Mission Accomplished!

Well, looks pretty good if I do say so myself...




...and tastes pretty good too!

From rough estimates on the website I sourced in a post earlier this morning, I figured the entire dish has ROUGHLY 3,000 calories in it. The recipe says it will serve four, but I split it into six portions equaling roughly 500 calories per portion. Not too shabby :) Good ol' Rachael.

The only casualty occured during a battle of my oven mitt and the broiler...

...oops! That oven mitt (and one previous to it) has seen better days, haha. I guess a new mitt costs a whollleee lot less than a visit from the fire department ;).


That completes my rough 1,500 calorie limit for the day (plus a couple for a beer or two later...).

Have a great night!

-Jenna

Ohhhhh Omelets

Hellooo there!

I jump started my morning with a trip to the grocery store to buy ingredients for tonight's delish dinner: Rachael Ray's Chicken Divan Egg Noodle Bake. With eggs on the mind, I was inspired to make an omelet for breakfast. I keep hearing that egg whites are the way to go, so instead of going with the egg puff of the last few days I challenged myself to my first egg-white-only omelet. I used:

(NOTE: For anyone who ends up reading this blog, I decided I'm going to try to give calorie totals for the foods I eat when I have time. This way I can keep track, as well as give meal ideas to others who are interested in trying these meals out! For the calories, I use caloriecount.about.org. They aren't always 100% accurate, but it is a fabulous website for an idea of what you're eating. Check it out!)

*3 egg whites= 48 calories
* 1/2 cup mushrooms= 15 calories
* 1/2 cup fresh broccoli= 30 calories
* 1 tsp EVOO= 65 calories
* 1/2 pat butter= 22 calories
*1 oz or less of extra sharp Cabot shredded cheese (my favorite): 110 cals


All together? About 300 calories, give or take.

With it, I treated myself to some pre-sliced mango slices (two at about 50 calories each) and a half cup of red seedless grapes (about 50 calories).


And for a closeup of the yummy ingredients...

Breakfast total? About 475-500 calories, and a pleasantly-surprised 400 at that. The omelet was DELICIOUS. To spice it up, I added a little SPIKE seasoning given to me by my mom, some salt and pepper and a small diced shallot. MMMMM.

After my breakfast adventure, I made myself a small cup of coffee with splenda and a little half and half (about 30 cals). I decided to skip out on snacktime since I was so full from my morning meal and headed downtown to meet up with a friend for a coffee break at the beloved Starbucks. (Pictured: my favorite, a grande soy misto with some sugar in the raw, or splenda):


After dropping her off at work, I got back to my apartment around 3:15 and decided to make myself a little smoothie! I have been trying to convince myself for months now that smoothies aren't worth eating unless there is some sort of fiber or protein in them, so while I was out grocery shopping this morning, I stopped at Vitaminworld for this lovely item:

Designer Whey protein, french vanilla style!

In my smoothie, I added:
*1/2 container of Chobani plain greek yogurt= 50 cals
*1/2 medium-sized banana= 50 cals
*1 cup frozen berries (strawbs, blue and rasberries)= 90 cals
* 1 scoop vanilla protein powder= 100 cals
* 3/4 cup OJ to cancel out the proteiny taste= 75 calories
For a grande total of about 365 calories. Not bad considering that was my lunch. How was it? SOOO much better than I expected...sometimes that protein is a real party pooper for the palate.



Now, I'm headed to get started on my dinner (the Egg Noodle Bake) and get in some quality yoga time. I'll post pics later tonight or tomorrow and will hopefully be able to calculate an approximate calorie count for that as well.

Later tonight, I'm headed out to have a drink (not-so-waist-friendly, I know) with some friends and then bed.

See ya laterr! <3, Jenna

P.S. My new goal is to drink more and record how much water I drink in a day. I need to keep myself accountable because I KNOW I don't drink enough. Today's total? Three glasses :( Tisk.

Egg Puffs, Egg Noodles, and Yoga Moovles...if that makes sense.

Well hello there!

Last night was hectic at work, so I didn't get around to posting again once I was back at my apartment. There were three of us there and I was the only one in the front of the house, meaning I took orders at the counter, delivered food anddd cleared tables all at once. It doesn't sound like a big deal, but when the restaurant is full it's not always an easy feat. At least I burned a few cals in the process...

...and then ate them back up! At work, I ended up caving for a Quesadilla-type creation that consisted of mild salsa, avocado, chicken, cheddar cheese and crepe. It was delicious, especially because I skimped on lunch, but probably not as healthy as a salad would have been :). I got out of work at 10:45, headed home and crashed.

This morning, I woke up a little later than I wish I had, but started the day with a two-egg egg white puff (from the Fitnessista bloggerista, linked in a previous post), a serving of the maple-flavored "weight loss" instant oatmeal (which really just means it has a little more fiber than usual, and a lot less sugar) with a little 1% milk and cinnamon sprinkled on top. With this, I enjoyed two full glasses of water, and the daily cup o' Joe. (Notice the sassy cup given to me by a friend).





After breakfast I relaxed for a while on the futon and enjoyed my coffee while watching Rachael Ray. It's been hard adjusting to a smaller workload and more free time since graduating college in December, but somehow the once-hated Rachael Ray has made it into my daily routine :).

After her show, I opened up my new yoga DVD and had at it! At first I was skeptical, but I did a few poses today that I wasn't really able to fully do a week ago, which is proof enough to continue. Goal: reach my feet, here I come!


Following 45 minutes of yoga, I decided I needed a little snack...so...I made a smoothie! In it was a tropical frozen fruit mix of mangos, strawbs, pineapples and peaches, a little bit of orange juice, and some Kashi GoLean cereal (about a half cup) for some added fiber and protein. It was deilicious! However, note to self: drink smoothie faster when adding cereal, otherwise the added moisture makes the cereal a mushy and weird texture.



