Broccoli Pesto

Trying to lose weight is definitely not all fun and games or easy as pie (no pun intended). I have been on a roll lately, with tons of motivation but I can already tell that it is fading fast. I had a hard day yesterday and I am not sure how I am going to keep this up for the next four weeks and 8 pounds! I need motivation and I need it fast!

Sunday was our lazy day. TDH and I never really plan much on Sundays and use it as a day to catch up on sleep, clean the house, and just relax. TDH really needs days like this, and just lazing around the house in his underwear is one of his favorite pastimes. Me, on the other hand, let’s just say it has gotten easier over the years but I still get restless. I am just not one to relax. I do not know how to do it, I need to keep my mind and hands busy at all times. This past Sunday was an exceptionally lazy day. TDH has not been feeling very well this week and waking up early on Saturday to run into work and then spending the day in the sun really wore him out. We slept in and after doing some light cleaning, TDH just wanted to relax and play some computer games. It was beautiful outside again and I just could not stand the thought of being cooped up inside while the sun was shining so brightly outside, so I tried to come up with things to do on my own. I sunbathed by our Jacuzzi and finished reading my book, I took a walk, I wrote in my blog, I thought about going to the gym or going for a run outside but I just did not have the energy or motivation, so that never happened.

Having a slow day like on Sunday is hard for me when I am trying to lose weight because when I am bored I eat! I did alright on Sunday. The key on Sunday was my breakfast. I had a hearty breakfast shortly after getting out of bed consisting of a whole wheat english muffin with my eggplant tomato spread and two eggs and a coffee mug full of grapes. A few hours later I snacked on carrots with hummus and I was able to tide myself over for dinner. Distracting myself by reading my book and taking a walk outside really helped curb my cravings as well. 

To enjoy beautiful weather TDH and I decided to add a special touch to dinner by grilling and eating outside on our small little porch. We took our chairs outside and made makeshift tables and I made a broccoli pesto with some whole wheat pasta while TDH marinated and grilled chicken. Sitting outside and enjoying the weather with a glass of chilled white wine really made the meal phenomenal. My broccoli pesto was an experiment that I think turned out amazing! TDH was not as impressed but for being a very healthy version of your usual olive oil and cheese laden pesto, I loved it! It is definitely a dish where you can play around with the flavors! You can use other vegetables for the base, or skip the nuts and add a thicker and creamier cheese like Ricotta! Yum! I have included my recipe below.

Yesterday was the hardest day I have had so far and it really had nothing to do with my mission to lose weight at all. I have discovered some advice that I am sure we have all heard before that I kind of just shrugged off but am realizing is completely true: It is much harder to focus on reaching a goal when you are going through a major life change! My contract at my most recent job ended last week, something I am not in the least bit sad about, but now I am faced with the question of what am I going to do next? I desperately want to start my own life coaching business, but is now the time? Or should I just get another job so that I have a steady income until the economy bounces back? If I do decide to start my own coaching business where do I start? I have never worked for myself before! Should I get back into personal training? Should I try to get a part time job being a life coach at a gym or somewhere else? Where do I even find a job like that and am I qualified enough to get hired?

These are the questions that bombarded me and completely stressed me out yesterday. As a result, all I wanted to do was turn to food. My old urges to binge came back strong and after having a few too many grapes for my afternoon snack I was able to distract myself but it was a close one! Images of chocolate cake and donuts swirled around in my head. I turned to TDH for motivation to stay strong and was finally able to convince myself to throw on some running shoes and just get outside. Going for a short run eased the urge to binge but I was just not motivated to eat healthy or stick to my weight loss “plan” for the rest of the day so I decided to take a small break from my diet. Yesterday was the Men’s NCAA basketball championship game so TDH and I celebrated by grilling some homemade pizza and watching the game. I used my all-time favorite pizza dough recipe from Peter Reinhart’s book A Bread Baker’s Apprentice but used a 2 1/2 cups whole wheat flour and 2 cups bread flour mixture. For the topping I borrowed a recipe from Tastefully Done and infused some olive oil with garlic, sage, and some red chili pepper flakes and spread this on the freshly grilled crust. I topped it with a bit of cheese and then tossed some spring greens with some olive oil and lemon for a simple vinaigrette. This went on top of the pizza and I finished it off with some freshly grated parmesan cheese, salt and pepper. It was really good, although I went a little heavy on the olive oil. I am learning that a little olive oil really does go a long way. The pizza was good but I ate too much of it and after a few too many pieces of chocolate for dessert, I went to bed feeling pretty disappointed in myself.

