Cleaning Out the Refrigerator… Veggiepalooza

I was a bit ambitious with my grocery shopping over the weekend. I thought I’d be doing a lot more cooking. And then life happens. So… tonight, I tried to use up a bunch of them. It started with chopping and slicing a bunch of veggies: carrots, cucumber, celery, green onion, white onion, etc.

Then I took two red peppers and roasted them in the oven at 400 for about 25 minutes. Yum. Delicious!

I diced some of the cucumbers finely for our dinner tonight. I took the extra, added a little diced onion, a couple tablespoons of red wine vinegar, a generous sprinkling of black pepper, and a teeny tiny dash of sugar. Yum.

For dinner, we had Chef Salad Night. The kids absolutely love it. It’s a pretty standard Wednesday night dinner (night before weigh in!). I put each topping choice in small bowls and then have a big bowl of lettuce in the middle.

The kids love choosing their own toppings. My little one is funny and prefers light vinaigrettes. Tonight he had a tiny dipping bowl of light raspberry walnut and another of light sesame ginger. Funny guy.

After dinner, I peeled my sweet potatoes:

I then sliced them, put them on baking sheets, spritzed with olive oil, and added black pepper and kosher salt. Bake at 350 for a loooonnnggggg time. It’s best to flip them over halfway through (otherwise the bottom side is sticky).

With the leftover Chef Salad ingredients, I made small salads for lunches tomorrow:

Then with the remaining ingredients, I made a veggie soup.

Sauteed onion, carrot, celery, tomato, roasted red pepper, and potato:

I let them veggies soften a bit and then added beef broth, a package of frozen spinach, a can of great northern beans, garlic powder, season salt, and pepper.

The above photo is from close to the beginning of the cooking process. After the potatoes were fully cooked, it looked UGLY. It’s supposed to be for tomorrow night’s dinner. I think it will taste okay, but it seems like it needs meat. Maybe this is because of the beef broth? Maybe it wouldn’t be as noticeable with chicken broth? I don’t know…

What to pack for lunch?

Lunchtime is hard. There are always many greasy, calorie-loaded options available. We do have a cafe available to us with many healthy choices, so we’re ahead of the game there. You can get a healthy salad, you can have a low-fat sandwich, you can have something lean grilled… There are many possibilities. For the days when I’m brown bagging it (or re-useable lunch container-ing it because we love the planet, right?), though, I’ve found that doing something simple often works best.

This week I’m starting out with chopped veggies. For some reason, if I cut my carrots in julienne-style sticks, it just feels like more of a treat. The extra 3 or 4 minutes makes the baby carrots a little bit tastier (or maybe I’m just a bit wacko). I added some steamed broccoli and then sliced some green olives (heart-healthy fat!) and a hard-boiled egg (protein!). I’ll probably add a little bit of leftover quinoa mix for some whole grain. And woo hoo! We’re in business with a nicely balanced meal.

Welcome! (and a quinoa recipe!)

Our newest round is underway! Hooray! Thank you to everyone participating! There is a lot of enthusiasm this time around, so many new faces, and I truly think it’s going to be the best round ever.

For the first post of this round, I’m going to show you what we had for dinner tonight (although I’m posting this for Monday, so it’s what we had for dinner Sunday night).

Everyone loves chicken fried rice, right? So savory but loaded with oil and carbs. Carbs aren’t all bad, but eating cups of white rice probably isn’t the best way to kick off your weight loss program.

What to do? I replaced the rice with quinoa. In case you aren’t familiar with it, quinoa contains more high quality protein than any other grain. It is a complete protein grain and provides all the essential amino acids in a balanced pattern, close to the ideal set by the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization. It’s wheat-free/gluten-free. It’s pretty perfect.

There’s no official recipe, but here’s what I did:

I started by taking a 12 oz box of plain quinoa and boiled it with 2 cubes of chicken bouillon. I let it cool off a bit and then put it in the refrigerator to cool off.

Then I chopped some carrots, yellow onion, and green onion.

First into the pan: yellow onions. I sauteed them in a tiny dab of canola oil until they were translucent. Then I added the carrots and let them soften a bit. Then came the green onions. I cooked them together for a few minutes until they looked like this:

In a separate skillet, I took three eggs and whisked them together with about a tablespoon of water. I cooked them in a non-stick skillet and only added salt and pepper.

I took some chopped broccoli florets and sprinkled with a little bit of teriyaki sauce. I let it get a little brown before taking it out of the skillet.

I took some cooked chicken (cooked the previous day in a crockpot with chicken broth, onion, and garlic) in teriyaki sauce.

Once everything was warmed up, I mixed the quinoa with about 2 tablespoons of canola oil. I then added salt and pepper and stuck it on the griddle. Once the quinoa started looked nice and toasty brown, I added the other ingredients in. It was a messy mix… my kitchen floor is covered with random grains and veggies now.

As it cooked, I added more pepper and soy sauce.

