8 Bucks, 18 Meals

While the title might be a slight exaggeration, I DID promise you a log about how to pull a zillion meals out of a silly little 4 lb roasting chicken. So here we go!

On Friday night, I promise my sweetie a home-cooked meal... it was dreary and gross out, rainy and overcast... I'd had a wonderfully productive day, and had enough time to run through the grocery store quickly. A day this blustery calls for comfort food... and what is more comforting than a savory roasted chicken.

I roast chicken quite frequently, usually stuffing the bird with various aromatics (lemon, garlic, shallot, basil, onion, carrot, celery, etc), sprinkling with salt and pepper and patting with a bit of EVOO before slow roasting it -- usually 90 minutes at about 375.

BUT, I was anxious to try a new recipe I'd been hearing about on various food blogs -- Thomas Keller's simply roast chicken.

Ingredients:
Chicken.
Salt.
Pepper.

I'm not even kidding -- I elected to add some fresh thyme that I had on hand, but it really *is* that simple...

...and it really *IS* that good.

First, rinse out the bird and pat dry -- I mean, REALLY dry -- with paper towels.
Next -- salt and pepper cavity of the chicken.
Then -- truss the legs. I had never done this before, but it was REALLY easy and there are a lot of instructions online (google "how to truss a chicken"). Trussing the bird keeps it really dry inside -- which you would think would be a bad thing, but wetness makes the chicken steam itself, rather than a nice dry roast. So. Trussing it is!

Once the bird is trussed... use about a TBSP of salt on the outside of the bird. I like kosher salt.

Preheat oven to 450.
Place in roasting pan.
Cook for an hour.

Once the bird is cooked, remove from oven and let it sit for about 15 minutes, basting with the pan juices if you so desire.

Best. Chicken. Ever.

(Notevenkdding).












About 15 minutes before the chicken was done cooking, I threw in a cookie sheet of fingerling potatoes, and a mixture of carrots, asparagus, and shallots... both were tossed in EVOO, salt, pepper, and a bit of garlic.











When I took the chicken out to rest, I turned the temp on the oven down to about 400 and let the vegetables and potatoes roast a little longer.

(A note: have you ever roasted carrots with the skin on? If not, I highly recommend -- it's like a whole different vegetable, with the peel firming up just a bit and the inside turning creamy.)

From start to finish -- a gorgeous dinner, from grocery bag to table in just 60 minutes (including some down time to watch the news!)












What you didn't see above is that I saved the chicken carcass, and after we were finished eating, set aside what we hadn't used.












I put all the remnants in the fridge and called it a night.

Today, Sunday, I woke up and got crackin' --










First, I picked all the good meat off the remaining pieces of chicken -- and then put the carcass and bones, skin, etc all into a soup kettle. After bringing the water to a boil, I reduced to simmer. It will simmer for a total of about 4 hours.

Next, I assembled the ingredients to make a week's worth of lunch: harvest chicken salad.

I chopped up 4 scallions, a few ribs of celery, and a large, sweet honeycrisp apple.

Mixed in a large bowl with the chicken (picked over to remove any icky stuff, and shredded into small pieces), and some mayo -- I like the lite variety, made with EVOO.

Next up, I pulled out the leftover fingerling potatoes... chopped them up, mixed with a wee bit of chopped celery, and a mixture of evoo, red wine vinegar, chopped shallot, dill, dijon mustard, lemon zest, and a pinch of sugar...

My soup stock is still simmering away on the stove -- I'm skimming fat off the top every half hour or so, and when it is done, I'll drain the kettle (you must drain it WELL to avoid any bones), and return to the stove, adding chopped carrots, celery, onion, a bit of salt and pepper, and noodles. This can be eaten immediately, or frozen for future use. Since its cold season here in MN, I'm thinkin' it won't last long.

So there you have it:

Dinner for two, 5 days worth of lunch, and a kettle of soup.

All cuz of one little chicken*.

And now, back to my stock.

