Croissant Heaven

This post was written 6/1.

I had the best newest coffee this afternoon!  I decided to be adventurous on an insanely weather-wise day (hard rain, hail, a bit of wind and somewhat sunny) and try a new coffee drink at Starbucks.  The blends of my new favorite coffee were superb!  The mixture of caramel, espresso and milk for my nonfat Caramel Macchiato were divine and perfect for wacky weather Saturday.

Croissant photo courtesy of http://www.anspach.eu/bistrorante/

A good friend of mine challenged me find a healthy croissant.  I LOVE croissants.  If calories didn’t exist, I’d eat them with an egg sandwich for breakfast and a regular sandwich for lunch.  Actually I bake the pre-made Pillsbury croissants with bits of chocolate chips for an instant treat!  But be careful, those little devils are addicting!  And you can’t have just one.  They’re all you can ask for in just a few little bites.  Let me tell you it’s an out-of-this-world experience.  The warm, buttery taste of the croissant as it makes its way into your mouth, the softness of how it feels as you secure the croissant so it doesn’t fall out of your hand, and the chocolate….oh, the chocolate!  OK, seriously, I’m not a big chocolate fan/eater, but this is seriously one of my absolute favorite treats!

So I’m on a quest to find and make a healthy croissant, with added chocolate chips of course!

Did you know there’s a new Cooking Channel?  It’s completely separate from Food Network, but FN has this special 2nd show.  I’m really bummed I can’t watch it (as the Cooking Channel was previously known as the Fine Living Network).  I suppose I’ll have to stick to FN. Boo!

Hooray for Easter weekend and a food revolution

I’m so glad for Easter weekend – not only because it’s the weekend, but because I had a day off from work today!  It was so relieving knowing I didn’t have to wake up at 6 a.m. and I didn’t have to be anywhere today.  I did attempt, however, go to Starbucks, specifically aiming to get their spinach and feta wrap, but the Starbucks near my house didn’t have a stove to be able to make them and so off I went to the next Starbucks in town.  When I got there they told me they’d run out.   What the heck?!  I’ve been craving the wrap probably about 6 months and haven’t had a chance to try them yet.  Whyyy!  So, I came home, made an egg-white in a mug dish, toasted an english muffin and had some sips of the Starbucks latte and still have an unopened container of the Greek yogurt and honey parfait sitting in my fridge, out of disappointment for the spinach wrap I was so desperately looking forward to.  I’m sure I’ll have some of the yogurt concoction for breakfast tomorrow.

I have been really touched recently in watching Jamie Oliver’s Food Revolution.  As I’ve watched each episode, I’m realizing more and more that our country has really become a fast food nation.  I acknowledged it before, but the concept never really sunk in as much as it has now.   Looking back at my childhood meals in school, they really did serve us processed food.  However, I don’t remember the other school kids being as overweight or obese as some of these kids in West Virginia.

Have we really become a workaholic nation?  Looking into my own life, I’ve been consumed by work, immediately heading to the gym for a workout and coming home, spending about an hour winding down before I go to bed.  This leaves me no virtual time for cooking.  I thought I was eating healthier – and in certain ways, I am.  However, before I went on my weight loss journey I did use to cook a lot more at home – because I had much more free time in my hands and didn’t work out at all.  But now that I have my schedule set, I unfortunately don’t have as much time as I used to, leaving MigL to pick up food for himself – mainly Taco Bell.

I definitely want my kids to learn the names of fruits and vegetables.  I was  completely APALLED when Jamie asked one classroom full of kids to name some fruits and vegetables he was showing them.  They could not name a single one!  One kid thought tomatoes were potatoes; they had no clue where their favorite food, french fries, came from.  They could, however, quickly pick out chicken nuggets and pizza without thinking it twice.  Really, have we become that busy in our lives?  I know how easy it is to just pick up something at the grocery store from the frozen foods section and voila, 4 minutes in the microwave, it’s done.  Don’t get me wrong, I do that too.  Or it’s even more easy just to go through the drive-thru and pick something out from the menu without even getting out of the car.  But I think that companies should be thinking of ways to make some of their food healthier.  I really don’t need or want to eat something that has 20 grams or more of fat or has 1200 or more calories in something that’s devoured in less than 10 minutes, thank you.  How many more minutes of exercise will it take to burn that stuff off to maintain a healthy weight??  I hadn’t realized that chicken nuggets were made of the inedible leftovers from a chicken, mixed in with fat.  What I found a bit funny but sad, was when Jamie performed that experiment (and before he said that, he mentioned that it was fool-proof), the kids still ate that kind of garbage.  I guess we all eat what we know looks and is familiar and lean towards items that will leave us feeling happy even when we know what we’re eating is bad for us.

MigL and I have vowed to eat more home cooked meals and less take out; to really know what’s exactly in my food and know that I can eat a balanced meal that will fulfill not only my nutritional needs, but will leave me feeling satisfied and healthy.  And eating at home will definitely help us save more money.

Click here to start your own food revolution where you live and help improve school foods!  If you can’t help at a school, start by eating healthier foods and making better food choices at home.  I know it’s helped me become happier with myself and have noticed I have way more energy than I’ve ever had in my entire life!

Eat your vegetables!

Cook once, eat all week

This was today’s motto since I had a day off from work.  Hooray!  That said, I only managed to make two dishes.  I suppose three if you count a side dish.

