Day 1...Again. A Workout Post

Where oh where have the workout posts been?  Well, I'll tell ya.  Nobody's been working out.  I keep starting and stopping.  Most recently I made it through one week of P90X followed by two random workouts the following week.  And I've been eating pretty poorly.  So, since my jeans were quite tight in the waist the other day, I decided to get back on track with a new program that will hopefully keep my attention.  The problem before?  Dedicating an hour + to workouts.  I just can't do it.

The decision was made to go back to the month 1 Insanity workouts.  Most of them are under 40 minutes.  Perfect.  I will do those 5 to 6 mornings a week subbing in some other DVDs here and there for review purposes, and hopefully 3 nights a week I will do some P90X or other strength workouts.

Just to make sure I keep up with it, I am posting my sad Day 1 photos.  These were taken immediately prior to starting my first Insanity workout on Saturday morning so please excuse the lack of makeup.

The part I'm most anxious to see leave?  The damn muffin top.  Oh how I hate you!

Now I know these aren't the worst before photos in the world, but having been in shape and somewhat fit my entire life, I'm disappointed with my body.  I'm not complaining and calling myself fat, nor am I striving to look like a supermodel, but I don't feel this body truly represents who I am.

More pictures in 30 days.  Hopefully we'll be well on our way to amping up the sad booty, getting rid of the spare tire, and bringing back the muscles!  Expect more healthier recipes too.

Am I the only one who's fallen off the wagon this winter?  What are you doing to get back in shape?

Almond Cake with Orange Glaze & Spiked Cream

Perhaps I should change my blog name to Chez Betty's Extremely Totally Fabulous Super Fancy Cooking?  Another Bon Appetit recipe here.
Ok, so I'm kidding about the fancy part.  Just glad that I finally picked up a copy of Bon Appetit and started cooking from it.  We haven't had any fails yet, and the recipes are not as involved as I thought.  Although I've heard that they have toned it down in recent years.

As the dessert to follow the yummy blood orange scallops previously posted, I made BA's almond cake.  Their recipe calls for a 8 inch, two layer cake with boysenberry jam filling.  First, I couldn't find boysenberry jam anywhere.  Second, I'm trying to cut back on the icings and such (and I'm lazy), so I made a 9 inch, one layer cake.  The result was still fabulous!  Oh yeah, and I chose to spike the cream on my own - it was one of those days.

3/4 cup sugar
1/3 cup plus 1 tbsp almond paste
1 cup cake flour
1 1/2 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp salt
1 cup unsalted butter
1/2 tsp vanilla
3 large eggs
mandarin orange jam, to top
powdered sugar, to top

Whipped cream
1 cup whipping cream
1 tbsp raspberry jam
1 tbsp coconut rum

Heat oven to 350.  Butter 9 inch round cake pan, line bottom with parchment, butter parchment.

Blend sugar and almond paste in food processor until finely ground.  Sift flour, baking powder and salt into medium bowl.

In separate bowl, beat almond paste mixture, butter and vanilla until light and fluffy.  Add eggs one at a time, beating until incorporated.  Fold in dry ingredients and transfer to pan.

Bake cake for 30 minutes without opening oven. Rotate pan and continue baking until top is golden and cake is firm, about 8-10 minutes more.  Cool in pan on cake rack for 10 minutes.  Invert cake and remove pan.  Let cool completely.

Once cool, spread a layer of mandarin orange jam over top.  Sprinkle with powdered sugar.  Serve with whipped cream.

For cream, whip all ingredients until peaks form.

A little taste of sunshine for a dreary day!  And this tastes even better the next day when left out at room temperature.

Do You Gastrique?

Oh, you don't.  Well, I do.  Yeah yeah, I'm super dooper fancy in the kitchen now.  Got my copy of Bon Appetit and well, as we all know, that makes you nearly a professional!

Ok, just kidding.  I was proud of myself though.  Do I know what a gastrique is technically?  No.  But I do know that I heated some sugar and then added vinegar and it got hard (and I got scared) and then it got soft again and I added the other stuff and let it reduce (for a heck of a lot longer than indicated in the recipe) and then it tasted really good.  So that is my definition of gastrique.  For now...

