Chicken Nicoise

(makes 4 servings)

Ingredients:

• 4 boneless and skinless chicken thighs or breasts
  
  


• 1¼ cups non-fat chicken broth
  
  


• 3 cloves garlic, finely
  
  


• ½ cup small white onions
  
  


• 1 tbsp Italian seasoning
  
  


• 2 green bell peppers, sliced
  
  


• 6 Kalamata olives, pitted and chopped
  
  


• Cooked rice or noodles (Nutrition Facts calculated without rice or noodles)
  
  

Preparation:

• Remove fat from chicken.
  
  


• Heat ¼ cup of the broth in a large skillet to a boil then add chicken and cook until browned on each side. Remove chicken and set aside.
  
  


• Add onion, garlic, bell peppers, seasoning, olives and remaining broth to skillet, bring to a boil and cook for about 5 minutes.
  
  


• Add chicken then reduce heat to medium. Cook until chicken is no longer pink in the center of the thickest cut of the meat (about 15 minutes).
  
  


• Serve with rice or noodles
  
  

Make 4 Servings:

Weight loss recipes Amount Per Serving(¼ of recipe (278 g)): 179 Calories, 30 g Protein, 7 g carbohydrates, 2 g Dietary Fiber, 3 g fat, 1 g saturated fat, 68 mg cholesterol, 196 mg sodium

I'm a happy girl again!

My coworkers are hysterical. This was my cubicle today (and it's a mess). The red flag means stay out. No one has been allowed to talk to me for the last twelve days. Today someone put up the police tape. I didn't even notice it when they put it up, and I was in my cube. I had my headphones on and was totally focused. It's like I've been in solitary confinement.

After twelve days of feeling like I was in the depths of despair in my job, a miracle happened today. Seriously. I'm not a kidding. A real miracle.

First of all, I've never been this frustrated over a work project. I've had difficult tasks, but I've always had enough time to complete them. This time I was under the gun. After taking over something from a coworker, I had twelve days to complete something that after I got into it, I realized would take at the bare minimum a month, and to do a good job, probably a couple months or more. Of course, by the time I realized this I was knee deep with the a solid deadline in front of me.

Today my manager came back from vacation. She had left right before I started working on this project from hell. Have I mentioned I really like my manager? She's fair, understanding, and really wants the best for her employees. I'm very lucky.

We just happened to arrive at work this morning at the exact same time. Although I hadn't planned to catch her first thing, I asked if we could talk. After I explained the problem to her, she immediately came up with a much quicker and easier solution. Something that would take me about four hours to code instead of two months. She ran it by the director and it was quickly approved. Like I said, it was a true miracle.

I can breathe again.

INO
Yesterday Helen wrote a post about INO. It's a great post and really hit home with me. It's really simple, INO stand for "It's Not an Option".

I've been using INO for over three years when it comes to exercise. There are mornings when going to the gym is really not something I want to do. It would be much easier to sleep or find any excuse to not go. There are many mornings when I'm getting dressed in my workout clothes that I think about not going, but I always tell myself, "hey, not exercising is NOT an option. You have do this, regardless of how tired you feel or if you feel like crap from eating candy yesterday, you're going to the gym!". That was my Sunday conversation with myself after my big Saturday Milky Way bar binge.

I don't know why it's never occurred to me to use INO for eating. Helen talked about INO for her exercise and her food. Eat smaller portions of healthy food. It's worked these three plus years for exercise. I am trainable.

It's almost 2:30 a.m. (yes, I was testing the quick and easy fix before it goes to our QA group tomorrow morning). I ate healthy and smaller portions than normal all day yesterday and today. I thought about getting a snack tonight several times while I was working (I'm working from home). I used INO, and oddly, it worked.

At the moment I'm more tired than hungry so I made it through two whole days now without eating at night. Lately, that's some sort of record for me.

