menu planning monday 03.09.09

I missed out on MPM last week, but got myself in gear and put together a plan for this week:)  D2's baseball coach has us running to practice four times a week so I am going to have to be creative and deliberate to have some family mealtimes.  We are still counting our calories and trying to keep them under 500 for our dinner meal.  So far this is working well -- I lost another 2.8 lbs. this past week (perhaps due to these?)!

Monday:  Chef D will be attending this month's Men's Club Dinner.  Soup and quesadillas for me and the boys. (ball practice 4:45-6:30 pm)

Tuesday: Leftover pork barbecue for sandwiches (ball practice 4:45-6:00 pm, guitar lessons 6:00-6:30 pm, bible reading group 7:00-8:00 pm)

Apprehension-Free Wednesday: Dinner at church will be lasagna, salad, bread and dessert.

Thursday:   Three Cheese Chicken Penne Florentine (345 calories/cup) with steamed green beans (44 calories/cup)  (ball practice 4:45-6:30 pm)

Friday:  Spinach Salad with spiced pork and ginger dressing (202 calories)

Saturday:  Dinner by Chef D TBD (ball practice 8-10 am -- finally a practice that does not interfere with dinner time!)

Hospitality Sunday: TBD.

Don't forget to check out OrgJunkie for more menu planning ideas:)

menu planning monday 02.16.09

For the past six weeks, we have been counting our calories and I have tried to include those counts in my menu plan posts.  Although Chef D and my total daily calorie goals are different (I am gearing for 1200 and he is looking at 2000 calories/day), we try to keep our dinner meal at 500 calories or less.

We are participating in an 'encouragement and accountability group' at church where we are weighing in each Sunday morning.  I was thrilled this morning that I lost 4 lbs. over the past week which brings my total lost since January 4 to 19 lbs.!  Chef D is doing pretty good himself with 27 lbs. lost:)  We decided to get serious about getting healthy for two reasons -- we had let ourselves go and were feeling the consequences PLUS we have a family wedding to attend in April and haven't seen most of the people since we have gained weight.  

So, here's to another week of counting calories and exercising!

Monday: Baked Teriyaki Chicken (277 calories/2 thighs) with basmati rice (150 calories/.25 cup) and steamed broccoli florets (25 calories/1 cup)

Tuesday: Maple-glazed Salmon (285 calories/4 oz.) with whole-grain pilaf  (170/.5 cup) and steamed asparagus (35 calories/15 stalks with .25 tsp butter)

Apprehension-Free Wednesday: Annual Chili Cookoff at church will be this night.  Hot Dogs and dessert will also be served.  Chef D won the competition last year and will be again submitting a superb entry to try to hold on to the trophy (a giant decorative bottle of chili peppers!). Prep:  Prepare thighs for tomorrow.

Thursday: Mimi's sticky chicken thighs (100 calories/thigh) with sauteed zucchini squash with grated parmesan

Friday: --edited-- Chef D is going to the Men's Club sponsored dinner as a part of the Men's Retreat that is tonight and tomorrow morning.  I will do something fun with the boys:)

Sous-chef Saturday: No SCS this week.  Busy day with basketball game, helping friends move, and end of season basketball program

Hospitality Sunday:  Mimi's sticky chicken with grilled vegetables, macaroni and cheese, and long-grain and wild rice.  Blueberry dump cake for dessert.

Menu planning has taken a huge burden from my life.  Thanks for Laura at OrgJunkie for hosting many menu plans to help get it together for a week!

rotisserie cornish game hen with sauced three-cheese ravioli and sauteed zucchini

I had the privilege again to assist Chef D with a weekend meal.  Tonight he wanted to give our new rotisserie a go with something a little different -- cornish game hens.  He used the Mimi's Sticky Chicken seasoning before putting them to cooking for about 2 1/2 hours on a low rotisserie setting.  We weren't really sure how long it would take, so we probably let them go a wee bit longer than necessary.  In the end, they weren't too overcooked, though.

He picked up some pre-made three-cheese miniature raviolis at the supermarket and used a pre-made spaghetti sauce as a base to which he added additional fresh herbs and seasonings.  

I helped by prepping the zucchini with our favorite julienne peeler.  I sauteed them in a dab of extra virgin olive oil with a bit of Mrs. Dash Table Blend and Emeril's Original Essence.  It only takes about 2 minutes since the zucchini has been cut to such small pieces.  Don't overcook!

This meal ended up being a bit on the spicy side, so we ended our meal with a little 100-calorie treat to cool down our lips.

Total calories for the meal (eating 1/2 of the hen and including the treat at the end): 635

cheap noodles

Well, they aren't cheap when you come to paying for them, but they are cheap when you count their calories.  I heard about these shirataki tofu noodles with only 20 calories per serving (and it is a pretty large serving) from Hungry Girl and decided to give them a try.

Today I invited Barb over for lunch and fixed Chef D's ginger rice noodle soup, but with the shirataki noodles instead of the rice noodles.  Yes, they take a little work to get them ready to use (drain and rinse, microwave for a minute, then totally dry them out on a towel), but it was well worth the effort.  They reminded me very much of ramen noodles, but a little chewier.  I do believe we have a winner here!

teriyaki chicken thighs with shitake ginger soup and bamboo rice

I really liked this teriyaki chicken tonight -- yummy!  I had all of the ingredients here, since we used many of them during Supper Club Saturday last weekend.  After they were finished on the grill, I put them in a small iron skillet, covered with foil, and placed them in the warming oven while the rice finished.  They were still tender and had a nice, sweet flavor from the marinade.  

This bamboo rice that we found at Fresh Market last week looked yummy and has only 160 calories per cup, so I had to grab a jar to give it a try.  I was a little disappointed.  I did not really know what to expect, but it was pretty flavorless.  The green onions and a little salt and pepper helped somewhat, but I will need to come up with something else to add when I use it again.  Chef D ended up putting his in his soup.

I decided to try to recreate Chef D's soup from last Saturday, minus the noodles, but I did not quite hit the mark.  I will need to add some additional bouillon next the time.  I still liked it, though.

Again, a good meal for under 300 calories this time!

salmon cakes with steamed asparagus and baked sweet potato

Okay, I know that some people may think sweet potatoes do not go with salmon, but I wanted some color on the plate. ;)

This salmon cake recipe is one that I have used before and came from my Cuisine at Home magazine.  The last time I used fresh salmon, so I decided to try out canned salmon this go around.  I also reduced the sriracha sauce to keep the heat down.  Overall, I thought the flavor was good, but for some reason, the cakes did not hold together well.  I think they need a little more egg.

You all are probably tiring of seeing pictures of asparagus spears here, but we love them.  They are one of the few green vegetables that Chef D likes, so I fix them often.

All the potato needed was a sprinkling of our special cinnamon-sugar mixture (vietnamese cassia cinnamon with turbinado sugar) and a little butter (well, I used smart balance light since I am watching my calories).  

All in all, I thought this was a pretty good meal for under 400 calories.