You Can Ring my Bell Peppers and Chicken

First off, the pic. Yes, that is me, your humble blogger. On my journey to loose 100 pounds. So far so good heh? Had a brag (I'm actually down almost 55 pounds as of today, but I'm not one to brag... oh wait...).

Today is a good one, especially if you like red and yellow bell peppers. If you don't, sorry. You might want to skip this one or add squash or zuccini instead. Here we go! I call this one:

You Can Ring My Bell Peppers and Chicken

You will need:

1 red bell pepper (cubed) Keep a few of them long though, just for different textures.
1 yellow bell pepper (cubed)
5 chicken breast tenderloins
3 little sprigs of broccoli (chopped up small)
LOTs of dill
2 tbs minced garlic
1 tbs butter
3 handfuls (roughly 3 cups) of your fav pasta
a good shake of "Herby" seasoning (or your fav)
handful of fresh spinach

Start with a cold skillet and sprinkle it pretty heavy with the dill
Warm it up over med heat to where you can really start to smell the dill

While the chicken is cooking, start the water and boiling for the noodles.
Dump the bell peppers in and around the pan and let cook with the chicken.
Put some more dill over the whole thing.
Cover and let cook for about 2 minutes.

Flip the chicken to cook the other side, the first side should be nice and brown the dill should be cooked into it real well.
Add the garlic, broccoli.
Cover and cook again for another 2 minutes.

Now, heres the tricky part. You want to pull out just the chicken and putt it on a cutting board and let the pepper mix simmer on low heat in the pan, stir them around to pick up all the leftover bits in the bottom of the pan. Thats where the flavor is.

With the chicken, use a good grabber and cut up the pieces into chunks. Remember it is going to be real hot!

Tossing time!
By now, your pasta should be just about done.
Drain it and put in a bowl with the butter and "Herby" and toss.
Add the pepper mix to the bowl and toss
Add the spinach to the bowl and toss
Add the chicken to the bowl and toss (see a pattern here?)

Volia! Your done! Serve right away. Should feed 4 skinny's or 2 hefty's.

The point of this dish is the peppers. There a great source of vitamin C and other goodies that make you feel good. The spinach is full of iron and fiber, the broccoli is FULL of fun nutrients, and the pasta.. well no pasta is really GOOD for you, thats why there is not a lot in this dish. My wife is allergic to wheat, so we use the brand in the photo. Brown rice noodles! Yum!

You Put What in My Chicken? Salad

Okay, got a new one here that is going to become a favorite in my house. Its pretty simple, keeps well and is total yum in the tum. One little ingredient is a little wild so I call it:

"You Put What in My Chicken? Salad"

Here's what you need: If I haven't mentioned it yet, try to do all organic. Its just better.

4 small chicken breast tenderloins
1 yellow squash (or 1 large apple if you like that in your salad)
1 big head of broccoli
1 big handful of cherry tomatoes

2 cap fulls of apple cider vinegar
2 tbs of your favorite BBQ sauce
1 tbs of Herby seasoning (or your favorite)
2 tbs flax seed
some grassini bread sticks

And the secret and wild ingredient... you ready? drum roll please...... dllllllluuuuuuuum!
1/4 cup Vanilla Almond Milk. (I know, I know, but try it. Its great!)

I started by cooking the chicken in my favorite spices (herby, smoked paprika and some red pepper) and just a little bit of olive oil.

While they are cooking, I chop up the squash and broccoli into small bite sized pieces and add all the spices and liquids to it and let it chill for a moment in the fridge. The combo of the vinegar and the milk really soak into the veggies well. DO NOT ADD THE TOMATOES YET.

After cooked, the chicken gets chopped as well and mixed in with the veggies. THEN, I cut the cherry tomatoes in half and mix them in. They stay fresher this way and don't turn into mush. I sprinkle the flax seed to add a little nutty taste and some awesome Omega 3 and 6's and stick a single bread stick into the bowl.

Presto! Amazing tasting and full of flavor. This will make about 4 small servings or 2 hefty ones. Remember to chew your food up a lot to break down everything so the natural enzymes can really peak and do their job.

Enjoy!

-evan

Mexican Tilapia and Quinoa (and other foods you can't pronounce)

Howdy all again,

Well if you haven't heard of Quinoa (pronounced Keen-wa), you are not the first. It is considered an "ancient grain" and is just really starting to make its way into the market again. You can find dry in bags in the dried bean and rice section of your grocery store. It is VERY high in fiber (8gs per serving) so it is great in your mission to get between 30-40 gs. of fiber a day to help keep you regular.