Here are a couple pictures I took after work tonight. I love these trees. I'm not sure, but maybe they're cherry trees? This is right outside my office. That's the moon in top picture, between the branches. It was about 7:30pm last night (I still haven't been to bed yet, but I'm going as soon as I hit publish). The other picture shows my lonely car in the parking lot. :)

 

NEW - Some Like It Hot Chili Pepper Flakes

Some Like It Hot!
You can see the freshness in the color! Our unique blend of hot and mild chili flakes, commonly used for sprinkling on pizza. Extremely fresh and vibrant hot chili pepper flavor - a pinch will do you! About 35,000 heat (Scoville Heat Units). Best stored in refrigerator if keeping long-term to prevent browning and loss of flavor. Do not shake on food:

Easy Chicken Florentine Soup

Here is a hearty chicken soup that is full of nutrients from complex carbs -- Vegetables! Making use of a rotisserie chicken and veggies from the frozen foods department helps put this meal in a pot together in a split second. Great for busy weeknights but don't hang your head in shame if you want to serve this to guests. They will love it too! Enjoy.

Easy Chicken Florentine Soup

Ingredients:
1

Chicken Marsala

(makes 4 servings)

Ingredients:

• 3 cups sliced mushrooms, sliced (Crimini, button, Portobello, Crimini, Porcini)
  
  


• 4 skinless, boneless chicken breast halves (about 1 pound)
  
  


• 4 tsp vegetable oil
  
  


• ¼ tsp salt
  
  


• ¼ tsp freshly ground black pepper
  
  


• ½ cup green onions, sliced
  
  


• ½ tsp dried sage, crushed
  
  


• ¾ cup Marsala wine
  
  


• 1 tbsp water
  
  


• 1 tsp cornstarch
  
  

Preparation:

• Tenderize breast halves by placing each between two sheets of plastic wrap then pound lightly using the flat side of a meat mallet until about ⅛” in thickness.
  
  


• In a large-sized skillet, heat 2 tsp of the oil over medium-high heat and cook mushrooms until tender (about 4 minutes). Remove from heat and set aside.
  
  


• Sprinkle the pepper and salt over the chicken. In the same skillet, heat the remaining 2 tsp of oil over medium-high heat then add chicken and cook for 3 minutes, turning once and no longer pink inside (cook longer if necessary to ensure doneness.) Remove cooked chicken and set aside.
  
  


• In the same skillet, stir in the Marsala wine to the leftover pan drippings, scraping up any browned bits then bring to a boil then reduce heat to medium. Stir in cooked mushrooms, green onions and sage.
  
  


• Combine water and cornstarch in a small bowl and mix thoroughly then add to the Marsala sauce.
  
  


• Cook and stir for about 1 minute or until slightly thickened. Serve chicken topped with Marsala sauce and mushrooms.
  
  

Make 4 Servings:

Weight loss recipes Amount Per Serving(¼ of recipe (228 g)): 215 Calories, 28 g Protein, 4 g carbohydrates, 1 g Dietary Fiber, 6 g fat, 1 g saturated fat, 66 mg cholesterol, 227 mg sodium

Fewer candy bars, more vegetables

My last post was titled "into every life a little rain must fall". That theme continued throughout the week and into my weekend.

Yesterday, Saturday, I drove into the office so I could do some heads down coding, without the interruptions at home. I was there for twelve hours.

I took an hour break and drove over to a Bally's gym in Kent. I'd never been to this gym before but it was 5 miles from my work so it was convenient. Even though I got in a a 30-minute elliptical workout, it was probably the worst gym I've ever visited. I felt like I was going to hit my head on the ceiling when I was on the elliptical.

To annoy me even further there was some goofy guy standing right in front of me doing weird stretching exercises and wiggling his butt back and forth, sticking it up in the air. He did these odd stretching exercises for twenty minutes. It was very odd, especially since the gym was almost empty and he could have chosen a more private location for his obscene stretches. I didn't stay for any strength training. I couldn't get out of there fast enough.

My job these past few weeks has been more coding than anything else. It's hard to explain coding if you're not not familiar with writing code (software development). It's sort of like figuring out a puzzle and getting all the pieces to fit together to create something. Sometimes though, you just can't get the pieces to fit so you try to force them and then you wind up with a big, ugly mess. That's where I was after twelve hours yesterday. Nothing worked.

