Spicy Chipotle Vinagrette

This is another doctored up Good Seasons Recipe. I don't always use their mix for my start, but when it's got what you need anyway, why not? Plus it makes the recipes easier to share!

Prepare the Good Seasons mix with White Balsamic Vinegar and Olive Oil.

Then add the following and shake again.

2 tsp Hot Sauce (We love Poblano brand.)

1 tsp Chipotle Powder

1/4 tsp Ancho Chili Powder

1/2 tsp Ground Cumin

1/2 tsp Oregano

1/2 tsp Garlic Powder

A little bit of heat and a great smoky, chipotle flavor. We were enjoying it with raw bell pepper strips.

Awesome Asian-Inspired Salad

For the dressing, you'll need:

Good Seasons Italian Dressing Packet

Sesame Oil (a flavorful one, like Kadoya)

Unseasoned Rice Vinegar

Soy Sauce

Make Dressing according to package instructions, add soy sauce to taste. I like a lot, but some of you might not enjoy the sodium.

For the salad, you'll need:

More Sesame Oil

McCormick Perfect Pinch Roasted Garlic and Red Pepper

Roasted Sesame Seeds

Sea Salt

Chicken (whatever cut you prefer, about 10 oz.)

Baby Spinach, Spring Mix or whatever greens you like best.

8 oz. can Sliced Water Chestnuts

15 oz. can Mandarin Oranges in Light Syrup

Crispy noodles.

Grill the Chicken in Sesame Oil. I usually cut it into small pieces before cooking to get more seasoning onto it. Season with Sea Salt and Perfect Pinch to taste. Throw in a generous amount of Sesame Seeds. When the Chicken is almost fully cooked, add the Water Chestnuts to warm them up and coat them with seasonings.

Serve the Chicken and Water Chestnuts over the greens and top with mandarin oranges and crispy noodles. Drizzle with your Sesame Vinagrette and Enjoy.

Greens in the bowl first

Holding myself accountable. Get Healthy Check-in.

So, I had breakfast at home today. Two ounce sausage patty on a biscuit.

For a morning snack I had whole almonds. They had donuts at the meeting, and I did have one, but I took a smallish one with very little frosting and no filling.

For lunch, I ate pretty lousy, 2 slices of pepperoni pizza, but I skipped the cookies and soda and went for fruit juice and the Cherry Almond Trail mix I packed.

I had more almonds for a snack on the way home.

For dinner, we are having an Asian inspired salad! Spring Mix, Mandarin oranges, chicken, water chestnuts, and crispy noodles with an awesome sesame vinagrette. I'm still a bit hungry, so I'm going to have a bit of my Sesame Marinated Tofu.

For a snack later, I'm going to try to get away with a tall glass of Vanilla flavored Almond Breeze.

***edit*** my snack ended up being a few strips of bell pepper to try out an awesome new dressing recipe i whipped up, and Mom-in-law goodies with my almond milk. If love is an ingredient, do the calories still count?***

By the way, I felt really guilty about the pizza and it didn't sit all that well. That'll teach me, I guess.

Train, Train! Take me on out of this town.

Ok, it's really more like "Take me on out of this self-defeating, half-assed backwards mindset," but what can I say, I'm sort of a Blackfoot fan.

This past year sucked. Say it with me: "2010 sucked!" But, at the risk of turning into a walking cliche, there's been a silver lining in a lot of it.

Sure, my house almost burned down, but I didn't have to finish painting the 3rd floor and we got a kitchen/bathroom remodel.

Sure, I dislocated my knee and was out of work 3 weeks. but I got like a dozen afghans done for charity.

On the downside, is that all of the upheaval and, let's be honest, boredom, has lead to a lot of really, REALLY lousy eating habits.(And a serious Facebook addiction.) For so long, we were forced to eat based on convenience and now it's become our first instinct. We used to relish a chance to cook together, now we don't bother unless it's 3 days till the next check and there's $10 in the bank account.

I made fantastic Chipotle Corn Chowder for dinner the other night, but not because I had a brilliant recipe idea, it was because all I had left in the fridge was frozen corn, a stick of butter and a little milk.

At any rate, I ran into an old friend the other day, and she looked AWESOME! (Good for you, JuneBug!) Turns out, all she's doing different from my fat ass, is that she's actually doing all the things I keep meaning to do. Regular Yoga, eating the way she needs to, and so on. Basically, not being a useless lump after she punches out from work.

WAIT! That's all I need to do? Really? I swear on all that is holy and good, there really is something wrong with me. I can't even get my prescription filled on time. (Which I was gonna do tonight, I swear.)

And then I was sitting and thinking about it, I know I'm lactose intolerant, why do I continue to eat dairy? Why do I say, "well, I could have a little more milk before I have to worry about getting sick"? When I should be saying "I don't normally eat that, but for your birthday, I could have a smidge of Ice Cream."

I know that I can't eat onions. (Migraines) Yet over and over again, I find myself staring at Scallions or Chives saying "if I'm careful not to eat much of it, I'll be fine." When I should be saying "I should just skip this" or "I need to learn to cook this myself, you know, onion free, so I don't risk puking or missing work."

