Tuesday Check In

Ok. Missed a week somewhere. Oops!

I've had an okay last couple of weeks. I still need to work on my snacking- and get back to tracking my food.

I HAVE done pretty well with the exercising- boot camp, the gym and yoga starting back on Wednesdays. I'd like to get back to more consistent running, but I was feeling under the weather this weekend and yesterday and seem to have pulled my back again. It felt ok during boot camp tonight, so hopefully it recovers quickly. Our trainer has been pulling out the stops at Boot Camp- increasing the intensity to get results. He wants us to follow an eating plan also

I tried a few recipes over the last couple of weekends (as pictured above). From the new Cooking Light (Jan/Feb 2010) I made the Leek and Potato Soup (in the Jamie Oliver article) and Coconut Shrimp with Fiery Mango Sauce.

My husband and I enjoyed the shrimp though some of them were a little crispy! The suggested cooking time (2 1/2 mins on each side at medium high) was just too long on my stove top anyway. I cut the time down, turned down the temp, but they still cooked super fast. The sauce was tasty, too, though I couldn't find mango nectar and substituted with peach which they had. Also, I forgot to add the hot pepper, so it wasn't fiery! This recipe deserves a redo at some point though, so I'll try it a little spicier.

The chicken pictured was a Kung Pao Chicken recipe from the new issue of Shape magazine. It was enjoyable also. I really enjoy anything with sesame oil.

Hope everyone had a healthy last couple of weeks! with no back strain! :)

A New Year to be healthier!

Long time no post, again. Hope everyone had a nice Christmas! I did. It was a family affair- pretty action packed and not very low fat, to say the least. During the 2 weeks of holidays, I did manage two gym workouts (one at which I fell off the treadmill- ouch! but that's another story), one book camp session with our trainer (at the gym we worked out this summer) and one skating session.

I didn't get everything I hope to do done over the holidays- like making our gingerbread cookie winter scene that I plan to do every year, but I did manage to use my Nigella Christmas cookbook for a number of recipes. I won't link them here- they aren't light recipes- but I will list the ones I did make- for my own amusement. lol. They are as follows: Party Parma Ham Bundles, Chocolate Peanut-Butter Cups, Ginger-Glazed Ham, Macaroni Cheese De Luxe, Spiced and Superjuicy Roast Turkey with Allspice Gravy, Redder than Red Cranberry Sauce, Gingerbread Stuffing, Christmas Sprouts, Sticky Gingerbread, Pumpkin Pancakes with Sticky Maple Pecans and lots of cocktails and mocktails. :)

I liked everything from her cookbook- probably my least favourite was the Pumpkin pancakes, though it might have just been the 'unusual' flavour, because I started to enjoy them more after the first taste. We'd also never brined a turkey before, and I really enjoyed the juicy result of the brining. My husband didn't love dragging a huge tub of turkey in brine to the basement fridge, but I think I'd get him to do it again next turkey. ;)

I also made the Pumpkin Ice cream Torte from Cooking Light again. We had it New Year's Day and it held it's own, even surrounded by more decadent options. I really like that recipe. Now the holidays are over, I also tried a couple of CL recipes for dinners. Last night I made Pan- Fried Chicken (6pts) from the Best of 2009 online article (originally from June's issue- a recipe that I'd meant to get to, but never did.) It was pretty time consuming in terms of time waiting for the chicken in coating to chill and then, later, to come to room temperature, but otherwise, it was really easy to put together. I really liked the flavour of the coating. It was even good cold for lunch the next day at work. The cinnamon flavour is especially tasty.