Feb 23 2011

Asian Chicken Salad

I’ve cooked so much chicken in the past 10 days, I’m on overload. Chicken is Dan’s go to item when he does his weight loss challenge at work. It’s making a huge difference in our grocery bill now that I’m buying organic – but the quality has been awesome. I’ve made low fat BBQ chicken quesadillas, soups, 3-4 different stir fry recipes and sandwiches. I was on the search for something different. I did a search for Asian Chicken Salad and came up with a million different recipes. I only wanted to use ingredients on hand, I did not want to go to the grocery store.

I started grabbing things out of the pantry to make my own dressing.

The Dressing Ingredients:
2 Tablespoons organic brown sugar
3 Teaspoons Light Soy Sauce
1 Tablespoon Toasted Sesame Oil
1/4 Cup Vegetable Oil
3 Tablespoons Seasoned Rice Vinegar

I whisked everything together and let it sit in the fridge for an hour while I prepared the chicken and salad ingredients.

Instead of using crunchy or rice noodles – I made my carrots into noodles with my veggie slicer. I also chopped up romaine hearts, celery, and onion.

I toasted up some cashews and sesame seeds in some garlic flavored spray oil.

I added my shredded chicken to the salad and poured on 1/2 the dressing and saved the other 1/2 in a container for next time.

This was definitely a different version than the Asian chicken salads I normally enjoy at restaurants – mandarin oranges, fried won tons or crispy noodles, super sauced up, etc. It was a nice break and fun way to use ingredients I already had on hand. I LOVED the curly carrots – they added the perfect amount of crunch to the salad.

Dan gave the salad two thumbs up. He’s got 5 weeks and a few days left of his challenge and he’s pretty much done. He quit drinking Coca-Cola cold turkey. He was a 4-5 cans a day soda guy and now he’s only drinking water. He misses his caffeine and sugar rush.

I prepared meals all weekend long. It’s been fun, but I really need to find some new recipes to try. I think I’m going to get brave at the fish counter my next shopping trip. I’ve been saying that since I started my blog, this time I really mean it.

25 Heart Challenge Update – In case you haven’t been checking the challenge page – I completed my 100th mile on the treadmill last night. 100.6 to be exact. Not too shabby for 22 days. I’ve got 6 days left of my February challenge and I’m already coming up with ideas for March.

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Feb 20 2011

Seattle in 3 hours…

I hopped on a plane to Seattle on Thursday. My flight was late due to my plane needing to be deiced in Seattle before flying to Sacramento. The weather in Sac was brutal too. I had hoped to park in overnight parking, but it was full. I ended up in the dirt/gravel economy lot and it was basically flooded. Awesome. It was raining so hard, my dress pants were sticking to my skin, even more awesome!

The high winds and bad weather did not make for a very smooth flight. I did however have a new book and snacks to keep me company.

So far so good on the book – I’m excited that I also have the second one in the series – The Baker’s Apprentice.

I met my co-worker (Gail) in baggage (She flew Southwest, I flew Alaska) and we made our way to the car rental place. We had a few hours to kill before needing to work on our presentation. I drove us to Pike Place Market and we quickly ran through the place as merchants were closing up shop for the night. I’ve never been to Seattle, so I had to at least see “something” since I only had a few hours that I wouldn’t be working. Gail’s daughter recently moved to Seattle, so she’s been a bunch of times.

I got to see the fish guys do their thing – they were just finishing up with a crowd of people.

I wish I could have packed my suitcase full of produce and other items… everything looked so good!

We sampled some chocolate linguine and it was very interesting. They suggested serving it with ice cream or caramel. Um… kinda of weird, but not sure how else you would serve it.

I was tempted to purchase some of the pasta mixes, but passed.

We went for the chocolate covered cherries. We got them to bribe teachers in our workshops – funny, we never broke them out.

This fish with sunglasses actually freaked me out, yet I still took a photo of it. I swear it was more for Gail. ;).

We left the market and it started to rain. We hadn’t scoped out restaurants or anything – we were exhausted and just wanted to rest our wet bodies and feet. We stopped at a local cheese shop and asked what they recommended within a short walking distance. They gave us two places. We then stopped at a local coffee shop and asked them, they gave us the same two names.

We ended up at Cutter’s Bayhouse near the market. Since I had only eaten 1/2 a whole wheat English muffin and the snack mix on the plane, pretty sure they could have served me cereal and I would have been over the moon.

Gail opted for the Flash-Seared Sushi Grade Pacific Ahi – miso marinated vegetables, wasabi cream and sushi rice.

It was a Christmas tree of awesome. Gorgeous and delicious at the same time. I went with a less healthy option.  I’ve been eating so healthy – I just wanted to indulge in some comfort food.

The Wild Fish and Chip Sampler – Manny’s Pale Ale beer batter, mahi mahi, salmon, ling cod, regular and sweet potato fries, cole slaw, lemon caper tarter and cocktail sauce. Super tasty and it definitely hit the spot on a cold day in a new city. The water view from the restaurant was nice. We were seated right by the window.

