Summer's Coming! Are You Ready?

Wow! This has been the longest blog hiatus I think I've ever taken. With the school year coming to an end (for myself and my daughter) and warmer weather on the way (high of 89 in Kansas today; whoa!), it's high time for us to get ourselves into gear for summer!

What does summer mean to you? To me it's about longer daylight hours, spending more time with my husband and daughter, and getting rid of this winter fluff I gained while enjoying lots of booze and comfort food! 

Small changes is the best place to start: I'm starting a 5k training program (Couch to 5k; free on the Apple App Store), eating more fruits and vegetables (we planted an "urban garden" in our yard this year), and limiting my alcohol intake to a couple of drinks a week instead of several per day. With these small changes, I plan on being to my goal weight in a reasonable amount of time and just in time to start rocking my new bikinis that I bought back in March when it was still cold and snowy out! 

Because I have an incredible sweet tooth, I am trying to find ways to calm it while not going crazy on calories. I found a cute and simple recipe on Pinterest that I made today and it was awesome! These faux-cream sandwiches are just as tasty and as creamy as any ice cream sandwich, but they are three-ingredients and so easy to make. They also have about 120 calories per sandwich! You can even shave off more calories by using low-fat options of the ingredients. 

This is what you need for your faux-cream sandwich:

1/2 C of fresh strawberries; chopped

13 graham crackers, halved

8 oz Cool Whip

1. Chop strawberries without their stems. I just used the chop setting on my food processor. 

2. Fold strawberries into Cool Whip. 

3. Spoon mixture onto graham cracker and sandwich between other half. 

4. Wrap sandwich in Saran Wrap or other wrap of your preference (foil, paper, sandwich bag, etc.)

5. Place on a cookie sheet and freeze for at least an hour.

Enjoy this and happy spring! 

And just for grins and giggles, here is when we were setting up the garden:

A Healthier Roasted Chicken with Vegetables

About 8 months ago I posted a recipe for roasted chicken with vegetables. I remember eating it. It was absolutely delicious! Looking back, I see that I could have made this recipe a lot healthier for my family and for myself. I used a bit of butter (not criminal, but I could have opted for a healthier oil) and I used salt as well (I have high blood pressure, so keeping a low-sodium diet is a must now).

Last night, I roasted chicken again with some vegetables. I made healthier choices by choosing skinless chicken, no salt, and olive oil instead of butter. The results were incredible. It was still moist and juicy and using seasonal vegetables gave the meal an entirely different flavor, so it wasn't like the other roasted vegetables from November.

This is what you'll need for my healthier roasted chicken with vegetables:

Yields 4 servings
Prep time: 30 minutes
Cooking time: 55 minutes

8 boneless skinless chicken thighs (or breasts if you want to save about 50 calories per serving)
2 ears of corn, shucked and peeled
1 large bell pepper
2 C green beans, uncooked
8 large mushrooms
1 zucchini
1/3 eggplant
1 small sweet onion
2 medium tomatoes
2 cloves of garlic
1/4 C olive oil, halved

To taste (use half with chicken and half with veggies):
Chopped sage (usually about one handful)
Rosemary (about 2 sprigs pulled from the stem)
Oregano (about a palm full)
Celery Seed (about 4 tablespoons)
Pepper


1. Preheat the oven to 450 degrees. While oven is preheating, slice bell pepper, mushrooms, zucchini, eggplant, and onion. Chop garlic up finely as well. Slice the tomatoes, but save them for later.

2. In a roasting pan (or glass pan that you can cover in aluminum foil), place the chicken on the bottom center and season with herbs to taste, then drizzle half of the olive oil on top of the chicken.

3. Place the shucked corn at either side of the chicken and cover the corn and chicken with the sliced veggies, garlic, herbs, and the rest of the olive oil.

4. Cover roasting pan with a lid (or glass pan with aluminum foil) and roast in the oven for 45 minutes.

5. At the end of the roasting time, remove the the lid (or foil) and place the sliced tomatoes on the top. Keep the lid off and place the pan back in the oven for another ten minutes.

Once everything was completed, I cut each ear of corn in half and divvied it up on the plates. Because we are a family of three and Chloe and I eat half portions, we have plenty of leftovers for lunch this week!

I hope that you try this tonight. The chicken was juicy, the eggplant and zucchini tasted just like summertime, and the overall experience of preparing this meal (and eating it) was wonderful!