Off and running**,

~Jessica

PS: I'm back from my run now, and have finished the soup -- I added noodles, salt, pepper, garlic salt, a bay leaf, celery and carrots. AND and is "OMG AMAZING." HOT, salty, and is warming me right now. ALSO, there was still a ton of meat on those bones, so after I'd boiled them for 4 hours, I now have a lovely CHICKEN noodle soup... that bird got USED.

*For the sake of full disclosure: I also had to buy the fingerling potatoes, but I had every other ingredient on hand***: garlic, shallots, olive oil, salt, pepper, fresh thyme -- and for the leftovers: an apple, celery, scallions, shallot, mayo, dijon, dill, vinegar & a pinch of sugar.

**Now that my work in the kitchen is done, it's time to go MOVE -- beautiful crisp fall day, perfect for a run.

***Perhaps this is the foreshadowing of the next post -- how to shop effectively and stock your kitchen!

Jes(cipes): Issue #4

Grocery Day Quiche

As most of you know, I like to plan my meals out for the week -- it gives me a great sense of control, both calorically and stress-wise, and keeps me from hitting my usual take-out pitfalls when I'm hungry and short on time. Typically, I spend a good chunk of either Saturday or Sunday thinking about a what I should eat for the 15 meals and 10 snacks that occur between Monday and Friday -- and then I set out with my planning. It goes a little something like this:

Make meal list
Make grocery list based upon meal list
Clean out fridge / panty, using whatever I can or need to use before it goes bad
Shop
Prep
Freeze / store.

I know that this might seem insane for a woman with no children, but one of the keys to my weight loss over the past 6 years (gasp -- 6 years!), has been planning. She who fails to plan, plans to fail. I enjoy cooking and thinking about food, so during stressful times (read: every moment of my life), I let this ritual anchor me... it's a way I can find a bit of control in an otherwise out-of-control life. In fact, I'm usually the happiest and most at peace when I'm in the kitchen, cooking -- whether that's just for me, or I'm planning to entertain and feed others.

This means that every weekday morning, I can pull something out of the freezer to have for dinner that night. It means that my breakfasts are portioned out, so I can quickly eat while getting ready for work. It means that my lunches are all packed and ready to be tossed in my briefcase before I walk out the door. It means... sanity. It requires effort and a lot of thought, but in my mind -- well worth it. All in all, today, this exercise (planning, cleaning, shopping, prepping) will probably take a total of 5 hours -- INCLUDING the time it took me to write this post, and make the quiche. But since I got up at 7:30, so it works for me. Maybe 3 hours on a normal weekend planning day.

ANYWAY -- this is a really long intro to the following recipe, but today when I did the "clean out fridge and pantry" portion of this mission, I realized that there were a lot of things that needed to either get tossed or used in the next few days. I HATE wasting food -- for multiple reasons, but probably the main one is because I consider it a personal challenge to get a lot of utility out of the food I buy (Hmm, perhaps my next entry will be all about how I can squeak approximately 2 dinners, 5 lunches, a pot of soup, and chicken stock to freeze out of one stupid 6 dollar chicken).

Today, here's what I came up with:
1 gorgeous tomato
1/2 a vidalia onion
4 cubes of chopped and frozen fresh basil that I just sorta wanted to get rid of.
5 slices of center cut bacon
1/2 dozen eggs, with today as the "Sell by" date.
1/4 a container of ff half and half
1/3 of a bag of reduced fat shredded mozarella

Clearly, a big breakfast was in order! Also, my boyfriend is sick -- and while I brewed a pot of coffee, I wanted to make something nice for him. Also? There is SNOW on the ground in MN today... and even though that makes me want to cry, it also brings out the very best domestic goddess within me. ;-)

So, I present to you "Grocery Day Quiche"

First, the crust (Yes, I made this from scratch, and NO it wasn't diffcult -- took about 5 minutes, and you can do it too).

1 cup of flour
1 tsp salt
1/4 cup of olive oil
1/4 cup of ice water (I just used tap water and this was fine)

Mix flour and salt.