Today I made an Autumn Pot Roast with Horseradish Sauce and a Layered Mexican Chicken.

I wanted to get some things out of the way so I began making the horseradish sauce.  Normally I don’t really care for this type of sauce but figured I’d make the exception this time.

Next came the halved red potatoes.

I then put them in a  large bowl along with the baby carrots and sweet potatoes so they’d be ready to go.

Once the meat had browned, it was ready to go into the oven.

 

I took a quick break and grabbed one of my favorite cup o’ joe’s – a nonfat vanilla latte.  I felt like I needed an extra shot of energy so I asked for an extra espresso boost.  Wowzers, did that wake me up!

Next I began making preparations for the Layered Mexican Chicken dish.

After boiling the chicken breast and letting it rest I began assembling the dish which included tortillas, sour cream, black beans, cheese, cumin and green chilies.

Shortly after I had finished assembling the layered Mexican dish, I was a bit hungry, so I decided to make a smoothie.  The bananas that I have were starting to get a bit soft so I used some of them, along with some blueberries, soy milk and a tad of vanilla extract and blended them to make my smoothie.  Next time I think I’ll add a little bit of ice to make it colder.

A little while after the pot roast was complete!

Time to eat!  I added some rice and more veggies.

 

cook’s thoughts

I have to admit that I didn’t follow the recipe exactly for the pot roast.  I used sweet potatoes instead of turnips because I didn’t feel quite comfortable using them.  I don’t think I’ve ever had them…. I also had to boil the potatoes, carrots in a pot to soften them up after the veggies had cooked with the meat; otherwise we would have eaten crunchy potatoes!  As I was getting ready to upload the pictures I took for the blog I realized that I’d totally forgotten to add the horseradish!!  Silly me.  Oh well, hopefully next time I’ll remember to add it.  It’s still sitting in the fridge, just like the directions said.  Just forgot to take it out! :D .  As I was eating the pot roast, it was a bit drier than I would have liked and decided that I’d use the leftovers to make roast beef sandwiches – it practically tasted like roast beef.  Maybe you’ll have better luck at keeping it moist.

Onto the Layered Mexican Chicken.  I thought it was OK for a lasagna-style dish.  I’m not too crazy about it.  I’ll have to get creative with the leftovers, for sure.

Autumn Pot Roast with Horseradish Sauce

prep time: 15 minutes
cook time: 2 hrs 30 min

serves: 8

ingredients

2 lbs boneless bottom round roast, trimmed
3/4 tsp salt
2 tsp olive oil
1/2 cup reduced-sodium beef broth
1 onion, chopped
3 garlic cloves, chopped
1 tbsp chopped fresh thyme
1 1/4 lbs baby potatoes, halved
1 1/2 cup baby carrots
2 medium turnips, peeled and cut into 1-inch pieces
1/2 cup fat-free plain Greek yogurt
3 tbsp prepared horseradish
1 tsp Dijon mustard

directions

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees Fahrenheit.

Sprinkle the beef with 1/2 teaspoon of the salt.  Heat the oil in a Dutch oven over medium-high heat.  Add the beef and cook, turning frequently, until browned, about 8 minutes.  Add the broth, stirring to scrape any browned bits from the bottom of the pot.  Add the onion, garlic and thyme; bring to a boil.  Cover and bake, turning once, 1 1/2 hours.

Add the potatoes, carrots, and turnips to the Dutch oven.  Bake, covered, until the beef and vegetables are fork-tender, 45 minutes.

Meanwhile, make the horseradish sauce.  Combine the yogurt, horseradish, mustard and the remaining 1/4 tsp salt in a small bowl.  Cover and refrigerate until ready to use.

Transfer the beef to a cutting board and slice across the grain into 16 slices.  Serve with the vegetables and the horseradish sauce.

Layered Mexican Chicken

Prep time: 20 minutes
Cook time: 45 minutes

serves: 12

Ingredients

1 spray olive oil cooking spray
2 pounds uncooked boneless, skinless chicken breast
30 oz canned black beans, rinsed and drained
3 cups fat-free sour cream
2 cups shredded reduced-fat Mexican-style cheese, divided
8 oz Chopped green chilies, two 4-oz cans
2 tsp ground cumin
1/2 tsp black pepper
12 medium corn tortillas, cut into 2-inch strips
1 cup salsa, mild, medium or hot

Directions

Preheat oven to 350 degrees Fahrenheit. Coat a lasagna pan with cooking spray.

Place chicken in medium saucepan and fill with enough cold water just to cover chicken.  Set pan over high heat and bring to a boil.  Reduce heat to medium and simmer until chicken is cooked through, about 10 to 15 minutes; drain.  When chicken is cool enough to handle, cut into 1-inch pieces.

Transfer chicken to a large bowl and add beans, sour cream, 1 cup shredded cheese, chilies, cumin and pepper; mix well and set aside.

Arrange half of tortillas in bottom of prepared lasagna pan, overlapping pieces to cover surface.  Top tortillas with half of chicken mixture, layer with remaining tortillas and then top with remaining chicken mixture.  Sprinkle with remaining cup of cheese.

Bake until filling is bubbly and cheese is melted, about 30 minutes.  Let stand 5 minutes before slicing into 12 pieces.  Serve with salsa on the side.

Time for bed!  It’s been so nice sleeping in the past couple of days.  I just know I’m going to have a hard time getting up tomorrow morning at 6.