I genuinely love healthy goodies like dried fruit, nuts and seeds. So why don't I eat them?? I have a huge bag of almonds, could I tell you where it even is? Nevermind, when the last time I actually ate some of them.

I love Yoga. It centers me. It makes me feel awesome, spiritually and physically. If I did yoga yesterday, I can almost guarantee I'll do yoga today. Problem is, if life happens and I have to skip a day, it takes me like a week (or sometimes more) to get around to it again. Why??? What's wrong with me?

I could keep whining and say "I have OCD, I can't help it, I fixate on everything that sucks." Let's be honest, I'm on meds for that (which I still need to get refilled) and I know that I train myself to fixate on the good instead of the crap, I've done it in the past.

I'm not happy at work. Things are finally changing for the better, but it all feels like too little too late. So why don't I fixate on the things that do make me happy, you know, the not work stuff. How about yoga and almonds, cuddling with the cat or the fact that after almost 5 years, I'm still glad I married my husband. This isn't rocket science. It's easy stuff.

I need to just keep my eyes on the prize. No more onions, limit dairy to dry cheeses like parmesan and cheddar or things like sheep's milk feta which doesn't upset my stomach. Eat smaller, healthier snacks. Enjoy my food for the flavor, not the quantity. Pack a lunch, have breakfast at home.

Back to the basics! Need to get it right this time. Aside from the fact that I can't keep up with my favorite 4 yr old any more, I need to not look like a moose in the pictures at my sister's upcoming wedding.

Share with me! What have your "get healthy" victories been? Keep me motivated.

I'm not going to track my progress with weight loss. I'm going to track it in pants sizes. I'm also going to pay a visit to a giant staircase not far from our house (90 steps) and time myself climbing up and back down. Every week I'm going to go back and time myself again. I'm going to post the times here to keep myself honest.

Wish me luck.

Sesame Marinated Tofu

I know what you're thinking. It's probably one of two thing: "EWW!!! TOFU? EWW!!!" or "Holy Crap! She really is a hippy!"

Trust me on this one, it's way tastier than you think.

Extra Firm or Super Firm Tofu (usually in the refrigerated part of produce or in the Vegan section)

Sesame Oil (like Kadoya)

Fine Ground Sea Salt

Roasted Sesame Seeds

Lots of paper towels.

First of all, I recommend Kadoya Sesame oil because it has a really great toasted sesame flavor. Also, it's actually made in Japan and it's super cheap at Wegmans.

Second, the tofu. Not all tofu is the flavorless, pale, wiggly mush that a lot of people think of. Yes, tofu has a mild flavor, and yes it does take on a lot of the flavor of whatever it's prepared with. This is what you're counting on in this recipe.

***

Open your tofu package, drain out all the liquid and don't look back. You don't want or need that liquid anymore. Cut your tofu into 1/2 inch slices. After you cut each slice, gently squeeze out as much water as you can using paper towels to soak it up. You'll see that the Extra/super Firm Tofu has a pretty solid texture and it will get even more solid when you take even more water out of it.

Cut your slice in half, lengthwise, and soak more water out of it on the newly cut side. Then cut your "stick" of tofu into cubes. You could soak even more water out at this point, but I generally don't bother. It's usually pretty solid at this point.

Extra/Super Firm tofu with the extra water taken out has a pretty agreeable, mild flavor and a palatable texture.

Put all of your tofu into a bowl that will allow enough room to gently stir your tofu. Lightly coat with with the sesame oil, salt to taste and add a generous helping of sesame seeds.

You can eat it now, or refrigerate for a few days. You'll probably be surprised how much you enjoy this.

Cherry Almond Trail Mix

Whipped this up tonight to encourage the hubby to snack a little better.

Mix (roughly) visually equal parts:

Dried Sweet Cherries (not sweetened cherries)

Whole Almonds (raw, toasted, whatever)

Nestle White Chips

Stir together. Enjoy.

I portioned ours into snack baggies in 1/3 cup servings.

Hardware Store Bracelet

I bought everything I needed (materials wise) for this bracelet at Home Depot for less than $10.

Shopping List:

• Neon Cord - 5/32" Diamond Braid Poly, All-Purpose Cord. I bought blue, but it comes in other colors.
• 1/4" - 20 Hex Nuts or machine nuts.
• 1" S hooks

Tools from home:

• size N crochet hook
• large eye needle
• sturdy pliers

Thread about 20 nuts onto your cord. Start off with a slip knot around your hook, leaving about a 4" tail

Slide 1 nut against the knot and work your chain stitch, the nut should fall onto the "back" of the chain.

Slide 1 nut against work and chain 1. Repeat to desired length. You probably won't need all of the nuts, I only needed about a dozen, but extra is always good.

To add your closure, unravel the outer layer of the cord until about 1" from your work. Cut off the inner core. With your needle, weave the unraveled ends back through your work.

Repeat for other end. Slip S hook into one loop, and squeeze closed with the pliers. Leave the other end open so you have an S clasp.

*****

I know I don't generally post things like this on this blog, but it seemed like a hippy appropriate thing, so I'm sharing anyway.