Baked Chicken Wings
Well it is not really diet worthy notes, but Shea and I love chicken wings. They aren't the best thing for the diet and I probably make more than we really need. But oh well, its one of few vices we actually have.
I use a Cajun Wing Sauce that is 4 calories per teaspoon. We use about a table spoon before it's cooked and 1 table spoon after it's cooked so that is a total of 24 calories for the whole patch. In the packaged of wings I buy there are approximately 17 full wings in them, cut into 3 pieces that gives me 51 pieces. There are 200 calories per 4oz of chicken. I use a 4.5 lb package so that comes to about 3600 calories for the whole batch. So each third of a wing is approximately 71 calories. That isn't so bad really. We don't use any additional fat and we drain it half way through to remove the excess fat. Below is the process I use.
Marinate 4.5 lbs of separated chicken wings in 1T of hot sauce mix. I typically marinate for at least 2 hours, today it will be about 4 hours before I start cooking. Toss on a baking sheet and put in a 400 degree oven for 30 minutes. Then I take them out and put them in a bowl so I can dump the oil on the pan and clean off some of the sticky stuff so it doesn't burn too bad (burnt pans = icky cleaning). Then I put in in the oven for an addition 20 to 25 minutes to crisp up. Then put in a bowl, while it's still piping hot I pour on another tablespoon of the wing sauce and and mix it all up again.
It's really really really yummy and much better than the stuff you can get at any fast food joint or wing place because they are baked and not fried. This is supper for tonight with crab boiled baby red potatoes and french fries (for the girlies).
The Beach Park and Fireworks
Yesterday we went to the beach park. We rode around for a while looking for parking. We eventually found some near the park itself and we got out and took the girls to the playground. There was too many people and not enough police and neither Shea nor I felt comfortable.
We got back into the van with a dismayed child. But we hit Sonic and got drinks and ice cream and we went back down to the beach and found some parking in a vacant lot no where near the actual park. It was quiet and windy so it wasn't hot to my liking.
We let the girls play in the sand for a little while, until Kathleen threw sand in Sammi's eyes. So we went back to the car until the fireworks started. They watched the little ones people had going and were excited. By the time the big ones started they weren't really interested. But we were far enough away they weren't overly loud. Yay to that.
Food worked out well yesterday. I "marinated" my chicken in a brine solution - salt, water, some seasoned meat tenderizer, a little honey and a little vinegar. I wasn't very familiar with my grill since I've not used it in a while, so I forgot which was hot and which was the cooler side. so my skin was a bit darker than I liked, but it turned out well. After it was mostly cooked I added the barbaque sauce and it was. The corn was wrapped in tinfoil with butter and put on the top rack of the grill. It was yummy. Potato salad was good too. The Watermelon was AWESOME!
Granola
I was telling a friend of mine that I had wanted to find a granola recipe that I could do regularly as it's so expensive in the store. And I really don't want all the nuts and fruits that go with it. I'd rather put what I want with it.
So today when I went grocery shopping I purchased the ingredients I didn't have specifically honey, cinnamon and vanilla. (I also picked up flour which I ran out of the last time I made pizza which was probably a month a go lol.)
I have a few things that I need to change with but I think it's a working recipe.
Recipe
Preheat the oven at 325 degrees.
Combine 2 cups rolled oats, 1 teaspoon cinnamon, and 1 teaspoon of salt in a bowl.
Combine 3 tablespoons and 1 teaspoon of vegetable oil, 1/4 cup hone, 1/4 cup packed light brown sugar and 1 teaspoon of vanilla. Whisk until blended well.
Pour dry mixture over wet and mix well. Using your hands to mix if necessary.
Pour mixture on to a baking sheet (I used a cooking spray on the pan before hand.)
Bake for 10 miniutes and flip.
Bake for an additional 5 miniutes and flip.
Bake for an additional 10 minutes. (This is where I went wrong, I think this is too long for this recipe with out any nuts in it the granola got a bit too dark for my taste. So I would watch it from the 5 miniute flip and you may not even need it.)
Cool and store in air tight container.
After I took it out of the oven I added some additional honey as it wasn't sticking together like I wanted. I didn't want loose oats, I wanted more clumps. I put the mixture in a bowl and put it in the freeze. That was probably a mistake as it solidified pretty quickly. But knowing it was the honey that was making things stick together I filled a bowl with hot water and put the bowl with the granola in it to melt the honey a little on the sides so I could get it out of the bowl.
I then crumbled the granola onto the baking sheet and used my meat mallet to break it up a little more. I probably did it a bit too much as it's a bit too loose, but it isn't as bad as it was before.
I then put three heaping tablespoons into snack sized Ziploc bags. It yielded 11 servings at about 136 Calories.
Even though it's a bit burnt it's still good. I'm happy with the recipe and will try again when this batch is gone for a less time.
Iced Coffee
One of Shea's favorite caffeinated drinks is an ice coffee with an extra shot of espresso. $8 for an iced coffee? Um, yeah, we don't get them that often and we are always saying we should find a way to make it at home. Well I did some research.
We had our first homemade iced coffee last night.
Shea's had a stomach bug for two days and yesterday I started his coffee as usual, but he decided he still wasn't feeling well, so the coffee sat in the pot the remainder of the morning and well into the afternoon. So I decided I'd ask if Shea wanted to try one while I had some coffee, that was just going to go to waste if I didn't find a use for it.
