 

Then cut up a head of lettuce and mix in a little Caesar Vinaigrette dressing (lower fat then most store bought vinaigrettes I've found, and has zero cholesterol), mix it well in a bowl, and then serve with the chicken on top, or make Chicken wraps...

Cook up some of those 0 trans fat raw tortillas on the stove, add a few slices of your grilled chicken, salad and wrap it up. YUM! It's fresh, healthy and DELICIOUS! 

I can tell when a dinner I made is good because Ryan will say, "Yeah, you can make that again".  Awesome!

Quinoa...have you tried it?

Man oh man. If you haven't tried Quinoa you really must, especially if you're looking for healthier food options, or if not you should still try it - it's good. This grain from South America is packed with all the proteins you need, as well as Amino acids. 

My friend and neighbor Lindsey introduced me to Quinoa when I found this recipe on her blog. She has some really good Quinoa recipes on her blog that I'm dying to try, especially the taco's with Quinoa instead of meat.


I took out the poppy seeds and crackers in the recipe and it works great for us without it, It is quite delish with those two things though. This is Ryan's favorite dish that we now have at least once a week. Yummy!!


We now substitute my favorite sticky rice with Quinoa. The great thing about it is that it takes on whatever flavor you cook it with. I cook this just like rice in the rice cooker, but instead of cooking with water I cook it with low sodium Chicken stock. It gives it a nice flavor.


You can get Quinoa at any health food store. I got some bags of it for food storage at Costco. It's about $10 for a good size bag that will last a long time.  


Try it and let me know what you think. :)

progress...

So, I have these pair of jeans. You know the ones that are in the closet that you alway stare at hoping to one day fit into them again? Yeah, that pair of jeans.

I bought them before I got married. I was wearing them on my first date with Ryan. After we got married them slowly became too small.

The last few years I've tried to get these jeans on with no avail. They've never gone past my big, round, behind - actually they get stuck there.

Well, yesterday morning as I was getting ready for work I decided to try them on. I guess I was feeling lucky or something.

Oh! Happy Day! They FIT!!! I got them up past my behind, with a little wiggle room to spare. They were a tad too tight in the stomach, but I did my little loop-di-loop trick with a rubberband and they fit fine (just gotta do more sit-up's to get rid of my bread dough stomach - was that too much information?...LOL)

On a side note, I've also lost 22 lbs. now. WOW!

Sweet tooth

These are my treat of choice when I need something sweet.

YUMMMMMM!

I'm tired of cooking...

...I really am. I long for the evenings when I can just throw a pizza in the oven and not worry about making a mess, washing dishes, etc. Are there any really healthy meals that I can just toss in the oven without the prep work?

I mean, I'm enjoying eating healthier. We can both feel a huge difference in how we feel, and in how our clothes feel. But man, the thought of coming home from a stressful day at work, and having to cook a meal, and then clean it all up is something I dread at times...most of the time.

I've heard of people making a whole bunch of meals and then freezing them so that you can just pop them into the oven. I need to look into this more.

Anyone have any ideas, thoughts on how to make this easier, while staying healthier?

Still going...

I haven't posted in a few days because there hasn't really been anything to talk about. Just the fact that we're still going.

Actually I wanted to say that my new favorite was of eating a turkey sandwich is by using this as your bread...

The overall picture looks a little something like this...

It's so yummy and oh-so-healthy for you. I also like to spread a little hummus instead of mayo, and then top it off with organic spring mix salad.

Not too shabby for a healthy meal.

SUCCESS!!

Just had to post that after weighing myself this morning, I am officially 11 lbs. down.

In the words of my dear nephews, Gavin and Ryan....SUCCESS!!!