Bon Appetit's Scallops with Blood Orange Gastrique.  C'mon, you know that sounds damn good!

Gastrique:
3 tablespoons sugar
1 tablespoon Sherry wine vinegar
1 cup fresh blood orange juice (from about 6 oranges)
1 1/2 cups low-salt chicken broth

Scallops and brussels sprouts:
2 blood oranges, peeled, separated into segments
1/4 cup each (lightly packed) fresh parsley leaves, fresh mint leaves, and fresh tarragon leaves
4 tablespoons olive oil, divided
Coarse kosher salt
8 ounces brussels sprouts, leaves removed from core, core discarded
20 large sea scallops, side muscles removed

Note: My supermarkets did not have fresh tarragon, so I added 1/2 tsp of dried.
Place sugar in heavy medium saucepan. Heat over medium heat until sugar begins to melt. Stir until sugar dissolves, then cook without stirring until deep golden, about 5 minutes. Gradually add vinegar (mixture will harden). Stir until caramel melts, about 1 minute. Add orange juice; boil until mixture begins to thicken, about 5 minutes. Add broth; boil until gastrique coats spoon and is reduced to generous 1/2 cup, about 15 minutes.

Mix orange segments, parsley, mint, and tarragon in medium bowl. Drizzle with 1 tablespoon olive oil; toss to coat. Season salad with coarse salt and pepper.

Heat 1 tablespoon olive oil in heavy large skillet over medium-high heat. Add brussels sprouts and toss until just tender, 3 to 4 minutes. Transfer brussels sprouts to bowl. Add 2 tablespoons olive oil to same skillet. Sprinkle scallops with salt and pepper. Add scallops to skillet and cook until browned and just opaque in center, 1 to 2 minutes per side.

Arrange scallops and brussels sprouts on plates. Drizzle gastrique over scallops. Garnish with salad.

Positively delicious!  This was an adult's only night, but I do think my guys would've eaten the scallops and maybe a sprout or two since I broke them down into leaves.  Neither of us are into brussel sprouts, but breaking them down this way and cooking the living daylights out of them made them much easier to get down.  My husband even went back for seconds!

Any first timer "fancy" cooking success stories out there?

Recipe Challenge Final Thoughts & Favs

Well, well, well, it's done.  This post is a little late though as I was recovered from the meat coma I've been in since finishing up Street Food Chicago.  Yup, meat every single day.  And I was bringing leftovers for lunch too!  LOL

Anyway, this was a lot of fun.  I loved being prepared each week with my shopping list and bookmarked recipe pages.  Despite having to prepare something each night, it was actually easier.  No thought involved.  This is the one aspect of the challenge that I'm going to continue with each week.  Less money at the grocery store on things we may end up tossing and having to use much less of my brain each evening when meal time rolls around is awesome.

Although there were really only a few recipes I truly disliked over the past month, here are a few of my favs.  I hope you enjoyed all the recipes over the past four weeks and will dust off those magazines and cookbooks on your shelves, open 'em up and give something new a try!

Martha's chili and focaccia

Martha's shrimp pot stickers (probably the one I'm most proud of and the most time consuming)

Coconut pancakes with citrus salsa from Bon Appetit

Rachel Ray's Sausage & Pepper Pizza

Chicago Street Food's Chicken Shawarma

Which week was my favorite?  They were all fun for different reasons.  I will tell you that my body felt the best during the Martha Stewart week.  Probably due to the "light" recipes?  And Bon Appetit was fun because it was new and always so scary for me.  Chicago week was great because it was all kid friendly (at least for my fairly picky kiddos anyway).  Rachel comes in last.  :(  Sorry Rachel, it was just a bit boring now that I'm a fancy cooker lady.  LOL

Chicken Shawarma - RC Week 4

Who doesn't love an easy and wonderfully tasty recipe!!  Doesn't hurt when it's healthy too.  I will say, I never tasted anything like this combo of flavors before.  We will do this again.