 

 

Turkey and White Bean Soup

I just spend an hour browsing through Foodgawker and Tastespotting. Not a good idea! All those cakes and brownies…mmmm….I want chocolate! So far, five days into my mission, I have been good about sticking to smaller portions and avoiding sugar (although I did have a piece of Ghirardelli chocolate with peanut butter yesterday).  Yesterday was Saturday. I have decided to make Saturday’s my no computer day. It is so easy to waste time on the computer and I feel like I need at least one day a week where I do not touch a computer and am forced to turn to other activities such as getting outside, or reading a book! Hence, the reason for no post yesterday and the double post today!

Friday was a fairly easy day for me. I feel like I am getting into a routine and am becoming more prepared by having healthy and easy meal ideas at my disposal. Breakfast was a whole wheat English muffin with a slice of provolone cheese and a smothering of my sautéed Mediterranean eggplant spread. Snacks include apples and carrots dipped in hummus (my favorite!) For lunch I had some of the turkey and white bean soup I had made the night before. I added a dollop of plain yogurt and a sprinkling of red pepper flakes and served it with a few pita chips on the side. It was delicious! I have included the recipe below.

Friday night TDH and I had plans to have dinner with our friends Liz and Vee who had just bought a house in Half Moon Bay. This was going to be a challenge for me because Liz and Vee do not get home until 8:30pm at night, which meant by the time they got home and cooked, we were going to be eating late. I knew we were going to have a late dinner so I had a snack after my workout at around 4pm and when Eddie got home we busied ourselves by doing some errands. We got on the road at 8pm to go to Half Moon Bay and I realized I had not even thought about food! I was very hungry by the time we got to Liz and Vee’s house and they had some cheese and crackers out to snack on. I knew we were going to have grilled seafood for dinner and because I love seafood so much it was easy for me to decide to wait to eat and not indulge in the cheese and cracker appetizer so I could enjoy my dinner that much more. I was also handed a glass of white wine as soon as I walked in the door and since I only wanted to have two glasses of wine this evening: one with dinner, one for dessert, I made it a point to also ask for a glass of water. I drank my glass of white wine slowly, enjoying it throughout dinner. For dessert there was angel food cake, strawberries, and ice cream. TDH and I had also brought an El Dorado Nior dessert wine from Ferarri Carrano Wineries with some chocolate covered dried fruit. I was really looking forward to the dessert wine and was so busy enjoying it that before I knew it the rest of the dessert items were being taken away and all I had was three small pieces of chocolate covered dried berries. It was a great night. I really enjoyed the food and the wine and did not feel guilty or deprived at all the entire night!

Yesterday TDH and I woke up to an absolutely beautiful day. We had booked Zipcar to go down to Half Moon Bay and decided to keep in for 24 hours to get some errands done and such. TDH had to get up early to go into work for about an hour and when he got home we got back into bed and talked about what we wanted to do to enjoy this gorgeous day. We decided to go to Chestnut street for brunch and ended up at the Grove where we sat outside and I ordered an ice tea and the smoked salmon plate. We sat there for over an hour enjoying our food, the weather, and each other. After brunch we walked along Chestnut Street and peaked into all the cute shops. TDH told me he had never driven down Lombard Street and so of course that was our next stop. We drove to the top of the hill and then slowly down the windy brick street. At the bottom we decided to head over the Ghirardelli Square to check out the renovations since we had not been over there since they started remodeling. We wandered through the chocolate shops and sampled their chocolate and then wandered into the Wattle Creek Tasting room. It was $10 for a tasting of five wines and we decide why not, we have nothing we need to do today! We started with a light and refreshing Voigner, then moved on to the Rose, then to the bold and flavorful double gold medal Cabernet. By the time we got to the sweet but light Muscat Canelli dessert wine our savvy wine attendant had talked us into joining the wine club. He even let us try some of the wines that are offered to “Wine club members only” including an unusual sparkling shiraz which I loved and TDH thought tasted like rotten grapes (I prefer the term “earthy”).

