Turkey Pasta

Tonight, I made turkey pasta.

This is a recipe I used to make a lot when I was house-sitting for my uncles. I would make a big batch the first night I was there and then have it for either lunch, dinner, or a snack until I finished it off. Tonight, I decided to make a slightly different, slightly healthier version.

My first swap was using extra-lean ground turkey breast, instead of lean ground turkey meat, since the "meat" could really be any part of the bird. And I mean any. Also, because I'm absent-minded, I forgot to take a picture of the turkey meat I got, but just remember: extra-lean, turkey breast.

Second, I decided to use whole grain pasta. I couldn't find rigatoni, which is what I used to use and is so perfect because the sauce gets all inside the noodles, so I had to use penne instead. Whole grain pasta has a nice, nutty flavor, but takes a little longer to cook than regular noodles. Think 12-14 minutes instead of 8-10.

My last switch was using a heart-healthy pasta sauce. I used to use a mushroom pasta sauce but somebody doesn't like the deliciousness that are mushrooms (are? is?). They also didn't have a heart-healthy mushroom pasta sauce, but I could always make my own...

So, to make everything...I put a pot of water on to boil and added a tablespoon or two of canola oil to a separate pot. When the oil was hot enough, I tossed in the turkey meat and started breaking it up, adding salt and pepper along the way.

(This was right after, when the meat was still pretty raw)

Once the meat was pretty much cooked through, meaning it was mostly white, since turkey meat doesn't really "brown" unless it's on the bird and covered in butter and roasted in the oven a la Thanksgiving, I added in the entire jar of pasta sauce.

I also added in about half a jar of water. When this was at a good simmer, I added in some garlic salt. Meanwhile, Ryan was doing this:

At this point, my water was almost at a boil so I threw in some salt followed by the entire box of noodles. 

Note: I made a full batch just like I used to do with my old version because I intend to snack on this all weekend.

While my pasta cooked, I added about a 1/2-1 teaspoon of the stuff in the green can. Please forgive me, it is by far my favorite form of Parmesan. I hate the skinny shreds. It's the green can stuff or big slices or nothin'.

(Forgive the blurry picture, it was all the steam, y'all!)

By this point, my pasta was cooked and I added it to the sauce, stirred it around, added about a tablespoon more of parm, and dinner was ready!

So delicious, although it could have used stronger seasonings. Maybe a little more garlic salt, or maybe some Italian seasoning, but it definitely could have been a little more flavorful.

Now I'm making kale chips! I'll let you know how it goes tomorrow.

Sunday Night

On Sunday nights, I like to have a nice dinner. Sort of an end-of-the-weekend treat, a family dinner. There is always an appetizer and some sort of bubbly. However, Ryan works shift work, so half of the time, I am on my own for these dinners. While that usually makes me sad, sometimes it's nice because I get to eat things he doesn't like. Like mustard!

So tonight, I made two of my favorite things. Roasted shredded Brussels sprouts and grilled chicken.

Okay, so I don't really like grilled chicken, or chicken at all really. But I do love mustard and that makes it worthwhile.



For the Brussels sprouts, I bought a bag of the steam-in-bag kind from my local Target, and just took about 5 out. I finely shredded them with a knife, throwing away the stems. Usually, if I get my Brussels sprouts fresh, I take off the outer leaves because they tend to be bruised or dry or dirty. I figured if these were good enough to steam in the bag, I didn't need to take off the outer stems. I tossed the shredded sprouts in a tablespoon of light canola oil, salt, and pepper and threw them in a 400 degree oven for about 10 minutes. I then turned the oven off, tossed the sprouts around in the pan, and put them back in the (turned-off) oven while I grilled the chicken.

By the way, if you have never roasted Brussels sprouts, especially if they are shredded, you should. They get crispy and so full of flavor and just....mmmmmmm.

For the chicken, I cut a chicken breast in half, since I didn't want that much, and put each half in a resealable bag. The half I wasn't going to use, I put in the freezer. And the half I did use, I added about a half tablespoon of dijon mustard, a quarter teaspoon of lemon pepper seasoning, and a dash of seasoned salt. This is a slight riff on the grilled chicken recipe of a catering company I used to work for. I threw it on my non-stick grill pan (that I brushed oil on because I'm paranoid that way) for about 2-3 minutes per side since it was so thin.