In a separate bowl, whisk water and oil until it kinda thickens (I know, that sounds weird, and I didn't get it either, but you'll know exactly what that means as it happens)

Pour wet ingredients over dry ingredients and mix until you have a ball of dough (I started doing this with a whisk, after 5 seconds said "eh, screw it" and just used my hands. Then, using a rolling pin (or a large soup can, as it were), roll out the dough. You should probably sprinkle a little flour on the counter before doing this, as it can be sticky.

Grease (Pam!) a pie plate and spread the crust on the plate.

Now for the ingredients -- again, this can kinda vary depending on what you have laying around.

I wanted to use up some bacon, so I preheated the oven to 400 and baked 5 slices for about 20 minutes.

While the bacon was baking, I chopped up the tomato and onion, and then in a bowl, I whisked together 1 cup of fat free half and half, and 5 eggs.

I added the vegetables, frozen basil, the shredded cheese, and seasoning to taste (salt, pepper, a dash of garlic salt), to the egg mixture, whisked it all together, and set aside.

The bacon was done, so I took that and chopped it up.

In the bottom of the pie plate, I sprinkled the bacon, then poured the egg/vegetable/cheese mixture on top.

Bake at 400 for about 30 minutes, but keep an eye on it so that the crust doesn't burn.

It was absolutely delicious.

Now for the nutrition information (SEE, I PROMISED you that I'd start doing this eventually!)

For the ENTIRE quiche*:
1872 calories
109 grams of fat
132 carbs
4 grams of fiber
101 grams of protein

So, you can do the math on that depending on how many servings you get out of it -- I'm assuming 6-8 servings (so let's call it 7 for the sake of estimating), and you get the following:

267 calories
15 grams of fat
18 grams of carbs
0 grams of fiber
14 grams of protien

Which translates into a nice little 7 points**, if you're a Weight Watcher like me. :-)

Now, you might be saying "Jess, that is really high in fat and calories, where does the "cost savings" come in!?" I'll tell you -- it's in the fat free half and half***. Because to use an entire CUP of heavy cream??? People, that would be 820 calories and 88 grams of fat -- as compared to the pesky 142 calories and 3.5 grams of fat in the fat free variety. Also, the fat free half and half yeilds 6 grams of protein, as compared to only 4 grams in the "Real" stuff. And frankly? Can't taste the difference. The quiche is light, fluffy and flavorful. I have no idea what on earth fat free half and half is made out of****, but I've found it to be a GREAT staple in my fridge -- I use it in my coffee everyday, and frequently make "cream" based sauces out of it. I highly recommend.

And on that note -- I'm off to the grocery store to go about my planning, prepping, chopping, freezing, and packing for the week -- menu items include sesame apricot chicken, stir fry, pot roast, and a delicious butternut squash ravioli with a brown butter and sage / dried cranberry sauce (I think lunches this week will simply consist of delicious leftovers!)

Clearly, it is fall.

Off and running,
~Jessica


*the only caveats to these numbers are that I did not include calories for tomato, onion, or basil, and I totally "eyeballed" the cheese - so I could be slightly off but probably not more than 90 calories worth.
**6 points if you cut the pie into 8 slices; 8 points for 6 slices.
***You could also modify the crust by using some sort of whole wheat flour with a higher fiber content for added nutritional value. You could also probably eliminate the cheese -- or use much less of it -- and it would be just as good. You could also make it crustless, but then it's not quiche, and where's the fun in that?!
****I mean, half and half is half milk, half cream, right? And clearly there isn't a cream that is fat free. So what the hell is fat free half and half made of? It's dairy, but half milk and... HALF WHAT? I don't know, I just know that I love it.

Jes(cipes): Issue #3

Thursday night's food adventure was themed around a craving for Chipotle... and also the fact that my car was in the shop, thus I couldn't have any. :-)

It's unseasonably warm for MN at this time of year -- usually once September hits, I'm all about beef stew, butternut squash soup, knee-high boots with skirts, chunky sweaters and norah jones while I sip some red wine. IT's 84 here today -- warmer than it's been all summer, so the idea of heating up the house hasn't been terribly appealing lately. BUT, I always find mexican food to be somewhat refreshing, despite the spice.

