Cooking for One

Recently, I've gone through a breakup. I moved out of my exes and in to my own, one bedroom condo. I like my place, but I've found that I'm cooking a LOT less.

Don't get me wrong, I still LOVE to cook (& eat!). But, now I cook for fun and not for a chore. I no longer feel like I have to have dinner on the table every night or so many nights a week. If I want to have snacks and wine for dinner then I do it.

I still very much so value a nice, family dinner. But, for now, I more so value my independence and the ability to listen to my body. I eat when I'm hungry. I don't eat (or cook) because it is dinner time. This is having such a positive affect on my body weight, feelings and life. Rethink dinner some time!

Fish and Veggies

When I'm watching what I eat, my go to meal is fish and veggies! I love to get fresh salmon, bake it and serve it with whatever vegetable I'm feeling that day.

Today, I'm having baked salmon, lemon pepper and olive oil baked eggplant and steamed broccoli with a little butter and cheese. Check it out:

 

 

 

I typically cook these in mass and make containers for work and home for the week. I don't like to get burnt out though, so I usually make a variety of veggies and only enough fish for 2-3 days.

 

For any recipe request, let me know in the comment section below. Happy, healthy eating!

VegOut! Challenge

For this challenge, I have 30 days to eat 30 different vegetables, but I don't think it will take me that long! Today is day 5 of the VegOut! Challenge and I've already had 12 different vegetables. Here's what I've had so far:

I started on Saturday, March 1st with a  healthy breakfast. One fried egg over easy topped with salsa and served with avocado (Veggie #1) and grilled Tomatoes (Veggie #2) and White Onions (Veggie #3).

I went to Mardi Gras the rest of the weekend so didn't worry about the VegOut! Challenge. On Monday, I was back at it:

For lunch on March 3, I made Okra Stew served over rice. In it I pan cooked Okra (Veggie #4), Chives (Veggie #5), Celery (Veggie #6), Green Bell Peppers (Veggie #7), Garlic (Veggie # 8), Eggplant (Veggie #9) and a few other vegetables that I've already counted like White Onion and canned Tomatoes.

For a snack that afternoon, I had more vegetables!

I love eating vegetables with either ranch, peanut butter or hummus. On Monday, I added Cucumbers (Veggie #10) to my veggie log.

For dinner on Tuesday, March 4, I made one of our favorite meals:

This is wasabi and soy marinated tuna steaks, cooked with tomatoes and onions and topped with avocado. For sides, we had wasabi and soy mashed Russet Potatoes (Veggie #11) and fish sauce Brussels Sprouts (Veggie #12).

All in all, this VegOut! Challenge has been fairly easy. It has challenged me to be more creative and more complex. I'm a very simple cook, meaning I can make a meal with anything I find in my kitchen. This has caused me to add more ingredients to normal meals and grocery shop more frequently.

So far, I've been sticking with the veggies that I know and love. But, I can't wait to add a few new vegetables that I don't cook or eat very often like: Bean Sprouts, Cabbage, Edamame, Daikon, Mustard Greens, Kale, Turnips and more!

Practice Makes Perfect

Okay, I have a confession. I hit the diet SUPER hard in January, but have been semi bad after my first cheat day (Super Bowl!). Nothing crazy, but definitely not as strict as I should have been. It was so hard with Valentine's Day and celebrating a new job:(

Now that I've had a month off, I'm ready to get back in to it. My boyfriend and I are both going full force next month. To keep us on track, we're doing a 30 day veggie challenge. No we're not just going to eat veggies. We're going to take the VegOut! challenge, which has you trying 30 DIFFERENT vegetables in 30 days for March, which is National Nutrition Month by the way!

Today's lunch was practiced for my challenge:

 

 

All I did was pack a few of my left over sides from dinner earlier this week and I knocked out 5 veggies in one meal! I had:

• Steamed Asparagus with a little (I mean LITTLE) Butter
• Okra with Onions pan cooked in Olive Oil and topped with Tony's and Black Pepper
• Zucchini and Squash pan cooked in Olive Oil and topped with Tony's and Black Pepper

It was delicious, light and filling. Often times I eat too big of a breakfast or lunch that I don't even want to eat my snacks. I'm trying to stay consistent with three small meals and at least two small snacks. I've been eating snacks from Nature Box. They are AWESOME! You should definitely give them a try and this 30 day veggie challenge. To sign up for the challenge visit: VegOutHouston.org

 

A few more FAQs for ya:

• Do I have to live in Houston to participate? NO
• Do I have to eat only veggies? DID YOU NOT READ MY BLOG? NO!
• Can I eat meat? YES, YOU CAN EAT WHATEVER YOU WANT. YOU JUST HAVE TO EAT YOUR VEGGIES TOO!
• Can I eat the same veggie 30 times? SURE IF YOU WANT, BUT IT WON'T COUNT. YOU HAVE TO TRY 30 VEGGIES!
• Eat 30 veggies--all of them? NO, YOU JUST HAVE TO TRY IT! IF YOU DON'T LIKE IT NO ONE IS FORCING YOU TO EAT IT.
• Why would I sign up for this? BESIDES IT BEING HEALTHY, FREE, EASY--YOU'RE ENTERED TO WIN GREAT PRIZES IF YOU SUBMIT YOUR VEGGIE LOG BY 4/4!
• Do I have to participate in March? NO, YOU CAN DO IT WHENEVER BUT IN ORDER TO WIN PRIZES YOUR 30 DAY VEGGIE LOG MUST BE SUBMITTED BY 4/4.
• How do I get a veggie log? ONCE YOU REGISTER ON VEGOUTHOUSTON.ORG YOU'LL BE GIVEN ONE. IF YOU LOSE IT YOU CAN GO BACK ONLINE AND DL ONE.
• Does it have to be 30 consecutive days? NO, NO ONE IS SPYING ON YOU. IT DOESN'T EVEN HAVE TO BE 30 DAYS IN MARCH. JUST SUBMIT YOUR LOG BY 4/4.
• I don't have a team and I feel like a loser, what should I do? JOIN MY TEAM: AD 2 HOUSTON
• You didn't answer my question what do I do now? LEAVE A COMMENT AND I'LL RESPOND! 

VegOut!

I'm the president of a non-profit, professional organization for those 32 and under in the advertising and communications industry. Each year, we select one non-profit from our community and give them a FREE pro-bono campaign. It feels so great to give back to your city with your talent! Anyone can donate time or money, but to be able to utilize your God given skills for the greater good feels awesome.

This year, Ad 2 Houston selected Recipe for Success Foundation. Their goal is to reduce childhood obesity. Did you know this generation is the first expected to not outlive their parents? Let that sink in! How scary!! All because of poor diet and diabetes. In most cases, diabetes is a disease that we can cure by healthy eating. My very own Grandmother was put on a special diet at her assisted living home and reversed diabetes. She has been free of insulin shots for nearly 2 years now! I love knowing that my sweet Maw Maw does not have to prick her finger ever day and then give herself a shot.

Obviously, we were passionate about selecting Recipe for Success. Once they were selected, they asked for us to help with a specific campaign, VegOut! VegOut! challenges Houstonians to eat 30 different veggies in 30 days. Ideally, everyone would participate during March, which is National Nutrition Month. But, your veggie logs are not due until April 4, 2014 so you can have a little late start or even an early start. You actually don't even have to be from Houston to participate!

The Houston advertising community has been great to us and our campaign. We have had several billboards, radio spots, eblast and more donated to our campaign. We even got Miss Houston on as a spokesperson. But, we need people to actually sign up to participant in VegOut! Our goal is to quadruple last year's results of 500 participants. We've already exceeded them, but could use your help! Please check out the website and register today: VegOutHouston.org

Be sure to follow my blog for the month of March. I'll be posting (hopefully daily) about my diet on the challenge!

Thanks for the support.

Turnt Up

Just kidding...I did cook with turnips for the firs time though! I used them as a replacement for white potatoes in my homemade vegetable soup. I have to say, I was very closed minded to the experience. I was 100% sure that I was not going to enjoy it, but to my surprise, I loved it! Here's what the finished veggie soup looked like:

 

 

I love to make vegetable soup when it's cold out and I have a lot of unused vegetables in my fridge. This past week has been extremely cold in Texas and I've been very busy. Without a lot of time to cook my vegetables were starting to go bad. Here is what I used in this batch:

 

• 2 boxes of vegetable broth (2 quarts total)
• Turnips
• Carrots
• Bell Peppers
• Onions

Other times, I've used things like:

• Tomatoes
• Potatoes
• Noodles
• Green Beans

You can nearly put any vegetable in your soup and it's very easy to cook. Here's the simple recipe that I followed:

1. Pour both quarts of the vegetable broth in a large pot and start warming on medium
2. Add a bag of miniature carrots (or anything small that doesn't need any chopping)
3. Chop the Onions and Bell Peppers into long strips then add them to the pot
4. Chop the Turnips into small pieces/chunks and add them to the pot
5. Add a few dashes of tobasco if you like it hot and crushed black pepper for flavor
6. Put the lid on the pot and let it cook for roughly 30 minutes; stir occasionally
7. Poke all of your veggies with a fork to make sure they're thoroughly cooked. If cooked after 30 minutes then enjoy! Otherwise, let it continue to cook on medium/medium-low.

This vegetable taste wonderful reheated. I usually make a large batch and freeze several tubberware since it reheats easily. Stay warm, friends!

The Big Kahuna Tuna

My mother, sister and I invented this tuna steak sandwich three years ago: The Big Kahuna Tuna! We call it this, because it is packed high with thick tuna steak, sauteed onions and tomatoes, wasabi, soy sauce and avocado all piled on a hamburger bun or Hawaiian sweet bun.

