Grilled chicken with smokey salsa and herbed white beans

For Christmas this year my amazing husband got me a membership to the local fitness club. Now, I know a lot of women would be pissed thinking their husband was implying they need to lose weight. But I actually was DYING for this gift because I DO need to lose weight or, rather, I need to get back in shape. Its not so much the quantity I'm concerned about as the quality of the weight, if ya know what I mean.
Since I've been staying at home and not bringing in an income we've had to cut out certain luxury expenses. Unfortunately for me, my gym membership was the first to go. So on Christmas morning when I opened the little black felt jewelry box and found the keyring membership card, I was ecstatic. This new gym has a nursery with free childcare for members and a large indoor pool along with a fitness room that also offers a wide selection of classes from spinning to yoga to boot camp. Have I mentioned I'm super excited about this?
So to kick off the new year and my new membership right, I thought it only appropriate to start sharing some of my favorite no guilt recipes. I got a little off track while I was pregnant and then as a new mom I had all of these people bringing me delicious dishes... it would have been rude not to accept. And then it was summer and it gets so hot in the summer here that you NEED ice cream to keep you from overheating. And then it was autumn. And then the holidays came 'round and well, you know, its the holidays. Well now I'm fresh out of excuses. Not to mention the fact that when Liam was first born my mantra was: It took 9 months to gain all that weight it will take 9 months to lose it all again. Liam is now 1 and No, I did not lose it all.

Back before I got married I was at the pharmacy waiting for a prescription when I decided to check my blood pressure. Imagine my surprise when at 32 the result was hypertensive in flashing red lights. I thought "It must be a fluke, the machine isn't calibrated properly." So the next time I passed by a different machine I sat down and stuck my arm in. HYPERTENSIVE. Hmm. That is no good. When I got home I made an appointment with my doctor. Together we discussed my options. Not wanting to resort to medication right away we agreed that I should try and get my BP under control through diet and moderate exercise. After only 6 weeks my BP dropped from 145/90 to 130/80 and after 6 months it was 125/70. At which point I became a firm believer that the food we use to fuel our bodies can heal as well as harm us.
So this is not a diet and these are not diet recipes. This is me getting back on track and being conscious.

Here are the rules I chose to live by:
Adapted from Dr. Mehemet Oz & Dr. Michael Roizen.

1. Never buy anything with these ingredients: Hydrogenated oils, High Fructose Corn Syrup, Enriched/bleached grains, or phenylalanine. Those 4 little ingredients are in almost everything we buy off the shelf at the supermarket. Go to your fridge and pantry and take a look. bread, cereal, colas, BBQ sauce, rice, pasta, the list goes on and on. You'll be tossing a lot, which is a waste, I agree but you're better off in the long run.
2. Go brown. Whole wheat pasta instead of white, brown rice instead of white, whole wheat bread instead of white, substitute sweet potato for white baking potato unless you're one of the few people I know who can eat a baked potato without all the butter and sour cream and bacon bits. If it looks like it did when it came out of the ground you can eat it. ;)
3. Do not deprive yourself, totally, of anything you are craving, just make a comparable substitution and practice moderation. If you're like me you NEED something sweet to cap off a meal. If you've got the time make a big batch of deceptively delicious chocolate chip cookies and freeze them. When a craving hits you can defrost them in the microwave in just a few seconds but they wont be as readily available for you to eat the whole batch in one sitting.
4. Get off your butt. There is no escaping it. Move your body enough to get your heart rate elevated for 30 minutes a day. And 30 minutes is nothing, that's a mini-dance party in the living room with your toddler.

Now that you've got the foundation lets cook! Tonight's Dinner: Grilled Chicken with smokey salsa and herbed white beans.

Here is what you will need:
2 chicken breasts, trimmed.
1 cup chipotle salsa
1/2 avocado, diced
2 teaspoons olive oil
cilantro, chopped
1 can great northern beans
1 clove garlic
1/2 tomato diced
1 tablespoon balsamic vinegar
salt and pepper


Will start with the Herbed white beans.

Of course you'll need some garlic minced up.

And a small saucepan with a teaspoon of olive oil in the bottom to which you'll add the garlic.

While the garlic is getting intimate with the oil in the saucepan open a can of white beans. I prefer great northern beans simply because of the name. I love the north.

Strain and rinse your beans

Then add them to the saucepan with the oil and garlic

Pretty tomato.

Diced tomato.

Pretty diced tomato tossed in with the white beans.
One tablespoon of balsamic vinegar gives these beans the tangy kick that makes me love them so much.

Fresh Herbs. Any fresh herbs you want. I chose cilantro because it goes with the rest of the meal but basil, chive, parsley, thyme, you name it, it would work.

Add salt and pepper to taste and stir to combine. Reduce the heat to very low otherwise while you're making the chicken the beans will get mushy.


