Checking In!

Sorry for not posting this week. It seems like the week has slipped away! I do have a Fish Taco recipe to post, but I need help with my guest cook (aka Brad) to talk about the fish. Brad has done so much in my culinary skills, no one has ever challenged me more or push me to do more. I love it!

I made turkey and turkey pot pie the first time this year, and I'm exploring fish. I don't really eat fish, so I never make it. It's Brad's specialty so I let him cook it up for our fish tacos after I marinaded and made some dressing for them. As someone who doesn't eat fish, it was so delicious! Needless to say, cooking for and with Brad has expanded my options, which I think is awesome.

As I said before, I am trying to get healthy and lose weight. My co-worker is on the 21 day fix it from Beach Body. It's an interesting new lifestyle. It will teach you portion control through colored containers along with a 30 minute daily workout, different workout for each day! I'm excited to start it and should be getting it in the next week. I know it will change the way I look at food, which is great.

It really has changed my world. So far, just by realizing my calorie intake was WAY too low according to her 21 day fix it book, I have lost 4lbs in 2 weeks. 

21 Day Fix It calorie formula: [Your weight] X 11 + 450 [workout calories.. I only add about 200] - 750 [calorie deficit]. 

Yup, I lost weight by eating more. I was starving myself without even realizing it! Currently I'm eating about 2,000 daily. I work out about 3 times a week. If you are using My Fitness Pal, make sure you customize the calorie intake! I didn't and that's when I realized it was too low. They just assume everyone is skinny and have a desk job. That's not true! 

If you want to follow me on MyFitnessPal (everyone can use a little motivation) my username is smueller11

I decided to start a 30 day Guns, Buns & Abs challenge this week. I'm on day 4 and I think my abs may kill me. It hurts so bad but so good! I actually started last night doing a circuit. So I did 15 squats, 3 pushups, 9 leg lifts. And did that 4 times. Well the 4th time was just the squats, and 8 leg lifts. But I think splitting it up helps me not feel like I'm ready to die. 

Let me know if you try it or need motivation! :) 

Fajitas are my favorite!

As I mentioned, I am a big Mexican fan! Well Fajitas are my top notch favorite. I could probably eat them every day. 

Way back when, I came across a really good low carb fajita recipe. I have used it for years and made it into a simple version etc. 

Well this was one of those days, the marinade I squeeze a ton of lime juice, some cumin (which I didn't have so I used taco seasoning), and pepper into a bag with the cut up raw chicken and shake it up. 

I have lime juice on hand at all times, and I'm pretty sure someone made fun of me for it seeing it in my fridge ... two lime juice containers. It's just such a good go to juice to create a marinade or even use instead of oil in the frying pan! 

Finished Fajita Salad 

The trick to this recipe is making the peppers and onions, AWESOME. You gotta chop all your peppers and onions, and then keep a close eye on the frying pan with the olive oil and veggies in them. When the onions get translucent is when you should take them off and put them too the side. Just perfect! :) 

After you are doing whipping up your veggies, time for the meat! It should be marinaded decently, you can always put it in longer, but like I said this is a quick meal! Here's what's nice, you don't need any oil, just dump the ziplock of meat out onto the pan with the meat. All that marinade makes it good for frying! 

And that's basically it. Make it a Fajita bar with soft or hard taco shells, create a salad as I did, and add whatever toppings you like!

It's so delicious, and everyone is sure to love it. 

Spices: add spice to your life!

I was eating dinner and just did pasta with red sauce. So lame! Ever since I made the zucchini ribbon primavera, I have been making an easy version of it.


Easy Primavera:
I cooked the pasta regularly. Putting in the bowl I want to eat it in garlic powder, cilantro, parsley, oregano, shredded Parmesan cheese and cream cheese. I would then drain the pasta and throw it in the bowl. It was so quick and delicious!!!

Why did I change it this time?? I can't answer that but traditional sauce is not as good as spices!

Spices were never a major thought in my cooking life until recently (after exploring different recipes) and I am totally in love!! They completely change the taste and it's wonderful.

I think another time spices changed everything, I made some veggie stir fry for my parents (they are vegetarians). I had no idea what to make and I didn't have much in the fridge. I did some frozen veggies to make this stir fry with rice. I literally looked into my spice rack and was like what is an Asian spice... To make it taste better. Guess what it worked! I used ginger and it made such a difference! One spice can make a world of difference. It's so crazy, but true.

Tell me what your favorite spices are! Do you have any recommendations for a spicy but savory dish to make? 

Brad SMASH: Guacamole Salad Bowls

Sunday night, Brad and I came back to my house before having to say good bye for the weekend. I spend my weekends generally at Brad's house since he is on the other side of the city it's easier than going back and forth. I think it's helping my dog allergies too, being exposed more. 

Finished meal! 

So back to cooking, I bought a ton of fresh foods last Friday, that I needed to use ASAP. 

I had two avocados, and some Romaine lettuce, onions, etc. I decided to make guacamole on a bed of lettuce with ground turkey. 

*disclaimer* I rarely follow a recipe, and generally just whip something together. I'll try my best to give you the ingredients and recipe tips, but usually just have fun. Do whatever you'd like as long as you think the favors would taste good. :) 

Brad got me some of those taco salad bowls for my birthday. I thought they looked fun, and since we eat so much Mexican, why not? 

Ok, so we started with making the guac... 