Last night I dreamed about writing code all night. I tossed and turned, trying to come up with a plan to fix the mess I created. I came up with a few new approaches to try and after trying them today, they seem to be working, with the exception of one test scenario that I can't seem to figure out.

My eating has suffered a lot lately. Yesterday I ate candy for the first time in several weeks. The vending machine kept calling my name, and I had the stupid thought that maybe a little sugar would help me figure out the problem. After three Milky Way bars and two packages of cookies (at 600 calories each for the cookies and they were tiny packages), I was worse off than before. Not only was my mind not working at peak performance (which I desperately needed), but I felt sick and guilty.

I had brought healthy food with me to eat during the day, fresh fruit, turkey breast, carrot sticks, cherry tomatoes, some hummus. Good, healthy food. I didn't want it, I just wanted candy. Something, anything to make me feel better.

It totally backfired on me. The sugar made me feel sick, hot, sweaty, and my mind wasn't working. All I wanted to do was just cry. Finally, by 9pm, I gave up, went home, feeling sad and defeated.

After four slices of cheese and a glass of wine, I felt even worse. My husband was already asleep so there was no one to share my misery, just me and my cat.

Today, Sunday, has gone a tiny bit better. After a marathon house cleaning this morning, with my husband's help (he's trying to be super nice because he knows I'm stressed to the max right now), I started working on my project starting at noon. It's going a bit better, but I'm still not code complete.

I finally have accepted that the world is not going to end if I don't get this done. Life will go on.

My eating this past week has been all over the place. Healthy one day, candy bars the next. I don't think I ate a single vegetable yesterday (I made up for it today). Candy bars, cookies, and fruit. It was a terrible day that was was reflected in what I saw on the scale this morning. 188.6. Talk about adding insult to injury. I know it's just a number. I know it doesn't define me, etc. etc. etc. However, it's a direct reflection of how poorly I handle stress.

Right now, I'm just trying to remember to breathe and try my best to eat healthy good  in moderate portions. Fewer candy bars and more vegetables.

Day 100

Although I've been working out for 100 days straight, I don't have anything outward to show. My weight has pretty much remained the same since the beginning of the year--I've been up and down the same five pounds on the scale. No great losses, no dress sizes smaller, no inches lost. Nothing really. But that's okay.


It's been a rough year. It seems like everyone is going through something, and for me, it's dealing with unemployment. My husband lost his job just about a year ago and it's been hard getting used to a schedule where he's home all the time and to live on a fraction of his old income. It's been disheartening to see him post resume after resume only to end up with nothing. No interviews. No interest. Nada. He has his MBA, a ton of experience, and it's still not enough to get a job during this economy.

I'm a stay at home mom who homeschools our kids. I have to admit, the thought has crossed my mind to enroll the kids in school and find a job. But would the gain of a job make up for the loss of what I currently have? Considering I haven't been in the work force for over 12 years, and none of my children have ever stepped into a school except for my oldest when he was enrolled in Kindergarten, I'm going to have to say, NO. The benefits of working are not greater for the things I would lose.

I'm an emotional eater. I admit, I have NOT been eating as well as I should. I know better, my degree is in Nutrition, but I traditionally deal with the difficult things in life through food. I'm so much better than I used to be, but I'm nowhere near where I'd like to be. I am thrilled to say that although I haven't been eating as well as I should, I haven't binged like I have in the past. Considering my personal stress levels, I could have easily packed on 50 pounds the past 12 months--trust me--but I haven't, and I contribute this to the fact that I have a goal that has nothing to do with eating, or the scale, or what size jeans I wear.

Being successful with a goal that has nothing to do with eating gives me validation. It reminds me that even though I may not have complete control over what I'm eating, I can still feel like I'm accomplishing something with my workouts. For me this is huge, it's helping me maintain during a time I could easily be out of control.

I'm hoping that during the next 100 days I will be able to make better choices in my eating so I can maximize the benefits of the exercise I do each day. :)