Money has been tight.....
In addition to being on a tight budget for the wedding, Josh and I have been on a tight budget regarding groceries for pretty much the whole summer. This means not eating out as much as we'd like. I don't mind so much because I LOVE cooking. In the past though I didn't give much thought to how many calories the food was or how fattening it was. Since I'm trying to maintain my current weight and not gain any extra lbs before the wedding (along with helping my fiance lose some weight), I decided to go on a completely healthy diet and keep upping my exercise routine (I'm now doing an hour of laps in the pool and in the evenings doing about 30-45 minutes of cardio-dance).
The past two weeks I've really wowed myself with how we've been able to make flavorful meals and yet its still healthy AND I'm seeing pounds shred instead of increase! We've made grilled chicken wraps, a southwest chicken salad with own homemade dressing, marinated chicken chipotle with steamed veggies and mexican rice, and tonight I made a fresh garden salad with butter-garlic tilapia and our own homemade chicken and mushroom rice.
Unfortunately I can't take all the credit for the food as most of these ideas are a semi-collaboration from allrecipes.com. That place just has TONS of recipes and the best part is some of the recipes have the nutrition facts posted. Lots of ratings and reviews and reading other's comments on the dishes helps to see what worked or what they substituted. I got clever with my chicken chipotle marinade because the recipe called for honey but I had none in the pantry. Instead of running off to the store (again I'm thinking what can I get away with, without spending a whole lot of money) I saw I had dark corn syrup. So I wisked that in with some sugar and it made the honey texture (I only needed a tablespoon of it anyway) that the recipe called for!
In the past year I have now started getting comfortable veering off from a recipe. I used to only follow a recipe to a T and the thought of changing from it scared me. But now I've gotten more used to what substitutions work, different flavor profiles, and just willing to take the risk.
Believe it or not, cooking is a way for me to de-stress.
The past two weeks I've really wowed myself with how we've been able to make flavorful meals and yet its still healthy AND I'm seeing pounds shred instead of increase! We've made grilled chicken wraps, a southwest chicken salad with own homemade dressing, marinated chicken chipotle with steamed veggies and mexican rice, and tonight I made a fresh garden salad with butter-garlic tilapia and our own homemade chicken and mushroom rice.
Unfortunately I can't take all the credit for the food as most of these ideas are a semi-collaboration from allrecipes.com. That place just has TONS of recipes and the best part is some of the recipes have the nutrition facts posted. Lots of ratings and reviews and reading other's comments on the dishes helps to see what worked or what they substituted. I got clever with my chicken chipotle marinade because the recipe called for honey but I had none in the pantry. Instead of running off to the store (again I'm thinking what can I get away with, without spending a whole lot of money) I saw I had dark corn syrup. So I wisked that in with some sugar and it made the honey texture (I only needed a tablespoon of it anyway) that the recipe called for!
In the past year I have now started getting comfortable veering off from a recipe. I used to only follow a recipe to a T and the thought of changing from it scared me. But now I've gotten more used to what substitutions work, different flavor profiles, and just willing to take the risk.
Believe it or not, cooking is a way for me to de-stress.