Eat, drink and do some other stuff
Happy Friday! It's been brought to my attention that I haven't talked exercise/diet in awhile. I guess that's true. Stuff gets to be routine and not worth blogging about after awhile.
It's overcast here but is supposed to clear up later and be in the sixties, yay! Going for another training walk at a metropark tonight. Wednesday was one of my first "hey, winter's almost over" pre-hiking-season training walks. I've hiked some over the winter but not as much as I'm used to so I knew I'd probably lost some mojo in a couple of months but I still managed to whip off 2.8 miles in 44 minutes, which extrapolates to a 5K pace of 49 minutes. That beats my personal best 5K time by three full minutes! I really was trying to bust it out, though. I don't walk that fast when I'm hiking, just when I'm power/cardio walking. But this was a paved footpath with hardly any hills, so it wasn't exactly a hiking situation. Tonight I'm going out to Sharon Woods and its 3.8 mile paved path, which is a little hillier. Not worrying about speed there, though. Just want to get some distance. It was just over a year ago that I walked that path for the first time, and at the time it was the furthest I'd ever walked at once. I've got to be careful of my IT band and work back up to being comfortable doing a 5-7 mile distance on uneven terrain.
I might go down to Hocking Hills this weekend. It's been so wet I'm sure the falls are really spectacular (even if the rest of the nature is still in pre-spring gray deadness) and it'd be cool to see.
I do have a couple of recipes to share. The last couple of months I've really gotten into a good routine with groceries and cooking. I cook on Sunday, usually a soup/stew and/or baking some chicken breasts. The soup/stew is for work lunches and sometimes dinners or even snacks. Usually some goes in the freezer. I make this awesome wrap sandwich with a cooked Boca burger sliced inside a low-carb tortilla with spicy mustard, lettuce and tomatoes. It's super filling for less than 200 calories. That's frequently dinner. I love making BLTs with turkey bacon, too. Again, lots of bang for your bucks...less than 250 calories.
Every morning I have a slice of peanut butter toast with my coffee as I drive to work. I bring my midmorning snack (usually broccoli + hummus), my lunch (usually soup/stew and a string cheese) and my afternoon snack (this varies - lately it's been those single-serving microwave vegetable dishes, granola bars and apples and yogurt also popular). You know, broccoli and hummus keeps you full FOREVER. It's all that fiber and protein. If I eat that between 10 and 11, I often don't even want lunch until like three o'clock.
I hope my food processor arrives today. I cannot WAIT to make my own hummus. Should I use tahini? Any opinions? I know you don't HAVE to. I want to use roasted garlic because that's my new crack. Gotta go to Kroger and stock up on chickpeas, heh.
Anyway, recipes. The first is a bariatric-friendly high-protein and low-carb beef stew I totally made up. I wanted a stew without potatoes. The second is my favorite way to bake chicken breasts. I have a new spice blend, though, so I might try something new this weekend.
Lori's WLS-Friendly No-Potato Beef Stew
1 lb beef stew meat
2 15 oz can kidney beans, drained (or whatever kind of beans you prefer)
32 oz beef stock
1 envelope McCormick's slow-cooker beef stew seasoning mix
cumin
seasoned salt
4 stalks celery, diagonal chopped
2 cups sliced mushrooms
1 large (30 oz) can diced tomatoes, undrained
1 bag cabbage coleslaw mix
2 cups baby carrots, chopped
1 cup chopped onion
2 tbsp minced garlic
2 tbsp Worcestershire sauce
You can't screw this up. I do it in the slow cooker but you wouldn't have to. I let the beef, onion, garlic, stock and spices cook for awhile, then add the tomatoes, beans and mushrooms (I'm going to start adding more beans, too), then the vegetables. Let it simmer until everything's cooked through. Add as much seasoning as you like. Toss in some cayenne or Frank's red hot if you like it spicy, or some A1 sauce, or whatever you have lying around.
It makes about 16 cups of stew, so adjust the nutritional info accordingly for smaller or larger servings (I eat about 1.5 cups of this at a time, which is about 160 calories).
Lori's Baked Chicken Breasts
4 boneless, skinless chicken breasts (2 lbs meat total)
4 tbsp olive oil
1 tbsp spicy mustard
1/2 tbsp Worcestershire sauce
1/2 cup garlic and herb bread crumbs
1 tbsp seasoned salt
1 tbsp combo seasoning (I have this spice combo that's pepper, parsley, garlic and salt - basically just put some seasonings in)
Trim the breasts. Keep an eye on the total weight; the nutritional info is based on 2 lbs total meat for 8 servings of 4 oz each - some chicken breasts might only be 4 oz each, which means fewer servings.
Put them in a large plastic bag and add the combined wet ingredients. Smush and shake until well coated. Combine the dry stuff and dump it in. Shake to coat. Place breasts in a glass or ceramic dish and bake at 350 for 35-45 minutes or until it isn't pink in the center. Yum!