Here’s the finished product:

Verdict: It tastes better than it looks! Well, it looked a little better than this, but I have a really old camera and I’m not much of a photographer. 🙂 As I was cooking it, my husband came into the kitchen with a wrinkled nose and said, “It smells healthy. Really healthy.” He said it wasn’t his favorite, but he DID eat three bowls of it. My 7-year-old ate it enthusiastically and kept saying it was delicious. My 3-year-old wouldn’t touch it at first, but ate a few bites when I fed it to him and told him it was “puppy food” for my puppy (he’s going through a phase right now…). You could easily leave out the chicken (and egg if you don’t eat them) and make it a vegetarian meal thanks to the protein provided by the quinoa.

*Vegetarian* Provencal Vegetable Tian

From Care2.com….Click HERE for the whole post and more photos!

This can be a main dish, albeit a fairly light one, but it also goes very well with a green salad and some fresh bread to sop up the juices. Bon appetit!

Provençal Vegetable Tian
Serves 4

Ingredients

* 1 large onion or 2 medium leeks
* 2 large cloves garlic
* 1 or 2 small zucchini
* 1 or 2 small eggplants
* 1 or 2 small potatoes
* 2 or 3 medium plum tomatoes
* 2 or 3 sprigs fresh thyme
* 1/4 cup dry white wine
* Extra virgin olive oil
* Butter
* Sea salt
* Freshly ground black pepper

Directions

1. Cut a piece of parchment paper to the size of a two-quart glass or ceramic baking dish. Set aside. Butter the inside of the dish and set aside. Preheat the oven to 375 degrees.

2. Slice the onions and peel and mince the garlic. (If you’re using leeks, cut the root end off and chop where the green begins then slice the white part and rinse in cold water to remove any sand/dirt. Let dry in a colander.)

3. Remove the ends from the zucchini and eggplant and discard. Cut each crosswise into coins 1/8-inch thick. Remove the stem ends from the tomatoes and discard. Cut each crosswise into rounds 1/8-inch thick. Scrub and dry the potato(es) and cut into 1/8-inch thick slices.

4. Coat a small pan with a good dose of olive oil and heat until shimmering. Add the garlic and swirl to coat. Gently add the onions (or leeks). Cook, stirring frequently, until the onions (or leeks) have begun to soften and the garlic has released its fragrance, approximately two to five minutes.

5. Carefully spread the onion/leek-garlic mixture across the bottom of the baking dish. Sprinkle with salt and a few grindings of fresh black pepper; strip the leaves from one of the sprigs of thyme and sprinkle over the mixture.

6. Layer the zucchini, eggplant, potato, and tomato on top of the onion/leek-garlic mixture, alternating each and overlapping slightly. I made sure to put the juicier things (squash and tomato) between the drier veggies (eggplant and potato) to keep the whole thing consistently moist. If working with a square or rectangular dish, layer in rows; if working with a circular or oval dish, work in fans from the center. Drizzle with a two-count of olive oil and splash with the wine. Sprinkle with salt and a few grindings of fresh black pepper; strip the leaves from the remaining thyme and sprinkle over the casserole.

7. Butter the cut parchment and carefully place, buttered side down, on top of the vegetables. Bake for 35 to 45 minutes, depending on your oven, until the vegetables are soft but not mushy while the edges are nicely crisp and brown.

Read more: http://www.care2.com/greenliving/provencal-vegetable-tian.html#ixzz1aiayTLzI

*Breakfast* Chocolate Chocolate Chip Muffins with Glaze

This is from the fabulous website, Gina’s Skinny Recipes…

*Click this link for the full post, complete with photos for each step!

Chocolate Chocolate Chip Banana Muffins with Glaze
Gina’s Weight Watcher Recipes
Servings: 12 • Size: 1 muffin • Old Points: 3 pts • Points+: 5 pts
Calories: 170.5 • Fat: 5.3 g • Protein: 2.6 g • Carb: 31.8 g • Fiber: 2.1 g • Sugar: 16.1 g
Sodium: 41.3 mg

Ingredients:

• 3 1/2 ripe medium bananas, mashed
• 1/4 cup unsweetened apple sauce
• 1 1/4 cups unbleached all purpose flour
• 1/4 cup unsweetened cocoa powder
• 3/4 tsp baking soda
• 1/4 tsp salt
• 2 tbsp butter, softened
• 1/3 cup sugar
• 2 large egg whites
• 1/2 tsp vanilla extract
• 1/2 cup chocolate chips
• 2 tbsp confectioners sugar (optional)

Directions:

Preheat oven to 325°. Line a muffin tin with 12 liners. 

In a large mixing bowl cream butter and sugar with an electric mixer. Add egg whites, bananas, apple sauce, vanilla, and beat at medium speed until thick. Scrape down sides of the bowl.
In a medium bowl, combine flour, cocoa powder, baking soda and salt with a wire whisk.
Add flour mixture to bananas, then blend at low speed until combined; do not over mix. Fold in chocolate chips and pour batter into muffin tins.
Bake on the center rack for 30 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean.

If making the glaze, combine confectioner’s sugar and 1/4 to 1/2 tsp water to make a glaze. Drizzle over each muffin.