Saturday, February 28, 2009

Chicken, Asparagus, + Udon Noodles

by Diana on February 28, 2009

I racked my brain all afternoon trying to come up with something simple and tasty to make for dinner using chicken.

I’ve been working on making up recipes on my own, but hit the cookbooks for some inspirations today. I find that I have a hard time making things from cookbooks when I’m cooking from my pantry/food stash since I always seem to be missing something in the recipe ingredient list. I didn’t find any recipes to use the exact ingredients I had, but I did find a good Robin Miller recipe to use as a base.

I had a craving for the salty taste of soy sauce, so I decided to do a noodle-stir-fry using ingredients we already had on hand. We used the asparagus leftover from yesterday and some udon noodles we had in the pantry. I was surprised when I read the label to see that these noodles are actually whole wheat! Woohoo! I love finding out something I already like is healthy for me.

I felt like I was juggling pans tonight with 3 going with quick-cooking items. The chicken took about 3-5 minutes per side. The noodles took about 3-4 minutes. The asparagus took about 3-4 minutes. I was trying to time them all so they were finished cooking when I needed them to be done to properly bring together.

I used the pasta water to de-glaze the pan and scrape up the brown bits from cooking the chicken.

Moving the noodles from the pot to the pan. Just like Giada.

All mixed together.

Topped with crunchy sesame seeds…mmm! Hubby was completely infatuated with this recipe….probably because it was tasty and spicy as heck! Lay off the hot sauce if you don’t want this to burn too much. You can always drizzle your noodles with a wee bit of plain vinegar if things get too hot for you. That’s a trick I learned at PF Changs. The vinegar, surprisingly, doesn’t change the flavor of the dish, too much…really not at all…it just cuts the heat.

Chicken, Asparagus, + Udon Noodle Stirfry

Adapted from Robin Miller’s Thai Chicken + Noodles in Robin to the Rescue

Ingredients

3 ounces organic udon noodles

1 tbsp peanut oil, plus 1 tsp

2 cloves garlic, minced

1/2 tsp dry ginger

2 boneless, skinless chicken breasts, sliced/cut somewhat thin

1/8 cup soy sauce

1 tsp sesame oil

1 tsp hot sauce (if you want it spicy)

1 cup asparagus, chopped into 1 inch pieces

2 tsp sesame seeds

salt and pepper

Directions:

Heat 1 tbsp oil in a large pan over medium heat. Season chicken with salt and pepper. Add chicken and cook till one side is browned, about 3-5 minutes. Flip chicken and cook till browned on other side. Add garlic for last minute of cooking time.

Meanwhile, heat 1 tsp of oil in a small pan over medium heat. Cook the asparagus for about 3-4 minutes till cooked to crisp-tender. Season with salt and pepper

Meanwhile, cook udon noodles according to package instructions. Try to time chicken to finish cooking just before noodles. Once chicken is cooked, add about 1/4 cup pasta water, 1/8 cup soy sauce, sesame oil, and hot sauce and bring to a boil. Add asparagus + noodles to pan (I like to move directly from the pot of pasta to the pan with chicken). Toss and cook for about 2 minutes, stirring frequently.

Serve in low bowls. Top with sprinkle of sesame seeds. Enjoy!

{ 3 comments }

SCBR Week 4/ Day 7 Food/Exercise Journal

by Diana on February 28, 2009

in Breakfast,Cooking & Baking,Dessert,Dinner,Food Chic,Life,Lunch,SCBR,Snack

9:30 am – Coffee + 10 Grain Apple Pie Hot Cereal – Full (7)

I woke up "early" today around 8:30 am but was slow moving. By 9:30 am I had taken the dog out and brewed coffee for hubby and me. I started drinking my coffee while making breakfast. I neeeeeded some coffee asap!

I decided to try something like those Apple Pie Oats, but with some Bob's Red Mill 10 Grain Hot Cereal instead.

The grain cereal was good, but didn't taste nearly as much like Apple Pie as the oats earlier this week did. I still enjoyed them quite a bit and even hubby seemed to like them! I only used 1/2 the apple to cook, so I served the other half topped in the bowls.

Pre-cooking ingredients (for 2):

1/3 cup Bob's Red Mill 10 Grain Cereal
1 cup water
1 tsp flax seed
1/2 apple, chopped

Post-cooking ingredients (for 2):

1 tbsp brown sugar, stirred in
4 tbsp 2% milk, stirred in
dash cinnamon on top (challenge ingredient!)
1 tbsp chopped pecans, topped, per bowl

I piddled around this morning while we figured out what to do today. As I mentioned yesterday, my school celebrated Homecoming today, however, the weather was far from cooperative. It was cold, rainy, and just plain icky outside! With plans a bit up in the air, I was glad to at least have a nice, hot breakfast with some steamy coffee.

