food | All Things Gwen

Posts Tagged ‘food’

Feeling Young and Fresh

February 23, 2011

With my brother. We're young and fresh!

Day 8 on Four Hour Body and down six pounds!

First off, I am so amazed at the positive feedback. So many people tell me that they can relate to my battle against emotional eating and they say I’ve inspired them.

I feel amazing. My attitude and mood have been positive all day long. I find myself really wanting to write (which I love to do) and my head is really clear. Not only have I lost weight, my friends (well, friend – singular) and I can see the difference. Spent some time today with my girl friend Amanda – she hasn’t seen me in a few weeks. She says she sees the difference in my face, my legs and belly. She says my skin is glowing and I look young and fresh. I’ve begun to see that too. I FEEL young and fresh too! Funny thing is that she’s known me for years and says that if I can do this diet/lifestyle change than she can — meaning she knows how crappy I used to eat and how I’ve never been disciplined ever. Heee heee!

Sample Meals
People have asked me for some sample meals and I am happy to share some of my favorite recipes. They’re coming soon, I promise. Here’s what I ate today to give you ideas:

MEAL 1, 7:30 am – One egg, two egg whites topped with two tablespoons of organic salsa and a black bean mix I made – sautéed garlic and onions with diced red peppers, mushrooms and black beans. (Goya Black Beans – drained and rinsed.)
MEAL 2, 11:30 am – One egg white (from a hard-boiled egg).
MEAL 2.1, 12:00 pm Belated Birthday Lunch out with co-workers at Pizzacato. I had the “Mixed Greens” salad. It was mixed greens with roasted red peppers, balsamic onions, grilled chicken with roasted garlic vinaigrette on the side. Told them to leave off the Gorganzola cheese. It was really yummy and barely used the dressing because I didn’t really need. it. The peppers and onions gave the salad a lot of flavor.
MEAL 3, 3:30 pm – Some chicken and a bit of baked eggplant and baked zucchini.
MEAL 4, 7:30 pm - Taco salad – lean ground meat, romaine lettuce, tomatoes, black beans (drained and rinsed), a smidgie of corn and my new bff, organic salsa. Wasn’t sure about the corn, but I also made a recipe from the Four Hour Body cookbook for Chicken Tortilla Soup and it called for corn. (Soup is for tomorrow.)

See? Good food! Full all day and not feeling starved. My energy and mood was stable all day, no sugar highs and lows. LOVE IT.
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Recipes and Tips: A Snack, Side and Sweet

February 19, 2011

First off, thank you to one of my aerobics students, Cheryl, who gave me a gigantic stack of Cooking Light magazines. The stack was so big, the bag she gave me broke! Here are two of the recipes I made so far … and then some tips for baking mini cupcakes*.

Cranberry-Oatmeal Bars
This recipe was really yummy. I already had a gigantic bag of cranberries from Costco and a whole container of quick cooking oats that I’ve been meaning to use in a few different recipes. I had all the other ingredients, so this recipe was just meant to be. I loved the cranberries and thought they came out like yummy granola bars. I shared a few with my friends and ate the rest. It was really hard to eat just one portion!

Aromatic Slow-Roasted Tomatoes
These tomatoes were great. I’ve never slow roasted before this! I chose this recipe because I wanted a cheap, easy, healthy side dish to bring to my parent’s house. When I read the instructions, I realized they had to be cooked for seven and a half hours! I ended up putting them in the oven at 3:30 am, but could have just put them in before going to bed and taking them out in the middle of the night – six of one, half dozen of the other. If you make this recipe, definitely double or triple it and tell people they are not sun-dried tomatoes – they sure look like it!

Mini Cupcakes!
So I was warned that mini cupcakes are kinda tricky. I like a challenge and I like to prove “them” wrong. Before taking on this challenge, I prepped myself. I got these plastic squeeze bottles from the baking section of the craft store. I made the batter and then poured it into the plastic bottle, lined the tins and squeezed! Yes!! Perfect and exact amounts into the liners, no mess.

From there, I used an icing gun to ice the top of the cupcakes in a swirly design and topped with different jimmies. I was happy to put them in my little three-in-one cupcake/mini cupcake/cake carrier!

The squeeze bottle was easy to clean too. Just add water to the bottle while the batter is still wet, put the top on and shake!

Next time, I’m going to ice the cupcakes in vanilla then use the gun to make a different colored/flavored design probably chocolate.

* I wrote this blog awhile ago and never posted it. I am now on a very healthy diet! Details on that, what I’m cooking and eating coming soon.

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Kristin’s Slow-Cooker Chili

February 12, 2011

This is my new favorite chili recipe … and trust me, I’ve been experimenting! I got it from my girl friend Kristin, and I love the sweet (from the baked beans) and hot combo. My next chili recipe to try out will be with steak chunks. Anyone have a good one to share?

• 2 pounds ground beef
• 1 onion, chopped
• 1 (1.25 ounce) package chili seasoning mix
• 1 (6 ounce) can tomato paste
• 1 (16 ounce) can kidney beans, undrained
• 1 (16 ounce) can basic/classic baked beans
• 1 (10.75 ounce) can condensed tomato soup
• 1 (10 ounce) can diced tomatoes with green chile peppers

In a large skillet over medium heat, cook beef and onion until beef is brown. Stir in chili seasoning and water. Pour beef mixture into a slow cooker and stir in tomato paste, chili beans, baked beans, tomato soup and diced tomatoes with green chiles. Cook on low 2 hours. (I left it on low all day, it’s fine.)

Kristin serves it on rice and adds tobasco and sriracha. I eat it plain with a side salad (homemade dressing!) and sriracha to taste.

This is an awesome meal to make on a Sunday and bring to work. Kristin says it freezes well!

Photo by timlewisnm.

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