For dinner that night I had no desire to cook and was craving something substantial and yummy. We decided to order Indian food from our favorite restaurant, Mehfil. This was a dangerous choice for someone on a diet. I always seem to completely stuff myself when I order Indian food. But I had a plan this time:

1. I ordered a vegetarian dish. Although the chicken korma is my all-time favorite, I decided to go with the punjabi channa paneer (spiced chickpeas with Indian cheese cubes), which is also very good but a much lighter dish. I was okay with this decision because I decided once I am at my goal weight and no longer trying to lose weight I will get the chicken korma again.

2. We ordered in instead of going out.

3. I used a small bowl instead of a big plate to serve myself in.

4. I steamed some fresh broccoli and added a little basmati rice, a little of the punjabi channa paneer and mixed it all together. That way I got to enjoy the Indian flavors of the rice and spiced chickpeas but filled myself up on low calorie and healthy broccoli.

5. I had some frozen unsweetened fruit for dessert. By deciding to have dessert later I was not tempted to reach for seconds when I had cleaned my bowl.

My Kickin’ Turkey Burger Recipe

I am sitting here in Starbucks, with my Green Ginger Tea, completely amazed and proud of myself. I stepped on the scale this morning and it said 126.4lbs. On Monday I was 129.8lbs. That is over a three pound difference! Granted, I seriously doubt I have lost 3 pounds in four days, some of it is probably water weight and such, but I have lost weight! It is working! And so far it is not very hard! What is amazing to me is how hard I worked and how much I suffered when I was in college to lose weight. I tortured myself by restricting, and saying no to anything that looked remotely tasty (because if it is tasty it must be bad for me!). I would gorge myself on vegetables and fruits thinking if I could fill myself up I would not crave any sweets, carbs, or meat, which all carried the most calories. I did not care about protein, or listen to anyone who told me about healthy unsaturated fats or whole grain carbs because in my book any fat or carb was bad! This restricting myself from eating normal foods and gorging on fruits and vegetables to try to hide my cravings made me completely lose site of portion control. Occasionally I would give in and have that bite of pizza, or grab a cookie from the tray, or sneak a piece of candy, and feeling like I had broken my rules I would decide all bets were off and I might as well go all out and eat everything! So I would binge until I was full and to make up for it, I would purge as much of it as I could. It was an endless cycle of restriction, bingeing, purging, and restriction again that ultimately led to weight loss, but it was miserable! I would obsessively read stories of people who lost weight in all the health magazines and I could not understand how those people were actually able to lose weight and be happy about it! Even though I was ultimately losing weight I did not feel in the least bit good about it, or even notice the weight loss. The constant binging and purging caused horrible bloating so I always felt fat. It was awful!

It took many many years, but now that I realize I do not have to starve myself to lose weight and I see myself and my weight loss in a whole new light. Since I have gotten serious about losing these ten pounds and started talking to and getting support from friends, it has been an enlightening and rewarding experience. I have not starved myself, I eat when I am hungry, I enjoy what I eat, and I am losing weight!

Yesterday, when I woke up I decided to have a much heartier breakfast than the day before. I started my day off with a toasted whole wheat English muffin slathered with Sabras  Sautéed Mediterranean Vegetables from Costco (that is amazing by the way!)  and topped with two fried eggs. It was really delicious and very filling. So filling, I did not even think about lunch until around 1pm. For lunch the day before Miranda had made a quick rice bowl with 1 cup rice, some mixed frozen veggies and shrimp all topped with a teriyaki sauce that looked really yummy. Me being the food snob I am, would never have even considered buying frozen vegetables or pre-cooked shrimp, “only fresh food in my kitchen!” I would say. But day 1 taught me how important it is to have fast and easy healthy food at your disposal, so I put away all that pride and bought some frozen veggies and pre-cooked shrimp and made my own rice bowl for lunch with some leftover brown rice I happened to have in the fridge. It was delicious and totally hit the spot! My mid-afternoon snack was some carrots and hummus, and for dinner I made these awesome spiced turkey burgers that I ate on top of a bed of lettuce mixed with a bit of low fat ranch dressing and a good helping of salsa (Recipe below). I also used the leftover ground turkey to make a soup with white beans, tomatoes, and spinach which I can’t wait to try for lunch today! If it is any good I will post the recipe.

