Feta Chicken with Curried Rice and an Update

A new and EXCELLENT recipe!

For this recipe, I LOVE THIS FETA CHEESE, oh my it is soooo yummy

(found it at whole foods, but check your local grocery)

And, it has a lot of good for you vegetables! You could really add whatever you have in your kitchen!

This dish was amazing! I loved it and will definitely be making it again. It reheats well and has lots of flavor!

Feta Chicken with Curried Rice

Recipe adapted from Kitchen Parade

Ingredients for Chicken:

1 cup low-fat Greek-style Yogurt

1 garlic clove, minced

1/2 tsp dried oregano

1/4 tsp black pepper

1 tsp crushed red pepper flakes

1 lb boneless/skinless chicken breast, cut into bite size pieces

1/3 cup feta cheese, crumbled

Ingredients for Rice:

1 Tbs butter

1/2 diced onion

handful of slivered almonds

1 diced red pepper (or could use orange, yellow, green)

3 chopped carrots

3 zucchini, chopped

1 tsp curry powder,

salt and pepper

2 cups of cooked rice (I used basmati rice)

Directions:

Whisk the yogurt, garlic, spices (oregano, pepper, pepper flakes) in a bowl. Add the cut up chicken and stir into the yogurt mix. Cover and refrigerate for at least 30 minutes. This can be made the night before and let it marinate over night!

Cook 2 cups of the rice.

Turn the broiler on, place chicken on baking sheet (I line mine with foil for easier cleanup). Remove the chicken from the yogurt (leftover yogurt mix should be thrown away) and broil for 6 minutes, then turn over, sprinkle with the crumbled feta and broil for another 5 minutes or until well cooked.

While chicken cooking, melt the butter in pan, add onion, almonds, zucchini, chopped red pepper, and carrots. Saute for a few minutes, until cooked and becoming tender. Stir in the curry powder, salt and pepper, and cooked rice. Mix well, continue cooking while you are stirring everything together.

Plate the food, rice on bottom, chicken on top, if you want, throw some feta cheese on top....

This is delicious and gives us a nice taste of ethnic food!

Other than this recipe, things around our home have been going well. I got the laundry room cleaned out (will post pics later) and have been working on sorting thru recipes.

Weight progress: Lost 1 lb last week! I did a lot of walking with Tucher and Mandi/lil Jake which definitely helps add to the cardio. It was absolutely beautiful the latter part of the week and now it is FREEZING and snow flurries predicted. BOO. I am ready for spring to STAY! So far, weight loss is going good, just have to keep staying in the negative!

Have a good MONDAY!

Cleaning out, weight, plus new recipe!

Spring sprung for about 7 days here and now it is back to rain, cold, and grey skies. OH WELL! It at least got me started on some ideas for Spring Cleaning. I am going to do the unthinkable... post a picture of the inside of cabinets and the laundry room (sorry, can't do the closet just yet!) This will hopefully get me to start thinking of cleaning these out so YOU can see the AFTER picture!

This is a pic of the under cabinet where my "filing" system is... Maybe this is why I cannot find my tax information that my CPA needs! It is also Ryan's bag of meds, that will stay there, just hopefully look more organized and cleaned up:

This is directly above the cabinet. So called "recipes" cabinet. Could ANYONE find me the recipe for pulled pork??? Didn't think so because it would takes years and by that time the pork would be spoiled. I am going to 1)go thru all the magazines and loose paper and sort thru the recipes, keeping what I want, 2) we got that nice green leather recipe binder for a wedding present that is personalized- I am going to put my recipes in there instead of being thrown around, and 3) I might just get to use the rest of this space for something else USEFUL!

OK, we also did some redecorating!

Hung some of our pics from the wedding and honeymoon in these Rustic Wood Frames going up the stairs:

And a further away pic:

And FINALLY hung these 25x25 frames with 8x10 in them over our bed! I think that I have wanted to hang these frames for a couple of years now and finally did it! Actually Ryan did hence why they are perfectly straight! More pics from Hawaii (Can you tell we LOVE HAWAII!)