4 medium chicken breasts, thin
1/2 cup tahini
1/4 cup non fat yogurt
1 tsp garlic, minced
2 tbsp lemon juice
1 tbsp olive oil
1 tbsp chopped parsley
pinch sea salt, pepper, tabasco

Marinade:
1 cup non fat yogurt
1/4 cup lemon juice
2 tbsp olive oil
1 tbsp garlic puree
2 tsp sea salt
1/4 tsp black pepper
1/4 tsp cayenne
1/4 tsp nutmeg
1/4 tsp cardamom
1/4 tsp cloves
1/2 tsp cinnamon
3/4 tsp all spice

In mixing bowl, combine all marinade ingredients, add chicken and marinate overnight.

Combine all dressing ingredients and refridgerate overnight.  Yup, a make ahead meal.  Woohoo!

Heat grill or grill pan over high heat.  Spray with nonstick spray.  Place chicken on grill and cook for 3 to 4 minutes per side.  Cut cooked pieces into long strips and serve with warm pita, tahini sauce and tomato.

Chicken & Dumplings - RC Week 4

Why does white flour have to taste so good??  Yup, we've permitted a bag of the white stuff back in the house for this challenge.  And wow, the dumplings here were delicious.  White flour + butter + stewy chicken = yummy.

4 tbsp olive oil
4 to 5 lb chicken, quartered
1/2 cup flour

Sauce:
4 tbsp unsalted butter, melted
6 tbsp flour
3 garlic cloves, minced
1 small onion, chopped
2 medium carrots, chopped
2 celery stalks, chopped (I omitted this because as we all know, celery is gross)
1 leek, chopped
1 cup mushrooms, sliced
1 1/4 tsp Polish spice (no idea what this is so I used herbs de provence)
1 bay leaf
1/4 cup white wine
5 1/2 cups chicken stock
dash of siracha

Dumplings:
2 cups flour
3 tsp baking powder
1 tsp sea salt
1/4 tsp pepper
1/4 tsp parsley, minced
3 tbsp unsalted butter, softened
3/4 cup braising liquid from chicken

heat oil in saucepan.  Dredge chicken in flour and saute in oil for 5 minutes until golden brown.  Remove from pot.  Remove excess grease from pot and add butter and flour.  Cook and stir for 1 to 2 minutes.  Now add garlic, onion, carrots, celery (if you must), leek, mushrooms, spice and bay leaf.  Cook for about 2 mintues

Add remaining sauce ingredients.  Bring to boil.  Add chicken.  Reduce heat and simmer with pot slightly covered for 1 hour.  After 45 minutes, remove 3/4 cup of cooking liquid and reserve for dumplings.

After 1 hour, remove lid, turn heat way down.  Place dumplings on top of stewing chicken, cover completely and let cook for another 25 minutes.

Dumplings:
In mixing bowl, stir together the flour, baking soda, salt, pepper and parsley.  Cut butter into flour mixture.  Add reserved braising liquid and stir until dry ingredients are just moistened.  Turn out the dough on floured work surface and pat into a 6x6 inch road.  Cut dough into 1 inch squares, roll into a round and place in stew.  Or you can skip all the rolling and just make dough balls which is what I did.  Me and rolling dough just don't work.

Serve piping hot.

Yummy!!

Chi Town Chili - RC Week 4

Another week, another chili.  Happy to say this one was very, very good.  Different from Martha's a few weeks ago which was nice (although I'm still claiming Martha's as my fav for now).

2 tbsp olive oil
1 1/2 lb ground beef
1/4 tsp garlic powder
1/4 tsp onion powder
1/4 tsp oregano
1/2 tsp cumin
2 tsp paprika
1 tbsp chili powder
1/2 tsp black pepper
Dash sea salt & red pepper flakes
4 cups beef stock
1 cup tomato puree

Thickener:
2 tbsp flour
2 tbsp cornmeal
1/3 cup warm water
15 ounces beans, rinsed & drained

In non-stick saucepot, heat oil and brown your beef.  Drain the meat then return to pot.  Add all remaining ingredients (but not the thickener ones).  Bring to boil then reduce to slow simmer for 45 minutes.  Mix the flour and cornmeal with warm water until it forms a smooth paste.  Add to the pot and stir to combine.  Add beans and let chili cook for another 15 mintues.  Serve.

I used some whole wheat egg noodles as a base so I wouldn't get strange looks from the kids when I passed them a bowl of wet meat.

Garnish thief!

You know it's good chili when you eat it all even though the dog probably licked a bit of it when he stole the cilantro.