I decided that it was crockpot time -- but rather than butternut squash soup or pot roast, I'd throw together an easy Mexican dinner.

Ingredients:
1 package of taco shells (you can use soft or crispy, whichever you prefer -- however, if you want to utilize my "leftover stregy," you'll need soft)
2 cans of Rotel
1 package of frozen chicken breasts
1/2 bag of frozen corn
1 can of diced olives
Shredded cheese
1 large tomato
1 avocado
1 onion
1 lime
Cumin & chili powder to taste.

This is so easy it's ridiculous -- put the chicken breasts in the crockpot and cover with the 2 cans of rotel. Add the frozen corn, juice of 1 lime, cumin and chili powder. Set to low heat and let it cook for about 8 hours.

By the time you get home from work your house will smell amazing -- and the meat will be so tender that merely stirring this concoction will cause the chicken to shred to pieces.

I placed the mixture in a soft tortilla, topped with cheese and the onion/avocado/tomato mixture. Instant tacos!

The Boyfriend and I each had 2 tacos, and there was PLENTY left over -- so today, while figuring out a food strategy for the week, I mixed all the toppings together with the leftover chicken and some cheese, and made 4 burritos which are now happily hangin' out in my freezer, waiting for a night when I can't cope with dinner.

You could also use the leftovers to make a nice taco salad, or some nachos.

I am figuring out a recipe for Crockpot Chicken Marsala, and I'll be sure to share next week.

Off and cooking,
~Jessica

Jes(cipes): Issue #2

In my frenzy to figure out some healthy meals this week, I was working hard at avoiding cravings for two major food favorites, both of which can be loaded with fat and calories:

Pizza
Mexican food (namely chipotle).

SO I got crackin'. I hate to even talk about the pizza, because I can't do it justice without pictures, and I failed to take any (next time, I promise!)

Low(er) Fat Greek Pizza

Ingredients:
Boboli whole wheat pizza crust
EVOO
Pizza sauce
Kalmata olives
Roasted red peppers
Tomatoes
Basil
Goat cheese, ff feta, reduced fat mozzarella

It's a simple project -- I bought a whole wheat boboli crust. I used my Mister Misto to spray it with a light coating of extra virgin olive oil, then a spoon to spread a thin layer of pizza sauce (nothing fancy -- a simple can from the grocery store. It had an Italian name so I trusted it more than the other varities. As a bonus, it was also cheaper). The EVOO mixed a little bit with the pizza sauce to give it a neapolitan feel...

Then I opened the following:
1 jar of pitted kalmata olives
1 jar of roasted red peppers, packed in water

I sprinkled the pizza with some reduced fat mozzarella, fat free feta, and a few dollops of goat cheese.

I topped it with some basil and tomato slices (from my own garden!), and about 12 sliced olives, and a dozen strips of red pepper...

Baked for about 10 minute at 450.

The crust was surprisingly crispy, and the cheese melty and fabulous. I used very flavorful ingredients, so it didn't taste like "diet" food. The creaminess of the goat cheese perfectly counteracted any dryness of the reduced fat cheese, but all cheeses melted really well. When I took it out of the oven it was bubbly and sinful looking, all the hallmarks of a great pizza.

It sliced into about 6 nice pieces. Calories and fat will vary depending on what quantities you need, but the crust itself is about 150 calories / slice (5 slices per pie), and something insane like 9 grams of fiber. Not bad. Since I sliced mine into 6 pieces, the crust was fewer calories per serving but probably an additional 150 calories per slice for all of the toppings.

Once the actual pizza was eat (delicious cold or reheated via toaster oven or microwave), I obviously had a lot of toppings left over -- luckily I also usually have english muffins or sandwich thins on hand, and was able to use the leftover toppings to make several little mini-pizzas for lunches, snacks and dinners throughout the week.

Serve with a leafy salad and enjoy!

