Comfort food...

We love to eat at our house. Most celebrations center around food. We spend weeks planning our get togethers because of the food prep. My husband also does not like "diet" food or anything healthy for that matter. Me, I prefer not to eat it, but am learning I need to for energy and my health. I've mastered a couple of new recipes lately I'd like to share.

First, the balsamic chicken with veggies.

I saw the marinade on Pinterest, which is really nothing more than a bottle of balsamic dressing. I put chicken breasts in the dressing and marinaded overnight in the refrigerator. It smelled delicious once I was ready to put it in a 9x13 casserole dish. I then cut up potatoes, tomatoes and green beans to add to the mixture. I placed all of the ingredients in the dish and poured more of the marinade over the veggies. I baked for half an hour with foil on top at 350 degrees then took it off for another half an hour at 400 degrees. Delish!!!

To balance my Christmas party for Mary Kay the night before, last night I made a Pizza Casserole. I also have seen a crockpot version of this on Pinterest. I failed to cook up the Italian sausage the night before so I made it in the oven instead. Now, you can totally make this much healthier without the sausage, but it's a personal taste preference. The ingredients I used, otherwise, were all very healthy. I used whole wheat Barilla Cellentani pasta, homemade pasta sauce, two cans of low-sodium tomato sauce, turkey pepperoni and reduced fat Italian shredded cheese. 

I put the uncooked pasta in the 9x13 cassrole dish, layered the Italian sausage over the pasta and put the pasta sauce and tomato sauces on top of that. I added 1.5 cups of water to the mixture to make sure the pasta would cook. I then layered about 25 pepperonis on top in rows then placed the shredded cheese in between that. I didn't go overboard on the pepperoni or cheese to make it a bit more healthy yet tasty. I seasoned the top with Italian seasonings and garlic powder. I baked the dish at 375 degrees for 40 minutes. Boy, did the house smell delicious! And it was delicious! 

Hope you can enjoy either of these and know they aren't going to break your diet yet they both fill you up!

*~* Do you have any healthy recipes to share? Please share them by emailing me at melissa.leander@gmail.com*~*

Clean Eating 101...

I love finding success stories of people who have battled weight and then lost it, BIG TIME. Megan is one of those chicks who is a bonafide rock star for her weight loss journey. She continues to get stronger, and I love reading her blog. I am inspired to keep going on this health and wellness journey like her.

Megan from Miss Madison's Charmed Life blog

In her latest blog post, she wrote down her clean-eating list. I am consciously setting this as a goal in 2013 to get rid of the crap and get down to business of losing body fat. Two years ago when I started running, I quit buying all processed, frozen meals for dinners, which was a big step in the right direction. I am now working on lunches (ahem, the infamous Lean Cuisine and canned soups).

I menu-plan for a whole month at a time for dinner, which has made life so much easier and provides a real savings in our budget. I wouldn't be able to put some variety in there without Pinterest, though.

I would love to start incorporating some of Megan's tips from her list in my menu planning and lunches. With that said, I am not a fan of organic/natural foods, for the most part. There is a lot of hype surrounding it, and I know how hard our farmers work to produce our food that do not fall in either category. I am just fine with eating things on this list that are "normal". I am happy to say we LOVE using lean cuts of beef and deer burger for most of our recipes. Those are lean sources of protein so I'm good with those, too. I also would have a very hard time letting go of my milk. I use it in my protein shakes, and it is an excellent balance of good carbs/vitamins/protein after a workout and for breakfast. Other than that, I am working on buying more from the list.

Here is a sample of her list:


Oils

• sunflower oil

• coconut oil

• walnut oil

•  avocado oil

•  olive oil

•  grape seed oil 

•  pumpkin seed oil

Fatty Proteins

• avocado

• coconut

• nuts

• nut meal/flour 

• seeds 

• all natural peanut butter 

• salmon 

• bluefish

• trout

• mussels

Lean proteins

• most types of fish

• egg whites

• chicken breast

• extra lean ground turkey

• top round

• turkey

• pork chops

• game meat

• bison

• tofu

• shellfish

• scallops 

Sweeteners

• sugar free maple syrup use sparingly

• coconut sugar

• applesauce (no sugar added) 

• birch sugar Ideal(xylitol)

• Stevia in the Raw or Truvia

Dairy

• Unsweetened almond Milk

• Unsweetened rice milk

• Greek Yogurt

• Cottage Cheese 

Condiments

• Sauerkraut

• Kim Chee

• Tempeh

• Apple Cider Vinegar

• Balsamic or Raspberry Vinaigrette

• Red Wine Vinegar

• White Vinegar

• Rice Vinegar

• Ketchup Heinz Reduced Sugar or Wholefoods Organic

• Reduced Sodium Soy Sauce

• Reduced sodium Teriyaki sauce

• Salsa 

• Hot sauce 

• Steak sauce (low sugar)

• Chili Paste

• Herb Pastes  ginger, garlic, cilantro, etc

• Tomato paste

• Tomato sauce 

• Mustard Yellow or dijon

• Broth Low sodium fat free beef, vegetable, and chicken

• Worcestershire Sauce  no high fructose corn syrup

• Fat free cooking spray 

Carbs/Starches

• barley

• corn tortilla (Food for Life brand is best)

• Cream of Wheat/Rice or Rye

• Ezekial bread (made by Food for Life)

• lentils

• oats

• whole wheat pasta

• potato (white, only occasionally)

• brown rice

• rice cakes

• Sweet Potato

• Pinto

• Chickpea

• Kidney

• White Beans

• Black Beans

• Quinoa

• Couscous

Misc
*coffee, teas, all flours except white, spices, fruits and veggies.