I pulled the sprouts out of the oven and sprinkled on a little grated Parmesan cheese, which is divine, if you've never tried it....and then poured myself a glass of Bota Box Malbec!

Cheers to the week ahead and that my stomach issues have finally died down....despite my sinuses still acting up!

Sold

A few weeks ago, after Ryan got off the night shift, he and I went to the Ryland office and...signed all of the paperwork!

There were a lot more decisions to make than we anticipated. I don't really understand any of the financial stuff (mortgages, deposits, etc.), which is why I won't be blogging about that part. Ryan may be willing to do a guest post if you ask nicely :) The decisions we had to make that I did understand, however, were all design choices.

Here is the link to our floorplan so you can follow along: Virginian II

We had to decide on what we wanted the exterior of our house to look like. We chose a mix of siding and stone (style F).

We had to decide on how many of the optional windows we wanted to have. We opted to get a third window in the upstairs portion of the open floorplan living room. We chose not to get the three extra, small, windows in the dining room, nor the window in the water closet in the master bathroom because, no thank you. We also chose to have one window per bedroom as well, because in the walk-through of the house with the drywall, we learned that some of those windows opened right onto the roof of the front porch, and I could just see some teenagers sneaking out of the house someday....

We chose to have a single sink in the master bathroom, but later changed our minds and opted for a double vanity.

We chose to have a small patio off of the breakfast room instead of a sunroom or a larger patio, in case we decide to tear it down and build a screened-in porch someday.

We decided we could live without a fireplace since it doesn't get terribly cold here in Charleston, although I've been looking at electric ones that have a mantle so we have something to put the tv on top of/hang stockings from at Christmas.

That's all I can remember right now but all of our other decisions will be made when we go to the Design Center in two weeks and I cannot wait!

We drove by our lot today and all of the other lots that have been sold around it are being cleared so ours is next!

Friday

I went to bed early last night. Early enough to wake up this morning to do 30 minutes of yoga before I had to shower and get ready for work. My stomach had a very different idea. Needless to say, I was not fit to do a single sun salutation, much less go into work. So I laid in bed and drank lots of water in hopes of the nausea passing. I eventually dragged myself out of bed thinking getting some food in my stomach might settle it down a little. This is what I made:



Scrambled egg whites with a pinch of garlic and half a slice of Monterey Jack cheese melted on top, half an avocado with lemon juice, salt & pepper, and 4 cherry tomatoes. Even though I'm not a fan of eggs, the cheese helped, as did having just the whites (kept my stomach stable). I love avocados and tomatoes so that was the easy part.

And did I mention this is on a salad plate? Yay portion control!

Salmon, Quinoa, Yoga

Tonight, I went to Harris Teeter after work and bought some healthy thangs. I found these recipes on Skinny Taste today, and since I was craving salmon and LOVE quinoa, I decide this combo was the dinner for me:

I was able to adjust the recipe for just one piece of salmon. Yay portion control!

Also, I made this, for two portions, so that I have enough for leftovers for my lunch tomorrow:

I didn't have any feta but it was still delicious. I also used red quinoa instead of white, because that's just what I had in the cabinet.

Also, my roommate Sam and I did a yoga strength and stretch workout when I got home, with Miss Tanya Nettles on OnDemand. Fun and a good way to get centered and realign my spine. I plan to do a slightly more intense workout in the morning (if I can wake up in time!).

*No one knows who I am, I am just saying things I like. Pictures are from Skinny Taste.

Rick Does a Walk-Through

After deciding on the Virginian II, Ryan and I went back through the model home and once we walked through, looked at each other and at the same moment and said, "Oh." We knew this was what we wanted. Not just a house in a great school district, but a house that we could make our own in every possible way.

Ryan's father, Rick, is an appraiser/real estate agent/handy-man/literally-any-part-a-person-can-have-in-the-real-estate-business-man. So, naturally, he was a little hesitant when Ryan told him our plan. About a week later, he and Ryan's mother, Karen, came to visit. We introduced them to Angela and went and looked through a house that was the same floorplan that we wanted and had the dry-wall up. Rick knocked on every window, stud, and doorframe. He looked in the attic doorway and checked out the insulation. I admired the updated layout from the model home. I think Rick asked Angela about 700 questions, and she answered them all to his delight. When we pulled away, Ryan had the biggest grin on his face and said, "Well, I'm ready to sign some paperwork."

