Food and Cooking: July 2014

Wednesday, July 30, 2014

Thai Pizza

Tonight was Thai Chicken Peanut Pizza.
I have always ordered the Thai pizza at California Pizza Kitchen and LOVE IT! I also have had cauliflower pizza and enjoy it a great deal. Im a big fan of Thai food of really any kind. So when I came across Sandy's version of this I HAD to try it. My husband isn't always a peanut fan. He usually doesn't like nuts at all. Not even peanut butter. What a strange man... So i promised to figure out more beef and a burger for him one night if he let me cook this one night. He ended up loving this pizza! he says it is in the top three of all Medifast lean and greens I've cooked so far. I love that man.
I think for me the BEST part was the crust and the WORST part the crust. let me explain.
The best, the flavor and consistency was perfect for pizza, not granular or chunky. Not watery or mushy. It was actually crispy on the edges and could even be folded like a real pizza crust.
Now why you ask, when I say how amazing it was, do I say it was the worst?

Well, refer to the pictures below.
I tried to flip the crust over to bake the underside and it got stuck to my parchment paper and spatula and folded onto itself. The more I tried to unfold it the more it folded and then stuck to my spatula. I ended with odd crustS (plural) not perfect crust. I was so upset. I was very proud of how it looked before. Like a REAL pizza crust. Then came the disaster. I had a memory of the movie Julie and Julia where Julie has a melt down with her trussed chicken. She falls on the floor having a tearful tantrum and I HONESTLY had a similar experience. **BLUSH** But unlike in the movie my husband came to my rescue and let me cry on his shoulder about my pizza crust disaster. :) Ok got off the floor and realized it would still taste the same, just keep going.

Another thing, with Medifast you really don't have too terribly many options with "if my dinner just totally bombed lets just go grab dinner out" So either go to a restaurant and risk failure (in that mood I would have had trouble) or keep going and eat funny looking crust.

I kept going.

Chunky frozen cauliflower in cheese and eggs

I had frozen cauliflower left over from last week and I decided to use it as a "quick" step saver. Well, it decided to stay frozen too long and I took matters into my own hands. I nuked it in 15 second intervals until it was MOSTLY unfrozen, but was still cool enough not to cook the eggs and melt the cheese I had already added. I started mixing with a wooden spoon (as I would have with fresh cauliflower) it was still leaving big chunks of frozen cauliflower and I knew that wouldn't make a good crust. So I grabbed my new hand mixer and started beating the heck out of the stuff. It not only worked, it did so in spectacular fashion!
I credit that hand mixer with my amazing crust. It was beat into submission and smooth (as smooth as cauliflower can get I guess)

I spread it out thin on a cookie sheet

started to bake

PERFECT, before the disaster

grilling chicken

after disaster...

back in oven to finish

onion and cilantro

chicken and mung beans (bean sprouts)

I did adjust the peanut sauce

The peanut sauce was made exactly as the directions said and I tasted it and it wasn't what i wanted. I started over. I used PB2, water, and a SPLASH of soy/teriyaki added a mini dash of fresh ginger (like 1/16th of a teaspoon if thats a thing) and then 1/4 teaspoon of sesame oil and a few shakes of red pepper flakes. I made half of what the recipe called for. I doubled the recipe for evertything except for the sause and my huband and I split the sause perfectly well. It was enough but not too much.

before cheese, with chicken and veggies on crust pieces

added cheese and popped under broiler.

It was SO GOOD!

I am making this again, and again, and again! It was the perfect food for Friday night movie night with my sweety. He loved it and wants me to do it again too! Huza!

Taco Salad

Tonight was a simple taco salad. I love tacos, there my birthday meal request form my mom. I basically lived on turkey (cheeper than beef- I was a starving student after all) taco meat. beans rice and cheese in college. I ate it at LEAST twice a week and still love the stuff. Having said that, the way I make tacos, and taco meat is NOT medifast friendly. Too much cheese, sour cream, salsa, beans, rice. All not allowed on MF. Today was the first day I realized that, after looking foward to a comfort meal that im used to and could make in my sleep. I read the ingredients and was still under the illusion it was a version of "my" taco salad. SO SORRY CHARLIE!

