General Tso's Chicken

General Tso's Chicken

Diced 1 lb. chicken chicken breast and marinated overnight in a marinade of ginger and garlic paste, turmeric, chili powder, and hoisin sauce.

Stir-fried the chicken in sesame oil. For the sauce, I kinda ran out of stuff (who runs out of hoisin sauce? Isn't that one of those things that lives in your refrigerator forever?) so it consisted of 1 tsp each of ginger and garlic paste, chili powder, curry powder, brown sugar, corn starch, rice wine vinegar, sesame oil, 1/4 c. soy sauce and some fresh garlic and ginger. Cooked down and added vegetable broth to thin.

Added brown rice and steamed broccoli (overcooked the broccoli, dammit), and Voila! Urge for Chinese food satisfied!

4 servings: 215 calories (not including rice and veggies)

Cabled Eyelet Baby Blanket

Hopefully this is the last baby blanket I'll need to do for a while, though there are quite a few in my favorites that I'd love to tackle. Eventually.

Now I can concentrate on getting my "wall art" done, and start on my coat. I love starting new projects!

Curried Lentils

Wow, I am going to make this ALL the time. It's super easy and it tastes fantastic. The curry is not too strong, so if you like curry, add more. I'm eating it over couscous this time around, but I'm sure I can find other uses for it.

Curried Lentils

1 cup raw lentils
1 teaspoon olive oil
2 cloves garlic, minced
12 ounces spinach leaves, fresh, washed and chopped
1 (14 ounce) can plum tomatoes, with, liquid, chopped
3 tablespoons soy sauce
1 tablespoon curry powder
1 tablespoon fresh grated ginger
1/4 teaspoon cinnamon
1/4 teaspoon nutmeg

Cook lentils in about 4 cups of water until they are tender but firm. (I think it took about 25 minutes.) Heat the olive oil in a large skillet and saute the garlic. Add spinach leaves and saute over moderately low heat for 1 minute or so until leaves are wilted. Add the lentils and the remaining ingredients to the skillet, cover and simmer over very low heat for 15 minutes.

6 servings: 160 calories

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Best $11 I ever spent.

August Results

Sigh.

August sucked. I started out well, but the second half went to absolute crap. For the second half of the month, I averaged 2761 daily calorie consumption. Averaged.

So I'm starting over again. The gym is doing a contest for the next twelve weeks, so I'm hoping it will provide the extra kick in the pants I need when I'm tempted to binge. It worked well the first time, but back then I was pretty sure I could place. At my gym, not so much. There's a lot of people with a lot more fat to lose.

But anyway, I had to turn in both my nutrition and my fitness goals in order to participate, so I have some accountability. I think I need to do a little self-reflection to figured out why I went wrong.

Zucchini Meatloaf

This is definitely going into the rotation. It was soooo good, and very versitile. I did the turkey option, and I had some fresh basil, so I added that in instead of the dried, and wow what a difference. I'm thinking I'm going to do a bit more tweaking of the recipe to incorporate more elements of Mom's meatloaf (which I consider the gold standard of meatloaf), and to switch up the flavors.



Zucchini Meatloaf

2 eggs
1/2 cup milk
1/2 cup oatmeal, ground
1 cup shredded zucchini
1/3 cup finely diced onion
2 tablespoons chopped fresh parsley
1 teaspoon salt
1/4 teaspoon black pepper
1 tablespoon fresh basil
1/2 teaspoon dried oregano
1/8 teaspoon dry mustard powder
1 1/2 pounds ground turkey
1/2 cup marinara sauce
1 tablespoon grated Parmesan

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Coat a large loaf pan or a large casserole dish with vegetable cooking spray and set aside.

In a large bowl beat the egg with a fork. Mix in milk and ground oatmeal and allow to rest for a few minutes. To the egg mixture stir in the zucchini, onion, parsley, salt, pepper, basil, oregano, and mustard powder. Add ground turkey and gently combine. Place in your prepared pan and press down slightly. (Form into a loaf, but don’t pack the meat tightly, if using a casserole dish.)

In a small bowl combine the marinara sauce and Parmesan cheese. Spread on top of meat. Bake for 60-75 minutes or until a meat thermometer registers 160 degrees. Allow meatloaf to rest for about 5 minutes before slicing.

6 servings: 190 calories

That's It?!?

My state fair hat came back in today's mail. I was a little confused at first as to why I was getting a package, but then I recognized my own handwriting. It was dark, okay?

They judged in three categories on a scale of one to five: Appearance (cleanliness, design, use of color, appropriate fiber choice), Workmanship (gauge, uniformity of stitches, proper casting on and casting off, no knots or loose ends, appropriate seams and other construction techniques) and Finishing (blocking, fringe, embellishments).

I got fives in all three categories and the comments "Very nice job. Tough class!"

"That's it?!?" was basically my reaction.

I don't have much I can go on for improvement for next year (oh yes, I'm planning for next year), except that they probably went a little bit on personal preference and I need to submit things that are more striking/memorable. I've already got a couple ideas in mind.