I was going to find you the recipe, but of course it wasn't one I actually pinned. 

All it is: 
Avocados
Lime Juice
Salsa
Cilantro
Onions
Garlic Clove

It called to smash the avocados in a large bowl with the lime juice, but that's what started our issues. We couldn't smash the avocados! Brad wasn't really being much help and I thought maybe it was because they were still cold from being in the fridge so I told him to go watch some TV and I'll start the turkey. 

The turkey was pretty simple, I just threw it in the frying pan with some olive oil and I added taco seasoning, but ran out so I mixed in fajita seasoning. It wasn't the best turkey I made, but the guac flavors kinda over powered it so it worked. 

After I started the turkey, Brad came back into the kitchen and asked for my rubber mallet. This was after I used a can to smash the garlic clove because I don't own a garlic press.

I run to my room and get the rubber mallet. I think pictures are worth a thousand words.. I have two:

 This happened, he got smart and put it in a bag. The bag broke and he put plastic wrap over it. Kinda messy, but fun and effective. 

After we got the smashing done. I finished off the guac and put the pieces together! 

It was a bit oniony. I used a small onion, but didn't chop it enough. Overall, it was rather tasty. 

This was my Sunday evening, what did you do? Do you have any recommendations on how to make the recipe better? 

Does your significant other help or stay out of the kitchen? 

I enjoy it when Brad and I cook together. He tends to become the genius of the situation, or help from a meltdown occurring. He really saved me during a messy buckeyes situation during Christmas. My peanut butter mixture was extra greasy and all of my balls I rolled stuck together in the freezer. He fixed all of them and put paper towels between them to soak up the extra grease! :) 

I never said I was a gourmet cook or even that my recipes workout all the time, but when they don't it's nice to have a knight in shining armor to rescue me. Or he would probably prefer I said a super hero in a green lantern outfit.

[Happy]? Monday!

Hello! 

It's Monday... and a day after the Day Light Savings Time has hit us once again. 

Did you know it will take about 3 days to get back into a sleep routine from the one hour difference? I know I am suffering the effects! I couldn't get to sleep last night and then my alarm went off WAY too early. 

I'm just chugging through the day! I just wanted to "stop by" and say hello. No, I didn't forget about the blog yet! My next couple posts involve Mexican food. This post is a disclaimer for that. 

I LOVE MEXICAN FOOD.  A lot of my cooking posts will be reflective of such. I made a nice Fajita salad the other day that I wanted to post. Then last night Brad and I took our hand at making guac. Well, let's just say things involved a rubber mallet. I think THAT might be the next post. Ha. 

I need to download the pictures and such, so stay tuned! 

Let's get down to cooking!

Ok, enough about me. You want to learn how to cook. Or at least learn how I cook. 

Well since I just started this blog, I'm going to tell you about some SUPER DELICIOUS recipes I've made the past few weeks. 

1) Zucchini Ribbon Primavera 
Here is the original recipe

But I did champagne, onions, and grated the zucchini. It was such a light and delicious pasta sauce. And check out the calories! SO LOW.  Now, I had to fix it a little different for Bradley. He can't do pastas, rice, or breads. I did just oven baked chicken in Italian seasoning and put the sauce on top. He said it was wonderful. 

*Note, he is generally my only taster so he might be a little bias, but for the most part my food is really really good. haha. 

2) Parmesan - Garlic chicken wings 
This glorious delight was inspired by the Pampered Chef Parmesan Garlic dipping seasoning. 

It literally is just chicken wings (cleaned and rinsed) in a baking dish, set to 425 degrees, drowned in olive oil and seasoning. 

SO GOOD AND FILLING. We had this and roasted potato fries and broccoli. I had two wings and I was stuffed. 

Why I'm trying to get healthy!

I've been overweight all my life. I have surprisingly high self esteem even though I've been FAT. Yes, I said the dreaded word, but it is the truth. Although my parents always gave me a hard time about my weight, I didn't see it stopping me for any reason.  

Ok, maybe I didn't get as many dates as others in high school or college, but then again I don't think I was really looking for that in those years. I was definitely never one to think about settling down straight out of college, that's for sure! I wanted to start a career then figure out the rest. I think it's working out just well for me. 

Not only am I going for a dual degree, I'm also a conference manager for an international conference and would like to expand my career to a bigger marketing position. I've been trolling the job sites daily for something new, so hopefully something soon will come along! 

But back to me being fat... I was always confident in my own skin which I think helped through life. But now I want to be healthy and able to keep up with my future kids when I do become super mom. 

Last year I got on the scale and I was at my heaviest. I was denying it by wearing clothes that didn't really fit right. I have always been a size 18 or 16, so hell if I was going up in sizes! When I started grad school I got a free gym membership and started to work out. I even did 5ks! 

Ok, running not so much, but completing them is still a good goal! I lost about 15lbs and was feeling really good. Then summer came and my routine changed. I have since gained about 10 of those 15 lbs back, and I'm so mad at myself! 

It's time to start making a difference (again). Before I only focused on calories. Now it's time to focus on the amount of food and what the food is (cookies versus veggies). 

I also have another huge inspiration to look towards, it's Brad. He lost over 200 lbs in a year. That's almost the size of me! I know he wants to keep going, so I need to be there to support him as well. 

July 2012 | Sept 2013
Brad down over 200lbs, and I was wearing a size 16 again. :)