One of the chefs came out to chat with us. He was visiting from a sister restaurant in Portland and was intrigued by my photo taking. We had a nice little conversation and then were on our way to the hotel in Bellevue.  We got totally lost. Two iPhones and we still couldn’t find the place. I pulled over 5 or 6 times, we called the hotel, and still had problems. I was seriously ready to stay somewhere else, ha!

We did finally find the hotel and we spent the rest of the evening prepping for our keynote and workshops the next day. I am happy to report that the trip was a huge success! We finished teaching, returned the rental car and I hung out at the airport until my 8:00 p.m. flight home. Gail stayed to hangout with her daughter through the holiday weekend.

Next time I go to Seattle, I definitely want to see more. I’d love to meet up with friends that live there to explore the hidden treasures that the city has to offer.

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Feb 15 2011

Valentine’s Day – Take II

I became obsessed with making sure I picked the right recipe for Valentine’s dinner. I think the whole holiday puts a lot of pressure on couples – and I totally got sucked into that. I wanted to make something that Dan would like, but I also wanted to take it up a notch from our every day meals. I was on my 6th cookbook before realizing that I had wasted the entire morning. I switched gears and went with my more creative side. I 86’d plans for a fabulous dinner and decided to work on the whole “experience” instead.

I set up some old beer crates with trays filled with movie watching eats. I had the plastic popcorn containers and hot dog holders already. I had red and white crazy straws from Christmas stocking stuffers a few years back… all I needed was movie snacks and hot dogs. No problem.

I grabbed some movie theater microwave popcorn, a package of Milk Duds and Raisinetes, Red Vines and we already had Coca-Cola – Dan’s drink of choice.

The popcorn was the best part for me. I haven’t had it in a while and I usually get the Smart Pop, no butter, low fat kind. Movie Theater Popcorn is the way to go!

Red Vines are also a movie essential. We had the movie “The Town” from Netflix and it ended up being the perfect evening. Casual, no pressure, no meal prep/timing to deal with… just a wonderful evening of bullets, bank robberies and Boston. A++

I did however spend time in the kitchen making special cupcakes. I went with a simple recipe from AllRecipes.com

The Ingredients:
3 Cups Self Rising Flour
1/2 Teaspoon Salt
1 Cup Unsalted Butter – room temp.
2 Cups White Sugar
4 Eggs – room temp
1 Teaspoon Vanilla Extract
2 Tablespoons Lemon Zest
1 Cup Whole Milk
1 Tablespoon Fresh Lemon Juice
I also added a few drops of yellow food coloring

Directions:
Preheat oven to 375 degrees F.
Line cupcake pans with paper liners – Mine used all 24 and I had some batter left over
Sift the self-rising flour and salt together in a bowl. In another bowl, beat the unsalted butter and sugar with a mixer until light and fluffy.
Beat in the eggs one at a time, beating each egg until incorporated before adding the next.
Mix in the vanilla extract and lemon zest.
Gently beat the flour mixture into the butter mixture – one third at a time, alternating with half the milk and half the lemon juice after each of the first 2 additions of flour. Beat until just combined – do not over mix.
Fill the cupcake liners with batter (3/4 full), and bake in the oven about 18 minutes.

Buttercream Icing – I used a recipe I had cut out and put in my recipe box – I have no idea where it came from.
1 Cup Butter – softened
3-4 Cups Confectioners Sugar – sifted – I used 4 cups
1/2 Teaspoon Table Salt
1 Tablespoon Vanilla Extract
Up to 4 Tablespoons Milk or Heavy Cream – I used whole milk

Beat the butter for several minutes with a paddle attachment on medium speed. Add 3 cups of the powdered sugar and turn mixer to low until the sugar has been mixed into the butter. Increase speed to medium and add the vanilla, salt and 2 tablespoons of the milk and beat for another 3-4 minutes. At this point I added a little lemon juice – probably was a little too much – so I added more sugar to get it to the consistency I wanted. It turned out great!

I used a pastry bag and some new tips I got – I then sprinkled yellow decorating sugar and lemon zest on top of my buttercream.

I used a red heart shaped platter I already had to display the cupcakes. This was my first time making cupcakes from scratch. I am usually a box girl and I never care what the frosting looks like. I am forever changed…LOL. It really was a lot of fun and besides tasting great, I think they look pretty awesome.

We both ate 1 cupcake and I will probably bring the rest into work. Dan started his work’s Biggest Loser Challenge yesterday – they never know when it will start. The boss brings in a scale, all of the guys put 20 bucks into the pot, and they go for 6-8 weeks. This time around it is a 7 week challenge and there are weekly penalties if you don’t lose – If the scale stays the same or goes up, you have to put an additional 5 bucks into the pot.

This should be interesting. I’m headed to the grocery store after work to gather stuff for his lunches, dinners, etc. I will have to fit in treadmill time the minute I get home, now there will be two of us competing for workout time.

We had a great night. Keeping it simple is sometimes the best way to go.

Mental note: I stress out way too much. I even stress out about stressing out too much, ha! ha!

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