Take two well trimmed rinsed chicken breasts. I like the thin ones, they cook quickly. If yours are the fatter ones just pound them out with the flat side of a meat mallet.

Salt and pepper generously.

lightly sprinkle a grill pan with a little olive oil and set heat to medium-high

When the pan is hot drop the chicken breasts onto the grill pan seasoned side down, then season the other side.

I left mine for about 8 minutes each side.

Perfect!


Avocado! and more cilantro. Two of my favorite things in the world.

Once the chicken breasts are cooked through top with the salsa and leave on the heat until everything is nice and warm.



We also had broccoli with ours but it didn't look proper on the plate.

There you go, our light and healthy dinner with LOADS of yummy flavor! Enjoy!

Marvelous Mac and Cheese.

Caution! ¡Cuidado! Avertissement! Warning!

This is dangerous. So very dangerous it may cause you to fall over and die. Simply die after one delicious bite.

Better invite your friends over for dinner when you make this one, You'll want to say goodbye.


Here is what you will need:

2 cups *Macaroni
4 Tablespoons Butter
1 whole Medium Onion, Cut In Half And Sliced Thin
5 slices Regular Bacon
2 tablespoons All-purpose *Flour
1 cup Whole Or 2% Milk
1/4 cups Half & Half
1 whole Egg Yolk, Beaten
Salt and Pepper, to taste
1/4 cup Grated smoked cheddar cheese
1/4 cup Grated Parmigiano Reggiano Cheese
1/4 cup Soft Goat Cheese
* I use whole wheat, but some people still think its gross so use what you like.
Preheat oven to 350 degrees

Well hello there. At the restaurant, when you walk in the front door you are immediately greeted by a porcelain pig holding a sign that reads: Bacon is meat candy. People routinely take pictures of and with this proud piggy because, I believe, no truer words have ever been written in chalk. Bacon IS meat candy.

Cooking bacon is a labor of love. To get it just right you need to be patient cooking over medium- high heat, turning the bacon often and rotating each slice so that they all get there fair share of time on the hottest part of the pan in the middle. At least that's how I do it.

In my humble opinion, bacon needs to be cooked crisp! Once you've reached your desired crispiness (they wont truly firm up until they've had some time off the heat)
Set the bacon aside to cool. I made extra for BLTs later!

Slice the onion. I also chopped up some green onion to use as a garnish later.


Saute the onion in the bacon grease until they're soft and golden. Remove the onion from the pan and place on the plate with the bacon.

Drop 4 tablespoons of butter into the saute pan.

Add the flour and whisk to combine. Cook, stirring constantly for about a minute

Add the milk and cream and cook over medium heat for 3 to 5 minutes until thick

Reduce heat to low and salt a pepper to taste.

Beat the egg yolk and temper it by adding a few teaspoons of the hot milk/flour mixture stirring constantly. Add the egg yolk mixture to the sauce and cook about a minute. If you're really thorough, like me, you'll be sure to get a picture of this crucial step. (!)

CHEESE!

Add the cheese to the sauce and stir until melted.

Give the bacon a rough chop

then add the bacon and onion to the cheese sauce and stir to combine

Add the cooked macaroni noodles and stir to combine

We're in the home stretch now!

Finally, place the mac and cheese in an oven safe dish

At this point what harm could it do to add a little more cheese.

Bake at 350 for about 15 minutes until the top is crispy and golden brown.

This is mac and cheese on steroids- but in a good way.

A warm, gooey, savory, comforting, good way.

Now prepare to meet your maker.

Enjoy!!

Monkey Cupcakes

Monkey Cupcakes... is there really any other way to go for one's FIRST BIRTHDAY? I think not.
These are crafty and cute and your kids will get a kick out of them. But best of all they are so easy to make. Nothing to it.


Check it out:

First, you make yourself some cupcakes. I added mashed banana to a box mix, which not only gave it great banana flavor but also made them super moist.

Ginger snaps cut into 2 pieces, one just a little larger than the other I'd say 60/40. If your ginger snaps are as hard as ours were place them on a plate, cover with a damp paper towel and microwave for 30 seconds. They will soften right up to help make the cut clean.


You'll also need chocolate frosting, a bit of white icing, mini oreos and brown m&ms

Frost the cupcake with a thin layer of the chocolate.

Place the ginger snap like so- to create the "mug"

Split the mini oreos in two, like you did when you were a kid and wanted to lick the cream except don't lick the cream this time... someone else might not appreciate your tongue on their monkey's ear. Take the two halves of oreo and stick to the cupcake. You might need to frost the oreos a little more to get them to stay put.

Take some of the chocolate frosting and put it into a plastic sandwich bag. Snip the teeniest bit off of one of the corners to create a piping bag. Now pipe the hair and the nostrils.

Put a dollop of the white icing where the eyes go and top with m&ms.

And Viola!

Super cute and very impressive!