Last night I encountered what could have been my first possible challenge: We were invited to trivia night at Rogue with some friends. Rogue is an Ale House in North Beach that gets packed on Thursday night with young and hungry groups of friends ready to play a few hours of trivia, drink lots of beer, eat good food, and have a good time. TDH and I have been to Rogue several times but we always end up drinking too much and eating greasy bar food. This time, I was going to come prepared. The following decisions were crucial to my success:

1. I decided ahead of time to have dinner at home so I was not tempted by the food at the restaurant.

2. I told TDH and our friends that I was not eating anything at the restaurant because I was trying to lose weight. This was key because now that I had said it out loud I actually had to follow my own rule!

3. I decided to only have one drink that night, instead of my usual 2 or 3. Since I was only going to have one drink I took my time trying to decide which drink I wanted. Rogue has a ton of great beers and ciders. My favorites are the sweet, fruity ones like the pear cider, cherry beer, or raspberry framboise. They are full of sugar and I drink those way too fast and always want more so I decided to go with something less sweet, more substantial, that I would be able to sip and nurse all night. I decided on the chocolate stout, a thick, rich, heavy lager. It was perfect. I sipped it all night and did not even end up finishing it.

Although there was a ton of yummy greasy food around me and I will admit I lingered and stared at it a little longer than I should have at times, I was still able to say no and distract myself with friends and trivia and I still had a great time!

Now if there had been a huge piece of gooey, fudgy chocolate cake in front of me….that might have been a different story. But,we all have weaknesses right?

 

Otsu My Way!

I woke up feeling sluggish and worn down yesterday. At the cabin in Twain Harte over the weekend TDH and several of our friends started coming down with something and I woke up yesterday feeling like maybe I am catching the same thing. I was still  feeling very motivated and ready to tackle my challenge of losing 10 lbs head on so I started off my day strong (or so I thought!) with an english muffin covered in a thin slathering of peanut butter. Protein and carbs right? I thought it was a great breakfast because it was not too many calories and just enough protein and fat to get me through my morning. Well I was wrong!  It was not enough to eat for breakfast. I should be shooting for 300-400 calories in my breakfast and that measly english muffin with barely any peanut butter probably had about 150 calories at the most. By 11am I was famished and really not feeling so well so I ate an apple and went to lie down for a bit.

For lunch, I tried to eat something a little more hearty but still healthy and low in calories. It has been awhile since I have done some serious grocery shopping so the options in my fridge were slim. I have plenty of lettuce, but really nothing else to make a hearty salad. I can make a sandwich but I had bread for breakfast so I didn’t really want that. I checked my cupboard and there was a single lonely can of Progresso wild rice and chicken soup. I love to cook so I rarely eat anything canned, if ever! But today, this was the perfect solution. I really did not want to go out and eat by myself, I was not in the mood to cook, and I did not have anything to cook at home anyway. I checked out the nutritional information on the can and there were 100 calories per serving, 2 servings, not very much fat, no sugar, a fair amount of carbs and protein, and way too much salt. I figured this can was better than nothing but even if I ate the whole can 200 calories was not enough for lunch. So I made up a salad with romaine lettuce, salsa, and ranch dressing. Not very exciting but it was all I had in my fridge. I also made a mental note to stop by the grocery store and pick up some stuff to have on hand to make healthy and low calorie/low fat breakfasts and lunches at home.

My lunch held me over for a little bit, but I was hungry again about 2 and a half hours later. I was distracted though and not really near any food so it was not that bad. When I got home I had some carrots and hummus for a snack and set off to the gym to do my daily workout. This was the hardest part of the day. I was feeling a little sluggish and run down still and the last thing I wanted to do was exert any energy. I decided to do some weights at the gym we have in our apartment building. To get ideas I brought down the latest issue of Health magazine and a book called Core Performance by Mark Verstegen, an athlete performance trainer who has a ton of great moves and tips. I did about 40 minutes of weights using the exercises from my Health magazine and mixing in some exercises from the Core Performance book and to my surprise I felt so much better when I was done! My energy was renewed and I no longer felt sluggish!

For dinner, I looked through my Super Natural Cooking by Heidi Swanson (Gosh I lover her!) and picked out her recipe for Otsu, or soba noodle salad. I revised it a bit, leaving out the tofu and cucumber and replacing it with broccoli and chicken. The sauce really makes this dish great and I really enjoyed it. My version of the recipe is below. Overall, what I learned today is that I need to eat more for breakfast and lunch, otherwise I thought is was a very good day!