It's overcast here but is supposed to clear up later and be in the sixties, yay! Going for another training walk at a metropark tonight. Wednesday was one of my first "hey, winter's almost over" pre-hiking-season training walks. I've hiked some over the winter but not as much as I'm used to so I knew I'd probably lost some mojo in a couple of months but I still managed to whip off 2.8 miles in 44 minutes, which extrapolates to a 5K pace of 49 minutes. That beats my personal best 5K time by three full minutes! I really was trying to bust it out, though. I don't walk that fast when I'm hiking, just when I'm power/cardio walking. But this was a paved footpath with hardly any hills, so it wasn't exactly a hiking situation. Tonight I'm going out to Sharon Woods and its 3.8 mile paved path, which is a little hillier. Not worrying about speed there, though. Just want to get some distance. It was just over a year ago that I walked that path for the first time, and at the time it was the furthest I'd ever walked at once. I've got to be careful of my IT band and work back up to being comfortable doing a 5-7 mile distance on uneven terrain.
I might go down to Hocking Hills this weekend. It's been so wet I'm sure the falls are really spectacular (even if the rest of the nature is still in pre-spring gray deadness) and it'd be cool to see.
I do have a couple of recipes to share. The last couple of months I've really gotten into a good routine with groceries and cooking. I cook on Sunday, usually a soup/stew and/or baking some chicken breasts. The soup/stew is for work lunches and sometimes dinners or even snacks. Usually some goes in the freezer. I make this awesome wrap sandwich with a cooked Boca burger sliced inside a low-carb tortilla with spicy mustard, lettuce and tomatoes. It's super filling for less than 200 calories. That's frequently dinner. I love making BLTs with turkey bacon, too. Again, lots of bang for your bucks...less than 250 calories.
Every morning I have a slice of peanut butter toast with my coffee as I drive to work. I bring my midmorning snack (usually broccoli + hummus), my lunch (usually soup/stew and a string cheese) and my afternoon snack (this varies - lately it's been those single-serving microwave vegetable dishes, granola bars and apples and yogurt also popular). You know, broccoli and hummus keeps you full FOREVER. It's all that fiber and protein. If I eat that between 10 and 11, I often don't even want lunch until like three o'clock.
I hope my food processor arrives today. I cannot WAIT to make my own hummus. Should I use tahini? Any opinions? I know you don't HAVE to. I want to use roasted garlic because that's my new crack. Gotta go to Kroger and stock up on chickpeas, heh.
Anyway, recipes. The first is a bariatric-friendly high-protein and low-carb beef stew I totally made up. I wanted a stew without potatoes. The second is my favorite way to bake chicken breasts. I have a new spice blend, though, so I might try something new this weekend.
Lori's WLS-Friendly No-Potato Beef Stew
1 lb beef stew meat
2 15 oz can kidney beans, drained (or whatever kind of beans you prefer)
32 oz beef stock
1 envelope McCormick's slow-cooker beef stew seasoning mix
cumin
seasoned salt
4 stalks celery, diagonal chopped
2 cups sliced mushrooms
1 large (30 oz) can diced tomatoes, undrained
1 bag cabbage coleslaw mix
2 cups baby carrots, chopped
1 cup chopped onion
2 tbsp minced garlic
2 tbsp Worcestershire sauce
You can't screw this up. I do it in the slow cooker but you wouldn't have to. I let the beef, onion, garlic, stock and spices cook for awhile, then add the tomatoes, beans and mushrooms (I'm going to start adding more beans, too), then the vegetables. Let it simmer until everything's cooked through. Add as much seasoning as you like. Toss in some cayenne or Frank's red hot if you like it spicy, or some A1 sauce, or whatever you have lying around.
It makes about 16 cups of stew, so adjust the nutritional info accordingly for smaller or larger servings (I eat about 1.5 cups of this at a time, which is about 160 calories).
Lori's Baked Chicken Breasts
4 boneless, skinless chicken breasts (2 lbs meat total)
4 tbsp olive oil
1 tbsp spicy mustard
1/2 tbsp Worcestershire sauce
1/2 cup garlic and herb bread crumbs
1 tbsp seasoned salt
1 tbsp combo seasoning (I have this spice combo that's pepper, parsley, garlic and salt - basically just put some seasonings in)
Trim the breasts. Keep an eye on the total weight; the nutritional info is based on 2 lbs total meat for 8 servings of 4 oz each - some chicken breasts might only be 4 oz each, which means fewer servings.
Put them in a large plastic bag and add the combined wet ingredients. Smush and shake until well coated. Combine the dry stuff and dump it in. Shake to coat. Place breasts in a glass or ceramic dish and bake at 350 for 35-45 minutes or until it isn't pink in the center. Yum!