French's onion chicken and grilled potatoes

Tonight's dinner was D-licious! The hubs was especially happy with it - to say the least. Ok, so the chicken is a combo between the French's recipe and one my gram makes with corn flakes. Again, super easy!

Take one part mustard to two parts mayo with ground pepper, mix well and put it in a container for easy dipping. I put about half a large can of French's Onions in a zip lock bag, crused and poured onto a plate, again, easy for dipping. Then I dredged the chicken in the mustard/mayo mix, then in the onions and put it on a greased baking sheet. From there, I cooked the chicken in a 375 degree oven for about 25 minutes or so - I over cook my chicken because I'm so afraid of under cooking it!

The potatoes are a Paul Dean recipe - sort of... First, I cut three dark russet potatoes about 3/4" on an angle and boiled them until they were just al dente. Then I grilled them - sort of. I don't have a grill but I have an awesome grill pan that pretty much gives me the same results (one day I will have a real grill). I melted a couple tablespoons of margarine in the grill pan and then added the potatoes. I sprinkled a mix of salt, pepper and garlic powder, then flipped and then sprinkled the same mix on the other side along with some parmesian cheese. They were a little dry so I added a bit more margarine with I served them.

I added cut green beans to complete the meal. On a side note - I highly recommend using frozen green beans, they are closest to fresh short of getting them right out of the garden. Plus, you can get them reasonably priced if you keep an eye out.

I will make this over and over for sure!!!!!

Enjoy - Be well!

Individual pizza and salad

Earlier this week we had individual pizzas with garden salads for dinner. I got the pizza idea from the Pillsbury commercials. The hubs and L had Hawaiian and I had cheese. This was a very easy and super quick dinner. I took one roll at a time from can of Pillsbury flaky rolls and pressed it them out to a six inch (roughly) round dough, smeared jar pizza sauce on top and then thinly sliced fresh mozzarella with well drained pineapple chunks and a few pieces of Canadian bacon then baked them in a 375 degree oven for 20 minutes or so.

I made a traditional salad but I made my own salad dressing - ok an attempt at my own dressing! The dressing.... 1/4 cup of red wine vinegar with about 1/2 cup of extra virgin olive oil (I used a little less because I thought it was too olive oily), from there I whisked in salt, pepper, garlic, onion and oregano. It came out pretty good the only down fall, I poured it all over the salad - it was too much dressing.

Over all, this was a very easy meal and I'll make it again in a heart beat - just not too sure I would want it too often.

Enjoy - Be well!

Plum and Cherry ice cream

Tonight we had an interesting dessert that pretty much could do with any fruit. I never thought to try plums and cherries. Essentially, it's no sugar added vanilla ice cream with pluots and cherry flavored dried cranberries (it was supposed to me plums and cherries but I figure this was close enough).

This was pretty good but I think it would have been better if I had made a sauce with the pluots and some splenda-sugar mix.

Esentially, this isn't a recipe as much as it is a process...not sure that's a fair way to describe it either. No matter how you describe it - it was tasty!

Enjoy - Be well!

Tangy grilled chicken

Per my earlier post, L found our recipe for dinner at the grocery store. Basically, you combine four chicken breast with four table spoons of red wine vinegar and marinade for at least 30 minutes. Then you pat it dry and grill it - you could cook it any means necessary. The chicken is topped with a shepherd salad - two cups of dices cucumber, two cups of diced tomatoes, 1/4 cup of green onion mixed with three table spoons of red wine vinegar. You're supposed to sprinkle 1/4 cup of rough chopped parsley on top but I didn't. I added feta cheese to my chicken (not on the picture below).

I served this with a side of roasted red bliss potatoes. Quick and easy, cut your potatoes to like sizes, coat with a small amount of extra virgin olive oil, salt and pepper - I add garlic and onion to enhance the taste.

Enjoy - Be well!

What your partner can NOT do that may help you...