I used my personal favorite brand of taco seasoning (the one mom uses :) duh!) As you can see, I buy it in family size cause I use it so much and just roll the top shut and use it next time. Cheaper...

Just like Mom's

The recipe called for tomatoes to top the salad. I personally dont like tomatoes in salad (or raw in most cases) so I added them to the meat in lieu of salsa (which is a staple of "my" taco salad)

Note to self: Portion the weighed meat BEFORE adding tomatoes.

I had some left over bell peppers in my fridge from last nights dinner, and I was thinking Fajitas! so I added them to the salad and cut back on the lettuce.

Grilled peppers (and 1/2 a left-over zucchini)

Why are you supposed to remove skin? I have no idea...

I NEEDED onion and figured Id just count it to my greens,
though technically a cheat. Can't have mexican without onion.

Lets just say, this is Not what my taco salad usually looks like

I understand that Im on a diet for a while, and I got to where I am by eating the way I always have, but boy, it was kinda a shock to see what I always eat in contrast to what's HEALTHY... how sad.

It was a tasty salad, just took some getting used to...

Monday, July 28, 2014

New Grill!

Our complex only allows electric grills in the apartments. We were walking through Lowes and found one! Looks just like a regular one! (after I assembled it...)

Tadah!

All preheated and ready to go.

Add Veggies...

Put feet up and wait.

The end :)

Sunday, July 27, 2014

Carne in the Crock-pot

Tonight I am making, again from Sandy's Kitchen, Dottie's Carne Guisada. (For all of you who don't speak Spanish, its a Mexican beef stew)

10am throw it all in

hour 3

hour 5

Just took off the lid at 9 hours

Grilling the veggies.
I wanted to use our new BBQ but I didn't assemble it yet...

Removed meat, and reducing the broath

Shredded lettuce topped with the peppers.

Added meat to top and mixed all up.

I had to add some greek yogurt blended with a little bit and cheese cause the meat was too spicy. I mean so SPICY I and my husband couldn't eat it. SO I ended up going off plan by a little for the Improvised Sour Cream. That will teach me to alter one of Sandy's recipes so much lol. I added rotel tomatoes with peppers instead of just tomatoes that she called for.

Over all, the meal was delicious, meat fall apart goodness, and the only thing I will change next time is change the tomatoes back to less spicy ones. I even put in the suggested spices, they were perfect. I did add more water to the broath in the crock pot because it wasn't full enough to run my crock pot. (It says it must be half way full to work properly.) I needed more something, the only thing I could add was water obviously. So my stew became a liquidy-soup. My husband doesn't like soup. I reduced the juice the meat cooked in, the broth, and spices and it reduced into a delicious almost gravy. It was not too salty, which has been a problem of mine in the past. YUMMY!

And I've been good and been writing EVERY bite down. :-)

Prep for tomorrow!

Tomorrow night is Crock pot night. I know were getting up early so Im doing all the prep tonight and just just plop it all in tomorrow before I we leave.

Spices measured and in the tupperware, cans and can opener all ready!

Breakfast is even ready on the counter!

Oh ya! I got this!

Chicken Alfredo

Im going to be honest, tonight was the most difficult yet. And not for any reason you'd think. It was basically really simple recipe, simple ingredients, simple instructions, and only a few steps. AND YET... So let me clarify, the flavor was AMAZING. Id even use the alfredo sauce on anything! It did not taste like it could possibly like it was medifastable...
The problem I suppose is based on my own inexperience with cooking squash. The recipe calls for 3 cups of cooked squash. I thought that 7 cups of "noodles" would be enough for 3 cups. Well, I was wrong. When cooked down it made 2 cups. OOPS! So I had to scramble to create some green option for us that didn't need any condiments, fats, or really anything but vegetables.