Meanwhile, Karen asked me how this was all going to go down. Meaning, whose names were going on the deed to the house. I told her that due to my Southern roots, and wanting to please my family, that I have told Ryan that I don't want to live together until we are engaged, but that after we were married, my name would be added to the deed to the house. Later, I saw her giggling and whispering to Rick, so I guess that was good news to her!

Having his parents, who know a lot about this process and business in general, approve of the company we are working with and the process we are about to go through, meant the world to me. And to Ryan too, I guess! :)

A week later, we made an appointment with Sarah (Angela's associate) to sit down and sign all the paperwork!

Resolutions

2014 will be my 26th trip around the sun, which means, I should be in my prime. Instead, I gained way too much weight. I love food! I love to cook and try new recipes, and especially after Ryan and I met, we either went out to dinner and I tried to eat as much as him, or I would try to impress him with my culinary skills. And I used a lot of butter.

SO....I have decided to have a goal to lose 30 pounds by the end of 2014. If I lose more, woohoo! But I feel like 30 is a do-able goal. I intend to do this in a few ways:

• Smaller portions. I received Giada deLaurentiis' Feel Good Food for Christmas this year, and it is full of healthy foods and is her first cookbook with the calories, carbs, etc. listed. Based on this, and knowing that each recipe feeds either 4 or 6 people, I should be able to divide most of the recipes into recipes for 1 or 2 people. Also, I need to learn to measure! Growing up in a Southern home, measurements were never precise, unless we were baking, so I have probably been consuming way too much sodium and calories. Here is one recipe I can't wait to try:                                                   (click on the image to go to the recipe)
• Better foods. I love red meat. In fact, I had half of a steak for dinner last night! But I also know that I shouldn't eat it all the time. I need to treat it like a special occasion food. I also need to learn to like chicken. I know there are lots of delicious healthy ways to prepare it, but honestly, it's a texture thing for me. Publix knows what it's doing with that mojo seasoning but I need to look at the label to see what all is in it before I commit myself to buying a chicken once a week to live off of.                                                                                                                                                                                      I have always loved vegetables. Broccoli is my favorite. But I also love spinach, artichokes, mushrooms, leeks, tomatoes, asparagus, and different lettuces. I'm not a big fan of carrots or peas, but those are full of sugar anyway, right? Ryan LOVES corn so I'll have to figure out a healthy way to incorporate that.                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                       Whole grains. I love rice so much that when I was little, my parents called me Rice Rice Baby because I grew up when Vanilla Ice was relevant. I also enjoy pasta because of how easy and versatile it is. However, as I'm typing this, I'm realizing that I don't eat it nearly as much as I used to. And even now, I already use whole grain pasta or the kind that's made from veggies. Quinoa is a recent favorite and Giada uses it a lot in her cookbook, so I am looking forward to learning more about its versatility. Switching to brown rice from white rice will be a little harder. It actually went pretty well with my black-eyed peas and collard greens today!
• Exercise. I am actually a pretty athletic person. And I'm a perfectionist. Which means that last year, when I was working with a personal trainer, I was kicking so much butt and lifting so much weight that I tore my meniscus. Ouch. That really set me back. Like so far back that I haven't worked out since September. I've been too afraid of hurting myself again, or worse. Which is why I'm easing back into it. I did a Run or Dye 5k with a friend a few weeks ago, which was great. We walked the whole thing but still made great time. My shin splints came back a little, but it may just be time for new shoes. Because of my knee injury, I am not going to go back to lifting weights and high-endurance exercises yet. I am going to ease back into working out with a mixture of Yoga for Weight Loss and Pilates. I have enough muscles, I need to burn the fat, and Pilates can work up a sweat if you're doing the right exercises. Back in Atlanta, there was a class at the gym I used to go to called Pilates Sculpt that I LOVED, so I hope to find some sort of workout similar to that. So I plan to do that to tone and sculpt and walk for my cardio. 

All my equipment to help me on this weight-loss journey in the new year.

All endorsements are made by me, not Giada (or Publix, Gaiam, Run or Dye, Lotus, or Champion), she does not know who I am. Although she did reply to one of my tweets once! The only photograph by me is of my workout SWAG.