Stuff'n'Things in the Kitchen

As many of you know, Sketchy and I have started this random very fake diet in an effort to start eating healthier portions and healthier foods. By designing it ourselves, we're not being too strict and easing into the whole thing. 

Step 1, get used to normal people portions -- enter calorie counting. 

Step 2, cut 99% of our alcohol intake.

Step 3, start substituting healthier options for pastas, rice and other bad things!

Step 4, get our healthier and more energetic asses to the gym to continue our quest to be healthier people (we're clearly not at step four yet).

One of the ways to keep us somewhat honest in the diet is to keep changing up the snacks and foods we eat so it's at least a little exciting. I've enjoyed cooking new things and also tasting and trying new foods. I think it's also been good for sketchy -- he hasn't complained yet and has actually really liked some of the substitute food items which is pretty surprising. 

Resources that have been good:

**Gina's Skinny Recipes -- Thanks Robbie for sharing!

**400 Calorie Fix -- The Easy New Rule for Permanent Weight Loss 

by Liz Vaccariello and Mindy Hermann
Thanks, Meg, for the book! 

**RealSimple
this was found just googling things.

Tonight I made stuffed peppers for the first time. I went with multigrain medley (we really like this sub for rice), ground turkey, diced tomatoes, chili peppers, jalapenos, red onions and spices. 

ground turkey, tomatoes, peppers and onions

once i added in the multigrain. 

this was portioning for 2 people but we ended up eating only half of this!

i first thought the peppers would not be hollow enough when cut in half, but i actually could stuff a lot in there.

i had left one a full bell pepper since i was skeptical about the halves. 

added some cheese

post baking for 35 minutes at 400

post baking for 35 minutes at 400

since we only used half of the mix, we had room to add tortilla chips as a side. 

multigrain medley -- 110

diced tomatoes -- 20

ground turkey -- 150

bell pepper -- 25

cheese -- 50

tortilla chips -- 100

total calories: 455

Last night i spent time in the kitchen putting together some quick snacks and tried out pickling some items. 

First i made roasted spiced chickpeas

i let them dry a bit and then added some spices and olive oil before setting in oven at 450 for 45 minutes

after. this made about three portions of 110 calorie snacks

Next, i did a simple popcorn snack:

popped a bag and then added spices. 

each cup is only 35 calories. really low cal and tastey snack.

My main reluctance to bake stems from the fact that i really just don't like measuring things or working directly from recipes. i feel with baking, it's important to follow recipes to a T so that things are cooked properly and safely. 

I decided to work with this recipe: PB&J Healthy Oatmeal Cookies. In true Nalini fashion i had to change up something so decided to use granola instead of oatmeal and guava jelly on only a couple instead of grape jelly. 

Given that i don't bake, i never use real measuring tools. I got to use this bridal shower gift from kaitlin for the first time. it's cute hearts shape spoons and they say cute things on there like 1/4 tsp of hugs, 1/2 tsp of kisses, etc. 

thanks to sapna for having old and nasty bananas perfect for this concoction.

the ingredients in proper proportion

pre-baking

post-baking

they had a nice toasty brown color to them post-baking. they're on the softer/chewier side which i like

i added the guava jelly to just a couple of them for us to taste. they were really tastey! very banana-y. Not too peanutbutter-y. I'd probably add more peanut butter next time. These, I read, are good for breakfast or for a snack and are around 130 calories. 

Baking wasn't so bad or as boring as i thought it'd be. Granted this wasn't real baking because i didn't use eggs, baking soda, sugars, baking powder or any of those other fun items and didn't have to mix for forever. Given i have nice baking pans now (thanks to melanie and misha for bridal shower gift) i feel like i should start baking things. Key is to find non-bread/non-fatty crazy things to bake! 

Finally, I used this recipe to pickle some red onions, eggs and jalapenos!

the ingredients

They were supposed to be good to eat after sitting for just 30 minutes but i waited until today to taste. the red onions were really good. I used a rosemary and oregano rice vinegar so i don't think it was as strong as a good red wine vinegar but it was really really good. the egg was a snack (85 calories) for today and was also very tastey -- not vinegary enough for me though. I'm going to leave the jalapenos for Sketchy to test out. Think we'll make grilled chicken wraps or maybe a pita pizza so we can use the onions and jalapenos. 

super productive monday. Put together the popcorn, chickpeas, boiled eggs and granola cookie snacks for the week and tried pickling for the first time. This week will be much easier on snacks and packing for the day thanks to a simple 1 extra hour in the kitchen! 

Anyways, this will complete my posts on too much diet-y/food-y things. I mean i'll still post our dinner and calorie count every day (which can also be found here) but i'll move on to some different topics in the next couple posts!

If we really get any kind of snow, maybe i'll be home on Thursday and, crossing fingers, Friday as well with plenty of time to catch up on Dec-Jan happenings!

Want to make some sort of stew or crockpot thing tomorrow to battle the cold weather blues! Suggestions welcomed. Have tonnnsss of cooked ground turkey. Oh, maybe i'll make chili! haha i bet this will make sketchy very excited when he reads this at work tomorrow. 

Probably won't though -- too much work for a weekday meal. Sorry sketchyface. =)