Twain Harte, CA and The Best Blue Cheese Stuffed Burgers

Last weekend, TDH and I drove up to my grandparents cabin with some friends. My grandparents own two cabins in Twain Harte, a small town in Tuolumne County near Sonora, CA. The small town of Twain Harte is nestled in the mountains with a small lake right smack in the middle. I love it up there because it is beautiful all year round and a great place to go to get away from the hustle and bustle of the city. In the summer it is a great place to sunbath and swim in the lake or go hiking in nearby Pinecrest mountain. In the winter it is a great place to go skiing or snowboarding at Dodge Ridge or just chill by the fire and stay warm.

To get from San Francisco to Twain Harte you have to drive down the 580 freeway to the I-5, which is not a very pleasant thing to do on a Friday evening amidst rush hour traffic. None of us had eaten dinner as we were expecting to get to the cabin by 7pm and were excited to enjoy a home cooked meal together. So when it hit 7pm and we were still gridlocked on the 580 freeway with our tummies growling, we realized we were going to have a fun ride ahead of us. The ride usually takes about two and half hours from San Francisco but that Friday evening it took us over four hours to get to the cabin. By the time we finally arrived it was almost 10pm and we were all famished. Luckily, I had brought my pre-cooked Daring Bakers Lasagna and all I had to do to get dinner ready was pop my lasagnas in the oven to reheat, make a quick salad, and warm up some French bread.

While I was getting dinner ready, TDH was busy getting the fire lit and the heater turned on to warm up the cabin. Although it turned out to be an absolutely beautiful, sunny, warm weekend, it still cools down quite a bit up in the mountains at night. After dinner we all took our wine out to the living room to sit by the fire for a bit, catch up, and enjoy some homemade tiramisu that Miranda had brought. By the time we were all stuffed from dinner and desert, it was already about midnight and some of our guests were getting tired so we let them go to bed and the rest of us moved back into the dining room and played Texas Hold ‘em until 4am or later.

The next morning we all hobbled out of bed, tired and hung over, but happy. My friend Miranda whipped us up an amazing breakfast of scrambled eggs with sausage, sautéed onions, mushrooms, bell peppers, and cheese. It was just what we needed to to soak up that remaining bit of alcohol left in our stomachs and kick start our day. My friends Sarah and Sarah (The Sarah’s) headed out to Dodge ridge to go snowboarding for the day. Dodge ridge is a small ski resort up in the pine crest mountain about 45 minutes from Twain Harte and a great place to go skiing or snowboarding in the winter.

The rest of us headed to Leland High Sierra Snow Play, also in Pinecrest. Snow Play is a place to go tubing in the snow. You can rent a tube and walk up the mountain for $18/day or you can rent a tube and get towed up the mountain for $20/halfday or $30/day. We opted for the lazy route and got tow-up tickets. On the weekends, this place is crawling with young kids having the time of their life.

We all thought it was pretty fun to get towed up the mountain and then go speeding down one of the man made slides…the first time. After the first time, it got kind of old and monotonous.

We tried going down forward, backward, and on our stomach, we tried stealing some of the faster tubes to make it seem like more of a thrill, but after going down about three or four times we were all pretty much done and ready to move on. It probably is not worth the $20 if you do not have a kid under 8 years old but it was still fun to check it out, especially since this was the first time TDH had seen snow since he was a young kid.

After our short stint on the tubes, TDH, Ken, Cerena, and I went off to find the Pinecrest lake and do some hiking, while Miranda and Eric went off and did their own thing. There is a ton of great hiking up in Pinecrest and most of it is easy to moderate hiking. We were planning to drive to the lake and walk around a bit, maybe take some pictures of the lake and some trees. We were all pretty tired so we were not planning on doing anything too strenuous or difficult.

When we got to the lake, we started walking and found a path hidden under the snow. We decided to try to follow that for awhile, but before we knew it we were pretty far away from the car and had to make a decision: do we turn back around and dredge through the snow in our measly little tennis shoes or do we keep going and stick it out until we can get to the other side where the snow has already all melted? None of us were particularly fond of getting our feet soaked and slipping and sliding through the snow that covered the path and it did not look THAT far to walk around the lake so we decided to keep going. We kept walking, kept walking, kept walking, eventually we had to start climbing as the path slowly disappeared.

