Week 6 - Valentine's Day and All!

PART 1 - VALENTINE'S DAY
Well I think I over did it a bit on Valentine's Day. I started out the day with chocolate chip pancakes for the kids and had two myself. Both my kids and my husband gave me boxes of dark chocolate. And, to top it off, I had ordered a dark chocolate cake from Keely. There was some Indian food and Filet Mignon mixed in there too. Wow I feel ill just typing this. It was a fun day with the family and hubby, but I have to tell you, I don't want to see chocolate for a while. Sure wish that feeling would last but I know it won't. I'm not sure yesterday was a good example of a Cheat Day. Looking back, it was more of a chocolate binge day. You would think all those extra calories would have fueled my workouts today but I just feel tired and sluggish. It's never been more evident to me how sugar negatively affects my system.

The good news is that I was so ready to start my morning with my fish oil and tall glass of water. I had 2 eggs in a hole, vegetable style. I had a tuna salad with my Super Soup for lunch and I am starting to feel good again.

PART 2 - A DIFFERENT SPIN ON EGGS AND SUPER SOUP!
If you are looking for something different to do with your eggs, cut 2 3/4 inch rings from a red bell pepper. Heat them for a couple minutes in a nonstick pan and then pour an egg into the middle of each one. Sprinkle some black pepper on both and after about a minute or 2, flip them over. Some of the egg runs out of the pepper but most of it is contained. Then serve the hot eggs and pepper on a bed of spinach. The heat from the eggs will slightly wilt the spinach. You could sprinkle a little parmesan on top if you need more flavor.

It occurred to me last week that my broth based vegetable soups have a lot of flavor because of the chicken broth, thyme, leeks and yellow onions. This got me thinking. Instead of making soup with just one vegetable like broccoli, asparagus or zucchini, why not use the opportunity to get in as many vegetables (and hence nutrients) as possible. So this past Sunday when I made my vegetable soup for the week, here's what I did. I'm going to call this SUPER SOUP!
1. 2 leeks, white parts chopped
2. 1/2 yellow onion chopped
3. 4 cloves of garlic chopped
4. Tons of dried Thyme (can use fresh too)
5. Sautee all of the above in about 3-4 TBSP olive oil
6. Then add your chopped veggies. Here are the veggies I threw in this week: 5
cups of broccoli, 1 bunch of asparagus, 2 zucchini, 1 large head of bok choy, 1
large head of swiss chard, 5 cups of spinach
7. Then I poured about 4-5 cups of low sodium chicken broth over the top of the
vegetables and let them cook for a while (about 15 minutes) to get them nice and
soft.

Then I took my Cuisinart Smart Stick hand blender. STOP! - if you don't own one
of these, you have to get one!!!! I use it almost daily and it is both faster
and cleaner than a regular blender or mixer. If you come to one of Keely's
cooking classes, you'll probably see her using it. I would not have the patience to make soup every week without this!!!!! It is by far my favorite kitchen utensil. In the near future, we'll do an entire blog post about setting up an efficient kitchen. This can have such a huge impact on the time it takes you to make home cooked meals.

PART 3 - HOW TO ENJOY YOUR TIME IN THE KITCHEN
Do you dread spending time in the kitchen? Let me give you one easy piece of advice to try this week. Put your ipod and some speakers in the kitchen. Listen to one of your favorite playlists while you cook. Light a scented candle and make yourself a nice warm cup of tea. Preparing meals can be very relaxing if you set up the right atmosphere. I used to hate cooking but now I actually look forward to it. It has become somewhat therapeutic for me. Now grocery shopping...that's another story!

I have so much to share since my last post but we'll stick with that for now. I have realized that I just feel so much better without all of the processed carbs. I'm hitting it hard for this 10 week session but I will continue to follow a modified version of this forever!

I would love to hear from you. I am leaving Friday afternoon for a week in Mammoth. I plan to blog while I am there. You can probably figure out the topic of my blogs next week...how to vacation and not gain weight!