As for the rest of my day, I'm planning on doing another DVD workout, showering, then I'm off to work at 5 until close, so probably around 11pm. At work I'll probably have a mesclun-spinach salad mix with our house-made apple cider vinaigrette, topped with apple slices, chevre, and grape tomatoes! Mmmmm.

See you all later!

Jenna

P.S. Something to look forward to: for dinner tomorrow night, I'm planning on making Rachael Ray's Chicken Divan and Egg Noodle Bake that I saw on her show this morning. It looks DELICIOUS. And to make it a little healthier, I'll be substituting whole wheat egg noodles rather than the plain ol' white ones.

Eating half healthy...at least it's a start.

Good morning everyone!

I woke up to find that my dad was about to cook some thick cut bacon for his breakfast, and so I (now reluctantly) said I'd eat a piece or two.

So, I had some eggs with it. But at least these eggs weren't fried in the bacon fat, no...I ended up using two egg whites in a glass bowl (greased lightly with butter) and put in the microwave for a minute and a half. This, my friends, is the classic Fitnesssista Egg Puff. Added a tiny bit of salt, pepper, and cayenne pepper for a kick and it was DELICIOUS. Now...if only I hadn't eaten the bacon to completely ruin the fact that I ate anything healthy this morning :)

Paired with it was some hazelnut coffee (trust me I've tried, and I just can't get away from the stuff), and a small glass of V8 juice. Don't let this picture fool you either...I definitely had more than one piece of bacon. Tisk.


However, I have decided to throw the guilt away this morning. It's sometimes impossible to watch what I eat without going for the "all or nothing" attitude. So, today is my day to start accepting that I've eaten something not so healthy and to try to balance it out with healthy eats for the remainder of the day. We'll see how that goes...

As for the rest of my life, I'm about to go finish watching Rachael Ray and enjoy my hazelnut coffee before dropping by to say hi to my sweetie, then back up to my apartment (I live two hours away from my home and boyfriend) to work tonight at a local restaurant. I'll post later if I have time.

Adios! <3

Success...for the mouth, not the waist :)

Phew! Today has been an exhausting day of cooking...

First of all, I thought I'd take a few minutes to give credit where credit is due. Today's recipes for the pot roast, garlic mashed potatoes, bread and chocolate peanut butter no bake cookies all came from various sources online:

Pot roast: Paula Dean Recipe on Food Network, as well as Food Network's Garlic Mashed Potatoes recipe. The Chocolate Peanut Butter No Bake Cookies came from a Food Network Recipe as well. I added some coconut to the cookies, and boiled them two minutes longer than recommended and they are FANTASTIC. Lastly, I have a Fannie Farmer cookbook which has the best bread recipe I've used so far for making white bread. Here is the link to the recipe online.

Now let's get down to business. How did everything come out you ask? AMAZING. I'm really starting to wonder whether cooking is my actual life calling...

Here are some pics:

1. The Pot Roast (with carrots)!




2. The Garlic Mashed Potatoes:



3. The Bread (I made the second half of the dough into mini rolls, also pictured below.)



4. And lastly, the no bake cookies!:



Enjoy (because I sure did)!

:), Jenna

Pot Roast, Mashed Taters, Homemade Bread and Cookies...what?!

Gooooood Morning!

Now I know that I already promised I'd get back on track with the cooking healthy plan....but...today my dad wanted to spend some quality time cooking, and that meant POT ROAST. Mmmmm. We're slow roasting it for three and a half hours, and it's soaking in shallots, dry red wine, cream of mushroom soup, Worcestershire sauce, homemade beef stock, garlic, salt, pepper and more garlic. It will be delicious! Before adding the yummy sauce we pan-seared the five pound boneless chuck and rubbed a little extra salt, freshly ground pepper and garlic all over the meat.

To go with the pot roast, dad and I roasted a clove of garlic in the oven at 400 degrees for about 35 minutes, and once the yukon gold's are ready, we'll mash them with the garlic. I'm also in the process of making homemade white bread for the second time ever. YUM.

I'll post pics of the final products later tonight!

As for the rest of my life, I'm planning on going grooming with my boyfriend later on this evening after he comes over for dinner. He grooms snowmobile trails when he has some free time with the local club, along with running his own property management business, being a lieutenant on the local fire department, and all the while managing to be the best boyfriend ever. I couldn't ask for anyone more handsome, hard-working or dedicated than this man.

Enough of the mushy stuff. I've got to go work on dessert for tonight: peanut butter chocolate no bake cookies! Mmmmm.

-J

Catching up, and getting back in the game

Hey readers (if I've had any at all yet):

It has been a while, but my life has been craziness. Amongst delicious holiday eats, I've managed to cook and have actually come quite a way in my range of cooking ability. I might have realized that I actually love to cook. Here are some of the recipes I've tackled during the past few weeks! I do have to admit that these aren't the HEALTHIEST meals, but since it's the start of a new year, I figured I'd give it more effort in the coming weeks!

1. Portabella pizza, south beach style!


2. Crustless Quiche!


3. Homemade White Bread! Yummmmm.


4. Boeuf Bourguignon w/Mashed Potatoes!


5. Homemade Cinnamon Buns!


6. Homemade Chicken Pot Pie!


7. And lastly, whole wheat pita pizza topped with caramelized onions and goat cheese!


It's hard not to make such delicious comfort foods this time of year! If not good for my waist, at least it has been a good indicator that I have a solid ability to execute recipes well!

See ya later bloggies,

<3, J