This has turned into one of our favorite meals. But, since we're dieting we can't have our Big Kahuna Tuna and avocado fries. Instead, we made this low-calorie, delicious option:

 

 

For under 500 calories,  you can enjoy baked (skinless) sweet potato fries and a bread-less Big Kahuna Tuna! Here's how we did it:

1. Cover your thawed or fresh tuna steaks with salt and pepper and allow them to marinate in soy sauce and wasabi while you prep the rest of the meal.
2. Preheat your oven to 375.
3. Peel the skin off of one sweet potato and dice the potato into very thin, long strips.
4. Toss these strips in a bowl with olive oil and other seasonings of choice. We use: black pepper, garlic salt, cayenne and smoke seasoning.
5. Cover a pan with aluminum foil, spray with pam and spread the fries out.
6. Place fries in the oven and allow to bake for 30 minutes.
7. After 15 minutes of baking, start working on your sandwich. Chop 1 onion, 1 tomato and 1 avocado. Place onions and tomatoes in a skillet on med-high and saute with olive oil and soy sauce. After the onions are translucent (approximately 5 minutes) add in your Tuna Steaks.
8. Cook tuna steaks for 2 minutes on each side for rare and up to 3 minutes and 30 seconds on each side for well-done.
9. Plate your food by first putting down your tuna steaks then topping with cooked veggies, avocadom fresh wasabi and more soy sauce. Add a side of fries and you are good to go!
10. ENJOY!

Healthy, Cheap Lunch!

Like everyone else in the New Year, my boyfriend and I are trying to eat healthier. We don't need to lose a ton of weight, so we thought of a few guidelines to help us slim down  and lose the holiday weight (vs. doing a drastic diet). We definitely didn't want anything that would eliminate an entire food group. We also wanted to do something realistic that we could stick with since we both work full time and have a ton of extracurricular activities. Here's a few guidelines we set for ourselves (at least for the first week or two):

• No Crap (Sodas, Alcohol, Coffee, Chips, Junk Food, Etc.)
• I'm sure you're thinking coffee isn't 'crap', well you haven't seen mine! I love sugar and creamer in mind (or a fatty Starbucks drink) and by the time I'm done with it my drink is over 150 calories! I'm trying to replace my morning coffee with a glass of water or hot, green tea-both are 0 calories! So far, so good!
• Have a Healthy Breakfast/AM Snack
• Aiming to have some sort of fruit every morning
• Healthy Lunch (No Fried Foods, Limit the Pasta, Etc.)
• Veggie PM Snack 
• Edamame orVeggies with Hummus or Almond Butter 
• No Dairy or Pasta/Grains for Dinner
• Pasta is quick and easy and cheese makes everything better! We're trying to eliminate these two things for the first week or two so that we lose our holiday weight.  

After a week or two, we will probably just focus on low calorie/healthier options. We're bothing using MyFitnessPal app and website right now and love it. It alows you to scan products to calculate daily nutrition. According to it, my lunch today was only 405 calories. We added ground meat and taco seasoning to Andy's which made his 576 calories. Here's what I had:

 

The above photo is one stuffed serrano pepper. It doesn't look too pretty but it taste amazing! This is probably one of the most delicious healthy meals I make! It is very filling, low cost and taste like it's unhealthy! Here's a few easy steps to make your own (Serves 4):

1. Toast 4 Serrano Peppers on an open flame or burner on low. Be sure to rotate them frequently to ensure that they cook on all sides. While they're cooking go ahead and pre-heat your oven to 375 and proceed to step 2.  

 
2. While your peppers are roasting, go ahead and chop 1 whole yellow onion and place it in a large pot sprayed with Pam on Med-Low heat. While they are cooking be sure to check on your peppers and rotate them. Once onions are slighlty cooked add 1 large can of whole black beans and 1 small can of whole corn. Stir every few minutes.  
 
3. At this time, your peppers should be nice and toasted on every side (hopefully you rotated!). If they are  pretty black on every side, place them in a ziplock bag to cool. This will cause them to "sweat" and make their skin come off a little easier.  
 
4. While your peppers sweat, go ahead and cut 1/4 of an avocado per serving and 1 oz of cheese per saving. I used Calbot habanero cheddar cheese. Be sure to continue to watch your pot of veggies and stir them.  
 
5. Get your bag of serrano peppers and run cold water in it. Rub them together (still in the bag) then drain the water. Now using a knife slighly scrape off all remaining black residue. You will see a smoother skin appear. Once all black has been scrapped off, cut the stem off of the pepper and remove most of the seeds (or all of the seeds if you don't want it too spicy). Instead of trying to stuff mine, I cut them open to wear I have a flat sheet of pepper. I think serrano peppers are too skinny to stuff.
 
6. Top your pepper with your pot of veggies (2 scoops/cups) and top with 1 oz of cheese. Place in the oven until the cheese melts. (Roughly 3-5 minutes).
 
7.  Once cheese has melted, top with 1/4 avocado and 2 table spoons of salsa (I used Hernandez).
 

Tips:

• If you need to cut calories, you could easily eliminate the cheese, salsa and avocado. This would save you 200 calories). It would be great without these, but it's even better with them!
 
• If you need to add calories, you can add beef and taco seasoning like Andy did. You could also add more veggies in pot like eggplant or tomatoes. I've made this same recipe with rice too, which will add calories.
 

However you make it, I hope you enjoy it! Leave me a comment if you changed the recipe. I'd love to hear from you!