Pretty big list, huh?!

*~*Anyone out there have other ideas for clean eating ingredients?*~*

Garden Delicious...

We are starting to get a few goodies from our garden despite the lack of rain we've gotten this summer. Todd loves his meat and I love simple and healthy meals so we made beef kabobs last night for dinner. We used 100 percent of the ingredients from items we grew, including the beef and veggies. Todd mentioned it was fun to make dinner together, which I would agree, especially when I can get him to agree to a healthy meal.

We loaded up the skewers with sirloin steak that Todd seasoned with spices, green tomato, zucchini, jalapenos, green pepper and onion. The only thing that would have been better is some red onion and red pepper, but we don't have those things yet.

And for good measure, here is a photo of our wildflowers growing on
the atrocious mound that is our cellar. It is usually full of weeds so
I'm enjoying a pleasant view this summer instead. 

~~What is your favorite summertime recipe? Please share it by sending an e-mail to melissa.leander@gmail.com!~~

A Change Up for Lent...

Yesterday was a good day. The sun was out. I got a lot done at work. I ran my 3.5 miles in almost record time. I cooked two dinners and washed dishes. Watched some shows, took a nice bath and did some reading. Yep, that was my day, but it was a good day nonetheless as I felt productive.

My first dinner was a chicken and wild rice casserole from none other than Pinterest found here.

I then made a lasagna primavera for a change up to our usual fish on Fridays during Lent.

Here is the recipe I came up with using stuff in my pantry:

• 12  no-boil lasagna noodles
• 3  cups frozen spinach, thawed and drained
• 2  green peppers, cut into 1/2-inch pieces
• 1 can of artichoke hearts, drained and chopped
• 1 can of Italian style tomatoes, drained
• 1  container (15 oz) ricotta cheese
• 1 package of Italian shredded cheese
• 1 jar of spaghetti sauce
• Italian seasonings, salt and pepper to taste

I might add I would probably add a little more to it next time with some carrots and zucchini.

Here is a pic of the ingredients and prep work.

Mix the spinach and ricotta cheese together. Then put a thin layer of spaghetti sauce on the bottom, layer with noodles, spinach/ricotta mixture, veggies, cheese, and then repeat. I did three layers of that, but you could do more.

And here you have the final product after baking for one hour at 350 degrees in the oven. I tried just a bit of it last night, and it was pretty good although like I said I probably would add more veggies if I had them in my house at the time. 

This was a great alternative, and I hope Todd likes it it too!

Just a little tasty goodness to share...

Over the weekend, I attended two Christmas parties of great friends. The first as a fun appetizer party that my friend Jodie and her husband, Lee, hosted. My best gal pal in St. Joe, Robin, gladly attended since my husband-who-seems-to-not-exist had to work. (Yes, Todd really is my husband. We are married. He does exist. Just putting that out there that the poor fellow works nights so we never see each other.) We then went to one of our favorite hang out spots, Foster's, and had a few drinks before calling it a night.

The next evening I spent with good friends, Christina and Paul, and we had a traditional Christmas dinner followed by an outrageous game called Quelf. I made the cheesy corn casserole that is famous at Jack Stack BBQ in KC. I thought I'd share the super easy, but super cheesy and divine recipe:

Cheesy Corn Casserole

• 6 tablespoons butter
• 6 slices of chopped bacon (or you can use the ready-made kind for salads)
• 1/2 cup of flour
• 1/2 teaspoon garlic  (add more if you're like me and LOVE garlic)
• 3/4 cup of milk
• 1 1/2 cups sharp cheddar cheese, shredded
• 1 cup of Velveeta
• 1/2 package of cream cheese, cubed
• 3  packages frozen sweet corn, thawed
  
  I have also done this recipe with the paired down "fat" versions, so I've used "I Can't Believe It's Not Butter" baking sticks, reduced fat cream cheese, skim milk, etc., and most people cannot taste the difference.

Directions:

• Make a simple roux by melting the butter and bacon together over medium heat; Stir in flour and garlic powder.
• Whisk in milk over medium heat.
• Heat until thick and bubbly; stir in cream cheese/cheeses. Stir over low heat until cheeses melt.
• Pour cheese mixture over corn in 9x13 pan.
• Bake in 9x13 casserole pan for 45 minutes at 350 degrees.

Photo courtesy of Jack Stack Barbecue