Off and cooking,
~Jessica

Jes(cipes)

As you may or may not know, this blog was the outgrowth of my journey of losing 70 lbs, and turning from a couch potato into a marathon runner. I started the blog primarily to find a way to publicly participate in "Take it and Run Thursday" over at The Runner's Lounge, and wanted to chronicle my return to an athletic lifestyle following first a terrible breakup, and later a broken elbow.

I write mostly about exercise here, with a little bit of weight loss creeping in for good measure. I realized, however, that the piece I'm missing is the other part I'm really passionate about -- food, nutrition, and helping other people to achieve their personal weight loss goals. So while you read a lot about how I'm MOVING, you're not reading much about what I'm EATING. I'm a foodie and a person who equally loves fancy restaurants, "clean food," wine, and dive bars and french fries -- a huge part of the weight loss battle (and the exercise battle), for me, has been food. And one way I've dealt with this is by recreating foods and recipes that satiate those cravings without piling on the pounds

I'm proud to announce the first installation of a new feature on this blog, "JES(CIPES)," (say it fast, it rhymes with "recipes").

So as I sit here eating my breakfast (Fage 2% yogurt, Nature's Own cereal, berries = 300 calories, and about 25 grams of protein), I've decided to share with you Tuesday's dinner.

I love Chinese food. I love the healthy stir fried stuff, and the greasy deep fried stuff, and everyhting in between. I also mostly love that it can be brought directly to my door in 20 minutes, with throw-away dishes afterwards.

I do not love that it piles on the pounds, both in caloric value, and it water retention from all the sodium.

My friend shared a very easy recipe with me for "orange chicken," which I interpreted to mean that it was somewhat Asian-ey.

"Take a can of OJ concentrate, defrosted... dump it over some chicken breasts... sprinkle some Lipton onion soup on the top... cover with foil, and bake for 45 minutes at 375...

As I was about to make it, she told me that it wasn't actually an asian chicken, just... orange.

I deflated.

Then I Googled. :-)

There are a million recipes out there for orange chicken from a chinese-take-out place. They involve frying or stir frying or battering... and while that's probably healthier than take-out, it's still futsy. I wanted something easy, healthy, and refreshing.

So I combined about 20 different recipes, and came up with my own -- and I'm happy to report that it was delicious. :-)

On Monday night, I mixed the following in a large zip-lock baggie:

1 can of thawed OJ concentrate (I used Cascadian farms because it's organic and doesn't contain HFCS)
3/4 cup of brown sugar, unpacked
4 TBSP low sodium soy sauce
2 TBSP sirichi red pepper sauce
1 tsp ground ginger
4 scallions, chopped
1 packed Lipton golden onion soup mix

I mixed it up in the bag, and then added 1 lb of cubed chicken breasts. I let it sit overnight in the fridge, and cooked it after work -- covered in foil, 375, about 40-45 minutes.

It was delicious. Salty, sweet, tangy, and spicy. All the different taste sensations -- I wish I'd taken a picture, but alas, that was before I'd decided to start this portion of the blog.

I served it with frozen egg rolls from Trader Joe's (they have a stir fried veggie and tofu egg roll that is very low cal / low fat), and instant brown rice.

Delicious and light and satisfying. For future installations of this feature, you can expect nutrition information, but I don't have it for this one. It is fairly high calorie because of all the sugar and the oj, but the fat content isn't too high.

Off and running,
~Jessica

Life On The Balance Ball (Redux)

Four months into my return to Corporate America and I think I am figuring out the ellusive balance beast -- I still collapse into bed at 10 PM every night, exhausted, but usually that exhaustion is because I've managed to squeeze in a workout, keep the house clean, the lawn mowed, and craft 3 square meals (and 2 snacks!) a day. How do you working moms do it? I seriously do not understand how it would even be possible to add kids to this mix -- one of my coworkers has 4 and a 5th on the way... and I couldn't even handle my dog!

But I'm figuring it out, day by day. My days of training for marathons are long gone -- but I have managed to figure out how to get out of bed early at least 3 days a week and exercise before heading into the office. Last week, I managed to burn a significant chunk of calories almost everyday. One of those days was mowing the lawn and doing a million loads of laundry, and another was walking around the state fair for 4 hours, but it was movement nonetheless.

