Lacy lost 4 pounds this last week, so it's still a very close race!
We are doing really well with the healthy eating. The working out though, not so much. I'm going to make it a priority next week, for certain. I've just been so stressed and busy that as hard as I try, getting up at 5AM is not happening. I can barely drag my arse out of bed at 6AM! Notice the lack of blogging - and I love to blog. There's just been no time! I really would like to spend some quality time with the computer, carrassing it, making sweet love to it, wait - that's my girlfriend, not the computer...stress does funny things to a person. I would really like to spend some time, awake, alive, and uninterrupted with the computer to get my recipes up here, because we have truly eaten some amazing food!
Beware, food photo dump ahead!
On Saturday, I made kale chips. I was skeptical - kale is bitter and not really all that pleasing to the pallate. But I'm game to try anything at least once. So, I got out my stuff and went to town.
It's sure puuuuurty....
Wash the kale...dry it really, super duper well (I used about nine kajillion papertowels...a salad spinner would be a more economical choice if you have one...) Remove the thick part of the stem. Tear or cut into "chip size" pieces. Toss with a bit of EVOO (I used about a tablespoon total for the entire head of kale), and a dash of kosher salt. Lay chips on a parchment lined baking sheet...
Bake in a 300* oven for about 10-12 minutes until edges start to brown and kale is crispy. Times may vary...Some of my batches ended up closer to 15 minutes.
That's pretty much it.
Even my picky-eater six year old loved it, and kept coming back to sneak more! That whole first batch right there...he ate it all!
The haul. It's delicious (not bitter any more!), a bit salty, and good-for-you! Eat it like chips, or crumble over popcorn for a tasty treat. I used it crumbled in my beef stew over the weekend in place of salt.
Each serving of 1 cup yeilds 56 calories, 7g carbs, 2g fat, and 2g protein.
Lacy had been having a hankering for beef-barley stew...so, I decided to do it up by knocking the calories down. This stew had TONS of veggies in it, lean stew-meat stright from my dad's farm, I used low sodium broth and NO SALT in the stew...it was flavorful and the serving size is HUGE! I'll post the recipe for this and link it up on the tab bar later - I'm a wee bit pressed for time!
Before...
After...
Mmmm!!!
"My girlfriend makes the best noms!"
And because I officially start work in 60 seconds, I'm just going to give you a teaser of all the other wonderful food we ate this weekend and that I will post recipes for later on! (More hours in the day, please?)
Pita breakfast pizzas... 160 calories for TWO! They were awesome!
No recipe really needed here, but it was the perfect lunch (on the fine china, lol) to eat in the sunshine on Sunday! The melon was sweet and delicious and the cucumbers were crisp and fresh and cool... ahhhhh!
This meal was one of my absolute favorites so far! New Orlean's rubbed chicken, apricot mustard sauce and a spinach/arugula salad with apples, jicama, blackberries and a raspberry-lime poppyseed vinegarette. OMG... so....good...and so good for you!
