Yummy Italian!!

Sometimes Pancho likes Italian food... and he DEMANDS it!!!

Tonight was one of those nights where I just threw something together based on what I was craving.

One center cut loin chop trimmed of all visible fat and butterflied.  A couple tablespoons of olive oil in the pan heated well, threw in the chop and 1/2 a diced red pepper and 1/2 a white onion.  I sliced thin 4 cloves of garlic and liberally doused the dish with Italian Seasoning!  I put the lid on to help hurry the veggies to soften and cook the chop.  When I turned the chop I stirred the veggies and added about 1/2 cup of jarred marinara sauce.  Simmered all for 5 minutes until it was cooked through.

I served the pork chop on the plate topped with a slice of provolone cheese, and poured the veggies over the cheese melting it into gooey wonderfulness (yeah I know that's not a real word, but it's how it TASTED for sure) and dusted the whole thing with a shot of Parmesan.

Did I miss the pasta? No WAY.  When I feel like I need that pasta I just leave the strips of pepper and onion really long instead of cut in cubes, or I slice a zucchini into ribbons... then you can still "twirl" something and feel like it's pasta.

All is satisfied in the land of craving Italian food!! Pancho is satisfied and again a good dinner with no guilt!! I make sure I eat all the chop I can but I did end up leaving quite a few veggies behind.  Hey, when Pancho says DONE I listen! :)

Every morning

I guess some people would think that eating the same thing day after day would get boring, but as I said I REALLY like my daily PB and banana.  My daughter teases me as I have sent her a cell phone picture before from the back seat of the car on a road trip with my travel size peanut butter and banana on my lap :)  What can I say... I hardly ever get leg cramps since I started eating that banana a day, it doesn't cause me to crave other carbohydrates like it can for others and I REALLY love the peanut butter!!  Case in point...

I just can't help it, when you find something that works stick with it.  AND... the people around me really appreciate that they always know when its 9:00 am and 3:00 pm because I am at my desk eating my snack!

That burger...

I should add that at my work meeting last week the In-n-Out truck came for lunch one day!!  So I don't normally eat fast food, there's just not enough options or I have to special order it so crazy they just end up rolling their eyes at me.  Burgers have always been a BIG eat in secret food for me too so while I don't deprive myself, I do limit cheeseburger consumption to one a MONTH.  Sounds crazy, like a ton of rules but its working for me.

So what did I eat? A FREAKING CHEESEBURGER!! It's In-n-Out people!!! One cheeseburger, animal style, protein style.  If you arent from a state that has In-n-Out  that means they fry mustard into the patty and put pickles on the burger and then wrap it in lettuce.  No chips, no fries, no soda.  Just me and my gloriously messy In-n-Out  burger.

Guilty after? Heck no...
Proud for stopping at ONE and not adding extra stuff that I didn't need to eat... YES :)

If I fail to plan, I can plan on failing...

I like to make sure my ducks are all in a row on Sunday for the following week.  What does that mean?  Well that means I have five cartons of Fage in my fridge, and five bananas sitting on my counter ready to go to work with me tomorrow.  I know I still have peanut butter left for the week and my lunch is packed in the fridge.  I have meat marinading, thawing and simmering for dinners... so I take as much guesswork out of my food as possible.

This DOES NOT mean I don't eat well or spontaneously make stuff.  I have two chicken breasts in the fridge that I have no idea what to do with yet, but I know they will be dinner two nights and maybe leftovers for lunch!

I got the idea to get one of these Bento boxes from the Eggface blog. It helps me plan ahead and portion control.    Tomorrow's lunch....

Clockwise from upper left is some Parmesan herb sun chips, carrots with pine nut hummus, fresh sliced mango and my favorite way EVER to eat tuna... mixed with cottage cheese instead of mayo.  It also has sweet red pepper, onion, lemon pepper and garlic with a couple sprinkles of cayenne!! YUMMM

I don't normally eat chips of any kind, so although I pack and plan on consuming these lovely chips, the reality is when lunch comes around tomorrow I may eat three or four and then be done.  In fact, I am thinking I may just crush some up and sprinkle on the tuna for a kick. If I eat more than that they would be the last thing I consume in that box.  Mango will be "dessert" if I have room at all.  If I can't eat it I'll save it at work in a container and mix it in my Fage on Tuesday!