The downside? My poor feet / ankles were so incredibly sore (after cramming them into heels everyday last week), that I was miserable by days end. So on Friday after work, I indulged in a little shoe-fetishism.... and believe me, these are not the CUTEST of shoes, but my feet have never been happier -- a far cry from my "big city girl" heels, they have the same insole as a running shoe. I nearly cried from happiness (and the relase of tension), when the Nordstrom guy put them on my feet. SOLD.

It's an unseasonably cool Minnesota summer, particularly for August. The typical dog days of humidity and heat have given way to cooler temps, which is HEAVEN to me. It makes for perfect weather for early-morning runs and dusk-time walks -- The Magic Hour, as we called it when I was working in the TV Production industry.

I love fall -- it is my absolute favorite time of year -- but I'm not ready for the brutal Minnesota winter. Not only is there the typical MN-winter type stuff to deal with, but for the first winter as a homeowner, despite having been one for over 5 years, I'm going to have to contend with shoveling snow and salting the ice before heading out in the mornings. YUCK. I am not excited about that, it's enough to make me crave apartment living again!

Oh well, I guess that's just another way to work more "Muvement" into my day --

And on that topic. I had a computer virus, thus was "gruve-less" for a while, and really missed that little reminder, encourating me to get off my butt and "muve" every 42 minutes. Last week, with the Gruve strapped to my waist, I successfully made it to Green almost everyday -- a reminder that all the little steps throughout the day add up!

It's Sunday night after a weekend filled with fun, family, food, and lots of laughter. I normally find myself dreading Monday mornings, but today I feel prepared to conquer the week head-on. I have a fridge filled with healthy food, a meal plan, and an exercise agenda. Unlike past weekends, I don't feel like I'm starting off having to "un-do" a lot of damage -- I managed to stay very in control of my calories this weekend, despite a Saturday trip to the MN state fair, where you can pretty much find anything you want, fried and on a stick. ;-)

I won't be working out before work tomorrow or on Tuesday -- but I'm already excited for that Wednesday morning run.

Happy Jess, happy feet, happy weather.

My goal is to get some exercise BEFORE work on Tuesday and Wednesday -- and after work on Monday, Thursday, and Friday. I have a treadmill in my basement, in front of a TV, so I really have no excuses, despite the confines of a deskjob. Combine that with some healthy eating and lots of water, and I should see a nice loss of pounds this week.

What are your goals for the week?

Off and running,
Jessica

The One In Which She Comes Back With Her Tail Between Her Legs

Yeah.

So, I know I haven't written in a while, specifically about running, and frankly, the reason is that there hasn't been any -- or much -- running to write about.

There's been a lot of other stuff: a lot of FUN, a lot of travel, a LOT of working, and a lot of work-related-writing-rather-than-blogging, a lot of eating, and a lot of time dealing with the frustrations of having a desk job again and normal business hours, but mostly... there's been a lot of fun.

That "fun" seems to have settled on my thighs. Lovely.

But here's the cool part -- I'm not a great Weight Watcher right now. I'm half-heartedly counting points and not really holding myself to a strict exercise / eating regime. And yeah, I've gained a pound or two. But in the face of alllllllllllllllll of that...

I'm still eating a healthy breakfast at home every morning.
I'm still packing a healthy lunch and bringing it to work (almost) everyday.
I'm outsmarting the proverbial cookie jar and packing snacks.
I'm planning some dinner menus, and limiting my social obligations and wine intake.
I'm hitting the farmer's market on weekends -- an activity that I enjoy, and also one that ensures healthy food and fiscal conservatism. ;-)

And I'm still moving -- er, muve'ing, as it were.

My brother just emailed me a link to this YouTube video... and it reminded me that sometimes, weight maintainance is just as simple as climbing a few flights of stairs.

No need to overthink it. It's a lifestyle. Just muve.
~Jessica