And one last one - sorry for the glare

So, this is turning out to be a long post! Guess that is what happens when you don't blog for over a week...

I lost 1.6 lbs at weight watchers (weighed in last Friday). Overall, I was elated! I did a lot of walking incorporated into pilates and logged all my food, and alcohol (which ADDS up QUICK)

So, I am now into week 2 and things are still going well... except for the Chocolate covered peanut butter pretzels from Trader Joe's that Holly brought me that I can't get out of my mind!

And now for a quick recipe! Let's call it Creamy Chicken Skillet!

Not sure where I got this, but I did find it amongst that dreaded cabinet that you saw up at the top! It was written when I was back at University of Florida so I am not sure who to give props to!

Ingredients:

4 boneless skinless chicken breast - cut into chunks

1 can cream of mushroom

1 jar of sliced mushrooms or fresh mushrooms (whichever you have in kitchen)

6-8 ounces of sour cream

1/4 stick of butter

1 TBS fresh chopped parsely

1 red bell pepper - finely chopped (or you can just add red pepper flakes if you are in a hurry and don't feel like chopping the fresh pepper)

Directions:

Melt butter in skillet

then Add the Chicken and cook for 3 minutes. Then add the mushrooms (including liquid if from a jar) and red pepper. Then Stir in the soup. Cover and cook over low heat until chicken is done (about 10 minutes). Add sour cream, salt and pepper (to taste). Cover and simmer for as long as you can. This can be served over basmati rice or spaghetti.

The recipe for the asparagus will come in next post.... just to keep you wanting to come back!

Weight Watching

The winter months have added a few pounds to my waist line it seems, people sometimes say that it happens during your first year as a newly wed, but I refuse to agree with that. Although I work out at least 5 days a week, and pretty intense, I feel like I need something to be accountable for. I weigh daily and record my weight on Spark People. It is a great website, where you can log food and track your progress. I did this for a while (a year and a half) with no real change in my weight... Why not? Well, I have come to the conclusion that I have no accountability.

I have studied nutrition for over 7 years... one would think I know how to eat. Well, one thing is for sure, I know that I can tell others how to eat! (MOM, BRO, RYAN!). I think that I have come to a point where I know too much about nutrition and sustainable/filling foods and now I need to tackle the mental part, which is arguably the most difficult cause they don't teach you that in school!

Therefore, I have decided to go to weight watchers to have that accountability and group support that I know will help me. Back when I was a senior in high school, I lost 35 lbs doing weight watchers, so I know that it is possible. There is just something about knowing that you have to let SOMEONE ELSE look at your weight weekly. I have a goal to lose 10 lbs and nothing more. Now, whether or not I agree with weight watchers completely, that is a different post that I am sure will develop at some point, but I do agree with having accountability and being in a group setting.

Just giving you an update on what is going on... I will be posting some recipes later and keeping everyone posted on a weekly schedule of my weight loss!

Is anyone else trying to lose some weight? What are your thoughts and how are you doing it? How do you stay accountable and not let those lbs slip back on without noticing?

Take a Stand

Please do this! It is to protect our food industry from letting the USDA ruin what we have that is good for us.

I just submitted my comments to the USDA telling them to protect the integrity of organics by not approving the use of genetically-modified (GMO) alfalfa. The USDA has alarmingly and mistakenly announced that they do not believe that consumers care whether or not GMO's are a part of our food supply and our agricultural production. Approving GMO alfalfa would significantly harm the integrity of and access to organic food, as well as the livelihoods of organic farmers. We need to show them that we do indeed care!

Please take a moment to submit your comments to the USDA by following this link from Food Democracy Now! Then please pass this on. Every voice counts!

http://fdn.actionkit.com/cms/sign/make_a_stand_for_organics/?source=taf