Well, we were in for a much longer, more difficult hike than any of us committed to. The hike around the lake is about three miles and fairly rigorous but it is not a bad hike if you plan for it, wear the right shoes,  and bring snacks so you are not starving before you even begin your 2.5 hour hike hours. We did none of these things so after awhile this hike seemed quite intimidating, but we made it around and I am so glad we ended up doing the full hike.

It is beautiful out there and so quiet and serene. There are parts of the hike where you are at the top of the surrounding hills and you can see everything.

There are parts of the lake where you are walking across the bridge over a river, rushing rapidly toward the lake, or walking over the damn looking straight down at all the rocks. It was fun, but we were exhausted by the time we got back to the car.

Luckily, when we got back home, The Sarah’s, Nathan, Miranda, and Eric were already there and dinner had already been started. Miranda, our chef for the weekend, whipped us up some amazing blue cheese stuffed burgers, which she served with avocado, bacon, sautéed onions, and mushrooms, and more cheese as toppings. They were so yummy and totally hit the spot! After dinner we all sat by the fire again and played a couple of games of Apples to Apples and Balderdash until around midnight when we all decided we were way to beat and went to bed. It was a great weekend with friends and nature and it was nice to be away from the city, without any internet, cell phones, or TV to distract us.

Below is the recipe for Miranda’s blue cheese burgers. These burgers are decadent and not for those trying to lose or maintain their weight. I might try in the future to make a healthier version but I am sure it will never taste as good as these did. It is a very general recipe and very adaptable to any size party or any particular preference or taste. I hope you enjoy it as much as we did!

Daring Bakers- Traditional Northern Italian Lasagna

Whew! It has been a crazy week for me! My part time job has turned out to be more than a full time job! On the one hand it is nice because I am super busy and I am getting paid a decent hourly wage. In this economy we are all happy about every penny we make right? On the other hand it leaves me with little to no time to focus on the things that I love, mainly this blog! Last year I was posting 20 posts a month or more! This year I can barely get 10 posts done in a month! I am so disappointed in myself. I keep saying next month will be different, I will get better, and each month I just cannot seem to find the time!

To all you bloggers out there with full time jobs and families: HOW THE HECK DO YOU DO IT???

The other change in my life that seems to be taking up all my time is that I have tried to start a regular workout routine again. I have been an avid exerciser for most of my life. In high school I played sports, in college I started going to the gym and taking fitness classes, after college I started running half marathons and doing triathlons. I love exercising, it makes me feel good. But in college, as my eating disorder developed into full blown bulimia, I became obsessive, and exercise became a necessity, a way to keep losing weight and all of a sudden it was not fun anymore. It was not a release of daily stresses, but something I HAD to do. As part of my recovery last year, I decided to stop exercising, a sacrifice that was very hard for me but definitely what I needed. The best part about taking the year off from exercise was that I found cooking to be just as much of a stress release and I had more time for other things, such as creating and contributing to my new blog! I am now at a place where think I can start enjoying exercise again. I am taking it slow, and not pushing myself too hard but I am trying to get in about 30-40 minutes of exercise everyday. As you can imagine, working all day then coming home and exercising for 40 minutes does not leave much time (or energy!) for cooking or blogging.

I did find the time to complete this month’s Daring Baker’s challenge though! It took me a full week to make the lasagna and, unfortunately, I did not document the process with pictures but I finished it! I made two lasagnas, each with a different ragout sauce and took them both up to my grandparents cabin in Twain Harte, CA to my  with some friends this past weekend.

The March 2009 challenge is hosted by Mary of Beans and Caviar, Melinda of Melbourne Larder and Enza of Io Da Grande. They have chosen Lasagne of Emilia-Romagna from The Splendid Table by Lynne Rossetto Kasper as the challenge.

For some reason I had a hard time getting motivated to complete this challenge. Do not get me wrong, I LOVE lasagna, I was just completely intimidated! I tried making fresh pasta once in my life and it turned out horrible and when I decided to make this for a group of friends it became just that much more intimidating because now it has to be good! The last thing I want to do is serve my friends some horrible tasting homemade concoction! I am just not that confident of my baking skills yet, so I pretty much followed the recipe as it was given to us for the spinach lasagna noodles and the béchamel sauce. For the ragout, I decided to do something different and made two different kinds: a chicken ragout and a mushroom ragout, they both turned out really yummy and I have included the recipes for both below. For the original daring bakers recipe, go here.