Tilapia is a white fish, hopefully you have heard of that.

Personally I'm not a fish fan at all, unless it came deep fried from Long Johns Silvers, but ever since I've began eating healthier, my taste buds have changed. Fish, not so scary to me anymore.

This recipe can be changed to fit your desired local, and like ALL the recipes in this blog, its more of a guide to help get you started and enjoy healthy eating and actually get full while doing it! You could try the same thing a pasta sauce or Asian spices. I LOVE to experiment!

Ok, here we go: What you need:

3-4 Tilapia fillets (unfrozen)
1-2 tbls of your favorite salsa
1 cup Quinoa
1 cup chicken broth
1 cup water
2 cups sliced mushrooms
2 tbls Olive Oil
2 tbls minced garlic
1 cup frozen (or fresh) edamame
2 cups cherry tomatoes (sliced in half)
2 tbls taco seasoning
a few dashes of "herby" seasoning to taste. (pick it up at Whole Foods)


Fish:
First get the oven preheated to 425 degrees and get a cookie sheet out.
Drizzle just a little olive oil on the sheet where you will lay 3-4 unfrozen tilapias on.
Spoon on your favorite salsa and place in the over. Set timer for 15min.

Quinoa:
It cooks kinda like rise, 2 parts water to 1 part grains.
In a pot, combine 1 cup chicken broth, 1 cup water and 1 cup quinoa.
Bring to a boil and stir often. The quinoa will puff up and absorb all the fuild in about 5 minutes. Turn down to simmer then.

Veggies:
In the skillet with about a tbs of Olive Oil (or EVOO as my TV wife says) add about 2 cups sliced mushrooms and 1 heaping tbls of minced garlic. Saute until the mushrooms shrink and are tender. Add about 1 cup frozen edamame and stir until all are cooked. Around this time, your fish should be getting close to being done.

Add the quinoa to the veggies and mix well and simmer. Sprinkle with you favorite taco seasoning and be pretty generous with Herby (if you like it). Add 3 tbls of chicken broth to dissolved the taco seasoning. The quinoa at this point should be about twice its normal size and have a little "tail" coming out of each piece.

Check the fish, they should be done and be flaky with a fork. Pull them out of the oven. At this point, add your 2 cups of sliced cherry tomatoes to the quinoa/veggie mix and stir well. Pull it off the heat, you do NOT want to get the tomatoes too hot cause they'll taste weird (and loose all their enzyme power)

Scoop out the veggie/quinoa and top with a piece of the fish and POOF! A wonderful filling meal that is has all protein of the edamame, tons of fiber with the quinoa and the omega 3's and 6's from the fish!

Enjoy!

Miracle (stinky) Noodle Butt Kicker

Okay, you might have heard the latest craze with a product called "Miracle Noodles." They are all the rage on HCG diets and theres been a lot of buzz about them.

This brand I got for 1.99 at Whole Foods back in the cold section in the back of the store, I've also heard that they carry them now at Reasors and the actual "Miracle" brand at Atkins.

Heres my butt kicking version.

One note before the recipe, just because something had very little fat, very little calories, very little anything does NOT mean it is healthy. To make it healthy, you MUST add some great things with it, like veggies or chicken. Okay... here we go:

Preparing veggies and sauce: (you notice it is almost the same in the previous spring roll recipe)

.5 zucchini chopped however you like
.5 carrot chopped however you like
.5 yellow squash chopped however you like
1 cup of frozen podded edamame
toss in a splash of organic apple cider vinger
1-2 tbls of Thai peanut sauce
1 tbls of Sweet Chili Sauce
1 tsp of hot chili pepper (if you like it hot!)
Put this all in a tight container and leave over night in the fridge.

To prepare the noodles:

Watch out, these noodles do stink right out of the package, to remove that "tofu odor" dump 1 bag in a strainer and rinse VERY well. Use your hands, feel the "slime" wash away and take wiffs of it every now and then. You will know when the odor is gone.

Next, cover noodles with water and microwave for a solid 2 minutes, drain again then pour out on paper towls or cloth to dry them as much as possible.

Take your prepare veggies, dump the noodles on top and mix well. Nuke them again in the microwave for about another minute once all mixed together to equal it all out.

Enjoy!

Side note: This is a great way to eat pasta, when we all know we should not eat any pasta. The Texture is pretty good, a little slimier than regular noodles, but hey, YOU'RE GETTING TO EAT NOODLES!