Steak and Chicken Fajitas

Jay and I had our wonderful friends Chris and Heather over for dinner on Saturday night.  Right now Jay and I are not eating refined carbs so I thought Fajitas would be a good dinner to serve that would be pleasing for everyone.  Jay and I could have the steak, chicken, and veggies without any problem or temptation and I bought some cheese, rice, beans, and tortillas for our carb consuming friends.  This way everyone is happy and everyone wins! :)

In my past life I've made a lime marinade with about a 1/4 cup of olive oil for the meat.  So current dietary restrictions do not permit extra fat...so no 1/4 cup oil.  I decided to try and make the marinade without the olive oil.  This is what I did:

 I zested two limes then I cut and juiced them into a bowl.  I used my pampered chef citrus press and it worked great getting all the juice out.

 I then chopped up a lot of cilantro in my manual food processor.  I didn't use all of this in the marinade, I just chopped it all at once to save myself time later.

 I whisked together the lime zest, juice, and half of the cilantro with some kosher salt, 1tsp of pampered chef chili lime rub, and 2 garlic cloves I pressed in my wonderful garlic press.

I tasted the marinade and noted that it was to acidic.  I ended up cutting it with a tiny bit of oil, I used my kitchen spritzer to spay some oil into it.  I had to, I tried so hard to not use any at all, but I guess a marinade needs some oil.  But hey, I used way less than a 1/4 cup. 

The marinade was great and I used it on the chicken, steak, and veggies.  We had a wonderful dinner and fun time with our friends.  It was a really great Saturday night!

Eating Out

My husband Jay and I used to eat out a lot.  Eating out is part of what got me in trouble with my weight in the first place.  Eating out is easy because there is no work for you and you don't have to think about what you are eating.  Even though I love to cook, and think I'm pretty good at it, most of my meals were not prepared by me.  I had so many excuses as to why I didn't prepare my meals; no time, too tired, limited budget.  In reality, I didn't make the time to prep to make preparing meals easy, even when I was exhausted.  Eating out was just easy and I didn't have to think, which fed into my laziness.  And feeding into my tendency to be lazy...well this was a problem.

But eating out posed a bigger problem for me.  I could not resist so many temptations at restaurants.  The huge alcoholic drinks, the bread baskets, fried appetizers, mashed potatoes soaked in butter, and dessert.  I had the hardest time saying no to all of this, especially the drinks and desserts.  And of course I would eat the full portion of my entree, and we all know that restaurant portions are double what you should eat.  And most of the time I would be full after an appetizer, I just kept eating because the food tasted good, or because I felt like I was suppose to, or just to eat.  And I'm not going to get into how much eating out would actually cost me financially.  Just imagine the food I just listed, times 2 people, times 5 nights...you get the idea.

When Jay and I decided we were going to do a medically monitored weight loss program I thought my days in restaurants were over.  How could I go to a restaurant and stick to my dietary guidelines when they included no oil, butter, refined carbs, or alcohol?  I firmly believed that I could not go out and say no to bread, potatoes, pasta, appetizers, and dessert.  I felt like I made a decision to make major changes and that would include not going out to eat.  But the reality of life is that you can't always avoid restaurants.  So much of social life revolves around food, and sometimes it is nice to go out and not have to worry about cooking.  But the first time Jay suggested going out I was petrified.  I really didn't believe that I would be able to be stern in my ordering and resist all those foods I'm not suppose to have right now.  But you know what, I was able to.  I was able to talk to our server and explain that I can't have oil or butter right now.  She totally understood and even spoke with the cooks about scrubbing down the grill before cooking our food.  Jay and I both got salads with light dressings on the side, grilled sirloins, and double steamed vegetables with no butter.  Dinner still tasted good and it was easier than I thought to ask for what I wanted.  That first restaurant experience was very positive and helped me see that I didn't need to be afraid of going out to eat.

Doing this weight loss program has helped me to realize a lot of things about myself.  One of my realizations is that I will make more meals at home if I keep it simple, and that will curb my desire to go out or order out because of being tired or lazy.  I don't have to follow long involved recipes that are overly complicated, I can rely on my knowledge of cooking methods and spices to make meals that are tasty and filling.  I've also realized that I can go out to eat and be okay.  I can say no to the breads and drinks and desserts.  I can ask for exactly what I want and still enjoy my food, and the money I'm saving (and you save a lot when you're not ordering alcohol or any of the extras).  And for the first time I really feel like I'm the one who's in control, not the food or my cravings.  And the more I say no and stick to the guidelines that I know will help me be and stay healthy the better I feel about myself.