A little more coffee to help wake up.

1:30 pm – Zaxby's! – First Signs of Feeling Full (6)

Either I've had a lot more splurges than normal, or I actually eat more fast/junk food than I thought. Hubby wanted to get food at the Homecoming basketball game today, but I talked him into Zaxby's. There are some fast food places that I have no trouble avoiding and some that have a fond place in my heart. Zaxby's falls into the latter category. I checked the nutritional information before we left and it was about what I expected, so I tried especially hard to eat intuitively and to stay under "6" (first signs of feeling full) on the SCBR Hunger Continuum. This was a challenge because everything tasted so good, I just wanted to keep eating and eating. I was able to stop myself at a reasonable point though.

Above is the "after," which hubby happily helped finish. I ended up eating all 3 chicken fingers, about 1/2 the fries, 1/4 of the texas toast, 1/4 of the honey mustard sauce, and about 1 tbsp of ketchup. Since my portion was so small, the calorie count wasn't too ridiculous. The worst part was the complete lack of fruit/veggie servings for this meal. I probably should have brought some fruit to munch on, now that I think of it. Lunch tasted darn good, either way!

I had coca-cola for my drink, but hardly drank any. I just like a little sweetness.

We made it to the game a little late but just before it kicked off. Luckily, Michelle + Ben had saved us some seats. The game was pretty good and we won! Yay!

5:00 pm – Kale – Content (5)

After the game, we came straight home. I checked my email and got a hankering for a snack, so I finished off the rest of the marinated kale from yesterday…

…along with some water. See…I told you I'm not good at drinking water on the weekends! I really should have had more by now! Not only that, but thank goodness I had the kale for a snack. Today's eats were pretty low on fruit and veggies!

6:00 pm – Peppermint Tea – Content (5)

The weather outside was so cold and yucky.

I decided to take a moment to relax and curl up on the couch with some nice, hot, peppermint tea and some cookbooks to try to figure something out for dinner. I also caught a DVR'ed Quick Fix Meals with Robin Miller for extra inspiration.

8:00 pm – Chicken, Noodle, and Asparagus Stirfry – First Signs of Feeling Full (6)

I did end up making a variation of a Robin Miller recipe. I tried to find it online, but it's not there, so I'll post my adapted version in a bit (separate post) since I made a few changes.

I had a wee bit of wine and some water with dinner.

I ended up having to take a PF Changs trick and put some white vinegar on my dinner to cut the heat. It was spicy but delicious. Hubby kept raving how good it was and literally couldn't stop eating. He tried to restrain himself from eating too much but didn't seem to have any trouble polishing off the rest of dinner. I was pleased to see him finally excited about dinner…though he usually enjoys dinner quite a bit, he hasn't had that "5-yr-old-boy-eating-ice-cream" look in awhile. I bet he doesn't even know he ate whole wheat noodles…hehe. According to the noodle package, they're made from 100% whole wheat flour! They don't even taste like it! They just taste good!

The recipe was a good one…definitely a keeper.

8:30 pm – Jen's Individual Chocolate Cake – First Signs of Feeling Full (6)

My sweet tooth always comes out after dinner. I crave something, anything sweet. It's a battle every night to not consume something sweet. The other day, I reeeeeeally wanted to make a batch of oatmeal chocolate chip cookies, but it was too late to make any, so I settled on nothing. My dessert stomach (the stomach reserved for all things sweet) was not happy. I started wondering if it was possible to make, perhaps, an individual oatmeal chocolate chip cookie? Could such a thing be possible? Well, it's not a cookie, but enter Jen's Individual Dark Chocolate Cake, which she so graciously shared on her blog, Maple N' Cornbread. Jen has featured her individual chocolate cake several times on her other blog, Glowing From Within.

Hubby and I were both wanting something sweet after dinner tonight, so I decided to give the recipe a go, even though I didn't have sour cream or yogurt.

In desperate need of something chocolate-y, I decided to try subbing some canola oil for the sour cream/yogurt. I think it totally messed it up. That, or I overcooked it.

My cake came out dry. *sad face* The flavor was delicious, though! I will have to give the recipe another go. Next time, I'll use the real ingredients and maybe try shortening the cooking time.

Dry or not, I still ate my half (hubby had the other half). It was sooo tasty (albeit dry) and totally satisfied my sweet tooth. Jen was sweet enough to run the calcs for me and this little baby is a mere 240 calories! Not too shabby, eh? I had to add extra calories into my daily count, though, since I used canola oil. Doh!

