Chicken Chow Mein

You've just got to trust me.  These pictures aren't great, in fact they're pretty awful.  Don't let them turn you off because this is the tastiest dinner and it's so healthy for you!  It's full of veggies, there are no creams in it and it's DELICIOUS!  You've got to try it!

Ingredients:

1 zucchini

4 mushrooms (added last)

1 onion

3-4 stalks celery

handful of bean sprouts

3 chicken breasts

Soy Sauce

Chicken Bullion

Corn Starch

Water

Brown Rice

Optional: Chow Mein Noodles

Directions:

Start off by getting some brown rice in your rice cooker

Next, start boiling your 3 chicken breasts (optional: add some chicken bullion to the water) 

While those are going:

Cut up your onion and 3-4 stalks of celery and add them to a large pot

Add enough water to the pot that the onions and celery are generously covered.  I guess every time.  It just all depends on how many vegetables you actually add.  In the end you want it to be a stew-ish consistency.  So you'll probably be adding more water later on!  By the way, turn your burner on high and get it cooking!

Optional: Add some chicken bullion for extra flavor.  As much as or as little as you want. 

Next, cut up your zucchini and 4 mushrooms.  I usually put in more because I like the vegetables!  If your chicken is done cooking you can add the zucchini and mushrooms to the pot.  You just don't want the zucchini or the mushrooms to cook too long and get all soggy.  So make sure they're added near near the end.

When your chicken is finished cooking, cut it up and add it to the pot 

Like so!  At this point,  you'll know if you need to add more water.  

You're going to add some cornstarch which will thicken the water into a stew-ish consistency.  If you've never used cornstarch before, just know it has to be mixed with COLD water.

Put about half a cup of corn starch in a 1 cup measuring cup

Add COLD water to it and whisk it together

Now slowly stir in the cornstarch and water into your pot

After a few minutes of boiling, your Chicken Chow Mein should start thickening.  If it doesn't- add more!  I have to do this a lot because the amount always changes based on how much water I have in my pot.  Because it's not like, add six cups of water, you just never know.  You can't mess this dish up though so don't worry.  If it's not thickening, just add more cornstarch and water!

After it's started thickening, add your handful of bean sprouts and some soy sauce.  I guess on the soy sauce every time too!  I just keep adding more and more until it I can taste it!

It should be thick, like a stew.  If it's not- add more corn starch.

When the Chow Mein is finished, serve it over brown rice and with chow mein noodles!

I love this dish because it's really healthy.  It's one of those feel good meals.  Plus Brian and Boston really like it.  This makes enough for Brian (who eats a TON) to get super full, me and for us both to have left overs the next day.  By the way, this makes the best left overs because in the fridge the corn starch will continue to thicken.  Mmmm so yummy!  

Seriously- have this for dinner next week.  You won't regret it!  If you do, I'd love to hear if you and your family liked it!

Want to Lose Weight for the Long Haul? Start Writing!

Want to Lose Weight for the Long Haul? Start Writing!

By Tina Haupert

For most of my life, calories never crossed my mind—and counting calories was an even more foreign concept to me! Of course, I knew that I was eating fattening foods (my clothes were snug!), but I didn’t realize just how quickly all of those calories added up. Before I knew it, more than 20 pounds piled on to my small frame. I wanted to lose weight once and for all, so I bucked up, took some responsibility, and picked up my pen. I quickly learned, though, that it wasn’t that easy!

Keep a food journal
I halfheartedly kept a paper-and-pen food journal, but I never lasted more than a few days at a time. It was time-consuming and inconvenient to continuously calculate all of those calories, so hundreds of them often went unaccounted for each day. Plus I wasn’t completely honest with myself, but just because I wasn’t writing down the 10 Hershey Kisses I ate didn’t mean they weren’t eventually going to show up on my hips.

I had pretty much given up all hope on keeping a food journal to lose weight until a friend told me about a free online weight-loss journal that tracks calories, exercise, goals, and progress. It made food journaling easy; the program did all of the math work, so there were fewer excuses for me not to use it—and fewer ways to fudge the numbers. I still had to make the effort to account for those Hershey’s kisses even though I didn’t want to, though.

(ISTOCKPHOTO)

Tracking what I ate every day changed my thinking about what I was putting into my mouth—and how it was affecting my hunger later. Eventually I started making better choices. For instance, I realized that calorie-wise, my breakfasts were much too small, which often lead me to overeat at lunch and sometimes dinner too. Filling out my serving estimates on Fitday also helped me realize that I underestimated my portion sizes. Even though I was eating mostly nutritious foods, I was serving myself way too much. So I began using measuring cups at home to learn how to identify a healthy portion size.

Taken from http://antiquedress.blogspot.com/