So the following recipe was what I used:
Regular Strength Iced Coffee
1c regularly brewed coffee
2c 2% milk
6T sugar
1T vanilla creamer
3c ice
Mix it all in a blender and let it whirl till ice is crushed well.
You'll never get the ice as fine as you can in the coffee shop but it's all good.
Today I bought a gourmet dark roast coffee and some sugar free (only one they had) vanilla syrup. So when I get a chance I'll be making the following recipe.
Double Strength Iced Coffee
.5 c double strength coffee (2X what you'd normally brew)
2.5 c 2% milk
6T sugar
1T vanilla syrup
3c ice
Mix it all in a blender and let it whirl till ice is crushed well.
I will probably go light on the sugar and test the vanilla at first but this is the basis of it. I'll post that final recipe once I get it down.
I was thinking of trying a chocolate syrup iced coffee sometime too (as I still have some left over regular strength coffee in the fridge).
“Prepackaged” Food
I read alot of blogs. A new blog called The Hedonist Cook wrote an article called Why American Cheese is Evil. Basically it's an article about her preference for cheese and the conversion of her friend to see the her point behind the cheese issue.
Oat Bran Blueberry Muffins
My Mom sent me two different types of bran when I couldn't find any here - wheat bran and oat bran. I've used most of the wheat bran up in my last blueberry muffins.
Today I think I will try this receipe for Oat Bran Blueberry Muffins. It doesn't look nearly as good as the other ones, but then again I don't have all those ingredients either, so we will try this one:
Whole Wheat Pizza dough
INGREDIENTS
* 1 teaspoon white sugar
* 1 1/2 cups warm water (110 degrees F/45 degrees C)
* 1 tablespoon active dry yeast
* 1 tablespoon olive oil
* 1 teaspoon salt
* 2 cups whole wheat flour
* 1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
Two more recipies
I just did an analysis of two of my favorite soups already in my repoitoire - Taco Soup and Potato Soup. Both will do as a low cal dish.
and
So I'm at four definite and one possibility, only a few more to go.
As a side note I also did 30 mins of DDR today and burned 470 calories. And found another song I really like to use. I will probably start doing those favorite songs as I tend to like the faster ones, and the ones that are a bit harder even on beginner.
Three recipes down
I've got three low cal recipes to try, now just to do some pricing on these things so I don't blow my budget.
Shea loves tamale's we've never had good luck with them. THIS we might have luck with. I am going to definitely try this one but instead with a chicken "chili" filling and probably throw some corn in for added veggies. And maybe have a pico de galo topping for me, Shea won't eat it but I love it. It's kinda similar to my Mexican casserole so it might do real well or it might bomb lol. It's 273 caloriess per serving so not too bad.
I have a low cal enchillada recipe, I'll have to pull it out again and combare what the calorie intake is compared to this. I can probably throw some corn into this as well, but probably won't. Why ruin a good thing with that kind of experiment.
Gumbo what more can I say, we've been looking for a good recipe that is easy to make, so why not try this one. I'll attempt to try the okra in it, but we'll see how things go. It's not much different form Shea's grandmother's recipe, but the portions are much more reasonable for me lol. So I will definitely be trying this out too.
So two definite and one possibility but it's also an old recipe so we'll see.
Resolution #1
This is probably the only resolution that is about me (and Shea) personally.
Resolution #1 - lose weight. I am not going to put a weight limit on it. I'd like to be a minimum of 136 but I just need to lose weight period so I'm not setting a specific goal/time frame.
Instead I'm going to set small achievable goals.
My first few goals are meant to set us up for this particular resolution.
#1. Get a scale that does not rely on batteries to work. While the digital are more accurate when the batteries die you are kinda out of luck until you replace them. And they have a weight limit that isn't quite so visible as your scale maxing out.
#2. Find at least one weeks worth of low cal recipes that fit into my weekly budget. These recipes should add vegetables to the diet that aren't otherwise in my current repertoire of foods. I'm looking at soups, stews and other dishes in which I can puree and/or hide the veggies from my very picky husband. If he sees them he won't eat them. This does two things, adds veggies to all our diets and stretches the bang for the buck on the meat.
#3. Try to play Disney Groove for an hour a day with or with out the girls. While I'm still working the very easy setting I think this is by far the best way for me to get extra exercise. As long as I sweat then I'm happy with the activity.
#4. Do a little research on EA Active to see what it has on it for "games" and activities and see if its worth the money to buy for both Shea and myself.
And finally #5. Stop drinking non diet soda. While this may seem like the easiest of goals it is probably my hardest one to achieve. I don't like diet soda, I've tried and tried to drink it but I can't get it down. But unfortunately I am drawn back into soda for the flavor of Dr. Pepper. Also unfortunately my caffeine intake at this current moment is way to high to it cold turkey. I cannot manage a day with the caffeine withdrawal headache I will get if I stop cold turkey. I have a few cans of regular Dr. Pepper left in the fridge, I will from my next purchase be buying Diet Dr. Pepper if it's still on sale, if not I'll find another suitable caffeinated diet soda to begin the slow down turn of caffeine intake. Diet soda's will do two things, remove the caffeine intake slowly as I won't drink as much and two keep the calories down until I can limit my drinks to Crystal Light and/or flavored water. But this is going to be the hardest of the small goals to achieve.