What are YOU eating?

SNACKS

I find I am at my best when I am eating every three hours.  With that said, I am eating PROTEIN every three hours... not just anything within arms reach.

I still don't tolerate breakfast well, so food first thing in the morning is not my norm.  I have my coffee with protein in the morning followed by a snack between 9 and 10 usually.  Weekends are difficult to do every three hours because I am out and about and doing things so it's rare I get everything in my system food wise that needs to be there!

This morning my cats got me up fairly early so I was ready for snack about 10:00 am.  Today was one small container of 0% fat Fage Greek Yogurt, 2 packets of sweetener, two dashes of cinnamon and almost half of the most amazing mango.

This mango was SOOOO ripe when I bought it on Friday and it was just bursting to be peeled and eaten this morning.  I mix the Truvia, cinnamon and mango in the yogurt and eat.  Occasionally I will also add a handful of high protein granola or cereal from Kashi (Go Lean line) or Bear Naked but today it was just the mango and I.

Snacking doesn't have to be an off limits thing!! It has such negative connotations because usually when we are snacking we aren't mindfully eating.  Just make it something good and good for you and it's a great thing to help you meet your daily intake goals.

Friday night!

So I've posted before about my love of my indoor grill.  I do love the charcoal grill but its a HUGE grill and too much trouble for one person until I get a smaller one.  Yard sale shopping I believe is in my future...

So I hit the grocery store on my way home from work on Friday night to pick up some essentials.  While I was picking up chicken and pork chops I noticed a beautiful rib eye steak calling my name.  Now... that is my FAVORITE steak, but I was leery of cooking it on the indoor grill.  I knew it wouldn't taste exactly the same as charcoal grilled but it would be pretty good.

I picked up four of the smallest baby red potatoes I could find and set off to scarf!  I had seasoned my grill the previous weekend so I was much more comfortable with using BBQ sauce and the cleanup afterward.  I seasoned with garlic and some low salt Montreal seasoning and a hickory brown sugar sauce.

I cut the potatoes in half and boiled till done.  I tossed with green onion, butter and some garlic salt.  This steak was MASSIVE so it and the potatoes were 2 meals and a little left over for the dog on the steak.  Nothing tastes better than a homemade steak dinner.

Such a busy week!!!

So last week I hardly cooked at ALL. NO.. that doesn't mean I ate fast food thankfully.  I was at a three day meeting for my work and two of the three nights included dinner so I didn't have to cook a thing! I did remember to bring my own snacks like greek yogurt with raspberries, peanut butter and banana and I drank plenty of coffee and ice cold bottles of Dasani at the meeting.  Night two was a fabulous group dinner for 140 people at the most beautiful restaurant in Newport Beach called Villa Nova.  Normally Italian food is hard for me since the standard fare is pasta which I don't eat.

They started us off with bread and I ate a half a roll with real glorious butter... then a salad with a very light dressing and lots of fresh Parmesan cheese.  Next course was rigatoni in a light tomato sauce with fresh garlic and basil.  I ate a couple noodles and all of the tomato chunks and fresh basil.  DELISH!! Main course I chose the fillet and it came with baby roasted potatoes.  It was amazingly tender and just melted in your mouth completely.

Dessert was two kinds of heaven.  I knew I wanted a bite or two of something so I didn't choose the first which was a frozen amaretto ice cream enrobed in chocolate.  The second was a ball of chocolate ice cream with a raspberry sorbet center, rolled in mini dark chocolate chips.  THAT is the one I had two bites of and it was AMAZING.

Wednesday night I just made a turkey and cheese wrap on Flat Out bread and Thursday I had a dinner date so it was spring rolls for me.

Ive cooked a bit since then so stay tuned....