Squash Pre- Noodle

Squash Post-Noodle :)

Chicken, no oil, with spices

Cooling noodles (looks like a lot doesn't it?)

Cooked down to this, its about 2 cups

Chicken weighed to perfection

Mixing the alfredo

Impromptu salad, I added 1/2 chicken and sauce to it.

other 1/2 of chicken and sauce over "pasta"

So, end result, really tasty but need more squash.

Saturday, July 26, 2014

Making "noodles"

My husband came and got some shots of me making the zucchini noodles tonight.

Week #2 Meal Plan

Again, all my recipes are coming from the AMAZING Sandy's Kitchen Adventures blog. I hadn't planned that. lol
These meals look SO GOOD! and so far I have really loved each meal I've made from Sandy's blog. Here we go to the store!

Chicken Fried Cauliflower

I spell cauliflower different every time I write it. Even my autocorrect on my phone has stopped telling me when its wrong cause I've spelled it incorrectly so many times. So, for my friends, "Perhaps especially the one with CDO, yes you know who you are..." I apologize :)

Tonight was Chicken Fried Cauliflower. Its like Chinese fried rice, but medifast style. I was actually really concerned tonight for Michael. As you remember, last night was asian flavors, AND he specifically asked me to go easy on the cauliflower. Tonight again Asian flavors, and ALL cauliflower. (in my defence, I went shopping at the beginning of the week for all my meals, I just cooked what was already in my fridge for my planned menu) so poor planning having Chinese two nights in a row, but oh well. I even gave him an "out" tonight. I told him if he didn't like it I'd heat up some leftovers from Mondays dinner.

So here is the link to this recipe.
http://www.sandyskitchenadventures.com/2011/03/shrimp-or-chicken-fried-rice.html

Shrimp or Chicken Fried "Rice"

Ingredients:

2-3/4 cup grated cauliflower (5.75 Green)

1/4 cup green onion, chopped (.25 Green)

1 clove garlic, minced (1 Condiment)

1/4 tsp ginger (.5 Condiment)

1 tbsp plus 1 and 1/2 tsp Soy Sauce or a mixture of Soy Sauce and Teriyaki Sauce (4.5 Condiments)

3 eggs beaten (1 Lean)

7 oz shrimp, cooked or 6 oz chicken, cooked and cubed (1 Lean)

Dash of red pepper flakes (optional)

1 tsp olive oil - if using chicken or 2 tsp olive oil - if using shrimp

2 Complete Lean and Green Meals with 3 Condiments and all healthy fats per serving

When it was finished my "cauliflowered out" husband said it was so good that it tasted like real rice! HUZAH!!!! Success indeed.

So far this recipe I changed the most off of Sandy's recipe of any one this week.

Food Processing more Cauliflower. (remember I freeze the extras)

Recipe Deviation #1: I added soy sauce to the uncooked "rice"

chicken and too much green onion

I had four green onions, I cut three up for what was called for. Then I would have ONE green onion in my fridge, thats just weird and sad to me, so I used them all. One green onion extra is not going to kill me.

Deviation #2 I used Egg beaters not whole eggs.

Why, you might ask? well for one thing, I know that we would get 1/2c more on program if I use Egg Beaters not real eggs, second, Egg Beaters are on the Leanest protein list so we get 2 other healthy oil servings for flavor elsewhere as opposed to No healthy fats added with real eggs. With a "fried" rice I thought the oil in the rice was a better use of my fat than in an egg. Just my opinion.

Add "rice" to pan with garlic, chili flakes, ginger, and some onion.

I added the light sodium soy sauce, AND instead of grilling the chicken in oil I added it to the cauliflower as sesame oil. It gave it the missing "something" I was looking for.

Add eggs and chicken, stir, put in bowl, EAT!

This was REALLY good. Im glad I added more egg. Next time I think I will marinate the chicken before grilling it, and add the onion later to keep it more crunchy. Real fried rice has the peas in it sometime and the onion kinda mocked that. It tasted RIGHT. it didn't taste like diet or healthy at all. Tasted like take out. :) That my friends, is success!

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