Hubby and I also had some milk with our chocolate goodness. We love milk with desserts! I made him pose as he was walking from the kitchen to the living room.

Calorie Summary

Calories Eaten: 1804

I didn't burn any calories since I didn't work out today. I totally went over again, but not too shabby considering 1 fast food meal and a decadent chocolate dessert! I think it's going to be awhile before I'm able to balance my foods and snacks calorie wise, but I'm getting there!

Breakfast, Dessert, Dinner, Life, Lunch, SCBR, Snack

{ 4 comments }

Look Ma! New Shoes!

by Diana on February 28, 2009

in Uncategorized

February is almost over, which means I finally feel comfortable spending some of my shop-budget money for the month. I mean, I am perfectly comfortable blowing all the money as soon as the month starts, but I’m trying to pay better attention to my finances, so I decided to wait it out. I mentioned awhile back that there were quite a few things I want to get at the moment, but neglected to put 2 items on that list: new running shoes and a pair of dance shoes.

Well, I decided to get the dance shoes this past Friday, and I think I have a pretty good, logical reason for pushing this purchase to the front of my buy-list.

My knees starting bothering me earlier this past week…Thursday/Friday-ish. I brushed it off at first, but then found this article on runnersworld.com, a site my friend emailed me about. C seemed to be the closest answer to match, but who knows? I’m not a fan of trying to diagnose myself using web sites. The point is that I guess I’m just not as young as I used to be. I keep forgetting that I’m not in the shape I was when I was skating 6 times a week. I’ve been pushing it pretty hard last week and I guess all the walking/jogging was jarring my out-of-shape legs more than I knew. I realized that I really need to start taking better care of my body by resting when it’s tired or uncomfortable and by giving it the proper equipment to protect it.

My instructor recommended getting some dance-style shoes saying they would be better for my feet and I would have an easier time dancing in class. I’ve heard other people say they’re good for your knees, so it seemed like a no brainer to get them. I got in to work early Friday and was able to leave early to try to get these shoes before my Friday dance class. Now, I know that I said that I need to listen to my body and rest it, but…well, I’m stubborn. The Friday dance class is the only 1 of the week that I can make and I had been looking forward to it all day, so I was pretty determined to go. I figured I’d rest up the rest of the weekend, if needed, to make up. Anywho, I ended up spending about 1 hour on the road and in stop and go traffic to get to the shop, Lebo’s, where they sell western and dance goods. I quickly found the shoes and picked up a wrap skirt to wear to skating next time I go (I had gone all that way, might as well have gotten that while I was there, no?). The traffic was way worse than I thought it would be and I pulled into the parking lot for class 2 minutes after the start-time.

I sat in the car for a minute wondering if I should go in. I absolutely hate going to things late and didn’t want to be rude, but like I said, I was really determined to go. I decided, what the heck, I’m here, I may as well go, late or not. I got to the class as they were getting started, put on my new shoes and got to dancing.

The new shoes were quite weird looking (I didn’t do much formal dancing as a kid/teen). They didn’t have any sole in the middle. They seemed quick slick and without traction on the bottom. I was worried I was going to fall on my hiney during class and totally embarrass myself, but guess what? The shoes were awesome! A totally worthy investment! They didn’t slip at all, and I didn’t even notice the “weird” sole. They were actually much easier to dance in and made me feel more “professional“…haha. Speaking of professional, they started training peeps from my class to be instructors. I am toying with the idea of asking about it/signing up. I think it would be so fun to teach a class, but I’m not sure if my work schedule would let me commit due to the high-probability of traveling. Either way, I was totally glad I went to class…I had a great workout and a great time!

Semi-related reader question: When you were kids/teens, did anyone else ever want to dress like their idol when they did a sport? When I did ice-skating, I remember I got a necklace just like Michelle Kwan’s and wore it religiously every day…just like her, of course. My mom’s friend actually brought it back with her from China! I still have it somewhere.

In-closing…Remember to take care of yourselves. I’m not saying go have a shopping spree at a sporting goods store, but try to listen to your body and budget for the proper equipment. Your body will thank you for it. With this in mind, I think I’m going to have to use my next budget purchase on new running shoes. Mine are about 5 years old (though I have only worn them for walking, primarily)! I doubt they offer any sort of support, so I’m thinking new shoes would be much better for me and my walking/attempt at running.

PS My knees feel fine today! Must have been the shoes….haha…jk. Either way…Yay! Hopefully, I’ll get a good workout tomorrow!

PSS It’s supposed to snow here tomorrow…a lot (for us)! Let’s hope it doesn’t start too early…I’m supposed to have a most-awesome brunch with some friends and I really want to go!

Exercise