Not so sure I phrased that correctly, however, I was recently asked what was something I needed the hubs to stop doing and by stopping helping me on my weight loss journey. I told everyone (we were at a weight loss support group meeting) about this time, about 5 months post op, where I ended up in the hospital for a few days due to a complication from having the surgery. (Back story - I had extreme stomach aches, ended up going to the ER which began three days of morphine and testing to find there was nothing wrong...I think, in the end resting my stomach and not eating for several days helped.) The day I was discharged, we left the hospital very late at night and both L and the hubs were very hungry. I told him several times to go eat but he didn't want to leave me in the event I was discharged while they were gone. So, on the way home, we stopped at McDonalds so they could get food. This was very hard for me because I hadn't eaten in days and was going home on a very soft - mostly liquid - diet.

This was the last time that, as a family, we went to a fast food restaurant; I'm sure the hubs has gone on his own from time to time and I know L has been since but they very rarely go. I think, as I explained that him not going to McDonalds, Wendy's or Burger Kind with me in the car was what he needed to do to help me wasn't a fair answer - clearly, that specific situation doesn't apply to most people.

The better answer would have been: to help me avoid my triggers. Fast food, though I didn't have it often, is a trigger for me. It certainly does make meal time easier. I know that I could go and choose healthier options but I also know that if I go to Wendy's, I'm not going to want to get a bowl of chili - I'm going to want a double cheese burger, large fries (they have the BEST fries) and a chocolate frosty (I loved dipping my fries into the frosty - yum!).

It may not be fair for me to ask the hubs to avoid something he likes because it's something I feel I need to avoid but where we are in this together, I feel like this is an easy choice for him to make. I'm not in control of him so if he wants to eat fast food, that's all on him. I just ask that he doesn't when he's with me which he has graciously agreed to do. Also, given that it's fast food...which is generally junk...it's only helping him and L when they don't have it. Anyway, it's not like I'm asking for the world!

It's been a while since....

It's been a while since I've posted a blog and cooking - really cooking. It's been a busy couple of weeks to say the least.

Last week I had planned on making inside out bacon cheese burgers but that didn't happen - we had plan old boring burgers. So when I was faced with hamburgers again this week I decided I wanted to make them much more exciting, but how was the question.

A couple of weeks ago I made steak with a warm potato salad with a sour cream bacon dressing. I though hmmm that dressing would be really good on a burger. So, I made the burgers put them on miami rolls - which are fancy onion rolls, topped with cheddar cheese, red leaf lettuce and the salad dressing - they were messy but really good! To that, I made the tortilla chips - again. This time, I made a savory seasoning mix and added a bit of the bacon to tie it all together. I overcooked them so they weren't quite as tasty as they should have been; still, I'd make them again!

Tonight, we are having tangy ngrilled chicken with roasted potatoes - Liam found this recipe on a free card at the grocery store! HA - Actually, this looks really tasty. I'll let you know how it goes.

Cooking during a busy week, HUH?

This week is relatively busy in the evenings which is making it tough to determine what to cook or when to shop. Last night, Monday, Leo and I went to a weight loss surgery support group meeting - the theme was from the perspective of the care giver. Tomorrow, we have soccer practice at 5:30 and a fund raiser at a resturant after. So dinner will be today, Thursday and Friday.

I feel a bit like life has gotten in the way of healthy cooking; to that, I haven't gone grocery shopping and may not until sometime Thursday. This leaves us with the question...what do we want for dinner tonight? We are having one of my least favorite and most difficult meals to eat - hamburgers! I'm going to try my hand at inside-out bacon cheeseburgers with grilled onion mayo - may skip the mayo but we'll see.

I want to clarify my earlier comment about hamburgers being one of the most difficult things for me to eat. Since I had the bypass surgery beef, in general, has become difficult to eat because it is so dense. I do have beef about once a week and have learned to go for the 80/20 hamburger verse the 90/10 - it seems the higher the fat content the easier to eat. I think that is because the higher the fat the more moist the burger. I also tend to cook my steak a smidge on the rarer side. All lessons learned the hard way! Having said that, it took me a while to accept that higher fat content but since I don't have a lot of fat - especially unhealthy fats - in my day to day meal choices, I can make the occasional exception.

I learned, last night, that not everyone who has gastric bypass surgery has the same challenges I have or chooses to avoid certain foods the way I choose to. Please keep in mind, as you read my thoughts and comments, that this is my life style choice, this is how I choose to eat, the foods I choose to avoid and so forth. If you have weight loss surgery, you will live your life style choice.

I guess I'm off to the grocery store to grab a few thing...

Enjoy - Be well!