Stairs

I never really thought about how many stairs I go up and down in a day until my birthday last September.  That's when my knees and hips began to hurt.  My knees and hips hurt and my husband Jay and I were trying to sell our house to move into a 2nd floor apartment.  A 2nd floor apartment with a 2nd floor of it's own.  All those stairs, 27 in all, started to scare me.  By December my knees hurt so bad it was difficult for me to get up from the couch.  My office at work is on the 2nd floor of a 2 story building and I was taking the elevator every day.  At this point I had already decided to do something about my weight and fitness level in the new year, but thinking of climbing 14 stairs every day to get to my apartment made me feel desperate.

Have you ever felt desperate about something?  Desperate enough to leave your comfort zone and actually do something about your situation?  For a very long time I have struggled with my weight.  I have been overweight for most of my life.  I have been unhappy about my body for just as long.  But I never felt desperate, at least not desperate enough to really step out of my comfort zone and make real lifestyle changes.  But being 31-years-old and worried about climbing stairs because of my knees made me feel desperate.

I've lost 40lbs since January 13th.  That is something that I'm proud of, but the thing that I'm more proud of is that I've made real lifestyle changes that I feel I can continue for the rest of my life.  Not only have I changed the amount of calories I take in each day, but how I look at food, how I grocery shop, how I prep meals for the week, and how I exercise.  These changes have helped me in so many ways, and my body doesn't hurt anymore.  I climbed 40 stairs at work today, from the basement to the 2nd floor, and when I got to the top the only thing I could think was "wow, my knees don't hurt".

Strawberry Mango Sorbet

My Pampered Chef spring paperwork came to my home in February and the first thing I did was reach for the new catalog. I noticed on the cover was a picture of some frozen strawberries in the new manual food processor and sorbet in the dots martini glass. The recipe for the sorbet was in the new Season's Best cookbook labeled as "Strawberry Ice". I read through the recipe and thought "this is my answer to ice cream!" The recipe sounded so good and I couldn't wait to try it.

Again, I adapted the recipe to fit my current nutritional needs, but this is what I did:

First I microwaved some frozen strawberries and mango for about 20 seconds to defrost them a little bit. This makes chopping the fruit up easier. I then put half the fruit into the manual food processor.

I roughly chopped half the fruit and then added the remaining fruit.

I dissolved 1 packet of splenda in 4 teaspoons of water and added that to the fruit.

I continued to process the fruit to get it to the texture I wanted.

The clear bowl of the processor makes it easy to see your progress without removing the lid.

Once I got to the texture I wanted I removed the processor lid and scrapped down the sides.

I then used a Pampered Chef medium scoop to scoop my sorbet into 2 cup prep bowl.

This is such a great treat and wonderful way to eat fruit. It also really helps me curb ice cream cravings. You can make this with any kind of frozen fruit; berries, cherries, peaches, pineapple, mango, bananas... And by making the sorbet yourself you can control ingredients and it probably cost less than pre-made sorbet in the freezer section. The recipe in the Season's Best cook book gives you directions for 6 servings and uses sugar.

Jay and I both love this sorbet. If you try it I bet you'll love it too!

My new favorite salad

Is a BBQ pork salad I made on Wednesday night. I adapted a pampered chef recipe to fit my current dietary needs and got amazing results. Why was it so good? Just a combo of crispy veggies, sweet tomatoes, tender lettuce, smokey pork, and creamy ranch dressing. Too good to be true that it is so good for you. Here's how I did it.


Barbecue Pork Tenderloin
--The Pampered Chef (This recipe uses the Deep Covered Baker -- which is awesome)


1 medium onion
1lb pork tenderloin
1 tbsp vegetable oil
2 tbsp smokey barbecue rub (Pampered Chef pantry item)



Slice onion and place on the bottom of the deep covered baker. Trim pork of any fat and silver skin. Brush with oil and place in baker on top of onions. Rub pork evenly with smokey barbecue rub.

Cover baker and microwave on high for 6 minutes. Check internal temperature of pork with a meat thermometer. Continue to cook pork in 2 minute increments until thermometer registers 150. Remove baker from microwave and let stand covered for 10 minutes or until thermometer reads 160.



I then cubed the pork and put it and the onions on top of mixed greens, cucumber, red pepper strips, tomatoes, and celery. I mixed in 1 tsp of smokey barbecue rub into 2 tbsp of fat free ranch dressing and tossed salad so everything was coated.



I made 2 pork tenderloins this way, only I omitted the oil. The pork was seasoned great and cooking it in the deep covered baker made it come out so juicy and tender. I can't wait to eat carbs and dairy again, because I'd love to add some cheddar cheese, roasted corn, and croutons.

Jay had this salad for dinner Thursday night. He loved it too. I had leftover chicken breast on a salad. I should have had the pork.