The chicken ragout was kind of an accident. I had some raw chicken breast in the fridge that needed to be cooked and about 5 minutes to do something with it. I frantically threw the chicken breasts in my slow cooker, dumped some tomato sauce, tomato paste, onion, whole garlic cloves, a ton of Italian seasoning, and some salt and pepper and let it cook for 9 hours. I was not sure how good it would turn out but to my amazement it was delicious. The chicken just melted and all the spices and tomato sauces melded together nicely. It made the entire kitchen smell like heaven and it was so easy and fast to make!

The mushroom ragout is a vegetarian version of the country style ragout recipe featured in the daring bakers challenge. I pretty much followed the directions for the meat ragout but instead of meat I substituted mushrooms. This one is also really good but I can see how the addition of the fat from the meat would make it  taste much better. I do love me some mushrooms though so I was excited to try my vegetarian version.

I struggled with the béchamel sauce. Not that it was hard to make, it is actually so incredibly easy! I struggled because I have officially realized that I weigh more than I ever have in my life and I am completely struggling with this issue right now. I am trying to figure out how to lose some weight, but do it in a healthy manner without diverting back to my old bulimic habits. I thought about how I could make the béchamel sauce healthier without losing the taste for the entire month. In the end, I decided the heck with it! It really is not that bad for you, the main ingredient is milk! So I followed the daring baker recipe and am glad I did. Who knew such a simple sauce could taste so yummy!

The pasta was the most fun to make. Although I was completely intimidated and have no pasta makers or rollers to help me out, I was pleasantly surprised with how my pasta turned out. I followed the recipe exactly although I did have to add an extra egg to get the dough to bind. I kneaded it for hours (okay more like 10-15 minutes, but it seemed like hours!). I did not have time to make the dough, roll it out, and assemble the lasagnas all in the same night so I made the lasagna dough, wrapped it in saran wrap and left it in the fridge overnight. It was much easier to handle the next day and rolled out nicely. To roll it out I took chunks of the dough and rolled it into a nice long, thin rope, then used a rolling pin to roll the rope flat. I divided the pieces and placed them straight into the lasagna. I decided not to boil the noodles and to my surprise they tasted just fine in the lasagna. They were a bit too thick but very creamy and still very very yummy.

Baking the lasagnas made my whole apartment smell like heaven and it was very hard to not be able to try a piece straight out of the oven, but the wait was worth it. Both lasagnas were very good and it was a perfect dish to serve the first night we arrived at the cabin. We were all very tired and hungry and all I had to do to get dinner ready was reheat the lasagnas in the oven 30 minutes, whip up a quick salad and warm up some bread. It was definitely a hit!

Not Yo’ Mama’s Tomato Sauce!

Ahhh, It is Thursday again! We are on the homestretch towards the weekend! It is time to let loose a little bit, get a little bit crazy this evening. It is time to break out the wine! And today is no ordinary Thursday, it is the first day of March Madness. I do not know about you but I am rooting for UCLA! Go Bruins!

You can be sure that all of the bars will be showing the games on TV and it is probably a great night to go out to your favorite sports bar, fight the crowds, drink too much beer, and get rowdy. But if that is just not your thing, why not enjoy March Madness in a little more style with this jug of Guadagni red table wine from Preston Wineries (Hey! I said a LITTLE more style ok!). I first told you about this jug of fun when I wrote about my wine tasting trip to Dry Creek Valley. This is not your ordinary cheap jug of wine you pick up at the grocery store that will leave you with a bad taste in your mouth and a horrific hangover. This jug is special! Preston Winery dishes up this wine straight from the barrel into these three liter jugs only on Sundays. It is a blend of Zinfandel, Mourvèdre, and Carignane grapes made to look and taste like the wine that was enjoyed by their old neighbor and fellow wine maker Jim Guadagni.

This wine is best enjoyed with a group of friends sitting around a big table (or on the couch in front of your big screen TV) enjoying a simple Italian dinner served family style.  I served it with my Mother-in-law’s famous homemade tomato sauce, cooked up with a large batch of thin spaghetti and served with a side of roasted vegetables and homemade focaccia. YUM!

 

Here, have a closer look at that spaghetti and tomato sauce. Hmmm……ok that does not look so appetizing anymore does it? Well then, nevermind, forget I ever showed you this picture….