Another One Bites the Dust

Just like that, another year is gone.  I celebrated my birthday this past week.  You know, after you reach a certain age, you don’t really celebrate much.  But, I’m never one to turn down people being nice to me, so I celebrated anyway.  The best part of the day? Coming home to a completely cleaned house and these…

Pretty great huh?  I also got to go to a delicious little French restaurant.  We split everything. A baked brie and stuffed calamari for appetizer, Lamb shank and sea bass for entrée, and finally banana creme brulee and triple berry tart with vanilla gelato for dessert. So, amazing!

We finally remember to have someone take a picture for us and this is what we get

Wait… did you say you had dairy?!  Why, yes, yes I did.  My six month dairy cleanse is over.  On my birthday was the first day to start trying dairy again.  I loaded up on digestive enzymes with an extra dose of lactase and crossed my fingers.  This went so much better than The Cheese Experiment.  No migraine!!!  I’m still going to limit my dairy intake to just a couple times per week, but at least it will be a little easier to eat out without driving the cooks crazy 🙂

We take better pictures ourselves

Now that it is FINALLY fall again I decided to make some spaghetti squash.  This recipe is super good.  Even your biggest critic on not using pasta will not complain.  You have my word.

Spaghetti Squash with Lemon Caper Sauce  (adapted from The Food Network, Sara’s Secrets)

• 1 large spaghetti squash
• 2 T olive oil
• 8 T of butter (or Nature’s Balance to keep dairy-free)
• 2 T capers
• 1/4 cup diced zucchini
• 1/4 cup diced red pepper
• 4 T lemon juice
• 4 T chopped fresh parsley
• 1/4 -1/2 cup roasted cherry tomatoes
• 1 lb chicken breast

1. Preheat oven to 400*.  Cut squash in half, lengthwise and scoop out all the seeds (I seasoned the seeds with some olive oil and salt and cooked them with the squash, just like pumpkin seeds).  Rub the inside with olive oil and season with salt and pepper.  Place cut side down on a rimmed baking sheet with about 1/2 inch water.  Cover with foil.  Cook until rind has a give, 20-30 minutes.  When its done (careful not to burn yourself) scrap out the meat with a fork and set aside keeping it warm.

2. As the squash is cooking cut the tomatoes in half.  Season with a little olive oil and salt and pepper.  Roast along with the squash for about 20 minutes.  Add to the spaghetti squash.

3. In a hot skillet, melt the butter and cook until it browns.  Add the capers, zucchini, and pepper and cook until tender (about 5-8 minutes).  Stir in the lemon juice and parsley and season with salt and pepper if needed.

4. In another hot skillet add 1-2 T oil.  Season chicken with salt and pepper and cook through, depending on the thickness.  I usually get the chicken tenders at the store so that they are smaller pieces to cook.

5. In a large bowl mix the squash and tomatoes with the sauce.  Top with the chicken and serve immediately.

My phone erased the original picture so this is the leftovers. Still looks pretty delicious If I do say so myself!

For dessert we had, and will forever be having, what I got instead of a birthday cake.

The largest pumpkin pie in the world!  Yes, it’s time for my pumpkin obsession to begin again.  Yea for fall!

And Yea for pumpkin pie and chocolate port to get me through some studying 😉

Ready for Battle

This weekend we decided to try something new. I’ve now been consistent with my running and lifting,but this my friends, was a whole new beast. The Warrior Dash. Just a little 5k, no big deal.  Oh, but let’s throw some cars to climb over, walls to scale, ropes to climb, fire to jump over, and end with crawling through mud under barbed wire. Now that is what I’m talking about! First, obviously, you must have a costume.

We decided to call ourselves Warrior Goddess. Chad was a little offended so we amended it to Ultimate Warriors. I think we look tough 😉 It’s the gold sequin headbands.

It was pushing triple digits in heat again so our 3 pm start time was not ideal. But, we made it, we got dirty, and had a blast doing it.  I highly recommend even you non-runners to try one of these events.

Now, if you are going to race like a warrior you need to eat like one too.  Here is a recipe that I originally started using back when I was on the Clean diet a year ago. It was a good book with many good points. I found, however, that it is just not realistic as a lifestyle. It is also not a good choice for someone who works out. I became very irritable and tired, which is exactly opposite of how you are told you will feel. I was in the middle of a tough quarter in grad school, so being exhausted all the time was not an option. I only lasted two weeks of Clean. But, as I said I learned some good things from it and I use many of the delicious, healthy recipes like this one.

Baked Citrus Fish in Parchment

• 2 filets of fish (I’ve used Cod, Halibut, and Orange Roughy, all good)
• 2 T olive oil
• 1/4 cup chopped Kalamata olives
• 1 Lemon sliced
• 1/2 zucchini sliced
• 2 T capers*
• 1 T lemon juice*
• salt and pepper to taste*
• Parchment paper

Preheat oven to 425*. Cut two strips of parchment, approximately     in size.  Drizzle oil on paper and place fish on top. Arrange zucchini and lemons on top of fish, alternating them.  Top with remaining oil and lemon juice (split between the two equally).  Add the olives and capers to each and salt and pepper.  Fold up paper around fish like a little package.  If I can’t get the paper to stay put I secure it with toothpicks.  Bake in the oven for about 12-15 minutes.The paper will be slightly browned. Serve in the paper immediately. 

This time I didn’t have the lemons, but I would highly recommend them. I also added fresh basil from my plant and used spears of mini zucchini instead of slices. I grilled some shiitake mushrooms and brussels sprouts for a side.  Just a little olive oil drizzled on top with some salt and pepper. There is also a mini steamed artichoke in there 🙂 This is so easy, so healthy, and so delicious!

It’s probably about time that I give an update on the actual Operation Meltdown.  The mission has been less about weight loss and more about getting healthy and it is paying off.  Slow and steady I am now down six pounds.  Not a ton but if you have been following for a while you have seen the ups and downs as I have tried to figure out what works and what doesn’t.  I’m feeling good and I’m only four pounds away from my goal. It’s not a sprint, it’s a marathon!